Mumbai's Sindhis miss their last link with Larkana

MUMBAI: The brutal assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto has stunned the 52,000 migrants from her home district of Larkana in Sind, who have made Mumbai their home.

Many of them will offer silent prayers at home Sunday for their beloved leader on the occasion of "Tija", the third day after burial that marks the end of prayers and mourning for the bereaved family.

Baldev Matlani, head of department of Sindhi at the University of Mumbai, Sunday said, "Many Sindhis settled here have never been shaken so badly as they were by Benazir's brutal killing. The agony is equivalent to the sheer helplessness that we had experienced after the bloody partition of India and Pakistan in 1947."

Mumbai is said to have the largest number of migrants from Larkana district of Pakistan's Sind region. A majority of the Sindhi refugees settled down in Ulhasnagar, around 80 km northeast of Mumbai, in neighbouring Thane district.

According to Matlani, nearly 50,000 Larkanites live in Mumbai and 2,000 others in Ulhasnagar.

"Though it has been 60 years since Pakistan was carved out of India, we have still not forgotten our birthplace," he told IANS in a voice choking with nostalgia.

The Sindhis were particularly fond of the Bhutto family, aristocratic landlords from Garhi Khuda Baksh village, around 10 km from Larkana town, the district headquarters.

"Though far away from Larkana, we watched with pride the Bhutto family's progress and adored Benazir," said Matlani, a winner of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation in 2000.

He recalled how Sindhis were overjoyed when she first became Pakistan's prime minister in 1988 and again in 1993, and gradually matured into a respected world leader.

Matlani regretted that she could never live in the building that now houses Hotel Astoria in south Mumbai, which was her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's childhood home.

Matlani, who came to India in 1977, said that there are 800 other Hindu Sindhi families left behind in Larkana who desire to migrate to India, but the circumstances do not permit them to come here.

Saddened and grieving is Bherumal Bhatia, managing committee member of the Larkana Sindhi Panchayat Association (LSPA), the organization that keeps alive the links of all migrants from Larkana to Mumbai.

"We feel that the greatest hope of Pakistan has been extinguished. Benazir was the only person with the ability to transform Pakistan, but she has been so brutally snatched away from our midst," Bhatia told IANS on phone from Ulhasnagar.

The affluent Larkanites have contributed to improve the lot of their ilk.

"We have constructed Seva Mandali, a small hospital in Ulhasnagar on the lines of a big hospital by the same name in Larkana," said Bhatia.

Another achievement is the Sindhu Educational Society Trust that runs 10 schools and two colleges in Ulhasnagar.

"Larkanites are engaged in lots of social-cultural activities for the deprived sections of society. It also helps us keep the old bonds of love, cemented by the common tragedy of partition that we have suffered," he said.

Next week, the LSPA will hold its regular monthly meeting where condolences will be offered to Benazir, Bhatia said.

Other prominent Sindhis include former Indian minister Ram Jethmalani and top industrialists Hindujas, who hail from Shikarpur district, adjacent to Larkana.

Both Matlani and Bhatia feel that though Sindhis are still sentimental about Larkana, nobody would want to go back there.

"The Sindhi society is highly civilized, but it had been overpowered by non-secularist forces in Pakistan," Matlani explained.

Probably the last emotional link with Larkana for many in Mumbai was Benazir Bhutto, and she is now no more.

"It was such a dastardly attack on a great woman, whom we considered like our daughter. I really wonder who would want to go back." Matlani said.