Sindhi people

Sindhi

سنڌي
Map of Sindhi diaspora
Total population
c. 37 million[1] (census)
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan Sindh Balochistan	34,252,262[2]
India	3,810,000[3][a]
Saudi Arabia	180,980[source?]
United Arab Emirates	94,620[4]
United Kingdom	51,015[5]
United States	38,760[6]
Philippines	33,000
Hong Kong	20,000
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (Sindhis in Afghanistan)	15,000
Bangladesh	15,000
Canada	12,065
Singapore[7]	11,860
Indonesia	10,000
Kenya	3,300[8]
South Africa	3,168
Australia	2,635[9]
Bahrain	1,508
Sri Lanka	1,000[10]
Saint Martin	1,000
Kuwait	825
Oman	700[11]
Tanzania	616
Malaysia	600
Gibraltar	500[12]
Mozambique	266
Mauritius	200
Madagascar	116
Belize	100
Turkey	91
Fiji	86
Yemen	66
Qatar	41
Malawi	21
Languages
Sindhi English, Hindi–Urdu (Sanskrit/Arabic as liturgical languages) and numerous other languages widely spoken within the Sindhi diaspora
Religion
Majority: Islam: 80 % Minority: Hinduism (incl. Nanakpanthis): 20 %, Sikhism, Buddhism, Christianity[13]
Related ethnic groups
Other Indo-Aryan peoples

Sindhis (Sindhi: سنڌي; Sindhī) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of people originating from the Sindh province of Pakistan. Today Sindhis mostly practice Islam, but historically they practised Buddhism and Hinduism also a large minority of them still do today. The original inhabitants of ancient Sindh were believed to be aboriginal tribes speaking languages of the Indus Valley civilization around 3000 BC. This population then mixed with the Aryans that arrived later on which created the modern Sindhi ethnic group.^[14][15][16]

In the book Kitab-ul-Hind, the Persian scholar Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī (Al-Beruni) declared that even before the advent of Islam into Sindh (711 A.D.), the Sindhi language was prevalent in Sindh.

1. ↑ 30.26 million in Pakistan (2017 census), 1.68 million in India (2011 census).
2. ↑ "Pakistan". 17 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
3. ↑ "Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength – 2011" (PDF). Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 29 June 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
4. ↑ "Unknown" (PDF). 21 April 2021. Archived from the original (pdf) on 21 April 2021.
5. ↑ "UK Government Web Archive". webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
6. ↑ "Explore Census Data". Archived from the original on 26 November 2020.
7. ↑ "Sindhis". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
8. ↑ "Sindhi in Kenya people group profile | Joshua Project". Joshua Project. Archived from the original on 19 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
9. ↑ "SBS Australian Census Explorer". www.sbs.com.au. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-01-30.
10. ↑ "Sindhi in Sri Lanka". Joshua Project. Archived from the original on 13 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
11. ↑ "Sindhi in Oman group profile". Joshua Project. 23 April 2023.
12. ↑ "About | The Hindu Community of Gibraltar". Hindu Community Gib. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2023.
13. ↑ "Kashmiri: A language of India". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2007.
14. ↑ "Baloch and Sindhis share historic ties". 26 May 2017.
15. ↑ SARAO, K. T. S. (2017). "Buddhist-Muslim Encounter in Sind During the Eighth Century". Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute. 77: 75–94. JSTOR 26609161 – via JSTOR.
16. ↑ "Sindh History - Government of Sindh". Archived from the original on 2018-05-07. Retrieved 2024-01-09.