Thinking Citizen — Sindh (pop. 56 million) — Southeast, Bordering India And The Arabian Sea, Includes Karachi (23 million), The Largest City In Pakistan
Thinking Citizen — Monday is Foreign Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Sindh (pop. 56 million) — southeast, bordering India and the Arabian Sea, includes Karachi (23 million), the largest city in Pakistan
Last time Punjab (pop. 128 million). Today, Sindh, the second largest province in Pakistan in terms of population and economic importance. Port Karachi handles roughly 60% of the country’s international cargo. Port Qasim another 35%. Historically, the province was the center of the Indus Valley Civilization of Mohenjo-Daro. Today, a few notes geographic, historical, economic, and cultural.
Are you from Sindh? Have you traveled there? studied there? What do you know about Sindh that the rest of us probably should but probably don’t?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
GEOGRAPHY — bordered by Balochistan to the west and north, Punjab to the northeast, the Indian states of Rajasthan (to the east) and Gujarat (to the south) And the Arabian Sea to the southwest. The border with Gujarat is a tidal inlet, the Sir Creek, and is disputed and might be the “next flashpoint” in India-Pakistan relations
1. Alluvial plains flank the Indus River. See map below for the spread of the Indus Valley Civilization that was at its peak from 2600 to 1900 BCE. with cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro with “advanced systems of sanitation, water supply, and trade.” Why did the civilization collapse? “Climate change, including shifting monsoons and rivers, which led to a collapse of agricutlure and trade, causing people to disperse.”
2. The Thar Desert is in the east. 85% of the Thar desert is in India, 15% in Pakistan.
3. The Kirthar Mountans separate Sindh from Balochistan and the Iranian plateau from the Indian subcontinent. The highest peak, Zardak Peak, has an elevation of 7,430 feet.
KARACHI — former capital (1947–1959), industrial and financial center of Pakistan, 23 million people
1. Karachi had a population of only 400,000 at the time of Indian Independence and partition. In 1947 the city had slight Hindu majority. But the Hindus mostly left and Muslims flocked in. Today, Karachi has “more than two million Bengali immigrants, a million Afghan refugees, and up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar.”
2. “Karachi collects 35% of Pakistan’t tax revenue and generates approximately 25% of Pakistan’s entire GDP.” Approximately 30% of Pakistani industrial output is from Karachi, while Karachi’s ports handle approximately 95% of Pakistan’s foreign trade.”
3. “Approximately 90% of the multinational corporations and 100% of the banks operating in Pakistan are headquartered in Karachi.”
NB: Below, the Quaid-e-Azam (aka “The Great Leader” House (aka the Flagstaff House), the former residence of the Founding Father of Pakistan, Muhammed Ali Jinnah (1876–1948)
And here is the Jinnah Mausoleum (Mazar-e-Quaid)
SINDH IS FAMOUS FOR ITS SUFI CULTURE — notably Shah Abdul Latif Bittai (1689–1752) and Sachal Sarmast (1739–1829)
1. Makli Field in Sindh is the burial place of 125,000 Sufi “saints.”
2. Sufis promote peace, love, and tolerance. The most famous Sufi poet of all time is Rumi (born in Balkh, Afghanistan but lived in Konya, Turkey)
3. Sufis emphasize music and dance (eg. the “whirling dervishes” who were followers of Rumi).
Indus Valley Civilisation — Wikipedia
Muhammad Ali Jinnah — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaid-e-Azam_House
Is Sir Creek the Next India-Pakistan Flashpoint?
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai — Wikipedia
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day or change their thinking. Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
