Foreword
My friend Ghulam Ali Allana has sent me the manuscript of his under-publication book titled “The Evolution of Sindhi Language”, to write a few lines about it. His letter has put me in a rather awkward position since I feel as to how can I write a foreword on a research work of a scholar, when neither do I possess a degree on Linguistics nor on History, not even in any related subject. The fact of the matter is that in order to dispel some wrong hypotheses about Sindhi language, I had done some study and penned down a few essays and a book called “Sindhi Boli” (Sindhi language), and that too was some 36-37 years back. I have never since written any book on Sindhi language. I have, though in my own way, read scholarly works of Dr. Baloch, Dr. Allana, Dr. Abdul Jabbar Junejo and other scholars and have tried to gain further knowledge about the genesis, existence and evolution of Sindhi language. But since my brother Allana wants me to write about this subject, I think it would be prudent to mention a history of my submissions about language before embarking on writing about this book.
It was in the early 60s when I wrote a few essays about Sindhi language, that were in response to some articles written by Dr. Nabi Buksh Khan Baloch on his view about the language. I had written them for “Mehran” and other Sindhi journals of the time and was trying to compile them in the form of a book. I realized that writing an essay in response to something was relatively easy but the research, inquiry and knowledge that was required to write a book about language was something beyond me. For one, the responsibilities as a government servant were too many to allow frequent visits to the libraries. Secondly in order to do any research on language one had to have a formal education of (the subject of) Linguistics. I had taken Economics as a subject in the university but as far as formal training of Linguistics was concerned, I was totally illiterate. Moreover the other thing that was bothering me was the state of mind and approach towards the subject of language! Would it be scholarly honest approach or a nationalistic one that I had followed, while writing my responses to Dr. Baloch’s essays? But during that period I kept reading about the subject and I did a bit of research too. At the very same time, a few friends taunted me that I had been scared away by the journalistic propaganda by late Mr. Sardar Ali Shah, late Mr. Rasheed Laghari and Mr. Ali Nawaz Jatoi (now late). My reply to them had been that it was true that there was no book in Sindhi written with the background of modern linguistics and it was absolutely essential to write one, but I did not consider myself as the appropriate person for that task. It required a person who had had a formal education of the subject and who had some training from some European institute on Comparative Linguistics, Phonetics, Anthropology and Paleography, in addition to being neutral and objective on a scholarly level. We needed a person who could write an academic and scientific book on Sindhi language, that would, not only, fulfill the requirements of students of these subjects but would also be beneficial to the ordinary reader who knows little about the history and geography of our language. Were the people of Sindh aware of its past, present and future: did they have any idea about its relationship with other ancient and modern languages, do they know where it’s ancient and modern literature and its history is heading to, and what should the persons, who speak Sindhi, be doing for it’s preservation and evolution?
It was then that I came to know that a young man called Ghulam Ali Allana had returned from the United Kingdom after getting such an education and training. Before I could get acquainted to him, I read a few of his articles in some journals which not only did not satisfy me but almost disappointed me. I expressed my views in one of the chronicles of Nain Zindagi. To cut the story short, I felt compelled to somehow write a book on Sindhi language that was published in 1964 with the title “Sindhi Boli”. And unfortunately because of dearth of any book on this subject, it was being used almost like a textbook in Pakistan at the university level. Recently my sister Fahmida Hussain was in India where she was told that it was prescribed as a textbook in the universities of India too. It is a misfortune of Sindhi language that my book written on un-scientific basis, has got so much of importance that it truly did not deserve. Although credit would be due to this book that it proved to be a pebble in a pond; and a movement started in Sindh about denouncing the wrong hypotheses about Sindhi language, and that it started a new trend and tendency to read and write about the stature, geography and history of Sindhi language.
Dr. Ghulam Ali Allana is a renowned teacher and scholar of Sindh. He has obtained a doctorate now, and with time, he has been doing research and getting books published on various aspects of Sindhi language. For the first time, a person who has complete command on ancient and modern Linguistics has started writing on Sindhi language. The most important thing is that he knows how to do research and God has gifted him with the art of writing about language on scientific terms. His main works include “A Study of Dialects of Sindhi Language” (1964), “The Origin of Sindhi Language” (1987), “The Linguistic Geography of Sindhi Language” and “Sindhi Orthography” (1993) and all of them have proved to be evidence of his intellectual and academic evolution.
But among all his books, this book is a very good example of research. It is for the first time that we are able to get a graded, referenced and scientific knowledge about the evolution and progress of Orthography and Language. It has always been my wish that a book must be written, that could be an appropriate textbook, which could be prescribed in educational institutions and universities of Sindh and India. I am delighted that such a book is now in your hands.
At some places one might get a feeling of un-fulfillment but I am sure these minor errors will be corrected in the next editions by the author. For example, the first two chapters titled “Language, Society, Man and Culture” and “Language, its Origin and Progress” are too brief leaving one insatiated. In one of these chapters, the question of how language has influenced human evolution and philosophy, should have been discussed in detail. Noam Chomsky, in his landmark book titled “Reflections of Language” has termed them “mysteries of language” that have a direct relationship with the human mind. Chomsky has divided these mysteries in two parts, one is concerned with human emotions and expectations about common objects and the other is about the system of language. Are the present day languages harmonious with the first concern?
Let me quote an example from my book ‘Sindhi Boli’. I had presented a new theory in that book, which can be summarized as follows: “Language is a complex expression consisting of human feelings and natural sounds, in addition to sounds emanating from reactions to these feelings and sounds. There is nothing mythical or extraterrestrial about it. If the feelings of a group or nation reacting to certain sounds occurring in nature become known, that would tell us about the phonetic system of that particular language. And once the phonetic system is known, tracking down its grammar should not be difficult. Had a learned and trained linguistic scholar like Ghulam Ali Allana written about the intrinsic structure and philosophy of Sindhi, this chapter would certainly have been more informative and beneficial. Dr. Allana has touched upon and given a reference to my theory while discussing the Ding Dong theory, but he has not expressed his expert opinion about it. And having narrated all the theories, he has not postulated his own hypothesis nor has he given a particular preference to any of the available theories. This is a question that needs to be given some thought.
The 3rd chapter titled “The Origin and Progress of Sindhi Language” is not only quite detailed but very comprehensive. He has thrown light on the theories about the origin of Sindhi language. He has also given his views and has deliberated at length in his books, such as “Origin of Sindhi Language” and in his English book “Origin and Growth of Sindhi Language”. I had, in one of my previous articles, appreciated these books, although I suggested to him to revisit the use of the word Saindhui with reference to the Aryans.
If a few ancient writers have pronounced Sindh as Saindhui or with similar other erroneous names as Saindhua, which were adopted by lexicographers like Turner who has used it in his Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages, that also does not mean that we should start pronouncing it wrongly and accept its Nagric script just to prove that Sindhi is an ancient language. Sindh and Sindhi are very old words that were pronounced then just the way they are pronounced today. There is plenty of evidence in the Pahlavi plaques from which at least it can be inferred that these words were pronounced like that from the time of Avista ( i.e 2400 years back). Infact even when by exchange of ‘h’ and “s” sounds, Sindh was pronounced as Hind, even then the word Hind was never pronounced as Hindui; and from al-Idrisi to Al-Beruni everyone kept repeating the mistake by calling it Hind and Hindi but not Hindui or Hindoi, and therefore Dr. Allana should clarify this misconception.
The other thing that needs to be reconsidered is the theory of origin from Dravidian or Proto-Dravidian source. I am ready to admit that initially I also thought that way, but when I studied Father Heras and Hirozani, and further scholars to people like Asko Parpola, I felt that this issue needs to be reviewed. To this end I agree with Asko Parpola that the seals of Mohen-jo-Daro may be deciphered using the Rebus Principle. According to this principle, when an item or object is visible in a seal or a picture, it may mean a word used for a similar looking object. For example for the picture of fish the Proto-Dravidian word is “Meen” and the other meaning of this word is ‘star’, then the latter may be taken as its meaning.
Although Parpola and others applied this rule but because they attempted to find alternative words from Dravidian languages without any references from Sindh, they confused themselves. They should have realized that these signs were found from the areas of Indus valley, therefore it was not possible to get to the reality without considering the physical evidences from the region. Personally, and through some written references, I convinced Parpola et al that unless they kept the physical references of the Sindhi terrain, their assigned values will never hold ground. They seem to have accepted my suggestions. Now in this age of computers, it should not be difficult to decipher these values. It is hoped that Dr. Allana will heed this argument and put his research on the right path.
As far as the question of relationship of Sindhi with the Nagric Apabhramsha is concerned, Dr. Allana has given a very scholarly narration and has drawn the correct conclusions from his readings of Dr. Chatterji and Dr. Jetly. Somehow in this chapter I had a feeling that Dr. Allana should have given a more detailed account of his thesis that the ‘dohas’ (in this book) were in the Eastern dialect of Sindhi prevalent at that time, which was locally called Nagric Apabhramsha. He should have given the chart of the different dialects of Apabhramsha and their geographical expanse. In any case Dr. Allana has done a commendable research in this chapter.
The 4th chapter “The Status of Sindhi Language in the Initial Period of Arab Rule” is an example of Dr. Allana’s hard work and command over the language. He has written this chapter with academic and scientific arguments. Perhaps it is because the subject of his thesis for his Master’s degree from London was “The Arabic Element in Sindhi”. I feel that despite it being academically accurate and comprehensive, it has fallen short in one aspect. I feel he should have encompassed his thoughts and arguments about the period ranging from Achaeminian era of Cyrus I (from 330-353 BC) and written about the Sindhi of that era and then he should have compared it with the linguistic conditions after the Arab invasion. It would have been a great service and research because not much is available in the written form about the period of Rai dynasty in our history. The Parsi (Zoroastrian) people and pundits of Pakistan and India have a prized collection of literature about Zend Avista, much of which is in published form. A study of Avistan language indicates that the pronominal suffixes of Sindhi language and those present in Pahlavi and modern Persian have much in common and a comparative study of the two could have revealed facts leading to new information. Had Dr. Allana touched this aspect in the relevant period, it would have made this book more comprehensive and broad based research. It could also have inspired some young scholars to conduct research about usage of Pronominal Suffixes and compile it in a scholarly book. However this was an expression of my wish. Dr. Allana is not responsible for it.
I consider chapters 5 to 7 about “The Standard Position of Sindhi Language” as an example of the finest effort and truly methodical research. Such a comprehensive work on the period of Soomra, Sama and Kalhora periods has never been done before, and Dr. G. A. Allana deserves due credit as he has very nicely tried to conserve and preserve the language and literature of the local people in this book. And he has referred to numerous citations from history and literature and has done an in-depth analysis of each aspect, and in the end, he has given his own views about them. Dr. Ghulam Ali Allana is from the Ismaili lineage, who not only were part of the ruling elite in Soomra, Sama periods but they preached their beliefs that resulted in many conversions from Hindu castes to Islam. They preached in Sindhi and other local dialects; His collection of Ginans is a prized entity for Sindhi literature which never got the attention they deserve. Dr. Allana has worked very hard on the technical and linguistic importance of these Ginans and has given a novel idealistic view that has provided the research-minded students and people interested in the history, ample data which provides a new insight into the linguistic study of each era.
In addition to that, Dr. Allana’s research has, not only, opened new avenues of thought about the progress of standard Sindhi, but he has collected quite significant materials to dispel prevailing wrongful notions and hypotheses regarding the language. It becomes quite apparent from the examples from Kazi Kadan, Lutfullah Qadri, Shah Karim, Makhdoom Nooh and others that the Sindhi language has not only served to cater for the spiritual but worldly requirements of its speakers as well. It had a vast vocabulary in prose and poetry about trade and commerce, personal and professional writing as well as educational needs, enabling it to compete with the languages of the world. In this respect, Dr. Allana’s suggestion is very apt that all this information has been taken from Arabic and Persian scripts, while countless Sindhi books in Nagric and other scripts are present, not only in India and Sindh but in foreign libraries as well. It is extremely important to find and bring them out for our readers.
Dr. Allana has put in a lot of effort in the chapter about the present day literature. The chapter about Shah Latif deserves to be published as separate book. He has tried to rid the language of Latif, from confusions, by emphasizing on his poetry. It really is a gift for us all. I would request him to expand this chapter and compare Latif with his contemporary poets, in a separate book, for which we would be indebted to him.
Nowadays (2001), Dr. Allana is the Chairman of Sindhi Language Authority. He is the first Chairman who has worked very hard and earned respect for this institution. The efforts taken by him to bring Sindhi language in line with modern technological advances are proof enough of his unmatched love for his language. This book is a reflection of that love. I wish his readers would consider it as an important book like me.
Siraj
Karachi
16th January 2001
