CO-EXISTENCE IS THE WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD

I don’t understand the logic and reason, why I would have problem if someone wishes to practice his/her religion and live their lives according to their beliefs.

I don’t find a single State in the World which prohibits minorities from practicing their religion and implementing their religious dogmas on themselves. Whether the practices , the tenets and the code of belief are right or wrong, as long as it doesn’t materially breaches any Law or any individual s’ rights, why someone would be intolerant and rude.

Today, we are experiencing a lot of facilities due to kindness of Modern Technology, but still we have the large number of people committing Suicides. We are lacking Tolerance, so is the reason we have hatred, Jealousy, Tensions, Depressions in our Societies.

 I do believe intolerance is related to materialism, materialist thought has just destroyed human values, people are relying more on material things than on God. However, we are the most progressive nations in the human history but yet we are the most disturbed at the same time. Why Should I spread hate if I can’t spread love, Why should I be rude to my class fellow or my colleague if I can’t improve my work.. Why I’m not understanding this principle that God has created everyone differently and gave everyone different qualities and abilities. Why I should be biased about someone s’ quality of faith, God knows the things which are even in someone s’ heart so why should I blame or criticize someone about ones’ quality of faith.

I don’t get this why one is ignorant even one is highly educated, how he says he is educated where at the same time he doesn’t let others to feel freedom. Can one still be calling oneself a good human being without Co-Existence??

History of Sindhi Culture

The roots of Sindhi culture and civilization go back to the distant past. Archaeological researches during 19th and 20th centuries showed the roots of social life, religion and culture of the people of the Sindh: their agricultural practices, traditional arts and crafts, customs and tradition and other parts of social life, going back to a ripe and mature Indus valley civilization of the third millennium B.C. Recent researches have traced the Indus valley civilization to even earlier ancestry.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES

Archaeological discoveries sometimes help to unfold the certain latent aspects of a specific culture. The excavations of Mohenjo-daro have unfolded the city life of a civilization of people with values, a distinct identity and culture. Therefore, the first definition of the Sindhi culture emanates from that over the 7000 year old Indus Valley Civilization. This is the pre-Aryan period, about 3,000 years B.C., when the urban civilization in Sindh was at its peak.

ISLAM IN SINDH

From the beginning of Muslim rule of the Sindh in 713 CE, the Muslim technocrats, bureaucrats, soldiers, traders, scientists, architects, teachers, theologians and Sufis travelled from the rest of the Muslim world to the Islamic Sultanate in Sindh, and settled there permanently. The majority of Sindhis converted to Islam by the Sufi mystics from Middle East and Central Asia. The Sindh became distinct in its identity and culture, and many contemporary writers in medieval age referred to Sindh and Hind as two different countries. The Sindhi culture flourished with a new stimulus from Islamic sources from Persia and Afghanistan. Many Baloch and Afghan tribes also settled in Sindh, adopting Sindhi culture.

Aryan Influence on Culture

The second impact on the norms and practices of Sindhis was the subjugation of Sindh at the hans of Aryans around 2,500 B.C. The Aryan impact on Sindhi culture was great and the subsequent changes imprinted on the psyche of the Sindhi people should be judged in the light of the changes which they had undergone at the hands of the Aryans. The Aryans were nomadic, but, the peace-loving Moenjodaro civilization people had been enjoying for a long time the fruits of settled urban life with municipal community-based living. The Aryans were, thus, overawed. They adopted the Sindhi cultured way of life. They had little to offer Sindh, except their fondness for the supernatural and abstraction. Though hunting the prey absorbed quite a lot of their time, their Rishis managed to solicit favours from there gods. The Aryans, in exchange for their supernatural tendencies, borrowed from the Dravidians their god of Shakti, later on canonised as Siva, in place of Aryan god Rudhra, and thus the Hindu trinity was completed. With the sway of the Aryans, the Sindhi culture underwent a big change. The adversity of subjugation made Sindhis a bit fatalistic. Much of their martial fervor was gone while the Aryans perfected, rather embellished their religion, after their contact with the indigenous population of Sindh.

Moen Jo Daro

Moen Jo Daro

In the ancient history there had been much remarkable civilization in the human history such as, Sumerian civilization, and Egyptian civilization. By the same line the Indus valley civilization has been termed as much important, significant and splendid civilization as the above mentioned ones. Indus valley civilization came to know by the ruins of Moen jo Daro, which is said to be 2500 B.C.

I am privileged to visit the ancient city several times, it is so beautiful. It is a very good site for tourism. People from all over the world come to see the beauty of architecture of the city. There is a museum where one can see idles, jewelry, crockery and much more, which belong to the people who used to live in the city thousand year ago. There is the picture of Moen Jo Daro on the note of ten rupees of Pakistan.

Lets read the details of the city.

Moen Jo Daro

Moen Jo Daro (The Mound of The Dead) is one of the ancient cities in the world. It is located in the Sindh province on the right bank of the Indus River. Moen Jo Daro was discovered in 1922 by Sir John Marshall. The city was built almost five thousand years ago. The city was approximately one square mile in size, and it had almost 35000 residents.

Mohenjodaro and Harappan Civilization are the most important places of Pakistan Heritage for Tourism.

Architecture of The City

In the found ruins at the site it seems that the city contains streets, building, houses, a granary, baths, assembly halls and towers.

Furthermore the city was divided into two parts. In the first part of the Citadel that accommodated the huge tank or bath, which had fine brickwork and systematic drainage system. This whole part was surrounded by a veranda. On the other side, there were the giant granary, well planned residential complex and two assembly halls. The lower city was build to the east of the Citadel

The streets were straight, and were drained to keep the area sanitary. The very little stones were used in the construction. Two types of bricks- mud bricks, and wood bricks, were used. The people were good at irrigation and flood control.

It is firmly believed that Moen Jo Daro was indeed a well planned city. 

Eastern and Western Mysticism

Body and Soul in the Poetry of Shah Latif and Walt Whitman

It is calculated that literature and philosophy are the foundation stones in any nation and country of the world. By this way, literature and philosophy shape the directions of thinking and mode of progress on those basis nations set their goals and move onward. In this context, if seen the Eastern and the Western poles of the world, the above dictum comes true. Today’s Eastern nations are mostly relying on the spiritual philosophy and the Western world especially America is enjoying the materialist progress. Every pole is developing to its own sides and directions. Islam Confucianism and Buddhism provided the basis for Eastern and Asian thinking and philosophy and several materialist thinkers laid the basis of American materialist development. What we see America and the East today is the result of those philosophies. Both the sides can be understood through its classical literature and philosophy. In this context the nineteenth century well-known American Poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) can be referred to know the actual context of American development and progress in materialism. Because Walt Whitman has been claimed as America's first "poet of democracy", a title meant to reflect his ability to write in a singularly American character. A British friend of Walt Whitman, Mary Smith Whitall Costelloe, wrote: "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him."

The literary critic, Harold Bloom wrote, as the introduction for the 150th anniversary of Leaves of Grass: “If you are American, then Walt Whitman is your imaginative father and mother, even if, like myself, you have never composed a line of verse.” These some examples prove the importance and influence of Whitman in American political, philosphical, and cultural development. Because three themes are prediminately are found overtly in his poetry: (1) American people and American democracy (“enmasse”) (2) sex and senses; and (3) death.

On the other hand our great mystic poet Shah Latif (1689-1752) is one of representative poet of Islamic and eastern philosphies. On the one hand, one will find the Hindu mortification philosphy in his poetry and on the hand Islamic faith and eternity abudently. Both the poet have different world view which is also seen in todays world as well. At the Western side as is seen today is much selfishness and self development in the materialist philosphy as Whaitman says:

Come, I will make the continet indissoluble…

I hear America singing, the varied carlos I hear;

Above both examples illustrate the selfishness and betterment of oneself which is essence of todays American and Western priority. Whereas Islamic and Eastern philosphy emphasize the eternal and universal well-being and welfare. Shah Latif prays from God:

O my lord, bestow prosperty on Sindh for ever,

O my sweet friend, shower blessings on all the world.