G.M. Syed and the Quest for a Sindhi Identity (1930-1995)

• Muhammad Ali

  Author

This essay investigates the role of Ghulam Murtaza Syed (G.M. Syed) in the conceptualization, formation, and defence of a distinct Sindhi ethno-national identity from 1930 to 1995. I propose that Syed was not merely a reactive political figure but the primary intellectual architect of modern Sindhi nationalism. His long career, which I trace from his early social reforms and involvement in the Pakistan Movement to his eventual advocacy for an independent 'Sindhudesh', represents a coherent intellectual and political journey. This journey was defined by a sixty-year struggle to define and defend a unique Sindhi identity—rooted in millennia-old cultural, linguistic, and historical traditions—against the successive hegemonies of British colonialism, pan-Indian nationalism, pan-Islamic identity, and, finally, the centralizing Pakistani state. I analyze his political manoeuvres, such as his pivotal role in passing the 1943 Pakistan Resolution in the Sindh Assembly, as actions predicated on a specific, maximalist interpretation of provincial autonomy. I further argue that his post-1947 disillusionment, particularly with the separation of Karachi and the One-Unit policy, was a predictable outcome of the fundamental clash between his vision of a multinational "Pakistan" and the state's drive toward a monolithic "Pakistani" identity. Finally, I examine his prolific literary contributions, particularly Nation in Chains, as the foundational texts of a secular-Sufi Sindhi nationalism that consciously positioned the Indus Valley civilization, not the arrival of Islam, as the basis of Sindhi nationhood. This work concludes that G.M. Syed successfully embedded a resilient and distinct ethno-national consciousness into Sindhi society, ensuring that the "Sindhi question" remains a central, unresolved dynamic in Pakistani politics.

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