On September 26, Gateway House’s Adjunct Fellow (Bombay History), Sifra Lentin, took a masterclass on ‘Partition’s refugees: their economic and socio-cultural contribution to Mumbai’.
The focus of this lecture was to introduce students to the cosmopolitanism and hybridism engendered in Mumbai’s economic, social and cultural fabric by the addition of post-Partition refugees. These immigrants – Hindu Sindhis and North-West Frontier Province Punjabis– both distinct ethnic communities transplanted from Sind Province and today’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, contrast sharply with 18th and 19th century immigrants to the city. Many of the city’s early 18th and 19th century immigrants came from today’s Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Interweaving the historical narrative of this talk was the contemporary story. How Fish Koliwada, a Mumbai staple, was invented by the Frontier Sikhs? A brief introduction to the largely post-Partition Punjabi fraternity in Bollywood. And how the intrepid Sindhi businessmen left their mark on the city through the institutions they built – schools, colleges and hospitals – much akin to what another well Bombay community – the Parsis – built in 19th century Bombay.
The questions from students, teachers and parents ranged from the role of the global Sindhworki network in helping their community in Bombay? Does Sindhi culture still exist in its original homeland—Sind, Pakistan?