Exodus, Adaptation, and Economic Reconstruction: Sindhi Hindu Refugees in India

Priyanka Hemant Jhamnani

Exodus, Adaptation, and Economic Reconstruction: Sindhi Hindu Refugees in India

Author(s)	Dr. Priyanka Hemant Jhamnani
Country	India
Abstract	During the 1947 Partition of India, more than one million Sindhi Hindus migrated from their historic province that became Pakistan. The 1947 Partition of India resulted in one of the most complete population transfers in South Asia. Since Sindh underwent internal migration as a result of structural transformation and not due to outright killings like Punjab’s immediate massacre or Bengal’s sudden violence. This chapter illustrates the peculiar character of the Sindhi Hindus’ displacement due to the breakdown of their syncretic coexistence with muhajir influx, confiscation of property and targeted violence during December 1947 and January 1948 (Bhavnani, 2014; Ansari, 2005). The writer has made a concerted effort to trace the routes undertaken by migrants which deliberately avoided the killing fields of Punjab and also documents the reception at Indian camps with a mixed welcome and bureaucratic control. This study also looks at the rapid economic rebuilding which was possible because of pre-existing commercial networks (Bhavnani, 2014; Kothari, 2009). The chapter highlights how displacement occurred, not merely through physical violence, but through erosion of economic possibility and demographic change (Ansari, 2005). This scenario investigates resettlement challenges of a deterritorialized community without a linguistic state. However, these challenges involve language loss, way of life becoming orthodox Hinduism, strategic assimilation that translated into economic benefit and loss of identity and distinctiveness (Shahani 2022; Bhavnani 2018). This chapter examines the differences in the experiences of refugeehood by class, caste and gender and shows how privilege allowed for recovery to take place quickly while disadvantage ensured prolonged vulnerability of life (Bhavnani, 2014).This study contributes to Partition scholarship by documenting a migration pattern fundamentally different from Punjab and Bengal, revealing how complete territorial loss forced identity reconstruction and how memory work sustains community in diaspora (Kothari, 2009; Kumar & Kothari, 2016).
Keywords	Sindh Partition, Hindu Exodus, Refugee Resettlement, Sindhi Identity, Language Transformation, Syncretism
Field	Sociology > Philosophy / Psychology / Religion
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-09

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Exodus, Adaptation, and Economic Reconstruction: Sindhi Hindu Refugees in India

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