History of Hyderabad, Sindh

Hyderābād City (Haidarābād) (Sindhi: حیدرآباد, Urdu: حیدرآباد ), headquarters of the district of Sindh province of Pakistan traces its early history to Neroon,[1][2] a Sindhi ruler of the area from whom the city derived its previous name, Neroon Kot.

Its history dates back to medieval times, when Ganjo Takker (Barren Hill), a nearby hilly tract, was used as a place of worship.

Lying on the most northern hill of the Ganjo Takker ridge, just east of the river Indus, it is the third largest city in the province and the eighth largest in the country with an expanse over three hillocks part of the most northerly hills of the Ganjo Takker range, 32 miles east of the Indus with which it is connected by various routes leading to Gidu Bandar.

Hyderabad, as the historic capital of Sindh, is the centre of all the provincial communications: road, rail, waterways and air.

From the date of its foundation (1768), its manufactures-ornamented silks, silver- and gold-work, and lacquered ware-have been the chief in the province, and during its heyday had gained prizes at the industrial exhibitions of Europe.

Under the rule of a local ruler Neroon, this small fishing village thrived upon the banks of the mighty Indus river.

A nearby hill tract called the Ganjo Takker or the bald (barren) hill, later attributed to as the Ganjo Range by British occupants, protected the town raising it above the level of the water and safe from flood calamities that were regular in neighbouring regions.

[4][5] They apparently had familial ties with other rulers of South Asia including Kashmir, Kabul, Rajasthan, Gujarat, etc.

– >641 AD) — primarily on the basis of numismatic and literary evidence[a] — identifying the first two Rais as Hunas and the later three as rulers of Zabulistan and Khorasan.

[5][b] However, there exists little historical evidence to favor the proposition of Hunas ever making to Sindh and the individual bases of his hypothesis stands discredited in modern scholarship.

[10][11] Hinduism was the predominant religion in Sindh under the Chacha empire, prior to the arrival of Islam with the Arab invasions, although a significant minority of the Sindhi population adhered to Buddhism as well.

The Mughal empire thrived in the majority of the central parts of India and yet however never seated a ruler on the land of Neroon.

For decades Hyderabad did not seat a throne but things were to change when Nadir Shah Durrani or Iran invaded the Mughal capital in 1739.

Mian Ghulam Shah Kalhora was admired as the saintly ruler of Sindh at the time his capital Khudabad near Dadu was repeatedly flooded.

[15] The present day city of Hyderabad was founded in 1768 on the site of the ancient town of Neroon Kot by Ghulam Shah Kalhora of the Kalhora Dynasty it remained the chief town of Sindh until 1843, when, after the battle of Miani, it surrendered to the British, and the capital was transferred to Karachi.

Surviving as a small fishing village on the banks of River Indus, the city was suddenly called the heart of the Mehran.

Mir Fateh Ali Khan Talpur along with his three other brothers was responsible for the affairs that persisted in the city of Hyderabad in the years of their kingdom.

The residency, memorable for its defence by Sir James Outram against the Baluchis in 1843, which was situated 3 miles from Hyderabad, no longer exists.

[16] The British demolished most of the buildings around the time of the mutiny to accommodate their troops and their military stores and fused the arsenal in the Pacco Qillo so that the people wouldn't use that against them.

At this point in time the Hinduism was the most dominant religion with 43,499 followers mostly linked to trade while 24,831 Muslims made up the largest ethnic minority.

Prior to the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Hyderabad had a large population of Hindu Sindhi who were mainly involved in trade and commerce.

The waves of Muhajir refugees fleeing from India started to arrive in Hyderabad, violence erupted on the streets.

Migrants that settled in the province of Punjab were predominantly Punjabi speaking people and amalgamated well with the natives, whilst the people that came into the territories of the province of Sindh found no bond with the natives of Sindh, neither cultural nor racial, not even religious at times.

With Karachi overflowing with migrants, the influx reached the ends of the Hyderabad city at the south, where Latifabad is located.

The refugees that travelled across the border spoke Urdu and had cultural and social traditions different from that of their counterparts the Sindhis adopted.

The 1980s saw a black period in the history of Hyderabad as riots erupted in the city between the two ethnic diversities in majority, the Sindhis and the Muhajir.

On 30 September 1988 after sunset simultaneously at several places in Hyderabad and Latifabad (thickly populated by Mahajirs) gangs of armed people started firing at people in streets causing about more that 300 casualties most of them were mahajirs, surprisingly no law enforcement agency, including police interrupted the assault and all killers escaped, not a single killing vehicle was apprehended next day few sindhis were killed in Karachi., it was reported that the streets of Hyderabad were littered with bodies right from Hirabad to Latifabad.

a commission was set up and some people were charged with crime but not a single culprit was taken to task, and one after other all got free from sindh high court.

government, then headed by ghulam ishaq khan as president did no serious attempt to find the killers and after 1988 election people party govt made it sure that no evidence or witness should go to court, generally mahajirs think it was job of establishment who used sindhi nationalist organisations as weapon.

[17][18] The political hoopla over the domestic violence and civil killings provoked a massive police operation in the city with 2000 policemen surrounded the Pacco Qillo locality.