A weekend discussion with my (catholic) wife on different religions led me to an unusual quest.  A quest for answers to all the intriguing questions that came up in our conversation… 

How did the Sindhi community come to be a part of the Hindu religion?  Why do Sindhis follow an Arabic script?  Why do Sindhis regard the Guru Granth Sahib as their holy book, and visit gurdwaras instead of temples?! 

I realized I hardly knew any thing about the origins of the community I belonged to.  Thanks to the wonderful World Wide Web, I was able to find out most of the answers and, in the bargain, also learn a little about how wondrously unique my past was…

Wikipedia had this to say about the Holy Book:

The Shri Guru Granth Sahib is the 11th Guru of Sikhism, the holy book of Sikhism, which is revered as a living Guru by the Sikhs. The Shri Guru Granth Sahib became Guru of the Sikhs and successor to Guru Gobind Singh on October 1708, when the 10th Guru of Sikhism made the Guru Granth Sahib the 11th and final eternal Guru of Sikhism.

The Sikh religion differs as regards the authenticity of its dogmas from most other theological systems. Many of the great teachers the world has known, have not left a line of their own composition and we only know what they taught through tradition or second-hand information. If Pythagoras wrote of his tenets, his writings have not descended to us. We know the teachings of Socrates only through the writings of Plato and Xenophanes. Buddha has left no written memorial of his teaching. Kungfu-tze, known to Europeans as Confucius, left no documents in which he detailed the principles of his moral and social system. The founder of Christianity did not reduce his doctrines to writing and for them we are obliged to trust to the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Arabian Prophet did not himself reduce to writing the chapters of the Quran. They were written or compiled by his adherents and followers. But the compositions of Sikh Gurus are preserved and we know at first hand what they taught.

Khalistan.Net added:

Guru Granth Sahib is the only world scripture which was compiled during the life time of its compiler. All other world scriptures were compiled many years after the death of the prophet. (compare it with Vedas, written at least thousand years after their pronouncement; Bible, written about 60 years after the death of Christ; Koran, written about 80 years after the death of Mohammed, Three Baskets and Angas written about 40 years after the death of Buddha and Mahavir).The languages used in the Granth, in addition to Punjabi, include Sindhi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi!

Wikipedia also informed readers about the Sindhi culture:

The ancient civilization of what came to be known as Harappa and Mohenjodaro both derive their modern location names from the Sindhi language as opposed to the Elamo-Dravidian language of the Indus Valley Civilization which remains undeciphered.

In Sindhi, Mooan-Jo-Daro literally translates to “Mound of Dead.” A branch of these Aryan invadors called the Indo-Aryans are believed to have founded the Vedic Civilization that have existed between Sarasvati River and Ganges river around 1500 BC and also influenced Indus Valley Civilization. This civilization helped shape subsequent cultures in South Asia.

Sindh was often the final stop for Middle Eastern and Central Asian empires such as the Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Turks and Afghans this gave Sindh a distinct and unique culture even before the arrival of Islam.

In 1947, India attained Independence. Partition of India took place and Pakistan (West Pakistan and East Pakistan, which is present day Bangladesh) was created. Sindh became a part of Pakistan, which opted to be a Muslim state. Majority of Hindu Sindhis fled from their native land in Sindh that was going to become a part of Pakistan, into India.

And, about the language:

Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia, which is now a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 18.5 million people in Pakistan, and 2.8 million in India; it is also a recognised official language in both of these countries.

The Sindhi language has spread as the Hindu Sindhis left Sindh during the partition of British India in 1947. The language was once written in Devnagri; however, with the mediation of the British East India Company, a modified Arabic script was produced. The Government of India recognizes the Devanagari script and the modified Arabic for writing Sindhi.

I was left speechless.  A holy book that’s conferred the title of a “guru” and imbibes the wisdom of several other cultures…  A community that incorporates the influences of people as diverse as the Greek and Afghans…  A people that significantly contributed to help shape civilisation across South Asia…

What a glorious past!