The Siraiki Dream

The Siraiki Dream

Many decades ago, our foremothers and forefathers dreamt the future and named it Siraiki. And in their footsteps we are gathered here for the renewal and realization of that dream.

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We-Siraikis- have a dream. We have a dream of loving and living our language. Our language is our identity, the cause of our becoming. Language is the core of any culture. To forget one’s mother tongue is to alienate oneself from one’s own being. They may have wings but are without roots to nourish and sustain their being.

We have a dream to preserve and develop our language in an environment where all languages, small or large, have equal dignity and recognition. The disavowal of any language deprives us of our collective past and our possible futures. It promotes the forces of hatred and bigotry.

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We-Siraikis- have a dream to attain self-rule and regional autonomy. We have a dream of a separate province for the Siraiki Wasaib. History has taught us how, as the subjects of Takhat Lahore, our resources are drained out and our citizenship is subverted and left incomplete.

Like our ancestors, our dream is to support and strengthen the federation of Pakistan. A separate province gives us the agency to actualize the dream of a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Pakistan for all Pakistanis.

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We live in both eternity and present. We the daughters and sons of the Wasaib, the inhabitants of the ancient city of Maloha, once formed the heart of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization and now form the center, the heart, of this country, Pakistan. We the daughters and sons of SAPT Sindhu, of the Wasaib, we carry the Islamic Sufism of tolerance and pacifism.

Etizaz Ahsan of Lahore writes “Indus Saga”. Girja Kumar sitting in Delhi authors “Indus People: Siraiki Saga”. World scholars trace “Sindh through Centuries”. Ind, Hind, Sindh is the logo carved in lands and history with eternity. We, Siraikis, dream this eternity rooted in the Middle Indus Valley to magnify as a uniting force for Pakistan.

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We have a dream of prosperity and well-being, a dream of development. A development that is not violent, a development that does not forcibly displace communities, a development that does not destroy our lands, pastures, rivers, forests and a development that does not deplete our life-world and our resources and commit the ultimate crime against future generations. Change needs to speak to our histories, to our living culture, to our living traditions, to our people and not to any false gods.

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We have a dream that both men and women of Siraiki Wasaib should have equal status and opportunities. We reject all forms of imposed discrimination against women.

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Walking slowly, attentive to the path we tread. 

  

(Islamabad Declaration of SIRAIKI LOK SAANJH)