Pakistan migrants live in hope

Agra, site of the Taj Mahal, has a large population of Sindhi Hindus

By Ram Dutt Tripathi in Agra

The India-Pakistan summit in Agra has raised new hopes among the Pakistani Sindhi Hindu migrants living in that city.

They are hopeful that the summit may enable them to carry out trade with and travel to their former homeland.

The city of Agra has nearly 60,000 Sindhi Hindus who went to India from Pakistan after partition in 1947.

Homeless, they sheltered in temporary camps and made a living selling fruits and garments.

A community leader, Lal Chand Soni says most Sindhis now have a comfortable home and profitable business - trading in cloth, owning grocery stores and engaged in the shoe trade.

Agra is a centre for the shoe and leather industry which, before partition, was mainly in the hands of Muslims. After hundreds of Muslims migrated to Pakistan their place was slowly filled by Sindhi and Punjabi Hindu migrants .

Hopes

The summit has raised new hopes among them.

The president of the Agra shoe association, Raj Kumar Sama, says if relations between the two countries improve, he sees an opportunity to export leather goods to Pakistan.

Pakistan's Sindh province of Pakistan is the cradle of the Indus valley civilisation and the Sindhi migrants have preserved their distinct cultural heritage.

They have built their own temples and celebrate their own festivals. The older generation still uses the Arabic script and are more fluent in Urdu and Persian than Hindi, which is the local language.

Although they have no relatives left in Pakista many want to go back to see their place of birth.

A shoe trader in the famous Heeng Mandi market, Mohan Lal, said he hoped that the summit may make travel to Pakistan easier.