Ep 16 The Many Scripts of Sindhi: Tradition Meets Modernity with Mr. Gehani

In this conversation with Mr. Mohan Gehani, we talk about Sindhi language, culture, trends in scripts used for Sindhi language. Multiple scripts have been used for Sindhi language such as Arabic, Devnagiri, Gurmukhi and Hatwanki. Lately English/Roman script is also getting promoted. We discussed how Hatwanki was used by Sindhi merchants as coded language.


You can find more information about Mr. Gehani at www.mohangehani.com A particular essay on Sindhi language referred in the podcast is on page 59 of book titled A Gateway to Sindhi Literature by Mr Gehani accessible from his website https://mohangehani.com/essays/a-gateway-to-sindhi-literature-by-mohan-gehani/

Jawaharlal Nehru's quote in Chapter 4 of the above book (p.59): "A change in the script is a very vital change for any language with a rich past, for the script is the most intimate part of its literature. Change the script and a different word and picture arises, different sounds and different ideas- an almost instrumental barrier is put between the old literature and the new and and it becomes a foreign language that is dead."

Nineteenth century Swiss linguist Ferdinand de-Saussure mentioned in the podcast. More about him can be found here https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-de-Saussure

Sindhi Scholars mentioned in podcast include Dr. Sandhya Kundnani, Hari Dilgir, Professor Khubchandani, Dr Satish Rohra, Dr Parso Gidwani, Sahib Bijani and others.