For desk researchers and armchair scholars, a Sindhi village may seem dull and passive, often described as a place devoid of energy and liveliness. However, this perspective overlooks the vibrant realities of village life, which is deeply woven with cultural, social and economic threads. Last week, I glanced at my field diaries and gathered them according to similar themes.
The first and foremost entries were about Sindhis that exist in the vicinity of railway stations. When I was associated with the development sector and worked in particular districts for nearly a decade, I found that the proximity of the villages to railway stations has considerably shaped the social, cultural, and economic life of these villages. However, as I write my deliberations, I would like to mention that these are my personal observations, which are very much conditioned by my socio-cultural background, professional skills, worldview, ideological inclination, and the unnoticed influence of the organisation with which I was associated.
The contents of this article depict my observations of some villages in Khairpur Mir’s. It is clear that this write-up discusses villages that exist on the left bank of the Indus River. I observed that villages located near railway stations were notably influenced by railway culture.
In their Otaqs (male gathering places) and homes, I saw posters of the leaders of railway trade unions, and their economic activities were often connected to nearby towns or railway st.