Interview: Mark-Anthony Falzon, author, The Sindhis; Selling Anything, Anywhere - “Sindhi women play an important part in the making of networks”

How did you manage all this research during lockdown? I do mention that in some contexts Sindhi women are increasingly directly involved in business, and that women played a key role in the circulation of information – crucial to business success – back in Shikarpur and Hyderabad, and that well-connected Sindhi women in India and elsewhere play an important part in the making of networks. Some have already been told by Rita Kothari, Subhadra Anand and yourself, and there’s a new breed of scholars who are researching doctorates on various aspects of Sindhis, and there’s Aruna Madnani’s Doorway to Sindh webinar series for her Sindhi Culture Foundation. But as I mention in the book, the making and selling of papads and pickles is a defining episode in the story of how many Sindhi refugees survived, and overcame, the economic hardships of Partition. Everywhere you look you will find pockets of Sindhis selling things as diverse as souvenirs, textiles, electronics and carpets; financing films and developing real estate; manufacturing industrial plastics in West Africa and snack foods in Ulhasnagar, making bespoke suits in Hong Kong and running restaurants and hotels in dozens of locations worldwide.