Kalhora

Sindhi clan

Ethnic group

Kalhora
ڪلھوڙا
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan
Languages
Sindhi
Religion
Islam (Sunni)^[1]
Related ethnic groups
Sindhi people

The Kalhora or Kalhora Abbasi (Sindhi: ڪلهوڙو) is a Sindhi Sammat clan in Sindh, Pakistan.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Etymology

According to the natives of Sindh, the word Kalhoro originates from the (Sindhi: ڪَلھو/ Kalho) meaning Alone.^[5]

Origin

The Kalhora are closely related to the Daudpotra tribe. The city of Shikarpur in Sindh was founded in 1617 A.D,.They were considered a powerful tribe in the 17th century lower Sindh He was Arab Abbasi origin after asserting they had received spiritual inheritance from the Sayed Pirs.^[6] However, their claims to Arab descent .The Kalhora Abbasi's are Arabic origin and descent from Abbas, progenitor of the Abbasid Caliphs of Baghdad and Cairo . Sultan Ahmad II, son of Shah Muzammil of Egypt left that country and arrived in Sind with a large following of Arabs ca. he traces their origin to a religious mendicant of the 16th century, called Adam Shah Kalhoro, and says that the legitimacy which his religious role gave to them was significant in their subsequent veneration by many Sindhi inhabitants.^[7]

History

With Kalhora success in taking control of lands from local zamindars, the Delhi Sultanate eventually considered it necessary to put a stop to the growing power. After defeating them, the Sultanate brought them inside the fold by offering an amnesty, recognising that the Kalhoras were widely respected in the province. This process resulted in the Kalhora leader around the start of the 18th century, Yar Muhammad Kalhora, being appointed subedar of the Upper Sindh area and holding the title of Khuda Yar Khan. His son, who succeeded to the position in 1719, was granted further areas of control such that virtually all of Sindh came under the control of what was now the Kalhora dynasty. The dynasty retained its role, in large part by balancing the interests of influential Sindhi groups such as sufis and Balochs, when the Sultanate lost control to the Persian Afsharid dynasty, and again when the Persians were supplanted by the Afghan Durranis. The amount that was paid as tribute to their overlords gradually reduced. Kalhora control of the area eventually came to an end when they were challenged by what became the Balochi Talpur dynasty.^[7]

References

^ Boivin, Michel (9 February 2021). "The Polyvalent Qadamgāh Imām ʿAlī In Hyderabad, Sindh: A Preliminary Study in Relics, Political Power, and Community Setup". Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World. 1 (1–2): 248–267. doi:10.1163/26666286-12340011. ISSN 2666-6278. Contrary to the Kalhoṛās who were Sunnis, the Tālpūrs were Twelver Shiʿites.
^ Hussain 2020, p. 8.
^ Pakistan's Sindh Province (PDF). Congressional Research Service. p. 3.
^ Ali Shah, Syed Shakir; Mallah, Prof Dr Qasid Hussain. "Kalhora Period Architecture in Sindh". Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society. LXVII (3): 26. ..But the author of Kalhora Dour-e-Hakoomat refutes it and argues that Kalhoras originally belong to Sindh and their centre was at Bakhar..
^ Buriro Sewhani, Khair Muhammad (2005). Encyclopaedia of Tribes (in Sindhi). p. 600.
^ Hussain 2020, p. 10.
^ ^a ^b Ansari, Sarah F. D. (1992). Sufi saints and state power : the pirs of Sind, 1843-1947. Cambridge University Press. pp. 32–33. ISBN 978-0-521-40530-0.

Bibliography

Hussain, Ghulam (February 2020). "'Dalits are in India, not in Pakistan': Exploring the Discursive Bases of the Denial of Dalitness under the Ashrafia Hegemony". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 55 (1): 17–43. doi:10.1177/0021909619863455. ISSN 0021-9096.

Sindhi tribes