Sindh: History & Culture

This international conference on the history and culture of Sindh was a landmark scholarly gathering that brought together researchers, academics, and cultural experts from across Pakistan and beyond. Hosted at Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur — one of Sindh's leading academic institutions — and jointly organised with the National Institute of Historical & Cultural Research at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and supported by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), the conference served as a major platform for advancing scholarship on Sindhi history, culture, and identity.

Scholars from across the country and abroad presented their research papers covering a broad range of topics relating to Sindh's rich civilizational and intellectual heritage.

During the conference, Professor Dr. Wiqar Shah challenged some dominant notions of what is presented as 'Pakistan's history'. Drawing on his authority as the author of twelve books on South Asian history, he argued forcefully that the existing national historical narrative was incomplete and required a fundamental reorientation.

He called for a deep emphasis on the rewriting of national history with primary focus on the regional history of Pakistan — the histories of Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and other provinces that form the rich mosaic of Pakistani nationhood. He argued that Pakistan's identity crisis stems in part from an over-centralised historical narrative that sidelines regional voices, languages, cultures, and leadership.

Highlighting the importance of recognising progressive leaders across the subcontinent — those who worked for social justice, education, and the rights of ordinary people — Dr. Shah positioned the historian's role as a moral as well as scholarly responsibility. He reminded his audience that a nation cannot navigate its future without an honest and inclusive reckoning with its past.

The conference, set against the cultural backdrop of Sindh — home to one of the world's oldest civilisations in the Indus Valley — provided a fitting venue for such a call to scholarly conscience. The sessions on Sufism, language, and gender further enriched the conversation, and Dr. Shah's intervention was widely regarded as among the most provocative and necessary of the proceedings.