SIND, an autonomous Indian province, formerly comprising the northerly part of the Bombay presidency. Lying between 23° 35' and 28° 29' N., and 71° io' E., it stands apart both physically and historically. Its key position in the west of India, bordering Baluchistan, must be considered in its relations, varying with the centuries, to the Persian gulf and the Iranian plateaux, the steppe deserts on the north and the monsoon regions on the south. The area of Sind is 46,378 sq.m. and its population (1931) 3,887,07o. These figures no longer include the native State of Khairpur (6,o5o sq.m., pop. 227,183 ) but comprise the seven districts of Karachi, Hyderabad, Thar and Parkar, Nawabshah, Larkana, Sukkur, and Upper Sind Frontier, which the province embraces.
Physical Features.—It includes: (I) Sind proper, the alluvial plain created and watered by the Indus; (2) the Kohistan, or hilly country west of the Indus, extending between Karachi and Sehwan and rising northwards to the Kirthar range, which carries the frontier between Sind and Baluchistan; (3) the Registan or Thar desert, spreading eastwards from the Nara river into Rajputana. (See INDIAN DESERT, as also for Climate.) History.—New data concerning prehistoric India's relations with the West are accumulating, but changes of the Indus chan nels make it difficult to picture even the Sind of Alexander (325 B.c.). At his death (323 B.c.) Sind passed to Seleucus Nikator, who yielded it in 305 to Chandragupta, creator of the first empire based on the Ganges lowland. After a phase of Buddhist influ ence under Asoka (272-232 B.C.), came inroads from west and north. A Sudra dynasty ruling from the Salt range to the sea, with capital at Aror (Alor), was followed by Brahman rule (7th century A.D.) and Islamic invasion (711) under Muhammad, son of Kasim. The invasion was by sea, from the mouth of the Indus; and for nearly three centuries Sind remained nominally subject to the Arab caliphs. Though conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni, who raided into India, Sind long remained semi-independent, under local dynasties, the Sumras and the Sammas, both Rajput, but Mohammedans in religion. The latter had their capital at Tatta, in the Indus delta, a seaport until the 18th century. The
Sammas were followed by the Arghuns, of foreign origin, and the Arghuns by the short-lived Turkhan dynasty. It was not till the time of Akbar, himself born at Umarkot, in Sind, that the province was regularly incorporated in the Delhi empire. When that empire broke up, on the death of Aurangzeb, local dynasties again arose. The first of these was the Kalhoras, succeeded by the Talpurs, of Baluch descent, who were ruling under the title of Mirs, with capital at Hyderabad, at the coming of the British.
The East India company had established a factory at Tatta in 1758; but the Talpur mirs were never friendly to trade, and the factory was withdrawn in 1775. In 183o Alexander Burnes was permitted to pass up the Indus on his way to the court of Ranjit Singh at Lahore, and two years later Henry Pottinger concluded a commercial treaty with the mirs. In the expedition to Afghanis tan in 1838 for the restoration of Shah Shuja, the British army under Sir John Keane marched through Sind, and the mirs were compelled to accept a treaty by which they paid a tribute to Shah Shuja, surrendered the fort of Bukkur to the British, and allowed a steam flotilla to navigate the Indus. In 1842 Sir Charles Napier arrived in Sind and fresh terms were imposed on the mirs. The Baluch army resented this loss of independence, and attacked the residency near Hyderabad, which was bravely defended by Outram. Then followed the decisive battle of Midni and the annexation of Sind.