Sind remains well known for its famous pottery and tiles, leather and lacquer work, carpets and silk embroidery, though all have declined in this age of machine-made goods. Other crafts for which the province was once renowned, such as armoury work and the fashioning of precious metals, are little more than a memory. There are numer ous cotton ginning mills, mainly in Hyderabad, and rice husking factories, primarily in Larkana. Karachi and neighbourhood have cotton-presses, metal foundries, bone mills, printing presses, a glass and tile factory, an arsenal and the railway and Port Trust workshops; taken together, these furnish employment to several thousands. The Karachi district also supplies salt, and a not unimportant industry, having regard to the number dependent upon it, is the making of mats (pizanka) from the rank grasses in the delta.
The overseas exports of the province embrace, in order of value, raw cotton, wheat, wool, rape seed, flour, unhusked rice, raw skins, bones, and raw hides. Leading imports include cotton manufactures, sugar, rail way materials and machinery, mineral oil, woollen goods, motor cars and associated items. The chief port is Karachi, the col lecting and distributing centre for all North India and the focus of a number of trade routes which ramify through Afghani stan and Central Asia. The overseas trade of Sind is limited to it; its subordinates, Keti Bandar and Sirganda, only engage in coastal trade, handling, mainly, rice. The coasting trade of Karachi includes, on the import side, benzine and petrol from Burma ; cotton twist yarn and piece goods from Bombay; gunny bags from Bengal; coconut oil from Madras; coal from Bengal; ghi from Baluchistan and Kathiawar; pepper from Travancore and Bombay, and teak from Burma. On the export side, the items are similar to the overseas items, with the addition of rice. There is a large re-export of sugar and mineral oil. Across her land frontiers Sind receives raw cotton and wheat from Punjab and the United Provinces, and Rajputana, which adds wool also; from Asia comes live stock, pastoral produce, carpets and silk. In return, Sind gives of her own staple products in addition to what she passes on from overseas.
Sind is traversed by the North-Western railway, which, entering from Punjab, follows the Indus south wards and terminates at Karachi. The Indus is twice bridged,
at Rohri, where the main line crosses the river and a branch goes off via Jacobabad to Sibi and Quetta; and at Kotri opposite Hyderabad. From the latter place the metre-gauge Jodhpur Bikaner railway runs east via Mirpurkhas to link Sind with Raj putana; there is one feeder to this route from Hyderabad south to Badin and two from Mirpurkhas, one south to Jhudo and the other north to Khadro. A chord line of the North-West railway connects Hyderabad with Rohri, evading the erosion of the Indus and serving as an alternative from Karachi to the north-west. The desert portion of the province is accessible only by camels; the "roads" being rough tracks of heavy sand. There are few metalled roads anywhere in Sind. In the delta the traffic is almost entirely by water. The area is riddled with interlacing creeks, and small boats can make their way at high tide in any direction within a distance of 15 to 20 m. from the shore. Numerous ferries serve the Indus river, and, generally speaking, the canals are adequately bridged.
At the last census, nearly three quarters of the population of Sind were Sunni Mohammedans, one-quarter Hindus. Caste distinctions are only loosely observed. Broadly, 75% of the people speak Sindhi. Other languages of importance include Rajasthani, Balochi and Punjabi. Gujarati is spoken towards the south-east in parts of Thar and Parkar, and is also found again in the city of Karachi. In Karachi, too, and also in Hyderabad and Upper Sind district, a dialect of Sindhi (Siraiki) occurs.
Sind was formerly administered as a non regulation province under a commissioner who resided at Karachi.
On April I, 1936, it became a Governor's province by the transfer of the Sind Division from the Bombay Presidency; and on April 1, 1937, it became an autonomous province. Its legislative assembly is comprised of 6o members.
See H. M. Birdwood, The Province of Sind (Society of Arts, 1903) ; and Sir Richard Burton, Scinde (1851) ; Gazetteer of Province of Sind, vol. A. (1907) and vol. B. (districts) i919; Statistical Atlas of Bombay Presidency (1925) ; J. Abbott, Sind: A Re-interpretation (1924) ; Royal Comm. on Agriculture in India 1928, Evidence taken in Sind, Bull. 150, Dept. of Agric., Bombay (1928). See also INDIAN DESERT bibliography. (A. V. W.)