Shikarpur, Sindh, Pakistan

Shikarpur is a city in Sindh, Pakistan. Wikipedia says it was founded in 1677 as a hunting ground of the Mahars, and that its position gave it access to traders from Central and West Asia through the Bolan Pass. Its merchants, the Shikarpuri Multani Banias, made it a financial centre; Wikipedia, citing a 2000 study by Markovits, says it was the financial capital of the Durrani Empire in the 18th century. Before 1947 the city was mostly Hindu.

Sikhs in Sindh. Wikipedia's article on Sikhism in Sindh, which relies on a 2023 volume on Partition and on articles by Kalhoro, says Sikhism took root in Sindh in the early 17th century along trade networks with southwestern Punjab, mostly among Nanakpanthi traders of the Arora and Khatri castes. It says Guru Nanak may have passed through Sindh, with northern Sindh including Sukkur and Shikarpur possibly influenced by him, but that the evidence is thin. By tradition Bhai Gurdas Singh preached in Shikarpur after Guru Gobind Singh's death in 1708, and a dharamsal bearing his name stands there. Udasi darbars and a Sewapanthi darbar honouring Bhai Kanhaiya are also named in the Shikarpur area. Wikipedia notes that most Sindhi Sikh sites were tikanas and darbars mixing Sikh and Hindu worship, not formal gurdwaras, and that Sindhi Sikhs did not take up the Singh Sabha reforms.

Key moments

• Early 19th century: Wikipedia says Ranjit Singh reportedly wanted to seize Shikarpur as an economic centre, and dropped the plan after Talpur delays and the arrival of the British.
• 1941: Sindh had about 32,600 Sikhs, 0.67 per cent of the population, according to the census figures Wikipedia cites.
• 1947: after Pakistan's independence the Sindhi Hindu minority of Shikarpur moved to India. Sindhi Sikhs who feared the violence seen in Punjab left by ship from Karachi or by train, and settled in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi.
• 2023: the census counted 5,182 Sikhs in Sindh, 0.01 per cent of the province.
• December 2024: Wikipedia's list of functioning gurdwaras in Pakistan, citing the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, names Gurdwara Sach Khand Sahib, Shikarpur. A 2025 count it cites puts 10 gurdwaras in Sindh out of 151 in Pakistan.

What it means to the Panth. Shikarpur shows a Sikh world of Nanakpanthi and Udasi traders in Sindh, most of whom left in 1947. The gurdwara that remains is one of very few Sikh institutions in Sindh. The sources found do not give the shrine's founding date or size.