Sindh was part of the Muslim world from the time of its conquest by Muhammad bin Qasim in 711 AD until its annexation by the British from the Talpur Mirs in 1843. Persian cultural influences were very powerful in this region. There was a ‘very significant difference between Sindh and the rest of [British] India. Sindh was the only province of the subcontinent which was overwhelmingly Muslim in population. . Although Sindhi Hindus were exposed to centuries of Muslim rule, and while it is true that Sindhi Hindu landowners and petty traders living in villages paid allegiance to Muslim pirs, wadherosand landlords, and may have lived in deference or even in fear, it would be fallacious to assume that Sindhi Hindus were persecuted by Muslims. Indeed, Sindhi Hindus were among the most prosperous members of Sindhi society and they came to dominate commercial life in both pre-colonial and colonial times. In his account of the situation of Hindus in Sindh during the Talpur regime, Claude Markovits notes:

There is no doubt that an elite section of Hindu merchants and bankers based in Karachi and Hyderabad was a crucial component of the ruling class of Talpur Sind, even if its status was not equal to that of the great waderos, pirs, and sayeds who lorded it over the mass of the haris (cultivators). This elite, which had close links with the other significant element of the Hindu population, the Amils, was not devoid of political influence even if it tended to maintain a low profile. The rest of the trading population, consisting mostly of shopkeepers and rural moneylenders, occupied a kind of middling position in Sind society, well below the elites, but far above the haris.55. Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants 1710–1947, p. 45

Thus, the small number of Sindhi Hindus was more than compensated for by their commercial dominance and to a certain extent by their economic and cultural success. Sindhi Hindu traders and moneylenders provided capital to the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, while literary and public figures funded institutions, libraries and reading rooms. For more on internal distinctions among the Sindhi Hindus, especially those between the Amils and Bhaibands, and the political economy of colonial Sindh,

A distinctive feature of Hindu society in pre-1947 Sindh was the fluidity of religious practices and affiliations. Proximity to Islam and the cultural distance from ‘India proper’ modified religious practices to a significant extent. Indeed, scholars have discussed how British administrators found Hindu practices in Sindh mixed and corrupt, departing significantly from what they considered mainstream Hinduism. Observers even wondered whether Sindhi Hindus could be considered ‘proper’ Hindus at all. Sindh's ‘unorthodox’ version of Hinduism must be seen as an outcome of three predominant influences—Islam, Sikhism and Sufism. A large majority of Sindhi Hindus were Nanakpanthis—followers of Guru Nanak (non-Khalsa or Sahajdhari Sikhs)—and Sindhi tikanas (places of worship) often contained images of Guru Nanak and the Guru Granth Sahib along with those of Hindu deities. What is more, there is a lot of evidence that the majority of Hindus in Sindh were murids (followers) of the Sufi pirs (saints) who had played a very important role in Sindhi Islam. Being a Hindu in Sindh did not preclude visits to dargahs. A dargah is a shrine built over the grave of a respected religious figure, often a Sufi saint. While this participation of Hindus in Sufi practices was not uncommon in other parts of the subcontinent, ‘the practice was more generalized among Sindhi Hindus than in any other region of India’.88. Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants 1710–1947, p. 49. To be sure, the protection afforded by the pirs to their disciples also provided the latter with many social and economic benefits, but there is no doubt that Sufi thinkers like Shah Abdul Latif and Shahbaz Qalandar inspired devotion in people of both religions. Sufism created an ethos for Hindus in which they did not think of Islam as inimical. Even today, Sindhi Hindus in post-Partition India have a strong legacy of Sufi thought despite the need to assert their credentials as ‘proper Hindus’.

Sindhi Muslims, in turn, participated in the worship of the samadhi of Hindu saints. Indeed, one could claim that the heterodox and divergent Muslim groups of Sindh and the profound impact of Sufism on the region made the understanding and practice of Islam in Sindh more flexible than elsewhere. While we do not seek to paint an idealized picture of the religious situation in Sindh, it remains true that the province was relatively free of the kind of communal conflict that impacted upon Punjab, Bengal and the United Provinces. Undoubtedly, a subtle and precarious balance of social and economic interdependence may have kept resentments from going deeper between the two communities, but ‘the eclectic character of regional Hinduism, as well as the impact of Sufism on regional Islam, certainly had something to do with it’. The complex and intimate relationship between Hindus and Muslims in Sindh is best described by Markovits as one in which ‘conflict and hostility mingled easily with amity and a syncretic attitude to religion’.(. Ibid., p. 45.) This complex social fabric began to show signs of tearing in the wake of sharpened economic disparities in the nineteenth century, forming a plank for the success of the Muslim League. Moreover, the circulation of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) rhetoric about Islam's corruption of the pure Indus civilisation made inroads among Sindhi Hindus after several abortive attempts. For more on this, see Rita Kothari, ‘RSS in Sindh—1942–48’, in Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 41, no. 27–28 (8–15 July 2006), pp. 3007 However, as has been observed, it remains true that ‘the province of Sindh witnessed the longest period of proximity between Hindus and Muslims, and although the relationship was neither equal (the former were a religious minority) nor harmonious, it was the most intimate on the subcontinent’.1212. Rita Kothari, The Burden of Refuge: Partition Experiences of the Sindhis of Gujarat (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2007), p. 5.