Hirabad, Hyderabad

Hirabad (sometimes spelt Heerabad; Urdu: ﮨیر آباد; Sindhi: هير آباد; “Diamond Town”) is one of the oldest parts of the city of Hyderabad in Sindh, Pakistan. Before partition in 1947, Hirabad was a thriving township of wealthy Hindu Sindwork merchants and traders who generally belonged to the Amil and Bhaiband castes of Hindu Lohanas.

History

Before its development and eventual occupation, the geography of Hirabad mainly consisted dry field plains with a sparse distribution of hillocks. The Talpur dynasty of Sindh saw it as a favourable place to erect magnificent mausoleums for their family, not much farther from the Sindh’s capital Hyderabad. For some time, these were the only structures in the area until the land was used to develop a new residential locality.

Late 19th and early 20th century

The Hyderabad taluka was a mofussil (small town) and had a large population of Sindhi Hindu Lohanas, an Indian caste of merchants and traders. Chiefly amongst these were the Amils and Bhaibands. The Amils were a well-educated and travelled people who occupied the uppermost rung of the social ladder, whilst the Bhaibands were considered slightly less polished. There was a lesser population of Muslims who had been converted, after Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sindh, principally from Bhaibands and had adopted Memon or Khatri (derived from Kshatriya) as their defining identity; these were mostly landowning zamindars.

The Amils and Bhaibands lived in the oldest part of the city, occupying whole streets in the bazaar area (now Shahi Bazaar) of Hyderabad, and were mostly Sindwork merchants and traders who spent much of their time abroad.