Lassi’s and Lasbela

By Usama Soomro

November 14, 2020

The region of Lasbela gets its name from the words ‘Las’ which means a plain, most of the zone is a level plain, and ‘Bela’ is the essential town of the locale, at that time Karachi was the port city of Sindh, being port city many people were living, and the big fishes of the city were Sindhi Hindus who made the city of port (Karachi) before the making of Pakistan, the Lasbela was a part of Karachi, Sindh.

Lasbela was considered as a district on 30th June in 1954. After the quarrelsome of Mir Talpurs with the khans of Kalat, Karachi was given in the rule of the khan of Kalat, before the occupation of East India company in (1848). Later, the Karachi itself and Balochistan were run by the Khan of Kalat and the States were shaped into Kalat division. However, in December 1960 Lasbela turned into a different region and was put as a part of Karachi division. Later on, it was moved to Kalat division in Balochistan province of Pakistan.

Residents of Lasbela are known as Lassi’s or lassi community, actually, lassi is one of the dialects of Sindhi language as lari, Utradhi, Kachhi and Sireeli dialects. The speakers of lassi language are living through centuries in the west of Karachi, (Lasbela).

Lassi’s were basically the shepherds they had much livestock in Balochistan, but due to dearth of water in Balochistan and grass, they came to feed their livestock, in Karachi because Karachi was full of greenery pastures in that period.

It is considered as the only Hindus are lassi community but According to indigenous people of LasbelaThat, communities of Lasbela are Roonjha, Gaonja, Khaskheli, Kalmati, Jokhiya, Sheedi, Bakhra, Burra, Angaria, Mandra, and others who are mostly Hindus.

Most of the youth of lassi community is unaware of their history, they just know that their ancestors were living in Lasbela Sindh, (Now Balochistan).

According to the Sagar a young entrepreneur and activist of that community, that their Speciality is that they can speak both Balochi and Sindhi [Sindhi in changed accent], here in Lasbela. Hindus and Muslim lived together peacefully from centuries, both enjoy their each other’s festivals together where its Diwali, Deepawali or Eids.

The elders of that community are saying that their youth has moved to Karachi for their further studies and job issue, which are major issues in Balochistan. Due to the issues of unemployment in Balochistan. Their youth prefer to go to Karachi. but still, Many peoples from Lassi Community live their lives as farmers, shopkeepers, Government Jobs.

In Karachi, most of the people who belong to that community have their own business (shops) or minor jobs on shop (who can’t afford their shops) but some peoples prefer study first and then start their businesses. Most of the lassis are those shopkeepers who invest their money in businesses of like cotton sell and purchase, they do that directly with the farmers who are the most important part of their community.

Earlier the women of that community were not allowed for the study, but now majority families are allowing their children for the study. Educated women usually pursue the teaching profession.

Their youth have no social or political problems, but as the citizen, they prefer the clean and green areas of their cities.

Apart from the lassi of Karachi, the lassi’s of Balochistan is facing many issues such as load-shedding of electricity, lack of Educational institutes, Sui gas supply to their district or no pipeline. There are many incidents but recently the flooding was the main problem due to flood many farmers were dead and agriculture system was disturbed in Lasbela.