ON March 23, 2015, Pakistan Day, Kumari Padmini Singh Rathore set her dainty feet on Pakistani soil to make it her home. It was the young Indian princess’s first time this side of the border but she wasn’t feeling overwhelmed or unsure about starting her new life here. There have been others like her before and there will be others walking in her footsteps later as well.

“The only thing I found different from home here was the gun salute,” Kumari Padmini smiles remembering her initial impressions. “But he,” she adds, looking up coyly at her young lawyer husband, Kunwar Karni Singh Sodha of Umerkot, “had told me about it already, so I was expecting that, too.”

The wedding, which took place on Feb 20 in Jaipur, India, was a high-profile affair with over a 100 baraati (wedding guests) from Pakistan attending. The groom’s father, Rana Hamir Singh Sodha of Umerkot, is the current Rana of the only Hindu jagir (fiefdom) in Pakistan. His mother is Ranisa Nalini Prabha who, being born and brought up in Ajmer, Rajasthan, also came to make Pakistan her home after her wedding to the Rana in 1987. When asked what she found difficult settling in here at the time, Ranisa laughs and says: “We had to book trunk calls then. There were no mobile phones, too.”

“But Padmini here is lucky to have mobile phone technology now. There is also the internet and she can always stay in touch with her family through Skype.”

Meanwhile, Kumari Padmini brings out her laptop to show pictures of her grand wedding. There are decorated elephants, horses, hordes of people. She is the daughter of Thakur Man Singh Rathore, owner of a hotel chain that side of the border. The match was made when her family, looking for a suitable boy, came across the family page of the Sodhas of Sindh on Facebook and initiated contact with them. “When I learned they were interested in my son, I said ‘yes’ right away,” says Rana Hamir. “But they suggested I ask Karni, too, and let the children meet first. The meeting was arranged on their insistence then, though I said that all that mattered to me was the family bloodline. They are Rajputs, they are royalty just like us,” he says with a smile.

“You have to understand,” Rana Hamir explains, “Hinduism is based on the caste system. Blood is more important to us. It goes beyond even religion. In Sindh we Rajput Hindus are mostly Sodha Rajputs. For 900 years we have lived on the outskirts of Sindh, in Sanghar, Amarkot and Thar. And Sodha Rajputs never marry among themselves. Therefore a match will have to be sought from the other side.”

“Before Karni’s wedding, I have married off his three older sisters that side, too. And just 10 days before my son’s wedding, there was another big family wedding of my niece, my cousin Vikram Singh’s only daughter, Kiran, to another young man of blue blood in India. So it is not strange for us. Even after 67 years of Partition, we are still maintaining our ties across the border, fencing or no fencing,” he says.

The jagir, spread over several kilometres of agricultural lands, lies on the outskirts of Umerkot. The Rana and his family are in the habit of referring to the place as Amarkot after Rana Amar Singh Sodha, who built the Umerkot Fort. But Umerkot is named after King Umer Soomro of the Soomro dynasty. “The Soomros are converts from Sumras, so we accept that name also,” Rana Hamir’s cousin Vikram Singh shrugs and says.

“This was the gateway to the Rajputana desert and the start of the Thar desert where much trade took place. During the 1540s, Humayun, fleeing from Sher Shah Suri to Persia, ended up here to find asylum under Rana Parshad Sodha, the then ruler of Amarkot,” Vikram Singh narrates a bit of relevant history. “Rana Parshad told his men to give Humayun the respect of a king. This was where Emperor Akbar was born and Humayun gained his strength back to assemble a new army and conquer Delhi.”

“Fast-forward a few hundred years. In 1946 Nehru arrived here to make the Rana of the time, Arjun Singh, realise that the desert belt was a Hindu-dominated area, which should come to India. Nehru wanted him to join the Congress but Rana Arjun told him that he would be facing them from the Muslim League platform. Soon after, he was mysteriously poisoned to death. His widow, who had three brothers in the British Indian Army with one serving Mountbatten as ADC, refused to flee to India even though her brothers insisted on doing so. Rana Arjun’s eldest son, Chander Singh, the current Rana’s father and my uncle fought seven elections from 1950 to 2000 and never lost. He also pioneered the formation of the PPP,” Vikram Singh says.

The entrance to the huge estate has been decorated with buntings, confetti and colourful lights to welcome the new bride. A drum plays from evening till late night. Hindu as well as Muslim men, in their colourful turbans, form a queue to pay their respects to Rana Hamir and congratulate him on his heir’s wedding. The womenfolk admire the young bride as they bend to reverently touch her mother-in-law’s feet. There are traditions to follow and plenty of rites to perform.

As we drive out of the Rana Jagir, the beat of the drum diminishes, the confetti and buntings fluttering in the air also slowly fade out from the rear-view mirror. Somewhere inside a bride looks down at her pretty hennaed hands before looking up again and smiling while taking in her new surroundings.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2015

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