Sindhi Diaspora, the Nation, and the Media
Sindhis today account for more than fifty percent of Indonesia’s domestic film production and the vast majority of television soap operas.
How did the Sindhis come to dominate the film and television industries in Indonesia?
In Indonesia today, Sindhis number no more than 10,000 among a total population of 260 million, and although they constitute a small diaspora community, their economic footprint is significant. Most of them live in Jakarta and are known as "orang India’ (‘Indian people’).
It was the partition exodus that brought whole families from Sindh to Indonesia. Most of these Sindhis were already familiar with the local context via the route of trade activities, which had intensified since the 1930s.
Most Sindhis were in “circulation” between Hyderabad (Sindh), Java, and other trade centers such as Singapore, Manila, and Hong Kong (Markovits, 2000, p. 5), which helped them with finding a permanent base outside of Sindh post their departure from Sindh.
Starting in the 1950s, a growing number of Sindhis entered and shaped the media industries—first cinema, and later, from the 1990s, national television in Indonesia.
In the first few years following the partition, a number of Sindhis in Indonesia were importing, distributing, and screening Indian and American films. It made them familiar with both local commercial practices and international distribution networks.
It was on these foundations that they rose to considerable prominence as producers of local titles. In the 1970s and 1980s, up to a quarter of the annual film production in Indonesia was in the hands of Sindhis.
In the late 1980s, Indonesia liberalized television in an attempt to retain audiences. There was a sudden surge in demand for content, and Sindhis tapped into it by developing a new lucrative sector — the production of sinetron (soap opera).
There were many reasons why they were well placed to do so. They had access to sources of capital and could also draw on three decades of experience in the film industry.
When local banks were very hesitant to invest in what they saw as a volatile and risky industry, Sindhis took the risk and tapped into the resources of the community. At least 3 banks in Indonesia- Bank Swadesi, Bank Rama, & Bank Subhendra, were owned in part by Sindhis.
Sindhis were also in a strong position to import labor from the US, India, and elsewhere to bridge the ‘creativity gap’- an endemic shortage of specialized labor, that hindered the local film and sinetron market.
Through their connections in Bollywood, Sindhi producers found it relatively easy to import Indian actors, production teams, and other personnel who were affordable, experienced, and spoke Hindi and English, even learned Indonesian quickly.
The Sindhi-owned studios also had the advantage of being managed by hard-nosed Sindhi businesspeople from Indonesia who had a granular understanding of local audiences, tastes, and markets — skills that proved particularly fruitful in the production of sinetron.
Today, the film and television industries in Indonesia are dominated by a number of “Indian” owned companies that include MultiVision Plus (Raam Punjabi), MD Productions (Manoj & Dhamoo Punjabi), Rapi Film (Gope and Shanker Samtani), Soraya Intercine (Ram Soraya).
Together, they account for more than 50% of domestic film production and a majority of the popular sinetron content on television.
Sindhis maintained a distinct identity through the use of language (Sindhi), endogamy, and close community ties (Falzon, 2004; Markovits, 2000; Thapan, 2002). As Bonacich (1973) points out, this “sojourner mentality” led to a particular pattern of political behavior that did not facilitate integration with the host society.
Since permanent settlement, the Sindhi trade network has turned into an established community with a pronounced cultural and religious identity, which has been rigorously reproduced through its two most fundamental networks: business and family (Falzon, 2004, p. 64).
References:
(i) Falzon, M. A. (2004). Cosmopolitan connections: the Sindhi diaspora, 1860–2000. Brill.
(ii) Myutel, M. (2019). Commercial Television in Indonesia: The Sindhi Element.
(iii) Barker, T. (2019). Making National Cultures: Sindhis in Indonesia’s Media Industries.
