On Sindh: Articles

Table of contents :
Contents
Publisher's Note
TO SINDH
INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD
Part - I: Essays and Articles Published in Sindh Quarterly
1. Culture that is Sindh
2. Conscious Creation of Sindh Culture -A Task for Sindhi Youth and warning to the Sindhi Intellectuals
3. The power of Awakened Sindh
4. On Sindh: Some Random Thoughts - I & II
5. The Roses of Sindh
6. Spiritual Contamination
7. The Pakistan Resolution -A Country of Sovereign and Independent States
8. Linguistic and Cultural Strangulation
9. Sindh and Attaturk
10. On Reading: "How Green is My Village"
11. Damage Irretrievable
12. G. M. Sayed
Part - II: Un-Published Essays and Articles
13. Tapping Country's Resources
14. A Positive Role of Muhajirs in Sindh
15. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai
16. Rays of Renaissance
18. Bhagat Singh
19. From the Ruins of Sindh
20. Quest for Renaissance in Sindh
21. Sanity -- At Least Now
Part - III: Letters and Appendixes
23. Letters published in Sindh Quarterly
24. Appendixes
Appendix -1
Appendix - II
Appendix - III
The Reading Generation [A note in Sindhi]

Citation preview

ON SINDH (Published and Unpublished Articles & Papers)

Dr. G M. Mehkri

Edited & Compiled by

Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo

Culture Department, Government of Sindh

All rights a re reserved with C u lture Depa rtment, Government of Sindh.

ON SINDHI

Title o f the book: Written by:

Edited & Compiled by:

Dr. G.M Mehkri Mohammad Ibrahim Joyo

Composing:

Habibullah Jakhro

Title designing:

Inam abbasi

First Edition:

June 2012

Quantity:

1000 copies

Printed by:

Naon Niapo Academy Karachi, Sindh

Published by:

CELL# 0346-2103811

Culture Department Government of Sindh.

Price: 350/-

Can be had from

Culture Book S h op Opposite: MPA Hostle

Sir Ghulam Hidayatullah Road Karachi, Sindh-74400 Phone: 021-99206073

CONTENTS PUBLISHER NOTE

05

TO SINDH

07

INTRODUCTION

09

FOREWORD

11

Part- I Essays and Articles Published in Sindh Quarterly

1. 2.

Culture that is Sindh

15

Conscious Creation of Sindh Culture -A Task for Sindhi

19

Youth and warning to the Sindhi Intellectuals

3.

The power of Awakened Sindh

27

4.

On Sindh: Some Random Thoughts - I & II

41

5.

The Roses of Sindh

61

6.

Spiritual Contamination

77

The Pakistan Resolution ·-A Country of Sovereign and

83

7.

Independent States

8.

Linguistic and Cultural Strangulation

87

9.

Sindh and Attaturk

99

10. On Reading: "How Green is My Village"

105

11. Damage Irretrievable

117

12. G. M. Syed

125

Part- I I Un-Published Essays and Articles

13. Tapping Country's Resources

131

14. A Positive Role of Muhajirs in Sindh

137

15. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai

163

16. Rays of Renaissance

167

17. Children's Education

169

18. Bhagat Singh

177

19. From the Ruins of Sindh

179

20. Quest for Renaissance in Sindh

249

21. Sanity - At Least Now

259

Part - Ill Letters and Appendixes

23. Letters published in Sindh Quarterly

265

24. Appendixes

301

i.

Sindh through the ages, (A brief historical survey from Pre-historic times to 1847, by Dr. Sahib Khan

Channo. ii.

Prolegomenon by Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah.

iii.

(Sindh and Sindhi Nation b y Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo.

Publisher's Note

In line with its responsibility to promote lit­ erature and culture of Sindh, Culture Department has been pursuing the printing of books by various Sindhi, Urdu and English scholars and authors. Ac­ cordingly, in last four years, the department has suc­ cessfully published different books on history, lan­ guage, prose and poetry. During this period the de­ partment has surpassed the milestones, it achieved in four decades. We have published 142 books (2008-12) as compared to 135 books printed since 1967 to 2007. This book, to particularly remark is "ON SINDH" is a series of previously published and still unpublished research articles by Late G. M. Mehkri. a scholar of high esteem, who had devoted his life to the research and scholarly writings about The Indus Valley. These published articles have been adopted from The Sindh Quarterly, while unpublished arti­ cles have been compiled by Mr. Muhammad Ibra­ him Joyo, a well known v\Titer and intellectual. Culture Department will continue its endeav­ ours to serve readers and never shy away from its responsibilities to present literary works to the pub­ lic. In future. the department intends to compile and proliferate the works of various distinguished au­ thors, such as Mr. Mchkri, so that readers and re­ searchers of the existing and coming generations can take advantage from them.

Needless to reiterate that \Vithout full support of the present government, the preservation and pro­ liferation of literature, culture and heritage of Sindh, \Vould have been a dream. I ·would like to acknow l­ edge and appreciate the patronage and support of Ms. Sassui Palijo, Minister of Culture Sindh, m making this dream a reality. We are highly grateful to Mr. Muhammed Ibrahim Joyo for his role in the compilation of arti­ cles by Mr. Mehkri and to Mr. Siraj ul Haq Memon for writing the preface of the book. We are open to your constructive criticism for further correction of the format as well as the de­ sign of the book.

Abdul Aziz Uqaili

Secretary to Government of Sindh Culture Department

May. 2012 Karachi, Sindh.

TO SINDH 0 Our Ragmati, Our Bhagmati, Our Rasmati SINDHU Thou, Our Mother Glorious 0 Sindhu of our fathers, of our mothers of our sisters and brothers ours of our children: Salutations Our Ragmati, Our Bhagmati, Our Rasmati Sindhu, our Salutations: 0 Sindh our pride, our joy, our honour Our hearth, our home, our deepest thought Our Ragmati, our Bhagmati, our Rasmati Sindhu, our Salutations: Our bowl of milk Our morsel of rice Our sweet water Our dancing peacocks Our fish, our fowl Are from you, 0 Sindh Our Ragmati, our Bhagmati, our Rasmati Sindhu, our Salutations: We harken to thy CALL 0 mother Sindhu, Thou: our Identity Our Cow of Plenty Our Kamadhenu, our Ajrak Our Earth, our Heaven Our Every thing to us Our Ragmati, our Bhagmati, our Rasmati Sindhu, our Salutations: To thee, to thy Greatness, to thy Glory Salutations, Salutations, Salutations. Vol: XVI, 1988

7

-

No. 2

I NT RODUCTION " O n S i n d h" is a compendium of Articl es and Essays of Dr. G. M. M eh kri, printed in " S i n d h Quarterly" ( 1 973-97), m an­ aged, edited and pu blished by Sayed G h ulam M ustafa S hah, President (1985-97) of Servants of Sindh Soci ety. The book carries three appendixes as a Fore-ground to its S ubstance, being the essays on the subject: " S i n d h through the Ages" by Dr. Sah i b Khan Channa, and "An Introd uction of Servants of S i nd h Society" and " S i nd h and S i nd h i Nation" respectively by the Editor and the Assistant Ed itor of " S i n d h Quarterly''. The book contai ns a bri ef but a h i g hly thoughtful foreword by S i rajul Haque Memon, m y kind and generou s fri end for wh ich I am thankful to him . Dr. M e h kri paid S i n d h a short v i sit before the Partition and returned to I ndia and m uch later arrived here as a Banglore emigrant,

and

stayed

for

good.

He

traded

no

i m print of

" M u hajir" or " Urd u i st" He, one among many, a common among com m on people, put forth no. claim for property l eft behi nd. He made bol d to affirm that "he l ived i n S i nd h , breathed in Sindh, Sindh was h i s homeland and h e was a S i ndhi. Pakistan had yet to establish itself and deserve to be call ed the homeland." When Dr. M e hkri breathed his last (September, 1995) he had no home of h i s own. I nitial ly he took e m p l oyment under Gov­ ern ment but soon gave it up. He was a h i g h l y educated person with "Doctorate" in fields m ore than one. He was an accom­ plished writer and an able teacher and made h i s modest l iv i n g a t h i s terms. W h e n he expired , Servants o f S i n d h Society paid him a g l owi n g tribute in the fol l owi n g words: "Dr. G . M. Mah kri was an outstand i ng writer in E n g l i sh and contributed a great deal to the Social and C u ltured upl ift of society in S i n d h . He was a great l over of S i n d h and a si ncere friend of S i n d h i people. By prod uci n g an erud ite sociological study of Si ndh's H istory entitled ·sorrows of Sindh' (1987), a work of great i nsight and vision, he d i scharged what S i n d h owed h i m a s h i s chosen h o m e l a n d , a n d l a i d t h e Si ndhi people u nder h i s debt of gratitude. His selected essays i n English ear­ l ier translated and published i n Si n d h i u nder the title of " Me h kri 9

Ja M azmoon'a"

( 1 985), won for h i m a last i n g book in Sindhi

Litrature. He reg u l arly wrote, till the end for S i nd h i Quarterly, an Eng l i s h Journal from the date it began to publish in 1973, and

was read and deeply cherished by its readers. The Servants of S i n d h Society and S i n d h i people at large pray for his sou l to rest in eternal peace. May God grant consolation to the fam i l y of t h e bereaved a n d h i s wid e circle of ad m irers?" When I transl ated h i s pop u l ar short essays, pri nted reg u l arly for a long time i n an English Dai l y i n Karachi , and pub­ l i shed the same u nder the title of " M e h kri - ja - Mazmoon'a", he was i m m ensely pleased and wrote me a letter of thanks, addressing me as "My Dear Joyoj Jee". And from that point of time, correspondence between two of us started and flourished till the e n d . H i s letters I saved with me as an inval uab l e treas­ u re. I have com pi led these letters and propose p u b l i shing them in the shape of a book. In fact it wi l l be the fourth publication ad u m berati n g the ideas of Dr. G. M. M e h kri for the specific at­ tention of the people (natives and i m m igrants) of Si n d h to see reason and g ive up i nternal q uarrel s for particular gai n and pro­ ceed form i n g a com pact S i n d hi Nation for general good of soci­ ety i n Si ndh, in order to survive in Pakistan. Truly, indeed, there i n lies also the survival of Pakista n , if at all any body i n ­ tends savi ng i t a n d putti ng i t on t h e path a s a moder n , federal­ i sts, enlig htened, progressive part of the human wor l d .

Hyd erabad, Sindh May 31, 2012. M o h ammad I b ra h i m Joyo

IO

FOREWORD When my Frie n d and M entor I brah i m Joyo com­ manded me to write a Foreword to the Col l ections of Essays and Articl es of Dr. G. M . M e h kri, the obvious q uestion surged through my m i nd: Who? M e? B ut si nce a d uty was cast on m e b y t h e i nveterate s o n o f S i nd h (Ibrah i m Joyo) I could not refuse. The reason for my rel uctance was the heights and altitudes of Dr. M eh kri ' s thought and vision, which were u nsurmountable; and second, m y bei ng m ere a m undane pen-p u sher I cou l d not traverse the depth of the thoughts and visions of a great scholar, historian and a bri l l iant essayist l i ke Dr. M e h kri. I met Dr. M e h kri at the residence of Saeen Ghul am M u stafa Shah i n a meeti n g of Servants of Sindh Society, wh ich m eeti ng were, normally hel d there foll owed by luscious lunch­ eons or d i nners and s u m ptuous and del icious sweet d i shes. S hah Sah i b i ntroduced Dr. M e h kri as a P h i l osopher par excel­ l ence. He hailed from South India and m i g rated to Pakistan. In n o time, Dr. M e hkri was so engrossed in S i nd h and S i nd h i C u l ­ ture that even t h e native scholars o f S i nd h i c o u l d not surpass h i m . His deep study of E n g l i sh Lang uage and the Western C u l ­ ture were h i s tools to judge the potentials o f t h e Si ndhi people. With the aid of h i s vast knowl edge of a l l the great phi losophers and sages of Europe, he analyzed the thought processes and dreams of the S i n d h i peop l e and specially the S i n d h i Youth so that they could emanci pate S i n d h from age-old taboos and i g ­ norance. His essays and articles were reg u l arly pu blished i n S i ndh Quarterly edited a n d published b y Saee n G h u lam M u stafa S hah. The prese nt col l ection consists of not only the essays and articles p u b l i shed i n S i ndh Quarterly but a l so his u n pu b l i shed essays and articles besides a few l etters. Each article shows h i s i m m ense k n owledge and depth of h i s fee l i n g s f o r h i s new h o m e - Sind h a n d t h e potent i a l s of t h e S i nd h i peo­

p l e, speci ally the youth of S i ndh. His greatness l i es in h i s un­ bi ased articulation to bri ng out the best of Sind h i C u lture and to awaken the Sind hi peop l e out of the stu por produced by the opiates of various kinds incl u d i n g the abject surrender to Peers, M i rs and Vaderas of Sindh. It is extremely diffi c u l t to choose the ll

best article i n this anthol ogy but I shu l d thi n k that the best arti­ cle is the one entitled as "From The R u i n s of Si n d h" and its se­ quel entitled as "Quest For Renaissance in S i ndh" and of course h i s l etters to the Editor, " S i n d h Quarterly" Karachi on the i ssue of Lang uage a n d fi n a l l y his clario n call to the Sin d h i peo­ ple to establish an Institution under the title of S i n d h Institution of I ntel lect a n d Culture. In the end a l l I can say is that schol ars and phil oso­ phers like Dr. M e h kri are a rare breed and I can wi sh that m ore of such g reat men rise and keep on g u iding . We S i nd h i s who , at t h e m om ent, particularly those g iven t o Central ist Unitary politics, seem to be no better than the people put i nto trance, and d o not react to the l o o m i n g dangers to S i nd h i's national survival a n d i ndeed keep o n crawl i n g l i ke sl eep-workers

S I RAJUL HAQ U E Karachi, dated:

3 1 -05-20 1 2

12

Part

-

I

Essays and Articles Published in Sindh Quarterly

On Sindh

C ulture that is Sind h

C u lture i s a vast subject. The culture of a country may pre­ sent d i fferent aspects to d i fferent students. General ly, the word cu lture signifi es the m od e of l i v i ng of a people, their social val­ ues and their aesthetic sen s i b i lity. Taken i n this mean i n g , the land of S i n d h has a d i sti nct culture of its own. The spi rit of S i nd h and its peop l e have refused to m erge their i ndividual ity i n the dom i nant cultures o f I n da-Pak S ubconti nent. I t took from other cultures what was v i tal to adorn its own colourful ed ifice. Among the c u ltural manifestations of S i n d h we find many sig­ nificant rem nants of the I ndian, Persian, Arabian and Balochi cultures. But for the geographical factors, the S i n d h i culture would have been greater sti l l . The vast desert with a river that con­ stantly changed its course, and other factors as the shifti n g of the capital from place to place; the smallness of the peasant­ propri etor class; the absence of the 'nati onal' merchants c l ass, have m itigated agai nst the m ore m ature manifestation of the cultural individ ual ity of S i n d h . Where should one loo k for the pecu l i arity of S i ndhi culture? In the language and the attitude of the people of S i n d h we fi nd the answer to this q uestio n . S peaki n g about the S i nd h i lang uage, Sorley says, " A lan­ g uage is u sual l y a key to a peop l e . . . ". "The S i ndhi language i s a beautiful instru ment of precision adm irably adapted to the civilization for wh ich it was i ntended - a peace-lov i ng agricul­ tural and pastoral culture elaborated by an i n d u strious and non­ martial people". Can we not put it the other way and say that a peace-lov i ng, i nd u stri ous and not-m artial people evolved a lan­ g uage beautifu l and precise enough to be an i n strument of the expression of their civil ization and culture? Mathew Arnold speaks of culture as sweetness and l i g ht, and Cl ive Bel l t h i n ks that civ i l ization consists essential l y i n tolerance and i n freedom of the m i n d . "Sweetness and l ig ht", "tolerance and freedom of the m i nd" seem to have been for centuries the u ndercurrents of the personality of the S i n d h i people. People and doctri nes flying 15

Culture that is Sindh from fanatical persecution found S i n d h a haven of refuge. The m o re one comes to know the Sindhis, the m ore one is led to think that it i s not by chance that S ufism, a deep, s i l ent and civi­ l ized protest against rel i gious fanaticism , fou n d such a conge­ nial soi l in S i nd h . Had S ufism not taken bi rth in the neig hbour­ i n g country, perhaps it wou l d have been born in S i n d h itself. S i nce times i m memorial, the Sindhis have been tolerant and peace-lov i ng people. Among the ruins of Mohenjodaro we find hard l y any weapon of war. This city, half as old as time, shows not a trace of any defence wal l around it. The fore i g n admi rers of S hah Latif are apt to overl ook the tolerant attitude of the Sindhis a m idst whom this g en i us was born , l ived and worked . He i mbibed the l egends of a culture i n g rai ned and domi nant i n S i n d h a n d made them the vehicle of expression of his gen i us and m essage. His peop l e i n stead of persecuti ng him for choos i n g such them es, conti n ued to adore him. This shows the nature of the S i n d h i people, the sh rub of wh ich Shah Abdu l Latif is the m ost g lorious fl ower. And Sindhi language,

the "beautiful instrument of preci sion" i s itself a

blend, not of any bazaar g i bberi s h , but of two of the classical lang uages-chaste, austere San skrit and v i rile, l ivi ng Arabic. There are not many m odern lang uages, which are the product of two classical l ang uages. There is not a t h i rd language as a result of the fusion of Lati n and G reek, Lati n and Arabic, o r G reek a n d Arabic. I t appears as i f nat u re, f o r this u n i q ue l i n­

guistic experiment required a people who were civilized enough to respect its noble ancestry; and t h e Sindhis were chosen for the mission. The nobility of Sin d h i Lang u age and c u l t ure is the

gentleness of the strong. It i s not m eekness. S i nce ages thou­ san d s of scholars and people from far-off countries came to S i nd h but eventual l y they all became Sindhis, and adopted the lang uage of the land, and with their contributions, en riched its culture. In the m i dst of many vicissitudes, the receptivity of the S i ndhi mind considerabl y added to the spi rit and fee l i ng of cul­ tural security among the Sindhis. He needed not feel that whi l e his lang uage can be spoken, "there i s no script for it" , n o r that h i s l anguage is confi ned to cities and towns as the medi u m of expression for the "refi ned circle o n l y". Like the poems of Naz­ rul Islam and Tagore in Bengal, rich and poor, the learned and the i l literate alike enjoy the Risa/o of S hah and the works of 16

On Sindh Sachal and Sarni in Sind h. They all d rink d eep at these subli m e springs of indi genous inspiration. About two centuries ago Shah Latif strewed the seeds of his geni us on the fertile soi l of Sind h . Because o f t h e political upheavals, and the passing o f t h e Gov­ ernment of the country into foreign hands, these seeds re­ mained dormant. But ti m e has now come for them to germ i ­ nate. In m atters other than language the spirit of Sindh i culture needs but a stim u l us to burst forth. There are several fol k dances in Sind h . They are the sel f-expression of the happy and virile nature of the village fol ks. Som etim es the steps are quite intricate and their perfect execution needs considerable prac­ tice. People dance to the accom panim ent of m usic of pi pes, drums, "Ektar" and sarangi. With proper patronage these fol k dances can develop into a school of dancing The contribution of Sindh in the field of m usic is well known to every m usic-lover and even to a common man. Apart from the Sindhi " Katis" there are m any "Rags" and " Surs" evolved i n S i n d h that were adopted by the Indian classical m usic. T h e m u­ sical instruments are genera l l y the string ones, some of wh ich cam e here from Arabia. "Ektar" in its native sim pl icity i s the m ost popular Sind hi instru m ent. To its accom paniment the wandering minstrel s and the village folk sing the "Katis" of Shah Latif The Sind h i m usic d i ffers from the Pakistani M usic i n this respect that the Arabic i nfl uence renders it more melodious and softly g uttural. The Sind hi ancient m onuments found at Thatta, Hydera­ bad, Sukkur, etc , are the finest examples of the Sindhi archi­ tecture They are a curi ous bl end of massiveness and delicacy. Their massiv eness is an i m portant factor, wh ich d isting uishes them frorn their contemporary M u g hal architecture. The intri­ cate and geometrical designs of the colourful glazed tiles inside the domes and on the wal l s of those massive structures i m part them a character peculiar to S indh. Language, m usic, art and archi tecture are not the only things that 11.ake cu lture in anthro­ polog ical sense. It is also ev ident in the mode of l iving, cus­ toms, tradition and behaviour of the people. In this respect Sindh has many colourful and enchanting aspects. The tradi ­ ti onal and t h e varied ceremonial ways and greetings, the rich 17

Culture that is Sindh and the heavy ornaments of the S i ndhi Women and their col­ ourfu l , loose and gracef ul garments are exquisite expressions of the culture that is Si ndh.

Vol IX.

18

1 98 1

-

No.4

011

Sindh

Conscious Creation of S i n d h i Culture -A Task for S i nd h i Youth a nd Wa rning to the Sind hi I ntellectua l

The vision of what "Sin d h M i g ht Be" in years to come wi l l remai n a vision only, unless repeatedly verifi able facts are ac­ cepted as facts and steps are taken l i ke the steps taken by a handful of Sindhi i ntel l ectuals and leaders at a time when Kara­ chi was separated from the rest of Si n d h , "on the advice of seven Sindhis" (the Sapt-Rishis) when it was declared from the Floor of the National Assembly itself that the Sindhis were no more than mere Camel-Cart Drivers. The response of the Sindhis was not effeNescent or emo­ tional but cultural and intel lectual. In the same manner as the g reat Gokh l ay started the SeNants of India Society i n Poona, to seNe the cause of India poli tical ly, socially, culturally a n d , above all, i ntel l ectually. S o also, t h o u g h on a very humble scale and with a much-l i m ited objective (due to circumstances) S i n d h i efforts were revitalized at that time and i ntellectual g iants l i ke Dr.

Daudpota,

G.

M.

Sayed, Jethmal

Parsram and others

showed q u i etly and without any noise, that it was not they who were the L i l l i putians At a time when the very name of Sind h was attem pted to be obl iterated and when even the postmen would not deliver l etters if the word "Si ndh" was i ncl uded i n the address, the Sindhis made the name "Si n d h" their very hal l mark without making any noise. Considering the time when they d i d so, it was not only not a mean achievement but adequate response to an u n happy and u nfortun ate chal l enge. It was not a theoretical response, but a very practical one. I t was not tem porarily em otional; b u t permanently i ntellectual. It did not consist of soap bubbles and toy-ball oons but was b u i l t u pon t h e Rock o f Ages - - t h e INTELLECT O F M A N .

19

Conscious C'ri::arion o(Sindhi Cu/rurt'

Si nce then many creative writers especial l y the short story writers have done a g reat d eal to project the cultural imag e of S i n d h . This was the " Renai ssa nce of Sindh though of co u rse i n a very l i m ited way But i t m ust b e bl u ntly told that u nless t here i s an adequate Middle Class i n S i nd h . the S i nd h i c u l t u re can not be wel l served in the Sin d hi way. The absence of adeq uate M i d d l e Class has been not h i n g other t h a n t h e FATAL F LAW i n the S i n d h i M u s l i m Society a n d u n less i t i s consciously removed t h e Sindhi Soci ety wi l l rem ain u nd erstandably handica pped In any free Society , the absence of a strong and stout M i d­ d l e Cl ass is l i ke a body having legs and head but no trunk and vertebral colu m n i n between. Formerly Sindhi Hindu com m u n i ty fu nctioned as the tru n k and vertebral col u m n Again t h e "U nconscious" has t o b e made Consciou s'' and along with the students of H i story and the poets and the short story writers, the thought and work of the S i nd hi students of E C O N O M I CS A N D S O C I O LOGY have to wo rk out the plan of an adeq uate S i n d h i M i ddle Class power for without a M i d d l e C l ass power. no soci ety can i n t h e free wo r!d ev en STAN D . beca use the t r u n k wi l l be m i ssi ng 1 n 1 t a n d m ere L E G S and H EAD are not enough The H I STORY OF E N G LA N D (wh ich 1s bei ng specifically ta u g ht in I ndia. even after " I ndependence' JUSt because it fu l l y illustrates i n a capsul e form, t h e p rocess o f t h e ev olution of a stable pol i tical dem ocracy) shows how T I NY L I TTLE E N G­ LAN D became G R EAT B R I TAI N on the wings of the power of the M I D D L E C LASS and M I D D L E C LP..SS only The never e nd i n g mutual wars and co n flicts betwee n t h e

powerful barons. with the hated more Commoners'· as serfs and helots. c u l m i nated ev entu ally in that WA R OF R O S E S wh ich ex hausted t h e treasu ries o f t h e Ba rons wh i l e t h e i r art i l l e r­ ies remai ned i ntact On coming to the E nglish t h rone Hen ry the Seventh took away the right of the Ba rons to have t heir own a rt i l leri es. and they learnt to their cost that art i l l eries wi thout fuli treasu ries were no good . Then Hen-y laun ched upon the project of 2U

On Sindh strengthening

CONSCIOUSLY

THE

LINGERING

Middle

Classes and the trading classes of England . After him , this m uch-married Henry the Eighth did not at all confine his atten­ tion to his ever-renovated n u ptial bed ; but to do every thing possible to CONSCIOUSLY buil d u p the power of the middle classes of England He even broke away the spiritualities of England from the rest of Europe so that E n g l and may have a free hand in its eco­ nomic development and staged the famous "FIELD OF CLOTH OF GOLD" as its symbolic gesture. His daughter, Queen E liza­ beth the First went ahead beyo n d her tru l y i!l ustrious father even. While she never slept alone in her virgin bed, she never had any companion on her throne, and many a complete l y be­ wildered drone was u ncerem oniously sent to the dock and the Block for not having had the intel ligence to know that with Her M ajesty there was the clearest demarcation between the func­ tions of the bed and the fu nctions of the throne. And the function of the throne was, on the sag aciou s rec­ ommendation of her otherwise old decrepit advisors to get hold of Gibraltar, Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, Singapore and Ho ng Kong and set the very corner stones of the expanding British Empire built u pon : RADE AND COM M E RCE to such an extent that later Napoleon had reasons to moan against "England that nation of SHOPKEEPERS" who eventual l y sent him to St. Helena to cool his im perial heels.

It is not only the poets. the mystics, the short story writers, but essentially. shop-keepers, the Mid d l e Class, who are the

'/ertebral Column. the back bone of societies any where and

every where in tr.; Free World, as can most easily and repeat­

edly be verified

The al most tota1 absence of tr1e Middle Classes in Iran rl'ade that the m o si astute of :he aswte publican Winston Chur­ ch1il sum 'JP during the Second Wor l d War the conditions and ·J0'01t:c:::n of

th8t

c o u ntrv n just four words 'PROSPEROUS TE­

�:f-�f'IJ�-PAUPER :F'.AI'�·

.

,

�e cc�;ic as we11 have said the same '.h1ng ::ibout Sindh -ut Y that time Sindh did have a povvt::rfu 21

·

: ddle C l ass,

'

Co11scio11s Creation a/Sindhi C11!111re

which it does not seem to have now from am i dst Cultura l S i n d h . A n d u n l ess and until Cultural Sindh becomes com plete ly C O N ­ S C I O U S O F T H E ABSO LUTE N E C E S S I TY O F C O N ­ S C I O USLY bu i l d i ng u p a m iddle cl ass structure o f i t s own , i t will remai n a society without a torso of its own . A l ook back upon the real culture of Sindh, of wh ich the Sindhis can m ost j ustifi a­ bly be proud, the S i n d h of M ohenjoda ro . can show u s that the whole cultu re was b u i l t upon TRADE and CO M M E RC E and not u pon "Ektaras" and ··oo H I LS". The ancient Sindhis were known to be such m erchants and travelers that even the mythical best sai lor of the Thousand and O ne N ig ht was cal l ed Sindhbad the sa i lor. We know practi cal 1 y l i tt l e about the actual pol itica l , soci al and cultural life of a g reat deal of Sindh i n the period between the vanishing of MohenJ odaro and the invasion of S i ndh by Alexa n der whose h i stori ans have written in detail of the land of pl enty and prosperity, (even afte� M o henJ odaro and H arrapa were no m ore any trade centers). U nfortu nately for S i n d h , it was not as m i l itant as i t was prc,spero us and prod uctive its very prosperity itself made it the v icti m of those who destroyed M O H E NJ ODARO . The h i story of Sindh presents the sad spectacle of a once prosperous mariti me adventurous mercantile com m u n ity h av i n g rela psed i nto a state of pre-mercariti l e pattern of pol itical exi s­ tence, the essentialiy feudal pattern from wh ich form erl y all other societies were evolved . The hasty ad m i rers of the G l ory that was G reece seem to easi l y forget thal if a galaxy of gen­ i u ses l i ke the anci ent Sophist p h i l osophers and i ts dancers and its m us1c1ans and its writers and the scu l ptors and the b u i l ders of Pantheon and the Acropo l i s and many such other wonders i n stone and thought. and i f Socrates, Pl ato . Aristotl e, E u ri pides, Sophocles and Aristophanes a n d a t housand other gen i uses fl owered in Athens and G reece . these flowers bl ossomed u pon the T R E E of the Ma riti me and mercantile G reek society and not as a rootless bouque�. If th ese astoni sh ing geniuses were the very cream . the co!T'. merc1a! and mari�1me society o� Greece was the very M I Li ha·.1::: bee:'1 such true se rv a nts of the Sind h l i ke Oeewan 01aurna1 ueewan

On Sindh Watanmal Lalwani and M irza Qal ich Beg. The various private Li b ra ries i n S i n d h a re clearly i nd i cative of the exi stence of so many servants of Sindh who worked as the S ervants of Sindh, long, long and long before there was any S ervants of I ndia Society. It i s such serv a nts of Sindh who are the need of the day. And they do not stan d in need of any hol­ l ow b u i ldi ngs l i ke som e institutes with em pty halls and idle hands in them. The i ntimate life of Shah Abd u l Latif provides g u idance to any l ov er of Sindh. When S i n d h was in pol i ti cal l y chaotic cond i­ tions, the outsta nd i ng sag e of S i n d h reti red to Bhit and from there he began to d ream of the S i n d h of h i s D R EA M . From the various and d ifferent parts of S i n d h , he chose the Heroes and Heroi nes of S i n d h. Sahni Mehaar com es from one part of S i n d h , Sassui and Punhoo from the other part and so on. And by using these d i fferent t h reads of gold a s the warp and woof, this weaver of culture made the carpet that is the S i ndh culture of today , a culture i n which he con sciously planted the seed of thoug ht that not only S i nd h but also the rest of mankind m ay be blessed and one's m otherland is the pl ace by serv ing wh ich one can experience his v ery " Maira/ of Cosmic Consciousness. To the obviously l i m i ted knowl edge of the present wri ter, no other M usl i m P oet, no other all over this s u bconti nent came any where near Shah in exalting the greatness of one's M otherland whi l e a l so i nvoki ng blessings upon the rest of the world. M ost of the elder new Sindhis who came to S i n d h after 1 947 are dead and gone and som e a re dying I t i s the d uty of at l east a few of t hose who are born in S i nd h after 1 947, to regard S i nd h as their motherland and be m ore true to S i n d h than their parents were to thei r Motherl and Whatever they might have gained. they lost face the "AA BRU' of "the few d rops of respect upon the face ('Aab' means water and 'Ru' means the face), and could i n the barg a i n manage only a futi l e subservience of their l ofty motherland to the others. it is on them that M azher Yousuf has written h i s poem 'The

Facel ess Crowd: It does not at all mean that Sin d h d i d not have

its own share of traitors. S o m eti m es they have been in abun­ da nce.

The h i story of the conquest

of

S1nd h gives the

narr1es.

Conscious Creation ofSindhi Culture ages, features and parti c u la rs of all the traitors of Sindh and even post-partition H i story of Sindh conta i ns the deta i l s of the activities of those who were J udas to the C h rist Sindh. But even if two persons in eve1y part of S i n d h were to devote, at least some time to think a bout the Future uf S i n d h , l i ke C h rist, S i n d h a l so wi l l say , " If a n y two think a bout me, I wi l l b e t h e thi rd there" . So, '"it i s better to l i ght a candle than cu rse the darkness" for "see h ow far the little candle th rows its beams". "So shi nes a good name in the naughty world" And as the poet Asghar Gov u n dv i says: "Jahan do botallain rakhdeen, waheen maikhana hota ha!'.

Or otherwi se, as a Persian Poet says: " Yak naalai mastana ze jaee na shuneedeem

"Veeran shawad aan sheher ke mai khana na daarad".

Vol : X, 1 982 - No. 2

26

On Sindh

T h e power of Awakened S i n d h

When an engi neer bores a tunnel through a hil l , h e does not dash his head agai nst the rocks in order to break the rocks. He knows a l l too wel l that even if his head gets dashed to bits, noth i ng wi l l happen to the rocks. So he does not dash h is head on them ; but uses that h ead agai nst them in the most cool and calculated manner imagin­ able. S o does the surgeon also When he suspects a tumour in his patient's head , he does not, in fury, put a bul l et through the tumour; but he uses a l l his ski l l , g athered over generations of h u man experience in the science of surgery, to most carefu l l y open t h e skull a n d t o most gently remove t h e tumour. All this is all too patent All this is known as Rational P rocedure When Aristotl e said that man is a Rational Ani mal , he sa i d j ust t h i s : t h a t it is a characteristic o f m a n not t o d ash h i s head agai nst the rock in order to bore i t; and i t is a characteristic o7 m a n not to put a bullet i nto a tumor to remove it; but to use h is head and hands a n d hea1i as coolly, as expertly, as knowl­ edgeably as possible for him to overcome difficulties facing him. H i s cool i ntellectual ity hi des behind i t a store of emoti on, wh ich is almost tota lly i nvisi ble to the u n i nitiated . J ust t h i n k of a rag ing epidemic. P eople a re dying around l i ke fli es. Others are m oan ing and groan i ng; and crying to a l l the gods, a l l the bygone ancestral spi rits to come to their aid. But the epidemic goes on rag i n g , tota l l y unmi ndful of all these i ncant2tions, prayers. beseechi ngs and invocations. 27

The pmrer ofAwakcned Sindh

Then comes in the scientist ; cal l him a bacteriologi st, m i cro­ bi ologist , or what you wi l l . M ost cool l y , m ost calmly, h e takes spec i m e n o f blood , u ri n e , faeces, etc. , from the bodies of the dead , and reti res to h i s l aboratory. To the u n i n i tiated he is a heartl ess beast, as he d oes not take part in cryi ng, m oa n i n g , g�oani ng, beseech i ng , i ncanta­ tions and i nvocati ons; but i s seen to be si m pl y pouring ov er h i s microscope a n d dabbl i n g with h i s test t u bes, as i f nothing i s the m atte r around. I ndeed he does look h eartl ess, to the u n i niti­ ated. But the i n itiated knows what silent emotion is rag i ng h ea rt .

in

his

H e h a s staked a l l the wealth o f h i s knowledge, experi ence, to conquer the raging epidemic And as i t has hap pened often and often a n d often a l l over aga i n . t h i s cool . calm . heartless looki ng and u nemotional l y be­ hav i ng man has come out with a rem edy that j ust had wiped out the epidemic that all the moan i n g , g roani ngs, prayers i n ­ cantati ons, animal sacrifi ces, even h u man sacrifi ces h ad m ost totally fai l ed to achieve. He has the suprem e emotional sati sfaction of having ·'wi ped out" the epidemic, even rou nd the whole world, with his discovery agai nst the killing germs. That

i s MAN at his B E ST

Not an IR RATIO NAL animal, but a RAT I O N A L defi ned him.

animal as

Aristotle

To the extent that MAN has u sed his such rationality to that extent he has succeeded, so much so that he has stamoea his

that the pr:m1ti'.;es have wo r s h1pea as a Gcci d es s since ages and now fee1 offe nded and insu!tea and ferocious :hat moo n g o d d ess of theirs has now come ..ender the heels of m a n. liamp l ed and t;eaded upo n.

�oot uocn che moon -

:: . o

also

the exle nt �'·.:,: �J:· intel l ect and �,s :·2t,u:-

1n aii cossible wall's c·f !i'e. t o

�:is �Jsed 1'lis er:c�'.::;r: Jniv

,o

sustain «:s

,,

On Sindh aiity to solve h i s p roblem s, and to the extent h e has used h i s i ntel lect to t h e u tm ost o f its refi nement in search of t h e qual ity of achievement, he has succeeded, as the el ectronic watches u pon our wrists bear testi mony. Where is the sundial used by our g randfathers to try to reckon time, and where are these m i­ cro el ectronic watches that tell the time to the tu nes of m usic even? Ali this is amongst the marvels of sil ent intensive u se of rat1cma lity and i ntellectuality now, and what it may further be­ come, say in a h u nd red years or two, can as yet hard l y be i m ag i ned. But the irstrument of achievement i s j ust the same; about two pounds of g ray m atter i n the h uman skull, bei ng util ized si lently, rationally, i ntel l ectually. In deal i n g with h um a n m atters a l so the same instru ment has been u sed by the t h i n k i ng few, to the utm ost, while the m ere masses h ave used not their i ntel lect and rati onality, but thei r emotions, genera l l y, and u n knowi ngly in the service of those thi nking few The i ndependence of this S u bcontinent for in sta nce. was not the achiev ement of any mere em otional outburst S uch a mere emotional outbu rst was tried in 1 857 and it fai l ed so very m i serably that the pitch of history was q u eered for nearly a h u n d red years. There was no deep, coo l , organized , planned, prepared , t h i n k i n g beh i nd that risi ng, rightly called the S E POY muti n y , as it fi rst started with the unthinking S E POYS of M E E R U T who were b ra i n l es s to begi n with So it colla psed, bri nging u ntol d ruin in its wake. After that came the long period of deep si lent thought nearly all over the country, with t h i n kers, politicians, statesmen, and educationi sts l i ke Annie Bessant, Gandhij i , and others. a l l taki ng to study a n d thought B u t then i n the first decade of t h i s century , aga i n the deepl y emotional educated youngsters l i ke Savarkar, Arubindo Ghosh, also formed a terrorist org a n ization known, after the m ut i ny as the Ghaddar P a rty, which took to violence as the means of get29

The power ofAivakcned Sindh t i ng the Bri tish out of I ndia by force . They were secretl y supported by Germany, not at a l l be­ cause in any way I m perial G erm any was in love with the aspi ra­ tions of the Ghaddar Party to free I nd i a , but all because I m pe­ rial Germany had its own axe to grind against its rival , I m perial E ngland, whi c h was to resu l t soon in the 1 9 1 4- 1 9 1 8 showdown known as the fi rst World War. N ot fully aware of this i m perialist game, the Ghaddar Party though com posed of i ntel lectual youths, started i ts terrorist ac­ tivities in I ndia; on wh o l l y an emotional basis of ty ing down and to shoot down a few E nglish men in I ndia. Of cou rse the Party had one and only one obsession " H OW TO MAKE I N DI A F R E E" . Gokhlay, Tilak, Ranade. and a l l othe r g reat I ndian l eaders also had that selfsam e a i m : " H OW TO MAKE I N D I A F RE E " . B u t they did not act emotionally; they did not dash t h e i r heads against the rock to break the rock. Li ke doctors and eng i n eers, they THO U G HT OUT how. The British had not m uch d ifficulty in p utti ng down the Ghaddar Party. Spy students were i nfiltrated i nto col l eges and universities and they beca me one with the terrorist students; beca me even presidents and secretaries of organizati ons; and to prove their bonafides to the genuine terrorist students. these spy-students even l ed som e raids and shoot i ng attem pts ; and went to the j a i l s along with the genuine terrorist stude nts. Very soon the terrorist students ca me to know ihe l eaks and the effect of the spy-web; but thi ngs then cam e to such a pass, that it beca m e i m possible whom to bel i eve and whom not to believe, beca use even the nearest and dea rest friend cou ld be a carefully planted spy who has been a com rade for years together, only to spy . Then it was that m ost of the terrorist party students s i m pl y b u t genui nely gave u p terrorism as t h e m eans o f getti ng the B ritish out of I n dia. But they neither gaye up their m1ssjon nor their oraanjza30

On Sindh

tio n . They only changed the m ode o f thei r thinking, a n d s o of their acti on, as it was s i m pl y no m atch for the B ritish SYST E M , a n d i t was n o t t h e ki l l i ng o f a few E nglishmen that cou l d change the SYSTEM. And, i n the words of Robert M. P i rsig, "To speak of a gov­ ernm ent, certai n G overnment and establi shment i nstitutions, as the ' sy stem ' are to speak correctl y , si nce these orga nizati ons are founded upon the same structural rel ationsh i p as ( say) a motor cycl e. They a re susta i ned by structural relation s h i ps even when they have l ost a l l other meaning or p u rpose . . . But to tear down a factory or to revolt agai nst a government or to avoid the repairs of a m otorcycle, because it is a system , to avoid the effects rather than the causes, and so long as the attack is upon the effects o n l y , no change i s possible. The true system , the real system , is our present construction of system­ atic thought itself, and if a factory i s torn down but the rational ity ( pattern of thoug ht) that p roduced it (the factory) is l eft stand­ i n g , then that rational ity will p rod uce another factory. If a revolu­ tion destroys a system atic g overnment, but the systematic pat­ terns of thought that p rod uced that government are left in tact, the n those patterns wi l l repeat themselves in the su cceed i ng government. There is so m uch tal k a bout the system , and so l ittle u nderstand i n g . So, most o f the ex-terrorists took to no TALK, no P l a n , no shooti ng down of a few E ng l ishmen, no conspi racies, but to S I L E NT TH I N K I N G . S m all g roups of two and u pwards wou l d m eet for an hour or even half an hour a week, especially in Benga l , where the terrorist activities had been rife , and wou l d not speak even one si n g l e word or syllable but wou l d si m ply sit As a l l knew the one and o n l y thought in thei r m i nds was H OW TO MAKE I N D I A F RE E. That was the one a n d the only com­ mon form ula known to one and known to a l l . S o , Budd ha-l i ke they sat i n silence together, a n d si m ply departed after the fixed time of such t h i n ki n g was over, m ost reg u l arly, m ost pu nctual l y , every week, weeks on, months on and y ears on. And not ev en a s i n g l e syllable was ever uttered; not even a 31

The pmrcr nfAH"akened Sindh

single gl ance exchanged. any and all spies i n the g roups were com pletely demoralized , as they had noth i n g whatsoever to report, try it as they wi l l , as any and a l l discussions a n d tal ks, gestu res and glances were deba rred ab initio. So these t h i n ki n g g roups o f l i ke-m i nded people developed a strange. i m pregna­ ble, atmosphere of T H O UG HT, Sllt:NT T H O U G HT After 1 9 1 5 , when the real pol i tical struggle for the freed om of the S u bconti nent beg a n . the d i scipline and self-restra int of such self-trai ned peo ple proved so very valuable. that by 1 9 1 9 . many of th ose who st i l l had pi nned their faith on v i olence came forward to confess their fai l u re and to join the ranks of non­ viol ent freedom fighters: and by 1 923 practically all the edu­ cated terrorists gave u p and the terrorist org anization practically d i ed ( except later by Bhagat S i n g h and D h i l l o n ) . O n e of the top ranking Ghaddar party m e m bers Mr. Savarkar became a top ra nking com m u nist and another, M r. Arubi ndo Ghosh. who had taken sanctuary i n Pandicharry, (a F rench conclave) became a profound mystic of i nternati onal fame, having tota l l y esch ewed the very thought of violence S i n d h a l so perhaps can g reatly benefit by such S i l ent G roup T h i n k i n g . Bri l l iant a n d ed ucated Stndhis k now all too wel l w h o the B I GG E ST POSS I B L E enemy of Sindh h appens to be That en­ emy is I G N O RA N C E T h i s i s not a trite say i ng By repeating this over and over agai n , it can not get worn out, thereby. I t can­ not become less true thereby I ndeed, the m ore one comes to know the depth of this I G N O RA N C E the more fri g htening i t be­ comes. I t i s not a mere ' i g norance, poverty and d i sease· cl iche Mention of two . just two out of many kinds of ignorance m a kes clear rea l l y what i ntensi ty and depths of i g norance there i s . how very near the m ost prim itive level many of u s a re. a l though t here have been so many amaz i ngly l ea rned m en also i n our soci ety Both ty pes i l l ustrated and m entioned here a re i n the rela­ tionship of the common man, with the moneylender and the purchaser of cotto n , seen by the present writer i n the pre­ i ndependence days i n S i n d h in 1 942 to be p reci se The small-scale cotton grower. as see n by the present

On Sindh

writer, would bring h i s cam el-loads of cotton to the pu rchaser i n Tando Adam . There t h e cotton would be weig hed before, right before h i m , in the fol lowi ng manner: " O ne maund" "Two mau nds" "Three maunds" " Four maunds" "Three mau nds" (') " Four m au nds" ( ! ) " F iv e maunds" "Six maunds" "Seven maunds" "Six maunds"

(!)

"Seven maunds" (') And so on. After every two steps, there was a n o pen fl agrant cou nt­ back, and the poor grower of cotton was none the wiser for it, although the fou l count back was being done right in his own presence. To the present writer, here was a c l ear case of the pri m i tive "One, Two, Three I nfi nity " . So, l e t us say that i n stead o f a hundred m aunds that t h e cotton if honestly wei g h ed would have wei ghed, it wo uld come to some, say , say , sixty th ree fraudul ently weight maunds of cotton; fraudulently weig hted no doubt, but right before the eyes of the man himself, all awake but all a bundle of ig no­ rance, I G N O RANCE. And that did not stop there. The amount due to the fraudulently weig hed sixty-three m a u nds of cotton wou l d be pl aced before h i m right there and 33

The power ofA wakened Sindh P1en. And then wou l d beg i n the talk of the debt that the cotton g rower already owed to the p u rchaser! Verbatim : "You borrowed, for your child's nam i ng cerem ony, so m uc h on s u c h and s u c h a d ate so m uch; and s o m uch is t h e i nterest on it; and here it is ded ucted. "I

ag ree".

"And then, on such and such a date on the occasion of your daughter' s engagement you borrowed so m u c h d idn't you?" "Yes Sain I d i d " " S e e , t h i s m uch on i nterest i s being ded ucted from you r amou nt" "Agreed , Sain" And so on. With the result that even out of the paltry sum due to the I G NO RANT g rower for the falsely wei g hed cotton , he wou l d be further den uded of m oney And he was none the wiser for it The other i nstance of the type of ex ploi tation based who l l y u pon t h e I G N O RANCE o f t h e com mon man i n S i nd h , a s seen by the present writer, was based u pon " N ot from my m oney deposited with you; but from your own money", and is sti l l harder t o b e bel i eved , had i t not been for the tragic fact of such happen i ngs i n pl enty l i l ustrated , verbatim " Sain, I need a hundred ru pees a s loan" " ! have the 350 rupees deposited by you with me for safe keepi ng"

"Yes Sain, I h ave ' ''Do you want me to g ive you the h u n d red ru pees you need , from THAT s u m that you have deposited with me for safe keep­ . i n g?" " O h no Sain. O h no Sain T h a t money I h a v e deposi ted with 3 -1

On S111clh

you for safekeeping i s not to be touched, for i t i s for the p u r­ pose of my daughte r' s m arriage. I cannot touch it." "Then you want me to g ive you the h u n d red ru pees you now want fro;-n MY money , uon't you?" "Yes Sain, from Y O U R m oney. N ot from m i ne: " H ere i t is, on this m uch of i nterest" "Ag reed Sain, Agreed . AG R E E D . So very kind and gener­ ous of you. I know my m oney is safe with you Sain" To put it b ri efly, it has been such a state of i g norance that has been cau s i n g silence so that "the worm may not turn"; the attention of these sufferers has system atically been div erted towa rds the g raves of the Saints for help, succor and rel i ef i n m i sery. Harassed, bedevil8d b y poverty a n d m i se ry , these peo­ ple are seen c l i nging to the g ri l l s of the tom bs of the Saints and (of cou rse after paying tc the mujawar) piteously moani n g , ex­ actly as a baby clinging to the n i pple of i ts dead m other for m i l k And, a s they si mply can not b e ex pected t o know anyth i n g a bout statistics. proba b i l ity and chance factor. if they somehow get any pi tta nce even of anyth i n g l i ke any rel i ef, they nat u ra l l y t h i n k that i t was beca u se o f t h e i r prayers t o the Saints; and i f they do not g e t any rel ief, t h e y are m ade t o t h i n k that they had not prayed earnestly enough F u rther, although it i s often and often repeated , that there is no such thing l i ke priesthood i n their rel igion, the actual fact i s q u i te t h e reverse Whole fam i l ies and clans, claim i ng descent from the Foun­ der o f thei r Rel i g i o n , have for centuries so establ ished thei r power and prestige u pon the m i nd of the people that the peo ple a re more than convi nced that without the help of these de-facto pri ests, it is absolutely i m possi ble to obta i n salvation So hun­ d reds of thousands are u nder the th u m bs of these pri ests whose existence fi nds no J u st1f1cation in their rel igion Many of these pri ests are also powerful feudal lord s and have the selfsa m e class i nterests with other feudal l ords agai nst the m asses, with the result that no m atter what t h e winds o f political change. these two i nterests are too fi rmly 35

The poH·er of'A1mke11cd Sindh rooted to a l low any soci al change to take pl ace. This i s not pe­ culiar to S i n d h by any means But here it is i n tense. And formi­ dable. And wh i l e a l l this has gone on, the M usl i m s i n S i nd h were not ent i rel y without thei r leaders. H assan Ali Effendi was the one rol l ed i nto one wi th J ustice Am i r Ali. He was responsible for the S i n d h M ad ressah, which had some g reat teachers and pri nci pals who did i nspi re a good many S i n d h i M us l i m s and d i d yeoman service to the S i n d h i M usl i m com m u nity. But as a large n u m ber o f t h e students of this Madressah becam e Government servants, not many of them can be sa i d to be carri ers of the m i ssion of H assan Al i Effendi to any remarkable extent Of cou rse g i ants of l ear n i n g l i ke D r . Daudpota, who were both students as wel l a s teachers here were there but were few and far between . Yet, the name of Hassan Ali Effendi i s there as one who wanted to conquer j u st this primordial I G N O RA N C E that has bedeviled the S i nd h i M u s l i m s si nce long. And another g reat m a n , M i rza Qalich Beg was so g reat that g ia nts l i ke John Stuart M i l l wou l d have been proud to be h i s com panions Very briefly speaking he cou l d b e sa i d t o have brought the River Thames to join the River S i n d h u . So cosm o­ pol itan a genius l i ke M i rza Qalich Beg req u i res someone at least somewhat l i ke him to be h i s adeq uate biographer. H e proved t o t h e whole world that t h e learning a n d profundity for wh i ch the land of Sindh was fam ous in the heydays of Thatta i s certai n ly not exti nct i n t h e S i ndhi M usl i m He removed from the m i nd s of others the doubt that the S i n d h i M u s l i m s could be as wel l l ea rned in m odern knowledge as any one else S i ng l e ha.1ded and single m i nded he can be sai d to have put an end to any feeling of i nferiori ty i n the m i nds of the S i nd h i M us l i m s . without, at t h e sa m e time. i n a n y way rousi ng any hostile feel i n g i n the m i nds of others. I ndeed some of his � reat­ est ad m i rers were h i s S i n d h i H i n d u fri ends, and the E ng l i s h . But a t t h e l iteral l y g rass-root l evel , i t was H y d e r Bux J atoi who fought for basic h u m a n rig hts and freedom of the m ost

On Sindh down trodden . To de-hypnotize the masses and to remove their i g n orance about their human hood was his basic m ission in l ife. Of course the plight of the S i ndhi M u s l i m d i d stir the hearts of both Allah Bux as wel l as G . M . Sayed. But i n other respects they were poles apart. A l l ah Bux was l i ke Badruddi n Tayabji of Bom bay i n the spirit, anxious that the S i ndhi M us l i ms should have a pol itical education with a "sea-view" in it. And G . M . Sayed was for the "sea-vi ew" as also for the im­ mediacy in it. Now perhaps he may be fee l i n g that there was no bright "view" at all l eft for h i s way of thi n ki n g of those days. Great scholars

l i ke Dr.

Daudpota,

I.

I.

Kazi,

and

Pir

H u samuddi n Rashd i , b y their very eminence have directly or i nd i rectly done what they cou l d to remove I G N O RANCE as far as it could be removed i n the thick g loom of sol i d ified feudal i s m that h a s wei ghed i t see m s to existence u p k n ow no end i n g . M r . Mazher Yousuf, i n h i s book o f poems, " Rai n Drops" masterfully epitomizes the situation in the fol l owi n g l i nes. " . . . . U nhappy Val l ey, S i n d h , abode of peace; l ov i n g Haris with tyrant Mirs and crafty Pirs, Who pretend love but spread hate, and Exploit man in every garb. L i ke tinsel gods on earth, where they s m i l e i n Secret over wasted lands and pol l uted m i nd s Emasculated l i m bs, exhausted soul s . T h e Haris pray and seek throug h this h o l y l ot Najat, N i rv a n , M u kti and above all peace; I n vicious circles they get caught. My heart aches and drowsy n u m bness creeps over me When I think of thee, my L.: nhappy val ley." The soci o-pol itical effect of this al l i s now very d i m l y bei n g see n . There is practicall y no m i d d l e class i n Sindh. 37

The poirer ofA wakened Si11dh

With the result that the i nevitable gap between the affl uent and the poor i s not bei n g fi l l ed by the S i n d h i s themselves. Their mercantile life i s nowhere i n thei r own hands N ot only Nature, but economic activ ity also a bh ors vacu u m , a n d winds, gales and tornadoes from all sides rush i n t o fil l any such vacuum in any and all fields, l eav i ng high and d ry those who do not perceive the p resence of such vacu ums, and a re under the i nfl uence of any and every form of opi ates. I t has been said that not til l S i r Charles Napier th rust the n i bble of his pistol in the bosom of the last ruler of Sindh shout­ i ng " S U R R E N D E R " . the R u l er d i d not know that he was no more the Ruler, but a total prisoner of Napier. And he who by proclamation cal led hi mself "the Conqu eror of Sindr1 '' and had his i m periou s demand carried and that every S i n d h i noble should m ost com pletely p rostrate h i m self i n the full publ i c view i n front of Napier h i m self who was sitting, all alone u pon a th rone as the v i ctor This is perhaps the g reatest h u m il i ation that the I nd ians suffered i n the hands of the Bri ti s h . and a l ! beca use there was here l ittl e soci al resistance. Napier' s commands in h i s fi rst p roc­ lamation were openly d i rected only towards the M U S L I M S of S i nd h that they should behave properl y . and the M usl i ms were i n m ajori ty, but d ivided between the rich and the poor with no middle class that should comm and respect. The few nobles cou l d be h u m i l iated , therefore, with i m m unity That same pattern conti nued, even after Napier. The few Zamindars with l i ttle i n com mon betweer 1 themselves and the Haris could offer only wi l li ng surrender to any powe rfu l demand from outside. wh i l e , say i n a place l i ke E ngland. it was the exis­ tence of the powerful middle class wh ich b u i l t u p the E m p i re i tself. After partiti o n . the H i nd u M i jdle C l ass 1 n S i n d h left i t all i n a body l eav i ng no other S i n d h i M i d d l e Cl ass to take its place Those who cam e from outside knew noth i n g about S i n d h , its deep local h i story and trad ition. its lang uage. its l iterat u re. i ts deep fundamental thought or its echoes 1 r: genera: Ir:

the iT. ai n they have been l iving in cities and town s o n l y

On Sindh

as on i sland su rrounded by the u nknown Sindhi ocean of its own c u l tu re, u n l i ke the previ ous H i nd u m iddle class who had the com m u nity of culture and lang uage and traditions with the rest of the Sindhis. M any H i ndu S i n d h i scholars have done so m uch for the Sindhi lang uage and l i teratu re, all because of thei r l ov e for S i ndh and Sindhi l i terature, l ocal traditions and customs. Those from outsi de have come with their own already wel l ­ estab l i shed l ang uages, trad itions and thought, which have a n u nbroken cont i n u i ty with the culture and thought, a nd traditions outside S i nd h also. This is neither the fault on the part of the outsider nor of the Sindhis, but one of the results of the pecu liar socio-pol itical situations. The g reat m ass of the outsider did not find any other p lace safer for them thari S i ndh i tself, because it was o n l y i n S i n d h that there was a l m ost a com plete social vacuum when the Hindu middle classes over here l eft in m ass, leaving only the non-comm ercially oriented poorest as wel l as the landlord cl asses who h ad no trad ition of com merce to fill the vacu u m . Aga i n a l l this amou nts t o o n e single word, " I G N O RANCE". U nt h i n k i ngly, the u pper cl asses in S i n d h h ad tried to do a l l they could to keep t h e m asses i n i g norance, n o t caring t o see what would be the pol itica l , social and econom i c conseq uences of it. Some of them sent their own c h i l d ren to Aligarh in the m a i n whi le the g reat S i n d h Mad ressah i n Karachi , founded b y the far seeing Hassan A l i had to d epend a l m ost who l l y u pon financial help from the G overnment, and not m uch from the richest l a nd­ owners. Sociol ogical ly speaking, the S i nd h i M uslim boys of the rich u pper classes who stud i ed in A l i g a rh ( U . P . ) in the cultural ethos of M i r, Ghal i b and other cultura l l u m i naries of U P in the m a i n ; wh i l e t h e m ajority o f t h e r i c h a n d poor H i nd u bo1s a n d g i r l s who

studied in S i n d h i tself stu d i ed in the cultural ethos of Shah Latif, Sacha/ and Saami. And whi le Ghal i b and M i r and other such g reat cultural l u m i naries of U . P in the m a i n we1e k nown over here amongst the ed ucated M uslims of Sindh, Shah Latif and 39

The power ofAwakened Sindh Sachal were a l l too l ittle even heard of in Al i garh , although i n a n d for S i n d h they are such m i g hty cultural , social a n d spiritual personal ities. M eanwh i l e , h undreds of educational institutions here were m ai nl y supported by the H i n d u comm unity, i n whi c h many of the M us l i m students a l so had to seek ad m i ssion if they had to get bette1 education than i n their own schools. M eanwh i l e , si l ent S i ndh, the h u ndreds of thousands of the hewers of wood and the drawers of water have conti n ued to suffer the consequences of IG N O RA N C E i m posed upon them n o m atter from what side, and no matter with what m otives. It does not take any g e n i u s to say that if this conti nues, S i n d h W i l l Be Lost To The Sindhis, for I G N O RANCE in the MASS E S i s DA RKNESS and none can .run the O l y m pics in the DA RK. A l l have to carry, and carry aloft, the greatly sym bol i c Olym­ pic Torch alit and ablaze. S i nd h ,

m erely silent Sindh,

can become forever silent.

S i n d h , in the gri p of I g n orance, can ever rem ai n si lent and dead . S i n d h Thoughtfu l , with new m i d d l e class awakened i ntel ­ l igence, awakened to the realization that the chai n is only as strong as i ts weakest l i n k . That S i n d h can agai n be the S i n d h of Jam N izam u d d i n - on a m uch wider scale. S i nd h-Awakened , i s S i nd h ; Sindh asleep, i s Sand for the

Sindhis.

Vol :

�o

X, 1 982

-

No. 3

On Sindh

O n S i n dh : Some Ra ndom T ho u g hts

A Sal ute to the thinkers i n Sindh, be they among the pol iti­ cians, scholars or educationists. " Beware" exul ts Thomas Carlyle. " B EWARE" A T H I N K E R HAS COM E AMO NG Y E ! " It i s indeed a m atter of l asti ng exu ltation that there should be individuals in a society who can be regarded as T H I N KE R S . They a re always a c l ass by themselves. O f course ordi naril y speaking, every h u m an being i s a thinker. Without t h e power of thinking, we should have l ong perished . That apart, a TH I N KE R i s a specialist i n thi nking for T H I N KI NGS' OWN SAKE. "Why do you pay such a huge salary to the fellow over there that sits and does nothing but thinking", said some busy body to Henry Ford. " If you also can think l i ke h i m , I wi l l give a l i ke sal ary to you also" . That was how one of the most practical of men, Henry Ford, recognized the almost i m ponderable value of the TH I N KE R as such. Only the most bri l l i ant among the practical people know the need and value of the TH I N KE R . "Volta i re", sim pered the fai r ladies o f t h e decadent F rench Court, "Voltaire, g ive us your wit. Keep your wisdom". Because Voltai re was also witty, they wanted h i m to play the buffoon . They wou l d have none of h i s profound thoug hts; they cou ld have been of the g reatest value to F rance. B ut what did one of the m ost practical political geni uses of all ti mes, Napoleon Bonaparte say of Voltaire? " No, Voltai re: No R EVOLUT ION", sai d Bonaparte. "NO, VO LTAI R E , N O REVOLUTION". And what a Revol ution was the prod uct of the THOUGHT of that witty ugly l ooking man, whom the Beauties of the F rench Court wanted only to m ake them laugh and not think. And that other ugly man, that self-styled "Gad-fly", that Socrates, his thoug hts, recorded by P l ato, they too coul d never be sim pered at, nor kil l ed by poisoning them . "What is the use of your ki l ling m e"? �I

On Sindh: Some Random Thoughts S ocrates asked h i s enemies , " For, I am an i m morta l . " As h i s system o f thought, h e l ives i n t h e m i nds o f phi losophers t h rough ages. And what did Buddha do but thi nk? S o did C h ri st. And Confucius And can you th i n k of m odern E u rope without Kant, Espi noza, N i etzsche, M a rx, Schopenhauer, Bergson , H u me, Russe l l and others. And h ow a bout A me rica minus J ef­ ferson, Emerso n , Linco l n , Dewy , Wi l l i am James and Mark Twa i n . Who else but a T H I N K E R l i ke Jefferson cou l d have sai d , "If this be treason, let us m ake m ost of it". Who else but a t h i n ke r could have decla red, "You can fool some people for all the time and all people for some time but not all the people for all time." And "A nation half slave and half free can not stand" Of course such few T H I N KERS are the M O U N TAI N PEAKS. But there a re H I LLS a l so i n the world, i ndeed without the h i l l s; there are no mou ntai ns at a l l . Every soci ety h a s i ts H I LLS, i t s own TH I N KE RS , and he­ roes. As Thomas G ray in h i s " E l egy i n a country C h urchyard" says, " Even a sm all v i l lage, some vil lage: '' I n Ham polen some one with dauntless breast '·The l ittle tyrant of his field wi thstood ; Some m ute i n glorious M i lton there may rest, "Some C romwe l l guiltless of h i s country's blood ; " F u l l many a gem of the p urest ray s8rene, "The dark unform ed caves of ocean bear; " F u l l many a flower is born to bl ush u nseen , "To waste its sweetness of the desert air." Some of T H I N K E RS of Sindh, some of the fl owers of S i n d h , did not wa nt to waste the i r sweetness on the desert a i r" and seem to have gone out i n self-exile; they may not be active politicians N ot escap i sts either. When M a rx l eft Germany for E ng land he was not esca pi ng. When Len i n left R ussi a , he was not escaping. When Zol a l eft France for London , he was not

On Sindh escap i ng either. 'They l eft their dearest M OT H E RLANDS be­ cause they were most concerned a bout their MOTHE RLAN DS. T hey d i d not hate or detest their Motherl ands. They l oved , adored and worsh i p ped their M otherlands. Tem porari l y they l eft places, from where, i n the atm osphere of freedom , they cou l d t h i n k of the salvati on of their Motherlands. T o them, thei r M oth­ erlands were their very G od . " P rofound anthropologists say that basi cal l y , t o the i n ner­ m ost bei ng of m a n , h i s territory is h i s D iet, Watan. Maturbhoomi, Bhoon-Devi, F atherland, Motherland and "Janam Bhumi'. It is h i s territory, h i s m other tongue, h i s language, h i s c u l t u re, a l l the prod ucts o f H i s LAN D, h i s Terra F i rma. Without it, he i s a u niversal orphan. S o the Sindhi TH I N KE RS , h av e gone abroad to be i n the atmosphere in wh ich they can cool ly, calmly, collectively, and a bov e all objectively be able to eval uate those rel i a ble, verifi­ able facts and figures, concern i ng the life in the S i n d h , respon­ s i b l e for what has happened �o S i n d h since the C E N T U R I E S which has now cu l m i n ated i nto thi ngs a s they now h ap pen to be. That was j ust what Gokhlay; the g reat fou nder of the Ser­ vants of I nd i a Society d i d i n 1 9 1 1 . Earl i e r i n 1 900, a g reat Parsi t h i n ker had sai d , in effect, that it was i m possi ble for the fifty thousand British Sold iers who were then having m i l l i ons of I nd i ­ a n s u n d e r control, to control as m a ny donkeys! "Why so"? Thought Gokhlay. "Why so thoug h t G okhlay?" What social po­ l itical and other factors are respons i b l e for this 'so many' hu­ m an s bei n g , " so very effectively" bei ng control l ed by 'so few' , and that, "from such a g reat d i stance a s seven thousand m iles across the ocea n . " Gokhlay did not j um p to the ready made hasty conclusion of the i m pati ent politician. Being essentially a T H I N KE R he adopted the rati onal (as opposed to tr1e efferves­ cent, emotional), Medical, Pathol og i cal , and Soci alistic and MANY sided (as opposed to si m pl i stic a n d monomaniaca l ) m ethod o f attack u p o n the problem o f the stra nge-l ooki ng phe­ nomenon of subj ugation of the people of a m i ghty S u bconti nent by the people of a sm a l l island across the seas.

On Sindh: Some Random Thoughts

So, while the politicians of the S ubcontinent were busy l i ke the cleaning m achi nery of a work-shop, Gokhlay's Servants of I ndia Society, deep in Poona, was busy "far from the m ad ness of the crowds:" like the silent dynamo, busy prod ucing those facts and figures, stream s and currents of thought which sus­ tained and pr.Jvided "food , clothing and shelter and a m m u ni­ tion" to the thought and speeches of the mere politician ! For, it is the T H I N K E R who provides the needed rational energy to the doer. Not for nothing it was that a n E n g lish administrator in I ndia once declared Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan to be none other than the g reatest R E B E L , agai nst the British rul e i n I ndia and not the I ndian " M uti neers" of the 1 857 u prisi ng. He exp l ained by say­ ing: "while the M utineers b l ew u p against the B ritish wi thout any of the vastly needed preparations and so they got blown out in the ensu i ng struggle. " Sir S ayed was busy teaching the I ndians to acq uire those very i n tel lectual and m oral weapons like or­ gariized m odern knov.1edge, as Sciences a n d the o rganized m odern nationalism and patriotism by means of which the Brit­ ish were ruling over a g reat portion of the world , "Do you t h i n k w e wil l be a b l e to h o l d I ndia i f t h e I ndians l isten to a n d act u pon his teachi ng ? That is why I consider him to be the biggest rebel against our rule i n I ndia". " If a l l I ndians stand up a n d spit at once, the B ritish I sles wi l l be d rown ed , " declared S i r Feroz Shah Mehta. He a l so wrote the classi c " Pove rty and the British Rule in I ndia" But it was left to Gokhlay to form a body of T H I N KE RS that is, historians, economists, political scientists (as differen t from active politicians) and students of I ndian culture as such, to take a m ost concerted and sustained stock of the whole situa­ tion that eventually resulted in the subj ugation of I ndia, so that the objective knowledge so gained cou l d prove helpful in turn­ i ng the fate of the S u bcontinent i nio its destiny. S o m uch; so m uch and so m uch depends upon objectives, "im personal tak­ i n g stock" of thi ngs as they are. Such "taking stock" of things as they a re in S i n d h . any S i n d h i thinker both in and out of Sindh wi l l fi n d , for insta nce in the speeches and writings of the ladies of S i n d h iani Tahreek account of the extent to wh ich the wom a n i n S i nd h sta nds crip-1-1

On Sindh p i ed and weakened and i n capacitated from maki n g Sindhi soci­ ety strong enough to withstand the cha l lenges of times. " If the chain is o n l y as strong a s its weakest l i nk'' , these speeches a n d writings show the terri ble extent t o wh ich t h e chai n o f the S i n d h i society is weak, decrepit and rusty. A n d what t h e l ad i es of S i n d h i a ni Tahreek gave and said so very courageously m ay be o n l y the peak of the iceberg . And if and when wom a n is m o re e m a nci pated, bold and free, obv i ously the weaker goes to the wal l and loses control on its own terra i n . And then there i s mod­ ern h i story to take account of. So very stiff was the resistance that the sold i ers

Sindhis put up against the Briti sh that one Brit­

i sher has written , "our shoulders were ti red of slaughteri n g " . The defeated d i d n o t run out b u t had to be m assacred m a n by m a n as they stood the g ro u n d . T h i s is the report of the victor about the vanq u i shed soldier warriors on the battl efie l d . But what and how about those rulers for whose sake the sol d iers and warriors so very heroical l y l a i d down thei r tragic lives. These in the m ost obedience to a command from Napier and i n view o f the thousa n d s of o n l ookers i n broad d ay l i g ht came for­ ward, one by one, and prostrated before h i m , thei r very bel l i es touchi n g the g round to get back thei r l a n d s a n d

Jageers and

M O ST E S P E C I A L LY (to the contempt and a m azement of the B ritish) the return not of power but of thei r

' Shikargahas' or

hunting lodges. And the very second com mand i ssued by Napier was the prohi bition of the free and easy k i l l i n g of women i n Sindh. " For every single wom a n k i l l ed, I wi l l kil l

200

m e n " , said Napier, and

for q u ite a time this practice was stopped prov i ng thereby that if there ever was a saviour and patron sai nt of woman in S i n d h , it was S i r Charles Napier who earl ier had sal uted the corpse of the brave heroes of M ia n i . by the British ti l l as l ate as

Sheeddi whose grave is honoured 1 947 was recently dynam ited near

the Hyderabad Fort, along with the g raves of two E n g l ish men who were buri ed beside him at thei r express l a st request to N a pier

The S i n d h i T h i n kers wi l l no doubt tc.ke a l l this i nto account i n eval uati n g the factors that have contri buted to the State of S i n d h i Society. Theri for the Sindhi Thi nkers, to thi n k about the S i n d h i Society after

1 94 7 ,

without a l so t h i n k i n g of the i m pact of 45

On S:ndh. Some Runclom Tho11gh1s

the M u haj 1 r i n undation of S i n d h is to think of playing Hamlet without the prince of Denmark. I t i s wit h i n the records of living memory that the brunt of this i n undation fell heaviest upon Sindh N ot only the Wagha border soon closed upon them b ut also trainloads of them were re­ fu sed landing at the Peshawar station and under pol i ce-escort they were th rust i nto S i n d h . While H i nd u Refugees from Paki­ stan areas to I nd i a were welcome over there by the State itself; and wh i l e they were accord ing to p l a n . d i stri buted a l l over that vast land so that there was no such balance u p setting concen­ tration of the refugees a nywhere there: the o pposite of it hap­ pened over here. And the eth n i c com position of the M u s l i m Refugees i nto S i nd h was extremely h eterogeneous. If one happened to come from U P where they were 1 4-pre cent of the total population, his v ery next neighbor has hailed from Trava ncore where they were ! ess than 3 per cent One of the very few t h i ngs common to them ha p pened to be their language bei ng U rd u of many kinds l i ke the Decca n i and the Purbi and the U rd u of the cities of Dei h i and Lucknow and M eerut. The other t h i ng com mon to all of them v 'as natura l l y their utter ign orance of S i n d h i Culture and language The one maj or contri bution that the refugees most especially from U P have made to the thought and culture of especially the cities of S i n d h is the terrific and terrible S u n n i ­ S h i a confl ict. Perhaps S i nd h has never witnessed such a phenomenon before If the Sunni and Shia processions a re not guarded by the S i n dh pol ice i n the way they are protected . one si m ply shud ders to t h i n k of what could happen Foreig ners who take i n n u m erable p hotog raphs of those processi ons and com pare them to a rm i es of i nv a s i o n . bei n g wi t h d i ffi c u l t y kept wi t h i n re­ stra i nt by the heroic endeav o u rs of the police and the army on the alert Their other contri bution was the U rd u -Bengali a n d the U rdu-S i n d h i controv ersy . The wonder of wond ers i s that those very l eaders who fa nned the flame of the U rdu-Si n d h i contro­ versy i n Sindh are today being enriched beyond wi ldest dreams. wh i l e a few am o ngst the many wh o died. had to rest content wi th 5 l ittle graves a ro u n d wh;ch costly shops have sprung up in an i ronical sta nce .

On SinJh I t had a l l too well been known to the refugees from I nd i a that people from East P u njab apart (who alone were natura l l y a l l too welcome t o t h e peo p l e of t h e West P u njab) the rest of the refugees fou nd accom m odati o n , food, cloth i n g and shelter m ostly i n S i n d h , S i n d h and S i n d h . One of the very fi rst things

that the S i n d h i C h i ef M i ni ster Pir l l l a h i B u x d i d was L O sta rt two

big col onies i n Karach i . And the refugees from I nd i a occ u p i ed

town , markets, lands, gardens etc. etc. etc. But yet m uch to the utter bewi l derment and despai r of not o n l y the Si n d h i , but a l so to that of the refugees i n other parts of Si n d h , the refugees tried to m ake a common cause with i n the name of M u haJ i r-PunJabi­ Pathan

Mahaz to cut away Karachi u pto and i nc l u d i n g Hydera­

bad altogether from Si n d h itself

In this terrific suici dal i n g rati­

tude they entirely forgot that even if ever the M u haj ir P u njabi­ Pathan Mahaz were to s ucceed , the P unj abis a n d Pathans wou l d never be the peop l e who wou l d hand over ' Karachi

Suba'

to the tender m ercies of the rootless M u haj i rs on a si lver pl atter. Why need they? And what for? B u t to them it wou l d perhaps have been enough if ' M other Si n d h ' a l so had been vivi sected . T rue. not a l l were yet ready for it But none condem ned it But i n the mi nds of the

Sindhis it was i n d e l i b l y establi shed that

there cou l d be no known l i mit to pol i ti cal perfid y . And w h i l e as expected, noth i n g h a s ha ppened t o t h e P u n­ j a bi and Pathan m em bers to the open conspi racy aga i n st the u n ity of Si n d h ,

the thoug htless,

rootl ess, bootless M u haJ i rs

stand marooned h i g h a n d d ry; bewi ldered that with the passi ng of each day, they were beco m i ng (as also i n I nd i a accord i ng to C ha u d h ry , the author of the Book "The l a n d of C i rco") the l ast of the m i norities. They know that every body has d i sowned them It was even reported that after the fai l u re of the P u nj a b i ­ Patha n - M u h aj i r M a h az i tself, s o m e o f thei r erstwh i l e col­ l eag ues' who fou n d no mo re use of thei r servi ces, told them , that as they haJ fi rst betrayed thei r own motherland and as l ater they were equ a l l y ready to v ivi sect that very Si n d h who h a d g iv e n t h e m shelter a n d every thi n g , wh o ever was i n s a n e

enough to put trust i nto them Truly, truly the M uhaj i rs a l so l i ke as Card i nal Woolsey sa i d , i n t h e words o f Shakespeare, to h i s aid " O Cromwe l l . Cromwe l l , h a d I but served m y G od ( motherland) with half the zeal I -1 7

On Sindh: Some Random Thoughts served my k i ng (the M us l i m l eague Leadersh i p ) he wou l d not i n my old age have l eft m e naked to m y e n e m i es. " And the most amazi ng t h i n g is that wh i l e the M u haj i rs had no trad ition at all of thei r love for their M otherl a n d , in Si n d h they fou n d themselves among

Sindhis who a l l but near wors h i p Si n d h . T h e i r g reatest "mairaf' or ascent

poet, Shah Abd u l Latif experienced h i s very

to heaven, throug h the seve n citi es i n S i n d h reach i n g the fi nal state of u n iversal I l l u m i nati on of his Cosm i c Consciousness in M a l i r ( Mother S i n d h ) . No other M us l i m poet anywhere in the whole of this Su bconti nent has com e wi t h i n m i l l ions of m i l es i n h i s expression of love for h i s l a nd of bi rth. And the M u haj i rs were perhaps i ns p i red by I q bal ' s out and out condemnation of that very patriotism i n honour of wh ich earl ier, he h i m self had

" Saray Jahan say achha" and Nia Shiva/a and " Bachoon ka geef'.

written

They have, l i ke m a n y m i g rants from E u rope to America, accepted the c h a l l enges of change. P ractical l y there i s n o field of activity in wh ich they have not been part i ci pants. The i r pro­ g ress here can be regarded ac; phenom ena l . Those i ntel l ectua l . social a n d c u l t u ral factors, wh ich h a d proved themse lves t o be i n h i bitions and h i n d rance at t h e i r M otherl a n d s , especi a l l y t h e i r feel i n g of i nferiority n o t bei ng present here, they are sure a n d confi dent about themselves. T h e i r courage and the n u m ber of t h e i r casualties i n the two wars with I nd i a have establ i shed thei r c l a i m s to patriot i s m . They are not afrai d of com peti tion i n any i ntel l ectu a l fi eld. These and m a n y such things are obj ective verifiable facts. M ost of them being i n busi ness and co m m erci al citi es and towns and surrou nded wit h m odern i nterests and m odern forms of recreat i o n , they a l so, even as born A m e ri ca n s i n N e w Y o r k and C h i cago and E ng l ish m e n i n Lon d o n , do n o t i n general have m uch t i m e o n thei r hands to g et steeped i nto the c u l t u re of t h e l a n d . Even Sindhis perm a n e n t l y l i v i n g in K a rac h i

are not perhaps that m uch satu rated i n Si n d h i culture as t h e Sindhis l iv i n g i n the cities and towns a n d v i l l ages i n t h e i nterior of S i n d h . I ndeed a Londoner is regarded as ''farm e r" twenty m i les from the m u n icipal l i m its of Londo n . And t h i s hol ds good rou nd the worl d . Aga i n , it is a l so verifi able. ( I n a l l such d i scus­ sions. perhaps i t is a good idea that wh ich cannot be v erified either t h ro u g h facts and fig u res or at l east t h ro u g h what the soci ologists cal l 'partici pa nt observatio n ' had better be l eft out) -l �

On Sindh Looked at that way , the M u h aj i rs i n Si n d h , bei n g mostly i n cities and town s . a re m o re newspaper, rad i o and TV fed cultura l l y than t h e i r parents i n I nd i a were. I ndeed, the three m a i n social processes -- Contact, Conflict , and Assi m i lation - have proved themse lves over here a l .:;o; and wi l ly-ni l l y , a c l i m ate of u n d e r · sta n d i n g based upon t h e i n exorabil ity o f the fast develo p i n g ci rcumstances forces both the S i n d h i a n d the M uhaj irs t o re­ consider t h e i r earl ier attitudes. A l l the sa m e , both have to be

Sindhis. Sindhis are Sindhis a l ready . But u n l ess M u haj i rs i n S i n d h Sindhis, what e l se can t h e y b e ? The doors of

a l so become

P unj ab are not closed upon t h e P u nj a b i s i n S i n d h i . The doors of the Pathan l a n d s are not barred u pon the Pathans in S i n d h . T h e doors o f Baloc h i stan a re n o t closed for the Baloch i s i n Sindh

Wh i l e I n d i a i s s o m uch anxious a bout t h e I nd i ans wh o

m i g rated from I nd i a to Afri ca, Ameri ca , etc even m ore than a century ago, the doors of I nd i a are barred agai nst such of those

M us l i m s of I nd i a who l eft I nd i a for P a k i stan o n l y after the 3rd of

J u ne

1 947.

F rom

1 940

onwards , and upto

1 1 1h

A u g ust

1 947,

the M us­

l i m s of I nd i a were r2peate d l y bei n g assured from the M us l i m l eague's platform that " Pa k i stan i s t h e h o m e l a nd o f t h e M us l i m s o f I nd i a" T h e M usl i m Leag ue gathered i t s strength on t h e basis of this sloga n , as those M u s l i m s who are l iv i n g as even two per cent of the pupu l ation in I nd i a , voted for P a ki stan , almost to the l ast m a n , i nspite of bei ng told by some g reat M us l i m l eaders to t h i n k twice. Most i m m ed i ately after the ach ievement of Pakistar those v ery pai r of l i ps wh i c h had earl i e r repeate d l y assu red t h e m , and who d i d a l l that they did because of the trust they had for th ose word s , that ' P a kistan is the homel a n d of the M us­ l i m s of I ndia' , a d m o n i shed them to rem a i n where they h a p­ pened to be as " N o cou n t ry tolerates traitors ' Akbar is known i n h i story as the G reat M ug h a l . Shivaj i (who in the south, like La1 pat i n the N o rt h , stood a g ainst A u rangzeb)

i s ca l l ed the G rand Rebe l . The verdict of h i story as regards the early assura nces and t h e later sudden rep u d i ation of the same wi l l in no case be l ess than i nteresti ng and i n structive and a l so terrific and terri ble warn i n g to a l l m a n ki n d . 49

On Sindh Somt: Random Thoughts The S i nd h i t h i n kers a nywhere have to appreciate the fact that, m uch earl ier, their own l eader M r Sayed also at one stage had expressly i nvited the I nd i a n M u s l i m s to come to Sindh And when the earl i est batch es of M u s l i m s from I nd i a d i d come, it was the Sindhis who rc:: c eived them at the rai lway stations and allotted the Bihar colony lands to them in Karac h i . Also i t h a s been only t h e Sindhis wh o have been most hos­ pitable and generous to the largest n u m ber of M u haJ i rs . P l u s after his rel ease from detentions the very fi rst p u b l i c pro­ nouncement, with folded hands poi nted towards some self s!y ied M u haj i rs leaders in Hydera bad, it was Mr G M Sayed who m ost earnestly extended i nvitation to them to make one ca use with the Sindhis in S i ndh The rank pretenders to the l eadersh i p of the M u haj i rs O P E N LY spurned this o ppon:u n i ty to u n ity and oneness. T h e very root of a l l this tragedy consists i n the assu rances held OL.;t that Pakistan wa s the homeland of the M us l i m s of I ndia. I t has also in even m i n i m um honesty and up­ rightness of character and h u m a n d i g n ity , been stated that P akistan . was the homeland of P u njabis Sindhis Baloc h i s and Pathans too. In fact, with Bengal as a wi l l i n g part of Pakista n . the I ndian M ussal mans WO Lild not have been a m atter o f spe­ cial burden , worry and concern to the Sindhis S uch of the S i n d h i t h i n kers as have gone abroad, can from there i n an atmosphere of peace and m utual trust-wort h i ness look at the M u h aj i r's pl i g ht with d i spassion As said earli er, the M u haj i rs come from a M us l i m Diaspora in I nd i a wh ich was 1 4 per cent at its h ig hes t :n U P also most of them were in concentration only in so m e few cities and town s l i ke Delhi and U P In the city Agra itself. t rey were a small m i nority I n cities themselves they wee al most sr a r p i y d i v i ded between S u n n i s a n d S h i a s with reg u l a r a n n u a l S h i a

and S u n n i n ots, wh ich h a d m ade their p rocessions a n u n ending problem. And amongst the Sunnis themselves. th ere were the sharp ideological clefts l i ke the B rel ivis, the Devband1s etc etc. And there were strong social boundaries between the Ashrafs of the elites and the AJ l afs of menials. Amongst the Aj l afs there were the workers. the artisans ( Karha ndars) the Biradaries or brotherhood s of the Ohobees (wa sher-men ) . Ju/ahas (weavers) �(I

On Sindh

Hajjams ( barbers ) , Lohars ( i ro11 mongers) Qassabs (butchers) etc. etc. betwern and a m ong wh ich ''biradaries" there was l i ttle i nter-marital relationsh i p , as the g roups were very h i g h l y en­ dogamous them selves. But one and all of these g roups suf­ fered from the verifiable fact, that vi s-a-v is the H i ndus, these were getting from poor to poorer state a l l because wh i l e the H i ndu socio-econo m i c pattern was based upon the H i ndu joi nt fam i l y , based upon a g ri culture and so centri petalism of i n h er­ i ted property ; the M usl i m soci o-econom i c pattern except of the few Kho;as, Boh ris and M em ons) were based upon the pas­ toral , centrifugal pattern .

So i n the H i ndu joint fam i l y system there were factors, wh ich contri b:..1 ted toward s the capital form ation needed for trade and i ndustry, whereas in the M us l i m pattern the opposite was the case . as ancestral property is spl i ntered i nto uneco­ nomic frag m ents with i n three generati on at the utmost Further, while borrowi ng and l e n d i n g of m oney on i nterest i s com mon a mongst H i ndus, the M usl i m s i n g eneral borroweci m oney on i nterest but would not lend money on i nterest due to rel i g i ous scrup les. And to lend money with out interest was tota l ly uneco­ nomic propositi on The net result of a l l this has been that with the H i ndus and M u sl i m s living sj de by side, under the same uniform ! aw of the l and it i s j ust i nev itable for the Mus l i m to be­ come i n creasi n g l y poor and the H i ndu to becom e i ncreasi ngly prosperous. �� ot a single M u sl i m t h i n ker or refo rm er ever thoug ht that it was this difference in the two econo m i c patterns that was the m a i n cause of H i ndu M us l i m animosity and unless the Musl i m s b roug ht th e i r law of i n heritance, wh ich was based not upo n rel i g i on at a i l , bu t upon the A rabian pastoral cond i ­ tions having nothing t o d o with re l i g i ous faith a s suc h , be b ro u g h t in l i n e with t h e econom i c system of t h e m aj ority com­ m unity, there can just be no H O P E what-so-ever for the M us­ l i m s to com e up to the l evel of the H i ndus in economicc: and therefore i n all other lasting phases of l ife S o with t h e H i n d u g rowi n g prospero u s a n d the M u s l i m be­

com i n g i ndi gent with the passing of every single generation, the anti pathy i n herent i n the " H aves" and " h ave-nots" relationsh i p ev entually resulted 1 n t h e m i nority M usl i m Prov inces' attri buting a l l their sorrows to the i ncreasi ngly prosperous Hindu C o m m u-

-iougrt before .A. no ri o w t h ey w l ! n ev e r stor f H I � I N G wn1cf-, is a o roble:11 so l v i n g activity ano p roces2 N o :r' o re .­

On Sindh

soporifics but thought. As Robert G I ngerso l l sai d . 'When slaves beg i n to think, slavery beg i n s to die", the sl avery to the Past, to i l l usions and del usions. They have seen and seen throug h , for i n stance, the so-cal l ed land reform , which has l eft thousands upon tho usands of acres of the most ferti l e lands i ntact in the old hands as before. They have seen the betrayal of the m i ssion of Hyder Bux J atoi . They have seen the extent to whic11 U n ivers ities hav e been i n s u lated and deprived of their prestige and power: how those wh0 were n ot worthy enough to even com e near, let alone be worthy of touch i n g their feet have been ordering about the Vice Chancell ors and P rofessors l i ke jan itors I nd eed j u st wh at is i t that the youths of S i nd h have n ot seen of the degradation of m a n by m a n ? I s there anythi n g sti l l l eft i n t h e arsenal o f i n d i g n ity un used? T h e y a re fast coming out of the hypnosis of that brand of m ysti cism wh ich for centuries has been the very bane to the i n tel l ect of man, wom a n and child They have beg u n so deep l y , eve r so very rJeeply, hate. detest. abomi nate one and a l l of tr1ose factors wh ich have so­ cially, physica l l y , m e ntal l y and emoti o n a l l y , over the very centu­ ries. contri buted tc the cri ppl i ng of the i ntel l ect of tl1e S 1 ndh1 Manush. the rose of Si ndh, to rob h i m of his h u m a n hood i tself by making h i m bel ieve that his verv salvati on depends n ot upon the princi pai resources of his own psyche, but u po n the "spiritual crum bs" from the tables of the 'm asters' of his soul itself, condesce n d i n g l y fl u n g at h i m as towa rds any street dog in return for eternal gratitude ex pres�ed in the shape of u nend­ i ng spiritual and social sl avery and fathom l ess g ratitude ano feeli ngs of utter self-h u m i l iation and self-subj ugati o n . T h e S i ndhi y o u t h , the Roses o f S i nd h , have called off the bl uff And there 1 s fundamental g a i n . �Jow their proclamotion to one and all who a re sitti ng 'without you, and if you oppose. i n spite of you, come whc.t m;:: y" O f cou rse they can b e m ost deftly si detracked , by some of their own el ders, who pretending to l ead c.nd guide them can be busy taking them u p the garden p a t h T h i s i s a n a n c i e n t t ec h n i q u e , to d ecoy and to betray wh i l e pretending t o resonate with em pathy . This i s the s a m e story of the lamb, the shepherd and the butcher The l a m b wi l l remain a ' sh eep' if it m i stakes the care and the em brace that the sheprerd bestows upon it; for nowhere i n 71

The Roses ofSindh the whole h i story has any shepherd ever loved any lamb for its own sake. When the l am b i s fattened enough i nto a sheep, no shepherd ever has reg retted handing it over of cou rse for price, to the butcher, hi:: self-i nterest. S o whenever and wherever, no m atter in what d i sg u i se, there happen to be a " p h i lanthropic" shepherd, the l a m b has to look out for the not far off awaiting b utcher. So, the Roses, the youths of Sindh have to see that thei r l eadersh i p rema i ns not strictly with themselves in thei r own hands. Wheri after the m assacre of the i n nocent people of Del h i the desperately d egenerate Mohammad Shah Ran g i l l a (tota l l y unmi ndful o f the spi l l o f the blood o f h i s own subj ects) offered the m ass-m u rd erer, N ad i r Shar, an elep;1ant ride (as if nothing at all had happened). Nad i r S ha h , sitting in the howd ah of the elephant asked for the rei n of the elephant, to control it l i ke a horse. "There a re no rei n s for the elephant, you1 M ajesty." It is not you but it i s the Mahayet who controls the elephant with the ' ankus' he was told. "Then I get out i m mediately. If the reins of the animal I ride a re not in m y ow1 hands, then N EV E R WILL I R I D E I T. " This awakened Roses of S i n d h have to remem ber. Strong l y self­ i nterested part ies, deep l y d i stu rbed wi th the th reaten i n g power of the awa kened Roses of S i nd h , wi l l not at all hesitate to offer " self-less" l eadersh i p on the " Heads I wi n , ta i l s you l ose" secret and also " sacred" form u l a of yours. S uch betra;er� have a l l the m oney, a l l the time a n d a l l the leisure needed to coolly, cal m l y , unemotionally a n d heartlessly a p l a n and attem pt t o carry out the m ost selfi sh strategy of exploiti ng the power ;_rnd enthusi­ asm of the idealistical ly m otivated youth . For, the new Troj a n H o rse of destroying many a prog res­

s i v e m ov e m e n t is not to o p pose it at a l l , b u t to J U m p u p o n i t s

han d-wagon, rob away the real leaders h i p of its power, to print to smother it. only to smother. it by gentle but fi rm asphyx ia. This is homoeopathic villainy. spec i a l l y practiced by the old g u a rds upon the pulsat i n g and trusting youth Then "o ut you go ' sa i d the old rascal. And Benj a m i n Frankl i n . 1 n h i s autobiography say s, 'I lea rnt the lesson of my l ife never agai n to g rind the axes of others··

On Sindh

So, when v ested i nterests volunteer to offer advice, g u id­ ance and l eaders h i p to resurgent youth movement, wel l , it i s good t o remem ber Benj am i n F ra n ki i n ' s advice that "Beware. There is a catch ove1 here", without i l l usions or del usions. They have been thoroughly de-hypnotized and are now busy cal l i ng off the bl uff, wh ich over centu ries and i n the most i ntricate and subtle ways has paralyzed them. Compa ri n g the abject conditions of the women of S i n d h w i t h t h e l uck and desti n y of the women a broad, these foreign returned S i ndhi women, i n their speeches and writings are busy awa ke n i ng the rest of the women to the real ities of the proc­ esses and techniques of thei r victi m ization. S o also a re those othe r Roses of Sindh, the Poets, Writers and Thinkers. To an aged m a n l i ke the p resent writer, they very strongly rem i n d h i m of the crop of writers, poets and thin kers of the Romantic Pol itical thought of this S u bcontinent from 1 922 onwards . . . the same i nspirations and the same aspirations and the same simple and a d a mant refusal to ge� hypnotized. Such of these mem bers of the power g roup who do not wa nt to see the rise of a m i dd l e class in S i nd h , may perhaps feel all too wi l l­ i ng l y ready for any total l i q ui dation of these few t h i n kers, writers and poets by anybody. And to that pu rpose they may come to term s with any one from anywhere, on the one and on l y condi­ tion that their own statu s m ay be m a i ntai ned. Where there i s no visi o n , the people perish i ncluding the Lraitors often. That was wh1t exactl y the ' P rincely O rd e r" tried to do in I ndia after 1 857. "We wi l l rule I n d i a t h rough the pri nces'' , said a British Im pe­ ri alist and that they did. The I nd ia n pri n ces, the Highnesses and the exactly H i g h nesses tried to act as break wa i lers to the rising tide of modern consciousn ess amongst their subjects. A l l that they asked in return 1vas the survival of the i r own im potent princely o rder. Ev en when, i n 1 946, when Lord M o u n t batten dec l a red that

on the departure of the B ritish , "Sovereig nty wi l l return to the people" some of the myopic m em bers of the out and out, out­ dated "Cham ber of P ri nces" enterta i ned mad hopes that they wi l l immediatel y, even with resort to force, regai n the territories thei r unhallo .ved ancestors had su rrendered to the B ri tish ! ! 73

The Roses ofSindh

T hese myopics refused to see that "one cannot cross the same river twi ce" . as m uch water wi l l have flowed down the S i nd h i n the m eanwh i l e . The long, long suffe ri ng Roses the H i s Exhausted H i g h n esses h a d rem a i ned totally u n i m p ressed when they were branded as agitators, s u bversi o n i sts. terrori sts and the l i ke They rem i nded that these were exactl y those same word s that the B ritish had u sed a g a i n st the American Colonists who were fi9hti n g for their freedom from the B ri ,i s h yoke And they a l so rem em bered that whe n the Briti s h had p l aced p rice on the head s of all the l eaders of th8 American Revol ution who had sig ned the Declaration of l rd e pe n dence for Treasor1 ', one of the Roses of America, Thom a s J efferson decl ared I F TH I S B E T R EASO N , L ET U S MAKE T H E MOST C F IT . I n deed S i n d h can have a very real G U L I STA N OF ITS OW N . u n i q ue i n t h e worl d . i n t h e shape of a n excl u sive Rose Garden 1 n a p l ace l i ke the Com pany Bagh at H y derabad. I n this ROSE GAR D E N , or G U LI STA N-E-S I N D H , i n stead of thei r bei ng G RAVES of t h e dead t here can be the l iv i n g plar,ts of the m ost frag rant roses. in separate m a rked plots each n a m ea C'lfter the total l y u n-controversia! perso n a l i ti es of S 1 n d h l i ke Jam N i za m uddi n . S h a h l nayat. S h a h Latif S a c h a ! Saarm D � G u rbuxa r n . D r Daud pota . S h a i kh Abdul M aj t d S i nd h i . M r J a m s hed N u ssarwa nJ i M eh ta a n d a l l the g rea t m u s i c i a n s a rt­ i sts. t h i n kers. heroes and heroines tota l l y i rrespective of a n y tr1 i n g l i ke rel i gion or creed - person s whose l ite and work h ave contri buted to the fragra nce of the culture of S i n d h T h i s G u ! i s­ ta n can be hedged off from the rest of the area. by t h i ck bushes of N i g ht Q u een Jasmine, and all such i ntensely fragrant pl ants so that any one who enters this e n closure . he i s over powered w: th tne thought a nd the frag rance of S i nd h i culture .

town a nd v i l l age o f S i n d h c a n h av e a s m a l l o f its own i n which there can be plots o f fra­ g ra n t fl owers m a i ntai ned by sch ool c h i l d ren for the heroes and heroi nes and S L 1 c h other g reat celebrities. School c h i l d re n car a i so be encouraged to have eve n in their m od est homes pere r ­ n i a l l y looked after fl ower pots wit h p l a n t s sacred t o t h e m erri c ':c of t n e S i n d h i h e roes and g reat personal ities 1 n al! wa l > � '.: � So i n o u r u n d y i n g swee p . the fragra n ce of S i n o r niay beco�s :,:; I n d eed each

G u l 1 stan-e - S i n d h

.

74

'

On Sindh source of sustena nce to a l l the human roses of S i nd h l i ke a characteri sti cally rel igious m ovement Ladies of the g reat Sindhiani Tahreek can make such a g esture of l oyalty to S i n d h a success i n every home For, along wit h . and yet, a l so d i sti n g u i shed from other observations l i ke S h ah Abd u l Latif's Day a n d Sachal's Day , l i ke Del hi wi th i ts g reat PHOOL WALON KE S RY E , S i n d h :an especially with the social and i nspi red hel p from its Sindhiani Tahreek with i ts i m ­ mense pro m i Je o f an u n d y i n g resurgence o f S i n d h havP a separate day ma rked out, l i ke a festivity to be cel ebrated i n ev ery house, witr song a n d m usic, devoted to t h e thought of S i nd h as S i 1 1dh from the days of Mohenj odaro itself, as S i n d h P rovi nce d a y . Com i 1 g t o thi n k o f i t , j ust what it i s that the Sindhis can not cultura l l y and i ntel lectually achieve 1f only they become conscious of the fact that their ancient culture. the cul­ ture of Mohenjodaro has m ad e S i n d h famous round the worl d and of which they can far more j u stifiably be p roud than of any­ thing? America i s s o b u s y bui l d i ng u p i t s tradition that school chil­ d ren are taught a bout Johnny Apple seed ' a m ythi cal person­ al ity responsi b l e for the appl e-garden of Amenca. Why sl1ould the S i nd h i children forget to have Sahni Mehar Day Sasw Pur,­ hoo Day and a l l such days of the festivities of Sindh? I n deed . before the 811' century , A D , S i n d h , l i ke the rest of the Su bcont i ­ n e n t , h a d not l ess t h a n one h u n d red feats and festiv ities every y ear fifteen of them f:le1 n g the m ajor ones The stu dy of the Chach Nama shows how very prosperous S 1 n d h had bee n , as onlv the prosperous could have afforded a h u n d red feasts ano festivities ( a l m ost one in every th ree days of the yea r ) . After read i n g the Chach Nama, how very truly can every Sind h i say ' Real i ty Really: h ow green was My Valley of Sindh'? But as H O P E ete rnally in ever]1 human breast aga i n Sindh can . by bri nging back. the J oys and fest1vit1 es of Sind h . can aga i n say ·' How G reen is now my Va!iey of S i n d h

AG A I N " ' The a n n u a i

observance. on a sca l e com mensurate \fl:itr: i t s culture o f the S I N D H SAM A J DAY ano even in the fore i g n lands the thought that the Sinah1s are rem em oering the days of M ohenJ odaro wi l i 2 d d to t h e g i orv o' Si n d r ! � America, with hardiv t h ree h u ncJred

The

Roses of Sindh

yea�s of its h i story , can think of the mythical Johnny Apple seed , think of the pride and privilege of the real Sindh of the Mohenjodaro day s Are not the prese nt day Egyptians i ntensely proud of the ancient gl ory of the py ram ids and the dy nasties of the P haros and are not the present day Egyptian Women proud of calling them selves "THE DAUG HTERS OF THE N I LE?" What need all the modern Sindhis then to n�claim ancient Sindhi heritage when the world is proud of Mohenjodaro, why not the Sindhis for the flowers of Si'.ldh.

On Sindh

Spiritual C ontami nation In the V 1 th i n sta l l m ent o n Aboriginal tri bes. in your S i n d h Q uarterly V o l u m e X V 1 987 N o . 1 , on page 37 P rofessor M rs. M u stafa S ha h poi nted out a d ifference between an un-educated B heel and one who is sli ghtly pol i shed . Both accord i n � to her and accord i ng to one of my short­ term cou rse teachers, Rev Veri er Elvin, the anth ro,)olog i st who did Yeom en serv i ce to the cauce of the Bheels, " I n the eyes of the Bheel the spea k i ng of an u ntruth is one of the m ost despi­ ca ble crime. Whatever happened, the B heel a lways gives a m ost correct descri ption, ev en if i t i s d etri m ental to h i m Even i n the case of homicide h e has puzzled the cou rts of law and j us­ tice. The uned ucated B heel wi l l a lways confess without re­ straint, and h i s strong u rge to speak the truth is by no means d i m i n i shed by the knowledge that punishm ent may be hard . . . He hides "The sl ightly polished B heel behaves d i fferently '· and concea l s the truth with the express a i m of spari ng h i m self from the punishm ent. So the a borigi nal himself condemns any sort of educati o n . fi rm l y believing that the obil ity to read and write underm i n es tradition and custo m ; and it i s not aston i s h i n g t h a t he eyes w i t h d i sfavour t h e i nfl uence exerci sed b y t h e town s . . Verier Elvin, who had m a rried a B heel g i rl and had a son whom he named "ARJ U N " wa s of the v i ew that in view of loss of the h i ghest of human eth i cs because of such conta mi nati o n , t h e Bhee/s s h o u l d very carefu l l y he protected from getti ng "civilized". This sad story in many places i s the same. "Civil izati on" has so poll uted many of the fi nest of the h u m a n race that Sadhu T . L Vaswa n i o f S i n d h defi nes " C ivi l i zation" a s " Syphl i sati on". Accord ing to some very eminent Anth ropol ogists, the now fast vani sh i ng A merican Red I nd i a n was the very acme of h u ­ m a n eth ical development. H e not only did not tel l l i es, but l i ke the Huyun hL•mes i n G u l l iver's Travels, ( l ast Voyag e) h e could not even com prehend what a L I E was. "

77

SfJ ir illlal Contom inar ion

And when . eventu a l l y , and after Vf:;ry great difficulty in ex­ plai n i n g what a L I E wa s, G u l liver fi nally told the H u y u n h u m e s t h a t a lie i s t o tell a t h i n g t h a t i s n o t The Huyun humes tol d h i m that, i n that case. t h e h um a n race itself m u st b e the m ost conte m pti ble verr1. i n wh ich nature has a l l owed crawl i n g u po n the earth I 1 1 For. it was m ost u n reasonable. i l l og i ca l and outra­ geous and against the ev idence of a l l the senses, and percep­ tion and knowledge to tel l a thing that 1s rot' But the American I nd i ans and m a n y , many other spec i m e n of h u m anity who d i d not know what it was to tel l a l i e , were wi ped o u t o f existence or at l east got bereft of thei r freedo m and power by th ose who were the a l chem i sts. who knew the art of manufact u ring fal se­ h ood out of truth T h ; s was n ot the '' P h i l osophe(s Stone ' but 1t was. is and wi l l ever be the "Civi l ized Man's Stone" with which he stones out the peo ples whose o n l y fau lt has been that they sim ply .:: annot see why they should ·te l l that wh i c h is not Even to this very day, ev en in the few RE:servation Lands of the poor. g l oriously honest, m ost t rue to thei r promises, every i nc h the Whites are cheating out nob.y proud Red I n d i ans. The Australian Abori g i nes a l so sim p l y do not know What a · rs. Anthropolog ists who have been i nvesti gati ng the stra nge T E L � PAT H I C a n d C l a i rvoyant Powers of the Austra l i a n A bo­ rig i nes. say that they 1 Do not have a d evel oped l a nguage. 2 . Do not kn ow what a l i e o r fal sehood m eans 3 . They G o i nto S i l ence ( m ed itatior ) and g et k nowl edge of com i ng ev ents. which knowl edge i s baffl i ng to the Anth ropolog i sts, with its clar­ ity. co rrectness of predicta bi l ity. _,

So 1 t l ooks as if we a re pay i n g a very heavy pri c'" for our C :v i i 1zat1on based u po n U nt ruth Our S O U LS seem po i l uted i n depth M a n y o f u s do n o t know what Truth i s Pilate h a d con­ tem pt for i tl P e rh a ps t h e o n e a n d t h e o n l y p l ace where u n t r u t h h a s n o

p l ace and where truth alone 1f so ught. sou ght out. respected . ;s :he S C I E NTI F I C La boratory . But the T ru t h th ere d i scove red : s also used to destroy t h e d i scoverer of truth h1 m se1f M a n Therefore. n o t f o r noth i n g w a s W i l l Durant com pelled t o ob­ serve that ·science saves in retail and kills 1n wholesale . as at H i rosh i m a and Nagasaki . Perhaps al l h u m a nity wou l d h ave been worthy of this g l o rious E a rth i f all of us were the 78

On Sindh " u ned ucated Bhee/s and Red I nd i a ns". And as both Rev Elvin and P rofessor M rs. Mustafa Shah so clearly point out, n ,ost of the " kn owledge" that we, the C I V I L I Z E D O N E S i nsist on i m part­ i ng to the clear sig hted , clear m i nded, clear h eaded speci m e n o f tran sparent human i ty, i s the knowl edge t h a t i s o f no rea l use to the m . Therefore, to repeat, E l v i n was operily agai nst i m part­ i n g it. H ow these fi nest flowers of humani ty wou l d blossom i nto resplendent effloresc.,, n ce wou l d be a sight only for the trans­ O !y m pian gods to see and to fol low in a l l hum anity. When our genuine mystic, the poet, the a rtist, the m usici an, the dramatist, the dancer, the scul ptor, the a rchitect, the Scientist and the m athematician, even mom entaril y "touch the hem of etern i ty'' i n a fleeti ng state of cosm i c consciou sness, their state of m i n d may perhaps be a s exal ted , as the m i nd of the people w h o d o not know wh'.3t a l i e is. The g reat E pic, Mahabharata, ends with the saddest story of Hie degradation of the S u perm a n , Yudhishtor, who, before he told the one and the only single falser ood in his l ife , was wal ki ng two i n ches above the g round. He lost h i s supermansh i p after tel l i ng that lie, and " began t o wal k l i ke al l other mere mor­ tal::;" by losing that power to wal k above the earth ' To my way of thinking, perhaps a l l the so-called unedu­ cated Bheels and the Red I nd i a n s and the Chakmas of C h it­ tagong and the Eskimos of the N orth are the u ncontam i n ated Yudhis htors. Their sou l s were not destroyed by the Educated and E d ucati ng Krishnas. B ut , very sadl y speaking, a l though they know the "truth", i t has not made them "free" I n stead, they are bei ng wi ped out Has Truth no surv ival value in ci vilization? But, as Professor M rs. M ustafa Shah herself also point" out, the honest u ned ucated B heel i s the victim of the m o ney­ l ender from the C iv i l ized World , and is reduced to extreme pen­ u ry And another menace i s the Bhagat, the eternal representa­ ti\ e of the Priest the Lam a , the M ul l a h , the Pror.it. and the Sha­ man These two cobras, the Bhagat and the money Lender have rui n e d t h e Worl d of honesty, truth, beauty a n d good n e s s .

Amongst the g reat Austra l i a n a bori g i nals, both these m e;1aces were absent, till the E u ropean m i ssionaries began to ' Save their souls" I thi n k that the m oneylender i s sti l l :i lisent there The h i story of the rel i g i on s bei n g i m posec ..: �Jon the re79

Spiritual Contamination sistance-less savages ;s the h i story written i n human blood. And yet these rel igions, born i n d i fferent times and i n d ifferent cl i m es, a re reckl essly i njected i nto thse pu rest of the p u re, s i m pl e, honest. truthful people who have done the rel igionists no known wrong. If this be not Needl ess C ruelty To Man, what else i s it? I t i s . to my way of thi nking, · B rai n Poll ution" and " Bra i n Washi ng" at its worst. N ot for noth i n g at all was it that the g reat rationalist I ngerso l l descri bed these rel i gions as the stories of the "Absurd. the I m poss i b l e and the I nfamous" All of us a re a lways com plai ning that our entire cultu res are degenerating. S pangler's " Decl i ne of the West". Toy n bee's "Study of H i story'' , and another t h i n ke r (whose nam2 I have tem porari l y forgotten) his studies in " F u rther Studies In The De­ cay ing Culture ' . a i l poi nt to the p rev a i l i n g confusion and ch aos. And yet, we have the stone heartedness to im pose the prod­ ucts of our decaying cultures u pon the honest savages who do not know what a l i e i s or knowi ng it, hate it, detest it and ab�or I n our own cultures also. we preach to our children not to tel l l i es And when they naturally tel l the t ruth, we punish them for saying so. T h i n k of the i n com putable hy pocrisy of it a l l . In the best aq uari u m s of the world, we see the awful difference between the deep-sea fish and the fi sh that l ive near the sur­ face of the water. While the fish l iving near the su rface of the water are so elegant looking and stream l i ned, the deep-sea fish look l i ke monsters, as they have to live under terrific water­ pressure To me this always sugg ests that we. who boast of bel onging to cultures, are l iv i ng under the awf u l pressu res of centuries of traditi o n , a re in fact those deep, D E E P S EA F I S H . T h i n k J USt about the situation a s i t h a s devel oped : Some 200 y e a rs back, the state of t h e civil ization of a nation was j u d ged fror1 1 the amount of soap t h a t was u sed by that nation r:;er cap­ ita. The m o re the soa p i s used . the m ore civil i7ed that nation used it (for i n d ustri al izati on) the m ore that nati on wa s su pposed to be adv anced . Later came up is the use of :: 1 ectricity as the gauge of a country's p rog ress And today , it hc;s so come to ' c o u n t ry ' the m o rE:: the Psych iatric cases i n a country . the m ore t h a t cou ntry i s · c i v i l i zed . A c c o r d i ng to repeated report fu l l y 50% of pati ents i n the American and E ng l i s h hospitals a re m ental

On Sindh cases I I I If 50 percent of a l l the dogs i n Karachi go mad , then, Karach i is a wonderful City l l ?? And this i s the C U LTU R E we i m pose upon the u ned ucated Bheel ! ! ! What a cultu ral contri bu­ tion! Isn't itl It seem s to m e to be the cultural Calibans wh ose one a m bi ­ tion as Cal i ban says i n S h a kespeare's Tem pest "To rape P ros­ pero's daug hter M i randa, so that the whole Island m a y be full of cal i bans". None should remain u ncontam i nated with Cal i ban­ ism. is it? Whi l e m a ny of the uned ucated a bori g i nals l i ke the Bhee/s are the exact o pposite of Cal i ba n . They are Ariels, each. N oth i n g do they detest more than Falsehood and lies. Then P rofessor M rs. M u stafa Shah has poi nted out how Alcohol is ru i n i n g them: and yet she poi nts out how their simple and outdoor l i fe keeps them healthy. It i s not a lcohol as the pur­ chase of Alcohol that i s fi nancially ruining them and making them the victi m s of the m o neylender. Accord i n g to many cultural anthropolog i sts , perhaps the very fi rst thing that man d i scovered was the maki ng of alcohol For thousands u pon thousands of years man has made and used al cohol 2nd has not become exti nct thereby . Alcohol be­ came more da ngerous when man began to d i stil it. Otherwise in Wine and in Beer it has never been without its m e rits, wh ich were wel l known to not only the pri m itives, but a l so to the very acme of huma nity, people l i ke Homer and S ocrates termed it "Veno Vi ritas" means B ri nger OF the Truth . Had the Prim itives been a l l owed to make thei r own homemade wines, the only sufferers then wou l d have been the money Lenders and the Bhagats. Be j ust, be j u st and be j u st For j u stice sake place all the evi ls accrued by the use uf alcohol in pan of the scal e of j u stice, and in the other pan place the evi l s perpetrated by one single politician or fanatic. And then . see for yourself whi ch sca le takes us down to hel l ' As P rof M rs. M u stafa Shah Poi nts out, al cohol i s the only sou rce of recreati on, gaiety and j oy to these Bheels who do not know or u se fal sehood and l ies; and i t has not rui ned them , except financial ly. What wou l d these people be, if, wh i l e retaining their veracity. they lose the i r C h ildlike sim­ pl icity and develop the i r i ntel l ectual ity? Wo uld they not be a race of geni uses? For as, Carlyle observes, ''VE RAC I TY I S 81

Spiritual Contamination G E N I U S ITSELF". And many, many and many geni uses have. l i ke Khayam Pahelvi cried out for WI N E . WI N E , and W I N E . T o m e i t appears that som e cultures m a y , a s a sort o f a negative fetis h , nurture some " pet" hate. Alcohol seems to be our needless " pet hate" . Far more dangerous i s tobacco, say the scientists. They say that even by inhal i ng the smoke from a nother person ' s cigarette is da ngerous. But it does not seem to bother us at al l l O p i u m , bhang, Ganga Chandoo, and now, far, far m ore dangerous drugs l i ke Hero i n wh i ch threaten to de­ stroy h u m a n ity itself wi th their l i g hten i ng-l i ke spread do not rouse us m i l i tantly up agai nst them . But what we seem to be agai nst is W I N E . Why? Is it beca use ''V I N O V I R ITAS ? W I N E B R I N G S O U T T H E TRUTH Therefore, a s it bri ngs out the truth , it is i pso facto agai nst bra i n pol l ution And is perhaps therefore that we are agai nst it? I t i s to the glory of Tu rkey that it has a bol i shed prohi bition And yet no one dare say that the Tu rks are a nation of d ru n k­ ards. On every packet of cigarettes i n Am eri ca there i s to be the S u rgeon Genera l ' s warn i ng that cigarettes are a danger to health. N ot so on every bottle of alcohol d ri n ks Why? All be­ cause tobacco is fa r m ore dangerous than alcohol. Of co u rse. there is the nasty problem of Alcoholism . But i s not g reater than the problem of fanaticism An Alcoholic ca n . at worst destroy h i m self a n d h i s fam i l y But even one s i n g l e fanatic can destroy whole com m u n ities, peoples and nations T h i n k of Savaranola wi th his b l azi ng Fa nati cism, he had made Italy itself i nto an i n­ sane nation. O n e has to choose between ALCOHOL and Fa­ naticism. Thank heavens that the Bheels take alcohol and are not FANATICS. But the BHA GA T and the m oneylender from 'Civi l ization" are the parasites on these poor i n n ocent. si m pl e , honest-to-good ness, F lowers from Heave n itself. T h e " C I V I L I S E D" m a g g ot s a n d c u l t u ra l ca n n i ba l s a re c ri m i n a l l y ex­ ploiting them . '

'

The l ate lady Professor G h u l a m M u stafa Shah has brought to the notice of the readers of Sindh Quarterl y , the p l i g ht of these victi m s of the perfidy of the parasites, ag a i n st the Bheels That is her parting serv i ce to them, and us Her's is a l so a cry agai nst a l l forms of Spi ritual Contam i n ation Vol XVI I . 1 989. No. 1

On Sindh

The Pa kistan Resolutio n-A Country of Sov e reign a n d I nd e p e n d e n t State The M a rch 23 1 940 M us l i m Leagu e Resol ution, now k nown as the Pakistan Resol ution, was d rafted perhaps by one who either did not know even the elements of the term i nology of Constitutional Law, or, was, on the other hand, an astute m as­ ter of it. A study of that Resol ution m akes one feel that perhaps there is no m i d way to t h i s "either I or" t h i n ki ng For. if he meant the future Pakistan to be one single ' cou ntry' how come, in the Reso l ution, the very specific mentions of " Sove reig n" and " I ndependent" states? What does " Sovereig nty" " I ndependence'' mean'7

mean?

What

does

Which great pol iti cal thinker, philosopher and statesman has not eventually come to the same concl usion that ·'Soverei g nty" and " I ndepende nce" mean and i nclude the abso­ l ute right of any sovere i g n and i ndependent state to go to wa r. to concl ude truce or peace; to defend territory it cal l s its own by a!I m eans open to it? If this is accepted, where d i d , in the Lahore Resol ution, the vari ous future states of Paki sta n , on either side of I ndia stand. as parts of Pakistan? H as every "Soverei g n and I ndependent" state i n Paki stan the right to exerci se its Sovereignty and I n d e­ pendence i n accordance with the req u i rem ents of its Sover­ eig nty and ' I ndepende nce"? If not. what does the Resol ution mean? Could it ever be that so i m portant a Resol ution, on the ba­ sis of which the whole struggle for 'the homeland of the M u s­ l i m s of I ndia" was to be launched, was d rafted, considered, m oved . seconded and overwhel m i n g l y passed al l i n any breezy man ner? Without any consideration whatsoever to the future conseq uences and coro l laries ensu i ng from the body of the text If and when the objective of the Resol ution material­ i zed on the pol itical pl ane? And this when every single word , Comma, full stop , can m ea n so m uchl 83

The Pukis1w1 Resol111ion

And it actual l y has T h i s Reso l ution. when pl aced in the hands of any forei gn l eg a l expert to avoid any accusation of local parti san sh i p or subj ectiv ity, can easi l y mean that it envis­ aged not one nation. but many, each i ndependent and sove r­ e i g n wi l l i ng to come together only as mem bers of Com m on­ wealth . For it satisfies req u i rem ents not of any one nation wi th i n d ependent and sove re i g n states constituting its mem bers. and not ev en a Confederati o n , l et alone a Federation. It i s only i n any Commonwea lth that its mem bers can be both I n depend­ ent and soverei g n . and also form part of any l oose agg regate of them a l l . And the situation i n th ese areas i s that perhaps only a Commonwealth and not any Federati on or Confederati on wi l ! s ucceed or an arrangement l i ke the Confederation wi l l succeed or arrangements l i ke the E u ropean Econom ic Com m u n ity This wi l l enable the soverei gn i ndependent states to come togeth er as the Com monwealth of Pakistan. So, the identity of Pakistan. as the i dentity of E u rope. wi l l remain i n tact T h e wealth o f S i n d h w1 l i rem a i n who l l y i n the hands of Sindh the wealth of P u nj a b wi l l rem a i n who l ly in the hands of P u nj ab And so o n . The charges of · ex p l oitation' of one state by the other wi l l not be th ere then Simply beca use there wi l l be no chance for 1t With thei r fi nance a l so enti rely 1 n thei r own hands, the m em bers of the Pakistan Com monwealth wi l l . each one prog ress who l l y according to its own g e n i u s T h i n k. for a n i n sta nce. o f t h e a n n u a l wealth o f S i nd h . with its own ai rport and seaport and its vast system of agricu l. turai i rrigation re mai n i ng wh o l l y i n the hands of S i n d h . i n dependent and soverei g n to spend it as it sees fit' W i l l it not burst out l i ke a l l the modern E u ropean states l i ke Italy and a Germany? I nd eed , two hundred years back . wh e n S1 ndh was a feudal state , so i ndeed were the so many m odern states of E u rope " M od e r n i z a t i o n ' 1 s i n deed a v e ry recent phenomenon the d i rect result of l n d u st r1 a : Revol ution Any cou ntry that was free enoug h . i ndependent e n o u g h and sovereign enough to pick it up became · Mod e rn J a pan be: ng th e most typical i nstance of an ori entai cou ntry deep. deep and deep in 2 000 years of u n­ broken feudalism wh ich rested on the m ost pronounced form of E m peror Worship. becom i ng an i nd u strial power on its own as to have defeated M i g hty R ussia 1 n 1 904 . J U St after half a cen-

On Sindh tury of i nd ustri alization whol l y borrowed from E u rope. Puny Ja­ pan could do this beca use i t was sovereign and i ndependent enoug h to do t h i s. If America had clam ped a subsidi a ry system on Japa n , as England did upon the pri nces of I nd i a , wou l d Japan have had the ability in her hands to m a ke the very power of 2 000 years of E m peror Worship itself. the m eans of the quickest of i nd ustri al­ i s m through unq uestio n i ng obedience to, just one single of the Em perors' decrees that Japan shou l d i n d ustrial ize? Soverei g nty with i n a Com m onwealth bestows all those blessings of m utual co-operation along with the feeling of g reat oneness, wh ich is being enj oyed by the British Commonwealth of N ations. N ot only the power, but a lso the ever-i ncreasing wea lth of i n d ustrial ized and m odern states form i ng the Com­ m onwealth remains i n the i r own hands. T h i n k of E u rope under Napoleon's e m p i re, and think of the m odern E u rope, in spite of the Second World War I n spite of every d i saster, they a re sov­ ereign and i n d ependent and wou l d not l i ke to change thei r place with any Russian state. One of the many i m porta nt ef­ fects of the British atte m pt to recreate the M ughal u n i ty of I ndia under the British flag was the effective block to that dynamic pol itical thought of the various i ndependent and sovereign na­ tions that had re-em erged as the re sult of the decline of the Mughal E m p i re M any of these nations had thei r own territories, their own lang uages, thei r own c u l t u res and a bov e all their own h i stories of i ncessa nt warfare agai nst each other on the basis of these d i sti nctions and differences. The shapeless pattern of the brea k u p of the M u ghal Em pi re i tself. shows that. wh i l e i n the territories of N izam and 1 n the short- i i vea Ma rhatta E m pire many d i sti nct nati onalities were huddled together. out yet there was the d1st1 nct emergence of S i n d h . of

P u nj a b

of

Bengal

of

Kamataka and Tam i l na d . and

such other area s . each true to its own l a nguage. culture, h i story and fee! ; n g of d 1 sti nctneoos betv1een itself and its neig hbo u rs This d i stinctness was so very clear that the B ritish made use of it ag2i nst one cou ntry after another; as there was no love ; ost between them . Bengal . for i n stance. was conquered 'Nith 85

The' /'ukistun R.:so/1 1 1 i1 111

ttie help of the M ad ras Arm y ; U . P was conq uered wi t h the help of the Bengal Arm y ; the ' M utiny' wa s put d own with the h e l p of the P u njab Army and t h e H yderabad Army S i n d h was con­ q u ered wi th the help of the Bom bay Army and so o n . U nder the i ntense effect o f P a x B ritannica and because of the com m u n i u m of i n terest that prevai l ed between the B riti sh m ercantile i nterests and the me rca nti!e i nterests of the various nations or nationa l 1 t1es i n the S u bcont i nent. the various l ocal m i l i tary and adm i n i st rative classes r1a v i n g been defeated a n d s u bj ugated, the various nations a n d n a tional ities, which were so m i l itari l y active. J ust a few. even one or two generations b e­ fore. even l ost their a m b itions of freedom sovereig nty. i n de­ pende nce and even perhaps the pride that h i story gives. But yet thei r characte n stics and i nd 1 v 1 d u al 1t1es cou l d not be wi ped out. nor co u l d their l a ng uages be i ndeed t hese got a spur as never before . t h c n ks to printi ng p rocess But yet wh en the B ri t i sh left t n : s S u bcontinent. they not only l eft b e h i n d a better systerr; of prc.g ress and adv ance and a d m i n 1 strat1cn thar: a n y other co i o n 1 a : powe: but they a i sc l eft beh i n d . even ; n t h e two d i vided po:t: o r: s of \ h e s u bconti nent a d i staste for a::y fu rti1e· subdi'J i s1 0 �, T h at was how the L 1 aouat-Ner, r u pact c a m e i nto exi stence both l r1 d 1 a and P a k i stan agreei n g to n o rri ore encou rage any fiss1 parous �e ndencies i r, each other. I nd i a and Paki stan were to be t1e!d on t h e two poles of the sa m e axis. the Del h i Karach i a x i s B u t t h e diffe rent p u l l s o f h i story a n d c u l t u re proving them to be too strong for Pakistan. the Two Nations 1 e . I n d i a and Pa kistc.n became Th ree r� ations I n d i a . Pakistan a n d Bangla­ desh by 1 972 In I n d i a . t h e cry of Drav 1 d 1 st h a n I n d e p e n d e n t Assam Na­ g a l a n a and now t h e c ry of S i h k!star, a n d the repeated p u b l i c b u r n i n g o f i h : ; : nd 1 a n Cor, struct1on c a n n a rd l y be said to b e triv­ i a l m atters. a l thoug h the I nd i a n Const i t ution 1s so wel l framed as to give every constituent state 1 n 1 i e q u a l c l a i m to the Cen­ ter s attention .

But wh at i s to be done to t h e reawa kened forces of the d i f­ ferent a r c confl i cti n g r> 1 stor1es C L.; l t u res a :-i a to tne m emories of the p l e a s u re of econcri 1c sov ere1 g nty0

On Sindh

Li nguistic a nd C ultural Stra ng ulation One of the most aston i s h i n g thi ngs a bout manki nd as a s pecies i s that man has no specific lang uage of h i s own , at all. The human child picks u p and m akes h i s own , any l a n­ g uage or any num ber of l a ng uages a m i dst wh ich he finds h i m ­ self. C h i l d ren amidst m u lti-l i n g ual localities p i c k u p o n e and a l l t h e various languages com monly bei ng spoken i n those loca l i ­ ties, without any effort whatsoever. And quite u n l i ke parrots and other m i micking birds, these children are able to thi n k and speak io. the lang uage or lan­ guages. wh ich they pick up. As c h i l d ren g row u p , this fel i city to pick u p lang uages with such ease seems to get rapidly d i m i n i shed Because of the spatial sepa ration of human g roups from one another due to n at u ra l barriers l i ke mountai n s and rivers, and becau se of even plai n d i stances wh ich make the easy m i n ­ g l i ng o f g roups d i ffi cult, countless, d i fferent languages and d ia­ l ects have sprung u p si nce remote ti mes and in different cl i m es. And due to many historical reason s many of these l a ng uages have, through the i nvention of the scri pts, developed i nto vast storehouse s of recorded a n d spoken human experience i n one and a l l branches of sci e nces and a rts and thoug hts But one and a l l l a n g uages have not so developed. Some lang uages h ave so dev eloped that l i ke g reat shade trees they have over shadowed many languages and d ialects to such a n extent that many o f these overpowered lang uages o r d i a l ects have d i ed out altogether. And m a n y such over-powered lan­ guages and dial ects have so far managed to exi st and are l iv­ ing a t h reatened existence. because of the ever i ncreasing powers of the already advanced lang uages, which are now equi p ped with the m odern m ethods of e nforcing them selves l i ke p ri nti n g , rad i o , and the television. And such surviving dia­ lects a re spoken not o n l y i n small g roups, but aiso i n g roups consist i ng of m i l l i o n s of h u m a n bei ngs. 87

linguistic and Cultural Strangulation G rei rson , in h i s monumental work, "TH E L I N G U I STIC S U R­ VEY O F I N D IA" poi nts out that i n this S u bconti nent there are m ore than 600 l a ng uages a n d d ialects. Of them a bout fourteen are h i g h l y developed with literature and abstract thoug ht con­ tai ned in them. Many of the rest of the d i alects, though spoken by m i l l ions, have no scri pts of thei r own , and a re therefore only spoken and not written . And these a re not i n separate and d i s­ tinct territories, but a re there, as vast undergrowths. The economic, political and sociological i m pl ications of t h i s fact a re j ust stu n n i n g . T h e speakers o f about fourteen devel­ oped lang uages are the masters of the d est i n ies of the m i l lions of otherwise rati ona l , i ntel l igent equal h u m a n bei ngs, whose only fault bei n g that they were not born in one of the fou rtee n g roups speaking and wri ting developed lang uages. and. so have been left so far beh i n d , that it is now i ncreas i n g l y d ifficult to overcome the ev er i ncreas i ng handicap. (Some C h ristian m i ssi onari es in I ndia have tried to g ive alphabets to some of these d ia lects, so that the people u s i n g these dial ects may be­ come literate and develop their dial ects to the status of lan­ g uages, i n the cou rse of time). Because of the fact that so m a n y m i l l ions of preliterate using their own d i a lects a re l iving a subd ued l i te rary and cu ltural existe nce, over the centuries, u n­ der the overpoweri ng shadows of the 1 4 developed lang uages. these preli terate are l iv i n g the l ife of g reat s u bord i natio n , if not servitude amou nti ng to helotism i n som e areas. Accord i n g to the m ost psychologists, i ntel l i gence is a n i n ­ born thing and i s d i stri buted amongst the human masses, i rre­ spective of race and colour, uneq u a l l y in each g roup Accord ing to the Normal F requency Curve . i n every large group of h u man bei ngs, there i s . so to s peak, a spectrum of the d i stribution of i ntel ligence, there bei n g a few i d i ots i n each g ro u p , there being a l a rg e g ro u p w i t h average i ntel l i g e n c e . a n d there a re to be fou nd a few persons of s u perior and very s u perior i ntel l i g ence at the other end of the spectru m That way stat i stically soeak­ ing ;he many psycholog i sts t h i n k that there 1 s at ieast one per­ son with very s u perior i ntel l igence i n every 1 0 , 0 0 0 perso n s . , , . � :, t r s the active worki n g o f t h e i ntel l i gence o f these s u perior and very s u perior h u m a n s that c: o -: t r i b utes so m u ch to the c h a nce and advance of the w" -.Jie g ro u p o ro v 1 d e d t h i s s u perior me ntal abil ity gets the many Kinds of cha nces to exert itse lf

On Sindh The superior i ntel l igence fou n d i n the one-i n-the-ten­ thousand, of the millions of users of the dial ects, which lack a l phabets, and therefore are not literary lang uages, remains a bo rtive, i nfracted , hum bled, and overpowered with the feeling of i nferiority . Some times it bursts out i nspite of all these handicaps, i n the shape o f g reat fol k poets, g reat mystics B u t yet, in toto, the normal and s u perior i ntel l igence of m i l lions u pon m i l l i ons of the users of the d i al ects only, g reatly suffers, and the cultura l , eco­ nomic and pol itical con seq uences of this vast stagnation a re almost beyond computation. Amongst the users of the 1 4 de­ veloped languages also, p rog ress i s by no means u n iform . I n each o f these 1 4 lang uages, l i teracy i s by n o means u n iversa l And cultu ral stratification on the basis of i l lite racy, low l i teracy, average l i te racy and h i g h l i teracy mil itates agai nst the other­ wise g reat benefits that ought to accrue to mem bers of g roups having one of t hese 1 4 developed languages. The " Bazaar H i n d u stani" i s not the sam e as the " U rdu-e­ M oa l l a of Ghal i b". The g reat l iteracy genius N az i r Akbera bad i is never placed on par wi t h Ghalib, a l l because of h i s cri m e of attempting to m a ke the B azaar H i ndusta n i of the masses, have its numerical rig htful place as the understandable language of the m asses. But, thanks who l l y to the tita n i c geni us of poets l i ke the g reat Shah Abdul Latif of S i nd h and Rabindranath Ta­ gore and Naza rul i slam of Bengal, the lang uage of the masses is also the lang uage of the classes and i n P u njab, thanks to the geni us, not of I q bal, but of Waris Shah, the very d i al ect of the masses 1s a l so the spoken language of the classes. This i s not at a l l the case with U rd u , and now H i nd i , and many others of the 1 4 devel oped lang uages of the subcontinent. The " h i g h Kanareese" o f t h e A l l I ndia R a d i o , Karnataka branch. i s not at all the si m pl e and easy Kanareese of the m i llions of ord i nary fol ks of Karnataka. One has to be a high l i terate to understa nd the Radio Kanareese, so also i s the case wi th many other l a n­ g u a g e s . A m i n ority of l i terary pundits s i m p l y refuses to u n d er­

stand that any lang uage o r styl e that can not at al! be wel l u n ­ derstood b y t h e masses s i m ply defeats t h e very pu rpose a n d fu ncti on o f t h e l a nguage itself alm ost in toto. But all because the rei n s of l iterary power a re who l l y 89

in

the

L111g11istic and Cufturaf Strangufatio11 hands of these l i terary pundits and ' adeebs' . m i l lions of ord i nary fol ks. using their own d i a l ects, l a ng uages prag matica l l y , with 'the usef u l is the good" as the form ula, rem ain hypnotized and almost psycholog i ca l l y decereberated vict i m s of l iterary. ' Punditism ·. and · adeebism' with h i g h sou n d i ng verbosities passing as l i terature wh ich bakes n o bread, but eats up the bread p roduced by the toi l i ng masses who a re steeped in the feel i ng of literary and cultural i nferiority before these l i terary parasites. And not content wi th all this, there i s , after the i nde­ penden ce of the subconti nent from the B riti sh rule i n 1 94 7 , a craze i n its p u rest forum i n the two separated cou ntries, I nd i a and Pakistan; there m u st necessa ri l y b e a National Lang uage in each to secure its i n tegrity The champions of this school of thought, in both countries, fi nd it extremely convenient to forget that wh i l e Spanish is the lang uage spoken a l l over So uth Amer­ i ca. i ncl u d i ng M ex i co. this has not at all prevented the exi stence of so many d i sti nct nati ons in South A m erica And the coexi s­ tence of th ree languages as national l a n g uages i n Switze rland has n ot at all m i l itated agai n st the existence of Swi tzerland as a n-:ost p rospero u s nation England and the U S have English ·::ommon to both but that d i d not at a l l prevent the Americans from fi ri ng the shot that was heard m ore round the world than the voice of S h akespeare or M i lton . Any student of books l i ke ' Lang u age a n d National ity · by P i l l sbury. and Lang uage by O tto Jazzperso n . and art icles on the s u bject i n any all standard encyclo pedias. wi ll not fai l to n otice the objective fact that for the u n ification of a nation what is needed m ore than any one l a nguage ( i m portant though lan­ guage i s. no dou bt) but the F E E L I N G OF B E L O N G I N G TO THE NAT I O N When the American Colonists, straight from M other England itself, for any and m a n y reason s , lost the F E E L I N G O F bel o n g i n g to E n g l a n d , t h e com m o n ness of t h e

English Lang uage between them and E ngland did not at a l l pre1.1ent them to tear them apart from E ngland T h i s is but one of the m a ny examples of the Feel i ng of B E LO N G I N G N E S S or NOT B E LO N G I N G N ES S . THE S E NTI M E NT OF NAT IO NAL­ I S M O R ITS A B S E NCE alone overri d es the other considera­ tions l i ke lang uage and rel i g i on

011 Sindh The wh ole of S outh Am erica i s also Catholic by faith: but yet this has not prevented the various catholic nations wi th the Spanish lang uage from m utual acri m on y and warfare. On the other hand. the F E E L I N G of remai ning in one Commonwea lth has not prevented diverse i ndependent and soverei g n nati ons from form i n g the B ritish Commonwealth with the B ritish Sover­ eign as its most eagerly ag reed u po n H EAD. N otwithstand i ng a l l such rea l ities, both I nd i a and Paki stan decided to have a national lang uage each of their own . And, for various ' reasons' they chose two lang uages, H i nd i for the whole of I ndia and U rd u for the whole of (then E ast and West) Pakistan Both th ese states forgot may real ities under the spel l of the euphoria of i ndependence. They forgot, for i nstance, that in this vast S u bcontinent there are at least 14 l a nguages, some of them ev en older then Sanskrit itself, each with store of both ancient as wel l as recent and ever i n creasing l iterature and thought And both H i n d i as wel l as U rd u has their seats in the ex­ i m peri a l provi nce of U P itself So, both East Pakistan . and the S outh I ndian D ravidian states, at o nce reacted agai nst what they termed U rd u and H i n d i , as noth i ng but I m perial languages, i m posed over the head and shoulders of tt1e1r m i ghty lang uages and cultures. South I ndia even threatened secession al together from the I ndian U n i o n , and J awah a rlal Nehru. the very flower of U P culture, had the statesmanship and foresight to personally rush to the various South I nd i a n States , to give them the Gov­ ern m ent assurance, that H i n d i wi l l not be i m posed agai nst the wi l l of, and at the cost of. the senti ments of the South I ndians. I n Pakistan , the i m potent insistence on U rd u to be made the one and only lang uage of a l l Paki sta n , eventual l y resu lted in the clean and cl eai spl i tting of the s h i p of state. on the ' I nch cape rock' of lang uage controversy , thereby giving an entirely new m ean i n g a n d a n enti rely new significance to the Two­ Nati ons Theo ry , Bang l adesh bei n g that other nati o n . "The one lesson we l earn from h i story is that we learn no lesson from h i story , " said Karl M a rx. This a d a m a n t i nsistence of make U rd u T H E national l a nguage o f what remains o f Pakista n . shows h ow very correct M a rx may prove h i m self to be. U rd u , with its own and m ost unique d y nam i s m , and in its s i m ple form . one of the m ost easi l y u n derstandable lang uage, of the whole of this subconti nent. except for the m ost extrem e South, and with its

L inguistic und Cultural Srro11g11lurio11 sim plest possi ble g rammar so m uch ad m i red by G rierson in h i s L i n g u i stic S u rvey of I nd i a, i s relentlessly b e i n g d ragged i n as the subject of that controversy, which it never was, before i ts roughshod i m position upon the rest of the lang uages of what remains of Pakistan. In this process of fitting it to the Bed of P rocreties, U rd u , as H i nd i in I nd i a , is bei n g made a language wh ich i s neither flesh , nor fowl , nor good red herri ng, this g ro­ tesq ue version of the once sweet language of M i r is bei ng made to function as a monster, employed t h rough the p ress. Rad i o and T.V as a strangu lating monster, and as such the vic­ tim of the wrath of its till-very-recent friends. Recent h i story itself i s witness, that thanks to the i nfl uence of Ali garh , U n iversity , both in Sindh as wel l as i n the then East Bengal, U rd u had become the l an g uage cf the E l i tes. Although there were very few peopl e from U P in Sindh before 1 947, one of the big U rd u l i braries exi sted i n Karachi, from wh ich l i brary hal l , people we nt out to hoist the flag of Pakistan i n 1 946, on its front door. It was all because, both i n Bengal as wel l as i n S i n d h , U rd u was not then rega rded a t a l l a t h reat t o the l ocal g reat lang uages and cultures. Now it has been clean wa shed out i n Bangladesh . wh i l e i n the hapless though u n relenti ngly sullen S i n d h , i t i s bei n g regarded as the rope of l i n g u i stic stran­ g u l ation. Tru l y can U rd u lam ent, "God hel p me from my fri ends I wi l l take care of my enemies myself" . It has been this felt threat to S i n d h i that is obviously the j u st reason for the resentment of the S i nd h i peop le. If a Sindhi does not mount gu ard towards the preserv ation of t h e S i n d h i l a n ­ g u age. and that too. i n his own S i n d h . who else should and who else can? Neither the S i n d h i . n o r his l a ng uage had. hav e. or care to have. any desi g n s upon any other lang uage or cul­ t u r e . All that they have ever sought so far i s that they may be 1 eft at peace :n t h e i r own terra i n . T r" e B ri t i s h r u l e g a v e t h e m c h a t

3e n se o: sec : .m t1 Ail the British off i c e r s worki n g oermane ntly in pass th eir exam r n ation of o rofi cien c y : n S 1 n d h 1 O t h e rw i se '. h e i r v e ry prorr ot1ons were stoo ped ' ..\ r1 d so m e o f t h e m C 1 d com m o n serv i c e to : h e S i nd n i ! a n g u a g e A n d a i l b e c a u se t r e m ajority of Sindh1s r-, a o pe n e d to o e 'v1 u s l 1 m s . whose ance sto rs � a d aone s o m u cri Uera ry wcrK i n S r n d h i 1 an­ ;;i u a g e : n A ra b i c srn ot. the B r i t i s h c r, o se a n d f r a m ed A ra b i c 7,,-:; r 1 ot fo r S i n d h i 1 n c reference t c the C e v n agr i Scr1ot. wri 1 cn wa s s ; ri d h were o t 1 1 g e d '.o

On Sindh

favoured by the m i nority com m u n ity of businessmen ' So, al­ though the B ritish had toppled down the M u s l i m rule i n S i n d h for t h e i r i m perial pu rpose , but j ust because they preseNed a n d promoted t h e lang uage and culture o f the m asses, people l i ke M i rza Q a l i c h Beg b rought i nto the S i n d h u River. the water of the Thames by translating the very best of E nglish l i terature i nto the S i nd h i lang uage. And with the works of Lambrick and Sorley, the outside world ca me to know about the l i terary and cultural i ndividual ity , id entity and g reatness of Sindh Therefore , the S i ndhi d i d not see any th reat at a l l to the S i nd h i Lang uage i n the adm i n i strative use of the Engl ish lan­ g uage in S i n d h , although hard l y m o re than 3 percent of the Sindhis cou l d understa nd it as was the case a l l over the Sub­ continent. I ndeed . the English language, far from bei n g regarded as any threat, p roved to be a sti m ulant or, T H E stim ulant i n l i terary and cultural m atters a l l over the vast land. It is only when a people feel thei r language or culture a re t h reatened , that i n su r­ mountable diffi culties bei ng to appear, more especi ally when they feel that the th reat is subtl e, u nderm i ni n g and su rreptitious It was the feeling amongst the I nd i a n sol d i ers that the new car­ t ridges were purposely g reased with the la rd of the pig and cow, to de- l s l a m i se and de- H i n d uise them , that sparked off the I nd i a n M utiny of 1 857 In m atters of thei r language and their culture, the Sindhis began to feel that never before. in a l l his­ tory , thei r l a nguage was both o pen l y and also su rre ptiti ously bei ng engu l fed. as with slogans l i ke " U rd u and U rd u alone sha l l b e t h e l a nguage o f S i n d h ' Those o f us, champion of Urd u , alto­ gether and a l l too soon forgot the terri fic resentments, wh ich we harboured , when we felt that H i nd i wa s to be the th reat agai nst U rd u . O u r concern with our U rd u , should have tol d us that the Sindhis a l so have the ri g ht and duty, to have simi lar concern with S i n d h i , an i ntegrated lang uage which is centu ries older than U rd u . and as Benga l i to the Benga l i s . If the only 1 4 per­ cent M u s l i m popul ation in U P c l i n g s to U rd u , and if 9 percent M u sl i m population of H ydera bad Decca n , not only c l i ng s to U rd u , but a l so to m ake it the state l a nguage once, and to have a big U n ivers i ty dedicated to U rd u , and if the six percent M us­ l i m s of Mysore to this day c l i ng to U rd u , ( u p to P h . D in Karna93

/, 1 11g11 1.1 1ic

and C11/111rul S1ru1 1g11/u1io11

taka U n iversity) and, all the wh i l e, the U rdu is not bei ng under­ m i ned throu gh the Radio and the TV but on the other hand i s being g ranted la rge s u m s o f m o n ey for i t s upkeep, t h e n S i n d h i s h o u l d l ive a n d flourish without any kind o f th reat. D i s regard of t h i s goes whol ly agai nst the v e ry grain of these e l e m ents of h u m a n J usti ce I ndeed . looki ng back i n m odern I n dian history , we see t h e role of the language i n politics and s o i n l ife i n total . Accord i n g to G a rcon D e Tassy, i n h i s book " H i story of U rd u " , the U rd u H i n d i confl i ct began i n 1 835, when i n U P of about 1 4 perce nt M u s l i m population. U rd u was g iven the place over the t h u s far Persian lang uage by the B ritish. Then, one N aveen C h a n d . ap­ pealed to the Brit:sh authorities, that not U rd u , but H i nd i shou l d be g iven that position S i n ce then t h e Champions of U rd u and the Cham pions of Hindi becam e antagonist . Agai n . from the pages of Hayat-e-Javeed. the b i og raphy of Sir Sayed A h m ed K ha n . by his cl osest friend Altaf H u ssai n H a l i , we see the rol e o f S i r Sayed Ahmed K h a n i n the matter Sir Sayed Ah m ed was bri n g i ng out a JOurna! ca l l ed Science Gazette both i n E n g l i sh as wel l as in U rdu ln one e d i torial board m eeti n g , one of the H i n d u friends of Sir Sayed suggested that the Science Gazette shou l d ALSO be brought out in H i n d i (the language of the sev e nty six percent popu lation of U . P ) Accord i n g to Hali S i r Sayed j u st fl ared u p at the idea. and decl a red to the effect that this was such a m ov e . wh ich made any prospect of H i nd u M u s l i m U n ity i m possi ble. One ca n j ustly won der wh ere was the q uestion of any H i n d u M us l i m U n i ty at a l l . when ail that one l earned mem ber of the editorial board d i d was t o sugg est not that U rd u , t h e language o f j ust 1 4 perce nt, be e l i m i nated but the H i n d i , the lang u age of the rest 76 percent. should al so be added in the magazine i n tended to be who l l y s c i e n t 1 f ! c a n d f o r t h e b e n efit o f t h e m a sses ' P e r h a ps i t i s s u c h

a bsence of ta r-sighteaness that h a s re s u l ted 1n t h e phenome­ r1on kn own as U rd u i m pe rial i sm · which has done f a r m o re harm to the champions of U rd u th a n can be computed even wi th the help of the m ost powerf u l com puters. For generations upon gen erations to come. the whole h i s­ tory and l i ve s of t h e u n t h i n k i n g c h a m p i o n s of t h e U rd u l m pe r i a l 1sm h av e bee n c o m plete l y queered at the pitch And on the

-

l) . \

On Sindh other hand, English , the l anguage of one of the most i m pe rialis­ tic of the people ever, i s g ai n i n g , and a l so g a i n i ng friends ro und the worl d . I f today a l arge n u m ber of I ndian and Pakistani l i ter­ ates are having j obs in the M i d d l e E ast, it is not at a l l because of thei r H i nd i or their Urdu, but all because they have become good at E ng l ish, and far better than the harder working Japa­ nese and C h i nese and other fa r Eastern peo ple. And here i s another danger awaiting o u r over-seas job m arket that wh i l e I nd i a is h e l p i n g E n g l i s h t o conti nue t o th rive, o u r cold­ shouldering of English ove r here wi l l v ery soon get us shu nted out, leaving the field j u stly open to the I ndians as their near mo­ nopo l y . Therefore, and also for m a ny and many another rea­ son , the Sindhis should see the d a nger signal in the removal of English and should g iv e it that same pride of place that M i rza Qalich Beg had given to it. Al ready the S I N D H I SOCI E TY I N G E N E RAL suffered a n i rremediable l oss, i n its having been torn up in two, not l i ng uistic but economic, parts. The H i n d u part o f it was com mercial , mercanti le, a n d as m uch seafaring as i nternally dom i nant econom i cally. The Muslim part of it was, and is, predomi nantly feudal, l an d-locked , in the extreme as i f the vast sea board d i d not belong t o Sindh a t a l l . a s i f they were not the descendants, so to speak, of Sindhbad the Sailor When the Hindu section o f the Sindhi society left, there was n o M u slim part o f t h e S i n d h i society t o occupy that vast co m m er­ cial and mercantile vac u u m . And all because the H i ndu section of t h e Sindhi society, had, since a long time, been predomi­ nantly comm ercial and m ercantile. When the Sindhi Hindus left thP.ir dearest hearths and homes. they have made good wher­ ev er they have gone, and i n these m atters they do not at a l l suffer from any sense o f deprivation And wherever they have gone, they have carried the q u i ntessence of Sindhi culture and thought with them , as dearly as the d i s persed J ews conti n u e to nourish and cherish the J ewish culture a l l over their wo rld these 2 , 500 years. I nd eed , sociologically speaki n g , if ever that evi l d a y were t o come w h e n S i n d h i C u l t u re were l ost t o Si ndh i n S i n d h , i t m ay we l l b e these e m i g ra n t s from S i n d h who m ay

keep it alive outside S i n d h and the Worl d over. To avert such a d ay is, to say the least, m o re than a H ercu lean job and not the work of any one or even a few. But that it could be done was demonstrated by Gokhlay and h i s g reat Servants of I nd i a soci-

L inguistic and Cultural Stra11g11/a1io11 ety, and B handarkar I n stitute at Poona, I nd i a . That soci ety i s b u i l t u pon t h e o n e monolithic rock of t h e profoun dest schol ar­ s h i p i n Fol iti cal S cience and Econo m i cs in one and a l l of its branches and Sociology and Anth ropology in the varied form s and h i story and l iteratu re pertaining to h i story. S ucceed i n g gen­ erations of scholars have l iterally sacrifi ced their fi nancial fu­ tures and wi l l i n g l y courted ' a bj ect poverty' exactl y l i ke m o n ks in a sincere B u dd h i st monastery, in the cause of the greatness of I n d i a . The detai l ed h i story of the Servants of I n d i a Soci ety and of Bhanda rka r I n stitute reads as if it is u n real unless as a dedi­ cated rel i gious cult1 The i nter-d i sciplinary app roach to the eco­ nomic. soci a l . pol i tical and sociological problems faci n g I nd i a has hel ped this Society a n d t h i s I n stitute t o serve t h e cou ntry to surv ive S i n d h needs such a series of studies i n de pth a l l be­ cause some of the problems of S i n d h a re very pecu l i a r to S i n d h itself. F o r i n stance . as a l ready m entioned . wh i l e t h e S i n d h i H i n d u society wa s exe m pl a rily s o v e ry advanced i n trad e. com­ m erce and i n Banking that i t conti n ues to flourish even when it went o ut of Sindh i n a body; wh i l e i ts place i n Sindh co u l d not s i m pl y be taken over by the l ocal M us l i m S i n d h i society . And wh i l e the m ost com pletely land-l ocked P u nj a b i society be it East Punj a b or West, be it H i n d u , M u sl i m or Sikh i s , i n a m i l itary sense. m aster of the A rm y , Navy and the A i r Force . the whole of the Sindhi M u s l i m soci ety is practica l l y no where 1n these fields. although S i nd h is one of the provi nces of Pakista n h av ­ ing s u c h a l ong cast. A n d the dearth of Sindhi l a bour i n Sindh has m ade S i n d h the focu s of l abour f rom all over Pakistan even in agricultura l m atters, l et alone the v ast field of ind ustri al l a­ bour. With the S 1 ndh1 capital not i n the field with the S i n d h i l a­ bour not i n the fiel d . with the S i n d h i practical l y no wh ere i n the defence forces, and all this right i n S i n d h itself. and even the agri c u ltura l land i n Sindh i tself being i n creasingly worked by a g ri c u l t u ra l l a b o u r f r o m outs i d e S i n d h . a n d t h e l a b o u r a t b o t h

the Karachi ai rport as wel l as the water port bei ng a l m ost whol l y frail' outside S i n d h , u n l i ke any. and practi cal l y anywhere else. as Bom bay. Calcutta, and M ad ras. the socio economic causes for such a development h av e to be academ i ca l l y stud­ ied with pathetic thoroughnes s for the suggestion of any practi­ cal and rational remed i al m easures. Without such a vig orous renai ssa nce of Sindhi thought and culture . one can wonder how

On Sindh long the S i n d h i language and society can wi thstand the stra i n of the demands o f necessity . For, after all i s s a i d and done, man i s above al l , a utilita rian animal a l so . As such , he i s , as an anthropol og i st puts it, a tool using a n i m a l , his tool s being both m aterial as the stone axe and the s u rgeon's sca l pe l , as wel l as h i s crudest to subtlet thoug hts and lang uages. And the broad h i story of m a n ki n d shows how tools a re made used and d i s­ carded when they do not eventually suit the i nexorable de­ m a nds of necessity The aeroplane of but yesterday becomes the m u seum piece of today. So also m a ny rel i gions, p h i l oso­ phies and lang uages become l ifeless mon u m ents of the past Many languages that d i d not serve the need have ceased to exi st , as other more u seful lang uages h ave taken their pl ace . Why , even u p to 1 832, Persian was the court language nearly all over the g reater part of I ndia. But with the change over to E n g l i s h , so very " beautiful" a lang uage l i ke the Persian of H afiz and Sa'adi becam e so " useless" for the uti l i ta rian pu rposes of bread earn i n g in even a small way that " Padhen Farsi. . . bay­ chain taif' ( study Persian and sell o i l ) became the proverb i n those very pl aces where Persian h a d ruled supreme for many centuries. And today , i n m a ny Paki stan i hom es, where c h i ld ren had education i n h i g h class E n g l i sh m ed i u m schools for two generations, whole fam i l i es speak E n g l i sh o n l y , reserving the U rd u and other l a ng u ages for com munication only with the d h obi and the chammar and the l i ke And the children so b rought up know not only G ha l i b and Latif, but also Shake­ speare and M i lton' The attitude has been, wh olly and u nder­ sta ndably who l ly , uti l itari a n . So we see t hat not only the S i nd h i lang uage, but also Urdu itself, to survive, have to j ustify th eir keep. The surv ival of the fittest and the struggle for existence do not at all stop wi th biology. Whole civ i l izations, cultu res and lang uages h ave disappeared when they have fai led to comply with the demand of TI M E , the i n exorabl e and the pitiless. O n e of t h e t h i n g s t h a t o n e h a s to g u a rd a g a i n st i s t h e Trojan H o rse

Strategy . D u ri n g the Trojan Wars of ancient G reece, the be­ sieging army found that the besieged were too wel l defended to be taken by d i rect assa u l t So the besieg i n g a rm y built a huge hollow wooden horse. In the wooden horse they h i d some of thei r best sol d i ers Then the besiegi ng a rmy left the horse un97

Linguistic und Cultural Stru11gulatio11

der the wal l s of Troy Fort, and lifted the siege a n d went away The besieged Trojans were del i g hted that the besiegers had g iven u p the sieg e , and gone away, and i n the ba rg a i n they had also l eft behind a wooden horse as perhaps a m ark of thei r frustration and d i sappointm ent. So, to celebrate the v i ctory , t hey d ragged the wooden horse t h rough the gates of the i r city ri ght i nto the fort So, what could not be attai ned by open opposition to a l an­ g u age, can be obtai ned throug h the Troj an horse strategy. I n the grandiose names of this and that sent i m ent. the lang uage can be undermi ned in such a way that to protest against such underm i n i n g may be scandal ized as treason to the m aj o r causes. Other languages c a n be s o su rrepti tiously i m posed u pon the v i ctim l a ng uage that the spea kers of the vict i m lan­ g uage may themselves come to feel that there 1 s no use thei r adhering to the vi cti m l a ng u age as that may not at a l l benefit them materially in the long run. So. m a n being essentially a p ra g m atic a n i m a l . seeing on wh ich side h i s b read 1 s buttered . wi l l d rag the Trojan horse within the citadel. give u p h i s l a n guage a nd adopt the i m posed language. and so lose h i s cul­ ture and within a g eneration or two. By i m posi n g the Lati n scri pt on the Turkish l a ng uage, with one s i n g l e stroke. the present day Turks were made to o ut-away from one and all the books of the past 8 centu ries of Tu rkish lang u age 'Nri tten in the Arabic scripti I I ­

Si milarly, i t i s estim ated that, a t the present rate of the pro­ scri pt in I n d i a , a l l wi t h i n a p e r i o d of a dec­ ade, half of those wh o use the Ara b i c script wi l l g ive it up i n preference t o the Dev nagri scri pt This because they wi l l find n o uti l i t y of adherence to the Persi a-Ara bic scri pt 1 n m atter of get­ ting bread and butter. wh i l e . by adopt i n g the Dev nagri scri pt, they wi l l not be i n t h e l o s s 1 � ' That s i m pl e " ' When so m uch for the mere change of scri pt h ow about the official i m positi o n of a la nguage over the other. a l l i n the name of this and th at? g ress of the Dev nagri

Vo l . XV I I I . 1 990

lJ 8

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No 1

On Sindli

S i n d h a nd Atta t u r k

D o t h e S i ndhi youths a n d m ai d ens yearn to better the lot of thei r dea rest spot o n eart h , thei r S I N D H ? Are they seek­ ing i nspiration for the needed dynamism? Do they really want to go far beyond mere slogans and shouts? Do they wa nt to cut away the cocoon of darkness in wh ich m i nds have been i m p ri s­ oned for centuries? I n short, do they wa nt to know how g reat they themse lves rea l l y are when freed from the spe l l of the Mirs , the Pirs, the Makhdooms and a l l th ose who have made the sons and daughters of S i n d h to g rowl i n the m ud and to kiss the very shoes and d u st of their feet - it is so-cal l ed "spiritual" m aggots who have the effrontery to prom i se ·salvati on" as the price of the m ost abj ect of slavery? Let them, then. at the very earl i est opportun ity make the pi l g ri m age of p i lg ri m ages to Mod­ ern Tu rkey , the creation of Kamal Attaturk whom P resident Kennedy of America co,1si dered to be none other than "the G reatest Man of the Twenti eth century" . Then, with one single stroke, the spe l l and the curse of cu rses of m any centuries wi l l bu rst away l ike a soap bubble. Then our v i siting boys and g i rls will take heart as perhaps noth i n g else in this world wi l l so help them to. They wi l l go to Tu rkey as m i ce They wi l l return from Tu rkey as l ions. They wi l l learn there . that for centuries o n end , Tu rkey also suffered i n very m uch the same way a s Sindh has. O n l y , the magnitude wa s m uch the vaster and deeper a nd g reater Despoti s m , Feu­ d a l i sm h a d s o j o i n e d h a n d s to s u c k t h e l a st d ro p of b l ood from the poo r Turk, whose i nterests they shamelessly sold to the ou+side powers that Tu rkey was l a u g h i n g l y . open l y . and piti­ l essl y cal l ed The sick M a 11 of E u rope'' . T h e degradation of t h e Vv'o m a n was so t h o ro u g h a n d so

com plete. that to give us an i d ea of what that horror wa s. Ka­ m al Attatu rk has kept on show, in I stan bul , a v ast and e m pty " Ha re m " , whi l e he demoli shed a l l other such despicable m o n u­ m ents to human i nfamy I n this vacant H arem . the disg u sted '):, ­ dowr .:_if t h e r: g 1 dity o' t r e caste systen-, A n o d u e to t c: ::: straight l i n k esta b l 1 s h e c betvvee:� the 1 nd 1 v 1 d u c; : eve r 1 :1 c i', e !-e;T", otest

On Sindh

village with the center of gov ernment, and d ue to the i m per­ sonal cou rse of the com m o n l aw, the m i g hty vil lage- punchayat system broke down over n i g ht , leaving no s ubstitute beh i n d . With t h e result that there were no v i l l age representatives a s pol itical li n ks between the corp u s o f the vil l age and t h e g overn­ m ent. So, between the periods that ela psed between the Reforms of Cornwa l l i s and (after the M utiny) the establishm ent of el e­ m entary form s of H ou ses of legislat u re and local bod i es l i ke the M u nicipalities and Local Boards, with effect from 1 885 , m i l l ions of the I ndian Vi llages remai ned deprived of decent political edu­ cati on even i n its semblance. And only i n the cities the m ostly rapidly devel oping mercan­ tile cl asses whc• prospered at the expense of the villages, re­ d uc i ng them i nto unheard of pen u ry became the representa­ tives of one and all So, when the Houses of Representatives, m u nici pal ities and local boards had to be formed due to the pol itical necessity of a foreign government, i t was not the el ected representatives of the mi lli ons of villages that sat in these pol itical i nstitutions, but the Middlemen, the merchants, the city-bred ones, who had no love lost for anything other than their own self-interests I ndeed , without i nsig htful understand i ng of the cause of i t a l l . the B ritish Government themselves could not comprehend the phenomena that thei r political reforms led to the abysmal i m poverishment of the v i l lages a l l over the country B ut the die had been cast, for good or ev i l . I n t h e n a m e o f Democracy, i t was P l utocracy that prevai led a l l t h rough the various Reforms What m attered was the Man Of The C ity N ot the Man of the Vi l l age This was and i s the op posite of what was going on in Eng­ land.

151

A Posit in: Role oj'Muhajirs in Si111Jh

There it was the Man of the Village . the Man of the B u rroughs who had s i lently el bowed out the Lord Of the Manor i n the Hou se of Com m ons who from there asked the King and the H ouse of Lords si m ply to put their signatures to the Laws passed by the House of Commons. When, i n 1 9 1 4 or so, the House of Lords made a feeble attem pt to say that after all it was the House Of Lords, there was Lloyd G eorge, the F i rst com m oner, to have becom e the Prime M i ni ster of England. H e was the son of a school teacher, and he open l y rem i nded the Lords that the i r very H ou se of Lords itsel f wou l d not be any m ore a safe refuge for the i r Lord­ shi ps, as they wou l d fi nd at his hands as a H u m ble servant of the H ouse of Com mons. H e then fi l l ed the whole of the H ou se of Lords with peers from amongst those people of good old E ngland who did not have even one single d rop of blue blood in their veins ! 1 1 This b rought thei r Lordships to thei r senses All this becau se, to repeat, Democracy in E ngland has been frorn bottom u pwards ( m ost especially ever si nce the Farmer, C romwell rel i eved C ha rles the F i rst of the necessity of carrying h i s head itself on his royal shoul ders). The M Q M without attempting to go to such extremes can sti l l render the g reatest service to the active. working, non­ parasitica l workers in S i nd h . B u t, if for a n y reason whatsoeve r, the various g ro u ps i n S i ndh, l i ke t h e student-groups t h e Jeay S i n d h group a n d a l l those w h o d o n o t at a l l wa nt t o see eye-to-eye with t h e M Q M these g roups can sti l l take the cue from the pol itical success of M Q M and its appeal Howev e r m u c h t h e d i ffe rences between

t h e m selves.

all

these g roups are i ntense LOVERS O F S I N D H T h at i s their one com mon platform Their other g reatest asset is that they are I NT E L LECTU­ ALS.

1 52

On Sindh And a l l because m ost of these I NT E LLECTUAL LOVE R S o f t h e i r M otherland do n o t h a v e the m oney enough t o counter the financial power of the M i rs, the P i rs and the Vaderas, they may be fi nding them selves at bay i n try i n g to breach the form i ­ dable fortress of feudalism. But neither the M i rs, the Pi rs and the Vaderas, nor even the i ntel l ectual lovers of thei r M otherland S i nd h know the vast re­ sou rces of power that abide i n the su bterranean desire of hel p­ l ess l iving workers of Sindh to h ave their own say to have thei r own powers in their own hands by representing their trades, professions, cal l i ng s without any h e l p but the help of the power of their votes used wholly for thei r own needs and desi res and not for the M i rs and the Pi rs. To repeat, Lloyd G eorge was the son of a schoolm aster. He and h i s aud ience d i d not work for the glory and power of any Lord , but h i s people chose h i m to represent them as work­ ers, bakers, butchers, tailors and bricklayers i n the House of Parl iament. These workers saw them selv es in him "One for all and a l l for o n e . " He d i d n o t betray t h e m as Napoleon betrayed the F rench Revolution, to become a nother Bou rbon to people on whose shoul ders he rose to strength, to divorce his most l oyal wife Josephine only to get m arried to a princess Maria Louvia (who so very thoroug h l y betrayed him that i n Waterloo there is a Park built i n her honour by the destroyer of Napoleon). The m ig hty Magi not Lines of feudalism cannot at a l l be breached with any frontal attack by pen n i l ess politicians. No m atter how g reat the i dealists and lovers of Sindh may hold a hope of even scratching it That i s what has made the Feudals entrench them selves under the g u i se of democracy spend i n g m i l l i ons of ru pees to get them selves "elected". T h e MOM has su cceeded n ot by a n y d i rect attack o n it. but by adopti ng H i tler's techniq ues of circumventing it; i . e. Pol i tical Coronary Bypass'

Money-bag g i sm becom es powerless when the pen n i l ess 153

A Posilire Role of;\/11/wjir.1 in Sindh

decide to vote only for eq ually pen n i l ess bonafri de actual active workers themselves supported by the pol itical power of a politi­ cal party , which sends the pen n i l ess to sit where formerly oth­ ers have to spend m i llions of ru pees to get entrance. The trick seems to lie in the fact that the political party does n ot by itself occupy the seats I n the M Q M the spo n sored candi dates have yet to rem a i n faithful t o t h e sponsorer. Perhaps even g reater energy can be released if the spon­ sorer plays the Good Samaritan. The spon sored can then look upon the sponsorer as a man rescued from d rown i ng looks to h i s rescuer wi th g ratitude and not any bond of sl avery as the force of cohesion O n a m i n i ature scale such an experiment was successfu lly · tried i n 1 885 in Bom bay after the form ation of the then Bom bay M u n icipality. It is reported that the result was that the sponsored school Teachers. petty l awyers and the l i ke who were said to have been sent to the Bom bay M u n i c i pal corporation by the spon sor­ i ng i nd ustri alists and m e rchants whol ly on their own accord as long as they l ived. This can eas i l y be understa ndable. The spon so rers had given them wings Leadersh i p g rew up am ongst the sponsored , who were otherwise J lJ St no-bod ies, obscure teachers. brief-less barri sters, petty i ntel lectuals, craftsmen and the l i ke. And when t i m e came to defend the cause of the sponsorers l i ke Sci ndia Steamsh i p Company i n matters l i ke com petiti o n wi th t h e B ritish I nd i a Steam Navigati ng Co m pany t h e spon­ sored threw in their lot for l'ie far-sig hted spon sorers in defense of national i nterests and agai n st the forei g n enterprise " ' I t is said that this was an i l l ustrati on of cast the bread u oori the waters anu it wi l l ret u rn to thee ten fol d s This i s E N L I G HT E N E D S E LF I NTE R EST D e e p . ve ry d e e o

On Sindh seated ph i l anthropic d i plom acy . T h i s 1 s rea ri ng u p future friendly l obbies I t i s altogether wel l known that the g reat busi ness ho uses l i ke the TA TA S have spon sored thousands of scholars from all ov er the world wi thout any disti nction of caste. creed , race or color, without any expectations of thanks and g ratitude But what thanks and g ratitude have the spon sored scholars have ever spared for the TA TA S i n retu rn? S o a l so, when the economically cri ppl ed are sponsored by the pol itical parties to win pol itical power and el ectoral victories agai nst the money-bags, we see, as we are seeing, the phe­ nom ena of bou n d l ess loyalty that spon sored are having for the sponsoring M . 0 . M . And signs seem to show that this i s now catching i n other provinces also The pol i tical have-nots are seeing the benefits of sponsors h i p from self-l ess pol itical parties Long Mem ories have no defence agai nst this onslaug ht of i ntel l ect against them . " R i n g out the O l d : Ring i n the New" Yes, But who i s to Ring out the old and ring in the new i n S i ndh? O n l y those who have awakened themselves the i ntel lectually self freed : those wh o read the h i story of Sindh i n the l i ght of what P i rs, the M i rs, the o utsiders l i ke Arghoons, the Turkhans. the Ta l p u rs have done to S i nd h , and why all this was possi ble. Had not the British stopped this, how many m ore �J adir Shahs and Ahmedshah Abadalis wou l d not by now have ravaged S i nd h over and over agai n ? When t h e needed i ntellectual , scientifi c and technolog i cal level of a potenti ally rich cou ntry i s l ow it si m ply i nvites agg res­ sion from al l a rou n d . This has repeated ly been verified in the b l ood-written h i story of the world since ages The Arya ns had horses and chari ots and . therefore, they over ran the whole of I nd i a and red u ced the statu s of D ravidians to l esser than mon­ keys, even to this very day. And j u st beca use of this very handi­ cap. I raq can not have rati oned patrol . . . i t has no needed 1 5�

A Positi1·e

Role of,\ luha/irs

in Sindh

chemical to pu rify its crude o i l ! This is a never chang i n g phe­ nomenon . Sindh sim ply cannot be Sindh u n l ess its i ntel lectuals a re as idea l i stic as Plato and Real i sts as Aristotle i n the Educa­ tional fi eld. If Socrates was the CO I N , these two were the two sides of it Perhaps a very s pecific, narrow and i ntense g roup ot t h i n kers cal l i n g themselves "TH E FUTU R E O F S I N DH " society may prove usefu l . The p resent m otley g roup of a few cal l i ng themselves the S E RVANTS O F S I N D H has gone haywi re , a l l o f a sudden i n d u l g i n g itself i n pol itics This is the one fatal m i stake that the g reat Servants of I n d i a Soci ety h a s scru p u l ously g ua rded i tself agai nst That's w h y i t s i nfl uence' So the schol ars and scienti sts i n Oxford a n d Cam­ bridge, so also the Mem bers of the Servants of I ndia Soci ety a re scholars essentially; the manufacturers of the i ntel l ectual g u n powder and armam ents; wh i c h may be used by others, the pol iticians. statesmen, journalists and such people who are executives'. 'Aamifs' . D u ri ng the 2 nd G reat War, the scientists of Cam bridge cond ucted g reat a n d dan gerous experiments; the resu l ts of which they handed over to the g reatest executive C h u rch i l l to use them as h e d eemed i t fit I t is when we do not stop where we should. that we m eet d i saster. As Sta l i n sa i d , " H itler fai l ed because h e d i d n o t know when and where to stop" It is not the busi ness of the General to th i n k h i m self to be a se­ poy . He has m uch 'too m uch' of h i s h i g h l y trai ned mind to so easi l y get shot " I have planned as best as I cou l d ; laid down the strategy as best as I can ; ha nded a l l that to the best gener­ als under my command. Now I go on a holi day for a few days" , said Montgom ery Wel l ; tha t i s Bal ance and Perspective This can best be had, perhaps, if a 'F U T U R E O F S I N DH " Society, acti ng on t h e p ri nc i pl e o f " I N T H E M I DST O F T H E C ROWD, MAI NTA I N T H E S E R E N ITY O F S O L I T U DE" were to devote itself. as S i nd h ' s " T H I N K TA N K" . eschewi n g i tself of po­ l itical am bitions. was to beg i n functi oni n g . Its m e m bersh i p can co nsist of econom i sts. h i storians. and students of politi cal sci­ en ce ( as different from pol i ti cians) . statisticians. psychologists. sociologists reti red e m i n e n t j udges, and those known and re ­ spected fo r that el usive thing of theirs called W I S DO M . I nflam matory poets can b e i nsp1 rers n o doubt; but a s they 156

On Sindh

can carry people off thei r feet; better that they do i nspire from q u i te a d i stance. Perhaps n ot for noth i n g it was that in the P l ato's R E P U B L I C , the PO ETS had no place 1 1 1 Tagore did n ot becom e a mem ber of the Servants of India society. Perhaps und erstan d i ngly. Nor did G a n d h i , who none-the-less had the g reatest respect for it. Without a very, very cool headed TH I N K TA NK, i nvol untar­ i l y i nvoking respect for the J u d iciousness of fi ndi ngs its p ro­ nou ncements, one may wonder for how fa r and how long can the m ere effervescence of emotional ism . solve the now a l m ost d i sheartening problems of S i n d h . No, not for nothing a t a l l i t is that t h e one s i n g l e word that the I B M Corporation t i relessly p ropagates in its extensive m as­ terpiece of organization round the wo rld i s "TH I N K 1 But un less the ROOTS get evolved , the F R U ITS cannot do m uch. T h i s was demonstrated in the freedom struggle in this su bcontin ent. Prior to 1 9 1 5 . g reat o rators, scholars. thi n kers all made wonderful speeches, a l m ost riva l i ng those of B u rke and Sheridan. The British were am azed and am used at the fel icity that the · n atives' cou l d do so. But that was a 1 1 1 If these speeches were i n ' E ng l i sh ' to the l i steners i n Eng­ land, they were a l l ' G reek ' , to the I nd i a n masses i n the m i l l ions of villages over here ''One only hE3ars what he can u n derstand" The masses cou l d hard l y u n derstan d w h a t O rators tried i t t o tell t h e people o f E ng l a n d .

t h e g reat I nd i a n

T h e people o f t h e vil l ages a l l over I nd i a began t o U N D E R ­ when it was told t o t h e m after 1 9 1 6 . that they may get as m u c h as two annas per day, and som eti mes an Anna or two m ore even, if only they can utilize thei r eight-months-i n-a-year enforced leisure , if only they learn to spi n and weave khaddar cloth to be used to replace the i m ported and machi ne-made cl oth . S TA N D

1 57

. I fosilil'e Role ()j.\ !uhu1 irs in Sindh

I n those days. to the m ost poverty-stricken unem ployed vil lager Two Annas per day was W E AL T H i nd eed I t i s a long but most i nteresting story. B ut this m essage about the potential of the Khadd a r to p rov i d e as ' m uch' as two annas per day. spread l i ke l i g htni ng all over the su bconti nent May be. now, in retrospect, this m essage was hard ly m ore than a po litical hoax . B u t it worked M i l l ions of pen niless v i l lagers d i d the g reatest thi n g they could do. And this was. T H E Y LISTE N E D . Attentivel y . The rest 1 s history So also. u n l ess the vast m asses of the men and, m o re es­ pecially. the wc men of S i n d h hear som ething that wi l l be of i m ­ m ediate and tang i bl e benefit t o them . ' i ntel lectuals" can go on beating thei r own breasts i n vain "I

pearl

wish thou wert a g ra i n of corn". sa i d a h u n g ry fowi to a fou n d i n a d u st heap.

il

Psychol ogists have esta b l i shed . by means of n u m berl ess experi ments that the main function of i nte llect is to solve p rob­ lems.

are the very base and foundation of S ociety.

T h e m asses of S i nd h

the p y ra m i d

of S i ndhi

The whole pressure of the S i n d h i society fal ls on their shoul ders. They a re

th e

r'\T LAS

of S I N D H

I t is the function of the I nte llect of S i n d h that t h i s Atl as dces not f u rther coll apse but i s strength ened as soon as possi ble. Otherwise, Sindh may not be able. any m o re . to withstand onsl a ught of circumsta nces m uch longer. Let u s b e c l e a r a b o u t ! t t h e man l ost wi t h i n t h e crowd c;:i n not see the c rowd For h i m to see the crowd he has to come out of the crowd Oista:-i ce lends perspective to the view And even " i n the

t h e r e l e n tl e s s

On Sindh midst of crowd" advised E m erson , "even i n the m i dst of the crowd . maintai n the serenity of solitude" Otherwise, if perspec­ tive is lost, balance is l ost And l oss of b al ance l eads to the fal l . So that he m a y not l ose perspective a n d qalance. tbe P resident of Am e rica repeatedly goes on holidays. " F ra n k l i n D Roosevelt", writes an author who knew h i m wel l , " F rankl i n D . Roosevelt. when t h e Second World War was a t it worst. knocked off every afternoon for what he and h i s staff ca lled 'The children's H our' ---- that pause i n the day's occupation During this time Roosevelt and his associates swa p ped j okes, related j u icy bits of gossip, and in general, l ig htened the load before once again shouldering the world crisis". So also, C h u rc h i l l did not g ive u p his afternoon nap during that war This was no l ux u ry. This was the technique of retai n­ i n g perspective ci nd balance, without which a l l , a l l and a l l would have bee n lost S i m i l arly , in deal i n g with the situation in S i n d h , u n l ess there is that absol utely needed perspective and balance, unless there is the needed cl a rity and perspicacity, i n the m i nds of the youths of S i nd h , shortsig htedness m a y j u st overwhe l m . So very pecul iar i s t h e situati on o f S i nd h that without " I N F O R MATI O N ' or the needed knowledge, or what in m i l itary term s is cal l ed " I ntel l igence", one may be worki ng l i ke blind m a n searching for a black cat, i n a dark room at night when the cat i s not there at all" A s Victor H ugo, i n one o f h i s great h i storical novel , makes clear. J U St one smal l bit of m i si nform ati on g iven to Napoleon led to h i s d i saster a t Waterloo a t t h e very moment of h i s v i ctory

For the S i n d h is, to solve the problems faci n g them . they req u i re a l l possible objective i nformati on i n h i story , geography, economics, sociolog y and all other rel evant subj ects "Why d i d l ncl i a become slave of the Briti s h ? " asked T 1 la k to h i m self and h i m self fi rst; and then, for the answer he turned to the scholars in a l l relevant subj ects for help and " I N FO RMAT I O N " i n genera l and i n particul ar. That i s " I NTE LLIG E N C E " for short. 1 59

A

Posilive Role of Muhajirs i11 Si11dh

So also the most thoug htful l eaders 1 n S i n d h need such help from the College and U n iversity Professors and other schol ars in S i n d h . for the s u ccess that can g ive enduring re­ sults. Not for not h i n g at a l l d i d the g reat late Zakir H u s�i n p resident of I nd i a decl a re "Siyasat s h iddat chahti ha i : Ta llim m uddat chahti hai' Of cou rse . recently a tremendous i ntell ectual awake n i n g h a s taken place i n S i nd h . I n spite o f many obstacles i n their pat h , the youths of Sindh seem to have voted for the freed om of thought outright. · T he m i nd once stretched by a new idea ., does not return to its old d i m ensions, said O l iver Wendell Hol m s. That has beg u n to take place in Sindh I ncreasi n g l y . the S i nd h i young m e n and young wom e n a re no more spel l bound The spe l l . bei ng after a l l a spel l , and n oth i n g but a spe l l . has vanished. N o chant can any longer enchant them. They a re gett i n g disill usioned m ore and m ore What i s hastening this process of d i s i l lusionment amongst the i ntell ectual and m i ddle cl ass S i n d h i s i s the spectacl e that Sindh Leg i sl ature is p rovid­ i ng to them after the recent e l ecti o n s These I ntel l ectual and m 1 d d ! e class S i nd h i s are seei ng that not at all the rich and wel l t o do M u haj i rs who have com e i nto both the Provincial and Central Leg islature. but only those who by themselves wou l d n o t at a l l have the wherewithal t o sta nd the expenditure o f el ec­ tions So they speak, it i s t h e poor M uh aj i rs a n d t hose of the i n te l ­

l ectual classes amongst them that have gone there

The S i n d h i m i d d l e classes and the i nte l l ectual cl asses h ave been clean-bowl ed over by the rich S i n d h i moneybags that only represent them selves. And as t h i n g s sta n d , those amongst the S i n d h i i ntell ectuals or m i d dle classes who s i m p l y can not afford the el ection expen­ d i tu re nave one g reat adv antage. They can see the House of Leg 1 slat:Jre from the outside. And t hat too when the house i s not i n sess,on Coming t o thi n k of it. from the elected rich S i n d h i Leg i s l ators what mo re c a n the S i n d h i i ntel lectual and m i ddle cl asses ever deserve? ·· 1f they do not have b read let them eat cakes' . they would nonchal a ntly say . If

the M u h a; 1 r i ntellectual cl asses are represented by their 1 60

On Sindh nomi nees, i n the Houses of Legislature without their spen d i ng the m i llions of ru pees on election ex penditure, it certainly i s not at all m eant that the old S i nd h i s should slavi shly follow them . If the M u haj i rs' representative i ntel lectuals see through the wi n­ dows of the H ouse of Leg i slature the S i nd h i i ntellectuals wan­ dering about i n the streets, u n represented by thei r own class representativ es, wel l , why on earth the S i n d h i M oney bag s with i n the H ouse of Leg islature be bothered a bout it a l l . It is a m atter of outlook That's a l l . If the S i n d h i i ntel lectual classes, because of thei r poverty, can not send their representatives as such to the H o u se s of Legislature , then . so fa r as the S i n d h i M oney Bags a re concerned , " SO WHAT I " Who wa nts them there any way? All that has to be most careful ly taken care of is that the Sindhi com mon m a n should not send the S i ndhi i ntel l ectuals to the houses of legisl atu re fol l owi ng the pattern that the M u haj i rs have set C O M E WHAT MAY, T H E R E S H O U LD BE NO S I N D H I S PA RTAC U S . AND S H O U LD B E N O P U N JAB I S PARTACUS A N D T H E R E S H O U L D BE N O BALO C H I S PARTAC U S . AN D T H E R E S H O U L D B E N O S PARTACUS F RO M N W F P O n this point all a re agreed And when East Pakistan th rew u p i ts S partacus, it was thought m uch safer to turn East Paki sta n i n to Bangladesh than to i nfect West Pakistan i nto S PARTA C U STA N . N o wonder at all that wi th a g reat s i g h of untel lable rel ief were uttered the words "THA N K G O D PAKI STAN IS SAVED", when half of it was lost l l 1 And i t was so l ost that the rem a i n i n g Pakistan lost all i nfluence i n the Elay of Bengal and right up to Malaya and I ndo­ n esia! !

And i n S i nd t-i, t h i n k of the com i n g situation ; what wi l l hap­ pen if the i ntellectual Si n d h i section rem a i n s u n represented i n t h e S i n d h Legi slature because i t cannot s i t there d ue t o pov­ erty; and only the uni nformed m oney-bags who have spent money d u ri ng the E lections to get el ected sit there, side by side with the better i nform ed, p rofessionally m odern , i n tell ectual M u ­ haj i r representatives w h o h a v e gone there without having spent any m oney and who have been sent th ere by a far m ore pol i ti 161

. .J

Po.1i1ii·e

Role

of.\!uhufirs in Sindh

ca lly better i nformed com m u n ity of the M u h aJ i rs' 1 1 Such scenes are not at a l l u nfa m i l i a r to the h a l l s and wal l s of the S i n d h Leg i slature Before 1 94 7 the perm a nent M u sl i m majority that con sti­ tuted the mem bers h i p of the house wa s J u st a toy in the hands of the far m ore ed ucated, i nformed, mem bers of the other, m i­ nority com m u nity M i n i stries were made and b ro ken at the deci­ sion of the m i nority com m u nity. They were the King M a kers in broad day l i g ht. M i nistries had a l ife span of even a few days or weeks. There are record s to show that som e m i n i stries had the l ife span of only a few hours' I I Such h i story i s bou nd to repeat i tself when m ere m oney­ bags sit along with i nform ed representatives, bri l l iant writers. orators and i ntell ectual elites of thP- land who have gone there o n the basi s of acknowl edged m erit. education and i nform ation And the g l aring contrast between the two g roups wi l l ag a i n beg i n t o tel l , as before. •

And it can as before. ever i ncreasingly fi l l the m i nds of the m ere m on ey bags with that feel i n g of i nferiority that i s j u st i nev i ­ t a b l e a n d u n rel enti ng . The total general effect of such a contrast wil l not confi ne itself to the fou r val I s of the legislat u re Earl i e r also, i t d i d n ot I n the very sa m e m i l k-pot, froth wil l rema i n frot h and cream wi l l rem a i n crea m 1 1 ,

A ! I the wh i l e the educated , brilliant, tru l y patri otic u n repre­ sentative i n d ividuals from am ongst the older S i n d h i s can be com pel led to shift for them selves as best as they cou l d . as m ere clients and favor seekers, job h u nters and as " race­ h o rse s ' of t h o s e whose o n l y c l ai m s to g et el ected to the Leg i s­ l ature can be anything but m erit.

I A2

On Simlh

Sha h A b d u l La tif B hitai

Scholars, Lad ies and Gentlem e n , I t h a s always been t h e pride and privilege o f w e S i nd h i s , to honour the mem ory of one of our greatest Saints of S i nd h , S hah A bd u l Latif of B h i t And for me, t o b e able t o address y o u o n this occasio n , a sem i n a r. a col lection, a gatheri ng of scholars, thi n kers, writers who h ave met here for the special and excl usive pu rpose of del i berati ng on the g reatn ess of our S hah. i n an atm osphere of i ntel l ect and thought, is a m atter of added joy. Comi n g to think it, there has n ever been a time si n ce the S hah whe n , along with h l.s devotees, the Shah has ever been i n n eed o f i ntel l ectual attenti o n . G reat scholars i n t h e past have seen i n h i s works t h e rays of the p u rest thought serene You a l l do know that German i s i ntel lectual lang uage of E u rope, par excel lence, wh i l e F rench i s the ·cu ltural ' lang uage of that conti nent and E n g l i sh i s pragmatic and business lan­ guage now I ndeed , German 1 s the very treasure-house of the world's thou g ht because the devotion and effort of the German savants, who have spa red no pai n s whatsoever to enrich the German l a n g u a g e w it h the v e ry best from t h e thought of the whole world. I t wa s, I am so h appy to feel , that the work of our Shah not o n l y fi rst p u bl i shed, as a treasu re gathered from S i n d h I n S i n d h itself too. g reat scholars l i ke Dr G u rbuxan i , M i rza Qalich Beg , Dr. Daudpota and people of equal emi nence served the cause of S i nd h i i ntellect and culture by giving an i ntellectual i nte1-pretati on to the work of Shah besides eva l u at1 63

Shuh .� hdul Luli/B/11wi

i n g its almost u n pa ral leled l iterary g reatness and spi ritual purity. Then. with Sorley s translation of t he work of our Shah and Or. Schimmel s further thought and contri bution the scholarly world at l a rge i s now aware of the fu rther necessity of knowi ng m ore about the g reatness of Shah Latif For. he came at a time when S i n d h was in such g reat pol iti­ cal tu rmoi l that the spirit of the man over here see med to be at its very low ebb i n deed H u man ity over here needed some ray of hope if 1t had not to col l apse. Only the students of the hi story of t hat peri od can tell u s the sad state of affai rs that then prevai led as. wi thout their help. it wou l d now be i ndeed d i fficult to know wha t the t i m es of trouble were that then engulfed S 1 ndn I t was at this cr1t1ca: hour that the spirit and i ntell ect of S ha h Abd u l Latif cam e to our help. He th rew t h e l ifebuoy o f LOVE and H O P E T he SHAH d i d not rail against t h e c i rcum stances then pre­ vai l i ng He d i d not hate He d i d not con demn them He d i d not curse or abuse I n stead. he taught us to d rive away the da rkness of the night with the l i g ht of the prom ised dawn This a l so wi l l pass awai · . he sai d . wh enev er t here was an y dark cloud ' Th i s a l so wi l l pass away But the l i g ht i n you once l it. l i t forever' So, in a l l his works. you see o n l y the appeal to the power of Lov e to the strength of tol erance and the mi g l1 t of forti tude H i s h e roi n e s . t h e sym bol o f sufferi n g s for t h e i r p l a c e o f b i rt h . d o not

hate or cu rse but only long for the retu rn c f sa nity to the i r op­ pressors and for their own return to their good and g reat olden days. And that i s not all almost alone am ongst the M u s l i m poets of t h i s subcontinent. it 1s o u r Shah. our Shah ,C\ b d u l Latif of S i n d h . who sings the g reatness of h i s native l a nd

On S11 1dh H e s i n g s , and i n such a key that perha p s no other poet ever has s u n g . . . h i s S pi rit, h i s " RO O H " , h i s very SOU L in its astral trave l . his very M a i raj , finds its ultimate i l l u m i nation w h i l e i n S i n d h , h i s native land , i n M a l i r i tself You, schol ars. know full we l l that after the Holy p rophet of I s l a m , no oth er M uslim h a s had such experi ence as " M a i ra( J u st a s the Founder of I slam proceeds from one "fa l ak" to another, till the SEVE N " Falaks" h ave been crossed , after wh i c h h i s g reat soul experiences its g reat i l l u m i nation, so a l so, i n the mortal rea l m , our Shah Abd u l Latif's soul travels from one ''fa lak" that i s his one town i n h i s beloved S i nd h , to another fa lak", o r another town i n his beloved S i n d h , till at last M al i r, deep i n S i nd h . i s the place, h i s Seventh " F a l a k" where h i s soul experi ences its I L L U M I N AT I O N . A n d from there our Shah blesses n o t o n l y S i nd h , b u t a l so the whole wide worl d . Schola rs, thi nkers. l ad i es a n d g entlem en; I sta nd amazed at this u n i ty o·c h i s l ove for h i s S i n d h and a l so h i s love for the whol e world as expressed i n his s u b l i m e thought. Truly, if th ere are any h u manitari a n s who com bine the l ove of thei r :and along with their blessings to the whole worl d , surely o u r S h a h Abdul Latif of S 1 ndh i s o n e o f them T h i s love he has ex p ressed with such beauty with such deli cacy, with such g race and s u b l i m ity, that no wonder at al l ev e n those who study h i s thoughts i n t ranslations are for ever· h i s a d m i rers. : appeal

1-i ere, t o d i v e

tu t h e sc hol ars. thi n kers and writers g athered ov e r

ever d eeper i n t h e very ocean o f h i s thought, a n d ad m 1 rat1on a n d J O Y the many m o re pearls of h i s thougnt because 1.Ne rteed these riches n o w m ore t h a n ev e r 0 w: g u o fo r o u i before.

Being a S i nd h i and cles1ring t h e peace .::i n d p rosperity and g reatness of S i nd h . I 1ift m y voice and say ''Shah Latif. o u r uniI 65

Shuh .� hd11!

Luflf 81711,11

versa! saint of S I N D H . once again th row H1e i ifebuoy of hope to us We sta nd 1n n eed of it

On Sindh

Rays of Renaissance Those who speak of the p roverb i a l " l a st straw t h a t breaks t h e c a m e l ' s back" m u st be referring only t o the autonomy of the cam e l a n d not to its psychology - at least n o t t o t h e psycho logy of t h e S i n d h i ca mel a n y way. For, if the "One U n it stu n t of G h u la m Mohammad was in­ tended to break the b a c k of Sin d h , it u n i n te n d e d ly provided the m o st badly needed sti m u l u s to the S i n d h i bra i n to start pro d u c i n g thought, the d ea d ly w e a p o n wh ich eventu a l ly d estroyed the physi­ c a l enemy When the mere mention of the word " S i ndh" itself became al­ most a cri me, wt1 e n letters m enti oning " S i nd h " in postal addresses never reached their destinati o n s ; when the h i g h ups· in the admini­ stration visited S i n d h only t o iook after the h u g e estates they had created out of the labour of S i nd h i s i n harnessing the river, and when the successive P resid ent of Pakistan came here only to shoot ducks and partri dges rig ht within the so-called S i nd h i game sanctu­ aries and when teach i n g of S i n d h i in the schools of S i n d h was d i s­ conti nued compulsorily after enjoying that privilege for over

1 00

years , the S i n d h i bra i n had an i nward plunge to bring up the pearls of tho u g ht to the surface. P atriotic schol ars l i ke H usamudd i n Ras h d i , S ha i kh Ayaz, Tarweer Abba ssi , G h ulam A l i Alana. N i az H u m ayoon i . S h a m s h i r- u l - Hyderi, S i raj-ul-Haq G h u lam Rabbani a n d o f course, I brah i m Joyo, who in happier days would perhaps have wasted their sweet ness i n t he de sert a i r of m utual wra n g l i n g , became adroit re­ searchers, thi nkers , dou bters, chal l en gers a nd writers. With the resu lt that i n stead of rem a i n i n g as l itera rily the ram­ b l ers they became prod u cers of thou g h t a n d i n q u iry Altho u g h a h a n dful and with only pen as the weapon of their tho u g ht; these

10

or

12 Thermopolyams h e l d the bridge agai n st the

i nvasi o n o n the right of S i n d r, to e x i st as S i n d h . What C h u rch i l l said

a bout the Briti sh Airmen agai nst H i tler can also be said about these smelly pen soldiers i n the defence of S i ; 1dh that " n ever before i n the H i story of S i nd h did so many S i n d h i s owe so much to so few"

At a time when m a n y so-ca lled l iterary o rg a n ization s a n d " T h i s poets Acad emy" a n d " T h a t poets Aca d emy" w e r e breezily s q u a n ­ d e r i n g the tax payers m o n e y by carefu lly ca n a l iz i n g t h a t m oney 1 67

Run of Renaissance

i nto the pockets of the so-ca lled organ izers of these a ssociations, the Sindhi Adabi Board has produ ced works of lasting merit and has resu rrected the abiding va lues of the Sindhi mind and cu lture by promoting Sindhi works of lasting merit in Persian, Arabic, Sindhi . U rd u and English . One swallow mi ght or mi ght not make a summer but a dozen or so S i ndhi i ntel lects did herald the spri ng of the S i ndhi renaissance. For their intel lectual and cu ltu ral activity has not remained con­ fi ned to themse lves. not at all. They have blazed a tra i l that is in creasingly becom ing the highway of creative expression in Sindh. In every city , town and even vil lages of Sindh you can count upon coming across writers and poets in whose works the note of inspiration rings true to the yearn ing of Sindhi spirit of rena issance. U ndeterred by restrictions placed on the issue of newspapers and Journals some Sindhi intel lectuals who had decided to provide fresh thought and information to their people resorted printing in­ nocuous-looking books and pamph lets wh ich in reality were month ly and bi-monthly period icals. 'Mlen as with the Po l ish lan­ g uage in the Po land of the middle ni neteenth century. Sindhi lan­ g uage became a taboo. the Sindhi writers took up the cha l lenge and determi ned to speak and write in Sindh i . Th i s re- inflorescence o f culture i n Sindhi i s noth ing other than the materialization of the d ream of Shah Abd u l Latif ·God is love·' is the message of Shah. H i s whole Risa/a is a tribute to the g lory of and grandeur of Love. His Sasui-Punhoo . Umar-Marvi, are not so much human char­ acters as they are the expressions of the d ivine emotion of Love Love - the all embracing love. Not only the love between men and women but essentially between any lover and the object of his love - l ike the Sindhi s love for h i s land - S i n d h - the land which the Shah himself loved so much as to make it the very heaven within whose bou n d s a lone he experienced the e c st a sy of h i s spiritual

jou rney and moment of the rea lization of the Divine in Man The : e ve o f the Shah fo r his S i n d h :s the legacy he has :eft to '.ne S 1 n d h 1 s to cherish . to nourish and to g l o r i fy as the S h a h n 1 m se 1 f d id in h i s lifetime ""'.'"he S 1 r d h 1 w r ! t e r had p icked up th e th read '.\ h e re 'ne S h a h eft ·� � 'I C tca a yS i n d h of Shan has l i ke the ieger, d ry p h c e n 1 x a r is e n ft om i t s ashes has spread its w i n g s high to ca tch the i 1fe-g1v1ng rays of rena issance.

On Sindh

C hildre n 's E d ucation

A c h i l d ' s mind is fresh m i n d . I t i s so very fresh that only very rarely i t i s that we adults can g et even a brief g l i mpse of i ts freshness wit h i n us. I n fact accord i n g to chi l d psychologi sts, a newl y born child i s a "Tabula rasa" , containing no i n herited knowl edge It is extremely receptive or "conditi onal " . with al­ m ost i nfi n ite capacity to learn . The three basic "emotions" we can d i scern i n a child are: Anger, when i ts mom ents are thwa rted . Fear, as seen when it hears a l oud noise, or when its bal­ ance is sudde n l y l ost, as in fal l i ng down suddenly. Lov e, whe n i t is g iven warmth , and i s tickled and caressed . As a youn�J organism , it i s a bsolutely i ncapable of su rv ival by itself, and needs tre m endous m other-care to l ive through m any m onths, :f not yea rs, of the prov ision of food and shelter. I t is born in the adult world without whose con sistent pa­ tronage the whole of the h u m a n fam ily woul d long, long back wou l d have become exti nct altogether. The adult world i m pi nges itself upon the child the moment i t i s b o r n . I t beg i ns t o i m pose its acti ons u p o n t h e newborn baby without waiting even for a second. And the adult world i s not at a l l a u n iform world. It i s an ex­ trem e l y com plex world of thousands of different lang uages, c u l ­ t u re s , faiths, b12 liefs, system s and m a n ners som eti mes differi ng from family to fam i l y ; neig h bourhood to neigh bou rhood ; local ity to l ocality; nation to natio n . and geography to geography and of course. cli mate to cl i m ate. So, the c h i l d , who 1s born with no definite prev ious knowi1 69

( '/11/dren 's Educution

edge of any specific ki n d , it has a l m ost i nfi n ite capacity to l ea rn and get conditioned or ed ucated. Its only basic emoti ons are anger, fear and l ove. It has i ts l ater basic desi res for secu ri ty respon se recogn ition and play (or curiosity , new experience) With ed ucation having becom e l i terary, with the i nvention of wri ting and i l l u strations, the problem of providing educati onal m aterial for the rel atively i m matu re m i nd of the children as­ s u m ed various form s . seeking various sol utions. To m a ke com plex social things understandable by c h i l d ren, there come out books. i n the ancient days, l i ke E S O Ps Fables; H 1 ttopadesa. Anwar-e-S u h ai l i , and the sim plest written i n i m ita­ ble Gul i stan by Sa'adi of Shiraz. With the spread of literacy in E u rope came a spate of l itera­ ture for c h i l d ren In Englana, for i nstance, we h ave books l i ke G ri m m ' s F a i ry Tales I n m odern I nd i a , amongst the M u s l i m s there rose writers of childre n ' s l iteratu re l i ke I s m a i l M i rth i , and l ater, the Urdu spea k i ng c h i l d ren had a periodical of its own from Lahore, aptly cal led '' P H O O L" . The g reat bea uty o f th i s l iterature for c h i l d ren h a s been that its creators took g reat care that while they wrote in s i m pl e lan­ guage, they d i d not write i n any condescending l a nguage. C h i l ­ dren' s 1 ntel ! i g ence wa s not i n any way i n su l ted . C h i l d ren found then: s e !ves at home with the writings, having no fee l i ng of i nfe­ riority that they were being talked down to They knew that fic­ tion was ficti on and facts were facts -;- h a: ,-·r e a n s that the c h i l d ' s etern a l d e m a n d ·Tel l m e a story wa s not with as m u ch success a s their demand "why does 1t ra i n And the pre-scientific fa bles and fai ry stories l i ke Toddl ers " Ba , Ba Black S heep. H ave You Any Wool" were not confused with the scientific wonderi ng of "Twi nkle, Twi nkle Lit­ tle Sta:. H ow I Wonder What You Are?" Kind of t h i nking

I n very recent times. an entirely new branch of c h i l d ren s l iterature has developed 1 n the West i n the shape of Comics.

On Sindh

T hese Com ics, start i n g as their names fi rst suggested. as mere com i cs h ave now devel oped i nto teac h i n g C lassics from l i terature. v arious sciences i n c l u d i n g elementary electron ics; h i story ; geography; in short nearly all the positive studies and sciences through the plea sant path of comics I m agine even our own c h i l d ren of 1 0 and 1 2 , a rdent stu­ dents of the "Classi cs'' rn com i cs bei ng on entirely fam i l i a r terms with t h e b a s i c concepts a n d chief characters o f the whole range of d ramas of Sha kespeare. all through Comicsr What a power for g ood or evi l th ese Comics can be is seen from the fact that especially d u ri n g the 2 nd G reat World wa r, these Com i cs more known a s cartoons, were extremely used a s means of propaganda to capture the m i n d through a logical methods and means, wh ich suspend j ud gment This h i stori cal m ethod to suspend the j udgment of the young . by any means, Comics, Stories, fictions, ' h i story' and 'geography' appeal not to REASO N , but to Authority, with mean and i g noble pro m i se of reward s for b l i nd belief and mean and i g noble threat of puni shment for honest skepticism a nd si ncere desi re for the prevalence of human reason a n d rational ity has ever been the very bane of the education of the young for ever. It seems to have been so very prevalent in the days of Bud­ dha, two thousand five h u n d red years ago, that a s a m i g hty revolt agai nst this bra i n pol l ution of the i n nocent you n g , he cried out, Do not bel i eve only because B ud d h a believes do not t h i n k j ust because Budd ha thi n ks; do not say j ust because Buddha says so. Bel i eve o r thrnk or say if your reason says so" After a g a p of full twenty-five centuries, the modern c h i l d psycholog i st makes that very same p l e a t o o n e and a l l those i n charg e o f the i n nocent, u n i nfo rmed, h i g h l y conditi onable young m i nds "do n o t bra i n wa s h t h e m a n d do n o t po l l ute thei r b ra i ns with your prej u d i ces of the ages; prej u d i ces that have done you no good ; have fi l l ed the world with the i nterm i nable wars of hate and misundersta n d i n g to poi son human relation­ s h i ps" . 171

Children 's Educu1in11

For i n stance, child psychologi sts i n America h ave seen and photographed that, l eft to them , the White c h i l d ren and the Black children have g rown up without co l o u r consciousness and colour p rej udice. This means that a l l the col ossa l col o u r prej udice in the whole wo rld aro u n d i s the m ost carefu l l y devel oped and i ncul­ cated brai n pol l ution of the mind of the you n g . T herefore, i n America, today, those who are n o t for a race torn America with all the horrors that c u l m i n ate i n to race wa rs, are through the vari o u s i l l u strati ons in the c h i l d ren's books showi ng the social relationsh i p between the Wh ite and the col­ o u red c h i l d ren as eq ual play mates and students: all with be ne­ ficial results And exactly opposite was the case with the Apa rtheid o b­ sessed South Africa, with h u n d reds of years of past h i story of confl i ct, as the gift of the presen t gen erations to these genera­ tions to come who had d one no wrong to the present ones to deserve this brai n -wash i n g and m i nd po l l ution with all the atte n­ dant sorrows a n d sufferings The writers of l i teratu re for c h i l d ren shou l d have. if not sy m­ pathy . atl east pity, for those whose m i nds they are out to pol­ l ute with fal se-to-fact hi story and prej u d 1 c1 a 1 propaganda. I s i t such an u n pardonably card i nal crime on the pa l't of the com i ng gen erations that they wi ! I be born to be p u n i s hed with the ruin o f thei r reason , pol l u tion of t h e i r i ntel l ects th rou g h i n­ doctri nate brain-wash i n g and b rai n-poll ution by their ancestors? Long b ac k . when wo m e n , c h i l d re n . s l aves and cattle were consi dered to be the procert ; of tne male. the m a l e rad tne 1egal right c f life and death over t f1 e !:1 a l i With t h e development of a o : t n i g h e r etr, i cs a n ci '°: L; m a n 1 s rr today ev en a n i m al s ca n not be s u tj ec'.ed tc :::: ; u e tv oy '. h e own­ ers. i n rel igions l i ke Bahaism thP o a rents cannot .osc ;a e ro i m 2 o s e t h e i r rel i g i o:i e n t h e i r : �< : rL R r

On Sim/Ii

I n countries wh ere c h i l d ren psychology i s m ost advanced , educationists h ave taken the warn i n g that Robert G . I ngersol l g ave about a century a g o that Universities should not b e pl aced where diamonds are d i m med, wh i l e they can be placed where pebbles m ay be pol i shed B ut as education starts a l m ost from bi rth; and beca use our whole modern civil ization i s based u po n l i teracy , children's l i t­ eratu re shou l d beg i n pol i s h i n g the pebbles and further brush i ng the d i amonds from the very start. So, it is that you see fantasti cal l y beautiful books for c h i l ­ d re n , u s i n g t h e voca b u l a ry most sui ted t o chi l d re n ages a n d developments and i n sty les o f expression m ost su ited t o their u ndersta n d i n g and in the stance that sti m u l ates their curi osity and, a bove a l l . e n hances their a l ready existing creativity for creativity is a l m ost everything i n ed ucati o n . as education means to educe, to carry out. I t i s exactly this type of c h i ld re n ' s l iterature, literature wh ich i s a i med at sti m u l ating curiosity and enhancing creativity tl1at is the need of the hour for our childre n too; l iterature i s helpful to them to meet the problems of the here and now and guide to their social , i ntel l ectual , cultural and vocati onal futu re and i ntel­ l ectual and esthetic world; and not a n y such l i terature which puts their eyes beh i nd thei r sku l l s to see only any m ythical past past and past only. I t i s aga i n st the nosta l g i a of the spent out past, past and past, that I q bal revolted when he said 'A aftab-e-taza payda batin-e-geetee say huaa, "A asman doobay huai taroon ka mattam kab talak? "Baghban-e- chara farma say yeh kahti hai bahaar "Zakhm-e-gul kay wastay tadbeer-marham kab talak? "Torr daleen fitrat-e-lnsan nay zanjeeren tamam "Ooori-e-jannat pay rotee chashm-e-Adam kab talak?" 1 73

Children

s

fducu1ir J l 7

These l i nes have to be g u i deli nes for the writers of l itera­ ture for our chi l d ren , beca u se every normal and healthy c h i l d i s positive and negative, opti m i stic and pess 1 m 1 stic, l ooks t o t h e future a n d n o t t o the past; and creativity, m ost often m i scal l ed m i schief is h i s very life You yourself can verify this from the fi rst com plaint of a m other to the doctor about her u n-we l l c h i l d " Doctor" s h e c ries, ' Doctor, since yesterday m y child i s n o more m i sc h i evous a t a l l , Doctor; he i s no more m i schievous. Does not this show that the m other has n g htly eq uated m i s­ cnief with play, wh ich c h i l d psychology also consid ers bei ng the expression of health and th erefore creativ ity and is so very valuable a t h i n g ? I ndeed , it is one of the very survival traits it­ self. C reativity enables the h u m a n being who has no i n-bu i lt pat­ terns of specific reaction known as i n sti nct to develop the sur­ vival tec h n i q ues i n any ever-changing env i ronment The Dodo b i rd becam e the now al together exti nct Dodo b i rd , all beca use it had no surv ival tec h n i q ues i n it. Every s i n g l e Dodo bird became a read y m ade l u scious morsel t o t h e preda­ tory m an beca use it cou l d neither take to fi g ht nor fl i g ht the s u rvival tra its. S hould our c h i ldren's l iteratu re also make them into i n tel­ ! ectual Dodos, wh i l e the c h i l d ren i n the adva nced countries are playing with com p uters and making el ectronic devices from the age of 5 onwa rd s? See where we are g o i n g in t h e e d u ca t i o n of our c h i l d re n , full

th rottle A H EA D or full th rottle reverse gear?

And the very dem ands of sa n i ty are that c h i l d ren s l i teratu re should wholly be i n C h i l d re n ' s m other tongue and i n the C h i l ­ dren's mother tongue O N LY . even if that mother tong ue m ay happen to be only a dialect so far.

The imposition of non-mother tonw1e means of literacy is

On Sindh

noth i n g but a deli berate i ntel l ectual tyranny and viol ence upon the helpless and hopeless ch i l d , a manifestation of heartl ess l i ng u i stic i m perialism, in a l l its i n h u m a n brutal ity and naked­ ness; the sam e old ancient pri m itive, barbari c ritual of the sacri­ fice of the i ndivid ual human bei ngs on the altar of those ab­ stract idols of wood and stone. These a re far m ore destructive and pernicious than the i do l s of wood and stone. They can at l east be sm ashed and so done away wit h , fo r the good of the l iv i n g i ndividuals. The i n d iv i d uals were not made for the Sab­ bath . but for them alone was the Sabbath itself made. And c h i l d ren's literatu re, oriented towa rd s creativity satis­ fied the m ost basic emotion of m a n , the emotion of i ove. Man l oves to create; that i s why the great m u sic, the g reat machine. the g reat cathed ral , the g reat ship and the g reat rocket. the g reat d rama, sculpture, pai nting and ballet B ut Creativity i s the gift from the h eaven itse!f: the heaven which Chri st poi nted out is with i n , with i n . and with i n . That H eaven with i n does not prod uce from any vacuum It germ i ­ nates that wh ich i s put i n i t s ferti l e bei n g . That putti ng i n con­ sists in prov i d i ng such lite rature to the c h i l d ren, which sti m u ­ lates thei r powers o f observation, experi m ent a n d reason J u st look at the deta i l s of prolonged observati on as re­ vealed not only i n the works of the scienti sts but equally strong, i n the works of the poets, painters, d ram atists and novel ists. U n less D i ckens had so very m i n utely observed. fi rst hand the details of h u m a n behaviour, you wou l d not have had the P ickwick Papers. Leonardo d a Vinci's sketchbook reveals the astonishing extent of h i s observ ation of the shape of human nose, m ore than 5 , 000 outli nes! C h i l dren's books sh owi ng deta i l s of the pictu res of bi rd s, flies, plants, i n sects, a n i m a l s and countries are sti m u l ants to the very fi rst essential of creativity, masterly observati on, wh ich can never be too m uch at al l . For, observ ation, conscious o r u ncon sci ous, alone provides to the attentive and i nterested m i n d the data that i s the very 175

( '/zi Idrun

·s Educut ion

seed of creativity Literature written for chi l d re n should sati sfy these need s.

I 7h

On Sindh

Bhagat Singh Shaikh Ayaz h a s carved o u t o n e more notches for him­ self i n the Kalaa-mandir of literary fame with his galvanizing d rama on the l i fe of a pri nce of revol utionaries, B hagat S i n g h . Startl i ngly glorious and h opefu l were those days, t h e early t h i rties. The whole atmosphere of I ndia was surcharged with romantic national ism . While to our el ders Gandhiji was g rowi ng ever tal ler than the B ri tish E m p i re, to we youths, Bhagat S i ng h was the name to conj u re wit h . W h i l e Gandhij i was m ixing reli g ion with politi cs by declari n g t h a t wherever he went he carried " t h e atm osphere o f H i ndu­ i sm " , there was not even the slightest trace of such a nachroni c thought o r t a l k i n t h e o u t a n d o u t modern a n d secular revol u­ tionary Bhagat S i n g h . What Budacia was to the early Britons; Ham pton to the E n g l i s h ; Robert B ruce to the Scots; Tarabai Rani of J hansi to us earl ier, and what Lawrence was to the Arabs, B hagat S i n g h was t o us now . . . . t h e spirit o f defi a nce and revolt. In that one single youth we all saw re-i n carnate all those H i nd u s and M u sl i m s who had died fighting the British in 1 85 7 ; and a l l those k i l l ed l ater, i ncl uding the H i nd us, M u sl im s and S i khs, whose blood ran in one single stream in the Jalianwal a B a g h massacre. With his sti lted felt-hat, open-col lar shirt, t h i n m ustaches and devastating smile, to u s youths of those days, B hagat S i n g h was Ariel h i m self. The British Governm ent Caliban and Gandhij i P rospero: I nd i a sweet M i randa; all eager to welcome t h e pri nce C h a rm i n g , t h e I n dependence of I n d i a .

When Bhagat S i ngh's d ynam i te charge s parked off a sec­ ond too soon to effectively blow up the rai lway carriage in wh ich viceroy I rwi n was trav el i ng, m i l lions of us youths felt themselves dera i led. 1 77

Bhagat Singh Bhagat Singh's subseq uent arrest, trial and execution m ad e us all forget all the g reat and cou ntless bless i n g s the B ri t­ ish rule had given us. All that we saw through our tear-fi lled eyes was n ot B h agat Singh hangi ng, but our own h opes and aspi rations dang l i ng on the gailows. But then we also saw in our m i nd's eyes our dearest, dear­ est m other I ndia, standing fi rm and unshaken beside the corps of her electrifying son Bhagat S i ngh and asking u s all to avenge ner g lorious son's death by seeking that freedom for this part of the earth for which Bhagat Singh had ri sen to heaven I t i s that now strangul ated and mangled emoti o n that S haikh Ayaz. has brought back to l iv e by h i s i nspired and i nspi r­ i n g drama . . . "Bhagat Singh".

178

On Sindh

F rom t h e Ruins of Sind h The attem pt at the suppression of the S i n d h i language, i n its own terra i n , S i n d h , was an u ndisguised blessi ng to the uphol ders of the c u lture and identity of S i n d h . H a d it n o t been for this blatantly open threat, a n d h a d it not been for the atrocious m anner in wh i ch this threat was put i nto effect, perhaps there wou l d not have been the fai nt awakening of Sindh that it now is. In the-then E ast Pakistan a l so, when it was declared , in effect that Beng a l i i n Bengal wou l d not be the Language of the Bengal is, there was a sudden cultural expl osi on. " N O", thundered the student com m u n ity over there. N O i Beng a l i dared not be suppressed ! H OW DAR E anyone DAR E t o attempt that? T H O U S HALT N O T P RESS T H E C ROWN O F T H E T HO R N S O F A N I M POS E D LAN G UAG E U P O N T H E B ROWS O F T H E C U LT U R E O F B E N GAL THOU SHA LT N OT CRU C I FY T H E C U LTU R E O F B E NGAL U P O N T H E CROSS OF N O N-BE N GALI AND ANTI-BE NGALI A M B I T I O NS" This suddenness of a n u n predictable ex plosi on, on the part of the then East Pakistani students. in tota l defence of the iden­ tity and culture of thei r land came as an u n p l easant su rprise to Khwaja Nazi m u dd i n . He belonged t o the U rd u Speaking Kash m i ri fam ily i n East Pakistan. He cou l d not at all gauge the depths of the fee l i n g s of l ove, affecti on, devoti on of Benga l i s for Bengla lang uage, the Beng la of thei r Tagore, of their Nazru l . of their Chatterj i , and thousands of other writers and scholars. Ben g a l i language of the m i l l ions u pon m i l l i o n s of the fol k who. i nspite of their frightful poverty and d i sease, sang the i r sweetest so n g s in Bengal i . S o , the ag itati on of the Bengal i students agai nst the sup­ pression of their dearest possession, their Bengali lang uage, was answered with bullets. 1 79

From the Ruins ofSindh

They were sacred b u l l ets Besi des k i l l i ng the students in their path , their chosen path , they kil led F EA R from the m i nds of the youths. D r. J. B . Watson. the founder of the Behaviouri st School of Psycholog y , wh ich is based u po n the d i scoveries of the R us­ sian physiolog i st-psychologists, experim entally establ ished that: "There are two and only two Fears, NAT U RAL TO MAN; And they a re: 1.

Fear caused by the sudden loss of balance

2.

Fear caused b y an a l l o f a sudden N O I S E " .

There i s no other 3 rd F EA R natural t o m a n . I ndeed , w h i l e a l l other animals are i nsti nctly AFRA I D of F I R E , the h u m a n child is the O N LY child that is n ot only not afraid of fi re, but also tries to run u p to i t and to g rasp it, as every careful m other knows and is vigil ant about So, Watson freed all h u m a ni ty from: The F EAR of the P I R S . T h e F EA R of t h e M I RS , T h e F EA R of t h e Vaderas, The F EA R of the Maulanas, The F EA R of the M U LLAHS, The F EA R of the Mashayekhs, The F EA R of the P riests, The F EA R of the Lamas. The F EAR of the The

S hamans,

F EA R of the M ed i ci ne-m e n .

The F EA R of t h e witch - Doctors, The

F EA R

of the despots.

On Sindh The F EA R of the Tyrants, The F EA R of the Di ctators, The F EA R of the I m postors, The F EA R of the beaters of the drums, The F EA R of the trum pet-blowers, The F EA R of the Lathichargers, The F EA R of the M u stard Gas throwers, The F EA R of the bom bers of m en , wom en and children, The F EAR of even the rappers of wom en-folk of vil lages and town s, The Fears of one and a l l types of those wh o , by a!! sorts of m eans and m ethods, enslave m a n ki n d by cowi ng down the human m i n d .

T h e F EAR of DEATH

Watson demonstrated that a l l fears, other than the natural fear caused by the sudden Loss of Balance and by Sudden Noise are not natural fears, not at a l l natural to man, but a re the resu lts of C O N DITI O N I N G , social Conditioning, cultura l condi­ tioni n g , political conditio n i n g , educational conditioning , rel igious condition i n g , and so on So. when the sacred bul lets ki l l ed the F EAR O F D EATH (wh ich i s not natural to man) that, wh ile ki l l i ng the Bengali­ loving students i n their chosen pat h , unwitti ngly killed the F EA R O F DEAT H itself /Vhen those sacred b u l l ets kil led the FEAR of DEATH itself, the Beng a l i s t u d e n t ' s i n stantaneo u s l y got D E-C O N D I T I O N E D of A L L t h e F EA RS that had been p u t i nto them si nce thei r child­ hood . Each one of them became a J ul i us Caesar i n hi m s e lf who had sa i d . 2 , 000 years back, that: "Cowards die many times be1 ",, 1,

From th11 Sindh

The form idable m i d d l e class and m ercantile class 1 n E ng­ rand rose only as a con seq uence of the m utual destruction of �he E n gl i sh F eudal Lords i n the ema nci pati n g Wars of The Roses The i m ported king, Henry the Seventh , took over the sover­ eign control of the Arti l l ery , wh ich cou l d t u rn the castles of the Lords i nto heaps of rui ns. The pO'J.Jer of the Romar. p ri ests over the sou l s of the E ng­ lish was wi p ed out by H e n ry the VI I I H e ! � stituted the C h u rch of E n gland He demolished all the R om a n Cathol i c Churches, M onasteries and M um m eri es. making England free of Rome. �here were n o such soul-emanci pati ng p ri nces i n M u s l i m i nd 1 a t o free the so u l s o f the people from t h e clutches o f t h e M 1 rs, the S hahs, or P i rs , and t h e Sayed s , e tc . The S ufist1 cal l y : n cli ned Dara S h 1 koh was m u rdered b y h i s m ost l oving brother J USt o n t h e ostensi b l e charge o f h i s bei ng broad n: i nded /lltt1ough i t was whol l y a war of s uccession, but A u rangzeb placed Dara S h i koh's book "MaJ m a-ul -Beh ra1n" before the M u l ­ lahs and asked "What i s t o be the p u n i s h m ent for a person who holds vi ews as· these"? '.l.nd what else cou l d be the decree ex pected from the M u l ­ ar1 s, whose h o l d o n t h e ma sses was itself i n J eopardy from the 'iYritings of Dara? .. So Dara was m u rdered with the words of J es u s C hri st" on his i i ps T h i s u nd erstandably B eca u se both C hrist and Dara had committed the sam e cri m e ' . Attem pt to free m i nd -paral yzed l-i u m a n 1ty from the cl utches of the clergies of their ti mes I m agine C h ri st d ecl aring that 'Ye Shail know the Truth and

Truth s h a l l m a ke you F R E E "

And imagine the teme rity of Dara, he declared that "Truth i s to b e fou n d i n all rel igions a l ike " I n the flash of the sword that d escended u pon Dara, Dara may have seen the light of the Ascend i ng C h ri st 211

From 1/Jc Ruins of Sim/!1

H ence the g reeting In the sam e way , Socrates h i m self wou l d h ave envied the su p reme s u b l i m i ty with which Shah l nayat m et h i s death i n the hands of his own cou ntry m e n , S i n d h i s . M r. Amar J a l eel ' s a rticle " S I N D H S E RA O F MARTY RDOM A N D TREAC H E RY' need not at all be confi n ed to S i ndh only. S uch m a rtyrdom a n d such treachery are not pecul iar to S i n d h at a l l . T h e treachery . b y h i s m ost trusted M u sl i m m i n i sters agai n st Teepu S u ltan had its roots in the a m az i n g Land Re­ form s Project of Teepu S ul ta n . U nder Hyder a n d Teepu, t h e M u s l i m M i n i sters a n d Nobies, as 1n Hyderabad Deccan , had become huge J a g 1 rda rs The N i zam owned a l ! l a n d ' So the J a g i rd a rs vJere h i s a bject sl aves So we see that in S i n d h . o r in Mysore. the M u sl i m landowner wou l d not cou nten a n ce the idea that the tiller be the owner of the land The tiller has to be a Hari (the defeated o r the owner only of the ploug h ) Heiot a n d Fala hee n 1 A n d there c a m e a Teepu S u ltan wi t h s u c h dev astati ng re­ form s And here came a S ufi Shah l n ayat 1 n defence of the ex-

pl oited

H ow could they ever be tol erated? U ndersta ndable The J ag i rdar the Vadera. the Zam: ndar al! need machinery to wo r k t h e i r l a n ds

B u l l o c ks and h o rs e s . by t h e m s e l v es a re no:

enough of m achi nery. I n the � h e n to�a1 a bsence of l a bou r-· savi ng m ach: nery. m a n as slave. m a n as r1 elot. m a n as G h u­ i a m . man as h ari . m a n as S h udra co m pieted the then known · m echanica l ' outfit. right from ancient t1 Mes d own to the i nv e n ­ tion of m odern steam eng i n e a n d other m achi nes Mach i nes. be they h u m a n . a n i m a l . or menta l . are all l a bo u r­ sav i n g devices.

On Simlh

C h i l dren 's arithmetical tables are labour-sav i n g dev ices . S o also are the m ost com p l icated computers, they save both time and labour. S o also is slavery But slaves need looking after Not so the mental slaves. Followers, chelas, Mureeds, bel i evers. are amongst the prod uctive m ac h i nery, and labour-sav i ng devices that manage themselves o nce you have enslaved thei r minds, made them accept your su peri o ri ty and their own eternal i nfe riority , t h rough force and fraud or myth and m i racl e , through the propitiati on of what I ngerso l l describes as ' th e abu sed , the i m possible and the i nfamous". Only you have to see that no F reedom of thought germ i ­ nates amongst them. O n page 7 , N o 2, 1 987. Vol u me XV, S i n d h Q uarterl y, Sayed G h u l am M ustafa Shah also conceded that ·'It is freedom of thought wh ich alone ca n create, generate, propagate, ensure and guarantee the future of nations. When thought and refl ec­ tion atrophy, com m u n ities ossify" T h i s Voltai rei a n , Rou ssea u l ian. i ngerso l l i a n v iew i s happi l y negated b y Hazrat I q bal's u nive rse- shaki ng d i scovery that · F reedom of Thought I s The I nventi on Of The Devil" . .A. nd a l l Zami ndars, Vaderas, S ayeds, P i rs, Lamas, Makh­ dooms, and also Makhdoomzadas, P ri ests, m u l la hs, d i ctators, �yra n ts fa n atics. s l ave·-d riv ers and ex ploiters of men and women and c h i l d ren and of thei r rigr1ts and l i berti es, and ru i ners of their pursuits of happi n ess, very ri ghtly and v e ry u nder­ sta n cl a b i y are resonati n g l y on the side cf m; r Poet Of T he E a st tha1 F reedom of Thougl1 t I s !i1e I nvention Of Devil. ,

:\;: d o u r d e a r. Mr L aq u at Ali Khan , openlv asked the P u b­

n 3

h uge oub!ic

m eeti n g

1n

J e h a n g i r Pak

Karach i , "WHY

. , �c � ::; v o u T H I N K'1 �- EAVE ALL T H I N :-< l i'K3 ,-c JS

213

A l l the M u l l ah s a re bent u pon i nc u l cati n g 1 t They have m a rv e i o u s ! J succeeded i r a c h 1 ev 1 n g 1t i n t h e

educa t i o n o f the students r i g h t 1u pto U n i v ersity i eve! . even 1

T h i s 1 nd oct r 1 n at1 0�: . \.h 1 s cond 1 t 1 o n i ng o f t h e students o f ev en

t h e U n iversities

this m u m m i ficat i o n of the i ntell ect of t h e stu­

dents of ev en tne U ri 1 ·;ersit1es t h i s totai fal sif1 cat1on of h i story : this, this

b l owi n g ou: t h e b ra i n s of t h e y o u n g wi t h the bones of

the dead'. 1 s the j US: and we i i deserved p u n i sh m e n t being g iv e n to o u r c h i l d ren fo r hav i n g been b o r n t o u s I n fact it i s n ot e n o u g h T h a t 1 s J USt the c r y o f the M u l l a h s t h at . t i s n o t enoug h

T h e students s h o u l d be so thoroug h l y bra i n wa shea on t h e

o n e h a nd a n d brai n-po l l uted on the other hand T h e y shou l d be modei zom bies

Our

M e d i c a l g raa u ates have tt1e enviable d i sti n ct i o n of be­

i ng the l owest b u r one

- dents of the world

1 r 1 the ord e r of m er i t

of the m ed i cal stu­

After al l . they ARE superior to so m e o n e . a r en t t h e y ? M a n y ·outs i d e a g e n c i es were d 1 sre g a rd 1 n g o u r :m iver·s1ty d e g rees. and O LF grad uates and postgrad u atPs were asked to re-st u d y , a n d pass e x a m 1 riat1ons of t hos e a i 1 e n

host i l e cou n ­

tries.

F o rt u n ate l y n o w , r, our own c o u n t ry e m p l overs care two h oots for o u r ceg rees a r 1 c a s k t h e car: d : d a te s fo:· i o t s [O s 1 'L for

and q u a l ify in t h e tests prescri bed by them io m eet their re­

q u i re m e nts i f t r: 1 s vvere 'l ot r m pr::Nement 1 : t h : s joes nc� -eg 1 s­ ter a m arked progres:: what else c a n i t be!

Our d o u b i e q rad u a t e s 'Nh0 have atta 1 :1ed these h e r g hts of

sc h r n a rs h 1 p by a n sv:e r 1 n g q u e st . o r papers 1n

g u a g e i tself

t r: e >: c a r1 n c t

o u s i r: e ss i etter

u n oat·. ot:c

the E n g 1 : sr l a n ­

;te ;:i r· r r:te1 ! 1 g i b ' e a p p i 1 cat1or·

o� a :1 u r: d ersta n d a b l e essa ,

; n �· ,-:c: -.:

r-iot p e ; ;r1 : t r-1 , :

N

c y; t h e ,:; a r; of t '1 e em pi o v e .·

.�, � ; S �� L -: �· ·l •.: q c; 1 1 : -J r._ , 1 r: s :J�,,,

" f 1 :: 1 s h 2c� " p rcJC E.1c�c: c· � ,.. 1? :J .� : 'v

··� · :� ?,

or a

1 11 E ng l 1 s'' · '/e r'.' :.'� ;::: ·

c· �'- "

·1

,' : e c'·o e s

"' CJ T il ese

On Sindh

.And t h i s also 1 s noth i n g . M ore i s i n i m m ed i ate store Busi ness is business I t i s n ot based upon senti menta l i s m . With the now ever- i ncreasi n g u se o f Word processors, even in srnali busi ness houses, an i ncreas i n g n u m ber of our double g raduates, even through the E n g l ish M ed i u m , wi l l be weari ng the soles of thei r shoes p retty thi n . A n d such o f those with deg rees i n U rd u a n d S i n d h i wi l l have ample time a t thei r disposal to g o on holding M u shairas, m orni ng, evening and n i ght. So very ' C U LT U RAL' you see. Touch i n g . When t h e bewi ldered beg i n t o h ow: with h u nger u p goes the cry. " Let u s have Technical Schools". That's the rem edy 1 "Technical schools". Parrots as domestic pets, have moved u p tl1e cry "Tech r n cai schools; tech n i cal schools, technical school s"1 " How are you; Mian M ithoo?'" "Tech n i cal schools, Technical school s , Technica l school s". H ow the crows also seem to be thinking that there m ay be someth i n g i n i t But they have to JOin s u c h tech n ical school o r another t c pick up that technology. The parrots �iave h ad a n edge over them because they were wise e n o u g h to p i c k u p that tec h n o l og y m uch earlier ,i n the

h i story of civil ization Then there was a Sadhu wh o planted a seed l i ng near h i s cave He prayed f or rai n 215

From the Ruins o/Sindh

It rai ned. Then he prayed for sunshine. Lo, there was the sun beaming u po n the seed l i ng "What this seed l i ng now needs for speedy g rowth i s Nind", prayed the Sad h u . There was t h e w i n d a t hand " Now for some dew'' . " I am here, sa i d the dew By the evening that seed l i n g com m i tted suicide in a fit of perfect sa n i ty . The sa me about these "tech n i cal schools". They too can't stand any demand for M i racles made upon them Of cou rse, technical school s are tech n ical schools. They d i ffer. though ever so slightly from A.l add i n · s magic lamp. They can not be had i n a jiffy. Even the most phil anthropic hen takes 24 hours to oblige u s with another egg. So also, tech nical schools are not m u shrooms, to spring u p over night And m ush room s also g row only u nder particu lar con d itions and situations. And the n , there are so many kinds of technical school s , depen d i n g u p o n s o m a n y variables i n req u i reme nts So, the m e re cry of Corne o n l et u s h ave techn i ca l schoo ! s ' · 1 s J 1 ke a d e m a n d one m a i