By Z Ali
HYDERABAD: Hundreds of people, besides scholars, historians and writers attended the 30th death anniversary of historian, Pir Hasamuddin Shah Rashdi at Makli, also his final resting place. Rashdi was born in Larkano on September 20, 1911, and spent most of his life in Karachi, Sindh.
Continue reading In memory of: 30th death anniversary of man who brought ‘Sindh’s history to life’
Past present: Black mirror
History often helps in analysing the present day issues by reflecting on past events. Generally, this approach is adopted in a society where there is dictatorship, censorship and legal restrictions to express discontent in regard to government policies. The method is effective in creating political consciousness by comparing the present with the consequences of bad governance and disillusionment of the past.
After the independence[?] of Pakistan, the army and the bureaucracy emerged as powerful state institutions. In the absence of a constitution, the two institutions were unaccountable to any authority. Bureaucracy followed in the footsteps of the colonial model, treating people with arrogance and contempt. A strong centre allowed it to rule over the provinces unchecked. The provinces, including the former East Pakistan, greatly suffered because of this.
Sindh chose to raise its voice against the oppressive attitude of the bureaucracy and a strong centre. Despite the grand, national narratives which justified the creation of a new country, Sindh responded by presenting its problems and grievances by citing historical suffering of its people.
During the reign of Shahjahan, Yusuf Mirak, a historian, wrote the book Tarikh-i-Mazhar-i-Shahjahani. The idea was to bring to Shahjahan’s notice the corruption and repressive attitude of the Mughal officials in Sindh. As they were far from the centre, their crimes were neither reported to the emperor nor were they held accountable for their misdeeds.
Mirak minutely described their vices and crimes and how the people [Sindhis] were treated inhumanly by them. He hoped that his endeavours might alleviate the suffering of the people when the emperor took action against errant officials. However, Mirak could not present the book to the emperor but his documentation became a part of history.
When the Persian text of the book was published by Sindhi Adabi Board, its introduction was written by Husamuddin Rashdi who pointed out the cruelty, brutality, arrogance and contempt of the Mughal officials for the common man. Accountable to none, they had fearlessly carried on with their misdeeds.
Today, one can find similarities between those Mughal officials and Pakistani [civil & military] bureaucrats of the present day. In the past Sindh endured the repercussions of maladministration and exploitation in pretty much the same way as the common man today suffers in silence. But one can learn from the past and analyse the present to avoid mistakes.
The history of Sindh shows two types of invaders. The first example is of invaders like the Arabs and the Tarkhans who defeated the local rulers, assumed the status of the ruling classes and treated the local population as inferior. The second type was of invaders like Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali who returned home after looting and plundering. The rulers of Sindh defended the country but sometimes compromised with the invaders. Those who defended it were vanquished and discredited by history, and their role was not recognised.
G. M. Syed in his tract Sindh jo Surma made attempt to rehabilitate them. According to him, Raja Dahir who defended Sindh against the Arabs was a hero while Muhammad Bin Qasim was an agent of the Umayyad imperialism who attacked Sindh to expand the empire and to exploit Sindh’s resources.
Decades later, in 1947, a large number of immigrants arrived from across the border and settled in Sindh. This was seen by Sindhi nationalists as an attempt to endanger the purity of the Sindhi culture. In 1960, agricultural land was generously allotted to army officers and bureaucrats. Throughout the evolving circumstances in Sindh, the philosophy of Syed’s book is the protection and preservation of the rights of Sindhis with the same spirit with which the heroes of the past sacrificed their lives for the honour of their country [Sindh].
Continue reading History & Sindh – Black Mirror – By: Dr Mubarak Ali
Sara Raza is performing in Sur Zindagi Hai with Salman Alvi. Ghazal by Farida Khanam.
Courtesy: → Hum → YouTube
By MICHAEL WINES
BEIJING — This is officially the Year of Pakistan-China Friendship, and in a four-day visit to Beijing last week — the third in just 17 months — Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, proclaimed that the two best friends “are like one nation and two countries.” Chinese officials were reported to have presented Mr. Gilani with 50 fighter jets as a welcome gift.
So it raised eyebrows when this week the two nations politely disagreed over whether Mr. Gilani had given the Chinese a gift that would be hard to mislay: an entire naval base, right at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Pakistan’s defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, who accompanied Mr. Gilani on the state visit, announced the deal after Mr. Gilani returned home on Saturday.
“We have asked our Chinese brothers to please build a naval base at Gwadar,” a deepwater port on Pakistan’s southwest coast, he told journalists.
Moreover, he said, Pakistan had invited China to assume management of the port’s commercial operations, now run by a Singapore firm under a multidecade contract.
On Tuesday, however, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, disagreed, saying the port had neither been offered nor accepted.
“China and Pakistan are friendly neighbors,” she said at the ministry’s twice-weekly news conference. “Regarding the specific China-Pakistan cooperative project that you raised, I have not heard of it. It’s my understanding that during the visit last week this issue was not touched upon.”
Some analysts were at a loss to explain the discrepancy.
“Maybe there were some discussions between the two sides when Gilani was up in China last week, bearing on some kind of future Chinese stewardship of the port,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, in a telephone interview. “Maybe there was some speculative discussion. Perhaps the Defense Ministry simply got its signals wrong.”
“We’re seeing a lot of incompetence in the Pakistani government these days,” he added. ….
Read more : The New York Times
via BrownPundits
Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi (حيدر بخش جتوئي) (1970 – 1901) was a revolutionary, leftist, peasant leader in Sindh, Pakistan. He is known by his supporters as “Baba-e-Sindh”. He was also a Sindhi writer and poet. He was for many years the president of the Sindh Hari Committee (Sindh Peasants Committee), a constituent member of the National Awami Party.
Early life (According article of Nadeem Wagan) Hyder Bakhsh Jatoi who was born on October 7, 1901 in Bakhodero village near Moen-jo-Daro in Larkano district. Deprived in infancy of motherly care and love, he was brought up by his father and aunts. Being a handsome child he was liked by all, particularly by the womenfolk of the family.
Soon after, on completing his primary school, the young lad joined the Sindh Madarsah School at Larkano, where he showed his brilliance by topping the list of successful examinees every year. He topped the Sindh vernacular final examination in 1918 among candidates from all over Sindh and then won his first position in Sindh at the matriculation examination from the Bombay University in 1923.
He studied at the D. J. Science College, Karachi, and remained a resident boarder in Metharam Hostel attached to the college. He graduated in 1927 with honours in literature and won distinction in Persian from the Bombay University.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
Wonderful Baluchi-Sistani-Irani-Sweden music and dance. He is singing in Persian in Sistani-Farsi accent of south-eastern Iran. Rostam Mirlashari is Baloch from Iran and the original homeland of Balochis is in Sistan Balochistan, Kerman, Iranshahr, Bam and Hormuzgan of IRAN ZAMIN! Golbang & Raks el Hawanem live performance at Södra teatern, Stockholm, Sweden 2003.
» You Tube
Jaun Elia (Urdu: جون ایلیا, December 14, 1931 – November 8, 2002) was a notable Pakistani Urdu poet, philosopher, biographer and scholar. He was widely praised for his unique style of writing. He was the brother of renowned journalist and psychoanalyst Rais Amrohvi and journalist and world-renowned philosopher Syed Muhammad Taqi, and husband of famous columnist Zahida Hina. He was a man of letters, well versed in Arabic, English, Persian, Sanskrit and Hebrew.
Jaun Elia was born on December 14, 1931 in an illustrious family of Amroha, Uttar Pradesh. He was the youngest of his siblings. His father, Allama Shafiq Hasan Elia, was deeply involved in art and literature and also an astrologer and a poet. This literary environment modeled him along the same lines, and he wrote his first Urdu couplet when he was just 8.
Read more : Wikipedia
Sindhis – The Scattered Treasure – By Ms. Popati Hiranandani
An extract from the book
When I entered my brother’s home in Singapore, I found a Cambodian painting in his drawing room depicting a scene from the Mahabharata; an oil painting of a half covered girl from the Bali island, sculptures of a Korean bride and bridegroom; dolls showing a Mombasa couple in one corner, and a dancing Spanish boy and girl in the other corner. The house was modern and complete with German electric fittings, Chinese bells, Persian carpets and Indian curtains.
My brother is married to a Chinese girl who follows the Buddhist faith, dresses like a Malayan, speaks English and relishes Indian dishes. Their children have pure Indian names (Sushma, Suvir and Vivek), can speak English, Malay and Chinese fluently; they enjoy Hindi movies; are fond of Sindhi papads and relish Indian Paan.
A Chinese maid cooks Indian d ishes, the Malay maid cleans and washes and an Italian girl is the typist. His day starts with listening to Gita-slokas in Sanskrit sung by Lata Mangeshkar, followed by Pt. Ravi Shankar’s sitar recital. When he feels tired after the day’s work, he listens to the tapes of Gazals sung by Begum Akhtar. At another moment he switches on his favourite Sindhi songs sung by Master Chander, reminiscent of the bygone days.
One will perhaps react to this profile of my brother as a jumble of faiths and fashions and a pot-pourri of cultures and languages. But these are the ways of a Sindhi – an international citizen.
Throughout the ages, Sindh was invaded by people from the northwest. All these diverse races and religions that penetrated Sindh, were somehow absorbed in the melting pot, and fused with the ancient heritage of Mohenjo-Daro. Strange phases of history have gone into the making of what is called ‘Sindhi Culture’. The Sindhis have not only survived the attacks but have benefited from and assimilated all that was good in the mores of the lives of the invaders. The Sufism of the Sindhis is a harmonious blend of the finest value of both the Vedantic and Islamic cultures. …
Read more : SindhiSangat
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