From 1934 to 1942, Advani not only worked as Joint Secretary and Librarian of the Society but also served as Editor of its prestigious Journal
M Habib Sanai
During the fourth decade of 20th Century, Sindh Historical Society was established in Karachi and its first council of office bearers was as under:
The essays presented in its meeting used to be debated by the participants, and then these were published in its journal, which played a pivotal role in writing and compiling History of Sindh in light of modern methods of historiography.
Among the founding members of SHS was Mr. A. B. Advani, whose contribution in the SHS and its journal is matchless. From 1934, when the Society was established, up until 1942, he not only worked as Joint Secretary and Librarian of the Society but also worked as Editor of its prestigious Journal periodical from the first issue up until to the 24 issue out of 30.
Regrettably, all issues of the Journal are not available in any Library of Sindh
Unfortunately details of his personal life are unavailable. We don’t know where he was born, educated and when started writing. It is however known that in 1942 he joined Air Raid Precautions Department (which later renamed as Civil Defense Department) as Senior Instructor at its Lahore Office. After partition, he migrated to India, but we don’t know where he resided, when he died and up until his death what were his scholarly pursuits etc. Unfortunately, no anthology of his essays or writings has been published either here in Pakistan or in India.
Advani has contributed 15 essays in the Journal of Sindh Historical Society, which are detailed in following table:
Fortunately, out of these, seven articles have been reprinted in the two anthologies, published in Pakistan. First anthology entitled Sindh Observed was compiled by Dr. Mubarik Ali and was published in 1993. It contained 19 articles including three (Nos. 6, 13 and 14 of above table) written by Advani. This book is also translated in Urdu. Then another anthology entitled Discovering Sindh’s Past was compiled by Michel Boivin and Mathew A. Cook and Julien Levesque and was published by OUP, Karachi in 2017. It contains 13 essays, and out of them four (S# 2, 3, 10 & 11 of above table) were written by A B Advani.
I suggest that essays written by Advani may be compiled in one book and published in Sindh by any government publishing body
Regrettably, all issues of the Journal are not available in any Library of Sindh. Thanks to Mr. Mathew A Cook, one of the Editor of later mentioned anthology, who has very kindly uploaded 24 issues out of 30 at his Academia website (https://matthewcook.academia.edu/research#journalofthesindhhistoricalsocietyarchive). Another good news is that M H Panhwar Institute of Sindh Studies, Jamshoro has also started uploading these issues on its website (https://lib.sindh.org/). Hope all will be available in their physical Library.
I the end I suggest that essays written by Advani may be compiled in one book and published in Sindh by any government publishing body, as it is learnt, is being done in case of Mr. N. M. Billimoria, another stalwart of SHS and major contributor of its Journal.
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The author is a freelance writer based in Hala town of Sindh. He can be reached at habibsanai@hotmail.com
