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Comrade Rochiram – A jewel from the sand dunes of Thar

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Comrade Rochiram – A jewel from the sand dunes of Thar

Currently settled in Karachi, Dada Rochiram had been a lawyer and part of many movements of the subcontinent especially for the rights of peasants, and other progressive movements.

By Dr. Ashok Bakhtani

Rochiram Tanumal Pridhanani, popularly known as Comrade Rochiram and Dada Rochiram, was born to Pridhanani Luhana family in Mithi, a picturesque town in Tharparkar district of Sindh on August 21, 1928.

Currently settled in Karachi, Dada Rochiram had been a lawyer and part of many movements of the subcontinent especially for the rights of peasants, and the progressive movements. He has written half a dozen books on different subjects and contributed a great deal in the capacity building of political workers, law practitioners and legislators.

Comrade Rochiram spent his schooling period in an extraordinary environment of freedom movement and World War II. He was raised in poverty and droughts in the desert of Thar.  He acquired primary and secondary education at Mithi and was admitted in Diyaram Gidumal National College Hyderabad in 1946, where he met communist Asan Uttamchandani and writer Sundri Uttamchandani. He was greatly influenced by their ideology. In this way, young Rochiram groomed as leftist political activist.

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Dr. Ashok Bakhtani with Comrade Rochiram

He did not migrate to India at the time of partition in 1947 and chose to live in Sindh.

He started his professional career as a lawyer and remained active law practitioner for fifty years at Mirpur Khas.

A political activist in him led to the field of politics and work with people. He was the part of Hari Tahrik in Sindh led by Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi.

Dada Rochiram joined Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party in 1967. The party was founded in Lahore at the place of Dr. Mubashur Hassan on November 30, 1967.

For two decades Comrade Rochiram remained the council member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Late Ms. Asma Jahangir, chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chose him as a member of HRCP trust, where he continues to work.

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Dr. Kamla Devrajani, wife of Dr. Ashok, with Comrade Rochiram

He has authored five books on social and political status in Sindh. He has also authored a book – literary letters to the friends and travelogue of Sri Lanka. The book contains philosophical discussion on Buddhism and political conflict of Tamils and Sinhalese. His one book highlights the true and strange story of loving German woman with a Jewish by discussing the political and social conditions of Jewish at the time of second word war.

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