Rasool Bukhsh Palijo emerged from the middle class. No sooner than the attainment of his conscious age, he immersed himself in the study of the socialist and Marxist literature and movements
Ambassador Muhammad Alam Brohi
This warrior had his limitations. He did not represent a sovereign state like Egypt. He didn’t have a regular army to threaten the trespassers with all-out war to secure the rights and privileges of his nation over the waters of the Sindhu. He represented a federating unit, his gullible, naive and complacent people unaware of the looming threat to their river and life and ruled by coward, pliable and compromised leaders. Notwithstanding daunting constraints and odds, he never shirked to dedicate his time, energy, scholarly caliber, intellectual prowess, pen and eloquence, organizational and agitational skills to create a raging storm against any vicious plan for the diversion of the waters of Sindhu.
He moved political activists, his followers, disciples –men and women, old and young, mothers and children in arduous long marches to scare off the trespassers. The long marches he organized against the Kalabagh Dam are not only memorable but had played the pivotal role in heightening rather carving in stone the concerns and apprehensions of the people of Sindh in every corner and cranny of the country. He was a leader of words and action. The empty slogans were an anathema to this warrior.
As a strategist, he knew the strength of his adversaries and the weaknesses of his people. Following the eternally and universally applicable strategic formula of Sun Tzu “If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”, Palijo had studied the history of the theft of the waters of Sindhu and the various water treaties the British officials had worked out to stop the night raids on the rights and privileges of the lower riparian state of Sindh by Punjab. He took pains to collect material to write a book in the rebuttal of the claims of the federal authority and its Water and Power Development Authority when the insidious plan of the construction of Kalabagh Dam was unfolded.
He developed a wholesome approach to the issue – political and intellectual. Soon after the launch of his anti-Kalabagh Dam movement, the reverberations of his pen and eloquence, protesting slogans of his marching crowds were not only heard in Islamabad but in the provinces of KPK and Balochistan, as well. All the canals irrigating the contiguous districts of Balochistan up to Sibbi take water from the Indus River System at Sukkur Barrage. The Baloch were sensitized that any reduction in the water flow to Sindh would automatically render their districts barren. He had scientifically explained with facts and figures to Pathans that the Kalabagh Dam would submerge the city of Nowshera and bring vast tracts of their land under water logging and salinity.
He minced no words ever in holding Punjab as the traditional and habitual plunderer of the waters of Sindh from the pre-partition days down to the commissioning of the Tarbella Dam and the Chashma Jhelum Link Canal in 1972. This pillage has a well-documented history which shows that Punjab was reprimanded and fined many times for this pillage by the British authorities. The book – The Sindh Punjab Water Disputes 1858-2002 – he wrote in rejection of the arguments of the federal authority and its concerned institutions including the conspiring protagonists of the Kalabagh Dam makes an interesting read. The language of the book is simple, straight, and comprehensible interspersed with harsh and shaming phrases, and his arguments, measuring to logic, rationality and comprehension, directly go to the heart and soul of a non-partisan reader. He terms the pillage of water as terrorism perpetrated against the small provinces.
He minced no words ever in holding Punjab as the traditional and habitual plunderer of the waters of Sindh from the pre-partition days down to the commissioning of the Tarbella Dam and the Chashma Jhelum Link Canal
Palijo’s struggle against the Kalabagh Dam was a spectacular success. He was successful in tearing into smithereens the feasibility and viability of the Dam as an advantageous Project for the country particularly the lower riparian province of Sindh and Balochistan. He killed the monster before it could devour Sindh by driving home its monstrosity and knocking the wind out of the sails of protagonists of the dam. The three Provincial Assemblies of Sindh, KPK and Balochistan passed resolutions against the Kalabagh Dam. The ANG Abbassi Committee appointed in 2004 by the Musharraf regime, rejected the project on technical grounds. Even the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar – a self-appointed champion of Dams – could not pass a clear verdict in its favour fearing severe backlash.
Thanks to the patriotism, courage, and irreproachable character of Rasool Bukhsh Palijo that the Kalabagh Dam has since become the most controversial, fissiparous and divisive issue. No government of any hue or public popularity could afford to revive it. Had this warrior not waged this scientifically planned and skillfully carried out movement against it, this existential threat to the existence of Sindh would have been implemented by the federal and Punjabi establishment long ago trampling upon the rightful share of the waters of Sindh.
How did he perceive his people?
Rasool Bukhsh Palijo emerged from the middle class. No sooner than the attainment of his conscious age, he immersed himself in the study of the socialist and Marxist literature and movements which were creating ripples in the muddy waters of the capitalist world and were in permanent conflict with the capitalist, rightist and Islamist schools of political thought. The communist party of Pakistan with towering leaders was also active albeit in low profile. The Rawalpindi and Agartala conspiracy cases viewed in the context of the establishment of the RCD and Pakistan’s tilt to the US-led western capital world, becoming a member of the anti-communism treaties of CENTO and SEATO were indicative of a new political, ideological and strategic trend in the country, greater Asia and at the global level. This had practically divided the world into two antagonizing camps – capitalist and communist blocs of nations leaving no space for the neutral states. Neutrality was considered hypocrisy. However, a few leaders from the greater Asia dared to lay the foundation of the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) to secure a space for the neutral states.
All this was impacting the political and ideological thoughts of the budding leaders in the developing nations. Pakistan’s political landscape was not only impacted by this well-drawn out line of divide but there was also a raging conflict between the leftists, liberals and democratic and rights and Islamist forces. The federal authority was assuming authoritarian powers to the cost of nation building and constitution making. The penchant for absolutism climaxed into the imposition of One-Unit dispensing with the geographical boundaries of the smaller provinces to offset the advantageous position of the eastern wing. This gave fillip to the nationalist trend in the smaller provinces raising the question of language, provincial autonomy and equitable division of the central economic and financial resources.
Palijo was a leader and not a politician in traditional sense having his sight on elections, electable, dynastic and influential political stalwarts.
These were the conditions, this was the field strewn with thorns, and this was the shrinking space for leftists where Rasool Bukhsh Palijo had to embark on his political and ideological trajectory. No doubt, he was a Marxist of consummate faith. He looked at his people as a whole and had holistic approach to their concerns, apprehensions, needs and preferences without compartmentalizing them into cast, creed, class, colour, gender or any other consideration prejudicial to the oneness of Sindhi nation. For him, all were equal and valuable rough diamonds stimulating his political and ideological sophistication and organizational, reforming and mentoring skills to disentangle them from the dirt of ignorance, unawareness, gullibility and complacency and shape them into shining and valuable political and ideological assets.
Palijo was a leader and not a politician in traditional sense having his sight on elections, electable, dynastic and influential political stalwarts. His training and mentorship was rigorous imbibing love for education, learning and knowledge, discipline, sacrifice, selflessness among his disciples. He focused more on building their character and courage. In my view, he had picked up this way of mentorship from the Communist Party and Jamaat Islami which spent years in training and building the mind of their members. These members worked as well-greased wheels of their parties when they were launched in the field for given assignments. Palijo created a number of dedicated and committed ‘Mothers’ of the strong character of the epic Mother of Maxim Gorky’s novel. Please don’t look here and there, and see how Zarina Baloch called adoringly ‘Mother Zarina’ was transformed from a folk singer into a formidable singer of patriotic and nationalist songs.
How he emancipated from the clutches of the traditionally tribal and patriarchal society thousands of brave and committed women who unceasingly graced the political gatherings, protesting crowds and long marches of Awami Tehrik. Please also look how he used to educate and train the members of the student wing of his party arming them with the shells and shields of knowledge, consciousness, commitment, discipline and character to carry forward his message. They stood up quite apart from the noisy, undisciplined, squabbling and quarrelling groups of students following other political and nationalist parties. No doubt unique was his work within the teenage students from high schools. Nothing escaped his vision, focus and mentorship. He met them, conversed with them, suggested books to them to read and questioned them about their previous reads and instigated them for debate in front of him. He used to be the judge and awarded prizes to the winners of the first three positions.
His Sindhi-ness was different from the noisy, narrow-minded and militant nationalism
Palijo believed that no nation can prosper by reducing its female population to ignorance and confining it within the four walls of their homes. He prioritized the emancipation of women placing it on the highest scale of his political and ideological agenda, and was always out to reach to the women facing societal injustice. He fought their legal battles in the sluggish courts of the country free of cost. He used to exhort his followers to join his Awami Tehrik with their whole family. His own women including his wives, sisters and close relatives had practically set this example. Some of these venerable women went through the painful experience of incarceration. Palijo considered this as not their incarceration but actually the incarceration of dissent itself. A society that cannot afford dissension is doomed. The difference of opinion, discussion and dialogue show the vibrancy of a society.
His Sindhi-ness was different from the noisy, narrow-minded and militant nationalism, parochialism and the resulting insularity but uncompromising about their rights and privileges within the society and the federation undaunted by any fear or favour. A disciple of Mr. Palijo as groomed he is would never shy away from three ‘Ds’– Debate, Dialogue and Disarm without resorting to jeremiad or vituperation. This is the strategic plan of action Saeen Palijo followed throughout his political career spanning over six decades.
Notwithstanding his wholesome approach to Sindhi and Sindhi-ness, he remained focused on the plight of the underprivileged of his society – peasants, laborers, and lower middle class. He considered peasants the real backbone of the agrarian society of Sindh. He venerated peasant leaders like Hyder Bukhsh Jatoi and Fazal Rahu. The co-founding of the Awami Tehrik with Fazal Rahu reflected the veneration and esteem he held in this veteran peasant leader. After the tragic assassination of his comrade in arms, he single handedly developed Awami Tehrik into a viable and formidable political force with a skillful amalgamation of his organizational expertise, intellectual and scholarly prowess, commitment and perseverance, the motivational poetry of Shah Latif and Shaikh Ayaz, his unquenchable thirst for debate, dialogue, disarming and dislodging his opponents. He used to exhort his comrades to memorize sonnets from Shah Latif, Shaikh Ayaz and the Urdu and Persian poetry to become debaters of first class.
His Sindhi-ness was veneered by colours of moderation, tolerance, secularism, and respect for all religious faiths, pluralism and commitment to humanism. It was not bounded by caste and creed. He only differentiated between the exploiters and the exploited, the privileged class and the underprivileged, the oppressor and the oppressed, the retrogressive and the progressive forces, the obscurantism and the liberalism and modernity. And he always stood by the weak and helpless notwithstanding odds and risks to his person and his family comfort.
Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, you were the incarnation of the liberal and tolerant Sindh, its epic battles for survival, resilience and hope and the proud heir to the greatest human civilization that had once flourished on the banks of River Indus
He rebutted the onslaught of the retrogressive forces or critiques on the Sindhi poetry and literature with logic and rational arguments giving a thorough review of the poetry of Urdu, Persian and Arabic. When his two small but comprehensively well researched books in Sindhi prose – Andha – Ondha Waij, Sandi Zaat Hanjan – came out, the late legend Ibrahim Joyo called Saeen Palijo Ivan Turgenev of Sindhi prose. The legendary Ivan Turgenev (November 1818 to September 1883) was a Russian writer. He passed almost all his life in exile in France but his heart and soul always remained intertwined with the Russian land. When he breathed his last in France and his mortal remains were being repatriated to Russia, a French giant of literature Joseph Renan remarked, ‘Turgenev, you are Russia and Russia is you’.
Read: Death Anniversary of Rasool Bux Palijo: Awami Tehreek rejects Digital Census Results
These two books of Palijo which killed the monstrosity of the retrogressive forces to paint Sindhi poetry and literature into indecency and lewdness need to be translated into Urdu and English. This will be a great tribute to Late Palijo. These books carry an eternal answer to the dishonest, mean, obscurant and regressive critiques of the eloquence and the expressive capacity of the Sindhi Language as reflected in the poetry and prose and all other genre of literature produced over centuries.
Let us end our essay on this striking call, “Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, you were the incarnation of the liberal and tolerant Sindh, its epic battles for survival, resilience and hope and the proud heir to the greatest human civilization that had once flourished on the banks of River Indus”. (Concludes)
Click here for Part-1, Part-2, Part-3
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Muhammad Alam Brohi Born (1952) have qualified CSS in 1977 and joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in March 1979 and served over 30 years; retired in 2013 as Ambassador. He is writer of many books in English and freelance writer and columnist. Live In Karachi. Writer can be reached at brohialam7@gmail.com
Great Write-Up Sir