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

_________________

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    

The post Rasool Bukhsh Palijo – An Undying Beacon of Light – Part-4 first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Ambassador Muhammad Alam Brohi

Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo was a multi-dimensional person – a political idealist and indefatigable mentor and leader, an able organizer, a strategist and agitator, a visionary reformer and a wise guide, a prolific reader and writer, a scholar of greater caliber. Before going further in my venture, I asked myself the following three questions which will give a fillip to my thought process, and may, probably, give a different facet to my essay.

I) How did he perceive Sindh in the changing regional and global trends?

II) How did he perceive Sindhu for the agrarian Sindh?

III) How did he look at Sindhi-ness?

How did he perceive and idealize Sindh

Like all political activists, revolutionaries and reformers, Rasool Bukhsh Palijo made his land the center of his political struggle as soon as he reached the age of consciousness. He was not alone in the field. Sindh was already bristling with towering political leaders and reformers of the stature and caliber of Hyder Bukhsh Jatoi, G.M. Syed, Z.A. Bhutto, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Talpur brothers, Shaikh Ayaz, Fazal Rahu, Mir Ali Bukhsh Talpur.  These leaders were working for the welfare of their land and her people in their own way.

The political space available to Late Rasool Bukhsh Palijo was limited. To devise a separate political path in the ubiquitous presence of these leaders was a daunting task. The most interesting aspect of Saeen Rasool Bukhsh’s political life is that he was never impressed by these leaders in the field except for Hyder Bukhsh Jatoi and G.M. Syed and Fazal Rahu. No doubt Hyder Bukhsh Jatoi’s Hari Committee had become the singular champion of the rights of the peasants of Sindh, and he was fighting the case of Sindh on many fronts ably and effectively.

This was what attracted Saeen Palijo to have a brief romance with the Hari Committee and its leader. Similarly, he worked with G.M. Syed for a few months in Bazam-e- Sofia Sindh and never saw eye to eye on his Sindh nationalism veneered by militancy and parochialism. He really developed a good political and ideological equation with the leftist peasant leader, Fazal Rahu and co-founded Awami Tehrik with him. He was inspired by the poetry of Shah Latif, Shah Inayat and Shaikh Ayaz that are immersed in the passionate love of Sindh and her people.

Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo was unique and different from his contemporary political leaders. His love for Sindh was as deep as that of G.M. Syed. The expression and demonstration of this love by both leaders was poles apart. Palijo’s love for his land was all-embracive and wholesome. Whatever he did, whatever he said, whatever he wrote, whatever he argued and demanded for, whatever he strategized and organized all stemmed from – and streamed into – the infinite Sea of the love of Sindh. This love was ensconced in every pore of his body and gushing through his veins. He was inseparable from the soil of this land. He daydreamed for its advancement and prosperity. While talking of Sindh, he used to fall in a reverie laying bare, in ecstasy, his aspirations, dreams and ideals for his land.

The fragrance of the land and her people magnetically pulled him refreshing his love for the regions and towns he wandered in; the paths he treaded on; the canals he dipped in; the trees he climbed on; the streets he loitered in; the people he passed his youthful days with. He always and all the time felt parts of his heart, of his blood, of his soul intermingling with these places that recurred to him like a stimulating spirit. This love was neither besmirched by any greed; any desire for wealth and power nor it was dishonored by any deal or compromise on his principles and ideals. This love was irreproachable and uncompromising beyond any fear or favour.

He knew Sindh, its problems, concerns and potentials like the palm of his hand. He had studied, examined, analyzed issues of his land and formulated his strategies and arguments to present them in a befitting manner to a friend or foe of Sindh. He moved from front to front like a brave and confident General leading from the front armed with his razor sharp intellect and the might of his scholarship to fight the battles of Sindh. He always came out victorious from these battles.

The MRD would not have impacted the dictatorial rule of Zia had Awami Tehrik not lent its helping hand to it.

His contribution to the agitation against One-Unit was not less than any towering leader. The printing of the electoral rolls in Sindh, the rebuttal of the attack of retrogressive and anti-democratic and anti-Sindh forces on the budding liberal Sindhi literature of all genre penning two small but comprehensive books, the successful protests against Kalabagh Dam tracing back the history of the stealth of the irrigation waters of River Indus by Punjab, the forceful exposure of the MQM as a terrorist and fascist political group when the Pakistan People’s Party was embracing it in a coalition government in 1988 were solely the achievements of this servant of Sindh.

The MRD would not have impacted the dictatorial rule of Zia had Awami Tehrik not lent its helping hand to it. These were Awami Tehrik’s worker – men and women – coming out of blue in droves with the national hymns from Shaikh Ayaz’s poetry on their lips and courting arrest which drew the attention of the international media to the small towns of Mehar and Khairpur Nathan Shah. They kept the Intelligence silhouettes on their tenterhooks for many months to guess as to who these activists were and where they had been coming from and what was motivating them to do so. When they fully grasped the situation, they immediately decided to lay hands on the leader, their source of inspiration, their planner and strategist. They arrested Saeen Rasool Bukhsh and incarcerated him in Kot Lakhpat Jail.

While penning my recollections about Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, an important episode pops out from the layers of my memory. I was doing the senior management course in the National Defence University in 2002-2003. We did some academically interesting and educative exercises during the course. One of them is worth mentioning. It was a panel discussion on the problems of the federating units with the Federation. The panel was chaired by General Moeen Hyder, the former Governor of Sindh. Punjab was represented by the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Fakhar Imam; Sindh by the  former Speaker of National Assembly, Illahi Bukhsh Soomro; KPK by Barrister Iftikhar Gilani and Balochistan by the former Minister of Education, Ms. Zubaida Jalal.

Fakhar Imam, a foreign graduate and an experienced parliamentarian was the first to take the podium.  His presentation was candid and balanced taking into consideration the power and influence of Punjab in the federal bureaucracy and the armed forces of Pakistan since the independence of the country and the dissatisfaction of the smaller provinces with the amount of autonomy practically allowed to them in various constitutional schemes. He also referred to the grievances of the Bengalis against the policy of parity and the bigger share of the former West Pakistan in the political institutions of the country and the divisible pool of resources. He suggested that maximum provincial autonomy should be given to the federating units to strengthen Pakistan.

Similarly, Iftikhar Gilani being one of the most prominent lawyers of the country lived up to the expectations of our colleagues from KPK. He presented the KPK grievances against the Federation in a convincingly rational and cogent manner picking up relevant political events from the early history of Pakistan.

Ms. Zubaida Jalal, hailing from a traditionally conservative Baloch tribe of Rinds, represented Balochistan well concentrating on the federal control on the funds allocated to the province for social and economic development. She cited multiple examples in which the funds were released by the Federal authority in piece-meal manner and could not be utilized by the province before the end of a financial year. She painted a pathetic picture of the exploitation of the natural resources of the province and the criminal neglect of Baloch land throughout the long years of the independent Pakistan as reflected by the depressing condition of communications, education and healthcare facilities and the non-existence of economic and employment opportunities in the province resulting in a heightened sense of deprivation in the Baloch land.

I was hopeful that Mr. Illahi Bukhsh Soomro, given his political and educational background would highlight the grievances of Sindh in a highly convincing manner. He began his speech without marshaling his thoughts dwelling incoherently on the perceived social and cultural behaviour of Sindhis and their deficiency in initiative, drive and mobility. This cruelly razed my hopes driving me to a disgusting disillusion. The Chairman, General Moeen Hyder reminded him more than once that he was supposed to enlighten the audience about the grievances of his province against the Federation instead of dwelling on the characteristics of Sindhis. Unfortunately, he could not regain the right track to talk about the substantial issues of Sindh with the Federation.

We have a breed of politicians in our land whose career in politics has progressed under the numbing awe and supremacy of the overweening military and civil establishments and who are well adapted to echo the latter’s views when they have an opportunity to do so.. Our honorable guest had failed to realize that this was an academic discussion and there was no need to wear the traditional veil of expediency or to shudder away from highlighting the genuine problems of his province with the Federation. At least, he could have avoided echoing the often-repeated slanderous remarks of the establishment about Sindhis and Baloch that unfailingly stereotypes them as incompetent and unqualified for senior positions in the Federation. By the way, we have an army of such power seeker these days sauntering in Islamabad and the provincial capitals of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

Many years after this episode, I met General Moeen Hyder in a private dinner at the residence of Ambassador Najamuddin Shaikh, and engaged him in a conversation. While talking about many things, we came to recall the above episode. He remembered it very well. He said, notwithstanding his admonitions, Mr. Soomro was shy of talking on the chosen subject. I told him, that the management, instead, should have invited Rasool Bukhsh Palijo for the exercise. He laughed heartily, and then answered in light mood, ‘In that case, it would not have been necessary to invite representatives of all the other provinces. Mr. Palijo would have comprehensively presented their single-handedly’.

Sindh was the center of his focus; the area of his struggle and the mirror of his dreams for revolutionary change in this common place inhabited by human beings.

This is what Saeen Rasool Bukhsh was that friends and foes equally admired him as a scholar and intellectual of high calibre. The establishment knew his calibre; his uncompromising principles; his irreproachable character; his utter disgust for any deal and compromise with the anti-people forces; his hatred for the nexus formed between the civil and military bureaucracy, feudal and dynastic political families, peers and sajadahnashins to capture the state resources and power to the peril of the teeming poor population of the country. He had this hatred for the anti-democratic forces and exploitation of the poor countries by the greedy capitalist world all over the globe. He had a grip over the ebb and flow of the leftist and socialist movements in any corner of the world and used to unravel the cobweb weaved by the exploiting capitalist powers to capture the resources of the third world countries.

Sindh was only the center of his focus; the area of his struggle and the mirror of his dreams for revolutionary change in this common place inhabited by human beings. Humanity was his faith; he saw religions as humane and mutually supportive mass of beliefs and not as classifying and antagonizing dogmas spilling blood of the adherents of each other. He had made a comparative study of the main religions and came to the above belief. He respected all the religions, and one could not discern any derogatory remark about a religion or a religious figure of any faith from his speeches and writings. He was above all the shallow thoughts and poisonous prejudices promoted by the narrow nationalism and dogmatism of pseudo scholars and intellectuals either in their arrogance rather ignorance or at the behest of their masters pulling their strings from power corridors within the country or from far off shores.

I have come across his lament over the loss of human lives devoured by the sectarian bias and hatred in the evolutionary history of nations and religions – may it be the thirty years of religious wars in Europe which destroyed many countries, the historic hostility between Arabs and Persians, the mayhem caused by the Sunni-Shia clashes. He preached all his life against this dogmatism to save Sindh from this menacing threat. He battled against such forces at all fronts – political, cultural, social, and literary. (Continues) 

Click here for Part-1, 

______________________

Alam Brohi Mr. 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    

The post Rasool Bukhsh Palijo – An Undying Beacon of Light – Part-2 first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Ambassador Muhammad Alam Brohi

(On the occasion of 6th death anniversary of Rasool Bukhsh Palijo held on 7th June 2024)

This heroic sage who appeared on the horizon of Sindh from the small village of Mongur close to Jungshahi of Thatta district in January 1930 regained the embrace of his mother soil in June 2018 leaving behind a blazing trail of brilliant scholarly pursuits, rich political literature, ever inspiring books, a treasure trove of knowledge and research, a multi-faceted tale of political struggle, and above all, a strong corps of trained, disciplined, intellectually curious, ideologically motivated, politically conscious, well read and well-endowed leaders and activists who could be found in both genders and in every field of life who could fight as soldiers for the defence of their land and people on political and intellectual fronts in the footprints of their leader and mentor. They need to be collected on one platform, bound in a dynamic chain of an ideological struggle unleashing their energy and spirit, to carry forward the message of Late Rasool Bukhsh Palijo.

I just witnessed his political struggle from far off shores and boundaries being busy in my career in the Foreign Service of Pakistan that takes us from shore to shore, country to country and people to people, and makes us internationalist in our view and approach away from narrow nationalism and parochialism. However, I had never slackened in keeping myself abreast of the conditions in the land we look up to as our motherland, and particularly of the uniquely unorthodox, untraditional and, indeed, the legendary political and ideological struggle of Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo in Sindh. I had many of his disciples in the circle of my friends who kept conveying to me the tales of his inspiring struggle.

Guns have fallen silent; the noise of soldiers has drowned in the depth of the night; but the war is far from over; many serious battles are yet to be fought.

Though I did not consider myself qualified to write about this giant of a person of Himalayan stature – a scholar and intellectual of the highest caliber, a relentless pen pusher, an unwavering ideological warrior, a unique political leader, organizer and reformer with his inexhaustible knowledge of regional and international ideological, political and literary trends of historic importance – past and present – I mustered the courage, again on the persistent demand of Mir Mazhar Talpur, and contributed a modest essay for the book. The essay was appreciated by friends and the admirers of Late Rasool Bukhsh Palijo particularly his able and knowledgeable son, Ayaz Latif Palijo.

I took a week to think over the vast canvas of his life-long struggle trying to discern the multiple shining and impressive colors of the rainbow of his legacy. I must admit that new dimensions of his historic struggle surfaced to broaden my understanding of the personae of Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo and stimulating my spirit to undertake this formidably daunting task in a bid to unfold some additional aspects of his struggle. This is a duty to my pen rather the responsibility of every conscious son and daughter of Sindh to come out to pay tributes to late Rasool Bukhsh Palijo for his enormous contribution to the political and social awareness of the people of Sindh. He fought or took part in serious battles over many issues of imminent concern to his land and people from the infamous One Unit to the banishment of Sindhi language; the execution of Bhutto; the stealth of the waters of Indus River; the Kalabagh dam; the onslaught on the progressive Sindhi literature by the regressive and obscurant forces.

“Guns have fallen silent; the noise of soldiers has drowned in the depth of the night; but the war is far from over; many serious battles are yet to be fought. The lull is illusory. Do not let the numbing winds of despair overwhelm you. Look at the young moon as it merrily peeps out from a rebellious piece of cloud hovering over Mongur; watch the restless soul rustling the waves of Sindhu and beckoning to us to see the beauty of this motherland; feel her miseries, learn from her patience, aim at mountains, keep above pebbles; control our ego and subdue our pride for her sake. This is what this great man did from his conscious age to his final embrace of the mother earth of his small village”.

I had purposefully ended my earlier essay with this positive and motivational paragraph. It was relevant at that time because I had a lurking fear that, given our historic propensity for political factionalism, the Awami Tehrik, after losing the welding, binding and inspirational leadership of Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, might break into political factions on the pattern of other political parties of Sindh. It is more relevant today for some serious reasons to be dilated on in the following paragraphs.

I am glad six years after the passing away of their leader; the Awami Tehrik activists and leaders have preserved the political heritage of Late Palijo and kept following his footprints plunging in every battle for the preservation of the core national interests of Sindh albeit in a comparatively low profile. I know it is not easy for them to match the courage, stamina, strategy, eloquence, intellect, motivating presence and the able and wise leadership of their mentor and leader. Saeen Palijo was a concept, an idea, a vision and a phenomenon. It is difficult to fill in the vacuum created by his passing away.

Notwithstanding their constraints and limitations, they have been listening to his clarion call, his lament over the miseries of the motherland; the tales of the atrocious loot and plunder perpetrated on her by the aliens and her own unscrupulous sons and daughters as much; the audacious capture of her lands and resources in cahoots with her shameless elite and rulers; the systematic destruction of her educational institutions to keep her sons and daughters at a disadvantageous position  in the current human march to modernity, technological revolution and prosperity; the unending night raids on the waters of Sindhu; the slow death of the Delta of Sindh; the ferocious encroachment of the  Sea on the arable lands of the coastal districts reducing the populace inhabiting the area to an alarming poverty;  the growing and unchallenged tyranny of the feudal lords pushing our hard working peasants to hunger, disease and ignorance.

Many battles are yet to be fought. We will not have Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo physically present among us but his legacy, his undying spirit, his ever inspiring lessons, his institutional guidance and overall his ideals are very much here to provide the necessary stimuli for such battles. Ideas are more powerful than swords. Conviction is the core source of strength. Without faith in the truthfulness of their purpose, big warriors fall flat on their faces. The lack of clarity about one’s purpose is the ruin of a movement and a struggle –political or ideological.

Say farewell to the trumpet!

You will hear them no more,

But their sweet and silvery echoes

Call to you still

Through the half-closed door

Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo must have been watching us and his beloved land from the heaven and feeling sad over the horrible change that has gripped  his dear land and pulverized her society remodeling  her people’s ethos and values and altering their  preferences, needs and worries. This change is refashioning this land of Shah Latif, Shah Inayat, Sachal Sarmast, Shaikh Ayaz into ugly shapes and colours bearing little or no relevance with the Sindh he had idealized. He must have realized that his Sindh has edged on wearing a withered face that mirrors the loathsome callousness of its own sons and daughters who remain indulged in making hay while the sun shines to the peril of their motherland.

Emerging before him must be some dark images overwhelmingly repulsive in their appearance. Leaving aside a small number of the ideological warriors clinging onto the political and cultural traditions and human values – this great man had cherished, the growing barrenness of Sindh must have caused him pain and anguish. He must have seen our skies overcast with the dark shadows of greed and blemished by the repulsive images of predators gnawing hungrily the flesh and bones of his groaning land. To his disgust, he must have seen these demons of effrontery and shamelessness jubilantly celebrating the silent death of humanity, dignity, honesty and fairness that were part of his faith throughout his life.

Read: Death Anniversary of Rasool Bux Palijo: Awami Tehreek rejects Digital Census Results

He must have realized his disconnect in every way with this suffocating world disfigured by a new crop of leadership whose basic humanity is buried under layers and layers of toxic arrogance and who are suffering from a blinding sickness that has crippled their conscience and polluted their souls. They cannot see the enormity of social and economic injustice; the unforgiveable Dickensian squalor; the pathetic deaths of our innocent children for want of nutrition and healthcare; the burgeoning industry of kidnapping for ransom; the forcible conversion and marriages of Hindu girls; the collapse of education; the dying souls of our cities and towns.

Saeen Rasool Bukhsh used to say the time is short and the work gigantic. The warriors should keep on fighting one battle after the other with their banner fluttering high. He acted like a warrior on his death bed. He would tell the visiting friends, “my body is weak but my spirit to fight is high; a lot of work remains to be completed”. He embraced the inevitability of mortality but left his resilient and redoubtable spirit with us to fight, to rise above shallow thoughts, to keep the beacon alight, to keep his banner fluttering high, to wipe the tear-soaked cheeks of this land, to protect the Sindhu from the looters and plunderers.

Long may that brave banner flutter high,

Over mountains, over deserts, over Sea,

Beacon to friends, but a terror to foes,

The most glorious banner there be

Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo, even in his death, confidently beckons to his comrades to keep up his legacy of crusading against the anti-people and regressive ideologies and inhuman rulers.  As borne by the evolutionary history of nations, this is a long drawn-out battle, a long haul in human struggle and an unending march against oligarchs, autocrats and anti-democratic forces engaged in curtailing human freedoms and perpetuating social and economic inequity, injustice trampling upon the human rights and values shamelessly.

While imagining Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo being restless in the heaven over the plunder of his land, I went in a reverie and noticed a crowd of noble souls assembling together and trying to shame the predators into stopping this brazen plunder of their motherland. I recognized many familiar images standing in this noble crowd with spurs in their hands readying themselves for a fair fight with the hungry hyenas to save their helpless land from further pain. These images gradually crystallized to be of the illustrious sons and daughters of this land with the conspicuous presence of Saeen Rasool Bukhsh Palijo among them – who had lived their whole life as valiant soldiers fighting fierce battles for its emancipation from the fetters of subjugation.

It seemed, they have parted with the comforts of the heaven to show their dread and disgust over the blatant pillage of their land by its own blind sons and daughters and the shocking apathy and indifference their people have sunk in. A few words I gathered from the murmur of this noble crowd are ‘wither a nation that accepts the wanton plunder of its assets without a voice of protest let alone throwing a challenge to the plunderers’. I saw them moaning in utter helplessness and praying that may the humming waters of the mighty Indus overwhelm these plunderers, destroy their ill-gotten treasures and palaces and sweep their stinking corpses into the marshy lands of the Arabian Sea where wild animals should have a feast on their stale flesh. I heard Saeen Palijo reassuring this noble crowd of the valour and resilience of the people of Sindh who would stand up as a formidable phalanx against the anti-Sindh forces and lead their people in battles on multiple fronts to save their land. (Continues) 

__________________________

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     

The post Rasool Bukhsh Palijo – An Undying Beacon of Light – Part-1 first appeared on Sindh Courier.