MUNSHI Ibrahim, who died at his home village of Jinhan Soomro in Badin district on Thursday at the age of 69, was one of Sindh’s most committed and revolutionary poets. He had been bedridden for almost a month.

Ibrahim belonged to the group of poets and writers who either did not attend school or were dropouts. But this did not deter him from studying the issues, miseries and problems that confronted society, and for him life itself was the best school.

As a young man, he studied all form of Sindhi poetry — the formative, traditional, classical and modern. This gave him a wide outlook. As a witness to the political manipulations for creating One Unit, which many Sindhis felt was aimed at depriving their province’s identity, he joined the intellectual movement to oppose it. He did so not merely with his pen, but through physical participation as well, and was jailed like many other opponents of One Unit.

At that time the anti-One Unit movement was led by stalwarts such as G. M. Syed, Hyder Bakhsh Jatoi, Sobho Gianchandani, Shaikh Ayaz and Tanvir Abbasi. They were all penalized in one way or another.

Technically, Ibrahim was influenced by the classical form and style of Shah Latif but even as he took his cue from Shah, he followed his own path. He used the diction of ordinary people and simple indigenous meters. Instead of borrowed similies and metaphors, he drew characters from among the people to express his anger at political repression and economic exploitation. He did not indulge in obstructionism; instead he used very direct and purposive language to communicate with his simple-hearted people. It was this that made his poetry speak. In one of his poems he says:

Chha jot taim aeen chha jo tanno,

Miskeenan je mass te ghasnno,

Sardi garmi saanno saanno,

Poye bi ghar mien ann na danno.

(What timings and what their bindings, it is always the poor that work in every harsh season, but even then they do not have a single grain in their houses.)

But Ibrahim never advocated acceptance. He urged the people to struggle against the oppressive system:

Neir tore nikre weendi, thareli thoothane maan,

Dokhe ji aj dhap ache thi, tunhenje dane dane maan,

Bhagiya jagiya bhoona bhalare ja aj bhanoo bhagwanda,

Qahari tunhenje kot kerayan karan gadji kam kaah kanda.

(The bonded cuckoo will free herself by breaking the shackles. The masters of this graceful land have awakened, and will attack together to destroy your unjust system).

In the closing years of his poetic journey, he developed a universal approach condemning repression everywhere in the world.

Ibrahim had five anthologies to his credit reflecting his feelings of all phases of the life. These are: Dharti deen dharma, Dhanurey deenhan dhara, Paigham-i-mazloom, Goondar weenda guzri and Vigah ja varyam.

In the last years of his life, he was inflicted with multiple ailments and without assistance from any organization, he took to self-medication. Doctors advised him to go abroad but that was not possible because of the expenditure involved and all appeals for government help went unheard.

Three sons, four daughters and a large number of fans have been left to mourn Ibrahim’s death.