February 16, 2003

Qalandar Momand, who died on February 4 in Peshawar, was one of the pioneers of the progressive movement in Pushto literature who won fame across the country, mainly for his courageous journalism. He was incarcerated periodically for his revolutionary views but his faith in the freedom of expression never wavered. His outspoken radical ideas created misunderstandings about his political ideology, thanks to the secret reports submitted by the semi-literate members of the CID who painted Qalandar Momand as a communist.

In the closing couplet of a ghazal, Qalandar referred to that misunderstanding as:

Da ghazal ghuroor ye ma’t krho, raqeebano shoro’ shor krho,

Qalandar pa gharghara khrayee, Qalandar istirakee day.

(He broke the pride of ghazal, so, rivals raised a hue and cry,

“Hang Qalandar, Qalandar is a socialist.”)

But, he was not a communist or a socialist. The Qand (a monthly from Mardan) defended him saying he was neither a communist nor an opportunist but a pure nationalist. It was his ‘devotion to truth’ that brought difficulties in his way.

Ajmal Khattak had sent him a poem from Peshawar jail (December 25, 1968), saying:

The creative works of Qalandar Momand were of the highest quality. He was known for his bold and objective literary criticism. Although he had mastered the art of exposing the social injustices in our society with equal facility in Pushto, Urdu and English, it is naturally Pushto, his mother tongue, that will always take pride in owning him.

He emerged as a trendsetter in Pushto as his literary pursuits got a fillip from his political engagements and before long he was rated as one of the big fives of Pushto literature in the twentieth century on the east of the Durand Line, the other four being Hamza Baba, Dost Mohammed Kamil, Ghani Khan and Ajmal Khattak. His contemporaries have acknowledged his greatness, giving him titles such as “the Bayzid of the 20th century”, an “encyclopaedic writer, second to none”, the “living Hijri” (Ashraf Khan Hijri was the most dynamic poet of the classical era and was the son of Khushhal Khan Khattak) and “the Dr Johnson of Pushto”.

A non-partisan progressive Pakhtoon nationalist, Qalandar Momand made his mark at an early age. He was just twenty years old when Hamza Baba asked him to write a foreword for his famous poetry collection Ghaza Wuney. Bacha Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgar Tehrik proved a natural outlet for his political and revolutionary motivation, while his intellectual ideas found expression in his writings.

A rebel with a just cause, Qalandar Momand echoed the forcefulness of Khushhal Khan Khattak, the humility of Rahman Baba and the colourful flavour of Hamza’s poetic genius and the vigour of Ghani Khan. He once wrote that being born in a scholarly family he had inherited poetry as a family tradition because his father and grandfather had been very good poets in the past.

Also a journalist, Qalandar Momand served in different dailies, monthlies, weeklies and literary periodicals in various capacities, some notable ones being Ajam, Rahbar, Shahbaz, Inqilab, Naqib, Bangi Haram, Sarhad, Laar, Suzand, Nangialey, Musawat, Khyber Mail, Peshawar Times, Holiday, Frontier Guardian and Young Pakistan.

Habibur Rahman, that was his real name, though he is more popularly known as Qalandar Momand, was born on September 1, 1930 (the date listed on his matriculation certificate) at Bazid Khel, Peshawar. He matriculated from the Punjab University in 1947 and then got admission to the Islamia College, Peshawar, for his FSc. But he could not continue his studies due to his political activism. He passed his FA as a private student and then got a job as an auditor in the Comptroller (Accountant General) office in 1949. He left that job in 1956.

Having qualified as a Munshi Fazil (Honours in Persian) and Honours in Pushto from the Punjab University, Qalandar Momand graduated privately from the Peshawar University. In 1959 he passed his MA (English) from the Peshawar University and did his LLB in 1973 from the same university.

From the early age of 12, he became actively interested in journalism. His first foray in the media world was when he began producing and cylostyling 60 copies of a four-page religious periodical in Urdu titled Al-Haq which he distributed himself among the readers. With this experience, he could embark on his journalistic career which took him to the numerous papers for which he worked.

His literary activism prompted Qalandar Momand to found the Da Sahoo Leekonko Maraka, after the Ulusi Adabi Jirgah went into eclipse in 1962. The Maraka continued to hold weekly meetings until Qalandar Momand’s health started failing him. In 1982 when he retired as the principal of Law College, D.I. Khan, he was appointed director of the Pushto Dictionary Project, established by the NWFP government. The dictionary Daryab which was completed in 1991 is a voluminous publication listing 70,000 Pushto words. This has proved to be his phenomenal contribution to Pushto language.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)