Dr Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch passed away on April 6, 2011, in Hyderabad. He was 92. Dr Baloch was one of the great scholars of our time. He has to his credit over 50 books and numerous research papers in Arabic, Persian, Sindhi, Urdu and English. In addition to a large number of research publications that he wrote, edited, compiled and annotated, Dr Sahib was instrumental in getting published some rare and invaluable books on history, culture, literature and language.

This writer had heard that despite being a renowned scholar and having held high posts for decades, humbleness and kindness were Dr Baloch’s hallmark. I experienced his unpretentious ways and courteous manners when I met him for the first time about one-and-a-half years ago. Till then I had never had the honour of meeting him in person, though I had talked to him on the telephone on one occasion or two. He had come to Karachi for some medical procedures and let Agha Noor Muhammad Pathan (regional director of the Pakistan Academy of Letters) know of his coming to the city.

Agha Sahib requested him to visit his office and when he arrived, Agha Sahib asked me if I could make it to his office. I rushed without wasting any time.

And there he was, attired in shalwar-qameez and waistcoat, sitting relaxed but gracefully in a sofa. As Agha Sahib introduced me, Dr Baloch put his palms on his knees and tried to rise but after a few moments excused himself for not being able to rise because of his age and health. He had turned 90 at that time. This writer — much junior to him in every respect — was stunned and requested him not to mention it. Then he greeted me cheerfully and in fact gave me a little pep talk mentioning my odd writings. So that was the courtesy and humbleness they talked about! I found this erudite scholar a simple and unassuming person. Despite his age, his memory was enviable and his knowledge up to date.

Dr Baloch was a linguist and a lexicographer, too. So I inquired about some issues related to linguistics. When on my request he began talking about the roots of Urdu and its footprints in the areas that now comprise Pakistan, I realized how articulate he was. All the details and references on historical and comparative linguistics were at his fingertips. It seemed that he agreed with Ain-ul-Haq Fareed Koti, a scholar who had surmised that all the popular languages of northern India, including Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi, had their roots in Prakrits that in turn went back to local ancient dialects as their source. In other words, contrary to the common belief Sanskrit was not the ancestor of these dialects that later developed as Urdu, Sindhi and Punjabi but these dialects rather evolved from Dravidian and Munda (Munda is a family of languages and Munda were the indigenous people living scattered in different parts of ancient India, especially northeastern and central parts).

Fareed Koti believed that the local dialects had their toots in a prototype derived in pre-Sanskrit era and it was the ancestor of almost all the local languages now spoken in Pakistan, including Urdu. But Dr Baloch differed with Fareed Koti on some aspects of his theory.

He then graciously gave me an autographed copy of his just-published book ‘Gulshan-i-Urdu’, subtitled ‘Urdu maqalat-i-Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch’, which I still treasure. The book, published in 2009 by Pakistan Study Centre, University of Sindh, and compiled by Muhammad Rashid Sheikh, contains literary articles and research papers. In one of the articles, he has mentioned his book ‘Sindh mein Urdu shaeri’. In this book, Dr Baloch has traced the history of Urdu poetry that was composed in Sindh in as early as Mughal era and had reproduced its examples (yet another proof that Urdu has ancient roots in Sindh, too). The book has run into three editions and in ‘Gulshan-i-Urdu’, Dr Baloch adds a point or two about the book and mentions, interestingly enough, that certain Urdu words used in Sindh’s Urdu poetry have local pronunciation which is slightly different from the original Urdu pronunciation. But Urdu poets of Sindh have taken full care of the poetic metres and the metrical measures conform to the local pronunciation of these words. So one would have to read these Urdu words according to local Sindhi pronunciation or the poetry would not fit into the metrical measures or ‘bahars’.

Baloch Sahib would always talk and write about Prof Abdul Aziz Memon, his mentor and teacher, with great affection and respect. That day too, he shared with me some of his fond memories and paid great tribute to his teacher who was one of the great authorities on the Arabic language and literature, just like Dr Baloch himself.With Dr Nabi Bakhsh Baloch’s death, we have lost a scholar who wrote on several subjects and in several languages with equal ease and who was much above the petty prejudices based on language or race or region.

May he rest in peace. drraufparekh@yahoo.com