PESHAWAR: Noted literary critic and progressive Pashto poet Qalandar Momand was praised as a strong voice of the poor people during a function here on Saturday.

At the event organised by the Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation to mark the critic’s 14th death anniversary, poet Prof Zubair Hasrat was the chief guest and Prof Khadim Hussain in the chair.

Addressing the event, Mr. Hasrat said Qalandar Momand was a multi-faceted personality, who contributed a lot to almost all literary genres of Pashto.

He said the literary critic was a strong voice of the downtrodden people.

He said Momand had authored many books and rendered great political, social and literary services.

“Qalandar Momand was a legendary progressive poet who had expressed issues of poor people in his writings whether prose, fiction or poetry,” he said.

Members of the monthly study circle discussed a short story of Qalandar Momand titled ‘Gajray’ and critically evaluated its different aspects.

They pointed out the short story was reflective of the class struggle between the poor and the rich.

The panelists said Momand wanted a progressive Pakhtun society free from social injustice and clutches of the powerful village Khans.

Madiha, a young critic, dilated upon the main theme, plot and characterisation of the Momand’s short story and said it was a masterpiece of Pashto fiction.

She said Momand had created Sherdil, the central character, who revolted against the village Khan at the cost of eviction from his land property.

Imran, another literary analyst, said Pakhtun society had been an egalitarian society but Mughals had introduced class system to break their collective strength.

He said British imperialism had provided formal and legal structure to it and soon Khan had become a symbol of aggression.

The analyst said ‘Khan’ in earlier Pakhtun egalitarian society was not supposed to be a landlord but the one who used to always stand by the poor in destitute, but both Mughals and Britishers unduly empowered ‘Khans’ to divide Pakhtuns along ethnic and tribal lines and weaken their social fabric.

Critics Mehnaz and Tahira said Gajray was the symbol of slavery used by the writer to spread the message of freedom from poverty.

They said Momand had juxtaposed voices of crying coming out his mud home and sound of music brought along by airwaves from the hujra of the village Khan.

Ms. Mehnaz said poor Sherdil could not fulfil an innocent wish of his daughter ‘Sherinai to buy her a pair of Garjary out of his meagre resources.

Prof Khadim Hussain, director at the Bacha Khan Trust Educational Foundation, said Qalandar Momand was among few Pashto writers who had really contributed to Pakhtuns lives on many fronts.

He said Momand had suffered imprisonment on more than one occasions for his radical views. He said Qalandar Momand being a staunch follower of Bacha Khan had advocated philosophy of peace and non-violence in his writings and therefore, he was a true spirit of the age. Wagma Feroz, Nadia Khan, and Gohar Nagayal also spoke at the event.

Later, Bilal Khan, a young Rabab player from Malakand, played beautiful tunes on Qalandar Momand’s ghazals.

Shaukat Swati, Momin Khan and Asfarul Mulk Afghan sang popular Pashto songs.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2017