HYDERABAD: Speakers at a conference on ‘Sindhi folk literature’ held in Sindh University on Friday demanded establishment of an independent institution for preserving and promoting culture, language and folk art of Sindh.
They were speaking at different sessions of the two-day moot organised by the Sindh Sughar Lok Adab Tanzeem.
SU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Fateh Mohammad Burfat said that sughars (folk poets) were natural and cultural custodians of civilisation, language and folk tradition of their age.
The university, he said, would organise a ‘mega sughar conference’ at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Convention Centre to make students aware about their rich cultural and linguistic heritage. He also announced Rs10,000 cash award for the best sughars of the conference.
Jamshoro Deputy Commissioner Munawwar Ali Mahesar proposed that Sindhi society without sughars and literature without the folk element were always incomplete and regretted that lack of government patronage had led sughars to distress.
He urged the Sindh culture department to announce a special package for the welfare of sughars and raise funds for their well-being.
Linguist Dr Kamaluddin Jamro of the Federal Urdu University, Karachi, said that Sindhi was one of the rare languages that were rich in folk literature and art.
The credit for compiling, preserving and promoting Sindhi folk literature went to Dr N.A. Baloch and Dr Abdul Kareem Sandelo, he said.
He expressed concern over apathy of the custodians of culture towards folk art and literature.
Dr Azhar Ali Shah said that sughars were in fact assets of Sindhi culture, language and people as they had preserved the language through their poetry that they kept reciting in katchehries (village cultural gatherings) through the ages.
He demanded the Sindh government should establish an institution for promoting Sindhi culture, language and folk art.
Dr Abdul Ghafoor Memon, Rehman Dino Mahesar, Aajiz Rehmatullah Lashari, Zeb Nizamani, Gul Hassan Gul, Mumtaz Saniasi, Mohammad Qasim Rahimoon and Niaz Jhanjhi also spoke at the moot.
Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.