KARACHI: Scholars from across Pakistan and abroad showered eulogies on the organisers of the three-day international conference held to celebrate the birth bicentennial of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan at its concluding session on Wednesday.

Paying homage to the 19th century educationist and reformer, Dr Fatema Hassan, noted poet and honorary secretary of Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu, said if there had been no Sir Syed, many well-known institutions in the subcontinent would not have existed today. “At least there would not have been Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu as it was founded by Sir Syed, a fact acknowledged by Baba-i-Urdu and Jamiluddin Aali, its two honorary secretaries of their times.”

She said Sir Syed’s movement had impacted other parts of British India even in his own lifetime. “Inspired by Sir Syed, Dr Hassan Ali Effendi began doing in Sindh what Sir Syed was doing in UP — building educational institutions and promoting literacy. Similarly, his influence is still perceptible on Balochistan, which publishes several publications in Urdu.”

Addressing the students in the audience, she said she was not only representing Anjuman at the conference but the University of Karachi too. She reminisced how she was excited on joining KU in the early 1970s as a student. “Here I began my poetic career in the company of such known poets as Sarwat Ali, Fatima Hasan, Ayub Khawar and Parveen Shakir.”

She congratulated the organisers, her own institution being one of them, and assured them that Anjuman would be happy to help in organising any such events in the future also.

Prof Dr Tanzeemul Firdaus, head of KU’s Urdu department that organised the event, nostalgically recalled her first day as a student at the department some 31 years back. “I was so impatient to get into the university that I came over to pay admission fee on the very first day of appearing of the list, which was a surprise for the staff and faculty here,” she said.

“Prof Dr Abulkhair Kashafi, who was the head of the department then, assured me that there was no doubt that I would get admission, but advised me to wait for a few days to see that my name might appear in the list of a department of my preference. I said, no sir, I have made no choice except Urdu and am surprised to learn why it can’t be the first option for a student.”

Overwhelmed with emotions on the success of the conference “beyond our expectations”, she expressed her gratitude to all those who had helped make it so. She particularly thanked her colleague Prof Dr Rauf Parekh and predecessor Prof Dr Shadab Ehsani.

During the course of the session, Dr Ehsani, who has been under treatment for a long time, emerged in the hall unexpected. He was greeted with rounds of applause and standing ovation.

The conference had attracted delegates from Canada, the United States, Sweden, Egypt and India besides from Lahore, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Quetta, Bahawalpur, Khairpur and Karachi. Scores of papers had been read out at the multiple sessions highlighting different aspects of Sir Syed’s life and work.

They all praised the arrangements and said the event was not only unprecedented in the history of Karachi University but also was a memorable and rare experience for them. They congratulated the organisers, humorously suggesting various honorifics for their hard work to make the conference a success such as ‘the genie of Aladdin’s Lamp fame’ and ‘the lady who smiles when tense but weeps when happy’.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Sahar Ansari also praised the organisers and the KU as a great institution doing for Urdu language and literature what Oxford and Cambridge were doing for English language and literature.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2017