KARACHI: A Sindhi language course and Sindh Studies Centre were formally inaugurated at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (Szabist) at an event organised on Thursday evening on the institute’s premises.

President of Szabist Shahnaz Wazir Ali in her speech acknowledged the services of dean of Faculty of Social Sciences Dr Riaz Shaikh for taking “this remarkable initiative” and reviving the Sindh Studies Centre through a reinvigorated programme which will begin with the study of the Sindhi language.

She highlighted the fact that Szabist has been very committed to the cause of advancing knowledge and appreciation of Sindh, its language, its culture and its history. “The idea of establishing a Sindh studies programme was initiated by the late Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.”

Sindhi language course, studies centre inaugurated

Ms Ali, talking about the course, said while we need to know the history of Sindh given the importance of the past, it’s [also] very critical to invest in modern Sindh. “I really feel it’s important to speak to the young generation of Sindhis.” She argued that Sindh is a province that’s very receptive and has become home to many communities.

Eminent historian Dr Mubarak Ali, who joined online from Lahore, said it’s important for any language to have a treasure trove of knowledge. He lamented that there are quite a few intellectuals in our country who feel that if they write their material in English, they will earn more respect, whereas they should try to write in their own language so that their message can reach the people in a better way.

Dr Ali said mostly poetry has been written in Urdu and Sindhi languages. It’s [a practice] done in backward societies. The societies that produce poetry do that in initial stages of civilisation. The scholar also discarded the role of writing travelogues because today the world has become global.

He emphasised history and language are extremely important for any society. Therefore, the newly established department at Szabist should not only work for the study of the Sindhi language but also work on the discipline of history because Sindh’s history has so far been a traditional one; it needs to have social history as well, he added.

Prof Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan said partition of the subcontinent gave birth to a big number of human tragedies. For example, an unnatural migration took place. Sindh’s people welcomed those who came from India, creating a good atmosphere. That situation would have remained had One Unit not been made. It created contradictions as a result of which Brig Tikka Khan put a ban on teaching the Sindhi language. It was a dark day for Urdu speakers because those who were born here [in Pakistan] were deprived of learning the Sindhi language. Unfortunately, political leaders at the time did not raise their voice against it, except for the progressive leaders.

Dr Khan also suggested to the faculty that a Sibte Hasan lecture be arranged along the lines of lectures named after Sobho Gianchandani and Ibrahim Joyo.

Prof Aijaz Qureshi said Szabist is now without doubt an international-level institute. He pointed out that this kind of a course will create a bridge between the two major communities residing in Sindh. “They need to be together.”

Social worker Faisal Edhi said all civilisations of the world have developed along rivers. When the Indus Civilisation was discovered along the Indus, it made everyone in the subcontinent feel proud. The reason being that the British had apparently come [to claim] in this part of the world to make us civilised. But when this civilisation became known, our people started saying with pride that we’ve been civilised for thousands of years.

Earlier, Sarang Joyo gave a presentation on the salient features of the course to be conducted. Dr Suleiman Sheikh, Dr Altaf Mukati, Attiya Dawood and Zehra Khan also spoke.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021