ON Nov 9, 1976, the 99th birth anniversary of Allama Iqbal was celebrated in the city. It was a national holiday. A big number of political, social and cultural organisations held public meetings to honour the memory of the man who first dreamt of a separate homeland for Muslims of the subcontinent. There were special programmes made for radio and television on the journey of the poet. The Pakistan National Centre in Karachi arranged a seminar at which scholars such as Dr Abul Lais Siddiqui, Prof Hasnain Kazmi and Begum Akhtar Jehan Khan spoke on his life and work. Dr Siddiqui said Iqbal was known as a poet and philosopher, but his letters showed that he had an interest in political, social, economic and cultural life of the subcontinent. Dr Siddiqui pointed out that Iqbal’s views were based on the tenets of Islam. He had reviewed the history of Islam, and the several ups and downs that Muslims had to experience over centuries.

Iqbal wrote poetry in Urdu and Persian languages. Urdu became the focus of attention on Nov 14 when a former chief minister of Sindh, Mohammad Ayub Khuhro, emphasised the promotion of Urdu as the national language, along with the urge that all regional languages should grow simultaneously. In his presidential address at the All Pakistan Education Conference in Karachi, he observed that Urdu was essential because it was understood by the people belonging to all regions of Pakistan. Mr Khuhro described UP, Lucknow and Hyderabad as the main centres which contributed to the promotion of the language. He lamented that for the past many years, Urdu was being neglected in India. He was of the opinion that the English language could not be ignored for some time in Pakistan as it was the medium of education for higher studies. The former chief minister of Sindh added that the Urdu language and Pakistani culture were highly influenced by Islam, and the Sindhi language, too, was enriched by numerous Arabic and Persian words. Other speakers who read papers on the subject of ‘National language and national culture’ at the event included Qadeeruddin Ahmed, Shanul Haq Haqqi, Waris Sarhandi, Husn Bano Qizilbash, Dr Inamul Haq, Kauser Chaudhry, Abdur Rehman, Begum Akhtar Jehan Khan and Dr Hamida Khuhro.

The same day, eminent German scholar Dr Annemarie Schimmel delivered a lecture at the Goethe Institut on ‘German contributions to Pakistan studies’. She claimed that several German scholars had prepared the ground for further studies of regional languages in Pakistan, particularly with respect to grammatical classification of Pashto, Sindhi, Brahui, Balochi and Kashmiri languages. Dr Schimmel, who had been conferred with an honorary degree of doctorate by Islamabad University, outlined translations of different literary works by German researchers. Talking about the contribution of one of them, Ernest Trumpp, she said he had published a grammar of the Sindhi language in 1872, followed by the 1873 language of the Afghans, comparing it with Iranian and North Indian idioms. According to her, Mr Trumpp had also visited Karachi — and was disappointed at the condition of the city.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2026