HYDERABAD: Speakers at a literary conference held on the sidelines of the second day of urs celebrations of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai in Bhitshah on Saturday called for digitizing Bhitai’s poetry and preserving it in audio and visual format so that the Sufi saint’s message of universal brotherhood and peace could reach every nook and cranny of the world.

They said that Bhitai’s message was as relevant today as it was three centuries ago as his poetry offered solutions to present day challenges confronting humanity.

Keynote speaker caretaker federal minister for education Madad Ali Sindhi said: “It is incumbent upon us to spread Bhitai’s message”. Bhitai’s poetry was in harmony with present era but regrettably today’s youth were not aware of the philosophy of poets like Bhitai, Baba Bulleh Shah and Baba Farid, he said.

He said that G.M. Syed, Makhdoom Talibul Maula and Dr Gurbkhshani had taken the initiative to hold literary conference at Bhitshah Cultural Center, which continued to this day.

Caretaker Sindh minister for culture Junaid Shah said that it was imperative to adopt all possible means of modern media to disseminate the message of Bhitai. Countries like Turkiye were using modern day methods of online portals and web televisions to spread the message of Rumi, he said.

He appreciated the initiative of “Bhitaipedia” and hoped such steps would help promote Bhitai’s message effectively in the world. It was essential that Bhitai’s message should be made part of the syllabus so that it should reach masses, he said.

Taj Joyo, well-known writer, said that Mirza Qaleech Baig and Dr Nabi Bux Baloch had written complete dictionaries on Bhitai’s poetry but such type of work needed research.

Dr Adal Soomro said in his paper that works of many contemporaries of Bhitai had become obsolete but Bhitai remained relevant in every period.

Researcher Dr Azhar Shah discussed the role of ‘teacher’ in Bhitai’s poetry and said that societies with good teachers needed nothing to worry about.

Mukhtiar Abro said that Bhitai’s poetry contained message of humanity, which was rooted in the teachings of the Quran. Bhitai was poet of universal brotherhood, he did not believe in pantheism or unity of divine manifestation, he said.

Shaukat Ali Ujjan, a researcher, said that intuition superseded sciences. Bhitai had used folk heroines in his poetry to promote noble characteristics needed for conquering the world, he said.

Hubda Jagirani, Sagar Kandhro, Altaf Memon and other researchers also presented their papers.

“Bhitaipedia” launched

Abdul Majid Bhurgari, founder of Sindhi computing, who launched “Bhitaipedia” on the occasion, said that present age demanded that technological advancement should be used for promoting Bhitai’s message as youth were savvy in this technology. The initiative would help share Bhitai’s work online with the world, he said.

He briefed about the Bhitaipedia and said that research right from Shah jo Risalo to magazines on Bhitai as well as works on Bhitai’s contemporaries had been made available online. Translations of the poetry in Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and English were also available along with every verse, he said.

He said that now Shah jo Risalo could be read in 130 languages with the help of artificial intelligence. The link of Bhitaipedia had been shared on literary websites of China, Russia and France which was indeed an honour, he said, adding that digitized maps of places discussed in Bhitai’s poetry were also put online.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2023