LAHORE: Punjabi scholar and writer Dr Manzur Ejaz who passed away in Washington State of Virginia, US, on March 30, was a unique man of letters with a diversity of intellectual pursuits, ranging from economy, science, literature, philosophy and language.

Born in Chak 60, Burjwala, near Sahiwal in 1947 in a farmers’ family, he did matriculation from his village school in 1964. He graduated from the Sahiwal College in 1968 and came to Lahore where he enrolled in Master’s in Philosophy and later started teaching the same subject at the university. In Sahiwal, he used to sit along with Majeed Amjad at Stadium Hotel before moving to Lahore.

Student politics

According to his autobiography, Life—I Will Weave Your Threads (Jindriay Tan Desan Tera Tana), when he was still a student, he was part of the group that formed the National Students Organisation (NSO) under Prof Azizuddin and Prof Azizul Haq became its convener for the PU while central convener was Imtiaz Alam.

He taught philosophy at the PU and confronted the IJT and the teachers connected with Jamaat-i-Islami but had friends, in his words, from those belonging to JI, including the people like Waris Mir.

Manzoor was a part of the team that formed left-wing National Students Organisation (NSO) under Prof Azizuddin and Prof Azizul Haq at the Punjab University and countered IJT. When he was a lecturer in philosophy at the PU, he worked for regularisation of services of 135 ad hoc teachers. Finance minister Hanif Ramay offered him to regularise services of 10 or 12 left-wing teachers but he insisted on getting all teachers regularised. Later, when he contested the election of the general secretary of the ASA, Mujahid Kamran who was with the IJT and who had become regular due to Ejaz’s efforts, won the election.

Punjabi Sangat

They also formed Sangat that’s now known as Najm Hosain Syed’s Sangat. According to his memoirs, “Keeping in view Punjabi and awareness about Punjabi, I decided to form the Punjabi Sangat and invite Najm Hosain Syed to share his knowledge about Punjabi history and literature. This new Sangat was joined by old fellas of the NSO and young people like Shujaul Haq, Arif Raza, Azmat Qadir, Javed Ali Khan, Khalid Mehmood, Khalid Shehzad, Izzat Majeed and Akmal Hussain. Besides, Akram Varraich, Tahir Yasoob, Mushtaq Soofi and Younas (Chacha) also joined.

“Some meetings of Sangat were held at the Punjab University but the administration stopped us later on for some reason. We asked Najm to hold Sangat meetings at his home and he accepted the suggestion. When Sangat was shifted to Najm’s house at 49-Jail Road, it was decided that Shah Husain’s kafis would be read, chosen and composed by Najm”

Due to my participation in students and teachers politics, Islami Jamiat Talaba was against me. One night when Shujaul Haq (a teacher at Govt College) and his class fellow Imtiaz Bano (a professor at Jhang) called on me and the IJT surrounded my room and opened firing”. After this episode a case was filed in the high court but, according to Manzur Ejaz, the university administration was very weak in front of IJT. After losing his job at the PU, he did some freelance work at PTV in a programme produced by Mushtaq Soofi and also opened a publishing house Punjab Adabi Markaz but there was no stable income.

Punjabi scholar and poet Mushtaq Soofi remembered Dr Manzur Ejaz by saying that though they both belonged to Sahiwal, he met him at PU in 1973 when he was teaching philosophy. “I did intermediate from the Govt College Sahiwal and moved to GC Lahore while Manzur was two years senior to me but strangely we did not meet there.” He said Manzur was fond of singing and when Pathanay Khan started visiting Lahore to meet a music aficionado Mian Aslam Ranjha, he met Manzur too. “I was then staying at the PU hostel where Manzur had been allotted two-room residence and Pathanay Khan used to stay there”. Soofi said Manzur had a knack for singing and he used to sing Heer Waris Shah.

He said those decades were very much happening due to changing dynamics and PU, as opposed to the institutes like GC, was at the centre of all these political and cultural activities where Manzur was also active. He called Manzur a tough person who did not have any handicap despite being affected by polio and he could climb stairs very quickly and move around.

During those days, the oppression of Zia regime was at its peak and he started thinking of migrating to the west. Najam Sethi advised him to migrate to the US because there was less racism. Manzur Ejaz moved to the US and got admission in economics which culminated in his doing PhD in the subject.

After migrating to the US, he did PhD in economics from Epistemology of Development Economics from Howard University, Washington DC.

Wajid Ali Syed, a Pakistani journalist in Washington, who has been close to him, said Dr Manzur was very active until the last moment. “Last year, he had a road accident as a truck ran over him and he remained hospitalised for six months. After his recovery, we were planning to make videos on Bhagat Kabir.” He said he had recorded hundreds of videos for his YouTube channel on literature, starting with the Punjabi classics. “He got a fan following in the Punjabi community in the west also with those videos. We once did a session on Baba Guru Nanak and Sikh community really liked his take on Baba Nanak.”

Syed said he met Manzur for the first time in 2006 and since then he has been meeting him at least once a week. “In 2007/8, his book, My People, My Thoughts, was published and after that, they really got close.” He said Manzur would run Washington Policy Forum which used to hold monthly meetings, especially with any guests coming from Pakistan to discuss the conditions in the country.

Not a Punjabi nationalist but internationalist

In a session with journalist and writer Mohammed Hanif during Jashn-i-Manzur Ejaz, he declared that he was not a Punjabi nationalist but was an internationalist, believing in humanism but he wrote in Punjabi because he felt pleasure in it though he liked writing in Urdu too and like Ghalib as much as Waris Shah. He said he could articulate his thoughts better in Punjabi then would turn them into Urdu or English.

Regarding Punjabi language, he had a logical contention that if the Punjabis won’t create new knowledge in the language why should anybody learn it and poetry and fiction were not enough for it. That pushed him to write books on history of Punjabi, philosophy and linguistics. He did not give much weightage to his poetry and literature.

Punjabi writer and publisher Zubair Ahmed, who runs publishing house Kitan Trinjan, published 22 books by Manzur Ejaz. He says though he knew Dr Ejaz since 1975/76 when he used to run Punjab Adabi Markaz, he had been in regular contact with him since 1996 and their basic contact was due to Sangat of Najm Hosain Syed. He said Dr Manzur wrote most of his books during the last few years and he published them all, except his old book, Ranjhan Yar, on Waris Shah. “His best books include Waris Nama in which he analysed Waris Shah from dialectical and materialist points of view and History of Philosophy which was a rare feat in Punjabi language.” Zubair rated highly his translation of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. “Unlike some Punjabi scholars and intellectuals, Manzur Ejaz’s language was very simple as he wanted to communicate his thoughts to the people.”

Zubair said during his last days he was working on a book on Marxism and capitalism. He informed that though Dr Manzur Ejaz was a Marxist and progressive, he was quite critical of it during his last days.

Besides five poetry collections, some of the books of Dr Ejaz include Punjab Di Lok Tareekh, three volumes of his autobiography under different titles, Ghalib Nama, Inqilab Jo Aa Chuka Hai, Ajoki Wichar Dhara, Waris Shah Di Mudhli Wichaar Dhara and Punjabi Reet, Waris Nama in five volumes and Waris Shah –the Ideologue.

He wrote columns in English for about 25 years and Urdu columns in Jang for about five years.

Dr Manzur was 78 at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife Kokab Attiya, daughter Aysha Husain and son Waris Husain.

Funeral prayers for him will be held on Saturday, April 5, at 11am at Fairfax Memorial Park, 9902 Braddock Road, Fairfax, VA.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2025