KARACHI: A foundation stone for the development of a new centre for literature and culture, named after great Urdu poet Josh Malihabadi, was laid in the city’s residential society on Saturday.

The new centre, namely Aiwan-i-Josh, owned by Josh Literary Society of Canada, Calgary, primarily aims to promote ‘Joshiyat’ (information about literary work of Josh Malihabadi), and to further carry out researches on the ample literary work of Josh, who is famous as a revolutionary poet of his time. One of Aiwan-i-Josh’s prime objectives is to preserve literatures of various local languages indigenous to Sindh and prevent their extinction. These local languages include old Sindhi, Kutchi, Thari, Brahui and Saraiki.

Justice (retd) Salauddin Mirza, former provincial ombudsman, laid the foundation stone in a special ceremony held at the centre, situated near the Super Highway. On the occasion a large number of prominent poets and scholars, including Prof Sahar Ansari, Iqbal Haider, founder of Josh Literary Society, Dr Hilal Naqvi, chief editor Urdu Dictionary Board Aqil Abbas Jafari, Dr Aliya Imam, Prof Manzar Aubi, Prof Jazib Qureshi, Mubeen Mirza, Dr Jawaid Manzar, Yawar Mehdi, Prof Aniz Rizvi, Qamar Razi, and many others also spoke.

Paying tribute to the legendary revolutionary poet, Justice Mirza declared that Josh Malihabadi was one of the great poets of the 20th century, and said his literary work needed more attention from researchers to open new vistas to understand ‘Shair-i-Inqalab’.

Prof Sahar Ansari declared that the establishment of Aiwan-i-Josh in Karachi was great news. He observed that Josh was blessed to have sincere devotees who were engaged to promoting Joshiyat.

Dr Hilal Naqvi, the famous poet and an expert in Joshiyat, said that Josh was a great political and revolutionary voice before Partition. He regretted that Josh was the only great poet in this continent whose poetic work was callously squandered. He pointed out that Josh had written the longest poem of 20,000 ashaar (verses), namely ‘Harf-o-Hikayat’, but only one or two verses were publicised. He said that the whole poem remained to be published.

He pointed out that a few family members of Josh Maliahabadi owned the longest poem, but they declined to publicise the extraordinary work. He hoped that Aiwan-i-Josh would work in a positive direction to promulgate Joshiyat in the world of Urdu.

Dr Aliya Imam said that Josh was the only grand poet of the history of Urdu literature who wrote a ‘Qaseda’ (encomium) to describe farmers, though this genre of poetry was used only to praise royals and imperials.

Ye Sama aur ik qawi insane yani kashtkar
Irtiqa ka peshwa, tehzeeb ka perwardigar

She said that an adversary against capitalism and imperialism was dominant in the poetry of Shair-i-Inqalab.

Iqbal Haider informed the participants that a sister wing of Josh Literary Society of Canada had been opened in Pakistan. He said that this centre would cover not only Urdu literature but also other local languages with regards to research. He said the centre was being setup at a plot of around 1,600 square yards in a residential society and will be a two-storey building.

Chief editor Urdu Dictionary Board Aqil Abbas Jafari termed the development of Aiwan-i-Josh as a dream of Urdu lovers who felt affection for revolutionary and political poetry.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2019