Everywhere in the world, people with a literary bent of mind sometimes name their children after poets or writers. But it is Sindh that stands out in the way it celebrates its classical poets. In the rest of Pakistan, and in most other countries, governments may name a square, road, library or some public building after a well-known artist. Occasionally, we may even find a private individual name her business after a famous writer. However, I am yet to find a place other than Sindh where, on such a large scale, ordinary people take pride in naming any place or any enterprise of theirs after the great poets — particularly Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai.

It could be a café, a grocery store, a petrol pump, an auto workshop, a barber’s salon, a tailoring service, a shoe mart, a roadside tavern, a cinema hall or a sports ground — all are fair game to be named after Bhitai or Sachal Sarmast. Shaikh Ayaz’s name is also catching up over the past few years. Take a ride from an unknown village in the heart of Sindh to the biggest city by the sea and see for yourself; from Sachal Petroleum to Latif Tailors, from Ayaz Stationers to Bhitai Pan Shop, the tributes are peppered all along highways and streets.

Bhitai is one of the few great poets whose work resonates equally with the educated and the non-literate. Born in the late 17th century, he wrote during the first half of the 18th century and witnessed major political upheavals and social transformations. From Maulana Rumi’s absorbing mysticism to Shah Inayat’s revolutionary zeal, Bhitai has a wide embrace. From venerating the seven heroic women of the Indus Valley to lending his voice to the poor and the dispossessed, Bhitai challenges the feudal and patriarchal order without compromising the rhyme and cadence of his exquisite verse even a wee bit.

Among others, the two key texts available in English today — not only to appreciate Bhitai but also to understand his influence on both literature and politics in Sindh — are from the formidable scholar of the late 19th and early 20th century, Mirza Kalich Beg, and the father of Sindhi political consciousness, G.M. Syed.

Beg’s manuscript, originally in English, was completed in 1887 and titled Life of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, where he signs his name as K.F. Mirza (Kalich Faridun Mirza). It was discovered from Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi’s personal library and first published in 1980 by the Bhit Shah Cultural Centre Committee, overseen at the time by A.H. Akhund. Akhund notes that Beg was the most competent and assiduous student of Bhitai’s life and there is no likelihood of any further accretion of hard facts about Bhitai now. However, with all his great scholarship and appreciation of Bhitai’s humanism and universal appeal, Beg — as a civil servant at the peak of British colonial rule — could not have presented Bhitai’s political message to humanity as Syed did.

Syed’s work, Paigham-i-Latif, was first published in Sindhi in 1952 and later translated into both Urdu and English. The English translation, Shah Latif and His Message, by Prof Egnert Azariah, is widely available, also online if readers are interested. Syed found Bhitai to be a harbinger of humanity and compassion, but not simply like a mystic recluse. Bhitai has a definite social consciousness and a strong sense of identity.

Therefore, if Beg were the most assiduous student of Bhitai as far as his poetry and mysticism are concerned, Syed was the most diligent of his disciples when it comes to Bhitai’s poetry and politics. How unfortunate that Syed — an icon of the freedom movement — was declared profane and a traitor from the very beginning and had to spend 30 years in prison. Few from the newer generations know that, without him joining the All India Muslim League in 1938, the party would have remained a club of feudal lords and title-holders of the British in Sindh. Even fewer would know that, when he opposed the centrist policies pursued by the Muslim League, the 1946 elections were manipulated against him. After independence, he was incarcerated as early as in 1948.

Syed penned 60 books and many papers and speeches on varied subjects. Some years ago, veteran political leader Abdul Khalique Junejo — who remains a committed follower of Syed’s — compiled a slim volume in Urdu, Fikr-i-G.M. Syed Aur Aaj Ka Pakistan [The Ideas of G.M. Syed and Today’s Pakistan]. Besides an insightful preface by Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed and other bits and pieces of information on Syed’s life and political career offered by the compiler, the book brings together three of Syed’s most important writings: the welcome address at the opening meeting of the Pakistan People’s Organisation (PPO) in 1948, the political programme and strategy of the PPO, and a speech made at an international peace conference in Vienna, Austria, in 1952.

Just a few months after independence, when Syed co-founded the PPO, what he said was prophetic. He could see that if religion were mixed with politics and used for material gains, if diverse provinces and nationalities in the new state were denied their fundamental rights through an artificially imposed unity, if a belligerent approach were adopted towards our neighbouring countries and if democratic socialism were not adopted for economic prosperity, Pakistan would hardly ever flourish like a modern nation. The political programme he presented in 1948 was based on peaceful coexistence and mutual respect. He urged that people’s civil, political, cultural and economic rights must be kept at the centre of all politics.

Syed was no saint and had committed political mistakes like his contemporaries. However, he derived his ideology from the values of human compassion and social secularism professed by Bhitai. Today, the term I personally disagree with after being a minor student of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, but which the powers-that-be insist on using to define the idea of Pakistan, is ‘Iqbal’s Pakistan’. But this Pakistan is perpetually at odds with itself. How about trying out ‘Bhitai’s Pakistan’, which is equitable, inclusive, democratic and cherishes diversity.

The columnist is a poet and essayist based in Islamabad. His latest book is a collection of verse No Fortunes to Tell

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, April 26th, 2020