Sobho Gianchandani: Sage of the Age [ Zarmeena Baloch] Oh weep for Adonais!—The quick Dreams, The passion-wingèd Ministers of thought, Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught. (Shelley) I have always read and heard people saying, ‘Kay MaaNhoon Tareekh Thiyan Tha - Some people are history unto themselves. I used to wonder, ‘How come?. For, history envelops stories of failures, triumphs, joys, sorrows, rebellions, retreats, wisdom and passion and selfless devotion for greater truths. Sobho Gianchandani was such a man who has left we, the downtrodden people with a huge lesson that it is our paramount duty to beautify this Kar-e-Jahan (world of action) to make something out of us. Sobho was straight forward person. He never liked to mince words in order to earn praise. He always used to invite wrath for his forthright personality. Who better could understand the psyche of trivial ruling elite pumped up with volumes of hatred than him? He used to speak with them through innate contempt for such miserly souls who loved to thrive upon heaps of corpses. He used to call himself a hydra-headed monster embodying three important facets of personhood. That is to say that he merged within himself three beautiful colours of human existence, namely, Sindhism, Hinduism and Marxism simultaneously. Sobho was a conscious Sindhi who traced his history in Mohan Jo Daro. He was unlike those herds of Syeds, Mirs, Pirs and Khans who used to boast about their fictitious lineages. When he wrote to Tagore, he had written it with pride which was unmatched. He said, ‘I am man from Mohan Jo Daro’, so you need not to test my credentials. Today, when he is no more alive, we can judge him as great soul risen from spirit of Sindhiyat. People tried to convince him to migrate to India, but he bluntly refused to hand over his motherland to vulture. The great exodus of indigenous Sindhis threw him into a stunning silence. He saw his land attacked by Gog and Magog of our times. He went into a self-imposed silence for a time being. Perhaps, it was a heavy shock for him. The mansions in the city were occupied by the cormorants. Even, wealthy villages in the suburbs were occupied. It was an unmatched plunder of Sindhi assets by refugees. Sobho was one of leading post-colonial theorist. He knew well, how colonisers would inflict domination through revival of religious bigotry. The call for partition and rise of hardliners in congress was in fact a nail in the coffin of Akhand Bharat. All those who liked to see mother India intact, severely criticised partition plan as vivisection of the sacred land. Quite astonishing to our amazement, Sobho liked to see Akhand Sindhu Sabhita as a new basis for cartographic change. He never liked to express his vision by and large. But, he confided this desire to his close friends. It was not an all of sudden change, but brimming and brewing notion of cultural and civilisational integrity which used to prompt him for a new shape of South Asia on Indic Gangetic and Brahmputric lines. Sobho Gianchandani was a real subaltern voice in post partition arena. When somebody told him that Gayatri Spivak emphasises upon assertion of subalternity. He immediately replied, ‘Is it new thought’? Nope, it is not. He was right in his contestation if “subalternity” referred to a condition of subordination brought about by colonization or other forms of economic, social, racial, linguistic, and/or cultural dominance (Beverely, 1999). Sobho loved subaltern voices in every form. However, he was also humane leader who despised subaltern forces to resort to indecent practices of violence. The whole idea of rebellion and revolution through force was central to comrades like Che Guevara. However, he was so entrenched in Sindhian ideals of non-violence that he couldnt come out of aura of peaceful change. The violent confrontation, despite his early connection with MN Roy, was a besetting sin to him. Comrade Sobho was an open institution. He always invited wisdom and sagacity to come to him. This is why we always found him encircled by those people who leaned onto to spectre thought and abstraction. As a short story writer, he was so symbolic to the change like a poet that he woven his idealism emerges from debris of inaction. Akhayun Jo TutaN (Broken Images*) depicted a story of desolation and hopelessness in the misty layers of indecisiveness. Sobho stood for activism. It was an endeared aspect of his life to the last day. His writes-up were mirror images of societies. As a critic, he never let himself bogged down in unnecessary fight over objective and subjective themes and style in literature. He says reader develops his own image of society. So, let him develop. He wanted a representation of down-trodden on both planes of human activism. He didnt like those who secured and occupied literary satraps despite being supportive to the idea of change. Sobho called such intellectuals and writers as serpentine resting upon stagnancy and immobility. Sobho believed in representation of marginal voices. Sometimes, we find him taking over giants (perhaps so-called) like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Sajjad Zaheer, Shaikh Ayaz and Ali Sardar Jaffri. These poets and writers were seemingly romantic, rebel and resistive. Unlike them, Sobho took an entirely different path of bringing literary representation of those who were fickle, inaccessible and impoverished like characters of Raheema. I intentionally, avoided bringing biographical sketch into this short tribute to a legend that though physically expired, but spiritually alive as an immortal guiding spirit. Truth is that, He lives, he wakes—tis Death is dead, not he; (Shelley) - Zarmeena Baloch ............................. * Conceptual Translation of Title
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 18:57:40 +0000
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