SHAH Abdul Latif Bhittai’s annual urs was observed recently in Bhit Shah with the reverence that marks the event every year.
However, a true tribute to the person should not be in the form of an annual gathering. It should be in the form of an attempt to emulate his life which enabled him to live on in the hearts of millions even today. Bhittai is not merely read; he is lived.
Unlike court poets chasing royal favours, Bhittai walked among ordinary people peasants, artisans, boatmen, nomadsand others. Bhittai chose humble huts over power and palaces, and gave voice to the voiceless.
If he walked through Sindh today, he would recognise much of the suffering thatinspired his poetry centuries ago.
He would see exhausted mothers carrying malnourished children between hospitals without doctors and medicines, farmers crushed by debt, labourers denied fair wages, villages without basic facilities, and youth with nowhere to turn to. Feudal power still dominates, women still face violence and the barbaric practice of karo kari, and the voiceless still struggle to be heard. Nearly three centuries on, he would wonder and ask why nothing has changed.
The truest celebration of Bhittai will not come from floral wreaths or ceremonial speeches at his shrine by those in power.
It will come when his ideals shape our society, when the poor are treated with dignity, women get equality, and justice reaches everyone. Only then will Sindh have honoured, in practice, the poet who neverstoppedhonouringitinhisverses.
Qamer Soomro Shikarpur