GM Sayed has been a wellknown figure in the history of Pakistani politics.

He was one of the proponents oftheidea of a separate Muslim homeland in the subcontinent that materialised with the emergence of Pakistan in 1947.

A new book on him titled The Sun of Sindh: G M Sayed`s Life and Writings, edited by Zafar Junejo, has been published by G M Sayed Memorial Committee, USA, and Peacock Publishers, Karachi.

The publisher`s note says: `The book provides insight into social and political conditions between 1928 and the death of Sayed in 1995...The contents of the book provide a wide-range view of Sayed`s personality, opinions, struggles, and the social and political milieu in which he operated.

Zafar Junejo tells us in his introduction that Sayed in his early age was influenced by Gandhi, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, and the Khilafat Movement.

Like so many in India out of sync with the march of time he supported the perpetuation ofso-called Khilafat while progressive forces in Turkey were trying to eject it out of their system as a dead weight from the past. He also actively participated in the movement that demanded the separation of Sindh from Bombay Presidency. `In the light of the Round Table Conference and Government of India Act of 1935, Sindh became independent of Bombay on April 1, 1936, and acquired provincial status,` writes the editor.

Sayed joined the All India Muslim League in 1938 and played an important role in getting a resolution passed in 1943 by the Sindh Assembly that demanded the creation of Pakistan as a separate Muslim majority state. The editor asserts that `Sayed`s life was characterised by two interwoven ideas; the pursuit of reforms for the benefit of the people and the plan to secure more significant benefits through the British-introduced constitutional reforms.` In 1936, he along with his likeminded friends established the Sindh United Party. `It was modelled according to the lines of the Unionist Party of Punjab and the Justice Party of Madras.` The editor vividlytraces the evolution of Sayed`s thought. After the emergence of Pakistan he gradually got disillusioned with the state of Pakistan and its policies. He greatly resented the separation of Karachi from Sindh province as a federalterritory which resulted in its being declared the country`s capital.

What exacerbated the situation was a large inflow of immigrants from UP, Bihar and other Indian provinces mainly comprising urbanised Urdu speakers-in search ofgreener pasture that changed the demographic composition of Karachi. Sindh lost its biggest city culturally, socially and politically. The creation of the One Unit in 1955 merging of provinces in West Pakistan to counter the weight of Bengali majority in the name of a funnily illogical notion of parity proved the last straw that broke the camel`s back. In the following years things came to such a pass that teaching of Sindhi language in schools was prohibited. Inspired by Bengali language politics he and his friends started a movement for linguistic and cultural rights of Sindh the centrist forces balked at. His cultural politics in the opinion ofmany has been his biggest legacy. The book is divided into chapters such as articles by different authors (on Sayed) and scholars, personal anecdotes, interviews and G M Sayed`s writings. Sayed no doubt had been a controversial political leader in the history of Pakistan. `His detractors see him as a traitor who, after having vocally propounded the Pakistan project in the 1930s and 1940s, turned separatist, writes Julien Levesque in the foreword. `Assuredly, Sayed`s lifelong struggle and experience led him to the conviction that Sindh as a free nation would not only benefit Sindhis but also contribute to regional peace and prosperity,` writes Abdul Rehman Kakepoto in the publisher`s note.

Zafar Junejo has done a commendable job; his book chronicles not only Sayed`s politicocultural struggle but also touches on an epoch-making era of subcontinent`s history.

A sign of positive development for the literature of Punjabi language is that more and more Punjabi writers are turning to fiction which is one of the most effective and popular genres for exploring the multiple facets of individualand social life. Tahir Sandhu has made his debut on the literary scene with his collection of short stories Neondra published by Sulekh Publishers, Lahore.

Tahir is an advocate by profession with deep interest in literature and cultural politics. He is a poet, translator and researcher. He has also transliterated poetry of Amrita Pritam and Shiv Kumar from Gurmukhi to Shahmukhi script. The publisher`s note says; he `shows us life both in rural and urban settings as vividly as one can see in a feature film...To portray the psyche of lifelike characters with skill and finesse is a difficult task and he has done it forcefully.

Tahir constructs his stories with critical consciousness that enables him to delve into existential and social dimensions of his characters. He usually takes unusual but probable experiences, characters, events and situations to build his narratives which become something akin to a periscope allowing him to see what is from the depth and what is on the surface. His story Bhaar, for example, provides a window on our socio-political life in a manner that is subtle as well as revealing. It`s a story ofa pariah, an outcast, that lives on a pavement in an urban centre. Interestingly, along with the main protagonist, a dog, an interested stranger and a swarm of ants form an unusual clutch of characters. The pariah, it is hinted, lost himself while trying to search for his lost son. He believes that certain invisible forces connected with power structure have disappeared him. The interested stranger, intrigued and out of curiosity and compassion, gradually builds a rapport with the sick and fragile pariah with a view to getting him out of his agonising situation but he finds the man nowhere the day he intended to help him out. Municipal staff, he comes to know, removed him from the dirty pavement as they prepared to welcome a foreign dignitary of high rank as was shown by the welcome posters carrying his photo. It seems the same forces which made his son disappear disappear him. A powerfully moving narrative of an individual pitted against visibly invisible Kafkaesque forces. Tahir stories expose the dark recesses of our life that are kept under wraps. A rewarding read indeed. soofi01@hotmail.com