Karachi, August 01, 2023 (PPI-OT): The vibrant societies are open to alternative rational thoughts and ideas, while the closed societies live in dogma, said Prof Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed, addressing an event organised by the youth organizations, “Alternative”, here to remember noted scholar, writer and historian Sibte Hassan. Other who spoke in the session were Aqib Hussain, Convener Alternate, Nasir Mansoor of NTUF, Asghar Dasti of Federal Urdu University, Zehra Khan of HBWWF and Sajjad Zahir of progress writer’s association.

Paying great tributes to Sibte Hassan, he said that he, himself, came to the ‘orbit’ of Sitbe Hassan in 1975. He said that at that time he was a student and activist of Young Writers Forum. He said that at that time Sibte would publish an Urdu magazine, Pakistani Abad and he met with him at his office. Hassan encouraged him to write and research, inviting him to the gatherings of intellectuals. He said later he would regularly visit the office of Pakistani Abad and do its proof reading along with Saeeda Gazdar. He said at that time Sibte Hassan would live near his neighbourhood and after the office time they would commute back home together. During this commuting time, he would ask different questions and Sibte Hassan would answer these questions. He said he learnt a lot from thes3 discussions with Sibte Hassan. He said Sibte Hassan was a fine gentleman with refined mannerisms. He said that there are some major contributions of Sibte Hassan in spreading progressive thoughts in society.

He said the nineteenth century was the period of the completion of the colonization of India by the British. He said the response to this colonization by the Muslims was different. He said the religious people thought to sustain their identity on the basis of the teachings of Islam in a traditional way. Another school of thought was led by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. He was a controversial personality of his time. His intellectual, social and political thoughts played a major role, as he was a representative of the elite class of the Utter Pradesh (UP) and he wanted to safeguard the interests of the Muslim elite who had a big role in the UP. He proposed the thought of Muslim nationalism. However, he was not only afraid of the Hindus but also educated Bengalis including the Muslim Bengalis. He adopted a way of modernism and stressed to learn the English. He asked not to resist the British but safeguard the interests of the elite of the UP by cooperating with the British government.

Later, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan went to the UK and studied their education system, specially the boarding schools. After returning back to India he established his boarding house school system that progressed from a school to college and to Aligarh University. He; however, successfully planted the sapling of Islamic modernism.

Dr Jaffar said that Mirza Ghalib was even more modernist Muslim scholar of India than Sir Syed Ahmed. His work is seen in his letters and poetry. Later, Anjuman Tariqi Passand Mussanfeen was founded that paved the way for progressive movement in India. Dr Jaffar said this was the period of different literary movements in India. Talking about Sibte Hassan, he said Hassan got his education from Aligarh. Later, he went to Hyderabad Deccan and worked in the magazine of Qazi Abdul Ghaffar. It influenced greatly on his ideology and thinking. Later, he wrote many articles on politics, philosophy and history. He said the great contribution of Sitbe Hassan was to continue the modernization movement of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in Pakistan. He said this movement resulted in creation of a lot of creative literature in our country, but it sadly didn’t greatly influence the social values.

He said Sibte Hassan wanted to create new social values on the basis of science and modernism. His first major book was Mazi ki Mazar, in which he talked about basic thinking’s and values of various civilizations. He said after the Dhaka Fall, Sibte Hassan and other intellectuals provided an alternative view point on the basic causes of the creation of the Bangladesh. They stressed to rediscover the civilization of Pakistan and rewrite the history on its basis. In this regard, Sibte Hassan wrote a book ‘Pakistan men Tahzeeb ka Irtiqa’, presenting an alternative point of view. Later, his famous book ‘Moosa se Marx tak’ was published. He also wrote on political movements in Afghanistan and Iran. He later wrote an important book, Naveed e Fikr, in which he discussed secularism. He wrote that secularism and class-based struggle are two different things, but secularism paves way for the class based struggle.

Later, his English book, Battle of Ideas in Pakistan, was published after his demise. Later, his book on Faiz Ahmed Faiz was published. His editorials were compiled. Prof Jaffar said later he himself compiled five other books of Sibte Hassan. His other articles and write-ups were also compiled. However, still there are many other works of Sibte Hassan that are yet to be published. Dr Jaffar said that we live in a society where our young generations are given the closed narrative that suits the agenda of the State. He said our society needs deeper social science studies on scientific lines.

He said Sibte Hassan played a crucial role in the Communist Party and spread of Marxist ideas. He was also a working journalist. He would try to understand things on the Marxist lines. He promoted rationalism ideas. He wrote on the history and society of Hyderabad Daccan, critically. Dr Jaffar stressed the need of spread of rationalist and progressive narrative of Sibte Hassan to pave way for more rational thinking in our society.

For more information, contact:

Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF)

726, Mashrique Centre, Block 14, Gulshan-e-Iqbal,

Karachi, Pakistan

Tel: +92-21-37075324

Website: https://hbwwf.org/