Paying tribute: Corner of Sindh Museum dedicated to author Dr Abdul Jabbar Junejo

Visitors can leaf through his books, see his radio, prayer mat, Sindhi cap, wallet, spectacles.


Z Ali December 19, 2011

HYDERABAD: Sindh’s culture department has set up a special section at the Sindh Museum in honour of historian, author and educationist Dr Abdul Jabbar Junejo.

The department also organised a commemorative ceremony on Sunday evening in Badin, Junejo’s birthplace, where he was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard.

Dr Junejo is the seventh, among his contemporaries, to find a place in the gallery of distinguished writers and scholars at the museum. Zafar Kazmi, Ghulam Rabbani Agro and NA Baloch are some of them.

The corner will display his books, photographs, shields and awards, his radio, prayer mat, Sindhi cap, wallet, spectacles and clothes.

“Prose alone was not his forte,” said Dr Tahmina Mufti, a professor of literature and a writer. “He stood out in poetry and music equally.” Mufti remembered Junejo as a progressive Sufi. “He played the harmonium and tabla himself.” Culture Minister Sassui Palijo explained that the corner would help acquaint younger people with the struggles, accomplishments and personalities of these writers and scholars.

Junejo died at the age of 75 in July 2011. He authored 63 books in Sindhi, Urdu, Persian and English. He did his PhD on the influence of Persian language on Sindhi in 1974. He was also fluent in Chinese which he picked up during his year-long stay in China.

The late writer also had novels and around 200 research papers to his credit. He also supervised several PhD and MPhil scholars.

Sindhi Adab ji Tareekh (A three-volume history of Sindhi literature) and Latifiaat (research on Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai’s poetry) are among the monumental contributions by Junejo, said Dr Habibullah Siddiqui, a writer who heads the Allama Ghulam Mustafa Qasmi Chair at Sindh University. “He was a solitary struggler,” he said. “He never co-authored anything.”

Sindhi Zabaan ji Maahiyat (Sindhi linguistics), Laarhi and Kaachi, in Sindhi, Sindhi Lok Geet, Shairi , Aik Mutalia and Mera Ishq Bhi Tu, in Urdu, are some of his renowned works.

Junejo also left a number of unpublished works. The chairperson of the Sindhi Language Authority, Dr Fehmida Hussain, put the figure at 10, while others say that the author left behind 30 unfinished works.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2011.

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