Adieu, Comrade Sobho Gianchandani

He was a driving force for many Sindhis, hope for many left-wing revolutionaries, inspiration for future generations

Clouds of gloominess were already prevailing in Sindh for the past couple of weeks in the wake of the killings of some Sindhi nationalist activists. The death of Comrade Sobho Gianchandani made the atomosphere even gloomier. He was 95. Until his death, he was possibly the oldest living legend of the sub-continent after Jyoti Basu of India died at the age of 93 in 2010.

Gianchandani was a staunch communist, man of revolutionary vigour and one of principles. He was a writer, rights activist and a lawyer. He was an ideological Marxist and remained one till his last breath. He lived in the Bhutto bastion of Larkana and, during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s regime, faced challenging circumstances. He was put under house-arrest and was jailed several times. Bhutto invited him to join the PPP but Comrade never succumbed to such offers. He never compromised his ideological beliefs unlike some other Marxists of his time, who joined the power bandwagons.

Regardless of the fact that he belonged to a minority community, he was admired, followed and supported widely. Despite spending several years in prison and under house arrest, Gianchandani never migrated from the country and stood by his words: “I have been born in Sindh and I will die in Sindh because Sindh is the land of our forefathers.”

He was the first Sindhi, Hindu and non-Urdu-speaking person to have received Pakistan’s top literary award, the Kamal-e-Fan Award in 2004. His pen reflected his prodigious mind. The Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, was his mentor. Under his tutelage at Shantiniketan, Gianchandani received his education in 1939. Tagore used to call him “man from Mohen jo Daro”.

He was a renowned political figure among the communist parties of the subcontinent and contested in elections on the reserved seat of minorities which, as the Comrade always alleged, was rigged in favour of Bhagwan Das Chawla. During his house-arrest from 1959 to 1964, he worked a lot for the agriculture sector and was noted particularly for his contribution in rice production.

Gianchandani was a man of principles. When he was told that he would be receiving the Kamal-e-Fan Award from former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, he refused to receive it as he did not want an award from a dictator. He instead sent his daughter and son-in-law to receive the award on his behalf from the governor of Sindh.

It was only a few weeks ago that the Sindh Graduate Association in Islamabad organised a gathering to pay homage to the literary services of Ibrahim Joyo, another legend of Sindh, as part of his centenary birthday celebration. A senior member of the association suggested that a similar event should be held for Gianchandani as well on his centenary birthday celebrations. But, alas, he became a victim of nervous nineties, as the cricket jargon goes. Though, he did not score a century, he will definitely be remembered for centuries.

As a student activist of the left-wing National Student Federation, I would often use Comrade’s popular phrase, for myself that I am “a three-headed monster: a Sindhi, a Hindu and a Communist”. His undeterred struggle always infused new vigour; trials and tribulations he had gone through always injected new blood; and his unmatched approach towards sociopolitical issues always opened new horizons for many of his followers and admirers. He was a driving force for many Sindhis, a hope for many left-wing revolutionaries and an inspiration for future generations. Adieu, Comrade. You will be missed forever.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th,  2014.

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