Baba-e-Sindh: Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi remembered on 45th anniversary

Different commemorative events held in honour of the peasant leader

HYDERABAD: Late comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi, the pre-independence peasant leader known as Baba-e-Sindh, was remembered on his 45th death anniversary in different commemorative events held across Hyderabad on Thursday.

Honouring the late leader, peasant and labour leaders renewed their resolve to pace up their struggle for land ownership rights of the landless peasants.

"If you have to run the country, you will have to give rights to the peasants," said comrade Azhar Jatoi, the grandson of the late leader, who currently heads the Sindh Haree Committee that was once led by his grandfather. The committee organised a public meeting in Kalhora Colony. He recalled how the late comrade rebelled against the people of his social strata and the then prevailing political system to dedicate his life for the rights of peasants.



Jatoi resigned from the post of deputy collector in the British government in 1943 and joined the committee as its secretary in 1945. A decade earlier in 1936, he had provided a portion of his residence in Hyderabad for setting up the first office of the committee.

He is also credited with revolutionising the committee through regular protests and spearheading the campaign in the print media. By 1948, the committee's membership increased to 160,000 with Hyderabad, Sanghar, Nawabshah and Larkana emerging as strongholds.

His struggle culminated in the enactment of 1951 Sindh Tenancy Act. Over the next two decades, he participated in political struggle, coined the 'Jeay Sindh' slogan and spent around a decade in imprisonment.

"These days people leave politics if they get a high-ranking government job but Jatoi left the trappings of power to join the powerless," said nationalist leader Dr Mir Alam Mari.

At another event organised by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) on Thursday, the speakers lamented that anniversary programmes for Jatoi were incommensurate with his profile. "Jatoi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and GM Syed are three big names in the realm of political leadership," said NTUF deputy general secretary Nasir Mansoor.

Home-Based Women Workers Federation leader Zahra Khan talked about the plight of female peasants at the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2015.