Celebrating a legend: A tribute to Ibrahim Joyo’s progressive thinking

The nationalist leader will celebrate his 100th birthday on August 12

KARACHI: Nationalist leader Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo will celebrate his 100th birthday on August 12, but what will happen after that?

Author Mazhar Jameel raised this question at a seminar, titled 'Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo and the struggle for progressive thinking', organised by the Anjuman Taraqqi Pasand Musannefeen at the Pakistan Medical Association hall. He stressed the importance of taking Joyo's message forward. "We should have a Darul Tarjuma in Sindh which not only translates the classics of Sindhi but also those of other languages", he said, adding that the legacy of Joyo is that he not only wrote books but collected the best knowledge from the world and translated it into Sindhi. Human rights advocate IA Rehman was the moderator while Mazharul Haq Siddiqui, the former vice-chancellor of Sindh University, was the chief guest at the event.

Lawmaker Mehtab Akbar Rashdi also paid tribute to the author. "[He is] the person whose finger GM Syed held and took him to school for enrolment," she said.

Joyo translated the works of authors such as Karl Marx, Byron and TS Elliot into Sindhi. "He was kicked out of a lot of jobs because of his writings," said columnist Zahida Hina.

Speaking about the preparations for the celebration of Joyo's 100th birthday, writer Muslim Shamim said this was the first time a writer was being honoured during his lifetime.

"He saw the dream for progressive thinking when people in Sindh had a marriage of convenience with the dark," said another author, Tauseef Ahmed Khan. Taking his point forward, Karachi University Pakistan Study Centre director Syed Jaffar Ahmed pointed out that it had become hard to spread progressive thoughts as the internet and social media had become nurseries of extremism.

Professor Saleem Memon vowed to promote the 'secularism and knowledge of Joyo' among the next generation. The event ended with the re-launch of one of Joyo's old Sindhi books by Memon with the collaboration of the Sindh culture ministry.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2015.