Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, who was born on Dec 27, 1797 in Agra, is widely regarded as the greatest Urdu language poet. Urdu is Pakistan’s national language and there are at least half a dozen cultural organisations in Karachi, a couple of them named after Ghalib, that harp on the importance of the Urdu language.
But for some strange reason Ghalib’s birth and death anniversaries are never observed or special events are held, leave alone observed the way they merit, by these organisations. The same negligent attitude was witnessed on the poet’s 219th birthday on Tuesday, which went by completely unnoticed.
Talking to Dawn, Ghalib Library’s secretary Rauf Parekh thinks that’s not the case; “We do hold special events and we intend to do one on Feb 15, 2017. Since we are a trust, lack of funds caused us to halt our activities in the past, but rest assured we have been doing our bit. We publish 30 to 35 books on Ghalib and he is very much alive with us. This year our grant has been increased, so you will see more programmes. That being said, I concede that we have not done enough.”
President of the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi Ahmed Shah says: “Every year at our international Urdu conference we have a session on Ghalib. Even this year we had a lecture by Dr Nomanul Haq on ‘Ghalib Se Iqbal’. Yes, I agree that his birth and death anniversaries should be commemorated. To be honest, we were busy with our post-election stuff, so [we] could not think about it. Also, cultural organisations are not that connected to Urdu literature the way they should be. On Feb 15, which is Ghalib’s death anniversary, we will arrange a conference on his life and work...
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