Far away from Karoonjhar Mountains in Pakistan’s Thar desert’s Parkar region, the village Lakar Khadio is situated along the India-Pakistan border. Once while visiting the village, I met an old man of the Kolhi community - a Hindu caste in Sindh - wearing a lungi, talking about the many revolutions that have taken place in the world and discussed in detail Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, V. Lenin’s State and Revolution, Mao Zedong’s Long March, and the history of Sindh’s oppressed classes. I just stared at him like a child – stunned into silence that a man in a remote village of Pakistan was so knowledgeable and well-read.

I was accompanied by my friend, Parbhu Kolhi, who was also listening to the old man with rapt interest. Seeing my amazement, he elbowed me and quietly whispered that the man was a "political worker of Rasool Bux Palijo’s political party Awami Tahreek", We both kept quiet and listened to the wise man.

Sindh’s towering left leader

Palijo was a Pakistani leftist, Marxist leader, scholar, and writer. He was a leading human-rights lawyer and the leader and founder of Awami Tahreek, a progressive and leftist party.  In 1970, he founded the political party Awami Tehreek but kept it away from electoral politics.  He became the first political prisoner who remained the longest term in jail under political charges for more than 11 years and was declared as Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International in 1981.  

Rasool Bux Palijo has earned a place in the pantheon of leaders of South Asia who has earned lasting fame and created an ideological legacy in the struggle against martial law, feudalism, colonialism, and imperialism. He is also credited to have created a strong cadre of workers who didn’t have anything to do with politics, except striving for positive social change.

In this entire belt of Parkar region, that old man was not the only one who spoke so confidently about history, and communist writers and leaders.  The influence of Palijo, who died at the age of 88 in 2018, can still be seen in this region two years after his death. His followers still carry forward his thoughts, ideas, and philosophy.

In every small or large village of Kolhi and Bheel communities of this rocky region one can see the flags of Palijo’s political party flying on Chaunras (typical Thari huts) or trees. One can also see the photos of this Sindhi nationalist on the walls of these typical Thari huts. This is their love for the politics of the left taught by their beloved leader, who wrote numerous books and successfully mobilized and organized women workers, including peasants, in Sindh.  His influence is not restricted to this community alone, but could also be seen among the Bheels and Meghwars of Islamkot and Jhudho, who have been following the late leader’s political path for years as frontline political workers.

Bearing all these ground realities in mind one can estimate that, after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Palijo was the only leader in Pakistan who successfully conveyed politics to ordinary people. These economically deprived but socio-politically aware people still proudly call themselves students of "Palijo University" because whatever education and world view they were able to gain was due to Palijo, otherwise, there is no single educational institute in this entire region that is totally neglected by the government.

Bhutto through his spirited speeches created ‘Jiyalas’ (Urdu for political workers of Pakistan People’s Party) but he could not create ‘true political workers’ and that has been the prime reason why the same party of Bhutto (Pakistan People’s Party) later on, became a safe habitat/home for Wadheras, Pirs, Mirs, and feudal lords. But in Palijo’s political party there has never been any space for any of them. The reason was that he instead focused on and created well-educated political workers.

A party worker said that whenever Palijo used to give a talk or deliver a lecture at any forum that program’s audio cassettes used to be made and distributed to every concerned district’s designated party person on the very next day. From there that cassette used to be disseminated in far-flung villages of Sindh. Still, many comrades have those audio cassettes of Palijo’s speeches. The idea, they say, is to make the young generation listen to them and follow the same line of action.

On the same way, books and pamphlets authored by Palijo used to reach far-flung villages of Sindh during his time. Behind all these extraordinary achievements, it was the great leadership, vision, and organization of the party.

Women power

The organization draws its strength from its women workers particularly from rural Sindh.  One of the biggest achievements of Palijo was that he brought Sindh’s rural women– who used to venture out from home only to do work in the fields - into mainstream politics.  He also proved that women were not just political showpieces but active full-time political workers just like men.

Except for his political party, there has never been any special space for rural women in any other party in the country and that was the reason that those brave and confident daughters of the soil, regardless of gender, caste and religion shouldered Palijo’s body and participated in his last rites along with male party workers.

Paljo was the true leader of Sindh’s Kolhis, Bheels, Meghwars, and many other oppressed castes and created his political workers by visiting and living in abandoned villages of Sindh where he groomed and mentored them - politically and ideologically.

Educating the young minds

He also created a cadre of educated youth who further trained and educated others to fight about the issues of Sindh at every forum. He made it compulsory for all his political workers to study and introduced study circles all over Sindh where school, college and university students used to attend lectures on local and international politics, philosophy, and literature – and perhaps that’s why these students grew up free from social restrictions/chains and started to think beyond local issues.

Palijo, who introduced a new non-violent trend of democratic struggles in Sindh by way of Long Marches,  was able to dispel the notion that politics is only for capitalists and Wadheras (a term used for the richest people of a village/constituency in the Sindhi language) only. So great was his political convictions that in 2008 during the Awami Tehreek’s inter-party elections he didn’t like his own son Ayaz Latif Palijo’s political dealing and wrote an open letter to him. It was not just a letter of a father to his son but actually a charge sheet against an elected party president. One month after that letter, he through a press conference parted ways with his son and Quami Awami Tehreek and started his own party Awami Tehreek.

As he belonged to a lower peasant class, he felt the same pain. He along with the great Sindhi peasant leader Shaheed Fazil Rahu founded Sindh Hari Tehreek (Sindh Peasant Movement) to raise the voice of Sindh’s peasants.  As he was a known constitutional and criminal lawyer, he was successful in presenting the case of Sindh at every available national and international avenue.  Though he was a follower of Mao Zedong’s ideology, he never sidestepped the teachings of great Sufi poet Shah Latif of Bhitt.

So great was Palijo influence that till today the ordinary political worker of Sindh prefers to be clean-shaven like him, and still copy his mannerism and style. He was a student of science rather than of religion, and that’s why he gave importance to mind/intelligence and science than anything else. Palijo was laid to rest in the same hillock of Jungshahi, district Thatta, where in his childhood his weak body couldn’t even pick up the pot of lassi which was given by his mother to sell for the survival of his family.

(The writer is a Pakistan-based columnist on environmental and social issues. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at abbaskhaskheli110@gmail.com)