Sindh celebrates today (October 4, 2024) 171st birth anniversary of Mirza Qaleech Baig, who was a prolific writer and is known as doyen of Sindhi literature.

Mirza Qaleech Baig was born on October 4, 1853 and passed away on July 3, 1929  

Muhammad Habib Sanai

Tradition of writing poetry in Sindhi is oldest one and since more than five hundred years, Sindhi is used for lyrical composition. From sixteenth century, some religious scholars tried to compose books on religious matters by using rhymed prose, which is called Sindhiyoon by later scholars.

It was in British era (1843-1947), after introduction of present Perso-Arabic or Naskh script in 1853, the government announced prizes etc. for writing books in Sindhi, therefore, Sindhi prose received great impetus. In initial phase, Sindhi prose consisted mostly of school books, however, in the second phase, numerous writers appeared on the horizon of Sindhi literature, who enriched Sindhi prose by their translation, adaption and writing original works of fiction and non-fiction.

Amongst these earlier writers, the most prominent and iconoclast is Mirza Qaleech Baig, whose works number nearly 457. In the words of Professor Annemarie Schimmel “we cannot but admire his tremendous undertaking to bring together the literary treasures from East and West in his mother tongue.”

As narrated by Mirza Qaleech Baig in his autobiography ‘Saao Pan Ya Karo Pano’ (Green leaf and Black Paper), his father Fareedoon Baig was not Sindhi speaking by birth, but was born in Tiflis (Tbilisi) of Georgia. In a battle fought during the year 1797, along with other fellow Georgians, he lost his parents and was captured by Persian forces and brought to Persia, where he lived for a few years first in Tabriz and then in Isfahan. However, he was gifted to Talpur rulers of Sindh and came here at the age of ten. He was Christian but became Muslim in Sindh. There was already another fellow Georgian Khusro Baig, who had come here in 1805, and was adopted as son by the then Talpur ruler Mir Karam Ali Khan. Later on Khusro Baig became father in law of Fareedoon Baig. According to Mirza Qaleech Baig, both were literary persons and used to write poetry and prose in Persian, which was literary and court language of Mirs.

Autobiography of Mirza Qaleech Baig

When Talpur Mirs were dethroned in 1843 by British, Mirza Qaleech’s maternal grandfather was also imprisoned. He was also to be taken to Calcutta (Kolkata) along with other Mirs, but on Mirs’ request, he was made responsible for looking after the families of Mirs.

Soon they were displaced from Pakka fort of Hyderabad, therefore, they settled at Tando Saindad near Hyderabad. In the war and also during displacement, they lost their valuables and were facing severe hardships. Unfortunately, their katcha (made of sunbaked bricks and mud) homes caught fire, which raged for three days. In this fire, their remaining valuables were burnt to ashes. After this mishap, they shifted to Tando Mir Mahmood, near Phuleli canal. But once again they had to relocate to Tando Thoro, which is still the home town of Mirza family.

Mirza Qaleech was born in Tando Thoro on 4th October, 1853. He and his elder brothers attended maktab of Akhund Shafi Muhammad for basic education. Later his brothers were admitted at English government school. After sometime, he started to attend Sindhi School in Hyderabad, which was three to four kilometers away from their home. He writes in his autobiography that early in the morning after having breakfast and taking meal for lunch, they used to first go to the Autaaq (Meeting place for Males) of Akhund Wali Mohammad and studied there for few hours, then around ten, they would go to School.  They used to return home in the evening.

During School days, Qaleech developed interest in music and playing instrument such as Surando and Sittar. He used to recite Marsia in Muharram Majlis.

Mirza Qaleech writes that instead of playing games, he was more inclined toward reading and writing. He started composing poetry at the age of 7 or 8 years, which he used to recite before his maternal grandfather.

While Qaleech was preparing to appear in the Matriculation examination, he was made Persian Teacher in place of his brother who had joined new service in another city. He wanted to do Matriculation with major of Arabic, but at that time, the government announced a prize of sixty rupees for those who will do matriculation with Sindhi subject. So he chose Sindhi and won the prize.

Before matriculation, his father died due to dysentery. For meeting the expenses incurred on his treatment, his family had to sell a golden watch owned by his father for Rs.300.

Qaleech went to Bombay and got admission at Elphinstone College, where Prof Mirza Hairat, Mr. Wadia and Mr. Baba became his mentors. Mr. Wadia taught him English prosody, whereas Prof. Mirza Hairat not only taught him Persian prosody, and Turkish Language, but guided him in realm of literature through daily discourses. He also learnt Sanskrit on his own.

During BA, his mother died, but he was not informed. He knew about her death only when he came on vacation at home. This incident devastated him. When he returned back to Bombay, he could not sustain interest in his studies. He failed in the examination of BA. This was shocking for his fellow students and teachers. This episode also increased his depression and trauma. Soon he became very ill and came back to Sindh as advised by doctors.

After recuperating, he returned to Bombay, but once again became unwell, and failed in second attempt for BA. He wrote about these destitutions in English poems, which are included in his English poetry anthology titled “Leisure hours”. This book has recently been republished by Mirza Qaleech Baig Chair of University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

After coming back from Bombay, Qaleech lived in Karachi for two years with his brother. At that time, his main passion was reading and writing mostly poetry in English and Persian. He used to borrow books from Frere Library and General Library near High School, Garri Khata. Mr. Murray was librarian of Frere Library and Mr. Dayaram Gidumal was librarian of the General Library, who was later replaced by Mr. Motiram Shoqiram. Dayaram and Shoqiram were most influential writers and reformers of Sindh. His English poetry was published in English newspaper “Sindh News” and Persian one in newspaper Mafrah Quloob. The Editor of English paper was Mr. Jeffrey, who was expert in his field, but was a habitual drunkard. Mirza Qaleech has written that he became his family friend. When Mr. Jeffrey got drunk, he discontinued to work for paper, so on the insistence of his family members, he used to pen leading article and also other write ups for Sindh News. Mr. Jeffrey died during drinking bout.

In Karachi Qaleech also developed friendship with Dayaram Gidumal and Hassan Ali Effendi. Dayaram was establishing a college, where he offered him post of Persian Professor, but he refused, because he was interested in joining Revenue Service. He also helped Hassan Ali Effendi in establishing Sindh Madressatul Islam School.

Soon he joined Revenue Department as trainee Head Munshi and was posted at Taluka Kakar, Mehar Division (which is now sub division of Dadu District). After a few months, he was posted as Mukhtiarkar (Tehsilsadar) at Tharerri Muhbat of Mehar. After serving for 30 years, he retired as Deputy Collector at the age of 55.

Love for Writing

As he narrates in his autobiography, from reading books he developed passion for writing books. He started writing books during school days. During the service, he used to write after finishing official work. Qaleech tells that he used to write three books at a time, one at the early morning, one in the afternoon and one at the night. He got tired after two hours writing. After retirement, he devoted most of his time to writing.

This encyclopedic author wrote on almost on every topic. According to Dr. Ghulam Ali Allana “he is the first Sindhi writer who introduced Novels, Dramas and Essays in Sindhi Literature.”

He translated, and adapted hundreds of books of fiction and non-fiction from English, Persian, and Urdu to Sindhi. Prominent among them are novels by Christopher von Schmidt (Basket of Flowers), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Benjamin Disraeli’s Henrietta Temple, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver and Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Dramas of Shakespeare (Two gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and As you Like it) and Lord Lytton’s Night and Morning, in Non-function, Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, Roger Bacon’s essays, S. Smile’s Self Help, James Allen’s As a Man thinketh etc.

He also translated few Persian books such as Chachnama and Al-Ghazali’s Keemiyae Saadaat as Alchemy of Happiness in English.

His original works in Sindhi include numerous novels, dramas, educational books and books on history of Sindh and Sindhi Language, dictionaries etc. His novel Zeenat is counted as first original Sindhi novel, which is also renowned for its advocacy for Muslim female education. It has been translated into English by Zunera Yousif.

In English he also wrote History of Sindh in two volumes, and two volumes of English poetry and also some other books.

With the support of his family members, Sindh University has established Mirza Qaleech Baig Chair, which has republished his numerous works in Sindhi and English.

Library of Mirza Sahib

On 15 June, 1955, Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi along with Muhammad Ibrahim Joyo visited the house of Mirza Qaleech Baig at Tando Thoro, Hyderabad. Both were taken around Mirza Sahib’s library. Rashidi sahib has written an article about this visit, which is included in his book Galhyoon Goth Wanan jooon (Tales of Hamlets). At that time, books and manuscripts were housed in 8 to nine cupboards. He regretted that a lot of precious material had been damaged. He thought that there should have been rare manuscripts and books about the history of Sindh etc., but either these have been damaged or stolen. Rashidi wrote that there were four photo albums, numerous files of newspaper clippings, articles, and other materials. There were 20 to 30 notebooks, which contained very precious information about Sindh and also the personal diaries of Mirza Qaleech, who started writing diaries in 1860. Rashidi opines that these diaries would be valuable sources for writing the history of that period.

Rashidi sahib informed that there were 150 unpublished books, some of which were published by the Sindhi Adabi Board later. Rashidi has briefly introduced some important unpublished books, such as a collection of English essays, a Collection of Persian, Arabic, and English poems and prose under the title of Abkarul Afkaar, a book of memoirs, Gurji Nama, etc.

Under the able stewardship of Dr. Nawab Kaka, Mirza Qaleech Baig chair of the University of Sindhi is publishing books of Mirza.