Rediscovering Hemu Kalani (1923-1943): The Bhagat Singh of Sindh
This captivating talk delves into the life and legacy of Hemu Kalani, often referred to as the Bhagat Singh of Sindh, who played a pivotal role in the freedom struggle. Despite being honored and celebrated in India, Hemu Kalani has been largely forgotten in his birthplace of Sindh, Pakistan.
Drawing from Sindhi historical sources, memoirs, and British archives, the talk traces Hemu Kalani’s early life; his influences during the war of independence and other movements; his arrest and trial by the British; and the transformation of his life sentence into a death sentence. It also examines the afterlife of Hemu Kalani in Pakistan, exploring the reasons behind his fading presence and the overlooked contributions of Pakistan’s minorities to the nation’s cultural memory.
As we approached the 75th anniversary of the partition of India (2022) and Hemu Kalani’s birth centenary (2023), this talk serves as a crucial corrective to the selective amnesia surrounding one of Pakistan’s most distinguished sons. It also prompts a broader reflection on the state and place of minorities in Pakistan, inviting us to preserve and cherish the right to memory as an essential aspect of Pakistani heritage.
Join us in this pioneering exploration of Hemu Kalani’s remarkable story, as we strive to honor his memory and advocate for a more inclusive understanding of Pakistan’s diverse history.
About the Speaker:
Raza Naeem is an award-winning Pakistani researcher and translator, trained in Political Economy at the University of Leeds in UK and in Middle Eastern history from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, USA. He is the recipient of a prestigious 2013-2014 Charles Wallace Trust Fellowship in the UK for his translation and interpretive work and has also written the foreword to the reissued edition of Abdullah Hussein’s classic partition novel ‘The Weary Generations’ (HarperCollins India, 2016). He has delivered papers and lectures both nationally and internationally on prominent Sindhi historical and political figures like Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Hyder Bux Jatoi and the Sindhi Hari Tehreek, and Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi. He is based in Lahore as the President of the Progressive Writers Association, and currently in the process of translating Pakistani intellectual Safdar Mir’s book ‘Maududism and the Present Political Struggle’ into English; and writing a popular history of the pioneers of Islamic socialism in the Indian subcontinent titled ‘Inqilab Zindabad!’.