Dr N A Baloch The High and Humble Dr Baloch an exemplary scholar Dr Baloch Hiku Misaalee Aalim ڊاڪٽر بلوچ هڪ مثالي عالم، مرتب تاج جويو )انگريزي مضمون( Part 3 (Essays in English) Compiled by Taj Joyo DR. N. A. BALOCH: THE HIGH AND HUMBLE A Presentation Volume by his Admirers Compiled by: Taj Joyo Published by: Muhammad Usman Mangi, Patron-in-Chief, Sindh Manik Moti Tanzeem, سنڌ ماڻڪ موتي تنظيم Hyderabad, Sindh 2001 A.D ENGLISH SECTION (of the work, entitled: Dr. Baloch Hiku Misaalee ‘Aalim Contents Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: Renaissance Man of Sindh: Dr. Hamida Khuhro: Achieving the Hieghts of Knowledge :Muneeza Hashmi Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: as I have known him: Professor Nazir Ahmed Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: Scholar and Educationist. Aziz Malik Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: An Insight into a Living Legend: Dr. Habibullah Siddiqui Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: An Endless Journey: Seema Qureshi . Appendix: Dr. N.A. Baloch: Introduction to Al-Beruni's کتاب book: Kitab al- Jamahir fi Ma'arafat al Jawahir الجماهر في معرفت الجواهر Dr. Baloch's Publications : Taj Joyo Contributors Dr. Hamida Khuhro is a renowned scholar and historian, formerly Professor of History, University of Sind. Muneeza Shamsie, an experienced Scholar who writes feature articles published in DAWN etc. Professor Nazir Ahmad: Professor Government College Lahore, and, subsequently Joint Secretary, Cabinet Division Government of Pakistan (Retired.) Aziz Malik, Bureau Chief of DAWN, Hyderabad Sindh. Dr. Habibullah Siddiqui, an Educationist, Ex. District Education Officer, Secretary Sindhi Adabi Board, Secretary Sindh Text Board, Ex. Director Bureau of Curriculum Jamshoro. Seema Qureshi, Columnist DAWN (Our grateful thanks are due to them for their learned contributions) Dr. Hamida Khuhro Dr. Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch: Renaissance man of Sindh Dr. Baloch is a man with the curiosity of an explorer and the application of a scholar. He is a natural born researcher who has devoted his life to uncovering every stone, as it were, of Sindh and revealing the life underneath to our gaze. A man of great mental capacity, an indefatigable worker and devoted to the cause of learning and knowledge. Dr. Baloch has helped Sindh make monumental leaps in its knowledge about itself. There is no corner of Sindh's folk literature, culture, history, geography and anthropology that is not researched by him. It would not be an exaggeration to call him an encyclopaedia of Sindh. Dr. Baloch has been generous in sharing his knowledge and it is to be found in the dozens of books that he has written on these subjects. His tally of books is very impressive for the number published and for the variety of subjects covered. They are of such excellence and cover such a wide field that the most exoteric interests in Sindh are to be found in his work. He himself is proudest of his ten volume definitive edition of the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif, the national poet of Sindh. But in my view perhaps his most valuable work is on the five-volume dictionary of Sindhi that must be regarded as a seminal work on the Sindhi Language. It is a comprehensive work of great erudition and places Sindhi as a developed modern language of the subcontinent. The fact that Dr. Baloch has done the work himself with the help only of every small team of assistants is proof, if proof were needed of his immense knowledge of the language and his dedication to it. He has thus laid the basis of the language as an instrument of modern learning. The plain facts of the career of Dr. Baloch speak for themselves. Born in a small village in the district of Saghar his brilliance as a student became apart early. He studied at the Madressah and High School of Sindh. He obtained First class and the second position amongst the Muslim candidates of Sindh in the Matriculation examination. He graduated with Honours from Bahauddin College in Junagadh getting first Class and 3rd position in Bombay University which maintained the highest academic standards in India. He then did his M.A from Aligarh University getting the first position in the University. He was given a scholarship by the British Government of India and got his Masters and Doctorate in education from Columbia University in New York. Dr. Baloch's working career has been equally distinguished. He was selected for the superior services of Pakistan but gave up, what surely would have been a great career in the Government Service of Pakistan, for his first love, the academic world. Here his career has been a roll call of honour and distinction. As professor of Education he founded the first Department of Education in Pakistan that later he developed into an Institute of Education and Research. He is the pioneer in the field of higher professional education of teachers in Pakistan. He has been Vice Chancellor of the University of Sindh (1973-1976) He founded the department of Pharmacy and the Centre for Pakistan Studies in the University. He fully supported the establishment of the Shah Abdul Latif Campus of the Sindh University and at the main campus (Allama I.I. Kazi campus) he strengthened the University Library and the Institute of Sindhology. He had the grant of the University increased and managed to get a number of scholarships and grants for the University. From 1976 the Federal Government at Islamabad acquired the services of Dr. Baloch. He was O.S.D Secretary Ministry of Education and Secretary Ministry of Culture. He was Chairman National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research where he initiated a vigorous programme of research and publications. As advisor to the National Hijra Council set up to celebrate the 15th century of the Islamic era, Dr. Baloch devised on ambitions programme of historic publications. These were the hundred great books of Islamic world. Chosen with great care, these hundred books were to be translated and edited and published in English. Dr. Baloch was the first Vice Chancellor of the Islamic University at Islamabad and set it up as a fully working University within a very short time. On his return to Sindh Dr. Baloch became the founding Chairman of the Sindhi Language Authority. In this capacity he continued his services to the Sindhi Language. In addition to the work on Sindhi, Dr. Baloch has written numerous books in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English. In his retirement Dr. Baloch continues to work hard at writing and researching. His travels take him to every corner of the province where he finds not only congenial company of sughars, story tellers and musicians but also discovers interesting historic clues through which he identifies water wells constructed in specials manner which date them back three thousand years at a conservative estimate. His immense contribution to the fund of knowledge about Sindh is a monument to his genius. His 44 volumes of folk literature, more than 15 volumes on Shah Abdul Latif, his work on classical historical texts of Sindh, on Muslim scholars like Al-Beruni, Allama I.I. Kazi, on different aspects of the culture of Sindh including music and musical instruments, on education, on the language including the dictionaries, are such accomplishments that it is difficult to imagine them equalled let alone surpassed. May God grant him health and a long life to continue the valuable work that he has devoted his life to. Muneeza Shamsie Achieving the heights of knowledge Dr. N.A. Baloch is one of Pakistan's most distinguished scholars and historians. He knows Persian and Arabic, is fluent in English and Urdu and "picked up Balochi and Punjabi" along the way. He established the pioneering Institute of Education at Sindh University and became the University's Vice-chancellor in 1973 and later, Director of the Institute of Historical and Cultural Research in Islamabad. His remarkable academic career however had an unlikely beginning: Dr. Baloch was born in a small Sanghar village, where there were no schools. "My father died when I was six months old and my uncle brought me up." Dr. N.A. Baloch said, "There was no canal system in those days. The river would flood and the water would rise up for 10 weeks sometimes. As children we often did not have much to eat and we skipped meals. When I was five my grandfather taught me the suras of the Quran, which I memorized, my uncle told me "When your father was dying, he said `Educate my son'. You must learn. "My uncle took me to the local baniya to teach me the baniya alphabet." He later attended a school a mile away from his village. An Education official, who used to travel around on a camel, wearing sola topee saw Dr. Baloch's work and said, "This child is brilliant. He should go to a high school." The village teacher had no idea what a high school was. The distances that Dr. Baloch and his uncle travelled on foot in their quest for education were vast. The middle school was 13 miles from their village. The high school meant a train journey and a walk of 14 miles from the station. A quiet, soft spoken man, with on old-world courtesy and beautiful, quaint manners, Dr. Baloch topped in the matriculation examination among Muslims of Sindh and found his way to Junagadh, where Muslim boys paid no fees, There he joined Bahauddin Collage which had "a magnificent domed building with laboratories, libraries and spacious grounds". There were excellent sports facilities, which Dr. Baloch thoroughly enjoyed. He saw the All-India hockey team play.