NOTES AND VIEWS

Tenth Jubilee Eonference of UNESCO in Finland

The Finnish National Commission for UNESCO decided to hold an East-West Conference, in Jyvaskyla, a provincial University town in Finland, under the auspices of the Department of Cultural Activities, UNESCO. I was deputed by the Ministry of Education, Islamabad, to participate in this Conference as a non-official delegate from Pakistan.

This Conference had a very broad based programme consisting of different seminars and studia generalia discussions between East and West besides lectures on Art, Music’s Architecture, etc., and platform discussions on different faiths.

The Inaugural session of the Conference was held on the 3rd July at noon and Dr. Bommate of the UNESCO addressed the meeting.

There was a Seminar on different subjects in which scholars from East and West participated—it was designated Studia Generalia, a series of dialogues. The main subjects were: Exact sciences, Architecture, Music, Film, Philosophy, Religion. First a scholar from Finland and then from some Eastern country read papers about the subject Under Religion, Mr. Salah Dassouki, Ambassador of U.A R in Finland, read a paper on 'Islam'.

Another feature of this Conference was called “Platform Discussions” or meeting of faiths. The subjects for discussions were: Judaism and Christianity; Islam and Christianity; Hinduism and Christianity; Buddhism and Christianity; Marxism and Christianity, etc. Here again Mr. Salah Dassouki spoke on Islam. Reading of papers was usually followed by questions first by the other speakers and then by the audience.

The main programme of the Conference was “Seminar of the East” in which each day was devoted to the discussion of a country of the East. The purpose was to chart the history, traditions and present situation of the East, with the object of fostering better understanding between peoples of the East and West. There were usually two lectures every day: Finnish experts discussed the background of Eastern Cultures in the light of present circumstances and representatives of Eastern countries were expected to speak on the burning questions of today in their country. There were lectures on China, Japan, Indo-China, Indonesia, Iran, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Arab countries.

Dr. Vedat Tor Nadim (Istanbul) and Professor Annemarie v. Gabain (Germany) spoke on Turkey. Dr. Peter Avery of Cambridge University (United Kingdom) and Dr. Monchi Zadeh, an Iranian scholar (Sweden), spoke about Iran. Mr. Saleh Dassouki and Professor Armas Salonen read papers about the United Arab Republic.

Professor Armas Salonen spoke on Pakistan also. He is Professor of Assyriology in the University of Helsinki. He is a scholar of Arabic and has translated the Quran into the Finnish language. He is the President of the Finnish-Pakistan Friendship Society. He was well-informed about Pakistan and, as he himself told me, receives regular supplies of literature about Pakistan from the Pakistan Embassy at Stockholm. In his paper he described first the geographical position of Pakistan, then its ancient history from Mohanjodaro and Harappa downwards up to the partition, emphasising the important role which the Muslim League, under the leadership of the Qaid-i-Azam, played in demanding a separate homeland for the Muslims on cultural and ideological basis. He gave a detailed history of the Muslim struggle for the liberation of Kashmir, the efforts of the UNO to resolve this problem and the intransigence of the Indian leaders. His approach was very sympathetic and fully informed. Dr. Peter Avery, Professor of Persian, Cambridge University, who was present during the lecture, remarked later on in my presence: “I have never heard such an illuminating lecture on Pakistan and on the history of the problem of Kashmir before.” After his lecture I read my paper on “Socio-religious trends in Pakistan.”

On my way back to Pakistan, I stayed for 3 days in London, where I was asked to give two talks on the BBC. The one was in Urdu, broadcast for Pakistan entitled “Tenth Jubilee Conference of UNESCO in Finland.” It was later broadcast on 19th July. The other, in English, in the form of question answer, was broadcast on 21st July in the World Service Programme “Outlook”—dealing with the utility of UNESCO in the present world. The questioner particularly asked me as to what UNESCO could be expected to do for Pakistan.

Visit of Foreign Dignitaries

Parliamentary delegation from West Germany came to Pakistan to visit and review institutions established here for promoting Pakistan-German cultural contacts. On 10th September the delegation visited the Iqbal Academy. Mr. Mumtaz Hasan, Vice-President of the Academy, received them. In his introductory speech he traced briefly the history of the Academy, the purpose for which it was founded and the work it has done so far. He gave a detailed history of the movement started by the Muslims in the sub-continent for preserving their ideological identity and attaining cultural autonomy which culminated in the creation of Pakistan through the efforts of the Qaid-i-Azam Mohammad AU Jinnah.

He explained very explicitly the important role which Iqbal played in the regeneration of Muslim Society of this sub-continent both politically and ideologically. The inspiration that Iqbal derived from the great genius of the nineteenth century, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, as he stated, is unmistakable. Iqbal's poetry no less than his prose writings (e.g. his presidential address to the Muslim League in 1930) moulded the thought of the Muslim people in the twentieth century. It was he who for the first time conceived the idea of a separate Muslim state in order to solve the chronic Hindu-Muslim problem that had unduly prolonged the agonies of the people of the sub-continent living as they were under the oppressive rule of a foreign power which had been always exploiting this situation to its own advantage.

Pakistan, he concluded, is thus the sacred legacy left to us by Iqbal He explained that the word “Pakistan”, coined by Chaudhri Rahmat Ali, does not have any ethical connotation as the “land of the pure”; it is a mere collective name derived from the first letters of the names of the different territories which, according to its author, should form its constituent units, viz., Punjab, Kashmir and Sind with the last three letters of Baluchistan, with a and i as vowels to make the word sound properly. The last war that Bharat treacherously imposed on Pakistan proved the indissoluble bonds that exist between this country and the man who not only first conceived it in its present dimension but tried to give it its ideological content. The main targets of enemy's attacks were Lahore and Sialkot, the two cities that have been hallowed by association with his name—Sialkot was the place where he was born and passed his early life and Lahore, where the major part of his creative life was spent.

Mr. Mumtaz Hasan then stated that it was Iqbal who first introduced German literature and literary figures like Goethe to the people of this sub-continent. He mentioned that Payam-i-Mashriq of Iqbal (1923) was written under the inspiration of and in answer to Goethe's Diwan. He quoted the following verses from Iqbal:

پیر مغرب شاعر المانوی

آں قتیل شیوہ ہائی پہلوی

بست نقش شاہدان شوخ و شنگ

داد مشرق را سلامے از فرنگ

در جوابش گفتہ ام پیغام شرق

ماہ تابی ریختم بر شام شرق

او چمن زادی چمن پروردہ

من دیمدم از زمین مردہ

ہر دہ خنجر صبح خند آئینہ فام

او برہنہ من ہنوز اندر نیام

او ز شوخی در تہ قلزم تپید

تا گریبان صدف را بر درید

من بآغوش صدف تابم ہنوز

در ضمیر بحر نایاہم ہنوز

That sage of the West, the poet of Allemagne,

Who lost his heart to the winning ways of Iran

Who painted a picture full of the beauty of sweethearts young and saucy

And sent the salutations of the West to the East :

The Message of the East is my response to his greeting.

I have illumined the Eastern evening with moonlight.

For that I am self-knowing but not vain,

I tell thee who he was and who I am :

He was one of Europe's youthful ones, with the quality of lightning;

While my love-flame is born of the breath of the wise men of the East.

He was born and nurtured in a garden,

While I sprang from barren soil.

The mysteries of the Universe have been revealed to both,

Both are messengers of life in death.

Both are like daggers, bright as the mirror and smiling as the dawn.

He is unsheathed, but I am yet in the scabbard.

His insistent urge made him restless in the depths of the ocean

Till he burst forth from his shell ;

While I am still striving in my shell's confines,

Undiscovered yet in the occean's abyss.[1]

Goethe, he explained, was greatly influenced and inspired by Hafiz of Shiraz, an Iranian poet of the fourteenth century (of the Christian era), a fact which Goethe acknowledges in several places in his Diwan. Thus the wisdom of the East enriched and deepened by the sages of the Wesr reached Iqbal who represents in his person a mingling of the best traditions of the wisdom of the East and West.

In the end, Mr. Mumtaz Hasan presented to each delegate books by Iqbal and the publications of the Academy.

The leader of the delegation, Dr. Berthold Martin, Chairman, Committee for cultural Affairs of the Bundestag, informed Mr. Mumtaz Hasan that a fellowship for post-graduate studies on Iqbal will soon be established at the University of Munich.

Besides the members of the delegation, Mr. A. Muhajir, Hony. Treasurer of the Academy; Dr. Athar Rashid, former principal, Government College, Karachi and a great scholar of German literature; Dr. Wilfried Stache, Director of the Goethe Institute, and some members of the embassy of the Federal Republic of West Germany in Karachi were also present.

Dr. (Mrs.) Annemarie Schimell, a well-known German Orientalist, visited the Iqbal Academy on 28th September. A few years back she was specially invited by the Academy to participate in Iqbal Day function at Karachi. She was formerly attached to the Ankara University and is now Incharge of an Arabic Journal Fikr-o-Fun issued under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn (West Germany). She is the author of Gabriel's Wing, a beautiful book on the religious thought of Iqbal and has translated Iqbal's Payarn-i-Mashriq into German for the Iqbal Academy.

She was presented with the latest publication of the Academy. Syed Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi, a member of our Governing Body ; Dr. and Mrs. Stache, of the Goethe Institute, Karachi and Khwaja Hamiduddin Shahid were also present on the occasion.

On 29th September Mr. Kanadid Ahmad Yusuf, Education Minister of the Republic of Somalia, accompanied by Mr. M. Shinah, a senior officer of the Ministry of Education, visited the Iqbal Academy. I explained to them briefly the history of the Academy and the role which Iqbal played in the creation of Pakistan, the vision that he had about the commonwealth of Muslim people of the world extending from Malaysia and Indonesia in the South East Asia to Morocco in the West.

The works of Iqbal as well as the publications of the Academy were presented to the guests. Mr. Kenadid Ahmad Yusuf wrote in the Visitors' Book: “I have been pleased to visit this famous Iqbal Academy in Karachi. I was pleased to note the revival of Islamic teachings in an Academy of this kind and I hope that in our country such an academy will be established to help the survival and living of famous Islamic leaders and their thoughts. We thank authorities for the warm welcome given to us in this visit.” This message was written in Italian which was translated into English by Mr. Shinah.

Iqbal Memorial Plaque at Heidelberg

A plaque commemorating Iqbal's stay at Heidelberg in West Germany during 1907 was unveiled on September 16, 1966 by Mr. Abdur Rahman Khan, Pakistan's Ambassador to West Germany. Pakistan Much hard work and devoted energy lies behind this important event.

Locating the house where Iqbal lived at the beginning of the century was no easy task. An enterprising Pakistani student, Mr. M. S. Boikan, wrote a letter to a local newspaper which finally solved the mystery. Miss Sofie Wegenast, now in her eightees and slightly stooped, came forward with the address. She is the sister of Emma Wegenast, Iqbal's professor and friend. The house overlooks the beautiful river Necker about which Iqbal wrote a poem in Urdu included in Bang-i Dara. Authorities of the Baden-Vurttenberg State extended their full co-operation in this noble task. Dr. Hahn, cultural minister of the State and former Rector of the Heidelberg University, was nominated by the State Government at the ceremony.

The guests assembled under the shadow of the house where Iqbal lived. Dr. Hahn delivered a moving speech when he feelingly spoke of the contributions that Iqbal had made not only in the world of thought and poetry but also his great contribution towards the creation of Pakistan. “Heidelberg is proud to have had Iqbal, Pakistan's poet-philosopher for this is in the hoary traditions of this city which has attracted scholars, poets and philosophers, from the four corners of the globe.” He concluded by saying that the deep intellectual bonds weaved by Iqbal would be a beacon of light for future generations.

The Pakistan Ambassador then addressed the gathering:

“Of the many ties that bind the people of the Federal Republic of Germany and Pakistan, none is more enduring than the one that was built by Pakistan's poet-philosopher Mohammad Iqbal”.

He spoke of the “deep debt of gratitude that we in Pakistan owe to Mohammad Iqbal, who conceived an independent homeland for the Muslims of the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent.

“Iqbal, the poet of the East, not only carried his message from East to West, but he was the bridge over which Western ideas traveled to the East.

“Heidelberg, the great city of learning of Germany and also its beautiful natural setting, provided him with the inspiration to write some magnificent poetry.

“Later, Iqbal drank deep of German philosophy, a philosophy which contributed so greatly to Western thought.

“I have no doubt that between our two friendly nations, in the long march of history, this spiritual bond of Iqbal is one that will outlive all others.”

NOTES