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Freedom Of Thought In The Poetry Of Shah Latif

Abstract

This article aims at highlighting the various aspects of the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai in context to his freedom of thought. Since Sindh had been under the yokes during a number of periods at its history and, thus, masses were under constant sociopsychological stress. Therefore, he thought to take them out from such a plight by way of his poetry. This is very unfortunate that Sindh went under the slavery of Arghuns and Turkhans after the last Samma ruler of Sindh-Jam Ferozuddin and, thus, started the very destruction of Sindh during the cruel and unjust rule of Arghuns and Turkhans. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai was a visionary poet, thus, he raised a voice in favour of humanism, tolerance and liberty. He knew very well that what is in the good of common masses and as to how they can make their future a bright one. Not only this, but he propounded a very logical and modern concept of being a one nation, as in his view, unity of a nation is the only way of survival. For this, he followed the thought of “Wahdat-ulWajood” and badly preached it in all of his poetry. This philosophy was an antidote to various psychological evils like, ignorance, frustration, faithlessness, fear, indifference from society and nation, pro-tribal thinking, self-centeredness etc. Persian language was imposed on the masses of Sindh and it was the language of literature and poetry at that time. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai was the first, who not only stood against Persian, but rendered poetry in pure Sindhi dialect and condemned those who were creating poetry and prose in Persian. Risalo of Shah Latif is full of numberless examples of freedom of thought, particularly Sur Yaman Kalyan, Sur Kalyan, Sur Marui, Sur Sohni and Sur Sassui testify to the very fact that Latif was the biggest preacher of freedom of thought and liberalism and almost all of characters revolve round this conception.

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