Rasool Bux Palijo ( Sindhi, ; 21 February 1930 – 7 June 2018) was a Pakistani

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

leader, scholar and writer. He was a leading human-rights lawyer and the leader and founder of

Awami Tahreek Awami Tahreek or Qaumi Awami Tehreek, formerly Sindhi Awami Tahreek (), is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist political party based in the Pakistani province of Sindh, and headquartered in Hyderabad. Formation Awami Tahreek was formed on 5 March 1 ...

, a progressive and leftist party.

Early life

Rasool Bux Palijo was born in the village Mungar Khan Palijo, Jungshahi,

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

on 21 February 1930, to Sindhi parents Ali Mohammad Palijo and Laadee Bai. He received his early education at his village and the secondary education at Sindh Madressatul Islam in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

. Palijo did his law graduation from Sindh Law College

. He was fluent in Sindhi, Urdu, and English, and later became conversant in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Balochi,

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Punjabi and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Entry into politics and legal career

Palijo served as a

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

lawyer.

Political struggle

In October 1979, a historic farmer's conference was held in Rahooki, which served as a referendum against martial law. Following this event, the military whipped Awami Tehrik workers in Badin and arrested Palijo. Palijo was instrumental in establishing the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD), where his parties, Awami Tehrik and Sindhiani Tehrik, played a significant role. Hundreds of activists were arrested and subjected to corporal punishment. Due to his involvement in the pro-democracy movement, Palijo spent over six and a half years in various prisons, including Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail, and was declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Personal life

He has six children from his first wife Shareefan Palijo: 1) Jameel Ahmed Palejo 2) Saleem Akhtar, 3) Masood Anwar, 4) Shehnaz (Adi Pado), 5) Ghulam Hyder, and 6) Noor Nabi. Two children from his second wife Ruqaya: 1) Zafar Palijo, 2) Fakhra Qalbani. Later on, He was married to Sindhi singer, activist, and author Zarina Baloch until her death on 25 October 2006. The union yielded a son Ayaz Latif Palijo. Lastly, He was married to an educationist and writer of the Sindhi language, Naseem Thebo. The union yielded two children: 1) Tania Palijo, 2) Anita Aijaz. Fifth Wife Zahida Shaikh.

Death

On 7 June 2018, he died at a hospital in

. Prior to his death, he was hospitalised for a long time for cardiac and respiratory complications. On 8 June 2018, he was buried in his native village, Mungar Khan Palijo, in Thatta district.

Books

Described as "the author of more than forty books on numerous subjects, ranging from literature to politics, prison dairies, philosophy, culture and poetry", his bibliography includes:Profile
on ''

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Sindhi

*''Lat̤īfu shināsī''. Lectures on the works of

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (; 1689/1690 – 21 December 1752), commonly known by the honorifics ''Lakhino Latif'', ''Latif Ghot'', ''Bhittai'', and ''Bhit Jo Shah'', was a Sindhi Sufi mystic and poet from Pakistan, widely considered to be the ...

. *''D̤oraju d̤īʼo hathu kare''. Lectures chiefly on

Sindhi literature Sindhi literature () is the collection of oral and written literature in the Sindhi language in prose (romantic tales and epic stories) and poetry (''ghazals'' and '' nazm''). The Sindhi language of the province of Sindh in Pakistan is consider ...

. *''Māʼūze Tūng''. Biography of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

. *''Chā Sindhiyuni lāʼi mulkī siyāsata ḥarāmu āhe?''. Analytical study of anti-Pakistan movements by Sindhi nationalists; a plea for the Sindhis to take an active part in the affairs of Pakistan. * "Suboh theendo". written during imprisonment highlighting false and propaganda socialism in Sindh. * "Jeko Bengal sa thiyo". The incident happened with Bengali people of Pakistan during and before 1971 war were discussed in book. *" Vietnami kahaniyu". One of the fictional works

Urdu

*''Ṣubḥ ho gī''. On

Sindhi nationalism Sindhi nationalism ( Sindhi:) is an ideology that claims that the Sindhis, an ethnolinguistic group native to the Pakistani province of Sindh, form a separate nation. After Bangladesh became independent in 1971, G.M. Syed gave a new direction ...

References

External links

PAKISTAN: Gov't Fixated on Big-Ticket Water Projects – Critics

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palejo, Rasul Bux 1930 births 2018 deaths Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Pakistan Sindhi people Sindh Muslim Law College alumni People from Sindh Sindh Madressatul Islam University alumni Pakistani prisoners and detainees Pakistani revolutionaries Pakistani lawyers Pakistani Marxists Pakistani scholars Pakistani progressives Pakistani political writers Pakistani human rights activists People from Thatta District Sindh independence activists