Abstract:

Prof. Mangharam Malkani was a towering and fatherly figure of Sindhi literature of the 20th
Century. Socially he had a landlord background, but the love of his language attracted him to
literature. He abandoned his ancestral vocation and adopted noble profession of teaching. He
took up a job of a lecturer in English at the D.J. Sindh College, Karachi. This provided him time
and opportunity to take to writing
He was the pioneer of modern Sindhi One act plays; in 1923, Prof. Malkani and his friend
Khanchand Daryani had established the Rabindra Literary and Dramatic Club in Sindh,
inaugurated by the Great Poet Tagore himself. Prof. Malkanis own writing included 34 one-act
plays and four full-length plays, leading to the appellation The Grand Old Man of Sindhi Plays.
He also directed them, and acted on stage. In 1933, he played the lead role in a Hindi film,
Insan Ya Shaitan opposite Jadan Bai, mother of the well-known actress Nargis.
After partition of subcontinent Prof Malkani migrated to India. He started literary classes run by
the Sindhi Sahit Mandal for fourteen years (1949 1962) in Bombay. Where, poets and short
story writers would gather to present their writings for evaluation, and the constructive
criticism, it is said, led to a new lease of life for the Sindhi language and literature, helping the
young writers to come to grips with the changed situation after Partition.
Prof Malkani also led a delegation of Sindhi writers to Asian Writers Conference in 1956, in
New Delhi. On this occasion, he impressed upon Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India,
that Sindhi Language should be recognized in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, to be ranked
equally among the other fourteen languages of India. This pioneering effort culminated into the
Sindhi language getting its due recognition on April 10, 1967.
His profession was that of a teacher; in Karachi, he was professor of English and Sindhi in D.J.
Sindh College and after Partition, he continued teaching at Jai Hind College till 1962, when he
retired.
Prof Malkani received the Sahita Academy Award in 1969 for his book Sindhi Nasar Ji Tarikh
(History of Sindhi Prose). He was also nominated Fellow of Sahita Academy in 1972, the only
Sindhi writer thus honored so far.

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