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Political Career of GM Syed

Article · November 2021

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 Political Career of GM Syed

Ghulam Murtaza Syed, known as G M Syed, he was born on 17 January 1904 to a

Sadat family of Sindh in village Sann in district Dadu on the right bank of Indus

River. When his father Muhammad shah kazmi was killed due to a family feud on

1st November 1905, his elder brother also died at an early age, leaving Syed the only

male infant in the family therefore in 1906, after the death of his father the British

government took his family property in its custody and his family was given monthly

pension from the British government. He completed his primary education in 1915.

He was home-schooled by private tutors. He was taught Persian and English at

home. Syed was revered as “Sain” by the people of Sindh.

G M Syed started his career as an activist at the age of fourteen. He started his

political career at the age of 16, in early political life he was a strong vocal supporter

of Pakistan movement in Sindh. He devoted his life to the formation of distinct

national identity for Sindh both on intellectual and political fronts. The Goal of his

entire life focused on this single cause. The political autonomy and prosperity of his

ill-fated land Sindh and her inhabitants. He was among the last of thinkers and

politicians who tried to change the course of history, through their politics based on

ideologies, he had been at the Centre of politics in Sindh in partition days and he had

played a very important role in creation of Pakistan. Politically he evolved and

traveled from pan-Islamist to Indian nationalist and then Pakistani nationalist ended
with Sindhi nationalist. He started of pan-Islamist activates he participated in

khilafat movement held on 7th 8th and 9th February 1920 in Larkana. Also organized

“khilafat conference” in his hometown on 17th March 1920. During 1928-36 he

worked as director of Sindh cooperation society, he established lower Sindh bank.

The separation of Sindh from Bombay gave him the golden opportunity to be elected

as member of Sindh assembly in 1937. In those days he was an active Indian

nationalist but then he joined Muslim league in 1938. As a devoted Pakistani

nationalist, he brought all his focus to creation of a new state for Indian Muslims.

He had in fact lobbied and passed the bill for the creation of Pakistan in Sindh

Assembly under the British Raj in India. In 1940 he become vice president of Sindh

Muslim league and is recorded as the first person who presented Pakistan Resolution

in Sindh assembly on 3rd March 1943. He became president of Sindh Muslim league.

In 1940 he become the minister of education. After passing the resolution of Pakistan

but his association with Muslim league could not last long and on the issue of

nomination of feudal and unqualified candidates for election, GM Syed said goodbye

to Muslim league on 4th January 1946.

Syed was the ideological frame of mysticism in his political ideology of Sindhudesh.

Sindhudesh is a Sindhi word meaning “Sindhi Country”. It is a concept given by

some Sindhi Nationalist in Pakistan, for the creation of separate state for Sindhi

peoples. This movement emerge in 1967 under leadership of Syed and Mohammad
Rashdi. Syed was the pioneer of this movement. The movement emerged due to the

imposition of Urdu language and settlement of large number of Muhajir in their

province.

He rejected the false notion of nation-state based on religious identities. He always

kept the state affaires away from the religion. Instead, he established a theory that

Sindhi culture, based on the unity of religious would lead to the unity of cultures. He

was strenuous supporter of Sindhi nationalism culturally rooted in mysticism. He

was also severe critic of state ideology and two nation theory, consequently he was

labeled and pronounced anti state and anti-Islam by pro-state Intelligentsia. He

remained a controversial figure in the politics of Pakistan. Syed has also

reinterpreted Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai in Paigham-i-Latif. He provides

comprehensive socio-political analysis of his time almost all of Syed literary works

offer an alternative theory to challenge the established discourse on religion, history,

and politics. The salvation of Sindh and mysticism remains the central theme in his

works. He became the first political prisoner of Pakistan because of his difference

with the leadership of country, as he believed that they had deceived the Sindhi’s.

After the creation Pakistan, he was selected as General Secretary. He remained in

the camp of opposition to Muslim league struggling for the right of Sindhi on the

issue of separating Karachi from Sindh. G M Syed and Abdul Ghaffar khan known

as “bacha khan” founded Pakistan people’s party, the first ever opposition party in
 the history of Pakistan and G M Syed was elected as its General Secretary. Later for

opposing one unit he was never offered a chance to defend the charges against him

in any court of law, even though he paid a very high cost in the form of almost 33

years of imprisonment, sometimes even in solitary confinement. He remained in jail

during Ayub’s era and set aside from politics.

Syed was the architect of “Jiy-e-Sindh” movement aimed at achieving

“Sindhudesh”. He wrote more than 60 books with subjects ranging from politics,

religious, culture, literature and commentaries on famous poet shah Abdul Bhittai.

As political thinker literary figure and mystic, he dominated the political arena of

pre and post-partition era for decades. He was also charged with sedition in 1992

and confined to his ancestral home at Sann for making an anti-government speech

but freed on bail recently because of deteriorating health and age. His house was

declared a sub-jail. He had been detained without trail until his death and has been

adopted “prisoner of conscience” by amnesty international. He died during his house

arrest in Karachi on 25th April 1995.

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