Mai Bakhtawar
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (September 2018) |
Mai Bakhtawar Lashari | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1880 |
| Died | 22 June 1947 (aged 67) Rural Sindh, British India (now Pakistan) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation(s) | Revolutionary leader, freedom fighter, political activist |
| Movement | Hari Movement |
Mai Bakhtawar Lashari Baloch (Sindhi: مائي بختاور لاشاري) was a farm worker who was murdered during a landlord and peasants' confrontation during British Rule in India. She was killed in Rural Sindh, British India.
Early life
[edit]Bakhtawar was born in 1880 in the village of Dodo Khan Sarkani, near Roshanabad, Taluka Tando Bago, Badin District, Sindh, British India, present day Pakistan. She was the only child of Murad Khan Lashari. In 1898, Bakhtawar married Wali Mohammad, a peasant working on the Ahmadi Estate. The couple had four children: Mohammad Khan, Lal Bukhsh, Mohammad Siddique and daughter Rasti.
Movement for peasants' rights
[edit]Before the Partition of India and Pakistan, the agricultural population in Sindh was divided in two classes. The landlords who owned lands and The peasants, who worked on these land, receiving a small compensation for their labors. Bakhtawar's village was the property of an Ahmadi who owned forty thousand acres of land, known as the "Ahmadi Estate". An agrarian activist, Hyder Bux Jatoi, called for a conference of farmers to demand that they receive a half share of the yield. The Hari Conference in started in Judho on 22 June 1947.[1]
Confrontation
[edit]On 22 June 1949, the last day of the Hari conference, the landlore, Choudhry Saeedullah, decided to seize 120,000 kilograms of flour from Dodo Khan Sarkani while the village men were still absent.[2] When Choudhry and his men arrived at the village, they were confronted by Bakhtawar, and an old disabled man and other women[citation needed]. In a rage, Choudhry Saeedullah and his manager Choudhry Khalid ordered their men to shoot, and Mai Bakhtawar was killed instantly. Her body was taken to the town of Samaro for postmortem rites and buried there.
Success after death
[edit]In 1950, a law was passed by the Government of Pakistan that forced landlords to allot half of the yield to the farmers. Saeedullah, the nephew of then Pakistani foreign minister Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, and Khalid were sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment by the court for the killing of Mai Bakhtawar.
Acknowledgements
[edit]- Thar International Airport in islamkot was named after Mai Bakhtawar[3]
- First cadet college for girls in Shaheed Benazirabad was also named after Bakhtawar.
- Government of Sindh has named Bakhtawar on concerned Union Council of Kunri Taluka
- Two schools are also named after her.
- Government and non government organizations are awarding their best performance awards on the name of Mai Bakhatawar Lashari Shaheed.[4][5][6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Mai Bakhtawar: A forgotten daughter of Sindh | Political Economy". thenews.com.pk. 17 May 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
- ^ Khaskheli, Muhammad Abbas (30 March 2018). "Sindh's fearless daughter". The Friday Times. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
- ^ "Bilawal to inaugurate Mai Bakhtawar Airport near Islamkot today - Pakistan - DAWN.COM". 11 April 2018.
- ^ Correspondent, The Newspaper's Staff (23 June 2016). "Hari movement icon Mai Bakhtawar remembered".
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Suad Joseph (1 January 2000). Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Methodologies, paradigms and sources. University of California Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-90-0413-247-4.
- ^ "بختاور شهيد : (Sindhianaسنڌيانا)". www.encyclopediasindhiana.org.