Bradford:

South Asian Peoples Forum UK held a meeting to observe the fourth death anniversary of the eminent Urdu poet Javed Akhtar Bedi. It was attended by a number of well-known scholarly literati and political personalities from within and without Bradford.

In the very outset of the meeting Khalid Saeed Qureshi brought to light the life and political activities of Bedi emphasizing on his services for the Urdu poetry. Afterwards Mohammad Azhar Khan, Mohammed Mukhtar and Zafar Malik, remembering their past in the company of the deceased poet, paid Bedi their glowing tributes. Expressing the poetic excellence of Javed Akhtar Bedi in his peculiar low tone the eminent poet Boota Khan Rajas said that he was not only a good poet but a very good human too. Hafeez Joher, a famoud Urdu poet and Librarian of the Bradford Central Library paid his versified tributes to Bedi. Khawaja Waheed, President of Bradford Gymkhana Club said that Bedi nourished his political creed with his blood throughout his life and  his literary services will always be remembered through his various published poetic anthologies.

Professor Nazir Tabassum presented before the audience an article in which he expressed Bedi as a continuity of Progressive Movement in the history of Urdu Literature. He further said that physical torture, emotional displeasure, psychological strain and social inequalities of the middle and lower middle classes form the warp and woof of Bedi’s poems and lyrics. Still further Prof. Tabassum said that Bedi holds the class society responsible for the destruction of the beautiful and sacred relationships of human love.

 Former Lord Mayor of the Bradford District Metropolitan Council Mr. Mohammad Ajeeb and Cllr. Ghazanffar Khaliq (also former Lord Mayor) appreciated Bedi’s services for the Urdu Poetry. In his detailed comments on the poetic art of Javed Akhtar Bedi, Dr. Mukhtar-ud-Din Ahmed Mukhtar said that Bedi used the hard-hit problems faced by masses as themes in his poetic expression; these problems, if ignored, could aggravate further the prevailing social evils in the human societies.

Famous poet and play-write Basir Kazmi, Sabir Raza, President Karvan-i-Adab, and A. R. Ansari came all the way from Manchester and Dr. Mohammad Azam Amrohi from Haifax to participate and to pay homage in their own peculiar way to Javed Akhtar Bedi. Basir Kazmi said that Bedi was a poet. In order to express his greatness, just this single word can suffice. This single word is more than enough to connote that he was a distinguished figure in fraternity of the poets. Lala MohammadYounis, the trade unionist, expressed his anxiety over the deteriorating law and order situation in Swat and the tribal belt of Pakistan ’s North Western Frontier province. He was grieved at the heartless murder of his former trade unionist comrade in Haripur by the Pakistani Talbans. At the suggestion of Dr. Mukhtar-ud-Din Ahmed Mukhtar a resolution was moved and unanimously passed in the meeting condemning the three-week Iraeli massacre of the innocent people of Gaza . The resolution also condemned the western electronic media particularly the BBC for its cold response to the covering of the events in that unfortunate land.

At the end, Pervez Fateh, coordinator of SAPF and the organizer of the meeting said that Javed Akhtar Bedi was an active member of the Communist Party of Britain. He said that SAPF will do everything to provide for the publishing of the unpublished works and biography of Bedi. Before thanking all the participants, especially those who came from other towns and cities for taking pains in making the event a success, Pervez Fateh declared that SAPF will hold a meeting in April this year in the remembrance of FAiz Ahmed Faiz.(EOM)

Best regardsPervez Fateh
Co-ordinator South Asian Peoples Forum, UK
Cell: +44 (0)795 854 1672
E-mail: pervezf@yahoo.com    info@sapfonline.org       www.sapfonline.org

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