The two-day "Pir Hissamuddin Rashidi International Conference on History of Sindh" was concluded here on Sunday.
During the concluding session, prominent scholars and historians from Pakistan and other countries urged the government to provide required resources to Sindh University for establishment of Pir Hisamuddin Rashid Chair to undertake research on the incomplete projects and conduct further studies on the subjects to which Pir sahib devoted his whole life.
Provincial Minister for Culture and Tourism Miss Sussi Plaejo was chief guest while SU Vice Chancellor presided over the closing session. The recommendations of the conference were readout by Chairman of the Organising Committee and Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Dr Iqbal Ahmed Panhwar.
The scholars says that as the year 2011 marks the 100th birth anniversary of Pir Hissamuddin Rashdi so 2011 should be declared Pir Hussamuddin Rashidi year. They urged the government as well as well as Universities and academic organisations to organise seminars, conferences and symposia, demanding in September 2011 an International Conference be arranged to highlight the contribution of the late scholari.
Sussi paid rich tribute to Rashdi for his valuable works on history. She said that Pir sahib was a real promoter of the culture and literature as well as a historian, which not only worked for its promotion but also preserver it.
Vice Chancellor Sindh University Mazharul Haq Siddiqui appreciated the contribution of scholars, who presented their papers in the conference. He said that the conference was first of its kind in the history of the University and hoped that the department would contribute more to promote research on history of Sindh.
In its working session well-known scholar Dr Mubark Ail in his paper on "In search of identity and reconstruction of history of Sindh" said that history and identity are closely related with each other. He said that whenever, there is a question of identity to an individual, or a society, they have to seek help of history to trace and determine it, because its roots lie in past and history, as the custodian and repository of past heritage, is in a position to discover it.
However, there were problems as Pakistani state was quite new while its provinces were historically very old and had strong roots of their regional identities which they were not ready to abandon. This created a conflict between these two identities which led political and social confusion, he argued.
The scholar said that in case of Sindh, its position is that from the very beginning it has its own identity and separate history which was disrupted from time to time by political consequences and as a result of change of borders.
He said that a significant aspect for the history of Sindh was the excavation of Mohenjodaro in 1920s, which dazzled the world on the advancement of its civilisation and culture. He said that historically, Sindh appeared on the map of world history as the cradle or Indus Valley Civilisation.
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