Speakers Pay Glowing Tributes To Dr. N.A. Baloch

The speakers at a memorial lecture paid glowing tributes to the services of renowned educationist, scholar and historian Dr. N.A. Baloch adding that his contributions in the field have set guidelines to future generation to make the countrymen on the strong nations of the world

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 08th Dec, 2017 ) :The speakers at a memorial lecture paid glowing tributes to the services of renowned educationist, scholar and historian Dr. N.A. Baloch adding that his contributions in the field have set guidelines to future generation to make the countrymen on the strong nations of the world.

The memorial lecture was organized by the Endowment Fund Trust in collaboration with the University of Sindh at Shaikh Ayaz Auditorium Faculty of Arts Jamshoro on Friday in connection with 100th birth anniversary of Dr.

N.A. Baloch. The Vice Chancellor University of Sindh in his presidential remarks observed individuals like Dr. N.A. Baloch leave this world only physically; and live forever in form of the inspiration they leave through their immortal achievements, contribution and eminent stature.

He said that University of Sindh was both privileged and honored to have had an eminent scholar serving at it as a teacher. Paying rich tribute to prolific research work of Dr. Baloch, Dr. Burfat stressed that Dr.

Baloch was widely known and indisputably acknowledged as an Encyclopedia on the move due to depth and width of his knowledge. Men of letters like Dr. Baloch are born only on lucky lands rarely ever.

Dr. Baloch had the distinction of authoring more than 150 books in five different languages on history, culture, literature, music, lexicography and folklore of Sindh, said Dr. Burfat. The Vice Chancellor opined that Dr.

Baloch was also very innovative in his approach as he had founded a number of the-then novel institutions including Institute of Sindhology, Sindhi Adabi board, Sindh Museum and Sindhi Language Authority.

He thanked the keynote speaker Professor Mathew Cook adding that his intellectually stimulating discourse today has opened new vistas of wisdom. He said that such academic sessions will go a long way in promoting intercultural harmony, collective human understanding and peaceful co-existence.

The University of Sindh is the ultimate gainer of such fruitful interactions, he said and added we have learnt a lot from your insightful talk today. Professor Mathew A. Cook, historical anthropologist and professor of Postcolonial and South Asian Studies at North Carolina University USA, in his Keynote address traced the standardization of Sindhi script before, during and after colonial periods in Sindh, Pakistan.

He outlined multiple competing forms of Pre-British Sindhi script that included scripts in vogue at that time namely,Khudawadi, Aamil, Nastaliq, Gurmukhi, Sanskirity and Devnagri; and thereafter dilated in detail upon Naskh script as accepted developed popularized, projected and standardized by the British during their rule in India due to socio-political considerations.

Prof. Cook also commented on the policies and preferences exercised by the colonial government and examined its implications on the current and future Sindhi script. His lecture was highly appreciated by the audience who kept intermittently clapping during his talk to express their approval and acclaim.

The former Vice Chancellor University of Sindh and Trustee of EFT Mazhar-ul-Haq Siddiqui termed Dr. Baloch as an academic icon, a research legend and a scholar of rare eminence adding that he too often miss presence of the great mentor.

He said that he cannot forget his benign guidance to him while he was the Vice Chancellor of University of Sindh. He said that he had had the opportunity to serve at the most elevated positions in the civil service echelons, both provincial and federal; yet none of those positions was as simultaneously exciting and intimidating as the Vice Chancellorship of University of Sindh.

He said that when he was leading the university as its Vice-Chancellor, the students and the teachers accorded him their unconditional support; which eased his stress and contributed to his success as institutional head.

Mazhar-ul-Haq Siddiqui insisted that the university was like a generous bounteous mother to university faculty and deserved to be treated and served as such. Anything less than that would be tantamount to ingratitude, he said and urged the faculty to stretch themselves to the ultimate limits of their ability, acumen, skills, attitude and performance to redeem the debt they owed to the university their bounteous mother.

Dr. Muhammad Sharif Baloch, former Secretary Health Sindh and the eldest son of Dr. N.A. Baloch said that he often accompanied his illustrious father in his data collection trips to far and wide nooks and corners of the province where his father would stay days, weeks and months on end to collect research data.

Baba would consider research and books dearer than us, he disclosed. Earlier, Dr. Sumera Umrani Director Bureau of STAGS, University of Sindh presented welcome note and introduced the Keynote Speaker.