COMPANY KI HUKOOMAT

Ghulam Bari (1907-1949), known by his pen name Bari Alig, was an important Urdu writer and historian, a polyglot, born in the Kalanoor tehsil of Gurdaspur district in British India. Before partition, his family settled in Lyallpur, where he studied up to college. Later, he went to Aligarh University and his talents came to the fore. Disappointed by the harshness of British colonialism, Bari Alig did not apply for a government job despite the opposition of his family and secretly came to Lahore and started working in a newspaper under the pen name Bari Alig, but due to anti-government articles, the newspaper owners soon fired him. Marriage also could not convince him to take any job and he worked for various newspapers in Lahore, Amritsar, and Rangoon. When communism rose, he became interested in it because he felt that communism was in line with his anti-imperialist views. All the histories of India written during the British rule considered the British as the bearers of progress and prosperity in India. Bari Alig opposed this view and tried to write a correct history of British India in the light of facts. He wrote 13 books on history, of which “The Company’s Government”, “Islamic History and Civilization”, “What is History”, “The Study of History”, “The French Revolution” became more famous. After a long study of world history, he planned to present a comprehensive critical review of world history and civilization of every era under the title of “History and Civilization” and had completed a lot of work, but due to his untimely death in 1949, not only could this project not be completed, but a large part of the completed work was also lost. The middle part of the manuscript titled “Islamic History and Civilization” was somehow preserved and came to light for the first time in 1970, the modern edition of which has recently been published by “Book Corner”. Reading this short book helps in understanding the most amazing and important chapter of world history more accurately. Bari Alig influenced the thinking of many writers of his time. Saadat Hasan Manto called Bari Alig his guide and teacher. Bari Alig's books later played an important role in paving the way for the progressive movement in India. He died of a heart attack at the age of 42. He is buried in Faisalabad. On December 10, 1999, in recognition of Bari Alig's literary services, Pakistan Post issued a commemorative stamp on his 50th death anniversary.

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Bari Alig's pen opened the eyes of consciousness at a time when British power in the subcontinent was at its peak. Great heroes were afraid to speak the truth. Speaking out against the British was a serious crime. Politics and economy were dominated by the British and people who had been loyal to the British for generations. In such an era, Bari Alig fearlessly wrote down what he saw and felt. He was seeing that slavery had deposited centuries of subjugation on the minds of the people, the caravan had been lost, no one even felt the loss, the boat was tottering and no one was angry. Bari felt this keenly that silence had descended on the atmosphere of the entire country. There was no effective movement in the right direction, let alone any wave of thought rising from the minds of the common people against the British. Bari Alig started a jihad with his pen under this feeling. When he wrote a book called “The Company’s Government”, he was declared a rebel. He was the target of the rulers’ reprimands, but his independence did not falter. Bari exposed the foreign rulers in academic and literary circles, newspapers and in his own writings, everywhere and in every way, and exposed the conspiracies and vile acts of this unscrupulous and selfish group that has been at the mercy of the rulers in every era. He was deeply affected by the looting of the country and the economic misery of the common people. Bari did not resort to emotional slogans to educate the people and guide them on the right path, but adopted a scientific and logical approach. He resorted to scientific research. According to Dr. Abdul Salam Khurshid, “He was a writer and used literature as a means of political awareness.”
Dr. Ghulam Shabbir