Hemu Kalani: A lost freedom hero from Sindh and a homeland cleaved apart
In India, the shallow stereotyping of Sindhis has kept the 19-year-old freedom fighter from mainstream recognition. In Pakistan, it is religious bias.
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It was Madhuri Sheth (1934-2022) who first told me about Hemu Kalani. My first book on Sindh, Sindh: Stories from a Vanished Homeland, was ready for the printer but I went to see her because a friend insisted. The meeting changed the book; I held the pages back and updated them with Madhuri’s story. It changed me, too.
Who would imagine that Sindhis had been involved in the struggle for Indian independence? Weren’t Sindhis a peculiar, money-obsessed, exploitative and uncultured lot? But Madhuri remembered her childhood in Sukkur, on the banks of the Sindhu River, and opened a startling new window:
“Influenced by a prominent Sukkur freedom fighter, Dadi Parpati, my elder sister Shantoo joined the Congress Dal and was learning how to use the lathi. The principal of our PPCM Girls’ High School, Sarla Narsian, was a well-known freedom fighter too, and our idol. When Hemu Kalani was hanged at midnight, we sat up in wait until the body was cremated.”
Dadi Parpati? Sarla Narsian? What was this about a 19-year-old Sindhi martyr named Hemu Kalani?
Over the years I have learnt of the long and solid history of Sindhi participation in the freedom struggle. KR Malkani wrote in The Sindh Story:
“Nadir Shah looted the country only once. But the British...
