Full Name Bakhtawar Movement Hari Movement Died 22 June 1947 | Other names Shaheed Spouse(s) Wali Mohammad Lashari Other name Shaheed | |
Born 1880 Dodo Khan Sarkani, near Roshan Abad, Taluka Tando Bago, Badin District, Sindh, British India (now Pakistan) Occupation Revolutionary leader, freedom fighter, political activist Children Mohammad Khan (son), Lal Bukhsh (son), Mohammad Siddique (son) Rasti (daughter) | ||
Mai Bakhtawar Shaheed (Sindhi: مائي بختاور شهيد) was born in the year 1880 in Village Dodo Khan Sarkani, near Roshan Abad, Taluka Tando Bago, Badin District, Sindh. She was activist for farmer’s rights and had fought against landlords who were ruining the lives of poor peasants. She was a brave soul and activist of Farmer’s Rights. She was shot dead while protecting the yield by the landlords on 22 June 1947.
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Early age
She was lone child of her father named Murad Khan Lashari and groomed with lot of love by her parents. She was married with Wali Mohammad Lashari in 1898 and she gave four children named: Mohammad Khan (son), Lal Bukhsh (son), Mohammad Siddique (son) and lastly daughter Rasti. Her husband Wali Mohammad Lashari was working as peasant in the then “Qadiyani State” and beside serving he had enough amount of goats to those Mai Bakhtawar was looking after them.
Movement for peasant’s rights
Before the Partition of India, social and political changes were visible and peasants, laborers along with lower-middle-class people were raising voice for their rights. In agricultural life were divided in two classes, one was landlord, who owned lands which were awarded by the British Raj to them as political bribe and others were poor peasants who were working on the lands in round o clock and at the time of yield landlords use to come and grab all yields with them and leaving some amount of the crop to the farmers. Mai Bakhtawar’s village was one of those victims who were facing hard days. This village was the property of Qadyanis who owned forty thousand acre lands, famous as “Ahmadi Estate”. In those days, Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi resigned from his job in 1945 and raised his voice for the farmers of Sindh. One of his main demands was that the farmers should be given half of the share in cultivation profit. His movement started from Nawabshah and spread all over Sindh including Tharparkar. In this regard, Comrade Hyder Bux Jatoi called a Hari Conference in Judho on 20 June 1949 in which almost ten thousand farmers and workers participated. All the men of Mai Bakhtawar’s village attended this conference and left only women at home. On the last day of conference (22 June 1949) landlord thought that the villagers will definitely force them to get half of the profit, taking advantage of the situation they tried to take in custody and remove 1,20,000 Kilo Grams flour which was stored in the village. Mai Bakhtawar accompanied with an old disabled fellow and other women resisted the landlords and asked them to wait until their men return but the landlords refused. In a rage, Choudhry Saeedullah and his manager Choudhry Khalid ordered one of their offenders to shoot. Consequently, Mai Bakhtawar, at the age of 55, died on the spot and the old man got injured. Her dead body was taken to Samaro for postmortem and buried there.
Success after death
The blood of Mai Bakhtawar brought a positive result and success. The movement achieved its goal. Eventually, a law passed in 1950 that the landlord and the farmer shall take half half share of the profit from cultivation. Choudhry Saeedullah who was the nephew of the then foreign minister of Pakistan Sir Zafarullah and Choudhry Khalid were punished 20 years of imprisonment.
Acknowledgments
It is said that former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto had named on their daughter Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari in the inspiration of Mai Bakhtawar. Today Government of Sindh had named Mai Bakhtawar on concerned Union Council of Kunri Taluka and two schools are also named after her. Government and Non government organizations are awarding their best performance awards on the name of Mai Bakhatawar Shaheed.