This as a social and economic background, short stories appeared which had a low paid clerk as a central character.…
Article by Mohan Gehani
What Freedom means to me?
What Freedom means to me? Economic Power and political power are interchangeable. The power of individual conscience is circumscribed by conditioning and ethos of time. Thus the “Freedom “remains elusive.
The concept of “Freedom” is irretrievably is connected with concept of “Discipline”. Outwardly discipline manifests in two ways. One is discipline of military that is imposed by coercion and other is discipline attained by a YOGI. Imposed discipline has knack of breaking the straitjacket but the discipline of Yogi is self evolved with rigorous training of mind and body. Is it possible that in any future time mankind may evolve collectively to that stage to invest the concept of freedom with any concrete meaning? It may be in a very distant future.
In the present stage, in space age MAN is confronted with many challenges. The challenge is to clean air- water. The ecological damage that Industrial age has wrought is incalculable. The internet and Satellite communication have made the distance and National boundaries redundant as Cyber space does not recognize any National boundaries. Nationalism has remained only a hangover of the past. Our identity will remain only as earthlings.. The genetic engineering may prove to be boon or bane. The artificial intelligence could be tool of service or domination. The choice is vital. ( I will skirt the philosophical aspects of determinism or free will. For me the concept of freedom is circumscribed by these factors. The concept of absolute freedom is as elusive as concept of Nirvana- Moksha- Salvation. The concept is as bewitching as a colourful horizon you try to reach there and another horizon opens up!
Share this article!
About the Author
Mohan Gehani is a noted Sindhi scholar, playwright, translator and poet. Born in Karachi, Sindh, on 20 January 1938, he belongs to the select community of Sindhi writers who lived through the Partition of India, one of the early group which struggled to build a movement that held the Sindhi identity together after the loss of Sindh, and campaigned for the Sindhi Language to be accepted as a national language by the Constitution of India.
Gehani, whose first short story appeared in 1955 in Naeen Duniyan when he was just seventeen, subsequently wrote many books, and received many literary awards including the Saeen G M Syed memorial award at the World Sindhi Congress in London in 2005, and the Sahitya Akademi award in 2011. He has also received awards for his contribution to Sindhi literature from the National Council for the Promotion of Sindhi Language (NCPSL, a body of the Government of India) for his book on the History of Sindh; the lifetime achievement award Akhil Bharat Sindhi Boli ain Sahit Sabha; a translation award by Sahitya Akademi in 2016 for his translation of Kapila Vatsayan’s Hindi book Bharat: Natya Shastra; and the Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Award 2016. He was a member of the Sindhi advisory board for Sahitya Akademi from 2007 to 2012.
A collection of Articles, Speeches and Essays by Mohan Gehani
Explore his Blog
Here I shall have to revert back to the time of post Independence of India to give a broad perspective…
The total disruption of the society had another significant fall out. In this entire process the position of woman in…
Literature in Sindhi language unlike the literary cultures of contemporary other Indian languages moves on quite different trajectories and planes.…