Yousaf Aziz Magsi Chair

The actual dawn of 20th century Balochistan dawned in its southern horn in one Kaiser Khan's house. Yousf Aziz Magsi was born there in January 1908 .
At the exit door of Yousuf's teen years nature managed to add a creative colour in Baloch life . The stab- sword-shield mode of struggle was complemented with preach-pen-publish politics. The anchor to hinge on was none other than Yousuf .
This unfamiliar way attracts interest , specially in budding middle class and amongst the wretched peasantry. But this new phenomenon genuinely shakes up the ruling classes to madness. They resort to the pen n prison duel , and the young man finds himself in jail.
Metastatic lover i.e the political organization in its concealed pursuit hugs him there amongst the alert and armed state guards. The first ever political party of Balochistan was established under his presidentship with modern means of meetings, rallies, press and publication. It's declarations and resolutions were a death warrant for the rulers of independent Kalat state and their British allies.
This man is a gifted poet, blessed with a strong prose and with a workaholic personality. Through a blend of nationalism, Islam and socialism he composed the anti imperialist poetry, writes pieces of literature letters to his comrades and followers, finances half a dozen newspapers and throws himself in frequent distant exhaustive tours to converse, communicate , convince and organize.
Back at home he inaugurates a free public education university JAMAYA YOUSUFIYYA, a free dispensary, constructs a canal, reduces his Sardari taxes, prohibits drug production and use, and introduces broad based reforms.
The primitive Balochistan resists this 'island' enmass, excommunicates him, snatches his Sardari and at last throws him in exile.
To their bad luck they don't send him to an inland Siberia, but to industrialized England... he becomes a full fledged Marxist... He plunges in exhaustive reading, drowns himself in tireless letter and political writings and cries patriotic poetry.
He returned back to fatherland overloaded with ideas, plans and blueprints of his future politics. Quetta earthquake burries him and his ideas under the heavy debris beyond reach to his ideological grandchildren for a whole century.
History roars against anonymity of one of his able sons, and a university chair is established to scratch the surface in this field. In the first phase of three months the chair luckily was able to reach the original manuscripts milestoning the life and struggle of Yousuf Aziz Magsi and his contemporaries. The scholars engaged in this work only then were able to understand the immense significance of his only TEN years which gave meanings, direction and roadmap to the future Baloch economico-politico- cultural movement for the comming centuries. Major portion of his writings were published in these three months .
A research journal YOUSUFIYYA is to be seen not only a continuity of Chairs endeavour but also as a movement to restart that university which Magsi sahib had started nine dacades back.

Director (Honorary): Dr Shah Mohammad Marri

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yamc@uob.edu.pk