حافظ فضل حق آزادؔ عظیم آبادی
۲۷؍ شعبان ۱۳۶۱ھ کو صوبہ بہار کے مشہور و ممتاز کہنہ مشق شاعر حافظ فضل حق آزاد عظیم آبادی نے اس دنیائے دوں کو الوادع کہا، مرحوم کی عمر اس وقت غالباً اسّی (۸۰) سے زیادہ ہوگی، کانوں سے اونچا سننے لگے تھے، مگر اس سن و سال میں بھی ان کی شاعری کے شباب کا وہی عالم تھا، غزلوں کے کہنے کا اتفاق کم ہوتا تھا، مگر قومی و علمی و اخلاقی اور فلسفیانہ نظموں کا شوق زیادہ تھا، زیادہ تر اردو میں اور کبھی کبھی فارسی میں کہتے تھے اور شاذو نادر عربی میں بھی طبع آزمائی کی نوبت آجاتی تھی۔
پٹنہ میں سرسید مرحوم کی تعلیمی و قومی تحریک کے علمبردار قاضی رضا حسین صاحب مرحوم تھے، یہ ان کے حیدرآباد کے وفد کے ایک رکن بھی تھے، قاضی صاحب مرحوم کی فیض بخش علمی صحبتوں میں بہار کے جو چند نوجوان ابھرے، بڑھے اور پھیلے، ان میں ایک نام حافظ آزاد مرحوم کا بھی ہے، چنانچہ سرسید مرحوم کے اس ۱۸۹۱ء والے حیدرآبادی وفد میں جس کے دوسرے ممبر مولانا شبلی نعمانی اور مولانا حالی وغیرہ تھے، قاضی رضا حسین صاحب کیساتھ آزاد مرحوم بھی تھے۔
میں نے ان کو سب سے پہلے ۱۹۰۰ء میں جب میری نوعمری تھی ندوہ کے اجلاس پٹنہ میں اپنا ترکیب بند پڑھتے سنا، بلند قد، اونچی آواز، خود اعتمادی کے تیور، لہجہ پر جوش، کٹہرے میں شیر کی گرج سی سنائی دیتی تھی، سامنے علماء اور مشائخ کی صفیں تھیں، جن کی تعداد کئی سو سے کم نہ ہوگی، اکثر کی نورانی شکلوں کی یاد اب بھی دل کو منور کرتی ہے، شاعر نے جب ان کی طرف ہاتھ سے اشارہ کرکے یہ شعر پڑھا ہے:
نشانِ کاروان رفتہ ہیں دل کے اجالے ہیں
غنیمت ہی غنیمت ہیں کہ سب اﷲ...
The North-West Frontier region of the British Empire in India during the Great Game was part of the ‘Ring Fence Strategy’, framed by the Raj against its adversaries and rivals in Central and South Asia. To protect her ‘Jewel in the Crown’- India, the British Raj made several moves in the strategically placed Pukhtun1 land. The Pukhtun populace, adherent to their centuries old code of conduct, Puḳhtūnwali, consistently resisted the British encroachment of their territory. Mirza Ali Khan, popularly known as Faqir Ippi, was one of the many freedom fighters who challenged the imperialist power in this region. Taking notice of Islam Bibi’s case, a Hindu Convert, Faqir Ippi mobilized the Pukhtuns of Waziristan in defying and fighting the British. He was a serious contestant to the British authority with his well-known fighting skills, effective planning and guerilla tactics in one of the most difficult terrains. The entire Tribal Belt, especially Waziristan, proved to be a ‘turbulent frontier’ for nearly eleven years, i.e. 1936-1947. This insurgency started bringing bad name to the crown and encouraging others to rise against the British. To contain and end Faqir Ippi’s resistance, Governor George Cunningham hired the locals to instigate and bribe his followers to rise and fight against him. The aim of this paper is a critical evaluation of the British strategy in this region and an appraisal of Faqir Ippi’s response and assessment of how successful he was in invigorating Pukhtun resistance to defend their motherland, using both colonial and local sources.
The present study explored the perceptions of secondary English language teachers regarding the in-house professional development courses they attended and the influence of these courses on their practices. This study is conducted in two private high schools of ABC organization in the context of Gilgit Baltistan. Case study approach within qualitative research paradigm guided the study design. The research participants were two English language teachers who teach at secondary level. The data was collected from the ELTs through semi- structured interviews, classroom observations, formal and informal talks, and field notes and documents analysis. The findings of the study are developed into two separate cases and cross case analysis is done to identify the key findings. The findings of the study revealed that both the ELTs perceive in-house PD as an ongoing process to update themselves with new learnings and teaching techniques to cope with the challenges. ELTs also believe that other supporting factors like support from school context, principal, colleagues, family, their own self efforts and creativity, challenging students and their parents play significant role to grow professionally. The study also found that both ELTs have attended many general PD programmes, but few subject- based PD programmes. Both the ELTs demonstrated enhanced content and pedagogical skills during classroom teaching which showed that they have benefited from both formal and informal ways of PD. However, the findings also revealed some of the hindrances in implementation of learnings from PD. These included theory practice gap, limited subject and context relevant PD courses, lack of research based PD, problems of dealing variety of students, parent’s involvement and IT integrated teaching. There is little difference found in the perceptions and practices of both the ELTs. However, challenges differ in some ways due to personal and contextual differences. The findings of the study suggested pedagogical content knowledge based ongoing PD to further enhance ELTs content and pedagogical skills.