The tradition & historical record
3 min read · 2 sourcesSindh Literature Festival or Sindh Adabi Melo (Sindhi: سنڌ ادبي ميلو) is an annual two-day festival that aims to promote and preserve the heritage of Indus while bring up social change through the celebration of indigenous languages, arts, history, education, archaeology, and anthropology. First held in 2016, the festival provides a platform for both established and emerging intellectuals to connect with their fans and engage in meaningful discussions. The festival brings together a diverse array of participants, including literary figures, progressive writers, journalists, political leaders, labor leaders, lawyers, social experts, as well as wildlife, human, women, and trans rights activists, environmentalists, artists, and students from across Pakistan. as well as international delegates. In addition to its cultural and literary significance, the event serves as a venue for formulating policies aimed at social progress and protecting the region's cultural and indigenous assets. The Sindh Literature Festival plays a vital role in preserving region's cultural identity and contributing to the broader discourse on literature, heritage, and societal development. Along with live coverage, a variety of stories, reports, programs, and packages are also produced. A number of TV channels and newspapers publish news and columns. Different sessions including book launches and discussions on various topics, theater, music, and mushaira are also planned over the course of three days. 1
Background
Naseer Gopang and Zohaib Kaka are both journalists who are in charge of the festival. SLF was founded by Naseer Gopang and Zohaib Kaka is the festival advisor and managing director. 1
2016
The festival was first held in November 2016 at Beach Luxury Hotel Karachi. A number of prominent public figures have participated in the event including Sufi singers Abida Parveen, Saif Samejo, Amb Jogi, journalists Hamid Mir, Wusatullah Khan, politicians Raza Rabbani, Ayaz Latif Palijo, Sassui Palijo, Aitzaz Ahsan, actresses Sanam Baloch, Sabreen Hisbani and others. 1
2017
The second event was held in 2017 from 27–29 October at Beach Luxury Hotel Karachi. The event comprises a number of sessions that aim at highlighting the social issues of Sindh, Sindhi Culture, issues related with Sindhi language, developments in Sindhi literature. Book stalls, handicraft stalls, mushaira sessions, and musical sessions of folk singers are also arranged during the event. 1
Controversy
In 2017, during Sindh Literature Festival, Jaleel read a story خدا گم ٿي ويو (Khuda gum thee wayo, The God disappeared). Video of the session went viral on social media in March 2021. The video irked religious fundamentalists and they took his views as blasphemy of God. Jaleel and organisers was threatened to death by religious extremists. His opponents used Twitter and other social media networks to get him arrested and hanged publicly. While his supporters showed solidarity with him. 1
2019
For the third time festival was jointly organised by the Sindh Literary Foundation, information department of the Sindh government and the Endowment Fund Trust from 22–24 February 2019 at Beach Luxury Hotel Karachi as in previous events. This time festival had many sessions on culture, language, politics, sufism and literature. Karachi's past was one of the main discussions of event. 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sindh Literature Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
Sindh Literature Festival is Annual literary gathering holding in Sindh, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. 2