A look at the Cultural Situation in Ghazni Province

Ghazni province is one of the very historical areas of our country and has been an important center of literatures and arts in our country throughout the ages unto the present. Hundreds of poets, writers, researchers, artists, scholars and heroes have lived in this province that have added to the cultural glory and national pride of Afghanistan significantly.

Journalism and culture in this province, especially in the second half of the twentieth century has been extremely noteworthy. This land is like a star shining in the sky of knowledge and culture of our country.

The revival of journalism and authoring started with the publishing of Sanayee Daily in this ancient land and worked as a tool that ushered in a renaissance of scholarly debate and literary excellence.  With the introduction of more periodicals and magazines, the scholars of Ghazni were brought out of insecurity and anonymity and they worked their best to further increase the cultural and literary treasures of the land.

The frontrunner of this new wave of intellectualism was Sanayee Daily which formally started publishing in the year 1953 and was established in an office in the general hospital of Ghazni. Other official print media outlets also helped this trend.  Sanayee Daily’s Chief Editor during this term was Mohammad Ibrahim Saabit.

Then, until the year 1962, the daily’s chief editors were Ghulam Ghows Alimi Ghaznavi, Ustad Ghulam Jelani Jalali, Fida Mohammad Saarem and Inayatullah Rasheed and continued to work hard to improve the daily. With the establishment of this daily which was run by the government, for the first time, scholars and writers like Munshi Ali Ahmad Khan Shalizai, Faqir Mohammad Hasrat, Nazar Mohammad Sorosh Shalizai, Ustad Shirin Ghaznavi, ustad Serajuddin Parwak, Ghulam Sakhi Fazli, Mowlana Abdul Baqi Ghaznavi, Abdul Ahad Ishrati, Ghulam Dastageer Mahjoor, Amanullah Parwana, Qazi Ghulam Rabbani Malaal, Mahgul Baqi, Abdul Ahad Wahid and a number of Sanayee High School’s students, including Abdul Manan Amin, Mohammad Aman Faaten, Mohammad Gul Miyaman, Mohammad Asif Forozan, Mir Ghulam Hazrat Hayel, Ghulam Bahlol Fahaam and others filled the pages of the daily with colors poems and scholarly research papers. The newspaper continued to add to its prestige and the number of its contributors continued to increase. 

In the next decade, mohammad Jan Kamran, Noor Mohammad Poyenda and Haya Sa’ii were the editors of the daily and writers and poets like Niyaz Mohammad Khosha Ghaznavi, Ghulam bahaudin Zhaland,  Mohammad Hanif Qawam, Ghulam Ghows Andaleeb, Ahmad Shah Azhar Faizyar, Sayed Amanullah Mirzadah, mohammad Zaman Zayer, Mohammad Aman Nayel, Mowlana sayed Abdul Qayum Hashimi, Feda Mohammad Fidayee, Mohammad Ghows Omari, Ghulam Ghows Ahmadyar, Naqebullah Daqeeq, Abdul Ghafoor Amini and Ahmad Shah Rafiqi were added to the already blossoming gathering of poets and writers who contributed to the newspaper.

From then on to the year 1977, cultural activities continued at the highest level and literary gatherings of poets and scholars continued periodically where the youth would take a very vital part and added a lot of positive input.

After the year 1977 and then the Sow Revolution, the newspaper’s scholarly pages were slowly reduced and a large portion of the newspaper was taken up by propaganda by the communist government of the time. Most articles were about the communist party and its activities.

The year 1988 saw resurgence in the publishing of scholarly papers in the newspaper. In the year 1990, this prompted the establishment of the province’s Cultural Association which was headed by Niyaz Mohammad Khosha. The organization’s secretary general was Ghulam Jelani Shariq and other scholars of the province including Abdul Ahad Sitaak Sarwary, Mir Ghulam Hazrat Hayel, Bismillah Fahmi, Abdul Ghafoor Ishrati, Qari Abdul Khalil, Sher Ahmad Aafil, Aqa Mohammad Khoshazadah, Ghulam Mustafa Musheer, Zahir Shah Aayel, Bismillah Ziyarawan, Din Mohammad Ahmadi, Abdul Qadeer and Ustad Abdul Waris were all members of the association. 

The Central Association was located in Kabul City. The Hakim Sanayee Ghaznavi Association had the status of a provincial council and held a meeting twice a month where poems and research papers would be read by poets and scholars from around the province. The association held special meetings in order to commemorate such scholars as Ustad Air Mohammad Aseer, Gul Ahmad Abir, Mowlana Baqi, Hakim Sanayee, Mowlana Jalaluddin Balkhi, Sayed Hassan Ghaznavi and others in the conference room of Jahan Malika High School where members of the association and the school’s students read poems and presented research papers on the lives of those scholars. The meeting was also joined by some elders of the province.

From 1991 to the year 2001, cultural activities were nonexistence in the province, Sanayee Daily was turned into a magazine and the cultural association’s presence was barely felt.

After the formation of the Interim Administration of Afghanistan, reconstruction started all over the country, including in the field of cultural rehabilitation, Sanayee Daily restarted publishing and several cultural associations were formed by the different ethnic groups that inhabit the province and continued the tradition of scholarly meetings.

Several magazines started publishing after that and Hakim Sanayee Association was also reestablished under the leadership of Ustad Taj Mohammad Zareer. Through the work of the association, in the year 2005 Nayestan Magazine started publishing under the editorship of Mirwais Zayed and was printed by Abdul Ghafoor Sangeen. The board of writers included Taj Mohammad Zareer, Prof. Ghulam Seddiq Nusrat, Ghulam Jelani Shariq, Kareema Mangal and Abdul Ghafoor Hamidi and poems, research papers and other literary works were published in it periodically. However, because of financial hardships, the magazine ceased publishing after its ninth issue. Currently, the staff of the magazine is continuing its cultural activities through the association. Another association under the name of Uroos-ul-Bilad Ghazna has also been established, Sanayee Association continues to operate side by side with it. 

At the same time, another association was established under the name of Hajveri Association in Peshawar by refugees from Ghazni. The head of this association was Prof. Bismillah Nuhzat and its deputies included Ustad Sayed Masood, a respected professor at the Kabul Medical Institute, and Abdul Baqi Hilamand. It also included as executive secretaries, Prof. Ghulam Seddiq Nusrat, another lecturer of Kabul University, Dr. Saburullah Siyasang, Munshi Zahir Shams and Abdul Ghafoor Amini. The association also published a magazine called Marifat which ceased publication after a while; however, several collections of books of the members were published and included poetry collections.

In the year 2005, the Ustad Ghulam Jelani Jalali Association was established in Ghazni under the directorship of Mohammad Arif Rawan Rasooli. Members of the association included Mohammad Ibrahim Khanikhel, Asadullah Jalalzai and others. The association succeeded in printing a collection of Ustad Jelani’s poems.

Other associations were also established by Shiite brothers which include the Mehr Association in Hyderabad, Ghazni, under the directorship of Nasrullah Sa’adat and Mohammad Anwar Javed. Bahare Jawanan is another cultural organization established by Rahmatullah in 2006.

The Cultural Organization of Khatim-ul-Anbiya was established by Abdul Rawoof Sarwary and a similar organization named Sharq was established by Sayed Hamidullah Hashimi. These organizations have continued to flourish and nurture the younger generation through gatherings and courses in computer sciences, English and other activities.

Several organizations have started to publish periodicals in Ghazni which include:

1. Sanayee Magazine edited by Asadullah Jalalzai and published by the Department of Information of Culture.

2. Nayestan, published by Sanayee Association which ceased publishing after its 9th issue.

3. Zamzamah Magazine, established by Ustad Ghulam Jelani Association under the editorship of Mohammad Arif Rawan Rasooli and Hafizullah Samim.

4. Nedaye Watan Weekly under  the editorship of Mumtaz Haidari and Ubaidullah Sa’ii, which is working to provide news and analysis on the past and the present and current affairs and news.

5. Mehr Magazine, published by Mehr Association which was established by Mohammad Anwar Javed and isedited by Nasrullah Sa’adat.

6. Lawang Magazine published by Mohammad Younus Burhan in 48 pages and with a website and includes cultural and social articles.

7. Hayate Naween Weekly is published by the Cultural Organization of Hayate Naweed and edited by Mohammad Yasin Rahyab and Latif Alemi.

These organizations are a backdrop of the golden past of Ghazni and are trying to keep alive the names of the hundreds of as yet unknown scholars of the this land and the history of Afghanistan.  Ghazni has given people from all ethnic groups including Tajiks, Pashtuns and Hazars homes where they all live together in peace and harmony. These people all work together for the improvement of both the social and cultural life of this province.

All the scholars and youth of the province are working day and night through these organizations in order to further the advancement of technology, culture, art and poetry in this province and to mix our cultural roots with the current world so that the names of the thousands of scholars of Ghazni and the history of this land remains alive for the future generations to come.

وضع فرهنگ وژورنالیزم غزنه در محراق زمان به خصوص نیمه دوم قرن بیستم از ویژه گی های خاصی بر خوردار است. این سرزمین از لحاظ  فرهنگی به مثابه  یکی از ستاره گان فروزان است که در آسمان علم و فرهنگ وطن جا  دارد .