Art is generally assumed to be the exclusive preserve of the urban aesthete, an expensive hobby indulged between bouis of socialising and carousing. But for every rule, there is an exception and in the case of Pakistan’s artists, one of the most vivid exceptions is provided by Zafar Kazmi.
** Famous both as a sculptor/designer as well as one of Sindh's most dedicated cultural scholars, Zafar Kazmi was born in 1933 in a village near Sehwan Sharif. The day he was born, his mother fell ill. Unable to breast feed her newborn for more than a few hours, she was forced to summon a woman of the Manganhar community, who too had given birth that day, to breastfeed Zafar.
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** Given the famed decorum and rigidity of Syed traditions, Zafar’s fostering at the hands of a Manganhar woman was the talk of the town at the time. But what nobody ever considered was that both Zafar and his foster brother, Ali Mohammad, would go on to have legendary careers as artists. Both the foster brothers discovered their paths to fame and glory while still under the age of ten:
Zafar began making toys out of clay while Ali Mohammad, who later became known as Allan Faqir, started his journey of singing as a free style singer, in buses and on trains between Sehwan and Kotri.
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Later on in their teens, both the “brothers” decided to escape from the confines of their rural existence and to concentrate on the fields they had adopted earlier. Zafar escaped to Karachi and sought admission in NJV High School while Allan Faqir sought refuge in Sufi dargahs and began his career by singing at the various annual ‘Urs’ celebrations.
In the meantime, Zafar Kazmi was in the safe hands of the learned art teachers of Karachi's oldest school and in a very short period he passed all the examinations necessary for an artist. Though weak at conventional subjects he managed to advance his name as an artist by taking part in various competitions and by regularly bagging the prizes. Subsequently, due to a lack of drawing teachers, Zafar was selected as a drawing instructor in the same school. This trend continued even later when Zafar moved to Hyderabad to continue his profession in training college under late Ainkaf Shaikh, an artist par excellence. Due to financial constraints Zafar could not take his matriculation exam. As such, he was still in training college when the Sindh University management invited him to join as an art demonstrator in BPS-17. In the entire history of the university Kazmi became the first man who by virtue of professional competence and efficiency was offered such a big post without having an MA, the minimum education qualifications.
During his stint at the University of Sindh, he assisted in establishing the new field of “Sindhology” during the early 1960s. However, for a man with a proud temperament, it was very difficult to accept the dictation of his university bosses, and later on when he had a minor disagreement with the then Vice Chancellor, he had no qualms about immediately resigning from his post, even though he had no idea where his next job would come from.
“You see, I had never ever given an application for a job all along my career and probably that is why I can’t write an application to this day”, says Zafar.
During his stint at the University of Sindh, Zafar had certainly emerged as a force to be reckoned with on the art scene. His first ever exhibition of paintings was inaugurated by the then President Iskander Mirza at Bhit Shah in 1958. Another exhibition which was arranged in the subsequent year at the same venue was inaugurated by Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan.
Deeply influenced by Zafar’s work Ayub Khan remarked that “It appears that another Chughtai has taken birth”. The inauguration of two exhibitions by two Presidents was certainly not an ordinary event, and this exposure helped propel Zafar into the limelight. His focus on the agonies of rural life, musicians and musical instruments became famous as the main subject of his art, and museums and drawing rooms, both here and across the border, began to carry his paintings.
After quitting his job at Sindh University, Zafar returned to Karachi, where he established an art studio which he ran until the early 1970s when the Bhutto administration requisitioned his services to open up provincial museum at Hyderabad. Zafar worked day and night to build a cultural institution, and most importantly, put together a legendary team including Hameed Akhund and the late Mumtaz Mirza to help him. Through the troika’s efforts, the culture department of the Sindh government finally began to gain some respect.
The next step in Zafar's life came when he was elevated to the post of director, Sindh Museum (a post which he held until very recently) and sent on scholarship to do his Masters in Museum Studies in England. In 1979, during his stay abroad, the Museum Education Department of Birmingham organized an exhibition of his drawings, folk musical instruments, jewelry and textiles entitled 'Musical Instruments and Textiles From Pakistan" which continued for five consecutive weeks. The fact, he was the first Pakistani artist to have such a distinction.
On his return to Sindh Museum, Kazmi undertook renovation work of the museum according to accepted world standards. Besides opening anthropological galleries he displayed Sindh arts and crafts through life models. In the capacity as Director, Sindh Provincial Museum, Kazmi has been making models representing Sindh for the last two decades which have been displayed at Pakistan day parades in both Lahore and Islamabad. More interestingly, his models have remained dominant over the rest of the provincial models for the past 12 consecutive years and have won top positions.
Famous for never removing his beloved Mao cap, the tall and tidy Kazmi always remains immaculate and the office where he sits provides ready reference on a large number of subjects with countless books, manuscripts and other documents carefully catalogued in shelves with artistic care. This fondness for books, papers and periodicals has always been his weakness. “Indeed”, he says, “I have spent my entire life’s earning on these things”, confesses Kazmi.
On one 'occasion when he had to appear before Zia ul Haq, the President’s staff stopped him because he was wearing a Mao cap and asked him to take it off as it “reflected Russian culture.” Ever the fearless artist Zafar refused to oblige them and rushed into Zia’s office, Mao cap and all, to protest his mistreatment by the President’s staff. The President reportedly laughed and snubbed his over-zealous staff.
His fearless courage was also visible on another occasion in 1992 when he reportedly refused to allow the then US ambassador Robert Oakley to visit the Sindh Museum because the ambassador arrived two hours late. It was only after the intervention of the local administration that Zafar Kazmi allowed the foreign guest to visit the museum and that too only after chastising him for adopting the local customs of discipline and tardiness.
In 1993, Zafar Kazmi retired from government service but Sindh’s culture department retained his services in the same capacity on contract basis until recently, when he forced to retire for good after suffering a massive heart attack in his office.
Kazmi cannot be described merely as an an sculptor or an anthropologist. His report and perceptions of Sindh have set him many a scholar. At the same time, he has been in the center of many unnecessary controversies. For example, on the occasion of a function’ commemorating the death anniversary of Allma Daud Pota, he vehemently criticised the speakers for failing to highlight the major achievements of the late scholar and labeled them as “donkeys loaded with fake degrees.”
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Zafar Kazmi died in 2007 and awarded Pride of performance award in 2011**
