One of the great Urdu poets, Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, was remembered on his death anniversary on Tuesday. Sufi Tabassum was born in Amritsar on August 4, 1899. In 1927, he joined the Central Training College, Lahore, as a Lecturer, where he worked till 1931. In 1931, Sufi Tabassum joined Government College, Lahore, from where he retired as Head of the Persian Department in 1954. During this period he matured into a great poet, critic and teacher. He taught three generations of students, including Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Noon Meem Rashid and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, who later became renowned poets.
It was during this period that the best Urdu and Persian poems of Sufi Tabassum were written. After retirement, he formed the Iranian Cultural Centre in 1955. He devoted all his energies to modernise the Persian used by the scholars of the sub-continent an effort that has borne fruit. He handed over the Iranian Cultural Centre to the Iranian Government in 1958 after serving as its Director for three years. In 1958, he joined the weekly Magazine called “Lail-o-Nahar” as its Editor.
During his editorship, Sufi Tabassum devoted a lot of time to writing for children. When his editorship ended, Sufi Tabassum joined Radio Pakistan as a Script Adviser. There again he distinguished himself as a broadcaster and commentator of literary subjects.
Thereafter, he became Chairman of the Pakistan Arts Council, Lahore, and Vice-Chairman of Iqbal Academy. He worked tirelessly for both the organizations, building for the first time a magnificent building to mature into a national institution, while for the latter he laboured relentlessly to organize the Iqbal Centenary Celebrations and to get extensive research done on all aspects of the great poet’s life. He died on 7 February 1978.
