Comrade Maghno Kolhi: An Unyielding Voice of Thar’s Oppressed
Chehra WebDesk
By: Kalavanti Raja
By any measure, Comrade Maghno Kolhi was not a man of privilege, nor of formal education, nor of political office. Yet in the windswept sands of Nagarparkar, his name carried a weight that many ministers and parliamentarians could never command.
With his passing, Sindh has lost not merely an activist but a living symbol of defiance.
It is with profound grief that we record that Comrade Maghno Kolhi passed away this week in his native village of Adhigam, near Nagarparkar. His last rites will be performed there, in the soil he loved and defended all his life.
Maghno Kolhi belonged to the marginalized Kolhi community of Thar — a community long burdened by caste hierarchies, feudal dominance and economic deprivation. History rarely grants such men a platform. But occasionally, in regions where injustice lingers too long, a voice rises from the dust itself. In Parkar, that voice was Maghno Kolhi.
He was not schooled in universities; he was schooled in struggle.
I recall seeing him for the first time at a public meeting of the Awami Tehreek, standing on a modest stage, turban tied firmly, voice echoing across the crowd. He roared like a lion. This unlettered son of the soil would challenge entrenched feudal lords with a courage that electrified thousands. When he spoke in his native Parkari dialect, urging the poor to educate their children and to raise red flags over their humble dwellings, it was not rhetoric — it was rebellion wrapped in hope.
His political journey was deeply shaped by his association with the late Rasool Bux Palijo, whose ideological clarity and legal defense during a false and malicious case in the 1990s fortified Maghno’s commitment to organised struggle. That episode could have broken a lesser man. Instead, it forged him into steel.
From that point onward, he became inseparable from the movements that defined resistance politics in Sindh.
He actively participated in all four long marches organised against the controversial Kalabagh Dam — a project widely feared in Sindh as a threat to the province’s ecological and economic survival. Later, when the Gorano Dam emerged as a new source of anxiety for the fragile ecology of Thar, it was Maghno Kolhi who led the Awami Tehreek’s long march from Islamkot to Karachi. He walked not as a politician seeking office, but as a custodian of land and dignity.
In the Nagarparkar region, after the legendary Rooplo Kolhi — who resisted colonial authority in the 19th century — it was Maghno Kolhi who became the most prominent symbol of resistance within the Kolhi community. That is not a small historical placement; it is an inheritance of defiance.
For decades, he walked the rugged terrain of Parkar — confronting illegal land occupations, caste oppression and abuses of power. Where police excesses occurred, where feudal intimidation prevailed, where labourers were silenced, one could expect to see Maghno Kolhi standing beside them. In a political culture where many succumb to pressure, compromise, or convenience, he neither bowed nor sold his conscience.
In recent years, illness had weakened his body. Diabetes slowed his steps. The man who once traversed mountains and villages with relentless energy could no longer cover those distances. Yet even in frailty, his spirit remained undiminished. Those who met him in his final days speak of a mind still sharp, a heart still restless for justice.
There is a poignant symbolism in his departure during the season of spring. For those who struggle, spring and autumn are not determined by climate but by the condition of hope. His passing feels like autumn in Parkar.
And yet, history teaches us that movements do not die with men. They are carried in memory, in example, in unfinished tasks.
Maghno Kolhi’s departure is physical, not ideological. The sweat he shed in the sands of Thar will linger like fragrance for those who continue the march. Every red flag raised in Parkar, every peasant who refuses humiliation, every young activist who finds courage in unlikely circumstances — will, knowingly or unknowingly, walk in his footsteps.
In an era increasingly dominated by transactional politics, Maghno Kolhi represented something rarer: conviction without calculation.
Sindh has lost a lion of Parkar. But history has gained a chapter of resistance.
Red salute to Comrade Maghno Kolhi.
