Z. A. Bokhari

Zulfikar Ali Bokhari

Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah Bukhari

Karachi, Pakistan

early 1920s, 1940–5

Before arriving in London to become director of the Indian Section of the BBC Eastern Service, Z. A. Bokhari was the director of the Delhi broadcasting station of All India Radio and visited London in July 1937, when he attended a reception held by Firoz Khan Noon at India House, Aldwych. He moved to London to take up the post of Indian programmes organizer for the Indian section of the Eastern Service of the BBC from 1940 to 1945. Sir Malcolm Darling recruited Bokhari on the recommendation of the controller of broadcasting for All India Radio, Lionel Fielden. Initially Bokhari and his team only contributed a weekly news report and the odd cultural programme.

Bokhari, together with Darling, was instrumental in recruiting George Orwell, who would be an important asset also because of his friendship with Mulk Raj Anand, who had previously rejected Darling's offer of work at the BBC. Bokhari hoped that he would be able to persuade Anand and other Indian friends to work for the Indian Section. During his time in London he managed the contracts and programming of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, working closely with Orwell. He was also an accomplished broadcaster, regularly transmitting talks in Urdu to India. He accompanied Richard Dimbleby to report on the Indian soldiers stationed with the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940. Organizing and co-ordinating the activities of the Indian Section of the Eastern Service, Bokhari was instrumental in the Service’s programming and bringing together the network of freelance talks-writers based at the BBC. In 1945 he took up the position of director of the All India Radio Station in Calcutta and later moved to Pakistan to become controller of broadcasting in Karachi for Radio Pakistan.