Muhammad Usman Diplai

Muhammad Usman Diplai (Urdu: محمد عثمان ڈیپلائی), popularly known as Diplai (13 June 1908 – 8 February 1981), was a figure of Sindhi literature and journalism. He was awarded the Pride of Performance for literature by the President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf on 23 March 2004. Muhammad Usman Diplai was born at Diplo, (Tharparkar District) to Mohammad Ali Diplai, in a middle-class family. As per family traditions, he had to engage himself in business. Due to unfavourable circumstances, however, he could not complete his formal education. In early life, he worked with some landlords (zamindars) of the area as a clerk, but continued reading newspapers and magazines. He also acquired proficiency in Gujarati, Hindi, Gurmukhi, Urdu languages and a working knowledge in English and Persian. His works included a translation of the Quran in the Sindhi language. He founded Islamia Press, Quran Press and the Islami Dar-ul-Ishaat, the Adar-i-Insanyat, and the Diplai Academy one after another shortly before the Second World War, at the historic town of Mirpurkhas, and then moved to Hyderabad in 1942 where he founded the monthly magazine Ibrat, which he sold in 1946, it then changed to publishing weekly and eventually daily. He was an essayist, journalist, publisher, distributor, and printer of the Sindhi language.