Reinventing Pakistan: The Rise of The Left

As I always tell my father, `having broader roads is not a very solid indicator for mental freedom and progressiveness...`

SAIMA BEHAN

mala pherat yug bhaya,
phira na man ka pher.
kar ka manka daree dey,
man ka manka pher.

[kar:- of Hand ; manka:-pearl of a mala; daree:put down]

ahmedmadani please stop this propaganda , Musharraf cannot cure the cancer of corruption, nepotism, incompetency, cheating and religious hypocrisy which is far spread in the body of Pakistan.

All laws and government rules are for sale in Pakistan, and according to Transparency international,Pakistan has been declared as the second most corrupt country in the world.

People like Cowasji and other journalists and columnists of Pakistani media are candles and beacons of truth, who give light to others.

Cowasji is a great teacher, and he is educating us about the malpractices and corruption of bullies, grabbers, and land molesters of our country.

To a sick person sweet honey tastes bitter, so is your case, that you are unable to see his pain and his love for the betterment and education of his people and his country.

Pakistan is progressing very fast. Pakistan (KSE) stock exchange gain for year is second best in world 54% return. All foreign investors are thinking of investing billions of dallars. Mr. Arjun how much was BSE gain for last year not 54% for sure.
Pakistan problems is liberals and leftists damaging the country. Behram gave mother jone newspaper from USA and there is our brilliant columnist Cowasji telling world about future of Pakistan saying Pakistan is doomed and Musharraf just wants to stick to power nothing more and nothing less and this man is leftist and liberals. Due to these average good person does not like leftist. He should be charged for defaming country instead he write in english newspapers. Very bad. Pakistan is doomed due to leftist people.

Well it wasn`t so last year.... when men and women ran together in the Marathon.

Zakkk,

Thank you for complimenting me for researching the left and writing about it in the English press. My research was initially focused on the left`s role within the Pakistan movement... but I have now discovered that left has a rich, but at times comical, history... Here is a website that does some good work documenting the socialist-marxist movement in Pakistan post 1947: CMKP.tk

Recently a new left alliance has emerged led by the Labour Party Pakistan .... and I believe a sort of Fabian Society for Pakistan is also in the works. My problem however is that I don`t believe in the economic programme of socialism anymore- as capitalism has shown that it works. HP is the great authority on left movements in Pakistan and he must be commended for his most balanced point of view.

-YLH

sex-segregation is the official policy of the government..

Men and women will run separately, says Imran Masood

Saimashah

A good article but a bit loose one. No doubt the canvas is too large to conjure up in a single article as Saima has tried. Anyhow she has provided a good fiest for thought.

She rightly says that the science is now on the side of the right. The mullah armed with the almighty loudspeaker are blaring out terror all the time to our homes reaching even our womenfolk whose physical presence in his terror house he considered unwelcome to say the least. And what about the clashankov, the remote controlled bomb, rocket-propelled grenade etc. All these inventions are being used now on the side of the right, the mullahgardi. As Mullah Nusruddin had once stated the dogs are loose while the stones (the nukes, etc.) are bound.

#33 by Kulharee:
``Urdus can get away without learning Sindhi while living in Sindh``

With all due respect, you should refrain from commenting on things you don`t know about. Sindhi is a compulsory subject in school till matric for everyone. In most karachi schools sindhi is taught starting atleast from 6th grade onwards. Many schools have it as early as 3rd grade or even earlier.
Please, take your ethnocentric bs somewhere else. Thank you.

#38 by HP on January 4, 2006 2:36pm PT


Even though there is no Purdeh in Hinduism, the Indian society is as segregationist as the Pakistani society is.


BS..Lahore is the one with the marathon where men and women run separately..

Pakistan has no Kiran Shaw..

My Pakistani friends,

If you want to add to your leftist population, please, please ask India for help. We will gladly ship you thousands and thousands of leftists. They are infesting India all over. In fact, we will even pay you to take them over.

Tell you what, if you are willing to take them all (including all the CPM/CPI guys), we will even give you Kashmir in the bargain. If we can pursue great economic policies without any obstruction from them, it is well worth the trade.

Thanks,
Yours Ranjit

>>So be it. If the self-esteem of a nation needs its scarves and beards, who am I to object? After all, people take Prozac and Viagra for the same. <<

I did not know keeping beard works same way as taking Viagra.:-)

“The Left, always an anti-thesis to the mainstream had failed when it changed hands and become the Right in parts of Eastern Europe and USSR.”

There is lots of confusion in the article. First Saima must decide what she means by “the left”?
Is it the good old liberalism, secularism or the plain old Marxism? All three have been mixed up so badly that context is the only guide to figure out what she actually meant when she used “the left” to describe a state.

The Marxism that took over in the USSR was never liberal. It was not even secular as it discouraged any religious freedom. Marxism is not liberalism, though it springs from similar sources as liberalism.

Marxism professed to smash existing establishment and economic system and create a new establishment and economic system by way of proletariat dictatorship. What is liberal in this concept?

Marxism attempted to replace the control of resources from the feudal and capital in the hands of yet another minority; the proletariat. Marxism never even advocated a popular platform. It never believed in civil liberties or in women’s rights or in freedom of speech.

Marxism believed in control of all organs in the hand of the proletariat. Marxism should never be associated with liberalism as liberalism is a belief that the individual is ontologically prior to society and politics and therefore the purpose of politics, is the maximization of the ability of individuals to satisfy preferences.

Liberalism and Marxism had a temporary political alliance in Europe and that alliance collapsed after the cold war. The Marxists in the other continents were mostly the only militant opposing force so they ended up donning the liberal jacket too. That was only due to their views on religion but I doubt that any Marxist seriously believed in liberal ideals. I must say that in the current environments, the distinctions are hard to keep track of as Marxists are trying to get under the liberalism umbrella.

“Science had seemed to side with the Left for so long.”
“Science slowly but surely has defected to the Right. Instead of liberation, science is making the authoritarian Right stronger.”

Now here it appears that Saima meant the left as in liberalism. If that is true, then her statement about science leaving the left or liberalism is inaccurate. There have been many attempts to use science to help the so called religious or the rightists’ ideals. Latest being in the debate of creationism and the so called intelligent design but it is not flying smoothly.

Science helps liberalism but scientific inventions and the goods the science delivers are agnostic and don’t support either the left or the right or the liberalism or the conservatism. The use of scientific gadgets cannot be construed to be a defection by science or the science taking sides. This is demagoguery. The stem cell research has taken the breath away from the religious rightist. The mullah is selective in his use of the gadgets but he still does not believe in science.

A society becomes more liberal and secular as time passes. The right attempts to arrest this natural course and brings in a strong support of traditions and existing structure to slow down this process. Finally in Pakistan, the onslaught of religion has been tamed or subsided and people are acting up their natural tendencies.

But saima`s view is a limited view of Karachi only. I don’t see that it reflects the cultural landscape of the whole country. Karachi in even the dark days of religious supremacy was able to keep its head above the water but other parts of the country that were already under the feudal influence were never as liberal as Karachi was. What is on the rise in Karachi is at best secularism mixed with liberalism in pockets. Or plain common sense on the rise.( #30 by kalihawa )

“Islam has always been a society of segregation.”
“Similarly Naguib Mahfouz’s unforgettable books about Cairo, and others have described how fundamental segregation was to Islamic societies.”

What is an Islamic society? There has never been an Islamic society in Pakistan at least the Pakistan that I know of was never Islamic. Pakistan barring a few pockets is under feudal cultural influence and the Pakistani Islam draws heavily from the feudal culture to create an illusion that the country is somewhat religious. The segregation that feudal and the tribal cultures in Pakistan preach is entirely local.

Naguib Mahfooz talked about the arab society as Islamic society but putting Pakistan under the same roof is not accurate. Even though there is no Purdeh in Hinduism, the Indian society is as segregationist as the Pakistani society is. The strong influence of feudal culture does not make Pakistan an Islamic society.

Dear Saima -- great article -- though you have not elaborated with examples as to how the left in Pakistan is in resurgence.

You are right -- LEFT is a broad spectrum term that carries under its umbrella such blood thirsty murderers like Khmer Rouge -- Shining Path -- to Maoistas -- Naxalites – democratic CPIs – to the gentle souls like Arundhati Roys and Asma Jahngirs.

Hatred is not the soul domain of the Right-wingers or the Bushy Neocons -- or the lunatic Lashkarias or the insufferable Saffronistas -- Left has also it s own brand of rigid, doctrinaire foaming mouths.

Both sides can kill equally well -- rather than persuade -- for their man made jumble of words and syntax of their ideologies.....

It is good to hear that a gentler and articulate Left is rising in Pakistan -- otherwise the way the Leftist intellectual giants were treated in Pakistan -- and the Islamization of the Progressive Poets like Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi into Naatia and Humdgo shair occurred -- (shukre adaa kur uss rub kaa bahi -- jisnay hamari gai banaee) -- one had almost lost all hopes for Pakistan`s literary and political salvation......

great piece enjoyed it.....

Nice article..the leftist movement in Pakistan has never been properly researched..there are few books on the subject and the role it played pre and post independance. Although I should qualify that by complimenting writers like Mantolives and many others in the mostly english press who have written about them..

The Maoist component of Pakistans leftist movement seemed to have collapsed with Maulana Bhashanis death..but from what I have read it was a powerful force in the 1950`s and 1960`s. The pro soviet element with the NAP ..seemed to be more ofan alliance of convenience for many ..after all in its 1970`s stint in power the NAP pretty much practiced centrist politics. but even that alliance collapsed with in the late 70`s with Bizenjos split from the NAP.

The PPP was and remains the only party to have attracted people from across a spectrum of leftists (The NAP was similar but did not have that level of sustained popularity)..unfortunately ZAB was too insecure to channel the movement into an effective permanent force and turned on it with a brutality which probably far excelled Indira Gandhis emergency ..

Then Zia came..but despite all the suppression..the end was wriiten by Benazir taking the PPP to the centre right ground..which was at the same as the collapse of the Berlin Wall..


Sorry I am lecturing...but this article and the recent passing away of Hanif Ramay..got me thinking..

Khamay… Couldn’t you come up with some healthier Urdu-daans? These three morons are revered more by Tuwaifs than intelligentsia (nothing against Tuwaifs really). Ustad Daman beats them all hands down –literally and proverbially.