Reinventing Pakistan: The Rise of The Left

A wonderful article as usual...

``Yet, the odd paradox is that the Left elements rather than the Rightist Maulvi contributed more to the creation of Pakistan``

This is a fact that is more often overlooked... but the Communist Party of India supported the Muslim League while the Rightist Mullahs from Deoband and Jamaat-e-Islami opposed it. Well said. I won`t describe Sir Syed Ahmed Khan or Allama Iqbal as necessarily left ... but Jinnah was the member of the British Fabian Society from the 1931-1934... In the mid 1940s Jinnah made a deliberate effort to attract more leftists within the Muslim League fold which was being dominated by the Punjabi Landlords post Sikandar-Jinnah pact... the result was Mian Iftikharuddin, Sajjad Zahir (Who contributed a lot to the left wing of the league) and even Faiz Ahmed Faiz who became the editor of the League`s leftwing mouthpiece ``The Pakistan Times`` in January 1947 (as opposed to the centrist ``Dawn`` and rightist ``Nawai Waqt`` also the league mouthpieces)

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That said... all elements of Pakistani society will succeed if we just follow one thing: the 1973 constitution in letter and spirit because while I might find it distasteful for this reason or that... it is a consensus document.

Saima Sahiba,
Great Article....

I love it.....

If Pakistan just had a few more daughters like you...

Pakistan does need a reformation.... it is so overdue...

Unity, Faith, Discipline...... Jinnah needs to stop rolling in his grave!

We Pakistanis need to make sure of it............

You`ve covered the left`s slow- non-confrontational revival very well.. I think in parts of Karachi, it is incredibly visible -you can see polarisation very clearly. In Lahore by contrast the proliferation of Hijabs and Beards is lower... as is the proliferation of spaghetti straps and tank tops...

A good article.

But raises more questions than it answers.

A very optimistic article,I hope for the sake of the subcontinent that reasons for this optimism is well warranted.
A peaceful and progressive pakistan is the interests of all south asias especially Indians.

Regards
Nandan

Happy New Year to you, too.

Brief views:-

Most religions, and all established religions, including Islam, tend to be left of centre if not extreme left in their philosophies. That is the only way these pillars are acceptable and sustainable, by society.

Nature in all its forms, forming the roof over these pillars of religion, on the other hand, tends to go with survival and evolution of the fittest. The intelligent and the brave and the strong will prevail is the basic thumbrule here.

When any religion tries to move away from its inherent leftist approaches, and heads right wing, then sustainability suffers. That pillar then decays, crumbles, and finally vanishes.

The roof of nature, however, is held up by the other religions.

And the foundations are science. Those pillars of religion built on sound foundations will simply get more of the roof of nature to hold up.

I am glad to hear that the publishing industry is looking up in Pakistan. Now if only the common people from Pakistan would stop believing everything they see in Indian movies as well.

Side note - spaghetti straps and tank tops are a symbol of leftist thought, wow, and our leftists are so shabbily dressed most of the time!!

Good article.

``At various times, in undivided India Syed Ahmed Khan, Allama Iqbal and M.A. Jinnah, with Leftist ideals were jailed.`` Is this correct? I was under the impression that MAJ never spent a single day in prison, unlike Gandhi, Nehru et al.

Nice thought provoking article..

I believe that we never took Pakistan seriously, self imposed masters of Pakistan are the most hypocrite people on the surface of earth.

In this game of raping, looting and molesting of the homeland,muslim clergy is playing the same role which Christian clergy was playing in the Europe of dark ages.

Mullahs who survive on the crumbs of feudals are discouraging people from wearing ``pants`` or to work with machines,or to read Western Books of science and technology, and they quote some ``ahadiths`` to support their destructive and deceptive ideas.

``Ahadiths``, which were compiled several centuries after the death of prophet.

Who knows, how many ``ahadiths``, enemies of equality and social justice might have interpolated in the Islamic belief system.

``Tablighis`` were quoting such Ahadiths to a businessman of Islamabad, until he lost his interest in this world, and as his business declined, same cunning Tablighi preachers bought his business at a throw away price.

Why are we keeping people backward and unaware of the destruction, which we are causing due to our non scientific and unsustainable abuse of environmental and natural resources???

When Western scientists and environmentalists were working in Northern NWFP and they were catching and disclosing the thefts of forests, and warning us about the consequences,then we scared them away with the help of fanatic religious Mullahs.

Brutal and unchecked thefts of Our forests and this recent earth quake has triggered massive land slides, which has almost filled the Mangla and Tarbela lakes.

Depletion of natural resources, scarcity of food and energy crisis will trigger a chain reaction, a civil war and complete anarchy and destruction of our society.

Mullahs tell us that wearing a professional and safe ``Pant`` type dress in order to work with machines is unislamic and again they quote some ahadiths to support it.

Foresters wear ``pants`` during their tough training in the forest college Peshawar, but when they become DFOs , they start wearing white ``shalwars`` , ``boski`` shirts, become very religious , but forests keep on disappearing under the table.

Have you ever seen recently,any Pakistani forestor, or a Civil Engineer, a government overseer etc. who was wearing professional duty uniform,like ``pants`` and he was working with his hands??

If no body will work with hands in an honest manner,then who will pay for our white ``partoogs`` and our free foods and our emotional talks etc.??

There is some thing terribly wrong with the application of Islam in our society, and we are going to leave a collapsed, extremely polluted, poisonous and dangerous society for our children.

Dear Layman,

You are correct when you say that M.A.J (as well as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal) was never imprisoned a single day... unlike Gandhi and Nehru, the British never saw the need to fluff him up as a leader of the people... Infact his house was perhaps the only politician`s house not on the British`s watch list.

This is precisely why Jinnah`s picture hangs in the most hallowed hall of the British legal tradition i.e. the great hall of Lincoln`s Inn.

Veeresh...

Context... I actually see all that Saima has mentioned a result of globalisation and therefore global capitalism...

However... what Saima is using here is ``left= socially liberal``.

Good article precisely because it links happenings in Pakistan to wider happenings around the world, in tune with the sociological imagination discussed by C.W. Mills and it deals with crisis in identity in a globalizing world, what Habermas discussed under ``life world and its colonization``.

The author states <<< After all, nations and borders are not about getting along but about not getting along. Quite often ‘Center’s for policy research’ are thinly veiled efforts to intellectualize and rationalize the politics of identity and so much of new technology is used to reduce freedoms. >>>

True, exactly what I have been stating about bureaucratization of social structure and how all that is the antithesis of a free and democratic society. USA is the most un-free society in the world precisely because of these reasons.

Then, the author states <<< Science slowly but surely has defected to the Right. Instead of liberation, science is making the authoritarian Right stronger >>>

Very true, science in the hands of the `power-elite` (who might belong to the ``official left`` or ``official right`` but are class conscious extremists nonetheless) becomes a machine used to further their power and privilege, a means to an end and little else. A good case in point showing this would be the entire patents regime, that blocks scientific discovery from being used for human benefit even as it considers profits more important and also the unequal transfer of technology, and the militarization of science. This point is quite well established.

The author states <<< We have been convinced that hate is a necessity. “Nuclear weapons therefore will ensure a peaceful world free from conflict.” “Defense spending goes hand in hand with economic growth.” >>>

Yes, a classic example of double speak that the mass society is propagandized with. Behind all these developments is the interplay of the economic, political and military institutions in the form of a US permanent war economy; directly affected by whose effects are the developing nations.

I would differ with the author on her description of Islam as a ``society based upon segregation``. These practices entered Islam much later in history, including the importance on special dress and appearance. The description of women/men relationships and dealings as stated in the Quran, do not reveal a segregated society, but one in which men and women are equal partners based upon justice.

Regarding women working, the Quran is explicit in stating, ``for men is what they earn and for women what they earn``. And unlike most modern systems that exploit women expecting them to work a ``second shift`` by doing housework, the Quran recognizes that work, whether it is childcare etc to be ``work`` that necessitates remuneration. In patriarchal societies there have to be some safeguards to protect the rights of women, until relative equality is achieved or the results we will get will be mere slogans of liberation under a condition of total bondage: the American woman being the case in point.

Pakistan might be ripe for democracy but will those that benefit from military rule (i.e. the American elite more so than others) ever let democracy flourish in that country needs to be taken into consideration. As long as we don’t totally detach ourselves from the machinery of the ``crackpot realism`` of the US elite, that the Pak military rulers are happy to fall into, (whether right or left as the tide demands), no democracy is ever possible in Pakistan, in my opinion.

A good book to read to develop a connecting perspective, to get the BIG picture would be C. Wright Mills`, The Sociological Imagination (1959).

Overall, I thank CHOWK and the author for publishing articles like these because they deal with REAL issues rather than partisan bickering over non-issues.

how refreshingly nauseating -- how expat pakistanis consider themselves experts on pakistan --

#12 very good, you are a living-breathing example of low quality journalism coming out of Pakistan regardless of the degrees next to a person’s name. Instead of contributing to the discussion you paint all contributors here with your stereotypical brush. You also ignore in this stereotype the fact that at times it is best to study a society as a ``stranger`` from the outside than the inside. Thank you for proving to us that ignorance is independent of formal education. Keep up this good work (sarcasm intended)

#7. Thanks.

Veeresh,

Thanks for the comments. The word `left` has many connotations. But it is best used without defining it because I think we all grasp what it means. Spaghetti straps aren`t Left, but tolerating them is Left. And Left is a relative word.

Regards

Saima

Science did not only fail or leave the left. It was the left that left science due to its questionable usage by the facists in the early 20th century.