A fresh look into the beginnings of one of Pakistan’s finest intellectuals
Eqbal Ahmad made his mark in the early 70’s as a radical polemicist and political activist. Like Noam Chomsky and Edward Said he was recognised as also a scholar and a prolific writer exposing imperialist policies.
He came to notice outside the academic circles when during the anti Vietnam War protests in 1971 he was falsely charged with conspiring to blow up the heating ducts in tunnels underneath government buildings in Washington DC. Another charge against him was that he had planned to kidnap President Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. A number of radical Catholic priests and nuns were also arrested in the first case. A group of anti Vietnam War activists campaigned for fund collection to arrange the hefty bail for Eqbal. With anti Vietnam War sentiment running high Eqbal Ahmad found admirers in many countries including Pakistan.
Stuart Schaar was closely association with Eqbal first as a class mate and in later years as a fellow activist.
The book briefly covers the formative period focusing on the experiences that were to later turn Eqbal Ahmad into what the writer calls ‘a leading activist within the global left’. The young Eqbal and his family migrated in from Bihar in 1947 and settled in Lahore. It was here that he completed his college education. The urge to fight oppression led young Iqbal to join the jihad in Kashmir in 1948 where he was injured. What he told his daughter Dohra about the adventure reveals the motivations of those who came to participate in the fighting.
“We marched into Kashmir. There was no resistance; Indian troops had not yet invaded Kashmir. The tribals advanced. I saw two occasions when the young chaps from Yusufzai tribes, Pathans, burnt and pillaged Hindu villages, raping women and killing people. I heard stories of similar excesses — killings and lootings, but no rape — committed on the Muslim villages as well…”
“In addition to the Pathans, there were three ideological groupings among those fighting. There were the Muslim Leaguers who had brought me there. Ahmadis had also joined, primarily in order to proselytise. Having no interest in them, I joined the single Communist Party unit led by Latif Afghani. {His} cell was my introduction to the Left.” Eqbal Ahmad however never became a Marxist or a fellow traveller. In later years he was in fact particularly critical of the Soviet system which developed under Stalin.
Eqbal met bin Laden in 1986 when the latter was an American ally. Three years before the 9/11 Eqbal predicted that the terrorist leader would turn against the US
Back in Lahore Eqbal joined FC College from where he was to graduate. Desirous of social change and of spreading enlightenment he organised a group of students during the summer vacation with an aim to teach children in some backward area of Punjab. They chose Kalabagh in Mianwali district, an area known for tyrannical rule of the foreign educated feudal lord Nawab Amir Muhammad Khan. Eqbal tells about the encounter with the Nawab of Kalabagh. The very first day of their arrival, they were invited by him to tea.
“He greeted the students and asked them why they had come there. Eqbal responded that they intended to bring education to an under-developed area and had planned to spend three months there teaching local kids. The Nawab offered them tea and told them that they were right about the lack of education there. He added that his family had ruled Kalabagh for three hundred years. ‘We don’t want education here’, he told them. ‘If we did’, he added, ‘it would not be you, rather me, who would organise a school. There is a bus leaving town in the morning. You had better be on it. If you don’t leave, you’ll be skinned alive.’”
Eqbal arrived in the US in the late 50’s for further studies. He subsequently married and settled in the country. At Princeton the subject he chose for his doctoral dissertation was comparing Tunisian and Morrocan trade unions. For this Eqbal had to learn Arabic and French and spend time in Tunis bordering Algeria in 1962. This was the sixth year of the Algerian revolution against the French colonialists. Living in Tunis, Eqbal observed the Algerian struggle for independence from close quarters and identified himself with it. In years to come he was to develop ties with the Palestinian liberation movement also. While identifying with the Palestinian cause, and supporting the PLO, Eqbal differed with some of its views.
Eqbal did not, for instance, support a separate state for the Palestinians as he believed that this would lead to an unending confrontation between Israel and the new state. He instead floated the idea of “two nations one state” with Jerusalem under the control of a multi-religious authority. Obviously few were willing to accept the idea. He even discussed the matter with Yasir Arafat but failed to convince him
Eqbal wrote numerous articles exposing the imperialist policies of the US and predicted that these would lead to highly negative developments. Years before the invasion of Iraq he warmed of the consequences:
“Dictators rarely leave behind them an alternative leadership or a viable mechanism foe succession. Saddam Hussain is not an exception. Disarray and confusion shall certainly ensue if he is eliminated. Iraq is a greatly divided country, with the rebellious Kurds dominant in the north and Shi’a in the south. With the one linked to the Kurds in Turkey and the other to Shi’a Iran, their ambitions in post-Saddam Iraq can cause upheavals in the entire region.”
The book briefly covers the formative period focusing on the experiences that were to later turn Eqbal Ahmad into what the writer calls ‘a leading activist within the global left’
Eqbal met bin Laden in 1986 when the latter was an American ally. Three years before the 9/11 Eqbal predicted that the terrorist leader would turn against the US. Eqbal strongly opposed terrorism but was critical of the American concept of terrorism.
“In a constantly changing world of images we have to keep our heads straight to know what terrorism is and what it is not… Officials don’t define terrorists because definitions involve commitment to analysis, comprehension and adherence to some norms of consistency. The absence of definition does not prevent officials from being globalistic. They may not define terrorism, but they can call it a menace to good order, a menace to the moral values of Western civilisation, a menace to humankind. Therefore they can call to it to be stamped out worldwide… The official approach to terrorism claims not only global reach, but also a certain omniscient knowledge. They claim to know where terrorists are, and therefore where to hit… The official approach eschews causation. They don’t look at why people resort to terrorism… (There is) the need for the moral revulsion we feel against terror to be selective. We are to denounce the terror of those groups which are officially disapproved. But we are to applaud the terror of those groups whom officials do approve. The dominant approach also excludes from consideration the terrorism of friendly governments.”
While living in the US Eqbal maintained contacts with the Left in Pakistan. He was particularly close to Mazdoor Kisan Party which in the early 70’s was leading a peasant movement in parts of NWFP. He frequently shared his knowledge of the working of the Algerian and Vietnamese movements with the party cadre.
Eqbal’s ambitious project of a social sciences university which he wanted to set up in 1990’s in Islamabad failed to materialise. This happened partly due to his inability to raise only a small part of $30 million funds required and partly due to the lack of enthusiasm on the part of Benazir Bhutto’s government.
Eqbal Ahmad: Critical Outsider and Witness in a Turbulent Age
Written by: Stuart Schaar
Published by: Oxford University Press
Pages: 247, Price: Rs925
