Images

Book on Pakistan's communist politics launched

Book on Pakistan's communist politics launched

'Surkh Salam' is about communist politics and class activism in Pakistan between 1947 and 1972
02 Jan, 2016

KARACHI: The major failure of the communist movement in Pakistan was that Marxism was taken as an engineering manual by communist parties. Marxism is a science. It should be applied creatively to society, which was not done.

This was the point raised by Director of Pakistan Study Centre, the University of Karachi, Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed while reacting to an argument put forth by a fellow panellist during a well-participated discussion at the launch of a book titled Surkh Salam authored by Kamran Asdar Ali at T2F on Friday evening.

Dr Asif Farrukhi, who moderated the event, introduced the theme of the book and Mr Ali to the audience that packed the T2F hall in no time. He said Surkh Salam was about communist politics and class activism in Pakistan between 1947 and 1972. The author, he said, was an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of South Asia Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. The first person that Dr Farrukhi invited to speak on the subject was journalist Imran Aslam.

Mr Aslam read out his impressions on the book and its writer. He congratulated Mr Ali for his effort saying “clues were scattered all over his work for future historians”. He said the author had a “nose for a good story”. He called the book a “remarkable achievement” for it rescued time from ravages of time. He likened the people in the book as characters in a drama giving the example of Tom Stoppard’s critically acclaimed play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in which two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet take centre stage.

Dr Ahmed spoke on the methodology and technique of the book. He said the history of the Left in Pakistan had not been documented the way it merited. Some did attempt to do so, but they captured certain phases of the Left in history, so there was a need for a comprehensive study on the topic.

He said the book discussed the 1948-54 period of the Communist Party of Pakistan; its second part dealt with Hasan Nasir, followed by the 1972 labour movement. He said three themes converged in Surkh Salam: partition of India, the Communist Party and the role of progressive literature. He was of the view that the forte of the book was the author’s training in anthropology.

Hoori Noorani went down memory lane. She said she grew up in a communist household where individuals like Hasan Nasir would often be talked about. It captured her childhood imagination, and it was an education in humanism that lasted to date. She termed the book an “important addition to the scarce literature available on the subject”, arguing that it touched upon a significant period (1972) which was “forgotten in the noise of Islamic radicalisation”.

She lauded the fact that the book discussed the “debates that took place with the Communist Party” giving an insight into “how the Communist Party was formed”. It also contained debates between conservatives like M. Hasan Askari and progressives like Sajjad Zaheer, she said, but mentioned that it did not include other conservatives such as Shorish Kashmiri and Mumtaz Shireen. When she rounded off her speech, Dr Farrukhi said he did not agree with her calling Mr Askari a conservative.

Piler’s Karamat Ali in his rather detailed talk on the theme of the book said it was important to know as to what lessons we had learned from the subject. He said communist and labour movements were two different movements. He said we needed to know what communism meant in our society and what the nature of the state we lived in was. He said the violence that took place during partition of India had a long-term impact, causing “communalisation of the mind”. He said internationalism was the working class base, but we should examine what communalisation did to internationalism. He said we also needed to analyse the leadership’s role in all such movements and inferred there was no role of leadership in them as they were started by the people themselves. He said the pro-Moscow and pro-China factions of communists used to oppose each other, and blamed the communist groups for harming the communist movement.

Imran Aslam, in response to a question, pointed out the absence of East Pakistan from Mr Ali’s work.

Dr Ahmed strongly countered the argument that the communists had failed themselves. He said there were factions everywhere and it was not specific to the communist movement. He stressed that the major failure in that context was the fact that Marxism was taken as an engineering manual by communist parties. He said Marxism was a science and should be applied creatively in society, which was not done. About the successes of the communist movement, he said it gave consciousness to society.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2016

Comments

Zubair Jan 02, 2016 10:52am
He stressed that the major failure in that context was the fact that Marxism was taken as an engineering manual by communist parties.............. And yet an Engineer Mr.Jameel Ahmad Malik holds the honor to keep alive the name of Communist Party of Pakistan.
Recommend
Kala Ingrez - کالا انگریز - काला अंग्रेज - কালো ইংরাজি Jan 02, 2016 12:29pm
Part of the reason for the failure of communist movements or secular movements in Pakistan has to do with make of their memberships and leaderships reflecting the great sectarian divide among the Muslims in Pakistan. Communism is a dead ideology and with Cuba, the last hold, moving towards free trade (Capitalism) and North Korea being run by family dynasty, we do not see a future for Communism.
Recommend
somethingfishy Jan 02, 2016 12:42pm
Marxism has failed through out the world. and it hurt the most the people of the land it was called the land of Marxism - the USSR. And it was being pushed in Pakistan by its enemies and was bound to fail here too.
Recommend
Nasir Jan 02, 2016 01:09pm
Question is why communism failed to prevent the 'communalisation of the mind 'in subcontinent?
Recommend
KHIZIR FAROOQI Jan 02, 2016 10:25pm
Failure of communism International is based on its impracticable philosophy that all are equal and hence be treated or dealt equally in all respect. In practical life it is contradictory as the needs of all is not equal. The need of a fat man is not what a lean & thin man requires. More over there is no incentive for better work.
Recommend
Mustafa Jan 03, 2016 12:43am
Sabz Wa Alaikum Salaam; But this nation's ethos is based on Islam, which is both science and an engineering manual. Islam is tolerant of other point of views although Muslims may or may not be. We look at this new phenomenon of communism and socialism through the eyes of Allama Iqbal. Here is what Allma said very specifically about Karl Marx: Woh kaleem-e-Bay-Tajalli, woh-masseh-e-Bay-Saleeb:: Neest pyambar dar baghal darad kitab.
Recommend
kaka Jan 03, 2016 12:56am
there might be different reason behind the failer of communism .for me the concept of communism was not understood by the people at the grass root level.those who want to rule the country,represented it as agnst Islam.well there was nothing like that.rather it was concernd with the welfare of every individual of society.it has to do nothing with religion.
Recommend
Mustafa Jan 03, 2016 01:43am
"Violence that took place during partition of India had a long-term impact, causing communalisation of the mind”. It is a symbiotic relationship, or what an engineer like Jameel Ahmad Malik might know as Positive-Feedback-Systems, communalisatio causes violence and violence causes communalization.
Recommend
Zubair Siddiqui Jan 03, 2016 09:35am
Marxism has never been followed and studied as a 'science' by comrades and all such efforts failed by few intellectuals of the left. Rather the ideology has turned and taken the shape of a dogma like religious belief in our society and the followers themselves gave it up after getting frustrated by failures repeatedly.
Recommend
NMA Jan 03, 2016 09:55am
wrote the book as if communism succeed anywhere else!!
Recommend
Thiruvengadam Ramakrishnan Jan 04, 2016 10:29am
In India too, Communists started big but withered away --- thanks to their total dependence on the Soviets/China for ideological-strategic-tactical guidance, popular democracy, Nehru's Fabian Socialism and non-aligned foreign policy. The worst blow came when the Soviet State imploded and China-U.S. economies got intertwined. Unionization of the urban-rural labor and support to secularism were their contributions to the Indian society. At independence, there might have been as many (or few) communists in Pakistan as in India. But with less industrialization and more religiosity it would have stayed an intellectual movement among the urban, cosmopolitan middle class. Communism's claim to "Science" is a stretch. At best it was secular metaphysics with anti-liberal, dogmatic authoritarian socialism. At worst, left-wing fascism.
Recommend
Rana Hasnain Jan 04, 2016 12:40pm
Changes in the Communism system is to made in accordance to need analysis of a nation considering their literacy level, values and norms
Recommend