May 11, 2003

I WAS visiting with students and media activists in Delhi last November when Eqbal Ahmad’s name was mentioned. Almost to a person they all said what an impact Eqbal made on them when he visited Delhi not long before his death. At a time when communal politics is riding high in India, these mostly young people were inspired by a syncretic vision that Eqbal represented.

As I travel all across the United States and Canada giving talks, invariably people come up to me who had read Confronting Empire, my collection of interviews with Eqbal. They all say how deeply impressed they were. Most had never even heard of him. Yet through the book his ideas and grand spirit shine through.

On the very day I was asked to submit a few words for Dawn, I came across Eqbal’s name in a new book called Collateral Language as well as in an Edward Said essay in Al Ahram. The man continues to resonate in myriad ways.

In a time of imperial violence, Eqbal would have advised us to think strategically and boldly. Break the patterns of old thinking and innovate. Consider carefully the nature of US society and look for the openings. And in Gramscian fashion, once those apertures are discovered, drive surges of energy through them. Find kindred spirits and build alliances. Widen the spectrum of debate not through pedantic polemics but through innovative ideas. Eqbal was always in search for solutions. His restless energy and mind was not content with simply accepting things as they were but coming up with radical and imaginative new approaches.

All of us fortunate enough to have known Eqbal Ahmad still hear his voice and derive strength from it.

David Barsamian is the author of Confronting Empire: Interviews With Eqbal Ahmad

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