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October 17, 2004
REVIEW: Predicting the future
BETWEEN Past & Future is a collection of essays and talks delivered by Eqbal Ahmad over a period of almost 30 years. Though he wrote regularly throughout his life, this is the first compilation of his work to appear in print, and the editors, Dohra Ahmad, Iftikhar Ahmad, and Zia Mian, must have excruciated over which articles to include or omit. But the result is not only a precious anthology of one of the most encyclopedic and thought-provoking minds of the 20th century, but an urgently needed reference point: almost all the 44 essays are as relevant today as when first written, some perhaps even more. Eqbal Ahmad not only analyzed the past but also predicted the future; the extent to which the predictions have come true are often so chilling that this book serves as a kind of compass to the 21st century.
Despite his overall opposition to nationalist-separatist movements, in the 1972 “Notes on South Asia in crisis”, Ahmad explained why he ultimately supported Bangladeshi nationalism. The piece illustrates his compassion and objectivity on many levels: it was mailed an hour before he was taken to trial in the US for protesting against the Vietnam war, revealing how he could engage with several outrages at the same time, with equal devotion and clarity; it condemns the Pakistani military’s heinous treatment of Bengalis, as well as India’s military intervention, and the massacring of around 10,000 Biharis by the Bengalis. Yet, despite being a Bihari himself, he refused “to equate the actions of the Bengali vigilantes with those of the government and the criminal acts of an organized, professional army”.
In the 1980 interview “Pakistan in crisis”, he spoke for two other disenfranchised groups: the Sindhis and the Baloch. He called Sindh “the second place in 20th century history where the indigenous people have become a minority in their own homeland — the first being Palestine”. He argued that the southern provinces were “for all practical purposes completely excluded from the structure of the state”. His warning about Baloch nationalism is chillingly pertinent to today.
One of the most illuminating articles in the collection is on Afghanistan. From the Anglo-Russian rivalry played out on Afghan soil, to the growing Soviet influence soon after the departure of the British and subsequent growth of rival elitist communist groups, to Daud Khan’s 1973 Kremlin-approved military coup, “Bloody games” is a vivid chronicle of a land “torn to pieces by teams sponsored by outsiders”. Events leading up to the 1979 Soviet invasion are unnervingly convoluted, yet Ahmad was able to pick apart the knitting and expose individual strands more clearly than many other analysts.
Several strands lead to the Pakistan-backed Islamic fundamentalists’ opposition to the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, which overthrew Daud’s government, also unpopular with Pakistan. Support of these Islamic groups began during Z.A. Bhutto’s rule, in retaliation for the support Daud extended to the Pakhtoonistan movement. Daud repented and tried to reestablish links with Pakistan, but the Islamic groups continued to be used as “bargaining chips”. The stakes were raised by General Zia, but they had already been introduced. A point seldom conceded enough here is that these threads are firmly rooted in Pakistan.
Once the Soviets invaded, the Mujahideen organized into eleven main groups: four were headquartered in Iran, seven in Pakistan. The article appeared in 1988, but today this warning rings even louder: “(Decades) of war have undermined the old Afghan ways; to the ancient ethnic and tribal divisions of Afghanistan have been added the conflict of ideologies and the irreconcilable ambitions of armed political organizations. In the Afghan code of honour, badal — the obligation to take revenge — has an important place. Neither time nor space limits the obligation. Unless a truce is made and compensation is paid, harm done in Peshawar or Kabul may be avenged years later in New York or Moscow.”
When will the Soviet Union, Pakistan, the United States and Iran deign to offer a truce? The cost to Pakistan of failing to do so is spelled out in the 1998 article, “What after strategic depth?”: “However inadvertently, Islamabad is setting the stage for the emergence in the next decade of a powerful Pakhtoonistan movement.”
No one subject Ahmad wrote on was more important to him than any other. I selected these articles simply because I had not read them before, and there is no room to discuss more. So, for instance, the three on de-nuclearization, some of his last to appear in Dawn, are not discussed, though “India’s obsession, our choice,” in which he pleaded that trying to match India’s nuclear capability is not deterrence but suicide, cannot be read enough. Ditto for the eloquent “A Kashmiri solution for Kashmir”, the articles toward the end on Islam and politics, and the very moving piece on Akhtar Hameed Khan.
A minor concern: The book is divided into four sections; articles within each are not organized chronologically. Fair enough, but how are they organized? Except for the fourth, the headings are too vague to provide a thematic link, and although occasionally articles do run smoothly in series, some juxtapositions appear perfunctory. An example is “Reason as spectator”, about a stampede that erupted at a conference. Why did it follow the articles on the nuclear tests? It would have made more sense in the last section, with the others on the religious right.
A deeper doubt is the inclusion of excerpts from three talks delivered on Mohammad Ali Jinnah, at the launch of the Jinnah Papers in 1995, in the presence of President Farooq Leghari. In the introduction, the editors explain that the purpose of the publication of the Jinnah Papers was to begin a national debate on Pakistan’s history. They quote Ahmad as saying: “I do not know of any country’s educational system that so explicitly subordinates knowledge to politics.” But the excerpts do not begin to fill those gaps in knowledge. Moreover, the change in Ahmad’s tone was stark: “Jinnah led (Pakistanis) with unassailable integrity along a path that promised economic justice, liberation from a constricting past, and an enlightened future. They followed with enthusiasm and dedication, without fear or misgiving”. Nowhere did he himself tackle pressing questions, such as: what “constricting past” was Jinnah “liberating” Muslims from? And what about those Muslims who chose not to migrate, or came with a great deal of fear and misgiving? If he did write on such topics, the articles were unfortunately excluded from the book, though Ahmad believed (as he stated in another article) that “opposition is to democracy what oxygen is to life”.
But the rest of the book is a searing, poignant gift, and the publisher and editors cannot be thanked enough for providing it. Eqbal Ahmad’s last words in “South Asia in crisis” should be on bumper stickers: “In order for Pakistan to prosper in freedom and dignity we must withdraw the power presently vested in the army and bureaucracy and restructure both institutions... I hope (we will be compelled) to creativity and innovation rather than to put on more military fat and to harden the authoritarian arteries of the bureaucracy.”
Eqbal Ahmad-Between Past & Future: Selected Essays on South Asia
Edited by Dohra Ahmad, Iftikhar Ahmad and Zia Mian
Oxford University Press, Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi. Tel: 111-693-673
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net
Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-579805-8
329pp. Rs450
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