KARACHI: Suraj Pey Kamand, a book comprising three volumes covering the entire history of student’s politics and movements in Pakistan has recently been published.
It has been brought out by Dr Hasan Jawed, medical doctor, and Mohsin Zulfiqar, retired educationist, both hailing from Karachi, both having taken active part in students’ politics from different factions of National Students Federation (NSF).
They interviewed past activists, retrieved files of newspaper clippings and collected other published source materials for the publication of the book.
Both the authors, who are now settled in Britain despite different ideological camps, first time met in the mid-80s in Manchester and conceived the idea of documenting a book which could highlight the struggle of students for their democratic rights.
Lacking the experience of research methodology with an anthropological perspective they, however, plunged into writing by consulting many books and articles.
According to the authors covering the struggle which spanned a history of over four decades was an uphill task.
Finding the archival material of Democratic Students Federation (DSF), a predecessor outfit of the NSF, according to the authors, was another big hurdle.
They however acknowledged the enthusiastic response they received from some old activists while many had already left for their eternal abode. The first volume came out in 2018 while the remaining two came out this year. There are 2,000 pages in three volumes with 54 biographical sketches, 56 interviews and 112 chapters, which recorded and preserved the history of students’ movement.
Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2021
