Archives

The Pakistani Revolution – VII

The Role of the National Awami Party, the 1965 General Elections and the War with India

W B Bland

The Role of the National Awami Party

The revival of the National Awami Party (NAP) and the release from prison in November 1962 of its leader Maulana Bhashani, provided the military dictatorship with a political arm, the objective function of which was to mobilise ‘left’ support for it..

Imperialism Old and New

Hamza Alavi

“Imperialism is the eve of the socialist revolution,” wrote Lenin whilst revolutionary hearts were still warm with the apocalyptic vision of the social transformation that was about to take place following the disintegration of moribund capitalism..

Punjabis: Living down a ‘vulgar, abhorrent’ language

Dr Abbas Zaidi

Millions of Punjabis in Pakistan and the diaspora have been engaged in linguistic witch-hunting of their own language. It happened a long time before terms like “identity politics”, “linguistic identity”, “language and religion” and “bloodthirsty mullahs” were in vogue..

Socrates’ views regarding the business world

Professor Maqsudul Hasan Nuri

1. Introduction

Socrates’ teachings as a philosopher are often cited in the fields of law, education, ethics and philosophy. Quite controversial in his lifetime, Socrates did not claim himself as a teacher or anything to do with matters of business..

The return of the National Question

Chris Harman

Introduction

It has become almost an orthodoxy to say that the great divide in the world today is between nationalisms..

How to understand the change of government in Syria

Vijay Prashad

One of the most stunning events of the past few months has been the fall of Damascus. This fall had initially been expected over a decade ago, when rebel armies funded by Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the US crowded around the edges of Syria and threatened then …

The Last Days of Mankind

Pankaj Mishra

“In the beginning was the press and then the world appeared,” Karl Kraus wrote in 1921. The biblical allusion was no rhetorical flourish..

A memoir of the 1950s (Pakistan)

Eric Rahim

I start with some ‘pre-history’.

During the 1880s the economic landscape of Western Punjab (now part of Pakistan) was radically reshaped. Through a vast irrigation project, consisting of a network of canals, large tracts of arid and barren lands were brought under cultivation..

The Pakistani Revolution – VI

Land Reform and Basic Democracy

W B Bland

In keeping with the facade of presenting the military coup of October 1958 as a ‘revolution’, within two weeks of its establishment the military dictatorship appointed a Land Reforms Commission, headed by Akhtar Hussain, Governor of West Pakistan..

The Rise of Baloch Nationalism and Resistance – XVII

Are we Fascists?

Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Nationalists who demands rights that they are denied and against whom the state commits injustices with impunity are condemned out of hand even by the liberals who do not really care for the people’s rights..