PRINT CULTURE and LEFT-WING RADICALISM in LAHORE, PAKISTAN, C.1947-1971
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PRINT CULTURE AND LEFT-WING RADICALISM IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN, c.1947-1971 Irfan Waheed Usmani (M.Phil, History, University of Punjab, Lahore) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES PROGRAMME NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2016 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis. This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously. _________________________________ Irfan Waheed Usmani 21 August 2015 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First I would like to thank God Almighty for enabling me to pursue my higher education and enabling me to finish this project. At the very outset I would like to express deepest gratitude and thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Gyanesh Kudaisya, who provided constant support and guidance to this doctoral project. His depth of knowledge on history and related concepts guided me in appropriate direction. His interventions were both timely and meaningful, contributing towards my own understanding of interrelated issues and the subject on one hand, and on the other hand, injecting my doctoral journey with immense vigour and spirit. Without his valuable guidance, support, understanding approach, wisdom and encouragement this thesis would not have been possible. His role as a guide has brought real improvements in my approach as researcher and I cannot measure his contributions in words. I must acknowledge that I owe all the responsibility of gaps and mistakes in my work. I am thankful to his wife Prof. Medha Malik Kudaisya for her support, hospitality, encouragement and bits of helpful advice. I am most indebted to my thesis committee members, Prof. Tan Tai Yong, and Prof. Tahir Kamran for their advice and suggestions at various stages, which helped me in sharpening my arguments and overall content of the thesis since its inception to completion. Prof. Tahir Kamran has been my mentor since 1999 when I joined Government College Lahore and played a big role in development of my educational career. This Ph.D could not have been possible without the support of National University of Singapore (NUS) and my Department-South Asian Studies Programme (SASP) at NUS. My special thanks to the faculty and staff of SASP, NUS. I am thankful to Prof. Yong Mun Cheong and Prof.Vineeta Sinha for as the heads of the SASP for facilitating me in every possible way as student. Special thanks are due to Dr. Rahul Mukerji, who provided a sympathetic ear to my thesis problems and enquired about my well being from time to time. I profusely thank Jannah and Hamidah at SASP, NUS. Without their guidance and support I would have been lost in the administrative matters, of which I know very little about. During this phase of my educational career I had opportunity to meet and interact with a number of scholars who taught as SASP either as visiting professors or as fellows of ICCR Chair: Dr.Indivar Kamtekar, Prof. Bishnu Mohapatra, Prof.Makrand Pranjape, Prof. A.R. Venkata Chalapathy, Prof. D. Parthasarthy and Prof. Badri Narayan. These are not only erudite scholars but also excellent human beings. And interaction with them has left lasting imprint on me. I must also thank the staff of the NUS Library for facilitating access to and source material. My friends formed integral part of my stay in Singapore. Their lively presence pushed me to finish this doctoral project without much stress. I am indebted to families of two friends Hussain Ahmed Khan and his wife Madiha and iii Himanshu Jha and his wife Pranjala for their support encouragement affection and I would remain indebted to throughout my life. Above all, I am forever indebted to my co-traveller Fatima, for being the pillar of my life. Thankyou! Fatima for being part of this doctoral journey and tolerating all the ups and downs which are part of this journey. She acted like a guardian angel. I am thankful to my paternal aunt Mrs.Seema Siddiqi and my Khalajaan Sarmadi Khatoon for their constant prayers. Thanks are also due to a lot of friends and relatives, their encouragement and support enabled me to finish this project. I would like to mention names of Mrs. Saba Masood, Prof. Masood Akhtar, Waji, and Ihtesham Jan Butt. I am also indebted to my students and friends Adnan Tariq, Ghulam Farid Watto, Naveed Ahsan and Ali for their help in date collection. I must also thank Mr. Naeem, senior librarian G.C.University library for arranging more than one hundred books within a short span of time. iv TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Thesis Statement 1 1.2 Conceptualizing the Left in Post-colonial Pakistan 10 1.3 The Left-wing Parties in Pakistan: A Typology 17 1.4 Review of Literature 19 1.5 Approach and Methodology 43 1.6 Organization of Thesis 56 CHAPTER 2: PROGRESSIVE PAPERS LIMITED (PPL) AND RADICAL PRINT CULTURE IN LAHORE, 1947–1959 62 2.1 The Founding of PPL 63 2.2 Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din, Man and His Vision 64 2.3 PPL Publications: Background 69 2.4 PPL and Professionalization of Journalism 75 2.5 The Pakistan Times and Progressive English Journalism 80 2.6 PT’s Content (1947–1959) 89 2.7 The Common People: Focal Point of PT’s Agenda 93 2.8 Pakistan Times: Content Analysis 103 2.9 Daily Imroze and Progressive Urdu Journalism 111 2.10 Imroze: Content 122 2.11 Imroze: Its Social Agenda 133 2.12 Conclusion 141 CHAPTER 3: CENSORSHIP, LEFT-WING PRESS, AND PPL’S TAKEOVER, 1947−1959 144 3.1 Overview 144 3.2 Press Censorship in Pakistan 146 3.3 Censorship and Left-wing Press 152 3.4 Contextualising the Suppression of Left-wing Press 163 3.5 Factors Leading to PPL’s Takeover: A Critical Evaluation 169 3.6 PPL’s Takeover: Its Execution 189 3.7 Allegations against Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din: Myth and Reality 191 3.8 Conclusion 198 CHAPTER 4: PPL AFTER ITS TAKEOVER, 1959–1971 201 4.1 Overview 201 4.2 PPL under Private Proprietors: August 1959 to April 1964 202 4.3 PPL under the NPT: 1964 to 1971 204 4.4 Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din after PPL’s Takeover 208 4.5 PPL Journalists under Ayub Khan’s Martial Law 213 4.6 PPL Journalists and their Trajectories 220 4.7 PPL’s Journalists’ Support to the PPP 1968 –1971 222 4.8 The PPL and Trade Unionism 224 4.9 PPL Journalists and Yahya Khan’s Regime 232 4.10 Analysis of Newspaper Circulation 241 4.11 Conclusion 246 CHAPTER 5:PROGRESSIVE WRITERS MOVEMENT AND LITERARY RADICALISM 1947—1971 250 5.1 Literary Radicalism and the Progressive Writers Association, 1947 –1954 251 5.2 Progressive Writers Movement in the Post-1954 Context 270 5.3 Progressive Literati under Martial Law Regimes 275 v 5.4 Progressives Ventures in Film Industry, 1959—1971 280 5.5 Ayub Khan Regime and Responses of Progressive Writers 292 5.6 Conclusion 302 CHAPTER 6: IDEOLOGICAL DEBATES AND DETRACTORS OF PROGRESSIVE WRITERS MOVEMENT 304 6.1 The ‘Pakistan’ Project and Exponents of Pakistani Cultural Nationalism 306 6.3 Internal Debates within PWA on Islam and Socialism 324 6.4 Conclusion 329 CHAPTER 7: LAHORE’S LITERATI AS VOICE OF RESISTANCE 333 7.1 Lahore Major Poets and Literati as Voice of Resistance 335 7.2 Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911–1984) 337 7.3 Zaheer Kashmiri (1919–1994) 351 7.4 Habib Jalib (1928 –1993) 362 7.5 Khadija Mastoor (1927 –1982) 375 7.6 Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi (1917–2006) 382 7.7 Conclusion 395 CHAPTER 8: SUMMING UP 401 vi SUMMARY This study looks at the PPL newspapers and the Progressive Writers Movement (PWM) as sites of resistance. It demonstrates how literary and cultural spheres provided an alternative vision of Pakistan. This study presents this argument to challenge the existing scholarship, which has looked at Pakistan through statist frames by highlighting issues of authoritarianism, civil military relations and Praetorianism. The statist frameworks have neglected the Left which has been seen as a passive historical actor in making of contemporary Pakistan. This enquiry seeks to complicate this picture and makes an effort to rescue to the Left the historical role it played in the political discourse in Pakistan, in its formative years, as a united nation, in restricting the Right-wing agenda to Islamize Pakistan and to add to vibrancy of political debate. vii LIST OF TABLES Table1.1 Operative Words Expressing Characteristic Traits of the Left .................... 12 Table 1.2 Definitions of Left based on Ideological Referents of Communism, Socialism and Marxism............................................................................................... 13 Table1.3 Operative Words Expressing Characteristic Traits of the Left .................... 16 Table 4.1 The Diffusion Process in the PPL ............................................................. 220 Table 4.2 PPL Journalist’s Vibrant Role as a Diffuse Community .......................... 222 Table 5.1 Major Progressive Literary Magazines in West Pakistan: Late 1940s to the early 1950s ................................................................................................................ 255 Table 5.2 The use of Film as a Medium by Progressive Writers/Directors: 1953–1958 .................................................................................................................................. 273 Table5.3 New Literary/ Political Magazines: 1963–1971 ........................................ 276 Table5.4 Radical Interventions in the Film Industry: 1959–1971 ............................ 281 Table 5.5 Institutions created to influence the Intelligentsia and Public Opinion .... 292 Table 5.6 The Guild and the Literary Awards .......................................................... 293 Table 5.7 Awards won by Progressive Writers between 1960 and 1967 .................. 294 Table 5.8 Progressive Writers and their Response to the PWG ................................ 296 Table 5.9 Responses of Anti-Progressive and Neutral Writers to the PWG ............