ADVANCE PRAISE "[Eqbal Ahmad] was a shining example of what a true internationalist should be.... Eqbal was at home in the history of all the world's great civilizations. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of states past and present, and he knew that states had a rightful role to play. But he also knew that states existed to serve people-not the other way around-and he had little to do with governments, except as a thorn in their side. To friends, colleagues, and students, however, he gave unstintingly of himself and his time.... His example and his memory will inspire many to carry on his work." -Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations "A very dedicated and honorable activist, Eqbal was right in the middle of everything.... He was a student of revolution and imperialism and a very good one." -Noam Chomsky, MIT "Fighting words, wise words, from one of the most powerful activist intellectuals of our time." -Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Columbia University "For the thousands of people who have missed Eqbal Ahmad in the year since he died, this book comes like rain during a drought. In these interviews, we hear Ahmad's compelling voice again, musing over the Indian subcontinent, Algeria, the United States, and Palestine; recounting his encounters with Mahatma Gandhi and Yasir Arafat; fulminating against the West's pusillanimity over Bosnia and Kosovo; laying out his solution to the Kashmir conflict; and discussing his plans to found a university in Pakistan named after the Arab historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun. Such is the range and breadth of David Barsamian's interviews, my only regret is that the book is not twice its length." -Radha Kumar, Council on Foreign Relations 1 "Eqbal was a teacher, a poet-analyst, a mentor to far more of us than he knew." -Phyllis Bennis, Insitute for Policy Studies "These interviews provide a wonderfully focused, yet wide-ranging compendium of Eqbal Ahmad's worldview.... Ahmad was a courageous thinker and activist, an inspirational presence wherever progressives gathered, and a remarkable human being filled with love, humor, and generosity of spirit." -Richard Falk, Princeton University "Hearing Eqbal Ahmad's voice again, in these eloquent pages, renews one's sense of loss. The people of Bosnia and Kosovo, in particular, have been deprived of an ally when they need one most. But perhaps the voice can still unblock a mind or two, in this dull era of the parochial Left." - Christopher Hitchens, The Nation "With the voice of truth and compassion, Eqbal Ahmad weaves a tapestry of resistance-from Pakistan to Palestine, and Indonesia to Iraq. Ever challenging fanaticism and bigotry, particularly the scapegoating of Muslims and the demonization of Islam, Ahmad speaks for a vision of secular internationalism. Confronting Empire is a must read for anyone concerned with issues of multiculturalism, liberty, and social justice." -Zaineb Istrabadi, Columbia University "We have here the ideal combination for a dazzling intellectual encounter: thoughtful questions by a superb interviewer, David Barsamian-and brilliant responses by the extraordinary Eqbal Ahmad, recorded just before Ahmad's death." -Howard Zinn, Boston University "Eqbal Ahmad was a multitude of men-scholar, activist, political analyst, teacher, diplomat, visionary-but, above all, a foot-soldier in the army of peoples everywhere." -Race and Class 2 EQBAL AHMAD C 0 N F R O N T I N G E M P I R E I N T E R V I E W S WITH DAVID BARSAMIAN FOREWORD BY EDWARD W. SAID South End Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 3 Copyright © 2000 David Barsamian Any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequential words may be used without permission, as long as the total number of words quoted does not exceed 2,000. For longer quotations or for a greater number of total words, please write for permission to South End Press. Cover design by Ellen P. Shapiro Cover photograph by Rebecca A. Kandel Page design and production by the South End Press collective Printed in the U.S.A. First edition Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ahmad, Eqbal. Eqbal Ahmad, confronting empire : interviews with David Barsamian - Ist ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-89608-615-1 (alk. paper)- ISBN 0-89608-616-X (cloth) 1. World politics - 1945-, 2. Imperialism - History - 20th century. 3. Ahmad, Eqbal - Interviews. 4. Geopolitics - South Asia - History - 20th century. 5. Postcolonialism. 6. Anti-imperialist movements. 7. Arab-Israeli conflict. I. Title: Confronting empire. II. Barsamian, David. III. Title. D843 .A3898 2000 909.82'5-dc2l 00-029159 05 04 03 02 01 00 1 2 3 4 5 6 South End Press, 7 Brookline Street #1, Cambridge MA 02139 Printed in Canada 4 First edition 5 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS VIl "DAWN OF FREEDOM" BY FAIZ AHMED FAIZ VIll MAP OF SOUTH ASIA X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF EQBAL AHMAD XI INTRODUCTION BY DAVID BARSAMIAN XV FOREWORD BY EDWARD W. SAID XIX CHAPTER ONE: THINK CRITICALLY AND TAKE RISKS 1 Gandhi and Partition - The Struggle Over Kashmir - Higher Education 0 Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Noam Chornsky, and Edward W. Said - The Palestinian Ques - tion - Faiz Ahmed Faiz - Orientalism - The Demonization of Islam - The Taliban 0 Reconstructing Hegemony * The Future of the U.S. Left PHOTOGRAPHS 69 CHAPTER TWO: DISTORTED HISTORIES 73 The Perils of Nationalism - Some of the News Fit to Print * Tribes Have Been Given Flags * Nuclear Politics in South Asia - Nationalism and Islam - Unilateralism After the Cold War - The Lexicon of Terrorism - Engaging Iran - Turkey and Israel – The Armenian Genocide - Beyond Belief: V.S. Naipaul - The Changing of the Guards – Return to the Source - Marx's Legacy - Intellectual Work CHAPTER THREE: DO NOT ACCEPT THE SAFE HAVEN 131 Oppression and Identity - Poetry and Revolution * Pathologies of Power - Sri Lanka * Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans - International Solidarity - Marketing Individualism - Antonio Gramsci and Albert Camus - Do Not Accept the Safe Haven SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EQBAL AHMAD'S WRITING 159 INDEX 165 APPENDIX: ALTERNATIVE RADIO'S EQBAL AHMAD ARCHIVE 175 6 7 A C K N 0 W L E D G M E N T S My gratitude goes to Edward W. Said for his foreword; Agha Shahid Ali for his translation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz's "Dawn of Freedom"; S. Farooq Ali for his Urdu calligraphy; to Julie Diamond, Urban Hamid, and Rebecca Kandel for photographs; Zoltan Grossman of the Wisconsin Cartographers' Guild for the map; and Zaineb Istrabadi, Zubeida Mustafa, and Emran Qureshi for their help with several of the references. Thanks to Eqbal Ahmad's many students, friends, and colleagues at Hampshire and elsewhere for their assistance and advice. Sandy Adler is the goddess of transcribers. Sonia Shah and Anthony Amove at South End Press were a joy to work with in the editing process. Interview excerpts appeared in The Progressive, Madison, Wisconsin, November 1998, and in Himal, Katmandu, Nepal, March 1999. Portions of the proceeds of this book will go to the Eqbal Ahmad lecture series that has been established at Hampshire. For more information contact: Eqbal Ahmad Endowment, President's Office, Hampshire College, Amherst, NL4, 01002, USA. Phone: 413-559-5521 or e-mail: [email protected]. The interview for Chapter I took place at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 14-15, 1996; the interview for Chapter 2 took place at Hampshire College on August 24, 1998; and the interview for Chapter 3 took place in Boulder, Colorado, on October 12-13, 1998. 8 9 DAWN OF FREEDOM (AUGUST 1947) These tarnished rays, this night-smudged light This is not that Dawn for which, ravished with freedom, We had set out in sheer longing, So sure that somewhere in its desert the sky harbored A final haven for the stars, and we would find it. We had no doubt that night's vagrant wave would stray towards the shore, That the heart rocked with sorrow would at last reach its port. Friends, our blood shaped its own mysterious roads. When hands tugged at our sleeves, enticing us to stay, And from wondrous chambers Sirens cried out With their beguiling arms, with their bare bodies, Our eyes remained fixed on that beckoning Dawn, Forever vivid in her muslins of transparent light. Our blood was young-what could hold us back? Now listen to the terrible rampant lie: Light has forever been severed from the Dark; Our feet, it is heard, are now one with their goal. See our leaders polish their manner clean of our suffering: Indeed, we must confess only to bliss; We must surrender any utterance for the Beloved-all yearning is outlawed. But the heart, the eye, the yet deeper heart Still ablaze for the Beloved, their turmoil shines. In the lantern by the road the flame is stalled for news: Did the morning breeze ever come? Where has it gone? Night weighs us down, it still weighs us down. Friends, come away from this false light. Come, we must search for That promised Dawn. -Faiz Ahmed Faiz translated from the Urdu by Agha Shahid Ali 10 11 EQBAL AHMAD A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Eqbal Ahmad was born in the village of Irki in Bihar, India in 1933 or 1934. A few years later, his father was murdered over a land dispute, while the young Eqbal lay beside him. During the Partition of India in 1947, he and his elder brothers migrated to Pakistan.1 Ahmad graduated from Foreman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1951 with a degree in economics. After serving briefly as an army officer, he enrolled at Occidental College in California as a Rotary Fellow in American history in 1957. From 1958 to 1960, he studied political science and Middle Eastern history at Princeton, later earning his Ph.D.