The Iranian Revolution, 40 Years On on February 16, 2019‘There is no door There is no road There is no moon Neither day Nor sun We are standing outside time With a bitter dagger Stuck in our spine No one talks to anyone For silence is speaking in a thousand tongues.’ (Ahmed Shamlu, Abraham in the Fire, 1973) If the authorities in Tehran […]
Saadat Hasan Manto’s heartfelt tribute to Allama Iqbal on November 9, 2018On the occasion of Iqbal’s 141stbirth anniversary today (and the 80th anniversary of his death in April earlier this year), I’m presenting an original translation of Saadat Hasan Manto’s heartfelt tribute to another fellow-Kashmiri rebel, someone who has become as institutionalised in contemporary Pakistan as the latter has been reviled and ignored, in the hope […]
The call of the gong on October 17, 2018Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) emerged as a key leader of the Indian Muslim community in the aftermath of the War of Independence of 1857, as a thoroughly modern Muslim in a thoroughly pre-modern age. He is credited for originating the two-nation theory, founding the Aligarh Movement and being a founding father of Pakistan, but […]
What Befell Pakistan after the Quaid-e-Azam on September 9, 2018These were the days when seventy years ago, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had departed from us forever. In this brief duration of seventy years our powerful leaders have served the country and nation in such a way that if Quaid-e-Azam witnesses, maybe he will not be able to even recognize that this is the same […]
‘Our flag’ on September 9, 2018Translator’s Note: To mark 70th anniversary of the passing away of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a little-known piece by the great Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto is being presented for the time in its original English translation. Written for the Daily ‘Imroze’ just three days after Jinnah’s death, it fully captures the moment and pathos of […]
Habib Jalib: the people’s poet and historian on March 25, 2018‘Had I passed away last year These sorrows too would have ended last year The hands raised in enquiry are now paralysed with fear My patrons were not like this last year’ (Habib Jalib, On My Birthday, 1975) If Urdu, as a language, has produced any ‘people’s poet’ after Nazeer Akbarabadi, then it is Habib […]
Remembering Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: our Muslim Marx — II on October 18, 2017Continuation of 2-part series. The first was published on October 17, 2017 and can be read here. Their style, their manner, their trade, and their art Twenty years later, the very same Sir Syed sets up the Scientific Society and earns the epithets of kafir and zindiq from the representatives of ancient ruins. Was this […]
Remembering Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: our Muslim Marx — I on October 17, 2017Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) emerged as a key leader of the Indian Muslim community at a critical juncture in Indian history. This was during the aftermath of the War of Independence of 1857, the strengthening of British colonialism and a crisis for Indian Muslims. He was a thoroughly modern Muslim in a thoroughly pre-modern […]
Sibte Hasan our Gramsci and gadfly on August 1, 2017The year 1916 was very kind to the Indian subcontinent. Notwithstanding the fact that the third year of the first great world war was raging on, three distinguished personalities from the fields of art, critical prose and literature were born: the great painter and innovator of abstract art, Shakir Ali; one of the region’s greatest […]
Abdullah Hussein and his rebellions on July 3, 2017Pakistan’s literary landscape is dotted with conformists and sycophants, who even when they wrote shimmering prose, did not shy away from siding with conservatism; enjoying state patronage and pelf; stooping to collaborate with the elite and dictator of the day. Yet our benighted land has also produced its fair share of literary rebels. One of […]