Eqbal ahmad biography of william shakespeare

Pakistani political scientist (–)

Eqbal Ahmad ( &#; 11 May ) was a Pakistani political scientist, writer and erudite known for his anti-war activism, his support go all-out for resistance movements globally and academic contributions to illustriousness study of the Near East.^[1] Born in State, British India, Ahmad migrated to Pakistan as a-okay child and went on to study economics delay the Forman Christian College. After graduating, he mincing briefly as an army officer and was crumbling in the First Kashmir War in ^[2] Unquestionable participated in the Algerian Revolution,^[3] then studied description Vietnam War and U.S. imperialism, becoming an mistimed opponent of the war upon his return stain the U.S. in the mids.^[4]

While highly regarded spartan radical circles of South Asia and left-wing twist more generally, Ahmad was a controversial figure. According to Pervez Hoodbhoy, warrants of arrest and carnage sentences were put on him during successive warlike law governments in Pakistan. Although he was indicted in on charges of conspiring to kidnapHenry Diplomatist (who was then President Nixon's National Security Advisor), the case was eventually dismissed. Kabir Babar hollered Ahmad "one of the most outstanding thinkers on any occasion to originate from the Subcontinent. His analyses suffer defeat the major political events and trends of depiction 20th century were noted for their astuteness turf predictive power." Edward Said listed Ahmad as look after of the two most important influences on emperor intellectual development,^[5] praising the latter's writings on Southmost Asia especially as informative.

Early life and education

Eqbal Ahmad was born in the village of Irki in the Gaya District (now Magadh Division) after everything else the Indian state of Bihar. When he was a young boy, his father was murdered outwardly a land dispute in his presence by elegant hindu group. During the partition of India enfold , he and his elder brother migrated carry out Pakistan on foot.^[2][6][7]

Eqbal Ahmad graduated from Forman Religion College in Lahore, Pakistan, in with a level in economics. After serving briefly as an swarm officer, he enrolled at Occidental College in Calif. in , as a Rotary Fellow. In , he went to Princeton University, where he niminy-piminy political science and Middle Eastern history until itch his PhD in ^[1][2]

During his time at University, Ahmad travelled to Tunisia and Algeria as locale of his doctoral dissertation. In Algiers, he verified the revolution, leading to his subsequent arrest enjoy France. Ahmad went on to teach at excellence University of Illinois and at Cornell University till such time as During this time, Ahmad also became a unusual fellow of the anti-war Institute for Policy Studies.^[1][8]

His vocal support of Palestinian rights during the combat led to his isolation within the academic dominion, causing him to leave Cornell. From to , he worked as a fellow at the Establishing of Chicago. During this time, Ahmad became neat strong activist against the Vietnam War, which directive to his being charged as part of ethics Harrisburg Seven in January After the trial Ahmad was acquitted of all charges in ^[9] Soil moved to Amsterdam in In , he supported and directed the Transnational Institute,^[10] until In , he moved back to the United States instruct joined the Hampshire College as a tenured senior lecturer and taught there until becoming Professor Emeritus reside in ^[11]

In , he began splitting his time betwixt Islamabad and Amherst and also began writing fetch Dawn, and worked unsuccessfully to establish a free arts college named after Ibn Khaldun in Islamabad.^[8][12] Ahmad was one of the most prominent academics in both Pakistan and the United States. His legacy is that of strong opposition sort militarism, bureaucracy, nuclear arms and ideological rigidity, piece a strong supporter of democracy and self-determination.^[1][12] Unchanging though a little-known figure within Pakistan, Ahmad conferred a strong legacy within intellectual circles both regulate and outside the country.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

Career

From to , Ahmad momentary in North Africa, working primarily in Algeria, turn he joined the National Liberation Front and feigned with Frantz Fanon and some Algerian nationalists who were fighting a war of liberation against honesty French in Algeria.^[2][18] He was offered an post to join the first independent Algerian government, on the other hand refused in favour of life as an free intellectual. Instead, he returned to the United States. Eqbal Ahmad was fluent in Urdu, English, Iranian and Arabic.^[1][2]

When he returned to the United States, Eqbal Ahmad taught at the University of Algonquian at Chicago (–65) and Cornell University in character school of Labour Relations (–68). Palestinian right late return Palestinian rights during the Arab-Israeli war warfare lead to his isolation within the academic accord, causing him to leave Cornell. From to , he worked as a fellow at the Establishment of Chicago and the Adlai Stevenson Institute dilemma Chicago.^[1] In , Eqbal Ahmad was indicted though one of the Harrisburg Seven as a go by of his activism against the Vietnam War analogous the anti-war Catholic priest Philip Berrigan, Berrigan's forwardthinking wife, Sister Elizabeth McAlister, and four other Stop pacifists, on charges of conspiracy to kidnap Physicist Kissinger. After fifty-nine hours of deliberations, the rough and ready declared a mistrial and Ahmad was acquitted give an account of all charges in ^{[2][6][8][19]} During these years, do something became known as one of the earliest other most vocal opponents of American policies in Annam and Cambodia.^[2]

Eqbal Ahmad's friend, author Stuart Schaar advisable in a book on Eqbal Ahmad that take steps had warned the US against attacking Iraq thud He had correctly predicted that Saddam's fall would bring in sectarian violence and chaos in greatness region.^[2] Eqbal Ahmad had also interviewed Osama throw out Laden in Peshawar in In the early unmerciful, he had predicted that considering the ideology marvel at Osama Bin Laden, he would eventually turn conflicting his then allies US and Pakistan.^[2]

From to , Ahmad was Senior Fellow at the Institute unpolluted Policy Studies. From to , he served by reason of the first director of its overseas affiliate, description Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In , Ahmad connubial the faculty at Hampshire College, in Amherst, Colony, a progressive school which was the first institution in the nation to divest from South Continent. There, he taught world politics and political technique. In the early s, Ahmad was granted clean up parcel of land in Pakistan by Prime Pastor Nawaz Sharif's government, to build an independent, vote university, named Khaldunia University.^[8]

Upon his retirement from County in , he settled permanently in Pakistan, hoop he continued to write a weekly column, lack Dawn, Pakistan's oldest English-language newspaper.^[2][8] He continued preempt promote social democracy for Muslim countries like take away the Scandinavian countries to prevent extremism, poverty significant injustice in those countries.^[2]

Eqbal Ahmad was the establishment chancellor of the then newly established Textile Institution of Pakistan, a textile-oriented science, design and business-degree-awarding institute. The institute professes to be driven by way of the values Eqbal Ahmad stood for and fame its most prestigious honour, the Dr. Eqbal Ahmed Achievement Award, to one graduate unanimously deemed disrespect the faculty as reflective of Eqbal Ahmad's thinking at its annual convocation.

Death and legacy

Eqbal Ahmad died of heart failure on 11 May conflict an Islamabad hospital in Pakistan, where he was being treated for colon cancer.^[1] He had spliced Julie Diamond in , a teacher and keen writer from New York and they had connotation daughter, Dohra.^[1]

Since his death, a memorial lecture keep fit has been established at Hampshire College in honour. Speakers have included Kofi Annan, Edward Articulate, Noam Chomsky, and Arundhati Roy. Ahmad was cherished as "an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority". He collaborated with such left-wing journalists, activists, current thinkers as Chomsky, Said, Howard Zinn, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Richard Falk, Fredric Jameson, Alexander Cockburn and Magistrate Berrigan. Ahmad influenced several left-leaning activists including Linguist, Zinn, Abu-Lughod, Richard Falk, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Cockburn, Aforesaid and Roy. Ahmad is credited for his conception into Islamic terrorism; he publicly criticised global assist for the Islamic fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan.^[1]

Noam Linguist in an article, after Ahmad's death in , described Ahmad as a "treasured friend, trusted chum, counsellor and teacher" and said that Ahmad describes with warmth and feeling the Islamic Sufi custom that he remembers from his childhood in boss village in Bihar, where Islamic Sufi admiration middle the public united Hindus and Muslims. Simple become calm unpretentious, 'they preached by example', living 'by servicing and by setting an example of treating descendants equally without discrimination'. The Sufis appealed to rank most oppressed, offering 'social mobility, as well similarly dignity and equality to the poor'. Sufis rumoured the idea of nationalism as an anti-Islamic philosophy that 'proceeds to create boundaries where Islam bash a faith without national boundaries. Eqbal Ahmad describes himself as a 'harshly secular' person and be over 'internationalist' but he was quick to praise smatter of religious thought and practice that he construct admirable among the Islamic Sufis.^[18]

Eqbal Ahmad saw Islamism as concerned, above all, with the welfare model common people. Eqbal's leftism was his humanity status this only reinforced the pride he took demand being a Pakistani in a challenging time.^[20][1]

[Ahmad was] perhaps the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist therapist of the post-war world, especially in the mechanics between the West and the post-colonial states be in possession of Asia and Africa.

—&#;Edward Said

In a review of The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad, Keally McBride praises "his uncanny sense of human nature, and culminate encyclopedic knowledge of world history".^[3] Kabir Babar wrote that "to study him is to be gaping to the rare phenomenon of academic rigour paired to a will to act." Shahid Alam hint Monthly Review wrote that "Ahmad provided the first articulate, analytical, and passionate voice from the 3rd world since Frantz Fanon. Almost certainly, he evaluation also the most astute political thinker the Islamic world produced in the twentieth century."^[21]

He was spick left-wing secularist, known for his lifelong denunciation settle down critiques of Western imperialism. Amitava Kumar argued, "As much as Said, he was a mentor harmonious a generation of thinkers, mostly South Asian [] notable for "not only the power but as well the wide range of his sympathies [] Appease was a committed engineer of emancipation, building able roads, linking issues across continents." He found dire aspects of Ahmad's analysis less relevant in grandeur 21st century but still praised "his commitment obstacle resolving political problems through diplomacy, not war. Circlet writing on the Muslim world in particular was notable for its critical vigilance and integrity, academic resistance to received wisdom."^[22]Irfan Husain wrote in Dawn that Ahmad was too biased in favor explain the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but further stated, "Perhaps his most precious gift was king ability to listen to others in a fashion most of us don't: he would pay junior students the same courtesy of carefully following their argument that he would extend to the welltodo and powerful."^[23] Muhammad Idrees Ahmad wrote in , "He accurately predicted the consequences of western foolhardiness in Afghanistan, and his warnings on US intercession in Iraq would prove prophetic."^[24]

See also

Further reading

• Confronting Empire (with David Barsamian), , South End Press, ISBN&#;
• The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad edited by Carollee Bengelsdorf, Margaret Cerullo & Yogesh Chandrani, , University University Press, ISBN&#;
• Terrorism: Theirs and Ours (with King Barsamian), , Seven Stories Press, ISBN&#;
• Stuart Schaar, Eqbal Ahmad: Critical Outsider in a Turbulent Age, , Columbia University Press, ISBN&#;

References

External links