Learning from history in an age of bombs

Much of the research for this article was done for a documentary on the 1953 student movement directed by Sharjil Baloch, that I produced, for the event we held at the Arts Council Karachi on Jan 9, 2010

Ghazi Salahuddin: The High School Students’ Association and my rite of passage

There is some urgency to protecting the memories of a landmark event in the social and political history of Pakistan. I wonder if it is really relevant here but I like this Milan Kundera quotation: “The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”, writes Ghazi Salahuddin

Event Book, Jan 9, 2010

Scanned pages from the Event Book published on the occasion of the Jan 9, 2010 commemoration of the 1950′s student movement

“Students Movement leaders remembered: Revival of student activism termed must for reshaping society” – PPI report

Student speakers stated that majority of students do not raise their voices against evil practices that are being imposed on them. They held education institutions responsible for not providing the right platform to raise their voices. Lastly, they urged all students to recall such sacrifices of students in 1953 movement to acquire freedom in their campuses and education institutions.

Photos: ‘Looking back to look forward’

Photos from the events of Jan 9 & 10 in Karachi held to commemorate the 1953 student movement and its activists

‘Looking back to look forward’ – amazing turnout, thanks everyone

We didn’t think we’d be able to fill the 1000-seater hall. Everyone said “be happy if 500 people turn up”. The hall was FULL, thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of the volunteers and participants. Many people said it left them feeling rejuvenated and hopeful again

Zehra Nigah’s poem for the Jan 1953 martyrs

Zehra Nigah’s poem for the Jan 1953 martyrs, sadly still relevant today

Security of employment and students – M. Abdul Fazl

We want to assure our Jamiat friends that we are not opposed to the basic necessities of life; certainly not opposed to the necessities guaranteed by Islam. What we only do is to show a practical way of achieving these necessities of life; and that way is of employment, of honest work, of an independent career, not the way of charity, of donations or doles from the state treasury.

‘Student Movement in Pakistan: A glorious past’, by Shahid Husain

Students under the leadership of NSF celebrated January 8 as “Martyrs Day” year after year until it withered away in the 1980s due to a host of reasons. These included state repression, infiltration of intelligence agencies in its rank and file, a myopic policy pursued by underground communist factions that indulged in what Lenin described as “left wing communism-an infantile disorder,” division in the international communist movement etc.

The role of the High School Students Federation

“The High School Students Federation, together with the Democratic Students’ Federation and the Inter-Collegiate Body, had jointly chalked out the programme for the struggle and made valuable con tribution in the deliberations of the Action Committee…” Article from STUDENTS’ HERALD, Vol 1, No 6, Feb 6, 1953