Eric Rahim:A journalist and activist remembers
In celebrating the life of Dr Mohammad Sarwar, many of his friends and student and political activists have recorded their memories and experiences from the period of the early 1950s. As far as I can tell this is the first time that so many people from the Left have come together (physically or in their thoughts) to pool together their memories from that period – a period of hope and optimism – about the future of democratic politics in Pakistan. What could be a better tribute to Sarwar’s outstanding contribution to the student movement and democratic politics?
The random and disconnected notes that follow, drawn from a hazy and failing memory of events that took place almost sixty years ago, are a contribution to the Sarwar Reference. Very broadly speaking, they deal with two related issues that have received only marginal attention in the contributions made so far – the presence of the Communist Party in Karachi, and the causes of the inability of the student movement to sustain itself beyond the early 50s.
Filed under: Dr Sarwar legacy | Tagged: 1950s student movement, Ahmad Hassan, Akhtar, Asrar Ahmad, Chaudhri Mohammad Ali, Communist Party Pakistan, CPP, democracy, dr sarwar, DSF, early Karachi, eric rahim, Ghulam Mohammad, Hangal, Iskandar Mirza, Jinnah, MA Shakoor, Mian Iftikharuddin, Mumtaz Hussain, Muslim League, pakistan army, Pakistan Soviet Cultural Association, Pakistan-China Friendship Society, PMA, PWA, S. M. Naseem, Sajjad Zaheer, Sharaf Ali, sobho gianchandani | 8 Comments »
