Eqbal Ahmad: Intellectualism in Islam Between Crisis & Contestations
By
Mushtaq ul Haq Ahmad Sikandar, New Age Islam
15 July
2023
Eqbal
Ahmad: Critical Outsider in a Turbulent Age
By
Stuart Schaar
New
York United States of America: Columbia University Press
Pp216.
ISBN: 9780231171564
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Public
intellectuals are essential to understand and analyse the issues that have
strong impact on our lives. They have the intriguing grit to stand for truth,
insight to understand the factual reality of the matter, indomitable spirit of
educating the masses and building a public movement. They are a rare breed of
people whose existence is not welcomed by the ruling regimes, exploitative
corporations and religious bigots. The Muslim world has its own share of public
intellectuals who find it very difficult to play such a role in their own
societies. The ruling regimes threaten them of jail and the ignorant mullah of
hell for their extraordinary beliefs and convictions. The book traces the
trajectory of life of one such public intellectual, Eqbal Ahmad. The book
written by his friend, Stuart Schaar on Eqbal’s life can qualify for an
academic biography. In his Introduction, Schaar writes about the predictions
and analysis of Eqbal about Afghanistan, Iraq, role of United States in world
politics, insurgencies, cold war and Arab Spring. Eqbal was based in the First
world but he was grounded in the Third world, “he reached maturity outside the
frameworks of Pakistan’s social and political constraints, his place on the
margins of different worlds freed him from the traps that surround those who
work and live locally. He therefore approached the world with different
assumptions than others. There lay his originality” (P-8). This originality
made him take up unpopular causes, and being an anti war activist in 1960-80s
he was indicted in court cases too.
Eqbal had a
turbulent childhood, his father was murdered in front of his eyes and it did
impact him certainly. He also did join the fighting in Kashmir in 1947 against
India. He later became influenced by communists but they could not call him
their own, because he was critical of
their policies and further he disliked Leninism for its limited tolerance of
dissidents. He was critical of the leftists when they supported dictators like
Castro, Saddam or initiated or supported armed rebellions without mass support.
Eqbal studied Tunisian labour movement, researched about it and it impacted him
during his early developmental phase of life. “His positions often grated
ideologues on the left who sometimes publicly broke with him because the most
dogmatic among them expected him to toe a party line or the one in vogue at any
given moment. Eqbal refused to do so, recognizing that each crisis had
particular contours that led to varied solutions. At times, he ended contacts
with former allies and friends over ideological issues or over strategy and
tactics. He was never afraid to voice his opinions and did so with great
conviction” (P-58). It is because of this conviction that he was disillusioned
with the Peace movement after the end of Vietnam war as the movement was silent
on the invasion of Lebanon and Bosnia.
Eqbal was
unlike other secularists who held religion to be the epitome of all vice. He
campaigned for progressive Islam and social democracy in Muslim states, barring
the communal, exclusivist moorings of religious elites, as he “believed that
any major social and political transformation involving Muslim society had to
include an important Islamic component, for the soul of the people lay within
it. He also saw Islam as the link that tied communities together. He believed
strongly in a progressive Islam, a little understood concept in the West and
equally misunderstood in the Muslim world. Most left-leaning Muslims with whom
he dealt had cut themselves off from their culture and had no idea that a
progressive tradition existed at all with Islam. As secularists, most of them
distrusted anything having to do with religion. Having studied Islamic history,
Eqbal could stand on his own in debates on the subject” (P-94).
Eqbal being
the child of partition, having witnessed the havoc that partition of Indian
subcontinent brought with it, held the firm belief that partition did not solve
problems, so he was against the two state solution for Palestine problem. “He
thought that if the Palestinians created a separate independent state alongside
Israel, it would become another “Zionist” state, exclusive and racist, with a
large role for religion need to help define its identity. He thought that one
Zionist state in the Middle East was enough. Instead he envisioned the
Israelis and Palestinians sitting down
and negotiating a solution based not on the principle of land for peace, but
rather on respect of differences. He really thought that a binational state
could work there” (P-118-119). He was also a votary against armed struggle as a
means for liberation.
Eqbal
further spoke, wrote and actively participated in making Indo-Pak friendship a
lived reality by organizing civil society visits and meetings. He was a nuclear
non proliferation activist, spoke vehemently on Kashmir dispute. His expertise
certainly was in his understanding of U.S foreign policy and how it resulted in
the spread of terrorism as a blowback to these policies. As a native Pakistani
who wished to contribute to his society, in the form of Khaldunia university
project that was stalled by the late Benazir Bhutto and Eqbal also failed to
find rich funders for his university project that was never realized.
This book
certainly is an essential read to understand the intellectual prowess and
legacy of one of the great minds of our times. His analysis of various issues,
including terrorism and U.S foreign policy are still relevant. Schaar has done
a marvellous job of documenting the life and works of an intellectual stalwart
who could see ahead of his times.
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M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in
Srinagar, Kashmir.
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/eqbal-intellectualism-crisis-contestations/d/130215
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