Marxist Historiography in Pakistan: An Appraisal

Abstract

The nationalist perspective of history, across the world, being befitted by socio-political structures on both the national and international levels, and by appealing to the patriotic sentiments of the people, has become the most popular and conventional discourse than any other. It was the colonial period when the nationalist movements across the world, and particularly in the Third World, reached to their culmination, and the scholars, intellectuals, ideologues and political leaders representing the communities fighting against European imperialism gave expression to their solidarity, problems, interests and demand for liberty by producing nationalistic narratives. In the same vein, the historians presenting the Muslim community of India evolved their perspectives of Muslim nationalism. After independence, Pakistan adopted it as an official ideology and propagated it through academic and research based paraphernalia. Parallel to development of the Muslim, Indian and Hindu nationalistic discourse in South Asia during the colonial era, there emerged another one known as Marxist narrative, fundamentally based on the ideas of the German philosopher Karl Marx, which condemned not only the imperialism, but also communalism, religious orthodoxies, social inequalities, and systems of economic exploitation. The scholars, intellectuals, historians and political leaders representing this school of thought raised voice for progressivism, liberalism, pluralism, and humanism. After the colonial period, this movement in Pakistan appeared as a leftist movement, becoming highly critical of the Muslim nationalist perspective. The present research work addresses and recounts myriad issues pertaining to the origin, nature, and development of the Marxist/leftist movement in South Asia, and particularly in Pakistan. It provides biographical accounts of various ix Pakistani Marxist scholars and introductory details on the literature they produced. However, the major focus in the present research is directed on appraising the works produced by three select Marxist historians, Sibte Hassan, Mubarak Ali and Kazi Javed, which narrate the history of medieval India. It explores, analyses and interprets the views of these Marxist historians on historiography and philosophy of history, describing and underscoring the differences of approaches and methodologies they shown towards the Muslim nationalist historians as well as each other. It explores the major themes which the Marxist historians emphasize and incorporate in their narratives on history of medieval Indian, including the role of religion in social and political affairs, political role of the ulema and sufis, spread of Islam in India, nature of religio-political and social movements, social exchange and cultural imperialism, social status and historical role of the women, social formation, social alienation, social stagnation, economic structures, and decline of the Muslims society and Mughal Empire in India. It evaluates and discusses how the perspectives and approaches of the Marxist historians on Indian history differ from those of the Muslim nationalist historians. The study also provides an analysis of the merits and demerits of the Marxist historiography in Pakistan, by highlighting its ontological and epistemological perspectives—i.e. positivism, subaltern and existentialist—in comparison with the idealism adhered to by the Muslim nationalist historians and by describing the methodological strengths and weaknesses of Marxist historiography. It is examined how the Marxist historians significantly contribute to production of historical knowledge with a rationalistic and ideological appeal, but fail to affect the socio-political behaviour of the general masses and political leadership, who in their mind-set and conduct are immensely religious and traditionalist.