ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Hamza AlaviSubscribe to Hamza Alavi

India and the Colonial Mode of Production

The debate on whether (and if so, how) Indian agriculture has moved from a feudal mode of production to a capitalist mode of production has been a long and a vexed one. EPW brings you this essay by Hamza Alavi, that has been at the centre of this debate, on the colonial mode of production and the structural specificity that distinguishes it from both feudalism and capitalism in the metropolis. 

Social Forces and Ideology in the Making of Pakistan

Religious parties were implacably hostile to the Pakistan Movement. When, inaugurating Pakistan's constituent assembly, Jinnah proclaimed Pakistan's secular ideology he was voicing the established secular ideological position that the Muslim League had adhered to throughout its career. Fundamentalist Islamic ideology played no part in the origins of Pakistan, although contemporary ideologues of Islamic fundamentalism, including academics, claim that it was Islamic ideology and slogans that created Pakistan and that they therefore have the right to decide its future.

Misreading Partition Road Signs

History does not retrace its steps. It is no longer useful to ask if the partition could have been avoided. The question is no longer important. The different perceptions of the shared history of India and Pakistan have, perhaps, contributed in some measure to create barriers of prejudice between the two nations. However, there are issues of history that need to be looked at again. This article attempts to highlight some of those contentious and often ill-understood issues. Offered here is an attempt by a sociologist-cum-social anthropologist to highlight some issues. It is not an alternative history.

Pakistan-US Military Alliance

PAKISTAN'S disputes with India were no doubt central to Pakistan's foreign policy immediately after independence. But it is a common mistake to look at it too narrowly, in the context exclusively of Pakistan's conflicts with its big neighbour. That obscures the extent to which Pakistan was increasingly drawn into the west Asia (as from the mid- 1950s) following on the role that it was assigned by the US in western military strategy for the region. Pakistan's relationship with the US was set on a new course in (he 1950s, culminating in a military alliance and treaties that imposed far-reaching and unilateral commitments on Pakistan to subserve US purposes.

British Socialism Long Dead, Now Buried

Hamza Alavi The transformation of the Labour Party had begun before Blair. But Blair made a most dramatic impact by throwing overboard key parts of the Labour Party's constitutional commitments to statism and social welfare. Blair, Brown and Mandelson, the gang of three, coined the name New Labour, to underline the fact that they had nothing to do with the Labour Party as it had been before them. Their mission, quite clearly, is to manage British capitalism more efficiently than the Tories have been able to do, 'New Conservatives, rather than 'New Labour' would be the most appropriate name for the party that they have created.

Nationhood and the Nationalities in Pakistan

Nationhood and the Nationalities in Pakistan Hamza Alavi Whereas in Europe nations were constituted into states, in post-colonial societies the problem is inverted- states have to be transformed into nations. This problem tends to be less acute where national liberation has been achieved through a long-drawn mass struggle, but the movement for Pakistan had a trajectory which did not include such a process. Political debate and conflict in Pakistan have revolved around the question: what is the legitimate place of sub-national aspirations and demands within a larger concept of Pakistani nationhood? The worst contradictions of the politics of ethnicity have been concentrated and have taken violent forms in Sindh.

Pakistan Women in a Changing Society

lt was the decision of the Zia regime to embark upon a whole series of measures designed to undermine what little already existed by way of women's legal rights in the name of Islamisation thai galvanised the women of Pakistan into militant action in defence of their rights and, indeed, for a just extension of these rights. This article looks briefly at the changing place of women in Pakistan society which forms the background to the women's movement in The country.

Ideology of the Capitalist World Economy

Ideology of the Capitalist World Economy Hamza Alavi The Politics of the World Economy by Immanuel Walierstein; Cambridge University Press (London/New York) jointly with Editions de Ia Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (Paris), 1984; pp viii + 191.

CAPITAL VIEW

Strategies for Equity Ifzal Ali B M Desai R Ramakrishna V S Vyas This paper attempts to focus on the prospects and problems of Indian agriculture by the turn of the century. Its emphasis is mainly on issues relating to distribution, and the increasing of the purchasing power of the poorest segments of the population.

India and the Colonial Mode of Production

Hamza Alavi The Indian debate on the mode of production revolves around the question whether, in the last 15 or 20 years, there has been a decisive movement in Indian agriculture from a feudal mode of production to a capitalist mode of production. Similar questions have been raised elsewhere.

Elite Farmer Strategy and Regional Disparities in the Agricultural Development of Pakistan

Elite Farmer Strategy and Regional Disparities in the Agricultural Development of Pakistan Hamza Alavi Because the overall rate of growth of agricultural production in Pakistan had outstripped the rate of growth of population, by a simplistic arithmetic of averages, there was a tendency to assume only too easily that the result was a general prosperity for all classes of farmers and for all sections of the rural population.

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