Uprising in Pakistan: How to Bring Down a Dictatorship

by Tariq Ali

The story of what happened in 1968 in Pakistan is often forgotten, but is yet another proof that the revolutionary moment was global. In that year, following a long period of tumult, a radical coalition—led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto—brought down the military presidency of Ayub Khan. Students took on the state apparatus of a corrupt and decaying military dictatorship backed by the US. They were joined by workers, lawyers, white-collar employees, and despite the severe repression, they took hold of power. Through a series of strikes, demonstrations and political organising a popular uprising was born.
In his riveting account of these events, first written in 1970, Tariq Ali offers an eyewitness perspective on history, showing that this powerful popular movement was the only successful moment of the 1960s revolutionary wave. The victory led to the very first democratic election in the country and the unexpected birth of a new state, Bangladesh.

Genres: History, Pakistan, Politics, Asia

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2018

About the author

Tariq Ali (Punjabi, Urdu: طارق علی) is a British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner, and commentator. He is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and regularly contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books.

He is the author of several books, including Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1991) , Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Conversations with Edward Said (2005), Bush in Babylon (2003), and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002), A Banker for All Seasons (2007) and the recently published The Duel (2008).

Reviews

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed chronology of events which led to the downfall of a dictator. The uprising was started in East Pakistan but became lethal only when students from Rawalpindi near the seat of Ayub Khan's power base got involved. Did the chaos caused by this 'revolution' directly lead to East Pakistan accession? And were the people of the resulting two nations any better off?

The constant cycles of uprisings have become a common recurrence in Pakistan where class differences are now even more pronounced, adding subtler classes based on provinces, professions, religious factions, and castes. Islam continues to provide a great superficial bond between the majority Muslim population which has kept communism from taking hold. So the governing classes not only use feudals but also use Ulema to keep the poor in line.

Indeed, Social media has become the latest tool for total dominance of controlling the rhetoric of the wider population now which even further reduces the need to rely on feudals and ulemas.

The recent win for PTI has demonstrated the real power of the burger class internet generation....

[Omama. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be an important chronological exposition, on what actually happened in 1968, and how a seemingly trivial student-uprising turned into a mass movement that eventually led to the downfall of the first Pakistani Military Dictator, Ayub Khan. I must say, my dumb self never clearly understood the concepts of class-parties despite reading such material over the years, but in the last chapter, Tariq Ali has brilliantly put forth the explanations in context of East & West Pakistan. At the end of reading any such piece, I always think, we really have learnt nothing from history.

[Naeman Mahmood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good retelling of events. Just very dense and hard to follow at times.

[David Curry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good retelling of the events by someone who actually had a stake in them.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For the most part, the demonstrations were given their political leadership by the students, but they were given their class character by the presence of thousands of workers and unemployed...those whom the press and the bourgeoisie designated 'hooligans, riffraff, bad elements.'"

Great introduction to a topic I knew nothing about previously. From 1968-1969, there was a ton happening across many different areas, but Ali did a great job organizing this account and making it easy to follow along with what was happening.

This book was also a great reminder of the necessity of class solidarity, not just in revolutionary uprisings, but in every day life as well.

[Ali Hassan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed story of the downfall of the Asian De Gaulle - Gen. Ayub Khan. He ruled over the country for almost a decade from 1958 to 1969. Despite of the fact that the 2nd five year plan of the country was the most successful of all the time till now, the great man's end was not free of chaos, tumultuousness and scathing criticism by the leftist political parties, students unions and the bourgeois classes.
The book also portrays the pictures of revolutions in other countries like China, Russia and France and that of differences between the revolutionary forces of Pakistan and the said countries very interestingly. Why Pakistani revolutionists failed and the people are suffering yet by the repressive forces of imperialists? What are the fundamental errors in the political and governance sectors of the country? And how the country can be tracked on right path? Answers to all these questions and many more is given in the book.

[Rohit · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent enough contemporary account of the mass protests in Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1968/1969. Can veer into boring Trotskyist dogmatism occasionally, but never for too long. Came away with an appreciation for the scope and scale of the uprising, which seems largely not known in the West, as well as the vibrancy of Pakistani social movements and unions. I.e. it was quite a striking image to picture 30,000 striking railroad workers, who among other things were demanding that Pakistan strengthen its relations with communist China.

[Jakob Myers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat useful as a primer on the anatomy of a student-worker uprising, but not entirely clear on how it came about. Ali overuses a lot of cliches of Trotskyist rhetoric enough to dull the appeal of the book for me and cloud his analysis.

[Nishant Agarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great historical account of the uprising against Ayub Khan's military regime in West and East Pakistan.