Kuchh nahin toe kam say kam

khwab-i-sahar dekha toe hai/

Jis taraf dekha na tha ab tak, udhar

dekha to hai

– Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz (Khwab-i-Sahar, 1936)

ashad Mahmood, Pakistan’s oldest living communist who turns 91 today, is an actual mirror-maker. He has been involved in the mirror and glass-making business for years. His biography has recently been published with the title, Nigah-i-Aainasaz Mein. It carries reflections of days past and faces from a bygone era. The book is based on interviews recorded and compiled by Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed.

Mahmood Sahib has never been a ruler; a ‘hero’ in the popular sense; a mainstream political leader; or a conquerer; a religious leader with a huge following; a commercially successful writer or poet. Why then is it important to read his memoirs? It is because Mahmood Sahib has been a clear-eyed witness to the last ninety years. The conversations are about the political, social and literary landscape of India and Pakistan during the last century. The book is less about him and more about our politics, society and literature.

Rashad Mahmood was born in Bombay in 1932. His father was Gujarati and his mother Turkish. When his father died, he had to suffer many a hardship. From a young age, he was forced to work in factories. He had to leave school but did not abandon his education. He would go to Left-wing study circles and read books. He associated with the Communist Party and the Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA). This was a tumultuous period in Indian history. The Partition was close; the divisive lines had already been drawn in the society. Riots were taking place in Bombay and people were dying. Rashad Sahib was a witness to all this. The death and destruction in the name of faith and nationhood, took him closer to the Left. In creative terms, this was a golden period for the Left in the subcontinent. Literature and society appeared to go hand in hand. Literature affected politics and society and vice versa. Almost all prominent writers and poets supported the Left and the idea of improving the society through literature. Political workers were taught the classics and encouraged to understand the working of the society, history and evolution. Rashad Sahib, too, received such a training and lived by it.

He recalls that he used to work at a factory during the day and join the study circles of the Communist Party in the evening. He would also distribute their newspapers in the streets. Following his mother’s death in 1952, he embarked on a series of visits to Pakistan, eventually settling in the new country. Shortly after the emergence of Pakistan, the Communist Party was banned in the country. This forced all ‘comrades’ underground. For his part, Rashad Sahib maintained affiliation with the Awami League and the National Awami Party.

The country faced a constitutional crisis. For years, it was ruled by dictatorial governments and then split into two. In what remained of Pakistan, linguistic, regional and religious division were rife. The dynamics of the Left politics kept amid domestic violence and the changing international perspective. Its space on the national political scene kept shrinking.

Rashad Mahmood still believes that a socialist system alone is a guarantor of sustained global peace, prosperity and welfare. He is also convinced of the need for a thorough understanding of national and international perspectives and respecting those. He believes that the establishment is a major source of societal problems in Pakistan and has been obstructing the development of an organic political process. He supports various nationalist narratives and movements in the country. In international affairs, he believes that the socialist and non-aligned countries should maintain relations with the modern capitalist states in accordance with principles of peaceful coexistence. All his life, he has identified himself as a worker. He says that it is necessary for a communist worker to be an intellectual and for an intellectual to be a worker.

The oral history tradition has been gaining prevalence in recent times. A large part of formally documented history is about rulers and the powerful to the exclusion of those ruled by them. The point of view of a very vast population therefore goes undocumented. The oral histories are providing an important source by documenting the points of view that might have otherwise gone unreported. An important issue in this regard is that personal memory, unlike writing, is not very durable. This can result in inaccuracies. However, Rashad Mahmood is exceptional. Even at an advanced age, he remembers details like street names. He also remembers when her received a certain book and from whom; the film he saw at a particular theatre; the procession(s) he took part in and the slogans raised there; the poems a poet read at particular mushaira.

The rather slim volume provides the reader an opportunity to look closely at the past nine decades of our history through the vigilant eyes of Rashad Mahmood sahib. A storyteller to match him may be hard to find. It is important that his is no hearsay account of the events.

The book reminded me of Nothing Human is Alien To Me, Vijay Prashad’s splendid book of interviews with the late Aijaz Ahmad, one of the world’s foremost Marxist thinkers, who passed away soon after its publication. One hopes that Mahmood’s comrades and interlocutors will seriously consider publishing a more voluminous and fleshed-out biography or memoirs.

Nigah-i-Aainasaz Mein

Editor: Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed

Publisher: Institute of Historical and Social Research, Karachi, 2022,

Pages: 125

The reviewer is a Lahore-based, award-winning translator and researcher. He can be reachedat: razanaeem@hotmail.com and tweets at @raza_naeem1979