Event
"Mao-Lana" of Asia: Bhashani, Black Maoism, and Islamic Socialism in the 1960's
249 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA
1969 was a climactic year for global uprisings against imperialism. Some of the most militant resistance came from within Third World countries, driven by ideas of self-determination, freedom and Afro-Asian futures. One of the few successful uprisings occurred in Pakistan, leading to the eventual downfall of President Ayub Khan. This paper by Dr. Layli Uddin explores the emergence of a Third World Islamic Socialism, articulated by Maulana Bhashani (1880-1976), a venerated peasant-worker leader, politician and Sufi saint. Employing Martha Harnecker’s idea of ‘revolutionary inventiveness,’ Dr. Uddin argues that Bhashani creatively brought Islam and Marxism together to create a new politics of resistance in Pakistan, and reconceptualized Islamic ideas and traditions of ummah, hajj, and bay’ah to advocate for Third World unity, anti-imperialism and solidarity.
Featured Speaker
Layli Uddin is Lecturer in Politics of South Asia at Queen Mary University of London. Dr. Uddin is a political and social historian of modern South Asia, bringing together interdisciplinary questions on religion, class and mass politics. Her research reconstructs subaltern political thought and movements in the context of decolonization, state-formation and the Cold War. Her broader interests are in liberation theologies and subaltern geopolitics in the Global South. Dr. Uddin completed her Ph.D. in History at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her dissertation explored the political mobilization of subaltern classes in the making and unmaking of Pakistan from the 1930s up to 1971. She is currently working on her first book based on her thesis, Land of Eternal Eid: Making and Unmaking Pakistan, 1930s-1971.