Eqbal Ahmad, Confronting Empire: Interviews with David Barsamian ; Foreword by Edward W. Said

Front Cover
South End Press, 2000 - History - 177 pages
Contents

"Dawn of Freedom" by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Map of South Asia
Biographical Sketch of Eqbal Ahmad
Introduction by David Barsamian
Foreword by Edward W. Said
Chapter 1 Think Critically and Take Risks
Chapter 2 Distorted HistoriesNotes
Chapter 3 Do Not Accept the Safe Haven
Selected Bibliography of Eqbal Ahmad's Writing
Index

Reviews

"Eqbal Ahmad, perhaps the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist analyst of Asia and Africa...[was] a man of enormous charisma and incorruptible ideals.... He had an almost instinctive attraction to movements of the oppressed and the persecuted...[and] a formidable knowledge of history. Arabs, for example, learned more from him about the failures of Arab nationalism than from anyone else.... Ahmad was that rare thing, an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority."-Edward W. Said, author of Culture and Imperialism, eulogizing Ahmad in The Nation and The Guardian

"[Eqbal Ahmad] was a shining example of what a true internationalist should be.... Eqbal was at home in the history of all the world's great civilizations. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of states past and present, and he knew that states had a rightful role to play. But he also knew that states existed to serve peoplenot the other way aroundand he had little to do with governments, except as a thorn in their side. To friends, colleagues, and students, however, he gave unstintingly of himself and his time.... His example and his memory will inspire many to carry on his work."-Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations

"A very dedicated and honorable activist, Eqbal was right in the middle of everything.... He was a student of revolution and imperialism and a very good one."-Noam Chomsky, MIT

"Eqbal Ahmad was unique in combining compassion for the dispossessed-en masse and one by one; the intellectual capacity to analyze cultural, political, and economic issues on a transnational level; and an ability to raise his always eloquent voice on behalf of constructive and original solutions."-Victory Navasky, Publisher and Editorial Director, The Nation

"Fighting words, wise words, from one of the most powerful activist intellectuals of ou

 

Contents

THINK CRITICALLY AND TAKE RISKS
1
Gandhi and Partition The Struggle Over Kashmir Higher Education Frantz
69
The Perils of Nationalism Some of the News Fit to Print Tribes Have Been Given
131
Oppression and Identity Poetry and Revolution Pathologies of Power Sri Lanka
159
ALTERNATIVE RADIOS EQBAL AHMAD ARCHIVE
175
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2000)

David Barsamian is a broadcast journalist and director of Alternative Radio. He is well known for his interviews of Noam Chomsky, which have been collected in several volumes. These include Chronicles of Dissent, Keeping the Rabble in Line: Interviews with David Barsamian, and Class Warfare: Interviews with David Barsamian. His interviews with Edward Said have also been collected, in The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with David Barsamian.