Interview with Progressive Professor on Student Activism

Shah Hussain College was the first institution in Pakistan to introduce Professor Manzour Ahmed in Punjabi. The Punjabi University followed and opened the Punjabi department, and adopted our MA Punjabi class. Najm Hussain Syed, who was chairman of the department at Shah Hussain was appointed the first chairman of the Punjab university Punjabi department.

Shah Hussain College staff and students worked together and established the third open air theatre in Lahore. The other two open theatres were in Lawrence Gardens and Government College. Independent groups from all over Lahore used the theatre for their performances.

Under Dictator Zia ul Haq, the students of the college were scattered as commerce classes and arts classes to other colleges; the staff were scattered all over the Punjab.

Comment by Amin Mughal


Interview
Activist of another time
The news on Sunday 27/1/2008

By Aoun Sahi and Ali Sultan

Professor Manzur Ahmed does not look or feel his 82 years. Born in Baghdad in 1926 and hailing from a family from Amristar, he started his teaching career in 1952, teaching postgraduate students psychology at Islamia College, FC College and retired from MAO College Lahore after 35 years worth of teaching experience.

Dr Manzur has lived all his life in Lahore. Rarely has his life been without cause, from being an active participant in a teachers' and students' movement to being charged in the first ever case against teachers by the then government and then setting up of the first liberal arts college, Shah Hussain College, Dr Manzur is not only a highly respected teacher and scholar but also a man with a great sense of wit. Excerpts of the interview are as follows:

The News On Sunday: Can you tell us a little about the history of student activism in Pakistan?

Manzur Ahmed: The very first student outcry was in 1948, Dhaka. Mohammed Ali Jinnah said then that Urdu would be our national language and the language of education. It was then that students protested for the first time. One of those students was Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman.

The second student movement started in Karachi in 1951-52, which voiced concerns over having very few educational institutions and high fees.

At the same time (Ayub era) students protested against the 'three year degree course,'. Most of the two year syllabus was spread onto three years, which meant more money would have to be spent by students. I was also among the committee of experts that devised the three year degree course. This was a bad time; students were pressurised, and a lot of them went underground. But they met with success; the demand to reverse it into a two year course was accepted in 1961-62.

Students and teachers also protested against the 'University Ordinance' of 1963-64, which was very oppressive. Among other things, teachers' services could be terminated without citing a reason or notice.

Students also protested against the 'Tashkent declaration' of 1966 during Ayub era.

TNS: There was also a strong network of teachers aligned with the Left involved in politics in those days?

MA: There was a loose informal co-ordination of teachers. Teachers' politics was at its foetal stage. We all were trying for educational reforms. Punjab Teachers' Union (established pre-partition) was very prominent on the school level and was the only registered trade union for teachers in the country.

Another prominent organisation was the lecturers' association in Government College and there were other small university staff academic associations all over the country.

I was a part of a teachers' association known as the West Pakistan College Teachers' Association (WPTA) which was a prominent well connected organisation, whose members included teachers of non-government colleges from all provinces.

We made this organisation because we felt the government had started imposing itself in education. It was already involved in making of the syllabus, but we wanted academic freedom -- to structure education from beginning to end. It was not the government's job, to plan and implement education -- it was the teachers. We had even given a call "Taleem ek nataqseem amal hai -- All teachers unite"

Our political demand was that there should be an autonomous education commission comprising only of teachers who would solve all problems dealing with education and then recommend solutions that the government would fund. Meaning that there would be no government intervention. This did not go well with the establishment. The government was alarmed and filed a case against some teachers for conducting un-Islamic activities.

This was during the Yahya period, and such prominent teachers such as Eric Cyprian, Amin Mughal, Zahoor Ahmed and I [Dr Manzur Ahmed was then president of WPTA] were named in the case.

Let me tell you, this case is the only example of 'McCarthyism' you will find in our history. There was a lot of national and international coverage; I even remember a headline 'Teachers in the dock.'

But in the end, Eric was suspended and Amin and I were terminated. After the case, the teachers' movement as a whole faltered.

When the government is democratic, things like these don't matter. Everyone understands that things move on, but when there is dictatorship, everything seems like a threat.

TNS: But wasn't the Left strong then?

MA: The left was never very strong. Communism and Marxism are not fit for a religious state. In that era, organisations that represented the Left were prominent only because religious outfits were not, then. They had no presence as such in the government.

TNS: Would you like to tell us something about the highly influential Shah Hussain College?

MA: Yes, after we were barred from teaching at state institutions, I along with Amin Mughal and Eric Cyprian opened the Shah Hussain College in 1969. It was a small college but it was special, because we taught without having a fixed syllabus and for the first time students and teachers could freely express themselves. Before that, close contact between teachers and students was discouraged. All known teachers taught there, we had the likes of Dr Mohammed Ajmal who was the ex-principal of Government College and Dr Nazir Ahmed as the chairman of our education committee. We also gave vocational training in subjects such as dramatics, journalism and debates which back then was unheard off. It was thought to be an important cultural college.

TNS: What happened then?

MA: When Bhutto came into power, he nationalised education in 1972, and the college went under state control. But many teachers wanted education to be nationalised. You see, our worries were not only academic, we also wanted better wages. Teachers, after that, got better grades. I even remember, many teachers marched in their traditional gowns on the Mall in favour of nationalisation.

Bhutto was the one who gave education to the poor. Books were cheap; education itself became available to everyone. But everything detracted when Zia came. Education went downhill.

TNS: It was when some students became extremely violent. Wasn't it?

MA: Yes, it was a sad time. Zia favoured rightist student groups for his own motives. This was the first time that weapons came into student politics. There were two prominent groups, Islami Jamiat-Tulaba (IJT)and the Muslim Student Federation, which had severe clashes. They had dealings in arms, narcotics and started extorting money. The so-called students of the liberal left were kicked out of institutions. There are stories of how these groups would take over hostels and physically torture other students. A lot of students were killed. There was no control over this and it continued for years.

MQM also emerged then as a student movement as APMSO (All Pakistan Muhajir Student Organization) in 1978, under the patronage of the government. The campuses were filled with arms, and its effects reverberate till now.

TNS: What did you think of the lawyers' movement and the revival of student protest?

MA: Well, movements like these don't happen in a vacuum. They always have a context. At one point, it looked as if it could have knocked out Musharraf, but it didn't because political movements need political leaders. I don't see a political movement that will take us in the right direction. These people who are leading us are not the right people. Political movements are made by taking bullets in the chest. Where is politics now? This is just power-grabbing.

TNS: Do you think students should participate in politics?

MA: Absolutely! Even the British gave that relaxation; a teacher could think politically and students had organisations. We remember the British rule as an oppressive time, but they gave us our educational structure that we follow till today. Weren't Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi all products of British education?