Lal Khan ( ur, لال خان; June 1956 – 21 February 2020) was a political activist and

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...

. Born Tanveer Gondal, he was a physician by profession but ceased practicing medicine in order to devote his time to political activity. Adopting the name Lal Khan, he was the leader of the Pakistani Marxist organization '' The Struggle'', and editor of its newspaper. He also wrote regular articles for ''Daily Times'' and the ''Dunya''. He died on 21 February 2020 after being ill with cancer for more than a year.

Early life

In the 1970s, Khan was a student of medicine in college and a political activist in Pakistan when the military coup of General Zia ul Haq toppled the

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

government, and subsequently hanged the country's first democratically elected prime minister

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Zulfikar (or Zulfiqar) Ali Bhutto ( ur, , sd, ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979), also known as Quaid-e-Awam ("the People's Leader"), was a Pakistani barrister, politician and Politician, statesman who served as ...

. He was imprisoned for a year, then went to university in the capital of Pakistan,

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

. He moved to The Netherlands in 1980 to escape by fearing the death sentence in Pakistan. During his time in exile, he graduated from the

Vrije Universiteit The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

in Amsterdam, and continued to reside in the Netherlands for eight more years. In 1988, he returned to his country and quit his profession as a doctor, in order to work full-time in revolutionary politics.

Career

He was the leading member of The Struggle which is based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky and advocates a socialist transformation of Pakistan. It demands the nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy under workers control, an end to religious extremism and radicalism, the eradication of unemployment and free accessible education for all Pakistani citizens. He was the editor of ''Asian Marxist Review'' and International Secretary of

Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) is an international solidarity campaign for Pakistani workers. History In 1995, Arif Shah, a leading trade union leader, was assassinated. Following his assassination, the Punjab Labour Federa ...

. Lal Khan criticized the partition of India and advocated for

Indian reunification Indian reunification refers to the potential reunification of India (the Republic of India) with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were partitioned from British India in 1947. Background In 1947, British India was partitioned into the modern ...

, which he stated would heal continuing wounds and solve the Kashmir conflict. Advocating for a common revolution, Khan declared that "Five thousand years of common history, culture and society is too strong to be cleavaged by this partition." His views are described his book "Crisis in the Indian Subcontinent, Partition: Can it be Undone?" in which Khan states that "revolutionary transformation of the economies and societies is an essential prerequisite for the reunification of the subcontinent." On 12–13 March 2011 the largest congress of The Struggle was held in Lahore. These annual congresses are held to analyse the performance of The Struggle and to formulate new strategies for social change and revolution. In October 2013, Khan accused

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pak ...

's supporters in the West of appropriating her and concealing her socialist background. In a joint statement in August 2016, Khan and

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nati ...

Jammu and Kashmir general secretary

Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami is an Indian politician from Jammu and Kashmir. He is the Convenor and Spokesperson of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration. He earlier represented the Kulgam Assembly Constituency in the Jammu and Kashmir Legis ...

called for revolutionary unity between the working classes of India and Pakistan to resolve the

Kashmir conflict The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict over the Kashmir region, primarily between India and Pakistan, with China playing a third-party role. The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as both India and Pakistan claim ...

and overthrow capitalism in the subcontinent.

Publications

* ''Partition – Can it be undone?'' This book examines the historical background of partition of the Indian subcontinent, and the formation of Pakistan and India. * ''Lebanon-Israel War''. Written in 2009, this book discusses not only the current conflict between Lebanon and Israel in detail, but also looks at the history of wars and revolutions in the whole region. The changing role of Iran in the region and the possibility of an invasion of Iran are also discussed in detail. * ''Pakistan's Other Story – The Revolution of 1968–69''. This book examines the student and political activism of the late 1960s which gave birth to a revolution. Khan argues that due to lack of leadership courage, the opportunity to establish a worker's state was lost. * ''Kashmir, A revolutionary way out''. This book examines the possibility of the liberation of Kashmir under a united South Asian socialist federation.

Death

On 21 February 2020, he died after suffering from cancer for more than a year at a local hospital in Lahore.

References

External links