Raza Kazim ( ur, , born 13 January 1930) is a lawyer, philosopher, inventor and former politician in Pakistan.

Family

He invented a musical instrument, the Sagar Veena, of which his daughter

Noor Zehra Madam Noor Zehra Kazim is a Pakistani musician and Sagar Veena player. She is the daughter of lawyer and activist Raza Kazim who invented Sagar Veena - a stringed instrument similar to Vichitra veena and Chitra Veena. Together with her father she ...

is the only player in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, and through her is the grandfather of the famous pop-rock band ''

Noori Noori ( ) is a Pakistani rock band from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, formed in 1996. The group was formed by songwriter, lead vocalist, and guitarist, Ali Noor, along with his younger brother Ali Hamza, who were soon joined by bassist Muhammad A ...

'' duo, Ali Noor and Ali Hamza, while another daughter, Baela Raza Jamil, is one of Pakistan's leading educators, with major contributions in the field of education reform. He is also the uncle of actress and model

Juggan Kazim Syeda Mehrbano Kazim ( ur, ), known by the stage name Juggun "Jay" Kazim ( ur, ), is a Pakistani Canadian actress, television host, and YouTube personality. She has worked in numerous Pakistani and Canadian films. She is the brand ambassador ...

Politics

He began his political career with a protest in his school during the

Quit India Movement The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti Movement, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mahatma Gandhi on 8th August 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in ...

, in 1942, and joined the

Communist Party of Pakistan The Communist Party of Pakistan ( abbr. CPP; ur, کمیونسٹ پارٹی آف پاکستان) is a communist party in Pakistan. History Founding The CPP was founded in Calcutta, India, soon after the establishment of Pakistan on 6 March 1948 ...

in 1948 for some time before quitting it for ideological reasons in 1951, while he became a lawyer in 1953, and as an activist has been jailed under Ayyub Khan,

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 ...

as well as

Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...

, the first two for refusing to become a minister, and the third for supposedly attempting a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

. He later on abandoned leftist politics and

Marxism 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 ...

altogether, after having studied it for some two decades but ultimately writing a "50-page article on gaps in facts and reasoning in

dialectical Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...

and

historical materialism Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...

", and now describes himself as a "

post-Marxist Post-Marxism is a trend in political philosophy and social theory which deconstructs Karl Marx's writings and Marxism itself, bypassing orthodox Marxism. The term "post-Marxism" first appeared in Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theoretica ...

."Saroop Ijaz (28 September 2014)
"Herald Exclusive: In conversation with Raza Kazim"
''Dawn News''. Retrieved 9 February 2019.

Later activities

He currently devotes his time to the ''Sanjan Nagar Institute of Philosophy & Arts'', a non-profit organization consisting of a team of fifty (now growing) full-time members working in the fields of Philosophy, Music and Photography. The Institute is currently based in Lahore.

Books and booklets

*''Notes on theoretical aspects of revolution'', 1972. *''Socialist revolution : the alternative to disaster'', 1974. *''Dictatorship of the urban left : Pakistan's road to socialism'', 1974. *''Pākistānī inqilāb aur Islām'', 1976. *''Raz̤ā Kāẓim : mushāhidāt'', 1986.

References

Living people Pakistani music critics Pakistani lawyers Pakistani activists Pakistani inventors Pakistani prisoners and detainees Pakistani philosophers Pakistan People's Party politicians Punjabi people Veena players Lawyers from Lahore Politicians from Lahore 1930 births {{Pakistan-law-bio-stub