Her heart beats for the underdog

Overcoming her own sufferings, PROF. ALIA IMAM -- or `Nightingale of Pakistan' -- continues to strive for democracy. K. KANNAN has the details...

Noted Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, calls her the ``Nightingale of Pakistan''. Her central concern for more than four decades now has been the establishment of a just socio-economic system in the subcontinent. Having been associated with various peace conferences in the past, she also addresses workers' meetings in Pakistan, championing the cause of the downtrodden in whatever she speaks or writes.

Meet Prof. (Ms) Alia Imam, who despite having suffered for her forthright views on democracy in Pakistan continues to strive for it in no uncertain terms. ``In the name of democracy, my country has been looted many times over,'' she says, adding that vested interests on both sides of the subcontinent has perpetuated a system where there is light on one side, while darkness is there on all three sides -- darkness of illiteracy, darkness of poverty and darkness of wretched life.

``History is waiting for the triumph of the insulted man,'' prophesies Ms. Imam, who was here in the Capital recently for the release of her new book ``Subah Ki Manin Tera Naam''. ``Man is moon-like, but he is bleeding. In this book, I have analysed the factors that make him bleed,'' she informs.

Author of many books on the subcontinent including ``Democracy in Pakistan -- from Bhutto to Zia'' and ``Contribution of Khusro to the Music of the Subcontinent'', Ms. Imam, who also served as cultural advisor to the Pakistan Government during the Benazir regime, says intellectuals and writers have a great responsibility in demolishing the barriers, animosity and hatred.

Her work, says Ms. Imam, has been on four fronts. As a professor of Pakistani Studies in Allamah Iqbal Open University in Islamabad, she is striving for a change in the education system. ``We have a class-based society on both sides of the border. Unless and until the whole education system is changed, total transformation cannot come.''

Having attended many peace conferences and writer's conventions with Faiz Ahmed Faiz and other writers and intellectuals, Ms. Imam feels Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan and Hindu revivalism in India are both dangerous portents. ``It is basically diverting the attention of people from the basic necessities of life,'' she points out, adding: ``Man is more important than Mandir or Masjid''.

As a writer and political analyst, Ms. Imam is clear that a just socio-economic order is a necessary pre-condition for democracy. To unite the democratic forces on both sides of the border, she founded the Indo-Pak Friendship Society as early as in 1974 and much recently, she became president of the South Asian Union. ``SAARC can play a vital role in strengthening democratic forces in South Asia,'' she opines.

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