2013/08/19 by Kamran Asdar Ali · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #South Asian Studies and Diaspora #Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Political science #Ancient history #History #Geography #Gender studies #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1080/19472498.2013.824679
openalex publication_date 2013/08/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
At the moment of Pakistan's independence, the areas that constituted the territories of the new state were economically underdeveloped and lacked industrialization. Nonetheless, the Karachi dock and port workers were organized and so were the workers in the largest industrial enterprise in the country, the Moghalpura Railway Workshop in Lahore, which was in the public sector. In the Punjab and in Sind, there were some peasant-based organizations that at the time of partition had links to the Communist Party of India (CPI). This article is part of a larger study on the history of the labour movement in post-1947 Pakistan. It will trace the history of the political crisis within the CPI and the expulsion of the Teja Singh/Fazal Elahi Qurban group from the main party after the formation of the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) in March of 1948. In recalling these events, this article will show how Teja Sing Swatantar and Fazal Elahi Qurban were against the central leadership of the CPI about the change of position on the Pakistan question and hence provide a lesser known history of early communism in post-1947 Pakistan. It discusses the CPI's argument on the Muslim question as it evolved during the 1940s, gives an overview of CPI's coalition with the Muslim League during the 1945–1946 elections and then shows how the CPP with its new 'immigrant' leadership consolidated itself in Lahore and conducted its politics under conditions of extreme surveillance and attack from the Pakistani state.