A Critical Tribute to Farhad Mazhar
Jaglul Asad
1.
I can vividly call up Humayun Azad’s article titled ” Bamoner Deshe mohakai” (A giant in the land of dwarfs) that he wrote in then “Weekly khoborer kagoj” immediately after the demise of Ahmad Sharif. This expression suits Farhad Mazhar ( born : 9 August, 1947) best if viewed his diverse engagement, encounters and iconoclasm in thoughts. In my university days, about two decades back, two of his most marvellous essays —sontras, ain o insaf (Violence, law and justice) and dhormo o adhunikota( Religion and modernity)— took many of the intellectuals, both young and old, by storm.
Farhad Mazhar created , in Bangladesh, a generation who ‘grew up’ by reading him. Mazhar is both a thinker and an intellectual though we know all thinkers are not necessarily intellectuals. The intellectual height that Farhad Mazhar has reached , the tasks he has accomplished, the courage he has showed to think have almost no parallel in post-independence era of Bangladesh. Unarguably, Bangladesh is a barren land of both critical and creative thinking. In this all-pervasive sterility Farhad is the one who has dared to take up the arduous task of radical thinking. He is a marxist but this labelling cannot tell everything about him. Farhad’s version of Marxism, his understanding of islam, his owning the school of Fakir Lalon Shah, his consumption and critique of the western philosophy complement each other. From him we learn how and what to read and how to situate them in the context that belongs to ‘ours’. He is the first to let many of us know the names and matters of some formidable thinkers of the west. I can put that Farhad acts locally but thinks globally,to use one of Ahmad Sofa’s phrases I’ve read somewhere else. Many concepts and critiques he has first initiated and introduced in Bangladesh and, consequently, many others joined the queue and felt urge to work on them.
His philosophical contribution primarily lies in the fact that he showed philosophical thoughts and unfolding of abstract concepts can be expressed in Bangla language.His Bangla rendering of some western concepts —- for instance, Phenomenology as “বিষয়বিদ্যা”, Rationality as “বুদ্ধিগিরি”, “practical, human sensuous relationship” as “ব্যবহারিক সম্বন্ধ “, “political spirituality” as “রাজনৈতিক রুহানিয়াত”, Spirit as পরম/প্রাণকর্তা,critique as পর্যালোচনা, Dasein as আছেময়তা and numerous others—powerfully captures and contains the core of the original concepts. Besides, some concepts of Islamic sufi tradition, Nadiya school and Vakti Andolon—such as khalifa, rabubiyat, sohoj, daiy(obligation),daya(care for other), Maya, to name a few— he has made philosophically and potentially pregnant. Farhad Mazhar vehemently proved it possible to practise philosophical thinking in our mother tongue—Bangla. Besides, he almost singlehandedly challenged, problematized and dismantled some reigning discourses of Bangladesh.
2.
After independence secularism became a buzzword in Bangladeshi intelligentsia and Bangali nationalism turned into a mantra of our identity. Farhad, with much strength and theoretical acumen, succeeded, to a certain extent, to show that the “Bangalee” is not politically and philosophically neutral ; rather, it is associated with a particular identity politics.Imagining “Hazar bochorer bangali sanskriti” as homogenous is a historical untruth. He unfolded the hollowness and ‘exclusive’ nature of the term and showed how it tended to pose a process of ‘othering’. None other than Farhad exposed that secularism here in BD is a project against Islam. He questioned Eurocentric modality of secularism and talked about “secularisms”. Farhad holds that in the name of ‘secularism’ in the age of ‘war on terrorism’ we often unknowingly implement the ‘Project of New American’ century. I can recollect that before one decade and a half he insightfully exposed the politics behind American project of promoting moderate Islam. In case of Bangladesh He wants to replace secularism with democracy since democracy, Farhad argues, itself contains secularism in it. In my view, Farhad doesn’t discard secularism as a whole but he prefers particular version of secularism to the Western one. Besides, he wants to develop more the idea of citizenship in the state than any other contentious concept.
Farhad has been musing on Islam for decades. He wants to view Islam as philosophy and culture, not only theology. His project is to ‘detheolise’ Islam and pinpoint the ‘thought’ that remains disguised in the garb of religion. His magnum opus _Mokabela(encounter)_ exemplifies his Marxian maneuver to critique religion. He is eager to decipher the philosophical strength of Islam and interpret Islam to enable it to fight imperialism, racial oppression and so on. Farhad’s exposition of Islam is subtly in congruence with his Marxist parlance as Marx says : ” The criticism of religion is the prerequisite of all criticism.” He has tried, quite successfully, to make Marxism and Islam tenable and tolerable for the the Muslims and the Marxists respectively. By employing Marxist conceptual categories he assayed to reinterpret Islam’s spiritual domain and intrinsic terms. He ventured for creative interpretation of Marx on the basis of experience of the east in general and Islam in particular.
It is not that hard to find loopholes and problematics with his understanding of Islam. People of Islamic knowledge with long training are the real interpretive community; Scriptural explanation and Ulama’s interpretation are foundational in Islamic knowledge production.But we must acknowledge that Farhad has contributed much to creating a sphere where we, both the people with general education and pupils with Madrasa background, can now talk and write about Islam without being tagged as fundamentalist and reactionary. Interestingly, fighting the capitalist and consumerist system of living and preserving all life forms are, none the less, his deen or religion.
Apart from western philosophical paradigm Farhad Mazhar strove to explore Bengal’s ‘own’ philosophical landscape.This engagement can be taken as Farhad’s way of encountering colonial legacy and his typical tactic of decolonization. In Nadiya school Farhad thought to have found potent philosophical ideas and ethico-political concepts which can ably contribute to world’s accumulated wisdom. He also sought in Lalon’s song and living practices his theoretical platform to make a critique of Western ideas. In his another magnum opus _Vabandolon(Bengal’s movement of ‘ideas’), Farhad Mazhar dwelt upon Lalon’s concept of body, human, time( concept of bartoman etc) existence, divinty, materiality, theology,freedom,bondage and identity and so on in an intimately expository manner. But critics have the chance to deem his Lalon project ambitious but not tenacious.
3.
Farhad condensed a body of multiple theoretical insights and overlapping ideas into his sentences. As a result, he may be found by some readers unaccessible and sometimes enigmatically haphazard. Let me briefly state some other theoretical enagagements and interventions of Farhad here.
In Bangladesh, when two nation theory was uncritically taken for granted as communal, Farhad focused on the rationale and materiality of historical, cultural and political expediency of the event. He is supposedly the first theorist who drew attention to the presupposition of constituent power— equality, dignity of man and justice– inscribed in “Declaration of Independence” of Bangladesh. Farhad can also be taken as an anarchist in the sense that he wants the abolition of the state and wants the society to prevail. None other than he has spoken so robustly against leviathan power of the state. He unmasked both the nuanced and gross manifestations of fascism in a detailed and theoretically charged manner. Farhad Mazhar has profusely written about the necessity of revolutionary transformation of our constitution.He has an entire book on the topic named ” সংবিধান ও গণতন্ত্র” (Constitution and Democracy) He unhesitatingly emphasised the need for calling a new ” Constituent Assembly” to radically alter the constitutional autocracy embedded in the existing constitution. He courageously unveils the politics underneath the so-called “constitutional continuity”. I am not aware whether anyone in BD before Farhad has put into critical parlance the absolute truth-claims of science known as scientism in postmodernist line. In his different columns and dispersed writings he has sharply critiqued Western enlightenment, liberalism and linear narrative of progress. His Naya Krishi Andolon__New Agricultural Movement _is, according to Farhad Mazhar himself, not dissociated with his philosophical position as the movement inspires the practice of eco-farming based on biodiversity without using pesticides and altered seeds. In many an article he has extensively dwelt upon and shed new light on discourse of ‘rights’ , food security, national security, environment question and so on from his ethico-political perspective. He is never stereotyped but always innovative and penetrative while treating his topic.
Besides, Farhad Mazhar is one of the most prominent poets of Bangladesh initiating almost a new school of poetry where he raised intriguing questions about theology and combined philosophical school of Nadiya with anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist historical imagination alongside doing philosophy without the least compromise with any of the claims and cadence of poetry.
I deem him to be one of the best literary and film critics of Bangladesh. His analysis of the blockbuster bangla movie “Beder Meye Josna” (Josna: Snake Charmer’s daughter) is hitherto second to none in Bangladesh. A host of relatively uncharted dimensions of the poet Shamsur Rahaman, novelist Akhtaruzzaman Elias, poet Jibanananda Das have been so insightfully explored by Farhad that these pieces have turned trend-setters.
4.
He wrote his first book —Prostab—forty two years back.Yes, 42 years before while he had been living and working in New York as a pharmacist ! The contents testify how diverse his interest is, how undivided his attention was ,too! What didn’t he touch upon,here ? From Kant, Hegel,obviously Marx, Saussure, Levis Strauss, Sapir-Whorf to Chomsky and whom and what not ! The philosophical question of ‘language’ flows underneath his every exposition. An intense love, a deeper sigh for the motherland and a great craving for “a complete man” in a Marxian sense we cannot miss to discern in this book. Islam Question didn’t peep through his terrain of thoughts, then, in the way as we see now. But still then, there was a quest and craving and something was unfolding gradually and awaiting to emerge in him!
So far his last book_Marx,Foucault O Roohaniath_ is, Farhad informs, a prelude and first of the sequel to his upcoming books “Dhormer bichar O Bangladeshe Islam”(Critique of religion and Islam in Bangladesh) and “Pipra O Manush (Ants and Humans)”.This book has established Marx’s expresssion ” practical, human sensuous relationship” as his key term which can explain almost all worldly affairs and can also destruct the binary –worldly and spiritual. His purpose in the book is to present a fresh interpretation of Marx’s own thoughts without Engle’s intervention and examine Foucault’s concept of agency and power in general and ” Political Spirituality” in particular from Marxist parlance.
5.
Farhad Mazhar is phenomenal in both creativity and controversy. For many, Farhad is a deviant marxist and some mistakenly take him as an islamist while some of us consider his exposition of Islam extremely misleading. As he sometimes speaks truth to the power, he is also disfavoured in the bloc of the powerful. Many ones, even intellectuals, poets and artists in Bangladesh , dare not acknowledge or even take up his name or associate themselves with him as they are scared to be tagged or to lose good book of the establishment.
However, he is an extraordinarily vibrant and active thinker and always potentially capable of producing new thoughts. In this short piece, to judge him quickly is apt to be inaccurate. I am resisting that temptation. But one thing I cannot but say that Farhad could have worked in more organised and well-planned manner. His theoretical acumen and analytical endeavour have mostly been instigated by contemporary events. He has immensely impacted on his time and I am almost sure that he must continue to influence the thinking community of Bangladesh for decades to come.
Long live Farhad Mazhar. Wishing you all the best.
Jaglul Asad: Editor, Chintazan.
