Decades After Pakistan Govt 'Disappeared' Hassan Nasir, His Legacy Still Shines Bright
Nov 13, 2020
Aavaaz, aazaad ho to naara-e- Mansoor
Aur ghut jaaye to Hassan Nasir ban jaati hai
And if throttled, becomes Hassan Nasir’s plea)
Kishwar Naheed
But in this country, there have also been such people who were neither fated to have the seat of power nor wished for wealth and influence and were never bothered by the desire for name and fame. They were not garlanded with flowers in gatherings and processions. They left their homeland for the service of ordinary citizens. Their participation in struggles came with great humility; and when the executioners took their life, their relatives and friends did not even get to see them for one last time. Nor could anyone find a trace of their grave.
But due to such an obscure life and an even more obscure martyrdom, Hassan Nasir – who was ‘disappeared’ in Pakistani dictator Ayub Khan’s infamous dungeon at the Lahore Fort 60 years ago today – is the immortal revolutionary whose popularity and fame increase every year. Traces of his life are illuminated every year and he inspires many people even today.
Others like Nazeer Abbasi, Hameed Baloch, Nasir Baloch, Ayaz Sammu and Mashal Khan also walked the same path as Hassan Nasir and flew the flag of honesty, peace, freedom, democracy and social justice.
The death of Hassan Nasir was perhaps the most brazen incident of the Ayub period. Had such a killing taken place in a democratic country, it would have caused outrage. There would be questions in the assembly, protesting narratives would be published in newspapers, there would be court inquiries and the criminals would receive definitive punishment for their evil deeds.
But in Pakistan, things go against the law of nature. So the murderers were granted promotions instead of reprehensions. It is a separate matter that these promotions proved to be the prelude to humiliations. And the person at whose behest these outrages were committed rose from the seat of power greatly dishonoured. The same fate met all those whose hands were stained with the blood of Hassan Nasir.
But Hassan Nasir is still alive. The tales of his asceticism and sympathy, his spirit and determination, his love, sincerity and sacrifice still create passion and fervour in our hearts.
Poster for Hassan Nasir Day event in Lahore.
His path to Pakistan
Hassan Nasir was the second son of Syed Alamdar Hussein, who had come to Hyderabad from Etawah for work and became the private secretary of Yamin-us-Saltanat (‘right hand of the realm’) Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad Bahadur. He also remained the private secretary of the 4 prime ministers of the gate of government, namely Sir Mirza Ismail Hyderi, Nawab Chhatari and Mir Laiq Ali. Alamdar was married to the younger sister of Jafar Hasan, Zohra Begum and she gave birth to Nasir on August 2, 1928.
In those days, they lived near Sagar Talkies in Abid Manzil, Turap Bazar. Nasir was born into wealth and was brought up in ease and affluence. His family was highly educated and cultured. In those days, boys studying in grammar school came from well-off families and considered themselves higher and superior to others. They had bourgeois mentality ingrained into them, the standard of culture in home and family was very high, and any flippant act would not be tolerated. Nasir was educated in this milieu at home and the madrassa. He was an intelligent student.
During his student days, he was a very good speaker and had great expertise over the English language. He wanted to go to Oxford for higher education. But his father did not deem it suitable to send him to Oxford at this young age; and advised him to go after passing his BA. In a state of disappointment, he departed for Aligarh to do his intermediate. In those days, someone with Senior Cambridge could get admission into the second year. He thus saved one year.
After Aligarh, he enrolled at the Nizam College for a BA. At that time, he developed deep relations with his maternal cousin Kokab Durri. Kokab was a passionate youth with communist ideas and was regarded highly by his compatriots. Kokab introduced Nasir to the ideology of Karl Marx. Nasir negan reading communist literature and he adopted the communist philosophy. He decided to abandon his studies and devoted himself to the revolutionary struggle. When the government began searching for him, he went underground and eventually left Hyderabad to go to Bombay, where like a passionate communist he began to work against capitalism with great intensity and devotion.
Nasir continued publicising communist ideas for a long time in Bombay and when Sajjad Zaheer decided to leave India for Pakistan and work for the Communist Party there, a party of youth which included Nasir also moved.
In those days, the Communist Party in Pakistan was not illegal. But when the situation became difficult for the Communists and the government oppression crossed all limits, Sajjad Zaheer returned to India. Nasir was arrested in Pakistan. He was tormented in jail. He went on a hunger strike and wrote an article sketching the untold condition of jails in Pakistan. The Pakistani government increased his jail term. When his mother Zohra Begum found out about these conditions, she went to Pakistan and using her influence, was able to bring Nasir back from captivity on the condition that he would not set foot in Pakistan for a year.
Nasir’s mother was ill. She feared for her life and was about to go to Vellore for an operation. She wanted Nasir to be present in Vellore at the time of the operation. Nasir came to Hyderabad and accompanied his mother. The operation was successful and she returned to Hyderabad as a healthy person. Nasir’s one-year exile was ending and he wanted to return to Pakistan. Though Alamdar had suffered a paralytic stroke and was unable to move for many years and his mother tried hard to convince Nasir to stay, his sense of honour did not allow him to leave his comrades. He did not want to watch the scene of the storm from the safety of the coast.
He returned and became the youngest secretary of the Communist Party. Now, he risked his life and limb to propagate communist ideas. He began to work without caring for imprisonment or the gallows. His passion was immense and he did not mind risking his life.
The government of Pakistan laid a trap throughout the country for Nasir’s arrest. Nasir began working underground. He would wander from city to city in disguise to organise his party. At night, he took refuge at the homes of close relatives and friends and sometimes he spent the nights in jungles, wastelands and cemeteries.
He was eventually caught. People who admired him tried very hard to have him released on bail. But the government did not listen. He was tortured in captivity.
Nasir’s death greatly grieved all the members of his family. He was well-liked by everyone. The mourning mother tried to have Nasir’s corpse brought to Hyderabad for burial. After great efforts, the Pakistani government gave permission. When she reached Pakistan and the grave was dug in her presence, it did not have Nasir’s corpse but that of someone else. The Pakistani government did not want its oppression to be divulged; so such a means was contrived as to disappear even the corpse. To this day, nobody knows where Nasir’s grave is.
Wherever the grave may be, love for Nasir is present within every conscious youngster of Pakistan. They celebrate ‘Nasir Day’ annually; the Communist Party of India too is influenced by Nasir’s sacrifice.
The great Urdu resistance poet Himayat Ali Shair wrote about the death of Hassan Nasir, noting that he was born in the same year as Che Guevara and was executed, like Bhagat Singh, in the prime of youth in my native city of Lahore.
Aaj akhbaar ki surkhi pe nazar padte hi
Mere andar se koi mohr ba-lab cheekh pada
Mere jazbaat ki ghairat, mere honton ka sakoot
Mera fan cheekh pada, mera adab cheekh pada
Ye zameen haq ki parastaar hai, baatil baatil
Seena-e-haq se sadaa aati hai, qaatil qaatil
(Today while glancing at the headline of the newspaper ream
Some sealed lips from within me let out a scream
The silence of my lips, my passions’ honour
My art, my literature let out a clamour
This earth is the devotee of truth, lie lie
Assassin assassin, from the bosom of truth comes the cry)
Note: Translations from Urdu by the writer.
Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader, currently based in Lahore, where he is also the president of the Progressive Writers Association. He can be reached at razanaeem@hotmail.com.
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Umer A. Chaudhry
The letters of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg moved the lyrical pen of Faiz Ahmed Faiz to write his monumental poem ‘hum jo tareek rahon mein mare gaye.’ The Rosenbergs were Marxists and victims of McCarthyism. A few hours before they were sent to the electric chair in 1953, they left an everlasting message of hope for their children: ‘Be comforted then that we were serene and understood with the deepest kind of understanding, that civilization had not as yet progressed to the point where life did not have to be lost for the sake of life; and that we were comforted in the sure knowledge that others would carry on after us.’
McCarthyism is widely documented as a dark chapter in the history of the U.S.A. It is considered synonymous with Communist witch-hunts, state-sponsored red bashing, illegal detentions of left-wing activists and the arbitrary use of state power to censor progressive political expression. McCarthyism was not merely an American experience. During the heyday of the Cold War, systematic repressive measures against Communism were introduced by almost all allies of the U.S.A. Pakistan was no exception, although there has been very little written on this subject, and there is no accessible documentation in this regard.
Who were the victims of anti-Communist repression in Pakistan? How were these radical Socialists persecuted? What is their history? These unconventional questions are usually sidelined or silenced.
Major Ishaq Mohammad’s book ‘Hassan Nasir ki Shahadat’ lays bare to some extent the murky historical chapter of state repression of Communism in Pakistan. Major Ishaq Mohammad needs no introduction. He was imprisoned for four years along with Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Syed Sajjad Zaheer in the hitherto unresolved 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case.
Ishaq Mohammad gained massive popularity during the 60s and 70s as the leader of the Mazdoor Kissan Party. He led the peasant revolts of Hashtnager and was well-known for his militant stand against capitalism and landlordism. Arrested after the military coup of General Zia-ul-Haq, he suffered from paralysis during his imprisonment. Despite his ill-health, he refused the military government’s offer for medical help provided he tendered an apology. Defiant till his last breath, he bade farewell to this world in 1982.
‘Hassan Nasir ki Shahadat’ is woven around a tale that has never been told. The story is set in the winter of 1960 when Ishaq Mohammad, a young lawyer well into the second year of his legal practice, met Faiz Ahmed Faiz on Lahore’s Mall Road and found him unusually depressed and perturbed. Faiz told Ishaq Mohammad that ‘a Communist from Karachi’ had been brought to the Lahore Fort. He was subjected to heavy torture – so much so that his cries of pain terrified other prisoners in the Fort. It was the wife of one such prisoner who had told Faiz about the horrifying torture.
Ishaq Mohammad had been to the Lahore Fort as a detainee in 1959 and 1960, though only for short periods of time. The Lahore Fort was a symbol of terror in Pakistan at that time. This symbol of Mughal majesty had been turned into a draconian detention and investigation center during the period of British colonialism. The ‘criminals’ of the independence movement were often detained in the Fort for questioning through questionable means. After 1947, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the command of the Lahore Fort. The conditions there, well-documented in the book under review, were already horrific enough to paralyze a sane mind. The law enforcers, trained under the colonial regime, applied their “investigation techniques” on stubborn detainees.
Ishaq Mohammad moved a habeas corpus petition in the High Court at Lahore through the able representation of Mahmood Ali Kasuri on November 22, 1960. It was during the hearing of the petition on the next day that the news of Hassan Nasir’s death surfaced. According to the government version, Hassan Nasir committed suicide by hanging himself from a nail in his detention cell at the Lahore Fort on November 13. Progressive circles around Pakistan were shell-shocked. How could a young man full of hope and commitment take his own life? Ishaq Mohammad also refused to believe the government’s version. In order to protect his comrade’s dignity, he devoted himself to the magisterial inquiry into the cause of death of a detainee in police custody, mandated under section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
Gradually Ishaq Mohammad started to uncover the lacunas in the State’s version: the discrepancy about the position of hanging marks on Hassan Nasir’s neck, the contradictory accounts of marks found on Hassan’s elbow and knee, and the absence of any plausible motive for suicide. A great deal was required before the inquiry could be finalized. The attitude of the state officials and the magistrate towards Ishaq Mohammad was highly hostile. For more than half of the questions asked by Ishaq Mohammad during different cross-examinations, the police officials standing in the witness box took the plea of secrecy in order to frustrate the legal process.
Ishaq Mohammad’s efforts to document the course of the inquiry have filled a major vacuum in Pakistan’s history. While informing readers about the proceedings in the magisterial inquiry, the book under review touches some very important topics like the colonial character and workings of the Punjab police, state sponsorship of torture, and the cruelties that occurred in the Lahore Fort.
At many points in the book the author has written that history will do justice to the cause of Hassan Nasir. Disappointed by the magisterial enquiry, Ishaq Mohammad left the final verdict to the conscience of the people of Pakistan by writing ‘Hassan Nasir ki Shahadat’. He was sure the records that were buried by the police under the plea of secrecy and ‘the broad national interest’ would one day see the light of day. That day has not yet arrived. The publication of the book under review is a grim reminder of justice denied to a person who sacrificed himself for the betterment of humanity. It is also an indictment against the current rulers of Pakistan who continue to keep the details of this gruesome episode a secret.
Umer A. Chaudhry blogs at The Red Diary and this book review was first published in The Friday Times, Lahore July 10-16, 2009 issue.
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