Raza Kazim (, born 13 January 1930) is a lawyer, philosopher, inventor and former politician in Pakistan.
Family
He invented a musical instrument, the
Sagar Veena,
[Nate Rabe (12 June 2016)]
"Interview: Meet the Lahore lawyer, philosopher and activist who also invented a musical instrument"
''Scroll.in''. Retrieved 9 February 2019. of which his daughter
Noor Zehra is the only player in
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, and through her is the grandfather of the famous pop-rock band ''
Noori'' 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. He is the brother of political analyst
Nasim Zehra.
Politics
He began his political career with a protest in his school during the
Quit India Movement, in 1942 in the
United Provinces (now
Uttar Pradesh, India),
and joined the
Communist Party of Pakistan 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 as well as
Zia-ul-Haq, the first two for refusing to become a minister, and the third for supposedly attempting a
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
. He later on abandoned leftist politics and
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
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 (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the c ...
and
historical materialism
Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods.
Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...
", and now describes himself as a "
post-Marxist
Post-Marxism is a perspective in Critical theory, critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its association with economism, historical determinism, Antihumanism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism, whilst remai ...
."
[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 activists
Pakistani inventors
Pakistani prisoners and detainees
Pakistani philosophers
Pakistan People's Party politicians
Veena players
Lawyers from Lahore
Politicians from Lahore
1930 births
Muhajir people
{{Pakistan-law-bio-stub