Everything about Tariq Ali totally explained
Tariq Ali (
Urdu:
طارق علی) (born
October 21,
1943) is a
British-
Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner, and commentator. He is a member of the editorial committee of the
New Left Review and
Sin Permiso, and regularly contributes to
The Guardian,
Counterpunch, and the
London Review of Books.
He is the author of
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006),
Conversations with Edward Said (2005),
Bush in Babylon (2003), and
Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002).
Career
Ali was born and raised in
Lahore. The city was part of
British India at the time of his birth in 1943, but became part of the newly-independent nation of
Pakistan four years later. He is the son of journalist Mazhar Ali Khan and activist mother Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan (daughter of
Sir Sikandar Hyat Khan who led the
Unionist Muslim League and later Prime Minister of the Punjab in 1937).
Ali's parents "both came from a very old, crusty, feudal family". His father had broken with the families conventions in politics when he was a student, adopting Communism, nationalism and atheism. Ali's mother also belonged to the same family, and became radicalized upon meeting his father. Ali was though taught the fundamentals of Islam in order to be able to argue against it. He was elected President of the
Oxford Union.
His public profile began to grow during the
Vietnam War, when he engaged in debates against the war with such figures as
Henry Kissinger and
Michael Stewart. As time passed, Ali became increasingly critical of American and
Israeli foreign policies, and emerged as a figurehead for critics of American foreign policy across the globe. He was also a vigorous opponent of American relations with Pakistan that tended to back
military dictatorships over democracy.
Active in the
New Left of the 1960s, he's long been associated with the
New Left Review. Drawn into revolutionary socialist politics through his involvement with
The Black Dwarf newspaper, he joined a
Trotskyist party, the
International Marxist Group (IMG) in 1968. He was recruited to the leadership of the IMG and became a member of the International Executive Committee of the (reunified)
Fourth International.
During this period he was an IMG candidate in
Sheffield Attercliffe at the
February 1974 UK general election and was co-author of
Trotsky for Beginners, a cartoon book. In 1981, the IMG dissolved when its members entered the
Labour Party: the IMG was promptly proscribed. Ali then abandoned activism in the revolutionary left and supported
Tony Benn in his bid to become deputy leader of the Labour Party that year.
In
1990, he published the satire
Redemption, on the inability of the Trotskyists to handle the downfall of the
Eastern bloc. The book contains parodies of many well-known figures in the Trotskyist movement.
His book
Bush in Babylon criticizes the
2003 invasion of Iraq by American president
George W. Bush. This book has a unique style, using
poetry and critical essays in portraying the
war in Iraq as a failure. An
atheist who grew up around
Muslims, Ali believes that the new Iraqi
government will fail.
His previous book,
Clash of Fundamentalisms, puts the events of the
September 11 attacks in historical perspective, covering the history of
Islam from its foundations.
Ali has been a critic of modern
neoliberal economics and was present at the 2005
World Social Forum in
Porto Alegre,
Brazil where he was one of nineteen to sign the
Porto Alegre Manifesto.
He has been described as "the alleged inspiration" for the
Rolling Stones' song "
Street Fighting Man", recorded in
1968 .
He currently lives in
Highgate,
London with his partner
Susan Watkins, editor of the
New Left Review. He has three children: Natasha, Chengiz, and Aisha.
Tariq Ali's
The Leopard and The Fox, first written as a BBC screenplay in 1985, is about the last days of
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Never previously produced because of a censorship controversy, it's finally to be adapted and staged as a play by Alter Ego Productions in mid October 2007.
Bibliography (partial)
- Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970)
- 1968 and After: Inside the Revolution (1978)
- Chile, Lessons of the Coup: Which Way to Workers Power (1978)
- Trotsky for Beginners (1980)
- Who's Afraid of Margaret Thatcher?: In Praise of Socialism (1984)
- The Stalinist Legacy: Its Impact on 20th-Century World Politics (1984)
- The Nehrus and the Gandhis: An Indian Dynasty (1985)
- Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties (1987)
- Revolution from Above: Soviet Union Now (1988)
- Iranian Nights (1989)
- Moscow Gold (book) (1990)
- Redemption (1990)
- Can Pakistan Survive?: The Death of a State (1991)
- Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (1992)
- Necklaces (1992)
- Ugly Rumours (1998)
- 1968: Marching in the Streets (1998)
- Fear of Mirrors (1998)
- The Book of Saladin (1998)
- The Stone Woman (2000)
- Masters of the Universe: NATO's Balkan Crusade (2000)
- (2002)
- Bush in Babylon (2003)
- Street-Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties (2005)
- Speaking of Empire and Resistance: Conversations with Tariq Ali (2005)
- Rough Music (2005)
- Conversations with Edward Said (2005)
- A Sultan in Palermo (2005)
- The Leopard and the Fox (2006)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope (2006)
- A Banker for all Seasons: Bank of Crooks and Cheats Incorporated (2007)
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tariq Ali'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://tariq_ali.totallyexplained.com">Tariq Ali Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
