Resistance Literature during Military Regimes in Pakistan: A Case Study of Ayub Khan and Zia-Ul-Haq

Abstract

Pakistan’s political history after independence has been characterized by a number of military dictatorships. The most prominent among them were the regimes of General Ayub Khan (1958-1969) and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988). Both of them faced a wave of literary opposition, but it took different shapes determined by the social groups that led it and the particular features of the repression conducted by the dictatorship. This article makes a comparison of the characteristics of the two literary oppositions on the basis of the works of the poets and writers Habib Jalib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmad Faraz, Fahmida Riaz, and the censorship apparatus designed by the military regimes (Press and Publications Ordinance of 1963, martial law press regulations, Hudood Ordinances). The article applies Barbara Harlow’s framework of resistance literature, Gramsci’s notions of hegemony and counter-hegemony, and James C. Scott’s idea of hidden transcripts to the works of the progressive writers of the time. As a result of the analysis, it is argued that while Ayub Khan’s regime was opposed mainly through secular, class-based, and relatively open criticism of his policies embodied in the Progressive Writers’ Movement, Zia-ul-Haq’s theocratic dictatorship required more sophisticated methods of resistance, including allegory, exile, and a feminist or regional ethnic perspective. Therefore, the nature of the ideological foundation of a dictatorship has a determining influence on the literary strategies of its opposition.

Keywords: resistance literature; Pakistan; Ayub Khan; Zia-ul-Haq; authoritarianism; censorship; Progressive Writers' Movement; Habib Jalib; Faiz Ahmed Faiz

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21825547