Daabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is also a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society and The Centre for Palestine Studies at Columbia University. Daabashi advocated grassroots activism to ensure that revolutions would be open ended and could bring significant change rather than symbolic victories.
He said movements like the Iranian Green Movement, the Arab Spring, the Eurozone Crisis and the Occupy Wall Street Movement and said they had failed to achieve their goals. He said some of these movements might have brought down heads of states but they had not been able to supplement the exploitative systems.
Daabashi said the US had a significant role in these movements. It had used a range of tactics to ensure that its imperial designs were not challenged. Daabashi said the US had used the Egyptian Army to secure its interest in that country but provided the government of Bahrain with assistance to crush the uprising there.
The Pakistan Army, he said, acted as a subcontractor for the US Army in order to safeguard US interests in the region. Pakistan and Iran, he said, needed more than a gas pipeline, they needed an “intellectual pipeline.” He said the Left in both countries was weak and unorganised.
Answering a question, Daabashi, said the region of Balochistan appeared lucrative to both Iran and Pakistan, yet it was the least developed region in both countries. He said the Baloch had real grievances but mostly theirs was an economic problem and not a social or political one.
Answering another question regarding separatism, he said that while most state boundaries were colonial, people needed to learn to live with one another. Separation, he said, was seldom the answer. In Balochistan, he added, it would lead to further fragmentation along tribal lines.
He said that the Baloch like Palestinians were within their rights to ask for separate nation states but he thought independence would only aggravate the situation as the root of the problem was economic. Separation will only strengthen the imperialist hold, he said, adding that the Baloch should struggle for economic development in the province. He said all Pakistanis must support them in their cause.
Asked if he thought the Left was obsolete, Daabashi said the Left needed to expand and build upon public support and organise activism on grassroots level leading to revolution through non-violent means.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2012.
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@Alam I think you are completely missing the point that Dabaashi is trying to make. Even if Balochistan becomes an independent state, it might be exploited by some one else because of its immense resources. He is right in saying how US hedged the uprisings in Egypt and Bahrain, two very different case studies but nonetheless Uncle Sam somehow maintained some degree of control to safeguard its interests. Baloch people should struggle for more economic development and may be more economic liberty and we Pakistanis should help them achieve this goal.
Dabaashi is clearly Persian nationalism activist who support the sectarian uprising in Bahrain which is an Iranian motivated one and they hold the pictures of Khamenei!! Balochistan is a purely political problem since the first uprising in 48 which refused to lose its independence. Yes it is exploited severely and the Baloch constitute a nation wither we like it or not. Why Pakistan had the right to get separated state and make the Muslims in India a minority?!