Change through social politics

Philosophers have only interpreted the world; the point is to change it. This was the challenge thrown up by philosopher Hegel. The gauntlet has been picked up by many, beginning with Marx down to latter day revolutionaries and present-day revolutionaries named after flowers of their choosing. There is growing exasperation in Pakistan also, at what some view as yet another failure of the political class to lead and direct change. Experiments like a technocratic set-up, the so-called Bangladesh model (of the military backing a new dispensation led by technocrats and a process of mostly-selective accountability) and even a direct military takeover, have been launched by the usual suspects. However, ordinary people know that attempts to change the status quo, such as these, usually end up changing nothing and all it means for them is the proverbial more of the same. Of course, this is not to say the people do not yearn for change.

In this moment of ferment, a well-known intellectual of Lahore, Mahmood Mirza, has come out with the idea of social change through social politics. In a recent book of the same title launched at the Punjab University under the aegis of the newly established think tank, the National Institute of Social Development, Mirza Sahib makes the interesting point that the pursuit of neo-liberal economic policies in Pakistan is bound to fail because the country has a huge backlog of social backwardness. The reference here is to the undiminished stranglehold of landlords, tribal chiefs, politicians with ill-famed wealth and an unashamedly colonial civil-military bureaucracy over social and economic life. For wholesome social development, this mismatch must be overcome through cultural leapfrogging. Failing this, our regression will continue and the technological gap with the developed world will widen further, aggravating our misery.

The status quo, according to Mirza sahib, will keep bleeding the common man unless social change replaces the ruling vested interests by cleaner representatives of the people committed to socio-economic reform to boost production and tax revenue. Only such leadership can address the issues of poverty, employment, education, health and nutrition. Non-democratic change is ruled out. But how will the existing system of choosing representatives dominated by money, influence and heredity, produce agents of change? Many who want to do good, stay away from the dirty world of politics and have been trying to make a difference in their own small way. Mirza Sahib thinks all such efforts are laudable but the entire effort is unlikely to bring social change. Participation in the political process is inescapable.


While laying the burden of change on the middle class, Mirza Sahib comes out with the concept of social-politicians who start their career by social service in their own area and involve the local population in organised voluntary work of community development. This educative process will equip them to participate in a democratic change for social change. In time, a new crop of social-politicians will be raised from the middle class. The process will also bring about a change in the behaviour and culture of the society, which itself is an important factor for socio-economic development in a low-technology society.

During the transition, the process should be guided by a group of social thinkers and, subsequently, the state has to ensure a stable social order through merit-based functionaries. Thus will be set the stage for rapid development, which will make resources available for moving from a national security state to a welfare state.

The formula for conscious change is summed up thus: Social development equals economic development plus social change.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2011.