Obituary: Javeed Alam – A Remarkable Activist-Intellectual

I knew Javeed Alam for over forty years. We were introduced to each other  through our professional membership of the Political Science fraternity in India as well as our mutual interest in Marxism. I remember the first time we had a long conversation: it was in 1975 over an article I had just published in the Social Scientist on the national question in India. It was more a debate than a conversation because Javeed, armed with a heavily underlined copy of my article, literally tore into it, forcing me to respond to each one of his charges. As far as I remember, the gist of his complaint was that I had been far too influenced by Stalin’s definition of nationalities, and had arrived at a mechanical and reductionist view of the national question in India. Needless to say, I vehemently denied this at the time and strongly defended my position. But looking back, I now think Javeed may have had a point. I also realise that that encounter marked the beginning of our friendship.