Tariq Ali
Birth:1944
Death:
Writer and film-maker.
In 1967, 25,000 students marched on the American Embassy in London in a violent outburst against Vietnam War and at their head was Tariq Ali, blessed with film-star good looks, who urged the masses on to revolution. He earned a national reputation through debates with political heavyweights like Henry Kissinger. He believed that a more systematic political approach was required to further his revolutionary aims.
Tariq Ali now devotes himself to writing books, newspaper articles and polemical commentary on social and political matters. Still a radical, he has remained at the forefront of anti-war campaigns - conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia have all led him to speak out. He still remains a dissenter. He is an editor of New Left Review.
Tariq Ali has written over a dozen books on world history and politics, five novels and scripts for both stage and screen. Amongst his books, The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernism (2002), Revolution From Above: Where is the Soviet Union Going? (1988), Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties (1987), The Nehru and the Gandhi (1985), Can Pakistan Survive? (1982), Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970) et al.
Tariq Ali is also a noted broadcaster, reassessing the developing world on London's Channel 4's Bandung File.
Tariq Ali was born in Lahore, now Pakistan, then forming part of British-ruled India. He came to Britain and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics in Oxford. He became President of the Oxford Union in 1965.
Compiled by:M. Nauman Khan