Negotiating Revolution
When we think of revolutions, most people visualise the cataclysmic
events of the 1789 French revolution, the barbarism of which has been sanitized
as “Liberte Egalite Fraternite” - Liberty Equality and Brotherhood. The French
Reign of Terror inspired Russia’s 1918 Red Terror, which sought to eliminate
political dissent, opposition, and any other threat to Bolshevik power.
These revolutions, with the reprisals and counter revolutionary
actions that followed, came to seen as a threat to progress. Market Democracy
was proposed as an alternative to people power, but quickly morphed into a Market
Economy, building up wealth in the hands of a few.
George Lawson disagrees that revolutions should be consigned
to history. Instead, he proposes the idea of a negotiated revolution. Instead
of “a fight to the finish, comes a process in which the old regime and
revolutionaries together negotiate the destruction of the old order and the birth
of a new nation.”
China, whose Great Leap Forward of 1958, and the 1966
Cultural Revolution, whose Red Guards had to be reined in from creating
complete civil disorder, settled upon a negotiated revolution with Revolutionary
Committees made up of Rebels, PLA and old cadres, to return the economy to
stability.
The best example of a negotiated revolution in modern
history is that of South Africa. After decades of apartheid, a peaceful
transition was achieved, with no bloodshed, and reprisals were avoided by Truth
and Reconciliation Committees.
Despite the spontaneous violence that marred the partition
of India, it was in essence a negotiated revolution. The end of Britain’s
largest colonial enterprise, and the creation of two nations, was achieved at
the discussion table.
Further back in history, a remarkable negotiated revolution
was established by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Sulah hudaibiya, a contract of
peace between the believers of Medina and the non-believers of Makah, was a preamble
to the general amnesty offered to all who had plotted against Islam, as the
Prophet rode into Makkah on his favorite camel Al-Kaswa in 630 AD. He referred
to the Prophet Yusuf who forgave his brothers, saying “Go, you are free”.
Forgiveness is an important part of conflict resolution. Janna
Ezat forgave the terrorist who killed her son in an attack on a mosque in New
Zealand, as did Farid Ahmed who lost his wife, along with 49 other worshippers.
He said “I don’t want to have a heart that is boiling like a volcano. It burns
itself within, and also it burns the surroundings.” Phuc, one of the children photographed
running down a street in Vietnam after being bombed with Napalm by the United
States, later forgave the man who planned the attack in which many of her
friends and family were killed.
Forgiveness frees a person from the control of the person
who caused harm. It also frees the individual from the emotional damage of
nurturing anger and negative thoughts.
Negotiated revolutions have a place in peace time as well. A
business leader negotiates with resistant colleagues to reorganize business
systems. 19th C artists chose to depict life as it was, rather than
the idealized world of classical art, persisting until the critics finally
accepted the new art. This was also true of later art movements such as the
Dada Movement, Abstraction and digital art. Artist, Shazia Sikander, developed a
new style of miniature painting, despite the misgivings of her classically trained
teacher, Bashir Ahmed. Today it has become the norm.
In 1903 Henry Ford was advised “The horse is here to stay
but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad.” In 1946 an executive of 20th
Century Fox, predicted television would not last more than six months.
People resist change for a number of reasons, not all of
which are malicious. The majority fear changing what is familiar or fear they
may not have skills for the new system. Some feel, pessimistically, that
nothing can improve. The proof of change lies with the test of time.
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
May 6, 2023
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