Hamza Alavi

Hamza Alvi (10 April 1921 – 1 December 2003) was a Pakistani Marxist academic sociologist and activist.

Education and career Hamza Alavi graduated with a master of arts degree in economics from Aligarh Muslim University in British India.

He believed that a “salary-dependent class of Muslim government servants, called the ‘salariat’ led the movement of an independent state for Muslims in the subcontinent as they saw a decrease in their share of jobs in pre-partition India, which finally resulted in the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Hamza Alavi also believed that the Khilafat movement of the 1920s encouraged and strengthened the consciousness of Muslim identity, old Two-nation theory of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and later the Pakistan movement, which caused the emerging assertiveness of Muslims in British India. His research papers explain his opinion as to how the transition from feudalism to colonial capitalism took place in South Asia.

Death Hamza Alavi died on 1 December 2003 at age 82. Jagirdari Aur Samraaj and Pakistan, Fiction House, Lahore, Pakistan (in Urdu language) Takhleeq-e-Pakistan, Fiction House, Lahore, Pakistan (in Urdu language) Pakistan Ek Riasat ka Bohraan, Fiction House Lahore, Pakistan (in Urdu language) Alavi, Hamza (1965) Peasant and Revolution, Alavi, H. (1982). Capitalism and colonial production. London: Croom Helm. Alvi, H., & Harriss, J. (1989). South Asia. New York: Monthly Review Press. Alvi, H., & Harriss, J. (1989). Sociology of 'developing societies': South Asia. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education. Halliday, Fred & Alavi, Hamza (1988) State and Ideology in the Middle East and Pakistan, Monthly Review Press