He is the author of many books, includingPakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970),Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1983),Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002),Bush in Babylon (2003),Conversations withEdward Said (2005),Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006),The Duel (2008),The Obama Syndrome (2010),[4] andThe Extreme Centre: A Warning (2015).[5]
Ali's father and mother werecousins. His father served briefly as aCaptain in theBritish Indian Army, because Tahira's father had made service as an army officer a precondition of marriage to her.[11] Tariq's mother later said: "Mazhar left for the Middle East onmilitary service. I was very pregnant by then. We didn't see each other for two years. Our son Tariq was born while Mazhar was away. By the time he returned, I had joined theCommunist Party. I had given away my entiretrousseau, including the family jewels, to the Party."[10]
Ali first became politically active in his teens, taking part in opposition to themilitary dictatorship of Pakistan. An uncle who worked in the Pakistani military intelligence[8] warned his parents that Ali could not be protected.[6] His parents therefore decided to get him out of Pakistan and sent him to England, where he studiedPhilosophy, Politics, and Economics atExeter College, Oxford.[6][12] At Oxford, he became a member of the Oxford UniversityHumanist Group, where he discovered "that debates and discussions here were far more stimulating than those conducted within the careerist confines of the Labour Club".[13] He was elected President of theOxford Union in 1965. In 1967 Ali was one of 64 prominent figures, includingthe Beatles, who signed a petition calling for thelegalisation of marijuana.[14] Ali's tenure at the Union included a meeting withMalcolm X in December 1964 during which Malcolm X expressed deep consternation about his own risk of assassination.[15]
In 1967, Ali was inCamiri,Bolivia, not far from whereChe Guevara was captured, to observe the trial ofRégis Debray. Ali was accused of being aCuban revolutionary by authorities. Ali then said: "If you torture me the whole night and I can speak Spanish in the morning I'll be grateful to you for the rest of my life."[18]
In November 2020, a British public inquiry into the work of undercover police officers was provided with evidence that Ali had been spied upon by at least 14 undercover police officers over a period of decades. The surveillance began in 1965 when he became president of theOxford Union, and continued until at least 2003, when Ali was on the national committee of theStop the War Coalition trying to prevent the invasion of Iraq. Ali said: "It is incredible to think that after 35 years, in 2003, under the Tony Blair Labour government, that Special Branch were still engaging in the same anti-democratic activity as they had been at the outset."[33]
Tariq Ali'sThe Leopard and the Fox, first written as aBBC screenplay in 1985, is about the last days ofZulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Never previously produced because of a censorship controversy, it was finally premiered in New York in October 2007, the day before former Pakistani Prime MinisterBenazir Bhutto returned to her home country after eight years in exile.[34]
His next screenplay wasA Banker for All Seasons (2007), about the rise and fall of theBank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). He completed his trilogy of screenplays withThe Assassination: Who Killed Indira G? (2008).
In 2009, Ali co-wrote withMark Weisbrot the screenplay to theOliver Stone documentarySouth of the Border.[35] This gave a favourable account of Hugo Chávez and other left-wing Latin American leaders. Interviewed in the documentary, Ali explained the role that Bolivian water privatisation and the2000 Cochabamba protests played in eventually bringingEvo Morales to power.
Ali lives inCamden, north London, with his partner Susan Watkins, editor of theNew Left Review. He has three children. He grew up in a secular family that was moreculturally Muslim than religious, and describes himself as anatheist.[7][36] He published his memoirs in two volumes:Street Fighting Years (1987, later reissued in 2005), andYou Can't Please All (2024).[37]
The New Revolutionaries: A Handbook of the International Radical Left (editor), New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1969. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-79860
^Ali, Tariq (2004) [2003]. "Postscript: Blood Meridian: Year One of the Occupation".Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq. London:Verso. pp. 199–247.ISBN1844675122.
^Roy, Shourin (19 July 2007)."The Leopard and the Fox: Our new season begins".Alter Ego Blog. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved20 August 2007.The Leopard and the Fox was published in book form in 2006.
^Ali, Tariq (13 February 2006)."This is the real outrage".The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited.Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved21 October 2020.I am an atheist and do not know the meaning of the "religious pain" that is felt by believers of every case when what they believe in is insulted.
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