{{Short description|Indian Marxist philosopher (1941–2022)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Use Indian English|date=July 2025}} {{sources|date=March 2022}} 310 px|thumb|Ahmad delivering a lecture in 2013 '''Aijaz Ahmad''' ({{Circa|1941}} – 9 March 2022) was an Indian-born Marxist philosopher, literary theorist, and political commentator. He was the Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Humanities’ Department of Comparative Literature.<ref>{{cite press release |title= Aijaz Ahmad joins UC Irvine's Department of Comparative Literature |url=http://www.humanities.uci.edu/SOH/about/press_release_det.php?id=347|website= humanities.uci.edu| publisher= School of Humanities at University of California, Irvine| date= 20 April 2016 |accessdate= 10 March 2022}}</ref>

==Biography== Aijaz Ahmad was born in Muzaffarnagar, British Raj in 1941.<ref name=":1" />

==Academic and journalism career== He was a professorial fellow at the Centre of Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, India, visiting professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and visiting professor of political science at York University, Toronto, Canada. He also worked as an editorial consultant with the ''Frontline'' and as a senior news analyst for the news website ''NewsClick''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=ഡെന്നിസ് |first=സുബിന്‍ |title=എജാസ് അഹമ്മദിനെ വായിക്കേണ്ടതുണ്ട്; ഇന്നിന്റെ ലോകത്തെ മനസ്സിലാക്കാനും ദിശ മാറ്റിത്തീർക്കാനും |url=https://www.mathrubhumi.com/literature/features/subin-dennis-writes-about-marxian-critic-aijaz-ahmad-1.7330900 |access-date=2022-03-10 |website=Mathrubhumi.com|date=10 March 2022 | trans-title= Ajaz needs to read Ahmed; To understand and change the direction of today's world |language= Malayalam}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=10 March 2022 |title=Renowned Marxist philosopher Aijaz Ahmad passes away |website=Mathrubhumi.com| publisher= |url=https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/renowned-marxist-philosopher-aijaz-ahmad-passes-away-1.7330768 |access-date=10 March 2022}}</ref>

==Work== In his book ''In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures'', Ahmad primarily discusses the role of theory and theorists in the movement against colonialism and imperialism.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-03-10 |title=The Life of a Great Marxist: Aijaz Ahmad (1941-2022) |url=https://www.newsclick.in/life-great-marxist-aijaz-ahmad-1941-2022 |work=NewsClick.com| publisher= |language=en |access-date=2022-03-10}}</ref>

==Personal life== Ahmad died in Irvine, California, on 9 March 2022, at age 81. He was hospitalised for age-related ailments and had returned home only a few days prior to his death.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Patnaik |first=Prabhat |date=2022-03-10 |title=A true Marxist intellectual, Aijaz Ahmed's scholarship encompassed several disciplines |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-true-marxist-intellectual-aijaz-ahmeds-scholarship-encompassed-several-disciplines/article65211007.ece |access-date=2022-03-10 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=2022-03-10 |title=Aijaz Ahmad, a great intellectual and philosopher of our times is no more: Tarigami |url=http://www.knskashmir.com/aijaz-ahmad--a-great-intellectual-and-philosopher-of-our-times-is-no-more--tarigami-123318 | publisher= |language=en-GB |work= knskashmir.com| access-date=2022-03-10 }}</ref> Rutgers University law professor Adil Ahmad Haque is his son.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |title=Saumya Manohar, Adil Haque |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/fashion/weddings/saumya-manohar-adil-haque.html |access-date=4 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=31 July 2016}}</ref>

==Bibliography== # ''In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures''] - Verso, 1992.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahmad |first=Aijaz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vr89RWtWDjoC |title=In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures |date=1994 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-0-86091-677-2 |language=en}}</ref> # ''A World To Win: Essays on the Communist Manifesto'' - with Irfan Habib and Prabhat Patnaik, LeftWord Books, 1999. #''Lineages of the Present: Ideological and Political Genealogies of Contemporary South Asia'' - Verso, 2001.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahmad |first=Aijaz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r3rAQDUm898C&dq=Lineages+of+the+Present:+Ideological+and+Political+Genealogies+of+Contemporary+South+Asia&pg=PA42 |title=Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia |date=2000 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-85984-765-7 |language=en}}</ref> #''On Communalism and Globalization: Offensives of the Far Right'' - Three Essays Collective, New Delhi, 2002.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ahmad |first=Aijaz |title=On Communalism and Globalization Offensives Of The Far Right |url=http://www.threeessays.com/books/on-communalism-and-globalization/ |website=www.threeessays.com}}</ref> #''Iraq, Afghanistan and the Imperialism of Our Time'' - LeftWord Books, New Delhi, 2004. #''In Our Time: Empire, Politics, Culture'' - Verso, 2007

'''Edited''' # ''Ghazals of Ghalib'' - ed. by Aijaz Ahmad. Oxford India, 1995. (With translations from the Urdu by Aijaz Ahmed, W.S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich, William Stafford, David Ray, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Mark Strand, and William Hunt) #''A Singular Voice: Collected Writings of Michael Sprinker'' - Editor (with Fred Pfeil and Modhumita Roy), 2000.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://cpim.org/wp-content/uploads/old/marxist/201101-postmodernism-Aijaz.pdf On Post Modernism], ''The Marxist'' XXVII, January–March 2011. *[http://www.unipune.ac.in/snc/cssh/HistorySociology/A%20DOCUMENTS%20ON%20HISTORY%20OF%20SOCIOLOGY%20IN%20INDIA/A%207%20Documents%20on%20Department%20of%20Sociology%20_%20University%20of%20Pune/A%207%2007.pdf Nationalism and Globalization], Occasional Paper Series 4, Department of Sociology, University of Pune, 2000. * [https://www.sundarayya.org/sites/default/files/papers/aijaz%20final.pdf Communalisms: Changing Forms and Fortunes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618141131/http://sundarayya.org/sites/default/files/papers/aijaz%20final.pdf |date=18 June 2016 }} * [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aristide_Fongang/post/Social_Science_Research_in_Postmodern_Times/attachment/59d6406279197b807799c9d4/AS:430855907745792@1479735461057/download/Aijaz+Ahmad.pdf Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the "National Allegory"], ''Social Text'', 1987 (On Fredric Jameson's article "Third-world Literature in the Era of Multinational Capital", 1986) * Video. Aijaz Ahmad interviewed by Tariq Ali for ''The World Today''. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQ8N041DfQ Part 1] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B1tVeavuio Part 2].

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmad, Aijaz}} Category:1941 births Category:2022 deaths Category:Indian communists Category:Pakistani communists Category:20th-century Pakistani historians Category:Literary theorists Category:Indian Marxist writers Category:Pakistani Marxists Category:Marxist theorists Category:Urdu-language writers Category:Urdu-language Indian writers Category:Pakistani expatriates in India Category:Muhajir people Category:Pakistani expatriates in Canada Category:Pakistani emigrants to the United States Category:People from Muzaffarnagar Category:21st-century Pakistani historians Category:Indian critics