Laṭxāna (1950–1954), an Intellectual Commune in Quetta (Baluchistan)

Abstract

This paper retraces the history, activities, and contribution of an intellectual commune active in Quetta, Pakistan between 1950 and 1954: the ‘Laṭxāna commune’. Laṭxāna (Psht. ‘House of idleness’) is the name of a place in which Baluch, Pashtun, Urdu-speaking and Sindhi intellectuals settled in 1950. Laṭxāna’s intellectuals were in close contact with the Communist Party of Pakistan and its cultural branch, the Progressive Writers’ Association, and attempted to spread socialist or communist thought in Baluchistan. Following an agenda outlined by communist and progressive writers, they set out to develop literature in the languages of Baluchistan, launching a Baluchi literary association and a Pashto-language journal and publishing the first collections of modern Baluchi poetry. Laṭxāna’s members also promoted their outlook through journalism, and edited journals, such as Xāwar, Nawā-e waṭan and Ciltan. In 1954, the Laṭxāna intellectuals—who had so far been simple representatives of the Communists or Progressives in Baluchistan—started their own political movement. They created a political party and published a manifesto, which called for a socialist Baluchistan free from the influence of landowners and feudal leaders. Alongside ideological disagreements, the arrest of some of the commune’s prominent members finally led to the closure of Laṭxāna, but the group nevertheless had a long-lasting influence on Baluchistan’s political and intellectual landscape. In this paper, I shall discuss the commune’s literary, journalistic, and political contributions, notably through the accounts of its founding fathers, Mir Abdullah Jamaldini and Sain Kamal Khan Sherani.