Born in Karachi in 1921, Prof. Alvi is one of the biggest academic names in the west who have also written so extensively on Writing from a marxist perspective, he has focused his scholarship on the social, political and historical developments in the region. Besides doing his eminent research projects, Prof. Alvi has also been in the faculty of internationally distinguished institutions like the University of California, Michigan State University, University of Denver, University of Leeds, University of Manchester and the Sussex University. 

The basic theme of his lecture was to provide salient trade features of post-colonial states of the subcontinent, where he referred to developments taking place in the region through centuries old past. 

Prof. Alvi, while elaborating on the changes that took place after colonial advent in the sub-continent, mentioned several examples of economic displacements due to establishment of East India Company. He pointed out that regional expertise of subcontinent were somewhat subsided owing to the British trade mechanisms.

Quoting as an example, Prof. Hamza Alvi described the historical characteristics of a well-defined textile industry in the subcontinent. South Asia, he said, had been famous because of its fine quality thread woven, especially by local women, in different areas of the subcontinent. Because of this fine quality thread, the regional textile industry was prosperous and there was an effective distribution system for the local peasants. However, with the advent of Vasco De Gamma, new avenues opened up for western traders to develop markets in South Asia. Trade with the subcontinent was very much encouraged by the west during the sixteenth century. Tition, a famous artiste of renaissance, has depicted this trade aspect in some of his paintings. The textile industry of subcontinent had made its impressions on the visitors from the west who highly appreciated the skills of the local weavers. 

He maintained that the setting up of East India Company played a major role in exporting large quantity of goods from India to Britain, especially cloth. The Indian cloth was widely popular in Britain, and its demand was ever increasing. To fulfil the needs of the west, East India Company extracted large quantities of local thread from the local markets. The local producers kept up pace with the exporters by optimising their productivity. Export of thread and other products earned the local a lot of wealth and even better reputation. This paved way for development of urban centres in India in the late 18th century. East India Company dominated the land later on, ending the age of prosperity in British India. 

Comparing the developments in the west with those of the subcontinent, he said the circumstances in the Britain were different to those in India. The textile industry grew rapidly in Manchester around 1756. With the industrial revolution, the industrialists started gaining strength and soon dominated the politics in Britain. Indian textile industry, on the other hand, had been perished away by that time, at least from the international market. Somehow, the Indian industry managed to survive due to the sustained high quality thread made by local women. Meanwhile, in the Britain, import custom duty was raised and utilitarian theory took on free trade. 

Early in the 19th century, Prof. Alvi said, a new elite class emerged in Britain, historically defined as the middle class. This class, mainly consisting of traders supported role of private sector and capitalism. 

Mentioning the revival of economy in the subcontinent, he said that during 19th century, the thread used in the British textile industry was mostly imported from South America. In the meantime, civil war erupted in South America. This effected the supply of thread to the British textile industry. To meet the demands of their own people, the British turned once again towards the subcontinent in search of thread and other raw materials. To develop infrastructure, the colonial government introduced new irrigation systems in Punjab and railway lines were laid for transportation of goods. These features gave rise to a new colonial economy in the subcontinent. These distinctive features improved the economic condition of the local merchants and were beneficial to the local market of British India. The revival of economy initiated a new shape of the economic system in subcontinent, much similar to that of western capitalism. 

Commenting on a less developed infrastructure in Pakistan, he said that historically the weavers and landowners in the Pakistani region of Punjab did not make use of the economic incentives offered by the colonial government. The concept of advancement was yet to be discovered among the rich who used to practise and preach interest politics. These factors caused inertia towards development of this region.

Discussing the present economic condition of the two neighbouring countries of the subcontinent, Prof. Alvi maintained that India has a well-sustained industry and professional training is available there in various technological fields. Nowadays India is one of the leading countries of the world in terms of professionalism and their economy is self-sufficient. Pakistan on the other hand is facing a hard time in terms of both economy and trade, owing to lack of direction and absence of alternative model.

Commenting on a question by a participant about economic world order, the speaker highlighted the role of World Bank and IMF as pressure groups. He quoted an example describing how these institutions pressurised the efforts of states in Malaysia and Hong Kong as they decided to go their own way. 

Wrapping up the session, Prof. Hamza Alvi recommended availability of education as a remedy and especially stressed upon the need of technological education to develop human resources, so as to fight out the new challenges in the way of development. 

One day earlier, Prof. Alvi had also presented a socio-political case study of power structures in a Punjabi village and its projections upon our polity, in the Society for the Advancement of Higher Education (SAHE), . 

A. A.