The Dream of a Dark Citation

Abstract Major Ishaque Muhammad (1921–1982), a revolutionary theorist, playwright, and militant activist, was one of the founders of Pakistan's Maoist party, the Mazdoor Kissan (Workers and Peasants) Party. This essay looks at his various political and literary writings, which have received little scholarly attention, as well as periodicals from political parties that counted him as a member, in order to identify ideas of Marxist and anti-colonial internationalism. It pays particular attention to the aesthetic form of dark citation, a comparative and collective citational practice aimed at linking Third World proletarian struggles against capitalism and colonialism, which animates Muhammad's writings during the 1960s and 1970s.