How plants cope with the cold light of day - and why it matters for future crops

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHN INNES CENTRE

 

IMAGE: RESEARCH LED BY THE JOHN INNES CENTRE HAS DISCOVERED A COLD “COPING” MECHANISM THAT IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE PLANT BIOLOGICAL CLOCK view more 

CREDIT: DR DORA CANO-RAMIREZ.

On bright chilly mornings you can either snuggle down under the duvet or leap up and seize the day.  

However, for photosynthesising plants, this kind of dawn spells danger, so they have evolved their own way of making cold mornings tolerable.  

Research led by the John Innes Centre has discovered a cold “coping” mechanism that is under the control of the plant biological clock and could offer solutions to breeding more resilience into crops less suited to cold climates. 

“We’ve identified a new process that helps plants tolerate cold. It’s controlled by the biological clock of plants, and we think it could be especially important on cold, bright mornings,” says Professor Antony Dodd, a group leader at the John Innes Centre. 

“Crops such as winter wheat and winter oilseed rape experience cold temperatures for periods of their cultivation,” he continues. “We think that the mechanism that we have discovered could provide greater resilience of photosynthesis to cold temperatures. It represents an interesting target for future precision breeding of climate resilient crops.” 

Cold temperatures can damage plant cells, particularly when combined with too much light or during freezing temperatures. Hence why those bright cold mornings are so dangerous to plants. 

The researchers wanted to know how information about low temperatures is communicated to the chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis inside a plant cell, essential for all our major crops. 

Chloroplasts contain their own small genome that reflects their evolutionary past as photosynthetic bacteria, before they were engulfed and co-opted by plants to carry out photosynthesis. Throughout evolution many genes from the chloroplast transferred to the plant nuclear genome, but chloroplasts have held on to some essential genes. 

In this research the team focussed on one such bacterial genetic legacy called a sigma factor (SIG5). In bacteria, comparable sigma factors contribute to responses to temperature. 

In experiments conducted under controlled laboratory conditions they manipulated the light conditions, and subjected plants to periods of chilling. 

Removing plants from the day night cycle enables researchers to better study the free-running rhythms of the plant biological or circadian clock. In plants, as in humans, the clock is aligned to the 24-hour cycle, offering a measure of time inside cells, and regulating a range of essential biological processes. 

The experiments showed sensitivity of the SIG5 gene to cold treatment early in the morning, under the control of the circadian clock.  

The team theorise that SIG5 operates as part of a signalling network that links the plant nucleus to the chloroplasts, regulating activities that can protect the plant against harmful environmental effects. 

“If the temperature is cold then some enzymes involved in photosynthesis break down quickly.” explains Professor Dodd. “So, we think the process that is controlled by the nucleus signals into the chloroplast to make more of these proteins. When the plant sees cold and light at the same time, they need to switch on this signalling process from nucleus to chloroplasts to make more of these photosynthesis proteins.” 

The role of the biological clock is to act like a gate that either lets the signal through or not, a process known as circadian gating. 

“Plants could have evolved to be particularly responsive to it being light and cold, like a spring morning, because these are the conditions that damage the photosynthetic system. At some point during evolution, they have selected for this sensitivity and co-opted this ancient mechanism. Like many such processes in plants, this one turns out to be under the control of the circadian clock.” 

The mechanism has been shown to work in the lab. The next stage of this research is to understand the impact of this process in the field. One intriguing application is to see if the mechanism can be modified to further increase cold tolerance, for example to grow plants that are less tolerant of cold, such as maize, at more northern latitudes.  

The research is a collaboration between the John Innes Centre, the University of Bristol, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in Japan, and Durham University.  

Low-temperature and circadian signals are integrated by the sigma factor SIG5, appears in Nature Plants.  

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JOURNAL

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-023-01377-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Low-temperature and circadian signals are integrated by the sigma factor SIG5

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Mar-2023

How plants adapt to nitrogen deficiency

Researchers at the University of Bonn discover gene variants in wheat and barley that improve nitrogen utilization

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BONN

 

IMAGE: WHEAT VARIETIES WITH A SPECIFIC NPF2.12 GENE VARIANT (RIGHT) HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER ROOT GROWTH AT LOW NITROGEN LEVELS IN THE SOIL THAN VARIETIES WITHOUT THIS GENE VARIANT (LEFT). view more 

CREDIT: © MD. NUREALAM SIDDIQUI

"We studied a large number of wheat and barley genotypes under different nitrogen supply conditions and analyzed their root architecture and nitrogen accumulation in the plants," says lead author Md. Nurealam Sidiqqui of the Plant Breeding group at the University of Bonn's Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES). The researchers studied a total of more than 220 different wheat and barley varieties from the last half century of plant breeding. "The wheat varieties studied were selected to cover the breeding history over the last 60 years," explains Prof. Dr. Jens Léon of INRES Plant Breeding.

At the University of Bonn's agricultural research campus Klein-Altendorf, the researchers studied these different varieties on trial plots with high nitrogen levels and, for comparison, on plots with low nitrogen application. The team then analyzed, among other aspects root traits characteristics and the nitrogen content of leaves and grains of each variety, and performed genome-wide genetic analyses to find correlations between DNA sequences and the corresponding traits, Prof. Léon further explains.

More roots take up more nitrogen from the soil

During the evaluation, the researchers came across NPF2.12. Certain variants of this gene caused plants to develop larger root systems when soil nitrogen supply was poor. "It is likely that the gene, or rather the protein it encodes, acts as a sensor that needs to be switched off when nitrogen levels in the soil are low in order to indirectly increase the messenger nitric oxide as part of a signaling cascade, which in turn induces root growth, thereby improving nitrogen utilization," says Dr. Agim Ballvora from the INRES Plant Breeding, who is the paper’s corresponding author.

"Under low nitrogen conditions and in the presence of certain variants of the NPF2.12 gene, increased nitrogen content in leaves and grains is detectable compared to high nitrogen availability," says Ballvora, who also collaborates with the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn. Consequently, under adverse conditions these varieties give higher yield than those containing the alternative allele, emphasizes Siddiqui.

Variants of the NPF2.12 nitrate sensor help with nitrogen utilization

The researchers could demonstrate both in the laboratory and in the greenhouse that NPF2.12 is indeed responsible for this improved performance. Wheat plants with a defect in the NPF2.12 gene were analyzed. When nitrogen supply was poor, the corresponding lines having the defect npf2.12 allele behaved like cultivars that inherently have the helpful gene variant. "These results show that NPF2.12 is a negative regulator, whose reduced expression in corresponding cultivars results in more root growth and higher nitrogen content in the shoot through a sophisticated mechanism," explains Prof. Dr. Gabriel Schaaf, member of the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence from INRES Plant Nutrition.

The study falls within the scope of basic research, but also opens important possibilities for plant breeding. "Improved understanding of the genetic and molecular function of nitrogen sensing will accelerate the breeding of varieties with improved nitrogen use efficiency," Ballvora says, looking to the future. However, this would require a better understanding of the individual steps in the signal cascade of the NPF2.12 sensor that result in stronger root growth under nitrogen deficiency.

Participating institutions:

The Plant Breeding and Plant Nutrition groups at the Institute of Crop Sciences and Resource Conservation (INRES) and the research campus Klein-Altendorf of the University of Bonn were involved in the study, as were the Institute of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics of Plants and the Cluster of Excellence Plant Sciences CEPLAS at the University of Düsseldorf.

If nitrogen levels in the soil are low, wheat varieties with a favorable NPF2.12 gene variant (left) initiate an important signaling cascade: Nitric oxide (NO), an important second messenger, stimulates root growth. This increases the supply of nitrogen and the plant thrives better overall. Without this preferred NPF2.12 gene variant, the plants (right) remain small and stunted under these conditions.

CREDIT

© Md. Nurealam Siddiqui

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JOURNAL

New Phytologist

DOI

10.1111/nph.18820 

ARTICLE TITLE

Convergently selected NPF2.12 coordinates root growth and nitrogen use efficiency in wheat and barley

Global breakthrough: Plants emit sounds!

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CACTUS PLANT WITH MICROPHONES view more 

CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

• The sounds emitted by plants are ultrasonic, beyond the hearing range of the human ear.

• Plant sounds are informative: mostly emitted when the plant is under stress, they contain information about its condition.

• The researchers mainly recorded tomato and tobacco plants; wheat, corn, cactus, and henbit were also recorded.

• The researchers: "Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place. It's just that we can't hear the sounds!"

 

Global breakthrough: for the first time in the world, researchers at Tel Aviv University recorded and analyzed sounds distinctly emitted by plants. The click-like sounds, similar to the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of the human ear. The researchers: "We found that plants usually emit sounds when they are under stress, and that each plant and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound. While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects."

Link to the research video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOWaXi0I2YE

The study was led by Prof. Lilach Hadany from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, together with Prof. Yossi Yovel, Head of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and faculty member at the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and research students Itzhak Khait and Ohad Lewin-Epstein, in collaboration with researchers from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Mathematical Sciences, the Institute for Cereal Crops Research, and the Sagol School of Neuroscience – all at Tel Aviv University. The paper was published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell.

  

Prof. Lilach Hadany

Prof. Hadany: "From previous studies we know that vibrometers attached to plants record vibrations. But do these vibrations also become airborne soundwaves - namely sounds that can be recorded from a distance? Our study addressed this question, which researchers have been debating for many years."

At the first stage of the study the researchers placed plants in an acoustic box in a quiet, isolated basement with no background noise. Ultrasonic microphones recording sounds at frequencies of 20-250 kilohertz (the maximum frequency detected by a human adult is about 16 kilohertz) were set up at a distance of about 10cm from each plant. The study focused mainly on tomato and tobacco plants, but wheat, corn, cactus and henbit were also recorded.

Prof. Hadany: "Before placing the plants in the acoustic box we subjected them to various treatments: some plants had not been watered for five days, in some the stem had been cut, and some were untouched. Our intention was to test whether the plants emit sounds, and whether these sounds are affected in any way by the plant's condition. Our recordings indicated that the plants in our experiment emitted sounds at frequencies of 40-80 kilohertz. Unstressed plants emitted less than one sound per hour, on average, while the stressed plants – both dehydrated and injured – emitted dozens of sounds every hour."

Eavesdropping on a cut plant

The recordings collected in this way were analyzed by specially developed machine learning (AI) algorithms. The algorithms learned how to distinguish between different plants and different types of sounds, and were ultimately able to identify the plant and determine the type and level of stress from the recordings. Moreover, the algorithms identified and classified plant sounds even when the plants were placed in a greenhouse with a great deal of background noise. In the greenhouse the researchers monitored plants subjected to a process of dehydration over time and found that the quantity of sounds they emitted increased up to a certain peak, and then diminished.

Prof. Hadany: "In this study we resolved a very old scientific controversy: we proved that plants do emit sounds! Our findings suggest that the world around us is full of plant sounds, and that these sounds contain information – for example about water scarcity or injury. We assume that in nature the sounds emitted by plants are detected by creatures nearby, such as bats, rodents, various insects, and possibly also other plants - that can hear the high frequencies and derive relevant information. We believe that humans can also utilize this information, given the right tools - such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering. Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place. It's just that we can't hear the sounds!"

In future studies the researchers will continue to explore a range of intriguing questions: What is the mechanism behind plant sounds? How do moths detect and react to sounds emitted by plants? Do other plants also hear these sounds? And more…

Link to the article:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009

 

Left to right: Prof. Yossi Yovel & Prof. Lilach Hadany

THE NOT NAMED

The research team

Tel Aviv University

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JOURNAL

Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.cell.2023.03.009 

Plastic transistor amplifies biochemical sensing signal

New technology paves way for sensitive bioelectronic diagnostics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SINGLE STRANDS OF ENGINEERED DNA, CALLED APTAMERS, BIND TO A TARGET AND THEN FOLD TO TRIGGER AN ELECTROCHEMICAL SIGNAL. view more 

CREDIT: JONATHAN RIVNAY/NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

• Molecules in our body send faint biochemical signals when health issues arise
• New technology boosts these signals by 1,000 times
• New approach paves way for sensing signals in real-time in the body without sending blood or saliva samples to a lab

EVANSTON, Ill. — The molecules in our bodies are in constant communication. Some of these molecules provide a biochemical fingerprint that could indicate how a wound is healing, whether or not a cancer treatment is working or that a virus has invaded the body. If we could sense these signals in real time with high sensitivity, then we might be able to recognize health problems faster and even monitor disease as it progresses.

Now Northwestern University researchers have developed a new technology that makes it easier to eavesdrop on our body’s inner conversations.

While the body’s chemical signals are incredibly faint — making them difficult to detect and analyze — the researchers have developed a new method that boosts signals by more than 1,000 times. Transistors, the building block of electronics, can boost weak signals to provide an amplified output. The new approach makes signals easier to detect without complex and bulky electronics.

By enabling amplification of weak biochemical signals, the new approach brings modern medicine one step closer to real-time, on-site diagnostics and disease monitoring.

The research was published Saturday (March 24) in the journal Nature Communications.

“If we could reliably measure biochemical signals in the body, we could incorporate those sensors into wearable technologies or implants that have a small footprint, less burden and don’t require expensive electronics,” said Northwestern’s Jonathan Rivnay, the study’s senior author. “But extracting high-quality signals has remained a challenge. With limited power and space inside the body, you need to find ways to amplify those signals.”

Rivnay is a professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. Xudong Ji, a post-doctoral researcher in Rivnay’s laboratory, is the paper’s first author.

While they communicate vital information packed with potential to guide diagnoses and treatment, many chemical sensors produce weak signals. In fact, health care professionals often cannot decipher these signals without removing a sample (blood, sweat, saliva) and running it through high-tech laboratory equipment. Usually, this equipment is expensive and perhaps even located off-site. And results can take an excruciatingly long time to return.

Rivnay’s team, however, aims to sense and amplify these hidden signals without ever leaving the body.

Other researchers have explored electrochemical sensors for biosensing using aptamers, which are single strands of DNA engineered to bind to specific targets. After successfully binding to a target of interest, aptamers act like an electronic switch, folding into a new structure that triggers an electrochemical signal. But with aptamers alone, the signals are often weak and highly susceptible to noise and distortion if not tested under ideal and well-controlled conditions.

To bypass this issue, Rivnay’s team equipped an amplifying component onto a traditional electrode-based sensor and developed an electrochemical transistor-based sensor with new architecture that can sense and amplify the weak biochemical signal. In this new device, the electrode is used to sense a signal, but the nearby transistor is dedicated to amplifying the signal. The researchers also incorporated a built-in, thin-film reference electrode to make the amplified signals more stable and reliable.

“We combine the power of the transistor for local amplification with the referencing you get from well-established electrochemical methods,” Ji said. “It’s the best of both worlds because we’re able to stably measure the aptamer binding and amplify it on site.”

To validate the new technology, Rivnay’s team turned to a common cytokine, a type of signaling protein, that regulates immune response and is implicated in tissue repair and regeneration. By measuring the concentration of certain cytokines near a wound, researchers can assess how quickly a wound is healing, if there is a new infection or whether or not other medical interventions are required.

In a series of experiments, Rivnay and his team were able to amplify the cytokines’ signal by three-to-four orders of magnitude compared with traditional electrode-based aptamer sensing methods. Although the technology performed well in experiments to sense cytokine signaling, Rivnay says it should be able to amplify signals from any molecule or chemical, including antibodies, hormones or drugs, where the detection scheme uses electrochemical reporters.

“This approach is broadly applicable and doesn’t have a specific use case,” Rivnay said. “The big vision is to implement our concept into implantable biosensors or wearable devices that can both sense a problem and then respond it.”

The study, “Organic electrochemical transistors as on-site signal amplifier for electrochemical aptamer-based sensing,” was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (grant number D20AC00002).

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-37402-2 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Mar-2023

Disclaimer: AAAS and E

US arms left behind in Afghanistan fall into TTP hands

Our Correspondent Published March 31, 2023

WASHINGTON: Mili­tants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan have obtained US weapons left behind in Afgha­nistan, a US-backed broad­casting service claimed in its latest report on the situation.

Observers say the influx of US weapons has boosted the military capabilities of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatist groups, according to the report released by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

This influx of weapons has caused “a surge in violence (in Pakistan) over the past two years,” it added.

When the United States pulled out its forces from Afghanistan in 2021, it left behind around $7 billion worth of military equipment and weapons, including firearms, communications gear, and even armoured vehicles.

The Afghan Taliban seized the arms during the chaotic US withdrawal.

The radio reported that since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, some of the American military gear and weapons had turned up in Pakistan, where they were used by armed groups fighting the Pakistani government.

Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based researcher who tracks the TTP, said the outlawed group’s access to sophisticated combat weapons has had a “terrifying” impact, especially on the lesser-equipped police force, in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2023

Democracy in Pakistan: 

Of the elite, for the elite, by the elite

Civilians and the military have taken turns to rule Pakistan, but the system, arguably, has remained the same, ‘unscathed’ by democracy.



Touqir Hussain 

Published March 29, 2023 

One of the most perplexing debates around is on the subject of democracy, where it is easy to confuse concept with practice, form with substance and illusion with reality.

There is another problem. Countries at varying stages of democratic evolution are all called a democracy, which adds to the confusion, as we, in our mind, expect all these models to be equally responsive in meeting the needs of society. That makes us tolerate and endure a system that is not quite democratic and may never become so.

In Pakistan, democracy remains both illusive and elusive. What we have is something that looks like democracy, but does not work like one. Democracy is a dynamic, not static, process but Pakistan’s “democracy” is stuck.

If any “good” has come out of the current crisis, it is hopefully the realisation that the conventional wisdom that Pakistan’s problems are due to a lack of civilian supremacy, or because the “democratic system” has faced repeated interruptions by the military rule, or that elected governments have not been allowed to complete their full term may not be quite true.

Has the current crisis — and the way politicians’ brazen preoccupation with the struggle for power is ripping the country apart while it burns — left any doubt that the “democracy” we have has been part of the problem, not the solution? In fact, it is this very “democracy” that has provided legitimacy to bad governance, produced weak governments opposed to reforms for fear of losing elections, and has kept recycling. Above all, it has lacked substance.
Form and substance

True democracy has both form and substance. The form manifests itself in electoral democracy, sustained by a process of free and fair elections, and peaceful and orderly change of governments. But the form must embody good governance to empower people, and it can do so only by resting on free and representative institutions, constitutional liberalism or any other value-based system, strong rule of law, and a just and equitable social order. That is the substance. Without substance, democracy remains hollow. It has no soul.

The intelligentsia in Pakistan, especially the liberal/secularist segment, is most passionate about the Western liberal model focusing on freedom of choice, free speech, civil liberties, independent judiciary, and of course elections.

Much of this class lives emotionally disconnected from the rest of the population and their harsh challenges of survival and means to cope with them. It feels that all you need is elections, free media, independent judiciary, and the Constitution.

Voila! You have democracy — and it will take care of the nation’s problems, including those of the poor.

Democracy and progress

The secular/liberal class as a whole, and Western-oriented sections of it in particular, are right in seeing a causal connection between democracy and progress in advanced industrialised countries. They are, therefore, justified in emulating a similar democratic political system and having high expectations from it.

Where they are at fault is that they do not grasp the full picture. Most of them forget that democracy, which ostensibly brought progress in the West, was more than a political system. It was also a society’s organising idea, whose substance was equality of opportunity, fairness, rule of law, accountability, safeguarding of basic human rights and freedoms, gender equality and protection of minorities.

In sum, democracy’s core idea was humanism. And the whole objective of giving people the right to choose who will govern them on their behalf was to ensure the implementation of this very ideal.

Otherwise, what is the purpose of self governance? Given the chance to self govern, would people like to bring themselves to grief with their own policies? Certainly this was not the intent.

Unless a nation shows this fundamental understanding of democracy and takes steps to put itself on the road to democracy, it will never get there. It will keep moving in circles or going backwards.

The poor cannot ‘feed’ on democracy

For much of the liberal class in Pakistan, especially its more affluent stratum, the form is the substance. It looks at democracy as simply black and white — there can be no gradation.

The fact is that Pakistan is, and is not, democratic.

Pakistan’s “democracy” is advanced enough to satisfy the liberals’ love of liberty and enjoyment of certain human freedoms, but regressed enough to be exploited by the elite for their purposes at the expense of the people.

In her book, ‘Thieves of State’, Sarah Chayes focuses on corruption in Afghanistan. Sarah, who spent a decade in Kandahar, concludes that the concerns of most people did not have much to do with democracy. Pakistan is, of course, no Afghanistan but the book has a message that applies here as well.

Democracy is no doubt the best form of government but go and ask the masses in societies that are grappling with serious state and nation-building challenges what is most important in their lives. What is important for them, they will tell you, is social and economic justice, human security and dignity and the hope for a better future. And they will like any government that provides this kind of life.

A USAID official once asked me what the people of Pakistan want. Development or democracy? Prompt came my reply — if democracy brings development, they want democracy; if it does not, they want development.

Basically, you need a democracy that satisfies the human aspirations for freedom as well as improves the quality of life for citizens at large.

Freedoms are meaningless if they do not provide for the whole society’s welfare and progress.

Pakistan’s ‘democracy’ a political tool for power

In Pakistan’s case, “democracy” is just a political tool for the dominant social groups to maintain their wealth and status. The other instrument is military rule.

But the beneficiaries are roughly the same in both models — the whole panoply of power comprising the top tier of politicians, bureaucrats, the military and judiciary, “business folk and the landed”, who among them monopolise the country’s economic resources.

The civil and military leaderships may compete for power, but eventually cooperate to maintain the status quo. Both use each other — the military using the failure of the politicians as a pretext to come to power or to dominate it, and politicians using the alibi of military interruption or dominance for their own failure. They are allies as well as rivals.

In Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson trace the evolution of political and economic institutions around the globe and argue that nations are not destined to succeed or fail due to geography or culture, but because of the emergence of extractive or inclusive institutions within them.

They write:

“Extractive political institutions concentrate power in the hands of a narrow elite and place few constraints on the exercise of this power. Economic institutions are then often structured by this elite to extract resources from the rest of the society. Extractive economic institutions thus naturally accompany extractive political institutions. In fact, they must inherently depend on extractive political institutions for their survival … political institutions enable elites controlling political power to choose economic institutions with few constraints of opposing forces. They also enable the elites to structure future political institutions and their evolution.”

In light of their thesis, we can see how powerful groups or institutions have long dominated Pakistan’s body politic by taking advantage of its security issues, place of religion in its national makeup and its feudal social structure. The political system that emerges from this body politic is designed to empower only the powerful and privileged and does little to foster the rule of law.

Musical chairs

Civilians and the military have taken turns to rule Pakistan, but the system, arguably, has remained the same, ‘unscathed’ by democracy. There was no fear of accountability, and no obstacle to electability. They did not need the people, so they did very little for them. And neither of them faced the full wrath of the public as each deflected the blame on to the other.

When the cost of maintaining a “democracy” led by civilians would become unbearable, we would tolerate the army’s intervention to help us get rid of them. But instead of returning to the barracks, the military would stay on. Then we’d long for democracy, which would let us down yet again. The fact is that no institution is solely responsible for democracy’s misfortunes in Pakistan. They all provided opportunity to each other to come to power and supported the system.

In the civilian edition that now comprises the ruling coalition, politicians may be divided into political parties but are united by the elites. Henceforth, whichever party comes to power when the ongoing bloody struggle for power is over, it will likely be no different from others in being invested in the system. It may disrupt the system, but will not threaten it.

Liberty and order

Even if Pakistan had a fully functional Western liberal democracy, it was not going to solve the country’s fundamental challenges. The fact is the Western liberal democratic model has become too competitive. In their book, ‘Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century’, Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels challenge the view that the liberal democratic model is intrinsic to good governance. Examining this in relation to widely varying political and cultural contexts, especially the Chinese system, the authors advocate a mix of order and liberty.

When asked once on the Charlie Rose Show what he thought of Western democracy, Lee Kuan Yew — the inaugural prime minister of Singapore — replied that the system had become so competitive and combative that in order to come to power, the opposition spent all its time planning to undermine the incumbent government by misrepresenting or distorting issues and thus misleading the public. “It would be a sad day when this kind of democracy comes to Singapore,” he said.

In his classic, The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria states that Singapore follows its own brand of liberal constitutionalism, where there are limits on political freedoms — and it happens to be one of the most self-content countries in the world.

It boggles one’s mind that we in Pakistan tolerate the civil-military led political and governance structure, which is rigged in favour of the elite, while using the full freedom of a democratic system to play the game of politics at people’s expense. We put up with it as if this behaviour is an acceptable price to be a “democracy”, which incidentally does not quite happen to be a democracy. Indeed, there are institutions that one finds in a democratic system, but they lack autonomy and integrity. They have failed in the moral strength to serve the people, but not in the capacity to sustain the system.

You can see how millions of good Pakistanis are glued to TV or their phones every day following the comings and goings of politicians as if they were going to solve the country’s problems. We forget that their fights are about themselves, among themselves.

Democratisation is a revolutionary struggle

You cannot change what you do not know. The creation of a true democracy is a revolutionary struggle. And it must begin with the realisation that the “democracy” we have will not solve our problems regardless of who is in power. We cannot also bank on this “democracy” to become democracy by itself.

Countries change not because they have become democratic. They become democratic because they have changed. In many ways, democratisation is a painstaking struggle, indistinguishable from state and nation-building. Progressive movements and the civil rights campaign in America, political and social movements in Europe and the Meiji Restoration in Japan are a few such instances.

How will this change occur in Pakistan?

That is the subject of a much wider and complex debate. Briefly, one can say the following: Pakistan has enormous strengths — remarkable resilience, faith-based optimism, a sense of exceptionalism, a vibrant media and a promising civil society.

There is enormous talent available within the country — academics, journalists, authors (many of them internationally acclaimed), political activists, retired public servants — both civil and military — who all have shown extraordinary knowledge and commitment to Pakistan. They can inspire and mobilise the young generation yearning for true change that could provide stimulus and critical mass for social movements.

I am not advocating for military rule or a technocratic government. Let the current political process for all its flaws continue. It cannot or should not be overthrown but can be undermined over time.

That will be the purpose of social movements — to remove the obstacles to a genuine democracy in Pakistan. These include a misplaced focus on faith that has fostered extremism and hindered openness and tolerance, and a feudal dominance that has inhibited education, gender equality, openness to modern ideas and a credible political process.

Not to mention the military’s pre-eminence that has led to the dominance of security over development. The latter has skewed national priorities and resource allocation. All this is hardly a life-supporting environment for democracy.

Can Pakistan truly become democratic? Yes, it can. Whether it will remains to be seen.

The writer, a former Ambassador, is adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore

HISTORY: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PROGRESSIVE WRITERS’ MOVEMENT

One of the most significant literary movements to emerge from India — the All-India Progressive Writers’ Movement (AIPWM) — had its roots in the political revolution that formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1917 and its consolidation.

Misha Zafar Published March 26, 2023

Authors of Angaarey, Rashid Jahan (second from right)

 and Mahmud-uz-Zafar (extreme left)

Though AIPWM has left behind a rich literary legacy that aimed to bring to the surface various sufferings of people in India, it became controversial soon after its creation. Accused of ‘using the plight of a common man to push a Marxist agenda backed by the Soviet Union’, it was eventually dismantled.

Under the banner of socialist realism — an ideological catalyst in the early 20th century — the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union merged all its existing literary organisations to create the Writers’ Union of USSR. As it gained complete agency over Soviet literature, the Writers’ Union came to play a vital role in sustaining communist doctrine by influencing fiction and distributing it to the masses.

Soviet fiction became popular in other parts of the world. A few years after the Writers’ Union had been established, the socialist intellectuals of India, who at that time had been scattered throughout the country, joined together to organise the first All-India Progressive Writers’ Conference in Lucknow. The meeting was led by renowned Urdu writer Sajjad Zaheer and the presidential address was delivered by none other than Jawaharlal Nehru.

One of the most influential literary movements of the Subcontinent was inspired by Marxist ideology emanating from the Soviet Union. The partition of the Subcontinent and the movement’s close alignment with political ideology led to its undoing as well

A LITERARY MOVEMENT IS BORN

Lucknow in the 1930s was a roaring hub of zestful voices and endless discourse.

Four years prior to the conference, a collection of nine short stories and one play, titled Angaarey, was published in Urdu, authored by four young writers: Rashid Jahan, Ahmed Ali, Mahmud-uz-Zafar and Sajjad Zaheer. The book was considered so controversial that it was banned months after its publication and the authors faced a trial in Lucknow for hurting communal sentiments.

As copies of Angaarey were burnt in a public display of hostility towards emerging liberalism in literature, Ahmed Ali would call Angaarey a “declaration of war by the youth.”

In 1936, the same year when the first All-India Progressive Writers’ Conference took place, the Communist Party of India formed its farmers’ wing and, at the annual session of the Indian National Congress, the Communist Party of India united with the Congress Socialist Party to challenge the right wing’s longstanding authority. A cultural and political shift was inevitable, and it would come to life by introducing a new ideology to the masses through a literary movement.

The manifesto of the All-India Progressive Writers’ Association (AIPWA), formed as a result of the conference, called for the ‘spirit of progress’ by introducing scientific realism, to ‘rescue literature from the conservative classes’ and for the literature produced to focus more on the basic problems of existence — such as hunger and poverty.

Sajjad Zaheer, who had co-authored the manifesto for the conference a year earlier in London, was elected as the Secretary General of AIPWA. Although at this point in his career he was recognised primarily for his literary works, he would have to take on a political role and begin organising linguistic associations on a provincial scale.

The cover of Angaarey, a collection of short stories written and compiled by some of the future Progressive Writers, caused literary upheaval in the Subcontinent



ENTER PREMCHAND

Among the sea of notable writers in the Subcontinent during the early 20th century was one prolific genius called Premchand. Premchand wrote about the common man and his struggles. He pioneered the exploration of social hierarchies and caste systems in India through fiction. He wrote about the hardships of women and highlighted their noble femininity. There was sensitivity woven deeply in his works, which made Premchand a venerated author in both Urdu and Hindi literature, with over a dozen novels and two hundred short stories under his belt.

Premchand was elected as the President of AIPWA, which gave the movement the credibility it needed to establish itself as a ‘legitimate’ literary one. Sajjad Zaheer was a known communist and it was in the interest of the movement to appoint an apolitical figure in a leading position. Zaheer’s political stance was far more detectable for the public than Premchand’s subtle and nuanced takes that evolved with his writing throughout his career.

In his presidential speech at the first conference, Premchand outlined the objectives of the movement by stating that its purpose was to create an atmosphere in India that would help progressive literature flourish. The members of the movement wanted to promote a creative literary life that encompassed reading papers, holding discussions and thorough criticism. He was confident that AIPWA would become a mode through which a literary renaissance in India would take place.

One of the primary objectives of the movement was to promote purposeful art and literature, something that was inspired by the Writers’ Union of the USSR. Premchand emphasised how there was a need to renounce religious revivalism and create works that would devote all of man’s energy to “economic and political freedom.”

Premchand’s senior post in the association was a tactful decision, primarily because it was used to deflect allegations about the associations’ pro-communist agenda, aimed at Sajjad Zaheer. The emergence of the left was uplifting the common people culturally as well as politically. They were being systematically disillusioned towards a system that had long been working against them. With broken promises of reforms and fair wages, they were awakening to class consciousness, which only further helped the work of AIPWA prosper.

PARTITION AND DIVISION

After the partition of the Subcontinent in 1947, Pakistan and India inherited institutions and political ideologies that had existed under British rule. Sajjad Zaheer was sent to Pakistan by the Communist Party of India to revive the momentum of Marxist literature, after many Hindu and Sikh writers moved out of the newly formed state. He set up the All-Pakistan Progressive Writers Association (APPWA) and also founded the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) in 1948 and became its first Secretary General.

But anti-communist sentiments carried from British India had infiltrated Pakistani politics; APPWA had to earn the public’s trust and gain credibility through its work once again.

Prominent figures during this time, such as Saadat Hasan Manto, were writing about conflicted views towards the Partition, which resonated deeply with the masses. Krishan Chander wrote Hum Wehshi Hain [We Are Barbarians] about the mass murders of 1947. The association wanted to produce literature that used the Partition to catalyse a communist revolution, but notable figures of the movement, such as Krishan Chander and Saadat Hasan Manto, were writing about what it meant to be a human during a traumatic period in history, witnessing agonising bloodshed and dealing with the loss of an identity.

Furthermore, Pakistan’s first long-term plan for economic development relied heavily on the private sector. It was inevitable that the country would lean towards capitalism and, subsequently, APPWA was accused of anti-nationalism by reactionary writers who criticised the organisation’s Marxist agenda.

Sajjad Zaheer, the leading force behind the Progressive Writers’ Association

PAKISTAN AND THE MOVEMENT

During the first few years of Pakistan, all factions of the state were looking to form a unified social identity in order to artificially manufacture homogeneity. The progressive writers wanted to adhere to a rigid framework that was distinctly Marxist, but liberals and nationalists wanted to explore and interpret humanism, state and morality under their own terms. Much like the case with the Writers’ Union of the USSR, progressive writers were having trouble producing original work that had unique dynamics and explored their individual style.

The first meeting of APPWA was held at the YMCA Hall in Lahore, in 1949. To show their support, the Soviet Union had sent four delegates to the conference, all four of whom had received the Stalin Prize for Literary Excellence.

The halls of the conference were adorned with life-sized pictures of Russian authors Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Mayakovsky. The writers attending the meeting drafted a new manifesto based on contemporary Urdu literary trends in Pakistan and assessed that writers and poets could no longer remain politically neutral. They had to be more dogmatic in their works and assertive in propelling the movement forward.

Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din had established a publishing house in 1947 called Progressive Papers Limited and Faiz Ahmed Faiz had become the first editor of its weekly magazine, called The Pakistan Times. The Pakistan Times became a medium through which young intellectuals of Pakistan were influenced by the work of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. The magazine’s affiliation with notable figures such as Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, who had established themselves as prolific Urdu writers at this point, added to the appeal of the movement.

The up-and-coming generation of writers were bringing a youthful, arguably politically naive, perspective to the socio-cultural domain of Urdu literature. They romanticised a socialist future and juxtaposed it with present-day conditions of poverty and class struggles in Pakistan, defined by a Marxist lens.

DISSOLUTION OF THE CPP

The split of the All-India Progressive Writers’ Association after Partition significantly abated the fierce trajectory of the movement.

Progressives in India were facing anti-Urdu discrimination and experiencing difficulty in having their work published, whereas the progressives in Pakistan were facing political challenges that halted their growth and reach. Every act of rebellion from APPWA was met with vicious retaliation by the government. Additionally, CPP was now under constant surveillance of the Government of Pakistan, which considered it critical to contain communist ideology from seeping into the rest of the nation.

From its inception, the government of Pakistan had remained wary of the CPP’s agenda. With a plethora of problems arising during the infancy of Pakistan, a political party destabilising the country from within was the last thing the country needed.

Regardless, the members of the CPP and Marxist intellectuals of the Progressive Writers’ Movement remained driven in their mission to spread the principles of socialism by finely lacing them in the literature produced for the public.

It was the over-ambitious nature of the CPP and its plan to swiftly bring about a communist revolution that became the reason for its downfall. In 1951, the CPP reached the peak of its controversy when its members Sajjad Zaheer and Faiz Ahmad Faiz were caught colluding with Maj Gen Akbar Khan in his scheme to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan through a military coup. The plotters were arrested and the CPP banned.

DEATH OF APPWA

In 1951, APPWA was declared a political party right around the time when the CPP was outlawed. Over the next seven years, the association faced extreme difficulty in redressing its position.

In 1958, the heart of APPWA, Progressive Papers Limited, was accused of colluding with foreign communist states and Gen Ayub Khan used these allegations as an opportunity to dismantle the hub of the Progressive Writers Movement by forcibly auctioning off the assets of the company for Rs. 4.6 million. The Progressive Writers’ Movement officially died in 1958 and its members swiftly scattered throughout Pakistan to seek other employment positions.

THE LEGACY

The goal of the Writers’ Union of the USSR, which had subsequently inspired the Progressive Writers’ Movement, was to create purposeful art and literature. It was meant to uplift the working class by understanding them and their struggles on an individual level. The writers were supposed to possess a close understanding of the adversity the working class faced.

However, it was the class difference between many of the notable progressives and the people they were writing about that created dissonance between the two. At some point, the Marxist literature that was written for the masses became leisure reading for the elites.

In 1919, Vladimir Lenin had written a letter to Maxim Gorky, an author he greatly admired, and criticised him on his growing distance from the people he was writing about. Lenin wrote: “If you want to observe, you must observe from below, where it is possible to survey the work of building a new life in a worker’s settlement in the provinces or in the countryside. There one does not have to make a political summing up of extremely complex data, there one needs to observe.”

The letter would have been perhaps equally relevant for the progressives of the Subcontinent.

Despite its weaknesses and its failure to sustain itself, the Progressive Writers’ Movement bequeathed a rich literary legacy to contemporary readers and writers in Pakistan, seeking to inspire works of fiction similar to Angaarey and other writings that came into being during this era. And in spite of everything, it did develop a collective consciousness to resist oppression that sustains in many writers and readers to this day.

The writer is an academic and historical social researcher

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 26th, 2023