Arabic · noun · Nation, Faith & Society

Isti'mar

इस्तिमार

said is-ti-MAAR

also written: istimar, colonialism, imperialism, isti'maar

Meaning

Colonialism / imperialism; the subjugation and exploitation of peoples. Iqbal saw it as Europe's predatory enterprise, the worldly arm of a godless, money-driven order.

See it in the verse

Isti'mar in Iqbal’s couplets

Ho agar khudnigar-o-khudgar-o-khudgir khudi
Ye bhi mumkin hai ki tu maut se bhi mar na sake

If your selfhood becomes self-seeing, self-making and self-possessed, it is even possible that not even death can make you die.

Selfhood · Self-Knowledge

Related words

URDU

Imperialism

Imperialism, colonial domination (Arabic isti'mar). Iqbal indicted European empire as the political face of soulless materialism — plunder dressed as civilizing mission.

PERSIAN

Farang

The land of the Franks — Europe and the West; in Iqbal the emblem of dazzling but soulless modern civilisation and material power.

PERSIAN

Sarmayadari

Capitalism; rule of capital. Iqbal denounced it as a system in which a few hoard wealth wrung from the labour and blood of the many, and called the worker to rise against it.

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