Enemies within and enemies without: The besieged self in Pakistani textbooks (original) (raw)
Related papers
Rubina Saigol, ‘Enemies Within and Enemies Without: Representation of the Other in Textbooks'. In Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures. Edited by Imtiaz Ahmad. Elsevier. November , 2005
India and Pakistan tell rival tales of the partition of 1947, and Pakistan and Bangladesh narrate the events of 1971 within divergent perspectives. In official remembering, there is denial and repression of the stories that do not fit into the fabric woven by the Self in opposition to a hostile Other. What is often forgotten, with a will to never remember, is that the Other was once the Self, and the Self will always be partly an Other. Estrangement from the Other is also estrangement from the deeply hidden or denied parts of the Self. It is left to folklore, legend and popular memory to hold on to and recall the lost Self, to remember what official history chooses to forget with a vengeance. Published: ‘Enemies Within and Enemies Without: Representation of the Other in Textbooks'. In Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning and Futures. Edited by Imtiaz Ahmad. Elsevier. November 2005.
National Identity and the History Curriculum Nation Making in the Shadow of Partition
Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems., 2020
This chapter explores the ways India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh use their shared history to construct a national identity and promote social cohesion within their respective countries. The history curriculum in each country has undergone revisions with a change in government in support of specific political ideologies. The relationship of religion to national identity remains fluid but central in each case. With some exceptions, the nation in each country context is discursively constituted as seamlessly similar internally by invoking specific identity markers. This draws boundaries against the external “other” but also excludes internal “others” who become “illegitimate” citizens. The implications of the history curriculum on social cohesion and cross-border relations are discussed.
Reimagining and reproducing the partitions (of 1947 and 1971) in textbooks in Pakistan: a comparative analysis of the Zia and Musharraf regimes, 2022
This study attempts at analyzing the process of reimagining and reproducing the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 and Pakistan in 1971 in the textbooks at school level during the dictatorial regimes of Zia and Musharraf. What has appealed me to draw temporal, spatial, and thematic limitations for this research? To begin with, the dictatorial regimes, are believed to, have deeply relied on manipulating the Textbook Boards to further their agendas. Moreover, both the dictators are deemed to be opposing ideologues-e.g., Zia-a fanatic ruler-radicalized the textbooks while Musharraf-a champion of "Enlightened Moderation"-tried to deradicalize the curriculum. Additionally, partitions present two different scenarios for a fascinating comparison-e.g., in 1947, Pakistan was an emergent state while in 1971, a parent state. The content analysis of the textbooks reveals that both the regimes adopted Hegel's "philosophical" approach of treating history-selecting the personalities, events, or periods of their choice while excluding or discarding the other-to reinforce the national narrative. It further suggests that the state-sponsored curriculum fosters religious nationalism, rather than secular nationalism, which, subsequently, nurtures majoritarian nationalism and bolsters the process of othering the minority groups in the country.
Curriculum and national identity: exploring the links between religion and nation in Pakistan
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2010
This paper investigates the relationship between schooling and conflict in Pakistan using an identity‐construction lens. Drawing on data from curriculum documents, student responses to classroom activities, and single‐sex student focus groups, it explores how students in four state primary schools in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan, use curricula and school experiences to make sense of themselves as Pakistani. The findings suggest that the complex nexus of education, religion, and national identity tends to construct ‘essentialist’ collective identities—a single identity as a naturalized defining feature of the collective self. To promote national unity across the diverse ethnic groups comprising Pakistan, the national curriculum uses religion (Islam) as the key boundary between the Muslim Pakistani ‘self’ and the antagonist non‐Muslim ‘other’. Ironically, this emphasis creates social polarization and the normalization of militaristic and violent identities, with serious implications for social cohesion, tolerance for internal and external diversity, and gender relations.
This paper presents an exploration of the way Pakistani national identity is represented in the education policy, curriculum and textbooks, revealing that religion, Islam, is used as the chief marker that forms the boundary between Pakistanis and the ‘other’. Imagining Pakistani nation through Islam helps forge unity among diverse ethnic and linguistic groups comprising Pakistan. At the same time this singular national identity serves as an instrument of denial of diversity and internal difference. Furthermore, the overwhelming association of Islamic with Pakistani identity creates tensions and contradictions between the religious and national identity of Pakistanis. The paper starts with a review of current education policy, the grade V curriculum documents and textbooks and then turns to focus on the impact of the curriculum on students’ perceptions of their national identity. The curriculum analysis is organised around two key themes: Religion, Islam, as a key identifier of Pakistani identity and the tensions and contradictions between Muslim nationhood and Pakistani nationhood. The empirical study reported here explores how curriculum texts construct Pakistani identity and the ways in which students understood and described themselves as Pakistani.The data was collected over a period of five months in which four primary state schools in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), two girls’ and two boys’ schools, one each in a rural and an urban setting, were studied intensively. Within each primary school, class V students’ views were captured through single sex focus groups. The research illustrates the ideological power of the curriculum and school experiences in constructing identities, creating belonging and imagining the nation.
Construction of Nationalism amid war narratives in Pakistan's history textbooks
The present study was designed to bring into view the militarized presentation of war narratives inculcated in our Punjab and Oxford history textbooks. The research intended to unfold the underlying jingoistic and war glorified dogmas within texts that has been imparted to Pakistani students. Content analysis of Pakistan studies textbooks of Oxford and Punjab textbook boards has been done from 6 th to 10 th grade. Students from four different educational institutions, both government and private schools, have been made part of this study to scrutinize their perspective pertinent to war dogma with the help of a close ended questionnaire. The study has unearthed the patterns of chauvinistic writings by twisting or aggrandizing historical narratives of wars or dictators' regime in Punjab textbooks. The glorification of war was rampant in Punjab textbooks of Pakistan studies in comparison to the slightly neutral and pluralistic historical representation of war events in Oxford textbooks. However, Students of both textbook boards have reflected the bellicose jingoistic thoughts and perspectives, but the ratio was higher among Punjab textbook boards' readers. Wars are portrayed as indispensable for survival amid rivals in Punjab history textbooks, which has profound impact on the young mind of students as their prime source of knowledge is textbooks.
National Identity Formation in Pakistan
Journal of Citizenship and Globalisation Studies
Soon after its declaration as an Islamic Republic in 1956, Islamists have experienced numerous ups and downs in Pakistan. Islamists not only try to maintain the status quo of the Islamic state but also endeavour to expand the scope of sharia. Despite insignificant achievements in elections, Islamists have mostly been able to dictate civilian and military governments in matters of national identity. One of the greatest challenges for the promotion of pluralism is the Islamists’ anti-secular narrative, which holds significant backing from both the civil and the military elites. The goal of this paper is to analyse such narrative with reference to Pakistan’s continuous struggle for national identity. ‘The analyses propose that anti-secular voices are occupying centre stage in Pakistan, leaving little room for diverse opinions. Anti-secular groups use violence as a tool to silence any opposition against their ideology for Pakistan, which is evident by regular attacks on not only the rel...