The following is an excerpt from the book The Challenge of Enlightenment, Conflict Transformation and Peace in Pakistan. The author is a professor of International Relations and former Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Karachi.
When the 18th-century Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant stated that “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity” it reflected how the ‘age of reasoning’ was not only shaping Europe’s thought process but was trying to emancipate people from centuries of orthodox and ultra-conservative way of life. When the movement of enlightenment questioned dogmatism, conservatism, inwardness, irrationality and superstition prevailing in pre-renaissance Europe, the process of exploration, discoveries, scientific innovation and reasoning was unleashed.
The age of enlightenment in Europe which began during the 18th century unleashed the process of innovation, discovery, moderation, reasoning, critical thinking, individualism and modernisation. Coinciding with back-to-back events like renaissance, geographical discoveries and industrial revolution, enlightenment emerged as a motivating force for those who believed in the scientific evolution of a thought process adhering to freedom of expression, rationality and reasoning. Thus, enlightenment means a societal way of life in which scientific reasoning shapes the culture of critical thinking, doubt, innovation and exploration leading to positive transformation of armed conflicts and unleashing the process of peace.
As a post-colonial state with the bulk of population still illiterate, socially backward and under-developed, the real challenge for Pakistan is how to unleash the process of enlightenment in order to seek the positive transformation of conflicts by pursuing scientific reasoning, innovation, critical thinking, moderation and modernisation in thought, approach and way of life. Since peace is the end, one can aspire for such an ideal by creating consciousness among people about pursuing tolerance, reasoning and open mindedness so that conflicts, which are a source of physical and material destruction, are positively transformed through a process of dialogue and negotiations.
The process of enlightenment will require transformation of mindset and approach of those segments of Pakistani society who consider openness in thinking as a major threat to their interests. It is the ultra-conservative segment of society which is utterly opposed to enlightenment as it will empower people to make a distinction between reason and ignorance.
Societal conflicts in Pakistan, which include lingual, ethnic, sectarian, class, economic and communal discords, cannot be positively transformed unless there is shift in the thought process from conservative and dogmatic to liberal, moderate and enlightened. Enlightenment, positive transformation of conflicts and peace are no doubt challenging for a country like Pakistan which is vulnerable to religious extremism, intolerance and violence.
By equating modernisation with westernisation, the conservative segments of society closed the doors of holding an intellectual discourse on keeping pace with change while adhering to the main pillars of religion. By closing the option of Ijtihad, they in fact oppose any initiative which aims to rationalise religion on scientific basis. Educational institutions of Pakistan, which could have created a critical mass adhering to the cause of social change and justice failed to play a leadership role in society.
Reasoning and rationality, which are cardinal teachings in the Holy Quran were neglected by majority of Muslim clergy culminating into their failure to deal with challenges which occurred in the post-decolonisation era. Pakistan, as the second largest Muslim country in terms of population could have played a leadership role in innovation, science, technology and development but because of its internal issues failed to seize that opportunity.
While Pakistani culture failed to reform and meet challenges of modernisation, the process of renaissance in our society which could have promoted science, reasoning, art, culture and literature failed to take off. Enlightenment reflects change in culture of any society particularly when people shun orthodox and ultra-conservative way of life.
Linking culture and enlightenment with conflict transformation and peace in the context of Pakistan is an uphill task because of three main reasons. First, it is the culture of any society which matters in determining how enlightened and tolerant people are. When a culture transforms from backward and inward to progressive and moderate it rejects orthodoxy, ultra-conservatism and social retrogression. Truly, there exists contradiction in Pakistani and European/Western culture, yet reasoning, rationality, innovation and scientific exploration which formed the core of European enlightenment can motivate the process of social change.
Pakistan needs qualitative change in its culture and its transformation from feudal, conservative and intolerant to rational, moderate and enlightened is the need of the hour. There is no contradiction between science and religion because the former tries to seek reason and rationality on issues which cause conflicts in society and the latter attempts to provide a moral support to people in order to provide them a sense of direction in finding out the true, just and correct path in resolving conflicts. Martin Luther King Jr., an icon in America’s civil rights movement, rightly stated about science and religion by arguing that: “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals.”
The essence of this book revolves around the premise that a scientific and an enlightened approach to deal with conflicts could go a long way in establishing peace and religion can be a source of guidance and motivation in this regard. Second, the religion of Islam was termed as the most ‘enlightened’ religion because it called for racial, economic and societal equality and guaranteed basic rights to women in an era which was repressive and uncivilised in nature. As a result, following enlightened and progressive path of Islam, Muslims emerged as a world power and established their influence over the three continents of the world: Asia, Africa and Europe. When the clergy in Christianity was attacked during 16th century by reformers called as Protestants led by a German philosopher Martin Luther, clergy in the Islamic world was deviating from the path of science and reasoning.
As a result, the age of ‘reasoning’ in Europe gave an impetus to the process of exploration, discoveries and the culture of scientific research which was diminishing in Muslim empires to the extent that majority of Muslim territories came under the colonial control of European Christian empires.
The knowledge gap between the Christian European/Western powers and Muslims widened particularly in education, research, science and technology. It is the reality of asymmetrical power structure between the West and the Muslim countries, including Pakistan, which compelled me to venture on this study. Five hundred years of process of reasoning, scientific innovations and inventions in the West with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus led to their power tutelage, a fact which remains undeniable even today.