I am now in my last few days of a working holiday in Oxford and a friend suggested that I write my reflections on returning and working in Pakistan for a year before I come back so that I can closely reflect on how it looks and feels like from abroad. As expected, this is not an easy or happy task, but perhaps, some of my points will make some academics in Pakistan contemplate a bit more about what they are doing and how they are doing it.
I began this sojourn by attending the European Association of South Asian Studies annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal. For four days, this conference which is in its 22nd year gathered several hundred academics from Europe and elsewhere to talk about research on South Asia. This was my first experience of the conference and I was overwhelmed by the range and depth of research discussed on South Asia, nor did I know how well studied the subject was in the European continent! What was also obvious was that the vast majority of scholars were working on India. While the domination of India in South Asia is obvious, Pakistan did not even fare well comparative to its size, population and historical importance. Talking to a few scholars made it obvious that the complications in getting the necessary permissions at Pakistani archives was at times harder than in the case of India and the general insecurity of the country further deterred scholars from working there.
What was also clear, though never blatantly said, that the non-academic environment of Pakistani universities puts off a lot of scholars from academic visits and research collaborations. First, the grave lack of facilities for the social sciences and humanities still prevents the flowering of scholars in Pakistan. How can a person write a decent book on, say history, when there is no decent library in Pakistan where he/she can conduct secondary reading? From my own personal experience, I can say that I had to simply wait to come back to Oxford in the summer to be able to read the relevant secondary material and rewrite bits of the introduction for my forthcoming book. This work was simply not possible in Pakistan. This factor is reflected in the scholarship — if one can use that word — emanating from Pakistan. From my experience as editor at Oxford University Press, I can say that the general quality of manuscripts I received, even the PhD theses, was very low. A vast majority of them could not even articulate any new argument or how to properly analyse a primary source. A great number of them were simply rehashes of a few secondary and a handful of primary sources. Rejecting these manuscripts, especially since Oxford University Press tries very hard to promote scholarship in Pakistan, was a very hard task, but a majority of them were simply irredeemable. As far as I can judge, the unavailability of research facilities and the acceptability of marginally acceptable research has created a vicious cycle in Pakistani academia where mediocrity is the firm and thriving base. With this in mind, it is no shock that the largest library in Pakistan, the Punjab Public Library, which had over 300,000 books in 1947, can boast hardly half of that number now!
Writing from Oxford, with its vast library collection and facilitation of research, I am wondering if I, or anyone, could ever become a world class historian by only living and working in Pakistan. The obvious answer is, no. No wonder then when a friend of mine asked me about good historians in Pakistan, my answer contained hardly anyone resident in Pakistan. Reforming education, especially the higher education sector, is not an easy or quick task. The Higher Education Commission has done wonders in its decade of existence but a wholesale change of mindset and approach — which takes much longer — needs to happen before we are able to make a mark in the academic world.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 4th, 2012.
COMMENTS (33)
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Please tackle your syllabus on anti Hindu, Sikhs etc on a primary level first. they are the core issues spoiling a young students mind. libraries can follow next. indoctrinated mind don't require libraries. thank you
@Waheeda Islam:
To you solution of every thing is Islam and Sharia ( obsession with the religion). whereas to westerners these are core the problem .
As a (Western) academic who has done extensive research in Pakistani libraries, I was surprised to see the sort of hostility Dr. Bangash has been exposed to in the comments above. I would like to suggest that the problem described in his article does not only concern state-run institutions, it equally applies to many libraries affiliated with religious schools, for instance. It seems to me that there once was a strong tradition in Pakistan which appreciated scholarship, different points of views and tried to present this knowledge in a manner that is not particularly "Western" or "Orientalist" (as some commenters have suggested) but simply professional. Yet, many places which I have visited, at one point (maybe the 1980s) simply either stopped to acquire new, diverse material or paid no longer attention to the catalogues of their holdings. Pakistan seems to have lost its strong tradition of reading. Surely, the Urdu bazaar still exists and appears to be as active as ever but if one compares Pakistan's publishing industry and its libraries to your immediate neighbor Iran, things could not be more apart. The strange thing is that Iran officially has censorship in place (unlike Pakistan) which does, however, not prevent the country from translating everything from philosophy to social sciences and producing high-quality research in Persian. Pakistanis, who due to their English skills are much more privileged than their Iranian colleagues to access international schlolarship, appear not to take advantage of their position.
@John B: Theft and sell of manuscripts, idols etc occurs at present times too. (Gandharva Budha idol from Pakisna, Afghanistan). British Museum returned art treasures to Italy. Museum purchased them from auction or from "respectable" English army personnel. Until 1857 India was ruled by a private company (at least not officialy by the Queen) and it is a matter of common sense assumption that Britishers must have plundred Gold, Silver and uncountable art treasures. Lot of such art must alos be in private hands whose forfeathers were in India for some time. British rule in India is a TALE OF LOOT AND PLUNDER that used whatever means necessary to seize authority, over millions of people, alien in race, customs and manners to loot and rob them of their immense wealth and artifacts. Warren Hastings and Clive were tried by their own peers for excesses carried out by them on India.
We are happy living in Stone Ages! We are fast asleep, please do not disturb us.
@observer: "Someone famously said, ” All Books that deviate from the Quran are Kufr and those that repeat the Quranic truth are superfluous.”"
This statement has a sad history. When a mob of Muslims went to destroy the great Alexandria library, the librarian asked for the books to be spared. The conversation listed above then ensued and the consequence was that hundreds of thousands of books were destroyed as the library was burnt down.
@gp65: Thank you. I was fortunate enough to grow up around the world and bequeathed a large library with some interesting collections. One cannot understand the contemporary world we live in today without understanding the art, music, literature and religions of the world. Asia history begins in India and western history without India history is incomplete. Since US history is linked with British history and British history is intertwined with India history, learning about India ( PAK and Afghanistan included ) is inevitable. @Falcon: My goal is to provoke the thought by criticism. There is a fine line between criticism and insult and I try not to cross that line. Unfortunately, events of PAK assault my conscience at times and sometimes even help to reevaluate my own thinking.
@David Smith: Thank you for pointing that out. Her lectures are delight.
@Tahir,
"The problem with people like you is that you see conspiracy in each and everything. Perhaps you are dumb enough not to get the writer’s point of view. So dwell in your insecurity that the remaining world so wants to change and alter the actual and pure history of Pakistan by “institutionalizing the mindset of historians” to think in a “proper way”. How about you come forward and write your own account on a historical topic, “unbiased” and “pure”?"
Genius, I didn't see "conspiracy in each and everything" or "dwell in [my] insecurity". Edward Said saw and articulated that in his book "Orientalism". I projected that perspective to the above self-proclaimed historian who pretends to be a neutral arbiter of Pakistani's past.
The criticism of Pakistani history students has been that they seek evidence only to prove their hypotheses and ignore the truth the preponderance of evidence actually leads to. This is a cultural attitude of Pakistanis that shows itself in such diverse matters as opposition to NATO drone strikes, 26/11, crime, etc. It is a form of logical and moral corruption and altering it is a big task.
Punjab Public Library, which had over 300,000 books in 1947, can boast hardly half of that number now!
Someone famously said, " All Books that deviate from the Quran are Kufr and those that repeat the Quranic truth are superfluous."
And then they torched the Library of Alexandria and of Nalanda.
Who needs books when you have 'The Book'?
Baeless comparison of Pakistani libraries vs western libraries.
@Ahsen: the university in lahore is called THE PUNJAB UNIVERSITY by the way
@Zeeshan: " ...The problem with history and historians started with the institutionalized of that discipline within academia. Too bad, the gatekeepers for what is considered as “history” are with a few self-proclaimed historians like you. "
The problem with people like you is that you see conspiracy in each and everything. Perhaps you are dumb enough not to get the writer's point of view. So dwell in your insecurity that the remaining world so wants to change and alter the actual and pure history of Pakistan by "institutionalizing the mindset of historians" to think in a "proper way". How about you come forward and write your own account on a historical topic, "unbiased" and "pure"?
@Hasan: I concur. The availability of resources and quality of research are two different things. I have seen very poorly written and argued dissertations in the western universities. The author has mixed up so many things.
This will not happen in 1000 years since our mind set is against knowing the truth about ourselves & to think. Process of "Thinking" is considered as a cardinal sin. Slide will continue unabated.
I partly agree. I myself am in Cambridge to research for my second book on Lahore. The original material available is amazing, and all available to anyone seriously interested. I tried getting some material from the Punjab Secretariat archives, and after two security clearances and three application I just gave up. But all said and done 'Lahore Lahore aye'
@Waheeda Islam Well its outrageous for me when someone says that we should not study the history of their own land. Along-with the Chinese and Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization was one of the great civilizations of yore. Your comments reek of an aggravated sense of poor self-esteem. The suggestion to instead study some other civilization is laughable as one does not get to choose one's history or geography. Its factual. PS if at all you want to choose, there is a rich tradition of non-arabic islamic theology but I guess petro-dollars rule the roost
@John B: We also must thank people like Wendy Doniger at Chicago U. for the contribution (and popularization) she has made to Indic studies there. @Ahsan: you have your answer in the comment made by Waheeda Islam above.
@gp65: That's because if I am not mistaken, John is from India (based on his past remarks I have seen). However, I agree he is very knowledgeable. I think humanity can certainly benefit even more from people like him, if they were to focus slightly more on positive advice than criticism alone.
@John B: AI am really impressed at the level of details you are aware of in terms of what type of material is available in which library. How do you know so much about my country that I who consider myself fairly well read - even do not know?
@KDP: You are talking nonsense. Univ. Of Chicago south Asia library collection started seriously when Vivekananda was in Chicago in 1900s for world expo.
All Indian manuscripts were researched, translated and published by Asiatic society and they did a scholarly work.
The British army officers who were posted around the world were instrumental in this translations since many of them learnt Persian, Sanskrit and Tamil and used their time constructively.
By the way, no one stole anything. In British library the manuscript collections were either donated or purchased copy from the locals.
The national archives in N. Delhi and East India company archives in Calcutta and Tanjore Tamil University houses a diverse collection of early manuscripts. The Pune Sanskrit institute also holds a large body of Sanskrit manuscript collection, though most of them are copies.
The issue in PAK is simple. All the historical and cultural base of PAK is in India and if any one wants to do research on contemporary PAK they have to be in India or India archive.
As I have been saying all along, PAK history and culture and literature, art and music are with and in India and no scholar can write anything on these subjects by ignoring India.
Besides, the problems stated by the author are also reasons.
Geography is just coincidence. Why should we study the history of this land? That history will always be overshadowed by India, since our geographical history (Muslim or not) is centered in what is now India. Mughal history is Delhi not Lahore. Urdu history is in its place of birth (Lucknow) not Karachi. We should create OUR OWN history based Arab and Islamic theology. By creating our own, we can also be the best at it, not withstanding the infidels and liberals who flourish in this land. The solution, as with everything, is it to embrace Islam and Sharia.
Dr. Bangash, I understand your concerns but things may not be as bad as we generally think. Research, library, or simply book culture does not exist in our social settings. One has to dig deeper and find the things. I have contacted several government agencies on and off, and amazingly received a very positive response. The problem is that researchers expect the same speed and quality as we find in the western world. One has to be patient. My experience at the Punjab Public Library was not quite good but once I was able to find the right person, things became quite smooth. Having said this I do agree that the documents are not being kept in proper format which is little scary. I came across a few where the typed script or the inked notation and signatures were slowly disappearing due to environmental conditions.
Thoughtful article.
The lack of independent and critical thinking does not have a consequence just in terms of how Pakistan is represented in a European conference. It allows extremist mullahs to radicalize Pakistan's polity since no well researched factual counter-argument can emerge from within Pakistan and arguments from outside Pakistan are dismissed easily as conspiracies anyway.
@Indian Catholic: I believe that thousands of manuscripts and books were simply stolen or official taken away from India by its invaders especially Britishers (They had more or less 250 years to do that) eventually a lot of such material ended up for example in Chicago.
The problem with academia in Pakistan runs deeper than the lack of appropriate research facilities; the author is being disingenuous in claiming that. Although going by the superficiality of his analysis, the absolute lack of any critical thought in what is a series of vulgar neo-colonial fantasy scenarios and laments, it wouldn't come as a surprise if he actually believes this. The other possibility after all is to acknowledge one's own intellectual incapability and lack of integrity. We could transport the British Library archives to FCC but it would change nothing. People like, Dr. Bangash, will still be towing the line set by historians at Oxford and Cambridge. Pakistani archives should be made accessible and the libraries should be maintained; however, there is the possibility that it will merely result in reproducing more historians like Dr. Bangash. Perhaps the working holiday can be extended indefinitely to give the impressionable students at FCC some time to rediscover their ability for critical thought.
Research has never been top priority in all of South Asia. Things of historical importance and heritage is often treated shabbily. In Pakistan the challenge is greater because critical thinking is not really encouraged for obvious reasons. Reading and library culture must be encouraged so that people get access to different views.
It is necessary to write such things again and again to stress on the Government/HEC to put some money in promoting social sciences. Indeed books and access to the latest research are the currency to scholarship, the Government should establish a digital library explicitly for social science books and articles. Obviously it will not be the common people to struggle for such things. Bangash like people need to write applications and articles in news to stress on the higher authorities to help reduce this much wider gap, otherwise we will remain too much backward
Yaqoob - Thanks for providing a very insightful article. I didn't know that the conditions in Pakistan for research work are so bad. Partly, it is due to lack of attention being given to education in society and partly, due to lack of critical thinking. Zubeida Mustafa in Dawn has been writing about the gravity of this issue for a while.
No amount of books and scholarships had prevented our own Pakistani historians from becoming the neo-Orientalists. Trained to think the "proper way" by Western academics, they create this version of neutrality which when read carefully tries to carry political and social agenda in it. The problem with history and historians started with the institutionalized of that discipline within academia. Too bad, the gatekeepers for what is considered as "history" are with a few self-proclaimed historians like you.
@Raw is War: Actually, it is surprisingly easy for an academic to get access to most libraries in India. For instance, The Oriental Research Institute in Mysore is very accessible and I hear there is even an old lady there who is able to locate ancient palm leaf manuscripts in a jiffy. . Of course, I have heard though that the best place to research and ancient Indian texts is the University of Chicago.
Talking to a few scholars made it obvious that the complications in getting the necessary permissions at Pakistani archives was at times harder than in the case of India
they are being diplomatic...
There is no denying that we do not have libraries matching European standards. We will never reach that zenith. What is awful is that we have killed library culture. We do not read something different and hence we do not write something different. We are not allowed to do so. From inside we all are Taliban. We need no libraries.Our five major universities, Karachi university, Lahore University, Quaid-Azam or Islamabad University. LUMS and NUST have been and are producing such scholars who are enthusiastic followers of Zaid Hamid.