Author: Khaled Ahmed
Publication: The Friday Times
Date: March 19-25, 2004
URL: www.thefridaytimes.com
Bringing the madrasa into the mainstream
would in some measure mean bringing the regular curriculum into the seminary.
Is this curriculum any different from the twisted view of life taught to
the boys who are then fed into jihad? There is some research that says
that jihad in Pakistan was numerically fed from the mainstream educational
institutions far more than from the seminaries
President Pervez Musharraf, in his
'breakfast meeting' with foreign intellectuals on ARY channel on 1 March
2004, defended his government's go-slow policy on the taming of the madrasas
in Pakistan, saying Pakistan didn't have the money to do it. The world
thinks that unless the religious seminary in Pakistan is purged of its
dangerous jihadi ideology Pakistan's role in the campaign against terrorism
would not be complete. He said the seminaries were being brought into the
education mainstream through the introduction of secular subjects, but
this will take years because of the financial constraints. The United States
and the European Union are both focusing on the madrasa reform in Pakistan
and will probably put more pressure on President Musharraf for it in the
coming days.
Mainstream no different from madrasa:
But Pakistan's allies in the war against terrorism have not focused on
what Pakistan does in its regular mainstream schools. Bringing the madrasa
into the mainstream would in some measure mean bringing the regular curriculum
into the seminary. Is this curriculum any different from the twisted view
of life taught to the boys who are then fed into jihad? There is some research
that says that jihad in Pakistan was numerically fed from the mainstream
educational institutions far more than from the seminaries. If seminary
teaches jihad, should one presume that the normal school doesn't? If the
seminary inculcates prejudice against all non-Muslims, should we presume
that the mainstream schools don't? President Musharraf himself will be
put off by the kind of textbooks the federal education ministry continues
to propose to the provinces. Why doesn't he do something about that?
The truth is that he doesn't know.
Islamabad's Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) has examined
the mechanism of school textbook-writing in Pakistan and presented its
findings in 2003 in the hope that the government would look into some of
the shocking revelations in them and take remedial measures. Not much reaction
has come from the government to the report titled The Subtle Subversion:
the State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan. Federal education minister
Ms Zubaida Jalal, known for her progressive views, may not have read it
either because she has not commented on it. Her new textbooks for entire
Pakistan are due to be published some time in 2005 but they are likely
to be made on the basis of the guidelines provided by her ministry's notoriously
non-subtle Curriculum Wing targeted for criticism by the Report.
Ideological poison of the Curriculum
Wing: In 2002, SDPI got together a group of scholars to examine class one-to-twelve
textbooks in the subjects of social sciences/Pakistan Studies, Urdu and
English. The books were prepared on the basis of the curriculum set by
the Federal Education Ministry in its Curriculum Wing. The Wing has been
manned by a certain kind of officers who have served governments of all
stripes without any minister challenging their modus operandi. The guidelines
are all fashioned in the name of Islamisation, but if a minister had ever
to looked at the vocabulary used and the direction given by the Wing to
provincial textbook boards, he would have tried to reform the Wing, change
the civil servants working there and replace them with more enlightened
individuals. By and large, education as a subject has not appealed to any
intellectual politician, most probably because it was feared that he would
clash with the country's ideology. It is quite possible that Ms Zubaida
Jalal has the same concern.
Before General Zia's Islamisation,
textbooks were not based on Muslim majoritarianism. They were sensitive
to the fact that Pakistan was a multi- religious state and that non-Muslims
were full citizens under the Constitution. Islamisation ended all that
and the textbooks began a new nation-building process that excluded the
non-Muslim. The philosophy of education followed was summed up in one Curriculum
Wing directive given in 1995 in respect of class five: 'In the teaching
material no concept of separation between the worldly and the religious
be given; rather all the material be presented from the Islamic point of
view'. The general directive for textbooks implies that Pakistan is for
the Muslims alone; that Islamiyat is to be forcibly taught to all students,
whatever their faith, including compulsory reading of the Quran; that ideology
of Pakistan is to be internalised as faith, and hate be created against
the Hindus of India; and students be urged to take the path of jihad andshahadat.
The crudeness of the message: Has
the liberal world view of General Musharraf made any difference? Not really.
A 2002 directive from the Curriculum Wing named National Early Childhood
Education lists the objectives as follows: to nurture in children a sense
of Islamic identity and pride in being a Pakistani and regard Pakistan
as an Islamic country and acquire deep love for it. Throughout no thought
is given to the possibility that a child in the school could be non-Muslim
and might therefore feel that he is not a Pakistani simply because the
textbook equates Pakistani with Muslim. Although Islamiyat is not compulsory
for non-Muslims pupils, the fact that there are 25 percent extra marks
for any non-Muslim studying it is a strong proselytising incentive. The
2002 directive also seeks to impart the following 'life skills' among the
pupils regardless of their religion: use greetings asAs- salamu aleikam;
know when to sayBismillah; recite the first kalima and understand its meanings;
name the five daily prayers; and learn about Ramadan and the Eids.
Urdu textbooks written by such great
people as Baba-e-Urdu Maulavi Abdul Haq before partition hardly contained
any religious material. It was language that was sought to be taught and
one objective at the matriculation level (class 9 and 10) was to introduce
the youth to great works of Urdu literature. Later when religious instruction
was considered necessary the subject of Islamiyat was added to the syllabus.
The injection of religion in such subjects as Urdu, social studies/Pakistan
Studies and English was added later, removing all subtlety and persuasion
from indoctrination. While the crudeness of the message failed to transform
children into good Muslims, the hate content in the textbooks rendered
them bad human beings. A good Muslim was no longer necessarily a good human
being. The 2002 directive ironically gave the following message: 'To make
the Quranic principles an integral part of curricula.to train the future
generation of Pakistan as true practising Muslims who would be able to
usher in the 21st century and the next millennium with courage, wisdom
and tolerance'.
Closing of the Pakistani mind: The
2002 directive for Pakistan Studies goes on to define the following learning
objectives: 'Develop understanding of Hindu-Muslim differences and need
for Pakistan (Class 4); Hindu-Muslim differences in culture, India's evil
designs against Pakistan; identify the events in relation to Hindu-Muslim
differences'. How did the textbooks respond to these directions? The SDPI
report tells us that in the class 5 textbook prepared by Punjab there is
a sentence that says 'Hindu has always been an enemy of Islam'; a class
4 textbook said 'The religion of the Hindus did not teach them good things,
Hindus did not respect women'; a class 6 textbook said 'the Hindus lived
in small and dark houses. Child marriage was common in those days. Women
were assigned a low position in society, in case a man died his wife was
burnt alive with him, the killing of shudras was not punished, but the
killing of a brahmin was severely punished, caste system made people's
lives miserable'.
The 'hate material' goes on: 'Hindus
thought that there was no country other than India nor any other people
other than Indians, nor did anyone possess any knowledge'; [a cooked-up
story titled The Enemy Pilot] stated that 'he had only been taught to have
no pity on Muslims, to always bother the neighbouring Muslims, to weaken
them to the extent that they forget about freedom, and that it is better
to finish off the enemy. He remembered that the Hindus tried to please
the goddess Kali by slaughtering people of other religions, they regarded
everybody else as untouchables. He knew that his country India had attacked
Pakistan in the dead of the night to bleed Pakistani Muslims and to dominate
the entire Subcontinent' (Class Six, Punjab). 'The Hindus who had always
been opportunists cooperated with the British' (Class Six Punjab). The
class six books generally speak inaccurately about the nature of All-India
Congress, seeking to convince the children that the party was Hindu and
was close to the British and prevented them for doing anything in favour
of the Muslims.
Hate presaging war: The most notorious
social studies textbook that the Curriculum Wing was able to coax Punjab
into producing was An Introduction to Pakistan Studies by M. Ikram Rabbani
& Monawar Ali Syed (1995). It was noticed by scholars abroad for the
crudeness of its hate formulations. One sentence that the SDPI report quotes
from it goes like this: 'The Hindus always desired to crush the Muslims
as a nation. Several attempts were made by the Hindus to erase the Muslim
culture and civilisation. Hindi-Urdu controversy, Shuddhi and Sanghatan
movements are the most glaring examples of the ignoble Hindu mentality'.
A gem that would make anyone outside the Curriculum Wing laugh says: 'While
the Muslims provided all types of help to those wishing to leave Pakistan,
the people of India committed cruelties against the Muslim refugees. They
would attack the buses, trucks and trains carrying the Muslim refugees
and they murdered and looted'. The government of Pakistan in its last volume
of Jinnah Papers (volume five) has adduced evidence from the Quaid's own
office that atrocities were committed against refugees leaving Pakistan
too!
If President Pervez Musharraf were
to read the textbooks on which the federal education ministry continues
to pride itself he would simply give up his campaign against extremism
in Pakistan. The brainwash in favour of jihad and shahadat is so consistent
and widespread in the various disciplines targeted for indoctrination by
the Curricular Wing that for many years to come Pakistan would be endangered
by its own youth. The textbooks that the country's four provinces would
have next year will certainly contain the hate content we have reviewed
only skimpily above. Perhaps he can't do anything to completely surgically
remove hatred from our textbooks, but he surely can remove the crudity
of the message. We can still hate the Hindu but we can do it subtly. Maybe
then our youth will not slaughter the Hindus and rape their women as ruthlessly
if there is another war and we, instead of losing, start winning. Since
there is no prospect of a war with India our youth can vent their hatred
on their own country, especially on people who seek to normalise relations
with India.
