National Identity in a Postcolonial Society: A Foucauldian

Discourse Analysis of Pakistan’s National Curriculum

Textbooks and their Social Practices in Schools for

Shaping Students’ National Belonging

Thesis submitted for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

at The University of Leicester

by

M. Habib Qazi M.A, M.Phil.

School of Education

The University of Leicester

2020

2

A substantial part of this thesis, including two complete articles, has been

published in peer-reviewed journals listed below:

1- Qazi, M. H. (2020) ‘Exploring links between national Education and students’ militaristic

national identity construction in Schools’, Journal of Curriculum Studies. Volume 52, No. 4,

April 2020, pp. 516-532. DOI: 10.1080/00220272.2020.1755997 (2018 Impact Factor 1.42)

2- Qazi, M. H. and Shah, S. (2019) ‘A study of Bangladesh’s secondary school curriculum

textbooks in students’ national identity construction in an overseas context’, Asia Pacific

Journal of Education. Volume 39, No. 4, October 2019, pp. 501-516. DOI:

10.1080/02188791.2019.1671806 (2018 Impact Factor 1.07)

3- Qazi, M.H and Shah, S. (2018) ‘Discursive construction of Pakistan’s national identity

through curriculum textbook discourses in a Pakistani school in Dubai, the United Arab

Emirates’, British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2, April 2019, pp. 275–297. DOI:

10.1002/berj.3496 (2018 Impact Factor 1.36); and

4- Qazi, M. H. ‘Construction of students’ religious national identities in Pakistani state

schools and its implications for religious minorities’, Compare – A Journal of Comparative

and International Education – under publication process

3

Abstract

National Identity in a Postcolonial Society: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

of Pakistan’s National Curriculum Textbooks and their Social Practices in

Schools for Shaping Students’ National Belonging

M. Habib Qazi

This thesis investigates factors that contribute to constituting Pakistan’s post-colonial national identity of high–school students, studying in six state-schools located in

Islamabad, Pakistan. It draws on two sets of data – compulsory textbooks for grades 9-12,

and the field-research data collected from the students of the same grades, using

participatory tools and focus-group interviews. Taking a holistic view, the study also

conducted interviews with teachers and observed school sites to investigate their roles in

shaping students’ national belonging. The study of the textbooks offers an insight into the

themes which Pakistan’s education–system–actors employ for positioning students within

Pakistani nationalism, and the field–data those of teachers’ and students’ self–positioning

vis–à–vis these. The analytical framework of this phenomenological qualitative study is

based on Foucault’s Discourse Analysis and his notions of technologies of power and self for

the subject constitution. The study also appropriates insight from a postcolonial theoretical

perspective.

The findings suggest ideological use of the school-education where the textbooks

represent Islam as Pakistan’s overarching national identity, encourage students to view

Pakistan’s national language, religious–minorities and women through a particular Islamic

lens, and consider India as an existentialist threat to Pakistan. The study notes the dynamic

interplay of the sampled textbooks, the schoolteachers and the school as a site of

discursive social practices. Jointly, they position students within (a) a homogenous singular

Islamic national group in love with Urdu (b) gendered female identity and (c) Indian centric

militaristic national identity for shaping their national belonging to Pakistan. The study

notes participating students’ strong identification with the above-identified themes

delineating ‘us’ and ‘them’ exclusively on the religious basis while disregarding indigenous

languages and cultures, exuding a gendered approach towards women and relishing strong

antagonistic Indian centric national identity. This education might well foster self–

righteousness, a distorted world-view and an exclusionary approach towards women,

religious–minorities and pluralistic identities/cultures. Also, it entails implications for

students’ social and psychological wellbeing, their social inclusion, women empowerment,

national cohesion, international peaceful co-existence and several global sustainable

development goals (SDGs), 2030.

4

To Father,

I can’t thank you enough for believing in me – real support that helped me think and act

independently all my life.

To Mother,

Thanks for making clear to me the connection between education and upward mobility

decades ago when I knew little about it.

Acknowledgments

My special thanks to Dr. Saeeda Shah, my research supervisor, for her patience and endless

academic and personal support throughout the long journey of this Ph.D. She has not only

been a mentor and a critic but a constant source of inspiration.

Many thanks to Dr. Alison Taysum, my second supervisor. I benefited greatly from her

feedback in the initial stages of my studies. My thanks are due to Dr. Joan Smith, who took

over as my first supervisor from Dr. Saeeda Shah, after her retirement in my write-up

year. Special thanks to Dr. Wei Zhang for suggesting essential changes to the methodology

chapter, and my module tutors Dr. Hugh Busher, and Professor David Pedder (Dr.).

Special thanks to Dr. Hasan Zafar who motivated me to think about the connections

between national identity construction and national curriculum textbooks from the

postcolonial perspective.

I feel fortunate enough to be in the company of M. Saeed Khan, Dr. Zulfiqar Hydar and

Dr. Anderson Bernier who proofread parts of this dissertation and suggested necessary

changes. I thank you all.

Very special thanks to Shyam Sunder, my English Head–turned–friend in Dubai, the United

Arab Emirates, whose enlightened ideas contributed enormously in shaping my liberal and

secular approach towards life. Special thanks to Irfan–ud–Din and Riaz Akhter – my friends

5

in Dubai, who facilitated me in data collection for two closely related small–scale research

projects. These supported the main study.

My gratitude to all my research participants, students, teachers and friends in Islamabad. I

am particularly indebted to Professor Tariq Abbasi. Without his personal and official

support, I could not have accessed the research participants of the study.

I owe special thanks to Professor Dr. Tariq Masood, Director Model Colleges,

Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Education, Islamabad for advising school principals to

facilitate me with data collection at the Model Colleges.

Last but not least, my loving thanks to my wife, Sadia Tabassum, for her exceptional

patience and unwavering support through the long journey of my Ph.D., and for taking

care of our children’s education and wellbeing. Without her, I could not have completed

this study. I thank my daughter Rasha and sons Shehryar and Shahmir for sacrificing their

fun time for my studies.

6

List of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2

Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. 4

List of Figures .................................................................................................................... 11

List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 14

Glossary ............................................................................................................................. 12

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Study .................................................................................. 15

1.1 Introduction and Background ................................................................................ 15

1.2 Aims of the Study .................................................................................................... 19

1.3 Methodology and Research Questions .................................................................. 20

1.4 Rationale and Significance of Study....................................................................... 21

1.5 Structure and Summary of Thesis ........................................................................ 23

Chapter 2 – Context of Study .......................................................................................... 26

2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 26

2.2 British Colonialization and its Impact on Indian Society .................................... 26

2.3 Religious and Linguistic National Identities and Postcolonial Anxieties ........... 30

2.4 Postcolonial Pakistan’s Administration and National Identity – A Colonial

Continuity ...................................................................................................................... 34

2.4.1 Colonial Language Policies and Postcolonial Pakistan .......................................... 37

2.5 Pakistan’s National Identity Construction – An Overview of Pakistan’s

National Education Policies ......................................................................................... 39

2.5.1. Education Policies and Islam ............................................................................................. 39

2.5.2. Education Policies and Urdu ............................................................................................. 41

2.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 42

Chapter 3 – Literature Review ........................................................................................ 45

3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 45

3.2 Identity and National Identity ................................................................................ 45

3.2.1 Identity .......................................................................................................................................... 45

3.2.2 Nationalism/National Identity Debates ........................................................................ 47

3.2.3 Religion, Language and National Identity .................................................................... 56

3.2.4 Gender and National Identity ............................................................................................ 57

3.2.5 Pakistan’s Strategic Culture and National Identity ................................................ 59

3.3 National Identity and School Education ............................................................... 63

3.3.1 National Identity and Politics of National Curriculum Textbooks in South

Asia ............................................................................................................................................................. 65

7

3.4 Postcolonial Theory and Pakistan’s National Identity Formulation .................. 71

3.4.1 Postcolonial Themes and Pakistan’s National Curriculum ................................ 73

3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 74

Chapter 4 – Research Methodology ................................................................................ 76

4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 76

4.2 Research Aims and Questions ............................................................................... 76

4.3 Research Paradigm – Social Constructionism ..................................................... 77

4.4 Qualitative Research Approach ............................................................................. 79

4.5 Research Methodology ........................................................................................... 80

4.5.1 Methods for Data Collection .............................................................................................. 84

4.6 Research Population and Sampling Criteria ........................................................ 90

4.6.1 Selection Criteria for Schools, Textbooks and Teachers .................................... 90

4.6.2 Selection Criteria for Students’ Participants ............................................................. 93

4.6.3 Accessing Fields and Participants – Challenges and Conundrums ................. 95

4.7 Piloting ..................................................................................................................... 97

4.7.1 Refining Research Design – Modifications in Research Instruments .............. 98

4.8 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................... 99

4.9 Discourse Analysis as Interpretive/Analytical Lens ........................................... 101

4.9.1 Foucault’s Discourse and Rationale for Using Foucault’s Discourse Analysis

(DA) ......................................................................................................................................................... 104

4.9.2. Foucault’s Toolbox .............................................................................................................. 107

4.9.3. Foucault’s Discourse Analysis and Postcolonial .................................................... 112

4.10 Trustworthiness of Research Study .................................................................. 113

4.11 Ethical Issues........................................................................................................ 115

4.11.1 Confidentiality and Data Protection .......................................................................... 116

Chapter 5 – Pakistan’s Postcolonial National Identity Constructions: Textbook

Research Findings ........................................................................................................... 118

5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 118

5.2 Emergent Themes from Textbooks Constructed under NEP (2009) ............. 119

5.3 Religion in Textbooks ........................................................................................... 119

5.3.1 Religion in the English textbooks ................................................................................... 120

5.3.2 Religion in the Urdu textbooks ....................................................................................... 123

5.3.3 Religion in Pakistan Studies textbooks ....................................................................... 126

5.3.4 Religious Minorities and Pakistan’s National Curriculum Textbooks ......... 130

5.4 Gender in Textbooks ............................................................................................ 134

5.4.1 Gender in English textbooks ............................................................................................ 135

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5.4.2 Gender in Urdu textbooks ................................................................................................ 136

5.4.3 Gender in Pakistan Studies textbooks ........................................................................ 137

5.5 Urdu vs. Local Languages, Cultures and Ethnicities .......................................... 139

5.6 Militaristic Identity in Textbooks ........................................................................ 145

5.6.1 Militaristic Identity in English textbooks .................................................................... 145

5.6.3 Militaristic Identity in Pakistan Studies textbooks ................................................ 146

5.7 Research Findings: Visual Observations ............................................................. 148

5.7.1 Islam in Pictures ..................................................................................................................... 149

5.7.2 Gender in Pictures ................................................................................................................ 150

5.7.3 Pakistani Culture in Pictures ........................................................................................... 152

5.7.4 Militaristic Identity in Pictures ........................................................................................ 152

5.8 Observations of Rituals at Morning Assemblies in Schools .............................. 153

5.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 153

Chapter 6 – Pakistan’s Postcolonial National Identity Construction – Field Research

Findings ............................................................................................................................ 156

6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 156

6.2 Interviews and Participatory Tools Findings – Teachers’ and Students’

Perspectives ................................................................................................................. 156

6.2.1 Islam and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers’ Perspectives .................. 157

6.2.2 Islam and Pakistan’s National Identity – Students’ Perspectives .................. 160

6.2.3 Religious Minorities and Pakistan’s National Identity – Students’ and

Teachers’ Perspectives ................................................................................................................... 166

6.3 Gender and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers’ and Students’

Perspectives ................................................................................................................. 171

6.3.1 Gender in Teachers’ Perspectives ................................................................................. 171

6.3.2 Gender in Students’ Perspectives .................................................................................. 175

6.4 Cultures and Ethnicities and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers and

Students’ Perspectives ................................................................................................ 183

6.4.1 Cultures and Ethnicities in Teachers’ Perspectives .............................................. 183

6.4.2 Cultures and Ethnicities in Students’ Perspective ................................................ 186

6.5 Militaristic National Identity – Teachers’ and Students’ perspectives............. 189

6.5.1 Militaristic National Identity – Teachers’ Perspectives ...................................... 189

6.5.2 Militaristic National Identity – Students’ Perspectives ....................................... 192

6.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 200

Chapter 7 – Discussions ................................................................................................. 202

7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 202

7.2 Discussions – Part 1 .............................................................................................. 203

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Factors shaping Pakistan’s postcolonial national identity discourses in the national

curriculum textbooks, and the role of teachers and schools in shaping students’

national identity of Pakistan ....................................................................................... 203

7.2.1 Religion as a Main Technology for Imagining ‘us’ .................................................... 204

7.3 Gendered Construction of Pakistan’s National Identity ................................... 215

7.3.1. Male vs. Female ..................................................................................................................... 218

7.3.2. Muslim Female vs. Muslim and non–Muslim Female .......................................... 219

7.4 Urdu for Pakistan’s National Identity Construction .......................................... 221

7.4.1 Continuity of Colonial Legacy ......................................................................................... 223

7.4.2 Cohesive National Identity................................................................................................ 224

7.5 Militaristic National Identity Construction ........................................................ 225

7.5.1 Strategic Culture and its Implications ........................................................................ 226

7.6 Discussion — Part 2 .............................................................................................. 231

Schoolchildren’s lived experience of Pakistan’s national identity discourses in

textbooks under schoolteachers’ supervision in schools and their response ........ 231

7.6.1 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Islamic Discourses – Response ............ 232

7.6.2 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Gendered Discourse — Response ...... 235

7.6.3 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Urdu and Provincial

Languages/Cultures — Response............................................................................................... 239

7.6.4 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Militaristic National Discourse —

Response ................................................................................................................................................ 240

7.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 243

Chapter 8 – Summary and Conclusion ......................................................................... 247

8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 247

8.2. Summary of Research Findings .......................................................................... 247

8.2.1 Textbook Findings and Teachers’ Positions – Research Questions 1 and 2

.................................................................................................................................................................... 248

8.2.2 Field Research Findings – Research Questions 3 and 4 ...................................... 250

8.3 Contribution to Knowledge ................................................................................. 252

8.3 Postcolonial and Foucault’s DA – Theoretical/Methodological Reflections .... 255

8.4 Implications and Recommendations ................................................................... 256

8.5 Limitations and Further Research ....................................................................... 262

Appendices A–K .......................................................................................................... 264

Appendix A: Official Order to Principals Model Colleges ............................................ 264

Appendix B: Ethical Approval from The University of Leicester.............................. 265

Appendix C: A Letter to School Principals .......................................................................... 267

Appendix D: General Introduction to Sampled Schools ............................................... 268

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Appendix E: Consent Form for Parents and Children.................................................... 269

Appendix F: Consent Form for Teachers ............................................................................. 271

Appendix G: Observation Checklist ........................................................................................ 272

Appendix H: Guide for Students’ Participatory Tools ................................................... 273

Appendix I: Guide for Students’ Focus Group .................................................................... 274

Appendix J: Interview Guide for Teachers ........................................................................... 276

Appendix K: Teachers’ Profiles and Selected Brief Excerpts from their

Transcripts ............................................................................................................................................ 277

Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………….. 279

11

List of Figures

Figure 5.1: Islam in Pictures 144

Figure 5.2: Gender in Pictures 146

Figure 5.3: Militaristic Identities in Pictures 148

Figure 6.1: Girl – participants’ Images for ‘us’ as a Nation 156

Figure 6.2: Boy – participants’ Images of ‘us’ as a Nation 159

Figure 6.3: Boy and girl participants’ images of ‘them’ 164

Figure 6.4: Boy – participants’ Images of a True Pakistani Girl 172

Figure 6.5: Girl – participants’ Images of a True Pakistani Girl 176

Figure 6.6: Girl – participants’ Images of Pakistan’s Culture 181

Figure 6.7: Boy – participants’ Images of Pakistan’s Culture 182

Figure 6.8: Girl – participants’ Images of ‘us’ 189

Figure 6.9: Girl – participants’ Images of ‘them’ 190

Figure 6.10: Boy – participants’ images of ‘us’ 193

Figure 6.11: Boy – participants’ Images of ‘them’ 194

12

Glossary

Abaya: a full–length piece of clothing worn over other clothes by Arab women (now in

south Asia also).

Ashoora/Ashura: Day of the commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein (Prophet

Muhammad’s grandson) at Karbala, Iraq

Basant: a festival of kite flying in South Asia

Burqa/Burka: a long loose piece of clothing that covers the whole body, including the head

and face, worn in public by some Muslim women.

Chador/Chaddar: a large piece of cloth that covers a woman's head and upper body so

that only the face can be seen, worn by some Muslim women.

Divali/Diwali: a Hindu festival that is held in the autumn/fall, celebrated by lighting candles

and clay lamps, and with fireworks.

Dupatta: a long piece of material worn around the head and neck by women in S Asia,

usually with a salwar or ghagra.

Eid ul–Adha: one of the two main Muslim festivals which celebrates the end of the

pilgrimage to Mecca and Abraham’s sacrifice of a sheep

Eid ul–Fitr: one of the two main Muslim festivals at the end of Ramadan (a month of fasting).

Hamd: a poem in praise of God.

Haya: coyness.

Hijab: a head covering worn in public by some Muslim women.

Izzat: honour/chastity.

Jihadi: a holy warrior who perceives that he fights for Allah (God) and the cause of Islam.

Juma–Tul–Wida: the last Friday of the month of Ramadan (considers more sacred than

other Fridays amongst Muslims).

Kalima–e–Shahada: the verse ‘there’s no God, but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger’

– articulation is one of the fundamental articles of faith to profess to Islam as a

faith.

Kameez: a piece of clothing like a long shirt worn by many people from South Asia.

Khatm–i–Nabuwwat: a faith in the finality of the Prophet Muhammad

Khattati: calligraphy

13

Laila–tul–Qadr or Shab–e–Qadar: ‘Night of Power and Blessing’– one of the nights in the

last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan (month of fasting).

Millat: nation.

Mo’mineen: a community of the faithful Muslims.

Naat: a poem in praise of the Prophet Muhammad.

Nimaz: Muslim prayer

Niqab: a piece of cloth that covers the face but not usually the eyes, worn in public by

some Muslim women.

Purdah: the system in some Muslim societies by which women live in a separate part of a

house or cover their faces so that men of other families do not see them.

Qiyamma: the last day of Judgement in the hereafter.

Risalat: prophethood, generally refers to the belief in the finality of the Prophet Muhammad

in Islam.

Shab–e–barat: celebrated on the 14th day of the 8th Islamic month of Sha’ban. On this day

Prophet Muhammed is said to have entered the holy city of Mecca.

Sari: a long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the body and worn as the main piece of

clothing by women in South Asia.

Shalwar or Salwar: light loose trousers/pants that are tight around the ankles, sometimes

worn by South Asian women a salwar kameez (= a salwar worn with a kameez).

Sharam: modesty

Sharia/Shariah: the system of religious laws that Muslims follow.

Tauheed: the belief in the oneness of Allah (God).

Ummah: an Arabic word for Muslim nations beyond territorial constraints

Urs: death anniversary of generally a Muslim Sufi saint in South Asia, celebrated at the

shrine of the saint.

14

List of Abbreviations

B1, 2, 3, …: Boy 1; Boy2; Boy3 …

BBUH: Peace be upon Him

BERA: The British Educational Research Association

CBSE: Central Board of Secondary Education

CENTO: Central Treaty Organisation

CNE: Commission on National Education

ESRA: Education Sector Reform Assistance

FBISE: Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education

G1,2,3, …: Girl 1; Girl 2; Girl 3…

GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education

GOP: Government of Pakistan

GPI: Gender Parity Indices

ICS: Indian Civil Service

IGCSE: International General Certificate of Secondary Education

IPS: Indian Political Service

MOE: Ministry of Education

NCJP: Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace

NEP: National Education Policy

PEC: The Pakistan Educational Conference

SCR: Sharif Commission Report

TA, TB, ... TL: Teacher A to Teacher L

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Chapter 1 – Introduction to Study

1.1 Introduction and Background

Academic scholarship in social sciences has witnessed a growing trend in the

studies of nation-building vis–a–vis national education and schooling. Eley and Suny (1996)

suggest that the most significant contribution of the recent literature emerging from

different social science disciplines is to raise awareness of how nations are discursively

constituted ‘through processes of imaginative ideological labor – that is, the novelty of

national culture, its manufactured or invented character, as opposed to its deep historical

rootedness’ (p.8). This thesis examines the role of Pakistan’s compulsory national

curriculum textbooks1 for grades 9 to 12 in shaping students’ postcolonial national

belonging in state schools located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

The impetus to undertake this project rests on various mutually corresponding

factors. The main interest, however, was developed as a result of my observation of

Pakistani students who appeared to be growing increasingly ethnocentric in their identity

construction/s, inter alia. This observation further strengthened following my exposure to

the national curriculum textbooks of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan – the countries which

constituted United India before British colonization – during my teaching career in the

United Arab Emirates (UAE)2. Similarly, the UAE allowed me to have extensive interaction

with the students of these three postcolonial countries as an English teacher. This

challenged my preconceived notions on nation and nationalism, coalescing my social

solecism into an anti-racial, liberal and secular approach towards these. This outlook also

1 English, Urdu and the Pakistan Studies textbooks 2 The United Arab Emirates, like its neighbouring GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman,

is an oil-rich country. The discovery of oil in the 1930s and its subsequent boom in the 1970s attracted a

large influx of international immigration, particularly from the South Asian countries (see Bel-Air, 2018).

Therefore, all GCC countries have large Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani population. The GCC countries

offer only contractual jobs and do not confer citizenship rights to its expatriate population. Hence,

apprehension about losing a job and returning home remains current. Therefore, instead of seeking

admissions in local schools, where education is imparted in Arabic, middle/lower middle classes of the

expatriate population look for home-based national curriculum schools. This has resulted in the growth of

private Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani schools in all GCC countries. These schools follow national curricula

of their own countries.

16

determines my idealistic stance on education as a project for social justice free of gender,

racial, religious, ethnic and cultural prejudices.

Numerous factors can contribute to developing students’ ethnocentric leanings.

However, what motivated me to investigate the role of Pakistan’s national school

education in it was my career in teaching. Another contributing factor was my awareness

about the potential of national education to ‘control people’ and ‘control meaning’ (Apple,

2002, p.63) through the distribution of ‘legitimate knowledge’ (ibid., p.6). This idea and

subsequent engagement with the relevant literature also made me recognize the

significance of childhood in shaping a sense of identification with the nation, others and the

self. Jenks (2005, p.11) views this period as a time of ‘structured becoming’, which a state-

run education system may well use for constructing particular identities. Gellner (1983)

observes that the ‘culture in which one has been taught to communicate becomes the core

of one’s identity’ (p.61). Similarly, students emotional and mental susceptibility in school

years affords the ideologue (amongst them policymakers, teachers, education policies,

curriculum books, education policies and state institutions) a primal bedrock for the

cultivation of national feelings, cultural roots and ideas. Hence, a study of these years to

examine the question of national identity constructions is of fundamental importance. In

agreement with Gellner (1983) and Jenks (2005), I concede that there is nothing

inherently/intrinsically true or false about national identity concepts on which children are

generally schooled. These are discursively constructed and are situated in socio-political

milieus. De Cillia et al., maintain that:

[i]t is to a large extent through its schools and education system that the state shapes

those forms of perception, categorization, interpretation and memory that serve to

determine the orchestration of the habitus which in turn are the constitutive basis

for a kind of national common sense (1999, p.156).

The perspective provided by De Cillia et al., offers a fascinating insight to unravel the

institutionalized nexus of curriculum and the construction of national common sense. In

the context of this study, it can help understand how Pakistan’s national curriculum

textbooks are employed as a political site to develop students’ worldviews about

themselves and others in schools.

17

The national identity discourses in the curriculum trajectory of Pakistan’s national

schools have experienced various changes ever since the country’s creation in 1947.

Having carved out of British India on the narrative of the Two Nation Theory3, and

recurrently volatile socio-political situations both at domestic and foreign fronts4 during

its infantile/formative years, made Pakistan self–doubting. Siddiqa (2017) gives a telling

account to this effect:

There was general confusion in the Arab world regarding the partition of India,

which was viewed as a British conspiracy. The Arab monarchies, on the other hand,

had their own reasons for a lack of excitement. Known for an orthodox Sunni

brand of Islam5, they considered Pakistan to be ‘inhabited by heretics’. They were

even less charmed by the founding father, who appeared to them to be an English–

speaking Orientalist. ‘Mr. Jinnah with his Parsee wife and son–in–law and his spats

and cigarette–holder, and Sir Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, a Qadiani6… inspired

no deep sense of Muslim communion in the average Arab,’ reported British

diplomats at the time (2017, p.5).

Similarly, notwithstanding Pakistan’s creation on the idea of Muslim separatism,

about 35 million Muslims, now over 200 million, still stayed in Hindu majority India (See

3 It delineates that Muslims are a different nation on the basis of their religion. Therefore, they must have a

separate homeland. 41951: Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

1958: President Iskander Mirza carries out a coup d'etat, suspending the constitution. Shortly afterwards,

Army chief General Ayub Khan deposes Iskander Mirza and declares himself the president of Pakistan.

1965: Pakistan’s war with India

1969: Amid protests, Ayub Khan resigns as president, handing over power to Army Chief General Yahya

Khan. Martial Law is proclaimed, and all assemblies are dissolved.

1970: General elections are held, with East Pakistani leader Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman's party emerging as

the overall winner. The results of the poll are contested.

1971: The controversy over the general election leads to a war, also involving India that results in the

independence of Bangladesh after a Pakistani army action in East Pakistan.

1977: General Zia-ul-Haq steps in, removing Prime Minister Bhutto in a coup, suspending the constitution

and declaring martial law.

1979: Zia executes Prime Minister Bhutto, enacts the controversial Hudood Ordinance, a law brought in

as part of Zia's 'Islamisation' policy that prescribed punishments considered more in line with the Quran.

1999: Kargil War breaks out with India. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attempts to replace Gen, Musharraf

who takes power in a military coup.

2003: Post 9/11 scenario: a call for government to reform the curriculum by removing hate material. 5 This refers to the Barelvi movement/ brand of Islam, named after a city Bareilly in India where this school

of Islam was born. 6 A pejorative term used in Pakistan for a minority Muslim sect proclaiming to be Muslim but declared

non-Muslim by a constitutional amendment in Pakistan in 1974.

18

Ishtiaq Ahmad, 2013). These scenarios brought the leadership of the newly born state

immense anxiety. They, prima facie, seemed to have found themselves faced with two

major tasks concerning its national identity formulation. These included developing

affinity/bond with the Muslim world and making the country distinctly different from India.

It was because the leadership of the Pakistan movement had mobilized the masses largely

on the accounts of religious and cultural differences between Hindus and Muslims and on

the idea of Muslim nationalism7. Recounting this, Siddiqa (2017) quotes the official

communication between Sir Archibald Carter and his Egyptian friend (1948). She maintains

that faced with these apprehensions, Jinnah in January 1948, wrote a letter to the Egyptian

imam and founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sheikh Hassan al–Banna. In that letter he

gave certain assurances to the Sheikh:

I am writing to you, the great Muslim leader, to inform you that I am determined,

by God’s will, to save Pakistan from the tyranny of imperialism and the various

hostile currents…I have therefore decided to follow the advice you kindly gave me

in your recent letter, that my government should assume a purely Islamic character

and work in close cooperation with the other strong international Islamic

organizations which are headed by your Ikhwan–al–Muslimun society [the Muslim

Brotherhood] (Siddiqa, 2017, p.4).

Nearly seventy–two years on since the creation of Pakistan, these anxieties still

persist. Arguing in a panel discussion, Jalal raises some pertinent points: ‘why we are still

discussing this issue because ... Pakistanis have not really agreed on the reasons why they

were created as a separate country from India’ (Pakistan’s Search for Identity: An

Inexplicable Trajectory, 2016). Mapping the tensions emerging from Pakistan’s competing

Islamic national identity, Cohen (2004) maintains that the real conflict of Pakistani society

emerges from the variety of versions of national identity vis–à–vis Islamic identity. In this

context, Kalin and Siddiqui (2017, p.8) relate the ordeal of Pakistan’s minority Muslim sects.

They argue that their claim to Muslimness is ‘contested by political actors seeking to use

the state as an active force to define the boundaries of Muslim citizenship’. Given the fact

7 See the Presidential address by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan, to the Muslim League

Lahore, 1940.

19

that Pakistan emphasizes ‘supranational’ Islam for its national identity, the country is

continually in a struggle as to how ‘to form a singular nation based on cultural or ethnic

aspects’ (Zahid Ahmed, 2017, p.64).

The factors discussed above have also influenced the way Pakistan’s national

curriculum textbooks are developed and their learning objectives are defined (see section

2.5). I commenced this project with the awareness that the role of religion in the

construction of Pakistani students’ national identity in schools and its implications have

been discussed in various settings (see Qazi, M.H. 2020; Qazi and Shah, 2019a; Chughtai,

2015; Durrani 2008; Saigol 2005, Nayyar, 2003; Cohen 2002, 2004). Widely debated

though, the issue of Pakistan’s national identity as well as the use of Pakistan’s national

education for its construction remain contentious. Particularly post 9/11, the role of the

national education system in fostering intolerance surfaced on international horizons.

Therefore, in the face of criticism and changing world realities, many countries8 had to

commit themselves to overhaul their education system. In Pakistan also the ‘Musharraf’s

government came under pressure to revise the curriculum and USAID has invested close

to $100million in the Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) programme’ (Lall, 2008,

p.115). I began this project against this backdrop with the purpose to study the role of

Pakistan’s education–system–actors, including national curriculum textbooks, teachers,

students and the school as a structure in Pakistan’s national identity formulation, and its

wider implications.

1.2 Aims of the Study

The study aims to contribute to theory development by contextualizing and

understanding the relationship between (post)colonial conditions and the way Pakistan as

a postcolonial state has remained in the process of developing a national identity. Similarly,

it seeks to explore how far the state has engaged to respond to the recurring international

political challenges, using a national identity lens. In this context, the focus of the study is

on the analysis of national identity discourses employed in Pakistan’s national curriculum

8 Saudi Embassy: https://www.saudiembassy.net/press-release/saudi-ambassador-responds-freedom-house-

editorial

20

textbooks for the construction of students’ national identity in schools, the factors

encouraging these discourses and their implications. Similarly, it maps the role of the

school, as a structure, and teachers in shaping students’ national belonging in schools, and

explores how students reciprocate to these concerted efforts. The study also aims to

contribute to the academic body of postcolonial theory as well as curriculum studies. This

aspect is problematised by exploring how the question of national identity in curriculum

studies can be investigated using a postcolonial theoretical framework.

1.3 Methodology and Research Questions

This is an exploratory qualitative study involving multiple data collection methods.

It affords three overarching perspectives vis–à–vis Pakistani students’ national identity

formulation in state schools. The study first analyses compulsory national curriculum

textbooks9 of secondary and higher secondary levels10 to identify textbook factors that

contribute to Pakistani students’ national identity formulation in schools. This aspect is

further substantiated by analysing visual data gathered at six research sites (see chapter 5).

These include three boys’ and three girls’ schools, and the recorded observations of the

rituals performed in the morning assemblies of these schools. Second, by drawing on

teachers’ interview data (collected at the same sites), it attempts to understand their

positions on Pakistan’s national identity and their role in implementing the textbook

discourses on the students they teach (see chapter 6). Finally, the study draws on students’

perspectives and attempts to understand a) how they experience these national identity

discourses, b) where/how they position themselves vis–à–vis these and c) how their

interaction with the textbook discourses and other factors influence their social attitudes

and global outlook. The students’ perspectives are gathered employing two research tools,

viz., participatory tools and focus group interviews (see chapter 6).

The research methodology for this study is informed by the social constructivist

paradigm. It employs Foucault’s selective analytical ‘tools’ and discourse analysis to

understand and interpret the study. It is a phenomenological case study that investigates

9 English, Urdu and the Pakistan Studies textbooks. 10 Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12

21

the phenomenon of Pakistani students’ national identity construction in schools through

the following research questions:

Research Questions

1. What are the factors shaping Pakistan’s post-colonial national identity discourses

in Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks of secondary and higher secondary

grades?

2. How do the teachers interact and respond to these factors before they implement

them on schoolchildren?

3. How does the interplay of Pakistan’s national identity discourses in these textbooks

and the teachers’ interface between the schoolchildren and textbooks collectively

function to construct Pakistan’s national identity for the schoolchildren of

secondary and higher secondary grades?

4. How do the schoolchildren’s lived experiences of these national identity discourses

in curriculum textbooks in schools, under the teachers’ supervision, reflect in their

conversations and what are its implications?

Given the colonial historical background of the country and the research focus, the

study is situated in a postcolonial theoretical framework.

1.4 Rationale and Significance of the Study

National identity is a way people make sense of themselves in relation to their

country and others. A national education system has the potential to inculcate into

students a particular sense of nationhood. The initial interest in the project, as stated in

1.1, was inspired by my observation of Pakistani students’ attitudes, who seemed to be

growing ethnocentric in their identity construction/s. I noticed this as a teacher–educator

in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where Indian, Pakistani and Bengali diaspora live

together and interact regularly. Research studies have highlighted the discursive application

of national education for fashioning social othering (see Qazi and Shah, 2019b; Leach and

22

Dunne, 2007). Given the political history of the subcontinent and the

constructed/manufactured nature of national identity, my position as a teacher inspired

me to explore Pakistan’s national curriculum textbook discourses in this context. Apple

(2002) argues that the texts produced under a curriculum are the ‘legitimate knowledge’

(p.63) which constructs students’ consciousness in a ‘legitimate’ and controlled

environment of the school. He contends that, in essence, the entire schooling process is

political and in the control of state governments. They use it to ‘preserve and distribute’

the nation’s ‘cultural capital’ (Apple, 2012, p.20). Milligan (2005) explains the role of

education in greater depth in this backdrop. This not only provides an incredible insight

but also helps summarise the rationale behind my study. He maintains:

[w]hat, we might ask, has education to do with such matters? Surely armed

rebellions and terrorism are military and law enforcement problems, not the

responsibility of schools. Surely political questions of independence,

democratization, or human rights are the purview of political leaders, not teachers.

Economic policymakers are surely better equipped to address matters of poverty,

economic underdevelopment, and unemployment than educational policymakers.

And questions of religious belief and attitudes are widely seen as off-limits for public

education in many modern democratic states. What does education have to do

with any of this? A lot. Education and educational policy, while certainly not the

only or even the main factor, are nevertheless significant players for good or ill in

such conflicts (2005, p.2).

This study is important in several ways. First, it aspires to create awareness

amongst the educators to understand how curriculum textbooks are used for the

discursive constructions of students’ national identities. Taking insights from Apple (2002),

Gellner (1983), Foucault (1988a), Mills (1997), just to name a few, it theorizes a) how

official knowledge is constructed, controlled and exercised in institutions b) how a state-

run education system plays a role in bringing up a nation by constructing national identities

for political reasons c) how grand narratives are introduced and d) how these are sustained

by the process of inclusion and exclusion of other discourses. Second, the study findings

can give an understanding of the mindsets of Pakistan’s education–system–actors to

evaluate their discursive strategies for shaping students’ national belonging to Pakistan.

23

Third, though this study is not diachronic in the sense that it does not analyse the

curriculum textbook discourses, constructed under the guidance of the previous

education policies, it does refer to them during the analysis of the National Education

Policy (2009) and the textbooks mandated under this policy. Therefore, it briefly maps the

changes which have taken place in the identity narratives of various education policies of

the successive governments during the last 72 years. The awareness created by this analysis

can be useful for Pakistan’s education–system–actors to evaluate how they have responded

to constantly emerging socio-political challenges. Fourth, it provides a theoretical insight

into the use of Foucault’s research tools and discourse analysis as well as a postcolonial

theoretical framework to study national identity discourses appearing in the curriculum

textbooks. Fifth, this study claims to be the first of its kind in Pakistan which considers a

postcolonial aspect of national identity constructions through curriculum textbook

discourses in schools. Locating the study of the curriculum design within a postcolonial

theoretical framework makes this research unique. It is an unaddressed area, and I argue

that Pakistan's encounter with postcolonialism has not been featured constructively or

analytically in the study of Pakistani curriculum textbooks. Nor has the curriculum

textbook design been examined from the perspective of that encounter. This study

explores how Pakistani textbooks are sites of political and religious conflicts regarding

different undercurrents of national identity constructions in Pakistan. By this, it aims to

help understand society from a different angle. Overall, the idea is to develop critical

awareness amongst people associated with education, social justice and the NGOs

working for gender, racial and religious equality, and education for peace. The study may

not be exhaustive; however, it offers a credible interpretation of the discourses and

situations present in the curriculum textbooks and their implementation in schools.

1.5 Structure and Summary of Thesis

This document is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 1 relates a motivational

factor that spurred my interest in the project and my position as a researcher. It outlines

key foci of the thesis, situating it in a postcolonial theoretical perspective. The chapter

24

also presents a summary of the methodology adopted for the collection and analysis of

data in addition to outlining the aims, scope, and rationale of the study.

Chapter 2 situates Pakistan in its geopolitical and historical context and briefly

overviews the colonial history of India. It explains how the British colonization of India

impacted the communal relationship of indigenous communities/natives. Similarly, it

attempts to unravel how the eventual burden of colonial history influenced the

conceptualization of Pakistan’s national identity in the postcolonial scenario. The chapter

also examines the official guidelines provided in the previous educational policies for

Pakistan’s national identity constructions in schools.

Chapter 3 reviews relevant literature on identity/national identity theories. It

evaluates the relationship between religion, culture, language, gender and national identity

constructions. The chapter discusses how national identity is constructed by public

performance, employing discourses of inclusion and exclusion. Given the postcolonial

perspective of the study, the literature on relevant postcolonial theoretical concepts is

also reviewed. This chapter also explores international and national literature on the role

of a curriculum in national identity formulations. It eventually identifies the gaps to be

bridged in this research.

Chapter 4 is about the methodological and theoretical choices for the study and

elaborates on data methods, the procedures adopted for field research, sampling

techniques, data analysis and presentation and the trustworthiness of this research. It also

explains the rationale for conducting piloting and resulting modifications in the research

tools used in this study.

Chapter 5 presents the research findings from the sampled textbooks data. It

analyses the emergent themes from these textbooks which construct Pakistan’s national

identity in schools (see research question 1). This chapter also presents visual data and

recorded observations, collected from the research sites.

Chapter 6 presents and analyses the field-research data that include students’

participatory tools and focus group interviews and teachers’ interviews. Drawing on their

perspectives, the study seeks to address research questions 2, 3 and 4, as stated above.

25

Chapter 7 conducts an in-depth discussion about the findings presented in chapters

5 and 6. In so doing, it situates the study in a postcolonial theoretical framework and

employs Foucault’s discourse analysis (DA) and his other analytical tools, discussed in

chapter 4, for its interpretation.

Chapter 8 summarises the research findings and their implications. It relates the

contribution of this research to the existing body of knowledge. Additionally, the chapter

offers recommendations and identifies areas for further research in the field.

26

Chapter 2 – Context of Study

2.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the context for the study of Pakistan’s postcolonial

national identity constructions in schools in six sections. Set against the brief background

information about the colonial history of India and Pakistan, the first section problematises

the impact of British colonization on the communal relations of Indian communities,

particularly Hindus and Muslims. The next two sections map Pakistan’s postcolonial

anxieties concerning its national identity and analyse how/why it was conceptualized mainly

employing Islam and Urdu. Given the research focus, the last section overviews the

previous education policies. The purpose is to study national identity guidelines in these

for shaping students’ national belonging in schools.

2.2 British Colonialization and its Impact on Indian Society

The British Raj in India came to an end in August 1947. However, at the time of

independence, the country was divided into two dominions India and Pakistan on a

religious basis (see chapter 1). The long colonial rule left a lasting influence on the diverse

native Indian communities, particularly Hindus and Muslims. Below I briefly outline the

communal relationship between them before the British colonization. I also provide an

insight into how this relationship altered during the British Raj and the way it influenced

the politics of the region, both during colonial and post-colonial periods.

Before the British colonization, the communal relationship between Hindu and

Muslim communities in India was that of mutual respect based on traditional values and

symbiotic working relationship. Ehsan (2008, p.255) states that both communities

‘coexisted harmoniously for several centuries. Hindu ministers had served in Muslim

courts and vice versa’. He notes that ‘[m]ost of the rulers of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal

dynasty (excluding Feroz Shah –1309–1388 and Aurangzeb –1618 –1707) strove to

27

maintain the balance between the two communities’ (ibid.). Nath11 (1930) authenticates

the will of the first Mughal Emperor Babur (1483–1530) which carries his advice to his son

on religious matters:

It is incumbent that religious bigotries should be wiped off the tablet of the heart

… the temples and places of worship of whatever religion under the royal authority

may not be desecrated (quoted in Ehsan, 2008, p.256).

Nehru (1982) maintains that Islam’s entry in India was very well received and the

people of the sub-continent welcomed Muslim missionaries. He reports stories of

Hindu/Muslim co-authorship of many literary works of the medieval period, including

Bukhari’s Mufrad12. Similarly, the traditions of Sufi Islam illustrate how both communities

were open to religious and intellectual interaction. According to Fyzee (1967), as quoted

in Heptulla (1991):

The works of Jahiz13 are full of Indian concepts and indicate the association of

Muslim saints with Hindu Yogis. Mansur Hallaj14and his pantheism are mirrors of

Vedantic doctrine ... It is also likely that the Sufi orders and practices took some

part of their inspiration from Hindu mystics (p.24).

However, Akbar S. Ahmad gives quite an ambivalent picture:

Two different ways of life were locked together in one subcontinent, intermarrying,

their blood flowing into each other. Culturally and linguistically, in their food and

their clothes, they were similar; they were living with each other, yet withdrawing

from each other. Synthesis yet distance, consensus but also confrontation: the

11 Professor Nath - one of the front-ranking scholars and art-historians of India and an authority on Mughal

Architecture (University Libraries, University of Washington). 12Imam Bukhari's Book Al-Adab Al-Mufrad. A Code for Everyday Living: The Examples of the Early

Muslims. Bukhārī, al- Muslim scholar in full Abu Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Ismaīlal-Bukhārī July 19, 810

Bukhara, Central Asia(Encyclopedia Britannica). 13Al-Jahiz, in full Abu Uthmān Amr ibn Bahr al-Jāhiz (born c. 776, Basra, Iraq—died 868/869, Basra), Islamic

theologian, intellectual, and litterateur known for his individual and masterful Arabic prose (Encyclopedia

Britannica). 14Mansoor Hallāj, al- Islamic mystic, in full Abū al-Mughīth al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣur al-Hallaj c. 858 Tur, Iran

March 26, 922, Baghdad, controversial writer and teacher of Islāmic mysticism ( Sufism) (Encyclopedia

Britannica).

28

relationship between Hindu and Muslim would be the greatest challenge to any

leader in South Asia with a plan for unity (1997, p.52).

These traditions of mutual respect and shared culture, however, underwent

gradual erosion during the British Raj. Over time, both communities began to distrust each

other perceiving their relation in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Notwithstanding the

psychological impact of the colonization, several administrative steps taken by the colonial

master contributed to this change. For example, in the wake of the unsuccessful North

Indian Civil Revolt of 1857, the Queen of England designated the British officers to

enumerate and classify the Indian population applying social and religious classifications. In

this project, Veer (1994, p.19) contends, the ‘categories like caste, religious community,

and race were variously applied… [and] two elements are of particular importance: the

collection of data on caste and the division of the population into religious communities’.

Similarly, the British made a clear distinction between Muhammedan and Hindu laws when

they decided to apply the indigenous law in India. Veer holds that ‘this conceptual division

was further institutionalized in the census operations’ of 1972 which ‘established a Hindu

majority and a Muslim minority that in turn became the basis of electoral, representative

politics’ (1994, p.19). Chaturvedi (2005, p.111) argues that ‘the representation of ‘Hindus’

and ‘Muslims’, as two different, rather rival, political communities, was one of the most

remarkable accomplishments of the imperial mapping of ‘British India’’.

These classifications charted the course for the Indian natives to perceive their

relationship with one another in divisive manners. By the time the struggle for

independence gained momentum, the gulf between Hindus and Muslim communities had

become quite visible. In the latter phase, i.e. the period close to the departure of the

British from India, they had become suspicious of each other and the relationship between

their leaders had strained significantly (see Ishtiaq Ahmed, 2013).

There is no doubt that the Hindu and Muslim communal division was not

completely a colonial invention (see Akbar S. Ahmad, 1997). However, as Veer (1994,

pp.19–20) argues ‘to count these communities and to have leaders represent them was a

colonial novelty, and it was fundamental to the emergence of religious nationalism’. This

29

ultimately culminated in the demand for Pakistan – a separate state for the Muslims, based

on the Two Nation Theory, as briefly discussed in chapter1.

The main thrust of this theory was expounded by Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father,

in his presidential address of 1940 to the All India Muslim League. In it, he argued that

Hindu and Muslims were two different nations because they ‘belong to two different

religions, cultures, philosophies, social customs, traditions and literatures’15. In 1945, he

insisted ‘the duty of every Musalman is to support the official Muslim League16 candidates’

(Jinnah to Maher Mahmodali, 1945, quoted in Jalal, 1994, p.165). Another signifier that was

particularly invoked in this context was Urdu as the language of Muslims. Earlier, Urdu had

gained political legitimacy in the aftermath of the Urdu–Hindi controversy of 1867 (see

Rahman, 2008, p.267), prompting such slogans as ‘‘Hindi–Hindu–Hindustan,’ in opposition

to ‘Urdu–Muslim–(Pakistan)’’ (Ayres, 2009, p.18). Shaikh (2008, p.52) substantiates this

point, arguing that ‘[i]n the late nineteenth century, Urdu, with its lexicon of Persian and

Arabic words, had been adopted by Muslim separatists as a key cultural symbol and a

marker of Muslim identity (along with Islam), to lend substance to the claim that Muslims

were a ‘nation’’. Claiming nationhood exclusively based on religion was unique in the sense

that this does not align with the ideas that often figure in the definitions of nation. Though

vastly debated, these generally include common origin, shared territory and identical

cultural/ethnic ties. Guibernau defines a nation as a:

human group conscious of forming a community, sharing a common culture,

attached to a clearly demarcated territory, having a common past and a common

project for the future and claiming the right to rule itself (1960, p.47).

Claiming nationhood on the basis of religion was problematic for other reasons as

well. The Muslims of India were not a monolithic cohesive polity situated in one

geographical place. Spread across all parts of British India, they were about 20 percent of

the total population of the Empire (see Ayres, 2009). Similarly, they had distinct ethnic,

linguistic and cultural traditions. In the northwest, which is now present-day Pakistan, there

15 Address by Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah at Lahore Session of Muslim League, March 1940

(Islamabad: Directorate of Films and Publishing, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of

Pakistan, Islamabad, 1983), pp. 5-23. 16 Pakistan’s founding political party

30

were Punjabi, Baloch, Sindhi and Pathan people speaking Punjabi, Baluchi, Sindhi and Pushto

languages correspondingly. In the northeast, there were provinces of Assam and Bengal

with their own language and customs. The third community was based in the north-central

part of India in the areas of the United and Central Provinces, the provinces of Bihar,

Orissa, Bombay, Delhi, and many princely states spread all over this part of India. The first

two communities were already living in a Muslim majority region while the third

community lived in a Hindu majority region. The movement for a separate state for

Muslims developed in the areas of the third community. According to Alavi (1988), these

people were educated and job dependent. It was their economic disgruntlement that

fuelled Muslim nationalism. Their language was Urdu, and they migrated to Pakistan after

partition and settled primarily in Karachi, the capital of Sindh (ibid.). Wilfred Smith (1954)

views the emergence of Muslim nationalism in this region as a dispute between the Hindu

bourgeoisie and the Muslim bourgeoisie. On the other hand, in the areas comprising post-

partition East Pakistan (today’s Bangladesh), Muslim nationalism was a class-based peasant

movement against the Bhadralok17and Bengali Hindu landlords (see Talbot and Singh, 2009).

Given the ethnic and geographical divisions of Muslims of India, the signifiers of

language and religion were invoked. The religion of Islam was particularly employed as a

political tool for social othering and to fight the case of a sperate Muslim state. This

galvanized the disparate communities of the Indian Muslims, temporarily camouflaging their

ethnic, religious and provincial identities. However, after the inception of the country,

these identities began to emerge signalling the paradoxical nature of religious identity and

other anxieties.

2.3 Religious and Linguistic National Identities and Postcolonial

Anxieties

The anxieties emerging from the contradictory corollary of the colonial politics of

Islam and Urdu for a separate Muslim state surfaced immediately after independence. In

17 the upper-class Hindu Bengalis

31

the scope of this study, it is appropriate to first see how these echoed in the speeches of

Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

To address the confusion if Pakistan will be a secular state, a theocracy or a modern

democracy, Jinnah argued:

Why this feeling of nervousness that the future constitution of Pakistan is going to

be in conflict with Shariat Laws?… Islamic principles today are as applicable to life

as they were 1,300 years ago…. Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy

(Jinnah’s address to Karachi Bar Association, February 25, 1948).

In a radio talk made to the people of the United States of America in February

1948, Jinnah expressed his ideas on the final shape of the future constitution of Pakistan in

these words:

I am sure it will be a democratic type embodying the essential principles of Islam …

In any case, Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic state, to be ruled by priests with

a divine mission. We have many non–Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Parsis –but

they are all Pakistanis. They will enjoy the same rights and privileges as any other

citizens (A Radio Broadcast, Jinnah, 1948).

Interestingly, however, he also viewed all identities as obedient to Islam and saw

regionalism as destructive deviancy from Islamic unity: ‘[s]o what is the use of saying we

are Bengalis, or Sindhis, or Pathans, or Punjabis? No, we are Muslim’ (Jinnah, 12 March

1948). On the other hand, Jinnah’s inaugural speech delivered to the constituent assembly

of Pakistan on August 11, 1947 sets to lay a secular vision for Pakistan:

You may belong to any religion or caste or creed and that has nothing to do with

the business of the State. You will find that in the course of time, Hindus will cease

to be Hindus, Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because

that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as a citizen of

the State. ... We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens

and equal citizens of one State (Jinnah, 1947, p. 10).

But on the same occasion he also maintained:

32

Who am I to give you a constitution? The prophet of Islam had given us a

constitution 1,300 years ago. We have to simply follow and implement it and based

on it we have to establish in our state Islam’s great system of governance (11

August 1947, quoted in G. Allana, 1969).

These excerpts paint a very complicated picture of what Jinnah truly envisioned for

the identity of a newly born state of Pakistan. In March 1949, the Constituent Assembly

of Pakistan passed Pakistan’s The Objectives Resolution18. Declaring that the ‘sovereignty

over the entire universe belongs to God’, it promulgated Islam as a defining feature of

Pakistan’s national identity. Moving the resolution, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Khan

Liaqat Ali Khan maintained that Islam was not a ‘matter of private beliefs and conducts’,

rather it required from its adherents to build a society on ‘spiritual values’ (The Objectives

Resolution, 2009, p.92). To the opposition of this resolution, Bhupendra Kumar

Datta19argued that the promulgation of laws is purely a political sphere, whereas, the

matters between God and man come in a religious domain. He further maintained that, by

mixing religion with politics, the former will be subjected to criticism which would amount

to heresy in the future and would have dire consequences (The Objectives Resolution,

2009, pp.99–100). The adoption of the resolution proved a watershed as it later became

the Preamble of the 1956, 1962 and 1973 Constitutions of Pakistan. Interestingly, what

Datta predicted in 1948 has recurrently happened in Pakistan during its entire post-

colonial history (see chapter 7).

In the face of the ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity of the territory comprising

Pakistan and due to the policies of Pakistan’s postcolonial bureaucracy, the veneer of

Islamic bond soon began to crack (see chapter 1 and also section 2.4 below). This

ultimately culminated in the cessation of East Pakistan in 1971, giving birth to Bangladesh.

Paradoxically, rather than revising these policies, the state further emphasized them by

claiming the Arab cultural roots of a ‘separate Pakistani identity … instead of the rich

Indus–Ganges civilization’ (Salim and Khan, 2004, p.6). Keeping with The Objectives

18 The Objectives Resolution was passed in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on Saturday, March 12,

1949 (see The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates: Official Report of the fifth session of the

Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, Karachi, 1949, Volume 101:102). 19Bhupendra Kumar Datta belonged to the Congress Party. His speech was delivered on Tuesday, March 8,

1949 (see The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan Debates, Volume 38:43).

33

Resolution, the 1973 Constitution, which stands to this day, went a step further requiring

both the Prime Minister and the President of Pakistan to be Muslim. Also, it requires them

to testify their faith officially before assuming their office (Cohen, 2004). In 1985 the

president Gen. Zia–ul–Haq (1977–1988), with the 8th amendment, made The Objectives

Resolution a permanent part of the Constitution of Pakistan (Cohen, 2004). It gave the

country an ambiguous Islamic identity (see Cohen, 2004). As Datta (1949) had predicted,

the later interpretations of The Objectives Resolutions opened a door to innumerable

demands. Abul Ala Mawdudi20 (1903–1979), the head of Jamat–e–Islami,21 argued that the

phrase ‘sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to God’ means Islamic Shariah22will

be the guiding principle for the Muslim polity in the country. Similarly, he maintained,

Shariah will guide the foreign relations between Pakistan and the non–Muslim states

(Maududi, 1980, pp.332–336). Foregrounding this, he chartered a twenty–two–point

political programme, seeking complete Islamisation of Pakistan according to his ideas and

interpretation of Shariah (see Ishtiaq Ahmed, 2008). Islam had been used in all walks of life

to achieve political ends. For example, in 1953 massive riots broke out against the

Ahmadiyya23 sect of Muslims causing deaths, rape, and vandalization of properties. Behind

this move were political and religious parties of the country, including the members of the

Pakistan Muslim League (Government of Pakistan, Court of Inquiry Report, 1954). In 1974,

the state of Pakistan declared the Ahmadiyya non–Muslim.

Other than Islam, the issue of the Urdu language with its roots in colonial politics,

as discussed in the previous section, also emerged in the post-colonial scenario. On 24

March 1948, Jinnah declared Urdu24 Pakistan’s national language drawing its links with

Islam/Islamic culture:

20Mawdūdī, Abul-Alla, (born Sept. 25, 1903, Aurangābād, Hyderābād state [India]—died Sept. 22,

1979, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.), , journalist and fundamentalist Muslim theologian who played a major role in

Pakistani politics (Encyclopedia Britannica). 21Jamaat-iIslami, ( Arabic: ‘Islamic Society’) religious party founded in British-controlled India (now Pakistan)

in 1941 by Mawlana Abul-Alla Mawdūdī (1903–79) (Encyclopedia Britannica). 22Sharīah, also spelled Sharia, the fundamental religious concept of Islam, namely its law, systematized

during the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (8th–9th centuries CE) (Encyclopedia Britannica). 23Ahmadiyyah, also spelled Ahmadiyya, modern Islamic sect and a name shared by several Sufi (Muslim

mystic) orders. The sect was founded in Qādiān in the Punjab, India, in 1889 by Mīrzā Ghulām Ahmad

(c.1839–1908), who claimed to be the mahdī (a figure expected by some Muslims at the end of the world),

the Christian Messiah, an incarnation of the Hindu god Krishna, and a reappearance (burūz) of

Muhammad(Encyclopedia Britannica). 24Jinnah made this announcement in the University of Dhaka’s Convocation, which is now in Bangladesh.

34

The State language, therefore, must obviously be Urdu, a language that has been

nurtured by a hundred million Muslims of the subcontinent, a language...which…

embodies the best that is in Islamic culture and Muslim tradition and is nearest to

the language used in other Islamic countries (Jinnah, 1948, quoted in Ayres, 2009,

p.43).

Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan also argued for Urdu as a national language on

similar grounds as Jinnah (see Ayres, 2009). Interestingly, at the time of the creation of

Pakistan, there were no Urdu speaking people in the areas comprising the new country.

The decision to declare Urdu as Pakistan’s sole national language was taken despite the

awareness about the linguistic diversity in the areas comprising Pakistan (see Rahman,

2002). The Eastern wing of Pakistan was almost entirely Bengali speaking (Noman, 1990;

Hananana, 2001). The Western wing of Pakistan (today’s Pakistan) is comprised of these

people as Balochis, Pathans, Punjabis, Sindhis, and the Northern Area people (Kazi, 1987).

By employing Islam as Pakistan’s overarching identity and drawing the links of the Urdu

language with it, the ethnolinguistic and cultural links of the people of the land were

destabilized (see Alavi, 1972; Waseem, 1989). It has caused numeral political upheavals in

postcolonial Pakistan including the cessation of Pakistan in 1971, as stated earlier (also see

Ayres, 2009).

2.4 Postcolonial Pakistan’s Administration and National Identity – A

Colonial Continuity

In the event of India’s partition, the control of Pakistan was transferred to mainly

the Muslim officers of British trained civil bureaucracy and military. The following section

explains how they warranted the continuity of the colonial system of domination, albeit in

a different form.

Of 101 Muslim officers serving in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and the Indian

Political Service (IPS), 95 moved to Pakistan and became strong partners in Pakistan’s civil

35

bureaucracy (Braibanti, 1963). Most of them were the Urdu speaking Mohajirs25 from the

United and Central Provinces of the north-central part of India (see section 2.2).

Previously, they had played ‘a key role in shaping the style and direction of early Indian

nationalist politics and they were at the centre, throughout, of the Pakistan movement’

(Alavi, 1989, p.1527). They joined hands with the powerful landed elite–cum–politicians of

the Punjab province of Pakistan (Alavi, 1972). To sustain that, they reintroduced the

politics of Islam and Urdu to consolidate their power. Similarly, since the Indian Mutiny of

the Bengal Army in 1857, the recruitment base of the British Army had moved to Punjab

and the Northwest Frontier Province (present-day Khyber–Pakhtunkhwa) (see

Soherwordi, 2010; Peel Commission Report, 1859)26. These provinces became part of

Pakistan after the partition.

On the political front, the members of Punjab’s Unionist Party who represented

the interests of Punjab’s landed gentry and the landlords of the province, joined the

Pakistan Muslim League (Pakistan’s founding political party). Hence, the victory of the latter

in 1946’s elections was ‘simply a case of the landlords and sufipirs moving en–bloc from

one party to the other’ (Yong, 2005, p.300). Given that, the power conjuration in the

Province of Punjab in the postcolonial period remained almost the same as in the colonial

period.

In the wake of partition, the Muhajir and Punjabi elite became trusted partners in

power-sharing. Their co-option resulted in a complete power imbalance over the rest of

Pakistan. By the 1960s, Bengalis who made 56% population of the country had less than

7% representation in the Pakistan Army (Asghar Khan, 2005, p.21). According to Feldman,

by 1969 ‘[s]ixty percent of the army consisted of the Punjabis, 35 percents were Pushtuns

and others constituted the remaining 5 percent’ (p.169). The overall share of the Mohajir’s

in the Pakistan Army, at the levels below officer ranks, was just 5%. However, ‘(above the

25 Urdu speaking Muslim immigrants of multi-ethnic origin who migrated from various regions of India after

Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan. 26 Allama Iqbal (1930) in his famous Allahbad address, reminds the British of the services of Muslim soldiers

of the Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province (present day Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of

Pakistan) ,which they had rendered to safeguard the colonial interests in the region and beyond, during the

First World War. He states: ‘[t]he Punjab with 56 percent Muslim population supplies 54 percent of the

total combatant troops in the Indian Army… nearly 6,000 combatants supplied to the Indian Army by the

North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan’ (Sir Muhammad Iqbal’s 1930 Presidential Address; Section

3C).

36

rank of brigadier) it was disproportionately high in 1968 at 23 percent as they held 11 of

48 positions’ (Sayeed, 1968, p.278). It is more significant in the view that during this period,

the Mohajirs, on the whole, made up only 3 percent of the total population of Pakistan

(Waseem, 1996, p.621). In the bureaucracy, by 1950, the share of the Mohajirs was 46.6%

among the total successful civil service examination candidates (Waseem, 1997, p.228).

Alavi (1989) holds that Bengalis, despite their higher level of education, were much

underrepresented in the bureaucracy. Adeel Khan (2005) substantiates this point stating

that ‘[i]n 1948, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which had 56 percent of Pakistan’s total

population, had only 11.1 percent share in the civil service and the rest of the personnel,

88.9 percent, were from West Pakistan’ (p.63). Jahan (1972) mentions that, by 1964, only

two Bengali officers could make for the position of acting secretaries, whereas, the West

Pakistanis held 90% of positions at the central government (Maniruzzaman, 1966). Alavi

(1989) maintains that, after partition, ‘Muhajirs shared control over state power as junior

partners of the dominant Punjabis’ (p.1528), and they held this position even after the

separation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Kennedy (1991, p.942) argues that ‘in 1973,

after the separation of the eastern wing, when the Mohajirs comprised less than 8 percent

of the total population, their share of the higher positions in the civil service was as high

as 33.5 percent’ (quoted in Adeel Khan, 2004, p.46). Criticizing the inherent colonial

structure of Pakistan’s bureaucracy, Egger (1953) contends that this situation had been

engineered for more than anything else as an instrument to continue the colonial practices

of administration.

It was under the influence of powerful Urdu speaking Mohajir27 politicians and

bureaucrats that Urdu was declared as the only national language ignoring other

identities28. The motive behind was to keep Pakistan’s sub-national ethnic groups out of

power (see Rahman, 2002; Zaidi, 2010)29. In this scheme, they had the support of their

senior partner, the Punjabis. The patronization of Urdu favoured both of them in lower

27 Urdu speaking Muslim immigrants of multi-ethnic origin who migrated from various regions of India after

Partition of India to settle in the newly independent state of Pakistan. 28 Pakistan included Bengalis in the East Pakistan and Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, Pakhtoon etc., in the West

Pakistan etc., - each with its own distinct language. 29 At the time of partition of India in 1947, Pakistan’s bureaucracy was mainly comprised of Urdu speaking

officers. Of 101 Indian Civil Service’s (ICS) and Indian Political Service’s (IPS) officers, ‘[n]inety-five … (83

ICS, 12 IPS) opted for Pakistan (Braibanti, 1963, pp.366–67). Of 83 ICS officers, ‘49 were Urdu speakers

from minority provinces’ (Sayeed, 1987, pp.132, 156), who co-opted with the Punjabis for political reasons.

37

echelons of power. They used it as a power–ploy to amass political strength and to keep

Pakistan’s majority Bengali population (then) out of power. Rahman maintains:

since the Bengalis constituted more than half (55.6 percent) of the population of

Pakistan, the ruling elite—Muslim League [the ruling party] politicians, the

bureaucracy, and the military—which was dominated by a Punjabi–Mohajir

coalition felt threatened by the mere fact of Bengali majority. To neutralize the

threat of possible domination by East Bengal [i.e., East Pakistan], it might have made

sense to the ruling elite to fall back on Urdu (2002, p.263).

Zaidi (2010, pp.23–24) points out that considering the numerical majority and the

democratic right of ‘one–man–one–vote formula’, Pakistan’s new rulers should have been

Bengalis, and this would have meant ‘ascendancy of the Bengali language, inter alia’ (ibid.).

This case overall suggests a close relationship between power relations and the

project of national identity construction.

2.4.1 Colonial Language Policies and Postcolonial Pakistan

Coleman (2010) holds that during the British Raj, the language policy was that

‘Urdu should be the medium of instruction for the masses and that English should be the

medium for the elite’ (p.14). Earlier Lord Macaulay in 1835 had advocated the need for the

use of the English language ‘in all Indian higher education’ with the purpose to ‘promote

Indian loyalty to British rule’ (Cutts, 1953, p.824). Macaulay had argued ‘[w]e must at

present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions

whom we govern - a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in

opinions, in morals and in intellect’ (Sharp, 1965, p.116). Because of British language policy,

English became the language of power depriving the Muslims of India of the Persian and

Arabic cultural sources and distancing Hindus of North India from the Sanskrit origins of

culture (Coleman and Capstick, 2012). Coleman notes that under the colonial education

policy:

38

Punjabis in general were not educated in Punjabi and so lost access to the sources

of their folk knowledge… and Hindu Punjabis were not educated in Sanskrit and

Muslim Punjabis were not educated in Persian so that both groups lost contact with

the literary sources of their cultures (2010, p.14).

This colonial case is relevant to describe the situation of postcolonial Pakistan

which is extremely heterogeneous30. According to a BBC report, published in 2015, 48%

population in Pakistan speak Punjabi, 12% Sindhi, 10% Saraiki, 8% Pashto, 8% Urdu and 3%

Balochi, whereas English is the most popular language among government ministries (Adeel

Khan, 2015). Disregarding local languages, Urdu is used as a medium of instruction in all

provinces of Pakistan, including Pakistani administered Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, with

the partial exception of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

As discussed earlier, the non–recognition of the Bengali language led to the

cessation of East Pakistan (Ayres, 2009, p.5). Paradoxically, it could not bring the necessary

realization to the stakeholders to alter their policy. The 1970s Pakistan witnessed riots in

the Sindh province against the decision of introducing the Sindhi language as compulsory

in the province of Sindh. The non–Sindhi population comprised of the Urdu speaking

Muhajirs started this movement. Interestingly, on the other hand, the introduction of the

Sindhi language for the people of Sindh later afforded a new consciousness to the Muhajir

identity and ‘[b]y 1980s the Urdu speaking refugees started their own identity movement

… [which] added a new dimension to identity politics in Pakistan’ (Ijaz Khan, 2006, p.66).

These movements were quelled using military force. Siddiqi (2009, p.3) holds that the

quest for regional identities has led to many political movements prompting ‘military action

against the Baloch in the 1970s, against the Sindhis in the 1980s and Mohajirs in the 1990s’.

Siddiqi further explains this situation as follows:

The post–1971 Pakistani state formalised the dilemma of the pre–1971 Pakistani

state where politically dominant ethnic group(s), yet numerically in a minority,

ruled over the majority group (the Bengalis). After the secession of East Pakistan,

the political dominance of the Punjabis came in consonance with their numerical

30 It is comprised of the provinces Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Baluchistan each speaking

different language which in most cases is not mutually intelligible.

39

majority in the new state of affairs. Thus, the Punjabis were now both politically

and numerically dominant while before 1971 they were only dominant politically

(2009, p.2).

2.5 Pakistan’s National Identity Construction – An Overview of

Pakistan’s National Education Policies

This section briefly reviews how the metaphors of Islam and the Urdu language

have been employed in Pakistan’s National Education Policies of 1947, 1959, 1979, 1970,

1972, 1992, 2002 and 1998. These policies carry state–memoranda, under the guidelines

of which national identity discourses are produced in national school textbooks.

2.5.1. Education Policies and Islam

Islam as Pakistan’s most significant national identity symbol is invoked in all its

education policies. Explaining the significance of Islam, Pakistan first Educational

Conference (PEC), held in November 1947, states:

The provision for instruction in the fundamentals of religion [Islam] in

schools is, therefore, a paramount necessity for without such knowledge

we cannot hope to build character or lay the foundation for an adequate

philosophy of life (PEC, 1947, p. 8).

On the recommendation of The Sharif Commission (SC) of 1959, appointed by

Pakistan’s first Martial Law Government of General Ayub Khan (1958–1969), religious

education was made compulsory at the elementary level, and subjects such as history,

geography and civics were merged into social studies. The policy states:

Our country arose from striving to preserve the Islamic way of life. … The moral

and spiritual values of Islam combined with the freedom, integrity, and strength of

Pakistan should be the ideology which inspires our educational system (SCR, 1959,

p.11).

40

Saikia (2014, p.293) maintains that though the ‘struggle of ‘Muslim Becoming’ has

been at the heart of Pakistan since its foundation’, it was Ayub Khan who ‘laid the

groundwork for a narrow state version of a defined Muslim identity’ (p.296). President

General Yahya Khan’s National Education Policy (NEP) (1970) emphasized the role of

education in the ‘preservation and inculcation of Islamic values as an instrument of national

unity and progress’ (p.1). It further added ‘[t]he educational system should also emphasize

attitudes of social responsibility and commitment as the cornerstone of the Islamic way of

life (NEP, 1970, p.2). The NEP (1972), promulgated during the first stint of Zulfiqar Ali

Bhutto (1971–1973) in power, continued defining Pakistan’s national identity based on

Islam. The first two objectives that it set to achieve were a) ‘[e]nsuring the preservation,

promotion and practice of the basic ideology of Pakistan and making it a code of individual

and national life’, and b) ‘[b]uilding up national cohesion by promoting social and cultural

harmony compatible with our basic ideology’ (NEP, 1972, pp.2–3). It is interesting to note

that the phrase ‘ideology of Pakistan’ was never used by Pakistan’s founding fathers and is

said to have been coined by General Sher Ali Patodi, who served in the cabinet of President

General Yahya Khan (1969–1971) as minister for information. Rahman and Zia (2010)

argue that ‘the term signifies a conceptual amalgamation comprising a strong federation,

anti–India propaganda and religious fundamentalism’ (p.9).

The NEP (1979) by the military government of Zia–ul–Haq (1977–1988) aimed

‘[t]o foster in the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan in general and the students,

in particular, deep and abiding loyalty to Islam and Pakistan’ (NEP, 1979, p. 2), through the

use of education. In comparison with the previous educational policies, it takes a step

further towards Islamizing Pakistani society following his ideal. The policy stated:

The highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with a view to

reorganising the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an

ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology, permeates the thinking of the

younger generation and helps them with the necessary conviction and ability to

refashion society according to Islamic tenets (NEP, 1979, p.2).

The policy also declared the subjects of Islamic Studies and Pakistan Studies

compulsory, to be taught up to undergraduate levels and recommended separate

41

educational institutions for girls. Saigol (1995) argues that during Zia’s stint in power

‘religion as an instrument of homogenization and control became a central stage’ (p.120).

Rahman (1998, p.10), however, maintains that empirically it is difficult to substantiate the

view that Zia–ul– Haq drove Pakistan to further Islamisation or nationalism: ‘there are

continuities between Zia ul Haq's policies of Islamizing education and the policies of earlier

regimes. The difference, indeed, is that of degree not of a kind’ (ibid., p.9).

The NEP (1992), formulated during the first democratic government of Nawaz

Sharif (1990–1993), sustained similar trends. Explaining the education policy objectives, it

emphasized the benefits of Islam’s interpolation in the contents of most subjects taught in

schools:

The existing provision of Islamic education will form the basis for the development

of new curricula… At secondary and post-secondary levels, a coherent comparison

of the worldview of science and technology and Islam will be presented (NEP, 1992,

p.14).

The most interesting assertion in this regard follows as: ‘no other worldview,

certainly not of science and technology, would stand up to the social organization designed

by the worldview of Islam’ (NEP, 1992, p.13). The NEP (1998) presented during the second

tenure of the Nawaz Sharif government (1997–1999) followed similar fundamental

principles for identity constructions: ‘Ideology of Islam forms the genesis of the state of

Pakistan. The country cannot survive and advance without placing the entire system of

education on a sound Islamic foundation’ (NEP, 1998, p.2).

Hence, all education policies emphasize Islam for Pakistan’s national identity

formulation. This objective was first introduced in Pakistan’s first Education Conference

held in 1947 and became an integral part of all education policies announced thenceforth.

2.5.2. Education Policies and Urdu

One cardinal point of Pakistan’s first Educational Conference (PEC) (27 November

to 1st December 1947) was to declare Urdu as a compulsory language in schools. The

42

education committee argued that it was essential to institute a common ‘language for the

maintenance of the new nation of Pakistan (PEC, 1947, p.21). General Ayub Khan's

Commission on National Education (CNE) (1958–1959) again advised strengthening the

centralist language policy of promoting Urdu in the West Pakistan (Bengali was now

another national language). The report recommended:

for the sake of our national unity we must do everything to promote the linguistic

cohesion of West Pakistan by developing the national language, Urdu, to the fullest

extent. In the areas of the former Punjab, Bahawalpur and Baluchistan, Urdu is

already the medium of instruction at the primary stage, and this arrangement

should continue (CNE, 1959: Chapter 21, para 14, p.284).

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (1971–1973) similarly found the Urdu language a significant

national identity symbol and did not make any changes in this regard in the NEP (1972).

General Zia–ul–Haq’s NEP (1979) also proposed Urdu as a medium of instruction ‘to

strengthen ideological foundations of the nation and to foster the unity of thought,

brotherhood and patriotism’ (ibid p.2).

The NEPs of 1992 and 1998, announced during the tenures of Prime Minister

Nawaz Sharif, however, recommended regional languages as media of instructions in

provinces (see Gopang et al., 2016). A similar consciousness was also shown in the

National Education Policy of 2009.

After the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan (1973), in 2010,

education has fallen under the purview of provinces, giving them more autonomy in the

matters of curriculum design and syllabus.

2.6 Conclusion

Hindus and Muslim communities of India lived peacefully for hundreds of years

based on mutual respect. The British colonization changed the social dynamics of Indian

society triggering strong communal divisions between them. Employing the slogan of Islam

and Urdu, the Muslim leadership galvanized India’s disparate Muslim population to demand

43

a separate state. This slogan worked well in the face of a ‘common enemy’ Hindu, and

Pakistan came into being. However, the religious and linguistic bond began to rupture soon

after partition, giving way to the emergence of ethnic/cultural identities. Rather than

embracing the diversity, the Pakistani state, with its strong colonial administrative

structure, suppressed these identities superimposing Islam and Urdu. Albeit more subtly,

it looks like the continuation of the exclusionary colonial policies, discussed in section 2.2.

This finally disintegrated Pakistan in 1971.

Ingrained in postcolonial contending discourses of Western democracy versus

Islamic welfare state, and a state for Muslims or theocracy, the issue of Pakistan’s national

identity has continued causing multiple confusions in remaining Pakistan (see Ahmed, 2019;

Siddiqa, 2017; Jalal, 2016). It still persists wielding enormous power and manifests in varied

forms on different occasions. For instance, as Malik reports, the Supreme Court of

Pakistan during a case hearing on the role of the parliament inquired: ‘[c]an Pakistan be

declared a secular state? If there is a popular demand, then how Pakistan can be declared

a secular state’ (2015, p.1). Alam (2016) in the discussion of national democratic narrative

poses: ‘What is our identity? What makes us different from other Muslims who live in 56

Muslim–majority states and are separated from each other by ethnicity, geography, culture,

language and nationhood?’ (p.6). On the other hand, national discourses of Pakistan's

national identity are also challenged in various other forms, for example, in the country’s

literary festivals. Rehmat (2019, p.10) maintains that these festivals have ‘become a symbol

of citizen resistance against alienating state narratives and… reclaimed the space for a

citizen-centred pluralist discourse that had been lost to people in the previous decade’.

He further argues that these afford ‘the alternative national discourse on ‘Where do we

go from here’, as a pluralist state, and the state’s tendency to be functionally unitary’ (ibid.).

Shah (2016) maintains that being grounded in Pakistan’s multiple identities and its ‘diversity

of cultures, languages, religious belief, and ethnic makeup’, Pakistani art presented in

literary festivals ‘tells stories that are uniquely Pakistani, and not necessarily in line with

the narrative that the state prescribes for its citizens’ (p.9). Ishtiaq Ahmed discussing the

Pakistani state in a similar context maintains that Pakistan is a ‘great puzzle for any social

scientist’ because of its some ‘very fascinating peculiarities’ (The State of Pakistan: An

Analysis, 2019).

44

Cast in this background, Pakistani textbooks, constructed under the guidelines

provided in the curriculum policies, operate for Pakistan’s postcolonial national identity

constructions in schools. This study analyses students’ national identity construction of

Pakistan in schools, with reference to the current education policy (2009) and its mandated

textbooks. It also problematises the role of teachers in implementing these textbooks in

schools and students’ interaction with these discourses under teachers’ supervision

45

Chapter 3 – Literature Review

3.1 Introduction

This study aims to investigate the process of students’ postcolonial national identity

constructions of Pakistan, employing national curriculum textbooks and their

implementation in schools. This chapter, therefore, reviews the literature on national

identity theories, the role of national curriculum textbooks in shaping students’ national

identity and postcolonial theory. The opening section briefly introduces identity concepts

which lead to in-depth discussions on the theories of national identity. In view of the

emergence of religion, language, gender and militaristic identity as dominant national

identity themes from the study of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks, the succeeding

three sections problematise these concepts. Next, the role of the national curricula in

identity formulation is explored, relating intercontinental cases. The section following that

investigates the politics of textbooks in South Asia analysing the instances of national

identity formulation in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – three postcolonial states with a

history of long shared past. The last two sections problematise the potential of

postcolonial theory and its underpinning concepts relevant to national identity formulation.

3.2 Identity and National Identity

The concept of identity is central to the debates on national identity/national

identity formulation in most social science disciplines. Therefore, it is logical to

briefly explain it before the theories of national identity are discussed.

3.2.1 Identity

Identity refers to ‘the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished

in their social relations with other individuals and collectivities’ (Jenkins, 2008,

p.18). Tajfel’s and Turner’s (2001) social identity theory suggests that groups (e.g. social

46

class, family, football team etc.) are an important source of recognition. They give their

members a sense of belonging and self–importance, hence, a social identity. On the

importance of identity, Bloom (1990) argues that the sense of stable identity is essential

for one’s psychological well–being and the opposite of it can lead to ‘anxiety and

breakdown’ (p.50). Poststructuralist/postmodern thinkers define identity as

alterity/otherness where meanings are derived from what something is not. According to

Derrida, as explained in Sweetman (1997, p.236), ‘all identities, presences, predications, etc.,

depend for their existence on something outside themselves, something which is absent and

different from themselves’ (original emphasis). He argues that ‘identities are simply

constructs of the mind, and essentially of language’ (ibid.). Lyotard (1984) thinks that it is

the narrative that provides the basis of human experience and tells us ‘who we are and

allows us to express what we believe and aspire to’ (quoted in Malpas, 2005, p.21). Malpas

(2005), referring to the above statement, argues that ‘[t]he organisation of knowledge in

society thereby determines the identity — the self–image, the ideas and aspirations — of

the people that make it up’ (p.23). Lyotard (1984) maintains that the existence of a human

being is dependent on a series of ‘language games’ (p.9) which are negotiated in societies

through laws, politics and legitimation. In most cultures, it is one’s ‘other’ that defines,

determines and names their identity. Hall (1991, p.10) holds that ‘[i]dentity is a process,

identity is split. Identity is not a fixed point but an ambivalent point. Identity is also the

relationship of the Other to oneself’. Wodak et al., (2009) maintain that the notion of

identity is never suggestive of anything whatsoever as ‘static, unchanging, or substantial’

(p.11). It is rather ‘an element situated in the flow of time, ever-changing, something

involved in a process’ (ibid). These are relevant concepts to understand how Pakistani

curriculum discourses construct children’s self; who is positioned as their ‘other’; why this

‘other’ and not other ‘others’; how the process of this particular othering influences

children’s understanding of the society and the world at large; and how far the British

colonization of India has contributed in shaping this particular ‘other’.

47

3.2.2 Nationalism/National Identity Debates

This section discusses theories of nation/nationalism to situate Pakistani nationalism

in its historical context. It will give an idea as to how Pakistan’s particular postcolonial

‘official’ imagining of its national identity influences the construction/s of Pakistan’s national

identity discourses in national curriculum textbooks. Nationalism is a political ideology and

an umbrella term covering the fundamentals of a nation, national consciousness and

national identity. The academics theorizing the notion of nationalism can be broadly

divided into three main groups, namely the primordialists or perennialists, modernists

and ethno-symbolists. This section discusses nationalism/national identity theories,

drawing mainly on the works of Gellner (1983), Anderson (1983), Anthony D. Smith

(1991), Hutchinson (2001), Hobsbawm (1992), Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983), Miller

(1995), Billig (1995), Edensor (2002), and Wodak, et al., (2009). The contribution of some

of these authors to the scholarship has been enormously influential. In addition to

discussing identity as a concept, Gellner, Miller, Billig and Anthony D. Smith have

also theorized the role of curriculum/school in national identity formulation as discussed

in section 3.2. In view of the focus of my research, this aspect is particularly relevant.

Given Pakistan is a modern postcolonial nation state, which came into being in

1947, it is appropriate to commence the discussion on nationalism with Gellner’s (1983)

and Anderson’s (1983) modernist account of nationalism/national identity. Moving away

from the primordialists’ or perennialists’ perspectives that nations are ancient, natural, and

biological phenomena, the modernists – particularly Anderson (1983) and Gellner (1983)

– have a constructivist approach towards nationalism. Unlike the primordialists, who

believe in the kinship/ethnic relations to be the basis of a nation (see Shils, 1957),

Anderson’s and Gellner’s approach is centred on their proverbial notions of ‘imagined

community’ and ‘congruence principle’, respectively, as explained below. They argue that

the concept of a nation emerged in the 19th century and is a direct result of the European

Industrial Revolution. Similarly, they maintain that ‘nations are a product of processes of

social integration and political mobilization’ (Gat, 2013, p.1).

In the heart of Gellner’s (1983) theory of nationalism is the idea of the

transformation of society from its agrarian economic model to an industrial economic

48

model. In its former mode, the society was predominantly comprised of peasant farmers.

There were clear boundaries between social classes. The economic mobility was limited

as the occupations were mostly hereditary and would transfer within communities/families

without affecting social classes. Therefore, despite living together as a bounded community

under the ‘state’, no particular class of society or a community would require imposing

the idea of common language/culture or myths of religious/cultural comradery and

ancestry on other classes/communities. The emergence of industry altered this equation.

The industrialized world needed a pool of efficient workers for its expansion. Therefore,

it required a standardized mass education. Hence, Gellner (1983) defines modern

nationalism as ‘a school–mediated, academy supervised idiom, codified for the

requirements of reasonably precise bureaucratic and technological communication’ (p.57).

This not only broke apart the agrarian social divisions but also brought greater economic

mobility. Therefore, behind the importance of a common language in modern nationalism

is the economic drive. Similarly, the idea of global culture with an emphasis

on identical international common media of communication, knowledge and aspirations

serves the same purpose (see Gellner, 1983). Defining a modern nation, Gellner argues:

[a] mere category of persons (say, occupants of a given territory, or speakers of a

given language, for example) becomes a nation if and when the members of the

category firmly recognize certain mutual rights and duties to each other in virtue of

their shared membership of it (1983, p.7).

Gellner argues that the state and nation should be congruent – in other words, the

nation should live within the boundaries of the state. However, the idea of congruent

principle is not very clear. Gellner (1983) believes in a top-down approach to nationalism,

where the ruling elite of the country promotes a particular ‘high culture’ or more

appropriately ‘garden cultures’ (pp.62–63). He argues that the state–elite enjoys a

thorough monopoly on the national identity narratives, and through that, they assert the

sovereignty of the state. Gellner considers nationalism drive a rational administrative

imperative. Its objectives are achieved by underlining the cultural/ethnic homogeneity of a

nation using ‘official’ knowledge and modern institutions including the school. Gellner

justifies it on the account that the emergence of nation states necessarily required a

strong central control. This essentialized the need to institutionalize the cultural norms of

49

people living in a geographically demarcated territory by infusing national ideologies.

Modern societies were able to make it happen due to the availability of modem means of

propaganda (e.g., school, media etc.), bureaucracy, and institutions that provide scientific

knowledge. The objective is to have masses adhered to centralized policies, norms

and values so that a homogenized culture evolves to facilitate the centre. Gellner holds

that modern societies are not like premodern agrarian societies which had a wider

acceptance for plurality being demonstrated by multiple languages/dialects and cultures.

Modern societies need a common language to ensure that the population is mobile

and contributes to enhancing the industrial requirements of modern society. In Pakistan

too, a pronounced emphasis was placed on the promotion of a particular version of Islam

and a singular language i.e. Urdu at the cost of minority cultures and indigenous local

languages. However, the motive behind this was not economic mobility but the interests

of the ruling elite (see chapter 2).

Edensor (2002) raises some very pertinent questions on Gellner’s notions of

nationalism and national identity formulation, relevant to this study. He queries ‘whether

all subjects [will] willingly give up their cultural values in the face of the nation’ (Edensor,

2002, p.3). In Pakistan, as discussed in chapter 2, such attempts were challenged by

different ethnic groups, paving the way for the secession of the country in 1971. Edensor

(2002) also explores both ‘official’ and ‘popular’ ways in which national identities are

(re)produced, enacted and performed. The metaphor of performance is very important

in this context. He argues that it helps to understand how the performance of nationalism

in state-sanctioned ceremonies and public rituals plays a role in developing the feeling of

‘collectivity’. Edensor further maintains:

The position of the state towards already existing cultures is complex, for certain

cultures may be eradicated (especially in the case of ethnic or religious

particularity), or they may be adopted and adapted by the cultural establishment

(2002, p.3).

In the view that Pakistan’s national identity was formulated mainly by employing

religion, Edensor’s notions of ethnic and religious cultures are of particular importance to

explore Pakistan’s post-colonial nationalism.

50

Anderson (2006) defines the nation as a socially fabricated ‘imagined community’

(p.24). To substantiate that he maintains ‘[i]t is imagined because the members of even

the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow–members, meet them, or even

hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion’ (p.6). He

further argues that the members of a nation are united by a ‘deep horizontal

comradeship… it is this fraternity that makes it possible…not so much to kill, as willingly

to die for such limited imaginings’ (p.23). He also describes the nation as both limited and

sovereign, arguing ‘[t]he nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them,

encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond

which lie other nations’(p.12). Similarly, a nation is ‘imagined as sovereign because the

concept was born in an age in which Enlightenment and Revolution were destroying the

legitimacy of the divinely–ordained, hierarchical dynastic realm’(ibid.). By suggesting the

limitation of a nation, Anderson implies that neither can the universalism of any religious

philosophy nor can any number of a population comprising a nation can make it infinite.

Similarly, given the period of its emergence i.e., the age of Enlightenment, it cannot be

conceived as divinely ordained. Modern nationalism, Anderson (2006) argues, owes to the

‘print capitalism’ (p.36) – the invention of a printing press – resulting from the Industrial

Revolution. Anderson considers this a very significant event in human history which

completely changed the existing social dynamics. In the event of that, access to

literacy/education was no longer limited to the privileged communities in particular script

languages like Latin. The print entrepreneurs published books, newspapers and other

media in vernaculars. The idea was to reach a common man to optimize the sale. The

‘national print languages’, thus, led to the formation of the first European nation states

(Anderson, 2006, p.62). Newspapers, he contends, disseminate the idea of a nation built

around specific symbols and notions. These address the readers suggestively as co-

nationals, thus, constituting a ‘natural’ body of ‘the imagined world… visibly rooted in

everyday life’ (Anderson, 2006, pp.35–36). He further maintains that nations are constantly

constructed by the textual production and reproduction of national identity narratives. I

consider Anderson’s idea of ‘imagined community’ relevant in the context of Pakistani

nationalism, albeit in a different way. Pakistan’s is a religious nationalism with its roots

entwined in the Pakistan movement. It was mainly mobilized on religious differences

between Hindus and Muslims, during the colonial period. The religious discourses

51

employed during the movement motivated people on the idea of Muslim brotherhood –

the concept of an imaginary community beyond geographical borders and socio-cultural

or ethnic ties. Similarly, Anderson’s notion of print–media helps understand how

educational discourses of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks are employed to

(re)produce/reimagine an imagined community. Edensor (2002) concedes to Anderson’s

notion of the historical importance of the print media for the construction of the nation.

However, he criticizes him for not mentioning various other ways that help imagine and

construct a nation, e.g., fashion gatherings, music halls, theatres and festivals.

Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983) also consider the nation a modern construct.

However, they focus on how the powerful elite hides the fact that nation/nationalism is a

modern phenomenon and ‘invents’ illusory traditions which link it to primordiality. They

argue that they ‘inculcate certain values and norms of behaviour by repetition, which

automatically implies continuity with the past’ (p.1). To substantiate the point, Hobsbawm

and Ranger provide examples from 19th century Europe. To legitimize power and develop

a unified sense of belonging, the European elite arranged large–scale carnivals, (re)enacted

traditional ceremonies, and invoked primeval themes. The idea was to promote specific

ideologies for the construction of a modern-day national identity. These are useful notions

to study how/why Pakistan’s national elite appeals to specific Islamic cultural lineages for

shaping Pakistan’s national identity. Given the focus of this study, another important inquiry

can be if children/teachers resist/challenge such attempts, or they willingly imbibe these

top-down ideologies. Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983) itemize national emblems, national

flag and national anthem as three fundamental symbols of national identity for an

independent nation. They claim that, through these symbols, a nation asserts her identity

and proclaims sovereignty as they ‘command instantaneous respect and loyalty…. [and]

[i]n themselves they reflect the entire background, thought and culture of a nation’ (ibid.,

1983, p.11). Edensor (2002), however, argues that Hobsbawm and Ranger give too much

power to the social elite, and their ‘assumptions’ suggest their ‘Frankfurtian understanding’

(p.5) of the culture. He holds that they similarly believe that it is not ‘culture industries’,

rather, ‘a cultural elite who bewitch them [masses] with their designs’(ibid.). Edensor also

criticizes them for assuming culture as static. He argues that it is dynamic, and its powerful

symbols remain flexible to retain their ‘relevance over time and their appeal amongst

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diverse groups’ (ibid. p.5). Guibernau (1996), as quoted in Edensor (2002), also argues that

‘symbols not only stand for or represent something else, they also allow those who employ

them to supply part of their meaning’ (pp.5–6). They do not impose on people ‘the

constraints of uniform meaning’ (ibid.).

Anthony D. Smith (1991), the main proponent of the ethno–symbolist approach to

nationalism, stresses the significance of symbols, myths, traditions, ethnies and a historical

continuity for the formulation of a nation (see Hutchinson, 2001). He is critical of both

Gellner’s and Hobsbawm’s constructivist ideas of modernity of the nation and believes in

pre-existing ethnies as its foundation. He argues that it is ethnic communities or groups

which shape a nation. He treats national identity as a ‘collective cultural phenomenon’,

contending ‘[i]t is through shared, unique culture that we are enabled to know ‘who we

are’ in the contemporary world’ (p.17). He holds that despite its unstable nature, it is the

political force that informs the feeling of a ‘political community’ (Anthony D. Smith,

1991, p.viii). The notion of the ‘political community’ centres on the western concept of

the nation. It involves a well–defined territorial boundary where people living identify

themselves with each other and enjoy a sense of belonging. It also involves an

institutionalized sense of laws, duties and rights. In this sense, it also includes cultural

communities, where the members of the nation are not expected to be fully homogenous,

but somehow amalgamated and unified under ‘common historical memories, myths,

symbols and traditions’ (Anthony D. Smith, 1991, p.11). He lists the core features of

national identity as follows: ‘a named human population sharing a historic territory,

common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and

common legal rights and duties for all members’ (ibid., p.14).

Anthony D. Smith emphasizes that national identity cannot be defined by any single

constituent, nor can an assembly of nationalists of whatever size represent it. Though he

agrees with Gellner (1983) that national education is ‘the most significant feature of

territorial nationalism’ (Smith, 1991, p.118), he wonders if any means is powerful enough

to indoctrinate it artificially into masses. Similarly, he underplays the role of the elite in

shaping national identity as assigned by Anderson (2006) and Gellner (1983) discussed

earlier. Edensor (2002) criticizes Anthony D. Smith’s approach for its overwhelming focus

on the features listed above, classifying them as reductive. Guibernau (2004) also criticizes

53

him for neglecting ‘the existence of nations without states’ (p.125) and conflating nation

with the state. In Hutchinson’s (2001) national identity account, culture is central to the

idea of nation building. However, it is different from that of the modernists and espouses

the notion of culture as propounded by the ethno–symbolists like Anthony D. Smith.

Unlike the former, who believe in the top-down version of culture, where the social elite

encourages homogeneity for material gains, the latter believes in the historical

construction of the nation ‘embodied in myth, symbol and culture’ (Hutchinson, 2001,

p.76).

According to Miller (1995), national identity denotes some basic ideas of culture

and political community. It explains what a nation is, what values it stands for, how it is

different from other communities/nations and what its future inspirations are (Miller,

1995). Miller (1995) argues that after the debate between communism and capitalism

subsided, it is now more important to understand ‘where the boundaries of the state are

drawn, who gets included and who gets excluded, what language is used, what religion

endorsed’ (p.1). He raises some very pertinent questions which are relevant to the inquiry

this study has taken. For example:

• How far is it justifiable to impose limitations on individual freedom on the name of

national identity?

• Is it legitimate, to take an extreme case, to enforce an official religion, on the grounds

that this is an essential component of national identity in the state in question?

• How far cultural minorities can be made to conform to the values and ways of the

life of the national majority? (Miller, 1995, p.3)

Miller (1995), in agreement with the modernist thinkers of nationalism, believes in

the significance of the school in the promotion of national consciousness. He argues that

schools are to be viewed as places where the idea of national identity is promoted amongst

other things. He enquires if it should ‘be part of the purpose of education to instil in the

rising generation a sense of their nationhood’ (Miller, 1995, p.3). And if so, ‘what does this

imply for the multicultural education of the kind which is currently practiced in many

liberal societies?’ (ibid.). He holds that schools must prepare students for

54

democratic citizenship and proposes a national curriculum which he calls a ‘core body of

material that all children should be expected to assimilate’ (ibid., p.142).

Bloom (1990) takes a psychological perspective of national identity. He argues that

for the existence of national identity, people must undergo an ‘actual psychological process

of making … [a] general identification with the nation’ (ibid., p.52). Bloom also argues that

national identity is an expression of a condition in which people collectively identify

themselves with national symbols. This condition has psychological implications, for, if

faced with a threat, they can ‘act as one psychological group’ (Bloom, 1990, p.52). During

India’s partition in 1947, one million people were killed. The number of displaced people

crossed13 million (see chapter 2). Applying Bloom’s insight, we can analyse if these

experiences of Pakistani people can be considered collective ‘psychological process’

essential for making a nation.

Billig (1995) disapproves of the existing approaches to the analysis of national

identity. He maintains that it is vital to address it the way it is grounded in the ‘banal’ realm

of daily routines, assumptions, habits and popular culture, which develop a sense of

belonging. Billig (1995) notes that it is wrongly understood in its spectacular displays, for

example, wars, crises and national festivals. These assumptions and habits, he argues,

infiltrate media which unreflexively use such terms as ‘we’ and ‘us’, assuming nation(s) as

a homogenous whole. Conversely, it is our daily life, he maintains, where the interplay

of ‘whole complex of beliefs, assumptions, habits, representations and practices’ (ibid., p.6)

constructs it. He gives examples of the hoisting of national flag and singing of national

anthem – the two ‘conventional symbols of particularity’ (ibid., p.85) in schools. This study

notes a quotidian occurrence of this activity in the research–sites (see section 5.8).

Ignatieff’s (1993) approach to the conceptualization of national identity is also

partially relevant to understand Pakistani identity. He suggests two models: a civic model

of nationalism and ethnic model of nationalism. The former refers to the idea of

nationalism where a country is imagined as a community of ‘equal, right–bearing citizens,

united in the patriotic attachment to a shared set of political practices and values’ (Ignatieff,

1993, p.6). Most European nation states follow this model with Germany as an exception,

which follows the ethnic-based model. The German nation, Ignatieff argues, is united on

55

such ethnic characteristics as language, traditions, religion and social customs (ibid., p.6).

This model centres on the premise that inheritance plays a more powerful role in shaping

one’s feelings of attachment towards a nation than the civic model. Pakistan’s national

identity is perhaps closer to this model. Ishtiaq Ahmed’s (2008) statement also gives

credence to this idea. He maintains, ‘Pakistan’s state–nationalism derives from the

Germanic type of cultural nationalism’ (p.57). It is because the country was created by

mobilizing the masses employing the idiom of Muslim nationalism, thus, ‘its national identity

was inextricably bound to that cultural factor’ (ibid.).

Sapolsky (2019) argues that ‘psychological bases for tribalism’ still strongly persist

in human beings. These motivate them to ‘divide the world into “us” and “them” and go

to war over these categories’ (p.43). Sapolsky draws on ecological studies of human

behaviour and holds that humans share more than 98% of their DNA with chimps.

However, unlike them ‘humans kill not just over access to a valley [roaming for food] but

also over abstractions such as ideology, religion, and economic power’ (Sapolsky, 2019,

p.43). He considers nationalism a ‘potentially most destructive form of in–group bias’,

rooted in old tribal group identity. He maintains that its proper understanding ‘requires

grasping the biological and cognitive underpinnings that shape them’ (ibid.).

According to Wodak et al. (2009, p.9), Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

approaches the question of national identity by combining ‘historical, socio–political and

linguistic perspectives’. They argue that national identities are ‘purely discursive constructs’

(ibid., p.28), developed intelligently through non–transparent specific identity narratives.

Examining it critically, they question the motivation of people behind ‘such a discursive

production’ (ibid.). They find this answer in Martin’s (1995) (as quoted

in Strath and Wodak, 2009). He maintains that identity narratives serve to channelize

‘political emotions’ (p.20) and those who control them uphold the ‘balance of power’

(ibid.). It serves in a variety of ways, for example:

… it transforms the perceptions of the past and of the present; it changes

the organisation of human groups and creates new ones; it alters cultures by

emphasizing certain traits and skewing their meanings and logic. The identity

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narrative brings forth a new interpretation of the world in order to modify

it (Strath and Wodak, 2009, p.20).

3.2.3 Religion, Language and National Identity

In view of Pakistan’s national identity being evolved directly from Islam and Urdu, it

is important to understand the link between religion, language and national identity.

Durkheim’s (1995) views on religion provide an incredible insight to comprehend its role

in instituting a national identity. He maintains:

Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that

is to say, things set apart and forbidden– beliefs and practices which unite into one

single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them (1995, p. 44).

Durkheim, thus, suggests the potential of religion to mobilize people through

ceremonies constructed around the sanctimony of metaphors/symbols for the formation

of religious identity. Nationalism does the same by using collective memories and cultural

symbolism and appealing to people’s emotions. Of the cultural symbols, religion is an

integral part (see Hobsbawm, 1992). Hayes (1960) states that both religion and nationalism

are social phenomena and that their rites are ‘performed in the name and salvation of a

whole community’ (p.165). However, as Durrani (2008) suggests, there is one significant

difference between the two. Religions, particularly Abrahamic religions, are deemed to be

divine/God–ordained, whereas national identity is fluid constantly changing under

emergent political circumstances.

Similarly, Urdu as a single national language was emphasized for Pakistan’s national

identity (see chapter 2). Collin (1999) observes that national discourses propagate

superiority of official language/s over unofficial languages for political reasons, and Pakistan

is not a unique case. Multilingual states such as France and the United States of America

have a single national language which is ‘intimately embroiled in the proselytizing ambitions

of generations of political leaders’ (Judt and Lacorne, 2004, p.1). Windisch (2004) points

that ‘[linguistic] diversity is frequently perceived as a threat to unity’ (p.162). However, in

Canada and Switzerland, it was pragmatically responded by encouraging bi/multilingualism

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at official levels (ibid.). For example, Canada has two national languages, English and French,

and Switzerland has four including German, French, Italian and Romansh. It helped

accommodate wide-ranging linguistic/cultural differences prevailing in the society. India has

responded to its multilingualism through constitutionally recognizing 22 major languages

of the country. It does not have any national language and children in schools study the

mother tongue/regional language and one official (Hindi or English) and international

language each (see Subhash, 2013).

3.2.4 Gender and National Identity

Gender emerges as a powerful construct in the study of Pakistan’s national identity

construction through national curriculum textbooks. This section, therefore, reviews how

women relate to the project of nation-building. Walby (1996) contends that there is a

dynamic relationship between gender and nation which is mutually affecting. Similarly,

Ranchod–Nilsson and Tetreault (2000) maintain that ‘[t]he centrality of gender to

resurgent nationalist forces and discourses continues to be striking’ (p.1). Butler (1988)

holds that gender is produced ‘performatively’, and the effect of performance influences

the construction of gender identity, not vice versa. She argues that ‘what is called gender

identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo’ (p.520).

Citing Simone de Beauvoir ‘one is not born, but, rather, becomes a woman’, Butler

(1988) further argues that ‘gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from

which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time – an

identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts’ (ibid., p.519). The innumerable

repetitions of performance over time earn a natural status to gender identity. The school

is a site where state-sanctioned ceremonies are a routine occurrence for identity

constructions. Butler’s theory can provide an insight into what roles are assigned to the

girls in schools when events like Pakistan’s National Day, Defence Day, Youme–

e– Takbeer31etc., just to name a few, are celebrated.

31 Youm-e-Takbir (lit. The day of greatness) is celebrated as a national day in Pakistan on May 28 in

commemoration of Chagai-I and Chagai-II when Pakistan detonated seven nuclear devices in response to

India's five detonations of Pokhran-II in 1998, 17 days after the incident. Thus, Pakistan became the 7th

World Nuclear Power and the 1st in the Muslim World.

58

Yuval and Anthias (1989) relate five major categories through which women have

been linked to the production of a nation vis–à–vis state performance:

• biological reproducers of ethnic collectivities

• reproducers of the boundaries of ethnic/national groups through restrictions on sexual

relations

• the main transmitters and reproducers of national culture

• symbolic signifiers of ethnic/national differences

• active participants in national struggles (ibid., p.7)

Eley and Suny (1996) believe that a woman is imagined as the mother of a nation

whose role is to nurture the future generation of the country, transmitting social and

cultural values of that nation. They contend that they are imagined as spreaders, not

creators and become ‘prized and revered objects of protection rather than agents in their

own right’ (Eley and Sunny, 1996, p.26). Mayer (2000) suggests that the idea of the nation,

as well as gender and sexuality, are relational and performative. She argues that ‘the nation

is comprised of sexed subjects whose ‘performativity’ constructs not only their gender

identity but the identity of the entire nation as well’ (p.5).

The textbook data of this study suggests that an ideal Pakistani woman in these is

imagined as a protector of Islamic culture and traditions. Similarly, her representation is

mostly gendered and in stereotypical domestic roles. This is despite the fact that since

second wave of feminism (1960s -1970s), education system actors have become conscious

of gender stereotyping and women’s underrepresentation in curricula (see Brunell and

Burkett, 2019). However, as Notshulwana and Lange (2019) argue, ‘in spite of the attention

gender and education have received since the 1970s in Western countries … existing

inequalities have not been eradicated’ (p.107). The school textbooks in many parts of the

world still underrepresent women and reinforce gendered stereotypes. For example,

Yassine’s study (2013) features how an EFL textbook taught in Algerian high schools

reflects gender bias. It discriminates women by using more male-generic-nouns than

gender-neutral ones. Other areas of marginalization include her relatively quantitative

underrepresentation about a recurrence of female names in the textbook discourses as

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well as concerning the jobs that require a higher degree of responsibility (pp.239-260).

Chege’s (2006) study unpicks the ideological re-workings of teachers’ perceived notions

about African men and women and the role they play in the construction of girls’

sexualized identity. Thus, they not only construct them as ‘inferior to boys but also, as

objects of sexual ridicule’ (ibid., p.25). Similarly, Mayer (2000) argues, Northern Ireland, to

maintain its unionist identity, ‘draws heavily on warrior symbols, thus reflecting the

staunchly patriarchal values of unionism … and its exclusion of women from political

leadership’ (p.110). Jacoby’s (1999) study reveals how Israeli women are presented ‘as

mothers of soldiers and ideological appendages of male leaders and fighters’ (p.338) in

their nation-building project.

In the context of Pakistan, Agha et al., (2018) examine Sindhi language textbooks

of grades 1-5, being taught in the Sindh province. The ‘pictorial and textual analysis’ of

their study ‘confirms the salient features of patriarchal ideology being reproduced through

the textbooks’ (ibid., p.17). Similarly, the study of Jabeen et. al., (2014) examines years 1-

5 textbooks, taught in the Punjab province, to identify areas of gender stereotyping. They

conclude that the literature being taught in these books ‘reflects male chauvinism’ (p.55)

where women are represented as men’s subordinate. The findings of Ullah and Skelton’s

(2013) study of years 1- 8 textbooks, taught in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province,

argues that ‘ideologically driven’ these textbooks are ‘embedded with gender biased

messages and stereotypical representations of males and females … and contribute to the

perpetuation of gender inequality’ (p.183). Taking insight from these studies, this paper

analyses the role of Pakistani textbooks, taught in high schools, in the construction of a

Pakistani female and its influence on schoolchildren. The role of school is vital in this regard

as it offers a crucial site for those practices that perpetuate gender stereotypes.

3.2.5 Pakistan’s Strategic Culture and National Identity

The study of the textbook data suggests an explicit use of national education for

the promotion of anti–India sentiments (see chapter 5). The empirical evidence, drawn

from the students, studying in the sampled schools, shows their peculiar fascination with

the military and war weaponry (see chapter 6). Thus, the study suggests the relationship

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between Pakistan’s national education and the construction of students’ militaristic

national identities. To problematise the phenomenon, I appropriated insight from Synder’s

(1977) term ‘strategic culture’, which was further elaborated by Johnston (1995).

The term ‘strategic culture’ refers to the collective beliefs, values and historical

experiences of the dominant ruling elite in a polity which they use as a screen to observe

and analyse security matters. These not only influence their understanding/interpretations

of the prevailing security milieus but also shape their emotional responses to them (see

Synder, 1977). According to Johnston (1995) ‘strategic culture’ establishes ‘pervasive and

long-lasting strategic preferences by formulating concepts of the role and efficacy of

military force in interstate political affairs’ (p. 46). In so doing, these conceptions are

clothed ‘with such an aura of factuality that the strategic preferences seem uniquely

realistic and efficacious’ (ibid.). In other words, in ‘strategic culture’, the security

disposition of the policymakers is not shaped by the realistic assessment of the situation.

On the contrary, it is formed by ‘their image of the situation’ and what they ‘think the

world is like, not what it is really like’ (Boulding, 1959, p.121).

Johnston (1995) argues that ‘[d]ifferent states have different predominant strategic

preferences that are rooted in the early or formative experiences of the state, and are

influenced to some degree, by the philosophical, political, cultural and cognitive

characteristics of the state and its elites’ (p.34). Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’ owes its

emergence to several factors related to the event of its creation. As stated earlier, Pakistan

came into being as a result of India’s partition in 1947 based on Islamic identity. However,

the Arab Muslim world viewed India’s partition as a British conspiracy and did not show

much warmth towards it (see Siddiqa, 2017). The event of partition triggered mass

migration and wide–scale communal riots. In the province of Punjab, it claimed about a

million lives and over thirteen million people were displaced (see Ahmed, 2013; Wolpert,

1984). The division of Punjab itself is a significant contributing factor. It placed five major

cities of Pakistan including Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat and Kasur within the range

of 30–35 kilometers from the Indian border (Ahmed, 2013). On the other hand, the Indian

leadership’s hostile attitude towards Pakistan, predicting its collapse, further contributed

to the feelings of Pakistani leadership’s insecurity (see Rizvi, 2002). Equally, the unresolved

territorial dispute of Kashmir triggered the first war between both countries within a year

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of their independence. I consider it a core issue behind the emergence of a strong ‘strategic

culture’ in Pakistan and a situation that allows the Pakistan Army to give primacy to the

national security. Thus far, the territorial dispute of Kashmir has driven both countries

into four wars of different scales which took place in 1948, 1965, 1971 and 1999 (see

Siddiqa, 2007, 2011; Ishtiaq Ahmed, 2013).

As explained above, the factors that determine a country’s ‘strategic culture’

include both policymakers’ collective beliefs and historical experiences. Pakistan’s

‘strategic culture’ can be described as a combination of both perception and reality. For

example, the former affords a vantage point to theorize Pakistan’s fear vis–à–vis the

proximity of its five cities with the Indian border as well as the perception about the Indian

leadership’s hostility towards Pakistan. On the other hand, the issue of Kashmir which has

driven both countries into wars is the historical experience. Rizvi (2002, p.308) argues that

the concept of ‘strategic culture’ ‘offers a better understanding of how the leaders are

likely to react to a security situation’. It was perhaps Pakistan’s historical experience that

pushed it into signing the Mutual Defence Assistant Treaty (MDT) with the USA as early

as in May 1954. The perceived Indian threat further drove the policymakers to become a

signatory of the US and the UK led treaties SEATO32 and CENTO33 in 1955. Regardless of

their original purposes, Pakistan's security establishment intended to meet the challenges

emerging from the balance of power from India (see Alavi, 1988, p.1551). The agreement

‘facilitated U.S. arms transfers to Pakistan and military training of its personnel by U.S.

experts’ (Rizvi, 2002, p.315). These treaties also afforded an edge to the Pakistan Army

which they translated into amassing political power. On the other hand, the failure of

Pakistan’s political leadership to evolve a credible democratic system further empowered

them. It gave the military ‘de facto veto powers over both internal and external policies’

(Ishtiaq Ahmed, 2013, p.19). Down the line, in return for a substantial economic and

military aid, they began to offer state services to foreign donors, particularly to the USA

32 SEATO: regional-defence organization from 1955 to 1977, created by the Southeast Asia Collective

Defence Treaty, signed at Manila by the representatives of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the

Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

33CENTO: formerly Middle East Treaty Organization, or Baghdad Pact Organization, mutual security

organization dating from 1955 to 1979 and composed of Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom.

(Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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(ibid.). At the behest of America, the military dictator General Zia (1977–88) entered the

Afghan conflict in 1979. The high–ranking officials of the Pakistan Army used this

opportunity both for private and institutional gains (see discussion).

Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’ is also complemented by using the religion of Islam. In

view that Pakistan was created out of India, mobilizing masses in the name of religion, Islam

is integral to its identity. However, as discussed earlier, the anxiety caused by the Arab

world’s lack of excitement about Pakistan further led the country to emphasize its

‘distinctive Islamic identity’ vis–à–vis India. Therefore, religious discourses are frequently

employed in both civil and military matters. Constitutionally, Pakistan is a parliamentary

democracy which is named as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (see National Assembly of

Pakistan, 2012). Similarly, the Islamic notions ‘shaheed (martyr), ghazi (victorious), and

Jihad–e–fi–sibilallah (holy war in the name of God) are emphasized as the major sources of

inspiration for the Pakistani military in war and peace’ (Rizvi, 2002, p. 320). During India,

Pakistan wars in 1965 and 1971, these signifiers were repetitively invoked both for military

purposes and to garner popular support. Correspondingly, ‘[t]he historical narratives’

imparted through national education, both at school and college levels ‘highlight the advent

of Islam in India, glorify Muslim rule there and define Pakistani identity with reference to

Islam and the Muslim rule’ (Rizvi, 2002, p.320). It presents India as an enemy of Pakistan

and Islam, and then, in this backdrop, projects the Pakistan Army as the nation’s protectors

for students’ national identity construction. However, this approach is not limited to India.

During the Afghan war also, as discussed above, historical events related to the chivalry of

Muslim generals were made part of the curriculum (see Haqqani, 2005).

The concept of ‘strategic culture’ offers an interesting insight to analyse the

mindsets of Pakistan’s security managers. Similarly, it affords a lens to contextualize how

and why they use Pakistan’s national education for the formulation of students’ militaristic

national identities in schools.

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3.3 National Identity and School Education

This study aims to explore the practices of Pakistani students’ national identity

construction through curriculum textbooks in schools. In the scope of this study, I use the

word curriculum in a broader sense to relate to its formal and hidden aspects. These include

educational planning, the mechanism to actualize that planning and students’ experience of

the curriculum in educational institutions. It also includes those aspects of learning which

may not be necessarily intended but inadvertently take place as a by-product of the

curriculum where it is implemented (see Kelly, 1999). To understand the real effect of the

curriculum, both these aspects are important. This section reviews the literature that

reports findings on national identity constructions in global educational contexts.

The relationship between the school, curriculum, student and teacher is complex,

particularly concerning their role in national identity construction. Bernstein (2005) views

the field of education as a stage where the so-called new ideas and perspectives are

discursively generated, altered and appropriated in very selective manners for maintaining

social hierarchies. Bourdieu (1984), as quoted in Jenkins (1992, p.157), recognizes the role

of social actors such as teachers in this regard. They disseminate ‘new’ ideas considering

the academic arena as the ‘locus of a struggle to determine the conditions and criteria of

legitimate membership and legitimate hierarchy’ (ibid.). National education/curriculum has

been applied variously for national identity constructions in multiple contexts. Canada was

colonized by French, British and the US. As a postcolonial society, it remains ‘emotionally

and existentially hampered by its colonial insecurity’ (Saul, 2005, p.32). Consequently, it

‘has not escaped some of the excesses of nationalism’ (Milburn and Herbert, 1974, p.4).

The Canadian national curriculum emphasizes the differences by juxtaposing it with ‘its

southern neighbour-Canadian peacekeeping vs. American militarism, Canadian

multiculturalism-as-mosaic vs. the American melting pot’ (Pinar, 2011, p.31). The idea of

‘melting pot’ in this context refers to the idea of multiculturalism both at the federal and

provincial levels. Kymlicka (2003), however, argues that this difference is overdrawn and

is far from being accurate (p.371). Pinar (2011) also draws the readers’ attention to this

point, questioning the factual accuracy of this depiction. She inquires if ‘like Americans,

Canadians also emphasize their differences from others (especially differences from

Americans), does the Canadian identity threaten to become overdetermined by what it is

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not?’ (p.32). Sumara et al., (2001) argues that ‘Canadians can’t seem to agree on what they

are, they have no trouble at all agreeing on what they’re not’ (p.147). These seem to be

the essential corollaries of colonial experiences. Conway (1974), maintains that colonial

cultures deprive the colonial subjects of ‘‘creativity’ on their own terms but also of identity

itself, about which they are left ‘confused’ and ‘uncertain’’ (p.72). These points are

important to draw an analogy as to how Pakistan as a postcolonial society defines its

identity in relation to India.

Naveh (2011) explores the ‘explicit purpose and implied agenda’ (p.210) of the

history curriculum in Israel. He believes it is conservative and falls short to meet the

aspirations of Israeli youngsters. Its narratives predominantly centre on the Zionist

movement and focus exclusively on the Jewish experience of history. To construct Jewish

Israeli Identity, it creates its significant others in the shape of the Arab Islamic World and

Christian Europe. The researcher maintains that it is paradoxical that the curriculum

portrays Jews as at odds with Europeans even though the Zionist movement took roots

in Europe. The exclusionary discourses emerging from history books exhort Jews to

migrate to their ancestral land, that is, Israel, if they want to survive. For the construction

of collective Israeli identity, it alludes to three ‘Jew’ geographical sites, namely ‘The Land

of Israel’, ‘Christian Europe’, and ‘The Arab Islamic World’ (p.210). The first is the place

of current Israeli state where the history of Jews according to Biblical account started. The

second is referred to as a place of exile where Jews were treated as heathen, profane and

sinners and suffered extreme persecutions. The last is also referred to as a place of exile.

However, unlike the former two, in the third, they were ‘tolerated to a certain degree,

being viewed as monotheistic misbelievers that nevertheless deserved legal protection’

(Naveh, 2011, p.211).

Similarly, Harari (2018) alludes to the exclusionary doctrinal aspects of the History

curriculum being taught at schools in Israel. He states that Israeli children ‘are educated

from kindergarten to think that Judaism is the superstar of human history’ (p.152).

Describing its contents and effects, he maintains:

the only coherent history offered by the Israeli educational system begins with the

Hebrew Old Testament, continues to the Second Temple era, skips between various

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Jewish communities in the Diaspora, and culminates with the rise of Zionism, the

Holocaust, and the establishment of the state of Israel. Most students leave school

convinced that this must be the main plotline of the entire human story (ibid.).

Nevah’s (2011) study, as discussed above, tells the story of numerous educational

systems in practice in Israel. These include:

• The National Religious System (for religious Jews living in cities, villages and occupied

territories)

• The Arab State System (for Arab Israelis)

• The Independent Education System (for ultra-Orthodox Jews)

• Semi-Private System (funded by parents and NGO’s) (pp.210– 213)

Interestingly, the Israeli education system both in terms of ideology and miscellany,

as pointed by Neveh (2011) and Harari (2018), has a striking resemblance to that of

Pakistan. In Pakistan too there are state schools, religious seminaries and various layers of

English medium schools that are funded both by parents and NGOs (see section

4.6.1). Similarly, its public schools are focused on imparting selected religious history as

discussed below in the context of South Asia (see Qazi and Shah, 2019a).

Unlike the studies discussed above, Tormey’s (2006) study explores how Ireland that

has been ‘in a war with its past’ has moved on to an ‘articulation of Irishness that seeks to

imagine an ‘us’ without a ‘them’’. Similarly, it examines how its history curriculum for

primary schools constructs national identities in a ‘boundless’ globalized context.

3.3.1 National Identity and Politics of National Curriculum Textbooks in South

Asia

The story of the construction of national identity in contemporary Pakistan is part

of the larger South Asian story situated in the historiography of the production and

transmission of national ideologies (see Rosser, 2003). Therefore, it is appropriate to look

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at how contemporary Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi national identities have been

shaped by or reflected in divergent textbook accounts.

The idea of using education for ‘nation building’ in the region has its roots in the

British Raj when a civics textbook titled The Citizen of India by Lee Warner (1897) was

introduced (Vickers and Kumar, 2015, p.13). After independence in 1947, central

authorities both in India and Pakistan promoted a selective tradition of deploying history

contents in the school curriculum for the same purpose. Kumar’s (2001) analysis unravels

how in Indian textbooks, Muslim League, Pakistan’s founding political party, and Jinnah,

Pakistan’s founding father, are not acknowledged as important historical agents. They are

mentioned in passing when the event of partition is described. In Pakistani textbooks, the

story of the creation of Pakistan is presented as divine ‘predestined, stepwise revelation’

(Kumar, 2001, p.85), beyond any constitutive historical context. Freedom fighters such as

Tantia Tope and Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi are omitted in Pakistani textbooks which

emphasize the role of Bahadur Shah Zafar instead. Similarly, Gandhi’s image in Pakistani

textbooks is that of a shrewd politician protecting the rights of Hindus. Ideologically

motivated, events such as Quit India Movement, 1920s riots, Khilafat Movement, and 1857

revolt, just to name a few, receive rather conflicting treatment in Indian and Pakistani

textbooks (see Kumar, 2001). Notwithstanding the divergent historical accounts discussed

hitherto, it is important to understand that the freedom of India from the British in 1947,

meant different things to both countries. For India, despite the new moment of freedom,

there was a sense of loss as the country partitioned. For Pakistan, it was a new beginning

and a sense of achievement which led them into a majoritarian Muslim land. However,

since Pakistan was created on the unresolved contested concept of Muslim nationalism

leaving a huge Muslim population behind in India, the postcolonial political anxieties led it

to construct a strong anti–India national identity mostly using religion (see Cohen, 2011;

Rosser, 2003; Ishtiaq Ahmed, 2008). The subsequent Indo–Pakistan wars in 1965 and 1971

resulting in Pakistan’s dismemberment took the tensions/anxieties to new heights. These

reflected in the textbook discourses, particularly after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Qazi and Shah’s study (2019b) of Bangladesh’s secondary school curriculum

textbooks suggest that they ‘project Bangla Language Movement of 1952 and Bangladesh’s

Liberation War with Pakistan as Bangladesh’s defining national identity markers’ (p.1). This

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‘constitutes Pakistan as Bangladesh’s external “Other”’. Similarly, the textbooks

‘criminalize those who did not support the Liberation War, establishing them as

Bangladesh’s internal “Other”’ (ibid.).

Rosser’s (2003) study dwells on how India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – three

postcolonial countries with shared history and geography have forged their national

identity in the wake of independence. It analyses how the competing versions in the

Pakistan Studies textbooks of Pakistan and history textbooks of India and Bangladesh have

been used for the ‘creation and transmission of national ideologies’ to produce ‘patriotic’

citizens (p.vii). In India, she argues, ‘educational imperatives and pedagogical methods

inherited from the colonial model… were transcribed into the form and substance of

education in post independence India’ (p.313). Pakistani textbooks, she contends, are

based on anti–India bias and aim to construct Pakistan’s Islamic identity which is sharply in

contrast with Indian. They exclude non–Muslim heroes in general and Hindu

heroes/freedom fighters in particular from their discourses. However, she points out that

the predominant anti–Hindu narrative in Pakistani textbooks began to gain space after the

1965 war between India and Pakistan. As discussed earlier, to constitute India and Hindus

as Pakistan’s ‘other’, the metaphor of Islam was also invoked. It is interesting to note that

the subject of Pakistan Studies, which Rosser refers, was introduced by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto

in 1972. Hameed (2017) describes him as a secular democrat and Pakistan’s tallest political

figure after Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father.

Taking birth as a result of the bloody Liberation War with Pakistan in 1971,

historical narratives in Bangladeshi textbooks have always been ‘unstable and caught in a

recurring politicized flux’ (Rosser, 2003, p.144). The textbooks of Mujibur Rahman’s era

(Bangladesh’s founding father) represent the birth of Pakistan in 1947 as an event in history

when Bengalis swapped their English colonial masters with West Pakistani imperialists.

They highlight the sufferings of East Pakistanis (now Bangladesh) at the hands of West

Pakistan’s ruling elite/military. Similarly, they offer elaborate accounts of the struggle of

Bangladeshi people which finally resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. They also

emphasized the need for a secular education at all levels (see Mohd Mustafizur Rahman et

al., 2010), thus parting ways with the Islamic identity that emerged in 1947. On the other

hand, the textbooks written during the military regimes of General Ziaur Rahman (1975–

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1981) and General Ershad (1982–1990) were different. They ‘changed Bangladeshi identity

politics from a secular and ethnic “Bengali” identity to state-based and pseudo–Islamic

‘Bangladeshi’ identity to build political legitimacy and take Bangladesh out of Indian shadow’

(Mustafizur Rahman et al., 2010, p.120). Since the return of parliamentary democracy in

Bangladesh in 1991, Bengali polity, as well as officials in the government institutions, have

been divided between two competing political parties – Bangladesh Awami League

(founded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding father) and Bangladesh

Nationalist Party (BNP) (founded by General Zia ur Rehman, country's first military

dictator) (see Rosser, 2003). Therefore, loyalists of both parties during their tenures found

a ‘willing group of intellectual’ (Rosser, 2003, p.140) to appropriate history narratives

following their party line. Awami League after coming to power in 1996 rewrote the

textbooks to correct history ‘distorted’ by military dictators, and a similar line was

adopted when Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) along with its radical Islamic coalition

partner, Jamaat–i–Islami, returned to power in 2001. They reinstated the ‘version that had

been in vogue from 1977 and the first edition of General Zia’s textbooks’ (Rosser, 2003,

p.148). Rosser (2003) concludes that all three countries share a history and culture of

thousands of years. However, in the postcolonial scenario, they have had entertained

different interpretations of history. Characterized by flagrant embellishment, elision and

omission, the accounts given in these are contentious, often intersecting and sharply

divisive. She warns of the danger involved in these discourses becoming ‘standardized

narratives used as justification for ethnic violence and military brinkmanship’ (p.ii).

Lall’s (2008) study analyses how the BJP governments – a nationalist Hindu political

party – in India employed religious nationalism for the ‘rethinking of national identity’

(p.103). She maintains that during their stints in power, the BJP governments pursued

Hindu nationalist agendas and introduced educational reforms on Hindu nationalist lines.

These attempts were seen in various modes right from the construction of the Ram temple

in Ayodhya to NCERT’s34 (2001–2002) curriculum reform slogan of

‘Indianise, nationalise and spiritualise’ (Lall, 2008, p.109) India, purging it from all foreign

34 The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation set

up in 1961 by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies

and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education. ( see

http://www.ncert.nic.in/about_ncert.html)

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elements including Muslims. These left lasting impacts on the educational milieus in the

entire country including educational institutions, books and staff and Hindutva35 thought

became a norm. Commenting further on it, Lall (2008) states, this approach created ‘the

‘other’ (original emphasis) both within and outside the country (notably Pakistan)’ (p.105).

Lall contends that these moves naturally meant intolerance for all the communities other

than Hindus, but Muslims were the special targets. They were made to feel insecure, non-

patriotic and second–rate citizens. This was a watershed event in Indian history that stood

in contrast to ‘Hinduism’s historically very inclusive identity formation process’ (ibid.,104).

Lall further states that it was also a deviation from earlier policies that the previous

governments had followed. Hitherto, Indian identity had been promoted under a secular

banner and the country had generally seen itself as a ‘multi-ethnic, multi-religious country

unified by shared history’ (Nehru 1946 as alluded in Lall, 2008, p.105).

Many studies of varying length and scope were also conducted in Pakistan from

similar vantage points. Nayyar (2003) argues that Pakistan’s state school curriculum

guidelines for textbook writing bind the writers to inculcate a love for Islamic faith

and values. Thus, it restricts them from writing pedagogically sound textbooks. Similarly,

this serves to make ‘mainstream education in Pakistan … parochial, exclusionary… and

devoid of imparting any values of universalism, humanism, tolerance, objectivity and critical

learning’ (ibid., p.48). Naseem (2006) holds that Pakistan’s educational discourses play a

dominant role in constituting subjects and their subjectivity through the process of

inclusion and exclusion. He maintains that ‘by equating Pakistani citizens with Muslim the

discourse (curricula and textbooks in our case) largely excludes all religious minorities

from the meaning of citizen’ (p.451). It is a dangerous trend because Pakistan’s religious

minorities are already embattled, and their population has been regularly falling for many

reasons. These include religious persecution, the constitutional amendment of 1973 which

declared Ahmadis non-Muslim, Zia regime’s discriminatory laws against minorities,

particularly the Blasphemy Law36, the fall of East Pakistan in 1971 and Hindu families of Sindh

35 The BJP advocated hindutva (‘Hindu-ness’), an ideology that sought to define Indian culture in terms of

Hindu values, and it was highly critical of the secular policies and practices of the Indian National Congress

(Congress Party) (Encyclopedia Britannica). 36Pakistan’s Penal Code 295: The Blasphemy law was introduced by Gen. Zia-ul-Haq in 1986. It includes a

capital punishment for the defamation of the Prophet Muhammad and life sentence for the desecration of

Holy Quran. It also includes a number of other religious offences which are dealt accordingly.

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migrating to India, allegedly to avoid forced conversions (see Ispahani, 2003).

Saigol (2005) in her study of the Pakistan Studies textbooks maintains that ‘most identity-

forming textbooks revolve around the story of the two nations. The latter consideration

allows Hindus to play the major role of the national demon’ (pp.1008–

1009). Chughtai’s (2015) findings of Pakistan’s history syllabi suggest that Pakistani

‘textbooks from the 1980s were exclusive toward non–Muslims and maintained an Arab–

Islamic focus in the curriculum, indicating a strong alignment with policy

direction’ (p.106). Durrani’s (2008) case study of primary level school textbooks suggests

that ‘in the Pakistani curriculum texts, national identity is constructed on the basis

of Islamic unity and religious difference… and has serious implications for social cohesion’

(p. xiii). A similar study conducted by Qazi and Shah (2019a) in a Pakistani school in Dubai,

United Arab Emirates, suggests that ‘Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks deploy a

specific version of Islam as a major technology… for shaping students’ national identity’

(p.275). This contributes to constructing students’ ‘ethnocentric national identities,

encouraging social polarisation’ (ibid.). Theorizing its consequences, they argue that ‘[t]his

has implications for Pakistan’s national social cohesion as well as the potential for

subverting international peaceful coexistence’ (ibid.).

To conclude, the studies discussed in this section illustrate that the use of a national

curriculum for identity construction is an established phenomenon. Similarly, these show

that the school is a site where it is implemented through teachers for the discursive

constructions of particular national consciousness. Unlike most studies discussed above,

this study draws on all compulsory textbooks taught at grades 9 to 12, the subject

teachers’ and students’ perspectives as well as on the role of the school as a

structure. Given Pakistan’s colonial background, this study proposes to study Pakistan’s

national identity formulation by appropriating insights from the postcolonial theory. The

following section briefly explains the postcolonial theory and its potential

to problematise emerging identity themes from the selected Pakistani curriculum

textbooks.

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3.4 Postcolonial Theory and Pakistan’s National Identity Formulation

Given the colonial historical context of Pakistan and the emerging national identity

themes from the curriculum textbooks this study problematised, the notion of Pakistan’s

national identity formulation would be rather difficult to analyse without taking insights

from postcolonial theory. It is in this context that I review the relevant postcolonial

literature and draw thematic links between the study of national identity formulation

through curriculum textbooks and postcolonial theory.

The prefix ‘post’ in postcolonial (unhyphenated) and post-colonial (hyphenated)

have been problematised by many theorists37. The former is used to indicate that colonial

conditions continue to persist despite political changes. Dimitriadis and McCarthy (2001)

argue that ‘post’ in postcolonial is ‘not to be understood as a temporal register as in

‘hereafter’ but as a marker of a spatial challenge of the occupying powers of the west by

the ethical, political, aesthetic forms of the marginalized’ (p. 7). Similarly, Hall’s (1996a)

question, ‘when was ‘the postcolonial’?’ (p.242) also develops from the same concern that

the pervasive nature of colonial systems had inscribed their marks on the societies of both

the colonized and the colonizer. Thus, these societies continue to live under the grim

effects of their gravity. Regarding the effects of colonization, I am convinced that these

are so deep-rooted that merely a political act of independence cannot eradicate them.

This is the concern of this thesis also which attempts to understand various postcolonial

dimensions that have bearings on Pakistan’s postcolonial national identity discourses in the

curriculum textbooks. Therefore, my use of postcolonialism (unhyphenated) and its

practices, in this thesis, refers to what Nichols (2010) calls ‘a mode of theoretical

analysis’, and not ‘a form of historical periodization’ (p.115).

The postcolonial theory was initially created as a literary tool to resist imperialist

assumptions on knowledge and power in discourses (Ashcroft et al., 2003). However, now

it transcends the boundaries of most academic disciplines. Young (2009) claims that its use

as a theory is ‘ubiquitous’ and has been ‘taken up in almost every discipline in the

humanities and social sciences, from anthropology to medieval studies to theology’ (p.13).

The reason for this popularity lies in the idea that postcolonial theory ‘threatens privileges

37 Bhabha (1990); Spivak (1988; 2006); Ashcroft et al (2001;2003)

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and power’ (Young, 2003, p.7). Rukundwa and Aarde (2007) hold that ‘it provides a means

of defiance by which any exploitive and discriminative practices, regardless of time and

space, can be challenged’ (p.1171). The postcolonial theory focuses on subjectivity,

identity and power and is concerned with analysing concepts like language, gender, race,

and ethnicity (Ashcroft et al., 2003). These are the themes of this study as they emerge

from the study of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks (see section 5.2).

The studies in postcolonial discipline inform the readers that the project of national

identity construction in postcolonial states is essentially taken up by the governments and

is generally beset with fears and expectations – fears of disintegration, and expectations

to emerge as a solid nation. It has a colonial burden, which by virtue of its nature and

enormity has transformed the colonial subjects, leaving enduring effects. In these

circumstances, it is natural for the newly independent nation states to build a national

identity discourse and emphasize it. This involves many contexts including the

psychological. For instance, as Spivak (1988) posits, ‘[c]an we touch the consciousness of

the people, even as we investigate their politics? With what voice–consciousness can the

subaltern speak?’ (p.285). These are also the questions of, as Gandhi argues (1998),

‘representation’ and ‘representability’ (p.2). She raises some very pertinent queries in this

context:

How can the historian/investigator avoid the inevitable risk of presenting herself as

an authoritative representative of subaltern consciousness? Should the intellectual

‘abstain from representation?’ (Spivak 1988 [1985], p. 285). Which intellectual is

equipped to represent which subaltern class? Is there an ‘unrepresentable subaltern

class that can know and speak itself?’ (Spivak 1988 [1985] p. 285) And finally, who—

if any—are the ‘true’ or ‘representative’ subalterns of history, especially within the

frame of reference provided by the imperialist project? (1988, p.2).

Thus, such discussions in postcolonial studies as ‘who speaks, whether for the

subaltern, the colonized, or the postcolonial subject, [become] a recurring analytical

trope’ (Arnold, 2013, p.361). They also stand ‘at the intersection of debates about race,

colonialism, gender, politics and language’ (Ashcroft, et al., 2001, intro).

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Kohn (2010) holds that postcolonial theory is associated with the issues of

hybridity, diaspora, representation, narrative, and knowledge/power. The relevance of

these ideas in the context of this study is to assess educational practices for identity

constructions employing curriculum textbooks in schools. The identity discourses,

interwoven in ideological narratives/dogmas and determined by the people in the power

hierarchy, constitute students’ minds through educational practices in legitimately

designated spaces. Given the power relations in these places, students are likely to take

these ideologies uncritically, possibly without challenging them, and in turn, become an

instrument to further the agendas of their proponents. Spivak (2006) explains:

Ideology in the critical sense does not signify an avowed doctrine. It is rather the

loosely articulated sets of historically determined and determining notions,

presuppositions and practices, each implying the other by real (but where does

one stop to get a grip or reality?) or forced logic, which does by the name of

common sense or self–evident truth or natural behavior in a certain situation

(p.131).

I take the position that the situations which schools can afford are ideal for the

social practices of the promotion of particular nationalist ideologies.

3.4.1 Postcolonial Themes and Pakistan’s National Curriculum

Fiction writers of the colonized societies38 have produced significant literature

within the postcolonial theoretical framework engaging with the issues discussed hitherto,

both during the colonial rule and beyond. However, the attempts to study similar

phenomena focusing on curriculum studies within postcolonial theory are fewer, and

perhaps none in the context that I have chosen. In this thesis, I explore the possibility of

postcolonial theory in studying identity constructions in Pakistan’s national school

curriculum textbooks. The emerging themes from the selected high school textbooks

suggest that Pakistan’s national identity is predominantly formulated by bringing in

38 Rushdie (1947- ); Achebe (1930-2013); Harris (1921-2018); Walcott (1930-2017), Darwish (1941-2008)-

Just to name a few.

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discussions on religion, language, gender, ethnicities and military cultures (see section 5.2).

Interestingly, the way these are presented to students for constituting their national

identities have the idea of ‘otherness’ or ‘marginalization’ embedded in them. Postcolonial

theoretical framework allows to understand and problematize the psychological, social,

political and administrative effects of the colonialist ideologies on the colonized (see Tyson,

2006). It can afford an explanatory power and a perspective to analyse how the colonial

policies and practices regarding language, religion, gender, and caste have influenced the

ways the identities have been constructed employing curriculum textbooks in the

postcolonial situation in Pakistan (see chapter 7).

3.5 Conclusion

To sum up the discussion, national identity is dynamic, constructed and political

which remains in the orbit of change. It is constructed along the boundaries of ‘us’ versus

‘them’ through institutional and legislative processes. It is sometimes constituted to

promote homogeneity for political reasons. However, identity is an active process, which

is cut across by ethnic, religious, class and gender differences. Therefore, homogeneity is

difficult to achieve, if not impossible, even amongst the members of a small

community. Though national identity is imagined to be inclusive, it is not necessarily the

case as certain sub-national groups get precedence over others. Therefore, it remains

hierarchically ingrained in power dynamics. Besides the legislature, the institutions which

play an active role in its formulation include school, church, newspapers, TV and radio by

appealing to religious and cultural symbols and shared collective memories. This is also

important to understand that the construction of identity is not an irrevocable process. It

is a contested process where individuals and group agency play a role in various forms.

This can, in extreme cases, lead to the disintegration of a country. Separation of East

Pakistan in 1971 (now Bangladesh) is one such example.

The trajectory of Pakistan’s national identity is in a state of transition and national

curriculum/textbooks and schools are significant sites employed for its construction. The

discussion in the section 3.3.1 suggests that the studies conducted in the context of

Pakistan are not exhaustive and leave the room for further inquiry. Some of these are small

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scale focusing only on the subjects of social studies or history. Similarly, except one, none

of them has considered other dimensions of curriculum, for example, how it reflects in

schools’ physical sites, in teachers’ perceptions, the way they implement it on students,

and the impact it leaves on students’ social attitudes. Also, I have not come across a study

that was based on the high school grades which I have selected for this project and similarly

the location i.e., Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. This is very significant as the student–

population in these schools hail from all the provinces of Pakistan (see section 4.6.2). Thus,

it is representative of the whole country. This study also proposes the investigation of

curriculum textbook discourses through a postcolonial theoretical lens. It is an unexplored

area, and given Pakistan’s colonial history, I consider this aspect extremely significant.

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Chapter 4 – Research Methodology

4.1 Introduction

This chapter describes the qualitative methodology used in this research. It

begins with the research aims and questions, and the researcher’s ontological and

epistemological position that influenced the research design. The chapter then explains the

choice of a phenomenological case study as a method to approach the research questions,

the collection of data employing several methods and their analysis. Next sections present

empirical aspects of the research project as I designed it. Similarly, these elaborate on the

data collection methods used, procedures to access research sites, sampling techniques,

transcription of data and coding, and the final categorization of the themes emerging from

the data. The data include Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks and the field data

collected from students and teachers at the research sites. The explanation also considers

those aspects that led to the decision of espousing such an approach for this study.

Likewise, it clarifies how this is appropriate in view of the national identity theories,

discussed in chapter 3, as well as the research aims and questions. The chapter also

presents the rationale for adopting Foucault’s approach to discourse analysis and his

analytical tools for the interpretation of findings. The chapter also gives an account of the

process and rationale behind the conducting a pilot study, and resulting modifications in

data methods, before discussing ethical issues.

4.2 Research Aims and Questions

This study has four aims: a) to identify factors in the relevant compulsory national

curriculum textbooks that contribute to students’ national identity constructions of

Pakistan b) to probe into schoolteachers’ position on national identity discourses

appearing in these textbooks and their role in implementing them on students in schools

c) to analyse students’ interaction with these discourses, their reactions and resulting

implications, particularly concerning their social attitudes and d) to contribute to the

scholarship of curriculum studies and postcolonial theory by contextualizing the

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relationship between (post)colonial conditions and Pakistan’s national identity formulation.

Hence, the main research questions are:

Research Questions

1. What are the factors shaping Pakistan’s post-colonial national identity discourses

in Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks of secondary and higher secondary

grades?

2. How do the teachers interact and respond to these factors before they implement

them on schoolchildren?

3. How does the interplay of Pakistan’s national identity discourses in these textbooks

and the teachers’ interface between the schoolchildren and textbooks collectively

function to construct Pakistan’s national identity for the schoolchildren of

secondary and higher secondary grades?

4. How do the schoolchildren’s lived experiences of these national identity discourses

in curriculum textbooks in schools, under the teachers’ supervision, reflect in their

conversations and what are its implications?

4.3 Research Paradigm – Social Constructionism

A research design and methodology depend on a researcher’s paradigm and the

nature of an inquiry. Similarly, a research paradigm informs about a researcher’s position

related to ontology and epistemology, which is defined as their philosophical or ideological

stances on the nature of the world (Rubin and Rubin, 2012). These positions are of basic

importance as ‘each social scientist’s orientation to his/her subject is shaped by his/her

ontological and epistemological positions’ (Furlong and Marsh, 2010, p.184). These express

researchers’ beliefs about the world and ‘are like a skin not a sweater: they can’t be put

on or taken off whenever the researcher sees fit’ (ibid.). Highlighting the significance of a

researcher’s paradigm, Guba and Lincoln (1994) maintain that ‘questions of methods are

secondary to questions of paradigm’ (p.105). It is, therefore, for this purpose that I first

explain my paradigmatic position as a researcher before elaborating on the methodology

and the research design for this study.

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I believe that consciousness is socially constructed when individuals interact in a

particular social milieu, and that language plays a crucial role in it. This defines my position

as a social constructivist which in turn influences the research design and methodology for

this study. The constructivist paradigm ‘assumes a relativist ontology (there are multiple

realities), a subjectivist epistemology (knower and respondent co-create understandings),

and a naturalistic (in a natural world) set of methodological procedures’ (Denzin and

Lincoln, 2003, p.34). Myers (2020) states that ‘interpretive researchers assume that access

to reality (given or socially constructed) is only through social constructions such as

language, consciousness, [and] shared meanings’ (p.45). According to Kincheloe et al.,

(2018) constructivist epistemology is based on the assumption that:

all thought is fundamentally mediated by power relations that are socially and

historically constituted; facts can never be isolated from the domain of values; the

relationship between concept and object and signifier and signified is never stable

and fixed ... [and] that language is central to the formation of subjectivity (p.420).

There are many approaches to social constructionism, therefore, no single

definition can perhaps be comprehensive enough. However, Burr (1995) lists four

premises that are largely shared by all social constructionist approaches:

• There’s no single ‘true’ reality. It is our knowledge of the world that has resulted

in the ways we categorize the world, and it is a product of discourse (Burr, 1995,

p.3).

• Knowledge/meaning has historical and cultural specificities (Burr, 1995, p.3). We

are ‘products of historically situated interchanges among people’ (Gergen, 1985,

p.267).

• There is a connection between meaning/knowledge and the social process of

interaction. Meanings or common truths are constructed through interaction in

society (ibid.).

• There is a clear–cut link between knowledge and social action. (Burr, 1995, p.5).

The above points suggest that our identities and worldviews could have been

different if we had been born at some other place and in a different time; or under the

influence of different social interactions. Likewise, a different understanding of the world

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can incite different activities and actions. This further implies that social constructions of

knowledge/truth have social consequences. My research paradigm draws on all of these

approaches. Similarly, they also provide the framework that I used as a guide for

interpreting my research findings, appropriating insights from the postcolonial theory.

4.4 Qualitative Research Approach

This study is qualitative, which according to Denzin and Lincoln (2003) is an

umbrella term for multiple research practices and methodologies. Qualitative research is

exploratory and allows the researcher to closely involve with research participants and

study the context to facilitate an in-depth view (Bryman, 1984). The aim of qualitative

research is ‘to understand, explain, explore, discover and clarify situations, feelings,

perceptions, attitudes, values, beliefs and experiences of a group of people’ (Kumar, 2011,

p.104). A study through this design, unlike the quantitative study, is non–linear and non–

sequential and allows flexibility (Kumar, 2011). It emerges as the research progresses and

‘entail[s] the selection of people from whom the information, through an open frame of

inquiry, is explored and gathered’ (ibid., p.104). To Burn and Grove (2001) exploratory

qualitative research is conducted to discover new ideas or to gain new insights. It doesn’t

provide a conclusive argument and further research is expected.

My choice for qualitative research is essentially guided by the nature of the study I

have undertaken. It includes the study of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbook

discourses and the study participants’ social world experiences of these in Pakistan’s public

schools (see section 4.2). Taylor et al., (2015) argue that ‘qualitative researchers empathize

and identify with the people they study in order to understand how those people see

things’ (p.8). Central to the ‘qualitative research is understanding people from their own

frames of reference and experiencing reality as they experience it’ (ibid.). Taylor et al.,

(2015) further suggest that ‘qualitative researchers must attempt to suspend, or set aside,

their own perspectives and taken–for–granted views of the world’ (p.8). I did so in the

course of this research by drawing on students’ and teachers’ perspectives with whom I

engaged in long conversations during my visits to the research sites – 3 boys and 3 girls

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schools located in Islamabad, Pakistan39. These conversations were recorded employing

interviews, focus groups and participatory tools methods. The themes and research

questions, which focused on the discursive constructions of Pakistan’s national identity

through the national curriculum, remained fluid. The new themes kept emerging as the

analysis progressed. Taylor et. al., (2015) explain that ‘qualitative researchers develop

concepts, insights, and understandings from patterns in the data rather than collecting data

to assess preconceived models, hypotheses, or theories’ (p.8). Similarly, the study used a

postcolonial perspective to approach the phenomena which was also a new idea in the

context of Pakistan. The selected qualitative research design is also in congruence with my

research paradigm (see section 4.3). According to interpretivism, social sciences aim to

explain human behaviour and to develop an understanding of the meanings/interpretations

which people/social actors attach to their social world phenomena. This is what this

research is about.

4.5 Research Methodology

In this section, I will briefly discuss my choices of research methodology including

data collection methods for this qualitative study. Silverman (2013) summarises

methodology as:

A methodology refers to the choices we make about cases to study, methods of

data gathering, forms of data analysis etc. in planning and executing a research

study…. In social research, methodologies may be defined very broadly (e.g.

qualitative or quantitative) or more narrowly (e.g. grounded theory or discourse

analysis) …. methods are specific research techniques…. like observation,

interviewing and audio–recording (p.225).

Essentially, there are five approaches to research within the qualitative research

domain. These include narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case

39 These are known as Islamabad Model Colleges for Boys & Girls. Basically, these are secondary and higher

secondary schools which run classes from Grade 1-12. The upper grades 11 & 12 in these schools can be

compared to Sixth Form Colleges in the UK where advanced school level qualifications (e.g. A, or AS levels

are given). In this study, I am mostly using the word school/s instead of Model Colleges, unless specifications

are required for precision, as mostly in this chapter.

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study. Generally, all of them share the same fundamental processes of research as

discussed in the previous section (see Creswell and Poth, 2018). Notwithstanding these, I

take a phenomenological case study approach as my research method. Phenomenology is

both a philosophical approach and a methodology. Departing from the positivist idea that

objects in the external world exist independently, Edmond Husserl (1859–1938) sought

to develop a phenomenological method. It takes into account how things appear to the

consciousness of people and how they subjectively experience them (Eagleton, 1996). For

its disciplinary origins, phenomenology draws on philosophy, psychology and education

(Creswell and Poth, 2018, p.104). Creswell (2013) explains phenomenology as follows:

a phenomenological study describes the common meaning for several individuals of

their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Phenomenologists focus on

describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon

(p.78).

This is exactly what my concern was in this study (see research questions 2–4 in

section 4.2). As explained in chapter 1– the idea to undertake this study took roots with

my observation of Pakistani schoolchildren’s social attitudes as their language teacher in

an overseas Pakistani school (see section 1.1). I found them growing increasingly

ethnocentric towards other communities, particularly Indians. Husserl (1975), as quoted

in Moustakes (1994, p.39), maintains that:

[f]or me the world is nothing other than what I am aware of and what appears valid

in my cognitions… I cannot live, experience, value and act in any world which is not

in some sense in me and derives its meaning and truth from me (p.39).

My personal cognitive experience of the said phenomenon afforded the initial

impetus for this study. Another contributing factor was my preunderstanding of the role

of national education in constituting students’ identities. The phenomenological approach

entails that ‘all realities must be treated as pure ‘phenomena’ in terms of their appearances

in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin’ (Eagleton, 1996,

p.48). My awareness of the students’ ethnocentric leanings motived me to study the

phenomena of national education afresh. Therefore, I decided to look into the contents of

Pakistan’s compulsory national curriculum textbooks being taught in public schools in

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Pakistan. The overseas Pakistani schools, following Pakistan’s national curriculum, use the

same textbooks (see section 1.1). The emergent national identity themes from the study

of these textbooks led me to reflect on the social and teaching practices of these in the

sampled schools. Creswell (2013) argues that the phenomenological approach of inquiry

is best suited for the research which seeks to understand ‘several individuals’ common or

shared experiences of a phenomenon’ (p. 81). For this purpose, it can employ ‘primarily

interviews with individuals, although documents, observations and art may also be

considered’ (Creswell and Poth, 2018, p.105). Guided by the textbook data, this study

was conducted in six different schools in Islamabad. The participants' experiences were

collected using interviews, observations and participatory tools (see section 4.5.1). The

overarching idea was a) to grasp and relate the essence of study participants’ experiences

resulting from their interaction with the textbook discourses and b) to see how these

inculcate Pakistani nationalism into them and shape their worldviews. This research first

recorded the collective experience of the schoolchildren and then described this

experience in their words. Subsequent to that, it analysed this experience before reporting

it. According to Creswell and Poth (2018, p.105) ‘description of the essence of the

experience of phenomena becomes a phenomenology’.

Further, what makes this study phenomenological in nature is its foci on the

phenomena being collectively experienced by a large number of participants at the selected

research sites. In light of that, they produced meanings relevant to Pakistan’s national

identity. Similarly, the idea to carry out this project at the selected research sites did not

emerge from the need to focus on the said sites. On the other hand, it was the phenomena

that needed an exploration where the unit of analysis was the theme of Pakistan’s national

identity constructions. Given my overarching concern in this study i.e., to understand the

phenomenon and the way it is being experienced by individuals in schools, I consider this

study as a phenomenological case study (see research questions 2–4 in section 4.2).

However, before deciding amongst available options, I considered other qualitative

approaches as well. For example, I particularly considered ethnography and more

importantly a typical case study method. Safford and Durry (2012) recommend an

ethnographic approach for education research. In this, researchers need to immerse into

the fieldwork assembling detailed data in a defined context where discourses are

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occurring. Researchers participate in that context and analyse how people and groups

make sense of their lives in their natural habitat. However, I realized school is not a natural

habitat, but rather a place of asymmetrical power relations, as discussed above. Also, given

my circumstances and position as a researcher, I could not engage with students for a

period required for an ethnographic research project. This aspect is further explained in

the following paragraph (also see section 4.6).

This study also had great potential for the case study, which I considered many

times before selecting the phenomenological approach. A case study is a popular approach

used in education research. It captures minute details of the situation under study and

offers a rich account at the end (Cohen et al., 2011). Yin (2012) identifies three situations

where a case study approach can be employed: when a researcher aims to know what is

happening or what has already happened; how has this happened and why; and when the

study context is significant and the researcher attempts to explore a similar phenomenon

from several angles (p.5). A case study looks for descriptive and exploratory explanations

and is relevant to my inquiry as well. However, several factors dissuaded me from taking

up a typical case study approach. For example, I thought that the idea of Pakistan’s national

identity construction in schools is not something that is happening at one particular site.

Similarly, it is not taking place in schools located in one particular city, rather it is being

experienced in all or most public schools in Pakistan. As detailed earlier, I made my initial

observation of the phenomena in an overseas Pakistani school in the United Arab Emirates

(UAE), following Pakistan’s national curriculum. The same can be true in many other

Pakistani schools operating from other Gulf countries. Therefore, the significance is of the

phenomena, not the schools. Similarly, the idea to draw on students’ experience was to

understand how they experience the phenomena i.e., the essence of national becoming

through the politics of textbooks in schools. Another deterring factor was, I was to

conduct this research from the position of an outsider – as a male researcher who was

based outside the country for more than fourteen years. I had a few personal contacts

who facilitated my access to schools (see sections 4.6 and 4.11), but it could not have been

for a sustained period which was required for a case study. Other constraining elements

included financial constraints as this study is fully self–funded.

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Phenomenology has been used in educational research involving school settings.

For example, in West’s study (2013) entitled ‘A Phenomenological Case Study of the

Experiences of African American High School Students’. Employing interviews and focus

groups, the researcher explores the phenomenon of the gaps in academic achievements

in the lives of young African American urban adults of Ohio, US. The study is an account

of how these individuals experience this phenomenon and the meanings they attach to it.

Similarly, Crawford’s (2016) PhD thesis entitled ‘Developing the whole teacher: A

phenomenological case study of student teachers’ emotions in one teacher education

program’ is another example. In this study, the researcher examines how one ‘Early

Childhood (PreK–5th) Education Program’ prepares teachers for the emotional

dimensions of teaching. Also, it explores the emotional experiences of student teachers.

4.5.1 Methods for Data Collection

I aimed to have a holistic view of how Pakistan’s national identity is discursively

constructed in schools. My empirical research journey, therefore, drew on most education

system actors and stakeholders, employing multiple data collection tools. These can be

broadly divided into two categories: documentary data and textbooks; and field research

data.

4.5.1.1 Documentary data and Textbooks

The documentary data for this study is comprised of the Government of Pakistan’s

(GOP) National Education Policy (NEP) (2009), and the textbooks including English, Urdu,

Pakistan Studies of grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. The NEP (2009) is an open–published policy

document that underpins particular ideologies and affords policy guidelines for the

textbook constructions (see chapters 5 and 6). The textbooks are published by the

National Book Foundation of Pakistan (see http://www.nbf.org.pk/) and Punjab Curriculum

and Textbook Board (see https://pctb.punjab.gov.pk/). Explaining the reason for its

existence, the board states that before its foundation ‘there was little control of the

Government on printing, publication and distribution of the textbooks’. The board

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describes itself as a government body with a ‘vision of nation building through quality

textbooks’ (ibid.).

In view of the inquiry stated in the research question 1, repeated close reading of

the selected textbooks’ textual contents, including illustrations, was carried out. The focus

was to identify factors in these that contribute to the constructions of Pakistan’s national

identity discourses. Prior (2003) contends that texts are a good starting point for a

qualitative study. While analysing the textbooks, I also referred to the NEP, 2009. The idea

was to observe its influence in shaping national identity discourses in these textbooks. The

textbooks were purchased from the open market. Taylor et. al., (2015) argue that policy

‘documents should be examined not as objective data, but rather to lend insight into

organizational processes’ (p.94). In the study of the NEP, 2009 and the textual contents of

the selected textbooks (including visual imagery), I used a Foucauldian approach and

treated these as discourses. It means that these sources are employed as ‘ways of

constituting knowledge, together with social practices, forms of subjectivities, and power

relations’ (Weedon, 1987, p.108). Therefore, keeping with Weedon’s advice, I, as a

researcher, avoided taking for granted what had been said in these. Findings drawn from

these sources were presented in chapter 5.

The analysis of the textbook discourses and the emerging themes (see section 5.2)

guided the formulation of research questions 2, 3 and 4 and the next phase of the study

involving field–data. Similarly, it directed the construction of field–data collection tools.

These were to be administered on 424 students and 12 teachers in three boys and three

girls schools located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan (to see sampling criteria go to

section 4.6). The purpose was to learn their positions on the identified themes that had

emerged from the study of the national curriculum textbooks. The data collected from

these resources was presented in chapter 6. The following sections explain the rationale

behind the selection of field–data tools and their construction criteria.

4.5.1.2 Field Research Data

For an inquiry that aims to understand participants’ perspectives, qualitative

approaches, including phenomenology, recommend interviews with individuals and on-site

observations in a natural setting (see Tracy, 2020; Creswell and Poth, 2018; Silverman,

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2013; Saumure and Given, 2008). Taylor et. al., (2015) argue that ‘[i]n qualitative

methodology the researcher looks at settings and people holistically; people, settings, or

groups are not reduced to variables, but are viewed as a whole (p.9)’. In line with these

insights, this research selected four data collection tools including observations,

participatory tools, focus group interviews and individual interviews. The following

sections briefly explain them.

4.5.1.2.1 Observations

Observation is a data-gathering method that involves a ‘systematic description of

events, behaviors, and artefacts in the social setting chosen for study’ (Marshal and

Rosman, 1989, p.79). My role during the observation was of a non–participant observer

(see section 4.7.1). Therefore, it included the study of the displayed items/pictures on

significant school sites and the rituals performed in the schools’ morning assemblies. I took

pictures of some of these after seeking administrative permission. My study confirmed that

the said displays were in consonance with the national identity ideologies promoted by the

sampled textbooks. The data gathered from on-site observation was presented in chapter

5.

4.5.1.2.2 Participatory Tools

Punch (2002) contends that the participatory method complements traditional

research techniques. It is a good data collection tool for the project that involves children

(ibid.). Similarly, O’Kane (2008) maintains that participatory techniques ‘can enable

children and young people to talk about the sorts of issues that affect them’ (pp.126–27).

My research involved listening to children as a very significant aspect. This aspect is also

highlighted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) ‘children

have the right to be viewed and treated as autonomous individuals in society’ (Levy and

Thompson, 2013, p.20).

Informed by the emergent themes from the textbooks findings and observations

made at school sites (see sections 5.2 and 5.8), the contents of participatory tools and

interview questionnaires focused on these topic areas:

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• Pakistan’s national identity vs. other Pakistani identities

• Inclusion and exclusion in national imagining

• Women as the mainstay of national values and culture, and their location in

Pakistan’s national identity imaginings as perceived by teachers and students

• Militaristic national identity

Participatory tools was the first data collection method that I implemented in all

six schools. The activity required students to:

• draw images of things/artifacts/symbols which in their opinion represent/not

represent Pakistan.

• draw an image of a girl/woman who in their opinion truly represents/not represents

Pakistan/Pakistani culture and describe her using adjectives.

• draw an image of a tree with five branches each representing the most important

aspect of Pakistani culture. (see appendix H)

For participatory tools activities, students from all four grades congregated in

school–auditoriums. The activity was first conducted in three boys–schools. A similar

procedure was followed at three girls–schools. The instructions for participatory tools

activities, as stated above, aligned with the themes identified and discussed above. These

were also aimed at addressing research questions 2, 3 and 4. The instructions to complete

the activities were given in Urdu – students’ language of communication in schools. They

were also advised to complete each activity in no more than 20 minutes, which proved

sufficient. All activities were carried out individually so that respondents do not influence

one another, and reliable data could be generated. There was no specific number of the

images to be drawn for the first two activities, which varied significantly ranging from 5 to

8. These activities were fun in which students participated enthusiastically. The activities

also helped break the ice and created a relaxed and friendly environment. This significantly

helped in focus group conversations with students, which followed immediately after

participatory tools in all schools.

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4.5.1.2.3 Focus Group Interviews

Bryman (2012) defines a focus group as an interview method which is conducted

simultaneously with many people on a specific issue. Bloor et al., (2002) state that ‘[f]ocus

groups [can] provide rich data on the group meanings associated with a given issue’ (p.7).

Similarly, it can be used as ‘an adjunct to other methods’ and can elicit multiple viewpoints

on the topic under consideration (ibid.). I conducted focus group interviews with students

who had already taken part in participatory tools. I had four girls’ focus–groups and 5 boys’

focus–groups, in which fifty–eight students participated. The group sizes varied ranging

from 6 to 9 participants each. Centred on the themes that emerged from the study of the

textbooks (see section 5.2), a semi-structured interview questionnaire was used as a guide

(see appendix I). The interviews were audiotaped with the permission of both

administration and participants. A significant number of girls chose to speak in English,

whereas boys largely preferred Urdu, Pakistan’s national language. Each focus group

interview took between sixty to ninety minutes. Since the interviews were conducted

following participatory tools, the students were familiar with the focus of my research.

They were made to sit in school auditoriums in spherical formulations with a table in the

middle. Jayawardana and O’Donnell (2009) and Packer–Muti (2010) consider group

settings an essential element for students’ focus groups, where an unstructured dialogue

amongst the participants occurs in a convenient location. I was aware of asymmetrical

power relations in schools, therefore, I sat among them. Similarly, before opening the

discussion on research themes, I practiced a few things quite consistently: a) making small

talk for a few minutes, b) ensuring the participants that I am a student like them, c) there

are no right or wrong answers to the questions, d) whatever they express is meaningful

and important to me and e) that the contents of these discussions will strictly remain

between us. This put them at ease and the sitting formulation abridged power differences

as they were the majority and I was an ‘odd man out’ amongst them. In so doing, I also

aligned with my interpretive paradigm, wherein ‘the researcher operates through a belief

in the multiplicity of peoples, cultures, and means of knowing and understanding’ (Fusch

and Ness, 2015, p.1410). The informal environment also reduced peer pressure to a

considerable degree. Once discussions initiated on the impetuses I supplied on succeeding

themes, my position changed from a moderator/participant to a distant observer and a

non–participant. I would just record their conversation and take notes unless I felt some

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individual is dominating discussions. In that case, I would very politely intervene and would

engage the ‘subdued’ ones to make sure I get a response from all participants.

The situation would sometimes turn into a debate where one participant would

make a point and others would either agree or give rebuttals. However, I also noted that

seldom some participants would just agree, apparently without understanding much of the

point in question. For girls’ focus groups, further care was taken considering cultural

sensitivities. Their subject teachers were requested to remain in the auditoriums where

participatory tool activities had taken place. I explained to them the situation,

simultaneously requesting them to keep a reasonable distance from students so that they

did not feel hesitant to express what they genuinely intended.

4.5.1.2.4 Teachers’ Interviews

An interview as a data tool is ‘particularly useful for getting the story behind a

participant’s experience’ (McNamara, 1999, p.89). Qualitative researchers employ this to

seek participants’ views of the social world. Interviews produce contextually bound data

where an interviewer and the interviewee together create a story (Fontana and Frey,

2005). Silverman (2013) argues that there can be multiple meanings of this story subject

to who is talking to whom. However, it is difficult to decide if to treat a story as a real

‘experience’ or a consciously constructed ‘narrative’ (ibid.). For teachers’ interviews, I

constructed a loose guide, though it was still focused on the themes discussed earlier. In

total, twelve interviews, from six males and six female teachers, were conducted. They

varied in length considerably, as the focus on the question–guide became rather slack

because of the follow–up questions, clarifications and elaborations. Some teachers spoke

hardly for ten to fifteen minutes, whereas others spoke between one hour, and one hour

and a half. Teachers’ interviews generated massive data of about twenty–five thousand

words (see appendices J and K for guiding questions and transcripts40). The interviews

were mostly conducted in Urdu; however, teachers were free to choose their preferred

medium of communication. Semi-structured interviews proved useful as they allowed

40 The data generated from the teachers’ interviews exceeded 25000 words. Given its length, it was not

possible to attach the complete word file. Therefore, I have just attached a few randomly selected

excerpts.

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participants to develop conversation along with the emerging themes. Teachers in the

Pakistani education system are extremely important stakeholders because they administer

textbook discourses in formal classroom settings. In most cases, textbooks and teachers

are the only sources of knowledge for students. The education system in Pakistani

government schools encourages rote learning, and access to libraries is extremely limited.

Therefore, the possibility of conducting projects which can involve a consultation to

independent sources other than textbooks is highly unlikely. A conversation with teachers

afforded a picture to analyse their views on Pakistan’s national identity and implementation

practices at schools. This brought incredible insight into this research. Findings from field

research were presented in Chapter 6.

4.6 Research Population and Sampling Criteria

As discussed in section 4.5, the focus of this research is to investigate the

phenomena of Pakistan’s national identity constructions employing national curriculum

textbooks. Similarly, it analyses the schoolchildren’s social experiences of these in

government schools. Hence, its entire population includes all the students across the

country who undergo the process of national becoming under schoolteachers’ supervision

in Pakistan’s public schools. Similarly, it includes those students as well who have settled

abroad but study in overseas Pakistani schools, following Pakistan’s national curriculum. In

view of that, it is impossible to conduct a population study and sampling is required. In the

following subsections, I describe the selection criteria for sampling schools, textbooks,

teachers and the student research participants.

4.6.1 Selection Criteria for Schools, Textbooks and Teachers

This research required sampling processes at three levels, namely schools,

textbooks and study participants. The possibilities and constraints regarding my position

as an overseas-based researcher limited the scope of much experimentation. Hence,

besides the population issue discussed in section 4.6, I also considered the following issues

before planning on sampling schools:

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• Time constraints – as being based oversees with family – I had to strictly follow my

children’s school holiday schedules while considering the holiday schedules of

institutions where my research was to take place.

• Finances involved in travelling.

• Ability to access institutions and hectic procedures involved in convincing the

gatekeepers.

• Socio-cultural constraints in accessing female schools.

These practical matters influenced the decision of sampling. Therefore, in the

selection of schools, I chose the nonprobability method of opportunity sampling. When

considering this method, researchers usually invoke their ‘knowledge of an area on which

to base a study or … to contact participants or gatekeepers’ (Brady, 2006, p.205). I

considered only the last part (contacting gatekeepers) and selected those schools in

Islamabad where I had a personal network of friends. The idea was to seek their help to

have access to the school principals. Opportunity sampling which is also known as

accidental or convenience sampling is ‘often viewed as the weakest form of sample

selection’ (ibid.). It is criticized on the account ‘that there is no evidence that they are

representative of the populations to which the researchers wish to generalize’ (Davidson,

2006, p.196). This is constructive criticism; however, it cannot be applied to this research.

My rationale behind choosing this method was to have access to gatekeepers with the help

of friends. The question of a representative population was not applicable as in this respect

all schools in Islamabad would have been the same. On the other hand, the rationale behind

conducting this research in schools located in Islamabad lied in the fact that Islamabad is

the capital of Pakistan. Its schools accommodate students mostly from all

provinces/regions of Pakistan, including disputed territories of Pakistani administered

Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. Therefore, participants’ data samples from Islamabad have the

potential to broadly represent the whole country compared to any other city of Pakistan

(for these schools’ profiles see appendix D). Also, in terms of social class, the population

of the selected schools represents the middle/lower middle class of the country which

makes up the representative majority of the country. This class of Pakistani students

generally study the national curriculum textbooks in 196,998 government schools. They

facilitate 28.68 million students across the country, however, mostly using Urdu as a

medium of instruction (Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Education Statistics 2015–16,

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2017, p.5). It is important to mention that currently in Pakistan an estimated 22.8 million

schoolchildren between the age of 5 to 16 are outside school (see Soomro, 2020). Given

the chance, most of them are likely to join government schools. The rest of the Pakistani

children study in private schools, totaling 120,273, which facilitate 21.60 million students.

However, private schools are further divided into Deeni Madaris (religious seminaries) and

English medium schools. Some 2.26 million children study in 32,272 Pakistani Deeni Madaris

(97% come under the private sector and 3% public sector). The social class studying in

Deeni Madaris mostly hail from the lowest strata of society. Though education in

government schools is available on negligible fees, the advantage of Deeni Madaris is that

they provide free food and lodging. Following the sectarian division of Pakistani society

amongst Brailvi, Deobandi, Ahl–e–Hadith and Shia, each sect has a chain of Deeni Madaris.

English medium private schools can be further placed into three categories viz., English

medium schools managed by Pakistan’s armed forces, elite English medium schools and

non–elite English medium schools (see Rahman, 2004). The Elite English medium schools

follow international curriculum including the International Baccalaureate (IB) and

Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), whereas the

other two categories of private schools generally follow Pakistan’s national curriculum of

English medium, the same as the schools I sampled for this study.

Sampling techniques for textbooks can be said to have followed the criteria

delineated for both non–probability opportunity sampling and probability sampling. This

study adopted opportunity sampling in the sense that it followed a predetermined notion

that English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies are the subjects that contain contents for national

identity. Conversely, it is a probability sampling as I analyse the textbooks of all compulsory

subjects that contain contents on national identity. These subjects are taught to all students

irrespective of creed, faith, discipline and aptitude. Similarly, no other subject taught to

students contains national identity discourses.

Sampling criteria for selecting teachers for interviews follow the same principles as

textbooks. I selected only those teachers who had been teaching the abovementioned

subjects. It is because, generally, only the teachers of these subjects are considered

responsible to inculcate national identity discourses in schoolchildren. The teachers’ years

of service in their current positions ranged from 7 to 42 (see appendix K). In total, twelve

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interviews were conducted. In qualitative research, suggest Glaser and Strauss (2006),

there is no straightforward number of interviews. Similarly, they suggest the researchers

should take into account the principle of data saturation. However, this needs to be

understood that data saturation is not necessarily about the numbers but more about the

strength of data (see Burmeister and Aitken, 2012). However, those studies that employ

more than one data method, like this one, fewer participants are required (see Glaser and

Strauss, 2006). Fusch and Ness (2015) maintain that ‘data saturation is reached when there

is enough information to replicate the study, [and] when the ability to obtain additional

new information has been attained, and when further coding is no longer feasible’ (p.408).

After interviewing twelve teachers, I recognized that the saturation stage had arrived. The

new themes had stopped emerging and our conversation was not adding anything new to

the story.

4.6.2 Selection Criteria for Students’ Participants

In sampling students’ research population, this research design used both non–

probability opportunity samples and probability samples, where appropriate. This was

applied to all sets of data collection methods discussed in section 4.5.1.

I began with the technique of nonprobability opportunity sampling when choosing

participants only from grades 9, 10, 11 and 12. The average age group of the students

studying in these grades ranged from 14 to 17 i.e., 14 for the students studying in grades

9 and 17 for grade 12. These grades were purposively chosen from the available grades 1

to 12. Saumure and Given (2008) maintain that ‘purposive sampling refers to a process

where participants are selected because they meet criteria that have been predetermined

by the researcher as relevant to addressing the research question’ (p.562). My

predetermined idea was to select students who had undergone many years of formal

pedagogic exercise at schools and were perhaps mature, given their age, formal subject-

based knowledge and understanding of the themes this study was about.

However, in the second stage that concerned sampling of the students to know

their perspectives on what was identified/stated in the research questions 2, 3 and 4,

probability sampling was used. Probability sampling in qualitative research is employed

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‘when representation and randomization are required’ (Saumure and Given, 2008, p.519).

Scot and Usher (2011) maintain that ‘probability sampling may be conducted in a number

of ways. The first of these is simple random sampling’ (p.78). They further state that ‘[t]he

randomization principle allows the researcher to be certain that each member of a

population has an equal chance of being selected’ (ibid.). Given my holistic approach to the

study, the principle of representation and randomization, when drawing on students’

perspectives, was significant. I followed this principle when sampling for the students’

participatory tools and focus group interviews. During this stage, all available participants

from the selected grades stood an equal chance to participate in the study. In participatory

tools activities, all those who brought back the consent forms, duly signed by the parents,

were allowed to participate. The total number for participatory tools activities stood at

424 – 209 boys and 215 girls (see section 4.11). As reported by the concerned teachers,

an overwhelming majority of these students come from the country’s educated middle

classes. The parents of these children were identified by the teachers as government

employees of officer cadres working in ministerial divisions in Islamabad, the capital of

Pakistan. Also, there were children of the lower middle classes whose parents work in the

same ministries in non–officer cadres.

Considering the emergence of ethnic and religious aspects of the study from the

textbook data, information about students’ ethnic background was sought from the

participating students. The majority group with 51% population was found to be Punjabi.

The next was the Pashtuns with 25% of the population. Other ethnic groups included

Hindco/Pahari speaking people from Pakistani administered Kashmir (7%), Saraiki speaking

from South Punjab (3%), Hindco speaking people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

(5%), Urdu speaking from Sindh province (2%), Sindhi speaking from Sindh province (5%),

Baluchi speaking from Baluchistan province (1%), Shina and Balti speaking from Gilgit–

Baltistan (1%). Given the sensitivity involved in the matters of religion, information about

participatory students’ religions was sought from the class–teachers of the relevant grades.

4.9% of the total study–participants appeared to be from the minority religions–

Christianity and Hinduism.

In the selection of focus group samples, again complete randomization was applied.

After participatory tools activities concluded, I asked for volunteers interested in focus

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group interviews. Most students who expressed the interest were included in focus group

interviews, and no other selection criteria were applied.

4.6.3 Accessing Fields and Participants – Challenges and Conundrums

The issue of access involves ‘multiple points of entry that require a continuous

process of negotiation and renegotiation’ (Burgess, 2006, p.39). As mentioned earlier,

research participants for this study involved students of grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 and their

teachers of both genders from three boys’ and three girls’ schools situated in Islamabad.

In Pakistan, there are either all male or all female institutions at these levels. The girls

mostly study with female teachers/heads and boys with male teachers/heads. In these sex-

segregated educational milieus, which also involve cultural sensitivities, obtaining access to

female schools/colleges for male researchers is beset with multiple hurdles. During this

study, I had to surmount these twice; first for piloting in November 2015, and last for the

main study in August and September 2016.

Being aware of the bureaucratic systems in Pakistan41, I knew that my research

project would need to be explained to several gatekeepers. This included Director Model

Colleges at the Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad, and second to a number of

Principals of Model Colleges42, where the actual research was supposed to take place.

Similarly, I knew it could take a long time. Therefore, I planned a trip to the country in

August 2015, just to seek initial approval for the project from local concerned quarters.

Before accessing the college principals, I solicited an administrative order from the

Government of Pakistan (GOP) Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad in August

2015. However, the procurement of the order was not a simple matter. It involved

procedures and required a personal reference to convince the Director Model Colleges

about the nature of my research. This was done with the help of a friend working in the

GOP Federal Directorate of Education, Islamabad as a section officer. After he had spoken

to the Director Model Colleges, I visited the concerned office along with documents which

included my professional and academic credentials and most importantly, the University

41 I taught in Pakistan for five years prior to moving overseas in September 2003. 42 For explanation on why ‘Model College’ and ‘School’ is being used interchangeably see 4.4.

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of Leicester’s Ethical Approval Letter. Though these documents established my credibility

as a researcher, I had to explain my research to the Director Model Colleges once again

in expansive details. Once satisfied, he issued an order to all the Principals of Model

Colleges located in the Federal Jurisdiction, advising them to facilitate the researcher (see

appendix A). The order was issued on August 26, 2015. However, being privy to the

system, I realized that an administrative order from the concerned office might not be

enough as educational institutions have their own bureaucratic structures. The access to

Model Colleges was at that point facilitated by a friend working as an assistant professor

in one of these institutions. A letter explaining the details of the research project was

addressed to the principals (see appendix C). The letter was appended with the

questionnaires and the consent forms, meant for the study participants – both students

and teachers (see section 4.11). In the letter, the concerned principals (both male and

female) were requested to peruse the contents of questionnaires to be implemented on

students and suggest changes/inclusion/deletion in these if they deemed essential. The

letter was, nevertheless approved as it was. Meanwhile, I had also obtained Ethical

Approval for data collection for the proposed project from the University of Leicester. I

began data collection in November 2015.

In the Boys’ Colleges, access to participants was granted without complications. It

was mainly because of personal connections as well as my position as a male researcher

reaching out to males. Obtaining access to female colleges became very challenging in spite

of the official order and the approval of my letter to them. Two significant issues emerged

in that context a) cultural sensitivity as I was demanding access to the teenage girl–students

and b) administrators’ suspicion about the actual intention of my research project with

students and teachers. This they discussed with me later when enough confidence had

been built. About the former, their argument was that without parents’ permission they

could not approve my contact with girls; and that parents would refuse it either on

religious or cultural grounds. I could surmount these initial obstacles by explaining research

ethics where parents’ consent is inevitable to conduct this study. This aspect is presented

in detail in section 4.11. However, the most influential factor that helped quelled their

doubts was the lobbying by two female teacher–friends. They were working as lecturers

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in two of these institutions. It took over a week to formally begin data collection in these

organizations.

4.7 Piloting

In the foundation of the research instruments in their current shape, and subsequent

successful completion of this research project is a pilot study that was conducted in

November 2015. De Vos (2002) suggests piloting ‘to see if the beast will fly’ (p.402). The

piloting assessed the effectiveness of the preliminary research tools vis–à–vis the research

questions. Similarly, it helped evaluate the practical aspects involved in the implementation

of proposed research tools on the student–participants in schools. As explained earlier,

the initial idea of this research was informed by my interaction with the selected textbooks

and National Education Policy (2009). However, further tweaking of it and the finalization

of research questions 2,3 and 4 were informed by the piloting in the field. Other reasons

that encouraged piloting were to understand/analyse issues pertaining to cultural sensitivity

as the proposed research involved access to girls. Taking it as a ‘small–scale version or

trial run in preparation for a major study’ (Polit et al., 2001, p.467), the objective of piloting

was to take–off with some degree of assurance about the project. Baker (1994) supports

piloting a research instrument and suggests conducting it on 10% to 20% of the total sample

of the study. I piloted the study on approximately 10 % of the total study population of my

main study. Thabane et al., (2010) note that ‘[i]t is important that the sample for a pilot be

representative of the target study population’ (p.5). They further suggest that ‘[i]t should

also be based on the same inclusion/exclusion criteria as the main study’ (ibid.). I followed

these guidelines and my piloting involved conducting:

• observations

• participatory tools with 46 students, both girls and boys in two different Model

Colleges for Boys and Girls

• focus group with eight males and seven female students of grades 10 and 11, and

• interviews (semi-structured/loosely structured) with two males and two female

teachers of the abovementioned colleges

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4.7.1 Refining Research Design – Modifications in Research Instruments

Observation: the initial plan included observing: (a) teachers teaching the

textbooks in classrooms (b) rituals in the morning school assembly and on national days

and (c) observation of displayed items in the corridors and classroom walls. Piloting in two

schools (one boy and one girl) led to major changes in this design. This was for the

following reasons: a) teachers’ reluctance to allow observation while teaching was in

progress – they considered it an ‘unnecessary intrusion in their domain’, as one principal

confided when the issue was discussed and b) the realization that time constraints will not

permit me to observe rituals being followed in on Pakistan’s national days. Consequently,

I decided to limit the visual observations to the pictures/artifacts and notices displayed on

the schools’ corridors, auditoriums and notice boards and to the students’ activities in the

schools’ daily morning assemblies. I could complete it in six days.

Participatory Tools: piloting participatory tools led to three changes in the final

study: (a) the initial idea to request volunteers to come to the dais and draw a picture of

a girl/boy to kick–start the activity was dropped as it was wasting time – instead I draw

these images myself; (b) items generating repeat responses were dropped; (c) the category

– draw an image of Pakistan’s cultural tree with branches and roots was included to

understand students’ perspectives on ‘us’ vs. ‘them’.

Questionnaires for students and teachers: the piloting of these instruments

mainly pointed to the questions that were generating repeat responses. Oppenheim (1992,

p.47) suggests that ‘questions have to be composed and tried out, improved and tried out

again, often several times over, until we are certain that they can do the job for what they

are needed’. This was done and both instruments were modified before embarking on the

main study. In addition, conversation with students pointed to their preoccupation with

military heroism – the theme which I had overlooked earlier while analysing textbook

discourses. This theme emerged as a very powerful construct in the study of Pakistan’s

national identity constructions at the later stage. In the main study, I constructed a section

on it using Synder’s (1970) and Johnson’s terms (1995) ‘strategic culture’ (p.46).

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Pilot–guided amendments made research instruments brief and enhanced their

result-oriented capacity. The improved versions also facilitated respondents as I found

them relatively focused, and forthcoming during the main study.

4.8 Data Analysis

Data analysis in qualitative research is an ongoing process and begins with data

collection activity (Taylor et al., 2015). It even continues when the process of

interpretation begins, which is related to the writing phase. Decisions as to which

protocols to follow to analyse qualitative data depend ‘on the interaction of research

questions, study model, and text and archival and audiovisual data’ (Schensul, 2008, p.521).

My data analysis began with the reading of the selected textbooks much before I undertook

the field research. For this purpose, I followed a phenomenological approach which

involved ‘analyzing data for significant statements, meaning units, textual and structural

description and description of the essence’ (Creswell and Poth, 2018, p.105). I applied

these guidelines in the analysis of both textbooks and field–data as described below:

Textbook data analysis: in phenomenological research, the second data analysis

step, after identifying the phenomenon, is ‘horizontalization’. It involves listing ‘every

significant statement relevant to the topic (Moustakas,1994 as quoted in Creswell, 2013,

p.233). I did this by carrying out a repeated close reading of the selected textbook

discourses (prompted by my observation/awareness of the phenomenon of Pakistani

children, living in the United Arab Emirates, growing ethnocentric in attitudes) (see section

1.1). This step also paved the way to formulate the first research question for this project

i.e. identifying factors in the national curriculum textbooks that contribute to students’

national identity constructions. The third step in phenomenology is to ‘cluster the

statements into themes or meaning units’ (Moustakas, 1994, as quoted in Creswell, 2013,

p.233). The analysis of these textbooks unpicked consistent patterns emerging from these

discourses on national identity. These were coded and sub coded. This step involves

‘identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) in the data’ (Braun and Clarke, 2006,

p.79). In coding/sub coding data, I followed the principle of integration and aggregation of

those individual bits of information that were similar in meaning/connotations. Then, by

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putting together these coded and sub coded data, new thematic categories were created.

According to Chenail (2008) ‘categorization is a major component of qualitative data

analysis by which investigators attempt to group patterns observed in the data into

meaningful units or categories’ (ibid.). This is done by ‘chunking together groups of

previously coded data’ (p.72). Schensul (2008) maintains that ‘coding categories can range

conceptually from more concrete to more abstract and reflect themes and patterns found

within and across domains in the study model’ (p.521). The categories identified as a result

of the analysis of these textbook discourses can be said to be concrete. However, they

were not discrete in the case of this study as overlapping was often noticed. The final

analysis of these categories converged into five major themes that summarised all

categories and were made into the headings of thematically oriented subsections (see

section 5.2). Under these headings, the entire variety of findings was presented in chapter

5.

Field–research data analysis: describing the process of phenomenological data

analysis Creswell (2013) holds that data analysts move further by ‘building on the data

from the first and second research questions’ (p.82). The research question 1, based on

the textbook data analysis, directed the formulation of the research questions 2, 3 and 4.

As described earlier, these are related to the following elements:

• the role of teachers as an interface between the textbooks and children

• resulting influence of the teacher–mediated national identity discourses on shaping

students’ national identities of Pakistan in schools

• the collective influence of these on students’ social attitudes and likely implications

for the society (see section 4.2)

The purpose was to analyse and develop an understanding of how the participants

experience the phenomenon in question. Therefore, the data was collected employing

teachers’ interviews, students’ participatory tools and focus group interviews, and

observations. For the analysis of the field–data, a similar procedure of noticing significant

statements, clustering of themes and coding/sub–coding was employed as described above.

It involved initial sorting out of identical and different responses leading to methodical

integration, accumulation and final grouping of the obtained bits of information into

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meaningful categories (Saumure and Given, 2008). The visual data was the easiest to

manage as it was comprised of on-site camera pictures which were of a little variety (see

section 5.8). Similarly, observations of rituals at students’ morning assemblies in all six

schools revealed a rigidly structured pattern of just four activities (see section 5.8). The

analysis of students’ participatory tools data was most difficult as it involved sorting

images/descriptions, organizing them under thematic categories and then counting to

report information. Similarly, the analysis of the students’ focus group data proved quite

complicated. I had to listen to the audiotapes repeatedly before reporting the respondents’

views. However, the notes taken during the interviews proved helpful. The main issue

which was encountered in analysing teachers’ interviews was the translation of audio

scripts. About 80% of their interview talk was in Urdu. Of twelve interviewees, eight

preferred Urdu, one both Urdu and English and three English. Given the enormous amount

of data (about 25000 words), it became an extremely taxing activity that took a period of

over two months. I translated it myself. However, throughout the translation process, I

remained on tenterhooks as not to miss the essence of meaning. Therefore, I adopted a

more nuanced approach and avoided literal translation where required. In Pool’s (1999)

opinion, every language is rooted in its own socio-cultural settings. Therefore, translation

is invariably at the cost of the loss of meaning.

The process of data analysis in qualitative research is complex and tedious. Even

drawing clear boundaries between analysis and interpretation of data is problematic.

Saumure and Given (2008) hold that in so doing, a researcher always goes back and forth

during these stages when interacting with qualitative data. I experienced the same thing

while analysing the data described above.

4.9 Discourse Analysis as Interpretive/Analytical Lens

This study deployed discourse analysis (DA) to interpret the textbook data and

the field–data. DA is primarily concerned with the notion of how meanings are socially

constituted through various modes of human interactions. These include text, pictures and

conversations. It provides a lens to investigate and understand how language shapes and

(re)produces social meanings and different forms of knowledge (Tonkiss, 2012). DA has

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‘gained increasing prominence in qualitative research since the late 20th century’ (Saumure

and Given, 2008, p.355). My choice of discourse analysis was primarily led by my research

paradigm i.e. social constructionism and the selected qualitative approaches (see sections

4.3 and 4.4). Other aspects that I considered to reach this decision included my informed

understanding of the political goals of a state-sponsored education system and the

invented/constructed nature of national identities as discussed in chapter 3. Jørgensen and

Phillips (2002) maintain that discourse analysis ‘can be used as a framework for analysis of

national identity ... The focus could be, for instance, the discursive construction of national

identity in Textbooks’ (p.2). They further maintain that discourse analysis can help explore

the importance of national identity in an interactive environment of an organization.

Discourse analysis can also help understand how ‘expert knowledge’ (Apple, 2002) is

constructed and disseminated and the implications it involves for the questions related to

power.

Discourse is a nebulous concept. It is a common currency in many disciplines and

entails a variety of meanings. Thus, it is ‘perhaps in danger of becoming all things to all

people’ (Kendall and Wickham, 2003, p.35). Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) argue that ‘[t]he

concept has become vague, either meaning almost nothing, or being used with more

precise, but rather different, meanings in different contexts’ (p.1). Derrida (1978) treats

discourse as a socially constructed reality where meanings do not reflect an underlying

inherent property to be discovered or revealed. The construction of meaning and social

realities make sense when they are viewed in relation to other discourses of descriptive

or normative dimensions. Hence, they are not fixed, nor have they any intrinsic quality.

They are constantly being (re)constructed, (re)appropriated, (re)defined, negotiated and

contested. It is beyond the scope of this study to track down most meanings of discourse

and map out how it is perceived/understood in different disciplines. Mills (1997) maintains

that even ‘within a particular discipline, there is a great deal of fluidity in the range of

reference of the term discourse’ (p.3). Discourse and text are also sometimes used as

alternative expressions. Crystal (2007) holds that ‘discourse and text can be used in a

much broader sense to include all language units with a definable communicative function,

whether spoken or written’ (p.260). He maintains that there is no clear–cut distinction

between the two. He refers to discourse as ‘conversations, interviews, commentaries, and

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speeches’, whereas, text as ‘essays, notices, road signs, and chapters’ (ibid.). This is a useful

insight in the context of this study. I will follow this definition and will use text and

discourse interchangeably blurring the distinction between the two. It is for the reason

that curriculum discourses, textbooks, interviews, conversations, notices and

signs/pictures are the data for this study to understand the question of Pakistan’s

postcolonial national identity formulations.

Social constructionism which is my research paradigm encourages many different

approaches to social analyses. Even within discourse analysis, there are many approaches

e.g. Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive

Psychology, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis etc., (Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002, p. 6). Not

all but many of these approaches generally draw on structuralist or poststructuralist

language theory. Jørgensen and Phillips (2002) argue that poststructuralism is a

subcategory of social constructionism that dismisses Marxism and psychoanalysis as

totalizing and universalizing theories. The points of convergence among all discourse

analysis approaches are as follows:

• language is not a reflection of a pre-existing reality.

• language is structured in patterns or discourses – there is not just one general

system of meaning as in Saussurian structuralism, but a series of systems or

discourses, whereby meanings change from discourse to discourse.

• these discursive patterns are maintained and transformed through discursive

practices.

• the maintenance and transformation of the patterns should, therefore, be explored

through analysis of the specific contexts in which language is in action. (Jørgensen

and Phillips, 2002, pp.6–12)

In the approaches mentioned here, I considered a Foucauldian approach more

suitable for this study. The following subsection presents a brief overview of Foucault’s

notion of discourse and the Foucauldian concepts that relate to my study. It also discusses

Foucault’s analytical tools that were employed in this study to interpret the discourses

employed for students’ Pakistan’s national identity constructions in schools.

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4.9.1 Foucault’s Discourse and Rationale for Using Foucault’s Discourse

Analysis (DA)

Foucault’s complex theory of discourse which he enunciated in his works (1972,

1973, 1978, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1993) brings a useful insight and explanatory power for the

study of Pakistan’s national identity constructions through curriculum discourses. Foucault

uses the term discourse to refer to ‘the general domain of all statements, sometimes as

an individualizable group of statements, and sometimes as a regulated practice that

accounts for a number of statements’ (Foucault 1972, p.80). Mills (2005, p.53) explains this

as follows:

By ‘the general domain of all statements’, he means that ‘discourse’ can be used to

refer to all utterances and statements which have been made which have meaning

and which have some effect. Sometimes, in addition, he has used the term to refer

to ‘individualizable groups of statements’, that is utterances which seem to form a

grouping, such as the discourse of femininity or the discourse of racism. At other

times, he has used the term discourse to refer to ‘regulated practices that account

for a number of statements’, that is the unwritten rules and structures which

produce particular utterances and statements. For example, there is no set of rules

written down on how to write essays, and yet somehow most students at university

manage to learn how to write within the framework of the essay.

Foucault argues that discourse is a group of statements that produces knowledge

and social practices ‘that systematically form the objects of which they speak’ (Foucault,

1972, p.49). He argues that ‘[o]f course, discourses are composed of signs; but what they

do is more than use these signs to designate things’ (ibid.). Explaining this, Ball (2006)

maintains ‘[d]iscourses are not about objects; they do not identify objects, they constitute

them and in the practice of doing so conceal their own invention’ (p.48).

Foucault believes in the discursive construction of knowledge in which human

beings participate. However, their participation is within the scope of dominant social

structures where they are neither passive nor completely free. These structures put

constraints and restrictions on them so as they learn the ‘legitimate perspective for the

agent of knowledge and … [fix] norms for the elaboration of concepts and theories’

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(Foucault, quoted in Bouchard 1977, p.199). Therefore, the human activity of the

construction of knowledge remains trapped between the interplay of individuals’ free will

and limited agency. Foucault (1973) insists on the historical specificity of discourses. He

argues that discourses are the products of power and these can be understood only by

situating in the correct historical contexts. They cannot inevitably provide us an example

to understand the present.

Foucault ties knowledge with power and recognizes power as central to the

production of discourses. He believes that authorities exercise power through discursive

practices in/through institutions (court, prison, school, hospitals, etc.) to regulate peoples’

conduct. Mills (1997) argues that Foucault’s concern is to develop awareness about how

knowledge and power are closely associated, and how knowledge cannot be considered

objective or dispassionate, created as a result of innocent scholarly activity. It is, on the

other hand, produced and maintained in circulation in societies through the work of

institutions and social practices (Mills, 1997). In the argument of knowledge/power,

Foucault follows Nietzsche’s critique of the Western’s theories of knowledge and history.

Nietzsche, as cited in Poster (1982), argued that the ‘quest for truth was not an objective

and neutral activity but was intimately related to ‘“the will to power” of the truth–seeker’

(p.119). And that the aim was domination by the ‘way of presenting one’s own values in

the guise of scientific disinterestedness’ (ibid.). In Weedon’s (1987) interpretation of

Foucault, power is ‘exercised within discourses in the ways in which they constitute and

govern individual subjects’ (p.113). To Foucault, it is not important if a discourse produced

in society is true or false in a literal sense, but it is the discursive practices behind the

formation of discourses which serve to exercise power. Foucault states:

[w]e must not imagine a world of discourse divided between accepted discourse

and excluded discourse, or between the dominant and dominated one; but as a

multiplicity of discursive elements that can come into play in various strategies. ...

Discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and

exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it (1978, p.100).

Foucault’s notion of power is, however, complex. He is opposed to the Marxist

idea that power is in possession and is exercised by certain individuals or institutions. He

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argues that power is dispersed and is everywhere. He considers power a strategy and

argues that nobody is outside power. Its connection with discursively produced knowledge

makes it insidious. Foucault (1980) argues that power works in a ‘capillary form of

existence, the point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their

bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning

processes and everyday lives’ (p.39). He further maintains that:

[p]ower is everywhere, not because it embraces everything, but because it comes

from everywhere ... power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a

certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a

complex strategical situation in a particular society (Foucault 1978, pp.93, emphasis

added)

Foucault’s notion of discourse provides the following critical insights which also

provide the rationale for adopting Foucault’s DA for this study:

• knowledge is socially constructed and is produced in discourses. Knowledge is not

objective and unrestrained. It works in prescriptive regulations that social practices

determine. They are not independent of power relations.

• authorities exercise knowledge in institutions and through institutions.

• discourses are dynamic, have historical specificity, and can be apprehended only by

placing them in the context.

• knowledge and power are closely tied.

• the excluded/subjugated knowledge re-emerges once the dominant political power

changes.

Foucault (1970) argues that ‘every educational system is a political means of

maintaining or of modifying the appropriation of discourse, with the knowledge and the

power it carries with it’ (p.239). This study takes the position that the construction and

appropriation of identity discourses in Pakistani curriculum textbooks emphasize the

power of state where the same dominant groups (postcolonial civil and military

bureaucracy, and the landed elite from which the politicians also arise) have remained

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seated since Pakistan came into being in 1947. They have produced a particular ideological

choice i.e. mainly Islam for producing and defining Pakistan’s national identity. Discourses

constructed around this concept have been brought into practice for the structured

becoming of students in schools which is a place of asymmetrical social relations. In schools,

besides other factors, teachers also play a crucial role as an interface between the content

and the taught. The next section explains my selection of relevant analytical tools from

Foucault’s toolbox. These are useful for the interpretation of the emerging themes and

national identity symbols from the national curriculum textbook discourses. These themes

are studied situating the discussion of Pakistan’s national identity formulation in identity

theories and postcolonial theoretical framework (see sections 3.2.2 and 3.4.1).

4.9.2. Foucault’s Toolbox

In this study, I use some of Foucault’s notions as an analytical lens to approach the

question of Pakistan’s national identity formulations in schools. The study of Foucault’s

works unpacks many possibilities applicable to this study. Following Foucault’s advice,

these can be used as a ‘tool box’.

I would like my books to be a kind of tool box which others can rummage through

to find a tool which they can use however they wish in their own area... I would

like [my work] to be useful to an educator, a warden, a magistrate, a conscientious

objector. I don't write for an audience, I write for users, not readers (Foucault as

quoted in O’Farrell, 2005, p.50).

The most relevant ‘tools’ which I selected to approach this study include Foucault’s

theorization of the subject and technologies (Foucault, 1988), the idea of the ‘regime of

truth’ (1980) and visible vs. sayable (Kendall and Wickham, 2003, p.48). The term subject in

this context is used as a philosophical category as it has been theorized in Western

philosophy (Descartes, 1596 – 1650; Hume, 1711—1776; Kant,1724–1804; Hegel, 1770–

1831, etc). Foucault’s subject is not timeless/universal but is constituted under

social/historical conditions by discourses and other socially determined practices (see

Foucault, 1987). His subject is an individual transformed because of external events (social,

political, cultural, etc.) as well as his/her own approaches/actions vis–à–vis these events. It

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is constituted through the discourses which are produced within the constraints of given

socio-political and historical conditions. The manner the subject, as a philosophical

category, is treated in Foucault, suggests that it is not a substance but a form. Similarly,

he/she is an eventual product of a complex interplay of technologies (1988). Foucault (1988)

suggests four major technologies that ‘human beings use to understand themselves’ (p.17)

and each one of them is ‘a matrix of practical reason’ (ibid.). These include a) technologies

of production b) technologies of a sign system c) technologies of power and d)

technologies of the self. To Foucault, the last two technologies are instrumental in making

individuals subjects. For the purpose of this study, I will elaborate on them in further detail.

Foucault (1988) argues that technologies of power ‘determine the conduct of

individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, [leading to] an objectivising of

the subject’ (p.18). On the other hand, technologies of the self ‘permit individuals to effect

by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their

bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and the way of being, so as to transform themselves’

(ibid.). The purpose is ‘to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or

immortality’ (Foucault, 1988, p.18). Foucault’s subject is, therefore, context-dependent and

socially constituted but has agency – some level of freedom to constitute him/herself

actively. It is not free to do whatever it wants as being an individual his ‘practices [of the

self] are nevertheless not something that the individual invents himself. They are patterns

that he finds in his culture, his society and his social group’ (Foucault, 1987, p.112). Foucault

views both technologies of power and technologies of the self as functioning always in

coordination for making individuals subjects. In order to analyse how a subject is

constituted, Foucault insists we must consider:

the interaction between those two types of techniques – techniques of domination

and techniques of the self. He has to take into account the points where the

technologies of domination of individuals over one another have recourse to

processes by which the individual acts upon himself. And conversely, he has to take

into account the points where the techniques of the self are integrated into

structures of coercion or domination (1993, p.203).

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To conceptualize the process of Pakistan’s national identity constructions in

schools, I approach the implementation of textbook discourses in schools and students’

interaction with these discourses under teachers’ supervision as an interaction between

technologies of power (or technicities of domination as Foucault uses both these terms

interchangeably) and technologies of the self. Similarly, I conceptualize school as a structure

where the interplay of both these technologies occurs to transform the individuals into

subjects. School is a crucial space where students actively negotiate the process of the

transformation of individuals (themselves) into subjects (students’ agency). Kendall and

Wickham (2003), with reference to Foucault, advise understanding the relationship

between visible and sayable, where curriculum, instructions, textbooks, disciplinary rules,

learning theories, etc., denote the sayable, and building blocks/classrooms and related

things the visible (p.27). Kendall and Wickham (2003) maintain that ‘the crucial point here

is that Foucault draws our attention to the dynamic, mutually conditioning relationship

between words and things’ (p.27). An analysis of these conditions unravels the processes

of discourse formations, ordering of statements and their functions; procedures that allow

the repeatability and exclusion of some statements. The mutual relationship of sayable and

visible devises the rules and orders other discourses which make the statements

repeatable. This allows the space in which new statements can be made and limits the

scope for those statements which can challenge them. Henriques (as quoted in Kendall

and Wickham, 2003) argues that the ‘rules are not confined to those internal to the

discourse, but include rules of combination with other discourses, rules that establish

differences from other categories of discourse … the rules of production of the possible

statements’ (p.41). The interaction between technologies of power and technologies of the self

can also be conceptualized as an interaction between sayable and visible and structure and

agency which ‘determine[sic] [the] conduct of individuals [Pakistani students]’ (Foucault,

1988, p.18). They construct their national identity of Pakistan while functioning within

these dynamics. Foucault’s focus on the constitution of the subject centres on the

investigation of networks of knowledge, historical conditions, socio-cultural and political

processes and the conduct/agency of individuals who act within these structures. His

subject is therefore context-dependent, dynamic and ever-changing. This provides useful

insight for the study of Pakistan’s national identity discourses which are employed to

construct Pakistani students’ national identity in schools using Islam and the Two Nation

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Theory as the main technologies (see chapters 1 and 2). It is interesting to note that

Foucault did not attempt to develop a theory of the subject though he spent more than

two decades theorizing on the subject. He argued that an a priori attempt in this respect

suggests that that the subject is universal. Similarly, he argued that ‘beginning from the

theory of the subject, you come to pose the question of knowing, for example, how such

and such form of knowledge was possible’ (Foucault, 1987, p.121). Campbell–Thompson

(2013) argues that according to Foucault, such an attempt would also attach ‘people to

specific identities – the view which Foucault consistently opposes in his writings’ (p.58).

Foucault’s (1980) idea that each society has its own ‘regime of truth’ (p.131) is

equally relevant in the context of this study. He defines the term as ‘the assemblage of

rules according to which the true and the false are separated and specific effects of power

attached to the truth’ (Foucault, quoted in O’Farrell 2005, p.65). Disavowing the Western

philosophical traditions which considered truth and knowledge as abstract and an

‘insidiously universal force’, Foucault (1980) views ‘truth’ as an event which happens and

not something which exists. He refers to the historically determining mechanisms which

produce discourses that function as ‘true’ at one particular point of time in history and

place. Foucault explains this idea as follows:

Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of

constraint…Each society has its regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth: that

is the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the

mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements

the means by which each is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded

value in the acquisition of truth; the status of those who are charged with saying

what counts as true (1980, p.131).

To elaborate it further, he is referring to those set of exclusionary practices that

institute criteria for considering certain statements true and others false (Foucault, 1980).

The ‘regime of truth’ (ibid., p.131) authorizes certain people to make statements. Similarly,

the discursive structures of the regime provide necessary scaffolding that makes these

statements acceptable for society. The exclusionary practices, on the other, guarantee that

the statements that have been categorized as false do not find a space for dissemination.

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Likewise, the regime makes sure that the ‘unauthorised people’ do not make ‘truth’

statements. These practices also make certain discourses taboo, rejected, and devoid of

truth. Foucault maintains:

discursive practices are not purely and simply ways of producing discourse. They

are embodied in technical processes, in institutions, in patterns for general

behaviour, in forms for transfusion and diffusion, and in pedagogical forms which,

at once, impose and maintain them (Foucault, quoted in Bouchard 1977, p.200).

In the current context, it is the study of the interplay of the technologies of power

and technologies of the self within the constraints of schools which affords a space for the

circulation of ‘true’ statements amongst students by some ‘authorised’ people, for

students’ national identity construction/s of Pakistan.

Foucault’s theorization as how individuals are made subject through the interplay

of technologies, thus, suggests that the subject is constructed through discourses produced

under specific historical, social and political conditions. The subject actively participates in

the process of his/her construction/objectivation. However, they still act within structural

constraints imposed by the above–mentioned conditions. Their identity remains fluid and

dynamic and dependent on specific historical and socio-cultural conditions. This suggests

that they are not transcendental. Discussions on national identity theories in chapter 3

similarly suggest that national identities are constructed/invented. Therefore, Foucault’s

insight to study how students in Pakistani schools are transformed into the subject is useful.

Employing this, we can peoblematise the interplay of different technologies of power which

Pakistan’s regime of truth introduces for making the students into subjects.

Foucauldian DA has been applied variously in education research. Lee’s (2006)

study explores how 7th– grade Chinese textbooks construct Taiwanese students’

identities. It gives an overview of the history of Taiwan that lays the foundation for

understanding the historical context that influences official discourses that construct

Taiwanese identity. The study focuses on the process of control, exercised through official

knowledge production, with reference to the period of China’s four political leaders from

the 1970s to 2004. It elaborates on how Chinese cultural hegemony dominated identity

discourses through the subjects of Chinese, History, and Geography in Taiwanese schools.

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Though the study employs CDA as a theoretical framework, it draws heavily on Foucault’s

discourse theories. Employing Foucault’s notions of technologies, Campbell–Thompson’s

(2013) study analyses Turkish school textbooks for grades 6 to 8 to explore the process

of students’ national identity construction in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Drawn on multiple data sources, she was able to show how Foucault’s analytical concepts

can be useful in enhancing our understanding of the discursive processes involved in the

construction of students’ identities.

Peters (2004) maintains that Foucault’s notion of ‘games of truth’ has been applied

to educational research ‘to investigate the politics of knowledge’ (p.50). He argues that his

influence in educational research is still in the process of development, but it is extensive.

Foucault’s approach to discourse/DA is, hence, well recognized to apply to educational

research.

4.9.3. Foucault’s Discourse Analysis and Postcolonial

This study employs Foucault’s DA as an analytical tool and postcolonial framework

as a theoretical vantage point for the interpretation of the research findings. Therefore, it

is essential to go over how postcolonial and Foucault’s DA can be theoretically linked to

be mutually investable. This section seeks to establish a link between postcolonial

theory/framework and Foucault’s DA. Said’s Orientalism (1978), which is considered the

founding text of the field of postcolonial studies/postcolonial theory, establishes this

connexion. It is an important text which according to Young (2016) ‘effectively founded

postcolonial studies as an academic discipline’ (p.383). The book is underpinned by the

notion that the Western study of the Orient/Eastern cultures is politically motivated and

as such far from an objective intellectual inquiry. Essentially, it is Foucault’s insight that also

reveals the ‘relations between discursive formations and non-discursive domains

(institutions, political events, economic practices and processes)’ (Foucault, 1972, p.179).

These notions inform the text of Orientalism (1978), which in addition to problematizing

the nexus of knowledge and power, establishes Foucault as a central figure in postcolonial

studies. Said (1978) argues that:

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it is useful here to employ Michel Foucault's notion of a discourse, as described by

him in The Archaeology of Knowledge and in Discipline and Punish, to identify

Orientalism. My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse

one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which

European culture was able to manage—and even produce—the Orient politically,

sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the

post–Enlightenment period (p.3).

Therefore, the choice of Foucault’s Discourse Analysis approach to the discourse

analysis of Pakistan’s government school curriculum texts for the stated inquiry seems

appropriate. Also, both postcolonial theory and Foucault’s DA approach have the

potential to be theoretically invested for the concepts they inform.

4.10 Trustworthiness of Research Study

To evaluate the worth of a qualitative research study, Lincoln and Guba (1985)

consider trustworthiness as the main criteria. Trustworthiness is measured on the criteria

of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability of research findings. To

establish transferability, Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest elaborating on the research

phenomenon in sufficient detail. So that it can be independently assessed if the conclusions

drawn from the research findings are transferable/applicable to other situations and

settings. It follows a process of thick description, which according to Holloway (1997),

involves sharing field–research experience in detail. This aspect was taken care of in this

study. Section 4.6 and its subsections 4.6.1 to 4.6.3 describe the field–research experience

in adequate detail. Dependability refers to the consistency of findings, and confirmability

to the notion if the research findings were drawn on participants’ responses, rather than

the researcher’s interests. I have given due consideration to this aspect as well. Hence, the

study draws heavily on research participants whose perspectives were collected using

three different data collection methods (see section 4.5.1). Entire chapter 6 is dedicated

to the presentation of these findings which were found consistent. For dependability, the

technique of ‘audit enquiry’ is also suggested. It involves having an external researcher to

evaluate the process and product of the research study (Creswell, 2013; Lincoln and Guba,

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1985). However, the nature of the current inquiry does not permit the application of this

criterion to this research. My research paradigm (social constructionism – explained in

section 4.1) is based on the premise that there is no fixed/objective truth; reality is co–

constructed when the knower and the respondent interact and is dependent on social

settings. Crotty (1998) argues that social constructivism ‘view[s] that all knowledge, and

therefore all meaningful reality as such, is contingent upon human practices, being

constructed in and out of the interaction between human beings and their world and

developed and transmitted within an essentially social context’ (p.42). Therefore, an

external auditor’s position does not place him at the vantage point where he/she could

evaluate things as I did during this study. Qualitative researchers also establish the

credibility and confirmability of research findings by triangulating data sources.

Triangulation is based on the idea that data collected using multiple methods can lead to a

rich and comprehensive account. This would, in turn, facilitate a profound understanding

of a phenomenon. Rothbauer (2008) states that ‘[t]he basic idea underpinning the concept

of triangulation is that the phenomena under study can be understood best when

approached with a variety or a combination of research methods’ (p.892). This research

study carried out the triangulation of data sources using multiple methods. The study of

school textbooks was the first logical point of departure. It explored if national curriculum

textbooks could be responsible for developing/inculcating ethnocratic attitudes in

students. Emerging themes from the textbook data afforded an impetus to study the

influence of these discourses on students’ and teachers’ attitudes. At that point, I

recognized the complexity of the phenomenon and its sensitive nature given it involved

human participants, inter alia. Similarly, the evidence needed to be very well-founded for

the credibility and confirmability of the research project as well as for the theory

development. The triangulation included these data sources as observations, students’

participatory tools, students’ focus groups and interviews with teachers. Employing these,

I drew heavily on participants’ responses, as discussed earlier. The research findings drawn

from the evidence gathered from these data sources converged on similar findings. Seale

(2003), however, notes that ‘triangulation exercises can deepen understanding as part of

some fallibilistic approach to fieldwork, but are themselves no guarantee of validity’

(p.180). He argues that ‘[e]ven if the different methods employed converge on the same

thing, apparently agreeing with each other, how can we know that they are correct?’

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(p.179). I make no truth claims; nevertheless, all efforts have been made to make this

research project trustworthy. Therefore, it can be said that findings drawn from various

sources converging on similar outcomes make a convincing case as argued in Chapter 7.

4.11 Ethical Issues

The following section outlines ethical issues pertaining to this research and my

response to them.

The field–research data for this study involved teenage schoolchildren between the

age of 14–18, approximately. The British Educational Research Association (BERA) (2011)

sets out voluntary informed consent to be an essential condition for participants. It

stipulates that they must be fully informed about the aims of research before having them

agreed to participate in the project. Below I explain the procedures that I followed before

implementing data collection tools on the study–participants. These strictly comply with

the BERA (2011) guidelines.

Prior to the implementation of data tools on the student study–participants, first,

class in–charge teachers were approached to get an exact number of the student–

population studying in the selected grades. Second, the required copies of the consent–

form were made and handed to the teachers–in–charge. The contents of the form had

been prepared earlier in the light of guidelines provided by the British Educational

Research Association (BERA) (2011). The BERA’s guiding principles are informed by

Articles 3 and 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Earlier,

they had been approved by the ethical committees at the University of Leicester. The

content form explained the research project in plain words and sought explicit permission

from parents to allow their child/ward to participate in the research. The participants’

willingness was also considered. Other things that it elucidated included a) the purpose

of the research b) participants’ importance and their voluntary participation c) participants’

right to withdraw at any point during the project with or without reason and d)

anonymization of participants’ identity. The total number of consent forms distributed

among student–populations of six institutions reached approximately 600. The students

who had participated in the pilot study, conducted in November 2015, were excluded

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from the main study. In each school, one full day was spent on data collection. Preceding

that, one full day in each school was spent in the distribution of consent forms through

teachers–in–charge. A two–day gap was considered appropriate for procedures to

complete, which mainly concerned with the back collection of the signed consent forms.

Last, it was ensured that only those students participate in the study who brought back

the consent form bearing a parent’s signature. A significant number of likely study–

participants could not comply with the last procedure; hence they were excluded. Despite

these limitations, the student–population for this study reached 424, including 209 girls

and 215 boys. Similarly, for the teachers’ interviews, the procedure of informed consent

as explained above was followed. They were afforded full opportunity to raise questions

before they agreed to do an interview with me. Only on one occasion, did two female

teachers at one research site refuse to participate on the account that I could not address

their concerns.

4.11.1 Confidentiality and Data Protection

In compliance with the BERA’s (2011) guidelines regarding the treatment of

participants’ data, the study participants were informed about how I would ensure the

confidentiality of the information collected from them. My data tools did not require any

personal information from respondents. It was also made clear that the contents of this

research thesis would neither refer to the original name of model colleges (schools), nor

the participants’ names and if ever the need arose only the pseudonyms would be used.

However, despite these explanations, students’ participatory data sheets mostly bear

students’ names. This can be out of habit, as in schools, students are always required to

do so in classroom quizzes and examinations. However, this thesis ensures complete

anonymization of study participants as well as institutions where the research took place.

The BERA (2011) also requires researchers to adhere to the legal requirements about

data storage as stipulated in the Government of the United Kingdom’s Data Protection

Act (1998) (see Carey, 2018). A specific issue about this research can be how I keep this

data safely stored at home. For this purpose, I bought an external hard disk and stored

the participants’ audiotaped interview contents. Students’ participatory data was gathered

on A4 size sheets. These also remain secured in lockers at home. I have made sure that

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these data contents are not stored in the laptop which is always exposed to the threat of

hacking despite antivirus software.

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Chapter 5 – Pakistan’s Postcolonial National Identity

Constructions: Textbook Research Findings

5.1 Introduction

Chapters 5 and 6 are together concerned with presenting and analysing data. This

chapter focuses on research findings drawn from my close reading of the contents of the

textbooks of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies for grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 and the

observations made and recorded at the research sites43. The focus was to investigate

factors in the national curriculum textbook discourses that contribute to shaping students’

national identity of Pakistan. Similarly, it looked into how the school as a place of social

practices contributes to that. Keeping the research question 1 in mind, I viewed these

textbooks as technologies of power (Foucault, 1988), employed to constitute students’

national identities. Likewise, the school as a site provides a crucial forum where visible

(school as a physical structure) and sayable (textbooks, curriculum, instructions) (Kendall

and Wickham, 2003, p.27) often jointly contribute to the formulation and dissemination

of national identity discourses. Given the former’s official position of a ‘legitimate

knowledge’ (Apple, 2003), both these can influence students’ sense of national identity and

worldviews. The schoolteachers’ interface between the content and the taught also

contributes to it in its own way. These aspects are explored in chapter 6, drawing on

multiple field-data sources (see section 4.5.1).

This chapter also reviews the Ministry of Education (MoE) the Government of

Pakistan’s National Education Policy (2009) (henceforth the NEP, 2009 or the Policy). It is

an important official document that provides policy guidelines under which the current

school textbooks have been mandated. The Policy provides the fundamental guidelines

relevant to national identity discourses in the school textbooks. The study considers the

NEP (2009) a benchmark document that contains the state’s message in the given context.

I will refer to the relevant sections of this document to identify what state message it

43 3 boys and 3 girls schools located in Islamabad, Pakistan

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carries for Pakistan’s post-colonial national identity construction. Similarly, I will investigate

how this message is translated when school textbooks are constructed and then taught in

schools.

5.2 Emergent Themes from Textbooks Constructed under NEP (2009)

To identify and analyze factors that contribute to Pakistani students’ national

identity constructions in schools, a close reading of the sampled textbooks’ contents (text

and pictures) was carried out. In doing so, policy guidelines, given in NEP (2009), were

also referred to. As discussed in chapter 4, section 4.8, the recurrence of consistent

patterns in these textbook discourses necessitated the process of coding and sub–coding

of the emerging themes. This was done using the principle of integration and aggregation

of those individual bits of information that were similar in meaning (see Given, 2008). Then,

by putting together the bits of coded data, new thematic categories were created. This

eventuated in following four major themes: religion, gender, Urdu vs. local languages,

cultures and ethnicities and militaristic national identities. Notwithstanding their

overlapping nature, the research findings are presented below under the identified themes.

5.3 Religion in Textbooks

The evidence collected from Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks suggests that

Pakistan’s national identity is mainly constructed employing religion i.e., Islam. The policy

of employing national education for the construction of students’ religious national identity

is in line with the guidelines provided in the NEP (2009). These read ‘the purpose of the

Policy is to chart out a national strategy for guiding education development in Pakistan’,

which has to be ‘embedded within the Islamic ethos as enshrined in the Constitution of

the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’ (p.7). The Policy declares that the ‘[c]ultural values of the

majority of Pakistanis are derived from Islam …. [therefore] Pakistan’s educational

interventions have to be based on the core values of religion and faith’ (p.9). It further

elaborates:

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The Policy recognizes the importance of Islamic values and adheres to the agreed

principles in this regard. All policy interventions shall fall within the parameters

identified in the Principles of Policy as laid down in Articles 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37 and

40 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 197344. These include the need for developing

Pakistani children as proud Pakistani citizens having strong faith in religion and

religious teachings as well as the cultural values and traditions of the Pakistani society

(NEP, 2009, p.9).

However, neither the Policy nor the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, defines the core

values of religion and faith, hence leaving it ambiguous. The policy guidelines, which the NEP

(2009) refers to, were originally charted in the proceedings of Pakistan’s first Education

Conference (PEC), held in November 1947. The purpose was to restructure the colonial

education system (see section 2.5). The ideas presented in the PEC (1947) have resonated

in all subsequent Education Policies of Pakistan45. These policy guidelines provide the basis

for the constructions of school textbooks and send a message to the textbook writers

that they must inculcate the love for Islam (Nayyar, 2003). Findings drawn from the

selected textbooks are presented and discussed in the next four sections. These will

provide substantive evidence that Pakistan’s national identity is constructed mainly by

employing Islam.

5.3.1 Religion in English textbooks

English is a compulsory subject which students of all faiths study in schools.

Essentially, it is meant to develop students’ English language skills. However, a review of

the objectives and expected learning outcomes of at least six lessons in the textbooks of

grades 9 and 10 suggests a different story. The foci of these are to establish Islam as an

overarching factor for Pakistan’s national identity, disregarding minorities. These lessons

explicate Islamic concepts, discuss the life history of the prophet of Islam and his colleagues

and the contribution of Islam to the world. There is ample use of the Quranic verses in

44 These articles of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 stipulate that ‘steps will be taken to enable the

Muslims of Pakistan to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts

of Islam’ (Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, p.17). 45 Education Policies 1947, 1959, 1969, 1972, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2009

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the Arabic language in these lessons. Thus, the textbook contents appear more suitable to

serve the purpose of proselytizing Islam rather than developing students’ English language

skills. Evidence of religious contents in English textbooks is presented below:

The English textbook for grade 9 has 12 units – three of them are about historical

personalities of Islam. Unit 1 titled, The Saviour of Mankind (pp.1–11), is about the Prophet

Muhammad. The learning outcomes read:

• know and learn about the mission of the Holy Prophet

• learn how his teaching changed the world

In the advice for teachers, the lesson suggests:

• conduct a pre-reading activity to arouse students’ curiosity about the life of the

Holy Prophet.

It is a four-page long lesson beginning with the topographical detail of the Arab

land, and the story of ‘remarkable’ faculties the Arab people possess. The lesson describes

the mission of the Prophet Muhammad: ‘in the fifth and sixth centuries, mankind stood at

the verge of chaos … at that point, Allah Almighty raised a prophet to lift humanity from

the ignorance into the light of faith’ (p.2). It also offers particulars of the revelation of the

divine message. There are then amplified with the Quranic text in Arabic along with its

English translation (pp.5-7). The Prophet’s exalted character is explained citing the words

of his wife Ayesha (4). Unit 4 titled, Hazrat Asma (pp.32–45), is about the daughter of the

first caliph of Islam Abu Bakr. Learning outcomes include:

• Know how Muslim women served the cause of Islam

The lesson renders a description of how Asma used to take a perilous journey to

the Cave of Thawr (illustrated) to get food to his father and the Prophet Muhammad. They

were in hiding for the fear of their life at the hands of the Quraish – the Prophet

Muhammad’s tribe which was opposed to Islam before the victory of Mecca.

The learning outcome of Unit 7, Sultan Ahmed Mosque (pp.73–80), reads:

• Appreciate Muslim architecture

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The textbook is illustrated by 13 miscellaneous pictures of historical places, human

beings and nature. Four of them are about Islam/Muslims – two grand mosques, Cave

Thawr, and the picture of the Cave Hira. According to Islamic beliefs, the Carve Hira is

the place where the Prophet of Islam received his first revelation from Allah. Besides these

three lessons, which are explicitly on Islam’s historical personalities, the religious content

runs implicitly in many other lessons too. For example, on page 13, the lesson states

‘Quaid–e–Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistan’s founding father) was a nation builder and

a patriot. He wanted to protect the values, culture and traditions of the Muslims of the

subcontinent’. This signals that Muslims, patriotism and nation building are mutually

inclusive. Unit 6, The Quaid’s Vision and Pakistan (pp. 62–2), describes Jinnah’s visits which

he took to lift the spirit of people in a post–Pakistan situation in 1947. He is quoted to

have advised, ‘[d]o not be overwhelmed by the enormity of the task. We should face it

bravely to save the honour of Pakistan and Islam’ (p.63). The lesson further states that

Jinnah firmly established the foundation of the newly emerged state on Islam. He is again

cited to have said, ‘Islam is a complete code regulating the whole Muslim society, every

department of life collectively and individually’ (p.64).

The English textbook for grade 10 has the first unit on the life of the Prophet of

Islam. It is entitled Hazrat Muhammad an Embodiment of Justice (pp.1–14). The first page of

the lesson is illustrated by the picture of the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. It describes

the Prophet Muhammad as ‘a perfect model and example for the people who want to

attain goodness, piety and success in their individual as well as social life’ (p.2). The passage

then quotes the Quranic verses. The exercises given at the end of the lesson remain not

only restricted to the inquiries on the Prophet’s mission but also include questions about

the Caliphs of Islam. The lesson also includes chronicles on the Holy Ka’aba46. Unit 13

(pp.149–159) of the book is another lesson that contains religious contents. It describes

the life history of Abuzar Ghaffari, the companion of the Prophet of Islam. Also, it talks

about several other companions of the Prophet Muhammad including the second Caliph,

Umar Ibn Khattab and Khalid bin Waleed47. These textbook discourses, with the stated

46 The most sacred place on earth for Muslims. It is located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. 47 47Khālid ibn al-Walīd, by name Sīf, or Sayf, Allāh (Arabic: ‘Sword of God’) (died 642) one of the two

generals (with ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ) of the enormously successful Islamic expansion under the Prophet

Muhammad and his immediate successors, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Encyclopaedia Britannica

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learning outcomes, are instructed with the ‘purpose’ to develop the English language skills

of students. However, these evangelize Islam and in so doing, they disregard students’

religious faiths and predispositions.

The idea of flagging the prominent personalities of Islam, in these compulsory

textbooks, is in line with the policy guidelines enunciated in the NEP (2009). These

recommend teaching about ‘[p]rominent Personalities of Islam including Prophets, the

companions of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), mystics, reformers, philosophers, scientists and

warriors/generals as role models for the younger generation to follow’ (p.33). However,

the personalities whom the NEP (2009) suggests presenting as role models for the younger

generation are controversial among Muslim sects. Therefore, the recommendations for

the inclusion of these icons in compulsory textbooks, as stated in the NEP (2009), can be

problematic in many ways (see section 7.2.1).

The English textbooks for grades 11 and 12 do not have any lessons related to

nation building. These books mostly include prose, poetry and plays written by

international writers.

5.3.2 Religion in Urdu textbooks

Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject in schools which the students from all faiths

must study. Evidence suggests that the Urdu textbooks have massive religious content

which is used to construct and emphasize Pakistan’s Islamic identity. The first lesson in all

three textbooks (grades 9, 10 and 11) commences with the detail of a historical personality

from Islamic history. The Urdu textbook for grade 9, in the first lesson titled The Migration

of the Prophet (pp.2–7), chronicles the sombre details of the circumstances that forced the

Prophet Muhammad to leave the city of Mecca for Madinah. It also talks about the

companions of the Prophet and quotes the Quranic verses in Arabic. Teaching objectives

focus on the introduction to the history of Islam and religious lexis to kindle Islamic spirit

rather than developing Urdu language skills:

• to make students aware of the basic obstacles Islam faced in its early days of Islam.

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• to familiarise students with the hardships Muslims faced to proselytize at the

beginning of Islam.

• to introduce religious lexis and terminology.

• to familiarise students with the history of Islam to kindle Islamic spirit (p.2).

The textbook features three units on Islam. Descriptions of the desirable traits

for the Pakistani male role models, in the lesson titled A Conversation between Nasooh and

Saleem (pp. 28–35), include a) wearing worn-out shoes b) shaving heads c) wearing a long

shirt (kameez) d) keeping shalwar’s bottom a few inches above the ankle e) wearing a cap

and f) offering Nimaz (Islamic prayer) in a nearby mosque.

The Urdu textbook for grade 10 has the first two lessons related to

religion/religious constructs. Teaching objectives for the first lesson include:

• to familiarise students with attributes of Allah (God).

• to kindle a love for Allah.

Exercise questions are set to inquire:

• which particular word did Allah articulate which resulted in the birth of this

universe?

• in what specific ways has Allah been kind to Humankind by creating it on the

quintessential nature of Islam?

The second lesson of the book (pp.8–10) is in praise of the Prophet Muhammad

and is similar in contents, discussed hitherto. The lesson, Ideology of Pakistan (pp.22–28),

juxtaposes the Islamic philosophy of nationhood with that of the Western notion. It

rubbishes the latter stating that the Western concept of democracy is an extension of

already existing ideas on tribalism and race. Explaining the objectives of the Ideology of

Pakistan, the lesson states that ‘we must strive to make Pakistan an Islamic state so that

we do not feel ashamed in front of the Prophet Muhammad on the day of judgment’

(pp.24–25). It argues that the Muslim nationalism rests on the idea of a) Kalima–e–Shahada

(there is no God, but Allah) b) that all Muslims are one nation based on the Islamic ideology

beyond the legislation of geographical territory and the politics of race and colour (p.24)

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and c) that the idea of Pakistan enthralls all of these ideals (p.25). To substantiate these, it

quotes Allama Iqbal (Pakistan’s National Poet) as follows:

Apni Millat Par Qiyas Aqwam–e–Maghrib Se Na Kar

Khas Hai Tarkeeb Mein Qoum–e–Rusool–e–Hashmi

Un Ki Jamiat Ka Hai Mulk–o–Nasab Par Inhasar

Quwwat–e–Mazhab Se Mustahkam Hai Jamiat Teri

The translation follows as:

Judge not your nation on the criteria of Western nations

Special in the composition is the Hashimi Prophet’s nation

Based on country and race is their (Western) organization

The force of din [religion] stabilizes your organization.

(see https://www.urdupoetrylibrary.com/apni–millat–par–qias–aqwam–maghrib–

say–na–kar/)

The lesson entitled Istanbul (pp.95–102) gives elaborate details of how Sultan

Muhammad Fateh defeated Christian in the Turkish city of Istanbul in 1452 and established

Islamic rule. It states ‘Sultan entered the city with grandeur in a victorious manner… He

dismounted the horse and offered Namaz (Muslim prayer) inside the church’ (p.95–101).

The Urdu textbook for grade 11 has three lessons related to Islam/Islamic

personalities. The prose section begins with a lesson on the Prophet Muhammad, titled

The Best Example Peace be Upon Him (pp.1–5). It explains the criteria to win Allah’s love,

which is to follow the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. The lesson explains that after

the advent of the Prophet Muhammad, belief in the Quran and Muhammad’s Sunnah (p.1)

– the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad – is the only route to be eligible for Allah’s

favour. Similarly, the poetry section initiates with two hymns, each written in praise of

Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. The Urdu textbook for grade 12 gives a mystical

explanation of the making of Pakistan. It argues that ‘with the creation of Pakistan, not only

in the Indian subcontinent and Asia but also in the whole Muslim world an incredibly

powerful change has occurred. This has far-reaching consequences, which the world has

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not fully realized yet’ (p.12). The lesson establishes the event as transcendental and

extraterritorial, hence presenting Pakistan as a divine creation unlike the rest of the world.

5.3.3 Religion in Pakistan Studies textbooks

Pakistan Studies, like English and Urdu, is a compulsory subject taught at grades 9

to 12. The findings drawn from these textbooks corroborate that Islam is presented as a

defining feature of Pakistan’s national identity. The textbook for grade 9 opens with a

lesson entitled Ideological Basis of Pakistan (pp.1–14). It insists on the importance of having

an ideology both for individuals and communities to lead a purposeful life. However, before

going into the detail of the ideology of Pakistan, it introduces an account of the ideology

for Muslims. In which it states that the question of ideology ‘for a Muslim … is the easiest

question to answer, this has rather been answered long ago by Allah Almighty Himself’

(ibid., p.1). This statement follows a Quranic verse. Further to that, it reads, ‘when a

community of Muslims joins hands to march in unison on the way of Allah it is called a

community of faithful (Mo’mineen) or the Muslim nation or the Muslim Ummah’ (p.1). Thus,

it suggests that being Pakistani amounts to be being a Muslim and that the Pakistani

community is essentially a Muslim community. The Two Nation Theory (as discussed in

chapters 1, 2 and 3), which is already strongly grounded in religion, is further substantiated

by likening Pakistanis with the Muslims of the world. It reads ‘followers of Islamic creed

are a separate and distinct nation from the rest of mankind’ (p.3). The lesson admires

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan’s national poet, for ‘his tireless efforts for the cause of

Muslim nationhood in India’ (p.5). Situating Pakistani nationhood in the Muslim nationhood,

it asserts that Muslims are ‘[a] community, [and] a nation’ (ibid.). The views of Jinnah,

Pakistan’s founding father, are extensively cited under the headings ‘Muslim as a Nation’,

‘Fundamentals of an Islamic State’ and Islam as the ‘Basis of National Unity’ (pp.8–9). The

textbook quotes Jinnah on Pakistan and Islam as follows: ‘Fundamentally in an Islamic state,

all authority rests with Almighty Allah’ (pp.8–9). Thus, it subsumes Pakistani identity in

Islamic identity. Chapter 2, Creation of Pakistan – The Muslim Revivalist Movements in the

Subcontinent (pp.15–48), discusses the Islamic revivalist movements of the 18th century.

These were started by the ‘renowned scholar’ Shah Waliullah and his son Sayyed Ahmad

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Shaheed. The latter is admired for he ‘organized the Jihad movement in the beginning of

the 19th century’ (p.15). Hence, this suggests a relationship between Islamic revivalist

movements of the 18th century, Islam, Jihad and the creation of Pakistan. The spirituality of

the 27th of Ramadan 1366 AH is especially invoked when describing Pakistan’s birth on the

14th of August 1947. The English date is given in the bracket, underneath the Hijri date.

This is rare in the context of Pakistan as it has always followed the Gregorian calendar.

The description reads: ‘the creation of Pakistan was not a political incident of ordinary

nature, but it had deep spiritual implications’ (p.35). The lesson further states that ‘it was

not just a coincident but a divine ordainment that the day Pakistan was created (14th August

1947) was the last Friday (Juma–Tul–Wida) of the month of Ramadan 1366 AH and the

night preceding the day was the ‘Night of Power and Blessing’ (Laila–tul–Qadr)’ (p.36).

Quoting Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani48, it is further asserted that ‘the revelation of the

Holy Quran … started in this night’. This way, the lesson juxtaposes the birth of Pakistan

with that of the Holy Quran. Chapter 6 of the textbook for grade 10, Pakistan in World

Affairs (pp.29–51), explains how Pakistan’s ideology and its foreign policy are closely linked.

It states that ‘Pakistan is an ideological country and with its base to Islam. The main

objective of Pakistan’s foreign policy is to protect the ideological borders of Pakistan’

(p.30). The lesson enunciates that the stability of Pakistan cannot be guaranteed unless it

protects its ideology. This core principle provides the very foundation on which the

country formulates its foreign policy towards other Muslim countries. These identity

discourses are in keeping with what Afzal (2015) suggests: ‘the Pakistan Studies textbooks

forge an identity exclusively based on Islam’ (p.2).

There is no Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 11.

The Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 12 commences the first lesson with the

Genesis of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (pp.1–28). It explains the concept of nationhood

as follows:

Muslims believe that by virtue of their faith, they have an identity, separate and

distinct from other nations of the world. This feeling of oneness among themselves

48 Allama Shabbir Ahmed Usmani (1885-1949) was an Indian religious scholar, author and a political leader.

He was amongst one of a few Deobandi religious scholars who supported Pakistan movement.

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combined with the consciousness of being separate from others is called the ‘Two

Nation Theory’ (p.1).

Describing the Components of the Pakistan Ideology (pp.2–3), Islam as an identity

signifier is brought forthwith before Democracy, Social justice and Sense of Responsibility

(pp.2–3). This establishes it as a founding principle of Pakistan’s national ideology. The

lesson states that ‘The Quaid–e–Azam (RA) said that the demand for Pakistan was not

merely a question of acquiring a piece of land; Pakistan was meant to be a laboratory for

proving the validity and truth of the Islamic principles’ (p.2). The lesson extensively quotes

Jinnah on both Islam and democracy. It discusses how Jinnah himself explained the guiding

principles that provided the foundation of the country:

Fundamentally in an Islamic state authority rests with Almighty Allah. The working

of an Islamic government is conducted according to the Quranic principles and

injunctions… only the Quranic injunctions control our behaviour in the society

and in politics (ibid., p.2).

On democracy, Jinnah is reported to have argued that the Constitution of Pakistan

will be democratic ‘embodying the essential principles of Islam’ (p.2). The book finally

presents Jinnah as a deeply religious man. It states ‘[t]he Quaid–e–Azam (RA) was a

staunch Muslim, he had a deep religious insight, but he never exploited religion for political

gains’ (p.41). However, Bolitho (1956) describes Jinnah as a man with ‘Englishness of

manner and behaviour that endured to his death’ (p.7). Similarly, Akbar Ahmed (2005)

describes him as a person whose ‘lifestyle resembled that of the upper-class English

professional’ (p.8). Arguably though, the textbook version of the ‘legitimate knowledge’

(Apple, 2003) will remain to exert a superlative influence as it is produced in quarters

which are assigned with the responsibility of saying what counts as true (see Foucault,

1988). Chapter 4 (pp.69–90) describes the steps taken to make Pakistan an Islamic

republic. However, it regrets the fact that Pakistan could not become a true Islamic

republic (p.78). The remaining part of the chapter is allocated to the delineation of the Last

Hajj Sermon of the Holy Prophet (p.88). The chapter also quotes the first caliph Abu Bakr

on the idea of human rights. It similarly provides the detail of other human rights

provisions, as expounded in the last sermon of the Prophet Muhammad. Following this,

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the section affords details of the fundamental human rights adopted by the United Nations

(p.86). The last segment of the lesson juxtaposes both with a clear overtone that

undermines the latter:

the lessons that humanity learned after centuries of devastation and war, were set

forth by the prophet of Allah Hazrat Muhammad, very clearly and precisely and in

absolutely easy to understand terms nearly 1300 years before the UN Charter was

adopted. … UN Declaration of Human Rights is simply a statement of beautifully

worded human aspirations and wishes; it is not supported by a moral, legal or

executive authority. …On the contrary to this, the Hijjatul–Wida Sermon of the

Prophet not only sets forth the details of the fundamental human rights, it also

provides a mechanism to make their implementation possible (p.88).

Similarly, Chapter 5, Administrative Structure of Pakistan and the Concept of Good

Governance (pp.91–112) assigns pages from 101 to 107 to explain Islam in the context of

democratic norms. The chapter further states that this served as a democratic model for

the rest of the world to follow in the future. So much so, it argues, Rousseau’s exposition

of The Social Contract is a ‘direct replica’ of this model. A subsection of the lesson, Foreign

Policy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (pp.173–195), delineates the ideology of Pakistan. It

also highlights Pakistan’s place in the Muslim world. The section asserts:

as a part of a global Muslim community, Pakistan occupies a central place in the

chain of Muslim countries from Africa to the Far East. All Muslim countries of the

world, Arab and non–Arab alike, look forward to Pakistan for guidance (p.176).

Referring to the historical relation with Iran it states, ‘Pakistanis were the

paramount supporters of their Iranian brethren in their uprising against the … anti–Islamic

policies of the Shah of Iran’ (p.184). On Pakistan’s relation with Saudi Arabia, the lesson

states, ‘[r]elations between countries are generally guided by national and diplomatic

considerations, but relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia transcend all these

considerations, these are based on feelings of fraternity and Islamic brotherhood’ (pp.190–

191).

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Findings, as presented and discussed above, show that the textbooks of English,

Urdu, and Pakistan Studies of all four grades have a massive expanse covered with religious

content. These serve the purpose of proselytizing Islam and superimpose the religion of

Islam as the main marker of Pakistan’s national identity. These textbook contents are

taught disregarding students’ provincial, ethnic and religious identities. These findings

validate what Joshi (2010) states: ‘underplaying subcontinental links, Pakistani textbooks

stress the ‘natural’ affinities of Pakistan with the Islamic world’ (p.357). These trends in the

textbooks lead to religious–minorities exclusion from the national imagination of

citizenship (see sections 7.2.1.2 and 7.6.1.1). The research findings presented in the

following sections suggest this.

5.3.4 Religious Minorities and Pakistan’s National Curriculum Textbooks

In presenting the textbook findings on religious minorities, I refer to non-Muslim

minorities including Hindus, Christians and Sikhs. This also includes Ahmadiyyas who were

declared non-Muslim by the State through a constitutional amendment to the Constitution

of Pakistan 1973. The NEP (2009) acknowledges the marginalization of non-Muslims

Pakistanis in the textbook. It states that the curriculum textbooks produced under

previous National Education Policies,49 have created a ‘certain dispersion of the objective

of the unity … [in the] representation of minorities’ (p.11). The NEP (2009) aims ‘[t]o

provide minorities with adequate facilities for their cultural and religious development,

enabling them to participate effectively in the overall national effort’ (p.17). It also aims

‘[t]o promote national cohesion by respecting each other’s faith and religion and cultural

and ethnic diversity’ (p.17). Similarly, the Policy considers the question of ‘what religious

and moral values [are] to be taught through the educational system and how to

accommodate non-Muslim minorities’ (p.16). Admitting indirectly that curriculum can be

responsible for the development of ethnocentricity along with other factors, it maintains

that ‘[s]ocial exclusion or extremism is not exclusively a function of the curriculum but a

host of traditional factors’ (p.12). The Policy calls for an urgent response to this effect.

49 Education Policies 1947, 1959, 1969, 1972, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2009

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However, the evidence collected from the selected textbook discourses shows

that instead of the inclusive approach, as recommended by the NEP (2009), the relevant

textbook discourses reflect ethnocentric tendencies towards non-Muslim minorities. Also,

there is no mention of non-Muslim cultures in the textbooks. This is besides the fact that

the non-Muslim children are taught the religion of Islam, under duress, as the data

presented in the previous sections suggest.

The English textbook for grade 9, in comparison with four lessons exclusively

on the religion of Islam (see section 5.3.1) offers no illustration of any non-Muslim religious

site in it. Unit 1 explains that ‘[h]e (the Prophet) had a pressing urge to eradicate wrong

beliefs’ (ibid. p.2). The statement implies that all beliefs other than those of Muslims are

wrong. The exercise given at the end of the lesson requires students to read and memorize

the Quranic verses in Arabic (Quran 96: 1–5 & Quran 33; 45–46 – given on pages 3 and

4 of the textbook). Thus, the textbook serves to evangelize non-Muslim children to

embrace Islam. This is not only unethical but also a violation of article 14 of the

Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 (see section 7.2.1.2). Similarly, the notion of humanity is

juxtaposed with the faith in the Muslim God, Allah (ibid.). In the lesson, Patriotism (pp.12–

20), which is mainly about the wars fought between India and Pakistan50, there is no

mention of non-Muslims soldiers who fought/laid down lives for Pakistan. In comparison

to discourses on four Islamic historical personalities as discussed in section 5.3.1, I could

not find a word about any non-Muslim icon. Though there are no authors in the book,

among the editors, supervisors and compiles, the representation of non-Muslims is

completely absent. Helen Keller is the only non-Muslim figure that appears in the textbook

(pp.123–133). In the English textbook for grade 10 also, there is no material available on

minority cultures/places of worship and leaders of other religions. The disciples of these

have lived in the areas comprising Pakistan for centuries. Ethnocentric tendencies are

reflected when nominalizations such as Jews and non-Muslims are used to represent them

as Muslims’ bitter enemies (pp.6–9).

In comparison with three lessons on Islam, there’s no mention of minority

religions/cultures in the Urdu textbook for grade 9 (see section 5.3.2), The book offers

50 Wars in 1965, 1971 and the Kargil War

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19 lessons in all, and except one, all are authored by Muslim writers. From the total of 24

lessons in the Urdu textbook of grade 10, 5 are either on Islam or related to Islam whereas,

there is none about non-Muslims. Similarly, the works of non-Muslim writers are

completely non–existent.

The lesson titled, The Ideology of Pakistan (pp.22–28), condemns the Mughal King

Akbar (1542– 1605) for his liberal policies towards Hindus in these words:

Akbar’s inclusive policies and liberalism led to the involvement of Hindus in national

politics. This encouraged the kafirana (pagan) social customs. These spread in a

society rapidly and curbed Muslims’ religious freedom enormously (pp.22–23).

In comparison with Akbar, Aurangzeb51 is described as a devout servant of Allah

and is praised for his religious policies and anti-Hindu approach. The book laments that

after his death, his sons developed differences within themselves, which provided ‘fertile

ground for Hindu and English machinations against Muslims’. Tipu Sultan is presented as a

larger than life figure because he fought the Hindus. In another lesson, Pristan ki Shehzadi,

(Princess of Fairyland) (pp.29–40), one Sayadani Bi relates her tale of a visit to a fairyland.

After having overcome her fear during the journey, she musters courage and asks the

haulers who they were. Knowing that they were Muslims, she says, ‘I thanked God. Come

what may, they are after all Muslims. Now I am not afraid of anything’ (p.33). It implies that

had they been non-Muslims she would have been in danger. Except for 1, all 34 lessons in

the Urdu textbook for grade 11 are written by Muslim writers. Hamid Askari, in the lesson,

Abul Qasim Zahravi, explicitly condemns the Westerner for disfiguring famous Muslim

names so that they don’t sound Muslim. He argues that ‘the Westerner are notorious for

distorting Muslim names. They now remember Abul Qasim Al Zahravi with these names

as Abulcasis, Albucasis and Alzaharawius’ (p.17). Three lessons in the Urdu textbook for

grade 12 overtly foster ethnocentricity. In the lesson, Tashkeel–e–Pakistan (The Formation

of Pakistan) (pp.6–11), Hindu social customs are referred to as having a pernicious

penetrating influence on Muslim customs and traditions. It further maintains that these

contaminated the latter beyond recognition (p.6). The lesson also discusses Sikh religion

51 Aurangzeb, also spelled Aurangzib, Arabic Awrangzīb, kingly title ʿĀlamgīr, original name Muḥī al-Dīn

Muḥammad (born November 3, 1618, Dhod, Malwa [India]—died March 3, 1707), emperor of India from

1658 to 1707 (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

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and their politics. It holds that during the Sikh regime, the religious freedom of Muslims

was potentially curbed. To regain that Syed Ahmed Brelvi initiated a campaign to recruit

people for a Holy War against the Sikhs (p.6). All 36 lessons in the textbook are authored

by Muslim writers.

The Pakistan Studies textbooks for grades 9, 10, and 12 instruct students of

different religions in Islam. Similarly, the content of these textbooks are pronouncedly

against Hindus, whereas, they are indifferent to the adherents of other religions.

The lesson, The Ideological Basis of Pakistan, Meaning, Sources and Significance of

Ideology (pp.1–15), in the grade 9 textbook, divides the world into two poles on a religious

basis. It argues that ‘people of the world are divided into two major communities, or Millats

on the basis of faith. Followers of the Islamic creed are a separate and distinct nation from

the rest of mankind’ (p.3). The lesson further explains that ‘[f]rom the Muslims’ point of

view all non–believers of the world are single Millat (nation)’. It describes Islam as a

‘collective conscious of a group of people’ (p.1), living in Pakistan. Undermining local

religions, the textbook extols Muslim preachers who converted Hindus to Islam in these

words: ‘[t]he miracle took place at the hands of the simple and barehanded but

exceptionally enlightened, resolute, determined and tireless preachers of Islam’ (p.3).

Hindus are referred to as devious who always play intrigues against Muslims (pp.3, 9, and

57). The textbook offers no accounts of the non-Muslim freedom fighters who fought

against the British. Neither does it relate their services to Pakistan in any field (e.g., civil,

military, judiciary, parliament, philanthropy). A subsection of chapter 1 of the grade 10

textbook (pp.1–28), Fundamental Human Rights, describes the Components of the Pakistan

Ideology. However, in so doing it labels the ‘Hindu leadership’, as ‘extremists’, and

Muhammad Ali Jinnah as ‘champion of human rights’ (p.3). The totalizing attitude against

the Hindus is further reflected in these words in the grade 10 textbook: ‘Muslims had lived

with the Hindus as neighbours and compatriots for about one thousand years. Based on

their experience, ‘they could not expect good neighbourly treatment’ (p.3). This book has

been compiled by one author; however, it has four editors and two designers. The review

committee for this book is comprised of nine members. I noted that none of them is from

a minority religion. The Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 12 resonates similar contents

as noted, albeit in more detail, exuding more bitterness. Anti–Hindu discourse appears

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invariably on most pages of lesson 1 (pp.1–28): ‘Hindu extremists started programmes like

the ‘Arya Samaj’ with the purpose to convert the Muslims into Hindu religion’ (p.11). In

lesson 2 (pp.28–46), the Hindus nation is presented as an enemy with ‘perpetual evil

designs’ (p.37) wishing ‘regional, linguistic and provincial differences’ (ibid.) to spread in

Pakistan. Hindus and India are constructed as a body that has always desired and ‘predicted

that Pakistan shall not be administratively and economically viable’ (p.35). Also, the Pakistan

Studies textbook for grade 12 in the lesson, Genesis of Islamic Republic of Pakistan (pp.1–

28), presents the world discretely into Muslim and non-Muslim categories. It asserts, ‘the

Muslims believe that, by virtue of their faith, they have an identity, separate and distinct

from other nations of the world’ (p.15).

A review of the selected textbooks affords evidence that Islam is employed as a

strong identity symbol. It is employed thus that it promotes exclusionary trends based on

the Islamic faith. This, in effect, also determines Pakistani citizenship, barring religious

minorities from it. Besides, the children of the religious minorities are forced to learn Islam

and imbibe Islamic injunctions under duress. This can reinforce prejudice, promote

religious bias and can construct an exclusive identity of Pakistan. Similarly, children

indoctrinated on these discourses are likely to grow up as close-minded individuals with

distorted worldviews (see sections 7.2.1.2 and 7.6.1 for discussion).

5.4 Gender in Textbooks

The NEP (2009) recognizes the significance of democratic ideologies which

consider women an equal partner of men in all spheres of life. The Policy, referring to the

Constitution of Pakistan 1973,52 mentions that the country holds on to the egalitarian

perspective of education. It declares ‘steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of

women in all the spheres of national life’ (p.16). The Policy concedes that in Pakistan ‘there

52Article 38 (d) speaks of instilling moral values and of providing education to all citizens irrespective of

gender, caste, creed, or race. Article 37(b) explicitly states that the State of Pakistan shall endeavour ‘to

remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period’.

Article 34 requires that ‘steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all the spheres of

national life’. It is in this perspective that Pakistan has made a commitment to achieve six Dakar EFA Goals

within the specified target dates. (GOP, 2009, p.16)

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are persistent gender and rural-urban disparities. [And that] [g]irls continue to remain

underrepresented in the education system’ (ibid.). Concerning the female and ethnic

minorities, the Policy further admits that ‘[i]t is common knowledge, as well as a proven

outcome of many studies that discrimination exists in the education system in various

forms’ (NEP, 2009, p.66). Referring to the Gender Parity Indices (GPI), it mentions that ‘it

is evident that the girls continue to face a significant disadvantage in access’ (p.66) to

education when they reach adulthood. However, the data drawn from the selected

textbooks show that the representation of the female in these textbooks is not in

conformity with the policy guidelines provided in the NEP (2009). In this respect, I

considered three aspects viz: a) the female’s quantitative representation in terms of the

authorship of textbook lessons b) their pictorial representation in the textbook pages and

c) the description of women’s social and professional roles as suggested in these

textbooks. Their positioning in all these locations contributes to constructing Pakistan’s

national identity in schools.

5.4.1 Gender in English textbooks

There are two English textbooks for grade 11, namely English Textbook – 1 and

English Textbook – 3, and one English Textbook – 2 for grade 12. These include 15, 23

and 15 lessons respectively. Except for 1, all of these have been authored by the male

authors. Thus, the acknowledgment of the fact in the NEP (2009) that the Pakistani female

in higher education is underrepresented had no bearing when the textbooks under its new

guidelines were constructed. However, the English textbooks for grades 9 and 10 are

mainly compiled by female authors. There are no authors in these textbooks.

A study of the visual representation of women tells a similar story. The English

textbooks for grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 show a large number of human images. An overview

of these illustrations shows that the depiction of female images in comparison with male

images is insignificant. Out of the total 32 pictures, only 7 are female. Interestingly, these

7 female pictures are illustrated in the textbooks of grades 9 and 10 – the ones compiled

by the female. Notwithstanding this aspect, unlike her male counterpart, she appears fully

covered in Pakistan’s national dress Shalwar Kameez and Dupatta.

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About women’s role in society, the English textbooks represent them

predominantly in domestic and supportive roles. Unit 9 of the book, All is Not Lost (pp.93–

103), presents the story of a female nurse. The descriptive words used to portray her

character include ‘perseverance’, ‘docile’ and ‘caring’ (p.94). She appears only in supportive

roles rather than in decision making or managerial. Similarly, the lesson titled, Hazrat Asma

(pp.32–45), portrays her mainly in a domestic role involving food preparation and

delivering it to her father (p.33). However, Unit 3 of the grade 9 textbook, Media and its

Impact (pp.21–31), presents one Miss Ayesha in the professional role of a teacher

encouraging students to participate in classroom discussions (p.22). There’s no lesson in

the English textbook for grade 10 which might represent women in vocational roles. This

kind of gender construction, Mayer (2000) notices, is done by state-run social, political,

and cultural institutions for specific purposes. In the case of Pakistan, it is mainly carried

out through school textbooks.

5.4.2 Gender in Urdu textbooks

Interestingly, all lessons in the Urdu textbooks for grades 9 are written by male

authors. Whereas, in the textbook of grade 10, of 25 lessons, 23 are authored by male

writers. The textbooks bear the names of compilers as well. Out of 15, just 1 happens to

be a woman. The Urdu textbooks of grades 11 and 12 also show identical trends.

Together, both these books are comprised of 70 lessons. Except 11, all have male authors.

In the same way, there are no female compilers or reviewers. Concerning female’s pictorial

depiction, all images in these textbooks, except two, are those of males. The

disproportionate representation of women, as observed, confirms what Mattu and Hussain

(2003) noted in their study conducted in 2003 i.e., the absence of women is the most

unusual feature of Pakistani textbooks.

The social roles in which the Urdu textbooks present women are strictly

domestic/supportive. In the lesson, Nasooh and Saleem ki Guftagu (A Conversation between

Saleem and Nasooh) (pp. 28–34), a mother is depicted as enamoured with the patriarchal

role of her husband. Advising her son, she insists ‘talk to him [your father] very politely,

showing utmost respect’ (p.30). The father is portrayed as a family patriarch in a ‘rightful’

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authoritative role, who is fully supported by his wife. The Asian Development Bank’s

Report (2018) articulates a similar idea. It maintains that in Pakistani society, patriarchal

gender is used as an organizing principle for socio-cultural affairs. Similarly, the lesson,

Araam –o–Sakoon (Peace and Comfort) (pp.47–55), presents a woman who is very kind,

docile, and caring towards her husband. Another lesson, Paristan ki Shahzadi (The Princess

of the Fairyland) (pp.29– 40), in grade 10 Urdu textbook presents an old woman named

Sayyadani Bi. She is being commended for her exceptional prowess in stitching and darning.

So much so that ‘even the city’s social elite (Begmat/ madams) are impressed of her’ (p.29).

She is also exemplified as a person who after having deteriorated her eyesight is now

focusing on transferring her ‘prized domestic skills’ to the younger generation. This aspect

is discussed as follows: ‘in the afternoon she teaches them the art of sewing and darning

and trains them in the art of embroidery. In the evening she teaches them food recipes in

the kitchen’ (p.30). The story, Akbari ki Himaqtain (Stupidities of Akbari) (pp.26–33), is

about a newlywed woman. She is portrayed as ‘foolish’ because she is not good at handling

domestic affairs. The introduction of the lesson is as follows:

Akbari (a bad-tempered daughter–in–law) is a very ill-mannered and irresponsible

girl. She is married to Muhammad Aaqil. After having fallen out with her mother–

in–law and father–in–law, she persuaded her husband into renting a separate house

for them. Now she is living there, away from Muhammad Aqil’s family. However,

within a very short period, her mismanagement and poor understanding of things

led to a disaster. She has ruined her home completely (p.26).

On the other hand, her husband Muhammad Aaqil is portrayed as a man of vision

and manners: ‘if Aaqil were short-tempered, they would have divorced. But he always used

his wisdom’ (p.32). These discourses demarcate gender roles in Pakistani society and are

used to construct a particular identity.

5.4.3 Gender in Pakistan Studies textbooks

The Pakistan Studies textbooks for the selected grades present an interesting case

both in terms of female representation and their social roles. There are no authors in the

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textbooks. However, a review of the textbooks of all three grades shows that of the total

of 11 compilers only 1 is a woman. Similarly, of the total of 11 human images, she figures

only in 2 of them. Regarding women’s social roles, the textbooks present perplexing

accounts, as discussed below.

Lesson 7, Population of Pakistan (pp.143–158), in the textbook for grade 9, explains

that the females in Pakistan make up only 2.02% of the total workforce of the country. It

regrets the fact that in comparison with men it is merely 13.5% (p.145). The textbook for

grade 10 (pp.96–97) also states similar statistics but gives an antithesis of the previous

stance. It undermines women’s potential for their contribution to the economy of the

country and rejoices on their less rate of birth: the ‘rate of birth of males in Pakistan is

more than that of females. These facts can be declared to be very suitable for economic

development and activities’ (pp.96–97). This leaves a very puzzling message which

eventually constructs a confusing female identity.

To consolidate the existing parochial structures, chapter 6 of the grade 12

textbook informs students that ‘women in the West are no better than the women in the

backward and less literate societies’ (p.122). It states that they have been exploited in the

name of ‘personal freedom’ and that they wish to go back to the life of ‘natural purity’

(p.122). To emphasize the point, the lesson further mentions that in a survey conducted

in the UK ‘98% of the women expressed an earnest desire to return to their family life but

found them helpless because neither the husband nor the father was ready to welcome

them back’ (p.122). Thus, the textbook promotes traditional patriarchal values.

Interestingly, it does not provide a reference to the survey. Hence, these statements only

serve to discourage female participation outside the home.

Describing the status of women in Islam, chapter 6 in the grade 12 textbook,

depicts Pakistani society as a proud Islamic society. Therefore, it draws on the following

‘distinguishing characters’ (p.121):

• the head of the family is an elderly male, women are honoured.

• women are eligible to get their share from father’s and husband’s inheritance.

• majority of women is chaste and observe ‘purdah’, these needs are also granted in

the designing of houses

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• shalwar Kameez is the common female attire, with dupatta and chadar worn on the

head. (p.121)

Thus, she is represented as a dependent body who can rejoice on the honour

which men accord her in the name of traditions. The most desirable traits for her include

chastity, purdah, and wearing shalwar kameez, dupatta and chadar. Men allow her the right

to property following Islam. Similarly, she can also enjoy the right of ‘designing of houses’

(p.122) granted by men. Thus, men are presented as enjoying power over women.

To sum up, a study of the female representation through the sampled textbooks

offers a striking picture. In a total of 160 works, only 6 belong to female authors, which

puts their overall share as low as 3.5%. Similarly, in comparison to 54 male photos, only

11 illustrate women, which is 20%. This invisibility of women in the textbooks sends an

unambiguous signal about the roles a woman can have in the Pakistani society i.e. only

domestic, insides the walls of her home. Also, this depiction positions her as a man’s

‘other’. These findings support the findings of a similar study conducted by UNESCO in

2004. Additionally, that study also pointed to the fact that the previous curriculum policy

afforded no guidelines for equitable gender representation in the textbooks. The current

study finds these guidelines in the NEP (2009). However, the review of the sampled

textbooks suggests their inconsequentiality.

5.5 Urdu vs. Local Languages, Cultures and Ethnicities

The Pakistan movement was triggered by mobilizing religious sentiments. Thus, the

areas comprising the majority Muslim population became Pakistan. Islam became the state

religion and Urdu a national language (see chapter 2). However, Pakistan has a vast

linguistic diversity and Urdu speaking native population still does not exceed 7.6 %

(Government of Pakistan, 2017). There are four provinces in the country and each of them

represents one major ethnic group, namely Punjabi, Baluch, Sindhi and Pukhtun/Pushtoon.

Each ethnic group has its own distinct language and Punjabi is the largest language being

spoken by about 44.15% of the country (ibid.). This section reflects on how the selected

textbooks are used as a technology of power (Foucault, 1988) to superimpose Urdu at the

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cost of Pakistan’s indigenous languages. Similarly, it looks into how the textbooks

represent local languages and local cultures. Culture in this framework is referred to as

the whole range of Pakistan’s overall makeup. It includes social customs and traditions of

all four provinces, their religions, vernaculars, festivals, hobbies and crafts.

From all the textbooks this study has analysed, only the Pakistan Studies textbooks

discuss local cultures and ethnicities. In other textbooks, the emphasis remains on Islam

as a crucial feature of Pakistan’s national identity/culture as observed in the findings

presented in section 5.3.

Five striking aspects in relation to the language and culture emerge from the study

of Pakistan Studies textbooks of the sampled grades. These include a) presentation of Urdu

as a symbol of Pakistan’s Islamic nationalism b) portrayal of local languages as an adjunct

to Urdu/Islam c) depiction of local cultures and forms of art employing Islamic prism d)

description of Pakistani culture as a uniform Muslim culture beyond territorial links and e)

pronounced ethnocentricity towards indigenous cultures including most festivals

celebrated by the non-Muslim population of the region. The succeeding paragraphs discuss

these aspects in separate sections.

First, the representation of Urdu in the context of colonial struggle. The textbook

for grade 9 in the lesson Culture of Pakistan (pp.159–172), asserts the significance of Urdu

as a symbol of Muslim nationalism. It maintains:

Urdu has been a symbol, an issue and a weapon in our struggle for independence

… Urdu is a symbol of our national solidarity… [which] has been an important

factor in our struggle for freedom against the British Raj and Hindu supremacy

(pp.159–162).

Its importance as a national language in the postcolonial scenario is emphasized

invoking a religious aspect: ‘Urdu has played an important role in the articulation of Muslim

culture in South East Asia’ (pp.162–163). The lesson further states that an apparent

disadvantage of Urdu i.e., it is not a language of any major ethnic group – afforded it a

‘blessing in disguise’ (p.162). Hence, it became acceptable for all Pakistanis as a national

language. Now it is a ‘medium of national cohesion’, and ‘a vehicle of inter-regional

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communication’ (pp.162–163). Similarly, the lesson, Languages of the Islamic Republic of

Pakistan (pp.131– 144), in Social Studies for grade 12, lays an extraordinary emphasis on

the importance of Urdu as a national language and its religious context. It claims, ‘[w]ith

the adoption of the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish words Urdu has developed a close affinity

with other languages of the Muslim world’ (p.132). It also quotes Jinnah’s speech to this

consequence. He said, ‘let me make it clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is

going to be Urdu and no other language’ (ibid.). The speech was given in 1948 in Dacca,

East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) which riled the then Pakistan’s Bengali population. This

triggered civil unrest which finally culminated in the Bangla Language Movement of 1952.

Several people lost their lives during the movement (see Rahman, 2011 and Ayres, 2009).

Second, the description of local languages using the screen of Urdu and Islam. The

Pakistan Studies textbooks of all grades discuss the major languages being spoken in

Pakistan. However, these are represented from an Islamic lens and never in their own

right. In the textbook for grade 9, a lesson, Culture of Pakistan (pp.159–172), describes

Punjabi as an ancient language. However, it is defined vis–à–vis its ‘great contribution’ to

the dissemination of ‘Islamic sufi thought’ (p.160). The lesson gives the detail as to how the

Muslim saints and preachers such as Baba Farid–ud–Din Ganj–e–Shakr, Shah Hussain,

Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah delivered their message of love and humanity in

Punjabi poetry (p.160). The lesson describes how other Pakistani vernaculars such as

Hindku, Siraiki, and Potowari as closely related to the Punjabi language (p.159). Similarly,

the importance of the Sindhi language is highlighted emphasizing its antiquity and rich

poetic traditions, mainly related to Islam. The lesson states, ‘Sindhi has a very rich treasure

of Islamic literature and mystic poetry’ (p.160). Further to that, after the advent of Islam,

‘Arabic script was adopted… [and] Sindhi is the first Indian language the Holy Quran was

rendered into’ (ibid.). Explaining the importance of the Pushto language, the textbook

states, ‘[b]efore the advent of Islam, Pushto was written in Kharoshti script. In the age of

Mahmud Ghaznavi (about 1000 AD) a scholar Safiullah replaced the old Pushto script and

introduced Arabic script’ (p.161). The Kashmiri language, which is spoken mainly in the

border areas of Pakistani administered Kashmir, is also accorded a proper space in the

textbook. However, the emphasis remains on Islam: ‘it is written in the Arabic script.

Kashmiri literature has a profound Islamic background’ (p.162). At this point, the

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discussion on the Kashmiri language digresses and becomes more focused on its role in

converting Hindus to Islam. Below is an example of how the textbook uses language and

culture as a tool to inculcate religious bias and ethnocentricity:

Muslim traders and preachers started visiting Kashmir shortly after the dawn of

Islam in Arabia. In the later period, 37 thousand Kashmiris were converted to Islam

at the hand of a Muslim saint Shah–i–Hamdan (RA). He was an excellent poet and

a man of letters. After this mass conversion Kashmiri became a predominantly

Muslim language (p.162).

Discussion on regional languages in the Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 10

replicates similar contents (pp.111–115).

Third, the presentation of art, crafts, hobbies, music, painting, sculpting and

calligraphy from the vantage point of Islam. In this context, the focus remains on whether

or not these forms of art are permissible in Islam. In a similar vein, these are categorized

as Muslim and non–Muslim. An example from the Pakistan Studies for grade 9 follows as:

[m]ost of the Muslims believe that playing musical instruments as well as sculpturing

and painting living objects is not permitted by religion. They hold that

overindulgence in these pursuits arouses lust and passion to such a great degree

that it causes degeneration of the human personality (p.167).

This argument nevertheless leads to bringing up the views of those Muslim artists

who have comparatively lenient attitudes towards these artistic expressions. It particularly

refers to those amongst them who came from Arabia and Iran to the subcontinent. Thus,

it establishes Pakistan’s Middle Eastern links, rather than the local ones: ‘Amir Khusro

himself was an observing Sufi who introduced the singing of Ghazal and Qawwali’ (grade

9, p.167). The textbook appreciates singing of ‘decent poetry without instruments and the

recitation of the Holy Quran’(ibid.). It is because these have been appreciated by the

Prophet Muhammad (ibid.). In a discussion on the contribution of Muslims to paintings and

sculpturing, the grade 9 textbook maintains: ‘due to religious constraints, in the early

Muslim societies the natural creative instinct of figure making, sculpturing and modelling

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found expressions in more useful arts like ornamental writing (khattati or calligraphy)’

(p.167). It further states that ‘calligraphy is basically a Muslim art’ (p.168).

Fourth, Pakistani culture is portrayed as Islamic culture beyond geographical

constraints. Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 10 in the chapter titled Population, Society

and Culture of Pakistan (pp.92–120), states that ‘Pakistan’s most important recognition is

Islam even there are regional, provincial, lingual, racial and other bases’ (p.105). The

chapter further maintains that ‘at the present time there is religious uniformity in Pakistan’

(ibid.). In the discussion of customs and traditions of Pakistan, the account which the

textbook of grade 10 gives remains limited to only Islamic events. These include Azan

(Muslim prayer call), marriage – described as ‘Islamic obligation’ (p.105), Namaz–e–Janaza

(Muslim funeral prayer) and Quran Khwani (mass recitation of the Quran) (ibid.). A lesson,

Culture of Islamic Republic of Pakistan (pp.113–131), in Pakistan Studies for grade 10, further

establishes the relationship between Pakistan movement, Islamic culture and nationality. It

argues that the Pakistan movement was not destined to create a nation state. Rather, it

was the ‘cultural aspirations of the Indian Muslims [which] gave birth to Muslim nationalism

in India which later came to be known as ‘Pakistani Nationalism’ and the Islamic culture as

‘Pakistani Culture’’ (p.114). To project Pakistan as the opposite of India, the lesson explains

that there is historical evidence that ‘the territory of Pakistan was culturally linked with

the Middle East, and not with the Ganges Valley (my emphasis) (Now part of India)’ (p.115).

The textbook further emphasizes that the people of Pakistan are ethnically linked with the

‘racial groups settled in the Middle East’ (ibid.).

Fifth, the representation of cultural festivals from the perspective of Muslim versus

non–Muslim and ethnocentricity towards the latter. The study found that religious

trajectories also remain prodigious in the discussions of festivals. For example, in the grade

9 textbook, Eid–ul–Fitr and Eid–ul– Azha, the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad,

Ashoora of Muharram, shab–e–Barat, Shab–e–Qadar, and Urs are designated strictly as

Muslim festivals (p.169). On the other hand, Basant or Kite Flying is defined as a Hindu

festival. The argument that follows is that Basant ‘is celebrated only in a limited area in

Punjab. The majority of Muslims avoid Basant for having a Hindu background’ (p.169).

Christmas and Devali are also mentioned as ‘non–Muslim festivals’ (ibid.), celebrated only

by ‘Christians and Hindus’ (ibid.). On the subject of family life, customs and dresses, grade

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10 textbook, in the lesson Culture of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (pp.113–131), condemns

certain local traditions. It argues that ‘in the rituals and customs, regarding marriage and

mourning un–Islamic local traditions dominate’ (p.120). It further states that the ‘[d]isplay

of the dowry, mehndi, fireworks, extravagant lighting, singing and dancing are the un–

Islamic practices which have now become part of the marriage ceremonies’ (p.121). The

textbook of grade 9 even portrays Muslim painters and sculptors in a negative light, arguing

they were under the influence of (un–Islamic) local Hindu practices:

after the spread of Islam to the remotest parts of the world, in the following

centuries, under local influences, however, the Muslim artists also started painting

living objects (p.168).

These statements play a strong role in developing students’ ethnocentric identities

(see sections 7.2.1.2, 7.6.1 and 7.6.4). Interestingly, all these events have existed in this

region for centuries. For example, originated from the Sanskrit word “Vasantha”,

essentially, “Basant” marks the end of the winter season. Its celebration via kite flying in

North India flourished due to the patronage of the Muslim nobility of Awadh, particularly

during the reign of Muslim King Shah Alam (1702-1712) (see Desai, 2010, p.5). This event

has been celebrated by the general public regardless of religious affiliations. It is only that

the position of the state has changed in postcolonial Pakistan. Edensor argues that:

[t]he position of the state towards already existing cultures is complex, for certain

cultures may be eradicated (especially in the case of ethnic or religious

particularity), or they may be adopted and adapted by the cultural establishment

(2002, p.3).

These textbook trends, as noted, are in line with the guidelines provided in the

NEP (2009). The Policy maintains that the national education system evolves within a state,

hence they [state and education system] ‘appear to flow from each other’ (p.10). It stresses

the need for developing such an education system that should promote and protect

uniformity. From this perspective, the Policy emphasizes the significance of Urdu as a

national language and Islam as a state religion, which, it believes, connects people of all

regions of Pakistan. These two symbols are, therefore, employed in the textbooks to

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consolidate Pakistan’s overarching Islamic identity, disregarding local cultural symbols and

values and downgrading local languages.

5.6 Militaristic Identity in Textbooks

A review of the English and the Pakistan Studies textbook discourses reveals the

theme of students’ militaristic national identity of Pakistan as a very strong construct. It

embraces three elements: the construction of Pakistani identity in opposition to India,

projection of belligerence and the heroic projection of Pakistan’s armed forces,

particularly, the Pakistan Army in this respect. Pakistan’s national education system uses

India as Pakistan’s ‘other’ to create ‘them’. The use of an education system to create

antagonistic national identity can have serious implications for students as well as for the

state in the future (see chapter 7). Findings are presented as follows in three subsections.

5.6.1 Militaristic Identity in English textbooks

The English textbook for grade 9 in lesson 2 (pp.12–20) explains the notion of

‘patriotism’ through two illustrations, namely the Khyber Pass and Minar–e–Pakistan.

Though both suggest the idea of ‘victory over an enemy’, the former represents the

military significance. Historically, the Khyber Pass had been a strategic military route for

the Afghan and Central Asian invaders to attack India. Babur established the first Moghul

Empire (Muslim Empire in India) in Northern India after passing through it from

Afghanistan (See Wood, 2011). Thus, the Khyber Pass brings the image of the Muslim

invaders who conquered India. Minar–e–Pakistan was built to honour the Lahore

Resolution of 23rd March 1940. The resolution demanded greater autonomy for the

Muslim majority states of India, which ultimately eventuated in the emergence of an

independent country, Pakistan, in 1947. Therefore, Minar–e–Pakistan represents the

symbolic victory of the Muslim League over the Indian National Congress which opposed

the idea of India’s partition. The idea to forge links between ‘patriotism’ and the symbols

that represent ‘victory’ over an ‘enemy’ is discursive. It has the potential to constitute

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students’ militaristic national identities in schools. Similarly, this approach underlines the

need for a military force which correspondingly reinforces the notion of ‘strategic culture’.

Edensor (2002) maintains that the ‘representations of “our” national identity

become more pointed when used to define “us” against “them” – usually other nations in

political or sporting conflict’ (p.140). The same lesson invokes the spirit of ‘patriotism’

further by highlighting the India/Pakistan wars (pp.12–20). Then in this backdrop, the

textbooks developers project the heroes of the Pakistan Army. For example, page 13 of

the textbook carries the names of the soldiers who laid down their lives in these wars.

Similarly, the English textbook for grade 10 presents a whole passage of misspelled names

of the military personnel, as follows:

captain muhammad sarwar major tufail Muhammad major aziz bhatti pilot officer

rashid minhas major muhammad akram major shabbir sharif sowar muhammad

hussain lance naik Muhammad mahfooz captain karnal sher khan and havildar lalak

jan all embraced martyrdom while fighting bravely for their motherland all of them

were awarded nishan e haider (p.19).

The exercise question tasks students to punctuate the above, thus, making them

internalize the names of the soldiers. Inclusions of such exercises in school textbooks

reflect Pakistan’s security managers’ preoccupation with Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’, and

their plan to further consolidate it employing national education.

No contents in the English textbooks for grades 11 and 12 were found that might

contribute to the promotion of students’ militaristic national identities in schools.

5.6.3 Militaristic Identity in Pakistan Studies textbooks

The Pakistan Studies textbooks for grades 9 and 12 adopt a sophisticated approach

to constitute students’ identities. This seems to have three mutually corresponding facets

which ultimately converge into shaping students’ militaristic identities in schools.

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First, the textbooks present Hindus as power-hungry opportunists, looking for the

prospect of becoming British’s junior partners. For instance, ‘Hindus were the most

powerful contestants for authority; they sought the remedy in joining hands with the

British against the Muslim’ (grade 9, p.3). This depiction is totalizing and is suggestive of

two trajectories. One, Muslims and Hindus are two distinct social groups where the

former assumes the right to rule. Second, the British colonization of India would not have

been sustainable without Hindus’ covert support to them. Other cases of the similar

portrayal of Hindus, in the same textbook, can be found on pages 2, 3, 25, 27, 28, 39, 57

and 62. The textbook of grade 12 criticizes the educational policies that were introduced

during the Congress Raj (1937–1939). Elaborating their aims the lesson explains, ‘the sole

objective’ of these was to infuse ‘a spirit of Indian nationalism in the children’ (p.25). It

further states that ‘Muslim students were offered no opportunity to learn about their own

history, culture and religion’ (p. 26). It is interesting to note that the textbook presents

the Indian Muslims as independent of Indian nationalism. Second, the textbooks present

Hindus and India as permanently against the idea of Pakistan. In the textbook of grade 9,

it reflects in these phrases/sentences: ‘Hindus started making hostile propaganda against

Pakistan from the very first day of her birth’ (p.39), ‘hostile Hindu majority’ (p.29), ‘hostile

Hindu press’ (p.27) and ‘extremist Hindu leadership’ (p.7). The grade 12 textbook exudes

more bitterness, stating India has ‘perpetual evil designs’ which fuel ‘regional, linguistic and

provincial differences’ (p.37) within Pakistan. Third, the textbooks attempt to depict

Pakistanis as racially different from Indians. A lesson in the textbook of grade 12 puts this

aspect as ‘Pakistani people are ethnically linked with the racial groups settled in the Middle

East’ (p.115). Further to that, it states ‘there is historical evidence that the territory of

Pakistan was culturally linked with the Middle East, and not with the Ganges valley (my

emphasis) (Now part of India)’ (ibid.).

Situated within these discourses, an account of the Pakistan Army’s fighting and

liberating spirit emerges. For instance, the Pakistan Studies textbook for grade 10 discusses

the Kargil war of 1999. It presents the soldiers of the Pakistan Army as fully equipped to

win it by sacrificing their lives. However, in view that the war was lost, the textbook

absolves the Pakistan Army by blaming politicians. It paints their policies in a negative light,

stating:

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on the advice of American President, Bill Clinton, Nawaz Sharif visited America and

signed the ceasefire communique…. The nation and army showed a deep sense of

despair and anger over this step (ibid., p.21).

It is a distortion of the fact as Nawaz Sharif, the then prime minister of Pakistan,

visited America on the request of the then army chief to rescue the Pakistan Army from

the Kargil heights (see Masood, 2008). Thus, by demonizing politicians/political systems,

the textbook creates an appeal amongst the students for Pakistan’s military, hence, its

‘strategic culture’.

The lesson Geography of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, (pp.47–68) in the textbook of

grade 9 presents the Pakistan Army as a liberating Muslim force beyond territorial

constraints. It portrays them as a force that possesses the ability to take on an Empire like

the Soviet Union:

[t]he Soviet Union occupied an enormous area, larger than any other state in the

world… In the year 1989, as a result of her defeat at the hands of Afghan and

Pakistani forces, the Soviet Empire was dismembered. (p.54)

To further emphasize the army’s ‘liberating’ character, the lesson claims that the

efforts of the Pakistani forces finally resulted in the liberation of many ‘Muslim majority’

states. These states are, then, collectively referred to as the ‘Central Asian Muslim states’

(p.54). It is interesting to note that the Pakistan Army has never been involved in direct

combat with the Soviet Empire. Hence, the purpose of this portrayal is perhaps to manage

students’ perception, so they develop a love for soldiers and warfare. In the long run, it

can converge into lending support to Pakistan’s existing ‘strategic culture’.

The textbook of grade 11 is free of such content.

5.7 Research Findings: Visual Observations

This section presents visual data collected from school–sites including corridors,

classroom walls and notice boards. These are used for broadcasting official notices and

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displaying pictures and other visuals. Institutions such as schools, argues Bennett (1998),

avail of these places to inculcate ‘particular values, beliefs, competencies, routines of life

and habitual forms of conduct’ (p.28). In the course of this study, these places emerged as

important zones to understand factors shaping students’ national identity of Pakistan. This

section also presents the researcher’s record of activities/rituals carried out in students’

morning assemblies at all six schools.

5.7.1 Islam in Pictures

The images displayed underneath were found mostly in corridors, classroom walls,

and notice boards (see Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1: Islam in Pictures

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The images displayed above inspire Muslimness amongst students and inculcate a

strong sense of Islamic identity into them. On the other hand, I found a complete absence

of any image/symbol in these places which may suggest a temporal/spiritual relation to

minority religions or the sub-sects of Islam. The trend noted herein appears to be in

conformity with what was observed in the textbook findings (see section 5.3). Therefore,

it provides further evidence that the sayable and visible (Kendall and Wickham, 2003, p.43)

in Pakistan’s education system function in coordination. Pulling all potential resources, it

indoctrinates students with specific Islamic beliefs from an early age to construct

monolithic Islamist individuals. Contrarily, a blind eye is turned to the presence of the

students of minority religions in schools. This has the potential to foster structured social

exclusion of Pakistan’s religious minorities.

5.7.2 Gender in Pictures

I observed an almost complete absence of female pictures in the school spaces.

The only picture which I could notice was of Ms. Fatima Jinnah in one of the three Boys’

schools I visited (see Figure 5.2).

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Figure 5.2: Gender in Pictures

Ms. Jinnah is the sister of the founder of the country and has the official title of The

Mother of the Nation. Hence, she has a privileged status. Therefore, the display of her

picture hardly contributes to the notion of gender equality. Interestingly, even sites at the

girls’ schools display no female images. Spain (1992) maintains that exclusion of the female

from the public realm through institutionalized practices speaks of existing male

domination in society. As evidenced earlier, the textbook portrayal of the Pakistani woman

is gendered (see section 5.4). Similarly, it is imparted in gendered segregated schools.

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In view of these, women’s further exclusion from those places which are

exclusively meant for them (girls’ schools) reveals the seriousness of the situation in the

given context.

5.7.3 Pakistani Culture in Pictures

During the survey of all six schools, I found posters illustrating Pakistan’s culture

by exhibiting just Eid–ul– Fitr and Eid–ul–Azha – the two Islamic religious events celebrated

in Pakistan. A striking aspect which this study particularly noted during the process of field

data collection from all six schools was a complete absence of minority culture in schools’

display sites including bulletin boards, corridors and classroom walls. This is another

example of selected representation and the politics of exclusion of discourses intended to

curb the power of certain sections of society (see Foucault 1981). Similarly, it sends a clear

message that Pakistan has a singular Islamic identity, and people of other faiths and cultures

will remain subservient to that.

5.7.4 Militaristic Identity in Pictures

The pictures of Pakistan’s martyred soldiers were found on the walls of all six

schools (see Figure 5.3). They laid down their lives in the India/Pakistan wars. The display

of these pictures, as shown below, reinforces the belligerent ideas presented in the

textbook discourses which predominantly portray India as Pakistan’s enemy (see section

5.6). Thus, these constitute students’ militaristic national identities. In the long run, these

could lend support to Pakistan’s strategic culture (see sections 3.2.5 and 7.5.1).

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Figure 5.3: Militaristic Identities in Pictures

5.8 Observations of Rituals at Morning Assemblies in Schools

All six schools normally conduct four activities in the morning assembly before the

regular teaching begins. These include the recitation of the Quran followed by one hymn

each in the praise of Allah (God) and the Prophet Muhammad, and finally the singing of

Pakistan’s national anthem. These activities are pre-planned, stringently following the same

pattern. They are performed at the sites which feature the permanent presence of

Pakistan’s national flag. Interestingly, Pakistan’s national flag has two colours, green and

white. The green stripe represents the Muslim majority of the country. Its size is three–

fourth of the size of the white strip which represents Pakistani minorities. Regardless of

the size of the white strip, Pakistan’s national flag and national anthem are the only two

national symbols, in these educational sites, which can be said to convey the message of

Pakistan’s inclusive national identity.

5.9 Conclusion

The thematic analysis of the textbooks of English, Urdu and Pakistan Studies for

grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 results in several findings. The textbooks are found positioning

students predominantly within four recurrently occurring themes for shaping their national

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identity. These include Islam, the Urdu language, a particular construction of the female

and anti–India militaristic national identity.

In keeping with the policy guidelines articulated in the NEP (2009), the textbooks

were found presenting Islam as an ideology and the ultimate purpose of the creation of

Pakistan. Similarly, these are shown portraying Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah,

as the guardian of the Islamic values of the Muslims of the subcontinent. All textbooks

abound in the Quranic verses in Arabic. Similarly, they narrate the life histories of the early

Islamic icons and events from Islamic history. These are also shown proselytizing Islam and

belittling most other religions and cultures, particularly the Hindus. Similarly, they are

shown differentiating the Pakistani nationals from other communities of the world based

on religion. They presented Pakistani nationalism as Muslim nationalism, beyond

territorial/geographical constraints. Islam, thus, becomes Pakistan’s overarching national

identity which visibly influences all other national identity signifiers emerging from the

textbooks. This shows the powerful potential of the religion to subsume all other

provincial identities and sub–nationalisms within it. The study also finds several textbook

contents overtly insensitive to the Pakistani students of most minority religions.

Second, the textbooks are found to be representing Pakistani women in gendered

social roles. Other than that, she is underrepresented as a textbook author and her

representation through illustrations is also disproportionate. The textbooks are shown

using the narratives of religion, Islamic culture, and traditions to emphasize a particular

female dress–code to pass her as a true Pakistani and a Muslim.

Third, the textbooks are shown promoting Urdu as a national language for

students’ positioning. To reinforce this, its links are drawn with the Arabic script. Similarly,

its role in the evangelization of Islam in the region is highlighted. Even Pakistan’s provincial

languages and subcultures are painted exclusively in the Islamic light, suggesting an

association between Urdu, Pakistan’s indigenous languages, the Middle East, and the

Muslim culture of the Indian subcontinent.

Finally, the textbooks are shown painting India as Pakistan’s archenemy. These are

found to be fostering strong anti–India sentiments amongst the students by glorifying

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wars/war culture. This allows the textbooks to portray the Pakistan Army as a saviour,

which helps promote students’ anti–India strategic identities in schools.

The schools' significant sites were found displaying visuals/images which reinforce

the messages contained in the textbook discourses. Similarly, the quotidian morning rituals

in the schools’ morning assemblies further consolidate them. These observations afford an

understanding of how the school as a physical structure plays a vital role in the

consolidation of what is being propagated through the national education.

The study also notes the non-existence of anti-colonial discourses in Pakistan’s

national curriculum textbooks. Given the long colonial history of the region, it is rather

striking. This aspect also makes Pakistani school textbooks different from Indian and

Bangladeshi school textbooks. They dedicate a sizable portion of their textbooks relating

the Indian natives’ political and armed struggle resistance against the British (see Qazi and

Shah, 2019b; Rosser, 2003; Kumar, 2001)

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Chapter 6 – Pakistan’s Postcolonial National Identity

Construction – Field Research Findings

6.1 Introduction

In view of the analytical framework discussed in chapter 4, the construction of

meaning is a social process involving the interaction of social actors. This chapter presents

findings from focus group interviews and participatory tools conducted with students, and

interviews with teachers in six secondary/higher secondary schools located in Islamabad,

Pakistan. The textbook findings and visual observations presented in chapter 5 identified

factors shaping Pakistan’s national identity discourses and explored how the school–sites

were used to reinforce them. These included Islam, gender, Urdu vs. local

languages/cultures and militaristic national identity. The identification of the themes

provided a macro view and established a broader context. This correspondingly worked

as a guiding principle to probe into other relevant phenomena as identified in the research

questions 2, 3 and 4 (see section 4.2). The approach to investigating the phenomena was

qualitative and the data generated turned out to be rich and dense. This chapter reports

the field research findings, making use of direct quotes from the participants’ interview

conversations and other data.

6.2 Interviews and Participatory Tools Findings – Teachers’ and

Students’ Perspectives

Identification of crucial textbook factors shaping Pakistan’s national identity and the

observations made at the schools’ sites guided the selection and construction of field–data

collection methods (see section 4.5.1). These included interviews, focus groups and

participatory tools. Informed by the identified themes, presented in chapter 5, these tools

were constituted to draw the participants’ responses around the following five concepts:

• national identity foundations in textbooks and resulting ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ divisions

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• inclusion and exclusion in national imagining

• women as the mainstay of national values and culture, and their location in

Pakistan’s national identity imaginings as perceived by teachers and students

• Urdu vs. indigenous languages/cultures

• Pakistan’s militaristic national identity

The number of study participants varied subject to data tools being employed.

Overall, 12 teachers and 58 students joined in interviews and focus groups, respectively,

and 424 students took part in participatory tools activities. This interaction generated an

enormous amount of data which was categorized into themes and sub-themes before their

final codification, as guided by the research questions (see section 4.8). Findings are

presented in the order of the themes identified earlier (see section 5.2).

6.2.1 Islam and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers’ Perspectives

Evidence suggests that in most teachers’ perceptions, Pakistan and Islam are

synonymous. They believe that the idea to make students good Pakistani essentially rests

on instructing them in the Two Nation Theory (see section 1.1). To them, it is the principal

construct of the Ideology of Pakistan, which is Islam53. To explore if the teachers make

conscious efforts to inculcate students with the idea of Pakistan, I used several probes.

The first was how they teach students to be good Pakistani if they do it at all. It generated

several interesting responses. Selected excerpts from the teachers’ interviews are as

follows:

TA: First, we teach our students about the raison d’être for the creation of

Pakistan …. What our origin is… what our ideology is. It is the Islamic ideology

which provides us our basis. We teach them that the Ideology of Islam is the

53According to the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, the basis for the creation of Pakistan

is Islamic Ideology (pp.185-194) . The phrase ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ also appears on pages 34 and 35 of the

Constitution.

The words/phrases as ‘ideology’, ‘Islamic ideology’ and ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ do not exist in Pakistan’s

1stconstitution, promulgated in 1956. In Pakistan’s 2nd constitution promulgated in 1962, the phrase ‘Islamic

Ideology’ appears in the context of ‘Advisory Council of Islamic Ideology’ and not in ‘Islamic Ideology as basis

for the creation of Pakistan’, as witnessed in 1973’s Constitution. The phrase ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ does not

exist in Pakistan’s second constitution.

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Ideology of Pakistan… obviously, we talk about Islamic values at length …. Ideology

of Islam is our highest principle.

I: So, you believe we must emphasize the ideology of Pakistan. Can you further

elaborate on the ideology of Pakistan in a couple of sentences?

TA: Muslims are one nation. They have a religion of their own. The religion has its

own rules and regulations [injunctions/rulings] which are binding on its adherents.

And our way of life is in accordance with Islam.

According to the understanding of teachers C and E, the ideology of Pakistan is the

basis of Pakistan and inculcating this into students makes them good Pakistani.

TC: Ideology of Pakistan is focused more.

I: What’s it?

TC: The Two Nation Theory ––– normally what we observe is they are taught quite

extensively about the Two Nation Theory and the circumstances leading to its

emergence.

TE: Particularly, when we talk about the Two Nation Theory, we teach our children

that it is based on Kalima–e–Tayyaba.54

Teachers J and L believe that teaching Islam/about Islam is to teach students how

to become good Pakistanis.

TJ: I tell them about Islamic studies and history. I tell them about the sayings of the

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). … the ones given in our Islamic history and Indo

Pakistan history, so that students idealize Him [the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)]

instead of idealizing Michael Jackson or someone else.

54also known as Kalima-e- Shahada/Tawheed - one of the five pillars of Islam. Translation: I bear witness that

there is none worthy of worship except Allah, the One alone, without partner, and I bear witness that

Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

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TL: Right from the beginning they [students] are kept up to date about the ideology

of Pakistan and The Objectives Resolution (see section 2.3).

Responding to a question what particular traits they think authorities should

further promote/emphasize through the curriculum to make students good

Pakistanis, teacher A replied:

TA: As a matter of fact, a typical Pakistani has a very strong relation with Islam.

So, it is imperative that we promote/emphasize Islamic values and keenly impart

them to children.

Teacher K emphasized the value of Jihad to achieve this:

TK: The concept of Jihad should be conveyed correctly so that they develop virtue

and become good human beings.

Answering the question of how a true Pakistani woman/man should be like,

the element of religion surfaced again:

TD: He [a Pakistani man] should be like Allama Iqbal [Pakistan’s national poet, who

is also presented as a visionary who conceived the idea of Pakistan first]. For

example, his parents taught him the Noble Quran. Inspired, he used to be so

thoroughly engrossed in the meaning of the Quran that these would bring tears to

his eyes.

When I asked them if they were satisfied with the existing topics/lessons in the

curriculum textbooks for national identity constructions, teacher A stressed:

TA: We must tell them more and more about ideology; what the ideology of

Pakistan is. Removing this [ideology of Pakistan] from the minds of people means

the extermination of Pakistan.

I also noted an element of resistance to some of these ideas in this context.

However, to demonstrate that, religion was again used as a cover. For example, in

response to a question if they find anything less important in the textbooks which

need to be removed/reformed, TC responded as follows:

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TC: These days we are experiencing terrorism … I feel … though our religion

…[difficulty in explaining is visible] … In our religion … for example, there is no

scope for the Two Nation Theory. Our religion doesn’t promote this kind of thinking.

Teacher G expressed his confusion about the ‘different versions of the Two Nation

Theory’. On a request, if he can elaborate what he implies by that, the following reply was

extended: Jinnah’s 11th August speech offers a secular version of Pakistan where all

Pakistani nationals, irrespective of religion, caste and creed, can be treated as equal right

bearing citizens of Pakistan. On the other hand, Jamat–e–Islami, 55 believes that this theory

suggests complete Islamisation of Pakistan where Shariah will guide the country. He further

added that President General Ayub Khan’s preoccupation to use Islam for the

regimentation of people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is also based on his version of

the Two Nation Theory56.

Nevertheless, in almost all teachers’ perceptions, Islam and Pakistan are bonded in

an essential relationship. Therefore, Pakistani identity is almost indistinguishable from

Islamic identity. Similarly, they believe to teach students to be good Pakistani is not possible

without inculcating in them the spirit of Islam. They do this through daily teaching practices

in classrooms.

6.2.2 Islam and Pakistan’s National Identity – Students’ Perspectives

Islam appears to be the sole raison d'être for the creation of Pakistan in most

students’ opinions. Below, I will first present the girl-participants focus group and

participatory data. Answering a question about the reasons behind the creation of

Pakistan, they held:

G1. It is an Islamic country. There are two nations in the world, Muslims, and non–

Muslims. Pakistan is for Muslims.

55 Pakistan’s right-wing political party 56 The NEP 2009 and the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 refer to ‘The Ideology of Pakistan.’ This phrase is

not found in the speeches of Pakistan’s founding fathers. However, I could find its explanation in the book

titled Ideology of Pakistan and its Implementation (1959, p. x) authored by the President General Ayub Khan.

Its foreword was written by Dr. Javed Iqbal.

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G2. To separate Muslims from the non–Muslims, and to follow Islam.

G3. To not live under Hindus who are against Islam.

G12. So that Muslims could live in accordance with the principles of Islam.

G13. Pakistan is a miracle of God. It was created on the 27th of Ramadan57 .

G14. Pakistan is a gift of God. There are only two countries in the world that were

created in the name of religion – Pakistan and Israel.

A large number of girls wanted to move to Saudi Arabia or live in Pakistan for

religious reasons. Eight of them (28%) expressed the desire to settle down in Saudi Arabia

because of the holy places, Makkah and Madinah; thirteen (45%) stated that they would

always live in Pakistan because it was an Islamic country; and one (3%) in Iran as it is a holy

place for Shiites. Except for one, no female participant wanted to go to the West as they

considered it a bad place for Muslims and Islam.

In the survey of girl-students’ participatory tool data, Islam again emerged as

the main identity symbol that defines Pakistan’s ‘us’. In response to ‘draw images which

in your opinion truly represent Pakistan’, eighty (41%) of the two–hundred–nine girl–

participants drew the shape of a prayer–mat; and forty–five (22%), the picture of a mosque.

Similarly, sixty–five girls (31%) considered being a practicing Muslim as the most

important characteristic for boys to be a true Pakistani. Similarly, sixty–one (29%) of them

desired the same quality for girls as well (see Figure 6.1).

57Muslims’ holy month

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Figure 6.1: Girl – participants’ Images for ‘us’ as a Nation

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Boy–respondents reverberated similar thoughts with relatively heightened

emotions. Responding to a question about the objectives behind the creation of Pakistan,

they extended the following opinions during their focus-group conversations:

B1. Pakistan is for ISLAM.

B2. The Two Nation Theory. We could not have lived with Hindus.

B15. We were two nations on the basis of religion.

B17. We wanted a country where Muslims could practice religion.

B19. For the rights of Muslims so that they could live in accordance with Islamic

principles.

B.21. Pakistan was created on the basis of the Two Nation Theory.

In response to a question, if they would ever like to settle down in a foreign

country, and if so which, once again religion figured supreme. Four boy–participants

(14%) said that they wanted to live in Saudi Arabia because of Islam. Two (7%) each

preferred Turkey, Dubai and Malaysia because these countries are both modern and

Islamic. The remaining nineteen students (66%) said that they would always like to live in

Pakistan irrespective of circumstances because they have to make it a model Islamic state.

No male student was found interested in living in Western countries.

Boy-participants participatory data substantiated their focus group

perspectives. From amongst two–hundred and fifteen boys, one–hundred and fifty–one

(70%) either drew an image of a mosque or a prayer–mat to represent Pakistan. Another

recurrent image in their drawings was of a beard. Around one–hundred and eleven (52%)

boys preferred to express in writing instead. They maintained that it was Islamic

tenants/five pillars of Islam that defined a true Pakistani. In written descriptions, allusions

to Allah, prayers, Muslims, recitation of the Quran appeared in almost all drawings as

essential characteristics/beliefs to suggest what they think represents Pakistan. In a similar

vein, they also attached a higher value to being a practicing Muslim to be true Pakistani

compared to girls. Of a total of two–hundred and fifteen boy–participants, one–hundred

and twenty–two (57%) desired the attribute of being practicing Muslim for a true Pakistani

girl/woman. Whereas one–hundred and sixteen (54%) considered the same for a true

Pakistani boy/man (see Figure 6.2).

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165

Figure 6.2: Boy – participants’ Images for ‘us’ as a Nation

The images displayed above show mosque, prayer–mat, Muslims, beard, Quran and

Islamic festivals etc., as true representatives of Pakistan’s ‘us’. The word Ibadat (obedience

with submission to Allah) and Islam also appear in all written descriptions (both Urdu and

English).

The findings, as presented in this section, indicate that Islam figures as an

extraordinary marker of Pakistan’s national identity in students’ and teachers’ perspectives.

These, similarly, suggest that Pakistani identity intensely conflates with an Islamic identity.

The main technologies of powers (Foucault, 1988b) which inculcated these ideas into

students are the national textbooks and the school spaces symbolizing religious artifacts,

as discussed in chapter 5. Similarly, the teachers appear to be another powerful factor as

an interface between the content and the taught in schools.

Drawing on the same sets of data, the following subsection presents findings to

evaluate teachers’ and students’ approach towards minority religions.

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6.2.3 Religious Minorities and Pakistan’s National Identity – Students’ and

Teachers’ Perspectives

Excerpts from teachers’ interviews, as presented in the previous section, signal

most teachers’ complete oblivion or disregard for the presence of non–Muslim students

in schools. Returning to the teachers’ responses that they teach Islamic values and histories

of Islamic personalities to make children good Pakistanis in schools, I asked them if they

ever considered that there could be children from minority religions. Except for two,

all teachers (10 out of 12) opted out of the discussion. The participating two acknowledged

the sensitivity of the situation. Their responses are stated below.

TE: We do have children from minorities. However, they don’t question [referring

to Sikh children] why there’s nothing about Gurdwara Panja Sahib [one of the holiest

places of Sikh religion in the world]. Likewise, it never strikes Christian children

that such and such church is very old and why there’s nothing about it in the

textbooks.

Answering the question if he has ever done anything to redress the situation,

TE said, ‘there’s nothing about these things from the students’ side, neither have I ever

tried’. However, he was strongly in favour of having an inclusive approach. He maintained:

Though it is about other religions, these belong here and are part of our country.

There are many people who subscribe to these faiths and these places are as sacred

to them as Makkah and Madinah to us.

TI regretted the exclusion of Dr. Abdul Salam, the Noble Laureate, from textbook

discourses. The reason was the sect he belonged to was declared non–Muslim in Pakistan.

Similarly, he bemoaned the exclusion of local heroes and the world–acknowledged

Pakistani artists from the curriculum textbooks:

TI: We miss Ahmed Kharal, he fought against the British. We do not teach

students about Abdullah Bhatti. He fought against the Mughals. And those people

like scientists …Dr. Abdul Salam… Then our artists, for example, Gul Jee, Sadqain,

Ghulam Rasool, Zubairi etc.

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Pointing to the lessons which discuss historical personalities including Syed Ahmed

Shaheed Brelvi and Shah Waliullah, he reasoned that they were included with political

motives. The textbooks still present them as holy warriors who launched Jihadi

movements against Hindus and Sikhs once (see chapter 5). He argued that these purposes

had either been served or rendered ineffectual, particularly after 9/11. He further

maintained that Pakistan paid a very heavy price for its Jihadi policies. He questioned: ‘What

was their [Syed Ahmed Shaheed Brelvi and Shah Waliullah and other ‘reformers’] role for

this country except to sow the seeds of further divisions amongst ourselves’. This

awareness reflected in the views of only one teacher and was completely absent amongst

students, as the data presented below demonstrate.

Both Boys’ and girls’ focus group data show a consensus on the following

three points:

• Hinduism is inherently evil.

• Muslim cultural values are very different from those of Hindus.

• Islam makes us completely different from other nations of the world.

Expressing their views about other countries of the world, boy–participants were

found to be ethnocentric. They maintained that they would not like to live in non–Muslim

countries. Selected excerpts from their conversation are noted below.

B.2: I would not like to live in any country where non–Muslims live.

B.6: I won’t live in the USA because they are morally corrupt.

B.9: I won’t live in any country of the world which does not follow an Islamic system

of government.

B.24: Not in India and the USA because they look down upon Muslims.

B.25: Any non–religious [Islamic] country.

B.26: The USA because it has Western cultural values.

Similarly, out of twenty–nine girl–participants, sixteen (55%) expressed their dislike

for India, seven (24%) for the USA, and one (3%) for Israel for the same reason. Two (7%)

of them stated that:

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G.3: All western countries because they are against our religion.

G.24: I would not like to live in South Africa because they are against Muslims.

Interestingly, two boys (9%) and one girl participant (5%) stated that they would

never like to live in Iran as it was a Shia country, implying Shias were not true Muslims.

Pakistan has an estimated Shiite Muslim population of about 20–25%58, whereas others are

Sunnite Muslims. These attitudes of students suggest the merger of Pakistan’s national

identity into a particular Islamic identity. In addition to fostering negative attitudes towards

other communities of the world, this can also cause conflicts of loyalty within the

mainstream Pakistani society, comprising of majority Sunnite Muslims (see section 7.2.1.2).

Consistently, the analysis of the students’ participatory data images reveals that in

the imagination of the one–hundred and fifteen (48%) boys, the Hindu temple stands as

Pakistan’s ‘other’. This implies that Pakistan’s Hindus population cannot be patriotic (see

figure 6.3). Correspondingly, the survey of girls’ participatory tools data shows that one–

hundred and ten out of the two–hundred and nine (51%) considered Western dress as

Pakistan’s ‘other’; whereas, 49% of them considered church/churchgoers (Pakistani

Christians) as Pakistan’s ‘other’ (see Figure 6.3).

58 According to International Religious Freedom Report for 2015 United States Department of State, Bureau

of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Pakistan’s 95 percent of the population is Muslim - 75 percent of

the Muslim population is listed officially as Sunni and 25 percent as Shia:

(https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/238716)

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170

Figure 6.3: Boy and girl – participants’ images of ‘them’

Besides declaring Hindu temple, a Christian church, India and Hindus as Pakistan’s

‘other’, one–hundred– thirty–four (64%) of the two–hundred and nine girl–participants

also condemned music and dance as non–Islamic, hence Pakistan’s ‘other’ (see Figure 6.3).

This attitude is, too, in line with the textbook approach, as noted in chapter 5, section 5.5,

which even divides various forms of art on religious grounds. Curiously, these notions do

not appear in boys’ assessment of true/patriotic Pakistanis.

Teachers’ and students’ data suggest a dominant majority of students’ and teachers’

strong predisposition for viewing Pakistan/Pakistani exclusively based on Islam. This also

highlights their ethnocentricity towards Pakistan’s minority Muslim sects, Pakistan’s non–

Muslims and the non–Muslim international world.

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6.3 Gender and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers’ and Students’

Perspectives

Findings drawn from teachers’ and students’ data suggest that Pakistani female is

widely perceived as Pakistani male’s ‘other’. She is viewed as a symbol who represents

Pakistani cultural values, universal Islamic values and national honour. Similarly, it seems

her world is not the same as a Pakistani man’s world.

6.3.1 Gender in Teachers’ Perspectives

Emphasizing patriarchal values, most teachers, both male and female, articulated

strict criteria for a Pakistani female to become a true Pakistani. The most common themes

which ran across the conversation of all respondents include:

• significance of female dressing and notions of morality, chastity and probity in

relation to what she wears.

• female education and professional life

• her domestic responsibilities

First, I will present findings keeping in view the first notion. Interestingly, I did not

seek the teachers’ opinions on the female’s dressing straight away. This emerged in

response to a question, how a true Pakistan girl/woman should be like in their

opinion. The views presented below are those of the male teachers:

TG: First dressing ––– [it] should be decided on the basis of personal choice.

Second, the demands of society [and] demands of religion.

Teacher H strongly related morality with the way women dress up:

TH: A woman should be a role model, okay, for the next generation definitely…

she should be having good morality [sic] and ethics, okay, follow culture’s

limitations.

I: What do you mean by ‘good morality’?

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TH: Our morality originates from our religion. She should dress up properly, there

should not be any vulgarity in dressing.

I: What do you mean by ‘vulgarity in dressing’?

TH: Body parts should not be visible. They should not accentuate them [wearing

tight dresses] … Our culture does not permit this, our religion, our ethics, our

family system… everything goes against it.

Teacher L firmly dismissed the idea of the elite class representing Pakistan. He also

complained about the serious lack of Pakistaniat [the true spirit of being Pakistani] amongst

the women of the current generation of all classes:

TL: First, she [a Pakistani girl/ woman] seriously lacks Pakistaniat [the true spirit of

being a Pakistani]. Her manners of dressing and speaking are not Pakistani … how can a

girl who wears Jeans or a T-shirt be a representative of Pakistan? … she should observe

Purdah; at least she should take Dupatta. The middle class should represent Pakistan.

However, one teacher instead chose to talk about freedom and personal choices

rather than dressing compulsions: ‘they should be free to move anywhere like you and me.

Feel free to work… opt profession… [and] feel protected’ (TI).

Interestingly, female teachers also subscribed to similar notions about

women’s dressing as male teachers. They rather attached a very high value to women’s

outfits linking these to the female morality and sexual rectitude.

TA: She must maintain her grace as a woman. She should wear Shalwar Kameez.

Her dressing should also be in line with Islamic injunctions.

Teacher B furthered a very interesting response, condemning the veil on the

account that it is ‘too much alluring’.

On the question of a true Pakistani girl/woman, teacher C immediately jumped to

the idea of clothing:

TC: ‘hmm… you mean dressing ––– or everything?

I: Okay, let’s talk about dressing?

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TC: In dressing ––– not necessarily should she cover herself with a burqa. A normal

veil … I mean to say there’s no concept of burqa in Islam, there’s a concept of a

hoodie … which you can make with a shawl or dupatta you are wearing… Cover

yourself … not necessarily that you have a big shawl which you wear clumsily and

it slides sideways all the time … not necessarily … just a kind of graceful attire that

should not pose any hindrance to your daily activities.

Teacher D was found to be a vociferous enthusiast of ‘proper’ clothing for the

female. This is to keep ‘exceptional propriety standards’ which she related to girls’ sexual

morality.

They must put on a shawl. If they wear burqa or abaya even that’s okay. However,

it must not be for the namesake, like [as observed] their eyes throw

coquettish/flirtatious looks [towards men] but otherwise they are veiled; every

contour of their body is dancing provocatively though they are ostensibly wrapped

in an all-encompassing robe. Morality emanates from within and dwells in the eyes.

Teacher F echoed similar ideas maintaining ‘she should cover herself fully

considering her religion and Pakistaniat. … should not be provocatively dressed up’.

Interestingly, notwithstanding the ‘Victorian’ morality most teachers advanced,

both male and female teachers were strong supporters of female education. Similarly, no

male or female teacher was found as opposed to the idea of women pursuing a professional

career.

Surprisingly, domestic responsibility and the idea of raising children was

considered strictly a female domain both by the male and female participants. Thus, they

approved and consolidated the existing patriarchal values.

Additionally, I also drew on teachers’ perspectives about gender representation

in the textbooks. To learn their perspectives, I asked them if they think both female and

male had been given nearly equal space in the textbooks. If not, who is

under/overrepresented and why? These questions generated quite a mixed response.

One female teacher first held that it was balanced ‘keeping in view the men’s contribution’

(TA). But then contradicted her statement stating that she had not seen any

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‘encouragement in this regard in the curriculum textbooks’. She further added that women

had not been ‘discussed in the textbooks the way they actually deserve’ (ibid.). Similarly,

two other female teachers TB and TJ and two male teachers TK and TL said that the

female had been starkly underrepresented in the textbooks. They all supported their equal

representation. On the other hand, two male teachers TE and TI, and one female teacher

TF believed that both genders were equally represented.

Interestingly, only two teachers – both female – opted to answer the second part

of the question. TJ said that it was because ‘Pakistan is a male dominating society where

we mostly talk about male achievements’. TH also expressed a similar opinion, however

adding that ‘ours is a male domineering society… therefore, most heroes are men. Besides,

considering men’s participation in the freedom struggle, naturally, their share is more

compared to women’. There are intriguing points in the given context and require critical

insight.

I also learned that despite some level of awareness amongst the teachers about the

female underrepresentation in the textbooks, no effort was made to address/redress the

situation in the classroom.

The aspect of religion also figured in two female teachers’ conversations in the

context of gender discrimination. TB argued:

Allah (God) has made man superior to women and He has correctly done so.

Secondly, man is central to the domain, called home. He has the position of an ideal

there.

An interesting response came from one female teacher TD. After pointing out that

Pakistani society is not yet ready to accept gender equality, she first blamed it on the Hindu

culture and then argued that it was the will of Allah (God):

I think books are not at fault. Gender parity is non–existent in the minds of

people… These things [gender discrimination] arrived in our culture from Hindu

culture…He [man] is accorded [Allah accorded him] superiority, no doubt.

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6.3.2 Gender in Students’ Perspectives

Students’ perspectives on gender were collected using two data tools namely, focus

groups and participatory tools. During focus group interviews, the matter of female

propriety appeared to be students’ main concern to pass a girl/woman as true Pakistani.

During the discussion, both boys and girls defined it using two angles, female dress–code

and notions such as haya (coyness), Sharam (modesty) and Izzat (chastity/probity). They used

these traits as defining markers to decide whom to include in or exclude from the Pakistani

nation.

Below, I first present boys’ focus group data which is followed by their

participatory tools’ data. Replying to a question as to how a true Pakistani girl

should be like, they maintained:

B1. She should put on a niqab on her face, abstain from making friends with boys

and must not go out in public unless accompanied by parents.

B4: She should be like the wives of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

B.6: She must not dress provocatively.

B9: Girls should not become a vehicle to spread immorality by being improperly

dressed up. It is a sign of Qiyamma (The Last Day of Judgement)

B.18: She should not wear jeans because these can trigger social evils.

B..17: She should be modestly dressed up and must not look at men.

B.25: A girl is a thing of home, so she must stay indoors covered in proper clothes.

In general, other than demanding the Pakistani female’ complete adherence to

religious practices, twenty–four boy–participants (83%) maintained that they would like to

see her fully covered including the face. This would, they argued, not only make her a good

Muslim but also a true Pakistani. Three of them explicitly stated that if a woman is not fully

covered, she was highly likely to spread immorality in society. These three students also

emphasized male guardianship for women and argued that women should not be allowed

to go out in public places. One participant was found as opposed to the idea of current

fashions to be permissible for women.

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Two voices from boys, however, opposed these ideas, calling their classmates

narrow–minded. One of them argued that Pakistani girls should be like Malala Yousafzai,

the Nobel Laureate. The other student contended that we were living in the 21st century,

so let the girls decide for themselves what they wanted to wear.

In response to the question regarding the (under) representation of women in

the textbooks, twenty–two boys (75%) opted to remain silent. Only four of them (14%)

said that women were underrepresented and three (10%) held that they were equally

represented. In this regard, contradictory discourses surfaced again where most students

alluded to Islam to establish the legitimacy of their opinion. For example, B9 argued that

women’s under-representation in national textbooks is against Islamic principles. On the

other hand, B12 argued that this so-called ‘underrepresentation’ was in accordance with

Islamic principles. He further maintained that Islam deems a girl’s share in property half

that of a boy and so is the value of her testimony in a court of law.

Similarly, boys’ participatory tools data suggest that they attach an

extraordinary value to female dress code and matters related to female chastity/probity

to pass her as true Pakistani/Muslim. The notion of Islam/Muslim bears as an important

trait in this context as in students’ imagination a Pakistani is necessarily a Muslim. Of the

two–hundred–fifteen boy–participants, ninety–seven (45%) assigned the veil as the most

important credential for a true Pakistani girl/woman. Also, fifty–eight students (27%) were

vocal about the ability of a girl/woman to guard her chastity. They also described this as

proof of her faithfulness to the nation. Another important aspect that received very high

attention was that of obedience; ninety (41%) participants believed that a true Pakistani

girl must be obedient to the male patriarchs of the family, be it a father, a brother or a

husband. In this context, the notions of patriotism/ability to sacrifice life, and good manners

enjoyed the support of 12% and 18%, respectively. Three students also termed Western

fashion trends a shameful development in Pakistan. To thirty boys (14%), domestic

management (cooking, cleaning, raising children etc.) was strictly a woman’s domain.

However, a large number of boys supported female education i.e. 73 (35%).

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178

Figure 6.4: Boy – participants’ Images of a True Pakistani Girl

All images presented above emphasize a true Pakistani girl/woman must observe

purdah. However, the degree of it varies from being fully covered, including hands, to being

partially covered. The latter implies she can keep her face uncovered. The description

given in the Urdu language highlights other desirable features as obedience, bahaya (roughly

prudish/chaste), religious and domestic.

Interestingly, a review of girl–students’ focus group and participatory tools

data suggests their views on the female are quite identical to those of boys. The majority

of girls desired similar characteristics to pass themselves as true Pakistanis as boys. In this

context, Muslimness and Pakistaniness were intensely conflated, and it was difficult to tell

whether they were explaining their Pakistani identity or Muslim identity. Of the twenty–

nine girl–participants, fifteen (52%) spoke strongly in favour of Abaya. The rest of them

argued for either a shawl or dupatta for a true Pakistani girl. Unlike boys, notions of hijab

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and face-covering did not figure in the conversation of girl–participants. Selected excerpts

from their focus group interviews are as follows:

G1: We must cover our heads as we are Muslims and we must maintain our Islamic

identity.

G2: Covering head is imperative in Islam, so we must do that.

G3: Purdah is a Muslim woman’s Jihad. We must cover our heads.

G4 to G18: We must wear Abaya.

Other desirable characteristics for girls included being a follower of Islamic Sharia,

confident, educated, hardworking, and competitive. However, while explaining these

features, almost all referred to Islam to establish the legitimacy of their arguments.

G3: A true Pakistani girl is the one whose conscience is alive. She can compete

with men in society. This is what Islam allows us and encourages us to do.

G24: In Islam, women must observe Purdah, but at the same time it supports us to

work in the field, not just rest at home.

Three girl–participants argued that they should be obedient to man because this

was what Allah (God) had ordained in the Quran. They maintained:

G6: Man is superior to the woman; she must be obedient to him.

G13: God has bestowed man with power over the woman.

G15: Though Islam has granted the power to man over woman, she has been given

rights too.

G17: We should never forget that all Prophets were men.

On the question of female representation in the national textbooks, however, the

girl-participants completely differed from boys. A predominant majority of them held that

women were not given a fair space in these. Twenty–two (76%) of them believed that

women were gravely discriminated against men. Only five of them were found satisfied

with the current representation in the textbooks. Two of them chose to be quiet.

However, when I asked them to explain their position in this regard, an extremely

confusing discourse emerged. For example, G1 argued that though she believed women

were underrepresented in the textbooks, she would not complain about it. Explaining the

reason, she argued that ‘Islam gives precedence to men over women; therefore, I would

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not ask for equality’. G6 supported this view by arguing that the males have contributed

more to society, they sacrificed more during the freedom movement… that’s why there

is more about them in the textbooks’.

I also noted an element of resistance to these discourses amongst some girls. For

example, G8 argued that ‘women are completely ignored, and one reason is that Islam

accords superiority to men over women’. G23 maintained that ‘women are discriminated

against [men] because this is what our culture dictates’. G3 was extremely vocal against

these discriminations. She held that during eleven years of her education at school she

could hardly come across an account or two of the women to have played a role in the

national service. She further added, ‘our religion Islam teaches us that both women and

men are equal. Our national heroes Jinnah and Iqbal also supported women to play a role

in nation building’. She was at pains saying ‘I don’t know who constructs these books. They

sideline us, they skip us, they make us invisible’. G8 also expressed similar concerns voicing

against these discriminations: ‘females are totally ignored, not only in textbooks but also

in society. Islam has given supremacy to man’. G13 wondered why females had been so

systematically ignored. G28 argued that it was because of religion that women were

ignored, ‘after all, in Islam too boys are put ahead of girls’. G29 opposed her stating ‘we

should not blame it on Islam because Islam is from Allah (God)’. These discussions took a

turn at this point and the focus moved to the social practices of Pakistani society in which

five girls participated enthusiastically. Selected excerpts from their interviews are as

follows:

G24: At home, we get to learn that boys should be given preference in all matters.

When a girl is born, the mother faces taunts and scoffs from relatives.

G27: Islam accords authority to boys. It is said that a girl brings her own fate59.

G26: In our society women are divorced if they produce female babies.

G27: People are afraid of girls’ fates.

The analysis of girls’ participatory tools data generally reflects how most girls

readily accepted the textbook discourses on the patriarchal values of the Pakistani society.

To one–hundred–eighty–six girl participants (89%), a good Pakistani girl is responsible for

59 A local saying meaning every girl is born with an unalterable predestined fate.

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all household matters including cooking, cleaning, washing and raising children. Thirty–one

(14%) strongly supported the idea that girls should wear either Abaya or Burqa, and sixty–

five (31%) argued that it was a must for Pakistani girls to cover their heads with Dupatta.

They also advised that Pakistani girls should prefer Shalwar Kameez to any other dress. In

addition, they attributed the notion of Haya and Sharam (modesty, coyness) to dressing

manners which according to them was an essential quality for a girl/woman. The notions

of honour and faithfulness to men were also found as having high worth to them to pass

themselves as Pakistani. Forty–eight (23%) girls deemed these as very important which was

only next to the value of being a practicing Muslim. However, unlike the relative

importance the boys attached to female education, as noted earlier, the girls were strong

supporters of education. For 48% of them, it was the most important quality of a true

Pakistani girl. However, girls, like boys and teachers, also considered dressing manners to

describe Pakistan’s ‘other’. For example, in the opinion of one hundred and ten girls (51%),

those females who wear Western dresses such as jeans and tops and a half–sleeve shirt

were not true Pakistanis. Similarly, a huge majority of them (64%) opposed music and

dance on the account that these were not allowed in Islam and them being Muslim and

Pakistani should not appreciate them. However, on account of females’ obedience to men,

fifty (24%) girls held that a true Pakistani girl was that who competed with men in every

walk of life (see figure 6.5).

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Figure 6.5 Girl – participants’ Images of a True Pakistani Girl

In all these images the emphasis is generally on dressing, head–covering, Sharm–o–

haya (modesty, coyness), domesticity, religion and education.

The study of overall data shows that Pakistan’s national identity is gendered with

respect to female–clothing, notions of Haya, Sharam and purdah, (modesty, coyness,

veiling) and social roles. Given Pakistan’s national identity as an Islamic identity, the females

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are also expected to be religious and practicing Muslims. The situation becomes further

complicated as both these aspects combine to exert patriarchal values. Most students

were found to actively conform to these values. Few those who resist these are opposed

from their own ranks and are likely to be branded as bad and therefore neither true Muslim

nor Pakistanis. The study notes girls–students’ discontent with their representation in the

textbooks.

6.4 Cultures and Ethnicities and Pakistan’s National Identity – Teachers

and Students’ Perspectives

Pakistan has a vast ethnic variety. It has four provinces where people of distinct

ethnicities live. They speak different languages, largely mutually understandable. However,

Pakistan is not unique in this sense. Norbu (1992) argues that ‘[n]early 90 percent of UN

members are multinational states and therefore actual or potential cases of ethnic conflict’

(p.50). Yet, as Miller (1995) argues, it is not always the case that national identity and ethnic

identities are necessarily in conflict. They can co-exist if ethnic groups are content with

their national identity. However, in Pakistan, ethnic identities have been a potential source

of conflicts and the state machinery has made attempts to quell them. The language-based

triggered conflict also led to the cessation of Pakistan in 1971 (see chapter 2). This section

presents teachers’ and students' field data to problematize how different ethnic groups

living in the capital city of Pakistan negotiate their identities. It examines if they are satisfied

with the current representation of their identities/sub-identities in the textbooks.

6.4.1 Cultures and Ethnicities in Teachers’ Perspectives

To learn teachers’ perspectives on over/under/representation of any particular

ethnic group in textbooks, I asked them if the curriculum textbooks represent all

Pakistani cultures and ethnic diversity fairly. This gathered quite varied as well as

complex responses. Teacher A stated that considering the contribution of provinces for

the creation of Pakistan in 1947, textbooks represent them equitably. However, she

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further added that provincial cultures anyway do not get much attention in the textbooks.

Betraying her preconceived notions, she maintained, ‘it is not like that… that the culture

of Punjab is discussed, and Baluchistan is ignored’. This, in a way, suggests that the notion

of ethnic representation is part of a day to day conversations. This also shows that perhaps

participants discuss Punjab’s overrepresentation in the textbooks. Showing her awareness

about the significance of the issue she further maintained:

TA: We have four provinces, and they all are culturally rich. I suggest we tell our

children about their social customs and their educational standards. Nothing of this

sort is there.

TL maintained that ‘Punjab is playing a very dominant role. People of Punjab are

intelligent and it [Punjab] is well represented in the curriculum textbooks’. However, he

argued that it was not a good thing because ‘it causes bitterness among the people of

smaller provinces’.

On the other hand, Teacher B’s response exposed the existing ethnic tensions in

the country. In her opinion, Punjab is dominant on the national horizon, and Sindh is next

to it. She blamed it on Pakistan’s successive political governments. Mostly they have been

formed by the political parties based in these two provinces:

TB: Whosoever is in the government will bring their own lackeys to the fore. I

think Punjab always has more representations in textbooks. Or occasionally it is

Sindh. Others are not given due space. Nowadays, even Pathans [Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa] are getting proper representation [laugh]. As far as Kashmir is

concerned, the textbooks normally show its national anthem only, nothing else.

Similarly, teacher C’s spontaneous response was ‘not at all, Baluchistan is nowhere

to be found in textbooks’. Teacher E also expressed similar views but stated mildly ‘our

children know very little about Baluchistan compared to Sindh’. Teacher G maintained that

he had not seen the actual ‘representation of the cultures of smaller communities’. He

mentioned that ‘more than 50% population is from Punjab … Punjab is overrepresented

and Hazara is less. These GB people are less. After Punjabis, Pushtoons are talked about’.

Teacher H vehemently expressed that Punjab is given disproportionate space in national

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textbooks and it was ‘because the people who design the syllabus belong to Punjab’. He

further said that cultures of smaller provinces such as Baluchistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Kashmir

and some areas of Sindh must be part of textbooks. He claimed that ‘if we look towards

Gilgit Baltistan, okay, their culture is quite alien to us. Nobody knows about the culture of

Gilgit Baltistan, [and] Kashmir’. Teacher K expressed her resentment in these words:

TK: No, it is not like that. Punjab is overrepresented. Some others are seriously

looked down upon, for example, Baluchistan. Also, Pathans [and] Punjabis think

that they are supreme creatures.

All teachers, however, unanimously supported the idea of fair representation of all

subcultures and ethnicities to build national unity. In view of their realization of existing

discrimination against some provincial cultures, I asked them if they do anything to

redress this situation in the classroom, their answer was in the negative.

On the other hand, taking an opposite stance, three teachers emphasized the value

of complete homogenization for achieving national unity. Teacher D argued that they

should put Pakistan first, leaving aside provincial identities. In her opinion, a discussion on

provincial identities itself is a problem and that it weakens the foundation of the country,

which is Islam. She argued that provincial identities were a modern form of religious

sectarianism. To substantiate her point, she quoted poetic verses from Pakistan’s national

poet, Allama Muhammad Iqbal:

Firqa Bandi Hai Kahin, Aur Kahin Zaatain Hain

Kya Zamane Mein Panapne Ki Yehi Baatain Hain?

[You split yourselves in countless sects, In classes high and low;

Think you the world its gifts will still on such as you bestow?

(http://iqbalurdu.blogspot.com/2011/04/bang–e–dra–120–jawab–e–shikwa.html)]

She further stressed that ‘there should be no sectarianism, no clan/ethnic–based

connexions, no provincialism. … This is what the route of becoming a good Pakistani is’.

Similarly, teacher F emphasized the need for a unified curriculum in the whole country

which should include the topics of common interests. She maintained that there should be

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nothing in the textbooks about the provincial cultures, ethnicities or languages ‘so that we

all become like each other [as] it is not good that we teach different things in different

parts of the country’.

Overall teachers’ responses led to the emergence of four dissimilar trends in the

stated context. These included fair/under representation of indigenous cluture/s; support

for their fair representation and a demand to homogenize all ethnicities/cultures under

Pakistan’s overarching Islamic identity.

6.4.2 Cultures and Ethnicities in Students’ Perspective

To learn about students’ identification either with ethnic/provincial identities or

the national identity, I used the probe: who are you? This generated a spontaneous

response ‘I am Pakistani’ from twenty-eight girls (97%) and twenty-seven boys (93%) of

focus group participants. To learn about their identification with provincial languages, all

twenty-nine girl–participants said that they liked the Urdu language and spoke it both at

school and home. Similarly, 100% of boys said that they speak Urdu with friends at schools.

However, regarding its use at home their response was slightly different from those of

girls’. Seven boys (24%) mentioned that they spoke only mother tongue at home. When

inquired, given the chance, if they would like to move and settle down in another

province, twenty seven girls (93%) and twenty nine boys (100%) stated that they were

happy where they were from. However, about the textbook representation of provincial

cultures and languages, unlike the teachers, most students did not say anything.

Students’ participatory tools data suggest matching tendencies with their focus

group responses (see Figures 6.6 and 6.7). To understand their positions vis–a–vis local

languages, cultures and provincial identities, I asked them to draw Pakistan’s cultural tree.

I further advised that the tree should have five branches, each one of them representing

distinct characters corresponding to Pakistani culture. Below are the images drawn by the

girl–students.

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Figure 6.6: Girl – participants’ Images of Pakistan’s Culture

The images above show that, in the depiction of Pakistani culture, girls’ thrust

remains fixed on religion, prayers, national language and religious festivals. The findings

suggest students’ inability to relate to local languages/cultures.

However, boy–participants’ participatory tools data show a slight change (see

Figure 6.7). Though Islam remains a primary root of Pakistani culture, they do give some

importance to local languages, as shown in the following images.

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Figure 6.7: Boy – participants’ Images of Pakistan’s Culture

The overall findings from students’ focus group conversations and participatory

tools suggest their complete submission to the state-sponsored Pakistan’s national identity

signifiers i.e. Islam and Urdu.

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6.5 Militaristic National Identity – Teachers’ and Students’ perspectives

As noted in chapter 5, students’ militaristic national identity construction and

promotion of strategic culture emerge as very strong themes from the study of national

textbook discourses. Visual data collected from school sites also point to similar trends as

observed in the textbooks. These themes are multifaceted and each one of them arises as

a distinct construct in its own right. The findings from teachers’ interviews and students’

focus group conversation and participatory tools signal their strong identification with the

stated ideologies.

6.5.1 Militaristic National Identity – Teachers’ Perspectives

As noted earlier, the focus of the study was not limited to understanding students’

militaristic national identity constructions in schools. Therefore, first, I probed the

teachers asking a broader question, what do you do if at all, to make students good Pakistanis?

Their responses, which were collected through individual interviews, unpicked their strong

preoccupation with India. They were found to be intensely embroiled in political disputes

between India and Pakistan. Interestingly, the word ‘India’ appeared 76 times in the

conversation of all 12 teachers. Evincing strong disapproval for the country, they presented

it to the students as Pakistan’s archenemy. They also projected the heroic image of the

Pakistan Army in this backdrop. The teachers believed that constituting students’ anti–

India identities was essential for making them good Pakistanis. In response to the question

stated above, Teacher A maintained: [w]e do this in comparison with our neighbouring

countries, particularly, India’. In the discussion of, how in her opinion a true Pakistani should

be like, she expressed her disappointment with the current generation arguing that they

follow Indian culture. She criticized the role of Pakistani electronic media in this regard:

TA: We are representing India in our TV plays. We dress like them; our women

do make–up like them; they style their hair like them; they try to talk like them…

our women mimic their Mehndi ceremony on marriage events here… We are

promoting this in our morning shows on TV channels.

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She further argued that Pakistani boys ‘should not praise their [India] heroes. He

[they] must realize he is [they are] Pakistani first’. The emphasis of her argument was

Pakistanis should be completely unlike Indians, whereas paradoxically they had been

becoming increasingly like them. In response to the same question another teacher stated:

TE: We teach them we have an independent country of our own. We compare

our things with India and tell them how ours are different from theirs.

Teacher H maintained that he had always taught his students as on what account

they were different from Indian:

There are certain things that are culturally contradictory. For example, this gao

mata [totem or belief that cow is sacred]. They say it is a sacred animal for them,

and Muslims slaughter this animal and eat its meat.

Responding to the question as what would have happened had Pakistan not

separated from India, TB offered a comprehensive response:

TB: There would have been… like what they [Hindus] did with Muslims in Ahmed

Abad [Ahmed Abad, India: riots in 2002 which claimed the lives of scores of

Muslims]. They [Hindus] destroyed their businesses. Now they [Muslims] are living

in slums. False criminal charges were pressed against them … Hindus have grabbed

their properties. Imagine if a person like Modi [the prime minister of India since

2014] came into power, would the Muslim be secure? We are thankful that we are

living in Pakistan.

TE argued: It was not possible for us to live in United India and to follow all those

customs [social, cultural, religious] which stand contrary to what our religion

preaches.

TL regretted that Pakistani TV channels undermine the efforts teachers make in

schools for the promotion of Pakistani nationalism. He argued that ‘it is a pity’ that our

national hero like Iqbal ‘is not promoted the way Indian actors are promoted in Pakistani

TV channels. … An insignificant news item about Indian actors/actresses becomes breaking

news in our channels’.

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However, not all teachers were in favour of constituting students’ anti–India

militaristic identity of Pakistan. Identifying political problems facing Pakistan, TD and TG

argued that there was no point in formulating Pakistan’s anti–India identity, which is

essentially meant to fan animosity between two historically related countries.

TG: … another major problem, in the curriculum related to nationalism, is, our

nationalism begins and ends with Indian– centralism. All the wars fought against …

are highlighted in, you know, exaggerated way. We do not need that much

exaggeration over time. Second, Indian centralism; India is always portrayed as an

enemy. We need to change this mindset.

TE even held India’s partition responsible for the ‘squalid conditions’ Indian Muslims

had been living in. He argued that ‘if we [Muslims] were together we would have been in

majority in the areas where we are in minority now’. Teacher C though emphasized the

need for developing an inclusive approach, her views still reflected the influence of

Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’. Expressing her discontent with the current identity

discourses in school textbooks, she argued that since ‘we have a strong Army, we need

not fear India’. She argued that these had generated unnecessary animosity which was not

good for Pakistani children also:

TC: Promote Pakistani identity independently. Not by comparing it with anyone,

as we do it with India. Of course, historically we were together, [and] we achieved

our independence. It is not necessary or correct to tell our children all the time

that they were cruel towards us and that’s why we fought for independence. This

generates hatred.

However, I found both TG and TE arguments quite convoluted as both of them

further added that as long as they had a strong army, they did not need to project anti-

India identity of Pakistan. Similarly, though Teacher C emphasized the need for developing

an inclusive approach and expressed her discontent with the current identity discourses

in school textbooks, she also suggested: ‘Now we are independent and have a strong army.

We need not fear India’.

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Given these teachers’ (C, G, E) ambivalent approach towards the construction of

Pakistan’s anti–India national identity, I probed them further if they shared their ideas with

students. They said they could not afford to present their views as these stood contrary

to the stipulated national curriculum policy.

Notwithstanding some teachers’ disagreement with the textbooks’ anti–India

approach for identity construction, most of them contributed to the positive projection

of the Pakistan Army. Hence, it could be argued that they used their positions in power

for fostering a strategic culture in schools. Instructed on these teachers–mediated textbook

discourses, schoolchildren express strong anti–India sentiments as presented/discussed in

the following section.

6.5.2 Militaristic National Identity – Students’ Perspectives

The analysis of students’ focus group data highlights their strong anti–India

feelings, preoccupation with India Pakistan wars and love for Pakistan’s armed forces,

particularly with the Pakistan Army. In this regard, both girls and boys evinced similar

feelings. Below I first present a few randomly selected excerpts from girl participants focus

group data:

In response to a question as what they consider a proud moment in the history

of Pakistan, they responded as follows:

G3: 6th September is the proudest moment in our history… [this day] armed forces

got together [to fight India] … they give us hope that we are able to do something

special for Pakistan.

G4: On 6th September [1965] the Pakistan Army made us realize that we could fight

our enemy.

Of twenty–nine girl–participants, fourteen (48%) considered the India/Pakistan war

of 1965 a highly dignified event in the history of Pakistan. This makes them proud of both

Pakistan and its army. In response to a question as to what makes them ashamed of

Pakistan, it was again India and war culture that defined the reasons for their

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embarrassment. Fifteen (52%) considered the loss of East Pakistan in 1971 at the hand of

India the most embarrassing event in the history of Pakistan. Three girls (10%) termed the

arrival of Indian fashion as an embarrassing development in the country. Eleven students

(37%) stated that Hindus had been perpetually against Muslims and they were enemies of

Islam. Also, seven (24%) of them said that when India and Pakistan were one country,

Hindus used to treat Muslims like slaves. One of them maintained that they used to force

Muslims to become Hindu and would not let them offer prayers. One of the girls expressed

her resentment on how Hindus used to treat the Urdu language. Overall, eighteen girl–

participants (62%) unequivocally declared India the enemy of Pakistan.

The situation described above naturally led them to eulogize the institution that

appeared to be or portrayed as resisting ‘Indian aggression’ and its ‘hegemonic designs’.

This happened to be the Pakistan Army. In response to a question as to what topics in

the textbooks they like the most, sixteen participants (55%) said that they liked those

which narrated events of wars with India and described what military men achieved in

those wars. Their heroes included Major Aziz Bhatti, Colonel Sher Khan, General Ayub

Khan, Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas, and all others who were awarded Nishan–e– Hyder60.

Only six girls (21%) preferred Jinnah, Iqbal and Sir Syed over military heroes. When they

were asked if they would like to recommend to authorities to include accounts of some

other great people/national heroes, four (14%) of them said that they wanted something

on Pakistan’s then Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, and other military men who died in

fighting the Taliban in the military operation named Zarb–e–Azab61. One of them wanted

the inclusion of a similar account of Islamic holy warriors of medieval times. However,

four participants (14%) also wanted stories on Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Laureate, Arfa

Karim62 and Abdul Sattar Edhi63 to become part of textbook discourses.

60 Pakistan's highest military gallantry award

61 The Nation: Pakistan military launched a full-scale military offence Zarb-e-Azb on 15th June 2014 to wipe

out hotbeds of militants in North Waziristan Agency (NWA). The operation is named as Zarb-e Azab.‘Azb’

refers to one of the seven swords of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Zarb-e-Azb means ‘swift and conclusive

strike’ http://nation.com.pk/national/06-Sep-2016/operation-zarb-e-azb-two-years-of-succes 62 Pakistani computer prodigy who died at the age of nine and was the youngest Microsoft Certified

Professional) 63 Pakistani philanthropist, ascetic, and humanitarian

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Girl–participants’ participatory tools data emphasize the same aspects. The visual

characters they assigned to what in their opinion stood for Pakistan/Pakistani culture

included the Pakistan Army. Out of the two–hundred–nine participants, fifty (24%)

included it as an important ‘us’ factor, which was only next to Islam/ Islamic symbols (55%).

Similarly, sixty one (29%) included India and idol worshipping as ‘them’ factor.

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Figure 6.8 Girl – participants Images of ‘us’

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Figure 6.9 Girl – participants Images of ‘Them’

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Boys’ focus group data findings substantiate girls’ views and suggest their strong

liking for military culture/war weaponry. Similarly, they seem to have relatively high

belligerent attitudes towards India. Responding to a question as to what event or thing

makes them proud of Pakistan, seven students (24%) stated that the event of 1965’s

war (fought on September 6) made them proud of Pakistan:

B11: This day [6th September] is very special because we defeated India on this day.

B13: What makes this day very special is we defeated India despite being less in

numbers …. this shows we are very spiritual too and that Allah is with Muslims.

B.17: I like defence day celebrations in our school.

Similarly, another lot of seven students (24%) maintained that the Pakistan Army

made them proud of their country, stating that it was the number one in the world. Two

of twenty–nine (7%) participants declared that it was the nuclear bomb and Pakistan’s

advanced missile system that could carry atomic warheads and hit any Indian city. Three

(10%) students nevertheless stated that they had no idea about it. Describing the reason

for the separation of Pakistan from India, thirteen students (45%) described India as

Pakistan’s enemy which had always been bent upon its destruction. Similarly, nine of them

(31%) further added that Hindus were encroaching the Muslim’s right to pray to Allah, and

to sacrifice cows. A small number of students (7%) also mentioned that Hindus were

forcing Muslims to change their religion. Some nine (31%) students plainly said that Hindu

and Muslim were two different people, therefore it was not good to live together. On

describing the embarrassing moments in the history of Pakistan, three students (10%)

regretted that Indian fashion was on a rise in Pakistan. Also, three students (10%) termed

the separation of East Pakistan in 1971 as the most humiliating event for Pakistanis,

however, like girls, they blamed it on India.

On the question of students’ favourite personalities in the history of Pakistan/

or amongst those given in textbooks, seventeen (59%) participants chose military men.

Their heroes included all those as the girl–participants, discussed above. Four students

(14%) declared that their ideal was Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan because he gave Pakistan a

Nuclear Bomb. No civilian personality emerged in their imagination except Shahid Khan

Afridi, the Pakistani cricketer, i.e., from the data of two students. Describing their liking

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for the textbook topics, four participants (14%) said that they liked those topics which

detailed the India/Pakistan wars between. An equal number of them maintained that they

liked those topics which were about Islam and Islam’s holy warriors of earlier times. On

the inquiry of if they would like authorities to include accounts of some more

personalities/heroes in the textbooks, four students (14%) held that they wanted

accounts about then Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, Ex. Pakistan’s Field

Marshal and President Gen. Ayub Khan and all those soldiers who laid down their lives

fighting the Taliban in an operation called Zarb–e–Azab. However, twenty–three students

(79%) opted to remain quiet.

Boys’ participatory tools data provided similar results, albeit with more

emphasis on the strategic culture. To learn what in their opinion truly represent(s)

Pakistan, students drew a variety of images and some of which have been discussed in

previous sections. However, the most dominant one was either an image representing the

Pakistan Army or its description. Of the two–hundred–fifteen boy– participants, eighty–

nine (41%) referred to the Pakistan Army. When the same group of students was asked

to draw images/assign characters to those symbols that do not stand for Pakistan,

one hundred and four (48%) of the two–hundred–fifteen participants signalled India and

idol worshipping, ten (5%) referred to Indian Prime Minister Modi, and five (2%) to Gandhi

as ‘them’ factors, as shown below.

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Figure 6.10 Boy – participants Images of ‘us’

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Figure 6.11: Boy – participants’ Images of ‘Them’

A survey of teachers’ and students’ data makes it clear that Pakistan’s national

identity is Indian centric. It is constructed in opposition to India, which is portrayed as an

agent that carries existentialist threats to Pakistan.

6.6 Conclusion

This chapter presented students’ positions which resulted from their positioning

by the teacher–mediated textbook–discourses in schools vis–à–vis the four emergent

themes from the study of the textbooks, presented in chapter 5. These included

Islam/religious minorities, female, Urdu vs. local cultures/ethnicities and strategic culture.

The teachers’ positions were also presented.

The textbooks constructed students’ mindsets on the idea of an essential

relationship between Pakistan and Islam. The teachers reinforced these aspects in

classrooms through teaching/social practices. Beleaguered, the students were shown as

mostly embracing these positioning of theirs. They appeared to be viewing the world as

divided between Muslim and non–Muslim blocks where Pakistan is a representative of

Islam and Islamic cultural values. They gave way to exclusionary attitudes towards non–

Muslims and non–Muslim countries in general, and Hindus and India in particular. Both

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teachers and students were found insensitive towards the students of minority religions.

The students were also shown disapproving music, dance, art etc., on Islamic religious

grounds.

In line with the textbook representation of the Pakistani female, the study

participants, both boys and girls, were found viewing the Pakistani female as an agent and

protector of Islamic religious/cultural values and family honour. The teachers, as well as

students, wished to see her religious and observant of high propriety standards. The latter

aspect requires her to maintain gender segregation, dress up modestly, and conduct with

‘honour’ in public places. She was also expected to observe Islamic injunctions on the

female dress–code to be good Pakistani and Muslim. Overall, the views of the majority

students reflected parochial attitudes towards the female. About the female

representation in the textbooks, unlike boys, most girl–participants believed it to be quite

unfair.

The students showed wider acceptance for Urdu as a national language. However,

this appeared to be at the cost of local languages for which they demonstrated no

admiration. They were shown content with the overall representation of Pakistani

ethnicities and subcultures in the textbooks. This is despite the fact that they attributed

more significance to Islam, and Islamic symbols as the real representative of Pakistani

culture, not ethnicities or subcultures. On this issue, they differed with the teachers who

considered the same as being underrepresented in the textbooks.

Educated in teacher–arbitrated textbook discourses, the students expressed

strong anti–India feelings and hostilities towards Hindus whom they dubbed anti–Pakistan

and Islam. In agreement with the teachers, they resented India’s cultural onslaught on

Pakistan through TV shows and movies, and Pakistani youngsters succumbing to it. The

students seemed to have little idea of national heroes/icons beyond those who participated

in the wars between India and Pakistan.

Interestingly, both teachers and students seemed oblivious of the colonial history

of the region as the element of anticolonial struggle never featured in their conversation.

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Chapter 7 – Discussions

7.1 Introduction

This thesis investigated factors that contributed to Pakistani schoolchildren’s post-

colonial national identity constructions. For this purpose, it, first, analysed national

curriculum textbook discourses of secondary and higher secondary levels. The study also

problematised schoolchildren’s teacher–mediated educational experiences of these

discourses in schools. In so doing, it specifically focused on how a particular construction

of Pakistan’s national identity positioned students within local as well as international social

dynamics. Similarly, it also explored how they positioned themselves vis–à–vis these

dynamics. The study participants’ perspectives were collected by conducting individual

interviews, focus groups and participatory tools at the research sites. These included three

boys and three girl schools located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The findings were

presented in chapters 5 and 6.

This chapter revisits these findings, keeping in mind the research aims and

questions (see sections 1.2 and 1.3). It presents an analysis of the textbook factors that

shape students’ national identity of Pakistan in schools. The study is contextualized within

the scope of national identity theories, as discussed in the literature review (see section

3.2.2). To problematise the phenomena, this research employs Foucault’s discourse

analysis (1988; 1990), particularly his concept of the interplay of technologies for making

individuals into subjects; and other relevant ideas including the regime of truth, politics of

truth, and power/knowledge nexus. Given Pakistan’s colonial history, the general quandary

of Pakistan’s national identity debate is placed in the postcolonial theoretical framework.

Discussions are mainly arranged in two parts with reference to the four main research

questions.

In part one, the discussion is organized around research questions 1 and

2. The 1st research question aims at identifying the textbook factors that shape Pakistani

schoolchildren’s national identity. The 2nd research question proposes to study teachers’

interaction with these textbooks and their resulting responses. These were collected using

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open-ended interviews with twelve teachers. Considering research question 2, this

section also discusses the role of the school as a structure (sayable and visible in Kendall

and Wickham, 2003, p.43). These three factors collectively contribute to constructing

Pakistani schoolchildren’s national belonging in schools.

Discussion in part two is structured around research questions 3 and 4.

The 3rd research question theorizes students’ interaction with the teacher-arbitrated

textbook discourses in the sampled schools. The 4th research question discusses how

these children’s teacher–supervised interaction with the textbook discourses influence

their social attitudes and what are its wider implications.

7.2 Discussions – Part 1

Factors shaping Pakistan’s postcolonial national identity discourses in the

national curriculum textbooks, and the role of teachers and schools in shaping

students’ national identity of Pakistan

The first research question explores the textbook factors that contribute to

Pakistani schoolchildren’s national identity constructions in schools. For this purpose, the

textbooks of Pakistan Studies, English and Urdu for grades 9 –12 were selected, reviewed

and analysed. These textbooks are constructed under the guidelines provided in the

National Education Policy (2009) (henceforth the NEP, 2009). The textbook findings

identified Islam as Pakistan’s overarching national identity signifier. Other national identity

factors included a specific representation of the Pakistani female, a projection of the Urdu

language and students’ anti–India militaristic national identity. These findings were

presented in chapter 5. The second research question investigates (a) the schoolteachers’

interaction with the emergent national identity factors from the sampled textbook

discourses and their resulting subjective positions (b) the implementation of these

discourses by the teachers on students and (c) the role of the school as a physical structure

in students’ national identity formulation of Pakistan.

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In the succeeding subsections, I will interpret the findings from within my

perspective and subject position. In so doing I will situate the discussions in the analytical

framework of this study and postcolonial theoretical perspectives (see sections 3.4 and

4.13). Embedded in Foucault’s analytical framework, and his ideas on the potential of

modern institutions in creating subjectivities, I will approach the school as a site where the

interplay of the technologies of power and technologies of the self (Foucault, 1988, p.18) takes

place. It, thus, provides an enabling environment for the dissemination of ‘true’ statements

by the ‘authorised’ (Foucault, 1980), to shape students’ national belonging.

7.2.1 Religion as a Main Technology for Imagining ‘us’

Central to the concept of national identity is the process of defining ourselves both

as individually and collectively as ‘who we are’ (Smith, 1991, p.17) (see section 3.2.2). The

NEP (2009) aims to produce proud Pakistani citizens by inculcating the Islamic faith into

students. This reflects in the contents of the sampled textbooks, which were constructed

under the said policy. Their analysis, as presented in chapter 5, identifies Islam as a defining

marker of Pakistan’s national identity. The textbooks employ it as a main technology of

power (Foucault, 1988, p.18) for the students to imagine ‘us’ as one for nation building.

The study highlighted that almost all the teacher-participants of the study

considered Islam and Pakistan as one. This approach is in concurrence with the

representation of Pakistan’s national identity discourses in the curriculum textbooks.

Similarly, the teachers deemed it essential to inculcate Pakistani nationalism into students.

They did this essentially by teaching them Islam and the idea of Islamic nationalism (see

section 6.2). In doing that, however, most of them disregarded the presence of non–

Muslim students in classrooms (see section 6.2.3).

The school as a learning and social site was observed to be promoting the Islamic

activities involving (a) recitation of the Quran (b) rendering of Hamd (a poem in praise of

Allah – the Muslim God) and Naat (a poem in praise of the Prophet Muhammad) and (c)

singing of Pakistan’s national anthem (see section Chapter 5, section 5.8). Also, the schools

made their significant sites available for the ‘banal flagging’ (Billig, 1995, p.10) of the Quranic

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verses, Allah’s (God’s) names and pictures of Islamic festivals (see section 5.7.1). These

discursive measures appeared to be in line with the guidelines offered in the NEP (2009).

The articulation of Pakistani nationhood through the visual representation of Islamic

symbols and daily obligatory religious rituals convey the message that all Pakistani students

must have a singular national belonging i.e., Islam.

The study also highlighted the presence of two universal/inclusive national identity

symbols at the school sites. These included the physical presence of Pakistan’s national flag

and the performative act of public rendering of Pakistan’s national anthem in the schools’

morning assemblies (see section 5.8). These identity markers also feature in the textbooks.

Billig (1995) considers singing of a national anthem and hoisting a national flag as historically

determined mechanisms. They stir pride amongst people and position them within the

nationhood for developing affiliations with nation states (ibid.). However, this study

noticed a complete absence of performative acts attached to Pakistan’s national flag. The

absence of these acts undermines its significance as an inclusive national identity symbol,

especially at sites where Islamic rituals are performed almost every day.

Given the controversies surrounding multiple interpretations of religious

discourses, inter alia, the project of using Islam for shaping schoolchildren’s national identity

is problematic. William (2005) observes that meaning is never secure and is always

‘excessive’. It resists the final patterns which are the ‘products of historically situated

interchanges among people’ (Gergen 1985, p.267). Being a text-based religion, Islam means

different things to different people, subject to their understanding. Also, textual meanings

depend on the explanation of the postulated doctrinaire beliefs of a particular school of

thought within religion. This situation naturally leads to sectarian divisions within a larger

Muslim polity. Therefore, the idea of employing religion for shaping students' national

identity is divisive. Similarly, it seems to have colonial underpinning, as problematized

below.

The idea of dividing the ‘natives’ on religious grounds, for their identity

construction, seems to be embedded in the colonial politics of India. As discussed in

chapter 2, section 2.2, in the aftermath of the North Indian Civil Revolt (1857), Indian

communities were classified by applying the categories of caste, religion and race. This was

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done on the British royal order (Veer, 1994, p. 19). These divisions were then officialized

in the census of 1872, which later became the basis of India’s electoral politics (ibid., also

see Chaturvedi, 2005, p.111). These steps, inter alia, eventually led to the demand for

Pakistan – a separate state for Indian Muslims, based on the religion of Islam. The

superimposition of Islam in the postcolonial situation, ignoring the social, cultural and

linguistic diversity of the state suggests the continuation of the colonial system of

governance, albeit in a different form. Given Pakistan’s colonial legacy, comprised of

bureaucrats and military officers (see section 2.4; also Braibanti, 1963), it seems reasonable

to view this usage of religion as colonial. In the colonial period, the purpose of using religion

was to divide Hindus and Muslim communities. The British employed it to transform ‘a

highly pluralist and diverse civilizational entity into a knowable, thereby controllable, but

inferior colonial object’ (Chaturvedi, 2005, p.111). Its use in the post-colonial period serves

the same purpose. In Pakistan, Islam is now used to divide ethnically diverse Muslim

communities of Pakistan. Similarly, it deprives the religious minorities of the country of

their citizenship rights. Besides, this policy speaks of the damaging psychological influence

of the colonization on people and the region. Sökefeld (2014, p.939) argues that it

‘certainly continues after colonization has formally ended’. In the next four sections, I will

problematise the wider implications of using Islam as a fundamental technology and a key

national identity marker for the discursive constructions of Pakistan’s national identity of

students. I will argue that Islam as Pakistan’s overarching national identity marker has

political overtones. Further, it is problematic for Pakistan’s predominantly Muslim

community per se, non–Muslim religious minorities, the country’s parliamentary

democracy, the female and the power politics of the country. In so doing, I will also briefly

refer to the historical/political conditions which have dictated the use of Islam for nation

building in the given context.

7.2.1.1 Muslim Nationals

Numerous factors make the use of Islam as a defining symbol of Pakistan’s national

identity problematic. These include sectarian divisions within the religion of Islam,

replication of those amongst the Muslims of Pakistan and the multiplicity of meaning

attached to the Islamic texts per se. Therefore, Islam as a key national identity signifier is

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potentially damaging for Pakistan’s national cohesion. For example, following the NEP’s

(2009) instructions, the textbooks feature the biographies of early Islamic icons as good

Muslim models (see sections 5.3). These include the first four caliphs of Islam, Ayesha (the

youngest wife of the Prophet Muhammad) and Khalid ibn Al Waleed64. Pakistani Muslims

are mainly divided into two major sects, known as Shiites and Sunnites. These figures are

controversial amongst the adherents of the Shiites sect of Islam, who have a strong

presence in Pakistan. Ayesha is revered by all Sunnites Muslims. However, Shiites Muslims

hold her in scorn for her opposition to Ali, and the Battle of the Camel65– just to name a

few. Similarly, Khalid ibn Al Waleed, who is an esteemed figure amongst the Sunnites for

his military prowess, is an anti-hero amongst most Shiite sects. Some of these sectarian

controversies are also ingrained in the issues pertaining to the succession of the Prophet

Muhammad (see Madelung, 2004; Al–Tabri, 2004; Ibn Kathir, 1987). These widened over

time and culminated in the assassination of ‘three out of the [first] four Caliphs … and

pushed the Muslims to the brink of a destructive civil war’66 (Iqbal, 2002, p.5). Eventually,

these rifts led to permanent divisions amongst the Muslims67 (see Madelung, 2004).

Also, some of the instructions in the NEP (2009) are self–contradictory. On the

one hand, they advise that the textbooks should not contain controversial literature to

other religions/sects or ethnic minorities. On the other hand, they present religiously

controversial figures as role models for the students belonging to miscellaneous sects. This

makes the textbooks contentious amongst different Muslim denominations. Besides,

64 Khālid ibn al-Walīd, by name Sīf, or Sayf, Allāh (Arabic: ‘Sword of God’) (died 642) one of the two

generals (with ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ) who led an enormously successful Islamic expansion under the Prophet

Muhammad and his immediate successors, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Encyclopaedia Britannica 65 Battle of the Camel (656), an encounter between ʿĀʾishah, the Prophet Muhammad’s widow, and ʿAlī, Muhammad’s son-in-law and fourth caliph. Encyclopedia Britannica 66 (a) Battle of Jamal or the Battle of Bassorah, at Basra, Iraq on 7 November 656 between Fourth Caliph Ali

and Ayesha, the Prophet Muhammad’s wife (b) Battle of Siffin, on the banks of the Euphrates river, on 26-

28 July 657 in what is now Ar-Raqqah, between First Imam of Shi‘as and the Fourth Caliph of Sunnis, Ali ibn

Abi Talib, and Muawiyah and (c) Battle of Karbala took place on Muharram 10, in the year 61 AH of the

Islamic calendar (October 10, 680 AD)a in Karbala, in present-day Iraq.[6] The battle took place between a

small group of supporters and relatives of Muhammad's grandson, Husayn ibn Ali, and a larger military

detachment from the forces of Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph. 67Tabatabai (Translation 1975) divides Shiites into Zaydism and its branches, Isma’ilism and its branches, The

Batinis, The Nizaris, Musta’lis, Druzes and Muqanna’ah. In terms of religious jurisprudence (fiqh), Sunnites

contains several schools of thought the Hanafi school, founded by Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man, including

subgroups like Barelvis and Deobandi, the Maliki school, founded by Malik ibn Anas, the Shafi'i school,

founded by Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i, the Hanbali school, founded by Ahmad ibn Hanbal. The majority

of the Salafist movement claims to follow this school, the Ẓāhirī school, founded by Dawud al-Zahiri. Also,

there is a long sufi order.

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religious philosophies have certain fixed properties that allow minimal scope for the

difference of opinion. Rais (2007) observes that ‘within a single religious denomination one

may find numerous strands that never tie up… [because of the] doctrinal differences,

political contestation for power [and] material gains’ (p.111). Therefore, an account of

these personalities in the textbooks can divide the students, hence Pakistani citizenry (see

section 6.2.2).

The use of Islam to homogenize citizens results in developing a sense of otherness

within the Islamic community. Thus, it puts its members at odds with one another, erecting

boundaries within them. For instance, the inclusion of predominantly Sunnite religious

beliefs in the compulsory textbooks of Islamiat, Urdu and Social Studies triggered riots in

the Gilgit District of the Northern Areas in May 2000. It resulted in numerous deaths and

the closure of schools for a significant period. Written by the Sunni scholars, these

textbooks disregarded the Shia interpretations of Islam. Besides, they asserted the Sunni

interpretations of Islam more starkly (see Nosheen Ali, 2008). Similarly, it was felt that the

‘lives of Caliphs as well as the Prophet’s Companions were extensively discussed, while

those of the revered Shia Imams were barely mentioned’ (ibid., p.1). Stöber (2007),

referring to the same case, argues that the textbooks and the curricula were ‘used to

foster specific identities that might not be the identity of a substantial part of the

population’ (p.389). The points highlighted in these two studies are particularly relevant to

my argument presented above. In Foucauldian terms (1981), it is an example of limitations

imposed on discourses and people and of internal exclusion on discourses. Miller (1995)

notes that in the case of ‘religious communities, which tend to define themselves

exclusively, requiring adherence to a particular creed, nationality becomes a self–defeating

idea if it is not accommodating’ (p.92). This seems true in the case under appraisal.

In sum, Pakistan is not a monolithic Islamic country. It has a considerable population

of different sects within the Islamic religion. Therefore, employing a particular version of

religion constructs not so ‘us’ within the larger Muslim community which has implications

for Pakistan’s internal national social cohesion.

In addition to the divisions within the Islamic sects, Pakistan has a considerable

population of non–Muslims also. The following section debates the wider implications of

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the use of Islam as a defining marker of Pakistan’s national identity for non–Muslim

schoolchildren.

7.2.1.2 Religious Minorities

Pakistan’s religious minorities include Hindus, Christians, Parsis/Zoroastrians,

Bahais, Sikhs, Buddhists, Ahmadi Muslims, Kalasha, Kihals, and Jains. The UK Home Office

cites official estimations of about 1.5 percent Christians, 1.5 percent Hindus and 0.6

percent other religions (UK Home Office, 2014). The NEP (2009) mandates transforming

Pakistani society by teaching Islam/Islamic values using national education. I argue that this

is an indiscreet undertaking for a country of such diverse religions. It entails many

implications regarding citizens’ human rights and individual freedom and is dangerous for

Pakistan’s social cohesion.

In keeping with the NEP (2009) guidelines, all compulsory textbooks include an

enormous amount of Islamic religious content, including verses from the Quran. As a

matter of principle, the provision of Islamic education is meant only for Muslim children.

However, in practice, it is just a façade as the textbook data reveal (see section 5.3). The

non–Muslim students have no option but to study Islamic contents and memorize the

Quranic verses. This is required by the current educational scheme which encourages

rote–learning. Similarly, the textbooks make no mention of minority religions and their

cultural exhibits e.g., Basant, Christmas, and Devali. The textbooks also do not

acknowledge the services of Pakistani non–Muslims to the country68(see section 5.3).

The infusion of religious contents in compulsory textbooks and their teaching in

the schools also need to be viewed on other grounds. For example, in the light of the

United Nation’s Convention69 on the Rights of the Child, of which Pakistan is a signatory.

Article 8 of the convention stipulates that ‘States Parties undertake to respect the right of

the child to preserve his or her identity’ and that ‘States Parties shall respect the right of

the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’ (Article 14). Similarly, teaching

Islam to the children of other religions is a violation of both their basic human rights and

68 Some noteworthy non-Muslims who contributed to Pakistan’s development include Abdul Salam (Nobel

laureate Scientist), Jurist A. R. Cornelius and Justice Bhagwan Das (Pakistan Supreme Court), military hero

Cecil Chowdhry just to name a few. 69 http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx

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the Constitution of Pakistan (1973). The latter reads ‘the state shall safeguard the

legitimate rights and interests of minorities’ (p.18). Given the power relations in schools,

this aspect is particularly significant.

The obfuscation of minority cultures and religious symbols from the textbooks

involves serious consequences. It gives an excuse to the school administrations to scrap

those exhibits from schools’ physical spaces which may represent non–Muslim religious

minorities and their cultures. Said (1983) notes that culture is ‘an institutionalized process

by which what is considered appropriate to it is kept appropriate’ (p.12). Similarly, he

argues, ‘certain alterities, certain others, have been kept silent, outside or … domesticated

for use inside the culture’ (ibid.). My observation of the visuals at school–sites and the

performative activities in the schools’ morning assemblies suggest a complete cultural

alienation of Pakistan’s religious minorities from the official imagining of Pakistan’s

nationhood (see section 5.7). Said (1983) further maintains that culture is peoples’ living

space, where they perceive themselves and others. It is an environment that imperceptibly

surrounds us. Therefore, the said exclusion, employing Islam, amounts to not recognizing

the non–Muslim minorities as equal Pakistani nationals. Miller (1995) even questions the

legitimacy of the enforcement of official religion for identity construction, as observed in

this context. This approach to national identity construction looks parochial and alienating

and devoid of such universal values as tolerance, humanity and plurality. These factors can

completely alienate the minorities beyond the pale of Pakistan’s national identity. Similarly,

as Miller (1995) argues, they can exert imperceptible pressures on them making them

conform to the values of the dominant governing culture at the cost of leaving their own

culture.

Essentially, the origin of the discursive use of Islam for Pakistan’s national identity

construction is linked with the religious nationalism activated during the Pakistan

movement in the colonial period (see section 2.2). Therefore, the religious strands

introduced in Pakistan’s national education system for shaping students’ national identity

can also be interpreted as the psychological effects of colonialism. Ashcroft, et al., (2003)

hold that ‘postcolonial cultures is the historical phenomenon of colonialism, with its range

of material practices and effects, such as … racial and cultural discrimination’ (p.7).

Colonial domination deprives the colonized of the true sense of themselves. It develops a

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depreciated image of the native by perpetuating violence both on the land and on the

minds of the colonized (see Fanon, 1967a). Its effects can appear in several forms in the

post-colonial situation. The instances discussed above show that, in Pakistan, fellow

citizens are being viewed as inferior because they do not profess to the religion of the

majority. Fanon (1967b) maintains that colonial structures sabotage the ‘cultural pattern’

of the colonized societies and consequently, the ‘social panorama is destructured … [and

a] new system of values is imposed’ (ibid., pp.33–34). Despite the religious, cultural and

linguistic diversities, the Indian subcontinent existed in remarkable pluralism before British

colonization (see section 2.2). Ashcroft et al. (2003, p.7) observe that ‘Eurocentric

assumptions about race, nationality and literature return time and again to haunt the

production of pos-tcolonial writing’. In concurrence with this observation, I believe that

Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks are also being used as tools to foster the said

assumptions, albeit in an altered form.

In short, the idea of constituting Pakistan’s particular Islamic identity, employing

compulsory school textbooks, is both discursive and colonial. It looks like a case of

Pakistani state managers using its education system as a ‘totalizing process’ to achieve

‘homogeneity’ (Verdery, 1996, p.43). However, they disregard the fact that Pakistan is a

multicultural and multireligious society. Therefore, such an attempt is at the cost of the

religious beliefs of both Muslim minority sects and non–Muslim Pakistanis. Hence, its

potential for unifying the Pakistani nation is extremely constrained, if not impossible. This

is for the reason that the process of unification needs to be embedded in embracing the

entire cultural diversity of the land and its people. The next section discusses the

implications of fostering a particular Islamic dress code for the construction of an ideal

Pakistani female.

7.2.1.3 Islamic Dress Code for Females

Fostering a particular dress–code for the female is an Islamic religious value70. It

stands contrary to the elementary principle of democracy, as discussed in section 7.2.1.4.

70 1. ‘O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks

(veils) all over their bodies. That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so

as not to be annoyed’ (Quran 33:59). 2. ‘Say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and

protect their private parts (from sins); and they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what

appear thereof... (Quran 24:31). 3. When a girl reaches the menstrual age, it is not proper that anything

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A particular emphasis on it, as observed, encourages moral policing from the state, society,

the religious right and the family. This similarly allows the above–referred structures to

subject the Pakistani female to their perceived moral standards. These structures jointly

reinforce the idea that ‘in order to belong, to be seen as part of an Islamic–Pakistani–

community. … women must dress in a certain manner and conform to cultural, social,

sexual norms that permeate Pakistani society’ (Rouse, 1998, p.58). In Foucauldian terms,

a prescriptive dress code performs ‘the administrative functions of management, the

policing functions of surveillance, the economic functions of control and checking, [and]

the religious functions of encouraging obedience and work’ (Foucault, 1977, pp.173–174).

Similarly, female stereotyping in relation to their outfits and gendered social roles through

state-sanctioned education disempowers Pakistani women as a social category. This also

consolidates the existing exclusionary traditional mindset, as reflected in the

schoolchildren’s thinking patterns (see section 6.3.2).

7.2.1.4 Parliamentary Democracy

Pakistan is a nation state that proclaims Islam to be its state religion and

parliamentary democracy as its governing system. In principle, a nation state is territorially

limited. It has demarcated borders, beyond which lie other nation states (Anderson, 2006).

A nation state believes in the equal rights of its citizens, irrespective of creed, colour and

faith. On the other hand, an Islamic state is an ‘ideological state’. In it, minorities have

‘certain specifically stated rights beyond which they are not permitted to meddle in the

affairs of the state’ (Maududi, 1982, p.276). Similarly, Islamic injunctions, as stated in the

Quran and Islamic jurisprudence, give rulings on the rights of non–Muslims71. Therefore,

should remain exposed except this and this. He [The Prophet] pointed to the face and hands, as narrated in

Abu Dawud].

71Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold forbidden that which hath been forbidden

by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the

Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued (Quran 9:29). Jizya is

Taxation on non-Muslims called DHIMMI/ Zimmi (non-Muslim subjects living in a Muslim country). Ali ibn

Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph, said, ‘They pay capitation tax so that their properties and lives may be as ours’.

(Al-Mughni, Volume 8, p. 445, Al-Bada'i', Volume 7, p. 111 quoting from Ahkam Adh-Dhimmiyin Wa Al-

Musta'minin, p. 89)

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espousal of Islam as an identity signifier for a parliamentary democracy entails conceptual

as well as practical tensions, as analysed below.

A democratic state grants people the right to choose a religion/faith, convert to

another religion/faith or abandon it altogether. The tension which emerges from the

espousal of Islam as a state religion for a democracy pertains to numerous religious issues.

These include apostasy i.e., total rejection of religion; and heresy – partial rejection of

religion or a non–conformist interpretation of religion. Pakistan has witnessed many such

cases where some individuals were tried in courts and convicted. Similarly, many others

were lynched by mobs in the streets on the false accusations of blasphemy, apostasy and

heresy72. Pakistan has strict blasphemy laws which prevent Pakistani Muslims’ conversion

to other religions. The violation of these laws has serious consequences73(see the

footnote). According to Islamic theology and juridical practices, the provision for religious

minorities to live in an Islamic state by paying Jizya or otherwise has always existed 74 (see

the footnote). However, there is no scope for sub–religious groups emerging from the

womb of Islam, either calling into question the finality of the Prophet Muhammad or

challenging the conclusiveness of the teachings of Islam. Some recent examples in history

are of Bhai faith in Iran and Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan. The former suffered immense torture,

killings and jail terms following Khomeini’s 1979’s Islamic revolution75. The latter met a

similar treatment after the Pakistani state declared them apostate/heretic and out of the

fold of Islam through a constitutional amendment in 1974. These practices contribute to

the ‘othering’ of non–Muslims as Pakistani nationals. The next section discusses the

implications of the political use of Islam as Pakistan’s national identity for the power politics

of the country.

72 (see Amnesty International’s Report https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/12/pakistan–how–

the–blasphemy–laws–enable–abuse). 73Offences relating to religion’ are provisioned under sections 295–298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code Act

No. XLV of 1860, available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/485231942.html. 74 Quran recognizes Christian, Jews, Sabians as people of the book. 75 http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2013/11/11/minority-report-why-bahais-face-persecution-in-iran/

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7.2.1.5 Power Politics

The use of Islam as an overarching national identity is problematic for a democratic

country. It has the powerful potential to accord legal authority to the state institutions to

interfere in peoples’ private matters. Similarly, it invests authority in the self–righteous to

determine who has (not)developed a strong faith in religion. Similarly, it creates legal and

social challenges, particularly at the time of political conflicts and power transition. For

example, on March 9, 2018, Islamabad High Court ruled that the declaration of faith would

be compulsory for people joining Pakistan’s civil services, armed services and judiciary.

The court were hearing a case concerning some controversial amendments made in the

Election Act 2017 to the Khatm–i–Nabuwwat oath (Finality of the Prophet Muhammad).

The High Court judge ordered ‘among other things… all citizens be easily identifiable by

their faith and that applicants for public offices declare their beliefs before being considered

eligible’ (Imran, The Dawn, March 9, 2018) 76. Given the asymmetrical power relations in

societies, this project can be advantageous for some dominant political groups in the

power centres and disadvantageous for others. For instance, in January 2018, a politician–

cum–faith healer Hameeduddin Sialvi demanded Punjab’s77 Law Minister’s resignation.

Outwardly, it was on the issue of the minister’s allegedly controversial remarks about

Khatm–e–Nabuwwat (Finality of the Prophet Muhammed) (Dawn, January 21, 2018)78.

Similarly, a cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi and his followers staged a twenty–day-long sit-in,

blocking the main artery to the capital city of Pakistan. He also demanded the resignation

of the Federal law minister. They accused the minister of blasphemy whose apology, which

he rendered in public, was not accepted. This was despite his iteration that he was

innocent (BBC, November 27, 2017)79. To counter these political moves, the ruling party

tabled a resolution in the National Assembly. They wanted to rename Professor Abdul

Salam Centre for Physics at the Quaid–i–Azam University as Al–Khazini Department80. It

is because Adul Salam, Pakistan’s first Nobel laureate Nuclear Physicist, comes from the

Ahmadi community which was declared non–Muslim in Pakistan in 1973 (Daily Times, May

4, 2018). As observed, the use of religion for defining ‘us’ can become political and

76 https://www.dawn.com/news/1394175 77 Pakistan’s largest province in terms of population 78 https://www.dawn.com/news/1384229 79 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42133413) 80 Al-Khazini was a Byzantine-origin astronomer

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hegemonic. This can inadvertently serve as a discursive framework for the evaluation of

the commitment of Pakistani citizens to the country.

In sum, the Pakistani state employs national curriculum textbooks as technologies of

power (Foucault, 1988, p.18) for developing students’ national identity of Pakistan. The

textbooks use (meta)narratives of Islam for the rarefaction of multilingual and multicultural

facets of Pakistani society. It subsumes all other identities into a particular Islamic identity.

Given Islam’s legal status, it curbs the possibility of a meaningful political debate on

Pakistan’s national identity. This state project suggests a strong connexion between power

relations, Islam and national identity constructions. It has far-reaching implications, as

discussed in previous sections. This project creates discord within the Muslim community,

encourages ethnocentricity towards non–Muslims and discourages the development of

plural cultures and multiple identities. Similarly, it causes conceptual tensions as to whether

or not Pakistanis are territorially bound citizens. Or they should perceive themselves as

more of Muslim nationals of an imagined Islamic community, beyond borders.

7.3 Gendered Construction of Pakistan’s National Identity

The curriculum textbooks are a wider repertoire of social and cultural beliefs of

the nation they represent. Therefore, it is significant to understand how the Pakistani

female is represented in them. This section also analyses schoolteachers’ perspectives on

the female. Moreover, it examines the way school–spaces are used for her representation

and its wider social implications.

The findings presented in chapter 5 suggest that the Pakistani female’s

representation in the textbooks is gendered. The areas where she is ‘officially’ marginalized

include her share as a textbook author and in pictorial depiction. Also, her representation

in social roles is gendered. Furthermore, the textbooks flag her choice of clothes as a

marker of her propriety and faithfulness to the country and Islam.

The Pakistani female’s numerical share as authors/compilers of the curriculum

textbooks, in comparison with the male, is 3.5%. Whereas her pictorial illustration is just

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14% (see sections 5.4.1 – 5.4.3). This representation in a country that has an almost 50%

female population81 shows bias and parochial/patriarchal predisposition of the textbook

managers. Interestingly, the limited number of female pictures feature only in the

textbooks of grades 9 and 10. This suggests that the higher the grades the more obscurity

of the Pakistani female. The study also observes that the textbooks mostly represent her

in domestic and supportive roles. If she is shown as doing a field activity, her position is

that of an adjunct to her father in the role of a dutiful daughter (see section 5.4.1). To

consolidate these structures, the textbooks of English and Urdu feature life histories of

the Muslim women of the Prophet Muhamad’s era. This substantiates my earlier argument

that in Pakistan all national identity signifiers are presented mainly from the vantage point

of Islam. This also suggests that Pakistan is in a quest for Islamic approval for its identity.

Similarly, it shows that Pakistan seeks to move away from the local cultural idioms. Other

female image constructions include her being religious, God-fearing, submissive to the

husband and busy with house chores. In the same way, she is signified as being extremely

keen on transferring traditional domestic skills to the next generation of women (see

section 5.4.2). This shows that females are not personified as equal rights-bearing citizens

of Pakistan but transmitters of traditional national cultures (see Ignatieff, 1993). The

textbooks also utilize this context to encourage anti–Western ethnocentric attitudes. For

example, when they criticize the West for depriving their women of ‘natural purity’ in the

name of ‘personal freedom’ (see section 5.4.3.).

Most schoolteachers’ positions vis–à–vis the female and her dressing manners were

found nearly fully aligned with the ideas the textbooks offered (see section 6.3.1). In certain

cases, they (both male and female teachers) articulated even stricter dressing criteria for

the female students. They deemed these measures essential for the protection of her

propriety and chastity. Similarly, they believed that this would ensure her adherence to

Islamic/Pakistani values. However, two female teachers believed that her textbook

representation is unfair, but then justified it in the name of Islam (see section 6.3.1).

The school, as a physical structure as well as a place of social practices, was observed

contributing to the gendered construction of Pakistan’s national identity. Other than this,

81 https://www.bbc.com/urdu/resources/idt-440ccbab-14f9-4f21-872f-ef5d0de51a76

217

the study noticed almost complete invisibility of female pictures in all six schools. This

includes even the girls–only schools (see section 5.7.2). Thus, the school contributed to

the reinforcement of the textbooks’ and schoolteachers’ parochial approach towards the

female.

The idea of gendered social categorization of the female also has its roots in British

colonial history. However, its experience varied considerably, subject to geographical

locations and social conditions. For example, in Africa, before colonization, Lugones (2007)

maintains, gender was not used as a socially organizing category. Neither were women

perceived as an excluded ‘other’ of men, living outside the public arena. Oyěwùmí (1997)

argues that ‘the creation of “women” as a category was one of the very first

accomplishments of the colonial state’ (p.124). Explaining the reasons, she maintains, since

‘[i]n Britain, access to power was gender based… largely men’s job. … therefore, women

were effectively excluded from all colonial state structures’ (pp.123–124). Thus, ‘[f]or

females, colonization was a twofold process of racial inferiorization and gender

subordination’ (ibid., p.124). Citing examples of the Cherokee society, Lugones further

maintains that the colonizer constructed gendered roles and used these as tools of

imperialism:

The white colonizer constructed a powerful inside force as colonized men were co–

opted into patriarchal roles … The British took Cherokee men to England and gave

them an education in the ways of the English… Cherokee women lost all these

powers and rights, as the Cherokee were removed and patriarchal arrangements

were introduced (2007, p.21).

However, I do not mean to say that in India, women did not exist as a separate social

category in the pre-colonial period. Not only that but also female suppression existed in

the social structures of Indian society, which was predominantly agrarian. Therefore, these

practices thrived under the influence of the feudal system, Hindu caste system, and a ‘social

stratification’ of Ashraf and Ajlaf82 among Indian Muslim communities (Imtiaz Ahmad, 1966,

82 Ashraf included upper class Muslims mostly foreign descendants of Arabs, Persians and Afghans invaders.

Ajlaf, literally ‘coarse rabble’, included lower class Muslims, mostly comprised of lower-class Hindu converts,

working in menial jobs such as weavers, cotton-carders, oil-pressers, barbers, tailors etc., (Imtiaz Ahmad,

1966, p.268)

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p.269). The mode of suppression included corporeal punishment, sati, female infanticide,

child marriage and prevention to remarrying. These practices have religious backing as

well. Char (1993) maintains that according to Hindu Vedas, the purpose of the creation of

women is procreation to facilitate progeny and family lineage. This is besides providing

companionship to men for their comfort (ibid.). Similarly, Islam accords the male certain

superiority over the female, permits polygamy and allows a husband to exercise physical

force to correct the wayward ways of her wife (see Char, 1993; Dakessien, 1999; Thanvi,

1999). However, the decision of the Queen of England to classify the Indian population

based on race, religion and caste brought the existing caste system into a rigid legal fold

(see Veer, 1994; Liddle and Joshi, 1985). During their Raj, the British patronized Muslim

Ashraf and other Indian upper classes. This equipped the men of all sections of Indian

society with extraordinary power over women (see Liddle and Joshi, 1985).

In the next three sections, I will discuss the social implications of the gendered

construction of Pakistan’s national identity, situating the discussion in postcolonial

perspectives. I will argue that the gendered construction of Pakistan’s national identity

erects boundaries at three levels: male vs. female; Muslim female vs. non–Muslim female

and within Muslim females.

7.3.1. Male vs. Female

Nash (2000) argues that ‘[g]ender does not exist outside its ‘doing’ but its

performance is also a reiteration of previous ‘doings’ that become naturalised as gender

norms’ (p.655). In the textbook discourses, Pakistani females find no space in key

social/official sites where Pakistani males are epitomized. For example, she does not figure

in the roles of soldiers, religious leaders, scientists, police, judges and national players

which are mostly represented by the males. Therefore, the characteristics including

heroism, justice, sportsmanship and piety are emphasized predominantly in relation to the

males (see section 5.3.1 – 5.3.4). Butler (1988) observes that the relationship between

gender and national identity is dynamic, which is ‘performatively’ constructed in social

settings (Butler, 1988). By depicting women in domestic performative roles, the textbooks,

therefore, create gendered boundaries between the Pakistani male and the female. This

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contributes to reinforcing the existing patriarchal taboos and sanctions of society (see

Butler, 1988).

Ironically, it is happening in the region which has a long history of female political

activism. During the Pakistan movement, many women took part in active politics83.

However, the textbooks ignore them and feature only two female political figures, namely

Miss Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto. Interestingly, even Miss Fatima Jinnah is discussed

mainly as Jinnah’s sister (as an adjunct), the founder of Pakistan. This promotes the idea

that women have no separate identity independent of their male counterparts. Benazir

Bhutto figures only in the list of the prime ministers of Pakistan. She is not mentioned in

the context of her political struggle against the dictatorial rule of General Zia (1977–1988).

The latter is more significant from the perspective of women empowerment.

7.3.2. Muslim Female vs. Muslim and non–Muslim Female

The textbooks differentiate between Muslim and non–Muslim women when

imagining Pakistani women’s identity. They do this by representing only Muslim

girls/women in shalwar kameez and dupatta (see sections 5.4.1– 5.4.3). The textbooks do

not feature non–Muslim Pakistani females in this dress. This also shows the preoccupation

of Pakistan’s state managers with Pakistan’s Islamic identity. Thus, it creates boundaries

between Pakistan’s Muslim female and non–Muslim female and the rest of the world.

Also, an emphasis on shalwar kameez/dupatta to determine true Pakistaniness has

other implications. For instance, it tends to exclude those Pakistani women from Pakistani

nationhood who are Muslim but are not particular about wearing Shalwar Kameez and

Dupatta. Interestingly, Shalwar Kameez is not deemed equally important for the Pakistani

male. The textbooks feature Pakistani boys wearing both Shalwar Kameez and Western

dresses. This reflects textbook administrators’ double standards. Similarly, this approach

institutes a ‘gaze’ which officially discourages the scope ‘to see the female object outside

83 This includes Miss Fatima Jinnah, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, Begum Fida Hussain, Begum Shaista Ikram

Ullah and Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz- the last two became the members of Pakistan’s Constituent

Assembly in 1948, immediately after the independence.

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the [perceived] space’ (Naseem, 2006, p.459). The portrayal of a Pakistani female in these

manners sends a signal that she has relatively few public roles and her ‘visibility’ in Pakistani

society should not be a norm.

This portrayal of the Pakistani female in the gendered roles also suggests

postcolonial anxieties, as pointed by McClintok (1997). She argues that the depiction of

women regarding their social roles in the formerly colonized societies mirrors ambiguity.

This reflects the desire to see her both modern like those of the colonizer’s society and

at the same time traditional like those of pre-colonial times. Besides, ‘historically nations

have often tended to sanction prevailing institutionalized gender differences rather than

abolish them’ (McClintok, 1993, p.61). Pakistan, with its long colonial past and established

pre-colonial societal norms, as discussed above, reflects this ambiguity. However, Pakistan

is not a unique case where a women's body is a matter of concern. Similarly, it is not the

only state where her social roles are defined as a way to express national cultures. Bartky

(1982) argues that women’s ‘sexual parts or sexual functions are separated out from her

person … [and] regarded as if they were capable of representing her’ (p.130). Even if she

conforms to the institutionalized social norms, as articulated in the Pakistani textbooks,

the patriarchal ‘infatuation with an inferiorised body’ will still stigmatize her (ibid.). In that

case, Bartky (1982) maintains, she will be blamed as being too preoccupied with the

‘feminine narcissism’ (p.136). The institutionalized crafting of a female body, as discussed

herein, can also be problematised by employing Foucault’s (1990) perspectives on the

relationship of knowledge and power. The curriculum textbook discourses on the female

body and their implementation in schools are interlaced with the overall power scheme.

These are produced through the ‘games of truth’ (Foucault, 1990, p.6) enacted mostly by

the teachers in the sampled schools (see section 6.3.1). They do it in concurrence with

the textbook-based ‘legitimate knowledge’ (Apple, 2012).

It is interesting to note how the textbooks prescribe strict dressing criteria for the

female Pakistanis. However, the women who took part in the Pakistan Movement during

the colonial period were not observers of these ‘moral’ dress codes. They were modern

educated women84. Mullally (2005, p.344) observes that, in Pakistan, the regularisation of

84 Amongst them some notable figuers include Miss Fatima Jinnah, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, Begum

Fida Hussain, Begum Shaista Ikram Ullah and Begum Jahan Ara Shahnawaz

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female roles/conduct was done for political reasons. The idea was to reinforce the ‘claim

to nationhood and to political destiny distinct from that of its predominantly Hindu

neighbour, India’ (p.344). This is likely to result in a confused national identity. Given

Pakistani society’s strong patriarchal structures, it can also have several social implications

for women, as discussed in section 7.6.2. One such manifestation of it was witnessed on

the International Woman’s Day march in Pakistan in 2019. Two students at the University

of Karachi challenged the state narrative on the female body conduct relating to how to

sit, walk and talk. They created a poster showing an ‘unashamed womanspreader

nonchalantly lounging in sunglasses’ on a WC (Ebrahim, BBC, 2019). The placard placed

these students ‘at the centre of a fierce national debate’ (ibid.) on how an ideal Pakistani

Muslim woman should behave. This caused immense fury in the conservative sections of

Pakistani society.

7.4 Urdu for Pakistan’s National Identity Construction

National curriculum textbooks superimpose Urdu to construct Pakistan’s national

identity. This is despite the fact that Urdu has fewer than 10% native speakers in Pakistan.

As discussed earlier, Pakistan is a country of vast ethnic and linguistic diversity where 72

languages are spoken (Coleman, 2010)85. Its major languages are ‘Punjabi (44.15% of the

population), Pashto (15.42%), Sindhi (14.10%), Siraiki (10.53%), Urdu (7.57%) and Balochi

(3.57%)’ (Khokhlova, 2014, pp.19–20). The textbooks emphasize the importance of Urdu

by drawing its links with Islam and its Arabic script. This, in turn, serves as a framework

to view and interpret all local languages and cultures of Pakistan in the Islamic light. The

textbooks further stress this point by highlighting the Arabic script of Punjabi, Saraiki,

Sindhi, Pushto, Balochi, Kashmiri (the languages spoken in Pakistan by different ethnic

groups). Similarly, a link is established as to how the sufi poets, saints, and Muslim preachers

speaking these languages promoted the cause of Islam (see section 5.5). Said (1983) views

the superiority of one language over another as a colonial project. He argues that ‘the

ideological insistence of a culture drawing attention to itself as superior has given way to

85 Rahman (2010) a, p. 21) counts 61.

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a culture whose canon and standards are invisible to the degree that they were ‘natural’,

‘objective’, and ‘real’ (Said, 1983, p.9).

The school as a visible structure (see Kendall and Wickham, 2003, p.43) emphasizes

Urdu as a sole national language. Similarly, it offers its spaces for students’ ‘generic training’

(Gellner, 1983, p.26) in the Urdu language in two different ways. It restricts the

communication of formal classroom instructions to Urdu and makes sure school–sites

display important messages and calligraphies either in Urdu or English. Thus, the school as

a structure plays a role in positioning students within the national language of Pakistan. It

is a structured effort towards homogenizing all Pakistani sub-national, speaking different

regional languages. Nichols’s (2010) question about the desire for homogeneity is very

significant in this backdrop. He inquires:

[h]ow does the desire for unity and stability of identity amongst a particular

community serve to efface internal heterogeneity and thus facilitate the silencing

of–or worse, actual violence against—marginalized peoples within…? (2010,

pp.113–114).

The discussion of the ‘centre’ and ‘margins’ in postcolonial theory affords a lens to

understand this phenomenon. Davies (1998) defines the ‘centre’ as a location ‘where the

power is; [and] the margins are where this power is applied in the service of the centre’

(p.19). The policy of the promotion of Urdu is centralist which compromises the status of

local languages. Similarly, it deprives Pakistan’s nationals of their indigenous provincial

cultural values. The idea as to how the promulgation of the Urdu language has benefitted

people in power hierarchies in the ‘centre’ has been discussed in chapter 2 (see section

2.4). In the following subsections, I will argue that the imposition of Urdu from the ‘centre’

is embedded in colonial administrative policies and the politics of cultural hegemony.

Similarly, it also speaks of what Bhabha (1990) calls the psychological effects of colonialism

and the lingering shadows of the colonial past. He argues that they constantly interfere

with the present, discernibly altering culture and history. I will also argue that by ignoring

the ethnic and cultural diversity of the region, the state policy on Urdu undermines the

possibility of the emergence of a cohesive national identity of Pakistan.

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7.4.1 Continuity of Colonial Legacy

The imposition of Urdu as Pakistan’s only national language looks like an extension

of the language policies of the British Raj (see section 2.4.1, also see Coleman, 2010;

Coleman and Capstick, 2012). In the colonial period, the British promoted Urdu for the

masses and English for the elite. The fundamental purpose of the promotion of English as

stated by Lord Macaulay (1835) was to produce an Indian class of loyalist British subjects

(see section 2.4.1). This deprived the Indian communities of their local languages and

cultural roots. Similarly, they prevented the Punjabis from being taught in the Punjabi

language (Coleman, 2010, p.14). Though in varying degrees, a similar pattern has been

repeated in Pakistan since its inception. Currently, English is the medium of instruction in

Pakistan’s Army Schools as well as in numerous elite private institutions. The state-run

government schools, with the partial exception of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, use

Urdu as a medium of instruction at primary levels. In Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

provinces, however, local languages are media of instructions in government primary

schools. The province of Punjab, with about 45% population of the country, continues with

the colonial policy. There is no provision of teaching Punjabi in schools, much less making

it a medium of instruction. In Karachi, the capital of Sindh, Urdu is the medium of

instruction at schools and higher levels. In Pakistani administered Kashmir and multi-

ethnic/multi-linguistic Baluchistan, Urdu is the medium of instruction at all levels (see

Rahman, 2011). Therefore, I feel convinced to view the promotion of Urdu and the

corresponding devaluing of Pakistan’s vernaculars as a form of internal colonialism.

Interestingly, in this project, the Punjabi elite collaborated with the Urdu speaking

Muhajirs. Rahman (2008, p.151) defines this instance as a form of ‘cultural imperialism’. It

similarly appears to be the case where both the ‘invader’ (the Urdu speaking Muhajirs) and

the ‘invaded’ (the Punjabis) are locked into receiving, internalizing, and acting in the same

value–system (see Freire, 2005, pp.152–153). As observed, national curriculum textbooks

are employed to reinforce this project. This policy ‘has helped the Punjabi and Mohajir

elites to consolidate their power in all the provinces of Pakistan’ (Rahman, 2002, p.267).

Therefore, this looks like an extension of the colonial language policies intended to silence

and relegate voices at the margins. However, the relegated status of indigenous languages

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has prevented the formulation of an inclusive national identity in Pakistan. This aspect is

discussed below.

7.4.2 Cohesive National Identity

The idea of emblematising Pakistan’s cultural and national identity through the

imposition of the Urdu language is discursive. It divides the polity instead of providing a

cohesive national identity. Historically, it has opened numerous routes to internal political

conflicts. These include the cessation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971 and

language riots of the 1970s in the current day Pakistan (see section 2.4.1.; also, Ayres,

2009).

Many ethnic groups in Pakistan are still in the quest for regional identities (see Ijaz

Khan, 2006). Therefore, the current language policy continues causing political resentment.

Even the schoolteachers, whom I interviewed, dissented with the current language policy

(see section 6.4.1). These teachers were otherwise found to agree with most other

textbook-fostered national identity constructs. This suggests, dissatisfied, they are also in

search of regional identities. This is precisely the situation that has led to many ethnic

movements in the current day Pakistan as discussed in chapter 2 (see section 2.4.1). From

the postcolonial perspective, the reaction against the said policy, especially that of the

Bengalis, can be explained as an act of abrogation. It is explained as ‘refusal of the categories

of the imperial culture, its aesthetic, [and] its illusory standard of normative’

(Ashcroft, 2002, p.37). Similarly, it is a rejection of the ‘centre’s’ policies meant to silencing

and relegating the voices at the ‘margins’ (Davies, 1998).

From the study of the national curriculum textbook data, students’ anti–India

militaristic national identity emerged as another significant aspect. This is problematised in

the following section.

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7.5 Militaristic National Identity Construction

Edensor (2002, p.61) argues that ‘a sense of home can be threatened by the

presence of otherness’ and this fear of otherness can lead to the ‘national constructions

of ‘us’ and ‘them’’. For this purpose, he maintains, a national education system can be

employed. This section analyses the scheme of Pakistani students’ militaristic national

identity construction as it emerges from the textbook data, presented in chapter 5.

Similarly, it presents the schoolteachers’ position on it and examines the discursive use of

the sampled schools’ spaces for its promotion and its wider implication.

Ishtiaq Ahmed (2013) calls Pakistan a postcolonial garrison state which is

obsessively concerned about perceived threats to its existence from India. Thus, national

curriculum textbooks are employed to promote strong anti–India and anti–Hindu

sentiments (see section 5.5). Similarly, they portray India as an existentialist threat to

Pakistan which allows the textbooks to represent the Pakistan Army as the nation’s

saviour.

To problematize these aspects, I consider the term ‘strategic culture’ as explained

in Literature Review (Snyder, 1977; Johnston, 1995). Evidence suggests that Pakistan’s

national education is shaped under the influence of discursively constructed collective

beliefs of Pakistan’s powerful security establishment about India as well as their historical

experiences (see section 3.2.5). As explained earlier, both these factors shape Pakistan’s

‘strategic culture’. Boulding (1959) and Synder (1977) argue that in ‘strategic culture’, it is

the image of the situation that influences major political decisions, and that security matters

are used as a lens to analyse the situation. The use of national education for constituting

students’ anti–India militaristic identities unravels the strategic outlook of Pakistan’s

policymakers. By inculcating students with anti–India sentiments and fondness for the

Pakistan Army and warfare, they can protect their ‘long-lasting strategic preferences’

(Johnston, 1995).

In line with the textbook ideas, most teachers endorsed the textbooks’ promoted

ideas and fostered them in the classrooms through quotidian teaching practices. Hence,

the classrooms appeared to be significant physical sites where the textbook promoted

ideologies were consolidated. Interestingly, those teachers who stood opposed to the idea

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of constituting students’ anti–India national identity, still projected the Pakistan Army as

an invincible defence line against India’s ‘impending’ military attack. Similarly, several

significant school sites appeared profusely flagged with the pictures of Pakistani soldiers

who laid down their lives in the India/Pakistan wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999 (see section

5.7.3). Anderson (1983, p. 205) attributes special significance to ‘the deaths that structure

the nation’s biography’ and argues that they ‘must be remembered as ‘“our own” … to

serve the narrative purpose’. The eerie display of these ‘ghostly national imaginings’

(Anderson, 1983, p.9) serves to constitute students’ anti–India militaristic national

identities. The study also notes the use of religion for strengthening Pakistan’s ‘strategic

culture’ and the creation of students’ ethnocentric identities.

In the following sections, I analyse how Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’ is damaging to

the country. I argue that it portends serious consequences for its national education,

development sector and political economy. Similarly, I argue that it serves the cause of the

Pakistan Army in several ways and to an extent is colonial in nature (see 7.5.2).

7.5.1 Strategic Culture and its Implications

Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture has eventuated in filling the compulsory textbooks with

hate content against India and Hindus. Even the local festivals, which are rooted essentially

in indigenous cultural idioms, are represented as having Hindu influences (see section 5.6).

Similarly, the textbooks encourage the love for the so-called Jihad and invoke Islamic

symbols to galvanize military personnel and warfare. In this backdrop, the glorification of

the Pakistan Army has become a permanent feature of the textbooks. Thus, the textbooks

serve the purpose of students’ indoctrination instead of giving them the required skills to

become useful members of society.

The urge to maintain Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’ results in enormous economic

implications. For example, Pakistan’s defence forces have continuously required an

increasingly higher amount in the annual budgets. This also means more borrowing from

the donor states, as Ishtiaq Ahmed (2013) observes. In the fiscal years 2017–18 alone, it

was set at $8.78 billion i.e., 7% higher than that in previous years (Dawn, March 26, 2017).

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According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s recent report,

Pakistan’s military expenditures had gone up by 70% during 2010-2019. At present, they

stand at $10.3 billion per annum (see SIPRI, 2020). Explaining this Amin Ahmed (2020)

maintains that ‘in terms of GDP, the military budget rose from 3.4 percent in 2010 to four

percent last year’ (p.7). This is an incredible amount of money for the country, which, as

of May 2018, had an external debt of 91.8 billion USD (Rana, 2018a). This was expected

to climb to 103 billion USD by March 2019 (Rana, 2018b). These military expenditures

tend to negatively impact the development of social sectors such as health, education,

agriculture and infrastructure.

Pakistan’s security managers’ preoccupation with the ‘strategic culture’ has also

brought irrevocable damage to the social/cultural fabric of society. In its status as a US ally,

in the 1980s, the Pakistan Army created/trained thousands of Jihadis (holy warriors) on its

soil to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. These also included the Taliban. For the promotion

of Jihadi culture, the stern Wahhabi version of Islam was promoted (see footnote – 82).

These Jihadis were later used as proxies in Kashmir against India. These facts have been

publicly admitted by many retired generals of the Pakistan Army – see the footnote)86. The

culture of Jihad plunged the society into militarisms, religious intolerance and xenophobia

and caused irrevocable damage to the cultural fabric of Pakistan.

The counterblow of Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’ brought both physical and

institutional loss. In the post 9/11 scenario, Pakistan had to revise its strategic policies on

the Taliban and other homegrown Jihadi organizations. They retaliated, attacking a large

number of the civilian as well as military installations87in the country. Between the period

of 2001–2014, Pakistan lost thousands of its citizens as well as security personnel in their

attacks. It included ‘132 … uniformed schoolchildren’ in an attack on Army Public School

86 These include Gen. Hamid Gul, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Gen. Abdul Qadir Baluch, Colonel Imam etc.

(watch https://www.facebook.com/raghib.cobra/videos/425800434537641/). 87 (1) Taliban attacked General Headquarters (GHQ) located in Rawalpindi on the morning of October 10,

2009; (2) October 2009 Taliban’s suicide attack near the Minhas military air base in Kamra (Attock); (3) May

2011 Taliban attack PNS Mehran, the headquarters of the Pakistan Navy's Naval Air Arm in

Karachihttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13495127; (4) August 2012 Taliban attacked Pakistan

Air Force’s (PAF) Minhas Airbase located in Kamra (Attock); (5)December 2012 Taliban attacked The

Pakistan Air Force base inside the Bacha Khan International Airport (https://www.dawn.com/news/742602)

(6) Sep 2015 Taliban attack on Pakistan Airforce Base Peshawar

(https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/19/world/asia/taliban-attack-mosque-at-pakistan-air-base.html)

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Peshawar (Walsh, 2014). These attacks also weakened the Pakistan Army’s power as a

military institution.

There is an interesting parallel in this regard between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Instructed in the Wahhabi version of Islam, a group of rebels laid the siege of Kaa’ba, the

Grand Mosque of Mecca, in November 1979. It accused the Saudi monarchy, which was

composed of Wahabi religious police and royal monarchs88, of exploiting religion. Similarly,

they accused them of going the Western ways abandoning Jihad. Though the rebellion was

put down, the measures taken to stall any future uprising had far-reaching consequences.

Paradoxically, these included embracing the ideas of the Islamic fundamentalist rebels and

accommodating them in national education. Lacey (2009, p.52) maintains that after the

rebellion ‘[h]eaded by a descendant of Mohammed Ibn Abdul Wahab, the Ministry of

Higher Education Islamized the curricula of the colleges and energetically set about

expanding the religious faculties’.

The political developments in the years 2017–2018 further reveal the

counterproductive nature of Pakistan’s strategic culture. For example, the first quarter of

2018 witnessed the emergence of a massive public movement in Pakistan’s tribal areas as

well as in many parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is a non–violent

movement that demands an end to extrajudicial arrests and killings of the people of the

region. They blame these on the Pakistani state, particularly the Pakistan Army (see Hayat,

2018). A slogan that had been particularly chanted during this movement was: ‘behind the

existing terrorism in the country is the ‘uniform’ (ibid.), suggesting that the Pakistan Army

is responsible for the prevailing terrorism in the country. The New York Times puts it as

‘“This terrorism? Behind it is the uniform”, protesters shouted in Wana, Waziristan,

referring to the country’s military. “This thuggery? Behind it is the uniform”’ (Masood et.al.

2019). This highlights the contradictions existing in Pakistani society and peoples’ loss of

faith in its institutions. This contributes to further weakening of the state.

88 In 1740s, Ibn Saud of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia sealed a pact with a cleric Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab

stating that Ibn Saud would protect and allow propagation of stern Wahhabi doctrines, and in return the

latter would support the ruler. The modern-day Saudi Arabia founded by Abul Aziz Ibn Saud (great-great-

great grandson of Mohammad Ibn Saud Abul Aziz) with the support of Wahhabis, followers of the same

religious mission, in 1926 (see Lacey, 2009).

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Notwithstanding the reasons behind the emergence of Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’

and its implications (see section 3.2.5), it has brought tremendous private and institutional

gains to the Pakistan Army. A study of Pakistan’s governing patterns highlights that for 17

years, the country had been under direct military rule i.e., from 1958 to 1962, 1969 to

1971, 1977 to 1985, and from 1999 to 2002. Not only that, but for the period of 15 years,

from 1962 to 1969, 1985 to 1988 and 2002 to 2007 even the so-called elected

governments functioned under military presidents (see Waseem, 2009, p.185). Also, the

Pakistan Army has equipped itself with a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic

missiles. It was ranked 13th in the world in 2017 (see Kabir, 2018) and 17th in 2019 (Global

Fire Power, 2017 and 2019)89. A study by Staniland, et al., (2018, p.28) affords further

insights into how Pakistan’s powerful military ‘has not given up control of key policy areas

even when withdrawing from power’. Additionally, their business empires worth billions

of dollars are scattered all over Pakistan. According to the detail provided to Pakistan’s

upper house (Senate) in July 2016, fifty commercial entities in the country were being run

by Pakistan’s armed forces90. On the other hand, alone from 1965 to 2003, the military

officers were allotted 2703706.5 acres of land (Siddiqa, 2007, p. 183). One of the most

recent additions to this list is the allocation of 868 Kanal land in Lahore to Ex. Chief of

Army Staff General Raheel Sharif (see Imran, 2017). Given these benefits, it seems fair to

view the motives behind the promotion of students’ militaristic national identities using

national education in schools in this backdrop. In addition, the idea of land allocation to

military personnel establishes the continuity of the colonial policy of the British in Punjab.

As a reward for their services, large land grants were distributed amongst those soldiers

‘who had served in the military campaign in 1857 and the Afghan wars. In addition, reward

grants, usually around 500 acres a grant, were awarded each year to selected military

officers’ (Yong, 2005, p.90).

Despite the social implications of Pakistan’s ‘strategic culture’, the efforts to further

consolidate it continue unabated, employing sophisticated means. Siddiqa (2019) observes

89 As of 2019 Pakistan army 654000 active military personnel besides the reserved ones. It has 1342

aircrafts, 2200 combat tanks 3650 armed fighting vehicles, 429 self-propelled artillery, 150 rocket

projection, and 197 naval assets. 90 There are nearly 50 projects, units and housing colonies functioning in the country under the

administrative control of Fauji Foundation, Shaheen Foundation, Bahria Foundation, Army Welfare Trust

(AWT) and Defence Housing Authorities (DHAs). https://www.dawn.com/news/1272211

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that as of the general election of July 2018 ‘the polity seems to be a case of a hybrid martial

law where all real power is vested in the army, and the civilian government is relegated to

the position of a junior partner’ (p.52). She maintains that the military now uses a fusionist

approach for ‘the generals have consciously invested in a political system that allows them

strategic control of state and society without visible intervention’ (ibid., p.53). Similarly,

education is another sector that is being used for this purpose, as an investment in this

sector can lend them strength in the future. Siddiqa (2019) in her recent interview refers

to a similar situation in the context of higher education in Pakistan. She maintains:

the military in Pakistan is a formidable political player. Over the years, they have

devised sophisticated means to have complete control over the national

narrative…for example, alone from Islamabad and Rawalpindi about 300 young

university students are offered an internship in the military-run institutions. Further

to that these students’ social media accounts are created, and arrangements are

made where ideologues with regressive ideologies lecture these students [on

religious and security matters]. Employing these discursive means, a particular

mindset is constructed at a very young age. They believe that if there were no

Pakistan Army there would be no Pakistan…. The Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services

Public Relations department also invests in movie making. (Pakistan Army doesn’t

know how to respond to India, 2019)

Therefore, Pakistan’s current scheme of education appears to be a part of a larger

project which aims to manage peoples’ perceptions. In the case of school education,

vulnerable young children are indoctrinated with particular ideologies in an environment

of asymmetrical relations (see sections 5.6 and 6.5). It seems to be a futuristic project to

reach the grassroots level to garner support to build well-grounded political clout to

maintain/sustain the existing status quo.

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7.6 Discussion — Part 2

Schoolchildren’s lived experience of Pakistan’s national identity

discourses in textbooks under schoolteachers’ supervision in schools and

their response

In discussion Part – 1, national identity factors that emerged from the study of

Pakistan’s national textbooks were analysed. The schoolteachers’ subjective positions on

these factors were also debated. Billig (1995, p.45) observes that ‘what is loosely called

national identity’ is consolidated through social practices in educational institutions. Given

that, the position of the school as a physical structure was also problematised. The focus

was to analyse how the physical sites of the sampled schools were used for the interplay

of national identity factors. In view of Pakistan’s colonial history, the discussion of

Pakistan’s national identity formulation was situated in postcolonial theoretical

perspectives.

In Discussion Part – 2, I will discuss various aspects, drawing on the data collected

from the students. These include a) schoolchildren’s lived experiences of the emergent

national identity factors from the textbooks (broadly Islam, Urdu vs. ethnicities, gender

and strategic culture or militaristic national identities) and b) their positioning within these

factors under schoolteachers’ supervision. Similarly, I will explore a) how the

schoolchildren position themselves vis–a–vis these national identity factors and b) how the

collective impact of all these factors (interaction of textbooks, schoolteachers, and school

as a structure) influences the students’ attitudes. To problematise these issues, I will draw

on Foucault’s notions of technologies of power for making individuals subject, the regime of

truth, politics of truth and power/ knowledge as propounded in his works (1990, 1988, 1980)

(see section 4.13). Also, I will position the discussion within national identity theories and

postcolonial concepts, as discussed earlier (see sections 3.2.2 and 3.4).

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7.6.1 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Islamic Discourses – Response

Islam emerged as Pakistan’s most significant national identity signifier from the

study of the national curriculum textbooks (see section 5.3). Therefore, the field–research

part of the study first investigated the sampled schoolchildren’s positions on it. The findings

highlighted Islam as the most salient feature of the schoolchildren’s national identification

with Pakistan in all six schools (see section 6.2.2). They nearly had the consensus that Islam

was the sole raison d’être for the creation of Pakistan. They also viewed the creation of

Pakistan as divinely ordained and a miracle. The schoolchildren also appeared to be having

absolute faith in the Two Nation Theory. It implies that Muslims as a nation are culturally

and religiously different from the rest of the world, particularly from the Hindus of India

(see chapter 1). While delineating ‘us’ as Pakistanis, 100% of students only considered

Islam, Muslims, Islamic religious and cultural symbols (see figures 1 and 2 in section 6.2.2).

In their description of a true Pakistani, individuals’ adherence to Islam governed supreme.

They usually determined it by observing their regularity in offering five prayers a day – an

Islamic religious obligation.

The schoolchildren’s strong identification with Islam as Pakistan’s national identity

suggests the powerful influence of the sampled textbooks on them. Other factors that

contributed to it included the role of the school as a physical site and that of the teachers

(see sections 5.7.1, 5.8 and 6.2.1). This supports Gellner’s (1983) proposition that an

‘academy–supervised idiom’ and ‘arbitrary historical inventions’ (p.55) can become a

robust national identity identification of students. Similarly, the schoolchildren’s inability

to relate anything beyond Islam to Pakistan’s national identity substantiates Gellner’s other

observation. He maintains that a centralized education through schools has the potential

to promote a unified sense of national identity (ibid.). However, the project of national

identity formulation mainly using Islam stands contrary to the ideas postulated by other

national identity theorists. They generally consider ethnic ties, shared culture, common

past and right to rule for developing an inclusive nation (see Guibernau, 1996; Smith, 1991;

Edensor, 2002; Hobsbawm,1990, 2000; Anderson, 2006; Hutchinson, 2001; Miller, 1995).

The study noticed the occurrence of several ‘games of truth’ (Foucault 1990, p.6)

in the schools for making the students subjects (Foucault, 1988). For example, almost all

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schoolteachers complied with the main textbook–promoted technology of power i.e., Islam

and Islamic social values. They inculcated Islamic ideologies into students for constituting

their national identity (see section 6.2.1). The schools afforded significant physical spaces

for the quotidian performance of Islamic rituals in their morning assemblies. Similarly, these

were discursively utilized for symbolizing religious artifacts, or what Billig’s (1995, p.85)

calls the ‘conventional symbols of particularity’ (see sections 5.7.1 and 5.8). Therefore, the

idea of centralized education and school as a means for the transmission and viability of a

particular kind of ‘modern high culture’ (Gellner, 1983, p.86) was fully exploited. This

suggests a strong relationship between the ‘games of truth’ and the subject constitution

which can be found in institutions or practices of control (Foucault, 1990). Using Spivak’s

(1988) term, this can be described as epistemic violence on the vulnerable to constitute

ethnocentric identities and curb the possibility of the emergence of critical thought in

them. This use of education entails several local and international implications which are

discussed in the next few sections.

7.6.1.1 Minorities

The students’ positioning within Islam by the textbook developers encouraged

viewing non–Muslim minorities through an Islamic faith lens (see sections 6.2.2 and 6.2.3).

This facet got further encouraged by the role the teachers played in the schools. Besides

other things, they paddled this argument that all the Muslims of the world are one nation.

And that, by virtue of being Muslims, they were superior to other nations (see sections

6.2.1 and 6.2.3).

Jointly, these technologies of power made the students antipathical, generally,

towards all non–Muslims but Hindus in particular. Similarly, it sparked disapproval amongst

them for those symbols that represent anything that is non-Islamic. Hence, the Christian

Church, Sikh Gurdwara, and Hindu Temple constituted national demons in their eyes.

Consistent with the emerging hostile feelings against non–Muslims, the students appeared

unfriendly towards most non–Muslim countries. They perceived them as against Islam and

Muslims. They also articulated hostile sentiments towards music, art, song, and dance,

considering them as Pakistan’s ‘other’ (see sections 6.2.2 and 6.2.3). Correspondingly, they

appeared to respect only Islamic cultural symbols, admired only Muslim countries and

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considered Pakistan a divinely ordained country. This encouraged them to view themselves

as borderless Muslim nationals rather than Pakistani nationals. This is problematic for

students’ social/psychological wellbeing and entails implications for Pakistan’s national

cohesion and for the role of Pakistani nationals in the world.

7.6.1.2 The Muslim ‘Other’

Subsuming students’ national identity into a particular Islamic identity encouraged

self–righteousness and sectarian divisions amongst the lager Muslim student fraternity. The

Sunni students identified with Saudi Arabia whereas the Shia students with Iran (see section

6.2.2). The students of the Muslim majority sect looked down upon the religious practices

of the minority Muslim sect. By the same token, it encouraged them to question other

students’ affiliation with particular Islamic sects and the personalities of the early days of

Islam. In this situation, those students who failed to conform to the beliefs of the majority

risked getting passed as Pakistani nationals of lesser measures (see section 6.2.3). These

discursively constructed positions of the students in schools can cause social

controversies, encourage ethnocentrism and bigotry for both fellow nationals and

international communities. This can similarly compromise national cohesion and produce

a society of individuals with myopic worldviews.

7.6.1.3 Indigenous Cultures

The textbooks painted the local cultural artifacts in Muslim vs. non–Muslim light

(see sections 5.3 and 5.5). Thus, the students looked down upon Pakistan’s indigenous

cultures, including the local festivals, music and arts. They condemned music and dance on

religious grounds and made no mention of the local festivals other than the Islamic ones

in their conversation (see sections 6.2.2 and 6.2.3). This also encouraged them to perceive

Pakistani culture only in the light of Islam, which they showed by drawing Islamic images.

Generally, the students perceived themselves as Muslim nationals beyond national borders.

This compounded the confusion as it rendered them incapable of distinguishing if Pakistan

was a territorially defined nation state or an imaginary borderless Islamic state.

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Given the above, the scheme of Pakistan’s national education and schooling system

looks ‘less about imparting knowledge and … more about the institutionalisation of

discourse’ (Mills, 2005, p.61). Its purpose is to homogenize people of diverse cultures and

ethnicities. It seems to serve the political goals of the ruling elite. By using the name of

Islam, they can keep the provincial dissent at bay, which usually emerges from peoples’

socioeconomic concerns.

7.6.2 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Gendered Discourse — Response

The study sought to explore how the schoolchildren position themselves against

their constructed positioning on the female. The following subsections analyse this aspect,

looking at its implications.

7.6.2.1 Female Dressing

The analysis of the schoolchildren’s data suggests their preoccupation with female

clothes. They deemed wearing shalwar Kameez, dupatta and niqab/abaya an essential female

trait to determine her Pakistaniness. This trend reflected in the attitudes of both male and

female study participants (see section 6.3.2). To an overwhelming majority of the boy–

participants (83%), a Pakistani female must be fully covered. Equally, she must not go in

public unless accompanied by a male guardian. Not observing strict Islamic dress–code by

women was also considered a sign of Qiyamma (the last day of judgment). Similarly, those

females who wore Western or Indian clothes (sari to be precise) were perceived as

infusing immorality in Pakistani society (see section 6.3.2). Except for two dissenting voices,

almost all boy–participants agreed to these ideas. Similarly, most female participants also

supported shalwar kameez and dupatta, abaya, niqab and body coverage on the ground that

it was Islamic. They perceived these outfits as markers of the female modesty and chastity.

Similarly, they believed that this shows her adherence to Islamic religious values which in

turn defines Pakistani nationalism. The key school sites and the schoolteachers’ overall

position on the female dress–codes further consolidated this aspect of Pakistan’s national

identity (see section 5.7.2 and 6.3.1).

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Butler (1988) notes that gender is not a stable identity but is discursively

constructed on socially sanctioned narratives/taboos. This encourages a particular kind of

consciousness in society. In Pakistan, this consciousness is patriarchal, religious and feudal.

Pakistani state reinforces these parochial approaches by employing national curriculum

textbooks. The study noted that these gendered notions secured very high value in the

eyes of the schoolteachers. Encouraged by the teacher mediated textbook–support for

the above, the schoolchildren’s conceptualization of the Pakistani female became

extremely gendered. Their overall approach suggested that they could accept her only in

limited social roles (see section 6.3.2). Her dressing manners also become discerning

features in their eyes for the delineation of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Consequently, they considered

only those women true Pakistanis/Muslims who adhered to officially sanctioned social

norms/values. This understanding of students is unfavourable for Pakistan’s national social

cohesion and has the potential to further disempower Pakistani women as a social

category.

7.6.2.2 Female Representation

On the issue of female representation, most boy–participants opted for silence.

However, the majority of girl–students talked about female underrepresentation in

national textbooks (see section 6.3.2). Some of them also held religion responsible for this

situation. Thus, they displayed some level of agency (see Foucault, 1979). However, the

use of Islam as a technology of power (see Foucault, 1988) served in a way that many amongst

them justified their underrepresentation on religious grounds. Similarly, those who blamed

the prevailing female bias on Islam faced opposition from their peers. This suggests

religious-based divisions in Pakistani society and the complexity of power relations which

are embedded in complicated forms of resistance and compliance.

7.6.2.3 Female Education, Social Roles and Male Obedience

The study of students’ data on female education and their social roles revealed

self–contradictory trends. The students of both genders expressed strong support for

female education. However, they supported the idea of appropriate dressing and male

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chaperoning. Similarly, a big number of the boy–participants deemed Pakistani women’s

obedience to the male patriarchs including husband, brother, father essential. Interestingly,

several girl-participants also supported this idea on religious grounds. Likewise, an

overriding majority of both male and female students considered domestic chores a female

responsibility (see section 6.3.2).

This situation highlights the embeddedness of Pakistan’s national identity. It is being

shaped as much by the meta-narratives of Islam as the patriarchal values of the society. In

Islam, learning is a religious obligation irrespective of gender. However, it prescribes strict

dressing criteria for Muslim women (see section 7.2.1.3). Given Islam being Pakistan’s

overarching national identity, opposition to female education is tantamount to opposing

the ‘divine’, which entails implications. Similarly, in most traditional societies, domestic

chores are considered female responsibility. This idea still has wider acceptance in Pakistan

between both genders.

As observed, most male study–participants were found supporting female

education but the same time male obedience. This situation suggests postcolonial subjects’

psychological anxieties. McClintock (1997) defines it as a state of mind that remains

oscillating between the desire to return to the indigenous pre-colonial social

values/practices and to be modern simultaneously. Yuval–Davis (1997) further

substantiates this idea. She maintains that postcolonial subjects wish to see their female

progressive and up to date like those of the colonizers’ societies but at the same time

conservative – being the keeper of national traditions.

7.6.2.4 Appropriation of the female body and Society

Foucault (1980) suggests that we should inquire ‘how things work at the level of

on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which

subject our bodies, govern our gestures, dictate our behaviours etc’ (p.97) (emphasis

added). To subject the Pakistani female’s body, national textbooks promote gendered social

roles. Similarly, employing metanarratives of Islam, they emphasize a particular dress–code

for her. The gendered construction of the female in Pakistani textbooks may not be

properly apprehended without referring to the views of some prominent Muslim

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reformists in colonial India. They were also the forerunners of the idea of a separate Islamic

state for the Muslims of India. For example, Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan (1817–1898), though

a strong supporter of English education91 for the Muslims of India, was opposed to female

education. He argued that ‘[i]t will be inappropriate to educate the women of Muslim

societies before educating men first’ (Mumtaz Ali, 1889, p.58). Arguably, amongst all the

books written for Indian Muslim women, the most influential has been Baheshti Zewar

(1999) (Heavenly Ornaments) by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi’s (1863–1943). It contains

instructions on almost every aspect of the Muslim female life including a dress–code for

her ‘moral guidance’. It instructs women not to wear ‘pants with panels, or a dress which

exposes the stomach, the back, the forearm, or the sides’ (p.667)92. Thanvi advises women

to be ‘obedient’ (p. 642) to their husbands and to blindly follow their advice on all matters.

He deems it essential for maintaining an effable marital relationship. Given the influence of

his writings, it is likely that these guidelines provided the academic and philosophical

background to the thoughts prevalent in the Pakistani textbooks. These are then used as

the technology of power (Foucault, 1988) to construct Pakistani schoolchildren’s ideas on

female identity.

This discursive production of truth (Foucault, 1980, p.93) and its dissemination

through national education trains students to view a female body in a particular frame. It

is a powerful tool that proves a lasting influence on students. Even the female students

readily conform to the delineated propriety standards without realizing their subjugating

nature (see section 6.3.2). Thus, they too became ‘vehicles of power, not its points of

application’ (Foucault 1980, p.98). Hence, Pakistani females inadvertently reinforce the

existing patriarchal structures of Pakistani society. Likewise, they also confirm Foucault’s

(1980) popular notion that ‘power is neither given, nor exchanged, nor recovered, but

rather exercised, and...it only exists in action’ (p.89) (emphasis added). Its social implications

include fashioning social othering within the community. Those Pakistani females who do

not adhere to the prescribed propriety standards become ‘outsiders’ within the

community. Thus, it also creates gendered boundaries among the female fraternity. These

trends have powerful potential to divide society internally.

91 Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan Aligarh Muslim University in 1875 92 Baheshti Zewar (Heavenly Ornaments) still makes an integral part of brides’ dowry in the Muslim

societies of both India and Pakistan.

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7.6.3 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Urdu and Provincial

Languages/Cultures — Response

The data, as presented in chapters 5 and 6, inform about the interplay of the factors

that position students’ national identity within the Urdu language in schools. This section

analyses students’ positions towards Urdu and provincial languages.

7.6.3.1 Urdu and Ethnicities

An overwhelming majority of the students conformed to the state version of

national identity on the Urdu language. About 97% of the total sampled population claimed

that they spoke Urdu both inside and outside homes. They also expressed their love for

Urdu for its links with a particular Muslim identity. Interestingly, hardly 2 % of them had

Urdu as their mother tongue whereas the rest spoke Punjabi (51%), Pushto (25%),

Hindco/Pahari (12%), Saraiki (3%), Sindhi (5%), Baluchi (1%) and Shina and Balti (1%). As

discussed earlier, provinces in Pakistan are ethnically based and are named after the

corresponding languages (see section 4.9). The students also claimed to cherish their

provincial identities and the language being spoken there (see section 6.4.2). Numerous

contradictions emerge in this backdrop, as discussed below.

Though the students expressed love for their provinces, they had no interest in

speaking the respective provincial language/s being spoken there. This is paradoxical and

indicates how Urdu’s superimposition has deprived the students of their mother tongue,

hence their local culture. Equally, the students’ obsession with the country’s Islamic

identity suggests the relegated status of Pakistan’s national identities. This aspect also

contributed to developing students’ almost complete disregard for Pakistan’s non–Muslim

minorities and their cultures (see sections 6.2.3 and 6.4.2). Overall, the schoolchildren’s

wider acceptance for Urdu as a national language and ‘the medium and emblem of a

“nation”’ (Gellner, 1983, p.75) is an indication of the successful use of the school to

homogenize the nation. Similarly, it reveals how the students’ ‘generic training’ (ibid., p.26)

in Urdu through a national education bore the results which the state desired.

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Interestingly, on the issue of the representation of provincial cultures, the students’

opinions stood in contrast with those of the schoolteachers. The latter was shown

expressing their resentment on the current representation of provincial cultures in the

textbooks. This appeared to be the only point of dissent amongst the students and

teachers in the given context (see sections 6.4.1 and 6.4.2). However, I have no data

suggesting that the teachers shared their personal opinions with the students. And, thus,

the latter’s opinions were constructed from the competing discourses – one from the

textbooks and another from the teachers. Yet, if they did, this situation highlighted the

conflicting interplay of the technologies of power for making the schoolchildren subject in

schools. In this case, the textbook discourses proved more influential and controlling as a

technology of power than the teachers (Foucault, 1988).

The schoolchildren’s overall approach towards Urdu language vis–à–vis ethnicities

and provincial cultures suggests an almost complete control of the state narrative over

them.

7.6.4 Schoolchildren’s Positioning within Militaristic National Discourse —

Response

This section problematises the implications of constructing schoolchildren’s

militaristic national identities and positioning them within anti–India national discourses in

the textbooks. In this context, the study also analyses the conforming/contesting strategies

that the students used to position themselves in return. Other factors that contributed to

developing students’ anti–India positioning include schools’ physical spaces and

schoolteachers’ positions on India (see sections 5.6 and 6.5).

7.6.4.1 Anti–India and Pro–Military Identities

Anderson (2006) notes that the ‘communities are to be distinguished, not by their

falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined’ (p.6). The study highlighted

the schoolchildren mostly conforming to the textbook-based anti–India/Hindu ‘legitimate’

truths (Apple, 2004). These were implemented on them in the schools through

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social/educational practices mainly, led by the schoolteachers. They emerge from a

particular ‘regime of truth’ (Foucault, 1980) in Pakistan. It allows only certain people to

say what the ‘regime’ considers ‘legitimate’ in this specific context (ibid.). The collaboration

of these factors provided the basis for developing students’ belligerent attitudes towards

Hindus and India. Embedded in the meta-narratives of Islam, these factors worked in a way

that the students also positioned India against Islam and the Islamic world. The study

noticed a complex interplay of several technologies of power in the schools for the

reinforcement of these ideas, as discussed below.

The students’ acceptance of their positioning against India as Pakistan’s arch-foe

led them to imagine the Pakistan Army in the role of a guard. This position mainly stemmed

from the textbook projection of the Pakistan Army as Pakistan’s saviour against the ‘Indian

aggression’. Other contributing factors included the use of schools’ physical spaces for the

display of military culture and the classroom-based educational practices. The latter was

mainly led by the teachers (see sections 5.7.4 and 6.5).

Discursively constructed, the students betrayed their jingoistic attitudes in several

ways. For example, they took pride in Pakistan having a nuclear bomb and a strong military,

and the latter’s presumed capacity to destroy India (see section 6.5.2). Thus, they became,

what Foucault (1980) calls ‘vehicles of power’ (p. 98), and indirectly lent support to

Pakistan’s existing ‘strategic culture’. This ultimately benefits Pakistan’s strategic

institutions, particularly the Pakistan Army in multiple fashions (see section 7.5.1).

7.6.4.2 Implications for Society

The discursively constructed image of India in the textbooks and the resulting

teaching practices can be harmful to students’ social and psychological wellbeing. Boulding

(1959) maintains that in an environment of strategic culture, ‘we act according to the way

the world appears to us, not necessarily according to the way it is’ (p.120). Framed in

particular national ideologies, students were shown imagining Pakistan perpetually faced

with an existentialist threat from India. This image of the situation enhanced students’

sense of insecurity and fostered fears and belligerent attitudes. Similarly, they imagined

Pakistan as a country perpetually in peril and ready for reprisal. This made them look up

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to the force which could halt the imaginary aggression of the so–called enemy. Hence, the

structured projection of the Pakistan Army persuaded the schoolchildren to have an

unreserved acceptance for them in that role. This situation, then, translated into these

students’ taking a strong liking for men in uniform. Therefore, as the data shows, all heroes

of the participating students hailed either from Pakistan’s armed forces or, given Pakistan’s

overarching Islamic identity, the holy warriors of medieval Islam (see section 6.5.2). It also

encouraged an almost complete effacement of Pakistan’s non–military achievements in the

fields of education, sports and philanthropy93. The findings drawn from the schoolchildren’s

data revealed this problem as they had little concept of the country’s non–military heroes

or social icons including academics, players, artists, philanthropists, politicians and social

workers.

These trends can be potentially dangerous for Pakistan’s budding democracy and

the development of a civic sense in Pakistan. Internationally, the constitution of students’

militaristic identities can produce an ethnocentric nation constantly in conflict with the

neighbouring countries. Similarly, in view of the world becoming increasingly globalized,

individuals constituted on inflexible religious beliefs may find it increasingly hard to coexist

with those who profess different religions. More importantly, they might well be incapable

of challenging the dictatorial military rule in the country and would perhaps have an

appreciation for that. On the other hand, the creation of ethnocentric identities, as

analysed herein, may render these students incapable of becoming positive and useful

members of a wider global community. This is critical for the future of these students,

particularly when viewed in relation to the global sustainable development goals (SDGs)

2030.

93 Pakistan has won 4 hockey World Cup (in 1971, 1978, 1982 and 1994), 1 Cricket world cup (in 1992). In

World Squash Championship Pakistan’s Jahangir Khan remained unbeaten for consecutive six years from

1981-1988, and 10 consecutive years in British Open Championship. Pakistan has two Nobel Laureates –

Dr. Abdul Salam won Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 and Malala Yousafzai in 1914 for her efforts for female

education. Pakistan’s Abdul Sattar Edhi founded the world's largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan,

the Edhi Foundation. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/abdul-sattar-edhi-google-

honours-angel-mercy-170227140720826.html

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7.7 Conclusion

The study highlights a complex interplay of several technologies of power (Foucault,

1988) for students’ national identity constructions of Pakistan in schools. These include

National Education Policy (2009) and its mandated textbooks, the teachers and the schools

as physical structures. The study recognizes all of these as local centres of

power/knowledge (Foucault, 1980, p.98). Based on the interpretation of the research

findings, it emerges that these technologies jointly emphasize several factors emerging from

the textbooks that contribute to shaping students’ national belonging to Pakistan. These

include Islam, Urdu vs. Pakistan’s provincial languages/cultures, a specific construction of

Pakistani female, anti–India narratives and positive projection of the Pakistan Army. I treat

all these factors as technologies of power (Foucault, 1988) which play a vital role in

constituting particular subjectivities.

Islam emerges as a key national identity signifier from the textbook data. It also

serves as a major ideological vantage point that influences all other textbooks-based

national identity signifiers. Next to Islam is the Urdu language in the given context.

The idea of the proclamation of Urdu as the only national language

disregarding/devaluing all local languages reminds of the colonial policies of the British Raj

towards India’s indigenous languages (see sections 2.4.1 and 7.4.1). British believed in the

superiority of English culture and undermined local cultures/languages by pushing them to

the periphery. Since Urdu was the mother tongue of barely 8 % Pakistanis94at the time of

the creation of the country, its imposition as a national language appears to be a form of

cultural imperialism. This decision was taken at the cost of the devaluation of Pakistan’s

local languages. Drawing on Freire (2005), it can be argued that this is a situation where

the ‘invaded’ not only bows to the ‘invader’ (p.152), but actively supports their efforts to

establish the superiority of the invader’s culture. Similarly, the unremitting use of Islam

serves the purpose of mystifying unequal power relations and the dichotomy of the ‘centre’

and the ‘margins’ (see Davies, 1998, p.19). The signifiers of Islam and Urdu seem to serve

Pakistan’s power centres to silence peoples’ legitimate socio-economic and political

94 There were no native Urdu speaking people in Pakistan before partition of India- this approximately 8%

Urdu speaking population is comprised of those people who had migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947.

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concerns. Similarly, it is a power–strategy for their advantage. By using these identity

symbols, Pakistan’s power–centres undermine Pakistani citizens’ bonds/ties to their

indigenous cultures, local languages and social values. This too appears to be a colonial

project, albeit in a more sophisticated form.

The study highlights the use of Pakistan’s national textbooks for students' gendered

national identity construction in schools. To subject a Pakistani women’s body and regulate

her conduct, they prescribe strict religious/cultural dress–codes. Similarly, the textbooks

also encourage stereotypical traditional gendered social roles for her. Besides, like her

representation in pictures, her share as a textbook writer is also insignificant. To support

these moves, meta-narratives of Islam/Islamic culture are employed. Later, these criteria

are used as a screen to determine her true Muslimness and Pakistaniness. The textbooks

do not present her as an active participant in a national struggle but as a transmitter of

traditional cultural values and ethnic differences. This constitutes gendered identities and

consolidates the existing parochial/feudal structures of the society. Given Islam’s divine

status as a religion, it cannot be contested. Hence, this makes it more effective than the

colonial modes/tactics of subjecting people. The study also highlights the inherent

structural flaws in espousing Islam as a state religion for the country (Pakistan) which claims

to be the parliamentary democracy. It underlines that the current state of affairs is likely

to create more confusion unless one divorces the other.

The research findings also identify students’ anti–India militaristic national identity

constructions. This scheme essentially owes to the strategic outlook of the Pakistani

leadership of 1947 and people belonging to Pakistan’s ‘overdeveloped’ postcolonial

bureaucracy (Alavi, 1992). Central to this position is the unresolved issue of Kashmir and

the treaties of SEATO and CENTO (see sections 3.2.5 and 7.5). Its ultimate beneficiaries

are the high–ranking officials of Pakistan’s ‘bureaucratic–military complex’ (Buzan, et, al.

1986). The study suggests that most students uncritically accept the top–down ideologies

and conform to their discursively constituted militaristic identities. Johnston (1995, p. 34)

argues that ‘[s]trategic culture is compatible with notions of limited rationality (where

strategic culture simplifies reality), with process rationality (where strategic culture defines

ranked preferences or narrows options) and with adaptive rationality (where historical

choices, analogies, metaphors, and precedents are invoked to guide choice)’. Given the

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implications involved in militaristic identity constructions of the vulnerable schoolchildren,

the authorities seem to evince what Johnson has so plausibly argued. Similarly, they seem

to be oblivious to the long–term consequences of their policies. This approach promotes

students’ ethnocentric identities and produces a generation of hateful individuals. It is not

only damaging to these students’ psychological wellbeing but also has local as well as

international implications. However, it will benefit Pakistan’s security establishment in

several ways, and that seems to be the motive of using a national education for promoting

students’ militaristic identities in schools.

The findings observe a complex interplay of technologies of power within Pakistan’s

national education system for students’ national identity constructions of Pakistan. Other

than the policymakers, its main contributors are the teachers and schools. The textbook–

generated ‘truths’ which need ‘to be understood as a system of ordered procedures for

the production, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation of statements’

(Foucault, 1980, p.133) are implemented in schools. The procedure is supervised by the

schoolteachers. The teachers, thus, promote and consolidate the agenda of the country’s

power centres by making students subjects (Foucault, 1988). Therefore, by virtue of their

roles, they become vehicles of power who disseminate the same ‘truth’ which the textbooks

promote. The students likewise do the same during their turns. This supports Foucault’s

(1980) position that nobody is outside power, and that power is something ‘which

circulates’ (p.98). He further maintains that power is ‘never in anybody’s hands … it is

employed and exercised through a net-like organization’ (ibid.). However, on a different

note, as Foucault (1981) argues, the role of discourse is not to explain reality, rather it

constructs reality as well as institutes a system to perceive that reality. The teachers, as

an interface between the textbooks and students, are also subjected to the ‘reality’ created

by Pakistan’s national curriculum textbook discourses. Hence, they first get constituted by

the textbook fostered realities before they pass these to the students.

By using a particular version of Islam as a technology, Pakistan’s educational scheme

seems to prepare its future generation on certain fixed ideas. National identity is a political

concept that is debatable and can remain contentious. It is socially constructed and

experiences numerous changes under the ever-emerging political realities. On the other

hand, Islam is an organized religion with fixed doctrinal injunctions. The proclamation of

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Islam as Pakistan’s overarching national identity prevents a meaningful debate on it.

Similarly, developing students’ militaristic national identities, and the use of religion for

that, produces ethnocentric identities/individuals. This entails socio-political consequences

both nationally and internationally. It can continue to affect the internal social cohesion of

the larger community of the majority Muslims of the country. Similarly, it can bring

irrevocable damage to Pakistan’s already embattled religious minorities and Pakistani

women in multiple ways. Overall, this scheme of education thwarts the possibility of the

emergence of plural identities which are essential for developing inclusive societies.

On another note, in the introduction of the thesis, it was argued that three factors,

(i) Pakistan’s birth resulting from India’s partition based on Islamic identity (ii) volatile

socio-political situations in its immediate post-colonial years and (iii) the lacklustre

response of Muslim world to its birth, made the country self–doubting. The resulting

anxiety led the state to focus on formulating a sound Islamic identity to seek the approval

of the Islamic world and making itself completely different from India. This still seems to

be the focus of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks. However, the objectives of these

efforts seem to have altered, as discussed above.

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Chapter 8 – Summary and Conclusion

8.1 Introduction

The research findings based on textbook data and field–research data were

presented in chapters 5 and 6. These were analysed in chapter 7 by situating the

discussions in national identity theories, Foucault’s analytical framework and postcolonial

theoretical perspectives. This chapter first outlines the key research findings and then

highlights the contribution of this research. The chapter also exemplifies the theoretical

and methodological contributions of the study and concludes with recommendations. The

last section identifies the areas for further research.

8.2. Summary of Research Findings

This study investigated how Pakistani students’ national identity is constructed in

schools. It drew on two main sets of data – national curriculum textbooks and the field

research data. The former was comprised of the compulsory textbooks of English, Pakistan

Studies, and Urdu for grades 9–12. These textbooks were constructed under the

guidelines of the Government of Pakistan National Education Policy of 2009. The policy

document was also referred to where required. The field–research data was collected

from six schools (3 boys and 3 girls), located in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The data

collection tools included visual observation of significant school-sites, individual interviews

with the subject–teachers and focus group and participatory tools with students. The

purpose was to gain an insight into students’ educational experiences of their national

identity constructions in schools under the supervision of subject teachers. This section

rethinks backward and forward and presents the summary of the findings of the four main

research questions, outlined in the study.

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8.2.1 Textbook Findings and Teachers’ Positions – Research Questions 1 and 2

The first research question focused on identifying factors in the relevant textbooks

that shape Pakistan’s post-colonial national identity in schools. This section presents a

summary of these findings. Similarly, it summarises the teachers’ positions on them, as

required in response to the research question 2.

The findings based on the textbook data highlighted an explicit use of the National

Curriculum Policy of 2009 and its mandated textbooks for students’ national identity

constructions. The main themes that emerged from the study of the textbooks included

Islam, gendered construction of Pakistani females and the primacy of the Urdu language.

The textbooks also portrayed India as an existentialist threat to Pakistan. This afforded

them the scope to project the Pakistan Army as the vanguard. The study also investigated

the role of the school as a physical structure in students’ national identity constructions.

It was shown affording its significant sites for the pictorial display of visuals as well as

performances that contributed to developing students’ national building. These displays

were found completely in line with the teacher mediated textbook–fostered national

identity themes.

First, Islam emerged as a key national identity signifier from the study of the

textbooks. The study unpicked its strategic embeddedness for fostering a particular Islamic

identity in schools. It is employed to underplay ethnic, linguistic and cultural heterogeneity

of the country. Similarly, it is used as an effective technology of power to portray Pakistan

as homogenous, united in the name of religion. The textbooks overtly use it for delineating

‘us’ and ‘them’, where the former includes only Muslims and Muslim countries and the

latter all non–Muslims and non–Muslim countries, particularly India. In a similar vein, the

textbooks obliterate any positive mention of religious/cultural festivals of non–Muslim

religious minorities. Likewise, they eschew recognizing the services of non–Muslim

Pakistanis to the country. The schools’ visual display areas reinforce these national identity

strands by denying the exhibition of those exhibits that may represent minority

cultures/religions. Overall, Islam as an identity signifier is portrayed in a way that it

becomes Pakistan’s overarching national identity. Thus, it blurs the division between

Pakistaniness and Muslimness, leaving students in a quandary. Similarly, it affords the

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textbooks a vantage point to represent all other national identity signifiers only from

Islamic perspectives. Congruent with the textbooks’ positions, the teachers were shown

inculcating predominantly Islam and Islamic social values into the students for shaping their

nationhood.

Second, the study illuminated the textbooks’ gendered construction of Pakistani

female identity for positioning students. They marginalize Pakistani women by representing

them primarily in gendered social roles. Other than this, their representation in the

textbook pictures and as a textbook author is also disproportionate. The schools’ visual

display areas were shown empty of female pictures which further substantiated this aspect.

The textbooks were also found to be encouraging a particular female dress–code to

determine her true Pakistaniness and Muslimness. Most teachers appeared to be satisfied

with her existing social representation/status in the textbooks. Interestingly, they even

supported stricter dressing criteria for her than prescribed in the textbooks. Together, all

these factors reinforced the existing parochial/patriarchal social values.

Third, the textbooks were shown placing an enormous emphasis on the status of

Urdu as a national language (a language of fewer than 10% Pakistanis). Urdu’s significance

is highlighted, drawing students’ attention to its Arabic script and alphabets. Similarly, the

textbooks do not discuss local languages in their own right. Rather these are discussed in

the context of their contribution to the proselytization of Islam in the region. The school

as a structure was shown to reinforce these aspects by allowing the use of classroom walls,

corridors, and noticeboards for the display of articles and calligraphy written in either

Urdu or English.

Fourth, the textbooks were found to be promoting students’ anti–India militaristic

national identities. They condemn Hindus as idol worshippers and India as the enemy of

Islam and Pakistan. In this context, the notion of idol worshipping becomes more significant

as Islam is Pakistan’s overarching national identity. Islam fought idol worshipping in pre–

Islamic Arabia. The textbooks, by so doing, also reinforce faith-based boundaries between

India and Pakistan. In juxtaposition to that, the Pakistan Army and its Muslim only martyrs

are highlighted as the defenders of Pakistan. Thus, Islam and Pakistan become synonymous,

and suggestively the Pakistan Army becomes the army of Islam, fighting infidels. The school

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as a physical structure substantiates these national identity factors. They do it by making

its sites available for the display of pictures/symbols that represent Islamic ideology as well

as the pictures of Pakistani soldiers in arms. With the concurrence of the textbooks’

positions on India and Hindus, most teachers considered India/Hindus an enemy of Islam

and Pakistan and instructed the students on these ideas.

Fifth, the textbooks were found to be completely devoid of anticolonial historical

narratives. This aspect was also found absent in the teachers’ interview talks.

8.2.2 Field Research Findings – Research Questions 3 and 4

This section presents a summary of students’ positions vis–à–vis all the emergent

national identity signifiers from the textbooks and other relevant factors, discussed above.

Constructed on the teacher–mediated textbook discourses, the students

expressed similar ideas on Pakistan’s national identity as on which they had been

positioned. Their idea of a true Pakistani was mainly defined by how strongly a Pakistani

individual adhered to particular Islamic religious practices. It naturally led to the

constitution of the ‘other’ based on religion. Therefore, all non–Muslims became ‘others’

in the students’ eyes. The images which they drew to delineate ‘us’ included only Islamic

symbols. To describe Pakistan’s ‘them’, they mainly drew religious/cultural symbols of the

non–Muslims. The students were also found to be incapable of separating Islam from

Pakistan, and Muslimness from Pakistaniness. This was despite that within Muslimness

several divisions were noted. The students were also shown to have evinced strong hostile

feelings for music, art and paintings. It was on the ground that they considered these forms

of aesthetic against the teachings of Islam. This aspect is also in line with the ideologies

promoted through the textbooks.

In compliant with their institutionalized positioning towards the female, most

students signalled strong parochial attitudes towards women. They considered purdah,

abaya and niqab essential to maintain Pakistniness as well as Islamic propriety standards.

They treated both as mutually inclusive. Their image representation of a true Pakistani

girl/woman is that of an individual who wears shalwar kameez with dupatta or niqab and

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abaya. However, the girl participants of the study were found to be dissatisfied with the

overall female representation in the textbooks. The idea of female propriety

notwithstanding, both the teachers and the students supported female education.

The students appeared to have accepted the supremacy of the Urdu language. Most

of them expressed this by claiming that they spoke it both inside and outside the home.

Though the students enunciated their love for the provinces they belonged, they showed

no intention to speak their respective provincial languages, which is paradoxical. They

barely showed any critical awareness as to how to identify Pakistani identity with anything

other than Islam and the Urdu language. The teachers, however, regretted the inequitable

promotion of provincial cultures in the textbooks. This appeared to be the only aspect

where the study highlighted most teachers in discord with the textbook–promoted

positions.

The research showed the students evincing strong anti–India/anti–Hindu

sentiments and perceiving Hindus and India as Pakistan’s significant ‘other’. The images

they drew to represent Pakistan’s ‘other’ mainly included the pictures of the Indian flag,

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, idols, temples, cross, and church. They articulated

strong faith in the Pakistan Army, whom they viewed as the saviour of the country against

the possible Indian aggression. Therefore, the students’ national heroes emerged

exclusively from the rank and file and the officer cadres of Pakistan’s armed forces. In a

similar vein, they expressed their pride in Pakistan’s status as a nuclear-armed state. The

students were found to be completely unaware of the concept of a national icon/hero

from civilian ranks.

This research has highlighted the social embeddedness of Pakistan’s national

identity which is primarily shaped by the metanarratives of Islam for political reasons.

Several other factors also influence this construction and are reflected in the textbook

discourses. These include a) politics of colonial era focusing on Hindu vs. Muslim religious

separatism b) significance of Urdu for Muslims which is reinforced by associating it to Islam

c) emphasis on Pakistan’s existing feudal/patriarchal values for gendered constructions of

Pakistani female and d) students’ militaristic national identities of Pakistan. Other elements

that reinforce these textbooks’ positioning of students include the teachers’ perspectives

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on these factors. They are the go-between amid the textbook discourses and the students.

Given power relations in schools, the teachers’ role is very crucial. Similarly, the position

of the school, as a structure, that allows a complex interplay of all these factors, is another

noteworthy element.

The study has shown a predominant majority of the students’ conforming to their

academy supervised and teachers’ mediated textbooks’ constituted positioning. This shows

the powerful ideological potential of national education for constructing politically

motivated national identities.

8.3 Contribution to Knowledge

This study has contributed to the existing body of knowledge in several ways. It

started with an understanding of the available literature on the use of textbooks for

constituting students’ identities in schools. However, the majority of these studies were

small-scale dissertations mostly limited to the analysis of history textbooks. This research,

on the other hand, analyzed all compulsory national curriculum textbooks taught at

secondary and higher secondary levels. It was further complemented by drawing on

students’ and teachers’ perspectives. Also, the study analysed the role of the school as a

structure. In this respect, the focus was on how its physical spaces provide a ground for

the interplay of the above–mentioned factors that collectively contribute to shaping

students’ nation building. Therefore, this research is holistic which considers both macro

and micro level functioning of national education in the given context. In sum, this study

examined the mutually corresponding relationship between the National Curriculum

Policy of 2009 and its mandated compulsory textbooks, the role of teachers and schools

in shaping students’ national identity. Furthermore, the research was conducted in schools

located in Islamabad which is the capital of Pakistan. Therefore, the data collected broadly

represents Pakistan’s most provincial identities and is not focused on any particular ethnic

identity. In this regard, this study is very significant – probably the first-ever attempt in the

context explained.

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In terms of research implications, this study has particularly highlighted the bearings

of teaching Islam to the children of other religions through compulsory subjects, under

duress, and how it is a violation of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the

Child. Also, findings regarding the use of Pakistan’s national curriculum textbooks and their

social practices for constituting vulnerable schoolchildren’s anti-India militaristic national

identities and how this influence students’ worldviews is the most significant contribution

of this study.

The study has also highlighted the corresponding relationship of Pakistan’s national

school education and political aims/goals of the state. Pingel (2010) explains this

relationship in his UNESCO’s guidebook on curriculum textbooks. He observes that this

relationship is double-sided and mutually influencing, where education supplies ‘new aims

that will be propagated in schools and textbooks before they are implemented and fully

realized on the political level’ (ibid., p.62).

Pingel (2010) further maintains that:

[e]ducation can lay the foundations for forming attitudes and opinions which are

essential to policies that promote peace and mutual understanding. Through

education, we can legitimately instill a sense of global responsibility in the students’

minds, although in reality students are confronted with violations of this principle

almost every day (p.62).

This study has observed a structured desecration of the above–stated principles. It

is carried out by employing national education for the reinforcement of social divisions

amongst students, based on religion, language, gender, and national security.

To an international audience, the study has presented the case of Pakistan’s

remarkable heterogeneity. It suggests that Pakistan should not be viewed as a monolithic

entity. It is a country of competing identities where people profess to multiple religions,

speak several languages and have multiple ethnic identities. The study shows how Pakistan’s

education system uses religion and language to homogenize people. Similarly, it highlights

how it reinforces religious and ethnic differences amongst its people and beyond. Also,

textbooks foster gendered identities and anti–India sentiments. In this backdrop, they

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constitute a heroic image of the Pakistan Army which reinforces the existing strategic

culture. This eventually encourages the development of ethnocentric attitudes amongst

students which has international implications.

Another international significance of this research is that the findings indicate that

Pakistan could not break free from the Cold War situation. During the Cold War period,

the USA and its allies, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, infused particular aspects of

religion into school textbooks. The purpose was to promote Islamic radicalism for

producing international Jihadis in different parts of the world95. In Afghanistan, ‘The United

States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with

violent images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur resistance to

the Soviet occupation’ (Stephens and Ottaway, 2002)96. A report by Pakistan’s National

Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) states a similar fact about Pakistan97. However,

in the post 9/11 scenario, global geopolitical conditions altered, and many countries

including Pakistan committed to responding to the local and international calls to reform

school curriculum98 (see Lall, 2008, p.115). However, this study shows Pakistan’s

successive regimes paid little attention to it as Pakistani textbooks still inculcate religious-

based hatred into students in schools. Similarly, it shows that the influx of the aid from the

USA (i.e., USAID $100million as Lall (2008) mentions) had perhaps no impact on the

ideological orientations of the curriculum of Pakistani schools.

By exploring how the textbooks foster gendered female identity, this study has

further indicated the significance of the female in constructing national identities. Thus, it

has expanded the scope for feminist scholars to look more deeply into the relationship

between national education, gender, and national identity constructions.

For national identity theorists, the study has shown the power of the national

curriculum and its mandated textbooks for constructing national identities in schools.

95 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saudi-schools-teaching-hate/ 96 http://thehigherlearning.com/2014/12/08/us-fundedpublished-textbooks-promoting-jihad-are-still-being-

used-by-taliban-today/ 97 https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/08/report-pakistan-school-textbooks-riddled-with-religious-

hate-material/ 98 https://www.saudiembassy.net/press-release/saudi-ambassador-responds-freedom-house-editorial

https://tribune.com.pk/story/901380/curriculum-change-its-time-to-eliminate-hate-conflict-material-from-

textbooks/

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Similarly, it has shown how a national education can be employed for the promotion of a

particular version of religion, language, ethnicity, gender and militarism for constituting

national identities. It, thus, invites the researchers to consider national education as a

potential source of identity constitution when studying the question of identity.

8.3 Postcolonial and Foucault’s DA – Theoretical/Methodological

Reflections

In the introduction of this study, I had argued that the study of Pakistan’s national

curriculum textbooks from a postcolonial theoretical perspective was an unaddressed

area. Given Pakistan’s colonial background, I considered this aspect imperative for

understanding the trajectory of Pakistan’s national identity constructions. The study used

Foucault’s discourse analysis and his analytical tools to critically analyze how the national

textbooks had been used for the formulation of Pakistani students’ national identities in

schools. Chapter 4, section 4.13.4 explained how Foucault’s DA, including his analytical

tools, and the postcolonial framework were theoretically linked and mutually investable.

This provided a robust theoretical framework in which the analysis was situated. Thus, the

study unravelled how by combining postcolonial theoretical perspectives and Foucault’s

tools, we could reach a better understanding of national identity constructions in the

context of school/education. I believe it is a distinct methodological contribution.

In the context of Pakistan, it is the first of its kind that has studied Pakistan’s national

curriculum textbooks explicitly within the postcolonial theoretical framework. It has

shown:

a. how the emerging national identity factors in national curriculum textbooks

namely Islam, Urdu, gender, Urdu vs. indigenous cultures/ethnicities, and

strategic culture bear colonial imprints,

b. how they have been used, particularly Islam and Urdu, for the devaluation of

local languages, cultures and social values,

c. how we can draw parallels between the colonial narrative of cultural

superiority and the narratives of Islam and Urdu as they were used in Pakistan,

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d. how Pakistan’s strategic culture owes to the political positions of Pakistan’s

‘overdeveloped’ post-colonial bureaucracy (Alavi, 1992) and Pakistan’s post-

colonial ‘bureaucratic-military complex’ (Buzan, et, al. 1986), with its roots in

the colonial structure,

e. how the emerging national identity concepts from the national textbooks can

be critically studied from postcolonial perspectives and

f. how the emerging national identity discourses from Pakistan’s compulsory

national curriculum textbooks exclude the narratives of the natives’

anticolonial struggle.

Another methodological contribution of this study is that it suggests how we can

study the question of national identity construction using Foucault’s DA and his analytical

tools. The study has similarly uncovered how Foucault’s theorization of the constitution

of knowledge, subject, power/knowledge nexus, and regime of truth can help understand

the dynamics involved in Pakistan’s national textbook constructions. In this regard my

study mostly converges with the outcomes of Lee’s (2006) and Campbell–Thompson’s

(2013) studies, as discussed in section 4.9.2.

8.4 Implications and Recommendations

This section outlines the broader implications of constructing Pakistani students’

national identities on the factors discussed above and offers specific recommendations.

Islam: the study illustrates the strategic use of religion in the textbooks to

construct the Pakistani nation as a homogenous whole. This subsumes Pakistan’s national

identity completely into a particular Islamic identity, notwithstanding there are several

sectarian divisions within Islam, hence, in the larger community of Pakistani Muslims. It

obscures Pakistan’s multiple ethnicities/cultures and religions from students’ eyes, making

them into myopic and ethnocentric subjects. The faith-based identity, which the textbooks

foster, thus erects boundaries within the Muslim students. It determines Muslim students’

belonging and othering simultaneously. On the other hand, the use of Islam as a key identity

marker excludes non–Muslim students from the concept of Pakistani nationhood. The

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study notes that the importance of these identity discourses is embedded in power

relations. Similarly, the aim of instructing minority students in Islam seems to make them

conform to the ways of the majority. The unequal power relations in schools make this

situation further complex. These trends foster exclusionary attitudes amongst the majority

of Muslim students and teachers. This makes them insensitive to minority students and

their cultures. They also incline to identify only with Muslims and Muslim countries and

develop antipathy for non–Muslims and non–Muslim countries/cultures. These situations

bear a powerful potential to replicate in society with serious implications.

In view of Pakistan being a parliamentary democracy, the construction of Pakistani

identity on Islam and the proclamation of Islam as a state religion entails social as well as

legal consequences. This affects the rights of non–Muslim Pakistanis as an equal right

bearing citizen of Pakistan. Similarly, this entails implications for the freedom of expression,

particularly on religious matters. It may well accord legal power to the state and the self–

righteous to intervene in peoples’ private affairs. Equally, the study observes that religion

has the potential to be used against political opponents at the time of power transition.

However, in agreement with Mahmood (2011), I suggest that Islam as a significant

construct of Muslim national identity should not be undermined. This would be like

another colonial project. Mahmood (2011) argues that the European powers introduced

so-called ‘educational reforms to civilize the local population’ and these ‘seldom benefitted’

(ibid. 94). Given Pakistan’s demographics, its national identity is under no threat and will

remain Islamic. The study, therefore, suggests employing Islam inclusively while embracing

the entire cultural diversity of the land and its people. Similarly, the study recommends

Pakistan’s education system should not use Islam as a technology of power to reinforce

communal divisions within the society and beyond. Similarly, it must abstain from fostering

hate for non–Muslim communities/countries and rarefying multicultural, multi-religious,

multi-ethnic facets of Pakistani society, as this study has identified. Islam is a powerful

cultural idiom and an inseparable part of Pakistan’s social and geographical landscape. It

should be presented inclusively, embracing most other elements of the cultural mosaic of

the region.

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As noted, Islam is taught through the compulsory subjects of English, Urdu and

Pakistan Studies to all students irrespective of creed, caste and faith. This practice is a clear

violation of the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child. Therefore, it must

end. The Government of Pakistan should make necessary provisions of the teaching of

respective religions to its adherents through elective subjects. The teaching of Islam should

be restricted to only Muslim students through the elective subject of Islamic studies. This

way, Pakistan can become like most other countries of the world, including the

neighbouring countries India and Bangladesh (see Qazi and Shah, 2019a and Qazi and Shah,

2019b).

Gender: the study underlines that the gendered construction of Pakistani females

fosters divisions amongst the citizens of Pakistan. It encourages otherness between male

vs. female, Muslim female vs. non–Muslim female and within Muslim females. This is

detrimental to Pakistan’s cohesive national identity and can hamper the overall progress

of the country. The use of religion for the appropriation of the female body is noted to

have subsumed Pakistani identity into Islamic identity. This similarly excludes non–Muslim

females as equal citizens of Pakistan. Equally, it inspires judgmental attitudes, social/official

surveillance and moral policing for those Muslim females who do not conform to the

religiously prescribed propriety standards. The study recognizes the textbook discourses

about gendered social roles and appropriate female dressing as political tools. They put

imperceptible pressures on the Pakistani women to have wider acceptance for the existing

patriarchal social values and to (re)produce particular power relations. These factors

would negatively impact her social, professional and personal life.

The study recommends a complete revision of the sections which reinforce social

divisions between the Muslim and non–Muslim females based on religion, clothes and social

rituals. Given women are almost half of the population of the country, they should have a

proportionate share as textbooks’ authors and in pictorial illustrations. More importantly,

the practice of using textbooks as a source to inculcate gendered social roles

indoctrinating – ‘man for the field and woman for the hearth’ (Tennyson, 1847) – should

stop. Ironically, this situation reminds us of the gender issues that were largely settled as

a result of the second wave of feminism in the West in the 1960s – 1970s (see section

3.2.4). The textbooks analysed herein unravel how they still persist in Pakistan. They

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should, on the other hand, play an active role to blur the gendered division so that

parochial attitudes can be discouraged. In the depiction of national heroes, social activists

and political figures, the textbooks should have an equitable proportion of both genders.

By providing room for the balanced female pictorial representation, the textbooks can

foster new consciousness that may alter the existing parochial/patriarchal social

orientations and power relations in the society. It can graduate people into accepting

women beyond their perceived social space and not as a man’s ‘other’. This will open up

equal opportunities for her and will ease male control whether it is institutional, familial

or social.

Urdu: the study underlines the political use of the Urdu language, associating it

with Islam to overlap linguistic divisions existing in Pakistan. Similarly, it has shown how

Pakistan’s dominant ruling classes join hands to promote it to reinforce homogeneity at

the cost of local languages and cultures. It helps control and regulate the behaviours of

indigenous social classes and benefits a particular class in terms of political gains and power

consolidation. However, it has caused political resentment resulting in several violent

linguistic movements in the country. It paved the way for the disintegration of West

Pakistan in 1971, now Bangladesh. On the other hand, in remaining Pakistan, many such

movements had been quelled using military actions in the provinces.

Pakistan is not the only country in the world that is multilingual. However, it

perceives multilingualism as a threat to its unity and attempts to overlay it superimposing

Urdu as its only national language. This approach is not realistic. Notwithstanding

Pakistan’s Indian centric negative national identity, there is a lot to learn from India’s

response to its multilingualism. Besides conferring constitutional recognition to 22 major

languages of the country, known as the ‘the 8th schedule’, it had introduced ‘Three

Language Formula’ in education (see Subhash, 2013)99. The formula recommends

schoolchildren to study:

a. the mother tongue or the regional language,

99 On the question of recognition of Indian languages, Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first prime minister) made a

comment: “The makers of our Constitution were wise in lying down that all the 13 or 14 languages’ were

to be national languages. There is no question of anyone language being more a national language than the

others. The languages listed in this Schedule had acquired different names at different stages. They are

better known as the Scheduled languages now”.

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b. the official language of the Union or the associate official language of the Union so

long as it exists (the official language of the union is Hindi, and its associate official

language is English) and

c. modern Indian language or a foreign language, not covered under (1) & (2) above

and other than that which is not being used as the medium of instruction (see

Mallikarjun, 2000; Subhash, 2013)

Though the case of Pakistan may not bot be identical with these states, Canada’s

and Switzerland’s response to a similar situation was also to encourage bi/multilingualism.

Canada has two and Switzerland has four national languages. As a result, wide–ranging

linguistic and cultural communities have succeeded in living in harmony and peace (see

Windisch, 2004). This study recommends constitutional recognition and encouragement

of multilingualism on similar lines as discussed hitherto.

UNESCO (2003) recommends teaching children in their mother tongue. The

document states that the ‘research has shown that learners learn best in their mother

tongue as a prelude to and complement of bilingual education approaches’ (ibid., p.8). Many

research studies have shown a positive relationship between students’ academic

achievements, cognition and bilingualism/multilingualism (see Peal and Lambert, 1962;

Cummins and Swain, 1986). In Pakistan, there is no provision of teaching children in

mother tongues in Punjab (with about 45% population of the country), Gilgit Baltistan or

Pakistani administered Kashmir, to name a few. Similarly, the ‘question of identity,

nationhood and power are closely linked to the use of specific languages in the classroom’

(UNESCO, 2003, p.9). This study, therefore, strongly recommends the provision of

primary education to children in their mother tongue in schools.

Militaristic Identity: the study has shown several implications of students’ anti–

India militaristic national identity construction in school. To further it, religion is also used

as a tool. This education can curb students’ civic sense encouraging them to look down

upon civilian achievements in the fields of social and natural sciences as well as in sports,

art, literature and music.

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The study recommends complete deradicalization and demilitarisation of national

textbooks. Both Pakistan and India are nuclear-armed states with a population of almost

one and a half billion. According to a World Bank report (2017), a considerable population

in both countries still live below the poverty line. This can be reduced by introducing

economic cooperation and curtailing arm expenditures. The idea of using national

education for fostering antagonism and hate and the glorification of war culture must be

revisited and revised. This has drastic consequences both locally and internationally.

This study also recommends the introduction of the subject of history and

geography at secondary and higher secondary levels. This will facilitate students to

understand the historical situatedness of the creation of Pakistan – a political event as a

result of political changes taking place in the aftermath of the Second World War, inter

alia. Teaching history and geography can broaden students’ outlook. By studying these

subjects, they can have a dialogue with a wide range of human experiences and historical

changes that have taken place over the millennia shaping today’s world. This can help them

appreciate the complex geographical, cultural, civilizational, religious and mercantile trends

connecting the region where Pakistan is positioned. Similarly, this can enable them to make

sense of the historical specificity of Pakistan’s national identity formulation which is

embedded in the political economy of the (post)colonial power relations. The introduction

of these subjects should bring an end to the teaching of Pakistan Studies in schools, which

was politically motivated. It was introduced in 1971 – within a few years after Pakistan’s

first war with India in 1965 (see Hameed, 2017).

The textbooks of English and Urdu are meant to develop students’ language skills

and should not be used as the power tools for propagating Islamic faith. Given English is

taught as a foreign language in Pakistan, a new series of English textbooks should be

introduced focusing on the improvement of students’ listening, speaking, reading and

writing skills. For this purpose, this study also proposes comprehensive teacher training

programmes.

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8.5 Limitations and Further Research

National identity construction is a complex process where curriculum, though

dominant, is just one factor. In view of study’s physical setting i.e., schools located in

Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, it is, indeed, significant. However, like most research

studies, this study does not present an exhaustive understanding of the phenomena

explored. To delve deep into the matter, similar studies can be conducted in all four

provinces of Pakistan as well as Pakistani administered Kashmir. Given the scale of

diversity, such studies can bring incredible insights as to how Pakistan’s disparate provincial

ethnicities relate to the idea of Pakistan. More so, concerning the four national identity

constructs which this study identified in the textbooks. For example, these can help

understand how the students belonging to Punjabi ethnicity (about 45% population)

conceive Pakistaniness compared to the students of Baluch ethnicity or Kashmiri ethnicity.

Hall (2001) argues that notions of nationality and ethnicity have historical specificities.

These are liable to ‘radical breaks, ruptures and discontinuities between one period and

another’ (p.72). In 2017, the Government of Pakistan promulgated a new national

education policy (NEP, 2017). Given Hall’s insight, the idea to explore a similar dimension

of students’ national identity constructions in the Pakistani provinces, keeping in view the

proposed policy changes in NEP, 2017, can be very significant.

In Pakistan, education is class–based, and several parallel education systems operate

in all provinces of Pakistan. For convenience, they can be broadly classified under four

names viz., the elite category of English medium schools following international curricula

such as GCSE/IGCSE and IB; schools for average or middle classes with the mix of local

and international curricula; the government schools and religious seminaries (see section

4.9). The current research can also be extended to these settings.

This study was conducted in postcolonial perspectives mostly using Foucault’s DA

and analytical tools. It has considered four intersecting factors for students’ national

identity constructions in schools including curriculum textbooks, the school as a structure,

the teachers and the students themselves. It could not draw on the direct accounts of why

the policymakers perceive Pakistan’s national identity the way they do it. This research can

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be further expanded by taking an account of this using a postcolonial theoretical

framework and Foucault’s methods.

The End

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Appendices A–K

Appendix A: Official Order to Principals Model Colleges

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Appendix B: Ethical Approval from The University of Leicester

266

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Appendix C: A Letter to School Principals

The Principal

Islamabad Model College for Boys/Girls

Dear Sir/ Madam

I would like to request your permission to conduct the suggested data collection tools (attached

herewith) on your students and teachers. The Director Model Colleges Prof. Dr. M. Tariq has

been kind enough to issue an order to this effect (copy attached).

I understand that my research involves children and I need to be cautious with the choice of

vocabulary/idiom. Also, I understand that the data collection tools have been designed to

generate data to understand how students perceive Pakistan’s national identity, therefore it is

sensitive.

I can assure you that I am conducting this study utmost conscientiously and being a Pakistani

national who has no motives other than academics. This study is fully self–financed, and I am

generating the required funds all by myself.

Keeping in view the ethical requirements I will not reveal the original identity of participants

unless permitted voluntarily.

The data collection tools have been designed with ultimate circumspection and thoughtfulness,

however, they are far from being perfect. If you realize these have any potential flaws, you are

requested to point out. I will delete/modify them accordingly.

Your guidance in this regard is highly appreciated.

Yours truly

Muhammad Habib Qazi (M.Phil.)

PhD student University of Leicester, UK

Email: mhq3@le.ac.uk

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Appendix D: General Introduction to Sampled Schools

The field–data for this study was collected from six Model Colleges (three boys and three girls),

located in Islamabad – the capital of Pakistan. These colleges are commonly known as IMCB

(Islamabad Model College for Boys) and IMCG (Islamabad Model College for Girls). In this study,

I have mostly used the word school/s for these colleges, unless a specification was required. There

are twenty such colleges (ten boys and ten girls) which, in most cases, cater to the educational

needs of local students from grades 1 to 12. Considering the higher side of the educational

qualifications (grades 11 and 12), offered in these colleges, a comparison can be drawn between

these and the Sixth Form Colleges in the UK that offer advanced school-level qualifications e.g. A,

or AS levels. After the 18th amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan in 2010, matters related to

Education/Schools/Colleges, within the jurisdiction of the Federal Capital Area, where these

colleges are located, come under the purview of the Capital Administration and Development

Division (CADD), Islamabad. Earlier they were under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministries and

Divisions (see https://cadd.gov.pk/about–us/cadd/).

The administrative structure of the colleges consists of Director and Deputy Directors who

oversee the administrative and academic affairs of all twenty colleges (see

https://www.fde.gov.pk/index.php/fde–about/wings–sections–under–fde/coordination–wing). Each

college consists of three wings, namely College Wing (grades 11–12), Senior Wing (6–10) and

Junior Wing (1–5). Each college then has a Principal, a Vice-Principal and a Headmistress. The

Principal oversees the complete affairs of his/her respective college, whereas, the Vice Principal

and Headmistress is responsible for their respective sections. The headmistress who is responsible

for the Junior Wing of the college is necessarily a female. Though all IMCBs are all–boy colleges

and all IMCGs are all–girl colleges, the gender segregation is not maintained for the selection of

teachers and the persons holding administrative positions.

In the interest of a high number of the student population, both IMCBs and IMCGs run two shifts

– morning and evening. Teaching hours for the morning shift are from 8 am to 1.30 pm; and for

the evening shift from 1.30 pm to 6.30 pm. The population of students varies considerably between

the shifts as well as across the colleges and it is largely dependent on the location of a college in

the capital territory. Normally, more students are accommodated in the morning shift. The

population of the colleges where this study was carried out, in the morning shift, ranged from 700

to 1200. The three boy – colleges had 710, 923 and 1202 students; and the three girl–colleges had

700, 895 and 1146 students enrolled at the time of data collection. The population of the grades

that I selected for the current study (9, 10, 11 and 12), similarly varied ranging from 30 to 38

students in each class (I included only those students in the study who brought back the signed

consent forms, so it turned out to be 18 to 27). The student-teacher ratio as reported by the

school principals also varied considerably. In the schools with a higher population, it was

approximately 1:24; and those with the lower population, it was about 1:26.

All colleges are located in well–constructed buildings. The classrooms are spacious which are

equipped with desks, chairs and a rostrum. They have ceiling fans, windows and are airy. Each

college has a big auditorium, a library, science labs and a playground where morning assembly is

held, and students play during the break time. All schools have a guard–room where more than

one gatekeepers guard the entrance and have a workforce consist of weepers and runners who

are the employees of the Federal Government of Pakistan. The restrooms are sufficient and well-

kept with an uninterrupted supply of water.

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Appendix E: Consent Form for Parents and Children

Dear Parents,

I am a PhD scholar at the University of Leicester, UK. I am conducting research on the topic of

Pakistani Curriculum and Postcolonialism – A Study of Pakistan’s Identity Formulation and

its Implications. It seeks to identify and analyze the main identity discourse employed in the state

curricula/education for shaping Pakistani students’ national identities. The director Model Colleges

Prof. Dr. M. Tariq Masood and the Principal of the college have been kind enough to grant

permission already. Now I request you to allow your child to participate in Focus Group interviews

and Participatory Tools. Focus Group interviews involve your child to take part in a guided

discussion on their concept of Pakistan’s national identity along with other students in the class.

During Participatory Tools they will be asked to draw a picture/diagram and label it with

adjectives/nouns to elaborate the same theme. Your permission will contribute substantially to the

field of education. However, if you decide otherwise your child can still participate in the activities

but I will not have him collected as data. Your contribution to the study is invaluable and I

appreciate it.

The details of Participatory Tools activities and Focus Group Interviews are attached herewith.

Regards

Muhammad Habib Qazi

PhD Scholar, University of Leicester, UK

Email: mhq3@le.ac.uk

Kindly tick ✔ the right option.

I ___________my child to participate in the study. 1. allow 2. don’t

Allow

Name: _________________________ Signature: ____________________________

For Participants

Please tick the appropriate boxes

Yes No

The researcher explained the purpose of his study and I have been given the

opportunity to ask questions about the project.

I have understood the information on this sheet.

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I agree to take part in the project. Taking part in the project will include being

interviewed and recorded (audio).

I understand that my taking part is voluntary; I can withdraw from the study at

any time and I do not have to give any reasons for why I no longer want to take

part.

Use of information I provide is for this project only.

I would not like my real name to be used in the study.

I understand my personal details such as my name, phone number and address

will not be asked/ revealed to people outside the project.

I understand that my words may be quoted in publications, reports, web pages,

and other research outputs, however, anonymously.

I understand that other genuine researchers may use my words in publications,

reports, web pages, and other research outputs, only if they agree to preserve

the confidentiality of the information as requested in this form.

Student Participant’s Signature/ initials: ____________________

I am extremely thankful to you for your participation in the study.

Sincerely,

Muhammad Habib Qazi

PhD Scholar, University of Leicester, UK

Email: mhq3@le.ac.uk

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Appendix F: Consent Form for Teachers

Dear Teacher

I am a PhD scholar at the University of Leicester, UK. I am conducting research on the topic of

Pakistani Curriculum and Postcolonialism – A Study of Pakistan’s Identity Formulation and

its Implications. It seeks to identify and analyze the main identity discourse employed in the state

curricula/education for shaping Pakistani students’ national identities. I would request you to take

part in the study. Your perspective is extremely important and will contribute substantially to the

field of education. I would request you to have an interview with me. I would also like to audiotape

it with your permission. I can assure you that the interview content will remain between the

participants. Kindly find attached the interview guide.

Many thanks.

Best Regards

Muhammad Habib Qazi (M.Phil.)

PhD student University of Leicester, UK

Email: mhq3@le.ac.uk

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Appendix G: Observation Checklist

• Morning assembly rituals

• Visuals on notice boards and corridor and classroom walls, if any.

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Appendix H: Guide for Students’ Participatory Tools

Participatory Tools

• draw images of things/artifacts/symbols which in students’ opinion represent/not–

represent Pakistan or ‘us’ as a nation.

• draw an image of a girl/woman who in students’ opinion truly represent/not–represent

Pakistan/Pakistani culture or ‘us’ as a nation and describe her using adjectives.

• draw an image of a tree with five branches each representing the most important aspect

of Pakistani culture.

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Appendix I: Guide for Students’ Focus Group

National identity vs. hierarchy within Pakistani identities:

1. Who are you? (To learn students’ spontaneous response with respect to his/her

identity(ies))

2. Where are you from?

3. What’s your language? (To learn students’ spontaneous response with respect to his/her

language(s))

4. What other languages (s) in Pakistan do you like the most and why?

5. Do you (dis)like any local language, more especially? If yes, why?

6. Given the chance, which ethnic group would you like to be a member of? Why?

7. Given the chance, which province of Pakistan would you like to relocate and why?

8. What makes you feel proud of your country?

B. Students’ Sense of National Identity

1. What makes you feel like a real Pakistani?

2. What makes you feel proud of being a Pakistani?

3. What makes you feel bad about being a Pakistani?

4. Can you relate any event(s) in the history of your country which made you proud of

Pakistan?

5. Can you relate any event(s) in the history of your country which made you ashamed of

Pakistan?

C. Us and Them

1. What is a good Pakistani like in your opinion?

2. What is not a good Pakistani in your opinion?

3. Do you feel proud of any other country specifically in the neighbourhood? If yes, why

and how?

4. Do you feel disgusted towards any other country in the world especially in the

neighbourhood? If yes, why and how?

5. Why do you think was Pakistan created?

6. What do you think would have happened if we had been living with India?

7. Given the chance which country would you like to be a national of? If yes, why?

8. Which country would you never like to be a national of and why?

D. National Identity Formation Grounds in Textbooks:

1. Which topic in the textbooks do you enjoy the most? What do you like most about

them?

2. What textbook topics make you feel proud as a Pakistani?

3. What textbooks topics you don’t like and why?

4. Who is your favourite historical personality(ies) and why? (amongst the personalities

figuring in the curriculum)

5. Which historical personality(ies) you don’t appreciate/ like/ hate and why?

6. Who amongst them would you like to read more about, and you would like the

authorities to include more information about him/her?

7. Why do you like that personality more?

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8. Which aspect of his/her personality do you think is the most useful for you as a Pakistani

and you like most about him/her?

9. Are you satisfied with the curriculum or you would like the authorities to include

something else to help you develop a better sense of Pakistani?

10. If yes, what suggestions would you give to improve the course?

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Appendix J: Interview Guide for Teachers

A. General Questions

1. What’s your qualification?

2. Where are you from (Province)?

3. What’s your mother tongue?

4. How long have you been teaching?

B. Questions for understanding Pakistan’s National Identity

1. “Most Urdu/ English/ Social/Pak Studies teachers in schools make conscious efforts to

teach students how to be good Pakistani,” do you agree or disagree? Do you think it is

important to make conscious efforts to teach your students to be good Pakistani boys/

girls?

2. Do you do that? If so, how?

3. What particular traits do you think authorities should promote through the curriculum

to make our children good Pakistani?

4. How do u think this curriculum is prompting national identity and its awareness among

students for making them good Pakistani?

5. What in your understanding is less important in it and should be removed/ reshaped?

6. What in your opinion is more important and should be further emphasized?

7. What folklores/ history related personalities do textbooks talk about to promote

Pakistan’s national identity'?

8. Do the curriculum textbooks represent all Pakistani cultures and ethnic diversity of

Pakistan fairly /equally?

9. If not, which group is more/ less talked about in the texts? What do you think about it?

10. Given that, do you take any measures to redress the situation?

11. Do you think both girls and boys are given nearly equal space in the Pakistani curriculum

for Pakistan’s national identity promotion? If not, could you please point out?

12. What’s your idea of a good Pakistani girl?

13. What’s your idea of a good Pakistani boy?

14. Who in your opinion plays a more important role in making good Pakistanis – a teacher

or a textbook?

15. Do you want to suggest anything for the development of Pakistan’s cohesive/ inclusive

national identity in students?

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Appendix K: Teachers’ Profiles and Selected Brief Excerpts from their

Transcripts

Teacher A: Interview Transcript

Profile: Social Studies Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Female

Years of service: 8

I: Generally, I have observed that most Urdu/ English/ Social/Pak Studies teachers in schools make

conscious efforts to teach students how to be good Pakistani. Do you agree or disagree?

TA: I teach students from Grade 5 to higher secondary [Grades 11 & 12]. First, we teach our

students about the raison d’être for the creation of Pakistan …. What our origin is… what our

ideology is. It is the Islamic ideology which provides us our basis. We teach them that the Ideology

of Islam is the Ideology of Pakistan… obviously, we talk about Islamic values at length …. Ideology

of Islam is our highest principle.

I: Do the curriculum textbooks represent all Pakistani cultures and ethnic diversity of Pakistan

fairly /equally?

TA: We have four provinces, and they all are culturally rich. I suggest we tell our children about

their social customs and their educational standards etc. Nothing of this sort is there.

I: Do you think both females and males are given nearly equal space in the Pakistani curriculum?

TA: Women have not been discussed in the textbooks the way they actually deserve.

I: How should an ideal Pakistan woman look like?

TA: Our media has played a very dirty role. We are representing India in our TV plays. We dress

like them; our women do make–up like them; they style their hair like them; they try to talk like

them… our women mimic their Mehndi ceremony on marriage events here… We are promoting

this in our morning shows on TV channels.

I: Ideal Pakistani boy?

TA: He should not praise their [India] heroes. He [they] must realize he is [they are] Pakistani

first. He must also realize his responsibilities. As a Pakistani, he should have all this.

Teacher B: Interview Transcript

Profile: English Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Female

Years of service: 8

TB: Yes, I don’t know what Islamic injunctions about women’s dressing are. I am, however, against

veiling. It is too much alluring and it also intervenes with their professional performance. Strike a

middle/ modest way as too much openness is not permitted in our religion too. Besides, if you go

out in it [modern outfit?] you yourself feel uneasy.

Teacher C: Interview Transcript

Profile: Pakistan Studies/ Social Studies Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Female

Years of service: 15

I: Right. Where, in your opinion, is our curriculum more focussed on?

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TC: Ideology of Pakistan is focused more.

I: What’s that?

TC: The Two Nation Theory ––– normally what we observe is they are taught quite extensively

about the Two–Nation Theory and the circumstances leading to its emergence.I: Do you agree with

the Two Nation Theory?

TC: Yes, I do.

I: Okay. Please tell what in your understanding is less important in it and should be removed/

reshaped?

TC: These days we are experiencing terrorism ––– I feel ––– though our religion ––– [difficulty in

explaining is visible] ––– In our religion ––– for example, there is no scope for the Two Nation

Theory. Our religion doesn’t promote this kind of thinking.

I: Who is underrepresented in the textbooks?

TC: I think Baluchistan. is nowhere to be found in textbooks.

I: Okay, fine. My next question is what’s your idea of a good/ ideal Pakistani girl?

TC: In dressing ––– there’s no concept of burqa in Islam, there’s a concept of a hoodie … which

you can make with a shawl or dupatta you are wearing… Cover yourself … not necessarily that

you have a big shawl which you wear clumsily and it slides sideways all the time … not necessarily

…

I: Do you want to suggest anything for the development of Pakistan’s cohesive/ inclusive national

identity in students?

TC: Independently promote Pakistani identity. Not by comparing it with anyone, as we do it with

India. Of course, historically we were together, [and] we achieved our independence. It is not

necessary or correct to tell our children all the time that they were cruel towards us and that’s

why we fought for independence. This generates hatred.

Teacher D: Interview Transcript

Profile: Pakistan Studies/ Social Studies Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Female

Translation from Urdu to English [nearly verbatim]

Years of service: 42

I: Do you think both girls and boys are given nearly equal space in the Pakistani curriculum?

TD: In books ––– I think books are not at fault. Gender parity is non–existent in the minds of

people… These things [gender discrimination] basically arrived in our culture from Hindu

culture…He [man] is accorded [Allah accorded him] superiority, no doubt.

They [women/girls] must put on a shawl. If they wear burqa or abaya even that’s okay. However,

it must not be for the namesake, like [as observed] their eyes throw coquettish/flirtatious looks

[towards men] but otherwise they are veiled; every contour of their body is dancing provocatively

though they are ostensibly wrapped in an all-encompassing robe. Morality emanates from within

and dwells in the eyes.

I: How should an ideal Pakistani man be like?

TD: [silence] He [a Pakistani man] should be like Allama Iqbal [Pakistan’s national poet]

Teacher E: Interview Transcript

Profile: Urdu Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Male

279

Translation from Urdu to English [nearly verbatim]

Years of service: 20

TE: We teach them we have an independent country of our own. We compare our things with

India and tell them how ours are different from theirs. This is how we emphasize our ideology and

justify our separation.

I: What is this ideology?

TE: Particularly when we talk about the Two Nation Theory, we teach our children that it is based

on Kalima–e–Tayyaba [also known as Kalima–e– Shahada/ Tawheed– one of the five pillars of Islam.

It was not possible for us to live in the United India and to follow all those customs [social, cultural,

religious] which stand contrary to what our religion preaches.

I: We have our folk traditions, social events, national heroes etc. Do you think our textbooks

represent them adequately considering the cultural and ethnic diversity of Pakistan?

TE: Yes, not fully but to a large extent. However, our children know very little about Baluchistan

compared to Sindh. You will find a lot about Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Also, you will find a

lot about Kashmir, but not about Baluchistan.

I: Have you ever tried to redress this situation?

TE: … we do have children from minorities. However, they don’t question [referring to Sikh

children] why there’s nothing about Gurdwara Panja Sahib [one of the holiest places of Sikh religion

in the world]. Likewise, it never strikes Christian children that such and such church is very old

and why there’s nothing about it in the textbooks. There’s nothing about these things from the

students’ side, neither did I ever try.

Teacher F: Interview Transcript

Profile: English Teacher

Medium of Interview: English & Urdu

Gender: Female

Years of service: 16

I: What’s your idea of a good Pakistani girl/ boy?

TF: First of all she should love her country. She should be patriotic. … She should cover herself

fully considering her religion and as Pakistani. Should not be provocatively dressed up.

I: Boy?

TF: Respect. He should give respect to each and every relation. He is a brother, he is a son, [and]

he is a friend. He should give respect to each and every relation.

Teacher G: Interview Transcript

Profile: English Teacher

Gender: Male

Medium of Interview: English

Years of service: 19

TG: Curriculum is hiding a number of realities from students. It is not the real interpretation, the

true interpretation of history.

I: Are you talking about the representation or presentation or the way things have been written?

The account given is wrong or what?

280

TG: In a number of pieces. I won’t say it is wrong. I would say it is faulty, in a number of cases. The

real truth is not being portrayed…. we need a curriculum formulated by different schools of

thought. One, civilians is involved, military men are involved, currently, the curriculum we have –

–– another major problem, in the curriculum related to nationalism, is, our nationalism begins and

ends with Indian– centralism. All the wars fought against … are highlighted in, you know,

exaggerated way. We do not need that much exaggeration over time.

I: What do you think is an ideal role of a Pakistani woman in our society– how should she be like?

TG: First dressing ––– [it] should be decided on the basis of personal choice. Second, the demands

of society [and] demands of religion.

Teacher H: Interview Transcript

Profile: English Teacher

Medium of Interview: English

Gender: Male

Years of service: 10

I: Had we been living in India, what would have happened?

TH: Yesterday, I was reading news okay, that a Muslim guy was killed for eating beef. So the

religious freedom you don’t enjoy. There are certain things which are culturally contradictory. For

example, this gao mata [totem or belief that cow is sacred]. They say it is a sacred animal for them,

and Muslims slaughter this animal and eat its meat. This is a very big gap. Besides, we witnessed

the demolition of the historic Babri Mosque. This gap does not exist here. Here you can freely

exercise your freedom.

I: Do the curriculum textbooks represent all Pakistani cultures and ethnic diversity of Pakistan

fairly /equally?

TH: Not all. My answer is not all, but I think smaller provinces should be given certain more

representation in the curriculum. This means if we look towards Gilgit Baltistan, okay, their culture

is quite alien to us. Nobody knows about the culture of Gilgit Baltistan, [and] Kashmir and people

who are living in the remote areas of Sindh, okay, remote areas of Baluchistan okay, nobody knows,

our young generation is not aware how they live, how they are passing their lives. Their life is quite

tough, very difficult.

I: Who is overrepresented?

TH: I think because the people who design the syllabus belong to Punjab, and I think Punjab is the

largest province. That is why naturally they have a certain inclination, and in that representation,

the lion’s share goes to Punjab.

I: What’s your idea how a good/ ideal Pakistani girl/woman should be like in our society?

TH: A woman should be a role model, okay, for the next generation definitely… she should be

having good morality [sic] and ethics, okay, follow culture’s limitations.

I: What do you mean by morality?

TH: Our morality originates from our religion. She should dress up properly, there should not be

any vulgarity in dressing.

I: What do you mean by vulgarity in the dressing?

TH: Body parts should not be visible. They should not accentuate them [wearing tight dresses] …

Our culture does not permit this, our religion, our ethics, our family system… everything go

against it.

I: Ideal Pakistani boy?

TH: Should be responsible. A true patriot, okay. A good character okay.

Teacher I: Interview Transcript

281

Profile: Pakistan Studies Teacher

Medium of Interview: English

Gender: Male

Years of service: 21

I: Do you want some other heroes to be introduced to our curriculum. If so who?

TI: Again same thing, for example, we miss Ahmed Kharal, he fought against the British. We do

not teach students about Abdullah Bhatti. He fought against Mughals. And those people like

scientists… Then our artists, for example, Gul Jee, Sadqain, Ghulam Rasool, Zubairi etc.

I: Do you mean scientists like Dr. Abdul Salam?

TI: Yes, I mean that. Then our artists who for example, Gul Jeet, Sadqain, Ghulam Rasool, Zubairi

etc etc. I think Pakistan curriculum must include in the social sciences, within social studies ethics

about living in the society, how to behave with the society, and then national heroes from fine arts,

from school, from education, from every sphere of life.

I: Okay, which heroes our curriculum emphasize more?

I: An ideal Pakistan girl/ woman and her role in our society?

TI: They should be free to move anywhere like you and me. Feel free to work… opt profession…

[and] feel protected. Rather than, my daughter, she should not ask me to come with me I want to

go shopping.

Teacher J: Interview Transcript

Profile: Urdu Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Female

Years of service: 25

TJ: I tell them about Islamic studies and history. I tell them about the sayings of the Prophet

Muhammad (PBUH). … the ones given in our Islamic history and Indo Pakistan history, so that

students idealize Him [Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)] instead of idealizing Michael Jackson or

someone else.

I: What would have happened had we been living in India?

TB: There would have been… like what they [Hindus] did with Muslims in Ahmed Abad [Ahmed

Abad, India: riots in 2002 which claimed the lives of scores of Muslims]. They [Hindus] destroyed

their businesses. Now they [Muslims] are living in slums. False criminal charges were pressed

against them … Hindus have grabbed their properties. Imagine if a person like Modi [the prime

minister of India since 2014] came into power, would the Muslim be secure? We are thankful that

we are living in Pakistan.

I: What particular traits do you think authorities should further promote/emphasize through the

curriculum to make our children good Pakistani?

TK: The concept of Jihad should be conveyed correctly so that they develop virtue and become

good human beings. This must be emphasized and we should create an environment to facilitate

them.

Teacher K: Interview Transcript

Profile: Urdu Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Male

Years of service: 13

282

I: Where should be the emphasis on?

TK: The concept of Jihad should be conveyed correctly so that they develop virtue and become

good human beings.

Teacher L: Interview Transcript

Profile: Urdu Teacher

Medium of Interview: Urdu

Gender: Male

Years of service: 23

… it is a pity that he’s not promoted the way Indian actors are promoted in Pakistani TV channels.

… An insignificant news item about Indian actors/actresses becomes breaking news in our

channels’. Our TV channels accord no coverage to any Pakistani hero except Iqbal and Quaid–e–

Azam.

I: Pakistan is culturally quite diverse. We have our folk traditions, social events, national heroes

etc. Do the curriculum textbooks represent all Pakistani cultures and ethnic diversity of Pakistan

fairly /equally?

TL: No. Punjab is playing a very dominant role. People of Punjab are intelligent and it [Punjab] is

well represented in the curriculum textbooks’. However, sometimes I think it’s not good because

it causes bitterness among the people of smaller provinces.

I: What’s your idea of a true Pakistani representative girl/ boy?

TL: First thing, she should be from the middle class. Elite class is not a true representative of

Pakistan.

I: How?

TL: First, she [a Pakistani girl/ woman] seriously lacks Pakistaniat [the true spirit of Pakistan]. Her

manners of dressing and speaking are not Pakistani … how can a girl who wears Jeans or T-shirt

be a representative of Pakistan? … she should observe Purdah; at least she should take Dupatta.

The middle class should represent Pakistan.

283

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