Image The Friday Times

 

Feudalism’s Aversion to Education

By the late Syed Arif Hussaini

Voices were raised mainly by the traditional groups of Pakistani politicians when the Musharraf government laid down that a person aspiring for a seat in the federal or in a provincial parliament would have to be at least a university graduate to qualify as a candidate.
Although this condition was generally acknowledged as having been laid down to ensure a minimum caliber for public representatives, its vehement opposition particularly by the landed aristocracy underlined the continuing bane of politics being dominated in the country by rural landowners.
Feudalism and education are anathema, indeed, to each other. One derogates the other in the present-day Pakistani social milieu. In Europe, on the other hand, where feudalism was the prevalent system during the middle ages, from 800 to 1350 AD, the feudal barons and the church were instrumental in setting up educational institutions including several universities. These pulled Europe out of the Dark Age that followed the fall of the Great Roman Empire and put Western Europe in particular on the path leading to renaissance, enlightenment, science, technology and industrialization.
Emperor Charlemagne, the most prominent intellectual and king of the age of feudalism, who ruled over Europe for almost half a century, 769 to 814, considered literacy and learning essential to the rebirth of the Roman Empire of his dream. He commanded every cathedral and monastery of his kingdom to establish schools. “Take care”, he ordered, “to make no difference between the sons of serfs and of freemen, so that they might come and sit on the same benches to study grammar, music, and arithmetic.”
The path followed by the feudal aristocracy of Pakistan, after Independence, was totally regressive. The peasants and serfs were deprived of educational facilities and treated like slave labor. The Sardars of Balochistan were the most oppressive.
Decades after Independence, one is surprised to find that the tentacles of feudalism have become firmer and harsher. Feudal dynasties now control half a dozen political parties including PML-Q, PML-N. Ironically enough, the so-called People’s Party was headed by a prominent aristocrat/landlord, Benazir. She talked all the time about elections but opted to be the chairperson for life of her own party! That is in keeping with the feudal spirit.
The end of the British rule in South Asia also marked the beginning of the end of feudalism - the British system of indirect control - in all countries of the region with the glaring exception of Pakistan. Education has perhaps been the biggest casualty of this act of omission.
The exigencies of the early years of the new state, allowed the establishment to put on hold land reforms. The feudal elite, with the connivance of civil and military bureaucracies, managed to establish their hold on the country’s politics. The rapacious rural aristocracy became the biggest force for the maintenance of status quo in politics and policy making. No wonder, the first general elections could not be held before 1970 - 23 years after the creation of Pakistan.
The feudal lords of West Pakistan, masquerading as socialists under Bhutto’s People’s Party, refused to hand over power to a commoner from the Eastern wing despite the fact that the latter had won an overwhelming majority in the parliament.
Bhutto was their leader then and his daughter, Benazir, headed the coterie later.
During the entire history of the country, education has remained sadly neglected. Educational reforms, whenever carried out, such as those of President Ayub or of Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto, touched the issues only superficially without developing a questioning mind among the youth of the country to challenge the feudal domination.
The result of such a criminal neglect of the educational sector is that today nearly a third of 5-9 year olds are out of school and literacy rate is 38 per cent only. Allocations for education have lingered for years around 2.3 per cent of GNP per annum as against a minimum of 4 per cent recommended by the UN.
Here in the US, highest priority is given to education. Readers of this column would recall that the single most significant factor in their ability to reach this country has been their education back home.
Reverting to the situation in Pakistan, one finds that now the students who opt for science subjects fail to apply a scientific approach to their subject, as the educational system stifles their imagination, creativity and curiosity. It is the spirit of inquiry that makes a nation, and its absence mars it and relegates it to the dustbin of history.
Pakistan is producing now less than 100 PhDs, as against 5,000 by India!
Education is not, lamentably, considered crucial, the very life-blood for the society’s survival and progress.
The generation that came to Pakistan from India carrying with them a high value for education has gradually faded out and their children too have absorbed the feudalistic spirit of getting something for nothing. Or, they have managed to leave the country for foreign lands where they could labor and live well, unhindered and unsuppressed by the ruling elite.
The unskilled, semi-skilled workers too managed to reach the Middle East to earn respectable wages. Their remittances enabled their families to send their children to schools. But, the rapacious politicians and their corrupt bureaucratic minions had, meanwhile, set up a system of ghost schools to misappropriate government funds. Ten per cent of some 42,000 schools in Sindh, for instance, had become schools on paper only. The percentage in Punjab was no better. The children of the workers in the Middle East, particularly those hailing from remote villages, had acquired the means to go to schools but there were no schools within easy reach. So they went to the religious schools attached to local mosques where they could hardly get the education that would enable them to eke out a living. The supremacy of the landlord remained undisturbed. The opportunity went to waste.
What we need today is expansion of educational facilities from elementary school to post-graduate levels, registration of religious schools, introducing secular subjects in their syllabi and enabling them financially to hire teachers for the new subjects, expansion of higher-level education in science and technology in concert with other Muslim countries. But, the most important factor is the change in the value system and the mindset concerning education.
The negative and hypocritical approach of the landed aristocracy will have to yield place to genuine appreciation of the need to spread education in the country. That can come only when the elected representatives are themselves educated. Some Pakistani newspapers have published lists of prominent landlords who are non-graduates. Some have not even crossed high school level!
Being thus sidelined would hopefully awaken them to the reality that the days of inheriting power and pelf by birth have come to an end. If they do not see the writing on the wall, the wind of change will sweep them down into dust.