DENIZENS OF ALIEN WORLDS

11
In general, education seems to have been a neglected subject by liberal scholars
and social scientists. By writing Education: Critical Perspectives, Rubina Saigal, a
sociologist, has made a good beginning (Saigol 1993). This book comprises essays on
subjects such as ‗education and social class‘, ‗education and religion‘, democracy,
violence, women etc from a liberal point of view. Saigol‘s later work, on the way
educational discourse creates notions of identity which subjugate women in a maledominated
social system, are excellent examples of sophisticated theoretical analysis
which illuminates much that was not clear before (Saigol 1995 and 2000). She also refers
to the way education creates classes and identities which enable us to take action. If our
identities are constructed on hatred we will be violent. This, unfortunately, is what our
anti-India, anti-women texts are doing (Saigol 2000: 73 and 254).
Saigol had referred to Pervez Hoodbhoy‘s book Muslim and Science (1991)
which was perhaps the first attempt to challenge Zia ul Haq‘s regime‘s ‗view of
education as an ideological tool which should serve the interests of the religious lobby‘
(Saigol 1993: 1). Hoodbhoy also went on to confront those elements of the state and the
educational lobby who filled childrens‘ textbooks with anti-India and pro-war views
(Hoodbhoy and Nayyar 1985).
This is a struggle which goes on even today as will be brought out later in this
book. Hoodbhoy also edited a book, Education and the State (1998) in which there are
essays on the economics of education, the examination system, the role of NGOs in
education, madrassas, universities and so on. Most of these essays are of high quality but
some lack an understanding of, or familiarity with, primary sources. Moreover, the book
does not touch upon the cadet colleges or the private universities which are proliferating
nowadays. Nor does the book does look at education from the point of view of socioeconomic
class and the students‘ world view i.e. what do they think about militancy (as
in Kashmir) and tolerance (of minorities).
The objectives of this book are: to give a historical overview of the development
of educational institutions in British India; to describe how schools and universities are
situated in contemporary Pakistan; to understand how Pakistani society is polarized along
socio-economic lines and how, at least at the school level, this results in polarization in
world view as well.