Living on the Margins. Minorities in South Asia - EURAC

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They destroyed the property of the local people. They exiled the last Mughal King to Rangoon’. 11 In this description the English are cruel, murderous and uncivilized as they murdered women and children with cruel abandon. The British argument about the uncivilized and savage natives is turned upon its head to show lack of civilization of the rulers. The story of the cruelty of the British ‘other’ recurs in several textbooks, partly to justify independence and partly as a rebuttal of the charge of Muslim cruelty and lack of civilization. The Christian ‘other’ is presented in the following way in social studies textbooks: The people of Africa requested the Muslims to invade their lands to save them from the tyranny of their Christian rulers who extorted taxes from them. 12 The Christian rulers are not only tyrannical, but they extort taxes from their subjects. The excluded piece of knowledge is that Muslims also extracted taxes from Muslims as well as Jaziya (religious tax) from non-Muslims. The depiction of tyrannical Christian rulers requires a contrast with the self, which is provided in the following way: History has no parallel to the extremely kind treatment of the Christians by the Muslims. Still the Christian kingdoms of Europe were constantly trying to gain control of Jerusalem. This was the cause of the Crusades. 13 The self is constructed as kind as opposed to the tyrannical ‘other’. The cause of the crusades is quickly attributed to the militarist and expansionist designs of the ‘other’. No historical, political, economic or social explanation is attempted, nor the complex dynamics of the crusades are provided. One singular cause is attributed to the prolonged conflict. One form of the reproduction of ideology, and with it identity, is oversimplification –the removal of all complexity by reducing conflict to Them and Us categories. The aim of this pedagogy is not the inculcation of understanding or intellectual reflection, but the creation of religious identity. The Christian ‘other’ is also a liar and cheat. In spite of the kind treatment of the Christians by Muslim rulers, the former had inexplicable proclivities toward lying. As the textbook historian states: Some of the Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem fabricated many false stories of suffering. If they were robbed on the way, they said it were (sic) the Muslims who robbed them. 14 Tales of suffering under Muslims are mere fabrication and Muslims are of course incapable of robbing. The textbook historian then bemoans the fact that all the Christian countries united against the Muslims and sent large armies to attack them and justified it by saying that Jesus Christ allowed it. “The Pope was caught in a religious frenzy” says the textbook. The Christian ‘other’ thus also had tendencies toward needless “religious 11 Social Studies Textbook for Class VI, p. 77. 12 Ibid. p. 21. 13 Ibid. p. 25. 14 Ibid. p. 26. 79
frenzy”. The major absence in this tale of the two nations is that Pakistan’s non Muslim minority has suffered a great deal of oppression at the hands of the state which has used the Blasphemy Law to systematically target Christians and many of them have become its victims including an eleven year old child, Salamat Masih. Christian churches have been burned in Islamabad, Bahawalpur and Christian organizations such as Idara-e-Amno-Insaf in Karachi was attaked and seven workers were killed in cold blood. The nation writes its tale in blood – on the pages of history texts and on the bodies of its non- Muslims citizens. The Greedy Usurer: The Jewish Other The Jewish ‘other’ of the Muslim self does not figure very prominently in middle and secondary level textbooks. This omission is noteworthy because anti-semitic sentiments are widespread in Pakistan where people overwhelmingly support the Palestinian cause. One possible reason for this relative silence within textbooks may be because of the physical distance between Jews and Pakistani Muslims. There are hardly any Jews living in Pakistan who could pose a direct threat to the Pakistani self. Although the Hindu minority in Pakistan is also miniscule, the geographical contiguity of India reflects the proximity of this threat. And, as already stated, the story of the two permanently inimical nations is a Hindu Muslim story. While varying ‘others’ may enter the construction of Muslim Pakistan, it is primarily the blood stained severance from the Hindu ‘other’ that incites memories of pain and sorrow. However, as in the case of Indian and Hindu, no distinction is made between Jews and Zionists. When the Jews do appear in textbooks they are almost always as Zionists, and there is no concept of a non-Zionist Jewish person. Pakistan’s official foreign policy is anti-Israel, and at times the impression one gets from public discourse is that all Jews are perceived as Israelis. All Israelis are to be condemned as all of them are cruel, wicked and imperialists. Fine distinctions between Jews, Israelis and Zionists are seldom made in public discourse or textbook representations. There is generally scant mention of Jews except while discussing Pakistan’s foreign policy or in the process of constructing a pan- Islamic identity. Whenever the Jews do appear in textbooks, they almost always play the role of Shylock – the greedy, bloodthirsty usurer. They are forced into a singular and narrow identity of the moneylender who charged very high rates of interest and destroyed the lives of people. The Hindu moneylender (referred to as baniya in Pakistan) and the Muslim moneylenders do not figure highly in the curricular discourse. The stereotype of the tight-fisted and parsimonious Jew obliterates the possibility of a poor or destitute Jewish person. Such a creature, it is assumed, does not exist. A generous, magnanimous, friendly or largehearted Jewish person is also unthinkable since textbook categories are not prone to dealing with complex categories. In the construction of the Jewish ‘other’ once again there is continuity from the textbooks of the earlier eras, which go as far back as the time of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. A social studies textbook for Class VI produced in 1975 contrasts the time before Islam and after 80
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Prepared in the frame of EURASIAN
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I - Introduction Rita Manchanda II
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‘powerlessness’. The history of
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theory of the ‘clash of civilizat
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unitary ideology, centralized struc
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Pakistan: Constitution based discri
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their construction process, since t
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Chowdhury explores the dilemma of a
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such a collusion and has systematic
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viii The rights of ‘people’ and
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these make for an egalitarian socie
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Muslims. There are three kinds of w
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Nonetheless, this alignment with se
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the oppressed even while we recogni
Page 29 and 30: The result was the impoverishment o
Page 31 and 32: negligence or failure has its roots
Page 33 and 34: Muslims, in other words have joined
Page 35 and 36: xviii Indicators of development her
Page 37 and 38: social identity of the ruling class
Page 39 and 40: Since Bengalis in general were in c
Page 41 and 42: As long as separate electorate exis
Page 43 and 44: their significance as a group and h
Page 45 and 46: it would seem that Bangladeshi Hind
Page 47 and 48: However, the image of Hindus as vot
Page 49 and 50: Trends Production of communalism or
Page 51 and 52: Religious Minorities in Pakistan: M
Page 53 and 54: In the 1981 census, out of a total
Page 55 and 56: the 1998 Census, caste Hindus const
Page 57 and 58: elationship with Sikhs in Afghanist
Page 59 and 60: Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Excerpts of In
Page 61 and 62: many regimes would use the Islamic
Page 63 and 64: The 1956 Constitution largely refle
Page 65 and 66: Christian & Hindu Votes Impact 50 N
Page 67 and 68: across the country. Now, Pakistan
Page 69 and 70: that takes Pakistan’s plural trad
Page 71 and 72: minorities and women. This was evin
Page 73 and 74: Wolpert, S., Zulfi Bhutto of Pakist
Page 75 and 76: ensures that it is fully absorbed a
Page 77 and 78: aggressiveness and Hindus are aggre
Page 79: community, is subject to the most i
Page 83 and 84: After the death of emperor Aurangze
Page 85 and 86: speech is used to create silences,
Page 87 and 88: Muslims in Sri Lanka: Political Cho
Page 89 and 90: They rarely highlighted their ‘Mu
Page 91 and 92: generation of the Muslim intelligen
Page 93 and 94: Athaullah, Rishard Bathiuddeen, and
Page 95 and 96: forces hoped that the Rajapaksa reg
Page 97 and 98: won 15 seats while the UPFA won 18.
Page 99 and 100: xvii After the general elections of
Page 101 and 102: an equal opportunity law in 1996-19
Page 103 and 104: administration headed by the Eelam
Page 105 and 106: nationalism was that the nationhood
Page 107 and 108: Rights Claims in Muslim Politics Mu
Page 109 and 110: councils for the two provinces. Bot
Page 111 and 112: A subsequent agreement signed betwe
Page 113 and 114: areas where the local majority popu
Page 115 and 116: a scheme for an interim administrat
Page 117 and 118: months later. The de-merger occurre
Page 119 and 120: Meanwhile, the strategies of minori
Page 121 and 122: xvii Cited in Loganathan, 1996, p.
Page 123 and 124: I will just briefly summarize it he
Page 125 and 126: Table 1: Parliament Seats under FPT
Page 127 and 128: under the district governments, the
Page 129 and 130: However, there are other groups whi
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The threshold for PR election shoul
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controlled by local elite (Harper a
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Likewise, the parliament could deci
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Binswanger, Hans P., and Miranda El
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Stash, Sharon, and Emily Hannum. 20
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The in-migration of labor force fro
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India was divided into two sovereig
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culturally. In the last five thousa
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Meanwhile, the non-Muslim minoritie
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The Current Nationalist Movement in
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leave Karachi. Outward migration re
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are for and against lobbies in Isla
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It is questionable whether the nati
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17 Aitizaz Ahsan, The Indus Saga, A
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wars between the tribes and the Bri
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and ethnocide of indigenous populat
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governments did not allow their NG0
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But even these additional criteria
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the ‘outsiders’ who have strang
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date. In India, despite the protect
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Tribal Land Alienation in Maharasht
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Bhamragad 18 14.76 35.26 13.94 13.1
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name of projects using the colonial
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hands of landlords. (25) The fourth
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means that those who have been depr
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Examination of the case records sho
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While the table appears to be recen
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5. Tribal Research and Training Ins
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Legality and Pragmatism Usha Ramana
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to resolve this problem that, other
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means of livelihood”. 15 The “o
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leasehold rights but only a licence
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public lands was being addressed in
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was in the eighties and the early n
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obligations have devolved upon them
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There is a direct relationship betw
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