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Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between schooling and conflict in Pakistan using an identity‐construction lens. Drawing on data from curriculum documents, student responses to classroom activities, and single‐sex student focus groups, it explores how students in four state primary schools in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan, use curricula and school experiences to make sense of themselves as Pakistani. The findings suggest that the complex nexus of education, religion, and national identity tends to construct ‘essentialist’ collective identities—a single identity as a naturalized defining feature of the collective self. To promote national unity across the diverse ethnic groups comprising Pakistan, the national curriculum uses religion (Islam) as the key boundary between the Muslim Pakistani ‘self’ and the antagonist non‐Muslim ‘other’. Ironically, this emphasis creates social polarization and the normalization of militaristic and violent identities, with serious implications for social cohesion, tolerance for internal and external diversity, and gender relations.
Notes
1. The two‐nation theory was the idea that Muslims and Hindus constituted two separate nations having completely different religions, philosophies, and culture; each nation therefore deserved their own autonomous state.
2. See http://www.moe.gov.pk/wings.htm, accessed 25 August 2009.
3. Indeed, as exemplified by the former‐Yugoslavia, national identities do change as power structures in society change.
4. The difference between Pukhtun and Pushtun is linguistic, a ‘kh’ instead of a ‘sh’ sound. The word Pukhtun is a northern variant used by the Pukhtuns of Peshawar Valley and northern parts of the NWFP. The Pukhtuns of the south and of Afghanistan pronounce it as Pushtun. The former has been used because members of the NWFP assembly while demanding a change of name for the province (in 1997 and 2008) used the word ‘Pukhtunkhwa’, i.e. Land of Pukhtuns, not ‘Pushtunkhwa’.
5. Sindhis (14.1%), Mohajirs (7.5%), and Baluchs (3.5%) are the remaining minority ethnic groups; Punjabis (54.6%) form the dominant group both politically and economically.
6. Today the radicalized militant Pukhtuns of the NWFP, under the banner of ‘Tehrik‐e‐Taliban Pakistan’ pose the biggest threat to Pakistan’s integrity and sovereignty and provide inspiration to Islamist militants and terrorist from everywhere. The Pakistan army is engaged in armed conflict with them in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Swat Valley, Malakand, and Dir. According to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an estimated 3 million people, the majority of whom are Pukhtuns, have been internally displaced due to military actions in the above areas.
7. Access to one boys’ primary school was denied on this basis.
8. According to the Ministry of Education, in 2005–2006, 69% of primary‐school children were enrolled in state‐run schools (see http://www.moe.gov.pk).
9. The absence of institutional affiliations with primary education, the NWFP Textbook Board or the Curriculum Wing facilitated open and relaxed relations with schools and respondents.
10. The national, religious, and ethnic composition of the students was as follows: 142 were Pakistanis and three were Afghan refugees; 142 were Muslims and three were non‐Muslims; 138 spoke Pushto, four spoke Hindko, and three spoke Punjabi as their first language.
11. Social studies is taught as a compulsory subject from grade IV onwards.
12. The textbook was undated and is referenced as NWFP Textbook Board (Citationn.d.) in the reference section.
13. Before starting each focus‐group interview, students were told that they were not under any pressure to answer any of the questions and were free to withdraw their co‐operation at any point without any explanation or fear.
14. The restricted location of the research, only within the NWFP, precludes further discussion of the tensions and confluences between ethnic and national identity. A similar study with Punjabi students who belong to the dominant ethnic group or Sindhi/Baluch/Mohajir students (i.e. ethnic groups who have had actual or perceived grievances against the Pakistani state) would have generated different answers or raised other issues.
15. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898), a prominent Muslim educator and politician, started the movement on South Asian Muslim self‐awakening and identity. Allama Sir Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938) was a poet, philosopher and politician. His vision of an independent state for the Muslims of British India (1930) later inspired the creation of Pakistan. Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), a lawyer and statesman, led the political movement for the creation of Pakistan.
16. The inevitable impact of this exclusion on the images of national identity and authenticity of the three non‐Muslim students would have been interesting to explore, but they were very few and it was beyond the remit of this research.
17. Rashid Minhas (1951–1971) was a pilot officer in the Pakistan Air Force. He sacrificed his life in the 1971 Pakistan‐India war and was awarded the Nishan‐e‐Haider, Pakistan’s top military award.
18. The revised curriculum drafts are available from: http://www.moe.gov.pk/, accessed 23 August 2009. The grade V social studies curriculum was revised in 2007.