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Our Neighbours -- Pakistan

'When ideology becomes supreme, history suffers'

By Zaman Khan

Dr. Mubarik Ali has been awarded Ramkrishna Jaidayal Harmony Award 2001-02. The award was instituted in 1983 by Organisation of Understanding and Fraternity (OUF), India. The organisation came into existence in 1982 under the chairmanship of Shri Sanjay Dalmia with an aim to promoting harmony and national integration. A non-conformist historian, Dr Mubarik has about 50 books to his credit. He also edits a quarterly research journal called 'Tarikh'. His writings have been translated into German, Chinese, Hindi and Sindhi languages.

He has served as Director of Goethe Institute, Lahore and at present is a visiting professor at National College of Arts.

It is for the first time that Pakistanis have been selected to receive this award. Mr. & Mrs. Edhi have been awarded for their social service while Dr. Mubarik Ali has been selected as a writer and activist. He received this award on December 10, 2003 at Delhi from Tibetan exiled leader Dalai Lama.

In an interview with The News On Sunday, he talks about the award as well as the state of historical research on both sides of the border. Excerpts follow:

 

Zaman Khan: During your various visits to India, you've met Indian historians and seen their work. How is history being written in India?

Dr. Mubarik Ali: Besides being popular, it is academically and intellectually a highly developed subject in India. The highlight of my recent visit was a meeting with veteran historian Irfan Habib and other historians at Aligarh. Irfan Habib and his team are writing people's history of India. So far they have published two volumes -- one on pre-history and second on the Indus valley. The third volume about the Vedic age is also ready.

Irfan Habib attracts people around him, inspires them to work and get interested in the subject. There were about 2000 historians attending the recent Annual History Congress of the Indian Historians in Madras. They passed a resolution that now Indian historians would write parallel history text books in response to the BJP commissioned new text books, which have generated a lot of controversy. The resistance and the ability to respond to such challenges is a tremendous job.

ZK: How would you compare this with the situation in Pakistan?

MA: The discipline of history is in a pathetic position. Whenever history books are changed or distorted, nobody challenges this change. We don't have any association of historians or annual congresses. We don't even have journals that encourage research. In India the situation is inspiring: not only are they concentrating on ancient Indian history but the whole interpretation of medieval Indian history -- what we call the Muslim rule in India. There is a lot of research being done and books being published, not only on the political history but also social, cultural and economic history.

ZK: Why could we not establish such a tradition in Pakistan?

MA: One strong reason is that slowly and gradually we have developed an ideology and are using it to legitimise the creation of this country. There is this pressure from above that history should be written within the framework of an ideology. And our historians have submitted to this pressure without any resistance. Our historians are ready to do what the government asks them. Istiaq Hussain Qureshi was the first one who attempted to write history within this framework and then others followed.

I think this is not Pakistan specific. Any country where an ideology becomes supreme, history suffers. This is what is happening in India where the ruling BJP is asking historians to write history according to the ideological framework of BJP. Their problem is that historians of repute and integrity are not ready to comply. BJP wants to inculcate the party ideology in textbooks, because once you change the mindset of a generation it becomes easy to handle. BJP is now following the Pakistani model in adopting and writing textbooks -- trying to rewrite history. Now they are trying to appoint their own historians in the Indian Council of Historical Research.

Being a democratic country, there is more space for dissenting voices in India. So outside these official reasons, universities have a lot of freedom. That is why these historians from Delhi, Aligarh and Jawaharlal Nehru University are resisting government attempts to distort history. Contrarily, the space for alternative views is gradually reducing here and the intellectuals have no opportunity in media, press, radio or television to raise or record their dissenting views.

ZK: Can one not attempt to create space? After all the Indian historian and intellectuals did offer resistance during the colonial period.

MA: Yes, that is right. But there were problems during the colonial period. The colonial government adopted a two-pronged policy -- to buy the intellectuals and to repress them to avoid opposition. A similar policy has been adopted by successive governments here. Perhaps the roots of intellectualism in Pakistani society are not very deep. There are very few intellectuals and hence it is very easy to buy them or even suppress them. We've seen how successive governments have had no problems winning over intellectuals to their side.

There are people here who are trying their best to present the alternative point of view. But the space to raise a voice is becoming very narrow.

There are a number of reasons -- extremism, fundamentalism, the military government and even the mindset of the society. Here you have to struggle, not only against state but also against the society, which is sometimes more difficult than fighting against the state.

ZK: What are your future plans -- any new research?

MA: We publish a quarterly journal 'Tarikh'. We try to present research articles in the journal; to provide students the opportunity to know history, changing social sciences and new research going on in different countries. We emphasise on more and more translations into Urdu. It is very difficult to find excellent original research articles in our society which is a tragedy.

We also organise an annual history congress to provide a platform, especially to young researchers, to present their papers. My ambition is to set up a research institute to train young historians and researchers to continue the research work. I think history is a very important subject and that is why governments are afraid of it. We are trying to establish a team of young historians which could develop a new technique and do research work on our history. It is important that a foreign scholar should not tell us what our history is. That would be a shame. We must produce knowledge independently; without that the society cannot progress intellectually, politically or even economically.

Of course our space is narrow and we don't know if we are making any contribution, but we are presenting an alternative view.

ZK: You were offered a senior fellowship by the Nehru Museum and Library. Why did you not join the programme?

MA: It is a very prestigious fellowship. I think I was the first Pakistani to be offered this fellowship. It is an autonomous body, set up by the Nehrus. Teen Morti Bhawan was given for the museum and library by the Nehrus. When they offered me the fellowship, they required clearance from the government and the BJP government did not clear my case. I am happy that as far as intelligence agencies are concerned, I am popular neither here nor there.

ZK: Now that relations are improving, if they offer you again, would you like to go?

MA: Yes, definitely I would like to go. But long as the BJP government is in power and Monohar Joshi is Minister for Culture, it will be difficult for me to get clearance.

 
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