Feudalism’s Aversion to Education
Feudalism and education are anathema to each other; one derogates the other in the social milieu of Pakistan.
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, on the other hand, totally regressive. The peasants and serfs were deliberately deprived of educational facilities and treated like slave labor. But, they arranged the best possible education for their own wards so that they easily overwhelm the poor and illiterate serfs.
Sixty years after Independence, one is surprised to find that the tentacles of feudalism remain quite firm and harsh. Feudal dynasties now control half a dozen political parties including ML (Q), ML (N) and, ironically enough, the People’s Party too which claims to be the champion of the poor and the downtrodden but which has over the past three decades remained the handmaid of the Bhutto clan. Benazir, a vociferous proponent of democracy, got herself declared the Chairperson For Life of the Party and willed her husband and son to succeed her in that position - and they actually did without raising many eyebrows in the higher echelon of the Party.
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 - twenty-three 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 till her assassination on December 27, 2007. Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, a blue-blooded aristocrat and landlord, held the fort for her, till his death, when Benazir opted to remain abroad rather than return to her country to face the corruption charges against her in courts of law. Like Benazir, the Nawabzada too attributed all his activities to his zeal for democracy - an obvious hypocrisy like her own act of nominating her husband to be the head of the PPP after her demise.
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 and eke out a decent living 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.
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 charged with the feudal spirit.
The unskilled, semi-skilled workers too managed during 1975-90 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 make a decent living. The supremacy of the landlord remained undisturbed. The opportunity went to waste.
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. College graduation is the minimum educational qualification required now for a candidate to the parliament.
Being thus sidelined would hopefully awaken them to the reality that the days of inheriting power and pelf by birth are coming to an end. If they do not see the writing on the wall, the wind of change will sweep them down into dust.
Arifhussaini@hotmail.com
