‘Decolonizing’ higher education in Pakistan: If not now, when?

A body of discourse is emerging on the practice of ‘decolonization’ within education and the larger social sciences. Putting it plainly, decolonization means “the undoing of colonialism.”1 Decolonization signifies a range of positions that argue that despite former colonies achieving independence, colonial operations of power remain prevalent in the contemporary world, and efforts are needed to counter and overcome these forms of power. 2 Higher education holds a notable position in the decolonization discourse. This discourse recognizes the key role that higher education institutions play “in grounding systems of knowledge production (disciplines, institutions, and the formation of professionals in each of the disciplines) and perpetuating coloniality.” More specifically, curriculum and pedagogy are identified as “sites of decolonization within and outside of higher education” that may validate or marginalize systems of knowledge production 3 hence, their interrogation and revision are essentially required. This article seeks to contribute to the evolving discussion on decolonizing education in postcolonial states, particularly, Pakistan and argues for the need to realize the importance of the ‘decolonizing agenda’ for higher education in Pakistan.

In various postcolonial states, quite notable efforts have been made to counter the influence of Eurocentric imaginaries in knowledge production. There is a significant mass of discourse on decolonizing university-level teaching that revolves around the African context as well as other parts of the developing world. 4 A group of South African students and academics initiated a campaign to decolonize the university curriculum in 2015. Student activists in South Africa have risen against the prevalent ‘whiteness’ in university education. 5 Separately, in Australia and New Zealand, indigenous perspectives are being incorporated into the university curricula. 6 Keeping these developments in view, Pakistan becomes an interesting case of study in that it has experienced British colonial rule and colonial legacies remain persistent in the country with enduring effects in various forms such as ‘intellectual colonialism.’

Under British colonial rule, in deciding what type of education system had to be developed in the subcontinent, the overall idea of Lord T. B. Macaulay, a member of the Supreme Council of India was operationalized, who held at that time:

We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of person, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. 7

This signifies the colonizer’s standards of education in an administrative colonial era that included the mastery of the English language and assimilation of the colonizer’s knowledge by the colonized. In a postcolonial landscape, where ‘epistemic’ colonialism 8 or the coloniality of knowledge 9 prevails; concerning Pakistani academia, the field of social sciences, in particular, this ‘colonization of mind’ has strengthened in the absence of an administratively colonized world. Western intellectual traditions have influenced Pakistani academia since the country’s inception. Various prominent Western political scientists of the time worked, taught, and wrote in or on Pakistan. 10 To date, it is predominantly Western authors who produce knowledge about Pakistan in the global body of scholarly works. Despite these works being parochial in envisioning Pakistan, they penetrate the Pakistani intellectual space, and their ontological basis remains uncontested. 11 As a result, Western intellectual hegemony is reaffirmed. Pakistani academics and university-level students who conduct research are exposed to the dangers of conceiving their country through a biased lens of an outsider.

Broadly, social sciences in Pakistan adhere to Western principles and methods of investigation. There is a parasitic relationship with the West in terms of knowledge production, 12 which acts as an intellectual restraint that considerably impedes critical or alternative thinking in Pakistani academia. It is not surprising that in Pakistan and the larger South Asian region, the ‘state’ is conceptualized under the Westphalian model that emerged from the European context and critical assessment of the nature of the state system through its ‘historicization’ within the local context remains absent. 13 There are notable works on Sufism in International Relations as a ‘non-Western’ intellectual source, 14 however, Sufism within the scope of which Pakistani society and Pakistan’s international engagements can be analyzed, remains understudied in Pakistan. Iqbal’s vision and thought about politics, for instance, his understanding of a spiritual democracy remains underexplored and Islamic practices, which can give rise to methodological innovations such as the process of Hadith compilation remain unacknowledged.

It can rightly be said that universities in Pakistan have not yet realized the importance of indigenous knowledge production. Instead, they offer disciplinary training that steers away from the local context. 15 Academics who have the liberty to organize the university curricula around the ‘decolonizing agenda’ are mostly unaware of key disciplinary debates and developments. With Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission (a federal independent institution that monitors and accredits higher education in Pakistan) linking faculty promotions with the number of research publications, 16 there emerges a greater responsibility on Pakistani academics to produce good quality research and introduce local works and perspectives in classrooms. However, Pakistani academics fail to deliver in both aspects. Hardly, any Pakistani social scientist has, in the last few decades, “developed, reconstructed, reformulated, expanded upon, disputed or rejected, any theory or theoretical formulation… even in the specific context of Pakistan.” 17 Thus, it is ‘foreign’ knowledge that is reproduced through teaching and research in the field of social sciences in Pakistan.

Moreover, social sciences in Pakistan are taught in English at almost all universities. So to read, understand, and teach social sciences, knowing the English language is a prerequisite notwithstanding that only a few Pakistanis can understand the language. Many works in social sciences in languages other than English are not given much importance such as in Urdu, Sindhi, Baluchi, or Brahevi. 18 In a research study that I conducted on the state of International Relations in Pakistan that was based on interviews with Pakistani IR academics, I found that the English language forms a significant hurdle when it comes to producing scholarly works in Pakistan. I was informed by the interviewees that the works available in the Urdu language were also not of good quality or failed to meet international standards of scholarship and hence, could not be introduced to students in classrooms. The authors that Pakistani students are studying are mainly situated in the West. These authors do not know about the local realities of Pakistan; its unique history and culture. Hence, through university-level teaching in Pakistan, Western intellectual hegemony is reinforced.

The question then arises: where precisely does Pakistan stand concerning the decolonization agenda pertaining to higher education? Decolonization may start by addressing whose ways of knowing are privileged in existing histories, policies, practices, methodologies, and/or theories, then disrupting dominant, imperialist, colonial, and hegemonic modes of knowledge production, and then making room for alternatives. Concerning social sciences in Pakistan, the seriousness of the decolonization project is far from being realized, let alone actualized through its concrete manifestation. There is a serious need to decolonize teaching and research practices within Pakistani academia. Faculty can utilize assignments and classroom pedagogies to challenge dominant knowledge, models, theories, and concepts. Alternative approaches, even if not local, can be introduced to students from other peripheral contexts. Critical and alternative ideas and works can be incorporated into the curriculum. Faculty must explore the indigenous context of Pakistan through research and share their research findings/works with students by including these works in the course syllabus. Scholarly works of good quality should be produced in Urdu and other local languages in Pakistan. This research can be incentivized by Pakistan’s Higher Education Commission and various research funding organizations in the country. This if achieved would contribute significantly to the decolonization project and would bring Pakistani academia out of the ‘epistemic blindness’ in which it currently resides. Decolonizing higher education in Pakistan is essential if we are to ‘rethink’ ourselves and cultivate Pakistani epistemologies.

About the Author

Mahnoor Hayat Malik

The author is a Junior Research Fellow at Roads Initiative.