Is Colonial mentality impeding Pakistan’s Progress?

( CSS Essay 2017)

By: CSP Shamsher Ali Seelro Sahb.

Outlines:
Introduction
Background
1. Colonial legacy of dependency and its drawbacks
A. Economic dependency
B. Military dependency
C. Industrial dependency
D. Political dependency

2. Macaulay’s colonial system of education and its impacts

A. Educational legacy of colonialism
B. Cultural legacy
C. Psychological legacy

3. Feudal inheritance from imperialism and its effects

A. Feudal psyche and narrow traditions
B. Feudals as privileged class
C. Feudal class and its impacts on politics
4. Colonial legacy of imbalanced power structure and its disasters
A. Colonial legacy of military fiscalism
B. Shaping of political and bureaucratic power relations
Conclusion

Pakistan got its freedom from British Empire in 1947, but according to
Jinnah it was a “mutilated and moth-eaten Pakistan”. Imperialism had
done much damage to the economy, culture and politics of sub-
continent that it was a Herculean task for Pakistan to become a
developed modern state. In this entire scenario, legacy of colonialism
has always been haunting the different strata of Pakistani society. On
one hand Neo-colonialist mentality of west has been plundering the
wealth of Pakistan even after her independence, on other hand political
leadership of Pakistan, who accepted the colonial doctrine of superior
west and sought refuge in western dependency, they also have added
to the injuries of under-developed nation. Macaulay’s education system
has damaged the cultural and intellectual identity resulting in feeling of
inferiority towards local wisdom. Roots of feudalism, another colonial
legacy, have become stronger with passage of time. Privileged feudals
have shaped the society in such way that has resultantly damaged the
culture, politics and economy of Pakistan. Military fiscalism,
bureaucratic parentalism and sectarianism, imposed by the imperialists,
have in one or other way hindered the growth of Pakistan.

British colonialists during their reign in sub-continent propagated the

idea that natives were un-cultured and uncivilized people. According to
them the main cause of the under-development of India was that they
were devoid of scientist and rational thinking and Indian people were
more inclined to dogma and blind faith. According to colonialists, it was
they who brought the light of modernity and progress to these isolated
and static regions. Post-colonialist research has completely denied the
colonialist thinking and researchers believe that when Britishers came
to India for trade at that time Mughal Empire was one of the richest
empires of the world, dominating the 50% of the world trade with a
huge network of textile industry. It has also been established now that
the immense wealth, which had been exploited form Indian was the
main reason behind the development of Europe.

Colonials developed a myth that economically week natives cannot

survive without western support. Famous colonialist James Harrington
said for Indians “they are yet babes that cannot live without sucking the
breasts of their mother”. They assumed that rich Europe is the only
savior for eastern people. In this way they justified their imperialist
designs. This colonial mentality of dependency on west has mired
Pakistan since 1947.Pakistan has been heavily dependent on western
aid to get rid of her own economic miseries. Pakistan has received
about $78.3 billion between 1948 and 2016 from USA, £665 million (
from 2009–2013) from U.K. All this foreign aid has a heavy cost which
Pakistan has to pay in the shape of circular debts. It is necessary for
Pakistan to get rid of dependency for restructuring Pakistan’s economy
to make it self-sufficient over time.

This colonial policy of dependency has been expanding from economic

assistance to military assistance. United States has provided nearly $67
to Pakistan between 1951 and 2011. A large amount of military aid has
been provided during authoritarian rules in Pakistan. U.S has been
encouraging these dictators through military aid to achieve her own
national interests. Foreign military aid has badly affected not only the
balance of power in Pakistan but also the foreign policy. It is pressing
need for Pakistan to cut foreign military assistance for future
development.

Following the colonial psychology of imperialism, ruling class of

Pakistan began to peruse the western policy since inception. From the
early years till now Pakistan has been following the policy of import
substitution. Pakistan is still lacking behind in technological
advancement, but no such policy is being adopted to develop own
industrial and technological base in Pakistan. China, Japan and India
have developed only due to their local industry. Pakistan has huge
potential for the technology in energy sector, in IT sector and in Textile
sector. But heavy investments are made by multinational companies in
different sectors. There are about 40,000 multi-national companies
(MNCs) in Pakistan. Local industry of Pakistan cannot compete with
monopoly of these multinational giants. Due to this exploitation of
multinational companies Pakistan gets very little share from her own
natural resources and contribution to revenue is very little. Pakistan
needs to support local industry for growth and development.

During the colonial era the native Indians were not free to formulate
their own political policies. Same is case with neo-colonial relation
between Pakistan and United States of America. During First and
Second World War, British imperialists forced natives to fight their war
against Fascism. Following the colonial mentality General Zia was
forced to support the American war against Russia in Afghanistan. By
supporting this war Zia sowed the seeds of fundamentalism and
intolerance into peaceful society of Pakistan. After the devastating
event of 9/11, Musharraf government was dragged into war against
terror. With support of war against terrorism and following the neo-
liberal agenda, an unending wave of terrorism spread all over the
country. These wounds of intolerance and terrorism, gifts of neo-
colonial policy, have completely devastated the very fabric of the
society of Pakistan. Pakistan needs an independent foreign policy to
achieve goals of progress and prosperity.

One of the important legacies of Colonialism is Western education

introduced by Lord Macaulay to produce an educated Indian class
which would serve the imperial interests of colonials. Western
knowledge contained scientific, philosophical, technological
information along with a great variety of other fields of information but
it was not Macaulay’s purpose to produce scientists and philosophers
among native people which can work for their own development. Same
colonial legacies have been followed in education system of Pakistan.
Knowledge is acquired to seek career and serve interests of a particular
class. Pakistan’s education system is unable to produce scholars,
philosophers and scientists and poor country heavily depends on
borrowed knowledge.

Macaulay’s education project rejected the earlier project of Sir Earnest

Jones. Sir Earnest Jones worked tirelessly to translate eastern literature
and native wisdom. Macaulay gave the impression that wisdom only
belonged to English speaking people. A person who did not know
English was treated as philistine and incompetent. Same mentality of
Macaulay is still haunting Pakistani society. One is required to learn
English to prove his mettle. All this has added to the inferiority complex
of people who possess folk wisdom and great potential for
advancement. Indian history is rich with creative literature, produced
through folk wisdom, but race for learning foreign language has only
added to cultural and literary decline.

It is also due to the colonial psychology that a great deal of skilled

Pakistanis prefers to work abroad in Western countries. Brain drain has
a huge impact not only on economy of Pakistan culture is also affected
by this psyche. Primary purpose to settle in west might be to get better
living facilities but underling motives are to become part of “superior”
western culture. This rejection of indigenous culture has resulted in
inferiority complex among citizens of Pakistan. Only because of this
mentality our local talent gets appreciation only after getting reward
from West.

Mughal system of mansabdari was based on non-hereditary

transferable land. Land belonged to king and mansabdar was a mere
revenue collector for state. It was during the colonial era that petty
chiefs of post Mughal era were given permanent lands. In this way a
new privileged class of landlords emerged whose purpose was to serve
the interests of colonizers by collecting revenue and offering loyalty to
British masters. It was irony of the history that Europe made industrial
advancement by abolishing feudal system but in sub-continent they
strengthened the feudal system to serve colonial interests. With
emergence of new state in 1947 this privileged class had become so
strong that it was almost impossible to abolish feudalism in Pakistan..
According to writer M.Masud, “The hari and the zamindar represent
two extremes of mankind; one lives in the height of depravity and
misery, the other in the height of luxury and extravagance”

It was in the interest of this feudal class to maintain and perpetuate

status-quo and resultantly Pakistan could not become an industrial
state. Feudals have become so powerful that they are considered as
“state within state”. These feudals have their own system of law and
justice based on narrow minded traditions. Often these laws are in
conflict with state laws. The evil practices of Karo Kari(honour killing),
Watta Satta( exchange marriage) Vanni, Swara and Haq
bakshi(marriage with Quran) are rampant among this feudal setup.
Education system is completely under control of these feudals. It is in
their class interest to maintain illiteracy and ignorance among poor
villagers. Infrastructure, health conditions, living standard and all other
indicators of social prosperity are in dilapidated condition.

A large part of political parties of Pakistan consists of these feudal lords.

With a large vote bank of their peasants and poor villagers only these
feudals get elected in elections. Various famous feudal families have
such a strong hold in their areas that they have been unbeatable for
decades. In this whole setup it becomes so difficult for a lower class or
middle class contender to win elections. Democracy can survive only
through new people with new ideas. With same feudals and same faces
in assemblies year after year, country gets same policies and agendas
which serve the interest of this feudal class.

Feudal have become such a strong privileged class that when they are
elected to assemblies they make laws of their own class interests. Laws
like exemption of income tax on agriculture income reminds the old
privileged system of 18th century France. Accountability laws like plea
bargain and voluntary return after making corruption also provide them
escape door. In short feudal system has shaped the society in such way
that only rich can enjoy the fruits and poor has to suffer.

Another colonial practice is military fiscalism inherited by Pakistani

leadership after partition. In order to subjugate the local people British
colonizers spent a huge amount of collected revenue on military. British
masters only spent 3% of total revenue on education and health.
Famous educational and social institutes in British era were developed
by local Muslim, Hindu and Parsi reformers like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan,
Eduljee Dinshaw and Sir Gangaram. Following the same path of
colonialists, Pakistani leadership, instead spending budget on education
and health, has been spending heavily on military expenditure.
According to statistics Pakistan’s education budget is lowest in south
Asia, where as military budget in year 2017 is approximately Rs 920
billion. Annual public expenditure on education is only 1.8% of the GDP
and expenditure on health is 1.1% of GDP. In contrast annual defense
expenditure is about 23.9% of the annual budget of Pakistan. This
shows that like colonialists, eradication of poverty and provision of
better health condition has never been the priority of ruling class of
Pakistan.

In absence of democratic set up, during the colonial era there emerged
a powerful military and civil bureaucratic class which devised the
political and economic policies accordingly. After independence
Pakistan also faced this imbalanced power structure. Democracy could
not thrive for almost three decades as the powerful civil-military
bureaucracy derailed the political process of democracy. Long civil-
military bureaucratic set up, led Pakistan to civil war and division of the
country in 1971 and its continuation poses a serious threat to the
security of remaining parts of Pakistan. It is necessary for democracy
and development that Pakistan should to reshape and do away with
colonial power structure.

Pakistan, since independence, has been struggling to become a modern

social welfare state .But Pakistan’s past legacy and its ills have
unfortunately been dragging Pakistan towards disaster and destruction.
Pakistan got rid of Colonialism but trapped into post-colonial policies of
powerful imperialists. Post colonialism exploitation led the country
towards economic, military and political dependency in turn country
faced several challenges of circular debts, weak industrial base,
terrorism and sectarianism. Education policy of British era could not
help produce a scientific and rational class who could contribute
towards progress. Rather English education brought cultural and
intellectual decline along with Inferiority complex. Feudalism, legacy of
British Raj, added fuel to the fire by championing status quo. Uneven
power set up, gift of colonialism, damaged the democratic process of
the country. Architectures of the future have to get rid of ill mentality
of past. For those who cannot change their mind cannot change
anything.