Taliban in Hinterland of Pakistan and Future of Education
By Mushtaq ul Haq Ahmad Sikandar, New Age Islam
17 July 2023
By David L Gosling
London, United Kingdom: The Radcliffe Press
Pp274. ISBN: 978178454684
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Education in an environment of violence is full of challenges.
When violence is raging all around the education becomes the first casualty.
The tragedy with education becomes multi dimensional and complex when the
violence is ideologically driven. The educational institutions have become the
target of those who are ideologically opposed to the worldview that mainstream
education is promoting and reinforcing. The mainstream educational institutions
have been alleged to be citadels of everything vice by its enemies who espouse
different worldview. The roots of this antagonism can be traced back to
colonialism. The colonial onslaught against the Muslim lands reinforced the
educational apathy among Muslims. The colonial powers brought with themselves
new model of education completely replacing the old one. This new model was
based on the secular principles of division between the transcendental and
temporal. It resulted in a new crisis among Muslims. Muslims had never
experienced the divide between secular and religious, hence this change
retrograded them to their lowest abysmal conditions. This crisis generated two
types of responses among colonized Muslim lands. One school of thought was for
embracing the educational model of colonial masters while the other one was
demanding a total boycott and resistance against this model. The tussle
continued and still continues in most parts of the Muslim world.
Muslims too embraced the model of colonial division of
education in secular and religious. The traditional schools or the madrasas
became the bastions of the religious education while the schools, colleges and
universities spearheaded the secular education. These two institutions didn’t
let the influence of each other to impact over them by trying to reinforce
water tight compartmentalization and polarization that makes any kind of
interdependence impossible. Thus Muslim society has been divided into two by
the non overlapping systems of education. The distance among the cadres of
these systems of education is becoming difficult to breach with each passing
day. The antagonism against modern educational institutions by some extremists
is touching new heights of barbarism. To run successfully an educational
institute in such a hostile environment is indeed a great feat. The present
book under review is a manifestation of such a daring journey undertaken by the
David L Gosling, while successfully running a mainstream educational
institution.
David L Gosling served as a Principal of Edwardes College, a
prestigious higher education college in Peshawar, provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
(formerly known as North Western Frontier Province) in Pakistan from 2006-2010.
This period was one of the most turbulent times when Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan
(TTP) was gaining its foothold in the region. Since then it has carried numerous
terrorist activities within Pakistan including targeting educational
institutions and massacring innocent school children. The book Frontier of
Fear: Confronting the Taliban on Pakistan’s Border complements as a memoir
instead of some counter insurgency book as the name suggests. It documents the
journey of a Principal of a college and the challenges he faced in keeping the
institution running despite numerous problems and threats.
The book opens with a history of Edwardes college in
Peshawar and the events around it. It goes on to document the admission process
in this prestigious institution, the local influence that is being protracted
to secure admissions and the college administration that comprises of locals
too. It further describes the college life, its activities that include
teaching and extra curricular ones too. David as an outsider tries to present
an objective view of the local ethos and social milieu but when he writes about
the college his description needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.
The turbulent period 2006-2010 witnessed the growth of
Tahreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), its commanders and impact in the area was
witnessing a boom. On the other hand the terror of drones, their attacks and
civilian casualties were proving counter productive in fighting against TTP.
David caught between devil and deep sea had to struggle to keep the institution
both safe and functioning. The controversial issue of co education in a
patriarchal society of Peshawar was another challenge, though Edwardes has a
history of co education. But now with TTP gaining more influence, death threats
were issued against David for not allowing boys to pray on Fridays and
participation of girl students in various activities. The local Islamic
scholars were silent about the issue of co education and Islam. These threats
of banning co education though were not successful but certainly it led to
dropping of the idea of establishing a girl’s hostel because that would be an
easy target for terrorists.
David also has a deep insight about Islam and Muslim
modernists like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and Sir Muhammad Iqbal and their views
about education. Their educational policy certainly was the embodiment of
institution of Ijtihad. When Muslims forgot and abhorred that spirit by closing
the gates of Ijtihad, the result was in the stagnation of knowledge. The
essence of education is learning new things and discovering new areas that will
further pave way towards knowledge creation and building. When Muslims
abandoned the spirit of enquiry, pondering and above all Ijtihad, other people
ventured in these areas leaving the Muslim body of knowledge stagnant. It still
is stagnant though a few ripples have been created and fissures on the door of
Ijtihad are evident too. The views of Muslim modernists were too revolutionary
for reactionary Muslim scholars to adopt at or even to help them take a
sympathetic look. Despite David espousing such Muslim stalwarts it had little
impact on the local leaders or decision makers, that could lead to a change of
heart.
David also mentions about the Christian minority of Pakistan
and its contribution particularly to the educational empowerment of Pakistani
society. The siphoning off of college funds that led to a big scandal, tussle
among the church authorities about controlling the college administration has
also found its place in the book. At last David also offers a solution about
the crisis and violence in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province by stating that
education and removal of army from the province will lead to long lasting
peace. Overall the book is an essential addition to the area studies and
particularly about the need of education in combating terrorism. The challenge
violence offers to educational institutions, the grit to keep them functioning
amidst threats makes this book a serious memoir.
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M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar,
Kashmir
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/taliban-hinterland-pakistan-education/d/130224
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