It is often quite complex a task to analyse any social
scenario due to the many variables that require consideration and the multi
directional relationships that they hold. Political culture is shaped by a
nation’s political experiences, while the same political experiences are
heavily influenced by, if not due to, the political culture of the time. This
paper is an attempt at an unstructured analysis of Pakistan’s political socialization,
not in an endeavor to explain it, but rather as an effort to hopefully
understand it better myself through this process.
Lets first discuss the process of culture formation.
Socialization is a concerted effort exerted by all members of a society,
whether knowingly or not, in the collective shaping of certain ideas, concepts
and values that are either agreeable, unquestionably rejected or fall within a socialized
realm of ‘disagreeables’ upon which it is considered acceptable for there to be
debate. Furthermore, socialization does not necessarily happen at large scales,
or within the ambit of a ‘society.’ Every single instance of human interaction
is a brick in the cumulative socialization of all those individuals who were a
part of that experience. Hence, in a globalised world, socialization often
takes place across societies, between and among members of the ‘global village’
as it has become.
It is unavoidable that agents will exert different forces on the
minds they can influence, many of which will often be contradictory as they
should be in an open society of free idea expression. Hence a stark division
about opinions on ‘the way forward’ is not a problem. It is, in fact, the key
ingredient towards development sparked through pluralism. Disagreeing opinions
reflect that social agents have opinions, and have invested themselves in the
process by voicing those opinions, hence giving them a stake, no matter how
small, in the politics of the country.
However, in Pakistan a worrying lack of interest and
commitment has been evident for most of its history. Most curricula at pre
university levels include little interactive study regarding the social
sciences. A ‘dumbing down’ is clearly at play. Courses on history are limited
to mere rote-learned dates and names. Very few schools engage in an
outside-the-classroom process of linking their students to the political and
social realities around them through seminars, debates, field trips etc. The
focus has been on educational opportunities that are better geared towards
improving employment prospects and hence the medical and natural sciences,
which are in no way less important, have been given disproportionate priority
by the vast majority of the educational institutes of the country. Where such
opportunities are provided, they are seldom availed by students, a large
proportion of which come from families that preach ‘siyasat se jitna dur, utna
acha’ and pride themselves on their apolitical attitude. A large segment of the
middle and affluent upper middle classes are keen on keeping their hands clean
and remain far away from politics; the lower socioeconomic groups, albeit for
different reasons, are similarly mistrusting, disenchanted and hateful towards
the political process. Hence two key agents of socialization, the family and
the education, have played little role in Pakistan’s political cultural
development. However, a recent shift in trends is encouraging.
A nation’s collective experiences are undeniably important. Pakistan,
and for that matter the Indian Subcontinent, possesses a very deep inclination
towards heroism. We are a people supremely enchanted by the prospect of a savior
to help us rise from the ashes of our indifference. We possess an
individualistic outlook. Our experience has been such that we have welcomed
such individuals in the form of Zulfiqar Bhutto, Altaf Hussain, Nawaz Sharif
and the likes and had abandoned neutrality in the fervor built around their
political movements. Sadly, it was soon followed by repeated disenchantments
due to their failure to deliver, which was in itself due to their ‘heroic’ and
individualistic tendencies. Each time the depression that followed the euphoria
was worse than the one that preceded it. Our heroic tendencies create individuals
with heroic inclinations who fail due to their heroism. And leave a country
that had dared to hope with an unprecedented resentment, only to be beaten the
next time they’d dare to hope.
It is perhaps this process that has led us towards this
apathetic indifference that translates into a disappointing lack of political
socialisation. It is perhaps why thirty percent of our adult population votes in
national elections. It is perhaps why I am met with lots of snide comments when
I inform somebody that I am majoring in Political Science. And that too is part of my socialisation.
No comments:
Post a Comment