Arif Hasan

Transcription

It was very difficult for me to decide what to talk on. Finally, I decided to speak about somethings and some issues that are not normally talked about. So, I will talk about socio-political change in Pakistan and certain trends that it has set in motion. This change is a very big change, I would call it revolutionary! But this change has not been consciously politicized and it has not been institutionalized. There are many factors that have contributed to this change Along this, I will focus on four. One was the migration from India, the other was the introduction of the Green Revolution technologies in the 1960s, its urbanization and fourth, globalization. So I will begin with the migration from India. In the 1951 census 48.2% of Pakistanis said that they had originated in India. Urban Pakistanis, not all Pakistanis. Now this is a phenomenal number It is something we never even talk about we will only grasp fully as to what it meant. 82% of these settled in the Punjab And about 17% of these settled in Sindh. This completely changed the demography of both these provinces. Again, it is something we do not grasp. In the case of the Punjab, large Siraikik speaking areas received very large Punjabi speaking populations. and in the case of Sindh, its major cities came to be dominated by Urdu speakers. Now, today there is research going on, if you have been reading the newspapers also PhD thesis coming out, which claim that fundamentalism fundamentalism in the Punjab owes its origin to this migration. I'll leave it to you and let's see where this research goes. In the case of Sindh, we certainly know that the ethnic conflict is a result of this migration. Other things also happened because of this migration One, the weakening of cast and clan organizations in these two provinces took place because of this migration and the separation between cast and profession also was encouraged as a result of this migration So I will come back to this towards the end The second major change that took place was because of the introduction of Green Revolution technologies in the rural areas The rural areas consisted of, and still do of landlords, peasants and artisans. Artisans were called "kaami". The artisans were subservient to the agriculturalists. And had to serve them and for this, they did not receive cash, they received barter that is, in grain. And the lack of social and economic mobilitiy of the artisans was the direct result of this barter system. In the 1960s, Green Revolution technologies were introduced in the rural areas These technologies consisted of, these new players were introduced, let's call them players were introduced into the rurals areas, in the rural economy These were hybrid seed pesticide and fertilizer agencies These were tractors, tube wells, centrifrugal pumps, these were banks The whole world of Capitalism was introduced in these areas. This changed relationships from barter to cash. And made socio-economic mobility possible for a large number of people Secondly, because of the evolution of a cash economy industrially produced goods and implements started to come into the rural areas because there was purchasing power Thirdly, we had water schemes that came into the rural areas, pipe water schemes, hand pumps, all the result of this cash economy. And finally, in the 70s, a very great revolution took place and that was the emergence of the Suzuki and Toyota pickup, which completely changed the relations of agriculture and marketing and also changed the location of "mundi" towns and made "mundi" towns disappear as a result I mean, we have documented all this in fairly great detail Now this affected village relations and society. What happened? Because of the industrially produced implements and utensils, the 'lohar' (blacksmith) and the 'komar' (potter) became unimportant. Because of the industrially produced cloth and shoes, the "jolaha" (cloth weavers) and the "chamar" (shoe-maker) disappeared Because of banks, the "sonar" (goldsmith) was no longer required. And because of the pipe water schemes, the 'bishti', the village well and gathering place and the animals that drew up water, all those vanished. But this is a huge revolution, it's taken place, it has developed its institutions and it had immense sociological and environmental reprecussions. We have not developed the social and physical infrastructure to deal with the environmental reprecussions of this enormous change. And if we don't develop it, our rural areas are going to suffer a very big set back in the near future The other greater change has been urbanization. For the most part, this urbanization has consisted of migration from the rural areas to the urban areas and the creation of informal settlements. this change is also unconscious. Let me go to my involvement with this and the changes that I have seen in Karachi which are similar to other cities of Pakistan also In 1971, when I started working in these settlements, these settlements were purely working class settlements. Today, with the second generation having grown up, the second generation having been educated, they are not purely working class settlements they have other professions, IT professionals, bank managers, school teachers, you name it. Then you have new professions like women running beauty parlours, marriage halls variety program, event organizers, all this has emerged there although they remain predominantly working class. The second change, that when we started working there, the people who came forward as the leadership were old men, who could not read and write. and spoke in a flowery vocabulary, 'janab', 'hazoor', 'saayin', 'niazmand' 'sharf hasil hona', etcetera Today when you go there, the leadership is of young people, who can read and write they don't use this vocabulary and to old men like me, they call me uncle, and that too in English So there has been this enormous cultural change that has taken place as well in these areas. New professionals have surfaced. The old, small entrepreneurs have linked up with the formal sector industries But inspite of all these changes that have taken place, government's planning for these places and their upgrading remains exactly what it was in the 1970s. It has not changed. These changes are not taken into account. These settlements don't really need water supply, etc. What they need is entertainment, recreation, culture and skills. And all these things are missing and this is what the demand is. The fourth change is globalization. I won't go into the details of that but I will pick up two trends that emerged from globalization and of what I have spoken. The first change is a change in gender relations, this is extremely important and i will elaborate on it. I take Karachi as the case but similar trends, I feel, exist all over Pakistan to a lesser degree. In the 1981 census, in the age group of 15 to 24, 39% of women were married and 16.7% men were married. Today, less than 20% women in this age group are married less than 20% and in the case of men, less than 7% of them are married In 1991, there was a major difference between the male and female literacy Today there is no difference between male and female literacy in this age group And not only that, the literacy percentage in this age group today is about 86% So, for the first time in the history of the city, you have a majority of unmarried adolescents who are literate This alone will change gender relations, this alone changes family structures and current sociological research points towards this change in a very big way This change is reflected in other things. Let me pick up on that. One, women's education. 69% of the Karachi University's population is women. 87% of the medical students are women. Approximately 50% of the engineering university is women and 92% of the students of Architecture and Planning are women As a matter of fact, the situation was so serious that the VIce Chancellor was thinking of having a quota for men. Now if I take these two trends and I project them 10 years from now we will be living in a totally different society and we have not grasped that. There are two other trends that emerge out of what I have said. The reprecussions of this change in gender relations. One is court marriages. In 1999-2000, in Karachi, the average daily applications for court marriages were 15 - 18 Today, they are more than 200. Again, a huge change. Let me come to another issue. and that is, honour killings. Talking to an elder, in the village of Khader Denu in District Sukkur. I asked him, "Were there honour killings before?" He said "There used to be one honour killing in ten years, and then after ten years, another honour killing incident was heard" And I said, "Then why are you having this now?" and he said "They will obviously happen now" I said "why?". He said "People are shameless now, television has ruined them, Karachi has ruined them, education caused this shamelessness" And I said, "Does this mean that this is never going to stop?" Then he said, "Yes, this will stop." AndI said "When?" And he said "When everyone will become shameless." Now, and he added that "I would rather die before that." Now, these trends that I have spoken about are very powerful trends. And you can't hold them back. For this, you need new societal values. Without new societal values, this conflict that we are engaged in, will continue. I leave you with this question: What are these new societal values, that you require for this society's transformation? And how and who is going to develop and promote these new societal values? If I finish, I will pick up on another trend and pose a question. And that is, the power of the market. With globalization, the state has weakened. The market has become more powerful. Today, all over Pakistan, throughout its length and breadth, you have organizations. Market organizations. Shop keepers' organizations. They are all putting forward their claims and they are guarding their gains Before, they were subservient to the state apparatus. Today, they are not subservient to the state apparatus. They bully the state apparatus. They coerce it. They bribe it. They get their way. And when the state reacts, they demonstrate, they burn tires. They agitate. What are they agitating for? Why is there this conflict? It is only because we do not support local commerce. We do not support local trade. We persecute it through integrated laws, regulations, financing procedure. It is extremely necessary that we develop the mechanisms to support the state with infrastucture and financial support It will bring enormous relief to a conflict-prone society. So these are the two things that I wish to highlight And since I have one minute and thirty-nine seconds still left I would like to say that we are a backward country, not because we do not have PhDs we are a backward country because we do not have skills. We have more doctors than paramedics We have more engineers than qualified supervisors And if we do not develop the institutional arrangements for developing these skills, all these beautiful universities that we are building are nothing more than castles built upon sand So I leave you with these thoughts. Thank you very much!