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Education for social change
Nyla Ali Khan
“Education is the passport
to the future, for
tomorrow belongs to those
who prepare for it today"
"I have often reflected
upon the new vistas that
reading opened to me. I
knew right there in prison
that reading had changed
forever the course of my
life. As I see it today, the
ability to read awoke in me
some long dormant craving
to be mentally alive." MALCOLM X
quotes (American
black militant
leader who articulated
concepts of race pride and
black nationalism in the
early 1960s)
Education must produce
a vast population
that is able to read and is
able to distinguish what
is worth reading; education
stretches the mind
with new ideas; educated
people cannot be
enslaved or lead like cattle;
education makes it
possible to question
structural inequities and
to demand redressal.
Expression of concern
about backwardness,
poverty, illiteracy; rise of
people’s politics in the
political zeitgeist of
equality, liberty, and
democracy; necessity of
affirmative action to pull
out the majority of the
people; protesting
against state oppression
and police brutality;
questioning the impunity
enjoyed by paramilitary
troops in “disturbed
areas”; holding an elected
government responsible
for its unrepresentative
character; voicing legitimate
dissent within political
discourses available
to the populace; questioning
political partisanship;
highlighting people’s narratives
which are marginalized
in official historiography;
recognition of
the infringement of people’s
civil rights; recognition
of the attempt to
demonize Kashmiris in
dominant political discourse;
intelligence to
lead a people’s movement---
these abilities are
cultivated through education.
It was a long and hard

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struggle for Kashmiris to
come out of the quagmire
of illiteracy, political
marginalization, cultural
sterility, and social
decrepitude into the
enlightening institutions
of education, spaces of
democratic debate, political
enfranchisement, cultural
revitalization, and
social progressivism. For
a long time Kashmir
remained a source of
casual unskilled labour to
Punjab, where they were
treated as beasts of burden.
Kashmiris were
given the derogatory
appellation of “hattoo,”
close to “dirty nigger.”
When the first few
Kashmiri Muslims to
have obtained degrees
at institutions of higher
education, like the
Aligarh Muslim
University in British
India, returned to the
state in the 1920s, they
were imbued with ‘newfangled’
ideas of nationalism,
liberty and
democracy.
We, as a people, cannot
afford to ignore the
empowerment that critical
intelligence gives us;
the credibility that articulate
expressions of our
discontent give us; the
international forums that
are made available to us
because of the intelligence
that we have
employed to create a
national identity. We
have witnessed the militarization
of the socio-cultural
fabric of Kashmir;
we watch with remorse
the clamping down of
intellectual freedoms in
Kashmir and the growing
influence of fanatical elements
in that polity; we
are saddened by the shutting
down of dissenting
voices; we mourn the erosion
of women’s activism
in Kashmir by the reduction
of their identities to
grieving mother, martyr’s
mother, or rape victim;
we grieve the relegation
of sane voices in civil society
to the background; we
are pained by the scathed
psyches of women suffering
psychosomatic illness
in conflict zones.
W e l l - e d u c a t e d
Kashmiris can give the
clarion call for a much
needed social consciousness;
for a socialism that
recognizes the diseased

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and crumbling edifices of
stagnant political and
bureaucratic infrastructures;
for a democracy
that would them to fully
participate in institutions
and the rule of law that
specifies the limits of
jurisdiction and allocates
power between different
institutions. We, as a people,
have recognized and
availed ourselves of the
myriad political, sociocultural,
and economic
forums that education,
historically, has created
for us. The assertion of
self-determination in
Kashmir and political
self-awareness can be
kept alive by a people
who have availed themselves
of the opportunities
offered by higher
education.
In order to question
inequities---the alteration
of the political and
cultural milieu by the
forces of rampant corruption;
state supported
institutions where young
boys are indoctrinated in
religious fundamentalisms
of various hues;
Pakistan’s shift in strategy
that revolution cannot
be exported but has to be
built in target areas by
various means, including
indoctrination and
inducements; the complacence
of the Indian government
if the batons of
police and the guns of the
Central Reserve Police
Force make the political
milieu in J & K look calm
on the surface ---we
require an education to
be able to counter the
instances of injustice and
unfairness created by
such institutions/ ideologies/
doctrines. How can
we, as a people, develop
the ability to organize
and mobilize for social
change, which requires
the creation of awareness
not just at the individual
level but at the collective
level as well? How can we
develop self-esteem for
which some form of financial
autonomy is a basis?
How can we make strategic
life choices that are
critical for people to lead
the sort of lives they want
to lead? We require education
for these mammoth
tasks.
This is where we need
to bridge the divide
between the civil society

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of Kashmir and the civil
society of Jammu in order
to pave the way for the
education of our younger
generation. Civil society
and political institutions
are closely interconnected.
In order to substantiate
democracy, there
must be a minimum of
participation and adequate
pluralism in a society.
A consolidated
democracy has to be open
to diverse opinions; dissent
and conflict on specific
policies is an important
element of every
democratic system. There
must, however, be some
shared consent on fundamental
principles. One of
the things that the civil
society of Kashmir and
the civil society of Jammu
can agree upon is the
indispensability of education.
Democratic, social/
educational institutions
cannot function in
Kashmir without participation
by citizens.
Nurturing a civil society
that bridges regional and
communal divides is a
prerequisite for the effective
and legitimate functioning
of education institutions.
(The author is
Visiting Professor,
Department of
English, University of
Oklahoma)
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