The University of the Punjab, the oldest educational institution in Pakistan, became a full-fledged degree awarding body around October 1882, having grown out of the University College (est., January 1870).
But it was not until the Jubilee Year (1932) that a separate Honours School of History was inaugurated as a centralised department with L. F. Bruce as the head and R. R. Sethi as his assistant. The teaching, however, was a corporate activity and historians from different affiliated colleges were invited to form the nucleus of the university faculty.
By 2001 (the terminating point of this analysis) the situation was not that rosy and only two faculty members had PhD degrees in History proper. The two others with PhD degrees were
Archaeologists and on contract. Among the remaining five non-PhDs, two were seniors (one of them also headed the department) and two were fresh MPhils and one had MA in Archaeology.
The Department of History at Karachi University is the second oldest having started functioning in 1953, only a couple of years after the establishment of the University. Its first Chairman was Mahmud Husain (formerly, the Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University) who remained in that position for almost two decades. During his tenure he enlisted the services of a large number of well-known historians and turned the department into one of the best in the country. Even when he (like I. H. Qureshi before him) became the Vice-Chancellor, he continued to look after the welfare of the department. However, because of retirements or relocations of the pioneers and the failure to groom fresh PhDs there was such a decline that by 2001 there was only one faculty member with a PhD degree and that, too, in Archaeology and he headed the History department as well.
The courses offered at Karachi at MA level were so organised that during the first year a student studied practically the whole history of South Asia from earliest times to 1947, with special emphasis on the evolution of the Muslim community and its struggle for freedom. The only exception was an odd course on European History.
A welcome addition was the Indian Studies programme which consisted of five papers viz., Hindi language, Indian Politics, India in World Affairs, and Indian Economics. The department also ran certificate and diploma courses in Hindi language. In all programmes put together the students numbered about 450 but in 2001 there was none in MPhil and only ten in PhD, most of whom were faculty members. The Department of History at the Peshawar University is one of the earliest among those established when the University started functioning in the early 1950s.
The History department (est., 1953) was the only place in the Frontier province where post-graduate teaching and research was conducted. It once claimed on its faculty A. H. Dani, Waheed-uz-Zaman and others but soon fell on its lean years with only one PhD degree holder managing the department as well as the faculty of arts. There was no other teacher with a PhD degree though one faculty member was expected to complete the requirements soon. The younger faculty, however, appeared quite energetic and academically sound and was contributing positively to the development of the department.
There was a close interaction between the Department of History and research institute especially the Central Asian Institute. The proximity to Afghanistan and Central Asia and cultural affinity with that region helped in creating this interest and collaboration.
The Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, is a relatively new University, having been established in 1975. Surprisingly, however, the Department of History had a quick growth and about six PhDs, in addition to some other faculty, found their way to Multan. Later however, some were sent to the Pakistan Studies department and still later, some shifted to other universities. The MA and MPhil programme were run in accordance with the semester system.
The actual working of the intellectual debate between various contending philosophical themes and the alternatives of westernization and Islamization was only marginal. Since sound traditions of intellectual erudition are almost non-existent in the country serious dialogue was absent, as in other universities. There was, however, a close contact between the Department of History and the Department of Pakistan Studies.
In research, the faculty seemed to be productive as in addition to a few books some articles had also been published, though rarely outside Pakistan. The student community came mostly from the rural areas and some from the suburbs. The same motivation brought them to the university as elsewhere in Pakistan. The History department of the Quaid-i-Azam University (originally designated as the University of Islamabad) began in 1971-72 though the first batch of the students did not arrive until January 1973.
The job of establishing new social science departments was entrusted to A. H. Dani. In December 1972, Waheed-uz-Zaman was brought in from Peshawar University to head the Department of History while Dani became the Dean. In the beginning the department was called 'The Department of Cultural History' but later its name was changed to the present more familiar one. Within a decade the faculty strength rose from two to fourteen, the majority with PhD degrees.
During fall 1975, Aziz Ahmad, the leading historian on Islam and South Asia from the University of Toronto in Canada, spent a semester to deliver a lecture series. In the next decade, two fresher faculty members did their doctorates from abroad while a third obtained hers from a local one. The rest of the five were still struggling to complete their theses.
By 2001, the department had lost the services of most of its pioneers through retirements, relocations or deaths. It was left with only five PhDs and five non-PhDs among whom only a few were productive and contributed regularly to research journals. Over the years, the frequency of publications had declined though the overall output was still better than most Pakistani universities.
At times, the courses were reviewed to add new areas such as Afghanistan and Central Asia but the star attractions remained Research Methodology and Philosophy of History. The PhD programme at its early stages had produced a sound crop of graduates though the quality of their work fluctuated noticeably.
Not much information is available for the History departments in the remaining universities.
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS:
As far as the quality is concerned the data suggests that if the number of the social science departments had registered an overall increase of 224 percent the number of the faculty holding PhDs and MPhils had also risen exponentially by 346 percent.
However, a closer look at the figures would indicate that as compared with other disciplines, History had not done that well. To determine the change in quality of teaching and research in History it is necessary to take into account (i) the change in the qualifications and strength of the teachers, and (ii) the quality of research done at the universities.
FACULTY: The data from the 1963 Handbook shows that in all there were 36 teachers in the six History departments with an average of six teachers per department. By the year 2001 when the second survey was done, the total number of teachers in 12 History departments had risen to 75 giving a slight increase to the averages.
From among the total number of social scientists in 2001, only eight percent were from the 12 History departments. This percentage is lower than three and higher than ten disciplines. But more than the numerical strength of the teachers, their qualifications shape the quality of research and teaching in a discipline.
There are two indicators of determining the quality: rise in the share percentage of teachers with higher degrees such as PhD, and the rise in the share percentage of teachers who earned their degrees from foreign universities. Using these two indicators the variations in the quality of the degrees of historians that occurred between the two surveys of 1963 and 2001 are as follows.
In 1963, there were only 36 teachers in History departments in the country. Of these 36, just 16 (44% of all social science teachers) had PhD degrees, none had an MPhil, 19 (53%) had MAs and one (3%) had a BA degree. In 2001, however, the number of teachers had increased to 75. Out of these, 22 (29%) were holding PhD degrees, nine (12%) MPhil degrees and the remaining 44 (59%) MA degrees.
The difference in share percentage of the three degrees in 1963 and 2001 shows a decrease of 15 percent for PhDs, an increase of 12 percent for MPhils and 6 percent for MA degrees. In other words, an upward change occurred for MPhil and MA degrees and a downward change for PhD degrees. However, an increase in the share of higher degrees alone is not a sufficient condition for the improvement of the discipline.
According to the 1963 survey, out of 36 teachers of History, only 13 (81%) had their degrees from foreign universities. By 2001, the position had deteriorated considerably. Out of 75 teachers, only four (18%) had such degrees which showed a 30% decline in foreign qualified teachers.
This shows that from 1963 to 2001, there was a decline of 63 percent in the share percentage of foreign trained PhD teachers. Such a state of affairs may be attributed to lack of incentives to go abroad and the non-availability of scholarships to social scientists as compared with those opting for science and technology.
RESEARCH: The second determinant of the enquiry is the quality of research done at the universities at PhD and MPhil levels. Information about MPhil and PhD theses (written between 1947 and 2001) received from six public universities does not give a flattering picture. During the period under review, 122 theses-38 for PhD and 84 for MPhil-were completed with an average per year of 0.7 for PhD and 1.5 for MPhil.
The Quaid-i-Azam University produced the largest number of theses (6 PhDs and 72 MPhils) followed by Punjab University (12 PhDs and no MPhil) and Karachi University (9 PhDs and 2 MPhils). The remaining three universities together produced only 21 theses.
The decade-wise breakdown for PhD theses shows that one thesis was produced in the 1940s, three in the 1950s, five in the 1960s, ten during the 1970s, 11 in the 1980s and eight during the 1990s. No thesis was completed in 2001.
As to the MPhil theses, one was written in the 1960s, 16 during the 1970s, 31 in the 1980s, 28 during the 1990s and eight in the year 2001. It may be noted that 104 out of 122 theses (80%) were produced in the last three decades of the twentieth century which reflected a quickening of pace of production.
Of these 122 theses, an overwhelming number (117) was written in English. Among the rest, three were written in Urdu, one in Sindhi and one in Arabic. As many as 95 (78%) writers of these theses were male and remaining 27 (22%) were females.
Largely, the subjects of the theses reveal the well-trodden path of the Indo-Pakistan History. For instance, almost all 12 PhD theses from the Punjab (11 of which were produced during 1947-85) deal with the subcontinent as the main area of interest: one on ancient India, three on Medieval/Mughal period, six on Muslim politics in Punjab/India, two on Princely States, and one on Architecture. The University of Karachi had produced nine PhD and two MPhil theses in General History and all but one were done between 1947 and 1985. Their topics concerned a variety of Indo-Pakistani themes from the Indo-Greek coins to constitutional and political problems of modern Pakistan.
They also included personalities, elites, 'ulama, regional politics, and women's development. The Department of Islamic History had to its credit ten PhD theses, six written during 1947-85 and four during 1985-2001. They dealt mainly with Islamic and Turkic themes, including the study of the Islamic State under the Holy Prophet and his successors, the working of administrative and social institutions as well as the debate on Islam and secularism.
THE UNIVERSITY OF SINDH AT JAMSHORO HAD TO ITS CREDIT ONLY FIVE PHDS IN GENERAL HISTORY: three before 1985 and two during the 1985-2001 period. The topics touched the regional themes in medieval and modern Sindh, including the socio-political conditions and institutions in the province. Similar was the case with Peshawar University where only two MPhil and one PhD theses had been produced.
The topics ranged from constitutional development in the NWFP to Iran-Iraq relations, and to the history of the Swat State. As against this, a relatively new university like Bahauddin Zakriya University had fared better.
The topics of its five PhD theses were evenly balanced and ranged from medieval to modern and included analyses of politics in the Delhi Sultanate, Multan under the Afghans and the Mughals, the politics of the Khaksar leader Mashraqi, the 1965 War, and the Soviet military adventure in Afghanistan. Relatively, its MPhil programme was a recent addition and for a change the five theses were in Urdu and related to regional history and women studies. This was a breath of fresh air as the focus had shifted to hitherto neglected aspects of our history.
The topics concerned such issues as Bahawalpur's relations with the British, Hindu-Muslim question, the origins and impact of Usmania University (Hyderabad Deccan), and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and its implications for Pakistan. The studies on women development looked at the contributions of social and educational institutions, women leaders, and the status of women in Pakistan.
The Quaid-i-Azam University had better luck with its MPhil programme as compared with its PhD agenda apparently because of a steady crop of history graduates every semester and a reasonably qualified faculty to run the programme. It had to its credit a total of 72 MPhil and six PhD theses. The figures in the case of PhD degree had not been that satisfactory as the candidates took longer to finish and some never did.
The subjects covered in MPhil research displayed a rich variety of titles (too numerous to be mentioned individually) and included historiography, biography, mysticism, medieval Muslim institutions and politics, British Indian politics, nationalist movements, All India Muslim League, communal relations & Partition, Kashmir, Hyderabad & the Princely States, constitutional & political developments in Pakistan, Pakistan's political parties, social & language issues, politics of Islamization & Islamic movements, regional-provincial politics, women in politics, Pak-Afghan and Sino-Pak relations.
The PhD research had been equally varied and subjects included frontier policy of the Delhi Sultans, defence policy of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah, Pakistan's relations with Egypt, and political & military perspectives of the struggle for Pakistan.
The standard of research though varied from average to excellent the scale tipped in favour of quality. It would be appropriate to wrap up the discussion in this section with an overview of the factual position.
From the nature and direction of the syllabi and the quality of the dissertations it is apparent that the teaching and research conducted in the universities during the period under review had not been much of a success. Since the number of PhDs in History had been very small the teaching work fell on the shoulders of mostly non-PhDs.
The courses had relevance neither to the growth of ideas nor to the needs of the country. There was no aspiration for developing a specific school of philosophy or historiography even where the strength of PhDs in the faculty was not all that deficient. Such being the case, there had been very little meaningful inter-disciplinary borrowings and hardly any theory-based dialogue between the advocates of different approaches. These indulgences seldom found reflections in classrooms or at faculty moots.
(Concluded)
Comments
Comments are closed.