Intellectual and
historian Dr Mubarak Ali is a prolific
writer who has produced around fifty books
on mainly historical themes. His work is
commendable on at least four counts. First,
he has taken to himself the task of bringing
history to the common man and impressing on
him the relevance of this discipline to an
understanding of contemporary times. By
taking to writing popular history Dr Mubarak
Ali - like others engaged in the genre - has
certainly taken a risk. His work could be
looked down upon by those professional
historians who write for a selective
readership directly involved with the
discipline. Dr Ali's books are for commoners
- general readers, students, political
workers, etc. Over the years they have
increasingly won wide acclaim.
Secondly, by writing on themes other than
political history and by bringing under the
spotlight of historical inquiry subjects
like society, culture, architecture,
beliefs, attitudes, etc, Dr Ali has
demonstrated how wide and multifaceted the
discipline of history has become. He has
written on diverse subjects such as the
history of personal lives, eating habits,
low-castes, slavery, dacoits, racism,
cities, and war and peace, apart from
political history of the Mughals and other
Indian dynasties. (The Mughal period was his
initial area of interest in which he did his
original work.) Another important area on
which he has focused his writing is the
analysis of historiography itself, its
various schools of thought and the
sociopolitical contexts in which they have
evolved.
Thirdly, Dr Mubarak Ali has come up with a
strong critique of the official
historiography of our country raising
fundamental questions challenging the
authenticity of its underlying assumptions.
He holds that once moulded to fit in the
ideological straitjacket of the state,
history loses its objectivity and its
relevance for human and social
development.Fourthly, Dr Mubarak Ali has
taken his discipline and its projection and
popularization as a mission. In doing so he
has been compelled to repeat his message
which is understandable given the activist
nature of his mission.
The two new books by Dr Mubarak Ali under
review testify to the above qualities.Tarikh
Ki Talash comprises eleven original and
relatively longer articles with necessary
references and notes. Avoiding the empirical
method, the author has written these
articles in a theoretical framework in order
to be able to address issues as important as
ideology, state, and historiography. Writing
about the problems of writing history in
Pakistan, he shows how under the constraints
imposed by the state, history was written
with national and political objectives.
He says that under the steelframe of
ideology, history was written at the cost of
objectivity, thereby relegating the
historians to the status of what Eric
Hobsbawm described as, the 'functionaries of
ideology'. Moreover, with the shifts in the
ideological imperatives of the state, the
focus of the state sponsored history also
shifted.
Thus once the focus was on Muslim
exclusivity in the subcontinent. Later, the
Hind-Islamic assertion was replaced by the
focus on Pakistani regions and their
autonomous existence over centuries.
Thereafter, the historical links of these
regions with the Middle East and Central
Asia were projected to give credence to the
new geopolitical interests of the state.
Another article discusses the emergence of
cities in different epochs and the role they
played in transforming human society,
values, tastes and habits. Followed by this
is an article on Karachi and its growth from
a small seaport in the nineteenth century to
a metropolitan city with diverse ethnic and
religious groups often at loggerheads with
each other. The article on Lahore is a bit
sketchy but it at least succeeds in
highlighting one point, that is, the
manifest difference between the colonial and
the post-colonial Lahore.
The book also conntains three articles on
different themes pertaining to Punjab: the
origin of the Sikh religion, the nature of
Ranjit Singh's rule, and the role and status
of women in Punjabi society. These articles
cumulatively bring forth some important
dimensions of the politics and society of
Punjab in the past and the present.
Tarikh Ki Awaz is a collection of 48
small essays published in newspapers and
periodicals. These cover a number of
subjects including socio-political aspects
of medieval India; partition and its various
explanations; Pakistan's contemporary
political, social and educational problems;
art and culture and their social utility;
the contributions of Ali Abbas Jalalpuri,
Hamza Alavi, Josh Maleehabadi and Ghulam
Kibria, etc to intellectual life. Moreover,
there are pieces on the conflict between the
West and the Muslims. Though brief, these
analytical articles question some of the
existing assumptions and try to offer a
fresh understanding of the issues involved.
For instance, the author tells us that the
Western image of Islam has not always been
the same and that the Western perceptions
changed along with the changes in its
relationship with the Muslim world in the
past.
We are also informed that moving away from
the traditional colonial and national
assertions, new trends in the historiography
of the subcontinent are now emerging. They
are bringing the focus of historical inquiry
to the grassroots communities, their
interests and internal dynamics.
The author also discusses religious
revivalism in the past and shows how it is
related to present day fundamentalism. In a
piece on Tipu Sultan, the author comes out
with some very refreshing information. He
shows how Tipu modernized his state and
tried to strengthen it militarily with the
help of the French against the juggernaut of
the East India Company. Highly impressed by
the French revolution, Tipu Sultan
established Jacobian clubs in Seringapatam.
About Abraham Lincoln, the author holds that
his anti-slavery policy was motivated by the
pragmatic political interests of the
American union, while Lincoln was hardly
anti-racist in his personal views. The
author dispels the myth of Napoleon's
greatness and shows how the myth was woven
round his personality for French national
consumption but has been borrowed by us
uncritically. Napoleon could be a model for
authoritarian rulers particularly those in
uniform but can never inspire those who
believe in people's supremacy.
The author laments the miserable state of
education in Pakistan. He analyses the
reasons behind our underdevelopment in
education, poverty of research, the
commercialization of education and the
failure of the state in the domain of
education. In short the books under review
promote consciousness about history and
highlight its social purpose. History
emerges as a source of knowledge which may
serve as a source of enlightenment. |
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