Problems relating to education, nutrition, healthcare and corruption are only a few of the many issues that afflict the South Asian region. The mindset created by all of this has hampered the region’s development for over five decades
IT is easy to define the problems that face the South-Asian region. Educational opportunities for all must yet be provided, the gap between rich and poor is ever-widening; we still face severe shortages in food and healthcare. The battle for human rights and women’s rights goes on, while weak systems of governance have brought corruption and economic devastation upon all such nations. The additional burden of fundamentalism, extremism and terrorism seem to stem largely from these parts of the world.
Daunting as these conditions are, to define them as key challenges of the region is a misnomer. These conditions are not the root causes of deprivation and misery, but rather the symptoms of the instability and stagnation of the area. They are caused by a mindset that these regions, its leaders and people have been trapped in during 300 years of colonialism and the half-century following it. Our real challenge is to eliminate the Third World mindtrap which has kept this region from realizing its full economic, social and political potential.
The end of colonialism left much of the developing world in disarray and flux. In the Middle East, the colonizers installed puppet governments that continued to enact influence of the imperialists long after they had left the region on paper. Other countries were left in freefall, to find their own way through the quagmire of new nationhood. In India and Pakistan, the colonial power had created a class alienated from the common masses in values and culture, through which the colonizers continued to hold sway over the subcontinent.
The short-lived hope that the new world powers, America and the Soviet Union, would help them get over the wounds of colonization were quickly dashed when the two superpowers used the region as an extension of their Cold War rivalries. Once the Cold War ended, globalization took over, which many saw as the reemergence of colonization and the Cold War power politics.
The mindset created by all of this has hampered this region’s development for over 50 years. This mindtrap must be eliminated if this region is to emerge from the chains of colonization that still rattle around our ankles, weighing down our steps towards prosperity and peace.
The mindtrap comprises three key parts. The first is a huge fear that it is possible for a nation to lose touch with its traditions, culture, religion and its very identity. This had occurred during years of colonization, where we were taught that our own culture, religion and value systems were inferior to those of the colonizers. We were encouraged to give up our own identity and adopt a bastardized form of the colonizers’ identity. The fear that this will happen again, long after our nations have achieved independence, still lingers on.
This fear is played out today all across the region. Some nations refuse to accept English as a national language, or even a second language. Muslim countries believe their countries will prosper only if they return to the glorious days of the early creation of Islam. Agrarian societies cling to their tribal and feudal traditions, even though some are barbaric and mediaeval. We clutch blindly at our identity and values, resisting globalization, promoting close-mindedness and isolation from the rest of the world. We are fearful that our cultures will become diluted and corrupted if left open to the influences of a western-dominated world.
The second part of the mindtrap deals with mistrust of the West and of everything associated with it. The terrible legacy of colonialism and occupation, the violence and might that was exercised upon the conquered peoples, taught us that western interest in our nations merely existed to see how much they could take advantage of and profit from us. After colonialism, the industrialized countries played a negative role in setting the pattern of international economy, specially with respect to trade, which seriously undermined the social and political stability of the region and augmented the distrust held for the West.
The result: a lack of faith in all institutions with roots in western civilization, most notably democracy, technological advances and gender equality. Despite the probability that the region will benefit from democratic governments, equal access to education, work and other rights regardless of gender, and opening ourselves to technology and the spread of information, we still cannot accept it. We see these institutions as examples of the West trying to assert their morals and values upon us. We end up with home-grown, mutant varieties of democracy, controlled by dictators or self-appointed leaders. We censor television and the Internet. We discourage girls from going to schools and women from working because we do not want to follow western social patterns.
The final element of the mindtrap has to do with pride. For centuries, our countries were made to feel humbled and humiliated by the colonizers. We were told we were inferior and worthless because of our colour and race. Our religions, value systems, languages and traditions were rooted out and ridiculed, altered and outlawed.
The backlash to this has, perhaps, had the most severe repercussions for our region and its role in the global community. Never forgetting the times when we were seen as unworthy, many nations in our region have turned the other way, inculcating an obsessive national pride in their cultural, religious or social identities. We have not been able to temper this new-found patriotism with realism. The failure of democracy and socialism as workable systems in the subcontinent adds to the problem, leading to the emergence of fascist political movements, uber-nationalism, religious extremism, and in the very worst cases, terrorism.
If we can root out this mindtrap that permeates our thinking and behaviour at every level by promoting education in our region, we stand a chance for successful existence. But the content and context of this education is of extreme importance; it must aim at eradicating the inferiority complex and addiction to failure that has overwhelmed us for generations.
We must teach our people to embrace modernity without fear, learn to accept innovation — technological, political, social — without distrust of those who bring it to us, and take pride in our religious and cultural identities. We must be able to stand back from our religion and culture and analyze it in a dispassionate way. We must judge whether we are allowing emotionalism and irrationality to hold us back from advancing, from emerging from the post-colonial fugue that still grips so many nations. This requires learning to change our perspective.
We must prove, through our own mature decisions, the committed leadership of our governments, and the civic responsibility of our citizens, that we are responsible members of the global community. If we make the needed shift towards qualitative education, we will gain psychological strength as individual nations and as a region.
By educating ourselves out of the Third World mindtrap, we may not necessarily become wealthier nations, but we will definitely become healthier ones. It is crucial for the success and happiness of our citizens.
