KARACHI, Jan 8: A dynamic civil society can play an important role in conflict resolution in South Asia and bring about an abiding peace in the region.

This was one of the many thoughts expressed by leading academics from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan at a seminar, organized by the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations of the Aga Khan University on Saturday.

Speaking on "Civil society and conflict management: experiences from Bangladesh", Prof Amena Mohsin, chairperson of the international relations department at Dhaka University, said it was an irony that South Asia currently found itself torn asunder by politicized ethnicities and religions.

"But the argument of my paper is that much of the strife that is in evidence in South Asia today is the result of militant politicization of governance structures and ethos. Little wonder, then, that conflict and security discourses have remained trapped within the languages of insecurity and war. We must face up the reality which is that even after over 50 years of decolonization, South Asia has failed to decolonize itself from the hangover of partition and decolonization," she observed.

Prof Mohsin, whose family left Pakistan for Bangladesh in 1974, informed the audience about the findings of a project on "Partition memories and violence" which was jointly carried out by the Centre for Alternatives, Dhaka; Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad.

"Psychologist Ashis Nandy of CSDS points out that partition had frozen public consciousness for decades. It bothered the consciousness of people so much that they chose silence, which has a language of its own. Though partition was violent, yet through the narratives of over 150 people in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, it has been found that there were self-imposed restraints to violence. Partition is not seen by the victims, perpetrators and witnesses to violence as simply a conflict between the Hindus and the Muslims but between landlords and tenants, between business rivals in the same community who had old scores to settle and take advantage of the chaos. There is a refusal on the part of Hindu respondents to blame the carnage as the making of the Muslims, and vice-versa. Those are referred to as a time of aberration when humanity and sanity lost and absolute evil took control," she said.

She recalled that in Noakhali where one of the worst acts of partition violence took place, the Hindu victims pointed out that they were saved by a "Maulvi Sahib" of the village despite the fact that the riots were initiated in the name of religion.

She added that the respondents, both Hindu and Muslim, blamed the politics of Jinnah and Nehru for the bloodshed and wondered why Gandhi's path of non-violence could not be adopted.

Answering a question afterwards, Prof Mohsin said every time there was a regime change in Bangladesh, history textbooks were rewritten.

"It is because we have a state-controlled board for textbooks which is called the National Curriculum Board. The role of various politicians in the liberation movement of 1971 depends upon which government is in power. But this phenomenon is not restricted to Bangladesh. In Pakistan, a Social Studies textbook says that in East Pakistan Hindus were dominant and they wanted Pakistan to break up," she said.

Speaking on "Civil society in India", Prof Rajeev Bhargava, head of the political theory department at the University of Delhi, argued that if civil society referred only to voluntarily chosen associations, most social life would be excluded from it.

"However, there is no reason to be fixated on a purely Western understanding of this term. For example, civil society need not be seen only as an arena constituted by individuals voluntarily associating with one another. It may rather be seen primarily as a sphere outside the state or as lying between the family and the state. When seen thus, we need not exclude from the domain of civil society groups based on identities such as caste and religion," he said.

Answering a question, Prof Bhargava said it was important to make a distinction between public institutions and the government of the day.

"In most South Asian countries, including India, the distinction has collapsed. So, the government of the day tries to fill public institutions with its own people. It also fills educational institutions with its own people. In India over the past 10 years, this distinction has been outrageously violated," he said.

Speaking on "Civil society in Pakistan: challenges and response", Prof Mohammad Waseem, chairman of the international relations department at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, explained that the concept of civil society became popular during the 1990s after the collapse of communist regimes of East Europe at the hands of issue-based alternative social movements led by dissident groups.

"It represents the new development paradigm championed by the World Bank in favour of a society-based strategy for development. The civil society approach highlights people's participation in the process of providing for their core collective goods. It is generally maintained that a weak civil society is responsible for not holding the state in Pakistan accountable for lack of performance and not shaping it along democratic lines. The idea is that lack of autonomous associational life in the non-state domain of public activity has led to the institutional decay, leading to the crisis of governability in Pakistan.

"It is often claimed, especially in India, that civil society was always present in form of philanthropy and social welfare sector, often couched in the religio-cultural tradition," he said.

Since Prof Waseem argued that without political training, members of civil society could not discharge their duties as conscientiously as they should, a questioner asked him whether he approved of a ban on participation of students in politics in universities.

Prof Waseem said: "In my younger days, I was all for student unions in universities. But when I became part of the academia, I realized that students' participation in political life was not good. Since student unions become involved in violent activities, they should not be allowed to form unions in universities. Having said that, I must make it clear that at the same time cultural activities among students should be encouraged. Perhaps a responsible student union and a responsible teachers' association could work out a suitable arrangement," he said.

Earlier, the president of the Aga Khan University, Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, said that the seminar on civil society in South Asia was part of series of seminars being organized by the AKU's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations on "Approaches to pluralism in Muslims contexts." He added that it was the seventh seminar in the series and second in Karachi. An associate professor of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, Dr Moncef Ben Abdeljelil, and the acting provost of the AKU, Dr David Taylor, also spoke.

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