DR Muhammad Iqbal not only envisioned a sovereign homeland for Muslims in the subcontinent; he also left an enduring intellectual legacy that provides a foundation for intellectual sovereignty in Pakistan. Although Pakistan achieved political independence from British colonial rule on August 14, 1947, it is still in transition from colonial-style to people-centred governance to attain true intellectual independence.
Intellectual independence is key to a nation’s progress. Pakistan needs intellectual autonomy to inspire people to feel pride and a sense of collective duty towards national progress. Indeed, Pakistan succeeded in acquiring nuclear power through this very shared intellectual capital — a matter of pride for the nation — enabling it to become militarily strong and live confidently in this conflicted world. Significantly, to make Pakistan strong politically, culturally, and economically, there is a crucial need for intellectual independence by all means.
What are the challenges to Pakistan regarding intellectual independence, both at the individual and at the national level? The colonial-style governance, imperialism, the indoctrination-based educational system, and lack of political vision, will and training have caused a kind of intellectual unproductivity in Pakistan. For instance, the prevalent rote learning in educational institutions discourages critical thinking. In the absence of an intellectual environment, people neither develop nor accept intellectual arguments to resolve conflicts that ultimately lead to violence in society. Where there is no intellectual capability, there is violence. There is, however, a solemn quest for decolonisation and de-imperialisation by all means to achieve intellectual independence in Pakistan, with an emphasis on reforms in education and governance to foster critical and independent thought.
Iqbal is primarily a philosopher of human development holding a steadfast belief in human agency as the capacity to be creative, moral, and sovereign. Iqbal’s political philosophy fosters three significant values that undergird intellectual autonomy — equality, solidarity, and freedom — meaning that all citizens have equal rights, that all share humanity, and that all have freedom of thought. He emphasises that intellectual freedom is necessary not only for the self-realisation of the individual but also of the nation. He articulates: “Elevate your khudi so high that before every destiny is written, God Himself asks you: ‘Tell Me, what is your will?” Iqbal’s idea of khudi has both individual and social implications: at the individual level, it cultivates human potential for creativity, morality, and productivity; at the social level, it enriches the nation’s welfare. Hence, a state, in Iqbal’s vision, is the self-realisation of the individual and the nation.
At the national level, khudi fosters the nation’s capacity to safeguard self-respect and development
To acquire intellectual fortitude in society, Iqbal rejects blind imitation, orthodoxy, and conformity, arguing that ideas should not be accepted uncritically. Accepting ideas uncritically is blind imitation that mars intellectual capacity. Instead, he cherishes rationality, creativity, and novelty in life. An intellectual culture creates a public sphere that bolsters public reasoning in society. In an intellectual community, people debate politics, economics, history, science, arts, and literature. Austrian-British philosopher Karl Popper’s significant work, Open Society and Its Enemies, posited the idea of such a community in which people are free to think critically without any fear of coercion. Coffeehouses, book clubs, study circles, scientific and literary societies, social media, and television channels are different forms of the public sphere, in which people engage in the intellectual conversation necessary to bring about intellectual transformation in society.
Accordingly, the elixir for Pakistan’s challenges lies in developing an intellectual environment that instils democratic political discourse, reforming educational policies, adopting a rational approach to life, upholding ethical values, and reaching a consensus for national unity that transcends cultural and ethnic divisions.
Like Martin Luther, who started the intellectual renaissance in the Western world, Iqbal brought about an intellectual renaissance in the Muslim world through his philosophical ideas expressed in both prose and poetry. Iqbal, a trained philosopher with degrees from Punjab University (MA), Cambridge University (BA Hons), and Munich University (PhD), contested the intellectual heritage and sought to reconstruct it in light of modern knowledge to transform society.
Some people incorrectly argue that Iqbal is not a philosopher but just a poet. What is a philosopher? A philosopher is a person with an intellectual mind who develops ideas. In his Prison Notebooks, Italian activist and philosopher Antonio Gramsci defines ‘intellectual’ by saying that “all human beings are intellectuals, but not all have the function of intellectuals in society”. In the Gramscian sense, no other thinker than Iqbal influenced the Pakistani nation through his ideas. By any definition of philosophy, Iqbal is a trained philosopher who attended excellent educational institutions of the world. Philosophers usually articulate in prose; Iqbal also expressed his ideas in poetry; he may be better called a philosopher-poet rather than a poet-philosopher.
Iqbal’s The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam is a magisterial philosophical work in the Muslim tradition that challenged traditional thought and promoted intellectual curiosity, encouraging people to see the world from new perspectives. The subject matter of Iqbal’s philosophical thought is human, universe, and God. Iqbal states, “The search for rational foundations in Islam may be regarded to have begun with the Prophet [PBUH] himself. His consistent prayer was, ‘God grant me knowledge of the ultimate nature of things.’ ” Reason is a distinctive attribute of human beings that helps them know the ultimate nature of things. The Pakistani mind requires a rational foundation for a better life.
Iqbal promotes a rational approach to life. For instance, through his key ideas of khudi and ijtihad, he supports independent reasoning. He states, “The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something”. The ego is capable of creating reality. Iqbal articulates, “Create your own world if you truly possess life; the human spirit bears the creative command of ‘Be!’ ” Becoming is a creative process that begins with intellectual freedom. Iqbal addresses youth, designating them as falcons, not cockroaches, to be something and transform the nation with their determined wills. By the way, cockroaches have no will, no vision, no integrity, no choice, no dignity and no freedom, while falcons have all these traits.
Like the French philosopher René Descartes, who said, ‘I think, therefore I am’, meaning thinking causes existence, Iqbal believes that being is the main goal of the ego at both the individual and national levels. At the individual level, khudi empowers people’s human capabilities. At the national level, it fosters the nation’s capacity to safeguard institutional self-respect, scientific development, economic productivity, cultural creativity, and ethical responsibility.
The term ijtihad, meaning ‘independent reasoning’, is generally used in religious jurisprudence. Generally, independent reasoning is key for all aspects of human life. Iqbal writes, “The teaching of the Quran that life is a process of progressive creation necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems.” Based on the Quran, Iqbal argues that every generation faces its own challenges, which cannot be met without rationality.
Iqbal is a modernist philosopher who advocates building intellectual capital based on current advances in knowledge. He believes that reality is not static but continuously evolving; if reality is evolving, knowledge should also evolve. Knowledge cannot evolve without intellectual wandering. An intellectual approach is vital for religion, economics, politics, science, law and public policy. So, neither the individual nor the nation evolves without intellectual freedom.
First of all, the state must give priority to education, and to critical education, not indoctrination. Critical education fosters creative minds, while indoctrination makes them dormant. Critical education creates new knowledge while indoctrination repeats inherited ideas. In Pakistan, education could not get rid of indoctrination that supports accepting ideas uncritically. In the absence of critical education, a disorder of intellectual impotency emerges — an inability to generate new ideas. An indoctrination-based educational system controls the human mind. Brazilian philosopher Paul Freire’s influential work, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, explains this kind of system that produces imitators rather than creators.
There is a structural paradox in Pakistan’s education system: building higher education without primary and secondary education is like building a roof without walls. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) was established in 2002 to promote and improve the quality of higher education in Pakistan, but there is no such body that analyses and makes policies for primary and secondary education. In the provinces, education departments administer the schools and colleges; they have no capacity for policymaking. The solution is that a federal education commission should address all levels of education: primary, secondary, and higher. There should be organic coordination between all provincial education bodies and the federal education commission to promote, monitor, and sustain the quality of education across all provinces. With proper coordination between provinces and the centre, new educational policies can be devised to meet emerging challenges.
Pakistan needs an educational system in which people have the freedom to flourish. Without strengthening the institution of education, there is no path to a nation’s progress. Pakistan has an abundance of schools, colleges, and universities; the dire need is to improve the quality of education with promising reforms and a substantial increase in the education budget.
The pedagogical methodology of critical thinking rather than rote learning, creativity rather than blind imitation, open-mindedness rather than narrow-mindedness, scientific thinking rather than emotional thinking, and a national approach rather than a tribal approach is required to meet the country’s cultural, economic, and political challenges. Critical education creates philosophers, statesmen, economists, educationists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and ethically responsible citizens.
Pakistan was an outcome of the democratic process; a political party demanded it, and the decision for independence was made through an election. What is democracy? Democracy is a means, not an end, for transforming society. Democracy is a process, an attitude, a way of life, a set of freedoms, and a means of making decisions, ranging from electing leaders to policymaking across all aspects of public life. Balloting is a democratic strategy for resolving conflict. Sometimes, democracy is misunderstood as only majority rule. Making decisions by majority rule is one aspect of the democratic process. A democratic action ought not to be independent of the ethical values of self-respect, dignity, and respecting others’ opinions.
Democracy is a process that requires continuity. Since 1947, the democratic process in Pakistan has been interrupted several times, which has negatively affected the development of democratic attitudes, values and the training of democratic leadership. Democracy needs a public sphere for public reasoning; parliament is such a space for intellectual discourse. The spirit of the democratic process requires that all decisions should be made through rational debate in the public sphere. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant rightly says that without rational autonomy, it is not possible to make laws that benefit humanity.
Recently, the debate has started to “reset the system”. In the history of Muslim countries, Kemal Atatürk in Turkiye successfully reset the system, thereby transforming the Turkish nation. If the system is reset without vision, will, and capability, it may not solve people’s problems. For instance, the creation of new administrative units by dividing provinces requires democratic discourse, and citizens should not only understand why these units are vital but also be convinced by the decision. After administrative divisions of provinces, if people’s wellbeing could not be made better, what would be the next thing to do? What needs to be reset is moral conscience at the individual, social, and institutional levels to demonstrate moral commitments to creating a corruption-free society, ensuring the fair distribution of resources, and upholding the rights to life, property, and liberty in Pakistan.
The pristine principle of democracy is agreeing to disagree with an ethical spirit of mutual respect. For a successful democracy, educated citizens, ethical leadership, accountability, and public reasoning are indispensable. Thus, democracy is an inclusive process in society that fosters civic virtues such as self-respect, dignity, tolerance, and dialogue, and it is above elections.
Pakistan is a multi-ethnic nation, and each ethnicity is distinct, with its own cultural values. The national identity, beyond diverse ethnicities, is vital and is underpinned by a sense of Pakistaniyat, a patriotic love for our homeland. The creation of Pakistan is indeed a historic phenomenon whose survival depends on national unity. The sense of Pakistaniyat is the feeling that we are Pakistan, and any act, decision, or policy must be for the betterment of our country.
A country is a common treasure; the citizens can protect or destroy it. If citizens prioritise self-interest over the country’s interests, the country cannot make progress. Garret Hardin’s concept, The Tragedy of the Commons, explains that when individuals pursue their own self-interest, a shared resource will be destroyed, even though they know that being selfish would not be in everyone’s long-term interest. Hardin illustrates the idea with an example. Imagine a village shares a common pasture for grazing their cows. By means of a social contract among the herders of the village, it was decided that each herder would hold a specific number of cows according to the capacity of the pasture. If each herder increases the number of cows to gain more benefit, overgrazing will soon destroy the pasture. Each herder must obey the social contract of the village to hold a specific number of cows for the common good. The existence of the pasture depends upon respect for the law. Like a pasture, a country’s survival depends upon its citizens’ respect for the Constitution that fortifies national unity.
One of the moral lessons of The Tragedy of the Commons is that disobeying the social contract and constitution devastates common resources, institutions, and states. The concept of the tragedy of the commons helps us understand that respecting the Constitution underpinning national unity is indispensable for the common good. A strong sense of social consciousness for national unity requires a democratic spirit that promotes freedom of thought rather than controls it by force.
Pakistan confronts the challenges of overpopulation, terrorism, illiteracy, poverty, climate change and low human development. Public discussion about these problems will help devise promising policies. Public intellectuals play significant roles in a country’s development by identifying problems, analysing their root causes, and finding their solutions. According to Gramsci, teachers, clergy, philosophers, lawyers, journalists, writers, artists, and statesmen have the functions of intellectuals in society. Pakistani intellectuals have a moral and political obligation to develop and advance intellectual capital to build a better future for all.
We cannot reset the past in Pakistan, but we can set the future and pledge to strengthen democratic institutions, ethical values, and intellectual culture. In the contemporary epoch, intellectual capital helps to excel in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, environmental sustainability, economic growth, social justice and peaceful coexistence. Intellectual independence would bring about decolonisation, de-imperialisation, economic growth, and national sovereignty — all of which are essential for a thriving Pakistan. Hence, Iqbal’s vision of an independent state could not be fully realised without fostering freedom of thought in Pakistan.
The writer holds a PhD from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and teaches philosophy at the University of Punjab, Lahore.
X: @saad_malook