Civics and Citizenship Education in India and Pakistan

Abstract

The idea of citizen and the school discipline of civics, which is entrusted with the responsibility to create an ideal citizen, have colonial imprints. Both citizenship and civics have traversed through postcolonial histories of nation-building, state formation, modernity, and democracy/authoritarianism in South Asian nation-states of India and Pakistan. In the context of globalization, the idea of a citizen has also been marked with discourses of global citizenship, identity-based movements, and a reassertion of nationalism. This chapter situates civics in the context of these histories and transitions. Drawing on existing research, it also analyses the contestations over inclusions and exclusions from citizenship as represented in the school subjects of civics, social studies, and citizenship education. The dominant pedagogic practices of the subject and alternatives to them, along with a discussion of gaps in existing research and potential news areas of study are highlighted.

Knowledge and Curriculum Landscapes in South Asia

“…The "volatile mix of identity and schooling" that emerged in colonial India made the curriculum an arena for negotiating national identity and culture. This remains the case in post-independence curriculum trajectories, as exemplified by two contributions in this section: Durrani et al 2020 and Kadiwal and Jain (2020).…”

“…However, all national curriculum documents highlight the significance of "perfecting" citizens, the promotion of patriotism, national identity and social cohesion, and the inculcation of national and religious values (Byron 2000;Durrani and Halai 2018;Jones 2007). These purposes of education, as framed in the curriculum and textbooks, have been outlined in detail by contributions to the section "Knowledge and the Curriculum" by , Kadiwal and Jain (2020), and Sharma (2020). The curriculum objectives shift with a change in political power, as discussed earlier, as well as the perceived needs of the state by national elites or the geopolitical interests of international regimes.…”

“…This mapping of themes is however partial and constrained by the limitation of time and space as well as the topics and countries covered within the section, "Curriculum and Knowledge." The contributions in this section cover: the significance of the history curriculum in the construction of national imaginaries drawing on India, Pakistan and Bangladesh ; the construction of the "ideal" citizen within the civics curriculum in India and Pakistan (Kadiwal and Jain 2020); the construction of gender in textbooks in the conflict-affected contexts of Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Emerson and Levi 2020); curriculum models and pedagogic perspectives in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Sharma 2020); concerns and challenges in assessing student learning in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (Nawani and Goswami 2020); and mathematics education (Bose 2020).…”

Contesting authoritarianism, redefining democracy: Youth and citizenship in contemporary India

“…The protests as a form of public pedagogy promoted an idea of citizenship that differed from those advanced by what Kadiwal and Jain (2020) describe as elitist, colonial and conventional frameworks of civic or citizenship education in India. The mainstream citizenship and civics textbooks, as Batra (2007) and Yadav (2007) note discourage criticality and critique of state policies.…”

Discourse of Pakistan's Identity under Strand of Liberal Citizenship: A Case Study of Musharraf Education Policy Reforms

“…It is worth mentioning that the Ayub government under its educational policy agenda promoted a discourse of Pakistani identity in a liberal context (Kadiwal & Jain, 2020). However, the Zia government under the narrative of Muslim Ummah reversed the discourse of liberal Pakistani identity promoted under the reign of Ayub.…”