08-26-2010, 12:41 PM
Pakistan, Education and Archaeology Where do We Stand and What We Need to Do?
![[Image: 2hed93d.jpg]](http://i34.tinypic.com/2hed93d.jpg)
Being literate certainly does not mean being educated.
This is really true for the masses of Pakistan. If you dont agree with me, or have not understood my point, you can clearly observe the same by taking a look at how Pakistani public in general treats education. But in all honesty, you can expect that to happen when they are offered an education system as complex and discriminatory, as the one, or rather three parallel education systems, prevalent in Pakistan. Furthermore, the poor state of the economy is further contributing towards how people think about education, that is, only a means of getting better jobs.
Arts and social sciences have been badly neglected in Pakistan. Although institutions have been established and limited work has been taking place here and there, but certainly not in the way it should have been. Even certain sciences have been totally forgotten in Pakistan, such as Anthropology, Sociology, Paleontology and Archaeology. Given the importance of these disciplines in the development of a country should not be underestimated, but let us not talk with reference to education, which to my mind is the highest goal for humanity, but let us see how these disciplines can actually benefit Pakistan economically.
Let us leave for a moment how Pakistani anthropologists and sociologists can serve in diagnosing and suggesting solutions to certain social weaknesses and problems in Pakistan, but let us focus on sciences which actually can benefit the country economically, or the bottom line: Bring more money into the country. That is what most of our urban and rural population take the primary purpose of education to be, isnt it? For the surface area of Pakistan, especially the way it is longitudinally located on the map of the world, Pakistan has been blessed by archaeological treasures.
What is currently the Republic of Pakistan, used to house the cultural centers of the 10,000 years old, and perhaps even older, Indus Valley Civilization. These are probably the oldest known sites of the Indian civilization, and even antedate the Vedas. The good news for the Pakistani government and the state is that the ruins of these sites had been already discovered before the country was even founded, which really came as a blessing in my opinion. The key sites of Moenjodaro and Harappa were not properly unearthed until the 1920s.
I hope many of you would be familiar with the name of Mehrgarh. But if you ask the janta, many would not even be aware such a site exists in Pakistan. But of course, by its name you can tell that it does. Mehrgarh is probably the oldest archaeological site found in the country, near the famous Bolan Pass in the province of Baluchistan. This was a major archaeological discovery after the independence of the country through the help of a French archaeologist, Jean-Fran?ois Jarrige in 1974.
What we need to understand and believe in is the fact that the Indus Valley Civilization is not in the least bit any lesser in importance to that of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. Apart from the splendor of the Pyramids of Giza and other sites like Abu Simbel and Karnak Temple, there is nothing about the Indus Valley Civilization, which should not spark the interest from archaeologists and tourists from around the world as much as Egypt. The archaeological treasures found in the country are worth more than gold really if we capitalize them in the right way. Tourism is the second largest contributor to the revenues of Egypt, and it constitutes more than 6% of Indias GDP, while tourism in Pakistan only makes up 0.2% of the GDP as of 2006. That figure would only have gone down up to the date on which you are reading these lines.
If you check the official tourism statistics, it is sad to see that as of 2006, of all the tourism revenues in Pakistan, only 0.3% accounts for visits to archaeological sites. Probably the most accessible and well developed archaeological sites are that of Taxila, due to its close proximity to the Federal Capital. But we need to develop facilities around places like Moenjodaro as well; and if not from the government sector, than investments from the private sector to develop tourism there. Waiting for the government to do anything is simply not the solution, but is actually a part of the problem. We, the people, are the government.
Ahmed Hasan Dani, one of the excavators of Moenjodaro, had been a lone soldier for the struggle of the development of Archaeology in Pakistan. But as Mr. Dani ages, he would surely be worried about the current state of this important science in the country. Although we keep on trumpeting the endless potential in our youth, but unfortunately our youth seems to be completely ignorant of the science in general, although I know I am being a little harsh here. Unfortunately, our media are too occupied with covering unimportant matters and pay little heed towards the development of Archaeology and tourism.
We need to recognize our identity as a distinct culture, since we are the inheritors and descendents of a very rich civilization. Only nations which recognize their culture, their heritage and promote the icons of their identity can reach eternal glory. Not only we need to separate ourselves from the ignorance towards sciences and education in general, but we must also develop a reputation of a nation valuing its historical and artistic treasures. The impression of this region around the world, with incidents such as the Taliban bombing the statues of Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001, has contributed to the lack of interest as far as tourism is concerned.
We need to change our approach towards Archaeology and other sciences in general, but I think it is not possible until we change our attitude towards education itself. We need to realize our strengths and resources and need to promote general awareness towards the matter. Although Pakistan is struggling with the menace of terrorism country, which is crippling the economy itself, but there is no reason why we should stop making positive efforts. If the electronic media, which are enjoying growing influence in the country with every passing day, could only work towards propagating for the public awareness of the matter, they would not even have to work too hard for urging the government to take the right steps.
Have you heard of any recent excavation expeditions in Pakistan? I havent heard of many. Even forget that question, who wants to be an archaeologist?
Who knows how many more archaeological treasures are buried in our land waiting to be discovered?
