Ideology and Worldview in Textbooks: A

Study of Cultural Aspects in ELT in Pakistan

By

Muhammad Tahir Yaqoob

Ph D in Linguistics

2011

Supervisor: Dr. Shirin Zubair

Thesis submitted to Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph D in Linguistics

ii

DEDICATION  

I dedicate this thesis to my parents who brought me on the earth and to

my teachers, particularly Dr. Shirin Zubair, who enabled me to fly up into

the sky.

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APPROVAL CERTIFICATE

This thesis titled “Ideology and Worldview in Textbooks: A Study of Cultural Aspects in

ELT in Pakistan” prepared by Muhammad Tahir Yaqoob under my supervision is hereby

approved for submission to Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan; in partial

fulfillment of the requirement of degree of Ph D in Linguistics.

Dr. Shirin Zubair

Professor

Department of English, Language and Literature

Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan

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Declaration I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my independent investigation except

where I have indicated my indebtedness to other sources. It has not been accepted in

substance or in part for any degree and is not being submitted concurrently in candidature

for any other degree.

Muhammad Tahir Yaqoob

Scholar

Dr. Shirin Zubair

Supervisor

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Abstract

The present study is a critical discourse analysis of ideological contents related to culture

in Pakistan English language textbooks. It critically examines the following books:

Punjab Textbook Board (henceforth PTB) English textbooks and Oxford University Press

(henceforth OUP) English textbooks. These textbooks are taught in three different types

of schools in the country. The PTB English textbooks are taught in the government Urdu-

medium schools and private non-elite English-medium schools at the secondary level (i.e.

9th and 10th classes/grades), whereas the latter are taught at the same level (i.e. O level) in

some of the elite English-medium schools in Pakistan. The research aims at finding out

the cultural ideologies embedded within the textbooks. The research employs

Fairclough’s (2003) analytical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth)

CDA) to explore cultural themes. The analytical categories adapted for analysis of certain

textual issues in this model are: ‘Social Events’, ‘Difference’, ‘Intertexuality’,

‘Assumptions’, ‘Representations of Social Events’ and ‘Styles’. Further analytical

devices include Presupposition/Assumption/Implicature, Metaphor, Identity,

Comparison, Contrast, Implication, Representation, Attribution, Backgrounding,

Foregrounding, Inclusion, Exclusion, Difference, Prominence/Reinforcement,

Dialogicality, and Universalization. The purpose of critically analyzing the discourse of

English textbooks is, in fact, threefold:

(a) To find out the implicit as well as explicit ideological messages related to culture,

(b) To see if these ideologies are different in the textbooks of different schools; and

(c) To see how far these ideologies impact upon the learners’ worldviews.

The analysis shows that both the PTB and OUP English textbooks are replete with

cultural ideologies. Moreover, they represent different cultural ideologies which are,

therefore, likely to impart different worldviews to their young readers. In order to

determine this aspect statistically, I constructed a questionnaire related to the major

themes such as gender, jihad etc. The results show that the government and non-elite

schools students (who read PTB textbooks) hold almost identical worldview; whereas

their counterparts from the elite school (who read OUP books) hold different worldview

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regarding most of the themes mentioned above. The former ones are more religious,

nationalistic, anti-Hindu, anti-Christians, anti-Israel, and closer to indigenous culture as

compared to the latter ones. As compared to elite school students, they like male

characters more than the females ones. However, so far as the desire for learning English

is concerned, difference is little – mostly the students of all schools disagree with the

abolition of English in the country. The findings of the present study can be useful in a

number of ways. They can be useful in developing new curricula and teaching materials

including textbooks with less nationalistic, religious and gender biases. They can also

help the policy makers, textbook authors and ELT practitioners to realize the politics of

language textbooks, and, thus, seek to establish an egalitarian and symmetrical

educational system.

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List of Tables

Table 5.1: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to abilities in OUP textbooks 212

Table 5.2 Men’s and Women’s attributes related to appearance in OUP textbooks 215

Table 5.3: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to character in OUP textbooks 220

Table 5.4: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to education in OUP textbooks 222

Table 5.5: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to feelings in OUP textbooks 230

Table 5.6: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to power in OUP textbooks 233

Table 5.7: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to socio-economics in OUP textbooks 236

Table 5.8: Attributes represented by men in OUP textbooks 237

Table 5.9: Attributes represented by women in OUP textbooks 238

Table 5.10: Men’s attributes related to abilities in OUP and PTB textbooks 241

Table 5.11: Women’s attributes related to abilities in OUP and PTB textbooks 243

Table 5.12: Men’s attributes related to appearance in OUP and PTB textbooks 246

Table 5.13: Women’s attributes related to appearance in OUP and PTB textbooks 247

Table 5.14: Men’s attributes related to character in OUP and PTB English textbooks 250

Table 5.15: Women’s attributes related to character in OUP and PTB English textbooks 257

Table 5.16: Men’s attributes related to education in OUP and PTB textbooks 258

Table 5.17: Women’s attributes related to education in OUP and PTB textbooks 259

Table 5.18: Men’s attributes related to feelings in OUP and PTB textbooks 261

Table 5.19: Women’s attributes related to feelings in OUP and PTB textbooks 263

Table 5.20: Men’s attributes related to power in OUP and PTB textbooks 264

Table 5.21: Women’s attributes related to power in OUP and PTB textbooks 265

Table 5.22: Men’s attributes related to socio-economics in OUP textbooks 266

Table 5.23: Women’s attributes related to socio-economics in OUP and PTB textbooks 267

Table 5.24: Men’s Attributes in OUP English Textbooks 268

Table 5.25: Women’s Attributes in OUP English Textbooks 269

Table 5.26: Men’s Attributes in PTB English Textbooks 269

Table 5.27: Women’s Attributes in PTB English Textbooks 270

Table 5.28: Over-all Men’s and Women’s Positive and Negative Attributes 272

Table 6.1: Men’s Professions in PTB Textbooks 324

Table 6.2: Women’s Professions in PTB Textbooks 324

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Table 6.3: Men’s Professions in OUP Textbooks 325

Table 6.4: Women’s Professions in OUP Textbooks 325

Table 6.5: Men’s Powerful Professions in PTB Textbooks 325

Table 6.6: Women’s Powerful Professions in PTB Textbooks 325

Table 6.7: Men’s Powerful Professions in OUP Textbooks 326

Table 6.8: Women’s Powerful Professions in OUP Textbooks 326

Table 6.9: Professions Shared by Men and Women in PTB Textbooks 326

Table 6.10: Professions Shared by Men and Women in OUP Textbooks 326

Table 6.11: Women’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in PTB Textbooks 327

Table 6.12: Men’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in OUP Textbooks 327

Table 6.13: Women’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in OUP Textbooks 327

Table 6.14: Social Actions Represented by Men in PTB Textbooks 327

Table 6.15: Social Actions Represented by Women in PTB Textbooks 330

Table 6.16: Social Actions Represented by Men in OUP Textbooks 331

Table 6.17: Social Actions Represented by Women in OUP Textbooks 335

Table 6.18: Social Actions by Men and Women in the Textbooks 338

Table 6.19: Attributes Represented by Men in PTB Textbooks 338

Table 6.20: Attributes Represented by Women in PTB Textbooks 339

Table 6.21: Women’s Negative Attributes 339

Table 6.22: Men’s Break with their Stereotypical Attributes 339

Table 6.23: Women’s Break with their Stereotypical Attributes 340

Table 6.24: Attributes Represented by Men in OUP Textbooks 340

Table 6.25: Attributes Represented by Women in OUP Textbooks 341

Table 6.26: Men’s Negative Attributes 342

Table 6.27: Women’s Negative Attributes 342

Table 6.28: Men’s Break with their Stereotypical Attributes 343

Table 6.29: Women’s Break with their Stereotypical Attributes 343

Table 6.30: Attributes by Men and Women in OUP and PTB Textbooks 343

Table 7.1 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Government Urdu-Medium Schools 344

Table 7.2 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Non-Elite English-Medium Schools 347

Table 7.3 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Elite English-Medium School 350

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List of Charts

Chart 7.5 Discussion of the Comparative Result of Government Urdu-Medium, non-Elite English-

Medium and Elite English-Medium Schools Students 353

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Chapter 1: Introduction to the Present Study 1

1.1) Major Types of Schools in Multan 3

1.1.1) Government Urdu-Medium Schools 3

1.1.2) Non-Elite English-Medium Schools 6

1.1.3) Elite English-Medium Schools 8

1.2) Development of Textbooks 11

1.3) Background and Context of the Current Research 12

1.4) Statement of the Problem 15

1.5) Significance of the Study 17

1.6) Scope 21

Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework 23

2.1) Ideology 23

2.1.1) Ideology in the Postmodern Era 28

2.2) Worldview 30

2.3) Discourse 33

2.3.1) Ideology and Discourse 36

2.4) Culture 37

2.4.1) Schools as Mechanisms of Cultural Distribution 41

2.4.2) ELT Textbooks as Cultural Artifacts 42

2.5) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theoretical Background 46

2.6) Ideology in Textbooks 49

Chapter 3: Research Methodology 60

3.1) Site and Purpose of the Research 60

3.2) Research Objectives 61

3.3) Data and Data Sources 61

3.4) Data Analysis and Analytical Framework 62

3.4.1) Explanation of Key Terms 63

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a) Presupposition/Assumption/Implication 63

b) Metaphor 64

c) Identity 64

d) Representation 65

e) Dialogicality or Attribution (of voices) 66

f) Difference 67

g) Exclusion, inclusion and prominence 67

h) Backgrounding 68

i) Universalization 68

j) Comparison 69

3.5) Questionnaire 69

3.5.1) Pilot Tests 72

3.5.2) Distribution of Final Questionnaire 73

3.5.3) Questionnaire Content and Research Aims 74

3.6) Research Ethics 79

Chapter 4: CDA of Contents Related to Culture, Religion,

Nationalism, Us and Them and English 83

4.1) Representations of Cultures 84

4.2) Reinforcement of Religious Practices 97

4.3) Religious Exploitation 103

4.4) Glorification of War / Jihad 108

4.5) Nationalism 114

4.6) Us and Them 124

4.7) Status of English 141

Chapter 5: CDA of Gender Representations 149

5.1 Qualitative Analysis 152

5.1.1 Change Strange! 153

5.1.2 Gender Bias Regarding Professions 165

5.1.3 Gender Bias Regarding Social Roles 175

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5.1.4 Gender Bias Regarding Attributes 204

5.1.4.1 Representation of Attributes in the OUP English Textbooks 206

5.1.4.1.1 Attributes Related to Abilities 206

5.1.4.1.2 Attributes Related to Appearance 212

5.1.4.1.3Attributes Related to Character 215

5.1.4.1.4 Attributes Related to Education 221

5.1.4.1.5 Attributes Related to Feelings 222

5.1.4.1.6 Attributes Related to Power 230

5.1.4.1.7 Related to Socio-economics 233

5.1.4.2 Representation of Attributes in the PTB English Textbooks 239

5.1.4.2.1 Attributes Related to Abilities 239

5.1.4.2.2 Attributes Related to Appearance 243

5.1.4.2.3 Attributes Related to Character 247

5.1.4.2.4 Attributes Related to Education 258

5.1.4.2.5 Attributes Related to Feelings 259

5.1.4.2.6 Attributes Related to Power 263

5.1.4.2.7 Attributes Related to Socio-economics 265

5.1.5 Role Models 273

Chapter 6: Gender Representations: Quantification of Data 278

6.1 Gender Bias in Profession 278

6.1.1 Representation of Professions 279

6.1.2 Representation of Powerful Professions 280

6.1.3 Equal Representation of Professions 282

6.1.4 Break with the Professional Stereotypes 283

6.2 Gender Bias in Social Actions 285

6.3 Gender Bias in Attributes 287

Chapter 7: Statistical Results 293

Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusion 302

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References 313

Appendix 324

Tables (chapter 6) 324

Tables and Charts (chapter 7) 344

Questionnaire 361

English Textbook for class 9 by Punjab Textbook Board (Lessons without exercises)

English Textbook for class 10 by Punjab Textbook Board (Lessons without exercises)

English Alive Book 1 by Oxford University Press (Lessons without exercises)

English Alive Book 2 by Oxford University Press (Lessons without exercises)

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List of Acronyms

CDA: Critical Discourse Analysis

ESS: Elite School Students

GSS: Government Schools Students

IQ: Intelligence Quonent

LMIA: Labour Market Information and Analysis

NESS: Non-elite Schools Students

OUP: Oxford University Press

PTB: Punjab Textbook Board

SDPI: Sustainable Development Policy Institute

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Chapter 1: Introduction to the Present Study

Textbooks like several other influences inside and outside a school are important in many

ways to a student or learner. Other things may include friends, teachers, school and

classroom activities, games, media and society which are significant in their own ways.

However, textbooks can be regarded as more important than them since students mostly

spend their time on textbooks particularly in the Pakistani society. This time is spent in

doing different kinds of academic activities related to textbooks, for instance, teachers

teach from them devising classroom activities and talk around textbooks; students read

them; engage in activities and classroom discussion; solve exercises given at the end of

each lesson, do preparation from them for (class) tests and examinations.

In short, looking at the kind of relation between textbooks and students, it is safe to

regard textbooks as ‘one out of many influences on a person’s world view’ (Rahman

2002a). However, it is very difficult to opine categorically as well as quantitatively about

the ‘howness’ of their influence – how much is the influence of textbooks – on a person’s

worldview yet this does not mean that one cannot claim about their impact, which is, of

course, a part of total influence, on learners. One way to know about how textbooks

influence learners’ worldviews is to have a close critical look at their discourses and the

ideological messages these discourses are likely to disseminate to their readers.

The present research is such an effort. It deals with the critical discourse analysis (CDA)

of the English textbooks being taught at the secondary level (O level / 9th & 10th

classes/grades) in different schools in Multan – a city in the province of Punjab in

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Pakistan. The textbooks chosen for CDA are English Language textbooks published by

Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) English Textbooks and Oxford University Press (OUP).

The former ones are being taught in the government Urdu-medium schools and non-elite

English-medium schools whereas the OUP textbooks are being taught in an elite school.

The description of these schools comes in the next section below.

Inside the PTB and OUP English textbooks, the present study focuses only on cultural

discourses – discourses related to culture. It is important to mention that the term

‘culture’ has been used in a broad sense. It denotes ideas, beliefs, customs and attitudes

accepted and shard by people in a society towards something, for instance, religion,

country, gender etc. Therefore, the other themes that have been subsumed under this

umbrella term of ‘culture’ are: religion, nationalism, gender, othering discourses in the

(English) language textbooks.

The purpose of critically analyzing these discourses of the English textbooks is, in fact,

three fold: (a) to find out the implicit as well as explicit ideological messages related to

culture, religion, nationalism, gender, othering; (b) to explore whether these ideologies

are consistent across the board in the textbooks of different schools; and (c) to analyze

how these ideologies impact upon the learners’ worldviews. In order to deal with the

explicit as well as implicit ideological messages successfully, the present research

employs the framework proposed by Fairclough (2003). The framework selected has

been found useful particularly in dealing with the ideologies in longer stretches of texts,

e.g. textbooks.

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Keeping in view the objectives mentioned above, particularly the second one , it would

be useful to briefly discuss , the type of schools in Multan and the textbooks being taught

in them, to acquaint the readers to the research sites.

1.1) Major Types of Schools in Multan

There are three major types of schools in Multan:

(a) Government Urdu-medium schools

(b) Non-elite English-medium schools

(c) Elite English-medium schools

There are also sub-categories within each category particularly in the non-elite schools

which are too varied to be classified. However, I focus only on the major types to

understand what type of worldview is disseminated in them via ideological messages in

their prescribed textbooks which, in return, shape the students’ worldview upon which

their norms, actions and values are contingent.

1.1.1) Government Urdu-Medium Schools

These schools, as obvious from the name, are the government schools. They are very

affordable particularly for the lower and lower-middle classes because they do not charge

any school fees. The students, however, pay a little amount as development fund every

month i.e. Rs 5 up to sixth class and Rs 10 from seventh to tenth class. This development

fund is, of course, not enough to meet their expenses. That is why these schools have

been, and are, totally dependent on the government funds. Almost all governments have

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regarded them as their step child especially in the grant of funds, maintenance of

buildings, provision of quality teachers and textbooks and so on. For instance, in the year

1998-99, the cost of the establishment of a government Urdu/Sindhi-medium high school

was Rs/- 3,580,000 in contrast to Rs/- 11,887,000 of Cadet College Razmak and Rs/-

10,000,000 of Cadet College Larkana – its two state-influenced counterparts where

governments spend much more in the name of ‘defence, modernization and efficiency’

(Rahman, 2002b, p. 296). Moreover, in these schools, status of English is not of a second

language but of a foreign language. Generally, Urdu is taught and learnt as a second

language. That is why their English textbooks do not lay as much emphasis on the

learning of English as the ones in the elite school do.

The English textbooks in these schools are the government textbooks. These textbooks

are developed and published by the provincial boards according to the educational policy

of the government. They are quite low-priced – twelve to fourteen rupees – as compared

to textbooks in the elite school that cost from five-hundred to six-hundred rupees.

Moreover, the government has been providing these textbooks to the students free of cost

for the past many years. They are written and published by the provincial boards under

the guidelines and supervision of The Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education.

Most of the lessons in them have been written by the Pakistani authors i.e. thirty three out

of forty three. The contents in these textbooks are, therefore, a clear reflection of the

government educational policies which tend to focus more on Islam, nationalism and

indigenous values. The lessons related to Islam include material about Islamic

personalities, fundamentals, events, practices and Jihad. And the lessons related to

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nationalism include material about national personalities, events, practices, movement of

Pakistan, patriotism and the products prepared in Pakistan.

The Islamic lessons carrying Islamic information, as mentioned earlier, represent Islam as

a complete code of life and urge the students to live their lives according to Islam in

Pakistan which has been achieved in the name of Islam. The discourses in these

textbooks represents Islam as an identity and equates it with Pakistan to create only one

identity i.e. Islamic identity against the other which is non-Muslim identity. Needless to

say, the non-muslim identity is of those who are treated as the others. They include the

Hindus, Christians and Jews.

The textbooks tell that the Christians and particularly the Hindus who are entirely

different from us (the Muslims in the sub-continent) were against the existence of

Pakistan and for this purpose both of them being united created hurdles in the way to

Pakistan. As far the Jews are concerned, they have not been represented as our open

enemies like the Hindus and Christians but a community different from us. Rather an

effort has been in one of the lessons to join hands with them against terrorism (Human

Rights and Madina Charter’ PTB 10, 2006, p. 31-2). However, as it is important to

mention, the influences on the students other than textbooks, for instance, peer group,

teachers, family and extra curricular discourses (e.g. T.V, radio, newspapers etc) are anti-

Israel and anti-Semitic (Rahman, 2007, p. 6). The textbooks then in order to reinforce the

differences as well as enmity among ‘us and them’ represent the others – Hindus,

Christians and Jews – in a negative way.

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Importantly, such negative representation is not limited to non-Muslims alone. The

textbooks also use it as a tool to marginalize women. This negative representation or

marginalization is at three levels: professional, social and attributive.

In short, the textbooks of government Urdu-medium schools are almost replete with

certain ideological messages about culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them and

English. However, these messages are different from those of the elite-school English

textbooks in a way that, unlike them, mostly they have an indigenous flavour.

1.1.2) Non-Elite English-Medium Schools

Non-elite English-medium schools include private as well as state-sponsored English-

medium schools. State-sponsored English-medium schools are the Federal Government

Model schools, public schools, and armed forces schools. Tuition fees in the non-elite

schools range between Rs 50 to Rs 1500 per month which is far higher than that in the

government Urdu-medium schools and lower than the elite schools (Rahman, 2002b, p.

301). However, in state-sponsored schools particularly public schools and armed forces

schools, fees is less for the children of the beneficiaries or army personal but more for

other people’s children. Mostly the people belonging to middle class admit their children

in these schools.

The non-elite English-medium schools are somewhat different and, at the same time,

similar to the government Urdu-medium schools. They are different in a way that the

textbooks of science subjects (Chemistry, Physics and Biology) and Mathematics are in

English in most of these schools. And they are similar in a way that they teach all

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subjects from the PTB textbooks. However, in the subject of English they supplement the

PTB textbooks with English readers like ‘Shakespeare’s Tales’, ‘Tales from the Arabian

Nights’ and others up to eighth class. In Matric / secondary classes, they use only PTB’s

English textbooks as prescribed by the provincial government. This does not mean that

the standard of teaching English is quite high in these schools. In fact, most of them are

English-medium only by name (Census Private 2001: 12). The medium of instruction is

mostly Urdu and, therefore, the competence of their students is higher than the students in

the government schools but lower than those in the elite schools. The same can be safely

said about the competence of teachers in English in non-elite schools who mostly come

from middle-class backgrounds.

The students in these schools are mostly exposed to a particular middle-class worldview

not only at home but also at school. At home, they watch Pakistan TV; read Pakistani

newspapers and magazines; speak indigenous language/s; interact with the members of

the family and so on. At school, they read Pakistani textbooks; interact with teachers and

school mates from the same social backgrounds mostly in Urdu and so on. Moreover,

they are less exposed to liberal and secular worlds represented in TV channels like BBC

and CNN, English movies and textbooks (published for the schools in West) etc. Thus the

world portrayed before them is religious, nationalistic and indigenous where there is less

tolerance for those who are not like them. Needless to say, this world is much close to the

worldview of the students reading in the government schools and much different from

their counterparts in the elite English-medium schools.

8

In this section, we do not discuss about the PTB English textbooks being taught in the

non-elite schools as mentioned earlier and the ideologies embedded in their discourse

related to culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them and English for they have

already been dealt with in the previous section titled ‘Government Urdu-Medium

Schools’. Let us move towards the third major type of schools which is elite English-

medium schools.

1.1.3) Elite English-Medium Schools

Like the non-elite schools, elite English-medium schools also include private and state-

influenced schools. The state-influenced institutions are Aitchison College, Burn Hall,

Lawrence College, Public School Sargodha, to name but a few. They are located in

different big cities of Pakistan. However, no such school is located in Multan.

Conversely, a number of private elite English-medium schools such as Beaconhouse

School System, Bloomfield Hall School, Lahore Grammar School, City School etc are

present in the city. Therefore, my discussion will be mainly about the private elite

schools, their English textbooks and the worldview being disseminated in them.

The private elite English-medium schools are the most expensive schools. Their tuition

fees range between Rs 1500 to Rs 7000 per month. They also charge a high admission

fees ranging between Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000. Besides this, there are also other expenses

e.g. examination fee, development funds, excursion fee, sports funds, textbooks and

uniforms. Indeed, these high expenses exclude the lower and middle class from these

schools.

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Expenses are, however, not the only reason for the exclusion of the poor and middle

classes from the elite schools. One more thing is the western and secular atmosphere of

these schools for which there has been an outcry in the past against these schools and

their products but the ruling elite whose power is English have always neglected the

matter (Rahman, 1996, p. 228-248). Mostly the people from lower and middle classes or

the students from government and non-elite schools still do not like their children being

western and secular. I during my service at a public school met a male student of an elite

school who had come to take admission test in the public school. On asking why he

wanted to leave his school and read in the public school, he said that his parents did not

like the liberal atmosphere of that school. But this is not the only evidence. Many people

particularly having middle-class backgrounds can be heard often advising the others not

to admit their children in elite schools lest they be spoilt.

The families that send their children to elite schools, in fact, possess Western, liberal and

secular views. They are rich enough to give their children an easy access to English

movies, TV channels like BBC and CNN, English cartoons, English newspapers and

magazines etc at home. Then, at school, textbooks, school mates, teachers (particularly

those from the elite class), classroom and school activities further reinforce their western

worldview. These schools prepare their students for O and A levels – they do not run

Matric classes. Therefore, mostly the textbooks they read are those originally written for

children in the Western schools. These books inculcate a heavy dose of western culture,

norms and beliefs into them.

10

Some of these books such as English textbooks published by the Oxford University Press

are being taught in most of the elite schools. Though these textbooks have been adapted

for use in South Asia but the changes brought into them are minor – the clothes and

names of some characters are Pakistani. Mostly the lessons have been written by the

foreign authors i.e. fifty eight out of sixty nine lessons. In spite of the fact that the

remaining eleven lessons have been written by the Pakistani authors, the representation of

Pakistan and most of the things related to it seem to bear negative representation. On the

other hand, most of the things related to the West such as English (as language), places,

characters, secularism, liberty, social events and practices project the western

perspectives.

Like PTB textbooks, the representations of women are also sexist or patriarchal in the

OUP textbooks. Mostly, women have been shown working inside homes as housewives

and acting upon what their husbands say. However, there are some women who have

been shown doing jobs outside homes. But most of them do not represent any higher or

powerful position. For instance, they are shown as tutors, weavers, beggars, etc. Even

those who work in any organization are shown in subordinate positions such as nurses.

Conversely, men mostly represent powerful positions like captain (of a ship), army

officials doctors, scientists, etc. The percentage of men representing weak positions is

much less than women’s. A similar inequality can be observed in the representations of

those women whose works have been great in the field of arts, music, education, etc.

Only their names and fields have been mentioned – their contributions get no

introduction.

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1.2) Development of Textbooks

The findings of the present research have corroborated the fact that the PTB and OUP

English textbook discourses carry different ideologies for different learners reading in

different schools. It must call one’s attention to the question how ideologies become a

part of these textbooks. One way to find an answer to this question is to look at the way

these textbooks are developed. The PTB English textbooks are developed under the

supervision of the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education as per educational

policies formed by the state. The whole responsibility therefore lies on the shoulders of

the Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education that has an additional authority to

scrutinize the textbooks published at the provincial boards and recommend changes if

textbooks permeate with such ideologies.

The present research deals with the analysis of two types of textbooks, each representing

a different set of ideologies. Unlike the Punjab Textbook Board that works under

Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education of the state, Oxford University Press

comes under the chairmanship of vice chancellor of Oxford University and is controlled

by the renowned faculties of various departments at the Oxford University; hence, the

state has little to do with the development of OUP textbooks. The publisher plays an

important role in the development of a textbook in sense that he/she finds the authors for

compiling and preparing the manuscripts. Importantly, ‘It is the author’s responsibility to

research and compile the information and prepare the manuscript according to the

specifications (Borovilos 2007). These textbooks are originally written for children in the

Western schools. These textbooks have been adapted for use in South Asia but the

12

changes brought into them are minor – the clothes and names of some characters are

Pakistani.

1.3) Background and Context of the Current Research

After the emergence of Pakistan on the map of the world on 14th August, 1947, one of the

biggest challenges for the state was to weld its people into one nation. It was not a plain

sailing for the people in different provinces – Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, Balochistan and

NWFP – had diverse ethnic identities, languages and cultures. The state planned to use

education as a tool for homogenization through the inculcation of religious and

nationalistic sentiments particularly into the young people. An evidence of it is the Sharif

Commission Report (1959) on education prepared – for the first time – one year after the

imposition of first Martial Law by General Ayub Khan. Following is an excerpt from this

report which reflects the imperatives of the state:

The disruptive forces of communalism, regionalism, and provincialism came to the fore in the subcontinent…progress and patriotism reflect, to a large degree, basic attitudes and values. … In a situation where the overriding objective is that of nation building, and where there exists these centrifugal forces of regionalism, indiscipline, and non-cooperation, the immense tasks to be accomplished can only be carried out when a strong and responsible leadership emerges. Such leadership must come from the highest levels and it must be strong enough to overcome these forces and by its public behaviour change the attitudes behind them (cited in Saigol, 2004, p. 2).

Moreover, Ayub Khan stated in 1962 that Pakistan was achieved in the name of Islam

which does not believe in ethnic or racial differences. It does not matter whether you are

a Punjabi or a Bengali, a Balochi or a Sindhi or a Pathan we are one as Islam binds us

together and does not believe in material boundaries like race, colour, language, etc

(Pakistan Publications, 1962, p.90). Thus it was religious nationalism focused in Ayub’s

13

regime. Along with it, emphasis was also on modern and technical education. Moreover,

since the emergence of Pakistan, English continued enjoying the status of official

language or language of the powerful domains like education, judiciary, army,

bureaucracy, etc in spite of the fact that the majority of people wanted Urdu as official

language. Thus focus on religious nationalism while not parting with the modern

language and disciplines like science and technology was a paradox.

It is important to note that, in Ayub’s regime and even when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto came in

power the religious and nationalist ideologies in the curriculum did not have a violent

face – ‘Ram, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Gandhi and several others’ have an honourable place

in the textbooks (Saigol, 2004, p. 12). But, later on, the two events, the war between

Pakistan and India in 1965 and particularly the break up of Pakistan in 1971 caused a

relentless exclusion of the other self and inclusion of narrow and violent ideologies

related to religion, nationalism, militarism, war / jihad, us and them, etc into the

curriculum. Though the fact that Pakistan is an Islamic country with an overwhelmingly

Muslim population may partly be accounted for their presence in the curriculum and

textbooks yet their ideological use cannot be regarded as a demand of the majority of the

Muslims but of the state to fulfill its certain ideological interests as Nayyar (2003)

observes:

Muslim majoritarianism has always existed in Pakistan on account of the population being overwhelmingly Muslim…since the Muslim majoritarianism was not experienced in the curricula and textbooks in the pre-Islamisation period, it leads to the obvious conclusion that this has been a result of the process of Islamisation under Gen. Zia-ul-Haq. (p. 01)

14

General Zia-ul-Haq, the martial law administrator who toppled the then democratic

government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977, did it for two reasons: (1) to win the nation’s

favour in the name of Islam (Rahman, 2002b) and (2) to produce Islamic mujahideen for

the Afghan jihad against the Russians to pay for the huge financial support from America

and Saudi Arabia (Ahmed, 2003, p. 01). At that time, the concepts of jihad and

martyrdom were incorporated for the first time into the Pakistani curricula (Sustainable

Development Policy Institute [SDPI], 2002-03, p. 89) which were indeed the continuation

of the themes of patriotism, militarism, nationalism and many more included in the

textbooks to create a new image of Pakistan and its nation ‘which required a new history,

a new interpretation and a new sense of nationalism’ after the great setbacks of the lost

war of 1971 and the fall of Dhaka (Ali, 2005).

The new image of the then Pakistan was thus appreciably Islamic which was used ‘as an

instrument of homogenization and control’ (Saigol, 2004,). Finding it successful, all other

subsequent governments raised the slogan of Islam whose reflection, if any proof needed,

could be found well in the textbooks. The textbooks equate Pakistan with Islam,

militarism with jihad, military with mujahideen and the Pakistanis with the Muslims

(Nayyar, 2003). Presumably, all others who are non-Muslims in Pakistan are others and

non-Pakistanis, having no representation in the textbooks; hence, the ‘textbooks tend to

create intolerance and rejection of the ‘other’ rather than acceptance’ (Engineer, 2000, p.

01).

15

The result of this indoctrination was religious intolerance, sectarianism and violence as

pointed out by General Pervez Musarraf – another military dictator who imposed martial

law in 1999 – in his independence-day speech to the nation on 14th August 2002 (SDPI:

2002-03, p. 17). Not satisfied with the standard of the textbooks of the past governments,

his government ‘developed, revised and updated’ all the textbooks – including English

textbooks – to bring it in tune with the modern standards (PTB English, 2006). However,

the reality is that the textbooks are not as much different from the past ones as claimed by

his government – most of the newly included lessons or contents in the textbooks contain

similar ideological messages as were present in the past (SDPI: 2002-03, p. 20). For

instance, the PTB English textbooks still contain a number of Islamic and nationalist

lessons. Some of these lessons contain contents on jihad, martyrdom, religious diversity,

discrimination towards women and other nations (Verghese, 2004). However, one thing

which differentiates these textbooks from the previous textbooks is the inclusion of some

(implicit) secular ideologies which urge that we should observe human rights, support

friendship with the non-Muslims particularly Jews in the war against terrorism and show

kindness and affection to non-Muslims. I may conclude the discussion saying that the

inclusion of ideological contents in the school textbooks with an intention to disseminate

ideological messages is not a new phenomenon. Varying in degree, they have been in fact

a regular part of the textbooks since decades (Zia, 2003).

1. 4) Statement of the Problem

Practice of effective discriminating writing and reading is of great importance in the

modern era particularly for the students due to textbooks politics. Ironically enough,

16

‘students and even some academics have turned a blind eye to the nuances and intricacies

of discourse production and comprehension’ (Rahimi and Sahragard, 2006). As a

consequence, school textbooks have become one of the most powerful tools either as

agents of change or means of ideology investment in the hands of those who have the

power to develop and control them. Textbook ideologies function to impart worldview/s

to their readers. Galbraith 1984: 131-4) states that this ‘social conditioning through

schooling is the most important way of changing worldview whether taken by business

organization or by the state’. Moreover, control on the production of textbooks enables

the powerful to produce such a particular worldview in textbooks or such different

worldviews in different textbooks being read in different schools that serve their

ideological vested interests. For instance, the PTB and OUP textbooks mostly represent

the Pakistani and Western cultures respectively. The contents in the former ones are

likely to make the students nationalistic, patriotic, religious, and militaristic; whereas the

contents in the OUP textbooks are likely to make the students secular, less religious and

militaristic, westernized, and friendly (towards others). This is further done through

exploitation of religion, reinforcement of certain practices, provision of incomplete

information (about something), misrepresentation of reality, concoction of facts,

misinterpretation of facts and many more; hence, education becomes ‘a political football’

(Apple 2004: xix). The deconstruction of textbook discourses is, therefore, useful in

laying bare the underlying ideological assumptions behind seemingly innocuous texts and

the politics being played in the name of education (Zubair and Yaqoob, 2008, p. 160).

Unfortunately, mostly people in educational institutions do not realize the power of

discourse as bearer of ideology. It is an admitted fact that discourse can be easily

17

manipulated in a number of ways to sustain the relations of power, create different

identities, justify certain actions, maintain dominance and seek hegemony. Hence, those

(individuals / institutions) who have this knowledge shape and subjugate those who have

not (Foucault, 1975); they use ‘a very powerful tool; that is language, to materialize their

wishes and aspirations’ (Rahimi and Sahragard, 2006).

1.5) Significance of the Study

The research studies dealing with the analysis of textbooks in Pakistan have always

neglected the application of critical discourse analysis. The works of Tariq Rahman

(2004 & 2002b), A. H. Nayyar (2003), Rubina Saigol (1995), Aamna Mattu and Neelam

Hussain (2003) and many others either employ content analysis or comparative analysis

of school textbooks of different classes (mostly from primary to pre-college textbooks) to

determine the ideological biases related to religion, nationalism, militarism, Jihad,

culture, gender, language politics (including English), etc. In this way, these research

studies focused only on the apparent meanings of ideological contents in the lessons but

not on the context which these contents have been used in. The consequence of it is the

exploration of not only the major ideological themes in the textbooks but also the minor

themes that support, strengthen and thus generate the major themes which have been

totally ignored in their works.

The present research, unlike the other ones, deals with the critical discourse analysis of

secondary-level English textbooks (published in 2006) and explores the minor as well as

major ideologies in the texts. It studies not only the explicit meanings but also the

18

implicit meanings of the contents by taking into account their context at the sentence

level.

More importantly, analysis of the textbook contents and discourses with special reference

to dissemination of western and indigenous values in different school systems in Pakistan

through ELT has been a relatively neglected area in the earlier as well as most recent

research studies. Tariq Rahman (2004) has touched upon this aspect only in relation to

the three school systems in Pakistan. He has not looked at the role of English Language

textbooks and the curriculum in creating bifurcation in the worldviews of the students in

these three types of schools. Zubair (2007a) has observed that Rahman ‘s (2004) data is

rather thin to be truly representative of Pakistani population across the board. Hence,

more qualitative research complemented by content analyses of texts was needed in this

field. The present research along with the themes mentioned above analyzes the English

textbooks published by Oxford University Press and their contents that represent the

western culture in contrast to their counterparts – PTB English textbooks – that represent

the Pakistani one. In this way, this research endeavours to bridge the gap that exists

regarding research and knowledge in the field of ELT curricula and their role in

imperceptibly shaping the worldview the Pakistani learners of English.

Moreover, none of the earlier research studies deal with the analysis of the English

textbooks published in the year 2006. As textbooks are published every year so,

therefore, it was necessary to critically analyze the most recent ones to see whether they

contain ideological or biased material. It was also essential because the earlier research

19

studies did not show any impact on the governmental policies regarding the curriculum.

Education is still not in the list of the priorities of the Pakistan government. Needless to

say, the degree of attention given to the deficiencies in the curricula and textbooks does

not go beyond lip service. It can thus be hoped that bringing the findings of the present

research in the public domain for debate will have an impact on the educational policy of

the government. The findings will also be useful for the Curriculum Wing that

commissions textbooks according to the educational policies developed by the

government.

The aim of the present research is not confined only to explore the ideological biases

present in the English textbooks but also to familiarize the readers with the power of

ideology, how it can work and who can benefit from it. The purpose is not to raise

agitation between the state (policy makers) and the people concerned with education.

Rather, it is to make them realize that education is a universal right of every individual,

be it male or female. If an unjust system can give birth to hundreds of problems in a

country, a system based on equality can eradicate the same number of problems. The

need is to understand where the problem lies and how it can be solved. Therefore, I

strongly hope that the present research will provide food for thought in this regard.

The findings of this study in the field of CDA and especially in uncovering the

underlying ideological assumptions of school textbook discourses will also be useful for

pedagogical practices in the field of Applied Linguistics. As far as pedagogy is

concerned, the modification of teaching strategies is an implication of the present

20

research. Our schools are usually seen as the producers of parrots – rote learning non-

critical students (Fraser, Malone and Taylor (1990), Samuelowicz (1987)) , who are not

able to perform better later in their university studies which demand critical thinking and

innovation particularly for research purposes. This is because neither the educational

system nor the teachers help them to be critical at an early stage. In order to sharpen the

students’ critical thinking, it is necessary to improve the educational system and enhance

first the critical ability of those who teach them – teachers. The findings of the present

study can help in developing certain courses regarding CDA and its various analytical

devices which teachers can employ themselves and help their students practice them in

classes to locate the underlying ideologies of textbooks.

The present research is also important in yet another way: it has been conducted in a

developing city like Multan (particularly from education point of view) in contrast to

most of the other research studies carried out in the developed cities of Pakistan such as

Islamabad (capital of Pakistan), Lahore (capital of the Punjab province) and Karachi

(capital of the Sindh province). Though Multan is equally big, its educational budget,

literacy rate and number of educational institutions are less than the other said cities. For

instance, educational budget of Lahore and Multan in 2003 is 67.04 percent and 63.38

percent (of the total budget of Punjab province) respectively (Husain et al, 2003, p. 775-

776); literacy rate is 64.7 percent and 43.4 percent respectively in 2006 (Khan, 2006);

and registered educational institutes (schools, colleges and universities) are 147 and 68

respectively.

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One of the studies carried out in developed cities is Tariq Rahman’s (2002). It ‘does not

represent rural and small-town Pakistan’ (Zubair, 2007a). In the above-mentioned cities,

socio-economic situation and living standards are much higher than that of Multan. These

factors are likely to influence the way the students absorb the messages embedded in the

textbook discourses. They are also likely to influence the way the teachers in these cities

explain these messages to the students; hence, dissemination of a different worldview.

The earlier studies do not deal with the analysis of discourses of language textbooks

which the present research is going to undertake. It was, therefore, deemed useful to

explore the worldview of learners who represent a different and neglected geographical

region in terms of access to basic literacy and overall English education. In this area,

some other research studies have also been carried out. Zubair (2006, 249) attempts to

understand young Pakistani women’s identities in relation to their aspirations for learning

English. She finds out that, on one hand, these post-graduate students show a distance to

‘western culture and identities’ and, on the other, they opt for certain identities which are

associated with western culture. For instance, they have a strong desire to learn English

because it, as they believe, ‘opens up windows to the world.’ Similarly, Asif (2005, p.10)

whose work is on Siraki community in Multan, observes that ‘under the influence of

bright future’ parents are distancing themselves and their children from their own Siraiki

language. The present study is important and different from these research studies in a

way that it tries to discuss, along with other things, the impact of textbook discourses on

their young readers’ aspirations for learning English.

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1.6) Scope

There is no one uniform factor that influences the students’ worldviews as discussed

earlier (Chapter 1, p. 1). Rather they are too many to be examined (at one and the same

time) and each too varied to be classified. The present research is, therefore, limited to

CDA of the English textbooks (PTB and OUP textbooks) being taught at the secondary

level in the government Urdu-medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and

elite English-medium schools in urban Multan. It only analyzes the contents related to

culture, religion, nationalism, us and them, gender, and English. It does not analyze the

contents related to politics, environment, health, geography, general knowledge, morality

and science and technology. Similarly, it does not analyze the tables or contents of the

textbooks, the titles of the textbooks, the titles of the lessons, pictures, monograms,

exercises (given at the end of each lesson), and national anthem (as given in the PTB

textbooks).

I am fully aware that measuring attitudes and worldviews of individuals and communities

can be problematic and therefore research – tapping into this complex area of ideologies

and mindsets – cannot be without its limitations. Every person is mentally,

psychologically and socially different from others and thus ‘has a particular feeling,

opinion or a set of attitudes towards something’ (Shah, 2008, p. 14). Therefore, it is

difficult to bring empirical evidence of students’ wide-ranging and mixed attitude

towards the ideologies embedded in the English textbooks. However, as the students were

free to give their opinions in the questionnaire, the present research attempted to capture

reflection of their attitudes and worldviews.

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Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework

We have discussed in the previous chapter that the present study deals with the concepts

of ideology, discourse, worldview, culture and textbooks. It is of course not a new work

in these areas. There have been many works which have contributed a lot by proposing

theories and analytical frameworks to the research studies related to these areas. The

theories and frameworks proposed by them not only lay a foundation for the present

study but also help in erecting its building. It is, therefore, absolutely essential to discuss

these works, at least briefly, that deal with the concepts of ideology, discourse,

worldview, culture and textbooks from different paradigms. This chapter tries to outline

the historical perspectives as well as the later developments in the fields of ideology,

discourse, worldview, culture and textbooks.

2.1) Ideology

The term ‘ideology’ though often found in dictionaries and particularly in the works

related to CDA of texts, does not have an exact meaning or definition. This is because it

has been looked at differently in different research contexts as I discuss below. Though

these different perspectives make its meaning/s elusive, they make it easier to have at

least a little understanding of what is ideology.

Francis Bacon, even before the advent of the term ‘ideology’, implicitly characterized it

in this way:

…people would never obtain true picture of the world unless certain false idea, or ‘idols’ were discarded or at least regarded as false (cited in Price 1993: 64).

24

The term was first used explicitly by a French philosopher and author, Destutt de Tracy

(1754-1836) at the time of the French Revolution, to refer to a science (logos) of ideas

(Cranston, 2003). The object of this science was the establishment of the origin of ideas

putting aside political, religious and metaphysical prejudices (Larrain, 1979). Up to this

extent, Tracy’s struggle against prejudices was under the influence of his reading of

thinkers like Locke and Condillac who believed in materialism – all ideas had their

source in material experience (Hawkes, 1996, p. 42-45). He himself says in the Elemens

d’Ide’ologie (1805-15) that there are no innate ideas, all thought being derived from

sensation (cited in Hawkes, 1996, p. 55). However, his notion of ideology moves beyond

materialism in a sense that it emerged as a science to study where ideas and prejudices

come from. Like any other branch of knowledge, the science of ideas could be sought for

unmasking the masked social, educational, religious and political ideologies prevailing in

the society. De Tracy’s school of ‘ideologues’, after years of revolution, wanted to

educate the French people especially the young ones on this line of reasoning for the

establishment of a happy society. This indicates that ideology in its origin had a positive

connotation.

It started getting negative connotations when his efforts for a just and fair France led him

to criticize the ways Napoleon Bonaparte was running the state. Napoleon was the first

to use this term in a negative sense. When he realized their ‘Ide’ologie’ a threat for his

despotic ambition, he labelled De Tracy and his colleagues ‘ideologists’ with the

derogatory meaning that they were unrealistic and doctrinaire intellectuals ignorant of

political practice (Larrain, 1979, p. 28).

25

Ideology becomes an important critical concept in Marxism. Karl Marx (1818-83) was

not consistent in his statements about ideology. The most straightforward statement about

ideology can be found in his The German Ideology (1846) which he wrote with Frederick

Engels. Ideology for him is the representation of ‘ideas, conceptions and consciousness’

and all that which ‘men say, imagine and conceive’ related to ‘politics, laws, morality,

religion, metaphysics, etc’ (cited in Felluga, 2002). The following Marx’s (1977, p. 176,

389) most celebrated contentions also outline Marxist concept of ideology as ruling

ideas:

The mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. The individuals composing the ruling class possess among other things consciousness, and therefore think. In so far therefore, as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass of an epoch, it is self evident that they do this in its whole range, hence among other things rule also as thinkers, as producers of ideas, and regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age: thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch (cited in Hartley, 2004, p. 104).

‘Their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch’ suggests that ‘our understanding and

knowledge of the world (and especially, if not exclusively, of the social world) is

determined by political interests. There are certain beliefs, and certain ways of seeing the

world, that will be in the interests of the dominant class (but not in the interests of the

subordinate classes)’ (Edgar & Sedgwick, 2004, p. 190). The dominant class controls ‘the

mode of production’ and, therefore, disseminates its ideas through the social institutions

like court, media, church, education, etc; hence, ideology is not limited to one aspect of

life rather there are cultural ideologies, religious ideas, educational ideologies, political

ideologies and many others. The ‘producers of ideas…regulate the production and

distribution of the(se) ideas of their age’ to legitimize their rule and reproduce the class

26

structure. They do it through the distribution and production of such knowledge that

varies in quality or in being useful and marketable (Phillipson, 1992).

Ideas in a society or ‘their social being’ speak of the Marxist idea of false consciousness.

However, ideology in Marxism is not strictly false nor it is a synonym for false

consciousness rather it characterizes ideology as ‘distorted ideas’ about the social world

(Edgar & Sedgwick, 2004). Hence, ideology in Marxism is a distorted form of

knowledge, ideas and beliefs that take us away from reality or true knowledge.

The Marxist concept of ideology as ruling ideas was criticized by the German sociologist

Karl Mannheim (1960). For him, ideology does not have a strong link with class and

domination (cited in Edgar & Sedgwick 2004). Though, he acknowledges the link that

Marxism establishes between idealism and materialism, he believes that different social

classes, for instance, the dominant and the dominated, in a particular society understand

and represent the world in different ways. Therefore, these different ways of

understanding the world should not be regarded as different ideologies of different social

classes but equally valid modes of thinking, criteria for ‘truth’ and Weltanschauung –

worldviews (Mannheim [1936] 1968, in Perdue, (1986, p. 388-93)). For Mannheim:

there is then no single truth against which all ideologies can be judged. Each ideology will have its own standards of truth and accuracy, dependent upon the social circumstances within which it is produced (Edgar & Sedgwick, 2004, p. 191).

Gramsci (1891-1937), the leader of the Italian Communist Party, also countered the

Marxist idea of materialist determinism after the failure of his communist revolution

against the Mussolini’s government. The revolution had failed in spite of having enough

27

‘objective’ material resources and that helped him ponder enough about the causes of ‘his

defeat in the subjective, ideological control which the capitalist state exercised over its

inhabitants’ (Hawkes, 1996, p. 116). His re-evaluation of Marxism leads him to note that

regarding ideology as false consciousness as the result of class struggle i.e. between

bourgeoisie and proletariat is not satisfactory. In order to resolve the conflict arising from

this conception Gramsci (1971) came up with the concept of ‘hegemony’ (cited in Buci-

Glucksmann, 1980). Hegemony does not entirely neglect the economic factor of

ideology. It, rather, takes a further step declaring that economics base alone is not

sufficient to maintain the dominance of the ruling class, unless there is a superstructure of

ideologies constructed over this base. This means ‘a creation of consensus culture in

which the people of working class identify their own good with the good of the

bourgeoisie, and help maintain the status quo rather than revolting’ (Rizwan, 2006, p. 14)

Further, Bocock (1986) in his analysis of hegemony stresses that

‘…a major component in Gramsci’s theory is the capacity of the dominant group (the ruling class or alliance of classes, or class fraction) to provide intellectual, moral and philosophical leadership and to pursue policies which are not on the direct, narrow interest of capitalists but rather which can be presented plausibly as being in the interests of the whole people, of the nation....’ (cited in Phillipson, 1992, p. 74).

In order to create such consensus culture with plausible policies, the ideologies are

naturalized and disseminated through ‘hegemonic apparatuses’. Hegemonic apparatuses

are ‘a certain number of institutions from ‘civil society’: the Church, the Schools, the

trade unions, etc. (Althusser, 1971, in Buci-Glucksmann, 1980, p. 64). In order to

perpetuate hegemony, it has to be continually ‘…renewed, recreated, defended and

28

modified. It is also continually resisted, limited, altered, challenged by pressures…

(Williams 1977).

Louis Althusser (1971), the French structuralist, in his theory of ideology, focused more

on other aspects of social life rather than ideas and economic determinism (cited in

Larrain, 1979). For him, ‘ideology need not be about what people think, but rather about

how they act – lived relations’ (Edgar & Sedgwick 2004, p. 191). In this view, ideology

then is not a ‘false consciousness’ rather it is something that has a material existence as

he (1971) observes that ‘an ideology always exists in apparatus, and its practice, or

practices. This existence is material’ (cited in Hawkes, 1996).

Needless to say as it may bear repetition that apparatuses are the social institutions.

Althusser (1971) identifies two types of apparatuses: the Repressive State Apparatus

(RSAs) that function coercively such as courts, police and army and the Ideological State

Apparatuses (ISAs) that function discursively such as school, church and media. The

ideological practices which seem to be ‘normal’ and ‘commonsense’ are in fact the

constructs of the social apparatuses. The people who are regarded as ‘objects’ in

Althusser’s theory of ideology do not challenge these practices and thus act or play their

roles as already devised by the apparatuses.

2.1.1) Ideology in the Postmodern Era

In Hawke’s (1996) view, the Postmodern era begins in the early twentieth century when

the Western society started shifting away from industrial production to consumption and

29

exchange-based economies. The history of capitalism was dominated by the media of

representation in the consumption-oriented and exchange-based markets. Money started

to represent material objects such as metals, credit, figures, interest, etc. The economic

change or development also occurs in ‘the technological media of representation’ such as

television, radio, cinema, internet, etc which are mostly used to bombard the people with

such images (carrying certain messages) that help create a consumer society. In short, we

live in the era of representation and image.

Regarding Postmodernism, Giddens (1990) argues that it refers to ‘styles or movements

within literature, painting, the plastic arts, and architecture. It concerns aspects of

aesthetic reflection upon the nature of modernity’ (cited in Edgar & Sedgwick 2004, p.

294). Harvey’s The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) defines postmodernism in socio-

economic terms, a bit similar to Hawkes, that Postmodernism ‘signify a decentralized,

diversified stage in the development of the market place’ in which Fordism replaces ‘a

form of manufacture which coordinates a diversity of sources in search of greater

flexibility of production’ (cited in Edgar & Sedgwick 2004: 294). Particularly, for our

purpose, Lyotard ([1979] 1989) regards Postmodernism as an end of ‘grand narratives’

(e.g. Marxism) and the beginning of ‘little narratives’ in the wake of ‘technologies which

have transformed our notion of what constitutes knowledge’ (cited in Edgar & Sedgwick,

2004, p. 296). Hence, it proposes an epistemological view of knowledge which raises

questions about the reliability, objectivity and justification of the knowledge connected

with earlier theories or the recent ones.

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The Postmodernism and the changes or developments it has brought along with it in the

social, cultural, economic and the other realms of life have moved as well as enabled the

Postmodern thinkers to reread the earlier theories about ideology within the context of the

new paradigms. Foucault (1960), unlike Althusser who was materialist and focused on

ideological knowledge / practices constructed by RSAs’ and ISAs’, focused on

knowledge produced in each phase of history followed any law of a ‘certain code of

knowledge’ (cited in Hawkes, 1996, p. 160). In this way, he actually deals with that

power that control discourse (code) of knowledge like linguistics, science, economics,

etc. In order to identify that power, his work does not regard history as consisting of parts

but rather as a series of events connected with one another – truth can be found out only

if discourses are seen in their historical context. Similarly, as Postmodernism enjoys the

autonomy of representation, Foucault’s approach does not have any room for ideology as

false consciousness. For him, ‘it is no longer possible to use terms such as ‘true’, ‘false’,

or even ‘consciousness’ for objectivity of discourses that produce or represent them is

already in doubt (ibid. p. 161).

2.2) Worldview

In contrast to the term ‘ideology’ which is mostly regarded as a set of ‘false’ or

‘distorted’ ideas and beliefs in the society, the term ‘worldview’ refers to a set of

common ideas or beliefs prevailing in the society or, at least, the ones shared by people

within each social class. However, the way Althusser (1969) and Tollefson (1991) use the

term ‘ideology’ is not much different from the term ‘worldview’. ‘Worldview’ is

basically a combination of two German words: ‘welt’ and ‘anschauung’ which mean

31

‘world’ and ‘view’ respectively. They have been derived from the German verb

‘schouwen’ (to see or look at). Thus, an easy or cheap definition of ‘worldview’ can be: it

is the way we view the world.

In anthropology, the term ‘worldview’ is used for the study of how (primitive) people

understand reality. Blommaert (2005, p. 170) says that the way it is used in anthropology

refers to ‘the deep levels of culture, the kind of implicit, deeply normalized, patterns and

principles according to which culture became a cohesive whole’. Moreover, the terms

like ‘‘cognitive view’, ‘world view perspective’, ‘basic assumptions’, ‘implicit premises’,

‘Weltanschaung’, ‘World Outlook’ and ‘ethos’ are used as synonyms’ (Rahman, 2002b,

p. 62).

Foster (1967), an anthropologist, calls it ‘cognitive orientation’ and defines it as follows:

The members of every society share a common cognitive orientation which is, in effect, a universalized, implicit expression of their understanding of the ‘rules of the games’ of living imposed upon them by their social, natural, and supernatural universes (cited in Rahman, 2002b, p. 62).

This is somewhat similar to the Saussurean notion of ‘reality’ and linguistic

representation – different languages represent reality in different ways. Edward Sapir and

Benjamin Lee Whorf contributed to this idea by proposing a theory that ‘culturally based

‘ways of speaking’ exist: a concept that is the base of Sapir Whorf Hypothesis (Singh,

1999, p. 24). His hypothesis proposes that language controls thought and thus language

shapes one’s worldview. Thus as Whorf states:

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the forms of a person’s thoughts are controlled by inexorable laws of pattern of which he is unconscious. These patterns are the unperceived intricate systematization of his own language…every language is a vast pattern-system, different from others, in which are culturally ordained the forms and categories by which the personality not only communicates, but also analyzes nature, notices or neglects types of relationship and phenomena, channels his reasoning, and builds the house of his consciousness (cited in Singh, 1999, p. 25).

Although the later works proved the extreme interpretation of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

wrong, they retain the link between language and worldview established in the

hypothesis. In these works, language is not the only influencing factor rather both of them

– language and worldview – are equally important in shaping each other – a dialectic

relation between them.

Rahman (2002b, p. 61-2) relates the concept of worldview to Manheimm’s ‘particular

conception of ideology’ which means ‘the ideology of an age or of a concrete historico-

social group, e.g. of a class, when we are concerned with the characteristics and

composition of the total structure of the mind of this epoch or of this group’. To him,

while ideology refers to political and religious ideas and beliefs, the term ‘worldview’

refers to all kinds of ideas and beliefs as a whole. He further says that it is problematic to

use this concept for ‘people in complex and literate societies’ where their ideas and

beliefs are always in a state of flux due to ever-increasing influences of media, education,

etc. Therefore, as it is difficult to find any fixed, monolithic and single worldview in any

society including Pakistan, it is useful to use the term ‘worldviews’ to refer to ideas and

beliefs of sub-sets of people such as students, peasants, traders, etc within each socio-

economic class. It can be argued that, in his analysis of language textbooks, while

confining ‘ideology’ to political and religious ideas and ‘worldview’ to all kinds of ideas

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and beliefs, Rahman regards textbooks as representative of not only ideologies but also

worldviews. Hence, textbook discourses influence not only ideologies but also

worldviews.

2.3) Discourse

The term ‘discourse’ is widely used in a number of disciplines such as linguistics,

sociology, philosophy, anthropology and many others. Importantly, the way it is used in

these disciplines brings it very close to the term ‘ideology’. Just like ‘ideology’, its use in

a variety of ways and contexts makes it difficult to trace any clear-cut definition or

meaning of it. A simplistic way to know what it does mean and how it is closely

connected with the term ‘ideology’ is to start with dictionary definitions and see how the

critical theorists connect it with ideology.

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English briefly refers ‘discourse’ to ‘Talk,

conversation; dissertation, treatise, sermon’ (1976). One may assume that, here, reference

has been made both to spoken and written dimensions of language. Crystal, however,

while defining discourse, makes a distinction between written and spoken discourses and,

therefore, assigns different terms to each:

Discourse analysis focusses on the structure of naturally occurring spoken language, as found in such ‘discourses’ as conversations, interviews, commentaries, and speeches. Text analysis focusses on the structure of written language, as found in such ‘texts’ essays, notices, road signs, and chapters (1987, p. 116).

In simple words, for him, the terms ‘discourse’ and ‘text’ refer to spoken and written

languages respectively.

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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995, p. 387) defines ‘discourse’ as (a) a

serious speech or piece of writing on a particular subject; (b) serious conversation

between people; (c) the language used in particular kinds of speech or writing. The first

and second definition refers ‘discourse’ to that kind of spoken and written texts which are

serious or formal. A number of points are important here: firstly, discourse goes beyond

the level of sentence; secondly, informal piece of writing and speech has not been

regarded as discourse; thirdly, discourse refers to both spoken and written dimensions of

language; lastly, discourse is something like language. The last definition refers to

discourse genre, a ‘…text with conspicuous distinguishing features’ (Trask, 1999, p. 79).

So far the definitions given above do not help much in creating a working definition. In

this regard, Foucault (1972) defines ‘discourse’ in a wider sense:

Instead of gradually reducing the rather fluctuating meaning of the word ‘discourse’, I

believe I have in fact added to its meanings: treating it sometimes as the general domain

of all statements, sometimes as an individualizable group of statements, and sometime

as a regulated practice that accounts for a number of statements (cited in Mills, 1997,

p.6).

Foucault regards all types of texts belonging to any discipline as discourse including

those connected to or produced by any social group or institution and even those that are

drawn upon as rules or structures while producing particular utterances and texts (ibid.,

1997, p.7). In all the definitions or theoretical perspectives discussed above, we see that

‘discourse’ has been restricted only to linguistic features of written and spoken texts –

ignoring the non-linguistic features of texts. However, whether directly or indirectly, all

the definitions cited above treat discourse in linguistic terms i.e. language used in

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everyday life as discourse. Hanks (1996) and Brown and Yule (1983) also regard

discourse as ‘language in use’ and ‘language in action’ and stress on the need for

attention to both language and action in critical analysis.

Blommaert treats discourse in the widest sense. He treats discourse in both linguistic and

non-linguistic terms. To him, discourse comprises ‘all forms of meaningful semiotic

human activity seen in connection with social, cultural, and historical patterns and

development of use’ (2005, p. 3). This semiotic definition of discourse focusses on

‘meaning’. Anything that gives meaning is discourse. In this way, language is just ‘one

manifestation’ of discourse. Thus all human activities whether linguistic such as speech,

dialogue, conversation, lecture, etc or non-linguistic such as practices, beliefs, customs,

pictures, etc that represent certain meanings or messages constitute discourse. Kress,

Leite-Garcia and van Leeuwen (1997, 257) propose the same idea but in a different way:

…it has become impossible to read texts reliably by paying attention to written language alone: it exists as one representational element in a text which is always multi-modal, and it has to be read in conjunction with all the other semiotic modes of that text.

2.3.1) Ideology and Discourse

The proposed definitions, notions and theories regarding ideology by different theorists

mostly connect ideology with power. Ideology functions to sustain and legitimate the

relations of power in society. The dependence of society on relations – social, cultural,

economic, political and other relations (among people) form society – means ideologies

prevail in every nook and corner of society. It further means that ideologies neither act in

a vacuum to influence social lives of people nor are they ‘mental’ representations which

mostly theorists ‘hesitate to postulate’ and ‘instead they have recourse to language use or

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discourse as a more ‘material’ or ‘observable’ form of ideology’ (Schaffner, 1995, p.

110). Thus, ideologies are located in language or discourse at large.

Thompson (1984) proposes that the theory of ideology needs to focus much on the study

of language. Similarly, Gruber (1990) says that ‘ideology manifests itself linguistically

and is made possible and created through language’ (cited in Schaffner, 1995, p. 110).

Ideology created in or through language may also be treated as representation of

discourses from another perspective. In this view, as forwarded by Blommaert (2005),

ideology is located in particular discourses operated by specific groups or actors. These

ideologies are ‘codified’ and thus texts become their representation and support their

views. There is also a seemingly opposite view to this one propounded by sociologists,

philosophers and linguists ( Gramsci 1971; Bourdieu 1990; Althusser 1971; Barthes

1957; and Williams 1973, 1977) that ideologies are not particular discourses rather they

are apparently general discourses that represent all institutions, social groups and

individuals – whole society – and implicitly function to normalize and naturalize the

existing phenomena including thought and behaviour.

For Fairclough, ‘ideologies are embedded in features of discourse which are taken for

granted as matters of common sense’. That is, the conventions which are drawn upon in

discourse ‘embody ideological assumptions’. These assumptions appear as a

commonsense for they are mostly ‘implicit, backgrounded, taken for granted’ and thus go

unnoticed and unchallenged. According to Fairclough, ‘commonsense’ is an important

characteristic of discourse. It helps sustain the relations of power without any resistance

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or challenge (Fairclough, 2001). In short, we can say that ideologies and discourses are

complementary aspects of one another. Ideologies are created, disseminated, shared,

popularized, cherished and circulated through discourses (Rizwan, 2006, p. 17).

Street (1984) in his Ideological Model of Literacy attempts to understand the role or

function of ideology in literacy in terms of concrete social practices and to theorize it in

terms of ideologies in which different literacies are embedded. For him, literacy is not

simply a pure technical or neutral skill. In this model as literacies vary from one context

to another, Gee (1996) regards these particular versions of literacies as ideological both in

their meanings and in their practices. To him, literacy is always a representation of a

particular worldview; hence, its connection with power to dominate and marginalize

others. To sum up, discourses / literacies must be looked at as socially constructed

phenomena that act as means to sustain the relations of power in society. Therefore, the

success of any theory or critical study of ideologies depends largely on the degree of

focus on the study of texts discourses.

2.4) Culture

The term ‘culture’ in most of the dictionaries refers to ideas, beliefs and customs which

people share and accept in a society. Though it is a very simple definition of such a

complex concept as ‘culture’, it, at least, helps us keep in mind some points which can be

useful in dealing with an encompassing definition later: (a) there is a very close

connection between culture and people in a society; (b) there is something through which

people share culture or, in other words, something that becomes a means in this

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connection; (c) ideas, beliefs and customs which people do not share and accept cannot

be regarded as culture (of those people or society); (d) culture is something that functions

like ‘glue’ – it binds up people in a society. Something that seems to be missing in this

definition is the ‘action’ of people that materialize their shared and accepted ideas, beliefs

and customs.

For this, we may look at another definition whose formulators, Samovar, Porter &

Stefani, claim to cover a wide area of culture (1998):

We define culture as the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving (cited in Lund, 2006, p. 26).

This is indeed a comprehensive definition of culture which covers almost all aspects of

social life. Here, culture is something like a repertoire of knowledge, beliefs, actions,

attitudes, etc. associated with a group of people who have acquired and learned it from

their elders and are liable to pass it on to their coming ones. In linking ‘culture to ‘a

group of people’, the definition indicates that culture is shared by the members of a

particular community, and that one community is, somehow, different from another in

terms of culture’ (Lund, 2006, p. 26). Moreover, culture is not only an abstract

phenomenon (connected with knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, meanings, etc.) but

also a concrete one (connected with actions, attitudes, roles, artifacts, etc.).

Street (1993) deals with the concept of ‘culture’ in a similar way. Unlike many others

who regard culture as a static phenomenon, Street deals tries to define ‘culture’ from a

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new perspective – culture is a verb. That is, he does not regard culture as something with

specific characteristics, for instance, language, dance, etc. He is of the view that culture

should not be regarded as a noun (language, dance, etc.) but something that is functional

i.e. a specific dance, whether it is mythical or historical, might tell / represent a tale.

On a similar note, Kramsch (1998: 04) regards culture as something opposite to nature or

as a dynamic process of evolution:

Nature refers to what is born and grows organically (from the Latin nascere: to be born); culture refers to what has been grown and groomed (from the Latin colere: to cultivate). The word culture evokes the traditional nature / nurture debate: Are human beings mainly what nature determines them to be from birth or what culture enables them to become through socialization and schooling?

This definition indicates that culture is not a natural phenomenon but a socially

constructed one; the idea which can be quite helpful while dealing with the concepts of

ideology, power and texts below. However, in the end, it contains an important point

regarding the acquisition, learning, production and dissemination of culture in the society.

To her, the process of teaching and learning of culture starts from an early childhood in

formal and informal domains. That is, culture is shared through socialization and it is

groomed through social institutions. That is why, Kramsch (1997: 4) claims that ‘‘I could

have been you and you could have been me, given different circumstances’.

The question is if culture is groomed by the outer circumstances which can be too varied

to categorize what helps people identify their own culture. Lakoff & Johnson (1980)

compare culture with a mental model of people in a particular community through which

they see, understand and live in the world. The ways of seeing and acting in the world, as

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Zubair (2007b) observes, are different because different social and cultural groups have

different socioculturally discourses and practices. Similarly, the way these discourses and

practices are looked at and defined vary from one group to another one. Gee (1999) refers

to these (different) socioculturally practices as ‘cultural models’. Quite simply, ‘mental

model’ and ‘cultural model’ are like a framework within which a community identifies

itself and differentiates itself from another one with a different framework.

It will be useful here to compare the concepts of ‘mental’ and ‘cultural’ models with

Hofstede’s (1991) reference to culture as ‘the software of the mind’, i.e. the shared and

accepted ‘rules that tell us how to behave and act within a particular group. Culture

becomes a ‘perceptual lens’ through which we see and make sense of the outside world’

(cited in Lund, 2006, p. 26-7).

The concepts of ‘mental model’, ‘cultural model’, ‘perceptual lens’ and ‘software of the

mind’ are important in a sense that they indicate that culture is a by-product of the things

present outside in the society such as language, family, texts, social institutions and many

more. Though it is very difficult to judge how much each of them plays a part in the

production of culture yet research about any of them can catch at least a reflection of their

role in producing and circulating culture. I discuss below the role of schools and school

textbooks as mechanisms of cultural distribution.

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2.4.1) Schools as Mechanisms of Cultural Distribution

Hartley’s idea of culture in another context as ‘The production and circulation of sense,

meaning and consciousness’ presents culture something like material goods produced and

circulated by factories (2004, p. 51). He further elaborates his point that ‘culture is the

sphere of reproduction not of goods but of life’. Of course, we have not factories but

schools or other educational institutions such as colleges and universities that function to

produce and circulate common sense, meanings and consciousness. It can surely be

expected that being in the control of the state or the ruling elite, the culture these

institutions represent through their textbooks fulfill their ideological interests.

The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1975, p. 36)also notes that certain classes, for the

enhancement of their ideological dominance, control the knowledge-producing and

preserving institutions of a particular society (cited in Apple, 2004, p. 25). Hartley’s idea

is also important in a sense that culture gives social meanings to words and practices

which people use in their lives and transmit to next generations. Regarding the

ideological role of education in the social distribution of culture Williams (1961: 119-20)

states:

The pattern of meanings and values through which people conduct their lives can be seen for a time as autonomous, and as evolving within its own terms, but it is quite unreal, ultimately, to separate this pattern from a precise political and economic system, which can extend its influences into the most unexpected regions of feeling and behavior. The common prescription of education, as the key to change, ignores the fact that the form and content of education are affected, and in some cases determined, by the actual systems of political decision andeconomic maintenance.

Apple adds that schools disseminate meanings and values to process both knowledge and

people.

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…the formal and informal knowledge is used as a complex filter to process people, often by class; and, at the same time, different dispositions and values are taught to different school populations, again often by class (and sex and race). In effect, for this more critical tradition, schools latently recreate cultural and economic disparities, though this is certainly not what most people intend at all (2004, p. 32).

Rahman (2004 & 2002b, chapter 9 & 15) discusses how different schools socially,

culturally and economically polarize the Pakistani society. He recognizes three major

types of schools (Vernacular-medium schools, English-medium schools and religious

seminaries) and they are imparting different cultures, worldviews and knowledge to their

students through textbooks and the school ethos. Thus the products of each school speak

differently, behave differently and even think differently. This variety of culture and

worldview later slot them into different social roles, orders and positions.

Similarly, Mohan and I-chia Lee (2006) regard schools as place of ‘knowing and doing’

for the learners. In other words, schools impart knowledge to learners about life and the

world and provide them with a chance to practice that within the school premises. The act

of knowing and doing is not free of cultural constraints. We have already discussed above

that schools represent different cultures. Therefore, in each school culture, there are

certain rules regarding how to know and how to do. It reinforces the fact that getting hold

of social institutions such as schools and their curriculum and textbooks is getting hold of

people’s knowing and doing.

2.4.2) ELT Textbooks as Cultural Artifacts

T. S. Eliot defines culture as ‘Even the humblest material artifact which is the product

and the symbol of a particular civilization, is an emissary of the culture out of which it

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comes’ (cited in Gray, 2000, p. 274). Though Eliot’s definition doesn’t show any link

with ELT textbooks, it helps John Gray regards ELT course book as cultural ambassador.

ELT materials……..for use in classrooms around the world are sources not only of grammar, lexis, and activities for language practice, but, like Levi’s jeans and Coca Cola, commodities which are imbued with cultural promise. In the case of ELT course books, it is the promise of entry into an international speech community which is represented in what tend to be very idealized terms (Gray 2000: 274).

Phillipson (1992) sees course books as agendas of ideologies which aim at making

economy and dissemination of culture or ideas. Thus he says that British course books

are ‘designed to boost the Centre’s commerce with the Periphery and the dissemination

of the Centre’s ideas and language’ (1992, p. 60). Though he talks in the British context,

it can be useful to apply his idea to other local English textbooks as well, for instance,

Pakistani textbooks, for all are developed, revised and updated mostly by those in power.

Moreover, his description of various institutions working as mechanisms under western

powers to propagate a particular language and its culture worldwide at the cost of other

languages and cultures may be seemed supporting Schiller’s definition of cultural

imperialism – the global process of structural and ideological incorporation. Indeed it is

only the English language ‘…in which this incorporation is taking place (form), and the

structures and ideologies connected with English operate globally (content). If

‘Americanization’ or ‘Westernization’ is what Schiller is describing, then English is the

key medium for this process’ (ibid.: 1992).

Modiano (2001: 340) observes that the formal education taking place in the educational

institutions especially in the peripheral countries is likely to provide much exposure to

English culture which, in turn, is a danger for the indigenous cultures and languages.

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Institutionalized English language learning based on culture-specific prescriptive norms,

and supported by exposure to the language in a wide spectrum of activities, comprises a

programme which can be perceived as being what Phillipson calls ‘an imperialist

structure of exploitation of one society or collectivity by another’ (1992). Such

positioning supports a belief that the promotion of the English language undermines

cultural diversity. English virtually Anglo-Americanizes the non-native speaker. Because

English is such a dominant force in world affairs (and the bulwark of Western ideology),

there is a danger that its spread dilutes (and ‘corrupts’) the distinguishing characteristics

of other languages and cultures.

Hyde (1994, p. 296) observes that the threat the foreign culture poses is ‘the erosion of

belief in the ability of native culture and language to deal with the modern world’. This

forces them to bring some changes in the process of learning and teaching in the

classroom as Gray (2000: 275) exemplifies that ‘just as Coca Cola can be used in popular

(if theologically unorthodox) religious ceremonies in Central America, so too are course

books subject (at least in theory) to change in the language classroom’. Similarly,

Hutchinson and Torres (1994: 325) observes in several ELT classrooms that

…teachers and learners do not follow the textbook script. Most often teachers follow their own scripts by adapting or changing textbook-based tasks, adding new texts or deleting some, changing the management of the tasks, changing task inputs or expected outputs, and so on. Moreover, what is also clear from the study is that the teachers’ planned task is reshaped and reinterpreted by the interaction of teacher and learners during the lesson.

My discussion so far about the presence of foreign culture in English textbooks should

not lead us to assume that only the foreign culture i.e. Western or English culture is

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promoted in and through all the English language textbooks. Aliakbari (2004) identifies

three types of cultures in the English textbooks: source culture, target culture and

international target cultures. The English textbooks that represent source culture represent

indigenous values, beliefs, customs, etc. Target culture represents English culture and

values whereas the international target culture represents ‘ a wide variety of cultures from

English-speaking countries and countries where English is not the first or second

language, but is used as an international language’ (p. 5). He also adds one more category

into them which is ‘text with little interest in culture’. According to him, Brumfit (1996)

calls it a ‘neutral’ variety. Although Aliakbar discusses the ideologies of Western or

English culture in the textbooks, he does not focus much upon the ideological presence of

indigenous cultures in the textbooks.

Rahman’s (2002b) analysis of language textbooks in Pakistan– including the English

textbooks – notes that different textbooks represent different cultures. For instance,

textbooks (in elite schools) written by foreign writers mostly represent the English culture

and their counterparts (in government schools) written by local writers in Pakistan

represent the indigenous one. His observation of the influence of these textbooks on their

readers is summarized as follows:

…the English-school students talked in English, very often in slang borrowed from comic books, informally with each other. Their body language was different from that of other students. For instance, the boys did not shake hands in the manner of ordinary Pakistani boys. While the latter put in much warmth in hand shakes and shook every male’s hand, English-school products shook hands much more casually and often merely waved at people standing away. They (the English-school people) never did the double hand-shake nor did they bend their body as a gesture of humility when they shook hands. Other aspects of the body language – the gait, the way one sits down, drinks, eats, etc – of both types of people are also different though some differences can only be perceived by continued interaction and cannot be described easily. What is most important is that the products of English schools thought differently from their

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vernacular-school products; that there was a difference in worldview between them (2002b, p. 299).

Rahman then goes on to connect these different cultural gains with ideology and

worldview and in the final analysis to power. The dissemination of different cultures, to

him, is the game of power.

2.5) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theoretical Background

The most important aim of (CDA) is to deconstruct the underlying ideologies of

discourse that ‘help produce and reproduce unequal power relations’ in the society

(Fairclough and Wodak, 1997, p. 258). In other words, the connotative and ambiguous

statements are clarified to expose their effective role in the maintenance of unequal

power relations in the society. The latent ‘ideologies under the cover of apparently

harmless and neutral discourse undergo a dissection or post-mortem procedure called

CDA to expose the toxic, debilitating agents’ (Rahimi and Sahragard, 2006).

For the purpose of the present research, ideology has been regarded as a set of explicit

and implicit themes embedded in textbook discourses to bring such changes in the

learners’ conceptions of life and world that benefit the state or the ruling elite; whereas

themes are the messages or ideas created through various discursive strategies in the text.

Unfortunately, the young learners, who mostly cannot realize the underlying ideologies

of the material, are likely to construe these themes as reality, reshape their knowledge and

act accordingly. Ironically enough, ELT practitioners and academics have turned a blind

eye to exploration of such ideological themes through CDA in the Pakistani educational

contexts.

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The purpose of drawing upon CDA in this present study is to detect effectively the

implicit ideological themes embedded in the discourse of Pakistani English textbooks. It

is pertinent to mention that in spite of sharing a common purpose i.e. analyses of texts,

there are a number of approaches to CDA varying from one discipline to another. In other

words, there is no single monolithic approach to CDA. Moreover, various types of texts

require different analytical frameworks for effective analysis. For instance, in the present

case where focus is on messages in long stretches of texts, I have found Fairclough’s

framework (2003) more useful than others.

Unlike many social scientists and linguists who refer to ‘language use’, ‘parole’, or

‘performance’, Fairclough uses it in its most usual or narrow sense to mean verbal

language – words, phrases, sentences, etc. That is, he talks of ‘language’ in a general

way, or of particular language such as English or Urdu. Conversely, he uses the term

‘discourse’ to refer to spoken or written language use which signals that discourse is a

social practice. His approach to CDA is based on the assumption that ‘language is an

irreducible part of social life, dialectically interconnected with other elements of social

life, so that social analysis and research always has to take account of language

(Fairclough, 2003, p. 2). As social scientists do not concentrate much upon linguistic

features of texts and linguists upon social effects of texts, Fairclough tries to go beyond

these divisions by proposing such a model framework that can be useful for both the

analyses of social and linguistic fields.

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Fairclough’s (2003) analytical framework addresses a number of social research themes

such as ‘the government or governance of new capitalist societies, hybridity or the

blurring of social boundaries, globalization, hegemony, universalization, ideologies, the

legitimation of social actions and societal informalization’ (p. 7). In order to research

these themes, the framework focuses on grammatical and semantic analysis employing

various macro and micro analytical categories. The macro ones include social analysis,

discourse analysis and text analysis; genres and action; discourses and representations;

and styles and identities which are materialized through some other micro strategies such

as dialogicality, meaning relation, genre, representation, inclusion, exclusion,

assumption, presupposition, metaphor, difference, collocation, styles, modality and

evaluation.

van Dijk ( 2004) also one of the key figures in CDA, holds that ‘ideologies are conceived

of as the basis of the social representation shared by (the members of) a group. As

socially shared belief systems of groups, ideologies are both social and cognitive’ (cited

in Schaffner, 1995, p. 109). Socially, they sustain group-related representations (identity,

values, norms, goals, tasks, position, mutual relationships and resources), monitor group-

related practices including text and talk. The members of a social group make use of

ideologies to justify and legitimize their dominance, and disseminate their ideas as well

as values. Cognitively, they organize, control, and even change the mental models i.e.

attitudes, of social groups. On the basis of the ideologically biased models and socially

shared beliefs as discussed above, members of different social groups use certain

strategies to produce and comprehend text and talk (van Dijk, 2004, p. 8). The purpose of

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CDA then is to see what are the discursive strategies and the means selected to maintain

dominance and power relations through discourses in society. In order to uncover the

sources of dominance and inequality prevailing in society, van Dijk resorts to social

analysis, cognitive analysis and discourse analysis of the texts.

In Pakistan, Rahman (2002b) has examined language textbooks of different schools to

see how ideology and worldview are connected with language teaching. His work also

provides answers into the way language teaching is related to ideology, worldview and,

in the final analysis, to power. He focuses on certain lexical items i.e. adjectives, whose

meanings create intriguing differences in human attributes. These differences are

expressed through the vocabularies of good and bad, able and unable, right and wrong,

sentiments, attitudes and norms of behaviour present in every language. Language

constructs this ‘signitive power’ (of languages) as a social reality or put simply, the

vehicles of worldview (De Kadt 1993). Though these words are not manipulated to

reinforce certain values, they help attribute distinguishing characteristics to someone.

Hence, in most cultures, those who are labeled intelligent, bold, confident, powerful, rich

etc feel superior and become more powerful and more capable of dominating other

human beings. Conversely, being labeled as poor, weak, unable, illiterate, dull, ugly etc is

to feel inferior and likely to be dominated and dependent.

2.6) Ideology in Textbooks

In this section, I discuss the works related to ideology in textbooks – including English

textbooks. Ideology is basically associated with power and relations of power. The

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textbooks become the means through which ideology functions to sustain the relations of

power in the society. Needless to say, textbooks are not the only means in disseminating

the ideologies of the powerful but they are far more important than any other means. As

compared with the other influences such as media the textbooks along with the family,

start shaping the learner’s perceptions of reality from the most formative years of early

school days.

Particularly school textbooks may rightly be regarded as ‘code of conduct’; hence, a

collection of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’. They disseminate messages about what to do and what

not to do; how to do and how not to do; when to do and when not to do and so on. These

‘ideas (often embedded in symbols and cultural practices) orient people's thinking in such

a way that they accept the current way of doing things, the current sense of what is

'natural,' and the current understanding of their roles in society’ (Lye 1997: 01). As these

messages relate to all aspects of life such as society, religion, nationalism, politics,

language/s and so forth, ideology is, therefore, not related to only one or some aspects of

life. That is why, those who have worked on it, have studied it from different angles and

have brought different but valuable and real insights into the study of ideology in

textbooks.

Apple (2004 & 1993) regards curriculum, in any society or country, as a means to an

unequal distribution of power and, then, to its legitimization with the minimum of

conflict. Although it can be made possible through coercive means which suggests that a

powerful group plans deliberately to force people to accept what the group commands

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yet, as it is likely to give rise to severe resistance, these are the dominant social

institutions that legitimate the current dominant order functioning through values,

conceptions of the world and life. Briefly, this legitimization is managed through the

widespread teaching of curriculum and textbooks. What curriculum and textbooks put

forward are the ideas of what is wrong and what is right, how the world is and how it

should be. This raises some serious issues – what and whose knowledge is worth

teaching? Which power to be legitimated and why? This is a deceptively simple question.

However, the conflicts over what should be taught and what not are quite serious. In fact,

the issue is not only educational but also ideological and political in its nature; hence,

education becomes a site of power. Criticism, controversies, likes and dislikes over what

should be included or excluded from curriculum makes the whole educational process ‘a

political football’ (Apple 2004: xix). The decision to define ‘some groups’ knowledge as

worthwhile to pass on to future generations while other group s’ culture and history

hardly see the light of the day says something extremely important about who has power

in society (Apple 2004: xx).

Crawford argues that knowledge in the textbooks is culturally oriented and it tends to

enforce and reinforce cultural forms:

School textbooks are based upon the cultural, ideological and political power of dominant groups and they tend to enforce and reinforce cultural homogeneity through the promotion of shared attitudes and the construction of shared historical memories. The construction of textbook knowledge is an intensely political activity and debates, controversies and tensions over the construction of school textbooks involve a struggle over the manufacture and control of popular memory. School textbooks are one vehicle through which attempts can be made to disseminate and reinforce dominant cultural forms (2004, p. 8).

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The promotion of dominant cultural forms helps in creating certain concepts about life

and world. In other words, these are the ways of living, seeing and understanding life and

world within the prescribed cultural boundaries by those who are in power. Needless to

say, the concepts and meanings attached with life and world mostly serve the interests of

the powerful. Santos (2006, p. 1) argues that ‘textbooks are always value-laden and

reflect worldviews particular to certain social groups’. He regards them ‘effective tools in

the reproduction and legitimization of these values and beliefs’. The messages in

textbooks about life (particularly at school) and world are narrow, conservative and non-

critical and are likely to reinforce

…a conservative trend in the focused context. In addition, they suggest a simplistic and non-critical view of the subject matter, of learning, and of participation in society in general (Santos, 2006, p. 1).

Pinsent (1997) in her London-based research of children books holds a similar view that

‘all books express some kind of ideology’. She observes that ideologies in the past

textbooks for young children were explicit as compared to their counterparts in the

present school textbooks which are implicit and, thus, difficult to be located. She finds

out racial and cultural ideologies in the school textbooks which create a negative

impression about certain races, for instance, Negroes and Malays and their cultures.

There is a greater likelihood that students derive negative attitudes from these ideological

messages.

In the Pakistani context, Rahman (2004 & 2002b) has carried out an analysis of

ideological contents related to religion, nationalism, culture, racism and language i.e.

English, in the school textbooks. His work – though with a thin data of 300-350

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questionnaires for a population of one-hundred and forty million – is important in the

sense that it examines the language textbooks of different schools i.e. textbooks of

government, non-elite and elite schools, and finds out that ideologies related to above-

mentioned themes are different in each school textbooks. Moreover, these ideologies do

have an impact on students’ attitude. Thus the students from government and non-elite

schools are more religious and nationalistic than their counterparts from the elite schools.

Similarly, the former ones are more racist and closer to indigenous languages, values and

norms. All-important point in his research is the finding that English and the culture

closer to it (or its culture i.e. English / Western) are related to power. And those (the

elites) who retain it find it easier to enter the domains of power than those (the lower and

middle classes) who do not.

Rahman, however, have touched this point only in passing that the lessons which

islamize and nationalize the students particularly from the government and non-elite

schools contain omission of historical facts and distortion of history of Pakistan. Mubarak

Ali (1986) has highlighted the distortion and omission of historical facts as well as biases

and inaccuracies in the school textbooks. He writes that

…Pakistan studies is projecting the wretchedness of the Muslims during the colonial period. According to these writings they were expressly kept backward through a “British-Hindu” conspiracy. This fact has emanated from ‘The Hunter Commission Report’ that highlighted the poverty and backwardness of Bengali Muslims but not those in the united provinces where they were in privileged positions.

Similarly, Aziz (1993) has analyzed sixty-six government as well as private textbooks on

history, social studies and Pakistan Studies from school to college level and found out

historical inaccuracies, exaggerations and errors. He listed these errors in eight categories

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which are enough to show how history has been polluted, manipulated and murdered. For

example, he quotes the following excerpt from one of the analyzed textbooks:

After the partition of the sub-continent the Hindus and Sikhs started a properly planned campaign of exploiting the Muslims generally in the whole Bharat and particularly in East Punjab as a result of which the Hindu and Sikh the enemies of mankind killed and dishonoured thousands, nay hundreds and thousands of women, children, the old and the young with extreme cruelty and heartlessness.

His answer to this is that not only the Hindus and Sikhs but also the Muslims committed

this cruelty wherever they found a chance. In addition, Aziz points out that these

textbooks among other things glorify war / jihad and create hatred for India. Another

noteworthy work about the glorification of war and the military in the textbooks is of

Nayyar and Salim (2003). The existence of Pakistan on the basis of two-nation theory –

the Hindus and Muslims are two different nations – and the matter of security of the

newly born state were the two main reasons for an emphasis on nation building in the

textbooks by the government. With the passage of time, the first sanctified the armed

forces and the second ‘grew into the near theocratic nature of the state’ (p. 79). Thus as

militarism was a mutual interest of the military and theocrats, the curriculum directives

asked for and thus the textbooks included

……material creating hate and making enemy images; a glorification of war and the use of force; incitement to militancy and violence, including encouragement of war and shahadat; insensitivity to the actually existing religious diversity of the nation, and reinforcing perspectives that encourage prejudice and discrimination towards religious diversity (p. 79).

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Nayyar and Salim then cite excerpts from different textbooks as well as policy documents

that favour nationalist and militarist ideologies in the textbooks. They are of the view that

the presence of such contents in the textbooks cannot pave a way for a peaceful Pakistan.

A number of other works refer to gender bias and discrimination in textbooks as well as

society. Gender bias and discrimination generally refer to equity and inequality of roles,

rights, power, etc between men and women in the society as well as unequal

representation of men and women in textbooks. As a result of such discrimination

particular against women, women appear to be weak creatures that are not able to do

better than men in the society. With regard to the asymmetrical representations of men

and women’s roles in language, feminist linguists such as Woolf (1972), Kaplan (1976),

and Spender (1980) – though working in different contexts – have argued that textbooks

provide classic examples of gender stereotypes and sexism against women. Woolf (1972)

starts to explain why women could not show their genius in literary circles in earlier

history particularly before the seventeenth century and finishes it off with a picture where

men and women lead a contrasting life even today. She holds the earlier laws and

customs largely responsible for women’s ‘strange intermissions of silence and speech’. In

making this argument, she differs from a conventional feminist as she argues not for a

woman but for a female artist. Similarly, unlike Kaplan (1976), and Spender (1980) and

Lakoff (1975) who find the roots of sexism in language, her work focuses on laws and

traditions that marginalize women in the society.

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Arguing that language functions to produce gender inequality, Lakoff (1975) points out

two areas where gender inequalities can be noticed in language in relation to social roles:

the language used for women and the language used by women. The former one

represents asymmetries between the seemingly parallel terms such as master and mistress

whereas the latter one represents them as double beings – fully human on one side and

appropriately feminine on the other one. Kaplan (1976) is of a similar view that men and

women have a different relationship to spoken and written discourses. It goes without

saying that such relationship with the language gives them a certain identity which

becomes peculiar to them. Zubair (2007b, p. 768) observes that ‘Language plays an

important role in the construction of identities; not only are identities forged through

language; languages are emblematic of multiple identities’. Tannen (1995) refers to it as

‘cultural learned signal’ – linguistic style:

Linguistic style refers to a person’s characteristic speaking pattern. It includes such features as directness or indirectness, pacing and pausing, word choice, and the use of such elements as jokes, figures of speech, stories, questions, and apologies. In other words, linguistic style is a set of cultural learned signals by which we not only communicate what we mean but also interpret others’ meanings and evaluate one another as people.

Importantly, all of the above-mentioned works do not touch the aspect of power in

relation to sexism in textbooks in detail. Spender (1980) looks at the close connection

between language, reality and power in the context of sexism. She holds that the world is

not a ready creation. It is created, categorized and organized by those who are powerful

enough to control and manipulate language to construct such ideas and realities which

can help them maintain their rule and dominance over the powerless. Doyle (1995) –

realizing the importance of language as an effective tool of dominance – recommends

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parallel or inclusive language ranging from words (e.g. fellow, master) to common

construction of adding (e.g. craftsmen and craftswomen or craftworkers or craftartisans)

for men and women.

In the Pakistani context, a number of works have pointed out gender ideologies in the

textbooks. Rahman (2002b) argues that textbooks use ideology-laden and emotive words

to construct a social reality for students. Along with the other clusters of words that

revolve around certain concepts such as martyrdom, holy war (jihad) and secularism, he

also points out the cluster of words that refer to social and cultural aspects, for example,

gender. The words pertaining to honour – izzat, asmat, ghairat, sharm, haya refer more to

women’s sanctity than to man (p. 66). These words, of course, give a certain conception

of reality to Pakistani women. As compared to men, they can never talk of having male

friends, let alone sexuality, at any public place. Indeed, in most areas of Pakistan, men’s

honour lies so much in the control of female sexuality that they kill women for it.

Moreover, the more they (females) remain inside the houses or observe parda, the more

they are considered sharif, pakiza, nake, khoob seerat, etc. (p. 67).

Mattu and Hussain (2003) lament over the disparity between the state rhetoric regarding

women’s rights and biased and discriminating stereotyping of women in the state-

developed textbooks. They have examined the aims and objectives of the past educational

policies and gender biases in the contents of the textbooks in use from seventh to Matric

classes. They found out that women’s roles do not show any break with their traditional

roles, for instance, they do not represent any sports or games. Similarly, their other

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positions in the textbooks are subordinate or referential. The textbooks contain ‘the

consistent articulation of a single unified message that women have a subsidiary status in

society, and that their only legitimate role or function is to do with household tasks

associated with nurturing and caring for the family’ (p. 96).

Realizing that language, or discourse at large, is a means of power and dominance,

feminist writers have started to draw upon CDA to deconstruct the ideologies related to

sexism and gender bias and discrimination embedded in discourses. However, as the key

theorists of CDA such as Norman Fairclough, Van Dijk and Ruth Wodak are not much

interested in the analysis of sexism and gender in discourses; the feminist writers have

started drawing upon Feminist CDA which has emerged as one of the most developed

branches of CDA. One of the principal aims of drawing upon feminist CDA is to

deconstruct and challenge the discourse that supports the patriarchal world. In this regard,

a number of analytical frameworks (Brickhill et al. (1996), Kabira and Kasinjila (1997),

Obura (1991) & Sifuniso et al. (2000)), have been purposed which can be successfully

used for the analysis gender bias, discrimination and sexism against women particularly

in textbooks.

Leach (2003, p. 103) emphasizes that ‘to minimize bias, curriculum developers and

materials writers need to engage in a systematic analysis and revision of all the materials

that are produced for any organized learning activity’. Her work seems to be a handbook

of feminist critical discourse analysis that presents a number of analytical frameworks

which can be employed successfully for research studies on sexism against women in

different contexts. It must be important to mention here that I draw upon some of the

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checklists mentioned in Leach (2003) for the quantitative analysis of gender bias in

chapter 6. These checklists have been proposed by UNESCO and Obura (1991) and have

been (as mentioned just above) discussed in Leach (2003).

Christie’s (2000) work is important in a sense that it offers something new to the field of

CDA by interrelating pragmatics with the study of sexism. It postulates that the critical

studies of gender bias must be drawn on different approaches to discourse/s for better and

comprehensive analyses. Other studies, so far I know, dealing with the analysis of

language and gender mostly draw on such branches of science as sociolinguistics,

anthropology and social psychology. According to Christie (2000) ‘…pragmatics

provides a solid descriptive basis for analysis…and feminism rich insights into socio-

cultural phenomena such as gender’.

In this chapter, I have briefly outlined the major theoretical perspectives related to the

key terms of the present study i.e. ideology, discourse, worldview, culture and textbooks.

Along with this, I talked about the analytical frameworks such as Fairclough’s (2003)

CDA that I draw upon and apply to my own research data in the subsequent chapters of

this thesis. Having outlined the major theoretical frameworks that I apply on the ELT

textbooks in the following parts of my thesis, I move on to a brief discussion of research

methods in the next chapter.

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Chapter 3: Research Methodology

In this chapter, first, I will outline the research objectives of the present research. It will

be followed by a discussion about data and data sources. Thirdly, I will discuss about the

analytical framework i.e. Fairclough (2003) and particularly its certain analytical devices

employed in the present research for the analysis of data taken from the English

textbooks. In this regard, the key terms used in the said framework are also briefly

defined. Finally, I talk about the research tool i.e. questionnaire used to collect data and

statistically determine the impact of textbooks ideologies on the learners.

3.1) Site and Purpose of the Research

This research is both qualitative and quantitative in its nature. It has been carried out in

three schools – government Urdu-medium schools, (private) non-elite English-medium

schools and (private) elite English-medium school – in Multan, a city in the Punjab

province in Pakistan. The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the discourse of

different secondary-level English textbooks in these schools to find out the cultural

ideologies / themes in them. The research also attempts at capturing the attitudes and

aspirations of the learners towards the cultural and ideological themes of jihad, women’s

roles in society, religious othering, religious and national events, and learning of English

encoded in the language texts to understand how these textbook ideologies impact upon

and shape the worldview of the learners in Pakistani schools. One of the objectives was to

find out the linkages, if any at all, between the language textbooks, teaching materials

and the worldview of the learners.

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3.2) Research Objectives

The objectives of the current research were to:

Locate the major cultural themes and ideologies encoded in the discourses of

English textbooks.

Find out the impact of cultural themes on the learners.

3.3) Data and Data Sources

In this research, data comes from two series of English textbooks: Punjab Textbook

Board (henceforth PTB) English textbooks and Oxford University Press (henceforth

OUP) English textbooks. Each textbook has two parts – PTB textbooks are English 9 and

English 10; whereas OUP textbooks are English Alive 1 and English Alive 2. The PTB

textbooks are published by Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore which is a government

organization for the development of textbooks and the OUP textbooks are published by

Oxford University Press. The OUP textbooks are being taught in an elite English-medium

school at the secondary level i.e. O level – English Alive 1 in the first year and English

Alive 2 in the second year – in Pakistan. The PTB textbooks are being taught in the

government Urdu-medium schools and private non-elite English-medium schools at the

same level i.e. 9th and 10th (Matric) classes – English 9 and 10 in the 9th and 10th classes

respectively – in the Punjab province in Pakistan. The students in these classes are

normally 15 to 18 years old. For analysis, the OUP textbooks will be referred to as OUP

1 and OUP 2 and the PTB textbooks will be referred to as PTB 9 and PTB 10.

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In the OUP textbooks, there are nine Units containing forty-three lessons in the first book

and eight Units containing twenty-six lessons in the second one – seventeen units and

sixty-nine lessons in total. In the PTB textbooks, English 9 has twenty-two lessons and

English 10 has twenty-one lessons – forty-three lessons in total. The lessons in all these

four books are further divided into poems, narratives, letters, essays, autobiographies,

articles etc. All these lessons directly or indirectly relate to gender, religion, morality,

nationalism, war, racism, society, science, education, nature, health and general

knowledge. However, the present research focuses only on those lessons and contents

within the various lessons related to culture, religion/Islam, nationalism, war/jihad, us vs

them, gender and the English language. It is worth mentioning that the term ‘culture’ has

been used as an umbrella term and, therefore, the other ideologies related to

religion/Islam, nationalism, war/jihad, us vs them, gender and the English language have

been subsumed under this term. These lessons/contents are then critically analyzed using

the selected framework.

3.4) Data Analysis and Analytical Framework

This research has employed Fairclough’s (2003) analytical framework for the critical

discourse analysis of the contents related to culture, religion/Islam, nationalism,

war/jihad, us vs them, gender and English in the above-mentioned English textbooks. The

analysis has been carried out at the sentence level. The sentences have been randomly

selected from the lessons in the said textbooks. The reason for randomly selecting

sentences / lines instead of complete passages is the plenty of material related to most of

the themes in the textbooks. Moreover, the material related to each theme is present in

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different lessons of the textbooks and, that is why, it was quite difficult to select them in

passages and, then, analyze them. If only one or two passages related to each theme were

selected, it could not have been possible to discuss each theme from different dimensions.

The said analytical framework has not been applied fully as some of its analytical

devices, for instance, ‘exchange’, ‘speech function’ and ‘grammatical mood’ in chapter 4,

5 and 6, are meant for grammatical analysis – relation between sentences and clauses –

which the present research has not undertaken. Instead only those analytical categories

are followed that have been used for analysis of certain textual issues in the said model

such as ‘Social Events’, ‘Difference’, ‘Intertexuality’, ‘Assumptions’, ‘Representations of

Social Events’ and ‘Styles’. The analytical devices include

Presupposition/Assumption/Implicature, Metaphor, Identity, Comparison, Contrast,

Implication, Representation, Attribution, Backgrounding, Foregrounding, Inclusion,

Exclusion, Difference, Prominence/Reinforcement, Dialogicality, and Universalization.

3.4.1) Explanation of Key Terms

The selected key terms of the framework have been briefly explained below:

a) Presupposition/Assumption/Implication

Inferring/deducing implicit information or implied meanings from the texts. Implicitness

is one of the pervasive properties of discourses or texts. In any community, solidarity and

fellowship depends largely on the meanings which are known or shared among the

members of that particular community. Where this shared knowledge gives room to

social and cultural dominance, power and hegemony within a particular community, it

also gives room to change or shape this shared knowledge to a certain degree. In the

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context of such a situation, implicitness and assumptions become an important issue in

the critical study of ideology.

b) Metaphor

Fairclough (2003) refers the term ‘metaphor’ to words that generally represent one part of

the world in relation to another one. That is, in everyday life, we have different choices in

choosing metaphors to represent or signify one thing in our written and spoken

discourses. Thus the use of a particular metaphor instead of another is to construct our

reality in one way rather than another. Defining the term in a broad sense, Lakoff and

Johnson (1980) regard it as a mental phenomenon rather than linguistic one – metaphors

are ‘a matter of thought not language’ (cited in Zubair 2007b, p. 766). That is, people

make metaphors in their brains; they call them metaphorical mappings. People then draw

on these metaphors to explain the way they see, perceive and think of the world as argued

by Lakoff and Turner (1989) that metaphors is an‘ordinary language and is the principal

way of conceptualizing the abstract concepts of life, death, and time (cited in Zubair

2007, p. 2). In short, metaphors are concerned with the phenomenon of representation.

They represent those particular meanings, concepts, ideas, beliefs, theories, etc the

speaker or writer attaches with anything and conveys to the reader.

c) Identity

Identity may be defined as an image of who someone is. However, it is too simple to

capture the complex notion of identity. Realizing the necessity of a working definition of

identity, linguists, sociolinguists, anthropologists, and researchers in different fields have

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tried to explain this notion from different dimensions (Erikson 1968, Hogg and Abrams

1988, Deng 1995, Bloom 1990, Wendt 1994, White 1992). Fearon (1999, p. 2) argues

that the term ‘identity’ is used in two senses: social and personal. Social identity,

according to him, is ‘A social category, defined by membership rules and allegedly

characteristic attributes or expected behaviours.’ A personal identity is a ‘A socially

distinguishing feature that a person takes special pride in or views as changeable but

socially consequential.”

Fairclough (2003) also identifies two types of identity – social identity and personality.

He distinguishes social identity from personality (personal identity) in this way: ‘one’s

social identity…..is a matter of the social circumstances into which one is born and early

socialization – aspects of gender identity…’ To him, the other part of this identity –

personality – is acquired in later life when begins to perform social roles i.e. politician or

teacher. In this context, there is a dialectic relationship between social identity and

personality: social roles influence one’s way of seeing, perceiving and changing the

social life. It goes without saying that social groups have different ways of understanding

and explaining their world. This difference becomes their identity. Identity is, therefore,

something that informs the others, about who you are, what sort of people you are and

how you relate to others.

d) Representation

Representation means a mark or sign of someone or something particular; or describing

someone or something in a particular way to make people form a particular opinion about

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them. For instance, in politics, elected politicians represent the people of their country in

parliament. Similarly, in language, words that stand for different ideas, concepts, facts,

emotions, etc, are their representations. For mutual understanding ‘Representations rely

on existing and culturally understood signs and images, on the learnt reciprocity of

language and various signifying or textual systems’ (Hartley 2004, p. 202). It is this

functional aspect of language – sign – that helps us in knowing and learning some reality.

Representations, in this context, may rightly be regarded as a concrete form – signifiers –

of language. Importantly, there is a process of selection of signs to represent the things

particularly related to our political, social, and cultural life; for instance, gender, class,

groups, nation, etc. It, therefore, really matters which signs are preferred to others to

represent something or someone in discourses – and this is what we term as the

ideological function of representation in language.

e) Dialogicality or Attribution (of voices)

Dialogicality or attribution may simply be defined as inclusion of voices in texts or

quoting source/s of information that one shares with people. Importantly, difference is

one of the fundamental elements of dialogicality. Where dialogicality of texts, as

Fairclough (2003, p. 41) argues, ‘broadly opens up difference by bringing other ‘voices’

into a text’, assumption ‘broadly reduces difference’ by establishing common ground.

Bakhtin (1986) holds that every text is unavoidably and inevitably dialogical in a way

that ‘any utterance is a link in a very complexly organized chain of other utterances’ with

which it ‘enters into one kind of relation or another’ (cited in Fairclough 2003, p. 42).

Thus in such a context where texts are inevitable dialogical, it is important to see how the

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voices included in the texts differ from one another in terms of their orientation to

difference: their speakers, their ideological viewpoints, ideas, beliefs, etc. It also needs to

be clear that, by voices, I mean the characters/personalities and the ideas, beliefs, styles,

etc they represent in the textbooks to disseminate ideological messages to the students.

f) Difference

The context, in which the term ‘difference’ has been used in the analysis of textbooks,

has been briefly explained in the previous section i.e. Dialogicality or Attribution (of

voices). However, it is not limited to this theme only. Rather, the difference between the

social, cultural, nationalist, religious and political events and practices has also been

analyzed in the present research (see chapter 4). Similarly, difference in gender

representations has been analyzed in chapter 5 and 6.

g) Exclusion, inclusion and prominence

Exclusion means not including something as a part of something large. Inclusion means

to make something a part of something large. And prominence is to put something in a

position to be easily noticed or considered important. Keeping in mind the above

mentioned terms, I have looked at the textbooks from the representational point of view

which focuses on which characters / personalities and elements of events have been

excluded from the textbooks; which characters / personalities have been included and,

finally, which ones have been foregrounded or given the greatest salience or prominence.

The matter of excluding, including and foregrounding (prominence) something or

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someone is highly important in a sense that it points towards the ideological function of

texts i.e. how persons / things are represented in them?

h) Backgrounding

The term ‘backgrounding’ means to regard something as less noticeable or important. It

is opposed to the term ‘foregrounding’ we have discussed above under a similar term

‘prominence’ in the previous section i.e. exclusion, inclusion and prominence.

i) Universalization

The term means giving something a universal status to authenticate or legitimize it. It is

an important ideological issue how particulars – particular representations, identities,

ideas, interests, and beliefs – in textbooks are universalized or given a universal status for

ideological purposes. Fairclough (2003) frames this issue

…within questions of hegemony – of the establishment, maintenance and contestation of the social dominance of particular social groups: achieving hegemony entails achieving a measure of success in projecting certain particulars as universals.

Hegemony, the concept given by Gramsci (1971), focuses on achieving dominance

through consent rather than using only force. Laclau and Maouffe (1985), in the ‘post-

Marxist’ theory, have approached this concept from a new dimension i.e. how discourse

helps gain dominance (cited in Fairclough 2003). Butler, Laclau and Zizek (2000) hold

that one of the means of gaining hegemony for the political forces is to represent their

policies and views as having a universal status. Thus it is important to see which

identities, practices, representations, etc. are represented as universal in the textbook

discourses.

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j) Comparison

The term means to show similarities or differences between people, things, ideas,

concepts, practices, etc. represented in both the textbook under analysis.

3.5) Questionnaire

In the beginning, many careful readings of all the English textbooks helped me know

about the presence of cultural, religious, nationalistic, war/jihad, us and them, gender and

(English) language ideologies or themes and the differences among the contents related to

these ideologies in the textbooks. In order to determine the different impact of these

ideologies on the students reading in different schools, I constructed a close-ended

questionnaire based on the above-mentioned themes.

The idea of open-ended questionnaire was dropped for some reasons. Firstly, along with

the qualitative analysis of the textbooks, I wanted to quantify the students’ responses

regarding themes in different English textbooks and for this purpose, close-ended

questionnaire was a better option. Secondly, the government and non-elite schools are

English medium only by name (Rahman, 2002, p. 301). Their students lack adequate

writing skills, let alone speaking skills, to put on paper their ideas regarding the selected

themes in a short time. Finally, the present study looks at the influence of textbooks

ideologies on the learners. Questions with multiple answers are closely related to only

those ideologies present in the textbooks. Therefore, it was possible for me to anticipate

the full range of possible responses. Moreover, the list of possible responses given in the

questionnaire also contained the option of ‘any other’ for those who wished to give

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answer other than those in the list. In such a situation, close-ended question was a better

option as Ruan (2005, p. 131) argues that ‘Providing a pre-determined set of responses is

advisable when it is possible to anticipate the full range of possible responses and when

these responses are relatively few in number’.

Similarly, other research tools such as interviews and focus-group interviews were not

selected for a number of reasons. Firstly, as discussed above, particularly the students of

government and non-elite schools are not good enough at spoken English to communicate

in a group setting to a stranger, as they are not used to giving interviews or taking part in

recorded group discussions. Secondly, another problem would be to get an appropriate

and representative sample of students. Questionnaire can be widely distributed and

students can express their views without hesitation or shyness just by ticking. Therefore,

close-ended questionnaire that usually takes little time, contains clear, simple and direct

questions, becomes easy to fill out, deals with single idea in its each item, goes from

simple to complex and so on (Verma 2005, p. 97-98), was constructed to secure a reliable

data.

Thirdly, the present study deals with the sensitive themes of culture, religion,

nationalism, gender, us and them, and (English) language. The students reading in

government Urdu-medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and elite English-

medium schools belong to different religious sects, ethnic groups, and social classes. In a

personal interview or focus-group discussion, they would hesitate to share their personal

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views or might criticize the others’ views. In such a setting, conducting interviews could

be a distinct disadvantage (Ruane, 2005, p. 155).

Fourthly, it was not possible to collect as much data from interviews as I did from the

questionnaires. Then, the recording, transcription, data analysis and other complex issues

could have made it too difficult for me to complete the research project in time. Finally,

there is a possibility of not getting a reliable data through interviews. Gillham (2000, pp.

91) says that ‘there is a general assumption that we ‘know ourselves’: that we can give a

uniquely valid account of how we feel, of how we typically behave or what we intend to

do’. Gutek (1978, pp. 44-56) doubts the reliability of the data taken by different studies

using interviews about the employees’ job satisfaction (cited in Gillham (2000, p. 92).

Gutek (1978, pp. 21-3) makes an important point that in order to assess the validity of

interview data ‘interviews need to be part of a multi-method approach, like case studies

(cited in Gillham (2000, p. 93). Instead of interview supplemented with any other multi-

method approach, I deemed close-ended questionnaire more appropriate for the young

students in the said schools.

The initial questionnaire consisted of two parts: Part A and Part B. The first part

contained seven questions while the second one contained thirteen questions – twenty

questions in total. In order to seek reliable information, the format of the questions asked

was not of a single type. In part A, the first and third questions required answers in a

word and the rest of the (five) questions were of multiple choice. However, the second

part was a Likert scale (also known as agree-disagree scale). It had provided the

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respondents a five-scale battery such as ‘strongly agree; agree; strongly disagree;

disagree; and unsure’.

3.5.1) Pilot Tests

In order to ‘establish the content validity… and to improve questions, format, and the

scales in the questionnaire’ (Creswell 2003, p. 158), it was thought necessary to run the

pilot tests. For this purpose, fifteen questionnaires were distributed randomly to fifteen

male and female students each studying at the secondary level in one of the government

schools, not-elite schools and elite schools – the same schools in Multan where the

research has been carried out. It is important to mention that government and non-elite

schools do not run co-educational classes; therefore, each time questionnaires were

distributed in the schools for boys and girls separately. Total strength of Matric (10th

class) students in the government schools for boys and girls were 424 and 280

respectively; in the non-elite schools for boys and girls were 180 and 120 respectively,

and in the elite school, O level students (boys and girls mixed) were 128. Piloting was

conducted for three times and every time the questionnaires were distributed among the

new students.

I myself ran the pilot tests. In running the pilot tests, each time the students were

informed about the importance and objectives of the research and were given guide lines

regarding solving the questionnaire. I found the administration in all of these schools

cooperative and, therefore, did not face any difficulty in the whole process of piloting.

The feedback given in the pilot tests were indeed of immense importance to the

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researcher. In the light of the feedback after every time, changes were made in the

questionnaire such as exclusion and inclusion of some questions / statements,

simplification of few questions, change in the format of two questions and a little change

in the sequence of questions.

After all of these changes, the final close-ended questionnaire was a bit different from the

earlier ones. It comprised two parts: Part A and Part B. There were six questions in the

part A and nine questions in the part B – fifteen questions in total. Regarding the format

of the questions included in the questionnaire, in the first part, the first question required

the answer in a word and the remaining five questions were of multiple choice. Once

again, the second part containing nine statements was a Likert scale.

3.5.2) Distribution of Final Questionnaire

As a whole, one hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed in the schools – fifty in

each type of school. The detail related to it is present in the following table.

Schools No. of questionnaires distributed

Govt. school for boys 25

Govt. school for girls 25

Non-elite school for boys 25

Non-elite school for girls 25

Elite school 50 (25 boys and 25 girls)

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The questionnaires were distributed randomly among those students who were not

included in the pilot tests. The respondents in all of the said schools did not face any

problem in solving the questionnaires. And this was done through the prior permission of

the concerned authorities. I had informed these students about the objectives and

importance of research one day before the distribution of the questionnaires. So far as the

time consumed in solving the questionnaires is concerned, the students in the government

and non-elite schools took about fourteen minutes and their counterparts from the elite

school took about twelve minutes. The students filled in the questionnaires in my

presence. Therefore, I was able to retrieve all the questionnaires distributed among the

students. The results of the questionnaire have been presented in tables in chapter 6.

3.5.3) Questionnaire Content and Research Aims

This section discusses the actual content of the questionnaire (see appendix) in relation to

the research objectives. The objective of the present research, as discussed above (in

section 3.2) is twofold: to find out cultural ideologies embedded in the discourse of PTB

and OUP English textbooks and their impact on the learners. It is this second research

objective for which a close-ended questionnaire was constructed to find out the impact of

these ideologies on the learners quantitatively. We must remember that the term ‘culture’

has been used as an umbrella term in this research study. The other themes subsumed

under this term are nationalism, religion, gender, us and them, and (English) language.

While constructing the questionnaire, I was aware of the immense importance of the

questions to be asked to the respondents. Ruane holds that ‘the exact questions we ask are

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our operationalizations. That is, the concepts we are interested in studying (e.g., fear of

crime) are measured via the questions or statements we pose to respondents…’ (2005, p.

126). The fifteen questions included in the questionnaire were closely related to the

themes. They were clear in meaning, exact in wording, well in sequence and were

formatted in a common every day language for the convenience of the young

respondents.

A good questionnaire moves from simple to complex. Therefore, the questionnaire

started with simple questions (with multiple options) about choice of school and country,

and celebration of Islamic and national events to critical questions (with agree-disagree

scaling) about complex concepts such as language, life style, war, and others (see

questionnaire in appendix). Moreover, it was tried to keep the questionnaire as short as

possible for the young students – a lengthy one could prove to be a boring one.

In order to arouse respondents’ interest in the questionnaire, it was started with a simple,

interesting and indirect question to know which school they recommend someone for

studies. In the first chapter, we have discussed that a school is a representative of certain

beliefs and practices particularly in the Pakistani society. Therefore, the logic behind

asking this question was to be able to know which beliefs and practices the students in

each school prefer. Putting it in another way, the question also helps us know which

beliefs and practices are not liked or preferred by a particular school.

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The next question was of a similar type but moved from choice of school to country. It

was asked to see the influence of the representation of Pakistan in the PTB and OUP

textbooks on the learners. That is, how many of them particularly from the elite school

were much nationalistic – ready to live in Pakistan, a country with limited resources and

facilities. However, as it was difficult to form an opinion about their nationalism from a

single question, therefore, one more question i.e. third question, related to nationalism

was asked. It was set to find out their degree of likeness towards the celebration of

national events e.g. Independence Day and Defence Day. I assume that those students

who take part more actively in national events are more nationalistic. It is based on my

own personal observation in my five-year job in a public school and college where such

activities are given much importance. The logic behind not asking separate questions

about the events (Independence Day and Defence Day) is that people perform similar

celebratory practices on these events. The question provided the student with five

multiple options starting from ‘very much’ to ‘not at all’.

The fourth and fifth questions deal with the theme of religion. Much similar to previous

two questions, they were asked to find out how much they like Islamic events e.g. Eid

Milad-un-Nabi (SAWW) and Shab-e-Barat and which practices they perfume most often

to celebrate these events. Notably, people perform similar activities such as illumination

of buildings, offering prayers, giving alms, and participating in Mehfil-e-Milad to

celebrate these events. The fourth question provided the student with five multiple

options starting from ‘very much’ to ‘not at all’. The fifth question contained a list of all

those (three) celebratory practices in the multiple options which have been mentioned in

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the textbooks. However, if one did not find any particular activity in the list, one could

specify that in the option of ‘other’ in the list.

Question number 6 (part ‘a’ and ‘b’) was related to over-all representation of men and

women in the textbooks. It is based on the assumption that representation could make

some either visible or invisible in texts. It is natural to idealize one who stands out in a

text. Moreover, it is not the sex or name of someone which makes them prominent but the

roles, actions and attributes associated with them. Therefore, the logic behind this

question was to see which sex after being represented more positively with regard to

roles, actions and attributes, has influenced the students more. In simple words, which

sex has been idealized more by the students?

The rest of the questions (from seven to fifteen) were a Likert Scale. Unlike the previous

questions, they were much critical and required the students to be more careful and

thoughtful in answering them. They were critical in a sense that they were designed to

seek their answers on somewhat more complex themes related to language, life style,

war, and friendly relations with the non-Muslims.

Question number seven was related to the theme of (English) language. English has been

represented as a means to progress, modernity, and survival particularly in the OUP

textbooks. The question was about the abolition of English in Pakistan. It is important to

mention that I explained the meanings of all difficult words – including ‘abolition’ – in

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the questionnaire to the students. The question of its abolition was asked to learn whether

students would consider English an important subject or not.

Question number eight was related to the theme of culture. Most of the contents in the

PTB textbooks reinforce only indigenous beliefs, values and practices (see chapter 4). On

the other hand, though the OUP textbooks are a mixture of western and indigenous values

and practices, they seem to reinforce western lifestyle more (see chapter 4). Thus the

objective of the question was to see which lifestyle was liked more by the students.

The next two questions (ninth and tenth) are related to the theme of war. Contents in

some of the lessons are related to war in both the textbooks under examination (see

chapter 4). The question was set to see the influence of these contents on the students.

Though there is no mention of Kashmir in both the textbooks, it was thought better to

seek students’ reply in its particular context because there has always been a possibility

of war between Pakistan and India on Kashmir issue.

The next three questions are related to the theme of us and them. The representation of

Hindus, Christians and Jews is negative in the PTB textbooks. It is not so in the OUP

textbooks (see chapter 4). The underlying message being conveyed in the former

textbooks is that they are not our friends. Hindus are not our friends because they did not

want the Muslims of the sub-continent to have a separate homeland. Christians are also

so because they opposed the Quaid in this regard. The inclusion of a lesson titled ‘Human

Rights and Madina Charter’ itself implies that it was a treaty between those who were not

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at least friendly towards each other. Thus the question was asked to learn how the

students regard them.

The second last question about having friendly relations with Hindus, Christians and

Jews was asked to see whether students want this enmity to continue if they regard them

as their enemies. In other wants, if they want change in their past relations with them.

The last question was asked in the context of terrorism – the topic implicitly discussed in

the lesson titled ‘Human Rights and Madina Charter’. That is, terrorism has emerged as a

new challenge for all so if they need others’ help to deal with it successfully.

To conclude, the questionnaire was constructed to learn students’ attitude towards

ideologies related to culture, nationalism, religion, gender, us and them, and (English)

language in the PTB and OUP textbooks. It was tried best to keep the questionnaire

simple, clear, short, relevant, and well-sequenced. Consequently, it was observed that the

students did not feel any difficulty in filling it up.

3.6) Research Ethics

Ethical issues are a part and parcel of any research study. A researcher has to confront

them at different stages of his/her work whether qualitative or quantitative. In order to

provide a moral ground to a research, a researcher is, therefore, ought to be aware as well

as trained enough to successfully deal with such issues that might range from selection of

texts to analysis of texts and from selection of research tools to collection of data. In

other words, almost all research studies get engaged not only the researcher but also

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research texts, research participants and public. Taking into account their privacy,

feelings and concerns reflect our professionalism and honesty as Ruane observes that ‘our

research endeavours must abide by standards of professionalism and honesty; our efforts

must strive to earn the respect and trust of both research participants and the public at

large’ (2005, p. 16)

In the present study, the most sensitive parts in regard to ethics were the construction of

questionnaire and collection of data. In the questionnaire, most of the questions were

related to the sensitive themes of culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them, and

(English) language. The students reading in government Urdu-medium schools, non-elite

English-medium schools and elite English-medium schools belong to different religious

sects, ethnic groups, and social classes. Therefore, it was tried to ask questions in such a

way that could get the relevant information and pose no harm to students’ feelings,

schools, values, etc. For instance, the question “Which one school do you not like

someone to read in?” if asked instead of question 1 (see questionnaire in the appendix),

could have given the students a chance to show dislike against a specific school.

Similarly, the question “Do you like male characters more than the female ones?” if

asked instead of question 6b (see questionnaire in the appendix), could have been

regarded as biased by the female students because the sentence emphasizes ‘male

characters’ and deemphasizes ‘female characters’.

After the construction of the questionnaire, the next stage was to get the questionnaire

filled in. Prior to it, the researcher got permission from the principals of the three types of

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schools in face-to-face meetings for data collection. On their request, the anonymity of

their and their schools’ names was promised. The principals were informed about the

objectives of the study. Then, the researcher visited the secondary classes in each school

for data collection with the help of a teacher of that respective school. Before handing

over the questionnaire, the students were also informed about the objectives of the

present study. Fortunately enough, there were more than forty students sitting in the

classes in government and non-elite schools. It helped me randomly select twenty-five

students easily only from those who showed willingness to fill in the questionnaire.

However, there were not as much crowded classes in the elite school as in its two

counterparts. But there were a number of sections of O Levels (grade 10) consisted of

near about twenty students each. I randomly selected fifty students (boys and girls mixed)

from the volunteers to fill in the questionnaire. Moreover, in the part of the student’s

profile in the questionnaire, name was also kept optional to keep the identity of those in

secret who wished. After the collection of data in each school, I personally visited the

principal and thanked him/her for cooperation in the collection of data.

In this chapter, I have outlined the research objectives of the present research. Along with

this, I have discussed about the data and data sources, the analytical framework which I

have employed in my study i.e. Fairclough’s (2003), the key terms of this framework,

and, in the end, the research tool i.e. questionnaire. The next chapter four is a critical

discourse analysis of the contents related to Culture, Religion, Nationalism, Us and Them

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and English. The selected analytical devices, which I have discussed above, will be used

to analyze the contents in the PTB and OUP English textbooks.

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Chapter 4: CDA of Contents Related to Culture, Religion, Nationalism,

Us and Them and English

This chapter is a critical discourse analysis of Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) English

textbooks and Oxford University Press English textbooks. It critically examines their

discourse related to culture, religion, nationalism, us and them and English. The theme of

‘gender’ has been discussed in the next chapter. In this way, it finds out the explicit as

well as implicit messages embedded in their discourses related to the above-mentioned

themes. A critical discourse analysis of the textbook discourses will also help us know if

the ideologies of PTB English textbooks are different from those of OUP ones. The

analysis has been carried out at the sentence level so that the present research may deal

with both the major and minor messages in the discourses successfully.

In this chapter, a chronological order of the themes analyzed is: (a) Representation of

cultures (b) Religion (c) Nationalism (d) Us and Them (e) Status of English. It is

important to mention that within the macro theme of religion, the present research

focusses on three micro themes: (a) Reinforcement of religious practices (b) Exploitation

of religion and (c) Glorification of war. While analyzing these themes, I will apply the

key terms / concepts briefly explained in chapter three such as metaphors,

presuppositions, identity and difference etc. It is also necessary to mention that, for a

better and convincing discussion about their contrasting ideologies, sentences regarding

each theme have been taken from both the PTB and OUP textbooks. In short, both the

textbooks have been analyzed in the following two chapters in terms of cultural and

religious themes followed by a discussion of the questionnaire findings in chapter 6.

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4.1) Representation of Cultures

This theme deals with the representation of Western and Pakistani cultures in the OUP

and PTB English textbooks respectively. The PTB textbooks are a clear reflection of the

Pakistani society including various religious, national and cultural events and practices to

inculcate the learners with nationalistic, cultural, and religious fervour (see lessons 1, 2,

3, 5, 7, 19 in PTB 9 textbook and lessons 1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 19, 21 in PTB 10

textbook). They become sixteen out of forty-three lessons (37.20 percent). In the OUP

textbooks, the lessons mostly represent the instances of western culture (In book 1, see

lessons 2, 3 in unit 1; lesson 4 in unit 5; lessons 2, 3, 5, 6 in unit 6; lesson 3 in unit 8 and

lessons 2, 3, 4, 5 in unit 9. In book 2, see lessons 3, 4, 5 in unit 1; lessons 2, 4 in unit 3;

lesson 2 in unit 4 and lessons 2, 4 in unit 5.) They become twenty out of sixty-nine

lessons (28.98 percent). Moreover, there is no instance of western culture represented in

the PTB textbooks whereas the OUP ones include some instances of Pakistani culture

(see lesson 3 in unit 2 and lesson 1 in unit 6 in book 1 and lesson 4 in unit 2 and lesson 3

in unit 4 in book 2 (5.79 percent)).

This all indicates the learning of a different culture i.e. Western culture by the elite-

school students in contrast to their counterparts from the state-run and non-elite schools

students who are exposed only to the indigenous culture. The representation of western

life with its all liberties before the young elite-schools students is likely to train them to

regard western life as norm in contrast to social life in Pakistan. The specimens of such a

life may clearly be observed in the following lines randomly selected from different

lessons in the OUP English textbooks.

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This chapter focuses, from a representational point of view as discussed in chapter 3, on

the instances of western world represented in form of practices, values and conceptions of

life in textbooks to illustrate the social messages these instances impart to the learners

from the elite class.

The stooping figure of my mother…was the last I saw of my country home as I

left it to discover the world. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 1-3)

It was a bright Sunday morning in early June, the right time to be leaving

home. My three sisters and a brother had already gone before me; two other

brothers had yet to make up their minds. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 9-12)

The lines reflect the Western culture where leaving home is worth an adventure.

However, it is better to look first at some of the implications in these lines before

analyzing them from the point of adventure. This is because these social messages seem

to accomplish or at least support the adventurous act of leaving home. They are: people

in the West have full right to explore the world and decide independently the kind of life

they choose; they have fewer restrictions over them but must also take responsibility for

their decisions and actions; they care less for everything that may come in their way

including the parents; their leaving home seems to be a sort of regular social practice and

is regarded as discovering the world. Thus all of these social phenomena combine to offer

an adventurous world to an individual in the West when he or she comes of age.

Interestingly, none of these notions match with the social practices in Pakistan (see this

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section below and section 4.2 & 4.5 in this chapter) and, therefore, seem to be the sole

characteristics of the Western culture.

The act of ‘leaving home’ has been positively equated with knowing about the world.

Then, the use of certain words and phrases such as ‘bright Sunday morning’ and ‘early

June’ as ‘the right time’ for the adventure adds something to the expected charm and

attraction of the adventure. Moreover, the ‘bright Sunday morning’ (as Sunday has its

own value and reverence in Christianity) also gives a religious touch to this adventure –

leaving home on a Sunday is a good omen. All of these things indeed portray a relatively

adventurous and restriction-free world.

In order to learn more about the underlying ideology of the lines, it is useful to compare

the act of leaving home in the Pakistani context. The ideological load is inescapable for

the simple reason that the explicit as well as the implicit meanings related to the act of

leaving home are likely to influence the learners’ ideas of life at home and in society. Let

alone leaving parents, leaving home whether for adventure or for free life are nothing

short of a social taboo for the majority of the Pakistanis. In effect, living with parents

(with a purpose to serve them in their old age) is considered more important than living

independently. In this context, the OUP textbooks then introduce a thing far removed

from the local culture. However, it should not be assumed from the discussion that life is

not, or cannot be, adventurous here. In fact, the things that make it adventurous are

different. Similarly, the degree to which it is adventurous is also different. Therefore,

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what is ideological here in the textbooks is to show the Pakistani elite learners only the

Western specimens of adventurous life by excluding the indigenous ones.

Along with the instances of an adventurous life, the textbooks are also replete with the

instances of a liberal world. Once again, these examples come from the representations of

the Western world. For instance,

Once a weak he and my grandmother would go into town for tea and

afterwards to the cinema. (OUP 2, p. 50, l. 61-62)

The car started. It was full of young white men. They were drinking. I watched

the flask pass from mouth to mouth. (OUP 1, p. 160, l. 52-53)

It was a favourite place for lovers and on summer nights their long

whisperings floated among the branches and out over the currents. (OUP 2, p.

49, l. 21-24)

In the lines above, the liberal themes such as going ‘into town for tea and afterwards to

the cinema’, ‘they (the young white men) were drinking’, ‘a favourite place for lovers’

and ‘their long whisperings’ on ‘summer nights’ all function to create such a romantic

world which is quite alien to an average Pakistani who cannot enjoy these things publicly

and openly. Although these activities are norms in the Western societies, they are social

taboos in the Pakistani society particularly among populations belonging to middle and

lower classes and living in rural areas. Though going for tea and cinema have found their

way into the contemporary Pakistani society yet drinking and dating openly have not

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been accepted so far. So, what is not acceptable in Pakistani society has been presented as

normative and acceptable practices in the textbooks of the elite school. This exposure to

liberal and romantic culture is likely to lead them either to want to follow suit, or to

disapprove of the social life in Pakistan, or to question it.

In Pakistan people do go out on dates and have clandestine affairs without bringing it to

the knowledge of their families and the wider community. Scholars like Rahman (2002)

and Zubair (2003) have observed that although the themes of romantic love abound in

Urdu and English Literatures, in reality romantic love and sex are taboos in Pakistani

society. Zubair (2006) in a study of young women studying English Literature at

Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, reported that several of the young women she

interviewed had either dated or had boyfriends or felt the desire for romance but curbed it

fearing the familial or societal disapproval.

It is also important to mention that the elite-school students use English not only in the

schools but also at homes. Therefore, through protracted and simultaneous exposure to

the English language and culture they may feel at home in the English language and its

associated cultural values and distanced from their own indigenous culture as cultures

tend to be embedded in their respective languages. Moreover, no two words in a language

are ever exact synonyms, let alone in another language. For instance, the semantic and

ideological underpinnings of the English words such as wine, drinking and dating are not

negative whereas the Urdu words sharaab, sharaab peena, and wad-e-mulaqat karna

carry negative implications. Thus the students of the elite English-medium schools who

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are not quite at home with their indigenous culture embedded in Urdu, are thus exposed

to the liberal values of the English culture through ELT textbooks which may result in

cherishing these values at the expense of indigenous cultural values.

Along with the Urdu language, less exposure to religion Islam also accounts for their

inclination towards the Western culture. The OUP textbooks, as mentioned above,

contain only one lesson (only 1.44 percent) related to Christianity. It is about Christmas

Eve and deals with it in a vey liberal way as follows:

What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a

time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for

balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of

months presented dead against you? (OUP 1, p. 107, l. 48-52)

Here is a character of Scrooge arguing with his nephew over Christmas Eve. The Uncle’s

response to his greetings ‘Merry Christmas’ is not expected in the Pakistani culture even

on non-Islamic events, let alone Islamic ones. The response is in fact a sign of his liberal

attitude towards one of the most important religious events in Christianity i.e. Christmas

Eve. The response can also be taken as representation of a particular culture i.e. the

Western culture which, unlike the Pakistani culture, offers much liberty to its people

regarding religion.

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More importantly, this liberty allows one to look at life and religion from a pragmatic

and/or casual point of view. Scrooge’s question ‘What’s Christmas time to you’ and then

his own hasty answer to his question containing certain words such as ‘paying bills

without money’ and ‘finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer’ represent a

practical approach towards religious festivals, which is certainly not spiritual. He clearly

refers to the celebration or arrival of Christmas Eve in a lighter vein likening it to a

business where people are only losers. Over all the lines portray such a world where

religion plays a minor role in peoples’ lives and where religion is a matter of individual

choice.

Ideologically, Pakistan is an Islamic Republic which was founded on the basis of

religion, and, where religion Islam is central in shaping the lives and worldviews of a vast

majority of people. Even more ideological is the inclusion of a non-Islamic event instead

of an Islamic one in the OUP textbooks.

On a different note, my discussion now moves on to an analysis of the contents of the

PTB textbooks and their representations of a different cultural world, which we hope will

illustrate our argument.

As mentioned above, a part of the PTB textbooks has been devoted to religion. At some

places full lessons i.e. eight out of forty-three (18.60 percent) which is much higher than

5.79 in the OUP textbooks; and at the other places contents within the lessons are related

to Islam. Importantly, the exclusion of these contents is not acceptable at all in the society

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as most of the people particularly belonging to religious seminaries and parties hold

demonstrations against it. This inevitably leads us to believe that the Pakistanis as

Muslims hold extreme love and devotion for their religion. Apart from these statistics,

several other instances present in the book also strengthen our point. For instance, both

the textbooks (for 9th and 10th classes) start with the lessons about the Holy Prophet

(SAW). It is not something exclusive to these textbooks as it has become almost a

tradition as the previous textbooks prove. Similarly, the Islamic teachings in the form of

Quran and Hadith are regarded as unparalleled and, therefore, deserve to be regarded as

the only way of their life in their culture.

In the PTB textbooks lessons, the emphasis is on religious way of life whereas the focus

in OUP lesson is not religious teaching. This dichotomy is further enhanced by the

teaching methodologies of the school teachers in Urdu-schools who, like the lessons,

emphasize adherence to religious values. In fact, the teachers in these schools themselves

are products of similar schooling and mostly come from lower income groups.

The PTB textbooks include various religious events that are common among the

Muslims. Not only these events but also the way they are practised help one know the

way ideologies are naturalized in Pakistan through textbooks.

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The Muslims (on Shab-e-barat) illuminate their houses and masajid

(mosques). (PTB 10, p. 6, l. 12)

The buildings are bazaars are illuminated (on Eid Milad-un-Nabi (the

birthday of the Holy Prophet SAW)). (PTB 10, p. 7, l. 34)

The word ‘The Muslims’ indicates that there is not any sort of division among the

Muslims towards the celebration of the religious events. Rather the Muslims all over the

world take equal part in celebrating these events. Moreover, the words ‘illuminate’ or

‘illuminated’ give insights into the mindset of traditional Muslims in Pakistan. It

indicates that the Muslims regard their religious events very sacred and, therefore,

celebrate them with full zeal and zest. This religious fervour presents them as enthusiasts.

Moreover, they do not suppress and hide their emotions and feelings on such occasions.

They rather express them overtly through illumination of houses, buildings and bazaars.

The presence of ‘houses/bazaars and masajid’ in the sentences can be taken as metaphors

for world and religion respectively. It means they go side by side in their lives. Or there is

a dialectical relationship between them – religion teaches them how to live a life and

living a life accordingly is likely to result in a success in this life and the life hereafter.

Looking at it from another angle, people think of religion as a source of peace,

tranquility, and satisfaction in life; hence, being away from religion signifies being

distanced from a peaceful life.

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We can now clearly observe how the Pakistani and the Western cultures teach differently

their people the ways to celebrate the religious events. In the former one, the importance

of these events is much more than the latter one. We can draw inferences from the

relative significance of religion in both cultures. Arguably, the Western people keep their

worldly affairs away from their religion as does the character of Scrooge in the lesson

‘Christmas Eve’ in the OUP textbooks. Whereas, in the PTB textbooks, even the

celebratory practices of other than religious events show a certain influence of Islam (e.g.

the marriage ceremony of Hazrat Fatima in lesson 19 and the sayings of the Quaid

regarding the creation of Pakistan in lesson 21 in PTB English 10). In this regard, though

society also performs certain practices borrowed from the Hindu culture in real life, the

textbooks indirectly disapprove these practices to urge the learners to practise only their

own indigenous culture.

‘Oh well’ said the woman, ‘Silk dresses, sets of jewellery, pairs of shoes and

sets of bed linen and a fully furnished house with a car’. The lady explained (to

Farah) the dowry items that had just been displayed. (PTB 10, p. 82, l. 38-41)

It is from the lesson ‘Two Wedding Ceremonies’ that describes a wedding ceremony and

the social practices the people perform to celebrate it. Right from the beginning, the

lesson mentions display of ostentation and overspending on such occasions. For instance,

besides what we see above there is a lot more in the lesson as follows:

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The entire front of the house was illuminated with coloured lights and tube

lights were erected all along the path way. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 1-3)

Near the house itself, rows of young girls dressed in gold and silver and bright

eye catching colours, holding flower petals in baskets, were waiting for the

Barat. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 12-15)

Each woman was loaded with jewellery around her neck, on her head, in her

ears, on forearms and fingers. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 16-18)

To have a certain impact on the learners’ perception, the textbook first describes the

event of marriage and the way the people celebrate it. A tinge of satire goes along with it

through a character named Farah who ‘started feeling uncomfortable’ and ‘looked around

to find a quiet corner’ to indicate disapproval of what is going on:

Farah shut her eyes and rested her head on the back of the chair, ‘Alas! If

people here only remember how simply the Holy Prophet (SAW) married his

daughter Hazrat Fatima (RA) to Hazrat Ali (RA).

How simple, sacred and holy the ceremony must have looked’, she thought to

herself. (PTB 10, p. 82, l. 52-57)

Assumingly, the textbooks consider simplicity, contentedness and frugality as elements

of our culture. Obviously, then lavishness and ostentation are not the characteristics of

this particular culture rather they are cultural imports from the Hindu culture as a result of

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living together for many centuries in the sub-continent in the past and extensively

watching Indian movies or programmes on the cable.

So far, we have seen how the PTB textbooks promote the Pakistani culture and exclude

or disapprove the other cultures just like the OUP textbooks that mostly promote the

Western culture. The following extract serves as a good example:

They (Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Fatima (RA)) found their only luxury in prayers.

(PTB 10, p. 46, l. 16-17)

In contrast to a Western couple going for tea and cinema in the lines above, we see here a

couple preferring prayers to everything else as implied by the phrase ‘found their only

luxury in prayers’. In other words, the OUP textbooks show a western couple finding

pleasure in the activities other than religious whereas the PTB ones show a couple finding

pleasure only in a religious activity. I do not imply that couples in the West do not offer

prayers and in Pakistan they do not go out for tea and cinema. The point is to see which

practices these textbooks ideologically include and exclude for the readers coming from

different social classes.

One similar instance given below is of a child who is supposed to act differently from

that of a boy mentioned above in the OUP textbooks who left his home for the world.

Who sat and watched my infant head,

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When sleeping on my cradle bed

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be

Affectionate and kind to thee,

Who was so very kind to me,

My Mother. (PTB English 10, p. 88, l. 1-4 & 14-17)

The first stanza of the poem ‘My Mother’ may be regarded to a certain degree as a

generalized association of the attributes of a mother sitting, watching, lying (with her

child) and loving her child. Somewhat same role of woman as a mother can also be

observed in the lesson ‘Leaving Home’ in the OUP textbooks. However, the response

from the child in the second stanza may arguably be culture specific. In the Pakistani

context, the children usually internalize the traits of a typical mother or father from their

tender age and are, therefore, supposed to act motherly as well as fatherly when they are

grown ups. This good return, however, is also under an obligation of their religion Islam

that directs them to be obedient, kind and affectionate to their parents especially mothers.

The underlying message for the learners is to be devoted as once their mothers were. This

concept differs with the earlier one ( in OUP text) – where a boy feels free and confident

in leaving home and mother for an adventure – in its expression of love to the mother

which is never represented in the PTB textbooks. Generally (owing to economic

constraints) people from lower and middle-classes in Pakistan prefer living with their

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parents; among these classes living in a separate home is a social taboo as it implies

forsaking your parents in old age.

Not surprisingly, the Western culture represented in the OUP textbooks with its full

liberty, modernity, romanticism and secularism is likely to attract their readers more than

their own indigenous one. Similarly, their counterparts from the government and non-

elite schools for being not exposed to the Western values in the PTB textbooks are likely

to cherish only their own indigenous culture. In the questionnaire (see chapter seven), the

research, therefore, shows a stark contrast between the elite-school students’ and the

government and non-elite schools students’ responses to the question if western life style

attracts you more than the Pakistani one. The 58 percent students from the elite schools

favour the Western life style against the 10 and 12 percent students from the government

and non-elite schools students respectively.

4.2) Reinforcement of Religious Practices

This theme deals with the religious events and practices mentioned in the English

textbooks. In order to analyze this aspect from an ideological point of view, it is

important to see which religious events are included in the textbooks, who (which

religious sect) the events and religious practices represent, which practices are being

reinforced, and do inclusion and representation observe equality. The following lines

have been taken from the lesson ‘Festivals of Pakistan’ (PTB 10: 6-7).

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Shab-e-barat, a night of blessings is celebrated on 14th Shabaan, 8th month of

the Islamic calendar.

The Muslims illuminate their houses and masajid (mosques).

The use of ‘The Muslims’ instead of ‘most Muslims’, ‘the Muslims in Pakistan’ or ‘the

Pakistani Muslims’ indicates that there is not any sort of division either among the

Pakistanis or the Islamic world towards the celebration of Shab-e-barat. Rather all the

Muslims take equal part in celebrating this event. It is a matter of concern that the

writer’s statement may become a code of conduct for the young learners for they are not

given any practice in linguistic deconstruction of the texts at the secondary level. The

above-mentioned sentence is likely to be perceived by the young learners as ‘The

Muslims should illuminate their houses and masajid.’ Or ‘Islam expects the Muslims to

illuminate their houses and masajid’. Thus what may be deduced by the learners as a

normative construction of these religious festivities assuming the level of religious

teachings to be strictly observed is, in fact, the writer’s own generalization of a particular

practice which is not rooted in religion but is a socio-cultural practice. This is how

ideology functions in texts. Moreover, whether the act of illuminating the houses and

masajid on Shab-e-barat is the practice and representation of a particular segment in the

Muslim community is another moot point and will be discussed below in this section.

The next sentence reads the core activities of the event.

Devotional prayers are performed throughout the night to seek the blessings of

Allah.

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The sentence is ideologically loaded in a way that it narrows the concept of prayer. The

prayers have been reduced only to worshipping Almighty Allah for his blessings. Can

blessings not be sought through other means and actions and practices, such as good

deeds, acts of kindness to fellow human beings, honesty, charity and love for humanity in

general? Of course, there are other practices and ways to seek the blessings of Allah but

the sentence excludes those and emphasis is laid on prayers on that specific night.

Further, the implicit ideology is that ritual prayers are the means for a devout Muslim to

seek communion with Allah, particularly on that night. This ideology which emphasizes

devotional prayers to the exclusion of other forms of devotion is misleading as it paints a

very restrictive and ritualistic concept of Islamic faith and practices. According to one

Hadith: to earn an honest living tantamounts to prayers too.

However, in spite of the exclusion of the practices or ways to seek the blessings of Allah,

I consider the above-mentioned sentence less ideological than the previous instance. This

is because it represents at least the general concepts and practices regarding Shab-e-barat.

This mixed presentation of ideological (in the previous instances) and less ideological

elements (in the present instance) in the textbooks are worth noticing. This technique is

rather an ideological tactic that helps get the contents presentable and thus reduce any

resistance from those religious sects of the society who have been denied any

representation in the textbooks. It may rightly be regarded as a consciously ideological

inclusion for I observe the same style in introducing and representing the next religious

event i.e. Eid Milad-un-Nabi (SAW) in the same lesson.

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Eid Milad-un-Nabi is celebrated on 12th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, a birthday of the

Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

The buildings and bazaars are illuminated.

Seminars are conducted to induce the devotees to follow the life of Hazrat

Muhammad.

In the first sentence, there comes the name of the religious event. It is followed by its date

and month, and brief introduction. Secondly, comes the way to celebrate it. Finally, the

basic purpose of celebrating the event of Eid Milad-un-Nabi has been mentioned.

Once again the second sentence is more ideological than the first and the last one, as it

does not represent the general practices of all Pakistani religious sects regarding this

particular event. Like the previous example, it – the act of illumination – reflects only the

dominant representation of the Barelvi sect. As the Barelvis are not in majority as

compared to the Deobandis (Rahman 1999: 104), therefore, the inclusion of its certain

practices in the lesson meant for all students who vary in their association to different

religious sects is quite ideological.

So far we have noticed two things in our analysis: firstly, both Shab-e-barat and Eid

Milad-un-Nabi are quite popular and acceptable (by their name and nature) for all the

religious sects; secondly, their celebratory practices represent only Barelvi sect. Other

main sects such as Deobandis (it is in majority in Pakistan) and Ahl-e-hedith consider

such practices bid’ah (any innovated practice in religion) and, therefore, do not support,

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approve and preach them because, according to them, Sahab-ai-Karaam (RA) (the

disciples of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)) did not observe them. In short, the

textbooks are biased in giving a balanced representation to certain religious practices of

all sects. It is indeed this ‘unbalancedness’ among certain representations in the PTB

textbooks that claims them to be ideological.

These religious ideologies show a fairly strong influence on the readers of the PTB

textbooks. The research shows that most of them are quite religious. They have been

considered religious in a sense that 100 percent students from the government schools

and 96 percent students from the non-elite schools like much to celebrate the religious

events in contrast to elite-schools students who are 52 percent. Moreover, they – the

government and non-elite schools students – observe most of the religious practices in the

ways as described above while celebrating the religious events like Shab-e-Barat and Eid

Milad-un-Nabi.

The case of OUP textbooks is quite the opposite. There is only one lesson i.e. Christmas

Eve (OUP 1: p. 106-7) but even that seems to be religious only by name for it does not

contain any religious practices associated with this event. Instead it has a secular or

liberal tone. Consequently, the students are not as much religious as their counterparts

from the government and non-elite schools are. There are some sentences in different

lessons that mention some words like pray, gods, God, Allah, Christmas, religion, church

and heavens but we can see below that the usage of most of these words except Christmas

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and churches neither show any direct link with any religion nor do they reinforce any

particular religious practice.

Thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children (OUP 1: 63).

‘A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice (OUP 1:

107).

As the man fell, Yasin heard him scream, “Allah…” (OUP 2: 37).

These were joined together by numerous bridges and above them rose the

steeples of many churches like a vast and elegant ocean liner. (OUP 2: 48-9).

I believe the decision to have a large family was based less on any deep

religious conviction than from a profound love of live (OUP 2: 49).

‘Oh, God,’ I said raising my hands to the heavens, ‘my son wants to become

some artist or musician… (OUP 2: 58).

he said: ‘I prayed to all the gods in the world for a son (OUP 2: 79).

The absence of the representation of any particular religion and any particular sect’s

religious practices in these textbooks makes most of the elite-school students i.e. 52

percent, unlike their counterparts in the government and non-elite schools i.e. 21 and 28

percent respectively, celebrate the religious events in a common way i.e. offering prayers,

as mentioned in the questionnaire (see chapter seven). However, this does not mean that

OUP textbooks are free from religious ideologies because exclusion of religion is also

ideological for the simple reason that they have been especially developed to produce

secular minds.

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4.3) Religious Exploitation

Owing to a regular inclusion of Islamic contents in the PTB textbooks in the past (as

discussed above), Islam is now considered to be an indispensable part of these textbooks

both by the state and its people, albeit for different reasons. The people want it for

inculcating Islamic values, awareness and knowledge among the students whereas the

state realizing the peoples’ attachment to the religion exploits it for its own interests –

promoting ideologies of religious difference and intolerance. In a society like Pakistan,

ideology in the name of religion can be both influential and harmful as politics for

people, let alone learners, who tend to take it for granted. This makes the injecting of

implicitly ideological patterns easier for the government. Such exploitation can be

noticed well in the lesson ‘Human Rights and Madina Charter’ (PTB 10, 2006, p. 31-2)

which is about a treaty entitled Misak-e-Madina between the Muslims and the Jews.

To create a harmony and mutual corporation, a just and fair treaty was signed

by the two parties, Jews and Muslims (in Madina – the city of the Holy

Prophet (SAW)).

Before analyzing the contents and context of the sentence, it is necessary to keep in mind

particularly the factors of time and place. Of course, the place where the sentence

originates is Pakistan, a front ally in a war against terrorism, and the time is post 9 / 11

that has brought the centre (the west) and the centres of the peripheries closer for mutual

ideological interests.

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Here are certain overt and covert points: the Muslims and the Jews (a) were living

together in Madina, (b) signed a treaty for certain mutual interests, (and c) pledged to live

together in complete harmony putting aside their social, cultural and religious

differences. Thus the sentence if seen in context of the current political scenario implies

that the Muslims can live and sign treaty with the Jews even today. A similar message

lies in one of the following clauses of the treaty:

Muslims shall join hands with the Jews to fight anyone

The phrase ‘join hands’ metaphorically indicates the forming of friendship. The use of

‘shall’ instead of ‘will’ and the sentence in a directive form reinforce this underlying

message. However, though both parties sign the treaty as friends, the level of relationship

is asymmetrical in the sentence – the Jews seem to be more powerful and dominant – as it

addresses the Muslims to join the Jews. Otherwise the sentence could have been

‘Muslims and Jews shall fight anyone together who rebels or promotes enmity’. Arguably

the sentence as a mouthpiece of the state legitimizes its policy of having friendly relations

with the Christians and the Jews in various affairs especially in what comes in the

following sub-ordinate clause.

…who rebels or promotes enmity.

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The dependent clause introduces two types of enemies: (a) who rebel and (b) who

promote enmity. So both the parties shall fight inside the country with the rebellions and

outside the country (in the world) with the promoters of enmity.

It will be useful to transform the sub-clause ‘who rebels or promotes enmity’ into a

nominal or noun-like entity i.e. terrorists / terrorism, to probe into the ideology of the

state. We see both the nations as victims of this evil. However, both have a different

concept of the term ‘terrorism’. A majority of the Muslims call fight and suicidal attacks

against the non-muslim occupiers (e.g. Americans in Afghanistan and Israelites in

Palestine) jihad, while the non-muslims including the Jews call their resistance

‘terrorism’. Hence, as the book does not distinguish between terrorism and jihad, the

incumbent government can be thought of regarding suicidal attacks or fighting with the

non-muslims and their Muslim supporters as terrorism and wishing to eradicate it by

joining the western allies. This point becomes clearly evident in another line at the end of

the lesson.

They were to be equal partners in peace and war and enjoyed all human

rights.

This line is not a part of the treaty mentioned in the lesson. It is a comment from the

writer at the end of the lesson on the participants of the treaty declared as partners instead

of friends. Clearly, the language shows distance between them. Moreover, the sub-

ordinate clause ‘and enjoyed all human rights’ also points towards the differences

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between them and a confession of them (differences). Of course, these differences are

quite natural for both the communities have their own language, culture, religion, and

priorities. The message of the lesson thus should be to join the West in fighting with the

terrorists irrespective of each other’s social, cultural, religious and racial differences –

observance of human rights. In other words, at present there is no harm in joining the

Christians and the Jews in the war against terrorism for such alliance was also formed in

the Islamic history.

Importantly, the alliance that was formed in the Islamic history was in fact against the

foreign aggressors (particularly the Hindus of Mecca regarded as the worst enemies of

the Muslims at that time) who were intending to attack Madina to weaken or crush the

Muslims gaining power in Madina after a migration from Mecca They were also unhappy

with the Jews for building ties with the new comers (Muslims) in Madina. Consequently,

the Holy Prophet (SAW) signed a treaty with the Jews to put a joint resistance against the

common enemy. Another clause of this treaty reads:

If a common enemy attacks Madina, joint resistance by the Jews and the

Muslims shall be put up against the enemy.

An important thing here is the focus shifted from ‘Hindus’ to ‘(Muslim) terrorists by the

previous clause i.e. ‘…who rebels or promotes enmity’. Even more important than this is

the absence of this clause in the actual treaty (Rasool 1959: 38). Being not too simplistic,

the PTB textbooks has concocted this sub clause as one of the conditions of the

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agreement to manipulate the learners’ opinions regarding joining hands with the non-

Muslims such as the Jews, Christians and Hindus in the war against terrorism.

It is quite important to note that with regard to war against terrorism the PTB textbook

also tends to confuse the learners in that on the one hand it is biased and promotes

intolerance of other religions or even certain sects in Islamic faith (see section 4.2 in this

chapter), and yet, on the other, promotes the notion of joining hands with the Jews when

it serves the interests of the state and the state policies. Certainly, there is a lot of

ambivalence here in the messages being signaled to the PTB learners.

This manipulation or exploitation of Madina Charter in this lesson has worked well as

most of the learners from all schools agree with the signing of treaties with the non-

Muslims to fight terrorism in the questionnaire (see chapter seven). It is unexpected

particularly on the part of the government and non-elite school students whose majority

does not favour friendly ties (in the questionnaire) with their enemies or ill-wishers – the

Hindus, Jews and Christians – as mostly represented by their textbooks. As far OUP

textbooks are concerned, religious exploitation is not found. However, the positive

representation of the others brings the elite-school students close to them. They do not

possess such feelings for them as their counterparts from the government and non-elite

students do.

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4.4) Glorification of War / Jihad

The textbooks equate religion Islam with Pakistan by explaining the only purpose of

making untiring and incessant struggle for Pakistan was to be able to live according to

Islam. Therefore, Pakistan as an Islamic state is so dear to her inhabitants that they can

sacrifice even their lives for it as proved below:

That is the only way in which we can achieve our goal: the goal of our struggle,

the goal for which millions of Mussulmans (Muslims) have lost their all and

laid down their lives for the cause of Islam and Pakistan. (PTB English 10,

2006, p. 97)

Losing lives for the cause of Islam and Pakistan indirectly presents the Hindus as enemies

of both Islam and Pakistan for, as the background assumption is, it was not possible for

the Muslims (in the presence of the Hindus) to live according to Islam. Thus Pakistan as

an Islamic state is unbearable for India which is waiting for any opportunity to

dismember Pakistan. The overall purpose of the lines is indeed to present Islam as an

identity of the people of Pakistan and, therefore, harming this identity is worth harming

the religion Islam.

The metaphorical expression that ‘targeting Pakistan is targeting Islam’ is likely to justify

the need of jihad and the presence of a big army in the country. Then the army must be

regarded as sacred and nationalistic for its mujahid soldiers are there to defend both Islam

and Pakistan. The textbooks also romanticize this aspect by selecting such a personality

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from the Islamic history who has been quite prominent regarding jihad. The following

instances have been taken from the lesson ‘Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA)’ (PTB

English 9, 2006, pp. 8-9).

Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) was a great warrior of Islam.

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) admired the valour and bravery of Hazrat Khalid

bin Waleed (RA) and gave him the title of ‘Saifullah’ (sword of Allah).

He promised to devote his future life in the service of Islam.

The first sentence describes the personality of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) in relation

to religion Islam. Though its structure could also be ‘Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) was

a great Arab warrior’ or he ‘was a great Muslim warrior’, it would not have shown him as

high in his status as his present description in relation to Islam does. The last line makes

it reasonable to argue that it was only his act of jihad (for Islam) that won him the titles

of ‘a great warrior’ and ‘the sword of Allah’. Putting it another way, in return, it was

Islam that honoured and blessed him. These are indeed the very messages of the texts that

function to value jihad and infuse a jihadi spirit into the Muslim learners. It will also be

useful to see how the textbooks define jihad to the learners in an implicit way as follows:

At last the Muslims won this battle (of Yermuk) due to the bravery and

planning of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA).

At last the Muslims won this battle (of Yermuk) due to the bravery and

planning of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA).

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The Islamic concept of jihad ‘…has two meanings: firstly, personal struggle against

temptation and secondly, war of Muslims against aggressors’ (Noreen, Ahmed-Ullah &

Barker, 2004). Unexpectedly, the lines implicitly show only one side of the coin i.e. a war

of Muslims against aggressors (In the battle of Yurmuk, the non-Muslims encamped near

Yurmook with an intention to invade Madina – the city of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and

his companions). Needless to say, the other one has been kept hidden; hence, the meaning

implicitly given in the textbook may rightly be regarded as an intentionally controlled

meaning of jihad. Next comes the concept of ‘martyrdom’ (shahaadat) in the lesson:

Despite his utmost desire, he was not martyred but died a natural death at the

age of sixty-one years. (PTB English 9, 2006, p. 9)

This has become ‘so much a feature of official vocabulary that …all army officers even

when they die in accidents are called shaheeds (martyrs)’ (Rahman, 2002b, p. 65). The

phrase ‘his utmost desire’ conveys martyrdom (to the readers) as something to be desired

for very keenly, something far better than a natural death, and the sole aim of a mujahid

for which, as the lesson indicates, jihad is the only means. Arguably, the phrase directly

increases the value of jihad (as compared to life at home), mujahid and shaheed and,

therefore, is likely to urge the young Pakistani students to religiously desire for

martyrdom; cherish, love and honour the shaheeds (the martyred); and consider them

holy protectors / heroes of both Islam and Pakistan.

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It is not surprising then, that, unlike elite-school students, mostly their counterparts from

the government and non-elite schools strongly agree with the struggle for the occupied

Kashmir. The former type though also in good strength support the struggle, the affinity

with it is not as strong as of the latter types. However, there is a clear difference in their

opinions regarding the adoption of jihad / war as a means to achieve the occupied

Kashmir. We find only 28 percent elite-school students supporting war against the

percentage of 64 and 60 of the government and non-elite schools students respectively.

To a certain extent, it can be the result of those contents included to disapprove war in the

OUP textbooks. Unlike the PTB textbooks, the OUP textbooks contain three lessons that

disapprove war. It is worth mentioning that two lessons i.e. ‘A Piece of Wood’ by Ray

Bradbury and ‘Scenes from a Bomber Raid’ by Len Deighton indirectly and one lesson

i.e. ‘Biological Warfare’ by Wendy Barnaby directly disapproves war in the textbooks.

The major themes that overlap in these lessons are: killing human beings is brutal, peace

is far better than war and war is fought only for vested interests as follows.

(The official asked) ‘What do you want?’

The sergeant shrugged and looked at his hands. ‘To live in peace… That’s

what I’d like. (OUP 1: 140)

It will be quite useful to know briefly about the context of the situation represented here

first. The sergeant is a man who has spent sixteen years of his life in war. In this long

span of time, realizing the disastrous effects of war he silently started working on a kind

of machine that could rust all weapons in the world and at last made it. The above-

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mentioned lines have been taken from the beginning of the lesson ‘A Piece of Wood’

where the army official after listening rumours about the sergeant considered him

mentally unfit and, therefore, he called for him.

The question ‘What do you want?’ is in fact an offer of options (from the official to the

sergeant) – going to some other war area; seeing a doctor for a complete medical check

up; and going overseas. In return, the response ‘To live in peace’ does not come from an

ordinary immature person but an aged, professionally experienced and mature character

represented as sergeant in the OUP textbooks. The effect on the learners’ perception

might have been different if an ordinary person would have given that response. It shows

that the sergeant has achieved nothing from fifteen-year war and, therefore, peace is far

better than war. His short response ‘To live in peace.’ also indicates that there is no

chance of peace and comfort in war which further assumes that peace cannot be achieved

through war. Moreover, all of these implicit messages are very likely to make the learners

think of the basic reason behind war. The answer to this question lies in the lesson

‘Scenes from a Bomber Raid’ which indirectly again strengthens the previous messages.

‘Well, on this business of killing Huns, sir. There is a pilot … (who) told me

that he thinks our bombing attacks are “just-old fashioned murder of

working-class families”.’

‘This war, he says, is just the continuation of capitalism by other means.’

(OUP 2: 103)

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These lines also represent a worldview of an assumingly intelligent, competent, mature

and professionally experienced person – a British pilot – regarding war and, therefore,

carry much weight. The text is not in form of information but a critique related to Second

World War. It regards war as nothing else but an old way of killing the poor people. The

phrase ‘just-old fashioned’ is a bitter criticism on the present so-called worldly

modernity, progress, enlightenment, and civilization. In other words, they do not

represent any break with the past but the continuation of the barbaric past that was used

to wage wars for vested interests whose victims were only the poor. The textbooks thus

represent war such a ruthless thing whose victims are the poor and beneficiary is the

capitalist system.

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4.5) Nationalism

The theme of nationalism deals with the nationalistic lessons and contents (in other

seemingly non-nationalistic lessons) included in the English textbooks that function to

arouse feelings of nationalism and patriotism in the learners. Just like Islamic lessons,

there are more nationalistic lessons in the PTB textbooks than the OUP ones i.e. 4 (1.72

%) and 1 (.69 %) respectively. The PTB’s four lessons are particularly and completely

about Pakistan whereas the OUP’s one lesson is though about the Pakistani flag yet the

underlying theme is related more to poverty than patriotism. The situation is clear that the

OUP textbooks do not put much emphasis on promoting nationalism. Rather, realistically

speaking, there are many places where they create a negative image of the country

against a positive image of the Western countries. This aspect has been discussed in the

section ‘us and them.

The PTB textbooks inculcate the learners with the nationalistic fervour or patriotic

passion by carrying information about Pakistan’s history, national events, national

heroes, Pakistan’s ill-wishers and so on. We may start with the national events given in

the lesson ‘The Festivals of Pakistan’ (PTB 10: 6-7).

The day of the Pakistan resolution (23rd of March 1940) and Independence

Day (14th of August 1947) are the most remarkable days in the history of

Pakistan.

The nation as a whole celebrates these occasions every year to refresh the

greatness of these events.

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They also give us the knowledge and information related to freedom

movement of Pakistan and the sacrifices made by the leaders in getting a

separate homeland for the Muslims of South Asia.

The textbooks include two national events: the Pakistan resolution (the resolution passed

to achieve Pakistan) and the Independence Day (the day when Pakistan was achieved).

They introduce them as ‘the most remarkable days in the history of Pakistan’ to the

learners; hence, the celebration of these events by the whole nation every year in the

second sentence has been justified by presenting them as V.I.P (very important). In other

words, they are celebrated for they deserve to be celebrated. It contains an implicit

message for the learners that they are also supposed to keep alive this remarkable

tradition when they are grown ups. In the last line, there lay three pieces of information:

firstly, Pakistan was achieved through a freedom movement; secondly, sacrifices were

made for its achievement and, lastly, it is more than a country – a homeland – for them.

Semantically, as home is to house, the concept of ‘homeland’ is sweeter than that of

‘country’. It gives a deep sense of freedom, belonging, security, peace, tranquility,

affiliation, etc. Similarly, the phrase ‘a separate homeland’ seems to create the concept of

othering i.e. the piece of land we Muslims have gained is ours and the remaining part of

land which is of course ‘India’ is theirs. In effect, the information residing in all three

lines arouses nationalistic feelings in the learners and, therefore, being inculcated with

nationalism and patriotism is a norm and being not inculcated with them is likely to be

regarded as deviation from this norm.

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Importantly, the second sentence does not address the people of Pakistan as ‘the

Pakistanis’ but ‘the nation as a whole…’ which again highlights the importance of these

national events. Moreover, this phrase also seems to perform two ideological functions:

firstly, it indicates the oneness and unity of the Pakistanis as a nation towards the

celebration of these national events for it could also address them using their provincial

identity as Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochis and Pathans which it did not. Secondly, it

represents these events as uncontroversial unlike some other social events where society

is divided on their celebrations (see section 4.1 in this chapter above) and, therefore, the

students must feel free and proud to celebrate these events.

The inclusion of the two national events also justifies the inclusion and description of the

national hero and founder of Pakistan i.e. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the

lesson ‘The Great Leader: Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinah’ (PTB English 10, 2006:

93-7). His description as a giant and creator of Pakistan is undoubtedly a great source of

promoting nationalism through the textbooks.

The 20th century has seen a number of great personalities on the international

political scene.

None of them is equal to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in intellect

and honesty of purpose.

Our great leader had great qualities.

He was a symbol of integrity and honesty.

He was fearless and courageous.

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The lesson introduces the founder of Pakistan as the greatest of all who emerged as

leaders in different parts of the world in the twentieth century. The mention of other

personalities as ‘great’ but without names is clearly an effort to emphasize the greatness

of the Quaid. The second line ‘None of them is equal to Quaid…’ then portrays him as

‘matchless’, which indicates that the other leaders including obviously the Indian ones –

Gandhi, Nehru – stand nowhere before him. Therefore, he is the only one who is worth

being a role model for the young Pakistani learners. In other words, when ‘our great

leader had great qualities’ (line 3), why look at others! Moreover, Quaid-e-Azam means

the great leader, and it is considered a profanity to call him by his original name, as if his

name is Quaid-e-Azam. As a child and young adult, I could never dare to refer to him as

Jinnah; such is the power of these ideological messages!

The lines also mention the qualities he (the Quaid-e-Azam) had. They are intellect,

honesty, integrity, fearlessness and courage. The lines also presuppose that the other

leaders were not intellectual, honest, fearless and courageous or at least not more than

him. Clearly, the overall purpose of the Quaid’s portrait seems to rouse the feelings of

love among the (Pakistani) learners for him and the feelings of disapproval and hate for

the leaders other than him. Moreover, it may also be argued that the greatness of the

Quaid has been intentionally intensely emphasized (because his shortcomings are not

pointed out) to highlight the greatness of Pakistan – great leader, great country is the

message.

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At another point, the textbooks represent the Quaid as a devout Muslim or an Islamic

hero whose sole aim in life was to achieve a separate homeland in the name of Islam so

that his Islamic nation could live their lives according to Islam.

Religion is there and it is dear to us.

That is the only way in which we can achieve our goal: the goal of our struggle,

the goal for which millions of Mussulmans (Muslims) have lost their all and

laid down their lives for the cause of Islam and Pakistan.

The lines put Islam and Pakistan – religion and nationalism – together to show a strong

connection between them. The underlying assumption is that the only purpose of making

untiring and incessant struggle for Pakistan was to be able to live according to Islam.

Therefore, Pakistan as an Islamic state is so dear to the people living in it that they can

sacrifice even their lives for it. It is worth mentioning here that the lines / lesson do not

show any representation of minorities in Pakistan. Moreover, they do suppress the other

political and economic factors that caused the emergence of Pakistan such as the

domination of Hindus over the economy and job market in the undivided India.

Losing lives for Islam indirectly present the Hindus as enemies of both Islam and

Pakistan for, as the background assumption is, it was not possible for the Muslims (in the

presence of the Hindus) to live according to Islam. Thus Pakistan as an Islamic state is

unbearable for India who is waiting for any opportunity to dismember Pakistan. The

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overall purpose of the lines is indeed to present Islam as an identity of the people of

Pakistan and, therefore, harming this identity is worth harming the religion Islam.

The concept of ‘targeting Pakistan is targeting Islam’ is likely to justify the need of Jihad

and the presence of a big army in the country. Then the army must be regarded as sacred

and nationalistic for its soldiers / mujahids are there to defend both Islam and Pakistan.

The textbooks also romanticize this aspect by selecting such personalities from Islamic

history who have been quite prominent regarding Jihad (see lesson Hazrat Khalid bin

Waleed (RA) in PTB English 9, p. 8)

It will be useful to quote from Rahman (2002b) here to summarize the points raised

above. According to him, ‘the state uses the emotive power of religion, patriotism, and

romanticized history to create a Pakistani identity which supersedes kinship, regional or

ethnic identities’ (p, 519). It can be safely argued that mostly the contents in the PTB

textbooks about Islam, history, Jihad, social and cultural events are directly or indirectly

related to Pakistan. Contents that can connect the learners with the outer world are rarely

found. This aspect again presents Pakistan as the only world for the students from the

government and non-elite schools. Therefore, we find that these students are much more

nationalistic than the elite-schools students.

Such a focus on Pakistan is not much found in the OUP textbooks. We see that the

nationalistic contents and the themes they carry in the PTB textbooks are different from

those in the OUP textbooks to a great extent not only in quantity but also in quality as

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mentioned above. The following lines have been taken from a poem entitled ‘Buy My

Flag’ (OUP 2: 31-2):

Fourteenth of August.

A tribute to the boy who

Still sees the glamour of the flag

Through hard metal and

Eternally turning wheels,

Through dust and gas and grime,

Through choking fumes,

Exhausted.

Green and white, star-studded

Flags of independence

Fluttering like bunches of

Meaningless market wares.

Green and white, the colour of

Summer grass and jasmine,

Trees and icy river-foam,

Purity and peace

Contorted into someone else’s

Dream of grasping a ten rupee note.

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Buy my flag! Buy my flag!

So that I can pull myself out of

Searing flames of engine heat

And hellish, gnawing need,

So I can cool my face,

Hide from the heavy weight

Of the immovable sun,

Retreat into some silent,

Full-stomached sleep

In a country of my own.

This poem consists of three stanzas. In the first stanza, the date ‘Fourteenth of August’ is

the day when Pakistan came into existence. However, the poem neither mentions the

background or history of this date nor does it tell its importance. Rather the date has been

used to provide a certain context in which a boy is out of his home holding flags in his

hands.

The underlying theme in the first two lines of the first stanza is quite opposed to the one

present in the PTB textbooks. There, the students are strongly urged to remember and

celebrate the national days every year – independence celebration is a norm. Here, the

boy’s act of holding flags has been regarded as a surprise as the word ‘Still’ conveys to

us. Its usage is quite connotative. Had it been removed, we would have a positive image

of the boy. The lines represent him as a deviant from the norm – a vast majority of people

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who do not see glamour in it. The rest of the lines raise a number of questions about the

boy’s own status: (a) Is the boy a real patriot who being out in a hot weather still

celebrates and sees glamour in the flag? (b) Is the boy a poor flag-seller who still expects

people will buy his flags? Answers to these questions if found in the next lines (in the

third stanza) of the poem can indeed expose to us the major theme of the poem.

In the first four lines of the second stanza, the green flags containing stars represent

independence. However, at the same time, considering them like ‘Fluttering like bunches

of meaningless market wares’ does not create a positive image either of independence or

of the flags held by the boy. Moreover, the whole stanza does not come up with what the

green colour and star in the flag really symbolize in the Pakistani context i.e. green colour

represents majority, white colour represents minority – Muslims and non-Muslims in

Pakistan respectively – and star represents brightness. Contrary to it, the poem comes up

with their worldly representations i.e. green and white colours stand for purity and peace

respectively. Thus the OUP textbooks do not explain the Pakistani symbols such as flag

purely in the Pakistani context. In this way, they seem to connect their readers with the

world instead of Pakistan.

The last two lines of the second stanza put forward a philosophical view of ‘purity and

peace’ which may have different implications for different persons in different situations.

For instance, the full-stomached may perceive independence as a source of purity and

peace; however, at the same time, the empty-stomached may regard it as a ‘Dream of

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grasping a ten rupee note.’ Simply, getting rid of hunger is more important for them (the

poor) than celebrating independence.

The very first line of the third stanza i.e. ‘Buy my flag! Buy my flag!’ clarifies the social

status of the boy – flag seller – and thus poverty becomes a more dominant theme in the

poem than patriotism. Some of the phrases such as ‘searing flames’, ‘hellish, gnawing

need’, ‘heavy weight’ and ‘immovable sun’ reflect a critical situation of the poverty-

stricken people like this boy in Pakistan. Moreover, this pitiable situation also indirectly

creates a negative image of the country the boy is living in. Rather the last line may be

regarded as quite ironical – he cannot have a ‘Full-stomached sleep’ even in his own

country.

In this poem, the theme of patriotism may rightly be regarded as secondary to poverty in

the poem. A number of instances in the poem such as mentioning the date of fourteenth

August, regarding flag as the symbol of independence, and finally regarding the colours

of the flag as symbols of purity and peace are likely to inculcate the students with the

feelings of patriotism.

I would like to conclude my discussion by saying that both the PTB and OUP textbooks

are different from each other to a certain degree regarding the dissemination of

nationalism and patriotism. The former ones contain more nationalistic contents than the

latter ones. Similarly, the choice of certain words such as ‘the most remarkable days’ and

‘greatness’ for the national days, ‘great’ for the Quaid and ‘separate homeland’ for

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Pakistan show a great emphasis on the inculcation of nationalism and patriotism into the

readers of the PTB textbooks. Quite importantly, the dominant theme in all of the

nationalistic contents in the PTB textbooks is nationalism and patriotism. On the other

hand, nationalism or patriotism is not a dominant theme in the nationalistic contents in

the OUP textbooks. That is why, the results in the questionnaire (see chapter seven) show

that the students from the government and non-elite schools are much more nationalistic

or patriotic than their counterparts from the elite schools.

The competing discourses of the two textbooks may lead to systematic and planned

bifurcation in the worldviews of the learners. The PTB learners are raised on a staple diet

of Islamic, nationalist discourses with a high premium placed on martyrdom; hence they

tend to be oblivious like ostriches to the real issues confronting Pakistan. Whereas the

discourses in OUP textbooks representations are not only secular, they often tend to view

Pakistan from an outsider’s perspective too, since most of the lessons are written by

foreign writers.

4.6) Us and Them

The presence and reinforcement of particular identities in the textbooks function not only

to distinguish but also distance one from the others either on religious or geographical,

social or cultural, ethnic or racial basis; hence, it is a social creation of distinctions,

distances and alienations such as ‘this is mine’, ‘that is yours or theirs’, ‘I am this’ and

‘you or they are that’. The textbooks under analysis do not emphasize much upon

differences lying between the social and ethnic groups in Pakistan. Rather they intend to

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suppress the differences and reinforce the similarities to create only one identity i.e.

Islamic identity, against the other i.e. Hindu identity. It is attained by repeating a few

basic messages in the textbooks as follows. The lesson is ‘The Great Leader: Quaid-e-

Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’ (PTB English 10, 2006, pp. 93-97).

In all these things our outlook is not only fundamentally different but it is

opposed to the Hindus.

‘Outlook’ has been defined as ‘general attitude towards life and the world’ (Longman

Dictionary of Contemporary English (1995, p. 1005-6). Not surprisingly, the Muslims

and the Hindus look at life and the world differently like all other social communities of

the world. However what catches our immediate attention are the use of ‘fundamentally’

and ‘opposed’ in the sentence; hence, what becomes now is ‘(the Hindus are)

fundamentally different and opposed (to us)’. It indicates not only the intensity of

distance and difference but also the element of enmity between (only) these two nations –

other nations are excluded from this realm of relationship.

There is nothing in life that links us together.

The message has been intensified more through the metaphorical use of ‘link us’. It

presents both the Muslims and the Hindus as inanimate objects, as they cannot move

themselves to join each other. It again emphasizes upon the high degree of difference,

distance and coldness between them. Moreover, ‘nothing in life’ implies that nothing is

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common (between us) to bring us close which, as indicates the word ‘life’, further implies

‘even not the relation of being human beings’. The next sentences come up with the

elaboration of these differences:

Our names, our clothes, our food, our festivals, our rituals, they are all

different.

The book mentions our things that differ with the Hindu culture; not theirs that differ

with us. The inclusion of our things indicates emphasis and exclusion of their things

indicates de-emphasis. Moreover, it does not mention the way/s they differ with the other

culture. The things included are material (clothes and food) and abstract (names, festivals

and rituals). So the Muslims are different from their counterparts physically as well as

spiritually – in appearances and ideas – obviously then the practices they perform within

the festivals and rituals are to be different automatically.

Our economic life, our educational ideas, our treatment of women, our

attitude to animals, our humanitarian considerations are all very different.

The lines here widen the gulf between the Muslims and the Hindus. All the differences

mentioned above are of abstract type. It suggests a different worldview. In other words,

they think, learn, act, and behave very differently in keeping with their two extremely

different worldviews. And then, to crown it all, the regular occurrence of the possessive

pronoun ‘our’ intensifies the whole theme of the extract. Firstly, it overtly declares us

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(Muslims / Pakistanis) from head to toe a different nation but covertly it constructs us as

the norm: a human species who are far better than the Hindus. And secondly, it implies

that our things are ours, their things are theirs – nothing can be connected and shared

(Zubair and Yaqoob, 2008, p. 175).

Along with the Hindus, we also find the negative description of the British though not as

explicit as of the Hindus in the same lesson.

The motto of the Quaid, “Unity, Faith, Discipline” enabled the Muslims to

achieve their goal against the combined and staunch opposition of the British

Rule and the Hindu Majority.

To free the Muslims from the British and Hindu rule, he worked hard day and

night, despite his failing health.

Unlike the previous instances, the lines do not focus upon the differences between us, the

Muslims and the British. However, they do represent them as the others or outgroup like

the Hindus on the basis of their opposition along with the Hindus to the struggle of the

Muslims of the sub-continent ‘to achieve their goal’ i.e. Pakistan. Therefore, it can be

safely assumed that the lines regard them not as much different from us as the Hindus

are, however, consider them equal to the Hindus in enmity against us – both are our

enemies. Further, the phrase ‘staunch opposition’ presents them as our staunch (worst)

enemies. One more difference as indicated by the phrase ‘the British Rule and the Hindu

Majority’ between the two enemies lies at the level of power – one has the power of rule

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(government) and the other one has the power of being in majority. Then what unites

them or their powers against the Muslims is their common intention (i.e. do not free the

Muslims). The textbooks thus present both of them (the enemies) as captors and us (the

Muslims) as captives and, therefore, it was incumbent upon the leaders especially the

Quaid to realize the gravity of the situation and make all-out efforts to free the Muslims.

Moreover, freedom from the British and Hindu rule has been equated with the

achievement of Pakistan. This means that the biggest hindrance in the way to achieving

Pakistan were the British and the Hindus.

This in-group and out-group representation has shown profound effects on the learners’

worldview. The majority of the students particular from the government and non-elite

schools students regard the Hindus and the Christians as their enemies in the

questionnaire. The case in the elite schools is different. Most of their students do not

regard them as their enemies. The reason for it is quite obvious i.e. the OUP textbooks do

not portray the Hindus and the Christians as the enemies of the Muslims. However, this

does not mean that these books are free from any positive in-group and negative out-

group representation. In fact, the difference between both the textbooks lies in the way

they deal with the themes related to us-and-them representation. Unlike the PTB

textbooks, the OUP textbooks do not represent the others as enemies; however, they do

create a negative image of others through a negative description of the things related to

them, for instance, culture, education, places and so on. It is worth mentioning that the

Pakistanis and the Blacks have been predominantly dealt with as others; and, the present

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research therefore reasonably focuses only on these two races’ negative representation in

these textbooks.

The following instances have been taken from the lesson ‘Black Boy’ (OUP 1: 159-60):

The shop was always crowded with black men and women pawing over cheap

suits and dresses. And they paid whatever price the white man asked.

The boss, his son and the clerk treated the Negroes with open contempt,

pushing, kicking or slapping them.

We find in these lines two races of people quite opposed to each other. The difference has

been developed in many aspects: physical, financial and facial. The so-called black

people have been portrayed physically helpless and weak in the third and second line

where three white men (the boss, his son and their clerk) treated them ‘with open

contempt, pushing and kicking or slapping them’ and the black people had to pay

‘whatever price the white men asked’. Secondly, the first line that shows the black people

‘pawing over cheap suits and dresses’ presents them as financially weak. The same can

also be inferred from ‘The shop was always crowded with black men and women…’ that

they cannot afford to go to other shops to buy expensive clothes. Finally, naming or

calling someone ‘black’ after his or her colour implies s/he is not one of us; hence,

negative out-group representation. To crown this all, the use of the word ‘pawing’ for the

black men and women presents them as animals.

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Contrary to this all, the same sentences implicitly portray the white men strong, rich and

powerful. For instance, the white men are rich for they own the shop; they are strong for

they push, kick and slap the black men; and they are beautiful for they have white

complexion. The lesson also contains some hidden racial differences for which the

readers will have to read between the lines. I mean we should also see what images

‘black’ and ‘white’ as colours convey. Black stands for ‘ugliness’, ‘darkness’, ‘evil’,

‘mourning’, ‘death’, ‘impurity’, ‘illegality’, ‘sadness/grief’, ‘gloom’, ‘hatred’,

‘untidiness’, ‘anger’; whereas the white colour stands for ‘innocence’, ‘peace’, ‘light’,

‘cleanliness’, ‘beauty’, ‘simplicity’, ‘purity’, ‘chastity’, ‘legality’ etc. We see that the

word ‘black’ not only points towards the colour but also to many other socially

constructed concepts attached with it. They all combine to create an extremely negative

image of the Afro-Caribbean people in a stark contrast to what is created by the word

‘white’ for the white people. In other words, it is the creation of distance – us and them –

through discourse between the two races.

Apart from distinguishing the two races in terms of their skin-colours, there are also some

other ideological social constructions that denote negative representation of the other in

the textbook.

Wanna drink, boy?

‘Yes, sir’.

‘Nigger…’Ain’t you learned to say sir to a white man yet?’

‘Aw, leave the bastard alone.

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‘Well, walk, you black sonofa – ’

The words ‘Nigger’ and ‘black’ have been used to address a boy from a particular race in

a way as they are his identities opposed to ours. Where the words ‘boy’, ‘bastard’ and

‘sonofa’ degrade or attach negative attributions with his identity, they also indicate the

white men’s derogatory attitude towards an Afro-Caribbean boy. Verkuyten (2005)

observes that ‘Discrimination in society is something people talk about, and it is the way

in which it is talked about that performs a variety of social functions, with different social

consequences’ (p. 67).

The purpose of the construction of such our-and-their identities through discourses seems

not only to distinguish one race from the other but also creates the difference of status

and position on the basis of attributions attached to them in a society. Moreover, these

identities offer certain limitations as well as liberties to different races regarding social

functions. For instance, the identities such as ‘Negro’ and ‘Nigger’ are not likely to give

much freedom and authority to the Afro-Caribbean race to call themselves ‘White’ or pay

back the White’s inhuman treatment in the same coin as described above. Thus discourse

imparts different degrees of power to different races by constructing their social identities

on the basis of us and them. These identities are (abstract) boundaries for they

simultaneously declare certain social functions as taboos to one race and non-taboos to

the other.

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The categories of backgrounding and foregrounding can help us compare the two races in

terms of representation. Generally, negative out-group representation declares the others

as inferior in the foreground and declares us superior in the background in the lines

mentioned above. The textbooks give the same ideologically unbalanced representation

to other races as well, for instance, the Pakistanis or Pakistan and the Indians or India (see

lesson 3 in unit 1 in OUP 1 and lesson 5 in unit 2 in OUP 2 respectively). Historically,

Britain colonized the sub-continent from 1857 to 1947 and during that time the British

government not only demeaned the culture of the Muslims and the Hindus but also

excluded it to a certain extent from the textbooks. The British textbooks presented its

culture as ‘the superior’ and the other cultures as ‘the inferior’. Even after the

independence on 14th August 1947, the residue of this ideology has not been examined

critically enough in the study of education. To date, this ideology is so deeply embedded

in Pakistani conceptions that it is considered to be natural in everyday life.

In the following instances, we may clearly observe how the textbooks implicitly construct

a dominant ideology about Pakistan through their representations.

The universities here are good, but there is nothing like a foreign education.

All my friends have sent their children abroad and they come back during

their holidays, full educated, wearing such nice-nice clothes. It is such a

pleasure to see them acting all cultured. (OUP 2: 56)

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As mentioned in the lesson, here is a Pakistani mother comparing Pakistan and England

in the field of education. Though the Pakistani universities have been apparently

acknowledged in these lines, they stand nowhere before the English ones in comparison –

the latter one dominates the former one completely in providing quality and standard

education to people as implied by the noun-phrase ‘nothing like a foreign education’.

Similarly, regarding the output of education, foreign education outdoes the indigenous

(Pakistani) one in imparting civilized manners to people regarding clothing and

behaviour. In short, the universities in Pakistan lacks in two things: partially in providing

quality education and completely in imparting cultured manners.

We must not neglect some of the presuppositions here: the Pakistani universities can in

no way compete with the foreign ones; people do not wish to educate their children in

Pakistan; education in Pakistan has no standard; and the educated Pakistanis are not well-

read and cultured. The word ‘cultured’ has been used quite connotatively and, therefore,

needs our attention. Firstly, it seems to be used for the ideas, beliefs, or customs of a

particular society i.e. English. Secondly, it also seems to be used for (English) art, music,

literature etc. As a matter of fact, more than the latter one – knowledge, it is the former

one – practices – that have been appreciated in the lines. Thus the English culture, or let

me call it English life style, has been shown dominating the indigenous one.

‘In fact, most of the students who are rich enough to go abroad and study

don’t even return. They get fancy jobs and say to themselves, ‘‘Oh, how can

we return to Pakistan, that hell-hole, where we can’t go to cafes and the

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cinema, where there are no bookshops and the streets aren’t paved.’’ (OUP 2:

60)

In the previous lines, most of the words refer to England to create a positive image of her

in the foreground and a negative one of Pakistan in the background. Conversely, in the

present lines, mostly the words refer to Pakistan to create a strongly negative image of

her in the foreground and a strongly positive image of England in the background. A

number of points simultaneously create a positive and a negative image of England and

Pakistan respectively. For instance, people wish to go abroad and do not want to return to

Pakistan; they are able to get better jobs in England than they can have in Pakistan; and

as compared to Pakistan, they have more everyday-life facilities in England; hence, the

people have been shown so fed up with Pakistan that those who can afford going abroad

do avail this opportunity – everyone is waiting for a chance.

Moreover, ‘hell-hole’ has been used as a metaphor for Pakistan – Pakistan is a hole of

hell. In contrast to it, it must be assumed that England or West is a heaven-hole. To be

exact, Pakistan has been presented as a hell and England or West as a heaven. Thus the

image created is that Pakistan is a damned and unbearable place where people do not

wish to live in and even those who do, are living a miserable life. Though the lines

apparently mention a few demerits of Pakistan (that we have discussed above) yet the

ideological use of the metaphor ‘hell-hole’ (for Pakistan) leaves the other unmentioned or

unlimited possibilities of negative images associated with hell-hole, to the imagination of

the readers to visualize at will.

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What we perceive from the above-mentioned lines is the image of a developing,

dependent and dominated Pakistan. It will not be wrong to point out that the previous

instances reflect a social dominance whereas the present lines reflect an economic

dominance of England or the West over Pakistan. Social dominance has been conveyed

in two ways: firstly, the Pakistanis practise the English culture and, secondly, England

offer more social liberty to her citizens than Pakistan. I have raised the latter point

because the words ‘…where we can’t go to cafes and the cinema…’ imply that the people

in Pakistan are not allowed to go to such entertainment centres or going to cafes and

cinemas is somewhat like a social taboo. Finally, the economic dominance of England

has been implied by the implication that England is economically strong enough to

provide such basic facilities of life to its citizens which Pakistan cannot.

The dominance of England or the West over Pakistan has not been conveyed only in the

social and economic fields, it has also been done through the description of certain

characters and places in the textbooks. The English men have been shown more skilled,

brave, educated than the Pakistanis. Similarly, the Pakistani places have not been

described positively. They have been depicted as dirty, filthy, chaotic etc. We may

observe this aspect in the following examples.

The stooping figure of my mother…was the last I saw of my country home as I

left it to discover the world. (OUP 1: 3)

…despite handicaps women like Angelica Kauffmann in the eighteenth

century, Mary Cassatt, Marie Laurencin, Georgia O’ Keefe, Laura Knight

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and Ethel Walker in the nineteenth and twentieth, besides many hundreds less

well-known who have shown their works in exhibitions in every capital of the

world, have demonstrated their abilities as artists. (OUP 2: 94)

Few people have entered the centre of a thunderstorm unprotected, and lived

to tell of it. One of them was a US pilot, William H. Rankin, a decorated

veteran of two wars. (OUP 1: 60)

Captain MacWhirr could catch a desolate glimpse of a few tiny specks black

as ebony, the tops of the hatches, the battened companions, the heads of the

covered winches, the foot of a mast. (OUP 1: 66)

British Olympic rower Matthew Pinsent had a scare on Friday when his gold

medal and briefcase went missing at the Heathrow Airport. (OUP 1: 73)

The English characters may clearly be seen occupying different high positions or

professions of social life and the abilities required for them. They have been presented as

‘artists’, ‘pilot’, ‘captain’, ‘Olympic rower’ and many more (in the textbooks). Though

not all the English characters occupy high social positions in the textbooks as some

characters do occupy low positions as well yet their percentage of occupying such (high)

positions is quite higher than the other Pakistani or Indian characters that do not possess

even a single such position .Similarly, the former ones are lower in number than the latter

ones in occupying low positions in the textbooks.

It may be argued that the Pakistani learners are likely to take these ideological

representations for granted. They are expected to automatically think of the English men

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as more brave, skilled, intelligent, hardworking and professional than themselves. To be

exact, we are completely dominated and they are completely dominant. This is what we

call the hidden and discursive ideologies of the textbooks. We may now look at how the

Pakistanis and the Indians have been represented in the textbooks.

What action had the police taken when the bakery in Sakinaka, where he

(Yasin (a Muslim)) had worked, had been set on fire? (OUP 2: 34-5)

The watchman (an Indian) stood on the tank bund and took a final survey.

(OUP 2: 76)

Her (mother’s) grandparents, like my father’s, had been conscripted for the

British colonial sugar armies in 1985…My mother…had been kept waiting in

a queue for ‘Illiterates’. (OUP 1: 7)

Two miles short of Pir Pindo the cart-driver (Imam Din) prods us awake with

his whip. (OUP 1: 74)

His (a Pakistani weaver’s) fingers blunt with wool

labour at the ancient contraption

to the scurry of a rat. (OUP 1: 95)

There were master craftsmen in Lahore who specialized in making different

varieties of kites. I can still recall the names of famous kite masters: Pahlwan,

Rato and Khushia. (OUP 1: 132)

Unlike the English persons, the Pakistani and the Indian ones occupy here such social

positions or professions as are low in dominance and value. For instance, they have been

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shown as baker, watchman, soldiers in the British army, illiterate, cart-driver, weaver and

kite-makers. Moreover, in the previous instances, all the persons except the first one have

been mentioned with their names but here half of the Pakistani and Indian persons i.e.

three out of six, have not been named. It seems that they have not been considered

important enough to be named, and their personal identity is of lesser significance than

their professional identity in the social hierarchy. We can also say that the textbooks

have consciously avoided giving them a personalized identity to create a weak image of

the low-paid professions. This interpretation is further strengthened by the fact that both

the textbooks do not contain even a single name of any famous personality of Pakistan

and India.

It is important to note that certain professions require certain abilities. Therefore, it is

natural to think that persons representing high professions are likely to have higher

abilities than those having low professions. Similarly, the former ones are likely to outdo

the latter ones in performance. The textbooks show the Pakistanis and the Indians

representing petty professions to construct a poor image of them and their abilities – they

are less intelligent, competent and skilled than the English persons – the English men

thus dominate them in positions, professions and abilities.

In the next instances, we may see that dominance is also constructed through a positive

and negative description of places / cities.

A social canvas in some dusty book,

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The hidden secrets of a nation in pain.

We are driving through the streets of Karachi. (OUP 1: 26)

Filthy with dust, exhausted, we roll into Wagah, a village halfway to Amritsar.

(OUP 1: 74)

There had been riots in the city for the last four days…Bombay was

overflowing with hot news and hot blood… (OUP 2: 33)

The lines describe Karachi (a city of Pakistan), Wagah (a village of India) and Bombay (a

city of India) in a certain way. Certain adjectives and nouns such as ‘dusty book’, ‘hidden

secrets’ and ‘pain’ (in the first sentence), ‘filthy’ and ‘dust’ (in the second sentence) and

‘riots’ and ‘hot blood’ (in the third sentence) have been used to describe the places in a

way that implicitly construct a negative image of the two countries. In the last instance,

we can observe that the textbooks refer to a violent situation of a city (Bombay) to show

the country (India) in a complete turmoil. Thus as these cities represent Pakistan and

India, the images constructed about them also refer to their respective countries.

In contrast to it, the description of the Western places is quite positive.

Months of restless unease, leading to this inevitable moment, had been spent

wandering about the hills, mournfully whistling, and watching the high open

fields stepping away eastwards under gigantic clouds…And now I was on my

journey…Naturally, I was going to London…(OUP 1: 3)

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Happy childhood summers were spent at grandmother’s ivy-covered house in

the hills near the city of Cork in South-west Ireland. (OUP 2: 48)

Unlike the Pakistani and the Indian places, here London and the city of Cork in South-

west Ireland have been regarded as worth living. It may clearly be assumed from the

somewhat poetic description of one’s impatient longing for the journey to England. The

tranquility, peace, natural serenity, and calmness present in the second line are not found

in the previous instances. What we found there is a dirty, filthy, and violent picture of the

two countries that claimed them to be not worth living.

I may conclude my discussion by saying that the ‘O’ Level textbooks contain certain

ideological representations. These representations implicitly reinforce and maintain the

dominance of the West over Pakistan and India by constructing an image of superiority

and inferiority respectively. The Western places, people, their professional abilities and

skills have been represented in such ways as seem to be superior to or dominating the

other (Pakistani and Indian) ones. Their presence in the books being taught in the

Pakistani schools is indeed to make the learners cherish the Western things – the superior

ones – and distance themselves from their indigenous ones – the inferior ones. The

influence of this ideology on the elite-class learners’ perception can be observed well in

the statistical results where majority of them have shown a preference for living in the

Western countries (see chapter seven).

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4.7) Status of English

The OUP and PTB English textbooks describe English as the most important language

though in their own styles. The former ones openly regard English as a matter of survival

whereas the latter ones implicitly consider it important for success. Ideologically, more

than a means of communication it has been introduced as a means of power, superiority,

modernity and success through different arguments. For example, in the following

extracts from the lesson ‘The Signature’ (OUP 1: 7-10), English has been introduced as a

way of life.

My mother did not think that the old language would help her children

survive in the new ways of the modern world.

The sentence raises a number of points that indirectly speak volumes about the value of

English in the world. Though the name of the language i.e. English has not been

mentioned in these lines yet the context and the noun phrase ‘the old language’ being

used against the background of another language – the new language – implicitly informs

about its presence. The value of English has been conveyed to the readers through a

touchy, caring and loving attitude of a mother. Moreover, the word ‘mother’ also

indicates the age and experience of a woman. In other words, a woman who is mother is

appreciably expected to make a right choice about her children’s future due to her vast

experiences of life.

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It would be better to look at some presuppositions and assumptions before exploring the

underlying ideology of the sentence. The whole sentence presupposes that his (the

writer’s) mother thought that the new language would help her children survive in the

new ways of the modern world. Then ‘…the old language would (not) help her children

survive in the new ways of the modern world’ presupposes that the old language could

help her children survive in the old ways of the old world. Similarly, we can also observe

three existential assumptions in the sentence: firstly, there is a new language in the world;

secondly, there is a modern world; and finally, there is life and existence. Hence, the

under lying message is to feel the presence of a new language in the world for life and

existence (survival).

Keeping all of these assumptions and presuppositions, we can argue that the English

language has been approved because it brings survival for the fittest –the ones who

discard old languages and opt for English. Thus making a choice about a language is a

matter of life and death. This is what the line seems to convey. Relating English to

survival indicates that the old language being unable to cope with the modern trends leads

to death. Similarly, as ‘the new ways’ have set in ‘the modern world’, the old language

and the old ways (values, traditions, ideas etc) must be regarded as ‘gone are the days’ –

the new generation must discard them. Compared to it, English has been presented as the

only (successful) language of the modern world. In short, the underlying ideology of the

lesson or line is to say ‘good bye’ to old language, old world and ways and say

‘welcome’ to the new world. In this regard, English is the only way that can lead to the

new world.

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Introducing English as new and modern should also be seen as an effort to seek

hegemony and universalize its status – globalization. This situation is likely to spread not

only the language but also its worldview in the whole world – globalization is not limited

to language only. It is coming in every field whether education or profession, religion or

business. Therefore, the societies in the whole world are likely to accept the influence of

the globalization coming through language in almost every field of life. This is of course

an ideological work of English and it will continue until or unless the indigenous

languages fail to understand that ‘…there is a relative autonomy for institutions,

communities, and subjects to work out alternative meanings, statuses, and uses for the

discourses intended to dominate them’ (Canagarajah 1999: 208).

What we have discussed so far especially about the approval and disapproval of the new

and the old language respectively is quite evident in the next line.

She knew that she had to choose the road to modernization and in us had

given up the old ways for everything English, which was the way of life.

As we have discussed earlier, here again, English has been presented as the only road to

‘modernization’. The word ‘road’ is, in fact, a metaphor for English. An analysis of this

metaphor can bring more insights into the assumed value of English. Though ‘road’ may

have different deeper meanings and connotations in different societies yet generally all of

us choose road in our journey for various reasons. For instance, the journey on road is

fast and secure for usually we do not face any hurdles and barriers on it. We go fast on

road because we usually wish to reach our destination in no time – road saves time.

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Similarly, we choose road for security in our journey not only for us but also for our

vehicles – road provides security. Then, road is also a symbol of progress, development

and prosperity. It is a symbol of strength, smoothness and symmetry as well. In short, the

purpose of comparing English to road in the textbook is to make the learners realize its

benefits as well as importance. Arguably, the implicit message over here is that progress,

survival, and power without English is out of question.

The mother is then shown making a right decision – choosing English for her children. In

order to get maximum benefits from it she did not let the old language and its values

become a part of their minds. It means she regards them as quite opposed to English or at

least as barriers and hurdles in the way to English. Moreover, she has become ready to

part from the old language and values for she finds only English as a way of life and a

code of life. Moreover, the new and modern world exists along with different challenges

and demands and all of these are totally different from the old world. In this regard, only

a modern language like English can help us meet these modern challenges and demands.

The use of some of the noun phrases such as ‘the old language’ and ‘the old ways’ is

quite connotative and ambiguous. It is because the lesson does not mention them by

name. One may think of Latin that precedes English. However, the others may argue that

as the lines present English to have emerged in the world as a new, modern and superior

language; therefore, all other languages and cultures that come in its way are old and

inferior. In simple words, English and its culture are superior to all other languages and

cultures of the world.

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It is important to note that the OUP textbooks put much emphasis not only upon the

learning of English but also upon the culture embedded in it. It means both the

phenomena are equally important and, therefore, focusing on either one is not likely to

bring the desired results. They need both the language and its culture in order to cope

with the modern world. Being not simplistic, it also means that the textbooks intend to

bring not partial but a complete change in the learners’ behaviour as well as cognition.

Obviously, the output of these textbooks will be such products in the elite schools who

are Western in nature and behaviour to a great extent and this is what the present research

brings out. This reminds of Macaulay’s minute on education (1835): the teaching of

English in India under the British Raj! Truly, the policies have not changed at all. During

the Raj, the British used English to further their imperialistic ambition, similarly in

today’s Pakistan the legacy continues through the anglicized elite. Macaulay wanted to

produce a class of Indians who were Indian by birth and race but English in tastes to

govern the masses, and to ensure the smooth functioning of the British administration

through a bureaucracy trained in English.

On the other hand, the PTB textbooks emphasize only the learning of English as a

language. They are nothing to do with the English culture as discussed in the section of

‘Representation of Cultures’. Though, unlike the OUP textbooks, we do not find enough

material (both in quality and quantity) related to importance of English in these

textbooks, the following instances and the status of English as a compulsory and official

language of the country should be enough to assume the importance of English in

Pakistan. These lines have been taken from the lesson ‘Letter Writing’ (PTB 10: 73).

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I feel very happy to inform you (father) that my performance in the paper of

English was very good.

This line has been taken from a letter written by a daughter to her father telling him about

her performance in the paper of English. Writing someone about your performance in

English is itself evidence that English is a very important subject for you; most probably,

as much important as science subjects. Similarly, the parents keeping its importance in

mind expect their children to do equally well in the paper of English – English should not

be neglected. It may be reasonably argued that English has been considered more

important than any other subject in the letter for the writer writes only about English.

Moreover, the use of adverbs before adjectives with positive attributions in ‘feel(ing)

very happy’ and ‘very good (performance)’ does the same function. They convey high

satisfaction to the ones waiting anxiously to know about the English paper. The next lines

explain her performance.

I attempted all the questions and was able to finish writing the paper in time.

It is really a reward of the blessings of God, your prayers and my hard work

that I am hopeful of getting good marks.

She was able to perform well in the paper because she ‘attempted all the questions’,

‘finish(ed) writing…in time’ received ‘prayers’ and did “hard work’. The purpose of this

performance and, similarly, the parents’ expectation from her is only one i.e. ‘good

marks’. It should be important to see what benefits ‘good marks’ can bring in for one

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after the secondary examination in the Pakistani context: (a) they improve division /

grade (b) they help in securing admission in a good institute for further education (c) they

reflect that one is good at English. Now we are in a position to say that the government

and non-elite schools students in Pakistan learn English only for pragmatic purposes.

They have no aspirations for adopting its culture. This is because high division, high

degree, and proficiency in English help in finding good jobs. Thus the over all purpose of

making efforts to secure good marks in English is to be able to get a good job in the

future.

Interestingly, learning of English for survival in the world takes on different meanings for

different social classes. Mostly the lower and middle classes learn English to find jobs –

job is survival – whereas the elite class learns it to occupy the powerful positions and be

familiar with the Western culture to cope with the modern world being controlled by the

centre (West) – power is survival. Importantly, it is thus clear that both the PTB and OUP

textbooks present English as a thing must for survival. Importantly, apart from these

textbooks ideologies, English is portrayed as the language of science, technology, trade

and, above all, as a language of the world in Pakistan. It has become a dream of every

Pakistani to learn it and to attain a near-native or at least an adequate command of the

language. That is why the government and non-elite schools students in spite of being

likely to remain ever on the losing end because they cannot be as much proficient in

English as their counterparts from the elite schools are due to different reasons, cannot

help supporting it. The research shows (see questionnaire results in chapter seven) that

mostly all the three types of schools’ students do not agree with the abolition of English

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in the country. The students in the government, non-elite and elite schools with the

percentage of 74, 88 and 82 respectively favour English language teaching in the country.

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Chapter 5: CDA of Gender Representations

This chapter deals with the ideologies related to gender bias in the Punjab Textbook

Board (PTB) and Oxford University Press (OUP) English textbooks. It critically and

contrastively examines the representation of male and female characters in their

discourse. In the former textbooks, there is only one semiotic and, therefore, men and

women have mostly linguistic representation whereas, in the latter textbooks, they have

much linguistic as well as semiotic representation. However, I shall not deal with the

analysis of semiotic representation. This is because an effectively contrastive semiotic

analysis of gender representations in both the textbooks is not possible due to absence of

semiotics in the PTB textbooks. Regarding linguistic representation, unlike the previous

chapters, I have carried out both the qualitative and quantitative analyses to identify the

explicit and implicit ideologies about men’s and women’s roles in Pakistani society.

The reason for analyzing the discourse in these two paradigms – qualitative and

quantitative – is based on the fact that the analysis of textbooks from gender point of

view must not be confined to description only. Similarly, ‘the gender analysis of

textbooks is much more than just counting…’ (Leach, 2003, p. 104). There is another

reason for it as well – the material related to this theme is much more in quantity than that

related to other themes in the textbooks. Material related to most of the other themes has

been found only in particular lessons whereas this theme permeates all the textbooks

under examination. In this regard, the focus of the present research is on whether the

representation of both the sexes is equally positive or not. The advantage of this analysis

are twofold: we will be able to know (a) which ideologies each of the said textbooks

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carries for the male and female sexes; and (b) how do the textbooks vary in their

masculine and feminine ideologies?

The analysis of gender bias in the textbooks has been carried out in two parts:

(a) Qualitative analysis of discourse in the PTB and OUP English textbooks.

(b) Quantitative analysis of discourse in the PTB and OUP English textbooks.

This chapter deals with the qualitative analysis of gender bias in the PTB and OUP

English textbooks. It is important to mention that this chapter deals only with the implicit

gender ideologies.

Quantitative analysis of gender bias in the same textbooks has been carried out in the

next chapter i.e. sixth chapter, and that deals with the analysis of explicit instances of

ideologies related to gender. It employs some of the analytical tools/approaches discussed

in Leach (2003); i.e. ‘UNESCO: Gender Sensitivity: a training manual’ and ‘Obura:

Changing Images’ (pp. 105-8). It is important to mention that these approaches have been

used only for the quantitative analysis of gender bias. In other words, these approaches

deal with the numerical presence of the instances of gender bias in the textbooks under

examination. The objective of counting gender-biased instances is to strengthen our

findings in the qualitative analysis. Like qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis has

also been carried out at three levels: professional, social (actions) and attributive. That is,

professional level deals with the number of professions represented by each sex; social

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level deals with the number of actions represented by each sex; and attributive level deals

with the number of attributes associated with or represented by each sex.

The approaches used in quantitative analysis provide detailed check lists for analysis at

different levels. UNESCO’s checklist (cited in Leach, 2000, pp. 105-6) is based on

women’s self reliance. It is a mixture of questions that focus more on qualitative than

quantitative analysis of textbooks and story books only and, therefore, might not be

effectively used for science and mathematics books. These questions mostly revolve

around the representation of women against men in texts. Some questions are of a general

nature, for instance, on the appearance of textbook. The approach can be used by

curriculum developers, literacy facilitators and policy makers for purchase of school

textbooks. In order to use it more effectively, one has to adapt it according to the context

of analysis.

Obura: Changing Images is a more rigorous and detailed analytical framework. It is a

study of Arab, Chinese, Norwegian, and Ukranium textbooks sponsored by UNESCO.

Anna Obura employed her framework for the analysis of twenty-four Kenyan textbooks

of science, maths, languages, technical subjects, and social sciences used through the

eight grades of primary school in 1985 (cited in Leach, 2000, pp. 106-8). It can be

effectively used for both qualitative and quantitative gender analysis of longer as well as

shorter texts. It discusses a variety of gender issues that could range from the counting of

male and female characters to psychological traits and socio-political roles of both sexes

in texts. However, it fails to give an adequate account of attributes associated with men

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and women and the issue of power in socio-economic, professional, and psychological

relationship between men and women. In spite of this, it has been a very useful approach

for a quantitative analysis of gender bias in the present study.

Unlike the previous chapters where some themes are dominant in the PTB English

textbook and found less in the OUP English textbooks or the other way round, the theme

of gender bias is an issue, though in varying degree, in both the PTB and OUP English

textbooks. This finding strengthens the assumption that gender bias is neither a particular

social class’ issue nor a regional one. It is undoubtedly present in all societies in the

patriarchal world varying in degree. A clear proof of it are the OUP textbooks that can

reasonably be regarded as representatives of different societies such as Pakistani, British,

American, etc for their lessons come from different authors all over the world. Ironically

enough, the contents in these textbooks in spite of being close to modernity, Western

conceptions of life and world, are replete with instances of gender bias or discrimination.

On the other hand, the PTB textbooks as a whole represent the Pakistani society. It

includes mostly religious, national and cultural events and practices to inculcate

nationalistic, cultural and religious fervour into the learners. However, this does not mean

that these textbooks are free from gender bias. Just like the OUP textbooks, the female

sex is also a victim of discrimination in these textbooks.

5.1) Qualitative Analysis

In this chapter, as mentioned just above, I carry out a qualitative analysis of gender bias

embedded in linguistic discourses in both the PTB and OUP English textbooks. Analysts

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may detect gender bias in texts from different angles quite effectively. This chapter is an

effort to critically analyze the discourse of the above-mentioned textbooks to explore the

instances of gender bias from the angle of representation. That is, how the textbooks

attach a sense of superiority and inferiority, dominance and subservience, and

independence and dependence to male and female sexes respectively through positive

and negative representation of male and female characters in contents before the young

learners. This in-group and out-group representation, in case if we look at men and

women as two social groups, is materialized in a number of ways to ‘have an impact on

perception’ of the learners (Wareing 2004, p. 76):

(a) via professions, where men occupy higher positions than women;

(b) via social roles, where women’s have been more stereotypical than men’s;

(c) via attributions, where positive attributions are mostly attached with the male sex;

(d) via role models, where male personalities outdo the females ones in power,

strength and identity.

5.1.1) Change Strange!

I shall like to start my analysis with two lessons – one in each series of the textbooks –

that, unlike past, shows a break with the past traditions. In the past, a considerable part of

the PTB English textbooks was not devoted to women. They were mostly silent about the

women’s achievements, writings and contributions. This does not mean that they are very

vocal today as we will see below in our analysis of both the PTB and OUP English

textbooks. However, admittedly, the things are changing though slowly and gradually.

We may find instances, though still not equal to men, in the textbooks where women’s

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representation is quite positive. For instance, they represent positive attributes; work out

of their homes; do jobs with men; work with men on equal basis; raise voice for their

rights; act as leading characters (in the lessons); play all types of games – including those

mostly played by men – and many more. In short, the textbook discourses have at least

started showing women’s break with their stereotypical social roles.

An important point regarding this upcoming change is that it does not support the female

sex fully. The instances of it can be found in two lessons ‘Women Arise’ and ‘Creative

Women’. The former lesson is in PTB textbooks (Book 9, page 39) and the latter is in

OUP textbooks (Book 2, page 93). Both the lessons represent women with highly social

roles, and high in abilities and dominance in a stark contrast to what we find in the rest of

these textbooks. For a lay person or a learner these lessons may be quite positive

regarding gender. But, in reality, they are a negative-positive representation of the female

sex. It should not be wrong to assume their inclusion in the textbooks as a result of the

pressure exerted upon them by the feminist movement or demand of the centre. Only two

lessons in four textbooks (PTB 9 & 10 and OUP 1 & 2) equalling women with men also

indicate some reluctance the patriarchal society still has in granting equal rights to female

sex. The PTB textbooks read

…the women of our country are making their way into the national stream of

progress. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 13-14)

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With the going economic pressure, the income of a single member is not

enough to all family members…women are, therefore, keen to find means of

adding to their family income. (PTB 9, p. 38 & 39, l. 7-11)

Some energetic young girls have also joined the police force. (PTB 9, p. 39, l.

28-29)

The first sentence presupposes that our women were not making their way into the

national stream of progress in the past – it excludes or at least downplays their past roles

– whereas the reality is that Muslim women in the Subcontinent played a very important

role in realizing the dream of Pakistan and after its existence as well. However, the

second sentence disconnects women from the national stream of progress and describes

the overall purpose of their ‘making their way’ – doing jobs – is to serve the family. This

implicitly adds something to the roles of women at home i.e. they are not only to be a

house wives (before going to work and after coming from work) but also bread-earners. It

is also a kind of message for the young female learners that the Pakistani women have

started coming out of their houses and so they will have to do in order to meet the

economic pressure which is going up due to inflation, population, illiteracy and so on.

The message must also be seen as some sort of a political covering on the government’s

failure in controlling the economic pressure upon the people.

The noun phrase ‘the women of our country’ also presupposes that, unlike our women,

other women in the world do not play their part in the national progress. In other words,

the participation of our women in the national progress has been indigenized rather than

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universalized. This again in fact like the previous presupposition down plays their

contribution to the nation.

In the last sentence, the profession of police has been presented as demanding and

challenging. Therefore, those (some energetic young girls) who join are energetic, bold

and vigorous and those who do not join are not. Very simply, those who will join the

police department will stand out among the ordinary women. It is a kind of rhetoric used

to persuade women to join this field and work with men. Therefore, the sentence actually

not intends to represent women positively rather it seems to urge them opt this field. The

same noun-phrase ‘some energetic young girls’ also justifies this point. It points towards

a less strength of women stepping into this field. Along with this, it is also important to

mention that both the textbooks do not use such wording for those men who serve in the

department of police and army. In this context, it can be safely assumed that the learners

whether male or female are likely to regard these departments as for-men-only or at least

mostly-for-men. Moreover, the use of ‘young girls’ instead of ‘young women’ is

politically incorrect. It creates a negative impression about the female sex as it sounds

like inexperienced, under-age and immature.

Similar is the case in the OUP English textbooks. The contents apparently represent

women with positive signs in the lesson ‘Creative Women’ but a careful discourse

analysis can show the things going the other way round. The following extract mentions a

number of names of the outstanding female artists in the world.

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…handicaps women like Angelica Kauffmann in the eighteenth century, Mary

Cassatt, Marie Laurencin, Georgia O’ Keefa, Laura Knight and Ethel Walker

in the nineteenth and twentieth century…have shown their works in

exhibitions in every capital of the world, have demonstrated their abilities as

artists. (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 46-52)

Interestingly, the textbooks introduce them as worldly artists; mention their full names

and the time when they exhibited their abilities via art. However, they do not contain a

single word about their art, style, and messages to the world through art – a nominal

representation. This is quite opposed to what we see in the descriptions related to men,

for instance, the Holy Prophet (SAW), Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA), Quaid-e-Azam in

the PTB textbooks and Shakespeare and Nelson Mandela etc. in the OUP textbooks. The

exclusion of female artists’ work means not to acknowledge their work fully. This

phenomenon in any form goes on in the whole lesson.

Women novelists in the last century and a half have been outstanding. (OUP 2,

p. 94, l. 53-54)

In this second instance, we find women novelists acknowledged as ‘outstanding’ but their

names, the list of their great novels and, obviously, any description of their art is again

absent. Importantly, only one lesson exclusively about women in the two OUP books

with names and introduction to their work and personalities excluded is something

deserves to be regarded as very ideological as well as very political. One negative

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consequence of this aspect is that the students remain unfamiliar with and uninformed

about literary and creative female geniuses and their valuable work. It further helps them

attribute men’s work more than women’s.

I would like to conclude my discussion by saying that there are some similarities and

differences between both the lessons (Women Arise & Creative Women) in the PTB and

OUP English textbooks regarding a semi-positive representation of women – still a break

with the past traditions. The inclusion of these lessons indicates that the policy makers,

the writers and the publishers of these textbooks are becoming aware of women’s rights.

These textbooks partly succeed in conveying this message through the following

examples that women should not be considered weak, dull, inactive, dependant, and

silent. Interestingly, even the titles of these two lessons i.e. Women Arise & Creative

Women, though also negative in connotation, suggest that women have now arisen and

are creative.

For the past few decades, a remarkable social and political awareness has been

awakened particularly among women. (PTB 9, p. 38, l. 2-5)

There is a visible urge in them to strive for a better life. (PTB 9, p. 38, l. 5-6)

They are also keen to contribute towards the development of their country and

the nation. (PTB 9, p. 38, l. 6-7)

…the women of our country are making their way into the national stream of

progress. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 13-14)

Women have also come forward as social workers. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 26-27)

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Women have their physical and mental reserves of strength… (OUP 2, p. 93)

…so many have distinguished themselves despite the conditions which society

has imposed upon them. (OUP 2, p. 93)

The textbooks then point out some of the profession as given below where women are

performing their duties in a commendable way. The purpose of this is to make an implicit

claim that, if opportunities are given, women have abilities to perform well in all fields of

life.

Women are working as teachers, professors, doctors and nurses. (PTB 9, p. 39,

l. 15-17)

We see them as specialists in various medical fields. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 16-17)

Talented women are working efficiently in PIA, T.V. and Radio as programme

organizers, producers, artists, writers, newscasters, announcers and comperes.

(PTB 9, p. 39, l. 17-20)

We have had women politicians as Prime Minister, Education Minister and

also as heads of various institutions of the Education Department. (PTB 9, p.

39, l. 29-32)

On the stage women have shown a genius for acting… (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 60)

…women like Angelica Kauffmann in the eighteenth century, Mary Cassatt,

Marie Laurencin, Georgia O’ Keefa, Laura Knight and Ethel Walker in the

nineteenth and twentieth century…have shown their works in exhibitions in

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every capital of the world, have demonstrated their abilities as artists. (OUP 2,

p. 94, l. 46-52)

Women novelists in the last century and a half have been outstanding. (OUP 2,

p. 94, l. 53-54)

In short, we can say that both of these lessons share this message that women are not less

than men in abilities. However, this is also the point where differences can be located.

The PTB English textbooks, in the above-mentioned instances, show that women have

now started working in those fields where men were supposed to work. Similarly, they

are doing their jobs as efficiently as men do; or women share work with men on equal

level as mentioned in the following lines:

The rural woman has always worked with her male members in the fields. She

shares the work of man on equal level. (PTB 9, p. 40, l. 38-40)

Thus in these extracts, we do not find women excelling men in abilities. This

phenomenon we find in the lesson (Creative Women) in the OUP English textbooks. The

following excerpts show that women are now outdoing men in many fields and can leave

them behind in any field if they are provided with the equal opportunities.

The authorities on genetics are unanimous in agreeing that the male

chromosomes are no more likely to carry the spark of genius than the female

chromosomes. (OUP 2, p. 93, l. 13-15)

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…where science is combined with the solution of human problems, as in the

practice of medicine, there we find women coming rapidly forward in a world

which can fully satisfy the brain and the heart of intelligent women. (OUP 2, p.

94, l. 74-78)

Men wonder why women know their secrets. (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 64-65)

The stories of the male composers of music and poetry do not lead us to believe

that they were tough, thrusting individuals, but highly sensitive creatures;

many of them died young or were mentally unstable and given to fits of

melancholy. It is interesting to speculate on what measure of success they

would have achieved if they had been subject to the same prejudices and

subjugation as the women of their time. (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 80-87)

Another difference between the textbooks regarding women’s rights in the society is that

the PTB textbooks implicitly portray such a society where women are availing equal

opportunities whereas the OUP textbooks complain against the unequal distribution of

opportunities – men are facilitated more than women – in the whole world. This unjust

treatment of women prevents them from developing their capabilities to the full. In the

following lines taken from the OUP textbooks, the writer describes the dismal situation

most of the women in the world are suffering from:

Over the centuries girls have been reared against this background of

suppression and subjection. (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 79-80)

On the stage women have shown a genius for acting, but I must confess that

this becomes second nature to many women who have learnt that to dissemble

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makes life very much easier in a world where they are subject to prejudice.

(OUP 2, p. 94, l. 60-64)

It is interesting to speculate on what measure of success they (male musicians

and poets) would have achieved if they had been subject to the same

prejudices and subjugation as the women of their time. (OUP 2, p. 95, l. 84-87)

A young girl with the same temperament and equal genius, denied

encouragement, probably ridiculed and admonished for her efforts, stood little

chance of developing her capabilities to the full. (OUP 2, p. 95, l. 87-91)

One more difference between the PTB and OUP textbooks is the difference of level in

addressing women. The PTB textbooks address only the Pakistani women whereas the

OUP ones address women generally. In this regard, the use of pronouns such as ‘we’ and

‘our’ in the lesson ‘Women Arise’ in the PTB textbooks is important because it gives the

women addressed a Pakistani identity. On the other hand, the use of the noun ‘world’ in

the lesson ‘Creative Women’ in the OUP textbooks gives women an international or

transnational identity. The instances of this phenomenon are as follows:

…the women of our country are making their way into the national stream of

progress. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 13-14)

We have had women politicians as Prime Minister, Education Minister and also

as heads of various institutions of the Education Department. (PTB 9, p. 39, l.

29-32)

Women of our country are also being self-employed. (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 33-34)

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…the world has enjoyed the singing of many brilliant women. (OUP 2, p. 93, l.

29-30)

…where science is combined with the solution of human problems, as in the

practice of medicine, there we find women coming rapidly forward in a world

which can fully satisfy the brain and the heart of intelligent women. (OUP 2, p.

94, l. 74-78)

On the stage women have shown a genius for acting, but I must confess that this

becomes second nature to many women who have learnt that to dissemble

makes life very much easier in a world where they are subject to prejudice.

(OUP 2, p. 94, l. 60-64)

In most of the instances in both the lessons in the PTB and OUP textbooks, women are

nameless. Only there is one paragraph in ‘Creative Women’ in the latter textbooks as

mentioned below where women have been named; whereas in ‘Women Arise’ in the PTB

textbooks no woman has been named.

However, despite handicaps women like Angelica Kauffmann in the eighteenth

century, Mary Cassatt, Marie Laurencin, Georgia O’ Keefa, Laura Knight

and Ethel Walker in the nineteenth and twentieth century…have shown their

works in exhibitions in every capital of the world, have demonstrated their

abilities as artists. (OUP 2, p. 94, l. 46-52)

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It should not be wrong to say that naming denotes importance of the characters; hence,

the more nameless women, the more unimportant they are. Importantly, there is a plenty

of name discrimination against most of the female characters in the rest of the lessons in

both the textbooks and I shall discuss it later in quantitative analysis. The PTB textbooks

also differ with their counterparts in a sense that they talk about women’s participation in

different professions in a general way. In other words, unlike the OUP textbooks, they do

not mention Pakistan’s extraordinary women with their names and their outstanding

works or contributions of such outstanding politicians as Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto,

creative writers par excellence such as Perveen Shakir, Khadija Mastoor or Kishwar

Naheed etc.

I conclude my discussion by saying that the two lessons ‘Women Arise’ and ‘Creative

Women’ in the PTB and OUP English textbooks respectively, though do not show a

complete break with the past traditions in representing the male and female sexes on

equal basis, show a gesture of change in the patriarchal discourse. Besides this, we can

also find a number of instances in the rest of the lessons in the PTB textbooks and

particularly in the OUP textbooks where women’s representation is quite positive. They

have been discussed below. However, realistically speaking, all of them form a very little

part of the two textbooks. That is, there are only four lessons (lessons 7, 10, 16 in PTB 9

and lesson 5 in PTB 10) in the PTB textbooks (only 9.30 percent) and seven lessons

(lessons 3, 4 and 2 in units 1, 4 and 9 respectively in OUP textbooks 1 and lessons 2, 4, 2,

2 in units 1, 1, 3, 5 respectively in the OUP textbooks (only 10.14 percent) where women

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have been mostly represented positive. Therefore, there is still a need of taking more

steps in order to fully eradicate the gender bias from the discourse of these textbooks.

5.1.2) Gender Bias Regarding Professions

My discussion has been so far limited to two lessons particularly devoted to female sex. I

wish to expand my analysis to the other lessons of the textbooks to show how female sex

is a victim of bias and discrimination regarding professions, (social) roles, societal

treatment and association of attributions etc. I would like to start my analysis with the

professions represented only by men in the OUP English textbooks as follows:

The (army) official (a male) saw that he would have to deal carefully with the

sergeant (also a male). (OUP 1, p. 140, l. 24)

The medical officer, sitting behind an impressive oak desk and with a baton

under his arm, peered down at me over his glasses. (OUP 1, p. 44, l. 8)

…Captain MacWhirr could catch a desolate glimpse of a few tiny specks black

as ebony…This was all he could see of his ship. (OUP 1, p. 66, l. 19 & 22)

Michael had been a favourite. A talented theatre director … (OUP 2, p. 50, l.

93-94)

‘Mummy,’ he (the son) started, ‘you know … Some (of his friends) want to be

doctors, some lawyers, a lot are interested in engineering, and so on. (OUP 2,

p. 58, l. 99 & 102-103)

‘Well, on this business of killing Huns, sir. There’s a pilot – a damn good chap,

experienced, decorated and all that, a good NCO… (OUP 2, p. 102, l. 16-18)

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In the OUP textbooks, we can clearly see the male sex occupying different professions

being (army) official’ and ‘sergeant’ in the first sentence; ‘medical officer’ in the second

sentence; ‘captain’ in the third sentence; ‘theatre director’ in the fourth sentence;

‘doctors’, ‘lawyers’ and ‘engineers’ in the second-last sentence; and ‘pilot’ in the last

sentence. The percentage of women representing the same professions or positions is

shockingly less and has been described later.

Interestingly, the PTB English textbooks are not much different from the OUP English

textbooks in representing the higher professions mostly through men.

After the death of Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) the first Khalifah Hazrat Abu

Bakr (R.A.) appointed Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (R.A.) to command the

Muslim army. During the Khilafat of Hazrat Umer (R.A.) the second

Khalifah), Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (R.A.) was made the Deputy

Commander of the Muslim army. (PTB 9, p. 9, l. 20-26)

Back in the third century A.D., the Chinese king sent his son Prince Tai to the

temple to get education from the great master, Pan Ku. Prince Tai was to

succeed his father as king. (PTB 9, p. 33, l. 1-4)

When the doctor came to examine Hina he told her to take necessary

precautions. (PTB 9, p. 101, l. 22-23)

He (Hazrat Muhammad (SAW)) was a great educationist… (PTB 10, p. 2, l.

50-51)

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Even during his (Hazrat Ali’s (RA)) Khilafat he remained simple in living and

courteous with the poor. (PTB 10, p. 46, l. 5-6)

It was by sheer force of his personality, his firm determination and solid

resolution that Quaid-e-Azam was able to carve out Pakistan on the map of

the world. (PTB 10, p. 93, l. 5-8)

His (Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s) reputation as an outstanding lawyer had been

fully established when he became a Presidency Magistrate in 1900. (PTB 10, p.

93, l. 15-17)

We can see that the male characters are holding strong positions in the above-mentioned

instances taken from the PTB textbooks. They are ‘commander’ and ‘deputy commander’

in the first extract, ‘king’ and ‘prince’ in the second extract, ‘doctor’ in the third extract,

‘educationist’ in the fourth extract, ‘Khalifa’ (caliph / a Muslim ruler) in the fifth extract,

‘founder (of Pakistan)’ in the sixth extract and ‘lawyer’ in the last extract. The most

powerful positions like commander, king, prince, caliph, and founder show that men in

the PTB textbooks occupy stronger positions than their counterparts in the OUP

textbooks. However, the overall situation in both the PTB and OUP English textbooks is

this that men hold powerful, strong and authoritative positions.

The mention of men as doctors, engineers, lawyers, commanders, educationist, etc show

the intellectual, physical and financial dominance of men over women. In one lesson

titled ‘Scenes from a Bomber Raid’ in the OUP English textbooks where women have

been shown working (as nurses) under men (working as doctors and (army) officials) also

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reflects men’s authority over women. The textbooks thus show men’s dominance in two

ways: (a) dominance by numbers i.e. men working in these professions are more in

numbers than women and (b) dominance by power or authority i.e. men have higher

designations than women. Consequently, their negative consequences are also two: the

former one declares these professions meant more for men than for women; the latter one

represents a somewhat patriarchal situation where men hold authority over women.

Unfortunately, most of the female students are likely to think of certain professions meant

only for men. Similarly, even if some of them join such professions they will not be

ambitious enough to try for superior positions or will internalize accepting subordinate

positions. Moreover, this naturalized rather than natural acceptance, then, does not

remain limited only to departments and offices; women observe it in social as well as

home arenas. For instance,

Suddenly a voice (from Uncle Jamil) came from the dining table one fine day,

‘Today we shall take Hamid to Liberty Market’. (PTB 9, p. 27, l. 1-3)

The whole family got ready quickly and set out in a car for the Liberty

Market. (PTB 9, p. 27, l. 4-6)

In this extract taken from the lesson ‘Rural and Urban Life in Pakistan’, the ‘voice’

comes from a man – Uncle Jamil. The phrase ‘the whole family’ indicates the presence of

female/s (mother, daughter, wife or all of them) here. We see the dominant position of the

uncle who makes this announcement or decision without consulting the family members.

The pronoun ‘we’ does not mean a mutual decision rather it is likely to be a directive for

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all to get ready for the Liberty Market today – not tomorrow. The second sentence

reflects the dependent position of the whole family including women in three ways:

firstly, they cannot, and do not, challenge the decision; secondly, they immediately obey

what is directed to them; and finally, they are sitting in the car being driven by the uncle

(in context); hence, women have been represented as passive. Furthermore, the act of

driving car is more empowering than sitting behind the car as it point towards the skill,

courage and strength of the owner / driver of the car.

The treatment of women in OUP textbooks is more pitiable than the PTB textbooks. They

have been shown insulted, oppressed, helpless, obedient, subordinate and non-

authoritative as follows:

Then when her turn came to be served, she had made the mistake of writing

her X mark in the wrong place on the request form. A recently educated clerk

had abused her needlessly. He called her ‘an ignorant coolie’. (OUP 1, p. 8, l.

15-18)

In this sentence mentioned above, we see a male clerk insulting a woman for a minor

mistake.

One morning, while I was polishing brass out front, the boss and his son drove

up in their car. A frightened black woman sat between them. They got out and

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half dragged and half kicked the woman into the store. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 12-

15)

After a moment or two I heard shrill screams coming from the rear room of

the store; later the woman stumbled out, bleeding, crying, holding her

stomach, her clothing torn. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 19-21)

When I went to the rear of the store…the floor was bloody, strewn with wisps

of hair and clothing. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 24-28)

In this extract mentioned above, we see men physically abusing a woman.

‘No, mummy, I just don’t see the hurry. May be a year later.’

By then I felt my blood pressure rising, and my doctor has told me to avoid all

tense-situations. So I got up to leave. ‘Now listen, jee,’ I said to my husband,

‘he is your son also. If he wants to be a bum, that is your business too. Me, I

can’t take this tension. Please talk to him.’ And I left. Honest to God, I was

going to have a heart attack. (OUP 2, p. 55-6, l. 36-42)

In this extract mentioned above, we see that a mother is completely helpless before the

obstinacy of her son who is not ready, unlike his friends, to apply immediately to foreign

universities for further education.

He said, ‘Sit down, sit down and rest…no, no…go up two more steps and sit

down. Don’t sit so near the water…’ She obeyed. (OUP 2, p. 76, l. 29-31)

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Here we can notice that a woman is quite obedient to a man’s directive. In the next

following instance, women as nurses have to obey men’s orders because the men are on

more powerful positions than the women.

‘You heard what the Oberzugfuhrer said, evacuate all nurses to ground level.

We will start on this floor.’ Without delay the TENOs hurried after the NCO,

rounding up the nursing staff and ordering them to leave their patients. The

nurses began to argue, but orders are orders. (OUP 2, p. 106, l. 146-150)

In this extract mentioned above, women represent subordinate and non-authoritative

positions. Quite importantly, there is not a single instance in both the PTB and OUP

textbooks where men are beaten, insulted and ordered by women. Though there are a

number of instances where men also represent low-paid works such as begging, weaving,

selling (vendor) etc in the OUP textbooks yet they do not hold subordinate positions

under women anywhere in both the PTB and OUP textbooks. Similarly, not a single

sentence is there where men look helpless before women or men look helpless before

their daughters.

What adds more to this pitiable condition of women in the textbooks is their professional

representation – unlike men, almost all female characters represent ordinary and low-paid

professions as discussed just below. It must be remembered here as mentioned above that

our analysis does not include the two lessons titled ‘Women Arise’ and ‘Creative

Women’ in the PTB and OUP textbooks respectively where women have been

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represented with high positions, but there too, I have highlighted the limitations of these

two lessons in terms of sexism and discriminatory standards with regard to

acknowledging women’s contributions in history, arts and the creative fields. Needless

to say, the purpose of this is to see if the textbooks represent the female sex positively in

the rest of the lessons or not. Ironically enough, women have no professional

representation at all in the PTB textbooks – they represent neither high-paid nor low-paid

professions. Conversely, as mentioned above, the professions represented by women in

the OUP textbooks are unattractive, powerless and valueless. The following instances

reflect an unjust attitude towards women regarding their representations in terms of

professions or professional roles.

A young girl with a dark, charming face,

Head covered by a loosely draped, dirty dupatta

Looks at me with black eyes,

Thrusts towels against my window

And begs me to buy. (OUP 1, p. 26, l. 8-12)

Instead of school I go to Mrs Pen’s. (OUP 2, p. 6, l. 1)

I can see her strong foot,

stained with peat,

paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel (OUP 2, p. 8, l. 7-9)

We see that the occupations and roles being played by the women such as ‘beggar’ in the

first extract, ‘tutor’ in the second one and ‘spinner’ in the last one are relatively lesser in

value and dominance than the ones associated with the representations of men’s roles. .

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Unlike the previous instances, we do not find any intellectual, financial and physical

dominance of women in these roles and professions. Rather they show women in such

social situations that are low in power and authority but high in dependence. Though a

textbook can rightly be called a picture of a particular society, it is not always neutral and

natural but socially and consciously drawn. Representing women as dependent, powerless

and non-authoritative and men as independent, powerful and authoritative in society is an

effort of the textbook discourses to create distinctions between the two sexes on many

social levels. On the basis of such distinctions it then becomes easy and justified to assign

different social roles to both sexes. This factor may account for one of the many reasons

that lead both sexes to accept such distinctions in their professional and social lives

without any reluctance and objection, as the textbooks tend to inculcate these role-models

in the learner’s mind from a very early age.

Another important point which merits some discussion with regard to gender

representations is gender segregation in the textbooks. . That is to say that there are only

two instances – one in each textbook – where the textbooks show men and women

working together. In the PTB textbooks, women are shown working with their men in the

field.

The rural woman has always worked with her male members in the fields. She

shares the work of man on equal level. (PTB 9, p. 40, l. 38-40)

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In the OUP textbooks as given below, women are shown working with men in the

hospital.

Without delay the TENOs hurried after the NCO, rounding up the nursing

staff and ordering them to leave their patients. The nurses began to argue, but

orders are orders. (OUP 2, p. 106, l. 148-150)

In these lines, the level of working relationship between men and women is not equal.

Women work as subordinates to men and act upon their orders. This is contrary to the

representation of men and women working shoulder to shoulder in the previous lines in

the PTB textbooks,

I conclude my discussion by saying that women are also a victim of discriminatory and

biased representation of professions in both the PTB and OUP English textbooks. Besides

one lesson each in the textbooks, the rest of lessons i.e. one-hundred and ten, show men

representing a wide variety of professions which include both high and low professions

whereas women represent only low professions. Besides this, women have not been

shown sharing work with men on equal level except on one occasion in all of the four

textbooks – PTB 9 & 10 and OUP 1 & 2. On another occasion though women have been

shown working with men yet they work as their subordinates.

Unequal representation of men and women in quality as well as quantity regarding

professions passes certain ideological messages to the learners. It highlights those more

who represent professions more in number and value than those who do not. In our

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analysis, we have seen the male sex dominating the other one in both the cases. As a

result, there is a great likelihood that the young learners whether male or female consider

men superior to women. Superiority in this sense that their (men’s) representation of

high, powerful and authoritative positions in departments like army, medicine, air force,

etc make them appear as mentally, physically and psychologically superior to, and, more

capable than women. For instance, if the captain of a ship is a man instead of a woman, it

means he has and she has not those abilities required for being the captain of a ship. This

distinction gets further accentuated when even the working level of both the sexes is

mostly not equal – women have been shown as subordinate to men in offices. It is not

wrong to say that repetition of such unequal representation makes men’s occupation of

important professions and particularly their high positions in such professions, a norm. In

the same way, it represents a deviation from a norm if the case is opposite – women’s

hold of high professions or positions.

The same is true for men and women’s association with the attributes required by various

professions – he is a captain so he is brave, strong, and authoritative; she is a nurse so she

is caring, humble and subordinate. However, association of attributes is not made only

through the representation of professions; it is also made through the representation of

social roles which I discuss in the following section.

5.1.3) Gender Bias Regarding Social Roles

In the previous section, I have talked about gender bias or discrimination regarding

professions and positions represented by men and women in the PTB and OUP English

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textbooks. In this section, I shall discuss about the social roles represented by men and

women in both the textbooks. Social role is a position or behaviour of a person in a social

activity or in the society at large. From a gender perspective, social roles are the kinds of

expected positions and behaviour of men and women in a relationship to one another or

in the society.

The present research examines the representation of these social roles by men and women

in two contexts: inside home and outside home. A simple way of doing it is to examine

the social activities or actions performed by men and women inside and outside their

homes. Social activities or actions are important in a way that they can inform us about

the positions of men and women at home and outside home in a relationship to one

another. For instance, a situation where a husband is asking his wife to cook him

something or a situation where a man is beating a woman on a road conveys us the strong

and weak position of both the men and women respectively. The first inside-home

situation portrays the husband as master and his wife as mistress while in the second

situation the man’s role is of an oppressor and the woman’s role is of a weak and helpless

creature in the society. Thus, for our purpose of analysis, it can be quite useful to look at

men’s and women’s social activities or actions represented in the textbooks in order to

understand the social roles being associated with them.

My analysis regarding gender bias in social roles represented by men and women inside

home will try to answer the following questions:

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(a) Which social activities do men and women represent inside home?

(b) Which social activities do men and women represent outside home?

With regard to first question, there are a number of situations in the OUP textbooks

where men and women represent certain activities. Importantly, there are only a few

instances where men and women represent same activities otherwise mostly their

activities are different from each other. In other words, their activities do not show any

major break with the stereotypes of their social roles at home. In the following instances

taken from the OUP textbooks, women represent the following social activities:

…my mother had got up early and cooked me a heavy breakfast, had stood

wordlessly while I ate it, her hand on my chair, and had then helped me pack

up my few belongings. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 12-15)

My sisters looked at me and each other and went on cooking chapattis over the

coalpot. (OUP 1, p. 8, l. 37-39)

…she would…rush home to make me my favourite mohanbhoag pudding.

(OUP 1, p. 9, l. 66)

All of these three instances represent women’s stereotypical social role i.e. cooking,

inside home. In the first sentence, there is a mother cooking breakfast; in the second

sentence, there are sisters cooking chapattis (loaves of bread) and, in the third sentence,

there is again a mother rushing home to make a special kind of pudding. The first image

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that comes in to our minds about the role of the women is of a ‘cook’ – the women are

supposed to cook for their families. Moreover, as these sentences show, there is no age

limit for cooking. It is represented as women’s duty whether they are married (mothers)

or unmarried (sisters).

Women are not present alone in these sentences. Rather the objective pronoun ‘me’ has

been used for three male persons. It has been used for ‘son’, ‘brother’ and ‘son’ in the

first, second and third sentences respectively. So far as their activities are concerned, they

do not represent any activity in the second and last sentences. In the first sentence, the

son is eating breakfast prepared by his mother. All of them are, however, one of the

causes of the women’s activity of cooking – women are to feed them.

The underlying message of these sentences is different for male and female learners. The

male learners will consider cooking as one of the duties of the female members of their

family inside the four walls of the house. This message should also be strengthened by

the fact that there is not a single instance in the textbooks where any man is cooking

something inside and outside home either for themselves or for others. In this context,

cooking is very likely to be regarded as a matter of insult or at least a deviation from the

norm by the male sex. For the female learners, cooking is very likely to be regarded as

their work and not of men – for women cooking is a norm.

It is important to see women’s altruistic behaviour in the sentences above. In all the three

sentences, they are cooking things not for themselves but for their sons. It means they are

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also supposed to play an important role in rearing their children at home. In this regard,

the following instances may also be quite useful for our discussion.

‘Asad beta (son), you know how dear you are to me. And only a mother can

know what is good for her son, na (isn’t it)? (OUP 2, p. 56, l. 68-69)

I often catch my mother talking far into the night to her eldest son, worrying

about my future, about my marriage. (OUP 2, p. 78, l. 63-65)

Here we find women worrying about their children’s future. In the first sentence, a

mother is worried about her son’s future – education (as mentioned in the lesson). In the

second one, a mother is worried about her daughter’s future – marriage. Both of the

sentences imply that the role of mother is more important or she is more responsible than

any one else in taking care of their children and their future. Importantly, just like the

previous instances where only women are engaged in cooking things for their children,

here only women are shown worried about their children’s future. Though a son is also

present in the second sentence yet his role in the discussion is not as active as of the

mother – it is mother who worries and talks to him.

So far in my discussion about women’s activities at home, I have seen that the textbooks

represent women as the only care takers of their children. Mostly whatever they do or

think, that is closely connected with their children and their affairs. In other words, they

live for their children for most of the time at home.

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In the same textbooks, the social roles represented by men inside home differ with those

represented by women. Ideologically, as compared to women’s social activities, theirs are

less in number. In the following instance, parents are having a dialogue with their son

about his plan regarding future education. However, unlike the mother, the father is not

actively involved in the discussion.

I asked him… ‘Where are you applying?’

‘Nowhere,’ he said.

‘Nowhere!’ I screeched so loud that his father came running. He doesn’t like

anything to upset me. ‘Look at your son!’ I said turning to my husband, ‘ask

him. Just ask what this boy has done!’

Same answer.

‘Beta (son), why haven’t you applied to any foreign universities?’ he asked

again. (OUP 2, p. 55, l. 19 & 23-31)

This extract has been taken from the lesson ‘The Son’ in the OUP textbooks. We have

also discussed earlier one of its sentences where the mother is worried about her son’s

education. Importantly, in the whole lesson the mother is so much worried about her

son’s education that she is all the time busy in convincing him to apply to any foreign

universities after his A Levels. There is only one occasion in the lesson as given above

where the father has come to ask his son about the reason for not applying. It shows that

son’s education is an issue of top priority for the mother but not as much for the father

inside home. Moreover, his appearance in the scene should not be seen as a worry for his

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son but as a response to his wife’s screech because ‘He doesn’t like anything to upset’

her. That is why she made him ask his son the reason for the delay in applying for foreign

education. Again the way he addresses his son ‘Beta, why haven’t you applied to any

foreign universities?’, reflects that, unlike his wife, he speaks in a polite way; hence, not

so serious in the matter. This issue further implies that, as men are usually less interested

in home affairs, women, therefore are supposed to inform them about such issues and

seek help because they themselves alone are not able enough to tackle such issues.

There are also some other activities represented by men inside home as follows:

My father laughed at this family schooling effort, but Ma was not put off; and

neither was I. (OUP 1, p. 8, l. 53-54)

My father, sceptic, rationalist,

trying every curse and blessing,

powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.

He even poured a little paraffin

upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.

I watched the flame feeding on my mother.

I watched the holy man perform his rites

to tame the poison with an incantation.

After twenty hours

it lost its sting. (OUP 1, p. 63-4, l. 36-45)

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He was writing feverishly in a big old ledger with red leather corners, his face

twisted and contorted with concentration. (OUP 2, p. 11, l. 52-54)

Once again the activities being performed by men inside home in the instances above are

different from those of the women. In the first sentence, a man is laughing at his wife’s

efforts for learning. His laugh indicates that he does not suppose her to engage herself in

such work as learning. Similarly, in the same lesson, we do not find any criticism in any

form on son’s learning and daughters’ cooking. All of this shows that women’s break

with the stereotypes such as cooking, dressing (children), dusting, washing dishes, etc is

very likely to be regarded as something strange, futile or odd, and, hence, laughable.

In the second extract taken from a poem ‘Night of the Scorpion’, a man is trying to

remove the sting of a scorpion from his wife’s toe. In his all-out efforts, he tests

everything such as ‘curse’, ‘blessing’, ‘powder’, ‘mixture’, ‘herb’, ‘hybrid’, ‘paraffin’

and even ‘flame’ to cure poison and save her life. It is important to note that discourses

associate with the male sex those activities which usually require courage, energy,

bravery, etc. An instance of it is the professions represented by men in the textbooks as

discussed in the previous section. In contrast to it, women usually represent those roles or

activities that highlight their fear, weakness, dependence, etc. For example, discourses

usually show men killing snake and women fearing snake and men fighting in battlefields

and women working at home. The purpose of discussing this point is to understand how

the man in the above-mentioned extract represents a stereotypical role – he has enough

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courage to put his wife’s toe on fire. Similarly, the role of woman is also stereotypical –

she has enough capacity to bear pain.

In the last sentence, a miserly man is writing records of money in his register at home.

Once again this is an activity not represented by any woman in the OUP textbooks. The

man here might be keeping the accounts of that money he would have received / earned

and spent. In a sense, it indicates that he holds a strong socio-economic position at home.

It may also be seen as a stereotypical representation of the masculine role. That is, men

usually provide and manage the expenditure of house. In this way, they are mostly

regarded as breadwinners and providers.

So far I have discussed the social roles represented by men and women inside home in

the OUP textbooks. Now I shall discuss about these social roles and their representation

with reference to the PTB textbooks. The instances related to social roles represented by

both the sexes inside home in the PTB textbooks are less than those in the OUP

textbooks. However, we are not mainly concerned with the number of instances present

in each textbook. Rather the focus in our analysis is to see if these textbooks (PTB &

OUP textbooks) vary in their ideologies related to social roles represented by men and

women inside the domain of home. For instance, let us look at the lesson ‘Rural and

Urban Life’ in the PTB textbooks.

Suddenly a voice came from the dining table one fine day, ‘Today we shall

take Hamid to Liberty Market’. (PTB 9, p. 27, l. 1-3)

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The whole family got ready quickly and set out in a car for the Liberty

Market. (PTB 9, p. 27, l. 4-6)

The voice is of Uncle Jamil who passes this directive to the family to get ready for

Liberty Market. In the second sentence, the family obeys him immediately without any

objection against or suggestion to his idea. This scene resembles with a scene in an office

in some organization where officers usually want their subordinates to obey more than to

defy or suggest them. Thus Uncle Jamil acts like an officer rather than a family member.

In the OUP textbooks, we do not find a similar instance where a man’s behaviour as a

husband or an uncle is so authoritative towards his family. Thus the PTB textbooks’

represent men as authoritative and women as obedient and submissive at home.

The PTB textbooks are similar to their counterparts in a way that they show women

looking after their children at home. But again as compared to the OUP textbooks, such

instances are relatively lesser in number in them. There are only two lessons i.e.

‘Doctor’s Advice’ and ‘My Mother’ where women, unlike men who have multiple roles,

have only one role inside home i.e. of mother. The following example has been taken

from the lesson ‘Doctor’s Advice’:

The next morning Hina could not get up for school. Her mother noticed that

she was running high temperature and has a sore throat. Her mother called

the doctor. (PTB 9, p. 100 & 101, l. 19-22)

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The next extract is a poem titled ‘My Mother’. It pays tribute to mother for being very

kind and affectionate in bringing up her child:

Who sat and watched my infant head,

When sleeping on my cradle bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother.

Who dressed me in clothes nice and gay

And fondly taught me how to play

And minded all I had to say?

My Mother. (PTB 10, p. 88, l. 1-8)

Who ran to help me when I feel,

And would some pretty story tell,

Of kiss my head to make me well

My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be

Affectionate and kind to thee,

Who was so very kind to me,

My Mother.

When thou art feeble, old and grey

My healthy arm shall be thy stay

And I will soothe thy pains away

My Mother. (PTB 10, p. 88, l. 9-22)

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This little poem being particularly written for ‘mother’ precisely describes the role of a

woman as mother. Let us see summarize what a mother does for her child in the first

three stanzas: (a) she sits and watches her baby; (b) she sleeps with it; (c) she shows it

much affection; (d) she dresses it; (e) she teaches it how to play; (f) she does not mind

whatever it says; (g) she helps it; (h) she tells it stories and (i) she kisses it. Then in the

last two stanzas, the poetess who describes and acknowledges in the earlier stanzas all

that her mother had done for her in her babyhood and childhood, pledged to do her

mother a good turn in this way: (a) she will be affectionate and kind to her mother

forever; (b) she will support her and (c) she will soothe her pains.

Importantly, neither men as fathers towards their sons nor boys as sons towards their

fathers mostly represent such social roles in the textbook discourses. Following should be

a good example of it taken from the lesson ‘A Father’s Advice’ (a letter):

My dear son,

Let me tell you that you are a part of my body and soul. Whenever I look at

you I feel I am looking at myself. Therefore I am committing some pieces of

advice to paper and sending them to you since there may be a time in the near

future when I will no longer remain with you, for whoever lives must die.

My first and foremost advice to you, my son, is to fear Allah. Be His obedient

servant. Carefully guard the rope which connects you with Him for no other

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connection can be stronger and more durable than this to command greater

respect. He who is the Master of death is also the Master of life.

My dear son, so far as your behaviour with other human beings is concerned,

let your “self” act as a scale to help you judge its goodness or wickedness. Do

unto others as you wish others to do unto you. Whatever you like for yourself,

like it for others. Whatever you dislike for yourself, spare others from it. Do

not oppress and tyrannise anybody as surely do not wish to be oppressed or

tyrannized. (PTB 10, p. 40, l. 1-21)

In the light of the present and previous extracts, it may be safely concluded that textbooks

assign different social roles to each sex. Women as mothers are mostly concerned with

the physical growth and development of children whereas men as fathers are mostly

concerned with their spiritual growth and development. But this has been represented

only in the PTB textbooks. In the OUP textbooks, we have seen women doing not only

household chores but also giving advice to their children.

Now I come to the second question which is about the representation of social activities

by men and women outside home in the OUP and PTB textbooks. It is important to

mention here that social activities in this section do not mean the professional ones which

people do in doing their jobs such as dealing with colleagues, subordinates and officers in

professions organizations. This is because we have already discussed a lot about this

issue in the previous section. Therefore, for the purpose of our analysis in this section,

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social activities mean only the ones that people generally do outside home in the society

such as driving, fighting, travelling, playing, etc.

In my discussion with regard to the first question, I have seen that men and women live in

one home but their activities are mostly different. It is then not a surprise that both the

sexes do not share much while representing the social activities outside home in the

textbooks. Out of home, men dominate the society not only in numbers but also in social

activities – men represent more social activities than women. Moreover, unlike women,

they represent a variety of social activities ranging from learning to adventure and thus

they participate in almost every sphere of life. Women have mostly been shown staying

at home and, therefore, they represent only a few social activities out of their homes. The

participation of men and women in the social activities to varying degrees creates a

certain image of each sex in the minds of young learners.

In the following instances, as said above, men represent a variety of social roles. These

social roles represent them as learners, helpers, fighters, oppressors, adventurers, merry-

makers and leaders – the roles which are very likely to create a very positive and strong

image of men; hence, a negative and weak image of women in the background.

Moreover, these social roles show men contributing more to society than women.

Along with 80 other sacrificial lambs taking their driving tests, I arrived at the

police stadium in Qatar at dawn. (OUP 1, p. 44, l. 1-2)

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…I was, sitting and talking to my good, good friend Mrs. Ahmad on the

telephone and she started talking about how her son had been filling in

application forms for foreign universities. ‘He wants to study Management

like his father, bless the boy,’ she said, all proud-like, ‘and where is Asad

applying?’ I said something like Harvard or Oxford… (OUP 2, p. 55, l. 9-14)

How nice would it be if he came back wearing a nice suit and started working

in a bank and then I would find him a really nice desi (eastern) girl from a

well-connected, rich family. Then he would get married, make money, have

children and take foreign vacations. (OUP 2, p. 56, l. 56-60)

In all of these instances, the male characters have been represented as learners. First,

there is a man who goes to learn driving and the second one is a boy who is supposed to

go abroad for education. In effect, their social activities – learning driving and learning

abroad – are a kind of preparation for the social roles they are supposed to perform in the

society. In other words, men are expected more than women to know how to drive car

and earn livelihood in the society. This is because one of their social roles is of father

whose duties include running the house, feeding the family (including wife and children)

and driving car.

The following instance is important in a sense that it represents a man as caring and

helpful like women in the extracts mentioned above.

I went up and down the streets

Here and there by day and night,

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Through all the hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick. (OUP 1,

p. 11, l. 1-3)

Unlike women who have been represented helpful and caring only towards their children

at home, the man as (town) doctor here is caring all the time, be it night or day, for the

other people in the society. It shows that his circle of social activities – town – is far

wider than the women’s – home. Similarly, he has more chances of socializing with the

other people than women.

Another important social activity among men is their fight. There are a number of

instances in the OUP textbooks where the male characters, unlike the female ones, are

engaged in fight with the others as follows:

‘Get off this estate.’

‘What for?’

‘Because it’s mine.’

‘Where did you get it?’

‘From my father.’

‘Where did he get?’

‘From his father.’

‘And where did he get it?’

‘He fought for it.’

‘Well, I’ll fight you for it.’ (OUP 2, p. 23, l. 1-10)

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He suddenly jumped from his hiding place…shouted, grabbed the man’s legs

and threw him out. (OUP 2, p. 36 & 37, l. 161 & 164)

I hesitated for a moment, then acted; I brushed the rock from his shoulder and

ducked and grabbed him about the legs and dumped him to the ground. A

volcano of screams erupted from the crowd. I jumped upon the fallen boy and

started pounding him. Then I was jerked up. Another boy had begun to fight

me. My straw hat had been crushed and forgotten. (OUP 2, p. 72, l. 40-45)

This social activity of course represents men as brave, aggressive and physically strong.

On the other side, showing women not engaged in such activities is likely to represent

them as cowardly, peaceful and physically weak who will not be able to challenge men in

certain matters of life. We can see below a female teacher playing the role of a mediator

between the three fighting male students:

‘The very idea of you!’ the teacher shouted at me. ‘You are trying to fight

right in school! What’s the matter with you?’ (OUP 2, p. 72, l. 76-77)

Besides this, we have already seen above the instances where women’s representation has

been quite derogatory. They have been shown insulted and verbally and physically

abused by men.

Ironically enough, no such situation is present in the textbooks where women beat or

insult men. The inclusion and exclusion of such activities in the textbooks are very likely

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to convey the learners a message about the range of the social activities men and women

can perform in relation to one another in the society. In this unequal relationship, men

indeed enjoy more power than women. Their power and then support from the patriarchal

society and women’s lack of awareness about their rights all cause women’s oppression.

Then there are instances as follows where men, unlike women, can be seen representing

several adventurous activities.

The stooping figure of my mother, waist-deep in the grass and caught there

like a piece of sheep’s wool, was the last I saw of my country home as I left it to

discover the world. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 1-3)

Naturally, I was going to London, which lay a hundred miles to the east; and it

seemed equally obvious that I should go on foot. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 37-39)

In these extracts, a boy is leaving his home for London. He has been represented brave

and determined because he is moving towards London alone on foot. He regards his act

of leaving home as discovering the world.

From the very moment that Tara took her first step forward, I was filled with

a complete sense of security, cocooned, wrapped in cotton-wool. I knew that

while this wonderful, benign animal, lumbered below me, nothing could go

wrong. From twelve feet up the view was spectacular. (OUP 1, p. 39, l. 1-5)

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My imagination ran riot, and I became the ‘King of Bliss’ surrounded by a

thousand elephants, reveling in the horror and fear of my foes. (OUP 1, p. 39,

l. 11-12)

In these extracts, a man is riding an elephant and imagines himself a king.

Few people have entered the centre of a thunderstorm unprotected, and lived

to tell of it. One of them was a US pilot, William H. Rankin, a decorated

veteran of two wars. (OUP 1, p. 60, l. 1-4)

In this extract, there is a pilot from USA. He was stuck in a thunderstorm when he was

forced to eject from an aeroplane at 47,000 feet, with the temperature at nearly minus 60

degrees. Luckily enough, he survived in the incident.

The dark and gloomy orchard and the little unpainted house, mossy with

dampness, drew us. I remember being out at night a good deal and I can’t for

the life of me remember how I got out or back into my own house again. The

four of us chickennecked kids hid in the black shadow of the cypress hedge

and looked at the lighted window glowing among the trees, and eventually, by

boasting and daring one another, we overcame out cowardice and moved

quietly into the orchard and crept with held breaths toward the uncurtained

window. (OUP 2, p. 11, l. 41-50)

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In this extract, a group of four boys enters the house of a miser named Mr. Kirk to tease

him for fun. Being out at night is nothing less than an adventure for them.

Living underground requires a seismic psychological shift. One has to plan

every action, however small and seemingly insignificant. (OUP 2, p. 114, l. 1-3)

I became a creature of the night. I would keep to my hideout during the day,

and emerge to do my work when it became dark. I operated mainly from

Johannesburg, but I would travel as necessary. I stayed in empty flats, in

people’s houses, wherever I could be alone and inconspicuous. (OUP 2, p. 114,

l. 11-15)

These lines are about Nelson Mandela and his underground activities during apartheid in

South Africa. All of these extracts show that men are adventurous. As compared to these

instances, there is not a single one related to women’s adventures. Therefore, it can be

easily concluded that men are represented primarily as brave and determined and thus

capable of taking expeditions and risks in their lives whereas women cannot.

In the following example men are shown as enjoying drinking on a night out with friends

perhaps as a gesture of male bonding

The car started. It was full of young white men. They were drinking. I watched

the flask pass from mouth to mouth. (OUP 1, p. 160, l. 52-53)

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We find here a group of young men in festive moods. Once again we do not find any

women in the OUP textbooks that gather and enjoy life out of their homes as men do in

this instance.

In the next instance, men have been represented as leaders and, therefore, their activities

reflect their leadership qualities.

He (Nelson Mandela) joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944 and

in 1949 became one of that black-liberation group’s leaders, helping to

revitalize the organization and engaging in increasingly militant resistance

against the apartheid policies of the ruling National Party. Mandela went on

trial for treason but was acquitted. (OUP 1, p. 88, l. 4-9)

After the massacre of unarmed Africans by police forces at Sharpeville in 1960

and the subsequent banning of the ANC, Mandela abandoned hiss nonviolent

stance and began advocating acts of sabotage against the South African

regime. (OUP 1, p. 88, l. 11-15)

I may conclude this part of my discussion regarding representation of men’s social

activities outside home by saying that, unlike women, men are very active out of their

homes. That is, they represent a lot of social activities. Moreover, not only the range of

their activities is quite wide but also there is a lot of variety in their activities. They work

as learners, helpers, fighters, oppressors, adventurers and leaders. Women, if compared to

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them, have been represented very passive outside their homes. They represent only a few

social activities which lack both in range and variety.

My mother had gone up to the Warden’s Office in nearby Camden town to get

my elder sister’s birth certificate… (OUP 1, p. 7, l. 12-13)

She had gone out long before dawn to complete her ‘task’, as a cutter’s

yardage of cane was called. (OUP 1, p. 9, l. 87-89)

In both the instances, the women represent ordinary activities. In the first sentence, a

woman has gone out of her home to fetch her daughter’s birth certificate. Her coming out

of her home is not for her own purpose but for her daughter. In the second sentence, the

woman is out of her home to work in the fields. Though it shows a break with the

stereotypes usually associated with the female sex yet its impression is not as strong as of

the boy’s adventure of leaving his home for England as discussed above. In both of these

sentences and in a few other similar instances in the textbooks, the women’s acts of

leaving their homes for the places nearby show that, unlike men, their working sphere is

limited and they are supposed to work within it.

In the PTB English textbooks, the representation of social roles outside home by men and

women is not much different from the one given in the OUP English textbooks. Men

have also been represented as learners and leaders in them. However, the things they

learn are mostly different from the ones they learn in the OUP textbooks. For instance, a

man’s learning of riding, sword fighting and other skills of warfare in his youth in the

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following lines is in a stark contrast to the boy’s planning to go abroad for education in

the OUP textbooks.

During his youth he had attained enough skill in horse riding and sword

fighting. He had also learnt other skills of warfare. He led many expeditions.

(PTB 9, p. 8, l. 4-7)

All important point is that no woman in both the textbooks neither represents the act of

going abroad alone for learning nor represents the act of learning the skills of warfare. In

other words, they have not been represented as foreign learners and soldiers or warriors.

Back in the third century A.D., the Chinese king sent his son Prince Tai to the

temple to get education from the great master, Pan Ku. Prince Tai was to

succeed his father as king. Pan Ku was to teach the boy the basics of a good

ruler. When the Prince arrived at the temple, the master sent him alone to the

Ming-Li Forest with the advice to meditate and discover the various sounds in

the forest. (PTB 9, p. 33, l. 1-8)

In this extract, a young boy who is a prince is being prepared for the role of a king. He is

learning how to be a good ruler.

Then there are instances in the PTB textbooks where some of men’s social activities are

almost the same as we have observed in OUP textbooks. They are related to driving and

leadership and are as under:

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A taxi driver, going from Rawalpindi to Islamabad was rashly driving the taxi.

He went zigzagging through the heavy traffic. Sometimes he turned to the

right and then suddenly turned to the left, squeezing through the traffic. (PTB

10, p. 66, l. 1-5)

To free the Muslims from the British and Hindu rule, he (Quaid-e-Azam)

worked hard day and night, despite his failing health. (PTB 10, p. 94, l. 54-56)

Thus men represent the roles of driver and leader in the PTB textbooks as well with some

minor differences. The taxi driver in this extract is regarding car driving as an adventure

whereas, in the OUP textbooks, a man goes to learn how to drive a car. Similarly, there is

a description of a leader in each textbook who work hard for the freedom of their people.

The PTB textbooks include a lesson about Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (the

founder of Pakistan) and the OUP textbooks about Nelson Mandela. In my discussion

about the instances mentioned above, the thing to be noticed is the exclusion of women in

the representation of the roles of drivers and leaders. The situations where men and

women are represented together, women are relegated to the background and men occupy

the central, decision-making positions, as pointed out earlier (p.??) in an extract from

(PTB) where Uncle Jamil drove the entire family to Liberty Market. Similarly, in the

following instance, a man and a woman – father and daughter – are going in a car to

attend a marriage ceremony. The former one is driving the car whereas his daughter is

sitting.

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Farah looked out of the car window. The entire front of the house was

illuminated with coloured lights and tube lights were erected all along the

pathway. Rows of cars on both sides of the road, extending a furlong away

from the main gate, made it much easier to find the house, and Farah’s father

did not lose his way at all. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 1-7)

Another common feature of both the PTB and OUP textbooks is the representation of a

wider sphere of social activities by men. In other words, unlike women, men’s social

activities are mostly not related to their children, family and homes. Men’s social

activities are mostly related to their society, country and the world. The description of

Nelson Mandela is one of the many examples in the OUP textbooks. The instances from

the PTB textbooks are as under:

Hazrat Ali (RA) was noble, kind hearted and a man of righteousness…Gentle

in behaviour and affectionate in conduct he set the noblest example of

character to the world. Even during his Khilafat he remained simple in living

and courteous with the poor. (PTB 10, p. 46, l. 1-6)

He (Hazrat Umer bin Abdul Aziz (RA)) invited some prominent people to a

dinner. (PTB 10, p. 62, l. 10)

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) was not only a preacher of religion but also the

greatest reformer of the world… When he started preaching God’s message,

the idol worshipper of Arabia became civilized people. (PTB 9, p. 1, l. 2-8)

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The treatment of women regarding the representation of social roles / activities outside

home in the PTB textbooks is much different from that of men. Women represent only a

few social activities out of their homes. Some of these social activities are stereotypes

and some of them are a break with the stereotypes in the textbooks. Those which show a

break with the traditional representation of women’s social activities are as follows:

Rawalpindi’s only exclusive park for women, “Fatima Park”, in Satellite

Town, B-Block is facing administrative and financial crisis. The park is

turning into a jungle…Commonly known as Ladies Park, it was visited by

women from the adjoining areas of Banni, Rehmanabad, Affendi Colony and

Shamsabad in the morning and evening. (PTB 9, p. 56, l. 1-9)

“In the beginning, the park was looked after, but then nothing was done,” said

a woman when she was interviewed by a journalist. (PTB 9, p. 56, l. 10-12)

“There was a hall for exercise. It had equipment for exercise, but now all

equipment is gone. No one uses the hall because there is nothing left now,” said

another woman who had joined another club for exercise. (PTB 9, p. 56, l. 3-

17)

In the first extract, women have been represented as visitors of park for women while in

the second and third extracts they raise their voice against the bad condition of the park

and demand its repair. Thus women show a break with their traditional roles in two ways:

firstly, they are coming out of their houses alone for their own purposes and not for the

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purpose of the members of their family as we have discussed above; and, secondly, they

start realizing their rights as human beings – demand for the repair of their park.

The following sentences represent a stereotypical social activity of women:

Soon the barat (marriage procession) arrived. Each woman was loaded with

jewellery around her neck, on her head, in her ears, on forearms and fingers.

(PTB 10, p. 81, l. 16-18)

The sentences describe an occasion i.e. marriage procession, and how women beautify

themselves in marriages particularly in the Pakistani context. The second sentence ‘Each

woman was loaded with jewellery around her neck, on her head, in her ears, on forearms

and fingers.’ exaggerates women’s social activity of beautifying themselves. It intends to

generalize that all women lavishly decorate themselves with jewellery on such occasions

as marriage. In a sense, it represents women as objects of beauty which are supposed to

be decorated with certain things like jewellery in order to look beauteous before others –

women and men.

So far I have discussed about the discriminatory or unequal representation of social roles

or activities by men and women inside as well as outside the domain of home in the OUP

and PTB English textbooks. And I have found that both the English textbooks mostly

carry stereotypes regarding the social roles represented by men and women. Moreover,

their roles are also at variance with one another. Inside home, men’s roles and activities

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are less limited in range than the ones represented by women; whereas outside home,

there is a wider variety of men’s roles and activities than those of women. Along with

this, it seems necessary to discuss or at least mention those instances where both the

sexes represent some social roles or activities together. In other words, we must also

discuss the balanced or equal representation of social roles or activities by men and

women either inside home or outside home in the PTB and OUP textbooks.

In the following instance, three sisters and a brother leave their home for London.

It was a bright Sunday morning in early June, the right time to be leaving

home. My three sisters and a brother had already gone before me; two other

brothers had yet to make up their minds. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 9-12)

In the following instances, a husband and his wife are working outside their home. The

man is tying a cow and the woman is working alone in the field.

My father tied the cow under the mango tree at the back of our mud house.

(OUP 1, p. 8, l. 36-37)

She had gone out long before dawn to complete her ‘task’ as a cutter’s

yardage of cane was called. She was working alone when the cane stalk

penetrated her heel. (OUP 1, p. 9, l. 87-90)

In the next examples, a girl and a boy are vendors. The girl is selling towels and the boy

is selling flags.

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A young girl with a dark, charming face,

Head covered by a loosely draped, dirty dupatta

Looks at me with black eyes,

Thrusts towels against my window

And begs me to buy. (OUP 1, p. 26, l. 8-12)

Fourteenth of August.

A tribute to the boy who

Still sees the glamour of the flag

Through hard metal and

Eternally turning wheels,

Through dust and gas and grime,

Through choking fumes,

Exhausted.

Buy my flag! Buy my flag

So that I can pull myself out of

Searing flames of engine heat

And hellish, gnawing need… (OUP 2, p. 32, l. 19-22)

Finally, we see in the instance given below that a man and his wife are serving food to

their grandfather – an activity mostly performed only by women.

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...the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they

(his son and his wife) gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even

enough of it. (OUP 1, p. 157, l. 5-7)

We may conclude the ongoing discussion by saying that there is discriminatory as well as

neutral representation of social roles and activities by men and women inside and outside

home in both the PTB and OUP English textbooks. However, the neutral representation

of these social roles and activities is far less than the discriminatory one in quality as well

as quantity. That is, men represent various and more roles than women. Regarding the

latter paradigm, we can see more examples in the second part of this chapter which is of

content analysis. This part deals with the over all counting of roles and activities of men

and women in the textbooks.

5.1.4) Gender Bias Regarding Attributes

This section deals with the attributes mentioned in the PTB and OUP English textbooks.

It focuses only on those attributes the textbook discourses associate with men and

women. Attributes may simply be defined as qualities of a person. However, this does not

mean that attributes are only positive qualities such as ‘strong’, ‘powerful’, ‘independent’

and ‘hardworking’ rather they refer to negative qualities such as ‘dependent’, ‘poor’,

‘ugly’ and ‘lazy’ as well.

The dichotomous categorization of positive and negative attributes is quite useful in the

naturalization of ideologies in discourses – including textbook discourses. Attributes are

usually taken for granted. Mostly people seldom think of how attributes help one stand

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out among the others. In other words, it must be realized that attributes play an important

part in the positive and negative representation of persons particularly in the textbook

discourses. Men and women are supposed to have certain qualities due to frequent

association of certain attributes with men and women in different discourses. Cralley and

Ruscher (2005, p. 301) observes that ‘females are expected to be dependent, non-

competitive, submissive, nurturing, intuitive and to possess a higher moral and aesthetic

sense than men’. They further observe that ‘…some individuals expect women to possess

certain qualities and to behave a certain way; failure to conform to stereotypic

prescriptions is unwelcome’ (p. 301).

It is important to note that attributes may be explicit and implicit. For instance, they are

explicit in ‘Women fear lizards.’ and they are implicit in ‘Men are not talkative.’

Needless to say, the explicit ones are easier to be noticed than the implicit ones. In the

first sentence, women have been represented as ‘cowards’ because they fear lizards and

in the second sentence, they have been implicitly represented as ‘talkative’.

This section deals only with the implicit attributes – the ones which are hidden in

discourses. The attributes which are explicit in textbook discourses have been discussed

in the next chapter i.e. quantitative analysis. The explicit and implicit attributes have been

discussed separately because the latter ones are more complicated than the explicit ones.

They are so in a sense that one piece of discourse is often multi-attributive – they carry

more than one (implicit) attribute at one and the same time. Their examples can be seen

below.

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5.1.4.1) Representation of Attributes in the OUP English Textbooks

The textbooks under analysis carry a good number of implicit attributes, though less than

the explicit ones, by associating certain qualities with male and female characters. In

order to avoid creating a jumble of implicit attributes in our discussion, these attributes

have been put in different categories such as abilities; appearance; character; education;

feelings; power; and socio-economics. It is important to mention here that there are a

large number of positive and negative attributes associated with men and women in each

category and it will be quite difficult to discuss all of them over here. Therefore, the

present research analyzes only a few attributes in each category. Let us discuss these

categories one by one along with the instances which they appear in from the OUP

English textbooks first. In order to remember and compare the attributes represented by

men and women, a table of attributes will also be given at the end of each section for the

readers’ convenience. The table also includes those attributes we might not discuss due to

lack of space or due to a large number of instances related to any particular category in

the textbooks.

5.1.4.1.1) Attributes Related to Abilities

Men and women represent a number of abilities in the OUP textbooks. Abilities are the

physical and mental skills that help one be able to do something which most of the other

people cannot. Men represent more abilities than women. First we look at the abilities

represented by men.

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The stooping figure of my mother, waist-deep in the grass and caught there

like a piece of sheep’s wool, was the last I saw of my country home as I left it to

discover the world. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 1-3)

In this instance, a boy is leaving his home for discovering the world; hence, he has been

represented as a discoverer.

‘I am. I’ve been meaning to come talk to you. I’m glad you called me in. I’ve

worked on this invention for a long time. ‘It’s been a dream of mine. It has to

do with the structure of certain atoms. If you study them you find that the

arrangement of atoms in steel armour is such-and-such an arrangement. I was

looking for an imbalance factor. I majored in physics and metallurgy, you

know. It came to me, there’s a Rust factor in the air all the time. Water

vapour. I had to find a way to give steel a “nervous breakdown”. (OUP 1, p.

141, l. 59-67)

Similar to the previous one, this instance represents a man as an inventor. Along with

this, he has been shown intelligent enough to invent a thing that can rust iron or the things

made of iron or steel.

But now I have decided…Nobody thought an aeroplane would ever fly,

nobody thought an atom would an atom would ever explode, and nobody

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thinks that there can ever be Peace, but there will be.’ (OUP 1, p. 142, l. 104 &

105-8)

This sentence has been taken from the same lesson from which comes the previous one.

The man’s determination is quite noticeable in his last words ‘but there will be.’ Thus he

is determined to invent what he wants to.

They sent a man to ask him,

and he came – bringing only his

honest reputation as the very

best builder of bridges in the central provinces.

But that had been years ago.

He could not have known

of subsequent techniques.

Would the gamble work?

He said nothing to allay their doubt,

explained nothing,

just got off at the railhead

and walked up and down the bank

of the fast stream, prodding

at the ground with his stick,

and stopped,

and stopped there thinking.

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The men who had sent for him

hovered anxiously.

They must have thought the old man mad.

But he knew bridges. Build here,

he said, making a sign,

then walked back to the station

to wait for his train. (OUP 2, p. 53-4, l. 20-43)

In this extract, a primitive man who is a builder of bridges has been called in to point out

the most suitable place for the construction of a new bridge over a stream after the failure

of some bridges over the same one. Implicitly, he is being represented as an intelligent

person who does not know much about modern science and technology related to bridges.

However, he is much reliable due to his intelligence and experience of building of

bridges in the past.

I simply don’t know what’s wrong with my son, Asad. He is handsome, tall,

obedient, and a good student, but let me be honest, when Allah was giving out

brains, the boy was not standing in line. (OUP 2, p. 55, l. 1-4)

In all of the above previous instances, positive attributes have been attached with the

male characters. This instance as mentioned above is the only one where a boy represents

a negative attribute – he has been represented as dull.

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The mother’s attribution of boy’s intelligence to Allah refers to an interesting religious

belief in Pakistan under which things including from a failure in exam to an unnatural

death of a person are mostly accepted as God’s will and, therefore, nothing and no one is

blamed for that; for instance, a doctor is not taken to account if his/her negligence caused

any person’s death. Importantly, such beliefs are necessary to sustain the domains of

power a lot – these ideologies minimize the chances of resistance since the powerful are

not mostly blamed for their wrongs or, let me say, ideologies. Instances of such

ideologies that attribute things like death, life, success, failure, power, etc. only to God

are found particularly in religious discourse in Pakistan. Hence, this is how ideologies

and worldviews are established through discourses.

Similarly, in the instance above, intelligence is typically being attributed to Allah; neither

to genes (biology) nor to socialization (sociology). No one is dull, it is the relativity of the

IQ (intelligence quonent) or the genes that we inherit and the cultural training to think

critically that makes people dumb or dull – these are labels to put people down. Also, this

is an interesting exception to the general rule that girls are labeled as dull, which goes to

show that if there were more boys/men represented as dull or unintelligent then we will

begin to associate these attributes with them, hence no one is inherently dull or

intelligent.

As compared to the male characters, the female characters represent only a few attributes

related to abilities in the textbooks. The instances are as follows:

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‘We have to try spelling first, Ma,’ I cautioned, ‘then we can do sentences.’ My

father laughed at this family schooling effort, but Ma was not put off; and

neither was I. (OUP 1, p. 8, l. 51-54)

In this instance, a woman who is a mother is trying desperately to learn how to write and

read. In this regard, she is determined enough and, therefore, cares less what others say

about her efforts. Importantly, along with her, her son has also been represented as

determined – one more male character with a positive attribute.

The authorities on genetics are unanimous in agreeing that the male

chromosomes are no more likely to carry the spark of genius than the female

chromosomes. (OUP 2, p. 93, l. 13-15)

Presumably this sentence regards both the sexes intelligent. However, as it further reads,

biologically, women are likely to be more intelligent than men.

Thus in the category of abilities, we have seen that the male characters represent a

number of attributes related to discovery, invention, determination, intelligence and also

dullness. There are only two places in the textbooks where women represent positive

attributes regarding abilities: at one place, a female character has been shown determined

and, at the other place, women have been generally regarded as more intelligent than

men. The following table shows the attributes represented by men and women in the

category of abilities.

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Table 5.1: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to abilities in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Abilities (M) Discoverer, inventor, determined, intelligent (2), stupid /

dull.

OUP Abilities (W) Determined, intelligent.

Negative attributes have been italicized.

(M) and (W) stand for ‘men’ and ‘women’ respectively.

Number in brackets just after an attribute shows the number of times it occurs in

the textbooks.

5.1.4.1.2) Attributes Related to Appearance

In the category of appearance, I see how male and female characters look to us. In simple

words, attributes in this category are related to men’s and women’s physical appearance

represented through language in the OUP textbooks. Not surprisingly, unlike the previous

category where men represent more abilities, the implicit attributes related to appearance

in this category are dominated by women. There is only a single instance related to a

male character’s appearance. It is as follows:

I observe Mr Pen’s fingers. They are long, fat and large. His legs are huge

tubes encased in flannels and beneath them, visible through a hole in his socks,

plops his mordant toe. I feel sorry for Mrs Pen. (OUP 2, p. 7, l. 28-31)

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This instance contains information about some parts of Mr. Pen’s body who is Mrs. Pen’s

husband. These parts include fingers, legs and toe. The description of his fingers, legs and

toe is negative because the words ‘long, fat and large’ in contrast to ‘short, thin and

small’ do not show any moderateness in their size. Moreover, there is no word in co-text

which implies any attractiveness of his fingers. The description of his legs is also

negative. The word ‘huge’ implies that his legs are not moderate but extremely large in

size. Similarly, a metaphorical expression ‘huge tubes encased in flannels’ has been

employed to describe his legs. It implies that his legs are like a large pipe covered with a

soft clothe; hence, Mr. Pen’s legs are too long. The last sentence in the extract ‘I feel

sorry for Mrs Pen’ means that the writer is feeling pity and sympathy for Mrs. Pen for

having such a husband who does not appear attractive to the writer. In short, we can

assume from the lines given above that Mr. Pen is not an attractive person. However, at

the same time, his long, fat and large fingers; huge legs and mordant toe also refer to his

tall and strong body.

The attributes related to the female characters’ appearance are different. For instance,

Mrs. Pen is different from her husband in appearance in the same sentence we have

analyzed just above. It is important to see the last sentence ‘I feel sorry for Mrs Pen.’ in

this extract which implicitly describes Mrs. Pen as an attractive or a pretty woman in

contrast to Mr. Pen. Similar attributes may be observed in the next instances.

At the traffic lights,

A young girl with a dark, charming face,

Head covered by a loosely draped, dirty dupatta

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Looks at me with black eyes,

Thrusts towels against my window

And begs me to buy. (OUP 1, p. 26, l. 7-12)

The use of certain attributes in this extract such as ‘young’ (girl) and ‘dark, charming’

(face) in the second line; ‘covered’ (head) in the third line and ‘black’ (eyes) in the fourth

line are enough to imply the beauty or attractiveness of the female character.

…… And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow… (OUP 1, p. 76, l. 9-11)

Once again a woman has been described beautiful but in a different way. The mention of

a lover who is singing or sighing with a ballad – a love song – composed for his

beloved’s eyebrows, indirectly refers to the beauty of his beloved; hence, a beauteous

beloved with beauteous eyebrows.

I talked a good-enough game to convince them to give me the job. But

truthfully, there was little reason for them to hire me other than the promise

of youth. I was 18, and soon after that first meeting, I was on the air. (OUP 1,

p. 154, l. 8-11)

These lines refer to the youth of a woman unlike the previous instances where attributes

refer to the facial beauty of female characters. It can also be said that, unlike them, these

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lines refer to the attractiveness of a body – bodily beauty – rather than that of a face. In

this way, these lines, in effect, again describe the beauty of a female character.

In short, in the category of appearance, we have seen that attributes used for men refer to

their physical power and strength whereas attributes used for women refer to their beauty,

loveliness and attractiveness of their bodies or faces. It should not be wrong to assume

from these messages that men are supposed to be tall, stout and strong whereas women

are supposed to be young and pretty. The following table shows the attributes associated

with men and women above.

Table: 5.2 Men’s and Women’s attributes related to appearance in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Appearance

(M)

Strong / stout.

OUP Appearance

(W)

Old / weak / senile (2), beautiful (2), young, darker,

gaunt and gray.

5.1.4.1.3) Attributes Related to Character

In this category, we deal with the attributes related to men’s and women’s character in the

textbooks. These attributes are the qualities that make one a particular kind of person. It

must be remembered that these qualities may be negative or positive. In this category, the

male characters again dominate the female ones. The instances are as under:

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I went up and down the streets

Here and there by day and night,

Through all the hours of the night caring for the poor who were sick.

Do you know why?

My wife hated me, my son went to the dogs.

And I turned to the people and poured my love to them. (OUP 1, p. 11, l. 1-6)

Then in the early sixties my grandfather’s business collapsed, a victim of

recession and his own unending willingness to give credit to those who would

never repay him. (OUP 2, p. 50, l. 75-77)

In both of these instances, the male characters represent a positive attribute i.e. altruism.

In the first one, there is a town doctor who cares for the poor people more than his wife,

son and even himself. Be it night or day, he rushes them who are ill to give them medical

treatment. In doing so he neither cares for his wife nor looks after his son. His sole wish

is to pour his love on the poor who are sick. In the second sentence, the grandfather is too

kind to give loan at the cost of his own business to those who never intended to return it.

Thus both of the male characters can be regarded as altruistic, kind, and caring – all are

positive attributes – in the above-mentioned lines.

There had been eight to ten of them. God bless Bha! As they were running,

Bhau had grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him into a small shed next to a

tea-shop. Bhau knew that he was a Muslim. Bhau was a Hindu. Why had he

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run? Bhau had told him that a bloodthirsty mob never stopped to find out the

names of its victims. Its thirst was either quenched by blood or by fire. Burn it.

Kill him. Destroy everything. Its anger cools down only when nothing

remained before it. (OUP 2, p. 35, l. 83-91)

Yasin wanted someone to come in? A Hindu? A Muslim? Let it be another

Hindu. He may be kind-hearted like Bhau. How readily had Bhau made him

wear his sacred thread and escorted him from the tea-shop up to his own small

room. He had kept Yasin there for four days. (OUP 2, p. 35, l. 115-120)

In these extracts, the character of Bhau has been represented as hospitable and a saviour

of Yasin, a Muslim who was stuck in riots in the city of Bombay. He has also been

represented as kind-hearted for, in spite of being a Hindu, he saved the life of a Muslim –

Yasin.

The positive attributes associated with the male characters are many more than the

negative attributes in numbers. There are only a few negative attributes in this regard.

The next instance attaches a negative attribute to a male character.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear

Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored

him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or

woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of

Scrooge. (OUP 1, p. 104, l. 20-24)

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The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye

upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying

letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much

smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge

kept the coal-box in his won room… (OUP 1, p. 106, l. 16-21)

In these lines, there is a character of Scrooge who has been shown miserly in his

treatment of the others and, therefore, a person whom no one likes. The male characters

in the next lines also represent negative attributes:

‘Get off this estate.’

‘What for?’

‘Because it’s mine.’

‘Where did you get it?’

‘From my father.’

‘Where did he get?’

‘From his father.’

‘And where did he get it?’

‘He fought for it.’

‘Well, I’ll fight you for it.’ (OUP 2, p. 23, l. 1-10)

‘Knock it off,’ he invited me.

I hesitated for a moment, then acted; I brushed the rock from his shoulder and

ducked and grabbed him about the legs and dumped him to the ground. A

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volcano of screams erupted from the crowd. I jumped upon the fallen boy and

started pounding him. Then I was jerked up. Another boy had begun to fight

me. My straw hat had been crushed and forgotten. (OUP 2, p. 71, l. 35-45)

There are a number of male characters – boys – in these lines. In the first extract, a boy is

fighting the other one to usurp his piece of land which his (the latter one’s) father fought

for in the past. The second extract is a scene from a school where three boys are fighting

one another. Thus all of the male characters in these lines have been attributed

aggressive, quarrelsome and fighting in a stark contrast to what we see in the following

instances carrying attributes related to the female characters.

…my mother had got up early and cooked me a heavy breakfast, had stood

wordlessly while I ate it, her hand on my chair, and had then helped me pack

up my few belongings. There had been no fuss, no appeals, no attempts at

advice or persuasion, only a long and searching look. (OUP 1, p. 3, l. 12-17)

My mother only said

Thank God the scorpion picked on me

and spared my children. (OUP 1, p. 64, l. 46-48)

The light fell upon the other’s face. It was a young girl’s, wet with tears… He

said, ‘Sit down, sit down and rest… no, no… go up two more steps and sit

down. Don’t sit so near the water…’ She obeyed. (OUP 2, p. 76, l. 28 & 29)

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In all of these extracts, the female characters come up with certain attributes. In the first

one, there is a mother whose son is preparing to leave for London early in the morning.

Her love and care for the son make her sacrifice sleep to cook him ‘a heavy breakfast’.

The same feelings have, of course, enabled her to endure a melancholy while parting

from her son. In short, she has represented a number of positive attributes at one and the

same time. That is, she is a loving, caring and sacrificial mother.

In the second extract, there is again an image of a loving and sacrificial mother who

thanks God on being prey to a scorpion in place of her children. In the last extract, there

is a young girl who acts upon what the other person (a watchman as mentioned in the

lesson) says to her; hence, she has been represented as an obedient girl.

To sum up, we can see in the following table that men represent more attributes than

women. However, they also represent two negative attributes which women do not. The

attributes represented by women are three (each attribute counted once).

Table 5.3: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to character in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Character (M) Altruistic / caring (2), kind / hospitable, miserly,

quarrelsome (2).

OUP Character (W) Loving / caring (4), sacrificial, obedient.

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5.1.4.1.4) Attributes Related to Education

In the category of education, the representation of the male characters is somehow more

positive than their female counterparts. Though professional positions represented by

various characters such as captain, pilot, doctor, nurse, novelist, etc help us guess their

academic qualification to a certain extent yet for the purpose of our analysis here only

those instances of textbook discourses have been selected which are directly related to

education.

The window gives onto the white trees.

The master looks out of it at the trees,

for a long time, he looks for a long time

out through the window at the trees,

breaking his chalk slowly in one hand. (OUP 2, p. 100, l. 1-5)

A male character has been represented as a master (school master as mentioned in the

lesson) – an educated person – in these lines. Quite similar to it is the following example

where a woman is a teacher:

Instead of school I go to Mrs Pen’s. (OUP 2, p. 6, l. 1)

In both of the above instances, the attribute i.e. teacher, associated with the man and the

woman is positive. There is one more instance of such type with a male and a female

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character. But they have been attributed differently. The man has been positively

attributed and the woman has been negatively attributed. It is as follows:

When her turn came to be served, she had made the mistake of writing her X

mark in the wrong place on the request form. A recently educated clerk had

abused her needlessly. He called her ‘an ignorant coolie’. (OUP 1, p. 8, l. 15-

18)

The attribute explicitly attached with the male character is positive in a sense that he has

been called an ‘educated clerk’. The usage of ‘an ignorant coolie’ for the female

character shows that she has been regarded as ‘uneducated’ and ‘illiterate’ – negative

attributes – as compared to the male clerk. The following table shows the attributes

represented by men and women in the category of education:

Table 5.4: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to education in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Education (M) Teacher.

OUP Education (W) Illiterate, teacher.

5.1.4.1.5) Attributes Related to Feelings

The category of feelings deals with the attributes implicitly related to characters’ feelings

like sadness, anger, happiness, determination, confidence, etc in the textbooks. The

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instances related to characters’ feelings are more (i.e. twenty-two) than those in the other

categories. However, as mentioned above, I shall be dealing only with a few of them.

Importantly, out of these twenty-two instances, only two are related to women. The

instances related to men are as under:

In the teahouse, some soldiers were boasting about their recent campaign. The

local inhabitants crowded eagerly around them to listen.

‘And,’ one fearsome-looking warrior was saying, ‘I took my double-edged

sword and charged the enemy, scattering them to right and left like chaff. We

carried the day.’

There was a gasp of applause. (OUP 1, p. 1, l. 1-12)

These lines represent some soldiers who have recently come back from a campaign and

are sharing their feelings with the local people. One of them is boastfully talking about

his brave deeds and their victory in the battlefield. Thus he and the other soldiers have

been represented as boastful and brave.

‘What do you want?’

The sergeant shrugged and looked at his hands. ‘To live in peace. To learn

that during the night, somehow, the guns of the world had rusted, the bacteria

had turned sterile in their bomb casings, the tanks had sunk like prehistoric

monsters into roads suddenly made tar pits. That’s what I’d like.’ (OUP 1, p.

140, l. 10-15)

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The lines represent the feelings of a sergeant for peace in the world. His wish for the end

of weapons of war in a night and love for peace represents him as a peace-loving man.

Importantly, this is in sharp contrast to ideology of jihad in the PTB textbooks discussed

above (see chapter 4, section 4.4). However, in the next instance from the same lesson,

we see a different sort of person:

‘Listen, listen!’ screamed the Official. ‘Go after him, get him, with your hands,

choke him, with your fists, beat him, use your feet, kick his ribs in, kick him to

death, do anything, but get that man. I’ll be right out!’ (OUP 1, p. 144, l. 171-

4)

As compared to the previous character (of sergeant), we find an aggressive official in

these lines from the same lesson. Somewhat similar attribute has been represented by the

male characters in the next lines:

One morning, while I was polishing brass out front, the boss and his son drove

up in their car. A frightened black woman sat between them. They got out and

half dragged and half kicked the woman into the store. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 12-

15)

After a moment or two I heard shrill screams coming from the rear room of

the store; later the woman stumbled out, bleeding, crying, holding her

stomach, her clothing torn. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 19-21)

…When I went to the rear of the store…the floor was bloody, strewn with

wisps of hair and clothing. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 19 & 26-7)

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In these lines, the boss and his son have been shown bringing a woman in their car and

then beating her for not paying their bills (as mentioned in the lesson). Thus their

treatment of the black woman represents them as violent and cruel. Though it may not be

fair to call these attributes – violent and cruel – positive yet they point towards men’s

physical strength, power and dominance whereas women are regarded as dominated and

physically weak creatures due to deprivation of such representation. It is necessary to

mention that I have also used somewhat similar data from the same lesson for the

analysis of racism against the blacks in the OUP textbooks (see chapter 4, section 4.6). It

is important to see how racism now intersects with representations of gender in this

section.

The next instances also represent men with clearly positive attributes.

Suddenly, the man stood up in his place. He stood and looked all around.

There was no sign of fear or nervousness on his face. (OUP 2, p. 34, l. 46)

The man represents fearlessness and confidence in these lines in spite of riots everywhere

in the city of Bombay (as mentioned in the lesson).

He suddenly jumped from his hiding place. That man looked at him with

shocked surprise. He put his hand in his pocket. Yasin didn’t know where he

got the strength from. He shouted, grabbed the man’s legs and threw him out.

(OUP 2, p. 36-37, l. 161-164)

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These lines have been taken from the same lesson from which come the previous lines.

Here is another character named Yasin who hid himself in one corner of a compartment

in the moving train during riots in Bombay. He was very frightened when a stranger – the

man described in the previous instance – entered the compartment. He mistook him,

thinking he was a Hindu; hence, an enemy of him. In order to get rid of him, at last he

decided to make a desperate effort to throw him out of the train. Needless to say, the

attribute attached with Yasin is ‘desperate’. Importantly, men usually represent such

attributes in discourses. Therefore, it should not be wrong to regard the next as a break

with this stereotypical representation where the man, Yaisn, is frightened from his

assumed enemy.

His nerves were on edge with fear. As he sat his knees shook so much it seemed

as if he was about to have an epileptic fit. (OUP 2, p. 33, l. 1-2)

Suddenly, Yasin saw a shape emerge from the other end of the compartment.

He nearly fainted. His knees began to tremble again. (OUP 2, p. 34, l. 39)

The rattling of the other door startled him. That man had now shut both the

doors at the other end of the compartment. He stared for sometime in the

direction where Yasin was hiding. Fear gripped him once again. Why was that

man shutting the doors of the compartment? Did he want to kill him, and,

leaving his blood-soaked corpse on the train, get off at the next station? (OUP

2, p. 35, l. 92-98)

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Yasin found it difficult to breathe. Terror had made life impossible. Why

doesn’t that man take his hand out of his pocket? It was obvious from the look

in his eyes that he was about to attack. (OUP 2, p. 36, l. 148-151)

It does not seem fair to regard Yasin as just ‘a frightened man’ after reading these

extracts. This is because there are many words in them such as ‘nerves were on edge with

fear’, ‘knees shock’ and ‘to have an epileptic fit’ in the first extract; ‘nearly fainted’ and

‘knees began to tremble’ in the second extract; ‘rattling … startled him’ in the third

extract and ‘fear gripped him’, ‘difficult to breathe’ and ‘terror...made life impossible’ in

the last extract, which suggest that he was ‘very frightened’. This point is also

strengthened by the fact that there are a number of instances related to his fear in the

lesson. The ones given above are a few of them. The repetitive description of his fear is

important in a sense that it shows an emphasis on the negative attribute associated with a

male character.

It is important to suppose if there were a woman in the compartment instead of a man

could Yasin be so much frightened? Most probably ‘not’. This is because discourses

hardly carry such ideologies. There is only one place in all of the four PTB and OUP

textbooks where a woman has been shown scolding an old man for falling the bowl down

in the latter textbooks. It is as under:

There was once a very old man … Once … his trembling hands could not hold

the bowl and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife (the wife of the

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old man’s son) scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. (OUP 1, p.

157, l. 1 & 8-11)

In the next instance, a man has been shown very sad and grieved.

Seeing her suffer, he found his own sorrows came to his mind; how in those

far-off times, in his little village home an epidemic of cholera laid out his

father and mother and brothers on the same day, and he was the sole survivor;

how he was turned out of his ancestral home through the trickery of his

father’s kinsmen, and he wandered as an orphan, suffering indescribable

hunger and privation. (OUP 2, p. 79, l. 82-88)

‘Every one has his own miseries,’ he said. ‘If people tried to kill themselves for

each one of them, I don’t know how often they would have to drown.’… He

remained silent and a sob broke out of him as he said: ‘I prayed to all the gods

in the world for a son. My wife bore me eight children. Only one daughter

lives now, and none of the others saw the eleventh year.’ (OUP 2, p. 79, l. 89-

97)

In these lines, there is a watchman who is sharing his sorrows with a young woman who

is also sad because her step mother wants her not to study more but marry as early as

possible. Both the characters have been shown sad in the lesson. However, the character

of the watchman represents a more negative attribute. That is, he could not bear the

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memory of his circumstances and started sobbing; hence, he is less brave than the

woman.

Now we come to women and their representation of feelings. Like their representation of

attributes in most of the other categories, they represent fewer feelings as compared to

men. Moreover, unlike men, they do not represent strong feelings such as boast,

aggressiveness, violence and desperateness. The instances related to them are as under:

‘Where are you applying?’

‘Nowhere,’ he said.

‘Nowhere!’ I screeched so loud that his father came running. He doesn’t like

anything to upset me. ‘Look at your son!’ I said turning to my husband, ‘ask

him. Just ask what this boy has done!’ (OUP 2, p. 55, l. 23)

‘Asad beta (son), you know how dear you are to me. And only a mother can

know what is good for her son, na (isn’t it)? (OUP 2, p. 56, l. 68)

Both of these instances have been taken from the same lesson. A woman being a mother

shows feelings of anger in the first extract and feelings of affection in the second one. In

the first extract, the words ‘‘Nowhere!’ I screeched so loud’ convey her feelings of anger

to us. In the second extract, the line ‘Asad beta (son), you know how dear you are to me.’

carries her feelings of affection. She is angry with her son for not applying to foreign

universities for higher education and she shows him much affection to know the reason of

it. In short, the attributes associated with the female characters in the category of feelings

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differ with those associated with the male characters to a great extent in the OUP

textbooks as shown in the table below. Men have been shown boastful, confident,

aggressive, violent, desperate, frightened and sorrowful whereas women have been

shown angry and affectionate. Needless to say, the attributes associated with men project

a stronger image than those associated with women.

Table 5.5: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to feelings in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Feelings (M) Boastful, adventurous (2), confident (4), restless, cool /

patient,

enthusiastic, peaceful, violent, (2), frightened (4),

fearless, desperate,

sorrowful.

OUP Feelings (W) Angry.

5.1.4.1.6) Attributes Related to Power

In this section, I shall analyze the characters’ power. Power here means the strength,

authority, influence, and ability many of the characters represent in textbooks through

their actions, practices, discourse, and roles in relation to the other characters. Keeping in

mind that textbooks are always a representation of society, I discuss here the male and

female characters’ certain actions, practices, discourse, and roles to see who hold

political, physical, social, and professional power in society.

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In this regard, first of all, I would like to recall the instances taken from the lesson ‘Black

Boy’ (OUP 1, pp. 159-1160) where a white man and his son brought a black woman and

severely abused her physically at their store. All of those instances represent men as

powerful human beings. The discourse in that lesson shows that men hold enough

physical and social power to publically bring (to their shop) and beat the opposite sex.

The other instances related to the category of power are as follows:

For little has changed in the decade since Christine Craft sued a Metromedia,

Inc., station in Kansas City for removing her from her anchor job after the

news director said she was “too old, too unattractive and not deferential to

men”. (OUP 1, p. 154, l. 26)

As far as anyone ever knew, the ten cents’ worth of middling was all Mr Kirk

ever bought. First the daughter faded and sickened and died, and soon after,

Mrs Kirk went the same way. The coroner said they had starved to death; we

would call it malnutrition now – but there was no evidence of violence. (OUP

1, p. 154, l. 32)

The first instance refers to men’s social as well as professional power. Women are

required to be young, attractive and deferential to men for the continuance of their jobs

particularly in media. They are too powerless and helpless to live their lives or do their

jobs in their own ways. Moreover, women have been represented as objects of beauty

which have to be attractive for their survival in the patriarchal society. In the second

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instance, Mr. Kirk holds power at home. He controls household expenditure and,

therefore, buys wheat for home himself. In this way, health of the female members of his

family depends on the quantity and quality of wheat he brings at home. In short, the

instances given above represent men as powerful beings in their treatment of women in

business, in professional organizations and at home.

So far as the position of women in the category of ‘power’ is concerned we do not find

any instances related to their power except the following one where a woman has been

found scolding her old father-in-law.

There was once a very old man … Once … his trembling hands could not hold

the bowl and it fell to the ground and broke. The young wife (the wife of the

old man’s son) scolded him, but he said nothing and only sighed. (OUP 1, p.

157, l. 1 & 8-11)

In this regard, it is important to note that, unlike men in the instances given above, she is

not alone in scolding him rather her husband – the old man’s son – is there to support her.

In other words, she might not have much power without her husband’s support as implied

in the following instance:

……when he (the old man) sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and

spilt the broth upon the table cloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and

his son’s wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in

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the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware

bowl, and not even enough of it. (OUP 1, p. 157, l. 2-7)

Following are the attributes represented by men and women in the category of power

above:

Table 5.6: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to power in OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Power (M) Socially powerful (2), professionally powerful,

domestically powerful.

OUP Power (W) Socially powerless (2), professionally powerless,

domestically powerless.

5.1.4.1.7) Attributes Related to Socio-economics

Finally, we have the category of socio-economics. It deals with the characters’ jobs they

represent in the textbooks to make a living. It must be clear that we are not concerned

here with the characters’ professions because we have already discussed this aspect

above. Professions are the jobs in organizations for which people need special training or

education. But here we are mainly concerned with the characters’ self employment. A

look at the instances of the representation of self employment by the characters will help

us know to which sex ideologies related to earning or making a living are imported more.

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At a fruit stand, we pause.

Mangoes, melons, plums, apricots,

Heap after heap with dancing bananas in the sky.

The shopkeeper leaps, grabs cherries, weighs

And gives them to the lady in gray. (OUP 1, p. 27, l. 23-26)

While he earns his bread

by knots per square inch,

only a muezzin’s call away

at the shrine of the great sage (OUP 1, p. 96, l. 9-12)

He was engaged in making kites all the year round and by the time the kite-

flying season arrived, his kites were ready for action, the bamboo battens

having become free of moisture which made them very light and

manoeuvrable. The connoisseurs would buy up a stock of kites from him to

last the whole season. (OUP 1, p. 132 & 133, l. 35-39)

My life now depended upon my finding work, and I was so anxious that I

accepted the first offer, a job as a porter in a clothing store selling cheap goods

to Negroes on credit. (OUP 1, p. 159, l. 1-3)

Fourteenth of August.

A tribute to the boy who

Still sees the glamour of the flag

Through hard metal and

Eternally turning wheels,

Through dust and gas and grime,

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Through choking fumes,

Exhausted. (OUP 2, p. 32, l. 1-8)

Buy my flag! Buy my flag

So that I can pull myself out of

Searing flames of engine heat

And hellish, gnawing need… (OUP 2, p. 33, l. 19-22)

……the bakery in Sakinaka, where he worked, had been set on fire? (OUP 2,

p. 35-36, l. 79-80)

My grandfather ran his own garage business and made a good income in the

postwar years when cars began to appear for the first time on Ireland’s

narrow roads. (OUP 2, p. 50, l. 65-67)

The above-mentioned extracts are the instances of men’s self employment. They have

been shown working as shopkeeper, carpet weaver, kite maker, potter, vendor, baker and

businessman in these instances respectively. As compared to the number of instances of

self employment represented by men, those represented by women are only two. They are

as follows:

A young girl with a dark, charming face,

Head covered by a loosely draped, dirty dupatta

Looks at me with black eyes,

Thrusts towels against my window

And begs me to buy. (OUP 1, p. 26, l. 8-12)

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Instead of school I go to Mrs Pen’s. (OUP 2, p. 6, l. 1)

In the first extract, there is a young girl who has been represented as a towel vendor. In

the second extract, there is a woman named Mrs. Pen and she is a tutor. The instances

related to men’s self employment are far more than women’s and this unequal

representation impart many ideologies to the young learners. For instance, firstly, one of

the attributes associated with the male sex is ‘bread winner’ or ‘maker of living’ and

therefore, they are to do it as their duty; secondly, men are supposed more than women to

do some job to make a living; and finally, representation of men with their jobs is a norm

or a necessary phenomenon whereas representation of women with their jobs is not as

necessary as men’s. Their representation of attributes related to socio-economics is as

follows:

Table 5.7: Men’s and Women’s attributes related to socio-economics in OUP

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Socio-economics

(M)

Earners / breadwinners (6)

OUP Socio-economics

(W)

Earners / breadwinners (2)

So far we have been dealing with the representation of attributes by men and women in

the OUP English textbooks. We have analyzed their representation in the following areas:

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abilities; appearance; character; education; power; and socio-economics. And we have

seen that men’s representation of attributes dominate women’s both in quality (positive

attributes) and quantity (in numbers) in most of the categories. There is only one category

i.e. appearance, where women represent more attributes and they relate to their beauty

and age. All of the categories and the related representation of attributes by men and

women in the OUP textbooks are presented below in a table. It will help us compare them

conveniently with the attributes represented in PTB English textbooks. Moreover, it also

includes those attributes we could not discuss above due to lack of space. First there is a

list of attributes represented by men in the OUP English textbooks:

Table 5.8: Attributes represented by men in the OUP textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Discoverer, inventor, determined, intelligent, stupid / dull.

Appearance Strong / stout.

Character Altruistic / caring (2), kind, miserly, quarrelsome (2),

Education Teacher

Feelings Boastful, adventurous (2), confident (4), restless, cool / patient,

enthusiastic, peaceful, violent, (2), frightened (4), fearless,

desperate,

sorrowful.

Power Socially powerful (2), professionally powerful, domestically

powerful.

Socio- Earners / breadwinners (6)

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economics

The following is a table of attributes represented by women in the OUP English

textbooks:

Table 5.9: Attributes represented by women in the OUP textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Determined, intelligent.

Appearance Old / weak / senile (2), beautiful (2), young, darker, gaunt and gray.

Character Loving / caring (4), sacrificial, obedient.

Education Illiterate, teacher.

Feelings Angry.

Power Socially powerless (2), professionally powerless, domestically

powerless.

Socio-economics ………………….

Figures in brackets tell the number of attribute/s represented by men and women in the

OUP textbooks. The italicized words are negative attributes.

We can see men dominating women in the representation of implicit attributes in the

table given above. As mentioned above, the positive attributes associated with the male

characters are more in number than those associated with the female characters i.e.

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twenty-one out of twenty-seven if each attribute is counted once. The positive attributes

associated with the female characters are only eight out of sixteen. Similarly, the negative

attributes associated with the female characters (i.e. eight) are more in number than those

associated with the male characters (i.e. six). Moreover, men have been given attributive

representation in all of the categories whereas women do not represent any attribute in the

last category of ‘socio-economics’. Let us now see how men’s and women’s attributes

represented implicitly in the OUP textbooks differ from or are similar to the ones

represented implicitly in the PTB textbooks.

5.1.4.2) Representation of Attributes in the PTB English Textbooks

In the PTB English textbooks, I shall deal with the representation of attributes in the same

categories that I used in the previous section i.e. abilities; appearance; character;

education; feelings; power; and socio-economics. It is to be noted that the category of

‘appearance’ is not included here. We have the category of ‘status’ instead. This is

because instances related to the former category have not been found. Therefore, the

instances related to ‘status’ which have been found many, are chosen for this part of

analysis.

5.1.4.2.1) Attributes Related to Abilities

First of all, we are going to analyze the attributes related to abilities. The instances related

to men’s abilities in the PTB textbooks are as under:

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During his lifetime as a Muslim he took part in more than twenty expeditions

and did not lose in a single one. (PTB 9, p. 9, l. 31-33)

There were lots of shops of eatables and toys in the city fair. Hina was tempted

to eat ‘fruit chaat’ but her brother stopped her from eating it and said, “Look!

There is a lot of dust around. It is unclean. Don’t eat it.” (PTB 9, p. 100, l. 1-5)

Nothing could keep back our Quaid from his resolve to transform the thought

of Iqbal into reality, for everybody knew that the Quaid always meant what he

said. (PTB 10, p. 93, l. 8-11)

Everybody knew that he (Quaid-e-Azam) always meant what he said. Once he

took a decision, he stood by it, no matter whatever the difficulties in the way.

(PTB 10, p. 94, l. 35-37)

All of the above instances implicitly associate positive attributes with the male

characters. In the first instance, there is a man (Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed) who

participated in more than twenty battles and remained successful in all of them; hence, he

has been represented as a successful person. Another image that comes into our mind is

of a commander or a warrior or a soldier who always stood ‘victorious’ in the battlefield.

In the second instance, unlike his sister, the brother has been shown too strong to be

tempted by ‘fruit chaat’. In the next third and fourth instances, we find the same attributes

also associated with some of the male characters in the OUP textbooks. That is, Quaid-e-

Azam – the founder of Pakistan – has been represented as determined and resolute. One

thing which makes these instances different from the OUP ones is the absence of any

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negative attribute associated with men in the category of abilities. It is better to remind

ourselves that a male character represents a negative attribute i.e. ‘stupid / dull in the

OUP textbooks. The attributes men represent in the OUP and PTB textbooks have been

given below for comparison:

Table 5.10: Men’s attributes related to abilities in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Abilities Discoverer, inventor, determined, intelligent, stupid / dull.

PTB Abilities Victorious / winner / successful, invulnerable, determined /

resolute,

determined (3), confident.

Now let us have a look at the attributes associated with the female characters in the PTB

textbooks. The instances that carry them are as under:

There were lots of shops of eatables and toys in the city fair. Hina was tempted

to eat ‘fruit chaat’ but her brother stopped her from eating it and said, “Look!

There is a lot of dust around. It is unclean. Don’t eat it.” (PTB 9, p. 100, l. 1-5)

The next morning Hina could not get up for school. Her mother noticed that

she was running high temperature and had a sorethroat. Her mother called

the doctor. (PTB 9, p. 100 & 101, l. 19-22)

Hazrat Ayesha (RA) was blessed with an amazing memory. (PTB 10, p. 21, l.

8-9)

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Hazrat Ayesh’s (RA) wise counsels were sought and respected on all major

issues. (PTB 10, p. 21, l. 27-29)

The first instance has been mentioned again and the second one has been taken from the

same lesson ‘Doctor’s Advice’ (PTB 9, p. 100-102). In these lines, Hina has been

represented as unable to keep herself away from ‘fruit chaat’ and, consequently, she falls

ill. Here, two attributes have been associated with Hina – each line represents one

attribute. The first line shows her ‘weak’ in resisting ‘fruit chaat’ and the second one

shows her ‘vulnerable’ to fever. In the third and fourth instance, Hazrat Ayesha (RA) has

been represented as a mindful and wise woman.

In short, women’s representation of attributes in PTB textbooks is not as positive as it is

in the OUP textbooks because there women do not represent any negative attribute in the

category of abilities as mentioned below in the table:

Table 5.11: Women’s attributes related to abilities in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Abilities Determined, intelligent.

PTB Abilities Vulnerable, mindful, wise.

In the OUP books, the attributes associated with them are ‘determined’ and ‘intelligent’.

However, one thing which is common in both the PTB and OUP textbooks is men’s

domination in representing attributes. In total, they represent eleven attributes as

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discussed above and out of them only two are negative; whereas women represent only

five and out of them one is negative.

5.1.4.2.2) Attributes Related to Appearance

In this section, the discourse related to the physical appearance of male and female

characters in the textbooks will be in focus. It goes without saying that attributes related

to appearance impart certain ideological messages to the learners. They draw an abstract

picture of a man or woman in their minds while reading about them and, consciously or

unconsciously, form a certain opinion about them. This further leads them to expect

certain roles and practices from them. In short, the way men and women are physically

described in discourses matter a lot. Let us see how men and women have been

physically described in the PTB textbooks. It is important to note that the explicit

instances related to characters’ physical appearance in these textbooks are quite less than

the OUP textbooks. Importantly, men do not represent any instance related to appearance

in these textbooks. Though there are many implicit instances related to their appearance,

they will be discussed in the next chapter. Women represent a few explicit instances

related to their appearance and they are as follows:

Near the house itself, rows of young girls dressed in gold and silver and bright

eye catching colours, holding flower petals in baskets, were waiting for the

Barat. Soon the Barat arrived. Each woman was loaded with Jewellery around

her neck, on her head, in her ears, on forearms and fingers. (PTB 10, p. 81, l.

12-18)

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These lines are related to an event of Barat – wedding ceremony. They describe how girls

and women were dressed and ornamented (with jewellery) on the event. The description

of the dresses in relation to their bright colours and of jewellery in relation to the style

they have been worn point towards the effort the women and girls made to look beautiful.

Moreover, the metaphorical expression ‘loaded’, the mention of the parts of the body in

form of a list – neck, head, ears, forearms and fingers – and the use of prepositions along

with pronouns – around her, on her, in her, on – in the extract function altogether to

exaggerate women’s practice of wearing dresses and ornaments for a wedding ceremony.

In other words, they represent them as such objects which must be adorned lavishly so

that it may look attractive and, particularly, deferential to others – including men. Quite

importantly and interestingly, we do not find such discourse in the description of men in

the same lesson.

The male hosts were standing ready to receive their gusts. The Barat had not

yet arrived and young men with garlands and lowers were lining the pathway

on both sides. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 9-12)

Form an ideological point of view, the biased representation of women and the neutral

representation of men participating in the same event is very likely to give different

messages to young male and female learners. They will absolutely learn to act in a

different way on such occasions; hence, the textbook discourses tell them that they are

different.

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In short, women have been stereotypically represented as objects of beauty in the

instances given above. In the next instance from the same lesson, the repeated use of the

word ‘young’ is also ideological in the context of representing women as objects of

beauty.

She (Farah) saw a young woman coming to sit next to her. The woman was

dressed simply. (PTB 10, p. 81, l. 23-25)

The young lady inquired whether she had seen display of the dowry. (PTB 10,

p. 82, l. 34-35)

The young woman told her that only rich people could give all these to their

daughters. (PTB 10, p. 82, l. 50-51)

The use and the concepts attached with the word ‘young’ are different in different

contexts. Mostly it refers to the age of a person. From an ideological point of view, it is

important to see for whose description this expression is being used. Though it also

comes in the previous instance to describe men yet it comes only once. Similarly, there is

a place in the lesson where it has not been used for the same woman.

‘Oh well’ said the woman, ‘Silk dresses, sets of jewellery, pairs of shoes and

sets of bed linen and a fully furnished house with a car’. The lady explained

the dowry items that had just been displayed. (PTB 10, p. 82, l. 38-41)

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Thus the woman could be described without this expression. Its repeated use, therefore,

makes it ideological. I can also say that its repeated mention while describing a woman, if

not negative, is at least not neutral. The representation of women as young portrays them

as ‘pretty, lovely, physically fit and, in another context, inexperienced as well. This might

be connected well with the ideological concept of women as objects of beauty; hence,

women look really pretty in their youth. Importantly, I find the same message embedded

in the discourses of the OUP textbooks (see above the section 5.2.4.1.2 in this chapter).

I may now conclude my discussion by saying that men do not represent any explicit

attribute related to their appearance whereas women have been represented as beautiful

and young in the PTB textbooks. It must not be understood from my analysis that I

regard ‘beautiful’ and ‘young’ as negative attributes. I take them as positive attributes.

However, the way women are described to look as objects of beauty – as we have seen

just above – is extremely condemnable. Similarly, using the word ‘young’ in a way to

denote someone’s inexperience should also be disapproved. It will be useful to remind

ourselves that women, along with the other attributes, also represent beauty and youth in

the OUP textbooks. The following tables show attributes associated with men and women

above in both the OUP and PTB textbooks:

Table 5.12: Men’s attributes related to appearance in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Appearance

(M)

Strong / stout.

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PTB Appearance

(M)

……………..

Table 5.13: Women’s attributes related to appearance in the OUP and PTB

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Appearance (W) Old / weak / senile (2), beautiful (2), young, darker,

gaunt and gray.

PTB Appearance (W) Beautiful, young.

The tables show that a male character has been represented as strong or stout in the OUP

textbooks, which refers to his physical strength. Women, on the other hand, do not

represent any such attribute though they represent more attributes than men in both the

textbooks. Rather mostly they have been associated with those attributes that refer to their

weakness and old age. There are only two attributes (beautiful, young) which can be

regarded as positive attributes.

5.1.4.2.3) Attributes Related to Character

In this section, we deal with the attributes related to the category of ‘character’. There are

quite a number of such instances in the PTB textbooks and, therefore, we can discuss

only some of them.

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Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) disliked arrogance and pride. He said that an

Arab was not superior to a non-Arab or a white to a black. He believed that all

were the sons of Adam. No one was superior to another on the basis of caste,

colour or creed. For him, the standard of superiority was piety. (PTB 9, p. 2, l.

22-27)

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) was against the earning of money without

efforts……. Therefore, he took radical steps to eradicate usury. (PTB 9, p. 2, l.

39 & 41)

In the first instance, the Holy Prophet’s (SAW) dislike for arrogance and pride implicitly

represents him (SAW) as a humble man. In the second one, his dislike is for those who

want ‘earning of money without efforts’. In simple words, he liked those who were

employed, hardworking and active and not those who were idle and lazy. In this way, the

lines want the readers to regard the Holy Prophet (SAW) as hardworking, industrious,

energetic and active.

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) admired the valour and bravery of Hazrat Khalid

bin Waleed (RA) and gave him the title of “Saifullah” (sword of Allah). (PTB

9, p. 8, l. 17-19)

It should not be difficult to assume the attribute being associated with Hazrat Khalid bin

Waleed (RA) through the title ‘sword of Allah’ in the dependent clause in the sentence

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mentioned above. The context as produced by the independent clause indicates that

Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) was a brave and courageous soldier.

In the battle of Ohad, Hazrat Ali (RA) came across his worst enemy, Talha. In

hand to hand encounter, Talha was injured and fell down. Hazrat Ali (RA) left

him like that and walked away. (PTB 10, p. 46, l. 20-23)

In another battle his slave brought some sweet syrup saying, “My lord, the sun

is very hot and you have been constantly fighting, have a glass of this cold

drink to refresh yourself.” He (Hazrat Ali (RA)) looked around and replied,

“Shall I refresh myself when hundreds of people around me are lying

wounded and dying of thirst? Better give this cold drink to each of these

wounded persons.” (PTB 10, p. 46 & 47, l. 29-39)

On another occasion Hazrat Ali (RA) allowed his enemies to take water from

the river. When his officers objected to it, he (RA) said, “They are human

beings first and enemies later. I cannot think of refusing a man food and drink

because he is my enemy. (PTB 10, p. 47, l. 40-45)

All of the above-mentioned extracts have been taken from the lesson ‘Hazrat Ali’s (RA)

Humanism’ (PTB 9, p. 46-47). In the first extract, the representation of Hazrat Ali (RA)

is of a ‘forgiving’ person for he leaves his worst enemy when he fell down during fight

with him. In the second one, he has been represented as an ‘altruistic’ person who

sacrificed his own thirst for others. In the third one, he has been represented as a ‘kind’

person because he ‘allowed his enemies to take water from the river’. Thus he has been

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represented as ‘forgiving’, ‘altruistic and sacrificial’ and ‘kind’ in these instances. Next

we have the last instance of attributes related to men’s character.

When in England studying for law, Muhammad Ali Jinnah never wasted any

spare time he had. (PTB 10, p. 93, l. 18-19)

Once again an attribute ‘hardworking’ has been implicitly associated with a man –

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. We should remember that it first appeared in the

second sentence in the previous instances. However, it is important to note that this single

attribute is being conveyed in two different contexts: firstly, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is

hardworking because he never wasted time during his study of law in England; and,

secondly, the Holy Prophet (SAW) was hardworking because he disliked idleness and

laziness.

Before dealing with the analysis of women’s attributes it seems necessary to go through

the table given below about men’s representation of attributes related to character in the

OUP and PTB English textbooks.

Table 5.14: Men’s attributes related to character in the OUP and PTB English

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Character Altruistic / caring (2), kind, miserly, quarrelsome (2).

PTB Character Humble, hardworking / energetic, devoted, brave, loving,

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pious, honest, contented, forgiving, sacrificial / altruistic,

kind, serving, hospitable, hardworking, diligent /

disciplined / reader, honest, hardworking

All of the attributes that men represent in the PTB textbooks are positive as given in the

table above. In total, there are seventeen attributes. Therefore, men’s representation of

attributes regarding character in these textbooks is quite positive as compared to men’s

representation in the OUP textbooks. In the latter textbooks, men represent four attributes

and out of which two are negative.

So far as women’s representation of attributes in the PTB textbooks is concerned there

are eleven instances which represent women’s qualities related to character. Some of

them are as under:

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) used to relate to his companions the instance of a

Jewish woman. She was punished by God for starving her cat to death. (PTB

9, p. 16, l. 21-22)

Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) also used to relate another story of a woman who

found a dog dying of thirst. She took off her shoe and lowered it into a nearby

well and drew water from it. She gave it to the thirsty dog to drink. This good

deed earned her Gods’ forgiveness for all her previous sins. (PTB 9, p. 17, l.

24-27)

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Each of these instances associates an attribute with the women represented in the lines.

Both of the attributes are quite opposite to each other. In the first instance, there is a

woman who has been described cruel and unkind ‘for starving her cat to death’. In the

other instance, a woman has been shown kind for giving water to a thirsty dog. It is

important to note that in the previous instances men represented a positive attribute i.e.

hardworking, in two different contexts. And here we see two women representing a

positive and a negative attribute in similar contexts – treatment of animals. Thus men’s

representation of attributes may safely be regarded as more positive than women’s. Even

more important point is the association of the former attribute i.e. cruel and unkind, with

a woman which is an unusual representation of a woman. Needless to say, men usually

represent such attributes in discourses. An instance of it is their representation of

attributes related to character and feelings such as quarrelsome and violent respectively in

the OUP textbooks. Though the attributes ‘cruel’ and ‘unkind’ are of course negative,

they show a break with the stereotypical representation of women in textbook discourses.

The rural woman has always worked with her male members in the fields. She

shares the work of man on equal level. She works from dawn to dusk at home

and in the fields. (PTB 9, p. 40, l. 38-40)

In these lines, the image of a rural woman is of a ‘hardworking’ woman. It is conveyed to

us in two ways: firstly, she works with men in fields and her work is no less than theirs;

and, secondly, she works from morning till evening. This is the only place in the PTB

textbooks where women implicitly represent this attribute whereas men represent this

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attribute twice as discussed above. Thus the textbooks carry this assumption that, though

women are (or can be) hardworking, men are more hardworking than women.

But Rebecca recollected,

She was taught deceit to shun;

And the moment she reflected,

Told her mother what was done; (PTB 9, p. 86, l. 9-12)

These lines have been taken from the poem ‘Truth the Best’ (PTB 9, p. 86) by Elizabeth

Turner. This poem is about a little girl, Rebecca. Her mother taught her to always speak

the truth. Once a china basin by chance fell down from her hand in the kitchen and was

broken. She chose not to go away quietly but told her mother the reality. In this way, the

above-mentioned lines represent her as a truthful girl.

Hazrat Ayesha (RA) seldom kept the money and gifts she received. She

promptly distributed them among the needy. Once during the month of

Ramadan when Hazrat Abdullah Ibne Zubair presented her a purse of one

lakh dirham she distributed them before breaking her fast. (PTB 10, p. 22, l.

45-50)

In the beginning of the first extract, Hazrat Ayesha (RA) has been described as a woman

who did not keep her money and gifts. Rather she was used to distribute them among the

needy. This description is further supported by an incident in which she distributed one

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lakh (a hundred thousand) dirham in a day in the holy month of Ramadan. Thus these

lines represent her as a generous woman.

Soon the barat (marriage procession) arrived. Each woman was loaded with

jewellery around her neck, on her head, in her ears, on forearms and fingers.

(PTB 10, p. 81, l. 16-18)

This extract also shows women spending a lot of money. But the way they spend is quite

different from the previous extract and thus implicitly associates a negative attribute

‘spendthrift’ with them. The phrase ‘loaded with jewellery’ show their extravagant

spending on their jewellery. Moreover, these lines also represent women as ‘objects of

beauty’ whose beauty, unlike men’s, is under an obligation to jewellery as implied by the

sentence.

The next extract is a complete poem ‘My Mother’ (PTB 10, p. 88) by Ann Taylor. The

reason of taking full poem from the textbooks is a plenty of purely stereotypical attributes

the discourse in the poem associates with women when their role is of mothers.

Who sat and watched my infant head,

When sleeping on my cradle bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother.

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The first and second line of the stanza portrays the scene when a mother sits, watches and

sleeps with her infant child when it is asleep. It denotes her care for her child.

Attributively, a mother is described here as caring. Then the third line of the stanza

simply represents her as an affectionate mother.

Who dressed me in clothes nice and gay

And fondly taught me how to play

And minded all I had to say?

My Mother.

These lines associate three attributes with a mother. In the first line of the stanza, once

again she has been described as caring. However, the context in which she has been

described so is different from the previous one – caring for her child’s dress. The second

line represents her as a teacher who teaches the child how to play. The second last line

describes her as patient to all that a child says to her. Thus in these lines, we see a mother

attributed as caring, patient and a teacher at one and the same time.

Who ran to help me when I feel,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss my head to make me well

My Mother.

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The first and third lines of the stanza describe the mother as helpful and loving respectively.

She is helpful because she would run to help her child when it needed. And she has been

described as loving because she would kiss her child to make it feel well. In the second line, her

description as storyteller is somewhat similar to hers as teacher in the previous instance. Both

the roles and attributes denote a close relationship between the mother and her child.

And can I ever cease to be

Affectionate and kind to thee,

Who was so very kind to me,

My Mother.

In the previous stanzas, several stereotypical attributes have been associated with a

mother. This stanza in form of a reply from an obliged and grateful (female) child to a

kind and affectionate mother, associates attributes with a young daughter. In other words,

the lines describe the attributes a daughter is supposed to represent when she is grown up

in relation to her old mother. The first line of the stanza describes her as resolute in being

much alike her mother in future. In simple words, she pledges herself to be affectionate

and kind towards her mother in future who was so in her past; hence, she feels obliged

and grateful.

When thou art feeble, old and grey

My healthy arm shall be thy stay

And I will soothe thy pains away

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My Mother. (PTB 10, p. 88, l. 1-20)

In the previous stanza, the attributes implicitly represented by the young girl were

resolute and grateful. The explicit ones were affectionate and kind. In this stanza, she

determines to be supportive, helpful and caring. In the first two lines of the stanza, she

resolves to support her weak and frail body with her healthy arms. And then her great

love and care ‘will soothe thy pains away’. In short, she has been described as supportive,

helpful, loving and caring. Now let us have a look at the attributes represented by women

in the category of ‘character’ in the OUP and PTB English textbooks.

Table 5.15: Women’s attributes related to character in the OUP and PTB English

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Character Loving / caring (4), sacrificial, obedient.

PTB Character Cruel / unkind, kind, awakened, hardworking, truthful,

generous, thankful, spendthrift, simple, caring (3),

affectionate, patient, teacher, helpful (2), loving (2), resolute,

obliged / grateful, supportive.

In the OUP textbooks, there are totally three attributes – each counted once – represented

by women. There is no negative attribute in them. In the PTB textbooks, women

represent eighteen attributes in total and out of them two are negative i.e. cruel / unkind

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and spendthrift. It is important to note that men do not represent any negative attribute in

these textbooks.

5.1.4.2.4) Attributes Related to Education

In the following section, I discuss men’s and women’ representation of attributes related

to education. Unlike the OUP textbooks where both men and women represent, though

very few, attributes related to education, the PTB give representation only to men –

women have been deprived of such representation. The only instance related to men’s

representation is as under:

He (the Holy Prophet (SA)) taught how to teach effectively. (PTB 10, p. 1, l.

19)

The Holy Prophet (SAW) has been represented as a teacher in this sentence.

The following table shows the representation of attributes related to education by men in

the OUP and PTB textbooks:

Table 5.16: Men’s attributes related to character in the OUP and PTB English

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Character Teacher

PTB Character Teacher

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It is clear in this table that though men represent only two attributes related to education

yet both are positive. The following table shows the representation of attributes by

women in the OUP and PTB textbooks:

Table 5.17: Women’s attributes related to education in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Character Illiterate, teacher.

PTB Character ………

The representation of attributes by women in the category of education is not equal to

men’s in two ways: firstly, unlike men, they represent a negative attribute i.e. illiterate;

and, secondly, they do not have any representation regarding attributes in the PTB

textbooks.

5.1.4.2.5) Attributes Related to Feelings

In this category, we critically analyze men’s representation of attributes related to their

feelings. In this regard, men represent a number of attributes and their instances are as

under:

Kindness is not confined to human beings alone, but to all living things. Hazrat

Muhammad (SAW) warned people against cruelty to animals. He (SAW)

advised his people to treat them with kindness. (PTB 9, p. 16, l. 15-19)

We caught the young baby birds…….

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When Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) arrived at the spot and came to know of the

incident, Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) said, “If anyone of you has caught the

birds, he must release them at once to comfort the mother bird.” (PTB 9, p. 17,

l. 37 & 40-44)

In these extracts, the Holy Prophet (SAW) has been implicitly represented as an

embodiment of kindness. We have also observed such implicit attribution in the previous

section; for instance, the Holy Prophet (SAW) teaches others how to teach effectively.

This indirectly describes his teaching as effective. Same technique has been employed

here. In both the extracts above, the Holy Prophet (SAW) advises people to be kind to

animals and birds. The first extract contains his warning to those who are cruel in their

treatment of animals; for instance, branding the faces of animals (as mentioned in the

lesson). In the second extract, he advises his disciples who had caught the young baby

birds, to release them at once. Thus his warning and advice to people regarding treatment

of animals/birds describe him as kind.

Let me tell you that you are a part of my body and soul. Whenever I look at

you I feel I am looking at myself. (PTB 10, p. 40, l. 1-2)

This line has been taken from the lesson ‘Father’s Advice’ (PTB 10, p. 40-42). The

lesson is about a father who is putting a piece of advice on paper for his son. The words

‘you are a part of my blood and soul’ in the first sentence and the second whole sentence

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indicate that he is a loving father. Thus the attribute ‘loving’ has been associated with

him.

An important thing in men’s representation of attributes regarding feelings is their

positiveness. We have discussed here two attributes i.e. kind and loving, and both are

positive. However, they are quite less in numbers than those represented in the OUP

textbooks. The table of men’s representation of attributes regarding feelings in both the

textbooks has been given below:

Table 5.18: Men’s attributes related to feelings in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Feelings Boastful, adventurous (2), confident (4), restless, cool /

patient, enthusiastic,

peaceful, violent,(2), frightened (4), fearless, desperate,

sorrowful.

PTB Feelings Kind, loving.

In the OUP textbooks as mentioned above in the table, men though represent a number of

attributes related to feelings yet some of these attributes are negative. In total, there are

twelve attributes and out of them five are negative. Thus the PTB textbooks associate

only positive attributes with the male characters whereas OUP textbooks associate both

positive and negative attributes with the male characters. However, as shown just above

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in the table, their negative attributes are less than the positive ones i.e. five and seven

respectively.

So far as the women’s representation of attributes regarding ‘feelings’ is concerned, there

is only one instance found in the PTB textbooks. It is as follows:

Who ran to help me when I feel,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss my head to make me well

My Mother. (PTB 10, p. 88, l. 9-12)

We have already discussed above the first and second line of the stanza which carries

attributes related to character. In the third line of the stanza, there is a mother who kisses

her child to make it feel well. Needless to say, her kissing of the baby shows her love for

it; hence, she is a loving mother.

As compared to this representation, women’s representation of attributes regarding

feelings in the OUP textbooks is quite negative. They associate only one attribute with

women and even that is negative. The attributes represented by women in both the PTB

and OUP textbooks has been presented in the table below:

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Table 5.19: Women’s attributes related to feelings in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Feelings Angry.

PTB Feelings Loving / kind.

If we compare women’s representation of attributes related to feelings to men’s, the data

cited above in tables clearly indicates that both the textbooks do not give equal

representation to women. The attributes represented by women are not even half to those

represented by the opposite sex.

5.1.4.2.6) Attributes Related to Power

In this category, we look at the characters’ attributes related to power. Representation,

here, is even more unequal than the previous section. Men represent one attribute and

women do not represent any attribute related to power in the PTB textbooks. The instance

is as follows:

……, my son, do not make yourself a slave of anybody. Allah has created you

a free man. Do not sell your freedom at any cost or in return for anything.

(PTB 10, p. 41, l. 57-59)

These lines have been taken from a lesson ‘The Father’s Advice’ (PTB 10, p. 40-42).

There are certain words in these lines that function to associate an attribute i.e.

independent, to the son. For instance, the words ‘do not make yourself a slave’

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presupposes that he is at present a free man. The second line is in fact an explicit

repetition of the previous implicit message – ‘you (are) a free man’. In the final line ‘Do

not sell your freedom…’ is some sort of advice or warning against selling of this freedom

and ‘…at any cost or in return for anything.’ implies that his freedom is worth neither

money nor anything else. Thus the overall image of the son is an ‘independent / free’ man

who has been strictly advised not to be ‘dependent / enslaved’.

Let us have a look first at the attributes represented by men in both the OUP and PTB

textbooks.

Table 5.20: Men’s attributes related to power in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Power Socially powerful, professionally powerful, domestically

powerful.

PTB Power Independent.

It is clear that men’s representation of attributes regarding power in the OUP textbooks is

more positive than that in the PTB textbooks. They associate three attributes with men

and all are positive. The PTB textbooks associate one positive attribute with men.

Following is the table of attributes represented by women in both the OUP and PTB

textbooks.

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Table 5.21: Women’s attributes related to power in the OUP and PTB textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Power Socially powerless (2), professionally powerless, domestically

powerless.

PTB Power …………

As compared to men’s representation of attributes regarding power, women’s

representation is quite negative in both the OUP and PTB textbooks. Men represent three

attributes in the former textbooks and one in the latter textbooks and, importantly, all of

them are positive. Ironically enough, women represent three attributes in the OUP

textbooks and all of them are negative. In the PTB textbooks, women have no attributive

representation at all in this regard; hence, an ideological exclusion of women’s

representation in the domain of power.

5.1.4.2.7) Attributes Related to Socio-economics

Unequal representation may also be observed in the category of socio-economics where

we are to analyze the attributes represented by men and women regarding earnings. We

find only one instance in the PTB textbooks where a male character is engaged in an

economic activity i.e. buying and selling of things. It is as follows:

She had read in her Islamic history that the groom had sold his armour to

purchase some essentials of daily use, like a prayer mat, a grinding stone, a

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sleeping mat, a pitcher for water, some cooking utensils and a pair of clothes

for the bride. (PTB 10, p. 82, l. 59-64)

This extract has been taken from the lesson ‘Two Wedding Ceremonies’ (PTB 10, p. 80-

83) and is about Hazrat Ali’s (RA) marriage with Hazrat Fatima (RA), the daughter of the

Holy Prophet (SAW). In these lines, the groom sells his armour to make some

arrangements for his marriage. With the money he received, he buys some household

items such as ‘a prayer mat’, ‘a grinding stone’, ‘a sleeping mat’, ‘a pitcher for water’,

‘some cooking utensils’ and ‘a pair of clothes for the bribe’. The engagement of Hazrat

Ali (RA) in such economic activity explicitly describes him as responsible for the

provision of household goods and implicitly as an earner to meet household expenditure.

Unlike the PTB textbooks, there are a number of instances related to men’s representation

of attributes related to socio-economics in the OUP textbooks as mentioned in the

following table:

Table 5.22: Men’s attributes related to socio-economics in the OUP textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Socio-

economics

Earner / breadwinner (6)

PTB Socio-

economics

Earner / breadwinner

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So far as women’s representation of attributes regarding socio-economics in the PTB

textbooks is concerned, they do not have any socio-economic representation. Ironically

enough, same is the condition of their representation in the OUP textbooks; hence, an

extremely unequal and biased representation of women’s socio-economics in both the

textbooks.

This representation is biased in a sense that they do not represent those women working

in Pakistan. The percentage of working women is 21.8 (LMIA 2009, p. 13) and they are

working in different sectors i.e. Agriculture 73.8 %, Industry 12.2 % and Services 13.9 %

(ibid.: p. 15). Moreover, their literacy rate is 43.6 percent. Ideologically, the textbooks

thus try to show that women are mostly inactive and, as compared to men, do not

contribute much towards the development of their country and the nation. Moreover, they

are also not much motivated to strive for a better life. Finally, we can see women’s

attributes related to socio-economics in both the textbooks in the following table:

Table 5.23: Women’s attributes related to socio-economics in the OUP and PTB

textbooks

Textbooks Category Attributes

OUP Socio-

economics

……………

PTB Socio-

economics

……………

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I here conclude my discussion about men’s and women’s representation of implicit

attributes in both the PTB and OUP English textbooks. In this conclusion, it will be quite

useful to have a summary of the numbers of attributes represented by men and women in

both the textbooks in form of tables. They are as follows:

Table 5.24: Men’s Representation of Attributes in the OUP English Textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Discoverer, inventor, determined, intelligent, stupid / dull.

Appearance Strong / stout.

Character Altruistic / caring (2), kind, miserly, quarrelsome (2).

Education Teacher.

Feelings Boastful, adventurous (2), confident (4), restless, cool / patient,

enthusiastic, peaceful, violent,(2), frightened (4), fearless, desperate,

sorrowful.

Power Socially powerful (2), professionally powerful, domestically powerful.

Socio-

economics

Earner / breadwinner (6)

Total = 7 Total Attributes = 28, Positive Attributes = 21, Negative Attributes = 7

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Table 5.25: Women’s Representation of Attributes in the OUP English Textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Determined, intelligent.

Appearance Old / weak / senile (2), beautiful (2), young, darker, gaunt and gray.

Character Loving / caring (4), sacrificial, obedient.

Education Illiterate, teacher.

Feelings Angry.

Power Socially powerless (2), professionally powerless, powerless

(at home).

Socio-economics ……………….

Total = 7 Total Attributes = 15, Positive Attributes = 7,

Negative Attributes = 8

Table 5.26: Men’s Representation of Attributes in the PTB English Textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Victorious / winner / successful, invulnerable, determined / resolute,

determined (3), confident.

Appearance …………

Character Humble, hardworking / energetic (3), brave, pious, honest, contented,

forgiving, sacrificial / altruistic, kind, serving, hospitable.

Education Teacher.

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Feelings Loving (2), kind, loving / serving, confident.

Power Independent.

Socio-

economics

Earner / bread winner.

Total = 7 Total Attributes = 24, Positive Attributes = 24, Negative Attributes =

0

Table 5.27: Women’s Representation of Attributes in the PTB English

Textbooks

Category Attributes

Abilities Vulnerable, mindful, wise.

Appearance Beautiful, young.

Character Cruel / unkind, kind, hardworking, truthful, generous, thankful,

spendthrift, simple, caring (3), affectionate, patient, teacher,

helpful (2), loving (2), resolute, obliged / grateful, supportive.

Education ………….

Feelings Loving / kind, kind.

Power ………….

Socio-

economics

………….

Total = 7 Total Attributes = 24, Positive Attributes = 20, Negative

Attributes = 3

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Negative attributes have been italicized.

Number in brackets just after an attribute shows the number of times it occurs.

Each attribute has been counted once.

More than one attribute implied by the same extract have been separated by an

oblique; however, such attributes have been counted only once.

We can clearly see that the textbooks associate a large number of implicit attributes with

men and women. This implicit representation is mostly hidden from the readers’ eyes

and, therefore, it was necessary to talk about this discursive dissemination of ideologies

regarding attributes. The present research finds out that the textbooks under examination

are biased in associating attributes with men and women. On one hand, men represent

more attributes than women (i.e. fifty-two and thirty-nine respectively), while on the

other, the positive attributes they represent are more in numbers than those represented by

women (i.e. forty-five and twenty-seven respectively). Owing to the representation of

positive attributes, the image of men portrayed in the textbooks is far stronger than that of

women.

Then we have also seen above how the PTB and OUP English textbooks vary to a certain

extent in associating attributes with men and women. In the former textbooks, men

represent twenty-four attributes and not a single out of them is negative. Thus their

positive representation is hundred percent. The OUP textbooks associate twenty-eight

attributes with men and out of them twenty-one (75 %) are positive and seven (25 %) are

negative. Women’s representation also comes up with similar differences. In the OUP

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textbooks, women represent fifteen attributes and out of them eight (53.33 %) are

positive and seven (46.66 %) are negative. In the PTB textbooks, women represent

twenty-four attributes and out of them twenty (83.33 %) are positive and three (12.5 %)

are negative. Let us have the overall percentage of men’s and women’s positive and

negative representation of attributes in a table:

Table 5.28: Overall Men’s and Women’s Positive and Negative Representation of

Attributes

Textbooks Total

Attributes

Men’s

+ Attributes

Women’s

+ Attributes

Men’s

- Attributes

Women’s

- Attributes

PTB 48 50.00 41.66 ……. 6.25

OUP 43 48.83 18.60 16.27 16.27

Note that symbols + and - stand for ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ respectively.

In this table, it is clear that both the PTB and OUP textbooks do not give men and women

an equal representation of attributes. Men represent more positive attributes than women

in these textbooks. It is important to note that the PTB textbooks associate more positive

attributes with women than the OUP textbooks. However, so far as negative

representation is concerned the results are different. The OUP textbooks give equal

representation to men and women in associating negative attributes with them. On the

other hand, the PTB textbooks are quite biased in this regard. That is, men do not

represent any negative attribute in them whereas women’s representation of negative

attributes is 6.25 percent.

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5.1.5) Role Models

A number of male and female personalities represented as role models particularly in the

PTB English textbooks are important in a way that most of the young learners idealize

their traits and try to internalize them. Therefore, the social roles and professions these

personalities represent are one of the sources that encourage the learners to adopt

particular social roles and professions in their lives. What is ideological regarding the

representation of role models is the inclusion and exclusion of certain personal traits of

their personalities. That is why the role models represented for the girls are contrasted

with those for the boys. The personalities which may be regarded as role models for boys

include the prophet Muhammed, his associates Khalid bin Waleed , Ali bin Abi Talib,

and the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It will be difficult to discuss all

these personalities so I talk about only Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA). On the other side,

Hazrat Ayesha (RA) is the only personality which may be regarded as a role model for

girls and the textbooks represent her as follows.

She proved herself to be extremely faithful, intelligent and a loving wife (of the

Holy Prophet SAW). (PTB 10, p. 21, l. 5-7)

…the most authentic reporter and scholar of the tradition of him (SAW).

(PTB 10, p. 21, l. 13-15)

Hazrat Ayesha (RA) continued to enjoy the most eminent position of “Ummul-

Momeneen”. (PTB 10, p. 21, l. 20-21)

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Though these traits such as ‘faithful, intelligent and loving’, ‘authentic reporter and

scholar’ and ‘Ummul-Momeneen’ may be exemplary for a Muslim woman, we shouldn’t

neglect the fact that Hazrat Ayesha’s (RA) other qualities related to battlefield and

recreation have not been mentioned. The young female learners are thus exposed only to

one bright side of their ideal which demands them to be what goes in favour of the

patriarchal Pakistani society, while the young male learners are exposed to other so called

manly traits such as courage, bravery, power and strength through another personality as

given below.

Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) was a great warrior of Islam. (PTB 9, p. 8, l.

1-2)

During his youth he had attained enough skill in horse riding and sword

fighting. (PTB 9, p. 8, l. 4-6)

The first sentence describes the personality of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) in relation

to religion Islam. Though its structure could also be ‘Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) was

a great Arab warrior’ or he ‘was a great Muslim warrior’, it would not have shown him as

high in his status as his description in relation to Islam had. The second line makes it

reasonable to argue that it was his ‘skill in horse riding and sword fighting’ that won him

the titles of ‘a great warrior’. As compared to the role model for girls, here we find a

totally different ideal for the boys who is energetic, adventurous, brave and strong. These

both sentences give an image of war where armies display their bravery to be successful

and, therefore, the soldiers are expected to be expert enough in war skills. But in the

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lesson ‘Hazrat Ayesha (RA)’ we find a calm and peaceful world where women have no

part in warfare – a concept that has no reality. This deliberately excluded fact diverts the

female students into certain professions seen as appropriate for their sex.

On another note, the representations are crucial in terms of differentiating between

women and men‘s roles and constructing discriminatory ideals for young Muslim

learners. As a role model for Muslim women, the text portrays Hazrat Ayesha (RA) in the

role of a loving and faithful wife to the Prophet (SAW) and Ummul-Momeneen, a mother

to all Muslims: her other traits are subsumed under these roles: she is represented as an

appendage to the Prophet (SAW); a reporter and scholar of his tradition; a spokesperson

not an individual with her own distinct voice. If this role model is to be emulated by

Muslim women they would be loyal mouthpieces of their husbands as she is portrayed, at

the expense of their own individuality. By contrast, the profile of Hazrat Khalid (RA) is a

highly individualized one in that he is not defined in terms of his relationships either to

the Prophet (SAW) or anyone else. It is suggested that owing to his qualities of bravery

and skill in warfare he attained a high position in society because of these inherent

qualities of his own character rather than his association with anyone else. If we compare

these two portrayals, there is an assumption that women’s position in society is

determined in and through their relationships with their men folk whereas men carve a

niche for themselves through their individual actions and achievements (Zubair and

Yaqoob 2008, p. 171).

276

Along with the ideological description of certain personalities, the textbooks have also

been found unjust in offering a variety of role models particularly to the female learners.

There is none other than Hazrat Ayesha (RA) against several influential male

personalities such as the Holy Prophet (SAWW), Hazrat Ali (RA), Hazrat Khalid bin

Waleed (RA), Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Dr. Muhammad Allama Iqbal

(national poet) in the PTB textbooks. This may reasonably be accounted for the high

percentage of government and non-elite schools students’ likeness for the male

personalities / characters. However, the positive representation of the male personalities /

characters is another factor and cannot be denied. The OUP textbooks come with a bit of

balanced diet. The elite-school students not only find Shakespeare and Nelson Mandela

and a positive representation of the male characters as seen above. They also find the

names of Angelica Kauffmann (18th century), Marie Laurencin, Georgia O’ Keefa, Laura

Knight and Ethel Walker (19th and 20th century) – but they do not come with a detailed

description either related to their work or personality. That is why though a meager

strength among the elite-school students is interested in personalities and characters yet a

little majority of them lean towards the male ones in the textbooks.

I would like to conclude my discussion by saying that it is reasonable to regard

knowledge, information and skills in the language textbooks as carriers of certain biases

that reflect the dominant views and beliefs of the patriarchal society (Leach 2003, p.

102). Let alone the hegemonic factor, mostly the learners under the influence of these

ideologies regarding gender are unable to realize their bias. In fact, years of schooling

expose them to such dominant patterns of gender relations and gendered behaviour that

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these biases either go unnoticed or are taken as neutral and unbiased. For instance,

women are normally considered to be portrayed in the textbooks as dependent, weak,

innocent, voiceless etc; while men to be represented as bold, resourceful, energetic,

independent etc and we (both sexes) accept them with the same attributions. Rather, they

are more acceptable for women than men (Wood 1999, p. 57). The need is to free our

textbooks from all kinds of gender biases so that our young learners may be exposed to

politically correct discourses and a variety and diversity of discourses on gender roles

from an early stage of life to reduce the inherent gender biases in a patriarchally

structured society like Pakistan.

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Chapter 6: Gender Representations: Quantification of Data

In the previous chapter, I have carried out a qualitative analysis of gender bias embedded

in the discourse of the PTB and OUP English textbooks. In this chapter, I carry out a

quantitative analysis of gender bias in the same textbooks. For this purpose, I use some of

the check lists proposed by some of the approaches discussed by Leach (2000); i.e.

Obura: Changing Images and UNESCO: Gender-Sensitivity: a Training Manual.

Quantitative analysis reliably deals with the numbers rather than the quality or nature of

something. The quantitative analysis of the gender theme is necessary and important in a

sense that it will supplement and further authenticate our findings as discussed in the

previous part.

It is important to remember that I have only talked about implicit gender ideologies in the

discourses of the above-mentioned textbooks in the previous chapter. In this chapter, I

shall deal with the explicit gender ideologies in the textbooks. Just like the previous part,

the analysis here focuses on men’s and women’s representation in the textbooks at three

levels: professional; social; and attributive. The instances of these representations have

been given in the tables in appendix. Let us start with the professional representation.

6.1) Gender Bias in Professions

This section deals with the unequal representation of professions by men and women in

the PTB and OUP textbooks under the following heads. I shall also discuss in them if the

said textbooks carry varying gender ideologies regarding professions.

Representation of Professions

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Representation of Powerful Professions

Equal Representation of Professions

Break with the Professional Stereotypes

6.1.1) Representation of Professions

This section deals with the total number of professions represented by men and women.

Men and women explicitly represent a number of professions in the PTB and OUP

English textbooks. The word ‘profession’ is often used to mean a ‘job’. However, for the

purpose of the present research, it has also been used for the one who does a job i.e.

professional. There are totally fifty-five professions represented in the textbooks. Table

6.1 shows the professions represented by men in the PTB textbooks. It shows that men

represent eleven professions in the PTB textbooks.

Women represent thirty-four professions in the PTB textbooks (see table 6.2). They

represent twenty-three professions more than men. It is important to mention that they do

not represent these professions by name. Rather gender-indicated nouns such as ‘women’

and ‘girls’ have been used to represent a profession in the lesson; for example, ‘Some

energetic young girls have also joined the police force (PTB 9, p. 39, l. 28-29). The credit

of making women represent more professions than men goes to a lesson titled ‘Women

Arise’ (PTB 9, p. 38-40). In this lesson, women represent all these professions except for

the last one i.e. headmistress. Needless to say, women represent only one profession if

this lesson is excluded from the textbooks. It has already been discussed above (see

chapter 5, section 5.1.1) that this lesson, like the lesson ‘Creative Women’ in the OUP

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textbooks, seems to be an ideological inclusion in the PTB textbooks. That is to say, its

inclusion might be due to ever increasing awareness of human rights among women in

the whole world.

In the OUP textbooks, men represent thirty-one professions (see table 6.3). The numbers

in brackets in the table denote the frequency of occurrence of these professions in the

textbooks. However, they have been counted once. Women represent fewer professions

than men i.e. twelve and thirty-one respectively (see table 6.4). It is important to note that

six out of these twelve professions have been represented in the lesson ‘Creative Women’

– the lesson which seems to be just a formality. This is a case somewhat like the PTB

textbooks where women have a strong professional representation just due to one lesson

i.e. ‘Women Arise’.

In short, there is a stark contrast between the PTB and OUP textbooks in the

representation of professions by men and women. Where women dominate men by

numbers (i.e. thirty-four and eleven respectively) in representing professions in the

former textbooks, they are dominated by men (i.e. twelve and thirty- one respectively) in

the OUP textbooks. However, the frequency of occurrence in PTB is not an indicator of

more balanced gender representation on the grounds discussed above.

6.1.2) Representation of Powerful Professions

Gender ideologies must not be regarded as limited only to numerical representation of

professions since all professions do not hold the same power and/or social standing. They

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vary in their authority, power and importance. It is thus important to see which sex

represents more powerful professions to find out the gender biases in the representation

of professions. This section therefore deals with the representation of powerful

professions by men and women. The problem in this regard is that it is not easy to decide

about the authority or power of a profession due to cultural variations – one profession

which is powerful in one culture may not necessarily be so in another one. In order to

determine the power of a profession in the Pakistani context, I draw upon Rahman’s work

who regards the following as domains of power in Pakistan: government: bureaucracies,

military, judiciary, education, research, commerce, and media (2002b, p. 41). However,

this ‘is only a trend and not an absolute principle in a modernizing country like Pakistan.

Moreover, his work is silent about whether the lower positions in each domain of power

may be regarded as powerful in the society; for instance, a school teacher in the domain

of education. I categorize below a profession or professional as powerful according to the

related domain and not according to the person’s position within that domain. According

to this formula in hand, men represent eleven professions in total and out of them, as this

table 6.5 shows, nine are powerful.

The powerful professions represented by women are twenty-six out of thirty-four

professions in the PTB textbooks as given in table 6.6. Though women represent more

powerful professions than men (i.e. nine) yet their representation is not as much positive

as men’s in percentage terms. That is to say, men’s percentage of representing powerful

professions out of the total professions is 81.81as compared to women’s which is 76.47.

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The powerful professions represented by men in the OUP textbooks, are twenty (see table

6.7) out of thirty-one as shown in table 3. On other side, the powerful professions

represented by women in the OUP textbooks are four such as ‘anchorwoman,

‘newswoman’, ‘news reporter’ and ‘teacher’ (see table 6.8). These are out of twelve

professions women represent in the OUP textbooks (see table 4). Thus, unlike the PTB

textbooks, men represent more powerful professions than women in the OUP textbooks.

Again unlike the PTB textbooks, men’s professional representation is more positive than

women’s in percentage terms i.e. 64.51 and 33.33 respectively.

To conclude in this section, the PTB and OUP textbooks vary in disseminating gender

ideologies regarding professions. In the former textbooks, women’s representation is

positive only in numerical terms – they represent more professions than men. But in

terms of percentage, men’s representation of powerful professions is higher than

women’s. In the OUP textbooks, men’s representation is more positive than women’s in

both the cases.

6.1.3) Equal Representation of Professions

This section deals with the equal representation of professions as well as positions within

these professions. That is to say, I will see if there are professions / positions represented

by both the sexes in the PTB and OUP textbooks. It is to keep in mind that there are a

few places in both the textbooks where men and women represent only professions –

their positions are not mentioned. In such a situation our focus will be on shared

professions rather than positions.

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In table 6.9, men and women share only four professions (doctor, headship, politician,

and farmer) of forty-five professions in the PTB textbooks. Similarly, men and women

share only four professions (vendor, reporter, teacher and doctor out of forty-three

professions in the OUP textbooks. However, they do not represent equal position (doctor

vs. nurse) in the last profession as mentioned in the table. It does not happen in the PTB

textbooks as shown in table 9. We can say that the PTB textbooks are less biased in

giving equal professional representation to men and women.

6.1.4) Break with the Professional Stereotypes

In this section, I discuss such professional representation of men and women in the

textbooks that shows a break with their typical professional representation in discourses.

Leach (2003) says that ‘women are portrayed exclusively as wives and mothers, or in low

income and unskilled paid work…’ while ‘men are only portrayed in action-oriented,

bravura roles and as characters devoid of weaknesses or emotions…’ (p. 103). We can

now identify men’s and women’s atypical representation of professions in the textbooks

in the light of her observation.

I do not find any instance regarding men’s break with the stereotypically professional

representation in the PTB textbooks. They represent eleven professions in total. Among

them there is also a profession of ‘driving’ (as mentioned in table 1). But I do not regard

it as a break with stereotypes associated with men for though driving is a low-income job

yet it is a skilled paid work or it shows a person’s skill and, unlike women, men usually

represent this skill in various discourses.

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Women represent a number of high income and skilled professions in the same textbooks

which are indeed a break with their stereotypically professional representation in

discourses. In total, there are thirty-four professions represented by women in the PTB

textbooks as shown in table 2. In table 6.11, there are thirty-two professions that show a

break with the stereotypical representation of women in discourses. The remaining ones

are ‘nurses and announcers’ which are usually associated with women in discourses.

In the OUP textbooks, men represent thirty-one professions as shown in table 3. Out of

them, three professions (beggar, doorman, and vendor) show a break with their typical

representation in discourses regarding professions (see table 6.12). Women represent

twelve professions in the OUP textbooks as shown in table 4 above. The professions that

show their break with the stereotypes are nine in numbers and are given in the table 6.13.

the remaining low-paid and low-positioned professions which are usually associated with

women are ‘towel-vendor, nurse and telephonist’.

We may now draw a comparison between the PTB and OUP textbooks regarding men’s

and women’s break with the stereotypical representation of professions. In the PTB

textbooks, men do not show any break with their professional stereotypes – they do not

represent any unskilled and low-in-income and low-in-value profession. On the other

hand, men represent three such professions (beggar, doorman, and vendor) in the OUP

textbooks that show a break with the stereotypes associated with them. Hence, men’s

representation of professions in the PTB textbooks do not show any break with

stereotypes as compared to their counterparts in the OUP textbooks. So far as women’s

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stereotypical representation is concerned, they represent thirty-four professions in the

PTB textbooks and out of them only two (nurses and announcers) may be regarded as

low in pay and status; hence, the remaining thirty-two hold a good image in the society.

In the OUP textbooks, women represent twelve professions and out of them three

(vendor, nurse and telephonist) may be regarded as ordinary professions. So we can say

that women’s representation of professions in the PTB textbooks is less stereotypical than

their counterparts’ in the OUP textbooks. It is quite important to see that this is only due

to the lesson ‘Women Arise’ in the PTB textbooks which mention thirty-two professions

Pakistani women are working in.

6.2) Gender Bias in Social Actions

Male and female characters represent a large number of actions such as ‘advising’,

‘believing’ and ‘saying’ in the PTB and OUP textbooks. These actions may reasonably be

called social actions for characters mostly perform them in relation to one another. This

section deals with the number of actions men and women represent in the said textbooks.

The counting of these actions can help us know which sex has been the focus of

representation more. In simple words, it is to see which sex has been given more

representation in regard to social actions.

Actions represented by men in the PTB textbooks have been given in the tables in

appendix. The counting of actions has been carried out according to the following steps:

Only the words that show action – verbs – have been counted.

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Actions of neutral nouns such as ‘persons’, ‘parents’, and ‘children’ have not been

counted.

Actions related to generics such as ‘he’ and ‘Man’ have not been counted.

The words in brackets inform about the context which a verb is used in.

Each action has been counted once. However, a single verb used in different

contexts such as ‘speaking’ and ‘speaking out’ has been counted as many times as

it changes its context.

All actions / verbs have been written in present participle form.

In the PTB textbooks, men represent one hundred and eighty actions (see table 6.14);

whereas women represent eighty-five actions (see table 6.15). Needless to say, men

clearly dominate women in representing social actions in the PTB textbooks.

In the OUP textbooks, men represent four hundred and eleven actions (see table 6.16).

These actions are indeed far more than those one hundred and eighty actions represented

by men in the PTB textbooks. But it should not be surprising because material / lessons

present in the OUP textbooks are a lot more than those in the PTB ones. Important to note

is the number of actions represented by women in the same textbooks. They represent

one hundred and sixty-five actions (see table 6.17).

To conclude, the total actions represented in the PTB textbooks are two hundred and

sixty five and, in the OUP textbooks they are five hundred and seventy-six. In the former

textbooks, men represent one hundred and eighty actions while women represent only

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eighty-five actions which are not even a half of those actions represented by men. The

percentage of men’s representation of social actions is 67.92 and women’s is 32.07 (see

table 6.18).

In the OUP textbooks, men represent four hundred and eleven attributes and women

represent one hundred and sixty-five attributes with a percentage of 71.35 and 28.64

respectively. Once again, just like the PTB textbooks, social actions represented by

women are not a half of the ones represented by men in the OUP textbooks. Importantly,

men’s clear dominance over women in representing social actions is likely to create a

very positive image of the male sex in both the textbooks – men look more active than

women.

6.3) Gender Bias in Attributes

This section deals with the analysis of gender bias in attributes represented by men and

women in the PTB and OUP textbooks. We have already discussed the implicit attributes

in the first part of this chapter. In this part, we focus on explicit attributes associated with

men and women in the said textbooks. The words regarded as attributes are not only the

adjectives such as ‘wise’, ‘honest’, ‘simple’, and ‘cruel’ but also the nouns that refer to

persons’ positive as well as negative qualities such as ‘wisdom’, ‘honesty’, ‘simplicity’

and ‘cruelty’.

In this section, first of all, the total number of attributes associated with men and women

in each textbook will be presented in a tabular form. Then I shall discuss about the

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number of negative attributes represented by men and women in each textbook. After

this, I shall discuss the attributes that show a break with the stereotypes regarding

attributes. And finally, we look for the variations the textbooks show in associating

attributes with the male and female characters. The purpose of this all is to see which sex

has been discriminated more in the representation of attributes in each textbook. I discuss

first the PTB textbooks.

Men represent seventy-five attributes in the PTB textbooks (see table 6.19). Women

represent thirty-one attributes in the same textbooks (see table 6.20).

I discuss now the representation of negative attributes by men and women in the PTB

textbooks. It is important to note that men do not represent any negative attribute whereas

women represent two negative attributes (feeble and old) (see table 6.21).

Next I discuss men’s and women’s such attributes that show a break with their

stereotypical attributes in textbook discourses. Men and women represent five and eight

such attributes respectively that show a break with their stereotypical representation of

attributes in the PTB textbooks (see tables 6.22 and 6.23).

I have discussed above the attributes represented by men and women in the PTB

textbooks. Next I discuss the representation of attributes by men and women in the OUP

textbooks. The total attributes represented by men and women in these textbooks are one

hundred and six and fifty-eight respectively (see tables 6.24 and 6.25).

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So far as the representation of negative attributes in the OUP textbooks is concerned,

men represent thirty-eight negative attributes out of one hundred and six attributes

(6.26). We must recall that men do not represent any negative attribute in the PTB

textbooks as discussed above. On the other hand, women represent twenty-eight

attributes out of fifty-eight in the OUP textbooks (see table 6.27).

Next is the list of those attributes that show a break with the stereotypical attributes

associated with men and women in discourses in the OUP textbooks. There are ten such

attributes that men usually do not represent in discourses; hence non-stereotypical

representation particularly in Pakistan (see table 6.28). On other side, the non-

stereotypical attributes represented by women are fourteen out of fifty-eight in the OUP

textbooks (see table 6.29).

In the tables, I have tried to make a detailed quantitative analysis of the attributes

represented by men and women in the PTB and OUP textbooks. All that statistical

information regarding men’s and women’s representation of attributes has been presented

in table 6.30. It will indeed help us in drawing a contrastive analysis between the total

numbers of attributes, negative attributes and non-stereotypical attributes associated with

men and women in the PTB and OUP textbooks.

The table shows that the total number of attributes represented in the PTB textbooks is

one hundred and six. In the OUP textbooks, their number is one hundred and sixty-four.

The OUP textbooks therefore associate fifty-eight more attributes with men and women

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than the PTB textbooks. But it should not be surprising for, as it has already been

mentioned above, the former books are voluminous than the latter ones and, obviously,

contain more lessons and pages.

We can also say that men and women totally represent one hundred and six attributes in

the PTB textbooks. Out of them, men represent seventy-five attributes and women

represent only thirty-one attributes which are not even a half of those represented by men.

In the OUP textbooks, men and women represent one hundred and sixty-four attributes in

total. Men represent one hundred and six attributes and women represent only fifty-eight

attributes. Thus it is men who dominate the representation of attributes in both the

textbooks.

It will also be useful to draw a comparison between men’s and women’s representation of

attributes in terms of numbers as well as percentage in both the textbooks. In the PTB

textbooks, men represent seventy-five attributes out of one hundred and six attributes

with a percentage of 70.75. In the OUP textbooks, men represent one hundred and six

attributes out of one hundred and sixty-four attributes with a percentage of 64.63. Thus in

terms of percentage, men’s representation of attributes is stronger in the PTB textbooks

than that in the OUP textbooks. On the other side, women represent thirty-one attributes

out of one hundred and six attributes with a percentage of 29.24 in the PTB textbooks. In

the OUP textbooks, they represent fifty-eight attributes out of one hundred and sixty-four

with a percentage of 35.36. Hence, women’s representation of attributes in the OUP

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textbooks is stronger than that in the PTB textbooks not only in terms of numbers but also

in terms of percentage.

So far as the representation of negative attributes is concerned, the PTB textbooks contain

only three attributes and all of them have been associated with women – men do not

represent any negative attribute. In the OUP textbooks, the total number of negative

attributes is sixty-six. In them, men represent thirty-eight attributes and women represent

twenty-eight attributes with a percentage of 57.57 and 42.42 respectively. In this way,

men’s and women’s representation in the PTB textbooks is much stronger than that of

men and women in the OUP textbooks. It should be important to notice that, unlike the

PTB textbooks men represent more negative attributes than women in the OUP textbooks

i.e. thirty-eight and twenty-eight respectively.

Finally, I discuss non-stereotypical representation of attributes by men and women in

both the textbooks. Such attributes are thirteen in the PTB textbooks and twenty-two in

the OUP textbooks. In the former ones, men represent five attributes (38.46) and women

represent eight (61.53). In the latter ones, men represent eight attributes and women

represent fourteen attributes with a percentage of 36.36 and 63.63 respectively. In this

regard, quite importantly, women’s overall representation is better than men’s in both the

textbooks. Moreover, men’s non-stereotypical representation in the OUP textbooks is

better than that in their government counterparts in terms of numbers. However, in terms

of percentage the case is opposite. Women’s representation is not like men’s in this

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regard. In both ways, women’s non-stereotypical representation in the OUP textbooks is a

little bit more positive than that women have in the PTB textbooks.

I conclude my discussion saying that both the textbooks overall represent men more

positive than women in the association of attributes. Though at some places women

dominate men, they do it by a narrow margin; for instance, see the representation of

negative attributes in the OUP textbooks and the representation of non-stereotypical

attributes in both the textbooks. Unlike them, men dominate women by a wide margin;

for instance, see the representation of attributes in both the textbooks and the

representation of negative attributes only in the PTB textbooks. It also becomes clear that

women’s representation of attributes is less biased in the OUP textbooks than that in the

PTB ones. This is because men dominate women in the representation of total attributes

and negative attributes in the PTB textbooks whereas women dominate men in the

representation of negative attributes and non-stereotypical attributes in their elite-school

counterparts. This is likely to represent a very positive image of men before the young

readers of PTB textbooks but not an equally positive image of women before the readers

of the OUP textbooks.

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Chapter 7: Statistical Results

In the beginning of the present research, many readings of the PTB and OUP English

textbooks under examination revealed that they represent varying ideologies related to

culture, religion, nationalism, war/jihad, us and them, gender and English. To gauge the

impact of these varying ideologies – embedded in the discourses of the textbooks – upon

the worldview of the learners from different schools, I constructed a close-ended

questionnaire (in appendix) that posed questions about the above-mentioned themes. The

students’ responses to these themes show variations in the attitude of students reading in

different schools (i.e. Government (Urdu-medium) Schools, Non-Elite (English-medium)

Schools and Elite (English-medium) Schools) towards these themes. The statistical

results of the questionnaire have been discussed below.

The questionnaire, as discussed earlier in chapter 3 in detail, comprised two parts: Part A

and Part B. There are six questions in the part A and nine questions in the part B – fifteen

questions in total. Regarding the format of the questions included in the questionnaire, in

the first part, the first two questions required answers in a word and the remaining four

questions were of multiple choice. The second part is a Likert scale and contains nine

statements. One hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed in the schools – fifty in

each type of school. The detail related to it is presented in the following table:

Schools No. of questionnaires distributed

Govt. school for boys 25

Govt. school for girls 25

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Non-elite school for boys 25

Non-elite school for girls 25

Elite school 50 (25 boys and 25 girls)

The statistical results of one-hundred and fifty questionnaires from the students of

Government Urdu-medium schools, non-Elite English-medium schools and elite English-

medium schools have been given in tables and charts in appendix. It must be noted that,

in those tables, the abbreviations GSS, NESS, and ESS stand for government (Urdu-

medium) school students, non-elite (English-medium) school students and elite (English-

medium) school students respectively.

The first question is related to choice of school. The results show that a high percentage

of the students in each school consider their own school better than the other schools. If

schools are regarded, as representatives of particular ideologies, the students in each

school therefore prefer to stick to that ideology which mostly they, their school, their

family background and their textbooks represent or and disseminate. This aspect also

indicates that students do not much like those schools whose ideology is different from

their own school’s ideology – the schools not only approve and disseminate their own

ideology but also disapprove the ideologies of the other schools as is indicated by the

responses of the learners.

The second question is related to choice of country to be born in. The PTB English

textbooks create a much more positive image of Pakistan than the OUP English

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textbooks. The government-schools students (GSS) with the percentage of 86 and non-

elite schools students (NESS) with the percentage of 72 love their country a lot more than

the elite-school students (ESS) who are only 38 percent. Moreover, against a very low

percentage of 0 and 2 of GSS and NESS respectively, 28 percent ESS show their

inclination towards England because it has been represented quite positively in their

textbooks. Similar is their attitude towards America.

In the third question which is related to celebration of national events, a high percentage

of 84 of students from the government and non-elite schools like to celebrate the national

events. This is in sharp contrast to 46 percent of students from the elite schools. The

results indirectly reflect the input of nationalism made to in the textbooks. That is, the

percentage of nationalistic lessons in the PTB textbooks is 1.72 which is greater than that

of .69 percent in the OUP textbooks. Hence, the GSS and NSS appear to be more

nationalistic than the ESS.

The next question is about how much they like to celebrate Islamic events. 100 percent

GSS and 96 percent NESS like much to celebrate the Islamic events whereas in this

regard the percentage of ESS is almost half to theirs i.e. 52. Likewise, 42 percent ESS say

they do not like to celebrate these events much; hence, the students from the government

and non-elite schools like to celebrate the religious events more than their counterparts

from the elite school. These results relate to the number of religious lessons included in

the textbooks. That is, the PTB textbooks contain eight lessons and the OUP textbooks

contain only one lesson and even that is not related to Islam but Christianity.

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The fifth question is about the way they adopt to celebrate the Islamic events. A high

percentage of GSS i.e. 65 and most of the NSS i.e. 36 percent tick ‘I do all’ – all of those

celebratory practices have been reinforced much in their PTB textbooks. These include

the controversial practices i.e. illumination of homes and participation in Mehfil-e-Milad

and the uncontroversial one i.e. offering prayers, among the Muslims in Pakistan. The

textbooks represent all of them as common practices among the Muslims – they do not

make any distinction among them. On the other side, most of the ESS i.e. 52 percent,

offer prayers. This is for one of the reasons that the OUP textbooks, unlike PTB

textbooks, do not ideologically include, let alone reinforce, certain religious practices

such as illumination of homes and participation in Mehfil-e-Milad. Rather they do

mention the lexical item ‘pray’ at some places in the contents.

Questions 6a and 6b are about a personality/character, students like in their textbooks.

100 percent GSS, 98 percent NESS and 48 percent ESS say they particularly like some

personality / character in their English textbooks. Out of them, an overwhelming majority

particularly from the government and non-elite schools like male personalities /

characters. Among the ESS, 26 percent like the male personalities / characters and 22

percent like the female ones. What is important as well as common in all these results is

that the majority of students from the government, non-elite and elite schools like the

male personalities / characters. It shows a certain influence of that positive image of men

the textbooks represent against the negative image of women.

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Question number seven is about the abolition of English in Pakistan. The results show

that the majority of students from the government, non-elite and elite schools are against

the abolition of English in Pakistan. That is, 74 percent GSS, 88 percent NESS and 82

percent ESS want English in their country. Of course, the status of English as an official

language and compulsory subject in Pakistan is one of the strong variables that can

influence the learners’ attitude towards it. However, along with it, there is also a strong

support given by the textbook discourses to this status. The textbooks portray English as

an important language for survival in the society.

In a question about western and Pakistani life style there is a clear contrast among the

students’ responses regarding Western and Pakistani life style. Most of the students i.e.

58 percent from the elite schools like Western life style. On the other side, only 10 and 12

percent GSS and NESS like the Western life style respectively. Their vast majority which

is 90 and 80 percent respectively favour the Pakistani life style. It is worth mentioning

that 18 percent ESS favour the Pakistani life style which is much higher than that of the

GESS and NESS who like the Western life style. The OUP textbooks are a blend of

Western and Pakistani cultures though the former one is predominant in its

representations. These books show a certain influence on their readers. Unlike them, the

PTB textbooks do not represent any instances of Western culture at all.

When asked if Pakistan should struggle for the occupied Kashmir, a very high percentage

of 98 of each government and non-elite schools want Pakistan to struggle for the

occupied Kashmir. 8 points down to it – 80 percent – is of ESS. One of the simple

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reasons of the high percentage of the GSS and NESS are the nationalistic contents always

included in their PTB textbooks. Needless to say, these contents are more in quality and

quantity than those in the OUP textbooks. It is important to mention here that though we

do not find any mention of Kashmir in both the PTB and OUP textbooks, this seems to be

the only issue that can cause war between Pakistan and India. Therefore, this question has

been included particularly to know how many of the students favour war / jihad (in the

next question) as a means to get the occupied Kashmir.

In a question if they agree to get the occupied Kashmir through war, 1064 percent GSS

and 60 percent NESS say ‘yes’ to war to be adopted as a means to get the occupied

Kashmir. On the other side, only 28 percent ESS favour this point. As the PTB textbooks

contain such material that glorifies war / jihad and represent the inhabitants of India i.e.

the Hindus as their enemies, most of their readers do not hesitate to adopt war as a means

to get the occupied Kashmir from India. The OUP textbooks on the other side portray a

negative image of war before their readers. Unlike their counterparts, majority of ESS (50

percent) do not support war.

The next question (number eleven) is about if Hindus are our enemies. An overwhelming

majority of GSS with the percentage of 92 regard the Hindus as enemies. In this regard,

at a little lower level are the NESS with the percentage of 76. This result could be related

to the treatment of the Hindus as the other self in the PTB textbooks who did not and

cannot bear the existence of Pakistan. The ESS being only 14 percent fall at the lowest

level in regarding the Hindus as enemies. Their majority which is 66 percent do not

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regard the Hindus as our enemies. The OUP textbooks do not represent the Hindus as

others rather at some places they have been shown friendly with the Muslims.

Like the previous one, a similar question was asked about if Christians are our enemies.

In response, 88 percent GSS, 66 percent NESS and only 12 percent ESS are of the view

that the Christians are our enemies. Once again (as happened in the previous question)

difference between the percentage of GSS and NESS is not as big as it lies between theirs

and the ESS’. Likewise, the majority of ESS – 68 percent – does not think of the

Christians as our enemies. Importantly, the representation of the Christians in the

textbooks is not much different from that of the Hindus in the textbooks. The PTB

textbooks represent them as friends of the Hindus and enemies of the Muslims. In

contrast, the OUP textbooks neither show close ties between the Muslims and the

Christians nor do they project any enmity between them – they in fact mostly remain

neutral in such representations.

In a question, how do they feel about the Jews, here again, the majority of GSS and

NESS i.e. 90 and 72 percent respectively agree that the Jews are our enemies. Among the

ESS only 14 percent agrees with it and those who do not regard the Jews as our enemies

are 68 percent. The representation of the Jews in the textbooks is not much different from

those of the Hindus and the Christians in both the textbooks. In the PTB textbooks, they

have been represented as a different community with a different religion, culture and

belief system. The OUP textbooks like the PTB ones do not emphasize much upon the

differences among the different communities. In short, the responses of the students are

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not much different from those given in the previous questions about the Hindus and the

Christians.

In a response to Pakistan’s relation with the non-Muslims, 32 percent GSS, 38 percent

NESS and 78 percent ESS agree with having friendly relations with the Hindus,

Christians and Jews. Among the GSS and NESS, though majority – 66 and 50 percent

respectively – does not want to have friendly relations with them, their percentage show a

clear decrease if compared with the previous results in question numbers 11, 12 and 13

where maximum 92 (of GSS) and 72 (of NESS) percent students regard the Hindus,

Christians and Jews as our enemies. A similar slight increase may also be observed in the

case of the ESS.

The last question (fourteen) is about signing treaties with the non-Muslims. Most of the

students from the government, non-elite and elite schools with the percentage of 60, 52

and 58 respectively agree with signing treaties with the Hindus, Christians and the Jews

to fight against terrorism. It should be important to remind ourselves that a lesson in the

PTB textbooks is about an Islamic treaty signed in the past between the Muslims and the

Jews to fight together against those who promote enmity. It seems to have a certain

impact on the students as though most of the students, in one of the previous questions,

regard the Jews their enemies, here most of them agree to signing treaties with them to

fight against terrorism. Similarly, most of the ESS – 58 percent – agree with the question.

However, it is important to note that this percentage shows a decrease up to 20 percent

coming down from the 78 percent in the previous question about having friendly relations

301

with the non-Muslims. It clearly indicates that many of them want Pakistan to fight

against terrorism alone.

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Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusion

The present research has aimed at deconstructing the ideologies embedded in the

discourses of secondary-level English textbooks being taught in the government Urdu-

medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and elite English-medium schools in

Multan – a city in the Punjab Province in Pakistan. I have used the term ‘ideologies’

because the analysis and the findings of this research have corroborated the fact that

textbook discourses are the carriers of different ideologies at one and the same time;

hence, ideologies related to culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them and

English have been discussed in different chapters of the present research. An overview of

each of the chapter shall be useful before concluding my discussion of textbook

discourses, their ideologies, and their impact on the learners’ worldview/s.

The present study consists of seven chapters. The first chapter gives in detail the

background and context, statement of the problem, significance, and scope of the present

research. It thus explains that the present research deals with the issues of ideology and

worldview in textbooks. It carries a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of English

textbooks being taught at the secondary-level in different schools – government Urdu-

medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and elite English-medium schools –

in Multan, Pakistan. The textbooks taught in the first two types of schools are developed

and published by the provincial board i.e. Punjab Textbook Board (PTB); whereas the

elite English-medium schools teach the textbooks published by Oxford University Press

(OUP). These textbooks have been critically examined to find out the ideologies or

ideological messages related to culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them and

303

English embedded in their discourses. Besides this, as mentioned above, the research also

tries to find out a certain impact of these ideologies on the learners.

Ideologies in Pakistani textbook discourses date back to the fall of Dhaka in a war against

India in 1972. The state in order to unite the fragmented nation and to create a new image

of the country started to interject particularly religious and nationalist ideologies – partly

touching upon the ideology of negative other – into the youth of the nation (Saigol,

2004). The present research is one among many which deals with such issues. However,

it is significant in the way that it is first one in its nature which carries a critical discourse

analysis of school textbook discourses. Many other research studies in the same area are

limited only to a content analysis of ideologies in school textbooks (for detail see section

1.4 in chapter one & section 2.6 in chapter two). Moreover, the present research discusses

in detail the dissemination of cultural values (western and indigenous) which has always

been touched upon in passing in the previous research studies.

The second chapter ‘Review of Related Literature’ presents a theoretical framework of

the present study. It discusses, in detail, the theories and frameworks related to the key

concepts this study is dealing with such as ideology, worldview, discourse, CDA and

culture. It is followed by a comprehensive discussion of the works or research studies

dealing with ideologies and worldviews in textbook discourses.

The third chapter ‘Research Methodology’ outlines the research objectives of the present

research i.e. (a) to locate the major cultural themes and ideologies encoded in the

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discourses of English textbooks and (b) to find out the impact of cultural themes on the

learners. Moreover, it discusses data and data sources and, then, the analytical framework

proposed by Fairclough (2003) for a critical analysis of textual issues. This framework

has been partially employed in that only those analytical categories and devices have

been used for analysis, which were found relevant to the objectives of the present study.

Finally, I talk about the research tool i.e. the questionnaire used to collect data and

statistically determine the impact of textbooks ideologies on the learners.

The next three chapters (fourth, fifth and sixth chapter) are related to the analysis of

contents related to culture, religion, nationalism, gender, us and them and English. The

themes of culture, religion, nationalism, us and them, and English have been discussed in

the fourth chapter. The next two chapters i.e. fifth and sixth, carry out qualitative and

quantitative analysis of gender ideologies respectively.

In the fourth chapter, it has been observed that both the PTB and OUP textbooks

represent different cultures to a great extent. The former textbooks are a clear reflection

of the Pakistani society including various cultural, religious and national events and

practices to inculcate the learners with cultural, religious and nationalistic fervour;

whereas the OUP textbooks present specimens of western culture. They mostly represent

a liberal and secular life through certain expressions in those instances such as wine, love,

cinema, etc. which by contrast are not found at all in PTB texts. The questionnaire results

show, most of the students from the government and not-elite schools (90 % & 80 %

305

respectively), unlike the students from the elite-school (58 %), do not exhibit or show

liking for or appreciation of western life style.

So far as the theme of religion is concerned the difference between both the textbooks

becomes quite big. The PTB textbooks include many lessons about the Islamic

personalities and Islamic events. Even many sayings of the founder of Pakistan, the

Quaid-e-Azam included in them are related to Islam and Pakistan. All of these lessons

represent Islam as a complete code of life. Moreover, the beginning of the textbooks with

the Islamic lessons, the description of the founding of Pakistan in the name of Islam,

equating Islam with Pakistan and Pakistanis with Muslims, and the description of Islamic

personalities as role models show a profound impact on the young learners in the

government and non-elite schools. In the same textbooks, ironically, the representation of

Islamic events is asymmetrical – the events included mostly represent the religious

practices of only Barelvi sect; hence, an ideology of highlighting the religious practices

of one particular sect. The textbooks describe these practices in such a way as they are

common practices of all the Muslims. Thus where these textbooks are one of the

powerful means of disseminating religious ideologies, they are also a means of creating

intolerance among the students belonging to different sects.

The textbooks also include material about one of the fundamentals of Islam i.e. Jihad.

The description of the personality of Hazrat Khalid bin Waleed (RA) – as a great warrior

of Islam – and his victories in various battles are very likely to infuse the spirit of Jihad

against the other – non-muslims – into the learners. Paradoxically, the textbooks, at one

306

place, also urge the learners to join hands with the Jews in the war against those who

rebel or promote enmity – terrorism (see the lesson ‘Human Rights and Madina Charter’

in PTB 10). Thus the textbooks tend to confuse the learners in that on the one hand it is

biased and promotes intolerance of other religions or even certain sects in Islamic faith,

and yet, on the other, promotes the notion of joining hands with the Jews when it serves

the interests of the state and the state policies.

On the other hand, religious material in the OUP textbooks is very little. There is only

one lesson (‘Christmas Eve’ in OUP 1) which is related to Christianity. These textbooks

introduce religion as ones’ private matter as the major character in the said lesson bluntly

challenges the importance and need of the celebratory practices related to Christmas Eve.

In short, the PTB and OUP textbooks socialize their children with such cultural and

religious worlds that differ from each other to a great extent. Consequently, the results

show that the students of government (100 %) and non-elite (96 %) carry stronger

feelings for religious events as well as Jihad (64 % & 60 % respectively) than their

counterparts from the elite school (52 % & 28 % respectively). However, so far as the

mutual effort (Muslims and Jews together) for curing terrorism is concerned most of the

students from all three schools agree to it (government-school students 60 %, non-elite-

school students 52 % and elite-school students 58 %).

Once again, like religion, the theme of nationalism has been touched upon differently in

both the textbooks. It permeates the PTB textbooks and remains limited to only a poem in

the OUP ones. The former textbooks arouse the feelings of nationalism among their

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readers in a number of ways: they include and positively describe the national events and

personalities; equate Islamism with nationalism; and create the other self i.e. non-

Muslims particularly Hindus. On the other hand, representation of Pakistan is not so

positive in the OUP textbooks. It shows a certain influence on the students as the

questionnaire results show that the government and non-elite-schools students (84 % &

84 % respectively) like to celebrate national events more than their counterparts from the

elite school (46 %).

In the theme ‘us and them’, as mentioned above, the PTB textbooks represent non-

Muslims as others. The Christians and Hindus have been described as opponents who

created hurdles in the achievement of Pakistan. On the other hand, non-Muslims have not

been treated as others in the OUP textbooks. However, the implicit negative description

of Pakistan and Blacks represents them as others. Importantly, the Christens, Jews and

Hindus – who have been treated as others in the PTB textbooks – have not been treated

as others in the OUP textbooks. Consequently, most of the elite-school students do not

regard the Christians, Jews and Hindus as their enemies.

The only theme where these differences become very slight is English. Both the

textbooks emphasize upon the importance of English though in varying degrees. The

OUP textbooks have laid much more emphasis upon its importance than the PTB ones.

They refer to it as a matter of survival, the road to modernization, a way of life, and

English is everything. Somewhat similarly, the PTB textbooks represent English as an

important subject. In a response to a question regarding the abolition of English in

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Pakistan in the questionnaire, most of the students from all three schools disagree with it

(government-school students 74 %, non-elite-school students 88 % and elite-school

students 82 %).

The fifth and sixth chapters of the present study deal with the qualitative and quantitative

analysis of gender ideologies in the textbooks respectively. These chapters focus on how

the PTB and OUP textbooks observe inequality in representing men and women at three

levels: professional, social and attributive. The professional level deals with the higher

and lower professions mentioned in the PTB and OUP textbooks. Women are a victim of

discriminatory and biased representation of professions for, unlike men, mostly women

represent lower jobs. Besides one lesson each in the textbooks, the rest of lessons i.e.

one-hundred and ten, show men representing a wide variety of professions which include

both high and low professions whereas women represent only low professions. Besides

this, women have not been shown sharing work with men on equal level except on one

occasion in both these textbooks. On another occasion though women have been shown

working with men yet they work as their subordinates. The nature of jobs both the sexes

carry speaks implicitly and differently for their mental and physical calibre.

At the social level, the present research has looked at the discriminatory or unequal

representation of social roles or activities by men and women inside as well as outside the

domain of home in the textbooks. It has been found that the textbooks mostly carry

stereotypes regarding the social roles represented by men and women. Moreover, their

roles are also at variance with one another. Inside home, men’s roles and activities are

309

less limited in range than the ones represented by women; whereas outside home, there is

a wider variety of men’s roles and activities than those of women. Finally, attributes are

different for males and females to a certain degree. Most of the male characters loaded

with positive attributions stand out among the female ones who are represented as

passive, weak, dependent and non-authoritative in the textbooks. The purpose of

analyzing gender bias at professional, social and attributive levels was to see whose

image was more positive as a whole and was liked by the students. Importantly, the

overwhelming majority from the government and non-elite school students (94 % and 94

% respectively) like the male characters in the textbooks. However, only a simple

majority of students (26 %) in the elite school like the male characters which could be

partially linked particularly to an average inclusion of male heroes (as compared to PTB

textbooks) as well as an average representation of male personalities in their textbooks in

general. Their co-education factor might also be considered in this regard.

The final chapter of this study is of statistical results, which is a statistical representation

of learners’ answers to the questions related to the themes of culture, religion,

nationalism, us and them, English and gender and I have mentioned these statistics above

along with the discussion of themes.

I would like to bring the findings of this research to the attention of the ministry of

provincial education in the Punjab, and the federal ministry of education for such

ideologies in the textbooks. The Curriculum Wing of the Ministry of Education in

Pakistan is a representative of the government. It is with their consent that the OUP

310

textbooks are being taught in elite Pakistani schools. The responsibility lies on their

shoulders to check the textbook discourses and remove their ideological biases thus

providing a balanced perspective. But keeping silent on strictly educational issues means

those who have the power to effect change, want to maintain these structural and social

inequalities for their own vested interests.

In the context of power, the dissemination of common ideologies may be regarded as less

harmful than the dissemination of different ideologies to different students via different

textbooks and schooling. Different ideologies in the textbooks are a proof that there are

different worldviews in the society – textbooks are a reflection of any society. It then

becomes easy to understand why there are different schools e.g. government Urdu-

medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and elite English-medium schools in

a society like Pakistan. In other words, these different schools are set up or at least

supported by those in power to polarize the society socially as well as economically for

their vested interests. Each school represents a social class and each class has a specific

worldview. Each worldview is also a sort of social boundary which not only binds up the

people of each class together, for instance, students of each school represent similar

views, but also prevents them from entering the other class’ worldview. However, it is

possible that the worldviews of two classes are very much similar as we have seen above

in the case of lower and middle class represented by the government and non-elite school

students respectively.

311

So far as the social and economic polarization is concerned, competence in English

matters in Pakistan because it enables one to have an easy access to the domains of

power. However, English is not the only phenomenon that buys access to the domains of

power, worldview is equally so. Thus where English and the anglicized worldview help

the elite class become economically strong, they prevent the lower and middle classes,

due to their inefficiency in both of them, from having an entry into the domains of power

or powerful positions.

In order to argue my case well, I would like to cite from Rahman’s work (2002) that, in

the sixties, the students from the government schools protested against Ayub Khan’s

benevolent attitude towards elite schools and their products’ superior airs – elite-schools

students were perceived as being ‘glib-tongued, ultra modern, snobbish, European-attired

boys and forward young misses’ (Rahman 2002, p. 297). In response to it, the

Commission on Students Welfare (1966: 18) observes:

We have no evidence that these schools have really produced any such snobs as suggested by the students, nor have we any evidence that their students usually secure better positions in public examinations. We are not, therefore, in a position to say that the continuance of these schools is harmful to the community and that as such, they should be stopped (cited in Rahman 2002, p. 297).

Later, the government of Air Marshal Noor Khan admitted that the students from the

government schools had a point in their protest (ibid.: p. 297).

It thus becomes clear that the establishment of different types of schools such as

government Urdu-medium schools, non-elite English-medium schools and elite English-

312

medium schools teaching different English textbooks plays an important part in

polarizing the society socially as well as economically. The intention of this research is

not to reject or criticize the schools as well as the English textbooks on being ideological

but to emphasize the need of teaching and including such material (in the textbooks) that

can make Pakistan moderate, modern and democratic in today’s global village. Similarly,

it does not argue to exclude Islam and Pakistan’s ideology from the textbooks but to

provide a balanced perspective, which is the need of time. The textbooks should teach

tolerance, peace and, above all, love and respect for all human beings – the basic

principle of Islam. Going against it will definitely demand a heavy price in form of

religious intolerance, sectarianism, racism and rigidity which the nation cannot afford at

the moment. The findings of this study may be useful to policy planners in terms of

decisions regarding the selection of appropriate materials. In this regard, linguists may

extend a valuable help in developing new textbooks or revising and updating the present

ones. They can also do a lot in introducing such courses for the teachers and students that

can train them in questioning the ideological contents of texts.

313

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Appendix

Tables (Chapter 6)

Table 6.1: Men’s Representation of Professions in the PTB Textbooks

Commander King Prince Master

Educationist Khalifa Driver Headmaster

Farmer Doctor Politician

Table 6.2: Women’s Representation of Professions in the PTB Textbooks

Teachers Professor Programme

Organizers

Nurses

Writers Artists (Broadcast)

Producers

Newscasters

Journalists Editors Correspondents Judges

Column Writers Bankers Insurance

Companies

Business

Social Workers Education Minister Feature Writers Police

Lawyers Boutique-Runners Garment-

Manufacturers

Exporters

Compeers Prime-Minister Minister Headmistress

Doctors Reporters Politicians Farmers

Announcers Textile Mills

325

Table 6.3: Men’s Representation of Professions in the OUP Textbooks

Soldier (Army) Official (2) Labourer Photographer

Beggar (2) Medical Officer (Police) Officer Policeman

Captain (Ship) (2) President (2) (Carpet) Weaver Vendor (2)

Gamekeeper Poet Schoolmaster Sergeant

Shopkeeper Intelligence Agent Doorman Deputy President

Businessman Police Sergeant Theatre Director Builder

Magistrate Reporter Guard Watchman

Group Captain Pilot (2) Doctor

Table 6.4: Women’s Representation of Professions in the OUP Textbooks

Towel-Vendor Nurse Anchorwoman Newswoman

Artist Novelists Teacher Singer

(Music) Composers Telephonist News Reporter Actress

Table 6.5: Men’s Representation of Powerful Professions in the PTB Textbooks

Commander King Prince Master

Educationist Khalifa Headmaster Politician

Doctor

Table 6.6: Women’s Representation of Powerful Professions in the PTB Textbooks

Teachers Professor Programme

Organizers

Headmistress

326

Writers Minister (Broadcast)

Producers

Newscasters

Journalists Editors Correspondents Judges

Column Writers Bankers Exporters Compeers

Lawyers Education Minister Feature Writers Police

Prime-Minister Doctors Reporters Politicians

Announcers Textile Mills

Table 6.7: Men’s Representation of Powerful Professions in the OUP Textbooks

Soldier (Army) Official (Police) Officer Sergeant

Captain (Ship) (2) Medical Officer Theatre Director Policeman

Businessman President (2) Group Captain Doctor

Magistrate Intelligence Agent (Army) Official Deputy President

Reporter Pilot (2) Schoolmaster Police Sergeant

Table 6.8: Women’s Representation of Powerful Professions in the OUP Textbooks

Anchorwoman Newswoman News Reporter Teacher

Table 6.9: Professions Shared by Men and Women in the PTB Textbooks

Doctor (school) Headship Politician Farmer

Table 6.10: Professions Shared by Men and Women in the OUP Textbooks

Vendor (news) Reporter School master / Doctor / Nurse

327

Teacher

Table 6.11: Women’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in the PTB Textbooks

Minister Professor Programme Organizers Headmistress

Writers Artists (Broadcast) Producers Newscasters

Journalists Editors Correspondents Judges

Column Writers Bankers Insurance Companies Business

Social Workers Education Minister Feature Writers Police

Lawyers Boutique-Runners Garment-Manufacturers Exporters

Prime-Minister Teachers Doctors Reporters

Textile Mills Politicians Comperes Farmers

Table 6.12: Men’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in the OUP Textbooks

Beggar Doorman Vendor

Table 6.13: Women’s break with the Professional Stereotypes in the OUP Textbooks

Artist Actress Anchorwoman Newswoman

News Reporter Novelists Teacher Singer

(Music)

Composers

Table 6.14: Social Actions Represented by Men in the PTB Textbooks

Reforming Preaching Disliking Believing

328

Marrying Telling Eradicating Saying

Introducing

(Laws)

Leading

(Expeditions)

Standing By Never

Compromising

Pleasing Receiving Embracing Requesting

Devoting Admiring Appointing Commanding

Participating Winning Arguing Dying

Emerging Seeing Catching Arriving

Never Wasting Releasing Placing Setting (On Fire)

Declaring Taking Enjoying Excited

Sending Teaching Ruling Advising

Describing Ordering Listening Wishing

Remarking Understanding Hoping Inspiring

Praying Finding Loving Spending

Raising Studying Opining Coming

Meeting Riding Sword Fighting Looking

Following Succeeding Arriving Meditating

Returning Submitting Freeing Hearing

Narrating Experiencing Puzzling Discerning

Going Sitting Starting Reflecting

Playing Stopping Disagreeing Tasting

Receiving Imposing Attracting Addressing

Concluding Inviting Urging Employing

Explaining Closing Opening Swaying

329

Demonstrating Rising Saving Getting

Visualizing Acting Judging Wishing

Learning Sparing Oppressing Tyrannizing

Abstaining Developing Speaking Remembering

Earning Achieving Desiring Deciding

Expecting Passing Controlling Rising

Searching for Entrusting Setting (Example) Excelled

Waking Injuring Leaving Walking Away

Refusing Surviving Bringing Looking Around

Refreshing Attending Allowing Availing

Working Thinking Greeting Shouting

Driving Turning Squeezing Entering

Proceeding Granting Arranging Entertaining

Carving Out Transforming Using Replying

Uniting Nodding Wanting Serving

Giving Throwing Feeling Speaking Out

Responding Stressing Liking Informing

Promising Examining Treating Realizing

Making Holding Exerting Attaining

Relating Discovering Realizing Finishing (him)

Knowing Staying Succeeding Refusing

Cursing Explaining Asking Translating

(the dream)

330

Table 6.15: Social Actions Represented by Women in the PTB Textbooks

Starving Finding Taking off Drawing from

Urging Striving Contributing Finding

Improving Making Working Contributing

Joining Running (Business) Manufacturing Earning

Throwing Praying Finding Giving (Interview)

Saying Blaming Demanding Noticing

Playing Breaking Thinking Recollecting

Shunning Telling Soothing Eating

Wanting Persuading Attempting Asking

Marrying Proving Listening Kissing

Continuing Enjoying Helping Feeling

Criticizing Thinking Keeping Receiving

Promoting Breathing last Looking Out Looking around

Seeing Talking Dying Deciding

Inquiring Explaining Clarifying Composing

Resting Reading Managing Wishing

Watching Shedding Dressing Minding

Giving Visiting Getting up Sitting

Wanting Calling Securing Visiting

Coming forward Learning Reporting Shutting

Sharing Feeling Distributing Convincing

Running

331

Table 6.16: Social Actions Represented by Men in the OUP Textbooks

Boasting Saying Taking (Sword) Waking

Cutting Off Severing Abusing Calling

Blowing

(Whistle)

Charging

(The Enemy)

Going

(Up And Down)

Making

(Expedition)

Beginning Realizing Finding Reclining

Fashioning Lying Back Hanging Over Relaxing

Enjoying Slowing Down Arriving Entering

Taking (Test) Holding Up Staring Returning (Card)

Replying Thinking Witnessing Allocating

Failing Laughing Passing (Test) Smacking

Noticing Pouring Reversing Forgetting

Ricocheting Driving Assisting Dashing Across

Reaching Completing Maneuvering Touching

Causing Applying Hitting Shuddering

Appearing Clinging Getting Out Ignoring

Restraining Indicating Proceeding Involved

Hesitating Willing Withdrawing Passing

Ejecting Recalling Falling Zooming

Trembling

(With Fear)

Waving

(Hand)

Catching

(Glimpse)

Earning (Bread)

Endeavouring Selling Guiding Trailing

Descending Succeeding Wearing Removing

332

Resisting Shouting Calling (Names) Coming Around

Perceiving Refraining Sending Turning

Crossing Hastening Joining Stumbling

Lifting Up Offering Taking Icing

Liking Hearing Keeping (Eye) Copying

Warming Flourishing Living Living

Reining Asking Drawing Out Starting

Doling out Hunting Drifting Getting On

Shrugging Tapping Dealing With Smiling

Spitting Gasping Dying Shaking

Jerking Up Studying Taking Over Eliminating

Bending Over

(Desk)

Returning

(Answering)

Reaching Into

(Pocket)

Running

(Business)

Expecting Touring Flying Assigning

Stepping Out Sighing Rubbing Wandering About

Nodding Seeing Patting Putting Down

Pulling Out Probing Down Poking Shooting

Blinking Jerking Open Filling Swearing

Grabbing (Chair) Hurling Seizing Clenching

Yelling Slamming Drawing (Circle) Treating

Kicking Slapping Suspecting Inviting

Watching Twirling (Stick) Accusing Carting Away

Washing (Hands) Slapping Mislaying Sinking Back

333

(On Back) (Things) (In Chair)

Going Scrambling Dismissing Closing

Packing Climbing Carrying Walking Away

Declining Tramping Offering Longing

Teaching Distressing Gathering Volunteering

Trying Following Copying Cautioning

Feeling Irritated Telling Remembering Leaving

Keeping Unfolding Trailing Off Crying

Heating Sparkling Smoking Pleading

Repeating Writing Spending Researching

Meaning Snatching Caring Creeping About

Fishing Wheeling Moving Chasing

Leading Lying Disturbing Promising

Accepting Jerking Getting Used Digging Down

Choosing Stifling Resenting Polishing

Grinning Threatening Clutching Hard Clinging

Sounding (Funny) Clamping Addressing Crying Out

Arguing Getting Predicting Grabbing

Deciding Continuing Undertaking Jumping

Standing Breathing Fainting Crouching

Testing Breaking Getting Off Working

Shutting Wanting Killing Facing

Understanding Attacking Throwing Freeing

334

Marrying Believing Dragging Not Drinking

Stepping In Emigrating Resembling Finding Out

Walking Up and

Down

Knocking

(In Mind)

Collapsing

(In Chair)

Litting

(Match)

Investigating Observing Vowing Feeling Troubled

Exclaiming Comprehending Sobbing Praying

Tearing Up Defying Blaming Reflecting

Feeling Excited Muttering Resolving Guaranteeing

Loving Longing For Sleeping Begging

Meeting Finishing

(Evidence)

Flinging

On (Water)

Fumbling

(Pocket)

Hiding Sharing Calling In Quoting

Bellowing At Evacuating Making (Income) Stubbing (Toe)

Excavating Peeping Out Exposing Learning

Peering Through Daring Rousing Moving (Quietly)

Presuming Jumping Back Slipping Fetching

Running

(Business)

Glowing

(With Excitement)

Overcoming

(Fear)

Keeping On

(Edge)

Knowing Invading Inspecting Digging Up

Searching Sitting Taking Away Reading

Fighting Dreaming Cooling Preparing

Acting Discovering Making Money Not Listening

Shaking (Head) Building Continuing Pursuing

335

Coming Up Knocking On Babbling Wondering

Ordering Playing (music) Supposing Listening

Sneering Refusing Showing Creeping

Hurting Mingling Hoping Growing Up

Picking Up Waiting Challenging Taunting

Warning Cutting Down Putting On Walking

Setting Picking Brushing Ducking

Dumping Erupting (Screams) Jumping Upon Pounding

Leaping Up Feeling Scooping Up Screaming

Howling Crowding Leaping Dabbing

Leaning Forward Confronting Fighting Back Hitting

Maintaining Clearing Rushing Out Recognizing

Scattering

(the enemy)

Making

(Discoveries)

Bearing Down

Upon

Reflecting

(Shock)

Eating Rising Pushing Taking (Delight)

Engaging Tying Adding Preventing

Feeling sorry Peering down Looking at Signifying

Parking Getting Down Pointing Failing

Stopping Escorting Coming Constituting

Declining Encountering Ranging

336

Table 6.17: Social Actions Represented by Women in the OUP Textbooks

Standing Watching Stretching (Arms) Getting Up

Cooking Helping Packing Crying

Going Dying Mistaking Speaking

Knowing Thinking Choosing Sparing Time

Sitting Repeating Adjusting Trying Again

Learning Wanting Going On Practising

Treating Making Replying Sitting Down

Doing Smearing With Washing Off Counting

Progressing Calling Paying Putting

Going Out Working Bleeding Leaving On

Hating Hiding Crossing (Road) Waiting

Chewing Mulling Retreating Anticipating

Twisting Through Groaning Thanking Seeing

Wishing Dropping In Talking Convincing

Smiling Furrowing Feeling Wondering

Spending Explaining Figuring Wearing

Counting Walking Gobbling Up Running (Stick)

Making Up Paddling (wheel) Picking Eating

Hoarding Selling Setting (Example) Turning Away

Screaming Stumbling Out Holding Reaching

Monitoring Bringing In Watering Balancing

Deciding Torturing Dipping Pretending

337

Terrifying Groping Peering Sideways Welcoming

Moving Sowing Touching Growing

Singing Remembering Bringing Suffering

Losing Managing Looking In (mirror) Noticing

Putting Down Calling For Wringing (Neck) Controlling

Screeching Feeling (Sorry) Leaving Fading

Calm Down Educating Figuring Out Sensing

Sniffing Nodding Raising Turning (To Him)

Weeping Coming Sickening Laughing

Dismissing Shouting Ordering Dragging Out

Returning Stooping Over Looking At Obeying

Burying (Face) Sobbing Sputtering Disappearing

Looking After Retorting Glaring Hearing

Studying Earning Hoping Breaking Down

Adding Stopping Thrusting (Towels) Throwing (Glance)

Hugging Whispering Looking About Leaving Behind

Resting (Head) Begging Expressing Demonstrating

Achieving Preparing Ministering Acting

Confessing Travelling Composing (Music) Arguing

Stepping Into

(Water)

338

Table 6.18: Representation of Social Actions by Men (M) and Women (W) in the

Textbooks

PTB TEXTBOOKS OUP TEXTBOOKS

Representation Total M % W % Total M % W %

Social Actions 265 180 67.92 85 32.07 576 411 71.35 165 28.64

Table 6.19: Attributes Represented by Men in the PTB Textbooks

Free Dignity Hardworking Great

Noted Valour Bravery Sword (of Allah)

Respected Young Good Loving

Educationist Holy Forceful Effective

Relevant Brief Literary Perfect

Persuasive Noble Kindhearted Righteous

Brave Forgiving Gentle Affectionate

Character Simple Courteous Guiding (Star)

Morality Contented (2) Unprejudiced Beneficent

Not Extravagant Honest Truthfulness Integrity

Pious Changed Caring Not Harsh

Firm Determination Solid Resolution

Outstanding Diligence Discipline Nobleness

Attentive Receptive Integrity Not Mean

Not Purchasable Fearless Courageous (2) Non-Submissive

Conviction Never Compromising Powerful Honour

339

Undisputed Hard Working Confidence Will Power

God-Fearing Obedient Kind Sympathetic

Non-conceited Moderate Self-respect

Table 6.20: Attributes Represented by Women in the PTB Textbooks

Keen Talented Energetic Young (2)

Good Beloved (Daughter) Authentic (Reporter) Kind

Recognized Important Distinguished Piety

Learning Wisdom Simplicity Generosity

Care Brave Critical Modesty

Oration Intelligent Simple Surprised

Kind Feeble Old Healthy

Satisfied Affectionate Ummul-Momeneen

(Mother of all Muslims)

Table 6.21: Women’s Representation of Negative Attributes

Feeble Old

Table 6.22: Men’s Break with their Stereotypical Representation of Attributes

Not extravagant Contented Obedient Caring

Loving

340

Table 6.23: Women’s Break with their Stereotypical Representation of Attributes

Talented Beloved (daughter) Wisdom Brave

Intelligent Energetic Distinguished Generosity

Table 6.24: Attributes Represented by Men in the OUP Textbooks

Soldier Caring Loving Famous

Poor Surprised Lucky Decorated Veteran

Sceptic Rationalist Professional Blind

Feeble Stupid Patient Strongest

Gray Wealthiest Most Useful Most Influential

Lazy Silent Dumb Deaf

Happy Hard Sharp Secret

Self-Contained Solitary Old Scarlet

Master Frail-Looking Tall Active

Wiry Cleanshaven Smiling Young

Nervousness White Kindness Expert

Founder Confident Excited Vain Glorious

Black Dazed Bastard Funny

Skinny Dark Curious Upset

Very Happy Familiar Deeply Involved Receptivity

Miser Genuine Worried Afraid

Unaware Careful Devout Humour

Romantic Unending Willingness Talented Overjoyed

341

Warm-Hearted Artistic Handsome Great

Honest Reputation Best Excited

Mad Satisfied Troubled Survivor

Irritated Excited Baffled Experienced

Decorated Good Chickennecked Cowardice

Sluggishness Fortunate Unlucky Handsome

Tall Eldest Obedient Innocent

Well-Rounded Lopsided Prepared Relieved

Recluse Flushed (With

Success)

Table 6.25: Attributes Represented by Women in the OUP Textbooks

Illiterate Ignorant Impatient Skilled

Angelic Softness Concentration Pride

Beggar Kind-Hearted Too Young Too Inexperienced

Investigative Relieved (Too) Old (Too) Unattractive

Freak Tired Sobriety Frightened

Black Drunk Dark Charming

Pretty Helplessly Old Slight Stately

Fair Soft Plump Strong

Sturdiness Singing Devout Humour

Good Ready Very Good Worried

Nice Desi (Girl) Idiot Stupid Upset

342

Kind Obstinate Indifferent Creative

Astounded Distinguished Handicaps Unselfish Love

Devotion Brilliant Outstanding Intelligent

Helplessly Young Not Deferential

(To Men)

Table 6.26: Men’s Representation of Negative Attributes

Poor Sceptic Feeble Gray

Lazy Wiry Nervousness Black

Skinny Miser Surprised Mad

Irritated Sluggishness Recluse Stupid

Hard Solitary Frail-Looking Dazed

Dark Upset Dumb Old

Bastard Worried Troubled Baffled

Chickennecked Unlucky Lopsided Blind

Deaf Vain Glorious Funny Afraid

Cowardice Unaware

Table 6.27: Women’s Representation of Negative Attributes

Illiterate Beggar Freak Black

Astounded Helplessly Young Ignorant Impatient

Tired Drunk Helplessly Old Slight

Idiot Obstinate Not Deferential Handicaps

343

Too Young (Too) Old Dark Frightened

Plump Stupid Indifferent Upset

Pride Too Inexperienced Unattractive Worried

Table 6.28: Men’s Break with their Stereotypical Representation of Attributes

Feeble Lazy Mad Sluggishness

Cowardice Stupid Afraid Bastard

Chikennecked Obedient

Table 6.29: Women’s Break with their Stereotypical Representation of Attributes

Angelic Investigative Sturdiness Obstinate

Distinguished Brilliant Sobriety Very Good

Outstanding Skilled Pride Stately

Creative Intelligent

Table 6.30: Representation of Attributes by Men (M) and Women (W) in the OUT

and PTB Textbooks

PTB TEXTBOOKS OUP TEXTBOOKS

Representation Total M % W % Total M % W %

Attributes 106 75 70.75 31 29.24 164 106 64.63 58 35.36

Negative attributes 02 0 … 02 100 66 38 57.57 28 42.42

Non-stereotypical attrib. 13 05 38.46 08 61.53 22 08 36.36 14 63.63

344

Tables and Charts (Chapter 7)

7.1 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Government Urdu-Medium Schools

Table 7.1.1

Question Schools suggested

1. Suppose someone asks for

your advice for a school for

admission. Which school do you

think you would suggest?

Urdu-medium

schools

88 %

Non-elite

English-

medium

schools

12%

Elite English-

medium

Schools

0 %

Table 7.1.2

Question Favourite countries

2. Which country

do you wish you

were born in?

Pakistan

86 %

India

0 %

America

2 %

England

0 %

Other*

12 %

Other: Saudi Arabia 12%

Table 7.1.3

Question Quantifiers

3. How much do you like celebrating the national

events e.g. Independence Day, Defence Day?

Much

84 %

Little

16 %

Not at all

0 %

345

Table 7.1.4

Question Quantifiers

4. How much do you like celebrating the Islamic

events e.g. Shab-e-Barat, Eid Milad-un-Nabi

(SAWW)?

Much

100 %

Little

0 %

Not at all

0 %

Table 7.1.5

Question Celebratory Practices

5. How do you

celebrate the

Islamic events

most often?

Offering Prayers

21 %

Illuminating

Home

4 %

Participating in

Mehfil-e-

Milad

10 %

Doing

All

65 %

Other *

0 %

Table 7.1.6

Question Answer

6a. Is there any personality / character you like particularly in

your English textbooks?

Yes

100 %

No

0 %

Table 7.1.7

Question Answer

6b. If yes, what is the gender of that personality / character? Male

94 %

Female

6 %

346

Table 7.1.8

Questions Agree Disagree Unsure

7. English should be abolished in Pakistan. 18 % 74 % 8 %

8. Western life style attracts you more than the Pakistani

one.

10 %

90 %

0 %

9. Pakistan should struggle for the occupied Kashmir. 98 % 2 % 0 %

10. Pakistan should adopt the means of war to get the

occupied Kashmir.

64 %

30 %

6 %

11. The Hindus are our enemies. 92 % 2 % 6 %

12. The Christians are our enemies. 88 % 4 % 8 %

13. The Jews are our enemies. 90 % 4 % 6 %

14. Pakistan should have friendly relations with all of

them.

32 %

66 %

2 %

15. Pakistan should sign treaties with them to fight against

terrorism.

60 %

34 %

6 %

347

7.2 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Non-Elite English-Medium Schools

Table 7.2.1

Question Schools suggested

1. Suppose someone asks for

your advice for a school for

admission. What one school do

you think you would suggest?

Urdu-medium

schools

0 %

Non-elite

English-

medium

schools

98 %

Elite English-

medium

Schools

2 %

Table 7.2.2

Question Favourite countries

2. Which country

do you wish you

were born in?

Pakistan

72 %

India

0 %

America

2 %

England

2 %

Other*

24 %

*Other = Saudi Arabia 16, Iraq 2, Egypt 2, Australia 2, Switzerland 2

Table 7.2.3

Question Quantifiers

3. How much do you like celebrating the national

events e.g. Independence Day, Defence Day?

Much

84 %

Little

16 %

Not at all

0 %

348

Table 7.2.4

Question Quantifiers

4. How much do you like celebrating the Islamic

events e.g. Shab-e-Barat, Eid Milad-un-Nabi

(SAWW)?

Much

96 %

Little

0 %

Not at all

4 %

Table 7.2.5

Question Celebratory Practices

5. How do you

celebrate the

Islamic events

most often?

Offering Prayers

28 %

Illuminating

Home

6 %

Participating in

Mehfil-e-

Milad

20 %

Doing

All

36 %

Other *

2 %

Table 7.2.6

Question Answer

6a. Is there any personality / character you like particularly in

your English textbooks?

Yes

98 %

No

2 %

Table 7.2.7

Question Answer

6b. If yes, what is the gender of that personality / character? Male

94 %

Female

4 %

349

Table 7.2.8

Questions Agree Disagree Unsure

7. English should be abolished in Pakistan. 4 % 88 % 8 %

8. Western life style attracts you more than the Pakistani

one.

12 %

80 %

8 %

9. Pakistan should struggle for the occupied Kashmir. 98 % 0 % 2 %

10. Pakistan should adopt the means of war to get the

occupied Kashmir.

60 %

28 %

12 %

11. The Hindus are our enemies. 76 % 14 % 10 %

12. The Christians are our enemies. 66 % 22 % 12 %

13. The Jews are our enemies. 72 % 18 % 10 %

14. Pakistan should have friendly relations with all of

them.

38 %

50 %

12 %

15. Pakistan should sign treaties with them to fight against

terrorism.

52 %

32 %

16 %

350

7.3 Questionnaire Data from the Students of Elite English-Medium Schools

Table 7.3.1

Question Schools suggested

1. Suppose someone asks for

your advice for a school for

admission. What one school do

you think you would suggest?

Urdu-medium

schools

2 %

Non-elite

English-

medium

schools

4 %

Elite English-

medium

Schools

94 %

Table 7.3.2

Question Favourite countries

2. Which country

do you wish you

were born in?

Pakistan

38 %

India

0 %

America

12 %

England

28 %

Other*

22 %

*Other = Iran 6, Saudi Arabia 6, Canada 4, Dubai 4, UAE 2

Table 7.3.3

Question Quantifiers

3. How much do you like celebrating the national

events e.g. Independence Day, Defence Day?

Much

46 %

Little

38 %

Not at all

16 %

351

Table 7.3.4

Question Quantifiers

4. How much do you like celebrating the Islamic

events e.g. Shab-e-Barat, Eid Milad-un-Nabi

(SAWW)?

Much

52 %

Little

42 %

Not at all

6 %

Table 7.3.5

Question Celebratory Practices

5. How do you

celebrate the

Islamic events

most often?

Offering Prayers

52 %

Illuminating

Home

7 %

Participating in

Mehfil-e-

Milad

10 %

Doing

All

17 %

Other *

9 %

Table 7.3.6

Question Answer NR

6a. Is there any personality / character you like

particularly in your English textbooks?

Yes

48 %

No

50 %

2 %

Table 7.3.7

Question Answer NR

6b. If yes, what is the gender of that personality /

character?

Male

26 %

Female

22 %

52 %

352

Table 7.3.8

Questions Agree Disagree Unsure

7. English should be abolished in Pakistan. 16 % 82 % 2 %

8. Western life style attracts you more than the Pakistani

one.

58 %

36 %

6 %

9. Pakistan should struggle for the occupied Kashmir. 80 % 14 % 6 %

10. Pakistan should adopt the means of war to get the

occupied Kashmir.

28 %

50 %

22 %

11. The Hindus are our enemies. 14 % 66 % 20 %

12. The Christians are our enemies. 12 % 68 % 20 %

13. The Jews are our enemies. 14 % 68 % 18 %

14. Pakistan should have friendly relations with all of

them.

78 %

10 %

12 %

15. Pakistan should sign treaties with them to fight against

terrorism.

58 %

30 %

12 %

353

7.5 Charts: Discussion of the Comparative Results of Government Urdu-Medium, Non-Elite

English-Medium and Elite English-Medium Schools Students Chart 7.5.1

Chart 7.5.2

354

Chart 7.5.3

Chart 7.5.4

355

Chart 7.5.5

Chart 7.5.6

356

Chart 7.5.7

Chart 7.5.8

357

Chart 7.5.9

Chart 7.5.10

358

Chart 7.5.11

Chart 7.5.12

359

Chart 7.5.13

Chart 7.5.14

360

Chart 7.5.15

Chart 7.5.16

361

Questionnaire on English and Ideology

Name (Optional) ______________________________ Gender _________________ Class/Grade _______________ School _____________________________________

Part A

1. Suppose someone asks for your advice for a school for admission. What one school do you think you would suggest? _______________________________________________________

2. Which country do you wish you were born in?

a. Pakistan b. India c. America d. England e. Other (please specify) ______________

3. How much do you like celebrating the national events e.g Independence Day, Defence Day?

Very much Much Little Very little Not at all

4. How much do you like celebrating the Islamic events e.g. Shab-e-Barat, Eid Milad-un-Nabi

(SAWW)? Very much Much Little Very little Not at all

Note: If 4 = ‘Not at all’, do not answer 5; go to 6.

362

5. How do you celebrate the Islamic events most often? (You can tick / write more than one celebratory practice if you wish)

a. I offer prayers. b. I illuminate home. c. I participate in Mehfil-e-Milad. d. I do all. e. Other (please specify) ______________

6. a) Is there any personality/character you like particularly in your English textbooks?

Yes No

b) If yes, what is the gender of that personality/character?

Male Female

Part B

► Please tick the reply with which you agree most in the following statements:

7. English should be abolished in Pakistan.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

8. Western life style attracts you more than the Pakistani one.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

9. Pakistan should struggle for the occupied Kashmir.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure Note: If 9 = ‘Strongly Agree’ or ‘Agree’, then answer 10; otherwise go to 11.

10. Pakistan should adopt the means of war to get the occupied Kashmir.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

363

11. The Hindus are our enemies.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

12. The Christians are our enemies.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

13. The Jews are our enemies.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

14. Pakistan should have friendly relations with all of them.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure

15. Pakistan should sign treaties with them to fight against terrorism.

(a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (c) Strongly Disagree (d) Disagree (e) Unsure