Capitalism is the leading cause of underdevelopment in third-world countries. The Eurocentric idea of the west has always been a hindrance to the development of developing countries. Western countries are formed at the expense of the underdevelopment of other countries. Capitalism produced a network of unequal, metropolitan-satellite linkages that exploited the region by siphoning off resources and surplus capital from the periphery and channeling it into the core. Relating this concept to the sub-continent, it was full of natural resources when the British East India Company came to India. They took great advantage of the resources and took whatever they possibly could. A parasitic symbiosis was built between a developed trading nation and a vast agrarian state when the British took control of a portion of India in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in England dramatically changed the whole pattern of trade, and the years from 1813 to 1858 saw the classic age of free-trader industrial capitalist exploitation, converting India rapidly into a market for Manchester textiles. The idea continued the same way even after the separation of Pakistan and India. The exploitation continues in the form of the western mindset still persistent among Pakistan’s people. Their policies being west centric and more incongruent with their culture.
The British profoundly impacted Indian society, culture, and thought during their rule, and it permeated modern India. Many people’s minds have been “colonized” since Western values and symbols are still prioritized above indigenous ones. The harmony between a culture’s material and non-material parts suffers during periods of rapid cultural change. There’s more going on in Pakistan. Not only is it lagging, but its non-material culture is actively in flux, and we consider being more westernized as being modern. The claim is that development is uniquely Western (and consequently Eurocentric) and unfairly forced on the developing world. This Eurocentric view holds that the Third World, which is portrayed as backward and underdeveloped, should strive to emulate Western modernity as the norm and objective. One of the causes of the identity crisis that we, especially the youth, are experiencing today is the colonization of the mind. This cultural circumstance began after independence, though it was fostered long before by British powers. Western culture has become more pervasive due to a confluence of events, including globalization, technological progress, and dissatisfaction among young people with native abilities. The effects of Eurocentric cultural values are portrayed in Pakistan’s policies. The most important aspect is education, and it is being influenced due to this idea of Eurocentrism.
The education sector of Pakistan is on the verge of introducing this Eurocentric idea of a Single National Curriculum. Pakistan has a wide range of educational structures, which is a significant barrier to achieving national harmony and eradicating class divisions. Private, English-medium high schools typically charge anything from 15,000 to 25,000 per month in tuition. Some children attend religious sanctuaries known as Madrassa, and others participate in low-cost private and public schools. Each of these schools offers a unique experience regarding its curriculum, teaching methods, resources, and student autonomy. While more secular approaches have been taken in developed nations’ educational institutions, Pakistan’s religious foundation presents unique challenges. Although the government has made preparations to teach ethics to non-Muslim students in place of Islamiyat, these students nevertheless have no choice but to read literature containing Islamic material. This idea would be well suited in a country with a single ethnicity, like France or England, where they have a single race, such as French and English, respectively. But in our case, it is impossible because we are a multi-ethnic country. We are divided as Sindhis, Punjabis, Pashtoons, and Balochis; each province wants to implement its syllabus considering its ground realities. This ethnic divide and the class structure are all because of western colonization, and we are reaping their bitter outcomes.
The class structure in the sub-continent, subsequently in Pakistan, is a result of colonization and is purely based on the Eurocentric idea. To put the matter more starkly, there is not one, but two Pakistans, as Tariq Rahman writes in his book “Denizens of Alien Worlds .”The high-class elites are totally separated from the ordinary people, who cannot afford the same medical care for their children that the upper-class elites’ cats and dogs receive. This hierarchical system was left behind by colonialism, which established a bureaucratic structure to regulate the systematic looting of a country’s natural riches. You can’t give authority to the exploited because they’d rise in rebellion; therefore, this system is set up to keep it that way. These distinctions can be traced back to the successful American Revolution against colonial control in 1776, while our own revolution in 1859 was not. It is important to remember that the British were unable to act as mercilessly towards their fellow white men as they did towards the inferior black races residing in India, which was a significant factor in the success of the American Revolution.
To understand the roots of our current problems, it is essential to understand the methods by which a handful of British rules our vast country. A few thousand individuals cannot reign over millions without their free consent, but this is precisely what colonization is: a conquest of minds.
