Adil Najam
Our friend Darwaish posted this picture at Metroblog Lahore claiming that it is the very last statue of a human figure standing at its original location in Lahore (outside the ‘old campus’ of Punjab Univeristy).
I have no reason at all to doubt his claim and am fairly sure that he is, in fact, right. But I wanted to check with our readers if this is indeed so. Do you know of other statues; in Lahore or elsewhere?
(I recall that discussion on an earlier post about a Gandhi statue outside the Sindh High Court that now stands in the Indian High Commission; and someone on Lahore Metroblog hinted that now there are many new statues all over the major cities - mostly of Ronald MacDonald and Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken!).
This statue, by the way, is of Prof. Alfred Woolner who was a long-serving professor of Sanskrit, as well as vice-chancellor of Punjab University between 1928 and 1936.
Being in the same profession as Mr. Woolner, I am intrigued by this picture at many levels. For example, it is ironic that the statue of a professor has been vandalized by what seems to be a student organization of some sort. Whatever this may or may not tell us about the state of statues in Pakistan, it also says a lot about the respect that professors once held in our society and now do not.
Only yesterday, Mast Qalandar was writing in these columns about Islamia College Peshawar and the discussion led to a conversation on the contribution of Prof. Hubert Michael Close, one of the College’s remarkable professors. We have, of course, also been talking recently of cheating professors at Punjab Univeristy. One wonders if there are still professors in our colleges and Universities who are revered as Prof. Woolner here, or Prof. Close at Islamia College, were.
I have a tayya (uncle) who alway very proudly, and rightly proudly, tells me that his teachers were Sufi Tabassum and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. I know there are still many who should be revered and who excel at the craft and art of teaching. Yet, do we as a society even think that teachers are worthy of respect? And, can a society that does not respect teachers, even be considered respectable?
I think its a separate discussion that if we are “but-shikans” or “but-taraash”; fact is we only follow Islamic things that suits us or that allow
our consious to get away with.
It is a fact that our society has changed and teachers & scholars don’t have a respect. I believe it reflects the values of our society.Having said that, I also believe that old teachers in schools used to verbally & physically abuse their students.
Adil,
You have brought up two points in this post: respect for and recognition of good teachers and having their statues, or any statues for that matter.
On statues, don’t forget we are a nation of “but-shikans” and not “but-taraash”. Remember Mehmood Ghaznavi? I am surprised how did this particularly statue escape the wrath of the mullahs on campus?
I am not sure but I think there are several large statues, done in European style, in Mohatta Palace, Karachi, which is a public building now.
Under the present state of affairs it boils down to pure economics and soical pressures of low income. Just like doctors hauling patients from govt. hospitals to their private clinics, teachers followed the same model and started tutoring privately to supplement their living - classrooms therefore became cold facilities to produce “another brick in the wall”- a mechanical function that does not require any respcet. It is rather unfortunate situation but can be turned around.
Yeah, hands down, ATP has been phenomenal and has done an incredible job. Congrats! It really takes efforts like these to get where we all want to get as a nation.
I would love to see Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Statue in Pakistan. I don’t have an iota of doubt in my mind that we all need to revisit his teachings and guidance. I would even pay/donate for it.
He was really a true visionary who knew (even in 1880s) that we were only going to hurt ourselves by not taking on a more moderate and enlightened approach.
Lots of Respect PLUS deserved reward (Intellectual Property Protection, Scholarly Papers, Compensation, Institution standards) for Profs & Teachers is just IMPERATIVE for a society to succeed.
**Maybe I summed up many problems that we face today, but at least we can take a start. It is never too late.
-Mustafa.
I am very surprised that a statue is still standing and specially because of where it is…
I do not agree that teachers are any less than they were. I do think that there was an in built respect for teachers as a profession, still is in many other parts of the world. But we have lost that respect. So it is circular. If there are bad teachers that itself is partly because society does not give the incentives (respect as well as financial) for better people to come into the profession.
I do think that some of this is changing because of private univeristies and HEC which are now paying good salaries.
I’ve been reading ATP for about a month now and am pretty much glued to it. kudos to all!
As per respect for teachers, I think its a two way story. First current day students are in ‘general’ not blessed with good teachers like they used to be sometime ago. So the general respect is also low. Many teachers (not all) these days are losers of their actual career pursuits. The slogan goes ‘if u cant do, teach!’.
And due to this every year, education standard is degrading.
But i won’t blame the teachers for this. Its our society, which did it all. We are not a knowledge seeking society so we don’t give much heed to education and its institute. Teaching career was started to be taken as a low financial income career, totally undermining the respect and responsibility which comes with it.
Teachers were and are pressurized at their jobs by parents, by administration, by students…
What we do at our old school alumni, we try to invite faculty on our gatherings and give them at least the respect they deserve. And apparently it works! They perform better in classes when asked from our siblings and younger ones…
after all they r humans too!
this is indeed that status standing in lahore. but you wait for the next riot and someone will suddenly decide to bring it down.
You want respect for teachers, professor sahib? :-)
Wrong place, wrong time.