The Other Battlefield Construction And
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THE OTHER BATTLEFIELD – CONSTRUCTION AND REPRESENTATION OF THE PAKISTANI MILITARY ‘SELF’ IN THE FIELD OF MILITARY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE PRODUCTION Inauguraldissertation an der Philosophisch-historischen Fakultät der Universität Bern zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde vorgelegt von Manuel Uebersax Promotionsdatum: 20.10.2017 eingereicht bei Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schulze, Institut für Islamwissenschaft der Universität Bern und Prof. Dr. Jamal Malik, Institut für Islamwissenschaft der Universität Erfurt Originaldokument gespeichert auf dem Webserver der Universitätsbibliothek Bern Dieses Werk ist unter einem Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung 2.5 Schweiz Lizenzvertrag lizenziert. Um die Lizenz anzusehen, gehen Sie bitte zu http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ch/ oder schicken Sie einen Brief an Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA. 1 Urheberrechtlicher Hinweis Dieses Dokument steht unter einer Lizenz der Creative Commons Namensnennung-Keine kommerzielle Nutzung-Keine Bearbeitung 2.5 Schweiz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ch/ Sie dürfen: dieses Werk vervielfältigen, verbreiten und öffentlich zugänglich machen Zu den folgenden Bedingungen: Namensnennung. Sie müssen den Namen des Autors/Rechteinhabers in der von ihm festgelegten Weise nennen (wodurch aber nicht der Eindruck entstehen darf, Sie oder die Nutzung des Werkes durch Sie würden entlohnt). Keine kommerzielle Nutzung. Dieses Werk darf nicht für kommerzielle Zwecke verwendet werden. Keine Bearbeitung. Dieses Werk darf nicht bearbeitet oder in anderer Weise verändert werden. Im Falle einer Verbreitung müssen Sie anderen die Lizenzbedingungen, unter welche dieses Werk fällt, mitteilen. Jede der vorgenannten Bedingungen kann aufgehoben werden, sofern Sie die Einwilligung des Rechteinhabers dazu erhalten. Diese Lizenz lässt die Urheberpersönlichkeitsrechte nach Schweizer Recht unberührt. Eine ausführliche Fassung des Lizenzvertrags befindet sich unter http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ch/legalcode.de 2 Acknowledgments The work on this thesis expanded over an extended period of time and I am grateful for the wealth of support and feedback. My initial thanks go to Prof. Reinhard Schulze for guiding me to the battlefield. In earlier stages, my peers at the Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies of the Humanities and Social Sciences provided constructive feedback and comments as well as companionship over coffee. I am especially thankful to Susanne Leuenberger, Maurice Cottier and Franziska Zaugg. Christina Oesterheld and participants of the Pakistan Workgroup at the University of Heidelberg provided valuable feedback on the research project and a draft of chapter three. Mohammad Ayub Kulla helped with my initial struggle to understand the subtleties of Urdu humorous writing. In Lahore, my quest for autobiographical texts of officers was supported by Ikram Chaghatai and Imran. Thank you David Loher and Florian Zemmin for the valuable feedback and the careful reading, I appreciate it. Nelly Thelwall, thank you for your support to iron out the creases in English that emerged from my carelessness. Finally, I would like to express my great gratitude to Ronja, Sophie Lou and Maurice Reza who had to endure my fights with the other battle over the years. 3 Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................... 3 Contents ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 The other battlefield(s) ........................................................................................................ 7 1.2 Pakistani officers as social and symbolic agents .......................................................... 9 1.3 Military autobiographical writing as a social practice ............................................. 10 1.4 The Pakistani military ‘self’ ............................................................................................... 12 1.5 Research design ..................................................................................................................... 13 1.6 The order of battle – chapter structure ......................................................................... 17 2 The study of the Pakistani military officer corps ................................................. 23 2.1 The Social and cultural developments of the Pakistani military .......................... 26 2.1.1 The British legacy ........................................................................................................................... 26 2.1.2 Nation-building and modernisation under Ayub Khan .................................................. 29 2.1.3 Period of populist egalitarianism ............................................................................................ 32 2.1.4 From Zia ul-Haq to the present ................................................................................................ 34 2.2 Generations ............................................................................................................................. 39 2.2.1 British generation ........................................................................................................................... 40 2.2.2 American generation ..................................................................................................................... 42 2.2.3 Pakistani generation ..................................................................................................................... 43 2.2.4 Next generation ............................................................................................................................... 44 3 The field of military autobiographical narrative production .......................... 45 3.1 Bourdieu: The field of cultural production .................................................................. 47 3.2 The field of Pakistani military autobiographical narratives ................................. 49 3.2.1 Autonomous principle: Historical truth claim ................................................................... 50 3.2.2 Relations between positions ...................................................................................................... 54 3.2.3 Positions inside the field ............................................................................................................. 58 3.3 Relations to other fields ..................................................................................................... 63 3.4 Historical evolution of the field ....................................................................................... 66 3.4.1 Military autobiographical narratives before Pakistan ................................................... 67 3.4.2 Early narratives and genesis of the field .............................................................................. 68 3.4.3 Diversification and expansion – the field from the 1990s ............................................ 73 3.5 The field and the negotiation of the ‘self’ ...................................................................... 75 4 The officers’ representation in regard to the Partition ...................................... 79 4.1 The presentation of the officers’ role in secondary literature .............................. 80 4.2 Early narratives – Partition as an episode ................................................................... 85 4 4.2.1 The Pakistan Army’s master narrative of Partition ......................................................... 86 4.2.2 Reference in early narratives .................................................................................................... 89 4.3 Partition after 1971 – place for ideological disputes ............................................... 94 4.3.1 Revision of the Pakistan Army’s master narrative ........................................................... 95 4.3.2 The Tragedy of 1971 demands a revisit of Partition ...................................................... 97 4.4 Diversification of narratives – representations of Partition since the 1990s 106 4.4.1 Military professionals ................................................................................................................ 107 4.4.2 Expanding on Partition: Tajammul Malik ......................................................................... 109 4.4.3 Integration of Partition events .............................................................................................. 111 4.5 Subject positions in regard to 1947 ............................................................................. 117 5. Representation of the officers’ in regard to the Tragedy of 1971 ............ 120 5.1. The troubled historiography of the Tragedy ............................................................... 124 5.2. After the Tragedy – who is to blame? ............................................................................. 128 5.3. 1 The suffering as a prisoner of war ........................................................................................... 130 5.3.1. Witnessing a political failure ....................................................................................................