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2 |
The State of Research and Scholarship |
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In the Muslim and developing worlds in 1983 it was found to
be even less satisfactory. At the Aga Khan's urging, particular
attention was given to evidence on the state of scientific research
in the Muslim world; the relevant literature was consulted;
Mr. Sutton made inquiries in several countries, and with Professors
Abdus Salam, A. B. Zahlan and other specialists on the subject;
a special paper was contributed by professors at Harvard and
Boston University who had extensive knowledge of the Middle
East. The results of these studies generally confirmed what
President Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan said (in another connection)
at the time : "Today .. one was constrained to admit that the
Islamic world was almost a non-entity in science .. we are trailing
not only behind the technologically advanced nations in a situation
of perpetual dependency, but also have the unhappy distinction
of being at the tail-end even of the developing world" [Ref.
at p.26]. Thanks to the scanning of several thousand journals
at the Institute of Scientific Information in Philadelphia,
it was possible to give quantitative measures of the lagging
of the developing and Muslim worlds behind the industrial countries.
Evidence was also found that their poor scientific productivity
was not due to a dearth of scientists; as Zahlan wrote, "The
total research output is low and out of all proportion to the
number of physicists, mathematicians and chemists employed in
the Arab world, to say nothing of the number of universities
offering instruction in these fields" [Quoted at p.26]. The
obvious conclusion from this study, as from many others, was
that the lack of an "enabling environment" for research in the
developing countries was more important than lack of trained
talent. |
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Much of the evidence that the Harvard Committee examined had
to do with the sciences, but an effort was also made to assess
work in the social sciences, using a Rockefeller study and a
powerful article by Professor Mohamed Arkoun which appeared
at the time. The results were a bit less depressing than in
the sciences but not reassuring either. The general climate
in most countries was unsympathetic or actively hostile to research
and scholarship that did not have evident practical application
or that questioned conventional views and official doctrine.
As in the natural and biological sciences, basic or theoretical
work was rare. The Rockefeller study found few social scientists
"widening intellectual perspectives, liberating society from
its myths and illusions, or conceptualising development issues";
and Arkoun found analyses condemned to repeating "the forms
of thought and interpretation of normative Islamic discourse,
sprinkled with modernist terms". |
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The Harvard Committee's report concluded its views in a paragraph
with warnings that may have sufficient pertinence for future
policy in AKU to merit quotation here : |
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"There are those who argue that the present situation is
about as it must be, given the urgent practical needs of the
developing countries. The needs of these countries for research
and evaluation have been very great and universities have had
to show their governments they were not indifferent to them.
It very well may be that only through heavy commitment to research
work that does not directly support academic instruction or
probe deeply into matters that illuminate the nature of their
societies or indeed break new ground in their discipline, can
universities justify themselves to their surroundings. But there
are evident costs-infailures to adapt instruction to the cultural
and social setting, and in providing their societies with deeper
understanding of their nature and problems. There are also costs
in not developing the capacity to train scholars and researchers
in fashions appropriate to the settings in which they work.
Such training requires reshaping of programmes that have been
copied from elsewhere, and it can hardly occur without serious
conceptual effort." [p. 34] |
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This brief summary of the Harvard Report's findings on the
state of research and scholarship in 1983 may serve to explain
the emphasis on research that pervaded that report, as well
as serving as a benchmark for the Commission's effort to assess
how the situation in the Muslim and developing worlds may have
changed in the subsequent years. |
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