The other day, someone asked me why there wasn’t any book-sized work by a Pakistani academic on the Afghan war of the 1980s. The answer is simple — locals aren’t trusted with information that is provided to foreigners, especially those with acceptable skin colour. Furthermore, why should anyone burn the midnight oil if ultimately he will be accused of being a foreign agent?
The blame must be shared by academics as well who fall into the trap of immediate publicity by appearing in the media. The number of non-journalists writing in newspapers creates the false impression that op-ed pieces are scholarly articles, which are meant to go into the intricacies of issues, discussed in a 1,100-1,200 word space. These pieces are at best what fast food is to cuisine; they showcase a larger concept. So, it is interesting when people argue that someone has left out such and such an idea.
Perhaps, it is the information age that we live in which attracts people towards such fast-lane scholarship through column writing. However, a greater problem is due to the nature of the public sector university system which does not encourage great scholarship, particularly in the social sciences. Research and writing requires availability of resources including money and material which means books, access to information and the ability to meet people. All public sector universities are short on resources. There is no concept of travel grants, meeting people for interviews or getting access to published journal articles and books. There is so much published material being produced outside the country all the time which a scholar must access for his work. The inability to stay up to date has a negative impact on academic work.
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