The Construction of Madrassa Image: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Madrassa Reforms of Pakistan From 2001-2018

Abstract

Before the creation of Pakistan, madaris were the center of scholarly debates and philosophical studies, but since the independence, these institutions are not seen as the traditional educational institutes, rather they have become a mere source of providing basic religious education to the children of the lower poor class. Currently, they are professed as social institutions having other religious and political agendas, and are linked to the society through ulema who play a number of other functions rather than teaching in madaris. The change in the status of madaris is not merely because of the activities of ulema, there has been a role of the state affairs in the manufacturing of a new image of madaris, and policies of government played an imperative role in this regard. Policy documents are legal and legitimate means of a government to pursue its agenda, and the way madaris are portrayed in the policy documents is of acute significance while discussing the madrassa image in Pakistan. The qualitative research utilizes the analytical prism of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and constructs a theoretical lens from the post-structuralist philosophical underpinnings of Foucault on ‘Power-Knowledge-Truth’, to discover whether policy texts had a role in the construction of the image of madaris. The theoretical lens drawn from Foucault’s thoughts and the application of CDA as an analytical tool, makes explicit how value is granted to certain metaphors that are associated with madaris in the policy texts, and how they work to construct the image of madaris in the policy discourse.