Education was the only antidote to the terrorists’ rhetoric. Kashmiris’ ignorance of the outside world, combined with desperate poverty, made them especially vulnerable to manipulation.
“These people who are not going to school, that’s the basis of terrorism,” Ali says. “Any person can use them against our country. It’s sectarianism due to illiteracy.” Ali is convinced educating girls in particular is the only way his country will change. Female literacy in the villages runs at about 4 percent. But educated girls will become educated mothers, argues Ali, and insist on education for their children, which could set the nation on a new track...
“It will spoil the next 15 to 20 years if the children grow up illiterate. They will be big troublemakers. But if they are educated, they can use dialogue and negotiation; they can distinguish between propaganda and reality. We are responsible for that before God.”
Although education may not be the fix for ending manipulation through propaganda (just look at the USA), it at least gives people the tools to think for themselves and know that other options are possible. I thought this article represented a good message of hope for a better world.
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Labels: Gender Issues, Politics
While education, as you say, isn't necessarily the sole weapon to end manipulation through propaganda, it's a key aspect I think. One aspect of such an education, I think, would have to include a discussion about what propaganda is and how it works, how to spot it.
What I find perhaps more interesting is the connection between illiteracy and isolation from what's going in the wider world. It seems to me, to put it in more postmodern-ish terms, that a tyrannical local narrative can only be overcome when a grander story is presented, albeit one that also makes local people a part of it.