Influence of books

The power of the narrative

The English sociologist Herbert Spencer (d. 1903) interpreted Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as social Darwinism and coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. His theories helped the European Imperialism and its exploitation against the Asian and African nations

There are a number of collections of selected books that have changed the world. Whereas so far there is no list of those books, which have mislead and misguided the society, and after conserving obsolete and outdated traditions, customs and practices made it stagnant and static. When we analyse the impact of those books, which have radically changed the world view of people such as Darwin’s Origin of Species published in 1859, Marx and Engle’s Communist Manifesto published in 1848 and Marx’s Das Kapital published in 1867 and Sigmond Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams and other writings. All the three writers and their books had transformed the world outlook and open the gates for new knowledge. However, at the same time, there were other writers and intellectuals, who were publishing their books to counter new ideas and to create a racist society in order to establish supremacy of white race and to provide the basis for European imperialism. Author Comte de Gobineau published his book An Essay on Inequality of human in 1852. The English sociologist Herbert Spencer (d. 1903) interpreted Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as social Darwinism and coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’. His theories helped the European Imperialism and its exploitation against the Asian and African nations on the basis of the supremacy of white race, who was powerful, strong and intellectually superior to non Europeans who were weak and intellectually imbecile

He was anti democrat, anti people and against any effort to establish a welfare State in order to support the weaker section of the society. In his opinion those who were weak could not be allowed to survive with the help of charitable institutions. Only strong have right to survive.

These racist theories continued throughout 19^th and 20^th centuries and when Adolf Hitler published his Mein Kamph (My Struggle), in 1925, he also expressed his racist theories. In 1933, when this party came to power, he implemented his racist ideas in practice and eliminated Jews and Gypsies in Gas Chamber of Concentration Camps. His party also secretly followed Eugenic Policy by eradicating those children who were physically born weak. His vision was to have strong and healthy Germans representing the superior Arian race. The racist trends are still alive today and there are writers who are repeating the hackneyed ideas which are popularised and welcomed by the European and American people. There are political parties nearly in all European countries, following the racist ideology, exploit the emotions of common people to get their votes in the elections. Davis Landes in his book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations repeats the justification of the superiority of white race. They are keeping alive racial hatred and prejudice against the non Europeans who are immigrated and settled in these countries

We also find in the Muslim society, the books which have negative influence and preserved the outdated customs and values which are obstacles to its development and progress such as Imam Ghazali’s (1111) book Tahamat ul Falsafawhich condemns philosophy. In his view it is harmful to the religious beliefs. Another of his book Ahya ul Ulum, he banned any new interpretation of religion emphasising on the already established religious beliefs. The impact of his writings is that the Muslim society reverted to conservative customs and traditions and becomes stagnant and barren for new ideas.

In case of the Indian Muslim society, after the downfall of the Mughal empire when its power was disintegrated and its aristocracy lost its past grandeur and glory, firstly it took refuge in books such as Tilsm Hoshruba, Dastan e Amir Hamza, Qissa Chahar Darwesh, Qissa Hatam Tai and Fasana e Ajayib. These books took them away from the real world to a world of dreams where they found themselves in the company of musicians, jesters, prince and princesses which sooths their anxiety and get them short lived satisfaction.

In the next stage there was literature based on historical novels. Abdul Haleem Sharar (d.1926) revisited the Islamic history in his novel which provided a sense of false glory to those who had lost their social status, economic wealth and military success. The victories of Islamic armies in these novels created a false historical consciousness in the community who after losing their past military glory, revived it and won battle after battle in the pages of these books. This practice was continued by Sadiq Hussain Siddiqui, who published nearly 150 Islamic historical novels, which were consumed avidly by the readers. Nasim Hijazi (d.1996) excelled the art of historical novel writing by narrating the victories as well as downfall of the Muslims. In the third stage were detective stories that attracted the society. The readers were wondered and amazed on the task of detectives who traced the roots of crimes and solved the mysteries of it. They expected that the same role should be played by their political leaders to solve their problems without any involvement of society. They wanted to become mute spectators and not active participants.

Abdul Haleem Sharar (d.1926) revisited the Islamic history in his novel which provided a sense of false glory to those who had lost their social status, economic wealth and military success. The victories of Islamic armies in these novels created a false historical consciousness

I would like to point out the impact of Bahishti Zaiwar written by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi (d.1943). It was written at a time when there was a movement in the subcontinent to promote girls education. The Maulana, following the conservative traditions, opposed any movement which would weaken the male hegemony and empower women. The book was a part of girls’ dowry because its teachings kept women obedient to their husbands. Interestingly, it is translated into English as Ornament of Paradise for those girls who are educated in English medium.

Any society could intellectually be recognised on the basis of the books which are published for its consumption. In Pakistan, majority of books are published either on religious topics or poetry and novels. Hardly there is demand of books on social and natural sciences. Therefore, it is not surprising that we have religious extremism and no rational intellectual views which are required for the majority of any society.