Political, economical, social, and educational effects of Colonialism in Pakistan

1. Effects of Colonialism in Pakistan
Nearly every country is connected by the term colonialism, as every country has been impacted
by it as several countries colonized other countries for decades, and that made a massive impact
on the globe. The subcontinent was one of the areas which were brutally colonized in its time by
British and we are still seeing its impact in the form of a confused nation. The Britishers
considered the native people of subcontinent as Barbarians hence in the name of trade, and
making people more civilized the Britishers found a way to settle and exploit the people of
subcontinent and its natural resources. They even enforced their own culture, language and
policies for their own benefits for over eight decades. The subcontinent eventually got its
independence in 1947 and Pakistan surely got the physical freedom from the British raj 89 years
ago but it has been unable to get the mental freedom till this day as we are still under the spell of
colonialism even though the Britishers left ages ago. The British colonization impacted the
Pakistani society in every way whether it be mentally, economically, culturally, politically, or
education wise. The colonizers left but they are still ruling our minds till this day.
The passage to India by E.M Forster:
“India likes gods, and Englishman like posing as gods.”
Pakistan is country which is filled with many ethnicities, languages and diverse cultures and yet
still there is an inferiority complex present in the society as we have this colonial mindset that
English language is superior than our own native language, we regard English language as a sign

2. of intellect, we give more importance to a foreign language than our own. Back in the days the
colonizers used to think less of our language and nowadays we are doing the same thing. During
the British raj the colonizers imposed English language upon the people of subcontinent and
gave it the up most importance while discriminating the language of the native’s by emphasizing
how it’s not worthy of being learnt or read and it won’t get you anywhere and we can see that
colonial mindset present in the current Pakistani society as English language is taken as an sign
of intellect, if a person can speak, read, and understand English language than they are
considered as superior and intellectual while the same intellectuality does not count for someone
who is equally proficient in their own native language and that shows how we are still colonized
mentally till this day.
Culture wise, people are forgetting their own culture and traditions day by day. People wear
western attire even on the days where we should proudly represent our identity, our culture. The
colonial mindset is so vivid in our society that the native people get judged by their fellow
natives for wearing their own cultural clothes. During the British raj the English language was
given the upmost priority and it was enforced upon the natives and nowadays the English
language has become the medium of instruction in over 35% of the education institution which
are controlled by private sectors. Along with that English as a subject has been made as a
compulsory subject and is mandatory in every class and the same or even half of the importance
is not given to the native languages of the country. The society has such vivid colonial mindset
that even the parents themselves nowadays don’t teach their kids their mother language from
birth but rather they teach them English language due to the mindset that English language is
superior and it is the sign of intellect.
The economic condition of our country has only declined as we have the mindset that the foreign
products are better than the ones which are locally produced and that leads to us importing a lot
of foreign products and leading to a downfall in the local economy and the increase in the taxes.
With that mindset our economy will never grow and compete the global economies. Till this day
even after 7 decades there is still dispute and tension at the border of Pakistan and India due to
the impact of colonization and that tension are stopping both the nations to grow economically
together.
“Until the lions have their own
Historians, the history of the hunt will
Always glorify the hunter.”
-Chinua Achebe
In conclusion, we are still living in the past with our colonial mindset. People still profoundly
believe that English language is superior and whoever excels at it is intellectual and we are

3. facing the consciousness of that mentality economically, culturally, politically and education
wise. We must get out of that backward mindset in order to become a proud nation.