The British Colonial Encounter with the Pukhtuns: An Appraisal of Faqir Ippi’s Struggle against the British Raj (1936-1947)

The North-West Frontier region of the British Empire in India during the Great Game was part of the ‘Ring Fence Strategy’, framed by the Raj against its adversaries and rivals in Central and South Asia. To protect her ‘Jewel in the Crown’- India, the British Raj made several moves in the strategically placed Pukhtun1 land. The Pukhtun populace, adherent to their centuries old code of conduct, Puḳhtūnwali, consistently resisted the British encroachment of their territory. Mirza Ali Khan, popularly known as Faqir Ippi, was one of the many freedom fighters who challenged the imperialist power in this region. Taking notice of Islam Bibi’s case, a Hindu Convert, Faqir Ippi mobilized the Pukhtuns of Waziristan in defying and fighting the British. He was a serious contestant to the British authority with his well-known fighting skills, effective planning and guerilla tactics in one of the most difficult terrains. The entire Tribal Belt, especially Waziristan, proved to be a ‘turbulent frontier’ for nearly eleven years, i.e. 1936-1947. This insurgency started bringing bad name to the crown and encouraging others to rise against the British. To contain and end Faqir Ippi’s resistance, Governor George Cunningham hired the locals to instigate and bribe his followers to rise and fight against him. The aim of this paper is a critical evaluation of the British strategy in this region and an appraisal of Faqir Ippi’s response and assessment of how successful he was in invigorating Pukhtun resistance to defend their motherland, using both colonial and local sources.

Promoting Organizational Learning to Improve the Quality of Education in School of Pakistan

The education system in Pakistan is strongly criticised for not establishing a sustainable mechanism whereby school personnel could learn from each other in both the formal and informal social contexts of schools and contribute to the provision of quality education. The current research used the philosophical underpinnings of organizational learning and proposed the School Organizational Learning Model (SOLM) to improve the quality of education in poorly performing schools in Pakistan. The quality of education provided by the schools is contingent on the fees they charge. Thus, the low cost public and private schools were noted as poorly performing schools in Pakistan. One way to improve quality is to utilize learning from well performing schools and improve the quality of education in the low-cost schools. The current research followed the explanatory mixed design and applied the Dimensions of Learning School Questionnaire (DLSQ) originally prepared by Watkins and Marsick (1997) and later adapted by Akram, Watkins and Sajid (2013) for schools of Pakistan. This was done to gather data from 502 sample cases from the medium-cost schools and used learning from them to improve conditions in a low-cost private school. Using the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) technique variables that contributed to the organizational learning of the medium-cost schools were identified. It was noted that out of four independent variables, individual level organizational learning was negatively correlated whereas school level organizational learning was positively correlated with the knowledge performance school outcome in the medium-cost schools. The remaining two variables, team level organizational learning and global level organizational learning, indicated insignificant impact on the knowledge performance of the schools. Thus, a semi-structured interview schedule based on individual and school level learning was developed and employed to gain additional relevant data from four selected teachers, four head teachers/coordinators. Using theoretical underpinnings of the organizational learning theory (Akram, Watkins & Sajid, 2013; Watkins & Marsick, 1997) and the data gathered during Phase I of the research which included both quantitative and qualitative data in the mixed methods design, the SOLM was developed and implemented through action research (AR) in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) section of a low-cost private school to improve the quality of education of the school. Evidence which indicated that the quality of classroom teaching of six teachers was improved emerged and thus the SOLM was considered a contribution to the existing knowledge concerning organizational learning.