Abstract
This article discusses the role of ‘space’ in Indian and Pakistani public sector universities in fostering national pride. University spaces have been highlighted, in both countries, for being used by the governments as agents fostering the national narrative yet there is limited research on how these spaces contribute to the visual culture of educational institutions and in the inculcation of nationalistic values. This article adds to the conversations regarding the fostering of national belonging and pride in universities by exploring space as a constitutive element of the visual culture of the higher education environment in India and Pakistan. In both countries, the physical spaces of public universities have become platforms for channelling student voices. This research uses two state-funded universities, from Delhi (in India) and Lahore (in Pakistan), and Lefebvre’s conception of space to conduct a discourse analysis of bulletin boards, graffiti, statues, sculptures, and any other imagery found online pertaining to the campuses and analyse how it is a ‘conceived’ and ‘perceived’ aspect of the visual culture of the universities. It adds to current scholarly conversations on national pride and consciousness in India and Pakistan by showing how university spaces can potentially play an active role in promoting the state’s narrative in students’ or educators’ everyday educational experiences.
Highlights
Kandiko Howson and Marie LallThe spaces of educational institutions are considered instrumental in influencing and propounding a country’s identity and national consciousness [1]
These are the universities that have been linked to student politics in the past, which we believe provides an interesting link with the fostering of national belonging in the students
Within each sub-section, we explore the conceived, and the possibly perceived of the lived spaces and how they constitute the visual culture of university spaces, which in turn can potentially shape the student perceptions and experiences of the campuses in
Summary
Kandiko Howson and Marie LallThe spaces of educational institutions are considered instrumental in influencing and propounding a country’s identity and national consciousness [1]. The notions concerning national belonging in citizens of a country may not be inherently intuitive, which often results in the need to teach citizens about their membership in a country and the essence of its national narrative [2] This is achieved through the role of education as a tool for shaping political systems and fostering feelings of belonging towards the state [2]. For postcolonial states having experienced the consequences of extractive institutions such as India and Pakistan, the development of national consciousness is a arduous task Both countries share a combined fractured past and an inherent proclivity towards the accentuation of differences between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’—a distinction that forms the very basis of its violent rupture [5,6].
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