Education in Chand Grahan

“Mai tu samjhi thi ke taleem ne mujhe aik aam insaan bana diya hai liken mai tu bhool hi gayi thi ke mai aik buhat baray jagirdaar ki beti hun”.

This line in particular stood out for me as I started watching the drama. For me what it represents is the difference of what ‘being educated’ means in Pakistan then vs now.

What seems like a simple line carries a powerful meaning. The context within which it has been spoken makes it a powerful line. Shaharbano, the speaker, is the daughter of an influential feudal lord and politician due to which she has both wealth and power backing her. Along with a strong background she was also educated which back then was a huge deal considering that education was inaccessible to many so we can safely assume that both these factors should have made her arrogant and superior to others. However, for her to say that education has liberated her and has made her ‘ordinary’ is what makes this line really stand out. Here, education has had the ‘right effect’ as it has made Shaharbano realize that a person’s worth is not measured by how much power and wealth he possesses and that these things mean nothing. In this way, the drama through this line illustrates what ‘being educated’ really means that it rids you from superficial concept like claiming to be ‘aik baray jagirdaar ki beti” and instead makes you humble and down to earth and propels you towards more meaningful quests.

This is in sharp contrast to how ‘being educated’ is portrayed in contemporary dramas. In Humsafar for example education was a license for most of the characters to be extremely full of themselves. Being educated in contemporary dramas is depicted as a privilege through which people automatically not only become superior to others but also hold the license to ‘rule’ over the uneducated masses. Sara, Fareeda, Ashar etc are all shown as highly educated yet these are the very people who fail to act in accordance with their education. This holds true for other contemporary dramas as well for instance, Daam, Shehr-e-Zaat, Mohabbat Subh ka Sitara etc. where it is the educated class that desperately attempts to accumulate power and wealth instead of realizing that these things are only superficial.

Therefore, being educated meant two very different things at the time of Chand Grahan and that of Humsafar.