Establishing Marital Bonds between History and Sociology in Pakistan

Abstract

History provides opportunities to nations to determine productive line of actions towards development. To this effect, history as a science has travelled from the conventional approach of mere recording towards a scientific cultural-based analytical approach. It has, in this way, proliferated and permeated into almost all fields and sciences. The West has been utilizing and utilized history as a science for identifying feasible strategies for development and productive innovations. Its infiltration into different fields such as military, economy, development, and politics has resulted into the emergence of innovative fields that have proved successful in reflecting the overall and reality-based picture of the issues. In Pakistan, the situation is not yet mature enough to realize it so. Here, history and historical researches are carried out in isolation and are mainly confined to presenting the chronological records/history of the issues. This state of affairs has led, on the one hand, to the paralysis of the subject and, on the other hand, to its inability in reflecting the historical issues in broader and comprehensive way. We believe that history in isolation unearths no reality; rather overshadows the broader perspective of the issues.

To provide scientific grounds to history and historical researches, Ibni-Khaldun’s work occupies pivotal place in giving new direction to it. He maintains that history and sociology are inseparable. Historical events, he holds, need to be studied in the light of sociological or, in other words, cultural forces/factors. However, despite of his futuristic vision and scientific outlook, history is still treated in Pakistan as a subject permanently divorced from sociology. The available historical literature and researches furnish detailed record of the issues/events and ignore the sociological forces causing them. As students of sociology in particular and social sciences in general it looks quite illogical to undermine the relevancy of the issues and subjects and the modern inter-disciplinary approach in dealing with the problems. To ensure a realistic reflection of the events, marital bonds are required to be established between history and sociology and, henceforth, the historical researches are suggested to be carried out with in-depth reflections of sociological outlook. This triangulation while necessitating orientation of historian in sociological knowledge would provide a new direction to the history and innovative strategies for feasible development in Pakistan. In other words, it may help history as a subject to proliferate to unprecedented levels by presenting and exploring the historical problems.