QUESTIONING HISTORICAL OBJECTIVITY: AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL READING OF MUBARAK ALI’S HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

This article gives an epistemological examination of Mubarak Ali's historiography and historical epistemology, including his ongoing critique of historical objectivity in Pakistani historical writing. Putting into question the positivist belief that history can be authored as a neutral and value-free narrative of the past, Mubarak Ali pre-empts the social, political and ideological circumstances in which the writing of history is generated. According to the study, historical objectivity cannot be an absolute knowledge that a historian can achieve but rather a contentious declaration of power relations, institutional authority and the positionality of the historian. Based on epistemological controversies in the philosophy of history and postcolonial theory, the article frames the work of Mubarak Ali in the context of more general criticism directed at state-centred and nationalist historiographies. It discusses his interventions in the history of textbooks, the practices of archives, and the media of collective memory to show how the notions of selective silence, the creation of myths, and selective ideological filtering inform the major historical discourse in Pakistan. Mubarak Ali contributes to the critical approach to the methodology of history by focusing on it as a social construct of knowledge, a characteristic more concerned with reflexivity, plurality, and marginalised voices. The results of the research show that Mubarak Ali has put more effort into criticising the historical approaches and patterns which only focused on the history of the state and elite.