Self-Alienating Citizenship and the Making of Docile Citizens: The Case of the Politically Disputed Territory of Gilgit-Baltistan

This paper focuses on the dynamics of citizenship education in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), situated in the northern part of Pakistan. GB stands out as a politically disputed territory where territorial autonomy is a contested field of inquiry because of citizenship anxieties and the limited self-governing competencies specific to the region within the broader political configuration of Pakistan. The study presented seeks to understand citizenship education discourse in GB through the eyes of a sample of teachers. It seeks to understand the meaning that they bring to the discourse on citizenship and citizenship education within the context of GB. The findings of the study evidence how the discourse of citizenship in GB is understood to be characterised by a crisis of citizenship, owing to the politically disputed status of the region, contributing to squeezing political space, identity crisis and strengthening of sub-group religious identities and polarization of society. The study shows how citizenship education serves as a tool of depoliticization and alienation and contributes to a discourse of self-alienating citizenship and the making of docile citizens. It also evidences how social media is emerging as an alternative platform of citizenship education transcending the curricular discourse on citizenship education.