Victoria Schofield - Co-editor
In this introductory interview we talked to Victoria Schofield, co-editor of Modern’s ‘Debate Page’. We asked her the questions which she will be asking a number of people in a series of monthly interviews: Does the individual have the power to shape the future? Which individuals have? And even if they have not shaped the future in the grand sense of the word, how have they shaped the story of their own lives?
Interview
DOES THE INDIVIDUAL HAVE THE POWER TO SHAPE THE FUTURE?
So, Victoria are you confident that you have power over your own destiny?
I think we have to be confident that we have power over our own destiny because otherwise we just become cogs in the wheel of life. One of the reasons why I wanted to become a writer and journalist was to be able to record what I saw and had researched in order to make a contribution to what we know about important political and potentially contentious issues. And if that knowledge proved contrary to what people thought, then hopefully the fruits of my research would make people accept and understand other viewpoints.
You speak as though you are thinking of a particular issue?
Yes, my work on the longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. When I started to research the Kashmir issue, people had very fixed viewpoints, they either adopted the Pakistani point of view that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir should have become part of Pakistan because of its Muslim majority at partition in 1947, or the Indian standpoint, that it should have become part of India because the then ruler chose to join his state with India. But the more I understood about the issue myself, I realised how complex it was; there are varying opinions, most especially the diverse views of the inhabitants of the state themselves, which had somehow been overlooked. And so when I wrote my first book on Kashmir I tried to enable all protagonists to speak their ‘truth’ in the hope that greater understanding would pave the way to some sort of reconciliation and resolution.
But where does your interest in that region in particular come from? And also your belief that communication enables you to make a difference?
When I was at Oxford, I was fortunate to be a contemporary of Benazir Bhutto. This is also relevant, because it shows the extent to which she – as an individual – shaped my career and hence the story of my life. We were good friends because we were both at the same college at Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall. More importantly in a male dominated environment of the 1970s, we were both members of the Oxford Union debating society. We both stood for President and when I succeeded her, we made our own history because it was the first time one woman had succeeded another. She was the third woman to become President, I was the fourth. Now there have been so many female presidents of the Oxford Union that I have lost count! So this friendship gave me a lifelong interest in the politics of South Asia – India, Pakistan and Afghanistan – which continues to this day.
And you learnt how the power of oratory of say, a charismatic leader, could indeed shape people’s opinions and their lives?
Yes, that was probably the most important aspect of my Oxford Union experience, listening to arguments for and against a particular motion, which, after all, is how parliamentary democracy works. In fact the motion I had to debate in order to win the Presidency was exactly the question you have put to me today: whether the individual still has the power to shape the course of history. I think this motion is debated regularly because it is so fundamental to our belief in what we can and can’t achieve; whether we really can make a difference both to our lives and the lives of others.
Do you believe what you were saying then over thirty years ago is still relevant?
If I look back on the speech I made it was obviously full of all the idealism of youth. But there is one section which I think is as relevant as ever although of course, priorities were different, and we have to realise this was before the breakup of the Soviet Union and its communist satellite states. And yes, I still believe what I said then.
‘The ultimate value of life lies in the spirit of the individual. I reject the totalitarian notion that man is made for the state, the organisation, the institution. Supporting this belief is a choice between optimism and negativism, between retaining faith in the individual and abdication of that faith, between rising, invigorated to individual challenge or wallowing, before we start, in self defeat. It represents a belief that the triumphs of Jesus Christ and Karl Marx, Joan of Arc and Winston Churchill, Beethoven and Benjamin Britten, Shakespeare and John Osborne each have their place in history. To suggest otherwise is to insult the talent and imagination of all of us. Robert Kennedy once said “Some people see things as they are and say why , I dream of things that might be and say why not. “’
Today we would add new names to the list of charismatic individuals who have contributed to shaping the course of history. The euphoria when Barack Obama became President of the United States is the latest example. Of course, some people don’t live up to expectations and don’t make the sort of contribution expected of them; others surpass all expectations. That’s what makes it exciting. And if you have got a ringside view as a writer or journalist you can understand better what went right or wrong and also contribute to that history by reporting it as accurately as humanly possible. That’s why I love being a writer, because of the knowledge I’ve gained in how history is shaped, which, at times, has helped me to make my own contribution in terms of what I have written. In the grand scheme of things, it may be a small achievement but the rewards are tremendous.
Posted by Terri Levin on 23rd September, 2009.
Comments
On 22nd September at 15:23, Terri Levin said:
Hi Victoria,
This is very interesting and thought provoking.
TL - London
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