Problems in the Field

I encountered some problems in the field, some expected, others unexpected and unforeseen but all of which played an important part in helping me develop as a researcher and a fieldworker. These experiences taught me not to take anything for granted—anywhere. Among the anticipated and unanticipated problems, which I discuss in the following three subsections in detail were mistrust, synchronizing the timing of my research with that of the availability of the participants, problems with electricity and audio recording, and some emotional problems. Some of these problems made the data collection process slow and lengthy, which at that time was frustrating but in hindsight I feel that it did not affect the overall quality of the data.

3.10.1 Mistrust

I started my fieldwork with the presumption that my insider’s status and ‘non threatening’ research would accord me the trust of all the potential participants of my research. However, contrary to my expectations, I faced some mistrust in the field during the course of my research. These kinds of experiences challenge the neat divisions that experts make between ‘members’ and ‘non-members’, for members or insiders are not supposed to face this type of attitude from their ‘home crowd’ in their ‘home ground’. I had some problems accessing low-income group families both in the urban and rural setting. In the case of other income groups I did research among my friends and relatives or friends of friends. Two low-income families that I approached through some friends initially in the urban setting promised to get back to me but after several reminders they never gave a straight answer about their participation, perhaps because with an outright refusal they did not want to offend my friend who had introduced them to me. The women of the third family that I approached said that they

would like to seek the permission of their men before consenting to any such undertaking. These women then came to me and said that with my research I would be able to ‘solve my problems’ but their condition would remain the same, implying that I would be getting a huge monetary gain by their participation in my research and they will not be given their due share in it. When I again explained to them what I planned to research, not trusting me, they refused to take part in it. A male member of one low- income group family with whom I had already started my research approached me one day and again sought explanation about my research saying that ‘we are poor people and would not like to get involved in any trouble’. Brewer (2000: 86) justly observes that ‘Trust has to be continually worked at, negotiated and renegotiated, confirmed and thereafter repeatedly reaffirmed’. At that time that I felt that the mistrust I was encountering sprang from my belonging to a different social class or income group but now when I look back I feel that this mistrust of me and my research was also the result of the mistrust that they have in the status of the Siraiki language itself. This mistrust is reflective of the general status that Siraiki language ‘enjoys’ in Multan. The women from the village did ask ‘what would you gain from researching the language of the poor?’ but because my contact was their landlord’s wife and I was introduced to them as her first cousin they extended to me the trust that they had for her. Ganesh (1993: 136) reports a similar sentiment which the women of Kottai Pillaimar, Tamilnadu expressed as to what she was going to get out of ‘wandering around the KP villages?’ The situation was different in the city. The families I approached were through mutual contacts and those families did not ‘depend’ on these contacts for their living. These families, therefore, voiced their mistrust in me and my work more explicitly, as already stated in this section.

3.10.2 Timing

By the time I had made my selection of the families and obtained their consent, the Holy month of ‘Ramadan’ had started during which the daily routine of the Muslim families in Pakistan changes completely. Although the family gets together in the evening for breaking the fast, this is a hurried affair as one has to get up and pray soon after. During the day women spend their time praying or cooking so the possibility of recording the conversation of families was very slim during this month. Some members of two participating families and my two important contacts in the village and city went for Haj (pilgrimage) for forty days in December 2002- January 2003. This also slowed down the pace of my work.

3.10.3 Other Unforeseen Problems

The tape recorder that I was using could only be run with electricity so constant load-shedding (cutting of the power supply for a limited time by the power station to save energy) during the month in which I had scheduled all my interviews with the school heads and schoolteachers proved to be a nuisance.

Another fact, which I had not anticipated, was the activity during the mealtime in rural families belonging to the middle-income and low-income groups. I had planned to turn the tape recorder on during the mealtime when all the family members would be present but in reality what I observed was that the mother sat near the stove and the oven in one comer of the courtyard making fresh bread and all the children came and got their food from her and sat on different charpais (a kind of a bed or couch) in another comer making it effectively impossible to do the recording of the conversation of the whole family.

Belonging to the same place and community where I was doing my research posed a further unexpected emotional trauma for me. Cruel murderers snatched my father away from life and us just three months before I came to England for my doctoral studies. While being away from my home and family, during my time in England, I could not fully come to terms with this atrocity and irrevocable loss. One of the families, which participated in my research, lives adjacent to the graveyard where my father is buried. This situation was further complicated by the fact that the house of this family was opposite to the house of the parents of my father’s murderer’s wife. I was caught in a real dilemma and thought hard about whether to search for another family which suited my specifications or begin my research with this family. At last professional considerations won the day and I decided to stick to this family. Needless to say that my professional self could not help in controlling my anxiety or from stopping a lump from forming in my throat when I headed towards this family’s house during the first couple of visits. This feeling eased down later on. In fact to some extent, it helped me in coming to terms with the reality of my father’s death.

In the following section I discuss the influence of my gender in the field and on the data collected for this study.