Pakistani textbooks controversy
Encyclopedia
The Pakistani textbooks controversy relates to the accuracy of Pakistani textbooks and existence of Historical revisionism
in them. The content of Pakistan's official textbooks has been criticized by several sources including many within Pakistan for promoting religious intolerance & Indophobia
leading to calls for reform.
a program of Islamization
of the country including the textbooks was started. General Zia’s 1979 education policy stated that, "The highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with a view to reorganizing the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation and helps them with the necessary conviction and ability to refashion society according to Islamic tenets." According to Sustainable Development Policy Institute
since 1970's Pakistani school textbooks have systematically inculcated hatred towards India
and Hindus through historical revisionism. There is no mention of Islamic invasion and conversion of Hndus. Many texts give an impression that ancient Indian heritage was not destroyed by Afgans and Turks but Muslim heritage was destroyed by Indians, which is a contradiction of the theory of international historians.
historian Ayesha Jalal
stated "Pakistan's history textbooks amongst the best available sources for assessing the nexus between power and bigotry
in creative imaginings of a national past." She points out authors whose "expansive pan-Islam
ic imaginings" detect the beginnings of Pakistan in the birth of Islam on the Arabian peninsula. A Text Book of Pakistan Studies claims that Pakistan "came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Mohammad bin Qasim occupied Sindh
and Multan
'; by the thirteenth century 'Pakistan had spread to include the whole of Northern India and Bengal
' and then under the Khilji
s, Pakistan moved further south-ward to include a greater part of Central India and the Deccan'. [...] The spirit of Pakistan asserted itself', and under Aurangzeb
the 'Pakistan spirit gathered in strength'; his death 'weakened the Pakistan spirit'."
Jalal points out that even an acclaimed scholar like Jameel Jalibi
questions the validity of a national history that seeks to "claim Pakistan's pre-Islamic past" in an attempt to compete with India
's historic antiquity. K. Ali's two volume history designed for B.A students traces the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the paleolithic age and consistently refers to the post-1947 frontiers of Pakistan while discussing the Dravidian
s and the Aryans.
Anti-Indian sentiments, coupled with anti-Hindu
prejudices have existed in Pakistan since its formation
\, alternated with military dictatorship
, and India being a secular state
with a civilian government. According to Tufts University
professor Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr
, Indophobia
in Pakistan increased with the ascendancy of the militant
Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami
under Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. Indophobia
, together with Anti-Hinduism and racist ideologies, such as Martial Race
theory, were the driving factors behind the re-writing of school textbooks in Pakistan (in both "secular" schools and Islamic madrassahs) in order to promote a biased and revisionist historiography of the Indian subcontinent
that promulgated Indophobic and anti-Hindu
prejudices. These narratives are combined with Islamist propaganda
in the extensive revising of Pakistan's history. By propagating concepts such as jihad
, the inferiority of non-Muslims, India’s perceived ingrained enmity with Pakistan, etc., the textbook board publications used by all government schools promote an obscurantist mindset.
According to the historian Professor Mubarak Ali
, textbook "reform" in Pakistan began with the introduction of Pakistan Studies
and Islamic studies
by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1971 into the national curriculum as a compulsory subject. Former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistani establishment taught their children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion – that's why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe-out all of them.'.
According to Pakistani physicist, Pervez Hoodbhoy
, the Islamist revisionism of Pakistan's schools began in 1976 when an act of parliament required all government and private schools (except those teaching the British O-levels from Grade 9) to follow a curriculum that includes learning outcomes for the federally approved Grade 5 social studies class such as: 'Acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan,' 'Make speeches on Jihad,' 'Collect pictures of policemen, soldiers, and national guards,' and 'India's evil designs against Pakistan.'. Likewise, Yvette Rosser
criticizes Pakistani textbooks for propagating jingoist
and irredentist beliefs about Pakistan's history and culture, and being negationist in its depiction of political Islam and the treatment of minorities in Pakistan, such as Hindus
and Christians
. Irredentism
is manifested through claims of "eternal Pakistan" (despite the country being created from British India only in 1947), narrow and sectarian interpretation of Islam, downplaying the tolerant aspects of the religion and focusing on Islamic Fundamentalist interpretations (such as all banking being un-Islamic), and making accusations of dual loyalty
on minority Hindus and Christians in Pakistan.
According to Pakistani professor Tariq Rahman
Pakistani textbooks cannot mention Hindus without calling them cunning , scheming, deceptive or something equally insulting. The textbooks ignore the pre-Islamic history of Pakistan except to put the Hindu predecessors in negative light.
Another Pakistani historian Khursheed Kamal Aziz
similarly has criticized Pakistani history textbooks. He stated that textbooks were full of historical errors and suggested that mandatory study amounted to teaching "prescribed myths". After examining 66 textbooks used at various levels of study Aziz argued that the textbooks supported military rule in Pakistan, promoted hatred for Hindus, glorified wars and distorted the pre 1947 history of Pakistan.
A study by Iftikhar Ahmad of Long Island University
published in Current Issues in Comparative Education
in 2004 drew five conclusions from content analysis of the social studies textbooks in Pakistan.
A study by Nayyar & Salim of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute
concluded in 2003 that there is an increasing trend where children are taught Pakistan Studies as a replacement for the teaching of history and geography as full fledged disciplines. Previously, children were taught the very early pre-Islamic history of South Asia and its contribution to rich cultural diversity of modern-day Pakistan. This long historical perspective of Pakistan is absent these Pakistan Studies textbooks. Instead, children are now taught that the history of Pakistan starts from the day the first Muslim set foot in India. The study reported that the textbooks also had a lot of gender-biased stereotypes and other perspectives that "encourage prejudice
, bigotry
and discrimination
towards fellow Pakistanis and other nations, especially against religious minorities, as well as the omission of concepts ... that could encourage critical self awareness among students”.
Rubina Saigol, a US educated expert, said "I have been arguing for the longest time that, in fact, our state system is the biggest Madrassah, we keep blaming madrassahs for everything and, of course, they are doing a lot of things I would disagree with. But the state ideologies of hate and a violent, negative nationalism are getting out there where madrassahs cannot hope to reach."
Referring to NCERT's extensive review of textbooks in India in 2004, Verghese considered the erosion of plural and democratic values in textbooks in India, and the distortion of history in Pakistan to imply the need for coordination between Bangladesh
i, Indian, and Pakistani historians to produce a composite history of the Subcontinent
as a common South Asian reader.
However, international scholars also warn that any attempt for educational reforms
under international pressure or market demands should not overlook the specific expectations of the people at local levels.
countless lessons and chapters were introduced that spread hatred among the students and portrayed India as the biggest enemy of the Muslims. That stuff should be done away with."
Sindh
province has also made efforts to reform curricula.
Historical revisionism (negationism)
Historical revisionism is either the legitimate scholastic re-examination of existing knowledge about a historical event, or the illegitimate distortion of the historical record such that certain events appear in a more or less favourable light. For the former, i.e. the academic pursuit, see...
in them. The content of Pakistan's official textbooks has been criticized by several sources including many within Pakistan for promoting religious intolerance & Indophobia
Indophobia
Indophobia refers to hostility towards Indians and Indian culture. Indophobia is formally defined in the context of anti-Indian prejudice in East Africa and Australia as follows: "Indophobia is a tendency to react negatively towards people of Indian...
leading to calls for reform.
Background
According to Hussain Haqqani only officially published textbooks are used in Pakistans schools and colleges since the era of Ayub Khan. This is used by Pakistani government to create a standard narrative of Pakistan's history. During the rule of General Muhammad Zia-ul-HaqMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
a program of Islamization
Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization
On December 2, 1978, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq delivered a nationwide address on the occasion of the first day of the Hijra calendar. He did this in order to usher in an Islamic system to Pakistan...
of the country including the textbooks was started. General Zia’s 1979 education policy stated that, "The highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with a view to reorganizing the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation and helps them with the necessary conviction and ability to refashion society according to Islamic tenets." According to Sustainable Development Policy Institute
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute provides the global sustainable development community with representation from Pakistan as well as South Asia as a whole. The Institute's mission is: "To catalyse the transition towards sustainable development, defined as the enhancement of peace,...
since 1970's Pakistani school textbooks have systematically inculcated hatred towards India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Hindus through historical revisionism. There is no mention of Islamic invasion and conversion of Hndus. Many texts give an impression that ancient Indian heritage was not destroyed by Afgans and Turks but Muslim heritage was destroyed by Indians, which is a contradiction of the theory of international historians.
Criticism
In a 1995 paper published in International Journal of Middle East StudiesInternational Journal of Middle East Studies
The International Journal of Middle East Studies is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America , a learned society.-See also:* Edinburgh Middle East Report* Middle East Research and Information Project...
historian Ayesha Jalal
Ayesha Jalal
Ayesha Jalal is a Pakistani-American sociologist and historian. She is a professor of history at Tufts University and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia....
stated "Pakistan's history textbooks amongst the best available sources for assessing the nexus between power and bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
in creative imaginings of a national past." She points out authors whose "expansive pan-Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic imaginings" detect the beginnings of Pakistan in the birth of Islam on the Arabian peninsula. A Text Book of Pakistan Studies claims that Pakistan "came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Mohammad bin Qasim occupied Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
and Multan
Multan
Multan , is a city in the Punjab Province of Pakistan and capital of Multan District. It is located in the southern part of the province on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about from Islamabad, from Lahore and from Karachi...
'; by the thirteenth century 'Pakistan had spread to include the whole of Northern India and Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
' and then under the Khilji
Khilji dynasty
The Khilji Sultanate was a dynasty of Turko-Afghan Khalaj origin who ruled large parts of South Asia from 1290 - 1320. They were the second dynasty to rule the Delhi Sultanate of India...
s, Pakistan moved further south-ward to include a greater part of Central India and the Deccan'. [...] The spirit of Pakistan asserted itself', and under Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...
the 'Pakistan spirit gathered in strength'; his death 'weakened the Pakistan spirit'."
Jalal points out that even an acclaimed scholar like Jameel Jalibi
Jameel Jalibi
Muhammad Jameel Khan commonly known as Prof. Dr. Jameel Jalibi Ph.D., D.Litt, SI, HI, is a noted linguist, critic, writer, researcher, educationist and scholar of Urdu literature and linguistics from Pakistan...
questions the validity of a national history that seeks to "claim Pakistan's pre-Islamic past" in an attempt to compete with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
's historic antiquity. K. Ali's two volume history designed for B.A students traces the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the paleolithic age and consistently refers to the post-1947 frontiers of Pakistan while discussing the Dravidian
Dravidian peoples
Dravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...
s and the Aryans.
Anti-Indian sentiments, coupled with anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu prejudice is a negative perception or religious intolerance against the practice and practitioners of Hinduism. Anti-Hindu sentiments have been expressed by Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, leading to significant persecution of Hindus in those regions, such as the 1971 Bangladesh...
prejudices have existed in Pakistan since its formation
Partition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
\, alternated with military dictatorship
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
, and India being a secular state
Secular state
A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential...
with a civilian government. According to Tufts University
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
professor Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr
Vali Nasr
Vali Nasr is a leading expert on Middle East and Islamic world, a best-selling author, influential commentator and Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution, and a columnist for...
, Indophobia
Indophobia
Indophobia refers to hostility towards Indians and Indian culture. Indophobia is formally defined in the context of anti-Indian prejudice in East Africa and Australia as follows: "Indophobia is a tendency to react negatively towards people of Indian...
in Pakistan increased with the ascendancy of the militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
under Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi. Indophobia
Indophobia
Indophobia refers to hostility towards Indians and Indian culture. Indophobia is formally defined in the context of anti-Indian prejudice in East Africa and Australia as follows: "Indophobia is a tendency to react negatively towards people of Indian...
, together with Anti-Hinduism and racist ideologies, such as Martial Race
Martial Race
Martial Race was a designation created by Army officials of British India, where they classified each ethnic group into one of two categories: 'Martial' and 'Non-Martial'. A 'martial race' was typically considered brave and well built for fighting. The 'non-martial races' were those whom the...
theory, were the driving factors behind the re-writing of school textbooks in Pakistan (in both "secular" schools and Islamic madrassahs) in order to promote a biased and revisionist historiography of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
that promulgated Indophobic and anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu
Anti-Hindu prejudice is a negative perception or religious intolerance against the practice and practitioners of Hinduism. Anti-Hindu sentiments have been expressed by Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, leading to significant persecution of Hindus in those regions, such as the 1971 Bangladesh...
prejudices. These narratives are combined with Islamist propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
in the extensive revising of Pakistan's history. By propagating concepts such as jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
, the inferiority of non-Muslims, India’s perceived ingrained enmity with Pakistan, etc., the textbook board publications used by all government schools promote an obscurantist mindset.
According to the historian Professor Mubarak Ali
Mubarak Ali
Dr. Mubarak Ali is an eminent historian, activist and scholar of Pakistan.Ali was born in Tonk, British India in April 1941. He wrote in one of his books that he made up his birthdate because his parents did not know it accurately.- Career :Ali obtained an M.A. in History from Sindh University,...
, textbook "reform" in Pakistan began with the introduction of Pakistan Studies
Pakistan Studies
Pakistan studies curriculum is the name of a curriculum of academic research and study that encompasses the culture, demographics, geography, history, and politics of Pakistan. The subject is widely researched in and outside the country...
and Islamic studies
Islamic studies
In a Muslim context, Islamic studies can be an umbrella term for all virtually all of academia, both originally researched and as defined by the Islamization of knowledge...
by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1971 into the national curriculum as a compulsory subject. Former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistani establishment taught their children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion – that's why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe-out all of them.'.
According to Pakistani physicist, Pervez Hoodbhoy
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Dr. Prof. Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy , is a Pakistani nuclear physicist, essayist and political-defence analyst. He is the professor of nuclear and high-energy physics, and the head of the Physics Department at the Quaid-e-Azam University . He graduated and also received PhD from MIT and continues to...
, the Islamist revisionism of Pakistan's schools began in 1976 when an act of parliament required all government and private schools (except those teaching the British O-levels from Grade 9) to follow a curriculum that includes learning outcomes for the federally approved Grade 5 social studies class such as: 'Acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan,' 'Make speeches on Jihad,' 'Collect pictures of policemen, soldiers, and national guards,' and 'India's evil designs against Pakistan.'. Likewise, Yvette Rosser
Yvette Rosser
Yvette Rosser is an American author and scholar.Yvette Rosser was born on January 31, 1952. Her Master's thesis in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas examined the treatment of India in the social studies curriculum and how India and Hinduism are described in academic...
criticizes Pakistani textbooks for propagating jingoist
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
and irredentist beliefs about Pakistan's history and culture, and being negationist in its depiction of political Islam and the treatment of minorities in Pakistan, such as Hindus
Hinduism in Pakistan
Hinduism is the indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent, including Pakistan. However since the independence of Pakistan in 1947 as a Muslim majority nation, Hindus have had a much smaller numerical presence there...
and Christians
Christianity in Pakistan
Christianity is the largest religious minority in Pakistan. The total number of Christians in Pakistan is approximately 2,800,000 in 2008, or 1.6% of the population. Of these, approximately half are Roman Catholic and half Protestant...
. Irredentism
Irredentism
Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...
is manifested through claims of "eternal Pakistan" (despite the country being created from British India only in 1947), narrow and sectarian interpretation of Islam, downplaying the tolerant aspects of the religion and focusing on Islamic Fundamentalist interpretations (such as all banking being un-Islamic), and making accusations of dual loyalty
Dual loyalty
In politics, dual loyalty is loyalty to two separate interests that potentially conflict with each other.-Inherently controversial:While nearly all examples of alleged "dual loyalty" are considered highly controversial, these examples point to the inherent difficulty in distinguishing between what...
on minority Hindus and Christians in Pakistan.
According to Pakistani professor Tariq Rahman
Tariq Rahman
Tariq Rahman was born on February 4, 1949 in Bareilly in India. The family migrated to Pakistan in 1951 where his father, Sami Ullah Khan, became instructor of mathematics, later rising to the head of the department, at the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul, near Abbottabad...
Pakistani textbooks cannot mention Hindus without calling them cunning , scheming, deceptive or something equally insulting. The textbooks ignore the pre-Islamic history of Pakistan except to put the Hindu predecessors in negative light.
Another Pakistani historian Khursheed Kamal Aziz
Khursheed kamal aziz
Khursheed Kamal Aziz better known as K. K. Aziz, was a Pakistani historian, admired for his books written in the English Language...
similarly has criticized Pakistani history textbooks. He stated that textbooks were full of historical errors and suggested that mandatory study amounted to teaching "prescribed myths". After examining 66 textbooks used at various levels of study Aziz argued that the textbooks supported military rule in Pakistan, promoted hatred for Hindus, glorified wars and distorted the pre 1947 history of Pakistan.
A study by Iftikhar Ahmad of Long Island University
Long Island University
Long Island University is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher education in the U.S. state of New York.-History:...
published in Current Issues in Comparative Education
Current Issues in Comparative Education
Current Issues in Comparative Education is an international online, open-access academic journal publishing diverse opinions of academics, practitioners, and students in the field of comparative and international education...
in 2004 drew five conclusions from content analysis of the social studies textbooks in Pakistan.
- First, the selection of material and their thematic sequence in the textbooks present Islam not simply as a belief system but a political ideology and a grand unifying worldview that must be accepted by all citizens.
- Second, to sanctify Islamic ideology as an article of faith, the textbooks distort historical facts about the nation's cultural and political heritage.
- Third, the textbooks offer a biased treatment of non-Muslim citizens in Pakistan.
- Fourth, the main objective of the social studies textbooks on Pakistan studies, civics, and global studies, is to indoctrinate children for a romanticized Islamic state as conceptualized by Islamic theocrats.
- Fifth, although the vocabulary in the textbooks underscores Islamic virtues, such as piety, obedience, and submission, little is mentioned about critical thinking, civic participation, or democratic values of freedom of speech, equality, and respect for cultural diversity.
A study by Nayyar & Salim of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
The Sustainable Development Policy Institute provides the global sustainable development community with representation from Pakistan as well as South Asia as a whole. The Institute's mission is: "To catalyse the transition towards sustainable development, defined as the enhancement of peace,...
concluded in 2003 that there is an increasing trend where children are taught Pakistan Studies as a replacement for the teaching of history and geography as full fledged disciplines. Previously, children were taught the very early pre-Islamic history of South Asia and its contribution to rich cultural diversity of modern-day Pakistan. This long historical perspective of Pakistan is absent these Pakistan Studies textbooks. Instead, children are now taught that the history of Pakistan starts from the day the first Muslim set foot in India. The study reported that the textbooks also had a lot of gender-biased stereotypes and other perspectives that "encourage prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
, bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
and discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
towards fellow Pakistanis and other nations, especially against religious minorities, as well as the omission of concepts ... that could encourage critical self awareness among students”.
Rubina Saigol, a US educated expert, said "I have been arguing for the longest time that, in fact, our state system is the biggest Madrassah, we keep blaming madrassahs for everything and, of course, they are doing a lot of things I would disagree with. But the state ideologies of hate and a violent, negative nationalism are getting out there where madrassahs cannot hope to reach."
Referring to NCERT's extensive review of textbooks in India in 2004, Verghese considered the erosion of plural and democratic values in textbooks in India, and the distortion of history in Pakistan to imply the need for coordination between Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i, Indian, and Pakistani historians to produce a composite history of the Subcontinent
Subcontinent
A subcontinent is a large, relatively self-contained landmass forming a subdivision of a continent. By dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies "having a certain geographical or political independence" from the rest of the continent, or "a vast and more or less self-contained subdivision...
as a common South Asian reader.
However, international scholars also warn that any attempt for educational reforms
Education reform
Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...
under international pressure or market demands should not overlook the specific expectations of the people at local levels.
Reform efforts
In 2011 Fazalur Rahim Marwat ,the chairman of Textbook board of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stated that reform of textbooks was being undertaken in the state. Marwat stated that previously, school books played a key role in spreading hatred against non-Muslims, particularly against Hindus and distorted the history. Such material had now been removed from the textbooks used in the state. Professor Marwat had previously blamed General Zia for “sowing seeds of discord in society on religious and ethnic lines by stuffing school curricula with material that promoted hatred now manifested in the shape of extremism, intolerance, militancy, sectarianism, dogmatism and fanaticism.” In addition he stated "After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965Indo-Pakistani War of 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 was a culmination of skirmishes that took place between April 1965 and September 1965 between Pakistan and India. This conflict became known as the Second Kashmir War fought by India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947...
countless lessons and chapters were introduced that spread hatred among the students and portrayed India as the biggest enemy of the Muslims. That stuff should be done away with."
Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
province has also made efforts to reform curricula.