[Reader-list] Smokers’ Corner: School’s out -Are young non-Muslim students excluded from national identity? Nadeem F Paracha in Dawn

[rashneek kher]

*Pakistan is a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic and a multi-religious society.
Non-Muslims are an integral part of it. Many of them have contributed to the
country’s image, stature and well-being. However, according to the scholar
and educationist, Professor A. H. Nayyar, the culture, the idiom and the
manners of Muslim ‘majority-ism’ started gaining currency after 1971 and, in
turn, got reflected in the educational process. A certain brand of Muslim
sensibilities was imposed on all.*


Another educationist, Dr Rubina Saigol, suggests that the attempt to mould
the minds of the young through textbooks started in earnest in the early
1980s with the political agenda of Islamisation of the state. The syllabus
was redesigned and textbooks were rewritten to create a monolithic image of
Pakistan as an Islamic state and Pakistani citizens as Muslims only.
According to Saigol, this clearly tells young non-Muslim students that they
are excluded from national identity.


In an extensive study conducted by Nayyar and Ahmad Salim, in 2002, the
following four themes emerged most strongly in history textbooks in
Pakistan: that Pakistan is for Muslims alone; the Ideology of Pakistan is
deeply interlinked with faith; one should never trust Hindus and India; and
students should take the path of Jihad and martyrdom.


Scholars like Ayesha Jalal and Pervez Hoodbhoy have argued that the term
‘Ideology of Pakistan (Islam)’ is an after-thought; it was absent at the
time of the creation of Pakistan. According to them Jinnah never used the
words ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ (especially in respect to Islam). For fifteen
years after the establishment of Pakistan, the Ideology of Pakistan was not
known to anybody, until in 1962 some members of the Jamat-i-Islami used the
words for the first time. The ‘Ideology of Pakistan’ had no historical basis
in the Pakistan movement. It was coined much later by those political forces
that needed it to sanctify their particular brand of politics — especially
those Islamist parties which had earlier been against the creation of
Pakistan. Even though in a report the famous Justice Munir strongly noted
that Jinnah never uttered the words ‘Ideology of Pakistan,’ the curriculum
documents insist that the students be taught the Ideology of Pakistan that
was laid down by the Quaid.


No textbook has ever been able to cite a single reference to Jinnah using
the term. On the contrary, Mr Jinnah’s speech to the Constituent Assembly on
the 11th of September, 1947, completely defies the so-called ‘ideology’, as
it has come to be presented in textbooks. It was during the Islamisation era
of General Ziaul Haq that the use of the term was consolidated and made to
appear in the curriculum documents. It was also firmly turned into an
article of faith.


Nayyar, Jalal, Hoodbhoy and Saigol suggest that associated with the
‘Ideology of Pakistan’ is an essential component of hate against India and
Hindus. Some time after Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war, Indo-Pakistan
history was replaced with Pakistan Studies, whose sole purpose was to define
Pakistan as an Islamic state. Students were deprived of learning about
pre-Islamic history of their region. Instead, history books now started with
the Arab conquest of Sindh and swiftly jumped to the Muslim conquerors from
Central Asia.


*Nayyar and Salim have pointed out the following examples of the expression
of hate in post-1971 history textbooks: that: Hindus have always been an
enemy of Islam; Hindus worship in temples which are very narrow and dark
places, where they worship idols; Hindus declared Congress rule as the Hindu
rule, and started to unleash terror on Muslims; Hindus always desired to
crush Muslims as a nation; Gandhi was as an extremist.*


What’s more all history in these books is along religious lines while
social, historical, material and economic causes are missing. After 1979,
the themes of Jihad and martyrdom in textbooks become strong. In this
period, history and social study books eulogise Jihad and martyrdom.
According to Nayyar, in Pakistan the impression one gets from Pakistan
Studies textbooks is that the students don’t learn history, but rather a
carefully crafted collection of half-truths, even falsehoods. For example,
in these books, Muhammad bin Qasim is declared the first Pakistani citizen.
The story of the Arabs’ arrival in Sindh is accounted as the first move
towards Pakistan with the glorious ascendancy of Islam. A widely taught
history book insists that, ‘Although Pakistan was created in August 1947,
present-day Pakistan has existed, as a more or less single entity, for
centuries.’

Both Nayyar and Salim conclude that one should not be surprised at the
irrational hate and confusion that ensconce Pakistani children after what
they have learnt in school.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/nadeem-f-paracha-schools-out-ss-01


-- 
Rashneek Kher
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com