Pakistan: How Historiography leads to hypocrisy

By P.K. Kothari

History-writing in Pakistan has remained problematic for obvious reasons. Compulsions to undertake the task of historiography under the framework of 'Pakistan ideology' has led to large-scale distortion of facts, non-inclusion of events of historical importance, promotion of hate against India and stereotyping. 'Pakistan ideology' is based on the idea of a separate Muslim nationhood and justifies the partition of India. To master the present, the control of the past is desired. Whenever history is written under the influence of an ideology, its objectivity is sacrificed. Facts are to be manipulated to justify the acts of the political leadership.

As Pakistani society has started reaping the bitter harvest of distorted historiography, an articulate opposition has emerged. It is openly questioning the Pakistan state on its role in disseminating history that is injurious to the society. "The Murder of history' by Professor KK Aziz is a telling indictment of the establishment, involved in writing text-books for Pakistan students. According to Professor KK Aziz What is being taught as history in Pakistani schools and colleges is really national mythology and the subjects of social studies and Pakistan studies are nothing but vehicles of political indoctrination. He adds, "Our children don't learnt history. They are ordered to read a carefully selected collections of falsehoods, fairy tales and plain lies.

Mubarak Ali, a noted scholar and author of "History on Trial" pronounces similar views. He has shown how even reputed Pakistani historians are part of this grand industry involved in distortion of history. He warns, "The disjointed and selected version of history fails to create any historical consciousness among students and the general public. When full facts of historical processes are not recorded, it reduces the power of analysis and society is condemned to repeat the history again and again".

Disowning and Distortions:

Distortion of history needs to be studied at two levels- elite and through text-books. In dealing with the ancient past the Pakistani historian on the basis of two nation theory disowns the pre-Islamic past. Asadullah Bhutto, a Jamaat Islami ideologue once gave a press statement that Mohenja Daro and other archeological remains should be bulldozed.

Pakistani historians seek an Islamic link with the Arab conquest of Sindh. As per them, the conquest of Sindh made Indian Muslims, a part of the Arab empire. This makes them more enchanted with the glories of Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba than with the Indian counterparts of Delhi, Agra or Fatehpur Sikri. They also try to craft Central Asian links. Imagine even a reputed Pakistani archeologist and historian AH Dani says that Pakistan has closer and stronger cultural links with Central Asia than with India.

As the Centre of power of Muslim dynasties was situated in India, the medieval history is reconstructed under the title of history Pak-Hind. Pakistani historians criticise the rule of Muslim dynasties as being un-Islamic. They pronounce that these kings inducted Hindus in their administration and weakened the Islamic character of the state. IH Qureishi, a leading historian and author of, "The Muslim Community of the Indian sub-continent', criticises Akbar for including Hindus as partners and treating them as equals. He argues, "And in the final analysis, if the Muslim were to forget their uniqueness and come to absorb as Akbar did, contradictory tendencies and beliefs from other religions, could the Muslim nation continue to exist as a separate nation? Akbar's policies created danger not only for the Muslim empire but also for the continued existence of the Muslim nation in the subcontinent". Akbar is much maligned in the Pakistani historiography and is completely omitted from the school text-books.

The Jamaat Islami critique of Muslim conquerors is equally harsh. It says they did not do enough for propagation of Islam and plundered wealth of non-Muslims for their personal pleasure. It these kings for lacking passion for Jehad. Zahid Ali Wasti, a Jamaat intellectual remarks that policy Akbar and others followed of marrying Hindu women polluted Muslim culture. He says, "when the Mughal rulers married Hindu women and allowed them to keep their religion, it was disaster. As a result of these marriages, Mughal rulers were born from Hindu mothers". To this is attributed the disintegration of Muslim empire.

Medieval Indian history is not regarded as a part of the Pakistani historiography because the Hindus and the Muslims both shared it. The culture that was produced by both is looked upon as a denial of Muslim separatism.

The treatment of freedom struggle is resolved by shifting the emphasis from "freedom struggle" to "struggle for Pakistan". The creation of Pakistan is regarded as a victory against the Hindus and not against the British.

Regional Histories:

In the case of Punjab, its Sikh period is rejected and downgraded as "Sikha Shahi", which is synonymous with anarchy and disorder. The wars of the Sikhs, which were fought against the British, have no mention in the history books. On the other hand, British conquest of Punjab is hailed as a blessing for the people of Punjab because it delivered them from Sikh rule.

The British gave crushing defeat to Talpur Mirs, the rulers of Sindh in 1843. To minimise the humiliation of the defeat, historians seek to glorify some individuals who fought bravely against the British. Sindh is given credit because its legislative assembly was the first to vote for joining Pakistan. The NWFP is remembered for its resistance to colonial rule but the allegiance of its political leadership to the Congress is condemned. The political leadership and not the people are blamed. On Baluchistan, the resistance of the Kalat state not to accede to Pakistan is not mentioned in the text-books.

Pakistani historiography tries to homogenise the culture, traditions, and social and religious life of the people. Mubarak Ali in his well-researched study "History, Ideology and curriculum", notes, "Any attempt to assert the historical identity of a region is discouraged and condemned. This also affects the non-Muslim religious minorities, who are also excluded from the mainstream of history". This suits the political attempts towards centralisation.

Historiography has also to deal with crisis of legitimacy that confronts Pakistan as a nation and a democracy in the face of unending cycles of military dictatorship, the separation of Bangladeshi, Talibanisation of Pakistan state and society. History text-books became the victims. History as a subject was discontinued in 1961 and was incorporated in the text-books on social sciences.

The Text-Books:

The text-books carry prescribed myths, which suit the proponents of 'Pakistan ideology'. Prof. K.K. Aziz in 'The murder of history', has put enough of hardwork to catalogue the errors. In this study, Prof. Aziz delineates the positive contribution from the negative contribution. What these text-books say is their positive contribution to the sociology of ignorance: the kind of knowledge they are imparting. The negative contribution is what they add to the unlightenment by withholding what should be told to the students. There are several matters of grave import pertaining both to the past and to contemporary times which fail to find mention in the books.

What purpose does such text-book writing serves? Prof Aziz himself explains. "The goal, it seems is to produce a generation with the following traits: docility, inability to ask questions, capacity to indulge in pleasurable illusions, pride in wearing blinkers, willingness to accept guidance from above, alacrity to like and dislike things by order, tendency to ignore gaps in one's knowledge, enjoyment of make-believe, faith in the high value of pretences".

The text-books send the following messages to the students.

1. Follow the government in office: This official attitude produces such amusing oddities as the omission of the name of ZA Bhutto from all books published during General Zia-ul-Haque's rule. Millions of students who went to school during eleven years of Zia's dictatorship did not know what happened in the country between liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 and Zia's coup in 1977. The students are thus brainwashed to accept one particular ruler, whom the book extols, as a hero.

2. Support Military Rule:

Both under Ayub Khan's reign and Zia's rule, the two dictators were described to the students as pious and full of piety. Zia was further shown as God-fearing, kindly man, who brought Islam to the country for the first time, thus fulfilling the promise made by Jinnah during the Pakistan Movement years. While extolling Zia, even certain encomiums showered on him may sound blasphemous.

Several lessons for the students are implicit in this approach of text-books:

National leadership is incompetent, maladroit, inept, undependable and unqualified to rule the country. People who elected or supported the failed politicians are unfit for democracy. The modern democratic system itself is a western importation which finds no sanction in Islam. The armed forces have a supra-constitutional right to overthrow a civilian government whenever they think it is not "performing" its task "satisfact orally", i.e. to the satisfaction of the armed forces.

3. Glorify Wars:

The praetorian state cannot be by its nature an advocate of international peace. The authors of the book glorify wars, particularly the ones waged under military dictators. Implications of this marked emphasis on and special attention to the topic of war are: A tribute is paid to the armed forces, thus reinforcing the message-applaud military rule. Civilian form of government is played down. The emphasis on wars diverts the interest of the students from political problems and prospects to international security. The underlying point in all this is that in moments of national danger the armed forces are the only saviours of the people and the civilian governments and politicians are useless. Also, the 1965 and 1971 wars are presented as victories for Pakistan, which they were not. Prof. Aziz comments, "This creates self-complacency and false self-confidence, which can be dangerous in minds which are still growing".

4. Hate India:

Either to rationalise the glorification of wars or for some other reasons the text-books set out to create among the students a hatred for India and the Hindus, both in the historical context and as a part of current politics. The most common method in which this is done is to offer slanted descriptions of Hindu religion and culture, calling them "unclean" and "inferior". Muslim rule over the Hindus is praised for having put an end to all "bad" Hindu religious beliefs and practices and thus "eliminated" classical Hinduism from India. It is asserted that the communal riots accompanying and following the partition of 1947 were initiated exclusively by the Hindus and the Sikhs and that the Muslims were at no place and time aggressors but merely helpless victims. Generous and undue space is given to study of wars with India. Ground realities are, however, different. The students thus are flabbergasted when they read one thing in the books and see and experience another in life. What impact will this have on students, Prof Aziz answers, "the students are bound to grow up with a love-hate sentiment for India, with a contempt for their elders who claim one thing and do another and with the seeds of hypocrisy sown deep in their character?

5. Fabricate an Anti-Colonial Past?:

The text-books give to Indian history and the Muslim nationalist struggle a complexion whom even the most cunning make-up will not enable to stand a whiff of historical reality. This fantasy is created through several measures of commission and omission. The revolt of 1857 is described as Jihad undertaken by the Muslims alone and later some non-Muslims joined in. The information is withheld that from the time of Shah Abdul Aziz onwards the great majority of the ulema did not issue a fatwa against British rule, and most of the poets and intellectuals from the middle of the eighteenth century till independence supported and admired British authority and culture. No mention is made of British help to various Muslim societies. The long history of Muslim loyalty to British public life is ommitted from all text-books. It is concealed from the students that a large number of eminent Muslims were not in the Muslim League or in the Pakistan movement. As the Congress is usually accepted as an anti-British fiercely nationalistic, self-sacrificing movement, the Muslim League too ought to be shown in a similar garb, hence the urgency to fabricate anti-colonial past.

6. Give the entire credit to Aligarh and the UP and impose a new culture on Pakistan:

Text books trace back to the Aligarh movement every political, social, intellectual, religious and educational development that took place in Muslim India. Textbooks also persist in preaching that UP was the home of Pakistani culture. Excellent critique of text-books on the contribution of Aligarh/UP and UP culture, by Prof Aziz has totally gone unnoticed in India. He says the double claim that the people of the UP were in the forefront of the struggle for the creation of Pakistan and that their culture is the source or foster-mother of Pakistani culture has produced problems of identity for the indigenous population of Pakistan. This has led to the inferiority complex among people of Punjab and other provinces, throttled their culture, languages and literature.

Negative Contribution:

In text-books there is exclusion of Bengal from national consciousness. The other major topics not covered in the text-books include the role of Indian National Congress, the Khudai Khidmatgars, The Punjab Union Party, The Khaksar Movement, The Ahrar Party, The Nationalist or Pro-Congress Muslims, Historiography of India, Theory and Philosophy of History, Economic, Social, Intellectual and Literary History and Modern Islamic Thought.

Hypocrisy:

In 1984, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the great Urdu poet, used to teach his grandson, reading then in 10th class. After going through the text-books, Faiz asked his grandson to learn the text-book for examination and something different as truth. The grandson turned to Faiz's wife and said, "Mama, I shall have to become a hypocrite. Well Nana says if you want to pass your examination reproduce this book. You have no choice. But I have given you an alternative-the truth, keep that in mind". Then heaving a sigh asked grandmom again, "But what of those who will never have a choice."