That's a very interesting question. I studied in Pakistan so let me give you a firsthand account of things.
In Pakistani curriculum, history basically covers the Mughal emperor era, Kashmir problem and freedom struggle. What happened to rest of the world (including WWI and WWII) is never mentioned anywhere. You can get a passing mention of this facet of history but that's about it. Pick any student of grade 9 or 10 (even grade 11 or 12) and rest assured s/he won't know important historical events like:
The saddest part is that Pakistani people claims themselves as devout Muslims and take pride in the Muslim scientists of Middle ages but rest assured majority doesn't know who these scientists were? what did they do?
We are not even taught the Islamic history properly.
As for the freedom struggle, too much emphasis is pressed upon "Two nation theory" that Muslim and Hindus were two different nations and needed a separate homeland, (funny thing is that Dr. Iqbal who Pakistani books claim as one of the champions of Two Nation Theory denounced this theory in his own lifetime).
After studying the Two nation theory all our lives, we go to foreign countries only to live happily with other nations. Generally, Muslim leaders are taken as heroes and sadly Jinnah is shown as a Islamic leader while he himself was secular.
Freedom struggle is shown as an Islamic struggle. And tons of time is spent on studying Kashmir problem and it's history. In short history is shown to us through religious glasses.
India is of course shown as the enemy, the culprit behind Kashmir, 1971 war and everything else that is bad in the world.
To summarize it, the history they teach is very filtered, obtuse, myopic and many a times distorted. It provides no enlightenment as to what really happened beyond our borders (i.e. the rest of the world).
In Pakistani curriculum, history basically covers the Mughal emperor era, Kashmir problem and freedom struggle. What happened to rest of the world (including WWI and WWII) is never mentioned anywhere. You can get a passing mention of this facet of history but that's about it. Pick any student of grade 9 or 10 (even grade 11 or 12) and rest assured s/he won't know important historical events like:
- What was French Revolution?
- What was Renaissance?
- What was the Black movement?
- Who was Martin Luther King?
- What exactly did Napoleon or Julius do?
- Why is Anne Frank famous?
- What was the Victorian era?
- What was Abraham Lincoln's claim to fame?
- and such related questions about every other major event or personality in history.
The saddest part is that Pakistani people claims themselves as devout Muslims and take pride in the Muslim scientists of Middle ages but rest assured majority doesn't know who these scientists were? what did they do?
We are not even taught the Islamic history properly.
As for the freedom struggle, too much emphasis is pressed upon "Two nation theory" that Muslim and Hindus were two different nations and needed a separate homeland, (funny thing is that Dr. Iqbal who Pakistani books claim as one of the champions of Two Nation Theory denounced this theory in his own lifetime).
After studying the Two nation theory all our lives, we go to foreign countries only to live happily with other nations. Generally, Muslim leaders are taken as heroes and sadly Jinnah is shown as a Islamic leader while he himself was secular.
Freedom struggle is shown as an Islamic struggle. And tons of time is spent on studying Kashmir problem and it's history. In short history is shown to us through religious glasses.
India is of course shown as the enemy, the culprit behind Kashmir, 1971 war and everything else that is bad in the world.
To summarize it, the history they teach is very filtered, obtuse, myopic and many a times distorted. It provides no enlightenment as to what really happened beyond our borders (i.e. the rest of the world).
No comments:
Post a Comment