Pakistani textbook controversy

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The term textbook controversy encompasses a series of public disputes in Pakistan over the correct representation of Pakistani history in government-approved textbooks. The content of the official textbooks has been criticized from various quarters, including within Pakistan, and the authors are accused of promoting religious intolerance and indophobia .

Background and criticism

During the military dictatorship under General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , a program of Islamization of society and the state, including the educational system, was started. General Zia explains that the aim of his educational policy is that "the highest priority should be given to the revision of the curricula, in order to reorganize the entire content of the curricula in accordance with Islam, to reorganize the Islamic dogmas and to give education an ideological orientation, so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation ”.

It is criticized that, especially since the 1970s, history revisionism in Pakistani school textbooks has propagated hatred against India , Hindus and non-Muslims .

In a 1995 article in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, historian Ayesha Jalal stated: "Pakistan's history textbooks are among the best sources available to illustrate the nexus between power and bigotry " in history books. By promoting concepts such as jihad , the inferiority of non-Muslims, and the enmity between India and Pakistan, the textbook publications used by all state schools encourage an obscurantist mindset. The textbooks ignore Pakistan's pre-Islamic history except to criticize Vedic Hindus and Hinduism.

Another well-known Pakistani historian Khursheed Kamal Aziz has similarly criticized the textbooks. He found that textbooks were full of historical errors and propagated "prescribed myths ". After analyzing 66 textbooks used at various levels of study, Aziz argued that the textbooks support the military dictatorship in Pakistan, promote hatred against Hindus, glorify wars, and distort Pakistan's pre-Islamic history.

literature

  • KK Aziz. (2004) The Murder of History: A Critique of History Textbooks used in Pakistan. ISBN 969-402-126-X Vanguard. [3]
  • AH Nayyar, Ahmad Salim: The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Text-books in Pakistan - Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics. Sustainable Development Policy Institute. ( [4] ) [5]
  • Yvette Rosser: Indoctrinating Minds: Politics of Education in Bangladesh , RUPA, New Delhi, 2004.
  • Yvette Rosser: Islamization of Pakistani Social Studies Textbooks , RUPA, New Delhi, 2003.
  • Yvette Rosser: Hegemony and Historiography: The Politics of Pedagogy. Asia Review , Dhaka, Fall 1999.
  • Arun Shourie: Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud . New Delhi, 1998. ISBN 8190019988 [6]
  • AH Nayyar: Twisted truth: Press and politicians make gains from SDPI curriculum report. SDPI Research and News Bulletin Vol. 11, No. January 1 - February 2004
  • Pervez Hoodbhoy - What Are They Teaching In Pakistani Schools Today? (International Movement for a Just World) [7]

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Haqqani, Hussain. "Pakistan: between mosque and the military". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
  2. ↑ Jamil, Baela Raza. "Curriculum Reforms in Pakistan - A Glass Half Full or Half Empty?" (PDF). Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi. [1]
  3. ↑ The subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan Compiled by AH Nayyar and Ahmed Salim [2]
  4. ↑ Jalal, Ayesha. "Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining". International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, (1995), 73-89.
  5. ^ Curriculum of hatred, Dawn (newspaper), 2009-05-20 http://archives.dawn.com/archives/30854
  6. ↑ Cohen, Stephen. The idea of ​​Pakistan.
  7. ↑ Haqqani, Hussain. "Pakistan: between mosque and the military". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
  8. ^ KK Aziz, The Murder of History