Curriculum in India and Pakistan
Dr Rubina
Saigol |
This
paper is a shorter version
of 'Enemies Within and
Enemies Without' which
appeared as 'History,
Social Studies, Civics
and the Creation of
Enemies' in a book edited
by Akbar Zaidi, Social
Sciences in the 1990s,
(Islamabad: COSS, 2003).
The section on India
is based on a paper
called 'Between the
Sacred and Secular:
Educational Debates
in India and Pakistan’.
Knowledge
Systems in Post-colonial
Societies
Post-colonial societies
and states tend to be
caught in the tension
between preservation
and change. On the one
hand, there is an ideological
imperative to transmit
the inherited culture
and traditions to future
generations as a way
of maintaining continuity
with the past. The urge
to preserve a sense
of collective identity
in the face of change
underpins a large segment
of the social knowledge
provided to children.
On the other hand, most
post-colonial states
are under pressure to
become modern, democratic
and secular. The need
to 'catch up' with the
world and a fast-changing,
globalised world, comes
into conflict with the
simultaneous desire
to preserve the past
along with a sense of
difference as national
identity.
The
tension between preservation
and change is most clearly
reflected in educational
discourse, theories,
institutions and practices
in the developing world.
Usually, early educational
experiences from the
primary to the secondary
levels are reserved
essentially for preservation
and continuity. In the
initial stages of education,
children are socialised
into the dominant ideologies,
values, beliefs, culture
and practices of a society.
Higher education is
expected to provide
the intellectual and
ideological basis of
change, innovation,
novelty and development.
New ideas and views
of the world are considered
the preserve of post-graduate
studies.
Within
educational theory and
practice, social knowledge,
in the form of social
studies at the elementary
levels and social sciences
at the higher levels,
is relied upon to provide
cultural and social
knowledge, values, beliefs
and ideologies. The
subjects of history,
geography and civics,
lumped together as social
studies, are deeply
implicated in the production
of national identity.
History produces the
past and constructs
national memory as the
basis of national identity.
It thus refers to the
dimension of time in
the creation of a collective
sense of Self. Geography
provides a sense of
physical space and territory
to the notion of identity.
It tells us where we
are located in relation
to others with whom
we share some characteristics
and differ in others.
Civics constructs the
modern citizen for the
nation-state by defining
the relation of the
citizen with the state.
Civics refers to the
dimension of political
power and offers the
future to the modern
citizen1. Collective
national identity, a
requirement of modern
nation-states in post-colonial
societies, is thus created
at the nexus of time,
space and power.
The
process of so-called
'nation-building' in
post-colonial societies
entailed the homogenisation
of diverse social and
cultural entities. Regional,
parochial and provincial
consciousness had to
be rejected or denied
in favour of national
consciousness. While
social knowledge, applied
selectively and inconsistently,
offered citizenship
and national identity,
the hard sciences offered
the future to the newly
constructed states and
citizens. Apart from
the imperative of national
cohesion, the ideologies
of modernisation and
development were offered
as the future to the
new and homogenised
citizenry. Science,
technology and technical
education were heralded
as the motors of economic
development and progress.
Although not entirely
devoid of ideology,
science and technology,
and in particular technical
education, gained prominence
and respect in the project
of nation-building across
the whole spectrum of
developing societies.
However, it is social
knowledge that lends
itself more easily to
the production and manipulation
of ideologies, values,
beliefs and practices
as it refers to collective
human interactions,
which are far more complex
and infinitely less
exact, predictable,
verifiable, replicable
and quantifiable as
compared with inanimate
matter with which the
hard sciences work.
The
social sciences have,
therefore, been the
major instruments deployed
in the production and
reproduction of hegemony.
They are at the center
of social conflicts
and the expression of
cultural power by competing
groups and classes in
society. Whose knowledge
will ultimately become
the dominant knowledge
and be disseminated
through the major ideological
state apparatus of education,
is a matter of which
group or class is powerful
in the perennial conflicts
that characterise societies.
Social knowledge is
not neutral, impartial
or objective as it is
the expression of human
labour, performed in
the context of conflict
between competing interests
in society. For example,
what may be true for
a landlord may not be
true for the peasant,
what may be true for
a Punjabi may not be
true for a Baluch, what
may be true for a Muslim
may not be so for a
Christian and what might
be true for men may
not be equally true
for women. Truth is
contested, contradictory
and conflicted as different
interests project their
own truth on to the
social realm. Social
knowledge is always
contested, forever arbitrary
and permanently open
to change. Depending
on which group is socially
and politically hegemonic,
social knowledge accordingly
changes. This process
is evident in both India
and Pakistan, where
changes in political
alignments and power
have led to changes
in the dominant knowledge
designed to construct
specific national narratives
as the basis of specific
identities.
The
Case of India
In India the process
of the communalisation
of social studies textbooks
is intertwined with
political conflicts.
The Indian National
Congress, the party
that led India to independence,
propagated secularism
as its defining ideology.
In Indian textbooks
of the earlier era,
secular values are upheld
while communalism is
denigrated as a policy
initiated by the British
as a part of the doctrine
of divide and rule.
For example, a history
textbook produced by
the National Council
for Educational Research
and Training (NCERT)
in 1989 warns children
of Class VIII against
communalism:
‘Formation
of political organisations
on the basis of religion
is an unhealthy thing
in the political life
of a people. Such organisations
are harmful because
they create the belief
that the interests of
one or the other community
are distinct and separate
from those of the rest.
This belief prevents
people from realising
that the interests of
one community cannot
be promoted unless the
interests of the entire
nation are promoted.
The organisations promoting
these beliefs are called
communal organisations.
They, directly or indirectly,
create and promote hatred
against other communities
and thus stand in the
way of national unity.
People belonging to
a nation may profess
different faiths, but
they enjoy equal rights.
One s religion is a
matter of each citizen
s personal belief and
this belief should not
be mixed up with political
activities, because
political activities
of the citizen s of
a nation relate to common
problems of all the
people constituting
a nation’2.
Most
of the earlier history
textbooks written by
renowned historians
such as Romila Thapar
and Bipen Chandra carry
an anti-communal message
and criticise not only
the Muslim League, but
also the Hindu Mahasabha
for their communal leanings.
History was taught in
India in terms of a
secular versus communal
debate3.
However,
with the rise of the
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and the ascendancy
of the right-wing Hindutva
rhetoric of the Rashtriya
Swaymisevak Sangh (RSS),
there was a distinct
and clear move by the
government to create
a Hindu India in opposition
to Muslim Pakistan.
The RSS is an alternative
site of the production
of historical knowledge
laced with a right wing
nationalist and religious
ideology. As the ideological
mentor of the ruling
BJP, the RSS supplies
the 'history' that is
permeating the knowledge
system of the erstwhile
secular State. A steady
communalisation of education
was attempted in a series
of moves by the Human
Development Resource
Ministry, run by the
former minister, Murli
Manohar Joshi since
1998.
The
Sangh Parivar (a combination
of right-wing organisations
that propagate Hindutva
ideology including the
BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad
and RSS) relied upon
history to redraw the
ideological map of the
nation and state. This
was done at many levels
including changes in
the institutions engaged
in the production of
historical knowledge,
changes in textbooks,
and significantly by
taking refuge in the
socially acceptable
idea of values education.
The prime institutions
for the production and
dissemination of historical
and social knowledge
in India include the
Indian Council for Historical
Research (ICHR), the
Archaeological Survey
of India (ASI), the
Indian Council for Social
Science Research (ICSSR)
and the Indian Institute
of Advanced Studies
(IIAS). The vacant posts
in these institutions
were filled with dubious
names of people with
known Hindutva sympathies
rather than outstanding
accomplishments in historical
or social research4.
The University Grants
Commission (UGC) had
similarly been filled
with Hindutva sympathisers.
This infiltration by
the right wing Hindu
nationalists was designed
to ensure long-term
continuity and relative
permanence of these
changes. In the past,
the research positions
in these prestigious
institutions were filled
by world-renowned and
highly respected scholars
and historians. The
move to change this
allowed the Hindu nationalists
to get a firm grip on
the institutional sites
of the production of
historical knowledge,
and by extension, over
the process and content
of the knowledge construction.
Apart from these changes,
the National Council
for Educational Research
and Training (NCERT),
the prime institution
of the production of
textbooks, was filled
by people belonging
to the right wing nationalist
camp. The BJP and its
ideological partners
thus ensured control
over the institutions
of production as well
as distribution of the
new knowledge of the
Indian past. The latter
move would ensure that
the new version of the
past constructed by
the Hindutva camp would
enter the massive state
schooling system, which
has a wide outreach.
The
former government, with
Joshi at the helm of
educational planning,
aimed to homogenise
the sites of knowledge
production and dissemination
by ignoring the diversity
and multiplicity of
India's culture, politics,
class, religious, regional
and gender interests.
For example, the Goa
School Education Advisory
Board, which has deep
rooted saffron leanings
and links with the Hindutva
supporter, Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar, made
the controversial decision
to hand over 51 government
primary schools in rural
Goa to the RSS Vidhya
Bharati Educational
Trust. About 30 per
cent of Goa's population
is Christian and parents
feel that this move
provides the RSS a backdoor
entry into primary education.
The schools have been
allocated to local bodies,
which act as fronts
for the RSS. The parents
complain that Parrikar
and his appointees to
the Board are trying
to 'inculcate fascist
ideology under the guise
of protecting Marathi'5.
Knowledge forms existing
on the periphery of
Indian society, and
outside the state system,
are slowly but surely
making inroads into
the mainstream knowledge
economy of the country.
The multiple sites of
the production of knowledge
about the state and
nation has been homogenised
and the space for an
alternative discourse
narrowed.
In
the year 2000, the NCERT
produced the highly
controversial National
Curriculum Framework
for School Education
(NCF), which radically
redefined the educational
agenda of the State.
The BJP set about changing
national curricula in
favour of the newly-constructed
vision of a Hindu Rashtra.
Since Article 28 of
the Indian Constitution
disallows the teaching
of religion in institutions
receiving state funds,
recourse was taken to
value education. In
the name of teaching
'indigenous' and 'Indian'
values to students,
religious knowledge
was inserted into the
curriculum. It was claimed
that education was being
Indianised, spiritualised
and nationalised in
order to provide children
with a set of values
governing existence.
According to the authors,
'the education system
of the country has to
be built on the firm
ground of its own philosophical,
cultural and sociological
tradition and must respond
to its needs and aspirations.
Indigenousness of the
curriculum, therefore,
is being strongly recommended'6.
The
National Curriculum
Framework for School
Education sees religion
as a major source of
values. Lamenting the
decline of values and
growing cynicism in
society, the authors
underscore the importance
of value education by
differentiating between
teaching religion and
teaching about religion7.
Although this seems
to be a valid distinction
since teaching about
religions is a part
of history and sociology,
nevertheless in the
context of the contemporary
Saffron agenda, the
dominant religion of
the majority is likely
to become the source
of values for everyone.
This in effect would
mean that non-Hindu
citizens would be subjected
to the values and beliefs
of the Hindutva versions
of Hinduism. Additionally,
teaching about religion
necessarily includes
the bad parts and the
oppression that can
result in the name of
religion. As early as
November 1998, the BJP
government in Uttar
Pradesh, led by Kalyan
Singh decreed that Vanday
Mataram and Saraswati
Vandana (song of the
Hindu goddess of learning)
would be sung in government
funded schools before
beginning classes. This
idea resulted in vigorous
protests and was finally
abandoned, and no specifically
Hindu rituals were allowed
in the UP state schools.
It is hard to believe
that the BJP government
was not aware of the
communal implications
of such measures, given
that there were widespread
protests against the
Wardha (Vidya Mandir)
scheme, a basic education
program in pre-partition
India, which also introduced
similar rituals.
The
NCF was adopted without
consulting the Central
Advisory Board of Education
(CABE), a body comprising
104 members including
experts and Union ministers.
The standard practice
in the past has been
to consult the ministers
of states since education
in India is a concurrent
subject. The vast diversity
of cultures demands
an input into national
educational goals and
practices. According
to several academics
and activists, the process
of consultation was
shrouded in mystery
and secrecy.8 Mere circulation
of the text was declared
to be consultation by
the NCERT. Through a
pretense of consultation,
the Saffron agenda of
the then political dispensation
could be declared to
have been widely approved
by academics and educationists.
As a result of the lack
of consultation, several
states refused to bow
down before the central
government's ideological
onslaught. In August
2001 the governments
of nine states (Delhi,
West Bengal, Bihar,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Nagaland, Karnataka,
Pondicherry, and Chhattisgarh)
signed a statement rejecting
the National Curriculum
Framework, arguing that
it was a 'blueprint
for lowering the quality
of school education…
and giving it a narrow
exclusivist, sectarian
and obscurantist orientation’9.
Simultaneously,
a rewriting of history
textbooks began with
selective deletions,
excisions and additions
aimed at constructing
'facts' and 'truths'
that conjure up a pure,
glorious and great Hindu
nation, and repressing
knowledge, facts and
ideas that do not fit
into the re-imagining
of the nation as Hindu.
One of the first tasks
of cultural nationalism
is to invoke the idea
of cultural superiority
of the race. The claim
to superiority relies
on the notion of time,
and if a civilisation
can stake a claim to
antiquity, it can base
its claim for moral
and cultural superiority
on the basis of being
older and more ancient.
This was done by claiming
that the Harappan civilisation
was the same as the
Vedic age, and that
ancient Hindus were
Aryans, and the latter
an indigenous people
of the land. There is
a rejection of the notion
that the Aryans were
invaders who subjugated
the Dravidians and tribals,
the indigenous inhabitants
of India. The idea that
the Aryans were a superior
race was appropriated
by Hindu nationalists
by arguing that the
Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation
was Vedic civilisation.
The following are excerpts
from the High School
Itihaas Bhaag:
‘With
the finds of bones of
horses; their toys and
yajna alters; scholars
are beginning to believe
that the people of Harappa
and Vedic Civilisation
were the same’10.
‘Aryan
culture is the nucleus
of Indian culture, and
the Aryans were an indigenous
race…the Aryans
who were the builders
of Bharatiya Sanskriti
in Bharat and creators
of the Vedas; this view
is gaining strength
among the scholars in
the country that India
itself was the original
home of the Aryans’11.
Modern
digital technology was
deployed in the service
of Hindutva ideology.
According to Muralidharan,
one of the new nominees
to the Indian Council
of Historical Research,
N.S. Rajaram, an engineer
from Bangalore, created
the presence of a horse
in the Harappan civilisation.
The mythical unicorn
on Harappan seals was
digitally changed to
look like a horse in
order to prove that
horses, usually associated
with the Aryans, were
indigenous to Vedic
India12. Muralidharan
further reveals that
D.P. Sharma, Keeper
in the National Museum,
was grieved over the
excision of certain
sections of his book
on Harappa, done with
the intent to conform
to Human Resource Development
ministry's ideological
slant. Deliberate and
forced efforts were
made to read the Harappan
script from left to
right to force fit it
with the subsequently
evolved Sanskrit script.
This was a part of the
effort to draw a direct
line of descent between
Harappan and Vedic civilisations
akin to Rajaram's effort
to engineer a horse
image on a Harappan
seal. The scholarly
consensus on the script
was that it was read
right to left, but this
was overlooked in the
effort to weld the two
civilisations into a
unified whole13.
The
Saraswati-Sindhu civilisation,
that is, the Vedic Age
in Hindutva discourse,
was the Golden Age of
Hindu culture. It was
superior to all other
cultures and civilisations
which learned everything
from it. India, according
to the new history,
was the oldest and greatest
civilisation and the
most ancient country
in the world14. The
first man on Earth was
an Indian and the credit
for lighting the lamp
of culture in China
goes to ancient Indians
who were also the first
to settle in Iran. Homer's
Iliad was inspired by
the Ramayan and the
languages of native
Americans, say the Hindutva
historians, were derived
from Indian languages.
Jesus Christ himself
roamed the Himalayas
in search of Hindu wisdom
from which he derived
his ideas. The origin
of Christianity is thus
traced to ancient Hinduism.
Textbooks filled with
such 'facts' appear
to conform to the objectives
of the National Curriculum
Framework according
to which 'the school
curriculum must inculcate
and nurture a sense
of pride in being an
Indian through a conscious
understanding of the
growth of Indian civilisation
and also contributions
of India to the world
civilisation and vice
versa in thoughts and
deeds'15.
Knowledge
is stored in language
whether written, visual
or tactile. One of the
ways to glorify an assumed
golden and pristine
past is to reclaim and
preserve the language
representing such a
past. The National Curriculum
Framework privileges
the study of Sanskrit
as the repository of
a uniquely Hindu tradition
and culture. According
to the NCF, Sanskrit
has a claim on the national
system of education
because it has been
in India for thousands
of years and 'is still
inextricably linked
with the life, rituals,
ceremonies and festivals
of vast Indian masses'16.
However, the insidious
way in which this was
done led some university
teachers to question
the hiring of new Sanskrit
teachers in the presence
of the existing departments
of Sanskrit at the Universities17.
It was suspected that
the University Grants
Commission was hiring
teachers of Hindutva
persuasion in the guise
of teaching Sanskrit.
Reacting to an advertisement
in August 2001 for hiring
Sanskrit teachers without
a transparent process,
Uma Chakravarti and
Kumkum Roy expressed
the fear that teachers
would be recruited from
RSS cadres in the name
of language teaching.
Although
the study of ancient
languages in which classical
religious texts are
represented, is by itself
an innocent and even
worthy endeavour, the
accelerated Saffron
agenda renders the whole
enterprise suspicious.
J. Sri Raman rightly
argues that despite
the fact that Sanskrit
has come to symbolise
a particular view of
India's past and is
juxtaposed to Urdu in
a move mirroring Hindu
nationalism with Muslim
nationalism, its study
should not be questioned
simply because it has
become part of a nefarious
political agenda18.
This is akin to the
argument that it is
not the rewriting of
history that is by itself
a problem. Nevertheless,
it cannot be completely
ruled out that the study
of Sanskrit is likely
to favour the privileged
castes over the Shudras
and Dalits who generally
have less access to
higher status knowledge.
Rather, the real issue
refers to the compulsions
under which the rewriting
is done. The issue really
is: who is rewriting
history, for whom and
with what end in view?
It is the politics of
knowledge production
and distribution that
constitute the crux
of the issue. Nonetheless,
the renewed vigour with
which Sanskrit is resurrected
makes it one of the
components of the Hinduisation
and Saffronisation of
education.
In
order to construct the
new 'reality' as essentially
Hindu, mythology and
history are collapsed
into one and Ram and
Krishna are transformed
from mythical to historical
figures. As historical
'realities', they have
birthplaces and there
are 'real' dates and
'facts' that prove their
existence. According
to one version of 'mythistory',
Ram was born nine hundred
thousand years ago.
The RSS and VHP claim
that 174000 Hindus were
killed during the demolition
of the Ram temple, and
subsequently in 77 battles
350000 Hindus were killed.
Patwardhan rightly argues
that numbers tend to
give a feeling of exactness
and precision and therefore
truth to the narratives19.
In giving exact dates
and providing exact
numbers, a kind of positivist
notion of 'truth' is
created and the narrative,
thus scientised, seems
to reflect reality rather
than myth.
As
a way to underline the
fact that ancient Indian
civilisation was highly
advanced, it is claimed
that the classic Vedic
texts had foreseen the
development of the binary
system, which underlies
computers. Books published
by RSS claim that Indians
discovered America because
there are images of
Indian art in the Aztec
temples, that the theory
of Pythagoras finds
mention in ancient Indian
texts, that houses covered
with cow dung can withstand
atomic radiation and
that the concept of
binary numbers used
by computers existed
in the Hindu scriptures
because the binary format
is either 1 or 0 and
the Upanishads say that
all creation is a combination
of existence (1) or
non-existence (0)20.
Ideology is so enmeshed
and tangled with 'facts'
and numbers and 'proofs'
that it is hard for
students to challenge
the positivist spin
on religious belief.
The latter tendency
was illustrated by an
incident involving 500
Vedic Pundits practicing
Transcendental Meditation
(TM) in Vedic City,
Jefferson County. The
Pundits, who have been
brought to Jefferson
County from India by
the Maharishi University
of Management, argued
in response to a controversy
about the use of tax
funds for non-secular
purposes, and the consequent
undermining of Church-State
separation, that TM
is different from religion,
and is a practice based
on ‘scientifically
researched and verified
methods’ to create
peace21. In this rhetoric,
scientific methodology,
with its credibility
and respect, becomes
the vehicle for the
transmission of barely
disguised, religiously
laced knowledge.
The
intermingling of mythology,
belief, fact and history
is also discernible
from the introduction
of the dubious notions
of Vedic Mathematics
and Vedic Astrology
at the school and university
levels respectively.
The National Curriculum
Framework refers to
Vedic Mathematics and
Astrology, Ayurveda
and Yoga as 'living
phenomena relevant to
the general life needs
of the people of India'
and to the global attention
now accorded this knowledge!22
Superstition and obscurantism
are here defined as
the general life needs
of the people of India,
possibly because the
government finds itself
unable to provide basic
rights such as food,
clothing and shelter
to its poverty-stricken
people. Filling their
minds with Astrology
and Karmakanda become
substitutes for filling
their bellies, when
the state is unwilling
to deliver real needs.
Respected Indian mathematicians
argue that Vedic Mathematics
is not mathematics,
but simply a series
of tricks to perform
computations quickly
and easily, a skill
more relevant to recreation
than serious study,
and not required in
the age of computers23.
A series of Hindu rituals,
mythology, beliefs and
practices, not necessarily
always derived from
reliable sources, are
being promoted in the
name of value education
and spirituality.
The
politics of knowledge
do not reside merely
in its construction
and distribution, but
also in the silences,
gaps, elisions and absences.
What is not said goes
as much into the making
of knowledge, as what
is said. The silences
are felt by their very
absence. The repressed
knowledge periodically
rears its head and irrepressible
truth tends often to
break into consciousness.
It requires that much
more expenditure of
energy to be suppressed
and subjugated again
and again. The repressed
consists of precisely
that which does not
fit into the hegemonic
construction of the
pure, singular, unified
nation. It is not compatible
with what is fabricated,
and therefore sits uncomfortably
on the landscape of
social and cultural
consciousness, like
an outsider who also
belongs to the self.
In
Hindutva versions of
the story of the nation,
some facts are written
out as much as others
are forcibly written
in. One of the most
glaring examples of
this kind of omission
is the assassination
of Mahatama Gandhi by
Nathuram Godse, an RSS
worker, and the fact
that the RSS was banned
for a few years following
the murder of Gandhi.
In a new textbook on
contemporary India for
Class XI, produced under
the guidance of Joshi's
Ministry, the assassination
of Gandhi has been omitted.
The reason given is
that there is a need
to lessen the burden
on children and the
history curriculum needs
to be curtailed in order
to meet space constraints.
It was claimed that
the font size did not
allow this piece of
information to fit into
the textbook. However,
as Amulya Ganguli rightly
remarks, if the assassin
had been a Muslim instead
of a member of the Saffron
brigade, no amount of
space constraint or
font size would have
deterred the authors
from expounding at length
upon the incident24.
The fact that Gandhi
was murdered by a man
who shared the worldview
of Hindutva, is incompatible
with the idea of a great
Hindu nation, as conceived
by the new alignment
of political and social
forces. The Central
Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) issued a directive
that there should be
no discussion on the
deleted portions of
the textbooks25. The
silencing is not merely
metaphorical, but is
executed by direct command.
The
construction of a pristine
and golden period of
Hinduism requires the
suppression of knowledge
that fractures the narrative
of pure nationhood.
In a Brahmanical world,
ancient India, which
is considered Hindu
India, cannot be allowed
to eat beef. Passages
in textbooks that referred
to beef eating in ancient
India have been deleted
to purify the picture
of the pure nation,
uncontaminated by beef-gorging
Muslims. Scholarly works
on the subject have
been suppressed and
Professor's D.N. Jha's
book on beef eating
in ancient India was
banned. The Sangh Parivar
has tried to establish
that only the lower
castes ate beef thereby
rendering them impure
and outside the pale
of authentic nationhood.
The reason given for
this deletion was that
the idea of beef eating
among In his view, this
idea homogenises the
community overriding
the differences that
necessarily characterise
all communities, and
fixes the community
within a singular religious
identity. Communities
have other identities
that compete with the
religious one and not
all the members are
necessarily offended.
Rather, it is the upper
caste politically motivated
leaders who take umbrage.
Furthermore, he argues
that just because someone's
sentiments may be injured,
does not mean that sentiments
are immune to rational
judgment, evaluation
and change. However,
Rajeev Bhargava challenges
the idea that knowledge
should be subject to
a community's sentiments26.
Another
thing that does not
fit into the re-imagined
Hindu Rashtra is the
presence of religious
minorities. India is
a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic
and multi-religious
society. However, the
homogenisation of the
state and citizen as
Hindu makes it difficult
to incorporate religiously
different citizens into
the reformulated nation.
These outsiders within
have to be exterminated
physically or obliterated
from the pages of history,
as well as from the
ideological landscape.
If they are acknowledged
at all it is as foreigners
and invaders who do
not belong, or as Golwalkar
suggested, they must
live in subordination
to the real citizens
who are Hindus. The
new textbooks present
Muslims only as conquerors
and invaders, their
other roles as traders,
travellers and saints
being written out of
Hindutva versions of
history. Presenting
them as conquerors and
marauders incites the
sentiments of hate and
revenge that are required
for actions such as
razing of the Babri
Masjid and the Gujarat
massacre of 2002. The
following are some examples
of how the 'others'
of the Brahmin Hindu
nation are constructed
in books produced by
the Sangh Parivar and
used in the parallel
education system run
by right wing Hindu
organisations:
‘Our land has
always been seen with
greedy eyes by the marauders,
barbarous invaders and
oppressive rulers. This
story of invasion and
resistance is our 3000
year long Gaurav Gatha’
(GG).
‘for
our ancestors these
marauders were like
mosquitoes and flies
who were crushed’
(p. 8 GG).
‘The
preaching of ahimsa
had weakened North India.
Lakhs of foreigners
came during these thousands
of years…but they
all suffered humiliating
defeat….There
were some whom we digested…when
we were disunited, we
failed to recognise
who were our own and
who were foreigners,
then we were not able
to digest them’.
(Itihaas Ga Ra Hai,
Class V, Shishu Mandir
Schools)
‘Islam
spread in India solely
by way of the sword.
The Muslims came to
India ‘with the
sword in one hand and
the Qoran in the other’
‘Numberless Hindus
were forcibly converted
to Islam on the point
of the sword. This struggle
for freedom became a
religious war, Numerous
sacrifices were made
in the name of religion.
We went on winning one
battle after another.
We did not let the foreign
rulers settle down to
rule, but we were not
able to reconvert the
separated brothers to
Hinduism’. (Itithaas
Ga Raha Hai)
‘Arabs
(barbarians) came to
convert people to their
religion. Wherever they
went, they had a sword
in their hand. Their
army went like a storm
in all the four directions.
Any country that came
in their way was destroyed,
Houses of prayers and
universities were destroyed.
Libraries were burnt..
religious books were
destroyed. Mothers and
sisters were humiliated.
Mercy and justice were
unknown to them’.
(GGp.s.52-53)
‘Qutb
Minar was constructed
by Samundragupta, and
its original name was
Vushnu Sthambha ( p.
73, GG). It has also
been argued that the
Taj Mahal was originally
built by Hindus and
was called Tejomahale27’.
‘The
'foreign' ruler Muhammad
bin Tughlak transferred
his capital from Delhi
to Deogiri in South
India out of fear of
the Hindu kings (p.
73, GG )’.
‘Due
to the circumstances,
it ( Islam ) gradually
assumed the form of
a military religion
(sainik dharma) and
with the force of arms,
with a lightening speed
it advanced and became
an international religion.(
p. 184, High School
Itihaas Bhaag, HSIB
1)’
‘Child
marriage, jauhar, sati,
purdah, jadu-tona and
superstition were all
due to the fear of the
Muslims (p.,. 284 HSIB
1)’
‘The
Babri Mosque was constructed
after destroying a temple,
which in turn stood
on the exact spot where
Rama was born (HSIB
2, p. 146.)’
‘Destruction
of temples and schools
attached to them and
the building of mosques
in their place was a
general policy with
Aurangzeb .(HSIB 2 p.
120)’
This kind of knowledge,
designed to create hatred
and violence against
religious and national
others, was extensively
used in the Vidya Bharati
Educational Trust schools,
the Shishu Mandirs that
were allowed to flourish
alongside the State
system. The RSS, and
its ideological organ
Vidya Bharati Trust,
run 30,000 schools,
which provided education
to 1.2 million students
and employed some 40,000
teachers around the
country. The Vidya Bharati
ran 1300 schools in
the tribal areas in
1998. Several writers
have commented upon
the staunchly communal
nature of the education
and its capacity to
incite violence and
hatred against other
communities.28 The Akhand
Bharat imagery conjured
up by the RSS appears
in a Vidya Bharati textbook
in the form of a map
of India which includes
not only Pakistan and
Bangladesh, but the
entire region of Bhutan,
Nepal, Tibet and even
parts of Myanmar (punnya
bhoomi Bharat).
During
the BJP tenure, there
were attempts to reconstitute
state education along
similar lines. Krishna
Kumar of Delhi university
argues that there is
a need to ask why the
secular nationalist
elite allowed the communalist
schools run by RSS's
Vidya Bharati organisation.29
Even during the ostensibly
secular rule of the
Indian National Congress,
the ideas of Hindu supremacy
and the Hindu claim
that they were the only
authentic inhabitants
of the land and thus
the natural inheritors
of the State, were being
disseminated through
alternative systems
in society. With Murli
Manohar Joshi and the
HRD Ministry, such ideas
found favour with the
State.
The
entire Medieval period,
referred to by James
Mill as the Muslim period,
is considered a Dark
Age as opposed to the
Golden Age of ancient
Hindu India. Whereas
each age has a mixture
of all the colours of
the rainbow, and neither
age was a homogenous
and uninterrupted tale
of wonder or horror,
the colonial periodisation
of history by Mill provides
a convenient time canvas
on which to paint pictures
of Hindu glory or Muslim
tyranny. Notwithstanding
the fact that the Medieval
period was not a singularly
Muslim period, and there
were parts of India
that were not under
Muslim rule at one time
or another, the entire
period is presented
as one monotonous tale
of foreign conquest
and untold misery of
the Hindus who resisted
the invasions and forced
conversions. Muslim
contributions to Indian
architecture, such as
the Qutb Minar and Taj
Mahal, are either appropriated
as Hindu monuments in
the new concept of the
nation, or are declared
to have been built upon
demolished Hindu temples.
In the latter case,
they have to be destroyed
as in the case of the
Babri Masjid.
In
the discourse of religico-cultural
nationalism, India is
a palimpsest where mosques
have been written over
temples. These now are
to be erased so that
the original canvas
can be revealed as being
a pristine Hindu landscape.
The repressions and
absences in the stories
include the fact that
on many occasions the
Hindu soldiers in armies
led by Muslims also
participated in the
carnage. Hindu Rajas
also destroyed temples
for the enormous wealth
that they boasted.30
The rich and royal of
each religious community
plundered the wealth
and tyrannised the poor.31
No religious community
is innocent of such
acts and every religious
community, at one time
or another, became a
victim of the loot and
plunder of the rulers
of its own or rival
community. Such contradictions
are typically absent
in textbooks that tell
a straight-forward 'moral'
fairy tale, which usually
has the 'good people'
and the 'bad people'
and the former ultimately
triumph. Blurred categories
and contradictions are
usually considered too
complex for children
to understand, although
this is pedagogically
incorrect. 32
While
the Muslims are thus
treated to severe castigation
for the morally reprehensible
acts of their forefathers,
Christians fare no better.
According to John Dayal,
there are a total of
268 words at the close
of the Class IX textbook
on Christianity.33 Will
the children know, asks
Dayal, that Christianity
came to India from the
first to the fourth
century AD? He writes
that even the RSS Supremo
Kuphahalli Sudershan
praised the Indian roots
of Syrian Christians
when he needed to draw
them into a dialogue.
In the short space given
to Christianity there
is nothing about the
Bible, the New Testament
or the Disciples, the
Beatitudes or a parable
of the Good Samaritan.
Similarly, there is
nothing about Peter
or Paul or about Sir
Thomas Roe's visit to
India. Buddhism and
Jainism are presented
as mere derivates of
Hinduism rather than
as major challenges
to Brahmanical domination.
Hinduism itself is presented
as monolithic and unchanging
for six millennia. Dayal
concludes that the Class
XI book is highly bigoted,
dishonest, anti-Islamic,
anti-Catholic and anti-Christian.
Vasco da Gama is accused
of a conspiracy to Catholocise
the world. Presenting
the religious 'others'
of the Hindus in sketchy
bits and pieces of information,
and these too in a negative
light, serves only the
function of an exclusionary
Hindu State, not an
understanding of the
forces and dynamics
of history.
In
order to prevent an
alternative viewpoint
from finding its way
into the collective
storehouse of knowledge,
in February 2000 the
ICHR withdrew two volumes
of 'Towards Freedom'
by K.N. Panikkar and
Sumit Sarkar at an advanced
stage of publication.
This move was designed
to ensure that readers
are not exposed to alternative
views of history in
which the 'other' may
not be demonised. When
world-renowned historian,
Romila Thapar was appointed
to the prestigious Kluge
Chair by the Library
of Congress, the Hindutva
bandwagon unleashed
a vicious campaign against
her appointment. Hate
mail against Thapar
was spread on the Internet
and letters were sent
to the Librarian arguing
that Thapar was not
fit to present ancient
India as she did not
know or understand ancient
Indian history, and
was a Marxist/communist.
The latter labels were
clearly meant to discourage
an openly capitalist
America by instilling
the fear that they were
hiring someone from
the 'enemy camp'. The
Hindutva Brigade uses
all means available
to ensure that other
versions of history,
not based on hatred
of the 'other' fail
to find their way into
collective national
memory.
The
Indian Supreme Court,
whose duty it is to
uphold the secular principles
underlying the Constitution,
first gave a stay on
the use of the new NCERT
textbooks and, in the
fall of 2002, gave a
judgment which allowed
the use of the communalised
textbooks on the pretext
that teaching religion
is different from teaching
about religion. In a
scathing critique of
the Supreme Court's
decision, Praful Bidwai
commented that the Supreme
court has allowed itself
to be seen as partisan
ideologically towards
those who drew up the
NCF, and that this is
a cruel blow to citizens
fighting for secularism,
especially when the
judgment came barely
six months after the
Gujarat Pogrom and BJP's
campaigns against India
s minorities consisting
of 180 million people.34
The judgment dealt a
blow to the knowledge
system based on a secular
struggle for independence.
The Sangh Parivar's
communal knowledge system
was here to stay.
The
Sangh Parivar's agenda
as regards knowledge
about women is evident
from a move during the
BJP government to redefine
Women's Studies as a
discipline. The University
Grants Commission took
the decision to reorganise
and rename the twenty
or so Women's Studies
Centres across India
as 'Women and Family
Studies Centres'.35
This action relocates
women back in the family
as the primary and sole
site of activity. As
a discipline, Women's
Studies has made strident
efforts to insert women
into the knowledge system
by ending their absence
from history and social
analysis. The family
is only one site where
women are located, the
others being politics,
the economy and society
in general. To redefine
women primarily and
solely in terms of their
familial and reproductive
functions, is to deny
the reality of their
contributions to agriculture,
industry and every imaginable
field of human endeavour.
The denial of women's
economic and political
contributions leads
to the denial of their
rights as citizens.
However, an economically
and politically active
woman aware of her rights,
does not fit into the
Hindutva definition
of womanhood that goes
into reonceptualising
the nation. The nation,
in right wing nationalist
ideology, is defined
by pure motherhood engaged
in reproducing a nation
of warrior sons. The
control over the knowledge
apparatus capable of
providing a different
view of women's multiple
roles in society, is
a way to silence alternative
meanings of social roles
from emerging.
The
Vaishyas, the Shudras
and the assortment of
untouchables, unseeables,
and unhearables such
as the Dalits, women,
children, the elderly,
the handicapped, the
minorities and the poor
are all kept out of
the picture of mainstream,
upper caste Hindu construction
of the nation.36
The
Case of Pakistan
The processes of national
integration and economic
modernisation are evident
in educational discourse
in Pakistan almost from
the beginning. The most
articulate expression
of the two urgent imperatives
of the State appears
in the detailed and
comprehensive Sharif
Report on education,
prepared one year after
the first Martial Law
was proclaimed by Ayub
Khan.37 Pakistan was
only twelve years old
and its five distinct
entities, that is, Bengal,
Punjab, Sindh, NWFP
and Baluchistan had
not developed a common
national consciousness.
Education was called
upon to perform the
function of homogenisation
by welding the diverse
cultures into a monolithic
nation-state. The following
passage from the Sharif
Report reflects the
urgent imperatives of
the new state:
‘The
disruptive forces of
communalism, regionalism,
and provincialism came
to the fore in the subcontinent…progress
and patriotism reflect,
to a large degree, basic
attitudes and values.
… In a situation
where the overriding
objective is that of
nation building, and
where there exist these
centrifugal forces of
regionalism, indiscipline,
and non-cooperation,
the immense tasks to
be accomplished can
only be carried out
when a strong and responsible
leadership emerges.
Such leadership must
come from the highest
levels and it must be
strong enough to overcome
these forces and by
its public behaviour
change the attitudes
behind them.’38
Regionalism
and provincialism disrupt
the national narrative
and rupture the smooth
surface of 'national
consciousness'. They
are decried as impediments
to progress as the sense
of connection with ethnic
or provincial identity
interrupts and punctures
the tale of two nations,
a narrative preferred
by the centralising
rulers of the country.
Centralisation and homogenisation
were to be achieved
by invoking religious
nationalism as a binding
force overcoming all
differences of language
or ethnicity. Ayub stated
in 1962 that
‘Pakistan
came into being on the
basis of an ideology
which does not believe
in differences of colour,
race or language. It
is immaterial whether
you are a Bengali or
a Sindhi, a Balochi
or a Pathan or a Punjabi
we are all knit together
by the bond of Islam.’39
Immense
reliance was placed
on the educational system
to produce and distribute
'national integration'
and 'national cohesion'
while discouraging narrower
sub-national and sub-state
identities. The other
hegemonic ideology of
the time revolved around
notions of economic
development, progress,
science, technology
and technical education.
In 1959, Ayub Khan remarked:
‘When
Europe was entering
the age of industrialisation,
we were still clinging
desperately to outmoded
and antiquated techniques
of production and our
growth in scientific
and technological fields
became sterile and static…The
problems faced by our
country in this nuclear
age demand that we make
rapid progress in science
and technology not only
to make this country
a prosperous and happy
place to live in, but
also to safeguard our
liberty and our very
existence as a self-respecting
nation. The country
needs scientists and
technicians by the thousands
to accomplish these
national requirements.
It is unfortunate that
our present system of
education is not completely
suited to produce the
kind of technical human
material, which is needed
to achieve our objectives.
It was to meet these
and other inadequacies
that we have set up
the Education Commission
to review and recommend
a system of education
which, among other things,
would help in overcoming
these major handicaps
in our continued under-development….we
should also try very
fast and very hard to
build up a tradition
of scientific and empirical
inquiry.’40
In
accordance with the
dominant ideology of
economic progress and
development, a large
number of technical
institutes, for example
the Habib, Dawood and
Government Polytechnic
Institute, were set
up to produce skilled
technical labour to
man industry which was
being encouraged by
the State through massive
tax holidays and incentives
to a nascent bourgeoisie.41
The social sciences
were being called upon
to produce the hard
working, upright, patriotic,
modern and industrious
citizen, free of narrow
ethnic loyalties and
tied to the overarching
State identity, and
the technical disciplines
and sciences were expected
to produce the scientific
manpower for progress
and development. The
policy prescriptions
of the time found expression
in curricular and textual
practices of the time.
An
examination of a sample
of textbooks of the
1950s and early 1960s
reveals that nationalism
was conceived in futuristic
and modernist terms.
Nationalism in the early
period after independence
did not necessarily
rely on the construction
of internal and external
enemies and others.
The enemies of the nation
rather seemed to be
ignorance, backwardness,
parochialism, corruption,
black-marketing, superstition
and lack of industry.
These ills are frequently
referred to as being
the main enemies of
national integration
and development.42 At
the time a great deal
of emphasis seemed to
be on internationalism
rather than nationalism,
and on becoming a part
of the comity of nations.
For example, the Sharif
Report stated that
‘But
narrow nationalism in
the modern world is
not enough; and if we
gave the child only
this, we would be doing
him a disservice. Nations
are a part of one another,
and none stands alone.
Pakistan is in a particular
position of having cultural,
historical and spiritual
ties with the Middle
East, Europe and North
America. This rich heritage
is itself a national
asset and provides an
ideal starting point
for teaching international
understanding and a
realisation of our membership
in a comity of nations.’43
Ayub
Khan himself echoed
similar sentiments when
he remarked that 'when
nationalism, in its
extreme form, takes
charge, human reasoning
gets second place'.44
This forward-looking,
future-oriented and
progressive nationalism
did not require enemies
on every border to invoke
a sense of patriotism,
or create fear in order
to enhance militarisation
in the name of defence.
In the textbooks of
the 1950s and 1960s,
the figures of Buddha,
Ram, Jesus Christ and
Moses appear in very
positive terms. Generous
praise is lavished upon
them as those who taught
people to love and live
in peace and sacrificed
for the good of the
people. A young nation
retained its connections
with the past and with
other religious groups,
as it did not feel tremendously
threatened and insecure.
The heady excitement
of independence was
still fresh and the
young country looked
forward to becoming
a modern nation.
Beginning
with the 1965 war with
India, but especially
after the 1971 break
up of Pakistan, educational
discourse on nation
building became much
more inward looking,
defensive and backward
looking. The results
of the 1965 war were
ambiguous, and although
there was a great deal
of shallow patriotism,
the 'national psyche'
was not deeply wounded.
However, 1971 sundered
apart a fragile nation.
Long-accepted notions
of common identities
were shattered, and
national myths were
blown apart in a violently
bloody redrawing of
emotional, physical
and ideological maps.
The shock and horror
of the defeat in East
Pakistan, led to the
reconstruction of ideological
boundaries in a much
more narrow and exclusivist
form. A violent, militaristic
and negative nationalism,
which saw enemies on
every border, was reconstituted.
This nationalism was
not so much for progress
or development as much
as against Pakistan's
myriad enemies lurking
behind every door.
The new nationalism
required a re-ordering
of the past. Those unacceptable
to the newly formed
insecure national self
had to be violently
expunged. The pages
of time had to be cleansed
of the enemy's presence.
Ram, Buddha, Jesus Christ,
Gandhi and several others,
who had earlier been
allowed in with a generous
hospitality, had to
make unceremonious exits
from the pages of history
textbooks. In their
stead, the Khulfa-e-Rashideen,
belonging to Arabia
and to an 'other' and
alternative past, were
welcomed warmly into
the texts. After the
humiliating defeat of
the Pakistan army in
East Pakistan, the image
of the military had
to be re-made. In the
era of Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto then, the army
marched triumphantly
into the heart of social
studies textbooks.
The
glorious victories of
the brave Pakistan army
find a generous allotment
of pages in the textbooks
produced in the early
and mid 1970s.45 For
example, the social
studies textbook published
in 1975 for Class V,
describes the battles
of Chamb, Jorian and
Sialkot as monuments
to the greatness of
the Pakistan army.46
Throughout the section
on the military, Hindu
cowardice, sneaky ways
and timidity are contrasted
with the memorable courage
of Pakistani soldiers.
In the textbook for
Class VIII, also produced
in 1975, a whole section
is devoted to 'The Achievements
of the Pakistan Army'
and 'Merits of the Pakistan
Army'.47 The Civics
textbook for Class VI
of the same year makes
connections of Hindus
with darkness, timidity
and night by describing
the 1965 war as a result
of attack by Hindus
in 'the darkness of
the night'.48 The pages
of the textbooks of
the time are smattered
with pictures of guns,
tanks, battles, warplanes,
famous martyrs and soldiers.
The nation now had to
be purged of evil outsiders
and ready to be militarised
to the core. Its refashioning
was done, ever more
urgently, in the light
of religion.
In
the era of General Zia,
religion as an instrument
of homogenisation and
control, became center-stage
in educational policies.
Religious nationalism
of the two-nation variety
was resurrected with
a vengeance. Islamisation
became the cornerstone
of General Zia's social
policies until the day
of his flight into oblivion.
For him it was not enough
that the Objectives
Resolution of 1949 had
already communalised
the constitution. The
whole nation and society
had to be communalised
and sectarianised as
a form of maintaining
military control over
all civil and social
institutions. General
Zia's educational policy
of 1979 states that:
‘The
highest priority would
be given to the revision
of the curricula with
a view to reorganising
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.’49
Almost
all the official sites
of the production of
knowledge, were put
to the task of re-imaging
an Islamic nation in
an exclusionary exercise,
which involved the diminution
of the citizenship of
non-Muslim and female
citizens of Pakistan.
A spate of discriminatory
laws, derived from a
narrow and communal
version of history,
were drawn up to erase
the ungodly secular
influences of the social
policies of Ayub Khan
and Zulfiqar Bhutto
periods. Realising the
power of education to
manipulate the mind,
General Zia quickly
seized upon it to re-make
the nation in a sectarian
image. As expected,
it was the subject of
history that was subjected
to the maximum deletion
and addition in the
process of forging a
Sunni Muslim Pakistan50.
For example, the following
example from a textbook
of Pakistan Studies
produced in 1986, shows
the levels of historical
distortion:
‘During
the 12th Century the
shape of Pakistan was
more or less the same
as it is today...Under
the Khiljis, Pakistan
moved further south-ward
to include a greater
part of Central India
and the Deccan...In
retrospect it may be
said that during the
16th century 'Hindustan'
disappeared and was
completely absorbed
in ‘Pakistan’.51
In
this total collapse
of the identities of
Muslim and Pakistan,
the latter is said to
exist when it was not
yet imagined as an idea.
It is as though Pakistan
was always there in
India's womb just waiting
to be born, which it
ultimately did with
the help of a much awaited
mid-wife, the Muslim
League! Pakistan is
projected back into
history to lay claim
to antiquity and authenticity
since its founding myth,
the two-nation theory,
was seriously challenged
with the formation of
Bangladesh.
However,
science was not spared
the axe of Islamisation.
Debased science and
degenerate religion
came together in an
official conference
called during the Zia
period in which papers
on the following topics
were read: the harnessing
of Djinns to create
an alternative energy
source, chemical compositions
of Djinns, measuring
the temperature of Hell,
calculating the formula
for sawab (blessing),
measuring the Angle
of God, speed of Heaven
and so on52.
During
two stints of Benazir
Bhutto there were short
policy statements but
no major educational
policy was formulated.
In 1998, during the
time of Nawaz Sharif,
an educational policy
based largely on a mixture
of the policies of Ayub
Khan and General Zia,
appeared. This policy
was such a mixture of
contradictory ideas
and values that its
implementation was difficult,
if not impossible. However,
its thrust can be gauged
from the following statement:
‘Educational
policy and particularly
its ideological aspect
enjoys the most vital
place in the socio-economic
milieu and moral framework
of a country…We
are not a country founded
on its territorial,
linguistic, ethnic or
racial identity. The
only justification for
our existence is our
total commitment to
Islam as our identity.
Although the previous
educational policies
did dilate on Islamic
education and Pakistan
Ideology but those policies
did not suggest how
to translate the Islamic
Ideology into our moral
profile and the educational
system53.’
As
a protégé
of General Zia, Nawaz
Sharif attempted to
carry on the (un)holy
mission of his mentor.
However, the emphasis
on a homogenised polity,
along with a tendency
to discourage narrow
and ethnic identities,
echoes the imperatives
of the era of Ayub Khan.
The more the project
of national integration
and nation building
failed, the more ardently
was religion invoked
as a unifying force.
The State's main imperatives
of control and domination
through centralisation
did not change, despite
changes in governments
and regimes. As a result,
there does not appear
to be a major shift
in curricular and textual
practices from the period
of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto
to the time of General
Pervez Musharraf. The
anti-India, anti-Hindu
refrain continues and
the curriculum and textbooks
produced in 2002, three
years after General
Musharraf came to power,
seem to reflect the
priorities set in motion
after the Fall of Dacca
in 1971. An inward-looking,
regressive, defensive
and insecure nationalism
still seems to underpin
social knowledge, while
the earlier version
of an outward and forward-looking,
progressive nationalism
seems to have faded
away completely.
The
Sunni, Muslim Pakistani
Self seems to have an
array of enemies and
'others' lurking on
the borders and ever
ready to destroy us.
The many and varied
others provide the Pakistani
sense of nationhood
with a rich and diverse
source of the construction
of the Self. National
memory in Pakistan is
constructed by reference
to a range of enemies
who are inimical in
varying degrees and
myriad ways. The national
narrative is crafted
through a series of
exclusions and inclusions,
a process that educationists
call 'framing'. Certain
facts, ideas and values
are framed in and others
framed out to create
a palatable picture
of history. The main
others of Pakistani
identity that enable
it to define itself
in Otherness, include
the Hindus, Christians,
Sikhs, Jews and various
internal Others who
comprise the ethnic
and religious minorities
that are the enemy within54.
Textbook historians
treat each of these
'enemies' differently
but reserve the most
severe treatment for
Hindus, who are sometimes
expanded as a category
to include all Indians,
and at other times,
the religious identification
is sufficient so that
Indian Muslims can be
excluded from the harsh
upbraiding that Hindus
receive.
Each
religious other of Pakistani
Muslims is reduced to
a singular dimension.
All complexities, contradictions,
differences within the
out group are erased
so that each group appears
as a homogenised whole.
The Hindus appear in
textbooks primarily
as inherently evil,
wicked, perfidious,
cruel and conniving.
Terms such as 'Machiavellian'
are generously bestowed
upon them. Additionally,
they are regarded as
permanent, eternal,
continuous enemies who
were always inimical
to Muslims and will
forever be so. The two
nation theory requires
them to be a permanently
inimical other. What
is excluded is any mention
of the large number
of Hindus who were sympathetic
to Muslims and helped
them during the partition
riots and supported
their causes. Since
their only dimension
is Hindu-ness and students
are not told anything
more about them, except
negative things such
their caste system,
they become caricatures.
The vast diversity in
India among and between
Hindus belonging to
different geographical
regions is not mentioned,
so that they are not
represented as real
people with all the
human wants, miseries,
sufferings, desires,
motivations and needs.
A great deal of animosity
against all Hindus is
created and all aggression
and hatred is attributed
to them. For example,
a textbook on social
studies produced for
Class VIII in 2002 says
‘
During the Khilafat
Movement the Hindus
and Muslims were completely
united and like brothers
and they started to
co-operate and live
in peaceful togetherness.
But as soon as this
movement ended, Hindu
hatred of the Muslims
re-emerged55.
The sudden and unexpected
re-emergence of Hindu
hatred is not explained,
and comes to seem like
a natural characteristic
of Hindus. Since there
are no historical details
which would explain
why differences emerge,
and no dynamics or causes
provided, the tendency
to hate Muslims seems
like a defining feature
of Hinduism, and a feeling
shared by all Hindus.
Yet, it seems like a
projection of one's
own feelings on to the
other. Hate is evident
from the following description
of an aggressive Muslims
assault on Hindu religious
space, which appears
in the social studies
textbook for Class VI
produced in 2002:
I’n
the middle of the city
of Dabel there was a
Hindu temple. There
was a flag hoisted on
top of it. The Hindus
believed that as long
as the flag kept flying,
nobody could harm them.
Mohd. Bin Qasim found
out about this belief.
The Muslims began to
catapult stones at the
temple and at the flag,
ultimately making it
fall to the ground.
The whole city became
tumultuous and the Hindus
lost heart. Some Muslims
clambered up the walls
of the temple and forced
open the door. Qasim's
army entered the city
and after conquering
it, announced peace.
The Muslims treated
the vanquished so well
that many Hindus converted
to Islam’ 56.
This
description of breaking
down the barriers of
the sacred space of
the 'other' and making
a forcible entry to
take over is typical
of several other depictions
that appeared in the
textbooks of the era
of General Zia. A very
similar account of the
forced and violent entry
of Mahmud of Ghazni
into a Hindu temple,
along with the defeated
and begging postures
of Hindus, appears in
a Class V textbook produced
in 198757. In an inconsistent
moral stance, the aggression
and violence by Muslims
is justified and warlike
values are glorified,
while hatred and aggression
in the Other are condemned.
As if to provide physical
evidence for the two
nation theory, the sacred
and profane space and
architecture of the
two communities is contrasted
in terms that associate
Hindu architecture with
darkness, narrowness
and crookedness, while
depicting Muslim architecture
as full of light, openness
and transparency. This
is how the Class VI
textbook describes 'Muslim
Contributions to the
Architecture of the
Sub-Continent':
‘The
Muslims made valuable
contributions to the
architecture of the
subcontinent. Prior
to the advent of the
Muslims, the people
of the subcontinent
resided in narrow, congested
and dark houses. The
architecture of the
Hindus exhibited narrowness,
labyrinthine complications,
layer upon layer of
complexity and conical
shaped structures. The
architectural refinement
of the Muslims exhibited
openness, vast spaces
and external glory.
They built open, airy
and grand structures’58.
The
association of narrowness,
congestion and darkness,
which in the earlier
discourse was associated
with Hindu sacred space,
is now transferred to
the Hindu home. The
image of 'labyrinthine
complications, layer
upon layer of complexity'
seems designed to suggest
that the Hindus were
somehow 'not straight
and simple' and that
there were deeper, darker
layers in their psyche
that suggest 'something
crooked' or 'mysterious'.
This description fits
in with the notion that
Hindus are devious.
The Muslim contribution
is defined as 'architectural
refinement' exhibiting
openness (read honesty),
vast spaces and external
glory (read imperial
domination). The word
'open' is used again
in the last sentence
to underscore the idea
that Muslims are somehow
more honest and transparent
than the more 'opaque'
Hindus. Since the discourse
is written within the
two-nation differentiation,
the Hindus represent
all that is denied and
repressed within the
Muslim Self. In a number
of subtle, and not so
subtle ways, negative
images of Hindus pervade
textbooks written for
history, civics, geography
and Pakistan Studies.
They do not convey any
real information about
the Hindus to children,
as there are no details
about their histories,
cultures, dresses, foods
and customs. The young
reader gets the picture
of a monolithic group
of people who want to
harm the Self and against
whom one must be ready
with all one's defenses.
The
Christians are the second
most frequently derided
group in mainstream
state knowledge systems.
In references to imperialism
and domination, they
are referred to in secular
terms as 'the British',
but in the Class VII
textbook, which focuses
on the Crusades, they
are referred to by their
religious identity.
When their cheating
and trickery are to
be highlighted, they
are simply referred
to as 'the English'.
The Class VII book is
designed to convey geographical
notions to children.
Since the days of General
Zia, the Class VI social
studies textbook creates
a fictional entity called
'The Muslim World' by
referring to 'Seas of
the Muslim World', 'Mountains
of the Muslim World',
'Rivers of the Muslim
World' and so on59.
The Ummah is imagined
as a community that
not only shares a religion
but physical and geographical
boundaries, notwithstanding
the fact that physical
features do not follow
ideology. A child of
about twelve can easily
be misled into thinking
that a single place
called 'the Muslim World'
exists somewhere on
the globe. She/he has
no way of knowing that
this is an ideological
construction. The Ummah
is pitted against Christianity
as its Other. The Christians
as Europeans, as the
British, as the English
and only occasionally
as the Americans, appear
as cheats, liars, tricksters,
crafty, wily, conniving
and forever hatching
conspiracies. For example,
the Class VII social
studies textbook of
2002 says: 'Some of
the Christian pilgrims
to Jerusalem fabricated
many false stories of
suffering. If they were
robbed on the way, they
said it were the Muslims
who robbed them’60.
They succeed in their
conspiracies only through
deceit and betrayal,
for example the defeat
of Siraj-ud-Daula in
Bengal and of Tipu Sultan
in Mysore occurs purely
through English deception
and duplicity. Once
again, the Christians
are a homogenous group
with no internal differences
and are one-dimensional.
And again no historical
details are provided
to make them real people
and the child is left
wondering about causes
and dynamics. For example,
the child learns nothing
about the development
of maritime power, the
discovery of gunpowder,
the development of capitalism
with its tendency to
seek markets and raw
materials, as possible
causes of the conflict.
All history is a tale
of good versus evil,
bad people against good
people, a fairy tale
form of telling the
national story.
The
same is true of Sikhs
about whom no information
is provided. Children
are not told who they
were, what they believed
in and why there was
conflict between them
and Muslims. The Sikhs
appear primarily as
knife-wielding and murderous
butchers. Two occasions
are usually reserved
for their appearance
on the stage of textbook
history. Once when Ranjit
Singh took over the
Punjab, the Sikhs are
shown killing and murdering
Muslims and destroying
their property. The
second is during partition
when kirpan-wielding
murderous hordes invaded
Muslim caravans as they
departed to their new
homeland. The Sikhs
are hardly mentioned
at any other time so
that one does not discover
anything about them.
Once they have done
their 'historical task'
of murdering, looting,
plundering and killing,
they disappear into
the mists of history.
The Jews are predictably
reduced to their prototype
-- Shylock. They are
nothing but greedy usurers
who enriched themselves
by impoverishing Muslims.
The children are not
provided with much history
about Muslim-Jewish
relations. There are
no possibilities in
this discourse of good-hearted
and mild-mannered Sikhs
or magnanimous Jews
as each category is
only a stereotype, not
real people acting and
behaving in a real world
with all its complexity.
Most significantly,
children are not taught
any differentiation
between Jews, Zionists
and Israelis. As a result,
they cannot possibly
conceptualise a non-Zionist
Jew, or a Jewish person
who might be sympathetic
to the plight of the
Palestinians. In reality,
there are many, but
they do not figure in
the reductive discourse
of social studies.
The
focus so far has been
on the varied and multiple
external 'others' of
the Muslim Pakistani
self. However, the self
is not an unbroken whole.
It is a partitioned
and fractured self which
is ruptured from within
by internal 'enemies'
residing in its core.
The national narrative
is interrupted at many
points by 'others' residing
within its territory
and pushing at its seemingly
inviolate boundaries.
The stranger in the
house comprises the
religious, parochial,
provincial and regional
minorities who have
never been fully included
into the shifting self.
At times, these dangerously
close 'others' have
been rudely catapulted
out of the definition
of the national Muslim
self, for example, when
the Qadianis were declared
non-Muslims in 1974.
At other times, these
parts of the self have
violently ruptured through
the layers of repression
built around them and
broken away, as the
East Pakistanis did
in 1971. A nation defined
as Muslim has never
been at ease with the
non-Muslims residing
within its territorial
boundaries, as their
loyalties are forever
suspect. While the national
self may be engaged
in a perpetual war of
self-definition in relation
to the many inimical
and hostile external
'others', it is also
at war with itself.
Its boundaries, both
ideological and physical,
keep shifting in renewed
efforts to define and
re-define itself. Pakistan
perhaps has the unique
distinction of being
the only country from
which the majority seceded
in 1971 and formed a
separate homeland.
The
violent tearing apart
of East Pakistanis is
the most traumatic event
in Pakistan's history.
The nation as a whole
has not yet fully come
to terms with the break
the second partition
in less than a quarter
of a century. Another
partition dripping with
blood and gore, the
formation of Bangladesh
is a painful memory
of dismemberment. The
latter word, used frequently
to describe the rupture
of the Eastern wing,
suggests torn limbs,
a painful tearing apart
of the body. There is
intense moral ambivalence
among Pakistanis regarding
the events of 1971.
When the quarrel is
with a Hindu, Christian
or Jewish 'other', religious
justifications are easily
invoked in support of
the besieged self. When
the quarrel is with
fellow Muslims, not
only does the story
of the two nations become
transparently fictional,
the religious basis
of holy war cannot be
invoked. Bangladesh
becomes a gaping hole
in national memory.
The only way to speak
about it is through
silence. This 'other'
is a part of the self,
is not really an other.
It is not really the
self. The only way to
define it is to not
define it. A self so
constrained and confined
within a religious self-definition,
has no language with
which to speak of other
definitions based on
language or ethnicity.
They can only be erased
from consciousness.
This
is precisely what the
textbooks do they erase
Bangladesh by not telling
the tale. There are
many ways of not telling.
One of these is to tell
a different story, to
speak half the truth.
The story of Bangladesh
is silenced between
half truths, and full
lies. If ever speech
is used to create silences,
it happens in the case
of Bangladesh. One liners
and short phrases on
Bangladesh at the end
of chapters cover up
oceans of unspoken horrors.
The idea that language
is the 'cloak of thought'
used more to conceal
and mask than to reveal,
was never truer than
in the case of the genocide
of 1971. The compulsion
to not remember requires
the expenditure of energy
on the different story.
Here is how the untold
story of Bangladesh
appears in the Civics
textbook for Class IX
and X produced in 2001:
‘Certain
political elements began
to propagate that nation
depends on language
and ethnicity instead
of religion. This led
to an increase in provincial
prejudices. Shaikh Mujib-ur-Rehman
took full advantage
and started telling
the people that the
people of West Pakistan
were exploiting them.
He had the support of
India and other enemies
of Pakistan to break
Pakistan up into pieces.
He started to sow hatred
into the hearts of the
Bengalis. The Bengalis
were influenced by this
propaganda and as a
result the Awami League
won the election overwhelmingly.
Mujib started to propagate
a confederation and
said that East Pakistanis
can only develop under
his 6 point formula.
This was an evil design
dressed in the garb
of provincial autonomy.
The Awami Leaguers and
the so-called Mukti
Bahini began the mass
murder of non-Bengalis.
They destroyed public
property. In this storm
of murder and looting,
nobody's life and property
was safe. At every step
the law of the land
was violated. Bangladeshi
flags were flown all
over the land. Finally
in order to overcome
this revolt, the Pakistan
army was given authority.
India started to pass
statements to incite
the Bengalis against
the Pakistan army. India
convinced them that
the Pakistani army is
inflicting cruelty upon
them. Finally Mujib-ur-Rehman
was arrested and India,
which was fully part
of the conspiracy by
Mujib, made a great
noise over this arrest.
India used the insurgents
and miscreants and started
a poisonous campaign
against Pakistan all
over the world. When
India saw that it is
achieving its nefarious
designs, it attacked
Pakistan. The Pakistan
army fought with full
courage for the sake
of the pure land, they
sacrificed their lives.
If they had been allowed
to go on fighting, the
enemy would never have
succeeded, but because
of incompetent leadership
in Pakistan, they had
to surrender. So, finally
East Pakistan became
separate from Pakistan
due to treason of Awami
League, and Indian aggression.
The whole Pakistani
nation was tormented
and writhing in the
pain of this deep wound61.
The
entire episode of the
formation of Bangladesh
is relegated to the
dark and insidious realms
of conspiracy. The Bengalis
'stabbed us in the back'
by joining hands with
India. They committed
the murder of non-Bengalis,
they looted and they
destroyed property.
The Bengalis started
the violence and were
responsible, along with
conniving and scheming
India, for the deeply
wounding break of Pakistan
in 1971. There is a
great deal of silencing
in this story. Why were
the Bengalis so easily
misled and convinced
by India's propaganda?
Why did they start killing
non-Bengalis? Why did
they believe that the
Pakistan army was committing
atrocities upon them?
None of these questions
are answered. The brevity
and compression used
here to describe events
that have a long history
and background in Pakistani
politics and economics,
forestalls any critical
thinking about what
parted us. What is absent
here is also the role
of the Pakistani military,
which receives plaudits
for its exploits but
no disapprobation or
condemnation of its
notorious acts.
The
Pakistan Studies Textbook
for Classes IX and X,
produced in March 2002
virtually repeats the
same account in about
two or three sentences.
According to this textbook,
after the elections
of 1970 the country
was plunged into crisis
and East Pakistan separated.
This was a national
tragedy. At another
point in the same textbook,
one more sentence is
devoted to this 'national
tragedy' along the lines
that in 1971, when the
East Pakistani government
was in political turmoil,
India used the opportunity
and attacked us as a
result of which East
Pakistan broke away
and became a separate
country62. Why was the
East Pakistani government
in turmoil? We are not
told. Why was the country
plunged into a crisis
after the elections
of 1970? No answer.
Students who may wonder
about such questions
would have to look elsewhere
for analysis, interpretation
and history. In telling
half the story, the
textbook historians
fail to mention that
the Awami League of
East Pakistan had won
the 1970 election overwhelmingly
but the elite establishment
of West Pakistan refused
to transfer power to
a duly elected party.
This failure was at
the center of the crisis
of 1971. The myth of
the moral and upright
self would fall apart
if the real story were
to be told instead of
half truths and full
lies. The fiction of
oneness, implied in
the story of the two
irreconcilable nations,
would also fall apart
the Muslims of India
were not one or united
even among themselves.
They were instead divided
by ethnic, class, sectarian
and language barriers.
This is the unsavoury
truth that cannot be
allowed to escape through
cracks in the dominant
construction of Pakistani
memory and national
identity. Bangladesh
defied the two nation
theory and gave the
lie to it.
The
other within is far
more threatening than
those outside as it
ruptures the core of
the self. This is the
reason that every educational
policy from the Report
of the Commission on
National Education,
195963 to the National
Education Policy of
199864, emphasises the
need for national integration
and cohesion and calls
upon education to undermine
parochial and provincial
sentiments. This is
also the reason that
in the construction
of citizenship in Pakistan,
the Civics textbook
for Classes IX and X
produced in 2001 divides
citizenship along religious
lines by outlining differing
rights and duties of
Muslim and non-Muslim
citizens. It is only
in the duties of non-Muslim
citizens that loyalty
and allegiance to the
country are included65.
In a nation defined
by religion, the loyalty
and allegiance of non-Muslims
remains suspect.
Conclusions
and Recommendations
The production and distribution
of knowledge in both
India and Pakistan is
deeply interwoven with
the politics of power.
Whether it is a military
dictator seeking to
legitimise illegal rule
by recourse to a religious
ideology, or an elected
party seeking votes
by invoking a pernicious
form of religious nationalism,
educational systems
in India and Pakistan
have been deployed in
the service of creating
hegemony and legitimising
the dominant ideologies
of particular ruling
classes and their governments.
Changes in curricula
and textbooks have been
undertaken both in the
name of preservation
of culture, religion
and nation, as well
in the name of progress,
development and change.
The ideas of preserving
a so-called 'glorious
heritage' or 'golden
age' can be as dangerous
as the idea of becoming
the strongest, most
powerful and nuclearised
nation in the world.
References to both the
past and the future
can be used to create
the hegemony of a particular
class or group that
is ascendant.
In
this process state as
well as non-state actors,
have played a significant
role. The non-state
educational systems
of religious outfits
such as Dawa wal Irshad
in Pakistan and the
RSS schools in India
have attempted to make
inroads into the mainstream
state systems of education.
The result has been
the dissemination of
ideologies of hate,
otherness and difference,
leading to violence
against those perceived
as enemies of the nation.
National narratives
in both countries have
been constructed against
'others' allegedly threatening
the core values of the
Self. Monolithic constructions
of both the self and
other in a series of
binary oppositions in
which the self is good,
moral, upright, strong
and valiant, and the
other represents evil,
weakness, trickery,
moral depravity and
timidity, are produced
in discourses of social
knowledge. The rival
tales spun by the ideologues
of Hindutva and so-called
Islamisation, lead to
alienation, distance,
divisiveness and ultimately
a violent form of hatred
which may manifest itself
in pogroms like the
one in Gujarat in 2002
or a holocaust such
as the one in East Pakistan
in 1971.
Given
the above scenario,
certain recommendations
may be tentatively offered:
-
Education
needs to be de-linked
from the agenda
of nation-building,
state formation
or the construction
of nationalism.
It is not the aim
or goal of education
to create and disseminate
specific ideologies.
-
The
philosophical and
moral foundations
of education need
to be re-invoked
and education needs
to be strongly anchored
in moral philosophy
without becoming
the handmaiden of
one specific ideology.
-
The
main aim of education
should be the intellectual
and cognitive development
of the child which,
in effect, means
the development
of the capacity
to think critically,
to analyse, to compare
and contrast, to
evaluate, to judge
and to synthesise.
-
As
in the hard sciences,
children in the
social sciences
should also learn
to ask the questions:
why and how and
who and what. How
did it happen? Why
did it happen? Who
was responsible
for it? Was it right
or wrong? Who was
affected? In what
ways? What possibly
could/should have
been done and so
on. Instead of bombarding
children with a
vast array of unrelated
'facts' and bits
of information,
the reasons, causes
and dynamics of
all phenomena should
be provided.
-
Children
should be provided
with alternative
views and perspectives
on any issue to
create the idea
that there any one
single truth but
versions of it.
-
The
specific methods
of every subject
should be provided.
For example, historians
have specific methods
and means whereby
they arrive at their
conclusions such
as the examination
of archives, historical
documents, reading
of monuments, scripts
and art and architecture
of a time period.
Children should
be taught the methods
of arriving at the
truth in any subject
rather than being
provided with a
pre-given package
of already-constructed
truths.
-
Curriculum
can be subverted
in pedagogy. Teaching
methods should be
such that alternative
and multiple visions
of reality become
possible. Children
should be allowed
to contest the teacher
and the textbook
based on their everyday
lived realities.
Popular folklore
and everyday street
knowledge can contribute
greatly to understanding.
Rote learning and
regurgitation in
examinations should
be banned.
-
Examinations,
externally controlled
and conducted, should
be abolished as
they allow the state
to control the content
that will be internalised.
In their stead,
continuous evaluation
of ongoing assignments
and projects by
those who teach
should be the basis
of evaluation.
-
Textbooks
should be written
and vetted by subject
specialists and
educationists of
differing hues and
perspectives.
-
Children
of India and Pakistan
should be given
chances to interact
face to face with
one another in order
to overcome stereotypes
engendered in the
family and on popular
media. They should
also exchange all
kinds of information
with one another.
-
Local
histories can be
used to contest
the official and
state version of
history written
under communal,
sectarian or nationalist
interests. Local
histories and their
interrelation with
regional and national
ones should be taught.
-
As
a provincial subject,
the Centre should
not be allowed to
interfere too much
in education so
that diverse histories,
geographies and
politics can emerge.
These
recommendations may
not revolutionise education,
but they can be a start
in the right direction.
(Dr
Rubina Saigol is a leading
sociologist and educationist
from Pakistan)
End
Notes
- Renowned
Indian educationist
Krishna Kumar argues
that as a commercial
enterprise in India
became a colonial
state, the colonial
order used education
as one of the ways
of creating a civil
society among the
natives. See Krishna
Kumar, Political
Agenda of Education:
A Study of Colonialist
and Nationalist
Ideas, (New Delhi:
Sage, 1991), pp.
24-30. Kumar has
argued that the
subject of civics
played a central
role in transforming
colonial subjects
into modern citizens
of the state and
in constructing
a civil sphere.
- Modern
India, A History
Textbook for Class
VIII, NCERT, May
1989, pp. 194-195.
- Krishna
Kumar, Prejudice
and Pride: School
Histories of the
Freedom Struggle
in India and Pakistan,
(New Delhi: Viking)
- Sukumar
Muralidharan, 'The
History Project',
Frontline, vol.19,
issue 05, March
2-15, 2002.
- Devika
Sequeira, Deccan
Herald, June 11,
2001; Goa Newsletter,
Goa DESC Resource
Center.
- National
Curriculum Framework
for School Education,
National Council
of Educational Research
and Training (NCERT),
2000. p. vii.
- Ibid,
p. 19.
- Praful
Bidwai, 'The Right
to Secular Education',
The Hindustan Times,
September 20, 2002;
see Anita Joshua,
'NCERT Curriculum:
row over consultation',
The Hindu, April
12, 2002; also see
R. Champakalakshmi,
'Rewriting History',
The Hindu, March
25-26, 2002.
- Cited
in Aminah Muhammad-Arif,
'History rewriting
in India and Pakistan:
Textbooks, nationalism
and citizenship',
2003. Unpublished
document, p. 18.
- High
School Itihaas Bhaag,
p. 43. Quoted in
Teesta Setalvad,
'In the Name of
History: Examples
from Hindutva-inspired
school textbooks
in India'.
- Ibid,
p. 48.
- Sukumar
Muralidharan, 'The
History Project',
Frontline, vol.19,
issue 05, March
2-15, 2002. Also
see 'Horseplay in
Harappa', Frontline,
cover story, October
13, 2000.
Sukumar Muralidharan,
'The History Project',
Frontline, vol.19,
issue 05, March
2-15, 2002.
- According
to historian, Irfan
Habib, 'The imaginary
claims of Sangh
Parivar historians
about the Aryan
civilisation and
that Homo Sapiens
originated in the
upper reaches of
the Saraswati river,
brings them close
to the Nazi ethnocentric
ideology'. Paper
presented at the
SAHMAT conference
on the communalisation
of Education, New
Delhi, August 2001.
- National
Curriculum Framework
for School Education,
p. 12.
- Ibid,
p. 53.
- R.R.
Punyani, Tuesday,
August 14, 2001,
from umc@bom3.vsnl.net.in.
The UGC ran the
advertisement for
the hiring of Sanskrit
teachers in August
2001.
- J.
Sri Raman, 'HUM
HINDUSTANI: Of Sense
and Sanskrit', The
Daily Times, October
30, 2003.
- Amrita
Patwardhan, 'Teaching
Hatred? History
Textbooks and Communalism
in India and Pakistan',
December 2002; IDCE
Clark University,
p. 18.
- Amulya
Ganguli, 'Blowing
up the past', Editorial,
The Hindustan Times,
November 17, 2002.
- Erik
Gable, 'Vedic City
officials meet with
supervisors', The
Fairfield Ledger,
November 3, 2003.
- National
Curriculum Framework
for School Education,
p. 54.
- S.G.
Dani, 'Unscientific
Maths', from R.R.
Punyani, Online
Edition of India's
National Newspaper,
August 14, 2001.
According to Professor
Dani, Vedic maths
is being practiced
based on a book
of Swami Sri Bharati
Krishna Tirthaji,
who passed away
in 1960. He was
Shankaracharya at
Puri from 1925.
Vedic civilisation
is at least 2500
years old and the
contents of the
book do not belong
there. Neither Tirthaji
nor have the protégés,
says Professor Dani,
provided any evidence
or clue in this
respect that a rational
mind can appreciate.
- Amulya
Ganguli, 'Muting
History', Editorial,
The Hindustan Times,
April 28, 2003.
- R.
Champakalakshmi,
'Rewriting History',
The Hindu, March
25-26, 2002.
- Rajeev
Bhargava, 'History
and Community Sentiment',
Opinion, Online
Edition of India's
National Newspaper,
January 2, 2002.
- R.
Champakalakshmi,
'Rewriting History',
The Hindu, March
25-26, 2002. Also
see, 'Domain name
Hindutva', Indian
Express, August
6, 2003. According
to this article,
'the Taj Mahal,
which no serious
historian doubts
was built at the
orders of Shah Jahan
(reigned 1628-58),
is transformed into
a Hindu monument
by the name of Tejomahalay,
as though its history
as one of the finest
examples of Mughal
architecture was
wholly inconsequential,
a malicious invention
of Muslim-loving
Hindus'.
- Nalini
Taneja, 'The Saffron
Agenda in Education:
An Expose', Akhbar,
Delhi. Also see,
BJP's Assault on
Education and Educational
Institutions, www.indowindow.com/sad/.
- Krishna
Kumar, 'Education
and Culture: India's
Quest for a Secular
Policy', Paper presented
at a workshop on
education organised
by the Centre for
Modern Oriental
Studies, Berlin,
May 2002.
- Asghar
Ali Engineer, 'Medieval
History and Hurt
Psyche', Secular
Perspective, April
16-30, 2003.
- The
argument here is
not that it does
not matter that
the Muslims destroyed
temples because
the Hindus did it
also. The point
is that such complexities
and contradictions
are kept scrupulously
out of the pedagogical
process, thereby
rendering the narrative
simplistic and couched
in terms of good
and bad people.
I agree with Vinay
Lal that establishing
equivalencies of
evil in a quid pro
quo style by saying
that the 'Hindus
did it too' and
thereby seeming
to defend a deplorable
act, is morally
questionable. Vinay
Lal, 'History Sheeters',
The Hindustan Times,
August 6, 2003.
- Renowned
Indian educationist
Krishna Kumar in
his incisive and
deep analysis in
his 'Learning from
Conflict' argues
that textbook historians
and teachers typically
tend to evade conflicting
issues and controversial
material for fear
that the complexity
and contradictions
will not be good
for children. In
his well-known book
'Prejudice and Pride',
he argues that history
textbooks in India
and Pakistan do
enable the intellectual
development of the
child because of
the overarching
aim of instilling
national pride and
creating national
memory; Krishna
Kumar, Learning
from Conflict, (New
Delhi: Orient Longman,
1996).
- John
Dayal, 'To Hell
With History', November
15, 2002, South
Asia Citizens' Wire
(SACW).
- Praful
Bidwai, 'Court ruling
on Indian Textbooks
opens a Pandora’s
Box', Special to
Inter Press Service,
New Delhi, September
17, 2002.
- Nalini
Taneja, 'Renaming
The Women's Studies
Centres', Peoples
Democracy, vol.
XXVII, no.42, October
19, 2003.
- S.P.
Udayakumar, 'The
Drona Syndrome:
Reading the New
Education Framework
as Pedagogy of the
Oppressor'. www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/
2001-11/TheDronaSyndrome.html
- 29k. The website
referred to in this
article is www.education.nic.in.
- Report
of the Commission
on National Education,
1959, Government
of Pakistan.
- Report
of the Commission
on National Education,
1959, Government
of Pakistan, pp.
6-7.
- Speeches
and Statements of
Field Marshall Mohd.
Ayub Khan,
(Karachi: Pakistan
Publications, 1962),
vol. V, p. 90.
- Speeches
and Statements of
Field Marshall Mohd.
Ayub Khan, (Karachi:
Pakistan Publications,
1959), vol. I, p.
90.
- For
a detailed analysis
of the educational
discourse of the
era of Ayub Khan,
with its emphasis
on national integration
and technical knowledge,
see Rubina Saigol,
Becoming a Modern
Nation: Educational
Discourse in the
Early Years of Ayub
Khan (1958-1964),
(Islamabad: COSS,
2003).
- Rubina
Saigol, Becoming
a Modern Nation.
- Sharif
Report, p. 116.
- Speeches
and Statements of
Field Marshall Mohd.
Ayub Khan, (Karachi:
Pakistan Publications,
1961), vol. IV,
p. 82.
- Rubina
Saigol, Knowledge
and Identity: Articulation
of Gender in Educational
Discourse in Pakistan,
(Lahore: ASR, 1995),
pp. 243-247. The
sub-section entitled
'Glorification of
the Military' contains
examples from textbooks
that present an
invincible and honorable
Pakistan army.
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class V,
1975, pp. 54-77.
- Social
Studies Textbook,
History and Civics
for Class VIII,
1975, p. 88.
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class VI,
1975, p. 75.
- National
Education Policy
and Implementation
Programme, 1979,
Ministry of Education,
Government of Pakistan,
p. 2.
- Rubina
Saigol, 'Boundaries
of Consciousness:
Interface between
the Curriculum,
Gender and Nationalism',
in N. S. Khan, R.S.
Saigol & A.S
Zia (eds.), Locating
the Self: Reflections
on Women and Multiple
Identities,
(Lahore: ASR, 1994).
- M.A.
Zafar, 'Pakistan
Studies for Secondary
Education', Lahore,
1986, pp. 4-7. Also
cited in Yvette
Claire Rosser, 'Hegemony
and Historiography:
The Politics of
Pedagogy', Paper
delivered in Dhaka,
July 31, 1999 sponsored
by Centre for Development
Research, Bangladesh
and the American
Institute of Bangladesh
Studies, published
in The Asian Review,
Spring 2000, Dhaka.
www.infinityfoundation.com
.
- Pervez
Hoodbhoy, Muslims
and Science: Religious
Orthodoxy and the
Struggle for Rationality,
(Lahore: Vanguard,
1991).
- National
Education Policy,
1988, p. 15.
- For
a detailed analysis
of how Pakistani
textbook historians
construct their
several 'others',
see Rubina Saigol's
paper 'Enemies Within
and Enemies Without:
The Besieged Self
in Pakistani Textbooks',
paper presented
at the Library of
Congress Workshop,
Washington, D.C.
October 2002. Printed
in Akbar Zaidi (ed.),
Social Science
in Pakistan in the
1990s, as 'History,
Social Studies,
Civics and the Creation
of Enemies', (Islamabad:
Council of Social
Sciences, 2003).
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class VIII,
Punjab Textbook
Board, March 2002,
p. 100.
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class VI,
Punjab Textbook
Board, March 2002,
Lahore, p. 63.
- See
Rubina Saigol, Knowledge
and Identity: Articulation
of Gender in Educational
Discourse in Pakistan,
(Lahore: ASR), p.
231.
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class VI,
Punjab Textbook
Board, p. 67.
- See
Rubina Saigol, Knowledge
and Identity: Articulation
of Gender in Educational
Discourse in Pakistan,
pp. 220-221.
- Social
Studies Textbook
for Class VII,
2002, Punjab Textbook
Board. p. 26.
- Civics
for Class IX and
X, Punjab Textbook
Board, Lahore, March
2001, pp. 112-114.
- Pakistan
Studies for Classes
IX and X, Punjab
Textbook Board,
March 2002, pp.
41-42, and 147-148.
- Report
of the Commission
on National Education,
1959.
- National
Education Policy,
Ministry of Education,
Government of Pakistan,
1998.
- Civics
for Class IX and
X, Punjab Textbook
Board, Lahore, pp.
75-77.
|
