Interesting and very useful project but this may not reach the masses because of lack of accessiblity to internet in both the countries. http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfra...0/detFRO05.htm
Writing Indo-Pak history on the net
Lahore, July 5
(Bharat Bhushan)
History in Pakistan has become a victim of the ideology of the State. There is an attempt to partition the history of the subcontinent," says a dejected Dr Mubarak Ali, a historian working towards removing communal distortions in history writing in the subcontinent.
Dr Mubarak Ali is isolated in his task — universities in Pakistan do not invite him and the Urdu press boycotts his writings. However, he has not given up and edits the only journal of history in Pakistan called Tarikh.
To bypass the systematic distortion of history on both sides of the border, three projects are being attempted by Dr Mubarak Ali and Mr Isa Daudpota, a physicist by training — publishing anthologies of the writings of Pakistani and Indian historians for the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods; trying to write a history of the subcontinent with an Indian counterpart and a project for collectively writing a school text-book of the history of the subcontinent on the net. The last of these is the brainchild of Mr Isa Daudpota (email: [email protected]) a consultant with Hamdard University in Islamabad.
Before asking him about the internet project, I ask Dr Mubarak Ali about the problems of history writing in Pakistan. "We have no historians. There are only history teachers in Pakistan, no historians," he replies.
The basic, problem of historiography in Pakistan, Dr Mubarak Ali feels, is one of deciding where to start the history of Pakistan. "Some say that you should start it from 711 AD when the Arabs arrived and disregard the ancient period. Others say that we should start with 1947. Whatever has happened in the past is of course history. You can't ignore Indus Valley or the Gandhara period. Even in archaeology, Pakistan does not give importance to the ancient period. Only the foreigners who come here are interested in that period. There is an ideological framework — either you write history within that or you don't write history," he says.
"There is no mention of Akbar in history text-books in Pakistan - because he was enlightened and secular. In Indian historiography Akbar is praised, in Pakistani historiography, he is condemned. Aurangzeb is praised by the communal historians of Pakistan, while their counterparts in India condemn him. So in this way, history is also partitioned," Dr Mubarak Ali said.
He says that being an ideological state, Pakistan feels an acute need to control the curricula - specially textbooks - so that the minds of the young can be moulded and controlled. He recalls, "When I was young, there wasn't much control over textbooks. I studied ancient and medieval Indian history. But the process of ideologisation and politicisation has changed everything. Now we don't include Ancient India in our curriculum. We teach Medieval India - because you can't partition the Sultanate period and Mughal India. However, it is called the 'History of Pak-o-Hind'. Can you imagine someone trying to change the name of Medieval Indian History?"
Even in recent modern history, according to Dr Mubarak Ali, the main emphasis is on the two-nation theory. "The portraits of India and Hindus that are presented in our text-books are very negative. This is what the RSS and the BJP are also trying to do in India - present a negative image of the Other. There is a similarity on both sides about projecting history as a conflict between Hindus and Muslims. But we have an additional problem besides being an ideological state. We are not a multi-cultural, multi-religious society and, therefore, the image of the Other - the enemy - is accepted without any verification. Except in Sindh, there are hardly any Hindus here. There is little chance of meeting them or interacting with them. So whatever image the students get in the text books, they believe it," he explains.
The joint-history writing project, therefore, was thought of as one way of changing the mindset of the youngsters on both sides of the border. Mr Daudpota claims that he got the idea of such a project from an Israeli site on the net where Arab and Jewish school kids interacted with each other. He initially thought of creating a similar site for Indians and Pakistanis to communicate with each other through moderators on both sides: "I realised that this would only become a chat site. And then www.chowk.com was already there, though that is a slightly highbrow discussion group."
Mr Daudpota then came up with the idea of producing an independent history text-book for Middle School level jointly written by Indian and Pakistani historians. "They could interact on the net, agree on a plan for the book, divide the tasks or do them jointly. As a chapter develops, they put it on the net and open it to moderated discussion hoping that independent students and teachers would read and comment on the contents. Here too there would be a need to moderate the comments to mould them in a way that they become valuable inputs to the writers," he explains.
Popularly known among his friends as "Hazrat Isa" because of his flowing beard and name, Mr Daudpota told me that he expected that Dr Mubarak Ali would be the Pakistani historian on the internet joint history text-book writing project. "This cross-border collaboration will give the history being written a legitimacy. We could also create a resource of FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the net, subverting communal history texts on both sides," he hopes. (To be concluded)
Writing Indo-Pak history on the net
Lahore, July 5
(Bharat Bhushan)
History in Pakistan has become a victim of the ideology of the State. There is an attempt to partition the history of the subcontinent," says a dejected Dr Mubarak Ali, a historian working towards removing communal distortions in history writing in the subcontinent.
Dr Mubarak Ali is isolated in his task — universities in Pakistan do not invite him and the Urdu press boycotts his writings. However, he has not given up and edits the only journal of history in Pakistan called Tarikh.
To bypass the systematic distortion of history on both sides of the border, three projects are being attempted by Dr Mubarak Ali and Mr Isa Daudpota, a physicist by training — publishing anthologies of the writings of Pakistani and Indian historians for the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods; trying to write a history of the subcontinent with an Indian counterpart and a project for collectively writing a school text-book of the history of the subcontinent on the net. The last of these is the brainchild of Mr Isa Daudpota (email: [email protected]) a consultant with Hamdard University in Islamabad.
Before asking him about the internet project, I ask Dr Mubarak Ali about the problems of history writing in Pakistan. "We have no historians. There are only history teachers in Pakistan, no historians," he replies.
The basic, problem of historiography in Pakistan, Dr Mubarak Ali feels, is one of deciding where to start the history of Pakistan. "Some say that you should start it from 711 AD when the Arabs arrived and disregard the ancient period. Others say that we should start with 1947. Whatever has happened in the past is of course history. You can't ignore Indus Valley or the Gandhara period. Even in archaeology, Pakistan does not give importance to the ancient period. Only the foreigners who come here are interested in that period. There is an ideological framework — either you write history within that or you don't write history," he says.
"There is no mention of Akbar in history text-books in Pakistan - because he was enlightened and secular. In Indian historiography Akbar is praised, in Pakistani historiography, he is condemned. Aurangzeb is praised by the communal historians of Pakistan, while their counterparts in India condemn him. So in this way, history is also partitioned," Dr Mubarak Ali said.
He says that being an ideological state, Pakistan feels an acute need to control the curricula - specially textbooks - so that the minds of the young can be moulded and controlled. He recalls, "When I was young, there wasn't much control over textbooks. I studied ancient and medieval Indian history. But the process of ideologisation and politicisation has changed everything. Now we don't include Ancient India in our curriculum. We teach Medieval India - because you can't partition the Sultanate period and Mughal India. However, it is called the 'History of Pak-o-Hind'. Can you imagine someone trying to change the name of Medieval Indian History?"
Even in recent modern history, according to Dr Mubarak Ali, the main emphasis is on the two-nation theory. "The portraits of India and Hindus that are presented in our text-books are very negative. This is what the RSS and the BJP are also trying to do in India - present a negative image of the Other. There is a similarity on both sides about projecting history as a conflict between Hindus and Muslims. But we have an additional problem besides being an ideological state. We are not a multi-cultural, multi-religious society and, therefore, the image of the Other - the enemy - is accepted without any verification. Except in Sindh, there are hardly any Hindus here. There is little chance of meeting them or interacting with them. So whatever image the students get in the text books, they believe it," he explains.
The joint-history writing project, therefore, was thought of as one way of changing the mindset of the youngsters on both sides of the border. Mr Daudpota claims that he got the idea of such a project from an Israeli site on the net where Arab and Jewish school kids interacted with each other. He initially thought of creating a similar site for Indians and Pakistanis to communicate with each other through moderators on both sides: "I realised that this would only become a chat site. And then www.chowk.com was already there, though that is a slightly highbrow discussion group."
Mr Daudpota then came up with the idea of producing an independent history text-book for Middle School level jointly written by Indian and Pakistani historians. "They could interact on the net, agree on a plan for the book, divide the tasks or do them jointly. As a chapter develops, they put it on the net and open it to moderated discussion hoping that independent students and teachers would read and comment on the contents. Here too there would be a need to moderate the comments to mould them in a way that they become valuable inputs to the writers," he explains.
Popularly known among his friends as "Hazrat Isa" because of his flowing beard and name, Mr Daudpota told me that he expected that Dr Mubarak Ali would be the Pakistani historian on the internet joint history text-book writing project. "This cross-border collaboration will give the history being written a legitimacy. We could also create a resource of FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the net, subverting communal history texts on both sides," he hopes. (To be concluded)
Comment