03-07-2005, 02:13 AM
http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_forum...ry=India&id=162
CHeck this out
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:
âDuring 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 âPakistanâ.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.
CHeck this out
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:
âDuring 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 âPakistanâ.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.