Classroom conundrum: Twisting history has twisted our mind

It is time we stop using textbooks to proliferate ideologies

KARACHI: The history we are told is not the history that happened.

A typical Pakistani's version of history is full of national triumphs and religious bigotry. The glory is all ours, the shame is all theirs. We did no wrong while our enemies did no right.

These skewed versions of history are widely prevalent in our society despite a lack of any substantial evidence. To solve this puzzle, a panel discussion was held on day one of the School of Tomorrow conference.

The three panelists - Abdul Hameed Nayyer, Akeel Bilgrami and Aamer Khan - all pinpointed classrooms as the crime scene where our young ones are indoctrinated with tampered history. The subjects of history and social studies, oft viewed as disciplines just there to make up numbers, are the tools being used to disseminate nationalistic views among the masses, which later evolve into different forms of extremism.



Mehmal Sarfaraz, the moderator, set the tone by highlighting how a large majority of us believe that we clean swept India in all four wars - even the 1971 one which resulted in the loss of half the country.

As a result, she said, our new generation has an extremely high opinion of itself and its achievements that go far beyond the reality. "Hence, to get educated in the real sense, we have to unlearn a lot of what we picked up in schools," added Mehmal.

Nayyer, physicist and nuclear activist, explained how tweaking history to suit our purposes damages our society. "Historical accuracy is important because the entire purpose of preserving history is to learn from our mistakes and not repeat them in the future," he said. "When we misrepresent history for political face saving, we defeat its purpose."

According to architect and co-founder of Indus Valley School Bilgrami, educators cannot be blamed because they are helpless at the hands of policymakers. However, he had advice for history and social studies teachers. "A good teacher is one who arouses the curiosity of the child," he said. "Our teachers can't fight the system but they can definitely encourage students to find the facts on their own."

Khan, who is director of news at Aaj News, pointed out that religious indoctrination and misrepresentation of facts in schools haven't just distorted history, it has distorted minds. "We, as a nation, have forgotten the art of critical thinking. It is easier to blame the religious content in our curriculum but the fact is bigotry, intolerance and racism is everywhere - even in our TV programmes," he said.

When asked if the media is responsible for fuelling these extremist and jingoistic notions, Khan surprisingly gave his profession an almost clean chit. "The media is a relatively new entity," he claimed. “Electronic and social media may have contributed a bit to this misrepresentation of facts but it would be unfair to place the entire blame on them.”

However, nuclear physicist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, who was also in attendance, swiftly reminded the audience of how some people in the media lashed out at the Punjab government and branded it as 'anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam' when it sanctioned a Matric-level text book, which had a bit more truth than usual.

To counter this, Khan suggested that the only way of blocking out such biased media men is by lobbying to big advertisers, who he claims pay top dollars for programmes that incited hatred and intolerance.

With the hall half-full at best, the hour-long discussion ended on that note. The scanty audience reflected our seriousness to correct this fundamental flaw in our academia.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.