What's wrong with our history education?

Majority of population migrated from villages to cities in Pakistan. The great village cultures and old traditions were very simple and nice. Our ancestors were very wise and hardworking people. We're proud to be Pakistanis because of our cultural heritage and old traditions of our ancestors. Unfortunately, after we get educated, we try to prove that our ancestors were not Pakistani. Some of us try to find their roots in Iran, some in Arab, some in Central Asia, some in Afghanistan, some inTurkey or any where but Pakistan. This is because the history of our great country was distorted by the invaders from these countries who ruled this region. Why our educators can't teach us proper history of our ancestors so that we can call ourselves are proud Pakistanis? Remembers that the foreign invaders came to our land because our ancestors produced more food and better products. They plundered and damaged everything. Our region got poorer and miserable in their rule. They termed their rule the best. It was best for them only, but not for us.

Its very sad to say that pakistan has no history of its own....It was part of india....

i read some of ur history articles..All are disillusioning u people and were created by ur mullah to prove that pakistan has no relation with india which is untrue..

Your history doesnt even 10% of history

1)It has no description about rigvedic civlizations and hindu kingdoms....It means u directly jump from copper age to 712 AD

what happend to Magadha empire,kanikskha,maurya,gupta,chalukya,pratihara.kannauj empire...But ur historians very happily discuss abt Muhammad bin kasim who was an invader in 712 AD....For your kind information U all were hindus b4.....ISlam onlt came in india after 1100 AD....your country treat Invaders as their hostory.... Very Happy

lol..............

U treat Gauri who invaded india 17 times..Muhhamad gajni who destroyed somnath...Afgani invaders were most barbaric people in india.They plundered all wealth of sub-continent..
Even HIndus rulers fought for supremacy but fight was limited to army..But Afgani raped,killed innocent people........

After Gori died,His servant Kutubuddin eibak became ruler of ghulam dynasty.BUt since then these people realised the culture of india..and they got indianised...and we treat them high in our history...Then after bahlol lodi of lodi dynasty another afgani Babar attacked India and defeated india.....He was also invader and he too killed innocent people who were not part of army....But later moughals became part of india culture...we treat akbar,jahangir and shahjahan as one of the greatest kings of india...Akbar is equally respected as Samudragupta and ashoka......
later moughals were defeated by british..IN 1857 ,Full india let it be hindu rulers,muslim rulers like Mangal pandey,jhansi ki rani all fought for independence of india under the last moughal empire Bahadur shah jaffar 2.....................

This is history of true india..Neither manipulated nor exaggarated...........if u read indian history books ,it creats feeling of nationalism ....

But your fanatics leaders and mullahs hided the real history of your country..After all u all claim yourself to be afgani descendent.................................

Once i got a chance to read pakistani history books.It was like a comic books...All fake and untrue propaganda .....
Every chapter about pakistan history will describe india as hindu country.. Very Happy

....They will spell all their venom against india....And have u all ever read abt ur ancient history...ha ha ha..lol..................................Your history was a manipulated crap by ur mullas who wanted to make ur country home to terrorists..........................................................

You people should read ur real history by foreign writers and then that will be a shock 2 u...Then u wll think that u r living in a rogue nation which even hided basic facts from u.............

You indians are famous for jelussi.
Your nature is cry & laughing over others problems.
That is your indians reality Exclamation

_________________
I do believe on Ghosts.

criticism should be taken in positive sense.Its good that u know abt the reality ...And u should appeal to ur society to implement right text books which help in providing scientific and technical education to ur society.

Think positive and spread positive message and help ur nation............

january 18, 2008

When we retrace our steps in history perhaps we can learn some lessons from the unfortunate situation Pakistan is in today.

After partition Pakistan's population had 15 percent Hindus and 2 percent Christians. If Pakistan had promoted diversity then, the next generation would have grown up in a multi-cultural, multi-religious society and exercised more tolerance.

General Zia-ul-Haq during his tenure as President systematically erased this multi-cultural heritage replacing it by radical 'Islamicisation' of civil society and the army. The rich Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh legacy that was common between Pakistan and India was forgotten. Had they recognised that their ancestors were also part of these traditions, they would have imbibed and kept alive some of those values and that perhaps would have made them more tolerant and less violent. When people dispose of their own heritage it makes them intolerant and fanatical.

Pakistan, a land where many an ancient university existed and Ayurveda texts were written, where Hinduism and other religions flourished, has today seemingly forgotten its tradition with little respect for these religions. Unlike India, where the contribution of the Mughal empire is recognised and honoured, in Pakistan, honouring its diverse traditions and culture has been ignored. The result of this has been a mono-cultural, mono-religious education that has made them radical. Lack of exposure to her own heritage has cost Pakistan dearly.

When I visited Pakistan a few years ago, I met with several journalists and interacted with thousands of people. To my amazement they seemed to know very little about India's freedom movement or Mahatma Gandhi [Images] and his principles.

The young people that I met there had very little knowledge of either ayurveda, yoga or our rich Sanskrit and Vedic heritage that is common to both countries. Tolerance and appreciation of other cultures have to be developed from a very young age. Children in Pakistan know nothing about the Bhakti movement, the spiritual renaissance which the continent once witnessed.

Their knowledge of Mahatma Gandhi is limited to the fact that he was a Hindu saint and a freedom fighter and not much beyond that. And they lack knowledge of many other saints and Sikh gurus who have traveled to and lived in Pakistan; even of people like Chanakya who wrote the Artha Shastra, and lived most of his life in a university in Taxila.

By tampering with history books educationists have done great damage to the society. The soft power they appear to wield ultimately brings out a hardened attitude in the people.

Extremist groups, who, by and large, comprise people not educated in the broad spectrum of knowledge, tend to be very insular. Unfortunately today, even in India, seeds of these tendencies can be seen in protests about "Vande Materam" being sung in schools and colleges or a fatwa issued to an actor for visiting a Ganesh festival or objections about Valentine's Day celebrations.

This should be unequivocally condemned by society as a whole. A composite society will always promote harmony and peace and put a check on extremism. It is clear that people who espouse violence today such as Naxalites and religious extremists in India and across borders have little respect for Gandhi.

Since partition, the growth of the minority population in India has been manifold while Pakistan's minority population has dwindled from 15 percent to just 1 percent. The biggest mistake that Pakistan made was in not supporting its minority communities. Fifteen percent Hindus would have turned the country into a more democratic, liberal society. But when this 15 percent was annihilated, converted or sent out of Pakistan and were replaced by mono-religious zealots and it has weighed heavily on Pakistan, leading to total chaos and fundamentalism.

Though India also has seen communal tensions, by and large the society is tolerant. Extremism in one religion does not remain contained in one. Its shadow spills over to others as well which is evident in Buddhist monks taking to the streets in Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar.

Honouring the Hindu minority would not have been a threat to its Islamic identity, particularly because in Hinduism there is nothing such as proselytizing or conversion.

The two countries born to freedom sixty years ago clearly took different paths.

Sri Sri Ravishankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation.

© 2008 Rediff.com India Limited. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer | Feedback

rohit_bangalore wrote:

Its very sad to say that pakistan has no history of its own....It was part of india....

i read some of ur history articles..All are disillusioning u people and were created by ur mullah to prove that pakistan has no relation with india which is untrue..

Your history doesnt even 10% of history

1)It has no description about rigvedic civlizations and hindu kingdoms....It means u directly jump from copper age to 712 AD

what happend to Magadha empire,kanikskha,maurya,gupta,chalukya,pratihara.kannauj empire...But ur historians very happily discuss abt Muhammad bin kasim who was an invader in 712 AD....For your kind information U all were hindus b4.....ISlam onlt came in india after 1100 AD....your country treat Invaders as their hostory.... Very Happy

lol..............

U treat Gauri who invaded india 17 times..Muhhamad gajni who destroyed somnath...Afgani invaders were most barbaric people in india.They plundered all wealth of sub-continent..
Even HIndus rulers fought for supremacy but fight was limited to army..But Afgani raped,killed innocent people........

After Gori died,His servant Kutubuddin eibak became ruler of ghulam dynasty.BUt since then these people realised the culture of india..and they got indianised...and we treat them high in our history...Then after bahlol lodi of lodi dynasty another afgani Babar attacked India and defeated india.....He was also invader and he too killed innocent people who were not part of army....But later moughals became part of india culture...we treat akbar,jahangir and shahjahan as one of the greatest kings of india...Akbar is equally respected as Samudragupta and ashoka......
later moughals were defeated by british..IN 1857 ,Full india let it be hindu rulers,muslim rulers like Mangal pandey,jhansi ki rani all fought for independence of india under the last moughal empire Bahadur shah jaffar 2.....................

This is history of true india..Neither manipulated nor exaggarated...........if u read indian history books ,it creats feeling of nationalism ....

But your fanatics leaders and mullahs hided the real history of your country..After all u all claim yourself to be afgani descendent.................................

Once i got a chance to read pakistani history books.It was like a comic books...All fake and untrue propaganda .....
Every chapter about pakistan history will describe india as hindu country.. Very Happy

....They will spell all their venom against india....And have u all ever read abt ur ancient history...ha ha ha..lol..................................Your history was a manipulated crap by ur mullas who wanted to make ur country home to terrorists..........................................................

You people should read ur real history by foreign writers and then that will be a shock 2 u...Then u wll think that u r living in a rogue nation which even hided basic facts from u.............

People of Pakistan have a very rich history which make us proud of ourselves. If you read some of your (Hindu) ancient books then you'll find that in the regions comprising of present day Pakistan and East Punjab (India), Hindus had been fighting to dominate these areas for more than 1000 years but failed to dominate. The majority of people in these areas lived in villages and considered Hinduism no more than a pakhund (Fraud). Hindu rule was limited to cities and towns that were very small in size at that time. Then they invited Muslims invaders to rule them rather than attacking them. It was then the Muslim rulers who tried to rule this region but they too got a very tough resistance from the people who had a very bad impression about rulers who used religion to dominate the people. Then the rulers from Turkey brought with them sufis who pretended themselves as the friends and sympathizers of the villagers. These sufis learnt the philosophy and wisdom of our great ancestors which as based on ground realities and experiences of thousands of years. The mixed up the local wisdom and Islamic teachings into their poetry which they wrote in the language of folk songs of Punjab. In this way they spread Islam in this region. They softened the tough resistance against the rulers and made it easy for the rulers for extend their rule in this region.

Later on Hindus consolidated their feudal system in this region with the help Moghals. Moghals made lavish palaces and buildings whereas the Muslims of India became very poor and week in their period. They were the same people who were very tough and strong against Hindus some time ago. Moghals also promoted Mullahs who changed the concept of Islam which was given by sufis. Later on British rulers also promoted the Muallahs to keep the Muslims busy in dogmatism and rituals. This trend grew even more when dictators ruled Pakistan or when USA need their help to promote sentimentalis in their cold war against USSR. I hope everybody knows what's happening after that.