Drawn Swords: Subtle and Brazen

An exploration into the construction of national identity through school curriculum

Aneeq Ahmed Cheema Supervisor: Taimur Rehman Lahore University of Management Sciences Senior Project, 2010

'In accordance with Regulation of the General Regulations for the Social Science Senior Project, I declare that this thesis is substantially my own work. Where reference is made to the works of others the extent to which that work has been used is indicated and duly acknowledged in the text and bibliography'

Abstract
The peculiar nature of the origin of the state of Pakistan and the turbulent path it treaded since independence led to emergence of a configuration of identity that revolves around Islam. This identity is produced and reproduced through the state-controlled education system. The process of limiting the scope of school curriculum to officially produced and endorsed textbooks combined with a regressive education system ensures that official textbooks are read and (aided by the pattern of exercise questions and exam pattern) rote-learned. These textbooks then form a mainstay for the state-agenda of the construction of national identity through justifying the creation of Pakistan within the broad Indian struggle for independence, up to the partition of India in 1947, by establishing ancient origins for Pakistan, Islamizing history, categorically distinguishing Muslims from Hindus, and exaggerating the scope and historicity of the Two Nation Theory. The struggle towards maintaining and upholding the Islamic ideology of Pakistan is created laboriously by narrating a natural transition from the Two Nation Theory to the Ideology of Pakistan. The struggle of survival against the arch rival India and Pakistans dependence on warfare and the military institutions. The national image constructed here excludes all religious and sectarian minorities; instilling a feeling of marginalization, which fuels discontent and anguish. The results of this indoctrination are visible today in the prevalent discord on all fronts of identity within Pakistan regional, ethnic, religious and sectarian.

CONTENTS
1 2 3 4 5 Introduction Theoretical framework Research context & literature review Education system of Pakistan Content analysis Phases of national identity construction 5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3 5.1.4 5.2 5.2.1 5.2.2 5.2.3 5.3 5.3.1 5.3.2 5.3.3 6 7 Justifying the creation of Pakistan within the Indian independence movement Search for primordial origins Islamizing the Past Muslims vs non-Muslims The fighting people of Islam Battlefronts for upholding Ideology of Pakistan The Unworthy Equation: Ideology of Pakistan and the TwoNation Theory Fixing India as the enemy Militarization and acceptance for violence Islam as Criterion for Citizenship Pan-Islamism Suppressing difference Islamic ideals for all Conclusion Bibliography 1 5 10 16 18 19 20 20 21 22 26 29 29 34 37 40 40 42 43 47 49

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Extract from list of contents of Social Studies 6, Punjab Textbook Board, 2009. Table 2: Topics on early Muslim struggle and patriotism for Pakistan in the Islamiat syllabus for classes 312. Table 3: Extract from list of contents of Social Studies 5, Punjab Textbook Board, 2005. Table 4: Islamic Content in Primary level Urdu textbooks, 2009.

21 27 38 46

APPENDICES Appendix I Appendix II Appendix III Screen image of the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Lahore website. Selected translations of Urdu, book 2. Extract from Crescent Model Higher Secondary School Prospectus 52 53 67

1.

Introduction

Pakistan was carved out of a united India as a result of a Pakistan Movement fuelled by the Two Nation Theory. According to the Two Nation Theory the Muslims and Hindus living in colonial India were two separate nations, thus entitled to separate states of their own. And hence a separate state was created for the Muslims of India in August 1947. This narrative is the briefest possible rendering of the Ideology of Pakistan as posited by the state textbooks of Pakistan in various lengths and degree of detail. The titles for such sections are identified simply as The Ideology of Pakistan; they are placed right at the beginning of Pakistan Studies textbooks and aim to impart exactly this; the ideology of Pakistan espoused by the state as evolved till the date of publication. This paper will focus on the official Pakistani curriculum sampled through the textbooks published under the aegis of Punjab Textbook Board, given the huge share of students it caters to, and draw out the different aspects of political identity conveyed by them. The territorially-divided state called Pakistan created in the Indian subcontinent came into existence too soon into the struggle waged for it. This aforementioned struggle was in fact largely focused to convince those who were later to become a part of it. The Pakistan Resolution in Lahore did demand separate states in India but the particular shape and form was not clear to even its own movers. The demand itself evolved with the struggle for it. So did the political command over Muslims for the political party that made this demand on behalf of the Muslims. Even after the trumpeted 1945 elections in the subcontinent, the All India Muslim League came into power in only two of the provinces that were later to become a part of Pakistan; Sind and Bengal (the bigger of which later broke away to become Bangladesh in 1971). The struggle for Pakistan was waged in the name of one Muslim nation in all of India. But not all of them became a part of either the struggle or the Pakistan it resulted in. Conversely, the residents of this new state were yet to situate themselves as a nation, for they had not even fought for it. The fight had been staged by those who had just come in from the new outside: the Muslim minority provinces in India. Therefore, the national reality was yet to be imagined 5

for the nation now within its new boundaries. The image to be created was of extreme significance; for it could bind it together or divide it further. This dilemma becomes even more complicated with the breaking away of its eastern wing. Add on to that a legitimacy-starved military dictators regime, the solution was foundor at least, soughtin religion, beyond the banality of territoriality. It was to be known as an Islamic state and not just as a state for Muslims as it was intended to be. The struggle for salvaging the national pride after the secession of East Pakistan in 1971 was fought on multiple fronts. The then Presidentand later Prime MinisterZulfikar Ali Bhutto created a populist fervor in the name of Islamic Socialism and managed to create a unanimously approved constitution for the country. But for unanimous support from the legislature, Bhutto had to join hands with the religious parties represented in the parliament. This was achieved by including clauses that made Pakistan an Islamic state and expected it to perform the roles associated to one, such as Article 31 which goes: Islamic way of life. (1) Steps shall be taken to enable the Muslims of Pakistan, individually and collectively, to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities whereby they may be enabled to understand the meaning of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah. (2) The state shall endeavor, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan: (a) to make the teaching of the Holy Quran and Islamiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language and to secure correct and exact printing and publishing of the Holy Quran; (b) to promote unity and the observance of the Islamic moral standards; and (c) to secure the proper organization of zakat 1[ushr,] auqaf and mosques2. Zias regime was instrumental in expanding the religious coloring of the states institutions, with his Islamization program. Whereby the laws and judiciary were being radically Islamized and all forms of political contestation by the civil society largely oppressed, it was deemed
1 2

Inserted by P.O. No. 14 of 1985, Art. 2 and Sch. Pakistan, The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, (Islamabad: Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, 2004), p. 17.

necessary to erase all things non-Islamic from the minds of the coming generations itself. At one hand when all political parties were banned, the student-wing of the largest Islamic political party was heavily patronized and gradually became the only face of student politics in Pakistan. On the other hand, petty officials3 on government payroll were assigned the task of Islamizing the national curriculum as well. This legacy is largely intact till day. Today, the office built to educate the nation identifies this nationalistic discourse creation and perpetuation as its stated vision: Our education system must provide quality education to our children and youth to enable them to realize their individual potential and contribute to development of society and nation, creating a sense of Pakistani nationhood, the concepts of tolerance, social justice, democracy, their regional and local culture and history based on the basic ideology enunciated in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.4 The italicized message in the above vision-statement runs throughout the curriculum designed by the Curriculum Wing of the education ministry and the textbooks officially produced as a result of them by the respective provincial boards. The sense of Pakistani nationhood is constructed in the following manner; a Pakistani is a Sunni Muslim who hates India and reveres militarism and the Pakistani military forces. This truth creation is largely channeled through Social Studies (and its senior form: Pakistan Studies, implemented from ninth grade onwards), Urdu and Islamiat. Assessing the form of this truth, the process of its construction and the alarming rigidity it binds our nation in with reference to our foreign policy engagements of the day is the task for this paper. The paper divides itself into six sections.The first builds a theoretical framework for understanding the tasks that a state takes upon itself to produce nationalism i.e. loyalty to itself. The works discussed in this part shall take as base Benedict Andersons reading of nationalism as a produced imagination through the spread of vernacular. This idea shall be put

Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, No. 1 (1995): 77. 4 National Education Policy 2009. (Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2009), p. 10. http://www.moe.gov.pk/nepr/NEP_2009.PDF (accessed June 29, 2010) stress added.

into flux with the work of Ernest Gellner and Anthony Smith which shall be brought together to form a theoretical framework to be applied to the produced national history of Pakistan. In section two, the paper intends to undertake a literature review. It shall concentrate on the groundbreaking works of K. K. Aziz, Ayesha Jalal and the detailed report by A. H. Nayyar and A. Salim and other works in relation to these. In section three, the closed natures of the education system in Pakistan will be explored to seek out the dependence on textbooks. In section four, the paper moves into its core. It tackles the textbooks and excavates the memory and value structures it intends to impart and its impacts. This section shall look at the textbooks and conduct an analysis of how they produce the three characteristics in an individual. Section seven shall be cursory remarks on the work linking it to the prevalent strife in the society and explore avenues to fully explore the identity creation process in the education system of Pakistan.

2.

Theoretical Framework:

Foucault maintains that truth should be understood as a system of ordered procedures for the production of, regulation, distribution, circulation, and operation of statements5. The truthcreation process in Pakistan can be seen through the closed system of development and production of textbooks and the created dependence of matriculating students on them described above. It is certainly contestable that these textbooks and the examination system, even combined are not enough to command the discourse production in the whole society, but the state uses these textbooks to standardize the discourse that shapes the societal identity as a whole. This standardization has historically been affirmed through the state owned television and radio content and continues today in the parameters adopted by the electronic media. The states success in creating the boundaries of its choice can be observed in the discourse of exclusion the fringe ethnic parties protest about6. Foucault also postulates the space for contestation of the institutionalized truth within the educational system as well: Every educational system is a means of maintaining or modifying the appropriateness of discourses with the knowledge and power they bring with them7. But will the established truth ever allow us to use this educational system for modifying thediscourse or for that matter even open our eyes? Before we indulge in a discussion on the contestation of the established truth, the nature and choice of this truth needs consideration. The truth-construction in process is seen as actively aligning the territory and identity and then more importantly state and nation. Borrowing from Derrida, David Campbell calls this imminence of streamlining as ontopology8. He suggests that this norm, leads to a desire for a coherent, bounded, monoculutural community9. The same is observed in the discourse produced in the official textbooks whereby all cultural differences

Michel Foucault. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed and trans. Colin Gordon. (Sussex: Harvester, 1980), p. 33. 6 The example of the Muhajir leader Altaf Hussain of Muttahida Qaumi Movement as noted in Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, No. 1 (1995): 83. 7 Michel Foucault. Lordre du discourse. (Paris: Gallimard, 1971), p. 46. 8 David Campbell. National Deconstruction: violence, identity, and justice in Bosnia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), p. 80. 9 Ibid. p. 168-9

are suppressed and the idea of Pakistan equated to the boundaries that exist today as an inevitable reality. What is this bounded community? A nation has historically been defined in terms of the shared characteristics of the people that constitute it as commonly found in standard dictionaries today and in fact still ascribed to by many, specially where their own nations are concerned10. An example of its prevalence is found in the Oxford English Reference Dictionary: a community of people of mainly common descent, history, language, etc. forming a state or inhabiting a territory11. This approach is known as the perennialist perspective whereby nations had existed since time immemorial12 and the history of commonness of these characteristics dates the existence of the nation. This approach to nationalism came under heavy attack after the Second World War when it was increasingly explained as a product of modernity and the changes in the socioeconomic, sociocultural, political and ideological fronts13. However, it is in the constructionist approach, where the states spurring of national identity creation can be best understood. According to constructionism nations are taken as historically contingent products of human cultural construction14. The most relevant approach however, for understanding national identity creation through state apparatus is the. Benedict Anderson speaks from the constructionist perspective and defines nation as an imagined political community-and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nations will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives an image of their community.15 This definition has been chosen to guide this work because of the particular nature of the Pakistan movement and the process of creation of the Muslim nation in India. The nation certainly did take form, but was certainly not falsely invented to serve a corresponding existing
10 11

Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism: theory, ideology, history (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), p. 49. Judy Pearsall and Bill Trumble, Oxford English Reference Dictionary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 963. 12 Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism, p. 49. 13 Anthony D. Smith, Nationalism, p. 48. 14 Liah Greenfeld and Jonathan Eastwood, Naionalism in Comparative Perspective in The Handbook of political sociology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 249. 15 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (London: Verso, 1983), p. 15.

10

state or a state to be achieved, as it should be if Gellners dependent relation of the nation with the state is considered16. This can be observed through the political developments in the early first half of the twentieth century in India, the Muslim community became to be recognized as a separate political entity as early as 1909 with the introduction of the separate electorates for Muslims. Journals and popular magazines (like Sir Syed Ahmed Khans Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaque and Maulana Abul Kalam Azads Zamindar) issues by the intelligentsia of the time produced a new framework for Muslim Nationalism . In consequence, the religiously defined nation took form as a result of the processes found in constructionist discourse i.e. print capitalism but this nation could not transform into a nation-state of its own as a very limited Pakistan surfaced on the map when Muslim-majority areas were arbitrarily demarcated into a new state. Anderson describes the nation as imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the mind of each lives the image of their communion.17 Anderson's definition is important because it emphasizes the central role played by the image of a nation in creating a national reality. It is imagined because its existence is contingent on its members' sustaining a certain image of it that is based on their perceptions and feelings. It is worthwhile to notice that Anderson carefully distinguishes his definition from Ernest Gellner's claim that nationalism invents nations where they do not exist.18 Gellner, he argues, is so anxious to show that nationalism masquerades under false pretences that he equates invention with fabrication and falsity rather than with imaging and creation. The second pillar of Andersons definition poses the real challenge for choosing to define the Pakistani nation in terms of religious affiliation. The nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them, encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries, beyond which lie other nations The most messianic nationalists do not dream of a day when all the

16

Liah Greenfeld and Jonathan Eastwood, Nationalism in Comparative Perspective in The handbook of political sociology, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 248. 17 Ibid. 18 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983), p. 4.

11

members of the human race will join their nation in the way it was possible, in certain epochs, for, say, Christians to dream of a wholly Christian planet.19 Practically, the dependence on using Islam for defining the distinctness of Muslims is problematic since Islam was neither a coherent nor a limiting identity for its followers in the region. There were, and are today even more, significant divides within. The huge spectrum of ideological and sectarian categories existing within this larger category had divergent centres of ideological leanings and the political affiliations that sprouted from them. Furthermore, the pan-Islamic ideas postulated in the curriculum as well as in the discourse furthered by Islamic political parties today allude to a type of Muslim planet, which the conception of this nation is, ironically, completely at odds with. The struggle to deal with these contradictions is apparent throughout the school curricula and will be discussed in detail in sections 5.3.1 and 5.3.2. Now that a basic understanding of nationalism in the constructionist perspective and the challenges faced in the imagining of the Pakistani nation has been attained, a brief exploration of the power of nationalism in itself to be chosen as the prioritized disseminated identity over all others is mandated here. The power of nationalism, argues Smith, should be attributed to the fact that membership in a nation provides" a powerful means of defining and locating individual selves in the world through the prism of the collective personality and its distinctive culture.20 This contextualization as members of a particular continuous community influences one's perception of oneself, as well as of one's past and future. Similar, yet distinct from perennialism which connects todays nations with their past, Yael Tamir connects its individuals with their future generations. Membership in a nation, unlike membership in a gender, class, or region, enables an individual to find a place not only in the world in which he or she lives, but also in an uninterrupted chain of being. Nationhood promotes fraternity both among fellow members and across generations. It endows human action with a meaning that endures over time, thus carrying a promise of immortality.21 This offer of redemption from personal oblivion is echoed as Anderson22 and Smith23 both emphasize the immortality only

19 20

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (London: Verso, 1983), p. 16. Anthony D. Smith. National identity. (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1991), p.17. 21 Yael Tamir, Enigma of nationalism World Politics, 47, no. 3 (1995): 430. 22 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (London: Verso, 1983), p. 16. 23 Anthony D. Smith. National identity. (Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1991), p.160.

12

nationalism can offer when one dies for ones nation and this is precisely what we can observe these textbooks doing by allocating separate chapters for each of the soldiers awarded the Nishan-e-Haider the biggest military award in Pakistan.

13

3.

Literature Review

This subject matter has been discussed and written about for quite some time by academics and researchers in Pakistan as well as abroad. In a way this age old relevance creates the space for more work in this field, the nexus of politics and curriculum in Pakistan.

Firstly, despite a consistent criticism on the curriculum, particularly that of history textbooks in Pakistan by the most eminent historians and scholars of Pakistan, the aim, intent and methodology of teaching history have not seen any variation which may be labeled as change. Reform reports fail to bring about any significant turbulence in how the textbooks convey the national narrative to the young minds.

Secondly, a considerable amount of literature exists and focuses on how Pakistani governments have changed the curriculum content as per their ideology, using tools ranging from exaggeration to falsehood. However, these studies are either unable to locate particular examples from the textbooks or have to take refuge in the seminal work of K K Aziz: The Murder of History24. In this phenomenal book, he has extracted and corrected an extensive list of errors from 66 Pakistan Studies and History textbooks, in use all the way from primary to undergraduate level. Where this collection of errors offers a great opportunity for students and particularly their parents and teachers to either avoid them or offer factual insight, it has its share of limitations in being a reference for research on curriculum in Pakistan. Most importantly, where the variety of the books used should accord this study a more representative status, it in fact leads towards more confusion for the reader concerning the extent of the calamity of these errors, since the prevalence of the concerned book is often unrecognized, especially those taught at the undergraduate (BA) level. This problem arises because students at this level prefer privately published guide books which continue to be replaced by newer and better books. Though this might seem insignificant in terms of the contribution K K Azizs work has made, the consequent conflation of errors that is presented to the reader is harmful for a research effort, or more importantly for a policy proposal, given that all the errors are jointly answered to and synthesized at the end.
24

K. K. Aziz. The Murder of History: A critique of history textbooks used in Pakistan. (Lahore: Vanguard, 1993).

14

There have been other works focusing on the deliberate distortion of history for ideological reasons; the first of which was from Pervez Hoodbhoy and A. H. Nayyar 25, pointing to the policy directive which brought about the change in writing history to paint Islamic origins for Pakistan and the subsequent distortions entering the Pakistan Studies textbooks, the foremost target of the process of Islamization of education. This piece effectively articulates the main strands of Islamization which Rewriting the History of Pakistan has undergone. It highlights the Islamic nature of Ideology of Pakistan, the Islamized depiction of Jinnah, the attempt to establish Ulema as heroes of the Pakistan Movement and the emphasis on ritualistic Islam as presented in the textbooks and then brings forth historical proof in order to clear the haze of subjectivity from these facets of common text-book description. This piece paves the way for defogging the history of Pakistan but falls into the same temptation other investigators into the representation of national narrative have faced; looking at the most blunt misrepresentations in the wide range of consumables available for a candidate of the Bachelors examination. For example, one of the culprit historians referenced here is M. D. Zafar, author of Pakistan Studies for Medical Students26. It is worth noting here that medical students are a very small proportion of the total undergraduate students and a product manufactured to serve them cannot serve as a representative for textbooks in Pakistan.

Apart from the theme, the abovementioned culprit is the only common factor Hoodbhoy and Nayyars chapter and Ayesha Jalals eloquent critique of the history taught in Pakistan. Her insight into the matter demolishes the projected connection between the Ideology of Pakistan and the Two Nation Theory. She explores the myths regarding the origins of Pakistani nation and the implicit message within these origins for example the demonization of Hindus as a reference sample of the historical narrative. Furthermore, the struggle of silencing all inner dissent, particularly regionalism through historical writing, has been dealt with effectively. Nonetheless, the problem of referencing books without contextualizing them with their relevance to the student of the age recurs throughout the abundant use of private Intermediate and BA books. Thus, a disconnection with the earlier introduction to the writing of textbooks
25

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy and Abdul Hameed Nayyar, Rewriting the History of Pakistan. Islam, Politics and the State: The Pakistan Experience, ed. Asghar Khan (London: Zed Books, 1985), pp. 164-177 26 M. D. Zafar, Pakistan Studies for Medical Students (Lahore: Aziz Publishers, 1982).

15

by petty officials27 and the provincial textbook boards is exposed when not a single official textbook is used for analysis.

A much deeper content analysis of social studies textbooks was carried out in 1993 by Rubina Saigol, conducted to uncover the gendered articulation of educational discourse in Pakistan28. She also explores the amount of hate material found in textbooks along with nationalistic and militaristic ideological indoctrination. Whereof the text has good views to offer, the work must be contextualized as one which situates itself in a feminist framework. Moreover, the text is in fact a PhD thesis, and hence differs in structural concerns from a book, wherefrom the response it draws from the reader is off a different kind. A more minor drawback perhaps, but the text may drag at times and disinterest the reader.

Overall, therefore, an excessive focus on history with a damaging exclusion of Urdu and Islamiat continues with the choice of social studies and Pakistan Studies repeatedly; despite the extensive potential for uncovering more subtle ideological statements and hence possibly prime subject matter for the detailed content analysis like this.

A much more riveting work by an eminent scholar of education in India, Krishna Kumar compares school histories of the freedom struggle in India and Pakistan to bring out the master narratives of the two states: the closed Islamic state in Pakistan and the gradual communalization of the secular India. He examines the representation of major episodes like the 1857 rebellion, the Khilafat Movement and Partition and the opposing portrayals of significant personalities such as Gandhi, Jinnah and Iqbal. The distinguishing characteristic of his work is the recurring recourse of highlighting the politics of mention, pacing and the conception of end29, making the content analysis that follows much more accessible as well as ordered in the readers mind. But again, the scope is limited to history and even more so to only the hundred year period preceding partition.
27

Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, No. 1 (1995): 77. 28 Rubina Saigol, Knowledge and identity: articulation of gender in educational discourses in Pakistan.(Lahore: ASR Publications, 1995). 29 Krishna Kumar. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002), p. 72.

16

The Sustainable Development Policy Institute report30 produced by a group of 29 scholars, educators and researchers is the most comprehensive work done till date on the state of curriculum and the textbooks in Pakistan, with particular focus on the textbooks produced by the state, along with the policy directives that went into producing them. This is the first work which does not limit itself to Social Studies and considers, instead, the varying array of places where text-book ideologies hold sway, including Urdu, English and Civics but still leaves out Islamiat for the political message therein. The report touches upon important components of the curriculum that need immediate attention. The analysis systematically bring out the problematic aspects of the curriculum, such as the distortion of our history through inaccuracies of fact and omissions, sheer insensitivity to the existing religious diversity of the nation, glorification of war and incitement to militancy and violence, and an overall dependence on outdated and incoherent pedagogical practices that hinder the development of interest and insight among students. While this comprehensive report covers good ground, it fails to gain any significant depth in reaching any of the particular conclusions given above. Given also the lack of serious work on the militarization aspect of the curriculum31 there is a welcome inclusion of a chapter titled Glorification of War and the Military, which unfortunately falls short of a truly outstanding piece of work by not penetrating far enough into the topic. After an introduction, it provides a description of a Bhutto era two-year course on Fundamentals of War and Defence of Pakistan for class XI and XII respectively and then launches on to listing particularly hateinvoking learning outcomes from the curriculum documents followed by examples from textbooks depicting Hindu-hatred as well as a listing of the topics glorifying Jihad and Shahadat (martyrdom), without any textual analysis of any of the above. Thus this groundbreaking work exposes many frontiers where the curriculum functions on ideological grounds but does not fully recreate all the identities, the curriculum produces for school children.

30

A.H. Nayyar and A. Salim, eds. The Subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan. (Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 2002). 31 Only a few fancily written opinionated pages exist on Support Military Rule, Glorify War and Hate India by K. K. Aziz in The Murder of History, p. 190-195.

17

A much deeper content analysis of social studies textbooks was carried out in 1993 by Rubina Saigol conducted to uncover the gendered articulation of educational discourse in Pakistan32. She also explores the amount of hate material, and nationalistic and militaristic ideological indoctrination found in textbooks.. Thus the focus on history with a damaging exclusion of Urdu and Islamiat continues with the choice of social studies and Pakistan Studies repeatedly despite the huge potential for uncovering more subtle ideological statements and hence possibly prime subject matter for the detailed content analysis like this. The most recent work on this subject is Marie Lalls 2007 paper: Educate to hate: the use of education in the creation of antagonistic national identities in India and Pakistan. In this paper she compares the politicization of curriculum in the Zia ul Haq regime in Pakistan (1977-1988) with that of the BJP-led government in India (1998-2004) and highlights how national curricula was respectively colored with Zias Islamization and BJPs Hindutva33 ideologies. In terms of the contribution to the literature on assessment of politicization of curriculum in Pakistan, it gives a good summary of education reforms under Zias regime but falls short of actually referencing any of the books. Though one contribution serves the beginner in the field for whom the lessons of imparting Islamic ideology through textbooks have been reproduced very successfully from the reports and articles discussed above, there is a clear lack of direct engagement with textbooks. The only direct reference she does make is to a privately published book34 used in preparing for GCSEs35even though this system of education has not been introduced anywhere in the paper. Interestingly, even this book was published in 1991, well after the end of Zia era, and no direct reference is made to any book from the Zia period, other than this justification: Whilst original Pakistani textbooks from the late 1970s and mid 1980s are virtually impossible to get hold of today, the textbook boards and schools ensured that anything printed before 1991 was a carbon copy of the books printed under Zia36.

32

Rubina Saigol, Knowledge and identity: articulation of gender in educational discourses in Pakistan.(Lahore: ASR Publications, 1995). 33 Hindutva is based on the premise that India is a Hindu nation. Any non-Hindus in India have to either accept the majoritys domination or leave. 34 Nadeem Qasir. Pakistan studies: an investigation into the political economy 19491988 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1991). 35 Marie Lall, 'Educate to hate: the use of education in the creation of antagonistic national identities in India and Pakistan', Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 38, no. 1, (2008): 113 36 Ibid.

18

Marie Lall has also contributed a chapter to a recent compilation on state of education in Pakistan, Shaping a Nation: An examination of education in Pakistan by the title of What role for Islam today? The political Islamisation of Pakistani society in which political socialization through education has been studied as a route to Islamisation. So much for the word today, the whole section on education has been copied verbatim from the above mentioned article, without failing to call the Nayyar & Salim report a recent review37 and quoting the same piece from the 1991 book. More problematic is the fact that the revised books which are out in the market are being referred to only as a curriculum directive sent out in 2006 which falsely claims that all references to Islam have been removed from all textbooks bar Pakistan Studies and Islamiyat.38 It can be seen therefore that there has been no comprehensive review of the latest curriculum documents released in 2007 and the textbooks produced as a result of them. Further the lack of textual analysis prevails in all of the work done in this field, save Rubina Saigols PhD thesis. And then there is the omission of Islamiat as a source of developing (Muslim) national identity, while of course the only works that actually go beyond noting the historical errors and listing of problematic material, and aim to draw out the master national narrative from the officially dictated educational discourse are those of Ayesha Jalal and Krishna Kumar.

37

Marie Lall, What role for Islam today? The political Islamization of Pakistani society in Shaping a Nation: An examination of education in Pakistan ed. Stephen Lyon and Iain R. Edgar, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 103. 38 Ibid. p. 104.

19

4.

System of education in Pakistan

The stated aim of ordering the lives of Pakistanis according to the principles of Islam in the constitution has been implemented on various fronts; one of the most significant of which is the education system of Pakistan. Pakistans ministry of education maintains a sprawling network of public schools which aim to educate a characteristically young population. Since these schools have proved, even to the present date, insufficient to reach the whole of the population, they are supplemented with private schools all over the country. Still, an overwhelming majority goes to public schools. The Matriculation exam taken after the tenth grade is a significant stage of education in Pakistan after which a majority of students discontinue education. Thus enrollment at the Matriculation level can be used to gauge the coverage of public schools. In 2007-08, a total of 2,426,255 were enrolled in the high school level (leading to the Matriculation exam) in Pakistan, out of which 1,723,30939 were in public schools which amounts to 71% of the total students. Punjab accounts for a huge 1,360,757 high school goers (957,145 go to public schools) i.e. 56% of the total high school students in Pakistan. Furthermore, private schools too largely prepare students to sit for these exams, and only a small number of students from large urban centers take the British O/A level exams. Thus, every year at least more than a million students read the textbooks produced by the Punjab Textbook Board to take the Matriculation exam. The number of students attending public primary and secondary schools is phenomenally larger at 5,770,429 and 20259,435 respectively40, also denoting the certain minimum number of students reading Punjab Textbook Board books at these levels. The direct equation between public school education and officially produced is simple, there are no other books taught in public schools. Further the examination system makes sure that official textbooks are completely memorized which makes any study outside these textbooks redundant. The questions posed in these exams are usually directly borne out of particular subsections in the respective textbooks. These exam question papers are set by officials of the

39

Pakistan Education Statistics 2007-08, (Islamabad: Academy of educational planning and management, Ministry of Education, 2009), Table 0.2: Enrollment by stage. 40 Ibid. Table 1.2: Enrollment (Public sector) by Province, Stage, Gender and Location.

20

individual boards like Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education Lahore and are patterned on model papers released by the Board well in advance from the actual paper (see appendix I). The students are so conveniently conditioned into following these model papers and the limited syllabus that if anything out-of-course is posed in the exams, protests or walk-outs are likely to occur. Interestingly, this out-of-course does not necessarily mean something popping up completely out of the topics noted in the syllabus but actually exact questions from the officially prescribed textbook. This sheds light on the dependent relationship students are taught to develop with the textbooks prescribed by the boards. Once these exams conclude, the papers are gathered and distributed among examiners on government payroll. These examiners make sure that only the officially sanctioned ideas are reproduced by the students to the fullest. The ideal candidate would have reproduced the relevant section in the textbook the best and presented it in the most linear fashion. A glance on the production of textbooks is mandated here. The responsibility for designing them lies with the Curriculum Wing of the Federal Ministry of Education and the provincial Text Book Boards. The Curriculum Wing is mandated to design all pre-university curricula and issue guidelines to textbook writers and school teachers. Provincial Textbook Boards commission writing of textbooks and get them printed after their contents are approved by the Curriculum Wing. Thus, the tightly controlled process makes sure that the official discourse is perpetuated in the young minds of this nation.

21

5.

Content Analysis

Before we attempt to scale the national identity project in the national curriculum, it is worthy of our investigation to discern the ordering of identities it provides for the nations youth and their reference for the life to come. The grade II Urdu book (see Appendix II) provides the reference point for the nation that sharply resisted the slogan of Sub se pehlay Pakistan Pakistan first41. It starts from a poem on the praise of Allah, followed by an account of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and a poem on his praise42. Pakistan comes right on number four. After an interval of two lessons, tales of great personalities43 appears, of which the first one is the Prophet of Islam followed by a companion of the Holy Prophet and a scholar of Islam. The choice of the personalities finely confines the young childrens imagination and scope for great men to not only being Muslims but also either the Prophet himself or at least belonging to that era, as it is commonly referred to. The questions that follow the lesson leave no room for any questioning when Muslim and infidel are asked to be matched as antonyms44. But then confusion is introduced by bringing in the very contemporary Quaid-e-Azam in the next lesson. There could only be two meanings for the seven year olds studying this book in this order, either Quaid-e-Azam (and the phenomenon of his making of Pakistan) also belong to that category or he comes right after these people in historical standing, as Pakistan does after Allah and the Prophet. This ordering of identity through prioritization of knowledge is no mere accident. This order is particularly delineated for Urdu books, all the way from grade I to XII, in the official curriculum directive guiding the textbook writing process45. The following opening sentences for the lesson on Pakistan in the above mentioned book succinctly summarize the national identity formulation this paper seeks to identify: Our dear countrys name is Pakistan. Pakistan is an Islamic country.

41

Sub se pehlay Pakistan Pervez Musharrafs popular slogan. His autobiography In the line of fire is published in Urdu with this title. 42 Meri kitab (Urdu): Jamaat Doam, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. iv. 43 Ibid. p. 15. 44 Ibid. p. 18. 45 Qaumi nisaab baraye Urdu (lazmi): pehli ta barhween jamaat kay liye, (Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006), 52-78.

22

Non-Muslims live here too who are less in number46 Here we can see the basic equation for Pakistan with Islam and the secondary status accorded to non-Muslims. This political identity sits in the context of long struggles to officially classify Ahmedis as non-Muslims and episodes like the burning of a Christian village in Gojra, though no direct link between this episode and the identity formation has been explored here.

Pakistan Phases of its Construction

The national identity construction is phased in this manner: 1) Justifying the creation of Pakistan within the broad Indian struggle for independence up to the partition of India in 1947) by i. ii. iii. iv. 2) establishing ancient origins for Pakistan, Islamizing the past, categorically distinguishing Muslims from Hindus, and exaggerating the scope of the and historicity Two Nation Theory

Description of the struggle towards maintaining and upholding the Islamic ideology Pakistan was purportedly created to serve. This struggle requires the textbooks to function on all these fronts: i. ii. iii. The transition from the Two Nation Theory to the Ideology of Pakistan India the arch-enemy and the survival against its evil designs. Glorification of violence and the military

3)

Establishing the exclusivity of Pakistan for Muslims by i. ii. linking the Muslims of Pakistan to a bigger whole; the Muslim Ummah and denying any recognition and representation to religious and sectarian minorities. iii. forcing non-Muslims to read Islamic religious teachings,

46

Meri kitab (Urdu): Jamaat Doam,p. 7 my translation.

23

5.1.

Justifying the creation of Pakistan within the Indian independence movement

For serving this purpose, History writers do not hesitate in personally intervening in the history that actually unfolded in the region by withholding characters or incidents or by pacing up through those times which are deemed insignificant for contributing towards creation of Pakistan in the subcontinent. Although the Pakistani story of the awakening is a historical story, it is represented to children in a timeless mode. Events that occurred in different epochs and around personalities as different as Shah Waliullah, Syed Ahmad Khan and Jinnah are welded together to form an account that makes the awakening of Muslim people in the Indian subcontinent a predestined, stepwise revelation.47 The creation of Pakistan is conveniently constructed as the teleological culmination of the history of the subcontinent. Rather, there is no history of the whole subcontinent; there is only the history of Pakistan. Hence the introduction of the subject Pakistan Studies was imperative, for that can warrants all such historical engineering; inclusion, exclusion and pacing. 5.1.1. Search for primordial origins Tracing the historical origins of the country can serve as a very fruitful exercise in discerning this sense of timelessness that surrounds the phenomenon. Ayesha Jalals Conjuring Pakistan provides a detailed analysis of the various origins of the idea of Pakistan traced by multiple authors in publication48. Here, the exploration shall be restricted to the official textbooks. A beginners chapter on History of Pakistan conveniently dates our country to the first known inhabitants of this region. It says, About 5000 years before, the majority of the people did not know the art of constructing fine housesBut, even in those days, the people of our country lived in good looking houses which had all the basic facilities of life.49Crafting ancient origins

47

Krishna Kumar. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002), p. 85. 48 Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, No. 1 (1995): 78-81. 49 Social Studies 5 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p. 114.

24

is not an entirely novel exercise, whereby many modern day nations strive to establish their nationhood in long-past days with any remote connection. The subtle novelty introduced here is dating the existence of the political entity in its own to the first known habitation of this region. Or it is more likely that the authors simply do not deem children worthy of such disambiguation. In more advanced texts, the creation of Pakistan is slightly delayed to serve the Islamic connection. Though these texts fail to note the time and occasion for the saying, they do certainly pin the origin of Pakistan to the first conversion to Islam according to a paraphrased saying of Quaid-e-Azam5051. Apart from erasing the significance of time and chronology for a historical inquiry from the students of history, it also drills in them a very restricted picture of the astute founder of Pakistan as one who sees nothing but the demand for a separate state for the Muslims of India, taking away the margin Jinnah sought to create for himself in the constitutional battle through claims of religion in the public sphere52. 5.1.2. Islamizing the Past With ancient roots defined for both the nation as well as the state, history of South Asia is allowed to proceed only with a clear Islamic direction. A simple indicator of this ordering is found in the titles for the chapters covering history in grade VI Social Studies textbook53. Here is the history section of the contents list: Sr. No. Chapters Page

5 6 7

Society in South Asia before Islam Advent of Islam in South Asia Advent of British in South Asia

81 93 110

Table 5: Extract from list of contents of Social Studies 6, Punjab Textbook Board, 2009.

50 51

Pakistan Studies 9-10 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. 2. Mutalia-e-Pakistan 11-12 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p.2. 52 Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, culture, political economy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 146. 53 Social Studies 6 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009), p. iv.

25

Given the classification above, it is expected that the categorization of Advent of Islam till the next impending Advent will have accounts of the different Muslim kingdoms that formed and withered in India but the machinations of the official historian go one step beyond. After accounting for Muhammad Bin Qasims arrival; the standard marker of the beginning of Pakistans Muslim history, the rest of the chapter is devoted to extractions aimed at extolling the virtues of Muslim rule with no differentiation in terms of chronology or political impact of say, even the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, let alone different Mughal emperors. The evident clumping together of all Muslim rulers of the subcontinent into a continuous Muslim rule here is attempted much more actively in the fifth grade history textbook through statements like: The Muslim ruled over the sub-continent for about eight hundred years after Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi54 and In 1206 A. D. Sultan Qutb-ud-Din Aybek conquered Delhi and his successors ruled over South Asia until 185755 or through the brevity in this statement from the more important tenth grade book, The Muslim rule in the South Asian sub-continent started with the conquest of Sindh by Muhammad Bin Qasim in 712 AD56. The united and even singular category of The Muslim now embedded in the Muslim rule spanning centuries provides substance for an overall framework that classifies not being in power as slavery57 and demands an imminent return to the natural order one which truly transformed the casteridden Hindu society58 into one based on justice, equality and brotherhood inherent in the system of Islam59. 5.1.3. Muslims (All India Muslim League) vs non-Muslims (Hindus All India Congress & the British) The foundations for communalization of the subcontinents history are also laid here. This communalization runs both ways, of establishing the superiority of social system Islam introduces as well as denigrating other religions particularly Hinduism e.g. compare Islam

54 55

Social Studies 5 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009), p. 131. Ibid. p. 116 56 Pakistan Studies 9 10 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009), p. 9. 57 Social Studies 5, p. 118. 58 Social Studies 6, p. 86- 88. Also mentioned in the chapter on Musawaat (Equality) in Islamiat 7, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p. 46-47. 59 Ibid. p.101.

26

preached equality, brotherhood and fraternity and respect for all the people 60 with The foundation of Hindu set up was based on injustice and cruelty, right in the next paragraph. The use of Hindu set up is worthy of attention here. While this phrase wisely avoids implicating the Hindu religion in itself but certainly fixes it with a sense of artificiality in contrast with the natural and divine Islam. Further on however, even this refrain is done away with at the end of the chapter through a right/wrong question, There is no place for equality in Hinduism.61 After a firm introduction to the essentially unjust and unequal society that Hinduism had ordered, the narrative moves on to establishing Hindus in a relationship of a complete and comprehensive rivalry with Muslims; one that comfortably transcends the limited political sphere. The first step in this connection is by creating the Other out of Hindus in the social realm. Such a definitive claim is attributed to the nineteenth century reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan whereby he had made clear to the Muslims that the Hindus could never be their friends 62, after duly noting that the non-Muslims, especially the Hindus, did not like the Muslims as they looked upon them as usurpers63 under the heading Advent of the Muslims. Sir Syeds saying is then claimed to have proved true as Hindus proved by their actions that they were a separate nation and were enemy of Muslims64. In point of fact Sir Syed mainly warned the Muslims to stay away from the Indian National Congress, keeping in view the impending democratic reforms in the colonial setup; where he viewed western democracy to be harmful for the Muslims of India. This commands that this warning is referring to the Indian National Congress as can be seen through a rushed account of The Freedom Movement in the grade VI Social Studies book. This account problematically pins the foundation of Congress on the Hindus and informs students of its Hindu-centric politics, thus laying down the divide in identity between the Congress and Hindus in two quick sentences spaced only by the formation of Muslim League in response: The Hindus in 1885 founded Indian National CongressThe Congress

60 61

Ibid. p.100. Ibid. p. 92. 62 Social Studies 5, p. 134. 63 Social Studies 5, p. 117. 64 Social Studies 5, p. 134

27

didnt care for the interest of the Muslims but it only served the political cause of Hindus 65. One other account emphatically lays down the mutual power dynamics between the three actors namely the Hindus, the Muslims and the British in the post-185766 era: The British had not forgotten the War of Independence waged by the Muslims against them. The Hindus had never forgiven the Muslims for having ruled India for centuries. Therefore, the both the communities conspired against the Muslims to turn them into a poor, helpless and ineffective minority. The Hindus soon learnt the English language, adopted the western ways of living and occupied important government posts. Muslims were left far behind socially, educationally and economically. Then the events took a new turn. Hindus who had received western education in England or some other countries of Europe formed in connivance with the British rulers a political party called the Indian National Congress which aimed at sharing power with the British in ruling India. They were successful in their plans. But Muslims were losers and so when councils were set up, they were left out. The ruling British sensed this and felt concerned because the Muslims did not get adequate representation.67 The stamp on the pupils memory is explicit and clear: i) ii) The Hindus are a clever and cunning people. The Hindus and the British had schemed together to suppress the Muslims. iii) The Muslims were in deep trouble and needed to break away from it.

As a linear consequence of the above, it is noted that since Muslims of India had no political organization of their own; therefore in 1906 they decided to form a political party known as All
65 66

Social Studies 6, p. 126. The year 1857 marks the beginning of the British Raj in India under the Queen after the British Army successfully suppressed the military uprising of many names and hence many interpretations: Great Rebellion, the revolt of 1857, the Sepoy Mutiny or the War of Independence. See Rubina Saigols devoted chapter in Shaping a Nation: An examination of education in Pakistan ed. Stephen Lyon and Iain R. Edgar. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010 on the revolt for a comparison of representation in the textbooks of the two countries or Krishna Kumars Prejudice and Pride for a discussion on tracing origins of the Freedom Movement for the two countries: A beginning located, p. 87-101. 67 Social Studies 8, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009) p. 74.

28

India Muslim League68. Here at its founding and henceforth, the Muslim League will continue to be the only Muslim political party mentioned in all of official textbooks. All those opposing Pakistan, whether they were religious in nature in the form of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, Majlis-iAhrar-i-Islam or Jamat-i-Islami; or secular like the Khaksar Tehrik or the Congress affiliated Khudai Khidmatgars in North West Frontier Province, have been erased from the officially sanctioned school history. The Unionists manage a mention only for their eventual compromise with the idea of Pakistan. And yet, Jinnahs claim that Muslim League is the only representative party of Muslims in India is repeated time and again as reinforcement 69. The need for such defences are often lost on the student, for only one Muslim political party ever existed for them. The space for opposition to partition of India and its proponents is warranted, thus situating an inclusion within exclusion. In this way Muslim League and Congress are fixed into identical relationships with Muslims and Congress respectively. This identity serves to create the epic battle between the Muslim League and the Congress and by implication, from hereon, between the Muslims and the Hindus. The battle in which Congress only wants the domination of Hindus70 and the Muslims fought for the establishment of the new state71 one the Pakistan Resolution was passed on 23rd March 1940. The maneuvers in the above narration are worth assessing to gauge the susceptibility of national education to the petty officials to whom writing school history has been entrusted with. The birth of Congress is noted as if to be set up like an institution or enterprise72. The official textbooks completely strip the Congress of any context in terms of educational and societal reform movements taking shape in India or the impact of Colonial administrative and economic reforms, whereas the Muslim League had clear origins in inadequate representation of Muslims, bigoted opposition of Hindus to the partition of Bengal province and the (unexplained) British attitude73. Consider now, the claim of Congress aspirations of Hindu
68 69

Social Studies 8, p. 75. ? 70 Meri kitab (Urdu)5 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010) p. 19. 71 Ibid. 72 Krishna Kumar. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002), p. 117. 73 Pakistan Studies 9-10 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. 11.

29

hegemony in India. It is a known fact that many Muslims including religious scholars held important positions in the Congress right up till 1947, only to find them marginalized in the newly constructed official history of Pakistan. The categorization accords significant room for the state, individual governments and the media alike to concoct conspiracy theories with which all of Pakistans problems can be explained away. For example, Lahores Commissioner comfortably blamed Indias Secret Agency for the recent bombings in the tomb of the citys revered saint within minutes of its occurrence to hide the administrations incompetency74. Stories of a Brahmin-Zionist nexus conspiring against Pakistan are regularly churned out by the Pakistani media75 and often extended to include America in a variety of these conspiracy plots. Krishna Kumar summarizes the convenience accorded by this lumping together of millions of people to potential exploitation. Such categories serve to create stereotypes which can be conveniently invoked for the arousal of hatred or empathy76. 5.1.4. The fighting people77of Islam Once the Muslims are affirmed as an oppressed people at the hands of the conniving Hindus and the brutal British rulers, the texts imbeds in them a spirit of inexorable resilience: they were weaker and lesser in number, yet they fought bravely and defeated all their fears and achieved the ultimate goal of creating their own homeland. A theme that echoes the early Islamic history taught parallel in Islamiat course texts; when early converts bore all the hardships inflicted by the infidels, yet persisted in the most humane ways and managed to take back not just Mecca but burgeoned the boundaries of the Islamic frontiers to the Persian and Byzantine empires.

74 75

Kunwar Idris, Laws that stoke violence, Dawn, June 6, 2010, editorial. Paul Rockower and Aneeq Cheema, Dancing in the Dark: Pulling the Veil off IsraeliPakistan Relations in Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel: The ambivalences of rejection, antagonism, tolerance and cooperation ed. Moshe Ma'oz. (Sussex Academic Press, 2010). 76 Krishna Kumar. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002), p. 111. 77 Krishna Kumar. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan (New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002), p. 82.

30

Here is a list of the relevant topics from the prescribed topics for the school syllabus for Islamiat78: Grade Topics on the Struggle 4 Sabit Qadmi (Perseverance) Migration to Abyssinia Watan se Muhabbat (Love for the homeland/ Patriotism) Migration to Medina 5 Battle of Badr Battle of Uhad Battle of the trench Islami Akhuwat 6 Battle of Khyber Mulk-o-millat kay liyay isaar ka jazba (Passion for Sacrifice for the country and the nation) 7 Conquest of Mecca Battle of Hunain Battle of Tabuk Salah-ud-Din Ayyubi 8 Muhammad bin Qasim Ittehad-e-Milli (Unity of the Nation)
Table 6: Topics on early Muslim struggle and patriotism for Pakistan in the Islamiat syllabus for class 312.

Topics propagating national ideology.

The idea of fighting for their Islam is instilled unabashedly through every subject matter that can be exploited. At one place, the eighth grade Social Studies textbook narrates the resistance of Indian Muslims in the following words: The Muslims did not rest after defeat in the War of Independence. They could not be cowed down by the atrocities committed on them by the
78

Qaumi Nisaab baraye Islamiat (lazmi): Jamaat soam ta dawazdaham (National Syllabus for Islamiat (Compulsory): Grade Three to Twelfth), (Islamabad: Curriculum Wing, Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006), p. 6-14.

31

British and the Hindus. Rather, they continued their struggle more vigorously, which culminated in the creation of Pakistan in August 194779. This summary of the Muslim struggle builds on the epic battle discussed above as a foundation towards the creation of Pakistan (which at this point sounds very imminent) a permanent replacement for partition80. This seems rather logical at this point. Given the degree of glorification of the path to achieving Pakistan, the scope for history in the official narration of past events seems limited. The creation of Pakistan could not possibly be seen as an outcome of banal political contestation, particularly those which could actually aim at dividing a land Muslims had ruled in entirety for centuries. The word Partition could not therefore be used lest the children could imagine that dividing a land is a possibility, let alone the country created to serve and protect Islam. Hence, the Achievement of Pakistan was the result of a grand wrestle between the forces of good and evil in which the Muslim League is the obvious champion for the good in its limited odds against the united British-Hindus front of evil81. The other notable avenue selected for inculcating the ideal of fighting for religion is Islamiat. A lesson in the Fourth Grade Islamiat book on Watan say Muhabbat (Patriotism) neatly knits the narrative of struggle and sacrifice for realizing the homeland of Pakistan with the Prophet Muhammads sacrifice of migration from Mecca82. The ideologically loaded paragraph that follows is best translated as: Pakistan is our beloved country. Pakistan was attained so that we can save ourselves from the slavery of foreigners and freely live our lives according to the Islamic way of life and prosper. Our elders have given countless sacrifices for it. We value these sacrifices and are ready to offer any sacrifice for it. We love Pakistan more than our own lives because this is Allahs gift. It is mandated upon us that we try our best to protect our lives and defend it at any condition83

79 80

Social Studies 8, p. 73. I owe Taimur Rehman for introducing to this particular of many vagaries Pakistani school history is plagued with in a lecture delivered to Seeds of Peace gathering at the Divisional Public School, Lahore in 2005. 81 The Muslims of the subcontinentforced the two enemies, the British and the Hindus, to accept the demand for an independent Pakistan. In Social Studies 8, p. 83. 82 Islamiat 4, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p. 59. 83 Ibid. my translation and emphasis.

32

5.2.

Battlefronts for upholding Ideology of Pakistan

5.2.1. The Unworthy Equation: Ideology of Pakistan and the Two-Nation Theory Quaid-e-Azam said that the foundation of Two Nation Theory was laid on the day the first Hindu became a Muslim. Thus the Two Nation Theory originated with the arrival of Muslims in the sub-continent. In fact the concept of ideology originated in the same period.84 The above quote is from a critical chapter in the Pakistan Studies textbook for the student about to take the matriculation exam. This concise statement embodies three important messages aimed at these students. The first of these; antiquating the Muslim nation has already been discussed. The second seeks to establish the separateness of Muslims wherever they are, in whatever number, since even a single Muslim here in a non-Muslim land constitutes a separate existence. This separateness essentially warranted the whole Pakistan Movement based on the Two Nation Theory, which demanded that Muslims be recognized as a separate nation in India, along with Hindus. Whereas this significance necessitates some introduction of the concept of separate identity, the treatment school historians actually bestow to this concept breaches todays norms of international society. For example, consider here the inherent disrespect for sovereignty in the description of Muslim majority and minority countries in the world in terms of ruling status: In some countries Muslims are in a majority and there they have their own government and at some places their population is less (in a minority) and they live subordinate to some other nations government.85 If such an ideology of Two Nation Theory is applied in each of these countries then the result would be many more states sprouting from the original countries in the name Muslim separateness. The most disturbing, though, is the way last sentence has been worded, and the implication it creates. The use of the term ideology runs rampant in the syllabi of Pakistan Studies, Urdu and Islamiat with complete disregard for defining the concept itself so as to free it of the various connotations it carries. Krishna Kumars surprise on the frequency and ease of its use creates a small comparison on the bluntness of educational policy discourse compared with the
84 85

Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 9. Islamiat 5, p. 89 - elaboration in original.

33

enemy. He writes, As an Indian reader of Pakistans educational policyone is struck by the ease with which the word ideology is used to define or justify the orientation of the system and its curriculum86. He later settles with the idea only to hit right at the heart of the intention of the Pakistani educational system, [it] is used in Pakistan to indicate a rationale for national self-identity87. The most common use of ideology is in statements equating Ideology of Pakistan to Islam through the Two Nation Theory. The section on Meaning of the Ideology of Pakistan in the chapter Ideological Basis of Pakistan opens with the following ambiguous statement in the Pakistan Studies textbook: The ideology of Pakistan and the Islamic ideology are having the same meaning88. The explained link between the two, however, is limited to realizing the separateness of the Muslim subcontinent on the basis of Islamic ideology89. The mental imprint of such draped statements is much larger than a mere historical misunderstanding of the Pakistan movement. Later on in the chapter, the following constituents of ideology of Pakistan are identified in the light of Islamic ideology90: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Islamic beliefs, Islamic worship, Supremacy of law in the light of Quran and Sunnah, Fraternity and equality Justice

A glance at the adept removal of context from Quaids sayings offers an understanding into the created space for equating the Two Nation Theory, Ideology of Pakistan and an extremely restrictive Islamic ideology. Consider the choice of quotes for explaining the Ideology of Pakistan. Extracts from addresses to the armed forces and then one on the inauguration of the State Bank, both specialized institutions of the state, are paraphrased. Whereas, Jinnah's

86 87

Krishna Kumar, p. 57. Ibid. 88 Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 1. 89 Ibid. 90 Mutalia-e-Pakistan baraye jamaat dehem, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p. 7.

34

presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan two days before Pakistan was to be a sovereign state has been completely glossed over91. This vacuum of detail is not left unexploited in the religiously charged nation. Religious organizations political, militarist or just revivalist all clamor to fill in this knowledge gap in the young minds with their own versions of Islamic ideology, and that too with significant success. The remarkable stronghold commanded by Islami Jamiat e Talaba; the student wing of the mainstream religious political party Jamaat-i-Islami, on large public universities and colleges in Pakistan92, reflects the vulnerability to religious propaganda a public school education in Pakistan exposes one to. Jamiats astounding influence in student politics compared with the dismal election performance achieved by the Jamaat-i-Islami is the starkly ideological character of both organizations93 that limits its membership to the urban educated class at the cost of the more numerous rural voter. The troubled times of today, when the manifestations of religious indoctrination have far exceeded the petty hooliganism of the Jamiat, demand a serious review of feeding such jingoistic cries to pliable adolescents. But whenever any such review or reform is attempted, it is met with severe protest. In 2004, such an attempt was heavily criticized by parliamentarians94 hailing from religious parties when Zubaida Jalal, the education minister in Musharrafs government, proposed changes such as the removal of Quranic verses from higher secondary level Biology textbooks95. In the face of the pressure from religious parties, the proposed changes were withdrawn and these verses still mark the opening of each chapter in the said science book.
91

everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State in Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and statements 1947-48, (Islamabad: Directorate of Films & Publications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of Pakistan, 1989), p. 46. 92 Waqar Gillani, 2004 education issues, problems and reforms, Daily Times. July 24, 2010. 93 Seyyed Vali Raza Nasr, The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994), p. 72. 94 Juliette Terzieff, Pakistans inner battle for education reform / Fight pits as rivals progressive forces and oldschool religious factions, San Francisco Chronicle, May 30th, 2004. 95 Waqar Gillani, 2004 education issues, problems and reforms, Daily Times. July 24, 2010.

35

As a response to all the touted protectors of the Islamic ideology of Pakistan, a brief examination of the origins of this oft-mentioned concept with reference to the textbooks is carried out here. However long the debate on Jinnahs proposed ideology of Pakistan goes on, and it seems unlikely to be resolved whether he intended Pakistan to be an Islamic state or a secular liberal democracy. What is relevant here is how textbooks practically quote him to base their preferred Pakistans Islamic foundations. Pakistan Studies textbooks for the vital Matriculation (IX-X grades) and Intermediate (XI-XII) have specific sections on Ideology of Pakistan and Quaid-eAzam starting right from the first96 and second page respectively. While they stop short of titling it Quaid-e-Azams Ideology of Pakistan or Ideology of Pakistan according to Quaide-Azam, the progression of quotes provided here lay down a peculiar foreground for the overall ideology of Pakistan constructed in detail in the senior book. The first two establish the Two Nation Theory and the demand for partition: establishing that the Two Nation Theory is the Ideology of Pakistan. The third and fourth help perceive Pakistan in the North West and consisting of Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi and Pathan, thus categorically removing Bengal from the Quaids conception of Pakistan97. Finally the term ideology appears; an incorrectly dated address is quoted next. It is then reported to have been delivered to the officers of the Government of Pakistan, the most subtle tampering of historicity by a textbook that actually hides a reference to the military forces rather than highlighting since it was an address to the Civil, Naval, Military and Air Force Officers of Pakistan Government at Karachi98. These assertions are being made in the light of the striking resemblance of the two quotes found in the textbook and a compilation of Quaids speeches and the fact that there is no noted and recorded address on the 1st October even in the Ministry of Information compilation. The two are similar, but not identical, for an exact reproduction could possibly break the particular frame of history Pakistan is allowed to be seen through. Heres how the textbook paraphrases it:

96 97

Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 1. The quote from Iqbals Allahabad address of 1930, though correctly, repeats the same geographical bounds to further strengthen the image of Pakistan as the current Pakistan since the time its demand was made. 98 Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and statements 1947-48, (Islamabad: Directorate of Films & Publications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of Pakistan, 1989), p. 74.

36

On 1st October 1947, while addressing the officers of the Government of Pakistan, he said that their mission was the establishment of a state where they could live like free people in their own socio-cultural set up necessary for the promotion of social justice and Islamic Ideology99. The Urdu edition of the same textbook actually puts quotation marks from their mission onwards100. The original text of the speech however says: The establishment of Pakistan for which we have been striving for the last ten years is, by grace of God, an established fact today, but the creation of a State of our own was a means to an end and not the end in itself. The idea was that we should have a state in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find freeplay.101 The contradictions in the two statements are apparent. The original does not refer to any Islamic ideology, rather seeks to focuses only on Islamic ideas of social justice. There is also no dearth of opposition to this crafty manipulation of Quaids words and the crafted Ideology of Pakistan. And this oppositions apostle is Justice Munir who writes in From Jinnah to Zia: Quaid-i-Azam never used the words Ideology of Pakistan For fifteen years after the establishment of Pakistan, the Ideology of Pakistan was not known to anybody until in 1962 a solitary member102 of the Jamaat-I-Islami used the words for the first time when the Political Parties Bill was being discussed. On this, Chaudhry Fazal Elahi, who has recently retired as President of Pakistan, rose from his seat and objected that

99

Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 2. Mutalia-e-Pakistan baraye jamaat dehem, p. 9. 101 Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and statements 1947-48, (Islamabad: Directorate of Films & Publications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of Pakistan, 1989), p. 74. 102 K. K. Aziz and Bakhshish Yousaf Chaudhry identify this member as Maulvi Abdul Bari of Lyallpur.
100

37

the Ideology of Pakistan shall have to be defined. The member who had proposed the original amendment replied that the Ideology of Pakistan was Islam 103 Thus the phrase Ideology of Pakistan had no historical basis in the Pakistan movement. Todays projected understanding of Ideology of Pakistan resonates with the concept of Islamic state proposed by Maulana Mawdudi. Thus, the ideology of Pakistan in vogue today is a symbol of Mawdudis success in salvaging his lost cause at the creation of Pakistan, a phenomenon he bitterly resented and criticized. 5.2.2. Fixing India as the enemy One of the most significant aspects of the Pakistani national identity is the classification of Pakistan and India as arch-enemies. Survival against the arch-enemy India appears as a major in theme in the curriculum of Social Studies and Urdu. The creation of this enemy is facilitated by the already completed task of vilification of Hindus. As the Hindus had proved through the Congress politics that they are a separate nation, the India that formed was obviously a Hindu country. Furthermore, in an attempt to deny the secular image India seeks to project, all Social Studies texts for middle classes consistently use Bharat to refer to India even in English editions. Thus, the whole baggage of hatred created for Hindus is conveniently carried over to the state they inhabit: India. Keeping India fixed in the mould of hatred also requires maintaining a simple, uniform and most importantly, a cunning yet cowardly image of Hindus and India which keeps creating one problem after the other for Pakistan and its citizens. Right after independence (again, not partition), Hindus created various problems like the unfair division of assets, the problem of rehabilitation of the refugees and the ill-treatment of the Muslims by the Hindus. Moreover, India did not transfer the administrative records to Pakistan in time104. The easy substitutability of Hindus with India in successive sentences is apparent here. Also, the lack of concern for helping students make sense of cause and effect in history
103

Muhammad Munir, From Jinnah to Zia, (Lahore: Vanguard, 1979) quoted in A.H. Nayyar and A. Salim, eds. The Subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan. (Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 2002), p. 72. 104 Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 20 my emphasis.

38

effectively removes the impediment to link the mass transfer of populations with the parallel eruption of violence on both sides. Thus, these two problems are also attributed to the Hindus with ease. In a similar vein, Hindus and India continue to create problems for Pakistan till date: i. Conspiring with Hari Singh and sending their army to Kashmir to oppress Muslims. Later India itself requested the U.N.O for a cease-fire when the Mujahideen defeated the Indian army at various places105. ii. Surprise-attacked Pakistan early in the morning on September, 6 1965106 and when the Indian government realized that Pakistan will inflict a crushing defeat on her, she requested the U.N.O. to intervene both statements being historically false, with Pakistans infiltration plan Operation Gibraltar was the main instigator and the result of war can be at best be called a draw, Pakistan was in the more vulnerable position at the ceasefire. iii. India instigated the Muslims of East Pakistan using Hindu teachers and traders living in East Pakistan, ultimately attacking it to help the East Pakistanis to sever their relations with West Pakistan107. Even a more detailed listing of Causes of Separation of East Pakistan108 pins three out of eight causes to either Hindu scheming or Indian interference. iv. Launched surprise attacks on Kargil, as evidenced by Hawaldaar Lalik was home on leave. He got to know that the enemy has launched a massive attack at the Kargil front109. These mostly false anecdotes serve as the alphabet and the grammar110 of hatred with help from the national media. Thus, the daily discourse produced in this manner continuously informs the citizen of the tensions between the two states. India is maintained as a threat to Pakistan and its citizens, but in effect as the never-ceasing reason to exist existence in
105 106

Social Studies 5, p. 122. Ibid. 107 Ibid, p. 123. 108 Pakistan Studies 9-10, p. 28. 109 Meri Kitab 3, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. 98 my translation. 110 Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, no. 1 (1995): 77.

39

specifying exclusion and specification of a threatening other111. Fixing India as the threatening Other constitutes the Pakistans statehood itself. As Ayesha Jalal succinctly puts it, in contexts of competing and multiple identities and there are hardly any free of contestation and diversity the narrative of us in its myriad imaginings requires a parallel construct of an equally imagined them112 . David Campbell offers valuable help on understanding the exigency of this discourse. The constant articulation of danger through foreign policy is thus not a threat to a states identity or existence; it is its condition of possibility113. This condition of possibility clause not only makes this state possible but also permits the Army to remain as the biggest power wielding institution within the state apparatus. Consider, for example, India is our traditional enemy and we should always keep ourselves ready to defend our beloved country from Indian aggression.114 By maintaining the looming Indian threat over the existence of Pakistan, the Army poses as the savior institution which can safeguard the sovereignty of the state through its excellent training and discipline. This image serves two purposes, (a) to keep the Army at its best it needs to get the most up-to-date equipment and training and hence keeping large sums of money flowing from the national exchequer and (b) legitimacy as the only disciplined institution to take over the country when the politicians repeatedly bring the country to the brink of extinction115.

111

Richard Devetak. "Postmodernism" in Theories of international relations, Scott Burchill et al. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), p. 177. 112 Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, no. 1 (1995): 73. 113 David Campbell. Writing Security: United States foreign policy and the politics of identity, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992), p. 12. 114 Social Studies 5, p. 123. 115 General Ayub's Message to the Nation, October 8, 1958. Fellow Citizens of Pakistan, As-Salam-o-Alaikum History would never have forgiven us if the present chaotic conditions were allowed to go on any further. These chaotic conditions as you know have been brought about by self-seekers who in the garb of political leaders have ravaged the country or tried to barter it away for personal gains As accessed from http://pakistanspace.tripod.com/archives/58ayub.htm on 15 July 2010. Musharrafs address to the nation on the night of coup, 2: 45am, 13th October, 1999. My dear countrymen, Assalam Alaikum

40

5.2.3. Militarization and acceptance for violence maar liya, maar liya, dushman ko maar diya, dushman ko maar daina chahiye116. Translation: killed it, killed it, killed the enemy, the enemy should be killed.

This is how Rashid Minhas, the youngest martyr to achieve Nishan-e-Haider, exclaims after killing a squirrel that disturbed his pet birds.

Usually, the whole point of telling stories of brave heroes from history is to inspire children to act like them. While it is indeed true that Rashid Minhas valiantly gave away his life for the nation; but inclusion of this cry represents a much broader endorsement of violence than just the warzone. As evidenced above, creating enemies should be an easy task for the hate-trained students of the public education system. Nayyar and Salim make this excellent observation on glorifying violence: The minds that have been taught to hate do not have always to hate the enemy they have been told to hate; they can create the other from amongst themselves and exercise violence against anyone, even against their own countrymen. Violence comes naturally to those to whom the military and the use of force have been glorified.117 The disproportionately higher representation given to the Military and its heroes in textbooks in Pakistan reveals the roots of the fervor for joining the military in children all over the country as well as the trust enjoyed by the armed forces for their own jobs, as well as some that usually civilians perform. Consider the following three chapters in the fifth class Social Studies book:

You are all aware of the kind of turmoil and uncertainty that our country has gone through in recent times. Not only have all the institutions been played around with, and systematically destroyed, the economy too is in a state of collapse. We are also aware of the self-serving policies being followed, which have rocked the very foundation of the Federation of Pakistan. The armed forces have been facing incessant public clamor to remedy the fast declining situation from all sides of the political divide As accessed from http://presidentmusharraf.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/address-nation-13-oct-1999/ on 15 July 2010. 116 Meri Kitab 6, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. 15. 117 A.H. Nayyar and A. Salim, Glorification of War and the Military in eds. The Subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan. (Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 2002), p. 79-80.

41

No.

Chapter

Page

12. 13. 14.

Population and Occupations Administration of the country Public Security

74 86 92

Table 7: Extract from list of contents of Social Studies 5, Punjab Textbook Board, 2005.

The first describes some population characteristics of Pakistan and then gives brief descriptions of some occupations, namely farming, cattle-rearing, mining, craftsmen and laborers, banking and then a section on Other Occupations118. This section counts off other occupations as teachers, doctors, engineers, nurses, advocates, traders, office employees, soldiers, army men etc. followed by one-liner introductions to each of these. The seventh sentence in these introductions is about our brave army men who protect the boundaries of the country, whereas none of the previous six had been qualified by adjectives suitable for their jobs. The teachers arent called devoted, nurses didnt qualify for caring, engineers arent skillful enough, police officials are obviously not efficient and not even the doctors are intelligent or devoted. Moving on, the next chapter is a four page description of all three pillars of the state with the title Administration of the Country but interestingly enough the legislative and the executive are dealt with under the heading Federal and Provincial Government, without any marker of separation between the two. On the other hand, the chapter on Public Security of which all the departments come under the broader ambit of bureaucracy are explained separately. Even here the five lines on the Armed Forces manages to announce that At the time of its establishmentPakistan Government devoted its attention to improve its military force and warfare equipment119 and declare the neighboring countryBharat a threat. This chapter also manages a remarkable Orwellian feat rest of the curriculum falls just short of: during the war, the enemys agents spread false statements to upset the common people and demoralize

118 119

Social Studies 5, p. 79. Ibid. p. 97.

42

them120. Pakistanis have been keen on calling each other traitors and enemy agents. Political leaders and liberals have been particularly targeted with such titles. The ingredients of mistrust for all who dissent with the popular truth and an entrenched trust and confidence on the countrys army have been spread profusely. Finally, the chapter closes on the note the entire curriculum seems to converge upon: Our homeland is important and valuable for us. You are given the responsibility of its security121.

Redemption from Oblivion Appropriation of national recognition Anderson and Smiths congruence on the idea that nationhood helps achieving oblivion has been noted above. This strength of nationalism is capitalized upon by the modern nation-state by institutionalizing recognition in the form of nationally awarded decorations. By appropriating the tools and means to express gratitude from through institutionalization of recognition to citizens showing brilliance and commitment in service, military or civil the state of Pakistan asserts that it represents one united nation, the Pakistani nation. Those awards in turn incorporate Islamic symbols; in their names and form alike to assert the Islamic face of the nation-state. The text turns the highest military award Nishan-i-Haider into a national narrative its own. What is significant here is that only the Shaheeds (martyrs) who have been awarded this medal make it to the exclusive club whose stories are narrated in the textbooks, no recipient of any civil decoration is ever mentioned. Even the only Pakistani Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam is not deemed fit to earn a mention. There are (at least) two lessons to be learnt in the inclusion of Nishan-i-Haider stories in Urdu textbooks from grade I onwards. (a) Military achievement is to be seen as superior to achievement in any other sphere of life and hence more worthy of being emulated by the young students. (b) All those who have been awarded this medal are seen as possessing very clear Islamic sense of purpose for their lives and their military service. This country can only

120 121

Social Studies 5, p. 97. Ibid. p. 98.

43

be guarded from outside threats through an Islamic sense of purpose and nothing else. The nation itself is not presented as the source of motivation, courage or valour for to give up the life for. The soldier, and in turn all the soldiers-to-be will struggle with these two identities for all times or submit to the state provided ordering of the two, the life is to be lain for the country; the nation-state but the direction for such a goal comes from the more sublime source; Islam*. It serves two purposes, first, never letting the existence of non-Muslims be recognized in Pakistan and then secondly when this fact is realized, it does not permit Pakistanis from other religions to be possibly seen as truly devoted to the defense and interest of this country. This subtext is not directly readable in the textbooks but abundantly available in the popular discourse.

5.3. Islam as Criterion for Citizenship 5.3.1. Pan-Islamism The curriculum is also utilized to deal with the fundamental quandary that comes from defining the Pakistani nation with the religion its people ascribe to and are yet bounded by the profane territorial confines of colonial inheritance. Pakistanis are informed that they are part of a bigger whole: the Muslim Ummah. That Pakistan is just one of the manifestations of the strength of Islam it actually spans the Muslims World. A world that has its own land features, climatic regions, history of colonial rule and demography as the whole seventh grade Social Studies book explores each one by one. Fifth grade Islamiat has a chapter on Ittehad-e-Milli. It is defined as: Such a nation is called millat which is based upon a belief or an ideology. Ittehad means being one. Thus, ittehad-emilli means such a national unity and cooperation, which is based on a belief. When we Pakisanis use this word (ittehad-e-milli) then it means the unity and concord of Pakistani nation

44

on their belief122. The inherent connection with the whole Muslim world follows soon: Millat-e-Islamia is not just limited to Pakistan only but is spread all over the world. A fifth of the whole population of the world consists of Muslims.But in whichever part of the world Muslims are; they are one millat, members of millat-e-Islamia123. The eighth grade Islamiat text develops this concept in a chapter with the same title. It categorically denies any variation within Muslims all over the world: Muslims have one standard for good and bad. Their political and economic systems are based on identical principles. Since Islam has made our thought process similar (yaksaan), therefore our actions and characters are alike. It has established our Ittehad-e-Milli on very strong foundations124. The possible motivation for this suppression of differences within Muslims could be to prevent divisions and demarcations within their religion. But it doesnt work too well in the context the students live in. Since these textbooks cannot possibly cover all the teachings of Islam, this task is essentially left to the local mosques Imam. This Mulla as this Imam is popularly known (and feared) as, usually specializes in instilling that the particular sect of Islam he preaches is the only true Islam. The fear of this suppression of difference often motivates parents to feed their children with identification of their particular sectarian identity as basic truths of life125. The authors recent interaction with his drivers 6-year old son resulted went as follows: Q: What is your name? A: Taimour Ahmed. Q: Who are you? A: I am a Sunni126 Muslim.

122

Islamiat 5, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2002), p. 88 the latest syllabus has a similar lesson on Islamic Fraternity. 123 Ibid. 124 Islamiat 8, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2002), p. 69.

126

Sunni refers to Barelvi Muslims in the popular language as Deobandis have distanced themselves from this

title in order to better differentiate from Barelvis

45

5.3.2 Suppressing difference The suppression of difference is not restricted to internal sectarian suppression. The homogenizing project spans all provinces: Gul Khan said, that is what Allah has instructed Muslims, Allahs men! Become brothers with each other. All of us Muslims are brothers with each other. Whichever family one is from, whichever clan one is linked with, whether one is white or black, all are brothers with each other. All are one. Our country was founded in the name of Islam. This bond is stronger in its inhabitants. Whether one is Pathan or a Balochi, Sindhi or a Punjabi, all are one127. While Muslims of all provinces are Bhai Bhai (brothers the title for the chapter quoted above), people from other religions are not. They are never mentioned. Care is taken that their existence is not noticed by the people of Pakistan unless of course a Danish Kaneria pops into the national cricket team the first Pakistani Hindu, whom many Pakistanis had ever heard of. The preoccupation with war heroes, martyrs specifically, denies space to even Cecil Chaudhry who flew successful missions in both the 1965 and 1971 wars and of course to Bapsi Sidhwa, an author who pioneered Pakistans entry into English literature. Ahmadis also are not brothers. Recently two-time ex-Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, was condemned widely for describing Ahmadis as brothers and sisters who are assets to the country after the recent attacks on Ahmadi worship places128. Their exclusion too is celebrated in the textbooks, though indirectly, when the inclusion of the definition of Muslims is noted as a development in the Islamic Clauses in the Constitutions of Pakistan129. Even though accepted inside fold of Islam, the official curriculum narrative excludes Shiites and maintains a strict preference for Sunni heroes. The historic episode at Karbala is remembered by Sunnis and Shiites all over the world as a story of true devotion to Islam but still Karbala and Hussain, the slain grandson of the Prophet (pbuh) are both denied space in

127 128

Meri kitab (Urdu): Jamaat Doam, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010), p. 32. PML-N defends Nawazs remarks about Ahmadis, Dawn, June 10, 2010, front page. 129 Mutalia-e-Pakistan 11-12 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p.89.

46

Islamiat or Urdu textbooks which profusely write about many companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). 5.3.3. Islamic ideals for all Pakistan was named the land of pure as an exercise in jugglery of initials, not meant to be a criterion for purging those who do not classify as pure Muslims, as set by the explanations in the official textbooks. General Knowledge, Social Studies and Pakistan Studies are compulsory subjects for all those entering the public education system taught to grade I III, IV VIII and IX onwards respectively. Minorities in Pakistan are just short of four percent of its total population. Of this proportion, Hindus make up 1.6%130 which translates into a considerable 2.7 million people, a population bigger than around 70 nation-states in this world. It is this significant minority at which most of the hate-material is directed at. Although the majority (93%) of Hindus are in Sindh and the textbooks implemented there are slightly more receptive in terms of religious exclusivity compared to the Punjab Textbook Board surveyed in this paper. Regrettably, though, the National Curriculum Guidelines are produced centrally and have to be strictly adhered to by the provincial textbook boards. The restrictive learning objectives of the curriculum guidelines along with a sample paragraph that addresses these is reproduced here. General Knowledge Syllabus for grade I identifies the following learning outcome based on our beliefs: All students will be able to Recognize that Almighty Allah has created us. Recognize that everything in the world is created by Almighty Allah. Name the creations of Almighty Allah (human beings, animals, plants, trees, stars, sun etc).

130

Population Census Organization, Population by religion, Population Census Organization, http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_religion.pdf.

47

Recite Kalimah Tayyiba with its meaning.131

Thus forcing the fundamental tenets of Islam down the throat of non-Muslims in Pakistan. The learning outcomes required for the theme Prayer are particularly noteworthy. They require that students be able to: Name the five prayers Muslims offer daily Recognize Azan as a call for Namaz. Find out a Mosque/Masjid in their neighbourhood. Inquire about other places of worship in their neighbourhood (Church/Temple) etc132.

The Curriculum itself sees Christian and Hindu places of worship as other. These learning outcomes reflect the intended interpretation of tolerance, enunciated in the National Educational Policy quoted in the introduction. It is tolerance of other religions by Muslims the true holders of national self-identity in Pakistan not mutual tolerance. As for the national self-identity, the learning objectives of Pakistan Studies begin as: Broadly speaking, the Curriculum of Pakistan Studies is designed to: 1. Inculcate a sense of gratitude to Almighty Allah for blessing us with an independent and sovereign state.133 The textbooks (IX-X and XI-XII) produce the components of Islamic system listed in subsection 5.2.1 above, in response to the even more specific learning objective, explain the ideology of Pakistan with reference to the basic values of Islam134. The passage covering the first two of those components; beliefs and worships, equates pretty much everything that is Islamic as a component of the Islamic system on which Pakistan is founded on. Its reproduced in entirety from XI-XII textbook as follows:
131

National Curriculum for General Knowledge, Grades I-III, (Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2007), p. 12. 132 Ibid. p. 14. 133 National Curriculum for Pakistan Studies, Grades IX-X, (Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006), p. 1. 134 Ibid. p. 2.

48

"One idea behind the claim of Pakistan was that if such a state comes into being then the Muslims will be able to lead their lives according to their own beliefs and will not face any difficulty in the performance of their rights. These include belief in Oneness of Allah, Prophet Hood of Muhammad (pbuh), the Day of Judgment, angels and the revealed books. Worships include prayers, fasting, alms-giving and pilgrimage. Islam pays significant importance to Jihad as well. Islam is all about worshipping none other than Allah Tallah and to spend ones time in an effort to please him. Jihad refers to be ready to sacrifice ones life and possessions for Allah, the greatest personage at all times. Jihad Bin Nafs (fighting with the self) and Jihad Bil maal (spending ones wealth for the purpose of jihad) have both been advised to all. All these rights and jihad aim at submitting oneself to the will of Allah Almighty. These worships prepare Muslims to follow the path of Allah almighty and to live and die for Him only and prevent him from being dependent on anything other than Allah Almighty.135 It can be seen here that every tenet of Islam is reproduced to supposedly contribute to the Pakistani ideology since it is part of the overall way of life Islam proposes. On one hand, it is downright excluding those who do not ascribe to these particular beliefs from having any ownership of the country they live in. On the other, it is also a needless exaggeration of the idea of an Islamic state closer towards that of an Islamist state, which insists on doing everything that goes on in the society through narrow Islamic injunctions something neither Pakistan is nor does any relevant party intend to make it, including religious political parties. The imposition of Islamic religious teaching on non-Muslims does not end here in the Social Studies stream of curriculum. Islamic lessons occupy a significant amount of Urdu school textbooks. The number of lessons with direct and indirect Islamic teachings in Urdu textbooks from grade I to V is summarized as follows:

135

Mutalia-e-Pakistan 11-12, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p. 4 my translation.

49

Grade 1 2 3 4 5

Lessons with Total No. Indirect Islamic direct Islamic Total of lessons lessons content 18 7 3 10 39 43 45 34 7 12 6 6 7 2 7 5 14 14 13 12

Total proportion Islamic content 56% 36% 33% 29% 35%

of

Table 8: Islamic Content in Primary level Urdu textbooks, 2009.

By direct Islamic content, lessons like hamd (praise of Allah), Naat (praise for the Prophet), Reading Quran and Dua (supplication) are referred to. And the indirect lesson contain mentions of Allahs creation of human beings, animals, plants etc and that Pakistan is a Godgiven gift for us. This fundamental truth is presented to the school-going children in the most sacred of forms. The slogan equating Pakistan with the fundamental proclamation of belief in Islam, echoes all through the Urdu, Social Studies and Islamiat textbooks alike. Pakistan ka matlab kya: la ilaha illallah!136 Translation: What is the meaning of Pakistan: There is no God but Allah!

136

Meri kitab (Urdu): Jamaat Doam p. 8, Mutalia-e-Pakistan 11-12 (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005), p.30 & Islamiat 5, (Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2002), p. 93.

50

6.

Conclusion

While it is widely observed that today Pakistani society is leading towards a gradual liberalization as seen through the opening up of media and a sharp rise in consumption, the forms of resistance shaping in response to these trends need to be explored as well. Sufficient attention is being paid to the hate-mongering Madrassahs, but the public education being meted out to the masses, with all the embedded messages of hate, mistrust and violence needs to be debated widely as well. Apart from the curriculum, it is pertinent to look at the teaching methods involved in conveying these messages across to the students. Pervez Hoodbhoy, a leading physicist in Pakistan, remarks: Public school education today is premised on a belief that repeated sermonizing, and strict regimentation of the school environment, will produce moral and patriotic Pakistanis137. During the course of this research, it has been found that this statement offers more truth than it might have intended to. The noted sermonizing here is taking place as a regular practice, not just in the course of teaching the Islamized textbooks explored in this paper, but in daily assemblies138 or in the increasingly popular specially designed Nazariati (ideological) Summer School139. As for the success of producing moral and patriotic students, a number of validation studies, based on extensive interviews and group-discussions with students are in order. A wide variety of students, hailing from different regions, religions, ethnic backgrounds and economic classes, pursuing the public education system leading towards Matriculation and Intermediate exams should be included in these studies. Also, while the national identity frame embodied curriculum has been explored and discussed, it needs consideration that most of the critics of this curriculum have also passed through it and yet managed to break free. Thus particular attention should be given to exploring the origins of this disconnect in these validation studies that is how well do the students receive this system of thought.
137

Pervez Hoodbhoy, "What are they Teaching in Pakistani Schools Today?" Chowk. Available from http://www.chowk.com/articles/4740. Internet; accessed 12 July 2010. 138 See Appendix III for The aims of the school from the prospectus of a large trust-based school in Lahore, Crescent Model Higher Secondary School. 139 See: http://nazariapak.info/summer_school/

51

The mass-suppression of alternate identities inherent in the official curriculum has led to wide social discontent. In its short existence, Pakistan has experienced all kinds of backlashes such suppression engenders; sectarian, nationalist and ethnic. What these authors of nation-making fail to notice is that most of these movements are not secessionist in nature, but only seeking representation in the national stream. Their fear of further cleaving of this cherished country has led them to believe that denying regional, religious, ethnic and sectarian diversity will lead to a united Pakistan. But closing access to the official medium of representation has led to adoption of others, ranging from newspapers to new television channels and from street protests to suicide bombings. It is when the last of these alternates surfaced, that society was shaken out of its slumber barely. It cannot be sensibly claimed that suicide bombings are a direct outcome of the narrow worldview taught in the official textbooks, for theres obviously a broader religio-political context to it. Pakistani youth has grown up in an age when there was one international Jihad front or the other always active in this region: the US keeps launching military campaign in one Islamic country after another and Islamic clerics have not given up all along that suicide bombing is a legal means of Islamic warfare. But the ideological training imparted through this curriculum need not be dismissed either. Zias Islamization process has brought a lot of misfortune and disrepute to Pakistan. Whereas the veneer has been peeled off, structurally it remains firmly embedded in the Pakistani state. While the constitutional tampering is still prominent and the infamous Hudood ordinance is still debated about, the remains of the Islamized educational system and the curriculum have hardly been revised. If there is any true concern for the rampant militancy and intolerance, the society and its intelligentsia need to rise above the bare awakening they experiences today. At a time when the virus of national bigotry religiously or territorially defined is assuming epidemic proportions, it is worth rethinking the terms of a discourse which gratuitously celebrates collective imaginings that flourish by muzzling challenges from within and threatening to crush, conquer, or convert targeted others140.

140

Ayesha Jalal. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, no. 1 (1995): 73.

52

Bibliography Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities, London: Verso, 1983.

Aziz, K. K. The Murder of History: A critique of history textbooks used in Pakistan. Lahore: Vanguard, 1993. Bose, Sugata, and Jalal, Ayesha. Modern South Asia: History, culture, political economy. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Cambell, David. Writing Security: United States foreign policy and the politics of identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992. --- National Deconstruction: violence, identity, and justice in Bosnia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998. Devetak, Richard. "Postmodernism." Theories of international relations. Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977, ed and trans. Colin Gordon. Sussex: Harvester, 1980. --- Lordre du discourse. Paris: Gallimard, 1971. Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983. Gillani, Waqar. 2004 education issues, problems and reforms. Daily Times. July 24, 2010. Hoodbhoy, Pervez "What are they Teaching in Pakistani Schools Today?" Chowk. Available from http://www.chowk.com/articles/4740. Internet; accessed 12 July 2010. Hoodbhoy, Pervez Amirali, and Nayyar, Abdul Hameed. Rewriting the History of Pakistan. Islam, Politics and the State: The Pakistan Experience, edited by Asghar Khan. London: Zed Books, 1985. Idris, Kunwar. Laws that stoke violence. Dawn, June 6, 2010, editorial. Islamiat 4. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005. Islamiat 5. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2002. Islamiat 8. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2002. Jalal, Ayesha. Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining International Journal of Middle East Studies, 27, no. 1 (Feb., 1995): 73-89.

53

Jinnah, Muhammad Ali. Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah: Speeches and statements 194748. Islamabad: Directorate of Films & Publications, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of Pakistan, 1989. Kumar, Krishna. Pride and Prejudice: School Histories of the Freedom Struggle in India and Pakistan. New Delhi: Viking, Penguin India, 2002. Lall, Marie(2008) 'Educate to hate: the use of education in the creation of antagonistic national identities in India and Pakistan', Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 38: 1, 103 119, First published on: 24 September 2007 (iFirst) --- What role for Islam today? The political Islamization of Pakistani society in Shaping a Nation: An examination of education in Pakistan edited by Stephen Lyon and Iain R. Edgar. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010. Meri kitab (Urdu) 5. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010. Meri kitab (Urdu): Jamaat Doam. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2010. Mutalia-e-Pakistan 9-10. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005. Mutalia-e-Pakistan 11-12. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2005. Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. The Vanguard of the Islamic Revolution. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1994 National Curriculum for General Knowledge, Grades I-III. Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2007. National Curriculum for Pakistan Studies, Grades IX-X. Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006. National Education Policy 2009. Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan. (2009) available at: http://www.moe.gov.pk/nepr/NEP_2009.PDF Nayyar, A. H. and Salim A. The glorification of war and the military in The Subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan edited by Nayyar, A. H. and Salim A. Islamabad: Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 2002. Pakistan, The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Islamabad: Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, 2004. Pakistan Education Statistics 2007-08. Islamabad: Academy of educational planning and management, Ministry of Education, 2009. Pakistan Studies 9-10. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009.

54

Rockower, Paul, and Cheema, Aneeq. Dancing in the Dark: Pulling the Veil off Israeli Pakistan Relations in Muslim Attitudes to Jews and Israel: The ambivalences of rejection, antagonism, tolerance and cooperation edited by Moshe Ma'oz. Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Pearsall, Judy, and Trumble, Bill. Oxford English Reference Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Population Census Organization, Population by religion, Population Census Organization, http://www.statpak.gov.pk/depts/pco/statistics/other_tables/pop_by_religion.pdf. (accessed July 26, 2010). Qasir, Nadeem. Pakistan studies: an investigation into the political economy 19491988 Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1991. Qaumi nisaab baraye Islamiat (lazmi): Jamaat soam ta dawazdaham. Islamabad: Curriculum Wing, Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006. Qaumi nisaab baraye Urdu (lazmi): pehli ta barhween jamaat kay liye. Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, 2006. Saigol, Knowledge and identity: articulation of gender in educational discourses in Pakistan. Lahore: ASR Publications, 1995. Smith, Anthony D. National identity. Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 1991.

--- Nationalism: theory, ideology, history, Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001.

Social Studies 5. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009. Social Studies 6. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009. Social Studies 7. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009. Social Studies 8. Lahore: Punjab Textbook Board, 2009. Terzieff, Juliette. Pakistans inner battle for education reform / Fight pits as rivals progressive forces and old-school religious factions. San Francisco Chronicle. May 30, 2004. Zafar, M. D. Pakistan Studies for Medical Students. Lahore: Aziz Publishers, 1982.

55

Appendix I: Screen image of the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education, Lahore website

Note the model papers given right in the middle of the page. Accessed: 5th July, 2010

56

Appendix II

MY BOOK (Mairi Kitaab)

Grade/Class 2 (age: 7-8 years old)

Punjab Textbook Board January 2005.

57

Contents Sr. No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Titles Praise [for Allah], orig: Hamd] (poem) Our beloved Prophet (pbuh) Naat [Praise for the Prophet (pbuh) in the form of poetry] (poem) Pakistan Prize Book (poem) Tales of great men/personalities Quaid-e-Azam rh [abbreviation of rehmat ullah alaih] Living in harmony [orig: mil jul kar rehna] Kabaddi [a youngsters game resembling prisoners base. Ref: Ferozsons Urdu English Dictionary] (poem) City, town and village Result of deceit Chanda mamun door kay [a verse from a lullaby, can be translated literally as Uncle Moon from Faraway] Brother Brother [orig: Bhai bhai] Sweet Eid [referring to eidul-fitr] Beneficial animals Punctuality Parrot (poem) Plants and trees Walk/stroll [orig: sair] Page No. 1 3 5 7 9 13 15 19 21 Sr. No. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Titles Etiquette of conversation Lets learn Arabic Means of transport Page No. 53 55 57

Faithful horse 60 Dog and reflection 63 (poem) Flood 65 Weather Saving 67 71

Where did the butterfly 74 go? Doll (poem) Early morning Light and heat 77 79 81

10 11 12

23 25 28

30 31 32

13

30

33

Pictorial story

83

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

32 34 37 41 44 46 49

34 35 36 37 38 39

Whenever you have your 84 meal (poem) Humair and Huma 86 88 Love Affinity 90 [muhabbat] Muslim children 93 Prayer [orig: dua] (poem) 96

58

PAKISTAN (p. 7) Our dear countrys name is Pakistan. Pakistan is an Islamic country. Non-Muslims live here too who are less in number. There are two colors in our countrys flag. White color represents the non-Muslims and green color represents the Muslim population. Allah taala has made our country very beautiful. There are lush green grounds/meadows, flourishing fields and gardens laden with fruits here. There are mountains like Nanga Parbat and K2. There are salt mines. Ravi, Chenab, Jehlum, Sindh are its famous rivers. Small and large forests are there. One famous forests name is Changa Manga. Pakistans villages and cities are very beautiful. Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta are the big cities of our country. Karachi is the biggest city of Pakistan. There is a sea near it which is called the Arabian Sea. We are proud of being Pakistani. We pray that Sindh, Punjab, NWFP, Balochistan and Kashmir progress. These are all Pakistan. We love every nook and corner of Pakistan.

Exercise 1. Write the answers: i. What are the names of the five famous cities of Pakistan? ii. How many provinces are there in our country? iii. Name any one famous mountain of Pakistan. iv. Name any one famous river of Pakistan. (p. 8) Activities 1. Deliver a speech in your class on My beloved Pakistan. 2. Recite the national anthem in the school assembly. 3. Join the words with the opposite meanings like morning, evening. morning more flatland high big near far Small Mountainous Low Less evening

4. Re-write these sentences by adding a not like a. This mountain is very high. b. There is a sea near Karachi. c. There is a forest near Lahore. This mountain is not very tall. __________ ___________

59

d. Jehlum is a famous river. For teachers: 1. Get it written in fine handwriting.

___________

What is the meaning of Pakistan, la ilaha illallah.

2. For dictation-writing. Area [orig: ilaqa], Quaid-e-Azam, belonging to a sandy desert place [orig: Raigistani], Pakistan. 3. Tell the children the names of famous rivers of Pakistan. 4. Listen to the national anthem orally from the children and correct their pronunciation.

TALES OF GREAT MEN/PERSONALITIES (P. 15) Ahmed and Alis Dada Jaan (grandpa) was resting/lying in his room. He was thinking that its childrens bedtime but they havent come to me for listening to the story. In the meanwhile Ahmed and Ali came running to Dada Jaan and said Dada Jaan! We were talking to Daadi Jaan (grandma). This is why (we) got late in coming. She was telling us that we should speak the truth at any cost [orig: har haal (condition) main], be brave and make honesty a habit. Dada Jaan was very happy to hear this and said that we find these traits in all great men/personalities. Well be talking about these things today as well. Our beloved Prophet sala allah u alaih wassalam was the greatest person [orig: insaan (human being) of this world. People trusted him so much that when the atrocities of infidels exceeded limits and he had to leave Mecca, even then he had peoples deposits [orig: amanatain]. The infidels had surrounded his house and wanted to kill him. He made Hazrat Ali (rz) stay at his place so that he could after returning peoples deposits. This tells how honest he (saw) was. It also tells demonstrates Hazrat Alis (rz) bravery. (P. 16) Hazrat Abu Hanifa (rz) was great scholar and accomplished (person). He was a big trader. One day a woman came to sell him a silk piece. The woman asked for a hundred dirhams for that piece. He said to her this cloth isnt worth less than five hundred dirhams, youre asking for a hundred dirhams only? The woman took it as a joke but when she received five dirhams, she was amazed that there are such honest people in this world as well. Similarly there used to be a great revered man Hazrat Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (rz). When he was a child, at the time of leaving with a caravan his mother sew some gold coins in his shirts inside pocket and advised him to always speak the truth. On the way, the caravan was looted by dacoits. One of the dacoits asked him that do you have something as well so he said all truthfully. Then the leader of the gang asked him Why did you lose your money by telling about it yourself? He said, I have obeyed my mother and spoken the truth. (p. 17) The leader of the gang was very influenced by this. He and his fellows renounced robbery and returned the booty.

60

Then Dada Jaan said to the children these are the great tales of great people. Ahmed and Ali said Dada Jaan! We will become honest InshaAllah as well and will always speak the truth. Exercise 1. Write the answers: a. Why did the children arrive late to listen to the story? b. Who stayed in the house to return the deposits? c. What was the name of the child who spoke the truth? 2. Make sentences from these words: (p. 18) Activities 1. Fill in the blanks: Ahmed and Ali listened to the .. The tales of great people are also. The woman ..for hundred dirhams for the piece. The dacoits renounced from bad deeds. [orig: Dakuon nay buray say tauba (kar)... li.] e. The dacoits .the booty. a. b. c. d. 2. Join the following letters to make a word like K.A.P.R.A kapra (cloth) /./ 3. Join the antonyms with an arrow. Like night, day Truth Happy Today Infidel Enemy For teachers 1. For dictation writing. Honest [orig: sadiq], guardian [orig: ameen], conviction [orig: yaqeen], caravans [orig: qaflay], sum of money [orig: raqm]. 2. Get it written in fine handwriting. Our beloved prophet SAW was the greatest man of this world. 3. Make the children read the third paragraph of the lesson and correct their pronunciation. tomorrow Muslim Friend Unhappy Lie honest, brave, honest, trader.

61

BHAI BHAI (p. 32) Kamrans Abbu used to go to Peshawar regarding his job. When he came from Peshawar yesterday, his friend Gul Khan [Aneeq: the stereotypical name for a Pathan] and his younger son Saeed was with him too. Kamran was very happy on seeing Saeed. Seeing the two friends playing and talking about their books [Aneeq: hence these are the activities what children should do when with friends], their fathers were happy as well. Kamrans Abbu said, our children have become each others brother. Gul Khan said, that is what Allah has instructed Muslims, Allahs men! Become brothers with each other. All of us Muslims are brothers with each other. Whichever family one is from, whichever clan one is linked with, whether one is white or black, all are brothers with each other. All are one. Our country was founded in the name of Islam. This relationship is stronger in its inhabitants. Pathan or a Balochi, Sindhi or a Punjabi, all are one. Kamran said: Abbu, the way you and uncle Gul Khan are brothers, likewise I and Saeed are brothers. I want to give a present to my brother. (P. 33) His Abbu spoke: yes, giving gifts increases love. You should definitely give your brother Saeed [Aneeq: brother Saeed this indeed resonates with the way IJT people or any Jihadi org, people address each other!] a nice gift. Kamran embraced his brother Saeed and took him to the market so that he can get him a nice book as a gift. Exercise 1. Write the answers: a. b. c. d. What has Allah taala instructed the Muslims? What are Pathan, Balochi, Sindhi among each other? From what city had Kamrans friend come? What gift would you like to give your friend? [An: and here by the way I did think of the usual answer instructed at this age in childrens magazines and textbooks as well perhaps: Quran majeed]. Black, child, gift, small, relationship.

2. Write plurals of these words. Activities

1. Complete the sentence by filling in the right word: muhabbat (love). a. Their younger son ___ , was with them as well. b. All are ____ among each other.

Saeed, bhai bhai, Islam,

62

c. Our country was made in the name of ____. d. ____ increases from giving gifts. For teachers 1. Give brief information about all four provinces to the children. 2. Also tell them about Azad Kashmir. 3. The brotherhood Hazur SAW established between the emigrants and Ansaar in Medina, tell them about it.

PUNCTUALITY (P. 41) [An: the purpose for selecting this piece was its theme that punctuality is based upon the timings of prayers.which, I was about to say is not practiced, but no observant, practicing Muslims who pray regularly, often schedule their day this way] Morning broke. Azaans sound came in. People went to the mosque to pray. The sun rose from east. Light spread all over. Shadows became smaller gradually. The sun came right above the head. To save themselves from the afternoons heat, animals and humans came to sit in the shade. Now the sun started falling towards west. Zuhar prayer was offered. Shadows became longer towards east. Now Asr prayer has been offered. See, the sun is setting. Redness has spread all over. The warmth has reduced. The time for Maghrib prayer has come. Stars have started shining in the sky. The moon has come up. Moonlight has been spreading. People went to sleep after Isha prayer. A quiet has took over all. The sun rises in the morning. Sets in the evening. A time is fixed for the five prayers. The time to arrive at the school and for the school to close is set. Everything should be done on time. (P. 42) If punctuality is not observed, it causes loss to work. [An:!] If you get late for school, instruction is affected. If the prayer is not offered on time, Allahs order is not obeyed. Those who want to succeed in life, do everything on time. Exercise 1. Write answers: a. What direction do the shadows lengthen at Asr time?

63

b. c.

How many prayers are offered in the day? If the punctuality is not observed what happens?

2. Complete the sentences: a. b. c. When the sun is at its peak, shadows become the most ____. (small, big) When the sun starts setting towards west, then the ___ prayer is offered. (Zuhr, Isha) If one gets late for school then ___ is affected. (instruction, work)

(P. 43) Activities 1. Write the words with opposite meanings: Morning East Sky Loss Success 2. Make plurals: Animal Human Prayer Sky For teachers 1. 2. 3. Have some more discussion on the importance of punctuality. Make the children write the prayer timings. Dictate the second paragraph for writing.

64

PLANTS AND TREES (p. 46) [Aneeq: this lesson is about basic knowledge about different types of plants and their parts like root, stem, branches and leaves etc. Then it goes on to talk about root-plants. Finally it converges on how useful these are for human beings] Asad and Rehman went to their Chachas [fathers brother in Urdu] village. Chacha took them to the fields. Many vegetables were grown there. There were big mango trees there too. Mangoes hanging on them looked very nice. The two brothers asked a lot of questions from Chacha. // (p. 47) Rehman: Yesterday a friend of mine was saying that people eat roots of some plants as well. Chacha: Yes. Carrot, radish, turnip, sweet-potato are all roots. We eat them as vegetables. Asad: We eat fruits as well. Some stems and roots also for eating. Tell us about leaves. Chacha: Some plants leaves are also used as vegetables. // Rehman: Chacha Jaan! That means Allah taala has created these different plants and trees for humans? Chacha: Yes! We should also be conscious about taking care of them. [An: The point is the whole creation vs evolution debate is not even an issue here. Perhaps it shouldnt be, but we were never even let aware of all the work Darwin did in any book (including science) till grade 12] Exercise /./ ETTIQUETES OF CONVERSATION (p. 53) Aisha and Ahmed were watching a childrens show on TV with their Ammi. There was a knock on the door. When Aishas Ammi opened the door, she saw that Omer and Amna have come from the neighbors. They said Assalam-o-alaikum while entering the house. Aishas Ammi replied wa alaikum salam. [An: the point is that the proper way to talk is the Islamic way] Aisha and Ahmed were very happy to see them and started talking them loudly. Aishas Ammi softly said, Kids, it isnt nice to talk at the same time. You should talk turn by

65

turn. The other should be listened to intently and then should be replied to after careful thinking. Amna said Yes! Our miss (teacher) also told us these things as well. //

LOYAL HORSE (p. 60) /./ [Am: paragraph about the characteristics and uses of horses] In the olden times, horse-riding was more common in Arab [An: This is my major major concern with our curriculum. Our traditions, folk stories do not come from olden Punjab and its rich history but all the way from Arab. Check out the question I quote from the exercise]. Once upon a time an Arab trader was going somewhere on his horse. Robbers surrounded him on the way. They took the trader to their base. They tied the trader with ropes and slept peacefully. The horse put the rope in his mouth and pulled with full force and picked up his master. It kept walking like this all night. By morning, he had got to the door of the masters house. It placed the master on the ground in front of the door. The master called his servant and he came and cut all the ropes. The master had got home getting his freedom (p. 61) but the horse was so drained from this tough journey that he fell on to the ground with a bang and died. This is an animals memorable example of loyalty with his master. What we need to think about is that if a horse can be so loyal to his master that it gives away his life for him then why cannot us humans do this for our master i.e. Allah taala. [An: sacrifice (of life) for Allah taught in grade 2!...] Exercise

1. Answer these: a. What use does the horse serve? b. What special quality does the horse have? c. In which country was horse-riding common? [An: Country!? = Arab?...] // For teachers 1. Get it written in fine handwriting. // We are all Allah taalas men.

66

WEATHERS (p. 69) // [An: a discussion between Ammi and her two sons Usman and Zahid about the four weathers we have and the enjoyable experiences of each and concludes at] Ammi: Yes son! All these nice weathers, Allah taala has made for our benefit. Exercise //

SAVING (p. 71) Asma and Junaids Abbu returned from office then he saw that in front of the door, water has gathered in the street. He felt very bad. He asked the children why water has gathered in the street. Asma: Abbu Jaan! I opened the tap next to the door to wash my hands. Forgot to close in a hurry and started doing school work. Much later I remembered suddenly that I have left the tap open. I went running and closed the tap but a lot of water had spilled by then. Abbu: Water is a blessing of Allah taala. It should not be wasted. // Exercise // For teachers: 1. Give more information to children about saving. 2. Tell the children about other blessings of Allah. 3. /.

67

EARLY MORNING (p. 79) [An: The chapter title written in the backdrop of a young boy praying on a prayer-mat laid out in a middle-class house setting] The sun had not risen yet. Rafiqs Abbu and Ammi performed ablution. Washed hands, rinsed the mouth, washed the face, washed arms all the way till the elbow, stroked the head with wet hand, washed feet. Rafiq really liked this method of cleaning. He used to observe Ammi and Abbu perform ablution earlier as well. Today he woke up quickly as well. Got done with the washroom. Performed ablution like Ammi, Abbu and stood for prayer like them. His Abbu and Ammi were very happy on seeing this. They expressed a lot of love /fondled him after the prayer. They said that one should stay clean and pure. For the cleaning of the body, ablution and bath with the required rites observed [orig: ghusal] are very necessary. Staying clean and pure is very liked by Allah taala. Abbu said: our beloved Prophet SAW has declared hygiene/cleanliness to be half of Iman (belief). Ammi said: son! I put clean clothes on you. Do not let them get dirty. When you return from school, put them away safely and wear clothes for home. Abbu asked: When you wear clean and laundered clothes, you do like it, right(na)! Rafiq said: When I wear neat and clean clothes after washing up, I like it very much. My friends and teachers complement me. Ammi said: son! You are a good boy. You say good things. Stay neat and clean. We should keep our bodies clean as well. Keep our street and neighborhood clean. How nice would it be if we keep our village and city clean cooperatively. Exercise (p. 80) 1. Write answers: a. b. c. d. What is the method for performing the ablution? What has our beloved messenger SAW said about cleanliness? How do you keep your body clean? What did Ammi say to Rafiq? Wudhu, farigh, gaon, khubsurat.

2. Use in sentences:

3. Write the words with the meanings of the following words: safai, acha, peechay, adha. For teachers

68

1. Tell the children about the importance of prayer. 2. Tell the children what should be done to keep the street and neighborhood clean. 3. Dictate-write the first paragraph.

WHENEVER YOU HAVE YOUR MEAL (p. 84) Wash your hands and rinse your mouth lay the table-spread [An: on the ground, as the picture above suggests] First you recite Bismillah Then eat with the right hand /./

HUMAIR AND HUMA (p. 86-87) [An: a lesson on personal safety etc and concludes at] Ammi said: our body, life and all things for our use are blessing ofAllah. We should protect them so that we can take full advantage of them. // MUSLIM CHILDREN (p. 93) Muslim children speak of Allah taalas greatnes. [An: and it goes on to list basic Arabic phrases required in the daily life at various times. The following are written in Arabic font followed by phrasal translations and preceded by exigence, in this order: Allah-u-akbar, auzu Billah, Bismillah, La ilaha, Alhamdulillah, Subhanallah, Jazaakallah, Astaghfirullah, Rabbi zidni ilma (My Lord, increase me in knowledge), SAW] Now you memorize these two Surats of the Holy Quran. Surat al-Asr // Surat al-Feel

69

PRAYER [orig: dua] (p. 96)

Every heart, every lifes Protector Your honor is distinct from all others You are the Giver for all Everything You have nourished Everything praises You Plants, stones, fruits and branch Fill my (begging) sack with knowledge Increase me in my status

70

Appendix III AIMS OF THE SCHOOL (Crescent Model Higher Secondary School Boys Section) The primary aim of the school is to develop to the full student's character, and to train their intellect as well as their physique, that is, to educate the whole man. it aims at development of the child's personality with special emphasis on the basic element of character, namely, truthfulness, honesty, integrity, sense of duty, sincerity of purpose, justice and fair-play, disciplined behaviour, above all, to make the students good Muslims and Pakistanis.

Efforts are made to impart knowledge of the ideology of Pakistan to generate a sense of national pride and to develop a spirit of patriotism and loyalty. From time to time, senior boys are given true perspective of the situation which led to the division of the subcontinent as an ultimate resort to establish Pakistan. As an essential part of the development of self respect, abiding faith in her future a faith that must stimulate them to lead lives of service. From a student's early years in school, efforts are made to try and establish in him habits of punctuality, attention to obligation and honesty.

Islamic outlook is focused in the daily morning assembly in the Junior, Senior, and Girls sections. By rotation, students recite selected verses from the Holy Quran with their translation in Urdu. The Islamiat teacher delivers an address related to the recitation, concluded by an appropriate "dua" in Urdu, English or Arabic. Then the staff and students sing the national anthem.

71