EXPRESS TRIBUNE

20^th January 2016

A file photo of Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani. PHOTO: AFP

KARACHI: Today, we are glorifying wars in our school and college textbooks, which will poison the minds of generations to come, said Senate chairman Raza Rabbani.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the 25th International Pakistan History Conference on ‘Trends in South Asian History’ at the Arts Auditorium, Karachi University (KU) on Tuesday. The three-day moot is being organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Historical Society, KU’s history department, and Hamdard Foundation.

“What can one expect when we teach our children what are the 10 advantages of dictatorship or the 10 disadvantages of democracy,” said Rabbani, adding that history is being taught from an ideological point of view. Quaid-e-Azam had not envisioned this sort of Pakistan, he said. In fact, he added, Jinnah wanted a progressive country where everyone could go to their places of worship freely.

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“History is deliberately being distorted and when the state comes to deception one can imagine what sort of history can there be,” said Rabbani, adding that we still stand at the same crossroad we were decades back and continue to stand there until we change our mind-set.

Hardt-Nickachos chair in peace studies and professor of history at Arizona State University, Dr Yasim Saikia, delivered a lecture on ‘Freedom Dream: Middle Actors and the Imagination of Azadi from Colonialism’. She said the state has become dominant, while freedom, today, is secondary. The inspiring dreams of ‘azadi’ are forgotten, she said. It is time to reconsider what is the concept of freedom and the state in Pakistan, she added.

Dr Saikia further said that, today, Pakistan and India enjoy a sort of artificial freedom as divided nations fighting over territorial fixity and trapped in a fear of one another. There is no physical occupation of any power but they are being controlled by a new order of Western imperialism.

The Western world has accepted that Muslims are trapped in servility, unable to create democratic governance, said Dr Saikia.

The social sciences dean at KU, Prof Dr Moonis Ahmer, said history is the most neglected subject. He further said there is an inadequate handling of history. General Zia died around 30 years ago but his legacy still haunts us, he said, adding that there is a need to rewrite history.

KU history department chairperson Dr SM Taha said we were always taught that our army protects us but he believes that it is our educational institutes that actually protect us.

KU vice-chancellor Dr Muhammad Qaiser said historians should provide the correct information to students. He congratulated the history department for organising a silver jubilee event.

Pakistan Historical Society general secretary Dr Ansar Zahid Khan and Hamdard Foundation president Sadia Rashid also spoke at the event. A large number of national and international historians, academia and students attended the conference.

Department renamed

The department of general history at KU was established in 1953. One of the oldest departments of the university, it has now been renamed the Department of History, it was announced at the conference.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2016.