Javed Iqbal
Where sway of terrorism, corruption, religious fanaticism, deprivation of rule of law had braced the country of more than 240 million individuals; there lies another stockpile of murkier un-enlightenment among the masses which was allegedly inoculated in them by state run enterprises. There would not be a single absolute example across the course of history where a nation has entirely replaced its history, rewritten it & then made it a part of textbooks to disseminate this explicit nonsense from topmost peaks of Himalayas to deep downward to Port Qasim. Textbooks which have been authored, edited, compiled and then molded by textbook boards to put together in front of innocent kids to enhance their visions is undoubtedly constricting their minds instead; thanks to lack of credibility in them. The Indus Valley which for today’s Pakistan bears resemblance to its ancestry have been ruled by numerous kings, dynasties; consolidated sometimes under one rule with contemporary India and for other period separated. The history which has been taught to us since 1947 basically starts from some brief prelude about ancient city Mohenjo Daro, Harappans and the Gandhara civilization. Following, the entire era up to Arab invasion by Mohammad bin Qasim; Mauryans, The Great Ashok, Kushans, is skipped leads to further crippling of facts happened afterwards. The exact notion behind this blunder is nothing than to prove some allegiance towards Arabs which strengthened inferiority complex among own countrymen in accord of their homelands. This factual theft has proven lethal which now leads this inferiority complex towards identity complex frenzied the people vis a vis their own country. Indubitably, this identity-less paranoia is the cornerstone of brain drain engulfing Pakistan inside out. Pakistanis are never Arabs, Persians, Afghans or any other invaders’ heirs but instead they belong to this Indus Valley from some thousand of years persistently. History endorsed that many of the invaders which today are set our heroes as an Islamists have plundered this land and turned India and Indus deprived of its ancient resources. Mahmood of Ghazni who is well known of his seventeen expeditions, after capturing some cities of that era, extracted out all the resources and jewels to his land back to the capital Ghazni. Raja Jayapala of the city Purusapura currently Peshawar who resisited him at the Battle of Waihind (currently “Hund” near Swabi) was never been praised in our textbooks as a son of soil who put his life in explicit menace to counteract external peril.Contemporary Textbooks which victimized history regarded Mahmood as a Great Warrior and Jayapala as a perpetrator. The same happened afterwards when Ghori tribe overthrow the descendants of Mahmood & dethroned them, they made same expeditions towards India. We have been indoctrinated that Muhammad of Ghori was a generous king to further consolidate Islam in deep towards India but history denied this fact. He attempted same plunder in the first battle of Tarain but resisted and defeated by Raja of Rajputana Confederacy; Prithviraj Chohan. Ghori’s alleged pillage in second battle of Tarain a year next proved decisive. Islam never flourished in India through sword but by the enlightenment by Sufis from different orders, who set foot in India after death of Mahmood of Ghazni like Ali Hajveri during the reign of Masood (son of Mahmood). It is undeniable fact that Islam touched the land of United India before invasion of Mohammad bin Qasim,due to Arab merchants’ consistent voyage towards Ceylon (currently Srilanka) through the Malabar coastline of Kerala. These Moplah Muslims are still practicing their religion Islam being the oldest Muslim group of Indian Subcontinent in Kerala. Later flag bearers of Delhi Sultanate like Khiljis and Tughlaqs were no more than the admirer of women and wine. Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Durrani and others continued the same legacy of plunder, sacked cities, put extensive carnage and took back every pin to their homelands which they found here. Our historians who interpreted their own version of history rather exploited it under the patronage of state never highlighted that communal divisions and disharmony rarely happened before the advent of British Imperialism cum Capitalism.Many Muslims fought battles under the army of Cholas, Rajputs and Marathas and many other Hindus fought the battles of Mughals. Raja Man Singh who once served under the army of Akbar as a general was one of them. But these facts have been deliberately masked by some state-owned historians.
Even the Raja Porus, two and a half millenia before, whose confederacy was across Ravi &Jehlum, made full-fledged deterrence against the greatest conqueror of all time Alexander, is explicitly disowned in our textbooks. Students of “Land of Pure” have never been taught about the local Indian or Indus’ heroes who demobilized the invasions and stood against the foreign invaders as bulwark. How can a nation compete with contemporaries, when she hails atrocities of foreign invaders more than the valour of her sons. Dulla Bhatti actually Abdullah Bhatti hero of Rachna Doab who fought for the rights of peasantry and refrained from paying brutal revenues to the Akbar’s ferocious feudal order accepted to cut his throat off instead of bowing before him. If Shah Hussain a Sufi poet would fail to ballad for Dulla Bhatti, we would never know about him. Khushal Khan Khattak was also the brave son of soil who infused nationalist fervour in his nation to get rid of Mughal empire. He was a man who inspired Allama Iqbal a lot even he quoted him on several occasions and translated his poems too. A brave son of Okara; Rai Ahmad Khan Kharal mobilized his people against British armies, fought till his last &gifted his life for the great cause, have been lost in vicissitude. Apart from the domain of resistance there are several other names who failed to make their place in textbooks. Bhai Ram Singh who was the architect of more than half of the grandeur edifices of Lahore like Lahore Museum, Aitchison College, Punjab University and Islamia College Peshawar too has never been taught in our institutions. The pity is that the alumni of these institutions would never hear his name before. Sir Ganga Ram who was the “Father of Modern Lahore” had been lost across the whims of history. The government did nothing than to name a hospital after him. Bhagat Singh and his companions who infused the spirit of nationalism among their compatriots against the repression of British, kissed the stake and noosed around their neck voluntarily with heartfelt satisfaction have been never praised in our books as great freedom fighter; Lahore ever produced. The land from where this wordsmith belong is firmly tied by shackles of such false faceted historical facts with complete ignorance of the real naked truths. The textbooks not just in the case of history but all is poisoned by our own interpretations even in case of science. As a responsible developing nation, the government and other stakeholders should disgorge this factual uncertainty. If Pakistanis wouldn’t get rid of this gangrened lump of ignorance, then this tumor will engulf the entire figure from head to toe.
