School textbooks in Pakistan, specifically of social studies, preach hatred of non-Muslim Pakistanis, distort history by telling lies, and edify Jehad and Shahadat by unusually glorifying war and military.
This vies was expressed by Professor A H Nayyar of Physics Department of Quaid-i-Azam University at the monthly meeting of Scientists Club of Pakistan here on Saturday afternoon.
Presenting main points of recent study 'The Subtle Subversion' compiled jointly by him and his colleague M Saleem, Professor Nayyar deplored that the textbooks at the primary and secondary levels are replete with instances which alienate non-Muslims from Pakistani nationhood, tell lies and teach hatred of other faiths than Islam, hate people of other nationalities, portray unusual glorification of war and highlight gender bias.
The study, sponsored by 'Sustainable Development Policy Institute', focuses on the state of curricula and textbooks of Urdu, English, Social Studies and Civics, and finds them grossly harmful for the young impressionable minds for developing a wholesome world view and value system.
The inspiration for the study came from President Musharraf's August 14, 2002, address to the nation where he said that an insignificant minority was keeping the entire nation hostage to their misconceived views of Islam and fanatical acts of violence..."The recent attacks on churches are the most shameful and despicable acts of terrorism... we have all to make efforts to root out who are maligning our religion and tarnishing the image of Pakistan. They are spreading sectarian hatred and religious intolerance".
The study noted that the President did not identify how the textbooks were subverting the students, breeding hatred, intolerance or a distorted worldview. The study noted that more harm was caused by the grievous flaws in the textbooks.
The 140-page study has given profuse quotations from several textbooks misleading the youth.
Professor Nayyar spoke briefly how non-Muslims were being alienated from the Pakistani nationhood.
The textbooks convey that only Muslims are good Pakistanis and Hindus are cunning, untrustworthy and treacherous though a number of non-Muslims like former Chief Justice Cornelius made invaluable contributions to society. Non-Muslims are forced to take up Islamic studies though the subject is optional for non-Muslims. The books do not acknowledge contributions of non-Muslims to the country.
Supporting the charge that the textbooks tell lies or distort events, Professor Nayyar spoke about a number of wild claims made during the '65 and '71 wars. He noted that the textbooks teach hatred against people of other faiths, other nationalities, making the students cross "the hatred barrier" whereby they become "practitioners of hate".
Speaking about the incitement to violence by preaching jehad and shahadat and glorifying the war and the military, he said there is an unusual glorification of war, both from Islamic and Pakistani histories; there is also an unusually heavy emphasis on military heroes and there is an open, deliberate and repeated incitement to Jehad and shahadat.
Some of these tendencies, he noted, came in the wake of the Afghan war during General Zia-ul-Haq's era.
He said that to promote jehad during Afghan war, the CIA had given a contract to the University of Nebraska to write textbooks for Afghan schools edifying jehad as religious duty to win freedom from the Soviet Union. Strangely, he said, the CIA has contracted the same university to write textbooks reversing the previous thesis. The books are expected to be published this year.
He had been urging drastic revision of the textbooks and reform of syllabi, but the response from the government has not been encouraging.
Though the high-ups in the curriculum wing agreed with the errors and deficiencies pointed out in the textbooks and the curricula, there is no remedy in sight.
He added that a former senior officer of the Education Ministry was also writing a lot against the curricula and the textbooks. Ironically, these were approved by him during his tenure in the ministry.
Professor Nayyar blamed the straight jacket of the curriculum wing which stood in the way of any revision or reform. Equally guilty, he charged, was the mafia of textbook writers and publishers who are in control of things.
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