Source: The Daily Times
In Social Studies textbooks it is mentioned that Hindus are extremists and eternal enemies of Islam, whose culture and society is based on injustice and cruelty, while Islam delivers a message of peace and brotherhood, concepts portrayed as alien to the Hindus.
Pakistan was created in 1947 as a homeland for the Muslims of India and was initially envisaged as a moderate state where minorities would have full rights. Quaid-e-Azam, in his August 11 speech, also declared Pakistan a modern secular state. However, Pakistan’s minorities’ struggled and sacrificed but their role and achievements towards the building of Pakistan have been ignored and are being written out of history and our textbooks. Religious minorities who spoke out against intolerance have often been killed, seemingly with impunity, by militant sympathisers. Religious minorities are often portrayed in our textbooks as inferior or second-class citizens who have been granted limited rights and privileges by generous Pakistani Muslims, for which they should be grateful.
Many history scholars have mentioned in their writings that Pakistani textbooks have preached falsehoods, hatred and bigotry against the minorities. They have constructed most non-Muslims, especially Hindus, as evil and primordial enemies, glorified military dictatorships and omitted references to our great betrayal of the Bengali brothers and sisters who were the founders and owners of the Pakistan movement.
