 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2017) |
The Murder of History: A critique of history textbooks used in Pakistan is a 1985 (263 page) book by Khursheed Kamal Aziz. It explains the various errors, misquotations, misinterpretations and misleading statements found in various curriculum textbooks taught in Pakistan. The first edition was published in 1985 under the banners of Vanguard books and the second edition came out in 1993.
Khursheed Kamal Aziz, popularly known as KK Aziz, was a historian in Pakistan. He received his early education from the MB High School in Batala, now in Indian Punjab, and then went to Forman Christian College and finally to Government College Lahore for graduation where one of his professors was the famed Patras Bokhari. Later he completed his studies at Victoria University in Manchester, UK.
Aziz taught at various institutions such as the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, UK, and at universities in Heidelberg, Germany as well as in Khartoum, Sudan and the Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. He also delivered occasional lectures at universities in Pakistan: Karachi, Peshawar, Islamabad; Bangladesh: Dacca; United Kingdom: Hull, New Castle upon Tyne and Oxford; Switzerland: Geneva and Bergen.
He worked briefly, in the early 1970s, as an advisor to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and was the chairman of the 'National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research'. But he later fell out with the Bhutto government and left that position. Some years later, he returned his "Sitara-i-Imtiaz" medal awarded by the President of Pakistan, protesting his treatment by the martial law authorities after General Zia-ul-Haq seized power in 1977, and was forced to leave the country. He lived many years abroad as an exile and taught at many universities abroad. He began to collect his research material for his many famous books while he was teaching in Germany. His research material was enriched by the experiences he had while living in different countries.
In 1985, when the first edition of the book was published, it did not do well partially because of the regime of General Zia-ul-haq, of which he was a staunch critic. He was still staying with his brother-in-law in Lahore's Model Town neighborhood when in 1993 the second edition of The Murder of History was published. This time the book did relatively well. This started an intellectual trend in Pakistan and after that similar kinds of works started publishing because of the restoration of the normal political process in the country.
The contents of the book are listed here:
First of all the author has quoted a long list of blunders that are printed in textbooks that are enforced as part of the national curriculum by the government of Pakistan. According to the writer, the textbooks are full of factual errors. In fact, they are just a collection of misquotations, misinterpretations, self-serving and self-supporting statements, one-sided viewpoints, slanted opinions, half-truths and blatant lies.
For example, the textbooks claim that the famous Lahore Resolution or Pakistan Resolution was passed on March 23, 1940 and on the basis of this, March 23 is called the Pakistan Day and is celebrated as a national holiday. The author proves that the resolution that was passed on March 24. Similarly, he says that Pakistan came into being on August 15, 1947, not on August 14, 1947. Furthermore, the author corrects the misinterpreted Allahabad Address of Iqbal. Various textbooks claim that in his address Iqbal demanded a 'separate independent Muslim state', on basis of this argument Iqbal is portrayed as the first person to demand a separate Muslim state in the Indian Subcontinent. The author proves that Iqbal didn't demanded an 'independent state' but merely demanded to unite the Muslim-majority areas of the Subcontinent. [1] [2] The author also corrects the textbooks' claim that the Mutiny of 1857 was a War Of Independence headed by Muslims. In doing so, he states that the events of 1857 cannot be regarded as a war of independence, or a collective effort by Indian people against the Imperialism of Britain. Nor it was headed by Muslims.
He also claimed that he was real author of Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi's book The Struggle for Pakistan. Mr. Qureshi indirectly accepted this fact in his preface to the book, he once said in the 1990s. "However, if were to write this book today, I would write differently."
The third edition of Murder of History came out in 2010, and is now widely quoted by noted Pakistani and Western historians. Also, ever since his death, a series of books authored by Aziz have appeared. The history sections of book stores across Pakistan now carry a number of works authored by Aziz, something that was almost inconceivable even till the mid-1990s. [3]
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, Ghazi was a Pakistani four-star army general who served as the 2nd Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army. He served as the head of state from 1978 until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He became the sixth President of Pakistan after declaring martial law in 1977. He remains the country's longest-serving head of state for 11 years and Chief of Army Staff for 12 years. Educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, Zia saw action in World War II as a British Indian Army officer in Burma and Malaya, before opting for Pakistan in 1947 and fighting as a tank commander in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. In 1970, he led a military training mission to Jordan, proving instrumental to defeating the Black September insurgency against King Hussein. In recognition, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto appointed Zia Chief of Army Staff in 1976 and awarded him the Hilal-i-Imtiaz medal, but Zia executed Bhutto after imposing Martial Law.
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was a Pakistani barrister and politician who served as the ninth Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that was the fourth President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. His government drafted the Constitution of Pakistan in 1973, which is the current constitution of the country. He was also the founder of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and served as its chairman until his execution in 1979. His execution is widely considered as a judicial murder ordered by then dictator Zia-ul-Haq.
Choudhry Rehmat Ali was a Pakistani nationalist who was one of the earliest proponents of the creation of the state of Pakistan. He is credited with creating the name "Pakistan" for a separate Muslim homeland in South Asia and is generally known as the originator of the Pakistan Movement.
A Short History of Pakistan is an edited book published by University of Karachi Press and comprises four volumes. The book is edited by Prof Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi and provides a comprehensive account of the history of the Pakistan region and its people from the prehistory leading to the creation of Pakistan and East Pakistan which then became Bangladesh. Complete set of four volumes are sequentially titled as, Book One: Pre-Muslim Period by Ahmad Hasan Dani; Book Two: Muslim Rule under the Sultans by M. Kabir; Book Three: The Mughul Empire by Sh. A. Rashid; and, Book Four: Alien Rule and the Rise of Muslim Nationalism by M. A. Rahim et al.
Chief Justice Sheikh Anwarul Haq, was a Pakistani jurist and an academic who served as the 9th Chief Justice of Pakistan from 23 September 1977 until resigning on 25 March 1981. He hanged Z.A Bhutto in a controversial murder case on April 4, 1977.
The Lahore Resolution, also called Pakistan resolution or declaration of independence of Pakistan, was written and prepared by Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and was presented by A. K. Fazlul Huq, the Prime Minister of Bengal, was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League on the occasion of its three-day general session in Lahore on 22–24 March 1940. The resolution called for independent states as seen by the statement:
That geographically contiguous units are demarcated regions which should be constituted, with such territorial readjustments as may be necessary that the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in a majority as in the North Western and Eastern Zones of (British) India should be grouped to constitute ‘independent states’ in which the constituent units should be autonomous and sovereign.
Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad, commonly known as MM Ahmad, was the former executive director and Vice President of the World Bank. MM Ahmad was also a Pakistani civil servant, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
Senior Justice Javed Iqbal was a Pakistani philosopher and senior justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was internationally known for his acclaimed publications on philosophy of law and modern Islamic philosophy in international and national journals.
Aziz Ahmed HPk was a career Pakistani statesman and a diplomat during the Cold War, serving in the capacity as 12th Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 1973 until 1977. Prior to that, Ahmad served as the Pakistan Ambassador to the United States (1959–63) and eventually appointed as Foreign secretary (1960–67) by President Ayub Khan.
Mubarak Ali, is a Pakistani historian, activist and scholar. His main theme, in most of his books, has been that some history '. Mubarak Ali maintains that history books should be written from the perspective of masses, not of rulers.
Major Mian Kifait Ali was a pioneer of the Pakistan movement, his masterpiece book "Confederacy of India" published in 1939, under the pen name "A Punjabi" was the first to deal with political, economic and administrative aspects of Pakistan.
The "Pakistan Declaration" was a pamphlet written and published by Choudhry Rahmat Ali, on 28 January 1933, in which the word Pakstan was used for the first time and was circulated to the delegates of the Third Round Table Conference in 1932.
Operation Fair Play was the code name for the 5 July 1977 coup by Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, overthrowing the government of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The coup itself was bloodless, and was preceded by social unrest and political conflict between the ruling leftist Pakistan Peoples Party government of Bhutto, and the right-wing Islamist opposition Pakistan National Alliance which accused Bhutto of rigging the 1977 general elections. In announcing the coup, Zia promised "free and fair elections" within 90 days, but these were repeatedly postponed on the excuse of accountability and it was not until 1985 that ("party-less") general elections were held. Zia himself stayed in power for eleven years until his death in a plane crash.
Khursheed Kamal AzizUrdu pronunciation: [xʊɾˈʃiːd̪ kəmaːl ˈəziːz](Urdu: خُورشِید کمال عزِیز, 1927–2009) better known as K. K. Aziz, was a Pakistani historian, admired for his books written in the English Language. However, he also wrote Urdu prose and was a staunch believer in the importance of the Persian language to enhance one's knowledge about the world.
The Pakistani textbooks controversy refers to claimed inaccuracies and historical denialism. The inaccuracies and myths promote religious intolerance and Indophobia and lead to calls for curriculum reform. According to the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan's school textbooks have systematically inculcated anti-Indian discrimination through historical omissions and deliberate misinformation since the 1970s.
Ghulam Jilani KhanHI(M) SBt, (1925–1999) was a three-star lieutenant general officer in the Pakistan Army who served as the 14th Governor of Punjab Province and 11th Defence Secretary of Pakistan in the military government of President General Zia-ul-Haq.
The history of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan began on 14 August 1947 when the country came into being in the form of Dominion of Pakistan within the British Commonwealth as the result of Pakistan Movement and the partition of India. While the history of the Pakistani Nation according to the Pakistan government's official chronology started with the Islamic rule over Indian subcontinent by Muhammad bin Qasim which reached its zenith during Mughal Era. In 1947, Pakistan consisted of West Pakistan and East Pakistan. The President of All-India Muslim League and later the Pakistan Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah became Governor-General while the secretary general of the Muslim League, Liaquat Ali Khan became Prime Minister. The constitution of 1956 made Pakistan an Islamic democratic country.
Conservatism in Pakistan, generally relates to the traditional, social, and religious identities in the politics of Pakistan. American historian Stephen Cohen describes several political constants in Pakistan's conservatism: respect for tradition, the rule of law and the Islamic religion which is an integral in the idea of Pakistan.