According to Baela Raza Jamil, General Zia's 1979 education policy stated that "[the] highest priority would be given to the revision of the curricula with
a view to reorganizing the entire content around Islamic thought and giving education an ideological orientation so that Islamic ideology permeates the thinking of the younger generation and helps them with the necessary conviction and ability to refashion society according to Islamic tenets".
"Curriculum Reforms in Pakistan – A Glass Half Full or Half Empty?"
Writing for the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, A H Nayyar and Ahmed Salim state that since the 1970s Pakistani school textbooks
have systematically inculcated hatred towards India and Hindus through historical revisionism. There is no mention of Islamic invasion and conversion of Hindus.
Many texts give an impression that ancient Indian heritage was not destroyed by Afghans and Turks but Muslim heritage was destroyed by Indians, which contradicts the theory of mainstream historians.
The subtle Subversion: A report on Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan
In a 1995 paper published in the
International Journal of Middle East Studies, historian Ayesha Jalal stated that "
Pakistan's history textbooks amongst the best available sources for assessing the nexus between power and bigotry in creative imaginings of a national past." She points out authors whose "expansive pan-Islamic imaginings" detect the beginnings of Pakistan in the birth of Islam on the Arabian peninsula.
A Text Book of Pakistan Studies claims that Pakistan "came to be established for the first time when the Arabs under Mohammad bin Qasim occupied Sindh and Multan'; by the thirteenth century 'Pakistan had spread to include the whole of Northern India and Bengal' and then under the Khiljis, Pakistan moved further south-ward to include a greater part of Central India and the Deccan'. [...] The spirit of Pakistan asserted itself', and under Aurangzeb the 'Pakistan spirit gathered in strength'; his death 'weakened the Pakistan spirit'." Jalal points out that even an acclaimed scholar like Jameel Jalibi questions the validity of a national history that seeks to "claim Pakistan's pre-Islamic past" in an attempt to compete with India's historic antiquity. K. Ali's two volume history designed for BA students traces the pre-history of the 'Indo-Pakistan' subcontinent to the Paleolithic Age and consistently refers to the post-1947 frontiers of Pakistan while discussing the Dravidians and the Aryans.
"Conjuring Pakistan: History as Official Imagining" (PDF). International Journal of Middle East Studies
Indophobia, together with Anti-Hinduism and racist ideologies, such as the Martial Race theory, were the driving factors behind the re-writing of school textbooks in Pakistan (in both "secular" schools and Islamic madrassahs) in order to promote a biased and revisionist historiography of the Indian subcontinent that promulgated Indophobic and anti-Hindu prejudices. These narratives are combined with Islamist propaganda in the extensive revising of Pakistan's history. By propagating concepts such as jihad, the inferiority of non-Muslims,
India’s perceived ingrained enmity with Pakistan, etc., the textbook board publications used by all government schools promote an obscurantist mindset.
Curriculum of hatred, Dawn, 2009-05-20
According to the historian Professor Mubarak Ali, textbook "reform" in Pakistan began with the introduction of Pakistan Studies and Islamic studies by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1971 into the national curriculum as a compulsory subject. Former military dictator Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, under a general drive towards Islamization, started the process of historical revisionism in earnest and exploited this initiative. 'The Pakistani establishment taught their children right from the beginning that this state was built on the basis of religion
– that's why they don't have tolerance for other religions and want to wipe-out all of them.'
The threat of Pakistan's revisionist texts The Guardian, 2009-05-18
According to Pakistani physicist, Pervez Hoodbhoy, the Islamist revisionism of Pakistan's schools began in 1976 when an act of parliament required all government and private schools (except those teaching the British O-levels from Grade 9) to follow a curriculum that includes learning outcomes for the federally approved Grade 5 social studies class such as: 'Acknowledge and identify forces that may be working against Pakistan,'
'Make speeches on Jihad,' 'Collect pictures of policemen, soldiers, and national guards,' and
'India's evil designs against Pakistan.'
Pakistan: Do school texts fuel bias?, Christian Science Monitor, 2009-01-21
Likewise, Yvette Rosser criticizes Pakistani textbooks for propagating jingoist and irredentist beliefs about Pakistan's history and culture,
and being negationist in its depiction of political Islam and the treatment of minorities in Pakistan, such as Hindus and Christians. Irredentism is manifested through claims of "eternal Pakistan" (despite the country being created from British India only in 1947
), narrow and sectarian interpretation of Islam, downplaying the tolerant aspects of the religion and focusing on Islamic Fundamentalist interpretations (such as all banking being un-Islamic), and
making accusations of dual loyalty on minority Hindus and Christians in Pakistan.
Rosser, Yvette (June 2005).
"Cognitive Dissonance in Pakistan Studies Textbooks: Educational Practices of an Islamic State.". Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law
1 (2): 4–15.
