I give you one example. Most books about Alexander's invasion of South Asia were writteny by Englishmen living in the Raj during the colonial times. So in their writings when Alexander crossed the Khyber they call it "invasion of India" and when Porus fought Alexander "Indians fighting Greeks". The writers obviouosly were writing in late 1800s and because it was British India then they used language and descriptions accordingly. The influence of these books spread across the world as they were printed in USA/Canada and in Europe translated into European languages like Spanish which even impacted South America.
However we have to now re-translate this thinking in terms to the modern world. This is something Paks have to do. That is why I 'waste' my time on this subject hoping to make some differance in some small way. I certainly feel things are changing slowly. I think there has been lot of change since 2000s.
There are two forces conspiring in the present to stop a seprate Pakistani heritage coming out and standing with pride in the hall of fame. First it is the Indians who have never accepted 1947. They think that British beast called "British India" was their "Mata" when one look at the the prefix "British" and Union Jack destroys that delusion.
But still Indian genuinely have been brainwashed or refuse to come to terms with 1947 and think the whole of British India was theirs. So since 1947 they can't do anything about the physical reality of Pakistan but they deny it's existence on the historical/intellectual plane by simply grabbing our history as their property. So Pakistan might be a reality but to them Harappa or Mohenjo Daro is their propery. They then have spun incredible naratives to justify their claim on our heritage. Silly ideas like "you ae Muslim, you are Arabs, you are invaders" etc etc are given. While it might be true to a degree but non of those things sever the reality that what lies under Pak's soil is the heritage of the people who live their even if they have evolved over the thousands of years. Who does not evolve?
The second thing conspiring to prevent Paks 'owning' their heritage is the extreme religioius lobby because try to create a ummah concept where the nation state is haram and every Muslim is just one big brotherhood. This is as big if not bigger fraud then the Indians peddle because if this ws even half true then Afghans would be allowd into Pakistan despite all the problems. I mean good or bad they are Muslims. Also any Muslim from anywhere on earth should have full and open access to Pak citizenship. If indeed Pakistan is another name for Islam.
However I believe slowly but surely things are headed in the right direction. The shackles attached to us by the British Raj are slowly being loosened and I think 2012 was height of extremism is it is now waning although it will take decades to calm down.
