Suddenly post 26/11 India has become an insecure nation. Every newspaper and news channel is talking about the carnage in Mumbai. Everyone has condemned this massacre. Whether you are travelling in the Metro or sitting in your college canteen or walking down the road, you’ll find people talking about the Mumbai attacks and cursing Pakistan to stage the onslaught. They wanted Indian Military to attack Pakistan and give them the taste of their own medicine. Indians have anguish for the people of Pakistan. But has anybody wondered how Pakistanis think about us Indians, do they have hatred in their hearts, do they consider us their enemies. We don’t know because we never cared about our neighbour. We never tried to know the perspective of Pakistani people. We only know the perspective of the people in power. What we know about Pakistan is that hey sponsor these terror attacks or what they call it Jihad. We never tried to know why so many young Pakistanis get ready to sacrifice their precious lives. Before independence we were the same people and fought for our beloved nation’s independence together against the British. But ever since we gained our independence and became two independent nations we have fought amongst ourselves. It’s been more than sixty years still we are fighting.
Does anybody ever wonder why we hate each other so much? Why we have such an outrage for each other? During our years in school we were taught Mahatma Gandhi as our national hero, Congress Party as the leading Party to uphold the flag of freedom struggle and abusing Muslim League or more specifically Jinnah for being the anti-national element and evoking the two-nation theory. Krishna Kumar’s Prejudice and Pride brings forth the history narratives presented in Indian as well as Pakistani history textbooks. Despite the fact that the two nations have common history, the two perspectives are in contrast with each other. Krishna Kumar in his book provided several instances where a particular incident of history has been presented in contrastive light. The historians writing history textbooks portrayed people as either black or white. Gandhi and Nehru have been glorified in the entire narrative while Jinnah and Muslim League’s contribution to the freedom struggle is completely neglected. The Pakistani narrative repeatedly referred to Congress party as a Hindu Party overlooking the fact that there were a lot of Muslims who were part of Congress Party. There have been instances in the history textbooks where a specific event is totally omitted in one perspective while the same event is elaborated in the other perspective.
The narratives are heavily influenced by the historians own perspectives which resulted in highly biased historical narratives. Such historical narratives are responsible, to a great length, for the jingoistic attitude of the people of the two nations towards each other. Krishna Kumar did not claim that the history narratives are solely responsible of inculcating such attitudes but if we try to recall our school days when we were adolescents struggling for an identity and when provided with such perspectives, the hostility for Pakistan did emerge. Neither our schools nor our textbooks encourage self expression which results in the political socialization of the children and they imbibe the political ideology without any rational thought. In the wake of terrorism attacks in both nations, it has become extremely important to understand the political nature of these terror attacks. Instead of spitting venom for each other we need to reckon that the terrorists are neither Hindus nor Muslims, they are just an instrument to spread hatred and if we continue to fight amongst each other then they will succeed in obliterating humanity from the face of the earth.
Does anybody ever wonder why we hate each other so much? Why we have such an outrage for each other? During our years in school we were taught Mahatma Gandhi as our national hero, Congress Party as the leading Party to uphold the flag of freedom struggle and abusing Muslim League or more specifically Jinnah for being the anti-national element and evoking the two-nation theory. Krishna Kumar’s Prejudice and Pride brings forth the history narratives presented in Indian as well as Pakistani history textbooks. Despite the fact that the two nations have common history, the two perspectives are in contrast with each other. Krishna Kumar in his book provided several instances where a particular incident of history has been presented in contrastive light. The historians writing history textbooks portrayed people as either black or white. Gandhi and Nehru have been glorified in the entire narrative while Jinnah and Muslim League’s contribution to the freedom struggle is completely neglected. The Pakistani narrative repeatedly referred to Congress party as a Hindu Party overlooking the fact that there were a lot of Muslims who were part of Congress Party. There have been instances in the history textbooks where a specific event is totally omitted in one perspective while the same event is elaborated in the other perspective.
The narratives are heavily influenced by the historians own perspectives which resulted in highly biased historical narratives. Such historical narratives are responsible, to a great length, for the jingoistic attitude of the people of the two nations towards each other. Krishna Kumar did not claim that the history narratives are solely responsible of inculcating such attitudes but if we try to recall our school days when we were adolescents struggling for an identity and when provided with such perspectives, the hostility for Pakistan did emerge. Neither our schools nor our textbooks encourage self expression which results in the political socialization of the children and they imbibe the political ideology without any rational thought. In the wake of terrorism attacks in both nations, it has become extremely important to understand the political nature of these terror attacks. Instead of spitting venom for each other we need to reckon that the terrorists are neither Hindus nor Muslims, they are just an instrument to spread hatred and if we continue to fight amongst each other then they will succeed in obliterating humanity from the face of the earth.
2 comments:
i have read some readings by krishnamurthy so what you say i dont agree with that.the case with india and pakistan is just the case of two brothers who have separated after a feud and now they have their own property and their own children with them.if india is prospering and not pakistan so it is not india's fault.instead of of investing their money in jihad its better to invest it in some constructive matter.today when india has provided ample proof that "kasab"is a pakistani yet pakistani govt is not yet ready to take any action against the terrorist in their country.so i think we need not think about how those people think about us but should rather get a taste of their own medicine
hey...wht i tried to explain in this passage is tht we Indians knw only the political side of Pakistan, apart from tht we do'nt knw how the people of tht nation have evolved during these 60 yrs. u r absolutely right tht India n Pak r brothers separated n hav their own families...but how much we knw abt tht family...i think zero...we knw wht media tells us or the political leaders of tht nation present before us but wht about the 'awam' or general public...we never get to knw wht r their opinions, aprehensions etc. just think about abt this n then tell whether India shd open a war on them or not!
Post a Comment