Zahid Shahab Ahmed and Michelle Antonette Baxter (New Delhi: WISCOMP, 2007, 102pp)

This cooperative research carried out by a young Pakistani and a young Indian, both working for international non-governmental organizations, explores how textbooks help determine political and social attitudes, especially attitudes toward India and Pakistan. Through an in-depth analysis of history and social studies textbooks from India and Pakistan, the authors highlight how certain textbooks have been modified to serve political ends. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in India wanted history texts to reflect their Hindutva agenda of a Hindu civilization, while the Islamization efforts of General Zia ul Haq in the 1970s -1980s eliminated the teaching of history at the secondary school level and replaced history with social studies stressing the Islamic nature of the Pakistani State.

As the authors note “History has often been distorted to create an ‘enemy’ image in the school textbooks of India and Pakistan. These textbooks feed the minds and imagination of millions of children in both countries. They play a major role in generating hatred and animosity between the two countries. Indeed, history textbooks have become victims of the official ideologies and foreign policies of both countries.” As the authors stress “While Indian textbooks have a highly slanted and prejudiced view of minorities, particularly Muslims, Pakistani textbooks are no different. They are so designed as to promote hatred against Hindus and India. The powers that be, in both the countries, have vested interests in keeping the hatred between the communities alive so as to benefit politically from it. The textbooks are not simply written by prejudiced minds but with a particular purpose.”

Of course, textbooks are not the only source of influence: family and friends, childhood experiences, literature, films, television, and other forms of mass media also play a role. However, textbooks present information in a structured way and being able to repeat textbook information is necessary to pass examinations.

As the authors point out “Beyond textbooks, teachers are also a crucial element in the system of education. So far, in India and Pakistan, there hasn’t been any significant study on the role of teachers in shaping mindsets (enemy images, hatred of others etc) of young generations, the way they want or the way the national education system forces them to. However, the role of teachers in the nation-building process cannot be neglected because they are the artists of young minds.”

In order to analyse the impact of textbooks and the attitudes of teachers, 30 teachers and 30 students were interviewed in each country in three cities in each country: Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai in India, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar in Pakistan. These were teachers and students in the governmental school system in each country. In both India and Pakistan, there are religiously-inspired schools, the madrassahs of Pakistan and the Hindu-inspired schools of the RSS in India. In addition, both countries have elite private schools, originally inspired by the English system. A follow up study of the attitudes of teachers and students at all three types of schools would be useful.

The conclusions of the research indicate clearly the difficulties faced to introduce an objective and balanced view of history. “According to this research study, the growth of intolerance, fundamentalism and extremism, while having many other sources, is strengthened by educational curricula and teaching systems operational in the large number of public schools in India and Pakistan.”

Fortunately, there are efforts on the part of State education authorities to modify these negative practices. The 2005 National Curriculum Framework for School Education has stressed that “peace education must be a concern that permeates the entire school life— curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacher-pupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. Hence, it is important to examine the curriculum and examination system from the point of view of how they may influence children’s sense of inadequacy, frustration, impatience and insecurity.”

This study is a good example of what cooperative research between Indians and Pakistanis on sensitive subjects can achieve. It is the first of the WISCOMP Collaborative Research Studies — the first of what we hope will be a long and productive series.

Rene Wadlow is the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, of the Association of World Citizens. Formerly, he was professor and Director of Research of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva. In the early 1960s, he was an advisor in the Ministry of Education of Gabon, at the time of the transition from a colonial education system to one adapted to the needs of a newly independent country.

This cooperative research carried out by a young Pakistani and a young Indian, both working for international non-governmental organizations, explores how textbooks help determine political and social attitudes, especially attitudes toward India and Pakistan. Through an in-depth analysis of history and social studies textbooks from India and Pakistan, the authors highlight how certain textbooks have been modified to serve political ends. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in India wanted history texts to reflect their Hindutva agenda of a Hindu civilization, while the Islamization efforts of General Zia ul Haq in the 1970s -1980s eliminated the teaching of history at the secondary school level and replaced history with social studies stressing the Islamic nature of the Pakistani State.

As the authors note “History has often been distorted to create an ‘enemy’ image in the school textbooks of India and Pakistan. These textbooks feed the minds and imagination of millions of children in both countries. They play a major role in generating hatred and animosity between the two countries. Indeed, history textbooks have become victims of the official ideologies and foreign policies of both countries.” As the authors stress “While Indian textbooks have a highly slanted and prejudiced view of minorities, particularly Muslims, Pakistani textbooks are no different. They are so designed as to promote hatred against Hindus and India. The powers that be, in both the countries, have vested interests in keeping the hatred between the communities alive so as to benefit politically from it. The textbooks are not simply written by prejudiced minds but with a particular purpose.”

Of course, textbooks are not the only source of influence: family and friends, childhood experiences, literature, films, television, and other forms of mass media also play a role. However, textbooks present information in a structured way and being able to repeat textbook information is necessary to pass examinations.

As the authors point out “Beyond textbooks, teachers are also a crucial element in the system of education. So far, in India and Pakistan, there hasn’t been any significant study on the role of teachers in shaping mindsets (enemy images, hatred of others etc) of young generations, the way they want or the way the national education system forces them to. However, the role of teachers in the nation-building process cannot be neglected because they are the artists of young minds.”

In order to analyse the impact of textbooks and the attitudes of teachers, 30 teachers and 30 students were interviewed in each country in three cities in each country: Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai in India, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar in Pakistan. These were teachers and students in the governmental school system in each country. In both India and Pakistan, there are religiously-inspired schools, the madrassahs of Pakistan and the Hindu-inspired schools of the RSS in India. In addition, both countries have elite private schools, originally inspired by the English system. A follow up study of the attitudes of teachers and students at all three types of schools would be useful.

The conclusions of the research indicate clearly the difficulties faced to introduce an objective and balanced view of history. “According to this research study, the growth of intolerance, fundamentalism and extremism, while having many other sources, is strengthened by educational curricula and teaching systems operational in the large number of public schools in India and Pakistan.”

Fortunately, there are efforts on the part of State education authorities to modify these negative practices. The 2005 National Curriculum Framework for School Education has stressed that “peace education must be a concern that permeates the entire school life— curriculum, co-curriculum, classroom environment, school management, teacher-pupil relationship, teaching-learning processes, and the entire range of school activities. Hence, it is important to examine the curriculum and examination system from the point of view of how they may influence children’s sense of inadequacy, frustration, impatience and insecurity.”

This study is a good example of what cooperative research between Indians and Pakistanis on sensitive subjects can achieve. It is the first of the WISCOMP Collaborative Research Studies — the first of what we hope will be a long and productive series.

Rene Wadlow is the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, of the Association of World Citizens. Formerly, he was professor and Director of Research of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, University of Geneva. In the early 1960s, he was an advisor in the Ministry of Education of Gabon, at the time of the transition from a colonial education system to one adapted to the needs of a newly independent country.