Why Do We Reject Our Past?

I have been living in the UK since the age of 11. In this time I often visit Pakistan or receive relatives who remain there. I am struck by the general denial of any common history with the rest of the Indian subcontinent. It has been mentioned that school textbooks claim that Pakistan was a ’Dark Place’ until the ’Light’ of Islam; that people were oppressed by the rigid caste system and exploited by the Hindu Brahmins. We make heroes out of real villains like Ghauri and Aurangzeb. My nine year old cousin, from Pakistan, told me that Aurangzeb was the greatest of all Mughal emperors because he remained steadfast to the cause of Islam. Never mind that he was a ruthless bigot who defaced other religions and forcefully converted thousands. He also said Akbar was ’weak’ and a traitor to Islam. Never mind that he was one of the most tolerant and enlightened rulers the world has every known.

On the other hand the Arabs are given primacy in the Pakistani identity. Our real history seems to begin with the Arab incursions that ’liberated’ us from darkness. It is not only us Pakistanis. The Persians and central Asians all seem to gather around this view.

I, for one, am not buying this distortion of history. In truth Ancient India was achieving greatness in innumerable fields while the Arabs essentially lived as primate tribes. I thought for the longest time that the Arabs had ’invented’ mathematics: the Arabic numerals, Algebra etc. We are fed that throughout childhood. Historical record shows that it was in fact the Indic civilizations that produced almost all of the mathematics attributed to the Arabs. In fact many brilliant ideas of subcontinental mathematicians were rejected by the Arabs and later Europeans as heresy: irrational and negative numbers for example. The idea of Infinity was debated for 300 years in the Arab world after it was introduced to them by the Indians. It was thought, apparently, that only Allah could be infinite, and man should not attempt to equal him.

In the territory that is now Pakistan, great Sanskrit scholars like Panini wrote treatises on logic and grammar that have been the foundation for modern day computing. In the territory that is now Pakistan the ancient Indus Valley civilization flourished with a level of egalitarianism unseen in the ancient and perhaps modern world. In the territory that is now Afghanistan/Pakistan the peaceful overtures of Asoka the Great conquered the war-like Greeks. I demand the ability to claim these achievements as part of my past.

In the territory that is now India the great Moghul Akbar proclaimed tolerance for all religions. In the territory that is now India Shah Jehan built the great Taj Mahal. In the territory that is now India the great Siddhartha Gautama proclaimed his message of peace. I demand the ability to claim these achievements as well.

There is no doubt that Mohammed’s (PBUH) message of peace and brotherhood transformed the lives of many. However this is just one of the countless religions, scientific, social and revolutionary ideas that have permeated the history of the great subcontinent. I wish to claim the egalitarianism of Islam, the peace of Buddhism, the non-violence of Jainism, the strength of Sikhism and the tolerance of Hinduism as part of my religious heritage. I want the mathematical, scientific and philosophical brilliance of MY ancestors to be part of MY heritage. I do believe that Pakistan was necessary, due to fear of minority exploitation. However the governments, both military and civilian, have transformed the good idea of Pakistan into a monstrous distortion of our national identity. Ultimately I agree with the notion that I was a member of Indic-civilization for 5000 years, Muslim for around 1000 and Pakistani for 60. I wish our leaders would give us the chance to appreciate and accept all of these great periods as our national identity.

We have sacrificed so much of our civilisational greatness to India due to the pathetic notion that we must be their polar opposite. Indians can proudly proclaim these triumphs while we are left solely with the concept of Islam. Indians also proudly proclaim the achievements of their Islamic heritage such as the Taj. The plain truth is that we have much more in common with the rest of the subcontinent than we have with the Arab/Muslim world. Personally I don’t care about the relations between the governments of India and Pakistan, both of which have been rather unimpressive over the years. All I want is for Pakistani school-children to be provided with a national identity that displays all the greatness of our past, not just one small part of it. Is this too much to ask?