Table Of Contentby lhe same author
Britain and Muslim India
Some Problems or Research in Modem His1ory
The Making or Pakis1an
Amecr Ali: His Lire and Work
The Historic:il Background or Pakistan
The Alllndi.a Muslim Conrcrcnce
The lndi.an Khilarat Movement
Britain and Pakistan
Party Politics in Pakistan
The British in India
..::o.nplcle Works of Rahmat Ali (2 vols.)
Muslims under Congress Rule (2 vols.)
A Hislory or Ih e Idea or PokisiOn (4 vols.)
Rahmal Ali: A Biography
Prelude lo Pakislan (2 vols.)
Public Life in Muslim India
The P..:kislani His10rian
THE MURDER OF
HISTORY
A critique of history textbooks
used in Pakistan
K.K. Aziz
VANGUARD
All rights reserved. No part oft his publication may be
reprodMced or transmitted in any form or by any means
without prior permission in writing
from the author and publisher
Copyright: K.K. Aziz, 1993
First published in Pakistan by
Vanguard Books Pvt Ltd
Lahore Karachi Islamabad
Vsnguard Books Pvt Lid
Head Omc:e: 4S The Mall Laho,. Pakistan
Ph: 243779.243783, Fax: 042·321680
Tix: 47421 SCOOP PK
Branch Omce: 0·212, KDA I·A, Stadium Road, Ka'"chi
Ph: 4939729,4931564
Branch Omc:e: Jinnah Super Market, Islamabad
Ph: 21S21S. 210099
Printed at Makta!)a Jadeed Pross (Pvt) Lid.,
9-Rallway Road. Lahore.
ISBN: 969·40Z·126·X (HB)
To
the late
Uncle Hakim Jan
of blessed memory
More than a brother to my father,
a benefactor of my family,
whose mind, lit by the flame of virtue,
was a miracle of equilibrium
CONTENTS
Preface
The Prescribed Myths
2 The Calamily of Errors 118
3 The Road to Ruin 175
4 The Burden of Responsibility 230
Appendix- A 248
Appendix- 8 249
Appendix-C 257
Index 263
PREFACE
In this book I have scrutinized 66 textbooks on So ttu:neS·,
Pakistan Studies and History in usc in the schools and col -- ·r
Pakistan by students of classes I to 14, discussed their contents at
full length. and explored the dimensions, implications and
r.unificalions of their errors, faults and deficiencies.
This study has taken its rise from a series of adventitious
circumstances, not all agreeable or gratifying. In 1989-90 I wrote
a book on lhe Pakistani historian which contained one chapter of
82 pages. the longest of all, on the textbooks written by the
historians of the country and in usc in the schools and colleges.
(lllc book has since been published by Vanguard under the tit1e of
The Pakistani Historian, and I advise the reader to look through it
to understand why such books have been written by the country's
historians). The typescript was handed over to a Lahore publisher
on 25 March 1990, and two weeks later I went away to
Cambridge for an 8-month spell of leaching and writing. with a
finn promise from him lhat the book would be in the market
before the ye;u was out. But he bilked me and did not publish it
lhcn or ever. This unredeemed pledge led. in slow stages, to the
expan'iion of the chapter on textbooks into the present full-length
study. Blighted hopes do sometimes tum into cheerful prospects,
if one has the requisite fortitude and resolve. and of course luck.
My work has never offered me the leisure lO write something
for journals or newspapers. But the publisher's remissness was
making me impaticnr. and when Tht Fronritr Post offered to
serialize this particular chapter, I raised no objections because the
material combined scholarly research and topical interest lo an
uncommon degrcc.Jihen believed that a study of the books which
every school-and ~allege-going student reads will attract the
parents of these students. i lhought that in a country where lhe
average sales of serious books are abysmally low the wav to the
attention of the educated reader lay through the columns of a
national English daily. The original chapter thus came to appear in
Tht Fromitr Post in eleven long instalments on 17, 18, 19, 21,25
and 26 April and I, 3, S, 8 and 9 May 1992. The newspaper also
extended me the unprecedented courtesy of advertising the series
on the front page for several days running prior to their
P'f!/ac<
publication. I am grateful to Mr. Khalcd Ahmed. the resident
editor, for lhis kindness.
On II May the newspaper carried a lcucr from one Professor
M.I.Haq, suggesting lhat I should "issue a corrigenda for the
plethora of mistakes and mis-statements he has so diligcnlly
compiled. because the authors (of the tcxlbooks) would nol know
lbc comet answers UlCmsclvcs. and this bunlcn of the mar1iallaw
will continue to be carried by our tcxlbook boart.ls. God knows
for how long". On the s:unc day Mr. K.halcd Ahmed telephoned
me 10 say that he had received several calls from his readers who
now wanted lo know the "real facts" of hislory aflcr having read
in my articles the myths and distortions contained in lhc
textbooks. He asked me to write out a dclailcd stalcmcnt rectifying
lhc mistakes of the books and telling the uuc laic.
My immediate rcaclion to this rcqucs1 was one of shock. I had
already annotaled each textbook.listing faithfully alllhe errors it
cania.l. hul had limited my commenlary to a very few remarks wx.l
an odd correction here and there. I had lhoughl thai lhe great
majorily of my readers knew lhcir history and after perusing what
I had wriuen would respond according to their tcmpcramem and
auitude to life: eilher laughing at the ignorance of lhc lextlx.Jok
writeffl or feeling concerned about what their children were hcing
taught. And now I was being infonncd by the editor of a major
nalional daily d1a1 educated people. living in big cities and reading
an English-language newspaper did not know where the lcxlhooks
had gone wrong. and lhcy needed the 1elling of it.
Bul a lillie reOeclion opened my eyes. These people who were
asking for the correct version of hislory had been brought up on
these very lextbooks. Those few among them who were fond uf
reading had received lhcir knowledge of history frnm a few
popular or serious general hooks which had been wrillcn by lhe
same professors who had put together these textbooks. It was
then lhal I realized the true pmponions of lhc disaslcr which had
dcva.<o~latcd du: country. For me it was the moment of truth.
Mr. Khalcd Aluned's injunclion was rcinlbrccd by the advice
given to me by my friend Mr. Najam Sethi. who publishes the
Vanguard Books and edits Thr Fl"ida:v Times.
As ill luck would have it, when I received these messages I
was engaged in a triple fight against lhc heat of Lahore 10 which I
am not accustomed. a severe bout of inOucnza which had laid me
