PESHAWAR, Oct 20: Noted historian Dr Mubarak Ali has stressed the need for writing a new socio-cultural history of the country, covering the contributions of the masses, who are the makers of history.

Speaking on 'What Pakistan history should be', here at the Peshawar Press Club here on Wednesday, he said that Indo-Pakistan history being taught to students was based on hatred and written by propagandists serving the interests of the British imperialism in this part of the world. After the occupying the subcontinent, the new British rulers divided the entire society on the communal basis and coined separate jargons for the Hindus and Muslims who had been living together in one society, he added.

The Hindus were painted as inferior being vegetarian and subjects, while the Muslims were dubbed as superior, meat-eaters and rulers. The Muslims, he said, were still clinging to such images. He said the history being taught in schools and colleges was littered with prejudices.

This religious-cum-societal division eventually turned into a political division. The Hindus were in majority and Muslims in minority in a country where the latter had ruled for over 1,000 years.

The Muslims, Dr Mubarak said, who were earlier a community declared themselves as a minority nation and took a defensive stance in the rapidly changing political scenario of India. The Muslims were of the view that if they struggled for a democratic India, they would remain in a minority position. Therefore, they opted for a separate homeland, he added.

He said the Muslim League leadership had launched the struggle for a separate state based on religion doctrine.

In 1970, he said, the military government of Yahya Khan caused a territorial shift in the Islamic ideology when it coined a new term, the ideology of Pakistan. This new move was aimed at weakening the linguistic nationalism of the Bengalis who were struggling for greater provincial autonomy.

He said that several taboos had been Created to maintain the political supremacy of the Punjab over other smaller federating units.

Dr Mubarak said there was difference between people's history and the history written by the state. After the debacle of the former East Pakistan, the establishment introduced some changes in the curriculum to bridge to sideline some questions raised by 1971's debacle.

He said that when Pakistan Studies was included as a new subject in the curriculum, all religious parties opposed it but later they accepted it as a compulsory subject for students of all classes.

Dr Mubarak called upon historians to write a socio-cultural history of Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and the NWFP. He said that folk literature, archaeological sites, popular uprisings and movements for people's rights were the main sources for historians.

The history of ruling dynasties, military heroes and monarchs was nothing but lies. He said the state-compiled curriculum was based on lies and fictions, which produced an army of semi-literates across the country.