KARACHI, April 15: The 20th Pakistan History Conference concluded on Friday after spelling out the reasons responsible for the decline of history in the country and recommending measures that could lead to its revival. The three-day history conference was organized by the Pakistan Historical Society (PHS) in collaboration with the Hamdard Foundation and the Pakistan Study Centre.
According to speakers, badly written textbooks, disregard of social and cultural aspects of life and an undue focus on larger-than-life personalities were some of the reasons responsible for the decline of history in Pakistan.
They demanded that the government should make history an inter-disciplinary subject, put leading historians to the task of writing textbooks, encourage writing of regional histories and improve the state of libraries and archives in the country.
Presenting a research paper on the ‘Evolution of Hindu temple architecture’, Dr Shaikh Khurshid Hasan, former director-general of archaeology, said: “The Shastras classify temples into three different orders, such as the Nagara or northern style, the Dravida or southern style, and Vasara or hybrid style. Each style has its own peculiarities.
“As is generally believed, there was no concept of image worship in the Vedic age. The form of worship of the Aryans was the performance of sacrifices in the open air, around the fire altars. The sacrificial altars were probably covered with thatched roofs, in order to protect them from the onslaught of rains. The Vedic religion, due to the process of assimilation, absorbed some of the pre-Vedic cults. The Purans and Brahmanas also brought some new concepts. Buddhism, particularly its Mahayana sect, also encouraged worship in the Hindu pantheon. Besides, with the downfall of the Mauryans and emergence of Guptas, who ruled over the country from circa AD 350 to AD 650, Hinduism was revived.”
Badshah Sardar of the Allama Iqbal Open University presented his research paper, ‘Buddhist rock carvings discovered from the Jambil village, district Swat’, and said these rock carvings demonstrated Mahayanist Buddhist features.
“Most of them show isolated figures, mostly Bodhisattvas and some triads with two standing features flanking the enthroned Buddha. Among the Bodhisattvas are Padmapani, Avaloketisvara, Maitreya, Vajrapami, Manjusri and other standing features. They also reveal Hindu influence. The work is of strictly religious character, being concerned specifically with worship and ritual.”
Presenting a research paper on ‘Cultural significance of the funerary treasures from Quetta Serena site in Balochistan’, Dr Syed M. Ashfaque, former director of the National Museum of Pakistan, said: “The material recovered from ancient burials at Quetta Serena site in March 1985 puzzled scholars for a long time. The task of setting it in a chronological slot was taken up by Dr J.F. Jarriage, leader of the French archaeological mission at Mehrgarh in Balochistan since 1974, and his associate, M.U. Hassan. Their joint study was published in 1985. From 1987 to 2003, part of the Quetta Serena treasure, as material supplementary to the Indus Civilization, has been loaned for various temporary exhibitions in Germany, France, Japan and the United States. With wide publicity earned abroad, it looks amazing that the material has never been put on display in Pakistan.”
Dr Emran Hossain of the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, read out a research paper on ‘Calcutta University and the Bengal Muslims’. He said: “The University of Calcutta is one of the oldest universities of India. It was founded in 1957 along with the Bombay and Madras Universities. It was more prestigious and outstanding than any other university. The higher education of Bengal, CP, UP and part of Burma and Ceylon was under its jurisdiction.
“Apparently the chief objective of establishing the Calcutta University was to impart liberal and secular education to the natives of India. But, the Muslims of Bengal in the first half of the 20th century objected time and again that the Calcutta University authorities had not been following the fundamental spirit of the original principles. Their main objections were about Hindu domination, Hindu oriented curricula, discrimination in matters of appointment of qualified Muslims to different teaching and administrative posts, lack of Muslim representation in different statuary bodies of the University and so on and so forth.”
Reading out a research paper on the ‘1951 general elections in the NWFP’, Dr Syed Minhajul Hassan of the University of Peshawar said: “The major political party of the province, Khudai Khidmatgar, remained banned and was declared ineligible to contest the 1935 elections. In the absence of the Khudai Khidmatgar, the Jinnah Awami League led by Pir of Manki Sharif was the major opposition party in the province. There were some other political organizations as well, but they were of no major significance. Amongst these was the Jamaat-i-Islami besides Nawab of Hoti group. Right from the beginning, these political organizations lodged many protests due to the interference of political government in the electoral process, but to no avail.
“Elections were held between Nov 26 and Dec 8, 1951. Qaiyum Muslim League emerged as the political party, winning 67 assembly seats, including two reserved for women. The major opposition party, the Jinnah Awami League, won four seats and independent candidates won 13 seats. In spite of strong criticism, election results remained unchanged and Qaiyum Khan was asked to form his new government, which he did in Jan 1952.”
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Karachi, Dr Pirzada Qasim, promised that the next history conference would be organized by the university.
