ISLAMABAD, March 5: The need to harmonize the school syllabi with the people's aspirations for peace and democracy in Pakistan and India was emphasized by prominent scholars at a seminar here on Friday.

Organized by Islamabad Cultural Forum jointly with the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, the well- attended seminar highlighted the stereotyping in the textbooks of the two countries which fostered negative attitudes on religious and gender issues.

Prof (Dr) Tariq Rehman, a noted social scientist at the Quaid-i-Azam University and Higher Education Commission, and Aparna Reddy, a Delhi-based journalist and social activist from India, were the main speakers.

Ms Reddy said the Indian constitution enjoined gender equality, but due to poverty and social bias, two-thirds of educationally deprived children in her country were girls.

She cited examples of how educational syllabi reinforced the outdated perceptions about girls and boys which sustained the disabilities inflicted on womanhood. With the advent of liberalization since late 1980s, she said, a move had been set in motion to globalize syllabi in the name of national integration.

Education in India was a state subject, but the school syllabi were being re-written in such a way so as to do away with the concept of unity through diversity which was espoused by late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

In the 1990s, the changes in syllabi also amounted to re- writing of history. Thus the tragic assassination of Mahatama Gandhi had been removed from the school books on the one hand, and on the other, there was an attempt to co-opt Gandhi by the BJP on the plea that it, too, believed in "Ahimsa" (non-violence) with the proviso that this did not mean offering the other cheek.

Similarly, the history books flaunted the achievements of ancient India in the realm of science, but omitted those of the Mughal period in a departure of the earlier policy which, inter alia, acknowledged the role of Kabir and Akbar in Indian history.

Similar prejudices characterized the syllabi in Pakistan as well, although the English textbooks contained relatively fewer negative messages compared to Urdu textbooks, a speaker said.

In this connection, Dr Tariq Rehman mentioned the book "Subtle Subversion", published by Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. In response to it, the government had announced the constitution of an "experts' committee" to "evaluate" the syllabi. Dr Rehman presented the results of a survey of school children in Pakistan, included in his recent book, "Language, Ideology and Power".

As compared to the students of Urdu medium schools, those of English medium schools ostensibly expressed themselves overwhelmingly in favour of equal rights for minorities and women.

This could be misleading "because once they are in power, they do not adopt policies that they consider in conflict with their class interests." Disagreeing with the view expressed by a member of audience that the nature of the textbooks was determined by individuals and not the state and would change when those individuals were not in power, he said policies were made by the Establishment.

In Pakistan's context, the Establishment was made up of the military, civil bureaucracy, feudal lords and retired military officers who, by the dint of allotment of agriculture land, joined the feudal class. The policies of the Establishment were quite enduring and based on its constituents' perception of national interest, he added.

Referring to the on-going peace moves in the sub-continent, he expressed the hope that these signified a real change in perception of national interest on the part of ruling elite.

Prof Khawaja Masud, former principal of Gordon College, Rawalpindi, said the survey of school children proved that they overwhelmingly desired peace, irrespective of what the two governments might do. Nevertheless, he stressed, it was necessary to work assiduously to strengthen the current efforts to build peace on a sustainable basis.