The Pashtuns of Pakistan: Deliberately and Institutionally Misled

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Written by N Yousufzai

Pakistan is a complex mix of distinctly different nations that have been forced into living together in a federation that does not suit the political, economic and geo-strategic interests of most those nations that comprise the federation. In order to make the federation look a viable and effective assembly of nations that protects and serves the interests of all the nations and its citizens, the founders of the country had to twist some important historical realities and shape the mindset of the future generations of the nations that make the federation of Pakistan.

Pashtuns living in Pakistan became the main target of the ‘hoodwinking-the-citizens’ policies of the Pakistani establishment. In an attempt to alienate nations from their past, the history of the entire subcontinent and Central Asia was rewritten, facts falsified, heroes turned into villains and villains into heroes.  Fictions were presented as truths and access to historical realities made impossible. A system of memorizing these newly forged realities was introduced to Pakistani schools, locally known as Ratta.( memorizing by heart without understanding. eg Pakistan’s national anthem is written in Persian, every kid at school memorize anthem by heart. Pakistan`s national language is Urdu, 6.3% population can speak Persian)

The new history taught in Pakistani schools does not go beyond Arab conqueror Mohammad Bin Qasim’s invasion of the Indian subcontinent. The thousands of years of Pashtun history has been completely ignored—denied, in fact. Textbooks have tried to detach Pashtuns from their own Pashto speaking brothers and sisters, and directly linked their genealogy, history, religion, culture and even language to Arabs and the Muslims of India. Pashtun heroes and writers have been made irrelevant to Pashtuns. People from the Arab world and India have become national heroes, national poets, and historical figures. Mohammad bin Qasim is viewed as a greater Pashtun hero than Mirwais Khan or Ahmad Shah Abdali. The poetry of Iqbal, Mir Taqi Mir, and others is taught and its significance exaggerated to Pashtuns over the work of legendary Pashtun poets such as Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, or Ghani Khan. Mohammad Ali Jinah’s struggle for Pakistan is presented as the ultimate struggle for independence, while the selfless struggle of Bacha Khan, the non-violent Pashtun hero who spent more than 30 years in the British jails for his struggle to free India and Pashtuns from the British colonialism, is institutionally overlooked. Pashtun women heroes like Malalai and writer Nazo hold no mean for the nation, while an Indian, Fatimah Jinnah, the daughter of Jinnahbhai Poonja and sister of Ali Jinnah is made the “mother-i-milat” of Pashtuns.

Pakistan was carved out of many countries and states. A huge part of Afghanistan, India and some independent states were merged into Pakistan by a variety of forms of force and influence, religion and military among them. Pashtuns make a majority of the two strategically very important provinces of the country, and inhabit in a considerable population in Karachi – the economic hub and port city of Pakistan. Pashtuns as a nation is the driving force behind Pakistan’s economy. The nation therefore has borne the brunt of Pakistani policies of ‘alienation from identity’
A child brain from the age of seven to the age of fourteen is what develops the most. Eventfully, that becomes the child’s personality. A lesson learned in this age has a strong impact on the child’s thinking and becomes a part of her/him. In Pakhtunkhwa, children aged seven would be grade two students. From the second to ninth grades, then, the child is being taught lies, sheltered from the truth, as she or he memorizes the history by heart. Since the child’s parents were educated most likely by the same system, they, too, are never granted the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their own intellectual history. And so the generations of Pashtuns are created, generations that can hardly name a few of their major historical, spiritual, literary, and other intellectual leaders but can easily recite several of Iqbal’s poems or Muhamad Ali Jinnah’s speeches.  

On a personal level, having read Pakistani textbooks, I have often felt lost searching for my own identity, history, language and my place among the rest of the nations of the globe. After getting the chance and exposure to the world outside Pakistan, I was able to remove the Pakistani hood, think beyond Pakistan’s version of history, find my own identity, and recognize my own place in history. But there remain millions of Pashtuns still lingering and captive to the false and fictitious history through the Pakistani text books in school. They genuinely pity me for getting “historical facts wrong” and for “deviating”’ from the “great path” set for their “bright future” by the founding fathers of Pakistan in their own drawing rooms. This deliberately misled—confused—generation of Pashtuns in Pakistan pities those who harbor reverence towards their identity, their history, their past because Pakistan has ensured the mental enslavement of its Pashtun population and the division of the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

source: http://www.pashtunwomenvp.com/index.php/2013-01-28-03-21-27/social/119-ngy