History of the Indian Subcontinent
I’ve read many, many books on the history of the Indian subcontinent by now. In school, every year we had a mandatory subject called Pakistan Studies in which we went through the history of the subcontinent in its gory details. The books were prescribed by the government, and had to be approved by some education committee or the other. Half of them seemed to have been written by blindly patriotic old men, embittered with old age and even those who knew the subject well did not know how to write. On top of that, it seemed that Pakistan Studies was hated by the teachers as well, and assigned to the ones incapable of teaching a ‘real’ subject. There were a few good teachers now and then, but the majority were drones who reduced the fascinating story of the subcontinent into a incomprehensible muddle. In class four, the earliest history class I can remember, the class would consist of reading from the book, then the teacher would ask questions verbatim from the book. Even at that time, I remember thinking that this is no way to go about teaching a subject.
There was not much improvement the rest of my school life though the book selection got better, with a few excellent ones creeping in. Still, a number of them were the “Pakistan good, India bad” sort of books. For more see The Subtle Subversion: The State of Curricula and Textbooks in Pakistan. [via Procrastination] It’s not just the history books, but most of the other government proscribed books also. I can understand why the govt. would propagate such writings, but like everything else, they didn’t do a very good job of that either. From class 7 onwards, most of the required books were by European authors, many of whom concentrated on factual history, and some of them could even write properly! (This might have something to do with the fact that I went to an English medium school based on the British Educational system, and not the Pakistani govt. wising up and putting some better books in the curriculum). Some British writers would harp on the goodness of the British colonization and the superiority of the white man, but overall combined with the Indian books, you could get a pretty solid overview. Still, it’s no wonder that someone whose sole knowledge of Indian history is based on the proscribed government books in the schools here is highly irrational when it comes to India. In Pakistan Studies you have to go through so many books that by the time people are through with it they are thoroughly fed up and never touch another history book again. Even worse, some feel that they now know a whole lot and consider themselves a authority on the subject. Sadly, a large percentage never reads a book again, but that’s true all over the world.
I had started looking for and reading other books on the subcontinent about class 4 or so. Surprisingly, all the best books are British. While there are a number of excellent historical Pakistan and Indian historical works, their writing styles make them a chore to finish. There are a few, which are gripping and easily readable, like Nehru’s letters to his daughter about the history of the subcontinent from his jail, but that is not exactly a balanced historical work. I went through the entire British Consulate library’s history section in about 5-6 years (this is back when they had an actual library, and now I can hardly remember the names of most of the books I read.
Well, the original point of this entry was to point out one particular book which I read a few years back, and which still remains very fresh in my mind: Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. This book covers the period from Independence to the assassination of Gandhi and does it brilliantly. While they place the British (Lord Mountbatten in particular) on a lofty pedestal and portray Jinnah in a bad light, it is extremely well written and hard to put down. The authors have obviously done a lot of research on the subject, and for people who haven’t read much about the subcontinent it’s a great introduction. It is best seen not as a history, but close and upfront telling of the gory details of Partition. The author’s do not dwell much on the reasons behind partition, especially on the reasons for Jinnah’s demands, but to get a complete overview this book is best read along with the The Proudest Day.
The Proudest Day is another excellent book, one of the best I’ve read on the subcontinent’s history. It’s easy to read, and while it doesn’t break any new ground, it is aimed for the general reader, who might understandably fall asleep reading the Oxford History of India, and indeed, the vast majority of the weighty tomes. I don’t mean to denigrate all the scholarly studies on the subcontinent, and would highly recommend everyone interested in the Indian subcontinent to read them, but for casual readers I’d recommend the books I’ve mentioned above. There are so many books out there, that if I had to start today I would probably never get around to reading a tenth of the books I read as a teenager. Those days I could churn through 4-5 books a week easy, and not think twice about adding more to my reading list. These days?
Update: More on the local syllabi:
[…] there is an urgent need to completely overhaul the syllabi taught at state schools and the madressahs. Both teach hate and contempt for other faiths and these texts need to be purged. Textbooks are full of jingoistic nonsense that makes a mockery of history. A committee should go through teaching material to ensure that it conforms to the requirements of today’s world.
>> Dawn: Talking tough, turning tail
A recent article:
In its 2003 annual report on education, the Karachi-based Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) observed about the Pakistan studies textbooks, “Entire periods of history are missing and other events have been casually mentioned. No attempt has been made to identify circumstances leading to particular events or to establish the relationships between different events.” The report holds that as a consequence of such texts, “Instead of being able to acknowledge diversity in points of view, they (the students) are likely to look at the world in over-simplified, uncritical, ‘black and white’ and ‘us versus them’ terms and to develop single dimensional, exclusivist mindsets.”
>> Destruction of minds
This post is aimed towards the one casual reader who did ask me for a recommendation of which “easy” book to read to get a “decent overview” of the subcontinent’s history, especially concerning the Kashmir issue.
Updated at 07:51 PM on August 4, 2006 | Email
About the British authors. South Asians generally consider Britishers to be much more Anti-Muslim than they should be. And after reading a bit I will have to agree with that. I dont know why but there is always a lilt in their tongue against Muslims.
On the other hand Muslim writers make it too unrealistic. India was not Utopia under their rule and there is not need to justify the same. But they all try to do so.
I would suggest to anyone serious in this endeavour to read books by Britishers, Pakistanis, Indians, Hindus and Muslims. To get a complete picture. But then again I love this subject. Many of you dont. If you read one book about South Asian history read ‘India wins freedom’ by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
Some of the Indian histories which I’ve read have had similar flaws, so as Jalal sats, you do have to read a wide variety to get the true picture.
I found Ian Talbot’s Pakistan: A Modern History to quite a good read, though he tends to gloss over certain aspects.
“Surprisingly, all the best books are British.”
I’d say this is unsurprising.
You’re right though: “officialisation” of history is nothing more than a distortion. If you see a book by an academic from a “prestigious” institute, be prepared for a honey-coated version of events.
History is always slanted in the direction of whoever’s written it. The British just do it more sublty, that’s all.
Thebit: Most academics are pretty far removed from the world they’re writing about, but a number of the better British authors either lived or spent a lot of time in India. I don’t think it so much honey coating, but ‘subtle distortions’ of some parts as Abez said. Although thats one and the same.
but you’d be surprised. if you read last months issue of readers digest, they’ve done a piece on how every word you read in an american classroom has been evaluated, assessed and worded for their purposes.
My instructor read the same chapter in his english class when he was student that he was teaching us years after. And yeah the gap was like 15years or so at least. Islamiat and Pak. Studies in our schools has been such a fun that I wish my children could get something Economics and Music instead beside literature, which would, I think, be there in early classes.
From Procrastination
Jun 3, 2004 4:28 AM
Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre was recommended to me by zackq and KO (who has his own thoughts here). It is a highly readable book with a great writing style. The major fault of the book...
Read more in Freedom at Midnight
»
my best wishes with you
Source:Pakistan’s Freedom & Allama Mashriqi: Statements, Letters, Chronology of Khaksar Tehrik (Movement), Period: Mashriqi’s Birth to 1947
http://www.nasimyousaf.8m.com/khaksar_article.html
i have found this site full of history and exact one suitable for every student and inidividual.
thanks,
sALIm
I am not sure but I have heard that history starts after islam in pakistani school-books and earlier period is viewed as dark-age of history. An Arab history and connection is taught more optly than original history of land. Great freedom movement which was faught collectively by our forefathers has not been given its due importance and rather muslim deprivation is taught more extensively.
Anyway, it’s good to see some voices for rational reading of history. In recent issue of outlook, I read about revision of curriculam in pakistan.
Enter Your Comment
Please read the comment policy before commenting
Please be considerate of others. Keep comments relevant. Content deemed inappropriate or offensive may be edited and/or deleted.
You are reading History of the Indian Subcontinent, an entry made on June 10, 2007, filed under Books.
Related Entries
Back to top | About | Contact | 
RSS. Some rights reserved. Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS. Design by KO