- Ignorance of the past allows the suppression of the present
About fifty years ago, a site was prepared for the Aswan dam on the Nile in Egypt, by the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was a massive undertaking and required not only the resettlement of the Nubian people who lived in that area, which would soon be a great lake created by the dam, but also of the ‘resettlement’ of ancient Egyptian monuments, temples and statues, that would come under the lake waters.
The resettlement of the Nubians was the government’s responsibility, and the Nubians were never happy with it. To this day there are movements to return their ancestral land along the Nile to them.
As for the monuments, several countries came together to work on the project of saving the world heritage temples in a rare exhibition of international cooperation in a cause other than war. The temples and the statues were cut into small blocks and lifted block by block to the top of a cliff by cranes, where they were reassembled in exactly the same way as the original. To this day tourists come to view these temples in their new site. History was successfully preserved there. The people of Egypt have not re-converted to idol worship, and the temples and statues continue to contribute to the fund of human knowledge regarding the life, beliefs and construction methods of the ancient Egyptians.
History and human knowledge were not as lucky elsewhere. In Afghanistan in Bamyan three massive statues had been carved centuries ago. One of these was the tallest statue of Buddha in the world, carved in the fifth century BC. Not even successive generations of Muslim rulers over 1,200 years had destroyed these statues, until the Taliban came along, and predictably enough destroyed them in 2001, saying that they were an affront to their religion.
The past is allowed to remain in the human brain as memory and passed on to successive generations as history for a very good reason. An awareness and understanding of past facts helps human civilisations progress. It is beneficial to view, study and analyse the past, which explains the present and guides civilisations towards a better future, each generation learning from the mistakes and the strengths of the past, avoiding a repetition of mistakes to a great extent as a result.
History and human knowledge were not as lucky elsewhere. In Afghanistan in Bamyan three massive statues had been carved centuries ago
It is therefore beneficial to inculcate a curiosity about the past in children right from the start. To start from their immediate environment: what is Chauburji? Wow a palace! Who was Mohatta? What is Hazarganji? What does the word mean? Who was Anarkali? Why is that bazaar called Qisakhwani bazaar? The Badshahi mosque is so big! May I skate inside? Can you skate in a church?
At present the past is ignored except as a certain point in the past which is taught as part of Islamiyyat, not as a fragment of history to be scrutinised but as a point in time to which one must strive to return. That time has a linear trajectory appears to have bypassed the attention in some quarters.
To expect the younger generation of Pakistan to understand why half the country was lost in 1971 therefore is like expecting them to possess a degree without having made it through primary school, since few children today know that Pakistan once consisted of two wings, that we lost the other wing in 1971. That crucial point in the history of Pakistan is glossed over in our textbooks. For those who have heard rumours hinting that such a thing happened, the fault is laid at the door of our neighbours and the amputated wing, but never at our own doorstep. How then do we expect children to understand the value of democracy, and the role of various organisations within the country?
How in fact can we expect the population of this country to learn anything from the past when history wears a burqa to keep it good and suppressed, when the names of roads and cities are changed so regularly, when monuments are allowed to decay and crumble and the contribution of historical figures is selectively taught?
An ignorance of the past allows the suppression of the present and an indifference towards the future, and all of this is happening in Pakistan today.