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Where is History of Kashmir?

Wednesday, December 15, 2010



Is our past so insignificant that it doesn’t need a mention in our present day school curriculum?
Zulhima Jan
History, as a subject, seems boring and dull to many but the undeniable truth is that it is the connecting link, a bridge between the past and the present. The history, whether taught as a part of curriculum in schools, colleges or universities or through the newspapers, creates awareness and enlightens our minds.
It is an effort to know ones past.  In this way we achieve number of goals at once: it trains our mind, enlarges our vision, and provide much-needed historical perspective. So, history should form an inseparable part of any educational curriculum. Although our curriculum has given a due importance to the subject but what we are lacking is the perspective about our own Kashmiri history. Not a single chapter is devoted in the entire curriculum to Kashmiris history at middle and secondary level.  We learn about Indian history, World  history, Indian  freedom  struggle, about World  Wars and  many  other  important  things  but  where is our own Kashmiri history.  Is  our  own  past history  so  insignificant  that  it  doesn’t need a mention anywhere  or  we  can  see  this  as  a  policy  to  keep  our  coming  generations  ignorant  about their  roots.
Once we go through the books written on the history of Kashmir it is really astonishing to find that a huge chunk of books are partial and lacking honesty and objectivity, which is an important aspect of historical phenomenon.  Starting  from  Kalhana  to present day many  books  written,  most  of  them  by  Pandits, are biased and unfair towards the majority community in Kashmir. The books which include “An Outline of the history of Kashmir” by Prof L N Dhar;
“Converted Kashmir: Memorial of Mistakes” by  Narender  Sehgal; “Kashmir: Wail of a  Valley”  by Mohan Lal Koul;
“Kashmir Article 370” by Mohan Krishen Teng; “ White  Paper  on  Kashmir”  by  Dr M K Teng  and  C L Gadoo
And  many  other  books  by  Ram  Krishen  Kaul  Bhatt,  Santosh  Kaul,  K N Pandit, M L Kotru,  Anil  Maheshwari and Prem  Nath  Bazaz.
Most of these books attempted to prove that Islam spread in Kashmir by force. They have produced concocted tales, manufactured myths to substantiate their argument that the conversion was by force and persecution. Thus Henry  Sender, an prominent author,  writes, “The  past  recalled  by  Pandits  thus  differed  substantially  from  the  past  which  had  actually  occurred”.
It is  only few  years  ago some  brilliant  students  of  history  have  started  writing about Kashmir. We have Prof Kashi Nath  Pandit  who is translating  the  works  of  Shamsu –Din-Araki  and  this  book  narrates  how  Shiaism  spread  in  Kashmir.

In “Islam in Kashmir” by Prof Muhammad  Ashraf  Wani has  critically  examined  the  chronicles  of  Brahmin  writers  like  Kalhana, Zonaraja, Srivara and later day Pandits and exposed  their  bias  against  Muslim  community.
Distortions have taken place in past and may be repeated in future as there is dearth of authenticated books on Kashmir. It is clear that history is not something that can be hidden under the carpet. It is important to remind our children and our future generation that Kashmir has its own constitution, that like any other sovereign nation we had our own rule of law, that we once had our own Prime minister and importantly Indian state has made certain promises with the people of Kashmir which it hasn’t fulfilled till date.  Oscar Wilde once remarked, "Any fool can make history, but it takes a genius to write it."  The need of the hour is to know our history, our roots and importantly our identity. We have this responsibility to clear the doubts about our status and position, to remove the confusion and to introduce our own one history in school curriculums.

Author student of English in the Department of English in University of Kashmir and can be mailed ats3ap3arl@gmail.com

http://risingkashmir.com
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