The Murder of History : A Critique of History Textbooks used in Pakistan By K K Aziz

K K Aziz worked as an adviser to Z. A. Bhutto and was the chairman of the National Commission on Historical and Cultural Research. He was made to leave the country. He returned his "Sitara e Imtiaz" (the third highest honour and civilian award in Pakistan) in protest of this treatment.

He for the first time made an in-depth study of 66 history textbooks and tried to explore many fairy tales and plain lies; especially those peddling falsehoods against India (say Hindus).

The book can be downloaded from archive.org.

My favorite gems-

....at last, frightened [dar kar) of the Pak Army and' the people of  Pakistan, Bharat sued for peace…. In 1965,’the Pakistan Army conquered several areas of India, and when India was on the point of being defeated she requested the United Nations to arrange a cease-fire. After the 1965 war, India, with the help of the Hindus living in East Pakistan, instigated the people living there against the people of West Pakistan, and at last in December 1971 herself invaded East Pakistan. The conspiracy resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from us. All of us should receive military training and be prepared to fight the enemy

In the 1965 war India "suffered great losses" and "her casualties (dead, not just wounded) were ten times those of Pakistan

....In the subcontinent the Muslim rulers based their administrative system on Islamic principles, and for this reason their rule was more popular than that of the non-Muslim rulers

The advent of Islam in India reformed Hindu society. Shaikh  Ali Hujvcri, Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, Bahauddin Zakria, Bakluiar Kaki, Baba Farid Shakar Ganj, Nizamuddin Auliya and other holy men "won over the people" (Hindus) of India. Their teachings dispelled many superstitions of the Hindus and reformed their bad practices. Thereby Hindu religion of the olden times came to an end.

...The Muslims came to this country bringing with them a clean and elegant culture and civilization. The Hindus were influenced by the Islamic civilization. The Hindus are indebted to Muslim culture and civilization today.

....Urdu is the only language, which, with minor variations, is spoken and understood in the subcontinent right from Peshawar (Pakistan) to Ras Kumari (Bharat) even today.

...Many of the European and Hindu writers have tried to paint him [Aurangzeb] as a religious zealot, which he was not. He followed most of the policies which were really originated during the reign of Akbar. Even his enemies admit that he was tolerant, large-hearted and accommodating.

Kashmiriyat vs.Sinicization

In India, communist writers celebrate so called pluralistic and liberal traditions of Kashmir. They call it kashmiriyat (another fad like Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb). They are anyway silent on forcible exodus of 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits; constituting 99% of the total population of Hindus living in Muslim majority area of the Kashmir Valley. 

Hindus were presented with three choices - Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish).

Communist writers in India will never shed tears over unrest and changing demography in Xinjiang in communist China as this will expose their hypocrisy.

Jean A. Bertie in his book “Islam in China-Hui and Uyghurs between Modernization and Sinicization” have this to say about Uyghur population in China-

“There is a growing Sinicization linked to intense Han immigration. This wave of the Chinese population recently brought the percentage of Han to more than 50% in the region for the first time. Han migrants are rarely mentioned by local authorities (Gladney 2004), but the Uyghurs are no longer the majority in their Autonomous Region. If a referendum were to take place, a self-governing platform would not be assured of victory.”

“Demography alone explains Xinjiang's intense Sinicization. Before the Second World War, Chinese civil servants and merchants were not numerous. In the early 1940s, there were about 4 million minority people in this province, and 200,000 Han. The Chinese increased from 6% in 1949 to 40% in 1962. In 1982, they were 5 million to 6 million Uyghurs and I million other Turkic minorities. In 1988, the Uyghur still dominated,but this is no longer the case. The Chinese are thus peacefully invading Central Asia, and Uyghurs are now a minority in their own cities. In 2002, the population of Xinjiang officially reached 17 million, including 42% Han. This percentage does not reflect current demographic Han pre-eminence, and it will be difficult to promote Uyghur nationalism in a region dominated numerically, economically, politically, and militarily by the Han.”

“The image of the conquering Muslim warrior developed by Max Weber does not apply to modern China. Since September 2001, one might have expected a "jihadic" revival but this did not occur. Nearly all cities in Xinjiang have Han majorities: 90% of the population of Urumchi is Chinese, and in Aksu the percentage is close to 80%. Measures to control local populations are severe, and the Chinese no longer fear Uyghurs except in the countryside and that rarely. A bazaar located in the center of Kashgar (Kundervazta Street and its side streets) behind the old mosque, the most typical part of this city, might be demolished as part of a plan to renovate the city. How can the Kashgari oppose the eradication of their historic bazaar? It was finally demolished in 2003 to make room for Chinese shopping malls.”

SAAB Gripen Story- Part 1

1930- Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bolaget (SAAB) started operation

1940-42- Saab's first military designs entered service with the Swedish Air Force- single engine B 17/S 17 and twin-engine B 18/S 18

1948- Saab 29 Tunnan, the first original jet-powered aircraft designed by Saab, undertook its maiden flight

1953- Saab 32 Lansen became the first Saab aircraft to break the sound barrier, Sweden became the fifth country to fly a supersonic aircraft. This is a first generation design. J 35 Draken was second generation design.

Late 1950s- The decision was taken to embrace the concept of a total weapon system in which design and development of the airframe would progress in parallel with that of onboard avionics and equipment, armament, the powerplant, and ground-based support equipment including simulators for pilot training.

1967- The Saab 37, later known as Viggen, took its first flight.

1971- Viggen entered Swedish Air Force service. First-generation Viggens comprised four variants, each with a primary and secondary operational role: the AJ 37 (attack, air defence), SF 37 (photoreconnaissance, attack), SH 37 (maritime reconnaissance, anti-shipping strike) and the two-seater SK 37 (training, attack). A total of 337 Viggens were built till 1990.

1979- the Swedish government issued additional instructions to find an aircraft with a combined Jakt, Attack and Spanning (JAS: Fighter, Attack and Reconnaissance) capability of a level equivalent to the American General Dynamics F-16. That aircraft would replace the Swedish Air Force's AJ/SF/SH 37 Viggens. Five Swedish aerospace companies that would join forces to design, develop and manufacture a multi-role JAS combat aircraft. 

The companies were Saab (airframe design, final assembly, digital fly-bywire control system, marketing and sales); Volvo (development of the RM12 engine in cooperation with General Electric, it being a development of the GE404J); FFV (maintenance and the ODEN Helmet Mounted Sight); SRA (diffractive optics HUD and three head down displays) and LM Ericsson (radar, FLlR, central computer system and IFF system). The decision was of political in nature  This decision was of political nature to show that not only Saab but a broader Swedish industry base would profit from the development of the new fighter. One major change was that all of the other companies now became risk-taking partners, which had not been the case with previous Swedish fighter programmes; however, marketing of the complete aircraft would stay with Saab.

1980- Official Request for Proposals (RFP) was sent to the US companies General Dynamics, McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, and to IG-JAS in Sweden. Partners were to be selected by end of 1981 so that IG-JAS could submit an offer to the Swedish Air Force. The Swedish government would then decide whether to develop an indigenous fighter or buy from overseas.

Many prototypes were tested at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Tunnel testing was undertaken in Sweden and in the best tunnels available in Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the USA.

The idea of joining an international programme to develop a fighter, though attractive financially in that the costs could be shared between the partner nations, was rejected because of the inevitable compromises inherent in the design and operational capabilities of a multi-nation aircraft. There also remained the unanswered question of whether or not such a programme could produce an aircraft able to meet the Swedish Air Force's operational requirements and thus replace the surviving Drakens and Viggens in service.

On 1st December 1981, the Swedish government voted in favour of the IG-JAS proposal and therefore gave the FMV an order to negotiate a contract with IG-JAS for a Draken/ Viggen replacement. The decision was made easier by reasons of employment, the nation's industrial technical base and, last but not least, Sweden's policy of neutrality. Foreign aircrafts like F-16, F-18 were tested and found unsuitable for Swedish requirements.

Keeping programme costs (and therefore unit price) down was a bigger problem for Saab than for other, larger aircraft manufacturers, for instance Dassault, General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, because Sweden's policy of neutrality and strict weapons export laws meant that the company did not have as broad a customer base on which to rely. Although the Draken had won orders from Austria, Denmark and Finland, the more capable Viggen failed to win a single export order.

Outside Europe there was a different problem in that the Viggen's RM8 engine was a licence-built American design. When India. expressed an interest in possibly acquiring Viggens, the US State Department exercised its right to veto the transfer of engine technology and thus scuppered any chance of a deal.

Notes from 'The Great Mutiny - India 1857' by Christopher Hibbert

Chapter: Soldiers and Sepoys

"The lines of the European, or Queen's, regiments were separate from those of the native regiments of the East India Company; and the native city was quite separate from both. The spacious European station was 'laid out in large rectangles formed by wide roads', the native city in contrast being an aggregate of houses perforated by tortuous paths, so that a plan of it would resemble a section of worm eaten wood . . . The handful of Europeans [occupied] four times the space of the city which [contained] tens of thousands of Hindoos and Mussulmen."

"These natives (Indians serving British soldiers as barbers, washer men, tailors etc.), treated usually with a kind of amused contempt, were obliged to grow as accustomed to insults and blows as the servants of many officers were. Sergeant Pearman recalled, as a typical example, how a British soldier hurled a boot at one of the black men who came into the barrack-rooms of a morning with large earthen vessels on their heads, calling out, 'Hot coffee, Sahib'. The vessel broke and the steaming coffee ran down the poor man's body."

"The sepoys were also of more imposing physique than the European soldiers since there was never a shortage of recruits, and commanding officers were able to choose only the strongest, tallest and most presentable-looking men, while medical officers felt justified in rejecting all those with physical defects."

"In the Bengal Army most soldiers, both Muslim and Hindu, were enlisted in Oudh, the large province in what is now Uttar Pradesh, whose capital was Lucknow. They were generally taller than the white soldiers, few being less than five feet eight inches. Three out of four were Hindus, and of these most were high-caste Brahmins or Rajputs, the profession of arms being considered by Hindus worthy and honourable, like the calling of a poet."

"Although it was virtually impossible to gain promotion by merit, a native soldier did at least have the satisfaction of knowing that, provided he could read and write and had a record of good conduct, he would be promoted when his turn eventually came, even though he might have to wait twenty years before he became a havildar, was unlikely to be commissioned until he was within a year or two of being pensioned off, and would never rise higher in rank than the most junior European subaltern, however young and inexperienced the subaltern might be."

"There were more obvious threats to religion than railways. Missionaries, prohibited from working in India in the eighteenth century, now spoke openly of the day when all men would embrace Christianity and turn against their heathen gods; and, though it was claimed that the missionaries were not paid by the Government - as the chaplains who cared for the British soldiers and civilians were - their activities were approved of, and in many cases supported by, the Government."

"Proselytizing civilians were even more common. Herbert Edwardes, Commissioner of Peshawar, who believed that India had been given to England rather than to Portugal or France because England had made 'the greatest effort to preserve the Christian religion in its purest apostolic form' , had no doubt of his evangelical mission.44 Nor had Robert Tucker, judge at Fatehpur, who set up large stone columns, inscribed with the Ten Commandments in Hindu and Urdu, English and Persian on each side of the high road leading to Fatehpur, and who 'used two or three times a week to read the Bible in Hindoostanee to large numbers of natives who were assembled in the compound to hear him."

"Hindu sepoys who had gone overseas or crossed the Indus were likely to be spurned by their comrades when they returned home. After the Afghan War none of the Hindoos in Hindostan would eat with their comrades who went to Afghanistan', wrote Subahdar Hedayet Ali, 'no r would they even allow them to touch their cooking utensils. They looked upon them all as outcasts, and treated them accordingly."

Ramchandra Pant Amatya- The Maratha Chanakya

Adnyapatra or Ajnapatra’, is a royal edict on the principles of Maratha policy authored by Ramchandra Pant Amatya, a diplomat and warrior of the Maratha Empire, with intention to guide Shivaji’s grandson Sambhaji II. It is supposed to be the formal documentation of Shivaji’s ideals, principles and policies of state administration. Ramchandra Pant Amatya, served on the Council of 8 (Ashta Pradhan) as the Finance Minister (Amatya) to Emperor (Chhatrapati) Shivaji dating from 1674 to 1680. He then served as the Imperial Regent (Hukumat Panah) to four later emperors, namely Sambhaji, Rajaram, Shivaji II and Sambhaji II.

After demise of Sambhaji Maharaj, the Maratha Swarajya kingdom was in great trouble. Aurangjeb had taken a vow to defeat the Maratha empire. Marathas were the last force of any substance to stop Aurangzeb in his mission. Ramchandra Pant Amatya alongwith Santaji Ghorpade, Dhanaji Jadhav, Parshurampant Pant-Pratinidhi were instrumental in Maratha struggle for freedom. They along with thousands of soldiers loyal and dedicated to the throne resolved to defend their Empire. They fought with Aurangjeb for seven years continuously (1700 to 1707). Eventually Aurangjeb admitted defeat and subsequently died in Ahmednagar.

Some of the gems from Adnyapatra-

-Adjoining enemy is a disease in stomach-They are the means of fulfilling the evil designs of bigger rival. To neglect an enemy of such type, to put off till tomorrow what can be achieved today would be very improper. (How long we tolerated state like Pakistan?)

-One should not be contented only with work done, or with the praise-worthiness of the actions performed, further work would suffer. New achievements should always be attempted.

-Enemy should not be given any respite till it is finished off.

-Holding universal compassion towards the blind, diseased, state should provide for their livelihood,

- Finance is the life of the state. Merchants are the cause of the prosperity of the kingdom. They should be respected and given space for business.

-Royal troops should paid salary from royal treasury, it should be 24/7 standing army, no place of mercenaries in royal troops, maintenance of royal troops most important administrative work of king.

- About foreign traders/merchants (British, French, Portuguese)  “But they are not like other merchants. Their masters, every one of them, are ruling kings. By their orders and under their control these people come to trade in these provinces. How can it happen that rulers have no greed for territories? These hat-wearers have full ambition to enter into these provinces  to increase their territories and to establish their own opinions ( religion). They should not be given land on shores of the sea because of their naval supremacy. How prophetic??

About Importance of navy:  Particular territory should be apportioned for maintenance of navy, trade at ports should not be taxed for this as it would be detrimental to financial health of state. Regular fleet should be built-up, regular patrolling of sea to check foreign intrusion. Very rare in Indian history to understand the importance of Navy for protection of India.