published in Eckert. Die Schriftenreihe Studien des Georg-Eckert-Instituts zur internationalen Bildungsmedienforschung, Vol. 141, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen, 2016, pp.125-138
Turning specifically to education, objective historical narratives related to Partition are not part of classroom studies in either India or Pakistan. Teaching has tended to emphasize the causes of Partition, while the violence that took place in the surrounding period has not been adequately addressed.6 Even after more than six decades, bad memories of Partition have continued to trouble our present; school syllabi seek to justify the division of united India in 1947 and substantiate the continuing present-day hostilities between India and Pakistan by linking them with the countries’ histories. In the process, the image of an “enemy nation” emerges in young minds and remains with many people into their later lives. This chapter demonstrates why these perceptions are among the principal hindrances to long-term sustainable peace between India and Pakistan. The people of both countries frequently reject government efforts toward lasting peace. This chapter will argue that changes to the school curricula of both countries will be required to improve their mutual relations, and that such changes should include units on these nations’ commonly shared culture and heritage rather than a “blame game” in which India and Pakistan each hold the other responsible for the partition and the glorification of conflict.
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