Pre-partition violence in 1947 that deprived thousands of people of their lives was triggered by a specific group to grow the seed of hatred between Muslims and Hindus. The comment came at a conference 'Partition: Reflections, Memories, Dreams' held at the Dorab Patel Auditorium of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) here on Monday.
Speakers from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh attended the conference, which was organised by Heinrich Boll Foundation. The two-day conference is aimed at making the people aware of certain facts besides documenting that part of history, which has not been documented yet.
Research and academic papers were presented on the first day of the conference. Interviews of the people who were witness to the partition were also showed to the audience. Dr Rubina Saigol's paper was based on the 1905 partition of Bengal. She said that textbooks in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were designed to support their stance on certain issues and not to inculcate the critical understanding of history among students.
She said in our textbooks Hindus were portrayed as villains and history was written as to suggest that creation of Pakistan was inevitable from the beginning. Similarly Indian textbooks showed Muslims as communal and betrayal. Noted historian, Dr Mubarak Ali summed up the whole day's discussion. He said that it should also be discussed that whether the common people were interested in the partition and knew about it at that time or not.
Dr Mubarak said that much portion of the conference focused on the violence while it should also have discussed few other important things. "We neglect many other aspects of the partition. With partition not only a country was divided into two but culture, traditions, language and families were also divided," he remarked.
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