Some historians have questioned if history can ever be disentangled from the nation-state. History has been a powerful tool at the hands of...
Some historians have questioned if history can ever be disentangled from the nation-state. History has been a powerful tool at the hands of the state to explain and justify its origin and existence. In a previous article, I wrote about how the colonial state in British India weaponised history to sothe w seeds of dissension between different religious communities. Tales of historical injustices by Muslim rulers were highlighted to justify the arrival of the “neutral” British colonial state to rescue the non-Muslims from the “tyrants”.
After Partition, both the Indian and the Pakistani states carried forward the basic framework of the colonial historiography, highlighting and undermining certain aspects of this narrative to tell their own national stories. The “atrocious” Muslim kings who, during the colonial era had been used to justify the British intervention in the subcontinent, became heroes in the Pakistani national story. Their reigns became part of a glorious past that needed to be emulated.
Creating a Hindu enemy
Thus, right from the start, the Pakistani state obsessed over justifying the creation of the country. Hindu-Muslim relations became the focus of this inquiry. The antagonism that erupted during the Partition riots, inherited by the Indian and the Pakistani states were explained through these historical narratives. An...
