by ALI AFTAB SAEED
Hoodwinking history by being clever-and-a-half
Student of Matric? Intermediate? Bachelors? Fear no more and rejoice, for your Pakistan Studies-related troubles are finally over. The following is for the benefit of people like you, who have gone through severe mental torture and physical pain while preparing for the Pak Studies exams. The trick is to focus not on what you know but what the examiner is looking for in the answers.
For some reason, Pakistan Studies kick-starts with Muhammad Bin Qasim. You don’t have to read anything about the whole episode since you now have enough information on Memogate to attempt the question on Qasim’s intervention in Sindh, except the fact that the alleged woman who wrote him the letter was a victim while the alleged contrivers of the memo have committed high treason. Let’s not get bogged down in trivial details though and let’s focus on the big picture.
Nobody contributed more to Islam in the subcontinent than Mehmood Ghaznavi (you can thank your lucky stars if Shah Mehmood Qureshi turns out to be the Dhaaga Peer of your examiner). By the way, usually there’s never a question raised on either Ranjeet Singh or Sir Syed. In case you get one, screw Ranjeet but remember to go easy on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Granted, he never was such a great guy, but we have kind of forgiven him with time.
We then come to the Mughal dynasty. The ‘Golden Era’ of our history when all the emperors used to weave straw pray mats to make their ends meet, except for Akbar who was a drunkard, married Hindu women, and invented his own religion.
It doesn’t matter in the least if you still can’t fathom why the Khilafat Movement was carried out in the Indian subcontinent while the indigenous ignorant masses of Turkey referred to the godless Mustafa Kamal as Ataturk – their father. The point, folks, is not to inquire but to score marks. Thus, when this question pops up in the paper – and it will in most examinations – skipping the unnecessary details and expounding under one heading Gandhi ki syaasi qalabazi (Gandhi’s political summersault) insures full marks.
No exam is complete without the Fourteen Points of the Quaid e Azam. It says fourteen, but you only have to jot down thirteen – exclude the one which says “Full religious liberty, i.e. liberty of belief, worship and observance, propagation, association, and education, shall be guaranteed to all communities.”
Pakistan Today for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)