There is an old saying that hatred clouds judgement. If proof were ever needed, one need only read some of what now passes for commentary on Pakistan in sections of the Indian media.

A recent article by an editor at an Indian news website made an astonishing claim: that Pakistanis have only recently "discovered" that the cradle of the Indus Valley Civilisation lies within the borders of present-day Pakistan. It is difficult to know whether the author genuinely believes this or simply assumed that readers would accept it without question. Either way, the claim is spectacularly wrong.

Pakistanis have not suddenly awakened to the fact that Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are among humanity's oldest urban settlements. We have known this for generations. It has been taught in our schools for decades. It has been part of our national consciousness since the country's earliest years. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Pakistan's educational curriculum or cultural history would know this.

I grew up in Pakistan during the 1980s. Like millions of Pakistanis of my generation, I learnt about the Indus Valley Civilisation in school. I knew that Mohenjo-daro, in Sindh, and Harappa, in Punjab, were among the world's earliest centres of urban civilisation long before the internet, long before social media and long before today's endless online arguments over history.

Nor was this knowledge confined to classrooms. Pakistan has celebrated this extraordinary heritage through postage stamps issued decades ago.........

© The Friday Times