Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Khawaja Asif has shown Pakistan how to reconcile with its past—by accepting Hindu ancestry

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that he and former PM Nawaz Sharif had acknowledged that their ancestors were Hindus. He favours teaching factual history to students.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in a recent interview that Pakistani students should be taught factual history and that many people in the country are becoming alienated from their historical roots. Asif argued that many Pakistanis claim their ancestors came from Saudi Arabia or Iran. He said this mindset was deliberately cultivated through textbooks, describing the academics who wrote them as “criminals”. Elaborating on his point, Asif said that he and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had openly acknowledged that their ancestors were Hindus. He also remarked that studying Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Buddhism, Jainism and Greeks—a clear reference to pre-Islamic history and non-Muslim historical figures—in school doesn’t make him “any less Pakistani”.

The immediate context for his candid views was the restoration of older names of streets and localities in Lahore, but also a broader discussion on the geopolitical developments. Recently, US President Donald Trump urged several Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords and recognise Israel. Asif has said that he does not believe Islamabad should become part of any agreement that “clashes with our fundamental ideologies.”

Is that why the textbooks taught in Pakistan were designed to mould future generations into a specific mindset: because they were at odds with the country’s “fundamental ideology”? This is evident from Asif’s explanation that during America’s wars and Pakistan’s role in global politics, society’s perceptions were changed, and history was presented accordingly.

The defence minister argued that instead of teaching factual and analytical history, school textbooks promoted a limited and politicised understanding of the past. He specifically mentioned KK Aziz’s book The Murder of History, which criticises distortions in Pakistani history textbooks. He also argued that historical figures such as Mahmud of Ghazni should be studied analytically rather than celebrated uncritically, noting that historical events must be understood in their full context.

Also read: Donald........

© ThePrint