The exchange programme, which was launched in 2001, encourages students from both the countries to achieve friendship and understanding.
For the alumni of Seeds of Peace (SOP), an Indo-Pak student exchange programme, compiling a history textbook that includes unbiased versions of both the sides, has become an important mission.
The exchange programme, which was launched in 2001, encourages students from both the countries to achieve friendship and understanding by staying at each other’s homes and exchanging dialogues.
Eleven Pakistani SOP alumni from Lahore are here to meet with their Indian counterpart and finalise the first draft of a history textbook which compiles both Indian and Pakistani textbook versions of the Indian independence movement and other major events that happened between 1857 and 1957.
“The idea of compiling a history textbook came up when we read each others’ history in school. There are glaring differences, distortions and omissions of facts of the independence movement in the versions of both the countries,” said Mahak Mansoor, a fourth year MBBS student.
According to her, the Indian history textbook does not have details of the Muslim League movement and has excluded the role of Jinnah and poet Mohammad Iqbal.
Similarly, when Shaili Mazoomdar, a third year law student from Government Law College, Churchgate, visited Pakistan in 2006, she realised that the facts taught on the partition of Bengal in Pakistani schools was different from what she had learnt back home. “The history taught is distorted and this was what made us embark on this project. We started compiling facts in June 2009 and we have a rough draft of the book ready,” she said.
The seeds will be meeting faculty members from the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) on Saturday to discuss the project. “We also want to project the Indo-Pak partition as a part of international political game. We are discussing the legal implications, copyright issues etc at the workshop with NCERT,” said Mansoor.
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