PAKISTAN STUDIES

Final Project Book Review

Murder of History by K.K Aziz

Group Members

Mohsin Tariq-18L-0081

Usama Naseer-18L-0170

Ahsan Imran-18L-0077

Hammad Faheem-18L-0088

FAST School of Management, Lahore

National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
About the book............................................................................................................................................2
Main themes of the book:............................................................................................................................3
The prescribed myths:.............................................................................................................................3
The Calamity of errors:............................................................................................................................3
About the Author.........................................................................................................................................3
Comments:..................................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
In this book the writer has quoted a long list of blunders that are printed in textbooks that are enforced as
part of the national curriculum by the government of Pakistan. which use in the schools and colleges of
Pakistan from primary level to intermediate level to briefly discuss the textbooks are full of factual errors.
In fact, they are just a collection of misquotations, misinterpretations, self-serving and self-supporting
statements, one-sided viewpoints, slanted opinions, half-truths and blatant lies.

About the book

There are plenty of books that are available in markets on the sensitive topic of history but “Murder of
History” still locates a different place in the readers. This book embarks to demolish the pinnacle which is
created by our social studies books. This book is not so important in terms of literary value but when it
comes to the historical value this book is a must-read for every Pakistani. K.K Aziz is one of the few &
remarkable historians that Pakistan has ever produced. This book stands up to the promise & take us on
the voyage of unravelling the Island of false history & no doubt he truly influences our history thoughts.
Well, it should be available on the shelf of every Pakistani. In every country the textbook is the primary
implement of education at the school and pre-university stages of instruction. In Pakistan it is the only
instrument of imparting education on all levels, because the teacher and the lecture don’t teach or lecture
but repeat what it contains and the student is encouraged or simply ordered to memorize its contents.
Further, for the young student the textbook is the most important book in his little world: he is forced to
buy it, he carries it to the classroom every day, he has it open before him when the teacher is teaching, he
is asked to learn portions of it by me, and he is made by the quantity of is contents that he can regurgitate.
The end of my perusal of these textbooks I compiled a list of the errors they contained. The number of the
hems crossed the century mark. On reflection I decided not to present to my readers straight and bare list:
empty petition may be an efficacious means of brainwashing. but it dulls the impact to undermine the
significance and gravity of the situation I Have rearranged the more serious transgressions under the
following rubric Wrong Dates. The Lahore Resolution was passed on 23 March 1940. Pakistan came into
being on 14 August 1947. The Muslim League was founded in 1999 The Round Table Conferences met
in 1913. Iqbal gave his Allahabad address in 1931. The Mehndi Repon was submitted in 1926. The All-
India Muslim League Legislation Convention met in Delhi in 1949 Pakistan State took its binhon 27 June
1947. The last five statement occur in the book, due by Rafiullah Shehab). The Sind Provincial Muslim
League Conference met in Karachi in October 1936 the Lucknow Pact was signed in 1910. Thus far the
exercise of scrutinizing history textbooks has been undertaken on two levels: pointing out their errors. and
correcting the mistakes: what may be called the specific and distinct task. But a broader and more general

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undertaking the attention the textbooks must now be viewed in a larger perspective In the last three
chapters we have been dealing with a hair-raising array of logical fallacies, biased statements, irrational
distortions. misleading animations, hypocritical and self-righteous pronoun cements. Icap of imagination
and plain inaccuracies the epheme raland dubious authority of hearsay and third-hand reports has been
given greater permanence and a spurious credibility by the hectoring authority of the written and printed
word of the (in most cases) officially prepared textbook The variety. outrageousness and ubiquity of the
mistakes in these books raise the question: we hear the responsibility for the content and the quality of the
matter presented.

Main themes of the book:

The prescribed myths:
K.K Aziz's “Murder of History” begins with The Prescribed Myths in which he tells us about the myths
which are present in our textbooks. He argues that in Pakistan books are just source to step up into the
next level but actually it should not be like this, he criticizes our teachers by saying that they just embark
to repeat the lessons & teach students to memorize the same thing. Then he tries to explain the blunders
which are undoubtedly in the author's word; prescribed myths, & students are forced to memorize the
things & they are inadequate to ask anything out of the box. The author in this chapter work as myth-
buster & he does his job till the end.

The Calamity of errors:

The second chapter is about errors as the title suggests. In this chapter, he describes in a remarkable the
calamity of errors by giving us the right dates & by eradicating the wrong dates from our minds. For
example; The Lahore resolution passed was on 23 March 1940. Pakistan came into being on 14 August
1947. He argues many more dates & fearlessly reject all those. All of the above he gives us an
extraordinary way to look at history dates.

About the Author

Khursheed Kamal Aziz, popularly known as KK Aziz, was a historian in Pakistan. He received his early
education from the MB High School in Batala, now in Indian Punjab, and then went to Forman Christian
College and finally to Government College Lahore for graduation where one of his professors was the
famed Patras Bokhari. Later he completed his studies at Victoria University in Manchester, UK.

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Comments:
Well, I have read many books on history but this book unravels another dimension of Pakistani history &
thoroughly change my views about our history which is illustrated in our own books. This author denies
every claim which is made in our books. I personally liked the morality of writing but found some
repetition which was not necessarily all-around book is a must-read for all of us to clearly comprehend
the history.

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