Portrayal of Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi’s Jihad Movement in Pakistani Curricula

Abstract

The syllabus prescribed by the curriculum wing and textbook boards in Pakistan, has presented a generic view of the movement and has avoided the issues associated with those factors which generated opposition from the inhabitants of the area where the movement was launched. In the process, such opposition is associated with ‘conspiracies’ of the others. These ‘textbooks’ lack objective analysis of Sayyid Ahmad’s three offensives against the Sikhs and eight fights with the local Pukhtuns and Barakzi sardars. He defeated some of his opponents, installed his supporters and replaced many of the old institutions which has not found the content of these sources. Apart from institutional amendments, his ideology and religious understanding changed the dogmatic pattern to a great extent. Wars for tribal prestige and honour were replaced by jihad for religious cause. The present paper is an attempt to look in to Sayyid Ahmad’s portrayal in the Pakistani curricula and refer to those factual and contextual errors in textbooks. Most of the ‘errors’, ‘blunders’ and ‘contextual interpretation’ is cited mostly from those sources which are produced by the ideological inspired writers of the movement. An attempt is made to analyze relevant literature and draw a fact-based conclusion.