In Pakistan, students are being taught Taj Mahal is Pakistani

New Delhi: The prestigious daily newspaper Dawn from Karachi has published an article by S. Akbar Zaidi, in which the writer reveals that in a class of undergraduate students at one of Pakistan's best univerisities, the question whether Taj Mahal is Pakistani, was being animatedly debated during a session on Pakistan's history. Some students said during the debate that Taj Mahal was part of Pakistan's history, but some other students say it was "Pakistani".The author writes, these students had all taken a course in Pakistan Studies prior to starting their undergraduate degree. Zaidi writes: "Clearly, the highly controversial and contested nature of how history is constructed in Pakistan, given the numerous possibilities of framing a history of Pakistan, allows for multiple competing narratives, including a claim to the Taj 'being' Pakistani."The author further writes: "Given the eventual partition of British India and the creation of Pakistan, some historians have claimed that Pakistan was 'created' in 712 AD when an Arab invader came to what is now part of Pakistan.""Other compelling narratives look to the Delhi Sultanate, or the Mughal Empire, or the events in the 19th century and 1857, crustallising into a separate Muslim identity, which, inevitably led to Muslim 'separatism' and to the creation of Pakistan", says the article. The author writes: "Hence, if the history of Pakistan is the history of Muslims in India, and just as Mohammad bin Qasim can become part of a certain legacy and heritage and can be caricatured as the 'first Pakistani', so too can the Taj as 'being' Pakistani. Pakistani history and a history of Pakistan's people and their land, become two conflicting narratives."As a consequence, 'Pakistani' history, ignores the history of the people who live in what was Pakistan (West and East) and what is left of it. Mohenjodaro, Harappa, and the history of the people of Pakistan is dominatied by a north Indian (largely Hindustani) Muslim history, and too only of kings and their courts."