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Textbooks produce specific minds so are believed the best way to promote peace and harmony in a society. Policymakers draw ideological lines for specific goals and educate the coming generations through the contents of the textbooks. Whatever agenda a nation has, peace and social harmony cannot be compromised so syllabi mean to promote nationalism along with integration. Although history and social studies textbooks address coexistence and tolerance but even then many writers share their reservations about some points. K K Aziz (1993) in Pakistan castigated the governments and the textbook authors on ‘distortion’ of the historical events and deleting important segments of history from the syllabi. Mariam Chughtai shared her reservation regarding the textbooks being published in Pakistan. Romila Thapar in India raised objections against the BJP government’s effort of ‘religionising the syllabi’ and tried her best to introduce non-communal approach based on social harmony in the textbooks while writing history books but her effort remained a mere desire because the ‘religiously’ extremist political party occupying the main corridor of the national government and having no compatibility with her ideas refused to accept the undisputed historical facts. Dr. Mubarak Ali opined while writing on the textbooks that ‘defective textbooks create a defective mindset. Ideology limits people from acquiring new knowledge in order to understand the fast changing world’ (Dawn, April 16, 2016). ‘National History’ reflects national point of view to produce a generation who represents some specific land, culture, religion, political ideology, art and social ethics. Children are taught to grow with their own culture, religion and social norms. This study finds that syllabus of the subjects of History and Pakistan Studies produced by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) aims at educating the ‘national interpretation of history along with respect for other religious groups’ to the posterity therefore no gaps seem in the textbooks of History and Pakistan Studies. Criticism arises mostly on the old textbooks while the PCTB had revised the textbooks massively and all the historical periods including Indus Valley Civilization, ancient India, Sikh rule, etc. are being taught at the school and college level. The ‘history textbook’ is not a ‘history’ rather it offers interpretation of the historical events. This article further pinpoints some issues such as communal interpretations in the British India, space in the textbooks, administrative, social, political and religious narrations, and the undeniable position on nationalism and patriotism which cannot be overlooked. The textbooks are playing their role in promoting social harmony and this policy has resulted in a coexistence, tolerance and peace in the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication research has often been performed through text analysis and content analysis. They are research techniques that vary in nature and allow the researcher to make inferences from data present in a text and extract relevant information from them. Content analysis has been used in a variety of contexts with diverse research objectives, goals and methods including computerized and automated methods. In our textual analysis we have selected the Sikh Memorandum from the Indian Round Table Conference (1930) in order to extract linguistic information about its contents that can be related to its historical context through automated methods and in this manner find out word patterns to denote sentiment importance. The purpose is to find out the agreement of some of the automated online sentiment analysis tools that are available on the net as well as whether the Memorandum had positive, neutral or negative polarity. The results will be analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History is replete with events, change, cause and effect on the basis of language. Political movements and geographical changes occurred in different corners of the world and eras have slightly and massively been linked with language. Many regions are currently facing separatist movements mainly rooted in languages or dialects. A few authors have written about the criteria for defining a particular linguistic system as a language in terms of the number of speakers, its prestige, whether they have been accepted as national languages, whether they present written forms and literary traditions, whether similar linguistic systems exist in the same country or area which present an elevated level of lexical similarity, whether they have less number of speakers, etc. It seems simple to differentiate between a language and a dialect. However, although the definition of language seems to be clear and every dictionary of the world contains it, in practical terms when facing the dilemma of whether a particular linguistic system is a language or a dialect, these definitions are blurry from a scientific point of view and sociolinguistic and political pressures may play a role in many cases. This paper will propose better criteria towards differentiation of language and dialect basing the argument on the empirical evidence of the history of linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the political scenario during the 1946 elections in Punjab, Pakistan. It explores the manipulations made by the anti-All-India Muslim League forces on the ministry-making in Punjab as well as the ruling, majority, and minority communities during the British period. It also discusses the abuse of government machinery against the League; thus, create an illegal disruption in the electioneering activities.

This paper offers an analysis of the factors behind the failure of the Khalistan Movement in East Punjab. It examines why the Khalistan Movement, in confronting the Indian leadership, today appears less forceful than it was in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The study highlights such factors as the time of emergence of the basic idea of a separate state, the language issue, the methods employed by the activists and the militants, as well as changes in counter-movement tactics, the division of the movement into factions, and the policies of the Indian leaders. Due to all these reasons, even continuing discontent over various issues and the perpetual presence of separatist elements do not ensure the success of such separatist movements in East Punjab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The All-India Muslim League achieved Pakistan, the Indian National Congress secured India but the Shiromani Akali Dal got nothing on the eve of the British departure in 1947 although the Sikh community had collaborated closely with the colonial power. The demand of the Sikh community for a separate Sikh state and accession of more territories to this state came to naught as a consequence of partition of Indian subcontinent. The decision of joining India by the Akali leadership enslaved this community to a mammoth majority in which they were only one per cent. Different scholars took variety of directions in exploring the roots of the Sikh failure in the final breakdown. According to Sher Muhammad Grewal, Sikhs failed to achieve something beneficial in the political arena staged in 1940s because they were very simple people and could not apprehend the sensitive situation of Punjab politics. Sangat Singh claims that the principal reason behind the Sikh failure was the incompetent Akali leadership while Sardar Hukam Singh opines that situational politics left no positive options for the Akali leaders, therefore their decision to join India was the best choice. These scholars tried to solve this tangle by pointing out some specific aspect of the question which still leaves many gaps. Actually, there were ample reasons which combined and resulted in the Sikh failure. This article traces the factors which compelled the Sikh political leadership to reject Pakistan and decide in favour of India in 1947. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy of 'divide and rule' is seen as a mechanism used throughout history to maintain imperial rule. It identifies preexisting ethno-religious divisions in society and then manipulates them in order to prevent subject peoples' unified challenge to rule by outsiders. Many Indian and other scholars have maintained that the British adopted this strategy in order to strengthen the Raj. Both communal conflict and Muslim separatism are seen as being created by this strategy. This understanding sidelines all the factors which forced the Muslims to seek a homeland. Even the advocates of the theory deny the fact that unrest, turmoil, communal clashes and poor condition of law and order weaken the grip of the ruling authorities over the country. Therefore, to argue for the existence of a 'divide and rule' strategy implies that the British were prepared to risk instability which went counter to their requirement for law and order. Insolent behaviour and injustice did not pave the way for harmony and co-operation. The Congress was infuriating the Muslims and their leadership although it was clear that the Britishers had been making the fullest use of the 'divide and rule' policy regarding the Muslims. It convinces to conclude, whether the Congress leadership was not aware of the British's 'divide and rule' policy or it adopted deliberately the supportive attitude towards the British in fulfilling their sinister objectives of vivisection of India. This article explores different dimensions of the divide and rule policy and its practicality in the politics of British India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]