Envisioning the common historical and cultural past, gender concerns and conflict management and social tensions: An analysis of upper primary textbooks of social studies of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal

Abstract

The present paper is based on the analysis of social studies’ textbooks of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. Textbooks of Classes 6 to 8 have been examined from the perspective of envisioning the common cultural and historical past, gender issues and finally conflict management and social tensions. Since all three countries are members of SAARC it becomes equally important to know how they portray the common historical past in their books so that they help children at their formative stage of development to have a correct image of their neighbouring countries, societies and gender issues and also the manner in which they deal with conflicting problems and social tensions in this region. Also, in the long run they should enable children of these countries to internalise the need to cooperate and collaborate amongst themselves for translating the four pillars of education into practice, namely learning to live together, learning to know, learning to do and learning to be.