Creating borders in young minds
A case study of Indian and Pakistani school textbooks
in Regions and Cohesion
Abstract
This article analyzes the role of school education as a medium for indoctrinating young minds through school textbooks within the framework of India–Pakistan relations. This fact is more pronounced in Pakistan, but even in the case of India, efforts are not undertaken to objectively teach subjects in a way that helps sensitize students about the India–Pakistan relationship. The author argues that the young generations in India and Pakistan largely lack a shared understanding until they undergo a process of de-learning and re-learning. Hence, the borders between India and Pakistan remained intact and militarized but definite types of borders are also created in young minds. Unless the psychological borders melt, it is difficult to imagine a porous physical border between India and Pakistan. This article attempts to understand how pedagogically the image of an enemy is created in young minds serving the purpose of the state.
Contributor Notes
DHANANJAY TRIPATHI is assistant professor in the department of International Relations of the South Asian University (SAU), New Delhi, India. SAU is an international university established by eight member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He has authored a book on Development role of the European Union in South Asia and contributed to edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Borderlands Studies, Eurasia Border Review, Quarterly of International Sociology, USI Journal. He is presently working on an edited volume on Afghanistan, Afghanistan post-2014: Power configurations and evolving trajectories. His research interests include regional integration process, border studies, international political economy, South Asian politics, the EU, and Indian foreign policy.
Regions and Cohesion
Regiones y Cohesión / Régions et Cohésion
