Exacerbating Conflicts – Promoting Peace? – The Role of Social Science and Language Textbooks in South Asia

Textbooks are related to conflicts within and between states in different ways. It is relevant how they depict ‘society’, construct identities, draw lines of conflict and give reasons for conflicts, support (territorial) claims; it is relevant, which strategies of conflict resolution they offer, etc. Thus, they may contribute to exacerbate specific conflicts or they may reduce conflictual perception and prefer non-violent strategies of conflict resolution. 

The project analyzes South Asian textbooks from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan with reference to ‘conflict’. The inclusion of Sri Lanka is intended. Other than previous studies, the project deals not only with individual, often violent conflicts between states or internal ones, but takes into account a multitude of intra-regional and inter-regional lines of conflict, not only in relation to a single country or a bi-lateral relationship, but within the wider South Asian context, where internal conflicts often affect the neighbours. 

At the time being, the study will cover textbooks produced by state agencies in Pakistan and Bangladesh, textbooks published by the NCERT in India as well as those used in state board schools in several Indian states/federal territories, i.e. Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This study intends to bring out not only regional and ideological differences in the official perspectives, but also rivalries between centre and states will become visible, if applicable. 

With this project, the Georg Eckert institutes takes up research on textbook controversies in South Asia, especially India and Pakistan. Here, conflicts over textbooks were analysed, whereas the new project discusses conflicts in textbooks. However, both aspects are strongly related. Conflicts over textbooks are mostly rooted in societal conflicts. These might be reflected in the textbooks or tabooed, in their context, however, the textbooks might become an issue and an argument. 

The project is a cooperative one. First results were presented in a separate panel during the 54th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society in Chicago, February 28 to March 5, 2010, further results during the CIES conference in Montreal, May 1-5, 2011.

Partners/Contributors

Georg Eckert Institute (Georg Stöber, Basabi Khan Banerjee)
Faculty of Education, McGill University, Montréal (Ratna Gosh)
Dept. of Education, Concordia University, Montréal (Muhammad Ayaz Naseem, Sujata Sur Roy) as well as
Dept. of History, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC (Deepa Nair)

Funding

TransCoop-Programme,  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation,
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Grant, Canada

Duration

1.7.2009 – 30.6.2012

Contact