This is apropos of the article ‘Degrees of neglect’ (April 29) by Murtaza Razvi .

The sad state of archaeological sites in Pakistan (and India) is indeed a tragedy. Especially sad are those sites ‘not associated with religion’ as the writer puts it, referring to Moenjodaro and other places.

While he asks the question as to why this neglect exists, he has perhaps inadvertently provided the answer also.

He has hit the nail on the head when he talks about the extreme neglect of sites ‘not associated with religion’.

The people of Pakistan are torn between a desire to acknowledge their pre-Islamic past and a desire to believe that there was nothing there before Islam came to those lands.

There is a lot of confusion in what exactly was ‘Hindu’. Simple people have quantified ‘all that is not Islamic’ as ‘Hindu’ and thus deserving the contempt of Muslims.

I have often wondered why an Egyptian Muslim can feel proud of his pagan past whereas an Indian or Pakistani Muslim is so uncomfortable about it?

Talk to any Egyptian about his or her heritage, and they are very proud of the Pharaohs.

This is despite the fact that the Pharaohs are vilified in the Old testament, considered to be Holy by Muslims.

All great monuments of Egypt are either temples of idol worshipers or burial chambers of deified kings or queens.

The only reason I can think of is that perhaps the fact that they all converted to Islam makes it easier for Egyptians to forgive their pagan ancestors, and since it poses no threat to Islam today, it may even be easier to be proud of a pagan past.

In other words, had there been no surviving Hindus in India, it would have been easier for Muslims to accept the pre-Islamic history of India as their own and even be proud of it.

Intellectuals may debate as to why Pakistan was created, but the fact remains that the dislike of all things Hindu was (and still is) quite intense in Pakistan, and in all candour, among Muslims in India as well.

So even in India where the relationship between Hindus and Muslims is supposedly more amicable, if there is scant acknowledgement of the Hindu civilisation and its heritage among the Muslims, is it any wonder that in Pakistan they could not care less about Moenjodaro?

B.K. VASAN
United States

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