Harmony and Peace Education in Pakistan: Focus on Pctb Textbooks of History and Pakistan Studies

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.

Evaluation of Sorghum Sorghum Bicolor L. Moench Germplasm and Mapping Quantitative Trait Loci Qtls Underlying Drought Stress

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolour L. Moench) productivity is greatly affected by drought which is a major abiotic stress factor around the world. Sorghum being an important crop that is used as human food, animal feed as well used for industrial purposes, is widely grown throughout the world. This important crop is considered more tolerant to drought. However, pre-flowering stage of sorghum plant is more sensitive to drought stress and as a result causes severe reduction in grain yield due to the influence on plant reproductive organs and processes. The availability of genetic variation and effectiveness of selection within the genotypes, are factors that greatly improves drought stress resistance. Additionally, markers assisted selection procedures to identify genetic factors involved in plant responses to drought stress facilitate pyramiding of favourable alleles in breeding programs. In sorghum, drought stress at pre-flowering stage is more common but limited studies have been conducted considering this stage. Therefore, the goal of this study is to investigate the effects of drought stress at pre-flowering stage and to determine variations in different traits i.e. pollen fertility in sorghum core collection. In addition, experiments were performed to map chromosomal regions controlling these traits. Also, selected accessions were screened at seedling stage to analyse polymorphisms for selected drought controlling genes. The sorghum core collection consisting of 107 sorghum accessions from Africa and Asia were evaluated under drought stress at pre-flowering stage. Under drought stress the average leaf drying score (LDS) ranged from 5 to 85% among accessions. Pollen fertility (POFE) was measured by acetocarmine staining which showed significant differences among accessions under drought stress. Drought susceptibility index (DSI) was also calculated which showed difference in yield under drought stress and well water conditions. Based on different selection criteria including leaf drying score (LDS), pollen fertility (POFE) and drought susceptibility index (DSI) the sensitive and tolerant accessions were selected, which can be used for the improvement of drought tolerance in sorghum in breeding programs. In this study, association analysis was used to map Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) associated with drought stress. Using 98 SSR markers data the association analysis was performed and 17 QTLs were identified residing on chromosomes SBI-01, SBI- x 02, SBI-04, SBI-08, SBI-09 and SBI-10 under well water conditions. While under drought stress, 9 QTLs were identified on chromosomes SBI-01, SBI-02, SBI-03 and SBI-10. On chromosome SBI-02, two QTLs identified were physically localized and were homologous for genes encoding DNA binding and ATP binding proteins. The identification and analysis of these QTLs could help in dissecting genetic and physiological basis of drought tolerance in sorghum. Experiment was also conducted to analyse eight sorghum accessions that were exposed to osmotic stress produced by polyethylene glycol. The accessions showed varied response to drought tolerance at seedling stage in terms of root length and root dry weight. The most promising drought tolerant accessions showed greater root length and root dry weight. The same accessions were also screened for selected drought controlling genes i.e. NAC1, DHN1, WRKY11 and BADH to identify polymorphisms among drought sensitive and tolerant accessions. Furthermore, no polymorphism was found among accessions for different genes primers at genomic level revealing that these genes expressed only under stress conditions. Further analysis must be carried out to investigate the expression pattern of these genes as well as to determine their functional and biological importance in sorghum drought tolerance. The work presented in this thesis is devoted to identify and study various traits that are associated to drought tolerance in Sorghum. This thesis discusses in detail the phenotypic evaluation of different drought controlling traits as well as genetic analysis to identify the chromosomal regions responsible for expression of these traits.