An old saying holds that hatred clouds judgement, and a recent article by an editor at an Indian news website provides a stark example. The article made an astonishing claim: that Pakistanis have only recently 'discovered' that the cradle of the Indus Valley Civilisation lies within present-day Pakistan. This claim is spectacularly wrong.
Pakistanis Have Known for Generations
Pakistanis have not suddenly awakened to the fact that Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are among humanity's oldest urban settlements. This knowledge has been taught in schools for decades and has been part of the national consciousness since the country's earliest years. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Pakistan's educational curriculum or cultural history would know this.
The author, who grew up in Pakistan during the 1980s, recalls learning about the Indus Valley Civilisation in school, long before the internet or social media. Millions of Pakistanis of that generation shared this experience.
Heritage Celebrated Through Stamps, Currency, and Museums
Pakistan has celebrated this extraordinary heritage through postage stamps issued decades ago. Museums have showcased its treasures for generations. Images of Mohenjo-daro have appeared on Pakistani currency, reflecting a longstanding recognition that this ancient civilisation forms an integral part of the country's historical inheritance. These are not recent attempts to 'appropriate' history but longstanding acknowledgements of geographical and archaeological fact.
Educational trips to Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have been a rite of passage for countless Pakistani students. The author himself went on one in the mid-1980s, and thousands before and after have walked through those ancient streets, learning about a civilisation that flourished more than four thousand years ago.
The Disturbing Trend in Indian Discourse
Yet sections of Indian discourse on Pakistan increasingly find themselves detached from evidence, driven by narratives that reinforce existing prejudices. The disturbing part is not that one journalist wrote something easily disproved—journalists make mistakes—but how readily such claims are embraced and amplified by social media users more interested in confirming biases than examining facts.
On platforms like X, an alternate reality emerges where Pakistan is portrayed as perpetually ignorant, on the verge of collapse, and perpetually discovering things that everyone else already knew. Historical facts are bent to fit political agendas. Nuance disappears. Evidence becomes optional. This is not confidence but intellectual insecurity masquerading as certainty.
Archaeological Record Beyond Dispute
Ironically, the archaeological record itself is beyond dispute. Mohenjo-daro and Harappa are located in Pakistan. They have been excavated for decades, preserved by Pakistani institutions, and recognised by scholars worldwide as among the greatest archaeological treasures of South Asia. None of this is controversial or new.
What is new is the growing tendency among sections of India's political and media ecosystem to view every aspect of Pakistan—even ancient history—through the prism of ideological rivalry. In such an environment, facts become inconvenient if they fail to support the preferred narrative.
History Should Unite, Not Divide
This is unfortunate because history should unite rather than divide. The Indus Valley Civilisation predates both Pakistan and India by millennia. It belongs to the shared heritage of humanity. The location of its principal urban centres within modern-day Pakistan is simply a geographical reality. Recognising that reality diminishes neither India nor Pakistan but merely acknowledges the map as it exists today.
The deeper concern is what this episode reveals about the state of public discourse. When demonstrably false claims can be published by senior journalists and enthusiastically repeated online without verification, something has gone badly wrong. A society that values narratives over evidence ultimately loses its capacity for critical thought.
Not all Indians think alike. India has outstanding historians, archaeologists, journalists, and academics who approach the past with intellectual honesty. Many ordinary Indians can distinguish fact from propaganda, but their voices are increasingly drowned out by those who treat hostility towards Pakistan not as a political position but as an article of faith.
Conclusion: The Real Tragedy
Perhaps that is the real tragedy. Hatred has become so deeply embedded in parts of the public conversation that even straightforward historical facts are viewed through the lens of prejudice. When that happens, correcting misinformation becomes almost impossible because the objective is no longer to discover the truth—it is to sustain a narrative.
Pakistan does not need to rediscover the Indus Valley Civilisation. It never forgot it. The question is whether those who continue to invent fictional versions of Pakistan are prepared to rediscover something far more valuable: respect for evidence, intellectual honesty, and the simple discipline of checking facts before publishing them.
