In this post we will talk about two topics. One is the dearth of technical books in Urdu and second is the dearth of text books in any language by Pakistani authors at undergraduate and graduate level.
I have a habit. Every few days I like to sit in front of my book shelf and look at my collection. Last time I did that, my wandering eyes got stuck at one book which I had not noticed in while. It was my very own and very dear book of ‘bunyaadi (Basic) Engineering Drawing’ by M Iqbal Khan.
It was first published in 1978 and it used to be one of our text books in First-Year of Engineering(1990). Most of you may know that students in Pakistani Engineering colleges go through 40+ courses in their 4-year degree program but what may surprise you is that none of the text books for these courses are written by Pakistani authros — except for two that I know of. One of them is the bunyaadi (Basic) Engineering Drawing. This was also the only text book written in Urdu which was taught at undergrad level.
That was 20 years ago. Things must’ve changed by now. Hopefully for better. We all know that AutoCad and Solid Works have completely replaced the skills of technical drawing by hand and geometrical tools. No wonder the best cheap drawing tablet is also on the rise to make these digital illustrations possible.
The set of tools called ‘French curves’ may now appear as a reference to human anatomy to many. See a photo of French Curves here.
As I am writing this post, the book of M. Iqbal Khan is next to me and I am going to pick some ‘cheeda cheeda’ (selected) highlights from it. Iqbal Khan was an instructor at Jamia Millia Polytechnic Institute of Malir, Karachi and later taught at Balochistan Engineering College in Khuzdar. In the first 10 years of its publication (1978-88), this book sold 33550 copies.
The very first lesson is about ‘lettering’ and step by step the book proceeds to teach concepts of drawings conic sections, orthogonal projections, mechanical sectioning, threads (called chooriaN – literally meaning bangles in Urdu) etc.
Look at the image to the right above. It teaches how to draw mechanical threads.
I don’t want to bore our versatile readership with technical terms but this book was indeed the one which impressed myself and my colleagues a lot and we learnt our technical drawing concepts from it.
Besides the above mentioned book there is one more text book of graduate level book by a Pakistani author that I know of. It is called the ‘Introduction to Statistical Theory’ and is written by Professor Sher Mohammad Chaudhary.This book was a text book for Statistics for us in Bachelors. I know this book is also a prescribed text book Masters level programs.
Ok. so while I started this post with a narrow narrative about Iqbal Khan’s book, I now want to broaden up the scope. How about you let us know if you are privy to seeing or studying any other text book by a Pakistani author whether in English or Urdu at degree level. Let us know of the books and we will list them here.
I am aware that there are several technical books by Pakistani authors – but most of them are for reference studies. We are looking for names of text books.
So far the list is 16 books long. anymore names? sahibaan aur qadardaan?
List of Degree Level Text Books by Pakistani Authors:
1. bunyaadi Engineering Drawing by Mohammad Iqbal Khan
2. Introduction to Statistical Theory Part I and II by Professor Sher Mohammad Chaudhary, Published by Ilmi Kitab Khana
3. Mathematical Methods by S.M.Yousuf, Published by Ilmi Kitab Khana, 1999.
4. Calculus and Analytical Geometry by S.M.Yousuf
5. Comprehensive Book of Mechanics by Q.K. Ghori published by A.H. Publishers, Lahore
6. Analog and Digital Circuit Design by Shahzad Mahmood. First edition 2003.
7. Amplifiers and Receiver Circuits prescribed by NISTE (National Institute of Science and Technical Education, Islamabad. Published by National Book Foundation, Pakistan. 2002
8. Basic Engineering Drawing and CAD prescribed by NISTE (National Institute of Science and Technical Education, Islamabad. Published by National Book Foundation, Pakistan. 2002
9. Basics of Engnieering Drawing by Zahid Ahmed, Muhammad Ashraf and Shahid Ahmed. Published by Prince Book Depot, 2005.
10. Electronic Media published by National Book Foundation, Pakistan. 1998
11. Irrigation and Drainage Engineering by Iqtidar Siddiqui. published by Oxford 2007. ISBN 9780195473568.
12. Surface Water Hydrology by N.M.Awan, 2003
13. Surveying and Leveling – for architecture Technology – with Lab instruction manual. Prescribed by NISTE (National Institute of Science and Technical Education, Islamabad. Published by National Book Foundation, Pakistan. 2001
14. Theory of Automation and Computation by Sikandar Hayat Khiyal. Published by National Book Foundation, Pakistan. 2004
15. Voice of Civil Engineering by Abdul Hasan and Sarah Haider, 2003
16. Electronic Circuits and Devices by Dr. Manzar Saeed.
17. Fault Diagnosis and Testing of Digital Circuits with an introduction to Error Control Coding by Dr. Altaf Mukati. Published by HEC
References:
1. Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, Karachi and Islamabad.
2. National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE), Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan.
3. Oxford University Press, Pakistan – Books Catalog for Higher Education
4. National Book Foundation, Pakistan
Owais,
The article does bring back lots of memories. In fact, just today I was thinking that in few months time, it ‘ll be two decades, that I started at NED University reading this very book you mentioned.
On the MBBS side, I remember few Professors at DMC had published books that were required for some of the courses. I think, Prof Adeeb Rizvi had one in the kidney/urology area. If you widen the net a bit, you’ll get few more of these text books, but it’s indeed a shame that there have been so few.
Dear Owais,
Brings back old memories. Nice to hear from from you friend.
Every developed nation translated their text books and course material in their own language like Germans, Japanese, Chinese, French, and even Iranian (although they are not developed but they are fastest among developing). But one common thing is their progress in their mother languages.
We have best minds of the time, our general IQ level is most competent then any other nation. The only reason is our dual language system.
Last day, people at a PTA seminar were talking about broadband in every village; can anyone tell me the usage of that broadband in so called Chak Jhumra or Choa Sedan Shah or anywhere else.
Did our people are that much literate to understand the language appearing on Internet? And in absence of understandable content, what will be their activities?
We must come forward and support to learn in Urdu and make English as a foreign language as every other nation did.
Nice post. I remember this particular book. Fond memories! It is a shame that with all the talent in Pakistan, we still do not encourage professionals to write books that can be used as textbooks in higher education. I guess we just take the easy route and use books from abroad.
More people in Pakistan have watches on their hands than books in theirs. Are the watches made in Pakistan?
Nationalism has its place. Excellence in education is not one of those.
And the publishing of a book has the same issue that of getting published in professional journals: economics and politics.
True, the authorship needs to improve, but that comes when the politics and the economics is backing it. I have seen bogus books published by authors in many languages. Some by major university publishing houses.
As for the Urdu debate, it was ended in 1971 and we all lost it. So, get over it. If you really get the opinions on this topic, talk with grandsons of those who participated in language riots. If they manage understand Urdu at all, reading and writing? Oh no!
The real discussion should be over the content of SS and Islamiat books as was pointed out earlier. That is the real problem. And this problem is in all languages and all authorships.
What Pakistani students learn is fantasy. Amazingly, the real success stories and accomplishments are never taught.
Go figure.