Department of History, University of Karachi

14/08/2026

17/06/2026

Today, happiness and wellbeing are trending topics. But the history of happiness and wellbeing are less studied and less well-understood. On 7-8 July, the Aga Khan Centre will host a major international conference on the history of emotional flourishing in early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Organised by IIS Associate Professor Dr Karen Bauer and funded by the British Academy and the Wellcome Trust.

To learn more about the upcoming conference, please visit: https://www.iis.ac.uk/news/2026/june/british-academy-conference-emotional-flourishing/

07/06/2026

'Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in a recent interview that Pakistani students should be taught factual history and that many people in the country are becoming alienated from their historical roots. Asif argued that many Pakistanis claim their ancestors came from Saudi Arabia or Iran. He said this mindset was deliberately cultivated through textbooks, describing the academics who wrote them as “criminals”. Elaborating on his point, Asif said that he and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had openly acknowledged that their ancestors were Hindus. He also remarked that studying Ashoka, Chandragupta Maurya, Buddhism, Jainism and Greeks—a clear reference to pre-Islamic history and non-Muslim historical figures—in school doesn’t make him “any less Pakistani”.

The immediate context for his candid views was the restoration of older names of streets and localities in Lahore, but also a broader discussion on the geopolitical developments. Recently, US President Donald Trump urged several Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords and recognise Israel. Asif has said that he does not believe Islamabad should become part of any agreement that “clashes with our fundamental ideologies.”
The bottom line of what the defence minister pointed out is that the Abraham Accords are for Arab countries and Pakistan is not one of them. The message is a clear no to signing the Abraham Accords, recognising Israel, or becoming part of West Asian politics and society. By acknowledging Hindu ancestors, Asif was emphasising that Pakistani identity is rooted in the history of the Indus region and South Asia, not exclusively in the West Asia.'

Read complete column by Seshadri Chari

https://tinyurl.com/57vdaccs

05/06/2026

A new study argues the Indus Civilization may have been the most egalitarian society in the ancient world—but scholars are divided.

18/05/2026

27/03/2026

Lots of exciting news from Mohenjo-daro to start the New Year. First there were reports that the city had been surrounded by a 7-meter thick and high wall whose earliest parts might go back to the very beginning of the Indus civilization if not before. This wall, first reported on by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the 1950s and seen to have been built in many stages.

Now carbon dating results from those excavations, which began at the end of December and was led by Pakistani archaeologists Dr. Asma Ibrahim and Ali Lashari along with Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, have come back. They indicate that the wall portions goes back to Kot Dijian times, so 2700-2600 BCE, so at least a century before what is considered to have been the beginning of the Harappan phase of the Indus civilization. This ties in with evidence from Harappa, which also had a Kot Dijian phase around 2800-2600 BCE (and goes back to about 3500 BCE). "Kot Dijian pottery recovered from new deep coring below the first city wall indicate the presence of a substantial early Harappan occupation before the first city wall was constructed," reports the Karachi newspaper DAWN. In short, Mohenjo-daro is older than previously thought, with a massive wall from an early period, and seems to have had a pre-Indus phase. Because of water-logging the deepest portions of the site have not yet been reached, so future research may push these dates back even further. Given that less than a tenth of the site has been excavated, we can expect many more surprises.

17/03/2026

Findings highlight early human adaptation and long-distance exchange networks
https://mrf.lu/0whs