Dawoodi Culture and Language Revitalization Program
This initiative of the Silk Road Centre is designed to mobilize the small community of 400 people in Pakistan’s Hunza valley to revive their culture and ancient language. This highly talented but marginalized community of artisans and musicians has stopped using their own language in private and public domains because of stigma attached to it. Once spoken in many villages, this Old Indic language is at the risk of extinction. The project is working with the community to collect words and develop learning materials to teach the language to younger generations. The community will support organizing teaching, learning and cultural activities to revive their language and culture.
International Conference and Art Festival for Promoting Social Cohesion and Interfaith Harmony in Pakistan
The Silk Road Centre and Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations at Quaid-i-Azam University are organizing an international conference and art festival on Buddhism in Pakistan from March 14-15, 2022. The 2-day conference will be followed by curated visits to sacred Buddhist sites in the Gandhara region of Pakistan. The conference is designed to promote the understanding and value of the Buddhist heritage of Pakistan for promoting religious tourism and religious harmony in Pakistan.
Citizenship and Multicultural Education in Pakistan
Pakistan is a multicultural and multi-religious country. But, the country is still struggling to create harmony in diversity. A segment of society has “taken the entire societal discourse to the level of exaggerated religious zeal where little space is left to accept or celebrate diversity”. Lack of understanding about cultural and religious diversity has created space for extremist narratives and growing intolerance in society. After a long last, the government has created some space to teach citizenship and diversity in the new national curriculum. It lays emphasis on the diversity of “religion and cultures of Pakistan and their coexistence as a nation and enhance the concept of nationalism” in students. Silk Road Centre’s Citizenship and Multicultural Education in Pakistan (CMEP) program is designed to improve instructional practices and student learning outcomes in citizenship and multicultural education in primary schools.