Few historical debates have captured the imagination of Pakistan's intellectual circles as intensely in recent months as the renewed discussion surrounding the Indus Valley Civilisation. Fuelled by social media exchanges, official statements from India, and broader geopolitical tensions following the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, the conversation has evolved into something far more significant than an archaeological dispute. It has become a debate about Pakistan's identity.
In the latest episode of New Wave History, writer and public intellectual Raza Rumi argues that Pakistan is witnessing a gradual rediscovery of its pre-Islamic civilisational heritage. For decades, he explains, state narratives privileged an exclusively Islamic identity, emphasising links with Central Asia and the wider Muslim world while downplaying the region's ancient past. The Indus Valley Civilisation, though never erased from textbooks, museums or currency, was increasingly pushed to the margins during General Zia-ul-Haq's Islamisation project in the 1980s.
According to Rumi, recent events have accelerated a reassessment of that legacy. As India increasingly seeks to incorporate the Indus civilisation into a Hindutva narrative, many Pakistanis have responded by asserting their own geographical and historical connection to Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and the Indus River itself. Yet Rumi cautions against replacing one form of historical exclusivity with another. The civilisation, he argues, belongs to the wider region and cannot legitimately be claimed as the exclusive inheritance of any modern nation-state or religion.
The discussion moves beyond archaeology to examine how history shapes national identity. Rumi contends that Pakistan's greatest challenge has never been a lack of history, but rather the narrowing of identity to a single religious marker. A more confident nation, he suggests, would acknowledge its Muslim heritage while equally embracing the civilisations that flourished long before the arrival of Islam.
Such a shift, he believes, would strengthen rather than weaken Pakistan. Recognising the Indus Valley, Gandhara and other ancient traditions could foster a more inclusive national identity, one rooted in territory, culture and shared history rather than ideological exclusion. It would also provide greater space for Pakistan's ethnic and religious diversity within the national narrative.
The conversation also serves as a critique of historical revisionism across South Asia. While challenging Hindutva attempts to portray Indus artefacts as exclusively Hindu symbols, Rumi equally rejects older Pakistani tendencies to overlook the country's pre-Islamic past. Neither religious nationalism nor selective history, he argues, can adequately explain the complexity of the region's civilisation.
Ultimately, the podcast presents the current "Indus debate" as a rare opportunity. Rather than viewing history as a battleground for competing nationalisms, Pakistan can reclaim its ancient past as the foundation of a more pluralistic, confident and territorially grounded identity. In doing so, it may finally move beyond the ideological binaries that have shaped much of its post-independence history.