Post Paris – Let some of us stand apart
Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood,
The unfortunate attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine of Paris in January 2015 has brought to the fore a man-made cataclysm that has been threatening to shape up in the world for over two decades blatantly defying the existential necessity of 'maintaining an inter-community relationship balance' that's needed for the welfare of humanity and everything else in the multiverse. Like a clap it needs two hands.
Book Review: Oxford Handbook of Muslims in India: Empirical and Policy Perspectives
Name of the Book: Oxford Handbook of Muslims in India: Empirical and Policy Perspectives
Edited by: Rakesh Basant & Abusaleh Shariff
Publisher: Oxford University Press, New Delhi
Year: 2010
Pages: 308
Price: Rs. 850
ISBN: 0-19-806205-2
Reviewed by Yoginder Sikand
Doms in Varanasi seek justice through honorable rehabilitation
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat,
Hundreds of pilgrims seek to see the sunrise on the banks of Ganges in Varanasi and the boatmen go on live commentary of these ghats narrating the mythological details.The most poignant moment come when you see the Manikarnikaghat, Dashashwamegha Ghat and Harishchandraghat reminding you the stories of Raja Harishchandra’s loyalty to his ‘profession’. In an indirect reference, these are the same ‘preachings’ which ask you to do thy duty while ‘result’ is not thy concern.
Can investigations cleanse cricket?
By Veturi Srivatsa,
Probing betting, match and spot-fixing in cricket is turning out to be a mirage like bringing back black money stashed abroad. The Supreme Court has asked the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to probe all the nefarious activities in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), just as it also gave the government a week's time Friday to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to end the menace of black money.
Months after riots, Indian refugees are still suffering
By James Mutti, India Country Specialist, Amnesty International USA,
The riots that killed over 50 people and engulfed the northern Indian district of Muzaffarnagar in August and September of 2013 have been over for months.
India’s focus at UNGA: Development, peacekeeping, Security Council reform
By Arul Louis
United Nations : When Prime Minister Narendra Modi joins a summit next week of presidents, prime ministers, kings and princes celebrating...
Modi’s choice for Kerala Governor
By Faraz Ahmad,
After removing governors who could cause any discomfort to Narendra Modi and his authoritarian regime, Modi in collusion with his saffron fellow travellers is now set to reward those who did him and his comrades a good turn in the hour of their need.
Old-timers, others miss electoral din in UP’s Agra
By Brij Khandelwal
Agra, (IANS) : As campaigning for the first phase of the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh assembly elections gains momentum, many old-timers and other...
Covid-19, state repression and the decline of people’s movement
The outbreak of Covid-19 shattered the whole world and everything was on a standstill except the state. The state managed to get absolute control...
Can Kirsten and Hussey change South Africa’s fortunes?
By Veturi Srivatsa,
Hiring consultants for key games appears to be the new trend. The South Africans have brought in their one time coach Gary Kirsten, who also happens to be the man in charge of the Indian team that won the World Cup four years ago, and the once "Mr Cricket" of Australia - Mike Hussey.
BJP-Congress misusing Sohrabuddin fake encounter for political gains
By Fatima Tanveer, TwoCircles.net
From 2016, Maulana Azad’s birth anniversary not of concern to Maha govt
Non inclusion of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s Anniversary in the list of the days to be celebrated in 2016 is against Maharashtra Chief Minister...
Jamia Alumni meet held at UAE
By TCN News,
Dubai: Jamia Millia Islamia Alumni meet is successfully held at UAE which was attended by some of the well-established Alumni from...
At 60, some queries about the rule of law in India
By A. Srinivas and Kaneez Fathima,
This year our country completes 60th year of Republic. In these 60 years, were the constitutional principles implemented? Did the governments which came to power in these years follow the constitution? These are not doubts but queries which come to our minds after analyzing the incidents from past.
Multi-religious democracy and its challenges
By Asghar Ali Engineer
Western pattern of democracy was evolved in mono-religious societies. Almost all European countries had mainly Christianity as the sole religion with sprinkling of Jews living in ghettoes having no franchise. Thus there were no challenges of living in multi-religious society. In India too, multi-religious society was not a problem for centuries and Indian society never saw any inter-religious tensions, let alone violence.
Perils in Parallels
By Shakeel Syed,
Calling Mumbai tragedy, an "India's 9/11" is parallel to the chatter of Texan cowboy. Indian Babus, I believe, ought to be smarter than that. 9/11 lexicon is now proven to be perilous.
The ashes in Mumbai raise more questions than the number of dead from several countries. It was an international tragedy. The Indian Government is partly responsible for its sorrowful state of intelligence and law enforcement.
Hyderabad emerges as hub of campaign against Uniform Civil Code
By Mohammed Shafeeq
Hyderabad : This historic city with a rich Muslim past has been at the forefront of most national campaigns on issues...
Islamic declaration on climate change on August 18
Islamic declaration calling Muslims to fulfill religious duty and taking action on climate change to be launched on August 18. "Islamic faith community represents...
Manmohan Singh: short-term politician with a long-term vision
By Mayank Chhaya, IANS,
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has emerged triumphant from the firestorm of nuclear politics and in the process discovered a true politician in himself. Let no one any longer dismiss Singh as a brilliant but staid policy wonk/ bureaucrat who was pushed into India's highest and most politicized office by a quirk of fate.
Will Britain’s powerful Zionist lobby forgive Sayeeda Warsi?
By M Ghazali Khan,
The first ever female Muslim Minister in the history of Britain, Sayeeda Warsi, has displayed extraordinary courage by resigning as a Foreign Office Minister over David Cameron Government’s “morally indefensible” stand on Israeli barbarism in Gaza.
Bush and Ahmadinejad fighting for time
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and U.S. President George W. Bush visited the Middle East almost simultaneously.
Bush went there to whip up support for an anti-Iranian coalition, while ElBaradei was in Tehran for a meeting with Iran's senior officials. The IAEA and Tehran agreed to broaden cooperation and step up efforts to resolve outstanding ambiguities in Iran's nuclear program.
Indian State response: An account of Rohingya’s Refugees in Kalindi Kunj Camp
By Badre Alam and Sanjay Kumar
Rohingya’s Muslim Refugees after ethnic violence came to settle in many cities in India like Jaipur, Kolkata, Haryana, Delhi...
A time of pervasive and lethal paranoia: The Stalin era in fiction
By Vikas Datta,
Some of the most memorable, enduring literature has been inspired by history's bloodiest eras - the French Revolution, trench warfare in World War I, the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi killings, the partition of India and its dangerous dislocations, the Cambodian and the Rwandan genocides and so on. But these are not only intended as harrowing records of those turbulent times but a warning against their recurrence. So is it about the Stalin era with its pervasive paranoia and fear, violent purges, mass repression, 'justice' dealt on torture-achieved confessions and denunciations, historical manipulation - and an over-arching personality cult.
Scandinavia’s scarred Mr Dialogue
By Roger Cohen, CGNews,
Scandinavia does reasonableness well, even when faced with unreason. The Oslo Accords of 1993 were as close as Israelis and Palestinians have come to looking each other in the eye, admitting neither side is going away, and jettisoning a bitter past for a better future.
The mediation habit stayed with Norway, despite Oslo's collapse. Jonas Gahr Store, the Norwegian foreign minister, is a battle-hardened Mr. Dialogue. He took a personal terrorism course earlier this year while on a diplomatic mission to Afghanistan.
Elections 2014: Between Wave and Reality, the Shadow of Figures
By Saeed Naqvi ,
Anil Trivedi, tall, with an unkept grey beard, settles down over a cup of tea in my Indore hotel room,...
To cut Delhi’s air pollution, pinpoint the source
By Eric Dodge & Rohini Pande,
This winter, Delhi’s government and the judiciary have implemented several policies aimed at cutting the national capital’s air pollution....
Tehzib-ul Ikhlaque: Ameliorating the Social Conditions of Indian Muslims
By Areeba Shabbir, TwoCircles.net
An exhaustive audit of Sir Syed Ahmad’s scholarly services laid the foundation of responsible journalism in India. He was the first...
Challenges for the Taliban and the road ahead for governance and stability
The Taliban, having, secured a highchair on the power table of war-torn Afghanistan will be faced with a host of challenges. The foremost task...
Won’t implement Centre’s order on officers’ suspension: Sisodia
New Delhi : Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday wrote to union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, saying the city government will not...
Raj Babbar: Will the ‘villain’ become a hero for Congress in UP?
By Mohit Dubey
Lucknow : Raj Babbar, the new Congress president in Uttar Pradesh, often played the villain in Bollywood. Will the actor-turned-politician prove to...
Indian Caste Census-2011: How will it affect the Muslims?
By Abusaleh Shariff and Navaid Hamid,
The future of India: caste wars or social harmony?
By Amulya Ganguli
Is India on the verge of a major social and political change? Two contradictory events - one raising the spectre of caste wars and the other of caste reconciliation - have introduced dramatic new possibilities to the Indian scene.
Khap panchayats: No room for a parallel justice system
By Ranjana Kumari, IANS,
The khap has been a system of social administration and organisation in the northwestern states of India since ancient times. Written references are found as far back as 2500 BCE. During and since that time, there has been a shift from the nomadic way of life to settled agricultural practices. From this time on, the Indian social fabric was organised around the village unit and the mode of governing was often that of a council of five, which is called a panchayat.
Men against violence-2: Socio-economic inequality leads to violence
By Nasiruddin Haider Khan,
Dhaka : If violence is not natural, and not ingrained in our genetic makeup then the question is, what the root of violence is. Violence, which is gender based. Gary Barker has done lot of research in this area and he has an answer. He is associated with International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) as Director, Gender, Violence and Rights. He strongly advocates the engagement of men in ending gender-based violence (GBV).
Textracts: rumor-mongering
By Muhammad Tariq Ghazi,
Whoever intentionally attributes to me something that I did not say or do has made his abode in the Hellfire.
The Rasool-Allah
Daily life of Darul Uloom students
By Manzar Bilal, TwoCircles.net,
Part 4 of the seven part TwoCircles.net series on Darul Uloom Deoband
Terror in the name of Islam: what purpose does it serve?
By Sarwar Kashani, IANS,
Perpetrators behind the recent terror attacks in major Indian cities - including Saturday's Delhi bombings that left at least 20 dead and scores injured - are still shrouded in mystery. But the needles of suspicion are pointing towards groups with Muslim names. And if they are indeed to blame, we need to ask what purpose do such acts serve other than damaging the standing of the community in whose name it's all being done.
Nadwi on Maududi: a traditionalist maulvi’s critique of Islamism
By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net
The late Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (or Ali Miyan as he was also known) was one of the leading Indian ulema of modern times. A noted writer, he headed the famous Nadwat ul-Ulema madrasa in Lucknow from 1961 till his death in 1999. He was associated with several other Indian as well as international Islamic organisations, a mark of the high respect that he was accorded among Muslims all over the world.
A Communist-‘fascist’ tie-up against the nuclear deal
By Amulya Ganguli, IANS,
Instead of the "accidental" prime minister - Manmohan Singh's description of himself - it is the too-clever-by-half communists who have met with an accident in the sense of having suffered a sudden rebuff on the India-US nuclear deal.
Significantly, they have been ambushed not by putative opponents like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is on their side in this matter, but their one-time allies - the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
The goose with the golden spectrum
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
Finally, it's over. Eleven years after the birth of third generation (3G) telephony and near the end of its life, India's auction for enabling spectrum or airwaves concluded May 19.
Here's to the teamwork among India's communications, finance and defence ministries that set telecom back by a half-decade. From its place 'ahead of the curve' 10 years ago -- with SMS services like mobile banking way before their US usage -- India fell way, way behind global 3G use.
How Communalism Divides the Nation?
Dictate to Chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ as an Example!
By Ram Puniyani,
Today in India the gulf between religious communities is widening at...
India could turn into next Italy if testing for COVID19 remains this slow
By Dr Nadeem Jilani
The world is in the grip of a raging pandemic. Every country is taking steps to contain it. Indian Government has...
A response to the article: “Zakir Naik Is Anathema to Secular Democracy, His Communal...
By Ubaid ur Rahman for TwoCircles.net
A fortnight ago, The Wire published an article titled Zakir Naik Is Anathema to Secular Democracy, His Communal Agenda...