Category Archives: Islam Watch

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Regurgitating the Trite on Hate Politics

Praveen Swami laments the “increasing marginalization” of Jammu & Kashmir’s syncretic traditions. The last time I read syncretic in print was in school. History lessons painted vivid pictures of an extended period Hindu-Muslim syncretism that spawned the Indian geography. Thankfully, Praveen Swami restricts said syncretism to Jammu & Kashmir. That [...]

Islamic Republic of Kashmir Redux

The hullaballoo over the Amarnath land controversy amuses me. I fail to understand the wail of the idiots who still think Kashmir is part of India. They have forgotten that Kashmir is governed by the Shariat law. Hindus in Kashmir are zimmis; only, they have the luxury of not paying the jaziya tax–at least, not [...]

Will this be Banned in India?

The Indian Express reports

A play inspired by a short story written in the 1960s, which prophesised the rise of religious extremists and bombing of mosques in Pakistan, was staged before packed audiences in the federal capital.
When Dhanak, the short story by noted Urdu writer Ghulam Abbas, was read out to a select audience in Lahore [...]

Pragati: June 2008

The June 2008 issue of Pragati is out. Download your copy now.
This issue carries a modified version of my article on the perils of lending intellectual defense to terrorism.
For the original article, see below.

Nobody Seems to Look at the Roots

This blog refuses to let me have a peaceful vacation. I’m gone for four days, blasts erupt in Jaipur and the blogsphere is frenzied. Fellow-bloggers steal my thunder by taking the concerned citizens brigade apart. I’m with both Nitin and Yossarin on the useful idiots remark but my concern is more fundamental. And I’m not [...]

The Way of Universal Brotherhood

We are witnesses to far gorier atrocities than this.

On the day he decided to run away, 9-year-old Coli awoke on a filthy mat. Like a pup, he lay curled against the cold, pressed between dozens of other children sleeping head-to-toe on the concrete floor. His T-shirt was damp with the dew that seeped through the [...]

Another Western Whitewash

Thanks to a reader who brought this article to my notice. I read William Dalrymple now and then. To me, he is nothing beyond a sophisticated intellectual nuisance who being biased, accuses others of it.
Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, Dalrymple courageously asserts the Mughal rule was not blood soaked. Sample his reasons: [...]

Quote of the Day

Comes from Taslima Nasrin who has fled from India.

The Government (of India) is no better than religious fundamentalists..

From Baroda to Chennai

I know I’m a little late in picking this storyup.

An exhibition on Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at the Lalit Kala Akademi in Chennai was abruptly closed down and the paintings taken away by the police after protests that some of the depictions were objectionable and a distortion of history.
According to Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism (FACT), which [...]

Rushdie on Jodhaa Akbar

Really, Salman Rushdie should stop butterflying among his numerous muses and write more such delightful prose. It’s an 8-part article. It is not without its faults though. Rushdie alternates between showing Akbar’s cruelty and his own fascination for the "secular" Akbar.
Ah! And he shows how Jodhaa was merely Akbar’s love-phantasm.
Presenting a few excerpts.

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