Category Archives: Identities

സെക്യുലറും ഭരണകൂടസെക്യുലറിസവും തമ്മിലുള്ള ദൂരം – ടി. മുഹമ്മദ് വേളത്തിന് ഒരു തുറന്ന കത്ത്

പ്രിയ മുഹമ്മദ്

ചുംബനസമരങ്ങളുടെ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിൽ ഉയർന്നുവന്നിരുക്കുന്ന ധർമ്മസങ്കടങ്ങളും ആശയസംഘട്ടനങ്ങളുമാണ് എന്നെ ഈ കത്തെഴുകാൻ പ്രേരിപ്പിക്കുന്നത്. Continue reading സെക്യുലറും ഭരണകൂടസെക്യുലറിസവും തമ്മിലുള്ള ദൂരം – ടി. മുഹമ്മദ് വേളത്തിന് ഒരു തുറന്ന കത്ത്

Is Standing with Young People Yet Another Fad? Reflections on the Young and Kiss Protests in Kerala

My arguments supporting young people in some recent debates, notably, the ones around the International Film Festival of Kerala and the ongoing Kiss protests, have apparently irritated a number of people, especially friends who belong to my own generation. From more than one source (hardly ever directly, though) I hear that they grumble that I am biased towards the young. That, apparently, is the latest fad. And Devika, it appears to them, has a tendency to support fads. Continue reading Is Standing with Young People Yet Another Fad? Reflections on the Young and Kiss Protests in Kerala

From Ferguson to Pune—The Minority Report: Archit Guha

This is a guest post by ARCHIT GUHA

Prima facie, the grand jury decision in the United States to not indict a white police officer, Darren Wilson, in the murder of a black teenager, Michael Brown, and the flurry of protests that have occurred since the incident in August are distinctly symptomatic of the structural racism that continues to plague the settler colonial nation that institutionalized slavery nearly 500 years ago, but claims to be post-racial today. Continue reading From Ferguson to Pune—The Minority Report: Archit Guha

അഴിക്കാനും ആടാനും തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയവർ തന്നെ നാം : തെരുവിൽചുംബനസമരക്കാർക്ക് ഒരു സന്ദേശം

സുഹൃത്തുക്കളെ,

 

കിസ് ഒഫ് ലൌ സമരങ്ങളുടെ രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് പലതരം ആശങ്കകൾ കേട്ടുതുടങ്ങിയിരിക്കുന്നു.

അത് ആഗോളീകരണ അഴിഞ്ഞാട്ടമാണെന്നും,

അതല്ല, മദ്ധ്യവർഗ്ഗ സന്തതികളുടെ എടുത്തുചാട്ടമാണെന്നും,

അതുമല്ല, അതിനു രാഷ്ട്രീയമേ ഇല്ലെന്നു വരെയും, കേരളത്തിലെ ബദൽരാഷ്ട്രീയങ്ങളിലെ പ്രമുഖവ്യക്തിത്വങ്ങൾ അടക്കമുള്ള പലരും മുറുമുറുക്കുന്നു.

Continue reading അഴിക്കാനും ആടാനും തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയവർ തന്നെ നാം : തെരുവിൽചുംബനസമരക്കാർക്ക് ഒരു സന്ദേശം

‘Sant Rampal’ – Farmer’s Son Challenges Hegemony of Arya Samaj, RSS Ally In Haryana : Jaspal Singh Sidhu

Jaspal Singh Sidhu looks at the genesis of Sant Rampal and ‘Satlok Ashram’ the religious centre he established.

The arrest of former public servant -turned-godman 63-year-old Rampal from his Barwala (Hissar) ashram seems to have ended the two-week long much publicized drama enacted by the Haryana police, but it has, rather, widened social and religious gulf among the people of the area . The police operation took life of five women and a child, injuring of many others including two dozen media persons covering the event. Technically, Rampal’s arrest was sought by the Punjab and Haryana high court in a case of ‘criminal contempt of court’ following his persistent in refusal to appear before the court.

The Barwala event signals much more than what one gathers from the media. Rampal’s abortive defiance appears to be (consciously or unconsciously) challenging the hegemony of the Sangh Privar ideology based on Aryans and non- Aryans divide which uses the Vedic literature as manifestation of the Aryan race. The media story, invariably, only covers the present happenings. And, it is meant for the consumption of general public only interested in the day-to-day developments. For obvious reasons, such reporting suits both the government of the day and the media outlets. By and large, the media (newspapers and TV channels) reels out largely that information (official version) which police and official machinery serves them with punctuation of a little-bit material on the root cause of the controversy which has climaxed to the dramatic custody of Rampal by the police.

Read the rest of the article here.

We, or our Nationhood, Redefined.

A couple of weeks ago, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan was invited by the Editors’ Guild to deliver its annual lecture. Patwardhan’s speech, titled We or our Nationhood Redefined, was marked by his characteristically cool tone, systematically reassembling facts that have a tricky habit of leaking from national memory. Facts like the twentieth century’s worst genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler and his programme of racial cleansing has a respectable and massive following in India in the form of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. That the RSS has at least 50,000 branches across the country with over 40 million members, and runs a network of 18,000 schools across India. That one such child, recruited from the age of 8 from a relatively poor family, is Prime Minister Modi; and another is Party Chief Amit Shah. That just before the recent reshuffle, 5 Chief Ministers and 17 of the 23 Cabinet-level senior ministers were current or former RSS members. That the assassins of Gandhi are really the RSS, not the lone lunatic Godse who merely carried out what others dreamed about. That RSS’s poisonous communal agenda was roundly condemned by Sardar Patel, of whom PM Modi has promised to build the world’s tallest statue. Or more obscure but equally revealing facts, like the letter written by RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras from jail during Emergency, praising Indira Gandhi and especially her programme of sterilisation of Muslims. And those truly mind-boggling-in-their-irony facts, like the widespread involvement of the RSS in the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, when the BJP cynically says “1984” every time somebody says “2002”.

On a day when the Nanavati Commission has termed the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat as a purely communal reaction to Godhra, and cleared then Chief Minister Modi’s government of any wrongdoing, or even inaction, it is critical we re-read Patwardhan’s speech, to remind ourselves exactly what we are up against if we believe in a non-communal, non-divided, heterogenous India. As Patwardhan put it, given the history of the RSS in this subcontinent, if a Modi didn’t exist, he would have to be invented. Read more.

धर्मनिरपेक्ष दक्षिणपंथ – एक कल्पना का सच: सुशील चन्द्र

Guest post by SUSHIL CHANDRA

पिछले जयपुर साहित्योत्सव (हालांकि मैं उसे ‌‌‌तमाशा-ए-अदब कहना अधिक पसंद करूंगा) के दौरान अमर्त्य सेन ने अपनी सात अभिलाषाएं व्यक्त कीं। दिलचस्प यह है कि उनमें से एक अभिलाषा उलटबांसी अधिक नजर आती है – कि वह देश में एक धर्मनिरपेक्ष दक्षिणपंथ चाहते हैं । यह मासूम सी सदिच्छा न सिर्फ कई प्रश्न उठाती है बल्कि एक साथ कई सारी विवेचनाओं की मांग भी करती है। सच तो यह है कि यह कामना कोई नई बात नही है और पश्चिम की अधिकांश दक्षिणपंथी पार्टियां जैसे रिपब्लिकन पार्टी़, कंजरवेटिव पार्टी़, क्रिश्चियन डेमोक्रेटिक पार्टी इत्यादि इसी संकल्पना की उपज हैं। वस्तुत: यह संकल्पना इस अवधारणा से निकली है कि दक्षिणपंथ के धार्मिक-सामाजिक पक्ष (जिसकी परिणति कठमुल्लावादी रूढि़वाद में होती है) और आर्थिक पक्ष (जो अंतत: नव रूढि़वाद में प्रतिफलित होता है) बिल्कुल अलग अलग हैं और उनके बीच कोई पारस्परिक निर्भरता नहीं है।

पहली नजर में यह सही भी लगता है जहां फ्रांस में लंबे समय तक दक्षिणपंथी शासन के बावजूद प्रशासन राज्य और धर्म के बीच संपूर्ण अलगाव के प्रति समर्पित नजर आता है। यहां तक कि भारत में भी न सिर्फ स्वतंत्र पार्टी बल्कि मनमोहन सिंह सरकार भी अपने सारे नवउदारवादी आग्रहों के बावजूद धार्मिक रूढि़यों से मुक्त नजर आती थी। मैंने जानबूझ कर नजर आती शब्दों का इस्तेमाल किया है क्योंकि सचमुच ऐसा है या नहीं इसकी जांच अभी बाकी है। लेकिन इसके पहले कि हम इस बिंदु की पड़ताल करें, इन दो बहुचर्चित शब्दों ‍- वामपंथ और दक्षिणपंथ को समझना जरूरी है । जरूरी इसलिए है कि इन दो शब्दों का अर्थ संदर्भ के साथ बदलता जाता है । Continue reading धर्मनिरपेक्ष दक्षिणपंथ – एक कल्पना का सच: सुशील चन्द्र

Challenging the Empire of Chicken Littles – Kiss of Love at Kochi

So the Kiss of Love event in Kochi did make waves that will stay in our memories for long. A very small group of young people did manage to publicly express affection and love at Kochi as planned despite all kinds of intimidation in the days leading up to the event. The lead organizers were constantly heckled and harassed; the event was grossly  misrepresented; there were attempts to stop it legally; threats galore were openly brandished against anyone who dared to participate; the police and the media, who ought to have been neutral, participated in the general hysteria that painted the event as a law-and-order problem. The core group was arrested and removed before the event to prevent trouble, apparently. Yet they did not back off; this event will indeed be remembered in the history of twenty-first century Kerala.

No one who knows life in Kerala would have expected it to ‘succeed’. The right-wing troll brigade has been celebrating obscenely, but then they clearly can’t see beyond their precious noses, because anyone who knows the strength of the united tightass coalition in Kerala and the depth of their irrational fear of touch (which, no doubt underlies much of the everyday mental and emotional pathologies in Kerala, the subject of much hand-wringing among the tightasses themselves) would know that there is no victory worth the name there. But of course they are also devoid of basic moral sense which would have made it evident that it is no big deal for an idiotic bully of a child, many times the size of a firefly, to kill it in a single swat. Nor can they be expected to have any inkling of the fact that the stupid hulk might crush the firefly with its sheer weight but is incapable of producing that speck of light which the firefly alone can ignite. Continue reading Challenging the Empire of Chicken Littles – Kiss of Love at Kochi

On The Recent Communal Disturbances in Trilokpuri: People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism

Guest Post by People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (P.A.D.S)

NOVEMBER 2, 2014

(Members of P.A.D.S. have been interacting with and visiting residents of Trilokpuri ever since the communal disturbances started on Oct 23. Along with many other citizens we are involved in efforts to re-establish peace and in providing legal aid to those wrongfully arrested. This statement is based on the experiences of P.A.D.S members.)

The inhabitants of Trilokpuri, a densely populated neighbourhood of working people in Delhi, went through a harrowing week after Diwali night on 23 October. A brawl around two places of worship that night proved to be the first event. Although the situation appears to have settled down that night, some motivated planning and mobilisation must have taken place that night itself, because the next day it was a full scale communal clash. Armed mobs from outside the locality are reported to have joined the rioting that involved brick throwing. Firearms were also used and two boys suffered critical bullet injuries.  Inhabitants are emphatic that the police fired into the crowd. The police first denied firing at all. Its latest claim is that it fired only in self defense. One apparel show room owned by a Muslim resident was gutted. Police intervened in force only two days after the clashes started. It turned the neighbourhood into an occupied war-zone. More than fifty men and minor boys were arrested randomly, many picked up forcibly from their houses amid verbal abuse and physical violence. Road intersections were barricaded and entry and exit points were closely monitored. Drones were used in surveillance and houses systematically searched. Essential supplies were in short supply. Daily wage earners, contract workers, and self employed who could not go out lost their source of livelihood. Seriously wounded and ill had no access to medical aid. While the entire neighbourhood suffered in one form or another, inhabitants of three blocks in particular, nos 15, 27 and 28, and attached  jhuggi clusters, mainly occupied by citizens who are Muslims bore the brunt of police action.

Hok Kolorob! A Strange Chatter in the Air – Ranabir Samaddar’s Fictofacts: Anindya Sengupta

This post continues the ongoing debate on Kafila occasioned by the charge made by Prof. Ranabir Samaddar in the DNA Newspaper about what he thinks is the ‘elitist’ character of the students movement that is continuing at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Guest Post by Anindya Sengupta

Now Ranabir Samaddar has done it. This charge of elitism – as evident in his article’s title ‘Elitist Protest in Jadavpur’ – is not new; it was in the air right from the onset of the movement, evident in numerous threads of comments in social networks. But when such labelling, as is regularly dished out by a Trinamul Congress backed Bengali daily like Khobor 365 Din, finds an echo in left-wing scholars, it hurts. It was almost a relief that Prof. Samaddar didn’t repeat the accusation that these rebelling students are a doped and debauched lot.

Looking up for the word ‘elite’ in the dictionaries yielded this among many: “A group or class of persons enjoying superior intellectual or social or economic status”.

Continue reading Hok Kolorob! A Strange Chatter in the Air – Ranabir Samaddar’s Fictofacts: Anindya Sengupta

Ghulam Azam : Death of a War Criminal

Wily strategists meet their nemesis in unexpected ways.

Ghulam Azam, the once all powerful leader of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, who died recently, might have brooded over this old dictum, in his last days in detention. It was only last year that he was sentenced to 90 years of imprisonment for his crimes against humanity which he committed when people of the then East Pakistan – todays Bangladesh – had risen up against the occupation army of Pakistan in the year 1971.

It was not surprising that the funeral of this man who evoked intense hatred and loathing from a large cross-section of the population of B’desh for his role during and after the liberation of the country witnessed protest demonstrations all over the country. There were even demands that his body be sent to Pakistan for final rites and should not be buried here.

“The janaza (funeral prayer) of a war criminal can never be held at the national mosque,”

Ziaul Hasan, chairman of Bangladesh Sommilito Islami Jote, an alliance of progressive Islamic parties, said at a human chain near the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque where Azam’s body was taken for funeral prayers. (The Telegraph, 27 th Oct 2014). Continue reading Ghulam Azam : Death of a War Criminal

Goodbye Politics, Hello Social Science 
- A Reply to Ranabir Samaddar and Others on Recent Students’ Politics in Jadavpur: Rajarshi Dasgupta

Guest Post by RAJARSHI DASGUPTA

[ This post by Rajarshi Dasgupta continues the debate with Ranabir Samaddar’s piece on the character of the students’ movement that has begun in Jadavpur University which was published recently in DNA, also critiqued in a recent post in Kafila by Uditi Sen ]

Nobody knows why social science routinely condemns the lack of radicalism in society when social scientists with radical pasts so easily dismiss new radicalisms as harmful and shallow. I was attending a meeting on students’ politics in the campus I work on the other night, when some colleagues, who have long been part of progressive politics since their student life, voiced such sentiments. I was struck by the arguments they made against what they saw as merely fancy and passing fashion. They were rather similar to a set of arguments made by an older generation of teachers about my colleagues when they were young and radical students. I think these arguments are worth a little discussion since they show something like a pattern that is predictable to some extent, and which may reveal a more uneasy relationship between social science scholarship and social transformation than we usually care to admit. They also have a deep affinity with the criticisms aired about the recent students’ unrest in Jadavpur university, by Ranabir Samaddar among others. Unlike some who have written in support of the students, there are senior scholars like Samaddar who have expressed profound and serious misgivings that must be tackled head on. I will argue in the following that such misgivings result from a muddle of liberal and leftist understanding of the student’s place and the academy’s role in society. A more clear understanding becomes possible, incidentally, in this case, if one returns to a basic capitalist framing of the university.

Continue reading Goodbye Politics, Hello Social Science 
- A Reply to Ranabir Samaddar and Others on Recent Students’ Politics in Jadavpur: Rajarshi Dasgupta

“Haider” – Hamlet in Kashmir: Suhas Munshi

This is a guest post by SUHAS MUNSHI

The challenge of telling stories of a conflict is its victims. Each, traumatized in their own way, needs their own story. The narrator is bound to fail not only those he didn’t include but those who didn’t see their stories recreated faithfully. Had Basharat Peer set himself the task of faithfully adapting the violence done to Kashmiris he would have had to script a pornographic narrative for the screen. Some of the bile directed at him from Kashmiris comes from a dissatisfaction of not depicting the true extent of the brutality of the Indian army and rendering its casualties adequately pitiful. An opinion piece written on the movie in ‘The Parallel Post’ titled ‘Setting the wrong precedent’ condemns torture scenes in the movie as having actually undermined the actual extent of army atrocity in Kashmir. The piece goes on to say, ‘army excesses wane out by the time movie reaches its climax.’

However, the only service that a story teller from Kashmir could do to art and to humanity is to depict the people living there, especially the victims, as humans; as people, just as they are found anywhere else in the world, and not continue to peddle the cliché of the valley being a dehumanized pastoral paradise. Accusations of betrayal, conceit and condescension are being hurled at Basharat Peer, the writer, when he has got, for the first time ever, the words ‘plebiscite’, ‘half-widows’ and the rousing call of ‘Azadi’ in a script, through a movie, on mainstream cinema. Continue reading “Haider” – Hamlet in Kashmir: Suhas Munshi

Rip Van Winkle and Raman Singh Government

Can an elected Panchayat deprive a section of its own people belonging to a minority community its constitutionally granted right to practise its religion – e.g. organise prayers or engage in religious propaganda and have sermons?

Or can it ever deprive them of their mandatory quota of grain under PDS (public distribution system) which is focused more on persons living below poverty line?

Anyone conversant with rudimentary understanding of law would reply in the negative. It appears that in Chattisgarh they do it differently. In fact, Sirisguda, Kunguda and many other villages in Jagdalpur and adjoining areas in the state are in the news for similar reasons. Continue reading Rip Van Winkle and Raman Singh Government

On The Real Tragedy of Secular Modernity: Anand Vivek Taneja

This is a guest post by ANAND VIVEK TANEJA

anandpost

In the discussion around Aarti Sethi’s essay on Remembering Maqsood Pardesi some very important questions arose. As these questions are directly relevant to my work, but also to the larger concerns of the Kafila community, I decided to dwell on them at some length. As these reflections were written in response to the comments of one particular person, I address him directly in what follows below.

Dear Imtiaz,

In your comments on Aarti’s essay, you say the following things about my work:

The tragedy of secular moderns of India is their fascination with Islam… And it appears secular modern Hindus are too busy analyzing jinns of Delhi, which is really sad!

… what do I do with the knowledge of emerging liberal ideologues working for the empire writing enchanting texts about chattan baba or the jinns?

 

I think that your opening statement is profound. But to understand its true depth, we need to revisit the terms “secular”, and “modern”, as well as our understandings of “Hinduism” and “Islam.” As an entry point into these questions, I will address your (rhetorical) question about what one should, and can do with “enchanting” texts about jinns. Continue reading On The Real Tragedy of Secular Modernity: Anand Vivek Taneja

Report on Alleged Plan of Cow Slaughter in JJ Colony Bawana: IFTU,PMS,PDSU

A team comprising of Dr. Mrigank (Delhi Committee, Indian Federation of Trade Unions, IFTU), Poonam Kaushik (Gen. Secy. Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, PMS), Rajeev (Convener, Progressive Democratic Students’ Union, PDSU) visited JJ Colony Bawana and made investigations into the reports of alleged planned cow slaughter and intimidation of Muslims.

Bawana JJ Colony is situated opposite CRPF Camp near Bawana City. It has resettled people, displaced from Yamuna Pushta, Saraswati Vihar, Laxmi Nagar etc. its population is about 1.5 lakh and about 70% are Muslims (as we were told). It is under Outer Delhi district of Delhi Police and two Police stations covers the area. Bawana PS covers village and Narela covers JJ Colony. Mr. Udit raj of BJP is MP here, who has not even been seen by the people. We were told by people that CPI (M-L) New Democracy has sent an urgent e-mail to Commissioner of Police, Delhi demanding urgent deployment of forces. Continue reading Report on Alleged Plan of Cow Slaughter in JJ Colony Bawana: IFTU,PMS,PDSU

Marginalized Sections Living Under Fear – A Letter to NHRC

[We are reproducing below a letter to the NHRC Chairperson by Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai]

October 6, 2014
To the Chairperson Mr Balakrishnan, National Human Rights Commission.

Dear Sir,

There are extremely disturbing reports about the climate of abject fear that the poor and marginalised communitoies of JJ Colony, Bawana are living in, following recent incidents. Prominent residents of Delhi have carried out an independent fact finding into allegations of cow slaughter and the systematic intimidation of local Muslims. The team consisting of Dr. Mrigank (Delhi Committee, Indian Federation of Trade Unions, IFTU), Poonam Kaushik (Gen. Secy. Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, PMS), Rajeev (Convener, Progressive Democratic Students’ Union, PDSU) visited JJ Colony Bawana.

This report available here.

We urge Sir that the National Human Rights Commission carries out a suo moto inquiry into the incident and especially inquires into the following;-

From the above Report (see below) the observations made are :

1. That the allegations that there is plan of cow slaughter is bogus. There is no possibility of hiding the cows. And no cows were found.

2. That there is intimidation of Muslims and they are living amidst fear. The police protection is not enough.

3. That the organizations like Hindu Krantikari Sena are not spontaneous organizations. It is clears from the fact that among the main organizer was the nephew of BJP MLA. Also total inactivity of BJP MP is a clear indication.

4. That there is total communal harmony in JJ Colony and even today they are together. Continue reading Marginalized Sections Living Under Fear – A Letter to NHRC

On Hasan Suroor’s “Islam and Its Interpretations”: Zeeshan Reshamwala

Guest post by ZEESHAN RESHAMWALA

Many Interpretations are Still Better Than One

[Hasan Suroor suggests in an op-ed that one of the causes of Islamist violence is the ambiguity of the Quran and the hadith, adding that perhaps it is time to develop an “authorised” version of the Islamic tradition. This article critiques Suroor’s assumption that it is possible to achieve a “pure” interpretation of a text, whether it be from a religious tradition or otherwise. In addition, it argues against Suroor’s tendency to imagine violence as a “medieval” phenomenon, and world-history as a deterministic forward-moving arrow.]

Hasan Suroor suggests that the problem of Islamist fundamentalism and the violence that follows in its wake can be solved by untangling the multiple interpretations of ambiguous Islamic texts. In his op-ed in The Hindu (29 September), “Islam and its Interpretations,”  Suroor points out this apparent paradox: that although on the one hand Muslims cite verses and hadith that provide injunctions against violence, on the other hand a more violent strain of believers (such as the Taliban) are also able to cite Quranic verses and hadith that justify their violence. The problem, he claims, does not lie completely with the manner in which Islamic texts are interpreted, but instead with the fact that the Quran is an extremely ambiguous text, arranged athematically, and whose meaning is often dependent on the context of each individual revelation. More so the hadiths, written down from the sayings of Mohammed, are of variable authenticity. The lack of a single authoritative version of Islamic texts, says Suroor, leaves the tradition “open for fanatics to distort at will.” Continue reading On Hasan Suroor’s “Islam and Its Interpretations”: Zeeshan Reshamwala

Unwrapping the Soldier from the Flag – Kashmir after the Flood: Chirag Thakkar

Guest Post by Chirag Thakkar

Witnessing a culture of wounds trying to put itself together in times of a grave catastrophe is a difficult pursuit. For the archivist of State violence, the horror with which TRP-hungry television studios build a spectacle that is acutely wedded to a deep-rooted, pungent nationalism around catastrophe and relief in Kashmir, is frustrating. The insensitivity with which the Indian media has rubbed salt in the wounds of a people is appalling. One wonders if ours is a culture of calculated amnesia or of sightless apathy.
There is something very unique about the way in which we relate with the pain of the other. What is unique is the precision with which we reproduce perceptions about the masculine, hardened sons of soil – the security forces – and yet, at the same time, remain unmoved in failing to recognise the state of exception Kashmir has been in. What is also unique is how measured and stingy we are with our sympathy. Continue reading Unwrapping the Soldier from the Flag – Kashmir after the Flood: Chirag Thakkar

A God by Any Other Name: Sumbul Farah

Guest Post by SUMBUL FARAH

The move from ‘Khuda Hafiz’ to ‘Allah Hafiz’, which Shireen Azam sees as a move towards Arabisation of subcontinental Islam is problematized by Nandagopal Menon when he questions if ‘Arabised’ Islam is an Islam ‘we do not like’. Menon’s argument provides some important ways of thinking about cultural assimilation, territorially bounded nationalisms and notions of piety central to Islam. However, it misses out on the important point that the project of ‘correcting’ belief is often premised on an exclusivist understanding of religious interpretation.

To emphasize the ‘correct’ usage might well in be accordance with Islamic notions of ‘islah’ and piety but unless we stop and question as to who is it that determines ‘correctness’ we risk aligning ourselves with the hegemonic narratives within Islam. The issue underlying the usage of ‘Khuda’ versus ‘Allah’ is not that the Indian version of Islam is somehow more desirable than an Arabised one owing to some notion of cultural nationalism, which is premised on modern nation-states; it is a questioning of the processes through which traditionally acceptable usages and idioms become marked out as ‘incorrect’ in the light of a hegemonic narrative. Particularly in the context of Islam, there is a tendency to seek a return to a supposedly ‘pure’ version of Islam, which in turn, means privileging the Arabian interpretation of Islamic beliefs and practices. Continue reading A God by Any Other Name: Sumbul Farah

#Hokkolorob – The Politics of Making Noise: Rajarshi Dasgupta

Guest Post by RAJARSHI DASGUPTA

We must not celebrate every time we see a movement. Movements can be very popular without being very meaningful, disturbing only the surface of society. Some can be pretty and harmless like candle light vigils; others dangerous and ugly like ‘love jihad’. Some want efficient governance like Hazaare; others regime change like Nandigram. For those tired with political apathy, it is of course good news that a spate of new movements is emerging thanks to new technologies and media coverage. But it is equally true that they seem to be going indifferent directions, without any common end. The picture is not clear. Who knows better than us how ‘change’ can be purely rhetorical? It is not difficult to imagine why people are weary of dramatic social unrest. They hardly fail to bring yet more conservative and unscrupulous sections to power. If we don’t want to get carried away, it is because of repeated disillusionments with the promise of change that everybody makes but nobody keeps. Politics is not, we better understand, about promise but manipulation, bargaining for daily needs, livelihood and resources, and so it should be. Movements may come and go like fashion, they are incidental to reality, which changes very slowly if at all. There is an institutional process of elections we have put in place, and it has proven to be resilient and reliable.

Bandh Bhengey Dao – Break All Bonds –
Lyrics and Music – Rabindranath Tagore & Asian Dub Foundation
From the Original Sound Track of ‘Tasher Desh’ a film adaptation by Q
of Rabindranath Tagore’s Joyous Anarchist Opera

Continue reading #Hokkolorob – The Politics of Making Noise: Rajarshi Dasgupta