The inimitable Khalid Hasan writes with veiled frustration:

“….the last six decades of India-Pakistan relations have proved the step-by-step approach to be a dismal failure. Whereas what is needed is a quantum jump, what New Delhi and Islamabad have opted for is a slow belly crawl. At the rate at which they are going, it will take a hundred years to get to where they say they want to be.

Ahmed Faraz wrote: Faraz sehn-e-chaman mein bahar ka mausum: Na Faiz dekh sakay thay, na hum hi daikhain gey (Faraz, the coming of spring in our little garden, Faiz did not live to see, nor will we).

For once, I hope and pray Ahmed Faraz is wrong.

Indeed, we all hope that Faraz Saheb is wrong this time.

Three quotes from this story covering the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual State of the News Media report struck me:

It was believed at one point that the Net would democratize the media, offering many new voices, stories and perspectives. Yet the news agenda actually seems to be narrowing, with many Web sites primarily packaging news that is produced elsewhere…., Two stories – the war in Iraq and the 2008 presidential election campaign – represented more than a quarter of the stories in newspapers, on television and online last year, the project found. (more…)

My city Lahore was attacked yet again by the pusillanimous attackers pretending to be brave and honourable. There is no justification and no excuse for this modus operandi. And it should not be tolerated by the state and the people. Any excuse would legitimise this reign of terror..

I am posting this excellent piece by the wise Khalid Hasan (Daily Times) that makes some excellent points on the menace of Jihad and how unholy it is -

Leaders of Salafi-jihadist organisations hypocritically preach about the benefits of martyrdom, but rarely, if ever, conduct suicide operations themselves, or send their loved ones on such missions. It is a fact that Al Qaeda and associated groups offer no vision for Muslims other than perennial jihad, hardly an appealing prospect

Jihad is now an industry among scholars, including those who masquerade as scholars but are actually in the service of more shadowy outfits, and those who believe that by blowing up people praying in mosques or families out shopping, they will not only serve God but win a point-to-point ticket to the pastures of heaven where seventy-two swooning virgins await their arrival. (more…)

That the conservative and often skin-deep Economist published the story - “The world’s most dangerous place” - was not surprising. The publication sings an imperial tune, praises occupations and invasions in the name of free markets and democracy; and sells the commodification of the poor. And, above all, it can be shamelessly biased when it comes to countries such as Pakistan.

However, what truly surprised me was a letter to the editor that appeared a few weeks later. By chance I read it and was amazed by its sheer empathy and directness. The writer was one Dr. Shreekant Gupta, a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore.

SIR — The title of your leader on Pakistan (“The world’s most dangerous place”, January 5th) confirms the old adage in journalism: when it bleeds it leads. Yes, Pakistan is going through trying times, but it is far from being the world’s most dangerous country. Having just returned from Pakistan, which I traversed without let or hindrance with my Indian passport and Hindu name, I can say emphatically that its people are warm and friendly and passionate about democracy and the forthcoming elections.

Parts of my own country (and Nepal and Sri Lanka) are racked by Maoist guerrilla warfare and violent separatist movements. I do not recall you designating India as the world’s most dangerous place when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during electioneering, or Indira Gandhi for that matter. The latter’s killing was followed by a brutal and murderous pogrom against Sikhs and Delhi burned for days. The truth always contains shades of grey.

I made a note of it but never remembered to follow up. And, what a delight it was when I found out that Dr Gupta had visited Jahane Rumi and left a comment. We corresponded and developed the cyber-friendship that now constitutes regular communication and exchange of ideas, stories and anecdotes.

It is such a pleasure to have met Dr Gupta through the cyberspace and with little effort. My email to him, after he sent the above letter, stated: “What a small world … I had read your letter in the Economist. And, wanted to write to you how impressed I was not just as a Pakistani but as a South Asian. That was a proud challenge to the Western media and a testament to your intellectual honesty… strange are the ways of this world… My stars are well-aligned these days!!”

Dr Gupta has sent the full text of the letter (reproduced below) that he had mailed to the Economist. For a change, the cynical, vulnerable to the soft brainwashing of the international media, should read it. This is what a genuine scholarly mindset is: an application of logic, reason and knowledge without pre-conceived notions and personal biases.

In Dr Gupta, I have found a friend but more importantly my country has another well wisher in the neighbourhood. (more…)

It was in the dargah compound of Ajmer when our phones started buzzing with friends and relatives wanting to share grief on the loss of a woman who was both loved and hated but never ignored. This was the typical winter dusk and we were returning from a soulful traditional dua-i-roshnayee (pre-sunset prayer) where candles are lit in remembrance of the much revered Khawaja. Amidst frantic phone calls from grieving friends, the shock was cushioned in the mystical atmosphere as one reaffirmed that God’s will was above everything. But the aching sense of loss for Pakistan haunted us despite the calming effect of Ajmer. (more…)

It was a pleasure to have read Pankaj Mishra in the Guardian:

Last week Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-Dutch polemicist, spoke to a gathering of what The Spectator called “Britain’s biggest brains – politicians, editors, academics”. She told them that they were “actually at war, not just with Islamism, but with Islam itself”. Apparently, a good Muslim has no choice but to strive “to establish Sharia law”. Martin Amis, too, has recently informed us that moderate Muslims, if they ever existed, have lost out to radicals in Islam’s civil war. In any case, Islam is “totalist”: “There is no individual; there is only the umma – the community of believers.”

Never perhaps in history has so much nonsense been so confidently peddled about a population as large and diverse as this planet’s billion-plus Muslims. Within the past decade an Islamic movement has led Indonesia towards democracy, while market reforms in Turkey have created a new and religious middle class that now challenges the power of a secular elite.

Each one of the national realities Muslims inhabit is prodigiously complex and ceaselessly evolving, shaped as much by geopolitics – imperial conquest, the cold war, the war on terror – as by internal conflicts of class, religion and ethnicity. Closely examined, Muslim societies briskly dissolve our complacent, parochial notions about religion, democracy, secularism and capitalism. They expose, too, the notion of a monolithic Islam pressing down uniformly on all believers everywhere as a crude caricature.

Read the full article here

The suggestion of violent disputes between a 16-year-old girl in Mississauga and her father over her desire to show her hair and live a “normal” lifestyle raises questions about tensions between parents and children in the Muslim community…But members of the community particularly young Muslim women  say the tension can exist both ways.

…research into the readership of her publication shows that the decision to wear the hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf is almost always a choice the girl makes on her own.

Text from here

Complex, sordid and tragic. And, I wonder what would the head honcho of Al-Huda (these days based in Canada) has to say on the sad story of a  girl who died at 16? What is this obsession with the Hijab when you live in a non-Islamic country. There is no consensus on this within Islamic jurisprudence. As my friend Asma (who sent this story) said: “Is this more important than hayya – the inner modesty; and the ability to discern the right from the wrong?”

This is a good review of After the Neocons: America at the Crossroads by Francis Fukuyama. (more…)

Liked this excellent editorial from The News: (more…)

A friend asks:

Are we going to see this article splattered all over the front pages of major American newspapers? I highly doubt it. That happens only if the woman was from an Arab/Muslim country, highlighting the oppression “all” Muslim women face.

The headlines from the UK paper, The Guardian, reads: Six arrested after black woman is held captive and tortured. The Guardian included the word “black” in the article heading, whereas the San Francisco Chronicle did not even bother to state the race of the woman. Welcome to fair and accurate journalism, American style.

Access the news report here

Khaled Ahmed is the endangered variety of writers. A true man of letters proficient in world languages, histories and cultures, he is a journalist who does not refrain from confronting the truth. There are very few individuals like him who advance the traditions of seeking knowledge and pontificating in a classical sense. I have been an admirer of his writings since my teens when I would read the Frontier Post (yes it was a thoughtful publication and a refreshing alternative to semi-controlled media in Zia days).

In his recent article published in the The Friday Times (that he also edits), he argues that “because of the death of Pakistani culture, normalisation with India has become more crucial than most of us realise”.

After 60 years Pakistan is helplessly witnessing the destruction of its culture by elements arising from within its society. The mission of purifying society to make it a fit vehicle for Islam has passed from the state. This process has been incremental, but after Talibanisation, the culture-destroying process has accelerated. The state seems to be getting cold feet over something it did earnestly since 1947 in the name of its purifying ideology. Now worried about its global image, it is face to face with religious anarchy and wants society to become tolerant and moderate, which is the function of culture.

Read the full article here.

The concluding paragraph is pretty grim -

Before 1947, Muslims offended with the fahashi (obscenity) of Saadat Hasan Manto took him repeatedly to court, only to hear the Muslim judges under British Raj say that what Manto wrote was high culture, not obscenity. After 1947, every time he was dragged before the court for obscenity, he was convicted! The judge in Karachi gave him tea in the evening and told him he was the country’s greatest short story writer, but convicted him for obscenity in the morning. Now the state wants to stop killing culture, but it is too late.

The death of Qurratulain Hyder has generated a spate of comment, obituaries and tributes. Each day I receive several emails, find new posts and articles on the internet and of course sweet little discoveries.

SG has again discovered and promptly forwarded me this interview with BBC Urdu- a nearly half an hour audio-clip. I had posted the link to another interview that was recorded in the early 1990s. This one was recorded nearly a decade later. One can hear Hyder’s  weak voice after the stroke she suffered.Hyder also laments that she has difficulty in writing and now she dictates to students. She adds that it is not a pleasurable process as the  ’relationship with pen and paper’ is lost.

In this interview, we hear of her childhood, her short stay in the Andaman Islands, the imprints of British imperialism, the pre-partition culture of tolerance and how things changed in India and Pakistan.

Ainee’s love for travel and exploring new places and meeting people also comes out clearly from this interview. We can assume that she received much inspiration by travelling. We hear all about her books as the interviewer discusses her works in some detail.

However, the interviewer is careful not to praise her too much as she was known to get irritated by an over-dose of compliments. But he does mention that by writing Kare Jahan Daraaz Hai Ainee had established a new trend of a creative and realistic autobiography as opposed to exaggerated sense of the self that many writers display in Urdu literature.

After years, I picked up the 2001 edition of Kare Jahan and started reading it again last night. As the literary critic C. M. Naim said, this book expands the “potential of experiencing life. What more can a reader ask of his author?”

Kare Jahan is a family chronicle, an autobiography, a creative journal and a novel at the same time! Navigating through its interconnected stories, social commentary and ambiance, the reader, slowly, becomes a part of the narrative; and starts viewing the world in a different perspective. I have yet to read another book that so effortlessly blends disparate genre of writing with such abandon.

Ainee’s interview in this audio clip should not be missed.

Postscript. Also read this moving tribute by Azra Raza at 3 quarksdaily:

Aini Apa’s memory was extraordinary and flawless, her intelligence was dazzling, her knowledge of Urdu, Hindi, and English literature, archeology, dance, classical music, (her last book is a biography of Ustad Baray Ghulam Ali Khan), painting, etymology and history was astonishing. I never heard her utter a platitude in all the times I have spent with her, and she was equally brilliant in both Urdu and English. Aini Apa was a fantastic mimic and could adopt a series of perfectly authentic regional accents. She thoroughly enjoyed a good joke, especially if it involved her.

And, this beautiful letter written by her nephew, Saif Hyder Hasan that talks of the personal loss faced by Ainee Apa’s family:

That was you. Absolutely uncomplicated, childlike, not at all worldly wise, generous, self-effacing and full of the ability to laugh at yourself. You couldn’t tolerate fools. And you couldn’t tolerate charlatans.

Lastly, Sheela Reddy at the Outlook again:

Fame also played cupid for a bit. K.A. Abbas, journalist, author, film producer, began to correspond with the London-based novelist. Love happened, and a tryst. But it was a disaster. Abbas, the story goes, turned up in a bright blue suit. Qurratulain, always particular about appearances, took an instant dislike to the suit, and the man. “I can’t marry a man who doesn’t know how to dress,” was her now legendary response.

Azra Raza rightly said: “Aini Apa, Zindabaad!”

Today, Jahane Rumi is publishing a guest post by Ali Eteraz who is well known in the blogopshere.Eteraz is a gifted, fiery writer based in the US. He maintains a blog Eteraz, writes for the Huffington Post as well as for the Guardians blog. Ali also manages a web portal called Plural Politics. The views expressed below are solely those of the author.

Why is NYT’s India Editorial About Pakistan?

On August 15, 2007, presumably to mark India’s 60th birthday, the NYT published an op-ed by Ramachandra Guha, entitled “India’s Internal Partition.” At the outset it appeared to be a promising examination of Hindu-Muslim relations, in India. Guha started by discussing1990:

Bharatiya Janata leader Lal Krishna Advani journeyed for five weeks between Somnath and Ayodhya, making fiery speeches at towns and villages en route, denouncing the Indian government for “appeasing” the Muslims. In many places Mr. Advani visited, attacks on Muslims followed.In New Delhi, where I then lived, Mr. Advani’s march represented a grave threat to the inclusive, plural, secular and democratic idea of India.

Though he is quick to invoke his friendship with Pakistani Tariq Banuri who was the first Muslim Guha ever became “close” with (even having dreams about Banuri during the Ayodha crisis), it would appear that the friendship did not leave any discernible positive residue.

When discussing Muslims in India, Guha simply states the oft-invoked trope that Muslims don’t do anything but films, saying “but in law, medicine, business and the upper echelons of public service, Hindus dominated.” An objective editorial about India’s “internal” partition might have inquired why Muslims in India do not make it to the “upper-echelons” of Indian society. But why would Mr. Guha waste time with trivialities, when, on the 60th anniversary of India, there is plenty of Pakistan bashing to be had. It comes soon enough.

They also cheated their tenants. In six years in Delhi, my wife and I had four landlords, all refugees from the Pakistani part of Punjab. All four hooked their appliances to our electricity meter, and all kept our deposits when we left.

Then I went across to the majestic Badshahi Mosque, built by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. It was Friday evening, and a large crowd of worshipers was coming out after the weekly prayers. Walking against the flow, I had to jostle my way through.

As I bumped into one worshiper, I was seized by panic. In one pocket of my kurta lay my wallet; in the other, an exquisite little statue of the Hindu god Ganesh, dancing. I am not a believer, but this was my mascot, a gift from my sister, carried whenever I was separated from my wife and little children. What if it now fell out and was seized upon by the crowd? How would that turn out — an infidel discovered in a Muslim shrine, an Indian visitor illegally in Lahore?

Despite their shared culture, cuisine and love for the game of cricket, India and Pakistan have already fought four wars. And judging by the number of troops on their borders and the missiles and nuclear weapons to back them, they seem prepared to fight a fifth.

I read this interesting, albeit a little contentious, piece by  Ravinder Kaur that examined the impact of partition on settling the communal question. The article states:

The sixtieth anniversary of the independence of Pakistan and India on 14-15 August 2007 has prompted official celebration in both countries, as well as an ocean of commemorative coverage in the world’s media. The terrible violence that accompanied the birthpangs of the two states from the ashes of empire is an inevitable theme in much commentary. What is being less addressed amid the profusion of human stories – and what this article considers – is whether the problems of communal division in the sub-continent were or are best addressed by the partition of territory.

The recent weeks have seen a splurge of such discussions in the media (including the new media) that attempt to re-examine and explore the partition of India. In particular, the sufferings of millions who crossed the line have yet again come to light.

Another reflective piece that I discovered is “pain of partition” that recounted the sufferings of migrants on both the sides of the divide.

And today, Vidya Rao - a celebrated classical singer from India sent this petition that seeks to heal the wounds that still hurt our collective lives:

Apology Petition

Dear Victims of the Partition-related Violence in South Asia:

The mass murder, rape, pillage and suffering that accompanied the partition of British India in 1947, have left deep scars on the psyche of the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan.

Tens of thousands were murdered, raped, and maimed, and millions were displaced in an immense human tragedy, that continues to poison our discourse, and feed mutual suspicions and hatreds.

Therefore, we, the members of the Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA), and others, who have signed below, believe that the time has come for all of us jointly to condemn, without distinction, the insane orgy of violence and intimidation that accompanied the great human divide of 1947.

On the 60th anniversary of the Independence of India and Pakistan, we recall that dark chapter in our history so as to ensure that these tragedies will not be forgotten, or repeated.

We hope that coming generations will learn from this man-made calamity, and turn away from divisions based on religion, ethnicity, language, national origin, caste, or creed.

Taking lessons from history, we undertake to shun the political use of religion and communalism.

We regret that our forebears, the colonial British administration, and the successor governments did not prevent the tragedy. They also failed to punish the perpetrators, and apologize to you and your families.

In the spirit of harmony and goodwill among the people of South Asia, and to help build a new South Asian present and future, we grieve for and with you. We offer our deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets to you and your families.

We are sorry!

This petition can be accessed here and those interested may like to sign it. I know the prevalent cynicism about such online petitions, but long journeys begin with small steps.

We have a barricaded road ahead – let’s aim to tread this difficult path.