Closing the gap
Delhi based writer Tridivesh Singh Maini sent this piece that was published here The Indo-Pak relationship has been so enmeshed in political issues – mostly disputes –…
Indonesia’s green madrassas
Rather than harping on the divisive rhetoric of tribe, sect and political persuasion, we have a theological and teleological imperative to green our society…
Hyderabad – Past And Present
The Untold Charminar -Reviewed By Asif Noorani Way back in 1954 when I greeted a grand old lady, who had migrated to Karachi from…
Through a screen, darkly
Pakistani cable operators, following the cyclical escalation of imagined hatreds, discontinued the transmission of Indian satellite channels in 2002. The absence of Indian TV…
Revelations of war crimes and moralizing idealism
By Charles Bogle (found here) The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, by Ron Suskind. New…
Origins and traditions of Sufism and its music
By Rasha Elass Sufism is the ascetic element of Islam and it derives from the Sunni tradition. Scholars trace the word to two possible…
The Zardari conundrum
By all statistical estimates and anecdotal evidence, Pakistan’s middleclass has grown during the last decade. The visible manifestation of this historically significant trend was…
Utopia for me- Pieces of my heart
My piece published in the News on Sunday yesterday – Karta hun jama phir jigare lakht lakht ko (I seek to gather the scattered…
Imam Hussain: The Beloved of the Beloved
By Syed Salman Chishty Shah Ast Hussain Among the Belivers are Men ,who delivered their promise to Allah (Ayah 23/ Surah Al-Ahzab) On the…
South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs
South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs. Tridivesh Singh Maini. New Delhi: Siddharth Publications , 2007 South Asian Cooperation and the Role…
Sufism and its reality
Summary of a speech delivered by Syed Asmat Gilani Up till the 19 century, the dominant thought in the West was that ‘science’ was…
Kashmir,Azadi and Arundhati Roy
UPDATE: Arundhati’s brutally frank piece where she asks this question: The unimaginable sums of public money that are needed to keep the military occupation…
Capital shock
My op-ed published in the NEWS. This was also posted at ATP and a robust discussion took place there. A week long sojourn in…
Weird science – the perils of Muslim scholarship
I am posting Ziauddin Sardar’s article published in the New Statesman (August 21,2008) that explores the ‘nonesense” of some Muslim scholars who claim that…
Sab Thath pada reh jaye ga…(When the gypsy-headman leaves)
These pithy Urdu verses by Nazeer Akbarabadi lament that all will be abandoned when the Banjara (gypsy), the headman or Naik in the folklore,…
Issues in Madrassa Education in India
Yoginder Sikand’s new book Issues in Madrasa Education in India published by Hope India, Gurgaon is a promising publication. Here is a review by…
The sway of the Bauls: Oblivious minstrels of soul
“The sway of the Bauls: Oblivious minstrels of soul” “By Ratnadeep Banerji – Organiser – New Delhi, India Weekly issue: August 17, 2008 Baul…
Lal Shahbaz Qalander of Sindh
Source here Shahbaz Qalandar was born in Marwand to a dervish, Syed Ibrahim Kabiruddin whose ancestors migrated from Iraq and settled down in Mashhad,…
National identity sans freedom
A few quotes from this article in the Hindustan Times – incidentally it also includes what I rambled…. Freedom means everything. But I’m not…
Beyond Borders – with Shubha Mudgal and Tina Sani
My article published in the Friday Times (Aug11-18) Days after the recent skirmishes at the Line of Control, when the composite dialogue between India…