Pluralism » Pluralism India – Unity in Diversity

Interview: Ali Anwar

Khalid — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 01:17:16 +0000

Ali Anwar’s Interview after 2005 Bihar elections.

Rashtriya Sahara: Special Issue on Pasmanda Muslims

Khalid — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:36:35 +0000

This is one of the first special issue on the Pasmanda Movement to be carried by a mainstream daily in North India.

Her father-in-law was beaten, paraded naked

Khalid — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:00:12 +0000

The joy of motherhood is shrouded with the fear for life for a 24-year-old woman who has nowhere to go in her ninth month of pregnancy. Her in-laws have been ousted from their village as she married a person of a different caste. Her father in law, a mosque cleric, was beaten up and paraded naked by her parents and other villagers after she fled with her husband who she had secretly married.

Caste in Urdu Prose Literature

Khalid — Sat, 21 May 2011 04:10:37 +0000

The historical division of society in South Asia on caste lines is now an acknowledged sociological, political and economic fact. However, caste as a literary or social discourse does not, for several reasons, form a part of the predominantly Muslim culture of Urdu. Nor has there been much academic exploration of the role caste plays in the life of South Asian Muslim communities as against others. As far as the Urdu literary writing is concerned, it has traditionally focused exclusively on the lives and concerns of conquerors, their cohorts and their descendants, who typically prided themselves on their real or perceived foreign origins. Even after modern, socially committed writing began in Urdu around the 1930s, caste as a variable for social exploration was largely ignored in favour of economic class.

Locating the ‘Indian Muslim’ Mind: An Incomplete Conversation

Khalid — Sun, 01 May 2011 11:07:38 +0000

This conversation between Prof. Neshat Quaiser, Prof. Satish Sabherwal and Ahmad focuses on the various facets of being an ‘Indian Muslim’, with reference to the binary opposition between the high caste elite and the Shudra Muslim sections of the community.

Making Jamia Minority

Khalid — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:05:11 +0000

A situation of astounding confusion has engulfed Jamia Millia University after the National Council for Minority Education Institutions (NCMEI) declared it a minority institution. The teaching community has become unsure of its status: whether they will be considered as central government employees or will they be now governed by a different set of norms? Students who joined the university recently are concerned about the worth of their degrees, whether they would be graduates of a central university any more. The university authorities and the representative body of the teachers are not helping matters by not telling the wider university community if they have any blueprint for its eventual transition to a minority institution. Perhaps they also don’t know how this will impact on the future of the institution or perhaps they consider it beneath their dignity to address these concerns of the wider university community.

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Bababudangiri: The Quest For A New Ayodhya

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:48:21 +0000

ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2009, a group of a hundred gathered atop Bababudangiri hill, 30 km from Chikmaglur town in Karnataka. They installed a deity on a makeshift structure and performed a puja. Vows were taken towards making the place a religious centre for Hindus. The repair and restoration work of Sri Guru Datta Baba Budan Dargah at Bababudangiri had been formally inaugurated.

Read the full report here

“Dargah versus Peeta”: Hindutva’s Politics of Appropriating Syncretic Culture in Karnataka

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:25:40 +0000

For the past couple of years, Karnataka is witnessing the growth of communal politics, manifested in the form of communal conflict or riots. This trend has increased after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. In some districts or parts of Karnataka, the frequency has increased such as in Gadag, Mangalore, Hubli, Belgam, and Chickmagalur. The last district is slowly receiving the national focus mainly due to Hindutva’s deliberate attempt to appropriate symbol of syncretic culture and convert the same into a terrain of contestation and thereby expand its social bases in South India.

Read the full article here

Bababudangiri and communal situation in Chikamagalur town

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:32:04 +0000

A joint fact-finding team commissioned by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Karnataka (PUCL), which included members from Citizens For Democracy – Karnataka, and South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM), visited Bababudangiri and Chikamagalur on the 21st and 22nd of January 2000, following conflicts and tensions in the region. The team met police officials, government officials, Shah Khadri of the Dargah and common people of the town.

Read the full report here

Conflict Over Worship: A Study Of The Sri Guru Dattatreya Swami Bababudhan Dargah In South India

Elizabeth — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 07:02:22 +0000

Abstract

The dargah at Bababudhan hills has today become a site of self-identification, exclusion and tensions
among groups in the State of Karnataka (South India). This paper seeks to explore the complex
interactions between individuals and communities in terms of the changing dynamics of religion,
ritual practices and religious identities in the context of the post-colonial secular, liberal nation state.
An attempt is made here to make sense of the ways in which worship works its way through
contemporary demands at the shrine.

Read the full article here