Pluralism » Pluralism India – Unity in Diversity

Pasmanda Kranti Abhiyan Pamphlet (Campaign for Pasmanda Revolution)

Khalid — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 03:19:28 +0000

हमने अपनी बात ‘जिसकी जितनी संख्या भारी, उसकी उतनी जिम्मेदारी’ से शुरू की थी. कम संख्या वाले अशराफ़ अपनी जिम्मेदारी में नाकाम हो गए हैं. हमने उनको अपना रहनुमा माना किन्तु उन्होंने न तो हमको दंगे फसाद से बचाया और न ही गरीबी-ग़ुरबत और जाहिलियत से मुक्ति दिलाई. इस जिम्मेदारी का एहसास हमको भी करना होगा. आखिर मुसलमानों में हमारी संख्या सबसे भारी है. हमको आगे बढ़कर सियासत की बागडोर थामनी होगी. डॉ. भीम राव अम्बेडकर की तर्ज़ पर पसमांदा आंदोलन ने ऐलान कर दिया है कि मुसलमानों के अंदर जाति का सवाल सामाजिक सुधारों के साथ-साथ राजनीतिक आंदोलन के ज़रिये भी हल होगा। पसमांदा विमर्श जम्हूरियत, सेक्युलरिज्म, समाजवाद, सामाजिक न्याय और रोजी-रोटी के सवाल को मुस्लिम राजनीति का केन्द्रीय प्रश्न बनाने की घोषणा करता है.

पसमांदा क्रांति अभियान का मकसद पसमांदा विमर्श के मुद्दे पर जनमत तैयार करना है. हम आप का आह्वान करते हैं कि आप पसमांदा क्रांति के जज्बे को अपने भीतर उतारें और इस कारवां का हिस्सा बनें.

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Call for Papers–Ruptures: South Asian Islam and the Caste Question

Khalid — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 17:33:42 +0000

1-2^nd December 2012, India International Center, New Delhi

The field of ‘Caste and Islam’ has recently drawn attention as a critical site for academic reflection and political articulation. The enactment of the ‘pasmanda’ identity and the articulation of a counter-discourse by subordinated Muslim caste groups, especially in Northern parts of India, have led to the relative destabilization of mainstream ‘Muslim’ discourse and the posing of novel questions on identity, politics, deprivation, culture and theology. Also, the political framing, sense of belonging or representative strategies in any movement have to necessarily engage with an ‘excess’, a discursive outside, which may refer to a number of complex claims and trajectories that both threaten and enable the constitution of the discourse in the first place. The political pitching of a movement, that strives to condense a range of meaningful elements, is also often caught between the crisscrossing domains of the everyday/social. Thus, the recent circulation of pasmanda discourse has persuaded the academia to consider ‘caste’ as an entry point to the study of Indian Islam. Interestingly, the application of caste analytics to the study of Islam has also been attempted in recent times in other South Asian jurisdictions, like Pakistan and Nepal for instance, with very enriching results. All these developments make Muslim caste an extremely interesting site for reflection with multiple theoretical/explanatory possibilities.

Hence, the express purpose of this two-day conference is to bring together a number of scholars and activists for a deliberation on questions related to various dimensions of Muslim caste, and if possible to capture and circulate the substantive part of these conversations in the form of a publication.

For more details please see the following documents:

Muslim Caste Conference Flyer

Muslim Caste Conference Note

Pluralism, Civil Society and Subaltern Counterpublics

ramsk — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:33:13 +0000

This is paper 09 in the Pluralism Working Paper series. in this paper Khalid Anis Ansari explores a number of issues at the heart of pluralism, identity and redistribution as they are unfolding in the norther and eastern parts of India.

Download the Paper

Supreme Court of India and Social Justice

ramsk — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:00:08 +0000

In its verdict on May 8, the Supreme Court had directed the government to phase out Haj subsidy within a period of 10 years, saying that this amount can be more profitably used for social and educational development of the Muslim community…..

A bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai had quoted Quran to justify doing away with the subsidy, which was around Rs 685 crores in 2011, noting that many Muslims would not be very “comfortable” to know that their Haj is funded to a large extent by the government.

A number of prominent Muslim leaders had welcomed the court’s order, saying that the subsidy was not exactly benefitting the community and the funds given in subsidy should be allocated for improving the educational and living standards….

Read The Hindu Report

Access the judgement text here

International Winter/Summer School 2012

ramsk — Thu, 24 May 2012 05:18:37 +0000

The Kosmopolis Institute of the University of Humanistic Studies in the Netherlands, in cooperation with Hivos (Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries), the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS, South Africa), the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS, India), the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCs, Indonesia), and the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) sacrifices the 9th annual International Winter / Summer School on “Pluralism and Development ‘ @ UFS, Bloemfontein, South Africa 16 July – 10 August 2012

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.