tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post5065314685727550484..comments2024-03-27T15:36:44.737-07:00Comments on Haq's Musings: Creation of Pakistan: A Great Blessing for Muslims of Sindh & PunjabRiaz Haqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-20538140714950686262022-11-18T10:22:44.892-08:002022-11-18T10:22:44.892-08:00Modi’s Double Engine Sarkar by Pervez Hoodbhoy
ht...Modi’s Double Engine Sarkar by Pervez Hoodbhoy<br /><br />https://www.pakistanlink.org/Opinion/2022/Nov22/11/07.HTM<br /><br />These are substantial, undeniable achievements that hubris-filled Hindu nationalists say derive from their greatness as an ancient civilization. But wait! China has done still better. And, though far smaller, many emergent countries of East Asia — Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore — also boast of better performance than India’s.<br /><br />In every case, the secret of success is well-known — strong systems of education that create skills, knowledge, attitudes and social behavior’s suited for modern times. Together with that, a strong work ethic in the labor force. Stated differently, high national achievement springs naturally from the quickness with which a country universalizes or ‘Westernizes’ its education and creates positive attitudes towards work.<br /><br />Here’s how India grew into the present. Empowered by the scientific and industrial revolutions, Britain colonized India and sought to spread Western education and values. Conservative Hindus emphatically rejected this modernization butsar reformist movements such as Brahmo Samaj under Ram Mohan Roy and others made deep inroads.<br /><br />By 1947 under Jawaharlal Nehru — an avowed Hindu atheist devoted to the ‘scientific temper’ — India was already intellectually equipped to enter the modern world. For the next 50 years, India’s education sought to create a pluralist, secular, scientifically minded society. It reaps rich harvests to the present day — which the BJP happily appropriates as its own.<br /><br />But Hindu nationalists now want India’s goals and self-image drastically revised. Modi’s second engine, fueled by febrile imaginations, pushes India towards emulating some kind of Hindu rashtra from an idyllic past. My friend Prof Badri Raina, now retired from Delhi University, says that “this backward engine would have us believe that in ancient times we had knowledge of plastic surgery, aeronautics, satellite vision, even as streams of foaming white milk flowed down our plains, and golden birds perched on the branches of trees”.<br /><br />---------<br /><br />The loudest call for reforming Muslim education was that of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Madressahs, he said, are entirely unnecessary. Using religious idiom, he passionately argued for science and modernity. While his efforts led to some measure of functionality and to jobs within the colonial system, they were nowhere deep or wide as that of Brahmo Samaj. Conservative backlash limited Sir Syed’s influence.<br /><br />Thus, by the time Partition came around, there was a massive Hindu-Muslim gap. Nevertheless, for the first few decades, Pakistan’s engine #1 steadily gained strength and was consistently stronger than its second engine. Among other things, Pakistan’s space program (born 1961, now dead) much preceded India’s.<br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-77245555790295695412022-08-14T17:43:00.800-07:002022-08-14T17:43:00.800-07:00Riaz Haq has left a new comment on your post "...Riaz Haq has left a new comment on your post "Celeberating Pakistan Resolution of 1940":<br /><br />Riaz Haq has left a new comment on your post "Nehru's Secularism Was An Aberration; Modi's Islamophobia is the Norm For India":<br /><br />#IndiaAt75: #Modi is Proving #Pakistan's Case For #Partition1947. 75 years after #India split apart, the nation’s beleaguered #Muslims increasingly face the marginalization and brutal prejudice that Pakistan’s founder #QuaideAzam predicted. #PakistanAt75 https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-08-14/india-s-75th-anniversary-modi-is-proving-pakistan-s-case-for-partition<br /><br />Opinion by Nisid Hajari<br /><br />Jinnah’s main fear was how little power Muslims would wield in a united India. That’s what drove the initial break with his former allies in the Indian National Congress party — including Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister— a decade before independence. And it’s why Jinnah retracted his support for a last-minute compromise brokered by the British in 1946, after Nehru intimated that the Congress would not honor the agreement once the British were gone.<br /><br />Partition very nearly proved Jinnah’s case. Somewhere between 200,000 and two million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were killed within a few short weeks of independence; 14 million were uprooted from their homes. The biggest massacres arguably began with attacks on Muslim villages on the Indian side of the new border.<br /><br />India’s founding fathers, however, risked their lives to undercut Jinnah’s argument. When riots spread to the Indian capital Delhi and police and petty government officials joined in pogroms targeting Muslims, Nehru took to the streets, remonstrating with mobs and giving public speeches promoting communal harmony while only lightly guarded. He insisted the government machinery exert itself to protect Muslims as well as Hindus.<br /><br />With even members of his cabinet convinced that India would be better off without tens of millions of citizens suspected of split loyalties, Nehru barely prevailed. The pressure to expel Muslims only really subsided months later after a Hindu fanatic assassinated the revered Gandhi, shocking the cabinet into unity and prompting public revulsion against Hindu bigotry.<br /><br />That consensus and the rights enshrined in India’s secular constitution largely preserved religious harmony in India for more than seven decades. Al-Qaeda and other transnational terrorist groups made few inroads among Indian Muslims, even as jihadists flourished in nearby countries. While sectarian riots have repeatedly broken out, especially after provocations such as the 1992 demolition of a mosque in Ayodhya to make way for a Hindu temple, tensions have for the most part remained local and limited. And even if Indian Muslims faced discrimination and were on average poorer and less well-educated than Hindus, few doubted that they were full citizens — especially when their votes were needed at election time.<br /><br />What makes the changes that have proliferated under Modi so dispiriting and dangerous is their corrosive impact on those feelings of belonging. The problem isn’t even so much the most horrific cases of bigotry, including dozens of lynchings of Muslims around the country. Those at least still draw outrage in some quarters, as well as international attention.<br /><br />What’s worse is the steady and widely accepted marginalization of India’s nearly 200 million Muslims. An overheated and jingoistic media portrays them as potential fifth columnists, who should “go back” to a Pakistan most have never visited if they don’t like the new India. (Pakistani sponsorship of extremist groups that have carried out brutal attacks in India has exacerbated fears of an internal threat.) There’s widespread acceptance of hate speech, including open calls to exterminate Muslims. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has pursued laws that threaten to disenfranchise millions of them.<br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-7349775822856755682022-07-20T10:55:47.869-07:002022-07-20T10:55:47.869-07:0092-year-old Reena Verma from #India now visiting #...92-year-old Reena Verma from #India now visiting #Pakistan said that no Muslim or Sikh lived in the neighborhood (in #Rawalpindi) before the Partition. “All Hindus used to live here. I love Pakistan dearly and want to visit Pakistan again and again" https://tribune.com.pk/story/2366893/92-year-old-indian-woman-gets-rousing-welcome-at-her-ancestral-home<br /><br />Ninety-two-year-old Indian woman Reena Verma Chibbar, who has reached Pakistan on a three-month visit visa, was overjoyed when she reached her ancestral home in Prem Niwas Mahalla, situated on DAV College Road, Rawalpindi after 75 years.<br /><br />Chibbar's decades-old neighbours welcomed her by showering rose petals. The Indian woman danced to the beats of the drum.<br /><br />Verma, who went to India with her family before the Partition when she was only 15 years old, reached her ancestral home on Wednesday and went to every room on the second floor of her ancestral home and refreshed her memories. She sang while standing on the balcony and cried remembering her childhood.<br /><br />On reaching Prem Nawas Mahalla near DAV College, the area residents gave her a rousing welcome. Drums were played and flower petals were showered on the guest. Chibbar could not control herself and kept dancing as she heard the thud of the drums. The people of the neighbourhood warmly welcomed the guest on her return to her birthplace.<br /><br />Chibbar said that she did not feel she was from another country. “People living on both sides of the border love each other very much and we should remain as one,” she said.<br /><br />When she entered the house, she took a look at all the rooms. She said that she was 15 years old when she migrated to India with her parents and other family members. She kept looking at the door and wall of the house including her bedroom, yard and sitting room for a long time. She talked about her life back in those days. Reena told the people of the neighbourhood of the map of Rawalpindi 75 years ago.<br /><br />The senior Indian citizen said that she used to stand on the balcony and hum when she was little. She sang the same 75-year-old tune to reminisce her childhood and cried. She said that the memories of the house were palpable to her. “I can still see myself here today,” she said, adding that the neighbours living there at that time were very nice. “When someone got married, all the children of the street, including me, used to run and there was happiness everywhere. Now, once again, the heart wishes to remove the hatred between Pakistan and India and start living together again.<br /><br />“Everyone was sad at that time when we left. Neighbours were considered members of the household and we would visit everyone's house,” she said, adding that those were very good days, not knowing where those people would go.<br /><br />Chibbar said that all the people of her age have died. The grandchildren of their old neighbours now live in the house where she and her family lived. But the wall has not been changed even today. Reena Verma Chibbar also pointed at a closet in the house. She said that she used to keep books there.<br /><br />“I moved to India at the time of Partition,” she said, adding that she never forgot her home or the street. “Friends and food here are still fresh in my mind. Even today, the smell of these streets brings back old memories. I did not even imagine that I would ever come back here in life. Our culture is one. We are the same people. We all want to meet each other. A local person found me and sponsored a visa after which I reached Rawalpindi through the Wagah border,” she said.<br /><br />She said that no Muslim or Sikh lived in the neighbourhood before the Partition. “All Hindus used to live here. I love Pakistan dearly and want to visit Pakistan again and again,” she said.<br /><br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-1706124235640562182020-11-12T12:53:20.384-08:002020-11-12T12:53:20.384-08:00Under the Talpurs, Sindhi Hindus had been forbidde...Under the Talpurs, Sindhi Hindus had been forbidden from owning land. That’s not to say they were not commercially active. In fact, Sindh’s Hindus had a long tradition of business success. The British imperialist Richard Burton wrote that ‘throughout Sindh the Hindu element preponderates in the cities and towns, the Moslem in the country: the former everywhere represents capital, the latter labour’.22 It was the Hindus who collected taxes, lent money and managed trade. Nevertheless, a British decision to allow Sindh’s Hindus to own land tilted things in their favour, and with many Muslims heavily indebted to Hindu financiers, some ended up losing their land to Hindu moneylenders. In 1896, a survey of villages in Sindh found that Hindus held 28 per cent of the land; fifty years earlier they had owned virtually none. The British were concerned. The Sindh commissioner Evan James complained that when Hindus obtained other people’s land through usury, the former owners were reduced to a state of abject dependence. ‘The feeling of injustice engendered by this tyranny strikes at the foundations of our rule,’ he said.23 The British worried that if the big estates were broken up, a crucial pillar of support in Sindh would be lost. Under the Sind Encumbered Estates Act a British manager could take over a bankrupt estate and declare many of its debts null and void. For the landowner there was a downside – the manager would take over ownership of the land until such time as the estate was solvent again – but once the books were balanced and the estate returned to profitability, it was given back to the landowner. Doda Khan Bhutto, sharp as well as forceful, was quick to exploit the Act. While some landowners held back, either to preserve their dignity or because they did not trust the British, Doda knew a good thing when he saw it and ensured that his estate was one of the first to be taken over. A manager, appointed in 1876, went through the books and confirmed Doda Khan was heavily in debt. Then, declaring that much of what Doda Khan owed was the result of exorbitant interest rates charged by Hindu moneylenders, the manager wrote off over half of his liabilities. At a stroke, Doda Khan’s situation was transformed. The remaining debts were dealt with by a government loan that the manager repaid from estate income over a five-year period.<br /><br />Bennett-Jones, Owen. The Bhutto Dynasty (pp. 23-24). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-91837680670159794262020-08-08T16:57:06.228-07:002020-08-08T16:57:06.228-07:00Hindu nationalism has been the bedrock of the Indi...Hindu nationalism has been the bedrock of the Indian State and polity. Nehruvian secularism was the fringe<br /><br />by Prof Abhinav Prakash Singh<br />Delhi University<br /><br />https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/ayodhya-marks-the-twilight-of-the-first-republic/story-QGXeiHufgM31X5zgjeg8hP.html<br /><br /><br />The first Republic was founded on the myth of a secular-socialist India supposedly born out of the anti-colonial struggle. However, the Indian freedom movement was always a Hindu movement. From its origin, symbolism, language, and support base, it was the continuation of a Hindu resurgence already underway, but which was disrupted by the British conquest. The coming together of various pagan traditions in the Indian subcontinent under the umbrella of Hinduism is a long-drawn-out process. But it began to consolidate as a unified political entity in the colonial era in the form of Hindutva. The Hindutva concept is driven by an attempt by the older pagan traditions, united by a dharmic framework and intertwined by puranas, myths and folklore, to navigate the modern political and intellectual landscape dominated by nations and nation-states.<br /><br />Hindutva is not Hinduism. Hindutva is a Hindu political response to political Islam and Western imperialism. It seeks to forge Hindus into a modern nation and create a powerful industrial State that can put an end to centuries of persecution that accelerated sharply over the past 100 years when the Hindu-Sikh presence was expunged in large swaths of the Indian subcontinent.<br /><br />India’s freedom struggle was guided by the vision of Hindu nationalism and not by constitutional patriotism. The Congress brand of nationalism was but a subset of this broader Hindu nationalism with the Congress itself as the pre-eminent Hindu party. The Muslim question forced the Congress to adopt a more tempered language and symbolism later and to weave the myth of Hindu-Muslim unity. But it failed to prevent the Partition of India. The Congress was taken over by Left-leaning secular denialists under Jawaharlal Nehru who, instead of confronting reality, pretended it did not exist.<br /><br />----------<br /><br />Hindu nationalism has never been fringe; it is Nehruvian secularism that was the fringe. And with the fall of the old English-speaking elites, the system they created is also collapsing along with accompanying myths like Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb and Hindu-Muslim unity. The fact is that Hindus and Muslims lived together, but separately. And they share a violent and cataclysmic past with each other, which has never been put to rest.<br /><br />Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb was an urban-feudal construct with no serious takers outside a limited circle. In villages, whatever unity existed was because the caste identities of both Hindu and Muslims dominated instead of religious identities or because Hindu converts to Islam maintained earlier customs and old social links with Hindus like common gotra and caste. But all that evaporated quickly with the Islamic revivalist movements such as the Tabligh and pan-Islamism from 19th century onwards. It never takes much for Hindu-Muslim riots to erupt. There was nothing surprising about the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests and widespread riots. As political communities, Hindus and Muslims have hardly ever agreed on the big questions of the day.<br />-----------<br /><br />What we are witnessing today is twilight of the first Republic. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is but a modern vehicle of the historical process of the rise of the Hindu rashtra. In the north, Jammu and Kashmir is fully integrated. In the south, Dravidianism is melting away. In the east, Bengal is turning saffron. In the west, secular parties must ally with a local Hindutva party to survive.<br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-51368677314925252542018-10-29T07:31:32.066-07:002018-10-29T07:31:32.066-07:00Indians were equally responsible for Partition, no...Indians were equally responsible for Partition, not just Pakistan or British: Hamid Ansari<br /><br /><br />https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/indians-were-equally-responsible-for-partition-not-just-pakistan-or-british-hamid-ansari-1377097-2018-10-28<br /><br />Former Vice President Hamid Ansari said while people like to hold Pakistan or the British responsible for India's partition, no one wants to admit that India was equally responsible for it.<br /><br />Referring to a speech delivered by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's on August 11, 1947, four days before India got its independence, Ansari said in that speech, Patel had said "he took these extreme steps after great deliberation".<br /><br />Ansari claimed that Patel in this speech also said that "despite his previous opposition to Partition, he was convinced that to keep India united, it must be divided".<br /><br />He said these speeches are available in Patel's records.<br /><br />"But as politics of the country changed, someone had to be blamed. So Muslims became the scapegoat and were blamed for Partition," Ansari said.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janta Party has hit out at Ansari. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra demanded an apology from Ansari for his comments.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-31098720023744561862017-04-04T10:27:42.691-07:002017-04-04T10:27:42.691-07:00PUNJAB’S ROLE IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
1857-58: ...PUNJAB’S ROLE IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE<br />1857-58: AN ANALYSIS<br /><br />Turab-ul-Hassan Sargana<br /><br />http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/HistoryPStudies/PDF-FILES/Turrab%20ul%20Hassan_v28No1jun2015.pdf<br /><br />It is generally suggested that the province of the Punjab as a whole not<br />only remained loyal towards the colonial power but also provided crucial support<br />to it for quelling disturbance in other parts of the country. There is no denying the<br />fact that the Punjab was not the centre of this struggle against the company’s rule<br />but there is ample evidence to suggest that the Punjab was not devoid of patriotic<br />men who resisted the foreign rulers and rendered heroic sacrifices for the<br />independence of their country. There were many who were prompted by the<br />patriotic feelings and thus, struggled to drive alien rulers form their homeland.<br />Although there is historiographical silence about the role of Punjab in the War but<br />only a look on the volumes of the official Mutiny Records by the British officers is<br />sufficient to falsify the popular impression regarding the Punjab’s role in the War<br />of Independence 1857-58. It shows that only the rulers and Maharajas of the<br />Punjab’s states supported the British, but the common people including the native<br />sepoys rose against the British at many places.<br /><br />There were some basic factors which played an important role in<br />convincing the chiefs and influential families of the Punjab to collaborate with the<br />British during the War of 1857-58. Due to the grievances with the Sikh rulers, the<br />Muslim chiefs of the Punjab helped the British and were rewarded. Similarly, rajas<br />of the Sikh Princely States had sought protection from the British against the<br />aggression of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which the British granted to them, and, in<br />return, the rajas promised to help the British in the hour of need according to the<br />Treaty of 1809.7<br />In addition to this, the Sikhs were leaderless in 1857-58 and their<br />important leaders had been either killed during the Anglo-Sikh Wars or were<br />exiled from the Punjab.8<br />During the year of 1857-58 the immense production of crops also played<br />an important role in pacifying the people of the Punjab. Similarly, some welfareoriented<br />developmental works in the Punjab by the British government from 1849<br />to 1857 created goodwill for the British among the people.9 The socio-economic<br />conditions in the Punjab were different from the North-western Indian Provinces.10<br />The British did not confiscate lands in the former but they did in the latter.<br /><br /><br />The response and attitude of the princes and nawabs towards the British<br />should not be generalized as the expression of the opinion of the entire province.<br />These rulers were not the true representatives of the wishes of the people. Ahmad<br />Khan Kharral, Bahawal Fatiana, Murad Fatiana, Muhamand Kathia, Lal Kathia,<br />Nathu Kathia, Nadir Shah Qureshi, Walidad Mardana and Salabat Tarhana, of the<br />Gugera Movement, Rasool Bakhsh, Ameer Ali and Karam Ali of the Murree<br />Movement, Rao Tulla Ram of Haryana and Shah Abdul Qadir of Ludhiana etc.35<br />were popular leaders of the people in their respective areas in the Punjab, who led<br />the resistance movement at various places in the province. They were neither<br />rulers, nor sepoys, but were freedom-fighters. They had no personal grievances<br />against the British. Neither their jagirs were confiscated, nor were their pensions<br />stopped. They fought for a noble cause which was to eliminate foreign rule from<br />their homeland. This view is very much evident from the letters written by the <br /><br />freedom-fighters to the Nawab of Bahawalpur,36 and to a native Muslim officer in<br />the British army, Woordie-Major Mir Barkat Ali.37<br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-58960870409470110142017-04-04T10:18:31.666-07:002017-04-04T10:18:31.666-07:00"قائد اعظم یونیورسٹی اسلام آباد میں ایک پروفی..."قائد اعظم یونیورسٹی اسلام آباد میں ایک پروفیسر ڈاکٹر تراب الحسن صاحب نے ایک تھیسس لکھ کر پی ایچ ڈی کی ڈگری حاصل کی ھے۔ جس کا عنوان ھے...<br />Punjab and the War of<br />. . Indpendence 1857<br />اس تھیسس میں انہوں نے جنگ آزادی کے حالات پر روشنی ڈالی ھے. جس کے مطابق اس جنگ میں جن خاندانوں نے جنگ آزادی کے مجاھدین کے خلاف انگریز کی مدد کی، مجاھدین کو گرفتار کروایا اور قتل کیا اور کروایا ان کو انگریز نے بڑی بڑی جاگیریں مال و دولت اور خطابات سے نوازا ان کے لئے انگریز سرکار نے وظائف جاری کئے۔<br />اس تھیسس کے مطابق تمام خاندان وہ ھیں جو انگریز کے وفادار تھے اور اس وفاداری کے بدلے انگریز کی نوازشات سے فیضیاب ھوئے۔ یہ خاندان آج بھی جاگیردار ھیں اور آج بھی اپنے انگریز آقا کے جانے کے بعد ھر حکومت میں شامل ھوتے ھیں۔<br />Griffin punjab chifs <br />Lahore ;1909<br />سے حاصل کردہ ریکارڈ کے مطابق سید یوسف رضا گیلانی کے بزرگ سید نور شاہ گیلانی کو انگریز سرکار نے ان کی خدمات کے عوض 300 روپے خلعت اور سند عطا کی تھی۔<br />Proceeding of the Punjab Political department no 47, june 1858<br />کے مطابق دربار حضرت بہاؤالدین زکریا کے سجادہ نشین اور تحریک انصاف کے رھنما شاہ محمود قریشی کے اجداد نے مجاھدین آزادی کے خلاف انگریز کا ساتھ دیا۔ انہیں ایک رسالہ کے لئے 20 آدمی اور گھوڑے فراھم کئے۔ اس کے علاوہ 25 آدمی لیکر <br />خود بھی جنگ میں شامل ھوئے۔ <br />انگریزوں کے سامان کی حفاظت پر مامور رھے۔ ان کی خدمات کے عوض انہیں تین ھزار روپے کا تحفہ دیا گیا۔ دربار کیلیئے 1750 روپے کی ایک قیمتی جاگیر اور ایک باغ دیا گیا جس کی اس وقت سالانہ آمدن 150 روپے تھی۔<br />جو حوالہ وزیر اعظم گیلانی کا ھے وھی اپوزیشن لیڈر چوھدری نثار علی خان کے اجداد چوھدری شیر خان کا ھے۔ان کی مخبری پر کئی مجاھدین کو گرفتار کر کے قتل کیا گیا۔ انعام کے طور پر چوہدری شیر خان کو ریونیو اکٹھا کرنے کا اختیار دیا گیا اور جب سب لوگوں سے اسلحہ واپس لیا گیا تو انہیں پندرہ بندوقیں رکھنے کی اجازت اور 500 روپے خلعت دی گئی۔<br />Gujranwala Guzts 1935-36 <br />Govt of Punjab. <br />کے مطابق حامد ناصر چٹھہ کے بزرگوں میں سے خدا بخش چٹھہ نے جنگ آزادی میں انگریزوں کا ساتھ دیا وہ اس وقت جنرل نکلسن کی فوج میں تھے۔<br />قصور کے خیرالدین خان جو خورشید قصوری کے خاندان سے تھے نے انگریزوں کے لیئے 100 آدمیوں کا دستہ تیار کیا اور خود بھتیجوں کے ساتھ جنگ میں شامل ھوا۔ انگریزوں نے اسے 2500 روپے سالانہ کی جاگیر اور ھزار روپے سالانہ پنشن دی۔:"<br />Forwarded as receivedTashee Z.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-2486368232515505072016-12-25T22:14:17.993-08:002016-12-25T22:14:17.993-08:00No Improvement in Condition of #Muslims in #India ...No Improvement in Condition of #Muslims in #India Ten years after Sachar Report. #Modi #BJP http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ten-years-after-sachar-report-no-major-change-in-the-condition-of-indias-muslims-4444809/ … via @IndianExpress<br /><br />On November 30, 2006, the 403-page report of the Sachar Committee, on the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India, was tabled in Parliament. The Committee, headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar, was set up soon after the UPA 1 government took over, and it submitted its findings in less than 2 years.<br />The Report highlighted a range of disabilities faced by the community, and made a slew of recommendations to address the situation. It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in backwardness. Among the many issues it highlighted were the huge mismatch between the percentage of Muslims in the population and in decision making positions such as the IAS and IPS, and the general poor representation of the community in the police.<br /><br />An analysis of government data show that most indicators have not seen significant improvement in the years since the Report was submitted. In some cases things seem to have, in fact, deteriorated — in 2005, for example, the share of Muslims among India’s police forces was 7.63%; in 2013, it fell to 6.27%. The government subsequently stopped releasing data on police personnel broken down by religion.<br />In the years both preceding and following Sachar, Muslims continued to have the lowest average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) among all communities. The work participation rate for Muslim men increased only slightly to 49.5% in 2011 from 47.5% in 2001; for Muslim women, the increase was even smaller, from 14.1% in 2001 to 14.8% in 2011.<br /><br />Perhaps the most telling figures are in the IAS and IPS, the country’s top officialdom. The Sachar Committee recorded the percentage of Muslims in the IAS and IPS as 3% and 4% respectively. These numbers were 3.32% and 3.19% respectively on January 1, 2016, Home Ministry data show. The fall in Muslim representation in the IPS was due primarily to a steep fall in the share of Muslim promotee officers in the IPS — from 7.1% in the Sachar Report to merely 3.82% at the beginning of 2016.<br />As per the Census of 2001, Muslims were 13.43% of India’s population; in 2011, they were 14.2%. The increase of 24.69% in the population of Muslims between the two Censuses was the smallest ever recorded for the community.<br />The sex ratio among Muslims remained better than that of India overall in both 2001 and 2011, and the percentage of Muslims living in urban centres too remained higher than the national average in both Censuses.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-78581066493550618362016-05-24T09:48:01.290-07:002016-05-24T09:48:01.290-07:00Most people choose not to migrate in spite of pove...Most people choose not to migrate in spite of poverty and oppression as obvious from lowest rates of migration out of sub-Saharan Africa. <br /><br />Results show that despite increase in the absolute number of migrants, Africa, particularly SubSaharan Africa has one of the lowest rate of emigration in the world and a majority of them migrate to other African countries signifying the importance of south-south migration. Poorer countries generally have lower rate of emigration and higher rate of intra-African migrant. Bad socio-economic conditions generally seem to lead to higher rate of emigration by highly skilled individuals. Generally, migration is driven by motives to<br />improve livelihoods with notable evidence on changes in labor market status. Often, self-employed or unemployed émigré ended up in wage employment. The paper outlines policy issues emerging from the migration trend in Africa.<br /><br /><br />http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Procurement/Project-related-Procurement/WORKING%20119%20word%20document%20AA.PDF<br /><br />t is often said that the only way to reduce migration from poor countries is to boost development, but this ignores the inconvenient fact that development is generally not associated with lower levels of emigration. Important emigration countries such as Mexico, Morocco, Turkey and the Philippines are typically not among the poorest countries. Meanwhile – and against popular perceptions of a “continent on the move” – Sub-Saharan Africa is the least migratory region of the world.<br /><br />Development drives migration<br /><br />In fact, when you examine the data, human and economic development is initially associated with increasing emigration. Any form of development in the poorest countries of the world is therefore likely to lead to accelerating emigration. Such findings contradict conventional thinking and force us to radically change our views on migration. Such rethinking can be achieved by learning to see migration as an intrinsic part of broader development processes rather than as a problem to be solved, or the temporary response to development “disequilibria”.<br /><br />http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-people-migrate-21442Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-46696496632353411942016-04-16T10:24:02.010-07:002016-04-16T10:24:02.010-07:00Why #India should be worried about North India’s #...Why #India should be worried about North India’s #demographic time-bomb via @firstpost #Modi #BJP #youth #violence<br /><br />http://m.firstpost.com/india/why-we-should-be-worried-about-north-indias-demographic-time-bomb-2731954.html<br /><br /><br />North India is being literally turned on a skewer. Punjab had to be restrained by the Supreme Court as it sought to stop further construction of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. Haryana went on a rampage earlier demanding minority status for the Jats. There are war cries surrounding the alleged gang rape at Murthal. Intemperate pronouncements by political and religious leaders in the North have increased in frequency and shrillness.<br />It was therefore appropriate for Ambit Capital to talk about North India becoming a ticking demographic time bomb (Sizing India's demographic bomb, April 5, 2016).<br />Look closely at this region and you will understand why. The instances of violence, abuse and even sex-related crimes could just be for starters. The nightmare of the past few months could get worse. This is India's badland. It accounts for the most votes in the country. It has a very young population. It is also, collectively, the most backward.<br /><br />This territory has little education, and has fewer women and jobs than most other parts of the country. This collective absence is a sure recipe for violence, lawlessness and even anti-national activities.<br /><br />Watch how the all-India average of 933 females for every 1,000 males has climbed to 944 between 2001 to 2011 (when the last Census was taken). But the figures for some states are hardly flattering. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has dipped from 892 to 883. It could be a key factor for the violence that threatens to spiral out of control. The figures for Bihar are not very flattering either. They've fallen from 919 to 916.<br />But delve a bit deeper, and the signs become even more disturbing. It is then that you realise that things aren't right with many other states. Take Uttarakhand. Or Delhi. Or Uttar Pradesh (UP). Or Chhatisgarh. Or Madhya Pradesh (MP). They are additions to the two states mentioned above. They are all ticking time bombs where the skewed sex ratio will mean more allegations (or actual instances) of rape and brutality.<br />Then take literacy levels. Here it is wise to begin with the precautionary warning. India's average literacy levels are reported to be around 74 percent. But this figure can be quite misleading. India's definition of literacy remains the same for the six decades or so - anyone who can read and write the letters of his or her name, in any language - is presumed to be literate. Thus, if a person's name is "Ram” and he can write and read the three letters of his name, he is classified as being literate. It is the most convenient way to perform a statistical fudge, and could easily classify as one of the worst fudges in the world.<br />So where would you peg India's literacy level? It is quite hard to tell, because each state has its own board examination. This is compounded by the fact that Kapil Sibal, the former Union home minister, had steered a legislation through Parliament, which compelled students to automatically and compulsorily promote students each year, up to the Class Seven level. Since around five percent of the students on an average are filtered out each year on grounds of non-performance on various counts, the automatic promotions policy ensures that, at the Class Eight level, each class would have around 40 percent of students who ought not to have been there.<br />As no school would like to face the combined onslaught of parents and society by detaining 40 percent of students at the Class Nine level, most managements of schools promoted them further (automatically). Some good schools that attempted to detain students at this stage were warned by education ministers (as in Maharashtra) not to detain them. Thus, almost all students who enrolled for Class One could be expected to appear for Class 10 exams.<br /><br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-80931131724415047732016-04-16T10:16:28.652-07:002016-04-16T10:16:28.652-07:00#India's economy like 'one-eyed' king ...#India's economy like 'one-eyed' king in land of blind: #RBI chief Raghuram Rajan. #Modi #BJP http://toi.in/owDojY2 via @timesofindia<br /><br />With India being often described as 'the bright spot in the global economy', Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan sees this as a case of "the one-eyed man" being king in the land of the blind.<br />Amid gloomy global economic conditions, Indian economy has been described by many as one of the few bright spots, including by IMF, while RBI under Rajan has also been credited with necessary steps to minimise the impact of external shocks on the country's financial system.<br />"I think we have still to get to a place where we feel satisfied. We have this saying — 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'. We are a little bit that way," Rajan said when asked for his take on the 'bright spot' theory and what was his "secret sauce" to ensure this positioning.<br />Rajan, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund and an on-leave professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, was here for spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, as also for the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors.<br />"We feel things are turning to the point where we could achieve what we believe is our medium-run growth potential. Because things are falling into place. Investment is starting to pick up strongly. We have a fair degree of macro-stability. Of course, not immune to every shock, but immune to a fair number of shocks," Rajan said in an interview to MarketWatch.<br /><br />Rajan, known to have frank views on state of affairs in the Indian and global economy, said "a bunch of good things have happened" in India, but there were "still some things to do".<br />He listed out achievements on fronts like current account and fiscal deficit and said inflation has come down from 11 per cent to below 5 per cent, making room for interest rates to come down.<br />"Of course, structural reforms are ongoing. The government is engaged in bringing out a new bankruptcy code. There is goods and services tax on the anvil. But there is a lot of exciting stuff which is already happening," he said.<br />Rajan recalled a new platform he launched last week that allows mobile-to-mobile transfers between any two bank accounts in India.<br />"It is a public platform, so anybody can participate. It is not owned by any one company unlike Apple Pay or Android Pay or whatever. I think it is the first of its kind.<br />"So, technological developments are happening and making for a more, hopefully, reasonable life for a lot of people. Let's see how it goes," he said.<br />Asked about his views on comparison between India and China, the RBI governor said India was nearly a decade behind in terms of start of the reform process and this reflects in the relative size of the two economies.<br />"We are about a quarter to a fifth their size. I think that we could catch up if we do the right things over a period of time.<br />"It is extraordinary what good policies they (China) followed to get where they are, so we have to be very good at our policy-making as well as our implementation. I think what people admire China for is how they have managed to get things done.<br />"Now we have some strengths of our own, and we should emphasize those — I think there is a significant amount of flair and creativity in the Indian economy and we have to try and capitalise on those as we are trying to grow. We shouldn't follow the same path that others have followed.<br />"But that means working very hard and creating the appropriate infrastructure, creating the human capital that we need to succeed. Building up a good regulatory environment, light but effective, and, of course, building adequate access to finance."<br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-66028451474861353592016-03-28T09:49:56.597-07:002016-03-28T09:49:56.597-07:00Religious extremists will never succeed in taking ...Religious extremists will never succeed in taking over #Pakistan. #LahoreBlast http://gu.com/p/4hqhy/stw <br /><br />Religious minorities are an indelible part of the fabric of Pakistani society; they are represented by the white stripe on the Pakistani flag. This is echoed in the words of founding father Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s most famous speech: “You are free; you are free to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosques or to any other places of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”<br /><br />While Jinnah’s message of secularism never caught on in Pakistan, religious coexistence has always had a well-defined place in the Pakistani way of life. The horrific suicide bombing in Lahore on Easter Sunday once again reminded us of the vulnerability of Pakistan’s Christians, and of the fragility of coexistence.<br /><br />A suicide bomber stood next to the children’s rides in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park and blew himself up, killing at last count 70 people and injuring 300, many of them Christians, most of them women and children.<br /><br />The group that claimed responsibility for the bombing, the Jamaat ul-Ahrar, is a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban. Last year they killed 15 and injured 70 in an attack on two Catholic churches in a predominantly Christian neighbourhood in Lahore.<br /><br />The sights and sounds in the immediate aftermath of the attack were staggering, though sadly these apocalyptic scenes are now becoming familiar global images, in Ankara, Brussels and Iskandariya this week alone. <br /><br />Women holding each other and wailing in shock, the blood of dead children staining their parents’ clothes, a young man with an open head wound running into the hospital carrying a wounded child in his arms<br /><br />The Jamaat ul-Ahrar soon issued a statement: their target had been Christians celebrating Easter, although they said they never intended to hurt women or children, only Christian males. Their words belied the indiscriminate cruelty of their attack.<br /><br />They also reflect the fact that the Pakistani Taliban have been weakened by the continued military operation against them in the tribal belt and in Karachi. They have now splintered into smaller groups, acting not as a cohesive unit but as lone wolves and renegades that hit soft targets like schools and parks because they can no longer reach military targets or security installations.<br /><br />But jihadis are not representative of all Pakistanis. One thing to understand about Pakistan is that most of its people are socially conservative Muslims, but only a minority actually advocates and enacts violence.<br /><br />The majority of Pakistanis are peaceful and would not act violently towards religious minorities even if they do not share their religious beliefs. Indeed, in times like these, Pakistanis forget about who is a Christian or a Muslim, and only think about helping the injured.<br /><br />As word of the bombing spread through television and social media, people in the immediate vicinity rushed to take the wounded to hospital in their cars, taxis and rickshaws before ambulances reached the scene.<br /><br />Pakistan’s answer to Uber, a car service called Careem, offered free rides to anyone wanting to donate blood at the hospital. One of the most widely tweeted images was of a young doctor on call with a cannula in his arm; he was donating blood in between treating patients. People from as far away as Karachi stood ready to donate food and water to afflicted families.<br /><br />Religious extremists will never succeed in taking over Pakistan, even if they maintain deadly effectiveness in spreading the virus of terrorism all over the world.<br /><br />As with any epidemic, the weakest are always the ones to fall first. Yet humanity is the one thing that inoculates us against its reach. As long as we have our humanity, we will still remain united as Pakistanis, no matter who we choose to call our God.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-43509779539126844432016-03-27T08:40:52.195-07:002016-03-27T08:40:52.195-07:00Let's face it. Pak is a gone case. Another bla...Let's face it. Pak is a gone case. Another blast today. 53 died (so far). The worst thing is that we keep hearing that the operation to kill terrorist is 90% complete. And remember this is suppose to be a better year where terrorism is just a minor nuisance (Copyright Riaz Haq 2016)Tambi Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288496189296384896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-7276247032423187482016-03-27T03:46:34.843-07:002016-03-27T03:46:34.843-07:00"
Such wishful thinking coming from them is n..."<br />Such wishful thinking coming from them is not a surprise. We'll all see it implemented in just a few years' time. And these wishful thinkers are too shameless to acknowledge how any times they've been wrong.<br />"<br /><br />I have full faith in Pakistani to bungle it up royally. They have a history for that. Besides few small explosions can blow up few numerous bridges that CPEC has to pass through via disputed territory of PoK. RAW is known for doing such things. It is nothing but a white elephant, lately China is doing this a lot. That Island reclaim and now here CPEC. China is drawing her enemies together and making new ones, consequences will follow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-79583598700563705682016-03-26T21:13:29.857-07:002016-03-26T21:13:29.857-07:00Here's more on Aurangzeb:
Some of the Hindu h...Here's more on Aurangzeb:<br /><br />Some of the Hindu historians have accused Aurangzeb of demolishing Hindu Temples. How factual is this accusation against a man, who has been known to be a saintly man, a strict adherent of Islam? The Qur'an prohibits any Muslim to impose his will on a non-Muslim by stating that "There is no compulsion in religion." (surah al-Baqarah 2:256). The surah al-Kafirun clearly states: "To you is your religion and to me is mine." It would be totally unbecoming of a learned scholar of Islam of his caliber, as Aurangzeb was known to be, to do things that are contrary to the dictates of the Qur'an.<br /><br />Interestingly, the 1946 edition of the history textbook Etihash Parichaya (Introduction to History) used in Bengal for the 5th and 6th graders states: "If Aurangzeb had the intention of demolishing temples to make way for mosques, there would not have been a single temple standing erect in India. On the contrary, Aurangzeb donated huge estates for use as Temple sites and support thereof in Benares, Kashmir and elsewhere. The official documentations for these land grants are still extant."<br /><br />A stone inscription in the historic Balaji or Vishnu Temple, located north of Chitrakut Balaghat, still shows that it was commissioned by the Emperor himself. The proof of Aurangzeb's land grant for famous Hindu religious sites in Kasi, Varanasi can easily be verified from the deed records extant at those sites. The same textbook reads: "During the fifty year reign of Aurangzeb, not a single Hindu was forced to embrace Islam. He did not interfere with any Hindu religious activities." (p. 138) Alexander Hamilton, a British historian, toured India towards the end of Aurangzeb's fifty year reign and observed that every one was free to serve and worship God in his own way.<br /><br /><br />Now let us deal with Aurangzeb's imposition ofthe jizya tax which had drawn severe criticism from many Hindu historians. It is true that jizya was lifted during the reign of Akbar and Jahangir and that Aurangzeb later reinstated this. Before I delve into the subject of Aurangzeb's jizya tax, or taxing the non-Muslims, it is worthwhile to point out that jizya is nothing more than a war tax which was collected only from able-bodied young non-Muslim male citizens living in a Muslim country who did not want to volunteer for the defense of the country. That is, no such tax was collected from non-Muslims who volunteered to defend the country. This tax was not collected from women, and neither from immature males nor from disabled or old male citizens. For payment of such taxes, it became incumbent upon the Muslim government to protect the life, property and wealth of its non-Muslim citizens. If for any reason the government failed to protect its citizens, especially during a war, the taxable amount was returned.<br /><br />It should be pointed out here that zakat (2.5% of savings) and ‘ushr (10% of agricultural products) were collected from all Muslims, who owned some wealth (beyond a certain minimum, called nisab). They also paid sadaqah, fitrah, and khums. None of these were collected from any non-Muslim. As a matter of fact, the per capita collection from Muslims was several fold that of non-Muslims. Further to Auranzeb's credit is his abolition of a lot of taxes, although this fact is not usually mentioned. In his book Mughal Administration, Sir Jadunath Sarkar, foremost historian on the Mughal dynasty, mentions that during Aurangzeb's reign in power, nearly sixty-five types of taxes were abolished, which resulted in a yearly revenue loss of fifty million rupees from the state treasury.<br /><br />http://www.albalagh.net/general/0093.shtmlRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-33630605349959216882016-03-26T21:05:57.525-07:002016-03-26T21:05:57.525-07:00Nawaz: "It was Aurangzeb who imposed the jiry...Nawaz: "It was Aurangzeb who imposed the jirya tax on non Muslims which infuriated many.'<br /><br />There's a of propaganda in India about Aurangzeb's rule. <br /><br />Here's a view that challenges it:<br /><br />Of all the Muslim rulers who ruled vast territories of India from 712 to 1857 CE, probably no one has received as much condemnation from Western and Hindu writers as Aurangzeb. He has been castigated as a religious Muslim who was anti-Hindu, who taxed them, who tried to convert them, who discriminated against them in awarding high administrative positions, and who interfered in their religious matters. This view has been heavily promoted in the government approved textbooks in schools and colleges across post-partition India (i.e., after 1947). These are fabrications against one of the best rulers of India who was pious, scholarly, saintly, un-biased, liberal, magnanimous, tolerant, competent, and far-sighted.<br /><br />Fortunately, in recent years quite a few Hindu historians have come out in the open disputing those allegations. For example, historian Babu Nagendranath Banerjee rejected the accusation of forced conversion of Hindus by Muslim rulers by stating that if that was their intention then in India today there would not be nearly four times as many Hindus compared to Muslims, despite the fact that Muslims had ruled for nearly a thousand years. Banerjee challenged the Hindu hypothesis that Aurangzeb was anti-Hindu by reasoning that if the latter were truly guilty of such bigotry, how could he appoint a Hindu as his military commander-in-chief? Surely, he could have afforded to appoint a competent Muslim general in that position. Banerjee further stated: "No one should accuse Aurangzeb of being communal minded. In his administration, the state policy was formulated by Hindus. Two Hindus held the highest position in the State Treasury. Some prejudiced Muslims even questioned the merit of his decision to appoint non-Muslims to such high offices. The Emperor refuted that by stating that he had been following the dictates of the Shariah (Islamic Law) which demands appointing right persons in right positions." During Aurangzeb's long reign of fifty years, many Hindus, notably Jaswant Singh, Raja Rajrup, Kabir Singh, Arghanath Singh, Prem Dev Singh, Dilip Roy, and Rasik Lal Crory, held very high administrative positions. Two of the highest ranked generals in Aurangzeb's administration, Jaswant Singh and Jaya Singh, were Hindus. Other notable Hindu generals who commanded a garrison of two to five thousand soldiers were Raja Vim Singh of Udaypur, Indra Singh, Achalaji and Arjuji. One wonders if Aurangzeb was hostile to Hindus, why would he position all these Hindus to high positions of authority, especially in the military, who could have mutinied against him and removed him from his throne?<br /><br />http://www.albalagh.net/general/0093.shtmlRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-53610286766836545792016-03-26T21:03:03.501-07:002016-03-26T21:03:03.501-07:00Anon: "CPEC is a myth. MAYBE...at most...Pak ...Anon: "CPEC is a myth. MAYBE...at most...Pak will get some megawatts out of it. Beyond that? Illusions. Delusions. Christine Fair added,"<br /><br />Such wishful thinking coming from them is not a surprise. We'll all see it implemented in just a few years' time. And these wishful thinkers are too shameless to acknowledge how any times they've been wrong. Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-73083862320544917202016-03-26T20:50:26.859-07:002016-03-26T20:50:26.859-07:00
Christine Fair @CChristineFair 6h6 hours ago
C...<br /> Christine Fair @CChristineFair 6h6 hours ago<br />Christine Fair Retweeted Vikas Lohia<br />CPEC is a myth. MAYBE...at most...Pak will get some megawatts out of it. Beyond that? Illusions. Delusions. Christine Fair added,<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-54252897356774536932016-03-26T18:11:50.053-07:002016-03-26T18:11:50.053-07:00There was a great deal of inter faith marriages am...There was a great deal of inter faith marriages among the Mughal nobility and the upper class during the Mughal period. It was Aurangzeb who imposed the jirya tax on non Muslims which infuriated many. Inter faith marriages continued after Aurangzeb. Bhutto's mother was Lakhi Bai<br /><br />Nawaznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-41096335906993017192016-03-26T10:32:18.213-07:002016-03-26T10:32:18.213-07:00You must read Will Durant's "story of civ...You must read Will Durant's "story of civilization" ( an effort which took nearly two decades) to know about the islamic rule in India.Tambi Dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13288496189296384896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-66621976543028427312016-03-26T10:00:28.667-07:002016-03-26T10:00:28.667-07:00Stanford scholar Audrey Truschke on #Muslim rule i...Stanford scholar Audrey Truschke on #Muslim rule in #India: #Mughal rulers were not hostile to #Hindus https://shar.es/1YGNDz via @Stanford<br /><br />Truschke, one of the few living scholars with competence in both Sanskrit and Persian, is the first scholar to study texts from both languages in exploring the courtly life of the Mughals. The Mughals ruled a great swath of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, building great monuments like the Taj Mahal.<br /><br />Over several months in Pakistan and 10 months in India, Truschke traveled to more than two dozen archives in search of manuscripts. She was able to analyze the Mughal elite's diverse interactions with Sanskrit intellectuals in a way not previously done.<br /><br />She has accessed, for example, six histories that follow Jain monks at the Mughal court as they accompanied Mughal kings on expeditions, engaged in philosophical and religious debates, and lived under the empire's rule. These works collectively run to several thousand pages, and none have been translated into English.<br /><br />Truschke found that high-level contact between learned Muslims and Hindus was marked by collaborative encounters across linguistic and religious lines.<br /><br />She said her research overturns the assumption that the Mughals were hostile to traditional Indian literature or knowledge systems. In fact, her findings reveal how Mughals supported and engaged with Indian thinkers and ideas.<br /><br />Early modern-era Muslims were in fact "deeply interested in traditional Indian learning, which is largely housed in Sanskrit," says Truschke, who is teaching religion courses at Stanford through 2016 in association with her fellowship.<br /><br />Hybrid political identity<br />Truschke's book focuses on histories and poetry detailing interactions among Mughal elites and intellectuals of the Brahmin (Hindu) and Jain religious groups, particularly during the height of Mughal power from 1560 through 1650.<br /><br />As Truschke discovered, the Mughal courts in fact sought to engage with Indian culture. They created Persian translations of Sanskrit works, especially those they perceived as histories, such as the two great Sanskrit epics.<br /><br />For their part, upper-caste Hindus known as Brahmins and members of the Jain tradition – one of India's most ancient religions – became influential members of the Mughal court, composed Sanskrit works for Mughal readers and wrote about their imperial experiences.<br /><br />"The Mughals held onto power in part through force, just like any other empire," Truschke acknowledges, "but you have to be careful about attributing that aggression to religious motivations." The empire her research uncovers was not intent on turning India into an Islamic state.<br /><br />"The Mughal elite poured immense energy into drawing Sanskrit thinkers to their courts, adopting and adapting Sanskrit-based practices, translating dozens of Sanskrit texts into Persian and composing Persian accounts of Indian philosophy."<br /><br />Such study of Hindu histories, philosophies and religious stories helped the Persian-speaking imperialists forge a new hybrid political identity, she asserts.<br /><br />Truschke is working on her next book, a study of Sanskrit histories of Islamic dynasties in India more broadly.<br /><br />Indian history, especially during Islamic rule, she says, is very much alive and debated today. Moreover, a deliberate misreading of this past "undergirds the actions of the modern Indian nation-state," she asserts.<br /><br />And at a time of conflict between the Indian state and its Muslim population, Truschke says, "It's invaluable to have a more informed understanding of that history and the deep mutual interest of early modern Hindus and Muslims in one another's traditions."<br /><br />- See more at: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/september/sanskrit-mughal-empire-090915.html#sthash.Y7zZog9s.dpufRiaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-38458080428183935362016-03-25T09:01:34.657-07:002016-03-25T09:01:34.657-07:00#India seeks consular access to #RAW agent arreste...#India seeks consular access to #RAW agent arrested in #Balochistan #Pakistan http://www.geo.tv/…/102903-India-seeks-consular-access-to-R… …<br /><br />India’s foreign ministry on Friday said it has sought consular access to an undercover agent of the country’s intelligence agency RAW arrested by Pakistan from Balochistan.<br /><br />In a statement issued today, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs admitted that the officer was an officer in the Indian Navy, but claimed that he had taken an early retirement from service.<br /><br />“He (alleged RAW officer arrested in Pakistan) has no link with the government since his premature retirement from the Indian navy,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said in the statement.<br /><br />“We have sought consular access to him. India has no interest in interfering in internal matters of any country,” said the statement.<br /><br />Pakistan summoned the Indian ambassador on Friday to protest against the illegal entry of the Indian spy.<br /><br />"(Pakistan) conveyed our protest and deep concern on the illegal entry into Pakistan by a RAW officer and his involvement in subversive activities in Baluchistan and Karachi," Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement, referring to the message conveyed to India’s ambassador.<br /><br />The capture of the RAW agent is the latest evidence of Islamabad's claim that the neighbouring country is actively trying to destabilize Pakistan.<br /><br />In a media statement here today, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that the captured agent is an active Indian serviceman who was active in Balochistan with an aim to destabilise Pakistan.<br /><br />According to details obtained by Geo News, RAW agent Kul Bhashan Yadav was arrested by a Pakistan’s intelligence agency in Balochistan three days ago and he was later shifted to Islamabad for investigation.<br /><br />The arrested agent of RAW had contacts with separatist groups operating in Balochistan, sources said, adding that he is a commander in the Indian Navy.<br /><br />During preliminary investigations, the undercover Indian agent revealed that his main agenda was to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through propaganda and to create disharmony among the Baloch nationalist political parties. <br />Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-33458806400551258812016-03-24T16:24:29.295-07:002016-03-24T16:24:29.295-07:00#Pakistan ranks 8th with its 6 million strong dias...#Pakistan ranks 8th with its 6 million strong diaspora sending $20 billion home in remittances http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/?p=503292 via @ePakistanToday<br /><br />Pakistan stands on the eight place among the top 10 recipients of remittances this year at $20.1 billion, according to a report.<br /><br />According to Khaleej Times, the World Bank estimates that more than 247 million people, or 3.4 per cent of the world population, live outside their countries of birth among which more than six million are Pakistanis.<br /><br />These Pakistanis, between July 2015 and January 2016, have sent an estimated $11.2 billion a marked increase of about 6 per cent compared with July 2014 to January 2015.<br /><br />Overseas Pakistanis are remitting more than $1.5 billion a month, making a significant contribution to their families and bringing about a socio-economic change. The State Bank of Pakistan expects remittances to cross $20 billion this financial year, the highest ever and these expectations are in line with the World Bank’s calculations that place Pakistan on the eight rung among the top 10 recipients of remittances this year at $20.1 billion.<br /><br />“The inflows from remittances (at current levels) now fully cover the country’s petroleum imports. Currently, international remittances are moving six per cent of the total GDP of Pakistan,” says Rizwan Wyne, a Pakistan-based expert on international remittances from Middle East to South Asia. The Migration and Remittance Factbook 2016 produced by the World Bank notes as of 2015 international migrants are expected to have sent $601 billion to their families in their home countries, of which developing countries like Pakistan received $441 billion.<br /><br />At more than three times the size of development aid, international migrants’ remittances provide a lifeline for millions of households in developing countries. In addition, migrants hold more than $500 billion in annual savings. Together remittances and migrant savings offer a substantial source of financing for development projects that can improve lives and livelihoods in developing countries, says the report.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5848640164815342479.post-15541821255887518602016-03-24T15:35:51.876-07:002016-03-24T15:35:51.876-07:00Overreacting to #Terrorism? #BrusselsAttacks #Obam...Overreacting to #Terrorism? #BrusselsAttacks #Obama #Trump #Cruz2016 #Islamophobia http://nyti.ms/1XPfJOn <br /><br />Are terrorists more of a threat than slippery bathtubs?<br /><br />President Obama, er, slipped into hot water when The Atlantic reportedthat he frequently suggests to his staff that fear of terrorism is overblown, with Americans more likely to die from falls in tubs than from attacks by terrorists.<br /><br />The timing was awkward, coming right before the Brussels bombings, but Obama is roughly right on his facts: 464 people drowned in America in tubs, sometimes after falls, in 2013, while 17 were killed here by terrorists in 2014 (the most recent years for which I could get figures). Of course, that’s not an argument for relaxing vigilance, for at some point terrorists will graduate from explosives to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons that could be far more devastating than even 9/11. But it is an argument for addressing global challenges a little more rationally.<br /><br />The basic problem is this: The human brain evolved so that we systematically misjudge risks and how to respond to them.<br /><br />Our visceral fear of terrorism has repeatedly led us to adopt policies that are expensive and counterproductive, such as the invasion of Iraq. We have ramped up the intelligence community so much that there are now seven times as many Americans with security clearances (4.5 million) as live in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Donald Trump responded to the Brussels attacks with crowd-pleasing calls for torture or barring Muslims that even Republican security experts agree are preposterous.<br /><br />On the same day as the attacks, a paper by James E. Hansen and other climate experts was released arguing that carbon emissions are transforming our world far more quickly than expected, in ways that may inundate coastal cities and cause storms more horrendous than any in modern history. The response? A yawn.<br /><br />Hansen is an eminent former NASA scientist, but he’s also an outlier in his timing forecasts, and I’m not qualified to judge whether he’s correct. Yet whatever the disagreement about the timeline, there is scientific consensus that emissions on our watch are transforming our globe for 10,000 years to come. As an important analysis in Nature Climate Change put it, “The next few decades offer a brief window of opportunity to minimize large-scale and potentially catastrophic climate change that will extend longer than the entire history of human civilization thus far.”<br /><br />To put it another way, this year’s election choices may shape coastlines 10,000 years from now. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have both mocked the idea of human-caused climate change, with Trump suggesting that it is a hoax invented by China to harm the American economy (he now says that last point was a joke).<br /><br />The upshot is that Brussels survived this week’s terrorist attacks, but it may not survive climate change (much of the city is less than 100 feet above sea level).<br /><br />Doesn’t it seem prudent to invest in efforts to avert not only shoe bombers but also the drowning of the world’s low-lying countries?<br /><br />----<br /><br />Daniel Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard, says that the kind of threats that we evolved to deal with are those that are imminent rather than gradual, and those that involve a deliberate bad actor, especially one transgressing our moral code. Explaining our lack of concern for global warming, he noted,“Climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels, not flags.”<br /><br />In short, our brains are perfectly evolved for the Pleistocene, but are not as well suited for the risks we face today. If only climate change caused sharp increases in snake populations, then we’d be on top of the problem!<br /><br />Yet even if our brains sometimes mislead us, they also crown us with the capacity to recognize our flaws and rectify mistakes. So maybe we can adjust for our weaknesses in risk assessment — so that we confront the possible destruction of our planet as if it were every bit as ominous and urgent a threat as, say, a passing garter snake.Riaz Haqhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00522781692886598586noreply@blogger.com