Gandhi: Retrieving a Life from Cliches
Mahatma Gandhi’s life has been lined up in cliches. He carries superlatives which he deserves and does not deserve; which he knew and did not know; which he tacitly approved and vehemently discouraged and, which, above all, have been melted into the popular memory. For some, he is Mahatma-the most renowned and most widely criticized […]
Gandhi and Human Fraternity
Equality between men is an ideal. Religions, philosophies and political ideologies have made the equality of human beings the essence of their teachings, principles or systems. Individuals must be treated with equal dignity and fairness. And yet a journey through societies and nations is all it takes to convince us that we still have a […]
Non-violence: Islamic vis-à-vis the Gandhian
Does Gandhiji’s non-violence have any radical significance in the modern age? Does Islamic position on the struggle for justice, epitomized in the concept of jihad, support non-violent agitation? In the age of terrorism, which is unpredictable and exponential both in its state and anti-state manifestations, what can be a more ethical response to torture than non-violence? * Gandhi’s […]
My Faith Forms My Politics
Salma Yaqoob is a British politician: the former leader of the Respect Party, the organizer of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and an elected city councilor in Birmingham. Birmingham Post described her as a “doughty fighter for Birmingham’s inner city communities”. A brilliant orator, she is a regular commentator on current affairs. She was recently […]
Glastonbury & Lo, and Painting weds sounds
Glastonbury 2013: For music buffs, I update two tidings, one sad mixed with one really good. Glastonbury 2013 is under way. For those who have not heard about Glastonbury for the first time, I would like to spare the Wikipedia break by simply explaining it: The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is a festival […]
Kanthapura: Probing non- violent questions
Raja Rao’s novel Kanthapura (1938) is the first major Indian novel in English. It is a fictional but realistic account of how a great majority of people in India lived their lives under the British rule and how they responded to the ideas and ideals of Indian nationalism. Kanthapura depicts the story of an Indian […]
Mandela’s Gandhi: The Meaning of Violence in Resistance
One of the important similarities between Gandhi and Mandela was nothing but the milieu which made them. Though Gandhi focused his attention to the Indians who lived in South Africa, he has witnessed racism there so much as to make it a reference point in his political activism in India. About it, Mandela later acknowledged […]
Delectus Malabaricus: Malabar Awaits Ramadan
Ramadan is already in the air and people are grooming themselves for the much awaited holy month. Eating out, hanging out with friends, watching blockbuster movies, music, and rocking weekends; every known obsession comes to a standstill during Ramadan. Some renovate their homes, some buy brand new furniture, others simply replace their ringtones with something […]
Art in Sharjah: a new vista for Muslim women
Artists in the UAE are calling people to visit a new online exhibition to expose themselves to the plight and success of Muslim women around the world, and challenge common stereotypes. Artist and University of Sharjah College of Fine Arts and Design lecturer Dr Fatima Zahra Hassan said Emirati women, in particular, should view a […]
A Touchstone to Measure Your Gandhi
In Mahatma Gandhi’s life, opposites collide in such a way that we can defend him as rightly as we can demonize. Idealism and realpolitik have never vied with each other so powerfully in the life of any other person. Faisal Devji brilliantly captures this dilemma in his new work on Mahatma Gandhi: The Impossible Indian, […]
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