Loving Compassion in Islam and Buddhism: Rahma and Karunā
Compassion, even on the human plane, is not just a sentiment, it is an existential quality. This existential quality presupposes a concrete sense of participation in the suffering of others, as is expressed by the etymology of the word: com-passion means to ‘suffer with’ another. The metaphysics of tawhīd finds its most appropriate ethical expression […]
Lives suddenly in transit
It’s Saturday. The sun is out. It has been out for a day or two now, but today’s sun feels different. It’s brighter, warmer. It feels like a promise. Some of the streets are dry — they’re dull and grey, the way we like it, and not black and shiny, the way they’ve been for […]
Is Equality Really a Bad Word?
Gender equality has come to fore as a hot topic for debate. With the statement of Turkish President Recep Teyep Erdogan that motherhood is a precious value which feminism has discarded in a wholesale manner is the hotter piece of cake in the debating table. The obvious problem in his statement, if the cited words […]
Anthropology of Compassion
Ibn Arabi, as most of us know, has commonly been called Shaikhul Akbar, the greatest teacher. The main reason for this is that he explained in unprecedented detail and at the highest level of discourse all implications of the Islamic world view. The result was the vast synthesis of learning covering all basic fields of […]
Questions Mernissi Posed
While parsing the jibes and demurs in the social media motivated by a religious scholar’s latest misogynic comments, I read the sad news of Fatema Mernissi’s demise. In Kerala, Mernissi has, of all feminist-leaning Muslim authors, been read most avidly. That is because two works by her has been translated into the native Malayalam language. […]
Tipu Sultan and his ‘Indian Dream’
A lot has been said of Tipu Sultan. Why does the so-called-debate pop up every third week of November? The newspapers in Karnataka and the rest of India have been filled with stories of the Mysorean ruler, trying to place him in an India that is increasingly gripped by frequent doses of ‘Ultra Nationalism’. The […]
Intolerance and Cultural Dissenters
Recently, a spate of artists, writers, filmmakers and scientists from different backgrounds came out and talked about rising intolerance in India. The Dadri incident where Muhammad Akhlaq was lynched after ‘rumours’ of him having stored beef in his refrigerator, the burning of Dalit children by upper caste men in Faridabad and the various sending offs […]
Sharjah Turns New Pages
Conveying somber mood over his non-participation this year, MUHAMMED NOUSHAD remembers the 30th Sharjah International Book Fair and the encounters he had with the people and books during the fair, as the event this year has ended three days ago. In a November midnight in 2011, Ali Ahsan and I landed in Sharjah Airport, […]
Selfies Can’t Capture Indian Streets
There are differences of opinion as to whether a photographer ought to click a picture of someone lying on the pavement. The question of whether they are being objectified solely on the basis of a few photographs is a raging debate. Ajeeb Komachi’s collection of photographs of the poor and the downtrodden have over the years […]
Mughals: Perspectives and Prejudices
Mughal history is often taken up in contemporary India, or larger South Asia, to absolve the present of its responsibility for some bitter, hard-to-digest political realities, by taking recourse to a past either glorious or disgraceful. Post Dadri lynching, it was debated all around how a bedridden Babur advised his son Humayun to respect Hindus […]
Connect
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.