Around
fifty people gathered to listen to Aruna Roy & Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor
Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) speak on “Beyond Jan Lokpal: Laws to Combat
Corruption and the Role of Social Movements in India's Democracy.”
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
NED Alumni Association of the
Silicon Valley, an Introduction
The silicon content of the Silicon
Valley dirt is no higher than that of other dirt in other places. The Silicon Valley derives its name
from the fact that the area around the south San Francisco Bay—and especially
the south peninsula area with the Santa Cruz mountains to its west and the Bay
to its east—has for decades provided a lion’s share in pushing the world in the
modern age of fast communications and light speed computations; the semiconductor
industry—using silicon based wafers—being the backbone of this high-tech
revolution. The NED
graduates have been at the forefront of this technology revolution. With the oldest NED alumni in the San
Francisco Bay Area being a 1958 graduate and the young ones coming every year,
the Valley is estimated to have over two hundred NED graduates. The NED Alumni Association of the
Silicon Valley with a mission ‘to connect, serve, empower and support NEDians
and the NED University’ holds regular meetings on the third Wednesday of every
month. Join their Yahoo
group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDIANS-SV
Or look them up on Facebook at
Friday, September 07, 2012
The Black Indians in the West
I read with interest Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s piece on “The Black Indians”
(Dalits in the US) at Outlook.
Yes, the past should be
remembered, but there is no reason for one to celebrate their history of misery
imposed by others. The caste system had
its "merits", in antiquity. The caste
system made a society functional by designating specific professions to groups
of people. In societies where day to day
survival was the ultimate goal, social mobility made little difference, and the
majority of people acquiesced to class distinctions decided by those who chose
the best for themselves. But times have
changed. Human conscious has evolved to
a point where social justice matters, civil liberties matter, the freedom to
choose a profession matters. This
conscious in itself precludes the existence of a caste system that would lock
people in their places through generations.
When social structures in a place are too rigid to change in response to
the changing times, people indicate their disapproval of them by moving
out. Immigration to a new land is a way
to start anew, to completely reject the old social structures that one was
forced to accept. To escape to a new
place but still gloat over the old miserable life is nothing but masochism.
[Photo, courtesy of
Outlookindia.com]
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Congratulations to Shadab Rasool, But We Have A Few Questions, Please
Congratulations to Shadab Rasool, But We Have A Few Questions, Please
These days, any news from Pakistan almost invariably involves body counts. In the current atmosphere of despair even the
tiniest of good news from that godforsaken country is celebrated and cherished. With that appetite for positive news from
Pakistan, the report of a Pakistani high-schooler from Khairpur, Shadab Rasool,
winning a silver medal in a science fair in New York, was received with
pride. As always, the Pakistani media
had some terrible reporting of the news and it was hard to tell what new
technology was invented by Shadab Rasool.
The best piece—with some explanation of Rasool’s technology—was written
by Mithal Khuhro and Sameer Mandhoro, for the Express Tribune.
But even Khuhro and Mandhoro’s report relied too much on the information
obtained from Shadab Rasool himself. So
we decided to do our own investigative journalism and get to further details. As it normally happens the investigation did
provide more details, but it also generated a few questions. Here are the questions and we hope someone would
be able to answer them for everyone’s benefit.
Is Shadab Rasool also known as Usama Khan?
[We find Usama Khan’s name announced here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXXaTMENJew--at 00:36,
at the Genius Olympiad award ceremony.]
Also, at http://www.geniusolympiad.org/images/stories/GENIUS2012/GENIUS%202012%20Finalist%20List.pdf,
which is a list of the finalist teams (248 out of 657 participating teams),
Team 609, for the project title ‘Get the
pollutants out: Removal of harmful pollutants from industrial waste water by
tea waste,’ lists Usama Khan and K. Baloch as the team members. [A second team from Pakistan, Team 174,
for the project title ‘Detoxification of heavy metal contaminated soils by using
a new phytoremediation method’, had Abdul Daim and Wajid Waheed as the two team
members. That team won the ‘Honorable
Mention’ award. See that team at 14:00,
in the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFr1B6y721I]
In this TV report,
the reporter claims the ‘US
Government’ has given a scholarship of $250,000 to Shadab Rasool. First, Genius Olympiad, is organized by the
State University of New York at Oswego and the Terra Science and Education
Foundation, and NOT by the ‘US Government.’ Secondly, it does not appear any cash award
is given in this high school project competition. http://www.geniusolympiad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=17
[In fact, contestants have to bear
their own travel expenses, to reach to the contest in New York.]
And lastly, we would like to
review Shadab Rasool’s project in further detail to understand the originality of
his technology. [The Internet seems to
be dripping with ‘tea waste’ technologies invented to fight industrial
pollution. For example, see this 2010 paper
by the Chinese
researchers, on ‘Biosorption of heavy metals from solution by tea waste.’]
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Alcohol imbued Poetry: Remembering Jigar Muradabadi
July 15, 2012
Alcohol imbued Poetry: Remembering Jigar Muradabadi
From lofty to humble, Urdu poets have used creative noms de
plume to describe themselves, but it is not common for them to use body organs
as poetic names. Heart (dil), liver
(jigar), and gallbladder (pitta) have their uses in the Urdu language—for
example, good friends are known as jigri-doast (liver friends)—but Jigar
Muradabadi (born Shaikh Mohammad Ali Sikandar, in 1890) was the first one to
underscore the importance of a vital organ by using it as his pen name. A literary evening dubbed Soz-e-Jigar
arranged to remember the life and work of Jigar Muradabadi was held at the
India Community Center on July 15.
The program was presided over by Ms. Vijay Nigam, daughter
of Farhat Kanpuri (Gangadhar Nath Nigam), and emceed by Bay Area Urdu teacher
Hamida Banu Chopra. Several Urdu lovers
read Jigar’s poetry in the program.
Amjad Noorani an
advisor to The Citizens Foundation (TCF), USA, a non-profit organization
working for the education of underprivileged children in Pakistan, recited two
ghazals: ‘Kam Aakhir jazba e bay ikhtiyar aa hee gaya’ and ‘Ishq ko bay
naqab hona thaa.’
Anshuman
Chandra, an accomplished musician and one-half of the Bay Area band SaazMantra, sang Jigar’s ‘Jahle
khirad nay din wuh dikhay’ and ‘Ik lafz e muhabbat ka adna yeh fasa.’
Almas Hameed
Shabvani, a local singer, recited ‘Har su dikhai daitayN haiN who jalwah gar
mujhay.’
Alka
Hingorani, a former student of Hamida Chopra, read Jigar’s ghazal ‘Isee chaman main hee hamara bhee aik zamana thaa’ and
the poem ‘Tajdeed-e-Mulaqat.’
Hamida Chopra
read Jigar’s politically motivated poetry from her school days: Kabhi shakh o
sabz o barg per, kabhi guncha o gul o khar per//Mein chaman meiN chahay jahaN
rahooN, mera haq hai fasl e bahar per.
U.V.
Ravindra, a poet who uses Khurshid as his pseudonym,
read Jigar’s two ghazals: ‘Oas paray bahar per, aag lagay kinar meiN’ and
‘Dunya kay sitam yad na apnee hee wafa yad.’
Anil Chopra, professor of civil engineering at the UC, Berkeley,
read assorted couplets from Jigar’s poetry, including ‘Shikast-e-Tauba’ written
on the relapse of alcoholism.
Ashraf Habibullah, the main
sponsor of the program, is a connoisseur of art and poetry. As a speaker he is a wonderful
entertainer. Ashraf came to the
Soz-e-Jigar mehfil with his custom-made jacket studded with LED lights; he recited
Jigar’s ‘Shaer fitrat hooN meiN jab fikr
fermata hooN meiN.’
Bombay music composer of ghazals, Ravi Date, read Jigar’s ‘Fikr manzil hay
na hosh e jadeh e manzil mujhay’ and ‘Tum iss dila e wahshee kee wafaoN peh na
jana.’
Hamida Chopra
read a paper on Jigar Muradabadi recounting Jigar’s life and his association
with Asghar Gondvi. Chopra also
described Jigar’s alcoholism and said Jigar considered adding water or soda to
his alcohol, shirk (a sin in Islam involving the worship of another deity,
along with Allah).
Vijay Nigam remembered Jigar
Muradabadi as his father’s friend who considered her his own daughter and kept
paying her visits even after Nigam’s father passed away. Nigam described Jigar’s visits to be very
short, meant to assure her of his support to her—the tonga (horse-carriage) he
would ride to her home would wait outside, Jigar Sahib would just come in, ask Nigam’s
well-being, put his hand on her head and would leave right away. Nigam said Jigar’s kindness left a lasting
impression on her.
Anupama Chandratreya has that
rare quality in her voice that makes the poetry she sings, sink in your
head. The Soz-e-Jigar program
started and ended with Anupama Chandratreya’s
recitation of Jigar’s poetry (Jalwa baqdr e zarf e nazar dekhtay rahay
and Tabiyat inn dinoN baigana-e gham hotee jaatee hai).
Why do over one hundred people regularly convene at these
literary meetings, arranged every three to four months by Hamida Banu Chopra
and her group, even when no new literary work is presented in these
gatherings? The answer is simple: the
names are big, the poetry is familiar, and the regulars get a kick out of the
active participation in such literary events.
Listen to the audio recording of the
program here:
Monday, August 20, 2012
Kashmiris Losing Hope in Nonviolence: Yasin Malik
June 21, 2012
Kashmiris Losing Hope in Nonviolence: Yasin Malik
Why would a group of people wish to secede from a democratic
setup? Isn’t democracy, a rule ‘of the
people, by the people, for the people’, the best form of government? No, not quite. Groups of people may seek secession from a
democracy when a democratic rule has been imposed upon them, and especially
when the democratic rule is merely a continuation of the colonial era setup, forcefully
bringing together regions without obtaining the consent of people living there. Sixty five years after gaining independence
from Britain, regions and peoples of South Asia are still struggling to find
political setups best suited for their needs.
Kashmir, South Asia’s connection with the Central Asia, is one such
region. Struggle for an independent
Kashmir has seen ups and downs in the last sixty five years. The violent days of the 90s are gone, but a
desire for independence is still a reality in the Kashmir valley. Many Kashmiri leaders based in the West
believe the West and especially the US can help them see the light of
independence. US-based Dr. Ghulam Nabi
Fai is one of them. But whereas Fai may
consider himself just an activist fighting for the rights of his people, in the
post 911 United States he is a Muslim whose activities are closely watched by the
Big Brother. Emboldened by legislation
that gives carte blanche powers to law enforcement agencies in the name of
national security, undercover agents, eager to prove their performance to superiors
and patriotism to America, are gung ho about arresting the ‘Muslim terrorists.’ In this era of neo-McCarthyism, entrapment,
if it involves ‘Muslim terrorists’—or, lately, the ‘occupy movement’ activists--
is very much condoned by the larger society and the courts. We see the FBI agents regularly frequenting
mosques, exhorting people to do jihad, making ‘terrorist plots’ for the
feeble-minded they can recruit, supplying the dimwits with fake ammunition, and
in the end arresting them for plotting terrorist activities. Those who don’t get easily entrapped, get
their lives and finances closely examined-- benign actors are implicated in tax
evasion and building code violation cases; ‘despicable’ ones—ones with the
beards—are humiliated through charges of prostitution and child pornography. To cut a long story short, Ghulam Nabi Fai
has been implicated in a tax evasion case and is scheduled for an imprisonment
starting from June 26. A conference on
Kashmir dubbed “Right of Self-Determination for the People of Kashmir: A
Reminder to US Policy Makers,” hosted by Dr. Agha Saeed and others, held
on June 21, gave Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai the last opportunity to address a public
rally before the start of his incarceration.
Speaking at the conference, through Skype, Jammu Kashmir
Liberation Front leader Yasin Malik said after suffering for generations
Kashmiris started an armed struggle in 1988.
In 1994, the separatists laid down their arms after the international
community and especially the US promised Yasin Malik and other Kashmiri leaders
of their help in the resolution of the Kashmir issue if the Kashmiris would
turn their struggle into a nonviolent movement.
Malik said the unilateral ceasefire of 1994 was a very unpopular
decision. He said several of his colleagues
have been killed by India, and he too was arrested over 200 times after the
Kashmiris voluntarily chose the path of nonviolence. Malik said in 2003 he collected over 1.5
million signatures on a petition and presented the document to both the Indian
Prime Minister ManMohan Singh and the then president of Pakistan, Pervez
Musharraf. He said millions of
Kashmiris have taken part in peaceful marches that have been largely ignored by
the international community. He feared
that Kashmiris are losing hope in peaceful protests and wondering if violence
is the only way to bring attention to their cause.
Listen to Yasin Malik’s speech here:
Dr. Mohammad Siddiqui, brother of Aafia Siddiqui, and
Raja Asad Ali khan, a Pakistani journalist also addressed the audience through
Skype.
Mark Hinkle, an American libertarian activist, said that one of the tragedies that came out of the 911 attacks--besides the death of three thousand people--was the wholesale violation of rights of the Americans. He said Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi, and Osama Bin Laden were all funded by the US government. Hinkle advocated a non-interventionist US foreign policy.
Listen to Mark Hinkle’s speech here:
Dr. Imtiaz khan, professor at the George Washington
University said the Indian human rights abuses in Kashmir would put the
Israelis to shame. He highlighted the case of Major Avtar Singh, a former
Indian military officer, who shot his family members and then killed himself,
in Selma, California, earlier this month—Khan implied that Avtar Singh’s
suicide was an act of insanity stemming from psychological problems Indian
military personnel deployed in Kashmir face.
Avtar Singh was accused of abducting and killing Kahsmiri human rights
lawyer Jalil Andrabi, in 1996. Dr. Khan
also reminded the audience of the Kunan Poshpora mass rape case in which dozens
of Indian soldiers raped over 50 women in the Kashmiri village of Kunan Poshpora.
Dr. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, professor of journalism at the
Western Illinois University, said as an Indian Muslim he wants to see his
country strong and prosperous and wishes India to stop wasting resources in
Kashmir.
Listen to Dr. Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi’s speech here:
Edward Hasbrouck, a peace activist and author of “The
Practical Nomad” said he looks forward to visiting an independent Kashmir one
day.
Listen to Edward Hasbrouck’s speech here:
Hazem Kira read the position of the American Muslim Task
Force, AMT, on Kashmir.
Listen to the AMT’s position on Kashmir here:
The text of the statement is here:
In his speech, Dr. Hatem Bazian, Chairman of the
American Muslims for Palestine, said both Palestine and Kashmir entered the
post-colonial era as entities still trapped in colonial setups. Bazian said occupations are the most violent
manifestations of structures of violence.
Listen to Hatem Bazian’s speech here:
Imam Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Zaytuna College, and Qadr Fai,
Ghulam Nabi Fai’s wife, also spoke at the conference.
In his speech Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai said the unresolved
Kashmir issue concerns not only the 17 million people of Kashmir, it affects 1.3
billion people of South Asia. He spoke
of the four important factors--the historical background, the ground reality,
the Indian thinking, and the International understanding—of the Kashmir
dispute. Dr. Fai said Kashmir was never
a part of India so ‘secession of Kashmir from India’ does not mean anything.
Listen to Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai’s speech here:
The Kashmir conference held at the Chandni Restaurant in
Newark was emceed by Dr. Naeem Baig.
Puerto Rico’s Camuy, Tanzania’s Amboni and Balochistan’s LaHoot LaMakan
Puerto Rico’s Camuy,
Tanzania’s Amboni and Balochistan’s LaHoot LaMakan
Unlike other caves that are left featureless after their
creation through geological activity, limestone caves are adorned with needle-shaped
formations known as stalactites and stalagmites. The primitive man must have observed such
caves with awe. Entering such a cave one
can imagine going in the mouth of a beast, with sharp upper jaw teeth.
The limestone caves are found throughout the world. The ones I recently visited in Puerto Rico are
a tourist attraction, earning around two million dollars a year to the
government. In Pakistan’s Balochistan,
LaHoot LaMakan caves—around 60 miles out of Karachi—are a pilgrimage sight,
with dubious stories about the spiritual nature of the caves, the stalactites,
and the stalagmites growing every year.
The rotation of the earth works with the energy beaming from
the sun to set the stage for water and wind to move and shape our natural
world. The formation of stalactites and
stalagmites is easy to understand. When
rain falls on top of a cave made of limestone, the minerals get dissolved by the
water. As the aqueous solution drips
from the cave’s roof, it makes cones of calcium carbonate—called stalactites--after
the water is evaporated. When the rate
of evaporation is low the solution drips down on the floor and the evaporating
water leaves a mound of minerals—this geological feature is known as a
stalagmite.
Before we entered Parque de Las Cavernas del Rio Camuy of
Puerto Rico, a national park associated with the limestone caves and the underground
River Camuy flowing through them, we were educated through a movie. The fragile nature of the caves was explained
in great detail and the visitors were strongly requested to not touch the stalactites
or stalagmites as they were nature’s work in progress, having reached the
current stage in thousands of years.
Twenty years ago a visit to the limestone caves of LaHoot
LaMakan was a completely different experience.
In that visit, my interest in geology was instantly put off by
witnessing the wholesale desecration of the natural beauty of the LaHoot
LaMakan caves. We entered the main
Lahoot LaMakaN cave through a narrow opening.
The floor was slippery with limestone slush under our feet. Devotees were touching everything and most
stalactites had lost their sharp ends. A
stalagmite now in the shape of a bigger glob connected with a thinner column
was designated as the camel of Prophet Ayub, fossilized through a miracle. Every geological feature was explained to be
a beast transformed into a rock by holy men.
Black smoke rising from candles had already ruined many parts of cave’s
roof. Overall, it was painful to see a
wonderful opportunity to make money from the tourist attraction of Lahoot
LaMakaN limestone caves squandered by the local government. In that visit I had also thought of the
Amboni caves in Tanzania, visited a while back.
Even Tanzania had better economic acumen to preserve its wonderful limestone
caves and generate income from them.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
‘Little People, Big World’
‘Little People, Big World’
Amer Haider is a passionate man who takes his goals very
seriously. He belongs to the core team
that took Cavium Networks from a little known startup to an over billion dollar
NASDAQ listed corporation. Amer’s latest
passion is to fight achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that is the main
cause of dwarfism (known as skeletal dysplasia in the field of medicine). Amer, along with his wife Munira, is the
driving force behind ‘Growing Stronger’ (http://www.growingstronger.org/), a
non-profit dedicated to make life easier for people suffering from achondroplasia
and a host of related health issues. The
main support group for people suffering from skeletal dysplasia in the
USA is the Little People of America (LPA; http://www.lpaonline.org),
but LPA does not get itself involved in the medical research. Enter Growing Stronger. Since its inception in 2011, ‘Growing Stronger’
has partnered with researches working on solving the genetic puzzle behind
achondroplasia. A reception arranged by
Growing Stronger on May 12 at the Tech Museum in San Jose was an occasion to
acknowledge the support of the donors and to educate the attendees about
achondroplasia and the issues people suffering from dwarfism face.
Besides Dr. William Horton of Portland Shriners Hospital
and Dr. William R. Wilcox from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, Joe
and Ginni Foos from the little people’s community and Ericka Okenfuss, a clinical
genetic counselor and the lead coordinator of the Regional Skeletal Dysplasia
Clinic at Kaiser spoke to an audience of over forty. One strong takeaway from the lunch meeting
was that dwarfs are perfectly normal people who the society should accept for
who they are; research is primarily needed in solving medical issues little
people face. Readers of this news report
are encouraged to listen to the audio recording of the event at:
[The reality TV show ‘Little People, Big World’ showed
everyday life of a family of dwarfs and helped in raising awareness around
dwarfism.]
Monday, May 07, 2012
Indus Heritage Day
April 29. Milpitas, CA.
Faiz, in his moving poem ‘Dua’, asked God to erase today’s sorrows
with tomorrow’s sweet hopes. Can today’s animosity be erased by yesterday’s
sweetness? Yes. If the Indus Heritage Day picks up momentum
and gradually becomes an annual commemorative event in the three big South
Asian sates (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh), people may come to the realization
that their bond from past is much stronger than today’s superficial
differences.
Indus Heritage Day--a program to discuss and understand the Indus Valley
Civilization-- arranged on Sunday, April 29, was organized by The 1947 Archive
(http://www.1947partitionarchive.org/), the India Community Center (ICC; http://www.indiacc.org/), and the Pakistani American Cultural Center
(PACC; http://www.pacc-ca.org/).
Well-known film director Saqib Mausoof’s documentary film “In Search of
Meluhha” (see a promotional video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55wIV9vkaEg ) was screened at the program. [Outside Indus
Valley, contemporary civilizations knew the Indus Valley Civilization as ‘Meluhha.’]
Dr. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an expert on the Indus
Valley Civilization and a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
gave the keynote speech. Speaking to an
audience of over 200, Professor Kenoyer said the Indus Valley Civilization did not
exist in isolation. It was connected
through trade networks to Central Asia, China, and Mesopotamia. He rejected the earlier archeological theory
that the Indus Civilization suddenly disappeared, on the arrival of the Aryans. He said that the Indus Valley Civilization
set the foundation for the later historical periods of South Asia. He said that the Indus Valley Civilization
was connected to areas around it and through those connections established a
unified culture throughout South Asia that became the heritage of the Mauryan Empire. Kenoyer claimed that the concept of bangles was
developed in Harappa, one of the five major cities of the Indus Valley
Civilization. He said that the walls
around Harappa were probably not used for defensive purposes or warfare; they
were used for economic purposes, to effectively collect taxes from people
entering the walled areas. Speaking of
the Indus writing that remains undecipherable to this day, he said the writing
system was very versatile and could be used to write many different
languages. He said that traders of the
Indus Valley Civilization cities were wealthy, but unlike other ancient
civilizations, Indus Valley Civilization people did not bury the wealth with
the deceased.
Listen to Professor Kenoyer’s speech here:
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Prozac for Manto?
April 28. Newark, CA.
Fifty-seven years after Saadat Hasan Manto’s youthful death,
it is hard to do a psychiatric evaluation of the writer, but it won’t be a
far-fetched guess that Manto had a hard time dealing with the demons inside
him, and in fighting them he used the drug most easily and inexpensively
available to him—alcohol--but that drug was not the right medicine. What if modern medicine was available to
him? Could a Manto on Prozac still
produce ‘Toba Tek Singh’ and ‘Khol Do’?
It was hard not to think along those lines listening to the life events
and works of Saadat Hasan Manto in a literary program arranged by the Pakistan American Democratic Forum (PADF)
on Saturday, April 28, at the Chandni Restaurant in Newark. This year marks the centenary birthday of
Manto. Dr. Agha Saeed is the chief
organizer of PADF’s literary events.
Program on Manto was emceed by Dr. Ashraf Chaudhary; Ms. Sabahat
Rafiq Sherwani, Dr. Ashraf Chaudhary, Dr. Abdul Jabbar, and Dr. Melanie
Tanielian read scholarly papers on Manto and his writings.
In her speech Sabahat Rafiq said, “While Manto’s childhood
was relatively normal, three aspects thereof remained ineradicably part of his
persona, creating in him the rebel, the revolutionary, and the consummate attention
and ovation seeker. Overachievement of
his elder step brother continued to overshadow him making him an instinctive
attention seeker. Latent rebel in him
was enthused by the great agitation following the Jallianwala Bagh
massacre. And the socialist-revolutionary
facet of Manto’s personality was inspired by Bhagat Singh.”
Dr. Ashraf Chaudhary said, “The amazing thing about Manto is
the process of graphically recording the dark side of human beings while
artfully maintaining a neutral position.
Manto does not pass judgment on his characters as he puts them to shame
and let’s them speak for themselves.”
Before discussing the short story ‘Khol Do’, Dr. Abdul
Jabbar, read a comment Manto made about political leaders of his time.
“These (political) leaders are bugs which have slipped
inside the joints of the charpoi of the nation. They should be removed with the
boiling water of hatred. Young men in
torn shirts must rise up, and with anger and determination in their broad
chests throw down these leaders, in name only, who have climbed to the high
places without our permission.”
Dr. Melanie Tanielian read her commentary on Manto’s short
story, ‘Tithwal ka kutta’ (The dog of Tithwal).
The story is about a dog that ends up in an Indian military camp close
to the control line in Kashmir. The dog
is given a tag and made an ‘Indian.’ But
then later, the dog goes to the Pakistani camp, where he is declared to be a
‘Pakistani.’ At the end of the story the
dog, running at the control line, gets killed by both the Pakistani and the
Indian soldiers—the dog becomes a martyr.
Tanielian said, “It is not the story of an indecisive dog. It is the story of the Kashmiri people who
are living under the military occupation of two nations. Struck by the absurdity of human greed for
conquest and possession, Manto (in his story) exposes the irrationality of
conflict and violence by displaying the unnecessary sufferings of a dog.”
Listen to the audio of the program here:
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Falcon and Tulips: A celebration of Muhammad Iqbal’s life and work
Countries may adopt deceased poets and writers as their national heroes, but great writers’ and poets’ universal writings are truly for everyone to cherish and learn from. Muhammad Iqbal was one of those poets. Iqbal may have certain strains of pan-Islamic ideas in his poetry, but in most part the humanist part of his work has universal appeal. For many in South Asia, Iqbal was the greatest sage who lived in modern times—and that is why they call him the Poet of the East.
Bay Area Urdu cognoscente Hamida Banu Chopra regularly arranges literary meetings in which notable poets are remembered through recitations of their life histories and their work. On Sunday, March 11 such a program was arranged at ICC, Milpitas to remember the life and poetry of Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal.
The event, moderated by Hamida Banu, was presided over by Urdu teacher and community leader Ahsan Syed. The readings kicked off with Arvind Kansal reciting ‘Ram’ and ‘Niya Shavalah’ from Bang e Dara (Iqbal asking his countrymen to forget their religious differences and consider their land the god). After that reading Hamida Banu pointed out Iqbal’s use of Hindi words in Niya Shavalah—she said Sheikh Abdul Qadir, Iqbal’s contemporary and the editor of Makhzin magazine, had written about Iqbal’s study of the Hindu philosophy.
Next was Fatima Hussnain who read the poem ‘Mera watan wahi hai’ from Bal e Jibrael. Mera watan wahi hai is another poem indicative of Iqbal’s early patriotism.
Deepti Warrier hailing from Kerala sang Iqbal’s ghazal ‘Tujhe yad Kya naheeN hai’ from Bal e Jibrael.
Hamida Banu started recounting the important life events of Iqbal by describing a mushaira in Lahore that a 19-year old Iqbal attended. The mushaira took place in Bazar e HakimaN Inside Bhati gate. Famous poets of those times such as Mirza Arshad Gurgani Dehlvi and Mirza Nazim Hussain Nazim (known for his poem Jogi) were there along with their disciples. In the mushaira Iqbal read a ghazal ‘Hasrat nahin kisi ki tamanna nahi hooN mein’ and stunned the audience.
Banu then described Iqbal’s slow journey towards stardom in Urdu poetry. That Muhammad Iqbal being born in Sialkot on Nov 9, 1877 wrote very highly of his father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad, who once asked him to read Quran imagining that ‘Allah is talking to you directly.’
Iqbal learned Arabic and Farsi from Syed Mir Hasan, a scholar, popularly known as Shah Sahib. On Shah Sahib’s recommendation Iqbal got admission in the Mission College. Later, Iqbal went to study in Lahore. Whenever he would come back to Sialkot he would have scholarly discussions with his father. His father wanted him to be highly educated. In 1905 Iqbal left for England and on his way stopped in Delhi where he visited Khawaja Nizamuudin Auliya’s tomb and wrote the poem ‘Iltija e Musafir.’
In 1933 when Iqbal was offered knighthood, he told the Governor of Punjab he could not accept the honor until his teacher would be honored for his scholarship. When the Governor asked Iqbal if Iqbal’s teacher had written any books, Iqbal replied that he himself was a book written by his teacher. His teacher was given the award of Shams Ul Ulma.
It was the time when Iqbal’s poetry got regularly published in Makhzen, run by Sheikh Abdul Qadir Iqbal once told Sheikh Abdul Qadir that he was giving up on writing poetry and wanted to instead use his time in doing something more productive. Abdul Qadir tried to talk him out of that decision but Iqbal was not convinced. Abdul Qadir got Iqbal agree to talk to Professor Arnold and get his opinion on this important matter. Arnold was Iqbal’s philosophy teacher in Lahore. Arnold agreed with Abdul Qadir and urged Iqbal to continue with writing poetry, saying, “Whatever time you give to poetry is not only productive for you, it is also productive for your country and your people.” Banu said today we should be thankful to Abdul Qadir and Professor Arnold for having Iqbal continue the poetry journey.
Iqbal wrote extensively in Persian and is known as Eqbal Lahoori in Iran. The City of Mashhad has an ‘Eqbal Lahoori Institute of Higher Education’ (though engineering rather than poetry is taught at that university—may be because of Iqbal’s emphasis on the importance of active work, in his poetry.)
Hamida Banu described a meeting of Ghulam Bhik Nairang with Iqbal, after Iqbal returned from Europe in 1908. Nairang who lived in Amritsar went to Lahore to meet Iqbal who was not home. Nairang waited till Iqbal returned. Iqbal was wearing ‘an English suit’ when he returned home. But he quickly changed into a tehband (dhoti) and banyan (undershirt) with a folded blanket on his shoulder, and huqqa in front of him. ‘We sat down on the floor and discussed various topics. I lived there for three days. I can tell you he went to Europe and learned a lot of things, but that has not changed his down- to-earth manners.’
Listening to Iqbal’s poetry and life events one cannot help but think how the poet went through various transformations, from starry-eyed patriotism of the younger years and a sense of belonging to the land (urging people to unite despite their religious experiences) to pan-Islamism (a reaction to witnessing might of Muslim rulers crushed all over the world), to becoming a strong advocate of Muslim identity in South Asia.
Next in line was Bay Area poetess, Mahnaz naqvi, who read Iqbal’s poetry from his various intellectual stages.
Ali Hussnain, brother of Fatima Hussnain, recited the poem ‘Chand aur Taray’
Talat Qadeer Khan, a Karachi University graduate, sang the poem ‘Lala e Sahra.’
Hamida Banu pointed out the repeated use of Gul-e-lala (tulip) in Iqbal’s poetry. She said tulip was Iqbal’s metaphor for the lover. She said Iqbal was against the monopoly of religious leaders on religion; she read poetry to substantiate the thesis.
Next was Nasreen Chopra, Hamida Banu’s daughter, who briefly described her mother’s Urdu teaching career over the last 30 years, including a recent stint at IIT Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar where Banu taught two courses. Nasreen said she too learned Urdu from her mother. Nasreen read Iqbal’s famous poem ‘Hamdardee” from Bang e Dara.
Tashie Zaheer, a prominent Urdu poet, was given the task of describing Iqbal’s philosophy of Khudi (self). In his paper Zaheer described why Iqbal thought self-realization was an important pursuit; he said Iqbal used ‘shaheen’ (falcon) as a metaphor for a perfect Muslim because the falcon flies high, does not make nest (is always on the move), and does not eat animals killed by other predators.
Anupama Dalal sang ‘Zamana’ and a ghazal ‘Gaisoo e tabdar ko aur bhee tabdar ker.’
In his short speech, Ahsan Syed, paid tribute to Iqbal and said, “Mir gave us the language, Ghalib gave the language body and form, and Iqbal put spirit in it.”
Hamida Banu concluded the program reciting Iqbal’s poem ‘Doa.’
Listen to the audio of the program here:
http://www.archive.org/details/PoetMohammadIqbalsLifeAndWork
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ڈاکٹر سر محمد اقبال، علامہ اقبال، شاعر مشرق، فلسفہ خودی، اقبال اور حب الوطنی، اقبال لاھوری، سیالکوٹ مشن کالج، گورنمنٹ کالج لاہور، اردو شاعری، پروفیسر آرنلڈ، محلہ حکیماں، بھاٹی گیٹ، مشاعرہ، مرزا ارشد گرگانی دہلوی، مرزا ناظم حسین ناظم، سید میر حسن، نظام الدین اولیا، التجاءے مسافر، رسالہ مخزن، شیخ عبدالقادر، غلام بھیک نارنگ، اقبال وطنیت سے برصغیر کے مسلمانوں کی نماءندگی تک، حمیدہ بانو چوپڑہ، اردو کی تعلیم، آءی آءی ٹی احمد آباد گاندھی نگر، تاشی ظہیر، مہ ناز نقوی، اروند کانسل، انوپما دلال، دیپتی وارءیر، بال جبرءیل، بانگ درا۔
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
Looking back with William Dalrymple
A.H. Cemendtaur
On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, over two hundred people attended a performance of reading and music organized by the Berkeley Urdu Initiative at the UC Berkeley. Celebrated historian of late Mughal era, William Dalrymple, read excerpts from his book, “The Last Mughal.” Poetry, beautifully sung by vocalist Vidya Shah punctuated the reading. Shah was accompanied by tabla player Vishal Nagar.
What makes William Dalrymple a much sought after historian is the fact that deep at his core he is a storyteller. Dalrymple writes history books that grab you by your hand and take you back to the era he is describing; he makes you see colors and shapes, smell the aroma of fine foods and the stench of decomposing bodies, and hear the screams of people in distress and the late night music emanating from the royal palace.
In the introduction of the program, Professor Munis Faruqui, historian of Mughal India, said the evening was a part of the much larger program, the Berkeley's Urdu Initiative “launched to honor and extend Berkeley's decades long commitment to the study and dissemination of Urdu.”
Faruqui informed the audiences that since program’s inception in November 2011, almost $130,000 have been raised; in the goal to create an endowment for lectureship in Urdu, UC Berkeley is providing a 3:1 support to the fund-raising effort.
Raka Ray, Chair of the Center for South Asian Studies, introduced William Dalrymple as a historian; a contributor to the NY Review of Books, the New Yorker, New Statesman, and Guardian; and as one of the founders of the Jaipur Literature Festival.
What followed next was a mesmerizing session of storytelling and music. Dalrymple entertained the audience describing the brief period of renaissance at the very end of the Mughal period, and the events around the war of 1857.
“In the 1640s when Milton was sitting in the drab monotone of Puritanical, Cromwellian England, writing ‘Paradise lost’, and was trying to think of an image of grandeur, he chose to have God take Adam on a tour of the future cities of Mughal India. Adam is escorted through Mughal Delhi, Lahore and Agra on his path through future wonders of humanity. For a man of Milton’s generation this was no exaggeration. Mughals by the 1640s controlled almost all of South Asia, almost all of Afghanistan, and a slither of modern Iran.
“By the accession of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar in 1832, almost all of it had been lost. Delhi itself had been plundered three times since the death of Aurangzeb in 1707.
“One of the extraordinary features of this period is that unlike the periods of decline in other empires which normally leave little artistic trace, it is possible to argue that many of the most remarkable literary works to come out of Mughal India follow in the years of decline.
“The great renaissances of history usually take place during times of economic boom. What’s extraordinary about the renaissance that takes place in Delhi in period just before Zafar and during Zafar’s reign is that it takes place during a period of economic decline.
“This is the reason when the British turn up in Delhi in 1803, the first residents, the first ambassadors and diplomats the British sent up to Delhi, far from trying to impose their culture on the Mughal court are themselves colonized.
“David Ochterlony, first of the British residents, sets the tone. He entirely adopted an Indian way of life. He had no less than 13 Indian wives, each had her own elephant.
“By the 1840s, this early period of honeymoon between the British and the Mughals is fast wearing away; 1780 to 1800s, one in three British men were marrying Indian women and cohabiting in Anglo Mughal families; it went down to one in four, 1800- 1810; to one in five by 1830s; and by 1840s it is almost over—it is complete apartheid.
“Alongside the rise of the British power comes the rise of the evangelical Christianity and with it an entirely new spirit. (We see) evangelists using very extreme language; colonels of East India Company reading out the Ten Commandments to their troops.
“And the final moment happens on May 10, 1857 in Meerut, north of Delhi. The British had been using the same old rifle, the Brown Bess musket that had seen action against the Jacobites in 1745, and against Napoleon in Waterloo in 1815. It is still in service in 1850s in India. But after the British are completely defeated by the Afghans in the First Afghan War, there is a movement to change this old war horse of the British Army.
“In brought is the Enfield rifle. It is the age of breach loading guns and therefore the bullet comes pre-lubricated. It is greased in a mixture of pig-fat and cow-fat. And the sepoys are required to bite these bullets made in the Dum Dum arsenal north of Calcutta.
“It appears that the Indian version of this cartridge was produced with far too much grease that even the Europeans disliked chewing in their mouth--it was like eating raw Vaseline.
“On May 10, the sepoys refused to bite the bullet. They are led away in chains and sentenced to life imprisonment. That Sunday evening when the British are in the church, the sepoys rise up.
“On May 11, the day after the rebellion in Meerut, the first rebels arrive in Delhi. They slaughter not only the Europeans but also the converts to Christianity. And the uprising quickly assumes a religious and patriotic nationalist character.
“Of the 139,000 sepoys working for the British, 100,000 have thrown in their allegiance to the crown; 100,000 march to Delhi and seek service with the Mughal emperor.
“Zafar is now 82 and not at all the man to lead an uprising. The uprising sinks into chaos because there is no administrative machine to feed, pay and organize this massive army.
“By midsummer the uprising descends into (chaos); each successive regiment refuses to cooperate with the other; goes on its own to fight the British but then disappears into the city at night. All that is gained during the day is lost at night.
“Meanwhile British under John Lawrence in Lahore are recruiting an entirely new army--partly from Sikhs, but also from Pashtun tribesmen of Waziristan and Khyber.
“In August the new army moves from Lahore to take Delhi, on September 14. The new British army enters the city through the Kashmiri gate and begins a massacre of all fighting age males who are alive in the city.
“(This is how a 19-year old British officer described the capture of Delhi.)
‘The orders went out to shoot every soul. It was literally murder. I have seen many bloody and awful sights lately, but such a one I witnessed yesterday I pray I never see again.
‘The women were all spared, but their screams on seeing their husbands and sons butchered were most painful.
‘Heaven knows I feel no pity, but when some old grey-bearded man is brought out and shot before your very eyes, hardness be that man’s heart I think who can look on with indifference.’
“Having evicted the rebel army and having captured the emperor who, through his wife, does a deal with Hudson, the intelligence officer that he would be spared along with his wife and his son Jawan Bakht the British then head off out of the city in order to pursue the rebel army towards Lucknow.
“(This is how another British officer described the British leaving the Red Fort.}
‘The march was simply awful. Our advance guard consisting of cavalry and artillery had burst and squashed the dead bodies which lay swell to an enormous size in the Chandni Chowk. It was a ride that I don’t ever care to take again. Dead bodies were strewn about in all direction, in every attitude the death struggle had caused them to assume, in every stage of decomposition. In many cases the positions of the bodies were appallingly lifelike; some lay with their arms up lifted as if beckoning. The whole scene was weird and terrible, beyond description. The atmosphere was unimaginably disgusting, laden with the most noxious and sickening odors.’
“The emperor who surrendered is kept in the stables of the Red Fort. And there he is put on a show trial. A fantastical plot is drummed up. It is said that this uprising--which in reality has drawn in all sections of the society from India, ranging from Muslim noblemen to Hindu sepoys to tribesmen in Madhya Pradesh--is in fact an international Islamic conspiracy centered on Tehran. Zafar is being accused as the brilliant mastermind at the heart of this wicked Islamic conspiracy. And he is sentenced to life banishment in Rangoon.
“He would leave the city of his forefathers on a bullock cart. The last image we are left with before the last Mughal is deported is of an old man deprived of pen and paper still writing poetry with a charred stick on the white walls of the stable of the Red Fort.”
Has Dalrymple’s work put South Asia historians to shame? If Dalrymple can search primary sources in the National Archives of India to write history books, why can’t South Asians do the same? This train of thought brings us to another important factor in analyzing Dalrymple. William Dalrymple has indeed earned scholarship through hard work, but in marketing that scholarship he was assisted by two traits that he was born with: his race and his language. Among many legacies of the colonial period two still run deep and define our times: racism (a perceived hierarchy of importance of people, from fair-skinned to dark) and English as the language of authenticity. Were Dalrymple not Scottish and were he not writing in English, would his scholarship in Mughal era history have been appreciated as much as it is praised now? It is a tough question to answer.
Listen to the audio excerpts of the program here:
http://www.archive.org/details/WilliamDalrympleVidyaShahVishalNagarBerkeleyFeb282012
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