An Intermediate second year student B. Padmaja bagged second place with cash prize of ₹25,000 on Sunday for her Telugu essay on the life of Prophet Muhammad.
The competition titled ‘Inspired by Prophet Muhammad’ was an initiative of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) affiliate Student’s Islamic Organisation.
Ms. Padmaja arrived in the city from Jagtiyal specifically to participate in the competition.
Speaking to The Hindu about what inspired to pen the essay, she said, “I read about the virtues of Prophet Muhammad and decided to enter the competition. He saw everybody as equal and took measures to protect women’s rights.” It did not take long for Ms. Padmaja to prepare for the competition. “The JIH gave me a book. I read it for about an hour a day before the competition. Then I spoke to my friends who are Muslims. After this, I wrote the essay,” she said.
And how does she intend to use the prize money? “I will use it to pay for my education,” she said.
With a keen interest on participating in similar competitions centred around different themes, Ms. Padmaja said, “It’s important that people look for good things in different faiths. Only this can help all of us co-exist.”
While Ms. Padmaja was awarded the second prize, the first place went to Syeda Haajer, also an Intermediate second year student. She was awarded a cash prize of ₹50,000. A graduation student, Mariya Gouher, bagged the third place and was awarded ₹15,000.
Around 20,000 students in different parts of the State wrote the essay in Telugu, Urdu and English. The winners were awarded prizes at Khaja Mansion where JIH Telangana and Odisha president Hamed Mohammed Khan spoke of the importance of pluralism and building bridges between different communities.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Syed Mohammed / Hyderabad – December 17th, 2017
Rokeya Begum was an educationist, writer, social activist and effectively, India’s first Bengali Islamist-feminist.
As a Muslim reformist, her activism was neither half-baked nor exclusionist, yet little is known of her meaningful contributions to society.
Sometimes when wars are long and without any imminent hope of triumph or an end, it’s best to count on the smaller victories. Such as the taking down of Omprakash Mishra’s misogynist cringe-pop video or Uber apologising for their presumptuous and sexist offer on “Wife Appreciation Day” or Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale bagging the Emmy for “Best Drama Series” leaving behind popular shows like Westworldand Stranger Things.
The Handmaid’s Tale is to feminists what the BJP manifesto is to Arnab Goswami. Though Margaret Atwood’s evergreen dystopian thriller published in 1985 was one of its kind, it wasn’t the first. Eighty years before that, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain published her feminist utopian fantasy Sultana’s Dream, a novella investigating the ironies of a technologically advanced, gender-reversed India (one where men were confined to the “zenana” — the part of a house for the seclusion of women, or as Rokeya terms it, the “mardana” — imagined in the dreams of a woman named Sultana.
Born in 1880 to a wealthy Zamindar family in Pairabondh (present Bangladesh), Rokeya Begum was an educationist, writer, social activist and effectively, India’s first Bengali Islamist-feminist. While Savitri Phule and Pandita Rama Bai re-emerged through the obliterating clouds of India’s redacted history-telling, the narrative on Rokeya’s work remains shrouded, at least, in India.
Her father, an orthodox Muslim, persisted that the women maintained purdah and allowed them to be educated in Arabic (only) to enable them to read the Quran. Rokeya and her sister Karimunnesa, learned Bengali and English at the behest of their supportive brothers, who educated them on the sly. Perhaps this phase of her own life contributed amply to her tenacious belief that the lives of Muslim women could not be ameliorated without proper education. Added to that was her own sister who remained a key inspiration for Rokeya’s writings and her social work.
Karimunnesa, a seasoned poet, had been married off before the age of 15, putting what might have been a lucrative future to an abrupt end. This had further consolidated Rokeya’s faith in educational and individual rights for women — chiefly Muslim women, who, in that era, lived like showpieces in a glass casket but with an iron curtain.
With this line of thought and the support of her husband (Sakhawat Hossain, whom she was married to at the age of 16 and who died in 1909) and the money he had set aside, Rokeya went on to establish Sakhawat Girls Memorial High School, five months after his demise.
She started the school in Bhagalpur (a majority-Urdu speaking area in erstwhile East Bengal) with merely five students and was forced to shift the school to Kolkata in 1911 due to property feuds with her husband’s family. It remains one of the city’s most popular schools for girls and is now run by the state government of West Bengal.
Today, Rokeya’s memory is as fleeting — even for her benefactors — as Sultana’s dream. Photo: http://nationalwomansparty.org
In 1916, she founded the Anjuman-e-Khawateen-e-Islam (Islamic Women’s Association), which was her other organisational contribution to Bengali Muslim women. Through this organisation she offered financial and educational support to downtrodden Muslim women, over and above raising public opinion regarding the issue of Muslim women’s rights. That Rokeya was way ahead of her times finds semblance in the curricula of the school she established, which included physical and vocational training in an attempt to arm women with financial independence. She coined the term “manoshik dashhotto” or mental slavery, referring to the absence of individuality that pervaded the entire gamut of Muslim women and attributed it as the root cause for their subjugation. This rings true even today.
A century ago, Rokeya approached her adversaries with a wit and logic that is hard to find in today’s generation (which appears to be self-deprecatingly volatile). Insightfully, Rokeya tapped into the quintessential Muslim male ego and inversed it to men’s disadvantage, instead of directly antagonising them with liberal arguments.
She writes, “The Muslim society is paying a greater price for the lack of any system of education for their women. I have been informed by a reliable source that some educated Muslim youths of well-to-do families are setting conditions that if they can’t find educated Muslim women, they will not marry. They even threaten to become Christians and marry someone from that community if they fail to find educated Muslim women.”
Critics might question the ethic behind this approach, but the truth is, even now, “the threat to minority identity” continues to be the most veritable impediment to the realisation of Muslim women’s rights.
Keeping this in mind and the socio-politico environment of that era, perhaps by playing on their fears was not only ingenious but also the only way out.
In 1926, when she was invited to chair the Bengal Women’s Educational Conference, she said, “Although I am grateful to you for the respect that you have expressed towards me by inviting me to preside over the conference, I am forced to say that you have not made the right choice. I have been locked up in the socially oppressive iron casket of ‘porda’ for all my life. I have not been able to mix very well with people – as a matter of fact, I do not even know what is expected of a chairperson. I do not know if one is supposed to laugh, or to cry.”
Having lost her husband early and her two children who died at infancy, Begum Rokeya was not just subjected to scathing criticisms for her views but also faced unforgiving social exclusion. Despite the variegated hindrances she faced, in lieu of her gender, her community and the very fabric of the milieu that she had set out to change, she worked tirelessly and fearlessly to carve a way out for many Bengali Muslim women like myself.
Begum Rokeya died on December 9, 1932, and up until 11pm on December 8, 1932, she was working on an unfinished article titled, “Narir Odhikar“, which translates to women’s rights. The over-arching principle that governed her literary and social work was feminism and through it she heralded the discourse into Bengal. As a Muslim reformist from that era, Rokeya’s activism was neither half-baked nor exclusionist as the classist and sexist Aligarh movement led by Syed Ahmed Khan, yet little is known of her meaningful contributions to society. Today, Rokeya’s memory is as fleeting — even for her benefactors — as Sultana’s dream.
source: http://www.dailyo.in / Daily O / Home> Variety / by Suman Quazi / September 21st, 2017
The resting place: The skull was found in a store room of The Lord Clyde pub in London. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Skull of soldier, executed by the East India Company for rebellion in 1857, found its way to London pub; it’s now with historian Kim Wagner
Headhunting is usually associated with primitive tribes and contemporary terrorists, but the colonial rulers of India also collected heads of Indian soldiers as war trophies.
A 160-year-old skull of sepoy Alam Beg, now in the possession of a historian in London, is proof that colonial rulers who brought many modern practices to India were also at times inhuman.
In 1857, Alam Beg, also known as Alum Bheg, was a soldier with the 46th Bengal Native Infantry, an arm of the East India Company.
The Mutiny that year, after having covered the north Indian heartland, spread to Sialkot (now in Pakistan), where Alam Beg and his companions tried to follow their fellow soldiers and attacked the Europeans posted there. On July 9, 1857, they killed seven Europeans, including an entire Scottish family.
Alam Beg, along with his comrades, left Sialkot and trekked all the way to the Tibetan frontier only to be turned away by the guards on the Tibetan side. He was reportedly arrested from Madhopur, a scenic town on the northern part of the Indian Punjab and taken back to Sialkot. A year later, he was tried for the brutal killing of the Scottish family and blown up from the mouth of a cannon. The Mutiny ended soon after. Alam Beg’s tragic story surfaced more than a century later thanks to an Irish captain Arthur Robert George Costello, who was present at his execution.
The skull of Alam Beg. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Present at execution
The Irishman was a captain in the 7th Dragoon Guards, dispatched to India after the Mutiny had shaken the bonds between the East India Company and the native soldiers. Costello had not seen any episodes of the Mutiny but was present at the execution, said historian Kim Wagner, who possesses the skull now.
Costello picked up the skull and returned to London with it. In 1963, the skull was discovered in a store room of The Lord Clyde pub of London, after it had changed hands. The new owners were less than happy to find this war ‘trophy’ from 1857, but treated it as a solemn object from a disturbing past of British history in the subcontinent. The owners of the pub learnt from a note left in an eye socket that it belonged to Alam Beg, who played a leading role in the mutiny of sepoys in Sialkot. They desired to repatriate the skull to the soldier’s family. For years, they tried but failed. It is not known how the skull of Alam Beg ended up in the Victorian-era pub. But it is possible that the Irish captain who witnessed the execution of the leader of the mutinous soldiers visited the pub or someone deposited it there, given the fact that it had links with the history of the Indian Mutiny. In fact the pub was named after Collin Thomson, also known as Lord Clyde, who was a military commander and played a role in crushing the mutiny in north and northwest India. So it is possible that soldiers after their Indian stint would visit the pub.
In 2014, the owners of the pub contacted Kim Wagner who has been writing about South Asian history for years. They urged him to take the skull and return it to the descendants of Alam Beg. Mr. Wagner brought it home and the skull finally added to his research on South Asia which was published late last year as “The Skull of Alum Bheg: The Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857.” The historian believed that only by making people aware of the skull that Alam Beg can be returned to his motherland.
His research showed that most of the soldiers of the 46th Bengal Native Infantry were from modern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Havildar Alam Beg most probably hailed from Uttar Pradesh. Though he wanted to return him to a dignified family grave yard of Beg’s family, it was not possible as the East India Company left no records of the soldiers of the 46th Bengal Native Infantry.
“There are no longer any records for sepoys of the Bengal Army – the best I could do was locate the area where the 46th regiment recruited from,” Mr. Wagner said.
The Mutiny of 1857 was crushed mercilessly and many gruesome incidents of that era find mention in official records. In 2014, around the time when Mr. Wagner began writing his book on Alam Beg, Ajnala in Punjab’s Amritsar hit the headlines when authorities discovered skeletons of 282 soldiers who were executed after the Mutiny. They apparently had surrendered hoping for a fair trial, but the Deputy Commissioner of the district Frederick Henry Cooper ordered execution of the rebels. They were buried with medals and even money of the East India Company that many of them had in their pockets. The grisly discovery is yet to receive a closure as the family members of those soldiers remain untraced.
Similar is the condition of Alam Beg as his journey back home remains incomplete but Mr. Wagner believed that his only physical remain should find a proper peaceful burial. Mr. Wagner is aware that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been vocal about honouring the fallen soldiers of India in various colonial era battles. He says that something similar can be done in case of Alam Beg as well.
“After all these years, it is high time for Alum Bheg to return home…he was probably born in what is today India, he was executed in what is now Pakistan,” Mr. Wagner wrote in his book proposing that a burial for Alam Beg near the India-Pakistan border would be the most suitable tribute to his sacrifice.
The historian said that in the absence of the descendants of such soldiers, it is the Indian government that should bring back Alam Beg to his motherland.
Headhunting by colonial rulers from Europe was a rampant practice in the 19th century and activists worldwide have been vocal in demanding human remains from Western museums and collectors should be returned to their countries of origin. Such a movement is yet to begin in India whose soldiers from the colonial past in many instances continue to remain anonymous and abroad.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Kallol Bhattacharjee / New Delhi – February 04th, 2018
Socially disadvantaged marginal groups such as Adivasis (Tribals) and Muslims living in the remote district of Birbhum of West Bengal are being severely neglected in terms of educational development as well as economic and political empowerment. Abject poverty has reduced them to the level of the most backward people of society. Not only are they unaware of the benefits of education, social awareness and self-employment, but they also lack in the basic issue of feminine hygiene.
Although the problems of the Tribals and Muslims are different because of their different cultural context, it is clear that at the grassroots level, both communities require serious efforts at social upliftment if they are to compete with the rest of society. To this effect, a team of passionately devoted women has taken it upon itself to create awareness of empowerment and the need for self-reliance among the tribal and Muslim women of these areas.
An awareness programme of MBBDS at Purana Gram Panchayet Area
The Mohammad-Bazar Backward Classed Development Society of Birbhum District of West Bengal (MBBDS), targets people from the marginally weaker sections of society, mainly the Tribals and Muslims women. The society is both headed and managed entirely by women. Speaking to TwoCircles.net, Ayesha Khatun, head of MBBDS confirmed that the Secretary and President are both Muslim while the rest of the six members comprise four Muslim and two Adivasi women.
In the remote villages of Birbhum, Muslim women groups run schools, training programs, health and hygiene awareness, HIV prevention programs and promote Self-Help groups
The main areas of operation of MBBDS are concentrated in Purana, Bharkatta, Sekada gram panchayets in Birbhum and Shikaripara in Jharkhand. They are also active in projects for Muslim girls’ education in Murshidabad and Howrah districts. They have been running the Kanadighi Prathyahik Bidyalaya, a school, under the Purana Gram Panchayet in Birbhum since 2003. More than 250 students who were dropouts are getting education there. Another school, Jambani Cluster Child Growth Centre for Tribals under the Deucha Grampanchayet, has enrolled 78 students up to now.
A school for Tribals at Jambani by MBBDS
MBBDS also supports a school along the Ganges River bank, an area affected by land erosion. As a result of the land erosion, people are losing their homes and living in very poor and inhumane conditions. Their main occupation is bidi making. Ayesha Khatoon sees education as the way forward, and so has established a school in Akheriganj which has 71 students at present. Another school is being run in Panchpara, Sultanpur of Howrah district near Kolkata.
Panchpura of Howrah district is a Muslim dominated area. According to research conducted by the MBBDS, most of the residents are refugees of the Bhagalpur riots. Since it is a low-lying area, it is easily flooded during the rainy season and so the school dropout rate was very high as children were unable to go to school. Also, there is no electricity or a road network connecting the area to major cities. So, the MBBDS has provided a school for basic education to the poor Muslims.
Muslim girls at an education camp
Though they belong to the Hindu community `Adivasis’ are locally called `Santhal’. Their culture and lifestyle is vastly different from that of Muslims, and they even speak their own language, ‘Santhali’. The Birhum district is mainly dominated by the Tribals but there are a few Muslim pockets too.
The MBBDS has taken some initiatives which may help both communities:
• Provision of Elementary schools for Adivasi children in the area
• Health awareness: diarrhea and malaria prevention programs
• Built a nutritional garden
• Vocational training: tailoring and stitching; making of low-cost sanitary napkins; `Kantha Stitch’ (traditional hand embroidery particular to Bengal); hand batiks.
• A Pond for fish reproduction
• Training programs to develop leadership abilities in women
• Sports training (volley ball, khokho, kabadi)
• Provision of adult education to teenage girls
• HIV/AIDS Awareness Programs
• Awareness and Prevention of child marriages
The MBBDS has opened up a school which provides free study materials, free coaching, free uniforms, and even free food. There have been generous donations from internationally renowned organizations such as Association for India’s Development (AID), Hope Foundation, American Jewish World Service (AJWS), Dining for Women (DFW), PRIYA, to name a few.
The grinding poverty in these remote areas has forced the people to work as menial laborers earning daily wages while their women earn a living as sex workers. As these areas are located along the National Highway, truck drivers stop by to rest and find willing partners, for a small price. Hence, the risk of HIV/AIDS is very high. In order to combat this deadly trend, Ayesha Khatun has created an awareness program highlighting the dangers of unprotected sex.
Mumtaz Khatun, student of Rokeya Mission is a national-level Kabaddi player
There is also one pre-primary school in the area which encompasses at least 6-7 villages including Heruka, Sahanagar, and Kaldighi. Ayesha Khatun hopes that education will pave the way for these under-privileged communities to interact and assimilate with society and building schools is the first step in this direction.
Ayesha Khatun’s Society bought nearly an acre of land and built a school from the Fifth standard to Secondary Level. The Rokeya Mission School in Puranagram Muslimpara (Mohammadbazar area) has 109 students enrolled to date. The school provides leadership and self-help group training, family life education and counseling besides the other facilities named above. Mumtaz Khatun, a student of Rokeya Mission School has been selected to be a member of the National Kabadi Team: a real achievement indeed.
Ayesha Khatun, the inspiration behind this noble mission comes from an educated and elite background. She has seven other siblings: five brothers and two sisters who all hold Postgraduate degrees. She has a double Masters degree herself. Her father, Mohammad Minhilal was a school teacher. Ayesha Khatun was very impressed with the teachings of the Quran and the life of the Holy Prophet in her teenage years. She believes that Islam gives women equal rights and that the Quran should be followed and implemented correctly. It was after reading the Quran and its interpretation that Ayesha ventured to do social service.
Ayesha Khatun strongly believes in the social upliftment and political empowerment of women. The three-tiered Panchayet system already has a 50% reservation for women. She thinks that if women took the initiative and availed the opportunity to take part in politics, society and especially Muslim women would greatly benefit from this.
Besides being a social worker, Ayesha Khatun is also a writer. She has won the Rokeya Award from Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Young Writers Award from Bharatiya Sahitya Academy and Ila Chand Award from Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.
Edited by Ozma Siddiqui
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Articles> Indian Muslim> Women / by Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net / April 08th, 2012
Speaker R. Avudiappan inaugurated the memorial constructed for Umaru Pulavar, great Islamic poet, at Ettayapuram near here on Monday.
Official sources said that it was built by the Public Works Department on an outlay of Rs.22.5 lakh.
The monument would be maintained by the Department of Information and Public Relations.
The memorial, a two-storied edifice, has a tomb and prayer hall in the ground floor with a library on the top floor.
A collection of 1,000 literary works of Umaru Pulavar would be added into the library in a phased manner. The works would include poems like ‘Seerapuranam’, ‘Muthu Mozhil Malai’ and ‘Sethakathi wedding poems’, among others.
The access to the library would be free.
Sources said that the memorial was a tribute to the poet, whose ancestors had chosen Ettayapuram in Tuticorin district as their ‘home away from home’ since they descended from Arabia.
The forefathers of the poet came here to sell perfumes and settled in Nagalapuram, before moving to Ettayapuram where the poet was born in 1642.
Umaru Pulavar’s literary talents flourished under Kadikai Muthu Pulavar, court poet of the Ettayapuram Zamin. At the age of 16, Umaru Pulavar stole the national limelight by winning a literary debate with Vallai Varundhi, a renowned poet from North India. Umaru Pulavar was then made the court poet of the Ettayapuram Zamin.
“Seerapuranam,’ considered to be one of the best works by him, depicts the history related to Prophet Mohammed Nabi, and it contains 5,027 poems in three ‘Kandams’ (parts), which are Vilathathu Kandam, Noobuvathu Kandam and Hijurathu Kandam.
“Each of the ‘Kandams’ narrates various stages of the life of Nabi,” sources said.
Ministers Geetha Jeevan, Parithi Ellamvazhuthi and T.P.M. Moideen Khan, Collector R. Palaniyandi, District Public Relations Officer S.R. Sarathy and senior revenue officials were present.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Staff Reporter / October 30th, 2007
Umarupulavar, Kunangudi Masthan Sahib, Seiku Thampi Pavalar are popular names in the field of classical Tamil literature
Uraiyur Pitchai Ibrahim Rauther was an intriguing combination of a dry fish merchant and Tamil scholar.
His expertise is illustrated by the fact that towards the end of the 19th century, the management of Bishop Heber College in Tiruchi appointed him an honorary professor and among his students was the legendary Navalar Mu. Venkatasamy Naatar.
Writer and cultural historian Po. Velsamy, who posted some details about Ibrahim Rauther on Facebook, said he was an authority on the Tholkappiyam and great scholars such as Venkatasamy Naatar and Ra. Ragava Iyengar learned from him because till 1930, there was no one with expertise on the Porulathikaram of Tholkappiyam.
“Since the smell of dry fish on Rauther was overpowering, his students had to hold their noses even as they received lessons on the Tholkappiyam. But we have not been able get more details about Rauther, who died in 1908,” said Mr. Velsamy, who added that Rauther was a student Uraiyur Muthuveera Ubathiyayar and author of the Muthuveeriyam, a work based on the Tholkappiyam.
The Muslim community has had a glorious association with the Tamil language since the 12th century. Umarupulavar, the author of Seerapuranam, and Kunangudi Masthan Sahib are among the names to reckon with in the field of classical Tamil literature.
Sadhavathani Seiku Thampi Pavalar of Edalakudi in Kanniyakumari district is another well-known name in the Tamil literary world in modern times.
It was K. Peerkaderoli Rauther who published the Thiruvachagam in 1868. “The Sivapuranam in the Thiruvachagam is normally described as an agaval, but Rauther cited the Tholkappiyam to prove that it was a kalivenba,” said Mr. Velsamy.
Muslim scholars also worked extensively on Hindu epics and Athirampattinam Syed Mohamed Annaviyar rendered into Tamil the 14th chapter of the Mahabharata as Santhathi Asuvamagam.
Republished by the Thanjavur Tamil University, the book, comprising 4,104 verses, narrates the story of the Aswametha yagna performed by Dharma as per the advice of Vyasa after the war. “Santham means peace and asuvam refers to a horse. Magam means yagna,” explained Mr. Velsamy.
18 puranas
Annaviyar also rendered as ammanai (a type of verse) all the 18 puranas of the Hindus.
“Annaviyar and his descendants were scholars and even ran a publishing house. They wrote and published the Mahabharatha ammanai, Subramaniar Prasanna Pathigam, Aswametha Yagam,Ali Nama and Nooru Nama. Islamic scholars were experts in the sindhus, a genre in Tamil, and as many as 63 sindhus were published in the early 20th century,” said cultural historian Kombai S. Anwar.
When M.V. Ramanujachariyar, a colleague of U. Ve. Saminatha Iyer at the Kumbakonam Government Arts College, translated Vyasa’s Mahabharatha into Tamil, financial assistance came from many quarters, including two Muslims in Aduthurai, one of whom was a goat skin merchant. These contributions have been mentioned by Ramanujachariyar in the preface.
An interesting sindhu penned by M.K.M. Abdukathiru Rauther was performed when a kumbabhisekam was conducted at the Thiruvanmiyur Pamban Subramaniaswamy Temple. The title of the work is Pamban Balasubramaniaswamy Kovil Kumbabhiseka Vazhinadi Sindhu.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by B. Kolappan / Chennai – January 01st, 2018
“Shaharnama Faizabad” offers detailed information about the social and cultural life of the historic town
Although Faizabad had acquired prominence during the reign of the early Nawabs of Awadh, it lost some of its lustre when, soon after taking over the reins of the kingdom in 1775, Nawab Asif-ud-Daula shifted the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow.
Yet, it continued to enjoy a lot of influence until the last Nawab Wajid Ali Shah was deposed and banished to Matia Burz near Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was so because of its famed Begums who wielded considerable political and financial clout. However, in the last century, a Begum of a different kind brought the town national recognition when, at the end of every gramophone recording, she would proudly announce: “Mera naam Akhtari Bai Faizabad”. For most of her performing career, Begum Akhtar was known as Akhtari Bai Faizabadi and she truly represented the refined composite culture of Faizabad that abuts the Hindu holy town of Ayodhya.
Last year, Vani Prakashan had brought out an excellent book on Lucknow that offered scholarly research along with useful touristic information. Titled ‘The Other Lucknow: An Ethnographic Portrait of a City of Undying Memories and Nostalgia’, it was edited by Nadeem Hasnain and was based on a research project sponsored and funded by the Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan (Ayodhya Research Institute), an autonomous organisation of the Uttar Pradesh government’s Department of Culture.
It’s a matter of rejoicing that this year, Vani Prakashan has published a companion volume on Faizabad with the help of the same Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan. The fact that this volume is in Hindi and it offers very detailed information about the historic town, its social and cultural life, and places of religious and cultural significance would warm the cockles of everybody’s heart. Hindi writer Yatindra Mishra, who recently won the President’s Golden Lotus award for his biography of Lata Mangeshkar, has edited this 640-page tome titled “Shaharnama Faizabad” (A Chronicle of Faizabad). A scion of the erstwhile ruling family of Ayodhya, Mishra’s love for Faizabad is evident in the care and fastidiousness with which he has performed this daunting task with the help of many experts including historians Salim Kidwai, Madhu Trivedi and Yogesh Pravin, Islamic culture scholar Mirza Shahab Shah and Kosala Museum’s Deshraj Upadhyaya, to name only a few. Mishra has not only edited the book but has also contributed a large number of detailed comments on the Faizabad region’s history and culture, making use of painstakingly done research into archival material and other sources.
The book is divided into five sections and opens with the history of Faizabad and the way its architecture and culture took shape under the Nawabs. After Nawab Saadat Khan ‘Burhan-ul-Mulk’ was awarded the Suba of Awadh by the Mughal Emperor, he built a temporary fort called Qila Mubarak near Lakshman Ghat in Ayodhya. After some time, he built a cantonment at a distance of five kms from Qila Mubarak and it was known as Bangla. During the reign of Nawab Mansur Ali Khan ‘Safdarjung’, Bangla acquired the name of Faizabad. This section also tells us a very interesting fact about the royal emblem of the Nawabs as it depicted fish (considered to be auspicious) along with the bow and arrow of Ram, the presiding deity of the adjoining Ayodhya. Detailed information about the arts, architecture, music, jewellery and ornaments, and prominent Nawabs and Begums and their Hindu and Muslim courtiers has been provided in this opening section.
The second section is one of the most interesting and valuable parts of this book as it deals with the events and heroes of the great revolt of 1857, often described as the First War of Indian independence.
Ripple effect
As is well known, the deposition of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah had also played an important role in spreading anger and anguish among the sepoys who hailed from the Awadh region in considerably large numbers. Mangal Pandey belonged to village Dugvan-Rahimpur of Tehsil Sadar in Faizabad district. We also come to know about Maulavi Ahmad Ullah Shah alias Danka Shah who, as early as in February 1857, had started condemning foreign rule in his public speeches. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death. Faizabad remained independent till January 6, 1858 and was defeated by the Nepalese army that attacked its forces and subdued them.
While the third section gives detailed descriptions of important religious places belonging to all the religions present in the region, the fourth section offers invaluable historical information about the writers, poets, courtesans, high-brow as well as folk musicians, folk art, village fairs as well as local festivals, bazaars and traditional haats, instruments and their makers, journalists, newspapers, magazines and printing presses of the region. It’s a fairly long list and offers a glimpse into the cultural richness of Faizabad.
The fifth and final section deals with prominent social workers, sportspersons, educational institutions and public libraries, thus completing a full circle. It’s not possible to discuss such a voluminous book in any detail here. Suffice it to say that those who are interested in knowing the history and culture of Awadh cannot afford to ignore this work.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Kuldeep Kumar / June 16th, 2017
Surat, GUJARAT / London, UNITED KINGDOM / Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :
The book “Surat” by Moin Mir begins with a truth that will send a chill down anyone’s spine.
Moin Mir
Breaking all the shackles and bending, actually, even defying all the ‘rules’, the prince of Surat, Meer Jafar Ali Khan fought a battle all by himself. And win he did!
The book “Surat” by Moin Mir begins with a truth that will send a chill down anyone’s spine. “It is about how the East India Company took control of the great port city, Surat. They violated a treaty with the Nawab of Surat which stated that his family would be secure from generation to generation by stopping the family’s income, usurping the palaces, estates, jewellery and all that was part of the private estates of the Nawab, leaving the infant granddaughters of the last Nawab on the brink of destitution. In a counter attack Meer Jafar Ali Khan, father of the two infant girls stood to defy an empire and expose the corrupt practices of the Company in Victorian England. Spearheading a legal offensive that would shatter the Company’s reputation, Khan’s campaign for justice generated great heat and debate in British Parliament. Fighting against all odds this prince won it all back for his daughters and found true love” says Mir.
SURAT FALL OF A PORT, RISE OF A PRINCE by Moin Mir, Roli Books, pp. 250, Rs 495
“Two things that inspired me to write this, one that the lead character was a fathr on a quest to fight for justice in 1844 by planting himself there and defying an empire on its own soil.
The second reason to write this book was the city of Surat which was an important port. I wanted people to know that how this thriving maritime port was brought down by the English East India Company,” he adds.
Wanting to release the book on Meer Jafar Ali Khan’s 200th birth anniversary, Mir thought that 2017, was the right time to release it. The message he wants to give is that it is a story of a man who believed in his cause. “It’s a story of a city, an individual, a father and an Indian man in London in 1844. That is rare. And not just being an Indian in London but fighting the empire on their home turf. What are the chances of you winning? Zero! As the empire was at the peak of its power,” he signs off.
source: http://www.asianage.com / The Asian Age / Home> Books / by Kavi Bhandari / January 03rd, 2018
