Booklet with profiles of the women also launched on the occasion
The travelling exhibition of path-breaking Muslim women achievers of the 20th Century rolled into the city on Saturday.
Called ‘Pathbreakers’, the invitation for the event had the enigmatic photograph of Tyeba Khedive Jung who was born in 1873 in Hyderabad. Moving away from Hyderabad, she became the first woman from the city who received university education graduating from University of Madras in 1894. Tyeba Khedive Jung wrote Anwari Begum in 1905 and she even presided over the annual conference of Brahmo Samaj.
“I stumbled upon the book Anwari Begum in my mother’s library. Then I realised I have to do something to tell the story about Muslim women who came onto their own at a time when the stereotype was that of a conservative society with many problems,” said Syeda Hameed of Muslim Women’s Forum, the brain behind the exhibition. A small booklet with the profiles of the women was also launched on the occasion.
Defying stereotypes
The exhibition had a captive audience as students from the Telangana Minority Residential School students as well as students from other government schools trooped in to listen to the stories of women who defied stereotypes. “We want the children to be inspired by these women. It will give them confidence that even they can achieve anything they want. We are giving them books with stories of these women to inspire them,” said A.K. Khan advisor on Minorities Welfare, Telangana Government.
One of the inspiring stories is that of Zehra Ali Yavar Jung who studied at Mahbubia Girls School and later started the Society for Clean Cities much before Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan.
“Hyderabad is a city of Hayat Bakshi Begum. It is a city of Mah Laqa Bai Chanda who donated Rs. 1 crore to the Nizam Sikander Jah for educating women. It is great to have this exhibition of these inspiring women in the city,” said Oudesh Rani Bawa, who spoke about other women from the city who worked for women’s emancipation.
The exhibition at Salar Jung Museum will continue till August 7 between 10 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – August 04th, 2019
The court said the Nawab of Rampur was a ruler only in name and cannot be immune to Muslim personal laws.
Via Royals of the Rampur Dynasty Facebook page.
Rampur state came into existence on October 7, 1774. Ruled by the Nawabs of Rampur, it stayed under the British protection till Independence and became the first princely state to accede to India in 1949.
The Nawabs were known for many things, including their patronage of music and arts, especially the Hindustani classical music form of khyal. One member of the family, Ahmad Ali Khan, bred the Rampur Greyhound, a mix of the Afghan Tazi and the English Greyhound, characterised by its speed and endurance.
There’s another thing for which the Rampur family is noted: it was involved in one of India’s longest-running civil suits in the country, which the Supreme Court finally brought to a close this week after 47 years.
The case related to the legacy of Raza Ali Khan, the Nawab who decided to accede to the Indian union in 1949. In return, the Indian government, through the instrument of accession, bestowed two key rights to the Nawab. He was entitled to the full ownership, use and enjoyment of all private properties belonging to him on the date of the accession. Second, the government guaranteed succession to the gaddi or rulership of the state based on the customary law, which gave exclusive property rights to the eldest son. Former royal families that had acceded to India also received a payment from the government known as the privy purse.
When Raza Ali Khan died in 1966, he had three wives, three sons and six daughters. His eldest son Murtaza Ali Khan succeeded him as head of the state, as per custom. The government recognised him as the sole inheritor of all his father’s private properties and issued a certificate to this effect.
But his brother challenged this in the civil court. Thus began a royal property dispute in which the courts were asked to decide if inheritance should be based on Muslim personal law or the unique gaddi system the royal family followed before joining the Indian Union.
After 47 years, the Supreme Court on July 31 decided in favour of the Muslim personal law or the Shariat. This means the women of the family are also entitled to a share of the inheritance. One of them is Begum Noor Bano, who was elected to the Lok Sabha member on a Congress ticket in 1999.
The case
After Murtaza Ali Khan took charge as Nawab in April 1966 his brother Zulfiquar Ali Khan challenged the certificate of inheritance issued by the government. He was joined in the litigation by three of his sisters. In December 1969, the Delhi High Court quashed the certificate. Murtaza Ali Khan challenged this decision in the Supreme Court, which refused to intervene.
In the meantime, using the Delhi High Court judgement, Talat Fatima Hasan, the daughter of one of Raza Ali Khan’s daughters, moved a petition in a civil court in Rampur in 1970 asking for the properties to be divided. The court issued an interim order that the assets should neither be transferred nor disposed.
But the family squabble ran into an unexpected event: in December 1971, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi amended the Constitution and abolished privy purses. Murtaza Ali Khan, who was receiving Rs 7 lakh annually as a privy purse from the Indian government as the Nawab of Rampur, lost his income, with his wealth stuck in litigation.
For over 20 years, the suit to partition the properties stayed pending before the civil court. Then in 1995, the Allahabad High Court withdrew the suit from the civil court and placed it before itself. By then, Murtaza Ali Khan had died.
A royal building in Rampur. Credit: Royals of the Rampur Dynasty
In the High Court, his descendants argued that two palaces – Khas Bagh Palace and the Sahbad Castle – had been recognised by the government of India in 1954 as the official residence of the ruler of Rampur. These palaces, along with their furniture, fixtures, equipment, pictures, motor garage, water works plant, dhobi-ghat, land and gardens were adjuncts of the ruler and could not be the subject matter of a suit, the argument went.
The High Court accepted this reasoning and dismissed the suits for partition in 1997. Talat Fatima Hasan then moved the Supreme Court.
Shariat or Gaddi?
The Nawabs are Shia Muslims. The central dispute in the civil suits was whether as Shia Muslims, the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act would apply to the inheritance or the gaddi system that the family practiced before Independence. Murtaza Ali Khan wanted the gaddi system whereas the Talat Fatima Hasan pressed for the Muslim personal law.
The instrument of accession made a distinction between the Rampur state’s public properties, which became vested in the government of India, and the Nawab’s private properties, which formed his inheritance.
Lawyers for Murtaza Ali Khan and his legal heirs argued that private properties of the ruler were not entirely private – they were attached to the gaddi or the rulership. And so they stayed with the person declared the Nawab.
But the Supreme Court refused to accept this argument. In the judgement, the bench said following their accession to the Indian union in 1949 and with the Constitution of India being enforced in 1950, the Nawabs were merely titular rulers who enjoyed certain privileges and privy purses. They neither had territory nor subjects. With sovereignty lost, the gaddi system had ceased to exist. The court said:
“When they were actual sovereigns, their entire State was attached to the Gaddi and not any particular property. There are no specific properties which can be attached to the Gaddi. It has to be the entire ‘State’ or nothing.
Since, we have held that they were rulers only as a matter of courtesy, to protect their erstwhile titles, the properties which were declared to be their personal properties had to be treated as their personal properties and could not be treated as properties attached to the Gaddi.”
Therefore, the court ruled that properties of the Nawab have to be divided according to the Shariat, which means that not only will male members of the family be entitled to a share, the women will also inherit a part of the estate.
Among them is Begum Noor Bano, the wife of Zulfiquar Ali Khan, who set the ball rolling in the courts when he challenged his brother, the Nawab’s oldest son, Murtaza Ali Khan, 47 years ago. And also Talat Fatima Hasan, the granddaughter of Raza Ali Khan, who took the battle further.
source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Matter of the Law / by Sruthisagar Yamunan / August 02nd, 2019
Shafiq ur Rahman Khan has been chosen as the winner of the coveted “Grinnell prize” for the year 2019. Notably, he is also the first Indian to receive this award in recognition of his exemplary dedication in working to safeguard the rights of vulnerable women and children.
The Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize (the Grinnell Prize) honours individuals who have demonstrated innovative leadership in their respective fields and who show creativity, commitment and extraordinary accomplishment in effecting positive social change.
Shafiq R Khan has been honoured with the Grinnell prize for his outstanding contribution in working to eradicate the Indian bride trafficking trade (the selling of women into often multiple forced marriages) and further empowering the agency and leadership of survivors. He has risen above the norm and worked single-mindedly for the cause of rescuing girls who fall victim to “bride trafficking.” His humility and passion for social welfare is worth the commendation from the Global community.
Shafiq R Khan, 35 years, hails from Gaya, Bihar. His foray in activism began at a tender age of 15 when he joined a communist party with the hope of working for the well-being of the poor. He witnessed the sorrowful plight of people entrenched in poverty and bonded labour, and the power equations that worked to ensure the divide between the rich and poor remained wide and after around four years of work, he moved away from the party because he felt called to do more and do it differently.
In 2004, he moved to Delhi to explore different ways of tackling oppression and to understand the various dynamics more keenly. He joined the Bonded labour liberation front which was at the time working against sex-selective abortions where he became part of the back office team for ‘Multipath march against Female foeticide’. Shafiq especially noted the power dynamics with regard to gender and realised how a lot of the entrenched ‘societal values’ were actually ‘enemies of women.’
He began to study the movement of feminism which helped him understand the systemic nature of women’s oppression and thus the importance of land rights for women. He took up Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) for graduation in 2006 and it was during these days, that an event set him off on his unique path that he continues to walk 13 years on, even today.
Shafiq organised a 300 km long March against Female Foeticide in 2006 with a group of friends as part of a social mobilization campaign, where he met a trafficked bride who talked about her helpless plight and asked for his help. Due to the insistence of his co-travellers to focus on the March, he continued onward unable to do much at the time. Her story and plea though remained with Shafiq and he returned a month later only to find that she had been sold off and moved forward to another man. Upon further enquiry, no trace of the woman was found. She had disappeared. It came about as a shock for him to discover how men were uninhibitedly dealing in the sale and purchase of women in broad daylight and disposing of them once their needs were met.
Seeing someone suffer at the hands of others, seeing girl children being killed in the womb, seeing girls getting sold for less than a hundred bucks and living the life of slaves—all of these instances were a good enough reason for him to sharpen his focus on the issue of human trafficking and gender inequality. This incident served as a turning point in Shafiq’s life and he returned to Delhi with a decision to do something about it. He began chalking out a plan for bringing about a much-needed change while he continued advocating for the rights of women and applied for a fellowship to further his work. Notably, he became the first male fellow of Jagori, a prominent feminist organization in Delhi.
Shafiq founded an organisation by the name of ‘EMPOWER PEOPLE’ in 2006 with an initial aim to provide alternatives to women trafficked in the name of marriage. The organisation soon began working also on the factors contributing to Bride trafficking.
While Empower People began with the support of its founding members, it began generating funds from various individuals as well as community-based organizations. This phenomenon served to shape the organisation’s unique multi-pronged approach which involved spreading awareness among people about the menace of bride trafficking and the different ways they could engage with the work thus leading them to eventually become lifelong supporters of the cause.
EMPOWER PEOPLE is based out of New Delhi, India and operates in many regions across North and East India, most notably in Haryana and Assam. Today, the organization works to support law enforcement agencies and families of trafficked brides by locating and rescuing missing girls and women. The organization carries out due follow-up through an intensive rehabilitation and tracking process that aims to ensure that the women and their ostracized children live safer, more equitable lives and do not fall prey to trafficking again.
It may happen at times that the survivors do not wish to be repatriated to their families. Some women prefer to remain where they were brought to, and for such families, EMPOWER PEOPLE develops local communities of support and solidarity among trafficked brides. Led by the trafficked women themselves and supported by EMPOWER PEOPLE, these “communes” provide trafficked brides and their children with the education, resources and the skills they need to gain independence, to access justice, to avoid future trafficking, and to encourage men to accept new ideas about equality and ways of behaving.
In addition to being CEO of EMPOWER PEOPLE, Shafiq also works to recruit male allies to the causes the organization promotes. Shafiq acknowledges that being a male places him in a privileged position to challenge patriarchy. He works to convince men of the importance of granting women power and agency and in order to change minds, behaviours and systems of oppression, Shafiq regularly organizes informal discussions with groups of village men and religious leaders to talk about issues of justice, gender equality, education, land rights, domestic violence, honour crimes, issues related to dowry, “share of daughters” in inheritance, and rights of women in general.
Shafiq with his inspiring personality stands by his concept of making people the real instrument of change through awareness and participation. He believes in developing a holistic understanding of issues related to Violence against Women and addressing the problem at its root instead of working in project-wise schemes with a limited focus. He plans to have a mass movement and an ideological campaign within the society against female foeticide and gender-based exploitation.
He organizes Marches against Bride Trafficking for awareness generation and sensitization which serve as a platform for people’s participation and as an interface between the Government/NGO/NPO officials and vulnerable communities. In 2012, he carried out a 4400 km long March covering 2 Indian States while in 2018, he carried out a 14000 km long March covering 10 Indian States- an ambitious achievement to connect various dots across the breadth of the country and to gain an understanding of cross-State ground realities. He plans to conduct more Marches across the length of the country as well. His consistent curiosity to know the pulse on the ground and his willingness to modify and strengthen his approach based on new information gathered makes him a true innovator and a change-maker to watch out for and reckon with.
The Trustees of Grinnell College have recognised Shafiq to be thoroughly deserving of the honour of being a recipient of the Grinnell College Innovator for Social Justice Prize (the Grinnell Prize) for the year for his incredibly worthy work of about 20 years. The honour will include conferring of a prize amount of $50,000 for the organisation and $50,000 for his personal use. The Grinnell Prize ceremony is scheduled to be conducted in the first week of October and will be accompanied by a series of workshops conducted by Shafiq R Khan in collaboration with the University.
source: http://www.beyoundheadlines.in / Beyound Headlines / Home> India / by Beyond Headlines News Desk / July 30th, 2019
Prof Shahid Ahmed, Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) gets an offer to be affiliated as Adjunct Senior Fellow at RIS, a policy research Institute under the MEA, Government of India.
Prof Shahid Ahmed, Department of Economics, Jamia Millia Islamia(JMI) has been offered to become Adjunct Senior Fellow at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, in recognition of his research work and contributions in the area of international economics.
About RIS
RIS is an autonomous policy research institute under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. RIS Adjunct Senior Fellows are a select group of experienced scholars who are well recognised nationally and internationally in the area of international economics and development of policies related issues relevant to decision making in the developing world.
More about Prof Shahid Ahmed
Earlier, Prof. Ahmed has served as Senior Economist at United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
He has also served as Head, Department of Economics; Director, Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies and Finance Officer of the university.
Prof. Ahmed has so far published 5 books and 93 research articles in national and international journals on several economic issues, particularly on multilateral trade negotiations, regional economic co-operation, South-South cooperation among others.
Prof. Ahmed has been given “Award of Excellence” for sterling achievements in the professional life and outstanding contribution to the society at large by MD University Rohtak in 2012 and AMP National Award for Excellence in Education in 2018 by Association for Muslim Professionals, Mumbai.
About JMI
Jamia Millia Islamia, an institution originally established at Aligarh in United Provinces, India in 1920 became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988. In Urdu language, Jamia means ‘University’, and Millia means ‘National’.
The story of its growth from a small institution in the pre-independence India to a central university located in New Delhi-offering integrated education from nursery to research in specialized areas-is a saga of dedication, conviction and vision of a people who worked against all odds and saw it growing step by step. They “built up the Jamia Millia stone by stone and sacrifice by sacrifice,” said Sarojini Naidu, the nightingale of India.
source: http://www.indiatoday.in / India Today / Home> News> Education Today / by India Today Web Desk / New Delhi – July 29th, 2019
A mostly forgotten population has been living as refugees in the Kashmir Valley for 60 years.
A Tibetan exile woman carries her child wrapped in woolen blankets on a cold day in Srinagar, Kashmir, India, Jan. 10, 2012. Image Credit: AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan
SRINAGAR, INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR — 63-year-old Tibetan Muslim Amanullah Kharmohra has preserved his travel permit like a holy relic. Laminated crisply inside a sheet of transparent polyethylene, the dog-eared permit carries photos of 6-year-old Kharmohra, his parents, and two siblings. It was this document that ensured the safe entry of Kharmohra and his family into India following a failed uprising against Chinese rule by Tibetans in 1959.
In March 1959, an uprising led by the region’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population invited a brutal crackdown from the Chinese government. The crackdown also led to the exile of the most prominent Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, to India. Fearing persecution by the Chinese authorities, thousands of Buddhists followed their spiritual leader’s footsteps and settled in India.
“But we chose [to settle in] Kashmir, because that’s where from our forefathers are,” Amanullah Kharmohra told The Diplomat from his government-allotted two-room quarter in Srinagar, the summer capital city of Indian-administered Kashmir.
Kharmohra’s family was among the 129 Tibetan Muslim families allowed by the Chinese government in Tibet to return to India. The permission came following tense deliberations between the Indian consulate in Tibet and the Chinese government.
A note given by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, to the Embassy of China in India on September 24, 1959 reads:
…persons whose permanent domicile remained in the State of Jammu & Kashmir and who visited India from time to time and whose parents or one of whose grandparents were born in undivided India, are potential citizens of India. It is this group of persons, who have stated repeatedly to the Chinese authorities that they were Indian citizens. They have apparently submitted applications in writing for registration as Indian citizens and are entitled to claim the benefits of Indian nationality in accordance with the provisions laid down under the Constitution and the Citizenship Act.
Once they were allowed entry to India, the families spent some time in Kalimpong district of West Bengal, following which they made their way to Kashmir Valley.
“We were initially settled under makeshifts tents inside Eidgah ground in Srinagar. However, once the winter set in, we were shifted to a government accommodation by the authorities,” Kharmohra recalled.
Kashmiris in Tibet
Experts argue that Tibetan Muslims, who formed a minority in Tibet, trace their origins to four main regions surrounding Tibet: Kashmir, Ladakh, China, and Nepal.
“Before 1959, there were approximately 3,000 Tibetan Muslims living in Central Tibet. They were the descendants of Muslim merchants who came to Tibet from Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal and China, mostly between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, married Tibetan women, and settled there. They spoke Tibetan and followed most Tibetan customs,” writes Dr. Alexander Berzin, a Buddhist teacher and translator, in an article on the history of Tibetan Muslims.
According to Kharmohra, Kashmiri-origin Muslims in Tibet were known as Kachee Yul by local Tibetans. In native Tibetan language, Kachee means Kashmiri and Yul means country. Another distinctive character of Tibetan Muslims was their Kashmiri caste names like Lone, Mir, Ganaie, and Butt.
A Slice of Tibet in Kashmir
Today, Kashmir Valley is home to more than 1,500 Tibetan Muslims. Living in government-allotted quarters and houses constructed on leased land, these families are particularly concentrated in Srinagar’s old city.
Even though the Tibetan Muslim community in Kashmir has been asserting their Kashmiri roots, it has not translated into permanent citizenship of the state of Jammu and Kashmir for them. This effectively disqualifies the community from applying for government jobs and owning immovable property. Under the Indian constitution, only the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature has the power to define “permanent residents” of the state and confer on them special rights like government jobs, acquisition of property, and scholarships.
That’s the primary reason, community leaders assert, that the state has prevented the economic uplift of the Tibetan Muslim community. “None of us have a government job nor can we buy property. Most of us work in low-paying private jobs or start our own businesses,” said Hafeez Ahmad, a community member in Srinagar.
In such a situation, the traditional cuisine of Tibetans and cloth work has come handy. Even though their population is not so significant, the impact of Tibetan culture and cuisine is visible across the valley. For example, restaurants selling Tibetan food are a common sight. Similarly, Tibetan embroidery, locally known as Bota Tilla, is an essential part of Kashmiri fashion and a must have for newlywed brides.
“During the first three years, I struggled a lot. There’s no concept of Tibetan food in Kashmir. But slowly, it picked up,” said 42-year-old Hamid Butt, owner of one of the oldest and most popular Tibetan restaurants in Srinagar.
It was in 2005 when Butt decided to give up on embroidery work and try something new. “My parents knew the cooking of Tibetan traditional food, so we gave it a try. Today, three Tibetan families derive their livelihood from this venture,” Butt explained.
Born in Srinagar, Butt has picked up almost every aspect of local Kashmiri culture. He speaks fluent Kashmiri and sits with his customers and asks about their well-being in local style. Like most of the Tibetan families, Butt even prefers local Kashmiri cuisine at home. “I am Tibetan only by my appearance. Otherwise, I am pure Kashmiri… We eat rice like Kashmiris do and also have nun-chai (salt tea),” he said.
Still, this doesn’t mean Butt has no love for Tibet. His restaurant is adorned with the landscape portraits of Lhasa and iconic Potala palace. “We also hold Dalai Lama in huge respect as he’s the King of Tibet. It was Dalai Lama who had given Kashmiri Muslims land in Tibet to settle there centuries ago,” he said.
Cultural Assimilation
Decades of sharing their home in Kashmir has seen Tibetan Muslims drifting closer to the culture of local Kashmiri society. During Kashmiri weddings, a multi-course meal, locally known as Waazwan, is served to guests. Tibetan Muslims have also taken up the meal to celebrate weddings – although with a caveat.
“While around 8-10 dishes are prepared in local Kashmiri weddings, we have strictly established a code of not preparing more than four dishes,” said 73-year-old Abdul Rehman Lone, a community elder.
When it comes to dress, there’s hardly any difference between the locals and Tibetan Muslims. The Tibetan community’s traditional dress, the chuba, an ankle-length robe, is worn only during the weddings.
The Tibetan government in exile in Dharmsala, India, has also shown some interest in the issues concerning the Tibetan Muslim community in Kashmir. For example, the Dalai Lama himself lent financial help to build the infrastructure of the Tibetan public school in Srinagar. A community health center in Srinagar is also aided by the department of health of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
“Around 680 children are enrolled in the school but more than 85 percent of them are local Kashmiris. Even though the Dalai Lama helped us a lot, the school is being run by the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation, a nongovernment organization run by local Tibetan Muslim youth,” explained Masood Butt, the administrator in charge of the school.
According to sociologist Dr. Adfer Rashid Shah at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University, the community has culturally assimilated in the Kashmiri society but not “psychologically.”
“Kashmiris have accepted them and in the last six decades they have lived here, there has been no friction between local Kashmiris and them. They have mixed with the local community but there’s still a gap. They think they are distinct; that’s why they are distinct. Otherwise, total cultural assimilation is possible in such a time,” Shah, who has studied the community closely, told The Diplomat.
One indication of that gap finally being bridged is the increasing trend of cross marriages between local Kashmiris and Tibetan Muslims. According to the community members, more than half a dozen such marriages have taken place in recent years.
No Scope for Growth
With no prospects of getting a government job and the lack of private sector in disputed Jammu and Kashmir, the community is witnessing increased migration by educated youth to mainland Indian cities like Delhi as well as Gulf countries. More often than not, they end up taking grueling call-center jobs to support themselves and take up further studies.
Every year, 26-year-old Moin Ahmad Sheikh spends five months in India’s capital city of New Delhi to sell jackets. During the rest of the year, Sheikh works at his father’s embroidery shop in the Eidgah area of Srinagar. After passing his Class 10 examinations, Sheikh quit his studies to support his family.
“I am the only son of my parents and my father was not able to handle the shop like before. Initially, I took up a job as a salesman but eventually I learned embroidery work. Life wouldn’t have been different even if I studied further because I am not eligible to get a job here,” Sheikh explained.
This realization is not lost on the parents of the Tibetan Muslim youngsters. 40-year-old Salma is anxious about her son’s future. Working as a cook at a local Tibetan restaurant, Salma and her husband eked out enough to sustain themselves and their only child, Ehtisham.
“Now, he’s in his 12th class. We are planning to send him to Delhi to take up some private job and continue his studies,” Salma rued, adding she has “no other option.”
Shah believes the conflict in Indian-administered Kashmir has overshadowed the problems faced by Tibetan Muslims in Kashmir and prevented solutions. “Kashmir is a war-zone where uncertainty about everything looms large. In a scenario where the majority population of the region is treated as second- or third-class citizens, the expectation that someone will speak about the plight of Tibetan Muslims is laughable,” according to Shah.
“The main issue in Kashmir is conflict and all the other issues are automatically sidelined,” he said, adding “their issues will remain unaddressed.”
But while the political uncertainty in the region forms the larger discourse in the valley, Shah argues that there’s also an “academic apathy and scholarly disinterest” about the community within Kashmir.
Broken Families
73-year-old Aisha was just 13 when her family left Tibet for India. Her father, Haji Abdul Qadir Jami, was one of the several Tibetan Muslim leaders who had risen up against the Chinese government to demand their rights. At the time of their migration, the Chinese government kept Jami in detention along with four other Muslim leaders.
“Chinese authorities told us to leave and assured us that my father will join us near the Tibet border. I along with my mother and four sisters waited for a week but our father didn’t turn up. Once we reached Kalimpong in West Bengal, we waited there as well. That wait stretched to seven years. Finally, we moved to Kashmir. My father never came and we didn’t know what happened to him,” Aisha recalled.
Aisha’s not an isolated story. Almost every other family of the community has some relatives still living in Tibet. The members have little avenues to hear about their family members’ condition or even to know if they are still alive. Over the years, strict censorship and tedious travel permit processes have meant little or no connection between the divided families.
“My deceased elder brother’s two sons came to see us in the mid-80s but since then, there has been no contact with them. Even though I know I have my brother’s family and relatives there, [it’s as though] they simply don’t exist,” said 73-year-old Abullah Jami, a community elder in Hawal Srinagar.
Safwat Zargar is a journalist from Srinagar whose work has appeared in Scroll.in, The Indian Express, and ScoopWhoop.
source: http://www.thediplomat.com / The Diplomat / Home> Features / by Safwat Zargar / July 31st, 2019
While Mughal rulers like Babar and Bahadur Shah Zafar have been buried on foreign soil, quite a few members of their clan rest at Humayun’s Tomb
Where do most Mughal kings, princes, and princesses sleep in Delhi? The answer lies in the vaults of Humayun’s Tomb, built with much devotion, by the emperor’s first wife, Haji Begum. Among those buried here are Hamida Bano Begum, the mother of Akbar; Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan’s heir apparent; Aurangzeb’s once beloved son, Azam Shah; the dandy Jahandar Shah, and his slayer Farrukhsiyar; Ahmed Shah and Alamgir-II.
There are many more, of lesser note, some without inscriptions, gathered within the folds of the mausoleum of their ancestor Humayun. It’s a strange feeling of beds spread out on a summer night with the kind emperor sleeping in glory among many of those who waded to the throne through the blood of their relatives. The last rites of murdered princes were generally adhered to and they were laid to rest in the family graveyard. But there were exceptions like Dara Shikoh, who was denied the ritual funeral bath by his austere brother Aurangzeb.
In Mehrauli, the precincts of the shrine of Hazrat Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki also form the burial ground of many Mughal and other princes. In Agra, Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra is the repository of the remains of a host of princes and princesses. In Calcutta, several descendants of Wajid Ali Shah, the last King of Oudh, lie buried, and in Rangoon, the family of Bahadur Shah Zafar has found a burial place denied to it in the land of its birth.
Babar’s tomb should have been the last resting place of all those descendants whose graves are found in Humayun’s mausoleum. But Babar chose to be buried in Kabul which ceased to be a part of the Mughal empire by the time most of his successors died.
Isn’t it an irony of fate that the first and last emperors could not be buried in India? While Babar loved Kabul, Bahadur Shah Zafar had no choice as the British wanted to stamp out his very memory by burying him in a nondescript grave in Rangoon, which was rediscovered by chance and formed the rallying point for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s INA during World War-II.
Bahadur Shah Zafar died on 7 November, 1862 and was hastily buried by lantern light, with the British officer deputed to escort him from India and look after his stay in Rangoon, supervising the funeral. Zinat Mahal and the other ladies of the harem who had accompanied the king did not attend the last rites, but his young son, Jawan Bakht was present. No tombstone was erected to perpetuate the memory of the star-crossed monarch, but fate willed it otherwise and Bahadur Shah Zafar seems to have had the last laugh as his name and fame survive despite his oppressors’ ill-intentions.
The king’s mazar (shrine) has now become a place of pilgrimage in Myanmar, where the last emperor is worshipped as a Pir. While on the walls are inscribed some of his heart-rending ghazals, like the one bemoaning the misfortune of his not having found even two yards of land in his country of birth “Kitna hai badnaseeb Zafar dafan ke liye / Do gaz zamin bhi na mili ku-e-yaar mein”. But he has acquired enough space in the hearts of his compatriots alright.
Babar’s mausoleum is a modest one, which lay neglected for many years. But it is heartening to note that lately it has been renovated, having somehow escaped destruction during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and then the turmoil of the Taliban period. Though demands have been made for bringing back Zafar’s remains to India, nobody has raised their voice for Babar’s reburial, not entirely because of the first Mughal emperor’s dying wish.
So Humayun’s Tomb remains the funeral parlour of the family of Babar. You go from vault to vault and nothing but inscribed stones confront you on which are enshrined a cloak-and-dagger mystery. Death, gruesome death, generally at the hands of an assassin hired by the next of kin, the ambitious prince determined to seize the throne.
Many were done to death by their brothers, uncles, nephews or treacherous wazirs. Some died of poison, administered through a favourite, but faithless, courtesan; others strangled in their sleep, yet others hacked with swords or stabbed through the heart or back. Children weren’t spared. You gaze at these tombstones with awe and pity. How many innocent lives destroyed for the sake of ambition! There is the silence of death all around, with the Grim Reaper gloating over his sickle of time with which he has laid low both those with name and those without fame. Only Clio, the muse of history, understands the secrets of these vaults and it is she who weeps in them through her tresses: Put on your shoes and tip-toe away.
The writer is a veteran chronicler of Delhi
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture> Down Memory Lane / by R.V. Smith / July 23rd, 2019
The Uttar Pradesh police on Friday said it had recovered a treasure trove of 698 “rare” Mughal-era silver coins dating back to the 16th and 17th century. A few of the coins are said to be from the eras of emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb.
The coins were found buried in a garden in Shimla, said a police officer from Moradabad district.
A DSP-rank officer from Moradabad Lallan Singh, the circle office of Highway area, said the coins were found by a Moradabad-based contractor named Ghulam Nabi while he was digging at a location in Shimla with three-four labourers.
The police came to know of the coins after Mr. Nabi and the labourers quarrelled among themselves over sharing the coins after they returned to the Mundhapandey area of Moradabad district, Mr. Singh said.
The coins weighed 7.9 kg, the officer said, adding that they had been sent to the Archaeological Survey of India.
“We struck silver!” U.P. police tweeted late on Friday as it released pictures of the recovery.
According to ASI, these are “rare 16th/17th century Mughal-era coins with legends in Persian and kalima in Arabic”, the police said.
The ASI is yet to issue a statement on the recovery or independently acknowledge their historical significance.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society> History & Culture / by Omar Rashid / Lucknow – July 27th, 2019
The mosque was built as part of a vision by Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, to include the main religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism), but he passed away before he could fulfill his commitments. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
Everyday Muslim announced the discovery of a forgotten Arab/British princess directly descended from the Prophet Muhammad
Buried in a Muslim plot at the Brookwood Cemetery near Britain’s first Muslim Cemetery
London :
The grave of a British Muslim, believed to be a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), has been discovered in a suburban town about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of London.
Nestled in the woodlands of Woking, Surrey, Princess Sharifa Musbah Haidar El-Hasimi (also known as Musbah Khanum and Musbah Haidar El-Ghalib) lies in one of Europe’s oldest Muslim cemeteries, surrounded by the graves of other notable Muslim Britons from the late Victorian period and beyond.
The burial ground, the first Muslim cemetery established in Britain, was unearthed as part of a trail led by Everyday Muslim, a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting Muslim heritage in the UK.
“Fascinating revelations on the history of this particular princess and her final resting place have been unearthed during a self-guided trail that takes visitors to three of Britain’s most important Islamic sites, offering an overview of each one,” said Tharik Hussain, the project’s manager.
It was Hussain who first discovered the story of the Princess when he stumbled across one of her books in a small bookshop in Brighton about six years ago. Captivated by this discovery, he began researching her background.
Princess Musbah Haidar, according to Everyday Muslim, was the second daughter of the Grand Sharif of Makkah, Amir Ali Haidar of the family of Devi Zeids, who claim to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
Princess Musbah Haidar was the second daughter of the Grand Sharif of Makkah, Amir Ali Haidar of the family of Devi Zeids, who claim to be direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. (Supplied, no known copyright)
Princess Musbah’s mother was an Englishwoman of Irish descent called Isabel Dunn, who converted to Islam and became Amira Fatima, the second wife of Haidar. She was employed as an English teacher for the children from his first marriage.
Everyday Muslim reported that Princess Musbah was born at the family retreat, known as Chamlujah, in Istanbul on Nov. 25 1918, and had an older sister called Sfyne and a brother named Faisal.
She was initially brought up in the city, but following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, her family was forced to leave.
Later she moved to England, and married Maj. Francis Stewart Fripp, who later converted to Islam, taking the name Ghalib.
The princess’s ancestry is not well known as, at the time, the Ottomans had installed the other side of her family on the throne in Makkah. In 1916, with the encouragement and support of Britain, the then Sharif of Makkah, Hussein bin Ali, led a revolt against the Ottomans to create a united Arab state.
Everyday Muslim states: “Her great grandfather was the late Emir Abdul Muttalib, who was the grandson of Emir Musaad, who was directly descended from the patriarch of the House of Devi Zeid, Muhsin, whose brother Abdullah was the patriarch of the House of Devi-Aoun, which is the family tree of the current monarchs of Jordan and the historic monarchs of Iraq.
“Both houses stem from Emir Hassan, whose lineage is traced directly back eleven generations to Emir Katada of Makkah in 1174 AD. Emir Katada’s lineage traces back a further eight generations to Abdullah, the son of Mohammed Al-Alaoui, who is the grandson of Abdullah, the son of Hassan Al-Mussema.”
Al-Mussema was the son of Hassan, the brother of Hussein, whose father was the fourth caliph of Islam, Ali, the husband of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.
In her lifetime, the princess authored two books; “Arabesque: an account of Harem Life,” detailing her life as a Makkan princess, and “Dawn Beyond the Tamarisks.” Her death was announced in The Times in January 1977.
According to Hussain, the two other Muslim sites in Woking the organization promotes have also been in the media recently: The Woking Muslim War Cemetery, which was renovated a few years ago and featured in the centenary celebrations of the Great War, and the Shah Jahan Mosque, which became the first in the country to be listed as a grade I historic monument as the first purpose-built mosque in northwest Europe.
The latter of these, named after Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, ruler of the British Raj tributary state of Bhopal, has a significant history.
The 130 year-old Shah Jahan mosque, in suburban Surrey, bears the name of its key donor, the Sultan Shah Jahan Begum, ruler of the British-Indian princely state of Bhopal. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
It was the vision of Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner, an orientalist born of Jewish parents from Hungary. A remarkable individual, according to the mosque’s website, aged 17 he “took a degree at King’s College, London, by which time it is said he could speak 15 languages.” He later went on to found the forerunner to the School of Oriental and African Studies.
The mosque itself was designed by Anglo-Irish architect William Isaac Chambers in a style that mirrored Indian Mughal architecture from the 16th century.
FUNFACT
In popular culture, the Shah Jahan Mosque was destroyed in H.G. Wells’ novel “War of the Worlds,” which was set in the author’s hometown of Woking.
Why Woking of all places?
Lietner, a religious scholar who lived and worked for many years in India and abroad, wanted to set up a college that would allow people to study the religions of the East.
“He came up with a site just outside London, in Woking, where this beautiful gothic building, known at the time as the Royal Dramatic College, had fallen on hard times and was up for sale. So it was really about convenience. It came with lots of land and it meant he didn’t have to pay the high prices that he would have paid had he found somewhere in London,” Hussain told Arab News.
Lietner wanted to build free places of worship there as well, including a Hindu temple, an Eastern Christian church, a synagogue and a mosque. Because he anticipated people from all over the world would come, including Muslims, one of the first things he did in 1884 was secure a plot at the nearby cemetery (Brookwood) exclusively for the use of Muslim burials.
The mosque (interior pictured above with the direction of the qibla) was built initially, along with a Muslim cemetery, as Dr. Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner understood that burial rites in Islam were a very important rite. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
A stone still stands to this day inscribed with specific instructions on how to bury Muslims, as very few people in Victorian Britain understood the specific procedures.
His institute flourished and after five years he began building the mosque, but passed away before he could fulfill his vision.
The Shah Jahan Mosque was completed in 1889, but according to its website: “Abdullah Quilliam’s Liverpool mosque, opened in 1889, pre-dates Woking by a few months, but the Shah Jahan has the honor of being the first purpose-built mosque in Europe outside of Muslim Spain.”
FASTFACT
The Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking is the oldest purpose-built mosque in northwestern Europe and was known as the “Makkah of Europe” during the early 20th century, when it became the center of Islam in the UK.
Hussain adds: “So this is why Woking, because it had Britain’s first purpose-built mosque and Britain’s first Muslim cemetery, so naturally Muslims were drawn to it.”
Unfortunately, the mosque was neglected after Leitner’s passing for over a decade, but was then restored by an Indian lawyer, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din, who had befriended influential Victorians curious about Islam, including a Lord who later became a convert.
His name was Lord Headley, also known as Sheikh Rahmatullah Al-Farooq, an Irish peer, and one of the leading members of the Woking Muslim Mission who helped the center flourish, with the aim of bringing it back to life as a platform for promoting islam in Europe, even becoming home to one of the first Muslim publications in Europe, The Islamic Review.
That is why Woking has been dubbed the “Makkah of Europe” by the organizers of the trail.
The Muslim cemetries
The Woking Muslim War Cemetery, now known as the Peace Gardens, played a prominent part in the remembrance of the centenary of the First World War, between 1914-18. It was the final resting place of 27 Muslim soldiers who fought for the British Empire and Free French Forces during the two great wars..
But it is the other cemetery that Everyday Muslim is keen to highlight, which you could say was the Westminster Abbey of Muslim cemeteries.
“This site is probably the least known and ironically is actually the oldest Muslim space we know of in Britain. It is a plot of land originally known as the ‘Muhammadan Cemetery,’ founded in 1884, within the nearby Brookwood cemetery, by Dr. Leitner,” Hussain told Arab News.
Princess Musbah resides here alongside Abdullah Quilliam (1856‑1932), founder of Britain’s first mosque and Muslim publication, Muhammad Marmaduke William Pickthall (1875‑1936), author of the first ‘native’ English translation of the Holy Qur’an, Naji Al‑Ali (1936‑1987), Palestinian political cartoonist and creator of “Handalah,” Sepoy Ahmad Khan (died 1914), the first British Muslim soldier buried on British soil, and many other famous Muslims, such as Victorians, princes and princesses, sultans and so on.
he cemetery in Woking is home to several important Muslim dignitaries. (Everyday Muslim/Tharik Hussain)
What is the aim?
Everyday Muslim wants to reach a point where sites such as these are not labelled as “British Muslim” heritage, but just “British” heritage.
Hussain, who also develops self-guided trails across the world for Lonely Planet guidebooks, said it should be recognized as a significant part of the island’s history
Sir Laurie Magnus, chairman of Historic England, which is responsible for protecting and championing the country’s heritage, said “Muslim heritage is very much a part of Britain’s heritage and I am delighted to launch this trail,” to celebrate these beautiful sites.
The initiative was aided by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, as part of a bigger project concerning the heritage and history of the mosque and the surrounding area.
Hussain said: “We wanted to put these trails out there so that Muslims and non-Muslims up and down the country could see the potential.”
He said they see this as a start, and hope to receive more funding to highlight Muslim heritage trails across the UK to make Muslim heritage in Britain more visible and a normalized part of the wider narrative.
“I think it’s really cool that in the process of trying to unearth British Muslim heritage, we are not only unearthing all these amazing stories of British people who were doing amazing things as Muslims and converts, but we find someone who has British blood and the Prophet’s blood. I think that’s just pretty fabulous, and something we should celebrate and embrace,” Hussain concluded.
source: http://www.arabnews.com / Arab News / Home> Latest News> Middle-East> Home / by Sarah Glubb / July 29th, 2019
Former world junior champion Nikhat Zareen, and GeeBee Boxing silver-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin, once again made the country proud by winning the silvermedal in the 51 kg category and 56 kg category respectively at the summit clash of the Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament on Saturday.
Nikhat, the Strandja Cup gold medallist and also the Asian Championships bronze-medallist, had to settle for silver as she lost to China’s Chang Yuan in the final.
The Chinese proved too tough for 23-year-old Nikhat and was handed a 5-0 blow. Although disappointed, the Hyderabad girl said she has learned many things which will be helpful in the world championship contest.
Nikhat took to Twitter to celebrate her commendable performance and said that she is only getting better. “Will come back fighting even stronger in the upcoming competitions. Thank you all for your continuous support! (sic),” she tweeted. Nikhat Zareen will compete with six-time world champion Mary Kom at the World Championships trials next week.
In 56kg, reigning India Open champion Chatchai Decha Butdee of Thailand continued his fine form to inflict a 5-0 defeat on Hussamuddin.
Overall, Indian boxers finished their campaign with a rich haul of eight medals at the championship.
source: http://www.thecognate.com / The Cognate / Home> News / by Shaik Zakeer Hussain / July 29th, 2019
Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27.
Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks
Bengaluru :
Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27. Announcing this at a press conference, M R Jaishankar, chairman and managing director of Brigade Group and founder of IME, said, “The grand launch of the IME is a culmination of nearly a decade of effort to set up a truly world-class museum and arts centre in India. We are hopeful that the IME will grow to become a pre-eminent arts hub of the country and preserve and propagate India’s rich cultural heritage to the next generation.”
Many dignitaries, including Tejasvi Surya, member of Parliament, Bengaluru South and S M Krishna, former union minister for External Affairs, were present. On the occasion, there will be musical confluence by Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks at 7pm. Talking about IME, museum director and classical vocalist Manasi Prasad, shared, “The performing arts teach us to create, communicate and collaborate. India has the most diverse musical culture in the entire world and the museum celebrates this. Going forward, the IME aims to be a centre of music education and research, providing a platform for artistes and art lovers.”
The exhibit area of IME consists of eight thematic galleries showcasing various facets of Indian music, an instruments gallery with over 100 musical instruments, three mini theatres, and several computer-based interactive installations that allow visitors to experience the process of music-making. The exhibits feature memorabilia belonging to the Bharat Ratna musicians of the country— Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and M S Subbulakshmi.
In addition, it will also feature a rare phonograph and gramophone, a selection of microphones, gramophone records and other artifacts.
The launch will be held at IME grounds in JP Nagar at 4.30pm.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 27th, 2019
