Mysuru boy 14-year-old Mustafa Raja won the Under-16 4 star Tennis BC Tournament held at the Tennis BC Hub in Richmond, Vancouver.
Mustafa seeded third in the tournament overcame second seeded Owen in the semi finals. Mustafa fought back well from 3,6 and 3,5 down to win the match 3,6 7,5 and 6,1 in a well-contested two hour match.
In the finals, Mustafa defeated Joseph Shen with the score 6,1 and 6,2.
Mustafa trains at the Tennis Centre and attends Sullivan Heights Secondary. Mustafa trained at the Nagaraj Tennis Centre in Mysuru and is an alumnus of Excel Public School.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports / October 26th, 2021
A screen grab of the online inauguration of English-speaking course at Jamea-tul-Hidaya, Jaipur.
Bhopal :
A Jaipur-based seminary, namely Jamea Tul Hidaya, will commence a one-year online English-Speaking Course from October 16.
The formal online inauguration of the Online course was held the other day wherein Islamic clerics from Canada and UK were also guest speakers.
The function was presided over by Maulana Syed Mohammed Rabey Hasani Nadvi, Chancellor Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, and president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
It may be recalled here that Jamea Tul Hidaya recently has started an Online Ifta course and is now starting a one-year online English-Speaking Course.
Jamea Tul Hidaya is a seminary well-known worldwide for imparting theological and contemporary education to its students.
In his key-note address, Maulana Mohammad Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi, Chancellor Jamea Tul Hidaya, said: “Today is the golden day in the history of Jamea Tul Hidaya. Although the English language is included in the syllabus of the Jamea from primary classes to Aalim, yet feeling its significance, English Speaking Course is going to be started for the alumni of Madaris.
He also said: “Six schools are running under Maulana Abdul Rahim Educational Trust in Jaipur, and more are in the pipeline.
For civil services exams, Crescent Academy for civil services exams was established, where free coaching is being provided to the students. To get benefits from government schemes, and for the political and educational awareness, conferences and seminars were organized in the whole country.”
“In modern times, English has become an international language. Therefore, to ward off religious misunderstandings, it is becoming more and more important to learn this language for economic stability and trade and employment,” he further said.
Maulana (Dr.) Iqbal Masood Nadvi, who was Professor at King Saud University, Riyadh, and is presently living in Toronto (Canada), in his speech said: “Translation cannot be equal to the language from where it has been translated, so we should have the capacity to understand the text in its original language. He also said: “The person who learns the language of others defends himself from any cheating.”
Abdur Raheem Kidwai, Prof. of English and Director UGC Human Resource Development Centre, AMU, said: “Growing numbers of Madrasas are introducing English as a very good subject. But practically there are no trained English teachers as there is total lack of teachers training program, absence of syllabus and textbooks and no language labs”. But he said he has many hopes from this Course of Jamea Tul Hidaya.
He also advised to arrange a comprehensive program integrating all the four skills of the language LSRW, i.e., Learning, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. He assured of giving any support to this program from him and his colleagues.
In his presidential address, Maulana Syed Mohammed Rabey HasaniNadvi said: “It is a congregation of much importance. It is the high courage of Maulana Fazlur Rahim that he took this work on his shoulders. I hope it will encircle the whole world and benefit the alumni as well as the objective of the Madrasa.” Recalling his association with the founder of Jamea Tul Hidaya, the late Maulana Abdur Rahim, he acknowledged the works done by this institute. He appreciated the endeavours of Maulana Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi.
Abdul Kareem Gheewala, Islamic scholar and social activist from Leicester (UK), emphasized the importance and significance of the English language. It can help clarify the doubts and criticism about Islamic teachings and practices and propagate Islam’s right spirit and message to the world.
He congratulated Jamea and all those behind the program and appreciated the commitment and dedication shown by Maulana Fazlur Rahim. He was confident that it would become a top-rated course and benefit Islamic scholars in many ways.
Dr. Saud Alam Qasmi, Dean Faculty of Theology in Aligarh Muslim University. (AMU), said: “Maulana Fazlur Rahim Mujaddidi is not only the torch-bearer of Islam in India but has progressive thinking towards the issues related with Muslims. He has taken the initiative for so many things to uplift Muslim society, particularly the younger generation.
He said that the On-line programs, Ifta and English-Speaking Course, are marvellous and this program will help our younger generation acquire the current world knowledge and literature. He also called English the language of opportunities. He said Maulana Fazlur Rahim is a magnetic personality and congratulated him and his team on initiating this English Speaking online course.
Mohammad Iqbal Khan, Director of Crescent Academy for Civil Services Exams, New Delhi, and organizer of this one-year online English-speaking course, described the brief history of Jamea-tul- Hidaya and its founder. He addressed mainly to the students and shared his views on how to learn to speak English better.
The program concluded with Dua to Almighty Allah by Maulana Fazlur Rahim. At the outset, he rendered recitation of the Holy Quran in his melodious voice.
source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Education / by Pervez Bari / October 10th, 2021
Webinar will focus on ‘Digital Revolution, Online Business and Entrepreneurhip’
Rasheed Hazari, is Chief Strategist at Dubai Economic Development Authority
Dubai:
The Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UAE (BCCI) is set to organize a webinar on ‘Digital Revolution, Online Business and Entrepreneurship’ on September 10.
The webinar will be organized with a view of facilitating entrepreneurs and professionals to adapt to the changing trends, a press statement from the organization stated.
Rasheed Hazari, Technical Specialist at the Dubai Economic Development Authority will be the resource person for the webinar. The press statement added that he will highlight the impact of technological advances in digital media on the business environment.
Rashid Hazari, as a Chief Strategist he is responsible for designing Future Economy Strategies, developing and recommending Eco –System Transformation Plans & Policy Initiatives for the Government of Dubai.
He conducts Strategic Future Foresight, analyses Emerging Technologies & Global Mega Trends including the Fourth Industrial revolution & its implications on the local economy.
Rashid has received recognitions from H.H.Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of UAE, & Ruler of Dubai, as a Creative Govt. Employee (DGEP Category) and for his contributions to Business Excellence initiatives of Dubai Economy.
The BCCI, UAE has been actively involved for three years in bringing together the industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and other professionals through business networking to empower them to carry out their businesses and socially relevant activities, informed President of the Chambers UAE Chapter S M Basheer.
The press release stated that the webinar on Digital Revolution will be a matter of interest to the business community, especially the young entrepreneurs.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Gulf / by Vartha Bharati / September 05th, 2021
The World Youth Group has appointed Bahrain-based businessman Mohammed Mansoor as the Director of their Council.
Mansoor, Founder & CEO of Saara group heads a series of ventures and organisations spread across the domains of information technology, energy, oil & gas, sports, seed capital investments, and is a well-known social activist and philanthropist.
Founded in 2019, the World Youth Group, is a globally renowned team of elected young leaders, politicians, parliamentarians and diplomats. Their mission is to Educate, Encourage, and Engage global youth in social and political sectors within the UN realm by supporting the United Nations initiatives.
Apart from the UN and it’s Agencies, the entity to host highest number of elected representatives in the 76th UNGA. With 22 Members of Parliament, 6 Ministers and UN Permanent Representatives, representing over 25 countries, to participate in 5 Summits.
The founding organizations are Collegiate Congress Inc. (USA), All-Africa Students Union (AASU), European Students Union (ESU), Organization Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE), Young Democrats of America, and Young Republican National Federation (YRNF), and the founding members are then heads of the respective organizations.
Adding heft to the organisation is the Advisory Board which comprises of ten Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) of UN Member States. Each Ambassador also acts as Chief Advisor for a Committee on SDG. With 108 national student unions, a dozen national youth political leadership, and over 45 Youngest Members of Parliament, they are to be the largest only elected youth leader’s consortium in the world.
Speaking about Mansoor’s appointment as Director – The Council, H.E. Ambassador Collen V.Kelapile, Permanent Representative of Botswana to the UN and President of UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) said, ” Mr Mansoor’s credentials as an entrepreneur and social activist speak for themselves and we, at the Advisory Board, are delighted to have him as our partner as we are confident that under Mr Mansoor’s able leadership the Council, which comprises of top experts in various fields and is the only non-parliamentary, non-diplomat team at the World Youth Group, will serve to further strengthen our group as we actively work towards United Nations Agenda 2030 – the Sustainable Development Goals and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development especially during these challenging times.”
Cristo Thomas, Chair, World Youth Group added, ” Mansoor’s association with us will add the much needed impetus to invigorate The Council, I am confident that we will grow by leaps and bounds and accelerate our progress towards our common goals.”
Abdul Subhan Saith, co-founder of Bengaluru based Upmyranks Pvt. Ltd. will be coferred Global Excellence and Leadership Award by the Global Business Federation in Dubai. Subhan will be awarded under the category of “Edtec Educational Excellence.
The award will be conferred during Business Conclave and Global Excellence and Leadership Awards ceremony on October 22 at The Oberai Hotel in Dubai.
He will also take part as a panelist at a panel discussion that will be held at the Indian Pavillion at Dubai Expo 2020 on October 23 as a part of the business conclave.
Abdul Subhan Sait is the son of senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan Sait.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Gulf / by Vartha Bharati / October 16th, 2021
A youth from Chennai has invented a flying car, while a schoolboy from Aurangabad has invented an e-Cycle
Chennai:
Indian Muslims are silently making their efforts for innovative development in the country. A youth from Chennai has invented a flying car, while a schoolboy from Aurangabad has invented an e-Cycle. Their achievements tell the story that Muslims are second to none in the innovative development of the country.
Muhammad Furkan Shoaib, an aeronautical engineer, has fulfilled the dream of million Indians of riding a flying car in the sky. He along with his technical team has innovated India’s first flying car. Furkan Shoaib is a certified UAV pilot and the Chief Technology Officer at VINITA – an Aero-mobility company in Chennai.
The model of this flying car was shown at the London Helitech Exposition on October 5, 2021. Many of India’s news channels showed the car launch in their news coverage. They gave credit for this innovation to the “Make in India” project and failed to mention the promising young engineer’s contribution to this innovation.
The gap was filled by a US website called ‘Future Flight’ that gave coverage to this innovation and also appreciated Muhammad Furqan’s abilities for his stellar contribution to the field of aviation.
Undoubtedly Muhammad Furqan has made the whole country proud. His innovation is a morale booster and inspiration for the youth, especially the Muslim youth, who too want to be on such work of innovation in the country.
Aurangabad :
“e-Cycle”
The second story is of a talented high-school boy Mohammad Faizan from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Faizan is making waves in social media for his innovation of an e-bike that has made people rushing for a glimpse of him and his invention. Its video is available on YouTube.
Faizan, the tech-savvy student of 8th grade, has transformed a paddle bike into electric one. He actually has transformed the common paddle bike into a motorbike. Attached to the bike are a self-starter switch, accelerator, clutch, breaks, and other features.
The bike is powered by an electrical motor. Faizan has connected the motor with a rechargeable battery that takes two hours to get fully charged. A single charge lasts for about 50 kilometers and there is a digital indicator that displays remaining battery levels. The speedo-meter tells the speed of the bike. The innovator claims that the top speed of the bike is 30 kilometers per hour.
These two positive stories from the much-maligned Muslim community show mirror to those who accuse, the 14 percent Muslim minority community of a drag on 84 percent Hindu population.
The negative stereotyping of the Muslims likes “puncher chaap” or “love jihadi” are corona jihadi are dutifully circulated in the media, while the story of these two characters has never been told even though they inspire a whole generation of youth of the country.
[Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com.]
source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Science & Technology / by Syed Ali Mujtaba / October 18th, 2021
A team of naturalists participating at a forest department survey | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A new species of fruit fly discovered for the first time has been named after Siruvani in the Western Ghats
A fruit fly has created a buzz with its maiden show in Siruvani, a biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats. It turns out to be a new species that has been reported, named, and documented for the first time ever. The fruit fly is now scientifically named as Euphranta siruvani, after the place where it was first collected.
A research student at Annamalai University, H Sankararaman, first spotted this unusual visitor on a light trap which he had set up to capture moths at a non-forest space near Siruvani. “The fruit fly was attracted towards light and I was lucky enough to have spotted it. It has a distinct V-shaped black band on its forewing,” recalls Sankar.
The discovery now appears in Zootaxa journal in a paper authored by David K J and Sachin, K, ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, DL Hancock from the UK, Sudhir Singh from Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and H Sankararaman from Annamalai University. According to David, there are 104 recognised species in the genus Euphranta that are distributed across the world. “Of this, 14 are recorded so far from India. The discovery of Euphranta siruvani is the brand-new addition to the checklist.”
“This fruit fly is a rare species and a valuable addition to the diversity,” says David K J, scientist at ICAR-NBAIR, one of the National Institutes with several taxonomists of international repute. “We first check with the regional/world catalogue, then refer to available literature, and connect with authorities around the world over mail before confirming it as a new species,” explains David.
A species can be named after the ‘type locality’ (the place from where the holotype was collected), a specific characteristic feature, after the collector or after an eminent taxonomist for his contributions. In this case, they chose the place, a thriving ecosystem of rich fauna and flora and also the source of drinking water for Coimbatore.
Apart from the fruit fly, additionally a brand new fairy fly species was found at Siruvani. The species Omyomymar hayati is named after Professor Mohammad Hayat of Aligarh Muslim University for his contributions to insect taxonomy.
“I have described several species after the type locality for example Acidoxantha galibeedu in 2014 based on specimen collected near Coorg. Later, I had collected the same species from other parts of Karnataka and Kerala. Similarly, may be the E.siruvani can be seen across the Western Ghats and Kerala in South India. We have to study further to understand its distribution,” explains David, who has identified and described 28 new species of fruit flies of India.
The genus Euphranta comprises many fruit/seed infesting species, including Euphranta cassiae that feeds on the pods of Kanikonna (Cassia fistula) trees. “There are 5,000 species of fruit flies across the world. In India, we have nearly 290 species so far; we keep adding to the list.”
K D Prathapan, an expert on beetles, who works at Kerala Agricultural University, says fruit flies have an average lifespan of three to four weeks. “By infesting fruits, they damage the reproductive capacity of plants. Some species breed in bamboo shoots. And then there are cucurbit fruit flies that are pests of cucurbits such as cucumber, gourds, and pumpkins.”
The study of fruit flies is important for the agricultural economy, as they infect mangoes, melons, gourds, and guavas, says Sankararaman. “It lays eggs in fruits and the larvae feed on the pulp. We are yet get insights about the biology of the species discovered in Siruvani.”
K Mohan Prasath, founder of Act for Butterflies, says there are also many parasitic insects that are helpful to farmers in pest control. Mohan and his team have compiled a list of over 1,000 species of moths across Tamil Nadu and plan to bring it out in a book form soon. “We hope such discoveries build interest in entomology that covers insects, butterflies, and moths. Identification of new species is especially relevant now as there is habitat destruction of many species because of climate change.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Environment / by K Jeshi / January 12th, 2021
Chunnamal Haveli carries many fascinating tales about the change in lifestyle and architecture of Delhi after 1857
Chunnamal Haveli carries many fascinating tales about the change in lifestyle and architecture of Delhi after 1857
The redone arterial road of Shahjahanabad has attracted attention towards conserving the historical architectural facades of several buildings along the stretch that connects Sri Digambar Lal Jain Mandir to Fatehpuri Masjid.
Along with the facades of heritage homes, there is an urgent need to conserve family and lifestyle histories as part of intangible heritage. In this regard, Lala Chunnamal, the largest living mansion on the iconic street, illustrates a fascinating account.
The Chandni Chowk and surrounding lanes and by-lanes represent, along with several other layers, the lifestyles of the landed elites, merchant classes and evolving middle-class professionals. Several mansions reflect the Mughal period and the British rule in Delhi. Many of these families aligned with the Mughals for practical reasons and changed their allegiance to the new British masters, impacting the nature of lifestyles and architecture.
‘Lalacracy’ era
The period and predominance of merchants and the new landed class in different cities have been described as ‘Lalacracy’ by eminent historian Narayani Gupta in Delhi Between Two Empires 1803-1931: Society, Government and Urban Growth.
Built in 1864, the Chunnamal Haveli continues to be used by Lala’s sixth-generation descendant Anil Pershad and his family. A successful trader, Chunnamal was primarily a cloth merchant (indicative of the exact location of the house in Katra Neel) and had significant trade links in Kolkata, and a summer home in Shimla.
Soon after 1857, Lala Chunnamal bought a large part of the present-day Chandni Chowk and the Fatehpuri Masjid in an auction for a pittance. “Most mosques were closed for a couple of years after the rebellion; many Muslims fled the city. My grandfather, a practical businessman, watched out for the shops around the mosque. The family-owned shops built Shivalayas, dharamshalas and drinking water kiosks in Shahjahanabad, Mehrauli, Nangloi, etc. So why could he not manage a mosque,” remarks Pershad.
He says the family owned the shops from the erstwhile Majestic cinema to the Baptist Church and the area behind the present Bhagirath Palace. “After some years, the family returned the Fatehpuri mosque to the Muslim community. The British recognised the gesture and gave us some villages as a gift,” adds Pershad.
Unlike many others, knowingly or inadvertently, the Chunnamal family saved a mosque from being demolished or turned into a bakery shop or a garrison for the armed forces when the British took over after the First War of Independence.
The grand mansion integrated sturdy cast-iron balconies and spun spiral staircases, wooden Venetian windows, and used stained glass. The interiors characterise Indo-Western aesthetics decor like the famed Osler glassware chandeliers for candles, Belgian mirrors, European furniture, clocks, telephones, fireplaces, and even maintenance tools for the fireplace. Sophisticated crafts to embellish the interiors include clay tiles from Sindh that provide a carpet look. The gold-plated stucco work in the ceiling is offset with natural indigo. The roof is decorated with ceiling cloth that displays the best of Indian crafts.
Ice emerged as a much-wanted product since the British required it to cool their drinks and water. Chunnamal owned the famous Baraf Khana or the ice-making unit in North Delhi, the Old Subzi Mandi and Pul Bangash. “Twice-elected to the Municipal Corporation, he was one of the few Indians who were granted membership of the exclusive Delhi Gymkhana Club during the British days,” remembers Pershad. He was also a member of the Roshanara Club, Delhi Race Club and the National Sports Club.
High life
The Chunnamal family bred horses, some were housed in their home stables, while others were in the Delhi Race Club. Members of the family rode horses from Chandni Chowk to New Delhi. A special place for the family was their Rambagh Garden near the Roshanara Club. Viceroys visited, Indira Gandhi came to dine, and the family participated in horse races, including winning the Aminabad horseshow in Lucknow. Some members of the family even came to be members of the secret society of the Freemasons, who continued to meet in the Qudsia Bagh in Civil Lines.
The courtyard hosted gatherings of courtesans, which women of the family watched from behind the bamboo curtains. Pershad’s daughter-in-law Swetcha Pershad described how female service providers like washerwomen and barbers transmitted ‘news’ from one zenana or women quarters to other havelis. The hustle-bustle of the home saw the women under the guidance of a Parsi governess acquire skills in cooking western dishes, accessing recipes from the Woman & Home magazine launched in the 1920s.
Organisations like the UNESCO and urban governments in different parts of the world attempt to formulate policies to balance development with preserving historic urban landscapes. They involve stakeholders, incentivise owners of heritage homes to retain facades while making the inside of dwellings modern.
The remaking of the Chandni Chowk requires holistic policies and their execution before many of more than 30 private-public owned heritage buildings are replaced by buildings that do not go with the character of the historical landscape.
(The author is an expert on cultural heritage)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities / by Navina Jafa / October 10th, 2021
History proved beyond doubt that every Empire that evolved and flourished across centuries created its own grave-diggers. As is the case, the historians of all hues since the 18 Century have debated the causes of the decline of Mughal Empire. The notion of decline envisages a prior state of perfection, efflorescence, harmony, and cohesion, in contrast to corruption, moral degradation, and loss of ethical values, principles, and customs. Hence, historians wish to understand the phenomenon of change and its causes. For instance, social decay, deterioration of the previous order, and belief and long spells of chaos and disorder are considered the causes of such decline.
The OUP’s The Decline of the Mughal Empire, edited by Meena Bhargava provides a series of coherent answers to this question through a collage of ideas brought forth by many eminent historians as part of its Debates in Indian History and Society series. While there were divergent views and debates among historians about the withering of the “mammoth imperial banyan tree”, this collection attempts to focus on different paradigms or assumptions that have shaped interpretations on the decline of Mughal Empire.
According to the authors, the causes of the decline of the Mughal Empire can be grouped under the following heads: a) deterioration of land relations; b) emergence of regional powers as successor states; c) selfish struggle of nobles at the court; d) lack of initiative in modern weapons; e) lack of control over the bankers of the state and above all f) Aurangzeb’s Deccan campaign.
Unlike Emperor Akbar who preferred paying his officials’ salaries directly from the state treasury, his successors Shahjahan and Aurangzeb opted for jagirs (temporary allotment of lands to officials for their services – which may be according to the satisfaction of the Emperor) and Paibaqi (revenue from reserved lands which was sent to the central treasury). While the jagirdars tried to extract as much from the land by oppressing the peasants within a short period, the zamindars (who were given powers to manage the lands belongs to the state by managing the peasants and delivering the state’s prescribed share to the treasury) became a subordinate class within the ruling elite of the Mughal Empire. There was a constant clash of interest between the nobles at the Emperor’s court and zamindars. Consequently the main danger to law and order came from zamindars who refused to pay the revenue and had to be cowed down or destroyed by force.
The politics that emerged upon the collapse of the Mughal Empire was two kinds. In one class the ‘succession states’ like Hyderabad, Bengal and Awadh, which were really fragments of the Empire, had to stand on their own as the central government decayed and became powerless to assist or assert. In the second category were the Maratha confederacy, the Jats, the Sikhs and the Afghans. Their origins as polities were independent of Mughal Empire.
Mysore under Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan stood outside these two categories, and was in some ways most remarkable. It made a conscious attempt to implant Mughal administrative institutions in an area that had only been nominally a part of Mughal Empire. At the same time, it was the first state in India to make a beginning towards modernisation, first and foremost in the realm of the military and in the manufacture of weapons, but also in commerce, where the English East India Company’s practices were sought to be imitated.
The nobles found that their careers were not linked to talent and that loyal and useful service was ‘no security against capricious dismissal and degradation’. Their (selfish) struggle necessarily ranged them in factions, each group or bloc trying to push the fortunes of its members and hinder the success of its rivals. However, only some of them could establish their dominance . In order to sustain their power in court, these nobles had surreptitious relations with regional governors, zamindars and other chieftains. It is the case of Mushid Quli of Bengal who through his clout among the nobles at the court, effected reforms in revenue which ultimately led to the formation of a new, regional ruling group.
The period of imperial decline coincided with the increasing involvement of banking firms in revenue collections at regional and local levels. It brought bankers, more directly than before, into positions of political power all over India. In contrast to their earlier policies, the bankers extended trade and credit transactions to newcomers, the Dutch and the English. Ironically, the Jagat Seths (Imperial Treasurers) who helped the East India Company to overthrow Nawab Sirajuddaula, were cut to size by the same Robert Clive who stopped the allowance of Seths as ministers of the Nawab in 1770. Ultimately, they ceased to be Company Bankers by 1772.
In a sense, the Deccan Campaign became Aurangzeb’s Waterloo. In his eagerness for further expansion, Aurangzeb exposed to incessant raiding districts in the Deccan that were formerly secure from outside attack. Unlike Emperor Akbar, who assimilated Rajputs within his kingdom, Aurangzeb was unable to effectively assimilate the Maratha, Bedar, Gond or Telugu warrior chiefs formerly living in areas beyond the reach of direct administration by a Muslim state as imperial elites. Failure to sustain imperial officers in the province resulted in intensified disorder and defiance of imperial authority. Even though they were stationed in the Deccan, the Mughals failed to defeat the Marathas. It was these protracted wars that produced the signs of decline, namely an imbalance between the number of jagirdars and the jagirs available, peasant revolts and disloyal nobility. Together with the emergence of regional dynastic rulers who pioneered processes of growth and regeneration, the Mughal Empire did not fall — it was simply swallowed by a larger political organism. The Company was waiting on the wings to gobble them up whole soon.
For students of history, this attempt is really an opportunity to understand the inherent contradictions that prevailed under the Mughal Empire, which ultimately led to the emergence of British colonial rule in India.
THE DECLINE OF THE MUGHAL EMPIRE: Edited by Meena Bhargava; Oxford University Press, YMCA Library Building, 1, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001. Rs. 795.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> Reviews / y V.B. Ganesan / July 28th, 2014
Juxtaposing the life of Begum Hazrat Mahal, who worked behind the scenes, with one of the most well-known heroes of the time, Rani Lakshmibai
The villain in Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s A Begum & A Rani: Hazrat Mahal and Lakshmibai in 1857 is certainly the British, but it is also time and memory. Mukherjee places Begum Hazrat Mahal, an obscure figure who was integral to the mobilisation of the 1857 revolt — taught to students as “India’s first war of independence” — alongside Rani Lakshmibai, whose life has spurred not just biographies but hagiographies, calcified by myth and movies, the 2019 Kangana Ranaut shriek-historical, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, notwithstanding.
The book, divided into four parts — Origins, Rebellion, Leadership, Afterlife — is attempting two important correctives.
The first is to give Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh her rightful place in history. Daughter of an African slave, she was briefly married to Awadh’s king Wajid Ali Shah, then divorced and left behind in Awadh, as Shah moved to Calcutta after the British annexed Awadh in 1856. She helped mobilise the military and administration of Awadh, which became the war theatre’s centrepiece after Delhi was vanquished by the British. This story is also important to counter the narrative that the 1857 revolt was a pastiche of mindless and uncoordinated violence, because it was meticulously planned. Mukherjee quotes generously, indulgently, with page-long historical anecdotes which could have been paraphrased or woven into the narrative. There are too many anecdotal jolts for a seamless read.
Eventual move
The second objective is to inject some history into the hagiography of Rani Lakshmibai. Mukherjee notes how she wasn’t the ready rebel we think of today. That she even wrote to British officials asking for help, declaring her support to their regime, and it was only when she was pushed against circumstances that she eventually took to the battlefield with vigour, dying in it, memorialised by it.
This is a clever framing here that Mukherjee employs, because there isn’t enough information on Hazrat Mahal to carry an entire book by itself. There isn’t even an available description of how she looked. Her role in the rebellion is behind-the-scenes, and her obscurity is thus, double.
To resurrect her, by pairing her with the most coveted figure of the rebellion — Rani Lakshmibai — is thus necessary, because Mukherjee gets to not just tell their stories, demystified or dusted, but to speak to the larger villainy of historic memory — who gets written about and why?
Putting it in context
Mukherjee is a master of context, providing a sense of the time, even as he is hazy on the details of main events, recounting them as historical facts and not narrations, preferring a depth of detailing around the event over the grip of a historical plot. That said, a map would have been helpful to make sense of the geographic dump of names.
It must be noted, though, that Lakshmibai and Hazrat Mahal never met, and in the 140-page book, their paths, and the paths of their rebellion also don’t cross, as if they were happening in different times, different places.
Sometimes, as a result, the book feels disjointed — that the only reason for having these two stories together is not that they will tangle, but that through comparison, each one’s story deepens, darkens.
Placing these figures side by side, the urge to compare them comes but naturally. Mukherjee’s insistence on Hazrat Mahal’s oblivion comes short of calling her more important and interesting than Rani Lakshmibai. That Rani Lakshmibai fought on the battlefield while Hazrat Mahal fled to Nepal is enough to deify the former, and forget the latter, he finds unfair. That Lakshmibai and her son were receiving pensions from the British government, while Hazrat Mahal who died in obscurity and her son, both refused it, he finds telling. That history is besotted with blood, he finds tragic. That historians can puncture history’s myopia, he finds hopeful. Thus, this book.
A Begum & A Rani: Hazrat Mahal and Lakshmibai in 1857; Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Penguin Random House India, ₹699.
The writer is a critic with a weekly online newsletter titled prathyush.substack.com
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books> History> Reviews / by Prathyush Parsuraman / October 02nd, 2021
