Hyderabad as it reflects Hindu-Muslim composite culture, unity: Why the City is the Terrorists' Target?

If terrorists are targeting Hyderabad repeatedly, there must be a reason for them.

No big city in India has such a multi-ethnic population with Muslims constituting nearly half of the populace apart from a large Christian population.

Hyderabad embodies the composite culture of India and proves that peaceful coexistence of Hindus and Muslims is no myth.

Also, it is a reflection of the new emerging India, where technology melts into culture and the nerve-centre of computer revolution in the country.

Hyderabad is often described as a metropolis simmering with Hindu-Muslim communal tension, which is nothing but false propaganda.

Unlike Cities in North India [Moradabad, Meerut, Aligarh], West [Ahmedabad, Surat] and Eastern India [Kolkata, Bhagalpur], Hyderabad has seen communal flash points and clashes but figures of deaths were never in hundreds or thousands. The trouble never lasted for long.

It is also one Indian City where Hindus still give houses on rent to Muslims and vice-versa. The culture is a blend of Hindu-Muslim and the speakers of Telugu and Urdu have never had any conflict. Hyderabad is 40% Muslim compared to Delhi (10%) or Mumbai (19%) and perhaps that's why it suits the terrorists.

HYDERABAD SYMBOLIZES
HINDU-MUSLIM UNITY, 
COMPOSITE CULTURE AND 
PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE

If Hyderabad is attacked, the right wing fringe would readily point finger of suspicion at Muslims. Because it has more Muslims than other major cities, Swapan Dasgupta calls it a 'Muslim republic in the heart of India' and B Raman 'is told' that in 'many' Muslim houses the Pakistan president's photograph hangs.

Raman accepted that he never saw it but 'believed' what someone told him, and even recounted it. Huh. When the so-called intelligentsia loses its mental balance and become a part of such nefarious propaganda, it is certain that those who wish to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims will smell success.

Hindus and Muslims baying for each other's blood--that is the aim of the anti-national forces but that will not happen. Man on the street will outsmart them all--the terrorists and also the fraud intelligentsia. NO, we are united and will remain united AGAINST TERROR.

Hail the Hyderabadi spirit. 

Hyderabad blasts & column on Rediff

Again a tragedy in Hyderabad but a column on popular website Rediff demonstrates the insensitivity of the writer and the site.

It was heart-rending to see elderly parents, both Hindus and Muslims, searching for their sons and daughters among the dead. It was a human tragedy and even ordinary people on the street said that nothing could divide them on religious lines, as it was an attack on humanity.

But this morning as I read the column, I felt utterly frustrated. I am reproducing the piece here. B Raman writes...

'...during a visit to Hyderabad..I was told that the influence of LeT and HuJI was so pervasive in local Muslim community that many kept in their houses pictures of Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf......what an ambigous word 'many' (it can 10, 10 thousand or a lakh, nice way to dub the Muslim community as traiters).

I felt sick. The writer hasn't seen. He just heard it. Ok. From whom? His sources! For sixty years Indian Muslims have been targeted by the extreme right wing as 'pro-Pakistani' and labelled the fifth columnists.

When people are picking up their dead in the morning and lakhs of Muslims and Hindus in the City still retain sanity after this dastardly attack, there is such an article based on just hearsay.

Firstly those who understand Muslim psyche clearly know that this is the wildest theory which probably just a hardline Bajrang Dal activist could float but not even intelligence officials will take seriously.....Muslims in India don't have any love for Pervez Musharraf, at all. There is no reason for them.

I don't know who is going to be benefited by such write-up. Do I need to give a proof of my patriotism to any body. And how long will Indian Muslims have to bear such insults. It hurts terribly ... What about the site's credibility...the message board remain notorious...now columns can also be based on anybody's vague ideas and hearsay....good going....

Yes we all all terribly shaken by terrorist attacks in India. If some Muslims have been misguided and indoctrinated then why IB and intelligence agencies don't recruit Muslims so that they can penetrate into these cells.

Why IB, RAW don't have Muslim officers? And what these high ranking officers like the writer were doing in govt then and do they still have any solution except this sort of Muslim-bashing? What good will the article serves.

Spreading canards about Muslims being pro-Pakistanis, will not serve any purpose. It will provoke Muslims, who will feel frustrated and angry. The non-Muslims who may not have thought about it, have again been told that these Muslims are not loyal. Keep repeating such things and people feel that there must be some truth in that. And what good it is for the nation?

Link to the column on Rediff is here.

Qurratul Ain Hyder: Legendary author, one of the finest writers of South Asia, is no more

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

One of the greatest litterateurs of the 20th century, Qurratulain Hyder, who is best known for her novel Aag ka Darya [River of Fire], died at the age of 80. 

She was ill for sometime and was admitted at the Kailash Hospital in Noida [Delhi]. Ainee's demise has come as a big loss to the world of literature. She was the most towering figure in Urdu fiction and Padma award apart from the prestigious Jnanpith and Sahitya Akademi awards. 

She was born in Aligarh in 1926 though her hometown was Nehtaur in Bijnor district. Her father Sajjad Hyder Yaldaram and Nazar Zahra were well-known writers and influential personalities of their times. 

She lived briefly in Pakistan after partition, then moved to England and returned to India to settle here. A firm believer in composite culture, Hyder had admitted that partition had come as a jolt to her and she was terribly unsettled as a result. 

It took her years to come to terms with the reality of two nations. The result was the magnum opus, 'Aag ka Darya' which set new standards in Urdu novel. Some of her famous works are: 

Aag Ka Darya

It was the first beerbahuti of the season that Gautam had seen. The prettiest of rain-insects, clothed in god's own red velvet, the beerbahuti was called the Bride of Indra, Lord of the Clouds..... Gautam Nilambar, final year student of the Forest University of Shravasti, had walked all the way from Shravasti to Saket... 

That's how the novel begins in the 4th century BC and traces the entire 2500 years of Indian history to finally end in 1956, seven years after the partition of sub-continent. When it was published, the astonishing sense of history, the vast canvas of the novel and Hyder's understanding of the idea of civilisation, had amazed the readers and critics alike. 

The characters like Gautam, Hari Kishan, Kamaal, Champa, who appear in various eras under different names [like Abul Mansoor Kamaluddin, Kamal Reza Bahadur and Kamal Haider], are taken away by the tide of time and then reappear. 

Her genius lies in the description of cities like Benares, Lucknow, Bahraich [Shravasti] and when she recollects the past and people in a particular period of time. She is equally at ease writing about nawabs, maharajahs and feudals, as she is about folk singers of Bengal, the fakirs, the phaeton pullers, boatmen and the porters. Through their eyes, she explores the world.

'In a cool grotto Gautam chances upon Hari Shankar, a princeling yearning to be a Buddhist monk. He falls in love with he beautiful, sharp-witted Champak. And thus begins a magnificent tale that flows through time, through Magadh, Oudh, British Raj, into time of Independence. 

The story comes full circle in post-Partition India when Hari Shankar and his friend Gautam Nilambar Dutt meet in the grotto in the forest of Shravasti, and mourn the passing of their lives into meaninglessness, their friends, who have left for Pakistan, and what remains of their country. 

It is believed that one of the character of the novel Champa Ahmad, who never marries, after Kamaal leaves the country, is none but Qurratulain Haider herself. What 'happens between then and now is history, full of clangour of conflict, deviousness of colonisers, apathy of maharajahs and irrelevance of religion in defining the Indianness'. 

[Published in English by Kali for Women, transcreated by author] 

Aakhir-e-Shab ke Hamsafar 

This is another of her major works. This novel is set in Bengal and runs along side important historic moments and periods like the rise in nationalistic feelings, the growth of revolutionary movements in Bengal, independence of the country along with partition, the demand for Bangladesh and ultimately the creation of the new country. 

Mere Bhi Sanamkhane 

The novel set in Oudh, depicts the changing order as the fedual system is giving way to a new society. Kunwar Irfan Ali is a staunch believer in traditional values and culture while Rakhshanda doesn't want to cling to the old set of ideas and is keen on adapting to the new culture. 

Gardish-e-Rang-e-Chaman 

The story starts from the period of first war of independence (mutiny) and continues till the ninth decade of twentieth century. It is especially important as it depicts the social changes in the century, with a woman at the centre-stage and her perspective at the turn of events. When rural folk were suffering, the soldiers were rebelling and there was disillusionment, the elite of Zamindars and rulers of princely states, were making merry at the cost of their suffering subjects, and supporting the British Raj. 

Chandni Begam 

Again this novel is set in Lucknow. The story of two families. In the Teen Katori House, the family is ultra-modern but at the same time, feudalism flows in their blood. The other family living in Red Rose House is no different. 

Qambar Miyan is a communist but when it comes to class consciousness, he is no different from a feudal lord. The third family belongs to those working in a 'nautanki' [street theatre] company. Safeena-e-Gham-e-Dil focuses on freedom movement. 

Her other famous works include 'Dilruba', 'Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya na Kijo' [Don't bring me to this world as a daughter in the next life], Sita Haran, Chai ke Bagh, are mostly on the social status of women. 

Childhood, family & career 

She was just six when she wrote her first story. Another of her story 'Bi Chuhiya' was published in the kids' journal Phool, Lahore. She had spent her initial years in Port Blaire, Andaman and Nicobar islands, later studied at Dehradun, the historic Isabella Thoburn (IT) College at Lucknow and School of Arts London. 

There was a strong tradition of learning amongst women in her family that had come from Central Asia. Her ancestor Hasan Tirmizi had settled in Nehtaur in UP. Even her great grandmother Syeda Umm-e-Maryam had translated Quran into Persian. 

Her father Sajjad Haider Yaldaram was a celebrated writer of his era. Her mother Nazar Sajjad Haider had published her first novel Akhtarun Nisa when she was just 14 in 1908. The author's initial stories were published in Humayun magazine. 

After partition she lived in Pakistan for sometime where she served as Information Officer for the ministry and later made documentaries. But following the publication of Aag ka Dariya and the controversies over her outlook regarding the partition of the sub-continent, Hyder returned to India in the early 60s. 

She joined Imprint as an editor in 1964 and later Illustrated Weekly of India between 1968 and 1975. In 1967 she got the Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of stories 'Patjhar ki Aawaz', the same year her mother passed away. 

In 1969 she got the Soviet Land Nehru Award. In 1984, Hyder was honoured with Padma Shree and Ghalib Awards. The highest literary award of the country Jnanpith was conferred on her in 1990. Until then only Firaq Gorakhpuri had got this award and after her Ali Sardar Jafri received it. 

Hyder had translated [transcreated]  Aag ka Darya, [River of Fire] a few years back. Thanks to Nand Kishor Vikram for chronological records. See more about Annie at my other site Urdu India. Raju Bharatan's informative tribute at Rediff is here. They worked together at Illustrated Weekly. The same site has a audio tribute. 

Killings, bloodshed across Muslim world: Who are the killers, Who are getting killed?

maiN yah kiske naam likhuuN jo alam guzar rahe haiN
mere shahar jal rahe haiN, mere log mar rahe haiN

koi aur to nahiiN hai pas-e-Khanjar-aazmaaii
hamiiN qatl ho rahe haiN, hamiiN qatl kar rahe haiN

[Translation: To whom shall I name these deaths, the burning of my cities, who is behind the scene responsible for our cries]

These are couplets of renowned Urdu poet Obaidullah Aleem's ghazal, which I've posted in Urdu, Hindi and Roman scripts Here.

The second photograph below is from Qahtaniya village west of Mosul in Iraq inhabited by Yazidis*, where a series of suicide bombings killed 400 persons this week.

Country, region, religion, sect, followers of different spiritual leaders, they are all baying for each other's blood. Is it not Iraqi blood? Today blasts and murders are happening from Syria to Indonesia. This is really mindless violence.

It is in this context that I have quoted the couplets here. The family of Obaidullah Aleem, a poet born in India, had migrated to Pakistan long back. It was the sectarian clashes in Pakistan that may have prompted him to write these lines.

Ironically, Aleem belonged to the Ahmadiyya sect, that believes in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiyani as prophet, though their split branch, Lahoris, believe him as a mujaddid or reviver, but both sects were declared un-Islamic in Pakistan.

I admit that I earlier I was also biased against the sect. 

But the kind of persecution they have braved, is also unparalleled. 

Recently I heard another ghazal of Aleem in his own voice. 

And the melancholy, the intense sadness, in his voice really touched me.

It is saddening how this intolerance has made a mess of so many countries in the entire Muslim world.

It's a long ghazal [read it in any of the three scripts Here] and many of its couplets are not found in the ghazal that starts with the couplet:

kuchh ishq thaa kuchh majbuuri so maiN ne jeevan vaar diyaa
maiN kaisaa zindaa aadmii thaa, ek shaKhs ne mujhko maar diyaa

maiN rota huuN aur aasmaan se taare girte dekhtaa huuN
un logoN par jin logoN ne mere logoN ko aazaar diyaa
When he read the second couplet, the lack of applause form audience was palpable. Unlike other Muslim sects, the beliefs of Ahmadiyyas or Qadiyanis do disturb mainstream Muslims as they don't believe in the finality of prophetood, which is the cornerstone of traditional Islamic belief.

Also, the apparently aggressive campaigns of Ahmadiyyas towards spreading their belief and getting new 'converts', perturb us [though followers of any new movement or sect are generally more zealous]. 

More so, because Ahmadiyyas have come from within Muslims, which make us a little more uncomfortable compared to those belonging to other religions. Beliefs are a personal matter. We have our beliefs, they have theirs. 

Difference in beliefs doesn't give the right to any society to deny the right to a peaceful and dignified existence to any group. Any such society will head towards doom. Iraq, Kurds, Sunnis, Shias, Yazidis, Ahmadiyyas, Deobandis Barelvis... I am flying off tangent!

But what we are witnessing in Iraq is a catastrophe of colossal propotions. I must admit that I always felt that the Ahmadiyya persecution was more a propaganda than reality but recent interaction with some people especially an acquaintance's personal account of the way they are treated, was disgusting.

In a government office where he was transferred and joined after posting, some persons mistook him as a Ahmadiyya though he is a Sunni Muslim. I don't want to reproduce what he told me, at this blog.There is an outstanding post at ATP about the Pakistan's dilemma regarding their only Nobel laureate, Dr Abdus Salam. Click to read.

[*The micro-minuscule Yazidi sect, the followers of whom speak Kurdish, was targeted. This semi-pagan sect has mysterious beliefs and pay obeisance to Sheikh Adi, the supreme creator and Malek Taus. They also show an unusual reverence for Shaitan.]

Photo: The US military helicopter blasts dust as it lands at the site of bombing

On Imam's threat to Taslima Nasreen at Kolkata rally

At a rally in Kolkata, the Imam of Tipu Sultan mosque reportedly fixed a reward on Taslima Nasreen's head.

Another Imam asked her to leave the country within a month while yet another speaker gave her just a fortnight.

But the statement of Noor-ur-Rahman Barkati, the Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque, deserves to be condemned.

We surely don't need such Imams. Indian democracy gives us ample freedom to stage demonstrations and protests, submit memorandums to the officials and politicians, approach courts and other forums if you feel that somebody has insulted you.

The promise of cash reward to a person for executing the death threat is absolutely intolerable. And when it comes from an Imam, it is really unfortunate.

Haji Yaqub sought publicity through a similar announcement sometime back. But he was a politician unlike Barkati, who is a religious person. Also, such statements tarnish the image of the community, which is under intense media scrutiny.

A section of Muslims appear baffled by the criticism of such actions. They feel it is an issue concerning Muslims alone and doesn't hurt the feelings of Hindus or other communities.

A person like Pravin Togadia who issues an open threat to Muslims and says that the minority community should be 'economically boycotted' doesn't invite any criticism from media but a Muslim who speaks out when it comes to his religion and that too against a foreigner [not an Indian], he is castigated.

The action of MIM leaders in Hyderabad was condemnable but it was surely not a 'murderous attempt' as English press [and even Taslima Nasreen] claimed.

The Muslim organisations must devise a strategy and ensure that nobody is allowed to issue such threats. Togadia's rabid hate-speak doesn't give license to issue irresponsible statements to anybody else.

Sanity must prevail.

Latest update:

The Darul Uloom Deoband has termed illegal the statement of Barkati at the Kolkata protest and said that any 'fatwa' or statement for execution of a person is unlawful and against the Islamic tenets.

Deoband Ulema including Mufti-e-Aazam Maulana Khurshid Alam, Naib Mohatamim of Seminary Mufti Ahsan Qasmi and Mufti Muhammad Arif, criticised Barkati. In a joint statement the trio said that there is no right to any clergyman to issue such decrees in a democratic set up like India.