Friday, August 15, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
Madrasa body demands all-community probe into funding sources
EXPRESS NEWSSERVICE AHMEDABAD, AUGUST 6
Madrasa body demands all-community probe into funding sources
MTMGpresident says media need not unnecessarily blame madrasas for bomb blasts
THEpresident of Majlise-Tahaffuz-e-Madarise-Gujarat (MTMG), Mufti AhmedYaqub Patel, has called for setting up of an allcommunity committee to conduct inquiry nto the financial aspects of all madrasas in the state. This comes close on the heels of some media reports about the fund sources of the madrasas (Islamic seminaries) in the state. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Patel said the all-community probe, under the supervision of the Home Ministry, would reveal that who are the anti-social elements and anti-social institutions of the state. The cleric running a madrasa at Jambusar in Bharuch district said that what the media was covering about the financial aspects of the seminaries was not based on facts. He said it was intended to misguide the masses, thus creating a wrong impression about the Muslim centres of culture and religion. He said there are about two dozen madrasas in the state receiving foreign contributions but only after getting permission from the Union Home Ministry nderFCRArules. He further said that all madrasas in Gujarat are registered with the state Wakf board. All of them submit their annual audit report with details of tatement of accounts to the board, he added. "The media need not unnecessarily put the blame on madrasas for dastardly and inhuman act of bomb blasts," said Patel.
He added that so far no complaint has been registered against any of the madrasas in the state for misuse of money. He said the State Home Department officials had several times in the past visited madrasas and inquired in detail about their activities and funding sources. But nothing that could be termed "anti-national" was found, he added. "No bomb was ever recovered from any madrasa," he said, adding: "The madrasas just teach discipline, religious values as also patriotism."
MTMGpresident says media need not unnecessarily blame madrasas for bomb blasts
THEpresident of Majlise-Tahaffuz-e-Madarise-Gujarat (MTMG), Mufti AhmedYaqub Patel, has called for setting up of an allcommunity committee to conduct inquiry nto the financial aspects of all madrasas in the state. This comes close on the heels of some media reports about the fund sources of the madrasas (Islamic seminaries) in the state. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Patel said the all-community probe, under the supervision of the Home Ministry, would reveal that who are the anti-social elements and anti-social institutions of the state. The cleric running a madrasa at Jambusar in Bharuch district said that what the media was covering about the financial aspects of the seminaries was not based on facts. He said it was intended to misguide the masses, thus creating a wrong impression about the Muslim centres of culture and religion. He said there are about two dozen madrasas in the state receiving foreign contributions but only after getting permission from the Union Home Ministry nderFCRArules. He further said that all madrasas in Gujarat are registered with the state Wakf board. All of them submit their annual audit report with details of tatement of accounts to the board, he added. "The media need not unnecessarily put the blame on madrasas for dastardly and inhuman act of bomb blasts," said Patel.
He added that so far no complaint has been registered against any of the madrasas in the state for misuse of money. He said the State Home Department officials had several times in the past visited madrasas and inquired in detail about their activities and funding sources. But nothing that could be termed "anti-national" was found, he added. "No bomb was ever recovered from any madrasa," he said, adding: "The madrasas just teach discipline, religious values as also patriotism."
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India
Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India
Shivaji is a well-known hero in western India. He defied Mughal power in the seventeenth century, established an independent kingdom, and had himself crowned in an orthodox Hindu ceremony. The legends of his life have become an epic story that everyone in western India knows, and an important part of the Hindu nationalists' ideology. To read Shivaji's legend today is to find expression of deeply held convictions about what Hinduism means and how it is opposed to Islam.
James w. Laine traces the origin and development if the Shivaji legend from the earliest sources to the contemporary accounts of the tale. His primary concern is to discover the meaning of Shivaji's life for those who have composed-and those who have read-the legendary accounts of his military victories, his daring escapes, his relationships with saints. In the process, he paints a new and more complex picture of Hindu-Muslim relations from the seventeenth century to the present. He argues that this relationship involved a variety of compromises and strategies, from conflict to accommodation to nuanced collaboration. Neither Muslims nor Hindus formed clearly defined communities, says Laine, and they did not relate to each other as opposed monolithic groups. Different sub-groups, representing a range of religious persuasions, found it in their advantage to accentuate or diminish the importance of Hindu and Muslim identity and the ideologies that supported the construction of such identities. By studying the evolution of the Shivaji legend, Laine demonstrates, we can trace the development of such constructions in both pre-British and post-colonial periods.
Shivaji is a well-known hero in western India. He defied Mughal power in the seventeenth century, established an independent kingdom, and had himself crowned in an orthodox Hindu ceremony. The legends of his life have become an epic story that everyone in western India knows, and an important part of the Hindu nationalists' ideology. To read Shivaji's legend today is to find expression of deeply held convictions about what Hinduism means and how it is opposed to Islam.
James w. Laine traces the origin and development if the Shivaji legend from the earliest sources to the contemporary accounts of the tale. His primary concern is to discover the meaning of Shivaji's life for those who have composed-and those who have read-the legendary accounts of his military victories, his daring escapes, his relationships with saints. In the process, he paints a new and more complex picture of Hindu-Muslim relations from the seventeenth century to the present. He argues that this relationship involved a variety of compromises and strategies, from conflict to accommodation to nuanced collaboration. Neither Muslims nor Hindus formed clearly defined communities, says Laine, and they did not relate to each other as opposed monolithic groups. Different sub-groups, representing a range of religious persuasions, found it in their advantage to accentuate or diminish the importance of Hindu and Muslim identity and the ideologies that supported the construction of such identities. By studying the evolution of the Shivaji legend, Laine demonstrates, we can trace the development of such constructions in both pre-British and post-colonial periods.
Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India
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