24th World Book Day. 99 Books We Must Read.

The World Book Day was chosen by the UNESCO General Conference to “pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.” The first World Book and Copyright Day was observed on 23 April 1995.

Most educated Indians are indeed curious about the things which concern them immensely. But unfortunately, the media or formal education does not offer us insightful explanations. Paradoxically, the present young generation seems less interested in reading and more inclined towards the electronic screens. An important cause is that the most useful books that really educate us and reveal our various aspects, and of our world, are seldom publicised with the vitality which they deserve. So the curious mind gradually resigns itself to whatever is popularised by the powerful elite, without ever questioning it.

A selection of 99 books is hence listed here to educate the curious mind and society – to provoke imagination and to reveal certain realities which journalism is generally too shy or embarrassed to care.

Knowledge, Education & Wisdom: Maladies and Remedies

Superior intelligence is the only human ability that enables us to overcome all other species. We use our intelligence to gain knowledge of all the living and non-living things in the world around us. As we gain more knowledge we also develop wisdom that guides us to carefully use the power that comes with knowledge. These are the only trait that sets humans apart from all the other living beings and allows us to tame the most ferocious beasts and make medicines from snake venom.

A very important advantage we humans have is the capability of beliefs and opinions; animals are only capable of emotions and intuition. As we acquire wisdom, we understand that our lives are temporary and everything changes with time. Our health and abilities, possessions and power will cease to exist sooner or later. Governments, cultures and civilisations will rise and fall over time just as the great civilisations of Indus and Nile have long disappeared. But the only thing that continues to flourish and pass from one generation to other, from one civilisation to other is knowledge. For example, the people who first invented the wheel are now in complete oblivion, but wheels are used every day in bullock carts, the smallest toys as well as the largest power stations.

Knowledge, unlike myths, cannot be fabricated but only acquired after careful study. Since the dawn of civilisation, humans have tried to organise and acquire more knowledge and impart it with discipline.

How Indian is Delhi?

If you study the history of North India, especially Delhi, Jaipur and Allāhabād, the region has been, for over 2,000 years, controlled by conquerors either from Central Asia or from East India. The ancient invaders include the Mauryans, the Kushāns, who were Bactrians & Yuezhis, the Guptas and the Huns. The Central Asian Kushāns and Huns have controlled the Doāb region for longer periods than the East Indian Mauryans and Guptas! The only large kingdom which truly belonged to this Dilli & Doāb region was the Pushyabhuti kingdom ruled by Harshavardhan, who was a contemporary of Xuanzang and Prophet Mohammed.

The notion of India, that is Bhārat, being a unified civilisation stretching from the Indus basin to the Bay of Bengal is a very modern-colonial imagination. There have been many Deccan, Dravidian and eastern kingdoms who never bothered about Delhi or Lahore but engaged with Arabia and Southeast Asia. The Chola kingdom, for example, lasted for about 15 centuries while Sindh and Bengal had a dozen different kingdoms between Alexander and Ghori. But in his ‘Discovery of India’, Jawaharlal Nehru has described the Mughal empire more vividly than the Chola, Chalukya, Vijayanagar and Bahmani empires and the Deccan sultanates, put together. The Mongols and Arabs are elaborated in about ten pages while the Ahoms, Sātavāhanas and the Kākatiyas are not even mentioned once!

It was the British who smuggled the idea that Delhi belongs more to Eastern or South Indians than to Central Asians; because they began their conquest of India from Bengal, conquered Delhi only in 1857, and could never conquer Afghānistān and Central Asia. This passage from Rudyard Kipling’s story “The Man Who Would be King” is a quintessential case in this regard: “You’ll be cut to pieces before you’re fifty miles across the Border”, I said. “You have to travel through Afghanistan to get to that country. It’s one mass of mountains and peaks and glaciers, and no Englishman has been through it. The people are utter brutes, and even if you reached them you couldn’t do anything.”

Surah Hadid: A Reminder to Muslims from the Almighty

57. Surah al-Hadid

The Iron

All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God and He is the Almighty, the All-Wise. His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He gives life and He gives death; and He has the power over all the things. He is the First (Alpha) and the Last (Omega), and the Manifest and the Hidden; and He is Omniscient. It is Him who created the heavens and the earth in six phases; then He arose upon the ‘Arsh. He knows all that enters the earth and all that emerges from it; and all that comes down from the sky and all that ascends thereto. And He is with you wherever you may be and God is the Seer of what you do. (1 to 4)

His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to God (all) things are returned. He causes the night to pass into the day and He causes the day to pass into the night; and He is best aware of all that is in the minds. (5 & 6)

Keep faith in God and His Messenger, and spend out of which He has made you custodians; and such of you as trust and spend (aright), theirs will be a great reward. (7)

What is with you that you keep not faith in God – when the Messenger calls you to have faith in your Lord, and He (God) has already taken a covenant from you – if you are believers? It is Him who sends down clear proofs to His servant, that He may bring you forth from darkness to light; and indeed God unto you is benign and merciful. (8 & 9)

And what is with you that you spend not in the way of God, when to God belongs the inheritance of the heavens and the earth? Those who spent and fought before the victory are not the same (as everyone); they are greater in rank than those who spent and fought afterwards. To each has God promised good, and God is aware of what you do. (10)

Who is such will lend to God a goodly loan, so He may multiply it for him and his may be a generous reward? On the day when you will see the faithful, men and women, their light shining forth before them and on their right hands: “Glad news for you this Day – gardens underneath which will flow streams, wherein you shall abide”. That is the great triumph. On the Day when the hypocrite men and the hypocrite women will say to the faithful, “Look on us that we may borrow from your light!” It will be said, “Go back and grope for light!” Then they will be separated by a wall wherein is a gate, the inner side of which contains mercy, while the outer side thereof is toward the punishment. They will call unto them, “Were we not with you?” They will say, “Why not? But you tempted and bewildered yourselves, awaited and doubted, and vain hopes deceived you till the decree of God came to pass; and the deceiver did deceive you regarding God. So today, nothing be taken from you as ransom, nor from those who disbelieved. Your home is the Fire; that is your patron, and a gruesome abode.” (11 to 15)

Is not the time (therefore) ripe for the hearts of those who believe – to be humble before God’s reminder and to the descendent Truth – and not become like those who received the Scripture before, but the term was prolonged for them and their hearts were hardened, and many of them are mischievous? (16)

Know that God revives the earth after its death. We have made clear Our signs/revelations for you, that perhaps you may understand. Lo! The charitable men and the charitable women, and (who) lend to God a goodly loan, it shall be multiplied for them, and theirs will be a generous reward. And those who keep faith in God and His Messengers – who are indeed the Truthful and the testimony bearers – are with their Lord; for them is their reward and their light. As for those who reject and belie Our signs/revelations, they shall indeed be inmates of the Hell. (17 to 19)

Know that the life of this world is only amusement, diversion and beauty, and boasting among yourselves, greed and rivalry in wealth and children; as the example of a rain whose vegetation impresses the farmers; then it dries up and you see it turn yellow, then it becomes husk. And in the Hereafter there is grievous torment as well as forgiveness from God and acclaim, whereas the life of this world is but the wares of deception. Vie with each-other for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a paradise whereof the expanse is like the expanse of the heavens and the earth; which is prepared for those who kept faith in God and His Messengers. Such is the grace of God, which He grants to whom He wills, and God is of Great Largesse. (20 & 21)

No tribulation afflicts the earth or in yourselves but it is in a Book, before We bring it into being – Indeed, that is easy for God – so that you grieve not for what has escaped you, nor boast of what comes your way; and God doesn’t love any prideful boasters. Such are the stingy and (they) advice to people stinginess. And whosoever turns away, verily God is all Wealthy and Extolled. (22 to 24)

We verily sent Our Messengers with clear proofs, and sent down with them the Scripture and the Balance, that people may establish with justice. And We sent down the iron, wherein is mighty power and (many) uses for people, and that God may know those who help Him and His Messengers in their obscurity. Lo! God is Strong, Mighty. (25)

And We sent indeed, Noah and Abraham, and placed the Prophethood and the Scripture in their progeny. And among them are guided, but many among them are mischievous. Then We followed them up in legacy with Our messengers; and We caused Jesus, son of Mary, also to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who emulated him. And they invented celibacy – We never prescribed it for them – but only seeking God’s pleasure, and yet they observed it not with proper observance. So We give, to the faithful among them, their reward, but many of them are mischievous. (26 & 27)

O you who believe! Be wary unto God and have faith in His apostle. He will give you twofold of His mercy and will make for you a light whereby you may walk, and will forgive you – and God is Forgiving, Merciful – so that the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) may know that they control nothing of the grace of God, but grace is (only) in God’s Hand, to give to whoever He wills. And God is of Great Largesse. (28 & 29)

Book Review: Hindustan Mein Zaat-Paat aur Musalman

Indian Dalit Muslims' Voice

(In India, caste & Muslims)

By
Masood Alam Falahi

Publisher: Ideal Foundation Mumbai,

Distributor:
Farid Book Depot Delho
faridexport@gmail.com
farid@ndf.vsnl.net.in – Home
www.faridbook.com,
www.faridexport.com
2158,MP.STREET, PATAUDI HOUSE,DARYA GANJ,NEW DELHI-2
Office Phone:011-23289786,23289159

Price. INR.100

Frank admission of caste among Muslims in North India

Reviewed by: M.A. DELVI, NO.8 – 3RD CROSS,
WILLIAMS TOWN EXTN.,BANGALORE 560 046

It is hazardous to review a book which has the ingredients and potentials of opening a pandora’s box. The book by Masood Alam Falahi falls under this category. To consider caste or social stratification in Muslim society is almost a taboo let alone study and follow its ramifications and impacts on society. The credit goes to Falahi to break this taboo and present this malady in all its crude nakedness. Although studies into the reasons for the persistence of Hindu caste structure, particularly among the middle and low caste converts to Islam were…

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Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: His Eclectic Myriadness

Coming Soon…

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Resignation Speech

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's Caravan

Most of us know Dr. B R Ambedkar’s ideological fights with Gandhi. Not many, however, would know the kind of issues Dr. Ambedkar had with Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister.

The so called modernist Pt. Nehru had turned so conservative after India’s freedom – or he was a conservative throughout his life that Dr. Ambedkar could no more remain his co-traveler and had to resign from his Cabinet on September 27, 1951. Reproduced [Ambedkar’s Writings, Vol. 14, Part Two, pages.1317-1327] is the full text of Dr. Ambedkar’s speech on his resignation

Text of the Resignation

The House I am sure knows, unofficially if not officially, that I have ceased to be a member of the Cabinet. I tendered my resignation on Thursday, the 27th September to the Prime Minister and asked him to relieve me immediately. The Prime Minister was good enough to accept the same on the…

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Prophet Muhammad – The Benefactor of Humanity

If grandeur of design, pettiness of means and immensity of results, be the three measures of human genius, who could dare to compare any great men with Mohammed? Head of the State as well as of the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar. If ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.

Every philosopher or reformer who has influenced the world came from a privileged family or a prosperous civilisation. Prophet Muhammad was, in this regard, unique. He was born among the Bedouin tribes of Arabia, in a region ignored by all the great empires and civilisations. His only advantage was that he lived in the full light of recorded history. Born to Abdullah and Aamena, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was orphaned at the age of 4 years. Thereafter he lived with his grandfather Abdul Mutallib, who was a highly respected tribal leader in Mecca, a first among equals. The only matter of pride for the Prophet was a respectable lineage and a noble character. He was the most trustworthy person in Mecca, even among his adversaries. When all the great civilisations had sunk into the Dark Ages, he gave the humanity a universal message that raised a golden civilisation of scientific discoveries, technological inventions, medical and philosophical revolutions, multicultural coexistence and marvellous arts.

Islam and the West

A speech by HRH Charles George, The Prince of Wales, at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford on 27th October 1993

Ladies and gentlemen, it was suggested to me when I first began to consider the subject of this lecture, that I should take comfort from the Arab proverb, ‘In every head there is some wisdom’. I confess that I have few qualifications as a scholar to justify my presence here, in this theatre, where so many people much more learned than I have preached and generally advanced the sum of human knowledge. I might feel more prepared if I were an offspring of your distinguished University, rather than a product of that ‘Technical College of the Fens’ – though I hope you will bear in mind that a chair of Arabic was established in 17th century Cambridge a full four years before your first chair of Arabic at Oxford.

Unlike many of you, I am not an expert on Islam – though I am delighted, for reasons which I hope will become clear, to be a Patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. The Centre has the potential to be an important and exciting vehicle for promoting and improving understanding of the Islamic world in Britain, and one which I hope will earn its place alongside other centres of Islamic study in Oxford, like the Oriental Institute and the Middle East Centre, as an institution of which the University, and scholars more widely, will become justly proud.

Given all the reservations I have about venturing into a complex and controversial field, you may well ask why I am here in this marvellous Wren building talking to you on the subject of Islam and the West. The reason is, ladies and gentlemen, that I believe wholeheartedly that the links between these two worlds matter more today than ever before, because the degree of misunderstanding between the Islamic and Western worlds remains dangerously high, and because the need for the two to live and work together in our increasingly interdependent world has never been greater. At the same time I am only too well aware of the minefields which lie across the path of the inexpert traveller who is bent on exploring this difficult route. Some of what I shall say will undoubtedly provoke disagreement, criticism, misunderstanding and, knowing my luck, probably worse. But perhaps, when all is said and done, it is worth recalling another Arab proverb: ‘What comes from the lips reaches the ears. What comes from the heart reaches the heart.’

The depressing fact is that, despite the advances in technology and mass communication of the second half of the 20th century, despite mass travel, the intermingling of races, the ever-growing reduction – or so we believe – of the mysteries of our world, misunderstandings between Islam and the West continue. Indeed, they may be growing. As far as the West is concerned, this cannot be because of ignorance. There are one billion Muslims worldwide. Many millions of them live in countries of the Commonwealth. Ten million or more of them live in the West, and around one million here in Britain. Our own Islamic community has been growing and flourishing for decades. There are nearly 500 mosques in Britain. Popular interest in Islamic culture in Britain is growing fast. Many of you will recall – and I think some of you took part in – the wonderful Festival of Islam which Her Majesty The Queen opened in 1976. Islam is all around us. And yet distrust, even fear, persist.

good academic writing – what’s your list?

patter

I asked people in one of my Australian writing workshops to tell me what they thought was essential in good academic writing. The purpose of the activity was to generate criteria that participants could use to steer their own writing. The list was not meant to be an evaluative rubric, something that could be used to assess distance from the ideal. No, the list was an expression of aspirations.

So here is the list that the workshop participants produced – with just a bit of editing from me.

The text is written clearly – complex ideas are explained and difficult terms are defined – the content is accessible to the reader. Even when concepts and theories are obscure, complex or difficult, they are not overcomplicated, but made comprehensible.

The text is well organized – it is clearly structured so that you know where you are in the argument.

The text…

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