A Pakistan in Aligarh - and an Indian Pakistani General running the state-within-a-state <vijayan>

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http://www.firstpost.com/india/root-cause-of-amus-sexism-problem-every-issue-is-linked-to-islam-1805255.html

Root cause of AMU's sexism problem: Every issue is linked to Islam

Ehtasham Khan

18 November 2014

Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Lieutenant General (Retd) Zameeruddin Shah is anything but a Talibani. He was the second in command in the Indian Army which is known for its secularism and liberalism. Shah is the elder brother of actor Naseeruddin Shah, also an AMU graduate, who is himself an institution of liberal ideas.

In his recent Bollywood venture Dedh Ishqiya, an aged Naseeruddin falls in love with a charming Begum Para and describes the seven stages of ishq to attain enlightenment. 

Taking a cue from the movie, is the Vice Chancellor scared that all his male pupils will fall in love with their female counterparts if they visit the library together? 

Not really.

Why then does Zameeruddin Shah believe that all male students will flock to the Maulana Azad Library if girl students are allowed entry to one of finest libraries in the country? 

Shah's comment suggests women are actually a commodity to be preyed upon and it should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

My reference to Dedh Ishqiya is important here because the film has a reference to Aligarh Muslim University. 

In one of the scenes, Naseeruddin Shah's character describes the “friendship” of two female protagonists with the word lihaf meaning quilt in Urdu. 

Lihaf (The Quilt) is actually a short story written by renowned Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai.

Chughtai studied to be a teacher in AMU and her story Lihaf deals with homosexuality in Aligarh. 

The story, written in 1941, was banned by the then British government after being deemed obscene. The matter was taken up in a Lahore court and Chughtai won. 

AMU never banned the story or its author, and it can still be accessed in Maulana Azad Library,which female undergraduate students today are struggling to get into. 

Zameeruddin Shah, incidentally, has also banned the journalist who first reported his sexist comments from the AMU campus.

[ COMMENT : Please read :

"TOI won’t be cowed down, truth will prevail"

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/toi-wont-be-cowed-down-truth-will-prevail/]

The issue, which received attention in the national media, is neither about access to Maulana Azad Library nor about the poor infrastructure of the women’s college. It is about AMU’s public spaces and the position of women in a highly patriarchal society.

Two years ago, a woman activist teacher who started the campaign to get women students in the library called me to know my views on the subject. I dismissed it considering it to be uncalled for. There were reasons for it.

The AMU women’s college, also known as Abdullah Girls College, lies on a separate campus. This campus is like a mini city where the female students live and study. The students are allowed to come out of the campus only on Sundays during the day. The women’s campus has shops, including a cyber café and even a beauty parlour, and the students get everything within its four walls. The college has a library too.

It is important to note that only students studying in the BA and B Sc courses live on the women’s campus. These students have no access to the Maulana Azad library, which is the central library.

The women students of professional courses like engineering, medicine, LLB, B Com, and all post graduate courses live in normal hostels and have equal access to everything that their their male counterparts do. 

There are many universities, including Delhi University, which do not allow students from colleges outside the main campus in the central library.

I asked the woman teacher: What is the use of having membership of the main library when the students come out of the women’s college campus only on Sundays? 

Even if they get membership, it will be practically impossible to use the library and moreover, there is already a library in the women’s college. 

Many parents from far away small towns and conservative families send their daughters to AMU just because they know the girl students here will remain “safe” within the confines of women’s college.

“It is not just about accessibility. It is about our rights. It will be symbolic that women have equal rights in AMU,” the teacher replied.

Setting aside the argument about accessibility, my experience at AMU tells me that women on the university are considered an entirely different species from a distant planet, irrespective of whether they are students of graduate or post graduate courses.

Though women students of post-graduate courses freely use and study in the central library, the main public spaces in the AMU campus are dominated by the men. 

If women students move around with their male friends, they will definitely attract attention.

When I was a student of AMU, between 1995 and 2000, a new canteen had come up behind the Maulana Azad Library. 

When some women started frequenting this canteen for a cup of tea, it became the centre of a public debate that the culture of AMU was being eroded. 

I witnessed mob fury during the founder’s day (Sir Syed Day) celebrations when a frenzied crowd gathered around a bus carrying students from the women’s college to the main campus. The women inside the bus looked helpless and terrified, and the police had to use lathis to to disperse the crowd.

The main auditorium of AMU has a seating arrangement for women on the first floor while the men sit in the ground floor. 

On every occasion, women have to be escorted to the first floor. Though women post-graduate students are part of the students' union, just one woman candidate has contested for one of the top three posts of the union, and she was unsuccessful. Worse still, no woman candidate ever contested for the staff association elections.

Post graduate courses are conducted in a co-ed medium, but women students of the arts and social sciences have to write their final exams in a separate college, away from the men. 

The main campus has three major clubs for extra curricular activities related to drama, literary and music. 

No woman student has ever headed these clubs.

Barring a few exceptions, women students stay away from the main cultural activities. On one occasion we encouraged one of our female friends to perform at a cultural fest in the Kennedy Auditorium. We had a tough time preventing her from being molested. After leaving AMU, I hear there have been occasional performances by female students in the recent past.

The segregation in AMU is attributed to the university’s age-old tradition and Islamic values. However, having studied in AMU for five years and then observing it closely for nearly 15 years I have a different understanding of this enigmatic campus.

AMU had a glorious past. 

Islamic thought grew along with Leftist ideology, represented by doyens like eminent historian professor Irfan Habib and others. 

There has been a severe decline in the overall academic culture of the campus over the last two decades. Nepotism in the recruitment of teachers has resulted in stunted intellectual growth.

Unlike other campuses of repute, a majority of teachers in the AMU have reduced themselves to just dictating lectures in classrooms. 

Debate, dissent, disagreement and rebellion are discouraged brutally. 

It is hard to see a well-argued pamphlet in AMU campus on any socio-political issue. 

Teachers who associate themselves with student activism are penalised on some pretext or other. Sometimes it even leads to them losing their jobs. 

Similarly, genuine student protests and dissent are discouraged, while a group of hoodlums are supported by teachers’ groups and the administration as well.

No wonder, the Vice Chancellor recently suspended a teacher for making a comment on Facebook and another one for filing RTIs. The entire campus remained mute spectators to this high handedness and many were vocal in supporting the Vice Chancellor.

In AMU, you can get away with anything if you are the Vice Chancellor, and he can afford to make a sexist comment or take strong action. 

The Vice Chancellor is surrounded by a small group of teachers who will praise his every action. 

Any disagreement will be considered un-Islamic. 

The Vice Chancellor is made out to be a de-facto Imam (leader) of the Muslim community. 

Zameeruddin Shah, while defending his statement on restricting women students, said he had to take care of the concerns of the Muslim community and that he was trying to change them.

The root cause of the problem in AMU is the way every issue is linked to Islam. 

This is cleverly done by the powers to maintain status quo. 

Every attempt to highlight corruption and malaise is viewed as an attempt to defame the AMU and, by extension, Muslims and Islam at large.

The teachers gradually get a hold over the Vice Chancellor — who is mostly an outsider — and then control him. 

Zameeruddin Shah’s statement is merely a reflection of the fact that he is totally in control of the same group of teachers whose interest lies in ensuring the university remains backward.

AMU showed a poor intellectual response to the recent media onslaught. A section of the administration ensured that only parochial views were expressed on behalf of the university in the media. 

This was result of the internal power struggle to weaken the Vice Chancellor. 

The ultimate loss was that of the students, and only resulted in further stereotyping of the Muslim community.

The writer is a special correspondent with IBN 7

The Decline of Political Feudalism

A very well written Article with facts on how the Dynastic rule destroyed India and how corrections are being brought about!

 

The Decline of Political Feudalism

- By Praful Shankar

BJP’s Chief Ministerial selections in Haryana and Maharashtra represent a major trend that the political chattering class has conveniently overlooked – the precedence given to credible organizational performance and dedication over dynastic entitlement

Ever since Narendra Modi rode into 7 Race Course Road on the back of the strongest mandate any government in New Delhi has had for the past three decades, it has become fashionable to analyze almost every electoral contest in India as part of a larger national picture. While most see the repeated success of Narendra Modi and the BJP as the sign of a yearning across the country for an aspirational model of politics and governance, the disproportionately influential and left-leaning New Delhi elite have spent the last few months going to town over what they perceive to be rise of dictatorial politics and ‘communal’ political agendas.

Yet even those who perpetually criticize the BJP would not have failed to notice the relative smoothness with which the selection of leadership in all three states was executed. In each of these cases, the BJP stayed true to its roots and selected credible, grassroots leaders with a long history of commitment to the party. In fact, the ascent of Devendra Fadnavis, Manohar Lal Khattar and Laxmikant Parsekar, in Maharashtra, Haryana and Goa respectively, represent a major trend that the political chattering class conveniently overlooked – the precedence given to credible organizational performance and dedication over dynastic entitlement.

​

 

The past decade has seen a drastic increase in the promulgation of dynastic politics across the country – both in states and at the center. The fact that this time period coincided with the relative dominance of the Congress in the political space is no coincidence.

The Congress has been the standard bearer when it comes to dynastic rule in India. It has the mother of all political dynasties, the Nehru-Indiras in New Delhi, along with a host of smaller and subservient dynasties spread across all major states. Almost all major leaders the Congress had as part of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Cabinet and in its various state governments were dynasts. The outgoing Chief Ministers of Haryana and Maharashtra themselves were the sons of prominent Congress leaders. Most of the so-called ‘Young Turks’ of the UPA like Jyothiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, RPN Singh, Deepender Singh Hooda, Milind Deora and of course, Rahul Rajiv  had come to the political forefront only due to their last names.

This is not to say that the Congress is the only guilty party in this regard. The Congress model had been successfully appropriated across the political spectrum with the Samajwadi Party, DMK, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference among others have all increasingly become family holdings(to accumulate wealth and power), with leaders outside of the families only expected to work but never lead. The Communists can claim some respite from this criticism but the fact remains that the Indian Left is a spent political force today with more support in TV Studios than amongst common Indians.

One of the most frequently cited criticisms of dynastic politics in India has been its tendency to breed corruption(we have seen it a lot , huh ...?). It is a fact that the reason why most political leaders want their sons and daughters to inherit their political legacy is to keep the family coffers full. In fact, a wholly new trend had begun to emerge in political families in the recent past when there was more than one aspirant for the family legacy. This was to split the workload and maintain a delicate balance between the claimants. Often, one sibling would be sent to the Center while the other would be given the reins of the State. In some other cases, one would be asked to enter politics while the other would be asked to take care of the ‘family business’. And we have seen in the case of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Sonia Rajiv,and DLF, the property developer, these ‘family businesses’ can turn out to be astonishingly lucrative.

As revolting as these instances of corruption are, dynastic politics also leads to a malaise of a different kind – an absolute disconnect of the leader from the electorate.

Born with silver spoons in their mouths, second generation politicians across India come to lead hallowed lives. They grow up in luxurious Lutyens bungalows, drive expensive cars and get admissions into the best private schools and foreign universities (quite often without merit). The result has been the emergence of a new breed of young politicians, steeped in elitism, who would struggle to survive in a competitive environment without their famous surnames and are absolutely disconnected from the ordinary Indian. This disconnect can be seen to have adverse effects when it comes to policy formulation and matters of day-to-day governance.

By virtue of having very little idea of their electorate’s constantly evolving needs, dynasts, more often than not, end up rehashing the old schemes of their ancestors and presenting them as their own. Born and tutored into the old feudal and socialist mindset, they tend to think of themselves are Lords (and Ladies) Bountiful who will throw crumbs down from their high table into the arms of their adoring subjects. If confronted by strong opponents, they tend to evoke public compassion by invoking the ‘sacrifices’ of their ancestors. Not having been seriously challenged in terms of ideas and thoughts throughout their lives and incapable of investing the diligence required in overseeing the nitty-gritty of governance issues, they end up relying on tried and tested social engineering strategies to keep their electoral fortunes going.

This is the reason that almost every member of this dynastic tribe have been shown up as abysmal failures as MPs, MLAs and Ministers.

The media may concentrate their attacks on Rahul Rajiv – and very rightly so – but it not as if other members of the youth brigade have set the skies alight either. The Pilots, Scindias, Hoodas and Singhs cannot honestly claim even a single success to their names during their respective periods in Government. Even in the states, we have the glaring examples of Omar Abdullah and Akhilesh Singh Yadav – dynasts who are quite possibly the worst two Chief Ministers their respective states have had in a long time. For states like Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh, that is saying a lot.

It is in this context that the results of the 2014 general elections and the state elections which followed, present a great degree of hope for India. Signs are that the Indian electorate – especially the young voter – has broken free of the feudalistic mindset that used to dominate electoral choices not so long ago. These new generations of Indians do not plan to bow their heads before the Kunwars and Sahebs of yesteryears. It is this impulse that Narendra Modi understood and channelized during his election campaign. As the son of a common man, he knew that his story would resonate far more with the electorate than that of dynasts asking for votes in the name of the fathers and grandfathers.

To stretch the point even further, it would not be amiss to say that Modi and the BJP under him have begun to represent the very antithesis of the dynastic politics that the Congress has come to embody. The Prime Minister has kept dynastic entitlement to a minimum in his Cabinet. Almost none of the current lineup of the BJP’s Central and Chief Ministers are dynasts. And even in the case of the small number of leaders with a dynastic legacy, like Vasundhara Raje for example, their ascendance has been built on their performance and political credibility.

By insisting on bringing in proven performers from the party system into leadership positions in the state and central governments, the BJP has signaled its intent to effect a drastic change in how India is to be led politically. For the general Indian electorate, this is a heartening sign. It signifies the dismantling of a sort of political feudalism which had begun to grip Indian politics. It also denotes the beginning of the representation of grassroots desires and aspirations in national policy formulation and governance.

http://swarajyamag.com/featured/the-decline-of-political-feudalism/

How to tell Hinduism to Your Child?

GHHF: How to tell Hinduism to Your Child? - K Aravinda Rao  Part 1 (1 & 2 Chapters)   Dr. K. Aravinda Rao, IPS, the author of the book “How to Tell Hinduism to your Child?” holds PhD in Sanskrit. He had a distinguished career in Andhra Pradesh holding a number of positions in the safety and security departments. He was appointed as Director General of State Police in 2010 and retired in 2012.  He also worked as the Additional Director General of State Intelligence Department the Additional Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, Inspector General of Police (Greyhounds) and IGP (Crime Investigation Department). Global Hindu Heritage Foundation was very happy to receive his permission to share the book to our readers. We will be send two chapters at a time so that it would allow the readers and the students to digest the material before they receive the next set of chapters. “The present book is to give the modern students and parents an appreciation of the statute philosophical inquiry, universal values, and pluralism of Hinduism and enable them to look at their own religion with esteem in the present competitive environment.” Please enjoy reading the book.   Part 2 (3 & 4 Chapters) will follow next week. Chapter - I : Need for the book 1.1. Globalized children  I write this book for the parents of today's globalized children. Students of higher classes can read it on their own. The subject is old but it has to be told in modern terms. Perhaps, about fifty years ago, this book was not quite necessary, particularly as we grew up in rural India. We were credulous children, never doubting anything that our parents or grandparents told about gods, heaven, hell and all such stuff. We celebrated all festivals joyously and boisterously, worshiping which ever was the deity concerned. We would worship Sri Rama on the day of Rama Navami, worship the mighty god Shiva on the night of Shiva Ratri or goddess Durga on the day of Durgashtami. It never occurred to us to question why we had different gods and goddesses. We were willing to believe and admire when we were told about the demons slain by Rama or Krishna or Durga. Our childish curiosity was only about which god was more powerful - Whether it is Hanuman or Rama. Whatever answer was given by our elders was quite alright for us. Social change has brought about a great disconnect with the traditional life style, the rituals and festivals associated with them. Our school education is not giving any exposure to the child about religion and parents too are isolated in a working environment. The modern child in India grows in an economically competitive environment without any idea about cultural heritage. This may appear good, because a child will grow up with a scientific, questioning spirit. But as we see around, religion has become a globalized subject like all other aspects of human life and the other religions are seen marketing their religions in an intelligent but aggressive way. This is done at the community level by people who go about telling about their religion, at the level of media through debates questioning several traditional festivals, at the level of films by ridiculing Hindu manners and in a number of other ways. A modern child is unwittingly exposed to all this and he starts doubting whatever little religion he sees at home. There are questions about why we have several gods, as to whether we worship idols and so on. It is a testing time for the parents. They have to update themselves if they have to answer their kids. 1.2. Competing religions  It is also an unfortunate development that the secular nations of the west are turning to be active defenders and propagators of their religion. This is the result of the conflict between two dominant religions of the world. Sociologists observe that while the 20th century was the century of secularism, the 21st century is emerging as the century of religious revival. The twentieth century saw communism, Maoism, rivalry between communism and capitalism and such ideological issues. This scene has changed and we now see religious extremism and civil wars between religious groups in several countries. Indian children growing abroad do face strange troubles. Schools abroad do give some introduction to major world religions, including Hinduism. While other religions can be easily understood and explained in a simple way, Hinduism is found to be difficult because of several religious texts and several traditions of worship. As such, it is likely to be improperly explained. Children sometimes get totally negative impressions by such presentations and sometimes get depressed because of ridicule from peer groups. The parents at home are ill-equipped to handle such challenges. 1.3. Two types of Questions  There can be two types of questions on Hinduism. There are primary questions like - 'why do we worship several gods?', 'are we idol worshippers?', 'are we asked to do work without expecting the fruit of it?', 'is everything destined by our karma?' and such type. There can be secondary questions like - 'what is the significance of vermillion or tilak on the forehead?', 'what do we do hārati or circumambulation in a temple?', 'what is the significance of the sacred thread?' and such type. 1.4. In this book  In this book I have tried to answer the questions of first type, which are more fundamental and important. The first type can be answered only if we understand the basic philosophy of the Upanishads. The latter type is related to religious practice. Hence a few chapters on philosophy have become inevitable and I apologize to the readers for the difficulty caused. They have to be digested slowly. I will present the basic facts based on the primary texts - the Vedas, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. This would cover the philosophical queries. All other books such as purāna-s, Mahabharata and Ramayana are secondary texts, based on the philosophy of the primary texts. These relate to religious practices, rituals, festivals and ethical life. I have also explained certain social issues like caste and untouchability. You may not straight away start teaching the contents of the book, but may wait for the query from your child. The children are bound to ask the questions discussed in this book. It will be good to tell them when they do ask about it. I have used the IAST transliteration key for the Sanskrit terms, for parents who have some idea about it. It is my request to parents that they may get the pronunciation right or skip the Sanskrit lines if they so wish Chapter - 2 : Who are Hindus?  2.1. Our name and spread  A commonly accepted derivation for the word 'Hindu' is like this. The ancient Persians, in their texts, referred to the river Sindhu as 'Hindu', as it was their way of pronouncing the sound 's'. They also referred to the people who lived around the river as Hindus. This name was adopted by various others who came to India either as invaders or visitors and the name got attached to us. This word is not in the Vedas or major purāna-s. Some scholars do say that the word 'Hindu' is found in the purāna-s and also give a derivation, but this is debated. It is estimated that nearly one-seventh of the world's population are Hindus, who are followers of the most ancient religion alive today. It is the fourth largest religion in the world after Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Both Buddhism and Hinduism originated in India, but Buddhism spread to China and other South Asian countries, while Hinduism is now mostly confined to India, though at one time it had spread to other countries too. 2.2. Santana Dharma  The real word for Hinduism is 'sanātana dharma'. This was the word used to denote the religion and culture before the British popularized the word 'Hindu'. 'Sanātana' is that which is permanent in nature and 'dharma' is that which holds the society together. It means the code of conduct which holds for all times for social harmony and integration. Religion and religious rituals were part and parcel of this dharma. Sometimes it is said that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life. It means that Hinduism is not like other religions. In other religions, there is only one book and one belief system about god, heaven and the devil. Hinduism has a number of belief systems under the umbrella of one single philosophy, as we shall see in great detail. If you look at the map of the present day India, Himalayas are in the north-east, bordering China. Pakistan is on the north- west. At the time of origin of what we call Hinduism, the name of the country was 'Bharata-varsha', covering areas right up to the present day Afghanistan on the north-west and up to Myanmar in the east. The sister of the King of Kandahar (Gandhara) was the grand old lady Gandhari, the mother of the hundred Kauravas whom we see in the great Indian epic Mahabharata. All this land from Afghanistan to Kerala was the land of sanātanadharma. We had very friendly relationship with another mighty empire of olden days, that is, China. A large contingent of Chinese soldiers, a golden sea of people, fought on the side of the Kauravas in the epic battle of Mahabharata.  2.3. Cultural unity of India  Historically, the whole of Indian continent was one cultural unit. All our prayers and rituals show this. See our daily prayer: gaṅge ca yamune caiva godāvari sarasvati .  narmade sindhu kāveri jalesmin sannidhimkuru ..  This is recited by all those who do their daily prayers anywhere in the country. It is an invocation to all the rivers of the country invoking their holy waters into the chalice. The prayers also refer to the whole of Bharata-varsha. We do pilgrimage to the twelve famous shrines of Shiva(Jyotirlingas), the eighteen shrines of Shakti (śakti-pīthas) wherever we may reside. Even an unlettered Indian, located anywhere in the country, would owe allegiance to all these shrines, which have become part of the Indian psyche. One has to listen to the mahāsaṅkalpam (a long hymn to our mother land) which is recited at the time of marriage, in order to understand the glorious vision of our country. Mahabharata and Ramayana contain several descriptions of the geography of Bharata-varsha, as it was then called. There are details of several small kingdoms and their geographical details. Mahabharata describes the kings who took part on behalf of Kauravas or Pandavas in the war. Sanskrit abounds in such description of kingdoms. All these underline the cultural oneness of India. The cultural unity of all tribes with the mainstream population has also to be noted. The great epic Mahabharata describes how the five exiled princes stayed with the tribes and took their help while staying in the forest. Yudhishtira sends them as spies to observe the governance by Duryodhana. Similarly, Ramayana describes how the chiefs of several tribes were invited on the eve of proposed coronation of Rama. Later, when Rama was in exile, he moved with the chiefs of tribes and took their help. There is a famous episode in which Rama held discussion on dharma with Sabari, a tribe's woman. All this shows that the tribes were an integral part of Indian culture. Prof. Stephen Knapp notes how Indian culture spread to several East-Asian countries because of its sheer greatness of culture and not by military might. Extensive research has been done by him about how merchants were responsible for the spread of Hinduism in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and such countries. The languages and diction of these countries bear testimony to the cultural connections. Parents may see: •        See  "Proof  of  Vedic  Culture's  Global  Existence"  and  other  books by Stephen Knapp   Donations                                     As many of you know that SaveTemple Office was opened in June 2012 in Hyderabad.  Office is located in Khairatabad. Four full time employees are working on the update of our website, Aalayavani Web Radio, Aalayavani magazine, conducting various activities to preserve and protect Hindu Temples and Culture. Our budget is approximately 2 lakh rupees per month.  We request your generous donation to conduct activities to promote unity among Hindus and restore the glory of Hinduism.