Logging life

Written by Shaykh Zainuddin Makhdum about history of Muslims in Kerala, a section on Hindus of Kerala and their practices and brief and yet comprehensive history of struggle of Keralites with Portuguese. Published by Other Books, Calicut.

It was all over by Sept 20th 1857. Indian forces had retreated from their positions. Mughal Royalty abandoned the Red Fort and people started leaving Delhi in large numbers to escape from looting by the British forces. Same day, last Emperor of India Bahadur Shah Zafar was arrested by the British forces, his three sons murdered in cold blood and their severed heads presented to the King. Delhi had fallen and with it any hope of keeping the foreign occupation out of India. Though some Indian forces continued fighting the occupying powers as late as 1859 it was not until 1947 that Indians will again take charge of their country. We have all read and heard about the great war of 1857, but unfortunately, most of it is British account or by Indians who wanted to please their British masters. Hardly any research has been done to present the Indian perspective of this war of 1857. Dr. Shamsul Islam, a professor of Political Science in Delhi University has spent more than a decade collecting m...

This has been most disappoint Ramadan for me. I have failed to do regular ibadah that I used to do in previous years. It was all well for about a week then I got sick and then travelling and in the process I missed three days of fasting, I would have missed a few more but ... still, I had not done any other ibadah- azkaar, quran, nawaafil, etc. Let's hope next Ramadan is better.

Most of the economic problems in the world that we see today is because of greed. Everyone wants more and wants it now! Next problem the world will be facing will be related to food. Unfortunately, technology is on the side of corporations driven by greed and people at the helms of these corporations are ready to sacrifice food security in favor of profit. Technology in itself is not bad, bio-technology or genetic engineering can help in the quality and quantity of food production for ever growing population. But technology at the hands of greedy profiteers spells disaster for the world. Governments should closely regulate companies to protect its citizens. What these companies are doing are worse than terrorism because it affect more people and its affects are generational. Also, how on earth one can agree on patenting life?

Molecular shapes were always perfectly drawn in Chemistry textbooks but have you ever wondered if they were right about the structures? An IBM team in Switzerland has been able to take an image of the molecule at a very high resolution that clearly shows the structure. It was done through the technique of Atomic Force Microscopy

Life of Muslims in India is all about symbols. Since independence India has done little for its Muslim population except some symbolic gesture in the name of minority affairs. Whether it is about their wakf, historical mosques, making them presidents and vice-presidents, declaring Prophet Mohammed’s birthday as a national holiday, Hajj subsidy, appointing enquiry commissions that never see the light of the day. Of course, Muslim leaders were willing accomplice in all this acting as brokers to garner all the benefits for themselves in the name of the community. It served the ruling class as well since it gives them nice photo-ops with Muslims. One such symbolic gesture is seen only in the holy month of Ramadan. From Presidents to local MPs and MLAs all vie with one another to throw iftar parties during the month of Ramadan or Ramzan as we like to call it in India. Lavish dinners parties are organized in the name of iftar and hungry Muslim leaders throng to these gatherings to get closer...

Asian brown cloud is air over Gangetic plains of India and Bangladesh that has so much pollutants that it has turned brown in color. It covers a huge land mass of India along the river Ganges. These clouds block at least 10% of the sunglight leading to lower evaporation of water which in turns lead to reductions in rain-fall and India being heavily dependent on rain water for its food production, this will going to hurt us soon. Scientist tracking brown clouds say that this is also cause of retreat of glaciers that feed major rivers of South Asia. So Indians let's cutdown on the coal burning or at least use stove designs that reduce pollution or why don't we use solar cookers tapping energy that we have in abundance for several months of the year.

While the union budget for 2009-10 raised the allocation for minority welfare, the funds remain a pittance compared to the extent of backwardness and discrimination faced by the minorities. Further, political disinterest and ingrained prejudices in sections of the bureaucracy often lead to diversion of funds and unspent amounts. The government needs to show greater political will while citizens need to monitor these schemes at the grass roots. Otherwise these schemes will remain crumbs thrown at a hapless section of India’s citizens. In the budget for the 2009-10 financial year, the government of India has allocated Rs 1,740 crore to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, a whopping 74% increase from the pervious year’s allocation of Rs 1,000 crore. But before one yells “minority appeasement”, consider that this amount, earmarked for the welfare of about 20% of the nation’s population is just 17% of the total budget. The National Minorities Commission Act, 1992 has notified who comprise t...

A survey by media researchers has revealed that Dalit Hindus are only 1% in Bihari media. But senior journalists and editors are all upper caste Hindus. Study conducted by Pramod Ranjan and published in a book, ‘Partnership in Media’- a study of Media in Bihar, looked at the caste affiliation of all journalists who occupy positions of influence in their respective organizations. Caste background of editors, news editors, bureau chiefs, senior journalists of Bihari media and media organizations with a presence in Bihar was documented for this study. They looked at journalists working in Hindi and English print publications and Hindi and English electronic media, a total of 78 journalsits working in 42 media organizations based in Patna. They found that almost all journalists with editorial influence in Hindi and English newspapers and electronic media are upper caste Hindu males. Upper caste Hindus OBCs Ashraf Muslims Dalit Muslims Dalit Hindus Hindi Print 87% 9% 1% 0% 3% English Print ...