Dilip Simeon's blog

"As (Allama) Iqbal placed the body of Ilm Din into the grave, he tearfully declared: "This uneducated young man has surpassed us, the educated ones." NB - These articles are courtesy the Brown Pundits blog: http://brownpundits.blogspot.in/2014/05/ghazi-ilm-ud-din-shaheed.html#more The 1920’s in India witnessed the publishing of an inflammatory book vilifying Prophet Muhammad (SAW) thereby adding fuel to the existing Muslim/Hindu tensions. The British Raj ruled India and the creation of Pakistan was still a distant dream in the hearts of the Indian Muslims. The Muslim population was understandably incensed and mass protests were held. Prashaad Prataab had authored Rangeela Rasool (The Colourful Prophet), under the pen name of Pandit Chamupati Lal. The word rangeela means ‘colourful’ but can be understood in this context to mean ‘playboy’. [Nauzbillah] NB : B.R. Ambedkar states that Rangila Rasool was written in response to the inflammatory pamphlet Sita ka ch...

“ The epitaph for the RSS volunteer will be that he was born, he joined the RSS and died without accomplishing anything .”-V. D. Savarkar (D.V.Kelkar, “The R.S.S.” Economic Weekly ( 4 Feb 1950: 132) Page 36, The Brotherhood in Saffron,The RSS and The Hindu Revivalism, Andersen and Damle,Vistaar, 1986, Delhi)  ' Veer Savarkar was a Veer Purush who was not scared of death. He was a Shastra Upasak and Shaastra Upasak' : Shri Narendra Modi May 29, 2013 Author: admin ( http://www.narendramodi.in/ ) I  Celebrations at the central hall of Parliament are a marker of the political ambience in the country.  The change of guard at the centre was very much visible at the place recently where the entire top brass of BJP including PM Narendra Modi were present to celebrate the birth anniversary of Savarkar. Modi described Savarkar as a prolific writer, poet and social reformer. “Tributes to Veer Savarkar on his birth anniversary. We remember and salute his tireless efforts ...

Among the miniscule tribe of human rights lawyers, even one loss is irreplaceable. We felt that way when we lost K. Balagopal in 2009, K.G. Kannabiran in 2010 and most recently when, Mukul Sinha passed away on 12 May 2013. Each of these figures were giants in the world of human rights activism who struggled for an idea of India which all too often remained an ideal and a vision, sometimes far from reality. Regardless of how distant the vision of a real and functioning democracy, founded on the ideals of social and economic justice was, these three figures never lost heart, always communicating a spirit of hope about the future based on concrete and grounded work in the present. As such the lives of these three great figures of the contemporary human rights movement are nothing less than exemplary lives, always acting as an inspiration for each of us to do more to ensure that justice moves from being an abstract ideal to a concrete and lived reality. Mukul Sinha was a part of this gr...

Max Blumenthal  -   Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel Reviewed by Chris   Hedges See also : Blumenthal book is right about Israeli myopia, but naive on Islamists Chris Hedges: Israel’s war on American universities Israel has, and has always had, within its population intellectuals, including the great scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who sought to save Israel from itself. Leibowitz, whom  Isaiah Berlin  called “the conscience of Israel,” warned that if Israel did not separate church and state it would give rise to a corrupt rabbinate that would warp Judaism into a fascistic cult. “ Religious nationalism is to religion what National Socialism was to socialism ,” said Leibowitz, who died in 1994. He understood that the blind veneration of the military, especially after the 1967 war that captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, was dangerous and would lead to the ultimate destruction of the Jewish state and any hope of democracy. “Our situat...