Dilip Simeon's blog

NB: Today we learn the sad news of Janab Akhtar Balouch's passing . I have not been able to find an obituary and am posting some of his writings as a tribute. This is the first article of his that I posted:  Daya Ram Gidumal of Sindh .  Here are some more , including a fascinating account of Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan's assassination  in October 1951. The piece below is of especial interest, given that we are now witness to literary censorship that India has never seen before. Rest in Peace Akhtar sb. You loved humanity irrespective of religion and nationality; yours was a heart of gold. DS Why did Qurratulain Hyder leave Pakistan for India? She departed this world in August 2007, but continues to live on in her fluid writings since then. After Partition, Qurratulain had migrated to Pakistan and lived here for a few years before deciding to return to India; eventually, she took up Indian citizenship. It was during her stay in Pakistan that she penned her masterpiece...

There is a saying in the Marathi language: “बामणा घरी लिहिणं, कुणब्या घरी दाणं आणि मांगा-महारा घरी गाणं.” A Brahmin’s house has the alphabet, a Kunbi’s house has grains, and Mang-Mahar homes have music. In the traditional village set-up, the Mang community played halgi , the Gondhali played sambal , Dhangars were masters of dhol , and Mahars played ektari . The culture of knowledge, farming, art and music was segregated by caste. Moreover, for many of the castes deemed ‘untouchable’, singing and performing music were vital means of sustenance. Facing oppression and discrimination for centuries, Dalits have preserved their history, bravery, pain, happiness and philosophy in the form of jatyavarchi ovi (grindmill songs or poems), oral stories, songs and folk music. Before Dr. Ambedkar’s rise to prominence on the national stage, the Mahar people played ektari to Kabir’s dohas , and sang bhakti songs for Vitthal and bhajans worshipping god... https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/shahir...

Father Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist from Jharkhand who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and died in July 2021, will get a “special, posthumous homage” at the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva on Thursday. The award is widely regarded as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders. The winners this year are Daouda Diallo from Burkina Faso, Pham Doan Trang from Vietnam and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja of Bahrain. Human, all-too human? Anastasia Filippovna’s ‘Portrait of Christ’ “Father Stan was nominated to the Award in spring 2021, but he sadly passed away before it could reach him,” said Chair of the Award Jury, Hans Thoolen. Before he died at the age of 84, Swamy had spent a lifetime working with Adivasi communities on their land, forest and labour rights. He had filed a PIL about the arrests of thousands of young adivasis whom investigating agencies had labelled “Naxals”. According to the NIA, which had arrested him with other activists such as lawyer Sudha Bha...

Joseph Raz, a commanding figure in modern legal philosophy, died in London on 2 May aged 83. He was one of three or four philosophers who made towering contributions to our theoretical understanding of law. The others were Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), HLA Hart (1907-92) and Ronald Dworkin (1931-2013). They are all gone now. Analytic jurisprudence – and, in Raz’s case, the philosophy of law washing over into the study of practical reason generally – is their legacy. Raz, born in Haifa in 1939, was a graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After getting his law degree, he went to Oxford to do graduate work under Hart’s supervision. Then, having returned for a few years to Jerusalem following the completion of his doctorate, he came back to Oxford in 1972 to take up a fellowship at Balliol College. There he remained, in one capacity or another – tutorial fellow, professor of the philosophy of law, research professor – until his retirement from Oxford in 2009. But his work continued....

Umang Gupta one-time student of Sainik School Kunjpura ( 1961-65)  and IIT Kanpur, a technology giant, passed away in  San Mateo, California,  on April 19, 2022 after a spirited battle against cancer.  His  mother,  Mrs Ramnika Gupta , was CPI (M) MP from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. She was a writer, educationist and tireless worker for tribal rights and the preservation of tribal languages. She passed away in 2019. Umang came to Delhi for her last rites, that was the last time we met. Umang was an  Indian-American software pioneer. He  wrote the first business plan for Oracle Corporation; founded Gupta Technologies and was CEO for Keynote Systems. Gupta Technologies created a SQL relational database system for microcomputers and helped usher the age of Client Server Computing.  Nasdaq GPTA was the first software company founded by an Indian American to be listed on an American exchange. The company was precursor to the Silicon Valley boom led by...

My beloved friend Ajay Singh's book will be released today, April 20, 2022; at 6.30 pm at the Indian International Centre. Hon'ble Kunwar Natwar Singh will launch the book. T hree other speakers will be Mr. K C Tyagi, Mr. Bhai Chand Patel and me. All are cordially invited. Ajay Singh (1950-2020). RIP Beloved comrade and lifelong friend 'Anticipation of Love' and other poems by Jorge Luis Borges Salaam Comrade In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later Dilip Simeon: Closing the Circle: On Revolution (Frontier, 2012) Remembering Rabindra

Early in the morning of 17 December 2004, I woke up to a phone call from a Western diplomat. She asked me what I had heard about Deyda Hydara, a journalist and a mutual friend. “No, I am just back from an overseas trip and I have not yet spoken to him,” I replied. “Anything the matter with him?” She just told me to find out and get back to her. I called Pap Saine, Deyda’s colleague and childhood friend. He said: “They shot him dead last night.” I jumped out of bed, hastily dressed and rushed to the mortuary at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital in Banjul where his body lay. Assembled there were several people – mainly journalists, his friends and family – nearly all confused as to who would kill such a friendly and peaceful soul, and why. At the time of his death, Deyda was managing editor of The Point, one of The Gambia’s leading independent daily newspapers, which he had founded on 16 December 1991 together with Pap Saine and Baboucarr Gaye. It was therefore on th...

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi: उड जायेगा हंस अकेला / जग दर्शन का मेला ।। The Christian hymn has been played by the Massed Bands of the security forces every year since 1950 to mark the end of the Republic Day celebrations. Listen to some versions: https://scroll.in/video/1015930/abide-with-me-tm-krishna-artists-around-india-sing-the-hymn-dropped-from-beating-retreat-parade ‘Abide With Me’: Listen to the hymn that has been dropped from the Beating Retreat ceremony Two AV talks: The Compass We Lost   Love at Work: Mahatma Gandhi's Last Struggle Some articles Soutik Biswas: Rare pictures of the last 10 years of Gandhi's life Martin Luther King on Mahatma Gandhi: "My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence", September 1958 1948: Assassination of Gandhi 1948: Supreme Court, RSS and Gandhi The Abolition of truth Satyagraha - An answer to modern nihilism The search for new time - Ahimsa in an age of permanent war Dennis Dalton - Gandhi During Partition: A ...

"This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died… Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye." Thích Nhất Hạnh shared that lullaby for "the person who is nearing their last breath" in his 2002 book  No Death, No Fear . The Vietnamese Buddhist monk died early Saturday at the age of 95. The International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism  announced  in a statement that their "beloved teacher" passed away peacefully at Từ Hiếu Temple in Huế, Vietnam. The author, poet, peace activist, and spiritual leader was called "Thay" by his students. The Plum Village statement said in part: Thay has been the most extraordinary teacher, whose peace, tender compassion, and bright wisdom has touched the lives of millions. Whether we have encountered him on ...