Being the Other

The clouds are moving ecstatically from Kashi to Mathura and the sky will remain covered with dense clouds as long as there is Krishna in Braj These lines were composed by Mohsin Kakorvi, an Urdu poet, to celebrate not Lord Krishna s birthday but that of the Prophet Muhammad Awadh, the author s birthplace, was steeped in this exquisite confluence of cultures Sadly, this glorious tradition has been systematically destroyed over the past century In many ways, Awadh stood for everything that independent India could have become, a land in which people of different faiths co existed peacefully and created a culture that drew upon the best that each community had to offer Instead, what we have today is a pale shadow of the harmony that once existed Everywhere there are incidents of sectarian murder, communal propaganda and divisive politics And there seems to be no stopping the forces that are destroying the country In this remarkable book, which is partly a memoir and partly an exploration of the various deliberate and inadvertent acts that have contributed to the othering of the 180 million Muslims in India, Saeed Naqvi looks at how the divisions between Muslims and Hindus began in the modern era The British were the first to exploit these divisions between the communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries In the run up to Independence, and its immediate aftermath, some of India s greatest leaders including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel, and others only served to drive the communities further apart Successive governments, whether formed by the Congress or BJP, compounded the problem by failing to prevent if not actively supporting tragic events like communal riots in Gujarat 1969 and 2002 , Bombay 1992, 1993 , Muzaffarnagar 2013 , the breaking of the Babri Masjid 1992 and so on As a reporter, and editor, Naqvi covered all these events with the exception of Partition , and in the book he shows us, with acuity and insight, how each of these resulted in the shaping of the discontent of the Muslim in India Thought provoking and troubling, Being the Other is essential reading for all those interested in understanding the forces that have shaped contemporary Indian society. Download Being the Other – kino-fada.fr The Oxford Dictionary defines the Other as that which is distinct from, different from, or opposite to something or oneself In the late twentieth century, the Palestinian scholar Edward Said analysed this phenomenon From this issued his seminal work, Orientalism, on the affiliation of knowledge and power This is how the West created an image of the East as the Other The supremacist ideology of imperialism is structured on this platform Looked at through this lens, it helps us see ho The Oxford Dictionary defines the Other as that which is distinct from, dif...Mistakes were made Partition was one of them This has been and still is a moot point but the author firmly believes that partition was indeed a mistake He doesn t spare anyone, including Gandhi for relenting He quotes copiously in this well researched book to prove his point Partition, according to the author created fault lines that continue to haunt the sub continent One may disagree with this and with a lotthat is written in the book but the book makes for a compelling reading Mistakes were made Partition was one of them This has been and still is a moot point but the author firmly believes that partition was indeed a mistake He doesn t spare anyone, including Gandhi for relenting He quotes copiously in this well researched book to prove his point Partition, according to the author created fault lines that continue to haunt the sub continent One may disagree with this and with a lotthat is written in the book but the book makes for a compelling reading Saeed takes pride in the ganga yamuni ethos, the eclectic ethos that binds the Indian Multi cultural and multi social firmament of the country This firmament, according to the author, is already under severe strain and it all started with the partition He is also very critical of the role being played by the Indian media Indian media has shown a singular lack of initiative when it comes to covering...Ever since the Hindu nationalists came to power in Delhi in 2014, India has seen sustained pressure on its Muslims, Christians, Dalits and the Tribal people to defer to the dictats of the upper caste Hindu vision of India Violence has been unleashed on Muslims for eating beef It is par for the course now to hear ruling party members...To borrow from The Alchemist If u really want to play victim, the whole universe conspires against you.This has to be the most filled with hate and the sickest book I have read I am not on Whatsapp but from what I have heard, can say its full of Whatsapp level conspiracy theories and crap.The author sees dresses sarees shirts trousers from a religious angle, sees language from a religious angle, sees the war...Excellent book written in the perspective of Muslims of Awadh UP I really enjoyed the first chapters giving a real insight of the cultural values of Awadh highlighting the inclusiveness I can relate a lot to the stories we have...This book changed my view about Indian Muslims in a good way..Thank you Saeed Naqvi for thatA brilliant presentation of a subtle and controversial truth I have two best friends Both are Muslims In our younger days, we grew up in each others company, many times eating from the same plate and mingling in each other s families I went to namaz on several occasions and they both visited temples in my company Our parents never ever came in the way of our friendship They were as much of brothers to my sister as I was to theirs, even to this day This book, its theme, its presentation to A brilliant presentation of a subtle and controversial truth I have two best friends Both are Muslims In our younger days, we grew up in each others company, many times eating from the same plate and mingling in each other s families I went to namaz on several occasions and they both visited temples in my company Our parents never ever came in the way of our friendship They were as much of brothers to my sister as I was to theirs, even to this day This book, its theme, its presentation took me on a journey of our friendship It made me ask the question, is there any way that I othered them On hindsight, I might have on a couple of occasions.What hit home was this In our country, invisible lines of culture separate the Hindus and Muslims We other each other quite naturally In Naqvi s own words We have lived in a state of uninstitutionalized apartheid for dec...Let me be clear with my rating, thinking and concepts covered deserve 5 stars But the brooding in early chapter and the book not presenting as many facts at some place made me give this a 4 star rating I read this line somewhere else People with privilege barely register the fact that their view of reality comes from their vantage point and usually fail to grasp the situation of those without it It is hard to argue against it, it is so true especially in context of backlash seen against Me Let me be clear with my rating, thinking and concepts covered deserve 5 stars But the brooding in early chapter and the book not presenting as many facts at some place made me give this a 4 star rating I read this line somewhere else People with privilege barely register the fac...Being the other is interesting and insightful book If not anything else it shows the sheer complexity of the situation of Hindu Muslim relations in pre and post partition India In a way it is also a lament for loss and continued diminishing of the composite culture One of his theory talks about the triangle o...A good perspective on the view from the other side The book highlights the circumstances post independence of India which have influenced Muslims in India mostly in the negative way The role of various political parties and leaders has bee...

• English
• 14 April 2018
Saeed Naqvi
• Hardcover
• 256 pages
• 9384067229
• Saeed Naqvi
• Being the Other