Founding Editor: Daya Varma (1929-2015)
Editors: Vinod Mubayi (New York) and Raza Mir (New Jersey).
Editorial Board: Ram Puniyani and Irfan Engineer (Mumbai); Pervez Hoodbhoy (Islamabad); Dolores Chew (Montreal); Vamsi Vakulabharanam (Amherst); Ajay Bhardwaj (Vancouver).
Circulation/website: Feroz Mehdi (On behalf of Alternatives, Montreal).
IN MEMORY OF ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER (1939-2013)
This issue of INSAF Bulletin is Dedicated to Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer (1939-2013), the Contributing Editor of this Bulletin.
In the articles that follow, there will be repetition; however, they reflect the sentiments of the authors and no attempt has been to edit these articles. Tributes to Dr. Engineer have also appeared in several newspapers and periodicals such as Outlook India, Tehelka magazine, Deccan Herald, Dawoodi Bohra Forum and so on. The articles below are personal notes.
ALVIDAH ASGHARBHAI!
Vinod Mubayi
Asghar Ali Engineer was a very unique individual in many ways. His breadth of interests was extremely wide as was his knowledge. In trying to recover from mourning his death, I have tried to reflect on our 43 years of deep and abiding friendship and association that began in 1969 and lasted until a few days before he passed away when I spoke to him last in the fervent hope that he would recover. Read more…
UNITING THE NATION: ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER’S STRUGGLE FOR PRESERVATION OF PLURAL ETHOS
Ram Puniyani
The events of last over two decades have shown us, more than before that the efforts of dividing the nation by communal forces have been a major obstacle to social peace and process of development. In India while the communal violence began with the Jabalpur riot of 1961, it is from last couple of decades especially from 1980s that the divisive politics has tried to drive a wedge between different communities along religious lines. The regret is that it is only few social workers and scholars who took this issue in all its seriousness and Asghar Ali Engineer can be counted amongst those few. He also spent major part of his social efforts to fight against the ideology and machinations which led to communal violence and the victimization of minorities, time and over again, year after year. Read more…
LEGACY OF DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
Irfan Engineer
A storm has destroyed everything in my life. I am not even beginning to come to terms with the loss in my life. Death, like storm, is in God’s hand and you are so helpless. Never knew that death would snatch my very loving father Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer from us. I was not prepared yet for this colossal loss! But let me remember what he has bequeathed to me. My sister Seema rightly told a reporter that our father wanted us to inherit his legacy equally – legacy of his teachings. In the lull after the storm I am trying to reflect on his legacy to gather some pieces of my inheritance. Read more…
THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
Jyoti Punwani
Scholarly, courageous and secular, Asghar Ali Engineer spent his life combating regressive beliefs and practices while presenting a modern, humanistic interpretation of Islam. Read more…
REMEMBERING ASGHARBHAI
Anand Patwardhan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA6bX6JV9vk
ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER (1939-2013)
Zahir Janmohamed
I first met Asghar Ali Engineer in January 2002 in Mumbai. I was a fellow with the America India Foundation and a few weeks later I would be posted to work with an NGO in Ahmedabad. Read more…
SAD DEMISE OF DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
COVA -Team
We are shocked to read news of sad demise of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer. He completed his journey of life successfully and left us all today morning at 9.15 a.m. after a long illness. Read more…
Dr. ENGINEER AND CERAS IN MONTREAL
Daya Varma and Shree Mulay
South Asia Research and Resource Center (CERAS) is a Montreal-based organization concerned with social, political and developmental issues in South Asia; Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer was invited by CERAS on numerous occasions. Only on one occassion, in the wake of controversies around Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” his visit was sponsored by a McGill University student organization. Read more…
MY DAY WITH DR. ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER
Pritam K. Rohila
Spectacled and dressed in an Indian kurta-pajama-waistcoat outfit, I found Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, on January 22, 2004, standing outside the Arrival Hall of the Portland International Airport. After arriving there, around 8:00 p.m., by the United Airlines flight from Washington D.C., he was waiting to be picked up by me. Read more…
MEMORIAL MEETINGS : REMEMBERING DR. ENGINEER
A Memorial meeting was held on May 27 in Mumbai. Other memorial meetings are planned at New York on July 13 at Brecht Forum (451 West St. New York: info: 212 242 4201) as well as at Montreal (date to be announced) and Hyderabad on June 5 at Salarjung Museum at 4.30 pm.
PAKISTAN ELECTIONS
Editors
Pakistan election outcome serves as a window to the clash between democratic and anti-democratic forces in South Asia. Whereas the regional importance of political forces in Pakistan reflect the diversity of South Asia, Pakistan elections expose the hollowness of many commentators who were debating whether or not Pakistan is “a failed state”. Overall Pakistan elections are a window to a bright future for South Asia. Below we reproduce a few articles.
A GOOD DAY FOR DEMOCRACY
Feroz Mehdi
May 11, 2013 was an important day for Pakistan and a good day for democracy. My five years old daughter will remember this day when she grows up, not only because it is her birth day but also because it was a promising day for the people of her mother’s country of birth. General elections were held which saw the first transition between civilian governments in a country since 66 years of its existence. Read more…
PAKISTANI ELECTIONS 2013 – DEMOCRACY INCHES FORWARD
Kiran Omar
The recently concluded general elections in Pakistan were a landmark in several respects; they marked, the first time in the tumultuous 66 years of Pakistan’s existence, a civilian transfer of power from a democratically elected government completing its mandated five -year term. They marked a robust voter turnout, above 55% of the total registered voters, and a surge in first time and young voters. Most importantly, these elections will be long remembered for bringing to fore a third political force in the hitherto two-party paradigm. Read more…
DEMOCRACY, DICHOTOMIES, AND SHADES OF GREY
Beena Sarwar
The recent elections in Pakistan show that the country is finally on the right track notwithstanding the rigging, the violence and the brutal prevention of women from voting in some areas by representatives of all the political parties. The huge turnout of women and first time young voters risking their lives to exercise their right to choose is something to celebrate and strengthen, says the writer. Read more…
PAKISTAN: THE WORLD’S BRAVEST DEMOCRACY
Murtaza Haider
Pakistan may not be the world’s largest democracy, but is certainly the world’s bravest. Over 50 million voters braved heat, violence, and terrorism to cast their votes and wrote a new chapter in the history of democracy. Read more…
“IT IS MORE THAN JUST A ROTTEN TOOTH….!”
Fr. Cedric Prakash sj
As the poll results of the Karnataka Assembly elections trickled in on Wednesday, 8th May, the one person who was in the eye of the storm was Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Read more…
ON MODI’S SOCIAL ENGINEERING
Subhash Gatade
The system of untouchability has been a goldmine for the Hindus. This system affords 60 millions of untouchables to do the dirty work of scavenging and sweeping to the 240 million Hindus who are debarred by their religion to do such dirty work. But the work must be done for the Hindus and who else than the untouchables? —Dr B.R. Ambedkar
Can shit collection or cleaning of gutters—which has condemned lakhs of people to a life of indignity since ages—be considered a ‘Spiritual Experience’? Definitely not. Everybody would yell. Well, Mr Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, has a different take on this, which he mentions in the book ‘Karmayog’ (publication year 2007). Read more…
WHY GARMENT FACTORIES TURN INTO KILLING FIELD?
Anu Muhammad
We have witnessed the worst industrial disaster in Bangladesh , one beyond any wild calculation and more horrifying than we could even imagine. On April 24, 2013 another garment factory, Rana Plaza in Savar near the capital city of Bangladesh , Dhaka , suddenly turned into a mass grave. The death toll continues to climb and, rising quickly after a few hundred, has already passed 1000, many are still missing. I don’t think anybody has the capacity to capture the extent of grief, heartache, discontent, and anger this horror has created. Read more…
THE BANGLADESH TRAGEDY EXPOSES THE CRUEL FACE OF POVERTY
Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi
An editorial titled “Blood Garments” in Economic & Political Weekly (Vol. 48, May 25, 2013) says: “The Bangladesh tragedy exposes the callousness of the garment business. The collapse of the eight-storey Rana Plaza in Bangladesh on 24 April that crushed over 1,127 people, mostly women garment workers, and injured more than 2,500, is now being called the worst industrial accident since the gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. But neither Rana Plaza nor Bhopal should be thought of as “accidents”. In both instances, the reason for the disaster was deliberate and callous neglect for which the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of those who built the structure, as in Rana Plaza, or those who owned and ran the plant, as in Bhopal.” Read more…
MUSHAWARAT CONDEMNS THE CUSTODIAL MURDER OF KHALID MUJAHID
The Milli Gazette Online (Online: May 19, 2013)
New Delhi, 19 May, 2013: All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat (AIMMM), the umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations and eminent personalities, condemned here today the custodial murder of the terror-accused Khalid Mujahid who had been exonerated by the Nimesh Commission but Uttar Pradesh government was playing politics about the release of the falsely accused in the case of the U.P. courts blasts. Nimesh Commission, constituted by the previous BSP government, had presented its report to the state government on 31 August last year. But instead of tabling it in the state assembly with an action taken report, the SP government resorted to gimmicks to show its false concern. The Nimesh report, since leaked, clearly exonerated Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi and recommended action against named police officers who framed them and fabricated evidence to implicate them. Read more…
DEMOCRACY NEEDS THEIR SONG
Anand Patwardhan
They use poetry and song to fight for a just society but the state brands them Naxalites. Anand Patwardhan on the ongoing saga of the KabirKala Manch. Read more…
A HISTORY LESSON FOR MUSLIMS (IN UTTAR PRADESH)
Jamal Kidwai
The death of Khalid Mujahid in the custody of Uttar Pradesh police has once again reinforced the perception that the Akhilesh Yadav led-Samajwadi Party has failed to provide security to Muslims in UP. Read more…
“MUSLIMS ATACK” ANOTHER REVERED SHRINE IN DAMASCUS
Saeed Naqvi
Millions of Muslims will, in the next few days, observe the birth and death anniversaries of Fatima Zehra, Prophet Mohammad’s daughter. But during this period, the world famous shrine of her daughter, Saiyada Zainab, outside Damascus, holy to millions around the world, will be in grave danger. That remarkable chronicler of London’s “Independent”, Robert Fisk, ascribes the danger to “Salafist mortar fire”. Read more…
BALRAJ SAHNI CENTENARY
Harsh Thakor
On May 1ST 2013 we celebrate the centenary of the legendary Indian actor Balraj Sahni. He was born in Rawalpindi, in Punjab on May 1st 1913.It is so appropriate that he was born on the historic occasion of May Day as he himself devoted his life to the liberation of the working class. Read more…
PUCL (PEOPLE’S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES) ON RECENT KILLING BY MAOISTS
May 26, 2013: PUCL Condemns Killings of Congress Party leaders, their PSOs and Ordinary Villagers by Maoists in Dharba Ghati of Sukma District, Chhattisgarh. Read more…
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY IN INDIA
Dear Friends,
We would like to invite you to attend the conference “Campaign Against the Death Penalty in India” to be held from 3pm to 9pm on 10 May 2013 at the Constitution Club of India, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. Read more…
STEPHEN HAWKING BOYCOTTS CONFERENCE IN ISRAEL
Guardian May 9, 2013
The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking became embroiled in a deepening furore today over his decision to boycott a prestigious conference in Israel in protest over the state’s occupation of Palestine. Read more…
INTERVIEW: PHYLLIS BENNIS
Paul Jay, Senior Editor, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this edition of The Bennis Report with Phyllis Bennis, who now joins us from Washington, D.C. Phyllis is a fellow and the director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. She’s the author of the books Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terrorism and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer. Read more…
OBITUARY: JAGJIT SINGH LAYALPURI (1917-2013)
(From ML Update, May 29, 2013)
Jagjit Singh Layalpuri, 96, veteran communist and a lifelong crusader for left unity passed away in Ludhiana in Punjab on the night of 27 May at 11 p.m. He was a renowned communist and freedom fighter who dedicated his life to the struggle for the people’s emancipation. He was among the few in Punjab who initiated the formation of CPI(M) in Punjab from 1964 onwards. Read more…
OBITUARY: VETERAN COMMUNIST LEADER COM JS LYALLPURY (1917-2013)
(Editor–For a People’s Democracy; May 28, 2013)
Veteran communist and all India general secretary of Marxist Communist Party of India (united) MCPI (U) Comrade Jagjit Singh Lyallpury passed away on May 27,2013 at 11:30 pm after brief illness. Read more…
Top - Home