Photo: New York Times

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Kashmiris participating in a mass rally to protest recent events in the state.

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of APHC arrives in the mass rally in Srinagar.

Kashmiri Muslims on bikes shout pro-freedom slogans during a march in Srinagar.

Kashmiri youths shout pro-freedom slogans during a march in Srinagar Aug 18, 2008.

All pictures by Abid Bhat. Check out his Flickr gallery for more Kashmir photos.

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Earlier, during my unsatisfactory interview with the chief minister, Narendra Modi had said: “In Indonesia, which is a Muslim country, they have a picture of Ganesh on one of their currency notes. Why can’t India’s Muslims be more like that?” At the time I did not answer. But it struck me later that Hindus are a minority in Indonesia, just as Muslims are in India. If you were to follow Modi’s line of thinking, the accurate parallel would be for India to put an Islamic symbol on one of its notes. [Edward Luce, In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, page 256]

Image Source: BankNotes.com

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I am attaching an archival photo of the Allahabad railway station platform dating back to the British period (roughly 1920s) that I found on an archive on Minnesota university library (Ames) website.

Its a photo of a newly opened “Indian Refreshment Room” at the station – the most striking thing to notice is the separate rooms or doors for Hindus and Muslims! Some doors which say Mohammadans or Ahle-Islam (in Urdu), while others say “Hindu yatrion ke liye” (in Hindi). There’s one door for “General” too, I guess for others. There maybe something for British officers which is not seen here. (Click below to view the photograph) If this is one small example, I wonder what other formal divisions may have existed in those days.

And one wonders if such divisions were there in our society for ever, or were they invented by the British.

Ref: Digital Library, Univserity of Minnesota

Click here to see the Larger Version of the photograph.

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Truth will prevail but only if we are ready to listen and follow it. Here is an example of kahi-ansuni, chiragh tale andhera, etc. etc.

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Indian Muslims wishes all its readers a joyous and prosperous Diwali. May this festival of lights bring happiness to each one of us.

DEEPAWALI GREETINGS

Like the caring arms of an affectionate mother,
The two crescents of this blessed lunar month;
Hold in warm embrace the two glorious faiths,
Which are governed by the fascinating Moon.

If one preceded the joy of Eid,
The other followed the festival of lights;
But both illuminated the night sky,
When it was facing the agony of the dark.

Like the ebb and flow of the tide,
Like the changes in the size of moon;
The throbs of time often bring for them,
Autumn and spring : Bane and boon.

Let Deepawali make it new and fresh,
When the sweetness of Eid is getting stale;
Let us learn this lesson from our past,
If we wish to survive without fail.

Photo: Kunal Daswani

Poem: Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani, Former President, All India Muslim Forum

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Three and a half questions:

1.) Is it okay to associate Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose with Nazis just because he took help from Hitler to liberate India from the Britishers? More importantly, does the end justifies the means?
2.) Does banning the Nazi party infringes upon the freedom of expression (in American context, the First Amendment)?
3.) Why on earth we have a Nazi party in India?

Picture: Amit Gupta
Hat Tip: Kashif

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It was a delight to see so many Indians (and non-Indians) capturing the spirit of the 60th Independence Day of India through their lenses. I created a group at Flickr.com to allow people to share their images clicked on this occasion. Here is a compilation of some of the selected images from the group. Clicking on the image will take you to the original post. Also, to see the complete set of pictures, please click here.

Mind you, most of them are not professional photographers but regular people like you and me. However, their pictures tell a different story. Literally.

Happy Independence Day, India!

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But millions have died after Bush lied.

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Muslim girl students take part in a demonstration in Patna to demand ban on the sale of liquor.[TOI]

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