Archive for January 8th, 2009
The Persistence of Ayodhya: Wounds & Resistance
I was asked to remain confined to my room. The men from Indian intelligence were polite but firm. As they questioned me in a small tea shop in a neighbourhood adjacent to where the Babri mosque once stood, I could see they were unsure about precisely what I represented. I looked Indian, spoke Hindi, and […]
On Samuel Huntington & The Use of History
Samuel Huntington, author of the book ‘The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order‘, died on December 28th 2008. In an obituary in the New York Times, in a typically fawning obituary, thought it ‘uncanny’ i.e. a reflection of his brilliance, that in that book he had written (predicted?) that ‘Somewhere in the […]
Unraveling Bitter Threads: Faiz & Seeing The World
The only man I have ever felt envious of was a ‘celebrity’ documentary filmmaker who once told an interviewer that his success was a result of his complete lack of introspection! Introspection has been the bane of my existence. I heard Faiz Ahmed Faiz before I ever read him. His poem ‘Don’t Ask Me for […]