Category: Uncategorized
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Zikr: The Labour of Lucknow’s Love
by Ankur Barua O my Lord –If there is paradise on earth it is this pearl of exquisite beautyThat gently nestles on the meandering necklace of your GomtiO Allah – this beggar stands waiting at your door for your bounty. In every iota of dust do I discern your resplendent Residency1In whose mansions once dwelled…
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Zikr: The Boatman of Calcutta
by Ankur Barua O my Lord –From the rivers to the sea is this great land blessed with greeneryThrough the fleeting clouds on blue skies you breathe mercifullyO Allah – across this partitioned land your indivisible love does stand. On a luminous arc from the valleys of Sind to this corner of al-HindThrough the golden…
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Zikr: The Four Minarets of Hyderabad
O my Lord – Tossed up and down on this vast ocean of humanity I hold on to your name as the anchor of our stability O Allah – in my darkness you shine as a mountain of light. Walking past all the magnificent palaces of the Nizam I gently sigh In this frantic living…
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Top Three Books on Chaitanya Vaishnavism
Recommended by R. David Coolidge. David completed his PhD from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) with a dissertation about Muslim perceptions of the Hindu tradition. He worked as a Muslim chaplain at Dartmouth College and Brown University and taught undergraduate courses on Islamic law and ethics at New York University. He has served on the…
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Zikr: The Mists of East Putney
by Ankur Barua O my Lord –When I see waves of traffic on PiccadillyFearfully my heart pours out all its miseryO Allah – take me across to the minaret at East Putney. I went shopping to Sainsbury’s but they don’t anymore have a 2-for-1 dealI thought I would eat a fish but forgot to order…
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The Clockmaker of Calcutta
As the shadows of time fall thickly across the afternoon of my life, my mind often trails back to a damp winter evening on the banks of the Hooghly river. In the distance a boatman’s plaintive song was slowly rising towards the listless silence that shrouded the air. A goat’s sharp bleating punctuated the peace.…
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The Top Books on Hinduism and Hindu-Muslim Engagements
Recommended by Ankur Barua, Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. A list of resources for the online lecture series on Hindu socio-religious visions to be held in August 2023 as part of a collaboration between Project Noon and The Cambridge Interfaith Programme.
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Top Three Books on Hindu Philosophy
Recommended by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Fellow of the British Academy and Distinguished Professor of comparative philosophy and religion, Lancaster University, UK. Author of Divine Self, Human Self: The Philosophy of Being in Two Gita Commentaries. Interview by the Editor, Saad Ismail. Professor Ram-Prasad, what are the three books on Hindu philosophy which you would recommend and…
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The Muslim self and its Hindu neighbours: amity and antagonism in the homelands of Bengal
Earlier this year, I published a book with the title “The Hindu Self and its Muslim Neighbors: Contested Borderlines on Bengali Landscapes”. When the manuscript was nearing completion, I realized – somewhat to my shock – that I had unwittingly written a book with the title “The Muslim Self and its Hindu Neighbors”. In other…
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Return Hate with Empathy
Empathy is a dying art. It is a virtue on ventilator. Yet we must find whatever means we can to resuscitate it. Our life and the lives of our children depend on it. And need I say, our afterlives are also on the line.
Project Noon 