Tag: India
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On Bhakti (Devotion)
We will consider one of the most polyvalent concepts in Hindu religious worldviews – namely, bhakti. I will focus on one particular set of meanings of the Sanskrit word bhakti – namely, devotional love or loving attachment. One encounters bhakti in diverse contexts of Hindu life – as an attitude of dedication to an icon…
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Zikr: The Allusions of Agra’s Assertions
by Ankur Barua O my Lord –In the autumn of my life I pine for the verdant gardens of AgraNourished by these delightful waters of your abundant YamunaO Allah – your supreme strength is sufficient for this servant. In these tumultuous times it is your still voice I seek to hearYou will not burden my…
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Zikr: The Bustling Brocades of Bombay
O my Lord – Sailing along the blue Arabian sea it is this oasis that I first see When I leave its green coves its memories continue to haunt me O Allah – we are sent by you and it is to you that we seek to return.
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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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Reading al-Biruni’s ‘Kitab al Hind’ as Phenomenology of Religion
by Saad Ismail *A paper originally presented at the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University in January 2024. 1. Introduction: “I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time.” al-Biruni Abu Rayhan…
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Perilous Intimacies: Debating Hindu-Muslim Friendship After Empire with SherAli Tareen
In this conversation Prof. SherAli Tareen joins Dr. Saad Ismail for a succinct survey of key theoretical motifs in Prof. Tareen’s most recent ground-breaking book which explores how leading South Asian Muslim thinkers imagined and contested the boundaries of Hindu-Muslim friendship from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. He argues that often what was…
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What al-Biruni Can Teach Us About Hindu-Muslim Dialogue Today
by Saad Ismail “I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time.” Al Biruni Abu Rayhan al-Biruni’s precocious and magisterial study al-Hind (India) was undoubtedly far ahead of its times. Exactly one millennium…
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Sadhguru and the Politics of Spirituality
If you listen to Sadhguru enough times – as I have – you come away with the impression that spirituality is the only sensible alternative to the regressive and old-fashioned belief in religion. Religions, and in Sadhguru’s view, Abrahamic religions in particular – with all their notions of a traditional creator-god, scriptural morality, and heaven…
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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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The Hindu Self and its Muslim Neighbors in Bengali Landscapes
What do we learn from Rabindranath Tagore’s copious yet lesser-known writings on the Hindu-Muslim question? What do we learn from the fascinating interplay of Hindu-Muslim interactions in the history of Bengal? How do the behavioral patterns between the two communities fare and change over the course of history, particularly entering into the modern period? What…
Project Noon 