Taslima’s Lies, Ismat’s Truth

`The accusations against Rushdie, quite frankly, are getting old, esp. when its cited by people who havent read him. `

tell me all about it! people have written books just to denounce rushdie and perhaps even to prevent people from reading his books. some of my friends get all-too-rancorous when it`s rushdie( and they haven`t read any of his works as far as i know).
they obstinately refused to read anything by him when i offered them to. kind of funny. heh

I find it very hard to comment on someone`s work when I have not read it. I have read about such outright lies By Taslima such as ````Koranic teaching still insists that the sun moves around the earth. How can we advance when they teach things like that?`` [Taslima Nasrin, `Time`` magazine, Jan 31, 1994] ``, but these are mere quotes. Elsewhere she writes about the Quranic injunctions on inheritence claiming that Allah has actually erred doing arithmatic because fractions don`t add up - therefore Qura`n is wrong. Even an elementary level child who can do fractions can prove Taslima wrong. But West uses such ``voices of dissent`` to further its own agenda. Shame on them too. However, such non-sense does put Muslims in a tight corner. I think Taslima could have accomplisghed more for women`s rights and all if she kept herself honest and objective.

In ``real`` virtual world of relevance for 2003..(impartial google hits method)

taslima nasrin 8330 hits
ismat chugtai 470 hits

and this is very important.. unless one disregards correlational data such as words like sex causing so many hits due to its porportional relevance

I do not want to digress from the main issue and start theological debate on the sciences and Quran. But would like some more enlightening interpretation for these translations of A. Yusufali:

[al-Hijr 15:19] And the earth We have spread out (like a carpet); set thereon mountains firm and immovable; and produced therein all kinds of things in due balance.

[Ta Ha 20:53] ``He Who has, made for you the earth like a carpet spread out; has enabled you to go about therein by roads (and channels); and has sent down water from the sky.`` With it have We produced diverse pairs of plants each separate from the others.

[az-Zukhruf 43:10] (Yea, the same that) has made for you the earth (like a carpet) spread out, and has made for you roads (and channels) therein, in order that ye may find guidance (on the way);

[Qaf 50:7] And the earth- We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs)-

[adh-Dhariyat 51:48] And We have spread out the (spacious) earth: How excellently We do spread out!

[Nuh 71:19] ```And God has made the earth for you as a carpet (spread out),

[an-Naba` 78:6] Have We not made the earth as a wide expanse,


[al-Anbiya` 21:31] And We have set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with them, and We have made therein broad highways (between mountains) for them to pass through: that they may receive Guidance.

``i taped a session…with ismat chughtai in her Bombay flat…chowk wants me to transcribe that conversation… i will transcribe and translate it for you and olthers interested…what a incredible woman ismat was``

Temporal Sahib -- you have Ismet`s voice on tape!! -- incredible -- and you are sitting on this nayaab gem -- please do take the trouble of transcribing and publishing it on Chowk -- if you can clean the tape digitally please let`s us hear portions of it --

it is the most exciting news I`ve heard in decades -- lucky man temporal sahib

Farzana bi -- did you also interview Ismet? -- can you write the gist of it in another article

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we would love to hear her views in contemporay times.... it has been such a long time

best regards to both of you

#56 by temporal on November 24, 2003 3:59am PT

On what is a sufficient proof for being considered as a ``courageous`` person?--

...i would acknowledge it readily if she returns and faces her adversaries head on…that would be courage....

10 million mullahs against 1 Atheist Woman

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The odds of surviving are none- you also know this and so does Taslima- hence this conditionality suggested as a necessary pre-condition for her being considered ``courageous`` is just an attempt to down grade Taslima`s contribution to the feminist voices of this sub-continent.

Ballukhan sahib -- please -- just recite or hear the Quran Sharif with Qiraat -- for your spiritual uplifting --

NOT as a Geological Handbook --

be glad -- that it is in incomprehensible lyrical Arabic -- that sends a hair raising CHILL thru the spine when heard from an Egytian or a Malaysian classical Qaaree -- not in terse Urdu or in alien English....

take it from Maulana Nasah -- want to save your Imaan -- don`t touch the Turjumaa...

regards

#71 by nasah on November 24, 2003 10:17pm PT

Agreed! I also recite it with my heart- not intellect!! That is why I avoid wasting time on theological discourses . Any way that is the end of this issue for me.

t:
What do you mean it is such a daunting task to transcribe a tape of such relevance? Instead of wasting your time on silly `Unplugged` threads, you must get down to this. It ought not to be merely for anyone who is interested, but should reach a wider audience. And if you are lazy, get some kid to transcribe it and then edit and post it as a proper interview. (I personally like to do my own transcriptions because listening to the voice and inflections adds so much more to the words.)

I must add here that interviewing writers of regional literature and getting them published in mainsteram English media is not always easy, especially if it is only their work and ideology you are concentrating on and not the hype surrounding them.

nasahsaab:
Yes I did interview Ismat Chugtai, thrice. Amrita Pritam too. And a host of off-beat literary figures, including a Dalit writer who worked as a peon by day and wrote the most searing prose and poetry at night. A play based on his work was staged at the posh Tata Theatre. I love the ironies of life... I will share as much as I can in good time.

Many Indians would be familiar with the name of Safdar Hashmi. A Leftist, he was brutally murdered by Congress goons when he was staging his play `Halla Bol` in the streets of Delhi. He suffered with death; I had interviewed his widow, Moloyshree, and realised the kind of pressures creative people work under, especially if they want their work to reach the ordinary person. Safdar`s mother is a writer and the following is an interview that appeared in today`s Times of India. Note the voice of dissent and especially her comments on not forgiving.

* * *
TODAY`S INTERVIEW: Stories of Separation - The Times of IndiaTUESDAY,
NOVEMBER 25, 2003


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/301542.cms

Seventy-nine-year old Qamar Azad Hashmi , author and mother of the slain theatre activist and writer Safdar Hashmi, refused to leave the country even as the rest of her family migrated to Pakistan after Partition. With a Delhi court recently convicting those responsible for Safdar’s murder almost 15 years ago, she spoke to Humra Quraishi :


It has taken 15 long years for the verdict in the Safdar Hashmi case to be delivered. The delay must hurt.


Even now, it is the lower court that has given the verdict. So, it is open to appeal in the higher courts. All these years have been very painful. Nothing can take away from that pain. It is there to stay. I also feel that this kind of delay in justice only encourages the criminals. Also, it increases the chance of the case weakening as there is always the danger of something untoward happening to the witnesses.


Recently, after the verdict was handed out in the Graham Staines case, his wife spoke about how she had forgiven the culprits.


My own view is that forgiveness is not a morally correct position since it ends up emboldening the murderers.


This sounds quite political, quite different from what one might expect from an average middle class woman. What can I say to that? Perhaps, it is because of my background. My father was a sufi poet from Kakori (UP) who brought out a publication — Piyam-I-Ummeed — and my mother was from a Kashmiri family settled in Punjab . I had a very liberal upbringing. In common with thousands of other people, we were badly affected by Partition as we had to shift out of our home in Delhi and live in a refugee camp set up in Humayun’s Tomb.


And, although I went with my family to Pakistan initially, I returned the very next year and got married here. While my husband’s family had moved to Pakistan , he was determined to stay put though his business suffered tremendously after Partition. So we lived and brought up our children in very tough financial circumstances.


Your children — all five of them, including Safdar. How did you raise them?


When they were young, I’d read out to them stories from Chinese and Soviet literature every night. I told them how, despite the difficulties and struggles their father had to go through, he never once compromised. I suppose the atmosphere at home leaves a definite mark on the children and we taught our children never to accept injustice and zulm.


Besides, I never imposed any restrictions on them and allowed them to pursue their passions. Safdar was a quiet child. He did his early schooling in Aligarh , college at St Stephen’s and later taught English at the Kashmir University ( Srinagar ). He quit the university job because it did not offer any scope for theatre. He then joined the West Bengal government. The 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi really affected him. For days, we were witness to the horrifying carnage. It was shocking to see the brutality of it all.


What was your reaction to your son Safdar’s murder?


I remember the day. It was the day when my elder sister was to reach New Delhi from the US and I was busy tidying up the house and cooking and then suddenly one of Safdar’s friends rushed in to tell us about what had happened. We rushed to the hospital. I can’t put into words my reaction to his death...


I wrote Panchwan Chirag four years after Safdar’s death... SAHMAT came into being because of Safdar’s friends and activists. We wanted to establish a platform for the values Safdar lived for.


What is your view of today’s politics?


I feel that today the middle classes are turning a blind eye to the developments taking place around them. But this kind of apathy has grave consequences. If we want our country to be saved, we cannot sit quietly and be indifferent to the political mess.


As for the fate of minorities, you have already seen what’s happened in Gujarat . Once reactions and counter-reactions start, there is no knowing what might happen. After all marne se pehle aadmi haath uthata hai .


As a woman with a Muslim name, do you feel safe living in the Capital?


Yes, I do. On the other hand, two of my children couldn’t get a house on rent in New Delhi ’s Rajinder Nagar because the minute landlords heard their names they’d bluntly say that they would not rent their homes to Muslims. Till my retirement, I had government accommodation (as an NDMC school employee). So there was no problem on that score... but the divisions along religious lines are definitely there, indeed even at the school level. In fact, just the other day my seven-year-old grand-daughter came up to me and said that children in her class ask her whether she is a Hindu or Musalmaan, I told her to tell them that she is an insaan.


If Safdar was alive today, what role would he be playing?


Raising his voice at the injustices, at the communal happenings... he had the courage and spirit to fight for a cause and, like his father, he would never, never compromise on principles.

``i would acknowledge it readily if she returns and faces her adversaries head on…that would be courage....``

temporal sahib -- you surely don`t want to get her killed -- or do you.....:-)

Tasleema is one heck of a courageous woman...God bless her

..so we take it farzana does not like taslima and has a bone to pick with her...it takes only a sentence to say this :)...

Farzana # 74

I did not want to disrupt this board on writers. But your this post has instigated me to ask a question. Please do not reply if you do not wish you.

My question may sound stupid to you. But it is a fact. Since I have never lived with Hindus or Sikhs, I treat them just as I treat Italians or Chinese or Beligians. In fact, I am far more comfortable with the Indians since it is so easy to cumunicate, eat the same food & have a lot of other things common.

So I thought that this divide is a result of partition - and mainly for the people who experienced partition first hand. I am presently reading Khushwant Singh`s ``Truth, Love & a little malice`` - and he talks of his school days around 1930s - and says that Hindus+Sikhs sat togather and Muslims sat separately; and they did not mix.

Whenever my father talked of the pre-partition days, he never spoke in such terms.

So when did this divide come. Obviously, not during the Congreess days since Congress represented all those who lived in India. Did it come with the coming of Muslim Leaugue? Or it came with the passage of Lahore Resolution .......Or with the partition itself?

I do not know? Please do not answer if it is too irrelevant.

FarzanaVersey

re: Safdar Hashmi

Killed by Congress goons.

What a repulsive rabble of thugs, gangsters and mafioso is that ``political party``

And this is the alternative to the BJP?

nazarhayatkhan #77 ``So when did this divide come. Obviously, not during the Congreess days since Congress represented all those who lived in India. Did it come with the coming of Muslim Leaugue? Or it came with the passage of Lahore Resolution .......Or with the partition itself? ``

Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab have regarded each other as untouchables for CENTURIES, and not simply as a result of relatively recent politics. I`m surprised your father never mentioned this to you. It was one of the first things my elders told me about life in the Old Punjab.

Dear Nazar Hayat Khan:

I really like your perspective. Your simple question ``So when did this divide come?`` has complex answers. It was a Big Bang, whenever it happened. We can only study it, like the other Big Bang, through its impact. Another way to look at it, may be that Big Bang indeed created the Universe we live in, and we accept it.

Best regards.
ANIL KAPURIA