Playing cricket for peace



Mohali is for optics. The real match between India and Pakistan is across the negotiating table. And in that, there aren’t going to be any winners or losers. Not at least in the visible future.

So why did Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reach out to Pak counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani all of a sudden? Apparently to create an ambience for the resumed dialogue, to send a message to world capitals that India does not abandon reasonable conduct even when wronged. Or betrayed to the core.

It’s perhaps for this reason that Singh dovetailed his unilateral gesture with the March 28-29 Home Secretary-level talks— at the core of which is the glacial Pak probe into the conspiracy part of Mumbai’s 26/11. The Indian Premier’s Mohali meeting with Gilani a day later could come in handy therefore to take stock of the outcome in New Delhi. For their part, the Pakistanis have lately been harping on the saffron twist in the Samjhauta Express attack to frustrate India’s demands in the Mumbai case. I am skeptical if not pessimistic about Singh’s Mohali initiative. It could boomerang badly on the resumed dialogue if spectators turn violent or players misbehave on the field. The cricketing icons must desist from sledging. One incident of such conduct could damage beyond repair the match ambience and by implication the tenuous efforts to put bilateral relations back on rails if not on the road to trust and confidence.

Pak skipper Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar (if he makes it to the playing squad) are famous for their on-field tempers. So are India’s Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh. One would like to presume that Afridi merely engaged in some pre-match mind gaming by discounting Sachin Tendulkar’s much-awaited 100th international ton against his team. He’d better be warned by his minders of the limits of competitive machismo in a game that has come to blend diplomacy with sports.

One hopes the presence in the stands of top leaders of the two countries will have a sobering influence; that the players will set an example for the audience to follow. There is a precedent already the teams and cricket fans from either side can follow— the 2005 Indo-Pak series that saw Pakistani fans lead India’s victory march in Lahore. The spectacle is one constant of hope in the India-Pakistan album of tragic snap-shots.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the architect of that memorable sporting encounter in the wake of his January 2004 pact with Pervez Musharraf. He gave the go-ahead for the series despite strong opposition from within the BJP. Leading the saffron skeptics then was L K Advani. They felt an untoward incident during the Indian team’s Pakistan visit could blow up the NDA’s chances in the Lok Sabha polls later that year.

Cricket won. But the BJP-led coalition lost out at the hustings. The situation today is no different. The Mohali match coincides with elections to five state assemblies the UPA desperately needs to win to resurrect its scam-battered profile. And Singh’s gamble could well prove to be a double-edged sword for the Congress and its allies in Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu, besides Pondicherry, with sizeable minority votes. Any kind of polarization triggered by the outcome of the match and the talks with Pakistan could cost the UPA dear. More so when public mood in India isn’t supportive yet for re-engaging with the western neighbour with multiple centers of power and an uninspiring record in pursing the perpetrators of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.

Vajpayee took the risk after repairing the atmospherics post-Kargil and the terror strike on Parliament. He even made Musharraf commit to preventing terror threats against India from the Pakistani soil. In comparison, Singh’s groundwork looks weaker, almost brittle, barring unconfirmed reports that the Gilani regime has the Pak Army’s backing in resuming talks with New Delhi.

But the fauj alone isn’t a threat to any future peace-track. Vandals of other hue lurk behind the surface. Till they are eliminated, contained or neutralized, symbolic bonhomie wouldn’t kindle any bonfire of substance. That should be Singh’s message to Gilani at Mohali.

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  • Rajiv

    Any Pak diplomat, be it President or PM reporting to ISI, should be made ti sign a form which states the following.

    1. I am of sound mind and do not suffer from hallucinations. ( attach a certified copy fromn a non-Pakistani psychiatrist )
    2. I understand Pak will never get any part of Indian Kashmir.
    3. I have told my children and grand children that Pakistan will never get any part of Indian kashmir.
    4. I understand that Pakistan , in its juvenile desire for Indian Kashmir, has lost Bangladesh ( East Pakistan ) and is now on the verge of losing Baluchistan.

    Only after the immigration and border authrities receive a signed fornm in triplicate , should any diplomat from Pakistan be allowed on Indian territory. Otherwise its just wastage of time, resources and extremely inimical and counter proiductive to Indian interests.

    [Reply]

    Mohan Ramchandani Reply:

    Rajiv,

    Nice one. Yes, it is going to be just a wastage of time and resources. Already Indian
    security is stetched to its limits and this will put more burden on them.

    [Reply]

    Mohan Ramchandani Reply:

    By the way is the match fixed already.? I just read in TOI.

    http://timesofindia.hotklix.com/link/Sports/Cricket/India-vs-Pakistan-Semi-Final-match-FIXED

    [Reply]

    Rajiv Reply:

    The tailor told me , that Pak will win and the match is fixed. He has insider contacts.
    The gardener told me that the match is fixed and India will win. His cousin’s inlaws work at the Mohali stadium.

    I said both of them have a probability of being correct 50% and I shockingly made a bold prediction that one of them will be right.

    Daisy Boy Reply:

    There’s lot at stake for peace not to be given a chance. Afghanistan is inviting Big Business from India to explore and mine coal and other minerals. Unless there is an agreement with Pak regarding surface transport, our big business cannot hope to invest in Afg. When there are economic benefits to be reaped by coming to terms with India, the Pakis would sooner than later smell coffee – as it is their economy is a no-hoper with unemployment being as big a problem as our own. Other issues have to take a back seat as they are going to lead us nowhere. Already the Pakis have announced their readiness to allow Indian investigating commission to investigate 26/11 inside Pak – so that’s a positive signal of course. Things would not change overnight – let us hope for the best – at least our Big Business is looking forward to it, if not the middle class.

    [Reply]

  • vijay kumar

    @ Rajiv

    :D :D :D Brilliant !

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    My doodhwali told me that the ‘result’ of the match is fixed.
    I asked her what she meant by that.
    She says that by fixing the result and not the match, she meant that there would be no result.
    She says Sharad Pawar , the agri-mini, has secretly hired a cloud seeding firm from Antarctica to cause rains on the Mohali ground and have the match washed out. It would be a jackpot, for whom, you can guess.

    Therefore, I am looking for a bookie in Bangalore, which is a big gamble in itself, since all the bookies are behind bars, from where they are linked to their partners in Pakistan via the ISRO satellite. (S Band, of course).

    [Reply]

  • vijay kumar

    @ Vinod Sharma

    Incisive blog. I am yet to meet an Indian who is willing to say that he or she is willing to forget 26/11 and terror attacks.

    just a few minutes back I saw a Pakistani defence analyst– a baldy called Hila-le or something– who was claiming that 26/11 had nothing to do with Pakistan.

    We have to make sure that MMS ’s gesture is not intrepreted as a sign of weakness or admittance of some sort of Indian guilt… That would rub a lot of muck on our gentle well meaning PM…

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vijay Kumar,

    you are wrong here. I have already met a person who is willing to forget 26/11and terror attacks-Mani SANKAT Aiyer. In fact, on Sunday, in Barkha’s “we The people” programme, he was shouting at all the people who were doubting about the mini-summit in Mohali.

    [Reply]

  • Rajiv

    With Pakistan, you are dealing with a juvenile, idiotic mindset. Any gesture, born out of goodwill, is immediately seen as a prelude to India handing over some part of Kashmir. Thats why the 4-point declaration *** application form I mentioned in a previous post, for any Pak so called diplomat or dignitary coming to India, is so indispensable.

    [Reply]

  • http://- Rajeev

    I can only hope that India doesn’t see another 26/11. Under Manmohan Singh, UPA govt. is ready to give a mile for nothing.
    Anyway this country is doomed under congress.

    [Reply]

  • Azhar Hussain

    Rajiv, Rajeev and Vijay Kumar you guys are stuck in a rut, “we are all good and they are all bad”.

    I am in India cheering for the Green Shirts.

    [Reply]

    Rajiv Reply:

    @Azhar,
    Like your many other posts, your latest is a big lie too. Its 2 am in India and you are not in India and obviously posting from somewhere else. Anyway, people like you prove whatever is said about Pakistan.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    He is a born LIAR..Calls himself true muslim thus shaming Islam.

    [Reply]

    Andrews Reply:

    “If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.” Sun Zi, The Art of War, 6th Cent BC.

    “Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”

    “All warfare is based on deception.”

    “Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.”

    “In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.”

    “supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting”.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    “supreme arrogance consists in breaking the friendly Hindus’ belief system without fighting”.
    WAR OF ARTS-By M.F.Hussain, the 21st century B.C. dinosaur.

    Kushagra Reply:

    Azhar, the overwhelming power of the sex drive was demonstrated by the fact that someone was willing to father you.

    [Reply]

  • Johnson Thomas K

    I have several Pakistani friends and I tell them in a nice way how Pakistan is destroying itself with its anti-India policies. The examples of Khalifite are all across West Asian dictatorships and dynastic rulers. It is also there in South Asia and other developing countries scarred by governance deficit including corruption, poverty, slums, open drains, illiteracy, an archiac bureaucracy which behaves like the 500 Maharajas in India’s 500 districts.

    As regards the Indo-Pak cricket diplomacy its mischievous and stupid on the part of Manmohan Singh unless he gets General Kayani and Sonia Gandhi do the dialogue as they are the real power centres in Pakistan and India respectively. The Congress government’s motive behind publicising about its so called Hindutva Terror is like handing over to Pakistan a stick with which it can beat India as it is now doing. If there is the so called Hindu terror why doesn’t the government appoint a special investigation team under the supervision of the Supreme Court as it did in the matter of Gujarat riots. I don’t agree with the theory of HIndutva Terror from the material available this is not to deny that Hindus don’t have extremists just like other religions. In Islam however extremism through Jihad has been a way of life. The government appears to suggest that the so called Hindutva Terror is deadlier than Maoism. I hope the people of India vote this government out in the next elections.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Johnson Thomas,

    the talks on the lines you have suggested simply cannot happen, because Kayani will not talk and Sonia cannot talk (beyond maut ka saudagar utterance, of course).

    [Reply]

    Praveen Saxena Reply:

    That was a good one Shenoy Saab.
    But after reading this post , don’t you thing that even Vinod Sharma saab is grudgingly realizing that relations with Pakistan cannot be determined just by candles at Wagah Border but the stick also has a role to play ..

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    There is not enough wax in the whole world for Kuldip Nayar and his I-Love-Pakistan derveshes to make and burn candles at wagah, which will melt the stone-hearts of the P*A*K*IS*.

    The whole idea is romantic bull, but unfortunately even supposedly level headed people like our friend, Vinod Sharma, see pigs flying on the other side of Wagah on occasions like this.

    Johnson Thomas K Reply:

    Shenoy gi,

    your reply was thought provoking to say the least!!!

    [Reply]

  • Kushagra

    My feeling is MMS, struggling to maintain his flagging goodwill due to various scams, Wikileaks, has attempted to divert nation’s attention from burning issues to a gimmick of hosting Pakistani diplomats.

    [Reply]

  • prashant saxena

    I see nothing wrong with Pakistan’s behavior. If someone slaps you repeatedly, then ***** slaps you again, then rubs your face in the mud repeatedly till it is bloody and you go back to him making overtures of peace after 2 years at the first available opportunity due to your gentlemanliness, I’m afraid you will be ***** slapped again.

    [Reply]

  • mike vig

    We approach this Pakitani issue as if we owe them something & we can’t do without them. We keep chasing them for so called peace & friendship. This is how we grew up watching. Thwarted & humiliated again & again, we keep doing it shamelessly. What on earth can we expect from a pauper, low life, living-on-terror funds country that is going nowhere but down?

    The shameless Babus in New Delhi let these morons in when they instigate, shield & help Made in Pakistan terrorists, attack India.

    If one of the 26/11 murdered was from PM’s family, will he still bring in Pakis for Dinner & Dance?
    Let Sardar Ji spend the money from his own paycheque on this Pakistani dinner & dance.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Mike Vig,

    you can’t be too sure about what these perverts would do and when.

    Remember, Priyanka Ghandy went and met her father’s murderer in the jail and said that she has forgiven her. These congressis are capable of anything, including a general pardon for the 26/11 terrorists.

    [Reply]

  • Rakesh Katyal

    They must be the two world PMs without any power. Since MMS of late has been under so much of pressure and no one listening to him he is trying to turn some better focus towards him. Two toothless tigers are meeting to share their woes. What result is expected ?

    [Reply]

  • Vijay Kumar

    :D :D ~~~ The danger of heightened expectations and a dud missile ~~~ :D :D

    No real Indian– except the Arundhati gang and a few idiots– is willing to forget 26/11.

    In case MMS makes a unilateral peace declaration which sidesteps action against Lakhvi, Hafeez Saeed and other Pakistani mafia gangsters, the COngress should brace itself for electorol dung. :D

    As it is it won the last election on the hard unrelenting stance it initially took on the terror attacks.

    The mand-budhi prince may be trying to peddle a softline now, egged on by Diggy – the grave digger.

    But then we all have the power of the vote to overthrow….

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    A manda-buddhi prince, a buddhiheen pradhan mantri and two vipareeta buddhi jokers, mani Sankat and Digvinash, all dancing around the table, welcoming the terrorist Pak PM.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @BV Shenoy
    The comments do not befit you. I think you are capable of better arguments.

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Shenoy and Vinodji,

    While I cannot match the poetic flair of both of you, I am trying my hand at a remix– of a song which my dad would listen to in the seventies. I can still hear the ring of Mukesh’s dulcet, meloncholy voice…

    The original

    Kehta hai joker
    Saara Zamaana,

    Aadhi hakikat,
    Aadha phasaana…

    Now my re-mixed version of the suceeding para. :D

    Chashma uttaro
    Phir dekho yaaro…

    Congress whai hai,
    Choron ki raani !! :D :D

    kehta hai joker….

    Vinodji, your opinion please? :)

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Vijay Kumar
    One gets the message but the lines are disjointed.
    You could have said Congress wahi hai ….sab milke maaro :) ) The lines are mine the thought yours. :) )

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Vinod Sharma,

    I was never into COngress bashing. And when I got my first voting rights… I had voted for th COngress. But now…

    I find it a drifting party with no agenda. Except plugging in one crises till another erupts. Incapable of handling terrorism. Only capable of trying to exclude Muslims away from Hindus for a vote bank…

    As wikileaks reveals, even Congressmen are not too happy with the Princes’ intellectual capabilities. So why blame me???/ :D

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Vinod Sharma

    The original line is

    “Duniya wahi hai
    Kissa purana”

    So

    Congress wahi hai
    Choron ki rani…

    rhymes better :)

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Vijay Kumar
    Kuch karey dikhaye gey hum bhi
    kuch apne bhi dam sey hoga
    badnaam ho jis sey desh apna
    woh kaam no hamse hoga

    make this yr anthem. utho aagey badho payare. internet intellectuals bahut hain hamare desh mein

  • Vijay Kumar

    :D Shenoy sahab da jawab nahin…

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vijay Kumar,

    Here is another one:

    For the congress, Mani is sankat
    but, around the prince Digvinash crows like a kurkat
    the prince himself behaves like a markat
    but, together, they all can only create a lot of kooda karkat.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @BV Shenoy
    Yeh kavita hai ya khat khat
    betuka sa
    shabdon ka jamghat
    lagta hai likha hai aapney
    kuch pekar ghat ghat
    :) ) :) )

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vinodji,

    After a long time you have “attacked” my poetry, so well and so good naturedly. In reply I have to say this:

    Log peetey hain, ladkhadaate hain
    Saari duniya ko bhool jaate hain
    Aur Ik hum hain tere mehfil mein
    khaali aate hain, khaali jaate hain.

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Log peetey hain, ladkhadaate hain
    Saari duniya ko bhool jaate hain
    Aur Ik hum hain tere mehfil mein
    pyaase aate hain, pyaase jaate hain.

    Saarthak Reply:

    My previous comment is under moderation …so comments are being pre-moderated here or is it because my comment has links – testing

    Saarthak Reply:

    Ok got it my comment has links thats why. Hope its published soon its interesting

    Rajeev Reply:

    I am not a big fan of Pakistani team but I do admire the fact that it is full of talent especially the bowling. I was apalled at the statement of Rehman Malik. It is no way to treat sports person. He has insulted all the sports person by warning pakistani players publicly. Looking at Rehman’s behaviour, I remember how our own sports minister treated coach of wrestler Sushil. He shoved the coach and kind of asked him to step aside. I am convinced we Indian and Pakistanis are from same stock who tolerate uncouth politicians without uttering a word.
    It was only Imran Khan who slammed this Malik guy in a proper way. I wish Afridi too have done same.

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    The pressure of the occasion has got onto our cool captain… he has dropped Ashwin….

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @BV Shenoy
    Jo maza hai urdu zubaan mein
    na misr na englishtaan mein
    jo sur milane ka kaam hai
    woh surahi sey nikla jaam hai
    kadam ladkhadaye bhi to kya farak
    nahin chahiye kuchbhi bina arak
    kahi baith kar aaraam sey
    tou karley pura yeh tharak
    rahi baat unbhujee pyaas ki
    woh tou hai tameez-e-aashiquee

    Saarthak Reply:

    Have you guys noticed how Hindustan Times is hell bent on making this Manmohan gesture a PR move for the Congress? I mean…the last 4 days, the main headlines in Hindustan Times have been about this Mohali match. Its like they want to manufacture a non-existent hysteria. Yes, its an important match but its not so sensational that its your MAIN HEADLINE for 4 days in a row. Particularly at a time when the Shunglu panel report has come out and indicted Sheila Dikshit in the Commonwealth Games scam – news of which our dear HT is humbly giving space on Page

    These are the main headlines I’m talking about..imagine:

    Pakistan Dangerous – says Guru Gary http://twitpic.com/4ekfhg

    Won’t allow Sachin his 100th ton – Afridi starts mindgame http://twitpic.com/4dyrsx

    Game On – Gilani Pads Up for Mohali Match http://twitpic.com/4em1lo

    In Mohali Clash, PM Bats for Peace http://twitpic.com/4em2fc

    [Reply]

  • ats

    Pehle 26/11…lakhvis…dawood, etc then talks….

    MMS as ex **** has invited a fellow ****.

    India should now let Indian Army talk to Pak Army rather then our netas and babus do the talking – who have reached no where except attend cricket matches and eat lahori murg tikkas. We indians miss a very important component that is Indian Army- any solutions will have to have a yes from our Indian Army. Our Army is an important stakeholders in India -Pak.

    Finally what if there is another attack la mumbai…both chidram ( dossier writer ) and MMS have not fixed that terror concern which every indian today has.

    With Anit aircraft guns, air alert, Missle (brahmos) deployment in Mohali- is it worth to be called a match ??? . Never I have heard such “arrangements” for a one day sporting event. The atmo. created by TV and media has been that of a war.

    Kayani/ISI must be gloating ,……crores being spent on security for the match. LoL .

    A wonderful match between an equally great teams SL and NZ has been ignored by our desi, lobbyist turned journos.
    I hope ICC bans media and TV from covering the match. as they will only create hostile attitude bewteen the nations.

    [Reply]

  • http://- Rajeev

    Vijay,
    The cricket and the pakistani team are not the problem. The problem are spectators coming from pakistan who may not go back to pakistan and may launch another terror attack on India.
    I am of the view that semi-final between india and pakistan should have been held on neutral territory i.e. Sri Lanka.

    By the way, I heard that tickets are being sold at 1+ lakh each. We Indians true to our nature never leave corruption. All this patriotism is bogus. What is the use if we don’t allow students who can’t afford 1+ lakh ticket, to cheer our team? Why are journalist not exposing who are selling tickets in black?

    [Reply]

  • http://lughole.net Saarthak

    Have you guys noticed how Hindustan Times is hell bent on making this Manmohan gesture a PR move for the Congress? I mean…the last 4 days, the main headlines in Hindustan Times have been about this Mohali match. Its like they want to manufacture a non-existent hysteria. Yes, its an important match but its not so sensational that its your MAIN HEADLINE for 4 days in a row. Particularly at a time when the Shunglu panel report has come out and indicted Sheila Dikshit in the Commonwealth Games scam – news of which our dear HT is humbly giving space on Page

    These are the main headlines I’m talking about..imagine:

    Pakistan Dangerous – says Guru Gary twitpic.com/4ekfhg

    Won’t allow Sachin his 100th ton – Afridi starts mindgame twitpic.com/4dyrsx

    Game On – Gilani Pads Up for Mohali Match twitpic.com/4em1lo

    In Mohali Clash, PM Bats for Peace /twitpic.com/4em2fc

    [Reply]

    Saarthak Reply:

    Do check the twitpic links by copy-pasting in the browser..I deliberately did not prefix them with http or www coz the comment goes into moderation then never to be approved

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Saarthak,

    My main problem with these headlines is that they have trivialised the unrelenting terror attacks on India by our jehadi neighbour. When we say ‘Gilani pads up for peace’ we seem to forget that it was Pakistan which was launching all those terror attacks and we were the victims.

    Somehow the whole media reporting does not take into account the jehadis who hold Gilani and co on the string like puppets…

    [Reply]

    Saarthak Reply:

    Exactly. Also, there was no need to have similar headlines 5 (actually 6 if you include today – the day after the match) days in a row for a single match. Looked more like a sports tabloid than a national paper. It did give HT a good diversion route of not reporting on the Shunglu report in the headlines

  • http://- Rajeev

    We see how Kashmiris shout for Azadi on behalf of Pakistan but see how hypocritical pakistan is when it comes to Balochistan. This is discussion with Baloch people conducted by a lady who is trying to mimic Barkha Dutt but comes out patriotic.

    Worth Watching.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XwIXQHG7JQ&feature=related

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    ~~ :) :) ~~ Will the height of stupidity and shallowness happen now ?? ~~~ :) :)

    The Indian media is capable of unleashing the most banal and shallow. It could well send a group of cub reporters– typically 20 year old girls to cover the “human’ angle of the visit of the Pakistani delegation. They did it with smiling Cobra- Gen Zia, they did it with Musharaff and
    like true idiotic, smitten fans they will do stories on what the Pakistani PM and president ate and shat ! :D

    NDTV, by the way has already done a story that “Gosht Barra and Amristari Machchi” will be served !!

    IS anyone tyalking about the terror attacks, the backstabbing and the lack of remorse from killings by Pakistanis????????????

    My big question of the day…

    Will HT fall down to that level?????

    [Reply]

  • ram

    Dear Viniod ji,

    Excellent blog as usual-one question -Would MMS have dared to take this step if 2/11 had occurred in Delhi and not in Mumbai?What has changed for MMS to go and do things wohout national unity?Has even one major 26/11 planner from so Pak military/terrorist surrogate handed over to India and all this talk of cooperation is it not tu tu mai mai!! Is 26/11 any less evil than 9/11 why do Indians are sold short by so called Govt or leaders?

    Regards

    Ram

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @ram
    I am happy that India won. The thought that worried me all this while was the possibility of Pakistan lifting the cup in Mumbai. India wasn’t prepared for it and our boys have eliminated
    that humiliating spectacle. Let us celebrate.
    But some cheers are due for Pakistan as well for playing like gentleman cricketers with no tantrums in Mohali. Their conduct and that of our team told on the spectators behaviour. All in all a good match — won and lost with dignity.

    [Reply]

  • gautam ahuja

    “Apparently, to create an ambience for the resumed dialogue and to send out a message to the world that India does not abandon reasonable conduct even when wronged or betrayed.”

    But the funny part is that no westerner expects India to try to make peace with pakistan after 26/11. I live in the US, all my coworkers are amazed at India’s puzzling and cowardly behaviour of not responding to obvious and grave provocation.

    MMS should know that no one takes it as a sign of wisdom or tolerance anymore. The veil of shamelessness is growing more transparent now. Inaction is seen to be cowardice post Iraq and post 26/11.

    China or no china, pakistan needs to be sorted out, and inviting their politicians for kebabs is just not cutting it anymore.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Gautam,
    Many would share your saentiments. Pakistan indeed needs to be sorted out, as you say, but not as you have hinted at. They say the wheels of fortune grind extremely slow, but they grind exceedingly fine. Pakistan should be pulverised, but silently, surreptitiously and without loss to us.

    India should willingly loosen its purse-strings and more often than is the case at the moment.

    If anything is left unsaid, you may imagine that.

    [Reply]

  • http://- Rajeev

    Vinod,
    Better luck next time… :) India won.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    Feel sorry that you lost the opportunity to abuse MMS. Given your twisted mind, you would have blamed him for putting pressure on our team by inviting Gilani. Go have a beer at a pub till we play Sri Lanka. The astrologer I quoted in one of my previous blogs has predicted that the world cup this year is ours. Your shiv sena cousins will need to await another opportunity to cause ruckus. :) )

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    None the less, we defeated your team.
    Let me assure you Congress will use World Cup Victory to hide all its scams. We may even see you attributing this victory to YOUNG LEADER Rahul Gandhi.
    Who is MMS? A puppet..Why would I badmouth that puppet?

    If India had lost, I would have blamed Indian team. Unlike you I don’t mix cricket and politics.

    A ban on Gandhi book by congress show that congress is no different than Shiv Sena. They are the cousins.

    By the way, better luck next time.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    If MMS is a puppet you are even worse: a sockpuppet. Poor guy. Spends the entire day abusing people. Kya jeewan hai tumhara….the first one to ban the Gandhi book was your hero in Gujarat who let people like Togadia abuse Gandhi when it suited him.

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    I sometimes wonder why I haven’t been able to befriend you. I have so many among your clan as my buddies —– Lalu, Mulayam, Sharad and Baba Ram Dev. In fact, Lalu went with me to Pakistan in 2003.

    Rajeev Reply:

    How do you know I am a puppet. I criticise both BJP and Congress unlike you. I opposed the ban on the book but I don’t see any opposition to the ban from likes of you. Why?

    Mera Jeevan achhaa hai…Mehnat ki kamaai khatein hein…Khairat par nahi palte tumhari tarah.

    Rajeev Reply:

    So you consider me lowly uncouth Yadav. Finally wily brahmin has spoken. I come from clan that is known to be secular and anti-caste and by the way we are always educated and don’t take BULLCR*AP lying down.

    Rajeev Reply:

    Vinod,
    We can only be friends the day you release your mind of slavery and become a free neutral man. You are hopelessly biased in your views. This is my most honest assesment of you. I know you are more experienced in life than me but every person should take some time off and re-evaluate himself. It is time you do that.

    I agree BJP is no saint but it is more like Shahid Balwa compared to Dawood Ibrahim i.e. congress. Both are corrupt but as of now BJP seems to be a gali side goonda whereas Congress is one big don involved in every possible crime.

    I have nothing against you personally but ideologically you seem to be very confused. You are always pro-congress no matter what, try very hard to be secular and consider everyone opposing you as Parivar-wallahs. You at time rise above caste and then behave very casteist. I also come from upper caste but I feel this country belongs to people who have been suppressed for thousands of years. It is time for upper castes to assimilate themselves in the mainstream.

    I again REQUEST you to give me one link where you have criticised Congress or Sonia or Rahul.
    Shut me up with your neutrality. Write one blog slamming Sonia on tolerating corruption, Rahul making inane statements and you have a fan in me.

    Rajeev Reply:

    I also thank your interior minister Rehman Malik’s statement that made this win possible.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    Oh, you are upper caste. Thanks for telling. But who asked you? Pakdey gaye bachchu….mujhe pata tha tum suwaran type key fringe element ho.
    Henceforth, post comments on this blog with your full name :) ) You should be proud of your origins and the origin of your thoughts :) )

    Rajeev Reply:

    What kind of comment is this? You keep flaunting your LAST NAME.
    No, I will never use my last name in blogs as I am not a casteist like you.

    I am proud of my thoughts not my caste. Seriously did not expect such childish comment from an aged man. You need to grow up.

    Rajeev Reply:

    Mr.Sharma,
    Rather than making stupid statements, why don’t you shut me up with a blog slamming SOnia/Rahul for tolerating corruption? You always duck this challenge…You wily old Brahmin :)

    Bachchu…You brahmins are opportunists..always on the side of ruler..whether muslim or brit or Italian…

    C’mon accept the challenge O wily Brahmin… Janeau dhari…

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vinodji,

    All is well that ends well. If India had lost the semi-final, that would have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back and Manmohan Singh would have been shown the door. Luckily India won the rathyer closely faught match.

    While MMS was seen clapping without so much as touching both palms, lest his guest may hear a jarring note, Jilani was conspicuously ill-mannered and graceless, sitting with his hands in a tight knot. He didn’t show the minimum sportsman spirit by applauding the victory.

    I hope you would point this out to your Pakistani friends.

    [Reply]

  • Mohan Ramchandani

    This is what NDTV showed after India defeated Pakistan in S/F.

    http://satyameva-jayate.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/JKV-Screenshot-NDTV-Dynasty-World-Cup.jpg

    [Reply]

    Saarthak Reply:

    Oh yes, I tweeted about this the moment it happened. True sycophancy for clownprince, NDTV ishtyle!

    [Reply]

    Saarthak Reply:

    Haha, read this blog the NDTV blooper/sycophancy: http://strikingarrow.com/2011/03/31/breaking-ndtv-sold-out/

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Saarthak,

    thanks for providing the link. NDTV is indulging in corruption and unethical, unprofessional TV journalism of the lowest kind. No amount of condemnation is enough to make them realise their blatant congressism.

    Whether the election commission can be approached with a complaint against NDTV, particularly elections to four state assemblies is in progress? This channel, though has exposed itself as the Nehru Dynasty TV.

    [Reply]

    Saarthak Reply:

    You’re most welcome Shenoy saab. I had a good laugh at “Nehru-Dynasty Television”..shared it on twitter with credit to you :)

    As for the Election Commission, I do hope its independent now. I see Congress stooges all around..whether its the President of the country or the media. This wasn’t the case during Vajpayee’s government when JM Lyndgoh was the election commissioner – a person well known for his integrity (not the Maun Mohan style integrity..it was more authoritative). And we had one of our best Presidents in Kalaam.

  • Praveen Saxena

    All of us are , maybe barring a few , are celeberating the Indian victory. A few are celeberating and rejoicing more the visuals of Sonia and Rahul , standing and clapping from the stands.Oh what a high point in their political campaign.First from the ordinary stands( in case things go wrong ) and later from the VIP stands when victory was assured. (That is what I presume from the pictures I saw in the newspapers).Some were celerating more the visuals of the bonhomie between MMS and Gilani.
    But somehow a thought crossed my mind . What would the families and dear ones of Amar Shaheed Omble , Sandeep Unnikrishnan, Kamte , Salaskar , Hemant Katkar and so many others who lost their lives figthing those who were sent by Gilani’s Pakistan be going through. And when they see the visuals of the political masters wining and dining together, could they be feeling betrayed? What has Pakistan done to deserve this treatment ? Will not more die in days to come?
    A relative , a senior civil servant at that time once said to me with a deadpan expression Well that is the job of the Army . They are paid for that. I asked are our jawans mercenaries? He looked elsewhere.
    I don’t know , these thoughts made me somewhat uncomfortable.
    Cant say whether the host and the friends who visit the blog could be feeling the same. I am sure they would be.

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Praveen

    agreed and endorsed 100% ! We have used and abused our security men. To top it all scam rags like Tehelka created fake stings and even supplied prostitutes to armymen, to create a scam, just to sell their paper.

    WE need to go back to 1987. I remeber this poignantly as one of my good friends’ father — a decorated soldier of 71 war was sent to Sri Lanka, in a war which was a diversionary tactic to take the heat of Bofors. That soldier, whom I would call uncle, lost his life unnecessarily.

    And after that we have seen politicians create situations in which valiant soldiers have been sacrificed just to douse fires. In my course of work I interact with our security people regularly. Most of them– especially the youngsters still believe in the idea of India and re willing to lay thier lives for our country.

    Sadly it is the politicians and the media who are reckless and are willing to turn a blind eye to the terror attacks on our country.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vijay Kumar,

    In all the “sting operations” of this lowly operator, the most important fact that everybody, including the victims, have chosen to forget is that there were no contracts to offer. The Major generals were entrapped with false, non-existent contracts and by offering the prostitutes and cash as enticements. Bangaru Lakshman too was entrapped with just Rs.2Lac on the false premise of a non-existent contract.

    Our media, because it was sold out to the congress party, too, uncritically went about the character-assassination business and made out cases of corruption and bribe.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    The outcome of Cricket diplomacy was *** for tat response from Pakistan. It arrested Indian high commission official in response to arrest of Pakistani driver in Chandigarh who strayed into defence area.

    Why has Vinod (congressmen) not commented on this?

    ram autar Reply:

    Hindu terrorists LIKE U ARE turning India into bloody battlefield

    Rajeev Reply:

    I guess you are just back from waziristan. It will takes weeks for opium to be out of your system. Be patient.

  • Pankaj#1

    @ Parveen,
    Saxena Sahab, as guessed by you and me as well, Dawood Ibrahim was supported in his initial years by this congress, particularly, Sharad Pawar. They were still using shahid Balwa’s hospitality not long ago. This Balwa is henchman of Dawood Ibrahim. How close these gangsters are now, near the Indian powers that be.

    [Reply]

    Praveen Saxena Reply:

    Yes Pankajji. I often get this most sinister feeling.

    [Reply]

  • Vijay Kumar

    @ Saarthak, SHenoy and everyone

    Thanks for the link, Saarthak!

    Seems Rahul Gandhi was indeed the waterboy !! The sycophants, the clowns and dunces of the Indian media who use connections to get posts and favours do everything possible to bolster the (un)royal family…

    Here is a poem in honour of the “waterboy”

    Waterboy, waterboy, where have u been ?
    I have been to MOhali along with the queen :)

    Water boy water boy, what did you do ?
    The media kept applauding me,
    Even when I went to the loo !! :D :D :D

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    THAT SIRS IS THE STATE OF THE INDIAN MEDIA !!

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @vijay Kumar
    why are you so obsessed with the media. you almost behave like a jilted man sometimes. anything wrong between you and ……:))

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ VInodji

    “badnaam ho jis sey desh apna
    woh kaam no hamse hoga …”

    That sir is the reason why I am angry at sections of the Indian media !

    What is YOUR opinion on the NDTV picture of the match which showed Rahul’s picture biger than that of our cricketers and somehow implied that it was his aupiscious presence which was responsible for the victory??

    Would love to have your views…. :D

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Vijay Kumar
    In the middle of his very interesting panel discussion with Imran Khan, Duleep Mendis, Murli Kartik, Viv Richards and Alan Border after India became world cup winner, Rajdeep Sardesai had Mr L K Advani commenting for a good one minute on India’s victory.
    I had no problems with it. I believe that regardless of what we think of our politicians, they have a right to partake in the celebrations.
    It was one occasion where all of us — you, I, Shenoy and even the likes of Rajeev (a compulsive hothead) — could stand up as one. Aawaj do hum eik hain….the song came to my mind after a long, long time.

    vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Vinod Sharma,

    I guess it is everyone’s win… including Sonia and Advani and Rahul. I was only objecting to the way NDTV somehow twisted the whole thing. Anyway, what was ur choice on the day of victory… blue label or Kingfisher?????? :D

    Rajeev Reply:

    Sharmaji,
    I have posted this at other places too.
    The politicians should stay away from milking this win for their political gains. They did same when Rehman won Oscar.
    This victory is for India and Indians. The political use by Sonia/Rahul or Advani is not welcome.

    Saarthak Reply:

    Hehe, loved it it Vijay. Hope you don’t mind if I share this poetry elsewhere, with due credit of course.

    @ Vinodji, it is a very correct obsession that Vijay and others have, when the media of a country instead of taking on the establishment on its massive corruption and brazen style of functioning, toes the line of its spokespersons. What am I saying..you are invited on Times Now panel discussions as a Congress spokesperson…

    I still like the fact that you try to interact with your blog commenters in a witty manner, unlike the contemptuous ways of Sujata Anandan or others who hardly care about comments on their blogs.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Saarthak,

    what you have said here is totally true.

    While Sujata and some others show brashness as well as frog-in-the-well characteristics, Vinodji has the breadth of view essential for a successful career in journalism. Politically we may differ with him, at times violently. But, has shown the likeable quality of laughing off bitterness and rancour generated heated arguments.

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Saarthak,

    Go ahead … share it with everyone ! :D

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Vijay Kumar
    Well, to be honest, I opened a bottle of J&B Rare. Not a delux scotch but good enough for the occasion. Also felt that Gautam Gambhir and not Dhoni deserved Man of the Match.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    On Gambhir, I agree with you. Looks like modest people are always ignored except for may be Tendulkar.

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @saarthak
    I have a point of view that I am willing to stand up for. I will be the way I am on issues that I feel strongly about—- call me a spokesman of A or B. I am high in my self esteem. That is what matters to me— and perhaps every individual at the end of the day.

    [Reply]

    Praveen Saxena Reply:

    Vijay that was too good.

    [Reply]

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    Dear Vinod Sharma ji

    Irrespective of merits of attempting cricket diplomacy, we are happy that our country kept its undefeated image against Pakistan in world cup matches in tact. The Indian win has indeed left Pakistani people frustrated for their unanswered prayers and the fact they could not relish inflicting pain to the India psych which a victory of Pakistan would have caused. However, it is quite important to look at the statement which the Pakistan captain gave on his arrival in Pakistan after the Mohali match. He wondered why the people of Pakistan hated India when the Indian culture has been playing an important part and influencing in the lives of Pakistan people. People in Pakistan view Indian movies, watch Indian TV entertainment shows, play Indian songs at their formal functions, Pakistani artistes get a platform and make money by performing at Bollywood as well as at private functions in India,and the Pakistani cricketers are very eager to be apart of IPL.. Well that was in the real sense a message to people of Pakistan from Mr. Afridi to introspect and reflect on their perceptions of their opinion about India.
    I wont comment unnecessarily on the act of Dr. MMS for having invited Mr. Gilani to visit Mohali and watch the semifinal even before the pains of 26/11 has been forgotten by the people of the country. Because Mr. Atal Bihari Vajapee had also allowed the cricket contacts between two countries revived after so many years. This may have something to do with some type of diplomatic expediency which we may not be able to undertstand. But I still do not approve of this.
    All I can say is to quote that in terms of Pakistan hatred of this country as because a prosperous India is indeed “ a neighbours envy but owners pride”. We feel very proud of our country. Let Pakistan and its people sulk, fret and fume at our prosperity. It should hardly be of any concern to us.
    Regards
    BNA

    [Reply]

  • http://rediffmail.com balakumaran

    Dear Shenoy, rajeev, vijay

    Did VINUU, MUNNU, Mr and Mrs. vatican agents (tehalka) have recovred frm the wednesday shocker ?

    [Reply]

  • B.V.SHENOY

    Vinodji,

    “A manda-buddhi prince, a buddhiheen pradhan mantri and two vipareeta buddhi jokers, mani Sankat and Digvinash, all dancing around the table, welcoming the terrorist Pak PM.”

    @BV Shenoy
    The comments do not befit you. I think you are capable of better arguments.

    Regarding the clown prince, my own feeling is that he is a media creation. Even his own party leaders, if we are to give credence to the Wikileaks, say that he doen’t have it in him to adorne the simhasan, previously made famous by the likes of Nehru, Indira, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rao and Vajapayee. His comments about the LeT being a benign organisation, makes me say even harsher things about him, but I confine myself to say that he is mand-buddhi.

    About Mani Sankat and Digvinash, the whole world, including the American President, knows they are two of the lowliest scums mascarading as saintly seculars.

    Now about MMS. I agree, I can be mild in my criticism, but he is treading on dangerous ground and has allowed his soul to be occupied by “laalach” for the hallowed seat.

    Lastly, the Pak premier, though suited and booted in Armanis, is a terrorist art heart and he deserves the severest condemnation of all.

    I rest my case.

    [Reply]

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Shenoy,

    As I watch the WC final on Tv, I am tempted to request you to send a cartoon of Digvinash and Mani Sankat dancing around the table … :D

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Vijay Kumar,

    I wish I could draw cartoons as well as I write about these congressi cartoons, though I am tempted to try my hand. Let me therefore go back to “verse” for better or worse.

    Mani ek sankat hai kaangress ke liye
    Digvinash ek khatra hai desh ke liye
    kaangress ko sankat se mochan mile ya na mile
    Lekin desh yeh khatre se bache
    Iski duwa karen hum

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    A CORRECTION”

    Vijay Kumar,

    I wish I could draw cartoons as well as I write about these congressi cartoons, though I am tempted to try my hand. Let me therefore go back to “verse” for better or worse.

    Mani ek sankat hai kaangress ke liye
    Digvinash ek khatra hai desh ke liye
    kaangress ko sankat se mochan mile ya na mile
    Lekin desh yeh khatre se bache
    yeh ummid hum karte hain desh ke liye

    Vijay Kumar Reply:

    @ Shenoy ,

    Irshaad !!

    I think you should sing this to all the court poets in the media who cook up situations to praise the royal family !! :D :D

  • http://www.rediff.com Paritosh

    by the way , the journalist d*ckhead Vinod Mehta published his article in the Outlook magazine that India should have had let Pakistan win the semi finals as a “good gesture”

    cannot imagine how sick this anti-India b@st@rd can get

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Paritosh
    Please mind your langauge, why can’t you respond or comment without abusing? Don’t forget that it was the same Vinod Mehta who had the courage to publish the Radia tapes. He is entitled to his views but you aren’t entitled to use the kind of gaalis that you do.

    [Reply]

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    @Vinod Sharma ji

    Here I totally differ from you. Mr. Vinod Mehta might have exposed the Radia tapes, but the sympathy factor towards Pakistan of all the Indian journalists is not understandable. The community as whole(it includes you as well, but it is what you also always profess, is n’t it?) often forgets the crimes of that country vis-a-vis our country and one of them goes to the extent of advising Mr. Dhoni to should have gifted the Mohali match to Pakistan as a goodwill gesture. I do not think it was advisable for Mr. Mehta to have suggested so. After all, it is the common man who is the victim of the terrorists attacks. You editors simply sit in comfort in your ivory towers and easily comment without bothering about the sentiments of the people. That is indeed a pity.
    Mr. Sharma, it is too much asking if I say that you please feel the pulse of the people.
    BNA

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Dr.Anand and Vinodji,

    My own feeling is that Vinod Mehta “exposed” the Radia tapes out of pique and resentment at not being given a padma bhushan in 2010 too. He must also have seen an opportunity to get even with some of his peers, who were involved with Radia.

    As for his suggestion for throwing the match at Mohali, was he not suggesting ‘match fixing’? That, when Rehman Malik was “advising” the world’s top match fixers not to do that at least in this match!

    Praveen Saxena Reply:

    Dr Anand Saab

    We fully agree with your views. Does not the suggestion of Vinod Mehta reveal a bankruptcy of ideas. Does it not show the extent to which the candle brigade is willing to go. Is it not an insult to the game of cricket and our sportsmen? Or is Vinod Mehta watching too much of Rakhi Sawant who says and does strange things to catch the headlines of page 3 ?

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @B N Anand
    What are you differing about. Does Vinod Mehta not have a right to his view. And should he be abused for it the way Paritosh does? Can’t we be civil with each other even while disagreeing?
    That was the essence of my comment sir.

    Rajeev Reply:

    The problem with Vinod Mehta is that his always wants his views to be different from others so he keeps making statements that are laughable. I am of the view that this whisky sipping journos is never in his sense and should not be taken seriously.

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    @Vinod Sharma ji
    Thanks for your response.

    Mr. Vinod Mehta is a journalist and runs the magazine “Outlook” . He is thrusting his undesirable views on his readers after readers have paid him to purchase the magazine. He is propagating his views which are indeed very repulsive. If only he had been a common blogger like one of us, that was understandable and would have been taken very lightly. But a person running a commercial venture and thrusting his views on the readers is totally unacceptable. That is what I say the media is dictated by big bosses.
    BNA

    Rajeev Reply:

    I wish Vinod Sharma too had similar kind of courage as Mr.Mehta.

    [Reply]

  • Vijay Kumar

    @ Paritosh,

    Thank you for the link. I think a generation of mediapeople are sold out to be servile before Pakistan just to eat a few Kababs.

    I saw a nice comment below Vinod Mehta’s article which summed up Indian feelings and I reproducing them here….
    ————————————————————–

    Pakistan only got aggresive with its terror plans when it started winning the cricket matches in eighties which were fixed by it through Pakistani umpires and ball tampering. At that time a servile Indian press and some socialites in BOmbay over worshipped the Pakistani players painting them as Gods and handsome Gods at that.

    Filmstars fell over them and even horsie looking Asif Iqbal managed to break a colonol’s marriage and fly off with his wife.

    This encouraged the smiling cobra Gen Zia to launch terror in Punjab which Benazir reiforced by Kashmiri terror and then terror all over India !! They felt that Indians would totter in real life, while the press would get floored by the Pakistani personlity :)

    Thankfully our new gen finds Yuvraj, Dhoni, Zaheer and Virat more sexy then say Ajmal, Younous, Omar Gul and Razzaq. Possibly your generation lived in the black and white TV age and fell fot its own spiel of thundorous Gods from Pakistan racing in with pace bowling on color TV.
    Good that India thrashed them and won the world cup.

    This would definately make them realise that the world has seen throw thier lies and make them give up terror and jehad…. “

    [Reply]

  • Mohan Ramchandani
  • vijay Kumar

    @ Vinod Sharma

    Sir, what do you think of Afridi’s comments? Just when Vinod Mehta comes out with the idea that we should make Pakistanis “happy’ by losing to them, Afridi seems to have revealed the real Pakistani inside him.

    I think you can “never’ buy love by being servile, which peaceniks like Mani Aiyar and Vinod Mehta want us to be.

    instead a good caning on the bum by a strict headmaster can make an errant schoole boy change his bad habits !!

    And that is what the Indian team did to the Pakistanis !! :D :D

    Ha ha ah !! Ha ah :D :D

    [Reply]

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    @ Mr. Vijay
    Sir, I have posted my comments after reading the statement of Mr. Afridi at HT itself. That was indeed very mean of Mr. Afridi. Over and above this, Mr. Vinod Mehta advisng the Indian captain to should have gifted the Mohali match to Mr. Afridi as a goodwill gesture. I do not understand why these journalists do not understand the pain of the people of the country and fail to read the pulse of the people? Are we so dummy?
    BNA

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    Vinod Mehta just like Kushwant Singh is drunk NUT..Ignore that guy.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    Will somebody shut up this quasi-groomed man. Each time he opens his mouth, he pukes and smells.

    Rajeev Reply:

    I wish, I get a chance to puke over your head so that it can be cleaned of slavery.

  • B.V.SHENOY

    Vinodji,

    Please read Mohan Ramchandani’s and Vijay Kumar’s comments above, carefully. These are the feelings of ordinary Indians. What Afridi has said, too, are the comments of ordinary Pakistanis. Both show you peacenics are fighting a losing battle for the hearts and minds of Pakistanis. You are never going to win the battle.

    I had nothing but warmth and goodwill for the Pakistanis when Afridi spoke like a true representative of the Pakistani people, at the post-match interview in Mohali. I thought he was being gracious in defeat. I thought, despite being a known boor and ganwar, cricket must have civilised him. But, how mistaken I and millions of others were by his fake humility and politically correct words!

    There is also the spectacle of Gilani. When MMS was clapping at the end of the match, applauding India’s victory, Gilani showed his true reaction and lack of sportsmanhsip by sitting with his fists tightly closed and a glum face.

    These are the true faces of Pakistan.

    [Reply]

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    @ Mr. Shenoy
    I was also taken in by the statements of Mr. Afridi soon after after he returned. He changed his tonne under the pressure of extremists. I also thought that he might have matured and become civilized after playing the game of gentlemen. No , I was wrong. Mr. Afridi showed his meanness. Rather than blaming Mr. Afridi, I am aghast at the attitude of Indian journalists who only preach Indian public to be soft vis-a-vis Pakistan. It is not without reason that our country is often labeled as a soft state. It has a reason to be called so because of we people having been indoctrinated so by Mullahs of Indian journalist community.
    BNA

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Dr.Anand,

    you are absolutely right.

    The boorish, callow, ignorant and intellectually challenged Afridi must have taken Vinod Mehta’s advice to Indians quite literally, and he must have believed that Indians, being soft in the departments of head and heart, would throw the match away like he is used to in match-fixing.

    Poor Afridi. The simpleton village bum that he is, he must have felt cheated by the display the Indians put up at Mohali, which must have properly sunk in his thick head only after landing at Lahore.

    Poor Vinod Mehta. After years in the business, that too at the very top of his rag, still doen’t know that nobody takes him seriously (except, of course Nehru Dynasty TV/Times Now) and nobody wants his advice, least of all the Indian team.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    About Afridi and the media’s role

    I think Afridi’s interview was unacceptable in parts —- such as bringing in religion to trash India and sweeping comments on India-Pak relations. A section of the media in Pakistan blew up negative coverage by a particular TV channel to suggest that India engaged in sledging at the national level through such telecasts. These sections showed exceptions as a rule to paint the entire Indian media as bad.
    I objected to such tendentious coverage in an interview with Pakistan Radio. Unfortunately, Afridi allowed himself to be influenced by reactive propaganda on returning home. He should have stuck to the tone he adopted after the match. He has done himself no good by his comments against India.

    [Reply]

  • http://www.hindustantimes.com vinod sharma

    Pl read this to understand how Afridi has hurt himself by the anti-India interview. The article was written before he lashed out at us:

    To Afridi, With Love.

    There’s a lot to be said about the cricket tournament, especially our match against India. And it has a lot more to do with Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Gul’s bad luck, and Sachin Tendulkar’s good fortune.   Cricket speaks to our nation in a way our government …never has.   And Shahid Afridi addressed the nation in a way our president never has – unselfish, genuine, modest. So when Afridi apologized to Pakistan, millions listened and were humbled by the gesture.

    Our eyes filled with tears and our hearts with love and strange kind of sorrow. Shahid Afridi, you need not apologize to the nation. We are proud of you and our entire cricket team! You didn’t bring back the cup, but any excitement, any happiness, any hope that Pakistanis have felt in the past few months is because of your brilliance. We’ve been hearing a lot of “Pakistan needs something to celebrate,” but what Pakistanis really needed was something to look forward to, and the green team gave us that with the anticipation of each game played.  

    The funny thing about cricket is that it can unite the nation through a victory or a loss. It would have been wonderful to go out on the streets and celebrate with dhols, etc, as we did when we won the 20/20 Cricket World Cup in 2009. But even after our loss yesterday, the people of Pakistan, in their state of disbelief, came out and shared their sorrow. Misery loves company. Cars on streets, people driving around slowly, quietly, patiently. No honking, no cursing, no where to go, no where to escape. It was surreal. This only goes to show what cricket means to us and the massive void it fills for our nation.   Cricketers, you made us patriotic. You made us passionate. You made us proud.   And these precious adjectives are some that Pakistan rarely gets the chance to associate itself with.  

    So again, Afridi, your apology is appreciated but not needed. You conducted yourself with patience, grace and dignity, encouraging your own with a smile, and congratulating the opponents with an even bigger smile. You didn’t win the semi-finals, but you won our hearts. Thank you for showing the world we are not an aggressive nation.  

    To Pakistan, I propose this: if there’s anyone who needs to apologize it’s us.   So to Afridi and the team, I apologize for the pressure I put on you to win the World Cup. It comes from my own shortcomings. So lazy and so cowardly am I that I am incapable of creating for myself a reason to celebrate Pakistan. Since as far as I can remember, my patriotism has tenaciously clung to cricket. It is unfair. I know.  

    Pakistanis who thought this was a match between Hindus and Muslims, I’m glad India won. This was  never a battle between nations, or a jehad against Hindus. It was a semi-final cricket match, and if a loss is what it took to be reminded of this then I’m glad we lost. Victory would have only made you gloat over something you had wrong all along anyway. 

    However, if there was one thing I was relieved to discover it was that we don’t hate India. We may hate America, but we don’t hate India. No burning of the Indian flag, no bitter remarks, no threatening reaction. Phew! Just healthy competition and a pure love for the game.   So we don’t hate India.

    In fact, we hate Zardari. What pleased me even more were the numerous text messages and facebook statuses I came across that poked fun at Zardari.

     My personal favourite is, “ We congratulate India on winning the semi-finals. As a good-will gesture, India can keep Pakistan’s prime minister. And if it wins the finals, we will give our president too.”  

    Ahhh, Zardari jokes. They never get old. He’s our scapegoat now. It’s his fault we lost. Somehow.   That being said, think. It’s time we stop asking of our cricketers something we should have been asking of ourselves. Or our government. Lets find ourselves a reason to be patriotic and celebrate Pakistan, and let cricket be a sport, not an identity. If we all just took a little responsibility, maybe our beloved team can finally approach the pitch as cricketers, not as soldiers entering the battlefield. We owe it to them.   Welcome back, boys!   This article has been written by Maheen Sadiq

    [Reply]

    (Dr.) B.N.Anand Reply:

    @Vinod Sharma ji

    I also read this article in today’s HT and had felt vindicated for my comments which I had posted here in these columns. We all thought that there was a turn around and that he has matured after his initial comments after returning Pakistan. These were similar to ones he had made in Mohali after the match, He changed the tone, may be under the pressure of extremist elements in that country. That is a pity for people living in that country.
    I was also taken in by his turn around. But then the Pakistanis themselves proved me wrong and made me to think again. Why our journalists are not sensitive? Have they an hidden agenda for going against the majority opinion in the country?
    But why to blame the people in Pakistan? Who can forget the glum face of Mr. Gilani while Dr. MMS as clapping at India’s victory. After all he proved that he was not a statesman but only a feudal lord.
    BNA

    [Reply]

    Mohan Ramchandani Reply:

    Nice article by Maheen Sadiq. But the problem is that such people are in minority in
    Pakistan. I really do not beleive that any gesture of freindship will ever change their opinion
    about us. What Afridi said is what most of the Pakistani’s believe.

    [Reply]

  • http://- Rajeev

    Frankly speaking I think India deserved such kind of statement from Afridi. We have habit of bending backwards to appease pakistan and were responded in kind by Afridi.
    Manmohan invited Gilani showing his large heartedness, no one said a word about Namaaz performed publicly on ground by pakistani team but this half-educated Afridi called Indians small hearted. What was he expecting India to do? Loose the Semi-finals???

    Afridi represents Jinnah who used to rudely call Gandhi “WILY” whereas Gandhi used to call him “MERE BHAI”.

    Th problem is pakistanis are sore losers and it has nothing to do with religion. It is their national psyche.

    [Reply]

  • http://- Rajeev

    Mr.Sharma,
    Rather than making stupid statements, why don’t you shut me up with a blog slamming SOnia/Rahul for tolerating corruption? You always duck this challenge…You wily old Brahmin

    Bachchu…You brahmins are opportunists..always on the side of ruler..whether muslim or brit or Italian…

    C’mon accept the challenge O wily Brahmin… Janeau dhari…

    [Reply]

    Pankaj#1 Reply:

    Dear brother in arms;
    I was pained by your comments on Brahmins. This finger pointing towards a particular community is very divisive. You must have known that I am very critical of Vinods comments, praising Congress in general and Sonia family in particular.
    Let us not divide people in the name of caste and community, this is akin to Sunni, Shia, Ahmedi division prevalent in Pakistan. Let us not ape them. We are one and Indians only.
    Regards

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    Pankaj#1,
    Please read Sharma’s and mine conversation. He started the caste stuff as he always does, pointing that I belong to clan of Laloo and Mualyam. He meant that people who disagree with high caste like him have to be low caste or OBCs.
    I replied in kind. I am against the caste system and hold the view that cateism has hurt India more than all Islamic and other invasion combined. Mr.Sharma has habit of using his Brahminness to his advantage which I can not take lying down.

    You will agree that hindus are more oppressed by casteist like Mr.Sharma than muslims.

    I apologize if my comments hurt you or anybody except Mr.Sharma.

    [Reply]

    Pankaj#1 Reply:

    Thanks Rajeev;
    I appreciate your logic but as we know that some Indian muslims are hell bent to hurt India, we do not paint whole muslim community with the same brush. It has nothing to do with being coward but evolved human should, now in this 21 century, should rise above narrow confines of caste, creed, community and even nationality. It is going to be a global community in not so distant future.
    I also appreciate your large heartedness in respecting my sensitivity. let us fight this battel against corruption and misgovernence united, with one voice, pending that, using the same language as proponents of crony capitalism and corruption will hurt our cause.
    Regards

    Rajeev Reply:

    Pankaj,
    I hope you are not referring to Afridi’s kind of large heartedness. ;)

    On a serious note, I am greatly impressed by secularism practiced by Bismil, Azad and Bhagat Singh. I totally reject sham secularism of congress and sham nationalism of BJP.

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    You do not just abuse but also tell lies. What I wrote was that people like Lalu and Mulayam are my friends. Where did I pit my accidental brahmin moorings against
    them? Moreover, it was you who stated without being asked that your belonged to
    high caste— whatever that means.
    I am not interested in your caste or your lineage. I am only concerned about your idiom which undoubtedly is backward. :) )

    Rajeev Reply:

    @Senile old man,
    I never tell a lie like you congressis. You people are inherently corrupt and liar. You meant that OBCs and SCs are uncouth and uncultured. Don’t twist words now..bloody you closet racist brahmin..
    Unlike you I don’t flash my caste because I find it as burden whereas you wear it as badge.
    I am concerned about your mindset. Your kind of mindset kept India under british rule for more than 250 years…The opportunists and low moral people like you are cancer to society. You are not only backward in your thoughts but also as a person…you bloody freeloader.

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev
    Tilak, Tarazu aur Talwar, Inko maro jootey chaar. This is your slogan even while reactionaries like Mayawati have given it up. Pakdey gaye tum rangey hathon….closet casteist ho tum. Shame on you.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    Your congress party blackmailed BSP into supporting its govt using CBI. You and Mayawati deserve each other…both are gutter rats.

    [Reply]

    B.V.SHENOY Reply:

    Rajeev,

    Please permit me to give you, as a much elder brother, a piece of advice.

    Vinodji has explained the context in which the reference to caste was made.
    We also know for sure that you abhor our society being divided on caste and religious identities.
    this tu-tu, main-main has gone on for far too long and it is now time to call a halt to the same.

    LET US CRITICISE VINODJI ON HIS BIAS, PRE-CONCEIVED IDEAS AND ON ALL POINTS WHERE WE DIFFER WITH HIM.
    BUT LET US DO IT WITH DECENCY, PROPRIETY, CIVILITY AND GOOD-NATUREDLY.

    BUT, FOR NOW, LET US CELEBRATE OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY OF INDIAN-NESS.
    LET US REJOICE THAT WE ARE INDEED A GREAT NATION AND A GREAT PEOPLE.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    Mr.Shenoy,
    Vinod has always been insisting on knowing my last name so that he can make a casteist jibe to win an arguement. You have read me totally wrong. I am not against person Vinod but the mindset that he represents. He is biased, prejudiced and uses lies to change the topic to suit his line of arguement.
    I’ll not allow these kind of dishonest people to get away with Bull$hit.

    What is so great about being Indian? This country is divided on every possible fault line such as religion, caste, region, language, gender etc. These paid journos play their game using these fault lines. This is what I challenged when Vinod Sharma subtly hinted that low caste and OBCs are the one who are agressive towards third-grade wily brahmins like him.
    He doesn’t deserve any respect even for his age because his behaviour is immature and very irresponsible.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @BV Shenoy
    Thanks for the kind intervention. But I aren’t sure whether it will work. :) ) Best of luck.

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    You are on congress payroll so why would you speak against corruption…
    Profile of Vinod Sharma:
    1. Punjabi – Greedy, liar and freeloader
    2. Sharma – Wily cunning two timing brahmin
    3. Journalist – Paid, dishonest and freeloader

  • http://- Rajeev

    Please watch Afridi’s rant and also notice claps on his comment.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KCnOue3Mxg

    Just for information, it was rumored that Afridi’s cousin was a terrorist who was killed in Kashmir.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    Can i call you Rajeev Y rpt Rajeev Y if you are so particular about not using your full name?

    [Reply]

    Rajeev Reply:

    Call me Rajeev Sharma…No problem..You can also consider me your father..no problem..Caste doesn’t matter to me O opportunist Brahmin.

    [Reply]

    vinod sharma Reply:

    @Rajeev Y
    I would have accepted your offer. But I don’t want to be called Ullu ka pattha by people. So sorry. Go to an adoption agency if you have biological problems of procreation.

    Rajeev Reply:

    Afraid of Sonia…your pay packet will be stopped…Why don’t you accept that you are sonia’s pet dog..already an ullu ka pattha.

  • http://- Rajeev

    Pankaj,
    Sorry for slamming brahmins again but this was meant towards opportunist low-lives like Vinod Sharma.

    [Reply]

  • balwinder sandhu

    @ Pankaj, brilliant put down of this kind of cheap tu tu main main. In a kind way, many of us had gently chided Rajeev on this anti brahminst stance, which is as puerile as the anti hindu anti sikh chants oof pakistani mullahs!!!!!!
    Pankaj- please come to the latest blog on cause celebre- a vigorous disc is going on there, no cheap name calling or

    [Reply]

    balwinder sandhu Reply:

    got cut off, pankaj we would like yr intellect on the latest blog

    [Reply]

  • Jimmy

    Don’t believe everything these media jokers say!

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    Excellent, Vir.
    Public sector transport workers all over the world have got used to having their way by holding the government — and the public — to ransom.

    [Reply]

  • Guest

    Looking at Kingfisher, one wonders whether even the private sector knows how to run an airline profitably.

    [Reply]

  • pankaj#1

    Zia;
    You reiterated some reports or studies. these are US based people but you are India based journo, you tell us, what is lacking amongst muslim communities, which is making them going down and down. please eloborate on those factors. let us hear from you specifics and not some foreign reports. Come on, ready to listento you.

    [Reply]

  • ssraja

    Lack of muslim leadership in india most of the todays leaders r corrupt and selfish these leaders r distroying the lives of the muslims in india.

    [Reply]

    Anonymous Reply:

    @ Raja

    Sir, let me continue the debate we were having in the last blog.

    My first grouse against Islamic belief and practice is that the Quran is just addressed to men. When my sister read it the first time, she commented that the entire discourse is addressed to a man.
    “You can marry two, three or four times… you can cultivate your women… you should do etc etc….”

    In the context, it gives a deep disadvantage to women. That they can only be viewed as a sub text of men.

    This mindset places most Muslims a step behind other religions and atheists who have broken the bonds with scriptures.

    I am not comfortable that my sister’s husband tomorrow view her in this light or for that matter my daughter (if I ever have one) is viewed as a appendage of her man.

    In your reply on the status of women you were trying to point out that though polygamy is allowed in Islam, in practice it does not happen. Well, a wrong is a wrong. There is no point in saying that the law is bad… but since the crime rate is not so high, why change it. And frankly in my experience in Moradabad and in Saudia, I have seen that multiple wives are not rare. That women are perpetually under threat and feel insecure.

    Anyway I am typing between college assignments. Will continue the discussion later.

    [Reply]

    Abid Reply:

    Mr. parvez, pls read the Quran carefuly u will find at many places Allah addressed to both men/women. you pls read the Quran translation in urdu maulana Abulalamaududi with muqtasar hawashi which is so simple in understanding. Regarding the polygamy which is allowed in Islam but subject to the condition that u will be justifide o/w better to have one wife. Tks n Rgds. Abid

    [Reply]

    ssraja Reply:

    sumitji what u r talking about backwardness of muslim community is because of the government policiesand the bureacrates mostly from the rss background.specially not educating them .lets go to the facts what u r india is today because of muslim community .u r top industrialists of this country have made their fortune by serving the muslim countries . today’s reliance industries which has made its fortune by exporting groceries to middle east muslim countries.and hindujas has made their fortune by entertaining the iran shah(the king then).in the 80’s when india was going through foriegn exchange crisis
    the indian muslim who worked in middle east send their hard earned money which helped india’s foreign exchange defict.u r corrupt leaders and industralists what they did for the country they stashed money in swiss banks and other taxheaven countries.what other communities educated brahmins ,gujratis and other communities have done for this country they got educated here by using the infrastructure and sbubsidies. instead of serving the indians they settled in developed countries for their selfish motives.where as the partition is concerned muslim community is not the culprit gandhiji has opposed the division, but the hindu leaders rejected him and he has to leave the congress .jinnah is not a muslim nor he practicesed namaz in his life .he was a secular indian.he worked as sectary for then a hindu party congress.latter some muslimleague members has requested mr jinnah to lead the party with some conditions jinnah accepted.
    both the community leaders want to rule the country because of their selfishness the country is divided not because of the muslims nor hindus .with this division the most loosers r the muslims more than a million lost their lives and other community which suffered is the sikhs who were displaced and lost many lives by this division.and the muslims have lost every thing after partition in india they were treated as second class citizens and in pakistan as mohajirs.where as world is concerned the west has unleashed the terror for oil on muslim countries and blaming the innocent muslims.

    Anonymous Reply:

    I know everyone in the world is wrong, while the Taliban, the LeT , the IM the harkat are lollipop chewing infants.

    Anonymous Reply:

    let us not try to dodge the issue. Can you quote the exact verse literally rather than an intrepretation.

    Abid Reply:

    mr.Raja, polygamy is allowed in Islam but subject to the condition that u will be justifide with them o/w better to have one wife. whether it is in practise or not it is nun of yr bsns. pls be careful next time when u reply to others follow the authenticity. tks. Abit.

    [Reply]

  • Sumit Bose

    Show me one place in the world where muslims statistically stand out as model citizens. In pre-independence India, there were the labourers and watch-men. In UK, where so many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have settled, there are, as a group, worse off than the immigrants from the Caribbean.All across Europe North America and even in Australia and New Zealand, it is the same leit-motiff repeating over and over. There are certainly individual exceptions, but how can you ignore such large numbers all across the globe? The mullahs brainwash the muslims to view this as a conspiracy against muslims, not their own short coming.
    Muslims demand respect, but will give no respect to minorities within their own lands. They are constant source of terror and criminality even in places as Thailand and Philippines, were the normal citizens are so calm and peace-loving. Malaysia is the only country in the world where muslims are doing somewhat better, but it also is the only country in the world to “reserve” jobs for the majority community, and they they are doing it without any guilt or shame.
    Thanks to the minority appeasement policies of the ruling party in India, muslims have developed a sense of entitlement to the wealth being generated in India. But, they dont want to educate themselves, they dont want to live crime-free, Muslims from all over the country supported the Muslim League in breaking up the country, being 24.6% of the country’s population then, they were able to wrangle 30% of India’s land mass, and then over 70% of the Muslims did not leave for Pakistan, their promised land of choice. And now this Muslim wants the hard working Indians to fund the community that stabbed India, with freebies that equates them with all the others who have struggled to educate themselves and work hard day in and out for that.

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    I am rather surprised that my comments have been deleted. I have only tried to get at the bottom of the problem of crying victim hood by Muslim leaders. The community should look inside and see what practices makes them go to the bottom of the ladders in performance indices as compared to say Christians, Sikhs and Hindus and Jews world over.

    There is no point in believing that Muslims are deliberately denied jobs because of religion. Most exams for government jobs have a roll no which does not identify the religion. Bad performance to qualify is due to bad education and beliefs. period.

    Victimhood mentality will only create more crutches. Instead free the women from bad personal law and see the difference.

    [Reply]

  • Abu Ahmed

    Why are all Indian govts pro Hindu when the politician only cares about his/her wealth and power, being the worshipper only of the god of wealth? Because without the Hindu vote, no politician worth his P can ever hope to take part in an election, let alone win one. Indian Muslims too have made the same point but it took them so many years after Independance – now several political parties realise that Muslims of India are as much important to them as the Hindus are – for without the Muslim vote no party can hope to get a clear majority. This is what Mamata banerjee have realised; the same gyan have dawned onto the SP, TDP, BSP, DMK – remaining regional / national parties have to realise the same too. Even the BJP is getting closer to it but is shying away from embracing the same gyan whole-heartedly. Unless all political parties fully realise that without the Indian Muslims contribution to the political beggar’s bowl and so this community can no longer be ignored, no Sachar recommendations are ever going to be accepted or implemented.

    [Reply]

  • Sumit Bose

    @ssraja, please answer the points factually and second them with statistical data. Please, I am no RSS chaddi-walla, I cherish the freedom that Hinduism offers, to be critcial of anything that my rationale and (limited) intellect permits, and when i say anything…it really means everything. I am so relieved and blessed that I am not a blinkered and shackled nuthead, ready to invert logic and truth and accept wild unsubstanciated conspiracies, be blind to the beastiality and brutality chronicled in my scriptures, get into rampages when in a mob.
    tarnish any recounting of recorded facts as “hate”. What is the worth an value of the secular education that has been sqaundered on you, that you are unable to reflect recorded and accepted facts as “hate”. Go and burn out the Bukhari’s collection if you feel so outraged, try your best to put a decent mask for the pedophle, caravan-bandit, mass-murderer, torturer, slave-merchant “rangila ras00l”.

    [Reply]

    ssraja Reply:

    sumitji what u r talking about backwardness of muslim community is because of the government policiesand the bureacrates mostly from the rss background.specially not educating them .lets go to the facts what u r india is today because of muslim community .u r top industrialists of this country have made their fortune by serving the muslim countries . today’s reliance industries which has made its fortune by exporting groceries to middle east muslim countries.and hindujas has made their fortune by entertaining the iran shah(the king then).in the 80’s when india was going through foriegn exchange crisis
    the indian muslim who worked in middle east send their hard earned money which helped india’s foreign exchange defict.u r corrupt leaders and industralists what they did for the country they stashed money in swiss banks and other taxheaven countries.what other communities educated brahmins ,gujratis and other communities have done for this country they got educated here by using the infrastructure and sbubsidies. instead of serving the indians they settled in developed countries for their selfish motives.where as the partition is concerned muslim community is not the culprit gandhiji has opposed the division, but the hindu leaders rejected him and he has to leave the congress .jinnah is not a muslim nor he practicesed namaz in his life .he was a secular indian.he worked as sectary for then a hindu party congress.latter some muslimleague members has requested mr jinnah to lead the party with some conditions jinnah accepted.
    both the community leaders want to rule the country because of their selfishness the country is divided not because of the muslims nor hindus .with this division the most loosers r the muslims more than a million lost their lives and other community which suffered is the sikhs who were displaced and lost many lives by this division.and the muslims have lost every thing after partition in india they were treated as second class citizens and in pakistan as mohajirs.where as world is concerned the west has unleashed the terror for oil on muslim countries and blaming the innocent muslims.

    [Reply]

    Sumit Bose Reply:

    @ssraja, I am so bemused at reading this pathethic inversion of simple facts. It is so abundantly clear that you wear that skull-cap forced upon your ancestor by some maurading foreigner, not over your skull, but over the past centuries the skull-cap is now covering your brain. It is pointless engaging in any worth-while debate with you as you feel every successful person in india owes it all to the glorious world of Islam. Every wrong and every ill of this country is to be stuck only on RSS’s face. Please stop fooling yourself you are making a total fool of yourself.

    [Reply]

    ssraja Reply:

    I know u r the chaddy wala because of that u r speaking in their language.first know the facts then speak just don’t abuse others sir.

  • ssraja

    i said mr rss that the foreign exchange came to india by muslims working in middle east which helped india when there were no reforms no IT industry there were no exports
    then india was in need of foreign exchange.

    [Reply]

  • Sumit Bose

    @Saad, M.N Roy was no historian of any repute, he at the best would be as bad in History as was our Chacha Nehru. Will and Ariel Durant were eminent historians who have earned the resounding approval of Historians all over the world. They have termed the Islamic conquest of India as the most brutal and most reprehensible conquest in the annals of World History. Please don’t pass this entire bunch of marxists and pseudo-marxists apologetic drivel as authentic.You want the real dope, read M.A.Khan’s Islamic Jihad and there you will find the translations of the gory details from the chroniclers of each of those slave scoundrels till our great “freedom fighter” Tipu Sultan. And that will open a real pathway for you to understand how some direct ancestor of yours had to lick the boots of some barbarian and had to “honour” himself by accepting Islam, to prevent his head being separated from his torso and to prevent his wife and children being sold into slavery. I am so bemused to read inversions of truth of the direct descendants of those who had to be traumatized; as if the gory details in the K0ran and the bestiality in the H@diths were not reason enough to debunk this terrible baggage of history, when India was down on its knees under the constant flow of bandits from Central Asia.

    [Reply]

    SAAD Reply:

    THE apparently sudden rise and the dramatic expansion of Mohammedanism constitutes a most fascinating chapter in the history of mankind. A dispassionate study of this chapter is of great importance in the present fateful period of the history of India. The scientific value of the study by itself is great, and the meritorious quest for knowledge is sure to be handsomely rewarded. But with us, to-day in India, particularly with the Hindu, a proper understanding of the historical role of Islam and the contribution it has made to human culture has acquired a supreme political importance.
    This country has become the home of a very considerable number of the followers of the Arabian Prophet. One seldom realizes that many more Mohammedans live in India than in any single purely Islamic country. Still, after the lapse of many centuries, this numerous section of the Indian population is generally considered to be an extraneous element. This curious but extremely regrettable cleft in the loose national structure of India has its historical cause. The Mohammedans originally came to India as invaders. They conquered the country and became its rulers for several hundred years. That relation of the conqueror and the subjugated has left its mark on the history of our nation which to-day embraces the both. But the unpleasant memory of the past relation has been progressively eclipsed by the present companionship in slavery. The effect of British Imperialism is no less painful and ruinous for the bulk of the Muslim population than for the masses professing Hinduism. So completely have the Mohammedans become an integral part of the Indian nation that the annals of the Muslim rule are justly recorded as chapters of the history of India. Indeed, Nationalism has gone farther in effacing the painful memory of the past.
    The practice of seeking consolation for the shame of the present in the real or legendary glory of the past has dressed the Muslim rulers of India in brilliant national colors.
    Yet, a Hindu, who prides in the prosperity of the reign of an Akbar, or boasts of the architectural accomplishments of a Shahjehan, is even to-day separated most curiously by an unbridgeable gulf from his next door neighbor belonging to the race, or professing the faith, of those illustrious monarchs who are believed to have glorified the history of India. For the orthodox Hindus who constitute the great majority of the Indian population, the Mussulman, even of a noble birth or high education or admirable cultural attainments, is a ‘mlechha’-impure barbarian-who does not deserve a social treatment any better than accorded to the lowest of the Hindus.
    The cause of this singular situation is to be traced in the prejudice born, in the past, of the hatred a conquered and oppressed people naturally entertained for the foreign invader. The political relation out of which it sprang is a thing of the past. But the prejudice still persists not only as an effective obstacle to national cohesion, but also as a hindrance for a dispassionate view of history. Indeed, there is no other example of two communities living together in the same country for so many hundred years, and yet having 50 little appreciation of each other’s culture. No civilized people in the world is so ignorant of Islamic history and contemptuous of the Mohammedan religion as the Hindus. Spiritual imperialism is the outstanding feature of our nationalist ideology. But this nasty spirit is the most pronounced in relation to Mohammedanism. The current notion of the teachings of the Arabian Prophet is extremely ill-informed. The average educated Hindu has little knowledge of, and no appreciation for, the immense revolutionary significance of Islam, and the great cultural consequences of that revolution. The prevailing n0tions could be laughed at as ridiculous, were they not so pregnant with harmful consequences. These notions should be combated for the sake of the national cohesion of the Indian people as well as in the interest of science and historical truth. A proper appreciation of the cultural significance of Islam is of supreme importance in this crucial period of the history of India.
    The great historian Gibbon describes the rise and expansion of Islam as “one of the most memorable revolutions which has impressed a new and lasting character on the nations of the globe.” One is simply amazed to contemplate the incredible rapidity with which the two mightiest empires of the ancient time were subverted by the comparatively small bands of nomads issuing from the Arabian Desert, fired with the zeal of a new faith. Hardly fifty years had passed since Mohammad assumed the role of the singular Prophet spreading his Message of Peace at the point of the sword, his followers victoriously planted the banner of Islam on the confines of India, on the one side, and on the shore of the Atlantic, on the other. The first Khalifs of Damascus reigned over an Empire which could not be crossed in less than five months on the fleetest camel. At the end of the first century of the Hegira, the “‘Commanders of the Faithful” were the most powerful rulers of the world.
    Every prophet establishes his pretension by the performance of miracles. On that token, Mohammad must be recognized as by far the greatest of all prophets, before or after him. The expansion of Islam is the most miraculous of all miracles. The Roman Empire of Augustus, as later enlarged by the valiant Trajan, was the result of great and glorious victories, won over a period of seven hundred years. Still, it had not attained the proportions of the Arabian Empire established in less than a century. The Empire of Alexander represented but a fraction of the vast domain of the Khalifs. For nearly a thousand years, the Persian Empire resisted the arms of Rome, only to be subdued by the “Sword of God” in less than a decade. Let a modern historian describe the miracle of the rise of Islam.
    �Nowhere was there a vestige of an Arabian state, of a regular army, or of a common political ambition. The Arabs were poets, dreamers, fighters, traders; they were not politicians. Nor had they found in religion a stabilizing or unifying power. They practiced a low form of polytheism. A hundred years later, these obscure savages had achieved for themselves a great world power. They had conquered Syria and Egypt, they had overwhelmed and converted Persia, mastered Western Turkestan and part of the Punjab. They had wrested Africa from the Byzantines and the Berbers, Spain from the Visigoths. In the West they threatened France, in the East Constantinople. Their fleets, built in Alexandria or the Syrian ports, rode the waters of the Mediterranean, pillaged the Greek islands and challenged the naval power of the Byzantine Empire. Their success had been won so easily, the Persians and Berbers of the Atlas Mountains alone offering a serious resistance, that at the beginning of the eighth century it must have seemed an open question whether any final obstacle could be opposed to their victorious course. The Mediterranean had ceased to be a Roman lake. From one end of Europe to the other, the Christian states found themselves confronted with the challenge of a new Oriental civilization founded on a new Oriental faith.” (H. A. L. Fisher, “A History of Europe”, pp. 137/8.)
    How did that stupendous miracle happen? That has been one of the baffling questions for historians. To-day the educated world has rejected the vulgar theory that the rise of Islam was a triumph of fanaticism over sober and tolerant peoples. The phenomenal success of Islam was primarily due to its revolutionary significance and its ability to lead the masses out of the hopeless situation created by the decay of antique civilizations not only of Greece and Rome but of Persia and China-and of India

    [Reply]

    Sumit Bose Reply:

    @Saad, this reply of yours is a copy paste from 3 separate sources. I also am amazed how the Arabs were able to conquer the Persians; of course the Abbassids turned the tables on the Arabs, but without rejecting that pedophile, necrophile, caravan-bandit, mass-murderer, torturer, slave-merchant (among a few of his qualities).You have not answered a single point that I have responded to, but are gloating about the rise of the Caliphate; what does that do for you, as an Indian? As a pseudo-arab, you cannot even reflect on it as your own. Saad, go and spend a few years in Arabia and you will know how terribly the common Arabs treat Indian muslims, and there are millions as you ever so willing to lick Arab feet.
    Please read M.A. Khan’s book Islamic Jihad, he has painstakingly translated documents yet preserved in the London museum right from Mohammad of Ghori onwards till Tipu Sultan.I bet, if you have any sense of fairness you will be astonished with gory details recorded by the gloating chroniclers , on how they brought more power to Islam and enjoyed bringing suffering and pain upon us Indians, who happened to be on the loosing side at that time. You are a typical product of those terrible times, education has not brought you to a frame of mind to understand your roots. The law of nature is very clear, if you do not understand your roots and are not comfortable with it, you will never be able to spread your branches.

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    I think you will call anybody who tries to get us Muslims out of this evil personal law, our backward mindset, our intention to fight all as stupid.

    You, must be a moron.

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    @ Saad

    life is all about today.

    If you talk about past glories and apply the rules of yesterday… I am afraid you will be like Geoffery Boycott playing 20-20

    No group of people are let down by a few leaders. Its is a collective mindset which needs to change. If yo cling on to a fallacy that everything as per the book and new knowledge be damned, well the state of the Muslims would be as it is today world over. Just lagging behind the world except in places where oil is found.

    [Reply]

    rao Reply:

    islam is for knowledge and change.even in india great changes are coming.there is silent revolution in field of education.islam brought light of education.before that knowledge was prohibited for 90%of indians.in pakistan also education is spreading very fast.turkey to jakarta muslims are more educated and far more civilized than india.in 5 gulf countries they are moving very very fast in field of education.iran is technically far ahead of india.specially their women.

    [Reply]

    vijay ! Reply:

    So why dont you go there and serve them

    [Reply]

    rao Reply:

    millions are already there.

    Deep Bhaduri Reply:

    a few more ar#*-lickers of the Arabs would certainly be tolerated.

    saad Reply:

    hindus are licking the ase of arabs more than muslims.hindu according to their religion has to i lick the ases of money and power.arab or non arab same for them.

  • saad

    ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY
    THE age of Arabian learning lasted about five hundred years, and coincided with the darkest period of European history. During the same period, India also was lying prostrate, under the triumphant Brahmanical reaction which had subverted or corrupted Buddhism. Eventually, it was, thanks to the inglorious success of having overcome the Buddhist revolution, that India fell such an easy prey to’ Muslim invaders.
    Under the enlightened reign of the Abbassides, the Fatemites and the Ommiades rulers, learning and culture prospered respectively In Asia, North-Africa and Spain. From Samarqand and Bokhara to Fez and Cordova, numerous scholars studied and taught astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, medicine and music. The invaluable treasure of Greek philosophy and learning had been burled under the intolerance and superstition of the Christian Church. Had it not been for the Arabs, It would have been irretrievably lost, and the dire consequence of such a mishap can be easily imagined.
    Vain piety and hypocritical holiness induced the Christians to spurn the science of antiquity as profane. In consequence of that vanity of Ignorance, the peoples of Europe were plunged into the medieval darkness which threatened to be bottomless and interminable. The happy resurrection of the divine light of knowledge, lit by the sages of ancient Greece, at long last dissipated the depressing darkness of Ignorance and superstition prejudice and intolerance, and snowed the European peoples the way to material prosperity, intellectual progress and ,spiritual liberation. It was through the Arabian philosophers and scientists that the rich patrimony of Greek learning reached the fathers of modem rationalism and the pioneer of scientific research, Roger Bacon, was a disciple of the Arabs. In the opinion of Humboldt, the Arabians are to be considered “the proper founders of the physical sciences, in the signification of the term which we are now accustomed to give it.” {“Kosmos”, Vol. II.)
    Experiment and measurement are the great instruments with the aid of which they made a path for progress, and raised themselves to a position of the connecting link between the scientific achievements of the Greek and those of the modern time.
    AI Kandi, AI Hassan, AI Farabi, Avicena, Al Gazali, Abubakr, Avempace, Al Phetragius. (The Arabian names are so contracted in historical works written in European languages) -these are names memorable in the annals of human culture; and the fame of the great Averroes has been 1mmortalised as that of the man who made the forerunners of modern civilization acquainted with the genius of Aristotle, thereby giving an inestimable impetus to the struggle of the European humanity to liberate itself from the paralyzing influence of theological bigotry and sterile scholasticism. The epoch-making role of the great Arab rationalist, who flourished in the first half of the twelfth century under the enlightened patronage of the Sultan 0! Andalusia, is eloquently depicted by the well-known saying of Roger Bacon: “Nature was interpreted by Aristotle, and Aristotle interpreted by Averroes.”
    The standard of spiritual revolt against the authority of the Christian Church, and the domination of theology, was hoisted in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The rationalist rebels drew their inspiration from the scientific teachings of the great philosophers of ancient Greece, and these they learned from the Arabian scholars, particularly Averroes.
    The bigotry of the pious Justinian, in the beginning of the sixth century, finally purged the holy world of Christian superstition of the remaining vestiges of pagan learning. The last Greek scholars were forced to leave the ancient seats of learning. They emigrated from the Roman Empire, and sought refuge in Persia; but there also sacerdotal intolerance proved equally hostile to profane learning. Eventually, the derelict science of Athenian culture found a hospitable home in the court of the Abbassides Khalifs of Baghdad who were so impressed by the wisdom of those foreign infidels that neither Koran, nor sword was offered to them. On the contrary, all the remaining votaries of ancient learning, whose knowledge ridiculed faith, and indulgently smiled at all religion, were invited to accept the liberal hospitality of the Commander of the faithful.
    The Khalifs not only took the exiled Greek scholars under their protection. They dispatched competent men to different parts of the Roman Empire with the instruction and the means to collect all the available works of the sages of ancient Greece. The precious works of Aristotle, Hipparchus, Hyppocrates, Galen and other scientists were translated into the Arabian language, and the Khalifs gave every encouragement to the propagation of those irreligious teachings throughout the Muslim world. Schools established at State expense disseminated scientific knowledge to thousands of students belonging to all classes of society,-”from the son of the noble to that of the mechanic”. Poor students received education free, and teachers were handsomely remunerated for their services which were held at the highest esteem. The Arab historian, Abul Faragius, records the following views of Khalif Al Mamon regarding the men of leaning: “They are the elect of God, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties. The teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and legislators of a world which without their aid would again sink into ignorance an barbarism.
    The current notion of the bigotry and fanaticism of Islam loses all historical authenticity when it is known that the men of learning so highly appreciated by the successors of the Prophet, were mostly devoid of any religious fervour, not a few of them holding views frankly heretical; and the general burden of their teachings was the assertion of the reason of man as the only standard of truth. History does not provide the critical student with many instances of the head of a religious order encouraging the “improvement of rational faculties”, as Khalif Al Mamon did. For, the cultivation of rational faculties is entirely incompatible with faith. Yet, Al Manon was but one of the illustrious lines of Abbassides Khalifs who not only encouraged the propagation of scientific knowledge, but themselves participated in it. Nor were the enlightened Abbassides an exception.
    The Fatemites of Africa and the Omminades of Spain rivaled them in political power, material prosperity as well as in the patronage and propagation of knowledge. The library of Cairo contained over one hundred thousand volumes; whereas Cordova boasted of six times as many. This fact gives lie to another calumny which depicts the rise of Islam as an eruption of savage fanaticism, namely, the tale of the destruction of the famous library of Alexandria. One must have a pious mind or credulous disposition to believe that those who took delight in founding and supporting such noble seats of learning, would have callously set fire to the library of Alexandria; that, those who command the gratitude of mankind for having saved its most precious patrimony, could have possibly begun by contributing to the destruction of that treasure. When dispassionate and scientific study of history dissipates legends and discredits malicious tales, the rise of Islam stands out not as a scourge but a blessing for the mankind.
    While books written in the eleventh and twelfth century indignantly detail the shocking tale of the burning of the library of Alexandria, the historians Eustichius and Elmacin, both Egyptian Christians, who wrote soon after the Saracen conquest of their country, are significantly silent about the savage act. The former, a patriarch of Alexandria, could be hardly suspected of partiality to the enemies of Christianity. An order of Khalif Omar has been usually cited as evidence of the barbarous act ascribed to his general. It would have been much easier not to record that order than to suppress any historical work composed by Christian prelates who had endless possibilities of concealing their composition. A diligent examination of all relevant evidence enabled Gibbon to arrive at the following opinion on the matter: “The rigid sentence of Omar is repugnant to the sound and orthodox precept of the Mohammedan Casuits; they expressly declare that the religious books of the Jews and Christians, which are acquired by the right of war, should never be committed to the flames, and that the works of profane scientists, historians or poets, physicians or philosophers, may be lawfully applied to the use of the faithful.” (“Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”).
    Since history began to be written with impartial criticism, the tale of the destruction of the Alexandrian library has either been discredited or subjected to grave doubt. In any case, at the time of the Saracen conquest, the library of Alexandria had ceased to be the repository of the valuable records of Greek learning. Long before that time, Alexandria had enshrined Christian bigotry in the place of scientific knowledge and philosophical wisdom. The character of the contents of the library must have changed accordingly. The pagan scholars, driven by Christian intolerance away from the seat of ancient learning, must have carried away the treasures they valued more than all other things. If the flame was actually lit by the order of Omar, it consumed ponderous tomes of theological controversy which had done immensely more harm than good to mankind. The fire of Islam might have consumed the none too precious records of vain and futile theological disputations; but the admirable ardour the free-thinking Khalifs collected, preserved and improved the valuable records of ancient learning which had left the Alexandrian library before its useless and pernicious contents were put to the flames.
    Byzantine barbarism had undone the meritorious work of the Ptolymies. The real destruction of the Alexandrian seat of learning had been the work of St. Cyril who defiled the Goddess of learning in the famous fair of Hyparia. That was already in the beginning of the fifth century. The Christian Saint would not tolerate that philosophical lectures and mathematical discourses held by a young pagan woman should be patronized by the elite of Alexandrian society, while the pious but incomprehensible sermons of the Archbishop were attended only by the rebels. If he was no match intellectually, he possessed the power to eliminate competition once for all Under his instigation, the rebels, led by a regiment of monks burning with religious frenzy, attacked the seat of Alexandrian learning and, in the name of religion, perpetrated crimes too painful to be recorded and too shameful to be remembered.
    “Thus, in the four hundred and fourteenth year of our era, the position of philosophy in the intellectual metropolis of the world was determined; henceforth, science must sink into obscurity and subordination. Its public existence will no longer be tolerated. Indeed, it may be said that from this period for some centuries it altogether disappeared. The leaden mace of bigotry had struck and shivered the exquisitely tempered steel of Greek philosophy. Cyril’s act passed unquestioned. It was now ascertained that throughout the Roman world, there must be no more liberty of thought…..Such assertions might answer their purposes very well so long as the victors maintained their power in Alexandria, but they manifestly are of inconvenient application after the Saracens had captured the city. For the next two dreary and weary centuries, things remained, until oppression and force were ended by foreign invaders. It was well for the world that the Arabian conquerors avowed their true argument, the scimitar, and made no pretensions to superhuman wisdom. They were thus left free to pursue knowledge without involving themselves in theological contradictions, and were able to make Egypt once more illustrious among the nations the earth,-to snatch it from the hideous fanaticism, ignorance and barbarism into which it had been plunged.” (Draper, “The History of the Intellectual Development of Europe,” Vol. 1, p. 325).
    The works of the sages of ancient Greece were not only rescued, collected and preserved by the Arabs. They were profuse commented and improved upon. Complete works of Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Appolonius, Ptolemy, Hyppocrates and Galen were available to the fathers of modern Europe at first only in Arabic versions, accompanied by erudite commentaries. Modern Europe learned from the Arabs not only medicine and mathematics. The science of astronomy, which widens the vision of man and reveals before him the mechanical laws of nature, was jealously cultivated by the Arabs. With the aid of new instruments of observation, Arab philosophers acquired exact knowledge about the circumference of the earth the position and number of planets. In their hand, astronomy began to outgrow its primitive form, (divinations of Astrology), cultivated more or less by the priests of all Oriental countries, and to develop into an exact science. Although algebra had been invented by Diophantus of Alexandria, it did not become an object of common study until the age of Arabic learning. As a matter of fact, the name of the science has given currency to the theory of its Arabian origin. But the Arabs themselves modestly acknowledged their indebtness to the Greek master. Botany was studied for medical purposes; yet the discovery of two thousand varieties of plants by Dioscorides represented the birth of a new science. Alchemy was a secret, jealously guarded by the priests of ancient Egypt. It was also practiced at Babylon. In a much later period, rudiments of chemistry were also known to the physicians of India. But the science of chemistry owes its origin and initial developments to the industry of the Arabs. “They first invented and named the alembic for the purposes of distillation; analyzed the substances of the three kingdoms of nature; tried the distinction and amenities of alkalis and acids; and converted the precious minerals into soft and salutary medicine.” (Gibbon).
    It was in the science of medicine that the Arabs made the greatest progress. Masua and Geber were worthy disciples of Galen, and substantially added to what they had learned from the great master. Avicena, born in distant Bokhara, in the tenth century, reigned in Europe as the undisputed authority of the medical science for five hundred years. The school of Salermo, until the sixteenth century, was the centre of medical learning in Europe. It owed its origin to the Saracens and taught the lessons of Avicena.
    The distinctive merit of the Arab scholars was the zeal to acquire knowledge through observation. They discarded the vanity of airy speculation, and stood firmly on the ground known to them. That great merit of Arabian learning is decisively evidenced in the following view of its Doyen Averroes: “The religion peculiar to philosophers is the study of that which is; for no sublimer worship can be given to God than the knowledge of his works, which leads to the knowledge of him and his reality. That is the noblest action in His eyes; the vilest is taxing, as error and vain presumption, the efforts of those who practice this worship, and who in this religion have the purest of religions.” A religion which permitted the propagation of such irreligious views, though garbed in a pious phraseology, could not have its origin in intolerance and fanaticism. For this heterodox view, the philosopher, of course, incurred the wrath of the priesthood; but much more of the Christian than the Muslim.
    After a short banishment, Averroes was restituted in his position in the court of the Sultan of Andalusia, and his books survived proscription in the Islamic world. But from their Latin version, the above and similar passages were expunged. Yet, the heretic movements of Europe, during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth century, drew their inspiration from the suppressed teachings of the Arab philosopher; and it was the heretic movement that shook the foundation of the Catholic Church which had held Europe in spiritual subordination throughout the middle-ages. From the twelfth century onwards, until the triumph of modern learning, Averroism was analogous to heresy in the horrified eye of Christian holiness. And it was for nothing that it was so. For, alone the passage quoted above indicated the surest point of departure for the quest of positive knowledge which eventually cleared away the debris of ignorance, sanctified as faith, and glorified as virtue on the authority of theological dogmas.
    In this passage, Averroes stated the basic principle of the inductive method-the surest way to true knowledge. On the preconceived notion of a creator is set aside, and of is made to know him (as distinct from the blind faith in his existence) in his reality through the empirical knowledge of his works, that is, nature, the divine object, recedes farther and farther, until it vanishes Into nothingness,- the only demonstrable reality about his existence; and a religion which promoted that singular quest for the knowledge of God certainly represented the greatest advance of human ideology under the garb of religion. The latest of Great Religions, Islam was the greatest; and as such destroyed the basis of all religions. That is the essence of its historical significance.
    The centre of Islam and Arabic learning was in those very historical regions where the older civilizations of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Persians and Greeks had arisen, clashed and fallen. The positive outcome of those earlier civilizations went into the making of the Arabian culture, and the remarkable Monotheism of Mohammad made its own the cardinal principles of the religion of those ancient peoples. It stands to the credit of the Arabian philosophers that they, for the first time, conceived the sublime idea of a common origin of all religions. Not only did they hold the view, singularly broad for the epoch, that all religions were so many efforts of the human mind to solve the great mysteries of life and nature; they went so much farther as to make the bold suggestion that the effort more reconcilable with reason was the greater, nobler and sublimer. This rationalistic view of religion attained the highest clarity in the mind of Averroes.
    Thus, together with the invaluable metaphysical and scientific teachings of the sages of Athens and Alexandria, the Arabs contributed something original to the foundation of modern civilization. It was skepticism-that powerful solvent of all faith. As soon as criticism challenges credulity, a new light dawns on the perspective of human progress. A curious book, anonymously published with the title “Three Imposters”, occupies a prominent place in the early history of skepticism in Europe. The credit for that scandalous composition was attributed e1ther to the heretical Christian Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, or the Muslim philosopher Averroes. The imposters were Moses, Christ and Mohammad. One of the suspected authors was a Christian and the other was a Mussulman. Religion certainly had fallen in bad days.
    There had been skepticism before the thirteenth century, but no real incredulity. This doctrine and that had been disputed or rejected; but the foundation of Christian faith had never been touched. It was this foundation which was assailed when the idea was conceived that all religions have a common ground. If all religions are essentially the same, then the doctrine and dogmas peculiar to each other should be discarded as pernicious obstacles to the realization of the spiritual unity of mankind. But freed from doctrines and dogmas, religion has no leg to stand upon. Its rationalization amounts to its destruction. The revolutionary idea of the common origin of all religions was conceived for the first time by the Arab thinkers.

    [Reply]

    saad Reply:

    continued………………………………………………………………………….
    Although Arabian learning reached its climax in Averroes, he was but the greatest and the latest of a long succession of great thinkers and scholars who flourished from the ninth to the thirteenth century. A brief reference to the substance of the teachings of the more illustrious of them will give some idea of the revolutionary significance of the learning which owed its origin to the cardinal principle of the Mohammedan religion, and was promoted by the staggering achievements of the “Sword of God.”
    Having established unity, as the terrestrial reflection of their spiritual unitarianism, and promoted economic prosperity in consequence thereof, the new Islamic nation devoted itself to the culture of the mind. For a hundred years, it modestly learned from others, particularly the ancient Greeks. Thus equipped, it began to produce independent and original thought in every branch of learning.
    Al Kandi was the earliest of the great Arabian philosophers. He flourished in the capital of the free-thinking Abbassides, and leaped into fame in the beginning of the ninth century. For teaching that philosophy must be based on mathematics; that is, it should cease to be idle speculation: abstract thought should be guided by precise reasoning, based on concrete facts and established laws, in order to produce positive results. The teacher of this doctrine deserves the great distinction of having anticipated Francis Bacon and Descartes by seven hundred years as a forerunner of modern philosophy. Even to-day there are many “philosophers” and scholars who’ could be profited by the wisdom taught by the Saracen sage a thousand years ago.
    Next to be mentioned is Al Farabi who lived in the following century, and taught at Damascus as well as Baghdad. His commentary on Aristotle was studied for centuries as an authoritative work on the subject. He also excelled in the medical science. Roger Bacon learned mathematics from him.
    In the latter half of the tenth century appeared Avicena. He belonged to a rich landowning family of Bokhara engaged in prosperous trade. He wrote on mathematics and physics, but went down in history for his contributions to the medical science.
    The famous medical school of Salermo was a monument to his memory, and his work was the text book of medicine throughout Europe until the sixteenth century. The great physician’s philosophical views were so unorthodox that even the free-thinking Emir of Bokhara could not resist the pressure of the Imams who were scandalized by the profanity of Avicena. He had to leave the court of his patron, and traveled all over the Arabic Empire teaching medicine and preaching his philosophy at different seats of learning.
    In the eleventh century lived Al Hassan who deserves a place among the greatest scientists of all ages. Optics was his special subject. Having learned it from the Greeks, he went farther than they, who corrected their mistaken notion that the rays of light issue from the eye. By anatomical and geometrical reasoning, Al Hassan proved that the rays of light came from the object seen, and impinged on the retina. There is ground for belief, held by many historians of science, that Keppler borrowed his optical views from his Arab predecessor.
    In the same century also lived AI Gazali, son of an Andalusian merchant. He anticipated Descartes in reducing the standard of truth to self-consciousness. He stands out as the connecting link between the antique and modern skepticism. His memorable contribution to philosophy is better stated in his own words: “Having failed to get satisfaction from religion, I finally resolved to discard all authority, and detach myself from opinions which have been instilled in me during the unsuspecting years of childhood. My aim is simply to know the truth of things; consequently it is indispensable for me to ascertain what is knowledge. Now, it was evident to me that certain knowledge must be that which explains the object to be known in such a manner that no doubt can remain, so that in future all error and conjecture respecting it must be impossible. Thus, once I have acknowledged ten to be more than three, if anyone were to say: “On the contrary, three is more than ten; and to prove my, assertion I will change this stick into a serpent; and if he actually did the miracle, still my conviction of his error would remain unshaken. His maneuver would only produce in me admiration for his ability, but I should not doubt my own knowledge.”
    The principle of acquiring exact knowledge, stated nearly a thousand years ago, by the Muslim savant, still holds as good as then; and the scientific outlook which makes such knowledge possible, is still comparatively rare among the Indians, who even in these days of the twentieth century allow themselves to be imposed by feats of magic and “spiritual” charlatanism, and credit these as serious challenge to the reliability of scientific knowledge.
    Al Gazali held that knowledge could not possess such mathematical exactness unless it were acquired empirically, and governed by irrefragable laws established by experience. He was of the opinion that incontestable conviction could be acquired only through sense perceptions, and necessary truth, that is, casualty. In reason (self-consciousness) he found the judge of the correctness of the perception of senses. One is amazed to find such unique boldness of thought in the atmosphere of a religion generally believed to be the most intolerant and fanatical. Yet, AI Gazali’s skepticism was avidly studied throughout the Muslim world of his tine. His place in the history of philosophy can be judged from the opinion of the famous French Orientalist Renan, who thought that the father of modern skepticism, Hume, did not say anything more than what had been said by the Arab philosopher who preceded him by seven hundred years. The immensity of the historical significance of Al Gazali’s views is appreciated still more clearly when we remember that it was skepticism of Hume which gave impetus to Kant’s “all shattering critical philosophy” that laid a cruel axe at the root of all speculative thought. But AI Gazali’s views were a long way ahead of time. Experimental science, as he visualized, was not yet possible. In the absence or infancy of technology, the nature of objects could not be as mathematically ascertained as the philosophers wished. Therefore, in his later years, AI Gazali fell into mysticism; but his fall was not more strikingly inglorious than of Kant. Objective drawbacks clipped the intrepid wings of the soaring spirit of the Arab thinker; whereas subjective predilection of class interest overwhelmed the critical genius of Kant

    [Reply]

    saad Reply:

    continued……………………………………………………
    Abubakr, who lived in the twelfth century, was the first astronomer to reject the Ptolemic notion regarding the position of heavenly bodies. He conceived of a planetary system, and celestial motion which tended towards the epoch-making discoveries of Giordano Bruno, Galileo and Copernicus. It is recorded that “in his systems all movements were verified, and therefore no error resulted.” Abubakr dies before having set forth his theory in a complete treatise. His pupil, AI Phetragius, popularized his teaching that all planetary bodies moved regularly. Throughout the middle-ages, the hypothesis was valued as a �great contribution to astronomical knowledge. The teachings of a Muslim philosopher, which upset the biblical view of the universe, penetrated the Christian monasteries. Not only Roger Bacon, but his illustrious opponent, Albertus Magnus, also acknowledged the indebtedness to the astronomical work of Al Phetragius in which Abubakr’s views on planetary movement were expounded.The basic principle of the philosophy of Averroes, the greatest and the latest of the great Arabian thinkers, have already been outlined. He lived at the turning point of the history of the Islamic culture. By the twelfth century, the pinnacle had been reached, and the forces of reaction had gathered strength to overwhelm those of progress. Islamic culture was already on the decline.The freedom of thought permitted by the simple faith of a nomadic people, had attained such soaring heights of boldness as eventually clashed with the temporal interests of the “Commanders of the Faithful.” When the positive outcome of Islamic thought, developed so marvelously during five hundred years, was summarized in the highly revolutionary dictum of Averroes that reason is the only source of truth, Sultan Al Masur of Cordova, under the pressure of the priests, issued an edict condemning such heretical views to hell-fire, on the authority of religion. The denunciation of the noblest product of Islam naturally marked the beginning of its degeneration from a powerful lever of human progress to an instrument of reaction, intolerance, ignorance and prejudice. Having played out its historic role-to rescue the precious patrimony of ancient culture out of the engulfing ruins of two Empires and the blinding darkness of two religions-Islam turned traitor to its original self, and became the black banner of Turkish barbarism and of the depredations of the Mongolian herds. Islam disowned its own. Averroes was driven away from the court of Cordova-the home of free thought for centuries. His books were condemned to the flames, if not actually of fire, to those of the more merciless sacerdotal reaction. Rationalism came to be identified with heresy. The very names of Averroes and his master, Aristotle, became anathema. In course of time, reaction triumphed so completely that for an orthodox Mohammedan, philosophy stood for “infidelity, impiety, and immorality.” But the standard of spiritual progress, admirably held high, and boldly carried forward by the Arabs during five hundred years, could not be lowered and trampled under the fury of vain religiosity any more successfully by Islamic intolerance than previously by Christian piety and superstition. Averroes was disowned by his own people, only to be enthroned by those to whom belonged the future. The fierce contest between Faith and Reason, between despotic ignorance and freedom of thought, which rocked Europe and shook the foundation of the Catholic Church from the twelfth century onwards, drew inspiration from the teachings of the Arab philosophers. Averroes and Averroism dominated the scientific thought of Europe for four hundred years.

    [Reply]

  • vijay !

    Saad

    You are quiet a bore. Pretty boring.

    How so you assume that all the scientists and philosphers you talked about were actually Muslims.

    Are Vikram sarabhai Homi Bhaba, Newton, einsteisn, Abdul Kalam, identified by religion?

    In the same manner many of the architects, scientistts you boast about would just be accidently born with Muslim names.

    Get over this inferiority complex that you hav e 1% Arab sperm in your genes so you are superior. That is all claptrap drilled into you. None of the invading armies into India came with women.

    Show me one painting of those times which show women on a horseback. Infact woman on a burka cannot mount a horse. Recognise your true genes and live today as an Indian

    [Reply]

    rao Reply:

    read about them on internet u will find they were great islamic philospher at the same time.their first knowledge was islamic.

    [Reply]

    vijay ! Reply:

    I think you should get over your iferiiorty complex of trying to be a 2nd class Arab

    [Reply]

    dronacharya Reply:

    recently prince charles has said that ..islamic civilization of europe is the base of rennaince and present european civilization

  • vijay !

    @ Parvez

    Beautifully stated man!!

    I am taking this quote from your writing for posting to friends

    ——–”Why do we see our leaders rush to defend this anti-women Muslim personal law? Is it love for Islam?
    NO!
    it is a broom for suppressing women by giving men an unequal right in marriages.
    In case all these leaders loved islam so much, they would have fought for implementation of the Sharia as much as they do for this Muslim personal law. Why don’t we see the Muslim leaders begging that all Muslim criminals in India should get their hands chopped ?
    If Sharia law is no longer required today neither is this Muslim personal law which discrimantes against women. “

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    LEARNING FROM HINDUS AND CHRISTIANS:– child marriages

    There is no harm in us Muslims in learning from people who have done better than us. In the case of child marriage Muslims have a lot a lot a lot to learn as they have to do in the field of women’s rights.

    Some days back an idiotic, foolish and downright court judgement sanctifying child marriages of Muslim girls at the age of 14. As expected all TV Musims– Kamal Farooqi, Sadia Dehlvi and the gang rushed to support this judgement citing Sharia, some chapter in Hadith and the foolish notion that Muslim girls will get “spoilt” in case they are not married early.

    All the Congress, SP. Left and national leaders remained quiet lest they lose votes by offending Muslim sentiments. Just showed their hollowness the fact that they are no well wishers of Muslims.

    Only Kalbe Sadiq spoke up against it.

    NOW SEE THE CONTRAST.

    The Khap Panchayat in Haryana asked for child marriages to prevent girls from rape. Chautala, another idiot like Farooqi supported it.

    BUT MOST INDIANS, HINDUS AND CHRISTIANS AND ALL POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE COME OUT AGAINST IT.

    Nobody is talking that Hindu sentiments will be hurt.

    Wrong is wrong. Whether for Muslim, Hindu or christian.

    WHY CAN’T WE LEARN FROM THEM INSTEAD OF CONJURING UP FAKE VICTIMHOOD STORIES AND DRUMBEATING THE GLORY OF 9TH OR 12 TH CENTURY?

    [Reply]

    Anonymous Reply:

    Parvez puttar khush keeta. One of yr best posts. Well written. Cannot believe however that Sadia Dehlavi said that. Really ???

    [Reply]

    Anonymous Reply:

    Pervez,

    A great post . FYI, Rao/Saad is our old friend Engrich/ Tajender/ Ramavtar.

    [Reply]

  • vijay !

    Wow Dronacharya!!

    I think you need to have a beer and relax. ALl the hatred and falswe history will come out if you dance on Daler Mehdi’s tunes!

    Be liberal.. be free. No book is perfect. Islamic texts need to recognise the rights of Non Muslims, the right to leave Islam, the right of women, the rights of Qadianis and Hindus and CHrtistians.

    [Reply]

  • syed ali

    suppose if her father die when she is 14.marriage will be best option.why u have no heart for millioms of indian girls of 14 rotting in various brothels of india.will the marriage not be best option for her.india 14 years girls are raped daily.usually those muslim girls who have proper house girls get marry at 23plus.same as hindu house.
    vijay awnser i am blme u or anybody.90%of child marriages take place in villages mostly by hindus.

    [Reply]

    vijay ! Reply:

    This is the rot taught to you at the madrassa. A country and state can only move thru laws.

    Hindus have tried to get in a just law that girls get equal rights… though in pracitce a lot has to be done. Anybody who opposes these laws is criticised and demolished by Hindus.

    Unfortunately for Muslims, the opposite is true. The leaders only talk about laws which imprison women and anybody who opposes them is attacked violently. You are just a small pawn in this game … a foot soldier who does not know that the real puppeteer is Hafeez Saeed.

    [Reply]

    syed ali Reply:

    power to women is because of vote politics.hindus always opposed power to women.muslim world women are not burnt alive.like in india.india is the only country where number of women is less than men.moreover hindus always considered
    dirty and evil.
    ur respect for women is shown by the fact the DELHI IS CONSIDERED RAPE CAPITAL OF WORLD.

    [Reply]

    vijay ! Reply:

    Sex ratio in Pakistan is 1.10 compared to 1.09 in India. Not much difference. Radio Mullah has filled your head with propoganda

    syed ali Reply:

    pakistan is also bad but in india it is reaching 8/10.that is why so much rape.

  • rex

    we are muslims we are for one wife 4 in special cases. u hindus are one wife and hundreds illegemate relations.

    [Reply]

    vijay ! Reply:

    WHich is hre special case. WHy do you oppose laws which say one man one wife?

    If out of 100 people10 muslims keep four wives then forty women are gone.

    Rest of the Muslims become frustrated then. You will not understand this simple maths.

    [Reply]

    rex Reply:

    TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION MILLIONS OF SEX WORKERS
    ALL OVER INDIA.

    [Reply]

  • vijay !

    @ Engrich

    Why dont you dress up as a Muslim woman and live like that for a month. You will discover a new world.

    [Reply]

  • dronacharya

    Actions ReplyReply allForwardDeleteJunkMark as unreadMark as readDelete all from senderPrint messageView message sourceShow message historyHide message historyShow detailsHide detailsMusheer Siddiqui4/4/2012 To: m aFrom:Musheer Siddiqui (mssk47@yahoo.com) This sender is in your contact list.Sent:Wednesday, April 04, 2012 1:18:06 AMTo: m a (mssk46@hotmail.com)IQBAL ACADEMY SCANDINAVIA The teaching of the Qur’an that life is a process of progressive creation necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its predecessors, should be permitted to solve its own problems.
    (The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam) SHAKWA AND JAWAB-I SHAKWA(THE COMPLAINT AND RESPONSE TO THE COMPLAINT)BY DR. SIR MUHAMMAD IQBAL
    Iqbal wrote the two poems, “Shakwa” and “Jawab-i Shakwa” (Complaint to God and its Response), in early twentieth century. It was the prime time of his poetic revelation, which is called his third period that began in 1908 and ended at his death in 1938. During that time Muslims in India had almost lost their entity as a nation. They had become the most oppressed community in British ruled India. A little before Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) had realised that the major cause of Indian Muslims’ misfortune was their illiteracy and the lack of knowledge. After a long struggle and much hardship he succeeded in establishing an Anglo Oriental College at Aligarh which later on became a university. Presently this university is a big place of learning and research in India. This university became a source of self-awareness among a negligible portion of Muslim minority in India. However, the masses of the community remained deprived of education and ultimately remained suffering in all parts of life. Due to poverty and lack of resources they were unable to educate their children. Among those who were lucky and got education remained unable to get a job. They remained jobless as all the fields of life and key posts were occupied and dominated by non-Muslims and the British. Such a situation gave birth to the persons like Altaf Husain Hali, Shibli Nomani, Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Ali Brethren, and others who worked in their respective fields to fight for the rights of Muslims. All of them were contemporaries of Iqbal and were among the front-line fighters for freedom. However Iqbal stood alone with his powerful poetic way to waken self confidence in the people of his community. He and his contemporaries (named above) were able to move the masses and carried them forward on the road to get rid of the British rule. Iqbal nurtured the minds of the people and changed the direction of the society through his melodious voice reciting his own songs in a touching way reminding them of their past glory. He was the person who discovered a leader like Muhammad Ali Jinnah and convinced him to lead the nation under whose banner Muslims of India were united and marched towards independence till the world saw a new country “Pakistan” emerged on the world map with the rising sum of the morning of August 14, 1947.
    Iqbal’s poem “Shakwa” was one of his most thrilling poems, which he recited personally in the month of April 1911 at the annual session of Anjuman Himayat-i Islam held in the compound of Islamia College, Lahore. It was largely applauded and subsequently published in the magazines and journals of the country. This poem consists of 31 stanzas having six verses each. In the poem Iqbal has highlighted Islam’s living traditions in such a way that it strikes the very heart of a person. The carefully selected and well-knit words of the poem were immensely effective. They filled the hearts of a deprived nation with new life, courage and enthusiasm. The poem “Shakwa” is a unique example of a complaint to God. We have used English translation from Dr. M.A.K. Khalil’s Call of the Marching Bell, which is English rendering of Iqbal’s Bang-i Dara.
    In the first stage of this poem Iqbal counts the chivalrous deeds of the Muslims reminding them of their past glory when they happened to be the leaders and teachers of mankind. They implemented the rule of God on the earth and brought revolutionary reforms in the states under their control where justice prevailed. Hereunder I quote three stanzas from this part of “Shakwa”:
    Ham jo jeetey thay to jangon ki museebat ke liyeAur marte thay tirey naam ke azmat ke liyeThi na kuch tegh zani apnee hukumat key liyeSar bakaf phirte thay kiya dhar men daulat ke liye?Qaum apni jo zaro-maal-i jahan par martiBut faroshi ke iwaz but shikani kiyum karti?
    (If we lived we lived for the calamities of warsIf we died we died for the grandeur of Thy nameWe did not wield the sword for our kingdomsDid we roam about the world fearlessly for wealth?If our nation had been greedy of worldly wealth Why would we have been idol breakers instead of idol sellers?)
    Mahfil-i kaun-o Makan men sahar-o sham phirayMa-i tauheed ko ley kar sifat-i jam phirayKoh men’ dasht mey ley kar tira paigham phirayAur maaloom hay tujh ko kabhi nakaam phirayDasht to dasht hain darya bhi na chorey hamnay Bahr-i zulmaat men daura diy-e ghorey hamnay
    (We continuously wandered all over the worldWe wandered like the wine cup with Tawhid’s[1] wineWe wandered with Thy message in the mountains, in the desertsAnd doth Thou know whether we ever returned unsuccessful?What of the deserts! we did not spare even oceans!We galloped our horses in the dark ocean.?)
    Safah-i dhar se batil ko mitaya hamneyNau-i insan ko ghulami se churaya hamneyTerey kaabe ko jabeenon sey bassaya hamneyTerey Qur’an ko seeno sey lagaya hamneyPhir Bhi hamsey ye gila hai ke wafadar naheen Ham wafadar naheen too bhi to dildar naheen
    (We effaced falsehood from the earth’s surfaceWe freed the human race from bonds of slaveryWe filled Thy Kaa’ba with our foreheadsWe put Thy Qur’an to our heartsStill Thou complaineth that we are lacking fealty If we are lacking fealty Thou also art not generous.)
    The second part shows the state of decline of Muslim nation. But Iqbal has projected this aspect so beautifully that instead of creating a sense of despair and destitute in the mind it inspires a new vigour and courage to stand up and deal with rival forces. Quoted hereunder are three stanzas of this part:
    Ummaten aur bhi hain un men gunahgaar bhi hain Ijz waley bhi hain mast-i ma-e pindar bhi hainInmey kahil bhi hain ghafil bhi hain hushyar bhi hain Saikron hain ke tirey naam se bezaar bhi hainRahmaten hain teri aghyar ke kashanon parBarq girti hai to becharey musalmanon par
    (There are other nations, among them are sinners alsoThere are modest people and arrogant ones alsoAmong them are slothful, indolent as well as clever peopleThere are also hundreds who are disgused with Thy nameThy graces descend on the other people’s abodesLightning strikes only the poor Muslims’ abodes.)
    But sanam khanon men kahte hain musalmaan gaiHai khushi unko ke Kaabey key nigehbaan gaiManzil-i dhar se unton ke hudi khuwan gaiApni baghlon men dabba-e huey Qur-an ghaiKhanda zan kufr hai ehsaas tujhe hai ke naheenApniTauhid ka kuch paas tujhe hai ke naheen
    (The idols in temples say ‘The Muslims are gone’They are glad that the Ka’bah’s sentinels are goneFrom the world’s stage the hudi[2] singers are goneThey, with the Qur’an in their arm pits, are gone.Infidelity is mocking , hast Thou some feeling or not?Dost Thou have any regard for Thy own Tawhid or not?)
    Bani aghyar ki ab chahne wali dunyaRahgai apne liye ek khayali dunyaHam to rukhsat hue auron ney sanbhali dunya Phir na kahna hui Tauheed se khali dunyaHam to jeetey hain ke dunya men tera naam raheKaheen mumkin hai ke saaqi na rahey jaam rahe?
    (Now the world is the lover of othersFor us it is only an imaginary worldWe have departed, others have taken over the worldDo not complain now that the world has become devoid of TawhidWe live with the object of spreading Thy fame in the worldCan the wine cup exist if the cup bearer does not live?)
    The third part of Shakwa is a direct complaint to God. Three beautiful stanzas of this part are quoted as under:
    Ye shikayat naheen hain unke khazane maamoor Naheen mahfil men jinhen baat bhi karne ka shaoorQahr to ye hai ke kafir ko milen ****-o qasoorAur becharey musalman ko faqat waida-i hoorAb wo altaaf naheen ham pe inaayaat naheenBaat ye kiya hai ke pheli si madaraat naheen
    (We do not complain that their treasures are fullWho are not in possession of even basic social gracesOutrageous that infidel are rewarded with Houries and palaces And the poor Muslims are placated with only promise of Houries
    We have been deprived of the former graces and favoursWhat is the matter, we are deprived of the former honours.)
    Ishq ki khair wo pehli si ada bhi na sahiJada paimaiye tasleemo raza bhi na sahi Muztarib dil sifat-i qiblanuma bhi na sahiAur paabandiye aaeen-i wafa bhi na sahiKabhi hamse kabhi ghairon se shanasai haiBaat kahney ki naheen too bhi to harjai hai
    (Granted that Love has not the former elegance alsoWe may have lost treading the path of Love alsoWe have lost the restless heart like the compass alsoAnd we may have lost the observance of fidelity’s rules alsoThou art changing friendship between us and othersIt is difficult to say but Thou art also unfaithful.)
    Sarey faraan pey kiya deen ko kamil too ne Ek isharey pe haszroon kay liye dil tooneAathish andoz kiya ishq ka hasil toonePhoonk di garmiye rukhsaar sey mahfil tooneAaj kiyun seene hmare sharar aabaad naheenHam wohee sokhta saamaan hain tujhey yaad naheen?
    (Thou perfected the Din on the peak of Faran[3]Thou captivated the hearts of thousands in a momentThou consumed the produce of Love with the fire Thou burned the congregation with Thy face’s fireWhy are not our breasts filled with love’s sparks now?We are the same lovers, dost Thou not remember now?)
    The fourth part of Shakwa is the ending of this poem. Here we find Iqbal singing as a nightingale in a garden praying and expressing his sentiments in the most beautiful and touching manner. Out of these we quote below four stanzas;
    Wadiye najd men wo shor-i salasil na raha, Qais deewana-i nazzarai mehmil na rahaHausley wo na rahey ham na rahey dil na rahaGhar ye ujra hai ke too raunaq-i mahfil na rahaAye khush aan rooz ke aayee wa basad naaz aayeeBay hijabana su-i mahfil-i maa baaz aayee
    (The noise of lover’s chains in the Najd’s valley has disappeared Qais has no more remained longing for the litter’s sightThose old ambitions, we, as well as the heart have disappeared The house is destroyed as Thou art not present in the houseO that happy day when Thou with elegance will come backWhen Thou unveiled to our congregation will come back.)
    Mushkilen ummat-i marhoom ki aasaan ka deMoor-i bey maya ko hamdosh-i Sulaiman ka deJins-i nayab-i mohabbat ko phir arzaan kardeHind key der nasheeno ko musalmaan kardeJoo-i khoon mi chakad az hasrat-i derina-i maMee tapad nala ba nashtarkada-i seena-i ma
    (Make easy the difficulties of the blessed UmmahPlace the poor ant shoulder to shoulder to Sulaiman[4]Make the invaluable produce of Love accessible againChange the idolatrous Muslims of India into Muslims againA stream of blood drips from the frustrations mineWailing palpitates in the wounded breast of mine!)
    Boo-i gul lay gai bairoon-i chaman raaz-i chamanKiya qayaamat hai ke khud phool hain ghammaz-i chamanAhd-i gul khatm hua toot gaya saz-i chamanUr gai daliyon se zamzama pardaz-i chamanEk bulbul hai ke hai mahv-i tarannum abtakUske seeney men hai naghmoon ka talatum abtak
    (The rose’ fragrance took garden’s secret outside the gardenOutrageous that flowers themselves are informers against the gardenThe spring is over, broken is the orchestra of the garden Flown away from branches are the songsters of the gardenOnly nightingale is left which is singing stillIn its breast overflows the flood of songs still.[5])
    Lutf marney men hai baqi na maza jeeney menKuch maza hai to yihee khoon-i jigar peeney menKitney betaab hain johar mirey aaeeney menKis Qadar jalway taraptey hain mirey seeney men Is Gulistaan men magar dekhnay waley hi naheenDaagh jo seene men rakhte hoon wo lalay hi naheen
    (There is no pleasure in dying and no taste in living isIf there is any pleasure, it in bearing this affliction isMany a virtue is restless in my mirror!Many an effulgence is fluttering in my breast!But there is none in this garden to see themThere is no poppies[6] with love’s stains in their breasts).
    After one year of reciting Shakwa Iqbal presented Jawab-i Shakwa in a huge gathering in 1913 at a famous public place Outside Mochi Gate of Lahore City. Jawab-I Shakwa contains 36 stanzas of six lines or verses each. This thrilling poem in a way was a call from God rather than a reply to Iqbal’s complaint. It added fire to the already boiling blood of the nation after Iqbal’s Shakwa, as a result of the Indian Muslims arose with a new life filled with enthusiasm, courage and a determination to change their fate. Inspired by Iqbal’s songs they were united, fought the war of independence and achieved victory. Once again the Muslims of India were a free nation and masters of their own destiny living in an independent country called Pakistan, the new Muslim State appeared on the world map on the 14th of. August 1947.
    The revelation of Jawab-I Shakwa and its compilation took a long time of over one year. In this poem a comprehensive reply to Iqbal’s complaint to Allah is given This poem contains 36 stanzas out of which I have selected nine stanzas which are quoted hereunder together with their English translation;At the outset Allah says,
    Ham to mayal ba karam hain koi saail hi naeeinRah dikhlaeen kisay rahrav-i manzil hi naheen.Tarbiat aam to hai johar-i qabil hi naheenJis say taamir ho adam ke ye wo gil hi naheenKoi qabil ho to ham shan-i kai detay hainDhoodnay walay ko dunya bhi nayi detay hain.
    We[7] are inclined to Mercy, but there is no one to imploreWhom can we show the way? There is no wayfarer to the destinationJewel polishing is common but there is no proper jewelThere is no clay capable of being moulded into AdamWe confer the glory of Kai[8] on the deservingWe confer even a whole new world on those who search.The following three stanzas are in direct reply to the three stanzas in the Complaint (Shakwa):
    Wo bhi din thay ke yihi maayai raanaa-i thaa Naazish-i mausami gul laala-i Sahra-i thaJo musalman tha allah ka shaida-i thaKabhi mahboob tumhara yihi harjai thaKisi yakjai sey ab ahd-i ghulaami karlo Millat-i Ahmad-i Mursil ko Moqami karlo
    (There was a time when this alone was the source of beauty The wild tulip was the pride of the season of springWhichever Muslim there was, the Lover of Got he wasA while ago your beloved this very Unfaithful wasMake the covenant of fealty now with some local oneMake the Ummah of the Holy Prophet a local one.)
    Safah-i dahr sey baatil ko mitaya kisneNau-i insaan ko ghulami sey churaya kisneMerey kaabae ko jabeenon sey basaaya kisne Merey Qur’an ko seenon sey lagaya kisneThay to aaba wo tumharay hi magar tum kiya hoHath par hath dharay muntazir-i farda ho
    (Who effaced false worship from the face of the world?Who rescued the human race from slavery?Who adorned my Ka’bah with their foreheads in Love?Who put my Qur’an to their breasts in reverence?They were surely your ancestors, but what are you?Sitting in idleness, waiting for tomorrow are you!)
    Kiya kaha bahri musalman hai faqat waadai hoorShakwa beja bhi karay koi to laazim hai shaoorAdl hai faatir-i hasti ka azal sey dastoorMuslim aaeen hua kfir to milay ****-o qasoorTum men hooron ka koi chahnay wala hi naheen Jawai toor to maujood hai Moosa hi naheen
    (What did you say? For the Muslims is only the promise of HouriEven if the Remonstrance be unreasonable decorum is necessaryJustice is the Creator of Existence’ custom since eternityWhen the infidel adopts Muslim ways he receives Houris and palacesNot a single one of you is longing for Houris The effulgence of Tur exists but there is no Musa.[9])
    At the end of Jawab-i Shakwa the Response offers a new hope for Ummah and also provides the remedy of all diseases of the Muslims. The following 30 verses (five stanzas) are the essence of this poem:
    Ummateen gulshan-i hasti men samar cheeda bhi hainAur mahroom-i samar bhi hain khizan deeda bhi hainSankron Nakhl hain kaheeda bhi’ baleeda bhi hainSankron batn-i chaman men abhi poshida bhi hainNakhl-i Islam namuna hai bromandi kaPhal hai ye sankron saddiyun ki chaman bandi ka.
    (Some nations in the existence’s garden benefited from their labour areAnd some deprived from fruits and even destroyed by autumn areHundreds of trees deteriorated and hundreds flourishing areHundreds still even concealed in the bosom of the garden areThe tree of Islam a model of flourishing isThis the fruit of cons of gardening efforts is)
    Pak hai gard-i watan say sar-i daman teraToo wo Yusuf hai ke har misr hai kanaan teraQafla ho na sakega kabhi veran teraGhair yek bang-i dara kuch naheen saman teraNakhl-i shamasti-o dar shola dawad resha-i toAaqibat soz bawad saya-i andesha-i to
    (Your skirt is undefiled by the dust of homelandYou are the Yusuf for whom every Egypt is Kan’an[10] It will never be possible to destroy your caravanNothing except the Clarions’s Call are your chattel You are a candle like tree, it its flame’s smoke your roots are Your thoughts free from the care of the end are.)
    Misl-i boo qaid haye ghunche men pareeshan hojaRakht bar dosh hawa-i chmanistaan hoja Hai tunak maya to zarrey say biyabaan hojaNaghma-i Mauj say hangaama-i toofaan hojaQuwwat-i Ishq sey her past koi balaa kardeyDhr men ism-i Muhammad sey Ujala krdey
    (Like fragrance you are contained in the flower bud, become scattered Become the chattel travelling on the wings of the breeze of the rose gardenIf you are poor, changed from speck to the wilderness beFrom the melody of wave changed to tumult of the storm beWith the Love’s power elevate every low to elegance With Muhammad’s name illuminate the whole world.)
    Ho na ye phool to bulbul ka tarannum bhi na hoChaman-i dhr men kalyun ka tabassum bhi na hoYe na saqi ho to phir mai bhi na ho khum bhi na hoBazm-i tawhid bhi dunya bh na ho tum bhi na hoKhema aflaak ka istada isi naam se haiNabz-i hasti taphis aamada isi nam sey hai
    (If there is no flower nightingale music should also not beIn the world’s garden smile of flower buds should also not beIf there is no cup bearer, wine and decanter should also not beTawhid’s Assembly in the world and you should also not beThe system of the universe is stable by this very nameThe existence’ pulse is warm with this very name.)
    Aql hai teri sipar ish a shamsheer teriMerey darvesh khilafat hai jehangir teri Ma siwallah ke lia aag hai takbeer teriToo Musalman ho to taqdir hai tadbir teriKi Muhammad se wafa toonay to ham teray hainYe jahan cheez hai kiya lauho qalam tere hain
    (Intellect is your shield, Love is your swordMy dervish! Your vicegerency is world-conquering Your Takbir like fire for Godlessness isIf you are Muslim your prudence your destiny isIf you are loyal to Muhammad we are yoursThis universe is nothing the Tablet and the Pen[11] are yours.)

    [Reply]

  • Anonymous

    @ Zia

    What do you have to say about Salman Khurshid stealing of tricycles and crutches of the handicapped?

    His threats to Kejriwal?

    It has made me ashamed as a Muslim

    [Reply]

    Ravi Reply:

    Pavez…..what would have been your feelings had the tricycles and crutches been stolen by some one who was not a Muslim.
    Would you have said, thank God it was not stolen by a Muslim??

    [Reply]

  • Ravi

    Parvez

    No one can control someone else, but everyone can control themselves.

    What communal twaddle Salman does speaks about him, not his religion. Islam did not teach him to be a thief or a liar.

    However, how we react to his deeds, and what language we use is all within our own control.

    [Reply]

  • vijay !

    ————————————————————————————————–
    ~~~ WHY CHANGING THE EVIL PERSONAL LAW IS IMPORTANT ~~
    ————————————————————————————————-

    Some time back on this blog I asserted that much of the violence in Muslim societies can be tracked to the anti HUmanity personal law which gives a man four times more rights than a woman

    Syed and some people like rex justified this by saying that the law helps in rescuing prostitutes !!

    Well here is a true story of an evil jehadi who killed innocent and enjoyed life using this anti Humanity, anti woman personal law.

    —————— From NDTV——————

    Washington: The man with the wire-rim glasses and bushy beard, speaking calmly in American-accented English, is familiar from dozens of Web videos urging violent jihad against the United States.

    But in one astonishing clip, recorded more than a year before the man, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by a C.I.A. drone strike in Yemen, the American-born cleric had a very different mission: to propose marriage to a third wife.

    “This message is specifically for Sister Aminah,” Mr. Awlaki says in the video to his future bride, a comely 32-year-old blonde from Croatia who he hoped would join him in his fugitive existence. The woman had expressed fervent admiration for Mr. Awlaki on his Facebook page and later made clear in her own video reply that she shared his radical views, saying, “I am ready for dangerous things.”

    Neither Mr. Awlaki nor his prospective wife knew it, but their match was being managed by a Danish double agent as part of an attempt to help the Danish intelligence service and the C.I.A. find the cleric’s hiding place in Yemen. The attempt failed, but the undercover agent, Morten Storm, 36, a former motorcycle gang member who had converted to Islam, continued to communicate with Mr. Awlaki. When Mr. Awlaki was killed in a drone strike on September 30, 2011, Mr. Storm was certain his efforts had been instrumental in it.

    But eventually Mr. Storm’s resentment at not getting what he regarded as sufficient credit boiled over. He phoned Jyllands-Posten, the second-largest newspaper in Denmark, and told the bewildered receptionist that he had helped track down one of the world’s most wanted terrorist leaders. The Danish newspaper spent 120 hours interviewing Mr. Storm and verifying his account.

    Among the evidence that the burly, red-haired Mr. Storm produced to confirm his wild tale, in addition to the video of Mr. Awlaki and e-mail exchanges with him, were postcards from intelligence agents, an audiotape of a C.I.A agent he knew as Michael and a photograph of $250,000 in $100 bills – money he says the C.I.A. paid him for his role as marriage broker.

    As part of that plan, the suitcase carried to Yemen by the bride, identified only as Aminah in her video messages to Mr. Awlaki, was secretly fitted with a tracking device that the C.I.A. hoped would reveal the cleric’s location, Mr. Storm told the Danish reporters. But a wary associate of Mr. Awlaki’s had her discard the suitcase when she arrived in Sana, Yemen’s capital. She traveled on to meet and marry Mr. Awlaki, but the C.I.A. plan was thwarted.

    Mr. Storm’s tale shows the lengths to which American intelligence officials went to hunt down Mr. Awlaki, a leader of Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen who some counterterrorism officials believed posed a greater threat to the United States than Osama bin Laden did. Their method was a variation on the traditional so-called honey trap, in which spy services use the lure of sex to ensnare male targets. Mr. Awlaki had been arrested during his years as an imam in the United States for hiring prostitutes; his two Arab wives lived apart from him in 2010, and he had asked Mr. Storm to find him a European woman willing to stay with him in hiding.

    His eloquent calls for violence, scattered across the Web, helped radicalize dozens of young, English-speaking Muslims. He was added to the Obama administration’s “kill list” after intelligence officials concluded that he had helped plan the failed bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

    [Reply]