Sufi music a way for communion to God

Entering the dargah, incense sticks and flowers decorated outside the shrine welcomes you. That divinelyMusic the essence of life brings delight and makes people overcome stress and hassle. There are times when we want to keep work aside and want to join spiritual solace. In almost every religion, music has been one of the most effective ways to connect to god. Music communicates emotion, thoughts and inspiration transcending race, religion and culture, playing an integral role in the spiritual and emotional well being of our lives. Nizamuddin Auliya is one of the world's most famous Sufi saints. Situated in the Nizamuddin West area of Delhi, the dargah is visited by thousands of followers every week. The tombs of poet Amir Khusro and Mughal princess Jehan Ara Begum are also located within the Nizamuddin Dargah complex, and Inayat Khan's tomb is situated around the corner.

On Thursday fragrance of incense sticks and itr get mixed with the exuberant voice of  Nizami brothers. Nizami brothers are the soul of this heavenly place. They add breath to the the week long awaited qawwali which they  usually starts with “ye zami jab na thi, ye jahan jab na tha , chaand, suraj na the aasman jab naa tha  raaj –e haq b kisi pe ayan b naa tha……..allah hu, allah hu.” Qawwalis tend to begin gently and build steadily to a very high energy level in order to induce hypnotic states both among the musicians and within the audience. It brings qawwals into a trance-like state that makes them more aware of their relationship with God and through them people feel connected to God.

Amir Khusro Dehelvi of the Chisti order of Sufis is credited for fusion of the Persian and the Indian musical traditions to create Qawwali as we know it today . Khusro is a legend , he invented  table, the most important instrument used in Qawwali.The word Sama is used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms similar to Qawwali, and in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is known as Mehfil-e-Sama.

 At Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah , life is celebrated in all colours with soft glow of incense sticks and aroma of rose water and itra in air all around. People of different religions visit the shrine with different reasons and hopes. Some come to thank the saint for successes and some do come with incomplete aspirations and goals. They tie a sacred red thread on the jali outside the main shrine as there is a belief that it will help them to make their wish fulfill. Women are not allowed to enter the main shrine, only men can enter and offerchaadar and other offerings to saint.The most mesmerizing thing at Dargah is Qawalli presented by group of qawalls. Qawalli is a popular music form associated with Sufism. They invoke a very emotive voice connecting people with the lord. Otherwise it is a daily routine but Thursday evening appears to be no less than a fare, people head towards dargah for Qawalli.

There are many more fascinating and unforeseen things other than Qawalli at the shrine. There was an old man offering chaai and snacks to visitors before qawalli started. Children from nearby Basti were happily enjoying the snacks and said yaha har jumeraat koi uncle aate hai or hame acha acha khane ko dete hai.

 A fakir offering itra to people  is a common scene at the dargah. Many strange things can also be seen at the shrine, a man with covered face standing nearby was crying loudly as if he was in intense pain. There is a belief that all bad spirits will go away once visiting the shrine. It has been said that urs or death anniversary of Hazrat Nizamuddin is celebrated instead of being mourned because he got the privilege of communion with Allah after his death which he desired throughout his life so his death is celebrated.

‘Idea of mainstreaming’ is weakening our roots.

Any language, which is spoken by not more than 10,000, is not reported in census in India. India is a multilingual country with some thousands of language. Instead of taking pride in our rich linguistic resources we are trying to homogenize the diverse linguistic communities. The ‘Idea of mainstreaming’ is hounding us and we are trying every possible means to realize this idea by choking the ‘side stream’.

Why the government is trying to impose Hindi on this vast multi-lingual country. Imposing Hindi in the name of unity is like carelessly handling the diversity instead of nurturing it. It is the diversity of this nation that makes it unique with the largest number of languages spoken in different parts of the subcontinent. Half of the population of this country does not speak Hindi but the government at the centre (whichever party it is) tries to prove Hindi as the language of Hindustan (India), thanks to the legacy of having most of the prime minister from the Hindi speaking belt. How come people from southern India are expected to speak Hindi? Large numbers of people have died in language wars at various point of time .Tamil Nadu had a fierce battle with the Congress against Hindi imperialism in late 1950s and it had laid the foundation of Dravida movement. They strongly oppose the dominance of Hindi and said they would not accept the second class citizenship in their own country. In eastern part like Orissa, Bengal, Assam and the cluster of seven sisters, strong sentiments for their mother tongue could be seen. They do not speak Hindi. They have their own proud mother-tongue and they all would have serious problem with the imposition of Hindi.

Jammu & Kashmir is a state which largely remains in news for terrorism and militants activities, has the largest number of languages spoken. How many of us know that? These side-stream languages are dying silently. Every fortnight, one language in India dies. Language is a potent force, which helps a community to retain its identity.

As of now Hindi and English are the official languages for the central government and the Constitution of India guarantees state governments the freedom to function in English and their respective languages. But there have been periodic attempts to impose Hindi on non Hindi speaking population. It is important to understand the richness of our languages and the government should try every possible means to conserve and promote them.

The 22 languages that are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution are well known. There are hundreds of other languages which are not even known and are silently dying. In 1961, India had 1,652 recognised mother-tongues, which were narrowed down to about 1,100 well developed languages. Today it is about 800 and there are around 200 endangered Indian languages, which are on the verge of extinction.

There is a great loss of languages with imposition of English. Children at early age of three, four years are forced to learn English instead of their mother tongue which is essential to conserve mother-tongue. The British rule has ended more than 60 years ago but India has yet to come out from the stigma of inferiority due to its colonial rule. The same bureaucracy who had served the colonial power is now serving the national government having undergone no change with dominance of English language in the bureaucratic set-up. The result of Civil service exam 2013 is itself revealing the truth in which top 25 successful candidates are from english medium. Education system in India has many loopholes, the government claims to provide free elementary education to all children. But the condition of government schools in India is pathetic. Except for two or three states, all the Indian states have poor educational statistics. We are proud that more Indian children are in school than ever before, but the quality of government schools has sunk to spectacularly low levels. The children in these schools come from poor families, those who cannot afford to send away their children to private schools elsewhere.  The government needs to show that it believes in securing equal chances for all children regardless of the accident of where they are born. 

The Three Language Formula, recommended by the National Commission on Education 1964–1966, was incorporated into the national education policies of 1968 and 1986. It emerged as a political consensus on languages in school education and was a strategy to accommodate at least three languages within the ten years of schooling. Due to unsatisfactory implementation, it does not prove to be an effective programme. Children are educated in the dominant language-policies that have the unfortunate effect of discouraging acquisition of the native tongue. The Three Language Formula, which emerged as a political consensus on languages in school education and was a strategy to accommodate at least three languages within the ten years of schooling. Children are educated in the dominant language-policies that have the unfortunate effect of discouraging acquisition of the native tongue The kind of linguistic imperialism which the government is trying to establish with Hindi is really threatening the rich languages of the nation. There is a need to understand that it is difficult to learn 3 languages for a child if Hindi and English both are not the mother tongue. English is necessary to learn because of its hegemony all over the world.

Why this idea of mainstreaming is so important? English is the language of gentleman and Hindi should be spoken all over the country to flaunt the unanimity in language and culture. Tribals and people in hinterlands are looked down as uncivilized and crude. Students in Tribal areas of Chattisgarh are not receiving their primary education in their own ‘Chattisgarhi’ language. It is the case in many other states where local and regional languages are not promoted and diminishing.  Sidelining their culture and language and cogently imposing a foreign language on them does not seems to be the right approach of the government. Word ‘Rape’ and ‘sexual assault’ do not exist in many tribal languages, and this shows that they (tribal communities) are far more civilized than we English speaking people. Homogenisation  brings unity is a myth and Indian Government is following this myth since a long time with a belief that the country would be united in a single thread with homogenization and a common language. This is unfortunate that we are trying to impose Hindi and English giving short-shrift to indigenous languages, causing their death. The idea of ‘mainstreaming’ is in no way successful in keeping our culture intact and actually disturbing the proud diversity.

There are communities which met their fate due to identity crisis. ‘Roma’ community known as ‘Gypsy’ and are Nomads living in different parts of Europe and America are original inhabitants of Western Punjab who migrated to Europe and now living in pathetic condition there. They do not have decent jobs and good living. Their language got transformed and evolved according to geography but still certain words are their which are similar to ‘Punjabi’ language.  An Indian woman said “Tu maa praa” to a Roma man in an European state, he replied “tu maa paiyn”. It was surprising to listen words similar to Punjabi from a Roma whose ancestors left India somewhere around 6^th century. They originated in the north-west region of India and thus their language even now has some punjabi words.

Hegemonies are at not merely at the national level but also at the regional level where several languages are subsumed by the language spoken by the majority. Some languages get absorbed into others or marginalised by system of governance and education system. Arunachal Pradesh alone has 90 languages. How many dialects are there is not even clearly stated. There is famous saying “Kos kos pe badle paani, dus kos pe baani” (Every kilometer taste of water change and language changes in every 10 km). After every few kilometers you gasp if you have entered a new zone. 

There is no doubt that there is a clamor of English language all over the world. Moreover it is an essential demand in this globalised world where boundaries are disappearing and the world has become a global village. But there should be proper education policy framework promoting mother tongue at primary level. There are languages that are falling out of use with newer generations switching to other languages for various reasons. There are incidents when people do not even like to claim their mother tongue because of the dominance of English. Languages cannot be preserved by making dictionaries. Languages live if people who speak the languages continue to live. We need a micro-level planning of development where language is taken as one factor.

In almost every country of the world, their languages are preserved and they feel proud on their mother tongue. There is an urgent need to challenge the homogenisation process with the dominance of Hindi and English reinforced in the name of unity and globalisation respectively.   

  

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Young India looking forward for Modified India

India is too big a country and too diverse with undercurrents too strong to be calm without people having hope of a better tomorrow. The Sixteenth Loksabha election had 12 crore potential first-time voters formed 10 per cent of the population.  The impressive victory of BJP emphasizes the fact that voters wanted a positive change, which they found in BJP and to be more particular Modi. It took three decades to get clear mandate for any party after 1984 election.  This landslide victory of BJP is on the promise of good and stable government. Modi talks about jobs and development, two prominent issues among youths.
The style of Modi, blunt and straight (in –your face) and the way he was projected as a ‘vikas purush’ certainly sowed aspirations of ‘vibrant India’ among youths. UPA government was held responsible for series of scams and tattered economy. The national mood was angry and there was anti-incumbency and the people decided to give mandate to the party promising development and inclusive growth.Modi as a political leader has been known for its managerial and strong leadership quality. He has not left any stone unturned to reach 7RCR.
 Modi had a dream to sell and he was wise enough to realize that negative campaigns never win elections. He set the messages talking about development and talked about the issues compatible with the aspirations of the youth who were the potential voters. He was able to convince the masses because of his development model of Gujarat. Creation of jobs and wealth are the top priorities of  youth . Modi on many occasions said that he believes more in governance than in government. Modi government in Gujarat had received more than 285 awards for good governance. Thus the new government under Modi is expected to develop an alternative governance model to deliver good governance to people.
Transparency is an important aspect of good governance which UPA government failed to implement. Though RTI came during UPA rule and Congress never got tired saying that ‘information is power’ but failed to bring it into practice.  Today youths are more vigilant and remain active to check the development going around and thus want government to be transparent in their every action.

Corruption in bureaucracy and administrative machinery are embedded in our society.  Modi showed his tech savvy attitude during the entire election process as he is present on almost every digital platform. The first small step could be the digitization of birth and death records across the country. It is a simple and small step towards restoring the people’s faith because this ‘simple’ action of issue of birth certificate is actually very complex process due to corrupt administrative machinery.
In the last decade of UPA rule, growth nearly halved from 8.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent and inflation more than doubled from 3.8 per cent to 9.5 per cent. Job creation was almost absent distressing youth and thus it is necessary to create large scale job because due to unemployment India’s demographic dividend would become a burden. Clearly country needs a strong leader like Modi who can take strong and effective measures to promote manufacturing sector and infrastructural development which would generate jobs.
Greater investment in education and skill development is also expected. Modi’s vision included creation of 100 new smart cities, opening of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in every state , modernization of the Indian Railways. Modi always talks about making Indian cities as high tech and students would definitely be benefitted with the opening of IITs and IIMs in every states. Moreover Health is an important issue and public hospitals are in bad shape almost everywhere in the country. Modi has been saying continuously to conserve forest and environment, and his recent statement to serve ‘Ganga Maa’ evokes hope of certain policies related to environment and rivers. Women’s security is a vital issue, with the ever rising number of rape cases everyday. In Capital city, women do not feel safe on their way back home from work after 8pm. With strict law and order, safe environment, where women can feel free should be thought upon by the new government for women. The newly elected prime minister also talks of gender equality and women empowerment, so hopes are high for women’s reservation bill to be passed soon. Modi said women should be seen as nation builders and not mere homemakers, and that there is a need to ensure their dignity and safety.
Justice delayed is justice denied and India is unfortunate for denying justice to its citizens in most of the cases. There is an immediate need to set up large number of fast track courts for speedy trial.
Modi has always been seen as a strong leader with nationalist approach, fingers are crossed hoping strong foreign policy and good diplomatic ties with the neighbouring countries. The nation saw the pilot programme of Modi’s foreign policy. The heads of neighbouring countries were invited in the swearing ceremony showed the will of holding good ties with the neighbours.

Internal and external security issues are the prime concern for any government but UPA government did not handle it properly with series of incidence threatening country’s security.
 Modi assured of focusing on 5Ts—talent, tradition, tourism, trade and technology. Youth look at Modi with great expectation also because the way he travelled and struggled in his journey from a chaai wala to 7RCR.
 A common chai wala challenged the dynasty of Gandhi-Nehru family. Dynastic politics has been criticized severely all over and youth get confidence and energy. Economy has already seen the boost, with rupee rising the highest from last August. It is expected that trade relation with USA would be improved. Sports and physical education provide the foundations necessary for the development and well-being of younger people in society. Swami Vivekananda said, “You will be nearer to heaven through football than through study of Gita”. Youth of the country want some good policies for development in the field of sports, which has never been given due importance under previous governments.
The Indian economy is in a bad shape and Modi has not shown any prepared blueprint to revive the beleaguered economy. Now Modi has to prove the effectiveness of his decision making power and smart managerial skills by delivering fair and good governance to people. Youth are aspiring to achieve and fulfill their desires under Modi regime as Modi keeps saying that youth need to be promoted for a developed Bharat, but how he will realise these aspirations is a big question. Another big question is,how Modi will satisfy his friends who are major stakeholders in econmy and at the same time takes care of the needs of the people who have given him the clear mandate to form the government.
 Corporate houses and common men have diverse interests where the former want to earn as much profit as possible and the later want to get their needs fulfilled at a decent rate for instance fuel and LPG prices are expected to be calm down by the new government but how the government would be able to make it is the real question. Now it is high time where Modi government has to showcase its ability to implement all its promises and realise the bigger dream of inclusive growth and 'Secular India' which is the most talked about issue. Modi has to prove his secular identity with his inclusive growth policy and conserving the interests of minorities within country. At this juncture we can hope that Modi with all his promises keeping intact would come up with the Youth commision and facilitates the youth of this country with better plans and policies for better tomorrow.

Digital brigade facilitated long-awaited victory

Political parties have left no stone unturned to attract voters and project themselves as savior of people. Media was used as a chariot to move ahead in the battle of power.  And like any battle one (BJP) stood up as a winner and survivor.  Media showed to people the effulgence in Modi for good governance. The party spent on the dazzling, high-tech campaign to persuade millions of voters that he was the man to lead India out of its current economic and governmental malaise.  Media had been used a tool of propaganda by BJP and other parties, though BJP came first in the race to 7 Race Course Road and thus a big round of applaud to the owners of these media houses.

 The 2014 general election saw a paradigm shift in Indian politics. After 30 years of coalition politics, which had given many unstable governments, the country is celebrating the majority government of BJP, which emerged as a single largest party in this election. While anti-incumbency factors might have contributed to the rise of voters, an innovative PR campaign also helped increase voter turnout. [‘Badhai ho APCO (Aapko)’] Congratulations to APCO for its game-changing role in its clients’s historical victory. APCO is world’s largest PR firm and BJP’s campaign partner. It directed ‘Narendra Modi in making’ and done fabulous job, helped pave the way for 7RCR for its protagonist (Modi).

Good advertising requires competent personnel including a number of specialists to enable it thrive in the ever dynamic and competitiv environment. Prashant Kishore , Chief Manager of entire Modi’s campaign was an important man behind the camera. He kept record of every move and planned every small thing accordingly.  A massively funded media made people choose their leader. Modi brand was sold wisely and widely. Digital brigade was prepared to prepare the ground for projecting Modi as benevolent, decisive and a strong leader who can help economy revive, eradicate plague of terrorism and rend corruption from the country. India felt his presence, whether it was his marital status, his rallies, his selfie and even in his non-presence, it was media which helped him reach millions at a time through various platforms like 3D hologram rallies in which people could have listen to his speeches without attending his rallies.

The 2014 general election is particularly a divisive election and media played very significant role in it. At the same time, media had never been so misused to set the political agenda. There is a lot of evidence about what was played up and what wasn’t and the way things had been structured to make single party game. Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman in their  book ‘Manufacturing Consent’ described the influence of ‘propaganda’ and ‘systemic biases’ in media and explained how consent for economic, social and political policies is manufactured in the public mind. Slogans like ‘Janta Maaf Nahi Karegi’, ‘Abki baar Modi Sarkar’ went viral all over. The way media dwarfed other contestants and showed Modi as tallest among others, it built silent consent among the voters and in this way consent was manufactured by the big media houses. Exit poll is a primary and significant tool for manufacturing consent. Media has grown enormously in the last decade and has reached the voters with a surge of information narrowing down the gap between voters and politicians. The media coverage of the 2014 election started in December 2012 when Narendra Modi was re-elected as Chief Minister of Gujarat. There were speculations all over in media whether Modi would be the Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP or not. Why so much focus on Modi ? Why media was hounding an individual on being projected as prime ministerial candidate of a party? These are serious questions. Modi was projected as ‘Vikaspurush’, a strong leader who could steer the country out of crisis and no doubt it has driven the frustrated voters towards Modi giving clear mandate, creating history in Indian politics.

There are more mobile phones in India today than toilets, according to the latest census data. BJP was excellent in research throughout the election campaign. Thus this data was used by BJP wisely and tactfully. One of the BJP's most unique campaigning tools allows potential voters to listen in on Modi's rally speeches on their phones. Recently it was made mandatory for parties to submit their advertising spends to the election commission to maintain a record and avoid malpractices. An estimate by the Centre for Media Studies puts the total cost of this season’s campaigns is around 3000 crores. This is triple the expenditure the spent on electioneering in the last general election.

BJP's ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ (discussion over tea) campaign, where satellite and mobile technologies were used to host live interactions with people, and became successful in drawing supporters. The social media strategy of the Congress party didn’t appear to be as aggressive. The election fever also witnessed the rise of a number of android games that can be downloaded on the mobile phones. These games had also contributed in manipulating the opinion among youth because in a number of games like Modi Run, the protagonist portrays Modi. Parties have used social media as a platform for direct interaction, where 50% of voters were young and most of them are active on social networking sites. Having an official YouTube channel or an active Facebook page is now as important as holding mass rallies. BJP remained ahead of all parties as it is present on almost every social media platform, on the other hand Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi remained aloof from the micro-blogging site.

A single party proving majority on the floor of the house of the people after three decades would not have been possible if media had not been in the role of facilitator. Fourth estate of democracy played an important role in  the vital exercise of government formation.

Freedom curtailed, books banned for not wooing men

Woman means taking away woe of the man. She is meant to serve men and bear children and whenever think to move out of this tightly woven patriarchal structure, she will be shown the correct path through one or the other way. It is hard to see a woman raising head against men and religion discriminating against women and talking freely on the bodily integrity and freedom.

 Taslima Nasreen raised her voice against the conservative thoughts and hierarchical society where women are not allowed to think beyond a limit. Threatened to be beheaded for her writings by some fundamentalist groups and charged of blasphemy, she continued with her writings and stood firm on her belief. She wanted shariya (Islamic laws) to be abolished and it became the major controversy.

 A medical practitioner by profession ceased her medicine practice and became a full time writer and activist. All her great piece of writings like (Lajja, Amar mayebela, Utal Hawa,Dwikhondito, Sei sob ondhokar,ko) are banned. Readers are devoid of these beautiful pieces of works by Taslima Nasreen. Freedom of expression of a writer has been taken away for the false pride and ego of male dominated society and to woo some religious fundamentalists.

She has to live in exile and could not even attend the funeral of her parents. Her own chosen way of life to express her desires and thoughts became the cause of pain for life long. She couldn’t even breathe in free air who always wished to open her arms and spread her carelessly without caring for society or anybody. In her book Ko, she wrote about her sexual relationships that became indigestible to many. It became a matter of shame or question of ego for the society when a woman who is supposed to hide behind the veil in their society started writing about freedom and equality for women and thus trying to unveil the imposed burden of religion and culture.

How can a women voice be allowed to be raised to that level whose eco can even stir the deep-rooted patriarchy within society? This was not acceptable to the dominating sex and thus her writings were banned and even she was not spared to live freely in a liberal atmosphere. She remained hidden in undisclosed location for a long time, not allowed to attend public meetings; life became even more miserable than before. Her own country doesn’t want to listen her name, her own women (of Bangladesh ) whom she fought for, could not understand her words and got swayed with men who called her prostitute for writing about her sexual relationships. Sheikh Hasina the then prime minister of Bangladesh called Amar Mayebela (my girlhood) as pornography.

She fought against the male chauvinistic society for the equal rights of women and for that she is prohibited to enter her country. Her character was maligned and assassinated for speaking overtly for the cause of freedom and bodily integrity for women She is also lying somewhere in darkness aloof from the world affairs as her books got cut from its readers.

 

Disappearing tolerance seems dissenting liberal ideas

The ability to tolerate is an attitude that Indians claim to have inherited in their blood. This however seems to be disappearing. Books are banned, movies remain unscreened and writers are not allowed to speak in a public forum. Why so? The idea of liberal democracy seems to be hiding somewhere under the pressure of challenging lurid writings or works. Their thoughts and works have no space in our ‘liberal’ environment or democratic setup. Wendy Doniger’s book, ‘The Hindu: An Alternative History’ has been trashed by its publishers under pressure from right wing’s groups. A writer’s hard work, thought and reflection of her ideas has been put aside to appease to the fragile egos of certain groups of people.

 Shouting slogans of democracy and pretending to be liberal cannot be an alternative for a real champion of freedom. If people are not allowed to practice freedom in their thoughts and words then how can India become a pioneer of tolerance? There is a tug of war between different groups, parties and individuals where everyone is aspiring to be on the winning side. They all are in the race of exposing hypocrisy in which everyone is involved in one or the other.  How can a group be so powerful that it can influence the court or publisher for trashing one’s book? It is backed by a political party. Why no other political party then comes to take stand for the freedom of expression? Why does it remain a silent spectator of the entire drama? Parties try all means, even intimidation, to sway people at large on the name of religion.

 M.F Hussain spent his life till the last days in a foreign land after his painting was found to be offensive towards the Hindu religion. Salman Rushdie on various occasions was not allowed to speak on public platforms because that could have hurt the sentiment of a particular set of people. What kind of sentiments do we have that cannot be understood, writers’ perspectives that we allow to be trashed silently. A book cannot damage any tradition or cannot offend any religion by any means. It is the offence mongers who sale such ideas of intolerance for their due interest.

 These are a serious set of questions which need to be answered by the heroes of liberal democracy and those who claim to defend liberal values. This silence would be very dangerous for our own survival because silence doesn’t let us resist wrong happenings. Decency is required rather than dissenting on a piece of work or art. We have somewhere constrained our mind and soul to question those in power and thus let injustice happen.