Author: Jawhar Sircar
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From Prophet Ibrahim’s Devotion to Modern Celebrations: Understanding Eid ul Adha
ost of us are aware that Eid ul Zoha or Eid-ul-Adha — also known as Bakri-Id — celebrates the unflinching faith of Prophet Abraham or Ibrahim to God. The Creator had asked him to sacrifice his son, Samuel or Ismail and the prophet thus tied up the child to the sacrificial post and raised his…
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How Exit Polls Devastated Indian Economy
he 4th of June will be remembered in the history of stock markets in India for the biggest single-day fall in share prices in 4 years. The benchmark stock indexes, Sensex and Nifty, crashed by almost 6 per cent on this day when the election results to the 18th Lok Sabha started revealing that the…
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Cultural Capital Without a Crown: The Case for Kolkata’s Modern Art Museum
oday, on International Museum Day, I was invited by K-MoMA, Kolkata Museum of Modern Art, an organisation that was created by the State Government over 20 years ago — to fill up the crying need for a proper art museum. Though I was among the first signatories to the Trust Deed that set up this…
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Walking with Mahavira: Tracing the Jain Tirthankara’s Footsteps in West Bengal
oday, as we celebrate the Mahavira Jayanti, I am reminded of his association with the western tract of Bengal, known since ancient times as the Rarh or Radh. When I served as the Additional District Magistrate of the Asansol-Durgapur belt of Burdwan (now known as Paschim Barddhaman district) in 1980-81, I had visited the ruins…
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From Kolkata to Kerala: A Journey Through India’s New Year Festivities
n Bengal, the New Year’s Day, Poila Boisakh, was originally set by the Surya Siddhanta during the reign of Raja Shashaka of Gour, 594 years after the Christian era. There were other calendars too and the credit for its popularisation goes to Akbar and his astronomer, Fatehullah Shirazi. The Islamic Hijri calendar was difficult for…
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Eid-ul-Fitr’s Message of Brotherhood for a Divided World
amzan or Ramadan, a month of severe self control distinguishes Muslims from the rest. It ends now with Eid-ul-Fitr for community prayers and feasting. It has been recorded by Anas, a well-known companion of the Prophet, that when the Prophet arrived in Medina he found people celebrating two specific days with merriment and decided that…
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The Way the Dice Roll
erging capitalism with the state greases the apparatus of power by lucrative patronage networks that guarantee a piece of the pie for the politically pliant. Anyone willing to bolster the regime becomes a candidate for more generous rewards.” Nothing could sum up better the transactional relationship between big capital and authoritarian rule than these words…
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From Pagan Goddess to Chocolate Bunny: The Curious History of Easter
f Jesus Christ died so painfully on the Cross on this Friday, why do we call it ‘Good Friday’? Actually, the term ‘good’ came from ‘God’s Friday’ or from an archaic translation of the term ‘Holy’ or ‘Pious’. Germans call it Karfreitag or ‘Sorrowful Friday’. This celebration begins the ‘Easter’ weekend and Christians believe that…
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The Man Who Made India Sing Together: A Tribute to Ameen Sayani
ust a couple of days after the sad death of the one and only Ameen Sayani, I stumbled upon a photo with him, taken by his son at the NCPA, Mumbai. ‘August 2019’ was scrawled on it and I had gone there to deliver the Jamshed Bhabha Memorial Talk on Indian Culture. I was his…
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January 26th: When People Were Urged to Celebrate it as Independence Day
he roots of the celebrations on the 26th of January as our Republic Day actually go back to a very significant development in our Independence struggle. Till 1929, Gandhiji and the mainstream of the Indian National Congress could not decide whether to demand complete independence from the British Empire. Motilal Nehru and the older lot…