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Being the Other
- The Muslim in India
- Narrated by: Sundip Ved
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's Summary
'The clouds are moving ecstatically from Kashi to Mathura and the sky will remain covered with dense clouds as long as there is Krishna in Braj.'
These lines were composed by Mohsin Kakorvi, an Urdu poet, to celebrate not Lord Krishna's birthday but that of the Prophet Muhammad. Awadh, the author's birthplace, was steeped in this exquisite confluence of cultures. Sadly, this glorious tradition has been systematically destroyed over the past century.
In many ways, Awadh stood for everything that independent India could have become, a land in which people of different faiths co-existed peacefully and created a culture that drew upon the best that each community had to offer. Instead, what we have today is a pale shadow of the harmony that once existed. Everywhere there are incidents of sectarian murder, communal propaganda and divisive politics. And there seems to be no stopping the forces that are destroying the country.
In this remarkable book, which is partly a memoir and partly an exploration of the various deliberate and inadvertent acts that have contributed to the othering of the 180 million Muslims in India, Saeed Naqvi looks at how the divisions between Muslims and Hindus began in the modern era. The British were the first to exploit these divisions between the communities in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the run-up to Independence, and its immediate aftermath, some of India's greatest leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhbhai Patel and others, only served to drive the communities further apart. Successive governments, whether formed by the Congress or BJP, compounded the problem by failing to prevent (if not actively supporting) tragic events like communal riots in Gujarat (1969 and 2002), Bombay (1992, 1993), Muzaffarnagar (2013), the breaking of the Babri Masjid (1992) and so on.
As a reporter, and editor, Naqvi covered all these events (with the exception of Partition), and in the book he shows us, with acuity and insight, how each of these resulted in the shaping of the discontent of the Muslim in India. Thought-provoking and troubling, Being the Other is essential listening for all those interested in understanding the forces that have shaped contemporary Indian society.
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- Anonymous User
- 20-10-23
A very coherently narrated national tragedy
It's a very beautiful and coherent book about how electoral politics and sectarian forces of post-Partition India have led to the socioeconomic marginalisation and isolation of Muslim Indians.
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- Visitor001
- 09-06-19
captivating!!
very well written, providing facts.
want to meet this author.
wish religion could be the private matter.
Orator is superb making it interesting.
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- Raghav
- 18-03-24
An unbiased opinion!
This book is a must read for every Indian. The author has equally given weightage for his criticism over political establishment. The author has assailed the mentality of people leaving aside political affiliations.
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- Sriram Kilambi
- 17-08-22
A story that needs to be told
While the story is an important one for the subcontinent, I felt that the author was not without his own biases which coloured the narrative. Important conclusions were drawn without all the facts presented to the reader. And finally, I would have enjoyed the book far more if profiles of the leaders that the author interacted with were better fleshed out.
Overall, a book that is important to read. Wish it was a little less imperfect.
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