The book under review is second in the series on sociology and social anthropology of education in South Asia edited by Meenakshi Thapan. The series is dedicated to presenting research that brings out the lived context of classroom and school spaces.
For nearly a millennia, the qissa has been one of the most fecund genres in the written and oral literatures of Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Punjabi and beyond. It can be a short tale, such as the popular qissa of Chhabeeli Bhatiyarin, so acutely analysed by Kumkum Sangari…
Kashmir has often figured in our recent news reports, mainly for the well-known political developments preceded by violence there since last year. Media and academic studies of the region have also increased. But, their historical dimension largely remaining confined.
‘The spirit of blind revenge coalesced with the lure of brigandage and vast stretches of the country gave the impression of a community slaughter house set aside for human species.’
An excerpt from an article published in the Economic and Political Weekly, November 3, 1984 sums up the aftermath when the Prime Minister was shot dead on October 31, 1984.
Fikr Taunsvi or Ram Lal Bhatia was an Urdu language poet and satirist, from western Punjab, in present day Pakistan. Maaz Bin Bilal explains that Bhatia found his name ‘vahiyaaat’ or ‘fake’ and ‘absurd’ and adopted the pen name Fikr Taunsvi in the tradition.
