Latest news with #NizamsofHyderabad
Indian Express
06-07-2025
- General
- Indian Express
From Karnataka to Hyderabad, an elephant named Lakshmi will lead today's Muharram procession in Old City
After travelling over 500 kilometres, when Lakshmi the elephant reached Hyderabad's Old City, a long queue of onlookers, mostly children carrying bananas, waited eagerly. Lakshmi had come from Sri Karibasaveshwara Mutt in Horapete, Karnataka's Tumkur district, to participate in Ashura, the 10th day of the month of Muharram. Muharram is a period of mourning that commemorates the death of Imam Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet, in the Battle of Karbala. Every year in Hyderabad, a procession led by an elephant on which an Alam is mounted leaves Bibi-ka-Alawa, the ashoorkhana in Dabeerpura, and reaches Ilahi Masjid accompanied by mourners. The Alam – a long plaque made of gold and studded with diamonds – from the Ashoorkhana, a place of worship, is believed to be blessed. This year, 32-year-old Lakshmi will carry the Alam during the procession. 'We are grateful that Lakshmi is part of the procession this year. Here, anyone is welcome,' Mirza Riyaz Ul Hassan Effendi, who travelled with the elephant from Tumkur to Hyderabad, told The Indian Express. Effendi is the AIMIM's MLC entrusted by the Congress-ruled state government to accompany the elephant. Lakhsmi is in the custody of the state of Telangana during its five-day stay in Hyderabad. Its mahout Syed Salim said, 'It is a very friendly elephant and enjoys the company of children. They, too, love giving it food.' Lakshmi eats 250 kg a day – mostly fruits, sugarcane, boiled lentils and rice. 'It's feasting time for Lakshmi now,' Salim said. Not long ago, during the time of the Nizams of Hyderabad, the procession was led by elephants from Hyderabad. 'Those elephants were the Nizam's. Till the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan, the tradition of the Nizam's elephant leading the procession with the Alam mounted on them continued,' said Mohammed Mirza Asgar Hadi, a young onlooker interested in the Alam's history. In the Bibi-ka-Alawa, there are photographs of Osman Ali Khan with the Alam-carrying elephants. 'In recent years, the state government and AIMIM took the lead in getting the elephants for the procession,' Hadi said. It is not the first time an elephant from Karnataka has come to Hyderabad for Muharram. In 2023, an elephant named Madhuri from the neighbouring state led the procession. In 2024, it was Rupawati, an elephant from Davanagere. Lakshmi will remain with the Telangana state government for four more days. 'It will be bathed, fed and looked after very well,' said Salim, the mahout. 'Here in Hyderabad, the procession is a community affair,' Hadi said. Among those who gave bananas to Lakshmi was Divya, a 45-year-old who takes the blessings of elephants in the procession every year. 'It is auspicious,' Divya said.
Deccan Herald
03-07-2025
- General
- Deccan Herald
An enduring fortress of stone and history
Shahabad is a historical town about 26 km from Kalaburagi, where the two major rivers, Kagina and Bhima, flow. Old Shahabad was once a major administrative and cultural centre during the Bahmani Sultanate. .It also served as a sub-divisional administrative hub under the Nizams of Hyderabad, governing nearly 300 villages. In order to preserve the originality of Old Shahabad, a new township, New Shahabad, was developed around 3.5 km away, primarily due to the establishment of a railway station. .Shahabad is especially notable for its limestone, widely known as Shahabad stone, which comes in different shades such as yellow and grey, each possessing a distinctive visual in many nearby villages are built using this stone. The tradition of using limestone blocks for building construction in this region spans centuries. The stones have been used by various historical dynasties, including the Mauryas of Kanaganahalli (notably for the Ashoka-era stupa), the Rashtrakutas (in Malkhed Fort), the Bahmanis (in Shahabad Fort), and the Nizams in their palaces in Kalaburagi..A 14th-century fort, locally known as gadi, is a rare and historically significant example of early Shahabad stone architecture. The Shahabad Fort was built during the reign of the Bahmani rulers, sometime between 1397 and 1422 AD. The fort is one of the lesser-known but important regional monuments from the Bahmani period. Shahabad, along with other towns, formed a network of strategic settlements that were regularly used by the Bahmani Sultans for military campaigns. .When this ancient structure is compared to the recently constructed houses in the area, the basic construction method remains surprisingly similar. Limestone blocks are carefully stacked and aligned to form solid structural walls. The fort itself contains a row of gun slits embedded into the walls — an early form of defensive architecture. The fort features four watchtowers: Two cylindrical towers at the main entrance and two square-shaped towers at the rear. .The upper level of the bastions includes tapering three-layered stone supports that provide both functional overhang and architectural elegance. The western wall and its corresponding bastion remain relatively intact. The fort's layout is irregular, suggesting it may have been expanded over time without a fixed design plan. .At the southeast corner of the structure stands a square bastion, while the rear exit of the fort includes a small wooden door topped by a large stone arch. Once a thriving seat of local governance and military strength, the fort has now deteriorated and, regrettably, is often used as a dumping ground. .The eastern wall, connected to a bastion, is in particularly poor condition, though the top of the bastion has somehow endured. A portion of the fort compound is currently occupied by a private the walls of the fort lies a mosque known locally as the Gadi ki saat sutun Shahi Jama Masjid, constructed using locally quarried white stone. Although not widely documented in scholarly records, this mosque is an important religious structure preserved by the local the masjid is supported by 32 intricately designed pillars and 28 arches. Each arch displays a unique style, inspired by Persian and Turkish architectural traditions, indicating the cultural exchanges with these regions during the Bahmani roof of the mosque includes 21 domes. The front elevation features chajjas (stone eaves) attached to the roof, supported by stone slabs. These designs follow the Indo-Islamic architectural tradition and are also seen in older homes throughout the historic fort and its mosque currently do not fall under the protection or maintenance of any official heritage this, the structure remains an example of regional fort architecture, blending defensive engineering with cultural and religious heritage. With proper support, particularly from the State Archaeology Department, this neglected monument could be preserved, restored, and recognised as a valuable piece of Karnataka's historical and architectural legacy.
Hindustan Times
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
OTTplay Bails And Banter Lucknow vs Hyderabad Pre-Match Analysis
The Nawabs of Lucknow face off against the Nizams of Hyderabad tonight - who will emerge victorious? OTTplay Presents Bails & Banter Powered by Dafa News Your ultimate companion for IPL cricket analysis! Join cricket experts as they break down team strategies, dissect key moments, and discuss the perfect playing XI. Catch them LIVE every match day: 2:00 PM for afternoon matches 5:30 PM for evening matches Stay ahead of the game with Bails & Banter! Follow us on Instagram:
Scroll.in
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Why Marxism has lost its appeal for Indian Muslims
One of the most recognised statements of Karl Marx pertains to religion being the 'opium of the people'. This is understood as exemplifying his criticism of religion as a tool of oppression or a form of delusion. However, the less famous sentence preceding this one says, 'Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions.' Marx's metaphor was both empathetic and critical. In one of his earlier works he sees religious identity as socially conditioned, and its persistence as being materially rooted. While not celebratory of religion, Marx recognised that religion could potentially serve as a form of resistance. It is this possibility of religious identity that we see in the engagement of Indian Muslim intellectual traditions with Marx's explanations of oppression and resistance, during the colonial rule and in post-colonial India. Marx and India's Muslim past Marx had a deep interest in India. As a scholar of his time he remained orientalist in his approach, perhaps also an outcome of the sources he relied upon. These sources were deeply focused on Muslim rule – often presenting it as both despotic and advanced, compared to 'Hindu antiquity' or tribal societies. The Mughal empire, in particular, was central to British justifications for conquest, often presented as a corrupt but once-glorious civilisation that the British were now 'reforming'. Critical of colonialism, especially the oppression and violence of the East India Company, Marx still thought within Enlightenment and Eurocentric frameworks. In his Notes on Indian History (which he did not intend to publish), Karl Marx not only focused on the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, but also devoted substantial attention to later Muslim rulers such as Tipu Sultan of Mysore, the Nawabs of Awadh and the Nizams of Hyderabad. This reinforces the fact that Marx's interest in Muslim regimes in India was not confined to the canonical empires, but extended to regional powers who confronted British colonial expansion –especially those that offered military or political resistance. From Marx's 19th-century perspective, Muslim dynasties were the dominant political actors in India for nearly 600 years. Any serious historical account would necessarily foreground this period. He was broadly interested in how various empires extracted surplus, managed land and labour, and structured the economy. He paid close attention to Mughal land revenue systems (like jagirdari), which allowed him to examine pre-capitalist modes of surplus extraction. He also observed the weakening of centralised authority, internal rebellion, and the shift to British colonial dominance through East India Company's military-financial interventions. Marx followed the Indian Rebellion of 1857 closely. In his articles published in The New York Daily Tribune he did not emphasise religious identities explicitly, but reframed some of the Eurocentric narratives. ' The First Indian War of Independence' is the name of the book by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels about revolt of 1857. — ADITYA KRISHNA (@adityakrishnabg) May 5, 2023 Muslim modernists During the second half of 19th century, Indian Muslim reformers and modernists like Sayyid Ahmad Khan, attempted to reinterpret Islamic teachings in light of rationality and scientific laws of nature. This prompted his detractors to label him 'nechari'. Though not a Marxist, Syed was influenced by the intellectual currents that included Marxist ideas on materialism and social progress. As they navigated the ideological influence of Western colonial powers and their own religious traditions, Indian Muslim intellectuals, particularly those engaging in anti-colonial activities found Marx's criticism of colonialism influential. Marxist thought was propagated in Urdu literary circles through Urdu translations of Marx's writings and other Marxists texts by Indian Muslim intellectuals and leftist activists. Prominent Indian Muslim intellectuals such as Maulana Azad had to contend with the rise of Marxism among the youth. Azad incorporated elements of Marxist thinking in his analysis of colonialism and its effects on Indian society, including the Muslim community. In fact, a serialised translation of the Communist Manifesto was published in his weekly newspaper Al-Hilal. Allama Iqbal, the philosopher-poet of South Asian Islam, was deeply ambivalent about Marx. He admired Marx's critique of capitalism and colonialism but he criticised Marx's materialism and rejection of spirituality. In his poem Lenin, Khuda ke Huzoor Mein (appearing before God), Iqbal imagines Lenin complaining to God about capitalism and European modernity using a Marxist idiom. Iqbal though makes Lenin compensate for his perception that Marxism ignores the soul and spirituality even as he approves of its attempt to fix the injustice in the world. Play Muslim socialism During the I World War many Indian Muslims who participated in the Khilafat movement and the defence of the Ottoman Empire in Central Asia and Turkey were disillusioned by the idea of Islamic unity as a political force or Pan-Islamism. The search for anti-colonial solidarity, led some of them to Bolshevism. Soviet Union's anti-imperialist stance and its overtures to colonised Muslims took them to Tashkent. It was at the Communist International that early Muslim socialism emerged. Historians like have argued that shift was driven more by political pragmatism and anti-colonial emotion than by doctrinal Marxism. Even as the motivation may have been instrumental, evidently Marxism and Islamic thought were not impossible to blend. This is perhaps best exemplified in the politics and political expression of Maulana Hasrat Mohani. Mohani was one of the founders of Communist Party of India, he coined the slogan 'Inquilab Zindabad' or Long Live the Revolution, and was a popular cultural figure. Even as he experimented with an array of party affiliations he remained rooted in socialist disdain for capitalist exploitation. Mohani was not a votary of Gandhi's moderate methods to resist the colonial rule. His advocacy and use of khadi were more a blend of his radical anti-colonial economic analysis and Islamic ethics of simplicity and austerity, than the influence of Gandhi's charisma. Marxist ideas contributed to the anti-colonial struggle also by effectively uniting various Indian communities, including Muslims. Notably, during the independence movement, figures like Subhas Chandra Bose and other leftist leaders sought to bridge the gap between Muslim and non-Muslim communities by promoting an anti-colonial ideology and solidarity over religious differences. Marxist aesthetics The mixing of Islamic and Marxist aesthetics by Muslim poets, writers, intellectuals and activists is a part of long and continuing history of intellectual dialogue between Islamic and Marxist thought not only in India but in other parts of the Muslim world around anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggle. This history includes Communist parties and groups playing important roles in anticolonial movements in Sudan, Algeria, Egypt and Palestine. It consists of Marxists reinterpretation of Shia martyrdom as revolutionary resistance in Iran. It includes Ali Shariati synthesising Shia theology, framing early Islam especially under Imam Ali as proto-socialist. Frantz Fanon noted that Islam functioned as a 'people's religion' against French settler colonialism which blended with Marxist frameworks guiding much of the post-independence ideological makeup in Algeria. Many Muslim feminists like Fatima Mernissi and Nadje Al-Ali have used historical-materialist and political-economic methods – shifting the focus from 'Islam as a problem' to material conditions and power structures. Inspired by a blend of Islamic thought and a Marxism-inflected critique of Western modernity, Ziauddin Sardar advocated for decolonial futures rooted in pluralism and ethical justice. In his explorations of global capitalism and cultural resistance, Marxist critic and philosopher Fredric Jameson has held that Islam represents one of the few remaining serious cultural and political challenges to the homogenising force of late capitalism. Jameson's view is part of a broader effort to think about non-capitalist cultural forms – including religion – as possible forces that can be counter hegemonic, especially when more conventional leftist alternatives appeared institutionally weak. Thinkers like Samir Amin and Talal Asad have echoed this by arguing that Islamic movements, and traditions, while varied, shape political life in ways that do not easily fit liberal or capitalist models and may resist capitalist globalisation on their own terms. Muslims in post-colonial India In post-Partition India, Marxist affiliations also offered many Muslims an alternative political identity that transcended communal labels. As in the closing scene of Garam Hawa, when Sikandar Mirza and Salim Mirza join a left procession instead of migrating to Pakistan, the moment captures a form of belonging. The Communist Parties were among the few parties to openly recruit Muslims on ideological grounds, not token representation. Although Jawaharlal Nehru as the prime minister was quite antipathic to communists, arguably, it was his admiration of Marx and his professed socialist ideals which made him popular among Muslim left-leaning intellectuals. They were wary of both religious nationalism and capitalist conservatism, and it provided them a sense of proximity to the ideology in power. Renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray once praised 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘏𝘢𝘸𝘢 in a Calcutta-based weekly, stating that despite technical issues, the film is a milestone in Indian cinema due to its bold subject matter, doing full justice to Ismat Chughtai's work. Produced with the aid of the… — 𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓴𝓪𝓻 (@yansan) October 19, 2024 Marxism remained influential in Indian Muslim political circles, particularly during the rise of left-wing movements in the mid-20th century. Communist opposition to right-wing politics has been more steadfast than any other political entity – making Marxist politics an important space for anti-communal politics. This aspect of left politics had seen some waning, coinciding with the decline in the influence of communist parties in many parts of the country, especially since after the left front chose to walk out of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance coalition in 2008. They have however remained considerably popular in states with significant Muslim populations, including Kerala, West Bengal and even Kashmir. One of the reasons of decline in Muslim presence in or their willingness to associate with the left is that, Marxism has also come to be associated largely with atheism due to the policies of the regimes in Communist countries. Among the South Asian Muslims, this perception was strengthened perhaps due to Maulana Maududi's aversion to socialism. Maududi decreed socialism as being redundant in Islamic societies or even incompatible with Islam, but it was perhaps also rooted in his defence of private property rights and opposition to nationalisation of resources. The steady communalisation of all politics in India has strengthened the discourse in left and communist groups that asserts that issues of persecution due to religious identity are not real but a distraction from class struggle. Another reason for decline in support for Marxism as an ideology is the declining familiarity of the idiomatic mixing of Marxism and anti-colonialism in Urdu poetics, which is being replaced by a blatantly anti-Muslim rhetorical mix of neo-liberalism and cultural nationalism. The erasure of Islamic idioms and memory of Muslims' role from the history of Marxist politics has also been affected in India partially by nepotism in left 'intellectuals'' of Muslim heritage. They have accrued cultural capital of being secular through perpetuating an intellectually lazy culture of equating religion with cultural nationalism, and of targeting Islam as being especially fanatical, rather than a serious material force, which Marx would have found seriously vulgar. Marx's materialist conception of history – which stresses that economic conditions shape societal structures – was evident in the struggles of Indian Muslims, particularly during the period of British colonialism and the Partition of India. Issues of land ownership and distribution, economic inequalities, and the impact of colonial policies deeply affected the Muslim community. Marxist analysis continues to provide a useful framework for critiquing these social conditions.
