Articles by Asghar Ali Engineer

and even afterwards. Take for instance the fact that none of the Arab leader- ship knew Hebrew, Similarly of the 64 members of the JAE only three knew Arabic, he Jawish leadership had also very little contact with the Arabs in the countries neighbouring Palestine. This shows the Wide social, political and cultural distance between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Within their own communities the leadership- mass gap was wider in the case of Arab (84.4 per cent of leadership was urban when the population was predominantly peasant) than that in the Jewish case .because the Jewish population was overwhelmingly urban. Though the JAE members came from different western states, out of the 64 JAE members, 54 (84.4 per cent) knew Hebrew. This is an indication of the Jewish national and or religious consciousness. The Christian religions affiliation was an underlying factor in the selection of several men to the AHC, There was no AHC without a contingent of Christian Arabs on it.

IRAN A New Interpretation of Islam Asghar Ali Engineer WESTERN media keeps us informing about Khomeini's pronouncements or political executions in Iran or the holding of American hostages. However, the media keeps silent about other developments among various left-of-centre political groups. Some of these developments are of interest.

April 7, 1979 nivance with the government, was in fact buying time to settle the disputes within the framework of the same ad hoc increase as was done in NTC mills, The trade unions under the control of left front partners were equally eager for a settlement. During the discussions, two TU bosses who are directors of NTC reportedly said that industrywise settlement will also be binding upon the NTC mills. But it is now clear the authority has hardly any desire to honour the tripartite wage settlement for it is not the NTC but the Bengal Mill Owners Association which is a party to the said agreement. Meanwhile the NTC workmen have started agitating. The campaign was opened by AITUC-led Textile Workers' Federation with a telegram to the Union industry minister asking him to intervene. But the implementation of industrywise settlement will not be an easy matter in the NTC mills since the Union industry minister is waiting with a Bill to amend industry regulation which seeks a moratorium of 5 to 8 years on disputes in industrial units taken over or managed by the government.

June 4, 197?
and drawing up a code of conduct or conventions to guide him in his actions. The question is whether the powers that be at the Centre will accept that assumption as valid or continue to treat the Governor as their FOR a long time, Hindu-Muslim strife remained the main stumbling block in our freedom struggle. More often than not, the leaders of the two communities were preoccupied with deciding their respective shares in the spoils of power than in securing freedom for the country. Uma Kama's book presents one aspect of this struggle for sharing seats in provincial and central legislatures.