ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Ather FarouquiSubscribe to Ather Farouqui

Estranged Siblings: Urdu and Hindi

From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History by Tariq Rahman (Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan), 2011; pp 456, Rs 695.

Islamic Banking: An Anathema to Civil Society

The debate over Islamic banking versus non-Islamic banking has gathered force in recent years with Islamists seeing a non-interest banking system as an issue to rally support for their cause. This essay points out that the Qur'anic injunction against interest refers to the practice of exploitative usury and not bank interest. There are a few practical and realistic alternatives to functioning outside the modern international banking system, which is based on interest payments. The so-called Islamic banks in India only hoodwink depositors by paying them no interest while profiting from investing their money elsewhere for interest.

Salvaging Urdu from Degradation

The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Urdu Literature, Poetry and Prose Miscellany edited by Mehr Afshan Farooqi;

Urdu Language and Education

Urdu education must be brought to mainstream educational institutions by overcoming the political descrimination Urdu has suffered as a virtual synonym for religious education. The issue is a political one and demands political will and strategy to address it.

Urdu Education in India

While Urdu has given way to more career-oriented education, commitment to its revival must solely base itself on a cultural, religious and political identity. An experimental, even innovative educational approach as seen in other regional mediums might provide a welcome strategy.

On Urdu

In academia Ralph Russell holds several positions. Some admire his versatility as critic and educationist, while others hold him in high esteem as an orientalist and translator of Urdu literature. He is equally familiar with the community life of Muslims of north India as well as of Pakistan.

Urdu Education in India-Four Representative States

Four Representative States URDU has been so neglected in India that it has become the language of only the Muslims. In other words, Urdu education has become synonymous with Muslim education. It is also worth mentioning that an impartial and unprejudiced account of social and political conduct of the Muslims as well as the causes of their backwardness in education cannot be examined unless the dimensions of the politics, around, Urdu after independence are understood and examined. The cause of Muslims' backwardness in India is mainly associated with their religious and social complexities. But this analysis will remain incomplete and one-sided until it is admitted in principle that the Muslim backward sections are not very different from the other backward Indian communities. Though at some levels it is easy to recognise the difference between Indian Muslims and the other backward communities in India, an analysis of the social and educational condition of the Indian Muslims is essential at various levels, especially comparing them with other communities be- cause the circumstances and educational condition differ at every level.

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