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

Articles by Ayesha JalalSubscribe to Ayesha Jalal

A Letter to India: In Manto's Spirit

 

On the lines of Sadat Hasan Manto's facetious letters to Uncle Sam written at the height of the cold war when Pakistan was being wooed by the US as an ally to fight communism, this letter was written in 2002 to the then Prime Minister Vajpayee by historian Ayesha Jalal. Written as a spirited assessment of the standoff between India and Pakistan, the letter is peppered with rare insights that have always been Manto's hallmark.

Women and Religion

Women and Religion Gendering the Spirit: Women, Religion and the Post-Colonial Response edited by Durre S Ahmed; Zed Press, New York, 2002; pp 244, $ 19.95 (paperback).

A Letter to India: In Manto's Spirit

On the lines of Sadat Hasan Manto's facetious letters to Uncle Sam written at the height of the cold war when Pakistan was being wooed by the US as an ally to fight communism, a letter to prime minister Vajpayee, This letter is a spirited assessment of the most recent standoff between India and Pakistan, peppered with rare insights that have always been Manto's hallmark.

Nation, Reason and Religion- Punjab s Role in the Partition of India

Punjab's Role in the Partition of India Ayesha Jalal The pre-eminent view of Indian nationalism has been that of an inclusionary, accommodative, consensual and popular anti-colonial struggle. This has entailed denigrating the exclusive affinities of religion as 'communal' in an imagined hierarchy of collectivities crowned by the ideal of a 'nation' unsullied by narrowminded bigotry. By implying that religious affiliations are, if not necessarily bigoted, then certainly less worthy than identifications with the 'nation ', Indian nationalism comes dangerously close to trampling over its own coat-tails. The cultural roots of Indian nationalism owed far more to religious ideals, reinterpreted and reconfigured in imaginative fashion, than has been acknowledged.

Azad, Jinnah and the Partition

Azad, Jinnah and the Partition Ayesha Jalal Abul Kalam Azad: An Intellectual and Religious Biography by Ian Henderson Douglas; edited by Gail Minault and Christian W Troll; Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1988; pp 359, Rs 190.

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