“If you give power into the hands of people without questioning it, they will draw out blood from you”

The institution of democracy rests upon tenets of 

. A democratically elected government is responsible as well accountable to the people. A system of checks and balances has been enacted through periodic elections where the people have the power to replace it if it fails to act in accordance with these principles. But that can happen only if a public consensus is created regarding the win-wins and failures of those in power.

So the question which one is posed with: Who is going to perform this mammoth task of mobilizing public opinion by offering an in-depth analysis of the working of the government? The answer seems quite simple: 

Journalism at that time (19th and 20th century) was considered to be an 

. It was not merely a business enterprise motivated by TRP ratings. The publication of newspapers was regarded as a 

. Such was the rigor with which the press operated. 

Surendranath Banerjee, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Motilal Ghosh, G.K. Gokhale

 were some of the journalists who fiercely criticized and aroused anti-imperialist sentiments against the 

 through their writings and publications in papers such as 

Bengalee, Kesari, Amrit Bazar Patrika, and Sudharak

Expressing dissent has never been an easy task. Dissent is bound to generate consequences, often ugly ones. 

 had prohibited the publication of any such writings that would “

excite feelings of disaffection to the Government established by law in India

” and those convicted had to face transportation for life or imprisonment up to 3 years.

The road to journalism has never been a smooth one, especially for those coming from an ethical stock. Even today, journalists and media houses are targeted for being critical of those in power. The recent raids on the offices of media groups such as 

 reinstate the insecurities that exist among the ruling party. Both the media houses had recently put out reports critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

That’s not the only kind of danger that looms over them. Their job requires them to go out in dangerous, often conflict-ridden, or remote areas to bring out those feeble and faint voices which often get lost in the boisterousness of the world’s superficiality. 

, was one such who recently lost his life while covering the 

At the same time, we have journalists and media houses mongering hate from their perfectly lit and comfortable offices and paying lip service to the government. The frivolous debates held on petty issues on 

 are something to be taken note of. Disfigured data, half-truths, and distracting people from actual issues can have serious ramifications in the long run. The political polarization facilitated by these opinion-molding forums can have debilitating effects on fragile young minds and add to the existing prejudices. After all, the road to democracy is the same road that leads to dictatorship.

 is the need of the hour. We need more people like 

 and Danish Siddiqui who can bring out the truth in the face of the oppressors. The motto which was taken up by the press during the Freedom Struggle — 

 — should become a clarion call for journalists all over the world.

Oppose, Oppose and Oppose

The surge in cases has been attributed to the failure of the people in observing COVID appropriate behaviour, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, pandemic fatigue and ineffective containment measures at the ground level. Also the surge in some states has been linked to the 

 as over 60% samples from various cities in Maharashtra were found to be of this particular variant. There is another strain of the virus that is doing the rounds in Bengal; the 

’. These mutations may have the capability to render vaccines ineffective by escaping the antibodies, thus, further aggravating the crisis.

 recorded the highest-ever number of deaths in a single day. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state, recorded 773 COVID-linked deaths in the last 24 hours while Delhi reported 348 deaths. States such as UP and Bengal reported their highest single day spike, with UP reporting 37,228 cases in the past 24 hours. This comes at a time when these states are preparing to hold local body and assembly elections respectively. From Lucknow to Bengaluru, the situation is nothing but deplorable as patients 

 to find oxygen cylinders and hospital beds.

How has India Fared in Handling the Pandemic?

According to a recent report by The Quint India, the government’s handling of the COVID crisis is an example of “

”, i.e., the failure to act or acting too late. More people are dying because of oxygen shortage and lack of hospital beds rather than the virus itself, thus exposing the various flaws in our healthcare system. The following points reveal where we have faltered:

Nothing was done to scale up vaccine productions in India. Whether it was the 

, all of them had to rely on internal funds or funds from international organisations to ramp up their productions with very little support coming from the government. It released a sum of 

 on April 19, 2021, only when the situation had spiralled out of control.

No deal was secured with the foreign manufactures to make up for vaccine’s production deficit till January 2021. That too said, only 16 million doses were ordered for a country with a staggering population of 1.2 billion.

The ongoing oxygen crisis could have been averted, if the plan proposed in October 2020, to set up 162 oxygen producing units across 152 district hospitals in India would have been timely implemented. Unfortunately, only 

, with Uttar Pradesh still standing at zero.

The B.1.167 strain was detected in India on October 5th 2020 but no sirens were raised to alarm the people. The government acted too late as the 

 was set up only in January 2021, with ten operational labs and the funds were released to the Department of Biotechnology on 31st March, 2021 only.

 such as the massive election rallies and the ongoing Kumbh Mela. The upcoming elections in the state of Bengal and UP will engage lakhs of people, putting countless lives at stake.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.

Breathless: A Ground Reality of the COVID-19 Crisis in India

 respectively in 2019, according to the latest “

 (NCRB). A total of 45,935 cases of crime or atrocities against Dalits and a total of 8,257 cases of crime against were recorded as per the report. A simple google search of the term “Dalit” will yield numerous news stories about crimes against the men and women belonging to the caste. The NCRB and the news seem unaware of the strides we are making through statues, showering flowers on said statues and assigning days and even months to Dalits.

So, who are Dalits for whom the constitution made so many provisions and most importantly why have these provisions been made? The Dalits, historically termed “

”, are an offshoot of the caste system of the Hindu Religious System. The caste or varna system is a system of occupational and birth hierarchy where the members of each caste follow certain rules and customs emanating from the Dharma Shastras. In Early Rig Vedic Society, the varnas were assigned on the basis of occupation, not birth, there were no restrictions upon interlining or intermarriage and the society was quite egalitarian in nature. It was towards the end of the Early Rig Vedic Period that we saw the emergence of a 4-tier system of hierarchical inequality in the form of 4 distinct birth-based Varnas which got further amplified during the Later-Vedic times. Every hierarchical order is an imagined order which requires some kind of legitimisation for its sustenance. Divine intervention and nature are usually the best tools for legitimisation and in this case, the Divine Purushukta Hymn of the 10th Mandala of Rig Veda was invoked for the justification of varna hierarchy. The hymn sates that when the “Purusha/Primeval Man” was sacrificed by Gods, the Brahmins formed his Mouth, the Kshatriyas his Arms, the Vaishyas his Thighs and Shudras its Feet. As such, people came to accept their status in the society since it was accorded to them by Gods based on their Karmas.

The Varnas slowly transitioned into hereditary, endogamous, birth based 

 (Jati from ‘Jan’, meaning to be born). The expansion of Aryan network towards the end of the later Vedic period resulted in the assimilation of many non-Vedic tribes such as the Candalas and the Pulaksas, who were despised and looked down upon by the Vedic Aryans. The post-Vedic expansion of agriculture gave rise to differentiated economy leading to the stratification of society on class lines and further intensified the varna-jati structure. What is significant is that Untouchability developed in stages and the number of untouchable castes grew slowly. People born into “lower” jatis were forced to take up menial jobs such as manual scavenging, skinning dead animals, sweeping etc which made any contact with them “

.” They were not allowed to enter temples or study the vedic texts, drink water from the same well as an upper caste, even their shadow was considered foul and impure. Many notable writers, Ambedkar among them, have written about this practice and denounced it.

 the practice of Untouchability, thanks to the efforts of Baba Saheb, but the ostracization of the so called “untouchables” continues to take place in India in subtle ways. Whether it is the 

, all of them reveal the centuries old hate harboured for them. The attitude of the police towards the investigation of such cases is even more shocking. Rural India is worst affected by these notions and even to this date you can see the Dalit communities being ostracized and living on the margins. Lynching, torching their houses and raping their women are some of the common punishments for not greeting the upper-castes with ‘Ram-Ram’ or for touching the bucket of an upper-caste Thakur. These are not made-up stories but actual facts which one can search for on the Internet.

It reeks of privilege when one bids for discontinuing reservations by seeing some upper-caste leader dining at the house of a Dalit. Reservation is nothing but one of the many reparations which we owe to them due to their century old exploitations, oppression and marginalisation by our forefathers which, sadly, continues on to this day.

Caste System is not merely division of labour. It is also a division of labourers.



— Annihilation of Caste, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar

What’s your Jati?: An introspection of the Caste System in India

The Armenian people have resided in the great mountainous plateaus of 

 since the beginning of the 6th century BCE. In fact, the 

 in the 4th century CE. Armenian political independence was largely brought to an end by a wave of invasions and migrations of the Turkish-speaking people in the 11th century and in the 15th-16th century, the region was secured by the 

The Armenians were, however, given autonomy to rule themselves under the millet system which at the same time institutionalized the inferior status accorded to them. They were termed as “

” or disloyal people who were never to be trusted. Since the Armenians constituted a large christian population, they were looked upon with suspicion by the Ottoman Rulers and were always on the radar. This suspicion culminated in what has been popularly called as the 

 to power in 1908 and restoration of the Constitution was seen as light at the end of the tunnel by the Armenians but in vain. They were 

hundreds of Armenian intellectuals, politicians , activists

rounded up and executed for conspiring against the government

. Fearing that the Armenians would join the invading enemies, the 

 from its north-eastern border region under the 

 The physical annihilation of the Armenian people continued from the spring of 1915 to the autumn of 1916. The deportation routes thronged with the corpses of Armenian people. The 

, who constituted a major chunk of the deportees, were 

 without food and water. Those who couldn’t keep up were left to die or killed with a gun shot. 

. The genocide reduced the population of the Armenians by 90 percent in Turkey. An estimated 

800,000 to 1 million Armenians were killed

. Those who survived were sent to concentration camps where their suffering was amplified due to starvation and frequent outbreaks of epidemics.

Genocide is not an aberration. It’s an age-old human habit like love, or agriculture, or art. The tendency of the dominant species to create a “

” or living space for itself comes at the cost of the weaker species whose annihilation is rationalized by labelling it as something natural or inevitable. The annihilation of the weaker community doesn’t require much of an effort. It’s already standing on the edge of a cliff. All one needs to do is to give a gentle nudge and there it goes falling into an eternity of darkness. The process of 

 is afterall not that troublesome. Historically, the most efficient form of genocide has been to displace people from their homes, herd them together, and block their access to food and water. Under such conditions, they die without obvious violence and often in far great numbers.

The denial of genocide, which has been intrinsic to all regimes that have ever orchestrated one, invites for more such pogroms. 

Genocide within genocide, denial within denial, on and on, like Matryoskha dolls.

 The denial of the Armenian pogrom by the Turkish Government only deepens the wounds of the Armenians. It’s constant rejection of the Armenian Pogrom makes “

”. Sufferings hurt but what hurts more is their blatant rejection. It’s high time that the political regimes all over the world take responsibility for the crimes they have committed against humanity. The acknowledgement may not help in healing the wounds but the least it can do is to prevent its further deepening, and offer a closure to the victims.

“THE GENOCIDE THAT WAS”: The Armenian Pogrom

 Rabi’a was the fourth daughter of her extremely poor parents from Basra (Iraq). She was named Rabi’a as the word means fourth. After her parents died, she was sold into slavery. During the day she would do the master’s housework and at night she prayed. It is believed that one night her master saw a light surrounding her which left him captivated and in the morning he freed her. Thereafter, she paved her way.

Also known as the queen of saintly women, Rabi’a made remarkable contributions to the development of Sufism. Her disciples include not only women but men as well, like 

“Take me to the teacher. For when I am apart from her, I can find no solace.”

 She also paved the way for many other female Sufi saints.

She was a highly influential woman who, through her intellectual and spiritual wisdom proved that one need not be a man to achieve a higher status in the eyes of God. She detached herself from all worldly ties and devoted herself completely to God. Rabi’a also founded the 

‘ that postulates loving God for his own sake rather than out of fear of punishment or desire for reward. She refused to lift her head towards the Heaven (or God) as an act of modesty for which she says, 

“O Lord, if I worship You because of Fear of Hell, then burn me in Hell; If I worship You because I desire Paradise, then exclude me from Paradise; But if I worship You for Yourself alone, then deny me not your Eternal Beauty.”

 She was resolute in her self-denial and refused many marriage proposals to live the life of a celibate.

This presents a very beautiful aspect of Sufism and as such has attracted followers from around the world. Nothing can be purer than loving someone selflessly and the greatness of this doctrine lies in the fact that that “someone” is none but your own Lord. This doctrine of selfless love directed towards God has enriched Sufism to a great extent and for that, we’ll remain grateful to Rabi’a.

Now the question that persists in our minds is whether we can call Rabi’a a feminist or not? To answer this question we must be careful as to which lens we are using to examine her life. If we try and use our present-day perception of feminism to determine her role as a feminist then the answers might not be very positive since she didn’t advocate equality of men and women.

However, how she conducted herself, ranging from rejecting marriage proposals and being a celibate to living her life independently with none but herself being the master of her life are themselves an alibi to the strong sense of feminism that informed her choices.

Rabi’a not only challenged the patriarchal norms but also the material spiritualism that had found its way into Sufism. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Rabi’a had set an edifice in the world of Sufi mystical traditions by being the first female Sufi saint and thereby inspiring many other women in the generations to come.

Articles by Butool Zehra

Oppose, Oppose and Oppose

Breathless: A Ground Reality of the COVID-19 Crisis in India

What’s your Jati?: An introspection of the Caste System in India

“THE GENOCIDE THAT WAS”: The Armenian Pogrom

RABI-AL-BASRI: THE SUFI FEMINIST

Oppose, Oppose and Oppose

Breathless: A Ground Reality of the COVID-19 Crisis in India

What’s your Jati?: An introspection of the Caste System in India

“THE GENOCIDE THAT WAS”: The Armenian Pogrom

RABI-AL-BASRI: THE SUFI FEMINIST