Communalism in Secular India : A Minority Perspective
Contents: I. General: 1. Our independence and after: a critical review. 2. Future of inter-religious and inter-cultural relations. 3. On theories of peace and conflict resolution. 4. Sufism: its origin and impact of Indian Islam. 5. Fatwas, their acceptability and their relevance. 6. Danish cartoons and Muslims. 7. Premchand and composite culture. 8. They too fought for freedom: role of minorities in freedom struggle. II. Religion, identity, other issues: 9. Other world is possible: what role religion can play? 10. Identity in a multi-religious society. 11. Identity and development in democracy. 12. Indian Muslims: problems and paradoxes. 13. Women\'s plight in Muslim society. 14. Communal violence and minority-majority relations. 15. Indian Muslims: reservation or no reservation? III. Secularism, communalism: 16. Secularism in India. 17. Communal politics: climax and down fall. 18. Future of communal relations in India. 19. Psychology of communalism and communal violence. 20. Kashmiri youth and prospects of peace. 21. Jinnah: how much secular, how much communal. 22. Aligarh Muslim university and the court Judgement. 23. National integration council: is it a useful institution? 24. NCERT\'s new history syllabus. 25. BJP\'s silver jubilee: an assessment. IV. Terrorism, communal riots: 26. On the course of terror Bombing. 27. Muslims and terrorism. 28. London Bombings: violence and Islam. 29. Bomb blasts in Mumbai: crossing the limits. 30. Malegaon blasts: Partisan approach and biased police. 31. And now terrorist attack in Malegaon: what is the way out? 32. Shiv Sena\'s rioting on black Sunday. 33. Vajpayee and the Gujarat Carnage. 34. They hate us, we fear them: the situation in Gujarat. 35. Gujarat of fire again. 36. Communal riots, 2005. 37. Communal riots, 2006. 38. Police and minorities: will new policies help? 39. Representation of Muslims in police force and communal riots.
"This is a collection of essays on various issues concerning communalism and challenges to secular India. The problems have been viewed here from a minority perspective, especially of the Muslims.
It is hoped that these essays will create proper consciousness among the readers and help us realize our constitutional ideals. Our politicians are obsessed with power, not with the people\'s problems. In democracy only the people can force them to give attention to their burning problems and this can happen when the people become conscious of the games the political leaders play. We have been engaged in this struggle for the last several decades and it is an ongoing battle which will have to be carried out be both spoken and written words." (jacket)
