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Muharram and the Memory of Karbala: How Truth is Distinguished from Falsehood

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi The month of Muharram is nearly upon us. This year it starts on 16th June, and the 10th day, known as Ashura, falls on 26th June. As the month approaches, a familiar controversy begins again. Should Muharram be celebrated or commemorated? Do we greet each other as if it is a festival, or do we offer condolences as if a loved one has passed away? To answer this question, we…

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Beyond the Court Chronicle: Class, Evidence, and the Aligarh School's Mughal India

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The Protest Cage: When Democracy Learns to Ignore Dissent

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi A man works on a poster on Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) ahead of CJP’s protest on June 6th, in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on June 3, 2026. | Photo Credit: PTI A protest is not a polite gathering. It is raw, human, and meant to be felt. It exists to pierce through indifference, to make strangers stop in their tracks, to force conversations at dinner tables, and to rattle the…

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Barkatullah: A Freedom Fighter They Want Us to Forget

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi There is a proposal floating around to change the name of Barkatullah University in Bhopal. On the surface, it might sound like a routine administrative matter, the kind of thing that involves little more than a new signboard and some updated letterheads. But we all know that is not how these things work in India today. A name change of this sort is never just paperwork.…

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Ghadeer: The Day the Prophet Raised Ali's Hand

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Eid al Ghadir is one of the most profound occasions in the Islamic calendar, commemorating an event that took place on the 18th day of Dhu al Hijjah in the year 10 AH, which corresponds to 632 CE. The location was a sun baked crossroads known as Ghadir Khumm, situated between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Prophet Muhammad had just completed his Farewell…

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The Reception of Shah Waliullah's Political Thought among His Contemporaries

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Shah Waliullah of Delhi and His Reception by Modern Scholarship: Between Revival, Reform, and Historical Context

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Recently a thesis on the political views of Shah Waliullah of Delhi was awarded a PhD and the examiner enquired about the reception of his ideas. Here I am dealing only with his reception in modern times. The reception by the contemporaries will be dealt later. Few intellectual figures from eighteenth-century South Asia have drawn as much scholarly attention as Shah…

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The Forbidden Hajj: Imam Husain's Journey of Defiance from Mecca to Karbala

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Karbala, Iran, and the Twenty-First Century:

A Historical Perspective and a Lesson for the Muslim World Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Kullo yaumin ‘āshūra Kullo ‘arzin Karbala Everyday is Ashura Every land is Karbala * Perspective There is a thirst that does not begin in the throat. It begins in the soul, in the hollow place where hope used to live, and it spreads outward until the tongue turns to dust and the eyes become two dry wells.…

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The Roach That Roared: When Satire Becomes the Last Voice of the Betrayed

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi The image is strange, even a little disgusting. A “Cockroach Janata Party.” On the surface, it sounds like a joke. But for millions of frustrated Indians, it feels painfully real. It is not a political party in any official sense. It is a cry made of dark humour, born from a nation that feels betrayed and dreams that have been shattered. Comparing a satirical cockroach to…

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अकबर और समावेशन की राजनीति: ऐतिहासिक विवादों के दौर में मुगल विरासत की पड़ताल

सैयद अली नदीम रेज़ावी मदन मोहन मंदिर वृंदावन जिस के लिए अकबर ने अनुदान दिया आज के दौर में मुगल बादशाह अकबर का चरित्र भारतीय इतिहास को लेकर छिड़ी बहसों का एक प्रमुख मुद्दा बन गया है। हिंदुत्व इतिहासलेखन के समर्थकों द्वारा लिखी जा रही लोकप्रिय पुस्तकों और टिप्पणियों में मुगल काल को धार्मिक दमन और सांस्कृतिक अलगाव का दौर बताने की कोशिश की जा रही है। इस तरह के आख्यान में अकबर या तो एक चालाक…

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Akbar and the Politics of Inclusion: Revisiting a Mughal Legacy in the Age of Historical Polemics

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Father Moserrate along with other men of religion at Ibādatkhana with Akbar The Madan Mohan Temple of Vrindavan: The grants for which came from the Mughals, starting with Akbar In recent years, the figure of the Mughal emperor Akbar has become a battleground in contemporary debates over Indian history. A growing body of popular writing and commentary, particularly from…

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The Sultan's Hindu Officers: Redefining the Polity of Medieval India, 1290–1556

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi An imaginary depiction of Thakkur Pheru, the Mint-Master with his Sultan, Alauddin Khalji The conventional narrative of Mughal Emperor Akbar’s sulh-i-kul (universal tolerance) and his employment of Hindu Rajputs, bureaucrats, and intellectuals often overshadows a longer, less celebrated history of non-Muslim participation in India’s medieval state apparatus. Long before…

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The Ardhakathanak as a Mirror to Mughal Governance: Beyond the Communal Narrative

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Banarasidas, a Shrimal Jain merchant who lived from 1586 to 1643, could not have known that his modest poetic autobiography would one day serve as a crucial corrective to some of the most persistent myths about Mughal India. Written in Braj Bhasha in 1641 and aptly titled Ardhakathanak or Half a Tale, this work stands as the first autobiography by a commoner in an Indian…

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हम आज मुगलों को क्यों याद करें?

सैयद अली नदीम रेज़ावी हम गहन राजनीतिक बेचैनी के क्षण में लिख रहे हैं। एक ऐसे राज्य में जो कल तक संवैधानिक रूप से धर्मनिरपेक्ष था, जो सभी धर्मों के समान सम्मान और धर्म के मामलों में राज्य की निष्पक्षता के लिए प्रतिबद्ध था, एक नवनियुक्त नेता ने घोषणा की है कि यदि वह मुख्यमंत्री बनता है तो उसकी सरकार केवल उस एक धार्मिक समुदाय के कल्याण से संबंधित होगी जिससे वह संबंध रखता है। यह वक्तव्य, चाहे…

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ہم آج مغلوں کو کیوں یاد کریں؟

سید علی ندیم رِضَوی ہم شدید سیاسی بے چینی کے لمحے میں لکھ رہے ہیں۔ ایک ایسی ریاست میں جو کل تک آئینی طور پر سیکولر تھی، جو تمام مذاہب کے ساتھ یکساں احترام اور عقیدے کے معاملات میں ریاست کی غیر جانبداری کے لیے پرعزم تھی، ایک نو منتخب رہنما نے اعلان کیا ہے کہ اگر وہ وزیر اعلیٰ بنتا ہے تو اس کی حکومت صرف اس ایک مذہبی برادری کی بھلائی سے تعلق رکھے گی جس سے وہ تعلق رکھتا ہے۔ یہ بیان، خواہ مبالغہ…

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Why Remember the Mughals Today?

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Temples in Mughal Miniatures I write at a moment of profound political anxiety. In a state that was, until a week ago, constitutionally secular, committed to equal respect for all religions and the impartiality of the state in matters of faith, a newly appointed leader has declared that if he becomes Chief Minister, his government will be concerned only with the welfare…

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