chakravarthy

Imagine rooms in madrassas full of young boys dressed in traditional attire - the kurta pajama and skull cap - busy learning nuances of the faith. Rocking their little bodies in rhythm, they recite the Quran and commit it to memory. Now, imagine that these Islamic seminaries exist only on paper. An ongoing inquiry which Department of School Education ordered has revealed that as many as sixteen madrassas associated with Sarva Siksha Abhyaan , which provides funds for the 'mainstreaming' of madrassa students, in the city are fake. The probe has brought Islamic seminaries, which are already being accused of preaching intolerance, back into the spotlight.  While preliminary inquiry has been submitted to the government, department officials are now busy gathering data to compile an exhaustive report. Those in the know of things estimate that there are between 700 and 1,000 fully functional madrassas in the state. To break it down further, an ongoing study, says general secretar...

In his book ' Working a Democratic Constitution: A History of the Indian Experience ', the late American scholar Granville Austin describes the key and symbolic moment on 26th January, 1950, when the old order passed and the new took charge, and when "began the great enterprise of nationhood". Ceremonies commenced with Federal Court Chief Justice Harilal Kania administering the oath of office to Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India. The President then swore in Jawaharlal Nehru, as the first Prime Minister under the Constitution, and the members of his Cabinet. Finally, President Rajendra Prasad administered the oath of office to Harilal Kania, as Chief Justice of the new Supreme Court. This was the magic moment. "The country's new government", as Austin writes, "was in place". The same jurist who headed the Federal Court would now head the Supreme Court. His legal acumen, his sense of jurisprudence, his commitment to justice and fa...

Move over, Everest. Scientists say that by one measure, the world's highest peak is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. The summit of Chimborazo, an inactive volcano in the Andes, rises about 20,500 feet above sea level, far short of Everest's renowned 29,029 feet. But its a different story when you measure from the centre of the Earth: Chimborazo's apex rises the farthest, at about 21 million feet or 3,967 miles (approximately 6,384 kms.), while Everest's doesn't even crack the top 20. This is because, while the Earth is not flat, it is also not a perfect sphere. The planet flattens at its poles and bulges slightly around its waistline - don't we all? - making its radius about 13 miles (approximately 21 kms.) greater at the Equator, but Everest is 28 degrees north latitude, nearly one-third of the way to the pole. Mount Chimborazo has been anthropomorphised as a man in a stormy relationship with a shorter and more active female companion, the Tungurahua vol...

Not many know that the freedom movement against the British rule was quiet strong in the princely state of Hyderabad. The Nizam was a 'faithful ally' of the British and always ensured that voices of dissent against the foreign rule was curbed with an iron hand. But braving the Nizam's wrath, hundreds joined the Indian National Congress and mounted an attack against the British. Even long before the Congress was formed in 1885, Hyderabad had its own freedom heroes in the form of Turrebaz Khan and Moulvi Alauddin, who led an armed struggle against the British Presidency. According to historian and author Syed Naseer Ahmed, Hyderabadis stood by Gandhiji, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Maulana Azad and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. If one Hyderabadi (Abid Hasan Safrani) had coined the most patriotic slogan, Jai Hind, another (Shoebullah Khan) fell dead to the bullets of Razakars. Yet another (Mir Akbar Ali Khan) preferred to fight for the merger of Hyderabad with Indian Union to holding...