@kunalpurohit
Dear  @MumbaiPolice
: fight hate, not journalism. 

Received this notice from  @X
 about taking down my videos of Mumbai’s hate-filled #RamNavami rally.. Documenting hate is journalism. I won’t be taking down these videos. 

I have asked  @Support  to provide me a copy of the notice.  

https://freespeechcollective.in/par-yaad-rehti-bas-tareekh-gulfisha-fatima-a-saga-of-arrest-and-re-arrest/  Gulfisha has also begun to write very powerful and heart-wrenching poetry to capture the experiences of her incarceration alongwith making beautiful paintings and writing letters to her friends. 
Some links to reports and Gulfisha’s prison poetry, art and letters:

‘These Walls Around Me’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Prison Poetry https://thewire.in/rights/these-walls-around-me-gulfisha-fatimas-prison-poetry 

‘Days Become Like A Ladder’: Gulfisha Fatima’s Letters from Prison https://thewire.in/rights/days-become-like-a-ladder-gulfisha-fatimas-letters-from-prison 

Ramachandra Guha on the three waves of Indian environmentalism

https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/ramachandra-guha-on-the-three-waves-of-indian-environmentalism/article69421911.ece  Environmentalism, according to Dr. Ramachandra Guha, “like feminism, like socialism, like democracy,” is a modern phenomenon. “It’s really the product of the industrial revolution, which started in Europe and then, of course, moved to other parts of the world,”  The Industrial Revolution, driven by fossil fuels, for the first time, saw radical transformations of transport and communication systems and gave birth not only to the factory system, but also to capitalism and colonialism, 

Video of lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKprWbTNPc

The Intersectional History of Environmentalism  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyqYN90PPjE Mar 15, 2021
This project illuminates the diverse histories within the environmental movement that are often overlooked, watered-down, or entirely erased. Our intentions with the project:

    illuminate historically-overlooked narratives of community members, organizers + original stewards of Turtle Island.
    shed light on the contributions Black, Indigenous + people of color have made to the environmental movement. 
    encourage folks to reclaim their relationships with the nature they're already a part of 
    amplify initiatives that are creating a more just + equitable future for all people + the planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpOJU4qdS5c  Understanding Economic Crisis: Three Charts That Explain Everything Wrong with Capitalism Today Why did the US lose manufacturing jobs? What's the problem with Donald Trump's global tariff plan? Why is housing unaffordable in the US? Why are most of us economically insecure? And why is wage work so precarious? 

https://www.epi.org/blog/union-decline-rising-inequality-charts/

https://www.epi.org/publication/labor-day-2019-collective-bargaining/ 

Reclaiming resistance in an age of surveillance and authoritarianism  https://diem25.org/reclaiming-resistance-in-an-age-of-surveillance-and-authoritarianism/ on 26 March 2025

There is ...an urgency to understand what comes after and alongside the movements and the protests that can help break away from the endless cycle of oppressive State-sponsored institutional tactics. What kinds of political and cultural practices, actions, and organising locate temporary moments of a kind of ‘making visible’, systems of domination? What particular formations and forms of organising have changed in New York, Serbia, Berlin, and India that are addressing the entangled histories of the far right – both in its historical forms and new structures of fascism? What kind of organising is needed to problematise the institution of art, culture, education, and politics?

What does breaking away from operating within the dynamics of these systems look, and feel like? How do we move away from identitarian politics and present the potential for renewed thinking about our futures?

The intention must be to find new ways around collectivity and community. A vocabulary outside of its mass co-option of the language of resistance.

...Many of the answers lie in the histories of cultural production that privilege documentation of vulnerable histories, and have the potential of being erased, lost, and designated to the realm of marginal-centre binaries –  from participatory filmmaking including citizen cinema to radical publishing, exhibition-making, and autonomous collectives that refuse to be legible to state-sanctioned systems to even the simple act of making a reel to tell us a story or writing a statement as political prisoners.

https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/shame-on-you-all-indian-origin-microsoft-engineer-confronts-bill-gates-satya-nadella-over-ai-use-by-israeli-military-11743959570657.html  “50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology. How dare you. Shame on all of you for celebrating on their blood,” Agrawal shouted. She condemned Microsoft’s reported $133 million cloud and AI contract with Israel’s Ministry of Defense and accused the company of enabling genocide in Gaza. 

Resignation letter circulates internally
Shortly after the protest, Agrawal sent a company-wide email announcing her resignation, effective April 11. In the email, accessed by The Verge, tech news website, she said, “I cannot, in good conscience, be part of a company that participates in this violent injustice.”

She referenced reports that Microsoft Azure and AI technologies support Israel’s military operations and surveillance, adding that “our labor powers this genocide.”

Calling Microsoft a “digital weapons manufacturer,”

https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/microsoft-ai-ceos-remarks-interrupted-by-pro-palestinian-protester-11743817748192.html

 Hastily pulled down Organiser article on Christian properties triggers a political storm in Kerala https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/hastily-pulled-down-organiser-article-on-christian-properties-triggers-a-political-storm-in-kerala/article69416957.ece
The article suggested that the land owned by the Catholic Church in India far surpassed Waqf properties in the country. Kerala CM, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan responded by stating that the article testified to the RSS’s impending move to wrest control of Church properties. 

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rahul-gandhi-land-under-catholic-churches-rss-organiser-article-waqf-bill-2704536-2025-04-05 Amid Waqf row, RSS report on land under Catholic churches gets Rahul Gandhi flak The article on the website of the Organiser, which has now been unpublished, claimed that Catholic institutions in India hold 7 crore hectares of land, making them the largest non-governmental landowner.

Letter to Minorities Minister: 
Waqf bell tolls for Christians too 
AJ Philip

Dear Shri Kiren Rijiju Ji,

First of all, let me congratulate you for successfully piloting the Waqf Bill, now rechristened UMEED, which in both Hindi and Urdu means “Hope”. I am sure President Droupadi Murmu will soon give her assent to the Bill and it will become the law of the land. In this context, I remember the agricultural Acts the Modi government had to rescind following a massive protest from the farmers.

I liked your assertion in the Lok Sabha that you yourself belong to a minority community and you do not feel any discrimination against minorities. As you are the minister in charge of minority affairs, can you say with confidence that there is no such discrimination?

As you are a Buddhist, I do not have to tell you that the Buddhists have built great Peace Pagodas like the one in Delhi and elsewhere. They are all architectural marvels and I never miss them on my visits to places like Leh in Ladakh, Darjeeling in West Bengal, and Kathmandu in Nepal.

I am sure that you will not contest me when I say that the greatest pilgrim centre for Buddhists the world over is not Lumbini in Nepal, where Siddhartha Gautama was born. Instead, it is the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. I have visited the place several times.

In the eighties, I did a cover story on the Mahabodhi Temple for the Sunday Magazine of the Hindustan Times. One of the highlights of the article was the demand the Buddhists were making for control of the temple. They resent Hindu Brahmins doing Puja there and the Hindus controlling the administrative affairs of the temple.

The agitation for control of the temple still goes on, though it does not get traction in the media. As a Buddhist and Minister for Minority Affairs, you will do a great service to the nation if you can liberate the Mahabodhi Temple from the immoral control of non-Buddhists. Instead, you want non-Muslims to have a say, if not control, of the Waqf Boards at the Centre and in the states.

You should see this in the light of the Tirupati temple authorities’ draconian decision to terminate the services of all their non-Hindu employees. The argument is that Tirupati temple belongs to the Hindus and only Hindus can work there. I don’t think you have taken any action against the retrenchment of the few non-Hindu employees.

The greatest Hindu pilgrimage centre in Kerala, from where I come, is Sabarimala, which is controlled by the Devaswom Board. The MLAs can vote for various posts in the board but only Hindu MLAs can take part in the voting. The Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu and Kashmir is run by a Trust. The Lieutenant-Governor holds the post of Chairman of the Trust.

If a non-Hindu is appointed governor, a Hindu has to be appointed chairman of the Trust. Once, when General S.K. Sinha was governor and no ice lingam was formed in the Amarnath cave, he managed to procure tonnes of ice from as far away as Jammu to create an ice lingam. Alas, a press photographer published the pictures of the ice lingam which had dirty hand marks of the workers who made it. Sinha escaped unscathed.

Early this week, the details of the will of Ratan Tata, worth Rs 10,000 crore, appeared in the media. Most of the wealth has gone to philanthropic organisations. What attracted me is a clause under which his favourite dog, Tito, and other pets will benefit from a Rs 12 lakh fund, which will be used to care for his pets, ensuring that each of them will receive Rs 30,000 per quarter for their care. He also mentioned that his cook, Rajan Shaw, will take care of Tito after his demise.

The executors of the will have a duty to ensure that the money is distributed as mandated by Tata.

In the seventh century, Umar ibn al-Khattab, also spelled Omar, who later became the Caliph, owned land on the shores of the Khyber. He approached the Prophet on what he should do with the land. He was advised to give it to Allah, which will, of course, deprive him of all his authority over the land. The land could be used only for religious or charitable purposes and the person responsible for it was known as Mutawalli. I owe this information to an article by Advocate T. Asaf Ali in the Madhyamam daily.

A Jew who fought unsuccessfully against the Prophet bequeathed all his property for similar purposes. All the rules and regulations governing Waqf follow from this precedent. This reaffirms the point that Waqf properties cannot be sold for profit; they can only be used for religious or charitable purposes.

Under UMEED, only a person who has been a practising Muslim for at least five years can will away his property as Waqf. Since you studied the Bill, let me ask you how will you determine whether a person remained a Muslim for five years or not?

A person becomes a Muslim when he dedicates his prayer solely to Allah and considers Mohammed as the final prophet and messenger of God. Of course, his religious practices are enumerated in the Five Pillars of Islam: the declaration of faith (shahadah), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime.

Anybody can become a Christian and the longevity of his faith does not matter to God. That is why the thief on the cross attained salvation because he believed in Jesus as the Son of God. He did not live even for a day after his conversion. This being the case, on what basis do you say that to be a Muslim one must practice the religion for five years?

Last Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the RSS headquarters at Nagpur. He also visited the Deekshabhoomi, the ground where people led by Dr B.R. Ambedkar got ordained as Buddhists. This religious mass conversion at one place was the first ever of its kind in history. The day they took Deeksha, they became Buddhists.

You may like to know why Ambedkar chose Nagpur for his conversion to your religion. Nagpur is where the Nags lived on the banks of the Nag river. They were the ones who fought vigorously against the invading Aryans. And they were the ones who propagated Buddhism in far corners of the land, including Arunachal Pradesh, to which you belong.

When the British wanted to build a house for the Viceroy in Delhi, they did not go to a temple for a model. Instead, they looked at a Buddhist vihara to draw ideas. When you take UMEED to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the President’s signature, please check whether the building resembles a temple or a Buddhist vihara.

On the day Parliament was debating the Waqf Bill, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that the Waqf authorities had declared the area where the Mahakumbh was held as Waqf property. Even if it is true, did it prevent Yogi from driving away every Muslim selling even Bisleri water bottles from the banks of the Ganga?

Home Minister Amit Shah even claimed that the Waqf authorities could have declared Parliament House as Waqf property. You and your party have perfected the art of scare-mongering. You don’t even leave Aurangzeb, who died 318 years ago.

The whole world knows that Mukesh Ambani’s grotesque house, Antilia, in Mumbai—consuming power worth Rs 70 lakh every month—is situated on Waqf land. Has Ambani suffered on this account? But you portrayed the Waqf Boards as more powerful than even the Supreme Court.

And some persons, like Baselios Cleemis, the current Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, fell for it. He saw the issue from the perspective of the residents of Munambam, numbering 600 families, mostly Catholic. If Ambani could not be evicted from his Antilia, how could they be evicted?

The broader issue was that the Muslims were not consulted on the drafting of the Bill. You mentioned that it was vetted by a parliamentary committee. Was even one suggestion of an Opposition member accepted? During the debate in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, was even one amendment suggested by an Opposition MP accepted? It was a Bill of the government, by the government, and for the government.

With non-Muslims allowed to decide Waqf-related issues, the Muslims will lose control of their Waqf properties. The Waqf Boards will be deprived of assets to run madrasas, orphanages, and hospitals. The Bill’s agenda is clear to the discerning.

Small wonder that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which controls Sri Harmandir Sahib or Darbār Sahib, also called the Golden Temple, has opposed the Bill, for it knows that tomorrow, the government can amend the Sikh Gurdwara Act to their disadvantage. Alas, the Catholic Church leadership can’t see the woods for the trees.

The Catholic and other churches own thousands of acres of land and properties worth billions of rupees. Using the same argument, the government can easily take them over. In fact, many Church-run schools and colleges are situated on government land given by the British on lease for 100 years. The government has already started putting pressure on the church to vacate such properties, as in the Army Cantonment in New Delhi.

While Parliament was discussing the Waqf Bill, some Opposition members drew Parliament’s attention to the attack on two Catholic priests in Jabalpur. As Minister in charge of Minority Affairs, who prevented you from opening your mouth on the action you have taken on the matter?

Nonetheless, I was glad to hear you quoting the Sachar Committee report. Justice Rajinder Sachar appeared for me in a case the Punjab and Haryana High Court instituted, suo motu, against me and some of my colleagues at The Tribune. Have you ever thumbed the pages of his report except to find out what it said about Waqf properties? You say that if the Waqf properties are put to commercial use, Muslims will earn a lot.

That is exactly what is happening under crony capitalism. Government properties are handed over to the likes of Ambani and Adani so that they can become the world’s richest, pushing the poor down the ladder further and further. True, if they are handed over the Waqf properties, they will surely earn billions—so that they can have their swimming pools on their rooftops while the women in Mumbai stand for hours to get a pitcher of water.

By the way, the Sachar Committee made many suggestions, including a mechanism to monitor whether the government’s minority welfare measures benefit the communities concerned.

What amused me the most was your assertion that Muslim welfare was your government’s prime concern. You don’t have a single Muslim colleague in the ministry of which you are a member. Muslims constitute about 200 million in this country. It is unbelievable that the Prime Minister cannot find a single Muslim from among them to represent the community. Forget the Centre—mention one name of a Muslim minister in any of the BJP governments, from Gujarat to Manipur and Delhi to Uttarakhand.

Modi demonstrated his concern for Muslims by introducing the law banning triple talaq during his second term. Divorce frees a woman from marital bondage, especially when the husband no longer wishes to live with her. In many ways, it is better than abandonment of wives.

It has been over five years since the triple talaq law was enacted. Can you name even one conviction under it? The law was designed to appease Hindutvawadis rather than genuinely help Muslims. Unfortunately, the Waqf Bill follows the same pattern, aimed at depriving Muslims of their limited rights. I only wish Christians had realised— to borrow poet John Donne’s words—that the bell tolls not just for Muslims, but for them as well.

Yours etc.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Courtesy: Indian Currents

Mohammad Sajjad 10 August 2024  · (forwarded by FM, April 25)

informations and/or queries taken from some academic works (such as Kozlowsky, 1985; Munawar Husain, 2021; Khalid Rashid, 1978, etc.) on the theme of Waqf. ...

1. The creation and existence of Waqf is strictly as per Sharia?
The Holy Quran made no mention of awqaf or any institution similar to them. 

2. Did Abu Hanifa (AD 699-767 AD) validate the Waqf as a Sharia sanctioned institution, or, he "disapproved of the institution"? 

He also held that a Waqf need not be permanent.  

3. Collections of the fatawa of religious scholars in India contained both favourable and unfavourable statements on the institution of Waqf.

4. Waqf was not necessarily and strictly a charitable trust or pious foundation. These were selfish too besides being altruistic. 
Maximum proceeds of most of awqaf are theoretically and practically earmarked for the members of the family & kinship. 
Every Waqif wanted his or her offspring to inherit the fruits that ingenuity [Waqf], to preserve the world of their founders. 

The British Indian court's approach of literal Quranic rules of inheritance made Muslim landholders find out other legal way of preserving the holdings by creating awqaf. 
[Therefore, beginning in 1879, the High Courts of India handed down a series of decisions which overturned any endowment considered to benefit primarily the settler's own family. 
Privy Council, 1894: Muslim endowments must be religious and "charitable", public not private. 
Courts' premise: Muslims ought to follow their own scripture. If the Quran demanded a partition of the estates, Muslims must not evade the rigours of their own legal system. This is how Muslim endowments became a political and contentious issue. 
Hafiz Shirazi, therefore, composed a couplet which translates as: "Drinking wine is bad, but having a Waqf is worse".] 

5. Who were the mutawallis of the earliest Awqaf, viz., Khyber, Sawad (Iraq, which was then a part of Iran), and Ramlah in Palestine, founded in 912 AD ) Waqf by Faiq, an eunuch, which is distinguished to having the earliest written record (on stone tablet)?
All of these three earliest awqaf became non existent due to encroachment by the soldiers and other influential elites during the early centuries of Islam.  "Military and political leaders gradually appropriated the territory's income. Such encroachment on endowments was by no means rare. Though awqaf aimed at permanence, few attained it".    
The Buwayhids, a family of Iranian not Arab origin, had a hand in dismembering that [Sawad] endowment. 

6. Only the Anglo Indian judges of the British India assumed the Waqf to be a charitable endowment. Otherwise, the creation of Waqf, in most cases, had to do more with circumventing the Quranically defined rights of inheritance and division/distribution of the properties and their proceeds among his/her heirs. Waqf creation was a way of putting a complete restriction on sale and purchase of the assets/properties by the heirs. 

7. "Waqf is a typical phenomenon which partakes the characteristics of endowment, gift and many such sister concepts but, at the same time, stands apart".

8. "The removal of encroachments upon the waqf properties is relegated to the executive wing rather than the judicial exercise. The appointment and removal of mutawallis is another complicated issue".

9. In the early years of 19th century, a number of India's Muslims began to convert their property into awqaf. This was a way to protect their family's fortune and the social prominence which accompanied it. 

10. In both kinds of awqaf, viz., Waqf e Aam and Waqf e Aulad, through mutawllis, self-interest could be preserved and perpetuated.

11. In 1877, Sir Sayyid (when he was in the Viceroy's legislative council) published an article in his journal, Tazhib- al-Akhlaq, titled "A Plan for Saving Muslim Families from Destruction and Extinction" ("Ek Tadbir: Mussalmanon ke Khandanon ko Tabahi awr Barbadi se Bachaane ki"). He noted that a waqf was "allowed", or "permitted" (mujaz), means, he didn't call it disapprovable but also didn't approve of the institution as strongly? 
Sir Syed's four important concerns: 
(a) that the property placed in a waqf be accurately and fully described. 
(b) his proposal insisted that, once drawn up, a waqfnamah be registered with the district officer or the district magistrate; 
(c) The shares of the waqf's income had to be precisely laid out. 
(d) Also, the succession to the office of mutawalli had to be clearly established. 

12. Ameer Ali (1849-1928) however disagreed with Sir Syed; Shibli endorsed Ameer Ali.

Some interesting facts about some Indian Awqaf: 

(A) One Muslim woman in Bengal even allowed her deed of Waqf to begin with an invocation to the goddess Durga. 
(B) In Tamil, a mutawalli preferred to be called Dharmakarta. 
(C) Najiban, a tawaif of Bareilly also created Waqf. 
(D) It was only with the British Indian State interference that the Hoogli College was established out of the Waqf created by Mohd Mohsin, otherwise, the deed of the Mohd Mohsin Waqf didn't have such provision.   
(E) Since the Caliph Umar's period (Khyber and Sawad), the Awqaf were always under "direct" control of the state.

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