Yoginder Sikand

Escaping the Spiti snowstorm

Rediff.com columnist Yoginder Sikand recounts his near-death experience during a recent trip to Tabo, a small town on the banks of the Spiti river in Himachal Pradesh.

A woman's battle against Bohra priestly tyranny

Zehra Cyclewala is a leading figure in the reformist movement against the tyranny of Syedna Burhanuddin, the head-priest (dai-e-mutlaq) of the Daudi Bohra Ismaili Shia sect. In a conversation with Yoginder Sikand, she relates the story of her decades-long personal struggle against priestly tyranny

Bohra dissenters challenge oppressive priesthood

Yogi Sikand chronicles the voices for change in one of India's richest and most progressive Muslim sects-- the Dawoodi Bohras.

Deoband and the machinations of the mullahs

For many mullahs, religion and religious institutions are simply tools to feather their own nests and to whip up the support of the credulous by projecting themselves as pious defenders of the faith, says Yoginder Sikand

Islamic leadership may not solve Egypt's woes

The dominant version of Islam that informed Egypt's revival seemed to be harsh, fun-less and punitive, and, at the same time, thoroughly incapable of providing a progressive alternative to Mubarak's regime, says Yoginder Sikand

Deoband head faces fellow mullahs' ire

Reliable sources claim that certain top figures within one (of the three rival) factions of the Deobandi mass organisation Jamiat ul-Ulema-e Hind are the real brains behind the ongoing hate campaign directed against Vastanvi, and that they are using Vastanvi's alleged pro-Modi remarks and certain other accusations now being leveled against him to oust him, says Yogi Sikand

Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law is wrong in Islam

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's 1986 essay, centred on a case of perceived insult to the Prophet Muhammed and the violent Muslim response to it, bears immediate relevance to the issues being hotly debated today with regard to the anti-blasphemy law in Pakistan, says Yoginder Sikand

Making merry on a curfewed night

Yoginder Sikand partakes in an ostentatious Kashmiri wedding.

Deconstructing the Mughal rule

Yoginder Sikand reviews Salman Khurshid's Sons of Babur -- A play in search of India.

'Why can't Muslim women also lead the community'

Zakia Nizami Soman, one of the founder members of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, speaks of her organisation and and reflects on the daunting challenges facing Muslim women in India today.

Madhyamam: A Muslim media success story

Madhyamam has ambitious plans for the future, says Abdur Rahman. These include a daily English newspaper, with simultaneous editions from Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai and a regular television channel.

The intent behind the terror attacks

Deadly enemies though they present themselves as, Hindu and Muslim chauvinists desperately need each other. Without each other they are incomplete, indeed unable to survive. That is what this series of blasts, as well as the entire history of Hindu and Muslim communalism, clearly suggests.

The good that madrasas do goes unnoticed

As the ulema often point out, the voluntary services of the madrasas, generally provided completely free of cost, saves the public exchequer a huge amount of money, but yet their services in this regard, far from being appreciated, are generally reviled by those who have little or no understanding of the madrasa system

Brouhaha over a fatwa