So Spake Kabira...........The Great Soul That He Was, Kabir Epitomised The Oneness Of God And The Equality Of Mankind. He Was A Virulent Critic Of The Absurdities Of The Caste System And Ridiculed The Prevalent Notion That The Status Of An Individual Was The Outcome Of Caste Or Class In Which He Was Born. Complete And Absolute Faith In The Supreme Being Was The Core Of His Belief. Apart From What Has Travelled From Mouth To Mouth In The Annals Of History, Kabir'S Hymns Are Recorded In Kabir Granthavali And Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The Present Work Brings To The Reader A Collection Of Some Immortal Hymns Of The Outstanding Bard That Are Sung In The Gurdwaras And Congregations By Sikhs And Non-Sikhs Alike Across The Globe.
Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India: Current Research grows out of over a 40-year tradition of the triennial International Conferences on Early Modern Literatures in North India (ICEMLNI), initiated to share 'Bhakti in current research.' This volume brings together a selection of contributions from some of the leading scholars as well as emerging researchers in the field originally presented at the 13th ICEMLNI (University of Warsaw, 18-22 July 2018). Considering innovative methodologies and tools, the volume presents the current state of research on early modern sources and offers new inputs into our understanding of this period in the cultural history of India. This collection of essays is in the tradition of 'Bhakti in current research' volumes produced from 1980 onward but reflecting our current understanding of early modern textualities. The book operates on the premises that the centuries preceding the colonial conquest of India, which in scholarship influenced by orientalist concepts, has often been referred to as medieval. However these languages already participated in modernity through increased circulation of ideas, new forms of knowledge, new concepts of the individual, of the community, and of religion. The essays cover multiple languages (Indian vernaculars, Sanskrit, Apabhramsha, Persian), different media (texts, performances, paintings, music) and traditions (Hindu, Jain, Muslim, Sant, Sikh), analyzing them as individual phenomena that function in a wider network of connections at textual, intertextual, and knowledge-system levels.
‘The Emergency has become a synonym for obscenity. Even men and women who were pillars of Emergency rule and misused their positions to harass innocent people against whom they had personal grudges try to distance themselves from their past in the hope that it will fade out of public memory forever. We must not allow them to get away with it,’ says Khuswant Singh, while fearlessly stating his own reasons for championing the Emergency. This bold and thought-provoking collection includes essays on Indira Gandhi’s government, the Nanavati Commission’s report on the 1984 riots and the riots themselves, as well as captivating pieces on the art of kissing and the importance of bathing. Alongside these are portraits of historical figures such as Bahadur Shah Zafar, General Dyer, Ghalib and Maharaja Ranjit Singh as well as candid profiles of the famous personalities he has known over the years, revealing intimate details about their lives and characters. From his reflections on Amrita Sher-Gil’s alleged promiscuity to the experience of watching a pornographic film with a stoic R.K. Narayan, this is Khuswant Singh at his controversial and iconoclastic best. Selected and edited by Sheela Reddy, Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and Profiles covers three quarters of a century. Straight from the heart, this is unadulterated Khuswant Singh.
