Columns

When I think of independence the first thing which crosses my mind is Rousseau’s most famous and contradictory quote: “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”. This is a strong and controversial statement and my idea of independence is somewhere inspired by this thought. Independence is a relative term and it can never be absolute. Desire for absolute ...

As per the dictionary, the word ‘independence’ means the state or quality of being independent, freedom from dependence, and exemption from reliance on, or control by others. It also means the state of having sufficient means for a comfortable livelihood. Now actually what independence means to me is certainly what the word itself stands for. In simple terms it gives ...

The other day one of my friends asked me an offensive question — “Don’t you think you have become too much of a feminist lately?” Now, the question was offensive not because she thought of me as a feminist, which I am, but because it felt as if she thought being a feminist was something to look down upon. “I ...

By Syufra Malina It is less than two months before I leave India. A friend of mine asked me, do you feel sad that you’re leaving next month? I smiled, and told him that I didn’t know. I could have answered in the affirmative that I was sad, but that would have been a lie. I feel neither sad nor ...

[The following article was first published in the 2013 edition of ‘Episteme’ — Dept. of Political Science’s annual student magazine — under the title “The Story So Far…” We republish it here with permission.]  — By Sampurnaa Dutta A mesmerizing campus bustling with energy. Warm welcoming people and a cordial ambience. That’s Jamia for you! It all happened once graduation was ...

Gone are the days when people used to wake up in the morning due to the monotonous buzzing of the alarm clock and went out looking for the morning newspaper. No more sticky notes or reminders on the bedroom walls or refrigerator’s door. All these functions and many more are performed by one single little wonder of technology – our ...

Sometime in early 2012, during the final months of my graduation at Jamia Millia Islamia, an eight-month-long scholarship to learn the Turkish language in Turkey came to my notice on one of the bulletin boards at my department — the Department of Commerce and Business Studies. The scholarship was offered by the Indo-Turkish Business Association (ITBA) based in New Delhi. ...

[Editor’s Note: This interview with Vice-Chancellor Najeeb Jung was conducted by Muhammad Aarif Khan (a staff writer for Jamia Journal), as a supplement to his article titled “Jamia: The Path to Progress” that details the history of Jamia Millia Islamia from its inception to the present, by examining the lives and the work done by the men who occupied the ...

On Oct. 29, 1920, in response to Gandhi’s call to boycott educational institutions run by the Regime, at a moment of confluence of the  anti-colonial Islamic activism and pro-independence aspirations of the politically radical Indian Muslim intelligentsia, a small group of nationalist teachers and students quit the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in protest against its pro-British leanings. Born out of ...

On the morning of October 22, 2012, I dreamt a beautiful dream.  In the dream I was with Arti – my best friend. We had not spoken to each other for a year because of a misunderstanding and I had never tried to reach out to her, expecting her to do it first. In the dream, I was in a ...