Ovi magazine; Wednesday August 23rd, 2023

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems, the thoughts, the reviews, the photos, the paintings and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Wednesday August 23rd, 2023

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South Asia is endangered when the ‘unholy’ realities in today’s India is ignored by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Jyoti Rahman’s (JR) article “An Unholy Omen Is Looming Over Bangladesh”, published in The Wire, was brought to my attention by a retired academic. This article, although well written, suffers from too many theatrics, flaws, and exaggeration.

Writing about the birth of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, JRstates, “That country became an Islamic Republic. Hindus were not equal citizens there. They were dhimmis under the ‘sacred protection’ of the majority.”

First of all, Pakistan became an Islamic Republic only after 1956 when the constitution of 1956 was adopted, and there, too, there was no mention of the so-called ‘Dhimmis’ (lit. protected ones). As we all know too well, the naming did not change the secular character of the new government outside the office of the head of the state, which was to be held only by a Muslim. (Let’s not forget that in the last 76 years, India did not produce a single Muslim Prime Minister despite its parliamentary form of government.)

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Introduction To Potentials #poem by Jan Sand

“Unegged we gyre to inquire where our spectrum of possibility
Might apply, engage opportunity into potentials,
Empower what might conform to survivability.”

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Sceptic feathers #71 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Tuesday February 14th, 2023 – Valentine’s Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Tuesday February 14th, 2023 – Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, through later folk traditions, has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.

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The Gujarat Genocide – Revisited by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Twenty years ago, the Gujarat genocide happened. The victims were the state’s Muslim minorities who were denied any protection by the state police. The Hindu organizations responsible for planning and executing the genocide are the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) collectively form the Sangh Parivar. 

I share below some background information on these parties which will help our readers to better grasp the problem discussed.

The RSS was founded in the city of Nagpur in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar with the mission of creating a Hindu state. Since its founding, it has propagated a militant form of Hindu nationalism, called Hindutva, which it promotes as the sole basis for national identity in India. Western thought and civilization are perceived as enemies of Hindu culture. Religions such as Islam and Christianity are seen as the religions of foreign invaders―the Mughals and the British. The RSS wanted “the entire gamut of social life” to be designed “on the rock bed of Hindu nationalism,” a goal that inspired the creation of RSS political, social, and educational wings, a family of organizations that is now referred to collectively as the SanghParivar.

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Not I #poem by Bohdan Yuri

“It’s hard to be alive
when everything
around you
has already
died”

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2nd opinion, quarantined! #23/04 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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Ovi magazine; Monday January 10th, 2022

 

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Monday January 10th, 2022 – Tintin birthday

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Hindutvadi chauvinism needs to be censured by Dr. Habib Siddiqui

Chauvinism remains the greatest threat to pluralism and often triggers genocide. When a chauvinist group is in power, it poses a mortal threat to others not just within its own confined spaces but also outside. In our time, Modi and the Sangh Parivar have become a threat to all the non-Hindus everywhere. It is no accident that Muslim and Christian minorities in India are the worst sufferers in the hands of Hindutvadi fascists, while the BJP government and its party leaders incite extermination campaigns.

Genocide is a process and not an end result. It goes through several stages. As I have noted elsewhere nearly a decade ago, “Genocide requires preparation and planning. It begins in the minds of men and needs mass mobilization to commit the horror against the targeted group. The perpetrators or the executioners must not only feel secure but also must be self-motivated and zealous to commit their horrendous crimes. Often times, the task of preparing the mind is left to ideologues and chauvinist intellectuals who sell the poison tablet of intolerance against the targeted group. Without political leadership the overwhelming majority of the perpetrators would not lift a finger in harm. However, once set in motion, typically with a few encouraging and enabling words, they, both – the eliminationist regimes’ shock troops and their societies’ ordinary members – give themselves, body and soul, to death. They do so easily, effortlessly.”

And this is what we are witnessing today in places like India and Myanmar.

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I no longer dream! #poem & Art – #ArtInstallation by Amir Khatib

“I no longer dream!
 Dreams were my only commodity to live;
 sell it to people
 And if I can’t dream about it again

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AntySaurus Prick #026 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

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