Seminar on “Importance of Book reading among the younger generation” 26th December

Information source: Siasat News, December 24

Hyderabad:

(Siasat New) Centre for Trilingual and Islamic Studies will organize a Seminar on “Importance of Book reading among the younger generation” at Urdu Ghar, Moghalpura on Thursday 26th December at 10 am. Prof. S.A. Shukoor, Director of Urdu Academy, Dr. P.H. Mohammed, Asst. Professor of MANUU, Syed Shah Habeebuddin Quadri, Editor Andhra Pradesh Urdu monthly, Dr. Ghouse Ali Sayeed, Mr. Taher Romani, Journalist, Ms. Munawar Khatoon, Director of Ashraful Madaris High School, Mr. Mohammed Qamaruddin, Senior Librarian, Mr. Syed Faheem Akther, Librarian, Mr. Mohammed Ilyas Taher, Director Dream Bird school, Mr. Mohammed Shamsuddin Ahmed Khan, President Minorities Education and Welfare Society, Mr. Mohammed Habeebuddin, Mr. Mohsin Khan, Mr. Ayoub Khan and others will participate in the seminar. Mr. Mohammed Aqeel, Advocate will be the convener. Prizes and certificates will be distributed to the students on this occasion.
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Gulf jobs prove death for expats, hailing from south India, especially Kerala and Andhra Pradesh

Gulf jobs prove death for migrants, Times of India-by Bushra Baseerat

HYDERABAD: Dream jobs in the Gulf countries are turning into nightmares for thousands of Indian expatriates. In an alarming scenario, two Indians commit suicide every week on an average in the gulf region. Moreover, several others are dying at a young age due to heart attacks or other ailments. With a chunk of these migrants hailing from south India, especially Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, experts say it is high time the government intervenes and determines the cause of these telling statistics. continue reading Times of India

 On the same shelf:

• Andhra Pradesh website to help NRIs return home and find jobs Arab News
• Competing with foreigners for jobs 'difficult'-- gulfnews.com-Dec 4, 2013
The kingdom, unlike other Gulf nations, has millions of low-income citizens willing to work the types of jobs that have long been held by Indian, Egyptian,
• Saudis Look to Private Businesses for Youth Jobs  The New Indian Express -- A nationwide culling of Saudi Arabia's massive foreign workforce of around 9 million people has already sent hundreds of thousands of migrants home in the past two months. Saudi authorities say the jobs left behind can and should be given to Saudis.
• New Saudi rules forced exit of 1,41301 Indian workers Indlaw.com
• Nitaqat: Saudi returnees tell tales of their agony The New Indian Express 
• Expat held with gold in Hyderabad Times of Oman
• Saudi to hire 3500 expat doctors ArabianBusiness.com -- According to English language newspaper Arab News, the Ministry of Health is seeking to hire doctors and nurses from countries including India, Pakistan and  
• An expatriate sounds off, Saudi Gazette : "My recent column on the plight of long-term residents of the Kingdom, many born here and grown accustomed to a Saudi way of life, prompted a reader to send me the following response which I have edited for space:"

“Every day I read in the newspapers articles spewing hatred with unrestrained venom. Illegals/Expats: A threat to national security’’, ‘’Expatriate remittances costing Kingdom billions’’, ‘’Expatriates taking jobs away from Saudi workforce" are just some of the many popular lines that I find in the print media that make expatriates look like a disease when you know that this an absolute falsehood. How are we a threat to national security when we aren’t even recognized as one of Saudi’s own? continue reading saudigazette.com.sa

28th Hyderabad book fair, 2013

NTR Stadium hosted the event organised by the
National Book Trust in coordination with Hyderabad Book Fair Society,
from December 7 to 15,2013.

See also:

• http://hyderabadbookfair.com/
• The shelves are full TOI
• The book lovers’ delight is here, thehindu.com
• A comment: Mohammed Ayub Ali Khan
• 15th North East Book Fair from Dec 25. Assam Times

Temple Desecration and Muslim States in Medieval India (The case of Golconda as an instance)

Temple Desecration and Muslim States in Medieval India 

Book Description: Hope India Publications. Few issues in India?s current public discourse are more controversial than that of the political status of religious monuments. In particular, the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 raised a number of urgent questions relating to the desecration of temples in India?s medieval period.Some of those questions that are historical in nature are addressed in this monograph: What temples were in fact desecrated in medieval India? When and by whom? How and for what purpose? What role did the desecration of temples play in the legitimization or delegitimization of royal power in medieval India?

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Early Instances of Temple Desecration
3. Sufism and State Building
4. Temple Desecration and State Building
5. Temple Protection and State Maintenance
6. Temple Desecration and State Maintenance
7. Temples and Mosques Contrasted
8. Temple Desecration and the Rhetoric of State Building
9. Conclusion

Extract (from frontline.in):

... Similarly, in 1579, when Golconda's army led by Murahari Rao was campaigning south of the Krishna River, Rao annexed the entire region to Qutb Shahi domains and sacked the popular Ahobilam temple, whose ruby-studded image he brought back to Golconda and presented to his sultan as a war trophy (no. 51). Although the Ahobilam temple had only local appeal, it had close associations with prior sovereign authority since it had been patronised and even visited by the powerful and most famous king of Vijayanag ara, Krishnadevaraya. The temple's political significance, and hence the necessity of desecrating it, would have been well understood by Murahari Rao, himself a Marathi Brahmin.²²

In each of these instances, the deity's image, taken as war trophy to the capital city of the victorious sultan, became radically detached from its former context and in the process was transformed from a living to a dead image. However, sacked images were not invariably abducted to the victor's capital. In 1556, the Gajapati raja of Orissa had entered into a pact with the Mughal emperor Akbar, the distant adversary of the sultan of Bengal, Sulaiman Karrani. The raja had also given refuge to Sulaiman's more proximate adversary, Ibrahim Sur, and offered to assist the latter in his ambitions to conquer Bengal and overthrow the Karrani dynasty. As Sulaiman could hardly have tolerated such threats to his stability, he sent an army into Orissa which went st raight to the Gajapati kingdom's state temple of Jagannath and looted its images. But here the goal was not annexation but only punishment, which might explain why the Gajapati state images were not carried back to the Bengali capital as trophies of war. ²³  

Continue reading: Temple desecration in pre-modern India - Frontline

See also:

• Religious Tolerance in World Religions  Jacob Neusner
• Temple desecration and Indo-Muslim states - Columbia University
• Temple desecration in pre-modern India - Hindu

Deccan Chronicle's News" Actor Paul Walker dies in crash

PS. News is not always News/Trusted. It may be an hoax, always confirm with some authentic source!!!

Hoax-Slayer

Fast & Furious star Paul Walker's death has been confirmed. -- On a related note, a website claiming his death is a hoax is actually a satire site.
http://newsone.com/2796282/paul-walker-fast-and-furious-dead/