Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.
Sati or suttee was a Hindu historical practice in which a widow sacrifices herself by sitting atop her deceased husband's funeral pyre. It has been linked to related Hindu practices in regions of India. In Hindu scriptures, Sati is entirely voluntary, not an obligatory practice. Greek sources from around c. 300 BCE make isolated mention of sati, but it likely developed into a real fire sacrifice in the medieval era within northwestern Rajput clans to which it initially remained limited, to become more widespread during the late medieval era.
William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple is an India-based Scottish historian and art historian, as well as a curator, broadcaster and critic. He is also one of the co-founders and co-directors of the world's largest writers' festival, the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford.
Hindu texts present diverse views on the position of women, ranging from feminine leadership as the highest goddess, to limiting gender roles. The Devi Sukta hymn of Rigveda, a scripture of Hinduism, declares the feminine energy as the essence of the universe, the one who creates all matter and consciousness, the eternal and infinite, the metaphysical and empirical reality (Brahman), the soul, of everything. The woman is celebrated as the most powerful and the empowering force in some Hindu Upanishads, Sastras and Puranas, particularly the Devi Upanishad, Devi Mahatmya and Devi-Bhagavata Purana.
Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer and columnist. Born in Kabul, she is the daughter of politician Murtaza Bhutto, sister of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr, niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and granddaughter of former Prime Minister and President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. She was raised in Syria and Karachi, and received her bachelor's degree from Barnard College, followed by a master's degree from the SOAS University of London.
Murtaza Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and leader of al-Zulfiqar, a Pakistani left-wing militant organization. The son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, he earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's degree from the University of Oxford. Murtaza founded al-Zulfiqar after his father was overthrown and executed in 1979 by the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq. In 1981, he claimed responsibility for the murder of conservative politician Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, and the hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines airplane from Karachi, during which a hostage was killed. In exile in Afghanistan, Murtaza was sentenced to death in absentia by a military tribunal.
Hamid Mir is a Pakistani journalist, columnist and writer. Mir initially worked as a journalist with Pakistani newspapers. He has hosted the political talk show Capital Talk on Geo News intermittently since 2002. He writes columns for Urdu as well as English newspapers, both national and international. He has been a contributor to the Global Opinions section of The Washington Post since June 2021. He is known for his stance against the dominance of the Establishment in Pakistan. Having survived two assassination attempts, Mir has been banned from television three times, and has lost his job twice due to his stand for press freedom and human rights.
The Konkani people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Konkan region of the Indian subcontinent. They speak various dialects of the Konkani language. Following the Konkani language agitation, Konkani became the premier official language of Goa state, while Marathi remains as the associate official language of Goa. Konkani is also spoken by populations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Damaon, Kerala, & Gujarat. A large percentage of Konkani people are bilingual.
The Lakshmi Devi temple is an early 12th-century Hindu temples complex located in Doddagaddavalli village in Hassan District, Karnataka India. The main temple consists of four-shrines that share a common mandapa (hall), each sanctum being a square and aligned to a cardinal direction. The eastern shrine has Goddess Lakshmi, the northern shrine is dedicated to Kali-Durga, the western to Shiva, and the southern is empty and likely Vishnu. The complex has a separate Bhairava shrine to the northeast of the main temple, and four small shrines at the corners inside a nearly square prakara (compound). All nine temples are notable for its pyramidal north Indian style Nagara shikhara – likely an influence from Maharashtra and an evidence of active flow of ideas between the southern, central and northern India. The complex has additional smaller shrines.
The Bhutto family is a Pakistani political family. The Bhuttos have played a prominent role in Pakistani politics and government. The family has held the leadership of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), since its inception in 1967. The Bhuttos have been settled in Sindh for over three centuries.
Abdul Majid Daryabadi was an Islamic scholar, philosopher, writer, critic, researcher, journalist and exegete of the Quran, who was active in the Indian subcontinent in the 20th century. As one of the most influential Indian Muslim scholars, he was much concerned with modernism, comparative religions and orientalism in India. In his early life, he became sceptical of religion and called himself a "rationalist". For almost nine years, he kept away from religion but eventually changed his maind and became a devout Muslim. He was actively associated with the Khilafat Movement, the Royal Asiatic Society, Aligarh Muslim University, Nadwatul Ulama, Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy and several other leading Islamic and literary organisations. He was a disciple of Ashraf Ali Thanwi and Hussain Ahmed Madani.
Tarapith is a town and Hindu pilgrimage site located in Rampurhat subdivision of Birbhum district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The town is particularly known for its Tantric temple and its adjoining Hindu crematory ground. The Tantric Hindu temple is dedicated to the goddess Tara.
This article contains the index of articles related to Jainism.
Kalighat Kali Temple is a Hindu temple in Kalighat, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. It is one of the 51 Shakti Pithas in eastern India.
The Brihaddharma Purana is a Hindu religious text, which classified itself (I.25.26) as the last of the 18 Upapuranas. The extant text comprises three khaņḑas (parts): pūrvakhaņḑa, madhyakhaņḑa and uttarakhaņḑa. On the basis of its usage of Sanskrit words with unusual meaning and Sanskrit proverbs popular in Bengal, a number of modern scholars believe that this text was written in Bengal. According to R. C. Hazra, a modern scholar, this text was composed in the second half of the 13th century. He classified it as a non-sectarian Upapurana.
The Oath of the Vayuputras is the third book of Amish Tripathi, third book of Amishverse, and also the third book of Shiva Trilogy. The book was released on 27 February 2013, through Westland Press and completes the mythical story about an imaginary land Meluha and how its inhabitants were saved by a barbarian named Shiva. Starting from where the previous installment left off, Shiva discovers what is the true evil in The Oath of the Vayuputras. Shiva then declares a holy war on those who seek to continue to use it, mainly the Emperors Daksha and Dilipa, who are being controlled by the sage Bhrigu. The battle rages on and Shiva travels to the land of Pariha to consult with Vayuputras, a legendary tribe. By the time he returns, the war has ended with Sati, his wife, being murdered. An enraged Shiva destroys the capital of Meluha and Somras is wiped out of history. The story concludes with Shiva and his associates being popularized as Gods for their deeds and accomplishments.
Barrister Iftikhar Ahmad is a Pakistani barrister, political activist and former military officer. He served in the Pakistan army between 1968-78. He fought in East Pakistan in 1971 and was a PoW in India. After the 1977 military coup, he resigned from the army, as a serving Major, in protest against General Zia's Martial Law. He began a period of exile in London and became a close associate of Mir Murtaza and Shah Nawaz Bhutto in the struggle against dictatorship, having joined the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1979. He later became a close aide to Benazir Bhutto and returned to Pakistan during Zia's rule, only to be jailed and tried in a court martial. After a successful appeal against a death sentence, he was released and became a prominent & respected PPP figure, serving as Advisor to the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, and later, as a Member of the Senate of Pakistan. He also held several party offices including President PPP (Overseas), Deputy Information Secretary PPP and was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the party. He parted ways with PPP on a matter of principle when Aftab Sherpao was ousted from the party. As a Barrister, he has been involved in prominent international legal cases and represented the State of Pakistan.
Uma Chakravarti is an Indian historian and filmmaker. Beginning in the 1980s, Chakravarti wrote extensively on Indian history highlighting issues relating to gender, caste, and class, publishing seven books over the course of her career. Her body of work mostly focused on the history of Buddhism, and that of ancient and 19th century India.
Songs of Blood and Sword (2010) is a memoir written by Pakistani writer and columnist Fatima Bhutto. The book recounts the murder of the author's father, Murtaza Bhutto, by the Pakistani police in Karachi in 1996, when she was a 14-year-old. The story covers the events she saw through her eyes in her young lifetime.
The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India 1800–1990 is a book by Radha Kumar. First published in 1993 in New Delhi by Kali for Women after a Norwegian organisation's grant of Rs 1.4 lakh, and later published by Zubaan and Verso, the illustrated book is "a brief interpretative history of women's movements in India from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the present day", as the first line of the introduction concisely conveys.
