We also know of generations of Deccan Muslim teachers, scholars, and rulers who were buried at Khuldabad before and after Aurangzeb. They had nothing to do with his wars, intolerance.
This outreach is not new. As chief minister of Gujarat, Modi engaged with Sufi leaders, and since 2015 his government has actively courted Sufi communities.
In Nizamuddin dargah’s shadow, young rappers are giving Sufi culture a hip-hop spin. “Qawwali doesn’t let us say what we want to say. Rap gives us that space,” said rapper Umaid Abbas.
In last 5 months, Hazrat Shah Paran in Sylhet, Dewanbagh Darbar Sharif in Narayanganj, Yajoora Darbar Sharif in Nangalkot & Rashidiya Darbar Sharif shrine in Kumarkhali targeted.
While BJP's Hindu leaders have stayed silent or said matter should be left to courts, several Muslim leaders including minority wing chief & a former Union minister have expressed concern.
The shrine — a confluence of Islamic Sufism and the Hindu Avadhuta tradition — has become the focus of a Sangh Parivar campaign to ‘liberate’ it from Muslim influence.
In ‘Narrative Pasts’, Jyoti Gulati Balachandran writes that when Le Corbusier visited Sarkhej he remarked, ‘Why do you need to visit the Acropolis in Athens when you have this here?’
From Munir’s point of view, a few bumps here and there is par for the course. He isn’t going to drive his dumper truck to its doom. He wants to use it as a weapon.
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