THE MUSLIM WORLD and high-ranking administrators. Sarojini Naidu — later an independence activist and the Indian National Congress’ second female president — received a scholarship for higher studies in England while her father served as a school teacher in Hyderabad. The Nizam bestowed upon her the title of Bulbul-e-Hind (The Nightingale of India). Naidu’s poem “Ode to H.H. The Nizam of Hyderabad” praised him for his love of humanity and generosity: “The peoples whom your laws embrace,/ In brotherhood of diverse creed,/ And harmony of diverse race:” The poem is included in her famous book, The Golden Threshold.
THE NIZAM’S LEGACY
Legacies are part of the histories of nations and provide lessons the future generations. There are numerous stories about the Nizam’s magnanimity and justice for all his subjects. The political facts about India’s annexation of the state are buried in public libraries, books, handwritten documents and newspapers. The Nizam has left a rich legacy of peace, racial equality, prosperity, free education, access to medical care and freedom to worship. He provided support for the upkeep and maintenance of Hindu, Jain and Sikh temples, as well as mosques. A poet and the author of My Two Eyes, he made Hindu-Muslim unity his life’s goal. It is therefore unjust to label him a prejudiced Muslim ruler. His legacy is multifaceted and covers many dimensions. The financial rescue of India at the time of its 1962 war with China and Pakistan’s bailout in 1947 are historical facts. His glorious legacy will remain forever in the pages of the Subcontinent’s independence from the British Raj. Instead of seeking the company of the other the Asif Jah royals, Mir Osman Ali chose to be buried next to his mother in Masjid-e Joodi. ih Zaheer Parvez, a retired health science officer of the Veterans Administration Medical Research Service in Washington, D.C., is a former president of the Hyderabad Association of Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area (HAWMA).
Why Muslim Governments Have Abandoned Xinjiang Each Muslim government has sold out Xinjiang’s Muslim-majority population in order to benefit from China’s New Silk Road initiative BY HILAL SHIMLAVI
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ast year brought more bad news for mineral- and oil-rich Xinjiang, China’s western Muslim-majority and strategically vital autonomous region. According to the South China Morning Post (Oct. 13, 2016), as of Nov. 1, 2016, Uyghur parents and guardians who encourage their minor children to engage in religious activities will be reported to the police and jailed. The rules, published in the Xinjiang Daily, also informed those parents who cannot guide their children away from “harmful extremist ways” can apply to have them sent to “rectification” schools. In fact, Beijing “welcomed” Ramadan 2016 by restricting civil servants, students and children from fasting.
A TROUBLED RELATIONSHIP
Xinjiang hosts half of China’s approximately 20 million Muslims. Known as the Uyghur, they are an ethnically Turkic (i.e., non-Han) people. When the former Soviet Central Asian republics became independent, many Muslims in Xinjiang hoped they would acquire their relatives’ and co-religionists’ new status as well. After all, the region had declared its independence twice before: during 1933-34, when a rebellion in Kashgar against the Republic of China’s rule led to the short-lived First East Turkestan Republic (a.k.a. the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan) and, with Soviet support, the Second East Turkistan Republic (1944-49). But this was not to be, because ever since Chairman Mao died in 1976, this “wasteland,” which accounts for more than one-sixth of China’s total territory and one-quarter of its boundary length, has been transformed into a vitally strategic part of China’s New Silk Road initiative. Unfortunately for those Uyghur who long for independence, their capital city of Urumqi is now the major hub of those pipelines connecting China with the oil and natural gas fields of Central Asia. Therefore, Beijing is never going to let Xinjiang go without a fight. There are other concerns as well. According to The Diplomat (March 2015), “The New Silk
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Road is undeniably related to security issues in China’s Western frontier, beset with what Beijing calls the ‘three evils’ of terrorism, separatism and fundamentalism. The repression of Muslim Uyghurs has long inspired fighters from Central Asia (and Afghanistan) to support them. Indeed, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s recent threat to occupy part of Xinjiang and his message to the Uyghurs that ‘your brothers all over the world are waiting for your rescue, and are anticipating your brigades’ appears to have been taken seriously by the Chinese leadership. One can reasonably infer that Central Asia has become even more significant to the security of China.” Moreover, “Xinjiang province,‘sitting on some of China’s largest energy reserves and crucial to the Silk Road project,’ has had many serious outbreaks of violence in recent years. Beijing hopes that economic development will pacify the riots in the region” (Forbes, Jan. 15, 2016). And yet despite this professed hope, Beijing continues to irritate the indigenous inhabitants. One wonders if this is deliberate or if it is somehow beyond Beijing’s ability to understand that indigenous people often prefer to adhere to their own customs, traditions, and worldviews. Despite the massive influx of Han and other peoples, the Uyghur remain a sizeable proportion of the population. Among the most resented official policies are those that target their religious identity. This became clear during Ramadan 2016, for various reasons. Before Ramadan 2016 even began, central Xinjiang’s Korla city website proclaimed, “Party