On My Mind

Bahadur Shah Zafar  was the last Mughal Emperor. Accompanied by his wife Zinat Mahal and 2 sons Mirza Jawan Bhakt and Mirza Shah Abbas and daughter-in-law Shah Zamani Begum (wife of Jawan Bhakt), he was sent to Rangoon after the revolt of 1857 had been crushed and that his where he died. Bahadur Shah died on Nov. 7, 1862, at the ripe old age of 87. By 1872 Shah Zamani Begum became completely blind. Mirza Shah Abbas married a girl from Rangoon, a daughter of a local Muslim merchant. His descendants  still live in Rangoon  today. Zinat Mahal lived on alone, comforting her loneliness with opium. She died in 1886. Her body was buried near her husband’s grave. A few years later Mirza Jawan Bakht died of stroke. He was 42. Here in India,  Sultana Begum  lives in a slum area of Kolkata off a pension of around INR 6,000 per month. She is the  wife of Prince Mirza Bedar Bukht, the great-grandson of Bahadur Shah Zafar  who was secretly brought back to India in 1925, hidden in a basket of f

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." This quote is the focal point of liberalism which is based on the ideas of equality and liberty. There are different variants and schools of liberalism but the forementioned two ideas are more or less common to all, though to different degrees. Not anymore. Liberalism has taken a turn where ideas have to stick to the conformity of the boundaries laid by the upper echelons of liberals. The central ideas which seem to be approved are open world, no boundaries, no discrimination, appeasing minorities (religious, linguistic, sexual, racial amongst others). There is no room left for discussion, nor is any allowed. Take this for example. A recent incident in India involving Ms. Gurmehar Kaur stormed the nation. There were two sets of people, one presumably liberals who supported her call for peace and end of warmongering, and the other set which opposed her ideas. Both sides