Blogs

People are fond of saying, “may you live in interesting times”. After the 2014 election results, I must say I fervently wish I didn’t. Yet here we are, faced with a nightmare that many of us could scarcely have imagined possible, or envisaged the scale and enormity of.  And I am not sure I have anything to say at the moment regarding this debacle that would add to the many excellent commentaries on the subject that are doing the rounds.

 “What is a mosque?”  This very simple and straightforward question introduces us to two very different perspectives, which actually shape and constitute the dominant discourse on Islamic built environment in postcolonial South Asia. There is a legal-technical perspective on mosques, which revolves around the architectural attributes, archaeological significance, historical values and/or legal status of mosques. More precisely, this perspective conceptualises mosques as architectural/historical/legal objects, and attempts to map out their placing in the wider secular discourses.

I was part of that last generation of South Africans who had an experience of apartheid.   This years commemorations coincide with the divisive exaggerations of  an impending election on 7 May,  and have been both laconic and polarising.  What could have been a unifying moment of a past remembered and future reimagined has turned out rather differently. 20 years after that first election we are a country divided, between those who say we have to celebrate, and those who lament that we can only commiserate.

I have met and spoken to Medha Patkar on five or six occasions. As far as I can remember only on one of these occasions was she normal.  On all the other instances she was weak, exhausted, dehydrated & hungry. In stark contrast to her usual self she was barely able to talk. In case you have started wondering why I have been meeting her in these strange set of circumstances, let me explain.