Almost 10 months ago I spoke to Hussain Kodinhi of Times of India. Though a major part of my interview was about Islam and many of the c...
Almost 10 months ago I spoke to Hussain Kodinhi of Times of India. Though a major part of my interview was about Islam and many of the challenges that Muslims are facing in the modern multicultural world, I also spoke about the urgent need for Hindu-Muslim dialogue in South Asia for building peace in that part of the volatile world. And earlier this month, when I was on a lecture tour of England, after one of my lectures there on the philosopher Muhammad Iqbal, a British Muslim convert ( she attended my lecture) referred to my interview (fully published on Mr Hussain's blog, as she found it through Google search) and this generated a good discussion). And as India is now on the eve of a crucial parliamentary election (or part of the election process has been already completed), the theme of dialogue between Muslims and Hindus in South Asia is very relevant, more than ever before. In my interview, I also talk about my upcoming translation of Bhagavad Gita (the prime Hindu religious text), my work on Raja Ram Mohan Roy (the 19th century Hindu reformer who knew Arabic and Persian), the question of Islamic reform, the growth of Islamophobia in the West, Vaikkom Muhammad Bashir, OV. Vijayan and Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (the three giants of Kerala literature), etc.
