Tag: Muslim

Asia, India

Freedom at midnight: Indian independence came at a high cost

  Today, on the 70th birthday of my homeland, I reread Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s evocative speech, delivered just before India gained independence from oppressive British rule. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when … Continue reading Freedom at midnight: Indian independence came at a high cost

Moni Basu
Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Religion, War, War & Conflict

The price of independence

It’s too bad “Midnight’s Children” was a bust at the box office. I’m thinking that Deepa Mehta was perhaps the wrong director to give us the celluloid depiction of Salman Rushdie’s terrific book, which won the Booker Prize in 1981. The protagonist and narrator of Rushdie’s story, Saleem Sinai, is born at the exact moment when India gained independence from Britain. The film, had it been … Continue reading The price of independence

Moni Basu3 Comments