Ismat Ara

2 months ago | themuslimtimes.info | Rafiq A. Tschannen |Ismat Ara

Mar 15, 2025 5:00 PM SSTIdeasidentitybyIsmat AraAs an Indian Muslim, I have learned to say many words in whispers. The thought recently struck me when my husband and I were at a McDonald’s in Thailand that casually offered beef burgers to customers. The word “beef” felt oddly jarring to me. Unlike in India, beef is just another ingredient: unremarkable, uncontroversial, undeserving of a national debate. It had been a long time since I’d even heard the word beef spoken freely.

2 months ago | time.com | Ismat Ara

As an Indian Muslim, I have learned to say many words in whispers. The thought recently struck me when my husband and I were at a McDonald’s in Thailand that casually offered beef burgers to customers. The word “beef” felt oddly jarring to me. Unlike in India, beef is just another ingredient: unremarkable, uncontroversial, undeserving of a national debate. It had been a long time since I’d even heard the word beef spoken freely. In India, I don’t say it.

Feb 1, 2025 | ismatara.medium.com | Ismat Ara

Ismat Ara·Follow2 min read·--19 December, 2024(3 PM, Hotel Room, Agra)The Taj Mahal is less than five kilometers away. I know this because Google Maps tells me so. It also tells me that an auto ride will take 13 minutes and cost 79 rupees. It tells me the entry fee, the visiting hours, and that sunset today is at 5:28 PM, which is apparently the best time to be there. But here I am, in my hotel room, scrolling through food delivery apps. I can see the Taj in my mind.

Aug 20, 2024 | frontline.thehindu.com | Ayesha Minhaz |Ismat Ara |Shakir Mir |Saba Naqvi

The Madigas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are elated over a historic victory. The community’s three-decade struggle for reservation, led by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS), came to fruition on August 1 when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of subcategorisation of the Scheduled Castes (SCs). The judgment, which establishes that SCs are not a homogeneous unit, will pave the way for a carve-out within the current 15 per cent quota for SCs in the Telugu-speaking States.

Aug 20, 2024 | frontline.thehindu.com | Madhulika Liddle |Saba Naqvi |Ismat Ara |Ayesha Minhaz

The English geographer, historian, and cartographer James Rennell, known for his strikingly accurate maps of India, wrote in the preface to his 1788 book, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or The Mogul Empire “…almost every particular relating to Hindoostan is [sic] become an object of popular curiosity.”Rennell, of course, was using the obsession with India as a peg to introduce the country, its history and geography, to his readers, but this popular fascination (not just in Britain but in the...