I. Mustafa Azemmouri and the Earliest Muslim Presence in America

One of the earliest known Muslims to set foot on what is now United States soil was Mustafa Azemmouri, known in Spanish records as Estebanico. Born in Morocco, Azemmouri was enslaved by Portuguese traders, sold in Spain, and forced to join the ill-fated Narváez expedition. In 1528, the expedition landed in present-day western Florida.¹ Unlike most of his European companions, Azemmouri survived years of shipwreck, starvation, and hostile terrain. He later emerged as an indispensable member of the expedition, traversing vast regions of what are now Arizona and New Mexico.² Contemporary accounts describe him as a gifted linguist, a master of sign language, a healer trusted by Indigenous communities, and a man skilled in navigation and the use of the astrolabe.³ His presence alone disrupts conventional timelines of American exploration, demonstrating that Muslims were present in North America nearly a century before permanent English settlement.

II. West Africa, Islam, and the Slave Trade

The majority of enslaved Africans transported to the Americas originated from West Africa—a region that, by the late medieval period, had undergone extensive Islamization. Understanding American Muslim heritage therefore requires engagement with the intellectual and institutional history of West Africa itself.

Mosques as Centers of Knowledge

In much of the contemporary Muslim world, mosques primarily function as spaces for ritual prayer and as intellectual echo chambers where inherited interpretations are repeated without sustained critical engagement. This represents a sharp departure from the mosque’s original civilizational role. In the premodern Muslim world, mosques were the nerve centers of intellectual life—universities in the fullest sense. Within mosque complexes, scholars debated theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, logic, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and the natural sciences. Fundamental cosmological questions—such as whether the universe was created in time or eternal—were openly contested.⁴ Instruction took place in open teaching circles (ḥalaqāt), where students were encouraged to question, challenge and refine ideas. Advanced students—what might today be called graduate scholars—then carried this knowledge across Africa, the Mediterranean, and beyond.

These mosque-based institutions created what has been described as “a civilization of international encyclopedic magnitude.” Harvard historian George Sarton famously observed that medieval Muslim civilization achieved a level of encyclopedic knowledge unmatched in its time, noting that: “Briefest enumeration of the Arabic contributions to knowledge would be too long to be inserted here…The creation of a new civilization of international and encyclopaedic magnitude within less than two centuries is something that we describe, but cannot explain…Indeed the superiority of Muslim culture, say in the eleventh century, was so great that we can understand their intellectual pride. It is easy to imagine their doctors speaking of western barbarians almost in the same spirit as ours do of the ‘Orientals.’ If there had been some ferocious eugenists among the Moslems the might have suggested some means breeding out all the western Christians and Greeks because of their hopeless backwardness.” 5

Timbuktu and Sankoré University in Colonial Times

One of the most striking embodiments of this tradition was the Sankoré Mosque and other mosques in Timbuktu. By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Sankoré functioned as a fully developed university supported by charitable endowments. Thousands of students studied there, and its scholars attracted audiences from across North and West Africa.⁶ As documented in Tārīkh al-Sudān and modern scholarship by Ousmane Kane and Nehemia Levtzion, Timbuktu housed libraries, produced original scholarship, and operated within a vast transregional intellectual network.⁷ These institutions flourished centuries before any comparable centers of higher learning existed in colonial North America.

There were many other mosques across West Africa that functioned in similar ways as centers of higher learning. West Africa was therefore not “uncivilized” in the colonial era; it possessed highly developed educational institutions and scholarly networks that long predated—and in many cases surpassed—what existed in colonial North America.

III. Who Were the Enslaved Africans?

The transatlantic slave trade forcibly relocated not only agricultural laborers but also scholars, engineers, jurists, veterinarians, and pastoral experts from Muslim West Africa. Evidence from slave narratives, court records, and archival documents confirms the presence of enslaved Muslim intellectuals and learned elites in the Americas. Prominent examples include Ayuba Suleiman Diallo (Job ben Solomon), who came from a distinguished family of Islamic scholars in Senegambia, and Ibrahim Abd al-Rahman, a Fulbe nobleman and Islamic scholar from Futa Jallon (Guinea), captured in 1788—whose portrait is preserved in the Library of Congress.⁸ Drawing on demographic and cultural analysis, Michael A. Gomez estimates that approximately 50–55 percent of enslaved West Africans were Muslims, reflecting the religious composition of major source regions such as Senegambia and Futa Jallon.⁹ This figure may be conservative. As Daniel C. Littlefield and other historians note, colonial planters in the rice-producing Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia deliberately preferred captives from Gambia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and the broader Rice Coast due to their expertise in irrigation, dike construction, tidal rice cultivation, swamp ecology, cattle herding, and water management.¹⁰ Crucially, these regions—apart from Liberia—were overwhelmingly Muslim: The Gambia (~97%), Senegal (~95–97%), Guinea (~85%), and Sierra Leone (~77–78%), compared with Liberia (~12–13%). This demographic reality strengthens the likelihood that the proportion of Muslims among enslaved West Africans, particularly those assigned to plantation economies and cattle herding may have exceeded 55 percent during key periods.

IV. Agriculture, Rice Technology, and Early American Wealth

Between 1500 and 1800, agriculture formed the backbone of the American economy. European settlers, however, lacked expertise in tropical agriculture, irrigation engineering, and animal husbandry. These deficiencies were remedied through the forced labor and technical knowledge of West Africans. Rice Cultivation and Hydraulic Engineering Enslaved Africans introduced advanced rice-growing systems, including tidal rice fields, earthen dikes, and wooden rice trunks—hydraulic valves that regulated freshwater flow while preventing saltwater intrusion.¹⁰ These systems required sophisticated understanding of fluid dynamics, soil chemistry, and lunar tidal cycles. By the mid-eighteenth century, rice exports from South Carolina exceeded sixty million pounds annually, accounting for more than half of the colony’s export value and generating immense wealth.¹¹ Comparable hydraulic technologies had long existed across the Muslim world, as documented by Thomas Glick’s study of irrigation in medieval Valencia.¹²

V. Architecture, Veterinary Science, and Tabby Construction

In Georgia and Florida, many colonial structures were built using tabby—a durable composite of lime from burned oyster shells, sand, water, and ash. Scholars have traced tabby construction techniques to North and West African architectural traditions.¹³ On Sapelo Island, the enslaved Muslim Bilali Muhammad supervised construction using these methods yet received no legal recognition or credit for his expertise.¹⁴

VI. Cattle Herding and Animal Medicine

Pastoral societies of Muslim West Africa—including Tuareg-influenced regions linked to Timbuktu’s early history—possessed centuries of experience in cattle herding and veterinary science. Enslaved Africans were therefore deliberately selected for work as cowboys, cattle drivers, horse trainers, and dairy workers in South Carolina and Louisiana.¹⁵ Despite these contributions, an 1858 ruling by the U.S. Patent Office barred enslaved individuals from holding patents, ensuring that African intellectual property entered American development without attribution.¹⁶

VII. Muslims and the Founding of the United States

Muslims were not absent from early American political imagination. According to “The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, Vol. 1, p. 232,” “If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mahometans [Muslims], Jews or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists.” There were two Muslim women at Mount Vernon of George Washington named Fathimier and Little Fathimier. Fathima. being the daughter of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh). is popular name among Muslims. Thomas Jefferson, in explaining Virginia’s statute for religious freedom, explicitly affirmed protections for “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan [Muslim].”¹⁷ During the North Carolina ratifying convention, James Iredell acknowledged that Muslims could hold public office under the Constitution.¹⁸ Morocco became the first country to recognize the United States, maintaining diplomatic correspondence with George Washington. Jefferson later hosted an ifṭār dinner at the White House in 1808 for a Tunisian envoy, reflecting early American engagement with the Muslim world.¹⁹

VIII. Islam and the Abolition of Slavery

The Lincoln administration sought guidance from Tunisia, Muslim country, which abolished slavery in 1846—nearly two decades before the United States. The archives of Diplomatic correspondence records with the heading, “Papers presented to 39th Congress by President Lincoln,” has the reply the enquiry by Lincoln Administration on slavery. It states that the Tunisian ruler Ahmed Bey framing abolition as a moral imperative rooted in justice: “" Ahmed Bay Concluded: “It is my belief also that …There can be no permanent prosperity [for a nation] without justice, and justice results from freedom…since God has permitted you to enjoy full personal liberty and to manage your civil and political affairs yourselves, …it would not tarnish the luster of your crown to grant freedom to your slaves, … such civil rights are not to be denied to the humblest and meanest of your citizens.”²⁰

VIII. American Muslims in the Twenty-First Century

Today, American Muslims continue to shape national life. According to the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Muslims donate approximately $4.3 billion annually to charitable causes, with average household giving exceeding national norms.²¹ Muslims are disproportionately represented among physicians and dentists and contribute significantly to U.S. patent activity. American Muslims have also been recognized at the highest levels of scientific achievement, including Nobel Prizes awarded to Ahmed Zewail, Aziz Sancar, Moungi Bawendi, and Omar Yaghi.

Conclusion

Muslim presence in America predates the nation itself. More than half of enslaved West Africans were Muslims—educated, skilled, and embedded in sophisticated intellectual traditions. Their knowledge absorbed into America and generated early American wealth, shaped its infrastructure, and informed its moral discourse. Though their names were systematically erased, their legacy remains embedded in the foundations of the United States. American Muslim heritage is not peripheral to American history. It is constitutive of it.

…

FOOTNOTES

1. Andrés Reséndez, A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 34–36.
2. Ibid., 112–145.
3. Ibid., 178–181.
4. George Makdisi, The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981).
5. George Sarton, The History of Science and the New Humanism (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1956), 87–90.
6. Nehemia Levtzion, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London: Methuen, 1973), 137–145.
7. Al-Saʿdī, Tārīkh al-Sudān, trans. John O. Hunwick (London: Routledge, 2000); Ousmane Kane, Beyond Timbuktu: An Intellectual History of Muslim West Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016).
8. Allan D. Austin, African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 1997).
9. Michael A. Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 62–70.
10. Daniel C. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981).
11. Ibid., 89–95.
12. Thomas F. Glick, Irrigation and Society in Medieval Valencia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).
13. Littlefield, Rice and Slaves, 142–148.
14. Gomez, Black Crescent, 151–155.
15. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992).
16. U.S. Patent Office, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1858 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1859).
17. Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul Leicester Ford (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1892), 1:66.
18. James Iredell, speech at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention, July 30, 1788.
19. White House Historical Association, “Thomas Jefferson’s Ramadan Dinner,” 2009.
20. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1865, pt. 3, doc. 318.
21. Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Amplifying Muslim American Generosity (2024).

Courtesy: New Age Islam

The post American Muslim Heritage: Five Centuries of Muslim Life in America appeared first on SabrangIndia.

मुंबई के संजय गांधी नेशनल पार्क, बोरिवली में अवैध अतिक्रमण हटाने पहुंची वन विभाग और पुलिस की टीम पर स्थानीय निवासियों ने पथराव कर दिया, जिससे माहौल तनावपूर्ण हो गया। अदालत द्वारा गैर‑आदिवासी अतिक्रमण हटाने का आदेश दिए जाने के बाद जब कार्रवाई शुरू हुई, तो वहां रह रहे परिवारों ने… pic.twitter.com/RtxetyZZFV

— NDTV India (@ndtvindia) January 26, 2026

Meanwhile Anish Gavande, activist has, in an open lettrer to Ganesh Naik, Maharashtra Minister for Forests, appealed for the immediate halt in demolitions and protection of their life and property. This letter was made public at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 26. (NCPSP/NS/AG/27012026/001 Date: 27 January, 2026)

Quoting credible reports, Gavande states that “multiple Adivasi hamlets are facing demolition from January 19 this year without completed surveys, verified resident lists, or the lawful conclusion of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) process. Proceeding with evictions is a direct violation of Sections 4(1) and 4(5) of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, which explicitly prohibit eviction until all individual and community claims are verified through the Gram Sabhas. Eviction notices have been pasted late at night, with incorrect names and without field verification, denying residents a fair opportunity to seek legal remedy.”

Gavande also states that “equally concerning is the withdrawal of essential services. Electricity has been cut, BEST bus services suspended, and community facilities shut, with children being unable to attend school…..The justification that action is limited to so-called “re-encroachers” ignores the structural failure of rehabilitation. For Adivasi families whose livelihoods depend on land, livestock, and forest ecology, relocation to small SRA flats is neither viable nor lawful rehabilitation. This reality cannot be erased through administrative labelling. Conservation cannot be pursued by bypassing the law, particularly when large infrastructure projects continue within the same forest landscape.”

He has urged for the immediate halt all demolition activity, restore essential services, and ensure that no eviction proceeds until all FRA claims are lawfully settled through the Gram Sabha process. Failing timely intervention, affected communities and those supporting them will have no option but to intensify democratic protest and pursue all available legal and constitutional remedies.”

The letter may be seen here.

Finally the pressure worked and the demolitions were halted.

At 6.30 p.m. on January 27, IANS reported that Minister Ganesh Naik says, “The thing is that National Park is sensitive. Honorable High Court has ordered them to vacate the park. But still, without informing people it is not right to remove them. We have given houses to many people, but still they are not going. So, to find out whether it is true or false, a meeting is being held. I will inform you again after the meeting…”

Mumbai, Maharashtra: On Stone pelting situation in Borivali National Park Minister Ganesh Naik says, “The thing is that National Park is sensitive. Honorable High Court has ordered them to vacate the park. But still, without informing people it is not right to remove them. We… pic.twitter.com/k9yeJ6tYJJ

— IANS (@ians_india) January 27, 2026

Related:

Mumbai: Hundreds of people displaced after demolitions in Jai Bhim Nagar

Demolitions in Mumbai’s Behrampada before Eid

BJP MLA Nitesh Rane leads Hindutva Rally in Govandi, demands demolition of “illegal Masjids and Madrasa”

Govandi slum demolition: Temporary halt after protests outside BMC office by residents, those rendered homeless to rebuild their homes at the same site

The post Demolition of Adivasi homes at Sanjay Gandhi National Park on Republic Day appeared first on SabrangIndia.

रतलाम – प्रेम विवाह करने वाले परिवारों का बहिष्कार किया जाएगा,
ना दूध मिलेगा, ना किराना … गांव का कोई शख्स उस परिवार के कार्यक्रम में हिस्सा नहीं लेगा साथ देने वालों का भी सामाजिक बहिष्कार होगा. pic.twitter.com/MLhL30HMnt

— Anurag Dwary (@Anurag_Dwary) January 26, 2026

Reactions from other social media users were sharp: “The decision by a village in Ratlam to socially boycott families over love marriages is a blatant violation of individual autonomy and Constitutional rights. In a democratic society, the right to choose a life partner is a fundamental freedom. Enforcing ‘social excommunication’ by cutting off access to essential goods like milk and groceries is not just regressive; it is a form of harassment that should be met with strict legal intervention.”

Residents have claimed that the social boycott decision was taken after eight couples from the village eloped and got married in the past six months.

The said video showed a man announcing that young men and women who elope and marry for love as well as their families would be socially boycotted and not invited to any event. Even those helping such persons would face the same action, he further stated. Other action, as announced by the man in the video, will include denying employment to such couples as well as daily necessities like milk. The man in the video also announces that “priests, barbers and other service providers will not go to their houses”, and adds that “anyone who helps the couple, shelters them, acts as a witness to the marriage or supports them in any way will also be socially boycotted”.

Following up on reports in NDTV Hindi and the Tribune, quoted the Collector Misha Singh stating on Monday, Republic Day, that the people in the video had been identified and police had been asked to take action in this regard.  “Our probe has revealed the decision against love marriages was taken not by the Gram Sabha, but by the villagers themselves,” she added.

In addition, the Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Vivek Kumar Lal also told the media that these people are being “bound over” (making it legally binding on a person to maintain good conduct and not disturb peace). Further action would also be taken after a detailed investigation, Lal said.

The past six-eight years has seen a mounting hysteria on the issue of inter-community and inter-caste marriages, building up to such an irrational crescendo that, the most conservative and rigid societal tendencies are gaining strength, being emboldened by both this rhetoric and these laws. Nine states led by Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Karnataka, Jharkand and Haryana already of these draconian, anti-freedom and anti-personal choice and autonomy laws, nullifying the impact of the existing Special Marriages Act, 1951.

A constitutional challenge to these state laws has been launched by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (cjp.org.in) and is pending before the Supreme Court of India since 2020. The next hearing of the case is on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.

Related:

Haryana: “Upper castes” booked for social boycott of 150 Dalit families

Haryana govt denies social boycott of Dalits, SC takes tough stand

Triple Talaq Row: Social Boycott as Punishment Is Juvenile; AIMPLB Must Follow Quran and Accept Inevitability of Change

The post MP: Village in Ratlam gives call to ‘socially boycott’ families over love marriages appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The ‘red flag’ march is being led by leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the All India Kisan Sabha. Just a week back, Adivasi farmers had protested –another 40-50,000 of them, after marching to the Collectorate, outside its office and making their demands plain in Palghar. Reports of that march may be read here.

A video may be seen here below.

आज किसान लॉंग मार्च इगतपुरी से ७ बजे शुरू होगी

The vibrant protest, in which several women also participated, was led by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and AIKS National President Dr. Ashok Dhawale, former CPI(M) Central Committee member alongside former AIKS State President J.P Gavit, and ex-MLA, CPI(M) Central Committee member, State Secretary and AIKS National Joint Secretary Dr. Ajit Nawale,

Demands related to critical agricultural and labour issues have been raised. The statement released by the CPI (M)-AIKS said, “The march raised the issues related to neglecting the numerous assurances around the Forest Rights Act (FRA)—especially the finalisation of land claims,  and application of PESA, irrigation schemes, filling of thousands of vacancies in Zilla Parishad schools teachers, etc.”

“The second set of issues is centred around pro-corporate policies of the BJP-led Central and State Governments, like the smart meter scheme, undermining of  MNREGA and rural employment, land grab by the government-corporate nexus, the imposition of  four labour codes etc,” the CPI(M)-AIKS statement added.

Related:

50,000 strong Adivasi, farmers march from Charoti to Palghar, hold indefinite dharna for land rights

Kisan Long March ends with Fresh Promises to Farmers

The post Sea of red as CPI (M)-AIKS march leaves Nashik towards Mumbai, demands resolution of farmer and Adivasi issues appeared first on SabrangIndia.

(“Bulleh! I know not who I am.
I am neither a believer in the mosque,
Nor an unbeliever in the rites of heresy.
I am neither among the pure, nor among the polluted.”)

Did the twenty something boys and girls who hammered away at the shrine know anything at all about the raw honesty and introspection of the great philosopher? Did they know about his lifelong rebellion against Organised Religion including Islam and Hinduism?
No, they did not!

Their education and understanding of the world is limited to a zombie binary called Hindu versus Musalman.

Wrote the Sufi Saint:

Makkay gaya gal mukdee nahee
Pavein sau sau jummay parh aiye
Ganga gaya gal mukdee nahee
Pavein sau sau gotay khaiye

(“Going to Mecca doesn’t settle the matter,
Even if you pray a hundred Fridays there.
Going to the Ganges doesn’t settle the matter,
Even if you take a hundred ritual dips.”)

When asked why they comited this heinous act, one Lalit of Hindu Seva Dal replied “because his grave lies in Pakistan.”

God help the future generations of this country.

Courtesy: Facebook / Pushpinder Singh 

The post I feel a deep sense of sorrow as I sing to myself these verses by Baba Bulle Shah appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Who is Girish Mahajan? A seven times elected MLA from Jamner constituency im Jalgaon district amd guardian minister for Nashik. Mahajan also an entrenched member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and a close aide of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis courted criticism and controversy when he failed to mention Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on his Republic Day address on Monday. January 26.

A woman officer of the Forest Department in uniform was vocal and emotional in her outspoken outburst. “I will not allow Dr Babasaheb’s legacy and contribution to be erased,” reported ABP Marathi and Economic Times. Social media too was flooded with messages castigating Mahajan and expressing support for Madhavi Jadhav. The minister reportedly made several references to personalities in his Republic Day address, including religious figures. However Dr Babasaheb who is venerated for his remarkable contribution on being an architect of the constitution was committed! The ideologues of the far Hindu right have been forever uncomfortable with this rich tradition that challenged caste hierarchy be ut Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule or Ambedkar.

It was while the 77th Republic Day celebrations were being observed with enthusiasm across the country on Sunday, an incident in Nashik triggered political and administrative unrest after Maharashtra minister Girish Mahajan was accused of not mentioning Dr BR Ambedkar in his Republic Day address. The controversy unfolded during a Republic Day programme organised in Nashik when Madhavi Jadhav, a woman employee from the forest department, openly questioned Mahajan for omitting Ambedkar’s name in his speech. Following the confrontation, tension prevailed briefly at the venue, prompting police to take Jadhav into custody to restore order.

Girish Mahajan compelled to express regret

Speaking to the media after the incident, Girish Mahajan said the omission was unintentional and expressed regret over the matter. “It must have happened unintentionally. I had no such intention. I raised slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai’. I had no intention of deliberately omitting any name,” Mahajan said. He added that such incidents do not usually occur during his speeches and expressed remorse over the controversy.

“Suspend Me, But I Won’t Apologise”

Clarifying her stand, Madhavi Jadhav maintained that she would not apologise for questioning the minister. She said Dr Ambedkar, as the architect of the Constitution, must be acknowledged on Republic Day. “The minister made a mistake. I will not apologise. The minister should take responsibility. If you want to suspend me, do it. I will not allow Babasaheb’s identity to be erased,” she said. Jadhav further stated that she was repeatedly waiting for Ambedkar’s name to be mentioned during the speech but it never came up, despite references to other leaders.

“The names of people who were not responsible for democracy and the Constitution were repeatedly mentioned. Then why was the name of the real creator of the Constitution missing?” she asked. She added that while she does not believe in the dates of August 15 or January 26, she firmly believes in democracy and constitutional values.

Related: 

Standing Truth on its Head: Ambedkar and BJP agenda

On his 135th birth anniversary, we ask, would Ambedkar be allowed free speech in India today?

Dr BR Ambedkar: How the ongoing tussle between the BJP and Congress is both limited & superficial

The post Republic Day 2026: Omission of Ambedkar in Girish Mahajan’s speech sparks outrage  appeared first on SabrangIndia.

According to a notification uploaded on the board’s website, the 50 supernumerary seats shall be distributed strictly based on the NEET-UG merit of the candidates concerned and their preferences among the seven newly established government medical colleges. The U-turn came after weeks of national outrage when the board had r said it cannot conduct fresh counselling for MBBS admissions and that the allocation of supernumerary seats to those who were admitted to the SMVDIME should be decided at the government level.

This sudden clarification came in a letter to the Union Territory’s health and medical education department, which sought its intervention in the relocation of students of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME).

Now, the Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) said it will  conduct fresh counselling for the 2025-26 session for the medical students of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Institute of Medical Excellence (SMVDIME). Students have now been called for their counselling tomorrow, Saturday January 24 reports The Hindistan Times and Indian Express. This is for allotment of colleges across the Valley and Jammu.

The students, it is reported, would now be adjusted in seven government medical colleges of the union territory – three in the Kashmir valley and four in the  province of Jammu. While 22 seats are available spread across Kashmir colleges, 28 students will be adjusted in Jammu.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) had earlier this month withdrawn the permission it had earlier granted to SMVDIME to conduct an MBBS course in the current academic year. This has left 50 MBBS students who joined the institute without a college. Ironically, the NMC had cited deficiencies in college infrastructure and operations; however, the much criticised decision had come in the wake of far right-wing groups protesting against the course’s demography – of the 50 students, 44 were Muslim, and most were from Kashmir.

“That the Board shall conduct the physical round of counselling to accommodate MBBS students of SMVDIME Katra to the Govt. Medical Colleges within the UT of J&K against the supernumerary seats so created,” the BOPEE has now said in a fresh notification.

The notification said that the Health and Medical Education department has conveyed the seat matrix of the 50 supernumerary seats. As per the matrix, seven additional seats each have been allotted in four government medical colleges in Jammu province – GMC Udhampur, GMC Kathua, GMC Rajouri and GMC Doda – while seven additional seats each have been allotted in GMC Baramulla and GMC Handwara. Eight have been allotted in GMC Anantnag. Incidentally, the seven government medical colleges that have been allotted the supernumerary seats have been set up only in the past seven years. The government has not allotted any supernumerary seats in premier institutes like GMC Srinagar, GMC Jammu or the SKIMS Medical College.

Previously, in a communication to the J-K’s Health and Medical Education department dated January 21, BOPEE had said it cannot conduct fresh counselling for the 2025-26 session, and asked the J-K government to admit students to supernumerary seats in other medical colleges “at its own level”. “The creation and allotment of supernumerary seats doesn’t fall within the ambit of BOPEE,” the communication said. The change of stand came within hours. In fact, both communications are dated January 21.

Related:

Partitioned minds, a Saffron Fatwa & Denial of Fair Opportunity: Mata Vaishno Devi University, Jammu

The post Flip and then a Flop: 50 students of the Vaishno Devi MBBS institute will now be admitted to 7 medical colleges in Jammu, Kashmir appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Who is Shambhaji Bhide?

A former active member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bhide formed the SPH in the mid-1980s and has developed some following among hardliners in west Maharashtra’s Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur and Belgaum districts.

Interestingly, Bhide and another right-wing hardliner by the name of Milind Ekbote were named in an FIR in January 2018 for their alleged role in the violence in Bhima Koregaon, near Pune. The violence erupted during an annual event that Dalits organise to commemorate the Battle of Bhima Koregaon.  Thanks to the active involvement of then then dominant political leadership under Devednra Fadnavis, in 2022, the criminal case against hm was dropped for “lack of evidence.”

There have been previous occasions when Bhide was also accused of indulging in violence. In 2008, reportedly, members of his outfit ransacked cinema halls for screening the film Jodha Akbar, which they had labelled “anti-Hindu” (Indian Express). The following year, members of his outfit were linked to the riots in Miraj in Sangli that started over the erection of an arc depicting Shivaji killing the Adilshahi commander Afzal Khan. In 2017, an FIR was lodged against Bhide and activists for allegedly obstructing a procession in Pune. In the Miraj case, police later arrested a local NCP leader for masterminding the riots. The cases related to the protest against Jodha Akbar were dropped by the government. Some years ago, Bhide invited sharp criticism for claiming that if a married couple eats mangoes from his orchard, they would be blessed with a male child. The comments led to a series of PILs and police complaints being filed against the Hindutva activist.

In a brazen instance of hate speech reported by the India Today group’s Mumbai Tak, Bhide had on June 7, 2023, exhorted “Hindus” to hack Muslim men who engage in love jihad, i.e. who fall in love with Hindu women. The controversial video is available online here.

In August 2025, several followers of Bhide, inspired by his brand of vitriol reportedly were responsible for the mob lynching of 20-year-old Suleman Pathan in a village near Jamner town of Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district. The incident had occurred on August 11, when Pathan was sitting in a café with a Hindu girl in Jamner town. Incensed, a mob of Hindu men dragged him out, assaulted him, kidnapped him and assaulted him at various spots en route to his village Betawad Khurd, where his family too was assaulted by the mob. Pathan died soon after.

This is one example of the posters and Instagram visual of his organisation’s page.

The Wire found a total of 53 different accounts in the name of Bhide’s Shiv Pratisthan Hindustan on Instagram and other social media platforms. Its growing popularity has meant that there are now separate accounts for the outfit’s local branches – small Maharashtra towns like Jamner, Baamni, Mulshi, Talegaon, Ratnagiri, Shirpur, Ghodoli, Karad, Kasarwadi and Bhiwapur have active Shiv Pratisthan Instagram pages, apart from pages representing bigger cities like Mumbai and Pune.

These pages use content which is strongly provocative, exhorting young Hindus to arm themselves in defence of their faith and ‘any incursions’ from outsiders. This can be interpreted differently and with mal-intent. The Shiv Prathisthan’s Jamner unit page has over 8,000 followers already, a sizeable number for a small outfit in a town which has just over 46,000 people residing, according to the 2011 Census.

It is not coincidental that the outfit and its members live on the margin of the law, benefitting from an administration that benefits from its crude and divisive mobilisation. For example, soon after Pathan’s lynching, the outfit organised a silent morcha against love jihad, with many holding placards and banners decrying such inter-faith relationships. It has even put up posts abusing Pathan as a balatkari (rapist) and jihadi and sought to defend his lynching.

This year as this effort at ‘igniting’ and ‘mobilising’ youth has the potential also of leaving a trail of divisive polarisation behind.

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After this order, both will be released from custody in the case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). Gorkhe and Gaichor are required under the conditions laid down by the High Court, have to pay bail bond of ₹1 lakh with surety each and attend the NIA Mumbai office on the first Monday of every month.

A detailed order is yet to be published by the Court. Both Gorkhe and Gaichor were represented by senior lawyer Mihir Desai. This case, also known as the Elgar Parishad case, was earlier handled by the local Pune police and later taken over by the NIA.

The special NIA court in Mumbai had in February 2022 refused bail to Delhi University associate professor Hany Babu and Kabir Kala Manch members Gorkhe, Gaichor and Jyoti Jagtap, all arrested by NIA in 2020. It has taken four years since that refusal of bail for the Bombay High Court to grant this relief.

The special court had accepted prosecution’s case about the alleged role of the accused at the Elgar Parishad event and links to banned organisations attracted stringent UAPA provisions, and found no ground to depart from the statutory bar on bail in UAPA cases. Based on this reasoning, the court had rejected permanent bail to them though it granted interim bail to Sagar Gorkhe to enable him to prepare for and appear in his law examinations, noting his past compliance with bail conditions.

The Court allowed Gorkhe temporary release from November 20 to December 16, 2025 for the same. The accused then approached the High Court which allowed Gorkhe’s and Gaichor’s appeals today.

Hany Babu had secured bail in December last year.

Over a period of two years after the FIR was filed in 2018, sixteen persons were arrested in the Elgaar Parishad–Bhima Koregaon case, nine initially by Pune Police in 2018 and seven later by the NIA after it took over the probe. Of the 16, Jesuit priest and activist Father Stan Swamy died in custody in 2021. Swamy was 84 at the time of his death.

Most of the remaining 15 accused have secured bail or temporary bails from the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court. With today’s order by Bombay High Court, only lawyer Surendra Gadling would continue to remain in jail. Two others, tribal rights activist Mahesh Raut and cultural activist, Jyoti Jagtap are out on interim bails.

Charges in the case are yet to be framed and trial is yet to begin as discharge applications of the accused are being heard. The NIA is also yet to hand over electronic evidence, which it has claimed is key, to the accused persons. 

Trajectory of the arrests

Although named as an accused in the original FIR, Gorkhe and Gaichor were arrested two years after the others. Both Gorkhe and Gaichir have been associated with the Kabir Kala Manch, a cultural group involved in anti-caste campaigns in Maharashtra. In 2011, however, the then Congress- led government accused the organisation of being a front for the banned Naxal movement in the state. Ever since, any association with Kabir Kala Manch has been looked at as illegal by the law enforcement. Both Gorkhe and Gaichor have faced incarceration in the past and an earlier case is pending against them.

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The post BK16 Case: Bail for Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, five years and five months after arrest appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The victim has been identified as Mayanglambam Rishikanta Singh (31), a resident of Kakching Khunou in Meitei-majority Kakching district. Singh was abducted along with his wife, Chingnu Haokip, who belongs to the Kuki-Zo community, from her home in the Tuibong area of Churachandpur on Wednesday evening, according to The Indian Express.

Abduction and killing

Police officials told The Telegraph that three to four armed men, reportedly masked, arrived at the couple’s residence in an SUV around 7–7.30 pm. The couple was forcibly taken away towards the Natjang (or Nathjang) area, located about 25–30 minutes from Tuibong, within the same district.

While Haokip was later released—reportedly pushed out of the moving vehicle—the assailants drove Singh further and shot him dead. His body was recovered by police around 10.30 pm, and was later taken to the district hospital morgue in the early hours of Thursday, officials said.

A suo motu case has been registered, and investigations are ongoing.

Video sparks outrage

A video that surfaced on social media late Wednesday night shows a man sitting on the ground in near darkness, pleading with folded hands before individuals who remain off-camera. Moments later, a burst of gunfire is heard, after which the man collapses. The video reportedly carried the chilling message “No peace, no popular government”, a reference to ongoing efforts to restore an elected government in Manipur (The Hindu, Scroll).

According to The Hindu, the clip was initially circulated on WhatsApp from an IP address traced to Guwahati, though the circumstances of its recording and dissemination remain under investigation.

Identity and background

Singh had married Haokip in 2022, before the outbreak of ethnic violence in Manipur in May 2023. After marriage, he reportedly adopted the tribal name Ginminthang. Family members and local sources told The Indian Express that the couple had faced social ostracisation from both sides and were living separately for extended periods.

Singh had been working in Nepal under a contractor and returned to Manipur on January 19, just three days before the killing. He had been staying at his wife’s home in Churachandpur since December 19, local police officials said.

Some reports suggested that local Kuki groups had allowed him to stay, though the Kuki National Organisation (KNO)—an umbrella body of Kuki militant groups under a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement—has categorically denied granting any such permission or having any involvement in the incident, as reported by The Hindu.

Suspected militant involvement

While no group has officially claimed responsibility, security agencies suspect the involvement of the United Kuki National Army (UKNA)—also referred to as UNKA—a militant outfit that is not a signatory to the SoO agreement with the Centre and the Manipur government, according to The Indian Express.

Senior security officials quoted by The Indian Express described the killing as a “political execution”, aimed at destabilising the situation and derailing efforts to restore a popular government in the state. However, police have stressed that these claims remain under investigation, and no conclusive attribution has yet been made.

Protests and political fallout

The killing triggered protests in Kakching district, where family members and local residents blocked roads, burnt tyres, and staged sit-ins at Khunou Bazar and along the Imphal–Sugnu road, as per the report of The Telegraph. Demonstrations were also reported from parts of Imphal East district, with Meitei organisations condemning the murder and questioning the effectiveness of central forces despite heavy deployment.

The Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity and the Meitei Heritage Society described the killing as a “cold-blooded execution of a Meitei civilian” and demanded swift accountability.

Late Thursday night, the Manipur government handed over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla announced. In an official statement, the Governor expressed deep sorrow over Singh’s death, extended condolences to the family, and said intensive combing operations involving state and central forces had been launched “on a war footing” to apprehend those responsible.

Broader context of violence

The killing comes at a sensitive political moment. Manipur has been under President’s Rule since February 2025, following the resignation of then Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. The President’s Rule is set to expire on February 13, and the Centre has been exploring possibilities of forming a popular government.

Since ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023, clashes between Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities have left over 260 people dead and displaced more than 60,000, making it virtually impossible for members of the two communities to safely enter each other’s areas. For mixed Meitei–Kuki-Zo couples, living together or even visiting family has remained fraught with danger.

Dear of Gang Rape Survivor

The lingering fallout and tragedy that continues in Manipur since the outbreak of targeted mass crimes in May 2023 was also reflected in the tragic death of a 20-year-old Kuki woman who was gang-raped in Manipur in May 2023. She dies, it is reported on January 10, of a prolonged illness linked to her injuries, Newslaundry reported on Saturday, January 17. Her family said she never fully recovered from the physical and psychological trauma of the assault.

Parallel protests by Kuki women

Separately, on January 22, hundreds of Kuki-Zomi women staged a sit-in protest at Tuibong in Churachandpur, demanding the Prime Minister’s intervention for justice in cases of sexual violence and killings of Kuki-Zomi women during the Manipur crisis, as per The Hindu.

The demonstration, organised by the Kuki Women Organisation for Human Rights (KWOHR) and the women’s wing of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), followed the death of a Kuki woman who allegedly succumbed to trauma-related illness after being gang-raped during the early phase of violence in May 2023.

In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the groups alleged that at least 29 Kuki-Zomi women were killed between May 2023 and November 2024, and demanded time-bound investigations, prosecution of perpetrators, recognition of the crimes as crimes against humanity, witness protection, compensation, and long-term rehabilitation.

A fragile and divided state

As Manipur remains deeply divided along ethnic lines, the killing of Mayanglambam Rishikanta Singh—and the disturbing manner in which it was carried out—has once again exposed the fragile security situation in the state, raising serious questions about civilian safety, militant activity, and the prospects of political normalcy returning anytime soon, even as the State remains under President’s rule.

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