The Mohabbat Khan Mosque (Urdu: مسجد مہابت خان) is a 17th century Mosque in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan.Mahabat Khan Masjid the largest mosque of Peshawar is located in the old city of Peshawar known as “Ander shehr”(Inner city).It is named after the Mughal governor of Peshawar Nawab Mohabbat Khan who served under Emperors Shah Jehan and Aurangzeb and who was the grandson of Nawab Dadan Khan (Who had been governor of Lahore).
Historic Macedonian Graffiti, Baluchistan (Pakistan)
Perhaps the only physical evidence of Alexanders the Great’s journey through India is in the form of a victory sign his army made while journeying back to Macedonia. It’s on a mountain side in Las Bela Baluchistan, Pakistan.
Pakistani grooms and brides on their weddings:
The main aim of Pakistani wedding functions is to bring the bride, groom, and their families closer, and there are many pre-wedding customs that are usually observed before the actual wedding. Those customs include Mangni - منگنی (engagement), Mayun - مایوں (for the bride and groom in separate places where relatives feed them sweets and friends dance), Ubtan - ابٹن (the bride is made to sit down among her relatives and friends while they cover her with crushed sandalwood paste for a milky glow), Dholki - ڈھولکی (friends and family get together and sing songs for the bride and groom around a little drum aka the dholki), Rasm e Mehndi رسمِ مہندی (friends and family of the bride and groom put henna on their hands and sometimes in their hair, mithayi is eaten), Baraat - بارات (the groom and his family arrive to take the bride with them, drums are beaten, food is distributed, gifts are exchanged, etc) , Nikah - نکاح (the Islamic tradition of rendering a marriage official; the groom and bride are asked for their consent for the marriage, once approved the Nikah is declared in the public), Munh Dikhayi - منہ دکھائی or Doodh Pilayi - دودھ پلائی or Joota Chupayi - جوتا چہائی (cousins and friends of the groom and bride tease the couple for money after the groom sees the bride or if the groom is given a glass of milk or if one of the bride’s sisters or brothers take the groom’s shoe off and ask for money in exchange; Possibly one of the funniest and exciting parts of the wedding day), Rukhsati - رخصتی (the bride says farewell to her family and leaves with the groom), and Walima - ولیمہ (day after Nikah, food is distributed, families get together).
(via fuckyeahsouthasia)
The disputed areas of the region of Kashmir. India claims the entire erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir based on an instrument of accession signed in 1947. Pakistan claims all areas of the erstwhile state except for those claimed by China. China claims the Shaksam Valley and Aksai Chin. (via)
(Source: , via fuckyeahsouthasia)
People all over Pakistan celebrate Independence Day with patriotic zest. Many people who attend the Independence Day parades dress up in green and white, which are the Pakistani flag’s colors. People visit national monuments and places of national significance to celebrate Independence Day. This is also a time to meet relatives, exchange gifts and visit recreational spots.
Pakistan’s national flag is hoisted on public, private buildings, residences and monuments at dawn. Official buildings, including Parliament House, are decorated and colorfully lit. The prime minister and president address and congratulate the nation and talk about the day’s significance. Streets and houses are decorated with candles, oil lamps and pennants. Firework shows are put together on the eve of Independence Day.
Pakistan’s Independence Day also pays homage to people who devoted their lives for Pakistan’s freedom movement and made sacrifices to attain Pakistan’s independence. A change of guard takes place at national monuments, including the mausoleums of Muhammad Iqbal, who was a poet, philosopher, and politician, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is considered by many as Pakistan’s founder and Quaid-i-Azam (supreme leader).
(Source: scholarrummi)
Ceiling artwork at Wazir Khan mosque, Lahore, Pakistan
afraid-to-run asked: can you please recommend good books to recommend to ignorant english folk about the british empire in all it’s disgusting glory?
My answer:
Good question. I can speak from the South Asian experience of it; the Subcontinent - present day India, Pakistan, and to an extent Afghanistan. Before getting in the books I’d recommend, you should tell those who support British imperialism that life back then wasn’t as glorious as historians make it look like. With the basics:
- Indian economy was the second largest economy in the world until the British came. During British rule (1857 to 1947) Indian economy grew at zero percent. That India did not grow for 90 years (when Industrial revolution was rewarding Europe and the US) is a tragic outcome of colonial rule’s lack of interest and incompetence. Credit goes to laissez faire capitalism pursued by India after 1992 and American capital market’s confidence and investments in India for India’s emergence as the second fastest growing economy in the world today.
- The subcontinent suffered too many famines during the British rule mostly attributable to mismanagement by the Empire.
- The British Empire encouraged biased stratification in the subcontinental societies based on caste, color and creed. This continues to exist in modern day South Asia where social markers like these control the fates of many.
- Many pro-Empire theorists argue that the British built modern cities with modern conveniences but it should be noted that these were exclusive zones not intended for the “natives” to enjoy.
- There is another popular belief about British rule: ‘The British modernized Indian agriculture by building canals.’ But the actual record reveals a completely different story. “The roads and tanks and canals,” noted an observer in G. Thompson’s “India and the Colonies”, ”which Hindu or Mussulman (Muslim) governments constructed for the service of the nations and the good of the country have been suffered to fall into dilapidation; and now the want of the means of irrigation causes famines.” Montgomery Martin, in his standard work “The Indian Empire”, in 1858, noted that the old East India Company “omitted not only to initiate improvements, but even to keep in repair the old works upon which the revenue depended.” They screwed the natives over again.
- In the early 1800s imports of Indian cotton and silk goods faced duties of 70-80%. British imports faced duties of 2-4%! As a result, British imports of cotton manufactures into India increased by a factor of 50, and Indian exports dropped to one-fourth. A similiar trend was noted in silk goods, woollens, iron, pottery, glassware and paper. As a result, millions of ruined artisans and craftsmen, spinners, weavers, potters, smelters and smiths were rendered jobless and had to become landless agricultural workers. They screwed us over again.
- Reactionary borders.
- And many other reasons why you should logic-slap those who support Empire(s).
The books I would suggest are: M. M. Ahluwalia’s Freedom Struggle in India. Shah, Khambata’s The Wealth and Taxable Capacity of India. G. Emerson’s Voiceless India.Brooks Adams’s The Law of Civilization and Decline. J. R. Seeley’s, Expansion of England. H. H. Wilson, History of British India. D. H Buchanan’s Development of Capitalist Enterprise in India.
Slightly unrelated but you should Gender and Community Under British Colonialism: Emotion, Struggle and Politics in a Chinese Village by Siu Keung Cheung as well. Hope this helps.
(via fuckyeahsouthasia)
“Kader Siddiqi, an Indian Mukti Bahini guerrilla, bayonnets men accused of collaboration with Pakistan during East Pakistan’s struggle to become the independent state of Bangladesh”, by William Lovelace, 1971
(via collectivehistory)
Fragments of a carpet with lattice and blossom pattern, Mughal period (1526–1858), ca. 1650
India or present-day Pakistan, Kashmir or Lahore
Silk (warp and weft), pashmina wool (pile); asymmetrically knotted pile
