-IANS   Breaking the stereotypes associated with madrassas, a 50-year-old Islamic seminary here teaches subjects like personality development and home science, runs an elaborate teacher training programme, has a higher girl enrolment ratio and has students who are no less active on social networking websites than their counterparts in the metros. Welcome to Jamiatul Falah, a madrassa in Bilariyaganj town of Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh's district that has kept pace with modern education. The...

Thousands of undergraduate women students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) may finally be able to access the university library — after a struggle spanning several decades.   While students enrolled in professional courses are allowed to use the resources of the Maulana Azad Library (MAL), which is one of the best libraries in the country, those in non-professional courses can’t go past the MAL gates. Union HRD Minister Kabil Sibal on Wednesday assured...

Anyone who came in contact with Professor R.S. Sharma — students, teachers, ordinary men and women from different walks of life as this reporter did — could not have remained untouched by him. Gentle and with a sparkle in his eyes, he came out as strong, determined and always principled. Moreover, as a historian he was never locked up in the ivory tower of academia and did not shy away from...

On the first anniversary of the farmer-police clash that had claimed four lives last year, farmers of Tappal in Aligarh — who gathered in Jikarpur village on Sunday to observe ‘martyrs’ day’ — demanded that the government honour its commitments, including return of land to farmers who had refused to sell it, within 20 days. They demanded the construction of a memorial near the bridge where the firing took place on...

The communal violence bill prepared by the National Advisory Council (NAC) seeks fundamentally to change how the government deals with violence against minorities. The bill focuses on religious and linguistic minorities as well the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but religious minorities are at its heart. The bill has some undeniable strengths, but it suffers from two analytically fatal flaws. First, it places excessive faith in the state machinery. Though...