Kolkata is a proud multi-cultural city, a fulcrum of the Indian intellectual tradition. Its personalities have included Subhash Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter, Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize-winning poet, and Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu spiritual leader. For legacy reasons, the National Library of India is housed here, not in New Delhi. It is also home to the Calcutta Madrassah, the oldest educational institution in the city.
The Calcutta Madrassah is a proud building, sensibly designed. It opened in 1824 off Haji Mahammad Mohsin Square, some 50 years after the founding of the original Islamic college. On approach through the compact urban turmoil surrounding it, the building looks like some sort of Alexandrine temple complex. Overpowering Doric columns flanking the main entrance direct you inward, where two floors of classrooms surround a courtyard. At the far end of this attempt at a grassy space, there is a lone water hand-pump. Despite its somewhat topsy-turvy condition, the Calcutta Madrassah is a haven of peace in the tightly-knit urban landscape.
Redirecting the Call for Action
by Douglas Clark Johnson
20 May 2010
During a recent dinner in Dubai, a longstanding colleague of mine from the private banking business asked, “What do you think of Islamic wealth management as an enterprise model?”
I was stumped. Not because I haven’t thought about it, but because it had been so long since I’d heard the question. These discussions were more common in the pre-credit crisis era, when the liquidity cycle was peaking. They have all but evaporated in the current environment. …continue reading
Tags: credit crisis, Dubai, financial leaders, Islamic banking, macro trends, wealth management
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