'The Discovery of A Lost Continent'

"To understand the position of women in Hinduism, one of the oldest religions still existing today, it's enough to look at the Manusmriti, a sacred text of Hinduism in India. While a few lines in this work might portray a positive image of women, the overall perspective is overwhelmingly negative, with positive expressions rarely finding practical application. For instance, it's prohibited for a man to share a bed, have a meal, or even glance at his wife while she's menstruating. The portrayal of women, considered to have little to no value as daughters and wives, reveals a society where women face difficulties even before birth. In India, numerous families resort to abortion upon learning the gender of their expected child is female. This is mainly attributed to the tradition of "dowry," known as "drahoma," which, unlike some practices in our country, expects a substantial sum of money to be given to the groom's family upon marriage. This practice echoes the way girl children were once seen as burdens to families, much like in the pre-Islamic Jahiliyya period. In the book "Genocide of Women in Hinduism," Sita Agarwal reveals that Brahmins, over the 20th century, have massacred around 50 million girl children, a genocide ten times larger than the Holocaust.

In ancient India, the view of widowed women was extremely negative. A widow, forbidden from remarrying, would either depend on her adult sons for support or live with her husband's close relatives if the sons were absent, and she was stigmatized if she appeared happy. Her hair would be permanently cut, and she would eat only once a day to survive. Her jewelry would be taken away, and she would sleep on a single mat of reed. The belief among Indians that a widow was an omen of bad luck led them to associate a woman's widowhood with her past sins."

I've taken this excerpt from the book "Discovery of a Lost Continent - Writings on India" by the promising young scholar Deniz Çıkılı, known for his extensive research on India. In his article discussing the tradition of "Sati" that was practiced in India until recently, Çıkılı provides details that are genuinely chilling. As you navigate through the pages of "Discovery of the Lost Continent - Writings on India," which compiles 25 captivating articles on various topics, you'll come across a plethora of subjects: the shared memory of the Indian subcontinent's Muslims through Urdu and the works written in this language, the partition of India orchestrated by the British and the subsequent tragedies, Halide Edip Adıvar's impressions of India, the Tekke of Indians in Istanbul and the traveling dervishes, Shibli Nomani's notes on Istanbul, colonialists exploring every corner disguised as traders, an Ottoman admiral in the Indian subcontinent: Seydi Ali Reis, the blows inflicted by the British on Islamic education, madrasas, and tekkes in the Indian subcontinent, Imam Rabbani's interactions with the rulers of the Mughal dynasty, a monotheistic local religion in the Indian subcontinent: Sikhism, Emperor Akbar Shah, who astounded everyone with his cultural and literary knowledge despite being illiterate, debates on the Qurayshi lineage among the scholars of the Indian subcontinent, places where the Mesnevi was extensively read and its influence in India, the symbol of justice, Muslim sultan: Balaban Han, an Islamic city in the Indian region: Delhi, the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the British response...

As you can see, within these 300 pages, the book offers readers with an interest in the Indian subcontinent a truly thought-provoking content that is nothing short of a brainstorm. However, the key term here is "curiosity." For those who genuinely wish to know, understand, and deeply grasp distant places... unfortunately, there's nothing one can do for those without curiosity.

According to the saying, "Out of sight, out of mind," the Indian geography finds its place on the outskirts of our hearts and minds. Yet, there was a centuries-long Islamic rule there, and many events occurring today continue to echo multidimensionally through this historical depth. "Discovery of the Lost Continent - Writings on India" aims to bridge this distance, allowing those who wish to draw closer to the heart of India a chance to do so. I wholeheartedly recommend this source to anyone seeking to eliminate this distance and bring India closer to their hearts.