Maulana Muhammad Ali - A Strategic Point in Indo-Muslim Politics (Comment)

‘A great man’, says Justice Oliver Wendell, Jr, ‘represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in being there’. (italic ours). And Maulana Muhammad Ali was one such nerve-centre in Indo-Muslim society during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Indeed, he was one such strategic point in the onward march of Indo-Muslim politics that eventually found culmination and crystallization in the emergence of Pakistan. Actually no one else represented the tone, tenor and temper of the romanticist, Khilafatist era (in the 1910s and 1920s) as he did in his hectic life, his revolutionary activities his numerous discomfitures, and in his tragic death. Whether he led a hectic life, whether he took recourse to a revolutionary path, or whether he goaded himself to die a tragic death outside the frontiers of his motherland cataclysmically, in whatever he did, he, consciously or unconsciously, carried forward the campaign of Indo-Muslim history: the redemption of Islam in India and abroad. In other words, he stood, above all, for an honourable existence for Muslims in India and in the rest of the troubled Muslim world in the existential crisis that convulsed Muslim India and that world.

Insecticide Resistance Management of Tomato Fruit Borer, Helicoverpa Armigera Hübner Lepidoptera Noctuidae Heliothinae , Employing a Bio-Intensive Integrated Pest Management Strategy

The study was conducted on the insecticide-resistance-management of the tomato fruit-borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner), employing a bio-intensive integrated management strategy on the tomato crop during 2007 and 2008, at Faisalabad (Punjab), Pakistan. The study comprised of the following four sections: 1. 2. 3. 4. Host Plant Resistance, Role of weather factors in the population fluctuations, Contribution of physio-morphic and chemical plant-characters, in the population fluctuation of the pest, and the Bio-intensive management of H. armigera on tomato crop. Thirty two genotypes of tomato, viz., Tropic Boy, Royesta, Long Tipped, Money- Maker, Ebein, NARC-1, Roma VFN, Pant Bahr, Shalkot-96, Chico-III, Tommy, Nagina, Peelo, Pusba Rubi, Sun-6002, FS-8802, FS-8801, Tanja, Pomodoro, Rio-grande, Rockingbam, Manik, Nadir, Early Mecb, Roma Local, Big Long, Gressilesse, Pakit, Tropic, Nova Mecb, Sahil and Red Top were screened for their resistance against the tomato fruit-borer, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner.), during 2007. Maximum larval-population and percent infestation of the fruits were observed on Roma VFN, while these were found to be minimum on Sahil. Significant difference was observed among the genotypes, regarding the marketable fruit-yield in kg/plot. Roma VFN (a susceptible genotype), showed a minimum yield of 39.50 kg/plot; while, maximum yield of 99.56 kg/plot, was recorded on Sahil (a resistant genotype). Maximum, minimum and temperatures, each had significant and highly positive correlation with the fruit-infestation; whereas, the relative humidity showed a negative and significant correlation (P < 0.05) during the year 2008, while, during 2007, as well as on the basis of an average for both years, all the factors showed a non-significant correlation with the infestation. Various physio-morphic (hair-density and length of hair on the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, and thickness of the leaf-lamina) and chemical plant characters (Moisture, total minerals, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Fat, Crude fiber and CHO) were studied on various selected genotypes of tomato, to determine their effect on the larval- population of the fruit-borer and its infestation of fruits, during 2008. Hair-density on the upper-surface, length of hair on the upper-surface and the thickness of leaf-lamina showed a negative and significant correlation with the larval-population of tomato fruit- borer. Moisture percentage, P, Ca, Mg, Mn and Zn contents exerted a positive and significant correlation with the fruit-infestation; whereas, the effect was negative and significant between the Fe-contents and fruit-infestation. Thickness of the leaf-lamina and moisture percentage in the leaves of tomato plant were the most important and contributed the maximum in the larval-population of tomato fruit-borer, i.e., 16.8 and 35.8 percent, respectively followed by the hair-density on the upper surface of the leaves and CHO with 15.9 and 10.4 percent contribution in the larval population fluctuations of the tomato fruit-borer, respectively. The study was conducted to integrate various control methods, viz., biological control (release of Chrysoperla carnea and Bracon hebetor, each @ 1 card/5-m 2 ), botanical control (spray of neem-seed kernel extract, Neemosol @ 1480 ml/ha), chemical control (spinosad, Tracer 240 SC @ 197.6 ml/ha) and entomopathogenic fungal control (Bacillus thuringiensis @ 2 kg/ha) alone and in all of their possible interactions for the management of Helicoverpa armigera, on the tomato crop, during 2008. These control methods were applied three times on the tomato crop (CV Sahil), after the appearance of the pest. An Integration of B. thuringiensis + tracer + B. hebetor + neemosol and C. carnea, resulted in a maximum yield (305.92 q/ha), lowest larval population of H. armigera and minimum infestation of marketable tomato fruits caused by the pest. This treatment, as such, proved to be the best.