title: Mid-century modern

text: Printed ephemera documenting the mid-century transformations in design, architecture, landscape, infrastructure, and entertainment include mid-century linen post cards from the early 1930s to the late 1950s. These post cards came about through innovations pioneered through the use of offset lithography. The cards were produced on paper with a high rag content, which gave the post card a textured look and feel. At the time this was a less expensive process. Along with advances in printing technique, mid-century linen postcards allowed for very vibrant ink colors. The encyclopedic geographic imagery of mid-century linen post cards suggests popular middle class attitudes about nature, wilderness, technology, mobility and the city during the mid-20th century.


title: Mid-century modern

text: Curt Teich in Chicago was the most prominent and largest printer and publisher of Linen Type postcards pioneering lithography with his "Art Colortone" process. Other large publishers include Stanley Piltz in San Francisco, who established the "Pictorial Wonderland Art Tone Series", Western Publishing and Novelty Company in Los Angeles and the Tichnor Brothers in Boston. The printing of mid-century linen post cards began to give way in the late 1950s to Kodachrome and Ektachrome color prints.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Sayyid Mīr Jaʿfar ʿAlī Khān Bahādur ( – 5 February 1765) was a military general who became the first dependent Nawab of Bengal of the British East India Company. His reign has been considered by many historians as the start of the expansion of British control of the Indian subcontinent in Indian history and a key step in the eventual British domination of vast areas of pre-partition India.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Mir Jafar served as the commander of the Bengali army under Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, but betrayed him during the Battle of Plassey and succeeded Daulah after the British victory in 1757. Mir Jafar received military support from the East India Company until 1760, when he failed to satisfy various British demands. In 1758, Robert Clive discovered that Jafar had made a treaty with the Dutch East India Company at Chinsurah through his agent Khoja Wajid. Dutch ships of the line were also seen in the River Hooghly. Jafar's dispute with the British eventually led to the Battle of Chinsurah. British company official Henry Vansittart proposed that since Jafar was unable to cope with the difficulties, Mir Qasim, Jafar's son-in-law, should act as Deputy Subahdar. In October 1760, the company forced him to abdicate in favor of Qasim. However, the East India Company eventually overthrew Qasim as well due to disputes over trade policies. Jafar was restored as the Nawab in 1763 with the support of the company. Mir Qasim, however, refused to accept this and went to war against the company. Jafar ruled until his death on 5 February 1765 and lies buried at the Jafarganj Cemetery in Murshidabad, West Bengal.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Due to his role in helping the British colonize India, and the eventual downfall of the Mughal Empire, Mir Jafar is reviled in the Indian subcontinent as a traitor, especially among the Bengalis in both India and Bangladesh. Though some historians have tried to rehabilitate his name, it has become synonymous with the word treason among the people of the region.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Sayyid Mir Muhammad Jafar was born in Delhi in 1691 as the second son of the seven sons and eight daughters of Sayyid Ahmad Najafi (Mir Mirak). They claimed descent from Hasan ibn Hasan. Jafar's paternal grandfather was Sayyid Husayn Tabatabaei, who migrated from Najaf in Iraq (then part of the Safavid Empire) and settled in Delhi on 24 April 1675 after being invited by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Tabatabaei married the emperor's niece and served as a Qadi in the Mughal court. Jafar's paternal aunt, Begum Sharfunnisa, was the wife of Nawab Alivardi Khan of Bengal.


title: Mir Jafar

text: In 1747 the Maratha Empire led by Raghoji I Bhonsle, began to raid, pillage and annex the territories of the Alivardi Khan, the Nawab of Bengal. During the Maratha invasion of Odisha, its subedar Mir Jafar and Ataullah the faujdar of Rajmahal completely withdrew all forces until the arrival of Alivardi Khan and the Mughal Army at the Battle of Burdwan where Raghoji I Bhonsle and his Maratha forces were completely routed. The enraged Alivardi Khan then dismissed the shamed Mir Jafar.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Jafar initially showed loyalty to Alivardi Khan's successor Siraj Ud Daulah, but betrayed him to the British in the battle of Plassey. After Siraj Ud Daulah's defeat and subsequent execution, Jafar achieved his long-pursued dream of gaining the throne, and was propped up by the East India company as a puppet Nawab. Jafar paid Rs. 17,700,000 as compensation for the attack on Calcutta to the company and traders of the city. In addition, he gave bribes to the officials of the company. Robert Clive, for example, received over two million rupees, and William Watts received over one million.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Soon, however, he realized that company's expectations were boundless and tried to wriggle out from under them; this time with the help of the Dutch. However, the British defeated the Dutch at the Battle of Chinsurah in November 1759 and retaliated by forcing him to abdicate in favor of his son-in-law Mir Qasim. Qasim proved to be both able and independent-minded, although he soon came into dispute with the company over their refusal to pay taxes to Qasim. Mir Qasim formed an alliance to force the East India Company out of East India. The company soon went to war with him and his allies. The Battle of Buxar was fought on 22 October 1764 between the forces under the command of the East India Company led by Hector Munro, and the combined armies of Mir Qasim the Nawab of Bengal, Shuja-ud-Daula the Nawab of Awadh, and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. With the defeat in Buxar, Mir Qasim was eventually overthrown. Mir Jafar managed to regain the good graces of the British; he was again installed Nawab in 1764 and held the position until his death in 1765.


title: Mir Jafar

text: In 1760, after gaining control over Bihar, Odisha and some parts of the Bengal, the Mughal Crown Prince Ali Gauhar and his Mughal Army of 30,000 intended to overthrow Jafar, Imad-ul-Mulk after they tried to capture or kill him by advancing towards Awadh and Patna in 1759. But the conflict soon involved the increasingly assertive East India Company. The Mughals were led by Prince Ali Gauhar, who was accompanied by Muhammad Quli Khan, Hidayat Ali, Mir Afzal and Ghulam Husain Tabatabai. Their forces were reinforced by the forces of Shuja-ud-Daula and Najib-ud-Daula. The Mughals were also joined by Jean Law and two hundred Frenchmen and waged a campaign against the British during the Seven Years' War.


title: Mir Jafar

text: Although the French were eventually defeated, the conflict between the British East India Company and the Mughal Empire would continue to linger and ended in a draw, which eventually culminated during the Battle of Buxar.


title: Mir Jafar

text: The breakup of the centralized Mughal empire by 1750, led to creation of a large number of independent kingdoms in Northern, Central and Western India, as also North-Western India (now Pakistan) and parts of Afghanistan (all provinces of the former Mughal empire). Each of them were in conflict with their neighbor. These kingdoms bought weapons from the British and French East India companies to aid their wars. Bengal was one such kingdom. The British and French supported whichever princes ensured their trading interest. Jafar came to power with support of British East India Company. After the defeat of Sirajuddoula and later Mir Qasim the British strengthened their position in Bengal and in 1793 abolished the "nizamat" (referring to the Mughal suzerainty) and took complete control of the former Mughal province.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Anubhav Sinha (born 22 June 1965) is an Indian film director, producer and writer who works in Hindi films. He is notable for movies like "Ra.One", "Tum Bin", "Dus", "Mulk", "Article 15" and "Thappad".


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Sinha was born in Allahabad, India to Prem Govind Sinha and Sushila Sinha. He went to school in Kalagarh, Garhwal, Government Inter College, Allahabad and Queen's College, Varanasi. Sinha completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from The Aligarh Muslim University in 1988.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: His wife Ratnaa Sinha is also a director who debuted with the 2017 film "Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana" starring Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Kharbanda.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: His brother Anupam sinha is also a director who is known for his film "Shukriya" starring Aftab Shivdasani and Shriya Saran.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Sinha worked for two years in New Delhi as a theatre artist before moving to Mumbai on 4 December 1990. He worked as an assistant director to Pankaj Parashar until 1994 before branching out as an independent director for television for Zee TV. He was noticed for his work on "Shikast", the flagship show of the TV network in Mumbai. This was followed by the TV show "Sea Hawks" for UTV. "Sea Hawks" was the number one show for 35 weeks across all networks. 72 episodes later, he turned to directing music videos.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: In 2000, he left working on music videos to start his first feature film "Tum Bin". It starred Priyanshu Chatterjee, Sandali Sinha, Himanshu Malik and Raqesh Vashisth. It went on to become a major box-office success and has gained a cult status over the years.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Sinha's second feature "Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai" starred Priyanshu Chatterjee and Sakshi Shivanand. His third film, the multi-starrer "Dus", was the eighth highest grossing film of the year 2005. This was followed by "Tathastu" (2006) and "Cash" (2007).


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Before directing and producing Tum Bin II and Mulk, Sinha directed Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor starrer superhero film, "Ra.One" for which he wrote the script as well along with Kanika Dhillon.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: In 2019, Sinha produced and directed "Article 15" under his production house Benaras Media Works with Ayushmann Khurrana in the lead. The film is based on "Article 15" of the Indian Constitution, which is about prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. The film generally received positive reviews from critics, and was a commercial success.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: In 2020, Sinha helmed "Thappad" starring Taapsee Pannu, which released on 28 February 2020, and received highly positive reviews from critics, but was an average success at the box-office.


title: Anubhav Sinha

text: Sinha is also the founder and owner of Benaras Media Works, the production company which he established in 2012 to produce his films and television projects.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Radha-Krishna (IAST , ) are collectively known within Hinduism as the combined forms of feminine as well as the masculine realities of God. Krishna and Radha are the primeval forms of God and his pleasure potency (Hladini Shakti), respectively, in several Vaishnavite schools of thought.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In Krishnaite traditions of Vaishnavism, Krishna is referred to as "Svayam Bhagavan" and Radha is illustrated as the primeval potency of the three main potencies of God, "Hladini (immense spiritual bliss), Sandhini (eternality) and Samvit (existential consciousness)" of which Radha is an embodiment of the feeling of love towards the almighty Lord Krishna ("Hladini").


title: Radha Krishna

text: With Krishna, Radha is acknowledged as the Supreme Goddess. It is said that Krishna is only satiated by devotional service in loving servitude and Radha is the personification of devotional service to the supreme lord. Various devotees worship her with the understanding of her merciful nature as the only way to attain Krishna. Radha is also depicted to be Krishna himself, split into two, for the purpose of his enjoyment. As per Hindu scriptures, Radha is considered as the complete incarnation of Mahalakshmi.


title: Radha Krishna

text: It is believed that Krishna enchants the world, but Radha enchants even him. Therefore, she is the supreme goddess of all and together they are called as Radha-Krishna. In many Vaishnava sections, Radha Krishna are often identified as the avatars of Lakshmi Narayan.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Vigneshwara "cannot be broken into two" – Krishna (Devanagari: कृष्ण), the eighth incarnation (Avatar) of Vishnu, and his shakti Radha (Devanagari: राधा) such was the love of Radha towards Krishna that they are one. Krishna in Vrindavana is depicted with Radha standing on his left. Some important names of Radha and Krishna mentioned in scriptures are:


title: Radha Krishna

text: Radha Krishna's first literary mention was found in King Hala's Prakrit text "Gatha Saptasati" which is composed of 700 verses and was written in the 1st century CE. Later, The popular "Gita Govinda" written by Jayadeva in 12th century CE widely depicted Radha and Krishna as a couple. According to scriptures like "Brahma Vaivarta Purana" and "Garga Samhita", Radha-Krishna are the supreme deities. Content of both the scriptures are majorly based on the divine pastimes of Radha Krishna in Vrindavan and Goloka. The other relevant texts mentioning Radha Krishna are Radhopnishad of Rig Veda, Radhatapani Upanishad of Atharva Veda, Shiva Puran , Brahmanda Puran, Skanda Puran, Padma Puran, Matsya Puran, Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Narada Pancharatra and Brahma samhita. Goddess Radha is also indirectly mentioned in Bhagavata Purana of Sukadeva Goswami along with Lord Krishna under many different names like "Aradhika" and "Gopi". Adi Shankracharya who happened way before Jayadeva also mentioned Goddess Radha in his work called "Achyuta Ashtakam" which is dedicated to Achyuta form of Lord Krishna.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The devotional works of Jayadeva, Nimbarkacharya, Rasik saints like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu along with his six disciple goswamis, Bhakti poet-saints Narsinh Mehta, Vidyapati, Chandidas, Meera Bai, Surdas, Swami Haridas and many more played pivotal role in enlighting society about goddess Radha who is believed to be the feminine form of Krishna himself.


title: Radha Krishna

text: According to several Hindu denominations including Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Nimbarka Sampradaya, Pushtimarg, and Swaminarayan Sampradaya, it is believed that Radha is not just one cowherd maiden, but the origin of all the gopis, or divine personalities that participate in the rasa dance.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The common derivation of "shakti" and "shaktiman", i.e. female and male principle in a god implies that shakti and shaktiman are the same. Each and every god has its partner, or Shakti, and without this Shakti, is sometimes viewed being without essential power. It is a not uncommon feature of Hinduism when worship of a pair rather than one personality constitutes worship of God, such is worship of Radha Krishna. Traditions worshiping Krishna, as "svayam bhagavan", who is male, include reference and veneration to his Radha, who is worshiped as supreme. A view that exists of orthodox Krishnaism, the sect of the worship of Krishna, is that Radha is shakti and Krishna is shaktiman and are always found without any tinge of materialistic attributes or cause.


title: Radha Krishna

text: From the Vaishnava point of view the divine feminine energy ("shakti") implies a divine source of energy, God or "shaktiman". "Sita relates to Rama; Lakshmi belongs to Narayana; Radha has her Krishna." As Krishna is believed to be the source of all manifestations of God, "Radha, his consort, is the original source of all "shaktis"" or feminine manifestation of divine energy.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The first theologo-philosophical justification for worshiping Radha-Krishna was given by Nimbarkacharya, a founder of the Nimbarka Sampradaya in 12th or 13th century CE. In accordance with the Sahitya Akademi Encyclopaedia, he more than any other acharyas gave Radha a place as a deity.


title: Radha Krishna

text: A number of interpretations according to traditions possess a common root of personalism in the understanding of worship. Specifically Caitanyaite Gaudiya Vaishnava doctrine and mission is fiercely "personalistic," proclaiming the supremacy of Krishna, the identification of Caitanya as Radha-Krishna, the reality and eternality of individual selves, and a method for approaching the absolute reality and the Deity as a person first and foremost.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Jiva Goswami in his "Priti Sandarbha" states that each of the Gopis exhibits a different level of intensity of passion, among which Radha's is the greatest.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In his famous dialogs Ramananda Raya describes Radha to Caitanya and quotes, among other texts, a verse from Chaitanya Charitamrta 2.8.100, before he goes on to describe her role in the pastimes of Vrindavana.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The central pivot point of the theology is related to the word rasa. The theological use of the word can be found very early, about two thousand years before the Nimbarka or Caitanya school, in a phrase that the tradition frequently quotes: "Truly, the Lord is "rasa"" ("raso vai sah") of Brahma sutras. This statement expresses the view that God is the one who enjoys the ultimate rasa or spiritual rapture, emotions.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In Vedic and Puranic literature, Radhas and other forms of the root "Radh" have meaning of ‘perfection’, ‘success’ and even ‘wealth’. Lord of Success, Indra was referred to as "Radhaspati". In references to Mahavishnu as the Lord of Fortune and freely used by Jayadeva as "Jaya Jayadeva Hare" – the victorious Hari, and ‘"Radhaspati"’ all found in many places. The word Radha occurs in the Atharva Veda, Taittiriya Brahmana and Taittiriya Samhita.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Charlotte Vaudeville, in the article "Evolution of Love Symbolism in Bhagavatism" draws some parallel to Nappinnai, appearing in Godha's magnum opus Thiruppavai and in Nammalwar's references to Nappinnani, the daughter-in-law of Nandagopa. Nappinnai is believed to be the source of Radha's conception in Prakrit and Sanskrit literature although their characteristic relations with Krishna are different. In the ritual dance called Kuravai, Krishna dances with his wife Nappinnai. "It is a complex relationship, for the devotee is the ‘same as and yet different from’ the Lord, and so even in the joy of union there is the pain of separation. Indeed, the highest form of devotion, according to Yamunacarya, comes not in union but after the union, in the ‘fear of new separation’."


title: Radha Krishna

text: "Yasastilaka Champukavya" (959 CE) all make references to Radha and Krishna well before Jayadeva's period. There are elaborate references to Radha in Brahma vaivarta and Padma Puranas.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Gaudiya Vaishnava, as the name suggests, usually refers to the region of Bengal. Early Bengali literature gives a vivid description of the depiction and evolution of understanding of Radha and Krishna.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In this Bengali tradition metaphysical status and Radha-worship is considered to be established by Krsnadasa in his Chaitanya Charitamrta where he represents the doctrine that prevailed among the Vrindavan Caitanyaites following Caitanya's demise in 1533. It is believed that Krishna, desiring to experience fully what it is like to love Krishna as Radha does, has appeared as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And what Radha (appearing as Caitanya) does in her longing for Krishna is to chant his names.


title: Radha Krishna

text: One of the self manifested Deities established by Gopala Bhatta Goswami is called Radha Ramana, it is not surprising that Radha Ramana is seen as not only Krishna but also as Radha-Krishna. And worship in his temple, located in the centre of Vrindavana is a perpetual daily affair, involving several prescribed events throughout the day, with the goal of being theoretical and remote, but with aspiration of the possibility to attend and associate directly with Radha and Krishna.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The Manipuri Vaishnavism is a regional variant of Gaudiya Vaishnavism with a culture-forming role among the Meitei people in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. There, after a short period of Ramaism penetration, Gaudiya Vaishnavism spread in the early 18th century, especially from beginning its second quarter. Raja Gharib Nawaz (Pamheiba) under the influence of Natottama Thakura's disciples was initiated into the Chaitanya tradition with worship of Radha-Krishna as the supreme deity. Every village there has a Thakur-ghat and a temple. Manipuri Raas Leela and other dances are a feature of the regional folk and religious tradition and often, for example, a female dancer will portray both Krishna and his consort, Radha, in the same piece.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The Nimbarka Sampradaya worship the youthful form of Krishna, alone or with his consort Radha, is one of the earliest dating at least to the 12th century CE, just as Rudra Sampradaya does. According to Nimbarkacharya, a founder of the sampradaya, Radha is the eternal consort of Vishnu-Krishna and there is also a suggestion, though not a clear statement, that she became the wife of her beloved Krishna. Nimbarka rescues Radha from the presumed immoral implication of much of the literature, and gives to her a dignity unattained elsewhere.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The Nimbarka Sampradaya is one of the four bona fide Vaishnavite traditions. Lack of evidence due to the destruction of Mathura and Vrindavan in the 13th century and 14th century has meant that the true dates and origins of this tradition are shrouded in mystery and await investigation.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Nimbarka, who is widely held by scholars such as Satyanand Joseph, Prof. Rasik Bihari Joshi, Prof. M. M. Aggrawal etc., to be at least of the same time or before the appearance of Shankaracharya, was the first acharya to worship Radha along with Krishna in Sakhi Bhava Upasana method of worship. In his "Vedanta Kamadhenu Dashashloki" (verse 6), it is clearly stated that:


title: Radha Krishna

text: This theme was taken up by Jayadeva Goswami and other poets of the time who saw the inherent beauty and bliss which constitute this philosophy. In his Gita Govinda Krishna speaks to Radha:


title: Radha Krishna

text: It is believed, however, that the source of Jayadeva's heroine in his poem remains a puzzle of the Sanskrit Literature. At the same time there are well documented references to works earlier than Gita Govinda, which some count to be more than twenty. The figure of Radha is one of the most elusive in the literature of Sanskrit; she is described only in a few selected passages of Prakrit or Sanskrit poetry, a few inscriptions and a few works on grammar, poetry and drama. Jayadeva has referred to them and created an exquisite lyrical poem of passionate devotion in the 12th century CE, and from this poetic beginning a huge movement specific to Bengal began.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In this sampradaya, the significance of Radha is not less than the significance of Sri Krsna. Both are conjointly the object to be worshiped in this school of Nimbarka, who is also one of the first commentators on Brahma Sutras under the name "Vedanta-Parijata-Saurabha". The later acharyas of the Nimbarka Sampradaya in the 13th and 14th centuries in Vrindavana composed much literature on the Divine Couple. Swami Sri Sribhatta, the elder god-brother of Jayadeva composed the Yugala Shataka for the Dhrupada style of musical presentation like Jayadeva, however unlike Jayadeva who composed his work in Sanskrit, Swami Shribhatta's compositions are in Vraja language, a Hindi vernacular which was understood by all inhabitants of Vraja. Indeed, the rest of the acharyas of this tradition wrote in Vraja language and due to the lack of prevalence of this language in modern times, very little research has been done, even though these Acharyas predate the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan by centuries. Rare exception was Vijay Ramnarace's PhD thesis in 2014.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In any case, the sole object of worship in the Nimbarka Sampradaya is the unified Divine Couple of Shri Radha Krishna. According to the 15th century Mahavani written by Jagadguru Swami Sri Harivyasa Devacharya -


title: Radha Krishna

text: ""radhaamkrsnasvaroopaam vai, krishnam raadhaasvarupinam; kalaatmaanam nikunjastham gururoopam sadaa bhaje""


title: Radha Krishna

text: which means "I ceaselessly praise Radha who is none other than Krishna, and Sri Krishna who is none other than Radha, whose unity is represented by the Kaamabeeja and who are forever resident in Nikunja Goloka Vrindavana."


title: Radha Krishna

text: The contribution from the Nimbarka Sampradaya to the philosophy of Radha Krishna is undeniable, as the philosophy and theology originate in it.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The Pranami Sampradaya (Pranami Panth) emerged in the 17th century in Gujarat, based on the Radha-Krishna-focussed syncretic Hindu-Islamic teachings of Devchandra Maharaj and his famous successor, Mahamati Prannath.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Vallabhacharya, founder of Pushtimarg tradition even before Chaitanya, worshipped Radha, where according to some sects, the devotees identify mainly with the female companion ("sakhis") of Radha who are privileged to arrange intimate pastimes for RadhaKrishna.


title: Radha Krishna

text: One of the prominent poets of this tradition, which also called Radhavallabhi, named Dhruvadasa was notable for being principally concerned with the private relationships of Radha and Krishna. In his poetry "Caurasi Pad" and in the commentaries of his followers, the concentration is in meditation on the unique benefits of constant reflection on the eternal lila.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Radhavallabhis share with their Vaishnava co-religionists a great regard for Bhagavata Purana, but some of the pastimes that are outside the scope of relationships with Radha and gopis do not feature in the concept of this school. Emphasis is placed on the sweetness of the relationship, or rasa.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The Radha-centered Radha Vallabh Sampradaya founded by Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu in the 16th century occupies a special position among other traditions. In its theology, Radha is worshiped as the supreme deity, and Krishna is in a subordinate position.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Radha-Krishna Dev has a special place in the Swaminarayan Sampraday as Swaminarayan himself referred to Radha Krishna in the Shikshapatri he wrote. Further, he himself ordered the construction of temples in which Radha Krishna have been installed as deities. Swaminarayan "explained that Krishna appears in many forms. When he is together with Radha, he is regarded as supreme lord under the name of Radha-Krishna; with Rukmini he is known as Lakshmi-Narayana." The first temple constructed in the sect, built in Ahmedabad in 1822, houses the images of Nara Narayana, forms of Arjuna and Krishna, in the central shrine. The shrine on the left of the hall has murtis of Radha Krishna. According to the philosophy of the tradition there were many female companions of Krishna, gopis, but out of all of them Radha was considered to be the perfect devotee. Those who wish to come close to Krishna must cultivate the devotional qualities of Radha. According to theory the sect has set aside Goloka as the supreme heaven or abode (in fact, in some of their temples, such as the Mumbai Temple, the murtis installed are those of Shri Gaulokvihari and Radhikaji), because there Krishna is supposed to be enjoying himself with his Gopis, who according to the Swaminarayana sampradaya the milkmaids with whom Krishna danced; his relations with them symbolize the relation of God with the devotee in reciprocation.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Since the 15th century CE in Bengal and Assam flourished Tantric Vaishnava-Sahajiya tradition inspired by Bengali spiritual poet Chandidas, where Krishna is the inner divine aspect of man and Radha is the aspect of woman.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The date of Chandidas poem "Srikrsnakirtana" is still under question however the text remains one of the most important evidences of early portrayal of the popular story of "Lord Krishna's love for the cowherd girl Radha" in Bengali literature and religion. The 412 songs of "Srikrsnakirtana" are divided into thirteen sections that represent the core of the Radha-Krishna legendary cycle,


title: Radha Krishna

text: with many variants providing excellent comparative material. The manuscript clearly suggests that the songs were meant to be song, and implies particular "ragas" for the recitation. There is considerable debate as to the authenticity of the text that has significant religious meaning.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In Warkari tradition which is majorly based in the region of Maharashtra, Radha and Krishna are often venerated in their regional forms of Rahi and Vithoba, also called Vithala. According to the local legends, Rahi (Radha) is the wife of Vithala (Krishna).


title: Radha Krishna

text: In opinion of some Hindu scholars as well as scholars of Hinduism, a golden age existed when Muslims and Hindus created a common culture mainly because some Muslim rulers patronized Sanskrit and translations from Sanskrit into Persian, while there were Muslim poets who criticised Hinduism and personal form of Radha-Krishna.


title: Radha Krishna

text: Temples of "Shri Radha Krishna" are prevalent throughout India and the world. However, Braj region including Vrindavan, Barsana, Gokul, Nandgaon, and Mathura are considered to be the centers of Radha Krishna worship. Some of the important temples of Radha Krishna in Braj region are -


title: Radha Krishna

text: In Vrindavan — Shri Radha Madan Mohan temple, Shri Govind Dev ji temple, Shri Radha Raman temple, Shri Radha Gokulananda temple, Shri Radha Damodar temple, Shri Bankey Bihari temple, Shri Jugal Kishore temple, Shri Radha Gopinath temple, Shri Radha Shyamasundar temple, Prem Mandir, Shahji temple, Krishna Balram Mandir (Iskcon temple), Nidhivan temple, Seva Kunj temple, Shri Radha Vallabh temple, Kusum Sarovar, Radha Kund, Pagal Baba temple, Shri Radha Raas Bihari Ashtsakhi Temple, Priyakant ji temple, and Shri Vrindavan Chandrodaya temple.


title: Radha Krishna

text: In Barsana - Shri Radha Rani Temple (Shreeji temple), Rangeeli Mahal (Kirti Mandir), Shri Maan Mandir (Maan Garh)


title: Radha Krishna

text: Some other important Radha Krishna temples across India are - Shri Radha Govind Dev ji temple in Jaipur, Lalji Temple in Kalna, Hare Krishna Golden Temple in Hyderabad, Murlidhar Krishna Temple in Naggar, Shri Govindajee temple in Imphal, Madan Mohan temple in Karauli, Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir in Nadia, Swaminarayan temple Gadhada in Botad, Swaminarayan temple Vadtal in Kheda, Iskcon Bangalore, Iskcon Chennai, Iskcon Delhi, Radha Damodar Temple, Junagadh, Bhakti Mandir Mangarh, Swaminarayan temple Mumbai, Iskcon temple Mumbai, Iskcon temple Ujjain, Swaminarayan temple Bhuj, Iskcon temple Patna, Swaminarayan temple Dholera near Ahmedabad, Radha Krishna temple of Baroh in Kangra, historical temples in Bishnupur of Bankura district including Rasmancha, RadheShyam temple, Jor Bangla, and Radha Madhab Temple.


title: Radha Krishna

text: There are number of traditions that spread the worship of Radha Krishna across world, be it associated with migration or preaching activities of sadhus.


title: Radha Krishna

text: There are around 850 Iskcon temples spread across the world which promotes the worship of Radha Krishna. Similarly, Swaminarayan Sampradaya has also established many temples outside India in which Radha Krishna Dev are worshipped. Radha Madhav Dham in Austin, Texas built by Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat is one of the biggest Radha Krishna temple in Western hemisphere.


title: Radha Krishna

text: The "Shri Radhika Krishnastaka" (also called the Radhashtak) is a hymn. It is said that the reciter can get to Krishna via Radha by chanting it. The other popular songs and prayers include — "Yugalashtakam" written by Jiva Goswami which glorifies the love and inseparability of the divine couple Radha Krishna and Jayadeva's much acclaimed work "Gita Govinda" which was written in the 12th century and is still the part of temple songs of Jagannath temple, Puri. "Radhe Krishna" — the maha-mantra of Nimbarka Sampradaya is as follows:


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: La Femme Nikita, also called Nikita in France, is a 1990 action thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. The film stars Anne Parillaud as the title character, a teen criminal who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering policemen during an armed pharmacy robbery. Her government handlers fake her death and recruit her as a professional assassin. After intense training, she starts a career as a killer, where she struggles to balance her work with her personal life. She shows talent at this and her career progresses until a mission in an embassy goes awry.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: "Nikita" was commercially successful, but received mixed reviews from critics. It was remade as "Black Cat" (1991) in Hong Kong and "Point of No Return" (1993) in Hollywood. Two television series were produced based on the film, "La Femme Nikita" (1997–2001) and "Nikita" (2010–2013).


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Nikita is a nihilistic teenage junkie who commits her life to anarchy, drugs and violence. One night, she participates in the robbery of a pharmacy owned by a friend's parents. The robbery erupts into a gunfight with local police, and her accomplices are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she murders a police officer. Nikita is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder, and is sentenced to life in prison.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: In prison, government officials fake her death, making it appear that she has committed suicide, and remove her from prison. She awakens in a nondescript room, where a well-dressed, hard-looking man named Bob tells her that, although officially dead and buried, she is in the custody of a shadowy government agency known as "the Centre" (possibly part of the DGSE). She is given the choice of becoming an assassin, or of occupying "row 8, plot 30", her fake grave. After some resistance, she chooses the former and gradually proves to be a talented killer. She is taught computer skills, martial arts, and firearms. One of her trainers, Armande, transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to a beautiful femme fatale. Amande implies that she also was rescued and trained by the Centre.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Nikita's initial mission, killing a foreign diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping from his well-armed bodyguards to the Centre, doubles as the final test in her training. She graduates and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris (under the name Marie). After meeting Marco in a supermarket, the two develop an intimate relationship, although he knows nothing of her real work. Marco is curious about her past and why she has no family or other friends. Nikita invites Bob to dinner as "Uncle Bob". He tells stories about "Marie"'s imaginary childhood and give the couple tickets for a trip to Venice, purportedly as an engagement gift.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Nikita and Marco go on the trip. As they prepare to make love after arrival, the phone rings. She thinks it's the room service they just ordered, but it is instructions for her next job. Her room is perfectly located for her to shoot the target. She goes to the bathroom, supposedly to take a bath, and as she prepares the rifle, Marco tries to talk to her through the door. The instructions about her target take longer than expected and she can't answer him. She finally shoots her target but barely conceals the rifle before Marco walks in, against her wishes. Nikita is distraught that her work has caused them difficulties.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Still, her career as an assassin goes well until a document-theft mission in an embassy goes awry. The Centre sends in Victor "The Cleaner", a ruthless operative, to salvage the mission and destroy all the evidence of the foul-up. When another operative is killed by Victor, Nikita is assigned to take his place. They nearly complete the mission before it goes bad. Victor takes on a bunch of guards before being fatally wounded, but drives Nikita to safety before succumbing to his wounds.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Marco reveals that he has discovered Nikita's secret life, and, concerned over how her activities are affecting her psychologically, persuades her to disappear. Upon discovering that she abandoned the Centre, Bob goes to their apartment and meets with Marco. When Bob says that Nikita is at risk because she still has the documents taken from the embassy, Marco hands them over. The two men agree that they will both miss Nikita.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Based on the success of "Le Grand Bleu", Gaumont agreed to finance "Nikita" without having seen a script. "Nikita" cost 39 million francs to make, and was a co-production between Besson's company Les Films du Loup, Gaumont, and Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematographica.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: "Nikita" premiered in Paris at the Grand Rex on 21 February 1990. On its first week in Paris, the film had 113,900 spectators. By the year 2000, the film had 828,867 spectators in Paris.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Following the premiere, the film was distributed to 15 towns in France, with Besson to promote it and have discussions with audiences after the screenings. Other cast and crew members on the tour included Éric Serra, Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hugues Anglade and occasionally Tchéky Karyo. The film had 3,787,845 spectators in France by 2000. It was the fourth highest-grossing film in France for 1990, but was not as popular as Besson's previous film "The Big Blue" (1988).


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: After "Nikita"'s release in France, it was released in over 95 countries. Gaumont handled the sales of distribution rights separately; distribution rights were sold to Columbia Pictures and the remake rights were sold to Warner Bros. "Nikita" was shown in Montreal, Canada in 1990. The film was very popular in Montreal, where distributor Didier Farre noted that the film was beaten only by "Bird on a Wire" and "Back to the Future Part III" in June 1990. In Britain, the film became the highest weekly box office ever for a French film, and it was also popular in the box office in Italy and Japan.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: It was released in the United States in 1991. The film had a six-month theatrical run in the United States where it reached an audience of 1.15 million. By the end of the year, the film was the third highest-grossing French film production in the United States. Besson thought that the film was inappropriately promoted in the United States, saying that "Nikita is an action film but was released in American art houses. "The Big Blue" has the same problem, released in the United States as an intellectual work, and attracting the wrong audience."


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: In France, the popular press reception to the film was mixed. Monthly film journals were more favourable, while the more serious journals were predominantly negative. Reviews from "Le Nouvel Observateur", "Libération", "Le Figaro" and "Le Journal du Dimanche" gave the film positive reviews, where they all appreciated Besson's "film noir" styled film and were surprised at Parillaud's acting in a demanding role. In contrast, the film was dismissed in reviews from "L'Humanité", "L'événement du jeudi", "Le Monde", "Le Parisien", and "La Croix", who found the film resembled a commercial advertisement visually and psychologically had the depth of a comic strip.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Speaking of the film's critical reception in France, Besson noted he would not talk to the press, saying that he would want to "count on them to help me, to help me evaluate my own work". He said that "critics should be looking towards the future, but in France, all they want to talk about is the past."


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Besson further said: "I don't have much belief in the sincerity of critics, I believe in the sincerity of someone who goes to a film, pays his ticket and comes out saying what he thinks because he has nothing to gain by doing so. The critics defend an ideology, their age, their profession, a lot of things that don't interest me."


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Paris critic Marc Esposito of "Studio" responded to Besson's statements, describing Besson as someone who "thinks he's a nice guy, and everyone around him is evil. We are all guilty of not adoring Luc Besson."


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: The film received mixed reviews outside France. On Metacritic, the overall score from 14 critics is 56 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". However, on Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 44 reviews. The site's consensus states: "A zany out-of-control thriller that gives lead Anne Parillaud a big character arc and plenty of emotional room to work in". A number of critics, including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, positively reviewed the film.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: The film was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Parillaud won the César Award for Best Actress and the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress in 1991. Marc Duret was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actor for his portrayal of Rico.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: When asked about a follow-up to "Nikita", Anne Parillaud said that she was not interested in a sequel. She said: "If the film was a failure, would you have had anything more to say about her? No. Of course not."


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: "La Femme Nikita" was remade in Hong Kong as the action film "Black Cat" directed by Stephen Shin in 1991.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: It was remade in Hollywood as "Point of No Return" by John Badham in 1993. This was part of a trend in the late 1980s and early 1990s for Hollywood to remake French films. "Daily Variety" noted that between 1987 and 1993, Hollywood remade seventeen contemporary French films, which had been released in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The remakes were generally initiated by the French films and, given the size of the American market, often make more money for their directors as American adaptations than they do as original films in France.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: A Canadian TV series based on the film, titled "La Femme Nikita", premiered in 1997. It was produced in Canada by Fireworks Entertainment. The developer Joel Surnow, who described himself as "devotee of Besson's film", has repeatedly said in interviews that the series is modelled explicitly after Besson's film and not the American remake. He said that he had never seen "Point of No Return".


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: The premiere episode of the series borrows scenes from Besson's film, with "Variety" noting that it was a scene-by-scene re-creation of the kitchen restaurant scene. Several lead roles in the series parallel those of the film: Roy Dupuis plays Nikita's trainer Michael, who was called Bob in Besson's film, and Alberta Watson is Madeline, who is similar to the character played by Jeanne Moreau in Besson's film.


title: La Femme Nikita (film)

text: Other films that "La Femme Nikita" has influenced include "The Villainess" (2017), a South Korean film.


title: Angels in Islam

text: In Islam, angels (; plural: ) are believed to be heavenly beings, created from a luminous origin by God. They have different roles, including their praise of God, interacting with humans in ordinary life, defending against devils ("shayāṭīn") and carrying on natural phenomena. Islam acknowledges the concept of angels both as anthropomorphic creatures with wings and abstract forces advising good. Belief in angels is one of the main articles of faith in Islam.


title: Angels in Islam

text: The Quran is the principal source for the Islamic concept of angels, but more extensive features of angels appear in hadith literature, literature, Islamic exegesis, theology, philosophy, and mysticism. The angels differ from other spiritual creatures in their attitude as creatures of virtue, in contrast to devils and jinn. Angels play an important role in Muslim everyday life by protecting the believers from evil influences and recording the deeds of humans.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Islamic Modernist scholars such as Muhammad Asad and Ghulam Ahmed Parwez have suggested a metaphorical reinterpretation of the concept of angels.


title: Angels in Islam

text: The Quranic word for angel () derives either from , meaning "he controlled", due to their power to govern different affairs assigned to them, or from the triliteral root , or with the broad meaning of a "messenger", just as its counterpart in Hebrew (). Unlike the Hebrew word, however, the term is used exclusively for heavenly spirits of the divine world, as opposed to human messengers. The Quran refers to both angelic and human messengers as instead.


title: Angels in Islam

text: In Islam, angels are heavenly creatures created by God. They are considered older than humans and jinn. Contrary to popular belief, angels are never described as agents of revelation in the Quran, although exegesis credits Gabriel with that. One of the Islamic major characteristic is their lack of bodily desires; they never get tired, do not eat or drink, and have no anger. As with other monotheistic religions, angels are characterized by their purity and obedience to God. In Islamic traditions, they are described as being created from incorporeal light () or fire (). A narrative transmitted from Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, audited and commented by two hadith commentary experts in the modern era, Shuaib Al Arna'ut and Muḥammad 'Abd ar-Raḥmān al-Mubarakpuri, has spoken a hadith that Muhammad said the number of angels were countless, to the point that there is no space in the sky as wide as four fingers, unless there is an angel resting his forehead, prostrating to God.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Angels are usually described in anthropomorphic forms combined with supernatural images, such as wings, being of great size, wearing heavenly clothes and great beauty. Some angels are identified with specific colors, often with white, but some special angels have a distinct color, such as Gabriel being associated with the color green.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Angels were being able to impersonate humans, such as when Gabriel, Michael, Israfil, and thousands of the greatest angels, from the third heaven, came to the battle of Badr by impersonating appearance of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a Companions of the Prophet and bodyguard of the prophet.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Prior to Islam, angels were considered to be daughters of God and worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia. This is also mentioned concerning Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manāt. The notion that God created the angels as females and fathered daughters is rejected in the Quran.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Scholars debated whether human or angels rank higher. Angels usually symbolize virtuous behavior, while humans have the ability to sin, but also to repent. The prostration of angels before Adam is often seen as evidence for humans' supremacy over angels. Others hold angels to be superior, as being free from material deficits, such as anger and lust. Angels are free from such inferior urges and therefore superior, a position especially found among Mu'tazilites and some Asharites. A similar opinion was asserted by Hasan of Basri, who argued that angels are superior to humans and prophets due to their infallibility, originally opposed by both Sunnis and Shias. This view is based on the assumption of superiority of pure spirit against body and flesh.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Contrarily argued, humans rank above angels, since for a human it is harder to be obedient and to worship God, hassling with bodily temptations, in contrast to angels, whose life is much easier and therefore their obedience is rather insignificant. Islam acknowledges a famous story about competing angels and humans in the tale of Harut and Marut, who were tested to determine, whether or not, angels would do better than humans under the same circumstances, a tradition opposed by some scholars, such as ibn Taimiyya, but still accepted by others, such as ibn Hanbal.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Maturidism generally holds that angels' and prophets' superiority and obedience derive from their virtues and insights to God's action, but not as their original purity.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Andalusian scholar ibn Arabi argues that a human generally ranks below angels, but developed to Al-Insān al-Kāmil, ranks above them. This is comparable to the major opinion, stating that prophets and messengers among humans rank above angels, but the ordinary human below an angel, while the messengers among angels rank higher than prophets. Ibn Arabi explains this, in his regarding the questions of Tirmidhi, by that Muhammad intercedes for the angels first, then for (other) prophets, saints, believers, animals, plants and inanimate objects last.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Groups of modern scholars from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Yemen and Mauritania issued that the angels should be invoked with blessing Islamic honorifics (), which is applied to human prophets and messengers. This fatwas were based on the ruling from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya.


title: Angels in Islam

text: The possibility and degree of erring angels is debated in Islam. In the early Islamic period, supernatural creatures were not expected to understand sin or expiate it. They only follow their nature created by God. Hasan of Basra is often considered one of the first who established the doctrine of infallibility of angels by reinterpreting verses which seem to imply erring angels. To establish the doctrine of infallible angels, he asserted that Harut and Marut haven't been angels, but kings, and Iblis (Satan) was a jinn, with support from the Quranic verse "he was one of the jinn". This view was, however, not universal in the formative stage of Islam, as Abu Hanifa (d. 767), on the other hand, divided angels into three categories. Obedient angels, like Gabriel; disobedient angels, like whose who teach sorcery and unbelieving angels, like Iblis and his host.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Objection to a strict infallibility of angels rests on the following events in the Quran and Muslim tradition. The Quran mentions the fall of Iblis (whose angelic nature is rejected by many scholars) from the place of angels in several Surahs. Surah 2:102 implies that a pair of angels fell to earth and introduces magic to humanity. According to Surah 2:30, angels complained about God's decision to create Adam. In Shia traditions, a cherub called Futrus was cast out from heaven and fell to the earth in the form a snake. The Isma'ilism work reiterates the story of Iblis in the form of an angel called Azazil who boasts about himself being superior to God until he is thrown into lower celestial spheres and ends up on earth.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Al-Maturidi (853–944 CE) pointed at verses of the Quran, according to which angels are tested by God and concludes angels have free-will, but, due to their insights to God's nature, choose to obey. Some angels nevertheless lack this insight and fail, pointing to Surah Al-Anbiya, and thus sentenced to hell. Since both the Quran and Kutub al-Sittah describe angels erring or failing to accomplish that has been ordered to them, Sunni scholars () also explained that angels might be effected by circumstances, like smell or confusion when God created Adam.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Al-Taftazani (1322 AD –1390 AD) accepted that angels might slip into error and become disobedient, but rejected that angels would ever consciously turn against God's command and become unbelievers. Most scholars of Salafism usually reject accounts on erring angels entirely and do not investigate this matter further.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Angels believed to be engaged in human affairs are closely related to Islamic purity and modesty rituals. Many hadiths, including Muwatta Imam Malik from one of the Kutub al-Sittah, talk about angels being repelled by humans' state of impurity. Such angels keep a distance from humans, who polluted themselves by certain actions (such as sexual intercourse). However, angels might return to an individual as soon as the person (ritually) purified himself or herself. The absence of angels may cause several problems for the person. If driven away by ritual impurity, the Kiraman Katibin, who record people's actions, and the Guardian angel, will not perform their tasks assigned to the individual. Another hadith specifies, during the state of impurity, bad actions are still written down, but good actions are not. When a person tells a lie, angels nearly are separated from the person from the stench the lie emanates. Angels also depart from humans when they are naked or are having a bath out of decency, but also curse people who are nude in public.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Inspired by Neoplatonism, the medieval Muslim philosopher Al-Farabi developed a cosmological hierarchy, governed by several "Intellects". For al-Farabi, human nature is composed of both material and spiritual qualities. The spiritual part of a human exchanges information with the angelic entities, who are defined by their nature as knowledge absorbed by the Godhead. A similar function is attested in the cosmology of the Muslim philosopher Ibn Sina, who, however, never uses the term "angels" throughout his works. For Ibn Sina, the Intellects have probably been a necessity without any religious connotation.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Muslim theologians, such as al-Suyuti, rejected the philosophical depiction on angels, based on hadiths stating that the angels have been created through the light of God (). Thus angels would have substance and could not merely be an intellectual entity as claimed by philosophers.


title: Angels in Islam

text: The chain of being, according to Muslim thinkers, includes minerals, plants, animals, human and angels. Muslim philosophers usually define angels as substances endowed with reason and immortality. Humans and animals are mortal, but only men have reason. Devils are unreasonable like animals, but immortal like angels.


title: Angels in Islam

text: The Sufi Muslim and philosopher Al Ghazali (–19 December 1111) divides human nature into four domains, each representing another type of creature: animals, beasts, devils and angels. Traits human share with bodily creatures are the animal, which exists to regulate ingestion and procreation and the beasts, used for predatory actions like hunting. The other traits humans share with the and root in the realm of the unseen. These faculties are of two kind: that of angels and of the devils. While the angels endow the human mind with reason, advices virtues and leads to worshipping God, the devil perverts the mind and tempts to abusing the spiritual nature by committing lies, betrayals and deceits. The angelic natures advices how to use the animalistic body properly, while the devil perverts it. In this regard, the plane of a human is, unlike whose of the and animals, not pre-determined. Humans are potentially both angels and devils, depending on whether the sensual soul or the rational soul develop.


title: Angels in Islam

text: In later Sufism, angels are not merely models for the mystic but also their companions. Humans, in a state between earth and heaven, seek angels as guidance to reach the upper realms. Some authors have suggested that some individual angels in the microcosmos represent specific human faculties on a macrocosmic level. According to a common belief, if a Sufi can not find a sheikh to teach him, he will be taught by the angel Khidr. The presence of an angel depends on human's obedience to divine law. Dirt, depraved morality and desecration may ward off an angel.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Just as in non-Sufi-related traditions, angels are thought of as created of light. Al-Jili specifies that the angels are created from the Light of Muhammad and in his attribute of guidance, light and beauty. Influenced by Ibn Arabis Sufi metaphysics, Haydar Amuli identifies angels as created to represent different names/attributes of God's beauty, while the devils are created in accordance with God's attributes of Majesty, such as "The Haugthy" or "The Domineering".


title: Angels in Islam

text: According to al-Ghazali humans consist of animalistic and spiritual traits. From the spiritual realm (), the plane in which symbols take on form, angels and devils advise the human hearth (). However, the angels also inhabit the realm beyond considered the realm from which reason () derives from and devils have no place.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Unlike (theology), Sufi cosmology usually makes no distinction between angels and jinn, understanding the term as "everything hidden from the human senses". Ibn Arabi states: "[when I refer to] jinn in the absolute sense of the term, [I include] those which are made of light and those which are made of fire." While most earlier Sufis (like Hasan al-Basri) advised their disciples to imitate the angels, Ibn-Arabi advised them to surpass the angels. The angels being merely a reflection of the Divine Names in accordance within the spiritual realm, humans experience the Names of God manifested both in the spiritual and in the material world.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Contemporary Salafism continues to regard the belief in angels as a pillar of Islam and regards the rejection of the literal belief in angels as unbelief and an innovation brought by secularism and Positivism. Modern reinterpretations, as for example suggested by Nasr Abu Zayd, are strongly disregarded. Simultaneously, many traditional materials regarding angels are rejected on the ground, they would not be authentic. The Muslim Brotherhood scholars Sayyid Qutb and Umar Sulaiman Al-Ashqar reject much established material concerning angels, such as the story of "Harut and Marut" or naming the Angel of Death "Azrail". Sulayman Ashqar not only rejects the traditional material itself, he furthermore disapproves of scholars who use them.


title: Angels in Islam

text: Islam has no standard hierarchical organization that parallels the division into different "choirs" or spheres hypothesized and drafted by early medieval Christian theologians, but generally distinguishes between the angels in heaven () fully absorbed in the "ma'rifa" (knowledge) of God and the messengers who carry out divine decrees between heaven and earth. Angels are not equal in status and consequently, they are delegated different tasks to perform.


title: Angels in Islam

text: There are four special angels () considered to rank above the other angels in Islam. They have proper names, and central tasks are associated with them:


title: Angels in Islam

text: According to hadith transmitted by Ibn Abbas, Muhammad encountered several significant angels on his journey through the celestial spheres. Many scholars such as Al-Tha'labi drew their exegesis upon this narrative, but it never led to an established angelology as known in Christianity. The principal angels of the heavens are called , instead of .


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Jacqueline Mary du Pré (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987) was a British cellist. At a young age, she achieved enduring mainstream popularity. Despite her short career, she is regarded as one of the greatest cellists of all time.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at the age of 28; she died 14 years later at the age of 42.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: She was the subject of the 1998 biographical film "Hilary and Jackie", which attracted criticism for perceived inaccuracy and sensationalism.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Du Pré was born in Oxford, England, the second child of Iris Greep and Derek du Pré. Derek was born in Jersey, where his family had lived for generations. After working as an accountant at Lloyds Bank in St Helier and London, he became assistant editor and later editor of "The Accountant". Iris was a talented concert pianist who had studied at the Royal Academy of Music.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: At the age of four du Pré is said to have heard the sound of the cello on the radio and asked her mother for "one of those". She began with lessons from her mother, who composed little pieces accompanied by illustrations, before enrolling at the London Violoncello School at age five, studying with Alison Dalrymple. For her general education, du Pré was enrolled first at Commonweal Lodge, a former independent school for girls in Purley, and then at the age of eight, transferred to Croydon High School, an independent day school for girls in South Croydon. In 1956, at the age of 11, she won the Guilhermina Suggia Award, and was granted renewal of the award each year until 1961. The Suggia award paid for du Pré's tuition at the Guildhall School of Music in London, and for private lessons with the celebrated cellist William Pleeth.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In late 1958, the family moved to London, where Derek du Pré took the job of Secretary of the Institute of Cost and Works Accounting. In January 1959, du Pré was enrolled in Queen's College, where she fell behind in her schoolwork, and in December du Pré's parents withdrew her from the school. This ended du Pré's general education; she never took the GCE.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: From an early age, du Pré was entering and winning local music competitions alongside her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré. In 1959 she began appearing at children's and young musicians' concerts, including with fellow students at the Guildhall end-of-term concert in March, followed by an appearance on BBC Television, playing the Lalo Cello Concerto. In May she repeated the Lalo concerto with the BBC Welsh Orchestra in Cardiff, with an additional recording of the Haydn Cello Concerto at the BBC Lime Grove Studios with the Royal Philharmonic. In 1960 du Pré won the Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the same year participated in a Pablo Casals masterclass in Zermatt, Switzerland. Pleeth entered her in the Queen's Prize competition for outstanding musicians under 30. The panel, chaired by Yehudi Menuhin, unanimously awarded du Pré the prize, and Menuhin subsequently invited her to play trios with him and his sister.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In March 1961, at the age of 16, du Pré made her formal début at Wigmore Hall, London. She was accompanied by Ernest Lush, and played sonatas by Handel, Brahms, Debussy and Falla, and a solo cello suite by Bach. She made her concerto début on 21 March 1962 at the Royal Festival Hall playing the Elgar Cello Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf Schwarz; repeating the Elgar at The Proms with the same orchestra on 14 August of the same year, under Sir Malcolm Sargent. In September 1962, du Pré débuted at the Edinburgh Festival with Brahms' Second Cello Sonata, followed by débuts in Berlin in September and Paris in October, playing the Schumann Cello Concerto. After the Paris début, du Pré enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris to study for six months with Paul Tortelier, the tuition paid by her final Suggia Award stipend, although she continued to refer to Pleeth as her primary teacher.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In 1963, du Pré performed at The Proms, playing the Elgar Concerto with Sir Malcolm Sargent. Her performance of the concerto proved so popular that she returned three years in succession to perform the work. At her 3 September 1964 Prom Concert, she performed the Elgar concerto as well as the world premiere of Priaulx Rainier's Cello Concerto. Du Pré became a favourite at the Proms, returning every year until 1969.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In 1965, at age 20, du Pré recorded the Elgar Concerto for EMI with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Barbirolli, which brought her international recognition. This recording has become a benchmark for the work, and one which has never been out of the catalogue since its release. Du Pré also performed the Elgar with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Antal Doráti for her United States début, at Carnegie Hall on 14 May 1965. In 1966 du Pré studied in Russia with Mstislav Rostropovich, who was so impressed with his pupil that at the end of his tutorship he declared her "the only cellist of the younger generation that could equal and overtake [his] own achievement."


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In 1968, at the suggestion of Ian Hunter, a composition was created by Alexander Goehr specifically for du Pré, "Romanza for cello and orchestra, op.24," which she premiered at the Brighton Music Festival, with Daniel Barenboim conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In addition to those already mentioned, Du Pré performed with numerous orchestras throughout the world, including the London Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. She made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1968 playing Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor with Zubin Mehta. She regularly performed with conductors such as Barbirolli, Sargent, Sir Adrian Boult, Daniel Barenboim, and Leonard Bernstein.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Du Pré primarily played on two Stradivarius cellos, one from 1673 and the Davidov Stradivarius of 1712. Both instruments were gifts from her godmother, Isména Holland, the wife of composer Theodore Holland. She performed with the 1673 Stradivarius from 1961 until 1964, when she acquired the Davidov. Many of her most famous recordings were made on this instrument, including the Elgar Concerto with Barbirolli, the Robert Schumann Cello Concerto with Barenboim and the two Brahms cello sonatas. From 1969 to 1970 she (like Casals before her) played on a Francesco Goffriller cello, and in 1970 acquired a modern instrument from the Philadelphia violin maker Sergio Peresson. It was the Peresson cello that du Pré played for the remainder of her career until 1973, using it for a second, live, recording of the Elgar Concerto, and her last studio recording, of Frédéric Chopin's Cello Sonata in G minor and César Franck's Violin Sonata in A arranged for cello, in December 1971.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Her friendship with musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to Daniel Barenboim led to many memorable chamber-music performances. In a book review for two biographies about the cellist, Eugenia Zukerman, the flautist and former wife of Pinchas Zukerman, judged du Pré "one of the most stunningly gifted musicians of our time". The 1969 performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London of the Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, "The Trout", was the basis of a film, "The Trout", by Christopher Nupen. Nupen made other films featuring du Pré, including "Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar Cello Concerto", a documentary featuring a live performance of the Elgar; and "The Ghost", with Barenboim and Zukerman in a performance of the "Ghost" Piano Trio in D major, by Beethoven.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Du Pré met pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim in London on Christmas Eve 1966. Shortly before the Six-Day War of 1967, she cancelled all of her current engagements and flew to Jerusalem with Barenboim. There, she converted to Judaism and they married at the Western Wall on 15 June 1967 after giving concerts around Israel for its troops and citizens. Barenboim and du Pré were highly regarded as a "golden couple" in the music industry during the late 1960s and early 1970s, with their extensive performing and recording collaborations being ranked as some of the finest of their time.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: The posthumous memoir "A Genius in the Family" (later renamed "Hilary and Jackie") by Jacqueline's siblings Hilary du Pré and Piers, published well after her death, alleges that she had an extramarital affair with Christopher Finzi, her brother-in-law, from 1971 to 1972 when she was visiting Hilary's family.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In 1971, du Pré's playing declined as she began to lose sensitivity in her fingers and other parts of her body. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in October 1973. Her last recording, of sonatas by Chopin and Franck (the latter originally for violin), was made in December 1971. She went on sabbatical from 1971 to 1972, and performed only rarely. She started performing again in 1973, but by then her condition had become severe. For her January tour of North America, some of the less-than-complimentary reviews were an indication that her condition had worsened except for brief moments when her playing was without noticeable problems. Her last London concerts were in February 1973, including the Elgar Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the New Philharmonia Orchestra on 8 February.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Her last public concerts took place in New York in February 1973: four performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman and Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic were scheduled. Du Pré recalled that she had problems judging the weight of the bow, and just opening the cello case had become difficult. As she had lost sensation in her fingers, she had to coordinate her fingering visually. She played only three of the four concerts, cancelling the last, in which Isaac Stern took her place on the programme with Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Whilst definitive diagnosis of du Pré's MS type is not available, some speculate that it was relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). Use of corticosteroids may have had adverse effects, including Cushing's syndrome.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: The Vuitton Foundation purchased her Davidov Stradivarius for just over £1 million and made it available on loan to Yo-Yo Ma. After being owned by the Norwegian cellist Øyvind Gimse, the 1673 Stradivarius, named by Lynn Harrell the "Du Pré Stradivarius" in tribute, is now on extended loan to Hungarian cellist István Várdai. Du Pré's 1970 Peresson cello is currently on loan to cellist Kyril Zlotnikov of the Jerusalem Quartet.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: There is a blue plaque celebrating her memory at her former home, 27 Upper Montagu Street, Marylebone.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: In 2021, actress Miriam Margolyes claimed in her memoir "This Much is True" that Du Pré died in an assisted suicide. She stated that her therapist, Margaret Branch, told her that she assisted the suicide via lethal injection. Du Pré's former husband, Daniel Barenboim, called the claim "unverifiable" and said it had "absolutely nothing to do with the reality of Jackie's passing".


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: The posthumous memoir "A Genius in the Family" by Hilary and Piers du Pré was written at the same time as the 1998 film "Hilary and Jackie", directed by Anand Tucker, which was based partially on interviews with Hilary and Piers. The film's release promoted the popularity of the memoir. Both the book and the film have been criticised for sensationalising Jacqueline du Pré's personal life, although the general claim of an affair was supported by others.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: The memoir's content in general remains factually unsupported and disputed, and contains significant omissions. The memoir's actual description of events is ambiguous, and describes Jacqueline's sudden request for sexual "therapy sessions" as occurring within a period of extreme mental depression. The unusual depression (deemed an early symptom of multiple sclerosis) also coincided with a long period in which Finzi took the initiative in verbally comforting Jacqueline. Hilary claims that she was helping her sister through her depression. She also argues, however, that she was victimised by her sister's demands, and concludes that her sister had a desire for her husband. The memoir's account of the affair with Finzi was contested by Hilary's daughter, Clare Finzi, who suggested that her father was a serial adulterer who had seduced her emotionally vulnerable aunt in a time of great need to gratify his own ego. The posthumous allegation of an affair, combined with Hilary's claim to be victimised, inevitably generated a controversy over Jacqueline du Pré's personal life.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: The film "Hilary and Jackie" differs from the memoir on several key factual points, and has been criticised by some for imposing a scandal on Jacqueline's personal life. Clare Finzi, Hilary's daughter, charged that the film was a "gross misinterpretation which I cannot let go unchallenged." It portrays Jacqueline from Hilary's point of view before moving to a portrayal of events as imagined from Jacqueline's own perspective. The film contains factually disputed elements, portraying Jacqueline as being predatory and actively planning to seduce her sister's husband. The director, Anand Tucker, defends the film's portrayal of an affair by arguing that extant alternatives amount to canonisation or hagiography, and that he was "deeply moved [by] Hilary's sacrifice". The film and book were also defended for their emotional power and broad authenticity, despite fictional content regarding aspects of Jacqueline's personality and the specifics of events.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Writing in "The Guardian", however, Hilary defended the film's depiction of events and her sister's personality, arguing that it accurately portrayed her darker side, the "MS side"; and in "The New Yorker" she argued that detractors simply "want to look only at the pieces of Jackie's life they [are ready to] accept". According to Hilary, "[t]he ravages of MS changed Jackie's personality. The Jackie I knew and loved died years before her actual death in 1987, but to be truthful I had to show the MS side of her". Others, such as Christopher Nupen, took a different view, holding that Jacqueline's struggle with multiple sclerosis was more complex, with sustained periods of normality even to the very end.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Choreographer Cathy Marston choreographed a one-act ballet titled "The Cellist", based on du Pré's life, for The Royal Ballet. The ballet premiered in 2020 at the Royal Opera House, with Lauren Cuthbertson as "The Cellist", Matthew Ball as "The Conductor" and Marcelino Sambé as "The Instrument".


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: "Jacqueline," by Luna Pearl Woolf (music) and Royce Vavrek (libretto) had its world premiere at Canada's National Ballet School's Betty Oliphant Theatre in Toronto, in a production by Tapestry Opera, on 19 February 2020.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: Du Pré received several fellowships from music academies and honorary doctorate degrees universities for her outstanding contributions to music in general and her instrument in particular. In 1956, at the age of 11, she was the second recipient (after Rohan de Saram in 1955) of the prestigious Guilhermina Suggia Award, and remains the youngest recipient. In 1960, she won the Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Queen's Prize for British musicians. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1976 New Year Honours. At the 1977 BRIT Awards, she won the award for the best classical soloist album of the past 25 years for Elgar's Cello Concerto.


title: Jacqueline du Pré

text: After her death, a rose cultivar named after her received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. She was made an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford, whose music building bears her name.


title: Political geography of Nineteen Eighty-Four

text: In George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the world is divided into three superstates: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, who are all fighting each other in a perpetual war in a disputed area called the Equatorial Front. All that Oceania's citizens know about the world is whatever the Party wants them to know, so how the world evolved into the three states is unknown; and it is also unknown to the reader whether they actually exist in the novel's reality, or whether they are a storyline invented by the Party to advance social control. The nations appear to have emerged from nuclear warfare and civil dissolution over 20 years between 1945 and 1965, in a post-war world where totalitarianism becomes the predominant form of ideology, through Neo-Bolshevikism, IngSoc, and Obliteration of the Self.


text: What is known of the society, politics and economics of Oceania, and its rivals, comes from the in-universe book, "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" by Emmanuel Goldstein. The protagonist of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", Winston Smith, describes it as "a heavy black volume, amateurishly bound, with no name or title on the cover. The print also looked slightly irregular. The pages were worn at the edges, and fell apart easily, as though the book had passed through many hands."


text: The book is a literary device Orwell uses to connect the past and present of 1984. Orwell intended Goldstein's book to parody Trotsky's (on whom Goldstein is based) "The Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where is it Going?", published in 1937.


text: Oceania was founded following an anti-capitalist revolution, which, while intended to be the ultimate liberation of its proletariat (proles), soon ignored them. It is stated that Oceania formed after the United States merged with the British Empire. The text, however, does not indicate how the Party obtained the power it possesses or when it did so. The state is composed of "the Americas, the Atlantic Islands, including the British Isles, Australasia and the southern portion of Africa". Oceania's political system, Ingsoc (English Socialism), uses a cult of personality to venerate the ruler, Big Brother, as the Inner Party exercises day-to-day power.


text: Food rationing, which does not affect Inner Party members, is in place. Winston considers the geography as now stands: "[E]ven the names of countries, and their shapes on the map, had been different. Airstrip One, for instance, had not been so called in those days: it had been called England, or Britain, though London, he felt fairly certain, had always been called London." The countryside outside of London is a place not for enjoying the contrast with the city but rather for purely practical grounds of exercise.


text: Oceania is made up by provinces, one of which is "Airstrip One", as Britain is now known. The whole province is "miserable and run-down" with London consisting, almost solely, of "decaying suburbs". Airstrip One is the third most populous province in Oceania; but London is not the capital, for Oceania has none. This decentralisation enables the Party to ensure that each province of Oceania feels itself to be the centre of affairs; and it prevents them from feeling colonised, for there is no distant capital to focus discontent on. 85% of Oceania's population are proles, with most of the remainder in the Outer Party; a tiny number rule as members of the Inner Party. Winston yearns for revolution and a return to a time before Oceania, says Craig L. Carr; but he realises that "no revolution is possible in Oceania. History, in Hegelian terms, has ended. There will be no political transformations in Oceania: political change has ended because Big Brother will not let it happen". No political collapse is possible in Oceania, suggests Carr, because the government will not allow it, regardless of internal or external pressures.


text: A totalitarian and highly formalised state, Oceania also has no law, only crimes, says Lynskey. Nothing is illegal; social pressure is used to exert control, in place of law. It is hard for citizens to know when they are in breach of Party expectations; and they are in a state of permanent anxiety, unable to think too deeply on any subject whatsoever so as to avoid "thoughtcrime". For example, Winston begins to write a diary and does not know if this is a forbidden offence, but he is reasonably certain of it. In Oceania, to think is to do and no distinction is drawn between either. Criticism of the state is forbidden, even though criticism must be constant for the state's survival, since it must have critics to destroy so as to demonstrate the state's power. Governance of Oceania depends upon the necessity of suppressing freedom of thought or original thinking amongst the Outer Party (the proles are exempted from this as they are deemed incapable of having ideas).


text: The state is highly bureaucratic. Winston notes that myriad committees are responsible for administration and are "liable to hold up even the mending of a window-pane for two years". The rulers of Oceania, the Inner Party, says Winston, were once the intelligentsia, the "bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians". The state's national anthem is "Oceania, 'Tis for Thee". The official currency of Oceania is the dollar; in Airstrip One, the pound sterling has been demonetised.


text: Eurasia comprises "the whole of the northern part of the European and Asiatic landmass from Portugal to the Bering Strait." Eurasia was formed after the Soviet Union annexed continental Europe. Eastasia consists of "China and the countries south to it, the Japanese islands, and a large but fluctuating portion of Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet." Eastasia was formed a decade after Eurasia and Oceania, in the 1960s, after "confused fighting" between its predecessor nations.


text: The ideology of Eurasia is Neo-Bolshevism, and that of Eastasia is called Obliteration of the Self, also known as Death-Worship. These states' populations also primarily consist of proles. Winston recognises similarities with the other superstates, at one point commenting that "it was curious to think that the sky was the same for everybody, In Eurasia or Eastasia as well as here. And the people under the sky were very much the same."


text: The three states have been at war with each other since the 1960s. By 1984 it has become a constant, and they regularly change allegiance with each other. Each state is self-supporting so they do not war over natural resources, nor is the destruction of the opponent the primary objective; for, even when two states ally against the third, no combination is powerful enough to do so. Each state recognises that science is responsible for its over-production, so science must be carefully controlled lest the proles or Outer Party expect an increased standard of living. From this analysis stems the policy of permanent warfare: by focusing production on arms and materiel (rather than consumer goods) each state can keep its population impoverished and willing to sacrifice personal liberties for the greater good. The peoples of these states—subject to shortages, queues, poor infrastructure and food— "are no longer domesticated or even able to be domesticated" says Carr.


text: These states all are similar monolithic regimes. Historian Mark Connelly notes that "the beliefs may differ, but their purpose is the same, to justify and maintain the unquestioned leadership of a totalitarian elite". Due to the sheer size of the protagonists, there are, says Connelly, no "massive invasions claiming hundreds of thousands of lives", but instead small-scale, local encounters and conflicts which are then exaggerated for the purposes of domestic propaganda. Connelly describes the fighting between the states as "highly technical, involving small units of highly trained individuals waging battles in remote contested regions". All sides once possessed nuclear weapons, but, following a short-lived resort to them in the 1950s (in which Colchester was hit) they were recognised as too dangerous for any of them to use. As a result, says Connelly, although London could have been destroyed by a nuclear weapon in 1984, it was never hit by anything worse–albeit "20 or 30 times a week"–than "rocketbombs", themselves no more powerful than the V-1s or V-2s of World War Two.


text: At any moment, however, an alliance could shift and the two states that had previously been at war with each other may suddenly ally against the other. When this happened, the past immediately had to be re-written—newspapers retyped, new photos glued over old—to provide continuity. In many cases that which contradicted the state was simply destroyed. This occurs during Oceania's Hate Week, when it is announced that the state is at war with Eastasia and allied to Eurasia, despite the assembled crowd—including Winston and Julia—having just witnessed the executions of Eurasian prisoners of war. Winston describes how, when the announcer spoke, "nothing altered in his voice or manner or in the content of what he was saying, but suddenly the names were different". Orwell describes the war as one of "limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological


text: difference". These wars, suggests the writer Roberta Kalechofsky, "stimulate the news or 'the truth'".


text: The superstates of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" are recognisably based in the world Orwell and his contemporaries knew while being distorted into a dystopia. Oceania for example, argues the critic Alok Rai, "is a known country", because, while a totalitarian regime set in an alternate reality, that reality is still recognisable to the reader. The state of Oceania comprises concepts, phrases and attitudes that have been recycled—"endlessly drawn upon"—ever since the book was published. They are also though, argues the critic Craig L. Carr, places where "things have gone horribly and irreparably wrong".


text: Each state is self-supporting and self-enclosed: emigration and immigration are forbidden, as are international trade and the learning of foreign languages. Winston suspects, also, that the war exists for the Party's sake, and questions if it is taking place at all, and that the bombs which daily fell on London could have been launched by the Party itself "just to keep people frightened", he considers.


text: The reader is told, through Winston, that the world has not always been this way, and indeed, once was much better; on one occasion with Julia, she produces a bar of old-fashioned chocolate—what the Party issued tasted "like the smoke from a rubbish fire"—and it brought back childhood memories from before Oceania's creation.


text: Craig Carr argues that, in creating Oceania and the other warring states, Orwell was not predicting the future, but warning of a possible future if things carried on as they did. In other words, it was also something which could be avoided. Carr continues:


text: Economist Christopher Dent argued in 2002 that Orwell's vision of Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia "turned out to be only partially true. Many of the post-war totalitarian states have toppled, but a tripolar division of global economic and political power is certainly apparent". That is divided, he suggested, between Europe, the United States and Japan. Scholar, Christopher Behrends, has commented that the proliferation of US airbases in Britain in the 1980s echoes Orwell's classification of the country as an airbase into the European theatre. The legal scholar, Wolfgang Friedmann, argued that the growth of supra-state organisations such as the Organisation of American States, "corresponding to the super-states of Orwell's "1984"... change would be from the power balances of numerous big and small national states to the more massive and potentially more destructive balance of power between two or three blocs of super-Powers".


text: Similarly, in 2007, giving evidence to the UK's House of Commons' European Scrutiny Committee, the UK Independence Party group in the European Parliament argued that the European Commission's stated aim to make Europe a "World Partner" should be taken to read "Europe as a World Power!", and likened it to Orwell's Eurasia. The group also suggested that the germ of Orwell's superstates could already be found in organisations such as, not only the EU, but ASEAN and FTAA. Further, the group suggested that the long wars then being waged by American forces against enemies they helped originally create, such as in Baluchistan, were also signs of a germinal 1984-style superstate. Lynskey writes how, in 1949, while Orwell was ill but "Nineteen Eighty-Four" complete, "the post-war order took shape. In April, a dozen Western nations formed NATO. In August, Russia successfully detonated its first atom bomb in the Kazakh steppe. In October, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China...Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia."


text: The campaign associated with the allegations about domestic communism in post-war America, known as McCarthyism, has been compared to the process by which the states of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" re-write their history, in a process that the political philosopher Joseph Gabel labelled "time mastery". Similarly, Winston and Julia's attempts to contact, and await contact from, members of the secret organisation called the Brotherhood, have been compared to the political strategy of Kremlinology, whereby Western powers studied minute changes in the Soviet government in an attempt to foresee events. The states' permanent low-level war is similar, says scholar Ian Slater, to that in Vietnam, except that, in Orwell's imagination, the war is never-ending. Oceania, suggests Rai, with its labyrinthine bureaucracy, was comparable to the post-war Labour government, which found itself in control of what he terms the "extensive apparatus of economic direction and control" that had been set up to regulate supply at the beginning of the Second World War. London, too, as described by Winston, is a perfect match, according to Rai, for the post-war city:


text: In a review of the book in 1950, Symons notes that the gritty, uncomfortable world of Oceania was very familiar to Orwell's readers: the plain food, milkless tea and harsh alcohol were the staples of wartime rationing which, in many cases, had continued after the war. Critic Irving Howe argues that, since then, other events and countries—North Korea, for example—have demonstrated how close Oceania can be. Oceania is, he suggests, "both unreal and inescapable, a creation based on what we know, but not quite recognisable". Lynskey suggests that Oceania's anthem, "Oceania, Tis For Thee", is a direct reference to the United States (from "America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)"), as is also, he suggests, the use of the dollar sign as the Oceanian currency denominator.


text: The totalitarian states of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", although imaginary, were based partly on the real-life regimes of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. Both regimes used techniques and tactics that Orwell later utilised in his novel: the re-writing of history, the cult of leadership personality, purges and show trials, for example. The author Czesław Miłosz commented that, in his depictions of Oceanian society, "even those who know Orwell only by hearsay are amazed that a writer who has never lived in Russia should have so keen a perception of Russian life". From a purely literary standpoint, suggests Julian Symons, the superstates of 1984 represent points along a path that also took Orwell from Burma to Catalonia, Spain, and Wigan in England. In each location, argues Symons, characters are similarly confined a "tightly controlled, taboo-ridden" society, and are as suffocated by them as Winston is in Airstrip One. In "The Road to Wigan Pier", for example, Orwell examines working-class life in detail; the scene in 1984, where Winston observes a Prole woman hanging out her washing echoes the earlier book, where Orwell watches a woman, in the back area of a slum dwelling, attempting to clear a drain pipe with a stick.


text: Orwell's own wartime role in the Ministry of Information saw him, says Rai, "experience at first hand the official manipulation of the flow of information, ironically, in the service of 'democracy' against 'totalitarianism'". He noted privately at the time that he could see totalitarian possibilities for the BBC that he would later provide for Oceania. Similarly, argues Lynskey, during the war Orwell had to make pro-Soviet broadcasts, lauding Britain's ally. After the war—but with a cold one looming—this became an image that needed swiftly to be discarded, and is, comments Lynskey, the historical origin of Oceania's "bouleversement" in its alliance during Hate Week.


text: The superstates of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" have been compared by literary scholars to other dystopian societies such as those created by Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World", Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", Franz Kafka's "The Trial", B. F. Skinner's "Walden II" and Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange", although Orwell's bleak 1940s-style London differs fundamentally from Huxley's world of extensive technical progression or Zamyatin's science- and logic-based society. Dorian Lynskey, in his 2019 history book "The Ministry of Truth", also suggests that "equality and scientific progress, so crucial to "We", have no place in Orwell's static, hierarchical dictatorship; organised deceit, so fundamental to "Nineteen Eighty-Four", did not preoccupy Zamyatin".


title: Donna D'Errico

text: Donna Jeanette D'Errico (born March 30, 1968) is an American actress and model. She posed for "Playboy" as its Playmate of the Month for September 1995 and had a starring role (1996–1998) on the television series "Baywatch". She continues to act in films and on television.


title: Donna D'Errico

text: Before appearing in "Playboy," D'Errico had a Las Vegas-based limousine company. When "Playboy" chose her as its Playmate of the Month for September 1995, her centerfold was photographed by Richard Fegley.


title: Donna D'Errico

text: She was chosen for a starring role on the television series "Baywatch," as "Donna Marco" for two seasons, from 1996 to 1998. One installment of the program dealt with her "Playboy" layout. She was also a host of the show "Battlebots" and starred in "". For a time, she owned Zen Spa, a day spa in Calabasas, California. After leaving "Baywatch", she appeared in independent films, including "Intervention," "Inconceivable," and "The Making of Plus One" alongside Andie MacDowell, Jennifer Tilly, Colm Feore, and Elizabeth McGovern.


title: Donna D'Errico

text: D'Errico divorced rock musician Nikki Sixx in 2007, after 11 years of marriage. They separated shortly after their daughter's birth, and reconciled months later when Sixx completed rehab. D'Errico later filed for divorce on April 27, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences. Together they had one daughter born in 2001. D'Errico also has a son, film composer Rhyan D'Errico (born 1993). D'Errico supports animal rights and is a vegan.


title: Donna D'Errico

text: In 2011, D'Errico said she was in training to fulfill a long-held dream of climbing Mount Ararat in Turkey to search for frozen remains of the Biblical Noah's ark. D'Errico climbed Mount Ararat in mid-2012, returning home to the U.S. in August, having suffered injuries from a fall near the end of the climb.


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Edwin Arthur Schlossberg (born July 19, 1945) is an American designer, author, and artist. He specializes in designing interactive experiences, beginning in 1977 with the first hands-on learning environment in the U.S. for the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Schlossberg continues to work in the field and publishes often on the subject. He is the husband of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He has published eleven books, including "Einstein and Beckett" and "Interactive Excellence: Defining and Developing New Standards for the Twenty-first Century". His artwork has been presented in many solo shows and museum exhibits. In 2011, he was appointed to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts by President Barack Obama, serving until 2013.


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Schlossberg was born in New York City to an Orthodox Jewish family. Both his parents—Alfred I. Schlossberg and Mae Hirsch—were children of Ukrainian immigrants. Alfred founded a textile-manufacturing business and was president of the Park East Synagogue on New York's Upper East Side, where Ed studied Hebrew and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah.


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Schlossberg attended New York's PS 166 and graduated from the Birch Wathen School and Columbia College of Columbia University in 1967. He was a classmate of New York City Schools Chancellor and United States Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein. He also received his masters and doctoral degrees from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Schlossberg's multi-disciplinary design firm, ESI Design, is based on Fifth Avenue in New York City. It has produced award-winning interactive experiences for institutional and corporate clients. Signature projects include:


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Schlossberg's plans for a redesign of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland received public attention when ESI was engaged to lead the project in 2007, but the Hall of Fame ultimately chose a different design because of cost considerations.


title: Edwin Schlossberg

text: Schlossberg married attorney Caroline Kennedy on July 19, 1986, his 41st birthday. They have three children, all born in New York: