Dancing the Goddess: Possession and Class in Tamil South India

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 423-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Kapadia
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
South India ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
The West ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Village Level ◽  
Political Factions

Religion in India has always been profoundly politicized, which is why it has remained of enduring importance, instead of ‘withering away’ as in the West. Though its presence is somewhat hidden in parties that profess a secular view, it is of vital importance, at the local village level, as a focus for the organization of political factions. More precisely, even if local political parties in Tamilnadu do not organize around religion, they use religion and ritual events for their political purposes, in their struggles to dominate local politics. The fact that this politicization of religious ritual is implicit, not explicit, only testifies to the fact that power-relationships—and struggles—exist in all aspects of life (as Foucault often noted), including apparently ‘innocent’ rites such as religious possession.

scholarly journals Palestinian State through the Official and Unofficial Israeli Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Rami Saleh Abdelrazeq Musleh ◽  
Mahmoud Ismail ◽  
Dala Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
National Security ◽  
West Bank ◽  
The Political ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
The West ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Factions ◽  
Descriptive Approach

The study focused on the Palestinian state as depicted in the Israeli political discourse. It showed that the Israeli strategy is based on denying the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli one. Israel's main concern is to protect its national security at all costs. The study showed the Israeli political factions' opposition to the formation of an independent Palestinian state in addition to their refusal to give up certain parts of the West Bank due to religious and geopolitical reasons. To discuss this topic and achieve the required results, the analytical descriptive approach is adopted by the researcher. The study concluded that the Israeli leadership and its projects to solve the Palestinian issue do not amount to the establishment of a Palestinian state. This leadership simply aims to impress the international public opinion that Israel wants peace. In contrast, the Israeli public has shown that it cannot accept a Palestinian state, and the public opinion of the Palestinian state is not different from that of the political parties and leaders in Israel.

scholarly journals 'The Blessed Land': Narratives of Peasant Resistance at Nandigram, West Bengal, in 2007

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Adam McConnochie
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
The West ◽  
Neoliberal Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Peasant Resistance

<p>In early 2007, the West Bengal state government in India sought to acquire over 10,000 acres of cultivated rural land in Nandigram, East Midnapur. The government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) led Left Front coalition, sought to acquire this land to allow the Indonesian industrialists, the Salim group, to construct a chemical hub. Land acquisition had been increasing in India since 2005, when the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act was passed for the purpose of attracting investment from national and multinational corporations. Peasants in Nandigram were opposed to the acquisition of their land, and during 2007 successfully resisted the government attempts to do so. In response, the CPI-M sent party cadre to harass, rape and murder the peasantry, using their control of government to punish people in Nandigram. This thesis examines the events at Nandigram between June 2006 and May 2008 and investigates the narratives of peasant resistance that emerged in West Bengal. It focuses on three groups of West Bengal society: the peasants of Nandigram, the intellectuals and civil society of West Bengal, and the major political parties of West Bengal. Existing explanations of the events at Nandigram have focused on the role of intellectuals and civil society, and their views have dominated the literature. The existing historiography has argued that land acquisition policies and the subsequent resistance at Nandigram were an effect of neoliberal policies, policies that had been pursued by both the central and state governments in India since the 1990s. Resistance at Nandigram was explained as a broad movement that involved the peasantry and adivasi, but also the civil society groups that opposed neoliberal policies. However, as this thesis demonstrates, the peasantry at Nandigram rarely articulated their resistance as 'against' neoliberalism, and there was little consciousness of the movement challenging neoliberal policies. Rather, it was the local conditions and history of the area that informed their resistance. Amongst intellectuals and civil society, only a minority connected resistance at Nandigram to the wider issue of neoliberalism. The dominant perspective of these groups was that land acquisition policies, and neoliberal reforms in general, were necessary for the development of West Bengal. They criticised the CPI-M only for badly managing the process of land acquisition. The neoliberal consensus extended to the West Bengal political parties, muting serious debate over the economic direction of the state. The discourse of the political parties was limited to allegations of corruption, violence and criminality. Therefore, an investigation of how people in West Bengal viewed the resistance at Nandigram shows that discontent was not generally articulated in opposition to neoliberal polices. Rather, local politics and local issues had a more immediate effect on people's views, focusing discontent on the governance of the CPI-M. This resulted in the resistance at Nandigram evolving into a movement that sought to challenge the continued rule of the CPI-M in West Bengal.</p>

scholarly journals 'The Blessed Land': Narratives of Peasant Resistance at Nandigram, West Bengal, in 2007

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Adam McConnochie
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Land Acquisition ◽  
The West ◽  
Neoliberal Policies ◽  
The Government ◽  
Peasant Resistance

<p>In early 2007, the West Bengal state government in India sought to acquire over 10,000 acres of cultivated rural land in Nandigram, East Midnapur. The government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) led Left Front coalition, sought to acquire this land to allow the Indonesian industrialists, the Salim group, to construct a chemical hub. Land acquisition had been increasing in India since 2005, when the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act was passed for the purpose of attracting investment from national and multinational corporations. Peasants in Nandigram were opposed to the acquisition of their land, and during 2007 successfully resisted the government attempts to do so. In response, the CPI-M sent party cadre to harass, rape and murder the peasantry, using their control of government to punish people in Nandigram. This thesis examines the events at Nandigram between June 2006 and May 2008 and investigates the narratives of peasant resistance that emerged in West Bengal. It focuses on three groups of West Bengal society: the peasants of Nandigram, the intellectuals and civil society of West Bengal, and the major political parties of West Bengal. Existing explanations of the events at Nandigram have focused on the role of intellectuals and civil society, and their views have dominated the literature. The existing historiography has argued that land acquisition policies and the subsequent resistance at Nandigram were an effect of neoliberal policies, policies that had been pursued by both the central and state governments in India since the 1990s. Resistance at Nandigram was explained as a broad movement that involved the peasantry and adivasi, but also the civil society groups that opposed neoliberal policies. However, as this thesis demonstrates, the peasantry at Nandigram rarely articulated their resistance as 'against' neoliberalism, and there was little consciousness of the movement challenging neoliberal policies. Rather, it was the local conditions and history of the area that informed their resistance. Amongst intellectuals and civil society, only a minority connected resistance at Nandigram to the wider issue of neoliberalism. The dominant perspective of these groups was that land acquisition policies, and neoliberal reforms in general, were necessary for the development of West Bengal. They criticised the CPI-M only for badly managing the process of land acquisition. The neoliberal consensus extended to the West Bengal political parties, muting serious debate over the economic direction of the state. The discourse of the political parties was limited to allegations of corruption, violence and criminality. Therefore, an investigation of how people in West Bengal viewed the resistance at Nandigram shows that discontent was not generally articulated in opposition to neoliberal polices. Rather, local politics and local issues had a more immediate effect on people's views, focusing discontent on the governance of the CPI-M. This resulted in the resistance at Nandigram evolving into a movement that sought to challenge the continued rule of the CPI-M in West Bengal.</p>

scholarly journals Margaret Atwood’s Visions and Revisions of "The Wizard of Oz"

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Teresa Gibert
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
The West ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Wizard Of Oz ◽  
Gendered Power ◽  
Literary Borrowings ◽  
Power Of Words

L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and Victor Fleming’s film The Wizard of Oz (1939) play an important intertextual role in Margaret Atwood’s critical and fictional writings. Atwood has often been inspired by both versions of this modern fairy tale and has drawn attention to the main issues it raises (e.g. the transformative power of words, gendered power relationships, the connection between illusion and reality, the perception of the artist as a magician, and different notions of home). She has creatively explored and exploited themes, settings, visual motifs, allegorical content and characters (Dorothy, her three companions, the Wizard and the witches, especially Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West), subversively adapting her literary borrowings with a parodic twist and satirical intent. Parts of Life Before Man (1979) may be interpreted as a rewrite of a story defined by Atwood as “the great American witchcraft classic”.

scholarly journals Political mediation and participation in the Czech rural areas

2008 ◽  
Vol 54 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 575-581
Author(s):  
J. Čmejrek
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Fragmented Population ◽  
Rural Municipalities ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Municipal Election

The objective of this paper is to show the mediation between citizens and political power by political parties in Czech rural areas. The position of political parties in rural municipalities is demonstrated in two perspectives. The top-down perspective is based on the distribution of several tens of thousands mandates in local municipal councils between political parties. The opposite perspective provides the bottom-up point of view – from the level of the individual municipalities, their party systems and party organisational structures. The analysis of the municipal election results reveals clearly that the role of political parties in local politics depends namely on the size of the given municipality. In this sense, the Czech Republic represents a very interesting example as it is characterised by a dense and heavily fragmented population settlement with a large number of small rural municipalities. In rural municipalities, we encounter incomplete party spectra and the absence of political parties in the smallest municipalities. Besides, the lists of candidates in rural municipalities reveal the weakness of the local party organisations that cannot avoid cooperating with the independent candidates. The small distance between the citizen and the elected body in a rural community significantly determines the forms of the local politics; the ideological and party mediation is superfluous, in fact, it is often seen as something harmful which divides the rural community.

Party, Opposition, and Political Development

1978 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-182
Author(s):  
Kenneth Kolson
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
The West ◽  
Noxious Weeds ◽  
Vital Functions ◽  
Party Development

It is by now conventional wisdom among political scientists that political parties are not the noxious weeds they were once thought to be. Undeniably, parties have hastened the development of democracy in the West and continue to serve vital functions in modern states. Most political scientists would agree too that the emergence of regular party competition is only possible among those peoples who have acquired a measure of political sophistication. A country with nourishing parties is a country that has matured to the point of being able to tolerate dissent, and a country with inchoate or languishing parties is a country that must be consigned to the ranks of the “underdeveloped” or the perverse. Party development, then, is often regarded as a measure of political development, and both of these as indexes to modernization or democratization.

Baby foods—a role for industry?

1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (S4) ◽  
pp. 189-190
Author(s):  
David Morley
Keyword(s):  
Infant Feeding ◽  
The West ◽  
Soya Milk ◽  
Baby Foods ◽  
Village Level ◽  
Milk Industry

We have assumed from the temperate world that the cow is essential; we need to question this assumption. The answers will vary considerably from country to country. I suggest that there are two sorts of country: first, countries such as Bangladesh and Nigeria, where no possibility of a milk industry exists. Therefore, if milk is used it has to be imported.It is a presumption for us in the West to say so, but I suggest that the sensible action is to reduce progressively milk imports and to look at substitution of other materials. A certain amount of work has been done on soya milk; however this may not be suitable as it may be difficult to produce at village level. There are many other possibilities; for example, if a child with a chronic diarrhoeal problem is admitted to a hospital where I work it is fed on a mixture of chicken, glucose and oil. This sort of mixture could be made up in a village. We need to look at such possible alternatives for infant feeding.

V. Party Politics in the New Japanese Diet

1948 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1163-1180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Williams
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Steering Committee ◽  
Individual Member ◽  
New Order ◽  
Popular Government ◽  
Political Factions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Procedures ◽  
Japanese Diet

Internal Procedures. Unschooled in the history and theory of Occidental parliamentarism, the old political factions, with new names, naturally try to adapt the new order of things in the Diet to the normal Japanese pattern. Their modus operandi during the first and second sessions—by way of adjusting to the Diet as the “highest organ of state power”—is an eventful chapter in the development of popular government in Japan.Basic is the fact that political parties manage the Diet: every action is a party action, every vote a party vote, every decision a party decision. The individual member stands for nothing. Bills and resolutions, motions of any kind, speeches, interpellations, filibustering, even heckling and rowdyism, in committee and House sessions—all are products of political parties.The primary agency through which political parties collectively manipulate the Diet is an entirely new piece of legislative machinery, the “Steering Committee,” one of 21 standing committees in each House.

scholarly journals Zionist Approaches to the Palestinian Question

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Hamed Mousavi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Gaza Strip ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Gaza Strip ◽  
The Right ◽  
Palestinian Question

Liberal Zionists blame Israel’s five decade long occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip primarily on Revisionist Zionist ideology and its manifestation in right wing parties such as the Likud. They also argue that the “Two State Solution”, the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, will forever solve this issue. This paper on the other hand argues that while the Israeli left have divergent opinions from the revisionists on many issues, with regards to the “Palestinian question” and particularly on the prospects of allowing the formation of a Palestinian state, liberal Zionists have much closer views to the right wing than would most like to admit. To demonstrate this, the views of Theodore Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, David Ben-Gurion, the most important actor in the founding years of the state, as well as the approach of left wing Israeli political parties are examined. Finally, it is argued that none of the mainstream Zionist political movements will allow the creation of a Palestinian state even on a small part of Palestine.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document