Infrastructure

2020 ◽  
pp. 212-240
Author(s):  
Tirthankar Roy
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Private Enterprise ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Statistical Systems

At independence in 1947, the visible legacy of colonial rule in South Asia was the modern infrastructure that the regime had left behind, the ports, canals, the telegraph, sanitation, medical care, urban waterworks, universities, postal system, courts of law, railways, meteorological office, statistical systems, and scientific research laboratories. All of it involved British knowhow, adapted to the Indian environment with Indian help, and assisted governance directly or indirectly. But once built, such assets did not serve only the empire but also helped private enterprise and ordinary people lead better lives. Chapter 8 shows the motivations that drove these projects and the effects they produced.

Cosmopolitan Capitalists and Colonial Rule. The business structure and corporate culture of the Swiss merchant house Volkart Bros., 1850s–1960s

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
CHRISTOF DEJUNG
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Social History ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Private Company ◽  
European Firm ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article examines the history of the Swiss merchant house Volkart Bros., which was one of the most important exporters of Indian raw cotton and one of the biggest trading firms in South Asia during the colonial period. The study allows for a fresh look at Indian economic history by putting forth two main arguments. First, it charts the history of a continental European firm that was active in South Asia to offer a better understanding of the economic entanglements of the subcontinent with the wider world, which often had a reach beyond the empire. This ties in with recent research initiatives that aim to examine the history of imperialism from a transnational perspective. Second, the history of a private company helps in developing a micro-perspective on the often ambiguous relation between the business goals of individual enterprises and colonial rule. The article argues that this may be evidence of the fact that capitalism and imperialism were two different, although sometimes converging, spatial structures, each with a distinct logic of its own. What is more, the positive interactions between European and Indian businessmen, fostered by a cosmopolitan attitude among business elites, point to the fact that even in the age of empire, the class background of actors could be more important for the establishing of cooperative ventures than the colour of their skin or their geographical origin. It is argued that this offers the possibility of examining the history of world trade in terms of global social history.

Narrating the Postwar Crisis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles R. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Korean War ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Slow Speed ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Financial Difficulties ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
The Many

After the Korean War, South Korean publishers made steady progress in rebuilding the publishing industry, despite endemic material shortages and financial difficulties. This chapter introduces the three major postwar magazines that are used throughout the book – Sasanggye (World of thought), Sint’aeyang (New Sun), and Yŏwŏn (Women’s garden). Through an examination of the three monthlies, it relates the ways in which intellectuals and ordinary people gave expression to the major upheavals since the end of colonial rule, as well as the many challenges of the war and the postwar crisis. Deep-seated poverty, moral decline, pervasive anxiety, and the slow speed of recovery were their primary areas of focus. Although many South Koreans lived in despair, some writers put forth restrained expressions of hope that the crisis would soon abate.

Sovereignty, Territoriality, and Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-120
Author(s):  
Manu Sehgal
Keyword(s):  
Coercive Force ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Legal Personality ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
Military Law ◽  
Military Discipline

This chapter seeks to analyze the changing meaning of ‘peace’ under an early colonial regime which was perpetually at war. ‘Peace’ in early colonial South Asia no longer meant the absence of conflict, but rather a period when problems of war assumed an urgent significance. From paying soldier’s arrears incurred during military conflicts to disciplining them in times when the Company state was not formally at war—‘peace’ was no longer the opposite of war. Rather it was the fleeting opportunity to re-tool the apparatus of colonial war-making. Conquest did not occur in a legal vacuum. This chapter analyses debates about military law and its significance for the early colonial regime’s claims to sovereign authority. Jurisdictional jockeying between competing sources of law went well beyond the need to maintain military discipline. Examining these debates opens up an unexplored world in which we can understand important questions relating to the territoriality of early colonial rule, the legal personality of the Company state and efforts to compare Britain’s garrisoning of Ireland with the organization of coercive force in South Asia.

Epilogue

2021 ◽  
pp. 235-242
Author(s):  
Manu Sehgal
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Military Spending ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
Sovereign Authority ◽  
Colonial Order

The early colonial order gave way to a recognizably extractive and coercive colonial rule which stretched across the long nineteenth century. Scholarly debates about the overlap between the late colonial and postcolonial polities in twentieth century South Asia have generally not traced the antecedents of an institutional structure of governance that commits scarce resources and political will in expensive projects of military aggrandizement. The disdain for civilian bodies/rule, placing military spending beyond the purview of public debate, unchecked executive authority in war-making, violent assertion of sovereign authority, aggressively defined borders, special bodies of law and zones of exception where civil rule and liberties are declared to be inapplicable—owe much to the deep structures of early colonial rule.

The Kalanga in Historical Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thembani Dube
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

The Kalanga are one of the ethnic groups found mostly in the Bulilima and Mangwe districts, in the southwestern parts of Zimbabwe. Although the origins of the Kalanga date back to a thousand years, it is important to note that Kalanga ethnic identity is a socially constructed phenomenon, which continues to be negotiated. Therefore, it is vital to note that dynamism, flexibility, and malleable are some of the attributes of this identity. As such, Kalanga history and identity, which has been a product of various processes, such as precolonial political and social organization, colonial rule and the postcolonial Zimbabwean state, will be sought after. Central to these processes are actors such as Kalanga chiefs, missionaries, colonial administrators, Kalanga elites, women, and the ordinary people, who played a significant role in shaping and articulating Kalanga identity at different historical epochs. Moreover, markers of Kalanga identity such as language, Ngwali/Mwali religion, chieftaincy, and histories of origin have been used to (re)construct Kalanga identity. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity of Kalanga people and the complexity involved in the intricate processes of identity formation will be acknowledged. In postcolonial Zimbabwe there has been rising interest from Kalanga elites who have lobbied the government to recognize the Kalanga. This activism is inspired by perceived marginalization of the Kalanga and other minority groups, which has been enforced through monolithic linguistic policies, orchestrated through government favoritism toward the so-called majority languages, such as Shona and IsiNdebele. However, the interaction and cordial relations among the Kalanga and other ethnic groups found in Zimbabwe will also be acknowledged. Nonetheless, there is no exhaustive account of this group as scholars continue to engage with them, hence contributing to always expand the different interpretations on these people. It is therefore hoped that the history of this particular group will be chronicled and perhaps directions for future research on the Kalanga pointed out. In order to fully explore this historical account, various sources that have been used in the study of Kalanga history will be critically engaged.

Antibiotics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Food System ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Collateral Damage ◽  
The Future ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Answer Format

A STIRRING EXAMINATION OF A LOOMING CRISIS Virtually everyone has taken antibiotics. They can be lifesavers -- or they can be useless. But what are they? How are they used? And what happens as the effectiveness of antibiotics begins to decline? Antibiotics: What Everyone Needs to Know® examines the personal and societal implications of our planet's most important -- and arguably most overused -- medications. In a question-and-answer format, it unpacks the most complicated aspects of this issue, including: · How antibiotics are used (and overused) in humans, plants, and livestock · The consequences to date, and the potential crisis ahead, as overuse of existing antibiotics breeds new resistance in bacteria · How the globalized world enables antibiotic resistance more quickly · Collateral damage, individually and societally, of antibiotic use · The difficult decisions ahead related to medical care and the food system Grounded in the latest scientific research and translated for general readers, Antibiotics: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers a clear-eyed overview of where we are, and what the future holds, as antibiotics lose their might.

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