Reassembling Provincial North India

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-82
Author(s):  
Akshaya Kumar

This chapter weaves together historical geography and political ethnography, rendering provincial north India within an analytical reassembly. Drawing upon Chris Bayly’s Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars (2012), along with other historians of South Asia, the chapter situates the north Indian province between empire and nation, contrasting the fluvial regime of colonial and postcolonial governments. It thus arrives at the question of flood-control embankments – and their frequent breaches – as an administrative allegory for the state in mid-Ganga plains of north India. It draws our focus to the role of embankments, as artefacts of administrative and engineering ‘solutions’ to a problem they only aggravated, established the character of state-society relations in the region, and forced a relentless wave of distress migration among the landless or small-landholding castes. The chapter argues that provincial India is dumped in a gulf and bypassed via the infrastructures of global modernity amplifying spatial, economic and infrastructural slippages, which underline the precarities of provincial life.

Author(s):  
Stéphane A. Dudoignon

Since 2002, Sunni jihadi groups have been active in Iranian Baluchistan without managing to plunge the region into chaos. This book suggests that a reason for this, besides Tehran’s military responses, has been the quality of Khomeini and Khamenei’s relationship with a network of South-Asia-educated Sunni ulama (mawlawis) originating from the Sarbaz oasis area, in the south of Baluchistan. Educated in the religiously reformist, socially conservative South Asian Deoband School, which puts the madrasa at the centre of social life, the Sarbazi ulama had taken advantage, in Iranian territory, of the eclipse of Baluch tribal might under the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-79). They emerged then as a bulwark against Soviet influence and progressive ideologies, before rallying to Khomeini in 1979. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, they have been playing the role of a rampart against Salafi propaganda and Saudi intrigues. The book shows that, through their alliance with an Iranian Kurdish-born Muslim-Brother movement and through the promotion of a distinct ‘Sunni vote’, they have since the early 2000s contributed towards – and benefitted from – the defence by the Reformist presidents Khatami (1997-2005) and Ruhani (since 2013) of local democracy and of the minorities’ rights. They endeavoured to help, at the same time, preventing the propagation of jihadism and Sunni radicalisation to Iran – at least until the ISIS/Daesh-claimed attacks of June 2017, in Tehran, shed light on the limits of the Islamic Republic’s strategy of reliance on Deobandi ulama and Muslim-Brother preachers in the country’s Sunni-peopled peripheries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 360-374
Author(s):  
Evgeny V. Igumnov

The activities of military topographers in Western Siberia to provide cartographic information on the foreign and domestic policies of the Russian Empire in Central Asia and Siberia in the 19th century are considered in the article. The role of information in the formation of the Russian Empire is emphasized. The contribution of the state to the organization of the study of the Asian regions of Russia and neighboring countries is noted. The establishment of the military topographic service in Western Siberia can be traced taking into account data on administrative transformations in the Siberian region, and on changes in the foreign policy of the Russian Empire. The participation of military topographers in determining and designating the state border with China is described in detail. The question of the role of military topographers in the scientific study of China and Mongolia is raised. The significance of the activities of military topographers for the policy of the Russian Empire on the socio-economic development of Siberia and the north-eastern part of the territory of modern Kazakhstan is revealed. The contribution of topographers to the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, the design of river channels and new land routes is revealed. A large amount of literary sources, materials on the work of military topographers of Western Siberia, published in “Notes of the Military Topographic Department of the General Staff” is used in the article.


1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (98) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Isaia Sales

The dominating role of the state in the failed economic and social integration of the Mezzogiorno into the modern and developed northern part of the country since the creation of the Italian union is analysed. The mutation of the 'southern' to the'northern question' constitutes one of the most recent phenomena in Italian history which threatens the concept of national unity. Therefore, a new contract between the North and the South is necessary to combat the backwardness of the Mezzogiorno. This also requires a new quality of state and not its withdrawal from social life.


Author(s):  
Olga V. Pirogova ◽  
Anastasia Yu. Pirogova

The article talks about the role of the hospitality industry in the world, shows statistics on the state of the hospitality industry in the world and in Russia. It is shown how tourism and the hospitality industry are interconnected, how tourism affects the development of the hospitality industry. The article gives the concept of the hospitality industry, analyzes this concept, gives its interpretation by Russian and foreign scientists, gives an analysis of this concept in connection with the legal point of view. The hospitality industry is a complex of economic system, which is an intersectoral complex. The paper shows the role of the hospitality industry in the North Caucasus Federal District. The concept of a market saturation indicator for hotel services is introduced, and global market saturation indicators for hotel rooms are discussed. The paper gives the main indicators of the state of the hotel services market, such as: the number of collective accommodation facilities, the number of rooms, the number of places in collective accommodation facilities, the number of nights in collective accommodation facilities. These indicators are compared with the indicators of the Russian Federation as a whole, with indicators in the North Caucasus Federal District as a whole. Also, a comparison of these indicators among the regions of the district. The analysis of these indicators of the development of the hotel industry in the district is carried out, the growth of these indicators in comparison with 2012 is shown, the share of hotel services by the district is analyzed. The study shows a significant difference in these indicators between the regions of the district. The article discusses the role of the classification of hotels and provides data on the classification of hospitality industry enterprises in the district, the classification capabilities and the problems associated with this procedure. As a result of the work, a conclusion is drawn on the state of the hotel services market in the North Caucasus Federal District.


1996 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-96
Author(s):  
Soofia Mumtaz

This book is a collection of nine essays. Except for the last chapter, all the essays were written between 1978 and 1990 and are extentions of an earlier work, Language, Religion, and Politics in North India (Cambridge University Press) published by the author in 1974. Two main arguments constitute the theme of the book. First, that ethnicity and nationalism are social and political constructions of modern conditions rather than reflections of primordial identities. Second, that both these constructions are related to the role of a centralising state. They depend upon the kinds of alliances that are made between the state and the regional or other non-dominant élites. As such, ethnicity and nationalism are seen as the outcome of interactions between the state leadership and the élites from non-dominant ethnic groups, especially the groups on the peripheries of such states.


Author(s):  
Татьяна Алентьева ◽  
Tat'yana Alent'eva

The monograph first explores American public opinion as the most important factor in social and political life in the "Jackson era." Of particular value is the study of the struggle of opinions within the bipartisan system, both in the South and in the North. Against the background of a broad canvas of socio-economic and political history, the first analysis of the state and development of public opinion in the USA is given, successively from the presidential election of 1824 to the defeat of the Democrats in the presidential election of 1840, when their opponents, the Whigs, came to power for the first time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Saidmurod Khamdamovich Khaknazarov

The article considers the need of educational institutions of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra (on the example of the cities of Kogalym and Langepas) to teach ethnocultural subjects. This problem is also relevant for the region under consideration, where the indigenous small peoples of the North of Khanty, Mansi and Forest Nenets live. The purpose of this work is to study the state of studying the native language and ethnocultural subjects in general education institutions of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, the request of parents of schoolchildren from among the indigenous small peoples of the North for ethnocultural subjects. The tasks of the work are to identify the state of study of the native language and ethnocultural subjects in general education institutions and to determine the need of parents of schoolchildren from among the indigenous small peoples of the North for ethnocultural subjects. The object of the study was the parents of schoolchildren from among the indigenous small peoples of the North living in the cities of the Autonomous Okrug. The main method of our research is questionnaire. Results: just over half of respondents (50.9%) believe that teaching their native language and subjects with ethnocultural content will to some extent help preserve the traditional culture of the indigenous minorities peoples of the North. Among the respondents in Langepas, pessimistic assessments prevail; in Kogalym (68.9%), the majority of respondents believe in the role of teaching ethnocultural subjects. Only 36.8% of respondents want their children to study ethnocultural subjects at school.


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