scholarly journals Huṇḍī and Nirakh Huṇḍāwan: Indic Mercantile Instruments in the Persianate Bazaar

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 660-692
Author(s):  
Mohammad Shahnawaz
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Integrated Networks ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Commercial Use ◽  
Economic Decisions ◽  
Financial Transactions

Abstract The huṇḍī or Indic mercantile instrument integrated networks of merchants and bankers across Persianate bazaars from South Asia to Central Asia, Iran and East Africa. Merchants performed long-distance financial transactions by means of this instrument, catering to both private individuals and the state. While much has been written about the commercial use of huṇḍīs, this paper turns to the working of huṇḍīs at the interface of mercantile and state institutions, looking in particular at the Jaipur state’s collection of nirakh huṇḍāwan registers—which tracked the rate of discounting of huṇḍīs on a daily basis. Produced at the mercantile centre of Sanganer, and open to inspection by the Jaipur state, these registers lie at the intersection of commerce and governance, and of corporation and state. They reveal an ‘economically curious’ state, which accessed and used data collected and maintained by mercantile entities to make significant economic decisions.

scholarly journals Prioritizing smallholder animal health needs in East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia using three approaches: Literature review, expert workshops, and practitioner surveys

2021 ◽  
Vol 189 ◽  
pp. 105279
Author(s):  
Zoë Campbell ◽  
Paul Coleman ◽  
Andrea Guest ◽  
Peetambar Kushwaha ◽  
Thembinkosi Ramuthivheli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
West Africa ◽  
South Asia ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Health Needs

scholarly journals Historical trade routes for diversification of domesticated chickpea inferred from landrace genomics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna A. Igolkina ◽  
Nina V. Noujdina ◽  
Maria G. Samsonova ◽  
Eric von Wettberg ◽  
Travis Longcore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Coat Color ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Geographic Origin ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Simple Diffusion ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Cultural Legacy ◽  
Regional Center

AbstractAccording to archaeological records, chickpea (Cicer arietinum) was first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent 10 thousand years ago. Its subsequent diversification in South Asia, Ethiopia, and the Western Mediterranean, however, remains obscure and cannot be resolved using only archeological and historical evidence. In particular, chickpea has two market types: ‘desi’, which has a similar flower and seed coat color to chickpea’s wild relatives; and ‘kabuli’, which has light-colored seed, and is linguistically tied to Central Asia but has an unknown geographic origin.Based on the genetic data from 421 chickpea landraces from six geographic regions, we tested complex historical hypotheses of chickpea migration and admixture on two levels: within and between major regions of cultivation. For the former, we developed popdisp, a Bayesian model of population dispersal from a regional center towards sample locations, and confirmed that chickpea spread within each region along trade routes rather than by simple diffusion.For the latter, migration between regions, we developed another model, migadmi, that evaluates multiple and nested admixture events. Applying this model to desi populations, we found both Indian and Middle Eastern traces in Ethiopian chickpea, suggesting presence of a seaway from South Asia to Ethiopia — and the cultural legacy of the Queen of Sheba. As for the origin of kabuli chickpeas, we found significant evidence for an origin from Turkey rather than Central Asia.

scholarly journals Main Trends and Priority Directions in the Use of Communicative Technologies in Work with Students From the Countries of Central Asia (on the Results of Sociological Research)

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-207
Author(s):  
A. S. Yufereva ◽  
◽  
Iu. S. Kukharenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Central Asian Countries

This article provides a systematization and specification of the established communication technologies used by Yekaterinburg universities, public and state institutions in order to adapt students to the academic and cultural environment. The study involved a group of methods, as a result of which the features of the use of communication technologies by universities, public and social institutions when interacting with students from Central Asian countries, as well as their subsequent adaptation to the educational, social, and cultural environment in general, were revealed.

English in Asia, Asian Englishes, and the issue of proficiency

English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Basic Issue

ABSTRACTThe contemporary visibility and importance of English throughout the Asian region coupled with the emergence and development of distinct varieties of Asian Englishes have played an important part in the global story of English in recent years. Across Asia, the numbers of people having at least a functional command of the language have grown exponentially over the last four decades, and current changes in the sociolinguistic realities of the region are often so rapid that it is difficult for academic commentators to keep pace. One basic issue in the telling of this story is the question of what it is we mean by the term ‘Asia’, itself a word of contested etymology, whose geographical reference has ranged in application from the Middle East to Central Asia, and from the Indian sub-continent to Japan and Korea. In this article, my discussion will focus on the countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, as it is in these regions that we find not only the greatest concentration of ‘outer-circle’ English-using societies but also a number of the most populous English-learning and English-knowing nations in the world.

Geography, Genre, and Narrative in Kipling's Kim

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Emily Laskin
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Nation State ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Temporal Development ◽  
Geographic Regions

Abstract This article examines Kipling's 1901 novel Kim in light of the period's contemporary geopolitical events, arguing that the novel imagines both the end of the British Empire and a utopian state in which empire is static and eternal. The essay uncovers a parallel between the geographic regions on India's periphery, toward which the novel's action drives but which it never ultimately reaches, and two “developmental genres,” the picaresque and the bildungsroman, which the novel holds in tension. It argues further that whereas earlier studies of Kim and the bildungsroman have explained Kim's thwarted temporality as a novel about a period newly unmoored from the stabilizing concept of the nation-state, they do not account for the politicized space of Kipling's South Asia. This article shows that just as temporal development was becoming more open-ended and abstract, spatial development in the non-European world was becoming increasingly circumscribed. Kim therefore requires not just a youthful hero and a deferred Bildung but also an unreachable region—Central Asia, to India's north—and a thwarted picaresque narrative in order to represent the newly burgeoning globalized order.

Gender

2019 ◽  
pp. 363-372
Author(s):  
Sheela Jeyaraj ◽  
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Christian Women ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Status ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Central Asian Republics

Gender issues in South and Central Asia involve discriminations in the socio-cultural, political and economic realms. Despite policy initiatives, gender equality is still not available for most women. The condition of Central Asian women is less favourable than that of their counterparts in South Asia. Still, in South Asian countries where certain Hindu or Buddhist fundamentalist norms prevail, the position of women continues to be deplorable. Discrimination of women is justified in Sanskrit scriptures, which do not contain a coherent narrative of the creation of women. Likewise, the scriptures of Jainism and Buddhism present women as inferior to men. The status of Christian women in certain South Asian countries is better than that of their Central Asian republics. The patriarchal societies of South and Central Asia do not educate a sufficient number of women in theology. Today, almost all female Christian theologians in South Asia engage with the pathos of the exploited. Reversal of gender roles among diaspora communities have caused conflicts in the home and in public. Despite their struggles, Christian women in South and Central Asia continue their witness to God’s grace in Christ sustaining them.

Faith and Culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 303-314
Author(s):  
Atola Longkumer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Traditional Medicines ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Global Christianity

Of the two Asian regions, socio-economically, South Asia presents both prosperity and abject poverty, embedded in varying traditions. Central Asian states are well-endowed with natural resources and sustain a diverse cultural heritage against a backdrop of Islam. The indigenous shamanic cultures that have sustained myriad indigenous people (often described by terms such as tribals, Adivasis, minorities) for generations across South Asia need to be recognised along with its globalisation. Healing, use of traditional medicines, the position and role of women, caste hierarchy and the relationship with the other are incorporated into South Asian Christianity. ‘Anonymous Christians’ have also contributed to concepts such as ‘insider movements’ to discuss embedded followers of Jesus. In Central Asia, Charismatic Christianity is finding particular resonance. The relative freedom of religious expression has given opportunities for Christians to witness to the gospel. The potential ecumenical relationship with the existing Orthodox Church presents an opportunity for global Christianity. Christianity has received fresh interest in Central Asia since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the formation of the nation-states of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Theological creativity along with prophetic proclamation will be needed to balance these challenges of culture and faith in the region.

How Trucking Services Have Improved and May Contribute to Economic Development

2018 ◽  
pp. 133-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Kunaka ◽  
Gaël Raballand ◽  
Mike Fitzmaurice
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Trucking Industry ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
Noticeable Reduction

In East Africa, there have been numerous concerns over logistics efficiency. Among them, a slow pace of regional integration of the trucking industry is perceived as a major problem. This chapter utilizes a combination of unpublished data surveys and published data to assess the extent of regional integration. Based on various types of data, several main messages can be drawn from the trucking industry: there has been a noticeable reduction in the price of long-distance trucking services along the Northern Corridor; the integration of trucking services is moving fast in East Africa, with foreign-owned trucks accounting for three-quarters of services in the Rwandan market; trucking fleet characteristics and management have improved tremendously and are now comparable to those in South Africa; and the facilitation of border clearance processes has played a major role in improving productivity. Despite all these improvements, the performance of the Tanzanian fleet still lags behind.

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