Cultural Deference, Community Survival

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 288-309
Author(s):  
Bernardo Brown
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
The State ◽  
Visible Minority ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Evangelical Christians ◽  
Nationalist Discourse ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ambiguous Position

Abstract After the military defeat of the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka, nationalist sectors backed by Sinhala Buddhist ideology turned to religious minorities in search of new enemies of the State. These have included Muslims and Evangelical Christians who are described as foreign intruders that contaminate the traditions of the nation. Catholics have been spared of accusations of proselytism and the introduction of foreign cultures partly due to the Church leadership’s explicit stance against Evangelical missionary activities and its support of Sinhala nationalist discourse. Catholic communities of Sri Lanka thus find themselves in an ambiguous position: incorporated into the national citizenry, yet a visible minority anxious not to become marginalized like other religious minorities.

State-Minority Contestations in Post-colonial Sri Lanka

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-165
Author(s):  
Mansoor Mohamed Fazil
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Research Method ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Social Force ◽  
State Structure ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Military

Abstract This research focuses on the issue of state-minority contestations involving transforming and reconstituting each other in post-independent Sri Lanka. This study uses a qualitative research method that involves critical categories of analysis. Migdal’s theory of state-in-society was applied because it provides an effective conceptual framework to analyse and explain the data. The results indicate that the unitary state structure and discriminatory policies contributed to the formation of a minority militant social force (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – The LTTE) which fought with the state to form a separate state. The several factors that backed to the defeat of the LTTE in 2009 by the military of the state. This defeat has appreciably weakened the Tamil minority. This study also reveals that contestations between different social forces within society, within the state, and between the state and society in Sri Lanka still prevail, hampering the promulgation of inclusive policies. This study concludes that inclusive policies are imperative to end state minority contestations in Sri Lanka.

scholarly journals Wywiad wojskowy czy polityczny? Zainteresowanie Zarządu II Sztabu Generalnego Wojska Polskiego „kierunkiem watykańskim”

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-119
Author(s):  
Bartosz Kapuściak
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
The State ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Military Intelligence ◽  
General Staff ◽  
Martial Law ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The primary task of the military intelligence in the People’s Republic of Poland was to acquire materials on the armament and stationing of NATO troops. However, due to the demand of the communist authorities, it also conducted political activities aimed at, among others, the Catholic Church. The interest of the state authorities increased especially during the pontificate of John Paul II. According to the assessment of military intelligence, the election of Karol Wojtyła as Bishop of Rome stimulated the Catholic Church both in Poland and in the Vatican. In this way, the activities of the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army were within the scope of civil intelligence interests. The article aims to show the role played by intelligence officers and informers operating in Rome undercover as military attachés or in civilian institutions. Their actions resulted in the establishment of contacts with the church environment and acquisition of voluntary and involuntary informants. In this way, the Second Directorate of the General Staff of the Polish Army provided the party and political apparatus with interesting news and materials. Following the introduction of martial law in Poland, the church from the Rome area started sending parcels of food, clothes and medicines to Poland. This aid for the country was used to establish contact with the Polish clergy thanks to the initiative of Colonel Franciszek Mazurek.

scholarly journals The 10-year anniversary of the Republic of Lithuania: the State celebration program of 1928 and the monuments of independence

Menotyra ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The State ◽  
Organizational Skills ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
Anniversary Celebration ◽  
Commemorative Monuments

The Supreme Committee for the 10-year Anniversary Celebration of the Independence of the Republic of Lithuania was established in 1928. The committee performed its mission making the national rally campaign of the celebration of two state festivals – February 16 and May 15. The organizational skills and experience of Vladas Nagevičius in developing the national important memorial symbols should be noted. He was the chairman of the committee and the director of the Military Museum. The year 1928 evidenced the first manifestation of the global cultural memory in Independent Lithuania. A model of the ceremonial communication of the state festivals was created. It had an important component – a monument – a materialization sign of the memorial. To achieve their objectives, the committee used the periodicals, the Church, radio, artists and, of course, local communities. Dealing with the problems of commemorative monuments – the lack of funding, the risk of cheap monuments, the need to design an exceptional memorial object with national traditions, the committee inspired to introduce the shape of a splendour wooden cross as an identity standard. The Committee and the majority of citizens considered that the traditional monuments of cross-crafting is a successful reflection of the nationhood. The Supreme Committee had an exceptional role in designing the commemorative process in 1928.

scholarly journals Migration of Local Landholders in the State of the Teutonic Order between the 1280s and 1370s

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44
Author(s):  
Sergey A. Denisov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
New Community ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church

This article considers the incorporation of Prussians, Sudovians, and Scalovians who migrated to territories which were not theirs originally, into the social system of the State of the Teutonic Order between the 1280s and 1370s. The author examines the main aspects of this issue, i.e. property status and duties of migrants, with reference to data from 41 acts granted to them by the Order and the church, and the Chronicles written by Peter of Dusburg and Caspar Shuetz. The study of these data with the help of the prosopographical and historical and comparative methods makes it possible to determine the main directions of migration, number of migrants, size, and composition of their property and duties performed in relation to the Order and the church. The main regions for migration were Sambia and Pomesania, receiving 5 144 out of 5 166 persons. The choice of the regions was caused by the lack of local farmers that was the result of the devastation committed during the struggle of Prussians, Scalovians, and Sudovians with the expansion of the Order between 1260s and 1280s. Another reason was the remoteness of Sambia and Pomesania from the migrants’ native lands and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On the one hand, it prevented possible union between the settlers and the Lithuanian rulers and, on the other hand, fostered communication between the migrants and the Order which guaranteed the former status in the new community. The incorporation of Prussians, Scalovians, and Sudovians was carried out by granting them fief or locator’s office and implied the definition of their rights and duties similar to those enjoyed by the local inhabitants. The migrants served in the military, paid taxes, had jurisdiction over their peasants, added unclaimed lands to their property, received permission to fish in the nearby waters, etc. These features testify to the successful incorporation of migrants into the new social system that contributed to a further development of the State of the Teutonic Order.

scholarly journals Deputies from the Mogilev province to the State Duma III and IV: social and political characteristics

2020 ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Dmitry S. Lavrinovich
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The Military ◽  
Electoral Law ◽  
The Church

The article reveals social characteristics of the State Duma deputies. The author shows that due to the censorship nature of the electoral law of 3 June 1907, the deputy corps was dominated by the representatives of the elite groups of population (nobles, large landowners). Besides, the important role was played by the deputies from the church and the officials. Most of them, according to their political views, were supporters of the conservative centre. Deputies focused on the Stolypin’s land reform and the draft law on the introduction of elected zemstvos in the western provinces of the Russian Empire. In 1915, part of deputies of Duma IV from Mogilev province joined the «Progressive coalition», took part in the fight against the tsarist government, and B. A. Engelhardt, as a Chairman of the Military Commission of the Provisional Committee in the State Duma, played an important role during the February Revolution of 1917.

scholarly journals Od porazov do zmag z božjo pomočjo. Goriška duhovščina in leto 1917

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2018) (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato Podbersič
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Scientific Paper ◽  
English Summary ◽  
The State ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Category: 1.01 Original scientific paper Language: Original in Slovenian (Abstract in Slovenian and English, Summary in English) Key words: the Church and War, Clergy in Slovenian Littoral, Isonzo front, Archdiocese Gorizia, archbishop Frančišek B. Sedej Abstract: This paper concerns itself with the activities of the Catholic Church in Gorizia during the war year of 1917. The Gorizia clergy, mostly very loyal to the state and the Habsburg ruling family, shared the sad fate of the Gorizia archdiocese during the war, as it suffered from the bloody fighting on the Isonzo front. The priests did not directly participate in the military engagements, but they did help in many ways the tested population either in exile or in the hinterland of the front. After the breakthrough at Kobarid in the fall of 1917 the majority of the Gorizia clergy was sincerely delighted at the Austro-Hungarian victory and the crushing Italian defeat.

Religious Minorities and the Anxieties of an Islamic Identity in Pakistan

2019 ◽  
pp. 202-234
Author(s):  
Muhammad Qasim Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Iranian Revolution ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Islamic Identity ◽  
Senior Officers ◽  
The Military

This chapter focuses on contemporary Pakistan, now entangled in sectarian strife, though this was not always so. There were religious minorities: the Ahmadis and Shiʻites. The former were heterodox many times over: they did not believe in jihad, and they did believe in a post-Muhammad prophet, Ghulam Ahmad. They were also a successful minority, self-styled modernizers who had carved out for themselves an outsized place in public life in the early postcolonial years. The Shiʻites too had enjoyed success as great landlords in the Punjab and as senior officers in the military. They were, moreover, a minority that did not hesitate to stand up for themselves, protesting when the state treated members as second-class citizens and proudly proclaiming their difference at Muharram festival processions. Ahmadis and Shiʻites may have been resented in certain quarters, but overall, they remained a significant and self-assured public presence in the postcolonial order. It was the Iranian revolution and General Zia's Islamization campaign of 1979 that turned this situation around. Once tolerated minorities were now stigmatized and targeted by blasphemy laws, comparative tolerance giving way to the politics of sectarianism. So, there it is again, the state—this time not colonial but postcolonial—converting difference into discrimination, if not outright persecution.

Transnational, National, and Ecumenical Convergences: The Baptist, Anglican, and Orthodox Reactions to the Romanian 1938 Religion Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-77
Author(s):  
Iemima Ploscariu
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
World War ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Transnational Organizations ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
The Church

The Romanian Ministry of Religious Denominations passed Decision nr. 26208 in 1938, severely curtailing the activity of a number of religious associations. The most numerous of these were the Baptists. They maintained close ties with ethnic minority co-religionists within Romania and collaborated with religious organizations abroad, especially the Baptist World Alliance (bwa). The latter resulted in conflict with Romanian government and ecclesiastical authorities. The actions of the bwa in opposition to the Decision reveal the extent to which transnational organizations influenced the development of policies concerning religion during the crucial years leading into World War ii. Using previously unused archival material, the article draws out the role of domestic religious minorities in the struggle between the Church, the State, minority groups, and foreign powers and provides a fascinating convergence of national, transnational, and ecumenical attempts at changing the religious space in Europe.

scholarly journals Religious Freedom Against the Background of the Ukrainian-Russian War: Some Legal Aspects

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 106-113
Author(s):  
Dmytro Vovk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The State ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
The Crimea ◽  
The Military ◽  
Domestic Law ◽  
The Church

This essay deals with various issues of religious freedom and state-church relations that arose during and in connection with the Revolution of Dignity and the military and political conflict between Ukraine and Russia. I do not propose any completed answers, but I rather formulate the question which answers need, based on the fact that one of the reasons that led to both EuroMaydan and the annexation of the Crimea and the war on the Donbass is the European choice of Ukraine. This choice does not only mean the institutional integration of Ukraine into certain European structures. First of all, it predetermines the perception by the Ukrainian society and the state of a certain set of legal values ​​(the rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights, etc.) and related values ​​and principles that must be embodied in domestic law and order. It should also be emphasized that the following considerations are considerations of a lawyer. I do not have sufficient qualifications for religious or political analysis, and I propose only a look at the religious freedom and relations between the state and the church, which focuses on the above legal values.

scholarly journals La « minorité » en tant que force politique dans le système politique occidental

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88
Author(s):  
Georges Contogeorgis
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Political Force ◽  
Autonomous Action ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Church

In this paper the author questions the future of minorities as a political force. He notes in this respect that religion no longer plays a preponderant role in occidental societies as a mobilizing force for autonomous action. Religious minorities no longer succeed in intervening in politics. The author underscores the contrast with the prevailing situation in Eastern socialist societies where the Church is the only institution that can stand up to the State which tends to monopolize politics. He also raises the problems caused by the coexistence of religious and linguistic or ethnic groups.

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