Trustee, State and Stakeholder: Hindu Temple Management in Contemporary India, 1957–2012

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Tetsuya Tanaka

The literature on temple management in colonial and post-colonial India focusses on the dominant role of the trustees and the impact of state intervention. However, this article tries to grasp significance of the role of the stakeholders in the temple management as a bridge between the trustees and the state by analyzing the management history of the Rani Sati temple from 1957 to 2012. It will first explain the historical background of this temple and its managers, the Marwaris. The second section analyzes the form of the temple management from the 1950s to 1970s, and the judicial case against the traditional temple stakeholders, then chief priest and his family members. Because of the national controversy over sati in the late 1980s, public interest groups emerged as the new stakeholders of the temple. Third, this article clarifies the state’s intervention in the temple’s management according to the influence of new the stakeholders. By focussing on the role of the stakeholders, this article discloses how a state intervention can be initiated by the stakeholders and the possibility of transformation of the temple management. JEL: M14, K41, Z12

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384
Author(s):  
Niloshree Bhattacharya ◽  
Manish Thakur

This paper addresses a rather understudied aspect of the ways through which protests get translated into policies by focussing on the actors, spaces and processes. It further identifies key actors in the policy making formulation process, which we call ‘policy intermediaries’. It discusses the emergence of ‘policy intermediaries’ in relation to the history of social movements in post-colonial India. It situates the policy making processes in the country and the role of ‘policy intermediaries’ therein, in the overall context of changing configurations of relationships amongst the state, non-governmental organisations, think tanks and the emergent transnational networks and discourses. By implication, it maps out some of the attributes of middle class activism with illustrations from select social movements in India. The paper explores the multiple spaces in which ‘policy intermediaries’ function, the diverse roles they play and the networks in which they are wilfully or otherwise enmeshed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryl Brian O'Connor

Suicide is a global health issue accounting for at least 800,000 deaths per annum. Numerous models have been proposed that differ in their emphasis on the role of psychological, social, psychiatric and neurobiological factors in explaining suicide risk. Central to many models is a stress-diathesis component which states that suicidal behavior is the result of an interaction between acutely stressful events and a susceptibility to suicidal behavior (a diathesis). This article presents an overview of studies that demonstrate that stress and dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, as measured by cortisol levels, are important additional risk factors for suicide. Evidence for other putative stress-related suicide risk factors including childhood trauma, impaired executive function, impulsivity and disrupted sleep are considered together with the impact of family history of suicide, perinatal and epigenetic influences on suicide risk.


Author(s):  
Fred L. Borch

Explores the role of the Dutch in the Indies from 1595, when sailors from Amsterdam first arrived in the islands, to 1942, when the Japanese invaded the colony and inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Dutch. The history of the Dutch in the Indonesian archipelago is critical to understanding the impact of the Japanese occupation after 1942, and the nature of the war crimes committed by the Japanese. This is because the ultimate goal of the Japanese occupiers was to erase all aspects of Dutch culture and influence the islands. The chapter begins with an examination of the early Dutch settlement of the islands, and the development of the colonial economy. It then discusses the so-called “Ethical Policy,” which sought to unify the islands under Dutch rule and implement European ideas about civilization, culture, and prosperity. The chapter looks at the colony’s social structure prior to World War II and closes with a discussion of the colony’s preparations for war with the Japanese in 1942. A short postscript explains what occurred between August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered, and December 1949, when the Netherlands East Indies ceased to exist.


Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov

The concluding chapter highlights how the cultural history of graphic signs of authority in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages encapsulated the profound transformation of political culture in the Mediterranean and Europe from approximately the fourth to ninth centuries. It also reflects on the transcendent sources of authority in these historical periods, and the role of graphic signs in highlighting this connection. Finally, it warns that, despite the apparent dominant role of the sign of the cross and cruciform graphic devices in providing access to transcendent protection and support in ninth-century Western Europe, some people could still employ alternative graphic signs deriving from older occult traditions in their recourse to transcendent powers.


Author(s):  
Paul Stevens

This chapter is concerned with the role of oil and gas in the economic development of the global economy. It focuses on the context in which established and newer oil and gas producers in developing countries must frame their policies to optimize the benefits of such resources. It outlines a history of the issue over the last twenty-five years. It considers oil and gas as factor inputs, their role in global trade, the role of oil prices in the macroeconomy and the impact of the geopolitics of oil and gas. It then considers various conventional views of the future of oil and gas in the primary energy mix. Finally, it challenges the drivers behind these conventional views of the future with an emphasis on why they may prove to be different from what is expected and how this may change the context in which producers must frame their policy responses.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Yanchao Zhang

This article explores transformations in the worship of popular goddess Mazu as a result of (religious) tourism. In particular, it focuses on the role of transnational tourism in the invention of tradition, folklorization, and commodification of the Mazu cult. Support from the central and local governments and the impact of economic globalization have transformed a traditional pilgrimage site that initially had a local and then national scope into a transnational tourist attraction. More specifically, the ancestral temple of Mazu at Meizhou Island, which was established as the uncontested origin of Mazu’s cult during the Song dynasty (960 to 1276), has been reconfigured architecturally and liturgically to function as both a sacred site and a tourist attraction. This reconfiguration has involved the reconstruction of traditional rituals and religious performances for religious tourism to promote the temple as the unadulterated expression of an intangible cultural heritage. The strategic combination of traditional rituals such as “dividing incense” and an innovative ceremony enjoining all devotees of “Mazu all over the world [to] return to mother’s home” to worship her have not only consolidated the goddess as a symbol of common cultural identity in mainland China, but also for the preservation of Chinese identity in diaspora. Indeed, Chinese migrants and their descendants are among the increasing numbers of pilgrims/tourists who come to Mazu’s ancestral temple seeking to reconnect with their heritage by partaking in authentic traditions. This article examines the spatial and ritual transformations that have re-signified this temple, and by extension, the cult of Mazu, as well as the media through which these transformations have spread transnationally. We will see that (transnational) religious tourism is a key medium.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 7411-7422 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Brewer

Abstract. This review covers the development of ocean acidification science, with an emphasis on the creation of ocean chemical knowledge, through the course of the 20th century. This begins with the creation of the pH scale by Sørensen in 1909 and ends with the widespread knowledge of the impact of the "High CO2 Ocean" by then well underway as the trajectory along the IPCC scenario pathways continues. By mid-century the massive role of the ocean in absorbing fossil fuel CO2 was known to specialists, but not appreciated by the greater scientific community. By the end of the century the trade-offs between the beneficial role of the ocean in absorbing some 90% of all heat created, and the accumulation of some 50% of all fossil fuel CO2 emitted, and the impacts on marine life were becoming more clear. This paper documents the evolution of knowledge throughout this period.


Author(s):  
Iuliia Rossius

The goal of this article consists in demonstration of the impact of research in the field of history and theory of law alongside the hermeneutics of Emilio Betti impacted the vector of this philosophical thought. The subject of this article is the lectures read by Emilio Betti (prolusioni) in 1927 and 1948, as well as his writings of 1949 and 1962. Analysis is conducted on the succession of Betti's ideas in these works, which is traced despite the discrepancy in their theme (legal and philosophical). The author indicates “legal” origin of the canons of Bettis’ hermeneutics, namely the canon of autonomy of the object. Emphasis is placed on the problem of objectivity in Betti's theory, as well as on dialectical tension between the historicity of the interpreted subject and strangeness of the object that accompanies legal, as well as any other type of interpretation. The article reveals the key moment of Betti's criticism of Hans-Georg Gadamer. Regarding the question of historicity of the subject of interpretation. The conclusion is made that the origin of the general theory of interpretation lies in the approaches and methods developed and implemented by Betti back in legal hermeneutics and in studying history of law.   Betti's philosophical theory was significantly affected by the idea on the role of modern legal dogma in interpretation of the history of law. Namely this idea that contains the principle of historicity of the subject of interpretation, which commenced  the general hermeneutical theory of Emilio Betti, was realized in canon of the relevance of understanding in the lecture in 1948, and later in the “general theory of interpretation”. The author also underlines that the question of objectivity of understanding, which has crucial practical importance in legal hermeneutics, was transmitted into the philosophical works of E. Betti, finding reflection in dialectic of the subject and object of interpretation.


Author(s):  
Khrystyna Romanivna Martsikhiv ◽  
Liliia Yevgenivna Horbachova

The concept of «civil society» in modern political science is given. The relevance of its theoretical and practical aspects which is caused by the obvious increase the role of ordinary citizens and their voluntary associations in all spheres of human society: economic, political, social, spiritual, is analyzed. The successes of public organizations and movements of people of good will in the field of detente of international tensions, in providing assistance to peoples affected by natural disasters, catastrophes and other social unrest are widely known. It was established that the basis of victories is the development of civil society, high activity of citizens and their voluntary associations. This is achievable only in a sufficiently developed civil society. It has been proved that success comes where the business activity of citizens and the non-governmental structures they create increases, state intervention in economic, social and spiritual life is limited, where civil society develops and improves. The theoretical and applied aspects of the phenomenon of civil society are comprehended through a theoretical analysis of the concept of civil society in the history of socio-philosophical and political thought, from Plato and Aristotle to the views of modern researchers. It is emphasized that civil society is a type of social system, the hallmark of which is the real multi-subjectivity of economic, social, cultural and political life. The formation and development of civil society in Ukraine during the years of independence is analyzed. It is proved that the formation of civil society is manifested in the formation of its institutions - voluntary public associations, public movements, trade unions, independent media, public opinion as a social institution, elections and referendums as a means of public expression and protection of public-dependent interests. judicial and law enforcement systems, etc. The peculiarities of the interaction of civil society and the rights` state are substantiated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ernad Kahrović ◽  
Emina Kahrović

The goal of the paper is to point to the role and importance of organization design as a tool for strategy implementation, together with a dominant, role of technology in shaping the design. Namely, the development, of modern information and communication technology (ICT) is accompanied by the creation of new organizational forms, which enable the management, and employees to carry out, a significant, portion of work from home. The central focus of this paper is the impact, of technology on the creation of new forms of design, with a virtual organization taking up a particularly prominent, position. We underline the fact, that, among many changes that, the coronavirus pandemic has produced in everyday life, working from home can be considered as the most, drastic one; hence, its harmful effects are underscored, such as those relating to negative psychological effects, anxiety disorders, health issues, job loss, decreased efficiency and reduced satisfaction of the employees.


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