City Profile: Madurai, India

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 308-330
Author(s):  
Debolina Kundu ◽  
Baishali Lahiri ◽  
Arvind Pandey ◽  
Pragya Sharma

Madurai city, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is one of the ancient temple cities of India and has been existing since two millennia. It is the second largest city in terms of area and the third largest in terms of population in the state. Despite this, the city’s population and economy is shrinking. In 2010, the city’s boundary expanded to cover the entire urban agglomeration. But even after 9 years of integration, differences exist between the newly merged areas and the old city. The spatial division in provision of basic services coupled with the characteristics of a shrinking city has posed fundamental challenges in the path of sustainable development. This article discusses the development of Madurai city with regard to its history, demography, economy, health and education infrastructure. It also offers insights into the unique challenges faced by the city and discusses the policy implications for reversal of the retardation of the city to that of holistic progress.

Author(s):  
Michael A. Gomez

This prologue provides an overview of the history of early and medieval West Africa. During this period, the rise of Islam, the relationship of women to political power, the growth and influence of the domestically enslaved, and the invention and evolution of empire were all unfolding. In contrast to notions of an early Africa timeless and unchanging in its social and cultural categories and conventions, here was a western Savannah and Sahel that from the third/ninth through the tenth/sixteenth centuries witnessed political innovation as well as the evolution of such mutually constitutive categories as race, slavery, ethnicity, caste, and gendered notions of power. By the period's end, these categories assume significations not unlike their more contemporary connotations. All of these transformations were engaged with the apparatus of the state and its progression from the city-state to the empire. The transition consistently featured minimalist notions of governance replicated by successive dynasties, providing a continuity of structure as a mechanism of legitimization. Replication had its limits, however, and would ultimately prove inadequate in addressing unforeseen challenges.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-231
Author(s):  
Sanjib Baruah

These two books are about two powerful regional political forces in India-the Shiv Sena of Maharashtra (with a focus on the city of Mumbai) and the Dravidianist parties of Tamil Nadu. Many readers of this journal may know these places by their older names: Mumbai is Bombay, and the state of Tamil Nadu and its capital city were once known as Madras. Both books, not coincidentally, have much to say about the rise of Hindu nationalism in India, which is perhaps the most dramatic change in the Indian political landscape in recent years. That, indeed, is the central theme of Banerjee's book, which investigates the Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai in 1993. Banerjee argues that the politics of Hindu nationalism provides the context for the riots. In Mumbai, the major political force articulating a Hindu nationalist agenda is the Shiv Sena (literally, the warriors of Shivaji, a legendary Maharastrian Hindu hero).


1979 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 504-533

Thiruvenkata Rajendra Seshadri was born on 3 February 1900 in the small town of Kulitalai lying on the bank of the Kaveri, one of the seven sacred rivers of India, and situated in the Tiruchy district of South India. This district formed a part of the Madras Presidency of pre-independent India and is now a part of the state of Tamil Nadu of the Indian Republic. His father, Thiruvengadatha Iyengar, was a teacher in a local school; his mother was Namagiri Ammal, and T. R. Seshadri was the third of five sons who were the only children of the marriage. The family was deeply religious, and this influence was dominant throughout T. R. Seshadri’s life, not only in his personal attitudes but also in his complete dedication to his work.


Iraq ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Davide Nadali ◽  
Lorenzo Verderame

The ancient city of Nigin in the State of Lagash is largely attested in the epigraphic sources of the rulers of the First Dynasty of Lagash. Conversely, the archaeological evidence of the Early Dynastic Period is so far very scanty and limited. This paper presents a small group of documents to be dated to the Early Dynastic Period IIIb that were found out of context, but that nevertheless point to a phase of occupation of Nigin in the third millennium BC and are coherent with the information we already know about history of the city and the State of Lagash.


2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-69
Author(s):  
Allan Silverman

The aim of this long essay is to explain why the philosopher-ruler of Plato's Republic descends “with regret” or having been “compelled” from his contemplation of the Forms to rule the state. It offers a new, optimistic interpretation of his goal in so descending, namely to try to make everyone into a philosopher. After a brief introductory section, I turn to the argument of the Republic to show both that the philosopher's understanding of the Good causes him to try to maximize the amount of good in the cosmos, and that, since every rational person is capable, in virtue of his rational soul, of becoming a philosopher, this amounts to adopting the aforementioned goal. In the third section, I argue that the source of his regret cannot be that he sacrifices his own happiness in descending. Here the vehicle is a consideration of the “Plotinian” reading of the Republic, whose conclusion is that once he has achieved knowledge of the Forms, the philosopher can neither increase his happiness by further study, nor lose his happiness. Hence, if he is true to his goal, he has to try to improve the lot of others. In the next section, I argue that the Timaeus' account of the Demiurge's construction of the cosmos helps us to understand both the nature of the ruler's attempts to make everyone a philosopher and why he also understands that he will inevitably fail. Here the key idea is to link the Timaeus' account of Necessity or the Wandering Cause with the circumstances facing the philosopher in ruling the state. In the conclusion, I sketch how this account of the philosopher's reason for descending suggests that the best or ideal city in the Republic is not the tripartite kallipolis, but is rather a version of the City of Pigs.


Author(s):  
Vijaya Nagarajan

This chapter describes three very different kōlam competitions in Tamil Nadu. The first is an unofficial, informal, and playful village contest. The second is part of a festival celebrating Āṇṭāḷ, the female saint. The third is a large, official competition in the city of Madurai, cosponsored by a museum, a newspaper, and the multinational corporation Colgate. These larger competitions have thrust the kōlam into the public sphere, revealing the continual reinvention of the kōlam. The author meditates on the difference between the public and private sphere throughout the chapter, how the kōlam ritual oscillates between the two, and how this influences women’s larger role in society.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.A. Narbut

В последние десятилетия в мире наблюдается беспрецедентный рост городов, который приводит к возникновению серьезных проблем, указывающих на то, что большинство городов мира развиваются неустойчиво. Экологические проблемы городов можно разделить на три группы: проблемы, связанные с территориальной организацией (территориальное планирование), состоянием природной среды и изменением развития природных процессов. Деление это условное, однако, поскольку территориальное планирование оказывает влияние и на состояние природной среды, и на последствия развития природных процессов, оно рассматривается как ключевое звено формирования устойчивого развития. В работе, исходя из важнейшего критерия устойчивого развития в мире достижение стратегического баланса между деятельностью человека и поддержанием воспроизводящих возможностей биосферы, выявлены основные проблемы современного планирования городской территории. Первая: в градостроительных документах городская и пригородная территория не рассматривается как единая система. Показано, что в пределах городской черты крупного города невозможно сбалансировать экологостабилизирующие и хозяйственные функции земель. Первичной территориальной основой, на которой можно обеспечить экологическое равновесие является город и его пригород. Вторая: не учитывается стадия урбанизации территории, которую определяет показатель освоенности региона. Находясь на первой стадии дифференциальной урбанизации, территория Дальнего Востока имеет в своем развитии ряд особенностей, одна из которых поляризованность территориальной структуры хозяйства. Как следствие наличие неосвоенных зон, обладающих ценнейшим, не учитываемым свойством высокой долей сохранности естественной природы, что позволяет рассматривать их как ресурс для усиления экологической составляющей в формировании устойчивого развития. Третья: зонирование территории происходит по типам пользования, при этом земли экологического назначения не выявляются. Четвертая: целевые программы по улучшению экологического состояния городов РФ унифицированы. В них не акцентируются региональные проблемы, не выявляются земли, перспективные для экологического использования, что могло стать основанием для начала работ по экологическому планированию. In recent decades, the world has seen an unprecedented growth of cities, which leads to the emergence of serious problems indicating that most cities in the world are developing unsustainably. The environmental problems of the cities can be divided into three groups: the problems related to spatial organization (landuse planning), the state of the natural environment and changes in the development of natural processes. This division is conditional, however, since landuse planning influences the state of the natural environment and the consequences of the development of natural processes, it is considered as a key element in the formation of sustainable development. In the paper, based on the most important criterion of sustainable development in the world the achievement of a strategic balance between human activity and the maintenance of the reproducing capabilities of the biosphere, the main problems of modern planning of an urban area are identified there are several of them. The first problem is that in the urban planning documents, the urban and suburban areas are not considered as a single system. It is shown that within the city limits of a large industrial city it is impossible to balance the economic and environmental stabilizing functions of land. The primary territorial basis, on which it is possible to ensure ecological balance, is the city and its suburbs. The second problem: the stage of urbanization of the territory, which is determined by the indicator of development of the region, is not taken into account. Being in the first stage of differential urbanization, the territory of the Far East has in its development a number of features one of which is the polarization of the territorial structure of the economy. This leads to the emergence of undeveloped zones that have the most valuable, not taken into account property a high proportion of natural preservation, which allows us to consider them as a resource for strengthening the environmental component in shaping sustainable development. The third problem: zoning of the territory takes place according to the types of use, while ecological lands are not detected. The fourth problem: targeted programs to improve the ecological status of the Russian cities are unified. They do not emphasize regional problems and do not identify land that is promising for environmental use, which could be the basis for starting work on environmental planning.


Author(s):  
Dominic Scott

The Republic happens to be Plato's most important work. The article throws light on Plato's Magnum Opus. The debate rages over the idea of a city; rather an ideal city state comprising three classes—producers, auxiliaries, and guardians. The first to provide for the material needs of the state, the second for its defence, and the third to rule. Each has a specific function of its own, and none is to interfere with the others. Above all, the just city will be unified, ordered, and harmonious. The rulers and auxiliaries, the two classes Socrates discusses at most length, will be dedicated to protecting the good of the state as a whole, and every aspect of their education, as well as the conditions, under which they live, will be minutely engineered to ensure they fulfil their roles as best they can. In a particularly famous passage, Socrates devotes considerable attention to the arts, proposing radical censorship of the kinds of poetry and music to which will be applicable in the city-state or the Republic that Plato has idealized.


Author(s):  
Deanna B. Marcum

Visitors to the United States Library of Congress will find it in the midst of major expansions of three kinds – expansions to preserve what otherwise might be lost, to protect what it already has, and to make what it has more readily and widely accessible. One current kind of expansion takes the form of constructing a new complex of four buildings in the side of a mountain near the city of Culpeper in the state of Virginia, about an hour's drive from the library's main facilities in Washington, DC. This complex, named the Library of Congress Packard Center for Audio-Visual Conservation, will provide safe storage and new preservation and access systems for the film, video, and sound collections – 5.7 million items – administered by the library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. The library's second major current expansion consists of constructing off-site storage modules for other collections on the site of Fort Meade, a US Army installation in the state of Maryland, less than an hour's drive from Washington, DC. On this site, the library and its partners are finishing the third and fourth of a projected 13, high-density storage modules, designed to extend the life of parts of the library's holdings by a factor of six. The third major current expansion of the Library of Congress is on the Internet, where the library's website now offers some 10 million digitized items. Through financial and other partnerships, the library will continue to add to its online resources, and is working with UNESCO on a project to create a World Digital Library. This will be a collaborative virtual repository through which libraries worldwide provide access to rare, primary source materials, illustrating cultures in all parts of the globe, for the potential benefit of people everywhere.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Chinonso Uchenna Udoji ◽  
Janusz Szpytko

AbstractThe subject of the article is the concept of a sustainable urban transport system model for developing countries on the example of Lagos in Nigeria. The city of Lagos is the largest and most populated city in Africa. Nowadays, the state of Lagos is facing many challenges, and the problem of urban transport is becoming more and more important due to the increase in the number of inhabitants and the size of the city. Significant problems were identified in the urban transport system in the Lagos state, and conceptual solutions were proposed taking into account the approach of sustainable development.


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