Two Concepts of Conversion at Meenakshipuram

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Baxter

AbstractThe 1981 Dalit mass conversion to Islam at Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu, arguably began the Hindu Right's political rise. The conversion raises two different concepts for understanding mass conversion's relationship to democracy. Though it is commonly framed in terms of B. R. Ambedkar's thought, whereby conversion's core is an interior psychic process of changing principles to see the world differently, I suggest that Meenakshipuram's event may more appropriately be framed by E. V. Ramasami's [EVR] thought, whereby conversion's core is an exterior somatic process of changing appearances to be seen differently in the world. These concepts of conversion raise alternative engagements with issues of text, force, foreignness, time, and Marxism. The argument is prefaced by a discussion of freedom's typology (Berlin), subaltern representation (Spivak), and religious mass (Geertz/Asad), which I argue favors EVR's concept of conversion over Ambedkar's. Such issues are not unimportant in an age of rising right-wing populisms globally.

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siluvai Raja

Education has been considered as an indispensable asset of every individual, community and nation today. Indias higher education system is the third largest in the world, after China and the United States (World Bank). Tamil Nadu occupies the first place in terms of possession of higher educational institutions in the private sector in the country with over 46 percent(27) universities, 94 percent(464) professional colleges and 65 percent(383) arts and science colleges(2011). Studies to understand the profile of the entrepreneurs providing higher education either in India or Tamil Nadu were hardly available. This paper attempts to map the demographic profile of the entrepreneurs providing higher education in Arts and Science colleges in Tamil Nadu through an empirical analysis, carried out among 25 entrepreneurs spread across the state. This paper presents a summary of major inferences of the analysis.


Author(s):  
Janet O'Shea

This section contends with a central irony: Americans are among the most competitive people in the world, and yet we are among the least likely to play competitive sports in adulthood. This exercise gap is usually treated as a public health problem; the goal of this section is to treat it as a social and cultural concern. The conclusion therefore investigates the social and political implications of an American tendency to outsource physical play to experts: higher levels of fear, increased preoccupation with success at all costs, decreased creativity, and increasing rigidity of perspective and position. Specifically, the conclusion maintains that a neglect of fair play has dire consequences for democracy, a suggestion born out by the recent swing toward right-wing populism in politics.


Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham

AbstractDo those who believe in conspiracy theories feel less happy and healthy than others? Do they believe the world is simply unjust? This study was concerned with how demographic factors, personal ratings of success, personal ideology (political and religious beliefs) and Just World Beliefs are related to Conspiracy Theories. In total, 406 participants completed two questionnaires: Just World scale (Rubin & Peplau, 1975) and Conspiracy Theories Inventory (Swami et al., 2010) and provided various personal details. The Just World Scale yielded two scores: Just and Unjust beliefs. Participants also reported on their health, happiness and success and a reliable composite measure of well-being was computed. A regression showed younger males, with Unjust World beliefs and politically right-wing views, were more likely to endorse Conspiracy Theories. The discussion revolved around explaining individual differences in accepting these theories. Implications and limitations are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-363
Author(s):  
Feliciano De Sá Guimarães ◽  
Irma Dutra De Oliveira E Silva

Abstract In the last two decades, far-right populists have formed governments all over the world. However, systematic analyses on how far-right leaders recreate their countries' foreign policy identity are still underdeveloped. In this article, we analyse how far-right populist leaders use their conservative identity-set to align with other right-wing governments and how they use the same conservative repertoire to deal with ideological rivals. More precisely, we argue that these leaders tend to overemphasize a deep conservative identity-set towards other far-right populist governments, something we call ‘thick conservative identity’. This profoundly conservative identity-set is composed of three national role conceptions: anti-globalism, nationalism and anti-foe. However, they do not repeat this identity-set towards ideological rivals, preferring to use a more nuanced and contradictory one, something we call ‘thin conservative identity’. The trigger of such difference is the anticipated mutual expectation of conservatism between Ego and Alter, in which Ego mimics Alter's deep conservatism. We use Jair Bolsonaro's alignment with Donald Trump and Bolsonaro's relationship with China as illustrative cases. We use the main concepts of role theory to understand both how conservative alignments are created and how far-right governments deal with ideological rivals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Jim Garrison ◽  
Stefan Neubert

This chapter combines perspectives of Deweyan philosophy and education with Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological approach. It addresses the present deep crisis of democracy represented by renascent nationalism and right-wing populism in many places around the globe. Among other things, we explore Bauman’s account of liquid modernity with a special eye on his critical views on the ambivalence of communities in contemporary life. First, we argue that inclusive education in a Deweyan sense must be base on civil and hospitable communities. Second, we use Bauman to explain some important characteristics of exclusive as opposed to democratic communities. Third, we discuss some of the main strategies of exclusion that lead, according to Bauman, to a loss of civil spaces in liquid modernity. We interpret them as challenges and risks that Deweyan democracy has to face in the world of today. Fourth, we adopt Bauman’s idea of explosive communitites and use it to analyse some of the more dramatic and violent dangers to democracy that are involved by contemporary extreme nationalist and right-wing populist policies. Fifth, we draw implications for democracy and education by identifying some strategies to counter these dangers and to enable and facilitate new ways of liquid learning in liquid times. We discuss six necessary aspects and qualities of learning communities that seem appropriate to this end. Throughout the essay, we show, from a Deweyan perspective, that the development from solid to liquid modernity, as depicted by Bauman, has taken a new and unexpected turn, again, in the course of the very last years.


2021 ◽  
pp. 399-410
Author(s):  
Hitesh N. Jagani ◽  
Nasheman Bandookwala

Gender discrimination has been persistent across globe and it is more identified in terms of wage differential. Such discrimination is more striking in developing countries and further more among social groups. Though many countries have passed minimum wage laws and laws mandating equal treatment of women at workplace, gender wage differential remains a perennial feature of labor markets across globe. Among BRIC nation India depicts highest wage discrimination between sexes (Rema Nagarajan TNN March 2011). This fact was reveled also in the Global Gender Gap Report of 2010 as well. The recent survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) points out the Indian situation, ranking India among the bottom 10 countries in the world in terms of women’s participation in the economy. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 says Of the 153 countries studied in the report, India ranks 112th on the overall Global Gender Gap Index with the index value of (0.068). The overall gender gap as though has narrowed the pay gaps have widen and it will take 257 more years i.e by year 2257 pay equity will be established. India has shown disappointing performance in women work participation rate (WPR), pushing the country among the bottom 10 countries on the WEF list. The country ranks 149th among 153 countries in economic participation. Overall, in terms of gender equality India achieves a score of 59.4%, but in terms of economic participation and opportunity, it scores 39.8% which is dismal. The present study is an attempt to analyze the wage differential across selected states of India. The wages for agriculture and non agriculture workers for sexes is considered. The attempt has been made to evaluate wage differential across selected states of India and inequality therein has been calculated. The descriptive statistical tools like arithmetic mean and standard deviation has been used to ameliorate understanding. The pay parity Index has also been calculated The overall observation from the study widens understanding about pay pattern in India – and discriminating dimension therein. Across occupation unequal pay prevails in regards to sexes with males being paid more than women for the equal jobs. Disparity among agricultural Towards Excellence: An Indexed, Refereed & Peer Reviewed Journal of Higher Education / Dr. Hitesh Jagani & Dr. Nasheman Bandookwala / Page 399-410 March, 2021. VOL.13. ISSUE NO. 1 https://hrdc.gujaratuniversity.ac.in/Publication Page | 400 workers is highest at Kerala- female agricultural workers are paid 29% less than males. On other hand in Himachal Pradesh male agricultural worker is paid 5% less than females. For non agricultural workers Tamil Nadu exhibits high incidence of inequality with female workers being paid 32% less than males. Gujarat comparatively depicts a better scenario with average female payments being more in non agricultural sector as though in agriculture sector disparity prevails.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (S-1) ◽  
pp. 183-187
Author(s):  
Kalaiselvan P

Different beliefs and practices are found in human life from birth to death. These beliefs are created by the people and are followed and protected by the mother’s community. Man has been living with nature since ancient times. Beliefs appeared in natural human life. Hope can be traced back to ancient Tamils and still prevails in Tamil Nadu today. The hope of seeing the omen in it is found all over the world. Proverbs show that people have faith in omens. Our ancestors wrote the book 'Gauli Shastri' because the lizard omen is very important in our society. The word lizard played a major role in Tamil life during the Sangam period. It is possible to know that people have lived by the benefit of the lizard. There is hope from the public that the sound of the lizard will predict what will happen next. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the lizard word that has been around for a long time in folklore.


Asian Survey ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soundarya Chidambaram

Abstract This article examines the appeal of Hindu right-wing social service organizations, which try to use welfare provisions to entrench themselves in urban slums across India. However, in South India, their welfare provision is not as successful in Tamil Nadu as in Karnataka. I explain this spatial variation by arguing that these communal organizations fail to entrench themselves in those slums where preexisting civic associations closely linked to party officials and local administrators function as efficient patronage networks, providing welfare needs to the urban poor and reducing the need for non-state actors such as right-wing groups.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Prashanth Bhat

Widespread dissemination of hate speech on corporate social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube has necessitated technological companies to moderate content on their platforms. At the receiving end of these content moderation efforts are supporters of right-wing populist parties, who have gained notoriety for harassing journalists, spreading disinformation, and vilifying liberal activists. In recent months, several prominent right-wing figures across the world were removed from social media - a phenomenon also known as ‘deplatforming’- for violating platform policies. Prominent among such right-wing groups are online supporters of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, who have begun accusing corporate social media of pursuing a ‘liberal agenda’ and ‘curtailing free speech.’ In response to deplatforming, the BJP-led Government of India has aggressively promoted and embraced Koo, an indigenously developed social media platform. This commentary examines the implications of this alternative social platform for the online communicative environment in the Indian public sphere.


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