NEW UZBEKISTAN-NEW GOOD-NEIGHBORLY RELATIONS: NEW STEPS TOWARDS THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, PEACE AND STABILITY

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
Firuza A. Muhittinova ◽  

The article analyzes the issues of cooperation of the new Uzbekistan on the issue of a new good-neighborliness. The author attaches great importance to the relevance of studying the logical coherence of relations between the peoples of Central and South Asia in the historical, political, economic, educational, spiritual and cultural spheres. Proposals and recommendations were put forward to promote the rich legal heritage among the general public. Recently, there are more and more positive cases of good-neighborly relations between States. Mutual assistance, cooperation, during the pandemic, especially in the days of trials, is a very important process for the peoples of Central Asia. In particular, in this regard, much attention is paid to the study of the culture and art of the peoples of Uzbekistan and Central Asia, mutual enrichment, research on this region shows the importance and significance of this article

2020 ◽  
pp. 157-190
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Markey

This chapter summarizes the interplay between China and South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, then assesses the geopolitical implications for America, and offers recommendations for US policy. Marshalling evidence from previous chapters, it shows that anticipating the political consequences of China’s overseas activities in any particular instance requires an appreciation of the other state’s preexisting domestic political-economic conditions and geopolitical relationships. It finds that across Eurasia, China’s involvement tends to undercut healthy pressure for economic and political reform within states and appears to be exacerbating or rekindling tensions among them. The chapter evaluates current US policy in the context of global competition with China and identifies a range of strategies for Eurasia, including “benign neglect,” “peaceful accommodation,” “critical publicity,” “selective competition,” and “militarized competition.” To make the most of America’s limited influence, it argues that US policymakers should pursue a selective and localized strategy in Eurasia.


Author(s):  
Jürgen Schaflechner

Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097639962097863
Author(s):  
Krishna Prasad Pandey

Nepal and Bhutan, two Shangri-las of South Asia, share similar geo-political features but substantially differ in terms of demographic size and ethno-political history. The Constitution of Nepal 2015 which was promulgated by the second Constituent Assembly formed in 2013 came up with its inclusive character as it secured reasonable space for the ethnic minorities and owned their political, economic and cultural concerns. On the contrary, Bhutan adopted a different course in terms of accommodating ethnic and minority aspirations, although the country has also chosen parliamentary democracy in a narrow sense since 2008. From constitutional point of view, Nepal’s move from a liberal to an inclusive constitution made strenuous effort to bring all sections of Nepali society on board but Bhutan’s shift from a royal decree to an exclusionary constitution consciously left a large section of minority behind by suppressing their legitimate claims for basic democratic rights. This article explores the inclusive and exclusionary characters of the current constitutions of these countries from ethnic perspective.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna A. Igolkina ◽  
Nina V. Noujdina ◽  
Maria G. Samsonova ◽  
Eric von Wettberg ◽  
Travis Longcore ◽  
...  

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 4-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nematullo Mukhamedov

For centuries, Islamic traditions have contributed to the formation of unique Muslim culture in Central Asia, interwoven with the rich cultural heritage of the peoples of this region. In turn, this affected the spiritual life of society and left a significant mark on the development of various sciences. Uzbekistan and its cities Bukhara, Samarkand, Nasaf (Karshi), Termez, Khiva, Shash (Tashkent), and others, which became famous in the whole Muslim world as leading scientific and cultural centers, occupied a special place in these historical processes. IX-XII centuries in Central Asia is famous for the development of science and culture, especially the Islamic sciences. Consequently, such ancient cities as Bukhara, Samarkand, Nasaf (Karshi), Termez, Khiva, Shash (Tashkent) are known as centers of science and culture in the Islamic world. In particular, in the medieval sources, Tashkent is called as Shash, where many prominent scholars of Islamic sciences such as hadith and jurisprudence came from. IX century is known as the “Golden Age of Fiqh Science (Islamic law)” thanks to the works of the region’s faqih scholars. The article analyzes the activities of medieval (IX-XII) scholars of Shash in the scientific centers of the region. It also explores scientific cooperation between scholars of madrasahs in various scientific cities of the region, such as Samarkand, Bukhara, Nasaf, Termez, Merv, and Baghdad.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 250-253
Author(s):  
A.A.Erkuziev

Central Asia has played an important role in the political, economic and cultural relations of different nations and countries since ancient times as one of the centers of the world civilization. The Great Silk Road, which passed through this region, brought together the countries on the trade routes, the peoples living in them, and served to spread information about their traditions, lifestyles, location, historical events. These data, in turn, brought different peoples closer and served as the basis for the establishment of mutual economic and cultural relationships between them. One of the important scientific issues here is the study of the spread of information about the Central Asian region, where most of the Great Silk Road passed, to Western Europe through other countries.


English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingsley Bolton

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Emily Laskin

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.


Author(s):  
Sheela Jeyaraj ◽  
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar

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.


Author(s):  
Savithri Sumanthiran

Christianity in Central Asia has had to negotiate between militant atheism and Islam. The challenge in the region remains the proclamation of the gospel amidst diverse ideologies. However, the witness of the Church is challenged by internal disunity. Communities that have been Islamic for centuries are now going back to their roots. Conversion from Islam is perceived as a matter of being an instrument of social fragmentation. Still, the Chinese ‘One Belt, One Road’ project has spawned the need for skilled workers, providing opportunities for Christians to be present in these countries. An important issue for the future of Christianity in the region will be the need to invest in a contextual theology that is able to evangelise without causing offence to the Islamic community. To live out the Christian faith in a convincing way in such a context will involve Christians drawing from their own Scriptures the rich description of the kingdom of God that can shape the entire life of a community. South Asian countries have all seen an improvement in gender parity over the last decades. As Christians live among social strata, they can show the relevance of their message to the contemporary context.


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