Representations of The Gurkhas (Lahures) in Modernist Narratives

Unity Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
Nagendra Bahadur Bhandari
Keyword(s):  
British Army ◽  
Personal Loss ◽  
British Military ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

The representation Gurkha soldier or Lahures in British military writings and Nepali modernist narratives vary drastically. The British writings expose their martial skill and strength with high degree of integrity and loyalty in different wars including the First and Second World Wars. For instances, Brian Houghton Hodgson’s “Origin and Classification of the Military Tribes of Nepal”, J. P. Cross’s In Gurkha Company: The British Army Gurkhas and John Pemble’s British Gurkha War reflect their gallantry and unconditional loyalty. On the contrary, Nepali modernist narratives unravel their personal loss, separation, unpatriotic feeling and irresponsibility. Such unpleasant connotations in Nepali literature appears in ‘Aamali Sodhlin ni’ (Mother May Ask), a song of Jhalak Man Gandharva, “Sipahi” (Soldier), a story of Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Sisirko Phul (Blue Mimosa), a novel of Bishnu Kumari Baiba ‘Parijat’ and poems of Bhupi Sherchan. This article explores drastically different types of the representation of the Gurkhas (Lahures) in British military writings and Nepali narratives, and the socio-political contexts of their representation. The social, cultural and political contexts of representation and the motives of the writers render variations in their representations. This article unfolds the connection between the representation of the Gurkhas (Lahures) and the condition under which they are represented. While doing so, this paper supports an instance of the representation of Gurkha soldiers as an ideological construct on ground of political and sociological phenomena.

Post-Heroic Warfare Revisited: Meaning and Legitimation of Military Losses

Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Frisk
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Engagement ◽  
Military Campaign ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World

The article challenges the thesis that western societies have moved towards a post-heroic mood in which military casualties are interpreted as nothing but a waste of life. Using content analysis and qualitative textual analysis of obituaries produced by the Royal Danish Army in memory of soldiers killed during the Second World War (1940–1945) and the military campaign in Afghanistan (2002–2014), the article shows that a ‘good’ military death is no longer conceived of as a patriotic sacrifice, but is instead legitimised by an appeal to the unique moral worth, humanitarian goals and high professionalism of the fallen. The article concludes that fatalities in international military engagement have invoked a sense of post-patriotic heroism instead of a post-heroic crisis, and argues that the social order of modern society has underpinned, rather than undermined, ideals of military self-sacrifice and heroism, contrary to the predominant assumption of the literature on post-heroic warfare.

The Visual Construction of the Romanian Militarized Masculinity on Romanian Army’s Facebook Pages

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2 (40)) ◽  
pp. 70-90
Author(s):  
Elena NOVĂCESCU
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Visual Construction ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
Gendered Stereotypes ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Military

Because nowadays’ world is visually saturated, many social re- searchers are using visual methods to understand how images contribute to the shaping and perpetuation of social constructs, norms, and behaviors. Gender is such a construct, and the beliefs and principles that contributed to the social and visual construction of gender have been broadly argued in the last decades. However, in today’s digitalized world, there is a space poorly explored by gender and visual researchers, namely how the army as a media actor contributes to the construction of masculinity through the images it promotes online. Thus, with the purpose to explore this gap, the present paper examines how the Romanian armed forces visually construct the militarized masculinity on their official Facebook pages, highlighting how those images contribute to the consolidation of the existing gendered stereotypes. Through the photos it disseminates, the Romanian Army le- gitimizes the main role of men in defending the country by revealing de- sirable male characteristics and the high degree of connectivity with the military theatre.

scholarly journals Evaluating evaluations: What different types of metapragmatic behaviour can tell us about participants’ understandings of the moral order

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethan L. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Ordered Categories ◽  
The Social ◽  
Online Comments ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Participant evaluations have been at the heart of recent discursive (im)politeness research, yet despite their importance, there has been little consideration of how we identify such behaviours and how we can substantiate their worth in an analysis. In this paper, it is proposed that we need to distinguish between different, ordered, categories of evaluation because these provide different levels of evidence for participants’ understandings of (im)politeness. Using online comments from Daily Mail articles relating to the Penelope Soto court hearings, I show that apparent agreements in the classification of linguistic behaviour as (im)polite can mask disagreements in the underlying rationales for those judgements. It is these rationales that provide the strongest warrant for analysts because they represent the ideological basis behind an individual’s understanding of politeness – why people should behave in this way. This links to Haugh’s (2013) use of ‘moral order’ and also Eelen’s (2001) key, but underdeveloped, notion of argumentativity. The rationale behind an individual’s judgement provides the argumentative link between metapragmatic behaviour and the social order. Classifications and positive/negative assessments of person are only clues to this underlying rationale, and need to be treated as such. Understanding these differences will assist analysts in assessing the ideological weight of metapragmatic behaviour and provide better-informed warrants for their analyses.

scholarly journals Reciprocity of Individual and Collective Memory. Letters from a Soldier of the Wehrmacht of the Second World War

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Sabine Buchwald
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Language ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
World War ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Military ◽  
Educational Conditions ◽  
Second World

The basis of the scientific investigation are 83 military letters and postcards, a diary, and Franz Buchwald’s memories of World War II. The classification of military letters and other sources constitutes the scientific significance of these documents. The survey questions the culturally and socially political acts as well as intertextual and trans-textual procedures. Understanding of literature as the subject of a culturally scientific survey is a priority, as well as its influence on the emergence of military letters. The clarification of the cultural memory of Franz Buchwald, a soldier of the Wehrmacht [high forces], serves as an indicator for the preservation of moral principles and values during the war, but also as one for the discords that arose in this context. A key issue is the importance of the educational conditions of growing up during the war. Relevant topics are education, the church, and the literary canon. Examples from the military letters sketch the establishment of the national language in terms of theology, and address the issue of nationality and identity.

Reasserting work, space and gender boundaries at the end of the Second World War

2018 ◽  
pp. 168-198
Author(s):  
Jane Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Hospital System ◽  
Work Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Boundaries ◽  
The Military ◽  
Nursing Sisters ◽  
Second World

The chapter considers the civilian world into which the Q.A.s returned at the end of the war and explores the options they faced. It begins with the immediate aftermath of war and the opportunities for interesting and worthwhile work that would only exacerbate the nursing sisters’ difficulties on demobilisation. This is followed by a consideration of the return to Britain and the options open for professional practice. The chapter argues that for some the option of interesting work remained, either in the colonial service or the military. However the main professional opening for returning nurses was the crisis ridden civilian hospital system that wanted and recruited cheap, malleable workers; this was not an attractive choice for demobbed nursing sisters. The chapter argues that despite nursing being a female dominated profession, the ideology that encouraged women to return to the home in the aftermath of war had significant ramifications for demobilised nurses. The social structure precluded married women from working outside the home and funds for postgraduate training available to returning male doctors were not offered to nurses. As the chapter maintains, most nursing sisters married, leaving the profession without their considerable talents and new ways of practicing.

The “leaning song” – a weapon in organizational conflict

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Charles Kirke
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
British Military ◽  
Rich Description ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Element ◽  
Traditional Service ◽  
The Military

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an insider ethnographic account of a series of social confrontations between two mutually opposed groups of officers that took place in an officers’ mess in a remote military garrison in the 1980s. The identity of one of these groups was expressed in a particular song that was sung frequently and noisily in the mess. The analysis of these incidents and their precursors provides an understanding of the social processes in which they were embedded, and the conclusions drawn are generalized into the wider context. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on insider ethnography, using rich description to present the incidents and their background. Analysis is conducted using other research by the author on the organizational culture of Service officers and wider scholarship not specifically related to the Military. Findings – The paper finds that in-groups and out-groups in joint Service populations do not necessarily run along traditional, Service, lines, and that cultural change in the groups concerned was associated with the rapid turnover of their members as they were replaced in the normal postings cycle. It demonstrates that a socially powerful shared cultural element can, if only temporarily, bring unity between rival groups. It also contributes to the scholarship on the power of song as a proclamation of group identity and the intensification of that identity. Originality/value – The main strength of this paper is that it provides an insider’s view of a British military social group, which is extremely rare in the literature, describing social processes that connect to the wider scholarship on song, in-group and out-group behaviour, and cultural change.

The Classification of Style

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Bosse
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The Body ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Dances ◽  
Ballroom Dance ◽  
High Degree

This chapter introduces the reader to to the tenets of ballroom dance by focusing on the various classificatory systems used in social dances. It begins with a discussion of the “ballroom umbrella” and the wealth of symbolic resources it encompasses, first by considering dancesport and social dancing, followed by an analysis of International and American styles of ballroom performance. It then examines four themes that emerge from classificatory systems: an emphasis on a high degree of specialization in performance; the demonstration of control over the body and its movement; the rationalization of movement and the ideas articulated by it, especially as mediated by language and other symbols; and an association with Western Europe. The chapter suggests that dance classifications also function as social classifications that serve to stratify individuals and groups according to their perception of the social order. More specifically, they articulate the betwixt-and-between-ness that characterizes the American middle class.

THE UNION AND THE MILITARY, 1801–c.1830

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 329-351
Author(s):  
Allan Blackstock
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
British Army ◽  
The Public ◽  
British Military ◽  
Military Background ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Church

AbstractWHEN writing his monumental history of the British army, Sir John Fortescue devoted just two paragraphs to the military implications of the Union. He noted that Union greatly simplified British military affairs in general and that this was an excellent thing for historians, driven to distraction by the confusing archival situation produced by the pre-Union military relationship of the two countries. The Irish military historian, Sir Henry McAnally, was equally succinct, merely remarking that `military matters had not bulked largely in the Union debates'. In ways they were both right. Although none of the eight articles of the Union refer to the army, it was understood that the assimilation principle, which regulated other branches of the public service and the church, would apply to the army. Yet, beneath and perhaps because of the delusive brevity of these bare facts, lies a seriously under-researched subject with wider ramifications, both in the short and longer term. Before these issues can be developed, it is first necessary to set the context by describing the pre-Union military background Ireland and then outlining the formal changes wrought by the Union.

scholarly journals Reciprocity of Individual and Collective Memory. Letters from a Soldier of the Wehrmacht of the Second World War

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-77
Author(s):  
Sabine Buchwald
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Second World War ◽  
National Language ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
World War ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Military ◽  
Educational Conditions ◽  
Second World

The basis of the scientific investigation are 83 military letters and postcards, a diary, and Franz Buchwald’s memories of World War II. The classification of military letters and other sources constitutes the scientific significance of these documents. The survey questions the culturally and socially political acts as well as intertextual and trans-textual procedures. Understanding of literature as the subject of a culturally scientific survey is a priority, as well as its influence on the emergence of military letters. The clarification of the cultural memory of Franz Buchwald, a soldier of the Wehrmacht [high forces], serves as an indicator for the preservation of moral principles and values during the war, but also as one for the discords that arose in this context. A key issue is the importance of the educational conditions of growing up during the war. Relevant topics are education, the church, and the literary canon. Examples from the military letters sketch the establishment of the national language in terms of theology, and address the issue of nationality and identity.

Neural network classification of defects in veneer boards

2000 ◽  
Vol 214 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
D T Pham ◽  
S Sagiroglu
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Vector Quantization ◽  
Learning Vector Quantization ◽  
Defect Classification ◽  
Neural Network Classification ◽  
Different Types ◽  
High Degree

Learning vector quantization (LVQ) networks are known good neural classifiers which provide fast and accurate results for many applications. The aim of this work was to test if this network paradigm could be employed for the classification of wood sheet defects. Experiments conducted with LVQ networks have shown that they provide a high degree of discrimination between the different types of defects and potentially can perform defect classification in real time.

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