'Controlled by' and 'Controlling with' Sex: Comparing Portrayal of 'Nooran' and 'Haseena Begum' - Two Female Characters of Khushwant Singh's Modern Classic: Train to Pakistan

Khushwant Singh's Train to Pakistan (1956), a quintessential post-colonial novel and a lucid modern classic - is based on the societal conditions and upheavals of during and post-liberation Pak - Indo subcontinent in 1947. Having set the plot of his novel in a fictional Punjabi village 'Mano Majra' - located near to the India - Pakistan border, Singh attempted to analyze how human relationships change in a tormented - apocalyptic society. However, this paper aims at studying how in an overtly masculine society as portrayed in the novel, amidst the fright of religious persecution, sexualized violence, the fallaciousness of mob rule, and formation of new identities via displacement - two of the novel's main female characters - Nooran, who is sexually subjugated within the text, and Haseena Begum, who uses her bodily charm to meet her days ends, stand out differently due to the disparity in their social orientations, and life choices. To explore the posed query, this paper will use Virginia Woolf's ideas from -"Professions for Women" (1942) an article apparently archaic today, but the ideas posited in it were very much contemporary to the novel's setting, as well as Julia Kristeva's apparently contemporary ideas in - "Woman Can Never Be Defined" (1974), where these critics talked about women's sexuality, their professions, their privileged relationship with father/paternal figure of their family, and how all these lead them to abidance towards prejudiced masculine norms set by the society.

Church and State in Central Russia during the Era of Collectivism

Статья освещает взаимоотношения Советского государства и Русской право-славной церкви в конце 1920-х — начале 1930-х годов в период коллективизации деревни, которая сопровождалась разрушением традиционного мира, драматической ломкой привычного уклада жизни. В центре внимания — политика наступления на православную идеологию и духовенство, выражавшаяся в закрытии храмов и монастырей, воинствующем атеизме, мерах репрессивного воздействия по отношению к священникам. Территориальные рамки исследования охватывают Центрально-Промышленную (переименованную через несколько месяцев в Московскую) область — мегарегион в 1929–1937 годах, включавший в тот период несколько бывших губерний Центральной России. На материалах Рязанского, Тверского и Тульского округов анализируются протестное движение крестьян против антирелигиозной политики власти, активные и пассивные формы сопротивления. Активные формы крестьянского сопротивления были направлены на защиту храмов от разрушения, духовенства от арестов, а также против запретов на богослужебную деятельность. Кроме того, верующие оказывали сопротивление антипасхальным вечерам и иным провокационным пропагандистским акциям, организуемым Союзом воинствующих безбожников. Основной действующей силой данного протеста были женщины, что предопределило название акций как «бабьи бунты». Пассивные формы протеста выражались в распространении информации о чудесах и знамениях, апокалиптических слухов о скорой войне, гибели советской власти в военном конфликте, грядущем конце света в наказание за вступление в «безбожный» колхоз. Сопротивление дало возможность сохранить храмы как очаги религиозности, сберечь и передать поколениям веру и традиции православной жизни. The article treats the relationship between the Soviet State and the Russian Orthodox Church in the late 1920s — early 1930s, during the era of collectivism, which brought about the destruction of the traditional world and dramatically changed the traditional lifestyle. The article focusesaggressive on the policy of oppressing the Orthodox ideology and the clergy, which manifested itself though atheism, the dissolution of churches and monasteries, religious persecution. The research focuses on the situation in the Moscow region (the then Central Industrial region), which encompassed several former provinces in 1929-1937. The author analyzes the materials relating to the Ryazan District, the Tula District and the Tver District and investigates the data about peasants’ passive and active resistance to the antireligious governmental policies. The active forms of peasants’ resistance were aimed at the protection of churches and cathedrals against destruction, at helping priests avoid arrests, at protesting against bans on religious services. Moreover, believers protested against anti-Easter campaigns and other propaganda campaigns organized by the Union of Aggressive Atheists. Women were the driving force of the protests. As a passive form of protesting against religious oppression believers spread information about miracles and portents, apocalyptic predictions of ongoing wars and the destruction of the Soviet government n a military conflict, apocalyptic prediction of punishment for joining the impious kolkhozes. Due to believers’ resistance to anti-religious campaigns it was possible to protect churches and cathedrals as the hearth of religious belief and to pass the traditions of Orthodox Christianity to other generations.

„tὴν ἀρχαίαν ἐπιζητοῦμεν πατρίδα”: Creștinii în căutarea patriei celei dintâi – încercări de definire a unei teologii a migrației

Migration, as the displacement of peoples, triggered throughout the centuries by wars, natural disasters, political oppression, poverty and famine, religious persecution is a profound human experience and an intimate part of the biblical saga from the beginning, along with the social, anthropological and spiritual issues it raises. The history of Israel is rooted in migration and the Jewish Diaspora is the most extensive and well documented migrations in antiquity. The wandering of the patriarchs, the Exodus, the exile, the dispersion and the return to Jerusalem are embedded in the consciousness of the people of Israel and helped define their character as a people and the nature of their relationship to God. For the Christian Church, migration was a phenomenon that configured its history and forced it to define itself and to specify the eschatological goal of its missionary. The patristic writings of the first centuries indicate that Christians have always considered themselves pilgrims to the heavenly homeland, not having a particular homeland here on earth, although they have always managed to adapt to the social and political conditions of the times. Starting from these historical, social and spiritual premises, the present study proposes a reflection both from a biblical and patristic perspective on the migration phenomenon, trying to offer the premises of a debate in the space of orthodox theology on this current topic.

The Religious Freedom in Crimea During the Russian Occupation

The article deals with the problem of religious freedom in Crimea after the occupation of the Peninsula by Russian military forces in February 2014 and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The subject matter of the study is religious freedom in Crimea during the Russian occupation since 2014. The systematic and the structural approach allow the authors to see the entire picture of religious freedoms violation on the Peninsula. The study hypothesizes that with the occupation and annexation of Crimea, Russia brought the collapse of the religious pluralism and freedom that Ukrainians had experienced since 1991. In this paper, the authors cover a wide range of issues such as torture of religious activists, destruction and the illegal seizure of religious property, persecution of Ukrainians on political and religious grounds, deportation of Crimea’s population to the mainland of Ukraine. The research establishes that the occupiers created unbearable conditions for religious freedom, the lives of many clergymen and believers appeared to be in great danger. Different religious communities, especially the representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (the OCU), Crimean Muslim Tatars, suffered significantly from applying Russia’s severe criminal and administrative requirements. The analysis allows seeing the complete picture of religious discrimination of different denominations and cruel religious persecution in the annexed Crimea beginning from February 2014 till nowadays.

R (on the application of Ullah) v Special Adjudicator [2004] UKHL 26, House of Lords

Essential Cases: Public Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in R (on the application of Ullah) v Special Adjudicator [2004] UKHL 26, House of Lords. The substantive issue in this case concerned an unsuccessful claim for asylum on the basis of a fear of religious persecution. However, the focus of this case note is on Lord Bingham’s views on the extent to which the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights should influence the deliberations of the domestic courts in their application of the Human Rights Act 1998 via the ‘mirror principle’. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Thomas Webb.

The long-run effects of religious persecution: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition

Religious persecution is common in many countries around the globe. There is little evidence on its long-term effects. We collect data from all across Spain, using information from more than 67,000 trials held by the Spanish Inquisition between 1480 and 1820. This comprehensive database allows us to demonstrate that municipalities of Spain with a history of a stronger inquisitorial presence show lower economic performance, educational attainment, and trust today. The effects persist after controlling for historical indicators of religiosity and wealth, ruling out potential selection bias.

The logic of antinomy in religious discourse: Pavel Florensky’s meta-language of theology, science and art

Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky is a towering figure of the 20th century. He is recognised among many significant thinkers of the world’s cultural and philosophical panorama of the previous century. In the face of cultural repression and religious persecution of the Soviet regime, he preferred martyrdom to exile and not to deny his faith. The legacy of Florensky is incredibly multifaceted. His works span across the most varied fields of science and knowledge with clear competence. Florensky was the first scholar who attempted to combine Orthodox theology with modern logic. He argued that religious truth transcends known categories and Christianity tends to be antinomical. This article argues that a paradoxical notion would be more appropriate than antinomy in his thinking.Contribution: The authors introduce Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky to Western theology and share some thoughts of this much-neglected scholar. The focus is mainly on the spiritual vision of this Orthodox priest-scientist about Nature, exploring his legacy in the theology and science debate. Florensky taught us that there is a distinctive trait of the Christian faith’s attitude to Nature and that there always lies a surplus of meaning that remains inaccessible to reason alone and, therefore, Nature should be approached fundamentally with a contemplative approach and regarding a theology and science resonance, a creative mutual interaction could materialise.