Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia


Book Description

Asia, the location of the world’s fastest-growing economies, is also home to some of the fastest rates of urbanization humanity has ever seen, a process whose speed renders long-term outcomes highly unpredictable. This volume contrasts with much published work on the rural/urban divide, which has tended to focus on single case studies. It provides empirical perspectives from four Asian countries: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, and includes a wealth of insights that both critique and expand popular notions of the rural-urban divide. The volume is relevant not just to Asian contexts but to social scientific research on population dynamics more generally. Rather than deploying a single study to chart national trends, three chapters on each country make possible much more complex perspectives. As a result, this volume does more than extend our understanding of the interplay between cities and hinterlands within Asia. It enhances our notions of rural/urban cleavages, connections and conflicts more generally, with data and analysis ready for application to other contexts. Of interest to diverse scholars across the social sciences and Asian studies, this work includes accounts ranging from rural youth real estate entrepreneurs in Hyderabad, India, to social development in Aceh province in Indonesia, devastated by the 2004 tsunami, to the relationship between urban space and commonly held notions of the supernatural in Thailand’s northern city of Chiang Mai.




The Guru in South Asia


Book Description

This book provides a set of fresh and compelling interdisciplinary approaches to the enduring phenomenon of the guru in South Asia. Moving across different gurus and kinds of gurus, and between past and present, the chapters call attention to the extraordinary scope and richness of the social lives and roles of South Asian gurus. Prevailing scholarship has rightly considered the guru to be a source of religious and philosophical knowledge and mystical bodily practices. This book goes further and considers the social engagements and entanglements of these spiritual leaders, not just on their own (narrowly denominational) terms, but in terms of their diverse, complex, rapidly evolving engagements with ‘society’ broadly conceived. The book explores and illuminates the significance of female gurus, gurus from the perspective of Islam, imbrications of guru-ship and slavery in pre-modern India, connections between gurus and power, governance and economic liberalization in modern and contemporary India, vexed questions of sexuality and guru-ship, gurus’ charitable endeavours, the cosmopolitanism of gurus in contexts of spiritual tourism, and the mediation of gurus via technologies of electronic communication. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars from religious studies, political science, history, sociology and anthropology, The Guru in South Asia provides exciting and original new insights into South Asian guru-ship. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.




News, Publics and Politics in Globalising India


Book Description

The first ethnography to examine the role of urban transformation, caste and language in shaping India's contemporary news culture.




Quarterly Current Affairs - January to March 2018 for Competitive Exams Vol. 1


Book Description

Quarterly Current Affairs - January to March 2018 for Competitive Exams is a unique handy magbook as it gives the complete update of the 1st three months of 2018. The book talks of all the recent evelopments in the field of Polity, Economics, Sience & Technology, Sports, Art & Culture etc. This book would prove to be an asset for all students aspiring for the different competitive exams. The book highlights the gist of the 1st quarter of 2018 through Game Changers, Causes & Effects, Quote & Unquote, etc.




Democracy and Discontent


Book Description

Long considered one of the great successes of the developing world, India has more recently experienced growing challenges to political order and stability. Institutional mechanisms for the resolution of conflict have broken down, the civil and police services have become highly politicized, and the state bureaucracy appears incapable of implementing an effective plan for economic development. In this book, Atul Kohli analyzes political change in India from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. Based on research conducted at the local, state and national level, the author analyzes the changing patterns of authority in and between the centre and periphery. He combines rich empirical investigation, extensive interviews and theoretical perspectives in developing a detailed explanation of the growing crisis of governance his research reveals. The book will be of interest to both specialists in Indian politics and to students of comparative politics more generally.




Karnataka Government and Politics


Book Description

The twenty-eight papers in this set of three volumes provide deep insights into the understanding of the dynamics of karnataka Government and politics. Giving a brief account of the geography of Karnataka, they examine the process by which the modern state of Karnataka emerged.




DALIT MOVEMENT IN KARNATAKA


Book Description

The Weaker Sections in general and the Scheduled Castes (Dalits) in particular, have been subjected to exploitation, oppression, humiliation and multiform deprivation that persists even after independence, though with some difference. They have been socially degraded, economically exploited and politically subordinated by the dominant forces in Indian society. They suffered from multiple deprivations and were the victims of 'cumulative domination'. Enraged over this, the Dalits have been developing a new awakening and consciousness and have started various movements all over the country, but more vigorously in Dalit Movement in Karnataka Dr. R. Madhusudhan's work is a painstaking, comprehensive analysis of the diverse forms of protest movements which emerged among the Dalits against the multiple forms of deprivations experienced by them. Dalits have waged struggles against the structures of dominance and control with varying degrees of successes and failures. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive and aggregate level documentation of these struggles, their outcome, etc. as yet. On this count, the present study is timely significant as it fulfils overdue need for the literature on Dalit movement in one of the developed states in India. The author very sensitively endeavours to assess the contribution made by various agencies and also by Dalit themselves to overcome the maladies that afflict Dalits. The book offers a detailed account of the theoretical and empirical dimensions of the issue under discussion. Dr. Thippeswamy H Associate Professor Chairman and Deputy Register Department Of History and Archaeology Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University Ballari (D) Karnataka (S),




Contemporary India


Book Description

Edited by Neera Chandhoke and Praveen Priyadarshi, Contemporary India addresses issues facing the nation-state and civil society from diverse perspectives: those of political science, sociology, economics and history. The book is thematically divided into three parts Economy, Society, and Politics and includes discussions on topics as wide-ranging as poverty, regional disparities, policies, social change and social movements, the elements of democracy, dynamics of the party system, secularism, federalism, decentralization, and so on. The common thread of democracy, which strings together different aspects of contemporary India, serves as the framework of understanding here and underlies discussions in all the chapters. The book includes 23 original, well-researched and up-to-date chapters by authors who teach different courses in the social sciences. Without compromising on the complexity of their arguments, the authors have used a lucid, conversational style that will attract even readers who have no previous knowledge of the topics. The contributors have also provided a glossary, questions and further readings lists with students examination needs in mind.




Patrons of the Poor


Book Description

Why has there not been more progress with reducing poverty in India? Patrons of the Poor offers a rich and contemporary account of politics and policymaking in India, as it seeks to provide an answer to this vital question. Despite unprecedented economic growth, the last twenty years have witnessed a growing divergence across Indian states in terms of their poverty alleviation records. In that context, and given that state governments are responsible for a wide range of redistributive policies, this book analyses trends in state politics and policymaking. Based on the analysis, it explains why some Indian states have managed to reduce poverty more effectively than others. Using detailed case studies from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the author examines the policymaking processes and political histories of these states. He argues that patterns of caste dominance combined with the degree of competition in populist policies can significantly explain whether states adopt pro-poor policies or not. Lakshman's analysis combines a deep reading of state-specific political and sociological data with a range of interviews with top political leaders, senior bureaucrats, and academics to corroborate his core argument.




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