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Forged in Fire: Eelam Tamil Nationalism after the LTTE
No full textThis dissertation examines how a stateless nationalist movement can reproduce itself after the defeat and destruction of the organisation that led it for over three decades. It focuses on the critical case of Eelam Tamil nationalism in the period since the military defeat and destruction of the LTTE’s organisational capacity by the Sri Lankan state in 2009. This is a critical case for two reasons. The first is the centrality of the LTTE to Eelam Tamil nationalism in the preceding three decades. In that time the LTTE had become synonymous with Eelam Tamil nationalism. This led a wide and influential range of academics and policy makers to expect that with the destruction of the LTTE, Eelam Tamil nationalism would also eventually peter out and disappear. The second reason is the nature of the LTTE’s end – it wasn’t slow and protracted, but sudden and overnight. One day the LTTE existed and was still giving orders, the next day it was gone. Fifteen years and counting since that momentous day when the LTTE declared its own end, the above widespread expectations that Eelam Tamil nationalism also would soon dissipate and vanish have been proven false. On the contrary, as the dissertation has evidenced, it has not only survived but thrives, and it does so even in the absence of apex leadership or institutions and, moreover, also in the face of state repression. The central argument presented in this dissertation is that that long-standing nationalist identities and logics can reproduce themselves through everyday or banal practices, and, more specifically, through the deep sedimentation of these practices and processes in everyday lives. Through its study of Eelam Tamil nationalism after the disappearance of the LTTE, the dissertation shows how and why successful sedimentation processes can embed nationalist identities and logics in everyday practices and processes so deeply that they can survive and thrive, not only in the absence of institutions but also in the face of state repressio
The Rumor-Myth of Infertility and Abduction: Murle Exclusion and the Politics of Life in South Sudan
Full text linkIn South Sudan, the rumor that the Murle people suffer from infertility evolved into a politically instrumental myth used to justify child abduction, securitization, and systemic exclusion. Rooted in colonial misrepresentations, the claim pathologizes Murle reproduction and legitimizes violence. Drawing on ethnography and archival, medical, and humanitarian sources, the article conceptualizes this narrative as a rumor-myth: a necropolitical discourse that transforms speculation into governance. Though lacking evidence, the infertility narrative endures through repetition and political utility. Counter-oral histories challenge these racialized fictions, revealing how communities contest exclusion and expose the broader structures of power that sustain scapegoating, violence, and inequality
Indigenous Resistance to Neoliberalism in the Global South: A Foucauldian Analysis
No full textThis paper critically explores indigenous resistance to neoliberalism in the Global South, using Michel Foucault’s theories of power, resistance and discourse as a framework. It examines how indigenous movements in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa challenge neoliberal policies, particularly through contesting extractivist development paradigms imposed by states and multinational corporations. Employing a Foucauldian discourse-analytic methodology, it examines the rationalities of neoliberal governance, such as market efficiency, developmentality and individual responsibility, and how these are resisted and re-imagined through indigenous epistemologies and practices. The paper emphasises both the discursive and material dimensions of resistance, demonstrating how indigenous struggles reshape understandings of power relations and highlight the limits and contradictions inherent in neoliberal governance. In doing so, it contributes to existing scholarships by bridging Foucauldian and decolonial approaches, offering a novel theoretical synthesis that extends understandings of power, agency and resistance
Between the Archive and the Island: Navigating Resistance in Language Documentation
No full textThis article examines the methodological tensions that arise when collaborative language documentation is situated between the institutional expectations of academia and the relational priorities of indigenous communities. Drawing from my doctoral research on Sonsorolese, an underresearched Micronesian language, I reflect on the disjunctures between funder metrics, linguistic conventions and community-centred goals. Engaging with feedback from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP), the article explores how resistance manifests in the refusal of open access, the redefinition of ‘success’, and the assertion of local authority over language knowledge. By tracing debates around orthography, lexical categorisation and authorship, I show how language documentation practices become sites of epistemic and methodological resistance. Framed within decolonial and relational paradigms, this article argues for a more reflexive approach to language documentation, one that embraces uncertainty, prioritises community use and acknowledges resistance not only as confrontation, but as care
The Political Economy of Climate Smart Agriculture: Implications for Zambian Smallholder Farmers
No full textThe ramifications of climate change on food security and the agricultural sector's role in greenhouse gas emissions have renewed interest in global agri-food systems. Climatesmart agriculture (CSA) is a policy-based paradigm to facilitate the transformation of agricultural systems, aiming to enhance productivity, alleviate global poverty and hunger, and tackle the challenges associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation. Within this framework, CSA is regarded as a triple-win solution with the potential to transform smallholder farming systems. Critics contend that existing technologies are repackaged as 'climate-smart' to align with climate change policy goals and attract investments, raising concerns about the compatibility of CSA with smallholder farming systems. This thesis investigates how power dynamics, knowledge and interests have influenced the development of CSA policy in Zambia and its effects on smallholders' livelihoods. It draws on the theory of political economy, the policy processes framework (Keeley & Scoones, 1999) and the theory of epistemic communities. The thesis argues that CSA has failed to catalyse greater alignment between climate change and agricultural policies as anticipated or generate substantial climate finance for CSA interventions. Under the auspices of agrarian modernisation narratives, CSA policy is being used to fuel the expansion of neo-liberal market policies into sub-Saharan Africa. The Zambian government has adopted a minimal intervention approach to scaling up CSA, relying on internationally funded project-based interventions, leading to an ad hoc approach to disseminating CSA. The current institutional power structures supporting the scaling up of CSA have yet to effectively address the underlying socioeconomic challenges Zambian smallholders face beyond a superficial level. The primary beneficiaries are the commercial and emergent farmer sectors. CSA has become part of the Zambian government’s strategy to engage the smallholder sector in private sector-led commercialisation, thus validating critics' claims that CSA is a corporate-driven intervention to link smallholders into global markets. The findings indicate that CSA policies have had a negligible effect on the adoption rates of CSA practices in Zambia. Furthermore, the prevailing commercial agenda associated with CSA appears to exacerbate the inequalities between smallholders and commercial farmers, primarily due to smallholders' limited access to the essential infrastructure and services necessary for maintaining sustainable livelihoods. This thesis proposes that CSA policies might more effectively address the socio-political issues of inequality, power imbalances, and social injustices faced by smallholders if they include elements of social justice. This approach would provide a greater opportunity to place smallholders at the centre of smallholder-focused CSA policies and programme implementation. In Zambia, at the local level, this could be achieved through the decentralisation of governance and the allocation of resources and infrastructure via local government departments, which are best positioned to ensure the fair and socially just delivery of interventions
Social media’s queer politics: possibilities, limitations, and negotiations of community-building in India
No full textThis thesis offers an empirical contribution to studies of queer digital cultures by focusing on the experiences of queer and trans women in India. It also expands theorisations of queer digital cultures through a political economy analysis that examines how digital authoritarianism and content moderation practices constrain the articulation of a radical queer politics of liberation on social media platforms. In this thesis, I explore the affordances and limitations of social media platforms for queer and trans women in India to build community. I investigate how the spatial, temporal, and communicative affordances offered by social media platforms are leveraged by queer and trans women’s community groups and individual users in India to build community. At the same time, I explore how the nexus of state and corporate policing and surveillance on such platforms limits and curtails their affordances. I thus explore what user negotiations begin to emerge, in response. This thesis centres a radical and expansive queer politics, that is not limited to questions of only gender and sexuality, but that deals seriously with issues of caste, religion, and Hindu nationalism. Methodologically, it is grounded in qualitative, queer, feminist, and decolonial approaches, drawing on in-depth interviews and digital ethnographic methods. I offer three major conclusions in this project. First, I argue that social media platforms offer new opportunities for queer and trans women in India to engage in forms of queer invention, by enabling a space for community-building, trans genderplay, identity expression, and gender validation. Second, I argue that caste-oppressed and Muslim queer and trans women are leveraging these affordances of social media platforms to build anti-caste and Muslim queer and trans online counterpublics and communities. Third, I argue that the political economy of social media platforms, involving the confluence of global laws, Indian laws, and systems of algorithmic content moderation, constrain these affordances, through the deplatforming of sex, the criminalisation of dissent, and the opacity and rigidity of content moderation practices. As a result, I explore the negotiations that emerge for queer and trans women users in their attempts to subvert such limiting forces
Review of: Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century: Joya Chatterji Vintage, London 2024, pb, 864pp, £14.99 ISBN 9781529925555 | www.penguin.co.uk
No full textThe Seventh Crusade and the Ayyubid to Mamluk Transition
No full textIn the late 1240s, the eastern Mediterranean increasingly stood on a precipice. Egypt and Syria were ruled by the Ayyubids, heirs to Saladin’s legacy, yet their authority was increasingly fragile, being stretched across rival princely courts, military households, and shifting alliances, and with the ever present, and ever increasing, threat from the Mongols in the east. As King Louis IX of France sailed east in an attempt to conquer Egypt, the foundations of Ayyubid power were already under strain.In this episode, we are joined by Dr Mohamad El-Merheb (SOAS University of London) to examine how a crusade aimed at conquering Cairo instead accelerated a revolution from within. We explore the nature of Ayyubid rule, the rise of the military slave elite known as the Mamluks, and why they were able to seize power during the crisis precipitated by Louis IX's crusade. Using the careers of the powerful figures of Fakhr al-Din, Husam al-Din, and Turanshah as a lens, we examine the ambition, miscalculation, negotiation, and survival that caused and arose amid regime collapse. Louis IX’s defeat and captivity was not just a disaster for the Latin Christians, but the catalyst for one of the most significant political transformations in the medieval Islam world: the beginning of the Mamluk sultanate in Egypt (1250-1517)
Democracy and Free Speech on Campus: Theory and Practice
Full text linkThis report presents the themes and discussions at a closed 24-hour consultation held at St George’s House, Windsor, on 5–6 February 2024.1 Convened under the title ‘Democracy and Free Speech on Campus: Theory and Practice’, the consultation assembled 26 participants drawn from across the higher education landscape, including vice-chancellors, legal practitioners, policy specialists, student representatives, research funders and civil society actors.
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