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Aufmarsch der Islamist*innen in Indonesien: Religion als politisches Kapital im Wahlkampf
No full textAm 4. November 2016 waren Jakartas Straßen ganz in weiß getaucht. Etwa 100.000 Islamist*innen und Sympathisant*innen demonstrierten gegen den amtierenden Gouverneur von Jakarta. Islamistische Gruppen, aber auch Religionsgelehrte aus eher gemäßigten Gruppierungen, warfen ihm vor, den Islam beleidigt zu haben. Tatsächlich aber manifestierte sich in der Großdemonstration ein schon lange schwelender Konflikt, in dem Religion, Geld und die Macht politischer Eliten zusammenwirken
Dying Demons, Rising Gods and the Rupavahini: An Essay on the Production of Identity in Sri Lanka
No full textIn the aftermath of colonialism, many independent new nations faced the task of state- and nation-building, and along with it, the construction of a new national identity. The nationalistic notion of Singhalese elites, notwithstanding the multi-facetted ethnic, religious, and cultural composition of the island served as a blueprint for a number of political decisions, which aimed at shaping a NATIONAL CULTURE.
In this process, the ritual diversity and ritual wealth of the country fell victim to an arbitrary neo-liberal transformation of rituals into profitable commodities. To suit the conventions of TV coverage, the anarchic, subversive and transcending properties and features of “alter ritualistic worlds” were cleansed and trimmed to suit a cultural mainstream. Under such a one-dimensional reduction the transcending message of rituals is not important anymore, it is the entertainment value that counts. Parallel to “dying demons” and “dying rituals” local shrines crop up in the country to serve needs of the believers, working on a simple basis of contract: If the gods don’t help the applicant, gods would not get their donations
Puffed rice to potato chips: malnutrition & changing food culture in India
No full textMalnutrition has been a chronic problem in India, initially owing to abject poverty of its population. But lately, despite considerable improvement in the economic conditions and government’s efforts of providing subsidized food to the poor in various forms and through various outlets, nutrition status of societies has not experienced the expected improvement. This, the current study finds, is linked to skewed and misinformed perceptions of nutrition among the new-age parents across rural societies, shaped by the media in a vacuum of information and knowledge. The modern food industry and capitalist enterprises enter the societal psyche through this gap with their lucrative campaigns, which have had captivating impact in shaping what I describe as “food euphoria” for some kinds of items while a “food fatigue” for other, more traditional kinds of eating practices. Greater ‘values’ and ‘meanings’ are attached to certain kinds of processed and packaged food for their perceived benefits of both mind and body today, following which purchasing decisions are made and the items consumed. Apart from such misinformed decisions, ecological shifts and climate change are also affecting nutritional outcomes with negative impacts such as navailability of milk in the daily diets of children. Altered social dynamics like migration of parents have added significant extra burden on the children that manifest in an array of health hazards encompassing the psychological and nutritional. This demands a multiscalar and multidimensional approach towards the governance of nutrition that is proving to be overwhelming for policy actors. However, uncovering multifarious drivers is an important first step to understand how intricately poised the nutritional outcomes were. It clearly underlines limited efficacy or even futility in some cases of food subsidies aimed at alleviating poverty-related malnutrition. It bolsters the anthropologist’s conviction that matters of health, more so in public health, were a societal, cultural construction instead of being deterministic and rather simplistic biomedical eventuality (Dauglas & Khare 1979). In Sundarbans, ‘nutrition’ remains situated at the complex intersections of modernist cultural evolutions in the society and becomes a product of interplays between diverse ranges of ecological, social and economic entanglements
Die Legende der Rani von Jhansi und ihre Verwendung in indischem Nationalismus
No full textLakshmibai, Rani (Herrscherin) von Jhansi, ist eine emblematische Figur der indischen Rebellion gegen die britische Kolonialherrschaft von 1857. Die Entstehung ihrer Legende, die mit ihrem Tod auf dem Schlachtfeld einsetzte, wird in diesem Artikel bis zur indischen Unabhängigkeit 1947 untersucht, und mit der historischen Rani verglichen. Dabei lässt sich eine Wandlung der Legende über ihre Nutzung in indigener Folklore und britischen Romanen in der Kolonialzeit, bis zu indischer Prosa und Dichtung, sowie der Rani von Jhansi-Brigade im Unabhängigkeitskampf nachverfolgen. Diese Kontextualisierung zeigt die Nutzung des Rani-Bildes für kolonial-britische und nationalistisch-indische politische Zwecke, weist aber auch auf Lakshmibais anhaltende Vorbildfunktion für Frauen und ihre bis heute identitätsstiftende Wirkung hin
The Chipko movement: a pragmatic, material & spiritual reinterpretation
No full textThe Chipko movement started in March 1974 when women from Reni village in Uttarakhand (India) hugged trees from the Reni forest to prevent them from being felled by the Symonds Company. This paper outlines the historical trajectory leading to these events, describes the movement and some of its consequences, discusses the motivations behind the movement, and examines whether it can be considered feminist. I conclude that the movement had both economic and ecological motivations as the villagers’ relationship to the forest was simultaneously pragmatic (material/economic) and rooted in a genuine desire to protect nature due to ‘deep ecology’ and spirituality. Moreover, I agree with Ramachandra Guha that it was neither feminist nor ecofeminist. However, the perceived reality of the Chipko movement as representing an “environmentalism of the poor” (Guha, 1989) and Shiva’s (1988) ecofeminist interpretation reified these ideas and had real implications in India and abroad
Change of Guards, Change of politics? A look at Pakistan’s latest reshuffle of its top brass
No full textA couple of weeks after Pakistan’s new Chief of Army Staff (COAS)General Oamar Bajwa took over the reins from General Raheel Sharif,Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar was appointed Director General (DG) of the country’s powerful spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) on December 12th. According to some analysts, these two new appointments could be part of a major reshuffle in the military’s top brass, which might initiate political changes, especially in its foreign policy or in the country’s unhealthy civil-military relations
Menschenrechtsverletzungen in Myanmars Rakhine-Staat Terrorismusbekämpfung als Vorwand für militärische »Säuberungsaktion«?
No full textIm Rakhine-Staat in Myanmar herrscht Ausnahmezustand. 2012 kam es zu gewalttätigen Unruhen zwischen buddhistischen Rakhine und muslimischen Rohingya. Seitdem haben sich antimuslimische Kampagnen und die Diskriminierung von Rohingya ungemein verstärkt. Hoffnungen, dass sich die Situation unter der neuen Regierung entschärft, sind spätestens jetzt enttäuscht worden. Seit Oktober 2016 begehen Myanmars Sicherheitskräfte schwere Menschenrechtsverletzungen gegen Rohingya. Zehntausende sind auf der Flucht, Menschenrechtsorganisationen sprechen von einer »ethnischen Säuberung«
South Asia State of Minorities Report 2016 - Mapping the Terrain
No full textSouth Asia, the most populous region in the world, is home to large numbers of minorities. Across the region, many of the religious, ethnic, linguistic and indigenous minorities, particularly women and the poor, face marginalization and suffer the worst forms of exclusion. These abuses are not just limited to discrimination in the socio-economic sphere, but also the denial of the most basic human rights. The denial of rights to minorities in South Asia along religious, ethnic, caste or gender lines, is increasingly a factor behind much of the internal and external conflicts in the region and a barometer not only of the wider situation of human rights, but of the prospects for peace and security in the region
Crackdown on Islamists: Bangladesh’s new campaign against Jihadi terror in perspective
No full textEarlier this month, Bangladesh’s security forces carried out a nationwide crackdown on radical Islamists in the country. The main part of the campaign ran over several days and included interventions by thousands of police and paramilitary personal, led to the arrest of more than 11,300 people. This security operation has to be understood in light of rising international and domestic critic regarding the apparent inaction by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) as a wave of brutal assassinations flooded the country. The victims were secular and liberal writers and thinkers (especially bloggers), university professors, foreign aid workers, gay rights activists and religious minorities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and members of the Shiite community. Subsequently, many observers were wondering if the current GoB is capable of protecting the fundamental rights -and the lives- of its citizens. However, the Sheikh Hasina’s administration reacted and initiated a massive clampdown in an attempt to contain and eliminate of the Islamist threat. (...
From Dhaka to Singapore: The Growing Involvement of Bangladesh in the "World of Global Jihad"
No full textAgainst the persistently recurrent official statements that Bangladesh has no links with internationally acting terrorist organisations like Islamic State (IS) or al-Qaeda, there are more and more indications how deeply the Islamic fundamentalists of the South Asian country are involved in the "world of the global jihad"