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Bangladesh - Bridge between South and Southeast Asia?
No full textBangladesh, the erstwhile ‘basket case’, has turned into a miracle: economically, socially and politically. However, ready markets for the export of clothing and labour, cheap labour and restraint on the side of a frustrated electorate cannot be taken for granted. Global warming, rising sea levels and less water arriving from India are new dangers. Bilateral trade is limited, certainly not boosted by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Relations with Myanmar, the other neighbour, are tense. That Bangladesh would become a bridge between South and Southeast Asia is a popular idea, but not supported by the realities on the ground
Well-being, Happiness, and Public Policy
No full textThis document was submitted as a background paper to the International Expert Working Group on a New Development Paradigm and seeks to synthesise for busy readers, how the IEWG might explain and defend well-being and happiness and also what value-addition this work has in policy terms when compared with many other aligned and very necessary movements and policy advocacy for a shared well-being. It outlines the concept of well-being, flourishing, and happiness for all which forms the objective of a new development paradigm
"Hinduism" and the Problem of Self-Actualisation in the Colonial Era: Critical Reflections
No full textThis paper is the text of a lecture delivered at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg, on May 20, 2015, with footnotes added. It discusses how scholarly perceptions of colonial Hinduism have visibly shifted trajectory over the years. Relating how Hinduism has moved from being ‘discovered’ in the eighteenth century to be seen as discursively ‘invented’ or ‘imagined’ in the nineteenth, it argues that in colonial India, internally generated debates about the origin and nature of Hinduism paralleled ascriptions originating outside but failed to attract adequate attention. It also seeks to ask if not also to definitively answer certain key theoretical questions. For instance, even allowing for the fact that social and religious identities are always porous, does it still make sense to ask if unstable and fluid perceptions of the self too were invested with some meaning
Drinking Water Salinity and Infant Mortality in Coastal Bangladesh
No full textBangladesh, with two-thirds of its land area less than five meters above sea level, is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Low-lying coastal districts along the Bay of Bengal are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, tidal flooding, storm surges, and climate-induced increases in soil and water salinity. This paper investigates the impact of drinking water salinity on infant mortality in coastal Bangladesh. It focuses on the salinity of drinking water consumed during pregnancy, which extensive medical research has linked to maternal hypertension, preeclampsia, and post-partum morbidity and mortality. The study combines spatially-formatted salinity measures for 2001-09 provided by Bangladesh with individual and household survey information from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys for 2004 and 2007. It uses probit and logit analyses to estimate mortality probability for infants less than two months old. Controlling for many other determinants of infant mortality, the analysis finds high significance for salinity exposure during the last month of pregnancy and no significance for exposure during the preceding months. The estimated impact of salinity on infant mortality is comparable in magnitude to the estimated effects of traditionally-cited variables such as maternal age and education, gender of the household head, household wealth, toilet facilities, drinking water sources, and cooking fuels
Women and the FATA Conflict: Unfulfilled Promises
No full textThis assessment report discusses how an female refugee is coping with the trauma she has suffered in FATA and the misery she faced during her transition from her home to a tented village or cramped housing. The report also discusses how this has given her opportunities to learn life skills and knowledge, which she might be able to use when she returns to her home and local life
What Went Wrong in Crucial Bihar Election for Mr. Narendra Modi, Why, What’s At Stake and What he Must Do
No full textBihar, a highly backward state in India, witnessed the announcement of the results of the election to the state’s Legislative Assembly on 8 November, 2015. Bihar is the third largest state (province) by population with a size of 104 million people. It has approximately 67 million registered voters (more than the entire population of France) of which 56.8% voters (9% more than the entire population of Canada) exercised their voting right in this election. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) constituting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its alliance partners, viz., the Hindustani Awami Morcha Secular (HAMS), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) have lost to the MahaGathBandhan (MGB) or “The Grand Alliance” constituting Janata Dal United (JDU), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Indian National Congress (INC). Out of the 243 assembly constituencies (seats) in the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections that elect a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for each constituency in a first past the post system, MGB has won 178 seats while NDA won 58 seats. A state assembly is chosen for a period of five years in India and is controlled by a political party or alliance that has a simple majority in the state assembly (greater than 50% of the seats). Therefore, the MGB now controls the state assembly
2015 Parliamentary Elections in Sri Lanka: A Referendum for Democracy
No full text"On Monday, August 17, Sri Lanka’s 15 million strong electorate went to the national polls for the second time this year. Among analysts, there is no doubt that this was not only a ‘popular vote’, which decided over the new composition of the country’s 225-seat-parliament, it was also a referendum regarding the basic nature of Sri Lanka’s political culture. Furthermore it was a choice of destiny over the future course of national reconciliation, the need for political revamping to fix political-administrative aberrations, and the pledge of the minorities in a civil wartorn country. More concretely, it was a decision whether the authoritarian strongman and former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa representing the vision of a ‘strong state’ based on an extreme, ethnic exclusive brand of nationalism, should be allowed to return to power or not? (...)
Bangladesh War Trials: The Need to Stop the Culture of Impunity and the Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism
No full text"After Bangladesh's Supreme Court rejected final appeals against death sentences on November 22, two oppositional figures got hanged. Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury were accused for atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence. Mr. Mujahid (age 67) was secretary general and official number two of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party and served as Member of Parliament as well as social welfare minister in the BNP-led government from 2001-2006. He was found guilty in July 2013 on five charges including torture and the murders of intellectuals and minority Hindus. Mujahid was a leader of religious radicalized students in 1971 (Islami Chhatra Sangha, the student wing of JeI) which supported the unity of Pakistan and commanded Al Badr, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, during Bangladesh’s war of independence.
SAI-Newsletter, no.7 (July 2015)
No full textThe SAI-Newsletter presents what the South Asia Institute offers: A fascinating unity in a variety of academic topics on South Asia, a unique group of highly qualified academics, numerous best practice examples for research and teaching and last but not least a sound degree of public attention. Apart from looking back at what has happened at the institute the newsletter will also point at upcoming activities and events. By doing so the SAI-Newsletter combines the important task of documentation while at the same time looking ahead to what the future will bring
Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien: 5. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 23./24. Januar 2015, Göttingen
No full textDie vorliegende Schriftenreihe wurde vom Arbeitskreis Südasien mit dem Zweck gegründet, Einblicke in aktuelle geographische Forschung zu Südasien zu ermöglichen und dient in erster Linie dazu, die vielfältigen Forschungsarbeiten der Arbeitskreismitglieder vorzustellen. Hierzu werden Beiträge der Mitglieder auf den jährlichen Arbeitskreistreffen in Form von Extended Abstracts in einem jährlichen Sammelband zusammengefasst