Biography without history?

Kevin Perkins: Menzies: Last of the Queen's Men, Rigby, Adelaide, 1968, pp. 264, $5.50.     

A Lone Islet or A Center of Communications? Shanghai in the Indian National Army Movement

Students of modem Chinese history,and modern Shanghai history in particular,tend to view Shanghai as having been a lone islet during the Pacific War,when it was cut off from other parts of the world.This article,however,argues that Shanghai was still well connected to areas under the control of the Japanese throughout the war.Using the Sikh community in Shanghai as a case,it demonstrates how the Indian National Army used both a Japanese-initiated military highway and the long-existing Indian diasporic network in Southeast and East Asia to facilitate a certain kind of mobilization.It further sheds light on how the Sikhs in Shanghai were influenced by and responded to the Indian National Army's endeavors.     

A Development Success Story? Low Caste Entrepreneurship and Inequality: An Indian Case Study

Small-scale industry development, particularly when targeting disadvantaged groups, has often been promoted as a possible alternative to fundamental change in property relations, and for women as a way of improving their position without direct forms of feminist organization. This article discusses a relatively successful case of small-scale entrepreneurship development in the silk reeling industry in five villages in South India. In this area, despite the substantial amounts of capital and risk involved, an unusually high number of Scheduled Caste ex-labourers have managed to become reasonably successful entrepreneurs. Based on the findings of survey and anthropological research conducted over a period of six months between 1989 and 1991 it considers the factors contributing to these cases' success: characteristics of the reeling industry, the nature of government intervention and the socioeconomic and historical context of this particular area. However, as argued in the second half of the article, the upward mobility for some has been dependent on the availability of cheap labour and the manipulation of caste and family loyalties within the disadvantaged groups. Significantly, gender inequalities have remained, despite the potentially powerful position of a skilled female labour force in a situation of increasing labour shortage.     

‘The Indian Gift’: A critical debate

In 1986 Jonathan Parry’s ‘The Gift, the Indian Gift and the “Indian Gift”’ claimed to overturn conventional understandings of Marcel Mauss, by arguing that market societies most idealize the distinction between gifts and commodities, and gift giving need not entail reciprocity. Based on an analysis of Hindu religious gifts, Parry proposed a broad framework for understanding how ideologies of exchange function in different economic and cosmological contexts. Thirty years later, this symposium considers the intellectual milieu in which The Indian Gift was written, and interrogates whether or not the work remains relevant to contemporary research and analysis. The symposium opens with a short introduction that provides some background to Parry’s essay and incorporates material from a recent interview with him. This is followed by critical comments on it by five influential thinkers on gift exchange: James Carrier, Chris Gregory, James Laidlaw, Marilyn Strathern and Yunxiang Yan. It ends with a short ‘revisionist’ note by Parry in which he tries to identify some of the limits of the Maussian approach for contemporary anthropology.     

Philosophy without God? God without Philosophy?: Critical Reflections on Antony Flew's God and Philosophy 1

In this paper it is argued that, while the case that Antony Flew makes against philosophically invalid arguments for the existence of God is generally sound, he fails to comprehend the power and cogency of the ontological argument. Thus, his conception of the grounds of morality, separate from the biblical tradition of theology, is by no means compelling. This paper aims to show that the rational (i.e. the non-reductive) concept of morality that Flew rightly claims to uphold is not only consistent with but also presupposes, paradoxically, the ontological argument for the existence of God. Central ideas of Kant and, above all, of Spinoza are called upon to show that the nexus between morality and theology, between philosophy and God, is that central to the ontological argument. The conclusion of the paper is that, just as philosophy without God is empty, so God without philosophy is blind.     

Can the Free Market Work without Virtue?

Abstract

Libertarianism has become one of the most influential movements of the last twenty years. Its political effects can be seen as the driving force behind many in the ranks of the Republican-controlled Congress. This article is a presentation and critical examination of the founding principles of Libertarianism. It argues that much is valid in free-market ideas, especially at the microeconomic level. However, Libertarianism overstates the case for rational actors, understates the necessity for government action to maintain security, misunderstands the complexity of human behavior, neglects the need to foster civil associations, and ignores the natural proclivity of people to be virtuous independent of self-interest.     

The Modi lahar (wave) in the 2014 Indian national election: A critical realignment?

In India's 2014 general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an outright majority of seats, the first time any party has done so since 1984. This has led to claims that this is a ‘critical’ or ‘realigning’ election. Yet, most Indian elections are initially described as ‘critical’ elections, which suggests that this concept needs to be further refined to be analytically useful in India's electorally volatile and regionalised political context. This commentary conceptualises critical elections in India as those that enable the winning party to build lasting regional social coalitions. Such coalitions need to be consolidated in subsequent elections for a realignment to take place. A mastery of regional politics was crucial to the BJP's 2014 win, which does mark this as a potentially realigning election. Yet, questions remain about its ability to consolidate the coalitions that delivered this result.

2014年的普选中,印度人民党获得了绝对多数的议席,破了1984以来各政党的记录。这被看作一次“关键性”的、改弦易辙的选举。不过,印度的选举一开始也多被说成“关键性”的选举。所以,这个概念尚需推敲,以便能够用来分析印度变幻不定的选情以及地区化的政情。本文将印度的“关键性”选举界定为获胜党得建立长久的地区社会联盟。这个联盟需要在日后的选举中加固,才谈得上改弦易辙。把握好地区政治对于人民党2014年选举的胜利至关重要,它使得这次选举成为潜在的改弦易辙。但它是否有能力加固联盟以释放改弦易辙的效果,则还是一个问题。     

Why are cut mark frequencies in archaeofaunal assemblages so variable? A multivariate analysis

Cut mark frequencies in archaeological faunal assemblages are so variable that their use has recently created some skepticism. The present study analyses this variability using multivariate statistics on a set of 14 variables that involve differential skeletal element representation, fragmentation processes, carnivore ravaging impact, carcass size and tool type. All these variables affect the resulting cut mark frequencies reported in archaeological sites. A large sample of archaeofaunal assemblages has been used for this study. It was concluded that the best estimator of cut mark frequency in any given assemblage is the percentage of cut-marked long bone specimens (probably due to its better preservation than other anatomical areas), which is determined by fragmentation and carnivore ravaging. Carcass size and tool type also play a major role in differences in cut mark frequencies. Fragmentation is also a key variable determining the abundance of cut-marked specimens. It is argued that general cut mark percentages are of limited value, given the number of variables that determine them, and that a more heuristic approach involves quantifying cut marks in a qualitative manner.     

A missing link? Network analysis as an empirical approach for critical physical geography

Critical physical geography (CPG) calls for integrative research on material landscapes and the socio-political dynamics of scientific knowledge production. Network analysis, a rich tradition of tools and approaches for analyzing relational information, has seen little use in the CPG literature to date. This represents a fruitful opportunity, as many of CPG's core interests—knowledge politics, histories of scientific concepts, and ecosocial relations—can be effectively analyzed using network techniques. In this article, I argue for adapting network approaches to CPG. First, I provide an overview of various network concepts, approaches, and their origins. I then discuss bibliometric network techniques for “science mapping” including co-word, co-authorship, and citation analyses. Next, I describe discourse network analysis, a recent mixed-method approach from political science. Finally, I discuss overlaps with emerging approaches from qualitative and visual network analysis. In each section, I provide existing and hypothetical examples, as well as software and visualization techniques, that demonstrate how network approaches could add new insights to CPG and related scholarship. Linking CPG with the diverse traditions of network analysis has the potential to produce new empirical understandings and bring the field into conversation with a growing body of research that spans the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.     

(Re)Hibernicising Wilde? A genetic analysis of The Picture of Dorian Gray

The controversy surrounding the integrity and originality of Harvard University Press’s unexpurgated version of Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in 2011 has underlined the timeliness and necessity of further genetic critique of Wilde’s only novel and attendant ephemera. By undertaking a genetic reading of the three versions of this text now available to us, this article examines how Wilde’s letters, poetry, lectures and reviews that precede the novel reveal an intensification of Wilde’s nationalism and anti-imperialism in the run-up to its publication. In particular, the article uncovers the differing impact of the Parnell scandal and the Land Wars on the different versions of the novel and also reads the abject scenes of imperial predation set in the London docks as Wilde’s meditation on Ireland’s contested colonial status within the UK and the global system of exploitation driving “The Great Game” of Empire per se.     

Mission without end? Peacekeeping in the African political marketplace

Since the mid-1990s the UN, in tandem with major western powers, has embarked upon an ambitious effort of peace support operations in Africa. The results of what we may call the 'Annan experiment' are not yet in. But there are good reasons to fear that, in many African countries, such peace operations have defend normative outcomes that are beyond realistic expectation, so that they can never hope to 'succeed'. This article examines the political and economic functioning of fragile African states using the lens of a 'political marketplace' in which local elites seek to obtain the highest reward for their loyalty, over short time horizons, within patrimonial systems. In such systems, political institutions are incapable of managing confect, which means that standard peacemaking efforts and peacekeeping operations do not align with domestic possibilities for settlement. To the contrary, external engagements can so distort domestic political markets that they obstruct national political bargaining and result in an open-ended commitment to peacekeeping in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.     

Adaptation without Pressure? European Legislation and British Merger Policy

European legislation exercises an important influence on national policy even in areas where there is no pressure or need to incorporate in national legislation directives or regulations agreed upon in Brussels. In this article, I apply insights from the literature on sociological institutionalism and policy framing to explore statistically the impact of the 1989 European Merger Control Regulation on British merger policy during the period from 1984 to 2000. The findings address two issues in the broader literature of European integration. First, the study undermines the point, which is widely accepted in the Europeanization literature, that pressure emanating from the incompatibility between European and national institutions, norms, or policies is a necessary condition for national adaptation. Second, Euroskeptics and other proponents of British "exceptionalism" have much to fear from European integration. Even in the absence of regulations emanating from Brussels, European ideas and norms seep into national practice by way of policy framing and institutional isomorphism.     

A Nation‐state without the nation? The trajectories of nation‐formation in Montenegro1

ABSTRACT. Following the successful referendum of May 2006, Montenegro became the last of the former Yugoslav republics to opt for an independent state. Only fifteen years earlier, when the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia collapsed, Montenegro was resolute to continue the Yugoslav state‐formation in a union with Serbia. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: Why did it take so much longer for the Montenegrin population to follow the experience of other republics in its decision on independence? How can one explain a staggering change in public opinion on questions of national self‐determination over such a short time‐span? And, finally, what are the dominant discourses of “Montenegrin‐ness”? The authors argue that the answers to these questions are to be found in the particularities of Montenegro's historical development, and especially in the structural legacies of state socialism. The consequence of these developments was the formation of two separate Montenegrin national ideologies: one which sees Montenegrins as ethnically Serb, and the other that defines Montenegrins in civic terms. The paper concludes that these two divergent trajectories of nation‐formation in Montenegro are largely the unintended consequence of intensive state‐building, cultural and political modernisation and, most of all, the gradual politicisation and institutionalisation of high culture.     

The benevolent proprietor and the property law: A British‐Indian dilemma

British Indian revenue policy determined British‐Indian property law. ft was essential to establish a class of landed proprietors, entitled by law to collect rents from their tenants, from which in turn government could legally assess its revenue demand. Revenue was principally settled with the zamindars, who had had rights to a share in agricultural produce which carried a duty to meet government's revenue demand recognised by the Mughal government. The zamindars were redefined unequivocally as landlords by the British‐Indian property law. Their estates were assigned on the basis of existing records and were composed for the most part of disparate shares in villages. Such estates were essentially not economically viable; the social and domestic circumstances of the zamindars further compromised the management of their estates. Government intended that the landlords should become progressive farmers, but conditions, as much a product of legal enactment as of economic reality, frustrated that aim. The history of the nineteenth century administration of British India illustrates the dilemma of government, and the conflict between conservatism in the rural sphere and the pursuit of progressive policies. The radical reform of the zamindars’ estates, namely the drastic curtailments which took place under the zamindari abolition statutes under the Congress government's programme for land reform, has paradoxically achieved for independent India that which the government of British India struggled throughout a century and a half to achieve: the creation of the progressive proprietor.