Hindu cosmology and the orinetation and segregation of social groups in villages in Northwestern India

This paper presents a cultural analysis of the directional orientation and segregation of castes in villages in a part of the northwestern plains of India. It interprets the built environment in terms of Hindu cosmology. Recent literature in cultural geography interprets the landscape "as text" or through symbols. The symbolic approach has greater relevance for traditional societies where clear schemata are discernible in built environments. This paper attempts a critical appraisal of Hindu cosmology as a schema for interpreting built environments in Indian villages.
Challenging the widely held view that Indian villages lack order, the paper demonstrates that there is a religiously ordained order in the landscape. The order is manifested in the form of orientation of several features of landscape, especially the caste mohallãs (wards) to the cardinal directions. Orientation of caste mohallãs to the 'sacred' directions in a settlement follows a system evolved by Indian civilization to harmonize the fractured social order with the segmented cosmic order. The paper also demonstrates that segregation is an inherent characteristic of orientation.
As a background for regional diversities, empirical evidence reveals that in the study region Hindu cosmology is impressed on villages, though often in a modified form. Villagers believe that the social space known as khenúã slopes down from west to east, while the southern sector is the 'lowest' segment of the village. Dominant castes characteristically reserve for themselves the best western site of the village and low castes are placed in lower social spaces, with scheduled castes being generally placed in the south.     

Seismic Performance Assessment of Non-Compliant SMRF-Reinforced Concrete Frame: Shake-Table Test Study

Seismic performance assessment is carried out for reinforced concrete structure built in low-strength concrete lacking confining ties in beam-column joint. Shake-table tests were performed on 1/3rd scaled two-story frame using design-spectrum-compatible accelerogram, scaled to various target levels. The frame is observed with beam longitudinal bar slip and pullout. Joints with no confining ties experienced extensive damage, observed with cover/core concrete spalling. The frame could resist 70% of the design ground motion to remain within the code-specified drift limit. The code requirement for minimum column depth will not avoid joint damageability in case of low-strength concrete and joints lacking confining ties.     

The transatlantic Muslim diaspora to Latin America in the nineteenth century

Since the 16th century, African Muslims figured prominently among the slave population of the Americas. While the number of Muslims pulled into the trade has always been a matter of speculation, lists of Africans rescued from slave ships provide us with some clues about the size and direction of the Muslim diaspora to Latin America in the 19th century. Based on an analysis of tens of thousands of names recorded in these lists, this essay argues that the majority of Muslim captives leaving Africa departed from Upper Guinea and suggests that Cuba was the center of the forced Muslim diaspora in the Americas. It traces the transatlantic links that connected particular regions of embarkation in Africa to their counterparts in Latin America and considers the implications of those connections for religious and cultural change within 19th-century slave populations. The essay challenges in important ways the colonial/postcolonial divide in Latin American history and uses Islam to pose important questions about the dynamics of social change across slave societies.     

Three Forgotten Accessions: Gilgit,Hunza and Nagar

The August 1947 transfer of power in India brought to the fore questions regarding the future of the areas which had long been leased by the government of India from certain princely states. Focusing on the Gilgit Agency, parts of which were leased from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, this article traces the nature of the agency and the manner in which it ultimately became a de facto part of Pakistan while Kashmir acceded to India. Conflicting accounts exist as to who was actually responsible for the revolution in Gilgit which led it towards Pakistan. This article uses all available sources to relate clearly and analyse the actual course of events during the tumultuous months of October and November 1947. The article also assesses the status and then formal accession of the two small states of Hunza and Nagar, adjacent to Gilgit, which had been erroneously treated as being under the complete suzerainty of Kashmir.     

Situating Local Events in Geo-Political Struggles between the British and Japanese Empires: The Politics of Zo Participation during the Second World War

The Indo-Burma frontier witnessed one of the fiercest battles of the Second World War. Geographically considered as ‘impenetrable’, the jungle-clad mountainous frontier was part of what was constitutionally known as the ‘Excluded Areas’ or ‘Scheduled Areas’ and directly administered by the governor of Burma. It was an important field for Christian missions, where combined colonial-missionary efforts, albeit not at all time, established Christianity and western education from the late nineteenth century. This article argues that, amid enticing propaganda from the Japanese, it was from these indigenous peoples of the Indo-Burma frontier that the British generated their ‘staunch allies’ who, as ‘irregulars’ or ‘levies’, gathered intelligence, worked behind the enemy lines, performed prodigies of valour and paid heavy prices for the cause of their colonial masters. However, at the end of the day, the British did not keep their promised to protect the interest of their staunch allies by undermining their constitutional status as ‘Scheduled Areas’ and rather compromised with the Burman nationalists. This article is a case study of the Zo (Chin) of Chin Hills in western Burma. It is an attempt to situate local events in the geo-political struggles between the British and Japanese empires and wider political implications in the context of building post-war Burma which has often been overlooked in existing historiography of the Second World War.