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Topic classification is a challenging task in order to comprehend the subject matter or theme of the Indian mythology. It will enhance the performance of NLP-based systems, such as recommendation and semantic search engines, when dealing with texts containing mythology. This research focuses on developing transformer based models for automated topic classification of Indian mythological documents, which addresses the challenges of organizing and analyzing this rich and diverse corpus. We introduce PouranicTopic, a new annotated dataset containing over 200k verses from 7 major Hindu texts with canto, topic, and sentence labels. Additional datasets Similarity-based and Log-likelihood-based are created using sentence clustering techniques. The BERT, RoBERTa, and DistilBERT models are evaluated for canto and topic classification on these datasets. Clustering greatly improves the results on the Similarity-based dataset, but Log-likelihood-based dataset remains challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hindu Kush high-altitude regions of Pakistan are currently experiencing severe consequences as a result of global warming. In this sense, increasing soil erosion and the quick melting of glaciers are two particularly evident effects. In such a scenario, understanding long-term temperature changes is crucial for making accurate forecasts about how the Hindu Kush region may experience regional temperature changes in the future. In this study, the climate tree-ring width (TRW) analysis designated a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.622, p < 0.001) between the TRW chronology and the June to September (summer) mean maximum temperature (MMT). Using the tree-ring width of Pinus wallichiana A. B. Jackson, we reconstructed summer temperatures in the Hindu Kush region from 1790 CE. Statistical analysis showed that the reconstruction model has explained 38.7% of the climate variance during the instrumental period of 1967 to 2018 CE. Five extremely warm summer periods (≥ 4 years; before the instrumental period 1967–2018 CE) of 1804–1830, 1839–1862, 1876–1879, 1905–1910, 1923–1935 CE, and six cold summer periods of 1790–1803, 1832–1838, 1863–1875, 1880–1904, 1911–1922, and 1936–1945 CE have been observed during the past 229 years. Individually, the year 1856 CE experienced severe warmth (31.85 °C), whereas 1794 CE was relatively cooler (29.60 °C). The spectral multi-taper method (MTM) shows significant (p < 0.05) cycles, which take place about every 9.3, 5.7, 4.2, and 3.6 years. In particular, the 9.3-year cycle, which closely aligns with the 11-year solar activity cycle, suggests a potential correlation between solar activity and local temperature fluctuations. Moreover, our reconstruction demonstrates a significant degree of consistency when compared to actual climate data and regional temperature reconstruction series, reporting a strong logic of trust in the reliability and accuracy of our findings. This evidence reaffirms that our reconstruction shows significant and dependable regional temperature signals, notably being representative for the Hindu Kush region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is the basis for human survival and growth, and it holds great importance for ecological and environmental protection. The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is known as the "Water Tower of Asia", where water influences changes in the global water cycle and ecosystem. It is thus very important to efficiently measure the status of water in this region and to monitor its changes; with the development of satellite-borne sensors, water surface extraction based on remote sensing images has become an important method through which to do so, and one of the most advanced and accurate methods for water surface extraction involves the use of deep learning networks. We designed a network based on the state-of-the-art Vision Transformer to automatically extract the water surface in the HKH region; however, in this region, terrain shadows are often misclassified as water surfaces during extraction due to their spectral similarity. Therefore, we adjusted the training dataset in different ways to improve the accuracy of water surface extraction and explored whether these methods help to reduce the interference of terrain shadows. Our experimental results show that, based on the designed network, adding terrain shadow samples can significantly enhance the accuracy of water surface extraction in high mountainous areas, such as the HKH region, while adding terrain data does not reduce the interference from terrain shadows. We obtained the water surface extraction results in the HKH region in 2021, with the network and training datasets containing both water surface and terrain shadows. By comparing these results with the data products of Global Surface Water, it was shown that our water surface extraction results are highly accurate and the extracted water surface boundaries are finer, which strongly confirmed the applicability and advantages of the proposed water surface extraction approach in a wide range of complex surface environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article charts the different modalities of political transgression that marked an act of religious conversion and inter-faith marriage performed by a Muslim female subject in contemporary India, and the subsequent misreading of this transgression; a misreading made possible by liberal political thought's delineations of the conceptual category of "interest". Existing legal, political, academic, and popular discourses have read the prominent 2016 event of the conversion of a Hindu woman named Akhila into Islam, as either the "false consciousness" of a "vulnerable" individual whose self-interests were unintelligible to herself, or, as an unambiguous case of a "mature" woman in a "modernising" Kerala "choosing" to opt for an inter-faith marriage and to convert; a liberal idiom of choice that thereby needs to be safeguarded via Constitutional provisions. The article, even while acknowledging the political need to adhere to the latter reading/constitution of the female (Islamic) subject's sovereign desire to convert, shows some of the limitations of both these ideologically antithetical positions. It argues that the desire of Hadiya (Akhila's new name after converting to Islam) to convert remains unreadable by both the right-wing Indian judiciary, backed up by Hindutva forces, as well as the "left-liberal" feminist intelligentsia that sought to support her autonomy. In fact, both these ideologically opposed stances often legitimised each other. By examining the legal debates that took place in the Indian courts, the article shows how construing Hadiya's act of conversion solely through the legal-juridical prisms of "religious freedom" and "choice", pegged to the concept of self-interest, is vigorously insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sacrifice (yajña) is considered to be one of the most mentioned words in the Hindu texts, and Panikkar understands it in relation to the preservation, continuation, and regeneration of the universe in existence. While Panikkar's interpretation of sacrifice focuses mainly on creation, this article extends his arguments to interpret the Hindu apocalypse as a yajña from four major angles, including the end of a kalpa and the concept of declining dharma in the successive yugas, the journey from the cosmological to the transcendental brahman, entire creation being the food of sacrifice, and the apocalypse as a reflection of the yajña. This study incorporates both śruti and smriti texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India today exemplifies the making of an "ethnocracy," a polity in which the dominant ethnic group obtains political control and deploys the state apparatus to ethnicize territory and society. I illustrate the making of India's ethnocracy by documenting key political and policy practices of Narendra Modi's rule. I do this by offering evidence of this process by documenting: (1). the contest between the dominant Hindus and minority Muslims over territorial space and the public realm; (2). solidifying Hindutva ethno-nationalism; which builds on and consolidates; and (3). long-term political and economic stratification between Hindus and Muslims. However, the making of India's ethnocracy has not gone unchallenged. Therefore, I direct attention to the resistance mounted against India's ethnocratic turn in the institutional, political and social terrains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hinduism is considered one of the most ancient religions in the world. Although the technological innovation of modernization has undermined the reliance on their traditions, Hindus may still rely on Hindu Scripture when making decisions. From their standpoint, contrary to Western medicine, human lives cannot be reduced to statistical and empirical facts. They focus more on preserving the spirit, rather than considering survival as one of the goals of medicine. Consequently, when a preterm infant is born, Hindu parents might struggle to understand the goals of Western neonatologists. This divergence may create misunderstandings when discussing end-of-life decisions. Since they value relational aspects to be of utmost importance, they may accept treatments only in the likelihood of good neurological outcomes. Being able to interact allows Hindus to act virtuously with the aim of purifying their soul toward moksa. When it comes to end-of-life decisions on behalf of newborns, Hindu parents may opt to forgo treatments and let the baby peacefully die, while praying for their soul to have a better rebirth. This paper aims to evaluate quality-of-life assessment in the Hindu tradition in comparison with the Catholic tradition. It draws parallelisms between these two different religions to investigate whether an inter-religious dialogue is possible. This work will help Catholic, and more broadly Western, doctors to have a better understanding of the Hindu end-of-life views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a special issue of the journal Religions on the topic of "Continuity and Change according to Hindu and Buddhist Religious Philosophies." The document explores the concepts of continuity and change in Hindu and Buddhist religious and philosophical traditions. It discusses the views on temporal finitude and the cycle of suffering in Hindu and Buddhist soteriologies, as well as the emphasis on impermanence and nonsubstantiality in Buddhist philosophy. The document also examines the debates between Hindu and Buddhist scholastic philosophies regarding the existence of enduring objects and selves. The articles in this volume provide insights into various aspects of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies of continuity and change. [Extracted from the article]

This paper centers on the godfather of the civil rights movement, Howard Thurman, and his most influential work, "Jesus and the Disinherited", as a pre-eminent text into early 20th century intercultural philosophy. Building upon Kipton Jensen's analysis in "Howard Thurman: Philosophy, Civil Rights, and the Search for Common Ground", this presentation will reframe Howard Thurman's unique philosophy as one that integrates spirituality, interculturality, and critical social analysis. It is well known that Thurman's treatise on the oppressed was carried in the pocket of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the civil rights movement for the ways it empowered nonviolent resistance for those marginalized by the dominant culture of the United States, which was (and still is) built on racism, military violence, and class-based oppression. This paper advocates that Thurman came to his philosophical conclusions through deep engagement with various cultural and philosophical traditions, most notably the Hindu spiritual–political paradigm of Mahatma Gandhi, and sought to harmonize these insights for African Americans in the USA. By investigating the intercultural foundations of "Jesus and the Disinherited", this paper will encourage scholars to explore how interculturality enriched Thurman's philosophy and how this fostered a more expansive vision of community in pluralistic societies. This article traces the roots of the development of "Jesus and the Disinherited", looking back to presentations Thurman gave as early as 1922, concluding with the publication of his book in 1949. And via this study, we will see the progression of Thurman's ideas and the impacts interculturality had on his philosophy and vision for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mañjuśrībhāṣita-Citrakarmaśāstra, a Sanskrit śilpa work discovered in Sri Lanka, deals exclusively with Buddhist image making. It provides technical instructions for the fabrication of Buddhist images as well as guidance for initial and final consecrations. This article offers a comparative intertextual study of the main body of the manuscript, including chapters concerning tree selection, the ratnanyāsa ritual, the techniques of clay modeling in the making of images, and the eye-opening ceremony. This study suggests that the Mañjuśrībhāṣita-Citrakarmaśāstra bears a remarkable resemblance to South Indian Hindu śilpa texts and does not perfectly correspond with actual practices and performances. The main part of the Mañjuśrībhāṣita-Citrakarmaśāstra is probably dated no earlier than the 11th century but no later than the 16th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The second decade of the 20th century saw two pivotal events from the Middle East and South Asia: the Armenian Genocide and the Khilafat movement. Both events were influential in setting into motion a cascade of events whose repercussions are still felt acutely to this day. Simultaneous interest in these two pivotal moments has generated considerable scholarship over the last few decades. However, the prospect that these two events could be interlinked in underlying ways is a proposition that has not yet found any traction. Using a range of sources, this article attempts an initial foray into a critically understudied area: the denial and justification of the Armenian Genocide that was integral to the Khilafat movement in South Asia. Arguably one of the most potent examples of denial perpetuated by a non-perpetrator, the South Asian version of this narrative was cobbled together through a convergence of interests between the Muslim and Hindu elite in the region. Unraveling this vast network of denialism and justification warrants attention to underlying motivations and power configurations across a kaleidoscope of identities and geography – which this article seeks to uncover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Adil Shahi Sultanate was an important state founded in 1489 by Yusuf Adil Shah in the Deccan region of India, centered in Vijayapura. The sultanate witnessed eight different rulers until it was destroyed by the army of Babur in 1686. Some researchers generally base their studies on Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah’s work titled Ferishtah’s History of Deccan, which is one of the main sources for this sultanate. According to researchers and based on this resource, Yusuf was the son of the Ottoman ruler Murad II. However, other claims about Yusuf’s lineage appear to have not been included in these studies. Thus, these academic studies can be said to be methodologically incomplete or insufficient. In fact, Fuzuni Astarabadi was another author to write about the sultanate and attributed Yusuf’s origins to the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent in his work titled Futuhat-i-Adil Shahi. Another author, Rafiuddin Ibrahim Shirazi, wrote Tazkirat ul-Muluk, in which he attributed Yusuf’s origins to the Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hasan. The novel claims about Yusuf’s origins in these works that researchers have ignored necessitate an examination of the issue in full detail. This study analyzes each of these claims by making use of Ottoman and Aq Qkoyunlu chronicles. As a result, the research reveals that the accuracy of these allegations should be questioned. The authors who put forward these claims are assumed to have aimed to strengthen the legitimacy of the sultan of the period due to their own interests or the political circumstances of the sultanate. In this context, the current study has focused on the question of who Yusuf Adil Shah was. As a result, the research has concluded him to have been an ordinary Turk who belonged to the Shiite sect and who’d originally migrated from the city of Save in Iran to the Bahmani lands. The obtained findings provide an important new perspective on Yusuf’s lineage that researchers should take into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a prevalent endocrine disorder affecting numerous women of reproductive age, marked by hormonal imbalances, irregular menstruation, and ovarian cysts. Beyond fertility concerns, PCOS correlates with metabolic issues like insulin resistance, obesity, and heightened risks of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. This study explores the pathophysiology of PCOS in Bengali-speaking Hindu and Muslim women from Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It involved 723 young adult women, aged 15 to 30, split between 371 Hindus and 352 Muslims. The research gathered data on PCOS prevalence, associated general and socio-demographic characteristics, menstrual patterns, dietary habits, anthropometric data, and clinical variables such as blood pressure, random blood glucose, and hemoglobin levels. The findings indicate that despite sharing the same locale, Hindu and Muslim women show distinct PCOS manifestations and burdens due to their ethnic and cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the distinct marriage customs of two Hindu Bengali communities in West Bengal: the Brahmins and the Poundra-Kshatriyas. It delves into the rituals, actions, and symbols integral to the marriage processes of these groups in Kolkata. The Brahmins, at the top of the caste hierarchy, have specific marriage rituals that affirm their caste status. In contrast, the Poundra-Kshatriyas, who are at the lower end of the hierarchy, follow different practices. The study compares these rituals and the significance of various traditional actions and changes, drawing on memoir interviews, genealogies, and case histories. It interprets these actions within the context of traditional activities, local terminology, rituals, beliefs, and marriage symbols. The research indicates that the observed differences in marriage customs between the two communities are historically rooted and reflect their social interactions and the material and symbolic aspects of their relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociologia & Antropologia is the property of Sociologia & Antropologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper is an effort of geo-statistical analysis of rainfall variability and trend detection in the eastern Hindu Kush region located in the north-west of Pakistan. The eastern section of the HK region lies in the western part of Pakistan. Exploring rainfall variability and quantifying its trend and magnitude is one of the key indicators among all climatic parameters. In the study area, Pakistan Meteorology Department (PMD) has established seven meteorological stations: Drosh, Chitral, Dir, Timergara, Saidu Sharif, Malam Jabba, and Kalam. Daily, mean monthly, and mean annual rainfall time series data for all the met stations were geo-statistically analyzed in the GIS environment for detecting monthly and annual variability in rainfall, variability, and trend detection. Mann–Kendall (MK) and Theil-Sen's slope (TSS) statistical tests were applied to rainfall data. Initially, the MK test was applied for detection of trends and TSS test was used to quantify the change in magnitude. The results indicate that the rainfall variability in intensity and trend pattern detection. The analysis confirms that an extremely significant rainfall trend in the case of mean annual rainfall was predicted at Dir and Malam Jabba meteorological stations. Opposite to this, at Kalam and Chitral stations, a less significant rainfall trend was noted. In a similar context, no prominent rainfall trend has been found at Drosh, Timergara, and Saidu Sharif meteorological stations. Likewise, using TSS, an extremely negative variation in the magnitude of rainfall was verified at Kalam and Malam Jabba. However, a noteworthy positive change in rainfall magnitude has been noted at Dir and Saidu Sharif meteorological stations. The findings of this research have the potential to assist the decision and policy makers and academicians to think truly and conduct more scientific research studies to mitigate climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the practice of the grave pilgrimage tradition in the Suwung Village, Denpasar, using qualitative methods. Interviews, observations, and document studies were conducted to gather data directly from the Bugis community during the grave pilgrimage. The results of the study show that the majority Hindu Balinese community can accept the Bugis migrants, who are Muslims, to express Islamic traditions in Bali. This expression of Islamic religious tradition is marked by the existence of ancient Islamic manuscripts in Muslim villages, one of which is the Bugis Suwung Village in Denpasar. Specifically, the traditions that are unique in this village are the tradition of Ngeruwah (praying for the spirits of ancestors before the arrival of the month of Ramadan), the tradition of Pagelicing Qur'an (parading the Qur'an), and the tradition of grave pilgrimage. However, the tradition of parading the Qur'an has not been practised since the 1970s. This was done because the tradition was feared to be cultised by the Muslim community in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultimate aim of both Eckhart's philosophy and Vedānta philosophy is to attain oneness with God/Brahman. Nevertheless, their different philosophical starting points and the conflict between the sublime ideal of the theory and reality means that their philosophies present a structural symmetry. They both have to face two dilemmas: "How can we claim that humans are already one with God?" and "Why is it that humans are not already one with God?". Eckhart's inherited tradition emphasizes the distinction between humans and God, while the Vedānta philosophical tradition emphasizes that "I am Brahman". Each of them starts from one pole of the seesaw of the dilemma and encounters the other's issue at the other pole. Eventually, they converge at the point of balance, with unity with God/Brahman realized in all human activities. Here, this worldly life becomes significant, all human work expresses the Divinity, and the importance of God is replaced by an impersonal Divinity that combines being and nothingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of VAD: Veredes, Arquitectura y Divulgación is the property of Alberto Alonso Oro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalayas (HKH) are a major source of freshwater in the agriculture-dependent economy of Pakistan. In recent decades, mountain glaciers have been threatened by global warming. In this study, we estimated the Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) and geodetic mass balance of fifteen representative glaciers from Hunza (Karakoram), Chitral (Hindu Kush), and Astore (Himalaya) using Landsat satellite images and Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) DEMs between 2000 and 2018. The climatic trends (temperature and precipitation) in the 19 years (1995–2013) time series of the three regions were assessed using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall test and Sen's Slope. The ELA of the observed glaciers except for two Atrak (Chitral) and Gulkin (Hunza) is shifted upward, while the mass balance indicates a heterogeneous pattern ranging from −0.23 ± 0.05 to −0.01 ± 0.015 m w.e a−1, −0.13 ± 0.05 to+0.17 ± 0.11 m w.e a−1 and −0.03 ± 0.02 to+0.23 ± 0.09 m w.e a−1 in Chitral, Hunza, and Astore basin, respectively. A significant or slight increasing or decreasing trend was found in the mean annual temperature, mean total precipitation, and mean discharge of the studied basins. This study will be a good contribution to understanding snow and glacier dynamics in HKH, the factors that influence them, and their interaction with the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris-covered ice is widespread in mountain regions with debris an important control on surface ice melt and glacier retreat. Quantifying debris cover extent and its evolution through time over large regions remains a challenge. This study develops two Normalized Difference Supraglacial Debris Indices for mapping debris-covered ice based on thermal and near Infrared Landsat 8 bands. They were calibrated with field data. Validation suggests that they have a high level of accuracy. They are then applied to Landsat data for 2016 to produce the first detailed glacier inventory of the Afghanistan Hindu Kush Himalaya that includes debris cover. 3408 glaciers were identified which, for those ⩾0.01 km2 in area, gives an ice cover of 2,222 ± 11 km2 and a debris cover of 619 ± 40 km2. Principal components analysis was used to identify the most influential drivers of debris-covered ice extent. Lower proportions of debris cover were associated with glaciers with a higher elevation range, that were larger, longer and wider. These relations were statistically clearer when the dataset was broken down into climate and geological zones. A glaciers continue to shrink, the proportion of debris cover will become higher, making it more important to map debris cover reliably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the emergence of the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement in the early 1990s, a group of female ascetics and sadhvis displayed tendencies of eschewing conventional gendered images and reinforcing the ideals of virtuous motherhood and female warriorhood in an effort to establish women's alternative authority in the public and private domains. In order to galvanise women's participation in the public sphere, these sadhvis allowed women to assume roles that would otherwise be reserved for men on the grounds that men are no longer living according to their dharma. In reality, the sadhvis were reorganising the feminine space within a predominately masculine Hindutva movement by recommending a level of politicisation of women's private responsibilities in the public sphere with a distinctive articulation of particular gender stereotypes. Taking into account these factors, my aim in writing this essay is to examine the ramifications of the agency and authority that these sadhvis achieved while actively participating in the Hindutva movement. This paper also aims to find out which types of approaches they employed to address the conflicts between conventional womanhood, asceticism, and heroic femininity in the arena of public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corruption is a critical issue for Bangladesh, including corruption in higher education. The present study explored the perception of corruption based on gender, religion, and socioeconomic status with factorial survey research design. One hundred twenty participants were selected by purposive sampling technique from male and female university students aged 20-26 years. All the participants were studying in public and private universities. Personal Information Form (PIF) and Perception of Corruption Scale (PCS) were used for this study. The PCS measured the respondents' level of perception about corruption, consisting of 18 items. One-way analysis of variance and t-test were applied to analyze the data. The result indicates no significant difference in perception of corruption based on gender. In contrast, there is a significant difference in the perception of corruption based on religion, with the Hindus having the lowest perception of corruption. Moreover, there is a significant difference in perception of corruption based on socioeconomic status. Therefore, university students' perceptions of different corrupt practices need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about a particular construction of nationalism at the hands of Romesh Chunder Dutt (1848–1909), the well-known exponent of 'economic nationalism', in colonial Bengal from 1870 onwards till his death in 1909. In this construction of nationalism, which today scholars would best describe as 'cultural nationalism', the categories 'Hindu' and 'national' converged and became conflated. Through a discussion of Dutt's 'literary patriotism', the paper seeks to answer why it was so in the case of someone like R C Dutt, and what implications we can draw from this regarding our understanding of colonial Indian nationalism and its origins. With reference to Dutt, Sudhir Chandra pointed out that the neat distinction that we draw between 'economic nationalism' and 'cultural nationalism' is fallacious. The paper reiterates and reinforces this argument by showing how cultural and political nationalisms were enmeshed together in the case of R C Dutt. Furthermore, the glorious past that Dutt reconstructed through his literary patriotism could not but be a Hindu past; he was not a vilifier of Muslims, but somehow he shelved the question of the place of Muslims in his construction of Indian nationhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 20th century, Lucien Goldman proposed one of the most effective theories in the field of sociological criticism, namely the theory of developmental constructionism. Among Goldman's central concepts to explain this theory are the two concepts of ‘meaningful structure’ and ‘worldview’. The meaningful structure shows the interrelationship of the components of a literary work and the worldview of a meaningful whole of norms and values. One of the works that the application of the theory of developmental constructionism is useful in its better understanding is Mehr va Mah poem, due to having a coherent structural pattern. This poem is one of the outstanding works of the 10th -century poet Jamali Dehlavi. In this regard, the present study seeks to answer the question of how the meaningful structure and worldview of Mehr va Mah is in line with the inclusive social platforms of the work. Examining this poem in the framework of the theory of developmental constructivism shows that the main social bases of the poet's era in the conceptual system, spatial elements, the systematic pattern of character relationships and the aesthetic field of the system are the creators of its meaningful structure. They have appeared as artistic creations - not a mirror reflection of social events. These elements in a dialectic relationship with each other show the worldview governing the work. Introduction The current research seeks to answer the question of how the meaningful structure and worldview of the Mehr va Mah poem have been created, in accordance with the social foundations of this work. Based on the hypothesis of this research, despite the fact that this poem tells the story of the love between the prince of Badakhshan and the daughter of the king of Mulk Mina, and the poet did not directly reflect the social situation in this story, but the poet's imagination has created a coherent structure that is compatible with the social contexts of the time of creation. During the creation of the poem, the spiritual, social, and economic bases of Muslims compared to believers in other popular religions in India, especially Hindus, were considered superior. And this issue has caused the formation of a bipolar system of values in the society of the poet. In this poem, many contrasts were created in the conceptual system, spatial elements, the pattern of character relationships and the aesthetic field of the work, which structurally shows the worldview that governs the work. Also, the spread of mysticism and the mutual relationship between the government and mystics during the compilation of this poem played a significant role in the formation of the components that make up the meaningful structure and worldview of the work. Materials and Methods The general method of this research is based on theoretical and library studies. Moreover, the works of Lucien Goldman and articles and books related to his theory are the bases of this study. Research Findings In Mehr va Mah poem, despite the fact that the romantic theme and mystical references of the work are the basis for the combination of opposite categories, due to the adaptation of the conceptual system of the work to the social ideological structure, there is no room for mixing and intermingling of categories. The structure of the spatial relations of the story has been manifested in the form of heaven-like and hell-like places. In other words, all the places in this poem have been compared to the final position of the Sharia-compliant or infidels in Islamic ideology. The expansion of the influence of the sheikhs and mystical dynasties among the general public and the ruling class has been one of the characteristics of the society in the given time frame. The structure of human relationships that arose after these relationships has caused the formation of a systematic network of relationships between the characters in this poem. This network of communication is established between the king and the mystic along with other human relationships. In this poem, social contradictions, religious conflicts and ideologies are manifested not in their direct expression during the theme and content of the story, but in the description of nature, characters, and various phenomena. Discussion of Results and Conclusions Mehr va Mah poem, like literary works that have unity and richness, has a coherent structural pattern emerging from the social foundations of the work. According to Goldman's point of view, in this narrative system, the ruling worldview has been formed through the coherent structure of the conceptual system, spatial elements, the systematic pattern of character relationships and the aesthetic field of the work. With respect to the meaningful structure of the conceptual system, the system of dual oppositions of concepts in Mehr va Mah poem forms a part of the meaningful structure of this work, because the basic concepts of this work are all opposed to each other in a bipolar axis. Emphasizing that the protagonist is a Muslim, the poet has implicitly placed all his events and bitter encounters with existence in the other pole, i.e. disbelief, through descriptions and similes. Moreover, the contrasting structure of spatial elements in this poem has formed a coherent whole in accordance with the ideological structure of the inclusive social platform, on the basis of which the places are divided into the Islamic utopia, heaven, and the infidels' punishment place, hell. In this work, the pattern of character relationships is formed based on the model of human relations between the institution of power and the institution of Sufism in the society of the poet's time. When the poet has tied his emotions and feelings to the element of fantasy, he has established a dialectical relationship between the aesthetic structure of the work and the two pervasive social contexts of his time. the rhetorical aspects of the poem are actually a coherent expression of religious contrasts and the prevalence of mysticism in the society of the poet's work when describing the lover, nature, elements, and different situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since India’s independence and partition from Pakistan, the relationship between Hindus and Muslims has been marked by continuous conflict and mutual distrust. The effects of the British divide and rule strategy that pitted Muslims and Hindus against one another became a hallmark of the relationship between the two communities in the postcolonial period. Such divisions were greatly exacerbated with the coming to power of those who believed in Hindutva or ethnic absolutism. Islamophobia became normalized. Many Muslim scholars have come forward to address this quandary, foremost among which was the late Wahiduddin Khan (1925-2021). This paper investigates Khan’s thoughts about communal harmony in post-independent India. I argue that Khan called for a reformation of Muslim minds, urging them to move beyond an isolationist mentality and find possibilities to develop their society within the status quo. Nevertheless, fraternity, correlation, and communitarianism are to be practiced obtaining religious harmony. Further, Khan’s understanding of the treaty of Ḥudaibiyyah as a panacea to reconcile religious harmony seems insufficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines how Hindu nationalist social service organizations, specifically the Deseeya Seva Bharathi (DSB), reconfigured the religious conception of 'Seva' to advance the project of constructing a Hindu social identity during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state of Kerala. The southern Indian state of Kerala has remained an exception in the story of the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement in contemporary India, which has repeatedly failed to make any considerable political inroads in the state. However, the disastrous economic consequences and livelihood challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, which was heavily dependent on foreign remittance and service industries, have opened up new spaces of engagement for Hindu nationalists. Drawing on the fieldwork conducted in central Kerala during the pandemic, this paper will elaborate on how the DSB used the crisis moment of the pandemic to reach out to economically and socially disadvantaged communities using the language of 'Seva' to build a Hindu social identity, which imbues the influence of majoritarian Hindu nationalist politics. The paper argues that the DSB's articulation of 'Seva' as a distinct and superior form of social service that is 'self-less', 'non-instrumental' and 'non-reciprocal' is significant in understanding the growing appeal of Hindu nationalist social service in the contested political sphere of Kerala, which is marked by competing social provisions by the state as well as other secular and religious groups. The paper notes that the reconfiguration of 'Seva' as a continuous religious concept enables Hindu nationalists to attain greater acceptance and legitimacy that even the secular state welfare could not achieve, while also concealing the inherent instrumental nature of its social service towards the construction of a Hindu social identity in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many Hindu communities today foreground women as religious authorities, some lineages officially recognize only men as gurus and renouncers. If official models of religious authority are gendered masculine, what space do women have to embody holiness? This article investigates this question with reference to women in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a transnational religious organization that has developed prominent communities in India and abroad. Amidst an ongoing disagreement about whether women can be gurus in the organization, this article considers how devotee women are cultivating spaces of religious authority in their temple communities and online media forums through embodying Krishna bhakti as a form of vernacular holiness. This includes the development of personal websites and the use of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to produce media content that ranges from overtly devout recordings of temple lectures to subtle signals towards Krishna bhakti in the aesthetic style of social media influencers. Case studies discuss women affiliated with ISKCON communities in India and the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lala Lajpat Rai was a prominent figure of the Arya Samaj, the influential nineteenth-century Hindu socio-religious reform movement. He is also seen as having sown the seeds of Hindu nationalism in the first decade of the twentieth century. Exploring Lajpat Rai's thought between the 1880s and 1915, this article traces how felt imperatives of Hindu nation-building impelled him to regularly re-define Hinduism. These first prompted Rai to articulate a 'thin' Hinduism, defined less in terms of an insistence on a complex set of beliefs and more in broad, simple terms. They then induced him to culturalise Hinduism and make a distinction between 'Hinduism' and 'Hindu culture'. The article ends by comparing the Hinduism and Hindu nationalism of Lajpat Rai and V.D. Savarkar, the chief ideologue of the Hindutva ideology, which is considered the main influence on India's Hindu nationalist movement. It argues that while formulations of a thin and culturalised Hinduism enabled both men to articulate a 'Hindu nationalism', their nationalisms in fact remained qualitatively different. By scrutinizing intellectual trends and processes occurring in Rai's thought, the article demonstrates that the modern ideology of Hindu nationalism impacted how Hindu religion was defined and re-defined and how such re-definitions can still produce distinct forms of Hindu nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We surveyed the urial Ovis vignei and Siberian ibex Capra sibirica in the Hindu Kush mountain range of Wakhan National Park in north-eastern Afghanistan to determine their population status and identify potential drivers of population change. We conducted two double-observer ground surveys, in April–May 2015 and 2018, in 10 areas (total = 288 km2). Urial herds were mostly composed of both sexes (78% of observed herds), the mean adult sex ratio (females:males) was 100:70, and the mean female:juvenile ratio was 100:53. In 2018 we calculated a urial density of 35/100 km2, compared to 72/100 km2 in 2015. Ibex herds were mostly (79%) composed of both sexes, the mean adult sex ratio (females:males) was 100:103, and the mean female:juvenile ratio was 100:58. Ibex density estimates were similar in 2015 and 2018 (c. 250/100 km2). We discuss the usefulness of the double-observer methods for ungulate surveys, highlight the value of viewshed calculations and discuss the possible causes of urial population decline. To ensure the conservation of these ungulate populations, we recommend continued regular monitoring, measures to address poaching and research to clarify the taxonomical status of urials in Wakhan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are isolated streams of research in spiritual capital, spiritual leadership, and community leadership. We put together these three notions and indicate that taken together, a spiritual leader with a community leadership style can use his spiritual capital to boost both the social and financial performance of the organization and reduce risk. We document a case where a Hindu non-profit organization is more resilient compared to the other top Indian firms which are for-profit organisations. This challenges the popular belief that creating sustainable organizations with social impact requires a purely business logic. This case study reports the results of interviews with the top management of the organization explaining how religion is related to management inputs, the social business model, and financial performance outcomes. We add to the meager literature on Hinduism in social business leadership. We generate five propositions that expand the extant theoretical conceptualization of community leadership with a case example from a non-profit Hindu spiritual leadership domain. They serve as lessons that managers can reflect on while working with their community and building trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a major human activity, urbanization exerts a strong impact on the fragile ecosystem in the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) region. To maintain sustainable development, reliable data on urban land change are required to assess the impact of urbanization. Here, the reliability evaluation of four global fine-resolution impervious surface area (ISA) products: global annual impervious area (GAIA), global annual urban dynamics (GAUD), global impervious surface area (GISA), and global urban expansion (GUE) was carried out. The characteristics of urban expansion for five representative cities including Kabul, Lhasa, Lijiang, Thimphu, and Xining were remarkably different. Based on the results of incremental analysis and the spatial difference of the ISA, it was found that the GAIA dataset at a 30-m spatial resolution could provide better ISA information than the others in characterizing urban expansion in the mountainous region. Subsequently, the changes in the urban area were analyzed using the GAIA dataset from 1993 to 2018. In general, human settlements had grown, with the transformation of small villages into larger towns and some towns into major cities. Urban expansion would continuously intensify the contradictions between human activity and sustainability and exert a more significant impact on the fragile ecosystem in the HKH region. More attention should be paid to the impact of urbanization on the fragile mountainous ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes to study the expression of travelers’ emotions when confronted with the spectacle of oriental torture in several 17th century travel accounts. If the violence of the treatment reserved for thieves and criminals is invariably noted by travelers in the East (the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Mughal India), the way in which they look at the patient of the torture varies from compassion to indifference. The aim of this article is to examine more specifically the political, axiological and anthropological implications of the expression of compassion by travelers, as well as those of their apparent indifference. In particular, we will consider the power of relativization of geographical and moral boundaries attached to this emotion. Our study will be based on the accounts of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1676) and Pierre-Martin de La Martinière (1674), two contemporaries who traveled to the East and who offer an abundant description of torture.

Debates on war and peace within Jain and Hindu traditions revolve around the fear of incurring individual bad karma from violence, potentially inhibiting the individual's journey to spiritual liberation. Generally, the religious culture of both Jain and Hindu traditions elevates nonviolence to one of the highest moral principles. Jainism embraces ahiṃsā (non-harming) as the central doctrine, and Hindu traditions exalt non-harming as one of the highest disciplines and virtues (dharma). However, a personal spiritual commitment to nonviolence creates tension with the humanistic value of striving for an ethic of social justice and peace. Maintaining social harmony sometimes requires confrontation or targeted violence. It is not surprising that while both traditions laud ahiṃsā for personal peace, they also deliberate on the challenge of using necessary violence to maintain an orderly society. Despite sanctioning limited violence (hiṃsā) in acute situations, various texts and myths express a general suspicion for using war or other aggressive methods to solve social and political problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article examines the efforts of the Hindu conservatives at securing support for a law to ban cow-slaughter during the intervening years of India's Independence. It also critically examines the debate on this question in the Constituent Assembly of India. Through this examination the article notes how the Hindu conservatives prepared the ground for a law against cow-slaughter even prior to the question being debated in the Constituent Assembly. Further, it argues that by an exclusive consideration of the views of the practitioners of conservative Hindu religion, whose ideology is based on a monolithic conception of Hinduism, over cow and conversely disregarding the others' views, particularly of Islam on the same, the makers of the Constitution of India sought to impose a Hindu religious practice upon the non-believers of Hindu religion. The article also highlights the role of Ambedkar in the making of Article 48. The article is divided into three sections, wherein the first section looks at the Hindu conservatives' attempts at securing support for a law against cow slaughter, the second and third sections analyze the debate over the question of cow-slaughter in the Constituent Assembly of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Śrī Gurudeva Datta Mandir is a modern Hindu temple constructed around the udumbara tree (ficus racemora) believed to be the mythical dwelling place of the antinomian god Dattātreya. Originally located in a public park, the temple is now an independently registered trust and is widely recognized as one of the most prominent and celebrated Hindu places of worship in the affluent residential area of Deccan Gymkhana in Pune, India. In this article, we examine how the natural and built environment, along with religious practices, are constantly reconfigured and renegotiated by various actors catering to the contemporary sensitivities of the urban Hindu middle classes. We argue that to understand urban religious spaces like the Śrī Gurudeva Datta Mandir, it is essential to consider how cultural, religious, and political sensitivities converge to give material form to these spaces. Through an analysis of the temple, the deity of Dattātreya, and the udumbara tree, we explore the complex interplay of these forces and their role in shaping contemporary Hindu religious practices and beliefs in urban India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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