Search

The University of Edinburgh holds a substantial collection of manuscripts in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and South Asian languages, formerly known as the “Oriental Manuscript Collection”. This article reports recent steps taken to make this collection, which consists largely of manuscripts collected by Scottish East India Company officials between the late 18th and mid 19th centuries C.E, relevant to the present day global audience, and to widen access to it. This includes its renaming as "Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia", and the creation of a digitally searchable catalogue on the ArchivesSpace platform, largely through the use of “legacy data” from a 1925 printed catalogue, yet with a focus on making provenance information readily available. We discuss the challenges involved in renaming, and indeed reinterpreting, a historical collection whilst adhering to the principles of archival and library science. We share the methodology used to create our digitally searchable catalogue, a relatively simple model that may well prove useful for those curating similar collections.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The persistence of colonial controls in present-day forest management has long been recognized as a potential threat to the resilience of social-ecological systems. These controls have created barriers that disconnect individuals from their land and diminish the forest diversity. In Mount Merapi, this maladaptation is manifested through the long-tailed macaque's invasion of farmlands, triggered by the state's failure to reforest the targeted 480 ha of damaged land after the 2010 eruption. This study aims to qualitatively interrogate factors that are hindering the swift restoration of Mount Merapi's social-ecological systems. This will be achieved by investigating the intricate dynamics of the area over various time frames, utilizing the panarchy framework developed by Holling and Gunderson. The framework is well-known for its capacity to facilitate a holistic understanding of social-ecological systems but is also intrinsically ambiguous to capture the complexity. The study's novelty lies in its adoption of Boyer's refined panarchy models and Boonstra and De Boer's systematic analysis to address the methodological concern toward a better understanding of social-ecological systems. METHODS: This study utilizes various techniques for data collection, including semi-structured interviews, literature reviews, and field observations. The interviews involved informants who were selected through purposive sampling and focused on exploring Boyer's panarchy characteristics. In order to ensure the reliability of the data, triangulation was conducted prior to the development of panarchy models. FINDINGS: The findings indicate that the strict forest controls embedded in the state's forest management since the colonial periods had created rigidity and poverty traps. The concept of the rigidity trap pertains to a reforestation strategy that utilized laborers and territories for ecological conservation, restricted local communities from utilizing forests, and diminished biodiversity by favoring the introduction of non-native Acacia decurrens. CONCLUSION: To address traps, this study recommends the need to use a panarchy approach that facilitates a comprehensive understanding of social-ecological systems and to transfer governance to local people which must be based on an in-depth understanding of the local history, knowledge, and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the determinants of new firm creation in Africa, focusing on external and internal funding sources and their interactions. It also explores the influence of colonial history by separately analyzing former British and French colonies. The primary goal is to help fill crucial gaps in African literature on the determinants of entrepreneurship. Given Africa's widespread poverty and underdevelopment, understanding what drives entrepreneurship is essential for job creation and economic growth. The study reveals three key findings. First, at the full sample level, remittances are the only external financing source positively associated with new firm creation, while foreign aid and foreign direct investment obstacle it. Internal sources, like savings and credit, do not show significant effects. Second, the subsample analysis reveals heterogeneous results: former British colonies' funding sources align with the overall findings, while in former French colonies, only savings support entrepreneurship. Third, considering control variables, the subsample analysis indicates two distinct entrepreneurship models: opportunity-based in former British colonies and necessity-based in former French colonies. These findings are noteworthy and provide significant policy implications at both national and international levels. Crucially, the positive role of remittances in financing new business initiatives, confirms that migration serves as a mutually beneficial arrangement for both sending African countries and the host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The persistence of colonial controls in present-day forest management has long been recognized as a potential threat to the resilience of social-ecological systems. These controls have created barriers that disconnect individuals from their land and diminish the forest diversity. In Mount Merapi, this maladaptation is manifested through the long-tailed macaque’s invasion of farmlands, triggered by the state’s failure to reforest the targeted 480 ha of damaged land after the 2010 eruption. This study aims to qualitatively interrogate factors that are hindering the swift restoration of Mount Merapi's social-ecological systems. This will be achieved by investigating the intricate dynamics of the area over various time frames, utilizing the panarchy framework developed by Holling and Gunderson. The framework is well-known for its capacity to facilitate a holistic understanding of social-ecological systems but is also intrinsically ambiguous to capture the complexity. The study’s novelty lies in its adoption of Boyer’s refined panarchy models and Boonstra and De Boer’s systematic analysis to address the methodological concern toward a better understanding of social-ecological systems.METHODS: This study utilizes various techniques for data collection, including semi-structured interviews, literature reviews, and field observations. The interviews involved informants who were selected through purposive sampling and focused on exploring Boyer's panarchy characteristics. In order to ensure the reliability of the data, triangulation was conducted prior to the development of panarchy models.FINDINGS: The findings indicate that the strict forest controls embedded in the state’s forest management since the colonial periods had created rigidity and poverty traps. The concept of the rigidity trap pertains to a reforestation strategy that utilized laborers and territories for ecological conservation, restricted local communities from utilizing forests, and diminished biodiversity by favoring the introduction of non-native Acacia decurrens.CONCLUSION: To address traps, this study recommends the need to use a panarchy approach that facilitates a comprehensive understanding of social-ecological systems and to transfer governance to local people which must be based on an in-depth understanding of the local history, knowledge, and cultures.

Prison radicalization poses a significant and evolving threat in Bangladesh's correctional facilities. This research article delves into the conditions fostering radicalization, including corruption, overcrowding, violence, and the lack of essential amenities. Drawing on extensive analysis of secondary data and expert interviews, this article argues that these conducive conditions have transformed Bangladeshi prisons into breeding grounds for radical ideologies, allowing militants to establish networks and plan attacks within and beyond prison confines. This article also points out the transformation of prisoners, even those with minimal radical tendencies, into militant leaders, along with the shift of non‐radical individuals toward extremism. Moreover, it underscores the lack of de‐radicalization programs within the current prison system as a crucial gap in countering this escalating issue. Furthermore, the research identifies societal denial, limited post‐release opportunities, and mistreatment by security forces as factors exacerbating radicalization post‐incarceration. As such, this study emphasizes the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to address prison radicalization. Related Articles: Awan, Imran. 2012. "'I Am a Muslim Not an Extremist': How the Prevent Strategy Has Constructed a 'Suspect' Community." Politics & Policy 40(6): 1158–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2012.00397.x. Heinmiller, B. Timothy, Matthew A. Hennigar, and Sandra Kopec. 2017. "Degenerative Politics and Youth Criminal Justice Policy in Canada." Politics & Policy 45(3): 406–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12204. Spalek, Basia. 2010. "Community Policing, Trust, and Muslim Communities in Relation to 'New Terrorism.'" Politics & Policy 38(4): 789–815. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00258.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the quasi-colonial entanglements of Russia's peripheral republics, we ask whether and how their statuses influence local COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Dagestan, in the North Caucasus, provides an interesting case study: vaccines were readily available and promoted by authorities, yet non-vaccination seemed to be the overwhelmingly popular and commonly accepted practice in the republic. We show that the quasi-colonial status of the republic added to vaccine hesitancy by evoking fears stemming from the colonial past and turbulent present. We conclude that, in studies on vaccination, nation-states should not be treated as uniform entities. Otherwise, researchers risk overlooking local factors behind vaccine hesitancy. We show that in some cultural contexts vaccine hesitancy may stem from a collective understanding of health and the prioritisation of local solidarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the UK's 'safe and legal (humanitarian) routes' are evaluated by examining how they are positioned in the post‐Brexit migration regime, and how these domestic provisions compare to those underwritten by international protections. The Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas)—HK BN(O)s—and Ukraine visa schemes are an area of focus which, combined, account for the vast majority of those arriving in the UK for the purposes of humanitarian protections since Brexit. Despite being formally presented under the same banner, the schemes have significant differences in terms of eligibility criteria, costs, rights and entitlements. Moreover, on closer inspection, while they share an overarching policy vision informed by foreign policy priorities, these new provisions are underpinned by different genealogies and policy logics. While the HK BN(O) scheme is rooted in the tradition of ancestry visas and colonial entanglements and requires that potential beneficiaries pay for protections, the Ukrainian schemes are more closely aligned with recent refugee resettlement schemes and share with them the push towards greater involvement of private and community stakeholders in humanitarian protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the nexus between record-keeping and political advocacy in the late colonial Busoga which formed one of eastern ethno-geographical regions of the Uganda Protectorate. It illustrates the vexed position of the Abataka Abasoga attempting to build and use archival knowledge while the colonial government moved against the indigenous use of archival records as a tool of anti-colonial defiance. By weaving together archival materials with secondary sources, the paper reveals the precarious position of Ugandan archival records as denoted by the subsequent regimes' involvement in the management of documentary materials. Ultimately, the example shows how the ruling regimes' interests have been central in determining the nature of information made available for future preservation and its accessibility for use by both the political elite and reading publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his debut novel, Kamel Daoud retells the story of French novelist and philosopher Albert Camus's 1942 novel L'Étranger. Told from the vantage point of Harun, the brother of the nameless Arab killed in L'Étranger, Daoud's Meursault, contre-enquête (2013) is a complex tribute to the Nobel prize-winning author. This essay argues that Daoud's creative reworking of Albert Camus's classic lies in the way it reframes the question of postcolonial rewriting in terms of literary affiliation – a question of choice – rather than of filiation – a question of lineage and hierarchy. It then offers to reread the 'postcolonial remake' as an act of 'de-narration' – a creative act of revision – that enables Kamel Daoud to evade the stereotypical postcolonial readings of his novel. What is most ingenious in the narration of Meursault, contre-enquête is its constant reference to the performance of rewriting Camus's text not as a form of cultural reappropriation but as a metanarrative exposing its own story to the same critical scrutiny as he does Camus's. Even when literary and political problematics converge in Daoud's novel, they do not suggest the postcolonial tale of retribution. Rather, they elicit a new model of literary and social bond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the enduring impact of colonial violence in responses to modern conflict by transitional justice mechanisms. It presents an example of how societies continue to be structured by racial and colonial injustice and how this influences contemporary transitional justice. This is done through an analysis of the popular memory of the Mau Mau insurgency from 1952 to 1960 in Kenya, the trial of the six Kenyan nationalists known as the 'Kapenguria Six' by the British colonial administration and the trials of six Kenyans alleged to be most responsible for orchestrating the 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya, known as the 'Ocampo Six' before the International Criminal Court (ICC). In the Kenyan context, the influence of memories of colonial violence enabled the promotion of political agendas and arguably coloured public debate surrounding the two Kenya cases before the ICC. Transitional justice mechanisms such as the ICC do not operate in an ahistorical vacuum and international criminal trials as a form of transitional justice may be contested where there is no genuine accountability, redress or reparations for victims of colonial crimes. However, the juxtaposition of colonial crimes and the ICC prosecutions in Kenya also raises important questions relating to accountability for historical crimes in former colonies, the temporal limitations of transitional justice mechanisms and their unequal application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ainu are indigenous groups of people found in Hokkaido and northeast Honshu, Japan. During the nineteenth century, their land was integrated into the Japanese empire and the people redefined and assimilated. While intended to erase the Ainu as distinct groups, policies and discourses also showed that Ainu communities were not accepted as belonging to the category of ‘Japanese’, with the notions that they lacked Japanese ingenuity and civilization, were stuck in a prehistoric past, and lived in terra nullius. These discourses influenced the formation of museums’ collections in Japan, such as the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka (Minpaku). By offering a reading of exhibitions on the Ainu and their accompanying catalogues between 1977 and 2017, this research sheds light on how colonial legacies continue to be shaped and challenged in representing Ainu communities in museums. The TNM seems unable to challenge tropes of this colonial discourse due to their intricate connection with the government, their notion of political neutrality, and their focus on art that tends to exclude the Ainu from the museum. Minpaku, on the other hand, has tried to introduce notions of cultural relativism and centre cooperation with Ainu communities to facilitate best practices.

How do we repair and reconcile a society broken multiple times by years of political violence and cyclic mass atrocity events? Reconciliation processes in post-conflict societies tend to favour state-led peace processes to aid individuals and communities alike to heal, make sense of the past while also imagining and forging an interdependent future together. The Burundi Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established in 2014, has the mandate to investigate past crimes and mass violence events dating from 1885 to the 4 December 2008 ceasefire with the aim of aiding truth-telling, reconciliation and transitional justice. The article comments on how the TRC shapes ongoing healing, reconciliation and transitional justice efforts in post-conflict Burundi. This article uses desk-based research to draw insights from documented works and reports of the TRC between 2018 and 2022. The TRC's findings sparked multiple narratives and public discourse in the Senate which further led to the reexamination of the 1972-1973 massacre, the legacy of colonisation and its impact in cementing ethnic divisions that led to cyclic mass violence in Burundi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1948, when Burma became independent, the British colonial administration left the country and was replaced by a British embassy and a British Council centre, in order to establish new diplomatic relations. Cultural diplomacy appeared as a good, informal way of furthering the embassy's initial goal of promoting peaceful and preferential diplomatic relations between Burma and Britain after the colonial era. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the British Council offered English classes to the Burmese public and encouraged the development of academic partnerships between the two countries. Yet in 1962, a military coup led by General Ne Win overthrew Prime Minister U Nu's democratically elected government and disrupted Anglo-Burmese relations. In the name of strict neutrality in foreign affairs, Ne Win's Revolutionary Council restricted all foreign cultural missions' actions in Burma, notably their ability to teach foreign languages to Burmese students, until the British Council was eventually forced to close down and transfer some of its remaining missions to the British embassy in 1967. Based on British Council archives gathered at the National Archives in London, this article examines a forced 'diplomatic departure', by focusing on the impact of the Burmese internal political crisis on Anglo-Burmese diplomatic and cultural relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of socio-economic underdevelopment in the Arab region has been a perennial theme in development studies. While some scholars highlight the long durée effect of the Ottoman institutional legacy, others place the blame on the legacy of exploitation and expropriation of the colonial practices in the region. The article reaches beyond the two accounts (albeit departing from the colonial economic basis) and brings out the agency of the post-colonial elites who altered the socio-economic foundation of the political class and transformed processes of capital accumulation and labour commodification. I argue that the processes of state-building accompanied by social engineering measures represented a 'critical juncture' that impinged on state autonomy and its bureaucratic capacity and left an indelible imprint on development strategies. The article unpacks three mechanisms that proved consequential for economic policy outcomes: (1) the degree of elite autonomy to formulate policies, (2) the power of social classes to contest economic policies, and (3) the capacity of state bureaucracy to implement policies and allocate resources. A critical political economy perspective, that reaches beyond the reification of the state and examines the interaction between 'elite deals' and 'social bargains', offers a nuanced account for varied development records across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La filología ha sido más a menudo irrelevante que controvertida dentro de los debates críticos dominantes. Con la expansión de las tecnologías eléctricas y la fragmentación de las disciplinas nacionalistas que primero nutrieron la filología, su desaparición puede parecer más segura que nunca. De hecho, Roberta Frank ha señalado que algunos diccionarios declaran audazmente que la palabra ya no está en uso. Parece que muchos se han tomado a pecho el consejo de René Wellek de "abandonar" la filología. Frank, sin embargo, sigue preguntándose por el futuro y concluye con una pregunta que me ha interesado desde que me enfrenté por primera vez a la perspectiva de impartir un curso de postgrado en filología (tradicionalmente un curso técnico para especialistas en estudios medievales) para estudiantes interesados principalmente en las literaturas modernas: "¿Tiene la filología, retrógrada hasta la médula, un tiempo futuro? "1 Mis experiencias con "Introducción a la filología románica" me llevaron a formular la pregunta en términos propios de los debates críticos actuales: ¿puede la filología alcanzar el siguiente "post" junto con lo "moderno" y lo "colonial"? ¿Cómo puede una disciplina dedicada a las metanarrativas sobre el lenguaje hacer frente a las críticas sobre la unidad tanto del lenguaje como de la subjetividad? ¿Y cómo puede una disciplina fomentada en medio de los colonialismos europeos del siglo XIX enfrentarse a las críticas de esa historia y sus legados? Abstract Philology has been more often irrelevant than controversial within mainstream critical debates. With the expansion of electric technologies and the fragmentation of the nationalist disciplines that first nurtured philology, its demise may seem more certain than ever. Indeed, Roberta Frank has pointed out that some dictionaries boldly declare that the word is no longer in use. Many, it would seem, have taken to heart René Wellek’s advice “to abandon” philology altogether. Frank, however, still wonders about the future and concludes with a question that has interested me since I first faced the prospect of teaching a graduate course in philology (traditionally a technical course for specialists in medieval studies) for students primarily interested in modern literatures: “Does Philology, backward looking to her core, have a future tense?”1 My experiences with “Introduction to Romance Philology” led me to formulate the question in terms specific to current critical debates: can philology reach the next “post” along with the “modern” and the “colonial”? How can a discipline devoted to meta-narratives about language cope with critiques of the unity of both language and subjectivity? And how can a discipline fostered in the midst of nineteenth-century European colonialisms engage critiques of that history and its legacies? DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10433410

The Ainu are indigenous groups of people found in Hokkaido and northeast Honshu, Japan. During the nineteenth century, their land was integrated into the Japanese empire and the people redefined and assimilated. While intended to erase the Ainu as distinct groups, policies and discourses also showed that Ainu communities were not accepted as belonging to the category of 'Japanese', with the notions that they lacked Japanese ingenuity and civilization, were stuck in a prehistoric past, and lived in terra nullius. These discourses influenced the formation of museums' collections in Japan, such as the Tokyo National Museum (TNM) and the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka (Minpaku). By offering a reading of exhibitions on the Ainu and their accompanying catalogues between 1977 and 2017, this research sheds light on how colonial legacies continue to be shaped and challenged in representing Ainu communities in museums. The TNM seems unable to challenge tropes of this colonial discourse due to their intricate connection with the government, their notion of political neutrality, and their focus on art that tends to exclude the Ainu from the museum. Minpaku, on the other hand, has tried to introduce notions of cultural relativism and centre cooperation with Ainu communities to facilitate best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential for truth-telling and healing created by the recently announced National Resting Place for Indigenous Ancestral Remains in Australia. The return of Indigenous Ancestral Remains provides the opportunity to make redress for past wrongs, and to reflect on the attitudes which informed the dehumanizing practices of their past collection and display. Indigenous Ancestral Remains are critical to truth-telling in Australia as by their very existence and materiality they disrupt colonial narratives about terra nullius. However, human remains are also a powerful reminder of the limits of human rights processes. We consider the potential of the National Resting Place as a new Australian site of truth and memory to disrupt the traditional 'museum' model and to restore the dignity and respect owing to previously objectified human remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the novels of Maissa Bey's Bleu Blanc Vert and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, this article examines the legacy of colonialism on post-imperial societies. Both novels engage with the relationship between culturally hybrid people and their compatriots, who are against the cultural colonial legacy in post-independence Algeria and Nigeria. This article contends that these texts can be interpreted as an appeal to settle tensions vis-à-vis the colonial legacy in post-independence societies, and to create a bond of solidarity between members of the same society. The article examines the social tensions that the culturally hybrid subjects experience in the novels, and proposes the concept of 'hybrid affirmation' as a way of coming to terms with the cultural colonial heritage. Although displacement, alienation, and rejection characterise the nature of the everyday life of Algerian and Nigerian post-independence people, affirmation of the self, trust and stability mark the attitude of the culturally hybrid characters by the end of both novels. Such an attitude is defined as the 'hybrid affirmation' of the postcolonial individual. The concept of 'hybrid affirmation' is intended to eliminate the gap that has long been widened by conflicts about the cultural colonial legacy. 'Hybrid affirmation' seeks to reframe postcolonial criticism so that characteristics such as strength and determination become attributed to the postcolonial individual instead of loss, disillusionment and displacement. Finally, 'Hybrid affirmation' implies ceasing conflicts about the cultural colonial heritage that exist between members of the same society in Algeria and Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the curriculum of the MA English (a two year program) of the departments of English that had been in practice in the public-sector universities of Pakistan until recently. The research employs a broader postcolonial transformative perspective to analyse the curriculum while looking at how Pakistan (being a formercolony of the Great Britain) has dealt with its colonial legacy. The study, thus, focusses on understanding the canonicity of English literature in the curricula that remained an inevitable part of the curricula in the selected Pakistani universities since the colonial times. The research draws from the existing postcolonial critiques of English literature. It combines the contents' analysis of the MA (English) curricula with survey research to bring to light the issue of the curricula of literary studies in English in Pakistan. The study finds that the departments of English in Pakistan (which historically retained the legacy of colonial literature) have started transforming in recent times as new literatures in English (from the non-native regions) have emerged to represent their societies on the global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A colonial legacy, the nature of which subliminally instils ingrained reproductions of racial inferiority and superiority, makes it necessary to highlight the need to focus in more depth on the race and racism discourse of social work academics. As social work educators within the current South African higher education, the importance of social justice cannot be overemphasised. Considering the colonial undertones of South African social work education and the multicultural nature of South African society, in this article, I focus on the ethical implications of a colonial legacy and lingering race and racism issues for social work education. The article is derived from part of a qualitative study on discourses about race and racism with 16 academics within the higher education arena. In the article, I employed a non-probability sampling method, face-to-face interviews and a discursive data analysis approach. An excerpt of the interview with one academic Claire (white) is analysed by the researcher (black) with specific focus on Claire's race and racism discourse. The focus is on critically and reflexively engaging with the ethical implications this has for social work education in the current era. It also contains my reflections as a social work academic navigating issues of race and racism. The findings evidenced seeming obliviousness to coloniality for Claire, which I inadvertently channel. This reflects the challenges of the South African commitment to moving beyond colonialism and the challenge this poses for social work values and ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian & Latin American Economic History is the property of Cambridge University Press 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.)

In this paper, I discuss how Lewis Carroll’s Alice narratives, and in particular his so-called nonsense poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (from Through the Looking-Glass, 1871), can read as subtexts to the opening chapters of The Boy in the Bush by D.H. Lawrence and M.L. Skinner. First I consider how the dialogue with Lewis Carroll’s texts conveys both Freemantle’s geographic features and its unfamiliarity to new arrivals and how, as a result, Lawrence and Skinner’s narrative subverts geography and chronology creating its own (nonsense) chronotope, a useful Bakhtinian concept to examine anachronisms and anageography.I show how language is reorganized to assert national identity thanks to puns, Australianisms and syllogisms which often re-echo Alice’s experiences in Wonderland or the other side of the looking-glass. Besides these linguistic games, I highlight how the competing voices in this powerful novel, that of the Australian, Mollie Skinner, writing in the romantic tradition of bush adventures also illustrated by Katharine Prichard’s novels, and that of D.H. Lawrence, the Britisher, who infuses the narrative with his own vision of “the spirit of place,” create a tension that nonsense may resolve.

This article traces the border disputes between Assam and her neighbouring states in North East India, and observes that it is purely a legacy of colonial rule in the region. Tribal territories in North East India were demarcated in the province of Assam one after another and foot hills were declared as reserved forests which are now the border dispute zone. Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh began to face border dispute with Assam after their separation from Assam. The present border dispute between Assam and Mizoram is in the 509 square miles reserved forest area which Mizoram claims it as its area since pre-colonial era but Assam also made similar claims to it. Mizoram advocates solution of the problem on the basis of the notification of 1875 but Assam advocates for solution of the problem as per notification of 1933. There is no clear-cut mention of inter-state boundary to be claimed as constitutional boundary. Hence, amicable solution of the border dispute may possibly be achieved only through political dialogue between the two states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how various of contested sites of the internationally recognized state encapsulated in the ethos of the West perpetuate colonial legacy, marginalize indigenous wisdom, and disregard ecological awareness and actions that go against the well-being of humans and the planet itself. These contested sites have been occurring due to ongoing imperialist-colonialist practices and policies imposed on indigenous peoples in the name of progress, development, and homogenization. This paper highlights the urgency and agency of restoring indigenous ecological consciousnesses and alternative ways of knowing so that they can re-emerge in our private and public lives to rebuild nations, peoples, and communities. The knowledge and acknowledgment of these issues drawing from a rural indigenous context in Bangladesh will help generate a broader understanding to formulate appropriate education policies, pedagogy, and practices that address, educate, and enlighten the world about the colonialist-capitalist agenda of exploitation and eradication of the indigenous way of life. More specifically, this paper reflects on the possibilities of an ecologically, economically, and culturally sustainable world, and it recommends ideas and concepts for sustainable education policies and practices for various stakeholders to transform damaging attitudes towards indigenous culture as well as the ecology of our planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explored the music performance practices in the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). The authors examined musical practices envisioned in the ZRP from colonial times to date. The ZRP music section has dance and brass bands, traditional dance, and vocal ensembles. The study focused on the ZRP dance and brass bands since they were subjected to colonial practices. Decoloniality theory was used to interrogate the data. A qualitative research methodology was used to examine the ZRP musical practices. Thirty participants were purposively sampled from current and ex-members of the ZRP. The study collected data through interviews and observations to understand the ZRP musical practices. The study explored topics including sight-reading, harmony, discipline, performance of copyrighted music, European songs, and transcription to explain how they affected the musical practices of the ZRP. The data showed that certain practices, like the playing of "Roast Beef of Old England" depicts the colonial system. Other practices, like playing European calls at national and police ceremonial events did not reflect African contexts. Although the ZRP incorporated indigenous musical practices into their musical renditions, more musical act ivities are needed to replace the fanfare and songs, including "Scipio," "Road to the Isles," and "Waltzing Matilda." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for the necessity of an approach to diaconal work that can best be defined as active and sustainable peacebuilding and reconciliation toward social transformation. It explores ways in which a diaconia specifically informed by justice and peace perspectives, called "justpeace-diaconia" by the author, should serve as an entry point for engagement into the complex dynamics towards reconciliation in the Canadian context, deepened by its colonial legacy that still pervades the social fabric. These challenges and diversities—even complicities—of perspective are viewed through the lens of peace-diaconia to examine the implications for diaconal work in Canada and explore whether meaningful journeys for reconciling and building relationships are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on the history of Korean public health have shown that the public hygiene system in Korea under Japan’s colonial rule relied heavily on the sanitary police, whose lack of expertise in hygiene reinforced the coercion and violence of the colonial public hygiene system. This view, however, has overlooked the existence and function of scientific knowledge, which underpinned the formulation and implementation of public hygiene policies. This paper explores the knowledge production in public hygiene by research institutes of Japan’s colonial government in Korea, drawing on the Hygiene Laboratory as a case. The Hygiene Laboratory chiefly played three roles: first, providing advice on the sanitary police’s crackdowns; second, quality inspection of food, beverage, and pharmaceuticals, and authorizing their production and distribution; third, investigating health resources such as conventional food ingredients, medicinal herbs, and drinking water to support the wartime public health policy of the colonial government in Korea. The third function in particular continued after the reorganization of the Hygiene Laboratory as the National Chemistry Laboratory in the postcolonial period. By tracing the Hygiene Laboratory’s research activities, this paper highlights the complicated cooperation between expertise, practices, and institutions in the field of sanitation control in colonial Korea.

The urban areas in developing countries are notoriously infamous for their housing conditions and overall livability. Kolkata, a primary urban region of West Bengal, is the third most populous city in the country, with a population of over 14 million in 2011. It was also the Capital of the British India until 1912, and its urban structures and the segregationist approaches are evident even today in its urban livability. This research examines the contours of Kolkata's colonial legacy on its current urban livability through the pervasive and persistent realities of its dilapidated housing structures and the conditions of its household traits and amenities. We use archival and textual discourse analysis, along with visual interpretations of ward-level 2011 Census household statistics to explore the continuation of colonial legacies in contemporary intra-urban spaces of Kolkata. This study traverses us through the spatially varying levels of urban livability in Kolkata which link these with imprints of colonial era's segregationist flavors. This study provides helpful information on the current livable conditions and the persistent disparities among households in the 141 wards of Kolkata city. We hope these findings will help the urban planners and policy makers to better strategize sustainable urban development and improve the quality of life of Kolkata's residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The University of Edinburgh holds a substantial collection of manuscripts in Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and South Asian languages, formerly known as the "Oriental Manuscript Collection". This article reports recent steps taken to make this collection, which consists largely of manuscripts collected by Scottish East India Company officials between the late 18th and mid 19th centuries C.E, relevant to the present day global audience, and to widen access to it. This includes its renaming as "Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia", and the creation of a digitally searchable catalogue on the ArchivesSpace platform, largely through the use of "legacy data" from a 1925 printed catalogue, yet with a focus on making provenance information readily available. We discuss the challenges involved in renaming, and indeed reinterpreting, a historical collection whilst adhering to the principles of archival and library science. We share the methodology used to create our digitally searchable catalogue, a relatively simple model that may well prove useful for those curating similar collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While gender in textbooks has elicited scholarly investigation in recent decades, there has been less emphasis on masculine identity as perceived through postcolonial and decolonial lenses. This article addresses the limitations in the scholarship and challenges the colonial emasculation of the Algerian man through a (re) construction of masculine identity in French foreign language textbooks. The textbooks decolonize French colonial ways of seeing through a glorification of Algeria's (pre-) colonial past and its masculine heroic leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]