Browsing by Subject "Bangladesh"
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Item Bangladesh’s forest NGOscape : visions of Mandi indigeneity, competing eco-imaginaries, and faltering entrepreneurs in the climate of suspicion(2013-05) Dodson, Alex Ray; Ali, Kamran Asdar, 1961-The assemblage of competing development programs I call an "NGOscape", effective in Bangladesh's forest spaces, is a window into understanding both local and extra-local imaginings of the future of these spaces. By tracing the close interaction of three of the most prominent forces in operation in Bangladesh's forest NGOscapes: indigeneity, environmentalism, and entrepreneurialism, I discuss how the government and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) work to increase management and securitization of these forces. Through ethnography and close analysis of the minority Mandi community, and NGOs in the capital city of Dhaka and in rural Modhupur, Tangail, I interpret Modhupur as a vital and telling site for examining the close interdependence of these three themes. Adivasi ("aboriginal") folklorization and representation is deployed by Mandi leaders and NGOs, and provides a space for Mandi internal debates about authenticity, representation, modernity, and the way forward. Neoliberal imaginings centered on transforming Mandi livelihoods into something more appropriately modern are realized on the ground, evidenced by Alternative Income Generation (AIG) programs that push for market integration, and attempt to utilize claims about adivasi indigeneity to advance a security-management paradigm, national stability, and civic responsibility. Young activists and environmentalists based in Dhaka are crucial forces in promoting the broader development and NGO agenda, utilizing the themes of environmental responsibility and progressive conservation programs. Additionally, development agendas are complicated by other factors, such as eco-tourism trends that seek to indoctrinate the Mandi and other rural actors into acceptable and responsible ways of managing environment, while also relying on national pride. These competing forces rely on national pride and social shaming to transform rural Bangladeshis from being somehow "backward" into more desirable, modern subjects. Yet severe distrust within a larger "climate of suspicion," between adivasi leaders, activists, and the state ultimately disrupt the fluidity of development practices at the local level. The result places various actors in precarious positions, left to interpret and be interpreted into development, NGO, and state-based objectives.Item Deliberate uncertainty : the South Asian Crisis of 1971, the Nixon White House, and the U.S. State Department(2012-08) Bunch, Patrick Dean; Minault, Gail, 1939-; Suri, JeremiThis thesis focuses on the events surrounding the South Asia Crisis of 1971, beginning in when the Pakistani government launched its military crack-down in East Pakistan in the spring and extending to the conclusion of the Indo-Pak War by the year's end. It examines how President Nixon's administration and the US State Department viewed the events in South Asia, what they saw as being the appropriate response, and the differences in what they thought the US should do in response to what was happening on the other side of the globe. The analysis will reveal that the President and his primary foreign policy advisor, Dr. Kissinger, deliberately misled and misinformed the US State Department and its Ambassadors abroad in Pakistan and India in an effort to keep secret from them and the American public, the President's desire to support Pakistan and to blame India as the source of the conflict. The resulting confusion and misunderstanding by the diplomatic community raised tensions in the region, lengthened the conflict, and weakened America's credibility in the sub-continent.Item Hemingway in Bangladesh and India(2006-08) Hasan, Abu Z. M. R.; Conrad, Bryce D.; Schoenecke, Michael K.; Samson, JohnTo evaluate the reception of Ernest Hemingway in Bangladesh and India, it is appropriate and impetrative that I make an attempt to gauge an appreciation of Hemingway in England. Why link the reception of Hemingway in Bangladesh and India with his appreciation in England? One plausible answer is that the academy in the colonial Indian sub-continent first came in contact with Hemingway and his writings via the British critics and authors. Although the academy in colonial India looked at Hemingway both as a man and as an author, the British critics in the 1930’s and 1940’s appreciated him as “a story teller and particularly as teller of war stories” (Welland 31). Indeed, Welland believes that the Hemingway myth "suffered" in England "because it always reached the reader at second -- or even third hand" (32). This may be true with England, but not with colonial India. Here I disagree with Welland. I strongly believe that Hemingway's not traveling to colonial India or post-colonial Bangladesh and India and not acquainting himself with the people of these countries did not lessen his popularity any more than it aggravated the myth. His reputation there remained intact and unabashed. With the advent of the study of American literature in the British universities and colleges, Hemingway came to be recognized and studied with zeal and intensity on his own literary merits, and not as an indication of his impact on English literature. Hemingway empathized with all types of readers, young and old, unlike the English novelists. Writing on "Defects of English Novels" in 1935, Cyril Connolly argues that "the English novelist never establishes a respect-worthy relationship with his reader. The American novelists, Hemingway, Hammett, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, O'Hara, for instance, write instinctively for men of their own age, men who enjoy the same things; … it is an intimacy which at its worst degenerates into dogginess, but which in general brings out everything that is natural, easy, and unrepressed in the author… English novels seem always to be written for superiors or inferiors, older or younger people, or for the opposite sex." It is true that the influence of Hemingway on the English author has somewhat dwindled recently, but the fact remains that he has remained an historic figure if not a living force. Things, however, changed in India when it (along with Pakistan) became independent from the British rule in 1947. Pakistan, consisting of East and West Pakistan, further split in two, and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) after almost a yearlong bloody civil war with Pakistan, became an independent country in 1971 with the resultant separation from English influence came an identification with other literature. Although the introduction of American literature into the English curricula was moderately slow, the subject and scope of it has always fascinated the reading public and attracted considerable attention from literary critics and the academy in Bangladesh and India. In both Bangladesh and India the reception of American literature has intensified because of the success of a number of novelists in evincing a discernable influence outside America, especially in Europe. Indeed, the winning of the Nobel Prize by many twentieth century American authors has definitely brought the reading public, the professional critics, and the academy in Bangladesh and India much closer to the understanding and appreciation of the culture, society, and people of the countries that are separated geographically by a distance of more than ten thousand miles. Of all the American authors that have been received most favorably in Bangladesh and India, Ernest Hemingway tops the list. My dissertation is limited to – though not exclusively – an examination of the reception of Hemingway by the academy in Bangladesh and India. In addition, I will examine the reception of Hemingway which appeared in the Bangladeshi books, periodicals, newspapers, etc. from 1971 to 2006. The critics, used here in a generic sense, included the regular Hemingway scholars, students, university and college faculty members with an affective interest in Hemingway, local authors who write in their native language, Bengali, and the translators of Hemingway's novels and short stories. Because of the political and socio-economic conditions, religious constraints, logistical problems, language barriers, and the paucity of relevant sources, my study of Hemingway was extremely difficult to accomplish. Because of this difficulty I have had to divide my study into Introduction; American Literature in Bangladesh and India; the Hemingway legend in Bangladesh and India; Hemingway's Short Stories; Hemingway's Novels; and a Conclusion.Item Hemingway in Bangladesh and India(Texas Tech University, 2006-08) Hasan, Abu Z. M. R.; Conrad, Bryce D.; Samson, John; Schoenecke, Michael K.To evaluate the reception of Ernest Hemingway in Bangladesh and India, it is appropriate and impetrative that I make an attempt to gauge an appreciation of Hemingway in England. Why link the reception of Hemingway in Bangladesh and India with his appreciation in England? One plausible answer is that the academy in the colonial Indian sub-continent first came in contact with Hemingway and his writings via the British critics and authors. Although the academy in colonial India looked at Hemingway both as a man and as an author, the British critics in the 1930’s and 1940’s appreciated him as “a story teller and particularly as teller of war stories” (Welland 31). Indeed, Welland believes that the Hemingway myth "suffered" in England "because it always reached the reader at second -- or even third hand" (32). This may be true with England, but not with colonial India. Here I disagree with Welland. I strongly believe that Hemingway's not traveling to colonial India or post-colonial Bangladesh and India and not acquainting himself with the people of these countries did not lessen his popularity any more than it aggravated the myth. His reputation there remained intact and unabashed. With the advent of the study of American literature in the British universities and colleges, Hemingway came to be recognized and studied with zeal and intensity on his own literary merits, and not as an indication of his impact on English literature. Hemingway empathized with all types of readers, young and old, unlike the English novelists. Writing on "Defects of English Novels" in 1935, Cyril Connolly argues that "the English novelist never establishes a respect-worthy relationship with his reader. The American novelists, Hemingway, Hammett, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, O'Hara, for instance, write instinctively for men of their own age, men who enjoy the same things; … it is an intimacy which at its worst degenerates into dogginess, but which in general brings out everything that is natural, easy, and unrepressed in the author… English novels seem always to be written for superiors or inferiors, older or younger people, or for the opposite sex." It is true that the influence of Hemingway on the English author has somewhat dwindled recently, but the fact remains that he has remained an historic figure if not a living force. Things, however, changed in India when it (along with Pakistan) became independent from the British rule in 1947. Pakistan, consisting of East and West Pakistan, further split in two, and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) after almost a yearlong bloody civil war with Pakistan, became an independent country in 1971 with the resultant separation from English influence came an identification with other literature. Although the introduction of American literature into the English curricula was moderately slow, the subject and scope of it has always fascinated the reading public and attracted considerable attention from literary critics and the academy in Bangladesh and India. In both Bangladesh and India the reception of American literature has intensified because of the success of a number of novelists in evincing a discernable influence outside America, especially in Europe. Indeed, the winning of the Nobel Prize by many twentieth century American authors has definitely brought the reading public, the professional critics, and the academy in Bangladesh and India much closer to the understanding and appreciation of the culture, society, and people of the countries that are separated geographically by a distance of more than ten thousand miles. Of all the American authors that have been received most favorably in Bangladesh and India, Ernest Hemingway tops the list. My dissertation is limited to – though not exclusively – an examination of the reception of Hemingway by the academy in Bangladesh and India. In addition, I will examine the reception of Hemingway which appeared in the Bangladeshi books, periodicals, newspapers, etc. from 1971 to 2006. The critics, used here in a generic sense, included the regular Hemingway scholars, students, university and college faculty members with an affective interest in Hemingway, local authors who write in their native language, Bengali, and the translators of Hemingway's novels and short stories. Because of the political and socio-economic conditions, religious constraints, logistical problems, language barriers, and the paucity of relevant sources, my study of Hemingway was extremely difficult to accomplish. Because of this difficulty I have had to divide my study into Introduction; American Literature in Bangladesh and India; the Hemingway legend in Bangladesh and India; Hemingway's Short Stories; Hemingway's Novels; and a Conclusion.Item Narratives of belonging : Aligarh Muslim University and the partitioning of South Asia(2012-05) Abbas, Amber Heather; Minault, Gail, 1939-The partition of India that accompanied that nation's independence in 1947 created the additional state of Pakistan; by 1971, this Pakistan had fractured into the two independent states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. This dissertation seeks to expand our temporal and spatial understanding of the sub-continent's partitioning by examining the experiences of a group of South Asian Muslims across time and space. As this dissertation will show, South Asia's partitioning includes more than the official history of boundary creation and division of assets, and more than the people's history of unbridled violence. I have oriented my investigation around a single institution, the Aligarh Muslim University, and spoken to former students of the 1940s and 1950s, whose young lives were shaped by the independence and partition of India. The memories of these former students of Aligarh University offer a lens for examining the "multiple realities" of partition and the decolonized experiences of South Asian Muslims. The educational institution at Aligarh, founded in 1875, had long been concerned with cultivating a sporting, activist, masculine identity among its students; Muslim League leaders further empowered that identity as they recruited students for election work in support of Pakistan. The students embraced the values of the demand for Pakistan that appeared to be consistent with the values engendered at Aligarh. This dissertation uncovers the history of these students throughout the 1947 partition and beyond. It explores unexpected histories of trauma among communities who "chose to stay" but later experienced a powerful discontinuity in independent India. It exposes contradictions evident in remembered histories from Pakistanis who express triumph and grief at the prospect of Pakistani independence. Finally, this dissertation assesses the position of Muslims after partition and how the "disturbances" that began in the late 1940s continue to affect them today in both lived and remembered experience. As a site for examining the "disturbances" of partition, Aligarh University proves to be a hub of a community that was and remains deeply disturbed by the changes partition wrought.Item Suspended sediment transport in the Ganges-Brahmaputra River System, Bangladesh(2009-05-15) Rice, Stephanie KimberlyAn examination of suspended sediment concentrations throughout the Ganges-Brahmaputra River System was conducted to assess the spatial variability of river sediment in the world?s largest sediment dispersal system. During the high-discharge monsoon season, suspended sediment concentrations vary widely throughout different geomorphological classes of rivers (main river channels, tributaries, and distributaries). An analysis of the sediment loads in these classes indicates that 7% of the suspended load in the system is diverted from the Ganges and Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers into southern distributaries. Suspended sediment concentrations are also used to calculate annual suspended sediment loads of the main river channels. These calculations show that the Ganges carries 262 million tons/year and the Brahmaputra carries 387 million tons/year. These calculations are lower than published values because of either interannual variability and/or sampling artifacts and assumptions in the homogeneity of flow and sediment concentration. The conjoined Ganges-Brahmaputra River carries 530 million tons annually, or only 80% of the sum of the loads that the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers carry upstream of the confluence. The remaining 20% of sediment is diverted from the main river by the distributaries and deposited along the main river channel during overbank flooding. Suspended sediment concentration is also examined in the north-south oriented tidal channels on the Bay of Bengal to determine whether sediment is delivered to the channels by one of two pathways: (1) sediment is discharged into the Bay of Bengal by the main river channel, carried west by coastal currents, and advected northward into the channels by tidal currents or (2) diverted from the main river bed through the distributaries, migrating southward into the tidal channels. Suspended sediment concentration and salinity data are inconclusive in determining sediment source. Beryllium-7 radioisotope data indicate that newly transported sediment is present in the tidal channels and offshore despite values in the Ganges and Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers being below detection. Sampling artifacts are likely caused by the below detection readings in the Ganges and Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers. Newly transported sediment is observed in a distributary south of the Ganges River and indicates that sediment is actively being transported to the distributary region.