Browsing by Subject "Partition"
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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 The Nizam's last stand : Hyderabad's place in India's partition(2010-05) Boitmann, Brian Paul; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Minault, GailThis work sets out to chronicle the predicament which the state of Hyderabad under Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan found itself as the British prepared to partition the Indian subcontinent in 1947. With the intent to understand fully the place of Hyderabad before the partition, it offers a glimpse into the Nizam’s relationship with the British Empire throughout its history, especially focusing on the period of Mir Oman’s reign, while also comparing Hyderabad to states, Travancore and Kashmir, which faced similar difficulties after partition. Although the Nizam had legal right to maintain Hyderabad’s independence in post-partition India, India never accepted the idea of a sovereign state in its center and with the onset of partition violence and subsequent issues with Pakistan involving Kashmir, increasingly prepared to bring Hyderabad into accession in whatever way needed. By tracing the negotiations which took place between the Nizam and India, as well as the situation on the ground both in and around Hyderabad during the 1946-1948, this work elucidates the issues which ultimately led to the downfall of the Nizam’s regime in Hyderabad while offering a view into the further effects which partition had on the princely states in India.Item Retrocession, partition and sporting communities in fractured societies : baseball in Taiwan and Gaelic games in Ireland, 1884-1968(2011-12) Harney, John James; Li, Huaiyin; Chang, Yvonne; Hsu, Madeline Y.; Metzler, Mark; Oppenheim, Robert; Traphagan, JohnThis dissertation examines the roles of popular sports baseball and Gaelic Games in Taiwanese and Irish society respectively between the years 1884 and 1968. During this period, the spread of each sport in popularity and the subsequent increased profile in the public realm highlighted similar challenges faced by the societies of each territory as inhabitants of minor players in a global political system dominated by major powers. The development of Taiwanese baseball and its spread in popularity during the colonial period reveals the extent to which divisions between colonial Japanese and local Taiwanese blurred beyond the parameters of governmental efforts at coexistence and assimilation. Two teams in particular, the Nenggao team of 1924-25 and the KANO team of 1931, give evidence of a colonial Taiwanese sporting culture that featured strengthening connections with sporting culture in Japan. In both cases, baseball displayed potential as an integrating force in colonial Taiwanese society between social groups resident on the island rather than as a source for opposition to colonial rule. This is in direct contrast to Irish society, where the resurgence in popularity of Gaelic Games occurred within the political context of exclusivist nationalism. Gaelic Games existed as cultural markers of an Irish culture defined by a Gaelic ethnic identity and political commitment to an Irish nation state, choosing to ignore the realities of partition and the existence of a sizable Loyalist community in the north of the country. This viewpoint persisted until the late 1960s, when the eruption of paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland irrevocably changed the terms of Irish political participation. At the same time, Taiwanese baseball transitioned from a shared cultural form between Taiwan and Japan to a potent avenue for emerging Taiwanese political voices in 1968 with the widely celebrated success of the Hongye schoolboy baseball team. Baseball’s popularity had persisted in the face of ambivalent attitudes among ruling Guomindang officials following retrocession, but the Hongye victory marked the introduction of specific political overtones to Taiwanese baseball, bringing an end to decades of the sport’s primary role as an act of public participation with limited political connotations.Item The unintended consequences of border politics(2010-12) Jackson, Jeffrey Stephen; Minault, Gail, 1939-; Louis, RogerThis report explores the reasons why the Pakistan tribal areas have become a haven and hotbed of radicalism and the steps being taken to reestablish control and to promote peace and stability in the region. It begins with a brief overview of the recent history (1893 to Partition) of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by the political and cultural ramifications in the area due to the creation of Pakistan. Religion, tribal customs, socio-economic development and the unique political relationship between the FATA and the central government must be considered when forming policy recommendations and planning future engagements. The article concludes with an examination of recent initiatives by the U.S. and Pakistan to pacify the area, to include short term and long term strategies, and describes the ramifications of failure.