Suchergebnisse

The 'success' of a development project, it is generally
accepted, is related to the feasibility of its objectives within the
socioeconomic conditions of the context in which the programme is to be
implemented. What remains less categorical however, is the
correspondence between the objectives of the programme design, and the
aims of those who seek to implement it. So long as these goals are
shared, the modifications in the design, necessitated by ground
realities can be tackled accordingly, and the efficacy of the
intervention can be gauged with reference to the convergent thrust.
Non-conformity between the two, on the other hand, can result in an
under utilisation of the potential that may exist for the translation of
defined objectives into practical measures, for the pursuit of desired
outcomes.

My difficulties with this paper relate primarily to the
methodology. Professor Christophe Jaffrelot has chosen to omit the
section on Kashmir that figured in the version first presented at the
Fourteenth Annual General Meeting, of the Pakistan Society of
Development Economists. The omission reinforces the exception I have to
the approach. In my comments therefore, I will include some
inter-related, and overlapping dimensions of the subject addressed, the
exclusion of which, to my mind, hampers an holistic analysis. I will
draw attention to the 'role of Islam' in Indian Muslim politics before
partition, and the question of national identity since the creation of
Pakistan. I will also highlight some of the features of the phenomenon
of ethnicity itself that help explain the dynamics of the nature,
content, and process of identity formation, and hence, an understanding
of the mechanics of the identity that became pertinent during the
Pakistan Movement. Similarly, I will comment on the ethnic expressions
(that have been defined and re-defined) within the national context
since the creation of Pakistan.

This book is a collection of nine essays. Except for the last
chapter, all the essays were written between 1978 and 1990 and are
extentions of an earlier work, Language, Religion, and Politics in North
India (Cambridge University Press) published by the author in 1974. Two
main arguments constitute the theme of the book. First, that ethnicity
and nationalism are social and political constructions of modern
conditions rather than reflections of primordial identities. Second,
that both these constructions are related to the role of a centralising
state. They depend upon the kinds of alliances that are made between the
state and the regional or other non-dominant élites. As such, ethnicity
and nationalism are seen as the outcome of interactions between the
state leadership and the élites from non-dominant ethnic groups,
especially the groups on the peripheries of such states.

Worsley and his colleagues (1971) have drawn attention to the
tendency in all traditional societies, to assume communal relations as
'solidary' in nature. The structure of village cooperatives is presumed
to reinforce the solidarity of those relations. Anthropological
analyses, however, have illustrated that communal relations range from
those that could be termed 'solidary' to relations that are in direct
conflict. The response of the local population to the changes introduced
within the co-operative framework is therefore likely to be
cross-culturally varied. Moreover, the demographic features of
historically common conditions of a geographical area, it is argued, are
also pertinent to the "success" that maybe expected of village
cooperatives with reference to their stated objectives. The strength and
identity of the socio-economic groups inhabiting a given geographical
region play a role in defining local response to the changes introduced
and their likely outcome.

Among the neighbouring countries of South and South-East Asia
who responded to the demand for labour following the oil price hike in
the Middle East in 1973, India had sent out an estimated 75600 workers
as migrants to the Middle East by 1987. Of these, 30100 workers had
migrated from Kerala alone (Appendix I on p. 147 ofthis book shows).
Gulati's book sketches the profiles of ten such households. The book is
a simple and direct narration of the effects on the women left behind on
account of the absence of the men of their households who went to work
in Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait from the mid-seventies. The analysis
is based primarily on the biographies of the wives of ten migrants. The
consequences of migration are assessed with reference to other
family-members of the migrant as well, particularly women other than the
wife (i.e., mostly the mothers and sisters).

The controversy between the 'academic' and 'applied'
parameters of anthropology, has divided the practitioners of
anthropology since the discipline became a university science in the
last decades of the ninteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Anthropology has primarily been concerned with the study of the nature,
content, and transformation of social phenomena in general. There is
hence, an obvious contradiction between the generality of the
subject-matter, and concern with scientific objectivity on the one hand;
and the biases inherent within the applicability of the parameters of
anthropology to concrete given situations, and the obligation to
compensate for the debt owed to the sources that make the study
possible, on the other.

Contrary to expectation, and the generally accepted belief
that ethnicity defines one's primordial indentity and is, therefore,
relevant and functiooal only in a pre-modem context, the phenomenon of
ethnicity has surfaced in the modem world as a fOICe more vital than
class contIi::t and a source more pertinent to resolving peICeived
inequalities and thereby affecting desired social change. This paper
examines the ethnic garb assumed by the uprisings and armed conflicts
currently ravaging Karachi. The examination is undertaken within the
framework of Hannan's model of the dynamics of interactions between the
centre and the periphery (as based on Barth's niche theory). The paper,
thus, seeks to understand the conditions which caused the definition,
reinfoICement, and functional relevance of ethni:: boundaries, as well
as the consequent salience of the phenomenon in the modem urban
context.

This book is a personalized search by the author for a
reconciliation between the "Islamic ideal" and the vast variety of
ethnically, economically, politically and socially diverse muslim
societies the world over. The research is conducted with reference to
"six socia-historical categories", which constitute for the author "a
theory of Islamic History". These are: 1. the time of the Prophet and
the ideal caliphs (Le., the fIrst four caliphs called Rashidun); 2. the
Arab dynasties (meaning the Umayyads and the Abbasids); 3. the three
muslim empires (or the Ottomans, the Saffavids and the Mughals); 4.
Islam of the periphery (referring to societies in which muslims are in
minority, nameiy, the USSR, China, Southeast Asia and South of the
Sahara in Africa); 5. Islam under European rule (Le., under the impact
of colonization by England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy
on ''muslim society"); and 6. contemporary Islam. (p. 33).

This paper discusses some issues currently preoccupying social
scientists with respect to the process of development and its
implications for Third World countries. These issues have become highly
significant considering the momentum and nature of the development
process being launched in the so-called "underdeveloped" world, within
the context of modern nation-states. Therefore, in this paper, we seek
to identify: (a) What is meant by development; (b) How the encounter
between this process and traditional social structures (with their own
functional logic, based on earlier forms of production and social
existence) takes place; (c) What the implications of this encounter are;
and (d) What lessons we can learn in this regard from history and
anthropology. Development as a planned and organized process, the prime
issue concerning both local and Western experts in Third World
countries, is a recent phenomenon in comparison to the exposure of Third
World countries to the Western Industrial system. The former gained
momentum subsequent to the decolonization of the bulk of the Third World
in the last half of this century, whereas the latter dates to at least
the beginning of this century, if not earlier, when the repercussions of
colonization, and later the two World Wars, became manifest in these
countries.

Much of the debate on the modernisation of the common property
regimes deals with the problem of the rationality of these regimes.
Justification for the policy to be followed in planning change for such
arrangements is given according to the divergent view points of
development scientists on the subject This paper advocates rethinking of
some of the fundamental concepts involved in the examination of the
contexts where external intervention is to take place for the purposes
of development, if a meaningful inter-disciplinary approach to
development is to emerge. It invokes Godelier's treatise on the historic
and social logic of real, rather than formal rationality, to highlight
the bias inherent within, and limitedness of, the general understanding
of the concept of formal rationality, or its focused, rather than
holistic treatment in socio-historic terms. The case of the Chaprote
forest in the Nagar valley of Northern Pakistan is presented to
illustrate the historical and cultural rationality of traditional
communal arrangements from the local consumption and conservation points
of view, and the functioning of a logic within such arrangements which
is relative and specific to the context in question. The variance
between the thrust of external intervention, and the local potentials
for managing and exploiting local resources is thus emphasised. Some
recommendations for developing traditional regimes within the local and
larger socio-historical context are made in conclusion.

This presentation is a more comprehensive version of the paper
that has been circulated. The paper examines the terms of access to the
resources of the Chaprote forest in the Nagar valley of Northern
Pakistan, before and since 1972. In 19n, the Nagar valley became part of
the Federally Administered Areas of ~akistan. The political
transformation of the regime, was contiguous with changes in the
economic situation, which affected local requirements, allocation, and
access to natural resources. Our analysis hence, focuses on some of the
excesses and inadequacies of regimes being incorporated within a
political economy on the one hand, and being subjected to interventions
at odds with local potential and former systems of managing and
exploiting local resources on the other. Our aim is to make suggestions
for better management, conservation and development of forest resources.
This. exercise includes the concern of environmentalists, among other
issues, over conserving finite natural resources, and maintaining a
symbiosis between regeneration and depletion of renewable natural
resources [Dubois (1976); Rapoport (1978); Sachs (1978, 1980) and
Simonis (n.d)].