Suchergebnisse

"Professor Tan Tai Yong is the Institute of Policy Studies' 6th S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. This book is an edited collection of his six IPS-Nathan Lectures, delivered between September 2018 and May 2019, and includes highlights of his dialogue with the audience. In his lecture series, Professor Tan examines how Singapore has evolved over its 700-year history as a regional emporium, colonial port city and city-state. He shows that Singapore's history is influenced by the recurring themes of geography, movements of people, networks and globalisation. An understanding of the twists and turns of this long history, and the ways in which historical circumstances have shaped Singapore's fate and fortunes, can offer important insights and a better appreciation of our strengths and challenges as a city-state."--

In 1920, Sikhs in the Punjab started a campaign aimed at freeing their principal gurdwaras (temples) from the control of their hereditary incumbents. The campaign quickly gathered momentum, and, within a few months, it developed into a non-violent anti-government movement. Unlike the rather shortlived 1919 Disturbances and the Non-Cooperation-Khilafat movement in the Punjab, the Sikh agitation, which came to be known as the Akali movement, did not cease until 1925 and caused considerable concern to the Punjab authorities, as well as the Government of India. The Akali movement was not limited, as in past cases of anti-British agitation involving the Sikhs, to small groups of disaffected Sikhs, returned emigrants, or Congress sympathizers; at its height in 1922, the unrest encompassed the bulk of central Punjab's Jat Sikh peasantry, one of the most militarized sections of Punjabi society. The Sikh community's martial traditions, fostered by their religious doctrines and culture, had been kept alive during British rule by the recruitment policies of the Indian Army, where, in 1920, one in every fourteen adult male Sikhs in the Punjab was in service. This meant that the abiding allegiance of the Sikh community to the Raj was a matter of considerable importance, and their estrangement, especially that of the Jat Sikh peasantry, would adversely affect the Sikh regiments of the Indian Army. It also meant that if the community as a whole was provoked into open rebellion, British hold on the Punjab could well nigh prove untenable.

The vital importance of the Indian Army as the guardian of the imperial order in India was never more evident than during the interwar years. The period from 1919 to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 was a testing time for the Raj; state authority was being challenged by a mounting nationalist movement, and public order was frequently disrupted by civil disobedience campaigns, as well as recurrent outbreaks of communal violence. In maintaining public order the colonial state had always been prepared to rely on that ultimate guarantee of its authority and power–the Indian Army. However, in frequent discussions of the deployment of the military in 'aid of civil power', the continued loyalty of the bulk of the army the Indian soldiers and officers, was never questioned, and seemed to be taken for granted.2 Yet, both the Government of India and the to be taken for granted.2 Yet, both the Government of India and the Army Headquarters were well awar that the 'loyalty' of the Army could never be guaranteed, and that it was conditional upon a stable and pacified recruiting base; if that base were to be 'subverted', then the Indian Army, or portions of it, would not only cease to be of use as an instrument of state power, but could ultimately pose a threat to the Raj itself

This book is a compilation of well-researched papers that examine the evolving economic, political and social landscapes of South Asia. While celebrating the economic and political growth of the countries of the region, it also highlights the challenges that they are likely to face in the coming years, such as the domestic strifes in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the region's external relations with key global players such as East Asia and the United States. Socio-Political and Economic Challenges in South Asia brings together some of the best minds to provide fresh insights