Suchergebnisse

The present paper seeks 'to explore the nature of Indian secularism, the difficulties it has run into, and the ways in which it may be revised'. This is a large undertaking for a short text, originally written as public lecture, particularly because the issues posed do nopt readily translate into plain questions. The most that I can hope to do is to raise some doubts and make a few suggestions for rethinking the issues involved.

Stability of Kyrgyzstan in light of economic problems and ethnic and religious tensions.

Indian newspapers and academic journals assault their readers with stories of large-scale communal violence and of the communalization of India's political institutions. These stories are frequently accompanied by pious editorials which enact the well-known Indian ritual of paying lip-service to the concept of 'secularism'. Secularism is one question on which intellectuals have made common cause with social workers and politicians, joining them in meetings and seminars, even participating in the peace marches which are commonly organized in the aftermath of communal riots. There have even been occasions in which individuals who are known to have been involved, directly or otherwise, in communal battles, have participated in these rites of secularism.

MUSTAFA KEMAL--ATATURK--DIED FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER HE ESTABLISHED THE TURKISH REPUBLIC AFTER SHAPING A MODERN COURSE FOR HIS COUNTRY. THE ISSUES OF ATATURK'S VIEWS ON NATION BUILDING AND ISLAM, NOW THE RELIGION OF 98 TO 99 PERCENT OF TURKEY'S POPULATION (JUST A FEW MORE PERCENT THAN IN 1923), AND HOW HIS SUCCESSORS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO BALANCE SECULARISM WITH THE RESURGENCE OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS IS ADDRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE. HOWEVER, BEFORE DISCUSSING THE POLICIES OF ATATURK AND HIS SUCCESSORS, THE ARTICLE ADDRESSES THE PERSONALITY OF ATATURK AND HIS PATH TO POWER, SO AS TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE TURKISH LEADER DEVELOPED HIS IDEAS CONCERNING NATION BUILDING AND ISLAM.