The Abolition of Bawih (Servitude) as an Emerging Social-Reform Movement in the Lushai Hills, Mizoram

INTRODUCTION At the time of writing, politics within Scotland and the UK is experiencing a period of uncertainty, with issues such as Brexit, Scottish nationalism, the ‘refugee crisis’ and continued economic insecurity creating a complicated and unprecedented political climate. Scotland, for many, is considered to be expressing a distinctive politics to the rest of the UK (Mooney, 2013; McAngus, 2015), with the Scottish National Party (SNP) having strong representation in both the Scottish and UK Parliaments. With regard to the electorate, there is a sense that young people in Scotland have recently become more politicised (Baxter et al., 2015; Hopkins, 2015), with sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds having been given the right to vote in the Scottish parliamentary elections and the 2014 independence referendum. This contests the frequent narrative that young people are politically apathetic (Kimberlee, 2002), and adds to a growing body of work that seeks to examine and unearth the varied and complex ways in which young people engage with political issues (Brookes and Hodkinson, 2008; O'Toole and Gale, 2013; Pilkington and Pollock, 2015). As highlighted in the Introduction, the Muslim population in Scotland is growing and 67% are aged thirty-four or under (National Records of Scotland, 2011). Young Muslims in Scotland, then, are an important demographic with regards to political participation. However, apart from the work of Hopkins (2007), there is a dearth of understanding of how young Muslims in Scotland are concerned with political issues (although see Chapter 7). The vast majority of research about Muslim experiences, political participation and racism still focuses on England (Hopkins, 2007). This is especially surprising when you consider that Scotland provides a distinctive political and cultural landscape, and that examining political participation sheds light on pertinent processes with regards to young Muslims, such as integration, belonging and selfdetermination (Anwar, 2015). This chapter examines the political participation and views of a variety of young Muslims, aged fifteen to twenty-seven, living in Scotland. We examine how different geographical scales impact on the political perceptions, identities and participation of young Muslims. The chapter is firmly grounded in the context of Scotland and examines how its political, social and cultural landscape can engender distinctive perceptions and engagements with political matters. However, we also analyse how the local/national intersects with the global, and examine the influence of international political events on political views and political participation.

PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO [Participation and Conflict] was created in 2008, the first journal in Italy to specialize in work analyzing political and social participation. The journal was to be open to interdisciplinary work, internationally oriented, and founded on rigorous criteria for review. 10 years later in 2018, we believe we have respected that aim. In Italy, PaCo is a touchstone for work on contentious politics, political participation and grassroots mobilization in Europe, and is steadily becoming more and more international. In the introduction to our first issue we described the journal as “an ambitious project born of the need to create an autonomous arena for debate dedicated to the study of the dynamics of transformation of contemporary political systems, with a specific focus on the analysis of participation and the political and social conflicts that characterize this. A journal not only about participation, but about political and social studies that place aspects of participation at their core, in all their intrinsic ambivalences, in their constitutive link to the dynamics of conflict”. We invited research and studies that focused on the transformations of politics and its principal actors: parties, interest groups, trade unions, social movements, associations, sub-cultural and counter-cultural communities, citizens’ committees and other forms of more or less formally organized actors “from below”. We sought work that investigated the processes of democratization and new forms of democratic participation in a participatory vein, but also on the ways in which spaces for collective action were being squeezed, and dynamics of identity closure; on spaces opening up or closing down, on new forms of governance at local, national or supranational level, without forgetting those forms of participation and conflict that challenge, in more or less radical ways, the political, social, economic and cultural foundations of contemporary societies.

Malgre les nombreux changements de la pratique anthropologique depuis une cinquantaine d'annees, notamment une amplitude des objets de recherche, les societes dites traditionnelles, primitives, orales, simples font toujours l'objet de l'interet privilegie des ethnologues. Si la terminologie utilisee pour designer ces societes a ete modifiee au cours du temps (afin de s'eloigner, entre autres, des theories evolutionnistes), les definitions restent encore imprecises, en particulier celle de tribu. L'expression peuple autochtone, utilisee depuis peu, laisse apparaitre une idee de morale et d'ethique mais ne peut s'appliquer qu'a des contextes particuliers, a l'instar de la notion de tribu, et peut alimenter des ideologies diverses qui pronent les liens du sang et de la terre et pour lesquelles les ethnologues ne mesurent peut-etre pas les utuilisations ambivalentes.

The Vande Mataram movement played a significant role in India's struggle for independence, symbolizing resistance against British colonial rule. This study examines the legacy of Vande Mataram on pre-independent Indian society, highlighting its impact on national identity, cultural revival, and the freedom struggle. By analyzing the song's cultural and political significance, this research provides insights into its enduring influence on Indian society and its role in shaping the country's path to independence. Vande Mataram helped shape a sense of national identity and unity among Indians. The movement promoted Indian culture and traditions, contributing to a cultural revival. Vande Mataram became a rallying cry for nationalists, inspiring resistance against British rule. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the Vande Mataram movement's impact on pre-independent Indian society, highlighting its role in shaping the country's cultural and political landscape.

The colonial history of India is frequently associated with the British Empire, yet the French Empire also had a long-lasting and significant presence in India. Jessica Namakkal illuminates this important aspect of India’s colonial history and its legacy in her engaging book, which offers original insights and contributions to various disciplines, including French studies, colonial history, postcolonial studies, political science, and memory studies. Namakkal draws on a wide range of sources, perspectives, and original methodologies, including the study of archival material, the press of various nations, memoirs, interviews, visual media, and observations of the landscape and events taking place in contemporary Pondicherry, the former capital of the French Empire in India. The work highlights the complex entanglements, tensions, and rivalries between the British and French Empires that shaped India’s colonial history. The author offers detailed portraits of key figures who played important roles in defining the colonial history and the future of French India, such as Sri Aurobindo, Mira Alfassa, Édouard Goubert, and Raphael Ramanyya Dadala, tracing their actions and examining their thought. The volume also explores the complex interrelations between identity, nationality, ethnicity, and caste of residents of French India, and highlights the ways in which attitudes towards nationality shifted in tandem with the evolving policies and politics of the Empire. Namakkal casts light on the various migrant trajectories which arose as a consequence of the French Empire in India, including the experiences of those who migrated from Europe to French India, those who sought refuge from the British Empire in French Indian territories, and those who migrated from India to France after independence. Through an analysis of various case studies, Namakkal explores the plight of French nationals of Indian origin after independence, who were frequently alienated from both nations. She also provides fresh insight into the experiences and political significance of mixed-race residents of French India, offering a new perspective on the concept of ‘creolization’ in the context of Pondicherry. A particular strength of the work lies in its novel approach to the concept of decolonization. The author argues that decolonization in the context of French India is not merely to be equated with liberation and peace, but suggests that it engendered violence, and remains incomplete in various senses. Namakkal casts light on the ways in which various aspects of the colonial regime, including divisions and inequalities between local and foreign populations, and the oppression of indigenous populations, continue today in the form of the settlement of Auroville near Pondicherry, which, despite the utopian vision of its founder, Alfassa, ‘exemplifies the phenomenon of anticolonial colonialism, a key concept in understanding neocolonialism in a postcolonial world’ (p. 183). This thoroughly researched and thought-provoking book, which offers insights into a frequently neglected aspect of India’s colonial history, is ­especially valuable to scholars working in postcolonial, French, and South Asian studies.

Oral narratives play a crucial role in shaping the historical consciousness of Indigenous communities in Northeast India, where history writing is a relatively recent phenomenon. Among the Mizos, Nagas, Khasis, Kuki-Chins, and other Indigenous tribes of Northeast India, including the Bodos, the Garos, the Dimasas, or the Karbis of Assam, much of what is considered written history emerged during British colonial rule. Native historians later continued it in postcolonial India. However, written history, especially when based on fragmented colonial records, includes interpretive gaps. In such contexts, oral traditions provide complementary, and frequently, more authoritative frameworks rooted in cultural memory and collective transmission. Oral narratives, including ritual poetry, folk songs, myths, and folktales, serve as vital mediums for reconstructing the past. Scholars such as Jan Vansina view oral narratives as essential for understanding the histories of societies without written records, while Paul Thompson sees them as both a discovery and a recovery of cultural memory. Romila Thapar argues that narratives become indicative of perspectives and conditions in societies of the past, functioning as a palimpsest with multiple layers of meaning accruing over generations as they are recreated or reiterated over time. The folk narratives of the Mizos and Angami Nagas not only recount their origins and historical migrations, but also map significant geographical and cultural landmarks, such as Khezakheno and Lungterok in Nagaland, Rounglevaisuo in Manipur, and Chhinlung or Rih Dil on the Mizoram–Myanmar border. These narratives constitute a cultural understanding of the past, aligning with Greg Dening’s concept of “public knowledge of the past,” which is “culturally shared.” Additionally, as Linda Tuhiwai Smith posits, such stories, as embodiments of the past, and of socio-cultural practices of communities, create spaces of resistance and reappropriation of Indigenous identities even as they reiterate the marginalization of these communities. This paper deploys these ideas to examine how oral narratives can be used to decolonize grand narratives of history, enabling Indigenous peoples, such as the Mizos and the Angamis in North East India, to reaffirm their positionalities within the postcolonial nation.

During the late Victorian age, and deep into the twentieth century, a fierce debate raged among members of the British political and intellectual elite over the future of the empire.1 Could it be adapted to new economic, social, and political circumstances? What form should it take? Fear about the future was generated by concern over both the domestic consequences of democratic reform and about Britain's precarious geopolitical position. Britain's status as a global power was at stake. Democratic reforms, first in 1867 and then more radically in 1884, reshaped the political landscape. Large numbers of the (male) population were enfranchised, while socialism became an ever more popular and vocal force. For many advocates of empire, these developments were dangerous as the mass public was thought to harbour anti-imperial sentiments. The problem was reinforced by various geopolitical trends, and above all the rise of three main competitor states. First, post-unification Germany was well on the way to becoming the dominant power on the continent, and it appeared keen to flex its muscles on the global stage. Second, Russia was seen as a major threat to the British Empire in India, and thus to British power globally. And finally, the post-civil war dynamism of the United States challenged British economic dominance. It also emerged as a formidable geopolitical competitor as it embarked on its own foreign imperial adventures in the 1890s.

The aim of this paper is to describe the primary changes and development that outlined the history of Colonial Punjab and to narrate grassroots and provincial perspectives on the changes. I examine with a blend of grassroots and provincial perspectives by contextualizing actual historical events in Colonial Punjab. On the basis of major trends in the existing literate, a variety of view on the impact of the British rule will be surveyed. To seek for a clearer insight on the effect and influence of British colonial rule on the Punjab, I have divided them into four themes. Inceptively, political control and socio-economic transformation will be addressed with investigating relevant literatures. Main arguments here will be which policy of British rule led social and economic changes in Colonial Punjab, how it transformed the society, and what elements were involved in putting it into practice in such an effective way. Subsequently, the British rule in aspects from military recruitment in Colonial Punjab will be focused on. Central questions will be what patterns of collaboration were implemented and how the British rule influenced recruitment process in Colonial Punjab, and what were the causes and key drivers that brought them into play possible. In the last place, communalism will be surveyed briefly showing the historical origin of communalism within the Punjab and the impact on societies extracted from some case studies. In every discussion about each theme, as suggested above, Provincial and grassroots perspectives will be drawn.

The British colonial empire was one of the largest and most influential empires in history. It spanned across various parts of the world, including territories in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific. Throughout its existence, the British Empire faced numerous acts of defiance and resistance from the indigenous populations of the colonized regions. In addition, the annals of history are replete with acts of defiance that originated within the colonized territories themselves, rather than from external forces. One such act of defiance was by Major Anthony G. McCall, who was appointed as the Superintendent-in-Charge of Lushai Hills (present Mizoram) during the 1930s and 1940s. McCall broke with protocol to lambast the policies of the British administration leading to his removal in May 1943. The events of his life in Lushai Hills have been documented in the book Lushai Chrysalis or Lushai Land of Tranquility and Upheaval (1949). The book is not only an important ethnographic document in the study of Northeast Indian history but it also gives insight into the personality of McCall and other ICS officers of the British administration. This, in turn, provides better insight into the working of the British colonial structure and gives us alternative viewpoints to what is normally seen as a monolithic one.

Carrie Rosefsky Wickham The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist movement New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2013. 384 pp., US $29.95 (cloth) ISBN 9780691 149400The Muslim Brotherhood is Carrie Rosefsky Wickham's second book based on research project she began in the early 1990s on the Egyptian Brotherhood's political mobilization. The objective of the book is trace the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood's political participation within authoritarian settings. Wickham argues that political participation has engendered behavioural and ideational patterns of change within the Muslim Brotherhood. She emphasizes strategic responses the political environment as well as the internal organization and differentiation of the movement. The author's evidence is drawn from interviews conducted over 22 years of field research and historical analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood's more than 80 years of existence. The Muslim Brotherhood adds the literature on the Middle East, social movements, contentious politics, and the study of comparative politics at large.Wickham commences her analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood with historical overview of the organization's founding in 1928 and continues with its developments under Egypt's three authoritarian rulers. She focuses much of her attention on the Hosni Mubarak era, since it was Mubarak's promise of more openness that ushered in the Muslim Brotherhood's gradual political participation. By the late 1980s, only few years after the Muslim Brotherhood entered the political sphere, the organization had achieved tremendous success, becoming Egypt's largest official opposition. This success worried the regime, which responded with an anti-Brotherhood campaign and frustrated the Muslim Brotherhood's political activities. The movement made political recovery in the 2000s when international democratization efforts pressured Mubarak into political liberalization. However, brutal political repression followed these brief periods of political openness. Wickham compares the Brotherhood's strategy during this period to the swing of pendulum, seesawing between moments of self-assertion through forceful political participation, on the one hand, and moments of self-restraint with minimal political participation, in order avoid confrontations with the regime, on the other (96). In 2010 the Muslim Brotherhood abandoned this strategy and collaborated with other opposition forces push for concrete democratic changes.Analyzing the Muslim Brotherhood's practices since the group's inception, Wickham concludes that political participation has led change in the Muslim Brotherhood's rhetoric and practice. The group has toned down its commitment the application of sharia law and articulated liberal interpretations of Islam aligned with more general rather than conservative and literal principles. Another notable change is the Muslim Brotherhood's adoption of democracy, pluralism, and human rights as part of its agenda. In practice, change has been visible in its cooperation with, and sensitivity to, other segments of society, including secular and liberal forces. Wickham notes that the Muslim Brotherhood took pains emphasize that they wanted 'participate, not dominate' and joined other secular groups in the push for constitutional and political reforms (284). Some might interpret these changes as strategic and self-serving, yet Wickham holds that a strategic explanation of Islamist movement change does not capture its full range of causes (284). The changes also reflect an ideational shift induced by the Muslim Brotherhood's interactions with the rest of society.Wickham demonstrates the Muslim Brotherhood's ideational shift through an analysis of the group's internal dynamics, composition, variations, and developments-the second major contribution of her book. Rejecting the conventional view of the Brotherhood as unitary actor, Wickham portrays it as multilayered organization with three key factions: the old guard, the pragmatic conservatives, and the reformists. …

Timor Leste's diverse national literature alongside western literature on women's participation in politics is still in the midst of an equitable and democratic transition. It is assumed that women's participation in politics will create a committed force towards the renewal of democratic values. Sadly, there has been a lot of injustice in the participation system in young democracies with a tradition of contributing interventions outside the government system itself such as the role of NGOs and the UNs for woman development and participation in Timor-Leste. Therefore, this article aims to introduce the extent of women's participation in electoral politics in gaining parliamentary seats. Do the nation's democratic values and public policy tendencies in the national policy realm lend support to the significance of non-conventional political participation and support for democracy internationally. This study digests and reviews the tendency of political interest, the desire to have political knowledge, the understanding of the extent of the equality of women participants in politics (elections), and also the interpersonal belief in the nuances and moralization of democracy from the perspective of gender equality.

Introduction: Democratic Reform and Political Participation Thomas Zittel and Dieter Fuchs Part 1: Democratic Reform and Political Participation: Two Theoretical Perspectives 1. Participatory Democracy and Political Participation Thomas Zittel 2. Participatory, Liberal, and Electronic Democracy Dieter Fuchs Part 2: Democratic Reform and Political Responsiveness 3. Political Participation in Party Primaries: Increase in Quantity, Decrease in Quality? Gideon Rahat and Reuven Y. Hazan 4. Scotland: A New Era for Participatory Democracy?Peter McLaverty and Sue Morris Part 3: Democratic Reform and Direct Democracy 5. The Effects of Political Institutions and City Size on Political Participation: The Swiss Case Simone Baglioni 6. Direct Democracy and Political Participation from a Cross-National Perspective Silvano Moeckli Part 4: Democratic Reform and Civil Society 7. 'Letting George Do It': Accounting for Low Participation Rates? William A. Maloney and Grant Jordan 8. Trust and Governance: How Culture and Economics Constraint the State Eric M. Uslaner 9. Workplace Democracy: Turning Workers into Citizens? Neil Carter Part 5: Democratic Reform and Local Government 10. Mobilizing for Participatory Democracy? The Case of Democracy Policy in Sweden Stig Montin 11. Democratic Renewal in Local Government? Top Down Strategies for Bottom Up Involvement Jacob Aars Conclusion: Can Participatory Engineering Bring Citizens Back In? Thomas Zittel

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, more than forty scholars from Central and Southeast Europe (CSE) came together at the University of Graz in Austria to take stock of the social changes that have been going on since 1989/90. The conference in 2014 was the starting point of this issue of the International Journal of Sociology, which covers a wide range of topics: patterns of social networks, social and institutional trust and political participation as well as wage dynamics of East–West commuters. This introduction outlines basic data and theories on the economic and democratic transition in CSE to serve as a frame for the articles presented in this issue. They are country case studies from Croatia, Hungary, and Slovenia and country-comparative studies dealing with East European-Austrian border regions. Altogether, the issue aims at raising international attention to new findings regarding social, structural, and sociocultural changes in the CSE countries.

Crises and dislocations home in on social, economic, and political weaknesses that are often sidestepped or pushed to the backburner in the interests of master plans of growth or development. Recovery from crises, then, provides the opportunity to address these underlying issues that preceded and, likely, contributed to the crises or dislocation; meanwhile, a return to the previous normalcy following such crises generally means exacerbation of these weaknesses that erode and threaten to fracture social, economic and political foundations. This paper documents social and economic policies across two financial crises, the Asian Financial Crisis and the Global Financial Crisis, for South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia, to reveal the problems from growth-centric recovery focus on economic fragilities, social cohesion, and political stability. Further, using evidence from the ground and survey data, we also show how recovery to a new normal with a reprioritization of social policies invigorates the social, political, and economic foundations. We round off the study with an examination of social policy changes under COVID-19 to assess how the efforts track against a recovery to business-as-usual economic normalcy or a new normal that reprioritizes social policies and the economy. The scope of change is high; as we show in the paper, it is also necessary.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Nabobs Revisited: A Cultural History of British Imperialism and the Indian Question in Late‐Eighteenth‐Century Britain