Indian Influence Research Articles

Investigation of the binding materials properties and assessment of durability issue in Fasil Ghibbi palace in Gondar

Abstract Conservation of ancient monuments is a process, which will lead to the prolongation of the life of cultural property for its utilization now and in the future. However, before practicing conservation, one must have a broad understanding of the field itself. This is of course to ensure that any action carried out during the conservation work is properly performed and is in accord, not only with the building requirements, but is within the scope of contemporary knowledge of the subject. Today, these historical structures are in different physical state, some are in relatively good condition, while many are in a deplorable state. The purpose of this research is identifying the method of construction as well recognizing the effect of durability and characterization of the physical and chemical properties of the original binding materials and the newly introduced binding materials used during the restoration of the Royal palace. For this purpose, Mortar samples are taken from Fasil Ghibbi palace, and analyzed in Ethiopian geological survey laboratory using General Silicate Analysis. It includes LIBO2 Fusion, HF Attack, Gravimetric and AAS. The type of binding material used during the construction of the Fasil Ghibbi palace is identified as Lime (CaO) or by its local name Nora. Moreover, the method of construction was by stone masonry, which tells us a unique combination of Portuguese, Axumite and even Indian influences. The major cause of deterioration of the Royal Palace is due to various reasons, some of them are the ettringite and/or thaumasite production because of the reaction between sulfate salts and hydrated calcium silicates or aluminates that are present in lime based mortars. Royal Palace is also located on the center of the city; vibration that is prompt by the nearby traffic load is the main reason for tilting of the structural wall. Lack of periodic maintenance; results aging of the palace, unchecked growth of trees, grass, algae & mechanical.

Travel of Bonpo Gods from the Eurasian Borderlands to the Tibetan Culture Area and the Borderlands of North-east India

Abstract 
 Popular writing has brought about an image of Hindu deities that are seen as a part of Hinduism only and Hinduism is also seen as a religion of the Indian subcontinent. While this may be largely true in many cases, it forces us to look at Hinduism in very Semitic terms as a closed religion. On the contrary we see that there was a considerable travel of gods and goddesses from other religions into Hinduism and vice versa. And thus negates the idea of Hinduism as a closed system. This therefore brings us to the problem of defining Hinduism which is by no means an easy task as there is no agreement on any singular definition. Pre-modern India had more contacts with her neighbours and thus central Asia and south East Asia emerge as some of the main regions where Indian influence is seen in many aspects of life. Even to a casual observer of both central Asia and South East Asia we see that there striking Indian influences in culture, religion and other aspects of life. All of them are not part of the textual literature that has become very nationalistic in the recent past and this tends to also dismiss the earlier writings as western Eurocentric. It is true that there is a great element of eurocentricism in the earlier writings but one point that needs to be highlighted is that these earlier writings also faithfully portrayed many aspects like iconography etc. in a very descriptive manner that focused on the measurements, likeness, colour and other associated characteristics of the statues. Such trends are clearly visible in the writings of Jas Burgess,E.B Havell etc. who were influenced by the dominant paradigm in contemporary Europe of the 1850‟s where the duty of the historian was to just record. Such an approach was informed by the writings of the German philosopher Leopold Von Ranke. Though there are certain value judgments at the end of the chapter, the main narrative is a dry as dust and it is easy to decipher the characteristics or reconstruct the iconographic programme in any shrine and by extension the religious practices. In the modern period , where the dominant forms of anti-colonial struggles led to a writing of nationalist history succeeded by Marxist influenced social histories in many parts of Asia, the identification of the national boundaries and national cultures also extended to religions and many aspects were either muted or totally obliterated in history writing to present a homogenous picture. Thus, we have a picture of Hinduism and Buddhism that fits in with the national narratives. Such a collapse of categories is there in the borderland of India where the cultural boundaries are not clearly marked as also h religious boundaries. One single example that illustrates this assertion is the portrayal of Sri Lanka as a Sinhala Buddhist region with the Tamil regions of Sri Lanka marked off as separate entity and both being largely exclusive. In the Buddhist temples of Sri Lanka, one finds firstly the statue of Ganesha and later the images of Karthikeya and also the god Shani or Saturn. This image of a Buddhist monastery sharply contrasts with the highly buddhistic space of a Sinhala Buddhist temple where non-Buddhist elements are not found.

Soft power, strategic narratives, and state identity: Re-assessing India-Afghanistan relations post-2011

ABSTRACTIn 2011, India and Afghanistan signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement that delimited cooperation in economic, social, political, and cultural areas. It depicted the rise of Indian soft power influence. However, the extent to which India garners strategic influence in Afghanistan through soft power remains contentious. This article contends that India’s soft power effectiveness in Afghanistan post-2011 can be fully grasped only via the construction and reception of India’s regional power identity negotiated at the sites of: “civilization,” “democracy,” and “economic-military” enabling India to provide a regional leadership that can forward both India and Afghanistan’s mutual interests. Examining soft power via the constructivist-discursive framework of collective identity strategic narrative, this article compares India-Afghanistan relations in periods 2011–14 and 2014–17. The former formalized strategic partnership agreement and the latter marked continuation of the agreement albeit through domestic political transitions in both countries. This article demonstrates that the Indian soft power influence in Afghanistan between 2014 and 2017 has increased markedly.

Geo Strategic Status of Bhutan & Its Importance in the Security of India

Geo-strategic significance has been always an important factore in shaping the destiny of a country. Bhutan has been well-know for its strategic location and natural resource base in the world. It is a sandwiched between two powerful nations, India and China. Because of its proximity to both the countries. India,is a close neighbor, has traditionally played a significant role in Bhutan. At present, china is interfering repeatedly in Bhutan, which also threatens India’s security with India-Bhutan relations. China’s role is a detectable as it has begun to intervence Bhutan’s development process with an intention to weaken Indian influence. In addition to both the countries want to establish a good image in the eye of Bhutan. The present paper is an effort towards analysing the changing geo-strategic relevance of Bhutan in the security of India.

Indian Strategic Economic Tactics and Emergent Challenges for the Developing Countries of the Region

In this paper, we examine the neighborhood especially Indian strategies for the region. The political philosophies and regional strategies related to developing economies in the region need synergy and strategically positive and constructive in nature. Their philosophy to rule and their foreign policy is different from all the other leadership. Indian Current Ruling Party seems involved in different terrorist activities, such Gujarat attack on Muslims and the incident of the Samjhota express. Indian Current Ruling Partys begins wrongdoing on the innocent Kashmiri, its forces also use pellet guns on Kashmiri Muslims. Indian economic strategy is to invest on Chahbahar Port and wish to side stop the economic mega project of CPEC. Indian influence increased in Afghanistan against Pakistan with the boycott of SAARC conference scheduled in Pakistan. The international community has found that Indian current political leadership is as one of the most influential negative political personality among the world leaders.

Citizenship in the Name of the Mother: Nationalism, Social Exclusion, and Gender in Contemporary Nepal

In 2006, the Nepali government made it feasible for women to pass citizenship onto their children. In 2015, a new constitution overrode these gains and again made it impossible to grant citizenship through the maternal line alone. Nepal's current gender-discriminatory citizenship laws are rooted in historical social and geopolitical tensions with India, especially nationalistic fears about Indian encroachment into Nepali territory and politics. This article argues that resurgent resistance to equitable citizenship laws does not simply reflect hegemonic Hindu patriarchal norms. This resistance is also a reactive stance against Indian influence as embodied by the real and potential coupling of Nepali women and Indian men whose children would further “Indianize” Nepal. This article suggests that restricting Nepali women's right to pass citizenship is a form of policing the boundaries of the state body via policing women's bodies, especially their reproductive capabilities.

Paraspara, Encounters, and Confluences: India's Soft Power Objective in the Indo‐Pacific Region

The ties between India and the countries in the Indo‐Pacific region go back to the pre‐Christian era. Even today, Indian influence on the language, customs, and rituals is visible in Southeast Asia. The Hindu concepts of kingship, administrative institutions, and ceremonies that became deeply embedded in the royal culture of Southeast Asia were disrupted with the arrival of the colonial powers. These traditional linkages have become the key element of India's diplomacy—the “Look East” and the “Act East” policies. This article studies the background of India's sustained public and cultural diplomacy policy in bridging the gap between India, East Asia, and the Indo‐Pacific countries in the context of the Act East policy. Using examples from Modi's yoga diplomacy, Bollywood, and Indian cultural festivals, the authors propose that these initiatives should be seen as part of a historical and traditional concept of “paraspara”—mutually sustainable and reciprocal diplomacy that taps into the opportunities in the Indo‐Pacific region.

Indian Influences on Balinese Culture : The Role of Hinduism and Buddhism in Present Day Bali

Indian culture has dominantly influenced the Indonesian people, particularly in the western part of the archipelago. This, which started centuries ago, can still be seen in the peoples’ daily lives in social, cultural, economic and political matters. Both the Hindu and Buddhist lessons have been practiced in Bali, although it is argued that the Buddhist lessons had been developed earlier than the Hindu ones. These developments have strongly characterized Balinese daily life, so, it is very important to understand how the people anticipate and solve some crucial issues regarding the processes of modernization and globalization. There are some important questions that need to be addressed on the Indian influences in strengthening the Balinese culture from the earlier periods until the modern and even postmodern times. In this case, the specific questions are: Firstly, how did the Balinese accept these two lessons in their daily lives in the context of Balinization processes? Secondly, what kinds of tangible and intangible cultures of the Hindu and Buddhist lessons can be seen in the present day Bali? Thirdly, how do they strengthen the Bali identity or Balinization, known as “Ajeg Bali”? Through this analysis, it is expected to have a better understanding of the issues of social, cultural, economic and political changes in Indonesia in general and Bali in particular in modern and postmodern times.

The Regional Impacts of India-Us Nuclear Deal

The Indian-us nuclear deal brought about a tense scenario to the strategic stability of South Asia in many ways. It intensified the already persistent political albatross between Islamabad and Delhi and Beijing and Delhi in general. The deal enables India to get access to the fissile materials across the world and enrolls it into the nuclear supplier groups lopsidedly, which poses much concern for Pakistan. The diplomatically biased overture of US in the wake of its nuclear wholehearted assistance to Indian pushed Pakistan into psychological isolation, to say the least. Given the fact that the U.S.-India nuclear deal has had a devastating regional impact, it seemed as precipitant to the already existing nuclear arms race among the regional triangle; Pakistan, China and India. Both Pakistan and china showed their loathsome response to the deal and considered it as a conceived blow to the regional strategic stability, for they have their longstanding territorial issues with India. Besides the strategic asymmetry that it procreates in south Asia, the deal also ensures a reassurance effect for the nuclear runner up countries like Iran and North Korea, who are in the way around near to become a nuclear power states. Moreover, US-India nuclear deal also proves lethal to Pakistan-US relation that focuses on the strategic stability of Afghanistan primarily. It spawns many kinds of suspicions in Pakistan’s government toward the US over the later impartial diplomatic approach toward the former. Pakistan in return embarks upon a cordial relation with the Russian to reciprocate the US-India new engagement. Somehow, it gives enough reasons for Pakistan to embolden its defense, economic and political ties with Russian and China in a bid to counterweight Indian influence in the region. The nations of both developing countries India and Pakistan are reeling under multiple problems ranging from abject poverty, poor health facilities, illiteracy, to unemployment and lacking basic life amenities. Ironically enough, the ever-gloomy picture of the people in these countries on one side and their disproportionate defense expenditures on other side forecast destructive consequences in offing as the underdeveloped society is a time bomb and can be turned violently against the state. Hence, the region is in crucial need of human development in terms of education, health, economic resources, industrialization, job security and social security against all odds. The time is ripened up for both India and Pakistan to draw their attention away from arms acquisition toward regional multilateral engagements and should learn the lesson of European countries how could ably they translate their once perennial rivalry into perpetual friendship.

TRADE AND QUALITY CONTROL OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN BRAZIL

The use of medicinal plants is influenced by the cultural legacy of popular knowledge of plants with therapeutic purposes, resulting from the ethnic mix of the population, with a strong Indian, European, African, and Asian influence. Other factors, such as difficulties in access the regular health services associated with poor socioeconomic conditions, and easy access to medicinal plants, and/or herbal products have contributed to consolidate herbal medicine as a widely resource used by the population. However, these products, derived from plants do not always possess the sufficient safeguards for their use and have not been proved for their therapeutic safety or quality. Thus, it emphasizes the need for studies on the marketing of medicinal plants, and to evaluate the quality of these products in order to conduct pharmacovigilance, ensure safe and effective use, especially by contributing to the full development of Phytotherapy.

Multi-layered population structure in Island Southeast Asians.

The history of human settlement in Southeast Asia has been complex and involved several distinct dispersal events. Here, we report the analyses of 1825 individuals from Southeast Asia including new genome-wide genotype data for 146 individuals from three Mainland Southeast Asian (Burmese, Malay and Vietnamese) and four Island Southeast Asian (Dusun, Filipino, Kankanaey and Murut) populations. While confirming the presence of previously recognised major ancestry components in the Southeast Asian population structure, we highlight the Kankanaey Igorots from the highlands of the Philippine Mountain Province as likely the closest living representatives of the source population that may have given rise to the Austronesian expansion. This conclusion rests on independent evidence from various analyses of autosomal data and uniparental markers. Given the extensive presence of trade goods, cultural and linguistic evidence of Indian influence in Southeast Asia starting from 2.5 kya, we also detect traces of a South Asian signature in different populations in the region dating to the last couple of thousand years.

Diplomacy, Trade and Networks: Champa in the Asian Commercial Context (7th-10th Centuries)

Previous studies of Champa history mainly based on an assumption that Champa was an “Indianized” kingdom who profoundly influenced by Indian civilization. Recent studies, however, have convinced that apart from Indian influence, Champa did benefit greatly from other civilization centers, especially China and Middle East. This article, relies on Chinese historical document and the old inscriptions of ancient Champa as well as recent archaeological findings in central Vietnam, aims to shed new light on the diplomatic relations and commercial links between Champa with China and Middle East during the period from the 7th to the 10th: Firstly, the tributary trade and diplomacy from Champa to Chinese courts will be taken into account; and secondly, the engagement of Champa in the expansion of Muslim trade network in the Indian Ocean will be examined.

Singapore. Indians in Singapore, 1819–1945: Diaspora in the colonial port city By Rajesh Rai New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxix + 325. Tables, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Indians in Singapore, 1819-1945: Diaspora in the colonial port city By RAJESH RAI New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxix + 325. Tables, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. The Indians of Singapore constitute a small but uniquely situated part of the larger mosaic of what once used to be called 'overseas Indian communities' but now come under the rubric of 'Indian diaspora'. Their history of migration and settlement goes back to the early years of the nineteenth century, but it was for the most part seen as a segment of the Indian community in the Malay Peninsula rather than as a separate and distinct component of it. Moreover, the political and social concerns of this small community settled in a port-city in Southeast Asia did not quite resonate with the interests and concerns of Indian communities elsewhere, preoccupied as they were with issues of citizenship and political representation in colonial legislatures. The Indians of Singapore and Southeast Asia more generally were thus separated from Indian communities elsewhere by both geography as well as history (and historiography). Rajesh Rai's latest book goes a long way towards bridging this gap. He has now given us the historical evolution of the Indian community in Singapore in great detail with sober and authoritative research, and his book will remain the standard text on the subject for the foreseeable future. It is an important contribution to the literature on the Indian diaspora. The British settlement of Singapore goes back to 1819, but Indian merchants and traders had been arriving in the region long before then, and joined later by sepoys and lascars. Convicts and political prisoners arrived after the middle of the nineteenth century along with workers who came under an unregulated system of indentured labour. With time, the community diversified as its numbers increased, factions developed and social and educational institutions emerged. In a chapter titled 'Diasporic formations in the inter-war years', Rai describes the social and cultural evolution of the Indian community (religion, vernacular language education, regional and subregional movements), and the impact on the Singapore Indians of political and religious tensions and frictions on the Indian subcontinent, though not to the extent of having a 'monopolistic hold on diasporic political loyalties' (p. 195). Nonetheless, in contrast to other areas where Indian immigrants settled, the Indian influence on social and political developments in Singapore was far greater. Given the physical proximity of Singapore to India, it could not have been otherwise. The persistence of caste politics and prejudices among Singaporean Indians and the presence of the sectional, South Indian 'Dravidian Movement' among them are illustrations of this. These developments and others like them had no resonance in the more remote sugar colonies across the globe. …

The Production and Exchange of Glass and Stone Beads in Southeast Asia from 500 BCE to the early second millennium CE: An assessment of the work of Peter Francis in light of recent research

Stone and glass beads are important artifacts in Southeast Asia as they are amongst the earliest objects from South Asia found in the region, and frequently seen as symbols of Indian influence and increasing socio-political complexity. Peter Francis Jr.'s writings regarding the production and exchange of beads in Southeast Asia have been influential to archaeologists who have viewed beads as prestige objects that were traded widely and produced at important urban centers in Southeast Asia. However, the field of beads studies in Southeast Asia has greatly expanded in the past 15years and benefitted from new excavations and scientific techniques. In this article, I review Peter Francis' hypotheses regarding the production and exchange of beads in Southeast Asia from 500 BCE to the early second millennium CE. I then synthesize recent work by scholars that has transformed our understanding of the manufacture and trade of beads. I argue that this work has largely disproven Francis' model of bead production and interaction between South and Southeast Asia. Instead, there appear to have been multiple phases of bead production and exchange between the two regions, which reflect complex interaction networks between South and Southeast Asia and within Southeast Asia.

Resonances of the Raj: India in the English Musical Imagination, 1897–1947 by Nalini Ghuman (review)

Reviewed by: Resonances of the Raj: India in the English Musical Imagination, 1897–1947 by Nalini Ghuman Laurie J. Sampsel Resonances of the Raj: India in the English Musical Imagination, 1897–1947. By Nalini Ghuman. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. [xv, 345 p. ISBN 9780199314898 (hardcover), $49.95; (e-book), various.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index, companion Web site: http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199314898/. In Resonances of the Raj, Nalini Ghuman examines the role of English rule in India as it influenced musicians during its final fifty years. To that end, she includes six chapters spanning the period, which need not be read in order. She includes a broad range of musicians: Maud MacCarthy (1882–1967), Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Gustav Holst (1874–1934), Amy Woodforde-Finden (1860–1919), Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892–1988), and John Foulds (1880– 1939). Ghuman includes a short introduction, but no conclusion. She explains “I have chosen to focus on musical case studies involving six figures who, I believe, are both representative of the era and significant in their own right” (p. 3). Resonances of the Raj is a welcome addition to a growing body of literature on oriental influences on British music. Other recent books include Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s–1940s, edited by Martin Clayton and Bennett Zon (Aldershot, Hampshire, Eng.: Ashgate, 2007), and Bob van der Linden’s Music and Empire in Britain and India (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Each has a chapter about the musicians Ghuman includes in her book. Four of the six chapters are revisions of Ghuman’s 2003 dissertation from the University of California, Berkeley (Anna Nalini Gwynne, “India in the English Musical Imagination, 1890–1940” [Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2003]). The two new chapters on Maud MacCarthy and John Foulds, the first and last, respectively, are among the strongest of the book. Little has been written about MacCarthy as an individual or on her collaborations with her husband, Foulds. For example, there is no entry in Grove Music Online on MacCarthy, and she is only mentioned in the article about her husband. Ghuman’s contribution in the first chapter focuses on MacCarthy’s work as an ethnomusicologist [End Page 369] in India from 1907–9 (before she met Foulds) and her lecture recitals on Indian music presented in England and Paris from 1910 to 1930. In the last chapter of her book, Ghuman focuses on the final years of Foulds’s life (1935–39) when he lived in India and worked as Director of European Music at All India Radio in Delhi. The compositions considered include Gandharva-Music, Three Mantras, Essays in the Modes, and pieces written for his Indo–European Orchestra. Ghuman outlines Foulds’s struggles in getting his music published, performed, and broadcast; his motivation for moving to India; his untimely death from cholera in 1939; and his possible influence on later musician Ravi Shankar. Previous work on the couple includes a chapter in Bob van der Linden’s Music and Empire in Britain and India, which focuses on theosophy as an influence on MacCarthy and Foulds. Perhaps the strongest chapter of the book is dedicated to Amy Woodforde-Finden’s Four Indian Love Lyrics (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1902). Here Ghuman studies both the music and the texts by Violet Nicolson (written under the pseudonym Laurence Hope). The Indian influence is in Nicolson’s texts and the illustrations on the early editions, more so than in the music itself. The Indian Love Lyrics were popular in 1902 and remain so today, especially “Kashmiri Song,” with its tale of forbidden love on the banks of the Shalimar. Ghuman also examines “The Temple Bells” and “Less than the Dust,” but not “Till I Wake.” Comparisons are drawn between the Eastern elements in Cyril Scott’s Lotus Land and Liza Lehmann’s “The Snake-Charmer” from the Golden Threshold, both of which were composed a few years later. As a scholar of Cyril Scott and his music, I must say I disagree that Scott’s Lotus Land was inspired by his impression of India. Hopefully, however, Ghuman’s chapter will encourage more scholarship devoted to Woodforde-Finden...

Managing Epidemic: The British Approach to 1918–1919 Influenza in Lagos

This paper examines how the British managed the 1918–1919 influenza epidemic in Lagos, the reactions of the local population to new sanitary and medical policies enforced during the period, and its social and political implications for future epidemic management in the colony. Unlike several studies which approach the history of the pandemic from global and national perspectives, a focus on Lagos, the colonial capital of Nigeria, one of Britain’s most important colonies provides this paper with a rare opportunity to engage with how local peculiarities informed decisions about the resolution of a global problem. Lagos is chosen as the terrain for discussion because of the ample data generated about it in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries (not just between European missionaries and the indigenous Lagosians, but also for other influential cultural and ethnic groups such as the Saro and Amaro (migrants from Brazil), and the Indian influence on medical policies in Lagos).

DINAMIKA KEBUDAYAAN DAN PERADABAN BATANG KUNA GAMBARAN AWAL BERDASARKAN HASIL EKSPLORASI ARKEOLOGIS

Results of exploratory survey in Batang, Central Java, showing a variety of archaeological data with Hindu-Buddhist influence. There are among others, buildings and building components, inscriptions, statues, phallus-yoni, as well as artifacts that show characteristics of Indian influence. In addition, those various archaeological data obtained from the survey hypothetically reflect the dynamics of ancient Batang culture and civilization which chronologically includes pre-Hindu, the transition from pre-Hindu toHindu, early development of Hindu influence, and the heyday of Ancient Mataram.

Music for Inner Domains: Sinhala Song and theAryaandHelaSchools of Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Sri Lanka

In this article, I juxtapose the ways the “father of modern Sinhala drama,” John De Silva, and the Sinhala language reformer, Munidasa Cumaratunga, utilized music for different nationalist projects. First, I explore how De Silva created musicals that articulated Arya-Sinhala nationalism to support the Buddhist Revival. Second, I investigate how Cumaratunga, who spearheaded the Hela-Sinhala movement, asserted that genuine Sinhala song should be rid of North Indian influence but full of lyrics composed in “pure” Sinhala. The purpose of this comparison is to critique Partha Chatterjee's notion of the inner domain. Chatterjee focused on Bengali cultural nationalism and its complex relation to Western hegemony. He considered Bengal, the metropolis of the British Raj, to be representative of colonized nations. This article reveals that elsewhere in South Asia—Sri Lanka—one cultural movement sought to define the nation not in relation to the West but in opposition to North India.

Genetics of the pig tapeworm in madagascar reveal a history of human dispersal and colonization.

An intricate history of human dispersal and geographic colonization has strongly affected the distribution of human pathogens. The pig tapeworm Taenia solium occurs throughout the world as the causative agent of cysticercosis, one of the most serious neglected tropical diseases. Discrete genetic lineages of T. solium in Asia and Africa/Latin America are geographically disjunct; only in Madagascar are they sympatric. Linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence has indicated that the people in Madagascar have mixed ancestry from Island Southeast Asia and East Africa. Hence, anthropogenic introduction of the tapeworm from Southeast Asia and Africa had been postulated. This study shows that the major mitochondrial haplotype of T. solium in Madagascar is closely related to those from the Indian Subcontinent. Parasitological evidence presented here, and human genetics previously reported, support the hypothesis of an Indian influence on Malagasy culture coinciding with periods of early human migration onto the island. We also found evidence of nuclear-mitochondrial discordance in single tapeworms, indicating unexpected cross-fertilization between the two lineages of T. solium. Analyses of genetic and geographic populations of T. solium in Madagascar will shed light on apparently rapid evolution of this organism driven by recent (<2,000 yr) human migrations, following tens of thousands of years of geographic isolation.

Southeast Asia. Early Southeast Asia viewed from India: An anthology of articles from the Journal of the Greater India Society Edited by Kwa Chong-Guan New Delhi: Manohar; Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Series no. 10, 2013. Pp. 300. Bibliography, Index.

Early Southeast Asia viewed from India: An anthology of articles from the Journal of the Greater India Society Edited by KWA CHONG-GUAN New Delhi: Manohar; Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Series no. 10, 2013. Pp. 300. Bibliography, Index, doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000393 This eclectic collection of essays from the eighteen volumes of the Journal of the Greater India Society invites us to revisit the historical pursuits of the Greater India Society and see how its history-writing projects shaped the nature of 'Indian thinking towards Southeast Asia' (p. xii). It is a delight to note that in this book, Kwa Chong-Guan, who has been engaged in the understanding of the long cycles of Southeast Asian history and the editor of the volume under review here, has selected and put together 31 articles by leading historians and philologists of the society showing critically how the society painted the image of Greater India through its journal. Though these scholars used the image of Greater India with details of Indie influence across the Indian Ocean to show a brighter phase of the subcontinent's past against the backdrop of its colonial domination by the British, Kwa goes beyond the frame of their mentality and shows how this image became 'a way of thinking' and 'part of a social memory of India' that influenced its outlook towards the East. The publication is timely given the profound transformation of the object of study, and consequent changes in the field. The image of Greater India and the historical contexts of its changing character over time as portrayed in the eponymous society founded in 1926 are analysed critically by Kwa in his Preface and Introduction. The editor has arranged the articles--first published between 1936 and 1959--into various themes to substantiate the broader logic and reasons for bringing out this volume at a time when Indian perceptions about Southeast Asia have considerably changed with recent research. The introduction displays his familiarity with the historiography of Indian-Southeast Asian cultural interactions. Rabindranath Tagore's foreword to the Journal, as well as articles by Kalidas Nag, J. Przyluski and U.N. Ghosal, have been included in the first section of the volume to elucidate the society's vision and programmes. In this section, Greater India is projected as being indicative of Indian internationalism; this argument is taken further by analysing the works of Sylvain Levi, the great Indologist, on the one hand, and India's links with the Pacific world on the other. One of the significant pieces in the second section of the book dwells on contemporary research on Indian influences on Afghanistan, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Champa, Java, Bali, Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. The third section titled 'History and historical sources' has been enriched by the contributions of O.C. Gangoly, R.C. Majumdar, W. Pachow, J. Przyluski, Baij Nath Puri and H.B. Sarkar, K.A. Nilakanta Sastri and H.G. Quaritch Wales, who delve into the cultural relations between India and Indonesia as well as the meanings of conflicts between the Sailendras and the Cholas, besides the nuanced nature of Indian influences in Java and Sumatra. …