Northwestern Frontier Research Articles

The challenges of reconstruction after the October 2005 Kashmir earthquake

The 8th October 2005 Kashmir Earthquake was one the largest earthquakes in Northern Pakistan in its recorded history. It caused an unprecedented level of damage and destruction in Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK) and the North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). It damaged or collapsed more than 0.6 million buildings - leaving 3.5 million people shelter less as winter approached. A large part of the earthquake-affected area is difficult to access and highly snow-prone, with rugged terrain and scattered settlements. It posed unique challenges and efforts on a massive-scale for reconstruction. For residential buildings, the Pakistan government adopted a house-owner driven approach. The reconstruction policy stated that the government and other agencies would provide equal technical assistance and subsidy to each family, without differentiating between who lost what. To increase capacity in earthquake-resistant construction, large-scale training of artisans, technicians, engineers, and community mobilisers has been conducted. Campaigns to “build back better” have raised awareness in the communities. Local Housing Reconstruction Centres have been established for training, advice, and dissemination of earthquake-resistant technology. This decentralised approach has helped in achieving reconstruction smoothly. This paper will present the authors’ first-hand experience in the reconstruction effort, and the opportunities and unique challenges faced.

Impacts of Demographics on Citizen’s Access to Information: An Empirical Study of District Dera Ismail Khan, North Western Frontier Province, Pakistan

The impact of demographic dimensions on local government behavior is well identified, analyzed and documented at the global level. Likewise, several studies are available on developing countries, but empirical evidence on the conditions of Pakistan is lacking. This study is an effort to unearth empirical evidence on access to information in the local government system exemplifying data from the district Dera Ismail Khan (DIK), North Western Frontier Province (NWFP). Most global hypotheses for developing countries are accepted in this study but the statistics on local data are far more different in terms of the value and weight of variables, relationships and impacts on the research concepts. The most dominant concept in the impact of access to information on the local government system is “education for all.” Mass education is a leading concept in making or breaking the role of people participation in the success or failure of local democracies. Data show that illiteracy is causing many problems, including the mass population’s unawareness of their interests and duties at the public level, thereby giving the ruling elite a free hand in exploiting public resources for self‐interest, at the cost of the public good.

The Qing Dynasty and Its Neighbors: Early Modern China in World History

Peter C. Perdue's China Marches West argues that the Qing dynasty's ability to break through historical territorial barriers on China's northwestern frontier reflected greater Manchu familiarity with steppe culture than their Chinese predecessors had exhibited, reinforced by superior commercial, technical, and symbolic resources and the benefits of a Russian alliance. Qing imperial expansion illustrated patterns of territorial consolidation apparent as well in Russia's forward movement in Inner Asia and, ironically, in the heroic, if ultimately futile, projects of the western Mongols who fell victim to the Qing. After summarizing Perdue's thesis, this essay extends his comparisons geographically and chronologically to argue that between 1600 and 1800 states ranging from western Europe through Japan to Southeast Asia exhibited similar patterns of political and cultural integration and that synchronized integrative cycles across Eurasia extended from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries. Yet in its growing vulnerability to Inner Asian domination, China proper—along with other sectors of the exposed zone of Eurasia—exemplified a species of state formation that was reasonably distinct from trajectories in sectors of Eurasia that were protected against Inner Asian conquest.

The Qing Dynasty and Its Neighbors

Peter C. Perdue'sChina Marches Westargues that the Qing dynasty's ability to break through historical territorial barriers on China's northwestern frontier reflected greater Manchu familiarity with steppe culture than their Chinese predecessors had exhibited, reinforced by superior commercial, technical, and symbolic resources and the benefits of a Russian alliance. Qing imperial expansion illustrated patterns of territorial consolidation apparent as well in Russia's forward movement in Inner Asia and, ironically, in the heroic, if ultimately futile, projects of the western Mongols who fell victim to the Qing. After summarizing Perdue's thesis, this essay extends his comparisons geographically and chronologically to argue that between 1600 and 1800 states ranging from western Europe through Japan to Southeast Asia exhibited similar patterns of political and cultural integration and that synchronized integrative cycles across Eurasia extended from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries. Yet in its growing vulnerability to Inner Asian domination, China proper—along with other sectors of the “exposed zone” of Eurasia—exemplified a species of state formation that was reasonably distinct from trajectories in sectors of Eurasia that were protected against Inner Asian conquest.

King Edgar, Wales and Chester: The Welsh Dimension in the Ceremony of 973

This article addresses two related aspects of King Edgar's visit to Chester — why he went there and how he got there. Interpretations of its purpose have generally been based upon English sources and have paid less attention to Welsh evidence: this article attempts an alternative perspective. The first of the two aspects is a stage in the development of the ‘Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons’ expressed in the coronation at Bath and a tenth-century durbar at Chester when the might of the King of all England was pronounced to the outside world. The second, which was linked to that and specifically directed at the North-West, was a determined attempt to define and strengthen the north-western frontier of the extended kingdom and tighten Edgar's grip upon the northern Welsh princes whose constant infighting presented an opportunity for Norse and/or Irish incursions. His actions became an economic as well as a military necessity, to maintain the English grasp on North Wales and to protect the important trading links between Chester and Ireland.

Landscape and power in early China: the crisis and fall of the Western Zhou, 1045-771 BC

Introduction 1. Foundation of the Western Zhou state: constructing the political space 2. Disorder and decline: the political crisis of the Western Zhou state 3. Enemies at the gate: the war against the Xianyun and the north-western frontier 4. The fall of the Western Zhou: partisan struggle and spatial collapse 5. The eastward migration: reconfiguring the Western Zhou state 6. The legacy of the Western Zhou Conclusion Appendices 1-3 Bibliography Indexes.

The Empire and the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations with Khoqand c.1760–1860

Book Reviews The Empire and the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations with Khoqand c.1760–1860 Laura Newby Leiden: Brill, 2005 ISBN: 90–04–14550–8 $97.00, £ 39.99 While the diplomatic history of China’s eastern seaboard has long been a subject of research for historians of the Qing dynasty, the same cannot be said for the Manchu Empire’s northwestern frontier. This neglect can be attributed to both a theoretical predilection for the study of Qing China’s interaction with Western powers, and the practical linguistic difficulties involved in dealing with sources from both sides of China’s Inner Asian border. While engaging with issues

Quality of effluents from Hattar Industrial Estate

Of 6634 registered industries in Pakistan, 1228 are considered to be highly polluting. The major industries include textile, pharmaceutical, chemicals (organic and inorganic), food industries, ceramics, steel, oil mills and leather tanning which spread all over four provinces, with the larger number located in Sindh and Punjab, with smaller number in North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan. Hattar Industrial Estate extending over 700 acres located in Haripur district of NWFP is a new industrial estate, which has been developed with proper planning for management of industrial effluents. The major industries located in Hattar are ghee industry, chemical (sulfuric acid, synthetic fiber) industry, textile industry and pharmaceuticals industry. These industries, although developed with proper planning are discharging their effluents in the nearby natural drains and ultimately collected in a big drain near Wah. The farmers in the vicinity are using these effluents for growing vegetables and cereal crops due to shortage of water. In view of this discussion, there is a dire need to determine if these effluents are hazardous for soil and plant growth. So, effluents from different industries, sewage and normal tap water samples were collected and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total soluble salts (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, cations and anions and heavy metals. The effluents of ghee and textile industries are highly alkaline. EC and TSS loads of ghee and textile industries are also above the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS), Pakistan. All the effluents had residual sodium carbonates (RSCs), carbonates and bicarbonates in amounts that cannot be used for irrigation. Total toxic metals load in all the effluents is also above the limit i.e. 2.0 mg/L. Copper in effluents of textile and sewage, manganese in ghee industry effluents and iron contents in all the effluents were higher than NEQS. BOD and COD values of all the industries are also above the NEQS. On the whole, these effluents cannot be used for irrigation without proper treatment otherwise that may cause toxicity to soil, plants and animals as well add to the problems of salinity and sododicity. Similarly, these effluents cannot be used for fish farming.

Bhakti and Nationalism in the Poetry of Subramania Bharati

Subramania Bharati (1882-1921), known simply as Bharatiyar, was an "extraordinary and prophetic poet" (Ramanujan, 1999, p. 343) whom Tamils in India and beyond continue to look upon as the nationalist bard par excellence. Though Bharatiyar's stature equals that of a Poet Laureate among Tamil speakers, he has remained so little known beyond that world that the Government of India in the centenary year of the poet's birth took steps to remedy the situation. The 1982 celebrations were marked by an issue of coins depicting symbols of national integration (a theme dear to Bharatiyar's heart) and by the publication in English of a translation of his selected works by eminent poets and scholars. The volume includes a color photograph of Bh?rata M?t?, a terracotta statuette designed and commissioned by the poet during his exile in Pondicherry. It shows a sorrowful, youthful, yet maternal woman, crowned, her hair streaming across to mark the Himalayas and her s?n drapes like contours outlining the extent of British imperial rule, from the North Western Frontier to the southern tip of Burma. Though Bharatiyar's image of Mother India coincides with British imperial territory, it draws on indigenous traditions and taps into long-estab lished religious sentiment: into a Hindu sacred geography that encompassed the Indus River region and into that extension of Hindu Tamil religion and culture represented by the imperialist adventures of the Cola emperors in Southeast Asia. The title Bharati (Tamil, P?rati), meaning the "learned one," was bestowed on him at the age of twelve in recognition of his precocious gifts, by an assembly of poets and scholars in Ettayapuram, where he lived and where his father served the local chieftain. A Br?hmana by birth, Bharatiyar was steeped in a traditional Hindu spirituality centered on the Vedas and the Upanisads. Yet at an early age he was drawn to Tamil poetry, which he often read surreptitiously, and was caught up in the new Tamil literary renaissance initiated by Saiva Siddh?nta revivalists of

The Medical Kipling

The Medical Kipling

Improving Small Ruminant Production

Livestock production is a key livelihood strategy and a way of life for most smallholders in the Hindukush. Depending on ethnicity, access to land, labor force, and ecological conditions, small to large herds of goats, sheep, cattle and buffalo serve as a primary or secondary source of livelihood. Ongoing deterioration of environmental conditions—frequently due to overgrazing—and the depletion of timber and firewood resources—often linked to demographic and economic pressure both in the highlands and the lowlands—increasingly worsen living conditions. Alternative livelihood strategies and pathways to more sustainable natural resource use are needed. A combined research and development project, based on long-standing local research and participatory development efforts, launched in the North-Western Frontier Province of Pakistan (NWFP), aims to better assess and compare the situations in 3 different valleys, and to test concrete options for improving livestock output. Standard de-worming practices are being combined with a novel method of supplementing locally produced, season-specific, critically deficient nutrients for the animals, based on local environmental needs.

The Evolution of the Presidio in Northern New Spain

Between 1550 and 1848, approximately 200 presidios were established on the northwestern frontier of Hispanic civilization in North America. Over time, the institution evolved from small garrisoned places into a distinctive type of military colony. Prior to 1750, many presidios were not fortified. Those that were reflected vernacular building traditions that echoed medieval models. During the last 100 years of Spanish rule, efforts were made to modernize the presidios and professionalize their garrisons. These projects were only partially successful. Despite increasingly limited resources, portions of the presidio system managed to survive into the middle of the 19th century.

How Many Minzu in a Nation? Modern Travellers Meet China’s Frontier Peoples

AbstractThrough the writings of three modern travellers, this essay examines the role of domestic non-Chinese, on the northwestern frontiers of Chinese culture, in the imagining of a new nation-state. Ma Hetian, Fan Changjiang, and Gu Jiegang went to the same places in the mid-1930s and observed very similar phenomena, but because they travelled to the northwest for very different purposes and with very different theories in mind, their conclusions differed radically. Ma Hetian saw a Guomindang vision, a single and united Chinese people (in potential), divided only by religion and language. Fan Changjiang, a leftist journalist, saw various peoples competing and conflicting for scarce resources in an exploited, impoverished frontier region. Gu Jiegang, an antiquarian scholar, concluded that the northwest could be a reservoir of virile, martial strength of a new China. All three of them relied on the notion of Minzu, which was then a much more flexible and less centrally determined concept than it is today, to understand what they saw.

Epidemiology of cigarette smoking in Pakistan.

To study the prevalence of smoking among Pakistani population with particular reference to regional differences and correlates of cigarette smoking. Cross-sectional survey based on representative national sample. Data collected through National Health Survey of Pakistan 1990-94. 13,104 individuals (6337 males and 6767 females), aged > or = 8 years. Prevalence and correlates of smoking. Based on weighted estimates, the overall prevalence of cigarette smoking was 14.2% (95% CI: 13.6-14.8) in individuals aged > or = 8 years and 19.4% (95% CI: 19.08-19.72) among those aged > or = 15 years. The highest prevalence was seen in the province of Sindh (16.1%) and the lowest in North Western Frontier Province (7.1%). Nearly a quarter of males (25.4%) were smokers while only 3.5% of females smoked (p < 0.001). The smoking was slightly more prevalent in urban areas (15.2%) compared to rural areas (13.7%). This pattern was consistent in all provinces except the province of Sindh. The highest prevalence of cigarettes smoking among males (48.6%) was seen in those aged 25-44 years. After this age, there was a decline in smoking among males in Punjab and North Western Frontier Province, whereas the other two provinces, Sindh and Balochistan, did not show any such trend. Smoking is common in Pakistan. There is no clear policy on tobacco control in Pakistan.

Labor regulation in a global economy

In 1944 Moslem forces in China's westernmost province of Xinjiang rose against the Chinese authorities and succeeded in establishing a small independent Islamic state - the East Turkestan Republic. Based on newly available archival material, this book describes the Moslem challenge to Chinese rule and documents the Nationalist government's response to newly awakened Turkic-Moslem nationalism on China's most remote and politically sensitive north-western frontier. With this book, Linda Benson aims to break new ground in the study of Sino-Soviet relations and especially of the policies of Chinese governments toward their national minorities.

Attacotti, Deisi and Magnus Maximus: The Case for Irish Federates in Late Roman Britain

Scholars of late Roman Britain will be familiar with the name of the Attacotti, who appear in several fourth- and fifth-century Roman texts. Ammianus refers to this mysterious people attacking the British diocese in the second half of the fourth century. In the same period the promiscuous marriage customs and, more so, the ferocious cannibalism of this ‘British race’ shocked a young St Jerome. It is somewhat surprising therefore that the Notitia Dignitatum lists a number of Attacotti units among the auxilia palatina stationed in Gaul, Italy, and Illyricum, and in the last instance their presence is also attested in epigraphic sources. Scholarly consensus has been content to regard the Attacotti as just one among the many minor and otherwise unknown tribes of Ireland or north Britain. It is interesting to note, however, that for a brief period Ammianus ranks the Attacotti alongside the Scots, Picts, and Saxons as a threat to the north-western frontiers of the Empire. It is also to be noted that the recruitment of the Attacotti into the Roman army, seemingly in considerable numbers, is apparently unique among the peoples of the British Isles beyond Roman rule. The writer's purpose is to assess the fourth- and fifth-century evidence for the Attacotti and to examine the problems of their identification and origins, together with their relationship to other peoples hostile to the late Roman diocese of Britain. The results of this examination will demonstrate that the character of the Attacotti and the location and nature of the threat they posed have been misunderstood. This study will suggest circumstances for their recruitment and transfer into the continental comitatus, set in the wider context of the on-going debate concerning the presence of barbarian troops in later Roman Britain, and the size and nature of the British garrison in general. Furthermore, at a time when there are many studies of the mutual relations between the Roman Empire and its neighbours, this contribution seeks to shed new light on the interaction between Roman Britain and Ireland, a subject relatively neglected by Roman historians, despite considerable advances in the fields of early Irish history and literature.

Genetic and pathogenic diversity within Ascochyta rabiei(Pass.) Lab. populations in Pakistan causing blight of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Pathogenic and genetic diversity in Ascochyta rabiei populations in Pakistan were evaluated. Biological pathotyping of 130 A. rabiei isolates (obtained from hierarchically collected samples) was conducted on a set of three chickpea differentials, i.e. ILC 1929 (susceptible), ILC 482 (tolerant) and ILC 3279 (resistant), under controlled conditions. Disease severity data were recorded 12 days after inoculation. Statistical analysis grouped the isolates into three pathotype classes. Four isolates belonged to pathotype I (least aggressive), 79 isolates to pathotype II (medium aggressive) and 47 isolates to pathotype-III (highly aggressive).Genetic analysis was performed using RAPDs and oligonucleotide fingerprinting, where Hinf I-digested DNA was hybridized to the32P-endlabeled oligonucleotide probes (CAA)5, (GAA)5, (GA)8, (CA)8and (GATA)4. Dendrograms produced by cluster analysis discriminated 46 genotypes in the A. rabiei population of Pakistan. Genetic distances and relatedness between isolates were calculated. At a genetic distance of 0.3, genotypes were divided into six distinct genotype groups A, B, C, D, E and F containing 16, 11, 2, 5, 5 and 7 isolates, respectively. Most of the genotypes were area specific or predominated in certain areas but did not belong to a distinct pathotype, while most of the aggressive isolates (pathotype III) occurred in Northern Punjab and in the North Western Frontier Province.

The Myth of Desertification at China’s Northwestern Frontier

In imperial China, government action to rangeland at the northwestern frontier was for centuries determined by defense and what can be called “turning waste into use.” For the pacification of the region beyond the Great Wall, which frequently suffered from incursions by nomadic tribes, military colonies were established to reclaim land. The empire also set up Horse Pasturage Directorates (Mujian) under the auspices of the Imperial Stud (Taipusi) to ensure a steady provision of horses for military use. In contrast with the spatial perception of nomadic peoples, who valued the vast and open steppe, sedentary Han Chinese abhorred barren land that produced no grain. In their view, rangeland was no more than “wasteland” (huangdi) that needed to be reclaimed and cultivated. The garrisons of the Great Wall contributed to this purpose. Exiles and landless farmers who had fled from war and famine were resettled in these areas with government support. Thus, the garrisons could be strengthened while catering for military self-sufficiency in grain. In contrast to the late Qing era and the early Republican period, Chiang Kai-shek’s government integrated socioeconomic and technical aspects in land development, although the basic format remained the same: agricultural reclamation (Christiansen, 1992: 79). Years of reclamation coupled with population pressure are believed to have led to rangeland degradation with desertification as the ultimate outcome.

Health care systems in transition III. Pakistan, Part I. An overview of the health care system in Pakistan.

Pakistan, which occupies the easternmost part of the Gigirist– Euphrates and Indus basin, is a country with strong cultural traditions, going back to the early Indus Valley civilization of Moen-jo-Daro and the Graeco-Buddhist Gandharan cultures. Pakistan became independent in 1947 and occupies an area of 852 392 km. It is located on the Arabian Sea, bordered by India to the east and Iran to the southwest, and Afghanistan and China to the north. Administratively, Pakistan comprises four provinces [Punjab, Sindh, North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan], and four federal territories (the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Federally Administered Northern Areas, Islamabad Capital Territory and the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir). Each province is divided into districts, which are the main administrative units. Districts themselves are further divided into sub-districts, called Tehsils or Talukas. After independence, three powerful social factions became pre-eminent: the military, the civil service and politicians. Over the last three decades, the country has oscillated between military governments and democratically elected but fragile civilian governments. As a result, many government policies have been made by and for the civil servants and politicians, who are either rich landlords or belong to the small coterie of rural or urban elites. This has resulted in neglect of the social sector of Pakistani society, despite periods of relatively strong economic growth. Attaining sustainable improvements in health has proved a difficult goal to achieve, and health and other social indicators remain low even compared with neighbouring countries with poorer economies than Pakistan (Table 1).

Chinook Jargon Placenames as Points of Mutual Reference: Discourse, Intersubjectivity, and Environment Within an Intercultural Toponymic Complex

AbstractChinook Jargon, a pre-historic trade language in northwestern North America, became the primary means of communication between native and white speakers during European exploration and settlement in this region. At this time, many descriptive names taken from Chinook Jargon were assigned to landscape features. Some placenames persist as artifacts of this exchange; assessed in the light of historical and ethnographic sources, they illuminate the character of intercultural discourse on the northwestern frontier. Chinook Jargon placenames exhibit a restricted semantic range, providing intersubjective and utilitarian descriptions of the landscape to facilitate navigation and the location of particular resources. Descriptive vehicles, such as toponymic metaphors, are also reduced to certain “lowest common denominators” between the cultures in contact. It is thus suggested that, in intercultural contexts, speakers must divine certain linguistic and cultural points of mutual reference in order to discuss salient physical points of mutual reference in the landscape.