Repressive State Research Articles

Genome-wide maps of nucleolus interactions reveal distinct layers of repressive chromatin domains

Eukaryotic chromosomes are folded into hierarchical domains, forming functional compartments. Nuclear periphery and nucleolus are two nuclear landmarks contributing to repressive chromosome architecture. However, while the role of nuclear lamina (NL) in genome organization has been well documented, the function of the nucleolus remains under-investigated due to the lack of methods for the identification of nucleolar associated domains (NADs). Here we have established DamID- and HiC-based methodologies to generate accurate genome-wide maps of NADs in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs), revealing layers of genome compartmentalization with distinct, repressive chromatin states based on the interaction with the nucleolus, NL, or both. NADs show higher H3K9me2 and lower H3K27me3 content than regions exclusively interacting with NL. Upon ESC differentiation into NPCs, chromosomes around the nucleolus acquire a more compact, rigid architecture with neural genes moving away from nucleoli and becoming unlocked for later activation. Further, histone modifications and the interaction strength within A and B compartments of NADs and LADs in ESCs set the choice to associate with NL or nucleoli upon dissociation from their respective compartments during differentiation. The methodologies here developed will make possible to include the nucleolar contribution in nuclear space and genome function in diverse biological systems.

„Kötelékek köteléke” Azonosságok Moses Hess és Karl Marx korai filozófiai munkásságában, különös tekintettel a pénz gazdaságfilozófiai értelmezésére

Szűcs, Balázs: “The bond of bonds” – Identities in the early philosophical eork of Moses Hess and Karl Marx, with special reference to the economic philosophical interpretation of money In my essay, I attempted to demonstrate the similarities between the two philosophers, Hess and Marx, especially regarding the essence of money. I present the effect of Hess on the young Marx. In the first section of the essay, a short biography of the French Jewish philosopher, Moses Hess is presented and a brief analysis of the most important works of Hess, like European Triarchy (1841), The Philosophy of Action (1843) and Rome and Jerusalem (1862) is given. In these works, there are a number of philosophical categories and definitions that appear in Marx’s works in similar formulation, for instance the determinism of activity, raw possession and the concept of an authority based (Autoritaten) and repressive state, which is the greatest barrier to free self-accomplishment (Selbstbestimmung). But another striking similarity is that Prometheus is regarded, by both philosophers, as the personification of freedom. The second part of the essay provides a detailed analysis of On the Essence of Money (1845). In this work, Hess gives a unique perspective on human history from its beginning to his own age, with many sharp and prophetic philosophical conclusions. Money has entered this system of philosophy, of history as a necessary evil and by staying for too long in the system, it causes alienation. At the end of the study, there is a comparison of the categories and their explanations that can be found in both philosophers’ works. Comparison of On the Essence of Money and Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, where Hess’s influence on Marx is most evident.

Commandment, commencement and restorative justice

AbstractEarly restorative justice archives challenged state criminalisation through three basic pledges – diversion, social transformation, and decolonisation – thereby inaugurating a movement against repressive state criminalisation and announcing a new paradigm of justice. Returning to that movement's beginning, this article shows how its global successes were secured through intimate ties with state justice that diluted its early pledges. Highlighting oft‐overlooked insights from legal pluralism, it calls for new articulations between semi‐autonomous justice fields to revitalise, and not simply recover, restorative foundations. Forging links with diverse social fields, and engaging a politics of accusation, restorative justice could recraft lenses that bring harm‐producing social assemblies into focus.

Professor Nikola Saranov – the Teacher and the Long-lasted Oblivion

The present study presents the professional career of one of the most famous lecturers in the Law Faculty of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky” till 1944 – namely Professor Nikola Saranov (1895–1974). Under detailed consideration is his professional career and the gradual way in which he has been established as a leading lecturer of the discipline Criminal court procedure. Professor Saranov has also introduced a lecture course in Criminal studies in Bulgaria. Following the coup d’etat of 9 September 1944 he has been gradually forced to quit his lecturing at the Law Faculty. In the study under consideration are documents in support of the consequences from this act, in particular monitoring and repressions on behalf of the State Security Service almost until the death of the professor in 1974. These activities of the repressive state machine are applied also to relatives and family members of the professor. Under consideration are also the various interests of Professor Saranov in different areas, including towards the short career of a judge of the national poet Ivan Vasov in the town of Bercovitsa in the period 1879–1880, with regard to which the professor issues a study in the Yearbook of the Law Faculty of the Sofia University in 1943.

The transcriptional elongation factor CTR9 demarcates PRC2-mediated H3K27me3 domains by altering PRC2 subtype equilibrium.

CTR9 is the scaffold subunit in polymerase-associated factor complex (PAFc), a multifunctional complex employed in multiple steps of RNA Polymerase II (RNAPII)-mediated transcription. CTR9/PAFc is well known as an evolutionarily conserved elongation factor that regulates gene activation via coupling with histone modifications enzymes. However, little is known about its function to restrain repressive histone markers. Using inducible and stable CTR9 knockdown breast cancer cell lines, we discovered that the H3K27me3 levels are strictly controlled by CTR9. Quantitative profiling of histone modifications revealed a striking increase of H3K27me3 levels upon loss of CTR9. Moreover, loss of CTR9 leads to genome-wide expansion of H3K27me3, as well as increased recruitment of PRC2 on chromatin, which can be reversed by CTR9 restoration. Further, CTR9 depletion triggers a PRC2 subtype switch from the less active PRC2.2, to the more active PRC2.1 with higher methyltransferase activity. As a consequence, CTR9 depletion generates vulnerability that renders breast cancer cells hypersensitive to PRC2 inhibitors. Our findings that CTR9 demarcates PRC2-mediated H3K27me3 levels and genomic distribution provide a unique mechanism that explains the transition from transcriptionally active chromatin states to repressive chromatin states and sheds light on the biological functions of CTR9 in development and cancer.

Broad-spectrum fungal resistance in sorghum is conferred through the complex regulation of an immune receptor gene embedded in a natural antisense transcript.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), the fifth most widely grown cereal crop globally, provides food security for millions of people. Anthracnose caused by the fungus Colletotrichum sublineola is a major disease of sorghum worldwide. We discovered a major fungal resistance locus in sorghum composed of the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor gene ANTHRACNOSE RESISTANCE GENE1 (ARG1) that is completely nested in an intron of a cis-natural antisense transcript (NAT) gene designated CARRIER OF ARG1 (CARG). Susceptible genotypes express CARG and two alternatively spliced ARG1 transcripts encoding truncated proteins lacking the leucine-rich repeat domains. In resistant genotypes, elevated expression of an intact allele of ARG1, attributed to the loss of CARG transcription and the presence of miniature inverted-repeat transposable element sequences, resulted in broad-spectrum resistance to fungal pathogens with distinct virulence strategies. Increased ARG1 expression in resistant genotypes is also associated with higher histone H3K4 and H3K36 methylation. In susceptible genotypes, lower ARG1 expression is associated with reduced H3K4 and H3K36 methylation and increased expression of NATs of CARG. The repressive chromatin state associated with H3K9me2 is low in CARG-expressing genotypes within the CARG exon and higher in genotypes with low CARG expression. Thus, ARG1 is regulated by multiple mechanisms and confers broad-spectrum, strong resistance to fungal pathogens.

Integrative analysis of 3604 GWAS reveals multiple novel cell type-specific regulatory associations

BackgroundGenome-wide association study (GWAS) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are known to preferentially co-locate to active regulatory elements in tissues and cell types relevant to disease aetiology. Further characterisation of associated cell type-specific regulation can broaden our understanding of how GWAS signals may contribute to disease risk.ResultsTo gain insight into potential functional mechanisms underlying GWAS associations, we developed FORGE2 (https://forge2.altiusinstitute.org/), which is an updated version of the FORGE web tool. FORGE2 uses an expanded atlas of cell type-specific regulatory element annotations, including DNase I hotspots, five histone mark categories and 15 hidden Markov model (HMM) chromatin states, to identify tissue- and cell type-specific signals. An analysis of 3,604 GWAS from the NHGRI-EBI GWAS catalogue yielded at least one significant disease/trait-tissue association for 2,057 GWAS, including > 400 associations specific to epigenomic marks in immune tissues and cell types, > 30 associations specific to heart tissue, and > 60 associations specific to brain tissue, highlighting the key potential of tissue- and cell type-specific regulatory elements. Importantly, we demonstrate that FORGE2 analysis can separate previously observed accessible chromatin enrichments into different chromatin states, such as enhancers or active transcription start sites, providing a greater understanding of underlying regulatory mechanisms. Interestingly, tissue-specific enrichments for repressive chromatin states and histone marks were also detected, suggesting a role for tissue-specific repressed regions in GWAS-mediated disease aetiology.ConclusionIn summary, we demonstrate that FORGE2 has the potential to uncover previously unreported disease-tissue associations and identify new candidate mechanisms. FORGE2 is a transparent, user-friendly web tool for the integrative analysis of loci discovered from GWAS.

South Sudan: Consequences of the secession

In July 2011, South Sudan separated from the Republic of Sudan (RoS), and a new state appeared on the world map - the Republic of South Sudan (RoSS). At that time, the prospects for South Sudan seemed promising: in addition to rich oil resources, the young country had serious support of the world community and an influential diaspora that provided humanitarian assistance. When proclaiming independence, South Sudan counted on a significant increase in oil revenues, but Juba could not export black gold without the use of oil pipelines laid through the North. As a result, the split and the following “oil war” cost both countries dearly, although the RoS emerged from the conflict if not a winner, then with less losses than the RoSS, which, moreover, became engulfed in internal armed and inter-factional conflicts almost immediately after gaining independence. Amid an economic downturn, South Sudan gradually plunged into the chaos of a full-scale civil war, which formally ended in September 2018, but in fact continued until February 2020. The destructive phenomena that preceded the deterioration of the political situation in the RoSS include progressing (Dinka centric) tribalism of the country's top leadership, exclusion of representatives of many smaller ethnic groups from the decision-making process, and the refusal to reform the army and normalize the civil-military relations. The quality of governance by public administration in the RoSS is not just very low, but is gradually declining. South Sudan not only did not become “democratic” as was intended, but actually regressed towards a repressive state that plunged the population into extreme poverty. Although the secession was the solution to the conflict between the North and the South, it led to an escalation of violence and the emergence of new problems, which are no less serious than those it was designed to solve.

Platformization of Politics in Non-democracies: Spaces of Participatory Experiments In Belarus in 2020S

This paper�s focus is on the innovations in the urban public political agenda that are due to the interplay between participatory digital platforms, the socio-economic paths of specific urban environments, and long-term policy orientations on the national and urban levels. The context of the 2020 presidential elections in Belarus and the resulting boom of participation in the local and national political agendas is taken here as a particular configuration of the mentioned interplay and its outcomes. The first part of the paper focuses on the role of digital platforms in the studied boom of participation in 2020, the second documents the urban policy developments in Belarus during the period of 2015�2020, and the third reflects on the compatibility of the Belarusian case with wider discussions on the political impact that the spread of digital platforms has on urbanism. It is argued that the repressive state, the gradual marketization of urban development and the accompanying strengthening of urban dwellers� economic autonomy, and the proliferation of commercial digital platforms and civic tech are the factors that have defined the studied politicization and the boom of participation in Belarus. The examined case shows the contours of emerging politics in non-democracies under conditions of ubiquitous digitalization and the pressure on the state�s redistributive capacities.

К ВОПРОСУ ОБ АНТИЦЕРКОВНЫХ ПРОЦЕССАХ МОСКОВСКОГО РЕВОЛЮЦИОННОГО ТРИБУНАЛА 1918–1920-Х ГГ. (ДЕЛО СВЯЩЕННИКА МИХАИЛА САХАРОВА)

The article considers the mechanisms of the repressive anti-church state policy of the Soviet government, which began its formation immediately after the October Revolution, using the case example of the Moscow Provincial Revolutionary Tribunal of 1918 against the rector of the St. George Church of the village of Vanilovo in the Ashitkov parish of the Bronnitsky district of the Moscow province, Father Mikhail Sakharov. The case was based on the incident with the beating of the Bronnitsky district Commissioner of Education, who wished to explain to residents the essence of the decree on the separation of Church and state. Even though the case materials incontrovertibly testified that the priest was not involved in the incident, he was convicted together with the participants of the beating as the initiator of the violence that occurred. The article emphasizes the political bias of the prosecution and its direct connection with the decree “On the Red Terror” proclaimed in September 1918. The latter, among other things, is confirmed by the fact that investigative actions in the case did not begin immediately after the beating of the commissioner in February 1918, but only in October. It is also noted that the practice characteristic of several cases of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal is the gradual mitigation of initially harsh sentences up to a full amnesty of convicts.

GEZI PARK AS SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT: RE-IMAGINING THE TURKISH PUBLIC

The subject of this paper is the Gezi Park movement that took place in the summer of 2013 in Turkey. Despite starting out as a peaceful protest      to stop the demolition of Gezi Park for the purposes of the “Taksim Pedestrianization Project”, the gatherings quickly became one of the biggest social movements to take place in Turkish history. People from all ages, classes and social groups came together in support, after government attempts to suppress the protest through brutal police actions garnered widespread criticism. Although the movement did not generate any immediate or drastic political change, it did leave a lasting effect on the Turkish public, especially because of the immense solidarity and social cohesion demonstrated by the participants. Hence, in this paper, I will argue that Gezi Park could be treated as an example of ‘spontaneous development’, an informal process through which the citizens of Turkey re-imagined the Turkish public and possibilities of modes of life within the state. Instrumental in this process was the long-lasting stratification of the Turkish public between the laicist, Kemalist ‘modernists’ and the Islamic, Erdoğan ‘conservatives’. I argue that in the context of a historical and current      repressive and silencing state, Turkish people constructed a Gezi community in direct opposition, in which social hierarchies were disbanded and freedom of speech was maintained as one of the highest values. By taking anthropological and developmental studies of the informal/formal sector dichotomy and their interrelation, I apply these understandings to the human development sector. Thus, I argue that informal modes of organization and maintenance of social cohesion can be treated as informal development, directly affecting people’s imaginations and actions, as well as a potential source of knowledge and inspiration for formal-sector development. In this sense, I employ Amartya Sen’s freedom-approach to development to demonstrate that freedom of expression played an instrumental role in the construction of this imagining. Further, I argue that despite theoretical limitations in social theory, ethnographic research and anthropological studies can be useful in the application of informal sector knowledge to formal development strategies.

The Silencing and Ostracization of Rohingyas: A Study of Habiburahman’s Memoir First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks

A minority group refers to a racially, culturally, or ethnically distinct group that is secondary or subordinate to a dominant group. Nearly every state consists of various communities whose traditions, religion, language, and historical experiences differ from one another and through socio-political powerplay. People treat others based on what they perceive as essential characteristics of those individuals or groups, which are often based purely, on their position in the stratification hierarchy. Though in several states the ethnoculturally diverse communities co-exist in harmony, resulting in ‘Pluralism’, however, in others the minority groups are subjected to discrimination and violence. Establishing the cultural hegemony of the dominant group has been an effective tool in subjugating the minority communities. However, Repressive State Apparatuses are also employed by the state, in extreme conditions, which result in expulsion and genocide. One such instance of ethnic cleansing is the ostracisation of the Rohingya community. Rohingyas are a Muslim minority group in Myanmar, erstwhile Burma, which is predominantly, a Buddhist country. They have been the target of institutionalised discrimination. They were denied citizenship by the government and were rendered stateless. The discriminatory policies of the government of Myanmar have compelled a huge number of Rohingya Muslims to flee their homeland. Many took refuge in the neighbouring countries. The paper aims to examine the racial and ethnic discrimination of the Rohingya community and their systematic oppression and ostracisation which lead to the exodus of the Rohingyas, as documented in Habiburahman’s memoir First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks.

От этикетажа к радиофикации: экспозиция Эрмитажа в период «социалистической реконструкции»

The article focuses on display techniques introduced in the Hermitage during the so-called “Socialist Reconstruction” of the first half of the 1930s, under the directorship of Boris Legran. Rearrangement of the museum, based on Marxist “socio-economical formations” aimed at a mass audience, is usually considered to have been the product of propaganda, and the result of repressive state measures imposed upon the Hermitage in the years of the Cultural Revolution. Explanatory labelling, “composite” displays of different arts, plans for radio broadcasting in exhibition spaces and musical concerts at the Hermitage Theatre are here studied within the wider, transnational context to show that the transformations at the Hermitage were largely modelled on socially-oriented museological reforms in the US and Europe. It is also demonstrated that educational displays in the Hermitage and other Soviet art museums attracted many curators and art practitioners abroad, most notably in France, and may have influenced the introduction of similar practices in the West.

A (New) Spectre Is Haunting Europe: National Memory

History is under attack, all over the world, for both the political and propagandistic uses of the past – which increasingly frame the actions of autocratic governments – and for the bans on writing, studying, teaching subjects that may be regarded as offensive to the memory of one country or even a threat to its national unity. These two perspectives are closely linked, because it is precisely in those countries where history, or rather an idealised or politically-oriented image of the past, is employed with greater ideological zeal that it is more difficult to write history without repressive state intervention. The examples are many: prison sentences for those who tackle certain topics, state censorship of school curricula, inaccessible archives, destroyed documents, marginalisation of disobedient officials, coercive rewriting of the past. It has become increasingly difficult to maintain the vital link between historical research, dissemination of results and teaching, to the detriment of an official history increasingly bent to the ideological pretensions of governments to create unitary histories in homage to a distorted idea of national prestige.

Provocation and Attrition Strategies in Transnational Terrorism: The Case of Al-Shabaab

ABSTRACT Scholars have identified a range of terrorist strategies that militant groups employ to influence intended audiences, but there is scant empirical validation. Following Kenya’s invasion of Somalia in late 2011, Al-Shabaab executed retaliatory terrorist attacks in Kenya with the strategic aim to compel the withdrawal of Kenyan troops from Somalia. Drawing on unique in-depth interviews with Al-Shabaab defectors and civilian witnesses to counterterrorism measures in Kenya, this article investigates the strategic motives underlying Al-Shabaab’s transnational terrorist operations and assesses the effect these have had on the intended audiences. The empirical findings reveal that the attrition strategy has underpinned Al-Shabaab’s major terrorist attacks (large-scale events) whilst their minor terrorist attacks (small-scale events) have been motivated by the provocation strategy, aimed at eliciting a repressive state overreaction against Kenya’s Somali and Muslim minorities. Whilst the major terrorist attacks succeeded in fomenting the Kenyan public’s anti-war views, this did not result in troop withdrawal; the minor terrorist attacks, however, engendered harsh state repression and draconian measures against Kenya’s Somali and Muslim minorities, ultimately exacerbating existing grievances and channelling fresh recruits to Al-Shabaab. This article contributes to the growing literature on terrorist strategies, offering nuanced empirical insights to understanding the strategic motives underpinning transnational terrorist campaigns. The article demonstrates that transnational terrorism campaigns are rooted in the strategic need to influence different audiences abroad. Depending on militant groups’ short- and long-term objectives, the type of attack indicates the type of terrorist strategy they will employ.

YAP/TAZ Promote Hematopoietic Regeneration Via Accelerating the Recovery of Bone Marrow Niche

Adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) reside and are protected in a unique bone marrow (BM) microenvironment, termed the HSC niche, which consists mainly of vascular endothelial cells (EC) and EC-associated mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC). Myeloablative stresses, such as ionizing radiation (IR) and chemotherapy, induce not only depletion of hematopoietic cells but also disruption of HSC niche components, as exemplified by dilation and leakiness of BM vasculature and depletion and dysfunction of BM MSCs. These structural and functional changes in the HSC niche restrain efficient hematopoietic recovery, which often compromises the efficacy of HSC transplantation (HSCT) and chemotherapy. YAP/TAZ are the two transcriptional coactivators normally repressed by LATS kinases downstream of the Hippo pathway. Although cumulative evidence has established a critical role of YAP/TAZ activation in tissue regeneration of various solid organs, their role in BM regeneration remains poorly understood.Our quantitive RT-PCR revealed that YAP/TAZ are abundantly expressed in steady-state mouse ECs (CD45 -Ter119 -CD31 +Sca1 +CD105 hi) and MSCs (CD45 -Ter119 -CD31 -PDGFRα +CD51 +LepR +) but scarcely in hematopoietic cells including HSCs (Lin -cKit +Sca1 +Flk2 -CD150 +CD48 -CD34 lo), which was confirmed by reanalysis of the published single cell RNA-seq datasets (GSE128423). Immunofluorescent imaging of BM sections revealed that YAP/TAZ are distributed mainly in the cytoplasm of ECs but evenly in the cytoplasm and nuclei of MSCs, indicating their differential basal activity in these two HSC niche components. Kinetic transcriptome analysis revealed that YAP/TAZ activity is transiently activated in ECs at 24 hours and returns to a basal repressive state by day 3 after sublethal IR. This transient activation of endothelial YAP/TAZ was critical for vascular integrity, as conditional deletion of YAP/TAZ in ECs (Cdh5-Cre ERT2Yap1 f/fTaz f/f) caused 100% lethality of mice within 10 days following sublethal IR. In sharp contrast, the kinetic expression analysis of a YAP/TAZ target gene CTGF indicated their transient inhibition in MSCs after sublethal IR, and the conditional YAP/TAZ deletion in BM MSCs (Ebf3-Cre ERT2Yap1 f/fTaz f/f) led to their reduced colony forming ability when assessed by colony forming unit fibroblast (CFU-F) assay.Recently, we discovered a novel and potent LATS inhibitor GA-003 that selectively induces mouse and human YAP/TAZ activation in vitro (IC 50 against LATS1 = 1.06 ± 0.08 nM). To analyze the effect of pharmacological YAP/TAZ activation on BM regeneration in vivo, we treated mice with intraperitoneal injection of GA-003 (50 mg/kg per day, for 8 days) following sublethal IR. Remarkably, we observed an accelerated recovery of hematopoiesis, with the absolute numbers of BM cellularity, GMP (Lin -cKit +Sca1 -FcγR +CD34 +) and HSC EPCR (Lin -cKit +Sca1 +CD150 +EPCR +) on day 14 increased by 3.50-fold (p=0.0002), 6.49-fold (p=0.0022) and 11.41-fold (p=0.022), respectively in the GA-003-treated group compared to vehicle-treated group. In addition, GA-003 also promoted hematopoietic recovery after 5-FU injection (150 mg/kg) and HSCT. Nonetheless, consistent with the scarce expression of YAP/TAZ in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC), in vitro GA-003 treatment did not enhance HSPC growth, suggesting niche-mediated effects by GA-003. Indeed, in vitro tube formation assay indicated accelerated angiogenesis by GA-003-treated human umbilical vein ECs, and CFU-F assays revealed significant enhancement of colony formation by mouse BM-derived MSCs upon GA-003 treatment. To reveal the effect of GA-003 on the HSC niche components in vivo, we performed whole BM immunofluorescent imaging at various time points following sublethal IR and GA-003 treatment. We observed alleviated vascular dilation and leakiness and earlier restoration of vascular damage in GA-003-treated group compared to vehicle-treated group, which was associated with increased VE-Cadherin expression in ECs. These results suggest that reinforcing YAP/TAZ activity upon myelosuppression promotes HSC niche integrity and recovery and accelerates hematopoietic regeneration.Taken together, our results establish YAP/TAZ as novel regulators of HSC niche and highlight YAP/TAZ as promising therapeutic targets to boost hematopoietic recovery after myeloablative interventions such as chemotherapy and HSCT. DisclosuresAihara: Nissan Chemical Corporation: Current Employment. Iwawaki: Nissan Chemical Corporation: Current Employment. Nishino: Nissan Chemical Corporation: Current Employment. Iwama: Nissan Chemical Corporation: Research Funding.

What is Behind the Bodice (Choli Ki Pichhe)? Narratives of Simulacra, Rape, Forced Whoredom: A Critical Analysis of Mahasweta Devi’s Behind the Bodice

Media is not a charitable organization rather a profitable institution. Media often fails to publish important national issues and success to publish the non-issues for escalating the mercantile gains. Interestingly, media often adopts simulation, simulacra, hyper-reality to printed or digitalized news applying their unethical de-realization or yellow journalism. I, therefore, theoretically and thematically will show in my paper how this paid journalism and unethical media using a false representation of Gangor’s breast doomed her life. This ‘Simulacrum’ gives birth of narratives of violence, gang rape, and forced prostitution in Mahasweta Devi’s story Behind the Bodice. Jean Baudrillard defines ‘Simulacra’ as something that replaces reality with its false representation. According to him, it refers the false reality of the image and misrepresentation of true reality actually. In the story Behind the Bodice, Gangor’s breast feeding of her child is a natural phenomenon. But this true reality, ‘save the breast’ (simulacra) is represented with erotic code which sells abroad by Upin Puri at huge prices. This ace-photographer exhibited the nakedness of India to the West for his journalistic prosperity. His false representations of Gangor’s breasts germinate the tales of violence, eviction, male gaze, narratives of forced prostitution and finally, a tragic doom. I will highlight in my paper how this subject is appreciated by then. On the other hand, ‘Behind the Bodice’ introduces the narrative of simulacra, rape and forced whoredom by the power, politics and apparatus of the repressive state.

Protests and blood on the streets: repressive state, police brutality and #EndSARS protest in Nigeria

This article investigates how the Nigerian state is implicated in police brutality and clampdown on the #EndSARS protesters and its implications for democracy, development and national security. The article used primary data comprising 38 telephone interviews, 19,609 Facebook posts/reposts and 24,799 Twitter tweets/retweets, complementing it with a wide range of secondary data. From the analyses of data, it shows there is an obvious mutual trust deficit between government and the citizens. This is supported by one-third of the 36 states in Nigeria which witnessed sporadic #EndSARS protests and destruction of government establishments. Use of heavy firearms against unarmed protesters escalated the conflict from civil disobedience to a demand to a change of government. Thus, establishment of institutional mechanisms and disciplinary measures that control the excesses of security agents during civil protests is imperative to protect civil and human rights of protesters.

Another World Is Possible: A Comparative Perspective

Another World Is Possible: A Comparative Perspective

PHOTOGRAPHISM IN ALTHUSSER’S THEORY OF IDEOLOGY

The aim of this essay is to establish some provisionary points of articulation for a “non-philosophical” critique of Althusser’s theory of ideology. It builds on Ernesto Laclau’s argument that Althusser’s ISA essay is symptomatic of the ideology of ideological critique. Althusser argues that Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs), such as the school, political parties, and cultural institutions, and Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs), such as the police and army, produce the “subject,” which willingly submits to power. Althusser thus reduces the plurality of ideological instances to a single equivalent: the constitution and category of the subject. My argument explores the metaphoricity that underwrites this equivalential (and ideological) dimension. Drawing principally on the work of François Laruelle, I argue that the chain of technical metaphors that Althusser employs signifies a metaphorical condition that Laruelle terms photographism. By imaging ideology, particularly via the scene of “interpellation,” Althusser’s theory appears to capture ideology as such as an image as if the entire theoretical apparatus was a kind of philosophico-photographic apparatus. Following Laruelle, I argue that his photographism is symptomatic of the ideology of standard philosophy as such.