Between Conflict and Coexistence: A Case Study of Hindu-Muslim Relations in Rural North-Western India

The Partition of India upset the status quo causing riots, casualties and a colossal wave of migration that sent thousands of Muslims to their new homeland, Pakistan. Despite the mass violence and displacement, around 35 million Muslims eventually stayed in India. The tensed Hindu–Muslim relations in the aftermath of the Partition intensified a long-standing rivalry between the two groups and led to a feeling of insecurity among Muslims. Strained relations among Hindus and Muslims, which stay at the forefront of social concerns in contemporary India, remain a major cause of worry and call for an in-depth analysis. The article focuses on how the Hindu-Muslim relations developed throughout the modern history, especially during the times of the Indian Independence Movement. The goal of my research is to elucidate historical, social and political contexts of Hindu– Muslim relations in India and to shed a new light on this multifaceted issue. After presenting a historical perspective on Hindu-Muslim relations, the article provides a case study on both communities’ attitudes towards each other. Based on two months of fieldwork conducted in Northern villages of India in January and February 2018, I investigate the multiple stereotypes about Muslims prevailing among Hindu rural community. I address a question whether the character of this uneasy relation is closer to coexistence or a hidden conflict.

What was created in the Indian rock – 18th and 19th century drawings from the London’s collections. European artists and their visions

The article presents a collection of drawings shows Indian rock architecture, from three of the most important London collections – Cornell University Library, British Library and Victoria & Albert Museum. Thousands paintings made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in India were created by artists traveling to the oriental state for documentation the great moments in history of the world, but only a small group of artists decided to show rocky architecture, which is stirring and talking. These paintings are a remarkable testimony of those times, showing the quality of preservation of monuments, that we can compare their appearance with the present state, and show us the emotions of the artists, who were painting extraordinary subject – the composition, the selection of the particular temple, gives us information about society of those times. The article presents the most important artists documenting rock architecture in India, analyze the formal side of picture and in the context of another work of art form those times.

Critical analysis of post-Cold War China-India relations in the perspective of structural realism

Our article is an attempt to answer the question of whether it is possible for two neighbouring countries, which aspire at the same time to the role of superpowers, to cooperate and have peaceful relations with each other. In order to answer this question, we intend to prove the thesis that the state of China-India relations, despite the appearance of good neighbourly relations, is defined by growing security problems. In order to do this, we intend to conduct a system-level analysis based on the current of structural realism in international relations using historical and comparative methods. The aim of this article is to critically analyze China-Indian relations in the post-Cold War period. At the same time, we intend to show that the thriving diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Pakistan are in fact a façade concealing poorly functioning economic relations and, above all, a number of security problems. The first chapter is a brief description of the theoretical framework of the article in the form of a realistic current in international relations and security research and an explanation of the applied concepts of power balance, security dilemma and bandwagoning. The second and third chapters are a brief description and analysis of political and economic relations after the Cold War. In chapter four, we identify the leading security issues in India-China relations. In summary, we try to answer the research question and confirm the thesis.

This paper provides insights into the relationship between language and politically relevant aspects of culture in India and China which are as follows: attitude toward revolution and tradition, the domination of politics over religion or vice versa, and a concern for the liberty of the individual. The paper introduces a novel approach to the comparative study of civilizations by advancing the political-linguistic explanation. In so doing, it combines Hajime Nakamura’s hypothesis of the strict connection between language and culture (understood as a way of thinking) with Samuel P. Huntington’s emphasis on the impact of cultural differences on the political dimension of society – so that our explanatory model can be expressed as follows: language→culture→politics. As far as language is concerned, the focus is on the basic structure of Sanskrit and Chinese; besides, special attention is given to Indian and Chinese philosophies of language. Culturally, the most relevant schools of Hindu philosophy may be called “ultraconservative” since they tend to ground unchanging meaning firmly in metaphysics and rely on the supreme authority of ancient religious texts. In contrast, the Chinese typically considered language a social mechanism for shaping our behavior (so the relation of language and society is the most crucial); they also expressed clearly divergent views on naming. In short, at least four distinctive perspectives are essential: (1) conservative Confucianism, (2) anti-traditional and highly authoritarian Legalism, (3) egalitarian and linguistically skeptical Laozian Daoism, (4) nonconformist and proto-libertarian Zhuangzian Daoism.

The Great Missing One. India and the Belt and Road Initiative

The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), popularly known as the New Silk Road, from the moment of initiation, arouses interest of researchers and policy makers. Due to its scale and multidimensionality, this initiative potentially may help to reconstruct or at least deeply change the world order. The bold ambitions of China create not only impresses but also concerns many countries, including the equally ambitious emerging superpower - India. The aim of the article is to analyze India’s reactions to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.

The Indian Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 as a Proposal for Legal Solutions Regarding the Financing of Entities Operating within the Country with a Foreign Contribution

The article presents the legal order of India in the field of legislative solutions regarding the regulation of the use of foreign funds by public and private sector entities. The legal basis is the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, with amendments in subsequent years. The purpose of the adopted normative act was to define specific rules that condition and allow for the possibility of financing entities operating within the country with foreign contributions. The assumption of the legislation was to reduce the possibility of indirect influence over the state policy, as well as to prevent actions harmful to the national interest with its core values, such as democracy, the rule of law, transparency of state bodies and the protection of civil rights.

The article's objective is to analyze the main assumptions of India's strategy in the Indo-Pacific region and define the role of the US in it. The time frame of the article is determined by the assumption of power in India in 2014 by the Indian People's Party (Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as the opening of a new stage of the US-led Indo-Pacific rebalancing strategy, which followed China's initiation in 2013 of its Belt and Road Initiative (previously known as the One Belt One Road project). The article seeks to answer the following main research question: What role has India attributed to the United States in its Indo-Pacific strategy since 2014? It hypothesizes that the United States has assumed an increasingly significant role in India's regional strategy over the past seven years, but not to the extent of a formal alliance, only approaching at best the status of a strategic partnership. The theoretical framework used to analyze the case study of the US role in India's regional strategy is the category of institutional balancing and the assumptions of neoclassical realism. The choice of such research tools was determined by their explanatory value. Moreover, both models complement each other. Bearing the above in mind, the following structure of the article was adopted. The first part presents the general assumption of the analysis and the theoretical framework. The second discusses the evolution of India's approach to the US from 2014 to 2021, indicating the reasons for its change and reconstructing the role of the US in the Indian regional strategy, especially after 2020. The third part draws on the theoretical framework adopted in the article, i.e., the assumptions of institutional balancing and neoclassical realism, to offer conclusions that answer the main research questions.

Muslim education in Rajasthan. A case study of madrasa for girls in Bikaner

The aim of the presented paper is to describe the functioning of madrasa in Bikaner, Rajasthan. Muslims constitute the second largest religious group in India and thus the largest religious minority. The low literacy level of Muslims and Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes is well documented in research studies. The method used in this research is that of the case study. The presented results are the effect of the larger project on illiteracy conducted by the author in India in 2011–2020. Martha Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach was used to analyze madrasa’s activity.

Bilateralism or Multilateralism – The Preferred Forms of Economic Cooperation Between India and Pakistan with the People’s Republic of China

India and Pakistan have adopted different paths of developing economic relations with the People’s Republic of China. New Delhi focuses on advancing economic relations with Beijing through cooperation within multilateral formats, such as Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, while Islamabad prefers strengthening economic ties through bilateral agreements, with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor at the forefront. This article aims to show the main causes why India and Pakistan favor different forms of economic cooperation with China. The analysis consists of the description of the economic profile of India, Pakistan, and the People’s Republic of China, as well as an outline of bilateral and multilateral projects implemented on the New Delhi-Beijing, and Islamabad-Beijing lines.

After 200 years of bondage, India gained freedom from the British through numerous revolutionary movements in 1947. But, within 20 years of the independence, insurgent movements had started arising against the Indian Government as well. In 1967, the Naxalite insurgency was initiated as a radical protest by the oppressed peasants against the colonial tenancy system retained by the feudal landowners even after the British had left the country for good. The uprising got pinpointed as Naxalism and the rebels as Naxals, as it all started at Naxalbari, a village in the Indian state of West Bengal. Spanning over 50 years, this ongoing movement initially acquired the respect of the general population of India with its radical ideologies of fighting against the oppressor imperialists but soon mutated into a source of terror. A qualitative assessment of the instances taken from secondary sources, such as context-related online journals and blog articles, will help this paper to explain the formation of the contemporary perception of Naxalism as an extreme radical armed revolution and one of the biggest security challenges against the Indian Government.

Russian-Pakistani relations. Political, economic and military aspects

After the collapse of the Soviet Union into 15 independent states in December 1991, including the Russian Federation, there was a real opportunity to reset relations between Moscow and Islamabad. The Russian Federation did not take advantage of the new geopolitical situation to significantly improve mutual relations in the last decade of the twentieth century. However, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, there was an intensification of political, economic and military relations between the two countries, which fluctuated. The author focused in the article on the premises that underline the improvement of mutual relations in these three areas. The premises that have inhibited and inhibit more intensive cooperation, especially in the political and economic fields, were also presented. In the end was formulated a few conclusions.

Education of children with disabilities across the globe has been gradually evolving from segregation towards inclusion. The systems in Poland and India have also been following this path, yet due to their own unique historical, cultural, and social contexts, these countries have adopted rather dissimilar approaches to the process of inclusion. What is presented in this report are the results of the study, which aimed to explore both the attitudes of Polish and Indian teachers towards inclusive education of students with special educational needs resulting from mild to moderate disabilities and the significance of selected factors for their differentiation. Polish teachers generally declared more positive attitudes than Indian teachers. Two variables in Indian teachers (the location of the school where the respondents worked and personal contacts with people with disabilities) and one variable in Polish teachers (seniority) turned out to be important in differentiating their attitudes towards inclusion. Implication for practice and further research are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the dominant role of transactional drivers in India’s foreign policy towards the European Union (EU). The article hypothesizes that India is trying to use its relationship with the EU in primarily transactional ways to achieve its own foreign and economic policy goals rather than to advance shared norms and values as democratic powers. Those goals include (i) leveraging its global image and reputation as a trusted and credible international partner, (ii) gaining greater regional and global influence, (iii) attracting foreign investment and boosting Indian exports. The article begins by explaining the concept of transactionalism in foreign policies. Secondly, it identifies the main drivers of India-EU relations with a special focus on (i) the concept of non-alignment and strategic autonomy in India’s foreign policy, (ii) common norms and values shared by India and the EU, (iii) economic cooperation between India and the EU. Thirdly, it assesses the transactional dimensions of the drivers of Indian foreign policy toward the EU discussed in the preceding sections. Finally, it evaluates the significance of India’s attempts to use its relations with the EU to achieve its own foreign and economic policy goals, including with respect to the implications for the EU’s efforts to project itself as a normative power in relations with India.

The article examines the visual sources and historical first-hand accounts depicting Rani Lakshmi Bai, the queen of the princely state of Jhansi, who became a symbol of Indian resistance against British rule during the 1857–1858 struggle for freedom. The study covers the colonial period of Indian history. The paper’s main argument is that there are differences in the representation of Rani by British and Indian authors. Within their narratives, Indian writers favourably present the queen, while the British tend to show her less flattering portrayal. Concentrating on visual sources, the study analyses Rani’s figure by looking at two stages of her life: the youth and the time of the revolt. The article also focuses on the queen’s image in the contemporary political discourse. The paper is based on a qualitative approach emphasising historical perspective. Therefore, it analyses the printed materials, including archival primary sources. Based on a postcolonial literature review, the use of British and Indian sources is comparative.

The Indian Film Industry is second popular entertainment industry across the globe after Hollywood film industry of the United States of America. Despite of being popular, there are arguments that New Delhi hasn’t utilized the full potential of Indian film industry as an instrument to turn popularity into the (Soft)power. The Indian film industry has tremendous potential to become India’s soft power if its potential is harnessed to the fullest. Therefore, this paper focuses upon how the popularity can be effectively used by examining strengths of industry and future prospects. Additionally, this paper provides relevant policy recommendations to effectively use film industry to enhance soft power as well as brief concluding remarks.

Eurasian Late Antiquity or the Silk Roads? Political, Cultural, and Economic Conceptual Constructs in the Study of Oriental History and Culture

In contemporary historiography, there is a growing interest in interactions between nomadic peoples and the empires of sedentary peoples in antiquity, with particular emphasis on late antiquity. Differences in the perception of nomadic communities’ impact on the economy cause a conceptual confusion. It is largely due to differences in the perception of the influence that nomadic communities had in shaping the functioning of trade routes leading from one part of Eurasia to another. This article organises and indicates the origin of concepts, such as the Silk Road, the cultural complex of central Eurasia, the first story, and Eurasian Late Antiquity from specific researchers. At the same time, the author compares and presents perceiving trade routes and the influence of nomads on sedentary peoples in two opposing concepts: a metanarrative of the nomad history as the main catalyst for the continent’s economic development and presenting the history of the Silk Road and nomads as part of the multi-vector interaction of various communities in Eurasia during the late antiquity, at the same time indicating a certain advantage of the latter.

“[…] A country of dreams and romantic emotions, fabulous wealth and incredible poverty” – civilization, religion and philosophy of India

Article “[…] A country of dreams and romantic emotions, fabulous wealth and incredible poverty” – civilization, religion and philosophy of India, depicts the rich history of Indian civilization over the centuries. The article discusses the most important issues in philosophy, religion and culture that have changed the face of today’s India over the centuries.

The signing of the security agreement between the Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China has raised concerns among some countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, which form the Quad group. This article aims to examine the reaction of the format countries to the Honiara-Beijing agreement. The paper contains an analysis of the reasons for the rapprochement between the Solomon Islands and China, presents the reasons for the expansion of the PRC in the security dimension to the Pacific Island countries, and examines the Quad’s reaction to Beijing’s actions in the region.