Purifying the nation : the Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895-1930

This article examines the impact of the Arya Samaj in Gujarat from 1895 to 1930. Although the founder of this body, Dayanand Saraswati, was from Gujarat, it proved less popular there initially than in the Punjab. The first important Arya Samajists in Gujarat were Punjabis, brought there by Sayajirao Gaekwad of Baroda to carry out educational work amongst untouchables. The Arya Samaj only became a mass organisation in Gujarat after a wave of conversions to Christianity in central Gujarat by untouchables, with Arya Samajists starting orphanages to ‘save’ orphans from the clutches of the Christian missionaries. The movement then made considerable headway in Gujarat. The main followers were from the urban middle classes, higher farming castes, and gentry of the Koli caste. Each had their own reasons for embracing the organisation, ranging from a desire for higher social status, to religious reform, to building caste unity, and as a means, in the case of the Koli gentry, to ‘reconvert’ Kolis who had adopted Islam in medieval times. The movement lost its momentum after Gandhi arrived on the political scene, and many erstwhile Arya Samajists embraced the Gandhian movement. When the Gandhian movement itself flagged after 1922, there was an upsurge in communal antagonism in Gujarat in which Arya Samajists played a provocative role. A riot in Godhra in 1928 is examined. Over the past decade, Gujarat has come to be seen as a hotbed of communalism, ruled by a state government that has connived at, and even encouraged, murderous attacks on Muslims and Christians. At the time of the notorious pogrom against Muslims of 2002, several observers commented on the irony that this should have occurred in the homeland of Gandhi, the great proponent of non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity.1 They saw this as violating not only the memory of the Mahatma, but also the very history of this region – one known, it was said, for its spirit of tolerance and regard for the sacredness of all life. As Tridip Suhrud stated in anguish: What has happened to the dialogic space that Gandhi nurtured? What has happened to the Jain ethos, which informed the structure of mercantile capitalism and from which Gandhi drew sustenance?2 Although these are questions that we should certainly ask, they project only one view of Gujarat and its history, for this is not an area that has escaped violence, bigotry and communal strife in the past. Communal tension between Hindus and Muslims, and even violence between the two, has a genealogy that stretches back well over a century; predating Gandhi’s arrival on the political scene in 1915.3 In this article, I shall examine an aspect of this history by focusing on the growth and development of the Arya Samaj in Gujarat between the years 1895 and 1930. It is not suggested that there was an inevitable progress from the doctrines and activities propagated by this body to the Hindu bigotry that dominates the political scene in modern Gujarat, for there were many countervailing forces at both a popular and elite level that might have produced a different trajectory.4 Also, many of the features of the modern manifestation of Hindutva were not present in the early decades of the twentieth century. Nonetheless, a way of thinking about the modern nation state and the place of Hindus and Hinduism within it became a part of the public culture of this region, and this could be deployed in new ways, and to new effect, in changing political circumstances.5 1 For example Panikkar, K. N. ‘The Agony of Gujarat,’ The Hindu, 19 March 2002; Suhrud, T. ‘Gujarat: No Room for Dialogue,’ Economic and Political Weekly, [Hereafter EPW], 37 (11), 16 March 2002, pp. 1011-12. 2 Ibid, p.1011. 3 To take one case, there was a long history of tension between Hindus and Muslims in Somnath in Kathiawad in the later nineteenth century that led to a fracas in 1892, followed by a riot in which several died in 1893. See file on ‘Patan Riot: Hindus and Mussulmans Patan Commission, Part I,’ Oriental and India Office Collection, R/2/721/56; Krishnaswamy, S. ‘A Riot in Bombay, August 11, 1893: A Study in Hindu-Muslim Relations in Western India during the Late Nineteenth Century,’ unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Chicago, 1966, pp. 76-90. 4 As pointed out for India as a whole by Fischer-Tiné, H., ‘Kindly Elders of the Hindu Biradri’: The Arya Samaj’s Struggle for Influence and its Effects on Hindu-Muslim Relations, 1800-1925,’ in Copley, A. (ed.), Gurus and their Followers: New Religious Reform Movements in India, New Delhi, 2000, pp.107-08. 5 In the ways alluded to for Bengal by Sarkar, S. ‘Intimations of Hindutva: Ideologies, Caste, and Class in Post-Swadeshi Bengal,’ in Sarkar, S. Beyond Nationalist Frames: Postmodernism, Hindu Fundamentalism, History, New Delhi, 2002, pp.81-95; and for the United Provinces by Gould, W. Hindu Nationalism and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial India, Cambridge 2004, p. 37

Knowledge of the Bhils and their systems of healing

In this essay, I shall examine how the Bhils of the border region between the present states of Rajasthan and Gujarat understood and treated ill health and disease in the late nineteenth century

Indian medical indigeneity: from nationalist assertion to the global market

The Indian system of healing known as Ayurveda is today popularly projected as a holistic form of healing that works on the mind, body and spirit. It is also said to be extremely ancient, with a knowledge rooted in successful practice that has continued largely unchanged for millennia. The article seeks to understand how a ‘traditional’ form of healing that is associated with Indian civilisation came to occupy such an epistemic space. The related practice of Unani Tibb (a practice that was associated with Islam in India) is compared. It is argued that the claims of Ayurveda and Unani Tibb are typical of many ‘invented traditions’ that sought to forge cultures that helped to bind disparate peoples within supposedly uniform nationalities. In the process, many cultural phenomena that did not fit into the created categories were either marginalised or excluded. The essay examines how claims to great antiquity were forged, the idea of a decline from a glorious past, with a corresponding need for present-day revival, attempts to create uniform ‘systems’ out of a range of eclectic practices, the politics of medical education for indigenous practitioners, and conflicting claims as to what ‘Indian indigenous medicine’ entailed

Exploring Regional and Telecoupled Land Use Change Impacts from Environmental Shocks

Natural disasters or environmental shocks have the potential to disrupt local agricultural systems as well as distant agricultural systems through cascading effects. In this work we selected two distinct environmental shocks and traced their cascading effects on land use change. Quantifying cascading effects is a salient issue because climate change forecasts indicate an increase in frequency and intensity of global environmental shocks. This study incorporated the concept of telecoupled systems involving interrelating ecological, economic and political/social components. A telecoupled framework involving cascading effects was implemented using three approaches. The first approach involved using bilateral agricultural trade matrix data to analyze time-based production/consumption changes of agricultural systems directly and by using Input-Output. Next, we employed time-based network analysis to identify regions vulnerable to environmental shocks through globalization of agricultural trade. Land use changes associated with environmental shocks that occurred in telecoupled regions were delineated using image processing software to quantify the impacts of affected regions. Based on two selected environmental shocks, empirically-based case studies were developed that provided insight on cascading effects. Case study 1 linked a drought in the US to economic/trade changes that influenced land use changes in Paraguay releasing 128,950.4 Mg of stored Carbon. Case study 2 linked a typhoon in Malaysia to economic/trade changes that influenced land use changes in Colombia releasing 544,212 Mg of stored Carbon. These findings provide implications for future impact assessments of environmental shocks. The ongoing research should focus on quantifying and refining of global land use change impacts attributed to environmental shocks

Remineralising effects of fluoride varnishes containing calcium phosphate on artificial root caries lesions with adjunctive application of proanthocyanidin

Objectives: To evaluate the remineralising effects of fluoride (F) varnishes containing bioavailable calcium-phosphate compound (Ca-P) based remineralisation systems and 5000 ppm F toothpaste (FTP) on root caries lesions (RCLs) and the potential effects of proanthocyanidin (PA) for the treatments of RCLs when used as an adjunct to F regimens. Methods: Demineralised root dentine and a pH-cycling model were used to mimic RCLs and the oral environment. Remineralising effects of MI VarnishTM (MIV) containing casein phosphopeptide–amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) and Clinpro™ White Varnish (CPWV) containing tri-calcium phosphate (TCP) along with FTP and PA were evaluated regarding the birefringence, elemental composition, mechanical properties and mineral density of remineralised dentine with DuraphatTM as a comparison. Results: MIV, CPWV and DuraphatTM promoted the incorporation of F into RCLs and increased mineral density but did not change microhardness of root dentine significantly. Surface microhardness increased significantly when MIV or CPWV was used with 5000 ppm FTP. Application of PA with F regimens significantly increased subsurface mineral density. When PA was applied with MIV or CPWV along with FTP, the highest ion uptake and relative mineral gain (%ΔZ) was achieved, and significant increase of microhardness was up to 30 μm depth. Generally, MIV was associated with a higher mineral content gain than CPWV. Significance: Treatment of carious root surfaces remains challenging due to the complex pathological processes and difficulty in restoring the highly organised structure of root dentine. Treatment strategies targeting both remineralisation and preservation of the dentinal organic matrix have the potential to improve the fluoride-mediated remineralisation approaches

Ireland and European Governance

Irish membership of the European Communities in 1973 represented the most signicant development in the life of the independent state, and it helped to refashion the economic, political, and social landscape. Membership of the EU brought considerable change to domestic politics, and also to the executive and administration. Adjusting to a dynamic rules-based supranational order required adaptability and pragmatism. This chapter evaluates the impact of ‘Europe’ on Ireland, and the extent to which there are patterns of ‘Europeanization’ in politics and public life as a result of almost ve decades of EU membership. It argues that, domestically, Ireland used EU membership as a vehicle for modernization, while externally, the EU provided an increasingly important ‘geopolitical anchor’. And although this Europeanization has been far from uniform, the eect has been a move towards a more self-conscious ‘choice for Europe’. Brexit has conrmed this renewed commitment to European integration

The impact of two coupled cirrus microphysics-radiation parameterizations on the temperature and specific humidity biases in the tropical tropopause layer in a climate model

The impact of two different coupled cirrus microphysics-radiation parameterizations on the zonally averaged temperature and humidity biases in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) of a Met Office climate model configuration is assessed. One parameterization is based on a linear coupling between a model prognostic variable, the ice mass mixing ratio, qi, and the integral optical properties. The second is based on the integral optical properties being parameterized as functions of qi and temperature, Tc, where the mass coefficients (i.e. scattering and extinction) are parameterized as nonlinear functions of the ratio between qi and Tc. The cirrus microphysics parameterization is based on a moment estimation parameterization of the particle size distribution (PSD), which relates the mass moment (i.e. second moment if mass is proportional to size raised to the power of 2 ) of the PSD to all other PSD moments through the magnitude of the second moment and Tc. This same microphysics PSD parameterization is applied to calculate the integral optical properties used in both radiation parameterizations and, thus, ensures PSD and mass consistency between the cirrus microphysics and radiation schemes. In this paper, the temperature-non-dependent and temperature-dependent parameterizations are shown to increase and decrease the zonally averaged temperature biases in the TTL by about 1 K, respectively. The temperature-dependent radiation parameterization is further demonstrated to have a positive impact on the specific humidity biases in the TTL, as well as decreasing the shortwave and longwave biases in the cloudy radiative effect. The temperature-dependent radiation parameterization is shown to be more consistent with TTL and global radiation observations

Eruptive activity of the Santorini Volcano controlled by sea-level rise and fall

Sea-level change is thought to influence the frequencies of volcanic eruptions on glacial to interglacial timescales. However, the underlying physical processes and their importance relative to other influences (for example, magma recharge rates) remain poorly understood. Here we compare an approximately 360-kyr-long record of effusive and explosive eruptions from the flooded caldera volcano at Santorini (Greece) with a high-resolution sea-level record spanning the last four glacial–interglacial cycles. Numerical modelling shows that when the sea level falls by 40 m below the present-day level, the induced tensile stresses in the roof of the magma chamber of Santorini trigger dyke injections. As the sea level continues to fall to −70 or −80 m, the induced tensile stress spreads throughout the roof so that some dykes reach the surface to feed eruptions. Similarly, the volcanic activity gradually disappears after the sea level rises above −40 m. Synchronizing Santorini’s stratigraphy with the sea-level record using tephra layers in marine sediment cores shows that 208 out of 211 eruptions (both effusive and explosive) occurred during periods constrained by sea-level falls (below −40 m) and subsequent rises, suggesting a strong absolute sea-level control on the timing of eruptions on Santorini—a result that probably applies to many other volcanic islands around the world

The machinery at endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites contributes to spatial regulation of multiple Legionella effector proteins

The Dot/Icm system of the intracellular pathogen Legionella pneumophila has the capacity to deliver over 270 effector proteins into host cells during infection. Important questions remain as to spatial and temporal mechanisms used to regulate such a large array of virulence determinants after they have been delivered into host cells. Here we investigated several L. pneumophila effector proteins that contain a conserved phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate (PI4P)-binding domain first described in the effector DrrA (SidM). This PI4P binding domain was essential for the localization of effectors to the early L. pneumophila-containing vacuole (LCV), and DrrA-mediated recruitment of Rab1 to the LCV required PI4P-binding activity. It was found that the host cell machinery that regulates sites of contact between the plasma membrane (PM) and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) modulates PI4P dynamics on the LCV to control localization of these effectors. Specifically, phosphatidylinositol-4-kinase IIIalpha (PI4KIIIalpha) was important for generating a PI4P signature that enabled L. pneumophila effectors to localize to the PM-derived vacuole, and the ER-associated phosphatase Sac1 was involved in metabolizing the PI4P on the vacuole to promote the dissociation of effectors. A defect in L. pneumophila replication in macrophages deficient in PI4KIIIalpha was observed, highlighting that a PM-derived PI4P signature is critical for biogenesis of a vacuole that supports intracellular multiplication of L. pneumophila. These data indicate that PI4P metabolism by enzymes controlling PM-ER contact sites regulate the association of L. pneumophila effectors to coordinate early stages of vacuole biogenesis