Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s ‘strategic agnosticism’: A compilation of his socio-political philosophy and worldview

Since India's independence (and even before) there is a growing ideological debate regarding its identity and self-understanding. The focal point of this discussion is the much-disputed and multi-faceted Indian historical figure Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1985-1966). His life and work, and above all his literary compositions, point to numerous paradoxes and controversial phenomena, which divides the discussants basically into two essential camps. On the one side are those who see Savarkar and his socio-political vision (Hindutva) that he proclaimed as the greatest danger to the foundation of the modern, secular state, democracy, and multiculturalism. With this background, Savarkar is used as the synonym for an "anti-modern" regression, and as the ideological founder of a phenomenon that has usually been referred to as "Hindu nationalism" or "Hindu fundamentalism". This side is opposed by a second camp consisting of people who tend to see Savarkar and his perceptions of state theory as a legitimate and ambitious form of democratic self-determination. However, all these controversies about Savarkar do not take into account the philosophical tenets underlying his social and political thoughts. Both Indian as well as Western scholars have focused only on some particular fragments of his thoughts without spending the time and effort to understand his various theoretical concepts in a complex and coherent framework. Therefore, this article aims to explore the philosophical foundation of his notions and actions, and suggests crucial variables for further scientific analysis

Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Uri - what next?

Often described as "the unfinished business of Partition", Kashmir is the main point of contention in India-Pakistan relations. The competing territorial claims represent opposing visions of state and nationhood: for India, a Muslim-majority state of J&K symbolizes the secular nation-state, and for Pakistan, an Indian-administered Kashmir represents the incompleteness of Pakistan

An unequal equation? CPEC development and Pakistan's political mindset

China's growing activities in Pakistan are coming increasingly into prominence of strategic analysts and have been worrying the international community since the last few years. Having maintained a rather "behind-the-scenes" support for Islamabad for decades, Beijing, today is exercising its influence more publicly. Besides Chinese concerns about the security of its investments and development activities, it seems obvious that the identified strategic and economic benefits of cooperation with Pakistan are outbidding the risk perceptions. Latter phenomenon finds its most visible expression in the launch of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. But since the start of the CPEC planning and related first engagements in infrastructure and energy sectors, Pakistan witnesses' severe debates, critics and protests with crucial impacts on domestic political dynamics

Image-Formation at a Nation’s Edge: Thai Perceptions of its Border Dispute with Cambodia - Implications for South Asia

Frontier friction has been a recurring phenomenon in much of the world, including in South and Southeast Asia. Yet the social construction of antagonistic border perceptions offers lessons about how not to frame a country's views of its  neighbors. Though boundary disputes in South Asia are currently much more muted than in the past, this investigation provides a message for South Asia that ultra-patriotism over borders continues to endanger inter-state relations in other parts of Asia and can always rear its head again in South Asia. It is thus essential to examine the case of Thai perceptions towards its border with Cambodia to understand the clash between nationalist and moderate societal groups. The objective is to learn from this case that excessive border patriotism is ultimately harmful to national interests. This study focuses specifically on Thai perceptions toward the Thai-Cambodian border disputes with three questions in mind. First, how have Thai elite actor perceptions evolved toward their present state? Second, what appears to be hindering a more moderate Thai stance with regard to parts of its border conflict with Cambodia? Third, what implications are there from Thai-Cambodian border conflicts, if any, and what patterns can we generalize out of Thai border perceptions which might have implications for South and Southeast Asia? This study, focusing on image formation of boundaries, seeks to answer these questions

Savarkar - "Volksfeind" oder Nationalheld? Dokumentation einer Debatte über das Selbstverständnis der indischen Nation

Die partielle Demontage einer Gedenktafel hat einen ständig schwelenden ideologischen Grundsatzstreit um die Identität und das Selbstverständnis der indischen Nation erneut entflammt. Dreh- und Angelpunkt der Diskussion ist die wohl umstrittenste und facettenreichste Figur der indischen Geschichte, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Sein Leben und Wirken, allem voran seine literarischen Arbeiten, weisen zahlreiche paradoxe und kontroverse Phänomene auf. Seine politische Vision für ein postkoloniales Indien, manifestiert in der Sozial- und Staatstheorie Hindutva, standen von Anfang an in diametralem Gegensatz zu den Verfassungsprinzipien der neu gegründeten Indischen Union. Insbesondere seine folgenreiche Definition eines Hindu, verstanden als ein zu erfüllender Kriterienkatalog für den Erwerb der Staatsbürgerschaft, führte dazu, dass er als personifizierter Antipode zu dem durch die Unabhängigkeitsbewegung unter der Führung von Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi proklamierten Fundamentalkonsens der indischen Gesellschaft betrachtet wurde. Diese prinzipielle Übereinstimung bezüglich der Grundwerte der indischen Gesellschaft, dass damit implizierte Selbstverständnis der Nation und die Legitimität der darauf aufgebauten sozialstrukturellen wie politischen Organisation wird zunehmend durch verschiedene Gruppen der Gesellschaft unter Berufung auf Savarkars Hindutva in den letzten beiden Dekaden herausgefordert und in Frage gestellt. Dieses in Verbindung mit seinem Einsatz für einen militanten Aktivismus und Nationalismus zur Befreiung Indiens von der britischen Kolonialmacht rückte ihn in den Mittelpunkt des kritischen öffentlichen Diskurses

Die Konstruktion einer kollektiven Identität in Indien : Vinayak Damodar Savarkar und sein Hindutva-Konzept

Die Arbeit geht von zwei Kernfragen aus: (1) In empirischer Hinsicht stellt sie sich die Frage nach dem Kern und der Struktur von Savarkars soziopolitischen Denken und Handeln. Die leitende Hypothese hierbei ist, dass es einen umfassenden Ansatz bedarf, der Savarkars gesamtes Leben und Werk in die Analyse miteinbezieht; (2) in theoretischer Hinsicht wird die Frage aufgeworfen inwieweit „westliche Theorien und Konzepte“ auf den indischen Kontext anwendbar sind. Die Hypothese hier ist, dass jedes Konzept im Einzelfall überprüft werden muss und Pauschalaussagen hinsichtlich der Anwendbarkeit abzulehnen sind. Angesichts des identifizierten Mangels an wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten zu Savarkar sowie dessen inkohärenten Stellungnahmen besteht die erste wesentliche Leistung darin, zum ersten Mal Savarkars politische, soziale und wirtschaftliche Ideen umfassend und systematisch zu ermitteln sowie deren Kausalität für die Sinnstiftung im Rahmen der Konstruktion einer kollektiven Identität aufzuzeigen. Hier wird aufgezeigt, dass es sich bei Hindutva um ein gesamtgesellschaftliches Konzept handelt, welches es nicht erlaubt einzelne Teilbereiche auszublenden. In der theoretischen Dimension konnte anhand der Anwendung von Bernhard Giesens Konzept der codebasierten kollektiven Identitäten nachgewiesen werden, dass westliche Theorien (bzw. Konzepte) zum einen auf den indischen Kontext übertragbar sind und zum anderen es ermöglicht wird Savarkars identitäre Konstruktionssystematik von Hindutva zu ermitteln. Darüber hinaus konnte das methodische Vorgehen Savarkars nachvollzogen und die sich daraus ergebende Konsequenzen für die Sinnstiftung von Hindutva nachgezeichnet werden. Ausgehend von diesen Leistungen konnte ein weiteres Ergebnis erzielt werden, welches in der Erbringung eines Beitrages zur theoretischen Erforschung des Feldes der kollektiven Identität in Indien durch die Vorbereitung des Feldes für weitere komparative Studien besteht

Like Will to Like: Abundances of Closely Related Species Can Predict Susceptibility to Intestinal Colonization by Pathogenic and Commensal Bacteria

The intestinal ecosystem is formed by a complex, yet highly characteristic microbial community. The parameters defining whether this community permits invasion of a new bacterial species are unclear. In particular, inhibition of enteropathogen infection by the gut microbiota ( = colonization resistance) is poorly understood. To analyze the mechanisms of microbiota-mediated protection from Salmonella enterica induced enterocolitis, we used a mouse infection model and large scale high-throughput pyrosequencing. In contrast to conventional mice (CON), mice with a gut microbiota of low complexity (LCM) were highly susceptible to S. enterica induced colonization and enterocolitis. Colonization resistance was partially restored in LCM-animals by co-housing with conventional mice for 21 days (LCMcon21). 16S rRNA sequence analysis comparing LCM, LCMcon21 and CON gut microbiota revealed that gut microbiota complexity increased upon conventionalization and correlated with increased resistance to S. enterica infection. Comparative microbiota analysis of mice with varying degrees of colonization resistance allowed us to identify intestinal ecosystem characteristics associated with susceptibility to S. enterica infection. Moreover, this system enabled us to gain further insights into the general principles of gut ecosystem invasion by non-pathogenic, commensal bacteria. Mice harboring high commensal E. coli densities were more susceptible to S. enterica induced gut inflammation. Similarly, mice with high titers of Lactobacilli were more efficiently colonized by a commensal Lactobacillus reuteri RR strain after oral inoculation. Upon examination of 16S rRNA sequence data from 9 CON mice we found that closely related phylotypes generally display significantly correlated abundances (co-occurrence), more so than distantly related phylotypes. Thus, in essence, the presence of closely related species can increase the chance of invasion of newly incoming species into the gut ecosystem. We provide evidence that this principle might be of general validity for invasion of bacteria in preformed gut ecosystems. This might be of relevance for human enteropathogen infections as well as therapeutic use of probiotic commensal bacteria

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts