Norwegian religion and culture influence identity and ethics of young generation of Muslims

Master's thesis in global studies. School of Mission and Theology, May 2015MV 17 S

Class, Gender and Race Intersections in Indian Society in a Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

Intersectionality is a feminist theory --- a major paradigm of research in women’s studies; a method of textual analysis as to how the intersection of different multiple identities combine together to enhance the process of exclusion, oppression and marginalization. It has its origins in class struggle movements and works like Marxist-feminist theory also to dig the root-causes of woman discrimination on the bases of class, caste, race and gender and investigates the reasons which are pushing them even farther away in their effort to access to basic necessities for survival. This article advocates a multilevel analysis which takes into account the reciprocal effects between various social practices which contribute together to speed-up the oppression of woman belonging to minority class with multiple identities in multicultural society of India with affected colonial past and dominant patriarchal and cultural ideologies, institutional arrangements, and ultimately the outcome of all these interactions in terms of power. This article also unmasks the age old held beliefs of equality, fair play and justice to expose all other forms of othering and exclusion of woman from social spheres regarding their age, marital status and nationality as well.  This paper argues Intersectionality specifically in Rohinton Mistry’s novel A Fine Balance to encapsulate the interconnectedness of gender, race, class and caste in Indian context involving the issues of age and nationality as well and will focus the character of protagonist, Mrs. Dina highlighting her struggle for survival in a world of ruthless competition and segregation as a result of converging identities and forces of power working against her jointly. Key words: Intersectionality, class, caste, Marxist-Feminist, exclusion, Multiple-identities.

Emergency –A Self Justifying Ideological Tool in a Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

During last century theorists of power analysis have been struggling to find the answer to the question as to why the class, economically poor and technically less equipped always accept the relations of power and relations of production in society.  The paper suggests that Rohinton Mistry in A Fine Balance” (1996) writes with Marxists consciousness with acute realization of the exploitation of the marginalized with the increased degree of sophistication of cultural and economic hegemony. This paper investigates the theories of power i-e ideology, hegemony and discourse to help find the root- cause of the issue as to how power structure wins the consentment of the masses to the unequal powers of relation and production in society. How the system works so implicitly that people not only become a willing participants in their own exploitation rather they accept the phenomena as the only existing truth. “The material world around us is built on contradictory, contrived and illusory realities” (Peter& Luckman), 1966, p.46).  The theorist  of  ‘race’ and’ gender’ regard their compartmentalization as a process of othering and indigenous colonization that certain races and groups are deliberately kept backward, for capitalistic need of  labor group to keep the machine running. Post structuralist and post –Marxists reject the idea of economic determinism; these are not material concerns always behind all class wars but lust for power and domination holds some other issues as well. All types of isms, fanatic creeds are harmful for the world’s balance and peace. Fundamentalism, extremism, universalism, and essentialism and nationalism etc. are eating into the vitals of the country and these need to be shunned if world is to run smoothly. This paper explores the intricate working of power structure; how a belief system works to smooth the contradiction to appear a “False consciousness” a “common sense” and thus the absolute and eternal truth.  This paper is meant to detach the power of truth from the fabricated phenomena of imposed “Emergency” as “need of hour” (1996, p.113).  The paper explores the lived experience of this period by different classes and thus two diverse images of “Emergency” emerge which are contradictory to each other, proving emergency to be a polyphonic discourse. The study aims at to destabilize the proletariat’s instant consent to power relations by unmasking the mystified reality of Emergency which was actually imposed to hide the fraud in elections by the then Prime-Minister Mrs. Ghandhi. State uses all means; all power tools; repressive and ideological to give the reality a false coloring of their own interest. Ideology, hegemony and discourse all the three theories of power are manipulated by the state machinery to make public not only comply with all political decisions instantly but  to accept it as only existing reality. Marx writes “As for individual bureaucrat, the purpose of the state becomes his private purpose, a hunt for promotion careerism” (Marx, 1975, p. 111). Keywords: Ideology, Hegemony, Discourse, State apparatuses (Ideological and repressive) False-consciousness, Common sense Euphuism, Polyphony

Emergency –A Self Justifying Ideological Tool in a Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

During last century theorists of power analysis have been struggling to find the answer to the question as to why the class, economically poor and technically less equipped always accept the relations of power and relations of production in society.  The paper suggests that Rohinton Mistry in A Fine Balance” (1996) writes with Marxists consciousness with acute realization of the exploitation of the marginalized with the increased degree of sophistication of cultural and economic hegemony. This paper investigates the theories of power i-e ideology, hegemony and discourse to help find the root- cause of the issue as to how power structure wins the consentment of the masses to the unequal powers of relation and production in society. How the system works so implicitly that people not only become a willing participants in their own exploitation rather they accept the phenomena as the only existing truth. “The material world around us is built on contradictory, contrived and illusory realities” (Peter& Luckman), 1966, p.46).  The theorist  of  ‘race’ and’ gender’ regard their compartmentalization as a process of othering and indigenous colonization that certain races and groups are deliberately kept backward, for capitalistic need of  labor group to keep the machine running. Post structuralist and post –Marxists reject the idea of economic determinism; these are not material concerns always behind all class wars but lust for power and domination holds some other issues as well. All types of isms, fanatic creeds are harmful for the world’s balance and peace. Fundamentalism, extremism, universalism, and essentialism and nationalism etc. are eating into the vitals of the country and these need to be shunned if world is to run smoothly. This paper explores the intricate working of power structure; how a belief system works to smooth the contradiction to appear a “False consciousness” a “common sense” and thus the absolute and eternal truth.  This paper is meant to detach the power of truth from the fabricated phenomena of imposed “Emergency” as “need of hour” (1996, p.113).  The paper explores the lived experience of this period by different classes and thus two diverse images of “Emergency” emerge which are contradictory to each other, proving emergency to be a polyphonic discourse. The study aims at to destabilize the proletariat’s instant consent to power relations by unmasking the mystified reality of Emergency which was actually imposed to hide the fraud in elections by the then Prime-Minister Mrs. Ghandhi. State uses all means; all power tools; repressive and ideological to give the reality a false coloring of their own interest. Ideology, hegemony and discourse all the three theories of power are manipulated by the state machinery to make public not only comply with all political decisions instantly but  to accept it as only existing reality. Marx writes “As for individual bureaucrat, the purpose of the state becomes his private purpose, a hunt for promotion careerism” (Marx, 1975, p. 111). Keywords: Ideology, Hegemony, Discourse, State apparatuses (Ideological and repressive) False-consciousness, Common sense Euphuism, Polyphony

Demystifying Political Ideologies in Such a Long Journey by Rohinton Mistry

The paper suggests that Rohinton Mistry in his novel Such a Long Journey writes with socialist- Marxists concern and exposes all ideological propaganda. The paper employs Marxist concept of economic determinism as the basis of social reality, involving political, cultural, racial, class and all implicit and explicit set of beliefs supporting and furthering the process of exploitation in a systematic way. The paper will exhaust Althusser’s concept of ideological and repressive state apparatuses and the discursive ideological practices which intensify the subjectivity of interpellated subject. The   Paper seeks the systematic unmasking of political ideologies which create delusion and a mistaken world-view. Political ideologies are constructed phenomena which serve the best interest of the hegemonic elite; politician develop a rhetoric to give the political propaganda a natural look. Ideologies represent a particular group or era and can remain alive only till that group is in power; ideologies are fragile but discursive in practice, these always face the danger of counter ideologies for these survive only so long as the class that generates them remains in power. This paper will look deep into the working of political ideologies –i-e , fascism, nationalism, absolutism and autocracy even. Keywords: Ideology, False- consciousness, Socialist- Marxists, Mystification, ideological state- apparatuses, Repressive state-apparatuses, Discursive Practice, hegemonic elite, Absolutism, Fascism, autocracy

Study of mechanism of action of Scorpion neurotoxins

Summary Scorpions are important representative of arthropods. They have been well adapted to the extremes of environmental conditions. Scorpions also play a vital role in ecological systems by maintaining balance between different populations in an ecosystem. Apart from their positive role scorpions are responsible for more than 1.2 million stings per year with almost 3000 deaths worldwide per year and thus posing serious threat to public health. Two families of scorpions i.e. Buthida and Hemiscorpiidae are dangerous for humans. Scorpion sting can result in mild effects of redness and pain to very severe and lethal effects which can result failure of multiple organs eventually leading to death. Scorpion venom is composed of many different components such as low molecular weight peptides, nucleotides, lipids and certain enzymes. The diverse detrimental effects of scorpion sting result due to presence of many different types of toxins (neurotoxin, cardiotoxin, nephrotoxin, hemolytic toxin) and different enzymes (phosphodiesterases, phospholipases and hyaluronidases) in their venom. Since scorpions have a long evolutionary history during this long time period scorpions have developed a series of venom peptides that display a diverse range of biological functions. The most widely studied components of scorpion venom are the ion channel-modulating toxins which have been studied and described in detail in literature. Antarease a new class of unique scorpion metalloproteases capable of cleaving SNARE proteins has been described only recently with no previous evidence on presence of such enzymes in scorpions. Up till now SNARE proteins have only been shown to be targets of clostridial neurotoxins. To investigate such a class of metalloproteases we have analyzed the action of different scorpion venoms both on recombinant SNARE proteins as well as in neuronal cell models. Conclusion: This study shows for the first time the presence of antarease like proteins in scorpion species: Buthus eupeus and Orthochirus scrobiculosus. Both of the scorpion species contain active components i.e. metalloproteases that are able to cleave SNARE proteins in a mechanism similar to antarease

Parents’ Views Regarding Their Children’s Education and Future in Pakistan

This research aims to uncover lower pay-scale salaried parents’ views about the education and future of their children in Islamabad, Pakistan. Educational opportunities for various regions and segments of population are inequitable due to a stratified system of education in Pakistan. Parents’ views depict their perception of the real educational opportunities available for their children and their capability to optimally access these opportunities. Rich qualitative data, generated through in depth interviews with a purposive sample of small but diverse group of salaried parents in Islamabad, has revealed how they perceive their constraints and their capability to make best educational choices for their children. I have combined theoretical concepts from Amartya Sen’s capability approach and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice to analyse my data. The analysis has revealed various strategies adapted by participating parents to expand their choices and capabilities regarding the education of their children. The analysis uncovered three significant areas of parental behaviour regarding children’s education: their capacity to aspire, to get admission to the school of their choice, and to engage in children’ education in and out of school. Parents’ capability regarding their children’s education is found to be influenced by their dispositions and the combination of resources in their possession. Parents have demonstrated that activation and conversion of the form of capital in their possession, reduces their disadvantage or augment their advantage. Those parents who are able to activate the cultural and social forms of capital in their possession, considerably expand their capability to choose the school they prefer for their children, and their agency as well. To expand their capability to support their children’s education in and out of the school, they combine their individual family members’ resources to generate a new form of collective capability, which I call family capability, that is driven by shared functionings regarding children’s education

Molecular Docking Studies of Enzyme Inhibitors and Cytotoxic Chemical Entities

Docking is a powerful approach to perform virtual screening on large library of compounds, rank the conformations using a scoring function, and propose structural hypotheses of how the ligands inhibit the target, which is invaluable in lead optimization. Using experimentally proven active compounds, detailed docking studies were performed to determine the mechanism of molecular interaction and its binding mode in the active site of the modeled yeast α-glucosidase and human intestinal maltase-glucoamylase. All active ligands were found to have greater binding affinity with the yeast α-glucosidase as compared to that of human homologs, intestinal, and pancreatic maltase, by an average value of ~−1.3 and ~−0.8 kcal/mol, respectively. Thirty quinoline derivatives have been synthesized and evaluated against β-glucuronidase inhibitory potential. Twenty-four analogs, which showed outstanding β-glucuronidase activity, have IC50 values ranging between 2.11 ± 0.05 and 46.14 ± 0.95 μM than standard D-saccharic acid 1,4-lactone (IC50 = 48.4 ± 1.25 μM). Structure activity relationship and the interaction of the active compounds and enzyme active site with the help of docking studies were established. In addition, Small series of morpholine hydrazones synthesized to form morpholine hydrazones scaffold. The in vitro anti-cancer potential of all these compounds were checked against human cancer cell lines such as HepG2 (Human hepatocellular liver carcinoma) and MCF-7 (Human breast adenocarcinoma). Molecular docking studies were also performed to understand the binding interaction