Dissertation (Th. D.)--Boston University, 2011. / This dissertation argues that in the aftermath of religious communal violence in Indonesia, Christian mission practice should take the form of hospitality. A fundamental Christian tradition, hospitality has been theologically reclaimed in recent decades and has become central to the contemporary discourse on mission and religious pluralism. This dissertation particularizes the broader discourse by identifying the missiological dimension of local Indonesian hospitality as a vital Christian interreligious practice in the aftermath of religious communal violence. [TRUNCATED]

In this dissertation, I will explore how 1990s and 2000s British, Irish and South Asian historical films represented the violent legacy of partition on the island of Ireland and in South Asia, respectively. I contend that a cross-regional and cross-national examination of the relationships between national memory, national cinema and minority will reveal that partition had a similar effect on Irish, South Asian and Northern Irish societies: the alignment of a normative national identity with a particular religious identity. This study will explore how key Irish, British and South Asian cinematic texts, despite being produced in disparate production contexts, similarly represent the brutal marginalization of gendered and religious minorities as a central legacy of partition. In my engagement with these films, I have two central areas of exploration. The first is how these films challenge state or majoritarian histories by presenting themselves as historical texts that correct the historical record. I will show how state histories (Michael Collins), majoritarian narratives (Hey!Ram), repressed gendered minority histories (Khamosh Pani, The Magdalene Sisters) and post-conflict narratives (Five Minutes of Heaven and Fiza) contest majoritarian or colonial histories. The second, and ancillary, area of exploration is how the international trauma film genre influences the films' respective representations of atrocity. I argue that trauma theory can help us understand minorities' relationship to the state and the ongoing impact of particular historical events on community and nation. To ground my comparative analysis, I draw from postcolonial theory, poststructuralism and trauma theory. In conclusion, I will contend that these films' minority figures remind us of the dangers of nationalism's limited imaginative boundaries and the role that cinema plays in helping us to think beyond its limitations.

This thesis explores the impact of drought on communal violence, posing the research question: How does drought influence the occurrence of communal violence? Considering empirical evidence and theoretical postulations from previous research, economic grievances are introduced as a crucial factor in the causal pathway between drought and communal violence. Thus, two hypotheses are put forward to address the research question: incidences of communal violence will increase following droughts (H1), and an increase in economic grievances is associated with an increase in communal violence incidence in instances following drought (H2). The study employs a quantitative analysis utilizing climate, conflict, socioeconomic, and geographic information systems (GIS) data, employing generalizedlinear mixed models (GLMMs) in R to test the hypotheses for Kenya from 1997 to 2012. The findings indicate the inability to reject the null hypothesis for H1, suggesting no significant increase in communal violence following drought. The null hypothesis for H2 is generally not rejected, except for in one model, suggesting an association between economic grievances and communal violence 12 months following drought. While this thesis contributes to understanding the link between drought, economic grievances, and communal violence, further research is needed to explore alternative research designs, geographical contexts, and time periods.

Climate change presents a wide range of concerns that can jeopardize international security. Among those concerns are neo-Malthusian worries of diminishing natural resources. Predictive models suggest that rainfall and temperature anomalies have the potential to reduce water basins, crop production, increase land degradation among other perils that threaten human security. This concern is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa given the region’s strong dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Despite strong claims from various world leaders and scientists of a direct climate-conflict nexus, little empirical evidence has been devoted to find a systematic causal pathway of this kind. What is more, the literature not explored the relationship between climate change and low-intensity forms of social unrest. Therefore, contrary to most of the literature that explores a direct climate-conflict relationship, this dissertation contributes to the literature along two lines. First, it explores the relationship between climate change and socio-political unrest. Second, rather than simply assume a direct relationship between climate shocks and conflict, this dissertation examines: a) the effects of climate change on food scarcity, and the impact of that scarcity, in turn, on the likelihood of social unrest and conflict, and b) the effects of climate change on land degradation, that the impact of that degradation, in turn, on the frequency of communal violence.

<p>This thesis examines fictional representations of Indian women’s responses to trauma in the background of communal violence. It argues that fiction allows for the reimagination of women’s conditions during communal riots, and their responses to trauma as a result of those riots. While ethnographic research seeks answers from traumatized victims, a fictional text can open up spaces for debates about conditions of women and their responses to trauma in the background of communal violence. Through Manju Kapur’s <em>A Married Woman</em> and Anita Rau Badami’s <em>Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?</em>, this project examines women’s negotiations of their religious and national identities within the private and the public and their responses to trauma caused by communal violence.</p> <p>The Introduction draws on texts on gender and diaspora theory as well as scholarly work on the evolution and history of communalism in India. It also looks at the historical backgrounds of two events of communal violence that underpin Kapur’s and Badami’s texts, namely, the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid controversy and the resulting 1992 riots, and Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the resulting 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Chapter 1 examines Indian women’s negotiations of religious identities in <em>A Married Woman</em>. Through the characters of Astha, Pipee and Sita, I argue that Kapur draws parallels between women as Other and religious minorities as Other. Her text shows the ways in which trauma crosses religious borders of Hindu-Muslim, and opens up possibilities for envisioning ways of ethically coexisting with the Other. Chapter 2 investigates communal violence in India and Canada in <em>Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?</em> Focusing on the characters of Bibi-ji, Leela and Nimmo, I argue that communal violence subsumes class, religion and location. Her text highlights how trauma crosses national boundaries and how the three women are torn apart by their losses.</p> <p>In my Conclusion, I suggest for new avenues of research that might contribute to a further understanding of the dynamics of communal violence and trauma, and a future investigation into the negotiation of male religious identities in the background of communal violence.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Den våldsamma konflikten på Moluckerna (1999-2002) porträtteras ibland i termer av motsättningar mellan kristna och muslimer. Denna studie problematiserar den bilden genom att analysera flera konfliktfaktorer som belyses ur två perspektiv.Det första syftet med denna studie var att jämföra tidigare forskning gällande konfliktfaktorer i Moluckerna med lokala ungdomars perception. Det finns en forskningslucka rörande ungdomarnas upplevelser av konflikten, vilket denna studie syftar till att överbrygga. Ett andra syfte var att analysera diskrepansen mellan den akademiska litteraturen och ungdomarnas underifrånperspektiv.Det avslutande syftet var att applicera teorin om kollektiv skuldkänsla för att förklara och analysera ungdomarnas minnen och uppfattningar om konfliktfaktorerna i Moluckerna. En kvalitativ fallstudieansats har valts eftersom den kan inkludera både djupintervjuer och en litteraturgenomgång. Sex djupintervjuer genomfördes i Indonesien som utforskade ungdomarnas uppfattningar. Den källkritiskt granskade litteraturgenomgången användes för att erhålla data från sekundärkällor angående samma konfliktfaktorer, som undersöktes I samband med intervjuerna.Den första delen av analysen visade att det finns en diskrepans mellan de två perspektiven när det gäller några av konfliktfaktorerna. Analysen av kollektiv skuldkänsla visade att ungdomarna bara upplevde en begränsad känsla av kollektiv skuld. Detta berodde på att alla strategier som minskar den kollektiva skuldkänslan var representerade i ungdomarnas uppfattningar. Den mest använda strategin var att beskylla några "svarta får", eller i detta fall, några provokatörer för skadan den egna gruppen orsakat den motsatta gruppen. / The violent conflict in the Moluccas (1999-2002) has occasionally been portrayed in terms of animosities between Christians and Muslims. This study problematizes that statement by analysing several conflict drivers seen through two perspectives.The first purpose of this study was to contrast previous research regarding conflict factors in the Moluccas to the perceptions of the local youths’. There is a research gap regarding the youths’ experiences of the conflict, which this study aims to bridge. A second purpose was to analyse discrepancy between the academic literature and the youths’ bottom-up perspective. The final purpose was to apply the theory of collective guilt to explain and analyse the youths’ memories and perceptions regarding the conflict factors in the Moluccas. A qualitative case study approach was adopted since it could include both in-depth interviews and an assessed literature review. Six in-depth interviews were conducted in Indonesia which explored the youth’s perceptions. The critically assessed literature review was used to obtain data from secondary sources regarding the same conflict factors, as was explored by the interviews.The first part of the analysis exposed a discrepancy between the two perspectives regarding some of the conflict factors. The collective guilt analysis found that the youths only seem to experience a rather limited feeling of collective guilt. This is because all strategies to reduce collective guilt were represented in the youths’ perceptions. The most used strategy was to blame a few ‘black sheep’, or in this context a few provocateurs for the harm inflicted by the in-group, towards the out-group.