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The issues addressed in this thesis are: whether Kashmir was a State at any point in history; was the territory occupied in the war of 1947 by India; within international law, what implications do the constitutional incorporation of this territory and human rights violations attract; are Kashmiris entitled to restore their historical title through the exercise of self-determination; and can the Kashmir question be solved without the formation of international strategic alliances to curb the new dangers in Kashmir. From the strong historical standpoint and comprehensive archival research this thesis begins with an introduction to the Kashmir question, focusing on how the statehood of Kashmir was lost and in what circumstances.  This is followed by examining the substantive law of restoration of historical title, statehood, State continuity/identity, State extinction, occupation and self-determination.  The rest of the study first analyses the statehood and sovereignty of Kashmir from the perspective of archival documents.  The study also examines effect of the presence of an unrepresentative government and human rights violations in the occupied territory of Kashmir.  Finally, the international community’s foreign policy and legal position on Kashmir is discussed.  The study analyses the consequences of abandoning the Kashmir question and letting it fester in the face of danger of potential nuclear war and spread of terrorism.  This work concludes that the international community needs to rethink its foreign policy in the region in the face of emerging military-political dangers and revive its previously held legal position on the Kashmir question for its resolution.

This paper examines the gender gap in human capital investment in India from the perspective of intra-household bargaining. I test whether the existing gender disparity in bargaining power, in the form of educational attainment of parents, contributes to the differences in educational expenditure between sons and daughters. As the proxy for bargaining power, fathers’ and mothers’ educational attainments both have a positive impact on the human capital investment for the children, but the gender gap widens with fathers’ education and narrows with mothers’. The results are robust controlling for additional variables such as age, number of siblings, household income, caste and location. These findings suggest that mothers may have a preference for daughters’ education. When their bargaining power rises, families tend to spend more equal amounts on the education of daughters and sons. Policies aiming at improving gender equality in education should take into account the decision-making process.

In the late eighteenth century, a large urban redevelopment program was initiated by the Shii Isna ‘Ashari Muslim ruler Asaf al-Dawlah in Lucknow, a city located in the prosperous, semi-autonomous north Indian region of Awadh. The development included four monumental entrances, a congregational mosque and a monumental imambarah, a ritual centre used for the annual mourning of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Husayn by the city’s small, elite Shii Isna community. Incorporating one of the largest masonry vaults ever built in human history, the imambarah has a monumental scale that contributes to its uniqueness. Although Shii Isna ‘Ashari communities elsewhere developed smaller imambarah facilities, none ever thought to build one using monumental proportions typically reserved for congregational mosques. Asaf al-Dawlah’s Great Imambarah is unusual in the history of world architecture and in Shii Isna ‘Ashari, Islamic religious practice, but the building and complex have never been the focus of study. / Graduate

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The present work closely traces the emergence of a distinctively Gujarati political and cultural world by the fifteenth century, arguing that many of the political, administrative, cultural and religious institutions that are evident in modern Gujarat came into being when the region was unified by force and consensus under the Sultans of Gujarat. The western province of Gujarat with its extensive coastline became, from the eighth century, the hub of a vibrant network of trade that stretched from the Red Sea to Indonesia and over land to Central Asia and the borders of China. The ports and cities of Gujarat drew merchants, mercenaries, religious figures and fortune-seekers from the Arab world and neighbouring south Asian provinces. Gujarat' s general prosperity also attracted mass migrations of pastoralist groups from the north. Unlike previous studies that have tended to treat trade and politics as separate categories with distinct histories, the present research charts the evolving Gujarati political order by juxtaposing political control with networks of trade, religion and contestation over resources. Large parts of Gujarat were conquered in the late thirteenth century by the armies of the Turkic Sultans of Delhi. With the dissolution of the Delhi Sultanate in the late fourteenth century, the governor of Gujarat declared his sovereignty and inaugurated a line of independent Sultans of Gujarat who continued in power until defeated by the Mughal ruler Akbar in 1572. From the late twelfth century, Gujarat was the site of proselytising activities of various denominations of missionaries. By the fifteenth century, a wide variety of religious interests were competing for patrons, converts and resources. The highly evolved trading networks radiating out from Gujarat from the eighth century required pragmatic accommodation with successive political formations. Correspondingly, claimants to political power were heavily dependent upon merchants, traders and financiers for military supplies, and in return, offered the trading groups security and patronage. The constantly negotiated relationship between trade and politics was closely linked to the evolution of sects and castes, Hindu, Muslim and Jain. Trade and politics were increasingly organised and expressed in sectarian or community terms. In keeping with some recent literature, my studies suggest that community affiliations in this period were often negotiable and linked to changing status. The study ends in the late fifteenth century when the Portuguese arrived off the coast of Gujarat. Soon there were new alignments of identity and power as the pastoralist frontier politics of the previous period began to give way to settled Rajput courts, complete with bureaucracies, chroniclers and priests. The Sultans of Gujarat were now paramount in the region: wealthy patrons of merchants and religious figures, they were unrivalled in north India for their control of manpower, war animals and weaponry.

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No description available.