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This study examines the history of the Parsi community from their arrival in India until the middle of the nineteenth century, giving special emphasis to the impact that other religious and social systems existing in India had on the formation of Parsi identity and also to the continuing influence of communication with co-religionists remaining in Iran. This study argues that Indian Zoroastrians, in attempting to formulate their identity in terms of the religious communities which surrounded them, have completely transformed those things that have generally been regarded as their religion's distinguishing features. The impact of modernity continued the transformations already in process. Hinduism primarily affected Parsi practices and social systems. Like Hindu castes, Parsis refused to interdine or intermarry with those outside their community and prohibited the conversion of outsiders. But caste never defined the Parsis' choice of vocation as it did those of other Indians. This versatility allowed Parsis to involve themselves in all phases of production and distribution and gave them an edge over other merchant groups. The impact of Islam was felt primarily in the area of theology. Parsis utilized Islamic terminologies and came to share Muslim monotheistic presuppositions. Zoroastrians down-played their veneration of the elements and even came to regard Ahriman, once seen as the malignant twin to God Himself, as a lesser being wholly dependent on God's sovereignty. Periods of economic prosperity created conflicts in which laymen sought to undermine priestly authority by appealing to Zoroastrian priests residing in Iran. When Iranian Zoroastrians proved unable to mediate these disputes any longer, the community began to turn towards other outsiders as final authorities, at first Islamic, and later European ones. Zoroastrianism's confrontation with Christianity, which coincided with the introduction of the printing press, brought further changes in Parsi beliefs. Parsis embraced Enlightenment thought, utilizing it to defend themselves against missionary attacks. Although rejecting Christian theology, they eventually adopted the methodologies of higher criticism by which Europeans studied Zoroastrianism and largely accepted their findings.

This submission for the PhD by Research Publications consists of two published books by Patrick French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul (2008) and India: A Portrait (2011). The portfolio is accompanied by a critical review summarising the aims, objectives, methodology, results and conclusions of the books, and showing how they form a coherent body of work and contribute significantly to the expansion of knowledge. The World Is What It Is (2008) is a biography of Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul, positioning him within a Caribbean and early postcolonial literary lineage, despite his ancestral connections to India and his “stateless” claims as a world novelist. India: A Portrait (2011) is a study of Indian politics, economics and society since 1947, told mainly through the stories of individuals from different sections of society, and using historical background to analyse rapid recent social change in the period after economic “liberalization”. The trajectory of the two publications is built around a conviction that individual experience can illuminate a larger period or civilization, and that our ideas of the unfamiliar, whether in the past or in different societies, can often be poorly grounded in the way people perceive themselves. In each case, the books challenge existing notions and use evidence based on detailed research and interviews in the field. In the case of The World Is What It Is, almost none of the archival material used had previously been studied, and in India: A Portrait, subjective one-to-one interviews were supplemented by new original data. For example, a survey was undertaken to determine what proportion of MPs in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, were hereditary: this involved double-sourcing information on the family background of all 545 Indian MPs – and revealed that nepotism was more deeply embedded than had previously been realised. Both books come out of a vision developed during two-and-a-half decades of research into colonial and postcolonial history. The guiding motivation has been to communicate a distinct historical view of the period before and after the end of the global British empire, in particular in South Asia and among its diaspora.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)—Boston University

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

No description available.

El presente trabajo se enmarca en parte de la historia del sur de la India, indaga en aspectos de la política, religión y arte predominantes, y se enfoca en investigar el papel religoso y social de la danza en los templos de Tamilnadu bajo el reinado de la dinastía Chola (de fines del siglo IX a mediados del siglo XIII). El principal objetivo de ésta investigación es establecer el papel de las esculturas de danza en el espacio sagrado del templo Hindú de la dinastía Chola. Este tipo de templo se fue conformando como una institución, que a través del desarrollo del arte sagrado incluyó y sistematizó antiguas culturas locales, articulándolas dentro de la más amplia tradición del Hinduismo. En éste proceso jugaron un papel preponderante la especulación filosófica Hindú, que logró armonizar la multiplicidad de cultos, propia del sur de India, con el concepto de Absoluto desarrollado en los Upanishads. Esta especulación toma forma a través del movimiento devocional de santos Bhakti, que fue un importante agente en la conformación del Hinduismo de la zona meridional.

A stepped heating gas extraction technique has been developed which is capable of isolating C02 released by fluid inclusions from that released by contamination and other sources. In some cases specific generations of inclusions may be extracted. This technique represents a significant advance in the measurement of carbon isotopes from fluid inclusions. Isotopic results are reproducible to ± 0.296 for gas-rich samples, but sample heterogeneity results in variable yield measurements (occasionally up to 200%). The technique has been applied to charnockites and related rocks from South India to constrain the role of C02 in their petrogenesis. Results from a data base of 65 samples show that charnocidtes released more inclusion-C02 than did associated amphibolite facies gneisses, implying that C02 plays a significant role in charnockite formation. Field observations and theoretical phase equilibria, suggest incipient charnockites (partially transformed gneiss) form by sub-solidus transformation (induced by influx of C02) and by melting (triggered by influx of mixed C02-H20). This melting reaction occurs at least 50°C below vapour-absent melting, so it may be an important mechanism for granulite and granite formation in the middle and lower crust. Massive charnockites (monotonous granulite) are believed to form mainly by direct crystallisation from a H20-poor, C02-rich melt. 513C values support radiogenic and field evidence for at least two charnockite formation events in South India. The 2500 Ga event at the southern margin of the Archxan Craton yields a range of 613C values (-4%o to -13%o), tentatively interpreted as C02 derived from subducting sediments. The younger event (500 Ma) affects the southern blocks (of probable early Proterozoic age), and is characterised by a bimodal distribution of 813C values (-6%o to -7%o and -9%o to -13%o). A sub-continental lithospheric source of C02 (transported by magmas associated with crustal extension) is suggested by the heavier values. The lighter isotopes result mainly from mixing between this mantle source and organic graphite, but inclusion capture during an earlier event cannot be ruled out in a few cases. C02-rich fluids are found to propagate by advective fluid flow through a microhydraulic fracture mechanism. A detailed case study of local charnockite formation indicates that isotope and reaction fronts are diffuse, almost over the entire distance of fluid flow (60 m), and fluid/rock disequilibrium suggests that fluid-rock ratios must be treated with care.

The study reported here, consists of three main parts. The first deals with the issue of the importance on management education in a poor country, some of the reported effects and therefore the question of relevance is raised. Proponents of the free market system argue that the only role of a manager is to make a profit for the business. However, in a country like India where the majority of the population is outside the mainstream of modern industrial life, there are arguments that freedom to make a profit should be accompanied by social responsibility because this form of behaviour helps to link modern industry with the wider social goals of a country. The second part of the study considers how to define and measure the social effects of publicly funded education. The outcome is the use of personal construct theory and repertory grid technique, borrowed from clinical psychology. which help to examine the social responsibility of Indian managers. The theory states that man makes choices and decisions based on the way he construes the world around him and the way he anticipates future events. The implication is that managers who construe social responsibility in terms of socio economic development are likely to make decisions which are more beneficial to society than those who have a narrower view of socially responsible behaviour. The third part of the study reports on the findings of the study, which has used five separate instruments with 53 Indian managers who have been trained at one of the three established Indian Institutes of Management. These Institutes (IIMs) train around 500 graduate managers each year and one of their objectives, is to "inculcate" social values in the graduates so that their future decisions as managers will be made in this context and be relevant to India's needs. The graduates are from among India's social elite and the way they construe social responsibility has been compared to a matched group of managers who have not been through the IIMs. Data has been collected, to classify the managers, on the social origins, their place of work and career orientations. The way they construe corporate and managerial social responsibility was elicited through the use of repertory grid technique, in order to examine the question of social responsibility in as many different ways as possible. Interestingly the results indicate insignificant differences between the two groups. These are interesting results as they highlight the possibility that the IIMs have not managed to instill socially responsible constructs which are any different from other Indian managers. Although this study is a snap-shot view of Indian managers, it does point to an area of research which the IIMs might take up, for example the objective of instilling social responsibility might not be achievable given all the other aims of the Institutions, or, if they feel that being of social consequence is important they might review their entry requirements, operational focus and so on. The main contribution of the results, to this issue, is a new approach to evaluating management education, helping to break from the conventional social cost benefit methods. This study has two further contributions of particular interest. First, it has examined social responsibility in a novel way and provided an empirically based definition. Secondly, the method used for this research has extended the application of personal construct theory to new areas of study, particularly by embodying repertory grid technique. There is little literature in construct theory which is of relevance to management education and this study has helped to close this gap.