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Yes / Indian interaction with the global South is at a crossroads. For a long time wedded to Nehruvian values of South-South cooperation, there are now considerable claims that economics underpins interactions. This article looks at current Indian ‘development cooperation’ in Ghana and, crucially, also asks what form Ghanaian responses take. The article concludes that while the rhetoric and ideas behind South-South cooperation are toned down, there are still ideas: Indian ‘development cooperation’ is partly ideologically and normatively informed, is not simply national interests, and has effects; whilst being extremely broad in content and significantly adding to global re-conceptualisations of development assistance.

Yes / Title in attached file differs from final published title.

Thesis advisor: Thibaud Marcesse / This is a case study of the 2020-21 Farmers’ Movement in India which brought an alliance among farmers who belong to historically different social groups by their social status, land ownership, and amount of land owned. It also brought together farmers and laborers as a united front, and for the first time, an alliance of urban-based individuals and civil society groups, workers, students, and opposition political parties came together to support the farmers and their cause. How do people of different social groups and ethnicities construct common interests and act collectively? I review the literature on the structural and historical theories of peasants’ uprisings, the collective action theory, and the political opportunity structure to explain why the movement emerged and how it emerged. I argue that the movement emerged as a consequence of economic grievances and the potential for mobilization which is determined by the political opportunity structure. Farmers feared that the Farm Laws that were intended to liberalize agricultural marketing by facilitating intrastate trade, contract farming, and direct marketing would lead to the collapse of the state government-regulated marketplaces and eventually to the collapse of the minimum support price system. The discontentment of farmers, farmers’ unions, and opposition parties provided the political opportunity structure for the movement. I argue that economic grievances and political opportunity structure are necessary conditions for the emergence of social movements, but they do not explain how people of different social groups and ethnicities construct common interests and act collectively. Communities converge on a common frame through the process of frame alignment. Therefore, framing is a necessary and sufficient condition for participation in a social movement. The process of frame alignment creates common interests and non-monetary selective incentives like solidary and purposive incentives which are necessary and sufficient conditions for collective action. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

From 'Pensioners Paradise' or 'Garden City' to 'Silicon Valley' or 'Garbage City', the city of Bangalore has come a long way. One of the interesting aspects of life in Bangalore is 'public life' and the use of public space. However the quality of public spaces in Bangalore has deteriorated over the years due to several reasons. Rapid development, increase in traffic, encroachment into public spaces and lack of management of public spaces have all contributed to this. The CBD (Central Business District) area, especially M.G. Road has evolved as the de-facto centre of Bangalore. Hence a space that used to cater to a city of 2 million in 1980 has to now cater to a city of 5 million. This has led to congestion on M.G. Road, especially along the sidewalk, where people jostle each other to get to their destinations and one can no longer take a leisure stroll or promenade in comfort. Although the sidewalk has been historically an important public space, it is now slowly being reduced to the function of circulation. The increase in population has also altered the demands on public spaces in Bangalore. The cosmopolitan image that Bangalore has acquired has resulted in the creation of many eclectic spaces such as pubs, open-air cafés, and food courts. The common man is being left out of this semi-public realm because of affordability, causing a social rift. Also with pressure increasing on the streets it is becoming difficult to cater to these needs in an appropriate manner. The public realm is slowly diminishing and the semi-private realm is filling the void. This calls for a re-evaluation of the role of a street and how it is functioning in Bangalore and exploration of new spatial types of public spaces, which can be introduced in the public realm. Public spaces should reconcile these differences rather than aggravate them. With pressure on land due to increasing population and density a contest for space is inevitable. What is important is to reconcile these differences and evolve a strategy through which public space can be returned to the people irrespective or religion, caste, creed, class or political alignment for the common good without compromising on aesthetics. At the same time the poor and deprived need to feel a sense of belonging and ownership in the city. Public space is one of the few mediums for such expressions and hence the duty of the city to provide it. Also the absence of iconic public spaces as landmarks has resulted in Bangalore remaining an imageless city, a former middle-class city with no apparent vernacular. Today Bangalore has no real city centre to represent its image and cater to its citizens. The elements of a city centre already exist as observed by Rao & Tewari; it is a matter of giving it structure and a sense of place. Bangalore today confronts several problems with respect to its public spaces ' lack of an imageable city centre; contest for urban and public space based on class and caste; privatisation / corporatisation of public space. To curtail violent and disruptive demonstration of ideas and aspirations by various interest groups especially those of the suppressed, the city needs a democratic, civic space in the perceived/evolving heart of the city ' M.G. Road. Such a space would attempt to bridge the zoning of Bangalore and the lack of imageability of the city; providing its citizens a space to speak their minds, to protest, to celebrate, to mourn, to recreate and most importantly to unite. The thesis document comprises three sections. The first section deals with theory pertaining to the design of public spaces that provides a basis to evaluate public spaces in Bangalore, and draw conclusions, which can be applied in the design project. It draws from public space theory pertaining to the issues identified earlier. The second section provides a brief history of urbanisation of Bangalore. It describes the use of public space from colonial times to the present and draws conclusions for future development of public spaces in Bangalore. The last section applies and tests the conclusions arrived at in the previous two chapters through a design project for a site on Mahatma Gandhi Road. The design process and final product comprises the third section. / Master of Landscape Architecture

In the past decade, a night shift labor force has gained momentum in the global economy. The hyper-growth of the transnational call center industry in India provides a quintessential example. The night shift requirement of the transnational call industry also intersects with the spatial and temporal construction of gender. Research conducted in 2006 in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad indicates that the nightscape is primarily a male domain (with the exception of prostitutes, bar dancers, and call girls) and women’s entry into this domain generates a range of diverse responses from call centers, their employees, the employees’ families, the media, and the Indian public. This research illustrates that there is no linear outcome to how working the night shift at a call center affects women’s lives. Even though the global nature of the work combined with the relatively high salary is viewed as a liberating force in the lives of workers, in actuality women simultaneously experience opening and constriction for working in the industry. Through the collection of interviews, focus group data, and participant observation gathered during 10 months of fieldwork in India, I examine female night shift workers’ physical, temporal, social, and economic mobility to illustrate how global night shift labor is intersecting with the lives of women in ironic and unsettling ways. Call center employment certainly changes the temporal mobility of some women because it provides them with a legitimate reason to leave the house at night, whereas before this was considered unacceptable. Concerns about promiscuity and “bad character” related to working at night are deflected by linking employment to skill acquisition, high wages, and a contribution to the household. Women’s safety--a code word for their reputation--is preserved by segregating them, via private transport, from the other women of the night. Women consequently become more physically and economically mobile, but through the use of what I term mobility-morality narratives, households continue to maintain regimes of surveillance and control over when and how women come and go. Similarly their social mobility is limited by obligations to support family members and conform to gendered notions of a woman’s place. / text

Royal endowments to Brahmanas have been interpreted either as a factor of political integration or disintegration in Indian history. Through the first thorough presentation and analysis of the epigraphic data from Orissa, this study argues that the period 300-1147 C.E. was one of intensive state formation and political development in which royal grants played an important integrative role. During this period, Brahmanas, many of whom were ritual specialists associated with the Yajur Veda, emerged as land-holders endowed by royal decree with privileged control over land. Despite the consistent appearance of sectarian affiliations in the royal inscriptions, temples did not benefit from royal patronage on a comparable scale. Until the close of the period under review, it was the gift of land to Brahmanas, not the royally-endowed temple establishment, that was a major basis of royal legitimation and political integration in Orissa.

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In this thesis, I focus on the relationship between gender and nation in post-colonial India, through the lens of Muslim women, who are located on the margins of both religious community and nation. The contradictory embrace of a composite national identity with an ascriptive religious identity, has had critical consequences for Muslim women, to whom the state has simultaneously granted and denied equal citizenship. The impact is felt primarily in the continuing disadvantage of women through the denial of gender equality within the family. The state's regulation of gender roles and family relationships in the 'private sphere', inevitably has determined women's status as citizens in the public sphere. / In this context, the notion of citizenship becomes a focus of any exploration of the legal status of Muslim women. I explore the idea of citizenship as a space of subaltern secularism that opens up the possibility for Indian women of all faiths, to reclaim a selfhood, free from essentialist definitions of gender interests and prescripted identities. I evaluate the realm of constitutional law as a counter-hegemonic discourse that can challenge existing power structures. Finally, I argue for the need to acknowledge the hybridity of culture and the modernity of tradition, to emphasise the integration of the colonial past with the postcolonial present. Such an understanding is critical to the feminist emancipatory project as it reveals the manner in which oppositional categories of public/private, true Muslim woman/feminist, Muslim/Other, Western/Indian, and modern/traditional, have been used to deny women equal rights.

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