This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the different levels of Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat (western India) in 2002 when at least a thousand Muslims were killed. An original dataset of killings is compiled to analyse macrospatial variation in the violence across towns and rural areas of Gujarat. Data collected from 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ahmedabad city is used to investigate microspatial variation across three neighbourhoods with varying levels of violence.Macrospatial analysis discusses the link between political authority and its capacity to instigate ethnic violence as a response to electoral calculations and identifies the mechanisms by which violence against Muslims was orchestrated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ethnographic findings demonstrate the importance of ecological strategies adopted by attackers and targets during the course of attack and urge a re-examination of the intuitive association of spatial proximity with greater interethnic contact. Findings also reveal methods of enforcement used by legitimate and illegitimate institutions of a peaceful slum neighbourhood in resolving commitment problems of cooperation. Finally, the thesis examines the aftermath of the violence, more specifically a political phenomenon of Muslims of Gujarat supporting the BJP nine years after the brutal violence.Methodologically, the main contribution of this thesis is in bridging the quantitative and ethnographic traditions in the sociology of ethnic violence to make possible the linking, and disentangling, of macrolevel risk factors associated with violence from microlevel factors. Findings of the thesis hopefully provide a better understanding of ethnic violence in multi-ethnic democracies and a roadmap of policy-making for India as it continues to struggle with ethnic strife.

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The purpose of this study was to better understand student learning in asynchronous computer-conference discourse (ASD) for non-native speakers of English in India through the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework. The study looked at ASD from an online course taught in the fall of 2015 to 25 students in a seminary in South India. All but one of the students were non-native speakers of English. The class consisted of 22 men and 3 women. Eight students spoke languages from the Dravidian family of languages (Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu and Kannada). Eight students were from the Northeastern states of Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, where most languages are from the Sino-Tibetan family. Three students were native speakers of Indo-Aryan languages (Odiya and Assamese). Five students were from Myanmar representing several Sino-Tibetan languages. The COI is a framework used to understand learning in ASD, often used in online learning. To study the ASD of this group, critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used with the COI to capture the unique socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of this group. The study revealed that non-native speakers of English often reach the Exploration phase of learning but rarely show evidence of reaching the Resolution phase. This phenomenon was also observed in native English speakers as reported in the literature. Also, the structure of ASD showed that students took an examination approach to discussion shaped in part by their epistemology. This examination approach shaped how knowledge was constructed. CDA also showed that the discourse acquired an instructor-centered structure in which Resolution and Repair were initiated and finalized by the instructor. The study advances the COI framework by undergirding it with a theory of asynchronous discourse using critical discourse analysis and capturing cognitive, social and teaching presence phenomena for non-native speakers that were not observed through the traditional COI framework. These phenomena were driven by cultural, epistemological, and linguistic forces and require a rethinking of the COI for contexts outside of North America. The study also demonstrates that learning for non-native speakers in ASD is challenged by these very same forces. Therefore, design for online learning should account for these phenomena.

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Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology).

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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The definition of political risk and the methodology of its assessment have changed since the inception of the discipline midway through the last century. This assignment assesses the usefulness of a new quantitative technique that uses political constraints and the policy preferences of political actors to construct a measure of political risk. Integrating the findings of the resulting Political Constraints Index with an analysis of the political economy of the Indian Electricity Sector, the assignment demonstrates that, contrary to the original interpretations of the index, high levels of political constraints and political competition may propagate a disabling policy regime and be detrimental to the investor, despite the stated commitment of the incumbent government to policy reform. The implication of these findings is that, to avoid incorrect interpretation, the Political Constraint Index should be augmented by a comprehensive qualitative assessment of the industry in question. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die definisie van politieke risiko en die metodologie om dit te ontleed, het verander sedert die onstaan van hierdie dissipline gedurende die middel van die laaste eeu. Hierdie opdrag ontleed die nuttigheid van 'n nuwe kwantitatiewe tegniek wat die politieke beperkings en beleidsvoorkeure van politieke rolspelers gebruik om 'n maatstaf van politieke risiko te verskaf. Die opdrag se integrasie van die bevindinge van die resulterende Politieke Beperkings Indeks met 'n analise van die politieke ekonomie van die Indiese Elektrisiteits Sektor bewys dat, teenstrydig met oorspronklike interpretasies van die indeks, hoe vlakke van politieke beperkings en politieke kompetisie 'n deaktiveringsbeleid regime kan kweek wat nadelig is vir die belegger, ten spyte van die huidige regering se verklaarde toegewydheid tot beleidshervorming. Die implikasie van hierdie bevindinge is dat, om foutiewe interpretasie te vermy, die Politieke Beperkings Indeks verbeter moet word deur 'n omvattende kwalitatiewe ontleding van die verlangde industrie.

"April 2004" / Bibliography: leaves 319-342. / viii, 387 leaves : ill., maps ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, Discipline of History, 2004

Canadian politicians have stated that India-Canada relations are grounded in "people-to-people links". These links have been formed over the last century through a process of immigration that articulates specific regions of India—Doaba in Punjab—with particular regions of Canada—initially British Columbia, and now the metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver. Employing the theoretical lens of transnationalism and a methodological approach based on networks, this thesis argues that the presence of extensive transnational linkages connecting immigrants to their sites of origin, rather than limit national Canadian citizenship practice, can actually enhance it. I examine how Punjabi immigrants activate linkages that span borders and fuse distant communities and localities, as well as highlighting how the state is involved in the regulation and monitoring of such connections. My findings indicate that the operation of state officials varies according to the nature of the exchange. Whereas immigration is differentially controlled at the micro-scale of the individual according to a range of factors such as race, class and gender; inanimate objects such as goods and capital are less regulated, despite the significant material effects associated with their transmission. Indian immigrants are not however, passive recipients of state regulation at the scale of the individual, and instead emerge as active participants in a Canadian democratic system that enables the individual to challenge certain bureaucratic decisions and hold federal departments accountable. In addition, contrary to ideas of transnational immigrant actors possessing new forms of transnational or "post-national" citizenship, this research suggests that immigrants value the traditional right of citizenship to protect national borders and determine who may gain access.