The principle aim of this inquiry is to understand how elderly Hindu Punjabi women utilize and shape Ayurvedic knowledge in the broader context of their lives. Do these precepts constitute a way of knowing in the world as women, as seniors, as immigrants? Ayurveda furnishes a wealth of indigenous categories of understanding, which can function as epistemological tools, providing one means by which these elderly women are able to build more cohesive constructions of their selves and their current realities. While my interest lies in discerning health-related behaviours and beliefs, my research agenda reflects the scope and priorities of the women themselves who include in this domain a broad array of topics, most notably, family relations, food, and religion. So as to examine the continuity of constructions among the elderly subsequent to migration, the sample includes both elderly Punjabi Hindus who have migrated to Greater Vancouver, Canada (n = 10), as well as a comparable sample still residing in northwest India (n = 10). The methodology employed was a reflexive process which entailed a period of initial sensitization to relevant concepts (Hindi language training, participant observation), followed by a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews. While capable of eliciting more specific information on health and healing, this method simultaneously encouraged ‘life story’ constructions. The ‘critical-interpretivist’ stance (Scheper-Hughes and Lock) adopted for this study considers not only how people construct their worlds but the relations of power which constrain their choices. This paradigmatic position is articulated within a ‘three bodies’ framework which delineates the individual body, the social body, and the body politic. Other important theoretical influences include social science perspectives on emotion, selfhood and food. Profiles of two each of the women now living in India and Canada are presented so as to preserve the integrity of the women's stories which are otherwise fragmented by the subsequent analysis wherein all interviews are considered collectively according to common themes. The most predominant themes were (1) the socially-embedded nature of health and well-being which references especially, but not exclusively, relationships within the extended family; (2) the relationships drawn between particular foods, beverages, herbs and spices and one's mental, spiritual and physical health, (3) the all-pervasive idiom of balance; and (4) the complex interrelationships between that which is sacred, detached, and not confined to this life and more temporal concerns such as attachment, pride and so forth which ground people in this world. Evidence of a higher order category which unites all four themes—a recognition of the strong interrelationships between mind, body, and spirit—is apparent in every interview. So, too, however, is the competing ideology of the egocentric self coupled with an allopathic (dualistic) medical paradigm which seeks to separate spirit from mind, mind from body. A fifth theme is thus the accommodation of these two competing ideologies in the women's life-worlds. In sum, Ayurveda provides a rich metaphorical language according to which broadly conceived health concerns which are deemed to originate in familial concerns and other stressors such as loneliness can be readily discussed in terms of food. The ability to utilize this wealth of metaphor is most typically forsaken when religion is no longer integral to their lives in some form or another. The compartmentalization of religion, appears to reflect a more dualist (allopathically influenced) world-view in which holistic conceptions of self and health are marginalized. / Graduate

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

This thesis examines the interrelation of the government of Afghanistan's quality and communication against a theoretical framework that draws on Bertrand Russell's (1961) Authority and the Individual and Niklas Luhmann's (1990) The Political Theory in the Welfare State. Theories of governance, communication, and participatory democracy are investigated to explore the role of media, people's political participation, citizenry, and civic activism, in good governance. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how communication influences good governance. A qualitative research design is employed, utilizing content analysis of government and non-government documents and in-depth interviews with national and international field experts. The thesis finds that effective communication can enhance the degree of responsiveness, accountability, and transparency in Afghanistan's governance system. It is argued here that effective communication between the government, external players, and the people, can improve governance quality. This thesis provides a formulation of the communication activities of the government of Afghanistan, the Afghani people, and the international community that can playa critical role in changing Afghanistan's current status as a failed state.

No description available.

<p> In this thesis I argue that Hindu nationalist terminology, particularly the concepts of <i>Hindutva, Samyavada,</i> and national identity, modernized amid currents of globalization and neocolonialism in the early twentieth-century. In the theoretical section, I examine how systems of knowledge and power in India were directly and indirectly affected by the globalization of western modernity. In the primary source analysis section, I discuss three prominent Hindu nationalists and their ideas in support of the argument made in the theoretical section. Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), the philosopher of Hindutva, represented the ethno-nationalistic component to Hindu nationalism and looked to cultural motifs in order to unify the &ldquo;true&rdquo; people of India. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945), the militant hero who formed the Indian National Army and outright opposed the British, contributed the aggressive discourse of nationalist rhetoric. Sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906-1973), the supreme leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), utilized Hindu nationalist rhetoric in order to mesmerize post-independence Indians and lay the foundation for the future of the RSS. Although these individuals represented a current within Indian nationalist history, their lives and literature influenced the language of Hindu nationalism.</p>

Since the declaration of Education for All (EFA) in Jomtien in 1990 which was reaffirmed in Dakar 2000, it has become widely accepted that education for girls has a profound effect on sustainable development. More importantly women’s education has been linked to low maternal and infant mortality rates in Third World Countries. Studies carried out by a number of scholars established significant correlation between a woman’s schooling and her children’s learning opportunities (Stromquist, 2005, p. 142). They contend that intergenerational benefits resulting from female schooling are considerably higher than from male schooling hence increasing girls’ education and women’s literacy provides enormous benefits to individuals and families. As a result, literacy for women and girls has become a major focus of attention in many developing countries. Notwithstanding this renewed focus on girls’ education and the role of women in development, country strategies such as Bhutan’s Ninth Five-Year National Development Plan have not made significant attempts to adequately define the role of women, and particularly nuns in the pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Bhutan’s development philosophy, GNH which focuses on social indicators was proclaimed by the King in juxtaposition to the global economic indicator Gross National Product (GNP) as the road map to its mode of development. Ten years after its introduction, the role of women in Bhutan’s development agenda and the pursuit of gross national happiness remain undefined and marginal. This study therefore seeks to examine the existing gaps in Bhutan’s development philosophy with a focus on the role of nuns in national development. Drawing on feminist and critical theories grounded in discourses on gender equity, this study questions whether countries, and specifically Bhutan, have the political will and commitment to transform the lives of rural women, including nuns, by redefining their role in the 21st century focusing on their educational and literacy needs. The study, utilizing frameworks grounded in Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD), and Gender and Development (GAD) discourse, highlights significant gaps in the education sector in terms of support, management, coordination, supervisions, and oversight of the quality of learning at nunneries with a view to drawing attention to critical gender equity issues in Bhutanese society. It concludes by proposing specific recommendations and programmatic actions to address the situation.

Global climate change has emerged a new environmental issue affecting developing countries particularly after the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in June 1992. This dissertation focuses on the factors which motivate Indian responses to global climate change at the international level. The study evaluates the relative impacts of two policy frames in the formulation of India's national climate change policy stance. The concept of "policy frames" refers to the idea that the definition of, and responses to a particular problem are constructed in terms of another more pressing and salient policy concern. A "policy frame" is an analytically constructed policy filter comprised of key, identifiable, policy features and existing resource constraints in a sector. The study traces the evolution of national energy (coal power and renewable energy) and environment sector policies under centralized planning based on a survey of a series of Five Year Plans (1970-1997). Characteristic sectoral policies are identified as constituting an "energy-related development policy frame" and an "environment-related development policy frame" under two distinct phases of national economic development--a managed economy and a liberalized economy. The study demonstrates that the 1991 shift towards phased economic liberalization resulted not only in a new set of energy (coal, power and renewable energy) policies and consequently an altered energy policy frame, but also in a largely unchanged set of environmental sector policies and consequently only a marginally altered environmental policy frame. The study demonstrates that the post-1991 energy policy changes together with existing energy resource constraints, constitute the dominant policy frame driving both the formulation of Indian policy stances at international climate change negotiations and also Indian responsiveness to coal, power, renewable energy, and climate change projects funded by the World Bank and GEF. The study also demonstrates that key features of the energy policy frame functions as a shared cognitive reference for a select group of national policy actors (comprising both policy makers and policy experts), responsible for formulating climate change policy responses. The study highlights the influential role played by very small set of national policy experts who construct national climate change options on the basis of features of the energy policy frame.

This dissertation project examines the role of identity, the politics of identity contestation and domestic political structures as part of the mechanisms and processes that may be involved in the decisions that states make regarding disengagement from their colonial and territorial possessions. Specifically, it focuses on the following questions: Why do intransigent states back down on previously entrenched territorial policies? And why, even when states decide to disengage from their territories, are some of these processes peaceful while others are scenes of prolonged, bloody and violent struggles? Focusing on Britain and its reaction to Indian calls for independence from 1929-1935, and Indonesia's withdrawal from East Timor in 1999, this project argues that the processes and mechanisms involved in identity construction, maintenance and change can play an important role in how states approach the issue of territorial disengagement. At the same time, it also argues that the structure of a state's domestic political system may also affect the way in which disengagement takes places. Based on its empirical findings, this dissertation also argues that identities are constructed at both the domestic as well as the international levels, and against an Other, and through narratives. Further, identities do not acquire 'substance' once they have been constructed. Rather they are continually constituted by processes, relations and practices as identities are defined, recognized and validated in an actor's interaction with and in relationship to others. Finally, identity does not only influence human actions through enabling or constraining actions but also through the need to perform who we are or who we say we want to be.

In this ethnographic study, I sought to understand the diasporic lives of Afghan Hindus by studying how they discursively constructed their migration and settlement in Germany. By directing attention to their ways of speaking about migration I understood the importance of community and family to the Afghan Hindu way of life, and how the cultural premises of homeland an integral part of their relationships in the diaspora. Speech codes theory is the primary theoretical framework for this ethnographic study. Research was conducted over four separate visits to Germany lasting from four to ten weeks, beginning in summer of 2005 and ending in December 2008, proceeding in phases. Primary methods used were, participation observation, and in-depth interviews. Sites of research included Afghan Hindu temples and family events. The main indigenous term used to describe migration was bikharna, which captured spatial dispersal, relational fragmentation, and loss of traditions. The Afghan Hindu meaning of community was premised on physical proximity and relational connection among Afghan Hindus. The changing meaning of family from the multi-member, multi-generational household of Afghanistan to Western ideas of the nuclear family also figured prominently in ways of speaking about migration. Cultural premises of the homeland continued to inform life in Germany, but were also increasingly being challenged by lifestyle choices of some Afghan Hindus. The temple in Afghan Hindu diasporic lives emerged as an important place, in discursive constructions of community. What was once a place of worship in the homeland was constructed in the diaspora as a place that could bring the fragmented community together. However, the temple was also contested space, as different groups of people within the speech community had different perspectives on its importance in Afghan Hindu lives. This study has implications for the study of culture, communication and relationships in the context of diaspora. Ethnography of communication offers an ideal theoretical framework in which to understand diasporic experiences, by examining the underlying rules and premises of everyday lives of diasporic people. As a case study of a refugee diaspora, this study also has implications for scholarship on South Asian diasporas.