2002, Brasted, Howard Vining, Khan, A

When we look back at over half a century of the political histories ofIndia and Pakistan, there is one development that outshines all others. The debate over the basis of identity, which began in earnest in the immediate run-up to independence, continues to engage both countries. What we see are two states still contesting the ideological underpinnings of nation; still ostensibly wrestling with tensions that were evident at the time of partition.

2007, Marsh, Julie Anne, Brasted, Howard, Wright, Denis

The thesis examines the role of the idea of 'maya' in India's cultural history with a particular focus on the continued application of this idea in the twentieth century. The principal aim of the thesis is to demonstrate that 'maya', as a foundational element of a worldview which is, in some aspects, antithetical to the hegemonic post-Enlightenment epistemologies of the modem world, still has high cultural significance for India. Moreover, the concept of 'maya', as a way of explaining the nature of existing reality, offers a perspective on truth that is, beyond its purely philosophical application, of worldwide value for political and historical judgements. The thesis draws out these assessments of the idea of 'maya' by establishing the significance of the term throughout India's interconnected cultural and religious history. In a selective overview of Indian classical literature, the field of meaning that is encompassed by the concept is demonstrated, as well as its recognition over changing eras and across the spectrum of religions, ethnicity, and language. That broad enculturation is achieved to a large extent, as the thesis illustrates, through mythology and through art, in which 'maya' is a foundational presupposition of both aesthetic theory and religious/philosophic exposition. With the historical provenance of 'maya' established, it is then related to the twentieth century. Firstly, the idea is assessed as an element of the thought and actions of the iconic leader, M. K. Gandhi. Secondly, the twentieth century's popular art form, cinema, is shown to provide evidence of the continuing forms and uses of 'maya' through the idea's role in aesthetic theory and narrative structure, and as a moral philosophy. Finally, the interconnection of the fictional and political realms is examined in a review of the public reaction to the controversial 1998 film, 'Fire', in which the 'maya' (the illusory and constructed nature) of "identity" is demonstrated with reference to both past and present history. In sum, the thesis verifies the importance and continuity of the idea of 'maya' for India and the broader world community through clarifying its meanings, through demonstrating its continued use as both concept and term, and through its application as an analytical perspective.

2020-09-08, Mostofa, Shafi Md, Brasted, Howard Vining, Zafarullah, Habib, Ware, Helen

All over the world, there is now a rising tide of radical ‘Islamist’ movements, which, especially since 9/11, have turned militant. Since then, terrorist attacks against civilian populations both in the West and within Muslim countries themselves have become almost daily occurrences. Several countries have been directly or indirectly affected by Islamist militancy. In Bangladesh, Islamist militants killed 156 people in the 1990s, and the country experienced at least 48 smallscale attacks that killed over 120 people between 2015 and 2016. The July 2016 attack at the Holey Artisan Café in Dhaka killed approximately 20 foreigners, while an abortive attack six days later killed two. These and other similar incidents confirmed the presence of external militant outfits in the country and the severity of the challenge. Based on an exhaustive review of the relevant literature and two stints of fieldwork in Bangladesh involving 71 in-depth interviews of highly credentialled individuals, this project seek to investigate not only the causes of radicalization but also how radicalization has unfolded since 2009. This thesis looks at both local and global factors that have served to provoke young Bangladeshis, many of whom are from relatively well-educated backgrounds, to become religiously belligerent and eventually to turn into terrorists. Ideology, it is argued, plays a pivotal role in the radicalization process and justifies violence. Most importantly, ideology proffers solutions to the micro and macro causes of commonly identifiable youth disaffection. This study mainly focuses on the Islamic State and Al Qaeda’s exploitation of religious beliefs and their construction of a mobilising, apocalyptic narrative that strikes a chord with the young, middle-class Muslims. Both organisations target them for recruitment. The thesis ends by proffering what is called a Pyramid Root Cause model,’ which attempts to tie all the causative variables of radicalization into a connected explanation of what has been happening in Bangladesh over the last decade.

2002, Marsh, Julie, Brasted, Howard Vining

Not surprisingly much of the analytical focus on the BJP's rise to power has been on its revolutionary political and cultural program. The ideology of 'Hindutva' not only challenges the secular basis of the Indian state, threatening to overturn it altogether, but it also proposes a communal reconstruction of national identity. India is projected by the Sangh Parivar as constituting a primordial Hindu community, which transcends regional, language and cultural difference and is bound together by a common history, civilisation and destiny. A new religiously exclusive India beckons in which nationality and citizenship are to be couched in terms of Hinduness, potentially rendering as foreigners millions of non-Hindu Indians and threatening the very preservation of the Indian Union.

2021, Ahmed, Imran, Brasted, Howard

This article argues that at its core, the debate on the role and place of Islam in Pakistan, is constitutional. The issues concerning Islamic law, the raison d'être of the state, defining the nation and mapping the locus of sovereignty are of constitutional import and concern. At the same time, the recognition of Islam has been critical to the legitimacy of Pakistani constitutions. However, the political structures and institutions prescribed to make Pakistan the Islamic republic it set out to become on independence have stopped short of achieving this. This article suggests that this failure has fuelled religious conflict and created tension, instability and division in the country. In failing to provide formal mechanisms and channels to uphold and activate Islamic principles enshrined in them, the constitutions have remained a focus for agitation and dissent. The constitutional ratification of Islam and Islamic governance ostensibly remains the demand of Islamist parties and Islamic militants alike. For the Islamists, the demand is generally not for a new constitution but for the reform of the existing one.

2019, Brasted, Howard, Ahmed, Imran, Orakzai, Saira Bano

Over its 70 years of existence as an independent sovereign nation, Pakistan has failed to resolve the centrifugal issues that it began grappling with at independence. Significant disagreement about Islam's role and place in the state remains, ethnic and sectarian rivalries continue to challenge its unity, and the threat of military intervention is ever present. Since 1947, Pakistan has experienced four military regimes, spanning almost half its political life. This chapter presents the case that the roots of much of the conflict Pakistan continues to confront have a constitutional connection and are grounded in its constitutional history. Starting with the failure of the first Constituent Assembly to deliver a constitution after seven years of deliberations, the chapter proceeds to look at the three constitutions that followed in terms of their ongoing ambivalence towards Islam as the marker of Pakistani identity and statehood, their inability to deliver a working relationship between the centre and the provinces, and their lack of mechanisms to check executive overreach and keep the military out of politics. Pakistan serves as an object illustration of the importance of constitutional design and constitutional politics.

2020-12-19, Brasted, Howard, Mostofa, Shafi

A decided turn towards authoritarianism, to offset popular dissent, is arguably becoming a defining feature of politics in Asia, the Middle East, and South America, and indeed in the democratic West, as well.

2012, Ahmed, Zahid, Zafarullah, Habib, von Strokirch, Karin, Khan, Adeel, Brasted, Howard

This thesis aimed at evaluating the progress of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), since its establishment in 1985. This study is significant because it has gone beyond the limited appraisal of SAARC in any particular area, such as economic integration, to present a detailed appraisal of cooperation under the overarching themes of economic cooperation, environmental security, human welfare, and cooperation in security matters (e.g. anti-terrorism). A detailed case study was pertinent for the purpose of presenting a critique of the Association's functionalist approach to regionalism vis-à-vis a basic assumption that cooperation in noncontroversial areas would pave the way for meaningful cooperation in sensitive areas, such as terrorism, and ultimately lead to regional security. As there is a plethora of literature available on SAARC, a new approach examining regionalism in South Asia was imperative. Apart from the reviewing of conceptual and empirical literature, and content analysis of official documents, this thesis is based on viewpoints from within SAARC extracted through interviews with officials and direct interactions with them while on an internship at the Secretariat. The external insights on the organisation were also collected through interviews of academics, researchers and journalists.

2005, Brasted, Howard Vining

I was very tempted, when I received an invitation fresh off the press last month to attend my own inaugural lecture, to make inaugural lectures my theme tonight particularly in terms of the ground they covered and the perspectives they gave of the scholarly evolution of The University of New England. This temptation was made stronger by the fact that this is the 50th Anniversary of the Inaugural Lecture series. It was a temptation I eventually resisted because the archive of inaugural lectures was dauntingly vast and varied, and has been touched on anyway in Matthew Jordan's recently completed 'A spirit of true learning'.

2020, Brasted, Howard, Ahmed, Imran, Mostofa, Shafi Md

The point of departure in this chapter is Niall Ferguson's 2006 claim that 'as works of prophecy go' S.P. Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' thesis has been 'a real winner.' This claim is examined in the light both of the persistent scholarly verdict that the thesis is deeply flawed, and its continued public and academic usage since it first appeared in 1993 as an article in Foreign Affairs. Given that the thesis is deemed to misrepresent, rather than capture, the tensions existing between Islam and the West now and into the future, why has it persisted as long as it has?

The burden of Huntington's thesis is that future wars will be conducted by entire civilizations - though principally Islam and the West - and be driven largely by cultural differences at the fault-lines of contact between them. Huntington had proposed this as a model of international relations to replace the old Cold War paradigm that had ended with the break-up of the Soviet Union and the demise of Communism. His aim was to construct an equally simple model of global politics that could predict and explain the kind of conflict that would come to dominate international relations.

While Huntington's 'clash of civilizations' was denied paradigmatic status, this chapter considers aspects of his futurological model that he may have got right or partially right. This includes the key concepts of 'culture' and 'civilization', which he is credited with introducing to the study of international relations, and the 'helpfulness' of his thesis in accounting for the rise of populist far-right parties, particularly in Europe, and their growing electoral success. The early warning that Huntington provided of civilizational alienation between Muslims and Hindus on the subcontinent and the BJP's agenda of turning India into a Hindu state is also looked at in the context of a regional case study of a civilizational 'clash' ostensibly well underway.

That Huntington's thesis may also have derived a degree of reinforcement from the phenomenon of Islamist radicalization on the one hand, and the rise of Islamophobia on the other, is also explored. Reinforcement also comes in the form of Islamist narratives that conjure up an apocalyptic confrontation between Islam and the West, narratives that are constructed independently of Huntington's, but in terms of doomsday scenarios run parallel with his.

The chapter ends by reflecting on the place where the 'clash of civilizations' has arrived, and currently occupies in the study of international relations.