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Political Conflict in Bangladesh; Appendix - G H Peiris

Abstract

Ever since the inception of Bangladesh in 1972 its politics have been featured by
several types of seemingly endemic conflict, some of which have been associated
with either periodic outbursts of violence or prolonged relatively low-key armed
confrontations. The objective of the present study is that of placing the different
conflict situations in proper perspective, and examining their highly ramified
causal connections which include de-stabilising external influences, inter-group
divergences of interests and aspirations within the country, economic stagnation,
and the persistence of poverty.

Preferential Policies and 'Sons-of-the Soil' Demands: 
The Indian Experience - T M Joseph and S N Sangita

Abstract

This article examines the contradictions between India's affirmative action or preference policies on behalf of socially and economically backward peoples and the measures taken by the various state governments to provide special preferences to local people—'the sons-of-the- soil'—as against migrants and other considered as outsiders. Considerable attention is paid to the 'sons-of-the-soil' pressure groups in the State of Karnataka, and the impact of this the policies of the state government there. The tendency of state governments in general to adopt preference policies for local peoples is often challenged in the courts. So far there has been no clear-cut policy in the judiciary's response to these challenges. The rulings of the High Courts and the Supreme Courts have varied from one case to another.

Religion Nationalism in Nineteenth Century Sri Lanka : Christian Missionaries and Their Critics (A Review Article) - K M de Silva

Abstract

This review article examines the resistance to Christian missionary enterprise in nineteenth century Sri Lanka. This resistance which emerged in the 1840s and continued thereafter took two different forms in the Hindu areas of the north of the island, and in the Sinhalese areas. The two movements had little in common except an opposition to the missionaries. The Hindu revivalist movement in the north of the island had links with developments in Southern India, the Madras Residency to be precise. The Buddhist revival had no such external links. While
the Buddhist resistance was never entirely without nationalist overtones, and became the precursor of a nationalist movement, the Hindu revival in the Tamil areas had no such political or nationalist objectives. Of the two books reviewed the one on the Hindu revival shows sounder scholarship than the one of the encounter between the Christian missionaries and the Buddhists.

Book Review:  Social Change in Nineteenth Century Ceylon, 
by Patrick Peebles - U C  Wickremeratne