Minamiajiakenkyu
Online ISSN : 2185-2146
Print ISSN : 0915-5643
ISSN-L : 0915-5643
Volume 2017, Issue 29
Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies
Displaying 1-26 of 26 articles from this issue
  • A Study of Waste Management
    Sanae ITO
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 6-32
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This study aims to reveal the changes in waste management practices in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. I focus on spaces marked for waste disposal. In the past, human bodily waste implied a boundary between the “inside” and the “outside” in the Kathmandu Valley. These waste only to a place that is labelled as “outside”. It is the responsibility of women to keep the “inside” of the house clean and pure. The “inside” here does not simply describe a hygienic space where cleanliness practiced. This type of housekeeping is a part of the rituals of auspiciousness. After the1990s, governments and international donor agencies established many women's groups in Nepal. These women's organizations broadened Nepalese women's world and networks which had been confined to the “inside” of the house and the kinship ties. The quantities and types of waste have changed in the same period. Recently, women established a waste management organization. Women use the word “Hāmro” when they are talking about the waste management organization. “Hāmro” means “our.” The “Hāmro” space, where women desire to stay clean, does not coincide with the spaces in traditional villages and public places under government control. “Hāmro” space is more open than in traditional villages but more of a closed space for women than modern public places.
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  • Surat City and the Port of Swally
    Shinsaku KATO
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 33-60
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The focus of this article is the port of Swally, which functioned as a harbour of Surat from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Furthermore, the article examines how facilities were constructed and institutions were established there after the port began to be utilised. It is also argued that this port came to form part of Surat.
    The governor of Surat introduced the port of Swally to the English East India Company for them to anchor their vessels, and thus, they first began to use this port. Swally soon became the port of anchorage primarily for vessels of European companies in part because the Mughal court intended to restrict European vessels from entering the Tapti River. Europeans constructed warehouses and residences for their sailors at Swally and also equipped there with arms for defence. Commodities were transported by land and water between Surat and Swally. Thus, Swally came to function as a harbour of Surat. Meanwhile, there was trouble concerning the collection of customs during the first half of the seventeenth century. Swally was practically placed under the control of the governor of Surat to resolve this issue. This way, Swally came to form part of Surat.
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  • Masahiko TOGAWA
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 61-91
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This study examines Swami Vivekananda's views on religious diversity and religious nationalism with special reference to his discourses on the relation between Buddhism and Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda stunned the audiences at the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 in Chicago and became known as one of the leading Hindu revivalists in 19th century India as well as the founder of Ramakrishna Mission. Today, in the age of globalization, Vivekananda is recognized again as a patriot who embodied the great spirituality of India for the world. This study analyzes his transitional discourses on Buddhism in relation to Hinduism, divided into the following four periods:(1)Introduction of Hinduism to the West at the Parliament of the World's Religion in 1893 using the rhetoric of affinity between Hinduism and Buddhism;(2)view of an encompassed Buddhism into Hinduism, based on the inclusive ideology of Advaita Vedanta philosophy during his missionary work in America and Europe after the Parliament of the World's Religion;(3)intention and background of using the term ‘Buddhistic degradation' for southern Buddhism, particularly in relation to the modern Buddhist revival movement led by Anagarika Dharmapala, in his lectures after returning to India in 1897;(4)meaning and implications of the phrase ‘A total revolution has occurred in my mind about the relation of Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism' mentioned in his letter to explain ‘the new facts gathered in Bodh-Gaya' in February 1902, five months before his death.
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  • Gandhi's Experiments with Brahmacarya and the Birth of the Satyāgraha Struggle
    EIJIRO HAZAMA
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 92-123
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This article explores the relationship between Gandhi's experiments with brahmacarya and his first satyāgraha struggle in South Africa(1906-1914). Many previous works have interpreted Gandhi's satyāgraha struggle as a mere nonviolent strategy, disregarding the significance of his experiments with brahmacarya behind the struggle. A few recent works, however, have pointed out that there might have been a crucial connection between the two, but by no means did they demonstrate such an interrelation. In this article, I comparatively analyze Gandhi's five Gujarātī texts, namely, Dakṣiṇ Āphrikānā Satyāgrahano Itihās, Ātmakathā, Gāndhījīno Akṣardeh, Hind Svarāj and the Gujarātī columns in Indian Opinion, where Gandhi scrappily wrote about the various causal links between satyāgraha and brahmacarya. In so doing, I first show that Gandhi abruptly encountered a psycho-spiritual experience that "śakti" arose inside his body while taking the "pledge" (pratijñā, kasam) of the satāygraha struggle in the 1906 mass meeting in Johannesburg. Secondly, by examining Gandhi's "Secret Chapter" ("Guhya Prakaraṇ ") on brahmacarya published in 1913, I reveal how the proto-yogic practice of semen-retention (vīryasaṇgrah) was intimately related to his prior psycho-spiritual experience, which he had undergone while taking the "pledge." Although Gandhi became wary of an increase of his "sexual desire" (viṣaynī icchā, kām), the practice of semen-retention was still reckoned by Gandhi to be the most important part of his experiments with brahmacarya; it was believed to provide a fundamental psycho-physical strength for the satyāgraha struggle.
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  • Education for the Governance of British India
    Ai KURAHASHI
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 124-143
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley (1760-1842), established Fort William College (FWC) in Calcutta in 1800. The purpose of this college was to educate the junior officers of the East India Company who were to be assigned to administrative posts in India. Several subjects were taught at FWC, including law, natural science and Indian languages. Because of opposition from the East India Company Court of Directors, FWC was scaled down within the first five years. Hence, it could not successfully educate these junior officers, although this was necessary. However, it succeeded in producing several competent individuals given the education it provided in Indian languages. In this thesis, I examine the subjects that were taught at FWC. They were Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindustani, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Modern Languages, Greek, Latin, Hindu law, the laws and regulations of the British Government in India, and Experimental Philosophy. After FWC began to scale down only Indian languages were taught. Among these languages, some were considered important, while others were not. As Persian was adopted as the official language of the East India Company and Hindustani was widely used by the native people in India, these two languages were emphasised. Bengali was not considered necessary, but teachers at FWC had to give this language importance because it was popular among the students. Arabic and Sanskrit were not considered important, but they were also taught because Arabic was necessary to study the Persian language and Islamic law while Sanskrit assisted in the understanding of traditional Indian concepts.
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  • An Analysis on the “Local Porters”
    Fukachi Furukawa
    2017 Volume 2017 Issue 29 Pages 144-177
    Published: December 31, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this paper is to consider what it is like to carry loads in the Himalayan range. Focusing on the Khumbu region ‒ located at the southern foothill of the Mt. Everest, northern part of Solukhumbu, Nepal, and well known as a famous tourism place for trekking/climbing ‒ this paper aims to discuss 1) how the labor of carrying loads came to be stratified as the result of the development of mountain tourism in Khumbu, 2) how the so called “Local Porters” ‒ porters who flew into the Khumbu region from the lower areas, and carry loads for the local shops for wages calculated per kg ‒ work, and 3) how these “Local Porters” seek for opportunities to work as “Trekking Porters” ‒ whose working conditions are regarded relatively better than that of the “Local Porters” ‒ as a means for social ascension. After considering these three topics, it will show how the porters working on the touristic areas of the Everest region are ‒ through the pains (dukha) of carrying loads ‒ trying to reach the place of development (bikās).
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