As far back as the Stone Age, humankind has been inquisitive about its environment. Over a period people identified themselves with the land they occupied. With bounded lands they encountered elements created by nature and sooner or later, filled the area with elements they themselves created out of elements that existed independent of them. Geography as a formal discipline and an informal engagement, had, as its principal concern, the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of an identified and identifiable land area. Geography is always interested in evolving methods of exploring the land and creating an image of it.

These images, created through protracted encounters with the land and of real and perceived configurations, may be designated the personality of the region. Thus, the personality of a specific region can be conceptualized – firstly, through the perceptions of the inhabitants and their mode of living that has evolved to weave through the myriad moods of seasons and ecological subtleties such that the habitat can no longer be understood apart from the habits of the inhabitants, and secondly, through the interaction and synthesis in the minds of geographers, historians and archaeologists.

A Brief Overview of the Origins of Personality Studies of Regions

A survey of the extant literature on the theme clearly reveals two varieties of contributions. The first variety of research comprises a small section that is explicit in the use of the term ‘personality’ in their titles.

Comparative Literature today seems a rather open space within the academy for different perspectives to meet, marry and/or part ways, with or without consequence. This openness has at once nourished and plagued this (inter)disciplinary site for a long time now. We have heard enough about the many crises, deaths and rebirths the discipline has gone through in the past two centuries. Even as the rare intertextual/ interdisciplinary space offered by Comparative Literature seems the singular academic site of any consequence and true promise as far as Literary Studies are concerned, it indeed becomes a difficult task for the comparatist to define the limits of this enterprise in our world of complex culturality. This section presents experts from three different academic milieus – Indian, European and American – reflecting on the history, methodology, scope and future of Comparative Literature in their respective contexts. Despite Rabindranath Tagore's early evocation of the possibility of conceptualizing a Viswa Sahitya and the establishment of a full-fledged department as early as 1954 at Jadavpur University, Comparative Literature in India is still a rather underdeveloped disciplinary site that has largely been dependent for its inspiration on the shifting European concerns, and has more recently been looking towards the American debates on World Literature and Multiculturalism for its sustenance. The uncertainty of Indian comparatists regarding methodology owes mainly to the multilingual, multi-cultural complex that Indian literature is. For this reason, Ipshita Chanda's seminal proposal of a workable methodology for this academic practice is sure to prove a guide for comparatists – teachers and students alike – in the country.

Introduction

Copular constructions generally refer to clause structures where the subject is linked with nonverbal predicates like nominal, adjectival and locative. The purpose of such construction is to express notions like equation, attribution, location, existence and possession (Dryer 1985, Payne 1997). Traditional grammar defines the element that links the subject and the predicate in copular constructions as copula. Following Payne (1997: 111–121), the function of copula can be mainly divided into three: equative, attributive and locative.

Copula can be defined as a term used in grammatical description to refer to a linking verb ….whose main function is to relate other elements of the clause structure especially subject and complement. (Crystal 1980:93)

Masica (1991: 337) states: in Indo Aryan languages, “the function of copula is to identify, define and locate” the Subject NP. Copula in Indo Aryan languages can be overt and covert. It occurs in the final position in the clause structure like other lexical verbs. According to Masica (1991), verbs of this type perform two functions that of copular and existential. Normally copulas can be deleted whereas existential verbs cannot be deleted. Masica (1991: 337-338) further observes that existential verb can be covert in Assamese and Bangla.

Sadri, which is claimed to be an Indo Aryan language (Grierson 1903), also has different copular elements with similar functions, that of equative, attributive and locative. The copula in the present tense can be either obvert or covert. The construction where the copular element remains covert is considered as no copular construction.

New Delhi has long viewed South Asia as India's exclusive sphere of influence and has sought to prevent the intervention of external powers in the affairs of the region. The notion of a Monroe Doctrine similar to the one proclaimed for the Western Hemisphere by the United States (US) in the nineteenth century was explored by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. Henceforth, the security of its neighbouring states was considered to be intricately linked with India's own security. With India's rise in the global interstate hierarchy in recent years, tensions have emerged between India's purported role on the world stage and demands of the challenges it faces in its own neighbourhood. South Asia is a difficult neighbourhood and India's strategic periphery continues to witness continuous turmoil and uncertainty. The instability in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar is a major inhibiting factor for India to realise its dream of becoming a major global player. India's attempts to emerge as a global economic power is marred by the uncertainty in the region and this has even stalled India's attempts at building inter-dependencies and enhancing connectivity. India is surrounded by several weak states that view New Delhi's hegemonic status in the region with suspicion. The conundrum India faces is that – while it is seen as unresponsive to the concerns of its neighbours – any diplomatic aggressiveness on its part is also viewed with suspicion and oft en resentment.

Introduction

Usoi is a southern variety of Tripura/Kokborok, a member of the Boro-Garo branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family. It is spoken in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (henceforth CHT), Bangladesh, and in the neighboring Indian states of Tripura and Mizoram as well as in the Rakhine state of Burma. The population of Usoi speaking people in CHT is estimated to be ca. 20,000 (Kim et al. 2007: 9). In India, Usoi is a scheduled tribe and the corresponding population is 1,295 (1981 Census). The population figure is not available for Burma.

Usoi is divided into two major dialects that correspond to two major rivers in CHT: Karnaphuli and Sangu. Although there do exist differences between these two dialects, they are not so divergent that they are mutually unintelligible. My consultant of the present study is originally from Roanchari region in the Karnaphuli basin and now lives in Bandarban, the district headquarters in the Sangu basin. Usoi is highly influenced by Marma, a dialect of Arakanese/Burmese and a lingua franca in the Bandarban district of CHT. As a result, there are many Marma loanwords in Usoi.

Usoi is most similar to Reang/Riang, another southern variety of Tripura/Kokborok; however, there is virtually no linguistic data on Reang/Riang except for Riyang (2007), and the exact linguistic relationship between Usoi and Reang/Riang is unclear. While there are several linguistic descriptions of Kokborok (Karapurkar 1972; Pai 1976; Jacquesson 2003; Jacquesson 2008, etc.) including reliable dictionaries (Debbarma 2001; Debbarma 2002), there are hardly any linguistic reports on Usoi, except for Walsh (n.d.; the 1960s), Kim et al. (2007) and Huziwara (2008).

The State of Israel made great efforts to absorb hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants during the 1950s and 1990s. It has prepared for them a physical, economic and social infrastructure in the country and has integrated them into a community that is prospering by the day. Unfortunately, Israel has not done enough for the Arab minorities. The Arabs who live in the sovereign territory of Israel form a large share of the country's population, own much land in regions where they reside and are very much involved in Israel's politics. The Arab minorities who live in ‘a State within a State’, deserve a more serious treatment from the governmental bodies of Israel because of their demographic weight in the total population and their occupancy of large areas along the Israeli border with Judea and Samaria. The scope of the chapter is up to the September 2000 conflict, as it conspicuously marks some of the ramifications of these social geographic elements mentioned above.

Demographic Background

At the end of 1991, the minorities in Israel totalled 1,200,000 – about 17 per cent of the population in Israel. Their share in the total population is similar to that of the Jewish populations that reside in the new development towns. Most of the minorities are concentrated in the Northern District, including Upper and Lower Galilee. In 1991, this district comprised about 48 per cent minorities, a fact which demonstrates that both, minorities and the Jewish peoples in Galilee were demographically almost in complete balance.

Description of Combats

Military combat is defined as a violent planned form of physical interaction between two hostile opponents where one or both adversaries could be organised forces recognised by governmental or other authority. Their objectives are one or more of the following: to control the territory or people, to protect one's own territory or people, to dominate, destroy and incapacitate the opponent (Dupuy, 1987, pp. 66–69). These combats could take any form, shape and length of time. For the novice, the military terms such as action, engagement, battle, campaign and war may all mean the same but a military person will distinguish between these terms.

A tactical engagement between the opponents may last 1–5 days and is carried out by the smallest of units up to divisions and army corps under the command of line officers.

In a battle, the army corps and armies are locked for a few days to weeks and are led by subcommanders. Some of the readers may be familiar with names like the Battle of Plassey, the Battle at Trafalgar, the Battle of Waterloo, the Battle of Jutland or the Battle of Midway.

Campaigns are operations lasting weeks or months for strategic purposes and involve armies, army groups or entire branches of the service such as Napoleon's Russian Campaign, the Peninsular Campaign, and the Burma Campaign etc.

An all out military war is an armed conflict showing great belligerence where the entire armed force (army, navy, air force) are participating in the combat under the direction of the Commanderin-Chief and lasts for days, weeks, months or years.

Advent of the Genus Homo

Archaeological finds of skeletal remains, skulls and pieces, teeth and jaw bones, stones and shaped or crafted tools, carbon dating, geological data, etc. provide information about each stage of human evolution as well as reveal the climatic conditions that prevailed at the time. They yield ample data to help in a reconstruction of the happenings that led to that particular stage of evolution and then their cataclysmic or quiet extinction. Exquisite anatomical details can be worked out with just a few pieces of bone by employing anthropometric techniques. Predicting size, height, stance and gait of the skeleton's owner gives an idea of how the species stood and moved. Experts can even add flesh, sculpt a near life-like face and build a body to go with it all. The size of the skull indicates the size of the brain within; the larger the brain box, the more evolved was the species in terms of its skill development, its ability to acquire and assess information and knowledge from the surroundings, process and use it for survival and so on. The shape, size and formation of teeth, the size of the jaw bone, etc.

Comparative Literature has always concerned itself with special studies on genres and areas, and it has engaged itself in interdisciplinary pursuits in order to understand literature in its different forms and roles. These attempts have expanded its textual universe and have recovered for literary scholars many integral connections among various disciplines, interrelatedness of generic codes, and comparable socio-cultural and political conditions impacting literature in different areas. This section studies the curious interrelationships between literary and performative spaces, the sites of the text and image, the ethos of a text in one language and that of its alter text in another language. It is particularly significant that this section features voices that come from the world of practice beyond the usual round of academics, such as V. Kaladharan's and E. P. Unny's. While Kaladharan analyses the text/performance symbiosis, E. P. Unny, a practising cartoonist, investigates how in our day ‘the new image-embedded text (text-image) is impacting diverse societies outside its parent zone.’ Zeng Qiong analyses the twentieth century literary exchanges between China and India, while Abdullah Hassan Al-Saqqaf offers a rare Arab perspective of India as a diasporic site. Chandra Mohan illustrates how literary studies are integrally linked to the Humanities and Social Sciences and suggests that insightful and socially relevant studies exploring this connection may be taken up under the aegis of Comparative Literature in order to redefine the discipline, and for it to negotiate institutional spaces.

The four purānās – Vāyu, Matsya, the later Vishnu and the still later, Bhāgavata, according to Bhandarkar (1985) contain information about several dynasties who ruled at different periods as well as the number of princes belonging to each dynasty and the length of each one's reign. For example, the duration assigned to the Mauryan dynasty founded by Chandragupta is recorded as 137 years.

Western scholars believed that the history of India was chronicled and recorded only after the Mauryan dynasty began and was written by travellers from outside the land.

In the Mauryan dynasty, there were 9–10 princes according to Maxmueller, deriving chronological information from Alexander's time (Bhandarkar, 1985, p. 30). King Asoka (273–232 BC) of the Mauryan dynasty was the greatest of all the ancient emperors. His might and rule extended from Kapurdigir in Yūsafzai country to Dhauli in Cuttack, from Tirhut in the north to the Gujarat peninsula in the west. His concern for his subjects and his warcraft were said to have been phenomenal. However, little remains of the history of his time. There are only rock edicts to go by after he spurned his Hindu religion and violence and entered a life of piety and peace under Buddhist order. Due to this shift to another religion, the Hindus declined to keep any record of his reign in India (Mitra, 1969, pp. 407–426). He was thought to be a renegade from the religion of his ancestors and since Buddhists were also expelled from the country, Asoka's name and fame could not be kept alive.

In the twenty-first century, Kerala now has a very prominent and progressive Muslim community which has moved forward in leaps and bounds. It has shown tremendous progress in the spheres of education, women empowerment, religion, politics, literature and other spheres of development.

Educational Progress

For the educational benefits of the Mappilla society, the Muslim Educational Society (MES) was founded in 1967 by an eminent neurologist from Kodungallur, Dr. Abdul Ghafoor. He studied Medicine in England and was a dedicated teacher at Kozhikode Medical College. In 1974, he renounced his profession for the cause of the social upliftment of the Mappilla community. His son, Dr. P.A. Fazal Ghafoor, also a neurologist, is the present State President of MES.

MES schools were opened all over Malabar, Cochin and Travancore. Colleges have also been founded. The present strength of MES institutions amount to more than one hundred and fifty. The funds for the institutions are derived from the donations made by the different members of the MES Trust and Board of Management. Yusuf Ali, an international industrialist, is a major trustee of the MES group of institutions. The medium of instruction in all the MES institutions is English and their schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.

Arabic is offered as an optional language and Islamic Studies is offered as one of the compulsory subjects for Muslim students. The Hindu students are given the choice of moral science in lieu of Islamic Studies.

General Aspects

The Indian Armed Forces form a vast establishment comprised of a million plus personnel who are posted in units flung far and wide in the country in various commands and bases of the three Services. They are engaged in carrying out routine and critical operational assignments in the field. They are attached to peace units in administrative or training postings on transfers or are being sent for advance or specific training. They sail in ships and submarines for undisclosed periods of time and destinations.

New entrants – both direct recruit officers and officer cadets and the Other Ranks (ORs) are provided with basic military training as well as advanced education and training at various levels. They may be located in or close to urban areas and amenities or posted to regions which are not readily accessible by road, rail, or even air. The weather and climatic conditions and the terrains in some of the regions of military deployments are as formidable to bear as can be imagined. Some units are posted in islands like the Andamans, where there is neither agriculture nor a network of roads to convey goods and therefore everything must come from the main land by sea or air.

The role of space in creating and sustaining gender roles and gender inequalities is a subject that needs further interrogation, particularly within the richly diverse Indian context. Drawn from the author's doctoral work, this paper is an attempt to examine the question of gender inequality in terms of gender disparities in social well-being. The role of space and region in creating and sustaining these inequalities is interrogated through fieldwork in two physically and socio-culturally dissimilar regions. The paper is divided into four sections. Section 1 briefly describes the framework of the analysis. Section 2 describes the social and physical spaces within which this analysis is located. The results of the study are presented in Section 3. Section 4 is the concluding section where an attempt at theorization is made.

Analysing Gender Inequalities in Relation to Space

While it has become fashionable and politically correct to address the question of gender inequality (however fleetingly) in academic discourse as well as in grassroots activism, there is an urgent need to locate it firmly within a valid framework of analysis. To begin with, it is erroneous to address the question of gender inequality in isolation from the social– spatial context that it appears in. Academic discourse cannot produce meaningful explanations if such issues are taken out of the total societal context and addressed in isolation. Secondly, reality differs over space and time. Situations are comparable only where geographical and economic realities are similar.

Introduction

I thank the editors of this volume for the opportunity to contribute this essay to honour Dr Allen G. Noble, a cultural geographer, who retired from the University of Akron, Ohio, as Professor Emeritus after a long and distinguished career. I first met Allen at one of the annual conferences of the Association of American Geographers in the early 1970s. The meeting marked the beginning of an enriching professional relationship that has spanned three decades.

The South Asian region is ‘set apart from the rest of the globe’ (Norton, 1997) for its diversity of peoples, plurality of cultures and distinctive landscapes. The region has been a reservoir of rich cultural heritage from the very dawn of civilization. While many aspects of the geography of the region are well recorded in historical contexts, its cultural geographical phenomena, reflecting the spatial patterns of people, places, and societies have received much less attention from geographers. Statements made in the context of India, the core country of the region, are also equally applicable to the other South Asian regions:

The field of social geography is inherent to the study of societies, their way of life, customs and traditions. The historical dispersal of social geography has undergone change through many different stages due to new scientific development. Explorations of various time periods had great bearing on the exposition of routes, civilizations, and economics of lands and people, which brought the societies to limelight and established contemporary trends. In geography, the contributions of Vidal de la Blache (1845–1918) paved a distinctive role to relate the qualities of environment to societies, and Jean Brunhes (1869–1930) emphasized the assessment of communities by their background and economic resources. The contributions of de la Blache and Brunhes, along with those who followed their lead, initiated a particular study of causative social geography throughout the world. Their studies were actually related to human adjustments to climate, physical bases, transports, economic activities, houses, dwellings and cultivation of environment. Before World War II, the scope and objectives in the study of social geography were confined to physical geographic influences on human societies. As far as the American and the European views on the structure of social geography are concerned, the ideas of Hartshorne and Houston respectively are the most characteristic and parallel in alignment as noted below. Their ideas, in a way, satisfied universal appeal. Thus, this chapter is centred on these parameters with reference to important literature on their subject.