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The paper tries to assess micro-credit’s impact on women’s empowerment in rural Bangladesh. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islam continues to play a major role and exerts a major influence on the majority of the Muslim population. However, a significant number of Muslims believe in the intrinsic worth of modern western developed concepts. The fate of the Muslim world and its future interactions within the political and economical realm depends on this conflict. As we enter a new century, Islamic thoughts and practices are being challenged to acclimatize to modern ideas, methods and principles. However, democracy is not foreign to Islam. All groups whether Islamic or secular that are seeking greater democratization must decide upon the most effective means for achieving their goals. Two important issues relating to religious revival and democracy (political development) for the 21st century are the potential democratic resources of the Islamic tradition and the ability of new Islamic movements to operate effectively to meet the demand for both Islamic authenticity and democratic participation. Religion is a system of beliefs, rituals, and practices, which deal with the sacred, the eternal and the absolute. Religions of course vary in many ways and in many aspects, but they are nearly share many of the same underlying core features. By being sacred and absolute it has made it quite difficult for religions to coexist or tolerate others in the same community. If taken too seriously such boundaries can become bloody. By the same token, by being sacred it makes it difficult for people who take religion too seriously to tolerate another system of ideas that claim similar qualities to it. In other words, there are many facets to religion which one must acknowledge, and that each facet can be strengthened in time of need or down played when necessary among the various groups. Islam also has many varying aspects to it as well, and that groups might emphasize or believe in one tangent more than another. However, through my research I have come up with major core principles of Islam. They are: Tawhid, the Five Pillars of Islam, Ummah, Shariah, Ijma, Ijtihad / Qiyas, and Shura. I will use Pakistan and Bangladesh as case studies to explain my dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable being that of a successful democracy, and the two independent variables that I will use are that of religion (Islam) and divided society. After examining each of the regimes in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the question becomes, why did democracy survive in Bangladesh despite its military regimes but not in Pakistan? But also, what role did Islam play in the democratization process in order for the system to succeed or to fail? Ultimately, I will show that there develops a third critical independent variable which is that of Islam and divided society. There has been research done on divided society and the impact it has on democracy. However, the gap in literature I will address is the interaction or the intersection of divided societies and democracy with that of Islam and democracy. In other words, I will examine if divided society has an impact on religion, which also then has an impact on democracy. This becomes a crucial question as in both of my case studies Islam, being the independent variable, stays constant, and in Bangladesh, democracy has survived. This only shows that Islam is not the issue on why democracies fail (but rather shows that democracy and Islam are compatible) to survive in Islamic societies, but it must be another variable in the equation. Thus, the variable I will examine as mentioned above is that of divided societies and Islam and the impact they have on democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the proclivity towards refugee-related violence in India, Pakistan,.x000d.and Bangladesh, using an original dataset. I show that the host's attitude towards.x000d.refugees depend on local factors such as how long refugees are expected to stay, the.x000d.rate of inflow, its control of camps, as well as on international factors such as alliances.x000d.with the sending country and the presence of international organizations. If the host.x000d.is aggressive, refugees will retaliate, depending on whether the camps are militarized.x000d.whereby refugees will have access to weapons and arms. Camp militarization, in turn,.x000d.depends on factors such as rebel infiltration and the location of camps. Furthermore,.x000d.the paper finds that alliances between host and sending countries have a pacifying.x000d.effect. On the hand, while international organizations are able to shape host behavior.x000d.to a certain extent, they are unable to prevent camp militarization. Such findings have.x000d.policy implications for hosts, sending states and international organizations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no dearth of literature on various aspects of micro-credit programs in Bangladesh. But a few studies have focused on micro-credit’s impact on women’s empowerment. Most of the studies (Rahman, 1986; Shehabuddin, 1992; Mizan, 1994, Pit and Khandker 1996, Hashemi et. al., 1996, Kabeer, 1998, 2001; Amin et. al., 1998) conclude that women’s participation in micro-credit programs has positive results on women’s empowerment. However, some other evaluations (Goetz and Gupta, 1996, 2001; Montgomery et al., 1996; Rahman, 1999) provide a completely opposite view and conclude that participation leads to greater subordination of women and makes them more vulnerable in an unequal rural society. The purpose of this paper is to review those evaluations and try to assess why they reach contrasting conclusions about the same type of programs. The paper is based on secondary source materials and based on research by other authors who collected data directly from the field. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangladesh, a country in South Asia and formerly a part of Pakistan, witnessed a rapid transformation from a secular democracy into a Muslim majoritarian identity soon after its birth. In the process a host of Islamic militant groups emerged posing threat to liberal thought and ideology, social peace and harmony, political stability, a sustainable democracy and, finally, development. The present paper is an attempt to examine the process of desecularisation and consequent rise of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh. To what extent the need for civilisation of military regimes, use of Islam in politics and as an important element in the construction of a new ideology for the state, internationalisation of political Islam, poor governance, poverty, politics of alliance building among the power contending parties accounted for this will be explored in the paper. The study will throw light on ideology, nature of leadership, bases of support, recruitment, sources of fund, external linkages if any of such organisations together with their future potential as a destabilising power in the country and the region. Finally, the paper will make some recommendations for consideration of stakeholders. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students actively involved in achieving independence in many coutries. Gradually such involvement extended over time, thereby destabilizing politics and causing serous disruption in education which hindered national development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have the political systems of Pakistan (West Pakistan) and Bangladesh (East Pakistan) evolved differently since 1971, despite similar institutional legacies, economic development, and colonial history? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At independence from British colonial rule in 1947, Pakistan comprised of two wings: East and West Pakistan, separated by a thousand miles of Indian territory. By 1971, its eastern wing was no more, replaced instead by the independent state of Bangladesh after a brutal civil war between Bengali nationalists and the Pakistani military. While geographical separation clearly hindered the process of national integration between the two wings, so did linguistic, cultural and social structural differences. Given these differences, could Bengali nationalism have been contained and accommodated within a united Pakistan? Inter-wing disparities in Pakistan, I argue, had their roots in British colonial rule in the Indian sub-continent. "Hegemonic" policies of the British colonial administration, which worked to the detriment of the Bengalis and in favor of Punjabis, led to the emergence of a “counter-hegemonic” Bengali ethno-nationalism. The patterns of Punjabi and Mohajir (migrant) domination set in place under colonial rule were carried over into Pakistan and were continued and reinforced after 1947. This created the environment and incentives conducive to the rise and subsequent radicalization of Bengali nationalism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intended and unintended effects of the governance system for attaining marginalized women’s capabilities over the use of supplied water. The findings suggest that they are very limited in their capabilities to access water. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secular Urban Civil Society (UCS) in Bangladesh, with its intellectual quality, organizational ability and experience of social activism and movements, are the viable social force that can respond effectively to the crises of secularism. However, it needs to overcome the shortcomings while defining secularism and the way(s) to materialize it. In order to bring back secularism at the state level, the UCS also needs to rethink about the present strategy of providing unconditional support to the main liberal party. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the construction of a shared enclave identity of the people in the enclaves between India and bangladesh and what impact if any, does it have on the dilemmas of their citizenship? How can one possibly find a way out of this situation? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why have the political systems of Pakistan (West Pakistan) and Bangladesh (East Pakistan) evolved differently since 1971, despite similar institutional legacies, economic development, and colonial history? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]