South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Jaina Goddess Padmāvati In Karnataka, Robert Zydenbos

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Stories about Padmāvati played an important role in the founding of the Ganga Dynasty (ca. 350-1000 C.E.) and the Hoysala Dynasty (ca. 950-1350 C.E.) in what is now the modern state of Karnataka. Although not without its critics, goddess worship has been integral to Jainism as practiced in south India for more than a millennium. This article surveys primary and secondary literature written about Padmāvati and describes worship at the main shrine dedicated to her, located in Hombuja in central Karnataka.

Women’S Voices From History: Gond Rani Durgawati And Rani Lakshmibhai, Nandini Sengupta, Moupia Basu

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Two strong women are compared and contrasted in this article. Gond Rani Durgawati (1524-1564) led a resistance movement in Jabalpur against the Mughal rule of Akbar. Rani Lakshmibai (1828-1858) organized the people of Jhansi against Sir Hugh Rose, an officer defending the interests of the British East India Company. Both women continue to be remembered for their bravery and their loyalty to the people they ruled.

Volume 10: Muslim Cultures Of The Indian Ocean : Diversity And Pluralism, Past And Present, Stephane Pradines, Farouk Topan

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Scholars are increasingly recognising the centrality of the Indian Ocean in the study of Muslim cultures.

This volume explores the expanding and changing roles of these Muslim communities across the Indian Ocean World from the seventh century to the mediaeval period to the present day. The book goes beyond the usual focus on geographical sub-regions to highlight different aspects of interconnectivity in relation to Islam. By analysing textual and material evidence, the fifteen papers in this volume examine identities and diasporas, manuscripts and literature, as well as vernacular and religious architecture. It explores the networks and movements of peoples, ideas …

Philippine Philippine, Or The Tropics In Cixous’S Dreaming True, Christian Jil Benitez, Phrae Chittiphalangsri

Filipino Faculty Publications

Hélène Cixous’s oneiric ideation of the philippine (twin almond)—and by extension, her text Philippines (2009/2011)—primarily evokes love, or that force of attraction between two beings in which one can never say where each begins or ends. It is by the virtue of this entanglement that another philippine can be offered to this discourse: the Philippines that is that archipelago which encloses and opens up a particular location and reality within the tropics. This essay attempts to reconsider Cixous’s philippine via the Philippine, through dwelling on the stroke of homophony between these two signifiers and encountering them as materials in and …

Literature As A Form Of Resistance Against British Colonial Rule In India, Ebada Wasiuddin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis concentrates on literature during India's battle for independence from the British Empire. These publications look at the outcomes of Europe's intent to colonize and its impact on the marginalized, colonial subjects down to the personal level. Delving into the tragic reality of colonialism and investigating its impact as portrayed in the novels selected, this thesis argues that the selected texts operate as resistance literature subverting the colonial discourse in retrieving South Asian culture and history. This project explores specific forms of resistance within the tropes of memory, history, and gender to pose a larger question of decolonial futures …

Rooted In Between, Manavi Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Rooted in Between is a personal project that explores the complexities of belonging and the emotions that come with navigating between spaces that we call home. This written thesis is in support of the carefully curated video based and photographic work presented at an exhibition of the same title. The project's primary objective is to delve into the physical and emotional baggage that we carry with us as we move from one place to another. The project highlights the coping mechanisms adopted by the different generations in my family while struggling to find a place where we truly belong.

Japan For Example – National Character As The Driving Force Of National Progress In Thai Conservative Writings About Japan, David M. Malitz

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Japan has been considered a role-model for the successful pursuit of ‘progress’ or national development in Siam/Thailand since the late 19th century. As this article shows, the Japanese exemplar played a significant role in Siamese/Thai political discourse, with three of the kingdom’s most important conservative thinkers – King Vajiravudh, Luang Wichit Wathakan, and Mom Ratchawong Kukrit Pramoj – writing in detail about Japanese history and interpreting Japanese battlefield and economic successes as the outcome of the national character of the Japanese. In contrast, the role of political institutions and institutional change in shaping human decisions and actions has been largely …

Liberating Thai History : The Thai Past In An Asian Century, Arjun Subrahmanyan

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The nationalist plot of modern Thai history stresses the kingdom’s exceptionalism as the only un-colonized state in Southeast Asia and highlights the steadiness of unbroken monarchy. Critics of the established narrative by contrast argue that Siam/Thailand bore many similarities to neighboring satellites of the Western powers that subordinated traditional authority and hence was a “semi-colony” of the West rather than a truly independent state. This paper argues that the semi-colonial view remains a better frame to study modern Thai history and that semi-coloniality produced a hybrid political culture among an educated new generation born around 1900. The young generation forged …

Prince Wan Waithayakon’S Attempt For Rapprochement With The People’S Republic Of China At The 1955 Asian-African Conference At Bandung, Wiraj Sripong

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

After the end of the Second World War, newly emerging nations were being divided up geopolitically into ideological camps – the so-called “Free World” led by the United States and the ‘Communist Bloc’ under the leadership of the Soviet Union. At the same time, there was rising demands for self-determination by national leaders who did not wish to commit exclusively to either ideological camp, as they perceived this to be a form of neo-imperialism. A leading group within this third way of thinking was the Colombo Group. In the midst of this intense three-way struggle, post-war Thailand under the leadership …

“Anarchy” Against “Order” : French Elite Perception Of The Conflict In Manchuria, Alexandre Barthel

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The fall of the French empire in Asia is directly linked to the Second World War and France’s policy of appeasement that preceded it. The issue of France’s attitude to the invasion of Manchuria is important for understanding what French policy in East Asia was during the 1930s. For these reasons, this article intends to show the attitude of French political leaders and how, unable as they were to condemn the aggressor, Japan, it led to the policy of appeasement pursued by all French governments with regard to Japan during the rest of the decade. To do so, this article …

Revisiting Pan-Asianism In The Decolonization Of The Indo-Pacific : Inspiration, Order, And Democratization, Wasana Wongsurawat

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

No abstract provided.

“Asia For Asians” : Revisiting Pan-Asianism Through The Propaganda Arts Of The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Andre Magpantay

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The slogan “Asia for Asians” has been a central concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and propagated by Japan as it imperialized parts of East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania. Without bias to the resulting historical developments and realities, Pan-Asianism is revisited through the propaganda arts and materials proliferated by the Empire of Japan towards its agenda of a unified Asia. Aided by knowledge of art history and criticism, six specifically chosen propaganda arts are analyzed using theories of image analysis drawing from the works of Guillermo (2001), Bartmański, Alexander, and Giesen (2012), and Ross (2002). …

From Proto-Southwestern Tai To Modern Lanna Tai : Implications From The 16th-Century Phonology, Shinnakrit Tangsiriwattanakul

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This study established the relative chronology of sound changes in the Lanna Tai language from Proto-Southwestern Tai to Modern Lanna Tai dialects. The 16th-Century Lanna Tai phonology, as documented in the Sino-Lanna Tai Manual of Translation, was compared to Proto-Southwestern Tai and Modern Lanna Tai dialects to differentiate pre-16th century and post-16th century changes. Based on this chronology, Lanna Tai can be divided into three stages: Old Lanna Tai featuring the loss of uvulars and changes in consonants; Early Modern Lanna Tai exhibiting tone split, loss of voicing contrast and vowel acquisitions; and Modern Lanna Tai dialects showing changes …

A Corpus-Based Study Of The Reflexive Form Tua-Eng ‘Self’ In Thai, Theeraporn Ratitamkul

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper aims to investigate semantic and syntactic characteristics of the reflexive form tua-eng ‘self’ in Thai and analyze reflexive constructions within the framework of Cognitive Grammar, adopting van Hoek (1995, 1997)’s approach. To observe how the reflexive appears in actual usage, 500 instances of tua-eng were collected from the Thai National Corpus (tnc). The reflexive is examined in relation to its antecedent regarding animacy, structural proximity and grammatical positions. Moreover, frequently encountered reflexive constructions are identified. The study claims that the prototypical reflexive construction in Thai is one in which the antecedent serves as a subject and tua-eng as …

Independence Or Interdependence? : The Thai Self-Construal As Reflected By Linguistic Evidence, Natthaporn Panpothong, Siriporn Phakdeephasook

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Self-construal can influence the ways people in distinct cultures think, perceive and interact with others. To date, scholars still present different arguments on the prominent self-construal of Thais. The present study aims at examining Thai linguistic data including proverbs, sayings, cultural key terms and interactional data in response to the question of whether Thai culture places emphasis on independent or interdependent perspectives of the self. The findings reveal that Thai sayings, proverbs and cultural key terms reflect both independent and interdependent self-construals. Yet, those that stress interdependency outnumber independency. As for interactional practices in daily exchanges, the usage of pronominal …

Burmese Nissaya Literature : A Mainstream Monastic Education Learning Method And Its Salient Features, Ven. Pannabhoga Herngseng

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

In some of the earliest Buddhist literature found in Myanmar, a type of translation in which each Pali word is followed by its relevant annotative interpretation, known as nissaya, can be found. Previous studies (Tin Lwin 1961; Pruitt 1992; McDaniel 2008; Clark 2015) only examined what a nissaya is and to what literary genre nissaya literature belongs. In this paper, I will explore the various ways in which Burmese nissaya literature evolved into a mainstream monastic learning method, its role in the monastic education in Burma in particular, and further investigate whether the nissayas can be applied more generally …

“Dream Boy” And “Hotmale”, Joey Andrew Lucido Santos, Pavadee Saisuwan

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

Gender and sexuality have gradually become the focus of more semiotic landscape research, however, studies relating specifically to sex tourism spaces are limited and with those in the Thai context even more so. Therefore, this paper examines the discursive construction of Phatphong 2, one of the famous destinations for sex tourism in Bangkok among male homosexuals, as queer space. Drawing on code preference and inscription (Scollon and Scollon 2003) and visual social semiotics (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996), we analyze the linguistic and semiotic resources in sexed signs. Findings reveal that Englishization, particularly the terms “boy” and “Bangkok” in shop …

The Kin-Ship, Zheng Moham Wang

Comparative Woman

This is a group of two English poems the author composed separately in 2019 and 2021 about the imaginary scenes of his grandpa and mother from a Iu-Mien family of Southeast Asia and Southwestern China. The group was submitted to the upcoming Kinship volume of the Comparative Woman journal of Louisiana State University.

Military Study Abroad As Thailand’S Foreign Policy Between The 1930s–1940s, Thep Boontanondha

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

The need to modernize the armed forces motivated the Thai government to send a large number of soldiers to Europe to learn military during the absolute monarchy. Sending soldiers to study abroad, on the other hand, had become a part of national diplomacy seeking to balance power between the powerhouse states. After the Revolution of 1932, the new government likewise made an effort to preserve its stability by dismissing many royalist soldiers. As a result, it demanded many sophisticated soldiers, who relied on the new government. Hence, many soldiers had dispatched to observe and study military tactics abroad. On the …

Palace, Prison, Park Or Palimpsest? The Contested Heritage Of The Former Palace Of Chiang Mai, Worrasit Tantinipankul

Manusya, Journal of Humanities

This paper investigates the contestations between state and local actors over the interpretation of a state prison built in the grounds of the Chiang Mai palace, known as Wiang Kaew. Engaging with postcolonial approaches to heritage interpretation, this paper argues that the local movement calling for the removal of the prison in favor of a public park represents an effort to reclaim local Lan Na history and identity from the national past. Using the critical heritage concept of “authorized heritage discourse” (Smith 2006), I show how central Thai authorities—including the Fine Arts Department and the Buddhist Sangha—have privileged nationalist interpretations …