Browsing by Subject "Bangladesh"
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Item Architectural History of the Bangladesh Region as Background of Louis Kahn's Dacca Project(0000-00-00) Ali, Meer MobashsherAudio files are EID restricted. Individuals without an EID should send an email request to apl-aaa@lib.utexas.edu.Item Bangladesh’s forest NGOscape : visions of Mandi indigeneity, competing eco-imaginaries, and faltering entrepreneurs in the climate of suspicion(2013-05) Dodson, Alex Ray; Ali, Kamran Asdar, 1961-The assemblage of competing development programs I call an "NGOscape", effective in Bangladesh's forest spaces, is a window into understanding both local and extra-local imaginings of the future of these spaces. By tracing the close interaction of three of the most prominent forces in operation in Bangladesh's forest NGOscapes: indigeneity, environmentalism, and entrepreneurialism, I discuss how the government and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) work to increase management and securitization of these forces. Through ethnography and close analysis of the minority Mandi community, and NGOs in the capital city of Dhaka and in rural Modhupur, Tangail, I interpret Modhupur as a vital and telling site for examining the close interdependence of these three themes. Adivasi ("aboriginal") folklorization and representation is deployed by Mandi leaders and NGOs, and provides a space for Mandi internal debates about authenticity, representation, modernity, and the way forward. Neoliberal imaginings centered on transforming Mandi livelihoods into something more appropriately modern are realized on the ground, evidenced by Alternative Income Generation (AIG) programs that push for market integration, and attempt to utilize claims about adivasi indigeneity to advance a security-management paradigm, national stability, and civic responsibility. Young activists and environmentalists based in Dhaka are crucial forces in promoting the broader development and NGO agenda, utilizing the themes of environmental responsibility and progressive conservation programs. Additionally, development agendas are complicated by other factors, such as eco-tourism trends that seek to indoctrinate the Mandi and other rural actors into acceptable and responsible ways of managing environment, while also relying on national pride. These competing forces rely on national pride and social shaming to transform rural Bangladeshis from being somehow "backward" into more desirable, modern subjects. Yet severe distrust within a larger "climate of suspicion," between adivasi leaders, activists, and the state ultimately disrupt the fluidity of development practices at the local level. The result places various actors in precarious positions, left to interpret and be interpreted into development, NGO, and state-based objectives.Item Deliberate uncertainty : the South Asian Crisis of 1971, the Nixon White House, and the U.S. State Department(2012-08) Bunch, Patrick Dean; Minault, Gail, 1939-; Suri, JeremiThis thesis focuses on the events surrounding the South Asia Crisis of 1971, beginning in when the Pakistani government launched its military crack-down in East Pakistan in the spring and extending to the conclusion of the Indo-Pak War by the year's end. It examines how President Nixon's administration and the US State Department viewed the events in South Asia, what they saw as being the appropriate response, and the differences in what they thought the US should do in response to what was happening on the other side of the globe. The analysis will reveal that the President and his primary foreign policy advisor, Dr. Kissinger, deliberately misled and misinformed the US State Department and its Ambassadors abroad in Pakistan and India in an effort to keep secret from them and the American public, the President's desire to support Pakistan and to blame India as the source of the conflict. The resulting confusion and misunderstanding by the diplomatic community raised tensions in the region, lengthened the conflict, and weakened America's credibility in the sub-continent.Item Geography of Bangladesh by Haroun Er Rashid(The Journal of Asian Studies, 1980) Bhatt, Bharat L.Item Mehraz Rahman Interview(2019-04) Institute for Diversity & Civic LifeThis interview is with Mehraz Rahman, an outgoing senior at The University of Texas at Austin, serving as Vice President of the student body in her final year. Mehraz discusses navigating her identity as part of a small Bangladeshi community in Austin, a tumultuous election cycle that caused many to question her authenticity, and her personal experiences with assertiveness in male-dominated spaces. As Vice President, Mehraz successfully advocated for the installation of more reflection spaces for students needing a quiet and clean place to pray.Item Narratives of belonging : Aligarh Muslim University and the partitioning of South Asia(2012-05) Abbas, Amber Heather; Minault, Gail, 1939-The partition of India that accompanied that nation's independence in 1947 created the additional state of Pakistan; by 1971, this Pakistan had fractured into the two independent states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. This dissertation seeks to expand our temporal and spatial understanding of the sub-continent's partitioning by examining the experiences of a group of South Asian Muslims across time and space. As this dissertation will show, South Asia's partitioning includes more than the official history of boundary creation and division of assets, and more than the people's history of unbridled violence. I have oriented my investigation around a single institution, the Aligarh Muslim University, and spoken to former students of the 1940s and 1950s, whose young lives were shaped by the independence and partition of India. The memories of these former students of Aligarh University offer a lens for examining the "multiple realities" of partition and the decolonized experiences of South Asian Muslims. The educational institution at Aligarh, founded in 1875, had long been concerned with cultivating a sporting, activist, masculine identity among its students; Muslim League leaders further empowered that identity as they recruited students for election work in support of Pakistan. The students embraced the values of the demand for Pakistan that appeared to be consistent with the values engendered at Aligarh. This dissertation uncovers the history of these students throughout the 1947 partition and beyond. It explores unexpected histories of trauma among communities who "chose to stay" but later experienced a powerful discontinuity in independent India. It exposes contradictions evident in remembered histories from Pakistanis who express triumph and grief at the prospect of Pakistani independence. Finally, this dissertation assesses the position of Muslims after partition and how the "disturbances" that began in the late 1940s continue to affect them today in both lived and remembered experience. As a site for examining the "disturbances" of partition, Aligarh University proves to be a hub of a community that was and remains deeply disturbed by the changes partition wrought.Item Natural Gas in Bangladesh and the U.S.(2012) Ullah, Zachary; Webber, Michael; Hans, MarkBangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world and currently only provides power to about one fifth of its population. The democratic government in the country is only a couple decades old and regulations are extremely hard to enforce on a swelling urban population in cities like Dhaka, its capital. Even with all of these forces working against it, Bangladesh has managed to make a prolific shift in its policy and attitude towards the environment that is a culmination of its long history. The United States of America has had a very different path to its current incarnation. The U.S. led the world in the democratic process and innovation for many years, but now finds itself paralyzed on many national issues by internal politics. The use of natural gas within the country has been central in the monumental changes that have occurred in Bangladesh and the future of the U.S. This thesis examines the path that Bangladesh has taken to reach the present day and uses that journey as a learning tool to assess the current U.S. situation regarding the future of natural gas in transportation.Item Neither Here Nor There(2019-05-01) Rahman, Mehraz; Valentine, MatthewNeither Here Nor There is a collection of three short stories that depict Bangladeshi women living in the United States. This work examines the South Asian diaspora through the lenses of Bangladeshi women, both immigrants and first-generation individuals, through several major themes. For example, some of the stories examine how various social issues—such as the lack of mental health awareness, the stigma surrounding interpersonal violence, women’s rights issues, and toxic masculinity—impact Bangladeshis who are living in the West. Some of the stories demonstrate intergenerational differences between members of Bangladeshi families and illustrate how first- generation children of immigrants can often be made to feel as though they belong in neither the culture of the parents nor that in which they grew up. This work exhibits the perceptions of Bangladeshi people from both other South Asians and Westerners. The disparities between the lifestyles of Bangladeshi American people and native Bangladeshi people is also explored.Item Perspectives on climate finance and resilience : the critical case of Bangladesh(2017-08) Krishnan, Nisha; Weaver, Catherine, 1971-; Busby, Joshua W.; Lentz, Erin C; Cons, JasonExplicit goals of reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience permeate international and national policy agendas. Additionally, the international community and national actors have pledged and invested considerable financial resources to addressing climate-related challenges. This dissertation addresses three inter-related critical, but unanswered questions, on international and national climate-related activities. I use Bangladesh, often cited as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries, as a case study. The first paper focuses on the country’s first-of-its-kind domestically financed trust fund’s design and approach and its effects on its procedures and outcomes over 2010 - 2017. I use a multi-method qualitative approach, including document content analysis and interviews with government, donors, and observers to argue that its design did not adequately account for Bangladesh’s current institutional architecture and power distribution, available capacity, and policy coordination practices, fating it to undesirable outcomes. The second paper studies this Trust Fund and other international funds’ sub-national allocation practices, questioning whether these resources reach those in greatest need, a tenet of climate justice debates. I explore several plausible determinants, namely need, political motivations, and donor familiarity. I use newly collected data from the Trust Fund, a Resilience Fund, and five donors’ contributions and use geographic information systems (GIS) to spatially overlay these data on climate-related vulnerability assessments, poverty incidence, and previous donor activity locations to assess correlations. I interviewed 45 representatives from government, donor, and non-governmental organizations to understand patterns. I find that climate-fund allocation does not match demonstrated need as climate justice debates advocate, instead revealing for political expediency and donors’ previous operations as determinants. The last paper asks how resilience, a nebulous concept, is operationalized in Bangladesh. The concept’s uncritical use in policy documents has forced frontline actors to operationalize it. I analyze publicly available strategies and interview 43 representatives from 22 organizations, finding that, while a useful framing concept, resilience often is an elusive and distracting goal that diverts organizational resources from other activities. To be useful, resilience should be integrated more seamlessly into existing agendas. This dissertation highlights international and national climate policy and practice and furthers critical discussions on its progress.Item Rais Bhuiyan Interview(2022-12-12) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious StudiesThis interview is with Rais Bhuiyan, the founder of World Without Hate, who currently lives in Seattle, WA. Rais describes his youth in Bangladesh and his first career in the Bangladeshi military before coming to the US for school. He describes his experience of 9/11, after which he was the victim of Islamophobic gun violence, and then experienced food insecurity and medical debt due to his lack of medical insurance. He shares about his decision to try to save his attacker from death row with the help of Amnesty International and fellow humanitarians. Rais also talks about World Without Hate and its current projects. Content Warning: The following interview contains sensitive material. Please note that the interview includes description of graphic violence and hate crimes. These subjects will be discussed at 21:17 - 26:27 (in the transcript p. 5).Item SAGAR: South Asia Graduate Research Journal, Volume 10(2003) University of Texas at Austin; Brueck, Laura; Harris, Gardner; Rudisill, Kristen; Stromquist, MatthewItem The forensics of recognition : hijra gender authentication in Bangladesh(2018-05-04) Ng, Daniel Kevin; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-In many parts of South Asia hijras designate a group of male-bodied feminine-identified people whom are traditionally believed to have the spiritual power to confer fertility onto newlywed couples and newborn infants. In November of 2013, the Government of Bangladesh announced a policy decision to officially recognize the hijra community as a third gender. It was followed soon thereafter by an expansion in government-sponsored social welfare programming targeting the hijra community. Arguably the most notable among these official efforts to mainstream and “rehabilitate” the hijra community came in the spring of 2015 when the Ministry of Social Welfare announced that it would be offering low-ranking government positions to fourteen hijras. However, of the hijras originally appointed to these positions, twelve were disqualified after an official forensic medical test deemed them to be “fully male” (i.e. their male genitalia were found intact), despite resounding claims of their legitimacy and authenticity within the hijra community. Upon hearing the results of these tests, the ministry immediately terminated the appointments of all the candidates on the basis that they were “in fact” a group of men who had come impersonating hijras to acquire government employment. The shock and indignation of the hijra community occasioned by these events raises critical questions about what it means to be hijra in Bangladesh today. In this paper, I argue that the forensics of recognition offers a productive way to think through and make sense of these complicated dynamics of hijra recognition in postcolonial Bangladesh. By forensics of recognition I refer to not only the fact that a state-run forensics department was enlisted in the aid of an official attempt to verify the authentic gender identity of a group of hijras. I also mean to highlight the various affects, interests, actors, and technologies that both mobilize and get mobilized as a result of processes of recognition and that take as their central concern the discovery of truth, the detection and analysis of material traces, and the production and presentation of evidence in public fora.Item Water Resource Challenges in the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Basin, PRP 101(LBJ School of Public Affairs, 1993) Eaton, David J.; Chaturvedi, Mahesh C.Item What influences within-household differences in adult nutritional status? : findings from panel data in Bangladesh(2018-05) Ismail, Ghida Alaa; Lentz, Erin C.; Coffey, DianeIn Bangladesh, rates of child undernutrition are improving, although still high. However, we know less about undernutrition in adults. The aim of the study is to understand adult members of the household’s nutritional status and intra-household heterogeneity, which can shed light on the efficiency of policies and programs that equate the well-being of the individual to the average well-being of the household. Using the six-year panel Village Dynamics in South Asia (VDSA) data from 2009 to 2014, I examine the relationship between adults’, aged between 20 and 60 years, nutritional status, as measured by the body mass index (BMI), and various demographic, livelihood and gender parity factors. I also attempt to identify any yearly changes in nutritional outcomes in the households from 2011 to 2014, and factors that might have induced these changes. Furthermore, I investigate intra-household heterogeneity and inequalities among individuals in the household and attempt to understand the drivers of intra-household inequality across time in nutritional status by using the ratio of women’s BMI to men heads’ BMI as outcome of analysis. I find that there exists intra-household heterogeneity that follows an age trend and depend on each member’s position in the family and bargaining power. Moreover, contrary to what is argued in previous literature, women do not face greater risk of undernourishment than men. Therefore, research on intra-household inequalities should look beyond gender factors. I also find that very few factors have been successful in changing members’ nutritional status across years as well as moving individuals out of undernourishment and reducing intra-household nutritional disparities. Furthermore, while certain empowerment and bargaining factors might positively impact some members in the household, they can also fail in contributing to the nutritional status of other members and in reducing intra-household disparities. Therefore, programs should be designed with care and be specifically targeted to reduce disparities considering intra-household dynamics.