Spreading Hindutva through education: Still a priority for the BJP?

This article explores how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pursued its ideology of Hindu nationalism through educational reforms. It pays most attention to the reforms undertaken by the first BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, from 1998–2004. A key argument is that these reforms mirrored BJP’s ideology. The reforms were legitimized with reference to certain challenges facing contemporary Indian society, particularly the threats represented by value degradation and a weakening of indigenous traditions. I view such arguments in terms of sublimating all challenges to the cultural realm. Moreover, these reforms aimed to establish an education system based on a coherent, integrative framework, concurring with the ideological outlook of the BJP. In the final part of the article, I examine the current NDA regime and seek to explain why similar reforms do not appear to be high on Prime Minister Modi’s agenda. By doing so, the article sheds light on the question of Modi’s commitment to Hindu nationalist ideology. A major argument is that to Modi, Hindutva-inspired reforms of the education system collide with the promises made during his electoral campaign and with key elements of the political programs he has initiated so far.     

Space,discourse and environmental peacebuilding

The concept of environmental peacebuilding is becoming increasingly prominent among peacebuilding scholars and practitioners. This study provides a brief overview about the various discussions contributing to our understanding of environmental peacebuilding and concludes that questions of space have hardly been explicitly considered in these debates. Drawing on discourse-analytic spatial theory, I discuss how the social construction of scale, place and boundaries are relevant for environmental peacebuilding processes and outcomes. This theoretical approach is then applied to the Good Water Neighbours project, which aims at improving the regional water situation and at building peace between Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians. The results suggest that discursive constructions of space are important in facilitating, impeding or shaping environmental peacebuilding practices. Analyses of environmental peacebuilding, but also of peacebuilding more general, are therefore encouraged to draw more strongly on the findings of spatial theory.     

Mouth Width and Cupid’s Bow Estimation in a Southern African Population

Standards for estimating mouth width and Cupid’s bow width in craniofacial approximation and superimposition are limited. Currently, the only guideline for mouth width, using direct skeletal references, is a general rule indicating a 75% inter-canine to mouth width ratio. The philtrum, which closely corresponds to the Cupid’s bow, is said to be equal to the inter-superior prominences of the maxillary central incisors. This study tested these guidelines against newly generated regression models and mean values. Cone-beam CT scans of 120 black and 39 white southern African adults were used. Comparative hard and soft tissue measurements were taken using a 3D DICOM viewer. Regression equations accounting population, sex, and approximate age variables (20–39 and 40+ years), utilizing maxillary inter-canine width to estimate mouth width and maxillary central–lateral incisor junction width to estimate Cupid’s bow width, performed statistically best. The regression models were more reliable than existing standards in validation tests.