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Political Violence and Its Relation to Individual Liberty and Government Authority
Political Violence and Its Relation to Individual Liberty and Government Authority
Name
Institutional Violence
Politics deal with seizure, association, alliance, or redistribution of power that leads to decision of who gets what, when and how and if violence is involved in politics, it is called political violence. Political violence is normally outside state control and is triggered politically although crime and warfare have common characteristics with political violence (Anonymous, 2011). Scholars categorize political violence in three aspects including institutional, ideational, and individual (Hazelwood, 1969). Institutional explanations for political violence concentrates on how the state, economy or social system lead to political violence while ideational aspects deals with the effect of political, religious ideas trigger political violence (Suozzo, 2011). There are also individual explanations that centers on what provokes individuals to engage in political violence and the stimulants may be either rational or psychological.
Leaders sell their ideologies to people persuasively. Once they are into premiership, reality sets in, and noting that, they cannot achieve their main promises. According to Armborst (2010), politicians commonly sought to unorthodox means of retaining power. A phenomenon termed as political violence. Political violence may range from the violation of basic human rights, excess use of force by the police, and war with neighboring countries (Besley et al., 2011). Besides there is, capital punishment on political rivals, censoring of the media reports, all this forms of political violence aims at curtailing individual liberty.
Indira Gandhi came into power as a compromise candidate. The members of the then Congress party were in disagreement as to who shall be the prime minister after the death of LalBahadurShastri. Initially, she had refused to take over as the Prime Minister from her father in 1964 but later accepted the offer. Members of the congress party thought that she will become susceptible to influence and give up power, given she was a woman, but the surprise of many; she ruled ruthlessly and she made sure that power was centralized (Hazlewood, 1969).
Prior to joining politics, she was a personal assistant to her father LalBahadurShastri .Who was the, Prime Minister between 1947 to 1964.This position shaped her political career, and left many astounded as to the kind of leadership she offered. Despite being a woman, she succeeded in a society where leadership was a preserve of men. Gandhi borrowed leaf, from her father as her administration was centralized, and took many into surprise as she got the government involved with the civil war in Pakistan (Besley et al., 2011). India had signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, to be supported in case of war while Pakistan had support from the United States. In the resulting war of 1971 India emerged victorious, resulting in the modern today state known as Bangladesh. Although war is a form of political violence, Gandhi inevitably used it to end civil strife in Pakistan. According to Nair &Sukumaran (2008), the outcome was strained relations with the United States and Pakistan. India maintained its strong trade relations with Bangladesh and the Soviet Union.
Indira Gandhi used her authority to curtail individual liberty; she used the army to suppress the rising of the Sikh, who wanted to be a sovereign state. During Gandhi‘s time as prime minister she believed in using military force to solve any rising conflict crisis. This retrained relationship between liberty and authority.
The relationship between, Bangladesh and India was short lived. This was after the assassination of LalBahadurShastri in 1975, which gave power to the Islamic military, which were of the view that India could erode its cultural diversity (Nair &Sukumaran, 2008). Hence, the new rule distanced itself from India, although they appreciated them for liberating their country from Pakistan. Gandhi inherited a weak economy, characterized by high rate of inflation, famine, and civil war in Pakistan. The government sought to liberate the economy and devalue its currency with promise of foreign aid from the World Bank, by then called the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development. In 1966, the economy grew by 4.1%; this was attributed to limited aid as the argued that there was restriction in the economy. The situation was further restrained by Gandhi’s criticism of the USA bombing campaign of Vietnam, a form of Political violence.
The demands of the United States were unconvincing for Gandhi, who had different ideologies, and was strongly against political violence in Vietnam. The withholding of foreign aid in terms of wheat supply as form of enticing Gandhi to support the war did not auger well with the country. U.S acts led to suspicious approach of liberalizing the economy and currency devaluation. In reactive Gandhi opted to hold foreign currency reserves and buy grains directly instead of relying on foreign aid. Besides, Gandhi put up measures that directed production inputs to agriculture, which in the long-run increased food production in the country. This led to self-reliance and the overall reduction of poverty in the country. A phenomenon that is commonly known as the Green Revolution in India (Simon, 1995).
Even though, the annual economic growth fell sought of the targeted figures, Indira Gandhi made a land remark in transforming India to become self-reliant. Gandhi was a protectionist, she strongly believed in the government control of most resources, she argues that, if resources are left in the control of the private sector, this will lead to exploitation of citizens and increased poverty. The nationalization of most banks, during her tenure as prime minister, empowered most poor Indians. This led to increased investment in the informal sector, thus improving the welfare of most citizens. This also assisted her in being re-elected into office in 1971 (Armborst, 2010).
The ideology of nationalizing most sectors of the economy is meant to ensure that the government is in control of what is happening in the country and not dictated by the private sector and other countries. As it can be seen the action of Indira’s government of nationalizing the banking sector boosted the economy to a great extent and improved the live hood of most Indians.
The doctrine of justice and equality for both men and women was enshrined into the India constitution during her premiership. As India’s Prime Minister, Indira questioned the fundamentalism of India’s monarchy system, commonly termed as Privy Purse. She argued that all citizens have equal rights, although she faced opposition at first, in the long term she managed to abolish the monarchy systems. Indira Gandhi was against political violence of non-Hindi states in her country. This was shown when she did not declare Hindi as the national official language, as per the Indian constitution of 1950, but made changes to the constitution the allowed both Hindi and English as official languages.
Nevertheless, during her reign, Gandhi, used political violence to curb insurgency or weaken the opposition. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, she used the Indian army against the militant communist uprising. Besides, she ordered Indian army retaliatory attacks in response to the Mizo uprising against the government in the Eastern India state, to make matters worse air strikes, were carried out, making it an exception act of India killing its own civilians (Bandarage, 2009). Indira Gandhi watered down all her accomplishments in June 1975. She was accused of electoral malpractice and guilty of using government resources and officers in her campaigns. In response, she used her authority and power to ignore pleas to resign, but instead ordered the president to declare a state of emergency.
Aftermath of which was the arresting and torturing of most of the opposition leaders, increased police brutality and declaring of curfews in most states. Mrs. Gandhi ousted members disloyal from the cabinet and instead chose loyal to the party during the period of emergence. She used her political ruthlessness rule as opposed to the will of people (Bandarage, 2009). Besides, Indira Gandhi used her authority to order the Indian army who destroyed the Golden temple in the state of Punjab where many civilians died, an operational known as Operational Blue Star.
Vividly, it can be seen that during her tenure as prime minister she was reactive to civil disobedience from the north eastern states of India that were consider very strategic to the economy of the country that she sought to use political violence to curb the Mizo and the Militant communist uprising. This verily commensurate the Sikh uprising was seen as a civil disobedience, and in their quest for state autonomy, Indira Gandhi resorted to political violence to curb their insurgency (Bandarage, 2009). Multiculturalism in one way or other has contributed to political violence India; India has different religious groups with majority being Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other religions respectively. The anti- Sikh riots of 1984 is a form of political violence.
Benazir Bhutto was the 11th prime minister of Pakistan, she took, power when the country was facing a racial crisis, with an economic recession (Khouri, 2007). Unlike Indira Gandhi who advocated for nationalization of major sector, Mrs. Bhutto had an inverted ideology of denationalization. Mrs. Bhutto, fought for a liberal society where human rights are protected, she advocated for equal rights between men and fought to repeal the, injustice system against women, in a strongly religious society that sidelined women (Khouri, 2007). She never achieved her quest for equal rights between men and women, in a male dominated society. This and suspicion of corruption and misuse of power, and that she were affiliated to the United States and European countries led her to being ousted.
In contrast to Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto advocated for the denationalization of most sectors of the economy.Comparing the two premierships it’s crystal clear that Gandhi transformed India more than Benazir did to Pakistan during her reign. Therefore the government is sometimes justified in limiting the freedom of its citizens.
Khouri (2007) explains that Mrs. Bhutto was also involved in some form of political violence during her premiership. Bhutto’s involvement in the Afghanistan civil war, where she supported a strong religious group, Taliban, was part of her lethal initiatives. She sent military support with a motive to undermine the Indians and the Soviet Union who supported it the East Pakistan, during the Pakistan civil war, resulting into the creation of the current Bangladesh. It is worth noting that women are sidelined in most Islamic countries, and those that were powerful as seen as inheriting power from their fathers like Benazir Bhutto and Indira Gandhi. Mrs. Bhutto was in power, still up to her assassination, she was unable to change their staunch, beliefs, and no Muslim woman has ever risen to her level, a clear example of political violence to women, by Islam staunch beliefs and failure to adapt to modern theology.
Rigid observance of outdated Muslim beliefs ,that leadership is a preserve for men, has caused diplomacy hitches between the united states , western countries, and most countries in the Asian continent, leading to civil wars whereby innocent civilians losing lives.
A good instance is the U.S war in Afghanistan during the reign of President George W Bush, in a military plan of eliminating the al Qaeda terrorist group that ended up killing many civilians. In response, there was retaliatory attack of the famous November 11 bombing in the United States of America. The outcome of this politically motivated violence is the, increasing animosity, tension among different religious groups, especially amongst Christians and Muslims in Kenya where media have reportedburnt churches and physical assault between Christian and Muslim youths (Sahle, 2012).
Political violence can result from ethnic differences and the fight for power, among the different groups in the given country, poor political systems, and election malpractices are the major course of political violence in developing countries. The post-election violence that erupted in Kenya in the 2007 elections, clearly showed the underlying ethnic differences, and the quest for power, among individuals, coupled with election malpractices, the situation bottled, that called the assistance of the international community to reconcile the country (Sahle, 2012).
The international community made recommendations for the restructure of government systems, and with the amalgamation of a new constitution in 2010, the country opened a new chapter in its political history. In the ensuing 2013 elections, there was no form of political violence and any arising conflicts were resolved by the independent judicial system. Governments have authorityof ensuring that the state is run properly, but it should exercise with moderation and respecting human rights.
It’s fascinating to note that, individuals, quest for power, normally leads to political violence, whereby many lives are lost (Schwarzmantel&Ebrary, 2011).
During campaigns, most leaders promise heaven on earth for their civilians, but once they are in power they suddenly become greedy and start violating the civilians who elected, and when, power is good others turn into dictators, Idd Amin of Uganda. Political violence can be in form of genocide, here political opponents kill innocent civilians, this may lead to eliminate in totally a given ethnic community, or reduce them in numbers for political supremacy, and an instance is what happened in Rwanda in 1994. Besides killing of Sikh in the Golden Temple during the premiership of India Gandhi was a form of genocide that sort to suppress the ethnic group and seek control of the region, which was considered strategic to the economy of India (Saikia, 2011).
The assassination of Indira Gandhi by her two body guards, was a manifestation of political violence, thought they were brought before the jury, the loss of such a woman leader, of a caliber was a big loss to the republic of India. Benazir Bhutto also was assassinated while on a political campaign in 2007 with two weeks to election and she was the major opposition candidates, and her killers remain a mystery up to date. Political violence in form of suicide bombings is common in most Arabic and Islamic countries in the modern word. While in developing countries especially in Africa, they plan cold blood killings.
Political violence is prevalent in Africa state, where by the opposition leaders are arrested and held in custody without trial, and when holding demonstrations excessive use of police, is administered to try to intimidate them from questioning the government in power (Saikia, 2011). The international community, need to come into terms with this, menace and put in place, measures to curb political violence in Africa and most Islamic and Arabic countries. The current demonstrations in Syria and the counter measures the current government using, killing innocent civilians in the process, is an indication of worse things in future.
Irrespective of pressure from the international community in limiting the government to stop political violence.sometimes use of enables the government to achieve its objectives.
References
Anonymous. (2011). Political violence: Main book. The Mercury, pp. 6.
Armborst, A. (2010). Modeling terrorism and political violence. International Relations, 24(4),
414-432. Doi: 10.1177/0047117810385779
Besley et al. (2011).The logic of political violence. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(3), 1411-1445. doi:10.1093/qje/qjr025
Bandarage, Asoka (2009). The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political
Economy.Taylor & Francis.p. 111. ISBN 978-0415776783.
Hazlewood, L. A. (1969). Political violence and the political system.ProQuest, UMI
Dissertations Publishing).
Khouri, R. (2007).Political violence: Who killed Benazir Bhutto? We all did for so many political people–good guys and bad–killing has become part of the job. The Globe and Mail (1936 Current), pp. A21
Nair &Sukumaran. (2008). Indo-Bangladesh Relations.APH Publishing.p. 47. ISBN 9788131304082.
Schwarzmantel, J., &Ebrary, I. (2011).Democracy and political violence. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Simon. (1995). Sederberg, Peter C. “fires within: Political violence and revolutionary changeIntro to Political Theory 2nd Edition by John Hoffman and Paul Graham: ISBN: 978-1-4058 9988-8
Suozzo, S. (2011).Political violence. The Record, pp. A.21.
Sahle, E. N. (2012). Fanon and Geographies of Political Violence in the Context of Democracy in Kenya. Black Scholar, 42(3/4), 45-57.
Saikia, P. (2011). Political Opportunities, Constraints, and Mobilizing Structures: An Integrated Approach to Different Levels of Ethno-Political Contention in Northeast India. India Review, 10(1), 1-39. doi:10.1080/14736489.2011.548237
political upheavals of the 1960s
EFFECTS OF THE POLITICAL UPHEAVALS IN THE 1960’s
Student’s Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Email to history teacher on supply of resource materials
To: history-teach-Canterbury@yahoo.com
From: CCCU-online-library@yahoo.com
Subject: Request on supplying student course materials
Mrs. Jones,
In regards to your initial request for the supply of research materials for your students, I am pleased to inform you that after searching our CCCU library’s electronic resource data base. We are in a position to effectively provide assistance by proposing the use of our professional academic researcher’s articles and reviews. Their, incite full review on the academic journals of Michael Kazin’s and Maurice Isserman book; America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s will be highly helpful to your teaching.
Our services would be beneficial for the student’s curriculum since they are simple to understand, well detailed and downloadable in almost all electronic platforms. We also offer unlimited access to other resources and other articles on different topics and subjects that would be in relation to the student’s current curriculum.
I will send our price rates and sample of our products; so that you can choose the package that will best suit your class. Incase of any other questions, please let me know.
Respectfully,
CCCU online library
Review of the books
The review of the book America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s by Michael Kazin’s and Maurice Isserman is a mount and intermittently convincing reinterpretation of the 1960s.It starts off strongly in a Civil War Centennial Commission’s by avoiding any mention of emancipation or slavery since the decade began. Further, they artificially separate their discussion of culture, politics and spirituality three strands in the era that were intimately linked. The book offers some useful correctives for instance to misguided notions on poverty war was a major giveaway program that the liberalism held sway in the 60’s.but the analysis of the historical. In the article the conflict that delineates the intertwined issues of political philosophy, gender roles, race relations and personal morality that were left unresolved since the 1960’s.Although the authors do not offer any meaningful interpretation their insight is valuable for the analysis(Jones, L. E, 2010).
The article African American odyssey on the civil rights era casts a brief glance at the described events that occurred between the 1950 and 1970 that many historical books characterize as the civil rights era. The modern civil rights movement that occurred between the mid twentieth -century for racial equality was actually the peak of a struggle that had begun almost a century earlier, mainly during the 1860 and 1870s reconstruction era. Congress passed after the civil war, state ratified three amendments to protect the constitutions for the former slaves a series of civil rights laws. Underhanded tactics of the southern politicians and a combination of economic depression prevented taking of these advantages by the slaves. The stated article was mildly relevant for the research (Shaffer, R, 2002).
The article by Debora Diane on American history of women in the 1960s chaotic events, including social changes and war, seemed more destined to continue in the 70’s. Growing disillusionment of government and major trends, advances in a heightened concern for the environment, and advances in civil rights, increased influence of the women’s movement and increased space exploration. Many of the 60’s radical ideas are explored and shown how they, in the new decade gain wide acceptance and get mainstreamed into American culture and life. Social realignment, amid war and presidential impeachment proceedings, saw the flourishing of the American culture. The time events, were indeed became the inspiration and reflection for much of the literature, music, and even the decades fashion. The article was helpful but not to a wide extent.
Reviewing the article by Charles Kaiser on how the 1960s cured America, shows the chronology of events of the American history, and the author brings out the underlying question shared by many that on the debate on whether America was cured or destroyed by the 60’s period. The author of the article tries to prove that the republic got more contributions during this period than any other time in its history. He brings out the positive aspect that the civil rights movements offered the liberation blueprint for all most all other oppressed groups in existence; he continued to state that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr and the Kennedys contributed greatly to the generational changes that occurred in the country. The article gave much insight on the 60’s period but it did not contribute that much to the research.
Summery of introduction of essay
The term sixties or the 1960’s is an era that denotes the political and the complexities of inter-related trends globally. As compared to the actual decade the coined cultural decade is more culturally defined, that begun in 1963 till 1974.In the popular culture and scholarship the sixties term is used by journalists, historians, and other objective academics; nostalgically in some cases the revolution and counterculture is used to describe the social norms about music, clothes, drugs, formalities, dress and schooling. The decade was denounced by conservatives as a decade of flamboyance and irresponsible excess, and a lot of social order decay. The decade also known as the swinging sixties due to the relaxation or fall of social taboos especially relating to sexism and racism that was rampant at the period. However, one issue that was mostly ignored was the plight of the African-American and during this time the women rights movements grew out of the upheavals of the social turbulence. This movement came to be known better as the second wave feminism. This period also saw an emergence of concerns from Americans who mainly believed in effecting change that was deemed necessary as a means of protection for the common people. Due to this the people namely the journals, social workers, and politicians were known as reformers in the period that came to be known as the progressive movement era. It is in this understanding that this article seeks to demonstrate the level that the turbulent period and political upheavals had on the position of the American women and the African Americans within the U.S. society (Elliott, J,2008).
Chapter 2 summery of essay
Kazin and Isserman on their book America Divided the two authors explain the impact the 1960’s had on the lives of African Americans as they analyze the challenges they faced. The main issue that they addressed in this era is the issue of voting rights for the eligible black voters that made most of them remain, disfranchised during the mid 1960’s. African Americans initiated local efforts following World War II, as they tried exercise their voting rights, they faced sometimes violent and strong resistant from the local residents who were mostly whites. With the Summer Project of 1964 organized initiatives to enfranchise blacks climaxed. Known mostly as freedom summer when the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), got auspice under organizations like NAACP, SCLC, CORE and SNCC. Another issue was on the emergence of black power as seen when activists of civil rights turned their attention into addressing race discrimination in the West and urban North. The authors also highlighted the slow change process that sowed discontent among the activists and due to this calls for self defense against whites and racial separatism marked most of the era. This caused most of the controversies since the new revolt was mainly contrary to the initial peaceful principals of change (Hoy, S, 2004).
Reference
Shaffer, R. (2002). Where are the organized public employees? The absence of public employee
unionism from US history textbooks, and why it matters. Labor History, 43(3), 315-334.
Elliott, J. (2008). Popular Feminist Fiction as American Allegory: Representing National Time.
Hoy, S. (2004). Lives on the Color Line: Catholic Sisters and African Americans in Chicago,
1890s-1960s. US Catholic Historian, 22(1), 67-91.
Jones, L. E. (2010). The Rise Of Public Sector Unionism In Detroit, 1947-1967.
The Crisis of the American Education II
The Crisis of the American Education
Institution:
Name of Student:
The Crisis of the American Education
School dropout is an academic evil that for centuries has continued to haunt the American education. Why do students dropout from schools? In the academic year ending 2012, it was estimated that about 1.1 million students drop out of school. The dropout rate is surprisingly higher among the African-American students whereby an estimated 40% of African-American students who enroll in schools end up not graduating. (Cohen, 2013) One out of every five Hispanic students also ends up dropping out of schools. This issue is thus worthy of being treated as a crisis in the education system as realms of statistics have indicated that the figures are alarming. Reasons why students drop out of school need to be examined therefore, and solutions to these problems sought after with utmost urgency.
Poor academic performance.
A 1997 journal based on applied psychology written by Finn Rock and talked about academic success being one of the risks that might result in student.
The majorly puts emphasis on the fact that when a student performs well in school, they are motivated to move on to greater heights by moving on and on to the next grade of studies. If the student keeps on performing poorly, the zeal to learn is lost and the student then opts for an easy way out. Motivation of students performing poorly should therefore be emphasized so as to help keep them in school. Tutorials should also be organized for the weak students who are not able to quickly grasp concepts during the time allocated for teaching so that personalized attention can be accorded to them and this will result in an improvement in their academic performances.
Inadequate parental engagement
A journal discussing community psychology that shows how neglect of the child can hinder academic growth. Written by C Wisdom in the year 2011.
In this journal, the author insists that a student needs parental support in order to increase his chance at graduating from school. It is the parent’s moral obligation to make sure their child has all that he or she needs in school. The parent should assist the child in the school projects, assignments and what have you. Class attendance and writing of exams should be supervised by the parent in liaison with the teacher. This ensures that the student stays in school and reduces the rates of dropouts.
Low student engagement
Newmann, F. M. (1992). Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools. Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 (paperback: ISBN-0-8077-3182-X, $17.95; hardcover: ISBN-0-8077-3183-8, $38).
According to Mr. Newmann, the engagement of students to their studies greatly affects whether or not they will graduate from school or they will drop out. There should be enough individualized attention coming from the student in order for them to succeed in school. The will to pursue their studies should come from within to increase the level of student engagement. The activities that the students engage in in school should not be gauged in such a way that they do not encourage disconnect from school academics. The problem of low student engagement can also be reduced by creating a good reading environment that will then motivate the student to focus on engaging in the curriculum activities.
Family economic needs
A record published in 1986 that highlighted on findings from a national study and was compiled by M. Pollack.
According to this record, the probability of a student who comes from a higher social economic background to drop out of school is lower than that of a student who hails from a lower social economic background. Most students from low economic backgrounds seek employment while still in school to support themselves and/their families and this creates distraction especially when the job needs more than twenty hours of the students time. Adequate funding in form of bursaries and sponsorships should hence be awarded to students so that they can meet their academic and economic needs and thus focus on education to help keep them in school.
ReferencesEkstrom, R., Goertz, M., Pollack, J., & Rock, D. (1986). Who drops out of high school and why? Findings from a national study. The Teachers College Record, 87(3), 356-373.
Newmann, F. M. (1992). Student Engagement and Achievement in American Secondary Schools. Teachers College Press, 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027 (paperback: ISBN-0-8077-3182-X, $17.95; hardcover: ISBN-0-8077-3183-8, $38)..Nikulina, V., Widom, C. S., & Czaja, S. (2011). The role of childhood neglect and childhood poverty in predicting mental health, academic achievement and crime in adulthood. American Journal of Community Psychology, 48(3-4), 309-321.