2018.2

The paper examines the semantic domain of falling in modern Japanese. The domain is comprised of two verbs of falling down, ochiru and furu; two verbs of falling over, taoreru and korobu; and one of falling and rolling, korogaru. They differ in their preferred type of trajector (objects for ochiru, rain etc. for furu; animate for korobu, unspecified for taoreru). Some finer characteristics can also be seen: for furu other trajectors than rainfall are acceptable if they come from above the viewpoint. For korobu the trajector must be self-propelling. For vertical objects the resulting prostrate state is covered by taoreru even if the fall itself comes under ochiru.

The present paper provides a survey of Indonesian women’s prose (so-called sastra wangi) that has been gaining strength since the end of the twentieth century and has become one of the central phenomena of modern Indonesian literature. In connection with the subject of discussion, some information on gender studies and feminist literary criticism is given. Sastra wangi possesses distinctive features that distinguish it from purely entertaining chick-lit. Similar processes are found in the literature of many countries, as shown by examples from Indian, Turkish and Chinese writing. Modern Indonesian women’s prose can therefore be viewed in the context of Asian and African women’s writing in general.

The article analyzes the ideological and political grounds for the genesis and activity of the Islamic State. The author examines the theoretical content of Islamic fundamentalism and analyzes the picture of the world that it offers its followers. The author asks what goals its supporters pursue and whether ISIS is a fundamentally new type of fundamentalist organization. The article examines the factors that allowed supporters of this organization to fight for a prolonged period against the national governments of Syria and Iraq and the forces of the international coalition of states. It explores key sources of Islamic law and cites comments by prominent theologians and scholars. The author concludes that ISIS uses Islam in a distorted form. Religious literacy is therefore an important element of any national policy to counter extremism.

This article is dedicated to the life and works of Uchida Masao (1839–1876), a Japanese writer, translator and teacher of the second half of the nineteenth century. The world geography encyclopedia “Yochi Shiryaku” (“Short Description of the World”, 1871–1880) is considered his main work. During the Meiji period (1868–1912), it was a bestseller. The encyclopedia was so popular that it was called “one of the three [outstanding] books of the Meiji period” (Meiji no sanshyo). Despite Uchida Masao’s rich literary legacy, his name is now practically unknown.

This article dwells upon the language situation in Hyderabad, which is very diverse from the ethnolinguistic point of view. The author gives a historical description of the Urdu and Telugu languages and their relationship. The author also analyzes the evolution of the status of these languages and considers how their position has changed since the princely state of Hyderabad was integrated into the Indian Union in September 1948. The article examines the spheres in which Urdu and Telugu, though official languages, can be used, and the measures taken to promote and develop them. Special attention is paid to the correlation of ethnolinguistic and confessional aspects in the life of the Hindu and Muslim communities of Hyderabad, whose members are often bilingual. The author also raises the question of the relationship between Indian languages and English in various spheres of society and studies the resulting problems and possible solutions.

The paper analyses Turkey’s foreign policy towards the Middle East in the 2000s and early 2010s in two interrelated aspects: as a complicated search for a mutually acceptable model of cooperation between Turkey and the West on international security, and as a problem of differences in their perspectives on international security and approaches to its implementation in Turkey, the EU and the US. The relatively successful period of cooperation in the global war on terrorism in the 2000s did not help Turkey and the West overcome these conceptual differences. First, this prevented the full integration of Turkey into the Western system of international security in the Middle East. Second, it deepened differences in perspectives on international security and the struggle against those accused of terrorism and radicalism by the West. The Arab Spring and the escalation of instability in the region since the early 2010s, related to new civil wars and the rise of the Islamic State, highlighted this divergence and accelerated Ankara’s ambitions to act as an independent regional power in the Middle East, with its own agenda and strategy for relations with both state and non-state actors.

The article focuses on various contexts in India’s ancient didactic texts dealing with money. The issue under discussion is whether ritual pollution was transferred from person to person through money. Ancient Indian sources repeatedly state that property acquired at the expense of punished criminals necessarily needs ritual purification. The reason for this is explained by a “similarity relationship” between the property and its owner: a sin of the former owner gets transferred to the property recipient. In this case, it is necessary to explain the issue of punishments that prescribe property confiscation. According to India’s ancient didactic texts, confiscation is often replaced by a monetary fine. Does this mean that money does not transfer the ritual pollution of its former owner to a new owner? How can we explain this paradox? The article analyzes the vocabulary used in ancient Indian texts to denote money and examines various money-related contexts. Finally, it offers insights into a possible understanding of the role of money in ancient societies.

Punjabi Sikhs’ presence in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands can be traced back to the nineteenth century. The number of Sikh units in the British-Indian army increased after the annexation of Punjab (1849); Sikh army and police were employed to operate the Andamans-based Kala Pani (Black Water) jail. The Police Gurdwara of Port Blair became a visual marker of Sikh presence in the archipelago. In 1937, the New Gurdwara was set up; it was later renamed Dr Diwan Singh Kalepani Gurdwara to commemorate Diwan Singh’s contribution to India’s national liberation movement and his humanitarian and educational work in the Andamans. In the late 1960s, the Indian government invited former servicemen, primarily Punjabi Sikhs, to settle in the Nicobar Islands to protect them from poaching and to show India’s presence in that part of the Bay of Bengal. A “Mini-Punjab” subsequently emerged on Great Nicobar in the 1970s. Throughout their history in the Andamans, Sikhs strove to reproduce their homeland in a faraway land. Unlike other Sikhs in Bengal, Assam and other regions far from Punjab, the Andaman-based followers of Guru Nanak did not have to continually assert their identity through negotiation with local social and cultural traditions.