American Research Journal of History and Culture

Dr. Ravi Khangai1 

 Ahiṃsā Parmo Dharma’ (Non-violence is the greatest duty), resounds through the Indian epic Mahābhārata number of times and yet it is full of wars. This dichotomy seems to be a reflection of the conflicting tendencies in human life or does the epic gives a message that violence is inevitable? The epic does not project any stereotypical ideal way of life, but looks at it from different perspectives. It seems to be giving a message that not having a war is probably the best situation, but sometimes one‘s sincere desire of avoiding a war may encourage evil. If good people withdraw from life, the space will be left open for evil to fill the void. Probably a part of human psyche is inclined towards renunciation, which is personified in Arjuna‘s behavior just before the war when he refuses to fight. Kṛṣṇa on the other hand represents an opinion, according to which, leading an active life of a householder without attachment to the world around you is better. He does not condemn the renunciation altogether but says that asceticism should not be an impulsive decision and it is not for everybody. This paper juxtapositions two conflicting attitudes towards life; Arjuna‘s self annihilating non-violence vis-à-vis Kṛṣṇa‘s advocacy of self preservation which may at a time involve selective violence. Blind adherence to non violence, without evaluating the consequences may lead to the adverse effect. If one should resist the oppressor or surrender to him also depends upon the one‘s situation in life. A hermit may refuse to fight and accept the violence of the oppressor as his destiny. But if same is done by a soldier and police who are duty bound to protect the state and citizens, anarchy will be let loose, seriously harming the civilization. Arjuna‘s position was similar. 

*Aakash Gupta, B.S 

Scientific dimensionality aids in determining phenomenon occurring in the cosmos in a way to relate time with the sequence of events. And, studying events in a three-dimensional Cartesian hyperspace provides a possibility to decode the pattern that has been followed by the laws and forces of nature, which made it possible to discover the history of the universe. In this research paper I have tried to apply the dimensional analysis of String theory to the transformation of cultural history over monuments and paintings as some of the possible shapes human history has taken over the expanding period of time. The primary concept is based on conservation of energy in Physics, which I have related with an informational balance of historical past, hypothesizing that the historical details that have taken several forms can be analyzed individually in order to frame the ideal cultural history of mankind. Furthermore, uncertainty principle has been kept in mind while comparing cultural history with p-branes analysis. 

Clifford Fisher1Thomas Fisher2 

 This paper discusses the issue of Native American tribes claiming ownership of certain tracts of land, citing their historical ownership of those areas, even though individuals, businesses, and government have claimed ownership to the land. This paper will discuss the doctrine of adverse possession and will demonstrate that many lands occupied by individuals, businesses and government, actually belong to Native American tribes. The doctrine of adverse possession does not apply to the taking of government land, and since Native American tribes are sovereign governments, and thus, lands taken from Native Americans tribes, without treaties, or the sale by deed, are therefore lands still owned by the Native American tribes. After the Native Americans were pushed west of the Mississippi river by treaties with the United States, history suggests that the federal and state governments continued to appropriate their lands through warfare and coercion. As such, a situation has arisen in which arguably the lands that Native American tribes once owned by grants under treaties, may still belong to the tribes; and the residents and business entities on those lands cannot justify their claims of ownership under the law of adverse possession. There have been several lawsuits over the ownership of the areas claimed by Native American tribes resulting in considerable debate over the injustices done to the Native American tribes in past. Despite the efforts of the federal government to compensate for their wrong doings, there has been no clear consensus on what is to be done with the once Native American owned lands. Most of the government’s measures to pay damages to the tribes have been in the form of monetary compensations in lieu of lands, or allowance of the Native American tribes to charge rental fees for usage of their land. Several businesses and states have contended that the laws awarding reparations to tribes are stringent and lopsided, thereby harming businesses and giving rise to issues such as maintenance of law and order and loss of tax revenues3. 

Gregg D. Bromgard1 , David Trafimow2 , Christopher D. Linn3 

Three types of self-cognitions are hypothesized: (a) private self-cognitions; (b) collective self cognitions, and (c) relational self-cognitions. Trafimow, Triandis, and Goto (1997) showed that language affects the activation the private and collective self. However, they did not investigate how language affects their valences. There is reason to believe that language should have differential effects on the valences of private, collective, and relational self-cognitions. Because private and collective self-cognitions tend to be abstract, they are generally good or bad regardless of context. In contrast, relational self-cognitions are more specific and have valences that are more strongly linked to specific contexts. Consequently, their valences are more amenable to being influenced by a language manipulation. We found evidence of this in the present experiment 

Adeoti, Ezekiel Oladele1, Imuoh Austen2 

 The quest for resource control by states in the Niger Delta region is one of the contentious issues in Nigeria. The clamour for resource control followed the inability of the government to address the adverse social and economic conditions under which the people of the Delta region have been forced to live since the discovery of oil at Oloibiri in 1956. The exploration and production of oil and their concomitant negative effects have continued to affect the people‟s agricultural and fishing activities. Pollution and gas flaring have continued to wreak havoc on the people‟s means of livelihood while the love for money as well as the desire to live above poverty line in the Niger Delta have forced many into all kinds of obnoxious practices such as illegal oil bunkering cum illegal oil refining, militancy, distruption of the activities of oil companies operating in the area; kidnapping of oil workers with demands for ransom and vandalization of petroleum facilities to cause spillage of which communities would demand compensation. This study examines the quest for resource control by people in the Niger Delta region, and the negative impact of this development on both Niger Delta people in particular and Nigerian state in general. Finally, the work concludes by suggesting the possible ways for peace to reign in the troubled region. The work adopts the descriptive and analytical method of historical discourse as the framework of analysis.  

Dr. Ravi Khangai1 

: Indian epic, the Mahabharata is like a reservoir of information about the Indian society. The epic have acquired written form during the period 800B.C. to 200 A.D.1 However before acquiring written form, it was handed down from generation to generation in oral form and had gone through log process of interpolation and extrapolation. During this long process it had acquired eternal relevance and more so for the Indian society, which is considerably rooted in the past. The epic narrates number of episodes where a male child is produced by a woman from a man other than her husband. Apart from the Mahabharata, Manu Smriti also refers to this kind of practice, which was called „Nīyoga‟.This paper will make analysis of some of the episodes of Nīyoga narrated in the Mahabharata. The „Nīyoga‟ episodes in the Mahabharata were not a simple union of a man and women for procreation (as it was supposed to be), but involves emotions and politics. After all human life is too complicated to be compartmentalized in water tight compartments

Dr. Nayel Musa Shaker Al-Omran1, Dr. Thabet Ahmad Abdallah Abualhaj2, Prof. Dato' Dr. Mohd Yakub @ Zulkifli Bin Mohd Yusoff3

The main reason behind writing this article is because many Western and some Arab writers deny that Islamic law recognizes the principles of judicial control over the constitutionality of law in it present form. Alternatively, they allege that the concept of judicial control is simply contrary to Shari‟ah. Therefore, the main question is: Does the Islamic legal system recognize the exercise of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws, especially when it comes to issues relating to constitutional matters, in their present form? Further, if this question is answered in the affirmative, what is the nature of such judicial control? This article examines judicial control over the constitutionality of laws in Islamic legal system, studying the potentiality and availability of judicial review in the Islamic legal system and civilization and investigating the historical significance of some its most important applications. This article studies the elements that have helped to establish the idea of judicial review of law in the Islamic legal system, which are the principle of separation of powers, the doctrine of the rule of law, and the independence of judicial authority in the Islamic legal system. It is limited to the study of judicial review under the Islamic legal system within Sunni Islamic jurisprudence schools, namely Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi‟i and Maliki. This article will also study judicial judgments and events that took place in Islamic history especially during the time of Prophet Muhammad (622-632 C.E.), the Pious Caliphs (632-661), the Umayyad (661-750), „Abbasids (750-1258), the Ayyubid dynasty (1169-1252) and the Ottoman Periods (1517-1921).