Assignments MA, IS529N 2025

Assignment 1: Understanding South Asia: Imagining Region, Feeling Reality Reflective Integration of Cultural Narratives, Geophysical Realities, and Socioeconomic Attributes Students are required to write a reflective term paper based on the ATMA (After-The-Movie Assessment) model. Answer the following six questions, each comprising factual accuracy (3 marks) and emotional reflection (2 marks): 1. Ontological Narratives and Awe: Explain South Asia as Jambudvīpa and Bharatavarsha, and reflect on your feeling of awe. 2. Himalayan Geophysics and Fear: Describe Himalayan geophysical processes and your associated feelings of fear or anxiety. 3. Historical Accounts and Empathy: Summarize historical Greek, Arab, and colonial perspectives, reflecting empathetically on cross-cultural issues. 4. Demographic Indicators and Confusion: Outline key demographic trends and reflect on any confusion or frustration encountered. 5. Economic Realities and Hope: Analyze key economic indicators, expressing hope or concern about the region's future. 6. Region Definition and Ethical Clarity: Critically evaluate definitions of South Asia and reflect ethically on regional integration versus national sovereignty. - Word Limit: Approx. 2,500 words total. - Due Date: [02 weeks]
Assignment 2: Plantations, Forests, and Minerals – Resource Ontologies and Societal Futures Reflective Integration of Ontology, Epistemology, Society, Polity, and Geopolitics Students are required to write a reflective term paper based on the ATMA (After-The-Movie Assessment) model. Answer the following six questions, each comprising factual accuracy (3 marks) and emotional reflection (2 marks): 1. Ontological Narratives and Contrast: Compare the ontological character of plantations (Sri Lanka/India) and natural forests (Bhutan/Nepal). Reflect on your feelings about the loss of biodiversity when monocultures replace diverse ecosystems. 2. Epistemologies and Identity: Explain how knowledge about plantations is shaped by agronomic sciences and global markets, whereas forest knowledge is embedded in community forestry and Gross National Happiness. How does this difference influence your sense of belonging and cultural identity? 3. Societal Dependence and Anxiety: Summarize how plantations create wage-dependent labour societies, while natural forests sustain agro-pastoral livelihoods. Reflect on what anxieties or hopes these contrasting systems provoke for rural survival and dignity. 4. Polity and Responsibility: Outline the political frameworks: Sri Lanka’s land reforms and export boards, Bhutan’s constitutional forest mandate, Nepal’s community forestry laws, and Afghanistan’s fragile mineral governance. Reflect on your feelings about state responsibility and accountability in resource management. 5. Resource Curse and Fear: Analyze how Afghanistan’s mineral reserves risk becoming a “resource curse” in the absence of strong institutions. Reflect on your own sense of fear or unease about how non-renewable wealth can destabilize societies rather than uplift them. 6. Ethical Futures and Hope: Critically evaluate whether plantations, forests, or minerals provide the most sustainable and just future for South Asia and Afghanistan. Reflect emotionally on which model gives you the strongest sense of hope, justice, and ethical clarity. - Word Limit: Approx. 2,500 words total. - Due Date: [02 weeks]
Assignment 3: Borders, Trans-Boundary Resources, and the South Asian Regional Security Complex Reflective Integration of Border Ontology, River Geopolitics, Hydro-Asymmetry, and RSCT (Regional Security Complex Theory) Students are required to write a reflective term paper based on the ATMA (After-The-Movie Assessment) model. Answer the following six questions, each comprising factual accuracy (3 marks) and emotional reflection (2 marks): 1. Ontological Borders and Insecurity: Explain how borders in South Asia, particularly the India-Bangladesh border and the Nepal–India Himalayan boundary, create insecurity because the border passes through shared ecological systems (like rivers and watersheds), so each side becomes vulnerable to the other’s actions. Reflect on your feelings when borders become fragile spaces shaped by rivers, floods, and territorial claims. 2. Trans-Boundary Rivers and Vulnerability: Describe the structural dependence created by major river systems such as the Indus (India–Pakistan), Mahakali–Gandak–Kosi (India–Nepal), and the Brahmaputra (China–India–Bangladesh). Reflect on what emotions arise from knowing that upstream actions can generate downstream vulnerability, anxiety, or mistrust. 3. Hydro-Hegemony and Power Asymmetries: Summarise the power dynamics embedded in water treaties such as the Indus Waters Treaty, the Kosi and Gandak agreements, and the Mahakali Treaty. Reflect empathetically on the frustration or helplessness that smaller states may feel when confronted with larger hydro-hegemonic powers. 4. Borders within the Regional Security Complex: Analyze how Barry Buzan’s Regional Security Complex Theory explains the securitization of borders and rivers in South Asia—where threats travel short distances and become clustered within regional patterns. Reflect on your own understanding of whether these securitised borders evoke feelings of fear, caution, or a sense of regional interdependence. 5. Trans-Boundary Resources and Geopolitical Fear: Evaluate the strategic tensions arising from hydropower, flood control, territorial concessions, and cross-border infrastructure—focusing on Nepal’s upstream hydrology, India’s downstream needs, Pakistan’s Indus dependence, and China’s upstream Brahmaputra control. Reflect on any fear or unease you personally sense when lifeline resources become geopolitical instruments. 6. Ethical Regionalism and Hope: Critically assess whether South Asia can move from competitive hydro-politics to cooperative river basin management through mechanisms such as river commissions, joint projects, and multilateral security dialogues. Reflect emotionally on which model—bilateral treaties, regional institutions, or ecological ethics—offers you the strongest sense of hope, justice, and stability. - Word Limit: Approx. 2,500 words total. - Due Date: [02 weeks]
###################################
Submit all of the above assignments well in time after that no score shall be given for submission.