Conflict

Nero was prophesized by astrologers when he was born that he would become emperor but kill his mother, according to Tacitus (The Annals). Agrippina’s reply was “Let him kill me- provided he becomes emperor”. This reinforces Agrippina’s desire and ambition for Nero to gain this position. After Nero became emperor in AD 54 after Claudius’ death Agrippina exercised power through her influence on Nero by sending official letters to kings and governors and receiving the various embassies that came to Rome. Nero did not resent this influence at the time, instead honoring Agrippina on coins produced at the time where she appeared face to face. Nero and her name and title were given more prominence than that of Nero. However, when Agrippina attempted to share Nero’s imperial dais during a meeting.

With an Armenian embassy, Seneca quickly forestalled her by getting Nero to leave the dais and go fonNard to greet her. Both Seneca and Burrus believed that if the Armenians saw a woman sharing Nero‘s imperial dais, they might suspect the empire of weakness and take advantage of it. This was due to the fact that the “open political influence of women in Rome was forbidden” according to the historian, Bill Leadbetter. The event marked the beginning of Agrippina’s decline. This could be seen in the fact that coins produced during ADSS depict Nero’s head partly covering that of Agrippina and the written inscription gave pride of place to Nero.

It is believed that Agrippina lost control over nero when she interfered With his love affairs. Nero’s passion for an ex-slave girl called Acte was strongly resented by Agrippina, According to the historian, Koutsoukis, Agrippina tried hard to end the affair but her “foul temper” merely served to strengthen the relationship between Nero and Act. Then Agrippina changed her tactics and went so far as to offer her own bedroom for the couple’s lovemaking.  After the death of Britannicus in AD55 (believed to have been poisoned by Nero), Agrippina began to fear for her own safety. She moved out of the palace and lived in her own mansion in Pincian Hill. During this time, Nero conceived another passion, Poppaea Sabina, the wife of one of his close friends Again, Agrippina opposed this since she felt sympathetic towards his estranged wife Octavia.

It was at this time that Nero concluded that Agrippina was intolerable and decided to kill her. Poison was the first choice, according to Tacitus but a death at the emperor’s table would not look fortuitous after. Britannicus died there and yet her criminal conscience would have kept her alert for plots. Also, no one could think of a way of stabbing her without detection and there was another danger- the selected assassin might “shrink“ from carrying out his orders. Then a scheme was put forward by Anicetus, an ex-slave who commanded the fleet at Misenum. Anicetus tutored Nero during his boyhood and Tacitus wrote that he and Agrippina hated each other.

The scheme was to build a ship that will carry Agrippina and during the journey, a section of the ship would become loose and hurl her into the water, According to Tacitus, Anicetus remarked. ”if a shipwreck did away. With her, who could be so unreasonable as to blame a human agency instead of Wind and Water?” Nero invited Agrippina to visit him at Lake Baiae, near the Bay of Naples. Where he was attending a festival. She came as requested and Nero personally greeted her and gave her the utmost care and attention, according to Suetonius.

When the feast was over. he escorted her to the boat and bade her farewell With “loving tenderness”. Agrippina was accompanied by two attendants- Crepenius Gallus and Acerronia, Sometime during the journey, the ceiling of the boat, which was loaded. With the lead, fell in and instantly killed Crepenius, Agrippina and Acerronia were protected by the projecting sides of the couch. Acerronia claimed that she was Agrippina in a desperate attempt to be saved but instead. she was dispatched with poles and oars Agrippina was silent so she was less recognised but received around in her shoulder. She learned and met up With a small boat that took her to safety. After that event, Agrippina sent a messenger named Agerinus to tell Nero that she escaped death. According to Koutsoukis.

Nero was aghast at the news and so he had one ol his men drop a sword near the unfortunate Agerinus and immediately arrested the man and charged him With attempting to kill him. Accusing his mother of being behind the “plot”, Nero sent anicetus and two naval officers to her mansron to execute her. According to Dio Cassius, Agrippina tore open her clothing, exposing her abdomen, and cried out, “Strike here, Anicetus, strike here, for this bore Nero”. She was clubbed about the head and then dispatched With a sword. Nero is later said to have gazed over her corpse to satisfy himself that she was indeed dead remarking “I did not know I had so beautiful a mother.

In the sass, French philosophers such as Roland Farther, Gilles Delude, Jacques Deride, Michel Faculty, and Jean- François Leotard departed from conventional studies in the history of philosophy and Egan to address the epistemological crisis reinforcing Western philosophical thought. Their early scholarship focused on the structure of language and its role in forming world-views. The work of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand De Assures, especially his posthumous text entitled Course in General Linguistics, presented the Intellectual Insight Tanat was necessary In order to separate ten synchrony Ana diachronic elements of language.

Dividing language and, in effect, freeing the sign from the signified, permitted obstructionists to redefine language as a system of differential signs. Jacques Dermis’s early writings obfuscate Creature’s linguistic turn. Deride could not stand the fact that the Western philosophical tradition privileges spoken (the sonic) over written language (the graphic). It is within this pyramid that the speaker is accepted to be self-authenticating and in control of meaning. The writer, within this representation, is displaced and, presumably, is not in control of meaning.

Assures, according to Deride, continues the Western tradition by giving more importance to the spoken word over the written word. Deride describes this as phonetics’s, a oppression of writing. His work seeks to invert the hierarchy and so present writing as a necessary displacement of meaning within language. Dermis’s innovative variations on Creature’s linguistic turn inaugurated postmodernism sustained dismantling of the metaphysics of presence in the Western philosophical tradition. Dermis’s critique of language was followed by critiques of truth and meaning in philosophy.

Drawing on the work of the German philosopher Frederica Nietzsche, Deride has disrupted the visualized belief that authors intend meaning and that there is a certain truth to be uncovered in texts. Deride, in the Nietzsche tradition, views philosophy not as a search for truth, but as a rhetorical engagement with the world. Truth and meaning are not fixed: they are metaphorical. Others have extended Dermis’s insights to the study of culture, literature, politics, and psychoanalysis, and, indeed, the displacement of meaning and truth characteristic of postmodernism has proved relevant to diverse academic disciplines.

Cast in the best possible light, postmodernism challenges hierarchies and presents a multiplicity of interpretations with an optimism that is not shared by the majority of scholars. Postmodernism anti-foundations is often linked to, if not actually equated with, the logic of late capitalism (Frederic Jameson) and political conservatism. Emphasis on epistemological undesirability and the loss of the subject appears to have persuaded many scholars to view postmodernism as nihilistic and irrational.

Nevertheless, postmodernism has come to be considered a significant endeavor in culture studies. The French philosopher Jean-Francis Leotard has articulated postmodernism within the aesthetic and political spheres. Leotard’s postmodernism critiques the totaling tendency of modernity’s monolithic world-views. Where there is completion and unity in modernism, one finds deferment and fragmentation in postmodernism. Leotard’s major contribution toward a definition of postmodernism is his theory of intransitives.

Modernity, according to Leotard, privileges all- encompassing narratives such as fascism, Marxism and capitalism. Leotard’s postmodernism encourages little narratives that claim to avoid utilization and preserve heterogeneity. Leotard’s challenge to the tendency to conceptualize history as events in a linear sequence means that, for him, postmodernism never can be represented in language or in history. Postmodernism for Leotard is neither a style nor an historical period. Instead, postmodernism is an unrepeatable deferment of conceptualization and totality.

This is coming from us. And we have not come close to even confronting this thing” (CTD. In Abbots, 2007: 94). Miller by his drama conveys the necessity of a humanistic response to the contemporary world. Such a description closely resembles the objectified picture the postmodern critic, Jameson, creates of contemporary society, where he announces the death of individualism, “symbolized by the emergent Anoraks Hoot; Profaner Zipper/Studies in Literature and Language Volvo. L No. 8, 2010 primacy of mechanical production” (1991 5), by which all becomes identical and exists without individual identity, choice, or spirit.

Miller carefully criticizes the consumer society and its capitalist logic. In fact Wily himself as salesman uses the language of advertisement to earn money. But this consumer world has harsh rules; it exploits everybody and as Wily affirms: “eat the orange and throw the peel away'(Miller: 61) although ” a man is not a piece of Trust” (61 In Tact man must struggle Tort survival In a consumer collect, wanly Is Like a consumer industry produces not things, but dreams disguised as things. Wily by the harsh machinery of the contemporary consumer world is beaten down.

He cannot get up back. Linda exhorts “But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid”(40). Wily is the victim of the American Dream and materialistic condition. Wily loan’s condition is so close to everybody in the consumer world that develops a sense of kinship to each person. He makes the audience aware of a common fatality and vulnerability. The society that Wily belongs to, is the business world. His boss, Howard, is the representative of the business world, which rejects Wily.

Unwilling to accommodate Will’s inability to travel anymore, Howard says, “No, but it’s a business, kid, and everybody’s goat pull his own weight” (60). Indeed Wily is born as a salesman. Murphy defines this idea: In the scene between Wily and Howard, he nearly sells Howard on the myth of Dave Signalman before he sabotages his sales pitch by losing his temper. Wily Leman is a very confused man, but his confusion about what it means to be a salesman and what it takes to succeed at the Job is as much cultural as personal (CTD In Abbots, 2007:108).

Wily is fired, in the end, not because a hard-nosed employer wants to eat the fruit and throw away the peel but because Wily cannot even sell himself. Bigly(2005) describes Wily Leman “as agent of an intrusive commercialism victim ND martyr creature touchingly, tragically doomed by the business culture he represented but which also leaves him as solitary figure in the social landscape”(110). In the contemporary consumer world the problem of postmodern man is, he is not being himself. He becomes vehicle for participation in a cycle of production and consumption.

He sells a commodity and becomes a commodity. When man thinks he can acquire everything, material or immaterial by buying it, he regards his personal qualities and the result of his efforts as commodities that can be sold for money. Thus man misses the experience of the activity of the present moment and chases the illusory happiness called success. There are many like Wily, who put all their faith in personality, friendship, and personal loyalty-?”Be liked and you will never want” (Miller: 21), but by coming a new way of thinking about salesmanship everything has changed.

Mass production and consumer culture have begun to alter his business economy, therefore, salesmanship has been treated as a profession to be learned. With mass production and increasing competition, buyers and merchants have begun to think more about profit. Murphy s idea about competition is interesting: With the stock market crash in 1929, and the Great Depression that followed it, the competition among salesmen became more and more cutthroat.

As Wily tells Ben in one of the daydream sequences that takes place in 1931, business is bad, it’s murderous . Using all of the tricks that Wily has learned in a lifetime of selling, including seducing the buyer’s secretary and bribing her with stockings, Wily is barely able to eke out a living for his family (CTD In Abbots, 2007:110). But during this period, the prevailing idea was still that, as Wily puts it, “the man who sakes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead” (21).

According to Murphy: in the post-war period, there was a pent-up demand for things like new cars, tires, Dragon-name liquor, Ana nylon stockings, wanly Ana not Eden available ruling ten war. The enormous war industry was being retooled to produce consumer goods, and the advertising business was expanding rapidly as Americans were “educated” into desiring things like Anoraks Hoot; Profaner Zipper/Studies in Literature and Language Volvo. L No. 8, 2010 vacuum cleaners, television sets, and air conditioners, which had not been manufactured in large quantities before the war. CTD. In Abbots, 2007:111). Death of a Salesman does not simply show the predicaments of the modern man stuck in a postmodern world, but also displays the conflicting views of these two worlds. Bigly(2005), suggests: Wily Loan’s American dream is drained of transcendence. It is a faith in the supremacy of the material over the spiritual. There is, though, another side to Wily, a side represented by the sense of insufficiency that sends him searching through his memories looking for the origin of failure, looking for expiation.

It is a side, too, represented by his son Biff, who has inherited this aspect of his sensibility, as Happy has inherited the other. Biff is drawn to nature, to working with his hands. He has a sense of poetry, an awareness that life means more than the dollars he earns. Wily has that, too. The problem is that he thinks it is irrelevant to the imperatives of his society and hence of his life which, to him, derives its meaning from that society (105). The Leman family is caught up in mindless consumerism, “whipped cheese” (6) and that these new products disrupt attempts at meaningful human interaction.

Shockley states: Miller shows the power of advertising and consumerism, and the contradictions of attitudes toward products in the Leman family by having Wily call his Chevrolet both “the greatest car ever built” and “that goddamn Chevrolet” in the space of only a few minutes, and in Willis remark that “Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it’s broken! ” But while Wily utters these remarks, he still is completely caught up in the pursuit of the dream. (CTD. In bloom, 2007:86) I HAVE MONEY THEN I AM In Death of Salesman the Becoming of man is weighed through his bank balance.

It is the strength of his bank account, which accordingly mirrors the importance of his existence as a being. The alienation that the industrial era brought upon men is witnessed in the character of Wily Leman. Through this alienation, Will’s connectivity to society is severed and his tie to moral responsibility on behalf of mankind is weakened greatly. He brushes with the uglier side of capitalism, and yet seemed unable to recognize or condemn this brutal side. Shockley asserts: In competitive society the rewards of being successful for Wily is to be well liked and to be rich.

To be rich also means to be “free” in the two senses above, with the added goldfinches of being admired, a model for others (CTD. In Bloom,2007: 84). Miller in Death of a Salesman gives the bitterest satire on human condition in contemporary century. He writes about demutualization result from Enlightenment. Miller criticizes the universal values of Enlightenment humanism. In the capitalism society, consumer culture shows the end of Grand narratives and western metaphysics, which bring tremendous rifts and disintegration among people.

Tutorial (T3/W4) 1. Blackboard Forum Refer to Blackboard, Discussion Board, for the tutorial assignment. i)Assume you’ve been appointed HR Executive (Training & Development) of McPEC (Marine & Offshore Engineering Pte Ltd) in Singapore. McPEC is a privately owned entity and a member of the Entraco Group of Companies. The company is capable of undertaking turnkey engineering, procurement, construction, installation and project management (EPCIM) for onshore and offshore oil and gas projects.

McPEC is also an ISO 9001-2000 certified company, which meets the ongoing demand for quality and safety standards of all oil and gas customers. Your immediate superior, Mr Lee, Human Resource Manager, has instructed you to come up with a proposal on how to conduct training for staff who are poor in time management. The following guidelines are given to you: – 20 staff, between the ages of 20 – 40, have been found to be poor in time management by not meeting deadlines for their work – 3 hours of training in time management to be conducted – Training Needs Analysis (TNA) not done Non-training needs not analysed With the knowledge you’ve gained so far from TRGD lectures and notes and with reference to McPEC, answer the following questions: • What are the training objectives? • What are the suitable training methods? • What are the factors that influence transfer of training? Enter your individual answer into Blackboard. This is to be done as homework before coming to the tutorial. ii)Watch the DVD by Julie Morgenstern who’s conducting training in time management.

Notice her approach and the points she covers. (Time given: 30 mins) Self-assessment How long it will take 4D’s: delete delegate delay diminishing Time map Transform the theory into practice Draw an applicable map for yourself Rapport Multi task iii)Tutor shall summarize the main points of the video and their relevance to the tutorial assignment. (Time given: 10 mins) iv)What could you learn from the approach taken by Julie? Read the answers of your classmates on Blackboard. What could you learn from the answers of your classmates?

Discuss as a group on how you could improve on your earlier individual answer on training in time management? Enter your improved group answer into Blackboard. (Time given: 50 mins) v)Each group is to present the main points of their answer. (Time given: 20 mins) Participation on Blackboard will contribute to your individual class participation mark as follows: – Relevant points for effective time management (20 marks) – Practical examples (20 marks) – Suitable for the Singapore context (10 marks) Total: 50 marks 2. Tutor Consultation Time – CA1

Throughout Iris Murdoch’s novel, ‘The Bell’ we are constantly being presented with conflicts, many of which relate to the discord between sex and religion which have been opposed to each other since the dawn of creation when Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation in the Garden of Eden. This conflict has particularly dark tendencies and acts as a destructive force for several characters, namely Catherine, Michael and Nick. Despite this being the primary theme of the novel we are also presented with a number of conflicts of a different nature.

The main conflict of the novel is that existing between sex and religion, as embodied by Catherine and Michael. Michael is constantly confronted by the issue of his sexuality and how it affects his religion. He is always striving to live a good life and he believes that entering into the priesthood would allow him to achieve this. However he is prevented from fulfilling this wish by his homosexuality which goes completely against the Church’s teaching. Michael believes that to live a good life, “One should have a conception of one’s capacities … study carefully how best to use such strength as one has”.

In initiating relationships with firstly Nick and then subsequently with Toby, Michael is clearly failing to do this. He is aware of his sexual tendencies and knows that they are viewed as improper but fails to take measures to prevent them from overpowering him. Michael admits to this failing in Chapter 16, “Michael was aware now … that it had been a great mistake to see Toby … the clasp of hands, had had an intensity, and indeed delightfulness, which he had not foreseen – or had not cared to foresee. ” Michael seems to take pleasure in the feeling of guilt which these forbidden relationships cause in him.

When he is confronted by James Tayper Pace, following Toby’s confession of what had taken place between them, he is quite willing to take all the blame for the whole situation, “The real blame belongs to me. By sending Toby away you’ve made him feel like a criminal. ” It is as though Michael wants James to blame him. He feeds off guilt; the constant cycle of guilt, redemption and then further guilt. Nick’s arrival at Imber Court acts as a further reminder of his sins and at the conclusion of the novel when Nick has killed himself, Michael is left with a permanent reminder of his actions as he becomes responsible for Catherine.

Despite all the guilt, Michael feels that his love of God and his love of Nick “come from the same source”. The moments in which he claims to feel closest to God are ironically found with Nick and Toby. Of Michael’s feelings over his initial contact with Toby the narrator comments that, “He had felt his heart heel over in tenderness for the boy, and had been sure that such a spring of feeling could not be wholly evil. ” However, Michael is unable to reconcile his homosexuality with his religion and is tormented by it constantly. Nick’s death destroys his faith in God and causes him to question whether he had ever really believed at all.

He is ridden with guilt over his failure to give Nick the redemption he was looking for. He made desperate cries for help but Michael was too concerned with trying to lead a ‘good life’ to notice. The one good thing he could have done was to be true to Nick, however he fails to realise this until it is too late. Although he does eventually return to the Mass he simply “existed beside it”. There is no longer any future for him in religion; he must concentrate on looking after Catherine. As the Abbess said, “the way is always forward, never back”.

Michael is facing in the right direction but it is up to him to start walking. Catherine, like Michael, cannot reconcile her sexuality with her religion. As a postulant nun she is preparing to sacrifice her whole life to serve God. Iris Murdoch believed that one of life’s great tasks was to engage in a process called unselfing. By joining the convent Catherine is attempting this process. Therefore, her feelings for Michael are totally improper for someone in her position; consequently she is ridden with guilt, which leads to her attempt to take her own life. The entire community is oblivious to her feelings for Michael.

She is viewed as being something the other members should aspire to, “our little saint” as Mrs Mark observes. Dora is particularly in awe of her, both for her beauty and apparent sexual purity. She also feels slightly threatened by her as she represents what she can never have or be. It is as a result of Dora’s interest in Catherine that we first get a suggestion that she is not as holy as everyone believes. Dora questions her motives for wishing to enter the abbey and Catherine’s reply is, “There are things one doesn’t choose … I don’t mean they are forced on one. But one doesn’t choose them.

These are often the best things”. This hints that she is not whole-hearted in her wish for a religious life: it appears that it is what was always expected of her, rather than being of her own design. Dora is the only character who notices this; the rest are all deceived until the dramatic incidents at the end. However nobody suspects that she may have feelings towards Michael. The only incident where we are given an inkling of any attraction is when Nick is working on the van and Catherine is sitting beside him with her skirt up around her waist; Michael arrives and she doesn’t readjust it.

Michael feels uncomfortable in this situation but gets the impression that she must “positively dislike him” as she looks up at him without smiling. Catherine ultimately fails to suppress her love for Michael and when the new bell falls into the lake she views this as a sign that God has condemned her, driving her to attempt to take her own life. Like Michael she cannot be truly good as she cannot reconcile her faith with her sexuality. There are also religious conflicts within the community as a whole. Firstly there is the conflict between the abbey and the lay community.

The abbey is cut off both physically and in terms of the role it plays in everyday life. The abbey is separated from Imber Court by a large lake. The only way to reach the abbey is by a rowing boat which can be pulled across from either end. Then there is a high wall which goes all the way around the abbey. The only way in is through a door in the wall, which surprisingly is always kept unlocked. Toby discovers this when he climbs over the wall into the abbey as part of his sexual awakening. This incident follows the embrace with Michael and is Toby’s attempt to convince himself that he is not homosexual.

There is very little contact made between the abbey and the court. We only see rare glimpses of the nuns and Michael is the only person who is allowed to visit the Abbess. Most communications are made through Mother Clare, her intermediary. These boundaries are all representative of the widening gap between lay and spiritual life, and the fading role of religion in everyday existence during the 1950’s when Murdoch was writing. People were abandoning the church in favour of other beliefs more relevant to the world they were living in.

The community as a whole is separated from the rest of the world as there is a boundary wall enclosing both the abbey and the court. As Michael comes to realise, the community was an impossible dream; it is an attempt to isolate themselves from the realities of life. We also see religious and sexual conflicts between individual characters. Take for instance the contrasting speeches given by Michael and James Tayper Pace, in chapters 9 and 16 respectively, on how to live a ‘good life’. James teaches that the good life is, “to live without any image of oneself”. He has absolute faith in God and believes that he will guide him through life.

James is a very sure person, confident in his own beliefs and very dismissive of anyone who disagrees with him. “I have little time for the man who finds his life too complicated for the ordinary rules to fit”. This viewpoint is very much the orthodox view of religion that had held prominence unchallenged for centuries until the time period in which Murdoch wrote the novel, when people started challenging this blinkered outlook. Michael by contrast takes a much more open stance. He believes this it is important to, “have some conception of one’s capacities” so as to know “how best to use such strengths as one has”.

Rather than having blind faith in God alone he suggests that you should explore yourself, test the boundaries of your capabilities. Ironically Michael fails to be aware of his own shortcomings in his dealings with Nick and Toby. To most modern audiences this attitude would seem much the better of the two. Nevertheless, in presenting these two different viewpoints Murdoch acts as a moral philosopher but allows us to contemplate and draw our own conclusions. She does not appear to be endorsing one in particular, possibly suggesting that the way forward is a compromise between the two.

There is also a conflict of character between Mrs Mark and Dora. Mrs Mark strictly enforces the religious ideals of the community. For example when Dora asks her what she and her husband did before entering the community she is told, “We never discuss our past lives here … when people ask each other questions about their lives, their motives are rarely pure”. In fact Dora is asking purely out of interest, she does not attempt to judge others. By conversing with Mrs Mark she was simply trying to show human warmth but this is killed by Mrs Mark’s restrictive nature, which is reflected in the community as a whole.

Murdoch uses symbolism to show conflicts with this novel and the most obvious use of it is the two bells. The old bell depicts scenes from the life of Christ, illustrated by rural, peasant images. It is inscribed with the words, “Vox ego amoris sum” (I am the voice of love). The bell is symbolic of a traditional way of life that had existed for centuries, with religious and secular life co-existing in harmony. In contrast the new bell is covered with “arabesque swirls”: these are meaningless, therefore reflecting the declining importance of religion in peoples’ lives.

Spiritual fulfilment was becoming more abstract during the 1950’s, an example being Dora’s revelation in the National Gallery when she is standing in front of Gainsborough’s painting of his two daughters and experiences something “real” but at the same time “perfect”. In the past people would have turned to religion to provide such feelings and called them revelations. The story of the bell flying into the lake and the nun who drowned herself because she was having a relationship with a man are representative of the ongoing conflict between sex and religion.

When the old bell is rung again it heralds the revealing of the long know truth that this conflict will never die, as Catherine declares her love for Michael and Toby confesses to James Tayper Pace over his encounters with Michael. The tarnishing and growths encrusted on the bell from years of being underwater illustrate the loss of purity in contemporary religion, also the tarnishing of Michael and, through his actions, Nick. The lake is another important symbol which contains different meanings.

As well as providing a physical gap between the court and the abbey it is symbolic of the divide between spiritual and temporal life. When at the end of the novel Dora cuts the painter on the rowing boat it shows that there is no future for these two lifestyles to exist side by side. The lake is particularly significant when analysing the character of Toby. When he is contemplating his relationships with Dora and Michael he walks “carefully” around the lake. He is young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, not yet ready to make important decisions such as his sexuality.

The murky waters of the lake represent the mysteries of life; Toby has tested the water out but is not going to throw himself in until he is certain. His ability to swim is also symbolic of the fact that he can cope with situations that face him; likewise, the aquatic nun who comes to the rescue of Catherine and Dora. She has learnt to live a purely religious life. Dora cannot swim at the beginning of the novel, she is drowning in Paul’s restrictive power, however by the end she has learnt to live without him and take control of her own life.

By contrast, Catherine is never able to come to terms with her feelings for Michael, resulting in her near death experience by drowning. There are other significant examples of symbolism. When Michael is in the chapel and describes the singing of the nuns as “hideous purity” this symbolises the struggle between sex and religion which is taking place inside him. It is because of this conflict that he finds their singing repulsive, as they have what he wants but knows he will never get; a truly religious life.

Catherine is in a similar position, therefore it is perhaps significant that they both have the same dream about the drowning nun. There is ironic symbolism in the name of Dora’s lover, Noel Spens. Noel is a very Christian name but he speaks out strongly against religion. He believes that it misguides people and places unfair restrictions on their lives. Dora’s changing musical tastes are also significant. At the beginning when they hold an evening of Bach’s music, Dora dislikes this as she finds it too structured and formal.

She much prefers listening to Noel’s jazz music, with its jungle rhythms and exuberant style. However by the end of the novel we are told that she has taken an interest in listening to Mozart. This is representative of the change from chaos to order in her life in general. She learns to take control of her life and not let Paul repress her. Initially she describes marriage as being “enclosed in the aims of another”. She is scared of Paul’s physical power and will follow his orders to the letter. She is like the butterfly trapped on the train.

Toby saves her from his restrictiveness by allowing her to rediscover her youth. He releases her. At the same time Dora saves Toby from being trapped in a relationship with Michael by allowing him to realise that he is not homosexual. There are many conflicts within this novel, the majority of which relate in some way to that existing between sex and religion. It is its destructive nature which makes this conflict so dark and I would argue that it is a conflict that can never truly be resolved. We do see different kinds of conflict as I have discussed but these do not play such a central role in the novel.

Conflicts in the family are usually considered as an undesirable symptom of a problem that need to be solved by family members.  In the family relationships, the parent-adolescent relationship represents an involuntary association, an imbalance of power and resources, and an obligation for the parent to function as caregiver.  While the presenting problem with most families is obviously parent-adolescent conflict. Adolescence is a period of increasing parent-child conflict and conflicts are thought to be rife and common during this development phase. In the puberty, Parents have the totally different interpretations of the conflicts against adolescents. Parents notice the disagreements caused from morality, personal safety and conformity concerns while adolescents consider them as personal choice. This piece of work deals with the question what causes conflict adolescents and their parents. In the first part various issues causing the conflicts in families are introduced. Building upon this, the next chapter concentrates on the analysing the reasons.

Occurrence and Issues of Conflict

Owing to that family members share the communal resources and so much time, conflicts are normative and inevitable. As the expressive form, usually family conflicts between parents and adolescents will behaved in a variety of ways like whining, complaining, yelling, crying to arguing, screaming and swearing, which ranged from giving up halfway during the chores to quarrelling and even fighting.  Those activities are undesirable in family harmony, everyone wants to live in a warm and so what should be done is to search for the reasons and then analyse them. The disagreements and conflicts between parents and teenagers can be numerous and diverse.

Difficulties associated with marital conflict or personal problem of individual family members lead to variable conflicts.  Ten main content categories which lead to conflicts were concluded and defined in Table 1 and the percent frequency of each part is given by Table 2. 8  From these tables one can easily get the conclusion that doing chores, interpersonal relations, regulating activities and personality characteristics lead to conflicts the most frequently, accounting for 18%, 17%, 12% and 12% respectively.

In addition, another research indicated that conflicts about chores and interpersonal relationships were more difficult to resolve than those about personal style.  On the other hand, parents pay much more attention to adolescents` behavioral style, whereas the adolescents considered the restrictions on their interpersonal relationship as the chief issue leading to the conflicts. 10 Analysis the Reason The different values between parents and adolescents actually exist regarding to the tiny issues as discussed above and the differences always cause the disagreements.During the adolescence, many adolescents refuse to accept the values and standpoints emerged by their parents.

Disagreements related to different values finally develop into intense conflicts when both the two sides can not tolerate the other`s behaviour any more.  Recently, more attempts have been tried to explain the parent-adolescent conflict. The theory of transformation of family patterns of interaction is emphasized.  The theory illustrates that several years have been costed for parents and their children to establish an acceptable pattern of interaction, however, during the puberty of period, both the parent-adolescent relationships change because parties` evelopment, not just one side14. The adolescents are bound to get changes in both psychological and physical aspects.

On the same time, they cultivate new cognitions and expectations as getting more contact to the society.  For the alteration mentioned, the former balance is certainly to be broken. Then the whole family members are going to endeavor to learn from their experiences in their patterns of communication , made a decision if they should adopt or change the family models and form an adjustment of the family system in order to achieve new equilibrium. 16 During this deconstruction and reconstruction 17 procedure poor communication easily brings on conflicts.

Conclusion

The family are, for most of the adolescents, the communicative context in which they learn how conflict should and should not be done. The conflict permeate everyday communication in family experiences become powerful guideposts for how one can avoid and solve conflicts throughout one`s daily life. Some of the common reasons cited for parent-adolescent conflict are chores, interpersonal relations, regulating activities and personality characteristics.

A lack of understanding and empathy between parents and adolescents is likely to disrupt family harmony and lead to conflict. It is easy to conclude that early adolescence is more stressful than late adolescence because parents are establishing new guidelines and parameters regarding to acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Conflicts will not abate until the pubertal maturation and change of relationship are complete, typically by late adolescence. The final result is the eternal change in the relationship that the adolescents are permitted to take participation in family communication as an adult.

What do you consider to be the main causes of social conflict in Britain’s cities in the last ten years? Stephenie Thourgood What do you consider to be the main causes of social conflict in Britain’s Cities in the last ten years? This essay aims to introduce types of social conflict that prevail in today’s society and identify possible causes to the social conflict that has occurred in British cities within the last decade. Social conflict is the struggle between individuals or groups of people within a society that have opposing beliefs/ interests to other groups.

From these struggles, tensions are produced and are expressed in a variety of ways often through anti-social behaviour such as theft, drugs, riots, attacks, demonstrations, strikes, hooliganism and vandalism. The main focus of this paper will be the causes behind the riots in British cities in the last ten years, as riots are a form of social conflict easier to measure than the other forms; Riots occur sporadically and last for a certain duration. Crime for example is an ongoing process in all areas of the country. The essay will conclude by suggesting changes to be made to reduce social conflict in Britain.

Britain has a history of city riots that were probably most prominent in the 1980’s in areas such as Brixton and Manchester. There have been thirteen recorded riots between 1991 and 1992 where the police temporarily lost control over the violence. All of the riots occurred in council estates on the periphery of London in low-income areas with long standing socio-economic problems. Unemployment levels were far above the national average. The participants were predominantly young white British males aged between 10 and 30 years old.

There tended to be a high concentration of young people, in some areas over half of the residents were under 24 years of age (Power, A 1997. ppix). Individuals in society have labelled this group of people the ‘underclass’. There are however different understandings of what is meant by the ‘underclass’. It would seem that in a time where the class system is supposedly dead, class differences still exist.

The ‘underclass’ in this paper will be considered as people with ” low educational attainment, a lack of adequate skills …. ,shared spatial location, dependency on welfare, unemployment and under-employment… pathological family structures and the inter-generational transmission of poverty; involvement in the unreported economy and a pre-disposition to criminal and disorderly behaviour”( Crowther, C, 1997 pp7). In the way that the working class had little power in the capitalist system until they formed a global alliance of all workers (proletariat), the underclass too struggle to make a difference until they unite and riot (Dicken, P 1990). There are many reasons behind social conflict and there are also catalysts that trigger the social disorder such as riots.

Community is often a group of people with shared interests, a neighbourhood where residents feel a sense of identification and belonging. Traditionally a sense of community was based around the neighbourhood you resided. This concept is fast deteriorating as new community identities within communities evolve e. g. the ‘gay community’ and ‘ethnic communities’. These divisions within the community produce conflict as the various groups have different interests and perceived priorities in the neighbourhood (Hogget, P, 1997). Social tensions also occur due to demographical factors surrounding the communities.

The housing estates that often witness violent outbreaks tend to have a population of predominantly young people, unemployed or on a low income, living in council housing. The estate is then branded an economically deprived area. If there were a mix in the wealth of the estate then role models for the less affluent would exist and give the deprived younger resident something to aspire to. Due to the young age of a large percentage of the residents, they are easily influenced and attracted to the mobilized violence, as there is support from fellow young residents and peers.

Smaller groups of youngsters living on the estates would find it difficult to make an impression as numbers would be too small to cause the large scale of disorder evident in the riots of the last decade. “A mix of more mature households with younger families would provide stronger community constraints” (Power, A etal, 1997, ppxi). There was an increase in the amount of migrants living in Britain since the 1950’s, this is no longer encouraged and constraints have been placed upon the process. Newly arriving immigrants were housed in the poorer areas of Britain.

Obviously different ethnic groups have different cultures and interests. By housing them alongside the poorer British residents, very different groups were forced to live together in one community. As a result of this process there became a high concentration of poverty stricken ethnic minority groups living in densely overpopulated areas, which created tensions and pressure on local services. Equal opportunities policies sought to eliminate racial discrimination suffered by the ethnic minorities, by increasing the amount of minority employees.

White unemployed residents job-hunting would find themselves in direct competition with the minority groups and therefore feel bitter that the minority groups can obtain work in Britain where some of the British can not (Crowther, C 1997). “Although race was not a dominant issue in the riots, individual minority families became targets of hate” (Power, A etal. 1997 pp 20) The white residents of the estates wanted to blame someone for their undesirable situation and targeted ethnic minorities as scapegoats to take their anger out upon in some of the riots.

The economic disadvantage of the residents of these estates also contributed to the outbreaks. Education was often not reinforced by families on the estates, as they too had never had the importance of education demonstrated to them. Due to the lack of education, they knew of no alternative option to voice their opinions other than by violent methods such as rioting. Low educational attainment meant that children did not have the skills required of them to become a member of the labour force, and so often became dependent upon welfare (Crowther, C 1997).

The provision of welfare undermines individual responsibility by giving rational human agents the incentives to not work and provide for themselves, thereby creating welfare dependency” (Crowther, C 1997. pp9). Girls very rarely played any major part in the rioting. This can be explained by the fact that girls achieved higher in school. They were more successful than boys in gaining employment and so had a sense of self-fulfilment. As boys’ educational attainment levels were lower they were exposed to the feeling of failure, which carried on into their years of job seeking (Power, A etal, 1997).

Many of the girls may have been mothers and as mother women may have recognised their responsibilities socially and did not want to be associated with the violence. Males, however, did not maintain their social role as a father and readily participated in the riots (Ginsberg, N 1993). The recession contributed to rioting also as it caused changes in the labour market that when combined with racial competition led to ever increasing tensions: “Throughout the course of their struggle to improve their market situation the ‘white’ labour force often entered into antagonistic relations with ‘black labourers.

Thus the segregation of ‘white’ from ‘black’ workers is shaped by individual attitudes and actions” (Crowther, C 1997, pp 12) The young unemployed people become bored as they have much free time and limited finance to pursue on interesting activities/hobbies. As a result of this they often turn to crime for means of enjoyment, excitement and to increase their income. Unemployment can give people a feeling of low self worth and a lack of respect from their family. Various types of crime such as stealing a car may often earn them respect from their peers and families especially if there is financial gain.

This had a circular effect however as crime on the estate caused conflict between the victimised residents and the criminal population of the area (Altman, I 1975). Political factors can also help to explain the reasons behind social conflict. The areas that tend to be prone to disturbance tend to be areas that major government programmes are focussed upon. The Government created massive programmes that entailed investing money to improve housing, transport and urban renewal.

An estate based housing office, a tenants association, health projects, community development trusts, policing projects are examples of the types of programmes initiated. They aimed to improve the immediate vicinity of the poorer estates, but the programmes had a short-term impact. It is true that the projects improved the quality of life for the residents, but nothing was done to increase education or job prospects. The government provided the estates with no means to continually support themselves and sustain their improved lifestyle.

After time the services became run down again and the unemployed resident is still poor and frustrated. Government resources were scarce as they tried to divide the budget between all the different needs of the sub-communities within the community (Hogget, P 1997). “The cost of growing dependency by community organisations on such programmes in any areas became apparent…. community groups often found themselves in a struggle for scarce resources… which exacerbated existing lines of tension between communities of difference” ( Hoggett, P 1997 pp10).

Residents were previously not involved in the decision-making process on how funding was to be spent; they had no control over what was done in their community space. Had they been consulted they would probably have opted for a scheme that aimed to obtain businesses reinvestment in the area. “Most externally funded programmes were driven by outside constraints and did very little to change the prospects for young men or their stake in what happened” (Power, A etal 1997. ppx). Social aspects are considered to cause social conflict. All of the aforementioned reasons for social conflict lead to an accumulation of pressure upon a family.

Home is perceived as a haven where people can take shelter from society, if the home is of poor quality and overcrowded with family breakdown there is no escape for those residing there; they are constantly faced with their deprivation and problems (Dickens, P, 1990). An increase in single parent families means for many youngsters there is no role model to reinforce ideal behaviour. From a study on youth and crime undertaken by ‘The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’ it was discovered that damaged adults create damaged children (Power, A etal 1997).

Poor quality parenting, parental conflict, little enthusiasm for education, criminal behaviour and poverty set examples to children that they too would follow. Pressure on the head of the family to be the provider can lead to tensions particularly if the family is in poverty and the parents are unemployed and dependent on welfare. The rest of the family may lose respect for that person, as they cannot provide an affluent lifestyle for their children. The media contribute to social conflict, as they provided a method by which the residents could communicate to the wider society.

The media always reported on the riots and often exaggerated the situation. In some cases the media have been prosecuted for encouraging youths to riot so that the reporters could gain a good story for the sake of ratings. “the newspaper headlines provide a relentless reportage of the consequences of the collapse of excluded communities” (Hoggett, P 1997 pp13) Areas were often stereotyped as being ‘bad’ by the media. The estates then experienced difficulties in trying to escape this labelling especially when applying for jobs. Weak social control caused by weak links with the wider society also contributed to social conflict.

The youths were rarely punished for the riots and often gained support, attention and funding from the Government as a result. Due to lack of enforcement upon them they were constantly pushing the boundaries. They felt they had nothing to lose by rioting. Changes in society lead to increased tensions between marginalized groups and the police service. The police provided little protection to the community, they only responded to reported crimes. Due to the intimidation of the residents from the criminals on the estates, police struggled to find witnesses for the incidents.

The police were therefore limited. Tensions between the criminals and the police grew, as the youths antagonised the police knowing that the police were unable to arrest them (Crowther, C 1997). During the riots the battle between the police and the youths was therefore often personal (Power, A etal, 1997). A diagram to show how rioting may occur. Riot Denial of voice Alternative power Boys excluded from family, Control battle school, work, leisure facilities Violence in public areas Loss of control Alternative voice Control vacuum Gang Formation

Police challenge Hard tough style Rumbling disorder Intimidation, law-breaking Display of power Notoriety (Power A etal, 1997 pp53) Several case studies can be used to reinforce the reasons given. I have selected Blackbird Lees, and Bradford. Blackbird Lees is a housing estate located on the periphery of a large town in the Midlands in the 1950’s and 1960’s to house workers from the local industries. Only 8% of the houses were owner-occupied. The estate had few basic services such as shops, a medical centre, public houses and a bus route to the town centre.

The population was predominantly young with 56% being under the age of 25, and 94% of the estates population were white. Unemployment levels were high at 42% and 22% of households were single parented. By the mid 1980’s the estate was perceived as being one of the least desirable estates in the area. The area has a history of anti-social behaviour such as crime and harassment. The ethnic minorities were usually the first to be harassed. In 1992, the estate was awarded 15 million pounds to improve housing, services, diversify the tenure and increase resident involvement.

A particular activity of the youths was to steal and ride motorbikes over the large areas of open space near to the estate. Residents wanting to use the green for other purposes felt too intimidated to do so. Petitions were drawn up and handed to the police who found it hard to impose control. Bikes were difficult to chase and often the bikers outnumbered the police. The riot was triggered by the arrest of three youths for a motorbiking related offence. Later that day fifty youths congregated and caused damage to the surrounding area in protest. More youths were arrested and the disorder continued and escalated over the following nights.

On the fifth night 150 police with protective equipment took control of the situation and the disturbances ceased. Many residents, police and Councillors felt the disturbances were minor, and that the media exaggerated the events. There were conflicting perspectives of the role of the police; some believed they neglected the brewing problems for too long, whilst others believed they overreacted to the disturbance (Power, A etal 1997) Bradford is another area that suffered riots only this year. Bradford used to be dominated by the textile industry; due to the industry’s decline many people were made unemployed.

During the summer of 2001, riots broke out sparked by the general election. The area has a large ethnic minority population, high unemployment numbers and a substantial young population. A high percentage of voters supported the British Nationalist Party (BNP). The BNP gained much of their support by feeding from the tensions between the minorities and the ‘whites’. The BNP fuelled ideas that the ‘Asians’ were taking all the benefits and jobs from the ‘whites’, and that the ‘Asians’ were the reason the whites were deprived. Both gangs had been involved in attacks prior to these riots.

One night the ‘Asians’ congregated in the streets and caused a full scale violent riot where the local vicinity was attacked and vandalised. It is thought they did this due to the propaganda spread by the BNP, which made them feel alienated in their own neighbourhood. The riot was very territorial fighting for social space to exist freely within (www. bbc. co. uk. news 2001). In conclusion, social conflict is the result of a concoction of factors that when fused together result in an explosion of disorder. The factors are social, economical, racial, demographical, political and geographical (Benyon, J 1987).

When the status of these factors leads to a socially excluded deprived ‘class’ of people who feel discriminated against, rioting is often witnessed. There are however, some more deprived areas where rioting has never occurred. This may be because there is stronger police control, or the age of the population may be evenly dispersed. All the areas that witnessed riots had large groups of young unemployed males living in a similar deprived geographical location (Crowther, C 1997). These men are “more vulnerable to group solidarity with other, similarly excluded, vulnerable, disorientated and poorly prepared young men” (Power, A etal, 1997. p51)

These men were socially excluded and so rioted to release aggression, to be noticed, and to attempt to break the vicious circle they were born into. Riots are perceived by many as the ‘revenge of the socially excluded’ (Crowther, C. 1997). Riots can produce results. The people involved in the riots are very rarely reprimanded for their actions, instead more money and programmes are set up to improve the infrastructure, services and support. Positive action needs to be taken in order to prevent further outbreaks.

For a stable future young people should be taught that there are other non-violent ways to voice their opinions and recognise that an interest in their education can lead to better job prospects. A population mix should be generated in order to diversify the types of people living together. Activities within the community to relieve boredom and give people a shared interest should be initiated. Improved support should be given to parents and families and to community development groups. These ideas should be taken into account when planning future housing development and regeneration (Power, A etal, 1997).

It is also argued that planning decisions from the past have contributed to the racial tensions and exclusion of certain groups by creating ‘ghetto’ type areas through the housing policies (Solomos, J 1993). There are many aspects as discussed previously that when integrated lead to social conflict; the major cause being the long term exclusion and deprivation that the so-called ‘underclass’ are made to suffer. They endeavour to change their situation but with so many limitations upon them, they are rarely successful other than through rioting. Multiple deprivation has dangerous consequences.

Throughout recorded history, women the world over have been held to different standards than men. They have been consistently oppressed in nearly all aspects of life, from political to personal, public to private. In the 20th century, great strides have been taken to end this oppression and level the playing field. In India however, a number of deeply rooted traditions have made this effort particularly difficult, and as a result, women’s triumphs over oppression in India are all the more intriguing.

To understand the position women found themselves in at the dawn of the 20th century, one must have a general understanding of the numerous historical women’s conflicts unique to the Subcontinent. It took the overwhelming success of Gandhi’s nonviolent revolution to unite women politically and create the an atmosphere whereby women, empowered by the times, could take a stand for their equality. The 1970’s saw the beginning of a highly organized modern women’s movement in India. Violence against women was one of the main focuses of the movement.

Harassment, wife-beating, rape, and “dowry deaths” were all too common, and police enforcement was ineffective as were most attempts at prosecution. Commonly called “atrocities against women”, these acts occurred frequently. Why then, if these events were happening so often, was there so much apathy towards them on the part of the courts and the police? To answer this question one must look back upon a history marked by religiously and culturally accepted forms of oppression such as female infanticide, polygamy, purdah and sati.

Purdah, still practiced today in many Moslem societies, is the practice of covering a women in cloth to protect them from the gaze of non-family males, in order to maintain their purity. This practice became common in India in the days of the sultanate. From a traditional western perspective this is a very repressive requirement. Gandhi took a particular pleasure in bringing women out of purdah, and involving them in the political movements of the times. Sati is another story. Early British rule in India was careful to stay out of the traditions and private lives of the natives.

They ruled indirectly, typically demanding monetary tribute from local leaders in exchange for allowing them to rule as they pleased. This philosophy changed dramatically under the governor-generalship of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck which began in 1828. He began a much more interventionist policy that included the an increase in transportation facilities, industrialized cloth production (which displaced the ancient commercial structure) and he abolished the ancient tradition of sati (female infanticide was also outlawed by the British). The last of which caused a great rift in India’s intellectuals and businessmen.

Sati is an ancient Hindu tradition whereby a widow is burned in the cremation fire of her departed husband. This practice was abhorred by British missionaries and businessmen. However, to many of India’s intellectuals it was an act of bravery and dedication on the part of the widow, to be admired. This is evidenced by the first petition against the intervention, which stated, “Hindoo widows perform (sati), of their own accord and pleasure, and for the benefit of their Husbands’ souls and for their own, the sacrifice of self-immolation called Suttee (another spelling of sati)- which is not merely a sacred duty but a high priviledge”(Stein, p. 22).

For those who did not take part in this practice, the life of a Hindu widow was a very restricted one. A census conducted in 1881 showed that one-fifth of all women were widows, so these restrictions were very important. The Dharmashashra of Manu (a Hindu text) talks about how a Brahmin widow should act stating, “… but she may never mention the name of another man after her husband has died. (Stein, p. 94) As child brides were common in the Subcontinent, one often saw young widows unable by traditional law to remarry and make an attempt at a new life.

Furthermore, they rarely had the education to support themselves. Education was historically bestowed solely upon the males. In the 19th century only the wealthiest of families sought after any sort of formal education for their female children, and there was no movement in the government to change this. “A survey of Madras found over 5000 girls enrolled in Indian language schools, as against 179,000 boys”(Stein p. 268). This lack of concern for the formal education of women exemplifies how their place in society was viewed.

The treatment of high cast women was one of the first forms of oppression attacked by advocates of women’s rights. In the 1860’s action was taken by avid social reformer Madhav Govinda Ranade, who founded the Widow Re-marriage Association and the Deccan Education Society (which sought to increase young women’s educational facilities). Although Ranade challenged some of traditions that prevented the liberation of women, he was seen by many as a hypocrite, himself taking on a child bride after the death of his wife.

Soon however women would take the reins in the battle for their own independence. A woman by the name of Ramabia is considered, “the first Indian Feminist to address other women directly about emancipation” (Stein, p. 275). She, like Ranade, was a member of the Brahman caste. She would go on to travel and study in England and later in America, where she wrote about the mistreatment of women in India. A converted Christian upon her return to India, Ramabia opened schools for high caste women.

This effort, in conjunction with various projects Ramabia worked on for women, was far ahead of its time and it would take nearly a century before women would tightly bind together to formally resist oppression. Early in the 20th century women were forbidden to protest their condition or even to congregate to discuss the matter. This was a right even the lowest cast males, the untouchables, was bestowed. It was a common belief at the time, that free women would inevitably come to neglect their marital responsibilities.

The Indian National Congress, led by Gandhi, was one of the first political organizations to actively include woman, even women formally in Purdah. Although these women mobilized formally in the name of nationalism, it was this extensive political activity that would become a catalyst for future self conscious feminism (a school of thought that was looked upon with great caution and fear). In 1917 the congress demanded that women be able to vote on the same basis as men, but these efforts to were for the progress of nationalism rather than exclusively for the improvement of women’s rights.

The eventual partition and independence of India was seen as a tremendous success for passive resistance and the Gandhian way. In the decades to come a number of political movements would emerge that would utilize various forms of civil disobedience as their main form of protest. There was intense and organized women’s participation in these movements, as a result of their participation in the independence movement there was a clear precedent for this. In the 1960’s India saw the effects of dramatically improved agricultural techniques resulting from the new technology of the ‘Green Revolution’.

However, these benefits did not come without a cost. Although food was more plentiful, farmers not wealthy enough to keep up with the technology got left in the dust. As a result women toiling on the land found themselves worse off than ever before. There were also severe environmental implications of the sudden and extensive use of technology. In response a number of movements emerged. Within these movements (such as the Marxist, the Farmers, and the Environmental movements) unified groups of women emerged and took on unprecedented responsibility.

They actively and enthusiastically sought after redistribution of land and wages. The first group to cross over and actively seek out women’s liberation was an organization of “new Marxists” called Magowa. Starting in Maharashtra, which would become the center for liberation activity, they wrote their second publication on the, “varied facets of women’s oppression in India”(Omvedt p. 76). The population base of this movement was the rural and the toiling. This was important because the women of this group were already organized, although not all of these organizations with this base turned their focus toward feminist causes.

1974 was a pivotal year for the movement. Not only did it see the founding of POW (the Progressive Organization of Women), but it was the year that the official Status of Women Commission published their report, Towards Equality, on women’s low and ever decreasing status in Indian society. This paper would add much fuel to the impending fire and validate it to the mainstream population. There were large conferences in Pune and Trivandrum in 1975 on women’s issues further bringing the movement into the mainstream. Many autonomous groups popped up with different agendas and issues.

Some of the common issues included; the division of housework, party politics, rape, and “dowry deaths”. The issues of violence, popularly called “atrocities against women” became the centerpiece of the movement in the early eighties and the cause for its expansion. A forum against rape in Bombay led to the creation of the Forum Against Atrocities on Women, or the FAOW. All over India these feminist groups were emerging. There constituencies came to included women from all walks of life No longer did women simply motivate toward third party objectives, they now fought for their own rights as the largest oppressed group in the nation.

From an unanswerable and most often unaddressed problem in the 1800’s, to a hotly contested issue on the cutting edge of politics in modern times, the conflict over women’s rights in India has come full circle in one century. Although feminist sentiments existed throughout, it took active female inclusion in the political world by Gandhi’s independence movement to give their voices strength and to eventually have them heard. There was avid political activity on the part of women and female organizations leading up to the 1947 split.

The effectiveness of this work foreshadowed the influence women could have on politics when working together, and paved the way for the modern women’s movement that began in the 1970’s. Unfortunately, even at the end of the eighties “atrocities against women” were still occurring and they continue to occur today, but the change in attitude and the end of apathy that has emerged over the last century surely gives promise that someday there could truly be equality for women in India, and the world over.