Make your writing incredibly appealing with 10 unexpected secret

Make your writing incredibly appealing with 10 unexpected secret Make Your Writing Incredibly Appealing With 10 Unexpected Secret There are many writers in the world, however, not all of them have their own voice. Writing with you own voice is something that comes with time. Begin by reaching inside yourself to find your inner dark, or light side. It is suggested that writers write about what they know. We can think all day about our experiences, but putting them down on paper is harder that it sounds. It is hard because as writers we forget that in order to become a paid writer, we don’t write for ourselves, we have to do it for our audience. When we were kids, those of us that love to write, were usually somewhere off to ourselves writing poems or short stories, and we only had to listen to our own thoughts and just jot things down. Our parents praised out efforts whether they understood what we wrote or not. That is not the way we should be writing today. In order to find our voice, we need to have an audience to listen to it, to validate it, to make us some money. Don’t get me wrong, there are still times that writing is just for writings sake, but when we have to pay the bills and we have graduated college and need that extra cash, we need to be writing to get it. How do you find your voice to write for others’, how do you begin to engage your audience? Get to know your Audience This means doing extensive research. When you are surfing the Internet interacting with social media, begin to keep a record of the demographics that are going on at the sites that you visit. What are the people in your groups saying, what are they asking about? Their ages? Locations? The people that you have chosen to spend time with are your homework, they are who your audience is. Google Plus has a communities’ page that gives you access to hundreds of groups. Which of these are you drawn too? That is your audience. People that can make you open your mind and write in your voice are the people that will buy your writing skills. These are the people that your writing will be incredibly appealing too. Survey Your Friends and Neighbors There are plenty of ways to utilize surveys. One way in particular is the â€Å"what do you need† type of survey. Finding out what people need is a great way to find your voice. When you know what someone needs, you can reach into the wealth of information that you have gathered through research and life, and see if it is something that you can service. Your Voice Not Someone Else’s’ Look in the mirror. See that face? It is totally individual from anyone’s on the planet. You are not going to write like anyone but you. If you try to , you will fail miserably, and you will stunt your own writer's creativity. Stop comparing yourself to the other who is making good. You time will come. You have to work on it, each and every day. Keep your thoughts on finding what you can write about that will come naturally from your soul instead of how so-and-so had a release party for their new book. Find your voice in an essay Can you think of a time in your life that things were making you feel trapped? How did you grow up, was it in a bad neighborhood, were you adopted, an orphan? Possibly you may have had a golden life. Did you grow up rich and then find yourself penniless after the recession? Are you feeling me on these topics? Write about details of your life and release it in essay form. Oh? You thought your essay writing days were over?   No, you are a writer and you will be developing essays for various reasons all your life, well serious writers will. Blog the essay onto social media and wait for the comments. What are people saying about it, is there any response at all? If not, try something new, but if you get a plethora of comments that start off with, I wish I had†¦or, If I could have done†¦. or This is what I have been looking for, then you have found your audience. Appeal to The Humanness in Humans When you begin to get those creative juices flowing onto that blank page, what are going for? Tears, laughter, anger? Engaging your audience begins with being able to drive right through the heart of the individual that is reading your copy and being able to keep them interested in what you are saying. If your characterizations are boring, so will the outcome of your story. If your topic doesn’t grab their attention with the opening paragraph, some may read two or three but seriously, how many books/articles/ etc. have you read past the first couple of paragraphs that sounded like Charlie Brown’s parents, uninteresting and un-intelligible.   When explaining a book, you have read, doesn’t it feel good to say how much you loved it and how engaging it was? Feelings are what every type of writing is going after. Pets cannot read, although there are some pet owners that think that theirs can. That is a whole different article. Leave Your Arrogance for Your Diary Focusing on using your voice for your audience’s sake, comes with examining your style of writing. To choose a style begin by exploring the level of understanding that the reader has of your topic. Experts: When writing for those that already know what they are talking about you run into those that have very strong opinions about what you are writing, and sometimes those opinions don’t flex. You can work around this as long as you do your research and you know your stuff. Writing for experts gives you the opportunity to write about the topic without having to take baby-steps around the subject to get to its meaning. You can mention the things that they already recognize and allude to people that they have been exposed to. Engaging your audience on this level is challenging but also beneficial because you are learning something that you may not have tried before. Stretch your voice beyond what you think you hear inside your head. It is profitable. General Audiences: This style of writing needs more explaining, clarifying and background information. The audience reading general information are open to learning about the topic and not question too much about what you are trying to convey. The Novice: This audience member is the one you write manuals, how to books, and essays for. It is the most detailed oriented style of writing. Make sure the audience that is new to the subject is walked through what you are saying step by step. Many product reviewers use this style of writing for consumers who do not know anything about the products they may be purchasing. Learn a New Language You may ask, â€Å"what does this have to do with engaging my audience or finding my voice†? Think about it. It comes next to impossible to underestimate the importance of improving language skills.  Today there are many gadgets that can be used to transcribe your work into different languages, wouldn’t it be beneficial for you to expand your language knowledge base so that you can reach people in other countries with your content? But to do that you need to have at least a basic command of the target nationalities language that you want to expose your writing too. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on language software. The link above has many sites that will teach you a new language for free. Staring at the Screen Too Long The creativity you need to start writing comes in many forms other than your writing. Get up from your desk and do other things besides stare at the screen. That white space is not going to fill up with your creative genius just because you are sitting there. If you are going to find your voice, you have to explore beyond your own back yard. Travel if necessary or possible for a day or two, take photos of your surroundings. If your writing is boring, it is because your life is boring. Spice up everything around you. Sleep in a different place tonight, and write about it tomorrow. Contrast and Compare If you are trying to get a good response from your audience, give them an article that will present two different arguments. This form of writing takes a certain amount of research because you want the statistics about the subject to be correct. At the end of the article or blog post, welcome comments or opposing views. You are bound to get readers that come back to this style of writing, everyone has an opinion. Read The best writers read continuously. Not just their preferred genre but everything that is accessible. When you are an assignment writer, a Kindle or a good e-reader is your best friend. You can begin a library of hundreds of books, that you can carry around with you while doing that research you need to meet that deadline and come up with engaging copy for your audience. So, you want to be a writer? Well this won’t be the last list of tips for writing that you will read. Start a file with them, copy/paste all that you come across and study them. There is a mindset that you as a writer must establish, writing is first and foremost a love affair with words, and in order to keep the relationship fresh you must find your voice in your audience to make your writing incredibly appealing.

Anna Pavlova Quotes on Happiness, Success,Dance, Life

Anna Pavlova Quotes on Happiness, Success,Dance, Life Anna Pavlova was trained in classic ballet, and while she helped transform the classical ballet by her lighter, more natural style, she did not go outside the classic forms as did her contemporary, Isadore Duncan. Anna Pavlova is especially remembered for her portrayal of a swan in The Dying Swan and Swan Lake. Selected Anna Pavlova Quotations The right to happiness is fundamental. When a small child, I thought that success spelled happiness. I was wrong, happiness is like a butterfly which appears and delights us for one brief moment, but soon flits away. To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the applause of the theater. It lies rather in the satisfaction of accomplishment. What exactly is success? For me it is to be found not in applause, but in the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing ones ideal. Master technique and then forget about it and be natural. As is the case in all branches of art, success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by dint of hard work. No one can arrive from being talented alone, work transforms talent into genius. God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius. Although one may fail to find happiness in theatrical life, one never wishes to give it up after having once tasted its fruits. [Last words of Anna Pavlova] Get my swan costume ready. Then Play that last measure softly. More About Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlova BiographyBiographies: Women in Dance About These Quotes Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection  © Jone Johnson Lewis. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.

IMC and Customer Satisfaction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

IMC and Customer Satisfaction - Essay Example Guided by the company’s culture of ensuring that customers look trendy thus keeping up with fashion, we will go deeper in establishing and maintaining a closer and an in depth touch with our clientele and referrals. We are intending to incorporate the following personal marketing means: Email marketing whereby we shall be sending emails to our customers on a weekly basis informing them of new products and designs in them. We are also planning to use our clientele phone database to reach them through short messaging services. To reach referrals in places that we have not yet set our distribution and retail outlets, we are planning to use search engine optimization and search engine marketing once we develop our company’s website. In mean time, we are outsourcing content marketing with social media likes of face book, youtube, instagram and Olx. This is in line with our advertising strategy of marketing mix which much influenced by distribution costs, the type of marketin g that we intend to use and the financial status of the company at the moment. With the product strategy we intend to have pictorial captions of all the products and design in stock and post them in the social media. ... This has been eased by our market survey which weighed in the income levels and distribution of our target market. This will not only guide us in pricing but also in product distribution and innovations on our designs to meet the market needs and minimize unnecessary losses. For the place strategy, our advisements are customized to meet different towns’ environmental, social, economic and cultural backgrounds. This will rule out the inconvenience of finding the advertised product in form that does not meet your cultural background and the price tag not meeting your financial capabilities. This is intended to maximize online search and ease decision making buy clients and referrals. For the promotional section, this strategy will locate the loss making markets in our distribution chains and come up with appropriate sales or discounting promotional strategies (Bradley, 2010p33). Question 2: Determine how the effectiveness of the advertising will be measured. To achieve companyâ €™s projected revenue growth of 40% and profits margin of 50% requires effective advertising and marketing. The success of these strategies will be measured by the orders and sales the company will close in the span of ten years. Alternatively the company also intends to apply the crowd sourcing strategy to ascertain consumer’s levels of satisfaction with commodities bought, future expectations of brand development and what features they want with the new products in the market. The electronic payment system that the company intends to produce will also provide the basis for the crowd sourcing. This strategy will be achieved by customer responses in our personalized marketing strategy of emails and short messaging services to the clients. Further interactions with clients on social

Walt Disney Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Walt Disney - Assignment Example Steve Jobs who is blessed with an innovative brain is the co-founder of Apple Inc; whereas, the Disney has already gained a good stature among its customers across the globe. Hence, Disney’s repute and Jobs’ technical expertise together would assist the Walt Disney to achieve infinite heights in market. It is known to everyone that Jobs’ relentless effort was the only factor that lifted Pixar and Apple sky-high. If he can bring his innovativeness to this new venture, he will uplift the staid company to a leading laboratory for media convergence (case study, p.269). The success of Jobs’ all ventures can be attributed to his thoughtful strategies and product differentiation. He believes that product/service quality is an essential element for business success. With the creative application of multimedia and computer animation, Jobs could knock out six blockbusters. Similarly, Jobs’ stance at Pixar while competing with Apple was appreciable. Jobs never feared rivals’ products; instead, he deeply concentrated on improving the aesthetic appeal and quality of his products while pursuing his business. Evidently Jobs’ successfully experimented business ideas would contribute to the profitability of the Disney.

Culture and Anthropologists Essay Example for Free

Culture and Anthropologists Essay The problems that faced by anthropologists in the fieldwork are adaptation to new culture, maintain objectivism and get access to all information from their subjects. Adaptation to new culture is hard, since they have to stay for a period of time and try to live in the way their subjects’ do. Adaptation that done by anthropologists is not only adapt new lifestyle, but also learning their cultural norms and language in order to be accepeted by their subjects as a part of them, not only as a foreigner. For instance, M. N. Srinivas was got disapproval for shaving before bath since in that community, people are shaving after bath (Srinivas, 2002). However, by adapting the culture, anthropologists not only gain knowledge about how the culture is, but they will have better understanding on the culture. Knowing why do people in certain culture do certain activity, how the culture has impacted the people on that community and the historical of the culture as well. On top of that, a better understanding of the culture may assist the anthropologists to produce an unbiased ethnography by avoiding ethnocentrism. Having different cultures, people tend to make a comparison among the culture. It could be inevitable when living with people with different cultures in which values, norms and behavioural acceptance are in different manner. This objectivism is needed when anthropologists faced problem with what they observe. Remain objective could be a bit hard when the anthropologists have an emotional involvement on problems that their subjects’ face. For example, when Claire did the observation on prostitutes lifestyle and have emotional pressure, at some point she need to out from the field, so that her objectivism is remain stable (Sterk, 2009). Other than avoiding ethnocentrism, maintaining objectivism is also required to build a good relationship with their subjects. By the example on what Claire done, the thing that can be learned is anthropologists should not interfere too much on their subjects’ life, and also anthropologists should be able to set a boundaries to limit to what extend they can emotionally interfere with their subjects (Sterk, 2009). The other problem that faced the most by anthropologists is get access to all information from their subjects. In order to find the respondents, anthropologists need to show their respects to gain trust from the leader of that community. The importance of key respondents is to open a path to ommunicate with other members in that community to get more perception of how the norms and culture affect their life. However, the problem is, sometimes anthropologists wrongly identify the key repondents. According to Calire E. Sterk (2009), anthropologists need to be able to find the right person as their key respondents, if not, then the access to information is too narrow, which could cause misinterp retation on the data. For instance, during fieldwork in Rampura village, M. N. Srinivas observed a community that led by a headman that very strict on cultural rules(Srinivas 2009). The headman always watch whatever Srinivas did and limited the access to the members of that community , till the time when he realize that there are two faction and apparently the second faction is more open to foreigners than the first faction (Srinivas, 2009). By reading this case, there is something that can be a learning experience which is before anthropologists do participant observation, they need to know how is the structure of that society, what are the cultural values, norms and belief that they believe in and the most important thing is to know what are motivations to do such a cultural activities and how they do it.

My Teaching Philosophy and Goals Essay example -- Education Teaching E

My Teaching Philosophy and Goals My philosophical point of view is Essentialism. Although I agree with Benjamin Bloom’s Theory on â€Å"School Learning†(1976). In his theory Bloom states; that children bring to class a range of â€Å"entry characteristics†. He divides these characteristics into affective and cognitive behaviors. Affective behavior includes the student’s motivation to learn and cognitive behavior includes the student’s prior knowledge. According to Bloom the context of the learning environment and the quality of instruction will determine the learning outcomes. Parents play an important role in their children’s desire and motivation to learn. Parents instill values of the importance of education and provide learning to take place not only in school but also in their home. My grandchildren have provided me with this knowledge. The grandchild that has parents that encouraged the importance of education does excel over the grandchild that did not receive the same encouragement. The nature of knowledge in my opinion is relative. It is constructed and dependent upon per...

My Happy Husband

My Happy Husband In life, sometimes we meet new people who could change our lives for better or worse. I met my husband in the place that I work and since that day we have become the most inseparable friends in the world. I believed my husband is one of the happiest men alive: he is funny, positive, inspiring, spiritual, and friendly. He is a very funny person. All the time he has a positive attitude. He inspired me to be the best. He is a spiritual man. He is a friendly person. All these qualities make Christian so special. My husband is the most adorable man.He is quite good looking. He is six feet tall, weighs one hundred seventy seven pounds. He has a round face with small brown eyes, olive skin, and curly dark hair like many Spanish people. His hair is black with a fewer silver strands throughout. He speaks in a soft voice as if he was whispering, and constantly uses his hands when he speaks. He has a great sense of style, so he always looks well dressed even in casual clothes, and his cologne smells sweet but masculine. For me he is the most attractive man. Chris is the funniest person.My husband has no problem getting others to laugh with him. It is hard to have a bad day when the person that I spend my life with is constantly smiling because he looks at the problems from a different angle, and he is confident that he will find the solution immediately. For example, on Thanksgiving Day, we were on a road trip to North Caroline. My husband was driving for twelve hours, but he was making jokes the whole journey. That was very entertaining for the children. We thoroughly enjoyed this trip because the time passed so fast. His human entertains our friends, as well.Frequently we go out with our friends, and he is the center of attention because of his cheerful personality and entertaining way that he talks. One of his favorites remarks is â€Å"I take my wife to different parts of the world every year, but she still somehow manages to find her way back. † I just to hear that and laugh because he cannot move a muscle without me. I feel so proud of him because he always knows how to put a smile on my face. I believe that it is important to always have a positive attitude, and I learned from my husband to have a good point of view in any circumstances.His positive feeling is strong, and it can spread to the people around him. To explain, my husband has a stressful job, and everyday he gets up early to meditate because meditation makes him relax and positive. Even if I come home with a negative attitude, he frequently changes the way that I think because he makes me understand that nothing that happened outside can affect my positive thinking, and it is true. Also, he finds solutions rather than problems. He was weighing two hundred and twenty pounds, and one day he decided to lose weight. He started his routine with exercises and diet; he lost fifty pounds.He teaches everybody to not have fears. For this reason in any difficult or ba d circumstances that we have, he always has a positive mindset with a wise solution. This positive emotion makes me to admire my husband more. I consider that my husband is the most inspiring man that I have seen. I am proud of Chris for achieving his goals and finishing his career as an Electrical Engineer. He motivates our children to be successful and great human beings. Moreover, he encourages us to finish and never give up and put a lot of effort in what we do.He also proves to his children that nothing is impossible, that we only need some motivation to accomplish our goals. Similarly for me, whenever I feel like giving up, or have a question or any concern, I know I can always ask him for advice. I have also learned that sometime I have to put other needs ahead of my own, but not to the point they will be to take advantage of me. Also, He is strong during hard times and extremely determined to achieve anything. I hold him in great esteem for how he stands up or for what he be lieves in, and he will never back down. I have always admired his open mind, compassion, and sense of understanding.In every aspect of my life my husband continuously pushed me too excel in everything that I want to do. He inspires me to start college, and he motived me to begin my new journey. He inspires me so much that now I am becoming a new person with different point of view. Furthermore, Chris is a very spiritual person. He often says, â€Å"spiritual is not only to be a religious people, it is to have peace between souls and mind. † These are not just words because he actually does what he meetings. As an example, he gets up early in the morning to meditate and pray to give thanks for the day.Meditation helps him to be calm and relaxed during the day, so if I ask something of him at any time, he does it without selfish interest. At some point I think nothing is bad for him. His friends always look for him when they have marital or work problems because they consider t hat he is the most appropriate person to give them good advice and keep secrets. Also, my husband has a passion to help people to learn how to be spiritual and know himself inside out. This quality is the most important attribute that he has. Christian is the friendliest man I have ever met.Anyone who knows him sees that he is absolutely outgoing with everybody. I am very lucky to have a good friend like him. I remember six months ago, when I thought he forgot my birthday because he did not call me, like he does every morning before I start working. When I came back home he had organized a wonderful party with my family and friends. He loves to make parties with a lot of people because he is a really sociable person. He is very unique. He constantly organize meetings at his work an invited all the people around the world. I am truly blessed to have in my life someone who is sociable and hospitable.Not only is Christian my best friend, but also he is the best friend for our sons. Con cluding this essay, I can describe my husband as the happiest man in the world, and I see that this man is a very funny person. All the time he has a positive attitude. He inspires me to be the best. He is a spiritual man. He is my best friend. `What I would say to anyone who is unhappy is that you need to fix that; like my husband says, â€Å"happiness comes from within not without. † He is right. No one can make you happy, no one, but you. For all the reasons and comments that I share in this paper I think my husband is role model to fallow. 1225

The economy of the early Roman Empire

The economy of the early Roman Empire and the late Republic of Rome was driven primarily by trade. Although in modern times history the economic basis of the Roman Empire has been neglected and focus has been directed to the exploits of the Roman Legions and Lingua France of Latin, it is important to note that Rome had an estimated population of over a million and to sustain its population, the economy had to be centered on a central avenue and this avenue was trade.Most of the Romans were traders and this ensured that the empire lasted a long time, probably one of the longest lasting empires the world will ever witness[1].Theoretically, there was a prohibition of the members of the senate to be indulged in business and this also applied to their family members. However, the Equestrian Order members were hugely involved in business not withstanding the fact they belonging to the upper class, the society expected them to be involved more in leisure and military activities and pursuits .There were also a huge proportion of slaves who were responsible for doing most of the work while the Plebeians practically held shops and manned stalls around the vicinity of the markets.The slaves were also involved in the commerce of the empire and they played a great role in giving the empire's commerce a distinct flavor compared to other commerce in the world[2].Thesis StatementThe study will focus on the Roman Empire involvement in the Mediterranean trade and how this trade was conducted and how it benefited the Roman Empire. The study will look in the Maritime routes that were present during the trade and how they helped in the development of trade among various regions in the world including Asia, India, Africa and Western Europe.The study will also strive to look into the regions that benefited from the various commodities of the trade and how they came to be powerful empires as well. This study will look into the ancient Roman trade partners and what commodities were exch anged during the trade.The Study will also look into the importance of certain commodities to the Roman Empire and chief among them will be marble.Maritime RoutesArchaeological studies of the ancient maritime trends supported by manuscripts derived from Classical antiquity have proved that the Roman Empire was in possession of numerous fleets of ships. Also as a show of evidence of the maritime trade conducted by the Roman Empire are the ruins and remains of lighthouses, moles, harbors and warehouses which were found in the ports of Caesarea Maritima, Ostia, Civitavecchia, Leptis Magna and Portus.As with other forms of technology, the Roman maritime technology was not as advanced as that of the Greeks. It is evidence that the Roman fleets were constructed with great concern about the security of the fleets.This is because there was lead sheeting for hulls which were meant for protection. They used sailing ships which were round hulled. One of the factors that led to the success of t he Roman Maritime Commerce was the continued policing that run over a number of centuries. This was necessitated by the fact that their ships had been an easy prey for the pirates[3].The sea transport was widely used for transporting of commodities which were low valued yet very bulky. This mainly comprised of construction materials and grains. One of the reasons for this was that the sea transport was the cheapest mode of transport that the Roman Empire could afford. They used to import cereals and papyrus from Ptolemaic Egypt and this followed a continuous fashion[4].The Roman Empire trade via the Indian Ocean blossomed in the first two centuries of CE. The Roman sailors would make use of the Monsoon winds to cross to such ports as Myos Hormos, Roman Egypt, Red Sea Muziris and Malabar Coast. The Tamil dynasties were their leading trade partners the region of Southern India and this can be evidenced by the numerous Roman artifacts that are found in India.[1] Donkin, Robin A. (2003) . Between East and West: The Moluccas and the Traffic in Spices Up to the Arrival of Europeans. Diane Publishing Company, p. 45, pp 65 – 94 [2] Carter, Mia; Harlow, Barbara (2004). Archives of Empire: From the East India Company to the Suez Canal. Duke University Press pp 54 – 96. [3] Casson, L., Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1971. pp 12 – 59 [4] Rawlinson, Hugh George (2001). Intercourse Between India and the Western World: From the Earliest Times of the Fall of Rome. Asian Educational Services. pp. 87 – 198.

Biography of Indias Indira Gandhi

Biography of Indias Indira Gandhi Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India in the early 1980s, feared the growing power of the charismatic Sikh preacher and militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, sectarian tension and strife had been growing between Sikhs and Hindus in northern India. Tensions in the region had grown so high that by June of 1984, Indira Gandhi decided to take action. She made a fatal choice - to send in the Indian Army against the Sikh militants in the Golden Temple. Indira Gandhis Early Life Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917, in Allahabad (in modern-day Uttar Pradesh), British India. Her father was Jawaharlal Nehru, who would go on to become the first prime minister of India following its independence from Britain; her mother, Kamala Nehru, was just 18 years old when the baby arrived. The child was named Indira Priyadarshini Nehru. Indira grew up as an only child. A baby brother born in November of 1924 died after just two days. The Nehru family was very active in the anti-imperial politics of the time; Indiras father was a leader of the nationalist movement  and a close associate of Mohandas Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Sojourn in Europe In March 1930, Kamala and Indira were marching in protest outside of the Ewing Christian College. Indiras mother suffered from heat-stroke, so a young student named Feroz Gandhi rushed to her aid. He would become a close friend of Kamalas, escorting and attending her during her treatment for tuberculosis, first in India and later in Switzerland. Indira also spent time in Switzerland, where her mother died of TB in February of 1936. Indira went to Britain in 1937, where she enrolled at Somerville College, Oxford, but never completed her degree. While there, she began to spend more time with Feroz Gandhi, then a London School of Economics student. The two married in 1942, over the objections of Jawaharlal Nehru, who disliked his son-in-law. (Feroz Gandhi was no relation to Mohandas Gandhi.) Nehru eventually had to accept the marriage. Feroz and Indira Gandhi had two sons, Rajiv, born in 1944, and Sanjay, born in 1946. Early Political Career During the early 1950s, Indira served as an unofficial personal assistant to her father, then the prime minister. In 1955, she became a member of the Congress Partys working committee; within four years, she would be president of that body. Feroz Gandhi had a heart attack in 1958, while Indira and Nehru were in Bhutan on an official state visit. Indira returned home to take care of him. Feroz died in Delhi in 1960 after suffering a second heart attack. Indiras father also died in 1964  and was succeeded as prime minister by Lal Bahadur Shastri. Shastri appointed Indira Gandhi his minister of information and broadcasting; in addition, she was a member of the upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha. In 1966, Prime Minister Shastri died unexpectedly. Indira Gandhi was named the new Prime Minister as a compromise candidate. Politicians on both sides of a deepening divide within the Congress Party hoped to be able to control her. They had completely underestimated Nehrus daughter. Prime Minister Gandhi By 1966, the Congress Party was in trouble. It was dividing into two separate factions; Indira Gandhi led the left-wing socialist faction. The 1967 election cycle was grim for the party - it lost almost 60 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Indira was able to keep the Prime Minister seat through a coalition with the Indian Communist and Socialist parties. In 1969, the Indian National Congress Party split in half for good. As prime minister, Indira made some popular moves. She authorized the development of a nuclear weapons program in response to Chinas successful test at Lop Nur in 1967. (India would test its own bomb in 1974.) In order to counterbalance Pakistans friendship with the United States, and also perhaps due to mutual personal antipathy with US President Richard Nixon, she forged a closer relationship with the Soviet Union. In keeping with her socialist principles, Indira abolished the maharajas of Indias various states, doing away with their privileges as well as their titles. She also nationalized the banks in July of 1969, as well as mines and oil companies. Under her stewardship, traditionally famine-prone India became a Green Revolution success story, actually exporting a surplus of wheat, rice and other crops by the early 1970s. In 1971, in response to a flood of refugees from East Pakistan, Indira began a war against Pakistan. The East Pakistani/Indian forces won the war, resulting in the formation of the nation of Bangladesh from what had been East Pakistan. Re-election, Trial, and the State of Emergency In 1972, Indira Gandhis party swept to victory in national parliamentary elections based on the defeat of Pakistan and the slogan of Garibi Hatao, or Eradicate Poverty. Her opponent, Raj Narain of the Socialist Party, charged her with corruption and electoral malpractice. In June of 1975, the High Court in Allahabad ruled for Narain; Indira should have been stripped of her seat in Parliament and barred from elected office for six years. However, Indira Gandhi refused to step down from the prime ministership, despite wide-spread unrest following the verdict. Instead, she had the president declare a state of emergency in India. During the state of emergency, Indira initiated a series of authoritarian changes. She purged the national and state governments of her political opponents, arresting and jailing political activists. To control population growth, she instituted a policy of forced sterilization, under which impoverished men were subjected to involuntary vasectomies (often under appallingly unsanitary conditions). Indiras younger son Sanjay led a move to clear the slums around Delhi; hundreds of people were killed and thousands left homeless when their homes were destroyed. Downfall and Arrests In a key miscalculation, Indira Gandhi called new elections in March  1977. She may have begun to believe her own propaganda, convincing herself that the people of India loved her and approved of her actions during the years-long state of emergency. Her party was trounced at the polls by the Janata Party, which cast the election as a choice between democracy or dictatorship, and Indira left office. In October of 1977, Indira Gandhi was jailed briefly for official corruption. She would be arrested again in December of 1978 on the same charges. However, the Janata Party was struggling. A cobbled-together coalition of four previous opposition parties, it could not agree on a course for the country  and accomplished very little. Indira Emerges Once More By 1980, the people of India had had enough of the ineffectual Janata Party. They reelected Indira Gandhis Congress Party under the slogan of stability. Indira took power again for her fourth term as prime minister. However, her triumph was dampened by the death of her son Sanjay, the heir apparent, in a plane crash in June of that year. By 1982, rumblings of discontent and even outright secessionism were breaking out all over India. In Andhra Pradesh, on the central east coast, the Telangana region (comprising the inland 40%) wanted to break away from the rest of the state. Trouble also flared in the ever-volatile Jammu and Kashmir region in the north. The most serious threat, though, came from Sikh secessionists in Punjab, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Operation Bluestar at the Golden Temple In 1983, the Sikh leader Bhindranwale and his armed followers occupied and fortified the second-most holy building in the sacred Golden Temple complex (also called the Harmandir Sahib or Darbar Sahib) in Amritsar, the Indian Punjab. From their position in the Akhal Takt building, Bhindranwale and his followers called for armed resistance to Hindu domination. They were upset that their homeland, Punjab, had been divided between India and Pakistan in the 1947 Partition of India. To make matters worse, the Indian Punjab had been lopped in half once more in 1966 to form the Haryana state, which was dominated by Hindi-speakers. The Punjabis lost their first capital at Lahore to Pakistan in 1947; the newly-built capital at Chandigarh ended up in Haryana two decades later, and the government in Delhi decreed that Haryana and Punjab would simply have to share the city. To right these wrongs, some of Bhindranwales followers called for an entirely new, separate Sikh nation, to be called Khalistan. During this period, Sikh extremists were waging a campaign of terror against Hindus and moderate Sikhs in Punjab. Bhindranwale and his following of heavily armed militants holed up in the Akhal Takt, the second-most holy building after the Golden Temple itself. The leader himself was not necessarily calling for the creation of Khalistan; rather he demanded the implementation of the Anandpur Resolution, which called for the unification and purification of the Sikh community within Punjab. Indira Gandhi decided to send the Indian Army on a frontal assault of the building to capture or kill Bhindranwale. She ordered the attack at the beginning of June  1984, even though June 3rd was the most important Sikh holiday (honoring the martyrdom of the Golden Temples founder), and the complex was full of innocent pilgrims. Interestingly, due to the heavy Sikh presence in the Indian Army, the commander of the attack force, Major General Kuldip Singh Brar, and many of the troops were also Sikhs. In preparation for the attack, all electricity and lines of communication to Punjab were cut off. On June 3, the army surrounded the temple complex with military vehicles and tanks. In the early morning hours of June 5, they launched the attack. According to official Indian government numbers, 492 civilians were killed, including women and children, along with 83 Indian army personnel. Other estimates from hospital workers and eyewitnesses state that more than 2,000 civilians died in the bloodbath. Among those killed were Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and the other militants. To the further outrage of Sikhs worldwide, the Akhal Takt was badly damaged by shells and gunfire. Aftermath and Assassination In the aftermath of Operation Bluestar, a number of Sikh soldiers resigned from the Indian Army. In some areas, there were actual battles between those resigning and those still loyal to the army. On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi walked out to the garden behind her official residence for an interview with a British journalist. As she passed two of her Sikh bodyguards, they drew their service weapons and opened fire. Beant Singh shot her three times with a pistol, while Satwant Singh fired thirty times with a self-loading rifle. Both men then calmly dropped their weapons and surrendered. Indira Gandhi died that afternoon after undergoing surgery. Beant Singh was shot dead while under arrest; Satwant Singh and alleged conspirator Kehar Singh were later hanged. When news of the Prime Ministers death was broadcast, mobs of Hindus across northern India went on a rampage. In the Anti-Sikh Riots, which lasted for four days, anywhere from 3,000 to 20,000 Sikhs were murdered, many of them burned alive. The violence was particularly bad in Haryana state. Because the Indian government was slow to respond to the pogrom, support for the Sikh separatist Khalistan movement increased markedly in the months following the massacre. Indira Gandhis Legacy Indias Iron Lady left behind a complicated legacy. She was succeeded in the office of Prime Minister by her surviving son, Rajiv Gandhi. This dynastic succession is one of the negative aspects of her legacy - to this day, the Congress Party is so thoroughly identified with the Nehru/Gandhi family that it cannot avoid charges of nepotism. Indira Gandhi also instilled authoritarianism into Indias political processes, warping the democracy to suit her need for power. On the other hand, Indira clearly loved her country  and did leave it in a stronger position relative to neighboring countries. She sought to improve the lives of Indias poorest  and supported industrialization and technological development. On balance, however, Indira Gandhi seems to have done more harm than good during her two stints as the prime minister of India. For more information on women in power, see this list of Female Heads of State in Asia.

The Ancient Sources for the History of Ancient India

The Ancient Sources for the History of Ancient India It used to be  said that the history of  India and the Indian Subcontinent  didnt begin until the Muslims invaded in the 12th century A.D. While thorough history-writing may stem from such a late date, there are earlier historical writers with 1st-hand knowledge. Unfortunately, they dont extend back in time as far as we might like or as far as in other ancient cultures. It is common knowledge that there is no corresponding equivalent on the Indian side. Ancient India has no historiography in the European sense of the word-in this respect the only historiographic civilizations of the world are the Graeco-Roman and Chinese ones...- Walter Schmitthenner, The Journal of Roman Studies When writing about a group of people who died thousands of years ago, as in ancient history, there are always gaps and guesses. History tends to be written by the victors and about the powerful. When history is not even written, as was the case in early ancient India, there are still ways to extract information- mostly archaeological, but also obscure literary texts, inscriptions in forgotten languages, and stray foreign notices, but it doesnt lend itself to straightline political history, the history of heroes and empires [Narayanan]. Although thousands of seals and inscribed artifacts have been recovered, the Indus script remains undeciphered. Unlike Egypt or Mesopotamia, this remains a civilization inaccessible to historians.... In the Indus case, while the descendents of urban dwellers and technological practices did not entirely disappear, the cities their ancestors had inhabited did. Indus script and the information it recorded also were no longer remembered.- Thomas R. Trautmann and Carla M. Sinopoli When Darius and Alexander (327 B.C.) invaded India, they provided dates around which the history of India is constructed. India did not have its own western-style historian before these incursions so reasonably reliable chronology of India dates from Alexanders invasion in the late 4th century B.C. Shifting Geographic Limits of India India originally referred to the area of the Indus River valley, which was a province of the Persian Empire. Thats how Herodotus refers to it. Later, the term India included the area bounded on the north by the Himalayas and Karakoram mountain ranges, the penetrable Hindu Kush in the northwest, and on the northeast, the hills of Assam and Cachar. The Hindu Kush soon became the border between the Mauryan empire and that of the Seleucid successor of Alexander the Great. Seleucid-controlled Bactria sat immediately to the north of the Hindu Kush. Then Bactria separated from the Seleucids  and independently invaded India. The Indus River provided a natural, but controversial border between India and Persia. It is said that Alexander conquered India, but Edward James Rapson of The Cambridge History of India Volume I: Ancient India says its only true if you mean the original sense of India the country of the Indus Valley since Alexander didnt go beyond the Beas (Hyphasis). Nearchus, an Eyewitness Source on Indian History Alexanders admiral Nearchus wrote about the Macedonian fleets travel from the Indus River to the Persian Gulf. Arrian (c. A.D. 87 - after 145) later used Nearchus works in his own writings about India. This has preserved some of Nearchus now lost material. Arrian says Alexander founded a city where the Hydaspes battle was fought, which was named Nikaia, as the Greek word for victory. Arrian says he also founded the more famous city of Boukephala, to honor his horse, also by the Hydaspes. The location of these cities is not clear and there is no corroborative numismatic evidence. [Source: The Hellenistic Settlements in the East From Armenia and Mesopotamia to Bactria and India, by Getzel M. Cohen, University of California Press: 2013.) Arrians report says that Alexander was told by inhabitants of Gedrosia (Baluchistan) about others who had used that same travel route. The legendary Semiramis, they said, had fled through that route from India with only 20 members of her army and Cambyses son Cyrus returned with only 7 [Rapson]. Megasthenes, an Eyewitness Source on Indian History Megasthenes, who stayed in India from 317 to 312 B.C. and served as ambassador of Seleucus I at the court of Chandragupta Maurya (referred to in the Greek as Sandrokottos), is another Greek source about India. He is quoted in Arrian and Strabo, where the Indians denied having engaged in foreign warfare with any but Hercules, Dionysus and the Macedonians (Alexander). Of the westerners who might have invaded India, Megasthenes says Semiramis died before invading and the Persians acquired mercenary troops from India [Rapson]. Whether or not Cyrus invaded northern India depends on where the border is or was set; however, Darius seems to have gone as far as the Indus. Native Indian Sources on Indian History Soon after the Macedonians, the Indians themselves produced artifacts that help us with the history. Particularly important are the stone pillars of the Mauryan king Ahsoka (c. 272- 235 B.C.) which provide the first glimpse of an authentic historical Indian figure. Another Indian source on the Mauryan dynasty is the Arthashastra of Kautilya. Although the author is sometimes identified as Chandragupta Mauryas minister Chanakya, Sinopoli and Trautmann say the Arthashastra was probably written in the second century A.D. Sources The Hour-Glass of India C. H. Buck, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Mar., 1915), pp. 233-237Historical Perspectives on Ancient India, M. G. S. Narayanan, Social Scientist, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Oct., 1975), pp. 3-11Alexander and India A. K. Narain ,  Greece Rome, Second Series, Vol. 12, No. 2, Alexander the Great (Oct., 1965), pp. 155-165The Cambridge History of India Volume I: Ancient India  By Edward James Rapson, The Macmillan CompanyIn the Beginning Was the Word: Excavating the Relations between History and Archaeology in South Asia Thomas R. Trautmann and Carla M. Sinopoli​,  Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 45, No. 4, Excavating the Relations between Archaeology and History in the Study of Pre-Modern Asia [Part 1] (2002), pp. 492-523Two Notes on Seleucid History: 1. Seleucus 500 Elephants, 2. Tarmita W. W. Tarn​,  The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 60 (1940), pp. 84-94

Consider the idea that the United States is 'exceptional' and Essay

Consider the idea that the United States is 'exceptional' and therefore exempt from traditional rules governing international be - Essay Example This concept has its origin from US political institutions formed from 1776-1789, the declaration of US independence in 1776, the American revolution of 1776-83, and the adoption of American constitution in 1787. The American Revolution and its liberation from the British are historical aspects of American exceptionalism. The American’s prosperity has its origin in political differences, social mobility, assimilation of immigrants, liberty of Americans, and America’s vast resources. Discussion The history of America is inadequate because many aspects have been left out or are distorted in the traditional narratives. This particularly relates to the history of American Indians and their contribution to American history (Tyrrell, 2010). The issues of races and slavery are tragic exception in American history. The end to the slave trade was a rebirth of freedom in America. Ignatieff (2005) says that Americanism exceptionalism has a negative perspective which explains that US is exceptionally unpleasant, violent and racist. The term exceptionalism was first coined by the German Marxists who intended to offer an explanation behind US rising above socialism and Marxism and embracing capitalism. However, Marxists conclude that exceptionalism is more than class conflict. Other scholars prefer to use the term uniqueness or differences to explain US exceptionalism. United States exceptionalism has been argued to emerge from its political, religious and intellectual aspects. It is also perceived to be enduring. Kolodziej and Roger (2008) notes American exceptionalism is a fundamental determinant of the American Psyche and has its values embedded in the culture of Americans civilians. The term has assumed changes over time which can be clearly seen from the reign of various US presidents. For example, President Thomas Jefferson rejected the rule of European countries through voting and dictatorship. President Washington tried to insulate US politics from corr uption and foreign intervention, Abraham Lincoln strived to unify Americans and President Andrew Jackson tried to raise the status of US citizens. President Delano Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson made efforts to make the world safe for trade and democracies through their intervention, which made World War I and II come to an end. President Truman identified American security, democratic values and US economic well being as necessary in competition with the Soviet Union. President Regan Portrayed US as an exceptional country that should be emulated by other nations. President George W. Bush tried to maximize freedom available to the Americans (Kolodziej and Rogers, 2008) Kolodziej and Rogers (2008) focus their discussions on how president George W. Bush American regime interpreted exceptionalism to expand the American powers. Exceptionalism provides US a justification for the rejection of foreign policy, which US views as misguided and the criticism by US citizens to increase the scope of international law and institutions. President Bush tried to maximize Americans freedom through US powers, global objectives, and moral status at the expense of reforming America’s image in the face of other countries internationally. The main focus of US in the present days is to resist any limitations on its powers as it pursues its aspiration of exceptionalism worldwide. This can be clearly seen from the little support provided to International Criminal Court (ICC) by US. The