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Pakhangba is considered to be one of the foremost deities in Meitei pantheon. This deity, especially in his lairen (serpentine dragon) form, is integral to the cultural sensibilities and rituals of the Meiteis in Manipur. Taking the centrality of Pakhangba in Meitei politico-cultural space into perspective, this paper presents a reading of (Lai)ren Pakhangba lore beyond the cosmological and cultural underpinnings. Simultaneously, it examines if the lore of lairen -- ensconced in the collective ethos of the people -- and the symbolic presence of this deity in both spiritual and secular space be explained as an expression of the 'collective unconscious'. This paper establishes Pakhangba and his lore as a psychocultural connective that binds and evokes the indigeneity and identity of the people. At the same time, it foregrounds the centrality of nurturing and promoting such psychocultural connective in -- beyond evoking a shared ancestry and pasts -- imagining a more viable and tangible polity that veers away from a single-ethnicity based or territory-oriented politics and polity that undermine the centuries-old politico-cultural history of Manipur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the country has passed through many phases of development, what h as remained unchanged is the relative backwardness of certain groups, areas or sectors in the country. Keeping these factors in mind, the present paper attempts to evaluate if, and to what extent, the economic developmental measures have affected the quality of life of the Tharu (Scheduled Tribe) women and helped empower them. For arriving at a conclusion, the level of women's participation and awareness in economic activities and related decision making fields have been analyzed on the basis of their own views. The paper is based on primary data, collected through in-depth interviews, discussions with, and observations on, the Tharu women of Udhamsingh Nagar in Uttarakhand. The paper ends with suggestions on ways to improve women's participation and awareness in developmental plans and programmes and ways in which these schemes could be made more acceptable and beneficial to the concerned group, thus ultimately leading to a better quality of life and empowerment for the womenfolk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an island situation when a group of individuals belonging to different cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds come in close contact as a result of their forced confinement their survival instinct and their biological, social and economic needs hold them together. The paper attempts to understand the historical process of societal and cultural transformation through which the people born in Port Blair, Andaman Islands, emerged as a vibrant community. The process is best explained in terms of 'cultural creolisation' drawing analogy from Dell Hymes' (1971) notion of the 'creolisation of language'. A 'pidgin' is formed in a contact situation, which in the course of time becomes a 'creole'. This paper deals with the descendents of ex-convicts, who were released from the confinement of their walled cells once they served the term but were never permitted to leave the island. So they married with whomeveravailable resulting in mixed families of Malayalam speaking Muslim husband from Kerala, a Hindu Bengali-speaking wife from erstwhile East Bengal, and a Punjabi Sikh daughter-in-law. The sheer necessity of day to day living forced them to evolve a pidgin which over years became their common language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disaster leaves a trail of devastation in the affected areas. There is no way to reach or contact the victims of catastrophe as entire network of communication, transport and power supply is snapped. In such a situation, radio can play a pivotal role in timely dissemination of information to the affected people and can save millions of precious lives. In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the role of All India Radio (India's Public Service Broadcaster) during natural disasters with special reference to 'Hudhud' Cyclone. The data used in this paper have been drawn from both primary and secondary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present paper shows how political leadership in India is largely embedded in kinship. Kinship, which has been the principal organising principle in primitive societies, seems to have made an inroad in the modern society to influence our thinking and actions in the political field. With the support of secondary data this paper brings to focus the interplay between leadership and kinship while examining the role of kinship in succeeding political leadership in contemporary India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female work participation rates (FWPRs) have been historically low in West Bengal compared to the rest of India. Based on primary data from two villages each in Burdwan and Malda districts of the state this paper explores the phenomenon of the withdrawal of women from the workforce against the backdrop of high growth rates. The explanation is sought in the inter-sectionalities of gender, caste and class and of the associated labelling of the nature of work and the premium placed on domestic work by women. The contribution of the phenomenon of Bhadralokisation plays a critical role in the lowering of the FWPRs in West Bengal. The essential argument of the paper is that rising FWPRs do not necessarily imply reduction of gender discrimination or inequality but points to the further invisibilisation of women's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the significance of development in irrigation technology in agrarian transformation. Although the subject falls in the area of agrarian economics or development economics the paper addresses the subject from anthropological point of view touching upon the contribution of Prof. N. C. Choudhury to this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral narratives, myths and epics play a vital role in folk religious practices. Mythical episodes are reenacted in the form of rituals. This paper discusses the myth of Aravan who was an important character in Mahabharata and is worshipped in certain regions. Aravan, the legendary son of Arjuna and Ulupi, the Naga Princess, was to be sacrificed on the 18th-day of Kurukshetra war in order to ensure the victory of the Pandavas. Before being sacrificed, Aravan obtained certain boons from Krishna. The ritual enactment of these boons forms the central theme of the 18-day annual festival in the temple of Aravan situated in Koovagam village, Tamil Nadu. Deriving from the myth, transgenders of the region play a major role in the worship of Aravan. This paper is an attempt to document and understand the living traditions of transgenders and their association with the cult of Aravan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an intimate account of the victims of the erosion-afflicted groups in the fringe regions of the district of Malda, West Bengal, India. Around six hundred thousand people have lost all their ancestral homes and lands to river-erosion, more than three million people have been affected in the last four decades. Since these people are 'invisible' in government's identification processes, the only way of claiming their entitlement to government welfare is by having their identity recognized in terms of their perceived identity through a study of the changing social and economic life in accordance with the change in the physics of existence. Documenting and excavating a range of first-person narratives, this paper seeks to interrogate the ways in which the erosion affected people have been silenced in state-authored document. It also unravels how the subjects struggle to form and retain their own identities and expectations, outside the developmental exclusions of the state. They are searching for their linguistic identity as Bengalis; and have the same yearning for cultural, emotional and symbolic ties that make up Bengali social spaces [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of Himachal Pradesh, over the past decades, has seen a marked surge in accelerating the development leading to remarkable growth and plethora of livelihood opportunities. This paper brings out the case of a village, Gagal, depicting the fortunes that the development has brought in the quotidian life of people and changing the picture of the village giving it a new dimension. The paper compiles selected case studies that .reflect on the success of development programs initiated in the area and how the people have drawn benefits from them. It also throws light on definite flaws and loopholes that have led to people lose their faith in these initiatives and explains how these programs have failed to accomplish their goals on the ground reality. The paper explores how the development has transformed the silhouette of the village encountering development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good health is a pre requisite to human productivity and development process. A healthy community is the infrastructure upon which an economically viable society can be built. Unhealthy people can hardly be expected to make any valid contribution towards the development of society. "Health is vital for ethical, artistic, materials and spiritual development of man" [Charaka, the renowned Ayurvedic physician]. The paper is based on secondary data collected from different health institutions of the district. The paper attempts to explain briefly the socio-cultural characteristics of people and geophysical features of Orissa with special reference to Mayurbhanj, one of the fully scheduled area districts of the state. Secondly, it attempts to review the health related policies so far implemented by the state, while also finding the commonalities and inadequacies there in. Thirdly, it highlights the adequacy of health service delivery institutions and the provision of health services in Orissa and the Mayurbhanj district. Finally, the paper tries to critically assess the status of various RCH indicators separately in both scheduled area and the non-scheduled areas of the state, it is found that people of Orissa (both the scheduled areas and the non-schedule areas of the state) are expecting the fruits of NRHM implemented in recent years. The introduction of NRHM since 2005 has slightly improved the infrastructure base and delivery of services from provider's perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is based on an empirical study of the growing isolation and loneliness among the aged in the middleclass families in Kolkata. The seminal observation is that the rationalisation of the family size combines perfectly with large-scale dispersal of the younger members to leave the aged amidst isolation and loneliness. The other factors that contribute to isolation and loneliness are (a) the death of one of the spouses and (b) breakdown of health to the point of being dependent on others. The aged as well as the younger members take a rational approach to combat this problem while banking heavily on family and kinship relations. Some of the elderly members even cherish the freedom that the dispersal in the family offers rather than regretting it. The paper concludes that the Weberian goal-oriented rationality which has been donning the social relations in the post-industrial West is not yet visible in any significant scale in the Indian urban situation, although there are stray cases of inhumanity and desertion in treating the aged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper attempts to draw attention to the significance on Barthian framework of ethnicity and identity against the backdrop of a critical review of Danda's major arguments. In so doing the present venture deviated a bit further from both Barth and Danda in claiming that though the constructionist approach of ethnicity presupposes a plural discourse of identity and its varied situational efficacy inscribing such crucial issues like individual creativity and agency, the project of ethnicity construction nevertheless is a limited phenomena. The paper further proposes that the contemporary discourse of ethnicity should involve in it not only an emphasis on the salience of productive niches (as Suggested by Barth) but also an equal amount of stress on the question of power relations as important determining factors of ethnicity. Explicating the relative significance of power relations in the path of identity construction the present paper chalks out some possible ways and strategies of delineating ethnic boundary, invoking both identity and loyalty, in Indian situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well know that tourism activities have adverse impact on the environment, both directly or indirectly, particularly in protected areas. A comprehensive analysis of unorganized, tourism activities on the protected areas of Indian Sundarban was attempted here. The detailed analytical results are presented in the paper. The paper also addresses the issue of eco-tourism based local community participation and conservation of protected area. Ecotourism in protected areas of Sundarban has the potential to provide economic development as well as sources of funding for the maintenance of the environmental conservation of National Park. Such ecotourism activities have implications for the local communities residing in and around various islands. With increasing population pressure all around, Sundarban wetland preservation become a matter of concern for both conservation and also providing sustainable livelihood, where ecotourism can prove a good opportunity for the community's involvement for sourcing its livelihood in a way which is helpful for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to locate nearly 1.5 million tribal people in six districts of North Bengal in development map of the state the paper disentangles the mechanisms of further marginalization of the marginalized, the "poorest of the poor". The tribes of North Bengal are overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture-based economy in four districts and on tea industry in two districts and the mechanisms of marginalization in the economic, social and political fields in the agricultural setup and in tea gardens are significantly different. The state, through its various development agencies, draws out development plans and programmes, which leave only skin-deep effect on the life of the tribals. Because of minimal or no control over material and human resources the tribals cannot take the advantage of the state-facilitated infrastructure and development schemes; a local neo-elite consisting mostly of the non-tribal neighbours corner the fruits of the development initiatives of the state and its various agencies. Asked to compete with relatively powerful economic and social forces in the market the tribals, who are still struggling to find a stable route to development, get further marginalized; the integrationist mechanisms of liberal democracy fail to reverse the trend. Keeping the constraints of liberal-democratic order the paper works out some development strategies based on the existentialist insights of the tribal people living in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we have made an attempt to study the impact of various types of development inputs on the socioeconomic life of the Lodhas of two administrative blocks of Paschim Medinipur district. The study was conducted in connection with an Impact Assessment Survey under the Rastriya Sama Vikas Yoyona (RSVY) sponsored by the district authority of the Paschim Medinipur district in which the second author of the paper acted as the team leader. The study revealed that the major constraint of the implementation of the developmental input among the Lodhas lie in their landlessness and poverty. It was found that the distribution of patta land to landless Lodha families by the government was not done properly. On the other hand developmental inputs like brick built houses were poorly planned and suffered from lack of maintenance. High technology developmental inputs like solar cells distributed to the poor and landless Lodha families were found to be of no use to the beneficiaries since many of them sold the solar cells to the wealthy neighbours. Finally, some recommendations have been made in the paper for better management of developmental inputs given under the RSVY scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is enough literature on the human development process, particularly on induced development, in different disciplines of social sciences. A thorough study of these and an amalgamation of the ideas contained in the subject matter would make a development practitioner as sure-footed as it is possible to get. There must be a fairly large number of development practitioners who make this effort, and yet the development landscape is littered with examples where the process has gone awry or the benefits accruing from the process has remained suboptimal. The present paper looks into one such small development initiative carried out in the Sundarbans, very close to the venue of the 39th Annual Conference of the Indian Anthropological Society. In fact, it is this proximity that has prompted the selection of this development example, apart from the fact that the initiative has thrown up the opportunity to closely, scrutinise the reasons for accrual of sub-optimal benefits despite having taken into account the wisdom available in the various disciplines of social sciences. Although the example is very local, it is quite typical of development practice, and the lessons learnt should hold true for almost all non-urban situations. This paper analyses the development initiative in question and attempts to share the lessons learnt. It is hoped that our collective understanding of human development is enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The New Industrial Policy (NIP) adopted by the Left Front Government (LFG) in 1994 envisaged rapid economic growth through huge industrial investment mainly by private enterprises. The said policy assumed that since land reforms and agricultural production in West Bengal showed a fair amount of success, these two factors would pave the way towards industrialization in the state. Accordingly, large and medium industries were allowed to be installed on fertile agricultural land, even before the official announcement of the policy. In this paper we have presented some empirical data on the socio-economic consequences of the establishment of one heavy industry on fertile agricultural land in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the early 1990s. In fact this paper is a follow-up study of an earlier one done by the second author of this paper. In the earlier study done during 1995-97. only the first order consequences of land acquisition for Tata Metaliks was studied in terms of landlessness and utilization of compensation money by the acquisition affected families. The findings disclosed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry may lead to several adverse socio-economic impacts on the land loser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. The empirical data specifically revealed that the land loser families rarely utilized the compensation money for purchasing new land and suffered from food insecurity. On the social level, we have found nuclearisation of extended families, although land acquisition might not be the sole factor, but loosening of intra-familial ties was found to be one of the adverse consequence. The study pointed out that macro level policies of industrialization may not go well with micro level ground realities of peasant life of Bengal in the long term under the present mechanisms of land acquisition without planned rehabilitation backed by law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methodology, of studying social movements, in general and ethnic movements, in particular demands the application of a definite theoretical premise, different set of research methods, and a value orientation. On the basis of a particular theoretical stand (among many) i.e. the constructionist approach the present paper attempts to focus on some crucial areas of social movement study like: what, how, and when to study an ethnic movement. The paper also pinpoints the problems of doing field work in an on-going movement situation and shows the possible ways of solving them. The study ends up with the plea to think beyond the conventional research methods, which were found to be counterproductive on many occasions in real field situation, while doing field work in troubled zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes an attempt to define 'Street politics' in the context of the contemporary developing world taking encroachment on the public land by the urban poor as a specific case. Depicting thoroughly how the pavement space in the city of Calcutta, India, became a contested site of so many claims ranging from legal to paralegal, the paper seeks to observe street politics not as a process or an institutional form of politics but as a set of relations between the government and the populations on the streets shaped through and conditioned by the operation of the modern governmental systems. The paper uses this understanding of street politics as a prism to gaze at the fuzzy domain of the politics of the informal poor. It subsequently presents a detailed ethnographic account of bow different informal groups invent strategies, sometimes fighting with each other and sometimes making horizontal consolidations, to manoeuvre governmental policies that put restrictions on their livelihood practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation of biodiversity relies on the involvement of the community, both women and men, whose interests and perspectives regarding natural resources may differ. Often, an ostensibly gender-neutral initiative may in fact be biased against women. In this paper we present a case study of conservation initiative in two villages -- Ganeshpur and Gangabhogpur, adjoining Rajaji National Park. North India. The objectives of this paper are to explore the status of women in these villages. examine level of their participation in conservation programs and factors determining their participation, their awareness regarding participatory approaches and their perception on various management issues. In Ganeshpur, where educational status of women was low and gender stratification was traditional, women had less say in household and outside matters, Women's awareness regarding conservation and co-management initiatives was superficial. Their participation in conservation initiatives was negligible. In Gangabhogpur, women were educated and given more freedom of expression and movement they had more say in all matters concerning the family. They were aware about conservation and co-management initiatives. In both the villages, personal and household endowments and social norms were found to influence women's participation. Hence cultural and social constraints and factors which determine women's freedom of expression, need to be addressed in the policy guidelines to ensure effective participation of women in conservation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirically grounded anthropological and sociological studies on marginalized groups and communities often neglect the relationship between marginalisation and development policy adopted by the state at a given point of time. Marginalisation of human groups is not a natural or an automatic process. It can be viewed as an effect or consequence of some other socio-economic, political or cultural processes that arise and/or operate outside the local and regional levels. The policies adopted by government can be put under such macro-level socio-economic and political processes, which may impinge upon the local society and cause marginalisation of communities at micro- level. The New Industrial Policy (1994) of the Left Front Government (LFG) in West Bengal demonstrates the process of marginalisation of small and marginal peasants in the rural areas of Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. Here the state government decided to acquire hundreds of acres of fertile agricultural land in the wake of liberalization for the establishment of technologically sophisticated and capital intensive heavy industries without making any provision for the proper rehabilitation of the affected small peasants and sharecroppers (the category of peasants who received major attention in the land reforms policy of LFG) including some scheduled tribe communities of West Bengal. Suffice it to say that this phenomena is not localized in one or two areas of West Bengal but is taking place almost throughout the state since more than thousands of industrial approvals have already been made by the state government within a span of five to six years after the adoption of the New Economic Policy by the Central Government in 1991. But notably enough, like other non-left states in India land for private industries in West Bengal is also acquired by employing the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894 which only provides monetary compensation at market price to the landowners. All these developments have created a political climate in West Bengal wherein the peasants are not only pushed to the margins of their economic existence but they also started to pose real threats to land reforms, decentralized planning and empowerment of local self-governments. Under this scenario, the following contributions would be made in this paper. 1. A description of the recent policy changes of LFG and the macro-economic argument by its policy makers in support of the industrial policy. 2. Description of land acquisition and its adverse consequences. This part of the paper would focus on the various economic dimensions of marginalisation through and acquisition. 3. A discussion on the demerits of land acquisition would be made by taking into consideration its implications for land reforms and local self-government in West Bengal. Here the point of marginalisation would be carried beyond its economic frontier to encompass the issue of overall empowerment of the peasantry. In the concluding part of the paper, some concrete policy recommendations would be made which may be incorporated within the framework of the newly adopted development policy of the LFG in West Bengal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper proposes Sundarban as a Culture Area with its distinct tradition of culture traits, which evolved uniquely in response to a particular ecological niche. Based on the dominance of one or the other trait the Culture Area of Sundarban may further be divided into subcultural zones. The present paper pointed out some of the most prominent culture traits or the area in favour of the proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sickness and its treatment are common experiences for human beings in every society. Every society invariably provides its members mechanisms to deal with diseases. From time immemorial, human diseases are said to have originated out of discrepancies related to religious beliefs, magical mysteries and supernatural dogmas and that too having a varieties or references in different cultural domains. Symptoms of illness are differently perceived and evaluated by members of the same community in different social systems. The present paper is a modest attempt to see the health and health seeking behaviour of Kutia Kandhas, a primitive tribe in Kandhamal District of Orissa. Taking the anthropological techniques like participant observations, interview and case study, etc., this present paper tries to explain the Kutia Kandhas' perceptions, beliefs and practices towards malaria. It also, attempts to depict the etiology of malaria, different factors responsible for malaria and coping with the same as well as the strategies and decision-making processes. The study reveals that the social and ecological set up act as major causes of high prevalence of malaria among this tribe. The etiology of malaria and its healing systems are found to be associated with the magico-religious beliefs. Along with herbal treatment, magico-religious practices are still occupying a significant position in their indigenous method of treatment. To prevent malaria, a heart-shocking disease in the tribal region, along with the biological aspects, the social and cultural aspects should be taken in to consideration before intervening the modern medical system in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tribal scene in India is a complex cultural mosaic and could we really think of a common sustainable development programme for all the tribals as a whole? The paper is distributed in three parts, first one deals with the concept of sustainable development, second observes the existing development scene in a Bhil village in desert ecology and the third one tries to form a strategy for sustainable development for the Bhil case in that village. Sustainable development argues for a better environment for present and future. It involves two components: the meaning of development and the condition necessary for sustainability. Development is need based. Human needs can be classified as survival, societal, welfare, psychic and cultural, adaptive needs and progressive needs. In the Roopsi village of Jaisalmer District Rajasthan, in a desert eco-system, among the Bhil existing development programme" meet only survival and welfare needs. Neither it meets other needs nor it can produce a better environment for future -- the basic desire of sustainability, In the present paper the problems of sustainable development in tribal situation has been analysed with reference to the Roopsi Bhil case and an attempt has been made to propose a sustainable development strategy for the Roopsi case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this keynote address entitled Urban Development: A Critique, Dr. Sanjay K. Roy constructs an analytical, historical critique of urban development in the West and in India. The paper brings together the critiques of urban development put across by the classical thinkers like Marx, Durkheim, Weber and Tonnies and traces down how these critiques were reconstructed in the post-Marxist and post-structuralist writings. The paper has traveled down the theory line to emphasize the essence of theoretical understanding for grasping the course of urban development globally and in India. The paper interprets the significance of the recent phase of urbanization that comes as a part of the ongoing process of globalization and underscores the significance of penetration of global consumer culture in the fast changing urban life in a developing country like India. Dr. Roy has also given a brief account of the contributions of Indian sociologists and anthropologists in the field of urban studies. The paper appreciates the "local" and "counter points" (to western modernist approaches) put forth by the Indian scholars, but laments that the wider and global processes have been ignored in the process. Dr. Roy's critique centers around the key point that the urban poor and the natural habitat are the obvious casualties of the path of urban development we are following, and that the urban space (including the social and cultural space) is being steadily colonized by the urban rich and the global capital and culture, The paper ends with an appeal to anthropologists in India to take up urban studies with utmost seriousness in order to empower the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health beliefs and practices are best understood when seen as anchored in the socio-cultural matrix. While most of the studies proclaim a close association between health beliefs and magico-religious ideas (Pelto and Pelto 1997), the present study of Pahari Korwa of Chhatisgarh shows that Korwa ideas on health are intimately connected with their traditional pattern of subsistence revolving around forest. The paper delves into the people's notion of health and illness and examines how these are linked up with the broad socio cultural system in general and patterns of subsistence in particular. Anthropological literature is replete with the studies highlighting the systemic nature of health beliefs and behaviour and their interralatedness with the other elements of culture (Rivers 1924, Ackernecht 1945). However. the degree of integration is not the same for all the components of culture. The element, which is most closely bound with the health beliefs, varies from one cultural context to another. Paul (1955) called such elements as 'central' and others, which are loosely integrated, as 'peripheral'. The present paper highlights how the notion of health Is related to the forest based economy among Pahari Korwa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the pan-Indian Devadasi system and tile practice of Jogini in the state of Andhra Pradesh from a civilizational perspective. While the Devadasi system is conceived as an element of the Great Tradition, the Jogini system is considered as its adaptation to specific socio-economic and politico-religious contexts. Within the domain of civilizational analysis. Redfield, Marriot and Singer, among others have established the flow of cultural elements between the Great and Little Traditions. While endorsing the basic notion of cultural flow between the civilizational elements, this paper attempts to carry the argument further by trying to understand how these socio-cultural Interactions might be grounded in material conditions of tile local cultures under study. It is further contend that as material conditions of existence is closely Interwoven with the local power structure, it would be useful to follow a three-dimensional model In understanding the interactions between the great and little traditions - the flow of cultural elements. material conditions of existence, and the bearing of local power structure on social interactions. With this model in mind, the Jogini system in Andhra Pradesh is analyzed and placed as a devoluted model of the pan-Indian Devadasi system with its specific local variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper portrays the tribal policy and the condition of the tribal population in India and In different parts of South East Asia. Incidentally, a significant change has been observed in the pre and post independence eras. Naturally, besides stating the facts for Indian tribes, the paper also covers the tribal population of Myanmar, Malayasla and Indonesia and describes the status of the tribes vis-a-vis those who are not tribes. We also get an outline of the various tribal movements, tribal aspiration and the foundation of social strata In various tribal communities. At length, the author has highlighted their need to understand the 'emerging world order, the changing character of the state, and the internal structure of the community' to assess the dynamic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic crises, health related issues, socio-psychological adjustment, leisure and recreation, family environment and care, extra familial rehabilitation and condition in the old age home etc. are the major aspects of the elderly persons: of India which have been dealt by the researchers on gerontology in India. However, it is revealed that most of the gerontological studies in India are centered on urban, middle class, educated and service sector populations, and in most of the cases the elderly people have been considered as liabilities rather than assets. In this background, the present paper is an attempt to highlight the different roles, engagement as well as contributions made by the elderly population living in a rural area and leading an agrarian way of life. The paper also makes an attempt to derive some policy recommendations, which may be useful for better understanding of the condition as well as socio-economic and cultural contributions of the elderly people of rural India in agrarian settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hindu fisherfolk of Kerala are segmented into the Hindu Marine Fisherfolk, the Hindu Backwater Fisherfolk and the Hindu Marine cum Backwater Fisherfolk. In this paper an attempt has been made to describe and analyse the cultural profile of the Hindu fishing communities of Kerala. The Hindu fishing community is divided into fourteen subcastes and they have been hierarchically arranged in the social hierarchy on the basis of mythological origin, occupation and purity and pollution ideas. The paper also focussed on the intercaste relations among the Hindu fishing communities on the one hand and the Hindu fishing communities and other castes in the region on the other. The paper concludes by analysing social stratification among the Hindu fishing communities of Kerala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Santals and the Bhumij, the two settled agriculturist tribes from the eastern India, are both offshoots from the same linguistic family with similarities in their social organization and cultural life. The present paper is a comparative analysis of the socio-cultural context of the dances of the two tribes. In this paper dance has been considered as a mirror of the changing perceptions of boundary maintenance and solidarity formation among the Santal and the Bhumij against the backdrop of the scenario of tribal transformation discussed by late Prof. Surajit C. Sinha. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the cases of the three marginal communities of rural West Bengal. Two tribal communities and scheduled castes living in three villages of Birbhum and Purulia district of West Bengal are examined. Of the two tribal communities one was an erstwhile criminal hunting and gathering tribe, the Hill Kharia, living in the district of Purulia on the western part of the state bordering Jharkhand. The other is the major tribe of the eastern India, the Santal studied in the context of two local situations found in the district of Birbhum. As the Santals live in all the three villages studied, this has provided additional opportunities to examine what precisely are the factors ,that have enabled them to come out of their marginal condition. The scheduled castes as a group are also present in all the three villages and provide Opportunities to study how the dominance subservience pattern is shaped and redesigned. The paper argues that group membership rather than membership based on individual role has remained a crucial issue in the public domain in India. This has been a constraining factor in keeping the marginalized groups excluded from the public domain for a long time. The way the social and political association used to be constituted in the rural areas largely determined the position of the communities in the local society. In the context of institution of panchayati raj system how the three groups interact with the majority community and in turn it allowed them to participate in the political domain and through it their participation in the institutions of education, family planning and economy is examined. The social action through land distribution measures but also competitive political process in which constant interaction between the various social groups is a dominant factor generating social and political association has enabled the people to emphasize the concept of public legality and more universal norms of membership. In the absence of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is written in honour of Professor Surajit Chandra Sinha, former Director, Anthropological Survey of India and Vice-Chancellor, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. This article takes off from one of his papers where he mentions about a Sinhad when discussing the tribes that he did not elaborate in his writings. In this paper we have discussed the features of mind-set or mentality of the people having a segmentary system of society in comparison to those belonging to organically linked social systems. We have attempted to elaborate on the qualitative differences in the realm of interpersonal relations and attitudes towards man-nature interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological discourses on the traditional Indian rural institution, the jajmani, usually suggest either a single system immutable model like that of Wiser or Dumont, or the multiple system models of Parry. Reheja, Lerche, and others. In this paper it is suggested that neither of these models satisfactorily explains the nature of inter-jati exchange relations in rural India. It is, therefore, imperative to simultaneously examine the basic ideology behind these relations, and the impacts of many socio-political and historical forces to devise a locally adaptive form of such relations without necessarily obliterating the basic ideology. Critically examining Lerche's views on coastal Orissa as an example, the paper explicates that as the jati dynamics in its locally adaptive form does not necessarily contradict the basic principles of jati organization, similarly the inter-jati exchange relations may take different forms for meeting the common goal or survival needs. It is only wrapped with ritual fervour to legitimize the occupational monopoly of different jatis and to ensure its sustainablity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a short paper based on a small research project on inter-tribal relations in Shillong city. Being an educational capital of Northeast India and the headquarters of many central government organizations, this city has attracted a large number of tribal and non-tribal people from the region as well as outside the region. This paper shows that interaction is more within a tribe than between the tribes although language is no barrier to interaction between tribes, although it varies to some extent from one tribe to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among all the components of environment water has now become the most important one for the local communities, policymakers, politicians, international funding agencies, multinational corporations, NGO activists, lawyers, governments and academicians. Never in the history of water the number of stakeholders are so numerous as of today who are equally vociferous and each one of them has constructed their own narrative on the management of nature's one of the most vital life support systems. In this paper a modest and preliminary attempt has been made to compare and contrast some contemporary narratives in the context of rainwater harvesting. Broadly, one narrative comes from the Alwar district of Rajasthan which has now become an international phenomenon particularly after the amazing grass root level works done by Rajendra Singh and his Tarun Bharat Sangh(TBS).The other narrative is derived from the texts which are recently being produced by the leftist intellectuals, activists and policymakers of West Bengal. The materials for these narratives on rainwater harvesting have been collected from various documentary sources like newspapers, journals, books and the author's own face to face interactions with the engineers and activists as well as fieldworks done in some villages of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. The juxtaposition of these two kinds of narratives reveal the wide divergence between government action and grass root activism because these narratives are not only constructed by their authors in the form of written texts and/or oral deliberations but they also reflect the real material world managed and constructed by human beings backed by their ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues relating to the Muslim women have always been a matter of debate and discussion. Muslim women are usually imagined as a secluded, excluded and voiceless social category. A closer look at the Muslim women in India reduces such characterization into a mere stereotype. In contemporary times many Muslim women in India are organizing and participating in various movements for social reform in their own society and society at large. Present paper gives an outline of one such movement - Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan - highlighting the role of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper, which is an outcome of research project titled 'Area Study: North-East India', deals with the ethnic composition and the way of life of the people living in Kurseong Development Block of Darjeeling district and the inter-ethnic relation that was prevalent in the late 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20011 Census of India has shown that there has been a perceptible decline in the child sex ratio and this has been going on at a relatively faster pace since the last few decades. The skewed child sex ratio, it is feared, will be of serious concern for the future age and sex composition of India's population as the masculinisation of society will create social problems as is happening in many of the states with very low sex ratio. This paper is of the view that the declining CSR is only a dimension of the undermining of the position of women in Indian society despite some women making it to the top. It is only a variant of the different measures in use to eliminate women and only the exercise of informed agency on the part of society and political will on the part of the state can bring in the changes necessary to check the decline and prevent the negative consequences of a gender deficit society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is the largest tea producing country in the world; and Assam's contribution to her total yield is around 56 percent. Tea is the backbone of Assam's economy. It also accounts for some millions of direct and indirect jobs. Besides, the historians believe that the political destiny of the region probably would have been different, had the tea plant growing wild not been discovered here. The first commercial level tea plantation in Assam was established in 1837 at Chabua in Dibrugarh District. During the initial days, labour scarcity was a constant hindrance to the expansion of tea plantation in the region. The planters had to procure labour on a regular basis from other states of India on contractual basis. They are heteroethnic in composition and belong to more than 100 caste and tribal groups. A major section of these migrant labourers, in course of time, however, decided to settle permanently in the rural areas of Assam as ex-tea labourers. The tea and ex-tea labourers in Assam at present constitute around 20 percent of the state's total population. It is a fact that the tea labourers, since their migration here have been rendering committed services by being engaged in the most profitable industry of the state. But, incidentally, the fact also remains that the workers, even to-day have, by and large, been subjected to a raw deal in comparison to the services they provide. Some basic human development indices such as access to health care services and educational facilities seem to remain abysmally low in most of the tea gardens. Provisions of the Plantation Labour Act (1951) and Plantation Labour Rules (1956) are yet to be fully operational in m any plantations. An overall appraisal of the prevailing socio-economic condition of the people h as been attempted in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As reported India is having skewed sex ratio at birth. Sex ratio is one of the important demographic parameter to describe the population structure. Changes in sex composition largely reflect the underlying socio-economic, cultural patterns, demographic development and also gender relations of a society. In general, skewed sex ratio means the declining of the female population, while the declining of the male population could also be possible. The present paper reviews the sex ratio pattern of Manipur state in the last five census decades. The review points out the trend of decline of male population in the state and tries to visualise the problems from socio-political scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements by and large are viewed as a manifestation of collective discontent against the established social, economic, and political orders of the society. This paper aims at examining the dynamics of social movements in North Bengal, particularly of Cooch Behar, in the context of changing agrarian structure. The agrarian structure of the region has been changed with the changing political status of Cooch Behar. The region witnessed several movements from kshatriaization (a movement for higher social status of Rajbangsis) to Kamatapuri (demand for statehood of the Cooch Behar District). Thus directions of the movements have been changed over a period of time. Land reform measures, migration, governance, land transfer, subordination of social space to political space, etc. are some of the causative factors of such movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central India is an abode of different tribal groups who are rich in their cultural heritage. Godna (tattoo) is an important art form of these tribal groups used for decorating their body which shows their creativity. This body decoration of the central Indian tribes is not merely confined to their body but it has some other significances. It is very much related to different aspects of their life and culture. It has some relation with their religion, belief system, health-care practice, social status, wealth and sexual activities. In the present paper an emphasis has been given to show the importance of this tattoo in the life and culture of the central Indian tribes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of late, urbanization has been making deeper inroads into the rural scenario, the effects of which, though indirect, are significant in view of their future implications. Even rural tribal villages could not remain outside the impact zone of urbanization. It is noticed that with increasing globalization, the rights and properties of ordinary rural people are not protected. Even in a secluded forest- based tribal village the people's access to natural resources are denied forcing them to leave their homeland in search of livelihood outside. There are now tribal pockets in a number of urban centers including the outskirts of Kolkata. In the rural set-up also the physical landscape of the tribal village has changed beyond recognition. There has been considerable shrinking of agricultural land and it has been fragmented with the change of lands. In an agriculture-based tribal village the level of deprivation suffered by the people is almost inseparably connected with land. The observations and inputs made in this paper are based on studies conducted at: i. Chaulia Jankisai Para, Durgapur Sijagaria Para and Patbanda Adivsi Para under Dantan-I Block of Paschim Midnapore District ii. Siulibona and Babudi village under Chhatna Block of Bankura District. iii. Sidhu Kanu Tola under Raghudebbati Gram Panchayat of Sankrail Block, Howrah District (near Kolkata). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tribes of India have been the focus of development initiatives ever since India achieved independence. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the condition of a section of the tribal tea garden workers of North Bengal. The workers under study are based in the tea plantations which have remained closed for a considerable period of time and have currently opened. They are going through a phase of periodic closure and opening. The condition of the workers has been sought to be studied in the context of tribal development initiatives and to find out whether these have any relevance for the workers in these gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the alarming problems in recent times all over the world including India is increasing trends of drug addiction and drug abuse. India has long tradition of several types of drug addiction since time immemorial like 'Affing', 'Ganja' 'Bhang' but these were used as either occasional habit or as tranquiliser element of aged people. The nature of drug addiction among homeless people is totally different from other category of people who were brought up in family atmosphere .Several socio-psychological reasons like lack of family and community support, feeling of identity crisis, loneliness, exploitation and several types of vulnerabilities are associated with addiction habit of homeless people like platform dwellers who are not only almost destitute but totally deprived of family bond as in other category of homeless people like street dwellers. This paper seeks to explore the pervasiveness of the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is primarily written to remember the 150 birth anniversary of Late Prof. L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer, a pioneering scholar in Indian ethnography during its pre-independence period. A teacher of versatile scholarship, he served both in the University of Calcutta and Madras. Besides, he also published seminal volumes on the tribes and castes of Cochin and Mysore and widely travelled abroad for delivering lectures. An attrempt has been made here to assess the relevance of his contribution in the formative phase of anthropology in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For members of the marginalized section of a society the process of marginalization is often a collective experience. It might not be so for the children born to members of that section; in fact it is difficult to describe the children as marginalized till the time they perceive their marginal position in comparison to the children of other sections of the same society. For them marginalization is often a personal feeling, a revelation that becomes part of their childhood experience. The sex-workers are one marginalized section of the society; their world is often surrounded by people from the underworld, police and correctional institutions. The present paper attempts to understand how and when the children born and brought up in brothels of Kolkata learn that they are different from other children and how they adjust to that realization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to enquire into the factors that have given rise to urban growth in Tripura, one of the eight states comprising northeast India between 1901 and 2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]