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Historians of Partition have focused upon the bitterly polarized yet vibrant public sphere of the last days of the British Raj, wherein newspapers representing Congress, Muslim League and Akali opinion vied for influence through increasingly hostile propaganda targeted at the 'other/s'. Such studies' focus on ideological battles and propaganda results in relatively less attention being given to what became of these papers once the British departed and the parties these papers espoused or opposed captured power. This paper will seek to revisit such assumptions by analyzing the trials and tribulations of the significant newspaper houses unfortunate enough to be located on the geographical frontlines of Partition and in major centres of communal conflagration. Through such analyses, I will seek to show that it was a combination of initial mob action, reinforced often by state repression and even popular reproach, that forced newspapers viewed as belonging to the 'other' party to move to safer (and greener) pastures. In the process, late-colonial India's once pluralist public sphere came to be partitioned into sections that broadly conformed to the ideologies that the respective Dominions' new rulers espoused. While aligning newspapers with the majoritarian public opinion, this Partition occasioned shifts of personnel and presses that would fundamentally alter the postcolonial press industry in West and East Pakistan, and to a lesser extent, in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the possible predatory journals in Library and Information Science research in India, including the affiliation status of the authors publishing in those predatory journals, frequency of returning authors, and country-wise distribution of authors. The paper used Beall's list to find out the predatory journals in LIS published from India. Publication trends, affiliations of authors, and the status of the 22 LIS journals under the study were critically analyzed. The result shows that the predatory journals were diminishing slowly; in 2016, there were eight active journals, while in 2021, it was reduced to four journals. Similarly, the publication trends show that the highest number of articles (398) was published in the year 2015, and it was only 66 articles in 2020. It is revealed that academics hailing from state universities (42.88%) are the highest contributors to the predatory journals, followed by professionals from government colleges (16.76%). The results indicate that predatory publishing was rampant in the early years but declined gradually. Researchers from India have published the most articles, totaling 1760 (93%), followed by those from Nigeria (64, 3.3%), Bangladesh (10), and Saudi Arabia (eight articles). It is also revealed that 21.66% (n = 438) are returning authors who have published more than one article in the sample journals. The paper discusses the role of the government and especially the University Grants Commission (UGC) in curbing the menace of predatory publishing. The authors also discuss the possible role of library professionals in stopping the plague of predatory publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this editorial introduction to the Special Theme, Sacrifice, Suffering and Hope: Education, Aspiration and Young People's Affective Orientations to the Future, we discuss the key theoretical themes (aspiration, sacrifice and affect) that underpin the papers in this collection. With geographical focus on India, Indonesia, Kenya and Bangladesh, our aim is to contribute a more ethnographically-grounded understanding of the affective orientations that emerge or become visible in the context of young people's educational experiences, and that shape and give meaning to processes of aspiration formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a federal political system like India, the role of the federal units bordering the neighboring countries becomes crucial in foreign policy-making toward neighboring countries. It is expected that when similar political parties or coalition partners remain in power in both the center and the states, federal politics does not hinder policy-making toward neighboring countries. Moreover, foreign policy being a central subject, federal units any way reflect passive tendencies, especially in the case of governments with the same party affiliations. Both these simplifications are contested in this paper by citing instances of the role of West Bengal and Tripura, India's two federal units bordering the neighboring country of Bangladesh, at different historical junctures, in which similar political parties in the center and the state resulted in more friction than when different political parties were in office in matters of India's foreign policy-making toward Bangladesh. The paper argues that instead of federalization of foreign policy, where federal units have an influential role, this particular experience suggests an externalization of federalism, where an external variable (Bangladesh) influences internal federal dynamics to the extent that domestic electoral politics force the political parties of the two federal units to give importance to the neighboring country in taking positions on foreign policy-making. The immediate context of fifty years of the India-Bangladesh relationship and question about over-centralization during the latest phase of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in India push the authors to take up Bangladesh as a case to contest the given of Indian federalism in foreign policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and critically reflect on access to Assistive Technology (AT) for persons with disabilities (PWD) in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. This analysis aims to guide the development of a contextualised generic AT service delivery model suitable for these countries, based on the best practices identified. This paper is based on a comprehensive study conducted in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, observing mobility and hearing-related AT service delivery centres run by the government, as well as private and nongovernmental organisations, and interviews with key informants: policymakers (5), AT service providers (20) and AT service users (20) between December 2019 to February 2020. A descriptive, qualitative exploratory study design was followed. A quality assessment framework was used to structure the analysis and interpret the findings. AT service provisions are poorly developed in all three countries. On all quality indicators assessed, the systems show major weaknesses. AT users have very limited awareness about their rights to these services and the availability of AT services, the range of services available is very limited, and eligibility is dependent on medical criteria related to visible and severe disabilities. Lack of accessibility, eligibility, reachability and affordability are the main barriers to access AT services for PWD in Nepal, India and Bangladesh. Increased community level awareness, increased Government funding and a community based, medically informed flexible social model of AT services is a way forward to ensure access to AT services for PWD in these countries. Increased community awareness is necessary to increase access to Assistive Technology Services for Persons with Disabilities. Increased and flexible funding from the Government and philanthropists will improve rehabilitation. Establishment of community based Assistive Technology Services centres will increase access and improve rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rohingya experiences of displacement and refuge are heavily gendered. Sexual and gender-based violence have been used as weapons against Rohingya women, men, girls and boys in Myanmar for decades. Trafficking and exploitation are rife on the flight out of the country, and host states such as India present their own gendered challenges to family survival and individual coping. In this paper, we examine how some of those violent and disruptive experiences have affected gender roles for individuals and families as they have fled Myanmar (often more than once) and sought refuge in India via Bangladesh. We present new insight into the dynamic subjectivity of Rohingya women as we show how, contrary to dominant depictions of passive victimhood, many have lead family migration across borders, taken up NGO/community leadership roles, or made the best 'home' possible within the limitations of the host context. This is because personal and family agency is sensitive to transitional opportunities and threats—i.e., gender norms of home and host contexts, interactions with host communities, and trust relations with NGOs, to name a few. Crucially, these social practices and experiences are not static or linear; they span generations and sprawling geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research article examines the contest between indigenous forest-dwelling communities and settler colonial policy in post-Partition central India. According to official estimates, from 1961–71 the population of indigenous communities declined by nearly 50% in Dandakaranya within central India even as overall the population grew by a large margin during the same period. Despite perceptions of India as a post-colony committed to decolonization, this article examines how this state project, one of the earliest acts of governmentality, was deeply implicated in a settler colonial logic of elimination. Following the mass migration of Partition refugees in 1947 across newly demarcated borders, the Indian government earmarked Dandakaranya Forest as the site of a refugee resettlement project for lower-caste Partition refugees from East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Drawing on Lorenzo Veracini's notion of 'probationary settlers' as exogenous others without prior claims to land, refugees are understood within this argument as probationary settlers reliant on the state for their survival. Rather than narrating the biography of the state through its various experts and institutions, this paper foregrounds the perspective of the marginalized on their environment: displaced forest-dwelling indigenous communities and lower-caste (Dalit) refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews and reflects on the processes for providing Assistive Technology (AT) services to Persons with Disabilities (PWD) in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The aim is to investigate the AT service delivery systems in these countries and suggest improvements where weaknesses are identified. We carried out a descriptive qualitative exploratory study in Bangladesh, India and Nepal by conducting key informant interviews with policymakers (5), AT service providers (22) and mobility and hearing related AT service users (21). We used a directed content analysis approach guided by a seven-point AT service delivery process model to thematically analyse the existing processes for AT service delivery, from first contact through to follow-up and maintenance. AT service delivery processes are sub-optimal in all three countries, and improvements are needed. No common AT service delivery process was found, although there are common features. In general, it is easier for PWDs in India and Nepal to access AT than for those in Bangladesh, but all three countries are failing to live up to their commitments to uphold the human rights of PWDs. Although good elements of AT service delivery processes can be identified, the systems in all three countries are fragmented and generally weak. A more holistic approach of looking at the process of AT service delivery, from first contact right through to follow-up and device maintenance, with a single door service delivery system, free of cost at the point of service is recommended in these countries. Although we found significant weaknesses in AT delivery in all three countries, there are some good AT service delivery practices and opportunities for these countries to learn from one another. A systematic and stepwise approach to assessing current AT service delivery processes in the three countries – examining the delivery system as a whole, from initiation to repair and management – can help identify opportunities to improve the process for (prospective) AT users. A more coherent single door system of AT service delivery will increase the quality and efficiency of the fragmented AT service delivery practices in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific research has revealed that global warming is getting irreversible with the passage of time and it is largely a human-induced phenomenon. India is one of the top three emitters of carbon dioxide in the world. However, the general public in India is unaware of what actually causes anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change. This study is undertaken to assess the level of climate change awareness and willingness to adopt mitigation actions by the students (N = 657) of higher education in Tripura, a small state in North East India, bordering Bangladesh on three sides. In addition, the study also attempts to draw whether there exist any correlations between the level of media usage with the level of climate change awareness and the level of climate change awareness with the level of willingness to adopt climate change mitigation actions. The results show that students of higher education in Tripura have a high level of climate change awareness, and the primary sources for climate change-related information are the Internet, TV, and newspapers. The scientists were the most trusted sources of climate change-related information followed by the mass media. The findings also establish that the students are willing to adopt climate change mitigation actions, even if it costs them something extra. The students who are willing (7.6%) and extremely willing (65.4%) to embrace climate change mitigation actions constituted more than 70% of the total respondents of the survey. The paper concludes that the level of willingness to adopt climate change mitigation actions was found to be significantly correlated with the level of awareness of the consequences of climate change when media are key actors in the dissemination of information; however, the level of understanding about solutions for climate change is not correlated with the level of awareness about the causes of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the absence of pre-colonial written records, reconstruction of the history and identity of indigenous tribes has to depend on oral stories and the documentation of the 'other', while the former is subject to distortion, the latter is often glossed with vested interest. Taking the case of the indigenous tribes of the India-Burma-Bangladesh borderlands, this paper probes the representation of the Zo (Kuki-Chin) people in colonial ethnography, on one hand, and to what extent colonial knowledge was informed by 'investigative' or 'survey modality', which, in fact, was solely for administrative purpose, on the other. It argues that indigenous tribes of the India-Burma-Bangladesh borderlands were represented as completely fragmented in colonial ethnography, however, behind the colonial policy of classification one can still unearth the ethnic commonality of the various tribes when they are seen through the lens of cultural similarity or as a 'culture area.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to inhabit? Our many selves find dimensionality through time and in place. This is complicated through the event of mass migration and trauma. One is continuously mapped through a locating of interiority. Within this essay, Nayar traces the birth and evolution of place as interior, and the genesis of her hybrid, constructed photographic process. Through the lens of India's 1947 Partition, a trajectory of trauma and the ways in which memory functions over time is traced and translated through a family's resettlement home in New Delhi. Built by her maternal grandfather, a refugee and psychiatrist from East Bengal, this locus in Nayar's memory sheds light on how one may understand the many intersections of belonging and place. Home is found in habitation, that of desire and the awakening of the Mother. In this way, attachment theory, Winnicott's transitional object, and the uncanny are touchstones for an internal mapping of psychic space. Through this framework, one understands what it means to embody through time and what is, through the process, left behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has destabilized economies, lives all over the globe with devastating impacts. Physical and mental health suffered hugely due to this pandemic. Moreover, educational institutes were forced to shift from offline to online mode. This study aims to identify critical societal constructs which got impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India and Bangladesh. Further, a comparative analysis has been carried out to assess these impacts between these two countries from a social science point of view. A cross-sectional study has been conducted through a structured questionnaire based on pilot study. Google Survey form link of questionnaire was active from March 15, 2020 to July 14, 2020 in which 1023 responses were received with a response rate of 54%. After the elimination of missing responses, 802 complete responses were finally coded on 48 variables including demographic profile of the respondents. Factor analysis is used to identify critical constructs of the study whereas hypothesis testing to carry out for comparative understanding. The study found that COVID-19 pandemic has severely impact on psychological, educational, economic, and social aspects of both countries whereas Bangladesh has significant adverse impact than India. Economic stimulus program such as tax exemption, EMI moratoriums, mental health training, E-learning, low interest rate of soft loan disbursement are noteworthy requirement to overcome the adverse impact of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of people from India's northeastern state of Assam have to defend themselves against suspicions that they are illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh. I explore how one such group of individuals, who work as waste pickers in Delhi, protect their citizenship against the combined vulnerabilities of being Assamese, Muslim, and residents of an unauthorized slum. I show that they develop a split relation with the government, defined by a costly requirement to vote in their borderland villages, and by avoidance for all matters linked to everyday life. By working hard in an occupation shunned by everyone else, they seem to uphold this citizenship of extraordinary political obligation and minimal entitlement. But when this equilibrium unravels around the debt that they contract to pay for basic services and for the trip home to cast their ballot, the price of their condition determined by suspicion, is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global population is ageing rapidly, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing a fast demographic transition. As the number of older adults in LMICs increases, services able to effectively address their physical and mental health needs will be increasingly important. We review the health and socioeconomic resources currently available for older people in South Asian countries, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to identify gaps in available resources and assess areas for improvement. We conducted a search of grey and published literature via Google Search, Compendex, EBSCO, JSTOR, Medline, Ovid, ProQuest databases, Scopus and Web of Science. Data on population demographics, human resources, health funding and social protection for older people were extracted. Local informants were consulted to supplement and verify the data. In the study countries, the number of health professionals with expertise in elderly care was largely unknown, with minimal postgraduate training programmes available in elderly medicine or psychiatry. Older adults are therefore cared for by general physicians, nurses and community health workers, all of whom are present in insufficient numbers per capita. Total average healthcare expenditure was 2.5–5.5% of GDP, with 48.1–72.0% of healthcare costs covered by out-of-pocket payments. Pakistan did not have a social pension; only India and Nepal offered financial assistance to people with dementia; and all countries had disproportionately low numbers of care elderly homes. Inadequate healthcare funding, a shortage of healthcare professionals and insufficient government pension and social security schemes are significant barriers to achieving universal health coverage in LMICs. Governing bodies must expand training programmes for healthcare providers for older adults, alongside increasing social protection to improve access to those in need and to prevent catastrophic health expenditure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of the American Association of Geographers is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The defect classification of knitted fabrics is a challenging area of research. Most of the defect detection works in India; Bangladesh is being carried by manually trained inspectors. The long working hours and the working environment at the company induces the fatigue, lack of concentration, and triteness to the workers due to this they may not able to detect the defects on the clothes after it is manufactured. To overcome this problem, a computer-aided defect detection system is being developed using digital image processing and artificial neural Network methods. The two types of artificial neural networks were applied to compare the results obtained. The networks were: a back propagation based feed forward neural network and the other was Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm based back propagation network. Experimental results predicted detection of a high degree of variety of fabric defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's role in the liberation war is often seen through the geopolitical prism. Its response to developments in East Pakistan was complex and evolved over a period of time. Before taking recourse to military action, India exhausted its diplomatic initiatives to draw the attention of the international community to the refugee crisis which arose due to the Pakistan Army-perpetuated genocide – a term first used by India in the Parliament Resolution of 31 March. This article focusses on the debates in the Indian Parliament on the 'crisis in East Bengal' that ranged from making budgetary provisions for ten million refugees to building pressure on the Indian government to recognise Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 1971's geostrategic significance for the Indian subcontinent rivals that of 1947 when British India was divided into India and Pakistan. While the roots of Bangladesh's secession from Pakistan lay firmly within the Pakistani polity, India's political support for the Bangladesh freedom movement and its military intervention were crucial for the liberation of Bangladesh. The Indian campaign for the liberation of Bangladesh was brilliantly conceived and deftly executed. Although humanitarian considerations, especially the influx of ten million refugees into India, played a role the major factors determining the decision to intervene militarily in the Bangladesh crisis were political and strategic in character. This article analyzes these factors as well as the decision-making process that led to India midwifing the birth of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]