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This article examines the understanding of collectivism and sisterhood among Oraon tribal women in the Netarhat Field Firing Range movement. Further, this study discusses tribal women's consciousness of repressive operations of the state and of their experiences of triple oppression as a tribal group, as women, and as activists. Tribal women's goals, however, are much more than women's liberation; they demand tribal autonomy and the right to forest resources so that tribal people can live peacefully in their regions. This study also looks at how a group of women shared their gender-based grievances as well as their everyday struggle under militarized control of their villages. Often, women's groups are at the forefront of rallies and marches, mobilizing the villagers and attending village meetings, but the male-dominated society rarely views women's revolutionary accomplishments as an effort of sisterhood. The state government agreed to the tribal demand not to re-notify the Netarhat Field Firing Range Project, not only because of the efforts of the men of the society but also due to women's willpower, solidarity, and bravery within the movement. Using the narrative approach, this research aims to explore tribal women's lived experiences and everyday struggle during the Netarhat field firing range project with reference to fieldwork conducted in the villages of Mahuadanr, Banari, Navatoli, and Sakhuapani where tribal women activists played a key role. Until now, tribal women's lived experiences, narratives, and consciousness during the different contemporary movements of Jharkhand have been ignored by most scholars. Studying this site is very relevant to understanding tribal women's questions, issues, and feminist standpoints. The fieldwork for this paper was conducted as part of the author's PhD research in Chotanagpur and the Kolhan regions of Jharkhand state, India. The study found that the Netarhat Field Firing Range movement was based on truth claims and followed the Gandhian ideology of non-violence to achieve rights. Further, this paper explores the sisterhood and solidarity amongst tribal women activists, and how non-tribal activists helped strengthen the tribal movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through bringing history into conversation with ethnography, this paper re-examines scholarly understandings of Hindu nationalism and the practice of seva (service). Whereas much scholarship addresses Hindu nationalist service through a secular-liberal register, this paper considers what this language excludes. Giving critical attention to elite activists within the Hindu nationalist-led Vanavasi Kalyan Kendra (Tribal Welfare Centre), in Jharkhand, India, my research demonstrates how elite activists translate service into a religious language of somatic representation. This constructs marginal agents as passive subjects of a heavily moralistic ethical-self making project. This critical analysis opens up for study the differing ritual-politics of caste and gender which underlie the participation of marginal actors, practices which are not reducible to a discourse of religion or a universal category of acts. In order to grasp these more complex models, this paper gives importance to the ways in which its ethical discourses are inhabited in manifold ways. This tells a story of how Western models of religion are parochialized, and challenges the relationship between authority and agency which permeate our imagination of non-liberal discourses like those invoked by Hindu nationalist service projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact on individual decisions to unionize of several factors: the reach of communist parties, the degree of political activism, personal attributes of workers, and industrial characteristics. The workers examined are Indian nonagricultural regular workers, using micro-data from the 2004-5 Employment and Unemployment Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation, linked to state-level factors. A notable result is that the reach of communist parties has considerable effect on unionization probability. Moreover, it seems that the mere existence of communist parties in a state also facilitates unionization to some extent. State-level political activism and unemployment rate also influence the individual decision to join a union. The paper concludes also that a worker's gender, marital status, ethnic background, employment status, experience, occupation, sector of employment, establishment size, and type of industry remain important in the determination of union membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: It is well acknowledged that India's community health workers known as Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) are the bedrock of its health system. Many ASHAs are currently working in fragile and conflict-affected settings. No efforts have yet been made to understand the challenges and vulnerabilities of these female workers. This paper seeks to address this gap by bringing attention to the situation of ASHAs working in the fragile and conflict settings and how conflict impacts them and their work.Methods: Qualitative fieldwork was undertaken in four conflict-affected villages in two conflict-affected districts -Kokrajhar and Karbi Anglong of Assam state situated in the North-East region of India. Detailed account of four ASHAs serving roughly 4000 people is presented. Data transliterated into English were analysed by authors by developing a codebook using grounded theory and thematic organisation of codes.Results: ASHAs reported facing challenges in ensuring access to health services during and immediately after outbreaks of conflict. They experienced difficulty in arranging transport and breakdown of services at remote health facilities. Their physical safety and security were at risk during episodes of conflict. ASHAs reported hostile attitudes of the communities they served due to the breakdown of social relations, trauma due to displacement, and loss of family members, particularly their husbands.Conclusions: Conflict must be recognised as an important context within which community health workers operate, with greater policy focus and research devoted to understanding and addressing the barriers they face as workers and as persons affected by conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annie Besant was an Irish political activist, free-thinker and Fabian socialist. After embracing Theosophy under the tutelage of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian mystic, Besant embarked on her mission of propagating theosophical ideals, and reached the shores of India in 1893. However, in India Hinduism fascinated her to such an extent that she devoted herself to promoting Hinduism. She toured the length and breadth of India, and lectured intensely on the lofty ideals of Hinduism. However, Besant was of the opinion that absence of religious education in government schools and colleges and teaching of Christianity in missionary educational institutions was responsible for religious neutrality and scepticism among Hindu youth, and hence the fallen state of Hinduism. To remedy this state, she emphasised the need for its revival, and propagated the idea that religious education of Hindu youths should become an integral part of their education. In order to concretise these ideas, Besant established a college and school for the religious education of Hindu youth in the holy city of Benares, in the then North Western Provinces of British India, in 1898. Besant is widely known in India for her political activities as founder of Home Rule Movement and as the first women President of Indian National Congress, the chief political party involved in the struggle for national freedom. Although Besant's political career in India has been extensively researched, little is known about her educational ideas and activities. This paper analyses Besant's ideas on education, and show how, rather than being a promoter of modernity, she supported, upheld and institutionalised caste hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE THE purpose of the research is to trace the altering patterns of political activism in India. Rise of Middle Class and its impact on the political order of India has been attempted to be explored. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative data analysis has been applied with an exhaustive literature survey of books, articles, conference papers, and newspaper reports on the said topic. Findings: The disparities among Indian Middle Class are giving a continuous roam to the political actors to assert themselves. Aam Admi Party is the representation of Indian Middle Class's disgruntlement at large in an elite dominated framework of Indian political frame of rule. Research Limitations/Implications: Research will be a good help and a useful study for the students of politics, economics, and management sciences as the subject of the research is interdisciplinary. Originality/Value: Paper glimpses at the thematic overview of the Indian electoral trends, and also encompasses the most recent scenario of Indian elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the life story accounts of 12 left wing terrorists in India. Narrative interviews revealed that the accounts were broadly coherent and contained similar rhetorical structures with regard to: i) images of the self (imagoes); ii) significant others (interpersonal figures); and iii) visions of the future (generativity script). Specifically, it appeared that individuals developed imagoes of poverty and oppression, identified the state structure as corrupt, and terrorist leaders as heroes of the oppressed. Further, the accounts revealed a commitment to an exploitation-free society (generativity script) and an ideological devotion to a rhetoric that justifies extreme violence. The paper considers the possibility that such coherence is formulated around propaganda and indoctrination that is more sympathetic and harmonious with these individuals' worldview and hence has a powerful shaping process on their development. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of the findings and suggest major policy shifts in dealing with the left wing terrorist groups in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2002, a burning train carriage set off some of the worst communal riots in the prosperous state of Gujarat that post-Independence India has ever witnessed. Civil society remained largely silent, partly out of fear, and institutional response was limited. This paper describes how the Gujarat Harmony Project is attempting to reconcile Hindu and Muslim communities who have traditionally been living alongside each other, though not necessarily always in peace. The article focuses especially on the difficult role of women as survivors, actors, and leaders at the community level, and explores their efforts to work through their pain and transform conflict situations. 1 This paper is based on a review of the GHP that I undertook this year. Neither CARE, nor any of the GHP partners, is responsible for, or necessarily in agreement with, the comments made here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the spatialities constructed through resistances to globalization. It focuses on the Inter-Continental Caravan, an ambitious project which united activists from the Indian New Farmers Movements with West European green activists in contesting neo-liberal institutions and biotechnology. The paper argues that these political activities constructed distinctive ‘maps of grievance’. This term is used to suggest that the construction of grievances has both a distinctive spatiality and is constitutive of political identities. The paper argues that the different maps of grievances generated through the project were both a condition of possibility for these transnational alliances and exerted pressure on the formation of solidarities. It concludes by arguing that the location of counter-globalization politics at the intersection of different routes of resistance can be integral to the formation of alternative political imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on certain methodological issues that arose while interviewing Indian women activists in Uttar Pradesh, a state of North India. These activists had actively contributed to the anti-colonial struggle from 1920 till India's independence in 1947. This paper addresses two key issues. Firstly, the category 'Other' was not a fixed category. Its meaning was continuously negotiable, both, in my relationship with respondents and in terms of what I understood to be feminist methodology. Moreover, in the Indian context it was difficult to follow the precepts of what I understood to be feminist methodology because I could not write about the respondent's experiences by using their own language. At the same time, present feminist concepts such as gender-equality, oppression and consciousness had little meaning for women born at the turn of the century. Secondly, there were dilemmas around interviewing Indian women which made me aware of issues of class, religion, gender and generation. This paper is divided in three main sections. The first section focuses on other sources of evidence such as official and unofficial records, newspapers and magazines which provide the initial framework as well as help to locate the historical context of any research. However, they have to be studied in conjunction with oral narratives, which provide the crucial link between all the other sources of evidence. The second section deals with the dilemmas of 'Otherness' and the third section focuses on the dilemmas that arose while conducting interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of civil society in environmental movements in the context of globalization. Exploring the various meanings of civil society, it argues that to understand civil society as a politically meaningful concept, due consideration should be given to social movements, which recharge civil society. At the same time, the efficacy of social movements rests on the vibrancy of civil society. In the present day world, civil society has become quite active in a large number of public interest issues of which environment has become quite central. This paper explores the conditions of the environmental movements as a truly global phenomenon and its role in the rise of a global civil society. The paper also reflects on the implication of the emergence of a global civil society for the protection of the environment. Drawing upon the cases of the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Narmada Dam in India the paper examines the role of an incipient global civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 73rd Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 was a landmark one in institutionalising the Panchayati Raj System in India, constitutionally creating a space for women to become active in the public domain. The present study looks at the Elected Women Representatives (EWR) of the 2010 Panchayat elections of Kerala wherein the reservations of seats and positions of women became 50 per cent. The paper examines the motivating factor of the EWRs to contest the election, the encouragement and discouragement they received, and their political and organisational exposure before becoming EWRs. It was found that the majority of the persons who became elected women representatives did so because of the provision they got due to the reservation of seats and they became so due to the encouragement and motivation of others, especially political activists. The support of their family members was a crucial factor for them to become EWRs. For the self-motivated ones, it was their desire to do something for others, especially for women, that was the motivating factor to contest in elections. The previous organisational involvement of the EWRs was a positive factor which helped them to perform better in their current responsibility as people's representatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the initial criticism by teacher and revolutionary leader Zitkala-ša on India's education policy and how it evolves into a commitment of lobbying and advocacy for education as a survival tool for Indigenous people within white dominant society. Topics discussed include her fictional and non-fiction essays, criticism of her by scholars, her transformation from a teacher to a revolutionary leader and criticism in her autobiographical writings of boarding schools.

Lepchas are the Indigenous people of Sikkim, a small Himalayan state in northeast India. They are known for their deep knowledge of botany and ecology; their close connection to their landscape has been acknowledged and admired for centuries. Their feeling for nature and reluctance to accept change to their sacred landscape, contributed to a protest movement to stop the development of several mega hydro-electric projects inside the Lepcha Dzongu Reserve in North Sikkim. The Lepcha activists' battle to stop the hydro projects started in Dzongu villages in 2003 and relocated to the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok in June 2007. Bhutia-Lepcha (BL) House, a worn out building on Tibet Road in Gangtok became the site of their flagship protest, a relay hunger strike which ran for close to two and a half years. The protest also extended to the Lepcha enclave in neighbouring West Bengal and the city of New Delhi where the activists spread their protest narrative to the wider Lepcha community, NGOs and the Indian Central government. In 2008 the Lepcha activists, aware that they needed to re-engage their community, started to shift their campaign back to the villages. This paper analyses the Lepcha protest narrative, contextualising it in terms of cultural heritage and contemporary political economy. It evaluates the protest group's strategic use of both rural and urban settings to strengthen the impact of their campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dams have become political symbols of conquest of nature and representative of development of in India. Impervious to the widespread critique of development through hydraulic gigantism, the planners in Sikkim have identified cascade development of the perennial river waters of Rangit and Teesta as the channel for modernising and developing its economy. This rhetoric has become questionable after three Lepcha youth affiliated to the Affected Citizens of the Teesta and the Concerned Lepchas of Sikkim, with the support of the Sangha of Dzongu, began an indefinite relay hunger- strike on 20 June 2007 in Gangtok to pressurise the government into revoking the power projects planned on the Teesta. The Lepcha activists' banner proclaiming, in the name of development, do not make us refugees in our own homeland', challenges the rhetoric of dams and democratic development in Sikkim. This paper presents an analysis of the contested formulations and perceptions of public interest and participatory development in Sikkim in order to reiterate the need of not ignoring but integrating culture in any project planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses recent field research to challenge the widely held view that a "Dalit revolution" is occurring in North India. Drawing on two years' ethnographic research in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, the authors uncover the growing importance of a generation of local political activists among Dalits (former untouchables) while also showing that these young men have not been able to effect a broad structural transformation at the local level. The authors use this case to identify a need for further research on South Asian political change that links party political transformation to questions of local level social practice and subaltern consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined the twitter feeds of ten senior Indian journalists during a specific event of national importance to understand what type of tweets led to greater follower engagement. Further, we examined how followers engaged with congruent and incongruent messages. Analysis of tweets about a specific developing event – the arrest and release of a student activist – indicated that journalists largely tweeted opinions, and that this type of tweet attracted more follower engagement than purely factual tweets. Analysis of each editor's most commented upon tweets indicated that followers showed a higher level of engagement with incongruent messages than with messages with which they agreed. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globally, community health workers (CHWs) are integral contributors to many health systems. In India, Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been deployed since 2005. Engaged in multiple health care activities, they are a key link between the health system and population. ASHAs are expected to participate in new health programmes prompting interest in their current workload from the perspective of the health system, community and their family.Methods: This mixed-methods design study was conducted in rural and tribal Primary Health Centers (PHCs), in Pune district, Western Maharashtra, India. All ASHAs affiliated with these PHCs were invited to participate in the quantitative study, those agreeing to contribute in-depth interviews (IDI) were enrolled in an additional qualitative study. Key informants' interviews were conducted with the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM), Block Facilitators (BFF) and Medical Officers (MO) of the same PHCs. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed thematically.Results: We recruited 67 ASHAs from the two PHCs. ASHAs worked up to 20 h/week in their village of residence, serving populations of approximately 800-1200, embracing an increasing range of activities, despite a workload that contributed to feelings of being rushed and tiredness. They juggled household work, other paid jobs and their ASHA activities. Practical problems with travel added to time involved, especially in tribal areas where transport is lacking. Their sense of benefiting the community coupled with respect and recognition gained in village brought happiness and job satisfaction. They were willing to take on new tasks. ASHAs perceived themselves as 'voluntary community health workers' rather than as 'health activists".Conclusions: ASHAs were struggling to balance their significant ASHA work and domestic tasks. They were proud of their role as CHWs and willing to take on new activities. Strategies to recruit, train, skills enhancement, incentivise, and retain ASHAs, need to be prioritised. Evolving attitudes to the advantages/disadvantages of current voluntary status and role of ASHAs need to be understood and addressed if ASHAs are to be remain a key component in achieving universal health coverage in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: India has focused on incentivizing institutional delivery and introducing the ASHA worker as a key strategy to improve maternal health outcomes. We examined the determinants of institutional delivery and the role of the ASHA worker in shaping choice regarding place of delivery.Methods: We used data from the India Human Development Survey-II conducted in 2011-12, and extracted an analytic sample of women (N = 8711) who reported having at least one child since 2005. Logistic regression was used to examine influence of socio-demographic factors, frequency of antenatal care (ANC) contacts and exposure to ASHA worker on institutional delivery.Results: About 15% of the respondents had eight or more ANC contacts. The odds of having an institutional delivery were higher among those respondents who had 8 or more ANC contacts (OR = 3.39, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 2.26, 5.08), and those who had 4-7 ANC contacts (OR = 1.72, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 1.48, 1.99) as compared to those with less than 4 ANC contacts. About 26% of the respondents had any exposure to an ASHA worker. After controlling for ANC contacts, these respondents had three times the odds of institutional delivery (OR = 3.04, p < 0.001, 95% CI: 2.37, 3.89) compared to those who had no exposure to ASHA workers. Further, several sociodemographic variables were associated with institutional delivery. While age of spouse, age at marriage, level of education and urban residence were positively associated with institutional delivery; age of respondent and number of children were inversely associated with institutional delivery.Conclusions: Both frequency of ANC contacts and exposure to ASHA worker independently emerge as important determinants of institutional delivery. Furthermore, ASHA workers may have a crucial role in promoting antenatal care, thereby strengthening the association between ANC contacts and institutional delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the reframing of Hindu history, mythology and rituals in a WhatsApp group as part of a larger social movement called the 'Mahishasur movement' arising from a nation-wide controversy around a religio-political ritual. It addresses the mediatized controversy that led to the movement, the creation of this particular social media network, the material circulated on it and the nature of hierarchy between different participants. Contrary to existing scholarship, the findings from my fieldwork in different parts of India show that non-elite precariat groups involved in identity politics at different levels participate in social media activism which has so far been understood as a domain of Anglophone middle classes. The article shows the possibilities and challenges generated by the participation of these non-elite political activists in rural and small town India in social activism alongside their urban counterparts on social networking sites particularly WhatsApp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with the musician and activist Shital Sathe is presented who discusses her starting of singing and the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch (KKM), her song compositions, and musical genres. It also discusses the interconnectedness between the caste system and music, privatization in India, and Dalit people.

This article discusses the bias of the growing constituency of civil society activists in India against conventional water management solutions implemented by the government, and the ‘alternatives’ they champion, which force the government to enter into an endless debate with these groups. The article goes into the fundamental reasons for this bias, and identifies four types of civil society activist: ‘professional’, ‘ideologue’, ‘romantic’ and ‘doomsday prophet’. The article also argues that water bureaucracies in India should adopt evidence-based policy making, subjecting the ‘alternatives’ to the same degree of scrutiny as the conventional ones, to end the policy dilemma, while enhancing the overall quality of design, execution and management of projects for better outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An interview with Indian scholar-activist Amita Singh is presented. She mentions that all knowledge comes as an unidirectional and monolithic search for solutions to improve the well-being of Asian citizens. She states that the repeated failure of the five-year plans of India brought to the fore the community governance issue. She says that the units of governance are ecosystems instead of structures which need indispensables such as economy and efficiency.

This essay traces the trajectory of Savarkar's life through its many vicissitudes and the internal contradictions, to examine the deeper consistencies in his political beliefs and the deeper sources of his absolute, uncritical faith in the modern-state system and its secular imperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the common assumption that conflicts over value commitments are intractable, research on the narratives of activists associated with the Triratna Bauddha Mahasangha Sahayaka Gana (TBMSG) challenges such assumptions in many significant ways. For Dalit (literally broken or downtrodden in Sanskrit) ex-untouchables of the TBMSG, dialogue presents an important solution to such assumptions of intractability. Claiming that inter-caste dialogue processes provide a unique opportunity and relatively untapped discursive space for Dalits to overcome the historical legacy of low-caste marginalization, this article is aimed at integrating insights from ethnographic work with research on the psychodynamics of narrative creation of collective worldview (here understood as an interpretive framework through which people interact with the world). While one might assume that sensitive dialogue processes around caste should take place incrementally given the long and brutal history of caste discrimination in India, this article challenges this assumption by arguing that a measured approach to inter-group interaction is laden with veiled identity threats and under-attended worldview commitments which conspire to reify caste oppression rather than overcome it. Inter-caste dialogue is the most viable means to both create social change for Dalits and ensure their stories of marginalization are heard alongside ongoing processes of neo-Buddhist identity creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ambiguity inherent in the relationship between social activism and politics in West Bengal. I use a detailed account of the career of singer–activist turned politician Kabir Suman to examine the activist's view of himself and of politics, as well of how the porous boundary between activism and politics is both blurred and crossable. The fact that activists possess a kind of political capital useful within the framework of a political party may facilitate their entry into electoral politics. Yet as this article demonstrates, the activist may sometimes only be able to retain his activist credentials by sacrificing his political career. In addition, this article seeks to conceptualise the social activist as a particular type of political figure. I do so by locating the study of Kabir Suman within an emerging body of literature on political leadership in India. I argue that while the case of Kabir Suman may not be paradigmatic, his ‘activist’ style of leadership challenges certain contemporary classifications of political leadership in India. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on whether the 2005 Right to Information Act (RTIA) will help to curb corruption in India. The right-to-information movement brought together human-rights activists, environmentalists, and those working to ensure basic economic rights for the rural poor. Under the RTIA, every citizen of India has a right to access information from any public authority, whose obligation it is to provide such information. The RTIA does not apply to security and intelligence agencies, except in cases of corruption or human-rights violations.

Taking the anti-dam movement in India ("Save the Narmada Movement" or Narmada Bachao Andolan) as a case study, this paper aims to mark the present as one of ethical indeterminacy for the social activist towards the life that the activist claims to protect through an activation of the law, i.e. the refugee and the adivasi made human through the law. Relying on Giorgio Agamben's concept of "bare life" in Homo Sacer, I argue that the activist disarticulates "bare life" from sovereign power, thereby relying on a human rights discourse that conceives of a subject within and yet beyond the logic of the state, as a life reappropriated and redefined by state power. I end by suggesting that the activist must go beyond the contemporary ethical crisis by conceiving of a struggle that isolates the moments that make visible the indistinguishable convergence of sovereign exceptionality and life's exemplarity. Such moments involve a double move which names bare existence, not life, as outside the sovereign's juridical power and refuses to attribute this existence to activation under the name of law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the neoliberal industrialization in India. It highlights the opposition and movement by urban activists against land acquisition which serves as a complete rejection of globalization and industrialization in the country. Moreover, the paradoxes of the protests against land acquisition is offered.

This article examines the Narmada Movement in Gujarat to illuminate the enduring modes of politics and collective identifications it engendered in the state. It shows how the movement engaged the instruments of democracy to forge a popular consensus around a coercive Gujarati nativism that became the touchstone of political action and helped consolidate a politics of Hindutva at the turn of the twenty-first century. It concludes by reflecting on the conundrum of democracy in Gujarat posed by this coercive nativism, namely, democracy's complicity in and vulnerability to popular support for exclusionary politics. This analysis elucidates the regional particularities of politics in Gujarat while also revealing the contradictory relationship among democracy, participatory social movements and exclusionary politics more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the impact of the Navnirman mobilization of the 1970s and the anti-reservation Mandal agitations of the 1980s on Gujarat's essentially bi-polar political landscape. It shows how, despite being marked by violence and the dominance of upper-caste elites, the two movements differently influenced politics in the state and India more generally. The Navnirman movement fizzled away without any tangible strengthening of the opposition in Gujarat but paved the way for the imposition of national Emergency in 1975. The Congress's subsequent caste arithmetic and the KHAM policy alienated upper castes and ultimately provoked the anti-Mandal riots in 1985, which later turned anti-Muslim. The anti-reservation agitations coincided with the mobilization of Hindu right-wing forces and eventually helped consolidate the eventual political rise of the BJP in Gujarat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil-palm agriculture is the greatest immediate threat to biodiversity in Southeast Asia. Despite the efforts of environmentalists, oil palm continues to expand across the tropics. Those concerned about the impacts of oil palm on biodiversity must face some harsh social, economic, and ecological realities: (i) oil palm has been a very profitable crop; (ii) palm oil is used in so many products that simple, direct actions, such as boycotts, are unlikely to succeed; (iii) there is currently insufficient demand for certified sustainable palm oil and inadequate political clout from environmental groups in two of the biggest markets for palm oil-China and India-to slow the rate of forest conversion; and (iv) oil-palm agriculture has improved the lives of poor rural communities in Southeast Asia (although it has also disenfranchised some indigenous communities). To address the threats posed by oil-palm agriculture to biodiversity, environmentalists must change the behavior of the palm oil business through: (i) regulations to curb undesirable activities (e.g., a ban on converting forests to oil palm); (ii) financial incentives to promote desirable behavior (e.g., production of certified, sustainable oil palm); (iii) financial disincentives designed to discourage undesirable behavior (e.g., consumer pressure on major manufacturers and retailers to use palm oil that does not come from plantations created at the expense of forests); and (iv) the promotion of alternative, more biodiversity-friendly uses of forested land that might otherwise be converted to oil palm. There is no single best approach for dealing with the oil-palm crisis in Southeast Asia; a mixture of regulations, incentives, and disincentives targeted at all sectors of the oil-palm industry is necessary to protect the region's rapidly disappearing forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I argue that the concern with gender relations and the challenges female activists were facing foreclosed any discussion of the transformation activism signalled for male comrades, and thus for wider society. I am particularly interested in men’s own views of their social roles and personal predicaments as the more subtle processes of transformation in the lives of male activists are often overlooked. The article takes a closer look at relationships between men, whether friendships or kin relations, as important roles and everyday practices former activists were/are involved in—during their phase of active participation, but crucially also before they become militants and in the aftermath of their involvement in the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article examines anti-corruption strategies in democratic India. Anticorruption activist groups in Indian civil society started their work since the mid-1990s which indicates deepening democracy which go beyond the silent revolution of expanded political representation for marginalized social groups. Civic engagement combined with flexible alliances that empower people to expose corruption are recommended to fight corruption.

This article illustrates the intersections between architecture and agency in Subhash Camp, a squatter settlement in New Delhi, by 'situating activism in place'. It highlights the significance of place in social action by examining the architecture of everyday places - the house, the street and the square - as the sites of both individual transformations and collective consciousness. Through observations of the activities of and interviews with members of Samudayik Shakti, a women's organisation and a men's panchayat, this article highlights a number of related processes in Subhash Camp: how different women experienced different places through everyday spatial practices; how the spatial practices in these places were shaped by different social structures at different scales, from the family to the state; how the architecture of these places was significant both as sites of control and of emancipation of women's bodies; and how this dynamic contributed to the making of social action in Subhash Camp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assertion of Dalit interests has posed new challenges for the women's movement in India, which has been criticised for its lack of engagement with Dalit women and their interests. Some women's activists have begun to respond to this critique. Yet this article argues that caste identity still determines the place that women activists – upper caste and Dalit – are given by villagers in their fieldwork and within women's organisations. The article also explores how Dalit women are using their caste identity, alongside their identity as village-level activists, to further their interests beyond the realm of women's activism. By doing so, they are celebrating their personal experiences as political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the characteristics of civil society in countries that were once colonized with an emphasis on civil society in India. There is a creation of a fractured, stratified public culture in India due to the peculiar circumstances of colonial rule. In the stratified public culture in the country, there is a coexistence of a normative bourgeois public sphere with multiple subaltern counterpublics. The long history of organizational activism in the country has ensured that in the postcolonial period there is a critical role of NGOs, community groups and social movements in shaping the political society.

Provides information regarding the social movements in India. Influence of Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian national independence movement; Dominance of politically connected movements; Independent movements of the people.

Examines the operations of contemporary environmental campaigns in multi-level global networks, syncretic language of protests and risks from campaigns against Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) in India. Approaches to the study of social movements; Overview of SSP; Reasons of opposing the SSP by Narmada Bachao Andolan movement; Benefits of globalizing NBA.