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Thomas Munro, a Scottish highlander, came to the Madras Presidency in South India as a soldier in the army of the East India Company in 1780. He rose to the position of its governor 40 years later in 1820 and died in India in 1827. His rise was not through military campaigns but peaceful administrative policies. During his stay in India, he defended Indian interests and took on powerful governors-general and other higher officials. He resisted their elitist policies, talked of lack of political freedom in India and wanted to give representation to Indians in administration. He conducted the first educational survey and established 101 schools. In the history of modern India, particularly in the history of education, there is a tendency to view British colonialism as a monolithic category. This paper looks at this extraordinary journey of a Scottish soldier, his impoverished status, family constraints, struggle with British elitism, and above all, his contributions to education in South India. No theory of imperialism and colonialism is available to analyse the Scottish interventions in the field of education. Such existing theories rely on the European and non-European dichotomies. They cannot be used to explain why the Scots chose to support Indians instead of their own fellow British officers in the colonial administration.

This paper presents constructions of 'work' through a comparative charting of the manner in which young people across rural India, urban India, and the urban UK account for their educational and work trajectories. The comparison grounds an interrogation of the individualisation thesis and the reflexive biography, an influential analytical framework for examining youth biographies in the Global North, bringing it into conversation with theoretical traditions that study youth identities/biographies in a global framework such as development studies and human geography. Employing a conceptual framework that places youth subjectivities as it forms and is formed by place (material and structural features) and cultural norms concerning ideal selfhood, I analyse the accounts for the reflexive management of biographies, the cultural/structural resources that participants draw upon in constructing these, and the moral frameworks underlying aspirations for the 'good life' in these accounts. Responding to calls for dialogues between the Global North and Global South in youth studies, the aim is to de-valorise reflexivity and choice in biographical management by highlighting some psychological penalties associated with these modes of self-construction in late modernity and thereby to 'talk back' to some of the assumptions underlying youth studies in/from the Global North.

This article focuses on social agents' own understandings of socio-economic mobility and social achievement, exploring the possibilities offered by the tool of "family" life history in the context of formerly Untouchable communities in western India, Maharashtra. While arguing in favour of family life histories as both resource and method in the Indian context, I reconsider the positivist functionalist stance dominant in studies of social mobility until the last decade. This stance raises issues of strategy and contingency, which are discussed in the particular setting of the mechanics industry in Kolhapur. Furthermore, exploring the relationship between determinism and contingency in life-paths raises important questions about how people construct their life stories in retrospect. Focusing on the case study of one family known over many years allows me to unravel the complex and subjective positioning at play in narrative research as it is mutually constituted by the story teller(s) and the anthropologist. (Contains 14 notes.)

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]

This paper begins and ends with the observation that the Pārij ātaharaṇa or theft of the magical Pārijāta tree appears to be the only scene from the adult biography of Kṛṣṇa to have enjoyed a popularity comparable to the scenes of his childhood and youth. Inquiring why this might be the case, the article treats the oldest source of the episode, namely the Critical Edition text of the Harivaṃśa, and its elaboration in two Harivaṃśa appendices (App. I 29 and 29A). Two thematic elements characterize 29 and 29A's enlargement upon the deed: the amplification of conflict over the tree and the ritual activities of women. While the first of these themes, developed in App. 1 29, is a natural, if not predictable augmentation of the Kṛṣṇa narrative, understanding the rationale behind App. 1 29A's concerns with the ritual responsibilities of the pativratā or devoted wife requires a more sustained analysis. I argue here that 29A makes explicit a fundamental dynamic of the divine feminine and its role within the Kṛṣṇa biography which can be found at work in the earlier Critical text of the HV as well. This makes possible a final hypothesis on why the Pārijāta episode may have enjoyed a popularity in the Vaiṣṇava tradition unlike any other scene of Kṛṣṇa adult biography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ambivalent feelings towards the Government of India produced in one of the government's own employees. In establishing the Delhi Improvement Trust in the 1930s, Arthur Parke Hume had to battle against governmental cost cutting in an attempt to secure the rehousing of slum evictees. The refusal of the government to accept this welfarist commitment to investment led to the stalling of the improvement projects and great emotional disquiet for Hume. This is traced through his personal correspondence with his parents. In interweaving these insights with the imperial archive, three biographical approaches are adopted. A traditional chronology is used to order the events, an analytical approach is used to outline the discursive regularities of Hume's observations, and a genealogical approach is used to suggest the influences on Hume's writings and the broader governmental rationalities that he had to negotiate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Records of individuals who achieved rebirth in the pure land of Amitãbha Buddha began as a genre of hagiography in eighth-century China and began appearing in Japan in the late tenth century. Thereafter these ōjōden were produced repeatedly throughout Japanese history in greater numbers than in China, and came to function as a form of prooftext for the establishment of the Pure Land school. Focusing on an apocryphal Indian ōjōden created in the late Heian period, this paper evaluates the form and content of ōjōden as a unique genre of Japanese religious literature exhibiting influences from monastic bibliography, miracle texts, and the category of adbhutadharma in Indian Buddhist literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article briefly describes the preparation of a CD product on writer S.R. Ranganathan's life and works and the digitization involved therein. Initially, following the discussions on a project proposal submitted by the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS) in Bangalore, India, the project approval committee of CSIR/NIS SAT recommended that the CD should contain a bibliography of the works by and on S.R. Ranganathan (SRR), extracts from selected letters written by him and received by him, his life sketch together with a photograph, and the entire text of the Memorabilia. S.R. Ranganathan was a prolific writer. For over a decade SRELS has been preparing, maintaining and updating the bibliography of the writings by SRR. For the project, citations of books and papers by other authors, substantially commenting on and/or applying his ideas, were added to the bibliography. SRR maintained professionals in India have worked with or extensive correspondence with library and information and abroad, many of whom have been either his students or simply corresponded with him on professional matters.

In this paper bilateral and multilateral research projects are discussed as particularly attractive means of external assistance to capacity building. The International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE; 1959-65) was the first large scale project with a strong component of capacity building, largely due to the farsighted efforts of Dr N.K. Panikkar. Recent examples described in the paper, include multilateral regional research projects in the Middle East and in the Benguela region as well as a bilateral study of the Brazilian mangroves. Combined research and training projects should be of long term nature and have tobe based on full partnerships from the early planning through all phases of implementation, up to final publications. Each project shouldbe of direct value for the sustainable development of the host country and the region, it should meet the following criteria: high scientific quality and good prospects for obtaining results of general scientific importance, and if possible, linked to ongoing international programmes in marine science and monitoring. It should be incorporatedinto the structure of scientific organisations of the host country and linked to other national or regional projects. The universities ofthe region and their academic teaching programmes should directly benefit from the programme. In the course of the project full use should be made of the data and experience already existing in the region. It should ensure full bilateral data exchange and provide links to international data storage and retrieval systems. Joint publications --preferably in English-- in international journals as well as participation in international scientific meetings shall open the entry to the international marine science community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A biography of Dharmanand Damonar Kosambi, a mathematician is presented. He was born on July 31, 1907 in Goa, India and studied at the University of Harvard in a mathematics major. He taught mathematics all his working life until his retirement. He is married to Nalini Madgavkar of Mumbia, India with two daughters. During his time, as a mathematician, he had contributed works in tensor analysis, "path-geometry" and the "Kosambi formula for chromosome mapping" in genetic.

A biography of mathematician Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar is presented. He was born on August 8, 1912 in Kota, Rajasthan. He started his schooling in Kota and completed his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree at Maharajah's College in Jaipur in 1934. In 1951, Bhatngar went to Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar for two years. He was the Head of the Department and concurrently a Reader of Mathematics in Delhi University. He died on October 5, 1976 at the age of 64 due to heart attack.

This article reviews the life and work of Dr Ravi L. Kapur, a seminal figure in the fields of social and community psychiatry in India. Kapur made significant contributions to the understanding of the role of spirituality in psychology and psychotherapy and the psychological dynamics of sectarian violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many girls involved in sex work in Asia do so because they are compelled by economic circumstances and social inequality. Some enter sex work voluntarily, others do so by force or deception, sometimes involving migration across international borders. Nepalese girls involved in sex work via trafficking are the focus of this article, which aims at increasing our understanding of the context of sex trafficking, the methods and means of trafficking, living conditions in brothels and survival strategies among trafficked girls. Girls trafficked from Nepal to India are typically unmarried, illiterate and very young. Key routes to sex trafficking include employment-induced migration to urban areas, deception (through false marriage or visits) and abduction. Past initiatives towards their needs have adopted a welfare approach; such initiatives alone are inadequate as they ignore the importance of empowerment of women in the migration process and skill development in community re-integration. Anti-trafficking interventions need to be considered at (i) community level before movement begins; (ii) urban centres which are both source and transitory centres for trafficking; (iii) trafficking level when girls are highly mobile and in brothels; and (iv) return from trafficking as girls to move back into the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the biography of Arthur Blechynden, son of William Blechynden and successor as superintendent of roads. Arthur and his siblings were part of the mixed-race children born as a result of European incursions into India from the time of the Portuguese. The race is claimed as the majority of the slaves and servants of European Calcutta in India. His experience in this environment was arrogated to be a lesson in proper conduct.

Focuses on the biography and autobiography of Indian scholar Sarif Muhammad Murtada az-Zabidi and provides information on Islamic scholarship in the 18th century. Role in compiling the Tag al-arus Arabic dictionary; Term he used for the revival of Arabic literary culture; Contribution to the study of hadit and to the revival of the strict forms of its transmission.

Presents information on George Hayward, a former English army officer, who served in India from June 1865 to 1868. Background information on Hayward; Circumstances surrounding Hayward's murder on October 1870; Details on Hayward's career.

A biography of Henry Vandyke Carter, a British national physician based in India, is presented. Carter was born in May 22, 1831 in Yorkshire, England and married to Mary Ellen Robison with two children. During his stay at St. George's Hospital, he worked with Henry Gray as illustrators of Gray's anatomy book where his expertise on drawing pictures was showed. Moreover, he also joined the Bombay Medical Service as assistant surgeon in January 1858. Carter died of tuberculosis on May 4, 1897.