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Ever since India got independence, the Muslims who opted to make India as their homeland have to witness numerous problems in terms of their economy, education, politics and culture. Rather their miseries and deprivations even farther multiplied as compared to colonial period of sway. As Gopal Singh committee Report 1983, the Sachar Report 2006 and lastly, the Ranganath Report 2007 manifest the other side of the story against the Indian government's claim that the Muslims are progressing and prospering alike other communities. Indian governments have constituted several commissions to probe into Muslims' plight, but have showed reluctance to implement the findings or recommendations of the said committees on the one hand while the Hindu extremists always blame the Indian government's policy of "Muslims' appeasement" on the other. Since independence the Muslims have been made sandwich between the two variations... the duplicity of Indian governments and the adverse attitude of the Hindu fundamentalists. However, it is the need of the hour to take certain affirmative measures to curtail the Muslims' deprivations in the areas of education, economics and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact that national economic policies adopted during Indira Gandhi's final term in office (1980–84) had on four “national” social groups, namely the big industrialists, the middle class, the rich peasantry, and the poor. The study argues that the Congress (I) chose the former two as its major allies, while the rich peasantry and the poor were relegated to a secondary position. In the process, the focus of India's strategy of development shifted from the agrarian to the industrial sector, and from the rural to the urban world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Among Tibetans living in exile in India, expressions of longing and sadness for family, friends and places in Tibet are not uniformly shared across members of the community. Time and distance have faded and idealized their homeland in the memories of long-term exiles. Yet, for a segment of this community called New Arrivals, who have only relatively recently left Tibet, people and places 'back home' are real and immediate. The immediacy of these ties to Chinese Tibet, however, often engenders perceptions of New Arrivals as Sinicised, backward and uneducated. This paper focuses on these New Arrivals in the enclave of McLeod Ganj, India, home to the Tibetan exile government and approximately 7,000 Tibetan exiles. In this predominately Tibetan area, the division between long-term exiles and New Arrivals constitutes the dominant social boundary among McLeod Ganj Tibetans, a division that is most prominent among McLeod Ganj's Tibetan youth. Drawing from community discourses, social networks and practices, and educational institutions, I analyse everyday written forms (e.g., poetry, letters, diary entries) to suggest that through these writings, New Arrival youth are constituting and reconstructing their marginalized position within the community. In an exile community where resources are limited, improving the position of New Arrivals can be challenging. Here, I suggest two approaches to the difficulties these youth face. First, re-educating the larger Tibetan community in order to breakdown the prejudices that exist toward these new exiles. Second, refashioning the existing educational institutions for New Arrivals to better prepare them for employment in the Tibetan communities or elsewhere in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manipur society today is highly prone to violence is undisputed. To understand the day-to-day violence in Manipur one has to delve deeper and discern the structural violence built inside the social, economic and political structures of the society. The structural violence in Manipur has led to various forms of secondaiy violence. Gross human rights violations including torture, extra-judicial execution, rape and enforced disappearance have become endemic. Many of the non-derogable rights are routinely violated by Security Forces under Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, 1958. The situation in Manipur is a clear case of an 'infernal disturbance' or non-international armed conflict requiring invocation of Article 355 and not of a 'public order' problem. In such situation both the parties to the conflict should at the minimum follow the common article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and strictly follow the rules of engagement under the relevant international humanitarian laws [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on acts of domestic violence perpetuated against women by their mothers-in-law in India. Specifically, it attempts to unpack legislative and legal discourses surrounding these crimes in order to understand how such violence is conceptualised within the Indian justice system. In India, such cases are tried under domestic violence laws. However, legal understandings conceptualise mother-in-law perpetrated violence as intra-women relational conflict between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law or dowry related, rather than as a form of gender based violence against women. Conviction rates for domestic violence remain low, and there are numerous allegations of legal malfeasance and abuse surrounding such incidents. In this paper we explore whether the problem lies in the implementation of a good law or if, following Foucault, whether the law itself is a form of negative patriarchal power which limits the ability of women to receive justice. Further, we argue that the problems faced by some Indian feminists to engage with mother-in-law violence as an integral part of domestic violence may have allowed highly patriarchal understandings of such violence to predominate in legislative and legal discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the everyday experiences and perspectives of Muslim Ansaris (weavers) in urban north India with respect to the 'welfare state'. The case of a recent health insurance scheme, initiated by the Indian government, constitutes the paper's focus. Narratives around the scheme expressed by residents in a majority Muslim mohalla (neighbourhood) in Varanasi illustrate the ways in which the state's presence was more often experienced through its perceived absence and inaccessibility. But even whilst such experiences represented broader patterns of neglect, locally interpreted as the upshot of being India's largest religious minority, this community was not stricken by a sense of absolute alienation and nor did individual or collective actions exhibit outright disaffection towards the state. More appropriately, 'defensive agencies' informed by degrees of pragmatism, acceptance and resilience, were articulated in an effort to protect, as well as improve the future capacities and ambitions of the neighbourhood residents where the state had seemingly failed. The paper concludes however with a word of caution about celebrating such agency, and reflects on the potential for transformative politics by Muslims in urban India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exiled Tibetans in India are an unusual marginalised community. With their own government structure operating within the sovereign state of India, albeit without legal recognition, they are both de facto refugees from the perspective of the Indian state and Tibetan 'citizens' in the eyes of the Tibetan government-in-exile (TGiE). Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the complex, dynamic and at times contradictory three-way relationship between this population and the two 'governments' which strive to identify, document and rehabilitate them. After sketching out the context of relations between India and (exile) Tibet, these interactions are explored through two key sets of state-population relations: the identification of individuals as citizens and refugees, and the provision of welfare. Interweaving 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' perspectives on such state-citizen and state-state relations, this paper juxtaposes the rhetoric of both 'governments' with Tibetan citizens' micro-political interactions with these state structures and foregrounds the importance of scale for analyses of the state. The paper concludes by reflecting on how this case can offer a critical spotlight on broader understandings of the everyday state. It is argued that this case provides particularly valuable leverage in demonstrating the partial and processual nature of statehood and powerfully exposes the contingent practices which underlie the social construction of political power in so-called 'normal' states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction discusses the articles in this Special Issue, which are all focused on exploring the everyday interactions between marginalised individuals and groups and the state in contemporary India. In particular the articles highlight the experiences of a diverse set of marginalised groups - Muslim artisans and weavers, Dalits, Tibetan exiles and post-conflict victims in Gujarat - in order to work towards an understanding of the politics of citizenship from the margins. Across these articles two interlocking themes emerge. Firstly, how different marginalised groups have experienced, critiqued and engaged with different aspects of the 'welfare state'. Secondly, the way in which agencies were articulated from the margins through these processes of engagement, shaping and recasting interactions between the state and society in India. We argue that the deployment of different strategies of engagement with the state by India's marginalised can be viewed as a politics of citizenship, through which marginalised people (re)make themselves as citizens. This essay is thus a call for future research on citizenship as a lived experience which is operationalised in local practices and quotidian interactions between the state and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the rise of political parties having roots in philosophies of the Third International of Maoism in the countries of South Africa, Nepal, the Philippines, and specifically India. It looks at the Stalinized Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Indian Maoism. It also discusses groups who support these movements, such as peasants and the working-class, the threat of lower-class urban mobilization, violent responses by the Indian government to political threats, parliamentary Stalinism and radical uprisings.

Food security in India is adversely affected by several abiotic, biotic, and sociopolitical situations. The current position may worsen in the future if timely and appropriate actions are not planned and executed. The pressure of human population and land for cultivation, climate change, government policies of public distribution and marketing of food grains, and lack of a participatory approach—all are contributing to slow down the availability of foods. Also, crop productivity seems to be very much unsustainable. The situation has to be remedied by all possible means and citizens must be assured of food security. This review summarizes several strategies for crop production and food distribution and emphasizes the need for a second Green Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the political and social economy of care in India through a focus on childcare practices, from the viewpoint of the care giver - a perspective frequently ignored or touched on only generally in earlier discussions on development or social policy. It is argued that the care regime is an ad hoc summation of informal, stratified practices. It is shaped by the institutional context, in particular the economic and social inequalities of work and livelihoods, as well as trends and absences in state economic and social policy. Central to the dynamics of care practices in India is the ideology of gendered familialism in public discourse and policy, which reiterates care as a familial and female responsibility and works to devalue and diminish the dimensions of care. By delineating the range of institutions through which everyday childcare practices are organized, this contribution draws out the differentiations and actualities of stratified familialism and care. At one end of the spectrum are those who have the possibility to retain familial carers at home and supplement them with paid and other institutional carers; at the other are those who are neither able to retain family members at home nor fill the care gap through formal institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an in-depth examination into the demographic characteristics and trends of India for the 21st century, highlighting the economic issues surrounding its large population. Details are given noting the scale of India's population growth between 1950 and 2010. Analysis is offered explaining the forces involved within the ongoing demographic transition in the nation, including infant mortality, life expectancy and fertility rates. Discussion is then offered proposing the possible challenges and benefits facing the labor market in response to the population trends.

The article examines the 2010 Commonwealth Games that took place within Delhi, India and discusses what they represent about the sociopolitical climate of the nation. The author analyzes the legacy of this sporting event, as well as how it impacted the economy of India and transformed it into a competitive sporting nation. By examining the nervous optimism of the Indian Games Organizing Committee, the performance of Indian athletes within the games, and the potential future for sports within the country, this paper comments on the transformations undertaken by postcolonial India. Also discussed are Indian ethnography and the Indian bid to host the 2020 Olympics.

The article discusses the effects of globalization on higher education and social conditions for women living in urban Kolkata, India. Topics include the increase in higher education for urban youth, the advances in education and employment opportunities for women, and gender bias and dowry in Indian families. Information about the academic debate over the role of globalization in social factors or economic factors for Indian women is included. It is suggested that globalization has brought changes to Indian society in which the social attitudes, social mobility, and education opportunities for women have increased.

The study examines overall and region-specific mortality changes and regional mortality variation in India since the 1970s, using data from the Sample Registration System (SRS). An evaluation of the quality of SRS data confirms their reliability for children and adults under age 60. The results suggest the convergence of mortality across the regions of India with important inter-state differences in the pace of health improvements over time. After spectacular progress during the 1970s and the 1980s, many Indian states have witnessed slower mortality improvements in both young and adult age groups. India faces difficulties in making further reductions in infant mortality and in the burden of chronic and man-made diseases at adult ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author's objective is to correct many of the misconceptions about India and to combat mistaken analysis. He highlights the hundreds of millions who live in poverty, the rampant corruption and the incompetence of the administration. He asserts that comparisons with China are always to the disadvantage of India, except in the field of democracy, and suggests that the Indian Space Programme is symptomatic of a wide-spread misallocation of resources. And to suggest that the traffic problems in Delhi and Mumbai are being caused by more motor vehicles is a misdiagnosis. The real cause is an increase in the number of bullock carts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and to what extent do different citizens experience democratic governance on a day-to-day basis? What agencies do they utilize in order to have their voices heard and grievances addressed? How do they gain access to government agencies responsible for delivering social welfare services, such as education, security, health care, and poverty relief? Investigations conducted in two states of India inquired about the manner in which different social groups living in rural areas gain access to the welfare services of the Indian state. These results show that an intermediary is required for gaining access. Different types of intermediaries are consulted by separate segments of society. For a large majority of poorer individuals, a newly arisen type of mediator, the naya neta (literally, new leader), is the intermediary of choice. Neither usually low status nor high status, but younger and better educated than other types of village leaders, naya netas play important roles in shaping welfare consequences in these villages of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, most importantly, by affecting equity of access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire for male children is prevalent in India, where son preference has been shown to affect fertility behavior and intrahousehold allocation of resources. Economic theory predicts less gender discrimination in wealthier households, but demographers and sociologists have argued that wealth can exacerbate bias in the Indian context. I argue that these apparently conflicting theories can be reconciled and simultaneously tested if one considers that they are based on two different notions of wealth: one related to resource constraints (absolute wealth), and the other to notions of local status (relative wealth). Using cross-sectional data from the 1998-1999 and 2005-2006 National Family and Health Surveys, I construct measures of absolute and relative wealth by using principal components analysis. A series of statistical models of son preference is estimated by using multilevel methods. Results consistently show that higher absolute wealth is strongly associated with lower son preference, and the effect is 20%-40% stronger when the household's community-specific wealth score is included in the regression. Coefficients on relative wealth are positive and significant although lower in magnitude. Results are robust to using different samples, alternative groupings of households in local areas, different estimation methods, and alternative dependent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India and Indians, after 1857, came into the clutches of British rulers. The disgusting attitude of the rulers, and the hatred of the Indians, was the core cause of the tension in India. Hostile relations between various communities made the social life very miserable. The violation of human rights and values further deteriorated the situation. In A Passage to India, the average Englishman and woman in India seem to have been bent on seeing propaganda, or scheming behind every event and consider mistrust as their best guide. However, the rude attitude, race, racism and racialism are also the tools exploited by the various communities. E. M. Forster, in the novel, shows an extraordinary fairness and insight in portraying the British ruling class in India. His main focus is the human norms and their violation. He also criticized the intolerance of the communities. The sensitive and sensible behavior of characters makes them different from others. The etymological aspects of Racism and Racialism have also been explained with a different approach. The conclusion is the external or physical and genetically or internal phenomena. The tension in the society can be reduced by adopting a sensible attitude based on human values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natya Chetana (Theatre for Awareness) is a theatre group based in the state of Orissa in Eastern India. Depicting and addressing local situations of structural violence, lack of social justice, and unmet basic needs in its plays, the group, as well as the local people that know the group, regard the group's theatre work also as social work. This is despite the fact that no member of the Natya Chetana team has an educational background in social work or related subjects. The case of Natya Chetana illustrates theatre as social work in contemporary India. Moreover, it calls for acknowledgement for the diversity of social work and its doers, as well as for the need of greater collaboration between different kinds of social work practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article propounds the thesis that Bollywood cinema, the modern Indian cinema based in Mumbai (Bombay) is a better guide to the realities of modern India than other, more scholarly works. The author, who distinguishes and describes a number of different types of Bollywood film, suggests that these films are an unparalleled guide to the thoughts, aspirations and attitudes of the hundreds of millions of members of the emergent middle classes. For example, their view of history is purveyed by the cinema, not by books written by academic historians; their attitudes to politics are formed by films, not by the speeches given by politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary society in India is marked by the growing importance of consumer culture, fuelled by the rise of disposable incomes in the hands of a huge middle class and increasing availability of a large variety of commodities in the open market, including a growing number of shopping malls. The article examines India’s ‘new middle class’ as an agency of consumption, engaged in a process which seems to be jeopardising long held ideals of self-sufficiency, self-reliance and anti-materialism. After the economic liberalisation of the 1990s, consumer goods appear to have become a crucial basis for redefining status distinctions in Indian society and for negotiating interpersonal and inter-communal relationships within the seemingly antithetical categories of tradition and modernity. As in other forms of globalisation, however, the resulting patterns of change are not simply based on total abolition of older ‘traditional’ structures and their replacement by new patterns. Despite apparent changes in shopping habits and the emergence of blatant consumerism, the older moral tradition continues to oppose rising materialism and individualism, contributing to the limited success of shopping malls. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

India's 2005 Right to Information Act (RTIA) is among dozens of national laws recently adopted similar to the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. Drawing on several large studies examining the act's implementation, the author finds that Indian citizens filed about 2 million requests for information under the RTIA during its first two and half years. However, use of the law was constrained by uneven public awareness, poor public planning, and bureaucratic indifference or outright hostility. Requirements for proactive disclosure of information are often ignored. The necessary mechanisms for enforcing the new law are also strained by a growing number of complaints and appeals. Nonetheless, RTIA advocates demonstrate its transformative potential and continue to press energetically for more effective implementation. Public authorities and civil society organizations have developed a number of practical innovations that may be useful for other developing countries to adopt when considering similar laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on mean consumption, poverty (all three FGT measures) and inequality during 2004 for rural India using National Sample Survey (NSS) data for the 60th Round. Mean consumption at the national level is much higher than the poverty line. However, the Gini coefficient is higher than in recent earlier rounds. The headcount ratio is 22.9 per cent. Mean consumption, all three measures of poverty and the Gini coefficient are computed at the level of 20 states and 63 agro-climatic zones in these 20 states. It is surmised that despite impressive growth rates deprivation is pervasive, pockets of severe poverty persist, and inequality is rampant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses feminist theories of political economy and economic development, focusing particularly on notions of the new middle class in India. The authors assert that the idea of a new middle class is both a political and popular culture construct and they track its origins and development in both colonial and post-colonial India. Other subjects explored include national identity, women's social roles and status, the social impact of globalization, modernity, and the political activity of the middle class.

This article contests the characterisation of the popular and acclaimed film, Slumdog Millionaire, as a realistic portrayal of India's urban poverty that will ultimately serve as a tool of advocacy for India's urban poor. It argues that the film's reductive view of slum-spaces will more probably reinforce negative attitudes towards slum-dwellers, lending credibility to the sorts of policies that have historically dispossessed them of power and dignity. By drawing attention to the film's celebration of characters and spaces that symbolise Western culture and Northern trajectories of 'development', the article also critically engages with some of the issues raised by the film's enormous success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses medical costs and health care in India. The author explains that India's annual health care expenditure per capita is $21. The author states that most of this money does not come from federal finances so people have to pay for most care themselves. The author mentions that few hospitals receive subsidies from the government and that only five percent of the population in India has insurance coverage. The conditions of a municipal hospital in a Mumbai, India suburb are detailed. The article also discusses user fees at public hospitals.

This introduction to two field reports on specific cases of poverty in rural and urban India argues that poverty is produced and mediated through intersecting structures of inequality such as caste, religion, tribe, and gender. The reports, the author notes, remind us that understanding the macro processes and current effects of globalization requires a practice of knowledge that values the details, specificities, and immersion in particular places such as those described in the reports by V.K. Ramachandran and V. Ramaswamy et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the privatization and comparative efficiency of sanitation services in India. It explores the main reason on the failure of the country's government partners and the World Bank Group to recognize and address the intolerable working conditions of Dalit sanitation workers in the country. It highlights the concepts of the theory of thought-styles which was associated on the identification of how institutionalized approaches in the development management (DM) field can hinder consideration of human dignity and justice for sanitation workers in the country.

there is no abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent resurgence of vigilantism in India connects both to the neo-liberal project of outsourcing security, as well as to a longer history of porous boundaries between states and powerful elements in society. When practiced by subaltern groups, it also reflects the failure of the judicial system. This article explores the moral plurality evoked by different forms of vigilantism and their relationship to the state, as well as the different types of culpability they imply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To study the effectiveness of planning and management interventions for ensuring children in India are immunized at the appropriate age. Methods The study involved children aged less than 18 months recruited from Haryana, India, in 2005--2006: 4336 in a pre-intervention cohort and 5213 in a post-intervention cohort. In addition, immunization of 814 hospitalized children from outside the study area was also assessed. Operational barriers to age-appropriate immunization with diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus (DPT) vaccine were investigated by monitoring vaccination coverage, observing immunization sessions and interviewing parents and health-care providers. An intervention package was developed, with community volunteers playing a pivotal role. Its effectiveness was assessed by monitoring the ages at which the three DPT doses were administered. Findings The main reasons for delayed immunization were staff shortages, non-adherence to plans and vaccine being out of stock. In the post-intervention cohort, 70% received a third DPT dose before the age of 6 months, significantly more than in the pre-intervention cohort (62%; P = 0.002). In addition, the mean age at which the first, second and third DPT doses were administered decreased by 17, 21 and 34 days, respectively, in the study area over a period of 18 months (P for trend < 0.0001). No change was observed in hospitalized children from outside the study area. Conclusion An intervention package involving community volunteers significantly improved age-appropriate DPT immunization in India. The Indian Government's intention to recruit village-based volunteers as part of a health sector reform aimed at decentralizing administration could help increase timely immunization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's research on contemporary middle class social structure in India. The discussion focuses on the ideological construct and identity of the middle class in general and their voting preferences that protect upper caste privilege and promote Hindu nationalism. Topics also discussed include class formation in the context of liberalization and modernization, the economic, social, and cultural factors contributing to middle-classness, and social exclusion that supports the middle class' cultural domination.

The article discusses the middle class in India in the context of social formation and political actor theories. The political and social implications of the middle class' expansion, the outlook for the middle class to become a progressive or reactionary force, and the socioeconomic aspects of employment are discussed. The Indian middle class' shift from public to private sector employment is mentioned. The growth of entrepreneurship attributed to a greater propensity for risk-taking is mentioned. The majority India's contemporary middle class being first-generation members is noted.

This in-depth study carried out over a period of one year focuses on the life-worlds of haliya and kamaiya child workers from Morang and Bardiya districts, respectively. The participants, from ethnic Musahar and Tharu backgrounds, become bonded labourers to earn household income and are unable to attend full-time schooling. While a few have managed to forge a 'study-work' contract with their employers, the vast majority are working in difficult circumstances just to support their families. Given the tremendous physical and psychosocial impact from being a haliya or a kamaiya worker, all children want to stop working if they could receive external support on educational and skills learning activities to improve their future life prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the often misconceived problem of insurgency and various political, social, and law and order problems of northeast India, which Sanjib Baruah calls "Northeast India's Durable Disorder." The region has been stereotyped by the postcolonial state of India as a "disturbed area" infested with insurgents and militants. In its attempts to resolve this "durable disorder," India fails to engage with its underlying causes in the construction of new political boundaries in both the colonial and postcolonial eras. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent commercial boom in women's skin-lightening or "fairness" cosmetics in India is part of the larger context of escalating lifestyle consumerism in Asia's emerging market nations. This monograph examines the cultural politics of gender, nation, beauty and skin color in the persuasive narratives of Indian magazine advertisements and television commercials for fairness cosmetics and personal care products. We situate advertising's compact stories of ideal femininity within the sociology of colorism's transnational links to hierarchies of race, gender, caste, ethnicity and class and the rapid economic growth in the skin-lightening cosmetics sector in India over the past decade. Deconstructing advertising's visual and linguistic fields of meaning, our analysis dissects the rhetorical themes of bodily and personal transformation, modern and traditional science, and heterosexual romance that operate together to inflate the currency of light-skinned beauty. In conclusion, we outline recent challenges to the hegemony of colorism in India and suggest directions for future research that can build on this monograph's scrutiny of advertising's regulatory regimes of beauty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

M.N. Srinivas described rural India as characterised by the presence of locally influential 'dominant castes'. This article is an empirical engagement with the concept of 'dominant caste' in the context of electoral politics in a district of Bihar. An analysis of the patterns of caste interactions in this region shows that there is no settled 'dominant caste'. Numerical as well as economic and political strength is shared between several castes. Not only do the major castes compete and manoeuvre for power, even the minor castes challenge the major castes' attempts at establishing dominance, by approaching the courts and, in the case of disputes, making strategic alliances with one major caste in order to oppose another. This article examines the dynamics of these shifting caste responses and alliances in order to illustrate the fluidity of caste equations in contemporary Bihar. It also highlights the role of state institutions such as the police and the courts, but most significantly, electoral representation itself, as an instrument for fostering social change and political dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the agricultural and social condition in India in 2009. It is noted that 33% is the total primary energy consumption of renewable energy sources in India with traditional biomass as a major contributor. It highlights the services offered by nonprofit organizations to promote renewable energy projects to implement change in the rural area.

Democracy requires criticism. A significant feature of democracies outside the West, though often ignored by liberal traditions of analysis, is the practice of internal criticism. This article examines some experiences of internal criticism that may be found in the writings of some Indian philosophers, focusing especially on the work of Swami Vivekananda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our is a country of great social and cultural diversity often we take pride in the country's colourful multi-cultural diversity. Nonetheless, social and economic disparities are in deed despairingly vast. India is the homeland of people, who are different to each other on the basis of language, religion, caste, race and community. The exploitation and deprivation of one section by other is the out come of strict social division and prejudice. As a result, a large section of Indians have been identified as underprivileged, backward, and deprived. To uplift the socio-economic conditions of these large sections of people in order to end the exploitation from their lives, social reformers and leaders of the country have been organising social and legal movements. Andaman & Nicobar Islands society has been playing a significant role by setting an example for other societies regarding unity in diversity multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic society. It is a casteless society. People from all parts of India have come to set a unique example of unity and social harmony. There is no communal tension, no caste barrier and social prejudice. Expect notified tribes of the Union Territory, no such reservation policy in jobs has been exercised among other communities, as it is enjoying by the people of other states since independence. But the announcement of reservation benefits in jobs for a section of Indians has been received with sake by others who did not come under the new privileges. The implementation of OBC's reservation policy has become a controversial issue in the Islands society. Neither the communities who have come under reservation benefits are not happy nor the communities denied the benefits are accepted, the decision of the commission reports. Many associations on behalf of their communities have given strong representation to the union as well as local administrations demanding revocation of the reservation notifications. They have come out with the opinion that the notification for reservation is out and out a retrograde step which is bound to deface the "mini India" image of this society and disrupt the social harmony which is often quoted as a model for the entire India. It would erect artificial barrier among the people and is going to disturb the peace and social harmony of these Islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Naxalbari movement, a radical Maoist movement, marks a significant moment in the postcolonial history of West Bengal, as well as in the larger context of India. Beginning as an armed peasant movement in 1967 in the Naxalbari area of northern West Bengal, the movement soon was spread in different districts of West Bengal and several provinces of India. Even though it has been one of the well-studied political and social events in postcolonial West Bengal, the gender dimension, particularly the history of women's participation, remains neglected in the historiography of the movement. A critical review from the point of view of gender requires contextualisation of gender relations according to class, ethnicity, spatial locations, and cultural environments of men and women Naxalites. Through a discussion of the centrality of Calcutta - the metropolitan centre - in the dominant memory and history of Naxalbari, I argue that activists from mofussil or non-metropolitan backgrounds, especially non-metropolitan women, have remained marginally represented, in spite of their significant contribution. This essay re-reads the movement with new information and insight, gained principally through women's words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study intended to explore the gender differences in perceptions of home environment in a sample of 1011 Indian adolescents. The Home Environment Inventory (HEI) developed by Misra (1989) was used to measure adolescents' perceptions of home environment. The results of the study revealed significant gender differences in control, protectiveness, social isolation, reward, deprivation of privileges, rejection and permissiveness components of home environment. Male adolescents perceived their home environment to be significantly more controlled, socially isolated, deprived of certain privileges, rejected and permissive whereas females perceived their home environment to be more protective and rewarding than their male counterparts. The intervention strategies are discussed to improve the home environment of adolescents for promoting their well being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the anthropological exploration of Indian society through its cities. The notion of the metropolis as originated by sociologist Georg Simmel is discussed. The relation between modernity and metropolitan form is explored through the materiality of urban infrastructure. These insights are then used to understand the Indian city, which the author concludes presents a challenge to the terms of the discursive relationship between India and the West.

The Indian state of Chhattisgarh has been continually confronted with violent assaults and murder targeting individuals who are believed to practice witchcraft. By sketching the murder of accused witch, Kulwantin Bai Nishad, in 1995, I highlight the way prevailing assumptions about witchcraft, long held by the media, police and state, were contested. Intersecting with a national and state discourse of modernist ideals, witch-related violence has been transformed into a politicised object that signals extreme underdevelopment in a state whose legitimacy depends upon progress and development. The Indian Police Service (IPS), the foremost organisation to contend with these issues, maintains a crucial role in administering the citizen-state encounter. Commonly associated with attributes of corruption, misuse of authority, violence and partisan politics, the police official emerged in the findings as an ordinary citizen having a special and sometimes difficult public job. By examining a discretionary 'practice' at work in police dealings with witchcraft accusations, I argue that power shapes what is recognised as criminal behaviour, the significance assigned to a crime and therefore, practices of policing. This article concludes that discretionary power opens up a terrain of unpredictability and 'formlessness' that lends hope for citizen rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article stands at the intersection of two historical processes, which evolved on two different time scales. The first is the constitution of South Asian Muslim diasporas over a longer period of time, roughly two centuries. The second is the growth, in a shorter period, from 1920 onwards, of two South Asian Muslim fundamentalist movements: Tablighi Jama'at (hereafter TJ) and Jama'at-i Islami (hereafter JI). These two processes intersected after 1947, i.e. after the independence of the Indian sub-continent and its partition between India and Pakistan - when these movements began spreading abroad. After summing up the origin and growth of the two movements in the Indian sub-continent, this article tries to analyse the different ways in which they came to cater for the needs of Muslim diasporas which pre-dated them, and the doctrines they spread among them. It then asks, in return, how far does their expansion abroad depend on South Asian diaporas; and if, as we suspect, they are anchored in these diasporas, how can they be truly transnational? This circle is explored, in a thoroughly interpretative approach which contrasts the two movements. Finally the author comes to the conclusion that TJ is more globalised, in the sense that it is present everywhere; but that JI is more truly transnational, in the sense that it was able to build real links between strategic areas of the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the history of urban life in India and industrial crises affecting cites. The author reflects on the social spaces of labor and their relationship to the collective memory of workers and Indian labor history. Emphasis is given to an analysis of working conditions and social life by evaluating and comparing the everyday lives of factory workers in urban and rural areas. The author investigates the social dynamics of tradition and community in life from the perspective of labor history.

Dr.Jaya Arunachalam, recipient of Padmasri founded Working Women's Forum in 1978 with an objective of social and economic up-liftment of poorest of poor women in Tamilnadu, India. Now WWF has more than 7,00,00 women members. This case study deals with how technology has helped these micro entrepreneurs to accomplish their business more effectively and efficiently and how it has introduced drastic changes to their lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]