Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 07 - 12
Museum of Memories: Significance of Cultural Artefacts and Texts in Reconstructing and Narrativizing the Past
Nabanita Deka
Memory is like a museum. It is our own personal repository and holds the key to our past. To unlock and understand the mysteries of the past, it is important thereby to access those arenas of our mind where the past has been buried. Our memory in this case helps us to preserve and understand the past. Walking down the memory lane, we not only re-live and re-experience the past but it also helps us to re-construct, re-constitute history and identity and shape the future. Narrativity then, plays a significant role for it is only through narrative that a memory or a past history can be re-examined. In this context then, it can be rightly said that memory is narrative and narrative is memory. Cultural artefacts and texts are the tropes through which memory and narrative can be analysed thereby allowing us to investigate history, re-examine it, narrativize it and possibly come up with an alternative history that is different from the naturalised history. This paper intends to examine the role and significance of memory and look into the theorisation of cultural artefacts and texts as repositories of memories both political and cultural in nature. For this purpose, it will examine the role of food, photographs, museums, family heirloom and texts particularly Nandita Haksar's The Exodus Is Not Over and Bhimayana, the graphic biography of Dr Ambedkar developed by Navayana. The final part of the paper will focus on examining how in acting as repository of memories, the cultural artefacts and texts reconstruct history.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 13 - 24
Gender Inclusive Governance at the Grassroots in India: Inclusion through Exclusion
Chandrika Gulati
Inclusive governance rests on the involvement of different strata of society in the political and administrative processes. It not only ensures institutional efficiency and democratic spirit but also empower the underprivileged sections and enlist their contribution to the overall development of a society. Increasing numerical representation through reservation of seats for women in the Panchayati Raj Institutions was intended to pave way for inclusive governance and empower women at the grassroots. However, mere entry in local bodies is not suffice for inclusive governance and effective exercise of power by women as the disadvantaged across all social categories. Considering that inclusive governance is intended to give women a voice, access to decision making and capability for social transformation, inclusive governance could be ensured by excluding overbearing patriarchal presence and voice in existing political structures. The concept of All Women Panchayats is an off shoot of this line of thinking. Women long denied public spaces and public presence also are discomforted in the presence of males in local bodies. Left to themselves to discuss, debate and take decisions, women have been able to display leadership capabilities and also affecting change in their communities. Has this experiment really been able to bridge gender divide in the countryside and ensure inclusive governance is what this paper attempts to explore.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 25 - 28
Engendering the Feminine in Visual Arts
Srija Sahay
Art is in itself is an activity of participation, and involves not only the artist, and the muse, but the viewer as well. Due to this three-dimensional nature, the production of art does not stop after its initial creation, but goes beyond to the response it attracts. Gender becomes one of the many lenses through which a study of the visual can be undertaken. Any object thus needs to be subjected to the questions of how to read such a source or the context in which it is placed, the identity of the artists, and their sources of patronage. Its current situation further adds another degree of interaction with the source. Therefore, any sculpture or painting cannot be viewed in isolation. Engendering any art requires a set of tools that are at the disposal of the analyser. The paper attempts at locating gender via a study of the celestial females, and further by focusing on the example of the famous Di?da?rganj Yaks?i, to also study the issue of the gaze in the process of engendering of the visual.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 29 - 38
Theorizing Kautilya's Perception of State: The Saptanga Theory and State Formation
Prabira Sethy and Pramod Kumar Ray
The theory of state in Indian context dates back its conceptual origin in Kautilyan thought. Kautilya was the first Indian thinker who had a very practical approach to the concept of state, for its establishment, growth and preservation. His views and prescription on art of statecraft and consolidation and preservation of state are well contained in his famous monumental work 'Arthashastra'. Kautilyan concept and theory of state finds a clear manifestation in his views on Saptanga 'Theory of State'. The present paper, however, discusses about the seven key elements of state viz. Swamin (the Lord or sovereign), Amatya (Minister), Janapada (territory as well as population), Durga (fort), Kosha (treasury), Bala (army), and Mitra (friend). Thus the Saptanga theory of state is based on practical administration and logical conclusion on state management. An attempt has also been made to analyse and examine critically the contemporary relevance and significance of Kaytilya's Saptanga theory and his concept of state bearing an imprint on modern state system. Kautilya's Saptanga theory and his concept of state has got a wide acclamation and proximity in theory of state as advocated by Plato, Aristotle, and the modern western political thinker like Nicholo Machiavelli.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 39 - 52
Philosophical Background of Ethics in Governance and Society
Sanjay Kumar Agrawal and Akshay Mishra
Ethics, morals, values and attitude are the guiding force of our behaviour; they are also the building block of human character. Ethics is also central to stability and continuity of any society. This article is first in the series of article on ethics which we collectively try to put forward.
This article deals with philosophical background of strong ethics covering treatises of both western and Indian thinker, social reformers who contributed immensely to the domain of ethics and draws a comparison between them as ‘Socratic gesture of Gandhi’, ‘Gandhian impression on Mandela and Martin Luther king junior’, and their point of convergence and divergence and their implication on administration. Present paper concisely brings about the meaning, nature and scope of ethics and morality in public life, their interrelation, theoretical underpinning of ethics and its determinants, challenges and measure to overcome them.
It highlights the need of strong internal locus of control i.e ethics, morals in public life. It also touches upon the relevance of strong institution of restraints like police, judiciary etc. The major identification that ethics pertains to are also focused such as, Ethics as fairness, Ethics as justice, Ethics as equitable distribution of resources. To further elaborate them, article briefly mentions Rawls theory of justice, entitlement approach of Amartya Sen, Rights based approach, Ending all forms of discrimination approach. It builds the theoretical base by defining ethics, its determinants and how not only ethics but sound ethics should be the building block of society based on just values like liberty, equality, accommodativeness, openness to all culture and eradicating the traditional institution like sati, purity-pollution, child marriage etc.
Further this paper also touches upon the governance underpinning of ethics which will be exclusively discussed in our series of article. The paper tried to bring out the issues of society, social justice, and internal security challenge along with governance in consideration with omission and commission of ethical conduct.
Further the article delves insight upon the relationship between ethics and morality, their contradictions and dialectical relation, temporal and contextual relevance of one over other. The utility of ethical principles and morality is essential in various dimensions of public life, like social justice in society will be reflected if robustness of integrity is observed and repeated over generations. Good governance and social capital would be natural outcome of observing and maintaining robustness of ethics and morality in public life.
Lastly it tried to link the national and international occurrence in consideration with ethics and integrity like recent killing of George Floyd in USA which display the prejudice and stereotype which exist in structurally stratified society which lead to discrimination, inequality and further social exclusion which leave the segment of society humiliated, subordinated and alienated. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to reflect that the strong ethics in society can reduce the social challenges, improve the governance, bring effectiveness in social justice measure, and further reduce the threat to internal security.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 53 - 58
Soldering as Work, Work for Livelihood: The Discourse of 'Outsiders Within' Among the Nepalese Migrants' of North East India
Bishnu Kuamri Gurung
This paper proposes to understand the historical meaning of the concept of “work” within the changing definition of labour relations and their social status. This turn in the labour relations reveal two aspects: first, how the “world of work” can be conceptualized through the performance in a disciplinary apparatus rendered to the service of the nation (Geoffrey Field, 2011), and in analyzing the cases of the historical past where it is seen how the bodies of the workers were placed for the cost of the production in the British colonies (Dipesh Chakraborty, 2002). This paradox though helps us better understand the dynamicity of a work regime, but yet unanswered of how work defines social status.
The proposed paper has made an attempt to fill this gap through an analysis of the recruitment of the Gurkhas (a martial race among the Nepalese) in the British imperial army and the importation of the Nepalese migrants (other than Gurkhas) for various colonial pursuits especially in the plantations, mining and railways which were based in north east India. This will be followed by looking into the dimension of how the presence of the Nepalese population in north east India has become a matter of concern to the post-colonial political discourse which led to the emergence of the idea of social ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ within the Nepalese speaking community based on their occupational status.
In tracing these trajectories, I will take the attention of the reader to the third section of the paper where the emphasis is given to locating the ‘factors’ responsible for the growing concern of social exclusion among the labouring population of the Nepalese whereas the social status of the Gurkhas is marked safe remembering their wartime mobilization of labor. The paper will conclude by discussing how the wave of nationalism and sub-nationalism has been working as driving force for cultivating the field of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ respectively in many parts of north east India.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 59 - 64
Spatial Structure of Marriage Circles Among Hindus in Uttar Pradesh: A Case Study of Mathura District
Kiran Jatav
The paper explores the ground truth of adverse sex ratio and changes in spatial practices of marriages in Mathura district. Marriages generally operate within a limited region or radius defined as a marriage circle. Marriage circles are developed by the norms and rules of marriages in a region. The questions explored are the reasons why men bring brides from the other regions Are there spatial preferences, are these marriage circles expanding over a region or shrinking within a region, and what are the changes in intergenerational marriage circles. This study uses a number of quantitative and qualitative techniques: In-depth interview of villagers in the form of semi- structured interview; interview of key respondents; Questionnaire survey; Focused group interview.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 65 - 71
Debating the Techniques of Expression: Lukacs, Brecht, and the Aesthetic Conflict between Realism and Modernism
Aditya Premdeep
In 1930s Georg Lukacs and Bertolt Brecht engaged in a stimulating debate on the efficacy of modernism and the commitment of modernist writers. The debate produced some of the important arguments on aesthetics and politics, artistic autonomy, and the suitability of mode of expression for representation of individuals in the backdrop of capitalism. Lukacs denunciated the modernist technique of stream of consciousness and more specifically the absence of historicity in the writings of modernist novelist. He believed realism is better art for portraying the individuals trapped in capitalism. Brecht, however, rejected Lukacs' criticism of modernism on the ground that his views are conservative; he argued that the mode of expression in a literary epoch is characterized by the socio-economic problems of the age and therefore, the contemporary artists can use newer techniques to respond to these challenges and thus, they cannot be compelled to employ the techniques used by their predecessors. This paper intends to reexamine the realism-modernism debate from a fresh perspective to gain insight into the question of form, content, and literary commitment.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 72 - 80
Aatma Nirvar Bharat As A Pump Priming During Covid-19 in India
Debanand Behera and Nityananda Barik
At present all over world is fighting with pandemic covid-19. December ,2019 was very gloomy time in which that virus was awaked in Wuhan city of China. Indian economy faces crisis in several sector due to lockdown and shutdown. Fastest economy is to be turned into slowest economy in advent of twenty first century. Government of India announced fiscal package of 20 lakh crore i.e. Aatma Nirvar Bharat, which will act as pump priming amid of depression. The package contains 10 percent total GDP of Indian economy, which can boost the economy with well balanced growth to several sectors. This paper aims to look into the allocation of funds to several sectors by the package of Aatma Nirvar Bharat and to study the economic impact of covid-19 to several sectors. It is found out that a well-balanced allocation of funds and root meaning of Aatma Nirvar can accelerate the economy to outbreak the recession.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 81 - 91
Women Empowerment: Jobs in Global Manufacturing and Services
Taapsi Kohli and Stanzin Nurboo
The ‘feminization’ of global manufacturing and services industries in Global South has gained interest from numerous scholars who put forth disparate observations on women empowerment in periphery countries such as Bangladesh, and South Africa. The paper uses three frameworks of gender studies, Women in Development, Women and Development and Gender and Development to study the cases of Bangladesh, Mexico, India, and Zimbabwe to argue that employment in global manufacturing units and services has empowered women to an extent. While women employed in global manufacturing units in Bangladesh enjoy greater agency (‘the power to’) and decision-making power (‘the power within’), Mexican women working in maquiladoras are unlikely to observe a similar level of empowerment. Furthermore, women employed in the global caregiving sector tend to migrate to core countries such as the Filipino women to United States or more developed countries in their own regions such as Zimbabwean women to Johannesburg. There is limited scope for the migrated women to experience empowerment such as joining trade unions (‘to power with’), and increased agency due to several cases of illegal migration or language barriers. In contrast, there is a higher chance for economic empowerment and increased decision-making power in the nursing industry as argued by Indian nurses serving in UAE.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 92 - 98
Public Private Partnership for Economic Progress
Prashanta Chandra Panda
Over the years, perspectives towards the idea of war have resulted in a Public Private Partnership has history of success, doubts, abandonment and hopes. Most nations make out different contracts with private service providers to provide better services to its citizens. If we look at public expenditure as size of the presence of government in the economy then countries like Belgium, Denmark, France, Netherland, Hungary, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Spain, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, United States are mostly spending they are between 40 to 60 percent of GDP. This is also true for some developing and crisis prone economies. Under the present constraint of limited growth scenario in the world economy, growth slowdown in emerging economies, slowdown in tax buoyancy there is stronger need for better governance, sharing of expertise, utilization of more economies of scale of involved parties for better delivery of public utilities and services to work towards infrastructure building and maintenance augmenting private capital and human capital. This paper focuses on (i) different theoretical designs of PPP including strength and weaknesses, (ii) cases of PPP in India and benefits to common people and for nation building and progress lowering the cost, (iii) PPP and reduction of hierarchy through SPV and (iv) failure of PPP and government to retain these public services for good performance.
Open Access
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Research Article
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First Published December 30, 2020
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Pp. 99 - 105
Rock Art in India: Evidence, Methods and Problems
Devashish Saurav and Abhishek
This paper believes that rock paintings executed by prehistoric humans form one segment, though rather complex, of the archaeological record. Just like other forms of archaeological data the paintings carry a gamut of meanings and become illuminating only when related to specific interests or supposition. It offers here a very introductory comment on the distributions of some motifs in India and also talks about some of the archaeological issues to which they can relate to. The variability in style of Indian rock art production points towards numerous influences that have shaped its formation. This diversity is a result of various factors, that includes a long period of production and interactivity between groups with different social organizations. Few case studies from different regions within the domestic boundary are used to embellish the diversity of the subcontinent's rock art and describe its relationship to landscape. The long term vision is to help produce methods for looking at paintings as qualified records of prehistoric settlement.