Suchergebnisse

Assamese cinema, though not a very visible category in most of the works of film historians and critics, started with a note of nationalistic sentiment in the early half of the twentieth century. In subsequent times, amidst the commercially driven Assamese entertainment movies which were more numerous, a number of Assamese directors were successful in creating a 'serious' genre of Assamese cinema. Bhabendra Nath Saikia was one of the prolific directors of the latter category during the last three decades of the twentieth century. On the basis of their various characteristics, his films can be placed under the category which has been named by the critics as Indian 'parallel cinema' or 'innovative cinema'. This article is an attempt at a descriptive analysis of the narrative contents and other cinematic features of Saikia's films, with an aim to locate this regional filmmaker within the broader domain of Indian parallel cinema. It is argued here that while most of his films can be read as critical commentaries on the various issues which engulfed the post-Independence society in the specific socio-historical conditions of Assam, some of his films also bear much wider frames to hold timeless and space-less features of mankind.

Bauls, the rural minstrels who sing songs of transformation, are a socio-economically and politico-religiously marginalized cultural population from rural Bengal (both from eastern and north-eastern, India and from Bangladesh). They identify themselves outside of any organized religion or established caste system in India, and therefore are constituted at the margins of contemporary global South. Voicing through their songs and narratives of emancipation, they interrogate and criticize material and symbolic inequalities and injustices such as discrimination and intolerance (including class and caste hierarchies, and other forms of disparities) perpetuated by hegemonic authorities and religious institutions. Embracing a critical communication lens, this paper pays attention to material and discursive marginalization of Bauls and Fakirs, foregrounding voice as an anchor to communicative interrogation of structural and cultural inequalities. Through voice, Bauls and Fakirs foreground reflexive spiritual and humane practices that raise societal consciousness and cultivate polymorphic possibilities.

Purpose
– This paper aims to define a capability-based sustained/total human development, after reviewing both the concept of "Surplus in Man" as the source for achieving the Vedântic ideal of transcendence, and the capability approach to human development.


Design/methodology/approach
– The capability-based sustained/total human development has been defined by integrating the Vedântic concept of "Surplus in Man" and the deontological theories of morality into the basic approach to capability-based human development.


Findings
– An answer to the question: "How to apply a holistic approach to our daily life?" is outlined.


Practical implications
– An example is provided on the role of yoga and meditation as the key initial bridging forces between the Western and Eastern concept of mental health. Also, the recent trend in a morally demanding lifestyle of a section of people in the Western societies for moving towards a galloping spiritual pluralism has been exemplified.


Originality/value
– Role of responsibility of an individual human being along with his or her right has explicitly been emphasized in the approach to capability-based sustained/total human development.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyse how Vivekananda, in his quest for sustained human development, explores a new generation of humanity by combining some of the active and heroic personality elements of the West with the meditative and yogic personality skills of the East.


Design/methodology/approach
– Because of Vivekananda's pioneering efforts in the last decade of the 19th century, ancient India's Vedânta philosophy of human life, along with the Yoga system, has now become a common heritage of all mankind. Vivekananda's assertion that a human being is potentially divine – one of the major tenets of ancient India's Vedânta philosophy – has been used as the philosophical foundation of sustained human development.


Findings
– A psycho-physical human being's initial individuality could be developed towards a psycho-social personality with its manifold existence by manifesting the aesthetic, ethical, heroic and spiritual possibilities lying hidden in an individual person.


Originality/value
– Persons with different degrees of higher assimilative qualities create different personalities. A psycho-social personality could lead to the path of sustained human development essentially by controlling its mind.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction -- The book structure -- Chapter 1 . A gender analysis of development-induced displacement -- Chapter 2 . Reinventing narratives of displacement: Methodological considerations -- Chapter 3 . The context of Meghalaya -- Chapter 4 . Gender, mining, and matriliny in the Jaintia Hills -- Chapter 5 . "Growing up in a mining area": Gendering labour, leisure, and mobility -- Chapter 6 . Intimacies and violence in the mines -- Chapter 7 . Gendering love, marriage, and reproductive health: The question of continuity and change -- Chapter 1: A gender analysis of development-induced displacement -- Mining-induced displacement: The magnitude -- Gender and mining -- Impacts of mining on women -- Impact of mining on gender relationship -- Gender- and development-induced displacement -- Resettlement literature in DID -- Displacement as a development crisis -- Gender critique of the DID literature -- Modernisation, eurocentrism, and the weakness of the DID literature -- Indigenous people as the subjects of analysis -- A framework for investigating the changing gender relations in DID -- Notes -- Chapter 2: Reinventing narratives of displacement: Methodological considerations -- Selection of case study -- Why life narratives -- Memory -- Data collection -- Selection of interviewees -- Fieldwork -- Ethical issues -- Limitations of the research -- Language -- Accounts of daily-ness -- Volatile situation in Meghalaya -- Notes -- Chapter 3: The context of Meghalaya -- The history of state formation in Meghalaya -- The Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya -- Migration, ethnicity, and conflict in Meghalaya -- Migration from Nepal to Meghalaya -- Migration from Bangladesh to Meghalaya.

This book presents a systematic study of transboundary, regional and local water conflicts and resistance across several river basins in South Asia. Addressing hydro-socio-economic aspects in competing water sharing and transfer agreements, as well as conflicting regimes of legal plurality, property rights and policy implementation, it discusses themes such as rights over land and natural resources; resettlement of dam-displaced people; urban-rural conflicts over water allocation; peri-urbanisation, land use conflicts and water security; tradeoffs and constraints in restoration of ecological flows in rivers; resilience against water conflicts in a river basin; and irrigation projects and sustainability of water resources. Bringing together experts, professionals, lawyers, government and the civil society, the volume analyses water conflicts at local, regional and transboundary scales; reviews current debates with case studies; and outlines emerging challenges in water policy, law, governance and institutions in South Asia. It also offers alternative tools and frameworks of water sharing mechanisms, conflict resolution, dialogue, and models of cooperation and collaboration for key stakeholders towards possible solutions for effective, equitable and strategic water management. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, environment studies, water studies, public policy, political science, international relations, conflict resolution, political economy, economics, sociology and social anthropology, environmental law, governance and South Asian studies. It will also benefit practitioners, water policy thinktanks and associations, policymakers, diplomats and NGOs.

The book highlights the root cause of human trafficking and analyses how factors of vulnerability affect the marginalized, especially during and after a disaster. Human trafficking like other studies on disaster research, needs to be tackled from various perspectives such as empowering the vulnerable people, creating awareness, strengthening the disaster risk reduction measures and creating a common platform to fight the vicious circle by breaking its continuity and making strategies victim centric and people friendly. The book adapts a multidisciplinary approach embedding concepts from political, social, economic and anthropological perceptions. The discourse in the book revolves around the emotional and psycho-social stress factors including weak implementation of laws and policies at various levels. The content weaves around three themes -- magnitude and interlinks between disaster and human trafficking; policies and protocols on disaster risk reduction and human trafficking and community participation and institutional support. Through these themes, the volume works on identification of the vulnerable areas which are not in compliance with the Sendai Framework of Action, 2015 in the backdrop of the Disaster Management Act of India, 2005. The volume will be of immense interest to a wide range of practitioners, researchers, academicians, policy makers, political leaders, gender experts, international organizations, disaster management authorities, civil society organisations, and scholars working in the area of human rights in general and trafficking in particular. Note: This research was funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). Human Trafficking is complex, layered and lies at the intersections of multiple vulnerabilities, gender being among the most significant ones. This gets exacerbated during both natural and human made disasters. Any attempt to either understand or address it will be fraught with challenges if women and girls' unique vulnerabilities, as well as their needs, voice, choice, agency and safety is not centre-staged in any effort. Mondira's book does exactly that...it succinctly and in simple words explores the compounding discriminations, including structural inequalities, that cause and result in women and girls differential gendered vulnerabilities to being trafficked during disasters. Once this is understood, the solutions can be specific, gender responsive, and sustainable. - Anju Dubey Pandey, Gender Responsive Governance and Ending Violence against Women Specialist, UN Women, New Delhi, India.

This book presents a systematic study of transboundary, regional and local water conflicts and resistance across several river basins in South Asia. Addressing hydro-socio-economic aspects in competing water sharing and transfer agreements, as well as conflicting regimes of legal plurality, property rights and policy implementation, it discusses themes such as rights over land and natural resources; resettlement of dam-displaced people; urban-rural conflicts over water allocation; peri-urbanisation, land use conflicts and water security; tradeoffs and constraints in restoration of ecological flows in rivers; resilience against water conflicts in a river basin; and irrigation projects and sustainability of water resources. Bringing together experts, professionals, lawyers, government and the civil society, the volume analyses water conflicts at local, regional and transboundary scales; reviews current debates with case studies; and outlines emerging challenges in water policy, law, governance and institutions in South Asia. It also offers alternative tools and frameworks of water sharing mechanisms, conflict resolution, dialogue, and models of cooperation and collaboration for key stakeholders towards possible solutions for effective, equitable and strategic water management. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, environment studies, water studies, public policy, political science, international relations, conflict resolution, political economy, economics, sociology and social anthropology, environmental law, governance and South Asian studies. It will also benefit practitioners, water policy thinktanks and associations, policymakers, diplomats and NGOs.