Indian Discourse Research Articles

MTP Amendment Bill, 2014: towards re-imagining abortion care.

In India, the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, while allowing abortions under a broad range of circumstances, can be considered a conservative law from a feminist perspective. The Act allows healthcare providers rather than women seeking abortion to have the final say on abortion, and creates an environment within which women are made dependent on their healthcare providers. On October 29, 2014, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released a draft of the MTP (Amendment) Bill 2014, which proposes changes that could initiate a shift in the focus of the Indian abortion discourse from healthcare providers to women. Such a shift would decrease the vulnerability of women within the clinical setting and free them from subjective interpretations of the law. The Bill also expands the base of healthcare providers by including mid-level and non-allopathic healthcare providers. While the medical community has resisted this inclusion, the author is in favour of it, arguing that in the face of the high rates of unsafe abortion, such a step is both ethical and necessary. Additionally, the clause extending the gestational limit could trigger ethical debates on eugenic abortions and sex-selective abortions. This paper argues that neither of these should be used to limit access to late-trimester termination, and should, instead, be dealt with separately and in a way that enquires into why such pregnancies are considered unwanted.

Theory, Literature, and Dialogue: Bakhtinian Consciousness in New Indian Literature

Emerging new literature has facilitated a dialogue among the alternative aesthetics created by new literature with an interpolation of central theoretical discourses. It opens an avenue for theories travelling across cultures to decipher intricacies involved into contemporary world. Today we live with a global consciousness that illustrates the formulation of a new postcolonial-postmodernist ‘I’. Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogic consciousness, the unfinalizable self and the idea of the relationship between the ‘self’ and ‘others’ lead us to understand this postcolonial-postmodernist framework as reflected in many Indian literary and cultural discourses. It throws light on how we perceive an individual entity in relation to the specific socio-cultural code which inhere multiple intercessions. Present article attempts to discover the fundamentals of the ‘postcolonial-postmodernist liberation’ through the case study of two selected Indian literary texts by Arvind Adiga and Amitav Ghosh. Both the texts explain the psychology behind the working of dialogic consciousness and the intercession involved in the formulation of postcolonial-postmodernist subject. It may be elucidated through the understanding of mechanism that always strives to attain a point of equilibrium. Representing the postcolonial-postmodernist psychology which questions various cultural norms, it initiates a dialogue between freedom and restrictions, individual and social, and real versus virtual. It turns out an everlasting quest for refined version of the metamorphic ‘self’ shaped by the dialogic consciousness of the postcolonial and postmodernist world.

Staging Transgender Solidarities at Bangalore's Queer Pride

Abstract This essay analyzes narrative scenes and aesthetic choices in Because We Have a Voice Too, an activist play staged at Bangalore Pride 2012. By linking the experiences of hijras and transmen, the play enables solidarities across gender through an overarching critique of patriarchy. The connections made between FTM and MTF experiences evidences the challenges facing transmen, who are often left out of LGBT Indian discourses, and articulates hijra narratives within a specifically trans optic.

Changing climate discourse and politics in India. Climate change as challenge and opportunity for diplomacy and development

This article contributes to the study of changing climate discourse and policy in emerging powers through a case study of climate discourse in India since 2007. Based on interviews with key actors in Indian climate politics and textual analysis, three general climate discourses – the Third World, Win–Win and Radical Green discourses – are identified. The discourses are characterised by different constructions of India’s identity, interests, climate change exposure and climate policy orientation. At the most general level, the article finds that there has been a general discursive shift from the Third World discourse to the Win–Win discourse, and that the latter discourse is in broad agreement with the dominant international climate change discourse of ecological modernisation and thus supports an alignment between Indian and international climate politics. We also find, however, that India’s domestic climate politics is marked by co-existence and tensions between the three climate discourses, producing a complex and at times contentious discursive politics over climate change, identity and development. The case study presented in this article moreover demonstrates how national interests are socially constructed and how changes in policy reflect changes in the dominant discourse.

Revisiting the Marginal Locations of Muslim Women on Various Sites in India

Dominant discourses on Muslim women have revolved around their marginal locations in commu-nity as well as in society. It has mainly been subjected to socio-economic and political structures and conditions as well. However, it is worth mentioning that marginality is not only a lived experi-ence but it also has metaphoric dimensions. The state of marginality relates not only to the poor socio-economic status of Muslim women but the politics of representation of their identities like veiled, passive as well as meek victims in various discourses also constructs the core of their mar-ginal location in the larger society. Therefore, the marginalisation of Muslim women seems to be visible in various discourses in India. Briefly, the paper will attempt to comprehend the undercur-rents functioning behind the construction of the very concept of marginality and locate Muslim women in popular and academic discourses on marginality.

What Happens in a Hindi Film?

AbstractThis paper looks at the popular Hindi film and its treatment in film and media studies. It criticises the assumption that “entertainment” is a simple universal, arguing that it needs to be seen rather as a problematic, historic institution. The author attempts a preliminary reconstruction of Indian discourse on film and entertainment, a discourse marginalised or ignored by Eurocentric scholarship on film in South Asia. Central to the Indian discourse are historically situated notions of extravaganza, of spectacle (tamasha) in a paradise setting, and a focus on emotional experiences, those of wonder and of ecstasy and despair. The articulation of these elements has changed but continue to be constitutive of the popular Hindi film.

Framing sustainability: A case study analysis of the environment and sustainability discourse in the Indian English language press

The definition and local cultural adoption of globally generated terms such as environment and sustainable development happen largely through an imbricated process of meaning negotiation within democratic public discourse. Framing behaviour by media and influential opinion makers shapes and moulds local and national discourse about environment and sustainability, particularly in developing countries where pro-development forces face off against pro-conservation groups over resource use choices. Using elements of framing and grounded theory, a qualitative interpretive case study analysis of environment and sustainability related articles from a leading English language fortnightly magazine in India reveals that highly emotive frames are being used in media construction of the environment and sustainability discourse in India. While the research findings suggest that stock themes from the international framing repertoire are in use, they also indicate that distinctive new frames are being employed that could assist in instigating social change and refashioning public attitudes.

Shifting discourses of climate change in India

Developing countries like India are under international pressure to sign a legally binding emissions treaty to avert catastrophic climatic change. Developing countries, however, have argued that any international agreement must be based on historic and per capita carbon emissions, with developed countries responsible for reducing their emissions first and funding mitigation and adaptation in other countries. Recently, however, several scholars have argued that Indian government climate change discourses are shifting, primarily by recognizing the “co-benefits” of an alignment between its development and climate change objectives, and by displaying increasing “flexibility” on mitigation targets. This study investigates the factors driving shifting Indian discourses of climate change by conducting and analyzing 25 interviews of Indian climate policy elites, including scientists, energy policy experts, leading government officials, journalists, business leaders, and advocates, in addition to analysis of articles published in Economic and Political Weekly (a prominent Indian policy journal), and reports published by the government and other agencies. Our analysis suggests that India’s concerns about increasing energy access and security, along with newer concerns about vulnerability to climate change and the international leadership aspirations of the Indian government, along with emergence of new actors and institutions, has led to plurality of discourses, with potential implications for India’s climate change policies.

Acting Inca: identity and national belonging in early twentieth-century Bolivia

For most of the postcolonial era, the Aymara of highland Bolivia were a group without representation in national politics. Believing that their cause would finally be recognised, the Aymara fought alongside the victorious liberals during the Civil War of 1899. Despite Aymara loyalty, liberals quickly moved to marginalise them after the war. In her groundbreaking study, E. Gabrielle Kuenzli revisits the events of the civil war and its aftermath to dispel popular myths about the Aymara and reveal their forgotten role in the nation-building project of modern Bolivia. Kuenzli examines documents from the famous postwar Penas Trial to recover Aymara testimony during what essentially became a witch hunt. She reveals that the Aymara served as both dutiful plaintiffs allied with liberals and unwitting defendants charged with wartime atrocities and instigating a race war. To further combat their problem, Creole liberals developed a public discourse that positioned the as the only worthy of national inclusion. This was justified by the Incas' high civilisation and reputation as noble conquerors, along with their current non-threatening nature. The whitening of Incans was a thinly veiled attempt to block the Aymara from politics, while also consolidating the power of the Liberal Party. Kuenzli posits that despite their repression, the Aymara did not stagnate as an idle, apolitical body after the civil war. She demonstrates how the Aymara appropriated the liberal's Indian discourse by creating theatrical productions that glorified Incan elements of the Aymara past. In this way, the Aymara were able to carve an acceptable space as progressive Indians in society. Kuenzli provides an extensive case study of an Inca play created in the Aymara town of Caracollo, which proved highly popular and helped to unify the Aymara. As her study shows, the Amyara engaged liberal Creoles in a variety of ways at the start of the twentieth century, shaping national discourse and identity in a tradition of activism that continues to this day.

The art of fiction: Indian diaspora's gift to Malaysian fiction-writing descendants of other diasporas

In 1921, S. Radhakrishnan wrote in The Hindu View of Life, ‘China and Japan, Tibet and Siam, Burma and Ceylon look to India as their spiritual home’. Today, many Malaysian descendants of nineteenth-century Chinese and Ceylonese diasporas continue to look to India for spiritual, intellectual, and literary inspiration. This paper discusses three contemporary, English-language novels by Malaysians of non-Indian descent which are informed by Buddhist/Hindu philosophical ideas of fiction and reality, shaped by narratological strategies found in Indian philosophical discourses and epics, and inspired by the Indian tradition of using literary fiction to expose the fictional nature of received ideas and ideologies mistaken for reality in and by society. Published in 1981, 1994, and 2010 respectively, the novels provide an historical insight into how three representatives of Malaysia's non-Indian, ethnic minorities respond to the ethnicized ideas and ethnocentric ideologies that have dominated Malaysian life since the 1970s.

Role of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Contemporary Anti-Corruption Discourse in India

Corruption is plainly deleterious to the enterprises and corrosive to economies. It is widespread in India. India is ranked 85 out of 175 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2014. A number of steps are being initiated to combat the corruption in India. There has been global recognition of the valuable role that the private sector can play and must play in addressing corruption. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are identified as one of the growth engines for various countries in the world. SMEs are vulnerable to the threat of corruption. More than 70% of SMEs perceive corruption as an impediment to their business. This paper examines the various aspects of corruption and its challenges for SMEs and their role in combating the same.

Beware Of the Consequences of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Implications for Students’ Learning

Beware Of the Consequences of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation Implications for Students’ Learning

Artifacts and Artifices of the Global: Practices of US Architects in India's National Capital Region

The real estate crash in the Global North in 2008, accompanied by the growth of a comparatively stable real estate market in India, took a number of architects and allied companies from the Global North into India’s National Capital Region (NCR). Indian state actors and developers, as well as corporations from the Global North, propagated a discourse of the global in order to generate economic, symbolic, and cultural capital for their work. This discourse operated through and was embedded into the built environment and material landscapes of NCR. This paper argues that materiality acts as a key mode through which both local as well as international groups contest, claim, and reframe a global discourse in India. The global comes to be experienced and understood through the built environment and material worlds in NCR. Material worlds are integral to understanding the dynamics of the Global North and South as they cross language barriers, disseminate knowledge sensorially, and constitute the foci of multi-national capitalist intervention in developing countries. This paper is part of a cross-class ethnography of the building construction industry in NCR.

Haṭhayoga’s Philosophy: A Fortuitous Union of Non-Dualities

In its classical formulation as found in Svātmārāma’s Haṭhapradīpikā, haṭhayoga is a Śaiva appropriation of an older extra-Vedic soteriological method. But this appropriation was not accompanied by an imposition of Śaiva philosophy. In general, the texts of haṭhayoga reveal, if not a disdain for, at least an insouciance towards metaphysics. Yoga is a soteriology that works regardless of the yogin’s philosophy. But the various texts that were used to compile the Haṭhapradīpikā (a table identifying these borrowings is given at the end of the article) were not composed in metaphysical vacua. Analysis of their allusions to doctrine shows that the texts from which Svātmārāma borrowed most were products of a Vedantic milieu—bearing testament to Vedānta’s newfound interest in yoga as a complement to jnāna—but that many others were Śaiva non-dual works. Because of the lack of importance given to the niceties of philosophy in haṭhayogic works, these two non-dualities were able to combine happily and thus the Śaiva tenets incorporated within haṭhayoga survived the demise of Śaivism as part of what was to become in the medieval period the dominant soteriological method in scholarly religious discourse in India.

Queer resolutions: 9/11 and Muslim masculinities in New York

This article examines how the Bollywood film New York interrupts some of the dominant gendered and sexualized fictions about 9/11 in US public discourse and by extension, in Indian cinematic and popular discourse about Muslims and citizenship. As several transnational feminist scholars have observed, the monstrously deviant Muslim terrorist, and the heterosexual drama of nationalist domesticity were two key tropes circulated in media discourse following 9/11. My reading explores how New York takes on both these tropes as it works to reintegrate Muslim male subjectivities into the national imaginary. In New York, these dominant 9/11 fictions are worked into the central heterosexual love triangle, which is cinematically consolidated in the shadows of the twin towers, and then swiftly undone by 9/11. I focus on this erotic triangle in order to examine how, why, and to what effect the film provides an unusually ‘queer’ resolution to the love triangle, going against the anticipated heterosexual resolution most conventional to the formula. Can this be read a resolution that resists the incitement to heteronormativity that followed 9/11?

Criminalizing Rape Within Marriage

The paper is an attempt to bring marital rape under the purview of legal discourse in India with substantive equality approach to problematize the existing defined structure of Indian Rape Law. This paper takes up the challenge to create a legal language on the issue of rape within marriage which is till now absent from the legal and social scenario. The equal treatment of women before and under the law within the context of marital rape is critical to ensuring the recognition of women as full citizens, and ensuring their freedom from violence. This paper examines the following questions: how marital rape contributes to and results from women‘s inequality; how the discriminatory roots of the historical- cultural rationales contributes to the exemption of marital rape from the Indian legal system; how the issue of marital rape has been debated in personal-political scenario from the feminist viewpoint; how equality jurisprudence can support the case for the legal treatment of marital rape claims. This paper questions the socio-legal passivity about the suppression of married women; cultivate the knowledge that helps women to generate their own thinking and to apply that in creating the new subjects, to make the women able to express their disagreements about the consent and to make them aware of their active sexuality to provide them bodily integrity. The paper is, thus, an attempt to emphasise the need to transform the prevailing masochistic heterosexual socio- legal matrix. The paper underlines the need to bring the issue of marital rape in the political sphere by bringing this to the purview of Indian law in both formal and substantive manner.

Religious personal laws as non-state laws: implications for gender justice

This article examines the concept of religious personal laws as used in Indian legal discourse. This concept is used to denote religious laws of various communities that are claimed to be upheld but not modified by the secular state and also to refer to the religion related rules followed by communities outside of state regulation. This existence of various ‘religious’ laws is increasingly being described as legal pluralism. The ambiguous status of religious personal laws serves to legitimize the continued denial by the state of gender equality to women in family law matters as it creates a space for rules or laws to operate that do not conform to the Constitutional requirements and yet are enforced by the state. When legal scholars deploy this concept un-reflexively they participate in the discourse formation about religious personal laws as exceptional laws or as (progressive) examples of legal pluralism. In this way they assist the state in using the concept as a mode of governance. In this article it is argued that the legal scholars need to accept responsibility for the significant power they wield as discourse formers and acknowledge the power of naming legal practices. They are the scholars who can and should deconstruct the concept of religious personal laws. This is necessary for a serious engagement with the issue of what kind of family law would be truly non-oppressive.

Unfree markets: Socially embedded informal health providers in northern Karnataka, India

The dynamics of informal health markets in marginalised regions are relevant to policy discourse in India, but are poorly understood. We examine how informal health markets operate from the viewpoint of informal providers (those without any government-recognised medical degrees, otherwise known as RMPs) by drawing upon data from a household survey in 2002, a provider census in 2004 and ongoing field observations from a research site in Koppal district, Karnataka, India. We find that despite their illegality, RMPs depend on government and private providers for their training and referral networks. Buffeted by unregulated market pressures, RMPs are driven to provide allopathic commodities regardless of need, but can also be circumspect in their practice. Though motivated by profit, their socially embedded practice at community level at times undermines their ability to ensure payment of fees for their services. In addition, RMPs feel that communities can threaten them via violence or malicious rumours, leading them to seek political favour and social protection from village elites and elected representatives. RMPs operate within negotiated quid pro quo bargains that lead to tenuous reciprocity or fragile trust between them and the communities in which they practise. In the context of this ‘unfree’ market, some RMPs reported being more embedded in health systems, more responsive to communities and more vulnerable to unregulated market pressures than others. Understanding the heterogeneity, nuanced motivations and the embedded social relations that mark informal providers in the health systems, markets and communities they work in, is critical for health system reforms.

Status of Health Care in West Bengal: Initiatives, Achievements and Critical Analysis

Health has been given the status of fundamental right and made a key issue in public policy discourse in India. However, the significant gap between policy goals and actual accomplishments has created hindrances for the state to do justice with its much cherished goal of “Health for All”. Inadequacies and inequities in accessing universal healthcare benumbs quality healthcare and results in significant lagging of health outcomes. However, the attempt of the state of West Bengal to embark on a health strategy along with NRHM is in fact a commendable step in providing universal health coverage to all particularly the vulnerable section. The present write up is aimed at articulating the actual health scenario in the state with the help of various health indicators and evaluate how far the state has been successful in achieving its health-related targets

India-Russia Ties and India's Strategic Culture: Dominance of a Realist Worldview

India-Russia is a unique bilateral relationship in the Indian foreign policy matrix that refuses to become amarginal one, and that was onlymarginally affected by the unprecedented structural changes ushered in by the end of the ColdWar in the early 1990s. This article examines the main factors that drove India-Russia ties over the last six decades and, situating the discussion in the broader context of the debate on India's strategic culture, argues that the realist strand of thinking in Indian strategic discourse best explains the evolution and sustenance of strong bilateral ties between the two states.