Hindu Households Research Articles

Womanhood as Imagined in Shivani’s Novels and Short Stories

Abstract Gaura Pant, popularly known as ‘Shivani’ or ‘Diddi’, was a prominent Hindi writer who contributed immensely to India’s rich literary landscape. Her works reflect nuanced exploration of gender and women’s identity within pre- and postcolonial India. Despite being brought up in a traditional Hindu household, her literary works still managed to traverse established boundaries, challenging patriarchal hierarchies and advocating for women’s empowerment. She published forty prominent literary works along with hundreds of newspaper columns and articles. Most of them are original works in Hindi. This paper unearths prominent themes and constructs within her various short stories, originally written in Hindi, and her well-known novel Bhairavi: The Runaway. While contextualizing her writings with reference to her own life, the paper concludes that Shivani’s works, in exploring the ordinary lives of women within a patriarchal society, are feminist in nature.

Tulsi's Ayurvedic Medical Importance

Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) is an omnipresent, multipurpose plant and regarded as holy plant in Hindu religion finds place in front of every Hindu household. This herb is a member of Lamiaceae family, well known for its spiritual, religious and medicinal importance in India. Scientific investigations of traditional belief of medicinal properties of Tulsi have got impetus mostly in the later part of the 20th century. Characteristically, the plant imparts a pungent, bitter, hot, light and dry effect indicating the presence of curative value. It is extensively famous and has been used since centuries in Ayurveda and Greek medicines owing to its beneficially diverse properties. For the treatment of bronchitis, illness, and pyrexia, tulsi leaf extracts are described in Indian medical literature. It is thought to be a widespread plant in India.

Variation of Chlorophyll Content Among the Different Tulsi Species Found in Nuapada District, Odisha

The Tulsi plant, also known as Holy Basil, is a sacred herb in Hinduism and is revered for its medicinal properties as well. It belongs to the Lamiaceae (mint) family and is native to the Indian subcontinent. Tulsi is widely cultivated and is found in many Hindu households where it is worshipped daily. In this work there was an attempt to made to find out chlorophyll content of different Tulsi species found in Nuapada district, Odisha. In this work we were compare chlorophyll pigment of 4 different species of tulsi of Nuapda such as Ocimum tenuiflorum (black tulshi), Ocimum sanctum (green tulshi), Ocimum basilcum (dohna) and Ocimum gratissuma (van tulshi). Among them maximum total chlorophyll content found in Ocimum tenuifflorum And list in Ocimum sanctum. The chlorophyll a found maximum in Ocimum basilcum. And minimum in Ocimum gratissuma.The chlorophyll b found maximum in Ocimum basilcum and minimum in Ocimum tenuiflorum. The total chlorophyll found Ocimum gratissum and minimum in Ocimum sanctum. Such type of work provides us data regarding distribution of chlorophyll in different species of a genera.

Welfare Benefits and Personal Connections in a Democracy: The Case of Muslims in West Bengal

We study the association between social connections of Muslim households and their access to welfare benefits distributed by local governments in rural West Bengal. Using household data from selected villages in West Bengal, we find that Muslim households with higher outdegree centrality are associated with 2 percentage points probability of receiving a higher fraction of benefits from the local government than Hindu households with similar networks. This association is positive and significant for the benefits under housing and toilets. However, for the allocation of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Hindu households with larger networks obtain more benefits. The results show that poorer Muslim households with a larger spread of network are associated with receiving more benefits.

‘WHOSE SITA? OURS OR THEIRS?’: CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSLATIONS OF THE ‘SITA MYTH’ IN NINA PALEY’S “SITA SINGS THE BLUES”

Sita, the heroine of Valmiki’s Ramayana, occupies a central position in the ancient Indian epic, but more importantly in Indian culture and every Hindu household. She is the ideal woman and the role model - the very personification of the ‘pativrata’ - that the patriarchal society expects all women to look up to. In this context, it is interesting to note the various alternate readings of Sita’s portrayal which have emerged in contemporary times from the numerous retellings of the Ramayana. One thing which is common in these texts is the central focus on Sita; the entire narrative revolves around her, her choices, her decisions, which lend her the much-required voice not found in Valmiki’s epic poem. This paper takes into account the ‘Sita story’ as we find in Nina Paley’s 2008 animated film, “Sita Sings the Blues” to explore if the perspective of the narrative changes due to the cross-cultural translations. The study involves an examination of the film particularly for three reasons - (i) to look at Paley’s work as ‘counter cinema’ or ‘counter-narrative’ keeping in mind the insider/outsider perspective; (ii) to read in between the lines in order to understand Paley’s experimental techniques and alternative forms in relation to the multiplicity of the Ramayana tradition; and (iii) to pay particular attention to the songs (the lyrics as well as the choreography) in order to explore if they contribute to the retelling of the Sita myth.

Good Wives: Love, Domestic Virtue, and the Austenian Heroine in Swarnakumari Debi’s An Unfinished Song

The article examines how Austenian influences filter through Swarnakumari Debi’s response to nineteenth century Bengali reformism through the heroine, Moni, in her novel An Unfinished Song. I argue that Moni is an Austenian bhadramahila heroine who combines colonial modernity, reformism, and traditional Hindu values, but the process is fraught with loneliness and contradiction for the heroine. Moni is upper caste, elite heroine and finds herself caught in the quagmire of feudal orthodoxy and colonial modernity, which she resolves through her choices in love. She seeks to be an ideal companion to her husband, but on the other hand, she also needs to be respectful of the traditions of the feudal Hindu household. Moreover, she is adamant to give expression to her own voice and thoughts. The novel captures the heroine’s predicament as she tries to navigate the transitional phase of moving from a feudal culture to colonial progress. Swarnakumari embraces the sweeping changes but shows the tensions inherent in these changes that her heroine must navigate.

He Has Gone to a Better Place, but She Has Not: Health Status of Hindu Widows in India

Using detailed individual and household-level data from the first two rounds of the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) conducted in 2004–05 and 2011–12, this paper estimates the health gap that exists between married and widowed women from Hindu households. We use the most commonly used anthropometric indicators of nutritional status in adults – body mass index and incidence of underweight – to estimate and decompose the gap in health outcomes that exists between these two groups of women. The overall results presented in this paper suggest that widows from Hindu households have significantly lower body mass index and higher incidence of underweight compared to their married counterparts and also experience high levels of discrimination. Access to various government welfare schemes and increased autonomy, however, is found to offset the detrimental health effects of widowhood to a large extent.

Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) – a myriad medicinal plant, secrets behind the innumerable benefits

Tulsi ( Ocimum sanctum ) is an omnipresent, multipurpose plant and regarded as holy plant in Hindu religion finds place in front of every Hindu household. This herb is a member of Lamiaceae family, well known for its spiritual, religious and medicinal importance in India. Scientific investigations of traditional belief of medicinal properties of Tulsi have got impetus mostly in the later part of the 20th century. Characteristically, the plant imparts a pungent, bitter, hot, light and dry effect indicating the presence of curative value. It is extensively famous and has been used since centuries in Ayurvedic and Greek medicines owing to its beneficially diverse properties. The scientific fact behind these benefits owe to the presence of phytochemicals in leaves like flavonoids, phenol, terpenoids, alkaloids, eugenol and others which impart ability to overcome the infection by the target cells. The ability can be antimicrobial, pharmacological, any therapeutic, nutritional value or even leveraging of certain levels of phytochemicals thus bringing about the cellular protection. This review is an attempt to present brief information available on the religious values, studies on physiological aspects, antimicrobial properties, pharmacological application, therapeutic uses, phytochemical analysis, animal nutrition supplement and biotechnological studies comprising molecular marker usage, genome sequencing, bioinformatics and nanotechnological studies in Tulsi.

Impact of religious participation, social interactions and globalization on meat consumption: Evidence from India

From both health and environmental policy perspectives, it is advisable to ensure that individuals maximize the nutritional gains from eating meat, without having a significantly adverse environmental impact, i.e. sustainable meat consumption pathways are imperative. This is especially true for developing countries, where rising incomes and growing populations have meant that meat consumption has also risen. India is an example of a country where a large share of the population has been vegetarian due to religious and cultural factors, although this has changed in recent times. In this paper, we mainly focus on Hindu households, who are the religious majority in India, and we hypothesize that social interactions and globalization could be two factors that explain this shift in consumption behavior for them. These hypotheses are based on the theoretical findings of Levy and Razin (2012). The empirical results show that membership in religious groups among Hindu households is likely to lead to a lower likelihood of them eating meat. On the other hand, membership in groups of a non-religious nature for Hindu households implies a greater likelihood of them eating meat. We also find that Hindu households that frequently use sources of media such as newspapers, the radio or television are more likely to consume meat compared to Hindus that do not. This paper provides important policy implications, both in terms of the formulation of Nationally Recommended Diets in developing countries, and in terms of identifying the channel of influence of both social networks and globalization on social and religious norms, consumption behavior, and ultimately, on climate change.

WASH practices and its association with nutritional status of adolescent girls in poverty pockets of eastern India

BackgroundWater, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) practices may affect the growth and nutritional status among adolescents. Therefore, this paper assesses WASH practices and its association with nutritional status among adolescent girls.MethodsAs a part of an intervention programme, this study is based on baseline cross-sectional data. It was conducted between May 2016–April 2017 in three Indian states (Bihar, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh). From a sample of 6352 adolescent girls, information on WASH practices, accessibility to health services and anthropometric measurements (height, weight and mid upper arm circumference (MUAC)) was collected. Descriptive statistics were used to examine WASH practices, and nutritional status among adolescent girls. Determinants of open defecation and menstrual hygiene were assessed using logistic regression. Association between WASH and nutritional status of adolescent girls was determined using linear regression.ResultsFindings showed 82% of the adolescent girls were practicing open defecation and 76% were not using sanitary napkins. Significant predictors of open defecation and non use of sanitary napkin during menstruation were non Hindu households, households with poorer wealth, non availability of water within household premise, non visit to Anganwadi Centre, and non attendance in Kishori group meetings. One-third of adolescent girls were stunted, 17% were thin and 20% had MUAC < 19 cm. Poor WASH practices like water facility outside the household premise, unimproved sanitation facility, non use of soap after defecation had significant association with poor nutritional status of adolescent girls.ConclusionsConcerted convergent actions focusing on the provision of clean water within the household premise, measures to stop open defecation, promotion of hand washing, accessibility of sanitary napkins, poverty alleviation and behavior change are needed. Health, nutrition and livelihood programmes must be interspersed, and adolescents must be encouraged to take part in these programmes.

PROPORSI ADAT BUDAYA DI BALI DAN PENGARUHNYA TERHADAP KESEJAHTERAAN MASYARAKAT LOKAL

A lot of the views of practitioners outside of Bali looked at the ceremony as one of the causes of poverty. It is seen from the portion of income that must be spent for various ceremonies to be performed by the Balinese Hindu community. This study aimed to answer the fundamental question, whether it is the customs and cultures led to affect Hindu community income in Bali? The data used is primary data from 350 Hindu households listed as poor households in Bali using depth interview survey method. Religion can play a role in overcoming poverty. Religion is not only a moral conscience that reminds the community will give generously to the poor but also to see the poor as human beings. The opinion says that the religious activities and custom made by Balinese Hindu communities causes increased poverty seems supported by the magnitude of the data portion of the expenditures for this activity. In Balinese Hindu communities, family income will be issued again and consumption expenditure shaped yajna. The analysis shows if traditional rituals and Balinese Hindu religious tend to have positive influence, good for people's income and the level of happiness. Therefore, it is not appropriate if the customs and religion are said to have made the Balinese Hindu community becomes poorer. This result also shows a shift in the understanding of religion in Balinese Hindu community. Religiosity someone then be interpreted by the implementation of the ritual in the form of upakara (yadnya) and the implementation of ethics in public life (susila).

Touch Thee Not: Group Conflict, Caste Power, and Untouchability in Rural India

We investigate the impact of community power on the practice of untouchability in rural India. We model two-dimensional simultaneous group conflict over social norms, wherein an upper and backward (OBC) caste Hindu bloc contests the 'scheduled' castes (SCs) over the extent to which behavioural norms within the village should legitimise untouchability, even as it seeks to impose Hindu values/rituals on non-Hindus. We find that any increase in the collective resource endowment (power) of this bloc will increase the likelihood of an upper caste or OBC Hindu household practising untouchability. An increase in that of SCs, or, more interestingly, of Muslims and Christians, will reduce it. Strikingly, a marginal redistribution of resources from OBCs to upper castes may reduce it as well. Identifying a community's power with a multiplicative combination of its population share and land share, we find support for these hypotheses in data from the India Human Development Survey 2011-12.

Impact of Religious Participation, Social Interactions and Globalisation on Meat Consumption: Evidence from India

From both health and environmental policy perspectives, it is advisable to ensure that individuals maximise the nutritional gains from eating meat, without having a significantly adverse environmental impact, i.e. sustainable meat consumption pathways are imperative. This is especially true for developing countries, where rising incomes and growing populations have meant that meat consumption has also risen. India is an example of a country where a large share of the population has been vegetarian due to religious and cultural factors, although this is rapidly changing. In this paper, we hypothesise that social interactions and globalisation are two factors that explain this shift in consumption behaviour, especially amongst Hindu households. These hypotheses are based on the theoretical findings of Levy and Razin (2012). The empirical results show that Hindus that are members of religious groups are less likely to eat meat than non-member Hindus, whereas Hindus that are members of non-religious types of groups are more likely to eat meat than non-members. We also find that Hindu households that frequently use sources of media such as newspapers, the radio or television are more likely to consume meat compared to Hindus that do not. This paper provides important policy implications, both in terms of the formulation of Nationally Recommended Diets in developing countries, and in terms of identifying the channel of influence of both social networks and globalisation on social and religious norms, consumption behaviour, and ultimately, on climate change.

Touch Thee Not: Group Conflict, Caste Power, and Untouchability in Rural India

We investigate the impact of community power on the practice of untouchability - the avoidance of physical contact – engaged in by upper and intermediate caste (OBC) Hindus vis-a-vis ‘scheduled’ castes (SCs) in rural India. Despite legal prohibition, the practice remains common, limiting access of SCs to public spaces and facilities as well as informal social and professional networks. Yet, the question of what determines its extent has received scant attention. We develop the novel argument that an upper caste or OBC household’s propensity to practise untouchability is determined not solely by its own characteristics but, crucially, also by the inter-group distribution of resources across both caste and religious divides, via the mediation of a process of political contestation. Our theoretical model predicts that any increase in the collective resource endowment (power) of SCs, or, more interestingly, that of Muslims and Christians, will reduce the likelihood of an upper caste or OBC Hindu household practising untouchability. Any decrease in the collective resource endowment of the combined upper caste and OBC bloc will have the same effect. A marginal redistribution of resources from OBCs to upper castes may reduce it as well. Identifying a community’s power with its population weighted land share, we find empirical associations consistent with these hypotheses in data from the India Human Development Survey 2011-12.

Bangladeshi and Inter-state Migrants: Differential Adaptation and Acceptance by the Locals in West Bengal, India

Naturalization of foreign nationals following the legal procedure is extremely difficult in India as it has complex constitutional prohibitions. Current study is based on a primary survey conducted on 653 Bengali speaking Hindu households migrated from Bangladesh mostly after 1980 and a control group of 130 non-Bengali-speaking households of internal migrants. India has experienced two phases of refugee flow coming from current country, Bangladesh, (1) in 1947, after India experienced partition of the country and acquired Independence and (2) in 1971, when East Pakistan was separated from west in order to create Bangladesh. The selected study time-period carefully avoided the political refugees and paid attention to study the slow infiltration. The study revealed that both the groups have equal access in entitlement and amenities provided by India. All the migrants from Bangladesh are undocumented migrants. Sympathy of the Bengalis of West Bengal allowed the dislocated Hindus from Bangladesh to settle by protecting them from deportation. Local Bengalis are socio-culturally more nearer to the Bangladeshis than any non-Bengali speaking internal migrants. This study based on interview of the households, informants’ interview and observations revealed that older generations’ heartfelt sympathy has politically crafted.

Гендерна культура в індуїзмі: традиціоналістський та модернізаційний аспекти

Статтю присвячено проблемі співвідношення між традиційними і модернізаційними вимірами в гендерній культурі індуїзму. Автором зроблено висновок про те, що жінки в класичних індуїстських текстах, таким чином, часто сприймаються як істоти нижчого порядку, іноді зведені до рівня шудр, незалежно від їх фактичної кастової приналежності. З іншого боку, образи жінок позиціоновані у вигляді різних богинь, які є, вочевидь, позитивними прототипами дхармічних жінок. Водночас традиційні гендерні ролі індуських жінок у домашньому господарстві в Індії, на думку дослідника, змінилися за останні п’ятдесят-сто років. Західні країни вплинули на ці зміни. Триваюче відновлення соціального статусу жінок призвело до значних змін, які стосувалися широкого спектра проблем: освіти, медико-санітарних заходів, сільських та промислових схем соціального забезпечення, проблем ранніх шлюбів, носіння паранджі, статусу вдів, виборчого права жінок, представництва жінок в органах влади. Соціально-статусне позиціювання жінок істотно поліпшилося завдяки буддизму. Жінки і чоловіки були рівними в етиці, яка була істотно пом’якшеною в аспекті розширення кількості прав жінок. У той час як патріархальне суспільство і патріархально-сексистська гендерна культура брахманізму залишалися незмінними, в буддійському суспільстві жінки набули більше свободи і розглядалися як незалежні, їм було дозволено ставати монахинями та бути релігійно- і соціально-активними особистостями.

The Impact of a National Early Childhood Development Program on Future Schooling Attainment: Evidence from ICDS in India

A central argument for early childhood nutrition is that it improves health, educational, and economic outcomes in later life. Our understanding of the long-term relationship between nutrition and educational attainment in low- and middle-income countries is based on a few small-scale trials that may lack validity in contexts such as India, because the underlying socioeconomic and demographic conditions are different. In this study, we evaluate the effect of India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a national program of supplementary nutrition and other health services for children and new mothers, on future educational attainment. Using data from a large national household survey, we determine exposure to the program based on the year ICDS centers were established in villages or city wards. We employ household fixed-effect regression models to find that 15- to 54-year-old men and 15- to 49-year-old women who were fully exposed to an ICDS center during the first three years of life complete on average up to 0.65 additional grades of schooling than those with no exposure. If we also consider partial exposure to ICDS, the effect of the treatment is 0.52 extra grades of schooling . For ICDS centers that are known to provide supplementary nutrition, individuals in the above age groups with full exposure during the first three years of life complete 1.08 additional grades of schooling (0.93 extra years if we also consider partial exposure). Effect size varies by population subgroups, with women and members of Hindu and female-headed households gaining 1.19, 1.17, and 1.16 extra grades of schooling , respectively.

Neighborhood Sanitation and Infant Mortality

In the developing world, there has been significant policy interest in recent years in ending open defecation -- that is, defecation in fields, behind homes, and near roads. This attention is in part motivated by a belief that the private demand for latrines and toilets is below the social optimum. We investigate the infant mortality externalities of poor sanitation by exploiting differences in the demand for latrines between Muslim and Hindu households in India: Indian Muslims, despite being poorer, are 25 percentage points more likely than Indian Hindus to use latrines or toilets. Instrumenting for local sanitation with the religious composition of neighborhoods, we show large infant mortality externalities of neighbors defecating in the open. Estimates of these neighbor effects are similar regardless of the household's own latrine use and own religion. Our findings are informative of the external harm generated by the roughly 1 billion people today who defecate in the open.

Caste, inequality, and poverty in India: a re-assessment

The aim of this paper is to examine the inequality and poverty issues of rural households in India from the perspective of a household’s monthly per capita consumption expenditure using data on nearly 20,000 households. In examining these issues, the paper first sets out a model of a poverty–inequality trade-off whereby governments could choose the poverty–inequality combination they most preferred. Then the paper proceeds to examine whether there is a ‘caste basis’ to inequality and poverty in India or whether distributional and deprivation outcomes are ‘caste blind’ and entirely determined by the attributes of the individual households. Our overarching conclusion is that households’ outcomes with respect to their position on the distributional ladder, or with respect to their chances of being poor, are dependent in large measure on their caste. So households from the Scheduled Castes were more likely to be in the lowest quintile of consumption, and were more likely to be poor, than high-caste Hindu households.

Impact of Industrialization on Relative Female Survival: Evidence from Trade Policies

This paper exploits an exogenous shift in the trade policy in India to study the impact of industrialization on son preference. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that households are more likely to have a male child in regions with higher trade openness relative to regions with lower trade openness. Moreover, higher trade openness seems to have affected only the Hindu households; there is no analogous effect on the Muslim households. We further analyze the underlying mechanisms through which industrialization might have affected relative survival of daughters. We find a significant increase in real dowry payments in regions experiencing greater trade openness. Most interestingly, dowry inflation is experienced by the Hindu households, but not by the Muslim households. The results are robust to falsification tests using cohorts born much before the liberalization period and are not driven by systematic migration into areas with greater trade openness.