Indian Situation Research Articles

Framing “Always Indigenize” beyond the Settler-Colony: “Indigenizing” in India

LEN FINDLAY'S ALWAYS INDIGENIZE IS AN INSPIRING CALL to Open up academy Canada to indigenous people and to indigenous scholarship. Findlay's critique of Canadian academy its tacit colonial practices is committed to local politics, and clearly stated title of essay, attends to vision and possibility of Radical Humanities Postcolonial Canadian University (italics mine). Although Findlay's essay carefully remembers that its politics are contingent on context n which they are taken up, maxim itself makes a broad generalising claim. Clearly, there is an element of universal nation of always indigenize. Findlay reminds us of Chandler's caveat that Jameson's historicize, on which Findlay models his indigenize is unclear and general and lends itself to be divergently interpreted by literary scholars, his proposition, nevertheless, imagines universal model (Findlay 308). This rhetoric of universalization becomes problematic, because Findlay's critique and anti-hegemonic strategies specifically speak to invader/settler-colonies. My interest here is to assess what call to indigenize means non-settler colonies, specifically India, where colonial matrix is different than a settler colony such Canada. I write specifically with more than 67.8 million (1991 census peoples of India mind, who form about 8% of Indian population, and largest population any single nation-state. (1) I am not a tribal myself, and I do not speak for tribal peoples India (a very large and heterogeneous group itself): what follows are my considerations a scholar of Indian writing and someone familiar with politics and particularities of Indian situation. It seems to me that Findlay's strategies, which are so enabling Canadian context, taken up its universalistic formulation, whatever else good they do, do not allow a liberating politics to tribal peoples India. And it also seems to me that if it were possible to translate it to an Indian context, politics of Findlay's essay would want to include fourth-world peoples, and not eclipse their cause. I am deepest political sympathy with Findlay's ideals, but because my concern lies a non-settler colony, I must tease out his strategy to from its unspoken and universalising settler-colony context. Findlay grounds his arguments on hypotheses that in (human) beginning was indigene and communities live as, or relation to, indigene (Findlay 308). In this context, he explains how he wants call to indigenize to be heard: as a strategically indeterminate provocation to thought and action on grounds that there is no hors-indigene, no geo-political and psychic setting, no real or imagined terra nullis free from satisfactions and unsettlements of Indigenous pre-occupation (309). Further, twin strategies of visibility and conspiracy, which he explores Section II of his essay, work very well when indigenous is a racial minority, visibly identifiable or otherwise. Moreover, discussion last section of a more inclusive English department, committed equally to Englishes and Others, becomes possible Canada because English is majority-spoken language. In spite of its colonial and hegemonic beginnings, Findlay can hope that English can become a source of good instrumentality which will allow new alliances between English literary and Indigenous Studies (322,308). The historio-geography Findlay describes all these assumptions suggests that that kind of colonisation he has mind, and hence his strategies of indigenization, attend to power structures settler-colonies. It is not possible, however, to generalise these parameters to a non-settler colony. In sharp contrast to situation settler colonies such Canada, non-settler colonies entire colonised population were, and relationally still are, the native opposed to outsider colonisers. …

On strategies for effective implementation of rural development policies in Nigeria: the ‘integrative/ co-operative' model to the rescue

Policy implementation is about the most critical dimension in the policy process given the fact that success or failure of any given policy is, to a high degree, a function of implementation. The need for effective implementation strategy (ies) is emphasized in this paper. The need, the paper argues, is an urgent one and more acute for the rural areas where the quality of life remain abysmally poor due largely to long period of neglect and unrewarding implementation of most policies directed at addressing the problem of rural underdevelopment in Nigeria. Analysis of dominant conceptual models (Grindle's, Iglesias' and Smith's) and strategies for implementing rural development policies, namely, the ‘government-led' and the ‘community-led' show gross inadequacies arising from their basic nature. The noted inadequacies compelled a search for appropriate alternative. The outcome of the search is the ‘Integrative / Co-operative' strategy proposed in the paper. The hope is that, regardless of whatever shortcoming that may be associated with it, the ‘Integrative / Co-operative' strategy holds the greater promise in our drive towards a more effective implementation of rural development policies in Nigeria. We in the Planning commission and others concerned have grown more expert in planning. But the real question is not planning. But the real question is not planning but implementing the Plan. That is the real question before the country. I fear we are not quite as expert implementation as at planning. Nehru, on Indian situation Keywords: Effective Policy Implementation, Strategy/Model, Integrative/ Co-operative. (Global Journal of Social Sciences: 2003 2 (1): 1-14)

Reproducibility and Validity of the Food Frequency Questionnaire Methodology in an Urban Middle Income Group Community of Delhi, India

The food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) method is utilized as a tool in epidemiological studies in which evidence is sought for an association of diet in etiology of a disease. Limited studies have been undertaken to assess the reproducibility of the FFQ methodology in Indian situation. The present study was conducted in an urban middle-income population of Delhi, India. The data on pattern of consumption of food items in standard food groups was collected from 169 subjects, utilizing a pre-tested semi-structured FFQ (Phase I). The consumption pattern of food items in the major food groups was also assessed prospectively for 7 days by the 24-hr dietary recall methodology in each subject. The data was collected again utilizing the similar methodology and tools from the same study subjects after 12 months (Phase II). Reproducibility and validity of the FFQ was assessed by calculating percent agreement between data of Phase I and Phase II utilizing statistical tests. Results revealed that there was a perfect agreement (100% agreement) for the food group i) cereals, ii) fats and oils, and iii) sugar and jaggery. A very good agreement (75-100%) for the food groups i) pulses, ii) green leafy vegetables, iii) fruits, iv) milk products, v) eggs, and vi) flesh foods. Only a good agreement (50 - 75%) was found for the food groups i) roots and tubers, ii) other vegetables, and iii) milk. None of the food groups had fair or poor agreement between the Phase I and Phase II.

Intervention strategies for improving iron status of young children and adolescents in India.

Despite advances in scientific knowledge regarding multiple etiology, treatment, and potential strategies for combating iron deficiency and deficiencies of other micronutrients, iron deficiency anemia, vitamin A deficiency, and iodine deficiency remain significant public health challenges for growing children and adolescents. The short-term efficient supplementation approach, although technically feasible, has not been successful due to problems with delivery and compliance. Evidence is building that preventive supplementation coupled with nutrition education may be a more effective strategy associated with better compliance and improvement in iron status. Long-term, effective approaches include fortification, dietary modification, public health and disease control measures, and income generation programs. Food fortification can be a cost-effective intervention strategy if technologically feasible, nutritionally sound, culturally acceptable and economically viable food vehicle(s) and fortificant(s) can be identifed. Foods such as wheat, rice, and salt are commonly consumed in India; research is underway to evaluate various fortificants for these foods. Doubly fortified salt with iodine and iron may be particularly promising in the Indian situation as it is affordable, culturally acceptable, and may enhance iron absorption from Indian dietaries containing inhibitors of iron absorption. Feasibility studies are underway to evalute the stability and storage issues as well as bioavailability of fortificant iron. Dietary modification involves increased iron intake, by increasing total food intake and consumption of locally available iron-rich foods, and dietary practices favoring iron absorption. Blood loss associated with worm infestation can be controlled by periodic deworming and reducing reinfestation. Coordinating these major intervention approaches by building partnerships between the community, existing nutrition and health programs, government, industry, and academic institutions is critical for success of these programs. Nutrition education must be integral to all of these strategies discusssed. Primary health care system and school infrastructure and staff, along with school children and community members, can be powerful resources for addressing malnutrition in children and adolescents.

"native to the question": William Apess, Black Hawk, and the Sentimental Context of Early Native American Autobiography

A review of William Apess's 1831 revised edition of A Son of the Forestin the American Monthly Reviewexpresses frustration over an "error" Apess commits in describing his ancestry. Apess, a Pequot Indian, claims his grandmother was the granddaughter of King Philip, the (in)famous Wampanoag leader, and in doing so he misidentifies Philip as a Pequot. 1 The reviewer concludes by voicing a concern that Apess's future attempts to write Native American history will be inaccurate: If Mr.Apes[s] should undertake the work he proposes, we recommend to him great diligence, discrimination, and accuracy, otherwise he will suffer imposition, and unawares impose upon others. He must enlarge the boundaries of his knowledge of Indian history, and not allow himself to be carried away by every slight and imperfect tradition. 2 Through the word "tradition," a term associated at this time with the oral transmission of facts, beliefs, or social codes, the reviewer strongly implies that Apess's attempt to write his personal and tribal history is tainted by Indian sources. 3 Indeed, earlier in the text he dismisses Apess's genealogical claims with the offhand comment, "It does not appear that there is any authority for this statement, other than the tradition of the natives themselves." The reviewer assumes, as did ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and others in this period, that Native Americans' historical narratives are exclusively oral and innately variable, thus "sound[ing], to ears of sober truth, like attempts at weaving a rope of sand." 4 Such unstable stories lie outside the realm of discriminating and accurate historiographic pursuits; the Indian's knowledge (even this literate Indian's knowledge) is circumscribed by the culture of his race. In the vision of this reviewer, Native American traditions have a volatile and dangerous presence in the writing of history, and unless the writer, or in this case the reviewer, supply the reader with proper historical sources treated with proper historical rigor, all will "suffer imposition." [End Page 246] After this, and after two pages of discounting and correcting Apess's "native tradition," the review ends with the suggestion that, should Apess succeed in "enlarg[ing] the boundaries of his knowledge of Indian history," his Indian-ness may still benefit his writing: "In this way we trust, from the other advantages of his situation, being native to the question,he will make an authentic and valuable book." 5 Through this italicized pun, the reviewer underscores what his presumed audience defines as and values in an "authentic" book: personal investment and expression. To be native to a question is to be personally involved and implicated in an issue, and to be Native in the age of the Indian Question is to be socially and politically restricted due to racial and cultural identity—and therefore to have an unavoidably subjective opinion regarding Native American rights. Ultimately the review calls on Apess to unite an historian's disinterested, rigorous, text-bound research with the personal testimony of an orphaned son of the forest who decries the continuing dispossession of his fellow Indians, to produce a text revealing at once the Indian's authentic feelings and the white man's valuable facts about the Indian situation. For this reason, the reviewer deems Apess's Indian qualities—otherwise detrimental for the historian and citizen of Jacksonian America—"the other advantages of his situation." This rich, suggestive review of A Son of the Forestprovides entrée for a reconsideration of the emergence and cultural work of the Native American autobiography in the antebellum period. Nina Baym's description of the prescriptive work of the mid-nineteenth-century fiction review holds here; this review provides us insight into both a public taste for the authentic Native American narrative and for the perceived dangers of such texts. 6 The attraction of Apess's autobiography lies...

Control of the coconut pest Oryctes rhinoceros L. using the Oryctes virus

The coconut palm is an important plantation crop in India, where it is cultivated on 1.796 million hectares. The rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros L. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is a serious pest of coconut throughout India and southeast Asia, causing an estimated 10% yield loss in the crop. Successful biological control of this pest could be achieved using the non-occluded Oryctes virus (syn. Baculovirus oryctes or Oryctes baculovirus). This review provides an account of this microbial agent, its biology, effects and impact, production and maintenance and alternative hosts, particularly in the context of the Indian situation. It also proposes future areas for investigation on the virus, in order to achieve its commercial viability and more widespread use.

Protecting Children in Cyberspace

The Internet is a wonderful place for education, entertainment and information. People all over the world wherever the infrastructure is available, have recognized the interactive nature of this new medium, and the immense potential it holds with the speed and global reach it offers. Therefore, it is increasingly being used for e mailing, for chatting, and as a ‘virtual encyclopaedia’.Just as there are potholes and rough roads on real highways, there are dangers and risks on this virtual one as well, and it is very important that people are aware of this fact. Very few netizens follow the required netiquette and very few people really take into account the fact that there is a great dearth of privacy on this medium.An adult could perhaps deal with all the repercussions that might result due to such interactions. But, what about children who lack experience and maturity? It is important to realize that the risks of letting a child (although skilled navigators) alone on the information superhighway without proper guidance and monitoring is like leaving a child alone on the real highway with interesting and attractive byways. Many millions of children are now online and by 2002, this figure is estimated to increase greatly, and if adequate care is not taken to foresee the sort of dangers that could take place in cyberspace, it would be almost impossible to undo the harm at a later stage. This paper seeks to deal with some of the issues and responses in dealing with protecting children in cyberspace and well as some of the organizations created for this purpose. The Indian situation is then looked at.

Mary Carpenter and India: Enlightened liberalism or condescending imperialism?1

The English social and educational reformer, Mary Carpenter, became involved in the imperialist venture in India in the 1860s and 1870s. Imbued with liberal, anti‐racist attitudes, she was drawn to India particularly because of gender interests. Inspired by and working with Indian reformers, she was apparently welcomed on her four visits to India where her own ideas on women's rights were further developed. In England she eagerly publicised her experiences and strove, with some success, to achieve her interpretation of what Indian reformers desired. How far Mary Carpenter actually could understand the Indian situation, how far her liberalism in fact was touched by cultural imperialism and class attitudes — her own ethnicity as an Englishwoman — indeed, are examined here. It will be seen that to understand fully racial and imperial attitudes of late nineteenth century England it is crucial to interrelate gendered notions with them. 1 A separate paper, originally based on this and given at the History of Education conference in Dec. 1999 in Winchester, but written up with a different emphasis, published entitled “Breaking the boundaries of Victorian imperialism or extending a reformed “paternalism“? Mary Carpenter and India” in History of Education 29 : 5, pp. 443–456.

R-matrix analysis and patterns of gene flow in India.

An appraisal on the usefulness of R-matrix analysis and the model of Harpending and Ward (1982) to study the population structure of Indian populations is made in the light of prevalent marriage patterns, caste structure, and cultural specificity of the region. With the help of available data on the migration histories and geographical backgrounds of marine fishermen on the east coast of India, and through the historical analysis of marriage patterns, it is demonstrated that the routine inferences based on the regression plots of average heterozygosity versus genetic distance from the centroid may not generally be apt for the Indian situation. Increased heterozygosity among migrant fishermen seems to have resulted from mating patterns within this community rather than from external gene flow. In either case, the genetic implications are supposedly identical. Nevertheless, when making inferences regarding local population structure it is important to have detailed knowledge of mating patterns and the cultural context of the region under study.

Health Care Services in the New Millenium

Papers presented at the Conference of the Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) held in XLRI, Jamshedpur. These papers point out the extraordinary advances achieved by modern medicine and also the enormous costs involved. Looking at the Indian situation, they seek for means to satisfy the needs of a majority of the people, while providing reasonably good health care to all.

Indian English: Texts and Interpretation

Indian English, or rather, the forms of English used in India, have long been a topic of interest for laymen and scholars. For generations, the ‘exotic’ nature of the transplanted language was commented on, often ridiculed as a matter of unintentional comic. It was only from the 1960s onwards that the local forms of English were recognized for what they are — adaptations of the world language to local needs, and varying to an enormous degree, depending on the speakers’ (and writers’) education and the uses they make of the language. This acknowledgement came mainly from abroad (and still does); Indians are much less willing to admit to the variation and its communicative functions in the country. Therefore, standard English (if possible in its classical British form) is generally favoured, together with formal written uses often based on the stylistic models provided by English literature from Shakespeare to Dickens. R.R. Mehrotra was one of the first to see the need for a proper sociolinguistic description of the Indian situation, and the forms and functions of English in this complex set-up. He has for a long time collected and analysed the huge range of English around him, with the aim of publishing a collection of texts that reflects the variation within the country along various dimensions, historical, regional, ethnic, social and stylistic. The present collection of texts is typical in many ways, evoking in the content, style and grammatical forms the contexts in which English functions; notes help to put the excerpts into the proper frame to make them intelligible to outsiders.

Food safety challenges in developing countries: the Indian situation

Food safety challenges in developing countries: the Indian situation

The role of caste in prostitution

The caste system prevalent in Indian society has never been studied with respect to its role in prostitution. This critical and analytical study of the role of caste in prostitution in India is the result of over thirty years of observation both within the institution of prostitution, that is, in its ‘internal’ relationships; and outside the institution in the ‘external’ relationships which create violence in the lives of prostitutes in India. The caste system which plays a major role in the life of Indians has a role in prostitution yet this issue remains unexplored by scholars. Even when focusing on Scheduled Caste women, amongst whom most prostitutes number, the issue treated has been mainly that of economics, rather than those of culture and violence in their lives. The scope of study is restricted to women and girls alone, in keeping with the focus of the services of the Good Shepherd sisters (of whom the author is one) throughout the world. Under the prevailing caste system people are stratified into groups and the relationships among them is specified. The Scheduled Caste is one of the groups that exist outside the caste system in India and it numbers 138.2 million (Census India 1991). This study is based on three pairs of dichotomous concepts: the ‘Upper Castes’(the ‘pure’) and the Scheduled Castes (the ‘impure’); the males (the ‘supreme’ gender) and the females (the ‘inferior’ gender); male sexuality contextualized as the ‘human sexuality’ and female sexuality conceptualized as ‘good’ and ‘evil’ with dual perception. It indicates how persons are casteized, genderized and sexualized in the Indian society. It highlights parallels between the Upper Castes’ domination (concentration and exercise of power) over the Scheduled Castes (or the ‘Untouchables’) and between the lower position held by the Scheduled Castes and their experience of violence in Indian society. The data of my study consists of that gathered by interviewing prostitutes in specific surveys (three studies from 1983-90) and also from my practical experience of working with women and girls in prostitution for two decades (1962-82). The analysis of prostitution is set against the accepted wisdom which perceive the entry of all women and girls into prostitution for economic reasons, and against the Indian situation in which the country still faces the problems of dehumanized Scheduled Castes and grinding poverty. To see prostitution as a consequence of economic necessity, though accepted in many societies, remains controversial in the context of Indian society. In some societies prostitution is a form of labour and the economic cause is argued on the basis of financial autonomy, self-determination and occupation of choice for women. This study takes the stance that economic arguments alone are not universally acceptable and are generally not appropriate to the whole range of the entry of Scheduled Caste women and girls in prostitution in India. My study attempts to fill the gap left by previous studies by using my experience and an evaluation of a sample of women and girls in prostitution from various cultural backgrounds to illustrate the effectiveness of culture and violence in the lives of Indian prostitutes. The caste structure not only stratifies the Indian society, but also defines status, relationships and sexuality. This has major implications for the issues of power and violence between groups as they relate to one another. There exists a web of relationships between culture-violence-power that uses culture to mask violence; the 'internal'-'external' relationships which involve controlling and rejecting assimilation of prostitutes in the mainstream of life in society creating violence; the bond of friendship between the Upper Caste/Class men and women in the prostitute world which leads to exploitation of the Scheduled Caste women and girls; the exploitation of women by women for their survival; the role of caste and the dynamics of culture that contribute to the perpetuation of prostitution in India. The upper caste/class clients forming the first clients and patrons to exploit the girls, the caste/class nexus characterized by accumulation of power, and domination and subordination, and the strategy adopted for the diffusion of the Scheduled Caste violence (i.e. retaliation of the Scheduled Castes for exploiting their women and girls by the Upper Castes) which makes the Scheduled Caste girl into a ‘sacrificial victim’ in Indian society. These form the major findings of this study.

M. L. Dantwala, Harsh Sethi and Pravin Visaria. Social Change through Voluntary Action. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. Hardback. Indian Rs 325.00. 199 pages.

This book is an• extremely valuable addition to a very important topic concerning development issues at the grassroots levels. It has highlighted the contribution of voluntary organisations and proved that voluntary action can• be a potent instrument for bringing about social change, for eliminating poverty and for building an egalitarian and humane society. In the introduction, the editors remind the readers of the unfulfilled promises made before, and after independence, by leaders to banish poverty and inequality. Five of the eleven chapters in this book take a macro view of the context, the nature as well as the future of voluntary action in India: These articles describe the current state of affairs, the degeneration of the values of sacrifices and an unending quest for money and political power. So, it is argued, that basic values in public behaviour can be restored through vigilant and purposive voluntary action. But a major criticism of voluntary groups is their localism, small size, fragmentation and the failure to institutionalise them. The editors are of the view that thousands of such groups can collectively contribute to social transformation through their modest efforts at organising help for the needy, redress their• grievances and fight against atrocities inflicted on them. The articles evaluate the contextual factors influencing the emergence of voluntary organisations and their applicability to the Indian situation.

Impact of Industry Type and Firm Characteristics on Firm-level Financial Performance— Evidence from Indian Industry

Though the importance of considering industry type as a major determinant of firm level performance is well recognised, there is a dearth of evidence relating to the Indian situation. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. The analysis pertains to the decade of the 1980s and covers 171 firms in twenty-one industry groups. The authors have developed two composite measures that reflect the growth and profitability dimensions. The results indicate that both industry effects and firm characteristics have significant influence on the above two dimensions.

Cross-Cultural Testing of Intelligence

Insight is sought into the usefulness and comparability of an intelligence test for schoolchildren living in India and in the Netherlands. A Dutch test, the Revisie Amsterdamse Kinder Intelligentie Test (RAKIT), was adapted to the Indian situation (Indian Child Intelligence Test [ICIT]). Using the ICIT and the RAKIT, 612 Indian children and 1,007 Dutch children were tested, respectively. The average test scores for the ICIT group were lower in a number of subtests; however, coefficients of internal consistency and stability for the ICIT and RAKIT were satisfactory, varying from 0.84 to 0.94. Results of a factor analysis showed that both test batteries have a clear psychometric equivalence, making comparable test interpretations possible. Predictive validities for ICIT and RAKIT were high (0.56 and 0.48, respectively), with reading ability as a criterion.

Issues in resource conservation and sustainable development: Indian situation

Higher economic growth is necessary to reduce the level of poverty and improve the living standard of population. But higher economic growth requires greater use of natural resources and environment which in turn leads to their degradation and eventual decay. Increased population pressure on natural resources also contributes to their degradation. Hence, higher growth may not necessarily lead to sustainable development unless it is accompanied by environmental protection. An efficient demand management policy by emphasizing conservation and prudent use of environment can also increase the supply of reserves. One alternative is to attempt to conserve resources via community management of such resources. But community management cannot succeed in absence of appropriate property rights of the community and of women and appropriate institutions to enforce such rights. These in turn require the presence of an activist developmental state which can engage in a participatory system of environmental conservation and management.

Language planning and development in India*

Planning and development of the languages of such a multilingual and pluricultural country as India is being done in different ways following different methods. The field has also posed many challenges. However, the Status and the Corpus Planning of the languages with the genetic as well as functional classifications done by the Government of India brought very rational as well as useful results to the Indian situation from a quantitative point of view.

Religious conflict, popular culture and the troubled spectators of recent Indian film

While detailed studies have been devoted to the visual cultures of the Western world, comparatively little attention has been paid to the circulation and popular consumption of images in India. It would be a mistake simply to adapt Western theories of film spectatorship to the Indian situation, for these fail to account adequately for the heterogeneity of film audiences or the modes of address film‐makers adopt to appeal to specialised constituencies of viewers. The problems of defining Indian spectatorship have been brought into sharp focus by the rapid spread of ‘reality television’ following the broadcasting of the fratricidal communal conflicts of 1992–1993. Film‐makers, whether they sought a mass audience within India, packaged Indian social realities for Western viewers or appealed to the leftist sympathies of an educated elite, began to turn to the traumas of recent history for their subject matter. The kinds of films they have made illustrate the diversity of Indian spectatorship as well as the continuing vitality of the cinema as a medium of cultural exchange and social transformation.

How do men with schizophrenia fare at work? A follow-up study from India

Occupational activity, an indicator of the functional status of an individual, is a major component in the long-term management of schizophrenia. The work functioning of 40 first-episode male schizophrenic patients was assessed prospectively every year over a period of 10 years. The comprehensive evaluation of occupational outcome measured in terms of duration of employment, quality of work done, and level of earned income was good in 53% of the patients, comparable to figures from developed countries. This outcome was not related to many of the sociodemographic and clinical variables but was strongly associated with overall clinical, social and marital outcome. The educational and economic status of the study group, the type of work available to them, and the compelling need for men to be the wage-earners in the Indian situation are discussed as influencing the findings of the study.