Indian Tamil Research Articles

The mitochondrial genomes of two Pre-historic Hunter Gatherers in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean connected by the sea routes of the Western and Eastern worlds. Although settlements of anatomically modern humans date back to 48,000 years, to date there is no genetic information on pre-historic individuals in Sri Lanka. We report here the first complete mitochondrial sequences for Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from two cave sites. The mitochondrial haplogroups of pre-historic individuals were M18a and M35a. Pre-historic mitochondrial lineage M18a was found at a low prevalence among Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, and Sri Lankan Indian Tamil in the Sri Lankan population, whereas M35a lineage was observed across all Sri Lankan populations with a comparatively higher frequency among the Sinhalese. Both haplogroups are Indian derived and observed in the South Asian region and rarely outside the region.

Dynamics of cooperative networks associated with gender among South Indian Tamils.

Helping behaviour is thought to play a major role in the evolution of group-living animals. Yet, it is unclear to what extent human males and human females use the same strategies to secure support. Accordingly, we investigate help-seeking over a 5-year period in relation to gender using data from virtually all adults in two Tamil villages (N = 782). Simulations of network dynamics (i.e. stochastic actor-oriented models) calibrated to these data broadly indicate that women are more inclined than men to create and maintain supportive bonds via multiple mechanisms of cooperation (e.g. reciprocity, kin bias, friend bias, generalized exchange). However, gender-related differences in the simulated dynamics of help-seeking are modest, vary based on structural position (e.g. out-degree), and do not appear to translate to divergence in the observed structure of respondents' egocentric networks. Findings ultimately suggest that men and women in the two villages are similarly social but channel their sociality differently. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

Spatial Distribution Patterns for Identifying Risk Areas Associated with False Smut Disease of Rice in Southern India

False smut disease (FSD) of rice incited by Ustilaginoidea virens is an emerging threat to paddy cultivation worldwide. We investigated the spatial distribution of FSD in different paddy ecosystems of South Indian states, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, by considering the exploratory data from 111 sampling sites. Point pattern and surface interpolation analyses were carried out to identify the spatial patterns of FSD across the studied areas. The spatial clusters of FSD were confirmed by employing spatial autocorrelation and Ripley’s K function. Further, ordinary kriging (OK), indicator kriging (IK), and inverse distance weighting (IDW) were used to create spatial maps by predicting the values at unvisited locations. The agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis using the average linkage method identified four main clusters of FSD. From the Local Moran’s I statistic, most of the areas of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were clustered together (at I > 0), except the coastal and interior districts of Karnataka (at I < 0). Spatial patterns of FSD severity were determined by semi-variogram experimental models, and the spherical model was the best fit. Results from the interpolation technique, the potential FSD hot spots/risk areas were majorly identified in Tamil Nadu and a few traditional rice-growing ecosystems of Northern Karnataka. This is the first intensive study that attempted to understand the spatial patterns of FSD using geostatistical approaches in India. The findings from this study would help in setting up ecosystem-specific management strategies to reduce the spread of FSD in India.

Siddha management of alcohol withdrawal syndrome.

Addictive use of Alcohol has been a considerable health problem, not only having impact on individual and families, but creates a lasting social burden on the society. One third of the Indian population is using alcohol in an unhealthy manner, the complications are wide and varied among which, the Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is the dominant factor. AWS is a set of symptoms that can occur when a heavy drinker suddenly stops or significantly reduces their alcohol intake. The presentation varies from mild sleep loss or anxiety to the life threatening situation like delirium (confusion). The excessive intake of unwholesome alcohol leads to Mathathiyam (Kudiveri Noi in the Siddha - Indian Tamil language) and it degrades knowledge and health according to Siddha medicine and practise. Manifestation occur as per the aggravated/ vitiated three biological forces (Vali, Azhal, Iyyam - Indian Tamil language) leads to cause impair the quality or efficiency of life, and which may even leads to death. Hence, there is a need for AWS management at an early stage. The aim is to minimize the withdrawal symptoms which prevents complications and reduces the intense use for alcohol using the siddha system of medicines. The efficacy of Inji rasayanam (Rejuvenator), Brahmi nei (Medicated ghee), and Ammukkara chooranam (Medicated powder) for AWS is well known. Therefore, it is of interest to describe the case of a 35 years old male patient presented with AWS and treated with Siddha drugs for 48 days. The condition was assessed before and after treatment using the clinical institute withdrawal assessment for alcohol scale revised (CIWA-Ar). Data shows effective management of AWS using the Siddha medicines.

Indian Tamils of Srilanka and Unchanging Language Identities

Indian Tamils of Srilanka and Unchanging Language Identities

Indian Tamils of Srilanka and Unchanging Language Identities

The Indian Tamils settled down in the South Central Province of Mountains nearly 200 years ago. It is officially reckoned that the Indian Tamils are about 5% of the entire population of Sri Lanka. There is a strong background behind the settlement of the ancestors of millions of Indian Tamils who live widespread in the Uphills of Sri Lanka. Most of the Indian Provinces were severely affected by the Famine in the 19th century; Madras Presidency was one among them. In order that death due to famine may be controlled, the British Indian Administration decided to send away the Tamils to the Colonial Nations that were under the British rule.

Life Problems of Tamils of Highlands in the Fictions of Maatthalai Somu

Immigrant Tamil literature has an important place in Highland literature. Highland Tamil literature can be considered a part of immigrant literature. It is a rich literary field with many literary genres like folk literature, poetry, short stories, novels, dramas, and essays. Highland writers have contributed to and enriched the field of literature. Their field of literature is expanding beyond the Sri Lankan highlands to include Tamil Nadu, European countries, and other countries in the world. In this way, Maatthalai Somu is an international Tamil writer who records Sri Lanka (Highland), India (Tamil Nadu), Australia and the lives of Tamils living in them. Highland literature is two hundred years old. European countries that conquered large parts of the world to accumulate capital, exploited the resources of their colonies and the labour of indigenous peoples. In this way, the British, who took control of Sri Lanka in 1815, ended the Kandy monarchy. In 1820, coffee plantations were started. After that, they also cultivated cash crops like sugarcane, tea, and rubber. The South Indian Tamils migrated and settled in the highlands for the manpower to work on these large plantations. These Tamils are called Highland Tamils. Famine and oppression in India in the nineteenth century also caused Tamils to immigrate to Sri Lanka. The hard labour of Tamils was used in creating and cultivating these plantations. The history and life problems of such highland Tamils have been recorded by the highland Tamil writer Maatthalai Somu in his fiction.

A review

Psoralea corylifolia is an important medicinal plant that's used in numerous traditional drugs to therapy numerous sicknesses. Psoralea corylifolia (Babchi) is beneficial a part of Indian Ayurveda, Tamil Siddha and Chinese language systems of medicine. The plant possesses antibacterial, anti-depressant, antitumor, antioxidant, antifungal and immunomodulatory pastime. Babchi seeds incorporate an important oil (zero.05%), a nonvolatile trepenoid oil, a darkish brown resin (eight.6%), a pigment (hydroxyflavone), a monotrepnoid phenol (bakuchiol), a brown constant oil (10%), raffinose, coumarin compounds, albumin, sugar, ash 7.5 % and a trace of manganese, Psoralen and isopsoralen are therapeutically energetic materials. they're specially used for the remedy of Bars (Leucoderma), Daussadaf (Psoriasis), Juzam (Leprosy), Bahaq (Pityriasis), faucet-e-Balghamiya (Phlegmatic Fever) and Deedan-e-Am’aa (Intestinal worms).

Assessing the implementation of India's new health reform program, Ayushman Bharat, in two Southern states: Kerala and Tamil Nadu

AbstractIndia's health indicators are negatively impacted by the high percentage of out‐of‐pocket expenditures, which leaves many unable to access health care or impoverishes them. To improve this situation, the Indian government in 2018, as part of health a reform program called Ayushman Bharat Initiative (AB), started the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) as a scheme to provide financial access to secondary and tertiary healthcare services for people living in poverty. The AB‐PMJAY is a publicly‐funded insurance program that provides over $6,000 per indigent family per year for in‐patient hospital care. We compare the rollout of the program in two Indian States, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have relatively better health indicators compared with other Indian States. Questionnaires were developed for the two states based on the separate programs they had ongoing before AB‐PMJAY was introduced and the differing implementation strategy they undertook. We interviewed 21 health workers (10 from Kerala and 11 from Tamil Nadu), at the frontline of implementation and analyzed the narrative of the answers given for related themes. We found that low reimbursement rates may limit the number of private hospitals participating in the program, and that the classification criteria for eligibility may need to be updated. We also found that differing political alignment between the central government and subregional governments may affect how well the program is implemented. Overall, interview subjects felt that the program would lead to better health care access for the poor if well implemented and sustained.

IMPERCEPTIBLE EMOTIONS – A PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF VIRUMAANDI (2004)

The field of psychology is frequently promoted in films. There are numerous and diverse intersections between psychology and film. Films are often influenced by psychological philosophies. The article focuses on the psychological perspective of the Indian Tamil Movie Virumaandi (2004). The aim of the article is to find out the psychological aspects of the characters portrayed in the movie and how it serves to be the reason for the conflicts that arises in the plot. It showcases how psychological condition affects the emotional stability of the characters and audience, relationships among people and behaviors by identifying the issues dealt with in the movie.

Hard Pill to Swallow: Socio-economic Factors behind Non communicable Diseases of Employed Persons in Sri Lanka

Non-communicable diseases shorten the life expectancy and pave the way for an increase in the mortality and state of disabilities in humans while it has become a global challenge, with the present epidemic transition. Most of the lower and middle-income countries, including Sri Lanka, are currently giving priority to this issue in their respective health policies. The main objective of this research was to study socio-economic factors that affect the prevalence of non-communicable diseases among employed persons in general, with a special focus on two selected diseases. Micro-level secondary data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of Sri Lanka 2016 was used for this study. The Logit regression models were used for data analysis with the dependent variables for the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, having diabetes, and blood pressure. The study has found that factors of age, being female, and being Indian Tamil persons, positively affected the occurrence of non-communicable diseases; while factors like living in the rural and estate sector, age square, being clerical workers, elementary workers, and agriculture workers affected it negatively. Profession-specific policies are further suggested to minimize the negative implications of non-communicable diseases in Sri Lanka.

Processing Fluency and Inferred Motive: L1 English Users’ Evaluations of Non-Standard Accented Speech

Guided by communication accommodation theory and the fluency principle of language attitudes, this experimental study examined the serial mediation effects of processing fluency and inferred motives on language attitudes toward standard- and non-standard-accented speech. Using the matched guise technique, participants were randomly assigned to listen to an audio recording read in either a Standard American English (SAE) or Indian Tamil English (ITE) accent. Compared to the ITE accent, participants who listened to the SAE accent reported significantly higher processing fluency of the speaker's talk, more positive inferred cognitive motive from the speaker, and attributed higher solidarity to the speaker. However, the experimental conditions yielded no differences in inferred affective motive or status evaluations. Mediation analysis indicated significant indirect effects on status and solidarity through processing fluency and inferred cognitive motives as serial mediators. The indirect effects through inferred affective motive were not significant. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Resources and Benchmarks for Keyword Search in Spoken Audio From Low-Resource Indian Languages

This paper presents the resources and benchmarks developed for keyword search (KWS) in spoken audio from six low-resource Indian languages (from two families), namely Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu. The current work on constructing keywords and building benchmark KWS systems is inspired by the popular IARPA Babel program and the subsequent works on low-resource KWS. The keywords are constructed by taking into account their properties i.e., occurrence, length, and average confusability; and their effects on the evaluation metric - the term-weighted value (TWV). We make use of freely available speech datasets, and reprocess them to create resources for KWS, thereby adding value to the existing speech resources. Four ASR-based KWS systems are built, and their performance is analyzed across the three keyword properties on all the six languages. The prepared keywords and other related resources to replicate our experiments are made available for the public. We believe that the analysis and guidelines provided in this paper will not only help the research community, but also practitioners and engineers to easily create KWS resources for newer languages, datasets, and scenarios.

Impact of etiological factors on citrullination markers and susceptibility of PADI4 allele for CHIKV induced rheumatoid arthritis among South Indian Tamil RA cases

<abstract> <p>Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a multifactorial disease which can be triggered by gene-environment interactions. Numerous risk factors have been acknowledged in varied ethnicities, but their generalizability is vague. Hence, proposed to identify impact of etiology on citrullination and how both interact with peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PADI4) polymorphism in RA onset among South Indian Tamil RA cases. Studied 207 RA cases and 186 healthy controls for C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), rheumatoid factor (RF), anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP), anti-Sa (citrullinated vimentin), anti-citrullinated α-enolase peptide-1 (CEP-1) and diseases activity score-28 (DAS-28). Past exposure to studied etiological risk factors obtained through questionnaire. Family history of RA (FHRA), surgery/injury and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection significantly contributed to RA (p < 0.05) particularly CHIKV (OR = 6.66, 95% CI 3.92–11.32, p = 0.001). Strikingly, 67.1% of surgery/injury and 80% of CHIKV exposed patients had RA onset within a year. RA cases with tooth decay had impact on RF, anti-CCP, anti-Sa freequeny and anti-CEP-1 level (p < 0.05).Since CHIKV infected cases showed significant anti-Sa (p = 0.04) level and frequency (p = 0.01), they were genotyped for polymorphism in PADI4_92 (rs874881), 104 (rs1748033) and 94 (rs2240340) by Sanger's sequencing which demonstrated that PADI4 confers risk (p < 0.05) for the onset of CHIKV induced RA. This is the initial report that CHIKV may contribute to RA development via vimentin citrullination. FHRA, surgery/injury, CHIKV and smoking posed a key RA risk.</p> </abstract>

Speaking rate and language-specific voice onset time effects on burst amplitude: Cross-linguistic observations and implications for sound change

The relationship between speaking rate and burst amplitude in voiceless plosives was investigated in two languages with differing oro-laryngeal timing implementations of phonological voicing, North American English and Indian Tamil. Burst amplitude (reflecting both intraoral pressure and flow geometry of the oral channel) was hypothesized to decrease in CV syllables with increasing speaking rate, which imposes temporal constraints on both intraoral pressure buildup behind the oral occlusion as well as respiratory air flow. Increased speaking rate led to decreased burst amplitude (relative to vowel amplitude) in both languages, with the magnitude of the effect being considerably weaker in Tamil, which has short-lag implementation of voice onset time. Bilabials in both languages were affected disproportionately relative to other places of articulation. Additionally, burst amplitudes were lower overall in Tamil, reflecting lower intraoral pressure which promotes faster vocalic onset. Results are discussed in terms of language-internaland extra-linguistic phonetic phenomena potentially serving as perceptual triggers for historical sound change.

Archaeology, Gender and Indian Tamil Films

This article analyses the depiction of archaeology and archaeologists in contemporary popular Tamil films made in India, including a focus on the gender portrayal of archaeologists in two films in particular – one an adventure film depicting archaeological activity and the other a romance film involving a male archaeologist. Content analysis shows that both films portray some similarities in how archaeology is presented and that male and female archaeologists are shown as professionals, but that the female archaeologist is still presented for, and objectified through, the male gaze. The paper contributes to the understanding of how archaeologists are portrayed in non-Western films, particularly among films produced in India.

English-Malay speech acquisition by children with Indian (Tamil) heritage

ABSTRACT Speech acquisition by Indian children is under-explored. This study investigates English-Malay speech acquisition by forty children (2;06-4; 05) of the third largest ethnic group (Indian) in Malaysia, a multi-ethnic multilingual country. The multilingual model and multilingual phonological test proposed by (Lim, Wells, & Howard, [2015] Rate of multilingual phonological acquisition: Evidence from a cross-sectional study of English-mandarin-malay. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 29(11), 793–811; Lim [2018] Multilingual English-Mandarin-Malay phonological error patterns: The multilingual model and multilingual phonological test proposed in the initial cross-sectional study of 2 to 4 years old Malaysian Chinese children. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 32(10), 889–912.) were used in the present assessment and analysis of child speech data. Two versions of the multilingual phonological test (English and Malay) were administered to the children. The age of phoneme acquisition and phonological patterns were analysed. The children showed comparable phonological milestones with children of other ethnic heritages acquiring the same languages. All singleton consonants were acquired by 4;06. All except one consonant cluster (/dɹ/) were acquired by 4; 06, indicating earlier acquisition than the local Chinese children in the past study. All vowels were acquired by 2; 11 and vowel phonological patterns were rare. There was a decrease with age in the use of consonant phonological patterns. Some consonant phonological patterns were shared by both languages (e.g., fronting), others were used in one language only (e.g., English cluster reduction) implicating the influences of language universalities and ambient language characteristics. Only age and language dominance factors, but not sex factor were found to have influenced the English-Malay speech acquisition. The extra exposure to Tamil by some children (38%) might have accelerated the acquisition of English clusters since Tamil shares clusters with English. The present findings contribute both clinical information to speech-language therapists and theoretical knowledge to the current literature of child phonology.

Association of HLA-B*51:01, HLA-B*55:01, CYP2C9*3, and Phenytoin-Induced Cutaneous Adverse Drug Reactions in the South Indian Tamil Population.

Phenytoin (PHT) is one of the most commonly reported aromatic anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) to cause cutaneous adverse reactions (CADRs), particularly severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs). Although human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B*15:02 is associated with PHT-induced Steven Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrosis (SJS/TEN) in East Asians, the association is much weaker than it is reported for carbamazepine (CBZ). In this study, we investigated the association of pharmacogenetic variants of the HLA B gene and CYP2C9*3 with PHT-CADRs in South Indian epileptic patients. This prospective case-controlled study included 25 PHT-induced CADRs, 30 phenytoin-tolerant patients, and 463 (HLA-B) and 82 (CYP2C9*3) normal-controls from previous studies included for the case and normal-control comparison. Six SCARs cases and 19 mild-moderate reactions were observed among the 25 cases. Pooled data analysis was performed for the HLA B*51:01 and PHT-CADRs associations. The Fisher exact test and multivariate binary logistic regression analysis were used to identify the susceptible alleles associated with PHT-CADRs. Multivariate analysis showed that CYP2C9*3 was significantly associated with overall PHT-CADRs (OR = 12.00, 95% CI 2.759–84.87, p = 003). In subgroup analysis, CYP2C9*3 and HLA B*55:01 were found to be associated with PHT-SCARs (OR = 12.45, 95% CI 1.138–136.2, p = 0.003) and PHT-maculopapular exanthema (MPE) (OR = 4.041, 95% CI 1.125–15.67, p = 0.035), respectively. Pooled data analysis has confirmed the association between HLA B*51:01/PHT-SCARs (OR = 6.273, 95% CI 2.24–16.69, p = <0.001) and HLA B*51:01/PHT-overall CADRs (OR = 2.323, 95% CI 1.22–5.899, p = 0.037). In this study, neither the case nor the control groups had any patients with HLA B*15:02. The risk variables for PHT-SCARs, PHT-overall CADRs, and PHT-MPE were found to be HLA B*51:01, CYP2C9*3, and HLA B*55:01, respectively. These alleles were identified as the risk factors for the first time in the South Indian Tamil population for PHT-CADRs. Further investigation is warranted to establish the clinical relevance of these alleles in this population with larger sample size.

PIRIṬṬIṢ KĀLAṈIYA ĀṬCIYIṈPŌTU MALĀYĀVĀḺ TAMIḺC CAMUTĀYAM AṬAINTA MĒLĀTIKKANILAI [THE HEGEMONISM ON TAMIL COMMUNITY DURING THE BRITISH COLONIAL RULE

Malaya was under colonial rule by the British at the beginning of the industrial revolution in the world. Rubber was considered an essential commodity for the car industry. The UK government approached East India Company entrepreneurs and advised them to set up rubber plantations in Malaya. Those suggestions were accepted and arrangements were made for deforestation in order to plant rubber trees throughout Malaya. The locals retreated to do the work. On the advice of the British rulers, South Indian Tamils ​​were brought to Malaya by the kangani system and by contract system and settled in rubber plantations. The Tamil people destroyed the jungles surrounding Malaya and planted rubber trees. Later, they were hired as rubber tapper in rubber plantations. The Tamil people who worked in this way suffered from the British investors, the Sri Lankan Tamils ​​who worked as plantation managers and the non-Tamil Indians who worked as clerks. C.Vadivelu, a senior Malaysian Tamil writer, has made clear through his short stories the cruelty of the hegemonism of British investors. His three collections of short stories are considered as the primary sources of this study and the historical references of Malaysia as supporting sources of the study. Data collected from short stories have been analyzed based on postcolonial theory. This study reveals the fact that the Malay Tamil people were sociologically and economically dominated by the British colonial rulers.

X-chromosomal STR based genetic polymorphisms and demographic history of Sri Lankan ethnicities and their relationship with global populations

A new 16 X-short tandem repeat (STR) multiplex PCR system has recently been developed for Sr Lankans, though its applicability in evolutionary genetics and forensic investigations has not been thoroughly assessed. In this study, 838 unrelated individuals covering all four major ethnic groups (Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils and Moors) in Sri Lanka were successfully genotyped using this new multiplex system. The results indicated a high forensic efficiency for the tested loci in all four ethnicities confirming its suitability for forensic applications of Sri Lankans. Allele frequency distribution of Indian Tamils showed subtle but statistically significant differences from those of Sinhalese and Moors, in contrast to frequency distributions previously reported for autosomal STR alleles. This suggest a sex biased demographic history among Sri Lankans requiring a separate X-STR allele frequency database for Indian Tamils. Substantial differences observed in the patterns of LD among the four groups demand the use of a separate haplotype frequency databases for each individual ethnicity. When analysed together with other 14 world populations, all Sri Lankan ethnicities except Indian Tamils clustered closely with populations from Indian Bhil tribe, Bangladesh and Europe reflecting their shared Indo-Aryan ancestry.