South Indian Village Research Articles

Identity Crisis in Raja Rao’s Kanthapura

This article explores the theme of post colonialism in Raja Rao’s novel Kanthapura. By analysing the text, we examine how religion affects the Indian village of Kanthapura, its culture and its people. The narrative explores the community’s struggle to resist and adapt to the emphasizing themes of identity, struggle and cultural change. Raja Rao’s “Kanthapura” is an important work of Indian literature, depicting the impact of colonialism on a rural village in South India. The novel explores the transformation of a village in its struggle for independence through the lens of the main character, Moorthy. This summary provides insight into the rich tapestry of “Kanthapura” and invites readers to explore identity, community, and freedom at this pivotal moment in Indian history.“Kanthapura” by Raja Rao is a story set in a rural Indian village during the struggle for independence. Through the protagonist Moorthy, the novel explores the complexities of colonialism, resistance and colonialism. Lao’s lyrics describe the importance of village life, emphasizing themes of leadership, change and unity against oppression. This summary encapsulates the essence of “Kanthapura,” inviting the reader to explore the transformation of relationships and the renewal of the human spirit.

Who Are We Without Land? Repeasantization and Caste in a Village of South India

The article explores the motivation for the reclamation of land-based livelihoods in a village in South India. In contrast to studies reporting a change in class position of small cultivators to wage workers due to pressures of depeasantization, this article argues for an agency-driven view of agrarian change. However, the article contends that such motivated acts of peasants to retain their autonomy are not solely derived from their interaction with economic processes. Fears of decline in status provide an extra-economic impetus to repeasantization. The loss of land-based livelihood implies social death for those castes with historical land occupation. A comparative perspective of the social framework of agriculture is essential to ground agency in social relations and comprehend the radical potential of peasant actions.

The Amara Raja Group (A): Building HRM Capabilities

The first company under the Amara Raja Group was established in 1984, i.e. Amara Raja Electronics Limited (AREL) followed by Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL). Its founder leveraged the presence of his family in Renigunta, a rural village in South India, and chose to start the industry there to create employment opportunities. Preference is given to local population in all ARG enterprises. Despite its strong people orientation, the HR department/function at ARG got strengthened only after Jaikrishna strived to make it central to business. The department's evolution has been demarcated in three phases. The first and second phase saw few initiatives, and during the third phase the HR department was structured according to the Dave Ulrich Strategic HR Model. While this structure had been successful until now, certain sections in ARG still doubted its sustainability.

Developing a community based participatory model for efficient and sustainable use of groundwater – An exploratory research using system dynamics in a village in south India

The paper presents a model developed collaboratively with farmers in a south Indian village to visualize productive, efficient and sustainable usage of groundwater. This model is based on information and data collected over several years and analyzed through participatory community interactions. The objective of the participatory modeling process is to trigger thinking among the community regarding the use of groundwater in a sustainable manner. It is expected that a model of sustainable groundwater use would evolve if the community is able to perceive groundwater as a community resource. With the System Dynamics approach, the community was enabled to understand the complexities in groundwater availability patterns, its over exploitation and its impact, and also to visualize scenarios that suit their context for sustaining their agriculture. These scenarios effectively project the potential of groundwater as a critical and productive source of irrigation so as to sustain the agricultural base of the village community. They also helped in visualizing the benefits of collectivizing groundwater from the existing borewells within the village boundaries. The study reveals that there is a possibility for more sustainable use of groundwater in the selected village provided the community makes a viable choice to restrict the irrigated area and pool groundwater to provide protective irrigation to rainfed crops in a much larger area.

Proptosis under evaluation—a rare case report on pseudolymphoma of orbit

BackgroundOrbital pseudolymphoma is one of the rare diseases affecting the ocular adnexa and causing various symptoms requiring histopathological evidence for diagnosis and appropriate treatment with oral steroids or immunosuppressive agents. However, there is less literature available on this disease, thus adding to it will help in the early diagnosis and treatment of the patients.Case presentationA 48-year-old female from a village in South India came to our tertiary care centre with the only complaints of right eye protrusion for 1 year. With a working diagnosis of intraorbital mass, radiological investigations like contrast-enhanced CT and MRI were taken. It showed well-capsulated mass involving the right inferior rectus extending into the intraconal space just abutting the optic nerve. Trans-antral endoscopic biopsy under general anaesthesia was taken and reported as pseudolymphoma proven with CD 3 and CD 20 immunohistochemistry markers. The patient was treated with oral corticosteroids and tapered over a period of 3 months. During the treatment period, the patient developed no diminution of vision or new complaints.ConclusionOrbital pseudolymphomas are benign lymphoproliferative diseases affecting the ocular adnexal tissue. Patients can present with painless ptosis, proptosis, diplopia, or eyelid swelling. Prompt diagnosis and treatment result in the remission of the disease.

Magic, metaphysics, and methods

Magic, metaphysics, and methods

Assessment of Climacteric Symptoms and Its Impact on Daily Lives of Employed and Unemployed Perimenopausal Women in Selected Rural Villages in South India

Perimenopause is a transitional state which occurs in women in their mid-life. These women may experience climacteric symptoms that affect their day-to-day life. The aim of the study was to assess and compare climacteric symptoms and their impact on daily lives among employed and unemployed perimenopausal women. A cross-sectional survey was done on 160 rural south Indian women aged 40 to 55 years who were identified as symptomatic of perimenopause as per the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop 10+ (STRAW) staging criteria. The study participants were grouped as employed and unemployed. Climacteric symptoms were assessed using Greene Climacteric Scale and climacteric symptoms’ impact on daily lives was measured using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare the variables between the two groups. The total Greene Climacteric score for unemployed perimenopausal women were found to be significantly higher than the employed group of perimenopausal women (14.5 ± 7.23 versus 12.52 ± 4.9, p < 0.05). The majority (58.8%) of the employed group had minimum impact whereas; the majority (51.2%) of the unemployed group had an average impact score. There was a strong positive correlation between climacteric symptoms and their impact on the daily lives of perimenopausal women. Employment status is a significant factor in causing variation in the climacteric symptoms. Unemployed perimenopausal women suffered more climacteric symptoms than their employed counterparts.

Redressing the Rural-Urban Imbalance (Distinguished Lecture)

This paper focuses on rural poverty, its causes and effects, and suggests one of a number of possible measures to alleviate the problem. It examines why there exists an urban bias in development, and the impact it has on development patterns. The macroimplications derived from intensive longitudinal micro-studies of two South Indian villages are also examined. These studies throw into relief the key role income-generating opportunities play in rural societies. They show how the existence of such opportunities ensures the reduction of rural poverty and removes, or at least reduces, the need for ruralurban migration; whereas their absence has the reverse effect. As the growing rural population accompanied by increasing water shortages reduce the possibilities of continuing increases in agricultural productivity, there is an urgent need to urbanise rural life and to make it more attractive in terms of economy and infrastructure. Finally, an outline of a Three-Level Rural-Urban Business Linkages paradigm, which though putting emphasis on increased agricultural productivity, stresses the growing importance of establishing agro-based industries and the creation of other off-farm activities. It is presented as one option that may be pursued to redress the rural-urban imbalance and thereby reduce rural poverty. The paradigm involves a decentralisation of small goods productive processes in a setting of Growth Areas and Growth Centres that are linked with the nearest large towns and/or cities. As long as the political will exists and the necessary preconditions are met, the implementation of this paradigm constitutes a good chance of improving conditions in both rural and urban areas.

Intersectionality of rural community, geography and gender in the careers of young adults

ABSTRACT Young adults (21-to-35-years) from six rural coastal villages in South India described their past and current careers and means of livelihood; an intergenerational comparison was also made. Sixty-eight young men and women engaged in paid work were interviewed; supplementary data was obtained about 224 young adults co-residing with the 68 interviewed participants. The careers and livelihoods of these young adults were marked by intersectionality of rural community, geography and gender. The geography of a coastal region privileged men in having coastal/marine careers whereas many women played supportive roles in their spouse’s/brother’s coastal livelihood. The fewer women engaged in paid work were employed in education, banking/finance, and nursing sectors. Implications for career guidance programmes for the rural population are discussed.

Assessing the Outreach of Targeted Development Programmes—A Case Study from a South Indian Village

This paper explores beneficiary targeting of government programmes in a village in India. The analysis is based on all 228 households of the village and focus group discussions. The results show that there is a large exclusion error in targeted programmes, which have mostly excluded the poor and the needy. Most schemes have a prerequisite of asset ownership, such as agricultural land, which benefits resource-rich farmers with large landholdings. The relationship between benefits received and income of households is best represented by an inverted ‘u’-shape curve, indicating the middle-income category benefits more than the poorest. The scope and scale of welfare programmes, especially Direct Benefit Transfers, increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. For inclusion of the poorest of the poor, welfare and development schemes need to be decoupled from landownership in rural areas.

Culture, Empathy, and the Therapeutic Alliance.

When the therapist and patient are from different cultures, there may be impediments to the development of empathy and a therapeutic alliance. South India culture provides an example of contrasting values and customs about which patients may be reluctant to discuss. The initial case history is of a South Indian who sought treatment in the United States. The remaining cases, drawn from a village in South India with which the author has had a 55-year history of research, illustrate cultural factors potentially inhibiting or facilitating the development of empathy and a therapeutic alliance.

Tranquebar—the tsunami, heritage tourism, power, and memory in a South Indian fisher village

Tranquebar—the tsunami, heritage tourism, power, and memory in a South Indian fisher village

Association of Agriculture Occupational Exposure With Diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in South Indian Villages: REDSI Study.

There has been a huge increase in diabetes and its associated cardiovascular complications over the last decade, predominantly in the middle- and low-income countries. In these countries, the majority live in rural areas. The Rural Epidemiology of Diabetes in South India (REDSI) study was aimed to analyze the prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors, and its complications in rural farming and non-farming villages in Tamil Nadu, South India. A research survey on the prevalence of self-reported diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors (age, sex, obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, alcohol and tobacco use) and agricultural occupational exposure was executed among 106,111 people from 61 villages in the state of Tamil Nadu, South India, during 2015–2018. Overall, we observed a diabetes prevalence of 11.9% in rural South India. A nearly two-fold higher prevalence of diabetes was observed among the farming community (15.0%) compared to that among the non-farming population (8.7%). Logistic regression analyses revealed a strong association with agrochemical exposure (P < 0.0001) and diabetes prevalence among rural farming people. Our survey indicates a high prevalence of diabetes in rural South India particularly among the farming community. This survey in conjunction with other epidemiological and experimental studies raises the need for understanding the etiology of diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors in rural communities.

Sufferings and Starvation in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve

Kamala Markandaya is one of the best known contemporary Indian novelists. Her novels are remarkable for their range of experience. Her first novel Nectar in a Sieve is set in a village and it examines the hard agricultural life of the south Indian village where industry and modern technology played havoc. Kamala Markandaya occupies a very important position among the women novelist who have made substantial contribution to Indian fiction after the Second World War. Markandaya had not always lived abroad. She was born as Kamala Purnaiya in 1924 in Mysore and she was also a journalist. At some point, she decided to spend 18 months in a village “out of curiosity”. This inspired the setting of her first novel, centred on Rukmani and her husband Nathan. Nectar in a Sieve is remarkable for its portrayal of rustics who live in fear, hunger and despair. It is of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of blackness of death. Almost all the characters in this novel lead miserable life and most of them fail to survive. There are at least a couple of them who were not successfully struggle and have the concept of survival. This novel tells the story of landless peasants of India who face starvation, oppression, breakup of family, home and death. Yet they retain their compassion, love, the strength to face their life and take delight in the little pleasures of the daily existence.

A community-based cross-sectional study on knowledge, attitude, and perceptions about asthma among healthy adults in rural South India.

Background:Evidence suggests that proper knowledge and perceptions about asthma result in a positive correlation with compliance with medications and regular medical follow-up. Assessing the level of knowledge, attitude, and perception (KAP) in the community is essential for planning public health interventions. There is a lacuna on community-based KAP study on asthma in rural India, as most of the existing evidence is from hospital-based studies in an urban setting.Methods:We interviewed 280 healthy adults from 14 villages in South India using the Chicago community asthma survey-32 (CCAS-32) questionnaire. We noted the frequency distribution of responses to the questions and scored KAP on symptoms, triggers, and treatment, and performed bivariate and multivariate analyses.Results:The mean age was 37.7 years ranging from 18 to 62 years. Almost half of them (47%) had primary or middle school education. 40.7% and 57.9% believed severe headache and tightness of chest were symptoms of asthma, respectively. Similarly, 38.2% and 48.4% thought asthma was a hereditary and contagious disease, respectively, whereas 41.8% of perceived asthma medications could be addictive. Having witnessed “patients with asthma” was associated with KAP on symptoms and triggers while younger age and having a relative with asthma were associated with KAP on treatment independently. Participants who had relatives with asthma were three times [(OR 3.04; 95% (1.5–6.1)] more likely to have good KAP compared to their counterparts.Conclusion:Asthma knowledge and perceptions are sparse in rural India. Adequate investments in public awareness are the need of the hour.

Death Rituals and Change Among Hindu Nadars in a South Indian Village

This article examines changes in the death rituals performed among Hindu Nadars in a South Indian village. It emphasises the importance of understanding ritual changes within their specific micro-level local contextual framework, including changing social structures at household and village level. This empirical evidence showcases how changing rituals connected to death reflect various adaptations through imitation, substitution and alteration of specific ritual elements and performants. It also identifies emerging class distinctions among Nadars and their connection with changes in rituals associated with death. This analysis of the changes depicts how Nadars use ritual actions in pragmatic ways, symbolically expressing and realising their aspirations for status enhancement through such ritual performances.

Dog's own country

I was 4 years old when I had my first trauma linked to dogs. I was living in one of the several small clay tile-roofed houses in that south Indian village. Whenever I was outdoors to play, a black and brown dog that a neighbour petted but did not own would get keen lifting his earlobes up. More worryingly, the dog would often spring onto people passing by. One day as I went out looking for my mother who was out to collect water, the dog suddenly chased me. I ran for life often looking behind my back with fear whether he would bite me, only to end up banging my head on a wall while the dog walked away without planting its grisly teeth in my body.

Transmission and Erosion of Local Knowledge Practices in a Fishing Village in South India

Fishermen acquire knowledge through kin or other members of the community in an informal way, as well as through personal experience. The knowledge thus acquired is viewed as an asset, but the dangers of its erosion are well understood by the fisher communities. This study documents local knowledge based on the experience, observation, and experimentation of the Jalari fishing community in South India. We focus on wave/ocean colors, sea currents, reading the weather, and availability of fishes in different seasons. Cultural transmission and factors potentially influencing the sustenance and erosion of knowledge practices are briefly considered.

Nutritional status and correlates of malnutrition among elderly adults in a South Indian village

Nutrition is the single most important determinant of the health of an individual and provides essential support during the ageing process. Malnutrition is not a consequence of ageing and should never be considered as a normal process. Early detection of nutritional problems is vital to ensure the quality of life throughout these extended years. This study aimed, at assessing the nutritional status among the elderly (60 years and above), in the rural field practice area of SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (Kalivanthapattu village), and to identify the correlates of malnutrition. A Community-based Cross-sectional study was conducted for assessing the Nutritional status of the elderly population (≥ 60 years) in Kalivanthapattu village using MNA (Mini Nutritional Assessment) scale. Data analysed using SPSS 22. Descriptive data were presented in percentages, mean, standard deviation. Chi-square test was used to prove the association between categorical variables. p-value &lt; 0.05 is considered statistically significant. Among 102 participants, 33% are with normal nutritional status, 59% were at risk, and 8% of individuals were malnourished. Both males and females were &gt;50% at risk of malnutrition. The association of age, spouse status, whether alive or dead and the type of house were found to be statistically significant (p &lt;0.05). This study stresses on the nutritional assessment of elderly followed by anthropometric, clinical, biochemical and functional assessments in malnourished individuals and those at risk of malnutrition. Like immunisation schedule for under-five children, it is essential to rope Malnutrition scale to assess the nutritional status at or over the age of 60 years.

Development of a Polygeneration System for a Rural Community

Energy plays a very important role in the economic development of a country. Almost 85% of the primary energy comes from fossil fuels. Meanwhile, it is necessary to reduce carbon footprints to protect environment from the way of production and consumption of energy. To overcome this, adoption of a poly-generation system is the most effective way. It can be said as one of the most effective method to enhance energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption and control environmental pollution. It is the combination of several renewable energy using systems in a way that the output of one system becomes the input for another. Also, a number of utility outputs are obtained. This way, the amount of useful energy in the given amount of input is harnessed to a maximum extent, thus maintaining a very high energy efficiency. In this present work, our objective is to propose a techno-economical and techno-feasible polygeneration system for the selected three villages by using Homer Pro software. For this number of renewable energy systems like solar PV, biomass, hydrokinetic systems, wind turbine, hydrogen etc. are combined in an optimal way suitable for 3 different villages in south India. This is done by taking into account the availability of resources in the corresponding geographic area and also the utility products/outputs and deliverables on demand with the aid of an energy software called Homer Pro.