The South Asianist Journal
Not a member yet
149 research outputs found
Sort by
Public health and human rights in Chhattisgarh: An interview with Dr. Binayak Sen
No full textA preview of this inaugural issue of The South Asianist was unveiled during a special event honouring public health practitioner and human rights defender Dr. Binayak Sen on 14th June, 2012 at the School of Social and Political Science at Edinburgh University. Dr. Jeevan Sharma, a member of the journal’s Advisory Board sat down to interview Dr. Sen following the reception to discuss human rights and public health in India, and more specifically his own work, struggles, and accomplishments as one of the leading human rights advocates and activists in South Asia
‘Our home in the mountains’: Schooling imaginations in Darjeeling, India
No full textSchools are big business in the hills of Darjeeling. Schooling in the hills of North Bengal was initially developed during the colonial era to accommodate the children of the European administrators and officials present in the region. Such schools have accrued a significant reputation over the years and are now popular with the growing elite in Darjeeling and the surrounding areas. This paper explores the connections between a particular private school just outside the town of Darjeeling and the social space that emerged around it, delving into the history of hills, the history of the school and the ways in which these are reflected through the experiences of the present day members of the school community. This is an excerpt from my wider thesis which aims to examine the relationships between schooling and social background, in particular notions of ‘middle class’ in India. The research here follows on from the considerable contributions made to the study of schooling in India in recent years each of which have placed a certain weight on the importance of ‘class’ within Indian society. Such studies have highlighted the particular relationship between the category of middle class and private schooling either as a necessary cornerstone of one’s identity or as a milestone on route to upward social mobility. This research is placed at the heart of these debates, situated within the parameters of the private school itself to pose questions as to what extent schooling determines ones values or ideals with regards to social background. Drawing from the seminal studies of the likes of Said and Anderson, this paper argues that the particular social space of Darjeeling, carved out by the British colonial rule, served to create a unique social space in which those who lived there adopted the idyllic image propagated by the colonial administrators. This ‘imagined’ view, popularised by recent political movements calling for a new state for Darjeeling, have served to further affirm the relationship between the people and the place of Darjeeling, forming a bond that many consider impossible to break. Such imaginings are spread across all aspects of life in the hills and in particular within the walls of St. Joseph’s, North Point, an all-boys school with an illustrious reputation, managed by the Jesuits for over a century. This paper aims to demonstrate the ways in which the school, known locally as ‘North Point’ offers an idyllic image of a student, the ‘North Pointer’ and explores the ways in which the students interact with and construct their own understandings of self in relation to being or not being ‘North Pointers’. The school was affectionately known as ‘Our Home in the Mountains’ by many of the students, a term which dates back to the origins of the school and invokes a sense of community across time and space between all those who had graced the halls of the school and thus serving as a marker for the North Point students to distinguish themselves from the students of other schools. The students thus create an ‘imagined community’ of North Pointers as part of their individual understanding of identity, simultaneously contemplating their own position at school, and the society, or even the world, beyond
Possession and (body) politics: The transformation of healing rituals in Sri Lanka
No full textYaktovil healing rituals in Sri Lanka are traditionally complex night-long performances with energetic dances and drumming, which often include possession. The ritual practitioners as well as the patients are usually Sinhalese Buddhists. The rituals are performed when the illness of a patient is linked to demonic interference. Drawing from fieldwork material, I will address two transformations of these healing rituals: one, which excludes possession and downscales the performances as such by reducing dancing and drumming, and one, which introduces new possession elements, translated from Tamil Hindu culture into a Sinhalese Buddhist idiom. The latter points to the integration of ecstatic priests and priestess who become possessed by deities into the yaktovil rituals, where possession is typically related to demons or ghosts. In this paper, I will discuss these changes centred around possession firstly, by looking at the tension between ecstasy and discipline in the context of a body politics which favours the latter, and secondly, in linking them not only to class, but also to interethnic relations, namely between Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus. I will argue that the reasons for the transformations, while manifold, have to be considered against the background of a revitalized, modernist and nationalist Sinhalese Buddhism, which plays an important role in Sri Lankan politics
Editorial Note: Marginalities & Aspirations in South Asia
No full textThe Editorial Team of The South Asianist is very pleased to announce the publication of its first issue: Marginalities and Aspirations. As this is our very first opportunity to introduce our ideas for the publication as well as to state our position in what is a very rich and diverse field of research and publication, we include a series of short reflections. We follow this with a brief introduction of each of the excellent contributions we have included
Practical and ethical challenges in conducting research on Pakistani adolescent mental health
No full textRecent endeavours to increase the flow of research in the field of mental health in developing countries such as Pakistan are faced with serious practical, cultural and ethical issues. Despite adolescents comprising of about one fourth of the total population in Pakistan (Caskey, & Rosenthal, 2005; UNICEF, 2012) there is limited published data that documents mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and self-harm within the population. In order to improve adolescent mental health in Pakistan, well designed studies exploring prevalence, risk, resilience, prevention, and intervention strategies are vital. Nevertheless there are a few major hurdles in this regard. This paper highlights such pitfalls faced during two parallel and methodologically similar studies exploring depression, anxiety and health risk behaviours among Pakistani adolescents in community settings. Initially, the paper highlights the need to build human resources within research and outlines the efforts which are formally made by the Government. It will also introduce the ways in which the desired outcome can be acquired. Subsequently, it focuses on the lack of awareness with regard to research in the country and presents strategies for developing a research friendly culture, by reducing the undervaluation of research and introducing a supportive environment (Provincial Health Services Academy Peshawar Pakistan, 2010). It identifies the socio-cultural sensitivity of the constructs pertaining to mental health among adolescents (such as drug abuse, sexual abuse, suicide and para-suicide) (UNICEF, 2012). This paper will also discuss issues involved in gaining access to the field. Lastly the paper will point towards ethical dilemmas, such as risks that the study participants may face in gaining ethics clearance, informed consents, and biases within the data. Possible solutions and recommendations required for major obstacles faced during the two studies, as well as the induction of filling the void within literature regarding field work in Pakistan will be put forth
The strī in modernity: Negotiating female consumer body projects in contemporary India
No full textThe concept of the body in India is one fraught with numerous socio-cultural and theological discourses, each presenting their own specific ontologies of the various states of the body. Though the aim of this working paper is not to untangle the web of discourse which surrounds the female body in India, the attempt here is to integrate an inherently „Indian‟ understanding of the body into its representation as a „site‟ of consumption. If, as noted by Dissanayake (1993:39), the body is "a symbolic construct of great moment which serves to reproduce culture", then the body, in effect, presents itself as a locus of ancient ideals of womanhood, of culture and tradition but also the complexities of the changing social landscape of India in which women play an instrumental role. In this vein, the ways in which the body has been represented, regulated, disciplined, ritualised, cultivated and purified through the ages is of central importance to the understanding of how women negotiate their multiplicity of identities through acts of consumption. Although Indian culture is seen to be an amalgam of diverse traditions, it is also seen to be constantly in the making (Mohan, 2011). The Brahmanical Hindu tradition in particular constitutes what Holdrege (1998:341) terms an "embodied community", where the notions of traditional identity are embodied in the particularities of ethnic and cultural categories, where the body is represented as a "site of central significance that is the vehicle for the maintenance of the social, cosmic, and divine orders" (ibid: 341). If, as Dissanayake (1993:40) asserts, we are to comprehend the nature of the Indian self in all its manifold complexity and multilayeredness, there is a need to pay more attention to the idea of the body along with an understanding of the distinction between the „self‟ and „body‟ in Indian philosophical thought
"What is strange is that we don\u27t have more children coming to us": Child psychiatry and scholastic pressure in Kolkata
No full textHow do child psychiatrists in Kolkata reflect on the links between scholastic pressure and rising rates of mental illness? As is known from many ethnographic studies, giving one\u27s child a "top" education is a central concern of Indian parents today, especially among the middle classes. Sending one\u27s child to preschools and making them take several hours of private tuitions every day has become markers of "good parenting." To start children as early as possible and to reduce "useless" free time to a minimum puts enormous scholastic pressure on children. Even cross-country comparisons flag up that Indian children are made to study harder and earlier than in most other countries. This paper analyzes how child psychiatrists in Kolkata experience the consequences of parents\u27 high expectations for scholastic success onto children\u27s mental health. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), "school refusal," depression, and suicidal tendencies are the most prominent mental illnesses that the psychiatrists trace back to excessively competitive education. The paper further discusses how Kolkata psychiatrists evaluate possibilities of pharmacological interventions for child patients. While they acknowledge that drug therapies can have many adverse side effects, they also feel compelled to intervene as early and as quickly as possible. Based on a philosophy that prefers to "nip it in the bud," psychopharmaceuticals are extensively used
Journeys of the body: Labour networks and experiences of migration among Muslim craftsmen in North India
No full textThis paper explores the embodied migration experiences of Indian Muslim craftsmen from the city of Saharanpur (U.P.), as they seek work and opportunities across the country. Their lives are played out on the fringes of the state and provide challenges to common assumptions within both, Indian government and academic discourses on North Indian Muslims which tend towards narratives of marginalisation, confinement and ghettoisation. The paper also calls for additional work on the little developed category of ‘Muslim labour in India’. In the early 1980s a combination of government policy and increased competition resulted in a decline in Saharanpur’s large wood carving industry which had, until then, seen rapid growth and drawn in large quantities of labour from the city and surrounding areas. Whilst the industry would recover, workers and craftsmen had already started to build up migration networks and a ‘culture of migration’ had developed which persists to this day. This experience has had a profound effect on the social and economic circumstances of those involved. The paper follows two craftsmen, Mustaqin Ansari and Mohammad Sajid, in an exploration of these networks, and describes the ways in which the craftsmen themselves relate to and embody migration experiences. Whilst the paper utilises a variety of data, including surveys and interviews, the primary narrative is drawn from the researcher’s own participation in work and migration during journeys with these two friends and others from Saharanpur to various areas of the country
Enlightening lives? The production of silence and ‘success’ in a solar development programme
No full textIn this paper, I introduce the solar energy programme of the Barefoot College, a community-based, non-governmental organisation in Rajasthan, India, that hosts up to thirty five women at any one time from the “Least Developed Countries” index to train them in the maintenance and repair of solar photovoltaic technologies. With a particular focus on the workshop training that aims to turn subaltern women into ‘Barefoot Solar Engineers’ (BSEs), I aim to challenge the prevalent discourse of the “developed woman” as a self-maximising subject able to channel voice and power through newly developing knowledge spaces. I argue that the College sought not only to manufacture particular kinds of material assemblages in the workshop for export, but also, to manufacture a particular kind of modern, knowing subject. I suggest however that far from producing a subject with voice and power and expertise, the College instead speaks on her behalf, literally putting words in her mouth, and promoting the rote-learning and passive memorization of impenetrable tracts of modernist knowledge without due thought to understanding. Such teaching and learning methods serve to silence the woman and gain her acquiescence for the continued spectacle of the transformation of subaltern subject to modern, calculative, globalized subject. I explore how such concealments are practiced and played out in a particular institutional development setting and to analyse the material dynamics that make it possible. I suggest that the women’s training and development is marked less by the roar of empowerment, and more by a muzzle of silenc