Space and Culture, India
Not a member yet
558 research outputs found
Sort by
Indian Coal Mines in Hundred Years Old Fiction and Now: A Geographical Analysis
Get PDFThis study attempts to construe the first-ever coalmine-oriented Bengali fiction from a social, historical, and geographic perspective. Sailjananda Mukhopadhyay wrote Koylakuthi (the coal miners’ office) in 1922, representing Bengal’s coal mines. This study aims to reconstruct the miners’ society from the early 20th Century with narratives from this story and examine the societal challenges and changes a hundred years apart. A comparative study of the mining geo-cultural landscape of the 1920s Bengal and its contemporary counterpart is carried out. Changed geography, technology, and community are observed. And it reveals that areal expansion of the coalfields has increased production, and technological advancement has increased the safety and security of the miner class. However, the labour structure, class and caste hierarchy, and patriarchal mindset have hardly changed
Global Pandemic and Higher Education Institutions: Building Back Better in BRICS and Beyond
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic manifested in health and socioeconomic crises globally on many levels. At its outset, the pandemic interrupted higher education institutions (HEIs) in 185 countries, dramatically affecting the lives of millions of students and staff. The unexpected disruption also exacerbated inequalities and placed the most vulnerable members of society at even greater risk, especially in lower-income countries. Simultaneously, the pandemic underscored the importance of HEIs as intellectual leaders and experts in overcoming societal challenges. This study reviewed international scholarly literature and global surveys corresponding to the pandemic’s impact on higher education, particularly its influence on academic research activities, teaching practice, and HEIs’ response to such challenges. Findings indicate a need for HEIs to adapt to new realities, harness lessons learned, and convert challenges into opportunities. Moreover, institutional responses provide lessons of commitment and creativity that can be informative for building a better future for research and teaching among HEIs in BRICS states and beyond
Reproductive Justice Discourse vis-à-vis Abortion Law in India: A Critical Review
Get PDFThe narrative concerning third-world women has long been considered regressive, discriminatory, and monistic. The legal narratives, too, could not escape the traditional trope of identity ascribed to women. Though essentially empowering, the practical realisation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act of 1971 could never harness a sense of inclusivity until the amendment of 2021. But the seven categories of women included in the amended Act did not consider the issues of pregnancy arising out of a consensual sexual encounter (contraceptive failure) for an unmarried woman. For the first time, the Supreme Court of India has recognised the concept of agency for all women without any external factor functioning as an influence. The idea of choice has never been celebrated. Thus, in the context of contemporary India, where the idea of the metanarrative of identity appears imminent and the third-world postmodern feminism celebrates the ideals of intersectionality, the legal discourse of deconstructing the difference among women in the name of marital status to strip them of their fundamental rights to bodily autonomy and reproductive justice needs intervention. This review paper intends to diachronically approach the existing data of empirical and critical research on abortion vis-à-vis the human rights discourse in the context of Indian women
Cultural Crisis, Deteriorating Heritage, and Placemaking: A Study of Rural West Bengal, India
Get PDF‘Culture’ denotes the co-shared beliefs, values, ethos, norms, lifeworlds, and activities commonly represent nature-culture reciprocity. In several remote areas of India, folk culture still breaths within its age-old life world. Against this backdrop, the southwestern part of West Bengal, also known as ‘Jangal Mahal’ has been studied in the present research. In this area, approximately 40% of the population directly depends on indigenous sources of livelihood, and they belong to tribal communities like Mahato, Kurmi, Lodha, Santal, Bauri, and others. These native people are culturally distinct and are identified through their folksongs and dance forms, such as Tusu, Kirtan, Baul, Bhadu, and folk dances, such as Chhau, Khati, etc. However, urban spaces and citizens’ choices for entertainment have brought about considerable changes in the culture and life of these people. Resultantly, with the increasing pace, deterioration in the heritage and culture of such groups seems to set in. Thus, this study highlights the changing scenarios of cultural crises, deteriorating heritage values, and placemaking. We have followed participatory methods, including field observation, interviews and group discussions. And a door-to-door survey was conducted in the 12 villages of four districts with a semi-structured survey schedule. Sixty troupes were selected for interview and Focused Group Discussions (FGDs). The findings show that values and cultural practices change over time, thereby losing their identity. The placemaking of popular culture results in a deep crisis in livelihood and lifestyle. People are slowly adopting other modes of earning, which further threaten their culture. This study aims to suggest suitable ameliorative measures to preserve the pristine cultural art forms and safeguard livelihood and skill sets
Human Trafficking: A Call for Action Research
Get PDFSince the year 2000, 25 November has been observed as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to make the public aware of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Human Trafficking is one of the most brutal forms of VAWG. This brief communication in the form of an editorial discusses the despicable issues linked to human trafficking, calling for action research
COVID-19: An Ontological Human Circus?
Get PDFGeopolitical and national interests predominate, given that a war between Russia and Ukraine would result in a daily economic decline in both countries. I am convinced that countries, not their people, wage wars. People have other concerns, such as food and a virus that has apparently not yet left these countries. Several plausibility arguments are presented in the first section of the paper, which addresses the persistently debated virus\u27s origins. In contrast, its leadership continues to flounder. Numerous healthcare workers perished on the front lines, but there was scant coverage of their deaths during the first year of the pandemic and none since. The elderly, the frail elderly, and even the young are the most severely affected by the pandemic deaths that have occurred over the past two years and continue to occur. Current ontology is concerned with the controversies, hypotheses, and theories surrounding this damned insignificant RNA and its capacity to cause such catastrophic harm to humanity. Indeed, the issue is its disputed and contested origin. After two years, it appears that the graphs, countries, and news that are updated every minute on the Worldometer have not changed. However, something has changed; for example, countries have ceased to report the incidence of COVID-19 deaths
Towards Higher Education for Sustainable Development in BRICS: Focus on Brazil and South Africa
Get PDFScholarly literature informs that education for sustainable development (ESD) has become a significant educational initiative to address global challenges in the past decades. However, academic attention was mainly devoted to primary and secondary education. Some scholars report that the main focus on these two levels of education has averted scholarly attention from research exploring the relationship between higher education and sustainable development (SD). Academic dialogue about ESD in higher education has only recently gained momentum. Although all levels of education have an essential role to play in sustainability, the role of higher education is critical as higher education institutions (HEIs) are responsible for ensuring that future leaders understand the needs of the present and future. This responsibility is delegated to HEIs since they educate professionals who will take up leadership positions within society and incorporate sustainability into their organisations’ operations. In addition, the commitment of HEIs to sustainability serves as an example to other institutions. It is evident from the findings that maximising the implementation of ESD in higher education first calls for thorough identification of challenges limiting such implementation. Driven by the need to fill the gap in the existing literature, this study, based on systematic document analysis, brings attention to challenges associated with implementing ESD in institutions under investigation in the two BRICS countries, namely Brazil and South Africa. The two-folded research purpose was to (a) systematically examine relevant documents to explore the effectiveness of HEIs in South Africa and Brazil in implementing ESD and (b) provide recommendations for how HEIs in both contexts can enhance the implementation of ESD
Child Marriage: A Blow to Human Dignity and Women’s Liberty
Get PDFThe current editorial discusses child marriage, a human rights violation and a chronic problem across India. Despite several laws and acts against the practice, and recent arrests made in Assam, India, the problem still persists and has been found to be dominant in the rural areas, among poor families with lower education levels. This study makes an attempt to deliberate upon various reasons leading to child marriage and the implications of child marriage which is negatively affecting the health and well–being of women and children, thereby triggering the maternal and infant mortality rate across the country. The study stresses that to achieve the target set by Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 on gender equality to eliminate child marriage by 2030, effective interventions from all quarters, along with stringent laws and proper policies are essential
Sustainable Development and Public Transport in Haryana
Get PDFThis study examined the efficiency of public transport in Haryana from 2015-16 to 2020-21 in cognisance of the sustainable development aspect. The depots of the state roadways are considered as decision-making units. The study employed the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique for estimating the scores of the overall technical efficiency (OTE) and pure technical efficiency (PTE) of decision-making units (DMUs) by using three inputs— fleet size, total staff and bus utilisation. The study considered the total daily passengers transported and effective kilometres covered for the output. Further, along with the efficiency measurement, each depot’s total number of accidents has been collected to measure safety. The findings estimated the mean value of the PTE score for all depots, which turns out to be 0.91, indicating that to improve the managerial efficiency of the entire public transport of the state, the depots need to increase the output by 9 per cent. The average OTE score of all selected units is 0.89, reflecting that these DMUs have 89 per cent worked efficiently from 2015-16 to 2020-21. The efficiency score is based on output-oriented issues, meaning that inputs will be constant for total efficiency. The study recommends the promotion of public transport based on sustainability and efficiency in the State of Haryana