1,720,993 research outputs found
The intoxicated poor: alcohol, morality and power among the boatmen of Banaras
No full textAnthropological research on alcohol use and misuse has largely focused on the symbolic meaning of alcohol in ritual settings and its role in the everyday lives of indigenous populations. Much has been written on the role of alcohol as a social lubricant, a vehicle for anxiety relief, a marker of ethnic identity and social status and, in some cases, a part of everyday resistance practices deployed by subordinated populations. Less attention has been given to how the excessive consumption of alcohol is perceived amongst the people themselves, and their own ways of trying to make sense of alcohol-related problems within a rapidly changing social and economic environment. This article considers these issues by looking at a particular group of low-caste/class boatmen in the city of Banaras, and how they articulate alcohol use and abuse. It suggests that perceptions, consumption and broader cultural classification of alcohol can only be appreciated by considering how specific community structures, conflicts and everyday practice are interlaced with culturally constituted notions of power and danger in Hindu society
An anthology of writings on the Ganga: Goddess and River in History, Culture and Society
No full textThe Ganga along with the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Yangtze, and the Danube is one of the great rivers of our planet. Perceiving the Ganga from three levels material, spiritual, and divine this anthology reflects on the dialogue and tension between the modern and the traditional, the historic and the mythical, the epic and the everyday, the factual and the fictitious. From Robert P. Goldman's translations from the Ramayana, J.A.B. van Buitenen's translations from the Mahabharata, and translations by Shakuntala Varma and A.K. Ramanujan to Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Will and Testament', the classic Padma River Boatman by Manik Bandopadhyaya, and the screenplay of Ram Teri Ganga Maili to writings of Raja Rao, Vikram Seth, and Amitav Ghosh-the book brings together various perspectives on the river, demonstrating the wide-ranging views, interests, experiences, practices, and emotions generated from the encounter between people, both individuals and groups, and the Ganga. Divided into five parts The Epic and Numinous, Historical Perspectives, Contemporary Travel Writing, Fiction, and Recent Scholarship the anthology offers an insight into the broader organization, quality, character, and diversity of Indian culture and society
Ideas from India
No full textIndia is a paradox. On the one hand, the country’s high growth rate has led to its international profile reaching new heights. The world’s largest democracy now features a burgeoning middle class, whose newly found economic and social freedoms are light years away from the old developmental state with its bureaucratic straitjacket that bound the economy. This middle class, however loosely defined, displays an insatiable appetite for consumer goods, thereby realising its hope of participating in the global economy as its most enthusiastic entrant. On the other hand, about a third of the population still lives below the poverty line. Suggestions that the adventurous Indian middle class will act as an engine propelling the country on to the world stage downplay the enormous challenges that lie ahead. While the contributors to this issue are very conscious of India’s rise to prominence, they are equally concerned about the implications and challenges involved. Many of the essays, though not all, are based on papers presented in November 2011 at the ‘Ideas from India’ symposium, which formed the year’s signature event at the Australian National University’s Research School of Asia and the Pacific. Some essays focus on the strategic implications of India’s growing dominance—and its potential to provide stability—in this otherwise volatile region. Others focus inwardly, illuminating India’s struggle to cope with enduring forms of social and economic inequality. The struggles and challenges lie not only in improving the country’s decaying infrastructure and mammoth, but stagnant, public service. They also lie in initiating new policy measures and state-led interventions aimed at addressing acute problems of poverty, malnutrition and gender imbalance, and infusing the education sector with dynamic ideas and practices. These, in turn, must be designed to enhance skill formation in order to capitalise on the so-called demographic dividend—the foundation for India’s future
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
India's mobile revolution: a view from below
No full textWith half a billion subscribers, India is making the mobile phone its own – in sometimes unexpected ways
In praise of the ordinary man: Popular media, social hierarchy and identity in a North Indian text
Full text linkThis article recounts a story found in a popular genre of religious literature known as vrat katha [ritual storytelling]. The narrative is of an "ordinary" low-caste man and his everyday struggles. It tells of the social and economic suffering experienced by the poor man upon encountering god (called Trilokinath/Vishnu) and receiving his blessing, mediated through a series of miraculous events. However, the transformative power of the events and fortunes that follow is undermined by a Brahmin who refuses to acknowledge the poor devotee, rebuffing his ritual gift [prasad] as polluted and considering him untouchable. The ambiguous nature of the gift and the ideology and practice of devotion [Bhakti] present an intriguing and complex picture of Hinduism, revealed in the multiple social roles and social contexts in which subalterns operate in the course of their day-to-day lives. I offer a critical reading of this fascinating story. What seems like a straightforward, standardised ritual text is analysed in terms of its competing and sometimes subversive views of "dominant" Hinduism. By examining the tensions and ambivalence in the text I argue for a more nuanced rendition of subaltern power and agency which cannot be reduced to that of resistance and opposition alone
The Politics of Identity and the People Left Behind: The Mallah Community of Uttar Pradesh
No full textFerrying the Gods: Myth, performance and the Question of 'Invented Traditions' in the City of Banaras
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