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Madras
Institute of
Development
Studies -
Working Paper
Series Abstract |
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Working
Paper No: 208,
April 2010
"Self" rather
than the
"Other": Towards
a Subjective
Ethnography of
Kani Community
by
M
Arivalagan
Abstract:
Since the
colonial period,
Kanikkaran (Kani)
community has
been portrayed
as a 'primitive
tribe' in the
colonial and
post-colonial
ethnographies.
The concept of
tribe leads to
the
'objectification'
of Kanis and
does not allow
the Kani's
subjectivity.
This study
argues that
social memory,
life experiences
and oral
history, are to
be taken into
account as
methodological
tool to write
ethnography of
Kani's
"subjectification".
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Working
Paper No.207,
July 2009
The Calling of
Practical
Spirituality:
Transformations
in Science and
Religion and New
Dialogues on
Self,
Transcendence
and Society
by
Ananta Kumar
Giri
Abstract:
We are in the
midst of
unprecedented
crises now and
much of it
revolves around
non-sustainable
and outmoded
ways of thinking
and organizing
our life—self,
society, state,
science,
religion and
spirituality.
The present
paper explores
pathways of
going beyond the
present
predicament and
offers practical
spirituality as
manifold ways of
foundationally
thinking and
reconstituting
self, society,
religion and
science. It
discusses the
seminal work of
Daya Krishna and
explores
practical
spirituality as
a new purusartha
of human
development.
The paper also
discusses the
work of
Ramachandra
Gandhi and
explores how
practical
spirituality can
help us find
ways out of
violence of
anthropocentrism
and the
limitations of
contemporary
models of
democracy.
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Working
Paper No.206,
December 2008
Sociology as
Quest for a Good
Society: A
Conversation
with Robert
Bellah
by
Ananta Kumar
Giri
Abstract :
Sociology does
not just study
what it is;
based upon the
study of is, it
also gives
voices to the
striving for the
ought in our
lives and
society. This
way Sociology
takes part in
the striving
for a good
society which is
a continuous
journey of
criticism,
creativity and
transformation.
The paper
discusses the
striving for a
good society as
it unfolds in
the work of
Robert Bellah, a
creative
sociologist of
our times. It
discusses
Bellah’s work
starting from
his classic work
on Tokugawa
Religion and
discusses his
latest work on
sociology as
social
criticism,
religion and
public sphere
and religious
evolution.
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Working
Paper No.205,
December 2008
Tibet, China and
the World:
Realizing Peace,
Freedom and
Harmony
by
Ananta Kumar
Giri
Abstract :
The essay
discusses the
issue of Tibet
in the context
of the last
uprising in
March 2008 and
explores
possibilities of
going beyond
nationalist
jingoism and
making Tibet a
place of shared
sovereignties.
It discusses
possible paths
for peace,
freedom and
harmony in
Tibet, China and
the World and
also highlights
the need for
post-national
transformations
in Kashmir and
Palestine.
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Working
Paper No.204,
September 2008
The Manifesto
and the Modern
Self Reading the
Autobiography of
Muthulakshmi
Reddy
by
S. Anandhi
Abstract:
In defining the
modern selfhood,
Indian
autobiographies
of men not only
privileged the
‘public self’
but also defined
the boundaries
of the public
and the
political
through
articulation of
the masculine
self as rational
and enlightened
which could
transcend the
contingencies of
desire,
affectivity and
the body. In the
process, they
constrcuted the
female self as
the embodied,
non-modern
‘other’ that
belongs to the
affective domain
of the private
or domestic,
especially in
the context of
modernity.
Women’s
autobiographies,
on the other
hand, offered a
counter-public
discourse by
imagining an
alternate modern
selfhood that
challenged the
elision of
masculinity and
modernity by
reconstituting
women’s
subjectivity as
political
subjects in the
modern public
sphere. In
narrating the
gendered
experiences of
modernity
women’s
autobiographies
have adopted a
form known as
‘Autobiographical
Manifesto’. The
manifesto form
enabled women to
narrate their
experiences of
oppressions and
exclusions from
the public
sphere and gave
a call for new
political
collectivity and
imagined future
possibilities
for modern
selfhood. This
paper attempts
to analyse the
autobiographical
manifesto of a
middle-class
feminist from
colonial
Tamilnadu,.
S.Muthulakshmi
Reddy who was
the first woman
medical graduate
from the Madras
presidency, the
first woman to
be elected as a
member to the
legislative
council in
British India,
an ardent
Gandhian
nationalist who
tirelessly
campaigned
against the
Devadasi system
and child
marriage and one
who brought
about a range of
welfare measures
for women. The
paper critically
engages with her
two
autobiographies
to explain the
limits of
manifesto and
the modernity to
radical
politics.
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Working
Paper No.203,
August 2008
Beyond
Colonialism
Towards A New
Environmental
History of India
by
M. Arivalagan
Abstract:
In India, most
studies on
environmental
history focus on
diverse themes
in the colonial
period but fall
into a
stereotypical
explanation.
Nature’s
degradation is
mainly depicted
from the
archival
documents.
However, forest
subjects glorify
the colonial
past even though
the colonial
authority
destroyed the
forests and
uprooted their
habitation. To
question this
stereotype, two
questions have
been drawn from
the memory of
Kanikkaran
community; why
does the
community
glorify the
colonial past?
If the community
has positive
light on the
colonial past,
what is their
conception about
nature? If these
questions are
addressed, the
static
understanding
about the forest
subjects and the
unidimensional
understanding of
nature could be
avoided in the
historiography.
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Working Paper
No. 202, July
2008
Pain, Politics
and Persistence:
The Power of
Powerlessness
by
Rajakishor
Mahana
Abstract:
The paper tries
to understand
the discourse
and practice of
different social
movements (in
Orissa) in
generating an
alternative
social power
that creates a
space and hope
for an
alternative
to
development. In
the process, the
paper makes a
critical
assessment of
the
authoritative
and destructive
forces (power)
of the state and
market in
killing and
displacing the
tribals and its
resulting pain
and suffering
the tribals
endure without
losing sight of
the attributes
they give to
their own
actions of
resistance and
the emergent
power the
tribals persists
not only to
challenge
tyranny but also
to mitigate
misery.
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Working
Paper No. 201,
July 2008
Adapting
Capability
Approach to
Understand the
Life Experiences
of the Poor:
Making a Case
from the Survey
of Literature
by
Ann George
Abstract :
Capability
approach by
focusing
directly on the
lives of the
individuals
enables one to
look into
certain less
discussed
complex
functionings and
capabilities in
the lives of the
poor. This
paper looks into
the question of
what it means to
the poor to ‘be’
the
disadvantaged in
an unequal world
with regard to
three related
functionings
namely their
perceptions of
and reactions to
the unequal
social order,
the concerns
around which
their most
poignant
sufferings and
satisfactions
are centered and
their upward
mobility
aspirations.
This review of
literature,
examining the
lives of the
poor through
more intensive
methodologies
like participant
observations,
ethnographies
and in-depth
interviews
reveals that
there are
complex layers
within the same
dimension, which
remain rather
obscured in the
enumeration
oriented studies
of poor in
economics. The
paper finds that
welfare
economics in
general and
Sen’s capability
approach in
particular would
benefit from
cross
disciplinary
exchanges with
Sociology,
Anthropology,
Psychology etc
and argues that
the broadening
canvas of
welfare concerns
made possible by
the enunciation
of capability
approach, needs
to be used
further for
engaging with
the several
nuances in the
lives of the
individuals (the
poor) to
understand
complex topics
of development
economics, in
this case
poverty and
inequality.
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Working
Paper No. 200,
July 2007
Exploring the
Importance of
Excess Female
Mortality and
Discrimination
in ‘Natality’ in
Explaining the
‘Lowness’ of the
Sex Ratio in
India
by
D. Jayaraj
Abstract:
The beginning of
the present
century has been
marked by a
shift in
attention from
excess female
mortality to
discrimination
in natality in
explaining the
‘lowness’ of the
sex ratio or
weight of women
in India’s
population. Such
a shift in focus
seemingly
suggests that
discrimination
in intra-family
allocation of
resources has
been reduced
substantially in
India. In this
context, an
attempt has been
made to
decompose the
observed
‘lowness’ of the
sex ratio in
India into that
attributable to
(1) young age
structure, (2)
‘excess’ female
mortality, (3)
abnormality in
sex ratio at
birth in India.
Estimated
contributions of
each factor
suggest that, as
late as in 2001,
‘excess’ female
mortality or
‘lowness’ of
relative
survival
advantage of
females
accounts for as
much as 65.63
per cent of the
‘lowness’ of the
sex ratio in
India. This
result suggests
that, despite
substantial
gains made in
the recent past,
‘excess’ female
mortality is
still the single
most important
factor
accounting for
the ‘lowness’ of
the sex ratio in
India. The
results also
point to the
importance of
age structure,
which accounts
for around 43
per cent of the
‘lowness’ of the
sex ratio in
India in 2001,
in determining
the weight of
women in a
society.
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Working
Paper No.199,
April 2007
Welfare
Pluralism: A
Post Modern
Rationale in
Policy Making
by
K. Jayashree
Abstract :
The present
study is a
crucial section
of my thesis on
welfare policies
as a panacea for
development
ills.
Essentially the
study seeks to
question the
etiquette of
eternity of
welfare
interventions.
Public
provisioning
reflecting the
responsibility
of the state to
the poor need to
take into
consideration
the long term
development
requisites, the
conspicuous
absence of which
results in
policy
disjuncture.
Counting on the
interventions
that have had a
long stay for
decades together
like EGS, MDM,
PDS in India,
the discussion
proposes
re-looking of
the policy
premises, the
policy process
and the policy
outcomes. The
policy preamble
led by
mainstream axiom
makes concoctive
additions –
objectives and
techniques –plan
after plan
ensuring
socio-economic
change in the
lives of the
poor. The
arithmetic
success of the
pro-poor
interventions is
a grim indicator
of the
transformative
tenets of the
concoctions.
Further, in
response to the
query of the
paper, ‘Does
policy success
connote
development
failure?’, the
study attempts
to map political
/ economic
rationalities
that underpin
[welfare] policy
interventions.
Stemming from
the debate on
political
palliatives to
tackle ill-fare,
there is a
review of policy
interventions
pinning down
upon the
attendant evils
of technocracy.
The elucidation
thus purports to
place on score
the vitality of
content
appraisal of
welfare
policies, aside
conventional
impact
assessment.
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Working
Paper No.198,
February 2007
Making It
Relevant:
Mapping the
Meaning of
Women’s Studies
in Tamilnadu
by
S. Anandhi
and
Padmini
Swaminathan
Abstract :
What is women’s
studies? Is it a
discipline?
Subject? What
should a women’s
studies’
programme
connote and what
obtains in
practice?
Through a survey
this paper
attempts to map
the different
aspects of the
women’s studies
programme in the
institutions of
higher education
of Tamil Nadu.
Among other
things, the
contention of
the paper is
that the forms
and conditions
of
institutionalization
of women’s
studies in the
institutions of
higher education
to a large
extent
constrained the
possibilities of
carrying out
women’s studies
as an academic
discipline. The
paper has
important
implications for
bodies such as
the UGC that, at
one level, has
been in the
forefront of the
institutionalization
of the women’s
studies’
movement in
India
particularly in
the 1990s, but,
at another
level, has
failed to
achieve the
kinds of
intellectual and
political
changes promised
by the founders
of women’s
studies in
India.
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Working
Paper No. 197,
December 2006
Understanding
the Struggle for
Panchama Land
by
C. Jerome Samraj
Abstract:
Colonial
government in
India in its
attempt to
connect the
‘Depressed
Classes’
directly to land
assigned
cultivable
wastelands to
them; known as
Depressed Class
lands (Panchama
lands). These
lands have been
illegally
transferred to
the
non-depressed
classes over the
years. In 1994,
Tamil Nadu
witnessed a
major struggle
to retrieve the
DC lands by
Dalits. While
the legal
validity of
Dalits’ right
over the DC
lands still hold
good, the Save
Panchama Land
Movement’s in
its effort to
retrieve the
lands made
significant
attempts in
propagating the
illegal
possession of
land by the non-Dalits
in Tamil Nadu.
This paper
attempts to
analyze the
struggle for
Panchama lands
provides a brief
history of the
colonial course
of action that
lead to the
assignment of DC
lands, local
memory of the
past about
agriculture,
assignment of
the DC lands to
the Dalits and
its subsequent
transfer of land
ownership.
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Working
Paper No. 196,
December 2006
Urban water
conflicts in
Indian cities
Man-made
scarcity as a
critical factor
by
S. Janakarajan ,
Marie Llorente
and
Marie-Hélène
Zérah
Abstract:
This paper
discusses two
important
issues: The
first one
relates to the
resource base,
its
availability,
use and abuse
and the second
pertains to
conflicts which
have surfaced in
the process of
service
provision in
cities in India.
Most cities in
India are facing
severe problems
relating to
delivery of
urban services,
in particular
drinking water.
The problems and
concerns of city
water supply
pertain to
quantity and
quality as well
as equity –
across different
segments and
different
sections of
population. Poor
sanitation,
ineffective and
obsolete
wastewater
management
practices and
lack of
long-term
vision, planning
and motivation
are some of the
issues which
need immediate
attention of the
policy makers.
At the same time
cities continue
to expand at a
rapid rate and
eat into
resources (such
as land and
water) available
in peri-urban
areas. While
land in peri-urban
villages is
grabbed for
urban housing,
industrial
establishments
and for dumping
urban wastes
(both solid and
liquid) very
little is
ploughed back by
way of
developing these
areas.
Urbanisation
process cannot
be blind. It has
got to be
inclusive and
accommodative.
It should ensure
sustainable use
of natural
resources, in
particular land
and water – more
so groundwater.
Indeed, very
little attention
is paid to
investigate the
role of
groundwater in
the process of
urban
development. The
surface and
groundwater and
land use should
be an integral
part of the
urban and peri-urban
development. In
India, not only
that water is
never a part of
the urban
planning, the
peri-urban
issues are
completely
ignored and
given the least
importance in
the overall
planning
process. This
has resulted in
serious
livelihood
problems in
these areas.
Furthermore,
such unconcerned
and unplanned
urban expansions
have triggered
off conflicts
between urban
and peri-urban
interests. The
paper is
organised into
four sections.
The first one
aims at refining
a definition of
urban water
conflict while
the next two
deal with case
studies of
Chennai
(ex-Madras) and
Delhi. The final
section aims at
considering the
rather not
successful
results of
existing
conflict
resolution
mechanisms in
place.
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