This bookis about the various aspects of sociocultural and economic marginality of Bhangis,their stigmatized identity and thier efforts to escape from thier marginal situation by bringing about changes in thier status. The awareness of exploitation and deprivation has led to unionization and politicization within the ambit of the democratic processes in india.
Saiyid Ali Naqvi has brought a wealth of knowledge in water resources development, acquired over a 58-year career, to this study of the impact of the harnessing of the Indus waters on the evolution and development of the fabric of society in the region. He follows the Indus in its journey from around 7000 bc to present times, as he develops his thesis that the processes of social change in the region that now constitutes Pakistan are inextricably linked to the harnessing of the Indus waters. At its inception in 1947, Pakistan, with 85 per cent of its population dependent on agriculture, was an agrarian country. Today, with two-thirds of its population still living in villages, the country remains dependent on agriculture. Despite the use of machinery by big landowners, the agrarian social structure remains fettered by quasi-feudal and tribal customs. The book makes a critical assessment of the pace of the social change process in Pakistan and finds that it has reached a phase which could at best be characterized as ‘quasi-industrial’. This disappointing situation is due to the slow pace of industrialization of the agriculture sector. The book provides the research, historical facts, and insights for an informed public debate on the policy measures for overcoming impediments and accelerating the social change process.
The rapid economic growth of the past few decades has radically transformed India’s labour market, bringing millions of former agricultural workers into manufacturing industries, and, more recently, the expanding service industries, such as call centres and IT companies. Alongside this employment shift has come a change in health and health problems, as communicable diseases have become less common, while non-communicable diseases, like cardiovascular problems, and mental health issues such as stress, have increased. This interdisciplinary work connects those two trends to offer an analysis of the impact of working conditions on the health of Indian workers that is unprecedented in scope and depth.
This study explores historical understandings of Christian communities, cultures, and institutions within the Indian world from their beginnings to the present time. Frykenberg focuses on trans-cultural interactions within Hindu and Muslim environments, uncovering complexities as Christianity intermingled with indigenous cultures.
This book analyses legal orders, actors and democracy in contemporary India, with a particular focus on the everyday contexts and dynamics of human rights, citizenship and socio-economic rights and laws. The contributions explore both ‘institutionalization from above’, where the judiciary and legislative body aim to govern people, and ‘institutionalization from below’, where the governed attempt to expand their substantive rights embedded within their everyday lives. This analysis identifies contact zones between the two directions, which act as spaces for democratic participation and negotiation. Such a perspective should be useful to both those who are interested in Indian politics, and anthropologists and sociologists working on dynamics of laws and rights.
The main objective of the present article is to critically evaluate efforts undertaken by the Govt. to abolish the manual scavengers and to study the reasons for the failure of such programs: Secondary data such as articles, Books, legislations related to manual scavengers were used to meet the study objectives. The Scavenger and sewage workers suffer mainly from chemical and biological hazards. This can be prevented through engineering, medical and legislative measures. The engineering measure should focus on making the process more mechanistic.
Famous Indian Social Reformers Any society consists of diverse and different types of persons; persons with different religions, different castes, different colours, different gender and different faiths etc. And it is expected that they all should live in harmony and without discrimination; an ideal situation is when there is equality, freedom and brotherhood among all sections of society. However, human society all over the world shows that various types of exploitative practices are prevalent there; these practices originated due to human greed for power, authority and superiority; such as so-called higher caste people would exploit so-called lower caste persons; a white would exploit a black; males would like to dominate females; believer of one religion would downgrade other religions etc. These discriminatory and exploitative practices take the form of social evils in the long run and become a scar on the face of any civilized society. Every country, in its history, has had numerous bright individuals who would live and work for the progress and upliftment of the downtrodden persons in the society; and due to their efforts, it became possible to abolish several extreme social evils such as Sati Pratha, Parda Pratha, Jati Pratha and Bal Vivah etc. India is fortunate to have, in its long history, many extraordinary human beings who devoted all their lives for the betterment of society and for the upliftment of the downtrodden. A few among them are Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule, , Ram Mohan Roy, Vinoba Behave, Mother Teresa and Kailash Satyarthi etc. These social reformers have fought against several social evils such as Sati Pratha ( A custom in which a woman immolates herself on her husband's funeral pyre), Pardha Pratha (Veil System), Jati Pratha (Casteism), Bal Vivah (Child Marriage), female infanticide, widow remarriage, a ban on female education, and child labour etc. In India, social reforms did not ordinarily mean a reorganization of the structuring of society at a large, as it did in the west, for the benefit of underprivileged social and economic classes. Instead, it means the infusion into the existing social structure of the new ways of life and thought; the society would be pre-served, while its members would be transformed. In this book, We will look into the life and works of these extraordinary men and women and will appreciate their efforts in the making of today's India. Contents Preface 5 Acharya Vinoba Bhave 11 Baba Amte 21 Bindeshwar Pathak 31 Dhondo Keshav Karve 43 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar 53 Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar 71 Jyotiba Phule 81 Kailash Satyarthi 89 Mahadev Govind Ranade 105 Mahatma Gandhi 113 Mother Teresa 129 Pandita Ramabai 145 Raja Ram Mohan Roy 155 Savitribai Phule 165 Shahu Chhatrapati 177 Swami Dayanand Saraswati 185 Swami Vivekananda 207
This book makes use of interesting case studies and photographs to describe everyday life in a squatter settlement in Delhi. The book helps to understand the marital experiences of these people most of whom belong to the Scheduled Caste and live in one identified geographical space. The author describes the shifts within their marriages, remarriages and other kinds of unions and their striking diversities, which have been described with care. Shalini Grover also examines the close ties of married women with their mothers and natal families. An important contribution of the book lies in the unfolding of the role of women-led informal courts, Mahila Panchayats and their influence in conflict resolution. This takes place in a distinctly different mode of community-based arbitration against the backdrop of mainstream legal structures and male-dominated caste associations. The book will be of interest to students of sociology and social anthropology, gender studies, development studies, law and psychology. Activists and family counsellors will also find the book useful.
