{"title":"Caste Solidarity and Religiosity among Mumbai Dalits during the Covid Pandemic","authors":"Raju Chalwadi","doi":"10.1177/02627280231215468","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231215468","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores patterns of caste solidarity and religious practices among North Indian Dalits in Mumbai during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from ethnographic data, it demonstrates how respondents experienced specific vulnerabilities due to their ethnic and caste identities. Following this, solidarities based on caste emerged to strengthen social cohesion and offer a sense of future possibilities. Additionally, on account of the ontological insecurity caused by the pandemic, a renewed collective sense of religiosity emerged, helping local people to manage their precarious existence and mitigating pain. The article concludes by arguing that community solidarity and religious re-assurance mechanisms, given the absence of state support, were their only hope to cope with the pandemic and to navigate COVID-19.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"286 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138982557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Climate Migration in Humayun Kabir’s Men and Rivers: the Padma and Faridpur","authors":"Md. Mahmudul Hasan","doi":"10.1177/02627280231215466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231215466","url":null,"abstract":"The intensely precarious integration in many parts of Bangladesh between life, rivers and water has been reflected in the country’s river novels that describe the experiences of fishermen and riparian peasants. Among river systems in Bangladesh, the Padma (the Ganges in India) has inspired the greatest number of artists and their writing. Humayun Kabir’s Men and Rivers (1945) stands out as a climate document on the life of the peasantry, whose survival and livelihoods are entwined with this river. However, this novel has remained inadequately known and has not garnered sufficient critical attention in recent years. Filling a lacuna in South Asian literary studies, and combining such studies with climate change discourses, this article discusses Kabir’s novel as a document depicting the environmental challenges faced in Bangladesh, exploring why this literary work has not received prominent coverage.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"1118 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138982628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Change, Employment and Development in Weekly Rural Markets in Odisha","authors":"Manish Tiwari, Rama Shankar Sahu","doi":"10.1177/02627280231215520","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231215520","url":null,"abstract":"Local rural markets ( haats) are considered important spaces of economic and social exchange all over South Asia. Based on a detailed ethnography in four weekly haats in Koraput district of Odisha in India, this article confirms their functions as dynamic socio-cultural gendered public spaces as well as crucial hubs of economic activities for rural areas. However, going beyond local ethnography, and seeking to understand how these weekly markets socially and economically empower poor rural tribals as well as non-tribals, this article problematises the role of middlemen. They not only regulate these markets but also control the terms of trade and profits while connecting local markets to higher scales of South Asia’s food security chains. Our concluding analysis identifies some key risks and opportunities faced by producers, sellers and buyers as participants in these weekly markets, which are now clearly glocalised spaces.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"32 17","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138592457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Swati Ganguly, Tagore’s University: A History of Visva-Bharati, 1921–1961","authors":"Abhishek Sarkar","doi":"10.1177/02627280231193098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231193098","url":null,"abstract":"Swati Ganguly, Tagore’s University: A History of Visva-Bharati, 1921–1961 (Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2022), xx + 488 pp.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"133 37","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135724502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Arundhathi Subramaniam, Women Who Wear Only Themselves: Conversations with Four Travelers on Sacred Journeys","authors":"N. Safrine","doi":"10.1177/02627280231193097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231193097","url":null,"abstract":"Arundhathi Subramaniam, Women Who Wear Only Themselves: Conversations with Four Travelers on Sacred Journeys (Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2021), 176 pp.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"135 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135724902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Jagdish Lal Dawar, Food in the Life of Mizos: From Precolonial Times to the Present","authors":"V. Ratnamala","doi":"10.1177/02627280231193095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231193095","url":null,"abstract":"Jagdish Lal Dawar, Food in the Life of Mizos: From Precolonial Times to the Present (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2019), ix + 342 pp.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"135 31","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135725059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"India-Afghanistan Relations in Changing Regional Geopolitics","authors":"Muneeb Yousuf","doi":"10.1177/02627280231190790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231190790","url":null,"abstract":"Afghanistan’s recent political transformations starkly confirm the country’s inevitable connectedness to volatile global geopolitics, currently witnessing the transformation of the role of the entire South Asian region within global geostrategic re-alignments. The US disengagement from Afghanistan put India and China into a new competitive scenario of cultivating their respective relations with Afghanistan. Before this complex backdrop, the article focuses on India’s policy options in Afghanistan, but first of necessity engages briefly with the changing regional geo-politics and the emerging new world order. In light of these new geopolitical realities, it becomes evident that despite much distrust and many misgivings, India’s Afghanistan policies have to be robust, focused on defending its geopolitical interests and concerns against China’s expansionist clout, while seeking to promote a multipolar world order, a strategy that appears like a reincarnation of India’s earlier path of non-alignment.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135959723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pakistan’s Opioid Squeeze: Impacts of Taliban Edicts, Indian Synthetics and Chinese Regulations","authors":"Nicholas Lassi","doi":"10.1177/02627280231161001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231161001","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how the Taliban’s opium poppy eradication edict and the westward shift in illicit fentanyl production from China to India potentiates an opioid squeeze on Pakistan from its east-west flanks, influencing Pakistan’s opioid production, distribution and use. As opioid output sputters in Afghanistan, while Indian chemists increasingly normalise illicit fentanyl production in South Asia, opportunistic Pakistani chemists will be incentivised to supply synthetic opioids to high-demand international markets, just as Pakistani farmers supply opium and heroin to international clients. This convergence has ramifications for Pakistani law, drug enforcement and public health, as domestic production increases domestic access to synthetic opioids. The article conducts an empirical examination of current trends in South Asian opioid production, distribution and use, along with an exegesis of the legal and regulatory systems in Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. This study also details how the Pakistani government should respond to this challenge legislatively, foremost through blanket ban of fentanyl and its precursors. Pakistan can reduce domestic use through evidence-based treatment programmes, including discrete and confidential treatment administered by females to female users, opioid substitution therapy, safe needle exchange programmes, culturally sensitive drug awareness campaigns, and increased data collection to detect geographic hotspot locations of opioid use and overdoses.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135438289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kashmiri Politics: Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz and the Struggle for Inclusive Nationalism, 1930–1940","authors":"Abdul Maajid Dar","doi":"10.1177/02627280231190757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231190757","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the vision of Kashmiri nationalism articulated by Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz, one of the critical contemporaries of Sheikh Abdullah in the 1930s. While scholarly writings and dominant discourses on Kashmiri politics have largely ignored Bazaz, the article argues that Bazaz was one of the chief architects of the introduction and popularisation of an inclusive nationalist narrative in the valley, especially the transformation of the religiously-oriented Muslim Conference into the secular-socialist National Conference. Based on examination of the unexplored writings of Bazaz and his contemporaries, collected from Srinagar-based archives, the article delineates how and to what large extent Bazaz’s politics and ideas influenced Kashmiri politics. These original sources are largely in Urdu and all translations into English are mine.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135438290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Manik Kher, Of Struggles and Joys in Industrial Research: A Memoir","authors":"Oluwapelumi Adamolekun","doi":"10.1177/02627280231191391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/02627280231191391","url":null,"abstract":"Manik Kher, Of Struggles and Joys in Industrial Research: A Memoir (Pune: Author and Replika Press, 2023), xi + 154 pp.","PeriodicalId":44525,"journal":{"name":"South Asia Research","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135438429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}