Author: editor

James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Book Review

Reviewed by Jeemut Pratim Das

‘The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia’, published in 2009, marked a renewed focus on the history and people of the Southeast Asian mainland massif of ‘zomia’, a term that Scott borrows from Willem Van Schendel1 to denote the geographical region stretching from the mountain highlands of Vietnam to India’s northeastern regions. This area, he argues, is populated by people characterized by a history of escapism from the expansionist padi wet rice agricultural states of the lowlands over the course of their fluid history, thereby seeking to contest the common assumption of them being left behind in the march of civilizational progress and being reduced to uncivilized barbarians in the process. Scott argues that the art of escaping was a deliberate choice rather than a forced exclusion, where the history of the hills is itself a unique construction of a ‘state effect’ of ‘ingathering’ of populations that seeks to make the peripheries visible and legible in the eyes of the modern state. By extension, this denotes an anarchist and non-state history as the choice came ‘from below’ and was not a state imposition, though the lenses through which the hills are viewed still exist and are defined and reified by (misguided) state practices of ordering the totality of existence within its increasingly well-defined borders.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12783077

Mathematics Achievement of Class V Students: A Study of North Eastern States

Article

By Satya Bhushan and Santosh Kumar

More than years of schooling, it is learning or the acquisition of cognitive skills that improve individual’s overall life productivity. It is demonstrated by many researchers that a solid foundation in mathematics and language is necessary for primary school children to navigate the information in technological age. Students with strong grasp in mathematics have an advantage in academics as well as in the job markets. The paper has raised many issues that have serious implication for quality improvement in mathematics education at primary stage in the North eastern States. There is huge number of students in the States whose achievement in mathematics is at lower side of the scale. Those achieving mastery level competencies constituted a small fraction of the total students.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782998

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Human Trafficking in North East India: Patterns and Emerging Trends

Article

By Neimenuo Kengurusie

This brief article attempts to analyse the factors that have facilitated the rise of human trafficking, and the patterns and trends of human trafficking in North East India, with special emphasis on Nagaland. The study is based on primary data which include field-work, analysis of case studies and reports collected from state and non-state anti-trafficking personnel, and secondary data which include newspaper reports, articles, and books. It identifies human trafficking at an alarming level and the need for a strong level framework, as well as the role of religious institutions in tackling this menace.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782910

The Self Perceived Morbidity and its Determinants in North East India

Article

By Kshetrimayum Rabikan Singh

The concept of health has evolved through ages, from a simple biological concept to a more complex social concept. The health condition of individuals or a group is largely influenced by socio-economic and political environment. Observing social dimension of health is essential to understand the health condition of a population. This study is an attempt to understand how different socio-economic determinants are associated with the level of morbidity in North East India. The health condition across the North East states is found to be varied by different socio-economic characteristics. The illness rate is found to be higher in rural areas than urban areas for North East on an average. The deeply rooted patriarchal Indian society also gets reflected, where women are found to have more illness rate than male in all the North East states, except Sikkim. Social class also found to have significant influence on the health status of the population. Scheduled Caste community has the highest rate of illness among all the social class. Enabling factors like education and income also have significant impact on illness rate.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782812

Converting the Nagas and Kukis: Missionary Representations

Article

By Ningmuanching

This paper is a study of missionary encounter and the coming of Christianity to Manipur, and its influence on the historical development of Naga and Kuki identities. Through a discussion of missionary representations and conversion of the hill population around Manipur valley which constituted a part of the Assam Mission Field of the American Baptist Mission, the paper argues that the missionary representations of the people were distinct from colonial official representations. Rather than classification of people from hills and plain as well as Nagas and Kukis according to one’s place in the scale of civilization, differences were represented on the basis of one’s propensity towards conversion. It shows that inspite of their instrumental contribution in providing written languages for the Naga and Kuki group of tribes, missionaries were not the only agents here. The allegiance exhibited by converts towards their own spoken dialect equally emphasizes the agency of the hill people in the reshaping of their social world in which the language of a group became the primary basis of identification. Ironically, the mission project to reduce the dominant dialects of the Nagas and Kukis into a written form was to establish linguistic borders between the different tribes.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782730

Minorities in Japan and India: A Comparative Study of Ainu and Borok Tribals

Article

By M. Kamlianlal Zou

Minorities are often subjected to unjust exploitation and desisted from social, political and economic opportunities. The government’s machineries and constitutional provisions for protecting the minorities sometimes become a tool in the hands of the dominant group to exploit the minorities. As a result minorities feel alienated, suffer from inferiority complex and may lead to a rebellious attitude depending on the social setting in which differential treatment operates. This paper analyses the difficulties faced by minorities in Japan and make a comparative study between the Ainu of Japan and the Borok tribals of Tripura in India. These two tribals are indigenous peoples, and they maintained an independent kingdom and administered themselves before their ancestral lands were annexed by the dominant community. As a result, they were reduced to a minority and became a stranger in their own land.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782644

Ranking of districts in North East states of India by the use of Standard of Living Index using 2001 and 2011 census

Article

By Phrangstone Khongji

Due to limited literature available to highlight the economic level and status for states and districts of North east India, the present study attempts to capture the same by extracting the information on living standards of people through the eight variables collected during the 2001 and 2011 census. Standard of living index is constructed through the use of principal component analysis, where states and districts in the region are ranked. This study can have important policy implications, concerning directing the resources to those districts of the region which have slip in the rank between the two censuses.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782553

Wari Leeba: The Declining Storytelling Tradition of the Meiteis of Manipur and Tripura

Article

By Sukla Singha

There is a popular notion that ‘literature’ is primarily written or printed. Another western concept is that it is the written word that is legitimate or valid and modern or progressive, whereas the spoken word is a representative of the primitive or uncivilized world. These notions have been challenged time and again by alternative textualities such as oral traditions, paintings and illustrations. The oral tradition of storytelling has been in vogue since time immemorial across many communities of India as well as the rest of the world. These stories would serve as a grand repository of memories and histories of the respective societies through the power of the spoken word. But with rapid urbanization, these stories are faced first with distortion and then with extinction, as the storytellers of the older generation pass away. This paper attempts to understand the storytelling tradition of Manipur, popularly known as the Wari-Leeba (that forms an integral part and parcel of the Meitei culture) as well to find out probable causes of its declining/deteriorating status in the adjacent state of Tripura that is a home to a good number of Meitei population.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782498

Spreading the Dreaded Virus: Social Dimension of HIV/ AIDS in Churachandpur, Manipur

Article

By Johny Lalbiaklian

The problem of HIV/AIDS is not only a medical problem but it is increasingly recognised as a social problem. It is important to examine the many influences in the society that have a bearing on HIV/AIDS. Development of an appropriate respond to HIV/AIDS requires an understanding of the specific society, its history, its culture and its dynamic. Social issues surrounding the risk of HIV/AIDS and its infection are important ones that illuminate a number of social problems and value conflicts within the society. This paper attempts to address the social dimension of the causes and impact of HIV/ AIDS in the district of Churachandpur, Manipur. It is observed that various social activities such as tribal festivals, youth activities and even faith-based festivals play significant role in contributing to the spread of the diseases among the youth. There are diverse responses with regard to the general attitudes towards the infectants where benevolent feeling and sympathy are shown by the families and society broadly.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782396

Increasing Public Value in the Shillong Region of Meghalaya

Article

By Leon Miller

Social networking is increasingly being applied to municipalities to improve social-economic performance, improve the relationship between government and the public, and increase benefits for all stakeholders. The literature on social networking stresses that it increases transparency, reduces corruption, and enhances a locale’s ‘smart municipality’ image. However, in spite of the success of social networking in other global contexts there has been no development of a theoretical model that explains the factors that make it effective for improving social and economic conditions in the Shillong region. This article explains how social networking could be applied to the Shillong region to integrate the resources of society to increase benefits for all stakeholders. Thus, this article contributes to literature on social networking by explaining how the fundamental concepts and principles related to social networking provide the basis for a theory of how the concept can improve social conditions.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782292

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