Author: editor

Being a tribal man from the North-East: Migration, Morality and Masculinity by Duncan McDuie-Ra

Book Review

By Hoineilhing Sitlhou

Duncan McDuie-Ra is an Australian academician who has done extensive research on the subject of Northeast migrants in New Delhi. He has written numerous articles on Northeast Indian culture and society, all of which are published in reputed journals and are excerpt from his more critically acclaimed book ‘Northeast Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail’. The article highlights the intersection between masculinity, ethnicity and migration within national boundaries with particular references to the Northeast frontier of India. For McDuie-Ra the theory that ‘migration cause the production and reproduction of masculine norms’ is relevant to understand the tribals of Northeast India. In Delhi, the concept of masculinity is reshaped in the face of changing gender relations and the status of tribals as a minority ethnic community. The article used the interpretative paradigm of study. He conducted ethnographic field research in Delhi from December 2010 to February 2011 and again in December 2011. The research is also informed by ten years of regular ethnographic fieldwork in Northeast India itself, primarily in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The author established rapport, lived and interacted with his respondent in order to understand their everyday experiences and realities. In Delhi, the author lived in a North easterner’s neighbourhood, travelled with tribal migrants around the city and conducted interviews and conversations in the places where tribal migrants live, work and study. Delhi was chosen as the universe of study to understand the problem of tribal migration for three reasons: First, it has the largest community of tribal migrants outside the Northeast region, second, the tribal community in Delhi is more diverse and third, Delhi is the ultimate choice of destination for the tribals either to pursue their education or career.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779977

Culture: A Barrier to Family Planning in the Khasi Society

Note

By Erica Kharsyntiew

Culture is the heart and soul of every society all over the world. It plays an important role in determining the shape of society as well as the lives of people belonging to that particular society. This paper attempts to show the influence that culture has on the Khasi society particularly on making family planning decisions. Not only does culture play a part, but religion as well. This is a society that has one of the highest fertility rates in India. One of the reasons behind this, maybe the influence of culture and religion. The results show that the couples are encouraged to continue to procreate because the survival of the society and the family is heavily dependent on the birth of a girl child. This paper attempts to show how society and religion affects reproduction and the attitudes towards adopting proper reproductive health care practices.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779924

Notes on type of land ownership and indigenous
agricultural methods of the Bondo Community

Note

By Abhijit Mohanty

The interaction between human being and nature has always been reciprocal. This is apparently evident in tribal communities where there always exist a symbiotic relationship between their livelihood pursuits and the surrounding natural resource base like the forest, land, and water, out of which land is one of the vital source of livelihood for them. Agriculture followed by collection of minor forest produces are major sources for their sustenance. The present paper was an attempt to understand the pattern of land ownership and indigenous agricultural methods of the Bondo community found only in the Khairput block of Malkangiri district of Odisha. The study clearly depicts that, among the Bondo, land is considered as the most valuable tangible assets and categorised under individual and community ownership. With the age old practices, the Bondo has developed their own indigenous technique to cultivate different crops in a range of land. Hence, it is imperative to meticulously study these indigenous methods of agriculture practice by the Bondo community one of the particular vulnerable tribe of India.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779875

In Search of Diverse Prospects of Existence in a New
Conurbation

Article

By Nikita Banati

Migration is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening since time immemorial. Northeast India is a region extremely rich in natural resources, but still remains relatively less developed as compared to other parts of the country in all fields including education, health, infrastructure, etc. This article discusses the various push and pull factors which lead to the migration of young people from Northeast India to Delhi and map the issues of coexistence confronted by them in Delhi. It also looks into the myriad experiences of migrants from the northeast region in Delhi and the perceptions of the host population about the migrants. Often people’s decision of migrating from Northeast India to Delhi in search of better higher education, infrastructure and job opportunities, which are reasonably lacking in the Northeast region, is a conscious one. It is not an unknown fact that discrimination exists in Delhi. There are various challenges that people from Northeast India face in Delhi, discrimination being one of the most common one. There is a major difference in culture which makes it harder for people from Northeast India to adjust in Delhi.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779838

Horticulture Based Livelihood in Tripura: A Case Study
of Baramura-Deutamura Hill Dwellers

Article

By Vanlalrema Kuki

Traditionally shifting cultivation was once the major occupation of the tribes of Tripura. However with declining availability of land and consistent efforts of the government to reduce ‘jhuming’, alternative vocations like plantation, horticulture, animal husbandry, etc. are being pursued by many hill dwellers currently, with varying degrees of success. The argument in favour of horticulture cultivation is that the weather and climate in the state is conducive and these often being short duration crops fit well into the intensive cropping system providing favourable economic returns to the cultivators. The present study area was selected purposively from the Baramura-Deutamura village in Khowai district of Tripura. The paper examined that income returns from mature crops were highly significant towards ensuring sustainable rural livelihoods while income received from immature crops were insignificant for pursuing sustainability of tribals livelihood in the region perhaps it provides employment all round the year. The roles of intermediaries were learnt highly influencing local market thereby depriving the growers from getting full benefits out of selling.

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DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779782

Fertility Trends in North-East India

Article

By P. Thongkhanthang

Fertility has been declining in all the states with the pace of decline varying according to their level of fertility. It is evident from the data sources that the fertility rate in the region, on an average, has declined faster during NFHS-1 to NFHS2, but slower during NFHS-2 to NFHS-3, and the TFR in rural areas has declined at slower pace than the urban counterparts over the same period. Given the variations in fertility levels and slow pace in declining trend within the North-East, this study suggests that there are large pockets of the population where people have little motivation towards small family and/or have poor access to quality family planning services and modern contraceptives. This demographic problem cannot be addressed in isolation without paying equal attention to general improvement in social and economic conditions along with increasing affordable access to good quality reproductive health services for all. This article uses published data from Census of India, Sample Registration System and National Family Health Survey (NFHS), several time series are compiled: crude birth rates from 1970s and fertility rates from the 1990s.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779740

Human Rights and Land Acquisition: A Case Study of
North Joynagar Village in Tripura

Article

By Khumtiya Debbarma

North Joynagar village is one of the Autonomous District Council (ADC) villages under Jirania Sub-division in the district of West Tripura. At present this village is under the threat of land alienation of the indigenous peoples, though the land acquisition is completely justified under Eminent Domain & Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, despite the government, without free prior informed consent, had acquired the land for public purpose since 2011. This land was, however, not completely acquired by the Government but may be acquired completely and evict the indigenous people at any time. There had been many protests made by the village peoples of Joynagar for protecting their land against acquisition and they are not ready to part away with their land, and would oppose any attempt to grab their land. If their land is completely acquired for the said project, and people being evicted there would be irreparable misery to the people, affecting their socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual life. This paper also discussed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 and to what extent it protests the interest of victims of land alienation. In this regard, The Land right of the indigenous peoples internationally was also studied so that international pressure can be created on the nation states to grant the rights to indigenous peoples over their land.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779684

Korean Media: A Catalyst of Acculturation to Korean
Culture in Manipur

Article

By Marchang Reimeingam

Consumption of Korean media among the young people in Manipur acted as a catalyst of acculturation to Korean culture, a blend of Western and Korean cultures, is a recent development. Adoption of Korean culture is widely prevalent irrespective of their household economic background, educational level, religion, occupation and ethnic group. These people really craze about the Korean culture ranging from food, hair style, make up, movies, clothing to language. However, many of them do not know even the country of origin, i.e. South Korea.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779607

A study on implementation status of Forest Right Act, 2006
at the national and state levels and its recommendations

Article

By Abhijit Mohanty

Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA) in India provides an interesting insight to the people especially who are concerned about the Rights of Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest dwellers on land and forest resources. Peoples’ rights over forest resources are being recognised under FRA in an inclusive manner for the first time in independent India which has been widely appreciated not only throughout the country but also across the world. Within 6 years of the enactment of FRA in the country, a number of impediments came at the implementation level. In this regard a series of research work has been done by various likeminded organisations and researchers which clearly states many reasons responsible for the slow progress of the act, but there is no doubt that it has already initiated a positive change in the forest landscape of the country. Hence, it is imperative to meticulously analyse the status of implementation of Forest Right Act at the national and state level with particular reference to Odisha. This paper reflects the issue that confronts smooth implementation of FRA at various levels including recommendations that will be helpful to materialise the fruitful implementation of FRA in its true spirit and letter.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779151

Understanding the History of Development of Panchayati
Raj in Assam through Assam Legislative Assembly
Debates, 1947 – 1960

Article

By Sanghamitra Sarma

This paper seeks to understand the history of development of Panchayat Raj in Assam by looking into the Legislative Assembly debates prior to the establishment of Panchayati Raj in Assam in 1960. Grassroot democracy in Assam did not develop in a fortnight even after the Government of India, following the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee Report of 1957, seeks to introduce democratic decentralisation or the Panchayati Raj in various states to promote and propagate the culture of participative democracy in the county in the post independence period. The process of establishment of decentralised institutions for the people to participate requires careful discussions and deliberations. The outcome has to be a system which suits the unique socio-cultural system of the state. The paper traces how prominent politicians of Assam during those days laid down the foundational blocks of grassroot democracy in Assam by discussing and debating extensively on the different legislations on decentralisation.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12779131

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