Tag: Hoineilhing Sitlhou

Agro-Economy in the Hills of Manipur: An Interplay of Peasants, Middlemen and Markets

Article

By Hoineilhing Sitlhou

The paper examines a peasant society’s interface with modernization, essentially the penetration of capitalist relations of production in the hills of Manipur. The space for labour has changed and has become commoditized. It is no longer the bonds of kinship, operative through families of clans and kindred, which govern production and distribution. Though there are a sizable population of rural poor, mostly landless labourers, who are dependent on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood, the introduction of peasants to commercial market economy have made them a vulnerable prey of the middlemen who exploit them in the business transactions. The outcome is the ensuing dwindling interest of the peasants in agriculture production as it is no longer considered to be a productive enterprise. This is despite the fact that they have no alternative vocation or source of livelihood or resource capital to fall back on. The study concludes that the peasants need to be encouraged by the state keeping in mind their important contribution to the state’s economy and subsistence.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12748009

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

Stigma and Identity Construction of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Manipur

Note

By Hoineilhing Sitlhou

Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting drug users, the disease has been associated with groups that are marked out as social deviants. Given this association and the fact that the disease has no effective treatment, sufferers faced social rejection and discrimination. The disease was seen as a consequence of life style choices and PLWHAs were denied access to the ‘sick role’. HIV/AIDS acts as a metaphor for moral and physical contamination. The infection confers on the individual a spoilt image and identity. This is reflected in the level of stigmatisation and discrimination directly faced by those affected and vulnerable to it; as also the way PLHAs construct their identities in the light of their infection with the virus. It is also relevant to an understanding of the ways in which treatment of people dying of HIV/AIDS are being organised.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12754475