Internet blackouts in Meghalaya: A case of emerging complexities in the digital age

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110453
Author(s):  
Alexander Lewis Passah

The paper is rooted in the observations from the two internet blackouts witnessed in Meghalaya in 2018 and 2019. The state is located in the North Eastern region of India and this study focuses on the Khasi population residing in the East Khasi Hills District. The study explores the complex role social media has played in information dissemination in the digital age. India currently leads the world in terms of internet blackouts and it has been imposed 538 times in the country. This phenomenon has become a reoccurring trend over the last few years with the rise in digital communications and technological affordances. The paper addresses the dualistic nature of social media and how it can be empowering on the one hand, and can also be a key contributor to mis(dis)information on the other. The study offers a non-digital centric approach by adopting digital ethnographic methods and offers insights into the social media practices and experiences of the Khasi participants as well as delving into the problematic nature of internet blackouts with respect to Meghalaya. Evidently, social media has become a space in which most individuals carry their identity, aspirations, views, history, and opinions.

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polly Vauquline

Domestic violence is an evil that never dies. It is an indicator of inequality, injustice and discrimination of the social system. Though there is no justification for its existence in a civilized society, then why it is so difficult to root it out? Why does it persist to exist even after the prevalence of legal provisions to combat domestic violence? The causes maybe embedded on the facts that it involves intimate relationship on the one hand and exercise of power relations on the other. These power relations put women at disadvantaged positions, which are prominently gendered in nature. Assam, a state in the north-eastern corner of India, is unique in its own distinction. It is a region with myriad communities with varied culture, ethnic and social background. Distinctive statistical differences of domestic violence exist among these communities. These variations may categorically be due to the nature of power relations in intimate relations among these communities, which is probed with the application of oral history method. An effort is made through this study to explore the societal attitudes concerning power within intimate human relations. The focus of this paper is to search for the social beliefs attached with the power relations that have been governing them or promoting them in the form of social values, customs, rituals and traditions, which are the nucleus of domestic violence in Assamese society. This study intends to investigate the power relations amongst the different communities. Oral history method is applied to probe the socialisation process of the victims of domestic violence and to analyse how it creates power relations that caters to domestic violence. It gives a deeper understanding to the gendered nature of power in intimate relations. It illustrates that power relations is created through socialisation process and is a contributing attribute to domestic violence among spouses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-341
Author(s):  
Martin Fotta

AbstractGypsies (Ciganos in Portuguese) have been present in Brazil since the earliest days of Portuguese colonization. Part of the (free) masses (o povo, “the people”), they were known primarily as itinerant traders of trinkets, slaves, and animals, and were one category of intermediaries who made the internal economy function. Authorities viewed their lifestyle and activities with suspicion. Focusing on the state of Bahia, in the north-eastern region of Brazil, between the late sixteenth and late nineteenth centuries, this article shows that the tenuous position of Gypsies was amenable to transformations reflecting political priorities and ideas about the proper social order. The continued difference of Ciganos and their independent way of making a living were at times problematized by elites, embodying wider tensions between the authorities and the people. The case of Bahian Ciganos is revelatory within Romani-related historiography in that it foregrounds connected developments within locales enmeshed in a metropole–periphery relationship, continuities between imperial and nation-building projects, and the centrality of race on which they were built.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-192
Author(s):  
Dr. Oinam Ranjit Singh ◽  
Dr. Nushar Bargayary

The Bodo of the North Eastern region of India have their own kinship system to maintain social relationship since ancient periods. Kinship is the expression of social relationship. Kinship may be defined as connection or relationships between persons based on marriage or blood. In each and every society of the world, social relationship is considered to be the more important than the biological bond. The relationship is not socially recognized, it fall outside the realm of kinship. Since kinship is considered as universal, it plays a vital role in the socialization of individuals and the maintenance of social cohesion of the group. Thus, kinship is considered to be the study of the sum total of these relations. The kinship of the Bodo is bilateral. The kin related through the father is known as Bahagi in Bodo whereas the kin to the mother is called Kurma. The nature of social relationships, the kinship terms, kinship behaviours and prescriptive and proscriptive rules are the important themes of the present study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-273
Author(s):  
Syeda Sabiha Salam ◽  
Pankaj Chetia ◽  
Devid Kardong

Background: Malaria is endemic in various parts of India particularly in the North- Eastern states with Plasmodium falciparum-the most prevalent human malaria parasite. Plantderived compounds have always received tremendous importance in the area of drug discovery and development and scientific study of traditional medicinal plants are of great importance to mankind. Objective: The present work deals with the computational study of some antimalarial compounds obtained from a few medicinal plants used by the tribal inhabitants of the North-Eastern region of India for treating malaria. Methods: In silico methodologies were performed to study the ligand-receptor interactions. Target was identified based on the pharmacophore mapping approach. A total of 18 plant-derived compounds were investigated in order to estimate the binding energies of the compounds with their drug target through molecular docking using Autodock 4.2. ADMET filtering for determining the pharmacokinetic properties of the compounds was done using Mobyle@RPBS server. Subsequent Quantitative-Structure Activity Relationship analysis for bioactivity prediction (IC50) of the compounds was done using Easy QSAR 1.0. Results: The docking result identified Salannin to be the most potent Plasmepsin II inhibitor while the QSAR analysis identified Lupeol to have the least IC50 value. Most of the compounds have passed the ADME/Tox filtration. Conclusion: Salannin and Lupeol were found to be the most potent antimalarial compounds that can act as successful inhibitors against Plasmepsin II of P. falciparum. The compounds Salannin and Lupeol are found in Azadirachta indica and Swertia chirata plants respectively, abundantly available in the North-Eastern region of India and used by many inhabiting tribes for the treatment of malaria and its symptoms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001955612110065
Author(s):  
Rita Jain ◽  
Sanjay Kumar

To the North Eastern Region (NER) of India, lie the unexplored states of the Indian Union. This region holds a unique place in the federal structure of India. This article attempts to scrutinise the diversity of NER, along with the potential of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) as a medium to change, uplift and assimilate it with pan India. The article aims to comprehend how NER can accommodate the regional identities and cultural affinities with Indian mainstream identity through the intervention of NCC at college and university level. The methodology of this article is based on secondary resources such as published books, journals, web pages, reports, newspapers and online sources. The article is analytical and descriptive in nature based on thematic approach.


1945 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.P. Geyer ◽  
I.W. Rupel ◽  
E.B. Hart

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
S Mondal ◽  
L Akter ◽  
HJ Hiya ◽  
MA Farukh

The Sunamganj district is covered by major Haor systems in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh. Flash flood is the most commonly occurring water related disaster in the Haor areas. During the flash flood it is very common that people lost their primary agricultural productions which are the only source of their livelihood. The present study focuses on the effects of 2017 early flash flooding on rice and fish production of Sunamganj Haor areas. The flood caused enormous damage to agriculture such as rice especially Boro rice and fish production on which the Haor dwellers rely upon for their livelihood. The total affected land of Boro rice cultivation in Haors of Sunamganj was 149,224 hectare and the total amount of damaged rice was 393,855 metric ton (MT). The total number of affected farmers was 315,084. The early flash flood also affects the quality of Haor water which caused the death of fishes. The total amount of damaged fish was 49.75 MT and the loss was 158.70 lakh taka. The total number of affected fishermen was 44,445. This findings could be very useful for the environmental scientists to predict the probable future effects on agricultural production due to early flash flood events in Sunamganj Haors areas. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 12(1&2): 117-125, 2019


Author(s):  
Konstantin S. Sharov

The paper is concerned with a study of the changing content and style of non-canonical Christian religious preaching in the digital age. Special attention is paid to the analysis of modern rhetoric Christian preachers practice in their Internet channels, forums and blogs. It is shown that the content of the Internet sermon is largely determined by the Internet users themselves and the topics of their appeals. The fundamental characteristics of the content of the Internet sermon are: 1) focus on the individual, their private goals and objectives, not just on theological problems; 2) rethinking the phenomenon of the neighbour; 3) a shift from the Hesychast tradition of preaching the importance of inner spiritual concentration to the preaching of religious interactivity. The observed stylistic features of the digital preaching can be summarised as follows: 1) moving away from simple answers to the rhetoric of new questions addressed to the audience; 2) empathy, co-participation with a person in his/her life conflicts and experiences; 3) desire to share religious information, not to impose it; 4) resorting to various rhetorical techniques to reach different audiences; 5) a tendency to use slang, sometimes even irrespective of the audience’s language preferences and expectations. It should be pointed out that the Orthodox Internet sermon in the Russian Internet space has a dual and contradictory nature. On the one hand, this phenomenon can be regarded as positive for the Orthodox preaching in general, since it is a means of spreading Christian ideas in the social groups that do not constitute a core of parishioners of Orthodox churches, for example, schoolchildren, students, representatives of technical professions, etc. On the other hand, the effectiveness of such preaching is still unclear. Lack of reliable statistics as well as the results of the survey related to the Orthodox Internet preaching gives us no opportunity to judge about effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the phenomenon at this stage of its development.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document