Bengal Partition Refugees at Sealdah Railway Station, 1950–60

2021 ◽  
pp. 026272802110548
Author(s):  
Anwesha Sengupta
Keyword(s):  
West Bengal ◽  
The State ◽  
Railway Station ◽  
Government Facility ◽  
Autobiographical Accounts ◽  
A Site

This article focuses on the Sealdah railway station in Calcutta, West Bengal, as a site of refugee ‘settlement’ in the aftermath of British India’s partition. From 1946 to the late 1960s, the platforms of Sealdah remained crowded with Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan. Some refugees stayed a few days, but many stayed for months, even years. Relying on newspaper reports, autobiographical accounts and official archives, this article elaborates how a busy railway station uniquely shaped the experiences of partition refugees. Despite severe infrastructural limitations, the railway platforms of Sealdah provided these refugee residents with certain opportunities. Many preferred to stay at Sealdah instead of moving to any government facility. However, even for the most long-term residents of Sealdah, it remained a temporary home, from where they were either shifted to government camps or themselves found accommodation in and around Calcutta. The article argues that by allowing the refugees to squat on a busy railway platform for months and years, the state recognised a unique right of these refugees, their right to wait, involving at least some agency in the process of resettling.

scholarly journals "Communist" dispossession meets "reactionary" resistance

Focaal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (54) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Projit Bihari Mukharji
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Communist Government ◽  
Set Up

The reflections in this article were instigated by the repeated and brutal clashes since 2007 between peasants and the state government’s militias—both official and unofficial—over the issue of industrialization. A communist government engaging peasants violently in order to acquire and transfer their lands to big business houses to set up capitalist enterprises seemed dramatically ironic. De- spite the presence of many immediate causes for the conflict, subtle long-term change to the nature of communist politics in the state was also responsible for the present situation. This article identifies two trends that, though significant, are by themselves not enough to explain what is happening in West Bengal today. First, the growth of a culture of governance where the Communist Party actively seeks to manage rather than politicize social conflicts; second, the recasting of radical political subjectivity as a matter of identity rather than an instigation for critical self-reflection and self-transformation.

Development Against Violence: Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship (PMRDF) in India

2020 ◽  
pp. 154231662097264
Author(s):  
Hena Khatun ◽  
Jyotirmaya Tripathy
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
The State ◽  
Local People ◽  
Broad Theory ◽  
The Subject ◽  
A Site ◽  
Development State

This article advances the literature on development vis-à-vis Naxal violence in India by using the Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship (PMRDF) as a site of developmental meaning making. In the process, it reappraises the idea of the development state, its relation with violence, and its ways of vernacularizing itself through PMRDF. Drawing from the experience of three PMRD Fellows from West Bengal and interrogating existing scholarship on the subject, we argue that development matters in people’s lives and is a bulwark against violence, something which legitimates the development state. We also propose that far from being an arm of the security state as some critiques promote, PMRDF was an interactive space that brought the state and people to conversation and offered development actors who discovered themselves among local people rather than within bureaucracy. What is attempted here is not a broad theory which guides local developmental practices but a grounded approach that can work as a contingent model to understand conflict and development and how they relate to people’s place within the state.

Experimenting in Somalia: The new security empire

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 404-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Besteman
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
The State ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
A Site ◽  
Us Intervention ◽  
Security Regimes

The past several decades of US intervention in Somalia produced violent destabilization, dysfunction, and uncertainty, creating refugee outflows and terrorist networks against which the US is currently tightening its security cordons. This paper argues that Somalia’s recent history as a stateless region offers a cautionary and tragic case study of the long-term damages that ensue when wealthy states that intervene in poorer states in the name of their own security instead cause insecurity and inequities that enable violence, and then in response to that violence enact further securitization to protect themselves against the consequences of that damage. But rather than focusing on the state as a site of securitization, I focus on those whose lives are made insecure by the retreat of their state government and the imposition in its place of security regimes that are not created by their own state government. Such security regimes overlap and compete, are instituted by different state and nonstate actors for different purposes, and by their incoherence and multiplicity raise questions about the definition, location, and relevance of the state in such regions. The paper explores the emergence of new, interlinked security regimes that are partially or wholly constituted through the logics of a new security empire designed to respond to US security concerns. By turning attention to the situations faced by those who live within the insecurities of stateless regions, the paper asks, what happens to the concept of securitization when the national-territorial state is not the entity that operates as a ‘state’ in the lives of people, even though their lives are overlain with multiple and overlapping regimes of securitization?

scholarly journals Localising Global Faiths The Heterodox Pantheon of the Sundarbans

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-157
Author(s):  
Shatarupa Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Littoral Zone ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
The State ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Global History ◽  
Religious Worldview ◽  
The People ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Sundarbans

This essay foregrounds the Sundarbans, a littoral zone in India that moves between sea and land and is a site of global history. It studies the pantheon of divinities, especially Bonbibi (Lady of the Forest), a mythical figure of Muslim origin. Such deities are worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims exclusively in the Sundarbans (Beautiful Forest) that straddles the state of West Bengal (India) and the nation-state of Bangladesh. It demonstrates how the Sundarbans, during Islamisation in the medieval era actively adapted, as against passively adopting, the global faith of Islam to suit the local needs of the people there. The result was a religious worldview that was not quite Islamic, but not quite Hindu either, but rather a singular faith system unique to the region and suited to meet the needs of the people there. And because this faith system does not conform to the orthodox beliefs of either Hinduism or Islam, it can accurately be described as a heterodox pantheon.

Power Projects and Covid-19: A Practical Analysis of the Relevance of Force Majeure Clauses under the Standardised Power Purchase and Implementation Agreements of Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-193
Author(s):  
Aisha Naiga ◽  
Loyola Rwabose Karobwa
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
The State ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Force Majeure ◽  
Practical Analysis ◽  
Energy Justice

Over 90% of Uganda's power is generated from renewable sources. Standardised Implementation Agreements and Power Purchase Agreements create a long-term relationship between Generating Companies and the state-owned off-taker guaranteed by Government. The COVID-19 pandemic and measures to curb the spread of the virus have triggered the scrutiny and application of force majeure (FM) clauses in these agreements. This article reviews the FM clauses and considers their relevance. The authors submit that FM clauses are a useful commercial tool for achieving energy justice by ensuring the continuity of the project, despite the dire effects of the pandemic. Proposals are made for practical considerations for a post-COVID-19 future which provides the continued pursuit of policy goals of promoting renewable energy sources and increasing access to clean energy, thus accelerating just energy transitions.

The History Of Modern Vaccination In Cooch Behar State In The Nineteenth Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 180-190
Author(s):  
Rajkumar Bind
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Vaccination Programme ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
The State ◽  
The People ◽  
Small Pox ◽  
Preventive Method ◽  
History Of

This paper examines the development of modern vaccination programme of Cooch Behar state, a district of West Bengal of India during the nineteenth century. The study has critically analysed the modern vaccination system, which was the only preventive method against various diseases like small pox, cholera but due to neglect, superstation and religious obstacles the people of Cooch Behar state were not interested about modern vaccination. It also examines the sex wise and castes wise vaccinators of the state during the study period. The study will help us to growing conciseness about modern vaccination among the peoples of Cooch Behar district.   

Individual mechanisms underlying peripheral nerve damage when exposed to metallic mercury

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 918-924
Author(s):  
Dina V. Rusanova ◽  
Oleg L. Lakhman ◽  
Galina M. Bodienkova ◽  
Irina V. Kudaeva ◽  
Natalya G. Kuptsova
Keyword(s):  
Peripheral Nerve ◽  
Peripheral Nerves ◽  
Blood Circulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Contact Period ◽  
Peripheral Nerve Damage ◽  
Demyelinating Disorders ◽  
Peripheral Blood Circulation ◽  
Antibodies To Dna

Introduction. There is a lack of knowledge of the pathophysiological mechanisms that form peripheral nerve disorders in mercury lesions of professional origin. The study aims to reveal the mechanisms underlying peripheral nerve damage in the long-term post-contact period of chronic mercury intoxication (CMI). Materials and methods. Fifty-one people had the diagnosis of a long-term period of CMI. The post-contact period was 8.5±2.6 years. The authors compared the results with a control group of 26 healthy men who had no contact with toxic substances. Stimulating electroneuromyography was performed. We studied the body systems that could contribute to the formation of disorders in the peripheral nerves. Changes in peripheral hemodynamics were studied using reovasography. The content of autoantibodies, neuron-specific enolase, serotonin, histamine, catecholamines (epinephrine, dopamine), metanephrine, and neurotrophin-3 was reviewed. The content of ceruloplasmin, secondary products of lipid peroxidation processes, reduced glutathione, the activity of superoxide dismutase and the content of nitric oxide levels were determined. Results. The study established pathogenetic structural links of peripheral nerve disorders. The autoimmune process's role was to increase the range of antibodies to the MAG protein and increase the level of antibodies to DNA. Violations of elastic-tonic properties of peripheral vessels could be associated with the functional state of motor axons. The increased content of neurotransmitters is related to the state of peripheral blood circulation; the most pronounced changes were on the legs, which could contribute to the occurrence and maintenance of vasoconstriction. The role of oxidative stress in the formation of demyelinating disorders in patients' peripheral nerves in the long-term period of CRI is possible. Conclusion. Neuroimmunological processes has an essential role in the development of peripheral nerve demyelination was shown, which consists in an increase in the content of antibodies to the MAG protein expressed on Schwann cells of peripheral nerves and in an increase in the level of antibodies to DNA involved in the formation of demyelinating changes when exposed to metallic mercury. The revealed pathological changes in the state of the peripheral blood circulation, characterized by a violation of the vessels' elastic-tonic properties, leading to demyelination of motor axons in patients in the long-term period of CMI. The increased content of neurotransmitters in the examined is of great importance in the state of peripheral circulation. Pronounced changes in blood circulation are established on the lower extremities, which may be associated with the predominance of α-adrenergic receptors in the arterial bed and may contribute to the occurrence and maintenance of vasoconstriction in the legs. The relationship between changes in indicators of oxidative stress, consisting of a decrease in the value of superoxide dismutase and reduced glutathione, and the formation of demyelinating disorders of peripheral nerves in patients in the long-term period of CMI has been proved.

Investigations on potential methods for the long-term monitoring of the state of fuel elements in dry storage casks

Kerntechnik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 513-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Hampel ◽  
A. Kratzsch ◽  
R. Rachamin ◽  
M. Wagner ◽  
S. Schmidt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Dry Storage ◽  
Long Term Monitoring ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
Fuel Elements ◽  
Term Monitoring

STATE REGULATION OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKET IN UKRAINE

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
pp. 30-47
Author(s):  
Lyudmila Nikolayevna Akimova ◽  
Alla Vasilievna Lysachok
Keyword(s):  
Life Insurance ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Credit Unions ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
The State ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Insurance Contracts ◽  
State Pension

The essence of such concepts is “financial service”, “financial ser- vices market”, and “participants of the financial services market”; determined the purpose of state regulation of the financial services market; forms of state regu- lation of the financial services market; financial services that are present in the financial services market; the structure of state regulation bodies of the financial services market in Ukraine is given; The role of state bodies in the regulation of the financial services market was studied; to characterize the regulatory le- gal regulation of the financial services market in Ukraine; the main problems of functioning of the domestic market of financial services are revealed; ways to solve existing problems. It is grounded that the state regulation of financial ser- vices markets consists in the state’s implementation of a set of measures aimed at regulating and overseeing financial services markets to protect the interests of financial services consumers and preventing crisis phenomena. It is concluded that the financial services market is an important element of the development of the economy as a whole, in particular, it concerns not only the state but also society. We must understand that when this market is settled, that is, all bodies that carry out state regulation are competent in their powers, only then will we make informed, effective decisions about the normal and effective functioning of the RFP. It is important that the data of the subjects of control do not overlap, their activities should be fixed at the legislative level. It is also worth bearing in mind that appropriate conditions must be created to create compensatory mecha- nisms in the financial services markets by developing a system for guarante- eing deposits and providing for payments under long-term life insurance contracts, non-state pension provisions, deposits with deposit accounts to credit unions, etс.

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