Is India a Failed State? Narrative on the Interface between Indian State and Pandemic

Guwahati derives its name from the Assamese word “Guwa” means areca nut and “Haat” means market. However, the modern Guwahati had been known as the ancient Pragjyotishpura and was the capital of Assam under the Kamrupa kingdom. A beautiful city Guwahati is situated on the south bank of the river Bramhaputra. Moreover, It is known as the largest city in the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in North East India. It has also its importance as the gateway to the North- East India. Assamese and English are the spoken languages in Guwahati. In 1667, the Mogul forces were defeated in the battle by the Ahom forces commanded by Lachut Barphukan. Thus, in a sense Guwahati became the bone of contention among the Ahoms, Kochas and the Moguls during the medieval period. Guwahati the administrative headquarters of Lower Assam with a viceroy or Barbhukan was made by the Ahom king. Since 1972 it has been the capital of Assam. The present paper will discuss the changes happened in Guwahati over the period of late 1970s till the present time. It will focus on the behavior of people, transformed temples, Panbazar of the city, river bank of Bramhaputra, old Fancy Bazaar, chaotic ways, festivals and seasons including a fifth man made season etc. It will also deal how over the years a city endowed with nature’s gifts and scenic views, has been changing as “a dirty city”. Furthermore, it will also present the insurgencies that have barged into the city. The occurrence of changes will be discussed through the perspective and point of view of Srutimala Duara as presented in her book Mindprints of Guwahati.

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Acute respiratory distress syndrome: A pediatric intensive care unit experience from an eastern Indian state

JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE ◽

10.21304/2017.0403.00188 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 16

Author(s):

BijayKumar Meher ◽

Leena Das ◽

BalajiBhusan Patnaik ◽

DeeptiDamayanty Pradhan ◽

Jatadhari Mahar

Keyword(s):

Intensive Care Unit ◽

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome ◽

Intensive Care ◽

Respiratory Distress Syndrome ◽

Respiratory Distress ◽

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit ◽

Distress Syndrome ◽

Pediatric Intensive Care ◽

Indian State

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Dispossession without Development

10.1093/oso/9780190859152.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Michael Levien

Keyword(s):

Real Estate ◽

Sociological Theory ◽

Gender Inequalities ◽

State Governments ◽

Economic Policies ◽

Land Conflicts ◽

Land Dispossession ◽

Extended Case Method ◽

Indian State ◽

And Gender

Since the mid-2000s, India has been beset by widespread farmer protests against “land grabs.” Dispossession without Development argues that beneath these conflicts lay a profound transformation in the political economy of land dispossession. While the Indian state dispossessed land for public-sector industry and infrastructure for much of the 20th century, the adoption of neoliberal economic policies since the early 1990s prompted India’s state governments to become land brokers for private real estate capital—most controversially, for Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Using long-term ethnographic research, the book demonstrates the consequences of this new regime of dispossession for a village in Rajasthan. Taking us into the diverse lives of villagers dispossessed for one of North India’s largest SEZs, it shows how the SEZ destroyed their agricultural livelihoods, marginalized their labor, and excluded them from “world-class” infrastructure—but absorbed them into a dramatic real estate boom. Real estate speculation generated a class of rural neo-rentiers, but excluded many and compounded pre-existing class, caste, and gender inequalities. While the SEZ disappointed most villagers’ expectations of “development,” land speculation fractured the village and disabled collective action. The case of “Rajpura” helps to illuminate the exclusionary trajectory of capitalism that underlay land conflicts in contemporary India—and explain why the Indian state is struggling to pacify farmers with real estate payouts. Using the extended case method, Dispossession without Development advances a sociological theory of dispossession that has relevance beyond India.

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Political and Economic History of Land-Grabs in India

10.1093/oso/9780199477616.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Peer Ghulam Nabi Suhail

Keyword(s):

Economic History ◽

The State ◽

Developmental Approach ◽

Land Grabs ◽

Indian State ◽

History Of ◽

The Media

This chapter begins with tracing the roots of colonialism in India, followed by understanding its various structures and processes of resource-grabbing. It argues, that India has largely followed the colonial approach towards land appropriation. After independence, although the Indian state followed a nationalistic path of development, the developmental approach of the state was far from being pro-peasant and/or pro-ecology. In a similar fashion, hydroelectricity projects in Kashmir, developed by NHPC from 1970s, have been displacing thousands of peasants from their lands and houses. Despite this, they are yet to become a major debate in the media, in the policy circles, or in academia in India.

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Public Finance and Personal Law in Late Colonial India

10.1093/oso/9780199477791.003.0010 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Eleanor Newbigin

Keyword(s):

Public Finance ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Legal System ◽

Income Tax ◽

Economic Value ◽

Indian Society ◽

Personal Income Tax ◽

Colonial India ◽

Indian State ◽

Personal Law

This chapter considers the ways in which the fiscal demands of representative government, and specifically the development of a direct, personal income tax, impacted legal subjecthood during India’s transition to Independence. It shows how early twentieth-century understandings of economic value and public finance were embedded into Indian society and legal system through discussions about personal law. This had particular consequences for Hindu personal law, which, under pressure from a centrally administered income tax regime, was re-imagined as a singular, homogeneous all-Indian legal system in ways that rendered the Hindu joint family synonymous with the representative and fiscal structures of the Indian state.

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