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This paper evaluates the impact of the grant of the 'Scheduled Tribe' status to the Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir. We interacted with community members in order to understand their views. The article is based on these responses, supplemented by inputs from published government reports and other secondary studies, and is an attempt to produce a nuanced understanding of the true import of reservation for the Gujjars. We seek to understand whether the affirmative action undertaken to protect the community has produced the desired level of shift in the community's marginal status in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The paper contends that the efficacy of affirmative action is not ensured by the duration of such measures, but by the presence of a robust political will to implement the same. In the case of the Gujjars, the success of these measures has been minimal on account of the tardy manner of enactment of the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper unravels the politics of belonging, the legal-political regime of exclusion, and differentiated citizenship in the multi-layered social and political context of Arunachal Pradesh, India. This paper aims to engage with the institutional arrangements of the Indian state that accommodate the ethno-cultural differences in a multi-ethnic society. Set amidst the changing social and economic realities of Arunachal Pradesh, this study relates to the emerging contestations around the protection of Indigenous identity and the need for differential treatment of people in multiethnic societies by embedding these discussions within policy debates on Inner Line Regulation and land legislations in the state. This paper adopts an incisive approach to understand the implications of such protective measures on the conceptualization of citizenship in states with a significant Indigenous population. It argues for examining the implications of ethnicised forms of governance in favour of democratic power sharing structures and representative institutions of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the representative and performative aspects of the legal title ‘marriage migrant’, which surrounds the everyday lives of Vietnamese women who married South Korean men. While previous studies have predominantly addressed how categorisation by receiving states reproduces certain identities and treatments for those on the move, little is known about how it influences migrants’ behaviour. Drawn on observations and in-depth interviews with Vietnamese women married to South Korean men, this paper demonstrates that the category ‘marriage migrant’ not only carries gendered and socioeconomic hierarchised identities but further shapes Vietnamese women’s actions in response to those responsibilities and classifications. The research findings emphasise how categorisation and discourse reconfigure ethnic networks at the intersection of gender, class, and mobility. This study offers a nuanced understanding of intra-group dynamics within migrant communities, highlighting the implications of migrant agencies in categorising politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is a multi-ethnic political entity with diverse historical legacies and the modern capabilities to potentially change the current world order. The essence and prospects of China's policy towards the Muslims may provide important clues about future relations between the world and China. Therefore, more serious studies into how the Chinese regime has dealt with Muslim issues and how Chinese ethnicity has been changed are required. This special issue of 'Muslims across the Chinese border' enlists six in-depth papers on this critical topic with multidisciplinary and multidimensional analyses. Up-to-date issues like the mechanisms of internationalization of ethnic grievances, effects of China's religious policy in the Han-Chinese area and Central Asia, and the evolution of satisfactory feeling of overseas Chinese Muslims are addressed. Insights provided by these cutting-edge studies will encourage more innovative ideas on the studies of Chinese Muslims, and global Muslims as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images could be understood as a medium that does not only reflect and represent the socio-political dynamics but diffuses and perpetuates ideas and perceptions. Images, as an integral part of media, play a huge role in this dissemination through their framing, contents, signs, and symbols. In order to comprehend this power of photographs, the paper will look into the frames, as expounded by Judith Butler, which determine the visibility and invisibility of subjects in a photograph. This paper deals with the Assam Movement, which happened in Assam, a northeastern state of India, as a reaction to the migration from neighboring Bangladesh. The paper will also delve into how the newspapers, as a production of the class structure, impress upon the symbolic environment in which peoples' subjectivities are formulated. It is a study of how photographs published in newspapers can lay the foundations for the construction of an identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines vulgarity's cultural significance among the Zeliangrong Naga of Nagaland, Assam and Manipur. It is a sociological analysis of the ritual and social statuses maintained by senexes through ritualised vulgarities. The paper contends that vulgarities are not inherently vile. Vulgarities are believed to have divine power to protect humans by repelling evil spirits and causing them to despise humans who revel in utterly filthy vulgarism. Understanding the mythology of creation by divine intervention and propagation through sexual reproduction necessitates understanding ritualistic vulgarities. Men give something bad, like vulgarity, a divine meaning by giving it a good purpose and controlling how it is used in culture to keep their highest social and ritual statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Japanese policies toward different races (minzoku) in Singapore during the Second World War. These policies, which victimized the Chinese community and appeared to favor others such as the Malay and Indian communities, fostered inter-racial resentments that would persist long after the war. Drawing on internal occupation guidelines produced by the Japanese state and the accounts of the administrators who implemented them, this paper shows that the treatment of the Chinese community was in fact a direct result of the perceived significance of these groups to the success or failure of Japan's wartime imperial project in Southeast Asia. Groups whose importance the Japanese initially dismissed, however, had greater freedom to chart their own destinies and demand Japan live up to its promise of an "Asia for Asians" as the war progressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines attempts by colonial authorities in nineteenth-century Singapore and Batavia (now Jakarta) to employ ceremonial processions to manage the ethnic diversity of these two major colonial capitals. Public spectacles formed a key forum for the reinforcement of ethnic categories and the negotiation of inter-community relations in the context of the colonial city. The paper looks at two case studies: the procession on the occasion of the arrival of governor-general Jan Jacob Rochussen in Batavia in 1845, and a second one celebrating the Duke of Edinburgh's visit in Singapore in 1869. The analysis shows how these events attempted to fix ethnic categories spatially on the maps of the respective cities. Comparing the two events to a Malay account of the 1864 Muharram celebrations, the article also analyses the different ways that official and community-led processions employed mobility, visuality and sound to represent ethnicity and inter-community relations or hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the political legacies of transmigration in local elections in Indonesia. Lampung province has an unusual ethnic make-up because in the past 100 years both the Dutch colonial administration and Indonesian Government have been implementing a transmigration programme. Transmigration has therefore changed the demographic pattern of Lampung. Since 2005, the mode of local election has been changed from indirect to direct. As a consequence of this, there is a revival of ethnic identity politics in local elections. In this paper, we focus on a transmigration affected area where the descendants of Javanese transmigrants are numerically dominant and correspondingly powerful in local politics. This research leads us to argue that ethnicity has become an important factor in local elections and that in transmigration affected areas it has led to the political domination of Javanese transmigrant descendants in local politics. We further to show how, in response to this, native Lampungese elites have adopted a number of strategies to help them retain a role in local politics. Our argument runs contrary to that of some scholars who have claimed that ethnicity is playing a diminishing role in Indonesian local elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among the Dimasas (of Assam and Nagaland) in Northeastern India. This Indigenous group has a system of double descent which places them separately from the other ethnic groups in the Indian subcontinent. In double descent, lineages are drawn through both the paternal and maternal lines of descent. The existing literature suggests that studies on double descent have mostly focused on ethnic groups in Africa, while not much research has been done on Dimasas or other Indigenous groups with double descent in the region. The paper attempts to fill the gap in South Asian anthropological literature on kinship discourses by focusing on the Dimasas of Northeast India. Further, by taking gender as an analytical tool, the paper attempts to explore the complex cultural contours of the double descent system, which intricately gets subsumed within the patriarchal setup in Dimasa society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the socio-cultural transformation and challenges faced by the Rongmei tribe against the backdrop of continuous demographic growth and rapid urbanisation , inadequate planning, and shoddy policies of deathscapes in Manipur, Northeast India. It also examines the recent changes in cultural and customary practices concerning death, dignity and disposal of the dead among the Tingkao Ragwang Chapriak (TRC) group within the Rongmei tribe of Imphal. This article is the result of ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 2015 to 2020. In the last two decades, Thien (a traditional institution of Rongmei) and TRC have played significant roles in transitioning and negotiating customary practises and acquiring burial land. The analysis of this dynamic process with the concept of 'mortal migration' conceptualised as an extra-territorial customary rite of passage of death, is a significant contribution of this paper. It falls under what may be called extra-territorial village administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land alienation among its tribal communities has been one of the most disquieting issues in contemporary India despite existing laws for the protection of tribal land and habitat. This situation is attributed mainly to requisition of tribal land for various developmental activities undertaken by the state as well as its indifference in enforcing the existing laws. The situation in Assam clearly illustrates this. Despite the existing laws, the tribal communities have been unable to retain their ownership of the land. This paper shows that while the state-led development activities are significantly responsible for this, the various informal ways in which the transfer of tribal land takes place at a private level are also no less alarming. Explicating the dynamics behind this process, the paper divulges the multiple informal mechanisms, embedded in community network and trust at the local level to negotiate the protective land laws to facilitate the transfer of tribal land to non-tribal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic research focused on Tibetan women-in-exile is rare. Also, very few existing studies explore the perspectives of Tibetan women on the Tibetan nation and their contributions to Tibetan nationalism. Therefore, considering this gap in the literature, this paper explores the question of the Tibetan nation from the perspectives of Tibetan women-in-exile and seeks to understand their contributions to Tibetan nationalism. The paper draws from qualitative interviews conducted with Tibetan women in Dharamsala. The findings indicate that as agents and symbols of nationalism, educated Tibetan women-in-exile express ambivalence in their ideas of Tibetan women's contributions to Tibetan nationalism. Their narratives help us expand our understanding of Tibetan nationalism and reveal how women as active agents of nationalism contribute to the Tibetan movement. At the same time, the paper argues, the Tibetan women-in-exile have not escaped the symbolism of nationalism attributed to them by the larger Tibetan society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the factors hindering educational development among Muslims in India in general and the newly born Telangana state in particular, is the key sociological question confronting the educationists and policymakers? The current paper based on empirical study provides an anthropological perspective to understand a number of socio-cultural factors responsible for lower retention and higher dropout rates among Muslims in public schools across the class and gender lines. It highlights that with positive state interventions, the enrolment and retention levels of Muslim working-class children have increased enormously besides a significant improvement in the same among Muslim girls also. Thus the paper argues that a relaxation in school protocols facilitates Muslim children integrating the academic demands and socio-cultural obligations they deem necessary while addressing culturally sensitive issues in curriculum and pedagogic practices foster attitudinal changes together which contribute immensely to the educational advancement among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the ways in which new national narratives are sought to be constructed in 'post-truth' era – marked by what Harsin terms competing convictions, discord and confusion and attempts to manage the communication environment. New technologies and online spaces facilitate the 're-creation' and 're-construction' of the past and are co-opted in the nation building project. In the context of extensive studies on how the democratic potential of new technologies is subverted, this paper calls for specific attention to the ways in which (imprecise) history forms part of discursive nationalism in present times. Taking up India as a case study, the paper explores and evaluates the strategies employed in the rescripting of the national narrative potentially leading to new national memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feasts of Merit is a cultural phenomenon practised by several communities specific to their customs, traditions, and culture in different parts of the world. Whether or not the terminology is a colonial construct and/or a misnomer remains contestable. In the Tangkhul Naga context, the translation or notion of marān kasā as mere Feasts of Merit is a misnomer. Feast (of Merit) is only constitutive of marān kasā; thus, a part of a whole cannot be said to be the whole. This paper attempts to emancipate marān kasā from the coloniality of Feasts of Merit by debunking the colonial metanarrative; through the enunciation of socio-religious significance and culturo-educational functions of marān kasā that are manifestations of a deeper Tangkhul Naga, thus Naga, philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Polanyi's theories on embeddedness and disembeddedness help unpack the transformation of exchange systems and emergence of markets in societies. This paper analyses a process of such transformation observed in the context of the hand block printing industry of Jaipur and its nearby areas. Through an ethnographic study of the craft, we observe the extent to which hand block printing has undergone heavy commodification and commercialisation while disembedding from the society. Over the years, aspects of hand block printing, such as design, labour and authenticity, have changed for the worse, which has further impacted the socio-cultural identity of this craft and crafts(wo)men engaging in it. Some underlying forces behind this are the commodification of labour and the commercialisation of the craft. While expanding on these, the paper also provides policy recommendations on the aspects of recognising artists and standardising labels in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines enduring fears and anxieties about 'Chineseness' that widely and persistently circulate in the Philippine cultural imaginary. Chinese Filipinos have historically been implicated in a prejudicial politics of recognition within the Philippine postcolonial state, which has attempted to forge a national identity through problematic notions of ethnic and cultural purity. To undermine what Franz Fanon calls the pitfalls of national consciousness, scholars have often turned to concepts such as syncretism and hybridity, which celebrates heterogeneity and diversity as it opposes essentialism and purity. The agenda of this paper, however, is to examine the forces that generate obstacles to an affirmative politics of cultural assimilation and belonging. Toward that goal, we offer a symptomatic reading of the film Feng Shui (2004), which we suggest condenses anxieties about Chineseness that circulate in the Philippine cultural imaginary, anxieties that amplify difference and potentially undermine the reparative force of hybridity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the historical antecedents of the terminologies ascribed to the Chinese in the Philippines, focusing on the late Spanish to the early American colonial periods. Many government records, newspapers, or books categorized the "Chinese" as either sangley, intsik, Chinese mestizo, or "Chinese/Chino," in contradistinction to Christianized natives who were labeled as "Indios" and later "Filipinos." Following dominant and nationalized classifications of race, past scholarship on the Chinese in the Philippines also tended to paint the "Chinese" in the Philippines in a binarist opposition against "Filipinos." The essentialization of ethnicities has resulted in the perpetuation of a homogenized and monolithic "Chinese" identity that we see in the country today. Using government and non-government publications from the period under study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the power dynamic at particular moments in Philippine society that has led to the reification, reinvention, and reconfiguration of what it means to be "Chinese." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper seeks to locate the violence perpetrated on the bodies of the coolies in colonial Assam. The paper observes that the existing historiography on tea plantations in colonial Assam restricts corporeal violence on the coolies within the boundaries of the plantation estates and does not talk about the permeation of such violence to spaces and coolies totally outside of the plantation production process. This paper, with the evidence from a case from nineteenth-century Assam, extends the limits of corporeal violence on the coolies beyond the physical setup of the plantations. The paper proposes that histories of corporeal violence on labour in the colonial era need to look beyond the peripheries of the plantations and towards the social regimes of power under colonialism. The paper demonstrates the complicit character of the state and newly landed and moneyed native classes in the colony, which aggravated the magnitudes of violence on labour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although various studies have focused on the formation of ethnicity in Nagaland, little is known about specific aspects of collective cultural identity derived from the folktales of the Angami tribe. There is a lack of research in understanding the cultural analysis of the forms of kenyü (an Angami expression representing a 'proscription of behaviour'1) and its role in the wider social process, owing to the folktales as narratives in the representation of the ethnic identity of the Angami. Selecting four folktales from the Angami tribe provides a useful way of conceptualising the relationality of kenyü and the collective cultural identity. This paper undertakes a textual analysis of the selected folktales and applies Stuart Hall's concept of 'cultural identity' and Anthony Smith's idea of 'ethno-symbolism' to foreground the identification of the concept of kenyü in understanding the folktales to reimagine collective cultural identity as a key aspect of ethnic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to use VOSviewer to undertake bibliometric analysis to map the primary areas of Tibetan Exile literature to create a taxonomy of topic subareas and a research plan on this issue. Two hundred eighty-one papers published between 1960 and 2021, which were extracted from the Scopus database, have been examined to evaluate their interconnection, clusters, and citations to build a text-based map. The study highlights the most cited document, essential journals publishing on the issue, important keywords, prominent authors, and discussions on Tibetan refugees; also classifying the subthemes and the leading author's name. The findings will guide researchers interested in contemporary Tibetan studies. This categorization table of subthemes explored in the last 61 years comprises the following subjects: identity & human rights, immigration, government, media, health, international politics, Dalai Lama, nationhood, preservation of culture, resettlement, and a new generation of Tibetans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies suggest that the democratic system constructs a permissive environment for ethnic autonomy. This argument does not, however, fit in the case of Nepal in which the Constitution has institutionalized the democratic system and rejected the Madheshi autonomy. Nepal's constitutional position makes it imperative to examine the limits of the democratic system to address ethnic ambitions. In response, this paper has examined the following question: How did the democratic political system affect the Madheshi demand for autonomy and self-determination? It identifies that the democratic system socialized the mainstream parties to consider that democracy supports individual rights and provides all citizens with equal opportunities. In contrast, self-determination gives additional privileges to some communities over others and hurts the citizens' rights to equal treatment from the state. Due to this perception, the mainstream parties characterized self-determination as an undemocratic right and used numeric strength to refuse the Madheshi autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Assam Movement (1979–85) was one of the most significant political developments in the history of Assam. It demanded the detection and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam. The movement passed through several phases, many of which involved violence. It includes the clashes between the agitators and the left-leaning political parties and organizations, which resulted in severe violence and even several fatalities. Certain works related to the violence and the Assam Movement provide information on the nature and timelines of those violence. However, there is a gap in the analysis of the reasons behind this development. Therefore, this paper attempts to understand the said gap historically. The primary sources for the study are archived files and documents. The study argues that the violence broke out as a result of the development of left politics, the emergence of regional political parties, and the left's involvement in the Assam Movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pungmul, a form of Korean folk drumming, is prominent as a traditional Korean music practice among diasporic Koreans, including Zainichi (Korean residents in Japan). Over the last four decades, it has become popular across the globe as a tool for heritage education and a marker of ethnic identity. In this paper, I engage with several Zainichi Korean musicians who pursue pungmul as their full-time profession or as a serious leisure activity. In Japan, most pungmul musicians are third- or fourth-generation Korean migrants and, as a group, present a complex mix of state, national, and cultural affiliations as North Koreans, South Koreans, and naturalized Japanese. Considering the inherent social complexities among Zainichi, I delineate how a traditional Korean performing art form enables these Koreans to overcome and transcend social barriers and nation-state boundaries while shaping and expressing their identity as diasporic individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional marriages in rural Haryana, driven by skewed sex ratios, have led to a pattern where women from distant regions and diverse cultural backgrounds, such as ethnic Assamese, Bengalis, or Biharis, are married into local Haryanvi families. This practice echoes broader trends witnessed across East and Southeast Asia. Transcending traditional notions of the family as a culturally sanctioned social network centred on biological and matrimonial ties, these cross-regional unions challenge conventional norms and societal fabric. This paper contends that the marginalization and stigma experienced by these migrant brides severely undermine their children’s future opportunities. Through semi-structured interviews with 24 migrant brides, the study identifies significant concerns related to their children’s educational attainment, social acceptance, marriage prospects, mental well-being, socialization, and overall life potential. The findings indicate that these children face substantial barriers to realizing their full potential due to inadequate familial support and pervasive societal biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Khenpo Sodargye is one of the key second-generation Tibetan Buddhist leaders at Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, who has been highly influential in transmitting the teachings of the Nyingma lineage to Chinese lay and monastic practitioners. Fundamental to this transmission is his ‘translation’ – in both linguistic and cultural terms – of the Tibetan tradition through the medium of both traditional and modern Chinese culture. Khenpo teaches Tibetan Buddhism to Chinese followers often using Chinese cultural terms and historiography, yet draws these into the Tibetan Buddhist, and specifically Nyingma lineage, normalising them with parallels already found in the Tibetan tradition. This cumulative ‘Eastern’ religiosity he sets up in oppositional terms to ‘Western’ modern influences which have led to a decline in values in modern China. One such example of using Chinese culture in this manner is his teaching on the Analects (Lunyu), which this paper seeks to explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the identity dynamics of a lesser known community by the name Bujuur Naga, with special reference to the Aemo lineage and identity. It explores the remnants of the Aemo heritage including their language, and further brings to picture the narrations from within which are necessary for understanding the complexities and insecurities associated with the identity. It also touches themes of territorial contestations between India and Myanmar that not only politically divides the socially bonded people, but it also leads to diminishing interaction between the separated Aemo-Bujuur families. The paper takes a narrative discourse with subjective approach, relying on primary information from field interactions, with the objective to locate the path of the paradigm identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While no longer associated with colonial economic and political privilege, Peranakan Chinese identity is now often viewed as an 'authentic' heritage in contemporary Singapore that is made visible through hybrid cultural and material markers. But for the Peranakan community, what does it mean to be authentically Peranakan in post-colonial Singapore? This paper explores concepts of hybridity and authenticity for Peranakan individuals, highlighting how being Peranakan is informed by ideas of belonging, mixedness and purity, from being 'true blue' to generational shifts towards being part Peranakan. Drawing on critical mixed race theory, the paper provides an historical overview of Peranakan identity in the region, tracing how 'authentic' Peranakan-ness has changed over time. Using a series of narrative interviews with self-identified Peranakan individuals across three generations, the paper explores public and private representations of identity, and how mixedness and purity are seen as being 'authentic' aspects of Peranakan culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the process of construction of the interconnection between ethnicity, indigeneity, and political participation in Sikkim concerning the Limbu ethnic community. It firstly discusses Limbu associations' claims for the reservation of seats for the Limbu community in the state legislative assembly, following the recognition of the group as a Scheduled Tribe in 2003. From this point on, the paper goes further back in time, and, based on archival documents, shows that the view of the lack of political representation of the Limbu as a result of ethnic discrimination is grounded in a 'uncertain' membership, which has historical roots dating back to the foundation of the kingdom. It shows that the troubled relations between the Limbu and the leading power in Sikkim in the early days of the kingdom long continued to inform their subaltern form of political membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a study of Singapore's integration and naturalisation processes, this paper examines how the Singaporean state has negotiated the twin challenges of embracing cultural pluralism in its population while also forming a common national identity. Employing Benedict Anderson's conception of 'bound serialities', it argues that the Singaporean state has developed a framework of multiracialism to imagine the Singaporean nation through three serialities or collective identities. First, the Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other (CMIO) categories organise individuals into groups that have clear cultural identities. Second, the CMIO categories constitute a fixed image of the multicultural Singaporean nation. Third, being Singaporean requires an ethos of accepting the cultural differences that the CMIO structure represents. However, such a top-down imagining of the multicultural nation is increasingly challenged by the arrival of new citizens who embody alternative imaginings of their own ethnic and national identities, raising questions about the continued effectiveness of Singapore's multiracialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on clothing policy in schools as a means to understand the Thai state's management of diversity as well as the ways in which young migrants navigate their belongingness within the state discourse of nationalism. Because of its diverse migrant student population, a Thai state school proclaims itself a multicultural institution and instructs its students to wear 'national clothes' (chut pracam chat) every Tuesday. This policy enables migrant children to enter a cultural sphere where Burmese migrants are excluded, but, ironically, the very same clothes simultaneously stamp them as raeng-ngan tangdao, literally translated as 'alien workers'. Young migrants devise strategies to downplay their alterity in public spaces and question the idea of belongingness and authenticity. Their dress practices reveal theatrical and fleeting performances of identity. But they neither fully assimilate to national standards nor assert completely distinct identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary India has witnessed a rise in racism discourse, central to which are people from North-East and Himalayan regions, collectively referred to as 'Northeasterns'. This has recentred 'race' and racism as being a theoretical-political problem of contemporary India itself. However, existing literature shows that there is stark under-theorisation of 'race' and racism in Indian context. Drawing from ethnographic research and applying the racialization approach, this paper argues that 'race' in India is a postcolonial-neoliberal construct, whereby colonial 'Mongoloid' is reconstructed into neoliberal 'Northeastern', such that 'race' in India acts as a layered mode of constructing identity and difference. It further argues that the 'Northeastern' category emerges as a result of exclusion from the 'Indian' category, which itself is racialized along Hinduised-Aryanised lines, such that racism is a product of a postcolonial centre-periphery power-relation between India and its North-East; thereby making way for critical 'race' scholarship in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first outlines a brief history of the African presence in China since the Tang era, indicating that Africans have mostly lived on the margins of the Chinese society. It then highlights the contemporary presence of Africans in China since the turn of the Millennium, showing that while African traders and students have demonstrated a lot of resilience, the story of Africans living at the margins of the Chinese society has not changed much. As a case study, insights are drawn from research conducted in Guangzhou showing the marked inequalities Africans living there face in regards to access to health care. Some of the many barriers creating inequality of access to health care include affordability, legal issues, and language barriers. Finally, the paper proposes a theory of resilience to explain the attempt by Africans in China to cope with this situation of inequality and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Polanyi argues that the discipline of economics has emerged from the observations of human beings and their practices existing in a society. Since humans are perceived primarily as social beings rather than economic ones, embeddedness is a necessary and basic condition of the economy. This paper is an attempt to observe study and understand the inter-sectional application of these concepts of embeddedness and ethnic solidarity, in the socio-economic context of the Tibetan refugee community residing in India. Our study's fieldwork was focused on observing the functioning of the local Tibetan economy in Mcleodganj (Dharamshala), where two Tibetan knowledge systems: the Thangka art and the Tibetan healing system were closely studied, reflecting Tibetan culture, and the community's effort to preserve and promote these knowledge systems in different economic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper is an outcome of the ethnographic study conducted among the Mal Paharia of Kuthuria village under the jurisdiction of Purbasthali Police Station in Purba Burdwan district of West Bengal, India. The paper deals with the migration, present socio-economic condition, status as per Socio-Economic Status (SES) scale, life–cycle rituals, traditional political organization and religion. It also informs us about the availability of Aadhar, Epic, Ration card, Caste certificate, Bank account, life insurance and job card that are said to constitute the State Conferred Identities (SCI) of this group. They are now facing a problem in the procurement of caste certificate, which is related to the identity of this group. The paper makes an attempt how anthropologists would approach this problem and suggest a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates the issue of ethnicity and identity formation among the Misings of Assam. It navigates the life graph of the community and unearthed the subtlety involved in their identity formation, articulation and assertion. The nuances involved in their identity formation and the subsequent intra-community ethnic fragmentation reflect the fact that the case does not purely fit into a singular theoretical framework of either 'primordialism' or 'constructivism'. Rather it necessitates the call for traversing through different theoretical frameworks. On a descriptive note, the paper tends to examine the role of social, political and historical forces influencing the Mising identity narratives. Besides delineating the historical trajectories of Mising identity in different historical periods, – pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial – the study has explored the multiple processes of identity formation vis-a-vis migration, politics of (re)naming, role of middle class organisations and the vitality of script and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper hopes to argue that the representations of and engagements with landscape by poets writing in English in Northeast India are embedded within the larger cultural and political contexts of the region. Indigenous communities across the world attach profound cultural, political, economic and spiritual significance to the territories they traditionally inhabit. It is for this reason that the preservation of their natural environment becomes crucial to the preservation of their cultural identities. Representations of the landscape by poets of Northeast India reflect the significance attached to and the intimate relationship shared with the natural environment by its diverse indigenous communities. The poets also display their awareness of the threats of ecological degradation faced by the region and the anxiety these threats have produced amongst the local population. The paper will try to understand the political dynamics behind the nostalgic associations ascribed to landscape in the poetry written in English in Northeast India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times many indigenous Muslim groups in Assam have asserted their ethnic identities as Deshi, Goriya, Moriya by distancing themselves from the immigrant Miya Muslims. In this regard, they have received much patronage from the current BJP government. These developments have happened in the background of the consolidation of Hindutva in Assam and the consequent otherization of the Muslim community as a whole. This paper has two objectives: First, it tries to understand why a separate identity consciousness among indigenous Muslims have emerged. Secondly, it goes on to explore as to why indigenous Muslims in recent times have offered political support to the BJP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers aspects of local academic knowledge generation in Uzbekistan by focusing on the mentor – mentee relations and the 'ustoz' and 'shogird' mindset of supervisees concerning their mentors. By doing so, it analyses how these perceptions may represent the challenge in improving the research quality among young Uzbek faculty members. Drawing on a survey of young university teachers, this study argues that the obstacles are not just policy-related but also cognitive and culture-related. This study uses a Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) to identify metaphors associated with the apprenticeship in Uzbekistan and how these relate to images and expectations of supervisors among supervisees in contemporary Uzbekistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper directs attention to the Naga Hills, an outlying hill district in British India’s Northeast frontier, that became a site of conflict between the early Baptist converts and the non-converts over the nature and authority of customs which were recorded in the colonial archive as ‘Christians vs Ancients’. These conflicts produced two opposing discourses on ‘tribal’ customs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the reformism of the American Baptist missionaries and the romanticism of the colonial anthropologists. However, the path of self-determination that the Nagas chose defied these established paradigms even as they fashioned a modern Naga political identity that appropriated strands of both colonial ethnography and Baptist Christianity. This article contends that the Christian-Ancients conflicts are significant not only for understanding the ideological underpinnings of Naga ethnonationalism but also for providing a historical intervention into contemporary debates on Naga customary law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, the Indian parliament adopted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which grants citizenship to non-Muslims 'persecuted' minorities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Protests were held against the CAA in various parts of India. For protestors, the CAA is contrary to the secular character of the Indian citizenship. Supporters of the CAA also held rallies enumerating its benefits. This paper traces the historical evolution of the constitutional debates and changes in the Indian citizenship rules, and examines the socio-political impact of the CAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of social media has enabled Chinese migrants in the global south to participate in the production of racial knowledge from grassroots perspectives, adding complexity and dynamism to the racial discourse that was dominated by political and intellectual elites historically. This study investigates anti-black racial discourse on the popular short-video and live-streaming app in China, Kuaishou, where many Africa-based vloggers share their daily life experiences. This study examines the visual and verbal representation of Africans, focusing on 50 short videos posted by Africa-based Chinese and the comments made on them. The analysis shows that the racialization of Africans on Kuaishou is a multilayered process shaped by the intersection of race with other dimensions of identity, including class, gender, and nationality. This paper further illuminates the cultural embeddedness of these thoughts in a South-South setting, and discusses the impacts of different historical-ideological resources on racial thinking in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an attempt to understand education in light of the complex multiethnic relationships and politics prevailing in the state of Manipur. With the sustained tension between the Nagas, Kukis, and Meiteis over the matter of identity, education in the state remains massively divided along ethnic lines. That said, the Meiteis, as the ethnic majority, have been systematically influential in prioritising their identity and development in education, as its control remains in their purview. The subsequent claim and counterclaim regarding the imposition of the dominant Meitei language and culture in the school curriculum have further worsened the ethnic relationship. Consequently, the perceived sense of alienation by the tribal minorities in this sense has added to their sectarian aspirations and detachment from the state. Thus, through fieldwork and a review of literature, this paper presents the various discourses concerning the complex tussle over the control of resources and governance in the education system of Manipur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In post-Mao China, the Bulang ethnic group in Yunnan province use Pu'er tea cultivation as a primary way of reconstructing their ethnic identities and cultural traditions. In this paper, I argue that in the process of ethnicization, material culture is a critical factor in addition to myth, history, religions, and cultures, rooted in a historical process of forming ethnic identities, based on a six-month participant observation in Mangjing Village with local tea farmers. I further argue that the Bulang people's reconstruction of ethnicity can be seen as an incorporation between the majority (state power) and the minority (ethnic people in frontiers) and is constituted by both external and internal factors. I also highlight that Pu'er tea functions as a particularly meaningful material agency when looking at how the Bulang people in Mangjing proactively respond to state power manipulation, mobilize social relations, and engage with a larger commercial market in the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much discussion of Indonesia's changing policies toward ethnic Chinese and the phenomenon of anti-Chinese sentiment. However, cases where Chinese Indonesians and native Indonesians live peacefully side by side are worth investigating. This paper explores the notable tolerance and maintenance of a relatively peaceful coexistence between the Sundanese and Chinese in areas with peaceful relations of long standing between their communities. In particular, we investigate the area called Kampung Toleransi (Kampong of Tolerance), an officially designated name of the City Government of Bandung in 2018. The results show that Kampung Toleransi is a symbol of a religious and ethnic harmony. We argue that it is self-evident that the two ethnicities are living harmoniously due to general tolerance of religious and ethnic differences. By maintaining peaceful coexistence, the two communities obtain mutual benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Naga, comprised of various tribes, were traditionally governed by independent village republics. The inclusion of the Naga areas into the modern Indian State has been opposed, ensuing in a long-drawn armed struggle for sovereignty. Military measures have been used to deal with this struggle. Naga society is characterized by dualities in the form of the categorization of tribes as an administrative category against the discourse of a greater Naga identity, experiences of electoral politics to the Naga indigenous form of democracy rooted in the village republic, and the protracted Naga political struggle to the idea of Nagaland state as a solution, among many others. These dualities have shaped collective actions in the forms of associations and organizations to constitute the Naga civil society. The paper examines the socio-political realities and the resulting collective actions as a dimension of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines nine secondary school teachers' narratives and perspectives about the determinants of their ethnic minority students' sense of belonging in Hong Kong. The thematic analysis of their in-depth interviews reveals three sets of determinants of belonging, including demographic, personal, and intercultural factors. The study findings underscore the importance of students' socialisation contexts and the critical role of the Chinese language curriculum and the social reception towards non-European immigrants in Hong Kong. The paper discusses the potential avenues of educational policy and practice interventions for developing a stronger sense of belonging among young people with immigrant and ethnic minority backgrounds in the multicultural societies of settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hong Kong experienced unprecedented political and social turmoil starting in June 2019. The original impetus was a proposed law that would have enabled the extradition of Hong Kong residents to Mainland China. The focus of previous work relating to the consequent social movement that opposed the law has been on the engagement of the dominant Chinese population. Little attention has been paid to the attitudes or experiences of Hong Kong's minoritised communities. This paper, therefore, shifts the focus of research to those communities, who are resident in Hong Kong but many of them are not Chinese citizens. The interviews with twenty-five study participants revealed multiple views of the social movement ranging from those who were in full support to those who were wary of the social movement because of its potential to impinge on an already fragile social context. The conundrum of providing education for the city's 'non-citizens' is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern societies are confronted with a plethora of issues that have far-reaching socio-political ramifications. The negative effects of diversity are primarily the result of state policies. Where societies were not homogenous, attempts were made to bring desperate populations together to advance official nationalist projects. Pakistan, being dominantly a Muslim state, has religio-cultural and ethnic diversity where minority groups have raised their voices against the unjust state's policies. This study examines how these issues evolved over the course of Pakistan's history. The paper attempts to answer the question 'why has Pakistan's plurality become unmanageable?' The results demonstrate that a high degree of centralization of authority, the adoption of Urdu as a national language, a sense of domination of the central institutions by the Punjabis, underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in state institutions, and controlled society has aggravated the position of diverse groups in Pakistan, with colossal consequences to national economy and social harmony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]