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This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship between religio-political influence and its impact on social work in contemporary India. The escalating trends of majoritarianism, homogeneity, the instrumentalization of religion for political power, growing inequality, and the prevalence of caste-based violence have contributed to an alarming increase in intolerance among various religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. These challenges, primarily driven by religio-political factions in India, pose significant obstacles to effective social work practice and intervention. The question arises: Can social work disentangle itself from religion and religio-political influence, or should a new narrative be developed within social work practice to address these concepts? This article underscores the pressing need for a fresh perspective that integrates religion, religiopolitics, and their influence on social work. New narrative can facilitate the development of effective strategies and interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of religio-political factions while promoting social justice and inclusivity. In conclusion, this paper emphasizes the necessity of reimagining the relationship between religion, religio-politics, and social work in India. Thus, social work can play a crucial role in fostering positive societal change, addressing inequality, and countering the rising tide of intolerance fueled by religio-political influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the legally established gender quota in local self-government bodies affect the level of representation of women in power? How does the representation of women in power increase effective political participation? Previous studies were devoted to studying the consequences of gender quotas in the authorities and management, but the issue of the model of gender political participation remained neglected. The introduction of gender quotas as a mechanism for ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women in politics and the decision-making process increases women's political participation and political leadership. The success or failure of planning and decision-making largely depends on the level of political participation. The issues of this work correspond to Goal 5 of Sustainable Development, which provides equal opportunities for women's leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. The paper analyzes the representation of women in the authorities and management in different regions of the world. The study's main goal is to determine the relationship between the representation of women in rural local self-government bodies and the consequences of this representation. The data sources were the results of local elections, reports of government ministries and agencies, United Nations reports on gender equality and the empowerment of women, as well as surveys of women representatives of political power in three Indian states (Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra ) -- state election data analyzed over the past three decades. The results of this study show that the level of female representation increases annually, although this is not entirely related to political participation. Women's electoral participation indicates that despite growing women's participation in local elections, the expression remains unchanged within the established gender quota of 33 to 50 percent. Addressing the gender imbalance in the political environment of three states in India is a result of the introduction and enforcement of gender quotas in politics. The results of this study have practical value for local self-government bodies when developing state gender policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how research advisory groups can be a vehicle for youth activism. It draws on our experiences with young activists, aged 15–26 years, in India and Brazil, who were advisors on a research project focused on youth livelihoods in cities. These young people played a vital role in supporting youth researchers, identifying research themes and developing engagement and advocacy strategies. Through this paper, we explore how the Youth Expert Group advisory model evolved differently in each location and examine how these were shaped by the context, the 'adult' research team and the youth activists themselves. A critically reflexive response in intergenerational partnership is essential to support youth activists in research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have found that artificial intelligence (AI) bots and cookies automate fake news in zones of social conflict such as race, religion, gender, and class. In this background, this paper investigates whether fake news is automated with the social structure unique to India. The research collected campaigning activities of political parties and politicians on the Internet but was limited to a select number of Facebook profiles, websites, hashtags, and Twitter profiles during India's 2014 and 2019 general elections. Politicians and political parties on Twitter, Facebook and other websites formed the contact points where empirical data were collected in the research design. By reviewing hashtags such as #Nationwantsrammandir; #NaamVaapsi; #RamMandir; #AntiNationals; #caste; and #Hindutva, as well as fake social media accounts; discussion forums; and profiles of followers of politicians, the paper corroborated that bots, AI, and trolls serve fake news in the conflict zones of India and some forces are using it to perpetuate social divisions based on caste, class, religion, gender, and region. This paper argues that automated social media accounts spread false information that likely polarizes social conflicts in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great deal of work argues that the entry of women into public spaces can promote political and institutional change. The COVID‐19 provides an opportunity to investigate whether and under what conditions women's political representation in rural local governments deliver effective local governance? Drawing from two rounds of data collected in 174 local governments and 1051 households in three Indian states, the paper shows that women Pradhans in the Gram Panchayats had no differential impact on the governance response to COVID‐19 compared to the unreserved ones. Analyzing the heterogeneity in these responses suggests that institutional factors like the proportion of women in village council and local entrepreneurship diversity can enhance women Pradhan's capacity to respond to the pandemic. We explore two channels that enable women Pradhan to govern effectively during the pandemic: improving women's participation in the labor force and reducing household's vulnerability to poverty in the pre‐COVID period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Rural & Community Development is the property of Brandon University, Rural Development Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The worldwide explosion of social welfare has been described as the "quiet revolution" of our time. This paper analyses the expansion of social welfare in India during the early part of the 2000s. What explains this expansion of encompassing social welfare in India, following a history of disparate and fragmented social policies? The answer, I argue, lies in recognizing the importance of the "politics of the poor," the ensemble of negotiations that encompass both electoral participation and contentious politics vis-à-vis the political institutions in India. The paper develops this argument by drawing together insights from discursive institutionalism, Indian politics, and the politics of welfare literature. Doing so enables me to examine the ways in which poor people's political practices were interpreted by India's parliamentarians to justify the legislation of India's flagship social welfare program the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. I analyze the discourses communicated through 78 parliamentary debates in English and Hindi to enact the law. I blend this analysis with process tracing of electoral behavior of India's poor and the Maoist insurrection that exploded in the country's poorest districts at the turn of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on recent empirical research into indigenous Adivasi identities in India to explore Adivasi participation and demands for community rights within local structures of governance in a village context. I examine the multiple articulations of rights by the Adivasis that they consider crucial for community development in the backdrop of protracted violence and conflict. This paper engages with the local context of civil unrest by drawing attention to the Maoist movement, its assumed opposition to rights in official policy discourses and its relevance to the Adivasi lives. In particular, I analyse the ways in which the Adivasis engage with the local power relations with respect to the state, the Maoists and other community groups to make demands for everyday survival and gain access to resources. Linked to this, I attend to the modes of collective (dis)engagement, social and political participation of the Adivasis in governance forums to (re)claim the rights to land, forest, safety and overall community development that were denied to them as a group historically. These rights, I argue, are deemed necessary by the community in ensuring equal citizenship, social inclusion and in realising their specific struggles for human rights within the local context of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore how a Citizens' Assembly project in Auroville – the largest intentional community in the world – sought to prefigure new practices in collective decision-making. A Citizens' Assembly model is a democratic innovation that enacts a deliberative mode of political decision-making by everyday citizens. It has been used by diverse bodies, from social movements to nation-state governments around the world. Auroville's 2021 Citizens' Assembly pilot – concerning a water vision for Auroville – is a unique case study that enables us to make a distinctive contribution to the existing academic scholarship concerning Citizens' Assemblies and prefigurative politics on two grounds. Firstly, Auroville is an intentional community shaped by specific spiritual and self-governance values – an uncommon setting for a Citizens' Assembly that supports us to make specific empirical offerings not seen in the literature on Citizens' Assemblies to date. Secondly, given that Auroville's pilot Citizens' Assembly sought to prefigure the community's foundational ideals of "human unity" and "unending education" in its collective decision-making practice, we connect our analysis to the academic scholarship concerning prefigurative politics. In doing so, we uniquely draw together the scholarship concerning Citizens' Assemblies and the literature concerning prefigurative politics to explore whether such democratic innovations have a transformative effect on the political contexts they are embedded in, which we freshly consider with a focus on local scale, and the role that institutionalisation might have in terms of ensuring the reproduction, and thereby lasting impact of such experiments, or conversely their nullification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the empowerment literature, "freedom of movement" or "mobility" are frequently used as indicators to assess empowerment programmes or whether women have become socially empowered. As women's self‐help groups (SHGs) engaged in saving/lending and livelihood schemes have emerged as the de facto vehicles for women's empowerment over the past two decades, their propensity for increasing women's opportunities for mobility has been an oft‐lauded benefit. This has been especially pronounced as the empowerment agenda's prerogative to collectively transform power structures became co‐opted by a neoliberal focus on fostering responsible financial subjects with entrepreneurial savvy. In this paper, I draw on multi‐year ethnographic research of women's SHG interventions in eastern and central India to critically explore the ways different mobile practices intersect with empowerment goals. I contend it is necessary to examine mobility as more than physical movement and also to analyse it as a meaning‐laden and embodied practice intimately bound up in the neoliberal development agenda. Using this analytic, I find that although newfound mobility is often experienced positively by women, it is far from "free," and remains embedded in power relations where women continue to engage on unfavourable terms – exemplified in women's inability to leisurely tour/wander. I conclude by reflecting on how empowerment interventions might more productively engage mobility less as a practice of increased economic and political participation and more as a site where women can experiment with new forms of being. Women's spatial mobility is seen as central to empowerment, yet remains undertheorised in critical and mainstream literature. This paper builds on scholarship examining how women navigate normative spaces of development through creative forms of self‐fashioning by analytically unpacking how mobility is central to these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social equity is a critical component of social justice and is measured in multiple ways. Conventionally, researchers use literacy levels, workforce participation, political participation and representation, corporate presence, and demographic parity as indicators of social and economic equity. We add law enforcement outcomes to this literature by examining the demographic profiles of convicts in prisons in India for each state and compare it with that of the population of the respective state. To test whether entrenched social inequities have permeated into the law enforcement system, we use three indicators of social identity–religion, caste, and domicile–to create a social equity index (SEI). This is a composite index combining caste, religion and domicile similar in method to the Human Development Index which combines income, education and health. Our indicators are not considered in other popular development indices and is a conceptual innovation. Our paper innovates by combining prison data and census data at the state level over the two latest census rounds (2001 and 2011). We use a spatial panel analysis as well as a distributional dynamics approach to test for bias and transitions over time at the state level. We find that entrenched social hierarchies are mirrored in conviction outcomes and that social identities influence law enforcement. In contrast to earlier studies, we find that states that are conventionally considered to perform poorly in terms of economic and human development have done better in terms of social equity than economically advanced states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finally, the third part focuses on China's and India's actions in the field of population control and utilizes Nehru Papers, newspaper articles from I Renmin ribao i (People's Daily) and the I Times of India i and other sources primary and secondary to excavate information on China-India comparative contraception policies. The 1877 famines in China and India, according to Matthew Connelly, launched the population control movement in Europe and the US.[8] How exactly this Western comparative lens colored China-India contact in the 1950s begs further research as well.[9] This article consists of three parts. One of the items on the agenda of the first independent government of India was the reforming of women's rights, particularly with the goal of raising female literacy levels and encouraging participation in the workforce.[18] As diplomatic relations between India and China became closer, Indian government officials paid particular attention to the roles women assumed in the People's Republic of China (PRC). "Our Women Should Certainly Emulate": China-India Gendered Exchanges. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Maternal healthcare service utilization is a pivotal indicator of a nation's progress in safeguarding the health and well-being of its women and children. In this context, women's empowerment emerges as a critical determinant influencing the utilization of maternal healthcare services. The study aims to assess the relationship between women's level of empowerment and utilization of maternal healthcare services among currently married women in India. Data and Methods: The study uses data from the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey conducted in 2019–2021 and analyzed 26,552 (15–49 aged) currently married women who had a live birth in the last 5 years preceding the survey. Additionally, univariate and bivariate analyses, multivariate logistic regression, and the SWPER index were used for the analysis. Results: Over the years, utilization of antenatal care, skilled birth attainment, and postnatal care has increased extensively in India. However, the study found that utilization of services was higher among empowered women, and it varies across the state with the extent of empowerment. State-level analysis shows that the extent of women empowerment was higher in Goa, followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and lower in Jharkhand, followed by Tripura, so as the utilization of maternal and health care services. The extent of empowerment and utilization of services also varies by level of educational attainment, employment, and socio-economic status. Conclusion: There is a need for comprehensive strategies to enhance women's empowerment through education, employment, political participation, self-awareness, and reduction in gender-based violence and child marriages, which may improve awareness demand for better public health structure, and may ensure higher utilization of maternal healthcare services. Ultimately, these strategies may converse the higher maternal death and child mortality. Significance: What is already known about this subject? Existing literature in India mostly highlights a clear connection between women's autonomy and maternal healthcare services utilization. Women with higher autonomy, decision-making power, and mobility are more likely to use these services. However, in exploring the link between women's empowerment and maternal healthcare, some studies focus on education, employment, and media access among Indian mothers, sidelining broader empowerment dimensions. What this study adds? This study is likely the first to investigate the relationship between women's empowerment and the level of maternal healthcare service utilization in India. It covers key dimensions of women's empowerment, including Attitude to Violence, Social Independence, and Decision-making Power. Moreover, it is possibly the first Indian research paper to employ a survey-based women's empowerment index in this context. Notably, the assessment highlights Social Independence as a significant dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is my second article on the Criminal Investigation Departments (CIDs) in colonial India. The first one was the 'Evolution of the CID in Colonial India and its Induction in Sind,'published in Pakistan Horizon, Vol. 77, issue it 1 of January 2024. It incorporated some details of the evaluation and subsequent developments of the CID in colonial India as well as in Sind. Therefore, to avoid repetition, in this paper, I deal exclusively with the crucial significance of the CID in colonial India, prior to, and during the Second World War, starting with the terrorist movement in India, and then mouing on to the internal structure and working of the CID. Next, I discuss the crucial responsibilities thrust upon the CID due to the Second World War, indicating the handling and performance in monitoring and control of German and Japanese intrigues in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this case study is to investigate the role of a governmental social audit (SA) practice in enabling emancipation, and changing patterns in the balance of power, position and understandings between dominant micro actors and disenfranchised rural citizens. Design/methodology/approach: Enlisting Bourdieu's practice theory concepts of field, habitus, capitals and symbolic violence, the case study is informed by semi-structured interviews at central, state, district, block and village levels as well field observations and secondary data. This study is a part of a larger critical accounting research project conducted in India over four months, covering eight annual implementation cycles. Findings: The study demonstrates that despite entrenched hegemonic micro forces and public sector corruption, SA's accounting and accountability practices have altered the rules of the game in this field. This emancipatory perspective has redefined deep-seated, generational patterns of power relations and domination, impacting the distribution of capitals and habitus in the daily life of rural citizens. Research limitations/implications: This study provides an alternative perspective to understanding governmental SA formats in developing nation contexts at the micro level. In line with Celerier and Botey's (2015) focus on inclusionary and democratic participation, this study challenges the dominant perspective of accounting as strengthening power asymmetries and focuses on its potential as an emancipatory agent. Originality/value: The paper provides a site of effective implementation of a participative accountability practice in developing nation contexts that offer suggestions to states, countries and policy-makers. This paper also adds to critical accounting literature in the field of SA and social services at a micro level. Drawing upon Bourdieu in this underexplored field, it shines a light on relational elements of change through accounting and accountability practices for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colonial medical education and public health policies emerged from an intriguing discourse of negotiation between the government and the people. These 'structured conflicts', rooted in the politics and the debates of the colonial institutions not only provided opportunities for creative thinking about public health but also for imposing constraints. The colonial and post-colonial India medical legislative debates revealing a new language of protest, assumed greater significance with the growing nationalist movement and the general (though variegated) intellectual polarisation – western and indigenous systems of medicine. Problematising the historiographic assertion of medical modernisation in colonial India to be a part of 'civilising mission', this paper argues that legislature emerged as a platform of activism and protest against the colonial and post-colonial State's appropriation of modernity. While some members appealed for extending the benefit of 'modern' western medicine to the general Indian population, some debated in favour of introducing the indigenous medical systems to the terms of modern professionalisation. The post-colonial policies reveal the true significance of the legislative debates in reviving the position of indigenous systems of medicine in the context of professional modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India’s experience with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is notable on account of nationally formalising – at scale – community action in service delivery,monitoring, and planning of health services. A study was undertaken to document and create a historical record of NRHM’s ‘communitization’ processes. The oral history method of the Witness Seminar was adopted and two virtual seminars with five and nine participants, respectively, were conducted, and supplemented with 4 in depth interviews. Analysis of transcripts was done using ATLAS.ti 22 with the broad themes of emergence, evolution, and evaluation and impact of ‘communitization’ under NRHM. This paper engages with the theme of ‘emergence’ and adopts the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) conceptualised by John Kingdon for analysis. Key findings include the pioneering role of boundary spanning decision makers and the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) in advocacy and design of ‘communitization’ structures, and the legacy of rights based social mobilizations and state-civil society partnerships in health during the 1990s influencing the ethos underlying ‘communitization’. Democracy, leadership from the civil society in policy design and implementation, and state-civil society partnerships are linked to the positive results witnessed as part of ‘communitization’ in NRHM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of property rights legislation on the political participation of Scheduled Tribes (STs) - an indigenous community of India. The legislation recognised forest land rights of STs who had been historically residing over forests without formal land titles. Utilising administrative data on land titles, we show that increased demand for land titles increases the political participation of STs as election candidates. This increase is on account of new political candidates that are contested by non-mainstream political parties. We provide evidence that incomplete implementation, that raises but does not meet expectations, is the mechanism. In particular, land title applications that are rejected by sub-district/district-level authorities are driving this increase. Our results suggest that land titling legislations can encourage marginalised beneficiary groups to use political participation as a means to establish their land rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to advance a total quality management (TQM) model for the open government data (OGD) initiatives undertaken by the governments. As an example, the paper investigates the national OGD portal of India (www.data.gov.in) and provides implications of the proposed TQM model for the Indian case. Design/methodology/approach: The TQM model for the OGD initiatives (16 dimensions in terms of drivers, enablers and results) is derived from the extant literature on the principles of TQM and OGD. The proposed model is used for drawing implications for the Indian OGD initiative. Findings: The application of TQM model for the OGD initiative in India would help in quality maintenance and sustainability. The quality of the OGD portal should be improved by taking the TQM model as a point of reference. Practical implications: Ensuring quality of the datasets is important for any OGD initiative. The proposed TQM model leaves insights for the practitioners (policymakers and administrators) to implement the TQM model in the OGD policy initiatives. This would lead to increased trust, transparency and accountability. Social implications: Through the integration of the TQM model in the OGD initiative of the country, a wider section of the stakeholders may tap the qualitatively advanced datasets for value creation. Citizen participation and engagement would increase with the integration of the TQM model in the OGD initiative. Originality/value: While management of quality in the OGD initiatives has been underlined in the extant OGD-focused literature, the utility of applying TQM principles in OGD initiatives has not been conceived so far. The present study seeks to contribute towards the extant literature on TQM and OGD with the identification of the TQM model for the OGD initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discursive social psychologists have examined various ways in which political talk and participation in politics are accomplished. In this paper, I examine talk related to a populist policy to examine how it is that members of the general public informally participate in populist political practices. I examined transcripts of broadcast on‐air interviews with those experiencing outcomes of a controversial monetary policy in India introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, namely, demonetization. Discursive psychological analyses show that interviewers and interviewees treated talk on policy as implicating political subjectivities for the interviewees. They flexibly offered various forms of assessments on the policy in ways to negotiate implications that they were predisposed to the policy and Modi. Their political subjectivities as those who were "Modi supporters," for example, were attended to and negotiated in ways to accomplish interview participation. The findings show the relevance of personal/subjective assessments and positions in political talk. These are discussed in relation to contemporary understandings of populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact on individual decisions to unionize of several factors: the reach of communist parties, the degree of political activism, personal attributes of workers, and industrial characteristics. The workers examined are Indian nonagricultural regular workers, using micro-data from the 2004-5 Employment and Unemployment Survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation, linked to state-level factors. A notable result is that the reach of communist parties has considerable effect on unionization probability. Moreover, it seems that the mere existence of communist parties in a state also facilitates unionization to some extent. State-level political activism and unemployment rate also influence the individual decision to join a union. The paper concludes also that a worker's gender, marital status, ethnic background, employment status, experience, occupation, sector of employment, establishment size, and type of industry remain important in the determination of union membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is globally considered as the most powerful tool to empower women. A low level of female literacy is a matter of serious concern because it not only adversely affect a women's life but also has a spill-over effect on the society at large. In India, the National Policy on Education, 1986 as revised in 1992 is often considered as the landmark in the field of policy on women's education in India. The Mahila Samakhya Programme was initiated in 1989 to translate the goals of National Policy on Education, 1986 and Programme of Action, 1992 into a concrete programme for the education and empowerment of women in rural areas, particularly of women from socially and economically marginalised groups. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse the Mahila Samakhya Programme, identify the bottlenecks in the implementation of the programme and to suggest recommendations that could contribute to the future of the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political engagement of women is an issue of global concern. Women are underrepresented in national and state legislature around the world. Despite the constitutional provisions, women in India are still marginalized in the political arena. The involvement of women in the decision-making process is negligible compare to men. This study is focused on the Punjab state of India. Punjab is an economically developed state, in spite of that women are less involved in political activities due to the patriarchal setup of society. This research attempts to examine the political participation of women and the major barriers faced by women with special reference to Punjab. The data used in this research has been collected from newspapers, e-journal articles, authentic internet sources, websites, government reports, census of India and such others. The findings reveal that there is a significant increase in women voter turnout for the last few years in this state but the participation of women in other political activities is very low. Elected women candidates act as proxies of male members of their families. It has indicated the major barriers to women's political participation in this state such as psychological, socio-cultural and political to name a few. This paper concludes with suggestions for the enhancement in effective participation of women in the political arena in this region of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate justice is a well used concept within the international climate debate yet it has often remained little more than a static ideal. Through an analysis of the work of a loose civil society coalition in India mobilising around climate change justice, this paper argues that we need to be more attentive to the emerging geographies of climate justice, particularly in the global South where climate change provokes questions of uneven development processes as well as environmental concerns. The paper shows how climate justice has been scaled as an international justice issue through public discourses, national policies and civil society engagement in India. I argue that this focus on international climate justice narrows the political space for alternative articulations and claims for climate justice. Whereas climate justice has tended to focus on the nation-state as the key actor in addressing climate injustice I argue there are multiple entry points to address climate injustices at different scales. To understand what is meant by climate justice beyond the international sphere requires an exploration of the multiple manifestations and scales of climate justice and geographers could offer a critical contribution to an understanding of what national and local climate justice would mean in practice. These ideas are already starting to be operationalised in development programmes and climate finance, and a spatially grounded geographical understanding is crucial to future policy in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to provide an overview on the structures and processes operating during the assembly elections held in Punjab in February 2017. The first section of the paper explains the significance of these elections before discussing the results. For example, these were the first Punjab elections which saw a serious triangular contest and also showed a huge upsurge in youth participation which brought many new issues into the election arena. The second section focuses on the major differences between the 2017 and previous elections. For example these elections used new modes of participation and mobilization strategies, professional and technical approaches, especially use of social media, and sustained focus on critical issues of drugs, crime and mis-governance. These differences illustrate new and previously unexplored facets of the Punjabi electorate which may have been crucial in explaining outcomes. Based largely on media reports, this paper not only provides a summary of the major issues facing the electorate but also explores reasons why the Congress Party countered national trends by gaining a victory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the highest density of Scheduled Caste population in India, Punjab provides a political conundrum as far as Dalit assertion in state assembly elections is concerned. Introduction to this paper analyses the centrality of identity politics that have come to occupy discourses on Indian democracy. The paper then proceeds with a historical exploration of the peculiar nature of caste in Punjab, which provides the context to analyze the absence of political assertion of Dalits. The third part scrutinizes the internal cleavages within the SC population and how these have hindered cultural assertion translating into a political force. Despite sub-caste divisions, Dalits as a whole remain a crucial vote bank in Punjab and a critical analysis of mobilization strategies of political parties, including deras, rallies, electoral promises and religious-cultural tools, provides us with an insight into how the vote bank operates. The outcome of 2017 Punjab election demonstrate and reflect certain trends as far as the Punjab electorate in general, and Dalits in particular are concerned. The concluding section provides a comparative analysis of political participation and representation of Dalits in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab and evaluates prospects for an 'upsurge from below' in Punjab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government services act as important sites of political socialization. Through interactions with the state individuals learn lessons about their value as citizens, form preferences over government services, and understand the value of political participation. What happens when the private sector replaces government provision of basic services? I explore this question in the context of a randomized private school voucher experiment in India. Based on an original household survey of 1200 households, and semi-structured interviews conducted 5 years after the voucher lottery, I find that voucher winning households hold stronger market-oriented beliefs. However, voucher winning households show little difference in political participation on most measures of political participation. I argue that these results are driven by a greater comfort with private providers as permanent economic actors. This suggests exposure to different economic actors, in the form of private schools, have the potential to change political preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present paper shows how political leadership in India is largely embedded in kinship. Kinship, which has been the principal organising principle in primitive societies, seems to have made an inroad in the modern society to influence our thinking and actions in the political field. With the support of secondary data this paper brings to focus the interplay between leadership and kinship while examining the role of kinship in succeeding political leadership in contemporary India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's participation and representation in politics at the state level is considered important for gender equality and women's empowerment, but their participation in politics on equal footing with men, remains a distant dream. In this research, an effort has been made to combine gender and politics in terms of a cross-national study to explore the status of women in politics and explore the factors that led them to raise voice against patriarchal society. It is difficult for women to survive with equal rights in that society where religious, economic, and patriarchal mindsets are the main factors that hinder women from actively participating in politics. Women are facing violence and discrimination in politics because maledominated societies have institutionalized and created a mechanism that is against women's rights such as structural, ideological, and functional in politics which have strengthened gender inequality. The descriptive method has been used in this paper to find out women's low participation in the politics of India and Pakistan. The facilitator model is used to identify the patterns of societal as well as structural factors in politics, which prevent and restrict the full participation of women in politics. Findings suggest that the patriarchal and gender-stratified structures govern the society and the women of both countries face violence, but the nature of violence is different in each case. In India, there has been political discrimination against women based on the caste system, and in Pakistan, feudal structures are the main causes of women's low participation in politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper utilizes a critical governmentality approach to theorize the processes through which urban elites become stakeholders in the 'world-class city'. Through a case study of public consultations for urban development plans in Chennai, India, the paper explores the technologies that produce urban actors who 'participate' in urban governance. Key to these technologies is a discourse of participation that privileges and normalizes citizens as urban stakeholders. The paper contributes to current explorations into the technologies of inclusion that are central to an emerging civic governmentality in South Asia. In Chennai this civic governmentality engages various segments of civil society in processes of urban governance through the mechanism of public consultation. It is through these public consultations that elites come to exert influence over urban plans and consolidate a vision and desire for the world-class city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society engagement around health care and population health improvement is an important driver towards Health for All. Research can improve the effectiveness of health activism by examining the resources, structures and strategies of civil society engagement. However, research to support such engagement faces epistemological and methodological challenges which call for specific research strategies. A four year multi-country study was undertaken by the People's Health Movement, a global network working for health for all. The research took place in six countries (Brazil, Colombia, DR Congo, India, Italy, South Africa) and globally, and was directed to understanding five domains of civil society engagement: movement building; campaigning and advocacy; capacity building; knowledge generation, access and use; and engaging with governance. The research plan and methods of data collection and analysis were tailored to address the objective of improving activist practice, while negotiating research challenges identified during the design phase. Results include insights into the practice of civil society engagement in relation to the five domains of activist practice, as well as experience gained in managing six methodological challenges which we describe as: making meaning, aligning research and action, managing power relations, valuing experiential knowledges, chaos and contingency, challenging preconceptions. Researching activism can produce useful insights into practice as well as support continuous improvement in the effectiveness of such activism. However, there are significant methodological challenges that can be addressed through appropriate strategies. More research, building on the approach described in this paper, can contribute to more effective civil society activism for health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the dimensions of the political empowerment of Indian women and assess the factors responsible for the lacunas that hold women back in their potential. Design/methodology/approach: The research was based on primary data collected through a personal interview method from a sample of 68 women managers working in five different sectors of the Indian economy, namely; IT, education, telecom, banking, and hospitality sector. Further, data on the five factors from a sample of 423 women employees from the above-mentioned sectors have been collected and analyzed using a multiple regression model with control variables (marital status and generation gap). Findings: The major factors churned out that are needed for the political empowerment of women are namely, information or awareness, family support or family environment, legal environment, political environment, and personal ambitions or internal motivation. Originality/value: The present study has presented new insight into the field of women and politics by providing a case study into the dimensions of political empowerment among Indian women. The pilot model developed in this study can be initiated and replicated across the land on being successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dalit or ex-untouchable women's voices and perspectives have been marginalized not only in Dalit movements but also in predominantly upper-caste Hindu-led women's movements. This paper aims at exploring the unheard voices and perspectives of Dalit women in the context of Dalit assertion in the state of Uttar Pradesh, north India. Scholarly writing examines the different facets of Dalit political assertion led by the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. Few scholars, however, examine the ways in which individual and organizational actors engage with women of Dalit castes through social activism in the state. This paper is an attempt to do so. Specifically, it examines, with special reference to issues of culture and identity, the engagement of a grassroots women's non-governmental organization with rural Dalit women in southern Uttar Pradesh. The paper begins with an enquiry into why engagement with issues of culture and identity is necessary for social activism with Dalit women, and how it is carried out. It then examines whether social activism and electoral politics with Dalit women cross-cut each other, and also what implications this or its lack has for the women. Finally, the paper asks how far activism and politics can go towards re-inventing Dalit (women's) identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annie Besant was an Irish political activist, free-thinker and Fabian socialist. After embracing Theosophy under the tutelage of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian mystic, Besant embarked on her mission of propagating theosophical ideals, and reached the shores of India in 1893. However, in India Hinduism fascinated her to such an extent that she devoted herself to promoting Hinduism. She toured the length and breadth of India, and lectured intensely on the lofty ideals of Hinduism. However, Besant was of the opinion that absence of religious education in government schools and colleges and teaching of Christianity in missionary educational institutions was responsible for religious neutrality and scepticism among Hindu youth, and hence the fallen state of Hinduism. To remedy this state, she emphasised the need for its revival, and propagated the idea that religious education of Hindu youths should become an integral part of their education. In order to concretise these ideas, Besant established a college and school for the religious education of Hindu youth in the holy city of Benares, in the then North Western Provinces of British India, in 1898. Besant is widely known in India for her political activities as founder of Home Rule Movement and as the first women President of Indian National Congress, the chief political party involved in the struggle for national freedom. Although Besant's political career in India has been extensively researched, little is known about her educational ideas and activities. This paper analyses Besant's ideas on education, and show how, rather than being a promoter of modernity, she supported, upheld and institutionalised caste hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Our paper explores the link between women's self-help groups and public entitlements. • It further examines the effect of SHG membership on social networks and mobility. • Empirical strategy employs matching methods to correct endogeneity of SHG membership. • Using data from rural India, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. • SHG members are more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members. • SHG members are also more likely to avail of these public entitlement schemes. • SHG members also have wider social networks and greater mobility than non-members. Abstract Women's self-help groups (SHGs) have increasingly been used as a vehicle for social, political, and economic empowerment as well as a platform for service delivery. Although a growing body of literature shows evidence of positive impacts of SHGs on various measures of empowerment, our understanding of ways in which SHGs improve awareness and use of public services is limited. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper first examines how SHG membership is associated with political participation, awareness, and use of government entitlement schemes. It further examines the effect of SHG membership on various measures of social networks and mobility. Using data collected in 2015 across five Indian states and matching methods to correct for endogeneity of SHG membership, we find that SHG members are more politically engaged. We also find that SHG members are not only more likely to know of certain public entitlements than non-members, they are significantly more likely to avail of a greater number of public entitlement schemes. Additionally, SHG members have wider social networks and greater mobility as compared to non-members. Our results suggest that SHGs have the potential to increase their members' ability to hold public entities accountable and demand what is rightfully theirs. An important insight, however, is that the SHGs themselves cannot be expected to increase knowledge of public entitlement schemes in absence of a deliberate effort to do so by an external agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a unique data set of Indian legislators and their behaviour during Question Hour over a 30-year period (1980–2009), the paper establishes that there is a substantial gap in the volume of questions asked by legislators from national and subnational parties, even after accounting for party size and other covariates. Thus, despite increasing subnational party prominence in the electoral and executive arenas, national parties dominate activities to do with legislative oversight. The paper also explores mechanisms that may explain the difference in legislative activity between national and subnational party legislators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper contributes to an empirical and theoretical understanding of democracy and political participation in India through an ethnographic study of the meanings attached to voting in rural Tamil Nadu. Based on a study of voting in a rural constituency during the 2009 national elections, the paper explores the variety of motivations that compel people to vote. It explores how voting is informed by popular understandings of rights and duties as citizens, programmatic policies and their local implementation, commitment to caste and party loyalties, and authority of charismatic leaders. The paper explores the roots of the political consciousness and rights awareness that underpin high levels of electoral participation. It suggests that elections form unique moments that allow ordinary people to experience an individual sense of citizenship and of democracy itself while at the same time allowing them to pursue projects of recognition, respect and assertion as members of communities. It is precisely this dual feature that makes voting so enduringly attractive to India's contemporary electorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE THE purpose of the research is to trace the altering patterns of political activism in India. Rise of Middle Class and its impact on the political order of India has been attempted to be explored. Design/Methodology/Approach: Qualitative data analysis has been applied with an exhaustive literature survey of books, articles, conference papers, and newspaper reports on the said topic. Findings: The disparities among Indian Middle Class are giving a continuous roam to the political actors to assert themselves. Aam Admi Party is the representation of Indian Middle Class's disgruntlement at large in an elite dominated framework of Indian political frame of rule. Research Limitations/Implications: Research will be a good help and a useful study for the students of politics, economics, and management sciences as the subject of the research is interdisciplinary. Originality/Value: Paper glimpses at the thematic overview of the Indian electoral trends, and also encompasses the most recent scenario of Indian elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses two basic questions in the globalization literature: (1) is globalization a threat or an opportunity? And (2) how far does market deepening actually encourage genuine substantive democracy in the world? Many scholars have argued that globalization has resulted in increasing inequality and marginalization of the poor, which is not conducive for democracy. Drawing on the case of India, this paper, however, argues that the rolling back of the welfare state and the demise of developmentalism led to the mobilization of the masses against the elitist and exploitative agenda of globalization. As a result, a counter-hegemonic vibrant civil society has emerged, which challenges the hegemony of the elites and channels the empowerment agenda of the subaltern groups. This new politics of the subaltern is grounded on the idea of social justice and citizenship rights, which is redefining the nature of the Indian state and democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that sustainable Smart Cities cannot be delivered by profit-driven visions, but through a process that integrates the diverse aptitudes and needs of the city stakeholders. The study uses mixed methods to examine democratic participation in governance and the emerging notion of Smart City Citizenship in the context of India. Benchmarking and assessment of 21 smart cities reveals the existing participatory processes being "tokenistic" and a substantial deficit in democratic stakeholder participation mechanisms. A deeper assessment in Kochi and Nagpur exposes the existing barriers to citizen participation and reveals that the capacities of capable stakeholders and citizen groups can be channelised more effectively. This study promotes advancing the notion of 'citizenship' beyond the market to the commons. It suggests transforming urban governance into a more accountable and collaborative governance model with a stronger role and power to local government, residents, and democratic stakeholders. • Benchmarking and assessment of 21 smart cities and case studies of Kochi and Nagpur reveal that the existing participatory processes being "tokenistic" and a substantial deficit in democratic stakeholder participation mechanisms • The cities need to break the barriers of bureaucracy, corruption, marketisation, and capacity limitations. • This study promotes advancing the notion of 'citizenship' beyond the market to the commons. • The study suggests transforming urban governance into a more accountable and collaborative governance model with a stronger role and power to local government, residents, and democratic stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]