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In this article I examine the simultaneous expansion of urban sprawl and influx of middle‐class migrants in the context of Gurugram, India, to highlight how physical and social space plays an integral role in shaping class distinction among the migrant middle classes. I make a case for social class, generally, and migrant middle classes in neo‐urban contexts, specifically, to be understood as a sociospatial category. My arguments build primarily on Bourdieu's argument that both physical and social space operates on similar principles of reciprocal externality of positions in the context of social class distinction. I highlight how the migrant middle classes formulate and consolidate their social class distinction against competing claims over sociospatial dominance of the local ancestral agrarian community in neo‐urban Gurugram, India. My findings highlight how existing local sociopolitical fractures interact with global capitalist circuits of capital to shape the sociospatial context in which social class distinction is formulated. The article allows for grounding theorizations of social class to accommodate local sociopolitical and sociospatial dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mission Compound is a residential enclosure in a small town in the hinterland of south-western Odisha, India that is exclusively inhabited by Christians. Acquired by German missionaries who introduced new forms of religion, administration and togetherness, this land became Christian and fostered the importance of rituals as well as the clergy's dominance in a formerly self-administered Adivasi-tribal culture. I conceptualise this Compound as a religious infrastructure, encompassing material components – roads, buildings, walls, and gates – as well as the collective memories and meanings with which these are entangled. Examining the residents' interactions with this infrastructural apparatus offers a window into the everyday dynamics of security and power that they navigate, as well as the processes of Christian identity formation and belonging in which they – and the infrastructure itself – participate. In this sense, the Mission Compound has great material, religious, social and semiotic meaning for the local Christian community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show that the village social structure shapes the learning outcome of marginalised children in rural India. Exploiting the variation in the dominant social group in the village, we find a significant impact of village dominance. The reading and arithmetic skills of Scheduled Castes are better in their own castes-dominated villages compared to higher castes-dominated villages. Our findings show that village dominance affects learning outcomes primarily through differential teachers' behaviour. Children from marginalised castes are more likely to be scolded, beaten up, and treated unfairly by teachers in villages dominated by higher castes compared to their own castes. We do not find evidence of other mechanisms like the difference in parent and children's aspirations, caste diversity, discrimination in the village, or positive group externalities, which could explain why children from Scheduled Castes fare better in their own castes-dominated villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Wage Earners in India, 1500–1900: Regional Approaches in an International Context" edited by Jan Lucassen and Radhika Seshan explores the social and economic conditions of wage earners in early modern and modern South Asia, with a focus on the Deccan and South India. The contributors examine various aspects of wage labor, including the types of work, payment methods, and the impact of factors such as caste and gender on wages. The book draws on underutilized sources from archives in different regions of South Asia and provides valuable insights into the lives of wage earners in the region. This volume would be of interest to scholars and students of early modern South Asia, comparative history, and labor history. [Extracted from the article]

Gender role attitude has gained considerable attention over the past three decades as the concern of society shifts from male dominance to the liberation of the female sex. This attitude of a country's population helps in explaining deep-rooted gender sensitivity in its society. The present research was carried out purposively in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India in the year 2021-22 on 200 purposively selected students throwing light on the gender role attitude of University students. Primary data was collected using a structured pre-tested questionnaire. Findings revealed that half of the respondents had an egalitarian gender role attitude followed by 40.50 per cent who had a transitional attitude. The majority of the female students had an egalitarian attitude whereas half of the male respondents had a transitional attitude. This gap in gender role attitude can be expected because of the male-dominated and patriarchal nature of Indian society. It is suggested that parents should be sensitized to teach their sons to share responsibilities irrespective of gender role norms and also more emphasis should be laid on gender empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decolonial studies define the coloniality of power as a complex assemblage of dominance and hegemony that emerged during the modern era or the era of colonialism, which stretches from the conquest of the Americas to the present. This article argues that, as part of the critical dialogue between decolonial studies and Islamic liberation theology, the latter should position itself in a decolonial political praxis around the preferential option for the poor that takes both a decolonial turn and a decolonial option seriously. There is a tendency to appropriate certain brands of decolonial studies to engage with forms of nationalism, such as Hindutva, to build a "decolonial option" in the global South by undermining the key insights of the "decolonial turn". This article specifically engages with the claims of "decolonial Hindutva" to critique the nationalist appropriation in decolonial studies, thereby marking its divergence from decolonial Islamic liberation theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has witnessed the dominance of a plethora of political dynasties, both at the national as well as the state level, since independence. The post-colonial Indian state adopted a liberal constitutional democracy premised upon modern representative institutions. However, the primordial principle of hereditary succession of power resiliently co-existed in the form of powerful political families that have continued to impact the nature of Indian democratic political discourse till today. The political parties are an instrumental driver of political life in all modern representative democracies including India. Hence, it is crucial to study how the Indian party system has consolidated the prominence of political dynasties especially from the 1970s onwards, in the realm of both party organisation and the representative institutions. In this context, the article attempts to problematise the nature of dynastic politics in India and offers a framework to analyse the causes of its dominance to understand how it impacts the right to equal political opportunity and electoral competitiveness. The article makes three arguments. First, to better understand the amorphous nature of dynastic politics, two elements – dynastic representation in elected institutions and dynasty-led parties – need to be studied distinctively, despite some commonalities. Second, dynastic representation is largely ubiquitous in most political parties (in both dynasty-led and non-dynasty-led parties) due to the party's preference for legacy candidates and their higher chances of electoral winnability. Third, the article offers two typologies of dynasty-led parties, explaining why the dynasties' grip over their parties, particularly in recent times, appears to be mostly performance-immune and in what circumstances some dynasty-led parties not only perform better in electoral contests than others but also face tough competition for retaining their dynastic control over the party. Lastly, the article concludes with some reflections on how dynastic representation and dynasty-led parties impact the form and substance of the Indian party system and democratic politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After becoming the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi made many efforts to consolidate his dominance in South Asia and expand India's influence in the Indian Ocean. The "neighborhood first policy" was highlighted in India's foreign policy. Based on historical and logical research methods and studies in international relations, the paper aims to examine the implementation of "neighborhood first policy" through bilateral relations between India and its neighboring countries. These relationships have been facing challenges from the more profound influence and interference of China as well as frequent terrorist incidents due to border disputes, which threatened regional security. Although this policy connected India with its neighboring South Asian countries, there were still challenges. It can be seen that the "neighborhood first policy" was Prime Minister Modi's effort to nurture bilateral relationships, enhance regional connectivity, and strengthen and elevate India's position in the region. The progress of the "Neighborhood First" policy is expected to continue more successfully in the next phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable supplier selection (SSS) is recognized as a prime aim in supply chain because of its impression on profitability, adorability, and agility of the organization. This work introduces a multi-phase intuitionistic fuzzy preference-based model with which decision experts are authorized to choose the suitable supplier using the sustainability "triple bottom line (TBL)" attributes. To solve this issue, an intuitionistic fuzzy gained and lost dominance score (IF-GLDS) approach is proposed using the developed IF-entropy. To make better use of experts' knowledge and fully represent the uncertain information, the evaluations of SSS are characterized in the form of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS). To better distinguish fuzziness of IFSs, new entropy for assessing criteria weights is proposed with the help of an improved score function. By considering the developed entropy and improved score function, a weight-determining process for considered criterion is presented. A case study concerning the iron and steel industry in India for assessing and ranking the SSS is taken to demonstrate the practicability of the developed model. The efficacy of the developed model is certified with the comparison by diverse extant models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of entrepreneurship in inclusive development of the economy is widely recognised by policy makers and academicians. The present study analyses various dimensions of entrepreneurship among one of the disadvantaged groups in India, namely, the SCs. The study used primary data collected from 162 SC and 60 non-SC entrepreneurs in five districts of Telangana. The findings of the empirical investigation indicate that there is a changing attitude of entrepreneurship among the SCs. Countering the previous studies on entrepreneurship among disadvantaged groups in India, the present study indicates that entrepreneurship among the SCs is positively motivated with dominance of nonpecuniary motives and they are eager to be independent rather than being in the shadow of economic distress. Moreover, SC entrepreneurs are involved in similar value-added sectors like others, managed to employ similar level of fixed capital and workers as others, managed to report similar level of growth in size, and managed to secure formal credit like banks for their fixed capital requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following article seeks to establish caste groups in India as Weberian status groups. Dumont and Weber's understanding of caste, while partially correct in this area, sought to establish caste as uniquely Indian, through their orientalist leanings. The Brahmin caste was seen by most orientalists as being an exclusive group of ascetic priests who headed Hindu society. By attempting to demonstrate the political and economic factors behind their dominance, the author here seeks to de-exoticize these assumptions, and calls for the term caste to be replaced by status. This will allow us to compare endogamous caste groups or jatis in India with status groups in premodern and modern complex societies all over the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research aims to address the transformative service research (TSR) agenda by examining the issue of caste-based financial exclusion in microcredit lending services in India. To do so, it draws on statistical discrimination theory from labour economics to develop and test a multi-level prosocial service orientation framework. Design/methodology/approach: Survey data come from 238 loan officers and 250 lower caste loan applicants across 43 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India. The data are analysed using hierarchical linear modelling, a method appropriate for investigating micro- and macro-level organisational variables. Findings: At the micro level, the service orientation factors of social dominance orientation and algorithmic-driven lending decisions affect financial exclusion of lower caste bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) vendors. At the macro level, the service orientation mechanism of inclusive service climate reduces caste-based financial exclusion, while the level of lending risk to reduce discrimination receives no support. Research limitations/implications: Research in other contexts is warranted to confirm the prosocial service orientation model. Methodological challenges at the BoP also present avenues for insightful work. Social implications: The study shows the importance of an inclusive service climate and reassessment of algorithmic-driven lending decisions to eliminate caste-based indicators in lending decisions. It also recommends policy reform of caste-based affirmative action at the macro- and micro-levels of lending decisions. Originality/value: This research extends the TSR agenda to include caste-based discrimination in prosocial services. It takes a multidisciplinary perspective on services research by incorporating statistical discrimination theory from labour economics to extend understanding of service orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ingroup/outgroup categorisation is a repeatedly found phenomenon. Given the long‐standing caste system, the Indian societal structure provides a unique perspective on such social categorisation. The Indian caste system contains hereditarily inherited identity roles defining profession and status‐based hierarchies. In this preregistered experiment, we investigate the influence of caste‐based identity on cooperation using a (hypothetical) Prisoner's Dilemma. Specifically, Indian participants (N = 685) were paired with a (hypothetical) other in a Prisoner's Dilemma, whose last name reflected either a general caste (i.e., a "high" caste) or a backward ("lower") caste including the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and other backward classes. Because participants indicated belonging to a general or a backward caste themselves, they thus played the (hypothetical) Prisoner's Dilemma with either a member of the same or a different caste group. We did not find that the partner's caste group membership in terms of stemming from an ingroup (same caste) or outgroup (different caste) influenced participants' cooperation. Further, we found participants from the general caste to be more cooperative when paired with (hypothetical) backward caste others (outgroup), compared to backward caste participants when paired with (hypothetical) general caste participants (outgroup); however, this difference disappeared once controlling for other demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foot‐and‐mouth disease (FMD) is endemic in India with a preponderance of outbreaks caused by FMD virus (FMDV) serotype O. Out of the 11 global topotypes of serotype O, only ME‐SA topotype has been reported in the country so far. Lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001 and O/ME‐SA/PanAsia are documented as the most dominant ones in terms of the number of outbreaks caused by them. To understand the distribution of topotype/lineages in India and their antigenic behaviour during the year 2014–2018, a total of 286 FMDV serotype O viral isolates were sequence determined at the VP1 region, and 109 isolates were characterized antigenically. All the isolates grouped in the ME‐SA topotype, being distributed in lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001 (within sub‐lineages O/ME‐SA/Ind2001d and O/ME‐SA/Ind2001e), and a new group designated here as O/ME‐SA/2018 cluster. The sub‐lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001e reported for the first time in India during the year 2015, replaced sub‐lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001d gradually, which was dominating since 2008. During the years 2014–2018, the sub‐lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001e was found to be the most predominant one whose mean evolutionary rate was observed to be faster than that of the sub‐lineage O/ME‐SA/Ind2001d. The codon sites 45 and 85 of VP1 were found to be under diversifying selection in a large proportion of trees. The common ancestor predicted for sub‐lineages O/ME‐SA/Ind2001e and O/ME‐SA/2018 dates back to 2012 and 2016, respectively. The sustenance and spread of the new O/ME‐SA/2018 cluster need to be assessed by continued surveillance. The Indian vaccine strain O/INDR2/1975 was found to provide adequate antigenic coverage to the emerging and prevalent serotype O lineages. The trait association tests showed frequent virus exchange among different states, which could be an important confounder in the region‐specific assessment of effectiveness of FMD control programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional fermented foods have been recognized by various communities to be good for health since ancient times. There is a provincial legacy of traditional fermented foods among the ethnic population of North-East India. Fermented bamboo shoots (local name: Tuaither), soybeans (Bekang), and pork fat (Sa-um) are famous in theMizoramstate and represent a primary portion of the daily diet. These foods are prepared using methods based on cultural traditions inherited from previous generations, and prepared using a relatively uncontrolled fermentation process. Analysis of the bacterial diversity in these foods can provide important information regarding the flavor and texture of the final products of fermentation. Unfortunately, studies on themicrobial composition and health benefits of such traditional fermented foods have rarely been documented. Therefore, the present study aims to highlight this bacterial diversity, along with the proximate composition of different traditional fermented foods (Tuaither, Bekang and Sa-um) primarily consumed inMizoramstate, India. Samples were collected on three different days of fermentation (3rd, 5th and 7th day), and bacterial diversity analysis was performed using the V3-V4 variable region of 16S rRNA gene with Illumina sequencing. Results revealed differences in the bacterial composition of dominant groupmembers among all of the three food types. Firmicutes (82.72–94.00%), followed by Proteobacteria (4.67–15.01%), were found to dominate to varying degrees in all three of the fermented foods. However, at genus level high variation was observed in bacterial composition among these three different types of fermented foods. Lactobacillus (91.64–77.16%), Staphylococcus (52.00–17.90%), and Clostridium (72.48–55.40%) exhibited the highest relative abundances in the Tuaither, Bekang and Sa-um foods, respectively, in descending order from the 3rd to 7th day of fermentation. A few of the bacterial genera such as Lactobacilli were positively correlated with fermented bamboo shoot samples, and Staphylococcus was positively correlatedwith protein, carbohydrate and crude fiber content in soybean samples. In general, Tuaither, Bekang and Sa-umexhibited distinct differences in bacterial composition. This variation may be due to differences in the raw materials and/or methods used in the preparation of the different fermented food products. This is the first study to describe the bacterial composition of these traditional fermented foods using high-throughput sequencing techniques, and could help to drive research attention to comprehensive studies on improving understanding of the role ofmicrobial communities in the preparation of traditional foods and their health benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of authoritarianism and populism are insufficient if they do not take into account the power of gender and sexuality, in relation to other social divisions, within authoritarian power and the erotics that produce populism. Patriarchal power is a more comprehensive approach, showing how the new authoritarians rely on gendered security and securitization to produce the new post-secular and the post-postcolonial nationalisms of today. While populisms are divergent in empire and postcolony, for instance in the US and India, generated by grievances and disappointments of a waning empire on the one hand, and a failed modernization on the other, their authoritarian leaders are linked not just in modes of power and governance but also through sharing technologies of surveillance, security and accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the Competition Commission of India's (CCI) decisional practice in cases of abuse of dominance in relation to big tech companies. The authors note that the CCI has adopted a cautious approach, and has on certain occasions expressed its reluctance in early intervention in a nascent sector. The article examines the need for the CCI to be driven by a fact-based approach in light of the jurisprudence from other mature regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on population dynamics and dominance of leafhopper species on 'Alphonso' mango were conducted from May 2016 to April 2017 at mango orchard of Agriculture College, Shivamogga and Doddabbigere village of Davanagere district, Karataka, India. Maximum population of leafhoppers was recorded during second fortnight of February 2017 (33.54 leafhopper / inflorescence) in mango orchard of Agriculture College, Shivamogga followed by first fortnight of February 2017 (29.98 leafhopper/inflorescence). Lowest number of leafhoppers was found during second fortnight of August 2016 (1.35 leafhopper / five sweeps in each direction). While at farmers orchard, the leafhopper population during first fortnight of February 2017 was highest (35.47/inflorescence) followed by first fortnight of January 2017 (34.49/inflorescence). Lowest leafhopper was found during first fortnight of September 2016 (2.05 leafhoppers/five sweeps in each direction). Irrespective of seasons in both the locations the overall per cent dominance of mango leafhopper species was highest in I. nitidulus followed by I. nagpurensis and A. atkinsoni. Correlation analysis with various weather parameters in both the locations indicated that, maximum temperature and minimum temperature showed significant positive, whereas morning relative humidity had significant negative correlation with the incidence of hoppers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference to a village in a predominantly tribal part of Rajasthan, this paper illustrates the increasing heterogeneity of the rural educational landscape and examines different patterns of enrolment within this. While the findings confirm those of more macro-level studies using the four official social categories, intra-category differences are shown to be equally, if not more, important in helping to explain variations in the types and locations of schools chosen by parents. The social composition of government schools in the village has greatly narrowed and the majority of pupils in local private schools now come from tribal households. The expansion in size and number of commutable schools has moved the frontier of private schooling away from the village and provided new and increasingly exclusive contexts for both old and new forms of social division to be manifested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the gender differentials in childhood feeding practices, health care utilization and nutritional status of children by birth order and sex composition of previous living children in Northern India. Design/methodology/approach - In this paper, data were drawn from India's 2006 National Family Health Survey. A variety of different analytic methods were used to look for gender differentials in childhood feeding practices, health care utilization and nutritional status of children. Bi-variate analysis was applied to examine the raw values of gender differentials in childhood feeding, health care and nutritional status of children. Besides, gender differentials at the different birth order and sex composition of previous living children have been measured through multivariate logistic regression analysis. Findings - The raw values of gender differentials in childhood feeding, health care and nutritional status of children, regardless of child's birth order, mother's number of living sons and other characteristics of the child or mother, shows that the proportion of children who received any liquid, proportion of children receiving solid/semi-solid food and the proportion of fully immunized children vary by their gender significantly. The results of standardized gender differentials by birth order and sex composition of previous living children in the selected indicators of childhood feeding, immunization and health care and nutritional status of children based on multivariate binary logistic regression show that among children of birth order 3+ (3 and higher), male children were less likely to receive solid/semi-solid foods during 24 hours prior to the survey in families with no living son, but two times were more likely to receive any solid/semi-solid food than female children in families with 1+ living sons (po0.0001). Male children aged 12-23 months born to mothers with no living son were more likely to be fully immunized than female children, while male children born to mothers with 1+ living sons were less likely to be fully immunized than female children (po0.05) at birth order 3+. However, the analysis showed no significant gender differentials in the nutritional status of children. Research limitations/implications - The authors observed a strong association between the extents of gender differentials and birth order of the index child and the sex composition of older living siblings. Strong evidence of sex bias against female children was found in families with no living sons and particularly at higher birth orders 2 and 3+ (3 and higher). Overall, the study demonstrates the need to focus on predominance of intra-household differential rather than inter-household differential. Originality/value - This paper brings out the gender differentials in childhood feeding practices, health care utilization and nutritional status of children by birth order and sex composition of previous living children in Northern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the narrative of academic dominance as the common discourse that insists on seeing the relationship between the two groups of scholars through a lens of dominance. It examines the counterproductive performative elements of the dominance narrative by analyzing semi-directive interviews conducted with international relations scholars in Brazil and India. It also proposes an alternative narrative based on transversal identification.

• The co-authorship networks constructed from the bibliometric data of research published in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are investigated. • The dichotomous networks are highly assortative and the corresponding strength-coupled networks are highly cohesive. • The distribution profile, not for the degrees but for the weighted degrees, is smooth and well described by power-law with exponential cut-off. • Dominance of affiliations from domestic institutions of the authors with high closeness centrality is observed for highly productive cases. • This study suggests that the dominance of domestic affiliations for central authors influences and catalyses the collaborative research. Extant studies suggest that the proximity between the researchers and their structural positioning in the collaboration network may influence productivity and performance in collaboration research. In this paper, we analyze the co-authorship networks of the three countries, viz. the USA, China, and India, constructed in consecutive non-overlapping 5-year long time windows from bibliometric data of research papers published in the past decade in the rapidly evolving area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI&ML). Our analysis relies on the observations ensued from a comparison of the statistical properties of the evolving networks. We consider macro-level network properties which describe the global characteristics, such as degree distribution, assortativity, and large-scale cohesion etc., as well as micro-level properties associated with the actors who have assumed central positions, defining a core in the network assembly with respect to closeness centrality measure. For the analysis of the core actors, who are well connected with a large number of other actors, we consider share of their affiliations with domestic institutes. We find dominant representation of domestic affiliations of the core actors for high productivity cases, such as China in the second time window and the USA in the first and second both. Our study, therefore, suggests that the domestic affiliation of the core actors, who could access network resources more efficiently than other actors, influences and catalyzes the collaborative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the projected state identities and development in India. Topics discussed include the country's postcolonial history, economic development, and public order. Information regarding the democratic politics in the country, the social dominance, and the public welfare, are also mentioned.

Globalisation can be summarised as opening-up of markets, leading to transfer of capital, technology and people. However, another important dimension of globalisation is multilateralism. The international economic reforms encourage multilateralism leads allocative efficiency. Multilateralism implies importing capital from a variety of sources as may be most efficient. India's FDI policy is in alignment with global FDI. In 1991, India had receiving FDI from 86 investing countries, which reached to 137 investing countries in 2013. This indicates global attractiveness and preferred investment destination. The paper examines FDI investing pattern of source countries in India. The period of study is 1991- 2013. The paper applies a set of new indices like Index of Rank Dominance (IRD) and Bodenhorn's measure of Mobility and Turnover. The most dominant country is USA. The RIRD (Relative Index of Rank Dominance) are top heavy. The first five countries are investing more than 60 percent FDI in India. Asian Tiger countries invested around 11 percent and BRICS countries have insignificant FDI in India. The competitive pattern of FDI has been declined among three different grouping countries. The global FDI in India has been declined 8 percent per annum in spite of favoured investment destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT People in India deploy a variety of euphemisms for corruption, one of which is jugaad, which refers to goal-oriented improvisation, especially the use of informal social networks to advance one's interests. But as often as it is conflated with corruption, jugaad is also conceived as necessary for 'getting by' and even as virtuous practice. This ethnography of police practices in Uttar Pradesh shows how the contronymic character of jugaad emerges from widespread valuation of what I call 'provisional agency,' which is both a capability to provide a social good and a temporary means of mobility geared toward a better future. Understanding practices that may be deemed 'corrupt' as embodiments of provisional agency breaks down a clear distinction between virtue and vice and works to disaggregate a rigid inverse relationship between morality and power that assumes 'elite' dominance can only be answered by resistance or acquiescence 'from below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the marital quality of inter-caste marriage (marriage between the members of lower castes and upper castes) and intra-caste marriage (marriage within one's own caste) participants. The Caste system is peculiar to India. Baldauf (2001) states, "Caste is the ancient Hindu system of social hierarchy that defines a person's worth and code of conduct based on social status at birth" (p. 2). Members of upper castes are a privileged group, whereas those from lower castes are considered to be the unfortunate lot. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the architect of India's constitution advocated inter-caste marriage to redress the ills of the caste system. He affirmed the idea that low caste members could only be empowered by marrying members of the upper castes. There is more resistance to inter-caste marriages than to love marriages in India. Among other concerns in opposing inter-caste marriage is the fear of poor marital quality leading to marital breakdown but this concern is not based on empirical evidences. Research on inter-caste marriages is scanty; therefore, this paper seeks to add to the knowledge base in this area. A self-prepared interview schedule and a marital quality scale were used to collect data from one hundred and twenty participants (n=120) each from inter-caste and intra-caste marriage category, totaling two hundred and forty participants (n=240). No significant difference was observed between those in inter-caste and intracaste marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In captivity, male bonnet macaques ( Macaca radiata) frequently express 'friendship' toward one another, including affiliative behavior such as huddling, grooming, coalitionary support, and sitting in close proximity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether wild adult male bonnet macaques also express 'friendship' by investigating whether or not (1) adult male bonnet macaques have affiliative social relationships with other males, (2) the strength of social relationships varies among dyads, (3) there is time-matched reciprocity in allogrooming among dyads, and if so, whether the level of reciprocity occurs within a bout of grooming, a day, or over 2 months (the limit of this study), and (4) a correlation exists between the strength of social relationships and dominance ranks among adult males. Focal samples totaling 150 hr on all seven adult males in one study group were conducted to record both agonistic and affiliative interactions. Agonistic interactions were used to construct a dominance hierarchy, whereas affiliative interactions (sitting in proximity to within 1 m with and without grooming) were used to quantify the existence and strength of social bonds within dyads. Results show that adult male bonnet macaques had differentiated affiliative relationships with other males in their group. There was little reciprocity of grooming within a bout of grooming or within a day, but greater reciprocity over the study period of 2 months. There was no correlation between dominance ranking distance and the strength of affiliative relationship within dyads; however, within dyads lower-ranking males groomed higher-ranking males more than vice versa. This study suggests that friendships in male bonnet macaques are characterized not by immediate tit-for-tat reciprocal altruism, but by reciprocity over a longer time span, and that affiliative social relationships may be less constrained by agonistic relationships than is the case in more despotic species of macaques. Am. J. Primatol. 73:1107-1113, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to strengthen local health policies, a study was initiated to measure the burden of disease (BOD) at local household level in a rural population in a desert district in India. The association of selected variables with BOD at household level was investigated in an attempt to reduce BOD through easy-to-execute public health measures. Nine hundred households from 30 villages were surveyed. BOD percentages (BOD%) according to age- and sex-based distribution in households were found to be increasing with age, up to the age of 45 years, and across this age spectrum BOD%s was lower among females than males; this trend was, however, reversed in favour of males in persons older than 45 years. Among the BOD% shared by dichotomised variables determined for each household, cattle-keeping inside houses was found in 93% of the households, as opposed to keeping cattle outside houses. This significant variable was followed by water storage pattern (91%), sharing of sleeping space (76%), economic status (90%) and non-cemented houses (73%), all with high statistical significance at p<.01. Primary-level education registered a lower significance (p<.05; >.01) with a share of 62%. BOD% of electricity provision and sanitation practices did not reach statistical significance (p>.05) in this setting. Thus the first three variables with significant association with BOD listed above were identified as priority targets against which easy-to-execute measures could be instituted by health authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the structure of dominance and its relationship with social grooming in wild lion-tailed macaque females. The strength of dominance hierarchy was 0.79 on a scale of 0 to 1 indicating a moderate linearity in the ranking system. Dominance scores were converted into an ordinal as well as an interval scale. Grooming scores were also converted into interval scales using standard scores. Grooming received and grooming given correlated positively and negatively respectively with dominance ranks indicating that high ranking females received more and gave less grooming. Grooming was also positively related to encounter rates for dyads of females. More grooming among adjacent ranks, and grooming being more reciprocal, occurred only in the case of dominant females. The grooming patterns, therefore, appeared to be more of despotic than egalitarian nature. While ranking macaques into different Grades of social systems ranging from despotic to egalitarian, Thierry (2004) has placed lion-tailed macaques in Grade 3 corresponding to the 'relaxed' social system. Our results indicate that the grooming and dominance relationships in this species are more despotic, and hence, the Grade for this species requires to be shifted toward 2 or 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes an attempt to describe the status and role of elderly within the family and community institutions as a source of wisdom and knowledge, particularly to have an understanding of the intergenerational relationships in the Indian context. As the countries and areas of Asia develop economically and become more heavily urban, the familial support of the elderly has eroded. There are a number of reasons to think that traditional systems of familial care for the elderly in Asia have started to reflect this changing scenario in terms of increasing problems for the elderly. The Indian subcontinent too has experienced these transitional changes. But despite the changes in the structures and functions of Indian societies, families do preserve the norms of social hierarchy (of which the elderly are an important part), cultural styles and mode of living. At the same time elderly who are regarded as the sources of wisdom and knowledge are given due respect and place in the society within the ambit of the family and community contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents introduction about the articles published in the January 2004 issue of the journal "Contributions to Indian Sociology." The articles in this volume begin with the assumption that ritual dominance in no way determines the nature of caste interactions in contemporary India. From politics, to gender, to economic interaction, the pure hierarchy is not just being questioned; it is, more often than not, left unattended by the wayside. Today caste and politics are linked differently because of adult franchise, and more so on account of the fact that the village is no longer the viable social space it used to be. The articles in this volume begin with the assumption of assertive caste identities that are in no way embrassed by Brahmanical renditions and allow the clamour of other caste voices to speak their mind without censoring them. The article on Jains gives an ingress into how merchant castes valorise their way of life and thereby commit themselves to a lifestyle that is in no way impoverished by the fact that orthodoxy may place them lower in the ritual hierarchy. Gaurang Sahay's article takes up the issue of discrete caste identities and confronts the face-off between power and ritual with illustrations from rural Bihar.

This ethnographic study of male filmgoers in India supports Mulvey's contention that cinema bolsters male power by prompting men to make women objects of a controlling gaze. But it also shows that Indian male filmgoers both objectify and identify with on-screen male images. This identification prompts men to see themselves as framed by a controlling gaze. Thus, a clear-cut distinction between looking men and watched women is not a universal feature of male dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ropalidia marginata is a common primitively eusocial wasp in peninsular India. Their colonies contain a single egg-laying queen and several non-egg-laying workers. Queens and workers are morphologically indistinguishable, and individuals can change from one role to the other. Unlike most primitively eusocial species, queens of R. marginata are docile, non-aggressive and non-interactive. Nevertheless, the queens maintain a complete reproductive monopoly mediated by non-volatile pheromones. Upon the death or removal of the queen, one worker becomes temporarily hyper-aggressive and becomes the next queen within about a week; we refer to her as the 'potential queen'. Because only one individual becomes hyper-aggressive and reveals herself as the potential queen, and the other wasps never challenge her, we have been much interested in identifying the potential queen in the presence of the queen. However, we have failed to do so until recently. Here, we recount the four decades of search for the potential queen, ending with the recent resolution that emerged from applying the novel technique of multilayer network analysis. Identifying the potential queen in the presence of the previous queen is now possible by integrating behavioural information from multiple social situations to form a holistic view of the social structure of the wasps.

Abstract: The study presents allele frequency data at 15 tetrameric short tandem repeat (STR) loci (D3S1358, THO1, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, D16S539, CSF1PO, vWA, D8S1179, TPOX, D2S1338, D19S433 and FGA) in three ethnic populations—Mahishya, Bauri and Namasudra of Bengal to evaluate their utility in Forensic testing and understanding population structure and dynamics. A total of 169 individuals were studied from the selected populations. On an average the combined power of discrimination and power of exclusion in these groups was found 0.97 and 0.99, respectively. The allele distribution pattern shows possible genetic admixture between these ethnic groups which could be attributed to their close geographical proximity and occupying almost similar position in the social hierarchy. This study suggests that the 13 Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) markers and two added markers named D2S1338, D19S433 are highly informative and therefore suitable in matching biological specimen in human identification and population genetic study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article provides an examination of the structure of Islamophobia across cultures. Our novel measure-the Tripartite Islamophobia Scale (TIS)-embeds three theoretically and statistically grounded subcomponents of Islamophobia: anti-Muslim prejudice, anti-Islamic sentiment, and conspiracy beliefs. Across six samples (i.e., India, Poland, Germany, France, and the United States), preregistered analyses corroborated that these three subcomponents are statistically distinct. Measurement invariance analyses indicated full scalar invariance, suggesting that the tripartite understanding of Islamophobia is generalizable across cultural contexts. Furthermore, the subcomponents were partially dissociated in terms of the intergroup emotions they are predicted by as well as the intergroup outcomes they predict (e.g., dehumanization, ethnic persecution). For example, intergroup anger and disgust underpin Islamophobic attitudes, over and above the impact of fear. Finally, our results show that social dominance orientation (SDO) and ingroup identification moderate intergroup emotions and Islamophobia. We address both theoretical implications for the nature of Islamophobia and practical interventions to reduce it.