Political Science

Inequitable land access and land disputes are commonly mentioned as major causes of instability in the Bodoland region. Land problems are frequently invoked as a more potent debating tactic in conflict. For tribals in the region, land reform, ownership, registry, legal pluralism, boundary difficulties, landlessness, insecure land usage, and other associated issues are all major concerns. Major land legislation has failed to significantly reduce the number of major land disputes in the region. The British Colonial rule in India created substantial disruptions to land practises and possessions, which are still felt today in various regions of the country and in Northeast India, notably Assam. It's clear that the land issue is still relevant and active.

Inequitable land access and land disputes are commonly mentioned as major causes of instability in the Bodoland region. Land problems are frequently invoked as a more potent debating tactic in conflict. For tribals in the region, land reform, ownership, registry, legal pluralism, boundary difficulties, landlessness, insecure land usage, and other associated issues are all major concerns. Major land legislation has failed to significantly reduce the number of major land disputes in the region. The British Colonial rule in India created substantial disruptions to land practises and possessions, which are still felt today in various regions of the country and in Northeast India, notably Assam. It's clear that the land issue is still relevant and active.

The reader does not need to have copious concepts to grasp the tribal problems. It is about the land issue and the debate over how it arose and persisted; it exposes the problems in tribal societies.The central and state governments have the actual power to ensure tribal development. Furthermore, the land rights and protection problems are under the government's commitment to provide legal safeguards. However, neither the federal government nor state or local governments have exhibited much interest in the land troubles that tribal communities face. The paper focuses on tribal land issues and debates in the Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam. In the region, 97.88 per cent of the tribal people live in rural households and face uncertainty. The findings show that tribal people consider the government process insecure and intended to safeguard tribal members while ensuring the secure use of land in the region.

The ability of women to enhance their well-being is determined by their access to land. The study analysis focuses on the findings of a pilot survey on how women's land access disparities affect livelihoods and children's education of tribal people in the Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam, India. It targeted 384 households from three tribal groups: Bodo, Rabha, and Garo. The landholdings in the area are 71.86 percent marginal and 11.46 percent of the tribal people are landless. Women are rarely able to own land. Men possessed 64.32 percent of the land, compared to women's 4.68 percent. Women are typically de facto heads of households in the Bodoland region. The denial of equal land access to women obstructs the benefit of society as a whole in livelihoods, children are particularly suffered. Agriculture is the main source of earnings in rural areas, provides a livelihood of the tribal population. Enhancing women's access to land can considerably impact poverty reduction, not least by contributing to enhanced household food security.

Ethnic assertion in North East India is widely known political phenomenon. Bodos are one of the largest ethnic groups in North East India, who have asserted for Bodo homeland in Assam for a long time. This paper is an attempt to make a critical analysis of various stages of the Bodo assertion, the rise of Bodo identity consciousness, sub-nationalism, evolution of the Bodo politics and simultaneous participation in electoral politics since Colonial era under different organizations and leadership of the time. Beginning from the first generation Bodo leaders in the first half of the 20th century to the post Independence era and beyond. The study is limited and emphasis only the Bodo assertion and their electoral participation within the limited political and territorial framework of BTC/BTR. BTC/BTR comprises of four districts of Assam i.e. Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri. It is administered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India. It enjoys limited jurisdiction o...

Folksongs identify itself with the people of the particular area and surroundings. They are verbally carried out through generations depicting the picture of a particular society and community. The colonial history of Western Assam had witnessed the political manipulation by the British authority, bifurcating the densely populated Rajbanshi territories to create Assam and Bengal. Koch-Rajbanshis are one of the major tribes of Assam and Bengal in India. After the territorial split, the Rajbanshis living in Bengal soon lost their language, culture as well as their civilizational roots. The condition of the Rajbanshis in the newly formed State of Assam was nothing better. Having lost their language, culture and identity, they soon got degenerated into an inferior community. At a juncture when the Koch Rajbanshis had to encounter a phase of crisis, Goalparia folk songs of Pratima Barua Pandey emerged as an instrument of effective intervention to usher in a path of hope for these people, who desperately needed a direction for possible redemption of their cultural, linguistic as well as social identity.
In a similar fashion, Phleng phue chiwit folksongs of Thailand reflects the marginalized people’s lives of Thailand especially after 1930’s (the period of 1930’s marked by the political change from monarchy to constitutional monarchy). Some of the well known singers through this particular group of folksongs used to lay emphasis on the corrupt politicians and satirizing the corrupt officials of the time. In 1970’s Carabao groups under the Phleng Phue Chiwit emphasized on peoples equal rights especially farmers, workers and labourers. Suntharee Wechanont in …

Armed conflict across and between communities results in massive levels of destruction to the people-physically, culturally, economically and psychologically. The genesis of most of the conflicts that has engulfed the north-eastern states of India is either to preserve the unique identity or due to lack of economic development and opportunities for the large majority of the people or both. Women as heterogeneous group of social actors are arguably more affected than their male counterparts in conflict situations. Armed conflict exacerbates inequalities in gender relations that already exist in society. In an ethnically divided society in Assam, women bodies are generally used as ‘ethnic markers’ thereby have more specific manifestations. The paper aims to analyze the multiple roles that women are subjected to and play in armed conflict in the state of Assam. The paper is going to highlight that woman in NE India with a special reference to Assam cannot be categorized just as ‘victims’ of conflict. Even when they are victims; they exercise their agency and survival techniques despite adverse conditions. Beyond judicial measures, how women grapple with the problem of the'truths' of the past in post conflict scenario will also be highlighted.

There exists a multidimensional and reciprocal relationship between a women and an armed conflict situation. A worst effect of an armed conflict situation on women can be best seen in Nalbari. To suppress this conflict situation, women centric strategies can become an effective tool in the hands of state. States’ strategy of encouraging Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs) has a potential to address host of societal problems.

The study focus on the various demographic characteristics related to physician’s practice related code of ethics in the healthcare sector which might help in upgrading the ethical standards to promote healthy medical care. The demographic characteristics of the physicians includes gender, age groups, work experience and education qualification. The target population was full time physicians from the with a sample size of 114, comprising of 56 male and 58 female respondents with age group 25-29 years, 30-34 years and above 34 years. To accomplish the objectives stratified random sampling technique was used. A standardized questionnaire was used to identify the practice related code of ethics of the physicians. The results revealed that there was a significant difference among various work experience and education qualification. Whereas, age and gender were found to have no significant difference regarding practice code of ethics. Therefore it is vital to change the attitude of physicians and have adequate knowledge and awareness about the ethical codes among all the stage of the medical process.

This book analyses the impact that prolonged socio-political conflict in India has had on political and social spaces for women. Focusing in particular on Assam in the North East of India, it looks at how the conflict can be restricting, and yet can also have the potential to expand these spaces for women owing to the collapsing of boundaries of gender roles, thereby creating niche areas that may be leveraged for socio-political transformation. Based on empirical material collected from in-depth interviews with individuals on both sides of the conflict, the book locates the analysis in both a legal and political context. It examines the causes, dynamics and impact of the ethno-political conflicts in Assam, as well as the efficacy and outcomes of ‘capacity building’programmes aimed at rehabilitating the surrendered militants as well as assisting affected women. The book goes on to look at the role played by civil society, especially the Mahila Shanti Sena (Women Peace Corp), towards conflict transformation. It highlights the preventive, mitigative and adaptive measures taken by the women and their role as agents of peace in the volatile zones of North East India. Analysing the changing role of women in conflict situations, as well as the legal measures and regulatory mechanisms in place for women in vulnerable pockets of India, this book is a useful contribution to Gender Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, and South Asian Politics.

The concept of social exclusion refers to the processes through which some groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society in which they live. In light of this concept of social exclusion, the manuscript attempts to analyze the position of women in the north-eastern Indian states especially in the state of Assam and Manipur. Women in the north-eastern region of India are relatively better than their counterparts elsewhere in the country in terms of mobility, life choices, space in their lives, and so on. Various indices also give us the idea of a comparatively better position of women in the north-eastern states of India. However, albeit the north-eastern women incline to relish a higher status in cognation to their peers in the rest of India yet the cultural and customary traditions, discriminate against women in inordinate respect, and women in this region also face discrimination on many fronts, more so in the patriarchal societies of Assam and Manipur which has been highlighted in this manuscript.

The book is an interesting collation and provides a 360-degree
perspective of a significant aspect of the Indian Armed Forces. It fills
a major gap in legal studies as it is first of its kind dealing exclusively
with Article 33, with all parliamentary debates and legal cases organised
systematically in a single narration. It exhorts the Parliament, the
judiciary as well as the armed forces to reinterpret the spirit behind
Article 33 in the current context and make the justice deliverance system
in the armed force fair, just and transparent. With a detailed historic
background and judicial cases, this is an apt backgrounder for legislative
and judicial functionaries. The book is a must-read for all personnel of
the Indian Armed Forces so that they know and understand the legality,
meaning and interpretation of human rights. A reduction in the use of
legal lexicon for easy understanding by the armed forces personnel who
are not legally trained would have been appropriate. Notwithstanding
this limitation, the book will help the armed forces to focus on its internal
management of human and fundamental rights and that will have an
obvious fall out on their engagement with the external environment.

The Bhopal Gas tragedy, considered one of the most horrendous industrial mass disaster, is unparalleled in its magnitude and devastation in the history of mankind.
The incident occurred on the night of  December 1984 when a highly toxic chemical named Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leaked into the atmosphere
from the plant of Union Carbide (India) Limited(UCIL). Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) usually written asCH3CNO is an extremely toxic, volatile, and flammable gas whose density is more than the density of air andhas no possible antidote.
The US Defense Department also tested MIC as a warfare agent in 1944.3 Since
the density of the gas is more than that of air, its leakage into the atmosphere led to the formation of toxic gas clouds, very close to the ground level which eventually spread into the entire city of Bhopal. Thousands of people lost their life. As per the Times of India Report, 16177 death claims were filed and 7000 death case
compensation were awarded till November 27, 1994.4 The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed 3787 deaths. In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by the Government of India on 26th October 2006, the government stated that the gas leak led to 5,58,125 injuries.