‘A state of one’s own’: secessionism and federalism in India

Ever since the 'ethnic explosion' and secessionism blasted across the world in the mid-1980s, theorists have worked overtime to devise solutions to what appears to be an intractable problem. The problem is simply this: how can the escalation of ethnic discontent into violence, armed struggle and demands for separation be pre-empted? Violent conflicts can be managed, but when politics in the violent mode overlaps with identity issues, the problem verges on the insoluble. However, ethnic wars have to be forestalled, simply because they have inflicted incalculable harm on the human condition - grave and massive violations of human rights, dislocations, homelessness, desecration, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Basically, three solutions are on offer to resolve the problem: institutionalisation of democracy; federalism or decentralisation of power and resources and minority rights. Democracy assures citizens that their fundamental rights will be protected through the institutionalisation of two basic norms - participation and accountability. Federalism in and for plural societies is not only about decentralisation of power and resources to territorially distinct administrative units, it is also about such decentralisation to the dominant ethnic group which inhabits these territories, so that the group acquires a stake in the system. Democracy and federalism must be backed by the constitutional sanction of minority rights in order to prove effective. The problem is that the establishment of democracy, federalism, and minority rights in India has not precluded violent politics, armed rebellion, and secessionism in Punjab, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir (J and K), and Manipur. Today, Punjab and Mizoram are post-conflict societies but until the late 1980s these two states were wracked by tremendous violence and demands for secession. The other two states continue to be torn apart by the same phenomenon. Something has gone seriously wrong with the performance of democratic and federal institutions in this part of the country and it is the task of a responsible political theorist to see what has gone wrong and where. As Dunn sagely reminds us ‘the purpose of political theory is to diagnose political predicaments and to show us how best to confront them.

Contested secessions in formal democracies: the case of Jammu and Kashmir

In a new book, Dr Neera Chandhoke considers the political context and moral considerations that complicate the right of secession in the postcolonial world

Democracy and Revolutionary Politics

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Democracy and political violence can hardly be considered conceptual siblings, at least at first sight. Democracy allows people to route their aspirations, demands, and expectations of the state through peaceful methods; violence works outside these prescribed and institutionalized channels in public spaces, in the streets, in the forests and in inhospitable terrains. But can committed democrats afford to ignore the fact that violence has become a routine way of doing politics in countries such as India? By exploring the concept of political violence from the perspective of critical political theory, Neera Chandhoke investigates its nature, justification and contradictions. She uses the case study of Maoist revolutionaries in India to globalize and relocate the debate alongside questions of social injustice, exploitation, oppression and imperfect democracies. As such, this is an important and much-needed contribution to the dialogue surrounding revolutionary violence

Democracy and Revolutionary Politics

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Democracy and political violence can hardly be considered conceptual siblings, at least at first sight. Democracy allows people to route their aspirations, demands, and expectations of the state through peaceful methods; violence works outside these prescribed and institutionalized channels in public spaces, in the streets, in the forests and in inhospitable terrains. But can committed democrats afford to ignore the fact that violence has become a routine way of doing politics in countries such as India? By exploring the concept of political violence from the perspective of critical political theory, Neera Chandhoke investigates its nature, justification and contradictions. She uses the case study of Maoist revolutionaries in India to globalize and relocate the debate alongside questions of social injustice, exploitation, oppression and imperfect democracies. As such, this is an important and much-needed contribution to the dialogue surrounding revolutionary violence

Gujarat: how an exclusionary political pact is also a durable one

As the Indian state of Gujarat prepares to go to polls in December, most commentators agree that the chief minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party will be voted back to power yet again. Dr Neera Chandhoke argues that the electoral performance of the BJP government is based on a Hindu majoritarian political pact that sustains itself by excluding and marginalising the Muslim community. This exclusion, and its relationship with the majoritarian political pact, can best be understood by looking at the plight of victims of the 2002 pogrom and the resettlement colonies in Ahmedabad that they continue to inhabit. (Dr Chandhoke’s working paper, “Some Reflections on the Notion of an ‘Inclusive Political Pact’: A Perspective from Ahmedabad”, has been summarised here by Praveen Priyadarshi)

Effective antiprotease-antibiotic treatment of experimental anthrax

BACKGROUND: Inhalation anthrax is characterized by a systemic spread of the challenge agent, Bacillus anthracis. It causes severe damage, including multiple hemorrhagic lesions, to host tissues and organs. It is widely believed that anthrax lethal toxin secreted by proliferating bacteria is a major cause of death, however, the pathology of intoxication in experimental animals is drastically different from that found during the infectious process. In order to close a gap between our understanding of anthrax molecular pathology and the most prominent clinical features of the infectious process we undertook bioinformatic and experimental analyses of potential proteolytic virulence factors of B. anthracis distinct from lethal toxin. METHODS: Secreted proteins (other than lethal and edema toxins) produced by B. anthracis were tested for tissue-damaging activity and toxicity in mice. Chemical protease inhibitors and rabbit immune sera raised against B. anthracis proteases were used to treat mice challenged with B. anthracis (Sterne) spores. RESULTS: B. anthracis strain delta Ames (pXO1(-), pXO2(-)) producing no lethal and edema toxins secrets a number of metalloprotease virulence factors upon cultivation under aerobic conditions, including those with hemorrhagic, caseinolytic and collagenolytic activities, belonging to M4 and M9 thermolysin and bacterial collagenase families, respectively. These factors are directly toxic to DBA/2 mice upon intratracheal administration at 0.5 mg/kg and higher doses. Chemical protease inhibitors (phosphoramidon and 1, 10-phenanthroline), as well as immune sera against M4 and M9 proteases of B. anthracis, were used to treat mice challenged with B. anthracis (Sterne) spores. These substances demonstrate a substantial protective efficacy in combination with ciprofloxacin therapy initiated as late as 48 h post spore challenge, compared to the antibiotic alone. CONCLUSION: Secreted proteolytic enzymes are important pathogenic factors of B. anthrasis, which can be considered as effective therapeutic targets in the development of anthrax treatment and prophylactic approaches complementing anti-lethal toxin therapy

The effect of corticision on root resorption with heavy and light forces

Objective:  To investigate the association between corticision and different force magnitudes with the amount of root resorption. Methods:  Forty-four male Wistar rats (7 week old) were evaluated after an orthodontic spring delivering either 10 or 100 g was placed on the left maxillary first molars to move molars mesially. Experimental rats were divided into four groups, with 11 animals in each group: (1) LF, no corticision and 10 g of orthodontic force; (2) LFC, corticision and 10 g of force; (3) HF, no corticision and 100 g of force; and (4) HFC, corticision and 100 g of force. Contralateral sides were used as unloaded controls. The total duration of the experimental period was 14 days. Two-dimensional (histomorphometric) and three-dimensional (volumetric, micro-focus X-ray computed tomography [microCT]) analysis of root craters were performed on maxillary first molars. Results:  Histomorphometric and microCT analysis revealed a significant amount of resorptive areas in the experimental groups when compared to unloaded controls. However, no significant difference was detected in the amount of resorption among the four experimental groups. Conclusions:  At day 14, neither the amount of force nor the cortical incision caused significant effect on root resorption that was registered by histomorphometric or microCT analysis

development of a new reference standard for microarray experiments

Often microarray studies require a reference to indirectly compare the samples under observation. References based on pooled RNA from different cell lines have already been described (here referred to as RNA-R), but they usually do not exhaustively represent the set of genes printed on a chip, thus requiring many adjustments during the analyses. A reference could also be generated in vitro transcribing the collection of cDNA clones printed on the microarray in use (here referred to as T3-R). Here we describe an alternative and simpler PCR-based methodology to construct a similar reference (Chip-R), and we extensively test and compare it to both RNA-R and T3-R. The use of both Chip-R and T3-R dramatically increases the number of signals on the slides and gives more reproducible results than RNA-R. Each reference preparation is also evaluated in a simple microarray experiment comparing two different RNA populations. Our results show that the introduction of a reference always interferes with the analysis. Indeed, the direct comparison is able to identify more up- or down-regulated genes than any reference-mediated analysis. However, if a reference has to be used, Chip-R and T3-R are able to guarantee more reliable results than RNA-R