Ecofeminist Concerns and Subaltern Perspectives on ‘Third World’ Indigenous Women: A Study of Selected Works of Mahasweta Devi

The lives of Aboriginals, as an indigenous form of a subaltern identity, have been less documented in narratives so far. Indigenous subaltern identity forms an alter-identity in which indigenous women’s identity is even more silenced in the social order of gender hierarchy. Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva in their book Ecofeminism locate the “Third World Woman” (in India) as a stakeholder of indigenous identity. The knowledge of Third World women in nurturing biodiversity drastically differs from both the Androcentric and Eurocentric models of bio-conservation. Indigenous women and the indigenous flora are both objects of genocidal violence, identity dissolution, and cultural extinction as their contribution to conservation is not recognized. As Gayatri Spivak in her seminal book Can the Subaltern Speak? voices, “The subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in the shadow.” Mahasweta Devi, renowned Indian author and social activist, portrays the marginalized Indigenous and their struggle for survival. The Indigenous are dispossessed and the indigenous women are even more displaced. Indigenous women characters of Devi’s selected works such as The Book of the Hunter and The Witch, belonging to the Shabar, Santal, Oraon, and Munda tribal communities, live in tune with ethnocentric ecological order. They are the forest dwellers who think of the forest as a unique bio-habitat in harmony with women, thereby preserving Mother Nature

Impact of zinc application methods on zinc concentration and zinc-use efficiency of popularly grown rice ( Oryza sativa ) cultivars

In the present investigation, 26 rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars viz., some locals, aromatics, high yielding varieties (HYVs) and hybrids were evaluated for yield efficiency, Zn content in grains and also Zn recovery efficiency in a strip plot design during the rainy (kharif) season for the consecutive 2 years (2009 and 2010) under varied Zn application practices. Rice cultivars differed significantly in their yield and native Zn contents as well as recovery of applied Zn allocation in grains, straw and roots. Grain and straw yields as well as harvest index of different cultivars showed wide variations both with and without Zn applications. On an average, grain yields of different rice cultivars increased by 29 and 22% with soil + foliar and only soil application of Zn, respectively. HYVs showed highest yield efficiency followed by hybrid, aromatic and local cultivars, irrespective of methods of Zn fertilization. The content of native Zn in whole rice grain was the highest in aromatics (27.8 mg/kg) followed by locals (26.3 mg/ kg), HYVs (23.0 mg/kg) and hybrids (22.0 mg/kg). Zinc content in whole grains increased significantly in all the cultivars with Zn-application and the magnitude of increase was higher when Zn was applied as soil + foliar application (118%) than soil application only (30%). Zinc concentration in milled grains increased to the extent of 29.5 and 119.5% upon soil application and soil + foliar application of Zn fertilizers. In rice bran and husk Zn concentration increased to the extent of 21 and 155% and 41 and 373% through soil and soil + foliar application, respectively. Zinc-use efficiency varied from 0.53 to 2.83% with a mean value of 0.90% upon soil application of 20 kg Zn as ZnSO4.7H2O and 1.89 to 4.80% with a mean value of 2.74% upon application of 20 kg Zn as ZnSO4.7H2O with two foliar spray @ 0.5% ZnSO4.7H2O solution i.e. soil + foliar applied Zn increased the Zn-use efficiency, on an average, three fold than with only soil applied Zn. Thus, soil + foliar application of Zn offers a useful means for enriching rice grain Zn concentrations irrespective of the cultivars tested and contributed towards enhanced Zn-use efficiency by rice

A chemodosimeter for the ratiometric detection of hydrazine based on return of ESIPT and its application in live-cell imaging

A probe based on 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) has been synthesized and used for the ratiometric detection of hydrazine. The probe is designed in such a way that the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) of the HBT moiety gets blocked. The chemodosimetric approach of hydrazine to the probe results in the recovery of the ESIPT by removal of a free HBT moiety through subsequent substitution, cyclization, and elimination processes. The probe is successfully demonstrated to enable the detection of hydrazine in live cells

A Chemodosimeter for the Ratiometric Detection of Hydrazine Based on Return of ESIPT and Its Application in Live-Cell Imaging

A probe based on 2-(2′-hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole (HBT) has been synthesized and used for the ratiometric detection of hydrazine. The probe is designed in such a way that the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) of the HBT moiety gets blocked. The chemodosimetric approach of hydrazine to the probe results in the recovery of the ESIPT by removal of a free HBT moiety through subsequent substitution, cyclization, and elimination processes. The probe is successfully demonstrated to enable the detection of hydrazine in live cells