Princely India Re-imagined

India’s Princely States covered nearly 40 per cent of the Indian subcontinent at the time of Indian independence, and they collapsed after the departure of the British. This book provides a chronological analysis of the Princely State in colonial times and its post-colonial legacies. Focusing on one of the largest and most important of these states, the Princely State of Mysore, it offers a novel interpretation and thorough investigation of the relationship of king and subject in South Asia. The book argues that the denial of political and economic power to the king, especially after 1831 when direct British control was imposed over the state administration in Mysore, was paralleled by a counter-balancing multiplication of kingly ritual, rites, and social duties. The book looks at how, at the very time when kingly authority was lacking income and powers of patronage, its local sources of power and social roots were being reinforced and rebuilt in a variety of ways. Using a combination of historical and anthropological methodologies, and based upon substantial archival and field research, the book argues that the idea of kingship lived on in South India and continues to play a vital and important role in contemporary South Indian social and political life

New Dalit Assertion and the Rejection of Buffalo Sacrifice in South India

Taking a cue from the recent prevention of a buffalo sacrifice to a powerful local goddess in Karnataka and the writings of Dalit activist-turned-spiritual-guru M. C. Raj, this article traces a history of how buffalo sacrifice has been witnessed, described and analyzed from the mid nineteenth to the twentieth century. This endeavor reveals how structural-functionalist understandings of the ritual obscured the voice of Dalit dissent while stressing the organic unity of the village as a whole. This was despite the fact that colonial accounts, relied upon in later studies, clearly documented the reluctance of Dalits to participate. This article also finds within colonial writings an unexpected description of Dalits as original inhabitants of the land, an idea that has been revived in contemporary movements of Dalit assertion

Princely India Re-imagined

India’s Princely States covered nearly 40 per cent of the Indian subcontinent at the time of Indian independence, and they collapsed after the departure of the British. This book provides a chronological analysis of the Princely State in colonial times and its post-colonial legacies. Focusing on one of the largest and most important of these states, the Princely State of Mysore, it offers a novel interpretation and thorough investigation of the relationship of king and subject in South Asia. The book argues that the denial of political and economic power to the king, especially after 1831 when direct British control was imposed over the state administration in Mysore, was paralleled by a counter-balancing multiplication of kingly ritual, rites, and social duties. The book looks at how, at the very time when kingly authority was lacking income and powers of patronage, its local sources of power and social roots were being reinforced and rebuilt in a variety of ways. Using a combination of historical and anthropological methodologies, and based upon substantial archival and field research, the book argues that the idea of kingship lived on in South India and continues to play a vital and important role in contemporary South Indian social and political life

Princely India Re-imagined

India’s Princely States covered nearly 40 per cent of the Indian subcontinent at the time of Indian independence, and they collapsed after the departure of the British. This book provides a chronological analysis of the Princely State in colonial times and its post-colonial legacies. Focusing on one of the largest and most important of these states, the Princely State of Mysore, it offers a novel interpretation and thorough investigation of the relationship of king and subject in South Asia. The book argues that the denial of political and economic power to the king, especially after 1831 when direct British control was imposed over the state administration in Mysore, was paralleled by a counter-balancing multiplication of kingly ritual, rites, and social duties. The book looks at how, at the very time when kingly authority was lacking income and powers of patronage, its local sources of power and social roots were being reinforced and rebuilt in a variety of ways. Using a combination of historical and anthropological methodologies, and based upon substantial archival and field research, the book argues that the idea of kingship lived on in South India and continues to play a vital and important role in contemporary South Indian social and political life

The slow death of the diorama:Tribal and ethnographic museums in India since independence

During colonial times, dioramas were commonly used to portray the diverse peoples of India. They depicted essentialised human types through plaster models in rural settings, engaged in typical activities and dated back to the exhibition of human beings in universal expositions held in Calcutta, Delhi, and London. Since independence there have been determined efforts to move away from colonial stereotypes and to decolonise government-funded museums in India. Meanwhile, Adivasi artists are finding their own way out of the curatorial confines of the museum. This paper describes how Indian museology still struggles to exorcise the ghosts of the Victorian museum and India’s own internal colonialism

Surrogate marker of schistocytes

Objectives : Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is an important early post-treatment condition. This study evaluated the Revised %MICRO, a parameter obtained from the ADVIA 2120i automated blood cell counter, as a surrogate marker of the schistocyte ratio. We hypothesized that individual differences between the %MICRO value and schistocyte ratio would remain constant. Design and Methods: EDTA-2K-treated peripheral blood samples were collected from 19 patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT from April 2014 to September 2018. First, the baseline difference, X, was calculated using a sample from the first day after HSCT as X = %MICRO (first day) – schistocyte ratio (first day). Next, the Revised %MICRO for each subsequent day was calculated as Revised %MICRO = %MICRO – X. We evaluated correlations of the schistocyte ratio with the calculated %MICRO and Revised %MICRO and the RBC fragment, RBC distribution width, %MICRO and Revised %MICRO data obtained from the ADVIA 2120i. Results : The mean schistocyte percentage and Revised %MICRO were both 0.4% ± 0.6. RBC fragments correlated weakly with the %MICRO and schistocyte ratio, respectively (r = 0.162 and r = 0.771, respectively), whereas the Revised %MICRO correlated strongly with the schistocyte ratio (r = 0.893). Conclusion : The Revised %MICRO appears to be a good surrogate of the schistocyte ratio in a clinical setting

Studies on Derivatives of Calcium Cyanamide : Manufacture of Dicyandiamide from Crude Calcium Cyanamide Utilizing Liquid Ammonia

In manufacturing dicyandiamide directly from crude calcium cyanamide, free cyanamide is first produced by the reaction between gaseous anhydride of a week acid, such as carbon dioxide, and crude calcium cyanamide in the presence of a very small amount of water, which is then changed into dicyandiamide by heating and then extracted with liquid ammonia. The method is simple and gives the product of high purity with high yield

Guru Logics

This commentary highlights the diversity of thematics and conceptual schema generated by guru-ship, and its capacity—as a set of principles as much as specific persons—to participate in, and move between, multiple social and conceptual domains. The aim is to reassess some of the key existing literature on guru-ship while developing a kind of analytical toolkit in order to aid future studies and stimulate new thought on the phenomenon. The guru, we argue, is a social form of peculiar suggestibility. We suggest that the multiplicity and diversity of the guru’s political and economic entanglements point toward a sense of the guru’s uncontainability, a quality which, in a seeming irony, relies at least in part on the guru’s ability to contain diverse others (principally his/her devotees and former incarnations). We present the case study of an avatar guru—a particularly prolific “collector of associations”—who exemplifies the expansive personhood of the guru as an “inclusive singularity.” Emphasising the plural forms of guru-ship, we define categories of anti-guru and collective guru while also drawing attention to the guru’s mimetic proficiency and the complex role of the guru in imagination and fantasy and gender politics. The political and governmental functions of guru-ship are also analysed, with “guru governmentality” not “just another” agency of devolved governance in an era of economic liberalisation but the retooling of the radical asymmetry of the guru-devotee relationship in order to produce “humanitarian” or “developmental” effects, which from devotees’ point of view could hardly be glossed as “secular”

Presepsin and renal function

Background : Presepsin (P-SEP) is a highly specific sepsis marker, and its fluctuation with respect to advanced renal impairment or sample agitation has not been fully investigated. We evaluated several renal function-corrected P-SEP indices to establish a simple index and its reference range. Methods : Blood samples for P-SEP measurement were collected with minimal agitation. P-SEP levels were measured using the rapid automated immunoanalyzer “PATHFAST.” This study included 85 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, 65 healthy volunteers, and 4 sepsis patients. Results : Patients stratified by estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) had significantly higher P-SEP levels for CKD stage G3, especially the advanced GFR stage. We evaluated presepsin / creatinine (P-SEP / CRE) and P-SEP / eGFR ratios as possible indices for renal function. The P-SEP / CRE ratio exhibited no increase correlating with the GFR stage and was identical in the normal and CKD groups ; P-SEP / eGFR decreased if GFR stage worsened. The P-SEP / CRE ratio became significantly higher in sepsis patients and was a more useful index with a reference range of 67–263. Conclusions : P-SEP levels were inversely correlated with renal function, indicating the necessity to consider the influence of renal impairment in CKD patients. The P-SEP / CRE ratio is helpful for sepsis diagnosis, even in patients with renal impairment