Present status of exploitation of fish and shellfish resources: Oil sardine

Present status of exploitation of fish and shellfish resources: Oil sardine Considerable fluctuations coupled with a general decline in the oil sardine landings have been observed along the southwest coast of India during 1984-85 to 198889. The catch and effort data for oilsardine fishery during the different seasons have revealed that premonsoon period is the most productive period for the fishery. The decline in the fishery is attributed to the indiscriminate exploitation of juveniles and potential spawners by purse seiners and ring seins. T he traditional &or has k e n a diversely affected by the operations of purse seines in recent years in northern Kerala Exploitation of spawning st& of oilsardine during the b d n g from May to September is of great consequences far the conservation of the resources. Even though good m o n soon is most likely to have a positive Impact on the stock size and facilitate spawning and recruitment, the likely advantage is offset by Indiscreminate exploitation. Regulation of mesh size of boat seines and restricting the operations of purse and ring seine are expecteded to restore the fishery to its preeminent position and protect the interests of the traditional sector

From Devadasi Reform to SITA: Reforming Sex Work in Mysore State, 1892-1937

The author pursues the investigation into women\u27s historical past to unearth the dual meanings of law and its role in regulating female sexuality. The author traces the changing fortunes of the devadasi in Mysore State from a nityasumangali (ever auspicious woman) to an unorganised subaltern sex-worker. The article simultaneously examines the attitude of the British imperial army to prostitutes, seen initially as the carriers of deadly sexually transmitted diseases. Nair suggests that women’s voices, critical of patriarchal reconstruction of women\u27s sexuality, existed though in a muted and fragmentary form. (Editor’s abstract.

Revisiting Tantra: a contemporary British and Indian response to the “seductiveness” of Tantric museum objects

On a daily basis the communicative presence of the human body in contemporary Indian visual culture is understood and utilised without the support of textual commentary or explanation. For example, the movements and gestures of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dance have embodied semiotic significance for their audiences whether the viewing context is classical theatre, where meanings are historically codified, or a Bollywood film, in which traditional content is emptied out to generate greater immediacy and appeal. In this paper a British artist versed in Peircian semiotics (Dorsett) collaborates with a traditional Kathakali dancer from Kerala (Nair) to examine the role of attraction and appeal within the non-verbal repertoires of Indian dance movement, an undertaking that follows well-established thinking in performance theory (e.g. Turner 1986). However, the aim is not to add to this specific theoretical canon but to reappraise the 1960s/70s museological and exhibitionary frame in which Indian notions of sexualised divination and ritual became a ‘culture of seduction’ for arts audiences in the UK. This was achieved through the very opposite of embodied meaning, through the consumption of academic textual commentary enhanced by state-of-the-art exhibition and book design practices. In particular, this paper uses Hugh Shaw’s catalogue (itself a highly desirable artefact) for Philip Rawson’s Hayward Gallery exhibition Tantra (1971) to consider, firstly, the ‘seductiveness’ of Indian sculptures and paintings for the British arts and museum establishment at the time, and secondly, the present day cross-cultural status of Rawson’s legacy as an early theorist of sensual culture, a field of research more familiar to us now through influential publications such as David Howes’ Empire of the Senses (2005)