Rise and Fall of the Bharatiya Kisan Union: The Farmers’ Protests of 2020–2021 in the Making of New Rural Politics

In the 1980s, India's farmers' protests including the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) emerged as a strong political force that played an important role in the overthrow of the Congress government in the1989 elections. However, in the 1990s introduction of the neoliberal economic policies shifted the agrarian economy to non-farm occupations and deepened the ongoing agrarian crisis. By focusing on the BKU and its politics, this paper examines the ways in which agrarian change and crisis coupled with the rise of Hindutva politics weakened the agrarian polity in western Uttar Pradesh over the last three decades. Drawing on ethnographic research in Muzaffarnagar, however, I argue that the farmers' protests (of 2020 -2021) have revived farmers' identity and have renewed the agrarian polity. These protests not only created unprecedented alliances across caste, class, gender, and religion but also brought together farm unions, left, and progressive civil society organizations

Women: Perspectives and Issues in Shashi Deshpande’s A Matter of Time and Small Remedies

A noteworthy novelist and author of many children books, Shashi Deshpande, has acquired a unique place in Indian writing in English. Her novels are written in simple and lucid language. All of them deal with simple people belonging to small strata of society in general as well as predicament of women in particular in the society and family. Her women characters seem to be alive and breathing in the surrounding nearby each of us as we see in our daily life. They are ordinary women who struggle for their own identity, self-realization and emancipation. Since Indian society is adhered to patriarchal set up, as a result the traditional women in Shashi Deshpande’s novels face the problem of suppression, oppression, injustice, exploitation and marginalization. Even if they are educated, they are the victims of several kinds of evils. Shashi Deshpande is much sieved to think the condition of women and fought for the cause of women. In the time of Shashi Deshpande men thought women as child-bearing machine. She tries her best to make aware her women their rights and fills them with courage in order they may demand their rights and make a niche in the society

Connecting viral oncoproteins to microRNA, autophagy and metabolism in Merkel cell carcinoma

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive type of skin cancer. Around 80% of MCCs harbor an integrated Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) genome with a mutation in the large T antigen (LT) gene, leading to expression of truncated LT. It is evident that the viral truncated LT and small T antigen (sT) play important roles in MCC tumorigenesis. Yet, the molecular mechanisms how these viral oncoproteins contribute to MCC development remain unclear. The studies presented in this thesis aim to further our understanding of the functional role of these MCPyV oncoproteins in MCC tumorigenesis. In Paper I, we demonstrated that MCPyV T-antigens induce miR-375, miR-30a-3p and miR- 30a-5p through the DnaJ domain of the viral T-antigen. These miRNAs could target multiple autophagy genes (ATG7, SQSTM1 and BECN1) and suppress autophagy in MCC cells. Additionally, we showed that both sT and truncated LT also suppress autophagy, but not the full-length LT. Inhibition of autophagy, but not pan-caspases, could rescue cell death induced by the mTOR inhibitor Torin-1, suggesting that suppression of autophagy is crucial for cell survival in MCC. In Paper II, we found paranuclear dot-like staining of c-KIT in MCPyV positive (MCPyV+) MCC cell lines and tumor samples. Mechanistically, we showed that MCPyV truncated LT induces paranuclear retention of c-KIT through its Vam6p binding site. Our results also revealed that c-KIT interacts with BECN1. Silencing of c-KIT increased autophagy and apoptosis, and decreased LT expression. Inhibition of autophagic degradation in c-KIT depleted cells restored the LT expression, suggesting the importance of autophagy suppression to sustain the expression of viral oncoprotein and cell survival. In Paper III, we showed that overexpression of miR-375 suppressed cell growth and migration in MCPyV- MCC cell lines, while suppression of miR-375 decreased cell growth and increased apoptosis in MCPyV+ MCC cell lines. The expression of LDHB, a target of miR-375, was inversely correlated with miR-375. Silencing of LDHB decreased cell growth in MCPyV- MCC cells, but rescued cell growth suppression resulted from miR-375 inhibition in MCPyV+ MCC cells. Our findings suggest that miR-375 regulation of LDHB plays distinct roles in MCPyV+ and MCPyV- MCC. In Paper IV, we demonstrated that MCPyV T-antigens reduce LDHB expression and promote glycolysis in MCC. Overexpression of LDHB reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis in MCPyV+ MCC cells. Ectopic expression of LDHB reversed the growth- promoting effect of MCPyV oncoproteins. Inhibition of glycolysis reduced cell growth in MCPyV+ MCC cells, while inhibition of mitochondrial respiratory activity inhibited cell growth in MCPyV- MCC cells. Our findings suggest that MCPyV+ and MCPyV- MCC cells are dependent on different energy metabolism for cell growth. Overall, this thesis work highlights the diverse functions of MCPyV oncoproteins and their involvement in regulating miRNA expression, autophagy and energy metabolism

Anharmonicity in isochoric heat capacity for Mg2SiO4

An expression has been formulated to find the values of volume dependence of isochoric heat capacity (CV). It is employed on Mg2SiO4. It has been found that isochoric heat capacity decreases strongly with increase in compression or pressure. Anharmonicity on CV for solid under present investigation has been seen above 1500 K under low compression. However, at low temperature, for both low and high compression, and at high temperature under high compression, quasi-harmonic effects are visible. Under high compression, beyond 1200 K the CV increases slowly monotonically with the temperature. It attains peak value at/around Debye temperature. With increasing compression, the curves become steeper. At high temperatures, CV under high compressions depart from that estimated by the Dulong-Petit theory

Shear sound velocity of hexagonal close packed iron at extreme pressure

The present paper proposes the expression to predict the values of shear sound velocity. The present expression has been developed by using the reciprocal form of Grüneisen parameter (). The formulation thus developed has been used to calculate shear sound velocity for hexagonal close packed (hcp) iron at high pressures. It is found that the shear sound velocity increases with the increase in compression or pressure in a non-linear manner. Volume dependence of shear sound velocity shows linearity with Debye temperature and Grüneisen parameter. Shear sound velocity increases with the increase in Debye temperature whereas decreases with the increase in Grüneisen parameter. The calculations for the Grüneisen parameter, Debye temperature and shear sound velocity are also found to be in good agreement with the experimental data