The “untouchable” who touched millions: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Navayana Buddhism, and complexity in social work scholarship on religion

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was a twentieth century socio-political and religious reformer whose activities impacted millions of lives, especially among India’s Dalit community. This article illustrates his lifework and its lessons for social work scholarship on religion. Using the examples of Ambedkar and Navayana Buddhism, I discuss three sources of complexity for social work scholarship on religion: 1) religion may function as both oppressive and emancipatory; 2) religion is malleable, not monolithic; and 3) religion is situated in and interactive with contexts. I conclude with suggestions for how social work scholarship on religion may account for complexity

Incorporating mindfulness: questioning capitalism

This paper engages with Buddhist critiques of capitalism and consumerism; and it challenges the capitalist appropriations of Buddhist techniques. We show how Buddhist modernism and Marxism/socialism can align, and how Engaged Buddhism spawns communalism and socially revolutionary impulses for sustainability and ecological responsibility within the framework of Buddhist thought and mindfulness traditions. Our case study of the Thai Asoke community exemplifies Buddhist communal mindfulness-in-action, explores successes and idiosyncrasies, and shows how communal principles can operate in such work-based communities

What can health inequalities researchers learn from an intersectionality perspective?:Understanding social dynamics with an inter-categorical approach

The concept of intersectionality was developed by social scientists seeking to analyse the multiple interacting influences of social location, identity and historical oppression. Despite broad take-up elsewhere, its application in public health remains underdeveloped. We consider how health inequalities research in the United Kingdom has predominantly taken class and later socioeconomic position as its key axis in a manner that tends to overlook other crucial dimensions. We especially focus on international research on ethnicity, gender and caste to argue that an intersectional perspective is relevant for health inequalities research because it compels researchers to move beyond (but not ignore) class and socioeconomic position in analysing the structural determinants of health. Drawing on these theoretical developments, we argue for an inter-categorical conceptualisation of social location that recognises differentiation without reifying social groupings – thus encouraging researchers to focus on social dynamics rather than social categories, recognising that experiences of advantage and disadvantage reflect the exercise of power across social institutions. Such an understanding may help address the historic tendency of health inequalities research to privilege methodological issues and consider different axes of inequality in isolation from one another, encouraging researchers to move beyond micro-level behaviours to consider the structural drivers of inequalities

Functional diversity of nematode communities in the Nizampatnam Bay, Bay of Bengal

322-337During the present study the relationship between taxonomic and biological trait approaches in relation to the abiotic environment were studied from the nematode samples collected from 64 subtidal stations during the four seasons in the Nizampatnam Bay, East coast of India. 19 categories of five biological traits known to represent an important ecological function were employed. These were related to buccal morphology, tail shape, body size, body shape and life history strategy. Data on trait membership was provided by biological information on species and genera. A total of 34 different trait combinations were recorded. In the present study, the most common morphotypes were non-selective deposit feeding nematodes, with colonizing abilities of 2-4 (in a scale of 1-5). Their abundance was correlated with depth. Inspite of a high turnover of species, functional diversity of assemblages did not change notably in space and time. A comparison of spatial and temporal patterns of nematode functional diversity between Nizampatnam Bay and other semi enclosed Bays in temperate and tropical regions suggests that two features are common: (1) in detecting spatial patterns, taxonomic approach is more powerful tool than biological trait approach; (2) biological trait approach offers more reliable correlative links with environmental factors than taxonomic one

‘Bound hand and foot and handed over to the caste Hindus’: Ambedkar, untouchability and the Politics of Partition

This article examines B. R. Ambedkar’s dramatically shifting politics in the years prior to Partition. In 1940, he supported the creation of Pakistan. In 1946, he joined Winston Churchill in his demands to delay independence. Yet, in 1947, Ambedkar rejected Pakistan and joined the Nehru administration. Traditional narratives explain these changes as part of Ambedkar’s political pragmatism. It is believed that such pragmatism, along with Gandhi’s good faith, helped Ambedkar to secure a place in Nehru’s Cabinet. In contrast, I argue that Ambedkar changed his attitude towards Congress due to the political transformations elicited by Partition. Ambedkar approached Congress as a last resort to maintain a political space for Dalits in independent India. This, however, was unsuccessful. Partition not only saw the birth of two countries but also virtually eliminated the histories of resistance of political minorities that did not fall under the Hindu–Muslim binary, such as Dalits. In the case of Ambedkar, his past as a critic of Gandhi and Congress was erased in favour of the more palatable image of him as the father of the constitution. This essay reconfigures our understanding of Partition by showing how the promise of Pakistan shaped the way we remember Ambedkar

Lorcifera, an under known phyla: first record of higgins larva of <i>Armorloricus</i> (Loricifera: Nanaloricidae) from Indian waters

317-321Lorcifera is the scarcely known phylum in the animal kingdom. Only twenty-two species in eight genera were described till today around the world. In the present study, a Higgins larva of Armorloricus (Loricifera: Nanaloricidae) is reported for the first time from the Indian waters. This record will contribute to the meiofaunal group of Indian seas. Morphological characteristics and distribution of the Higgins larva is provided

Checklist of Free-living marine Nematodes (Class: Chromadorea) from Nizampatnam Bay, Bay of Bengal

2492-2496The present study provides a checklist of free-living marine nematode species from 64 subtidal sites located at Nizampatnam Bay. Nematoda represented by 62 species belonging to 39 genera and 20 families and constituted an overwhelming 65% of the total meiofauna in terms of numerical abundance