Historiography of the Formation of Assamese Identity: A Review

Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology - Peace and Democracy in South Asia, Volume 2, Numbers 1&2, 200

An Idiom for India: Hindustani and the Limits of the Language Concept

This essay explores the cultural legacy of Hindustani, which names the intimate overlap between two South Asian languages, Hindi and Urdu. Hindi and Urdu have distinct religious identities, national associations and scripts, yet they are nearly identical in syntax, diverging to some extent in their vocabulary. Hindi and Urdu speakers, consequently, understand each other most of the time, but not all of the time, though they can never read each other’s texts. Their shared space, Hindustani, finds no official recognition in India or in Pakistan, but it denotes, particularly in the early twentieth century, an aspiration for Hindu–Muslim unity: the dream of a shared, syncretic culture, crafted from the speech genres of everyday life. Beginning with the colonial project of Hindustani, the essay focuses on a discussion of the works of early twentieth-century writers like Nehru, Premchand and Sa’adat Hasan Manto. I argue that the aesthetic project of Hindustani attempted to produce, not a common language, but a common idiom: a set of shared conventions, phrases and forms of address, which would be legible to Indians from all religions and all regions. By theorizing Hindustani as an idiom, and not a language, I explain its persistence in Bollywood cinema well after its abandonment in all literary and official registers. Bollywood, I argue, is Hindustani cinema, not only because of its use of a mixed Hindi–Urdu language in its dialogues, but also because of its development of a set of clearly recognizable, easily repeatable conventions that can surmount linguistic differences

An investigation of vitamin D metabolism in kiwi (Apteryx mantelli), tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) and New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) and the relationship of vitamin D metabolism with their life history characteristics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Veterinary Studies at Massey University, Turitea, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Vitamin D, a fat-soluble vitamin, has a wide range of functions in vertebrates. The aim of the study was to determine if the evolutionary history of different animal species affects their predominant route of vitamin D metabolism. The species chosen in this study were Brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) for their nocturnalism, tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) for their diurnal sun basking nature and New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri), as a marine mammal species. A survey of plasma or serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 (25(OH)D2) and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) in kiwi, tuatara and New Zealand sea lion and analysed the ability of skin to produce vitamin D3 in response to UV exposure from post mortem samples of these three species. Assessment of morepork (Ninox novaseelandiae) skin was also carried out as an additional example of a nocturnal species. Wild kiwi had lower plasma 25(OH)D3 concentrations than captive kiwi and this variation was most likely of dietary origin. The low concentrations of plasma 25(OH)D3 in wild kiwi in their natural habitat, suggest that these minimal levels are sufficient to fulfill their vitamin D requirements in the body or they utilise calcium independent of vitamin D. Captive diets for kiwi may be over-supplemented with vitamin D. In contrast to this finding, the skin of both kiwi and morepork was able to produce small but measureable amounts of vitamin D3 in response to UV exposure. This result was unexpected, considering their nocturnal nature and the overall pattern of vitamin D metabolism in the kiwi is still unclear. Vitamin D metabolism in tuatara suggests that both dietary and dermal pathways are important. The survey of plasma 25(OH)D3 concentrations in captive tuatara showed variation between the five zoological institutions, which was correlated to the variation in the dietary vitamin D provided between captive institutions. However, analysis of tuatara skin showed that tuatara had a strong ability to synthesise vitamin D dermally, indicating that it is an important route of vitamin D metabolism in tuatara. New Zealand sea lion showed overall higher serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations than kiwi and tuatara, which might be attributed to the high UV-B radiation exposure they receive in their natural habitat. New Zealand sea lion skin also had comparatively higher vitamin D concentrations both prior to and in response to UV exposure, which shows that dermal route of vitamin D is an important route of metabolism in these marine mammals

Access to Elementary Education in India

This analytical review aims to explore trends in educational access and to delineate different groups which are vulnerable to exclusion from educational opportunities at the elementary stage. This review has drawn references from a series of analytical papers developed on different themes, including regional disparity in education, social equity and gender equity in education, the problem of drop out, education of the children of migrants, inequity in educational opportunities, health and nutrition, and governance of education, among others. The first and second sections of the paper present a brief review of the state of elementary education in India with particular focus on regional disparities and social inequities in provision. The third section delineates different zones of exclusion, highlighting the nature and magnitude of the problems of access, transition and equity. The fourth section captures the profiles of the varying groups of children and addresses the questions: ‘who is excluded from schooling?’ and ‘why are they excluded?’. In the final section, the paper makes an effort to identify gaps in our understanding which point to the need for further research and also identifies strategies that have had some success in addressing issues of access to elementary education in India

Gender Equity in Education: A Review of Trends and Factors

This review paper draws on recent data to map the access and participation rates of girls relative to boys. This paper offers a critical assessment of findings of different recent researches on school education in India identifying the areas that need further research. The paper reveals that while enrolment of girls has increased rapidly since the 1990s, there is still a substantial gap in upper primary and secondary schooling and gender inequalities interlock with other forms of social inequality, notably caste, ethnicity and religion. The paper concludes with recommendation for implementation of enabling policy to meet the challenges for improving the quality of schools ensuring better opportunities for girls at higher levels of education, notably upper primary and secondary schools

Changing Framework of Local Governance and Community Participation in Elementary Education in India

In recent years, strengthening and better functioning of local governance have become prime concerns of educational reform agenda. Establishment of effective local governance has been part of overall changes in educational governance for several years in many countries including India. It is now widely recognized that effective local governance considerably impacts on access to education as well as the enrolment, retention and learning experiences of children in school. It is in this context, that this paper provides an overview of the changing framework of governance of elementary education and community participation in India with a special focus on its role in improving the participation of children. An attempt has also been made to examine the extent to which grassroots level functionaries and local bodies like panchayat and VEC are able to get involved in decision making processes and different approaches that have been taken by different states in regards to local governance of education. Drawing references from recent efforts made by different states, the paper has tried to establish a link between effectiveness of local governance and issues regarding access, equity and quality of school education. While discussing the changing framework of local governance, the paper critically examines the guiding principles of governance reform from two perspectives. ‘Top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches are discussed, in terms of ensuring the effectiveness of the system and empowering people for active participation in decentralized decision making process