Lakshmi in the market place: traders and farmers in a North Indian market

This thesis examines the cultural and structural aspects of a North Indian wholesale market (wandi) at which agriculturalists sell their products, the marketing process, and the relationships between the buyer and sellers who use that market. The thesis is divided into seven chapters.Chapter 1 describes the aim of the thesis, and relevant theoretical perspectives, and suggests that comprehending Indian society requires the use of a context-specific approach. Chapter 2 presents a general picture of Muzaffarnagar District, with brief reference to its topology, history, and communication networks. Special attention is paid to economic and socio-cultural structures relevant to activities in the wandi, and the factors that made Baniyas (a Hindu trading caste) the most wealthy and influential caste group, and the larg¬ est landholders during the colonial period, at the expense of traditional landholders who consequently became their tenants and debtors. I also describe how, after Independence, traditional cultivating castes regained much of the land they had lost, and the influential status of Baniyas declined.Chapter 3 describes the ritual meanings of land, crop production and different models of exchange from the point of view of agriculturalists who today sell I//' their crops in the market. Chapter 4 presents a general picture of the market organization of Muzaffarnagar District,a description of the mandi, the relationship between state and the mandi, and discusses the rela- « tionships and backgroundr of three groups--traders, business clerks, and labourers --who work in the mandi.Chapter 5 is concerned with the ritual dimension of traders' commercial activities. I describe four main analytically distinct sets of beliefs and rituals which are concerned with the moral justifications of commer¬ cial activities, ensure success and profit, the predic¬ tion of profit and loss and the conversion of inauspi¬ cious profit into auspicious profit. The distinctive beliefs and ritual practices and distinctive moral perspectives of the traders clarify the importance of incorporating an awareness of contextually and multiple value systems within a culture in sociological analysis. Chapter 6 deals with the marketing process in the mandi, the manner in which traders initiate and maintain longterm relationships with their c1 i ents,their images of each other and their differing perspectives regarding market exchange, profit, wealth, prestige, and so on. 1 also demonstrate that exchange in the mandi is signifi¬ cantly influenced by local cultural meanings that are not comprehensible in terms of a formalist model of economic behaviour.In the final chapter, the conclusion is drawn that actors in India not only adopt varying strategies and moral perspectives to adjust to many different types of situations, but also that these strategies are context specific. 1 argue that there are multiple interpretive codes and values available for use within a single situation in Indian society, and'I describe how Baniya traders follow their own distinctive model of behaviour, a model different from both the kingly and priestly models, in order to gain profit and wealth. I have also argued that it is impossible to separate the "religious" clearly from the "economic" in Indian society, and that traditional jajmani relationships within a village can no longer be discussed in isolation from wider political and economic contexts.Finally, I have argued that the particular form that South Asian market relationships assume cannot be understood apart from the broad cultural milieu. In general, it is argued that Indian society cannot be understood in terms derived from European social and religious categories. Indian society can only be finally interpreted in terms of indigenous categories and mean¬ ings, and the multiplicity of social values found In this transactionally complex society

Symptomatic giant left atrial aneurysm in a child : a rare entity

Isolated left atrial aneurysms are rare entities in clinical practice. Usually the condition is diagnosed in the second to fourth decades of life. The presence of such lesions in the pediatric age group is scantily described. We present a 2 year boy who presented with complaints of excessive irritability, respiratory distress and swelling of the feet. On examination, child was tachypnoeic with irregularly irregular rhythm. Echo showed a huge aneurysmal LA appendage with severe left ventricle dysfunction. The child underwent surgical resection for same. Findings were confirmed intraoperatively but he continued to have low cardiac output state after the surgery, with frequent arrhythmias and expired on day 7 of surgery. The case is reviewed and compared with the available English literature.peer-reviewe

A Posteriori Error Estimates for Nonconforming Approximations of Evolutionary Convection-Diffusion Problems

We derive computable upper bounds for the difference between an exact solution of the evolutionary convection-diffusion problem and an approximation of this solution. The estimates are obtained by certain transformations of the integral identity that defines the generalized solution. These estimates depend on neither special properties of the exact solution nor its approximation, and involve only global constants coming from embedding inequalities. The estimates are first derived for functions in the corresponding energy space, and then possible extensions to classes of piecewise continuous approximations are discussed.Comment: 10 page