Gods, Gurus, Prophets and the Poor:Exploring Informal, Interfaith Exchanges among Working Class Female Workers in an Indian City

This article revolves around the narratives of Sabita (Muslim), Radha (Hindu) and Sharleen (Christian), migrant women in their mid-forties, who have been working as maids, cooks and cleaners in middle-class housing colonies in Kolkata, a city in eastern India. Informal understandings of gendered oppressions across religious traditions often dominate the conversations of the three working-class women. Like many labourers from slums and lower-class neighbourhoods, they meet and debate religious concerns in informal ‘resting places’ (under a tree, on a park bench, at a tea stall, on a train, at a corner of a railway platform). These anonymous spaces are usually devoid of religious symbols, as well as any moral surveillance of women’s colloquial abuse of male dominance in society. I show how the anecdotes of struggle, culled across multiple religious practices, intersect with the shared existential realities of these urban workers. They temporarily empower female members of the informal workforce in the city, to create loosely defined gendered solidarities in the face of patriarchal authority, and reflect on daily discrimination against economically marginalised migrant women. I argue that these fleeting urban rituals underline the more vital role of (what I describe as) poor people’s ‘casual philosophies’, in enhancing empathy and dialogue between communities that are characterised by political tensions in India

'Exist, endure, erase the city' (Sheher mein jiye, is ko sahe, ya ise mitaye?): Child vigilantes and micro-cultures of urban violence in a riot-affected Hyderabad slum

Hyderabad, a city in southern India, has witnessed a saga of religious conflict between Hindus and Muslims, the first large-scale riot being recorded in 1939. As recently as March 2010, paramilitary forces were deployed to rein in extensive clashes over the appropriate placing of religious flags across the city. Along with this convoluted history of religious discord, the rapidly growing slum areas of Hyderabad became receptacles not just of poverty but of radical politics and unrest. This essay interrogates the violent identity politics embraced by riot-affected Muslim male children in a communally volatile slum in Hyderabad, and explores why these boys turned to armed and collective vigilantism to position themselves in a landscape of death, destruction and urban displacement. </jats:p

Cambios temporales en la diversidad de los cangrejos braquiuros a lo largo de un hábitat heterogéneo del manglar indio de Sundarban

The present study investigates the effect of different habitat attributes on brachyuran crab diversity in two different study sites in the Sundarban mangrove, India. The two sites differ in the level of anthropogenic intrusion and in the age of the mangrove forest. Seasonal changes in the environment and in brachyuran faunal abundance were recorded for three years. Species composition varied between the two habitats irrespective of season. The habitat heterogeneity and the recorded crab community was analysed by several univariate and multivariate statistical techniques. The newly replanted mangrove site showed lesser diversity than the natural one. Ocypodid crabs, mainly Uca rosea, dominated both study sites, whereas Uca triangularis was totally absent from the replanted site. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that the total acidity, total alkalinity, pH content of water, total dissolved solids, inorganic phosphate content of water, soil specific gravity, soil density and the physical constructions of the habitat play a crucial role in moderating the crab community structure. This study reveals that brachyuran crab diversity can be used as a potential indicator of the alterations of mangrove habitats.El presente estudio investiga el efecto de las diferentes características de hábitat sobre la diversidad de los cangrejos braquiuros en dos lugares diferentes del manglar Sundarban, India. Los dos sitios difieren en el nivel de intrusión antropogénica, así como en la edad del bosque de manglar. Se registraron cambios estacionales en el medio y en la abundancia de la fauna de braquiuros durante tres años. A pesar de las diferencias estacionales, la composición de especies difiere en los dos hábitats. Se analizó la heterogeneidad del hábitat y la comunidad de cangrejos mediante técnicas estadísticas univariantes y multivariantes. La zona de manglares replantada recientemente mostró menor diversidad que la zona natural. Los cangrejos ocipódidos, principalmente Uca rosea, dominaron en ambas zonas de estudio, mientras que Uca triangularis estuvo totalmente ausente en la zona replantada. El análisis de Correspondencia Canónica (CCA) mostró que la acidez total, la alcalinidad total, el contenido de pH del agua, los sólidos totales disueltos (TDS), el contenido de fosfato inorgánico del agua, el peso específico del suelo, la densidad del suelo, junto con las construcciones físicas del hábitat desempeñan un papel fundamental en la estructura de la comunidad de cangrejos. Este estudio revela que la diversidad de los cangrejos braquiuros puede ser utilizada como un potencial indicador de las alteraciones de los hábitats de manglares