Changing Ideologies of Marriage in Contemporary Indian Women’s Novels

Marriage in Hinduism is sacramental in nature and considered a divine religious bond. As per Shastras, man alone is incomplete until or unless he marries. The wife is called Ardhangini (half of man) or dharmapatni, who shares religious duties with her husband. This paper views matrimony from a feminist lens and explores the changing ideology of marriage by drawing upon feminist theory. The study uses two novels by contemporary Indian women writers, Shashi Deshpande\u27s A Matter of Time (1996) and Shobhaa De\u27s Second Thoughts (1996), to explore the world of married women. These novels by Indian women express women’s viewpoints about their experiences of precarity and suffering, the subjugated world of limited choices, and conflict in married life. They extend their deep psychological insight and understanding of the husband-wife relationship. Disrupting the sacred relation of husband and wife, the husband often occupies a position similar to that of a master, while the wife is akin to a servant. Deshpande portrays three generations of common middle-class Indian women, who endure a subservient role in their marital life and struggle to adjust rather than break free from the traditional world. Shobhaa De, the spokesperson of the urban women in her novel, focuses on infidelity in the institution of marriage, a tale of love and betrayal that surfaces the hollowness and hypocrisy lurking behind Indian traditional marriages. The texts reveal that women are subservient partners in traditional Indian marriages, alienating disadvantaged women from their husbands or leading them to revolt against the social system and even reject the institution of marriage entirely

Narratives of Dalit Women and ‘the Outsider Within’: Toward a Literary Practice of Dalit Feminist Standpoint

This paper establishes an experimental methodology for developing a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Theory through the analysis of Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke and Urmila Pawar’s The Weave of My Life. Exploration suggests an outline method to attain a standpoint and represents the more significant issues of marginalization of Dalit women, their subjectivity, their lack of voice as reflected in the Dalit Movement, Dalit Literature, Indian feminism, and in their everyday lives. This study claims that Dalit women writers have a potent standpoint as an \u27outsider within,\u27 and argues that their triply oppressed caste, class, and gender identity allows for diverse perspectives that appraise one another and helps readers gain an understanding of their condition as women and Dalit subjects. Thus, Dalit women create this new knowledge that subverts dominant androcentric knowledge construction. This study marks an awakening of consciousness, an approach to social change, Dalit women’s activism, and empowerment. Most of all, this exploration may help other marginalized groups of people or sociologists by putting greater trust in the creative potential of their narratives and cultural biographies

The Indian species of Testudinella (Rotifera: Flosculariacea: Testudinellidae) and their distribution

Our plankton and semi-plankton collections from India revealed 14 species of Testudinella including two undetermined species yet awaiting descriptions. The Oriental endemic T. insinuata is a new record from India while the Australasian T. walkeri and the palaeotropical T. brevicaudata and T. greeni are other globally interesting species. Testudinella amphora, T. brevicaudata, T. dendradena, T. greeni, T. parva semiparva, T. tridentata and T. walkeri are characterized by distribution restricted till date to northeast India (NEI); T. insinuata is restricted to the floodplains of the Kashmir valley of Jammu and Kashmir state of western Himalayas; and T. incisa and T. mucronata are known for valid reports from Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir, respectively. T. emarginula, T. patina and T. tridentata are believed to be cryptic species-complexes and thus desired ecological and genetic analysis of local populations. This study merits interest vis-à-vis biodiversity and distribution of the Indian Rotifera

Phytoplankton Diversity of a Demineralized Urban Wetland of Meghalaya State of Northeast India: The Spatio-temporal Variations and the Role of Abiotic Factors

The authors analyze phytoplankton diversity of a small urban wetland of Meghalaya to assess biodiversity and limnology interest of small water bodies. This “slightly acidic-circumneutral, demineralized and soft water” subtropical wetland reveals diverse phytoplankton (64 species), indicates high desmid richness and highlights the speciose littoral constellations of up to 55-58 species per sample. Phytoplankton comprises dominant quantitative component of net plankton and registers Charophyta dominance; Chlorophyta > Bacillariophyta > Dinozoa > Chrysophyta > Cyanobacteria depict sub-dominance, and Euglenozoa and Cryptophyta show poor abundance at the littoral and semi-limnetic regions. The richness of phytoplankton and abundance of phytoplankton, Charophyta, Chlorophyta, Dinozoa, Chrysophyta and Cyanobacteria follow bimodal spatio-temporal variations. Closterium, Cosmarium, Staurastrum, Micrasterias, Netrium, Staurodesmus and Scenedesmus are notable genera, and 14 species collectively influence phytoplankton abundance. Phytoplankton registers high species diversity, lower dominance and high evenness. Amongst 15 abiotic factors, only the rainfall and sulphate exert notable influence individually, while the canonical correspondence analysis registers lower cumulative influence of the selected 10 factors on the littoral and semi-limnetic phytoplankton assemblages. This study merits interest for neglected biodiversity and ecology of small aquatic biotopes of India and urban wetlands in particular

Biodiversity of freshwater rotifers (Rotifera: Eurotatoria) of Mizoram, Northeast India: composition, new records and interesting features

The plankton and semi-plankton samples examined from Mizoram state of northeast India (NEI) revealed speciose and diverse Rotifera assemblage including a total richness (S) of 162 species belonging to 19 families and 35 genera. The reports of six species new to India, four species new to NEI and 76 new records to Mizoram merit biodiversity interest. The occurrence of one Australasian, one Oriental, seven Paleotropical, one Holarctic, one cosmo (sub) tropical and five other interesting species imparts biogeographical value while several species indicate regional distribution importance. Lecanidae > Lepadellidae > Brachionidae > Trichocercidae collectively comprised 69.7% of total richness (S). Lecane > Lepadella > Trichocerca are diverse genera (~52.0% of S) while Brachionus spp. (~8.0%) deserve cautious mention. The rotifer diversity pattern is predominantly ‘tropical’ with a large component of cosmopolitans (~71.0% of S) while tropicopolitan and pantropical species contributed ~16.0%. This study indicated high richness of the littoral-periphytonic and relative paucity of planktonic taxa. Analysis of periphytic, sessile, colonial and benthic taxa, and of cryptic diversity in certain species-groups merit attention for further biodiversity update and we estimate occurrence of 250+ rotifer species in Mizoram

Zooplankton Diversity of a Soft-water and Highly De-mineralized Reservoir of Meghalaya (Northeast India): The Spatio-temporal Variations and Influence of Abiotic Factors

Hydrobiological survey of a ‘soft-water’ and ‘highly de-mineralized’ reservoir of Meghalaya state of northeast India is undertaken to analyze zooplankton diversity with reference to the spatio-temporal variations and influence of abiotic factors. The littoral and limnetic zooplankton assemblages of this subtropical reservoir without aquatic vegetation reveal total 36 species, and record lower abundance, quantitative dominance of Rotifera, sub-dominance of Cladocera and Copepoda and moderate species diversity. Keratella cochlearis, Bosmina longirostris, Polyarthra vulgaris, Mesocyclops leuckarti, Conochilus unicornis and Asplanchna priodonta influence abundance, species diversity, dominance and equitability of zooplankton. We report differential spatial influence of individual abiotic factors with the relatively more importance at the limnetic region, and the canonical correspondence analysis registers 72.5% and 78.8% cumulative influence of 10 abiotic factors on the littoral and limnetic assemblages, respectively. The spatial differences of various diversity aspects and the influence of abiotic factors suggest habitat heterogeneity amongst the two regions. This study is a useful contribution to zooplankton diversity of the subtropical environs, and soft and de-mineralized waters in particular. Our results mark a distinct contrast to the lowest richness and abundance of zooplankton noted from India vide the preliminary 1990-91 survey of this reservoir

The rotifers (Rotifera: Eurotatoria) from the Kashmir Himalayan floodplains and Rotifera biodiversity of Jammu and Kashmir, north India

Our plankton and semi-plankton collections from the floodplain wetlands of the Kashmir valley reveal 140 rotifer species belonging to 43 genera and 22 families. The richness forms ~81% of 173 species, belonging to 51 genera and 23 families, recognized as validly known from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) vide the present biodiversity evaluation. The rotifer assemblages of the Kashmir Himalayan wetlands and J&K comprise ~33% and ~41%, respectively of the Indian Rotifera; their biodiverse nature is hypothesized to habitat diversity and ecological heterogeneity of aquatic environs of this state of north India. One species is new to India and 25 species are new to northwest India. Lecanidae > Brachionidae form ~33% and Trichocercidae = Lepadellidae > Notommatidae > Euchlanidae comprise ~31% of the rotifer fauna of J&K which includes species of global and regional biogeographic interest and, a large component of cosmopolitan species (~81%). Lecane > Trichocerca > Brachionus = Lepadella collectively comprise ~39%; Keratella > Euchlanis > Synchaeta are notable (~12%); and Notholca and Cephalodella species deserve attention from J&K. Rotifera of the Kashmir Himalayan floodplains and J&K indicate the littoral-periphytic character, cold-water elements, small-sized species, and the relative paucity of Brachionus, Lepadella and Lecane richness. We estimate 260+ rotifer species from J&K pending analysis of intensive latitudinal and longitudinal collections including samples from Ramsar sites, high altitude lakes and other water bodies with emphasis on colonial, sessile and benthic taxa, and analysis of likely cryptic diversity of certain species

Rich freshwater rotifer fauna of small lentic ecosystems of south Andaman, Andaman Sea, India (Rotifera: Eurotatoria)

Small lentic ecosystems are hypothesized to be interesting habitats for metazoan diversity. This study is undertaken to document Rotifera of small freshwater bodies of south Andaman, India. A total of 11 2 species (S), belonging to 32 genera and 19 families, recorded i n our intensive February 2017 collections, indicate rich and diverse assemblage of the taxon. Total richness comprises ~ 27 % of the rotifer species known from India and thus affirms biodiversity interest and habitat diversit y of the sampled habitats. This report adds 42 species, seven genera and three families to the taxa reported till date from freshwaters of the Andaman and Nicorbar islands. Rotifera meta - analysis indicates distinct increase in richness of Lecanidae > Brachionidae > Trichocercidae and tw o - fold increase in Brachionus species. The biogeographically interesting elements comprise 8.0 % of S and several species indicate regional distribution importance. The rotifer fauna shows high richness of cosmopolitan species (~68% of S) and a number of t ropical and subtropical species (~22 % of S). The present study highlights distinct scope to augment Rotifera diversity of the Andaman and Nicorbar islands freshwaters vis - à - vis intensive sampling of varied habitats

Learning from ‘the Outsider Within’: The Sociological Significance of Dalit Women’s Life Narratives

Dalit women have long occupied marginal positions and been excluded from two major Indian social movements: The Feminist Movement and the Dalit Movement. The researcher examines how Dalit women have made creative use of their marginality—their ‘outsider-within\u27 status—and have represented their lived experiences. The study scrutinizes select life narratives of Dalit women writers: Bama\u27s Sangati: Events (2005), Urmila Pawar’s The Weave of My Life (2015), and Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke (2008) to discuss and explore the sociological significance of three characteristic themes in these narratives: (1) the interlocking nature of Dalit women’s oppression, (2) endurance and resilience, (3) their role in the transformation of the Dalit community. Thus, the perspectives of Dalit women writers create new knowledge about their lives, families, and communities. Their perspectives may well provide a preparatory point for the development of the Dalit Feminist Standpoint. This study may help other marginalized sections or social scientists by putting greater trust in the creative potential of their narratives and cultural biographies