Conflict in Jammu and Kashmir (NIAS Backgrounder No. B6-2011)

The years of armed conflict in Jammu and Kashmir have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, and also wounded and displaced several thousands more. The pain of this violence was seen on the national stage through specific incidents such as the kidnapping of Rubia Syed, the daughter of then Union Home Minister in 1989, followed by the killing of H. L. Khera, general manager of Hindustan Machine Tools and Musheer-ul-Haq, vicechancellor of University of Kashmir in 1990. The armed rebels did not even spare the religious places. The economic costs too have been devastating. Underlying this continuous upheaval is a number of issues. ISSUES 1. Accession to India The most contentious issue and one that has been a subject of international attention is the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India after Partition in 1947. Pakistan has continued to maintain that it should have become its territory since it had a Muslim majority and also alleged that the then ruler was pressurised to accede to India. It also accused India of violating the commitment to hold a plebiscite on its future. On the other side, India insisted that the accession was completely valid and accused Pakistan of forcefully occupying parts of the state. India also maintained that since Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of the country there can be no question of negotiating on the question of its accession. The dispute continues to be the key stumbling block in the relations between the two neighbours. For Pakistan it is the core issue in its relationship with India. New Delhi maintains that the matter has already been settled, and the more important issue is that of Pakistan of promoting insurgency and terrorism in India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir

The politics of migration in India: What it is; and what to do?

Migration has increasingly become a worldwide phenomenon supporting the livelihoods of a large number of people. But it can also be a potential source of conflict which is evident in India in general and its northeast region in particular. As a result the country’s federal government has undertaken different measures for controlling illegal cross-border immigration into the country. But not so useful because the measures were undertaken largely due to the political compulsion, without taking into account the historical ties between the sending and the receiving countries. This failure has of course further led to the alienation of many people, and yet the opinion on migration has become polarised

Conflicts in Assam (NIAS Backgrounder No. B3-2010)

A ssam, which is the most populous state in North East India, has been facing a number of movements aiming to achieve a variety of objectives having both ethnic and territorial focus. While some of these issues were partially resolved through the intervention of the Central government, several others remain unresolved. The unresolved conflicts have resulted in a series of flashpoints. In February 1983, ethnic riots took place in and around the village of Nellie killing over 1500 Muslim peasants of East Bengal origin. As many as 14 senior government officials, including a Russian coalmine expert, were abducted by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) from different parts of the state on July 1, 1991. The Russian coalmine expert and two other officials were subsequently killed. The others were released one after another in exchange for several jailed ULFA rebels. Thirty-four train passengers were killed in a powerful bomb explosion in a Delhi-bound train in Kokrajhar district on December 30, 1996. Sanjoy Ghosh, a known social worker, was abducted and latter killed by ULFA in 1997. In 2003, the Bhutanese government launched an operation to flush out Indian armed groups operating on its soil in which a large number of rebels were either arrested or killed. More than 100 people were killed in the violent Kuki-Karbi conflict in Karbi Anglong district during 2003 and 2004. Sixteen children were killed in a bomb explosion at the venue of the Independence Day celebrations at Dhemaji on August 15, 2004. Nine nearsimultaneous bomb explosions on October 30, 2008 claimed nearly 90 lives and wounded more than 300 others

Conflicts in Manipur (NIAS Backgrounder No. B1-2010)

For the last several decades Manipur has been driven by conflicts on issues of exclusivity, governance and integration. The conflicts have resulted in a series of flashpoints that have gained national, if not global attention. Irom Sharmila Devi, began her indefinite fast demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 in 2000 and has been kept alive by forced feeding. The alleged rape and murder of another lady, Thangjam Manorama Devi, by the armed forces sparked agitations, including a nude demonstration by a dozen women in the heart of Imphal city in 2004. The ceasefire agreement between a prominent Naga armed group and the Government of India brought immense apprehension among the Manipuris fearing the possible break-up of the state. Overlapping claims over land and territory by tribal groups led to violent Kuki-Naga conflict and Kuki-Paite conflict in the 1990s. Then there was a Meitei-Meitei-Muslim riot in 1993. Since 2000, a prominent armed group has banned the screening of Hindi films in Manipur claiming that these films are a form of ‘cultural imperialism’. In 2005, an influential Meitei socio-cultural body spearheaded an agitation demanding the replacement of the Bengali script by the Meitei Mayek (script) in written Manipuri. A year later an influential tribal student body spearheaded an agitation demanding the affiliation of private schools from four hill districts of Manipur to the Nagaland Board of Secondary Education (NBSE). And Manipur witnessed its first ever attack against a place of worship, when gunmen bombed the ISKCON temple complex in the capital Imphal in August 2006

The Cauvery Conflict (NIAS Backgrounder No. B5-2010)

T he conflict over sharing of the waters of the Cauvery has spread over more than a century, involving four prominent contenders in South India– the riparian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the union territory of Pondicherry. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have historically clashed on the issue, dating back to the times of the British-controlled Madras Presidency and the Princely State of Mysore while Kerala entered the fray on the reorganisation of states in 1956 and Pondicherry, only in the 1970s. While two treaties, the Agreements of 1892 and 1924, held the peace between Mysore and Madras through the last few decades of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, the sharing of Cauvery waters once again turned contentious with Tamil Nadu alleging a violation of the terms of one of the treaties by Karnataka, and conflicting interpretations by the two states of a clause of the 1924 agreement. Tamil Nadu stood at a historical advantage in terms of irrigation development and Karnataka claimed its right to accelerate its exploitation of the waters. Through the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, series of talks between the states failed to establish a solution agreeable to all the parties involved. Finally, in 1990, the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal was instituted with the purpose of arriving at a watersharing formula between the states. The Tribunal released an interim order in 1991 and eventually, 17 years after its creation, announced its final verdict in 2007. However, the order is as yet unimplemented as a Special Leave Petition on the matter remains pending in the Supreme Court

Breeding tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important vegetable crop cultivated in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Low productivity in India is due to occurrence of both biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the biotic stresses, tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt, early blight and Groundnut Bud Necrosis Virus disease have become serious production constraints causing considerable yield loss in the major tomato growing areas of the country. Adoption of multiple disease resistant varieties or F1 hybrids would be the most appropriate way to address these diseases. At ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru systematic breeding strategies were employed to pyramid genes for resistance to early blight, bacterial wilt and tomato leaf curl diseases and to develop advanced breeding lines& F1 hybrids with triple disease resistance. Stable source of resistance to early blight and bi-partite begomo-virus (Tomato Leaf Curl New Delhi Virus) has been identified in Solanum habrochaites LA-1777. Validation with molecular markers linked to tomato leaf curl virus resistance revealed that LA-1777 carryTy2 and other putative resistant genes. Several high yielding dual purpose hybrids were also developed for fresh market and processing with high level of resistance to multiple diseases. Cherry tomato lines have also been bred for high TSS, total carotenoids, total phenols, flavonoids, vitamin C, acidity and lycopene content. IIHR-249-1, IIHR-2101 (Solanum habrochaites LA-1777), IIHR- 2866 and IIHR-2864 recorded high values for quality parameters like total carotenoids, lycopene, vitamin C, total phenols, flavonoids and TSS. Drought tolerant root stock has been developed by an interspecific cross between S. habrochaites LA-1777 and S. lycopersicum (15 SB SB). Resistant sources have also been identified against Tuta absoluta, a serious insect pest reported from major tomato growing areas in the country in recent time. High temperature tolerant breeding lines are in pipe line