Adivasiness as Caste Expression and Land Rights Claim-Making in Central-Eastern India

ABSTRACT

The adivasi population represents a special case in India’s new land wars. Strong individual and community rights to agricultural and forest lands have been enacted for this group based on notions of adivasi identities as primeval, but without linking these to economic and political influence. This article interrogates the adivasi land question seen through a caste lens. It does so via case studies in two states to understand the ways in which adivasi identity can be mobilised for its instrumental value and used to demand land rights. In Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court’s Samatha Judgement has prevented virtually all private mining activities. In Jharkhand, however, similar legislation is seen to be trumped by the national Coal Bearing Areas Act, as well as by former and current land acquisition acts that allow industrial land claims to take precedence over identity-based ones. Available evidence indicates the challenges involved in bringing support for land rights that are premised on a supposedly unchanging adivasi identity when these rights go against dominant interests. This circumstance serves to highlight the possibilities present in caste analysis to understand the plight of adivasis, despite their usually distinct treatment in scholarly analyses.     

The Politics of Caste in India’s New Land Wars

ABSTRACT

In this article we introduce the special issue through framing the debate on the role of caste in India’s current land wars. We draw attention to how caste consistently mediates land transfers in present day India by pre-empting, undermining, or fuelling processes of social contestation, as well as the ways in which land claims in turn shape realigned or reimagined caste identities. Based on this, we make three main arguments. The first and most obvious one is that in contemporary conflicts over land, caste matters in evolving ways that deserve attention. Second, we argue that caste and land are recursively linked categories that are produced and reproduced in continuous interaction, even as multi-scalar political economies (re)shape them. And third, that different registers of caste are articulated by different social groups in more or less overt ways as they stake often competing claims to land.     

CHINA AND THE UN AT 50

China was one of the architects of the UN. The country was the first signa-tory of the UN Charter in San Francisco in 1945. Yet it was only in October 1971, with the Chinese delegation led by then Vice Foreign Minister Qiao Guanhua, that the People's Republic of China's representa-tion in the UN was resumed. Since that time, the UN has had the great privilege of witnessing and support-ing China in achieving one of the greatest periods of socioeconomic progress in world history.     

Under What Conditions Can Local Government Nurture Indigenous People’s Democratic Practice? A Case Study of Two Ho Village Assemblies in Jharkhand

This paper asks whether and under what conditions participatory local government can best nurture indigenous peoples’ democratic practice. Based on fieldwork in two similar Ho communities in the Indian state Jharkhand, we show that their village assemblies function differently with regard to meetings, wood access regulation, development projects, and participation. Neither prevents exclusion and co- option. This supports the argument that while local governments can hardly challenge existing power structures, they can under certain conditions nurture democratic practice and democratisation. Our study indicates that high literacy, social cohesion, active state support, and proactive leadership are conditions under which this best happens.     

Eating Regulation Styles, Appearance Schemas, and Body Satisfaction Predict Changes in Body Fat for Emerging Adults

Obesity and high body fat percentages are a major public health issue. The percentage of obese and overweight Americans has increased over the past 30 years. On average, overweight individuals with higher percent body fat than normal weight individuals are at increased risk for numerous negative outcomes both physically and mentally. A prime time to investigate changes in body composition and associated psychological influences on decision making is during the emerging adulthood period. The first few years of college are a time when adolescents begin to regulate for themselves their own eating behaviors. Previous research shows that freshmen gain weight and increase in percent body fat during their first year of college. The current study addresses the limitations of previous research by investigating (1) individual growth in percent body fat over a longer period of time in college than previous available research and (2) important psychological and sex differences in this growth. This study measures percent body fat across the first 3 years of college at 8 time points for 542 undergraduates (351 females, 65 %; 191 males, 35 %). Longitudinal data analysis was conducted to identify changes in percent body fat, psychological predictors of those changes, and how changes differ for males and females. Our study found that significant increases exist in percent body fat during undergraduates' college years and that change differs for males and females. In addition, through the use of nested hierarchical models, eating regulation style (autonomous or controlled regulation), appearance schema (self-evaluative salience or motivational salience), and body satisfaction were identified as influential predictors of change in percent body fat. For example, young females, who do not feel in control of their physical appearance yet spend a great deal of time maintaining their appearance, have the highest initial body fat percentage and the steepest increase in percent body fat. Overall, males and females with high autonomous regulation and high motivational salience are likely to maintain (instead of increase) percent body fat over the college years. Knowing the influence of these predictors can be useful for promoting health and intervening with young adults in the college setting and other emerging adults who are not enrolled in postsecondary institutions.     

The Indonesian killings of 1965–1966: the case of Central Java

The mass killings of 1965–1966 in Indonesia marked a watershed in its history. The consensus estimate of lives lost is 500,000. In this paper, demographic and geographic methods are used to characterize the violence in Central Java, one of the worst-affected provinces. The findings provide a portrait of the violence and its dynamics. This portrait highlights the likely complicity of a diverse array of political opponents of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). The findings also provide evidence supporting Clifford Geertz's three-aliran (cultural “stream”) model of Javanese society, with the complex interplay of the three aliran and the Indonesian Army in the political realm producing the violent outcomes of 1965–1966. In this manner, this study builds on prior work by Hefner, Jay, Lyon, Mortimer, and Ricklefs on the cultural and social underpinnings of the violence. It also builds on more recent work on the neighboring province of East Java in which the role of two of the three alirans was found to be a significant factor, underlining the importance of the intersection of culture, geography, and politics in understanding this violent episode in Indonesian history.     

Maternal Predictors of Noncoital Sexual Behavior: Examining a Nationally Representative Sample of Asian and White American Adolescents Who Have Never had Sex

Current research in adolescent sexuality has largely focused on vaginal-penile intercourse, with less attention to noncoital sexual activity. This study examined how maternal factors influence the transition from virginity to noncoital behavior among White and Asian American youth who have never experienced vaginal intercourse. We conducted logistic regression analyses to examine whether traditional maternal predictors of coital sex were important in understanding noncoital sexual activity of these two populations. Waves 1 and 2 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were utilized. For White Americans (n = 3,926), direct and indirect maternal factors were associated with noncoital sexual involvement: maternal support, control, mother–child communication about sex, and adolescents’ perceptions of maternal approval of sex. In contrast, only maternal support was associated with the onset of noncoital sexual behavior for Asian Americans (n = 611). The study underscores the need to explore culturally specific factors that may influence Asian American adolescent noncoital sexual behaviors.