Spousal violence in Bangladesh as reported by men: prevalence and risk factors

To study risk factors for perpetration of spousal violence among men in Bangladesh, self-reported Demographic and Health Surveys data from 2,780 married men using bivariate and multivariate techniques are analyzed. Of the respondents, 74% report having ever been violent toward their wives; 37% report violence in the past year. Nonnormative behaviors increase the risk for violence: Men who marry more than once, men who use drugs, and men who are unfaithful to their wives are all significantly more likely to report violence against their spouses. Egalitarian attitudes toward women do not decrease the risk for violence. However, attitudes explicitly about wife-beating are the strongest predictor of violence: Men who believe wife-beating is acceptable are more than 4 times as likely to report recent violence against their wives. While men's self-reports of spousal violence indicate that wife-beating is prevalent in Bangladesh, the results indicate opportunities for programmatic intervention.     

Militancy in Manipur: origin, dynamics and future

It can be argued with considerable conviction that the origin of militancy in northeastern India's Manipur state is linked to the sense of popular alienation, mostly arising out of New Delhi's delayed decision to grant statehood 23 years after the State decided to merge with the country. At the same time, there are no doubts that the militant outfits are today a pale shadow of the groupings that had actually originated to protect the State's interest. Separatist movements in Manipur today do not seem to represent the people of the State or their interests. Most of the rebel groups have shown signs of having been transformed into criminalised entities mostly engaged in activities that benefit none except for the outfits themselves.     

State,citizenship, and the urban poor

This paper examines the dynamic, moving relationship between three concepts – those of life, law, and exception. Following a brief exposition of these concepts, this paper provides an ethnography of struggles over housing waged by the urban poor in a squatter colony in Noida that adjoins the city of Delhi, India. I argue that each concept in this triad exerts force on the other and is the dynamic relation that creates the conditions of possibility for the emergence of claims over citizenship for the urban poor. In suggesting that citizenship is a claim rather than a status, which one either has or does not have, the article shows the precariousness as well as the promise for the poor of ‘belonging’ to a polity. Joining the discussion on the politics of life, the paper argues that the notion of life allows the mutual absorption of the natural and the social, and thus illuminates aspects of citizenship forged through the struggles waged by the poor for their needs. These are aspects of citizenship which remain obscure if we reduce democratic citizenship to the domain of rational deliberative processes alone.     

Contradictions of India’s Right-wing Government and Growing Disenchantment

ABSTRACT

The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party won India’s 2014 general election by promising development for all. Such promises have generally turned out to be empty. A recent nationwide survey shows that there is widespread disenchantment with this government. This article briefly discusses the disappointing economic and social-political record of the government. Based on empirical information from the above-mentioned survey, it then discusses how the dismal development record is registering in the minds of people who are becoming disillusioned with the government. The article also provides some general reflections on the government, including on the internal connection between government’s pro-business nature and its Hindu nationalist-sectarian character spreading religious hatred and division.