Ableing work,Disableing workers?

Grounded within the substantive conception of ableism (Wolbring 2008 Wolbring, G. 2008. “The Politics of Ableism.” Development 51 (2): 252–258. doi: 10.1057/dev.2008.17[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), this article explores the prejudices and discriminations that arise out of many different forms of ableism: of bodily abilities/disabilities, gender, social structure, and economic organisation. It illustrates the processes and outcomes of ableisms deployed on the shop-floor of a multiple-award winning small-scale manufacturing unit in India. By employing a number of persons with disabilities, single women, and widows, and with plans for engaging juvenile delinquents in the near future, the manufacturing unit has seemingly created opportunities for “empowerment” of those subjected to discrimination. However, the outcomes are not necessarily so.     

Thinking and speaking in the philosophy of K. C. Bhattacharya

Although the following essay does not strictly fall within the discipline of classical Indian philosophy, in which our Journal specializes, we publish it here for two reasons: (1) K. C. Bhattacharya was an outstanding philosopher of India in the past generation, and his thought was deeply influenced by his thorough study of classical Indian Vedanta and Jainism, as well as by the study of Kant (four of our consulting editors were his direct students). (2) His view about the notion of the speakable and philosophy is unique, and it has remained opaque to most of us. Hence some discussion will be illuminating.     

Genetic profile of nine autosomal STR loci among Halakki and Kunabhi populations of Karnataka, India

POPULATION: Blood samples were collected from a total of 84 healthy and unrelated Halakki (44) and Kunabhi (40) populations, with their informed written consent. The geographic location of the sampled area is shown in Fig. 1. Both the populations are endogamous, and they belong to Dravidian linguistic family. Halakki is a tribal group having a population size of approximately 3383. They claim that they originally belong to Gujarat and Rajasthan, and migrated through Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka. Kunabhi is also a tribal population, who are approximately 35,214 in number. The male Kunabhi can be identified by their tattoo marks. A necklace is the symbol of married women. They were hunters and gatherers, but at present they practice agriculture.     

Molecular insight into a wildlife crime: the case of a peafowl slaughter

We report a recent case in which a wildlife warden had suspected that some people had killed and cooked a peacock. Cooked meat, intestine of bird and the wooden block used for chopping were seized from the site of crime and forwarded to our laboratory for DNA testing. Mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence analysis revealed that the cooked meat and remnants of the bird were of a chicken, but the DNA obtained from the wooden block was of an Indian Peafowl (Peacock) testifying that the wooden chopping block was used to chop the meat of an endangered bird, thus bringing to light a wildlife crime.     

Of mice and men: will the intersection of social science and genetics create new approaches for intimate partner violence?

The past two decades have yielded a recognition that intimate partner violence is ubiquitous. Although violence within relationships is bidirectional, there is acknowledgment that violence directed against women is more persistent and dangerous. Strategies for treatment of men have been largely unsuccessful, and studies of women centered approaches to prevention are in their infancy. An emerging concept in the brain-behavior field is the recognition of genetics as a powerful influence on aggressive and violent behaviors. Mouse models of human health and disease have facilitated our understanding of the role of genetics in the manifestation of these traits. There is a need to push the boundaries of research on intimate partner violence by adopting biosocial approaches to understand its causes.     

Human securitization of water? A case study of the Indus Waters Basin

In the large and growing literature on hydropolitics, insecurity generated through water-related conflicts is most often conceptualized under a model of economic resource scarcity. Conflict is generally reduced to the question of who has water, who needs water and thus what cost, in economic, political or military terms, is appropriate to acquiring access to water. This article argues that while such analyses effectively chart the central resource-strategic relations involved in the geopolitics of water, they nonetheless disregard the deeper biological and cultural (that is social, ethnic, religious) significance of water in any water conflict. Such analyses, it claims, are too strongly linked to the traditional (as opposed to human) security discourse and therefore run the risk of misdiagnosing the complexity of the water resource challenge. To respond to this challenge the article will develop a human security ‘metrics’ for analysing water-based conflicts in human security terms. It will then compare an analysis of the Indus Waters Treaty based upon the human security approach with an analysis based on a ‘traditional’ security assessment of the treaty in order to assess the viability of the two approaches. Finally, the article will link the comparative assessments back to the water wars literature, drawing conclusions about its strengths and weaknesses and the possibility of a synthesis of traditional and human security in the analysis of water conflict.     

Self‐inflicted Firearm Discharge from Heating Using a Gas Burner

A male in his 70s was found lying dead in the living room of his house. A gunshot entrance wound was observed in the left orbit, with a lead slug and wadding left in the skull, which exhibited fatal cranio‐cerebral trauma. A cartridge had been discharged from a handmade launcher, or zip gun, that had been fixed to a spare gun barrel on a pipe chair, by heating the launcher from the side using a gas burner. The deceased had owned guns for hunting in the past and had returned the license, but he had retained a spare barrel and live cartridges at home. In this unique case of suicide, a zip gun was discharged by heating with a gas burner.