The Decline of the Indian Parliament

Indian Parliament had a very promising start and worked well during the1950s-1960s. During the 1970s Parliament was squeezed by a great extra-parliamentary mass movement against authoritarianism and corruption and partial but crippling subversion of parliamentary-federal Constitution during the national emergency. Democracy was restored following the 1977 general elections. But the general decline of Parliament that set in the post-Nehru era has not yet been reversed. Major indicators of this decline are shortening sessions, time lost due to disruptions in proceedings by the opposition and violation of norms and precedents by the government, rampant absenteeism, actual hours of sitting as a percentage of available hours, phenomenon of weak legislative federalism via Rajya Sabha in the overall setting of parliamentary-federalism, challenges of new extra-parliamentary mass movements, and judicial activism. The new committee system introduced since 1993 is a welcome development. However, the parliamentary reforms recommended by the constitutional review commission (2002) remain unimplemented.     

India’s role during the 1956 Suez Crisis: Between peacemaking and postcolonial solidarity

ABSTRACT

The 1956 Suez conflict was not inevitable. The involvement of an impartial third party had offered an exit ramp for the main protagonists. Largely forgotten today, India strove to reconcile the interests of the Westerns powers with Arab nationalism. Displaying creativity and perseverance in attempting to arrest the sudden deterioration in security in its extended neighborhood, India’s unceasing but responsible support for a weaker Arab state in the backdrop of determined Western coercion is a useful illustration for contemporary policymakers who are attempting to craft a sustainable approach towards a tumultuous West Asia. Using previously unused archival documents, this paper adds to the small literature on India’s involvement in this crisis by offering the first detailed account of India’s attempt to prevent the outbreak of hostilities in those fateful months of 1956. By doing so, this article also reveals interesting facets of India’s approach to conflict management and regional stability in the 1950s, a role that was predicated on not just promoting strategic restraint between antagonistic states but also enabling conflict resolution options that preserved the vital interests of competing actors.     

Not all election winners are equal: Satisfaction with democracy and the nature of the vote

It is well known that individuals who voted for the winning party in an election tend to be more satisfied with democracy than those who did not. However, many winners deviate from their first choice when voting. It is argued in this article that the mechanisms that engender satisfaction operate less forcefully among such winners, thereby lessening the impact of victory on satisfaction. Results show that the gap in satisfaction over electoral losers among these ‘non‐optimal winners’ is, in fact, much smaller than that of ‘optimal winners’, who voted in line with their expressed preferences. A win matters more for those who have a bigger stake in victory. The article further explores how the effect of optimal victory on satisfaction varies across electoral systems.     

Indian homemade firearm--a technical review

A wide variety of homemade (country made) firearms are involved in crime cases in India. These firearms are made up of very cheap material and are not safe for firing. Moreover, the country made firearms are different in their design, loading and locking mechanism, cocking and firing arrangements. In this paper we have studied the characteristic features of 300 country made firearms received for examination in the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh during last two decades. The characteristic features of these firearms are so unique that the fired crime bullets or cartridges can easily be matched with the test. It is hoped that such information will be useful for firearm experts in case of interpretation.     

Anti-Tamil Riots and the political crisis in Sri Lanka

Abstract

“Have a taste of Paradise” says the advertising blurb of Air Lanka, the national airline. But on July 24, 1983, the island paradise for tourists turned into a veritable hell for its Tamil-speaking inhabitants, with fire and smoke engulfing the capital city of Colombo. Within days, rioting spread throughout Sri Lanka in a wave of assaults against the Tamils in almost all the towns and plantation areas. For nearly a week, mob rule prevailed and lynching was the order of the day.     

印度-中国经济交往的制约因素（节译）

本文概述了印度一中国经济交往的战略意义，讨论了主要的制约因素及相关问题。     

Threat-Inducing Violent Events Exacerbate Social Desirability Bias in Survey Responses

A key challenge in survey research is social desirability bias: respondents feel pressured to report acceptable attitudes and behaviors. Building on established findings, we argue that threat-inducing violent events are a heretofore unaccounted for driver of social desirability bias. We probe this argument by investigating whether fatal terror attacks lead respondents to overreport past electoral participation, a well-known and measurable result of social desirability bias. Using a cross-national analysis and natural and survey experiments, we show that fatal terror attacks generate turnout overreporting. This highlights that threat-inducing violent events induce social desirability, that researchers need to account for the timing of survey fieldwork vis-à-vis such events, and that some of the previously reported post-violent conflict increases in political participation may be more apparent than real.     

中印关系中的美国因素

中国、美国和印度之间的三边关系近来比较引人注目。冷战期间三方中的两方经常联合起来反对第三方,中印在经历短期的友好以后,也曾相互开战,之后美国因素逐步变得重要。随着国际格局的演变,中国和印度都在积极与美国发展关系,同时中印之间的关系也在不断改善。当前在恐怖主义的共同威胁和全球化的推动下,过去那种对抗和遏制的模式将不会再现,三个国家将更加紧密地结合。尽管中印关系中的美国因素依然重要,但在现实中其作用正在降低。     

Mandibular ramus: an indicator for sex in fragmentary mandible

Mandible is the hardest and most durable bone of the skull exhibiting a high degree of sexual dimorphism. Especially ramus of mandible is subjected to greater stress than any other bone of the skull because of the process of mastication. This study has been performed to establish the osteometric standards for practical use in forensic context over Indian population using mandibular ramus. The sample consists of 116 mandibles of Northern Indian population (M:F; 92:24, mean age 37.4 years), collected from the Department of Forensic Medicine, IMS, BHU, Varanasi. Osteometric informations about five metric parameters (coronoid height, projective height, condylar height, and maximum breadth and minimum breadth of ramus) were taken with sliding calipers. These parameters were subjected to different discriminant function analysis using SPSS 16.0. All parameters showed significant sexual dimorphism (p < 0.001 in all cases) with an overall accuracy of 80.2%, and coronoid height was the single best parameter providing an accuracy of 74.1%.     

Identification of the source of ivory idol by DNA analysis

In this study, we describe a forensic case dealing with the identification of the source of the processed ivory object by DNA analysis. Two pieces of Lord Krishna's idols from a shop were confiscated by an investigating agency of the Indian government and forwarded to us to identify the source of its origin. We succeeded in isolating DNA from both processed ivory idols by using the phenol/chloroform DNA extraction method. The extracted DNA was subjected to PCR amplification using an elephant-specific mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop marker. DNA sequence analysis of the amplified fragment of mtDNA D-loop region confirmed that the idols were consistent with Asian elephant with 99% similarity.