Parvin Sultana

Bodies are vulnerable because they are intrinsically linked to death. Bodies are social and they are embedded with meaning. They cannot be extracted from their specific contexts. The nation is also often equated with body politic. As a result individual bodies become the site of security/ insecurity depending on the social location of bodies. Within this discourse, this article tries to locate the bodies of women. It will look at the bodies of women as victims of terror as well as perpetrators of terror. It will try to understand if in these differentiated roles, women are able to break away from stereotypes or are still caught in heteronormative narratives. Keywords:  Body, Suicide Bombers, Victims, Ethnic Conflict, Terrorism.

Sanjib Baruah has done tremendous work on laying down newer ways of looking at the Northeastern region. His formulations of governors as generals, nationalising space as a method of nation building, etc. provides us with tools to understand the predicament of a region which is still thought of within the colonial paradigm. The region continues to be treated as a frontier and hence the need to securitise it. The region still suffers from underdevelopment and alienation. This is a review essay of his two books Durable Disorder and India Against Itself.

When borders are created then question of legality and illegality arises. With the change in destinations a struggle to prove one's identity and nationality begins. This problem is more visible in case of migrant communities, gets multiplied when there is an intra-religion divide and then identity becomes a critical subject. The assimilation of different ethnic groups and the perceived threat of the earlier inhabitants have culminated into the critical issues of identity and citizenship in the state. This paper talks about the issue of migration and identity crisis of a minority community in Assam, which has been assimilating people from diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups who migrated to this region over a period of time. However, for past two decades a large chunk of non-Assamese population of East Bengal origin has moved out of Assam and has taken different occupations to support their livelihood. The paper ends with a suggestion that the areas of commonality cutti...

A cursory inquest into the effects of SARS-CoV-2 exposes how easily the ramification of the pandemic has moved over from the physio-social to the psychosocial state of humans all over the world. Derogatory nomenclatures such as ‘Chinese-virus’ or ‘Corona-jihad’ can be seen as a part of a disjunctive politics of ‘representation’ as opposed to ‘representing’ with a metonymic effect. Such politics violates the protocol on naming new human infectious diseases set by World Health Organization. It also insinuates a long-term socio-political impression on the mental state of an individual or a social group, which may have an emasculating effect on the global solidarity to fight the virus. This calls for a nuanced psychosocial investigation with a specific analysis of how the ensuing stigmatization and fear can aggravate the contagion. With specific reference to the Indian sub-continent, this paper explains the socio-political orientation behind the essentialisation of a religious group tha...

According to Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, India has the most stringent lockdown as compared to other nations and has scored 100% in the scale; nevertheless, there had been sporadic incidence of attacks on police personnel and medical workers in different parts of India. This article argues that such resistance comes from two broad factors: (i) a collective scepticism that has built up among certain section of people and (ii) a tool of defiance against the government. In order to quell such resistance, community leaders and the police can play a very crucial role. In order to establish the above hypotheses, a quantitative approach of the events that have occurred in India during the lockdown period of 21 days shall be considered.

Stardom and celebrity status is intrinsically related to the kind of spacemedia provides to the concerned individuals. The coverage of media hasbecome a parameter of measuring stardom. But over time, stardom is nolonger limited only to beautiful film stars and dashing male athletes.Intellect is the new glam quotient. Social activists taking up the cause ofthe downtrodden is getting a lot of space in media. Glamour has givenway to asceticism and simplicity. However, while picking up stories,media has its own concern about which issue to highlight and which tooverride. This paper tries to understand the role of media in creatingstars and promoting stardom of unconventional individuals by takingup coverage of two political movements of contemporary times. Media'streatment for these two social activists - Anna Hazare and Irom SharmilaChanu have been different to such an extent that while one becameheadlines, the other continued to be a mere footnote in the media.

Stardom and celebrity status is intrinsically related to the kind of space media provides to the concerned individual. The coverage of media has become a parameter of measuring stardom. But over the time, stardom is no more limited only to beautiful filmstars and dashing male athletes. Intellect is the new glam quotient. More and more social activists taking up the cause of the downtrodden is getting a lot of space in media. The glamour has given way to ascetism and simplicity. However while picking up stories, media has its own concern about which issue to highlight and which to override. This paper tries to understand the role of media in creating stars and promoting stardom of unconventional individuals by taking up its coverage of two political movements of contemporary times. It will try to understand why the media's treatment for these two social activists—Anna Hazare and Irom Sharmila Chanu has been different to such an extent that while one became headlines, the other continued to be a mere footnote in media.

Advertisements have gone a long way from merely selling things. It reflects social attitudes as well. Advertising is a powerful medium of reproducing and reinforcing social values and ideologies. And gender does not escape it. In patriarchal societies, advertisements play a crucial role of reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. What an ideal women or an ideal man should be like is shown in the advertisements. It is also shown in what an ideal woman or an ideal man should not be like. While advertisements started with commodification and objectification of women, it moved on to objectifying men as well. However the objectification did not subvert gender roles. This paper will study such depiction of gender roles in advertisements in Indian media. While women's bodies are marked by fragility, vulnerability, sexuality, men's bodies are invested with values like power and authority.

A country's culture is enriched by its literature along with other things. And ancient epics, mythological texts are also a crucial part of it. India has two such Sanskrit epics among many other excellent works by other renowned poets – Mahabharata and Ramayana. Of these Mahabharata is the tale of a war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas who were cousins on the question of empire. But it is also a saga of multiple stories – stories of exclusion, of deprivation and oppression, of domination and treachery. The very grand range of the Mahabharata provides scope for reading it from a diverse perspective – be it from a gender perspective, a caste based analysis or a materialistic interpretation. While it gave us heroes in the fringe like Eklavya and Karna whose destinies were decided by their caste backgrounds, it also gave us strong female characters like Kunti and Draupadi. It gave us interesting characters like Amba/Shikhandi which brought forth the fluidity of human sexuality. The multiplicity of characters and their stories rendered Mahabharata a peculiar complexity. This paper will relook at Mahabharata from one of the many possible perspectives. It will look at Mahabharata from a feminist perspective with special emphasis on the character of Draupadi. It will try to trace the feminist assertion and subversion in the epic through her role and her engagement with the male characters. This paper will try to situate this narrative in the larger tradition of multiple readings of Mahabharata.

When borders are created then question of legality and illegality arises. With the change in destinations a struggle to prove one’s identity and nationality begins. This problem is more visible in case of migrant communities, gets multiplied when there is an
intra-religion divide and then identity becomes a critical subject. The assimilation of different ethnic groups and the perceived threat of the earlier inhabitants have culminated into the critical issues of identity and citizenship in the state. This paper talks about the issue of migration and identity crisis of a minority community in Assam, which has been assimilating people from diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups who migrated to this region over a period of time. However, for past two decades a large chunk of non-Assamese population of East Bengal origin has moved out of Assam and has taken different occupations to support their livelihood. The paper ends with a suggestion that the areas of commonality cutting across the ethnic boundaries need to be strengthened instead of focusing on the singularity of communal identity.