Digital Commons Network^™

Haunted: Writing Poems As A Shadowy Intellectual, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

An academic and writer reflects on the circumstances and stimuli—in the form of poetry—that led her to find a voice that was as intimately her own as it was public.

Slipping Into Judicial Barbarism?, Pranav Verma

Articles

Book Review | Gautam Bhatia, Unsealed Covers: A Decade of the Constitution, the Courts and the State, HarperCollins Publisher India, 2023

Navigating The Conundrum Of Mandatory Reporting Under The Pocso Act: Implications For Medical Professionals, Nanditta Batra

Articles

To address the under reporting of sexual offences against children, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, makes reporting of such offences mandatory. The duty to report such offences has been extended to healthcare professionals. The inclusion of healthcare professionals within mandatory reporting, however, strikes at the very foundation of the doctor-patient relationship based on trust and confidentiality and conflicts with the patient confidentiality safeguards of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017. It also has unintended public health consequences, such as denial of medical termination of pregnancy due to fear of prosecution under POCSO. An urgent reassessment of …

Sovereignty Before Law, Salmoli Choudhuri, Moiz Tundawala

Articles

Book review: Violent Fraternity: Indian Political Thought in the Global Age, by Shruti Kapila, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2021, 328 pp., $37.00/£30.00, ISBN 9780691195223

A Case For Humanistic Theory, Salmoli Choudhuri, Moiz Tundawala

Articles

This article responds to a debate in Economic & Political Weekly on the state of theory in Indian academia. While earlier interventions focused on the “who” and “how” questions related to the subject and work of theory, a more fundamental question is addressed here: Why theory at all? In our age of permanent crises, the necessity to make a case for theory that can interpret the world rather than change it for the good has arisen due to the dominance of problem-solving and solution-driven approaches adopted by the social sciences.

Viability Of The ‘Democratic Liberalism’ Project, Prerna Dhoop

Articles

Book Review: From Free to Fair Markets: Liberalism after COVID -19 by Rosalind Dixon and Richard Holden (Oxford University Press, 2022); pp 240, 24 GBP.

State Life: Land, Welfare And Management Of The Landless In Kerala, India, R. C. Sudheesh

Articles

The pressing need to manage the spiralling number of landless people around the world has compelled several states to experiment with scattered land distribution programmes in combination with welfare transfers, instead of comprehensive land reform. This article examines the chasm between land demands and state responses in such contexts. Focusing on the Aralam resettlement site for the landless Adivasis in Kerala, India, it argues that management of the landless could take the form of ‘state life’ — a life envisaged by the state rather than the life the people wish to lead. Three interlinked processes are shown to shape state …

Locating A Shadowy State In Queer, Feminist Politics, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

In this commentary, part of a book forum on Srila Roy’s (2022) book ”Changing the Subject: Feminist and Queer Politics in Neoliberal India”, I argue that the feminist and queer movement, in response to the neoliberal turn in India, is not totally separate from the Indian state formations. In fact, a shadowy state emerges in the affective life of citizens as an expression of what Timothy Mitchell would have called “state effect”.

Biraha, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

Excerpt:

'The followers of Swami Shri Haridasji live in the sand-laden compound of Tatiasthan and assemble in song with devotees from the general public every evening. This musical tradition is called samaaj gaayan. They first sing facing the deity and then turn to their teacher, who arrives at the assembly a little later. Mobile phones and other technology are strictly forbidden.

This poem is an out-take from my ongoing ethnographic research in Vrindavan—the sacred geography of Krishna worship in the Bhakti tradition in northern India. This poem came from the evenings spent in the Tatiasthan shrine watching evening musical performances, …

Grounding The Basic Structure In Legal Theory, Sanjay Jain

Articles

This article contributes to the everlasting debate on theorising the Basic Structure doctrine of the Indian Constitution. Having demonstrated that it cannot be justified either in orthodox positivism of Austin or Kelsenite normativity, the author makes the case to ground the debate in the modern avatar of analytical jurisprudence, popularly known as inclusive legal positivism.

Engaging Bhakti As/In Translation: An Outline Of A Methodological Approach To Analyse Ranade's Views About The "Saints And Prophets Of Maharashtra", Rinku Lamba

Articles

The analysis in this article suggests that M G Ranade’s reflections in his essay about the ‘Saints and Prophets of Maharashtra’ are significant because they offer a site to unravel shifts from a premodern to a modern conception of moral order on the Indian subcontinent, in the context of the encounter with colonialism. For its role in allowing such unravelling, and for the way it permits attention to hitherto neglected dimensions of Ranade’s comparison between bhakti and the Protestant Reformation, this article argues for the value of investigating Ranade’s reflections through the framework of translation. While doing the above, the …

Wto Security Exceptions: A Sliding Scale Approach To Protect The Rules-Based System For Global Free Trade, Ts Somashekar, Kanchan Yadav

Articles

Since the enforcement of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 and subsequently with the establishment of the World Trade Organization, the global community has been moving towards a more secure and rule-based international trade law regime. The cornerstones of the system are predictability and transparency, which ensure that a state, no matter how powerful, cannot undertake a discriminatory trade measure against another going above and beyond the rules. However, the recent instances of unilateral invocation of the security exceptions found in the various trade agreements endanger the very basis of the WTO system. The very first …

Employment Trajectories And Mental Health-Related Disability In Belgium, Sudipa Sarkar, Rebeka Balogh, Sylvie Gadeyne, Johanna Jonsson Et Al.

Articles

An individual’s quality of employment over time has been highlighted as a potential determinant of mental health. With mental ill-health greatly contributing to work incapacities and disabilities in Belgium, the present study aims to explore whether mental health, as indicated by registered mental health-related disability, is structured along the lines of employment quality, whereby employment quality is assessed over time as part of individuals’ labour market trajectories.

Transition From The Informal To The Formal Economy: The Need For A Multi-Faceted Approach, Kamala Sankaran

Articles

The recent international attention paid to the formalization of the informal economy finds reflection in ILO Recommendation No. 204 concerning the transition from the informal to the formal economy and the Sustainable Development Goals (Target 8.3). There is great diversity within the categories of the informal sector, informal employment, and informal economy in India. This paper examines the category of the ‘informal economy’ as understood in international instruments as well as in international statistics and maps these onto legal categories recognized within Indian law. The categories of ‘employed’, ‘engaged’, and ‘work arrangement’ used in Indian laws, and their interpretation by …

Globalisation And City-Zenship In A Not-So-Networked Society: Looking For Narratives Of Empowerment In The Process Of Seepage Of Techno-Cultural Practices, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

The article seeks to answer questions crucial to the marginalisation debate like - Is commercial globalisation bringing in more than consumer goods into the developing countries? And if so, then what is the consequent impact on the relationship between the state and its citizens. While the city in the developed world acts as a node of contact with the forces of globalisation, sending out the messages of the global ‘fantasy’, the city in the developing world acts as the receptor of such signals from which the 'fantasy’ can be accessed by the rest of the developed world. Persons living in …

Book Review: Christophe Jaffrelot, 2021. Modi’S India: Hindu Nationalism And The Rise Of Ethnic Democracy. Translated By Cynthia Schoch, Aniket Nandan

Articles

Book review: Christophe Jaffrelot, 2021. Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy. Translated by Cynthia Schoch

Product Liability Action: A Tooth To Strengthen Consumer Protection, Ashok R. Patil

Articles

As the world shifts to technological advancements, the advent of e-commerce marks its peak, particularly in India, where it has been earmarked as the fastest growing market with an annual growth rate of 51%. While these developments are an important part of globalization, a few challenges come along. Issues like unfair contracts, privacy, data protection, faulty goods, refund or return remained unaddressed as the earlier existing Consumer Protection Act, 1986 did not elucidate on the same. Given the above, the Law Commission of India had recommended that a separate law be enacted for better consumer protection. Based on the recommendations …

Book Review Of ‘Women, Peace And Security And International Law’, Christine Chinkin, Cambridge University Press, Akhila Basalalli

Articles

The social neutrality and gender disregard of mainstream international law have motivated the pioneering works of Christine Chinkin in addressing the gender disparity, for instance, the book ‘The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis’ co-authored with Hilary Charlesworth. The book ‘Women, Peace and Security and International Law’ by Chinkin is an updated and detailed version of the lecture delivered in the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law in October 2016 as a part of the Lauterpacht lecture series. It was subsequently published by Cambridge Publishers in 2022.

Justice Versus Judiciary: Justice Enthroned Or Entangled In India? (2019) By Sudhanshu Ranjan, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, Arun Thiruvengadam

Articles

Justice Versus Judiciary: Justice Enthroned or Entangled in India? (2019) By Sudhanshu Ranjan, Oxford University Press, New Delhi

Book Review: Sushmita Pati, Properties Of Rent: Community, Capital And Politics In Globalising Delhi, Aniket Nandan

Articles

Book review: Sushmita Pati, Properties Of Rent: Community, Capital And Politics In Globalising Delhi

Shades Of Life In Indian Abortion Law, Gauri Pillai

Articles

This case comment analyses the recent Kerala High Court decision in Cry of Life Society v Union of India, where a petition was filed to declare India's law on abortion unconstitutional for violating the right to life of the foetus. The High Court dismissed the petition, upholding the constitutionality of the legislation as protecting women's right to life. The author discusses the High Court's order, narrowing in on the right to life argument used by the Court, and the right to life argument that the Court missed. This analysis distills and responds to the 'shades of life' underlying abortion law …

Devotee/Ethnographer: My Struggle At The Boundary Walls Of Participant Observation, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

This article demonstrates the difficulty of incorporating within the methodological ambit of ‘participant observation’, a possibility of the ethnographer herself staking claim in the religious truth claims of the community that constitute the subject of research. In so doing, this article provides a critique of the concept of participant observation to point out that participant observation anticipates the work of the ethnographer in participating in the physical, performative lives of the community that she purports to study, but never the internal life, especially the life of accessing a register of truth. I found myself in a curious situation as a …

Freedom From Caste: New Beginnings In Transdisciplinary Scholarship, Karthick Ram Manoharan, Meena Dhanda

Articles

This is the Editorial to the Special Issue titled 'Freedom from Caste: Anti-caste Thought, Politics and Culture', guest edited by Karthick Ram Manoharan and Meena Dhanda

Covid-19 And (Mis)Understanding Public Attitudes To Social Security: Re-Setting Debate, Sudipa Sarkar, Michael Orton

Articles

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen emerging debate about a possible shift in ‘anti-welfare commonsense’ i.e. the orthodoxy previously described in this journal as solidifying negative public attitudes towards ‘welfare’. While a shift in attitudes might be ascribed to the circumstances of the crisis it would still be remarkable for such a strongly established orthodoxy to have changed quite so rapidly. It is appropriate, therefore, to reflect on whether the ‘anti-welfare’ orthodoxy was in fact as unequivocal as claimed? To address this question, challenges to the established orthodoxy that were emerging pre-pandemic are examined along with the most recently available survey …

National Medical Commission Act, 2019: The Need For Parity, Ov Nandimath, S. Suhas, Y. Malik, B.C. Malathesh

Articles

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has replaced the erstwhile Medical Council of India with the intention of bringing about positive reforms in medical education and enforcing ethical standards in the practice of medicine in India. The NMC Act of 2019, under clauses 3 and 4 of Section 30, details the procedure of grievance redressal. However, these clauses in their current form empower doctors and patients unequally. While the Act empowers an aggrieved medical professional to approach the relevant appellate fora under the NMC, it is silent on a similar opportunity for an aggrieved patient or caregiver to appeal against the …

The Road Ahead For Environmental Impact Assessment In India: Insights From Expansion In Coal Mining, Sneha Thapliyal, Meenakshi Kapoor, Krithika Dinesh

Articles

One of the most contentious changes proposed in the draft environmental impact assessment notification, 2020 in India is the circumvention of public consultations for the expansion of projects for up to 50% of their original capacity. Similar exemption from public hearing, albeit for 40% capacity expansion, has been permitted as a special case for the coal mining sector since 2017. The minutes of the meetings of the coal mining expert appraisal committee between August 2017 and January 2021, which reviewed the requests for coal mine expansion, are analysed herein. It was found that the expert appraisal committees had effectively sidelined …

A Continuing Constitutional Conversation: Locating Nitisha, Gauri Pillai

Articles

In April 2021, the Supreme Court of India decided Nitisha v Union of India, holding that the gender neutral hiring procedure adopted by the Indian Army indirectly discriminated against women officers by disproportionately excluding them from promotion. This effect was experienced due to systemic discrimination against women built into the appointment criteria. To redress systemic discrimination, the State was required not only to abstain from direct or indirect discrimination but also to positively act to bring in structural change. Nitisha makes significant contributions to developing the constitutional understanding of non-discrimination. It identifies the essential nature of discrimination as systemic rather …

Technological Efforts, Firm Ownership And Productivity: A Study Of Information Technology Service Firms In India, Asmita Goswami, K. Narayanan

Articles

The article presents differences in firm-level total factor productivity in the information technology (IT) service firms in India over the period 2000–2016. It is an attempt to study whether technological efforts contribute to productivity differences in the firms in conjunction with several other firm specific characteristics. Controlling for endogeneity in inputs, the estimation of productivity through semi-parametric techniques indicates considerable heterogeneity in productivity across firm types. Technological efforts of firms have a significant impact on the productivity of IT firms. Both embodied technology imports and in-house R&D contribute to higher productivity. While the Indian firms are observed to be more …

The Meld Model: The Holy Grail Of Indian Corporate Jurisprudence, Rahul Singh

Articles

Is a model of a theory of Indian corporate jurisprudence effable? This paper posits that jurisprudence of Indian corporate law is desirable and possible. Given the relative nascence of the Companies Act 2013, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 and the Competition Act 2002, this paper undergirds the possibility of jurisprudence through modelling-the meld model-which is, jurisprudentially speaking, a synthesis between 'exclusive legal positivism' and 'law and economics'. The paper instantiates the utility and desirability of the meld model through test suites - i.e. select case laws in the context of company, competition and insolvency laws. With the help of test …

Ethnicity, Self-Knowledge And Literary Sensitivity: A Sociological Reading Of V. S. Naipaul’S First Four Novels, N. Jayaram

Articles

Taking a cue from G. S. Ghurye’s Shakespeare on Conscience and Justice (1965) this lecture in his memory explores the role of ethnicity in shaping the selfknowledge and literary sensitivity of V. S. Naipaul. Naipaul’s life traverses three distinct cultures: the Hindu culture brought by his ancestors who came as indentured migrants to Trinidad, the Creole culture of colonial Trinidad and the emerging modern culture of western civilisation. Much of Naipaul’s self-knowledge involved his engagement with these three cultures and his experience of the interplay between colonialism and ethnicity. In his first four novels—Miguel Street, The Mystic Masseur, The Suffrage …