Rajib Nandi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers (in Journals) by Rajib Nandi

Uttarprasanga, 2022

Written in 2021 the article "Divided Politics and Bifurcated Nationalism: Fifty Years of Independ... more Written in 2021 the article "Divided Politics and Bifurcated Nationalism: Fifty Years of Independent Bangladesh" by Rajib Nandi and Aparajita De explores the complex identity of Bangladesh post-independence. It highlights the nation's struggle between secular Bengali nationalism and religious Muslim nationalism. Despite significant socio-economic progress, internal politics have been marked by religious polarization. The article discusses the historical context of Bangladesh's liberation, the role of language and culture, and the influence of military rule on religious identity. It also examines the impact of civil society and the youth, emphasizing the enduring tension between secularism and religious nationalism in shaping Bangladesh's future.

Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 2023

In India, COVID-19 outbreaks and economic disruptions have caused widespread human suffering, inc... more In India, COVID-19 outbreaks and economic disruptions have caused widespread human suffering, including deaths and livelihood losses. This has exacerbated vulnerabilities in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. The pandemic has highlighted the need for evaluators to be adaptable and innovative in addressing uncertain and dynamic situations. Using literature and the authors' own experiences of conducting evaluation during the pandemic in India, this paper discusses what may be key evaluator competencies in a post-pandemic world. The purpose of this study was to critically consider how evaluators practiced research and evaluation during the pandemic from the perspective of their competencies, and to explore issues of adaptability, communication, and ethical dilemmas, as well as the role of communities in shaping and informing evaluations. The study was conducted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluation practice in India. The paper suggests that evaluators need to develop two core competencies - strategic thinking and emotional intelligence and resilience - to navigate unforeseen challenges and engage diverse communities in a sensitive and empathetic way.

GENSA (Community of Evaluators – South Asia), 2022

This volume “Local Wisdom Matters: Refl ections on Evaluation Theory and Practice from South Asia... more This volume “Local Wisdom Matters: Refl ections on Evaluation Theory and Practice from South Asia” is the attempt to bring local knowledge and culture into the regional and mainstream evaluation discourse. This volume of papers on local knowledge and evaluation focuses on claiming our space, sharing our worldview, and preserving our treasures. Although confined to South Asia, this discussion will broaden our understanding of evaluation discourse from the global south.

Uttar Prasanga (ISSN 2348-2036), Dec 25, 2019

Title: দেবী, আদিবাসী-রাজা ও ব্রাহ্মণ্যবাদঃ প্রাগজ্যোতিষের ধার্মিক রূপান্তর ও সামাজিক অন্তর্দন্ধ (... more Title: দেবী, আদিবাসী-রাজা ও ব্রাহ্মণ্যবাদঃ প্রাগজ্যোতিষের ধার্মিক রূপান্তর ও সামাজিক অন্তর্দন্ধ (The Goddess, the Tribal Kings and Brahmanism: The Religious Transformations and Social Dynamics of Pragjyotisha)
Abstract: The paper deals with the religious transformations of Kamrup (India) between the 5th and 16th century vis-à-vis the Brahminical dominance in the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. It explores the trajectory of the transformations of the Kamakhya, the local cult/deity of ancient and medieval Assam into a Brahminical goddess. The paper also argues how the interpretations of Puranas and Tantras, were able to legitimize and include the pre-Hinduised practices of Kamrup into larger Brahminical fold and concludes by arguing that the many phases of religious transformations of Assam were a part of the larger political project of Kamrup/Pragjyotisha, where the tribal kings played an important role in seeking their political legitimacy in a multi-ethnic land at the borders of Brahminical and non-Brahminical practices.

Uttar Prasanga, 2013

Urban Street Begging in India and Abroad. (Written in Bengali)

Bangabidya: International Journal of Bengal Studies, 2018

Bangabidya: International Journal of Bengal Studies (ISSN 2277-7717) Volume 10 (253-266)

Uttar Prasanga , Oct 2017

Political consciousness, armed resistances and dreams of social change: Relevance of Naxalbari mo... more Political consciousness, armed resistances and dreams of social change: Relevance of Naxalbari movement on its 50th year. (In Bengali)

Introduction to a special issue on "Conversations with the Modern Indian City: Questioning the Re... more Introduction to a special issue on "Conversations with the Modern Indian City: Questioning the Regimes of Modernity and Development" in the Journal of Social Science and Humanity Research

Evaluation Journal of Australiasia, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2015, Mar 2015

The evaluators went beyond the mandate of evaluation and focused on building evaluation capacity by fostering ownership of the program among stakeholders and encouraging the community to be the active agents of change. Instead of traditional evaluation where evaluators are outsiders, we engaged the stakeholders in the evaluation. All the stakeholders, including the funding agency, NGO, the adolescent girls and the larger community were engaged in varying degrees—from defining the objectives, designing questions, data collection and data analysis in the context of their aspirations and expectations, so that it could be an occasion for recognition and celebration of their strengths. The local project implementers and the adolescent girls themselves re-evaluated their own responses and used them in a particular context to further empower themselves. We used principles of the strength-based approach and framed appreciative questions, which recognised the strengths of the community and NGO staff. This created a non-threatening environment, which stimulated open sharing of experiences. Further, this resulted in reinforcing the evaluation process by improving the quality and richness of data that the community produced itself, which would not have been the case in a traditional evaluation.

Additionally, a gender and equity lens was used to conduct the evaluation in six multi-ethnic districts, populated with religious and linguistic minorities, and an indigenous population. The gender and equity lens allows recognising the systematic discrimination based on gender, caste and class. The evaluation was able to probe whether the program assessed time, mobility, poverty and accessibility constraints of girls, and accounted for intersectional discrimination.

ISSN: 2321-8908, Jul 29, 2014

The spectacular growth of ICT in India somehow makes people believe that the average IT professio... more The spectacular growth of ICT in India somehow makes people believe that the average IT professional in India is a graduate from one of the many respected technology schools and employed in a global IT firm. However, a much larger number of people, IT occupation workers, with different levels of skills are employed at the other end of the IT spectrum across the ICT and non-ICT sectors, formal and informal sectors, where very often the age-rate is negotiated on the basis of verbal contracts in the absence of any standard wage rate. The present paper, based on household survey, carried out in 2009 in Delhi provides an analytical description of low-end IT occupation workers from a “decent work” perspective as conceptualized by the International Labour Organization in order to promote opportunities, in terms of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

India since independence has experienced a series of movements based on “identity politics” deman... more India since independence has experienced a series of movements based on “identity politics” demanding separate states and reorganization of its internal state boundaries. Much of the contemporary discussions find uneven development and unequal access to power accelerated by regionalism and linguistic fanatism responsible for these movements. Through the study of social movements of Koch–Rajbanshi people in North Bengal, the paper argues that these movements display a timeless quest and aspirations of people that are rooted in their deep sense of history. People's unique sense of history or “historical imaginations” are contextualized within the secular language of socio-economic injustices and socio-cultural differences celebrated in a spectacular manner through these movements marked by re-interpretation, re-writing of the past, real yet imagined, time bound yet eternal. Today the Koch–Rajbanshi people are creating a “new past” and an identity which is a blend of colonial ethnography on one hand and Rajbanshi mythographies on the other. The paper also questions the dichotomy that apparently exists between the past and the present.

Gender, Technology and Development, 2007

Programs and projects that are not targeted to specific population groups often implicitly assume... more Programs and projects that are not targeted to specific population groups often implicitly assume that they have no adverse distributional effects. However, this is hardly ever the case, especially if the intended beneficiary groups are not reasonably homogeneous. There is increasing recognition in development circles that in the absence of informed affirmative action, inequalities in income distribution and human resources can seriously distort the distribution of project outcomes of seemingly neutral projects. Gender experts have been suggesting that similar kinds of distortions can arise also across gender divides, but this has not translated into restructured project designs in any substantive ways. This article is based on a study of a high-profile ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Project of the Kerala (a Southern Indian state) IT Mission—Akshaya. The study finds that there are indeed varied kinds of gender differences in the impact of the project, and that the differences are pretty sharply defined, especially within the entrepreneur group. It also suggests that with a somewhat greater degree of gender sensitivity and some flexibility in the project design, some of the problems that women entrepreneurs have been facing could have been addressed without much trouble even within the existing project design.

Book Chapters by Rajib Nandi

The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Asia-Pacific, 2023

valuation is practised in India for seventy years in various sectors of public sphere, and in rec... more valuation is practised in India for seventy years in various sectors of public sphere, and in recent years by the civil society and industries also. Even though there is no Constitutional mandate or national policies or statutes, evaluations are commissioned both by the Central (federal) government and States as and when needed, and in recent years, are generally carried out by independent research institutions. While there are a few courses in evaluation as a part of higher academic courses, no independent and full-time programs are on offer. Most of the evaluation capacity building takes place either through international programmes or short part-time courses in India. Evaluation Community of India (ECOI) set up in 2015 as a body of professional evaluators, along with its constituent EvalYouth India, has been championing the cause of evaluation capacity building through innovative approaches and the adoption of an evaluation policy. Civil society’s appreciation of evaluation has been growing, and so is the media’s reporting of evaluative evidence and of national evaluation policy. The authors provide a vivid picture of the state of institutionalization of evaluation in India from angles of Constitutional and legal mandate, existence of national policies, executive instructions and guidelines on the evaluation practice. They argue that despite the general absence of any national mandates or guidelines, evaluation practice has evolved over the past seven decades in response to national needs. Evaluations are mainly country-led, carried out by independent institutions and employ mixed methods. Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), which is the apex agency for monitoring and evaluation, works towards a strong evaluation ecosystem. Evaluation capacity-building takes place mainly through short-term training, and the higher academic institutions do not offer any formal courses. Evaluation Community of India (ECOI) is the professional association striving to develop evaluation capacities, widen awareness of evidence-based decision process and to promote a national evaluation policy. The authors find evidence of civil society organizations, industry and media increasingly participating in evaluations and reporting evaluation findings.

M&E @70: STRENGTHENING INDIA'S EVIDENCE SYSTEMS FOR ACCELERATED REFORMS AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH

Development evaluations strengthen evidence-based decision-making and help the policy makers achi... more Development evaluations strengthen evidence-based decision-making and help the policy makers achieve the SDGs. National evaluation policies provide the necessary institutional frameworks and mechanisms to systematise the evaluation processes and standards that contribute to enhance the demand for evaluations and create scope for building capacities of the development professionals and institutions. Evaluation policies steer, coordinate and systematize evaluations, helping in institutionalizing evaluations and contributing to the development of a strong evaluation ecosystem by bringing all relevant stakeholders to work together. Even though India recognized the value of evaluations as early as 1950, and has been conducting evaluative studies at national and state levels since then, the absence of coherent national evaluation policy renders them ad hoc exercises. The paper elaborates the importance of such a policy and what aspects it should cover, such as to what development interventions need to be evaluated and how often, adherence to national technical and ethical standards, necessary institutional mechanisms for capacity building and professionalization of evaluation through the involvement of professional associations and academic institutions, building partnerships with various institutional stakeholders, allocation of adequate resources, etc. Once a national policy is adopted, the next step would be to encourage various state governments through approaches of cooperative federalism to adopt similar policies and weave them together into a coherent evaluation ecosystem for the country. The paper argues that it will not only lead to optimal utilisation of resources but also systematise the evaluation process and practice.

Social Reproduction, Solidarity Economy, Feminisms and Democracy, 2021

The chapter is based on a study of SEWA Kerala that encompasses the political struggles led by a ... more The chapter is based on a study of SEWA Kerala that encompasses the political struggles led by a group of women domestic workers. The chapter is contextualized within the larger socio-political ecosystem of Kerala, where SEWA movement has been collectivizing and organizing socially and economically disadvantaged women. The chapter makes a modest attempt to describe the ways in which solidarity emerges among the assembled individuals. The study keeps questioning issues such as the implication of domestic care work on women workers that limits their work and political participation, as well as the role of social divisions in constructing a feminist solidarity as a part of political process and making women as political subjects.

Effervescences féministes, 2021

In a context of crisis of social reproduction, impoverishment and growing inequalities, arising f... more In a context of crisis of social reproduction, impoverishment and growing inequalities, arising from the neo-liberal and financialized capitalist system, solidarity economy initiatives are emerging and bubbling, at different levels. They act for change and constitute avenues of resistance to capitalism and its consequences. This book presents reflections and practices in the field of the solidarity economy that favors the search for solidarity between producers and consumers, taking into account their territories and environment. Solidarity practices aim to articulate democracy, sustainability and the economy. They shed light on different ways of doing the economy, building of innovative social relations and doing politics. This chapter presents dynamic solidarity economy initiatives by SEWA Kerala. The movement concerns marginalized women in organizations carrying out care work for the urban middle class communities. The book as a whole offers a transversal analysis of case studies on how the integration of a feminist approach to solidarity economy practices contributes to the renewal of action and public policies for the reproduction and maintenance of life. The research was carried out in India, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil in association with the Graduate Institute Geneva and SNIS.

Digital Hinduism, edited by Xenia Zeiler (Series: Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture), 2020

The paper attempts to critically understand the relationship between religion and technology by e... more The paper attempts to critically understand the relationship between religion and technology by examining how religion and religious practices negotiate, appropriate and has reworked its relationship with digital technologies. In other words, the paper attempts to unpack how Hindu religion and digital technology intersect and accommodate each other. The study is based on the WhatsApp group formed by the Bengali Hindu community, mostly educated middle-class, living in Delhi, India to celebrate various Bengali Hindu religious festivals. It explores how they actively engage using digital and mobile technologies to create a cohesive community and shared Bengali Hindu identities through the celebration of the religious festivals. On the other, it delves into how these ‘constant’ interactions in WhatsApp lead to immediate and personal experiences that overlap and are enmeshed with their offline everyday experiences and religious practices. Thus, the paper argues for and highlights the inter-connections and blurring of boundaries between the real and the digital, local and translocal, the sacred and the secular.

Uttarbanger Jati O Upajati )(eds) Ratan Biswas . Punascha: Kolkata, 2001

The paper (written in Bengali language) discusses the history and culture of the people belong to... more The paper (written in Bengali language) discusses the history and culture of the people belong to the Newar Community, who have been living in North Bengal.

Uttarprasanga, 2022

Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation, 2023

GENSA (Community of Evaluators – South Asia), 2022

Uttar Prasanga (ISSN 2348-2036), Dec 25, 2019

Uttar Prasanga, 2013

Urban Street Begging in India and Abroad. (Written in Bengali)

Bangabidya: International Journal of Bengal Studies, 2018

Bangabidya: International Journal of Bengal Studies (ISSN 2277-7717) Volume 10 (253-266)

Uttar Prasanga , Oct 2017

Evaluation Journal of Australiasia, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2015, Mar 2015

ISSN: 2321-8908, Jul 29, 2014

Gender, Technology and Development, 2007

The Institutionalisation of Evaluation in Asia-Pacific, 2023

M&E @70: STRENGTHENING INDIA'S EVIDENCE SYSTEMS FOR ACCELERATED REFORMS AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH

Social Reproduction, Solidarity Economy, Feminisms and Democracy, 2021

Effervescences féministes, 2021

Digital Hinduism, edited by Xenia Zeiler (Series: Routledge Studies in Religion and Digital Culture), 2020

Uttarbanger Jati O Upajati )(eds) Ratan Biswas . Punascha: Kolkata, 2001

Ratna M. Sudarshan and Rajib Nandi (eds.) Voices and Values: The Politics of Feminist Evaluation , 2018

The chapter demonstrates how applying a feminist lens to a gender-blind project to be evaluated u... more The chapter demonstrates how applying a feminist lens to a gender-blind project to be evaluated using conventional methodologies, can nonetheless lead to transforming the project design towards a gender-aware and responsive approach. The essay examines the evaluation of a mobile phone based free voice message service for farmers in rural India. The objective of the programme was to empower farmers and their families by disseminating timely information regarding agriculture and rural livelihoods, including health and education messages. The service provider disseminated five different pre-recorded voice messages every day in local languages. The author conducted an evaluation of the programme in two states. After a primary reading of the programme documents and through a series of conversations with the programme implementers it emerged that the programme was highly gender non-responsive and non-inclusive as far as women and other disadvantaged groups and small cultivators are concerned. However, the evaluation was able to demonstrate that some of the programme assumptions were not valid. The evaluation was able to offer specific recommendations regarding programme design, which was not part of the original TOR, and but were well received by the implementing agency.

"New Directions for Evaluations: Visibility, Voice and Value", edited by Aniruddha Brahmachari and Samik Ghosh, 2018. New Delhi: Daya Publishing House

It is generally discussed that community development is a process where community members are sup... more It is generally discussed that community development is a process where community members are supported by agencies to identify and take collective action on issues which are important to them. According to this understanding, it is the primary responsibility of the external agency to empower community members and create a stronger and more connected community. These models are based on the belief that the knowledge and experience of external agencies are aptly capable to judge and decide what the community needs and finally provide solutions. On the other hand, there are other community development approaches that catalyze change and development based on utilizing the existing knowledge and capacities of community members. These models inherently discourage exporting decisive judgments and development indicators from an outside source, but rather energizes change and facilitate development from within. For the proponents of these approaches, it’s important to focus on community’s strengths and their understanding about needs and prioritizing those. These approaches begin with the belief that communities have the capacity to identify and respond to their issues and track their own progress. The community life competence or SALT approach is one such approach. The paper critically reflects on a recent facilitation of SALT approach with groups of domestic workers in India for self-assessing their collective action programme towards achieving decent employment.

‘Evaluation for the 2030 Agenda’ edited by Rob D. van den Berg, President, IDEAS and Visiting Professor, King’s College, London; Indran Naidoo, Director, UNDP’s Independent Evaluation Office; Susan D. Tamondong, Vice-President, IDEAS [The International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS)], 2017

Feminist approaches to evaluation seek to unpack the nature of gender and social inequalities; tr... more Feminist approaches to evaluation seek to unpack the nature of gender and social inequalities; treat evaluation as a political activity, not as a value-free assessment; and use it as part of the change process. In response to the increased attention being given to evaluation, and the possible role of feminist evaluation in influencing policy that could lead to gender equality along different dimensions, the Institute of Social Studies Trust, based in New Delhi, designed a four-year program. The aim of program was to enhance capacity and understanding of feminist evaluations of various stakeholders, with a conviction that it would influence gender-transformative policy making. This chapter discusses the objectives and activities of this program, and critically analyzes the lessons learned. It also highlights the important takeaways that can make evaluations transformative as far as gender-based inequalities and power dynamics are concerned.

The chapter examines qualitative and quantitative methods to identify components of a gender tran... more The chapter examines qualitative and quantitative methods to identify components of a gender transformative evaluation design as well as gender sensitive evaluation indicators.

History and Culture of North Bengal. edited by Binay Barman and Kartick Chandra Barman

The chapter explores the environmental history of Dooars since colonial period to the first decad... more The chapter explores the environmental history of Dooars since colonial period to the first decade of the present century using the political ecology framework. The author consulted available literature on Dooars and also presented narratives collected between 1999-2002 from Dooars.

Engendering Meta-Evaluations: Towards Women’s Empowerment

The Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP) for Women was launched in 1986 by the Cen... more The Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP) for Women was launched in 1986 by the Central Government as one of the measures to empower women in the informal sector. It is a poverty alleviation programme that seeks to provide income generating activities to women from vulnerable groups to enable their economic empowerment.
STEP has the objective of extending training in new skills or the upgradation of existing skills to provide sustainable employment opportunities to women through a variety of action oriented projects. The scheme covers ten traditional sectors of employment namely, Agriculture, Small Animal Husbandry, Dairying, Fisheries, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Khadi and Village Industries, Sericulture, Social Forestry and Waste Land development.
The present study is based on two objectives. First, to review completed evaluations of STEP, using a feminist framework, to see what the recurring themes are in evaluations of STEP projects, and what the implications are for programme design and implementation. Second, to develop a framework for evaluation that uses a gender and equity lens that could inform
future evaluations.
The study assesses what makes an evaluation a gender responsive evaluation which is reflected by the findings on the mobility and accessibility of women to institutions and resources, their participation in political and decision-making bodies, their economic and social empowerment, reduction in drudgery, increase in awareness and confidence levels, better communication skills, and access to health and sanitation facilities.
Based on the findings, the framework synthesizes the common constraints/weaknesses through the evaluations and evaluation approaches that have appeared to have worked well. It also throws light on what makes it a gender responsive framework.

Ethnicity in the East and North-East India (ed.) Sanjay K. Roy and Rajatsubhra Mukhopadhyay, 2015

India since independence has been experiencing movements based on “identity politics”. These move... more India since independence has been experiencing movements based on “identity politics”. These movements demand separate states, and sometime recognition of a language. Through the study of the social movements of Koch-Rajbangsi people in North Bengal, the paper argues that these movements display a timeless quest and aspirations of people that is rooted in their deep sense of history. People’s unique sense of history or ‘historical imaginations’, are contextualized within the contemporary socioeconomic setups. The present Koch-Rajbangsi identity is a blend of colonial ethnography on one hand and Rajbangsi mythographies on the other. The conflicting articulations between different pasts are not due to the lack of history but many histories. The temporal practice of historical memories changes with every re-telling. The paper argues that identity as a category of practice is not born on a particular situation. It is rather a timeless practice. However, the historical moments make this practice spectacular and eventful.

Kamalesh Goswami (ed.) Uttarbonger Bidroho O Andolan., 2012

Regional Histories and their Possibilities, ed. by Seshadri Prosad Bose, 2011

History and Culture of North Bengal. edited by Narendra Nath Roy and Binay Barman, 2011

The problems of soil erosion, water and urban air pollution, and desertification leave an impact ... more The problems of soil erosion, water and urban air pollution, and desertification leave an impact on the relationship between poverty and environmental degradation. World population has more than doubled, from 2.5 billion in 1950 to 5.3 billion in 1990, with over 85% of the growth taking place in developing countries. This massive population growth has rapidly increased the number of the poor. Undoubtedly, this rapid population growth directly contributes to the degradation of the environment and the renewable resources of land, water, and other biological species on which human beings depend a great deal for survival. In developing countries, a certain commonality to developmental problems has been noted. Foremost among them is the rapid growth of population leading to poverty, unemployment, and shortage of food, water, shelter, and environmental problems. In addition, the affluent societies in the developed industrial countries have also been generating excessive pressures on the nonrenewable resources of metals, nonmetallic minerals, and fossil fuels. The solutions of global environmental problems are centered on the nature of the relationship between developed and developing countries. There is a need for both developed and developing countries to make more ecoconscious policies capable of creating a sustainable balance between population, resources, and environment.

The paper explores the rewriting of Koch-Rajbanshi people’s history as part of their larger polit... more The paper explores the rewriting of Koch-Rajbanshi people’s history as part of their larger political project and argues that the conscious effort to rewrite history from the margins inherently involves the challenging and resisting of the mainstream historiography. Thus, the writing of history has been increasingly associated with and central to debates on identity formation and politics. Today, the Koch-Rajbanshis are rewriting a history that they argue it had existed but was silenced and excluded from the mainstream histories. The rewriting of history also presents the ‘marginalized’ to indelibly re-inscribe oneself in the past. To rewrite history thus is not to bring a mere variation in the master narrative or dominant historiography nor an innocuous reflection of multiple narratives or histories but draws ones attention to the re-appropriation of history and of competing claims. It provides a fertile ground for the development of non-metropolitan histories and subaltern pasts. History writing particularly from the margins appears contentious and as the new sites of struggle. The paper intends to understand how societies engage with their own histories through the processes of writing history and the modes of history writing. The paper questions if the historical subject can be both an actor and narrator of history and whether history can be self authored.

The post-colonial project aided, abetted and enabled the ‘colonial' subjects to reappropriate and... more The post-colonial project aided, abetted and enabled the ‘colonial' subjects to reappropriate and represent themselves (Inden 1986, Chakraborty, 2001) and yet they remain colonial subjects. In the case of the city, particularly in India, it has been viewed as site of progress and modernity whose roots lay in its colonial and imperial past. Increasing number of scholars has lately argued that contemporary urban theory is still embedded in the colonial practices and power relationships (Robinson, 2006). It is in this context, our paper tries to explore the (post) colonial knowing of Calcutta/Kolkata, through the reclaiming of its heritage. Calcutta or Kolkata as it has been recently renamed in keeping with its vernacular usage is a 300 year old city built by the British. Of late Kolkata has witnessed a growing number of heritage lovers' groups who conducts regularly walks and tours and are highly visible on social media and micro-blogging sites that claim to unearth the vernacular city. In discovering the vernacular they recover the colonial only to reincribe themselves in the colonial. In the paper we intend to argue how the colonial past and its knowledges remains a reference point that co-constitutes post colonial knowing of self and its present.

The present paper uses an ongoing case study of women domestic workers who are members of SEWA Kerala, to understand some of the practices and challenges in building and sustaining a solidarity group. The distinctive aspect of this kind of solidarity group is that it is a ‘constructed’ solidarity, and while members of the group are in the same type of work, they can be from different castes and religions. Building solidarity across these differences in order to improve the economic situation of its members, distinguishes this solidarity group from many other solidarity groups that might originate from inherited attributes such as caste or religion.

This paper centres around our own learning on methodology and process as practitioners of evaluat... more This paper centres around our own learning on methodology and process as practitioners of evaluation in India. We see ourselves as part of an evaluation movement in India who believe that evaluation is an inclusive and transformative tool for social change and empowerment. It’s an exercise that must be is based on the principles of social equity and human rights. Our evaluation tries to create an ownership towards developing a relation between the programme and the stakeholders. The kind of evaluation that we practice, facilitates a dialogue between the evaluators, implementers and the community. Here the role of the evaluator is more of a mediator between the stakeholders. However, these kinds of evaluations cannot quantify the impact of a programme in complete binaries. On the other hand, we feel the commissioners of evaluations are more interested in quantitative figures rather than an enhancement of the implement process.

The present paper will cite examples and challenging experiences from our three recent evaluations: evaluation of a voice based messaging service for the rural agriculturists in India; evaluation of an empowerment programme for adolescent girls from marginalised communities and disadvantaged regions; and finally evaluation of a vocational training programme for girls and women from economically disadvantaged communities. The examples highlight the lessons learnt in bringing the transformative qualities of evaluation at the forefront. The paper concludes with the realization that issues of social and economic inequities including gender should be there in the evaluation agenda irrespective of evaluation methodology.

Thakur Panchanan Barma, was a Rajbanshi Dalit leader and a social reformer from Cooch Behar, an e... more Thakur Panchanan Barma, was a Rajbanshi Dalit leader and a social reformer from Cooch Behar, an erstwhile princely state in North Bengal. In the early twentieth century he spearheaded one of the largest social movements of Bengal - Rajbanshi Kshatriyazation movement. The kshatriyazation movement amongst the Rajbanshis in the early 20th Century consolidated around two issues: one to gain respect and acceptance by the upper caste Bengalis and second to break away from the Koch affiliation of the Rajbanshis and establish a kshatriya identity by rewriting Rajbanshi history.

Today the Rajbanshis are reclaiming North Bengal by demanding separate statehood and through the Kamtapur movement they are not only fighting for greater social, political and territorial authority but are simultaneously re-crafting a new past, a new space and an identity that blends colonial documentations with their own reconstructed histories and mythographies. It is in this context that our paper attempts to understand how contemporary Rajbanshi local writers are writing and re-writing the life of Thakur Panchanan Barma simultaneously memorializing the long, ongoing struggles of the Rajbanshi community, particularly their history of being marginalized. We also argue how the writing of the biography of Thakur Panchanan Barma offers a counter-narrative of the Rajbanshi community spoken in the voice of the community itself, that reiterates and lays claim to a space and a past that is not only lost but is erased from a dominantly Bengali, Calcutta-centric versions of North Bengal.

The conscious effort to rewrite history from the margins inherently involves the challenging and ... more The conscious effort to rewrite history from the margins inherently involves the challenging and resisting of a dominant historiography. However the emergence of this history could be treated as expressing of modern self. Thus, the writing of history has been increasingly associated with and central to debates on identity formation and politics. Today, the Koch-Rajbanshis are rewriting a history that existed but was silenced and excluded from the histories.

The rewriting of history also presents the 'marginalized' with the 'key moment' to indelibly re-inscribe oneself in the past. To rewrite history thus is not to bring a mere variation in the master narrative or dominant historiography nor an innocuous reflection of multiple narratives or histories but draws ones attention to the re-appropriation of history and of competing claims. This perhaps provides the fertile ground for the development of non-metropolitan histories and subaltern pasts. Here we reconfirm that the writing of history from the margins appears contentious and as the new sites of struggle.

We argue in this paper, that the rewriting of histories becomes a part of larger social movements and contextualized within the contemporary socio-political setup. In late nineteenth century, the Rajbanshis had aspired to be a part of Brahminical social order. After hundred years the same group of people preferred to bring out their tribal past and re-indentified differently and couched the movement in the secular language of socio-economic injustices and socio-cultural differences. The ruptures and discontinuity in their history makes them as vulnerable as their identity.

The paper examines the evaluation of a mobile phone based free voice message service for the farm... more The paper examines the evaluation of a mobile phone based free voice message service for the farmers in rural India. The objective of the program was to empower farmers and their families by disseminating timely information regarding agriculture and rural livelihoods, including health and education. The service provider disseminated five different pre-recorded voice messages everyday in local languages. Presently more than 1.5 million users are availing this service across India.

The present paper talks about the evaluation process that has been piloted recently in two states of India. The implementing agency was interested to evaluate the program through an independent agency with the objectives to understand the barriers between the service users and the service providers, particularly in terms of accessing and use of the service; getting feedback on the quality of the content from the users; the need and expectations of the service users from this program; to assess the effectiveness of the program and finally to take the program to more users across the social strata.

The broad framework for the evaluation was predetermined. Primary reading of the program documents and through a series of conversations with the programme implementers it emerged that the program was highly gender non-responsive and non-inclusive as far as the women and other disadvantaged groups and small cultivators are concerned.

The challenges in front of the evaluators were to convince the program implementers to make small changes in the evaluation framework, and include women and other disadvantaged groups in the evaluation process. It was argued that adopting a gender lens in the evaluation process would bring useful data that would add enormous value to the program and would aid in achieving the goals of the program.

The presentation demonstrates how the inclusion of gender in the existing evaluation methodology could bring different kinds of findings which would be extremely helpful for the program implementers in achieving the ultimate goals of empowering rural communities.

Sharing of knowledge about communities and their evaluation experience through a global online co... more Sharing of knowledge about communities and their evaluation experience through a global online community of practice is a means of expanding opportunities to enrich evaluation theories across time and space. Facilitating such a network of practitioners - evaluators, implementers and policy makers builds our knowledge and capacities in order to identify issues, understand approaches and disseminate outcomes to others.

The presenters will share their experience of facilitating an international online community of practice on Gender and Evaluation. The online Gender and Evaluation community which was set up in 2013 now has more than 1400 members. It serves as the knowledge sharing hub of EvalGender+, an Eval Partners initiative. Members of the group are located in various geographical locations across the globe and belong to professions such as research and evaluation, programme implementation, policy making and programme funding. The members bring forth interesting exchange on different perspectives of evaluation practice.

The presentation will focus on how the community of practice has created new knowledge, gathered existing knowledge, organized, shared and adopted it. The audience will acquire insights on how the online community is endeavouring to striking the right balance between tacit and explicit knowledge, methods of enhancing quality of experiences shared in the community, using desk research for adding value, taking the discussion offline, and the usefulness of summarizing a discussion. Participants will get to know achievements of the community as well as the challenges in facilitating a community of practice, what has worked and what are the future aspirations.

Reconstructing the Past: The Making of Darjeeling through Colonial and Local Narratives Aparajit... more Reconstructing the Past: The Making of Darjeeling through Colonial and Local Narratives
Aparajita De, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Geography, Delhi School of Economics
Rajib Nandi, Research Fellow, Institute of Social Studies Trust, New Delhi
Abstract
As far as documenting and archiving of society and history of the eastern Himalayas are concerned, it was largely the colonial ethnographers and the surveyors who started documenting ecological, social, economical and historical aspects of the region. A substantive part of these studies might have been developed for the colonial administration. However, in the subsequent years, even after independence, these studies have become the primary source of historical data for both scholars and authors writing on the entire region of eastern Himalayas and sub-Himalayan Bengal.
Post colonial historians commented on this very nature of colonial historiography, where Europe remains as the sovereign, theoretical subject of all histories. Consequently, “Indian history” attains a subaltern status, by virtue of it and Europe acts as a silent referent in historical knowledge in the process of categorizing other’s history as non-Western or third-world history.
Post-independent Darjeeling witnessed a large volume of local writings on social and political issues. A large number of these authors were outside academia. There is no doubt that they play an important role in re-writing and re-documenting the regional and local histories. Interestingly, for these authors, colonial documents serve as crucial reference point.
The proposed paper demonstrates the power of local writings in constructing history and ethnography of a region as a continual process of colonial knowledge building on one hand and on the other contributing to the politics of knowledge creation through developing their own categories and methods of analysis. The paper argues that local narratives are not mere products of apolitical memories and personal experiences alone but engage with and is highly influenced by, consciously or unconsciously, by a set of power relations within which people place themselves in. In the case of Darjeeling, personal accounts engage in a continual dialogue with the colonial literature on one hand and resistance to colonial authoritarianism on the other.

Colonial administrators in India have had a long standing tradition of writing rich ethnographic ... more Colonial administrators in India have had a long standing tradition of writing rich ethnographic texts primarily translating local people and their cultures for administrative purposes. But these Euro-centric translations of Asian cultures were not limited to the colonial administrators alone but transgressed to the local people in terms of how they, the local people, decoded and recoded the translations of their own cultures and made sense of themselves. Ethnographic texts, as Clifford argues, emphasizes the literariness of Anthropology, which being situated between powerful systems of meaning affect the ways cultural phenomenon are registered, translated and questioned at the boundaries of civilizations, cultures and races.
Colonial ethnographic texts were also sites of contestations and resistances among local Indian communities that from time to time transformed into social and cultural movements. One such occasion was Rajbanshi Kshatriya movement in eastern India in the late nineteenth century to early half of twentieth century when the Rajbanshi people of upper Bengal protested against the colonial categorization and translation of Rajbanshis as a semi-Mongoloid Hinduised tribe and them being equated with another neighbouring semi-mongoloid indigenous community called Koch. The translation of the colonial ethnographic texts has had a different political connotation as this region, the northern part of Bengal, lies at an intersection of different indigenous communities and cultures spread over eastern Nepal, north-east India, Bhutan and Bangladesh where multiple borders – social, cultural and political overlap. However, by the turn of the century, the translation and interpretation of the colonial ethnographic literature changed its meaning in the post-colonial society and politics of India with the Rajbanshis re-claiming themselves as semi-Mongoloid by referring to the colonial ethnographies which eventually initiated a large ongoing political and linguistic movement in north Bengal and Assam.

This paper describes an interesting approach where the evaluators recognized the value of using l... more This paper describes an interesting approach where the evaluators recognized the value of using local community knowledge and experience in evaluating a Government of India programme for development and empowerment of adolescent girls. The evaluators tried to integrate participatory and appreciative approaches and looked at the evaluation process through a gender and equity lens.

The evaluators, went beyond the mandate of evaluation and focused on building evaluation capacity by fostering ownership of the programme among stakeholders and encouraging the community to be the active agents of change. Instead of traditional evaluation where evaluators go as outsiders to evaluate, we engaged the stakeholders in evaluation. All the stakeholders including the funding agency, NGO, the adolescent girls and the larger community were engaged in varying degrees from defining the objectives, designing questions, data collection and data analysis in the context of their aspirations and expectations, so that it could be an occasion for recognition and celebration of their strengths. The local project implementers and the adolescent girls themselves re-evaluated their own response and used them in particular context to further empower themselves. We used principles of strength-based approach and framed appreciative questions, which recognized the strengths of the community and NGO staff. This created a non-threatening environment, which stimulated open sharing of experiences. Further, this resulted in reinforcing the evaluation process by improving the quality and richness of data that the community produced itself, which would not have been the case in a traditional evaluation.

Additionally, a gender and equity lens was used to conduct the evaluation in six multi-ethnic districts, populated with religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous population. The gender and equity lens allows recognizing the systematic discrimination based on gender, caste, and class. The evaluation was able to probe whether the programme assessed time, mobility, poverty and accessibility constraints of girls, and accounted for intersectional discrimination.

GENSA, The Community of Evaluators – South Asia, 2022

This volume “Local Wisdom Matters: Refl ections on Evaluation Theory and Practice from South Asia... more This volume “Local Wisdom Matters: Refl ections on Evaluation Theory and Practice from South Asia” is the attempt to bring local knowledge and culture into the regional and mainstream evaluation discourse. This volume of papers on local knowledge and evaluation focuses on claiming our space, sharing our worldview, and preserving our treasures. Although confi ned to South Asia, this discussion will broaden our understanding of evaluation discourse from the global south.

Over the last several years, regular evaluation of development programs has become essential in m... more Over the last several years, regular evaluation of development programs has become essential in measuring and understanding their true impact. Feminist and gender-sensitive evaluations have gradually emerged, drawing attention to existing inequities—gender, caste, class, location, and more—and the cumulative effect of these biases on daily life. Such evaluations are also deeply political; they explicitly acknowledge that gender-based inequalities exist, show how they remain embedded in society, and articulate ways to address them.

Based on four years of research, Voices and Values offers critical insight into how gender, class, and nationality inflect and affect sociological research. It examines how feminist evaluations could make an effective contribution to new policy formulations oriented to gender and social equity. The essays here focus centrally on the structural roots of inequity: giving weight to all perspectives; adding value to marginalized groups and people under evaluation; and taking forward the findings of evaluation into advocacy for change. In doing so, each essay advances the understanding of feminist evaluation both conceptually and as practice.

Population policies in the developing countries, an overview / G.N. Rao -- Aspects of transformat... more Population policies in the developing countries, an overview / G.N. Rao -- Aspects of transformation of the Albanian economy with special reference to foreign trade and population policy / Lorena Kostallari -- Population policy in Bangladesh / Sharif Ahmad -- Kenya's fertility policy, need for a fresh thinking / Muchira H.R. Muraguri -- Population policy, fertility reduction, and economic growth in Mexico, 1940-1970 / Leticia mapes Sanchez -- Implications of regional population trends on population policy in Yugoslavia / Canak Miroslav -- Population distribution policy in Vietnam, an evaluation / Tran Van Xuyen

Population and development in coastal lowland and upland areas of the Ilocos Region, Philippines ... more Population and development in coastal lowland and upland areas of the Ilocos Region, Philippines / Lucila Dollente Torio -- Integrating population dimension in Philippine infrastructure planning / Santiago F. Ducay -- Consequences of population growth for development, a case study of Tanzanian primary education / Salvatory Rwezaula -- Economic development and population growth in Tanzania, with special emphasis on the supply of labour / Deogratias I.R. Mustasingwa -- Socio economic development and population change in Tibet / Qu Xi-Hua -- Measures to enhance the effectiveness of management of population growth in Vietnam / Tran Thi Thuc Binh.
Population growth and socio-economic development, an overview / G.N. Rao -- Population growth and development in Ghana, a study of the Human Resource Development / Fuseini Alidu -- The fourth stage, possible future consequences of a completed demographic transition in Mexico / Alfonso Sebastian Gonzalez Cervera -- Impact of socio-economic factors on demographic transition in Mongolia / Dorjgochoo Tsogzoimaa -- Economic development and population growth in Mongolia, with special emphasis on the supply of labour and output growth / Puntsagiin Tsetsgee -- Measuring the development progress through social status indicators, a study of the north regions of Sudan, 1980-1984 / Huda Mohammed Osman Sulaiman -- Characterizing the development of districts in Panama, 1980 and 1990, a study based on principal component analysis / Arturo Javier Rios Vargas

ISST Research Report, 2018

Home is the place of work for the home-based workers. Therefore the major work related concerns o... more Home is the place of work for the home-based workers. Therefore the major work related concerns of the home-based workers are always centred around their home and habitat, including access to basic services, public infrastructure and most importantly the provisions of child-care facility at the community level. The present study attempts to unravel this complex relationship between of home, habitat and work of home-based workers live in Khajuri, a poorer settlement in the eastern part of Delhi.

Present research is a part of ESCAP’s work on enhancing regional cooperation to promote youth dev... more Present research is a part of ESCAP’s work on enhancing regional cooperation to promote youth development. The Social Development Division (SDD) of UNESCAP is working to build a greater evidence base on youth policies as well as indicators related to the circumstances the youth are in and their participation. In order to understand the needs and aspirations of youth and how they may be more effectively involved in inclusive and sustainable development, a large quantitative analytical research is being carried out by UNESCAP. This includes, at the primary level, examination of the circumstances the youth face with regard to social, economic and civic exclusion, and the extent to which this may have an impact on stability and development. The research includes questionnaire survey in four countries of Asia and the Pacific; supplemented by focus group discussions and secondary research.

Home-based work constitutes a large segment of informal economy in South Asia. A highly significa... more Home-based work constitutes a large segment of informal economy in South Asia. A highly significant number of home-based workers are women. Several studies have found that home-based workers are primarily live in the low-income urban localities. They are highly exploited, almost invisible as worker and operate on the margins with almost no bargaining voice either as workers or as a group. Sadly, the value of their work is ignored and overlooked both in and outside the domestic periphery. In addition to that the instability and invisibility of their work make their lives in such a vulnerable situation that they sometime lose the ability to recognize the critical issues related to their work and lives. The home-based workers are deprived of taking any advantage from the social security schemes run by the government for the workers, and at the same time they are totally unaware about the social security measures taken by the government for the poor and marginalized citizens.
The present study tries to unpack the different dimensions of the risk and vulnerabilities of the home based in five south Asian countries and also makes a modest attempt to find the possible explanations behind the indifference attitude of the home-based workers to know their entitlements for accessing whatever social security schemes that run in their respective countries.

The rapid assessment study explores the impact of the global economic slowdown on the handicrafts... more The rapid assessment study explores the impact of the global economic slowdown on the handicrafts sector in Sanganer, particularly on small and marginal handicraft workers in the block printing and handmade paper sectors. The study also identifies policy priorities in response to these challenges..

The study carried in the three states of Bihar, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh has brought out several ... more The study carried in the three states of Bihar, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh has brought out several interesting issues regarding home-based work. Today almost all the home- based trades are either challenged for their vulnerability in the fast changing regularised economy or highly marginalised and lost in the vast economic world. However, home-based jobs and the voices of home-based workers are hopefully not entirely unnoticed.

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3101.3847

The primary purpose of this evaluation is to provide IKSL executives and partner organizations wi... more The primary purpose of this evaluation is to provide IKSL executives and partner organizations with useful information, analysis and recommendations, thereby enabling IKSL to engage in more effectively implementing the voice message service programme hereafter. Evaluative study through its feed-back mechanism from the beneficiaries of the programme provides the stakeholders, with an opportunity to present their perceptions and assessments of IKSL programme

The study adopts a mixed methodology for the analysis both quantitative and qualitative. The major part of the data has been collected through a structured questionnaire survey at the household level. In addition to that, focus group discussions have been conducted with the community members at the GRC level and a number of in-depth interviews have also been conducted with the office bearers at the selected GRCs.

Written in early 2005, the paper examines need of the so called secular west to redefine the chur... more Written in early 2005, the paper examines need of the so called secular west to redefine the church as a more accommodative, modern and ecumenical. The paper raises questions as to how a revival of church in the secular west may herald a new age religion in public.

Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, 2002

The dissertation focuses on the relationship between changing landscape and identity crises of ea... more The dissertation focuses on the relationship between changing landscape and identity crises of early settlers in a region where majority of those people are lagging behind economically and politically in competition with the late settlers. The dissertation also analyses a recent language movement by the ‘indigenous population’ in search of their ‘true identity’ and political and social authority over their ‘own territory’. The analysis focuses on the interfaces of “culture”, “ecology”, and “political economy”, and their relationship with other developmental issues.

Unpublished M.Phil Thesis, 1995

To understand the evolving tenancy arrangement and land holding structure in two villages in the ... more To understand the evolving tenancy arrangement and land holding structure in two villages in the frontier region of Terai, against the backdrop of large scale peasant mobilization and revolts, is one of the major concerns of this study.

The incidence of peasant uprising in the late sixties were high in the villages. Because of the difference in other socio-economic variables, the micro level impact of peasant movement and institutional reforms differ markedly in some respects. But both the villages experienced a shift from sharecropping to self cultivation during the last fifteen years.

In the first village a few cases of fixed rent tenancy are recorded, where the small plots of lands are being leased out. The lessors are basically petty traders. No case of sharecropping is recorded in the whole village. All the cases of sharecropping, recorded in the second village, are the mere continuation of old contracts.

All the major agrarian markets in these two villages are found to be inadequately developed. Since the majority of the landholding communities are of small and middle size category, there is a tendency to cultivate with family labour. Hence the demand for wage labour is rather slack. The non-institutional credit with high interest rate, has come up to fulfill the demand of poor people with high interest rate. The study reveals that the output market is also inadequately developed. Only the people from the upper class have a better bargaining power in the market.

The markets are not interlinked except in a few cases. The entire agrarian economy in this region is running at a low equilibrium level, where the markets did not develop well for want of an adequate infrastructure.

The residual problems of the rural poor in this area are of conglomerate nature and not of distinct categories like the sharecroppers, small peasants or hired agricultural labourers. The categories are overlapping and inter-penetrating. The study also observes an upward movement among the rural poor during the last fifteen years. However, one does not find a significant success either in terms of redistribution of vested land or recording of bargadari rights.

GEPDF Blog, 2023

It is imperative that both men and women speak up and raise their voices against gender-based vio... more It is imperative that both men and women speak up and raise their voices against gender-based violence. licence infos Historically, gender and power differentials have been linked to a number of social phenomena, including sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). This term refers to any harmful act committed against a person's will. It is based on socially imposed gender differences between men and women, as defined by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2011. SGBV can be traced to structural inequalities in power relations, which legitimise and perpetuate gender stereotypes and discriminatory norms. It is often argued that gender based violence is the manifestation of persistent gender inequality and a severe human rights violation that threatens physical and mental health and drastically reduces the agency, freedom, and economic opportunity of women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities.

GEPDF Blog, 2023

In spite of the history of legislative reservations for women, it's essential to recognise that t... more In spite of the history of legislative reservations for women, it's essential to recognise that there may be more effective solutions to achieve women's political empowerment.

AEA365, 2023

Deconstructing the challenges posed by both external and internal colonization in the context of ... more Deconstructing the challenges posed by both external and internal colonization in the context of India requires a nuanced examination of historical, cultural, and socio-political factors. The blog analyzes the challenges posed by both external and internal colonization in the context of India and proposes strategies for decolonization, emphasizing the role that hashtag#evaluation can play in this transformative process.

Heinrich Böll Stiftung India Office, 2023

The international financial institutions (IFIs) contribution to promote international economic co... more The international financial institutions (IFIs) contribution to promote international economic cooperation and stability in developing countries is well celebrated. However, can they play a role in achieving gender equality?

Climate change and inequality are deeply intertwined. Globally, it poses a threat to women and gi... more Climate change and inequality are deeply intertwined. Globally, it poses a threat to women and girls' lives, livelihoods, health, safety, and security. The issue of gender inequality is often addressed by portraying women as mere victims without acknowledging their contributions as climate actors.

Aparjan – Bengali Webzine on Social, Cultural & Literary Issues, 2019

A quick take on growth centric economic policies.

Aparjan – Bengali Webzine on Social, Cultural & Literary Issues, 2019

Relevance of Naxalbari movement on its 50th year. (In Bengali)

The Wire, 2019

The paper talks about the challenges faced by the women home-based workers of Delhi. The article ... more The paper talks about the challenges faced by the women home-based workers of Delhi. The article is based on two research studies done at the Institute of Social Studies Trust in 2017 and 2018.

The Wire, 2019

Home-based workers do not constitute a homogenous group and are involved in a wide array of work.... more Home-based workers do not constitute a homogenous group and are involved in a wide array of work. The article talks on the unclear definition of home-based work which is hazy – particularly when quizzed about whether it is different from domestic work or unpaid care work. The paper concludes by stating that an important section of informal workers are invisibilised, and their needs and issues not taken into account.

As far as documenting and archiving of society and history of the eastern Himalayas are concerned... more As far as documenting and archiving of society and history of the eastern Himalayas are concerned, it was largely the colonial ethnographers and the surveyors who started documenting ecological, social, economical and historical aspects of the region. A substantive part of these studies might have been developed for the colonial administration. However, in the subsequent years, even after independence, these studies have become the primary source of historical data for both scholars and authors writing

on the entire region of eastern Himalayas and sub-Himalayan Bengal.Post colonial historians commented on this very nature of colonial historiography, where Europe remains as the sovereign, theoretical subject of all histories. Consequently, “Indian history” attains a subaltern status, by virtue of it and Europe acts as a silent referent in historical knowledge in the process of categorizing other’s history as non-Western or third-world history.

Post-independent Darjeeling witnessed a large volume of local writings on social and political issues. A large number of these authors were outside academia. There is no doubt that they play an important role in re-writing and re-documenting the regional and local histories. Interestingly, for these authors, colonial documents serve as crucial reference point.

The proposed paper demonstrates the power of local writings in constructing history and ethnography of a region as a continual process of colonial knowledge building on one hand and on the other contributing to the politics of knowledge creation through developing their own categories and methods of analysis. The paper argues that local narratives are not mere products of apolitical memories and personal experiences alone but engage with and is highly influenced by, consciously or unconsciously, by a set of power relations within which people place themselves in. In the case of Darjeeling, personal accounts engage in a continual dialogue with the colonial literature on one hand and resistance to colonial authoritarianism on the other.

ISST Newsletter - Summer Edition, 2022

A self-reflective, critical analysis of the growth of a feminist research organization in New Del... more A self-reflective, critical analysis of the growth of a feminist research organization in New Delhi is presented in this autobiographical article. (1998-2022)

National Seminar on ICT in the Context of Gender and Developmental Divides, Organised by - ISST, ... more National Seminar on ICT in the Context of Gender and Developmental Divides, Organised by - ISST, Sponsored by IDRC, September 9, 2005

The overall objective of this Report is to evaluate the awareness and access to Samajik Suvidha S... more The overall objective of this Report is to evaluate the awareness and access to Samajik Suvidha Sangam (SSS) services by the community in selected GRCs of North-West Delhi. In addition, the assessment tries to evaluate the expressed needs of the communities in relation to livelihood, health, education and social security in the context of programmes launched by the SSS. The report also evaluates whether the opening of the GRCs meant easier and increased access to services and entitlements from the government and assess the building up of capacities through health and nutritional services, SHG formations and educational and training interventions. The study adopts a mixed methodology for the analysis both quantitative and qualitative. The major part of the data has been collected through a structured questionnaire survey at the household level. In addition to that, focus group discussions have been conducted with the community members at the GRC level and a number of in-depth interviews have also been conducted with the office bearers at the selected GRCs.

The term social and solidarity economy (SSE) is increasingly being used to refer to a broad range... more The term social and solidarity economy (SSE) is increasingly being used to refer to a broad range of organizations that are distinguished from conventional for-profit enterprise, entrepreneurship and informal economy by two core features. First, they have explicit economic and social (and often environmental) objectives. Second, they involve varying forms of co-operative, associative and solidarity relations. They include, for example, cooperatives, mutual associations, NGOs engaged in income generating activities, women’s self-help groups, community forestry and other organizations, associations of informal sector workers, social enterprise and fair trade organizations and networks. The present paper uses an ongoing case study of women domestic workers who are members of SEWA Kerala, to understand some of the practices and challenges in building and sustaining a solidarity group. The distinctive aspect of this kind of solidarity group is that it is a ‘constructed’ solidarity, and while members of the group are in the same type of work, they can be from different castes and religions. Building solidarity across these differences in order to improve the economic situation of its members, distinguishes this solidarity group from many other solidarity groups that might originate from inherited attributes such as caste or religion.

A Memoir written on the occasion of the centenary celebration of Siliguri Boys’ High School, 2016... more A Memoir written on the occasion of the centenary celebration of Siliguri Boys’ High School, 2016-17. ( In Bengali)

Gender, Development and Social Change

Digital Hinduism

Human Rights Documents Online

Evaluation Journal of Australasia

This article describes an interesting approach where the evaluators recognised the value of using... more This article describes an interesting approach where the evaluators recognised the value of using local community knowledge and experience in evaluating a Government of India program for the development and empowerment of adolescent girls. The evaluators tried to integrate participatory and appreciative approaches and looked at the evaluation process through a gender and equity lens. The evaluators went beyond the mandate of evaluation and focused on building evaluation capacity by fostering ownership of the program among stakeholders and encouraging the community to be the active agents of change. Instead of traditional evaluation where evaluators are outsiders, we engaged the stakeholders in the evaluation. All the stakeholders, including the funding agency, a non-government organisation (NGO), the adolescent girls and the wider community were engaged in varying degrees—from defining the objectives, designing questions, data collection and data analysis in the context of their asp...

শতবর্ষের স্মারক - শিলিগুড়ি উচ্চতর বালক বিদ্যালয়, 2017