Arup Majumder | Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India (original) (raw)

Papers by Arup Majumder

SKYLINES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 2024

The present work is based on the Kurmali language of Purulia district. The paper explores the var... more The present work is based on the Kurmali language of Purulia district. The paper explores the various Linguistic Anthropological aspects of kurmlai language as well as its unique features. Kurmali is an Indo-Aryan spoken language in south Jharkhand and parts of West Bengal (Purulia, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, etc.), Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The total population of Kurmali according to census 2001 (Government of India) is 425,920. However, the language has been kept under the cover term Hindi as one of the varieties by the census conducted by the Government of India.

Frontier weekly, 2022

This papers aims to analyse an aspect of Marxist feminism and its practice or applicability in th... more This papers aims to analyse an aspect of Marxist feminism and its practice or applicability in the families of Gokulpur village, West Midnapore district of West Bengal after the land acquisition. This paper shows how the economic turmoil forced women to come out of their domestic sphere breaking free from patriarchal dominance and got employed in wage work and changed the social and economic structure that men have been taking advantage of throughout ages otherwise.

Center for Pedagogy (CP) Established under the Sub-project Titled “Pedagogical Development at Undergraduate and Master’s Level” (CP3357) Independent Univeristy, Bangladesh (IUB), Sep 22, 2016

This paper attempts to examine and understand the low literacy level and education among Bhumij t... more This paper attempts to examine and understand the low literacy level and education among Bhumij tribal community in the state of Jharkhand, India. The paper discusses the present scenario of educational level of Bhumij Tribal community as well as the role of government institutions and their programmes and the link between education and development. Various programmes and schemes have been initiated but very few of them have reached the tribal children and benefited them. Many of the programmes did not benefit the tribal community because the programmes were not contextualized and localized considering regional, geographical and physical differences and barriers. Other reasons of not getting the benefits of the programs by the tribals are lack of political will, corruption, and lesser attention on development of tribal areas. The paper highlights the need for special focus on tribal education, which is includes context specific traditional and innovative interventions.

It is commonly found in agricultural societies that there is a direct relationship between occupa... more It is commonly found in agricultural societies that there is a direct relationship between occupation and landholding. In this paper, we have undertaken an anthropological field based study among a group of peasant families in the village under Kharagpur- I Block in Paschim Medinipur district, on the changes that have been taking place after the acquisition of agricultural land of some families in a village for the establishment of a heavy industry. The findings revealed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry leads to occupational change among the landloser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. Quantitative and qualitative data from the field showed that the landloser families have undergone in their occupational pattern and the type of occupation, the landloser families chose was also found to be related to the amount of compensation money received.

Development and Deprivation in the Indian Sub-continent, 2019

The acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation leads to a number of socio-economic co... more The acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation leads to a number of socio-economic consequences. The Paschim Medinipur district in the state of West Bengal is chiefly an agricultural district where more than seventy per cent of the population lives in the rural area and among them majority depends on agriculture and agriculture related occupations. In this paper, we have presented some empirical data on the socioeconomic consequences of women of the establishment of the industry on the fertile agricultural land in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the early 1990s with the cooperation of West Bengal government.The findings revealed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry leads to change among the women as well as children of landloser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. Field data showed that the school dropout rate among female members of landloser families have been increased than nonlandloser families. This stu...

Kinship is not only symbolic, it is also one of the most important organizing principles of human... more Kinship is not only symbolic, it is also one of the most important organizing principles of human society which channels concrete productive activities, for example, agriculture in tribal as well as peasant societies. In this paper, we have undertaken an anthropological field based study among a group of peasant families in the village under Kharagpur- I Block in Paschim Medinipur district, on the changes of kinship based cooperation for agricultural activity in the context of acquisition of fertile agricultural land by the government for a private industry during the 1990s. The findings revealed that the Sadgope community of the study area is primarily engaged in agriculture and the main crop is paddy and potato. They also cultivate their land throughout the year for various other crops. Our field data showed that after the land acquisition of agricultural land the landloser families of this community have to depend more on their kins to carry out the different tasks of agriculture...

Languages die due to various reasons. These are often related to social and economic factors e.g.... more Languages die due to various reasons. These are often related to social and economic factors e.g. many cultures have lost their language because they have been colonised or dominated by another community which holds a higher position in the social hierarchy. More than often more powerful (economically powerful or socially more prestigious) community dominates over the less advantaged community which results in language shift. This shift from one language to another leads to language endangerment. In this study we have tried to identify the socio- economic factors or variables which directs language towards endangerment. We are establishing the factors which lead to language endangerment through a case study based on Kurmi community of Purulia, West Bengal. We have used statistical method to study various socio-economic variables like educational background, occupation, social status etc of the informant. By using the statistical method we have found a direct correlation between the...

ABSTRACT The analysis of workplace safety must consider a diverse set of factors including work p... more ABSTRACT The analysis of workplace safety must consider a diverse set of factors including work processes, equipment, safeguards, training, standards, and policies. Organizational safety culture has been recognized as another important factor in the analysis of workplace safety. The safety culture present in any organization can have a profound influence upon safety practices and probability of mishaps. The assessment of safety culture has been the focus of numerous research projects because the ability to identify the pathologies within safety culture can effectively address root causes of accidents. Development of tools to understand and effectively assess safety culture continues to be a topic of great interest in the safety sciences. Understanding the social factors that lead to conflicts within organizations and result in mishaps is critical to injury and illness prevention. Commonly used conflict analysis strategies were examined for their potential application as safety analysis tools. The Ishikawa Fishbone Dispersion Analysis strategy and the Social Cubism Conflict Analysis Model were identified as potentially effective tools for mishap root-cause-analysis and assessment of organizational safety culture as part of safety investigations.

BAOJ Medical & Nursing, 2017

India is a habitat of people belonging to diverse indigenous. They are known as by their simple b... more India is a habitat of people belonging to diverse indigenous. They are known as by their simple but unique life style. The extensive move towards modernization notwithstanding their tradition, culture and identified social organisation, embodies tremendous knowledge of herbal plants and its medicinal values. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the traditional beliefs of the tribal people in a particular hilly rural setting of Jharkhand in respect of their healing practices by using the anthropological fieldwork methods. Various common health problems of the people and their respected remedies have been brought into consideration. Besides, megico- religious and other supernatural beliefs have been evaluated here in addition to the discussion on the herbal medicine that have been practised by the people concerned, through generations, as they have developed an idea on the medicinal aspects of variegated herbs that have a wild growth in the jungle and these have been patterned into their cultural traditions.

In this paper we have made an attempt to study the pattern of disease and their treatment. This s... more In this paper we have made an attempt to study the pattern of disease and their treatment. This study was conducted in a village inhabited by Santal and Munda tribes. These data was collected from 32 families by using simple open-ended question and case history method. In my findings revealed that the occurrence of the disease forms patterns in terms of age and sex. The frequency of disease is less early ages but the boys and girls become affected by various diseases like fever, cough, diarrhea, etching etc. as soon as they reach ten years old. The girls come across menstrual problems during their teens. Serious disease like Tuberculosis, Gastric ulcers, urine blockage and Hypertension begin to occur after 40 years old among the male. The treatment of disease also are flows a pattern. In our study area very few families were found to apply the traditional herbal medicine in case of fever, dysentery and sores. A good number of families were also found rush to hospital and a primary h...

The New Industrial Policy (NIP) adopted by the Left Front Government (LFG) in 1994 envisaged rapi... more The New Industrial Policy (NIP) adopted by the Left Front Government (LFG) in 1994 envisaged rapid economic growth through huge industrial investment mainly by private enterprises. The said policy assumed that since land reforms and agricultural production in West Bengal showed a fair amount of success, these two factors would pave the way towards industrialization in the state. Accordingly, large and medium industries were allowed to be installed on fertile agricultural land, even before the official announcement of the policy. In this paper we have presented some empirical data on the socio-economic consequences of the establishment of one heavy industry on fertile agricultural land in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the early 1990s. In fact this paper is a follow-up study of an earlier one done by the second author of this paper. In the earlier study done during 1995- 97, only the first order consequences of land acquisition for Tata Metaliks was studied in terms of landlessness and utilization of compensation money by the acquisition affected families. The findings disclosed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry may lead to several adverse socio-economic impacts on the land loser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. The empirical data specifically revealed that the land loser families rarely utilized the compensation money for purchasing new land and suffered from food insecurity. On the social level, we have found nuclearisation of extended families, although land acquisition might not be the sole factor, but loosening of intra- familial ties was found to be one of the adverse consequence. lThe study pointed out that macro level policies of industrialization may not go well with micro level ground realities of peasant life of Bengal in the long term under the present mechanisms of land acquisition without planned rehabilitation backed by law.

SKYLINES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, 2024

Frontier weekly, 2022

Center for Pedagogy (CP) Established under the Sub-project Titled “Pedagogical Development at Undergraduate and Master’s Level” (CP3357) Independent Univeristy, Bangladesh (IUB), Sep 22, 2016

Development and Deprivation in the Indian Sub-continent, 2019

BAOJ Medical & Nursing, 2017

The Socio-economic effects of the conversation of agricultural land for industrial use: A case st... more The Socio-economic effects of the conversation of agricultural land for industrial use: A case study from West Bengal, India.

The acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation leads to a number of socio-economic co... more The acquisition of agricultural land for industrialisation leads to a number of socio-economic consequences. The Paschim Medinipur district in the state of West Bengal is chiefly an agricultural district where more than seventy per cent of the population lives in the rural area and among them majority depends on agriculture and agriculture related occupations.
In this paper we have presented some empirical data on the socio- economic consequences of women of the establishment of an industry on the fertile agricultural land in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the early 1990s by the help of West Bengal government.
The findings revealed that acquisition of agricultural land for industry leads to change among the women of landloser families who depended on agriculture for their livelihood. Our field data showed that the school dropout rate among female members of landloser families have been increased than non-landloser families. This study is also showed that after the acquisition, livelihood pattern have been changed among the female members of landloser families. And the “age at marriage” have been decreased among the girls of landloser families than non- landloser families.

Title of the Paper: Effect of Land Acquisition on Women and Child Nutrition in Peasant Families: ... more Title of the Paper: Effect of Land Acquisition on Women and Child Nutrition in Peasant Families: A case Study from a Village of West Bengal, India.

Title of the Paper: Effect of Land Acquisition on Sadgope Livelihood: An Anthropological Study fr... more Title of the Paper: Effect of Land Acquisition on Sadgope Livelihood: An Anthropological Study from a Village of South West Bengal.

Background and Objectives In this paper I have discussed the clan terms of Kurmali on the basis o... more Background and Objectives
In this paper I have discussed the clan terms of Kurmali on the basis of linguistic & anthropological approaches and tried to illustrate morphological properties of the clans in Kurmali as well as their meanings and domain on the basis of clan totem and taboos. Kurmali is a member of Indo- Aryan language family, spoken mainly in the western parts of the State of West Bengal in India.
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members can be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolic, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a symbol of the clan's unity. When this "ancestor" is non-human, it is referred to as a totem, which is frequently an animal (Chisholm, 1911).
Clans are an important social grouping in many indigenous societies around the world. Among the Kurmis of Purulia, West Bengal, clans (known as gosthi), play a very important role in the various social institutions (like marriage) and social norms (like totem, taboo etc). In the next section, data and methodology of data collection is elucidated.
Data and Methodology
This study is based on the direct intensive observation and interviews with the members of Kurmi community. The linguistic anthropological surveys were conducted among all the households of the Shyampur village of Purulia, West Bengal with the help of structured and open-ended questionnaire schedules. The qualitative information regarding the activities like marriage, taboo and totem of the clan were collected through repeated conversations.
Apart from the above mentioned methods employed in the field, the earlier published and unpublished field materials have also been used in this study.
Observations
There are 81 clans among the kurmi community (like /ɔʃurar/, /ut͡ʃariar/, /kanbĩdha/, /adhit͡ʃipa/ etc.). These clans are exogamous in nature. In Kurmali I found that they can’t marry within his/ her clan groups. i.e a woman/ man of the /ɔʃurar/ clan group cannot marry another /ɔʃurar/ clan member. Every clan follows a totem. These clan totems can be categorized in to various domains on the basis of its meaning. In the following way some examples are given.
IPA Totem Domain
/kudri-ar/ One type of Vegetable vegetable
/kãt͡ʃi-ar/ Green grass fauna
/kãʃi-ar/ Kassi grass fauna
/kanbĩdh-a/ Holes on the ears body parts
/kɛʃri-ar/ Meadow grass fauna
/khɛɽhɔ-ar/
One type of grass fauna
/khɛʃu-ar/ Pulses vegetable

Beside theses I have also statistically analyzed the data of different domains among their totemic believe (fig. 1).

Morphological aspects
The clan names show a combination of totem name + the suffix /-ar/ or /-a/ which is used to denote genericity. In Bangla, the generic classifier is /–ra/ as in pakhi-ra ‘birds’ and Kurmali seems to have borrowed it as /–ar/ to show the generic nature of the clans. Lexical borrowing from Bangla is quite common in case of clan names such as from ɔʃur (demon), ɔʃurar and from bæra (fence), bærar etc.
References
Chisholm, Hugh, (1911). "Clan". Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 419–421.
McLennan, J. F. (1888). "The Origin of Exogamy". The English Historical Review. 3 (9):94–104. doi:10.1093/ehr/iii.ix.94.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online. "Taboo." Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Retrieved 21 Mar. 2017.

This paper attempts to examine and understand the low literacy level and education among Bhumij t... more This paper attempts to examine and understand the low literacy level and education among Bhumij tribal community in state of Jharkhand, India. The paper discusses the present scenario of educational level of Bhumij Tribal community as well as the role of government, institutions, programmes and linkages between education and development. Various programmes and schemes have been initiated but very few of them have reached the tribal children and benefited them. Many of the programmes did not benefit the tribal community because the programmes were not contextualised and localised considering regional, geographical and physical differences and barriers. Other reasons for not reaching the benefits of the programs to the tribals are lack of political will, corruption, and lesser attention on development in tribal areas. The paper highlights the need for special focus on tribal education, which is inclusive of context specific traditional and innovative interventions.

Education is the basic way for accelerating the human development process of a country. Under the... more Education is the basic way for accelerating the human development process of a country. Under the sphere of education system, primary education gets the highest priority regarding itself as the base of formal education. Primary education in West Bengal, as all over the country, suffers from many deficiencies including problems of infrastructure, shortage of schools, shortage of teachers, the financial handicap of the parents, and so on. These deficiencies have long been recognised and formed part of the popular discourse on the shortcomings of primary education in the state.
The student teacher ratio have been an effect on school management where the number of student is very low in number, but according to our Right to Education Act 2009, it have been clear by our general observation that the 30: 01 pupil teacher ratio (PTR) effect on the primary school in both rural and urban areas. In where, mainly two or three teachers primary school, situated in different parts of India as well as West Bengal. There are so many works which are very essential to do for a head teacher as well as teacher-in- charge to maintain the official works which are also effect on the class as well as the teaching learning process in a primary school. Beside this also effect on the student achievement, it is also leads to minimize the learning quality in a primary school.
Mainly by this study we would try to understand the effect of student teacher ratio on the primary school management in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, according to Right to Education Act, 2009. On the basis of this background we would try to understand the original effect of Student teacher ratio on the primary level.

Effect of Student Teacher Ratio on School Management at Primary Level in a District of West Benga... more Effect of Student Teacher Ratio on School Management at Primary Level in a District of West Bengal: A Study Based on Implementation of RTE, 2009.

Organised by M.P Institute of Social Science Research (An Institute of ICSSR, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. Of India, New Delhi), Ujjain, M.P- 456010, during 25-26 th March 2015

22nd West Bengal State Science and Technology Congress- 2015

http://www.nairjc.com/?re=Editorial

Arup Majumder /Online Teaching, 2021

‘প্রান্তীয়’-অর্থাৎ সীমান্তবর্তী । প্রান্তীয় উত্তরবঙ্গ বলতে উত্তরবঙ্গের সীমান্তবর্তী তিনটি অঞ্চল–জ... more ‘প্রান্তীয়’-অর্থাৎ সীমান্তবর্তী । প্রান্তীয় উত্তরবঙ্গ বলতে উত্তরবঙ্গের সীমান্তবর্তী তিনটি অঞ্চল–জলপাইগুড়ি, আলিপুরদুয়ার, কোচবিহার জেলাকে চিহ্নিত করা হয়েছে। এই গবেষণায় প্রান্তীয় উত্তরবঙ্গের একটি বিশেষ জনজাতি রাভা সম্প্রদায়ের ভাষারভাষাতাত্ত্বিক বিশ্লেষণ করা হয়েছে। রাভারা পূর্ব ভারতে বসবাসকারী এক বিশিষ্ট জনজাতি। এই জনজাতির আছে একঐতিহাসিক পরিচয়। তাই মূলগবেষণায় প্রবেশের আগে রাভাজন গোষ্ঠীরএকটি সংক্ষিপ্ত পরিচয়ের আলোচনা প্রয়োজন।
রাভাদের বর্তমান বসতি বিস্তারের অঞ্চল গুলিতে বসতি স্থাপনের ইতিহাস তিব্বত-বর্মী -ভাষা ব্যবহারকারী মঙ্গোলীয় বা কিরাত জনগোষ্ঠীর ভারতে আগমনের বৃত্তান্তের সঙ্গে অতপ্রোতভাবে জড়িয়ে রয়েছে। জানা গেছে, চীনা তিব্বতীয় ভাষা ব্যবহারকারী জনগোষ্ঠী থেকে তিব্বত-বর্মী ভাষা ব্যবহারকারী মঙ্গোলীয় বা কিরাত জনগোষ্ঠী খৃষ্টপূর্ব ৩০০০ বছর আগে সম্ভবত বর্তমান চীনের সি-কিয়াং প্রদেশের কোনো একস্থানে আলাদা হয়ে পড়ে। উত্তরকালে রাভারা দীর্ঘপথ অতিক্রম করে খৃষ্টপূর্ব ১০০০-বছরের বহু আগেই অসমের ভেতর দিয়ে অথবা হিমালয়ের দক্ষিণ ঢাল অতিক্রম করে ভারতে প্রবেশ করে। অসম থেকে পশ্চিম কুমায়ুন পর্যন্ত পুরো হিমালয় পর্বতের দক্ষিণ অংশ ও নেপাল, বিহার, বাংলা অঞ্চলে বসতি গড়ে তোলে (চট্টোপাধ্যায়:১৭৯:২৬)।

Online Teaching, 2021

আজ থেকে প্রায় ৬৫ হাজার বৎসর আগে, আফ্রিকা থেকে নরগোষ্ঠীর একটি বিশাল অংশ ধীরে ধীরে অন্যান্য মহাদেশে... more আজ থেকে প্রায় ৬৫ হাজার বৎসর আগে, আফ্রিকা থেকে নরগোষ্ঠীর একটি বিশাল অংশ ধীরে ধীরে অন্যান্য মহাদেশের দিকে যাত্রা শুরু করেছিল। পরবর্তীতে, ঐ নরগোষ্ঠীর একটি দল এশিয়া মহাদেশে ঢুকে পড়ে। আর এরমধ্যের একটি দলকে প্রোটো-অস্ট্রালয়েড নামে বিজ্ঞানীরা চিহ্নিত করেছেন। এদের গায়ের রং কালো, নাক অনুচ্চ, চুল কালো ও কুঞ্চিত, উচ্চতা মাঝারি।
এই নরগোষ্ঠীর ভাষাটি হল অস্ট্রো-এশিয়াটিক ভাষা পরিবার-এর অন্তরর্গত। যাইহোক, “কোড়া” (কোডা) ভাষাটি মুন্ডাদের একটি বিছিন্ন শাখা। সাধারণভাবে এদের ভাষাকে অস্ট্রিক ভাষা গোষ্ঠীর অন্তর্গত ভাষা হিসেবে বিবেচনা করা হয়।
অনুমান করা হয়, অস্ট্রিক ভাষাভাষী মানুষদের একটি বড় অংশ ভারতবর্ষের প্রবেশ করেছিল খাইবার বোলান গিরিপথ দিয়ে, গ্রিক ঐতিহাসিক হেরোডাস-এর বিবরণ থেকে এসকল তথ্য জানা যায়।

Onlined Teaching , 2021

21st February, 2021

Arup Majumder, 2020

“কচি হাতে লেখা” নামাঙ্কিত বইটি কেবলমাত্র প্রাথমিক বিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষার্থীদের সৃজনশীলতার রসাস্বাদন ... more “কচি হাতে লেখা” নামাঙ্কিত বইটি কেবলমাত্র প্রাথমিক বিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষার্থীদের সৃজনশীলতার রসাস্বাদন করা যাবে, সেটাই শুধু নয়। এই বইটিতে পাঠক- পাঠিকারা ও আজকের শিশুরা, সমাজকে তাদের শিশুমন এবং তাদের মাতৃভাষা বা দ্বিতীয় ভাষার মাধ্যমে কিভাবে পর্যবেক্ষণ করে, তারও একটা ধারনা তৈরি করতে পারবেন। বইটিতে শিক্ষার্থীরা তাদের চিন্তা ভাবনায় সমাজ, পূজা- পার্বণ, প্রকৃতি, ব্যাধি ইত্যাদিকে কি ভাবে ব্যক্ত করেছে, তার একটা সর্বাঙ্গ ধারনা করতে পারবেন। আর অনেক অভিভাবক,অভিভাবিকা, শিক্ষক, শিক্ষিকা এবং গবেষক, শিশুর চিন্তনকে এবং তার লেখনিকে বিশ্লেষণ করে প্রকৃত শিশু বিকাশকে নির্ধারিত করতে পারবেন।

School education is effected by various kinds of external factors, like government funding and po... more School education is effected by various kinds of external factors, like government funding and policy apart from internal factors like parental education. Development caused displacement is one of the most important external factors which affects the status of school education among the peasant families in a rural area. In this book we have undertaken a field based study in an anchal (Ramnagar) which is situated near the Indo- Bangladesh Border of East site of India. The findings of this study mainly revealed that the primary level school dropout have been caused some social as well as economic factor. Beside this, our study have been showed that there is a difference between male and female school dropout rates as well as parents occupations also have been affected the children dropouts in our study area.

The student teacher ratio have been an effect on school management where the number of student is very low in number, but according to our Right to Education Act 2009, it have been clear by our general observation that the 30: 01 Student Teacher Ratio (STR) effect on the primary school in both rural and urban areas. In where, mainly two or three teachers primary school, situated in different parts of India as well as West Bengal. There are so many works which are very essential to do for a head teacher as well as teacher-in- charge to maintain the official works which are also effect on the class as well as the teaching learning process in a primary school. Beside this also effect on the student achievement, it is also leads to minimize the learning quality in a primary school.

Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics , 2018

The objective of this questionnaire is to elicit the data on Anthropo-linguistics which is closel... more The objective of this questionnaire is to elicit the data on Anthropo-linguistics which is closely associated with social-cultural anthropology. As a field of interdisciplinary studies the, anthropo- linguistics is concerned with how a language influences the culture. This can include how the language makes impacts on social interactions, beliefs, cultural identity, and other important aspects of the culture. The main goal of linguisticanthropology or anthropo-linguistics is to better understand human culture. A linguistic anthropologist could ask many questions (https://explorable.com/linguistic-anthropology), including: 1. Why does one language or language variety show preference over another? 2. Why do different geographic regions have different language accents? 3. What types of values and ideologies are communicated through language? 4. Does language vary according to age, gender, beliefs, and other such socio-linguistic parameters?

Jadavpur Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 2018