Hoineilhing Sitlhou | University of Hyderabad (original) (raw)
Papers by Hoineilhing Sitlhou
Routledge eBooks, May 17, 2023
Routledge eBooks, May 19, 2023
The essay is an effort to understand the relationship between the state, forest and tribals in th... more The essay is an effort to understand the relationship between the state, forest and tribals in the context of the hill tribes of Manipur. Though they were initiated with the intention of conservation and preservation, the various forest policies often defy community land rights. The debates on the regulation on shifting cultivation and the various forest acts are critically studied to understand its implication on the Kukis of Manipur.
Sociological bulletin, Mar 7, 2022
The implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur exemplifies how cert... more The implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur exemplifies how certain spaces and populations become margins through the administrative practices of the state. The state is endowed with the authority to categorise as legitimate or illegitimate the various forms of violence and practices toward its citizens. This action of the state has resulted in the formation of associations like the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association via the shared experience of violence and collective victimhood, connecting those families or individuals who are more adversely affected by AFSPA. The diverging perspectives and experiences of state violence are juxtaposed in order to display both the anguish and expectations of the victims’ families as also the commitments of the perpetrators towards the democratic state. Finally, the narratives of violence, sufferings and testimonies are repositioned and anchored to juridical and political discourse, in order to find the meanings of justice, healing and reparation in a militarised society like Manipur.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Feb 1, 2015
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women’s relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women’s ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
Asian Ethnicity, May 22, 2018
Chavang Kut, a post-harvesting festival in Manipur, represents an important cultural expression o... more Chavang Kut, a post-harvesting festival in Manipur, represents an important cultural expression of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of people. The article looks at the participation of the Thadou community in the celebration by tracing their performative historiography. In the past, the celebration was primarily important in the religio-cultural sense. The rhythmic movements of the dances in the festival were inspired by animals, agricultural techniques and showed their relationship with ecology. Today, the celebration witnesses the shifting of stages and is revamped to suit new contexts and interpretations. The traditional dances which forms the core of the festival is now performed in the out-of-village settings and are staged in a secular public sphere. While used by the state as a political project to bring unity amongst the different communities of Manipur, recent sociopolitical occasions showed how it is used as a site of contestations against the state.
The Eastern anthropologist, 2020
The Thadou Kuki society's reverence for nature is reflected in the sacred space it occupi... more The Thadou Kuki society's reverence for nature is reflected in the sacred space it occupies in the society as also in the accompanying rituals attributed to it. Besides the agricultural rituals, the primeval religion, mythologies and folklores reflect their worldview and close attachment to nature. The study deals with the intersection of traditional religion, culture and the ecology in the practice of shifting cultivation by analysing the folk narratives and approaching these issues through the ethnographic and socio-linguistic lenses. In doing so, it explores the following questions: What kind of power relation and meanings does the social discourse between humans and spirits portray? What does it reflect about the human-land relationships, human and non-human relations and therefore, land and identity relationships in the society? The curtailment of shifting cultivation via the various forest laws of the state and the advent of Christianity has impacted the knowledge systems of the community; thereby altering Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and ushering in changes in the community.
Article written by senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf in Mid.Day.com
A paper by the renowned Kavita Krishnan in the Frontier where she has written on the plight of th... more A paper by the renowned Kavita Krishnan in the Frontier where she has written on the plight of the Kuki Women.
Journal of North East India Studies , 2023
The paper examines a peasant society's interface with modernization, essentially the penetration ... more The paper examines a peasant society's interface with modernization, essentially the penetration of capitalist relations of production in the hills of Manipur. The space for labour has changed and has become commoditized. It is no longer the bonds of kinship, operative through families of clans and kindred, which govern production and distribution. Though there are a sizable population of rural poor, mostly landless labourers, who are dependent on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood, the introduction of peasants to commercial market economy have made them a vulnerable prey of the middlemen who exploit them in the business transactions. The outcome is the ensuing dwindling interest of the peasants in agriculture production as it is no longer considered to be a productive enterprise. This is despite the fact that they have no alternative vocation or source of livelihood or resource capital to fall back on. The study concludes that the peasants need to be encouraged by the state keeping in mind their important contribution to the state's economy and subsistence.
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women's relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women's ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting... more Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting drug users, the disease has been associated with groups that are marked out as social deviants. Given this association and the fact that the disease has no effective treatment, sufferers faced social rejection and discrimination. The disease was seen as a consequence of life style choices and PLWHAs were denied access to the ‘sick role’. HIV/AIDS acts as a metaphor for moral and physical contamination. The infection confers on the individual a spoilt image and identity. This is reflected in the level of stigmatisation and discrimination directly faced by those affected and vulnerable to it; as also the way PLHAs construct their identities in the light of their infection with the virus. It is also relevant to an understanding of the ways in which treatment of people dying of HIV/AIDS are being organised.
The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, 2012
This study presents views on barriers of re-use of engineering design rationale. The research dat... more This study presents views on barriers of re-use of engineering design rationale. The research data was gathered by interviewing 29 persons who work in 19 different Finnish SME engineering project based companies. The topic was studied on three main levels: due to actions of business management, due to actions of project team and due to individuals own action. From this perspective, six categories of barriers of tacit knowledge re-use were found: Time management, Tools and documentation practices, Working methods, Validity of information, Well-being at work and Distinction in competence.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2015
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women’s relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women’s ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
Routledge eBooks, May 17, 2023
Routledge eBooks, May 19, 2023
The essay is an effort to understand the relationship between the state, forest and tribals in th... more The essay is an effort to understand the relationship between the state, forest and tribals in the context of the hill tribes of Manipur. Though they were initiated with the intention of conservation and preservation, the various forest policies often defy community land rights. The debates on the regulation on shifting cultivation and the various forest acts are critically studied to understand its implication on the Kukis of Manipur.
Sociological bulletin, Mar 7, 2022
The implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur exemplifies how cert... more The implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur exemplifies how certain spaces and populations become margins through the administrative practices of the state. The state is endowed with the authority to categorise as legitimate or illegitimate the various forms of violence and practices toward its citizens. This action of the state has resulted in the formation of associations like the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association via the shared experience of violence and collective victimhood, connecting those families or individuals who are more adversely affected by AFSPA. The diverging perspectives and experiences of state violence are juxtaposed in order to display both the anguish and expectations of the victims’ families as also the commitments of the perpetrators towards the democratic state. Finally, the narratives of violence, sufferings and testimonies are repositioned and anchored to juridical and political discourse, in order to find the meanings of justice, healing and reparation in a militarised society like Manipur.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Feb 1, 2015
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women’s relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women’s ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
Asian Ethnicity, May 22, 2018
Chavang Kut, a post-harvesting festival in Manipur, represents an important cultural expression o... more Chavang Kut, a post-harvesting festival in Manipur, represents an important cultural expression of the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of people. The article looks at the participation of the Thadou community in the celebration by tracing their performative historiography. In the past, the celebration was primarily important in the religio-cultural sense. The rhythmic movements of the dances in the festival were inspired by animals, agricultural techniques and showed their relationship with ecology. Today, the celebration witnesses the shifting of stages and is revamped to suit new contexts and interpretations. The traditional dances which forms the core of the festival is now performed in the out-of-village settings and are staged in a secular public sphere. While used by the state as a political project to bring unity amongst the different communities of Manipur, recent sociopolitical occasions showed how it is used as a site of contestations against the state.
The Eastern anthropologist, 2020
The Thadou Kuki society's reverence for nature is reflected in the sacred space it occupi... more The Thadou Kuki society's reverence for nature is reflected in the sacred space it occupies in the society as also in the accompanying rituals attributed to it. Besides the agricultural rituals, the primeval religion, mythologies and folklores reflect their worldview and close attachment to nature. The study deals with the intersection of traditional religion, culture and the ecology in the practice of shifting cultivation by analysing the folk narratives and approaching these issues through the ethnographic and socio-linguistic lenses. In doing so, it explores the following questions: What kind of power relation and meanings does the social discourse between humans and spirits portray? What does it reflect about the human-land relationships, human and non-human relations and therefore, land and identity relationships in the society? The curtailment of shifting cultivation via the various forest laws of the state and the advent of Christianity has impacted the knowledge systems of the community; thereby altering Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and ushering in changes in the community.
Article written by senior journalist Ajaz Ashraf in Mid.Day.com
A paper by the renowned Kavita Krishnan in the Frontier where she has written on the plight of th... more A paper by the renowned Kavita Krishnan in the Frontier where she has written on the plight of the Kuki Women.
Journal of North East India Studies , 2023
The paper examines a peasant society's interface with modernization, essentially the penetration ... more The paper examines a peasant society's interface with modernization, essentially the penetration of capitalist relations of production in the hills of Manipur. The space for labour has changed and has become commoditized. It is no longer the bonds of kinship, operative through families of clans and kindred, which govern production and distribution. Though there are a sizable population of rural poor, mostly landless labourers, who are dependent on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood, the introduction of peasants to commercial market economy have made them a vulnerable prey of the middlemen who exploit them in the business transactions. The outcome is the ensuing dwindling interest of the peasants in agriculture production as it is no longer considered to be a productive enterprise. This is despite the fact that they have no alternative vocation or source of livelihood or resource capital to fall back on. The study concludes that the peasants need to be encouraged by the state keeping in mind their important contribution to the state's economy and subsistence.
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women's relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women's ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting... more Ever since the first patient of HIV/AIDS was detected in Manipur in 1989-1990 among the injecting drug users, the disease has been associated with groups that are marked out as social deviants. Given this association and the fact that the disease has no effective treatment, sufferers faced social rejection and discrimination. The disease was seen as a consequence of life style choices and PLWHAs were denied access to the ‘sick role’. HIV/AIDS acts as a metaphor for moral and physical contamination. The infection confers on the individual a spoilt image and identity. This is reflected in the level of stigmatisation and discrimination directly faced by those affected and vulnerable to it; as also the way PLHAs construct their identities in the light of their infection with the virus. It is also relevant to an understanding of the ways in which treatment of people dying of HIV/AIDS are being organised.
The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, 2012
This study presents views on barriers of re-use of engineering design rationale. The research dat... more This study presents views on barriers of re-use of engineering design rationale. The research data was gathered by interviewing 29 persons who work in 19 different Finnish SME engineering project based companies. The topic was studied on three main levels: due to actions of business management, due to actions of project team and due to individuals own action. From this perspective, six categories of barriers of tacit knowledge re-use were found: Time management, Tools and documentation practices, Working methods, Validity of information, Well-being at work and Distinction in competence.
Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 2015
The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of K... more The article studies the interplay between gender, religion and politics by positing the case of Kuki women, and contributes towards an understanding of the mode in which patriarchy operates and is reinforced when it comes to women’s relationship to land. Ancestral land is tied to the sense of community and identity of the people. It is possible for daughters to inherit all movable and immovable property apart from ancestral land, upon which there are still restrictions to women’s ownership under traditional customary law. Kuki women have no political voice in decision-making where land is concerned, not only within formal state law, but also within local-level management systems such as the customary-law courts. The transnational encounter with missionary women in the 19th and 20th centuries changed the structure of gender relations within Kuki households and the community. However, religion seemed to represent a paradoxical emancipation: though emancipation came about to a certain extent it did not result in a change in power relations within society. Rather, religion adapted itself to suit the patriarchal context that already existed and indirectly supported the gender-biased inheritance customs that deprived women.
The Wire, 2020
An open forest between the villages of Chassad and Sampui has been a bone of contention between t... more An open forest between the villages of Chassad and Sampui has been a bone of contention between two communities for more than 70 years.
Journal of State and Society, 2023
A detailed REVIEW OF THE BOOK IDENTITY AND MARGINALITY IN NORTH EAST INDIA by Prof. K.M. Seethi,... more A detailed REVIEW OF THE BOOK IDENTITY AND MARGINALITY IN NORTH EAST INDIA by Prof. K.M. Seethi, ICSSR Senior Fellow and Director, Inter University Centre for Social Science Research and Extension, MG University
Ruby Press & Co., 2017
The book is an effort to understand the transnational encounter between two different societies w... more The book is an effort to understand the transnational encounter between two different societies which was made possible by the experiences of British colonialism in India, particularly the North Eastern part of India.