bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the inter-domain orientation of tandem RRM domains with diverse linkers: connecting experimental with AlphaFold2 predicted models
Authors: Roca-Martínez Joel , Kang Hyun-Seo , Sattler Michael , Vranken Wim
Published: January 2024

The RNA recognition motif (RRM) is the most prevalent RNA binding domain in eukaryotes and is involved in most RNA metabolism processes. Single RRM domains have a limited RNA specificity and affinity and tend to be accompanied by other RNA binding domains, frequently additional RRMs that contribute to an avidity effect. Within multi-RRM proteins, the most common arrangement are tandem RRMs, with two domains connected by a variable linker. Despite their prevalence, little is known about the features that lead to specific arrangements, and especially the role of the connecting linker. In this work, we present a novel and robust way to investigate the relative domain orientation in multi-domain proteins using inter-domain vectors referenced to a stable secondary structure element. We apply this method to tandem RRM domains and cluster experimental tandem RRM structures according to their inter-domain and linker-domain contacts, and report how this correlates with their orientation. By extending our analysis to AlphaFold2 predicted structures, with particular attention to the inter-domain predicted aligned error, we identify new orientations not reported experimentally. Our analysis provides novel insights across a range of tandem RRM orientations that may help for the design of proteins with a specific RNA binding mode.
A compact regulatory RNA element in mouse Hsp70 mRNA
Authors: Wang Wenshuai , Liu Fei , Ugalde Maria Vera , Pyle Anna Marie
Published: January 2024

Hsp70 (70 kDa heat shock protein) performs molecular chaperone functions by assisting the folding of newly synthesized and misfolded proteins, thereby counteracting various cell stresses and preventing multiple diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders and cancers. It is well established that, immediately after heat shock, Hsp70 gene expression is mediated by a canonical mechanism of cap-dependent translation. However, the molecular mechanism of Hsp70 expression during heat shock remains elusive. Intriguingly, the 5′ end of Hsp70 messenger RNA (mRNA) appears to form a compact structure with the potential to regulate protein expression in a cap-independent manner. Here, we determined the minimal length of the mHsp70 5′-terminal mRNA sequence that is required for RNA folding into a highly compact structure. This span of this RNA element was mapped and the secondary structure characterized by chemical probing, resulting in a secondary structural model that includes multiple stable stems, including one containing the canonical start codon. All of these components, including a short stretch of the 5′ open reading frame (ORF), were shown to be vital for RNA folding. This work provides a structural basis for future investigations on the role of translational regulatory structures in the 5′ untranslated region and ORF sequences of Hsp70 during heat shock.
“It changes everything”: Understanding how people experience the impact of living with a lower-grade glioma
Authors: Rimmer Ben , Balla Michelle , Dutton Lizzie , Williams Sophie , Lewis Joanne , Gallagher Pamela , Finch Tracy , Burns Richéal , Araújo-Soares Vera , Menger Fiona , Sharp Linda ,   Ways Ahead Study Team, Erridge Sara , Sturdy Pauline , McBain Catherine
Published: January 2024

Background

Quantitative studies show people living with a lower-grade glioma (LGG) often report low health-related quality of life. However, it is unclear how this impact is experienced; resulting supportive care needs are also poorly understood. We explored how people experience the impact of living long-term with an LGG, to help identify potential supportive care needs.

Methods

We conducted semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of people with LGG (n = 28) across the United Kingdom, who had completed primary treatment (male n = 16, female n = 12, mean age 54.6 years, mean time since diagnosis 8.7 years). Interviews were transcribed and inductive thematic analysis was conducted.

Results

Four themes relating to the impact experiences of people with LGG were generated: “Emotional response to the diagnosis,” “Living with the ‘What ifs’,” “Changing relationships,” and “Faltering independence.” These reflect participants’ experiences with symptoms (eg, fatigue, seizures) and impairments (eg, motor dysfunction, cognitive deficits), and how these, in turn, drive impacts on daily living (including on work, relationships, social activities, and transport). Participants spoke about their experiences with profound emotion throughout.

Conclusions

People with LGG can experience wide-ranging everyday impacts and may have extensive supportive care needs. This study highlights how this impact is experienced and what it means to people with LGG. Best practice suggestions for conducting comprehensive needs assessments tailored to those with LGG, and the development of personalized plans to meet those needs, would be a critical step to ensure that people with LGG are best supported in living with their condition.
Shaping the stress consultation in Occupational Health
Authors: Sterland John
Published: January 2024

Consultation skills are more important than ever, with increasing emphasis on patient view. A geometrical approach to the Occupational health practitioners (OHPs) toolkit is suggested and could order, group or classify cases risk factors and causes as shapes (circles, triangles with squares) for common patterns of presentation of stress, perhaps as a basis for discussion in training, audit or other groups.
Traumatic optic neuropathy from an air gun pellet injury: a case report.
Authors: Anis Iqra , Baig Muhammad Akbar
Published: January 2024

Orbital apex fractures are a debilitating condition that can cause vision problems and are often associated with intracranial injury. Traumatic Optic Neuropathy (TON), which results in vision loss following a traumatic injury to the optic nerve, can be caused by various mechanisms, but most cases involve injuries to the globe, orbit, or adnexa. We are reporting a case of an 18 year old male with a history of an air gun being accidentally discharged into his left eye. He was evaluated and found to have an Orbital apex fracture with left eye TON. Patient was administered high dose steroids. Detailed evaluation by Ophthalmology revealed a left eye traumatic stage I macular hole which was conservatively treated with visual improvement reported during patient follow up.
Pazopanib-induced trismus in a young male with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: a case report and literature review
Authors: Benhima Nada , El Fadli Mohammed , Essâdi Ismail , Belbaraka Rhizlane
Published: January 2024

The treatment landscape of advanced kidney cancer has radically changed over the years. Targeting tumor angiogenesis from historical cytokines to multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitors and recently the advent of immunotherapy resulted in a radical improvement in survival but presented substantial challenges in terms of toxicity management. In countries where the access to immune checkpoints inhibitors is still very limited, tyrosine-kinase inhibitors remain the optimal choice. The toxicity profile of these agents can influence both the clinician and the patient’s preference for one molecule over another. This report describes the case of a young man treated with Pazopanib in a first-line setting for stage IV renal carcinoma who developed trismus under treatment. The occurrence of this off-target toxicity has made the patient ineligible for anti-angiogenic drugs. Although side effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors seem manageable and reversible, some less known and unusual effects may evolve into severe and irreversible complications.
False-negative qualitative human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) test result (‘hook effect’) with classical ultrasound findings of complete molar pregnancy: an uncommon case
Authors: Phillipo Daud , Lucas Samson , Kalunga Mary Peter , Inyasi Elizabeth , Lebba Jesca Paul , Sudai Frank Martin , Bizimana Jean Kalibushi
Published: January 2024

False-negative qualitative Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) result is a phenomenon in which large amounts of β-hCG are produced by molar pregnancy, oversaturating the test’s assay system and leading to false-negative results known as the ‘prozone phenomenon’ or the ‘hook effect’. This can lead to misdiagnosis and delay in management despite high suspicious clinical and ultrasound findings. We report a case of an 18-year-old female who presented to our health facility with amenorrhea of 16 weeks, lower abdominal pain, soft and large fundal height for gestational age, and cramping with slight per-vaginal bleeding, and a negative urinary pregnancy test (UPT). Based on clinical presentation, ultrasound findings and a positive UPT after urine dilution, molar pregnancy was diagnosed. Aspiration was performed under ultrasound guidance, and follow-up was done as per MSF guidelines. HCPs need to be familiar with some rare cases for which the possibility of finding false-negative UPT is likely.
Congenital erythropoietic porphyria five years observation with standard treatment: a case report
Authors: Kamalyan Marine , Mohammadi Mohammadmahdi
Published: January 2024

Porphyrias are a group of diseases characterized by a deficiency of enzymes in the haem biosynthetic pathway. Congenital Erythropoietic porphyria is a rare autosomal-recessive disorder lacking uroporphyrinogen III synthase. This inherited deficiency results in accumulating uroporphyrinogen I and coproporphyrinogen I in the bone marrow, skin, bones, and other tissues, ultimately excreted via urine and faeces. Clinical manifestations include severe photosensitivity on open body parts with blisters, scarring, hypertrichosis, and mutilations. We describe the first case of CEP in Armenia, with a diagnosis performed in Centre Francais Des (LBMR) Porphyries (France, Paris). It concerns a 22-year-old Armenian man suffering from photosensitivity, excessive hair growth, mutilation, and pink urine discolouration. The five years of follow-up have revealed worsening symptomatology despite preventative measures and demonstrate that standard recommendations did not alleviate the patient’s deteriorating conditions. A cure with an allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant is under strong consideration.
The Literary History of Deuteronomy
Authors: Hagedorn Anselm C.
Published: January 2024

Deuteronomy presents itself a series of farewell speeches delivered by Moses in the plains of Moab on the last day of his life. The addressees are a new generation of Israelites who are prepared for the entry into the land. Deuteronomy, then, marks a pause on Israel’s path towards the Promised Land and its main focus appears to be the realisation of the promise and law of Yahweh. In contrast to previous stipulations delivered to the people of Israel in the Sinai, Deuteronomy indicates the end of the era of divine legislation. Everything that follows should be read as a Mosaic interpretation of previously promulgated stipulations. The result of such reinterpretation is tôrāh (Deut. 1:15). This tôrāh is a rich blend of legal stipulations, social and political guidelines, religious teaching, and catechism that is to be handed down from one generation to another. The present form of Deuteronomy is necessitated by the reality of human death and the need to pass the faith on to another generation.
Archaeology and the Maqom Sanctuary in Deuteronomy
Authors: Arbino Gary P.
Published: January 2024

This chapter traces the role archaeology has played in investigating Deuteronomy’s instructions for the maqom sanctuary. A brief introduction situates this chapter to the key issues regarding this sanctuary which have engaged literary scholars since De Wette. It outlines the findings of Near Eastern archaeology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries specifically related to the ritual landscape of the southern Levant during the Iron Age and briefly addresses determinations of realia as cultic. The work reviews these archaeological data within three foundational and ongoing conversations concerning the maqom: the Jerusalem Temple, bamot and other sanctuaries, and Iron Age IIB centralizing reform movements. Arising in the 1970s and 1980s, amid an ongoing proliferation of excavations, new theories, methods, and explanations have presented challenges to established interpretations. This chapter surveys recent archaeological explications of the artifacts, nature, and history of religious expression in Judah and Israel, concluding with an evaluative summary and proposal.
Social-Aesthetic Strategies for a Change of Heart
Authors: Sacks Shelley
Published: January 2024

This chapter introduces the Connective Practice Approach a redemptive, social-aesthetic practice that enables a change of heart. This approach is of special relevance to engaging with personal and social dilemmas caused by mutually exclusive and disconnected ways of thinking and living in the world. Central features of this approach and its transformative potential are shared through ‘guiding images’, its ‘making social honey’ theory of change, and a connective imagination, ‘inner atelier’ methodology that is integral to this social honey process. Connective practice examples described as ‘instruments of consciousness’ highlight (i) the necessity of individual insight for enabling collective insight, and (ii) the phenomenological process of bracketing or epoché for clearing the inner space, for ‘seeing what we think’, for making shifts, and for developing new imaginaries. Connecting forms of mindfulness and Joseph Beuys’ ‘social sculpture’ ideas about the ‘invisible materials’ of speech, discussion, and thought, this chapter (a) offers an expanded notion of the aesthetic as all that enlivens, (b) sees responsibility as an ability-to-respond, (c) explores capacities needed for a living future, (d) reveals the sacramental nature of connecting inner and outer work, and (e) of coming to insights individually and together as a process of resurrecting the overlooked, uncared-for, crucified world in us.
Pluralism in Practice
Authors: Kapiszewski Diana , MacLean Lauren M. , Read Benjamin L.
Published: January 2024

Fieldwork in our discipline embodies both epistemological and methodological pluralism. Pluralism in field research entails different understandings of how knowledge is created, of how politics is studied, as well as of who we are as individual scholars and research teams, and of how our multiple identities intersect with dynamic landscapes of power in our field sites. This chapter considers three trends in methodological writing on, and in the practice of, fieldwork. We posit that each trend strengthens fieldwork as a form of research, and both reflects and promotes pluralism. First, the chapter examines how the practice of field research reveals the importance of the researcher’s positionality and encourages reflexivity and an interpretive sensibility, potentially increasing mutual understanding among scholars who conduct fieldwork. Second, it highlights efforts to produce knowledge in more inclusive ways by conducting engaged or collaborative research, empowering more rigorous and meaningful scholarship. Third, it notes how “digital fieldwork” can facilitate the involvement of more research participants, make forms of fieldwork more accessible to a wider set of scholars, and enable the ethical and responsible sharing of data generated through fieldwork. These pluralistic trends can enrich fieldwork’s conduct and processes, enhancing the resulting scholarship and increasing fieldwork’s impact in the broader discipline.
Borges’s Reception in Europe and the USA
Authors: Williamson Edwin
Published: January 2024

Borges’s success abroad was due to two factors: first, his Ficciones attracted a new generation of writers looking to break away from the social and psychological realism of postwar fiction. Second, a critique of Enlightenment rationalism was under way in France, which then melded with American postmodernism to provide fertile ground for his reception. But this appropriation by foreign elites resulted in a perception of Borges as a deracinated, cerebral writer enclosed in an ivory tower, for whom fiction entailed an impersonal “rewriting” of earlier texts. Borges, however, claimed that his stories were “about myself, my personal experiences.” In a later phase of the reception process, scholars in the “Global North” broke new ground by situating the work more fully in its historical and biographical contexts.
From the Other Side of the Library
Authors: Saítta Sylvia
Published: January 2024

This chapter provides an overview of Borges’s involvement in written media, arguing that, between the 1920s and the end of the 1950s, the press and periodicals were the first venues in which Borges circulated his literature, making them the site upon which he constructed his image as a public figure. Thus, this chapter studies Borges’s undertakings in literary and avant-garde journals of the 1920s (Prisma, Proa, Martín Fierro); his entrance into the pages of major newspapers and popular magazines (La Prensa, Crítica, El Hogar); his executive leadership of journals (Destiempo, Los Anales de Buenos Aires); his more regular participation in Sur; and, finally, Borges’s new media profile in newspapers and magazines after he was made Director of the National Library in 1955.
The Education Divide and Support for Populists
Authors: van Slageren Jaap , Rooduijn Matthijs
Published: January 2024

The growing political importance of the education divide has been extensively studied and is often linked to the growth of populist parties. This chapter examines this education-populism association by asking whether it is really populism that is appealing to lower-educated citizens. Using a literature review and novel analyses, it shows that this is not the case. There is strong evidence for a negative relation between educational attainment and support for radical right-wing populist parties, but not for radical left-wing or other types of populists. This suggests it is not (solely) the particular populist message of radical right-wing populist parties that attracts lower-educated voters, but their nativist message—either as the main cause or in combination with populism. The chapter thus re-emphasizes that it is of essential importance not to equate nativism and populism: while there is a clear educational divide for nativism, this is not the case for populism.
Transforming the Body by Mastering the Elements, Some Tantric Sources
Authors: Ondračka Lubomir
Published: January 2024

The elements (mahābhūtas), the building blocks of the material world according to most Indian doctrinal systems, are used in various ways in tantric rituals. The most common use is in the ritual of purification of the elements (bhūtaśuddhi), which is a preparatory act before commencing tantric worship. Another technique is the mastery of the elements (bhūtajaya), in which the practitioner gains control over a given element by holding the breath or mind (or both) at specific places in the body. Successful performance of this practice (usually called fixation, dhāraṇā) brings great effects, particularly various bodily perfections. This chapter briefly introduces the bhūtaśuddhi ritual and then discusses the technique of mastering the elements in the sources of various tantric traditions (Śaivasiddhānta, Non-Saiddhāntika Śaivas, Pāñcarātra, and Buddhism).
Land Institutions and Agricultural Modernization in China
Authors: Ye Jingzhong
Published: January 2024

The fact of less land and a large population in China leads to a basic condition of “small peasants and huge country” based on which China has been pursuing modernization and an agrarian transition. Land has consistently been the most essential, sensitive, and controversial issue. Since 1949, China has undergone a long-term transition in its land institutions. Although since 1978, peasants have enjoyed land contract rights as a result of the household responsibility system, the state has been promoting the transfer of land-use rights in order to promote modern agriculture. Particularly since 2013, China has been implementing what is known as “the split or the division of three rights” on rural land. The state has responded strategically to various challenges to ensure that land institutions and policies are always geared to achieving agricultural modernization. China’s pursuit of agricultural modernization impacts peasants’ livelihood, which needs to be protected.
Reinventing a Public Assembly
Authors: Chua Lynette J.
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines Pink Dot, an annually recurring alternative to a pride parade in Singapore, a state known for its strict laws on public assembly and informal political norms against confrontational activist tactics. It analyzes how LGBTQ rights activists made use of a legal exemption to create a ‘pink dot’ gathering every year since 2009, transcended the regulated confines of a physical space, and overcame a public perception in their country that assemblies transgress the political order. It also assesses Pink Dot’s achievements and contributions to Singapore’s LGBTQ rights movement, including Pink Dot’s influence on legal reform, public assembly, as well as younger generations of activists.
Disruptively Assembling
Authors: Mead David
Published: January 2024

This chapter discusses the right to protest and assemble disruptively. It plots the development of the protection of such a right by international human rights bodies, but suggests ways in which the right might be under threat. Firstly, through the European Court of Human Rights articulating what is, and is not, at the core of the right in Article 11, to assemble peacefully, and secondly, when it might conflict with other countervailing rights, such as privacy and the right peacefully to enjoy possessions. It concludes by offering some wider conceptual, contextual or socio-legal observations on the right to protest disruptively. A construction of ‘core’ (and non-core) activities, risks reifying certain types of protest—the staged, large-scale march and rallies—and also requires us to ask ‘disruption to whom?’ and ‘for what purpose?’ It suggests that the real problem with realizing the right to disruptive protest is as much a function of surrounding social structures and institutions as it is of strictly delineated human rights laws and norms, because of the difficulty of effective enforcement of the right ‘on the ground’.
Rights to Participate? Rights to Exclude?
Authors: Magarian Gregory P.
Published: January 2024

Liberal legal systems face an important problem in deciding whether the affirmative constitutional right of assembly and/or association should include a corresponding negative right to exclude unwanted participants. The US Supreme Court has developed a strong right of non-association, also salient for assemblies. Other liberal legal systems have not developed strong rights of non-assembly or non-association. The divergence reflects distinctive features of the US legal system: a rigid public-private distinction; the conflation of constitutional rights to free speech, assembly, and association; and the reification of paramount constitutional rights that categorically supersede competing interests. In contrast, legal systems in Europe and Canada take a more nuanced view of the public-private distinction; disaggregate rights of free speech, assembly, and association; and authorize judicial balancing of competing rights and interests. Those legal doctrines and practices discourage recognition of rights to non-association and non-assembly. Normatively, liberal democratic commitments to equal citizenship, pluralism, and collective self-governance counsel against a right of non-association, which tends to benefit relatively powerful groups. The importance for liberal democracy of assemblies’ public openness and contestability favours a constitutional regime that protects assembly from unwanted participants, such as counter-protesters, only in the event of violence or wholesale silencing.
Peaceful Intentions, Peaceful Conduct
Authors: Salát Orsolya
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines the peacefulness requirement in a comparative legal perspective for its substantive meaning, context, and application. It finds that the notion of unpeacefulness is construed overly broadly, and freedom-of-expression doctrines are all too hastily transposed to freedom of assembly in this area of the law. Such undertheorized transposition of doctrines of one right to the other result in the permissibility of wide-ranging restrictions on freedom of assembly in the name of unpeacefulness. These may completely inhibit the exercise of the assembly right of anyone, including those who have neither committed, nor intended to commit, a crime or other illegal conduct, as in the case of advance bans or dispersal orders. In addition, the transposition of freedom-of-expression doctrines justifies advance bans and dispersals based on speculations regarding future dignity violations and potential commitment of crimes. These complement the peacefulness requirement in the narrow sense, and can be called unpeacefulness by stealth. The chapter concludes with an urge to rethink the notion of peacefulness, and suggests a theorization of the right to assembly independent of freedom of expression not only regarding its value and autonomous meaning, but all the way down to permissible restrictions.
Assembly within ‘Sight and Sound’
Authors: Zick Timothy
Published: January 2024

Do peaceful assemblies have a right to gather and communicate within ‘sight and sound’ of intended audiences? European and other international law have explicitly recognized assembly ‘sight and sound’ rights, although thus far recognition has not resulted in a robust jurisprudence. In the United States, by contrast, the lack of Supreme Court recognition as well as doctrinal and other limits have impeded express recognition of First Amendment sight and sound rights. Even so, there is a foundation in US law for recognizing assemblies’ strong interests in being seen and heard. Assemblies the world over would substantially benefit from having a recognized right to choose the location of their activities. Sight and sound rights facilitate organizational autonomy, spatial vocality, expressive proximity, and self-government. This chapter examines these values, addresses doctrinal and pragmatic concerns about sight and sound claims, and urges recognition of a meaningful opportunity for assemblies to be seen and heard.
Just Transitions
Authors: Pendas Devin O.
Published: January 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the history of transitional justice in postwar Germany. It argues that history questions certain key assumptions common in the literature on transitional justice, referencing the notion of transitional justice operating effectively as a form of historical and political pedagogy. Moreover, the concept of transitional justice posits a strong link between democratic political transitions and various mechanisms for pursuing justice for past political wrongs, especially in criminal trials. It then considers the impact of judicial interpretation of political crimes on the emerging police state in eastern Germany and the democratization of western Germany.
Was There Transitional Justice in the Medieval World?
Authors: Benham Jenny , Smith Jamie
Published: January 2024

There exists a large and ever-growing field of scholarship on conflict resolution and peace-making in the Middle Ages, yet no historian has interpreted such issues through the theory of transitional justice. As the medieval period lacks codification of human rights and international law, it is easy to appreciate why this has been the case. By taking a broader interpretation of law and justice, this chapter attests not simply that the aims and methods of transitional justice existed in the medieval period but it explores how they were adapted to societies very different from our own, and to what success. The widely understood concepts of Christianity and honor created pervasive notions of just behaviors, and in turn stimulated the use of methods such as apology, memorialization, reparation, and arbitration in response to violations. Though “true democracy” was never the goal, these approaches encouraged inclusion and collaboration between former enemies, precipitating peace.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law in Asia
Authors: Lau Holning , Yesudas Michelle
Published: January 2024

Legal developments concerning sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE) rights in Asia have been numerous and multiplying at a rapid clip. This chapter examines SOGIE rights in three sub-regions of Asia: East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, discussing each of these sub-regions in turn. For each of these sub-regions, the authors identify patterns in legal protection of SOGIE rights and patterns in the conditions that support or impede the establishment of such protections. The authors also highlight developments that are particularly consequential or emblematic. After discussing the three sub-regions separately, the chapter will conclude by zooming back out, so to speak, to compare the three sub-regions.
Census, Caste Enumeration and the British Legacy
Authors: Denault Leigh
Published: January 2024

The colonial decennial censuses of British India were both a continuation of older modes of colonial ‘rule by numbers,’ and a step-change in colonial knowledge-gathering processes. Beginning in 1870-71, the decennial censuses purported to provide a more coherent template for administration. A significant part of this program would consist of methods of enumeration which attempted to fit plural socio-political identities into singular, ‘universally’ comparable categories. By tracing the processes through which people became ‘legible’ to the colonial state through the census projects, and the results of those processes over time, historians have contributed to our understanding of both the nature and operation of the colonial state, and the relationship between knowledge and power, and our understanding of the diverse and vocal South Asian publics who were subject to these new information orders.
Reservations and Affirmative Action
Authors: Deshpande Ashwini
Published: January 2024

This chapter traces the history and evolution of India’s affirmative action programme or the reservation system, which predominantly consists of quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in higher education, public sector employment and elected representatives at all levels. The chapter examines the original raison d’etre and continued relevance of India’s policy of compensatory discrimination towards castes and tribes that were historically disadvantaged but also continued to face contemporary discrimination. The chapter outlines the eligibility criteria for quotas and comments on the debate around the salience of caste as an indicator of backwardness. In 2019, the policy was modified to include a quota for “economically weaker sections”, signaling a departure from the identity group-based policy. The chapter comments on the implication of this change.
Hinduism and Caste System
Authors: Claveyrolas Mathieu
Published: January 2024

This chapter argues that the caste system and Hinduism are consubstantial. On the one hand, caste hierarchy, daily practices and social rules are all directly rooted in an overarching, inextricably social and ritual, Hindu ideology. On the other hand, castelessness in mainstream Hinduism is limited to ideological theories - often contradicted by actual practices.

The caste system is as pervasive as it is flexible. Castes have been able to prevail at the very core of the Indian society, but also to grow both beyond the limits of Hinduism (in Indian Islam or Christianity), beyond the limits of religious matters (with caste-based social contestation movements and political lobbying), and beyond the Indian territory and society (in diasporic contexts). Most of these new avatars of caste have perpetuated the core principle of Hindu ritual ideology: the distinction between the pure and the impure.
Hindu Sects and Caste
Authors: Voix Raphaël
Published: January 2024

In South Asia, Hindu sects have always involved only a minority of people. They nevertheless have played a crucial role to the point that some authors have seen them as being responsible for the very survival of Hinduism. How must this sectarian phenomenon be understood in a society organised around the caste system? This chapter deals with this question by examining the different ways sects have been defined throughout history, by indigenous authors as well as by sociologists. It also analyses the different ways Hindu sects interact with the caste system. It shows that because caste and sect represent two antagonistic, yet compatible, types of religious communalization, their distinction is a fecund one through which to apprehend the diversity of Hinduism. Yet, as sociological categories these two terms do not cover all scales of Hindu religious groups.
Caste and Hindutva
Authors: Lee Joel
Published: January 2024

Caste has played a far more integral role in the genesis and trajectory of Hindutva—the ideology of Hindu nationalism—than is generally recognized, even as Hindutva has influenced Indian and global representations of caste. Focusing on the crystallization of Hindutva as an ideology in the 1920s and on the efforts by which its proponents—primarily privileged-caste men—have sought subsequently to expand their base among Dalits and other disprivileged castes, this chapter charts the transformation of India by religious majoritarianism over the last century. An analysis of key texts and practices in the project of Hindu ‘consolidation’ throws light on the astonishing successes of Hindu nationalism as well as its enduring limits.
The Dominant Caste
Authors: Martin Nicolas
Published: January 2024

This chapter outlines M.N. Srinivas approach to power and hierarchy in rural India, reviews some of the critical responses to it, and examines whether his concept of ‘The Dominant Caste’ is still relevant for the sociology of rural India today. Regardless of whether Srivinas’ formulation reflected ground realities in the 1950s and 1960s, the chapter argues that with the introduction of democratic process, extensive mechanization of farm production combined with the diversification of the rural economy, older power structures have largely disintegrated. However, the democratizing impact of these changes over the rural social life has been limited, and members of the so-called dominant castes continue to wield power, but this time through their hold over the bureaucratic and political networks outside the village, which enables them to operate the clientage and patronage politics at the village level.
Caste Associations and the Post-Mandal Politics of Caste
Authors: Deshpande Rajeshwari
Published: January 2024

This chapter uses the post- Mandal moment of caste as a vantage point to understand and decipher the contemporary politics of caste associations. It argues how this phase of caste politics essentially internalized and thrived on the (gradually defunct) logic of Mandal, and at the same time complicated and defied that logic in several ways. The post-Mandal moment of caste sits at the cusp of routine processes of modernization, expansion and maturing of Indian democracy and skewed patterns of India’s capitalist development and contains within it many contradictory logics. The chapter discusses how these contradictory logics define the contemporary politics of caste associations as they resort to shrill caste rhetoric at a time when the communities they try to represent become hollow, and as caste survives clumsily in a democracy that lacks substantial representation.
Caste, Patronage and Criminalization of Politics
Authors: Michelutti Lucia
Published: January 2024

This chapter discusses what is the role of caste and patronage in current muscular political-economic systems of governance, popularly known in the region as ‘Mafia Raj’ or ‘Goonda Raj’ (rule by mafia/gangsters). It explores the nature of ‘goodagardi’ (criminal work) and how it gets politicised. It is argued that caste, kinship and family are important in structuring this work but not essential. The personalities of individual bosses can often trump caste.
How to Write New Histories of Caste
Authors: Rawat Ramnarayan S.
Published: January 2024

This article urges students of caste histories to go beyond its extremely narrow body of traditional sources, the census and the caste and tribe volumes, by recognizing castes’ constitutive role in land tenure regimes and spatial organization of villages. A ‘history from below,’ of caste requires an engagement with settlement reports, tenancy and revenue reports, which contain insightful details on the relationship between caste and political economy, including, occasionally, voices of Dalit actors. I illustrate the rigor of this approach through a historical study of untouchable caste in northern India, which enabled me to document a previously unrecognized status of Chamars as peasants with an intrinsic role in agriculture. In addition, ethnography in Agra, Allahabad, Lucknow regions of Uttar Pradesh and attention to vernacular publications by Chamar groups contributed in writing a new history of caste.
Caste Logos
Authors: Headley Zoe E.
Published: January 2024

This chapter examines elements of language through which caste, as an inherited social identity, is enunciated. The focus is on specific sets of words, the logos of caste in Tamil, thereby setting aside the daily practice(s) of caste. The chapter addresses three broad fields which can yield some understanding of the logos of caste in its regional setting. First, it takes stock of the epigraphic exception that is the Tamil region in a bid to challenge the notion of caste immobility during the pre- colonial period. Second, it examines the staggering complexity and transformation of modern Tamil caste society. Third, it addresses the language of belonging to the birth group where one hears little about ‘identity’ and a lot about ‘relationship’. Finally, the annex proposes an indicative table of publications according to the castes and sub-castes.
The Invisibility of Caste in Bengal
Authors: Bandyopadhyay Sarbani
Published: January 2024

Caste in Bengal has been marked by an absent-presence. A large Muslim population, the first of the regions in India to be colonized, the dominance of bhadralok in all spheres of Bengal’s colonial life, the Partition and compared to many other regions of India, a near absence of major caste-centric physical violence have all contributed to viewing Bengal as one region where caste at least had minimum significance. Dalaladali and twentieth century mobilisations of marginalized castes on a massive scale for building of organized Hindu society (Hindu sanghathan) offer us significant insights into how caste worked in Bengal. Partition took away the marginalized castes’ challenge to dominant Bengali society. Having lived a life of exile after Partition caste began to ‘come to life’ with new refugee politics and the politics around reservation. This paper deals with caste’s historical and contemporary trajectory in Bengali middle class society.
Hierarchy
Authors: Fuchs Martin
Published: January 2024

Referring to its European background, the chapter discusses the idea of hierarchy and its applications to caste distinctions and the idea of social order. Putting Dumont’s conceptualizations at the centre, the chapter reconstructs the logic as well as the partiality and inconsistencies of his argument. The chapter addresses Dumont’s concept of a system of ideas and values and the ways Dumont handles notions of purity and pollution, the relation between the religious and politics / power, the opposition between holism and individuality, and the difficulties he has in acknowledging individuality and non-hierarchical values in Indian society. Passing major points of critique of Dumont’s dominating position in review, the chapter ends by briefly presenting alternative conceptualizations of hierarchy, paying particular attention to Ambedkar’s analysis.
Dalit Activism and Transnational Mobilization
Authors: Hardtmann Eva-Maria
Published: January 2024

This chapter focuses on activists self-identifying as Dalits and mobilizing transnationally. It begins with a brief background to recapitulate how regional Adi movements organized across India in the 1920s and 1930s and how Ambedkarites and Ravidasis inspired by Ad Dharm, began to mobilize transnationally in the 1950s and 1960s. Next, it examines what different shapes Dalit transnational mobilization took after independence and Dalit involvements are put in the more recent context of neoliberal economic globalization. It is shown how Dalit feminists have been in the forefront of the movement and further discussed how a younger generation of Dalit musicians, artists and authors now communicates in new forms and with more direct channels of communication. The chapter ends with a brief reflection on Dalit transnational mobilization in the era of Covid19.
Caste, Race and Ethnicity
Authors: Reddy Deepa S.
Published: January 2024

Early understandings of caste posited a hereditary, endogamous, doctrinally-based system of determining relative rank and occupational segregation specific to India. Decades of reform and reprisal later, UN conventions now regard minority rights frameworks as providing valuable supports for alleviating discriminations of “caste and analogous systems.” What has brought us to this moment of internationalism—and what can we say about the character of caste within it? This essay studies the global mobility of caste by considering it a form of ethnicity. "Ethnicity" highlights two important, related features of caste in contemporary India: its fluidity, in contrast to its asserted doctrinal rigidity, and therefore its capacity to strategically deploy established, essentialized notions of itself in a movement that seeks less to undermine caste than to restore dignity to re-claimed caste identities. The tendency of ethnic groups to strategically deploy immutable ideas about themselves enables the transformation of caste into something other than itself—precisely at moments when it insists it has never been transformed.
Denotified Communities
Authors: Kannabiran Kalpana
Published: January 2024

This chapter attempts to situate discussions around criminality, nomadism, surveillance, and stigmatization in the historical context of these colonial enactments, and their afterlives in independent India with reference to four colonial Criminal Tribes enactments. Because the identification and labelling of “denotified tribes” originates through their description, definition and treatment prescribed by a penal law, legislative history pertaining to denotified communities, along with ethnographic and historiographical accounts of the colonial period are examined. Finally, an attempt is made to flag practices of segregation and fragmentation of families and communities through the legally mandated policy of settlements and reformatory schooling and discuss the problem of inclusion, categorization and barriers against the backdrop of access to education, employment and affirmative action in contemporary India.
The Jajmani System
Authors: Mayer Peter
Published: January 2024

The jajmani system refers to hereditary patron-client ties between members of land-owning castes and members of other castes who provide them with services throughout the year. Since its formal description by Wiser in 1936 almost every aspect of the system has been the subject of controversy. Does the term apply to all service castes, or just to Brahman priests? Is the system found everywhere in India, or in only some regions? Is it characterised by reciprocity between patron and client or by exploitation? Is it separate from the market economy or deeply embedded in it? Is the system of great antiquity or did it come into being in the 19th century?
Caste and Merit
Authors: Subramanian Ajantha
Published: January 2024

What is the relationship between caste and merit? I pursue this question through a focus on the operations of caste within the Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, a set of highly coveted engineering colleges that are equally representative of Indian meritocracy and, until recently, of caste exclusivity. I argue that the politics of meritocracy at the IITs illuminates the social life of caste in contemporary India. Rather than the progressive erasure of ascribed identities in favor of putatively universal ones, what we are witnessing is the rearticulation of caste as an ascriptive basis for merit and the generation of newly consolidated forms of upper casteness.
Caste and Capital
Authors: Upadhya Carol
Published: January 2024

The sociological understanding of the economic dimensions of caste, and especially its relation to capital, has been constrained by received theories – derived from Weber and Dumont – which relegate caste to the domain of culture or religion within a culture-economy binary. This chapter reviews several bodies of work that explore the role of caste in the economy, especially in commerce and industry. These include: (1) the earlier literature on India’s ‘traditional business communities’; (2) work on caste as a form of social capital or a ‘social structure of accumulation’; and (3) more recent scholarship that challenges the culture-economy dichotomy and locates capital squarely within caste. The chapter concludes that we lack an adequate theoretization of how caste operates in processes of capital accumulation, limiting our analysis of widening economic inequalities in contemporary India.
Caste and Class
Authors: Naudet Jules
Published: January 2024

This chapter intends to offer an analytical perspective on one of the most debated issues among sociologists of the Indian society: the nature of the relation between caste and class. A brief look at the literature immediately reveals how scholars hold very contrasting positions on this issue. Scholarship has progressively moved from a debate constructed around the idea of the necessity to choose between either caste or class and marked by the imperative of an analytical move from caste to class with India’s modernization and capitalist development, to a situation in which most scholars reckon that class dynamics and caste dynamics are distinct, though they intersect in multiple ways. This chapter acknowledges that the alternative between caste or class is outdated and argues that the most heuristic position consists in acknowledging the co-existence of caste and class processes and in investigating the various modalities through which they interact.
Caste and Kingship
Authors: Tambs-Lyche Harald
Published: January 2024

Indian kingship, over the last two thousand years, has been characterized by the way in which kingship is founded on specific relationships to the castes and communities that constitute the kingdom. In contrast to conventional wisdom about Western kingship, modernity never replaced this structure with a universalist relationship to individual citizens. In this chapter, I use several examples to trace an outline of the history of Indian kingship during the Common Era, specifying various types of royal authority, and sketching a tentative typology of Indian kingship, where each type is defined by the specific make-up of castes and communities that structured and supported the king’s authority. As a conclusion, I note that these communitarian structures still characterize regional politics in India.