bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Vergil's Green Thoughts
Authors: Armstrong Rebecca
Published: August 2019

The Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid abound with plants, yet much Vergilian criticism underestimates their significance beyond attractive background detail or the occasional symbolic set-piece. This work joins the growing field of nature-centred studies of literature, looking head-on at Vergil’s plants and trees to reveal how fundamental they are to an understanding of the poet’s outlook on religion, culture, and mankind’s place within the world. The first half of the book explores the religious and more diffusely numinous aspects of Vergil’s plants, from awe–inspiring sacred groves to divinely promoted fields of corn, showing how both cultivated and uncultivated plants fit within and help to shape the complex landscape of Vergilian (and, more broadly, Roman) religious thought. In the second half, the focus moves to human interactions with plants from the perspectives of both cultivation and relaxation, exploring the love–hate relationship with vegetation which sometimes supports and sometimes contests the human self-image as the world’s dominant species. Combining a series of close readings of a wide range of passages with the identification of broader patterns of association, this book reveals and celebrates the complexity and variety of Vergilian flora.
Numinous Habitats
Authors: Armstrong Rebecca
Published: August 2019

This chapter addresses the gods’ influence—whether as recognizable named divinities or vaguer numinous presences—on woodlands and on plants in cultivated settings. The first part moves through accounts of divinely connected trees and forests in the Eclogues to the evolution and variation of such ideas in the Georgics, with the most extended discussion reserved for the many numinous woods and groves of the Aeneid, both in the underworld and the world above. In the second part, the element of divine connection to agricultural plants in the Eclogues and Aeneid serves as preface to a longer examination of the gods of cultivated plants in the Georgics, especially Ceres and Bacchus. The section ends with discussion of the uses of divine metonymy as another mode of Vergilian illustration of the connections between gods and plants.
Gods’ Special Species
Authors: Armstrong Rebecca
Published: August 2019

Following the exploration of the divine in wooded, arable, and other cultivated habitats in the first chapter, in this chapter the focus turns to the connections between individual gods and certain species: oak, poplar, pine, olive, laurel, myrtle, cypress, ivy, and a range of medicinal and magical plants. The wider difficulty of maintaining for long any stereotypical association between one particular plant and one god is made clear, and Vergil’s replications and variations of traditionally made connections are examined in detail, with links made to the themes of prophecy, tree-felling, poetic and political symbolism, as well as the blurred edges between ritual, superstition, and rational enquiry.
Tame Plants
Authors: Armstrong Rebecca
Published: August 2019

With this chapter, the focus of the book moves from the the numinous and divine connections enjoyed by Vergil’s plants to explore the more pragmatic aspects of human relationships with cultivated and semi-cultivated plants. After an opening definition (and acknowledgement of the difficulty of definition) of ‘tame plants’, the chapter then falls into two parts. The first addresses ways in which Vergil suggests that it is possible for humans and plants to exist in a state of harmony and even mutual benefit. In the second part, by contrast, the poet’s consciousness of the opposite state is highlighted, where humans and plants are shown to be at odds, at times even at war.
Wild Plants
Authors: Armstrong Rebecca
Published: August 2019

The final chapter assesses Vergil’s portraits of wild plants, and his engagement with the problems of defining the wild. His flowers are revealed as more than pretty ornaments; rather, they offer complex reflections on the space between wildness and cultivation, and on the human tendency to assign moral worth to some plants rather than others. On similar lines, Vergil’s weeds emerge as particularly fascinating types of plant that can represent the harshest kinds of opposition between man and nature yet also stand for a nostalgic vision of lost innocence. The importance of Theophrastus’ influence on Vergil is felt throughout the chapter, even while other (often poetic) associations come to prominence in a variety of ways.
From Kania to Sarkaria
Authors: Suchindran B.N.
Published: August 2019

This essay is a critical analysis of the dynamics of executive-judiciary relations in judicial appointments from 1950 to 1973. It serves as a primer for the appointments made to the Supreme Court from 1950–73, the supersessions that were apprehended but did not come about, and generally, what weighed with the judges as well as the executive while making appointments in the years immediately after the Constitution came into force. The essay traverses the historical journey of appointments to the Supreme Court from the tenure of the first Chief Justice of India, Justice H.J. Kania, to the appointment of Justice R.S. Sarkaria in 1973. It provides insights, and in some cases, hitherto unknown facts about the factors that prompted the appointment of certain justices to the Court. The essay also documents the gradual incursion that the executive had begun to make in judicial appointments in the latter half of the 1960s.
A Committed Judiciary
Authors: Andhyarujina T.R.
Published: August 2019

The tipping point in the history of judicial appointments in India was the judgment of the Supreme Court in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala ((1973) 4 SCC 225). In this essay that spans the tumultuous period between this judgment and the end of the Emergency (in 1977) when Indira Gandhi was prime minister, the author demonstrates how judicial appointments became a proxy for a larger battle for control of the Constitution. Arguing that the independence of the judiciary was imperilled beyond redemption, the author carefully traces the pattern of executive interference up to and after the proclamation of Emergency. This essay argues that the severe blow dealt to judicial independence in this period, in a way, determined the course of how the process for judicial appointments was shaped in future decades.
Recovering Lost Ground
Authors: Ganguli A.K.
Published: August 2019

The impact of the excesses of the Emergency was felt long after it was officially terminated. This essay uncovers how the Emergency impacted judicial appointments. The author discusses how the 1980s have been characterized, in the judgment in the NJAC Case, as a decade where judicial independence was imperilled due to executive interference in the matter of appointments. The author sets the record straight by shedding light on the 1980s, particularly pertaining to the judgment in SP Gupta v. Union of India (1981 Supp SCC 87) (First Judges’ Case). In this essay, the author puts up a defence of this judgment, which is largely seen in academic scholarship as a genuflection of the judges before the executive. With the help of anecdotal examples, this essay tries to untangle the case of the curious eighties, making the larger point that it is a decade not amenable to easy typifying.
The Judicial Collegium
Authors: Jaitley Arun
Published: August 2019

This essay addresses three pertinent aspects—first, how the Second Judges’ and Third Judges’ Cases led to the establishment of the collegium system. In this discussion, the essay analyses the key findings of the Second and Third Judges’ Cases, an exercise which is pertinent for an understanding of how the ‘collegium’ came into being. Second, this essay proceeds to establish a normative vision of what the judicial appointments process should look like so as to address the criticisms that the collegium system has been subjected to. The essay makes a strong case for reform of the collegium through practical examples of when it has failed in its constitutional duties. Third, the essay addresses questions relating to how appointments should be made, and who should make the appointments.
A Plague on Both Your Houses
Authors: Mehta Pratap Bhanu
Published: August 2019

This essay proceeds with the view that the process of judicial appointments is as much political as it is legal, even though the arguments before the Supreme Court in the NJAC Case constantly treated it as a matter of only constitutional law. This essay argues that it is critical to be cognizant of the political events involving successive governments and Chief Justices wresting the power to appoint judges. It asks why and how the process of deciding upon an acceptable procedure for judicial appointments has become the source of an ongoing confrontation between the executive and the judiciary. It is argued in this essay that while the government and the judiciary might individually be justified in their stance, as a result of this conflict, public credibility of both these institutions has been adversely affected.
Checks and Balances Revisited
Authors: Rohatgi Mukul
Published: August 2019

This essay examines the role that the executive, represented by the Union Minister in-charge of Law and Justice, was expected to play on the National Judicial Appointments Commission. The author charts a history of what the Constituent Assembly envisaged the role of the executive to be and how this role eventually unfolded in the appointments process. The description of the history culminates with the observation about how the collegium system of appointments, meant to counteract executive interference in appointments, has come to be mired in controversy itself. This essay then engages with the judgment in the NJAC Case, and how the bench frowned upon the presence of the Law Minister on the NJAC. This essay contests that the Supreme Court’s apprehension that the Law Minister could cloud the views of the other members of the NJAC was based on conjectures and surmises.
Opening up Appointments
Authors: Divan Madhavi
Published: August 2019

This essay takes a deep dive into the role of the civil society in the judicial appointments process. It begins with the observation that the superior courts in India, during the last few decades, have assumed an activist role. Public interest litigation on issues which have the potential to impact various sections of society are being entertained by the Supreme Court and the High Courts. This essay argues that India should not stay far behind from including members of the civil society, or ‘lay’ members in the judicial appointments process. It is also argued that the inclusion of lay people in the appointments process would positively impact the cause of diversity in appointments. In this context, this essay espouses the cause of civil society members in the judicial appointments process, and shields their inclusion in the National Judicial Appointments Commission from the allegation of violating the independence of the judiciary.
The Obvious Foundation Test
Authors: Ramachandran Raju , Thallam Mythili Vijay Kumar
Published: August 2019

This essay deals with the ramifications of the judgment in the National Judicial Appointments Commission Case for the basic structure doctrine. The doctrine of basic structure places limits on the legislative power to amend the Constitution, and owes its origins to the judgment of the thirteen-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala ((1973) 4 SCC 225). According to the authors, the judges in the NJAC Case, by striking down the 99th Amendment to the Constitution of India for violating the basic structure, appear to have conceptually expanded the remit of the basic structure doctrine significantly. They conclude that the contents of what was held to be part of basic structure in the NJAC Case are largely incapable of being defended normatively. Against this background, they chart the significance of the judgment on constitutional law and separation of powers questions in the future.
The Sole Route to an Independent Judiciary?
Authors: Bhatia Gautam
Published: August 2019

This essay critically analyses the judgment in the NJAC Case against the vehemently contested issue of judicial primacy in appointments. The author examines the NJAC Case’s treatment of the question of primacy of judges. The essay commences with a discussion of the Second Judges’ Case, and the judicial rationale behind construing ‘consultation’ under Article 124 of the Constitution as ‘concurrence’ of the Chief Justice of India in the matter of appointments. The author assesses both whether as a descriptive fact the judgment in the NJAC Case held judicial primacy to be part of the basic structure, as well as whether such reading was normatively justified. This essay also expresses reservations about the extent of the Court’s engagement with the concept of ‘primacy’, and its importance for the independence of the judiciary, and whether it is part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
Justice Lokur’s Concurring View
Authors: Kumar Alok Prasanna
Published: August 2019

This essay is a comment on the robust defence of the collegium system as espoused in Justice Madan Lokur’s opinion in the NJAC Case. The author critically analyses how Justice Lokur employs constitutional history, instances of executive interference during the decades after Independence, and accounts of ‘unsuitable’ appointments made at the behest of the executive, to come up with a defence of the collegium. Justice Lokur’s specific issues with the National Judicial Appointments Commission based on which he holds the 99th Amendment to the Constitution and the NJAC Act, 2014 unconstitutional are taken up for consideration in the essay. At the same time, this essay highlights certain principled deficiencies of the collegium which might have not been considered adequately in the NJAC Case. The essay argues that the notion that the collegium upholds judicial independence does not mean that an alternative system of appointments would be likely to disturb it.
Justice Chelameswar’s Dissent
Authors: Sengupta Arghya
Published: August 2019

This essay commences with a discussion of how Justice Chelameswar’s dissenting judgment in the NJAC Case understands the basic structure doctrine. Moving ahead, the essay dissects the methodology adopted by Justice Chelameswar for assessing the validity of a constitutional amendment tested against the basic structure, and its application for testing the validity of the 99th Amendment to the Constitution. This essay appreciates Justice Chelameswar’s understanding of the separation of powers principle insofar as he acknowledges that a strict insulation of the branches of the government is impractical. The author brings to light Justice Chelameswar’s careful understanding of the constitutional relationship between the executive and the judiciary in light of the separation of powers principle, and how that cannot be lost in an over-emphasis on select instances from constitutional history of executive interference in judicial appointments.
Comparative Law in the NJAC Judgment
Authors: Parthasarathy Suhrith
Published: August 2019

This essay is an overview of the use of comparative law in the NJAC Case, and offers a critique of the Supreme Court’s analysis of comparative law in judicial appointments. The essay argues that the Supreme Court adopted an isolationist approach by shunning international experience from fifteen countries cited before it by the Union of India to drive home the point that executive presence in judicial appointments does not, by itself, impinge upon judicial independence. The author contests the Supreme Court’s cursory dismissal of relevant international experience on the ground that India, with its peculiar set of circumstances cannot replicate the experiences of other nations in judicial appointments. The author argues that this is self-serving and the judgment would have been better served by a surer grasp of comparative law and its rationales.
Judicialization of Judicial Appointments?
Authors: Chandrachud Chintan
Published: August 2019

This essay discusses United Kingdom’s transition to the commission model of judicial appointments, with the advent of the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005 (CRA). The essay expounds that the commission model in the UK provides for a sustained participation of ‘lay’ members, who are expected to be representatives of the civil society. The author aligns with the view that the fragmentation of the appointments process amongst various actors is an exercise towards appointing a more diverse judiciary, and in no way impinging upon judicial independence. This essay analyses how the Supreme Court of India in the NJAC Case interpreted the appointments process ushered in by the UK CRA. This essay critiques the Indian Supreme Court’s reading of the CRA, and how the Court’s conclusion that the appointments processes in the UK shows an increasing trend toward judicialization may either be incorrect, or highly reductionist.
South Africa—Analysing a Commission Model
Authors: McConnachie Chris
Published: August 2019

This essay is an analysis of the working and performance of the South African Judicial Service Commission (JSC). This essay describes how the JSC has been successful in enhancing transparency in the selection process and improving diversity in the judiciary. The essay remains categorical about the South African judiciary being independent and credible, even in the face of apprehensions by the JSC’s detractors of undue political interference in appointments. This essay makes an important point that the independence of the judiciary remains contingent on several variables, and the identity of those making the appointments is just one such factor. Thus, this essay critically analyses the JSC as an example of the commission model. Upon a concise assessment of the JSC’s functioning, this essay highlights some general trends which offer insights for the judicial appointments process in India.
Judicial Appointments in Pakistan
Authors: Khosa Sameer
Published: August 2019

This essay discusses the landmark developments pertaining to judicial appointments in the last decade in Pakistan—particularly, Pakistan’s experiment with the commission model of appointments with the 18th Constitution Amendment, 2010 establishing the Judicial Commission of Pakistan comprising members from across the judiciary, political executive, and the bar. In a challenge to its validity, the Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the 18th Amendment in District Bar Association, Rawalpindi v. Federation of Pakistan (District Bar Association). This essay discusses the appointments process in Pakistan that existed prior to the 18th Amendment, followed by a close examination of the judgment in District Bar Association. It argues that even though the 18th Amendment, which ushered in the commission model in Pakistan, was upheld, by means of interpretation, what the Supreme Court has upheld is different from the process envisaged by this Amendment.
Unscrambling the Images
Authors: Jaising Indira
Published: August 2019

The chapter presents the underlying idea behind this volume and serves as an introduction to domestic violence and the law in India. Tracing the history of laws addressing domestic violence both as a crime and a civil wrong, the author explains how the collection of essays in this volume evaluate some of the essential concepts that shaped the framing of the PWDVA and its treatment in the hands of judges. Providing insights into the challenges faced in drafting and enforcement of the PWDVA, such as inclusion of women in ‘relationships in the nature of marriage’ and unique provisions such as the ‘right to residence’, the author discusses the extent to which PWDVA has succeeded in fulfilling its purpose and areas of enforcement that remain a challenge even after a decade.
‘But … Where Will I Live?’
Authors: Anurag Pinki Mathur
Published: August 2019

The chapter deals with women’s unequal rights to housing and draws on the related concepts of security of tenure and ownership rights, to explores the interlink between housing rights and domestic violence to show that protection of right to housing enhances and positively impacts women’s negotiating capacity in dealing with domestic violence. Locating domestic violence within the right to housing under international law the author demonstrates that domestic violence in the absence of security of tenure in the form of ownership or tenancy rights for women is a major cause of forced eviction and homelessness. The PWDVA provides security of tenure through Right to Reside and Residence Orders, in some situations barring the violent household member from remaining on the premises. Analysis of jurisprudence under ‘right to reside’ unmasks the complex nature of the Indian household and the nuances in the way the right has been interpreted and enforced by courts.
Towards Uniformity of Rights
Authors: Mandal Saptarshi
Published: August 2019

The chapter locates the PWDVA in the context of India’s multiple, religion-specific personal laws. It underlies three factors that allow PWDVA to establish common standards governing family life, despite un-common or separate family laws. First, the religion-neutral framing of the PWDVA and the judges’ understanding of domestic violence as a universal phenomenon cutting across religion. Second, though the DV Act concerns violence, it is designed essentially to protect the economic interests of women, which enables the Act to enter the domain of family law. And third, judges’ understanding that women face the same economic difficulties when their marriages break down, irrespective of religion. Focusing on the issue of maintenance, the chapter demonstrates, that the PWDVA because of the above three factors, allows judges to focus on their sameness rather than difference, and create common standards on maintenance irrespective of religion of the parties.
Long Road to Justice
Authors: Sakhrani Monica , Panchal Trupti Jhaveri , Chakraborty Radhika , Kande Manisha
Published: August 2019

The chapter presents the analysis of findings on the implementation of the PWDVA in the state of Haryana. The findings are a part of a four-state study conducted in Haryana, Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. The study explores how women encountered the domestic violence law and the processes, and reflects on the challenges survivors face in their quest for justice. The findings from the present study indicate that in Haryana a dismal number of women have been able to obtain relief under the PWDVA. Delays in passing orders and protracted procedures were found to be the main constraints faced by users of the law. The stakeholder network created under the PWDVA was found to be fractured and sparse. The Chapter highlights gaps in the implementation of the PWDVA and presents recommendations and for their redressal.
Nature of Services Available to Women Survivors
Authors: Bhate-Deosthali Padma , Rege Sangeeta
Published: August 2019

The chapter traces the evolution of responses to domestic violence and other forms of violence against women in India and examines the existing evidence on services available for survivors, with special focus on One Stop Crisis Centres (OSCC) in terms of their location, objectives, and impact. The Chapter presents a comprehensive review of the existing One Stop Centers operational under the Ministry of Women and Child Development Scheme created under the Nirbhaya Fund. The authors evaluate the comprehensive response mechanism developed under the PWDVA and argue for an evidence based approach in setting up processes and mechanisms for responses for survivors of domestic violence.
For Things to Remain (Sort of) the Same, Everything Must Change
Authors: Ballakrishnen Swethaa S.
Published: August 2019

In this chapter, the author uses high status work environments as sites to investigate the (re)production of a new generation of Indian elites. Using the example of modern professional service organizations that have variations in gender and class outcomes, Ballakrishnen illuminates that while elite education is a standard requirement for entry, firms vary in the ways they valorize other markers of status. Particularly, Ballakrishnen finds that Desi—rather than global—firms align themselves around markers of language and cultural capital rather than gender in stratifying their inhabitants. In revealing these patterns, the author proposes to extend the following lines of sociological research about elites. First, Ballakrishnen argues that these ‘first-generation elites’ afford us a new understanding to a literature that has predominantly focussed on economic and political lineage as a source of its definitional authority. Second, the author suggests that one way in which the coordinates of elite mobility are moderated is through organizational exchange partners who act as powerful audiences that shape and repose to this definition. Finally, Ballakrishnen argues that while this new generation of elites are seemingly devoid of the hereditary lineage of their predecessors, their embodiment of meritocratic selection and advancement is still steeply rooted in background frameworks of class and patriarchal privilege that surreptitiously reinforce new avatars of deeply embedded stratification.
The Secret Lives of Money
Authors: Bhandari Parul
Published: August 2019

This chapter studies the lives of elite women in India, specifically the wives of business elites. Mainly housewives, these women are seen as being unrelated to generation and circulation of money. Their lives are instead often simplistically explained as being more befitting to a discourse of conspicuous consumption and idle leisure. This chapter queries such a popular understanding of elite housewives by revealing certain surreptitious practices of money investment that they indulge in, often without the knowledge of their husband or family members. Treading the lines between familial and non-familial, private and public, secrets and manifest expressions, I argue that elite women create specific and unique relationships with money, which can overcome as well as reiterate their vulnerabilities, anxieties, and desires. This complex circuit of money—generation, savings, investments—in which the elite housewives proactively participate further shapes their networks, friendships, conjugal relations, and self-image.
Introduction
Authors: Elangovan Arvind
Published: August 2019

This chapter introduces both Rau and the problem of studying the history of the Indian constitution and identifies the ways in which this book departs from existing historiographies. Specifically, the book departs from narratives that explain the making of the Indian constitution either as a product of colonial benevolence or a victorious appropriation of mainstream Indian nationalism and instead highlights the tension between the projects of colonialism, nationalism, and constitutionalism.
Conundrum on the Eve of Decolonization
Authors: Elangovan Arvind
Published: August 2019

This chapter examines the political history of the tumultuous years leading up to several political discussions on the eve of India’s decolonization. Conventionally appreciated only for its politics, this chapter underscores the influence that this political history had on ideas of constitutionalism. Fundamentally, the chapter points out that the Constituent Assembly (the body that eventually framed independent India’s constitution) emerged out of this political conflict and hence any claim of a presumed sovereignty of the Constituent Assembly must be tempered in the light of this history.
Conclusion
Authors: Elangovan Arvind
Published: August 2019

This chapter summarizes the main arguments of the book and argues that we can only forget the political history that went into the making of the Indian constitution at our own peril. It points out that political history matters, and the political history of the Indian constitution, perhaps matters even more. By recovering the work of the largely forgotten bureaucrat Sir B.N. Rau and locating his constitutional thought and contributions at variance and indeed in tension with the process of constitution making, the book strives to underscore the importance of studying political histories when thinking about the history of the Indian constitution.
The Politics of Marriage in Medieval India
Authors: Singh Sabita
Published: August 2019

This book challenges monolithic cultural constructs and valorization of indigenous society. Marriage being a social act reveals a lot about society and its attitudes. A wide timeframe has been taken as social and cultural history defy a temporal straitjacket. The study of social and cultural history has been related to the political structure. Hence, the process of State formations and the emergence of Rajputs as a ruling clan have been studied. Matrimonial alliances played a crucial role in the formation of medieval polity and society. In the initial stages of State formation, there was an openness and accommodation but as state power increased, rulers tried to project themselves as protectors of normative order and inter-caste marriages disappeared whereas interreligious marriages continued to flourish. Marriage rituals, customs, and practices to a large extent reflected the clan nature of Rajput polity as well as their attempt to legitimize their authority by following Dharmshastric rituals. There were innovations in marriage rituals in order to deal with the exigencies of time. Sati and widowhood—two very visible forms of women oppression have been examined. Frequent deaths on the battlefield led to increasing numbers of widows. Though the ruling aristocracy encouraged the practice of Sati, the woman cannot be seen as passive victims of oppressive ideology. Women who committed Sati do not approximate to Pativratta nor were they marginalized entities. A great degree of pluralism is seen in marital morality and it is obvious that this wasn’t influenced by Dharamshastric injunctions. In the early stages of state formation one can observe moral elasticity. Although the caste and village panchayats played a role in regulating marital mores in the beginning, the State gradually emerged as the ultimate authority in regulating social life.
Marital and Sexual Morality in Medieval Rajasthan
Authors: Singh Sabita
Published: August 2019

In this, it is shown how sexuality is defined by society and culture. An attempt has been made to see if there is any religious philosophy which marriage in medieval Rajasthan sought to convey. The existence of any moral or textual injunction that the State or religion upheld for married men and women has been explored. What was the relationship between law and social practice, the ideal and the aberrant? How were the marital disputes settled at the time, the legal and other devices available, the extent to which it was resorted to have all been looked into. The notions of sexuality, marital and extramarital sex, and notions of shame and honour have been examined. Besides the case of fidelity between husband and wife, cases of domestic violence, rape and incest and the reaction of the State in each case and the form of punishment meted out is laid out in this chapter.
Conclusion
Authors: Singh Sabita
Published: August 2019

Political changes impacted the marriage customs and practices. The caste structure and the emergence of Rajputs indicate deviations from the theoretical concept of caste and as the clan structure of the Rajputs remained significant throughout. For the ruling elite, marriage was a channel for diplomacy. The rituals of marriage were a mixture of local customs and the Sastras, a syncretic fusion of Brahmanism with several disparate vibrant cultural traditions. Sati was a complex phenomenon. The number of women committing Sati declined in the Mughal period, precisely the period of hardening of attitude towards women and widow remarriage. Widows of non-elite families were fully aware of their property rights and petitioned the state whenever their rights were violated. Infidelity was prevalent across all sections of society, and the state played an active role as a regulating body. For the state marriage was an edifice through which social order could be maintained.
‘Beware Oh Petticoats! There Be Leeches in These Parts’
Authors: Jhala Angma Dey
Published: August 2019

This chapter critiques the voluminous published and unpublished writings of Thomas H. Lewin, the first British deputy commissioner and would-be ethnographer of the CHT during the 1860s and 1870s. He had complex and, at times quixotic, views on indigenous history and the limits and nature of colonial intervention. In particular, this chapter interprets Lewin’s writings through the lens of gender and sexuality, by analyzing his interactions with both indigenous hill and British women. In particular, it examines his contentious relationship with the Chakma regent queen Rani Kalindi as well as his close epistolary relationship with his mother in London. Lewin’s record is a fascinating account of a (male) colonial administrator who was strongly influenced and jostled by two maternal figures: one indigenous and the other British. The chapter also examines the way he frames the geography and landscape itself in gendered language.
Dark Fear, Eerie Cities
Authors: Paunksnis Šarūnas
Published: August 2019

What haunts the city? Why is there so much pessimism in our urban lives? How does this physical and psychological insecurity of relentless competition and a desire to succeed against all odds proliferate into cinema? Dark Fear, Eerie Cities analyses a wide array of films made in the early 21st century to offer a philosophical and psychoanalytical critique of the transforming cinematic imagery. It traces the trajectory of Hindi cinema from the pre-1990s feudal family ideal to the contemporary construction of the new middle class’s subjectivities against a postcolonial backdrop. Keeping in mind the effects of globalization, market liberalization and the emergence of new forms of media and their consumption, the book provides a theoretical perspective to cinematic transformations. Paunksnis presents an interdisciplinary study of a genre of cinema in which crime thrillers and horror films are aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions of our contemporary times.
Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear
Authors: Paunksnis Šarūnas
Published: August 2019

The chapter looks at the problem of urban centre and the periphery, as well as the production of the Other in neoliberal India and new Hindi cinema. The Other here means one that is outside of the new emergent middle class—it can be a rural otherness, but often—the urban, deprived lower orders of the society. Drawing heavily upon psychoanalysis and the work of Slavoj Žižek, the chapter theorizes the insecurity of the urban middle class and its relationship to its Other, and the urban periphery by taking films NH10 and Highway as key examples.
Screening Masculine Anxiety
Authors: Paunksnis Šarūnas
Published: August 2019

The chapter looks at the representation of men in new Hindi cinema, and the rise of masculine anxiety and its critique on screen. It argues that the emergence of neoliberalism brought new cultural codes to India, and one of the key cultural innovations is a shifting gender balance. Hypermasculinity or masculine anxiety emerges as a defensive response to increasing gender equality and signifies the potentiality of patriarchal loss of power. Looking at the problem from the point of view of psychoanalysis and sociology, the chapter unpacks it by looking at another dominant trend in new Hindi cinema, male violence, and among other works, continues the analysis of the films by Anurag Kashyap and offers an alternative reading of his films.
Sir Andrew Gourlay Clow
Authors: Alexander Colin R.
Published: August 2019

This chapter seeks to position Clow’s experiences in colonial India against the backdrop of wider issues and trends during the period of his service. The chapter discusses Clow’s recruitment into the ICS, his marriage to Ariadne, and his life after the ICS. What is of interest here is not necessarily the events themselves but the temperament of the man and his attitude to the situations that were before him. Moreover, understanding the historical and social context of Clow’s career allows us to draw stronger conclusions when analysing the key events in the later chapters.
World War II in Assam and the North-Eastern Frontier
Authors: Alexander Colin R.
Published: August 2019

Japan was able to capture almost all of Burma by May 1942, after the Allied forces departed the capital, Rangoon, on 7th March in a ‘scorched earth’ retreat causing the first of several refugee crises into Assam. This chapter on Assam is split into several sections. The first covers the strategic importance of the Indian sub-continent to the Allied war effort, and, more specifically, Assam’s importance to the Empire. The chapter focuses on civilian activities and the civilian decision-making that occurred around these issues from the ICS and other organizations as well as discusses relations between the ICS and the military during the period. As such Clow’s contribution and actions as Governor of the province from May 1942 is understood within the perspective of the greater political and military aims of the time.
Economic Nationalism
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

This chapter looks at the evolution of India’s approach towards international investment law, against the backdrop of India’s overall and economic approach towards foreign investment. After independence, from the period of 1947–1965, India followed a relatively open and liberal foreign investment regime. Jawaharlal Nehru’s economic pragmatism ensured that India kept its doors open to foreign investment though the economic growth model was led by the public sector. India also consciously did not indulge in nationalization of foreign investment in total contradiction to what countries like Soviet Russia and China did. However, India turned towards the Left during Indira Gandhi’s times imposing restrictions on foreign investment. India’s approach towards international investment law, at least at the multilateral level, reflected the domestic approach towards foreign investment. At the bilateral level, India appeared more open to international law on protection of foreign investment although India did not sign a BIT during this phase.
Economic Liberalism
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

This chapter discusses the Balance of Payments (BoP) crisis of 1991 that led to the advent of economic reforms that changed the course of India’s economic trajectory for ever. As a conscious break from the past, India undertook many bold structural economic reforms. Liberalization of foreign investment was one of them. This ushered in an age of embracement of BITs and the willingness to be bound by those international law principles pertaining to foreign investment that India had opposed earlier. India started negotiating and signing BITs from 1992 with the clear objective of promoting and protecting foreign investment in India. In this phase, India had a marginal involvement in investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases. Also, there was not much discussion on the impact of BITs on India’s right to regulate. The BITs singed in this period resembled the laissez faire liberalism model.
India’s BITs
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

Continuing on the discussion on the key features of Indian BITs from the previous chapter, this chapter studies the following provisions in India’s BITs and FTA investment chapters: expropriation; monetary transfer provisions; general exception clauses; and the investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions. Like chapter 4, this chapter will also discuss these provisions against the background of ISDS jurisprudence that has emerged on these four issues. The chapter demonstrates that these provisions in many treaties are worded broadly and the determination of the content is subject to arbitral discretion. These broadly worded treaty provisions, subject to arbitral discretion, fail to balance investment protection and host state’s right to regulate. India was primarily a ‘rule taker’ in international investment law because most of these provisions in Indian BITs are borrowed from the BITs of ‘capital exporting’ countries that followed the laissez faire liberalism model.
BITs Come Home to Roost but No Philip Morris Moment Yet!
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

This chapter studies closely the ISDS claims brought against India. A careful analysis shows the following: First, cases like White Industries v. India and Devas Multimedia v. India expose the broad and vague language of Indian BITs. Second and equally important is the fact that these cases show that none of the claims have been brought against India because India exercised her sovereign public power in good faith in order to attain an important public policy goal such as protection of the environment or promotion of public health etc. All these claims have arisen against India mainly due to bad regulation. Third, these ISDS claims also show the failure of the organs of the Indian State to be sufficiently sensitive to India’s BIT obligations. Fourth, a closer study of these cases especially of the cases brought by Vodafone and Cairn energy shows India’s hostile attitude towards ISDS.
The 2016 Indian Model BIT
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

This chapter studies India’s 2016 Model BIT, which the Indian government claims aims to balance investment protection with the state’s right to regulate. The chapter shows that barring some of the provisions like full protection and security and monetary transfer provisions, the Model BIT has not succeeded in reconciling the interests of foreign investors with the state’s right to regulate. The Model BIT contains a narrow definition of investment; an extremely narrow FET-type provision; excludes MFN clause and taxation measures from the purview of the BIT. Furthermore, the expropriation provision in the Model BIT blurs the line between lawful and unlawful expropriation; and provides a complicated and sequential ISDS making it extremely difficult for a foreign investor to make effective use of it. Furthermore, although the attempt of the Model BIT is to reduce arbitral discretion, many provisions still remain undefined and vague, thereby continuing to grant significant discretion to ISDS arbitral tribunals.
Conclusion
Authors: Ranjan Prabhash
Published: August 2019

The concluding chapter shows that India’s approach towards BITs post 2010 has become protectionist. This protectionist approach towards BITs is divergent from India’s liberal foreign investment policy. India’s BIT practice needs to evolve in a manner that balances investment protection with the host state’s right to regulate. This is important as it would help India safeguard its regulatory power as a host nation and also to protect Indian investment abroad. India needs to evolve its investment treaty practice by developing BITs as tools that advance international rule of law and are modelled using the normativity of embedded liberalism. Embedded liberalism will represent a compromise between free markets and regulation, thus increasing the acceptability of BITs for all stakeholders such as foreign investors, the civil society and the sovereign state.
The Life and Times of Krishna Chaitanya
Authors: Sen Amiya P.
Published: August 2019

This is a concise but critical biographical sketch of Chaitanya, situating him in his social and cultural environment. The structured narrative deals at length with some of the key episodes concerning both his pre-monastic life and the monastic. These are re-examined in the light of modern critical scholarship. The first half of Chaitanya’s life was spent at Nabadwip, where he provided the inspiration and leadership to a burgeoning religious movement centred on Krishna bhakti. Following his dramatic decision to embrace the life of an ascetic, Chaitanya turned an itinerant saint, travelling through peninsular India and camping at the Vaishnav pilgrim sites of Mathura and Vrindavan. The latter half of his life was spent at Puri where he enjoyed great popularity among the local people as also among his followers from native Bengal who visited him annually at the time of the Rath Yatra celebrations. It was from Puri that Chaitanya gave directions to his followers to launch an evangelizing movement in ethnic Bengal and which was successfully carried out by his most intimate flowers and companions. Mystery surrounds the death of Chaitanya in 1533 and conflicting accounts of this have been examined in some detail.
Representation
Authors: Smithies Declan
Published: August 2019

Chapter 2 explores the relationship between consciousness and mental representation. Section 2.1 argues for a version of representationalism, the thesis that consciousness is a kind of mental representation. Section 2.2 argues against the representational grounding thesis, which says that all unconscious mental representation is grounded in consciousness. Section 2.3 argues that the representational grounding thesis is not supported by failure of the program of naturalizing mental representation. Section 2.4 examines the conceptual grounding thesis, which says that all conceptual representation is grounded in consciousness. The role of consciousness in thought is best explained as a consequence of the epistemic role of consciousness together with epistemic constraints on conceptual thought. Section 2.5 presents the epistemic grounding thesis, which says that all mental representation that provides epistemic justification for belief is grounded in consciousness. This thesis sets the agenda for the rest of the book.
Mentalism
Authors: Smithies Declan
Published: August 2019

Chapter 6 develops a theory of epistemic justification designed to capture the epistemic role of phenomenal consciousness: namely, phenomenal mentalism. Section 6.1 defines epistemic justification within the framework of evidentialism. Section 6.2 defines mentalism about epistemic justification and explores its connection with evidentialism. Section 6.3 argues for phenomenal mentalism, the thesis that epistemic justification is determined solely by your phenomenally individuated mental states, by appealing to intuitions about clairvoyance, super-blindsight, and the new evil demon problem. Section 6.4 argues for a phenomenal conception of evidence, which says that your evidence is exhausted by facts about your current phenomenally individuated mental states, and defends it against Timothy Williamson’s arguments for the E = K thesis. Finally, section 6.5 outlines an explanatory challenge for phenomenal mentalism, which sets the agenda for the second part of the book.
Accessibilism
Authors: Smithies Declan
Published: August 2019

Chapter 7 answers the explanatory challenge by combining phenomenal mentalism with accessibilism to yield phenomenal accessibilism. Section 7.1 defines accessibilism as the thesis that epistemic justification is luminous in the sense that you’re always in a position to know which propositions you have epistemic justification to believe. Section 7.2 argues that phenomenal mentalism is part of the best explanation of accessibilism: if accessibilism can be motivated on independent grounds, then phenomenal mentalism is supported by inference to the best explanation. Sections 7.3 and 7.4 use accessibilism to motivate the intuitions about cases that support phenomenal mentalism—namely, clairvoyance, super-blindsight, and the new evil demon problem. Finally, section 7.5 answers the explanatory challenge for phenomenal mentalism: epistemic justification is determined by your current phenomenally individuated mental states because they are luminous by introspection.