The natural disasters ravaging countries in the South Asian region play out through the medium of water. There are increasingly frequent periods of protracted drought and floods as climate change affects the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain ranges: the Indus Basin Irrigation System has experienced a reduction in the glacial area covered since the 1970s due […]
Read More… from Managing water for food and human security in South Asia
Gharats/water mills are traditional structures used for grinding grains and many are installed/constructed across the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) where water from glacier-fed rivers powers the mills. Recent investment and low-cost technology proliferation of solar &hydro energy infrastructure across the IHR has led to some functional Gharats in villages being used for hydro energy generation […]
Climate risks to dryland agriculture are on the rise. Variability and disruption in the seasonal monsoon coupled with other factors such as low agricultural productivity of dryland crops, poor commercial opportunities and a high proportion of small landholding farmers limits the livelihood opportunities from dryland agriculture. Dryland agricultural research centres have produced evidence on the […]
A century of Portuguese interaction with Malabar during the early modern period was crucial for the creation of vernacular Mappila Muslim identity, largely through means of vernacularisation of language, the proliferation of Arabi-Malayalam, and the consolidation of religious identity. The paper tries to locate various social transformations that happened to the Mappilas during the sixteenth […]
In the year 1877, at the imperial theatre of St. Petersburg in Russia, it was premiered the ballet ‘La Bayadère’ (Russian : ‘Bayaderka’), choreographed by the French maître de ballet Marius Petipa (1818-1910). Since the time of its composition, this ballet has been performed by the major dance companies throughout the world. The heroine, the young […]
Read More… from The Indian temple and court dancers in the 16th century Portuguese reports
This paper will explore how the memory of Portuguese presence in India is recollected in novels by authors writing in a variety of languages and representing different generations. Activating this memory through the tools of description, characterisation, and narration both allows their authors to make certain political arguments and reflects their cultural and ideological positions […]
The Lusophonic ambitions of the Portuguese Monarchy confronted the proselytization attempts of the Portuguese Padroado by the second half of 16th century. Recognizing the power of theatre over sermons, indigenous languages over Portuguese & Latin, the Padroado revamped an indigenous theatre to teach the Catholic ways of life to the newly converted Latin Catholics. Currently […]
For over 500 years, the city of Kochi was occupied by three colonial powers. As a city that has cohabited with colonialism, Kochi retains a cultural memory suspended in time. The narratives and local histories of the city often do not feature in the ‘authorised’ histories or fit within the frameworks of established academic disciplines. […]
Read More… from Cultural memory of the slave: Remembering the kapiri of Cochin
The priests who accompanied (and sometimes preceded) the expansion of Portuguese rule in Sri Lanka comprised the first of several waves of Catholic missionary activity, and Catholicism was central to Portuguese control of the northern kingdom of Jaffna between 1618 and 1658, the final decades of Portugal’s local presence. During this period the missionaries claimed […]
The ceremonial repertoire of Southern Kerala’s Latin Christians includes a Lent tradition known as Devastha Vili or, among the Catholic community of Vypeen (Cochin), Devosta. It consists of a set of prayers typically recited at night and in the open air, with a single (usually male) voice loudly calling the community to prayer. The Catholics […]
