This article makes two arguments: first, it argues that theories connecting ethnic group mobilization with democratic bargaining are based, often unwittingly, on primordialist assumptions that bias them toward overestimating the intractability of ethnic group demands. Second, it proposes a synthesis of constructivist approaches to ethnic identity and social choice theory to show how we who study ethnic mobilization might build theories that rely on the more realistic and more powerful assumption of instability in ethnic group boundaries and preferences. It illustrates (...) the promise of this approach through a study of the language bargain struck in India's constituent assembly between 1947 and 1949. (shrink)

Contributed research articles on Indic philosophy.

Hindu culture and philosophy in the Mahābhārata; a study.

The Ideal of perpetual peace can be called ‘Summum Bonum’ of Kant’s political philosophy. Kant’s essay entitled ‘perpetual peace’ was written in 1795, but its substantial values practically unimpaired. Anyone who is familiar with the mindset of Kant will definitely expect to find in him sound common sense, clear vision and a remarkable power of analytically exhibiting the conditions on which the facts necessarily depend. These characteristics are manifest in his essay on ‘Perpetual peace’. From the beginning of the history (...) of humanity, poets and prophets had cherished the sweet dream of a peaceful civilization. It is in the form of a practical project that this idea of perpetual peace is a noble one. Kant’s essay on perpetual peace has been divided into two sections. The first section contains ‘Six preliminary articles’ on perpetual peace between states, while the second section includes ‘Three definitive articles’ of a perpetual peace between states. Kant’s essay on perpetual peace at first sight seems as a pure political thought, but if we go through the content of it, we find its roots in ethics. If we say that the whole of Kant’s political thought has a sound ethical foundation, then it will not be wrong. If we make a deep analysis and a serious observation of all the preliminary and definitive articles of perpetual peace, we will find that there are fundamental ethical values and moral maxims rooted in the philosophy of perpetual peace. Ethics is the foundation of perpetual peace. Kant is not pessimist enough to believe that perpetual peace is an unrealisable dream or a consummation devoutly to be feared, nor is he optimist enough to fancy that it is an ideal which could be easily realised. For Kant, perpetual peace is an ideal not merely as a speculative Utopian idea, with which in fancy we may play, but as a moral principle, which ought to be, and therefore can be, realised. The present paper is an attempt to discover these hidden principles of morality in the description of perpetual peace. The author has tried to trace out and analyse the ethical foundation of perpetual peace with the help of preliminary and definitive articles of perpetual peace stated by Kant. (shrink)

Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug breathed her last after 42 years of being in a persistent vegetative state. Euthanasia in any form is not permitted in India and it was only in the year 2011 that a petition was filed in the court that urged the cessation of her force feeding with a nasogastric tube and the request for her peaceful death. What followed was a string of arguments and counter arguments relating to Euthanasia. The sad demise of Aruna Shanbaug is not (...) the end of an individual, but may be the end of the road for clear cut guidelines and legislation on Euthanasia in India. (shrink)

Honor killings are graceless and ferocious murders by chauvinists with an antediluvian mind. These are categorized separately because these killings are committed for the prime reason of satisfying the ego of the people whom the victim trusts and always looks up to for support and protection. It is for this sole reason that honor killings demand strict and stern punishment, not only for the person who committed the murder but also for any person who contributed or was party to the (...) act. A positive change can occur with stricter legislation and changes in the ethos of the society we live in today. (shrink)

This communication highlights a very pertinent and recent case of an erroneous representation of the Indian borders in an article ‘India by the numbers’ by Richard Van Noorden in Nature where a considerable part of the Jammu and Kashmir State of India is missing in the map incorporated in the article. The article received a series of comments showing disappointment on the issue and a need for the correction to the depicted Indian borders. The editor instead of making corrections to (...) the map has issued a statement that ‘the map shows land areas currently administered by the Indian Government’, that in no way can be considered as an acceptable argument. We wish the focus of this well written article had remained on science rather than introducing unnecessary controversies. (shrink)

Evaluation of scientific research is essential to judge the impact of research and the author. In this regard, a newly devised Leiden Manifesto describes 10 principles for guiding research evaluation. The principles need to be analyzed critically and adapted as a preferred method of research evaluation.

ObjectiveStudies that examine disordered eating in samples of Asian individuals living in the United States frequently combine all individuals of Asian descent into a single group, which can obscure important differences between groups and their experiences of acculturation. The goal of the present study was to establish the relation of acculturation, internalization of appearance ideals, and religiosity as predicting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in women of South and Southeast Asian descent.MethodWomen of SSEA descent aged 18–51 years completed a battery (...) of questionnaires that inquire about these variables. A path analysis was conducted with acculturation serving as the independent variable, religiosity and internalization of the thin ideal as mediators, and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating as dependent variables.ResultsDirect paths from acculturation to both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were not significant. Thin ideal internalization completely accounted for the path from acculturation to both endogenous variables; whereas, religiosity did not significantly account for any indirect effect.DiscussionFor SSEA women, internalization of appearance ideals is a potentially greater risk factor for disordered eating than acculturation or religiosity. As this was an atemporal mediation analysis, more work needs to be done exploring predictors of internalization in this population and how that may impact the development of disordered eating. (shrink)

Plagiarism is a serious threat plaguing the research in publication of science globally. There is an increasing need to address the issue of plagiarism especially among young researchers in the developing part of the world. Plagiarism needs to be earnestly discouraged to ensure a plagiarism free research environment. We provide further suggestions to combat student plagiarism at Master’s level and the regulations/guidelines regarding plagiarism in India.

The issue of ‘mandatory publications’ has generated serious flak about its usefulness among the various stakeholders. A lot of debate centers around the question of ‘lack of will’ or ‘lack of skill’ as a reason for the diminishing research interests among the medical faculty in India. In our view, it is the lack of will to publish good quality research which is to be blamed rather than the lack of skill to do good quality research.

The legal and moral validity of euthanasia has been questioned in different situations. In India, the status of euthanasia is no different. It was the Aruna Ramachandra Shanbaug case that got significant public attention and led the Supreme Court of India to initiate detailed deliberations on the long ignored issue of euthanasia. Realising the importance of this issue and considering the ongoing and pending litigation before the different courts in this regard, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of (...) India issued a public notice on May 2016 that invited opinions from the citizens and the concerned stakeholders on the proposed draft bill entitled The Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill Patients Bill. Globally, only a few countries have legislation with discreet and unambiguous guidelines on euthanasia. The ongoing developments have raised a hope of India getting a discreet law on euthanasia in the future. (shrink)

Respecting patients’ rights is a fundamental aspect of providing quality healthcare. The present investigation attempts to explore the awareness among patients about their rights in a coastal township in India. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among 215 patients admitted to the wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mangalore. Awareness among patients regarding their rights varied for various issues and ranged between 48.4 and 87.4 %. Awareness about patients’ rights was independent of gender, socio-economic and educational status. (...) Doctors were found to be the most common source of information for patient’s about their rights in the study. Doctors must conform to the relevant legislations and involve patients in all aspects of healthcare. There is a need to increase awareness among patients about their rights to ensure informed decisions and better health care services. (shrink)

Editing human germline genes may act as boon in some genetic and other disorders. Recent editing of the genome of the human embryo with the CRISPR/Cas9 editing tool generated a debate amongst top scientists of the world for the ethical considerations regarding its effect on the future generations. It needs to be seen as to what transformation human gene editing brings to humankind in the times to come.

Journalology is the science of publication practices and the study of these activities. This communication details a centre for Journalology run by the Ottawa Hospital, Canada. The Centre has a valued role to play in the publication practices, ethics, and guides that researchers need in order to identify suitable journals for their research. Such centres are needed in every university so that the best publication practices are promoted and scientific integrity is maintained and enhanced.

A large section of the population (70%) of Uttarakhand largely depends upon agricultural based activities for their livelihood. Rural community of the mountains has developed several indigenous and traditional methods of farming to conserve the crop diversity and rejoice agrodiversity with religious and cultural vehemence. Traditional food items are prepared during occasion, festivals, weddings, and other religious rituals from diversified agrodiversity are a mean to maintain agrodiversity in the agriculture system. Agrodiversity is an insurance against disease and extreme climatic fluctuations, (...) as a coping mechanism in times of scarcity, as a means to enhance overall productivity of farms, as a source of critical nutrition and medicine in the Himalayan region. The different traditional system of agriculture and indigenous method of maintaining soil fertility, socio-cultural and religious rituals has saved many crops that are under threatened category. But all these system and practices are ignored nauseatingly in hill agriculture policy, where more emphasis was given for plain areas. Less emphasis is being put on local systems that rely on existing natural, human, and social assets such as biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and social capital underpinning collective action to ensure food security. Of late, development planners have realized the importance of appropriate technologies and therefore have stressed the need for on-site training, and capacity building of user groups in rural areas of the region. Rural technology demonstration and training center have been supposed as a means disseminating technologies enabling improvement in the yield potential of farms, income generation from off-farm activities, and conservation and efficient use of natural resources. There is a strong need to bring desirable changes in the agricultural policy, research, and development in reference to mountainous regions. The present paper describe present scenario of agriculture, traditional, and socio-cultural practices of retaining soil fertility and agrodiversity, policy dimensions, and strategies for management of the Himalayan agroecosystems. (shrink)

Ethical morality is one of the significant issues in self-driving cars. The paper provides a newer approach to solve the ethical decision problems in self-driving cars until there is no concrete ethical decision to all problems. This paper gives a two-way approach to solve a problem, with first being the mapping of problem to the solution already known or which has a fixed set of solutions and action priorities defined to a problem previously. Now, if no solution is found or (...) mapping is unsuccessful, then the second stage activates, where the solution from Deep Q-learning model is calculated. It estimates the best Q value and returns that solution or action which maximizes the reward at that instance. The reward function is designed with decreasing priorities and acts accordingly, where the users can change or define their priorities if needed. The case study and results show that the solution that is present in the paper will lead to solving ethical morality problems in self-driving cars up to a great extent. (shrink)

A bewildering range of games are emerging every other day with newer elements of fun and entertainment to woo youngsters. Games are meant to reduce stress and enhance the cognitive development of children as well as adults. Teenagers are always curious to indulge in newer games; and e-gaming is one such platform providing an easy access and quicker means of entertainment. The particular game challenge which has taken the world by storm is the dangerous “Blue Whale Challenge” often involving vulnerable (...) teenagers. The Blue Whale Challenge is neither an application nor internet based game but the users get a link through social media chat groups to enter this “deadly” challenge game. This probably is the only game where the participant has to end his/her life to complete the game. The innocent teenagers are being targeted based on their depressed psychology and are coercively isolated from their social milieux on the pretext of keeping the challenges confidential. To add to the woes, no option is offered to quit the challenge even if the contender is unable to complete the challenge. Blue Whale Challenge in its sheer form could be seen as an illegal, unethical and inhumane endeavor in our present society. The present communication discusses the severe effects of the game on teenagers, the ethical concerns involved and the preventive measures necessary to curb it. (shrink)

With the advent of modern technology, the way society handles and performs monetary transactions has changed tremendously. The world is moving swiftly towards the digital arena. The use of Automated Teller Machine cards has led to a “cash-less society” and has fostered digital payments and purchases. In addition to this, the trust and reliance of the society upon these small pieces of plastic, having numbers engraved upon them, has increased immensely over the last two decades. In the past few years, (...) the number of ATM fraud cases has increased exponentially. With the money of the people shifting towards the digital platform, ATM skimming has become a problem that has eventually led to a global outcry. The present review discusses the serious repercussions of ATM card cloning and the associated privacy, ethical and legal concerns. The preventive measures which need to be taken and adopted by the government authorities to mitigate the problem have also been discussed. (shrink)

Két, közelmúltban megrendezett filozófiai konferencia előadásaiból válogat a tanulmánykötet. A 2015-ben a kaposvári egyetemen és 2016-ban a Filozófiai Intézetben megtartott tanácskozások témája az érzelmek és a jelentés volt. Az érzelmek mibenléte, az ésszel és értelemmel való kapcsolata már a kezdetek óta foglalkoztatta a filozófusokat, érthető hát, hogy a kötet élén két filozófiatörténeti esettanulmány áll, az első az ókori sztoikusoknál vizsgálja az érzelmek és a cselekvés viszonyát, a másik a bűnös érzelmek problémáját mutatja be a skolasztika korában. A folytatásban már a (...) kortárs filozófiai viták egy-egy témája kerül elő: az éntapasztalat fenomenológiai leírása és az érzelmek lehetséges szerepe a racionális vitákban. Az érzelmekről szóló blokkot záró két kognitív pszichológiai tanulmány az empirikus tudományok felől közelíti meg a problémakört. A kiadvány második felében található négy tanulmányt a huszadik századi filozófia egyik kulcsfogalma, a jelentés köti össze, amelynek kapcsán nyelv- és elmefilozófiai problémák kerülnek tárgyalásra: intencionalitás és fenomenalitás viszonya, a szemantikai szkepticizmus, a vélekedések filozófiai leírása. A kortárs filozófiai diskurzusokba betekintést nyújtó, a szerkesztők rövid előszavával bevezetett kiadvány a szakkönyvtárak anyaga. "www.kello.hu © minden jog fenntartva". (shrink)

A fiatal kutató a szociológiai értelemben vett segítés elméletével és gyakorlatával foglalkozik, s ezen belül is egyrészt azzal, hogy adott helyzetben miként jönnek létre az ún. jóról alkotott elképzelések, másrészt a kisebbségi magyarok segítésének elképzeléseiből miként erednek konkrét civil cselekvések, és ezek hogyan teremtik újra a résztvevők nemzet- és magyarságképét, harmadszor pedig górcső alá kerül a civil segítés hatalmi dimenziója. A bevezetőt követően olyan témákat érint a szerző, mint a jótékonyság modelljei, az "érdemesség" szerepe, a segítő-segített pozíciók aszimmetriája (hatalom újratermelésének (...) modelljei, elismerés és jótékonykodás, hatalom a jótékonyság elméleti modelljeiben), a kisebbségi magyarok támogatásának intézményes keretei, illetve a módszertan (programok kiválasztása, alkalmazott módszerek). ***A folytatásban olvashatunk négy konkrét programról, a segítés ideológiájáról és azok újratermeléséről (hiány és érdemesség toposzai, rítusok, "másság", érdemesség fenntartása és újraalkotása), az elismerés korlátairól és lehetőségeiről, valamint a gondoskodás és intimitás jótékonyságban játszott szerepéről. A szakkönyv a következtetések összegzésével, és a felhasznált irodalom felsorolásával zárul. A kötet az Ünnepi Könyvhét alkalmából jelenik meg. "www.kello.hu © minden jog fenntartva". (shrink)