LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019

AN INVENTIVE APPROACH ON PREDICTION OF GOLD PRICE IN THE CURRENT SCENARIO

KAVERY B S RESEARCH SCHOLAR IN COMMERCE S N COLLEGE,KOLLAM

ABSTRACT Gold is appreciated all over the world for its worth. Gold is an imperative part of a diversified investment portfolio. Indians have always invested in gold for weddings, gifts and as a hedge against inflation. Over decades people have been selecting the gold over other metals and semi-precious stones. After the implementation of GST, GST on gold rate will marginally increase. In 2019, the Price of 10 Grams of gold will be Rs.35,552.85 and in 2020 it would be Rs.37, 268.39. After the introduction of the GST, the consumers have to find out an additional amount of Rs.476.91, and the percentage of increase would be 5.75%.

Keywords: Gold, Diversified Investment Portfolio, GST, Inflation, Customs Duty, Excise Duty, VAT

Introduction Gold is appreciated all over the world for its worth. Throughout the centuries, people have sustained to hold gold for an assortment of raison d’êtres. India’s centuries-old gold industry is the world’s biggest market for the metal, with imports meeting almost all the country’s necessities for jewellery and investment. Imports are elevated not only because of an enormous demand but also because of the large population of about 1.2 billion people. India’s gold market is predicted to have more than 350000 jewellers, generally small, family-run businesses.

The need for the study Gold should be an imperative part of a diversified investment portfolio because its price increases in rejoinder to actions that cause the value of paper investments, such as stocks and bonds, to turn down. Even though the price of gold can be unpredictable in the short term, it has 1 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 always maintained its value over the long term. Indians have always invested in gold for weddings, gifts and as a hedge against inflation. The gold mania is not new in our country and every Indian family believes in investing in gold jewellery not only for their personal use but also as a hedge against inflation. But now there are more reasons to it than mere weddings and inflation. Over decades people have been selecting the gold over other metals and semi- precious stones. The reasons are varied.

1. Gold itself is accessible in numerous variation Designs on gold metal are easy to execute. Also, the metal doesn’t lead to any finger rash and is long lasting. You can select the gold in any format.

2. Gold is as good as platinum Some people want to sport platinum. But it could be that they don’t have the required budget to opt in for it. It is where gold walks in and can be an excellent substitute. It helps you to sport a platinum look at a half price.

3. Gold is durable when compared to other precious metals Based on the alloy mix gold offers better stability and durability similar to other precious metals. The chances of gold getting scratched or dinged are very less. So, people who are always on the move, this is a fantastic option.

4. Gold of any type is enduring Gold brings in cryptogram and nuance of unending worship, wholesomeness, and potency. All these characters make gold the perfect metal for customizing special occasions.

5. Gold is compliant to all people Some people want their gold ornaments classic, fashionable and ageless. And there’s another section of people who would fancy their gold to be glossy, chic and modern with minimal designs. Gold does righteousness to both and looks good in both the design forms.

So, make sure that you choose from only the best brand that offers both excellent products and value for money. After the implementation of GST, GST on gold rate will marginally increase. Hence, the cost of gold and gold jewellery will be marginally higher in the GST era.

GST on gold purchase On the 3 rd of June, 2017, the much awaited GST rates on gold and jewellery were announced. While the gold rate after GST was fixed at a flat 3%, uncut diamonds and precious stones were taxed at 0.25%. Similar to gold, the rate of 3% was fixed for silver as well as polished diamonds. 2 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019

GST on gold making In addition to this, the government has also levied a 5% GST on making charges. The tax on making charges was initially fixed at 18%, but appeals from Indian jewellery councils and bodies to reduce the rate resulted in the subsequent reduction. This is also a relief for end consumers, who would have had to bear the burden of a higher tax otherwise.

Import Duty on Gold The one duty on gold, which has not been subsumed under GST is the Import Duty. Gold will continue to attract an import duty of 10%, as it continues being one of the key products being imported into a highly gold-loving nation.

In this backdrop, it is felt to evaluate the price of the gold available in the market. Since the gold is a precious metal, its demand is high along with the price. Hence an attempt has been done to examine the growth in the price of the gold from 2008 onwards to the current period and also predict the price of the gold based on past prices.

Objectives of the study 1. To predict the price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees based on past prices. 2. To examine the Price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees after the implementation of the GST.

Hypotheses of the study 1. There is no linear trend of the price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees based on past prices. 2. The Price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees after the implementation of the GST has declined.

The methodology of the Study The present study is analytical in nature. The secondary data is used to evaluate the research problems. Time series analysis was applied by the researcher to predict the price of the gold. The study period starts from 2008 to 2018.

Result and Discussion Table 1.1 The average price for 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees The average price for 10 grams of gold in Growth Period Indian Rupees Rate 2008 Rs. 12,500.00 1

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2009 Rs. 14,500.00 1.16

2010 Rs. 18,500.00 1.48 2011 Rs. 26,400.00 2.11 2012 Rs. 31,050.00 2.48 2013 Rs. 29,600.00 2.36 2014 Rs.28,006.50 2.24 2015 Rs.26,343.50 2.10 2016 Rs.28,623.50 2.28 2017 Rs.29,667.50 2.37 Source:2018 - https://www.policybazaar.com/gold-rate Rs. 32665.00 2.61

In the year 2008, the average price for 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees was Rs.12500. In 2009 the price was increased to Rs.14500 with a growth rate of 1.16. In the year 2010 and 2011, the price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees was Rs.18500 and Rs.26400 with a corresponding growth rate of 1.18 and 2.11 respectively. Further, the price increased to Rs.31050 in 2012 with a growth rate of 2.48. But unfortunately, during the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 the price of the gold has slashed down and it become Rs.29600, Rs.28006.50 and Rs.26343.50 respectively. During the period 2016 and 2017, a considerable augment is seen with the price of the gold and it reached Rs.28623.50 and Rs.29, 667.50. Finally, in the year 2018, the price of the 10 grams of gold in Indian Rupees was Rs.32665 with a growth rate of 2.61.

Table 1.2 Regression analysis on Price of 10 Grams of gold

Regression Analysis -Price 0.686 r² n 11 0.828 r k 1 4062.093 Price of 10 Grams of Std. Error Dep. Var. gold ANOVA table

4

LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 Std. Error Dep. Var. gold ANOVA table Source SS df MS F p-value 323,737,151.645 323,737,151.6455 1 5 19.62 .0016 Regression

148,505,394.9000 9 16,500,599.4333 Residual Result

472,242,546.5455 10 Total Significant Source: Secondary data

The attempt of the present study was to examine the trend of Price of 10 Grams of gold. Accordingly, the Regression Analysis was performed. The correlation value is 0.828 and the R Square value is 0.686, relatively a higher accuracy. This implies the fact that with the support of Time (Period) it is possible to predict the Price of 10 Grams of gold to the extent of 68.60% true. Further Anova test was also done. The F value of the model is 19.62 and p-value is 0.0016, showed the significant fit of the model. This implies with the help of the Time (Period), it is possible to predict the Price of 10 Grams of gold. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected.

Table 1.3 Time series analysis on Price of 10 Grams of gold Regression output variables coefficients std. error t (df=8) p-value Intercept -3,428,115.0636 t 1,715.5364 387.3054 4.429 .0016 Predicted values for: Price t Actual ( Price ) Predicted( Price ) Residual 2,008 12,500.00 16,681.95 -4,181.95 2,009 14,500.00 18,397.49 -3,897.49 2,010 18,500.00 20,113.03 -1,613.03 2,011 26,400.00 21,828.56 4,571.44 2,012 31,050.00 23,544.10 7,505.90 2,013 29,600.00 25,259.64 4,340.36 2,014 28,006.50 26,975.17 1,031.33 2,015 26,343.50 28,690.71 -2,347.21 2,016 28,623.50 30,406.25 -1,782.75

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2,016 28,623.50 30,406.25 - 1,782.75 2,017 29,667.50 32,121.78 -2,454.28 2,018 -- 33,837.32 -- 2,019 -- 35,552.85 -- 2,020 -- 37,268.39 -- Durbin-Watson = 1.59 Source: Secondary data

The Regression output was explained through the OLS equation. This showed that Price of 10 Grams of gold= -3,428,115.06+ Time (Period) x 1,715.53.

Since the t-test value is 4.429 and p-value is 0.0016, it is clear that the independent variable Time (Period) can alone influence the Price of 10 Grams of gold. Thus the null hypothesis is rejected. Durbin-Watson value is 1.59, greater than R Square value 0.686 showed the regression is not spurious. Based on the above explanation it is necessary to predict the Price of 10 Grams of gold. From the above table, it is clear that, if the trend goes like this, in 2019, the Price of 10 Grams of gold will be Rs.35,552.85 and in 2020 it would be Rs.37, 268.39.

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implication on the price of the gold. For this, a detailed comparison was made. The details are discussed below in table 1.4. Table 1.4 Comparison of the price of the10 Grams of gold PARTICULARS PREVIOUS RATES UNDER GST Price of 10 Grams of gold (Rs) 32665.00 32665.00 Customs Duty (10%) 3266.50 3266.50 Price after CD 35931.50 35931.50 Excise Duty (1%) 326.65 0.00 Price after CD +ED 36258.15 35931.50 VAT (1.2%) 391.98 0.00 Price after CD +ED+ VAT 36650.13 35931.50 GST (3%) 0.00 979.95 TOTAL 36650.13 36911.45 Making Charges (12%) 4311.78 4311.78 Total after Making the charge 40961.91 41223.23 GST on Making Charges (5%) 0.00 215.59 Price of gold (Rs) 40961.91 41438.82 Total Taxes and Duties payable 8296.91 8773.82 The effective increase in gold price 0.00 476.91 Percentage of Increase after the implementation of GST 0.00 5.75% Source: Secondary data

From the above table, it is clear that a consumer has to pay Rs. 41438.82 for the purchase of 10 Grams of gold through the retail shops in India after the introduction of the GST. Prior to the implementation of GST, the amount payable was Rs. 40961.91 . This implies that, for every purchase of 10 Grams of gold through the retail shops in India, consumers have to bear an additional amount of Rs.476.91, which is found a burden on the consumer. In short, the percentage of increase after the implementation of GST would be 5.75%. Conclusions The average price for 10 grams of gold of Rs.12500 has been increased to Rs.32665 with a growth rate of 2.61 from 2008 to 2018. It is possible to predict the Price of 10 Grams of gold to the extent of 68.60% true during the same period. In future, the price of 10 Grams of gold would be -3,428,115.06+ Time (Period) x 1,715.53. If the trend goes like this, in 2019, the Price of 10 Grams of gold will be Rs.35,552.85 and in 2020 it would be Rs.37, 268.39. Prior to the implementation of GST, a consumer has to pay Rs. 40961.91 for the purchase of 10 Grams of gold through the retail shops in India, but now it becomes Rs. 41438.82 after the

7 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 introduction of the GST with an additional amount of Rs.476.91 and the percentage of increase would be 5.75%.

Bibliography https://www.policybazaar.com/gold-rate https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7333120/ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ac4a/c315a7e50a836b39a4fd4064d14ffb63f145.pdf https://www.researchgate.net...306013972_A_literature_review_on_gold_price_predict...

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AFTER BPO ITS KPO

Dr. Sebastian Aikara Girideepam Business School (GBS), Bethany Hills, Vadvathoor P.O, Kottayam- 686 010. Email:[email protected] Mob:-09447415193

ABSTRACT The evolution and maturity of the Indian BPO sector has given birth to yet another wave in the global outsourcing scene: KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing. The success in outsourcing business process operations to India has encouraged many firms to start outsourcing their high-end knowledge work as well. No matter KPO is a step ahead of BPO but this does not mean the end of BPO. The BPO Industry will continue to be successful in India. BPO has its own way to solve a particular problem. The BPO market is long term in nature as compared to the KPO market. With every passing day the BPO market base is expanding and so is the various processes outsourced through it.

Key: BPO. KPO, Off-sourcing

There is no doubt that KPO will be the next big thing after BPO. KPO unlike BPO is not just restricted to information technology. It specializes in various other challenging sectors namely business research, Clinical research, Intellectual property research etc. The KPO exports are estimated to be around $12 billion at the end of 2010. The future of KPO appears to be bright and is expected to achieve a high end of BPO at the end of 2010. The KPO regime looks all set and poised to accept the new challenges of high training cost and a much higher attrition-rates. The short-term contracts will demand high quality work and skills on part of its workers. KPO industry has accepted all these challenges and is all set to leave a mark just like the BPO brigade.

What is outsourcing? Outsourcing could be defined as the shifting or delegating a company’s day to day operations or business process to an external service provider, done in anticipation of a better

9 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 quality, lower rates and in a sense getting an edge over one’s competitors. When a company’s operations or business processes are outsourced to firms in foreign countries, often to take advantage of cheap skilled labor, it is referred to as Offshore outsourcing or Off shoring. The concept of taking internal company functions and paying an outside firm to handle them is called off-sourcing. Outsourcing is done to save money, improve quality, or free company resources for other activities. Outsourcing was first done in the data-processing industry and has spread to areas, including tele-messaging and call centers. Outsourcing is the wave of the future. Outsourcing usually applies to a complete business process. It implies a degree of managerial control and risk on the part of the provider. Business process outsourcing

BPO is the act of transferring some of an organization repeated core and non-core business processes to an outside provider to achieve cost reduction while improving service quality. Because the processes are repeated and a long-term contract is used, outsourcing goes far beyond the use of consultants. If done well, BPO results in increasing shareholder value. The main difference between BPO and more traditional IT outsourcing is that BPO offers companies a way of achieving transformational outcomes much more quickly.

BPO undertakes: Data processing, basic data entry, setting up of a bank account, department outsourcing, provides technical support etc.

After BPO its KPO After business process outsourcing (BPO), India is now poised to shift to a knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) regime. After achieving success in BPO, India has taken a step forward to widen its success towards the KPO regime. KPO industry unlike BPO provides domain-based processes and business expertise. KPO is more like a challenge as it demands advanced and expertise skills on part of its employees. BPO on the other hand is more or less like a commodity business which stretches more on information technology and its various sectors.

BPO Significance: No matter KPO is a step ahead of BPO but this does not mean the end of BPO. The BPO Industry will continue to be successful in India. BPO has its own way to solve a particular problem. The BPO market is long term in nature as compared to the KPO market. With every passing day the BPO market base is expanding and so is the various processes outsourced through it.

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BPO undertakes: · Data processing · Basic data entry · Setting up of a bank account · Department Outsourcing · Provides technical support · Provides email support to its customers

Even after the entry of KPO in the Indian market. BPO will continue to derive higher revenues as compared to the KPO industry. The BPO exports will be as higher as $20 billion by the end of 2010. By a recent study done by experts the BPO industry is expected to grow globally at a CAGR of over 26 percent by 2010.

KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) Significance There is no doubt that KPO will be the next big thing after BPO. KPO unlike BPO is not just restricted to information technology. It specializes in various other challenging sectors namely business research, Clinical research, Intellectual property research etc. The KPO regime looks all set and poised to accept the new challenges of high training cost and a much higher attrition- rates. The short term contracts will demand high quality work and skills on part of its workers. KPO industry has accepted all these challenges and is all set to leave a mark just like the BPO brigade.

Knowledge process outsourcing Knowledge Process Outsourcing is off shoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialized domain expertise. KPO requires people with a good educational background. KPO sector provides long term jobs for intellectually, analytical and knowledge people with a pay scale much higher than the BPO sector.

Benefits of KPO Why should your company invest in knowledge process outsourcing? The fundamentals of outsourcing apply to knowledge based services as well. A shortage of trained professionals shoots up the cost of maintaining such services in the host country when the same job can be done with similar precision and quality and at less than half the cost abroad. The major KPO benefits are described below. Outsourcing to KPO firms can provide the following benefits: · Valuable cost savings that can be utilized elsewhere. · Standard operational efficiency.

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· Trained professionals at work. · Savings in time and management energy for maintaining in house services. · Increase in profits. · Option to recruit a larger work force without raising costs.

What KPO can deliver to you? · Good quality work. · Lower costs. · On time delivery of services. · Uninterrupted services. · Adaptability to changes in required quality.

Disadvantages of KPO · The work culture in KPO is much more serious than a BPO. · Due to the difference in time zones, a small change in the schedule may cause a deadline to jump by a considerable time. · The work requires careful handling. · It often eliminates face to face communication between a company and its clients. · Unsuitable for small firms

What’s the difference? It’s not just a ‘B’ replaced by a ‘K’. KPO involves high-end processes like valuation research, investment research, patent filing, legal and insurance claims processing, etc. BPO mainly deals with technical support, transaction processing, customer care, telemarketing etc. KPO is off shoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialized domain expertise. KPO requires people with a good educational background and experts in a particular field. BPO needs only a good command over English. KPO companies provide much higher salary than BPO.

KPO in India BPO success in India is encouraging overseas companies eyeing Indian market for outsourcing their high-tech knowledge based jobs. Operational cost saving, pool of talented workforce, infrastructure improvement and favorable government policies are the major factors, which are responsible for the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) in India. According to a report by Global Sourcing, now the Global Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12

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billion (almost 70%) would be outsourced to India alone. Indian KPO sector has already taken steps in employing highly educated and talented people and number of KPO professionals is expected to cross more than 250,000 by 2010 compared to the current figure of 25,000 employees.

What makes India a preferred destination for KPO?

The Indian workforce is highly literate and they are well-versed with English language, thanks to Indian educational system. Every year India is producing hundreds and thousands of English speaking, trained professionals in the fields of IT, Engineering, Education, Law, Science, Finance, Architecture and other competitive fields.

The Indian advantage primarily lies in the educational and technical qualifications of its workforce. A survey conducted in 2002 by NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) showed that an Indian ITES-BPO center in banking and financial service sector, performs better than US and UK based BPO centers in various categories like the total number of transaction, total number of correct transactions, total customer satisfaction, number of transaction per hour and the average speed of answers.

It has also showed in the survey that 45 percent of Indian KPO service providers have the highest quality certification like Six Sigma (A rigorous and disciplined methodology that utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company’s operational performance, practices, and systems. Six Sigma identifies and prevents defects in manufacturing and service- related processes.). BPO or KPO in India are getting more quality conscious and they are frequently improving to have standards that of internationally accepted. They are in the process of highly acclaimed quality management standards from International Organization for Standardization (ISO) such as ISO 9002, ISO 9001, ISO 9001:2000, ISO 9001:2001 and from the CMM framework to the new CMMI framework.

Comparison of Opportunity in BPO and KPO markets

Low-end outsourcing services have an expected Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26% by 2010. In contrast, the global market is poised for an expected CAGR of 46% by 2010. The following figure demonstrates the expected growth in the BPO and KPO markets over the next seven years.

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What high-end services can be outsourced to the Indian KPO sector? Here are some KPO services that can be outsourced to India: · Research & Development · Business and Technical Analysis · Learning Solutions · Animation & Design · Business & Market Research · Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology · Medical Services · Writing & Content Development · Legal Services · Intellectual Property (IP) Research · Data Analytics · Network Management · Training & Consultancy The challenges in KPO KPO delivers high value to organizations by providing domain-based processes and business expertise rather than just process expertise. These processes demand advanced analytical and specialized skill of knowledge workers that have domain experience to their credit.Therefore outsourcing of knowledge processes face more challenges than BPO (Business Process Outsourcing). Some of the challenges involved in KPO will be maintaining higher quality standards,

14 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 investment in KPO infrastructure, the lack of talent pool, requirement of higher level of control, confidentiality and enhanced risk management.

Comparing these challenges with the Indian IT and ITES service providers, it is not surprising that India has been ranked the most preferred KPO outsourcing destination owing to the country’s large talent pool, quality IT training, friendly government policies and low labor costs. India is well equipped to meet this emerging sector’s challenges and all set to be the global KPO hub. Conclusion Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) has become a very big trend. KPO is the highest level of BPO where data is converted into information and the information is then processed by analysts. KPO is the fourth wave in the BPO industry and a lot of this kind of processing work is happening in the healthcare, market research and financial space. KPOs have evolved from BPOs. But KPOs actually started coming up in India in 2000 when many companies like Office Tiger, GE, Gartner, etc opened their research centers here. From 2000 to 2005, KPOs were in their growing stage. And during this duration, India became a leading destination for KPOs.

Reference

· A garwal, A. (2005) Moving towards KPO. The Economic Times, 15 November, p.4.

· Aggarwal (2007) wledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) Sector Origin, Current State and Future Directions. [Internet], Evalueserve, Available from: [Accessed 24 June 2008].

· Ang, S. and Straub, D.W. (1998) Production and transaction economies and IS outsourcing: a study of the US banking industry. MIS Quarterly, 22(4) December.

· Annual Report of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreement Program (1996) US Government Printing Office.

· Friedman, T.L. (2005) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

· Gupta, U.G. and Gupta, A. (1992) Outsourcing the IS function: is it necessary for your organization? Information Systems Management, Summer.

· Hillary, M.K. (2004) Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage. 2nd ed. Verlag, Springer.

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ARTICULATING THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLE (THE DISABLED?) IN MOVIES: FROM “OTHERING” TO “TETHERING”

Mrs. Ann Mary Jacob Asst. Professor, Dept of English GIAL, Vadavathoor

ABSTRACT This paper intends to throw light upon the absurdity of attributing power, identity and status to such a transient entity as human body. It also analyzes how the historical and contemporary cinematic representations of the differently able have defined, ill-defined and re-defined the societal perspectives. In the light of the Foucauldian theory of “Otherness”, movies turn out to be the tools for Othering the differently able. The transformative phase through which we go foreground the urgency of revising the parameters of normalcy and responding to the clamours for a better inclusion in the mainstream.

Viewed upon as a conferred phenomenon which is further nurtured by acquisition and strengthened by adaptation, ability gets different shades of meaning. What matters for survival is how well one faces his/her ability or disability by birth. The incredible levels of adaptation shown by the differently able score better than the easiness with which the able bodied tag themselves as befitting to the demands made upon them. The differently able invent unprecedented ways of existence out of their need. Their difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions. Thus they can adapt better to the challenges on body whereas the so-called able bodied are more susceptible to the threats on their body. While the differently able have nothing more to worry once they have accustomed to their physical difference it is indeed tragic to see the transition of an able bodied person to a disabled one. They lag behind in adapting themselves to the new critical situation in comparison with those who face disability by birth. Such instances prove the absurdity of allocating priority, power, identity and social status in vulnerable phenomenon called human body. Such transitions from an able body to a differently- able body prompt thoughts on the real skills for survival. The realization that one’s acceptance in society is mistakenly allied with the human body and its symmetry is the point of discussion. The society attributes superiority to perfect bodies

16 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 and this fallacy has triggered the make-over culture which corrects the differences from the standards of beauty. Unless and until people consider identity as a notion which surpasses human body, this unfair treatment will persist.

In the movie Thanmathra, we find the transition of an able man to a disabled man. He is portrayed as a perfect, healthy, handsome man envied by others for his sharp memory and harmonious life. Once affected with Schizophrenia he loses self-esteem and social acceptance. It evokes pity among the spectators. In the movie, Krishnagudiyil oru pranayakalathu , we find a proud young man’s reversal of fortune. The character loses his self esteem and drops his dreams about a happy life subsequent to an accident which makes him bed ridden. Here, the catastrophe on human body is depicted as the end of life. It is because of our belief in body as the only locale of identity. In contrast to this, we find Mohanlal in Pranayam who perceives his difference with a better perspective. Human identity must be liberated from the typical concept of the society.

Movies being instrumental in generating, cementing, refining and altering societal perspectives, an analysis of the same can throw light on how the differently able have been treated by society all through history. Applying the Foucauldian theory of Othering to the ways by which movies have portrayed the differently able, the stereotyped reductions turn obvious. They have been wrongly depicted as objects of pity, objects of humour, super heroes or villains.

“The act of Othering is a manifestation of power relations. When we start describing ourselves as a part of a group of people united in a ‘we’, while other people are constructed as fundamentally different united in a ‘they’, we are using a powerful weapon that might serve to delegitimize others. And too often, these distinctions are drawn along the classic axes of discrimination and power differences like sexuality, gender, ethnicity, race, class and so on.” (Engelund).

Movies such as Keli, Sooryamanasam, Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum, Meerayude Dukhavum Muthuvinte Swapnavum etc have sentimentalized the differently able. Grotesque figures were ridiculously portrayed through movies such as Sound thoma, Kunji Koonan, Adbhuta Dweepu etc . Moreover those roles of the so-called disabled characters were presented in contrast with the able bodied heroes who further differentiate them from the normal. Actor Dileep appeared in double role in Kunji Koonan only to reiterate the disabled otherness. Casting able bodied heroes to play the role of the differently able is yet another factor which provokes questions on the authenticity of such cinematic representations. In the movie, Memories we have seen a differently able villain and we have celebrated the super heroism of the blind in Oppam . Using a fair and able body to represent the challenged is in itself incongruous

17 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 thereby creating the notion of ‘dependent’ among the differently challenged. Hence the reality about the differently able remained an illusion until recently. Movies such as Su Su Sudhi valmeekam addresses the issue of the differently able rather more convincingly. The crisis that a young man faces due to stammering is well depicted in the movie and the realistic narration of his success story motivates the viewers.

On the whole, the movie industry employed its tools to other and tether the differently able in course of time. It is to be remembered how they have at large commercialized the phenomenon of being differently able coupled with their attempts to define and redefine the outlook towards the differently able. The term Othering describes the reductive action of labelling a person as someone who belongs to a subordinate social category defined as the Other. The practice of Othering is the exclusion of person who does not fit the norm of the social group, which is a version of the Self.

According to Michael Foucault, Othering is strongly connected with power and knowledge. When we ‘Other’ another group, we point out their perceived weaknesses to make ourselves look stronger or better. It implies a hierarchy and it serves to keep power where it already lies.

Historically movies have othered the differently able and this sin seems to be redeemed by the current trends of inclusion adapted by the movies. The differently able must be seen as a kind of normal group just as man, woman and transgender. Broadening the parameters of normalcy can promote inclusion. In the movie Poomaram we find the character of the mime trainer treated very normally without sentimental or ridiculous exaggeration of his physical condition. Another character is that of a make-up artist, played by a transgender without any taint of exclusion. There are other movies such as Vimanam, Oru Nadan Bomb Kadha etc which treat the issue more practically.

Watching movies alone cannot bring about desirable changes. It demands positive response from the entire humanity. Identifying all possible ways of inclusion and dismantling all prevalent modes of exclusion can resolve the issue. Mainstreaming special education can bring about considerable changes in the attitude of people towards the challenged. That principle by which two or three kinds of syllabi are taught in various schools run by the same authority can be applied in including a school with a carefully planned syllabus for students with different abilities rather than starting special and separate schools for them. Currently news channels have started telecasting news for the deaf and dumb along with the normal news hour which seems to be a better way of inclusion. This proves that they have equal right to information and shall in no way

18 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 be detained from being informed. Labelling reserved seats for the so called disabled in public transport system is yet another way of exclusion which underlines their attributed inferiority. Furthermore, the initiation of a matrimonial site solely meant for the disabled is largely welcomed and appreciated in the name of convenience and accessibility. Deep beneath such pronounced special spaces allotted for them we find a secret gratification of being able and superior.

The above mentioned exclusion strategies hinder refinement upon one’s outlook towards the challenged. The simple golden rule of inclusion is nothing but generosity which unfortunately people lack today. Psychologists have found that people at large are suffering from Empathy Deficit Disorder. So long as we are under the clutches of this disorder, the modes of exclusion will proliferate under the assumption of goodwill towards the challenged.

“A 2008 study on Power, Distress and Compassion found that people with higher socio-economic status felt significantly less empathy for the suffering of others. Empathy is crucial to maintain healthy relationships and for communication. Empathy Deficit Disorder eventually develops and these individuals tend to have low Emotional Intelligence Quotient. EIQ is the ability of individuals to understand emotions, both theirs and others.” (van Kleef, Oveis, van der LoweI, Luo Kogen, Geetz and Keltner)

EDD keeps us locked inside a self centered world, and that breeds emotional isolation, disconnection and polarization. That is highly dangerous in today’s interconnected, globalized world and it plays out in ways both small and large. EDD grows when people focus too much on acquiring power, status and money for themselves. This promotes vanity and self importance. Then, one becomes increasingly alienated from one’s own heart and equates what he has with who he is. “We must learn to reprogram our brain. From empathy, tolerance grows. Tolerance of difference is one of the most essential elements of psychological health. Empathy makes us mindful of our commonality and connection with fellow human beings. That is the only way towards a healthy life and a healthy world.” (La Bier)

Movies are indeed good channels through which we can spread awareness among the public about the better ways of inclusion. Visual representations have altered the human perspectives remarkably. Formerly they were simply devices that did ‘other’ the differently challenged, but, recently they have transformed their essence and methodology to suit the growing demands made by the othered. Movies have already begun their attempts to tether the othered to the mainstream. What one ought to do is nothing but respond in favour of this refined inclusive possibilities in all feasible arenas. In doing so, one gets relieved from his Empathy Deficit Disorder and contributes in building a new and better world.

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Works Cited Ø Engelund, Sara Rismyhr. “Introductory Essay: “The Other” and “Othering”/ New Narratives.” 2012. https://newnarratives.wordpress.com . 15 October 2018.

Ø Kleef GA, Oveis C, van der LoweI, Luokogan A, Goetz J, Keltner D, “Power, Distress and Compassion; Turning a blind eye to the suffering of others.” 2008. https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov . 16 October 2018.

Psychol Sci.2008 Dec; i9 (i2): i3i5-22.doi:i0.iiii/j.i467-9280.2008.0224i.x Ø La Bier, Douglas. “Are you suffering From empathy deficit Disorder? How to heal your EDD.” 12April 2010. https://www.psychologytoday.com . 12 October 2018.

Ø Thanmathra , Directed by Blessey, Century Films, 16 December 2005

Ø Krishnagudiyil Oru Pranaykalathu , Directed by Kamal, Shogun Films, 1997.

Ø Pranayam , Directed by Blessey, Maxlab Entertainments, 31 August 2011.

Ø Oppam , Directed by Priyadarshan, Maxlab Cinemas & Entertainments, 8 September 2016.

Ø Memories , Directed by Jeethu Joseph, Murali Films & Tricolor Entertainments, 9 August 2013.

Ø Adbhutha Dweepu , Directed by Vinayan, 1 April 2005.

Ø Sound Thoma , Directed by Vyshakhan, Priyanjali Films, 5 April 2July 2013.

Ø Kunji Koonan , Directed by Sasi Shankar, 31 July 2002.

Ø Keli , Directed by Bharathan, Ganga Movie Makers, 1991.

Ø Sooryamanasam , Directed by, Viji Thampi, Mak Release, 2 April 1992.

Ø Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njanum , Directed by Vinayan, Sargam Speed Release, 27 May 1999.

Ø Meerayude Dukhavum Muthuvinte Swapnavum , Directed by Vinayan, 25 July 2003.

Ø Su Su Sudhi Valmeekam , Directed by Ranjith Shankar, Central Pictures release, 20 November 2015.

Ø Poomaram , Directed by Abrid Shine, Central Pictures, Popcorn Entertainment, 15 March 2018.

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ETHICS OF EMOTIONAL LABOR

Dr. M. Chirayath Kendriya Vidyalaya Narayangarh, Nepal

ABSTRACT Emotions in the workplace play an important role in how an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world. The way in which the employees manage their emotions at workplace has an huge impact on overall oganisation performance. Emotional labor may involve enhancing, faking, or suppressing emotions to modify the emotional expression. Many work roles have displayed rules regarding the emotions that employees should show to the pubic. This is particularly noticeable in call centers, retail stores, and the hospitality industry. These are the new workplaces where this concept has great significance. Emotional labor and it growing importance opens a new area of study - the commodification of emotions - its ethical implications and outcomes.

Keywords: Emotions, Emotional labor, Ethics

Introduction Emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone or something. Emotions are reactions to an object, not a trait. They are object-specific. There are dozens of emotions. They include anger, contempt, enthusiasm, envy, fear, frustrations, happiness, hate, hope, jealousy, joy, love pride, surprise and sadness. Emotions can be positive – like happiness and hope- express a favorable evaluation or feeling, whereas negative emotions- like anger or hope-express the opposite. Emotions can’t be neutral. Being neutral is non emotional. Research has identified six universal emotions anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust and surprise.

Emotions were ignored in the past in organizational behavior. The workplace was considered only as a rational environment where emotions had no place. In recent times, researchers are interested in finding out how workplace emotions help to explain the important individual and organizational outcomes Emotions are a critical factor in employee behavior.

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The present world is changing on many aspects like technology, knowledge, media, work processes, and lifestyles. The adoption of the sophisticated technology has resulted in the reduced need for manufacturing workers. The wealth generated by the manufacturing companies and the rise of middle-class is driving the demand for services.

Services are the activities that are tailored to the individual requirements of the customers. And customers aren’t always easy to deal with. They often complain, behave rudely and make unrealistic demands.

It has moved from being value additions to brand drivers in their own right, which symbolize for the growing importance of the services. This is because service providers do tasks for the clients that they do not want to do for themselves. One example would be women flight attendants, explicitly paid to manage their own and the passengers emotions to prevent fear and create customer loyalty. Many customers base their perception of the company on the excellence of the service it offers.

As service are intangible by nature, the comparison of service standards between companies is based on the service delivered. This in turn depends upon the people who deliver the service, that is, the employees. However, modern day research has shown that the employees capacity to do their job well and deliver excellent service is dependent, to a large extent on their emotional well-being.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To get a comprehensive view on ethics of emotional labor. 2. To identify the pros and cons of emotional labor.

RESEARCH PROBLEM The research problem under the study is to “ understand the Ethical aspect of emotional labor “.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Data has been collected from secondary sources. Sources of secondary data include website about emotional labour, articles and newspaper.

Secondary sources: Secondary data refers to the information of facts, which are already available. The source of secondary data mainly includes various periodicals and articles in connection with the study. The collected data are statistically analyzed and interpretations are made

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Emotional Labor Emotional labor is recently developed to describe the requirements of some jobs in the service sector. Emotional labor is a kind of task that requires someone to surpass or simulate their emotions, particularly in capitalistic working condition. The term “emotional labor” was first defined by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild. In a seminar work, The Managed Heart : Commercialization of Human Feeling, Hochschild defines emotional labor as “the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display”, which is sold for a wage and therefore has exchange value.”

Following her seminal piece in which she coined this term, several conceptualizations of emotional labor have been proposed. Some conceptual ambiguity persists, but each conceptualization has in common the general underlying assumption that emotional labor involves managing emotions so that they are consistent with organizational or occupational display rules, regardless of whether they are discrepant with internal feelings. Display rules refer to the organizational rules about what kind of emotion to express on the job.

According to Hochschild, jobs involving emotional labor are defined as those that: (1) require face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with the public; (2) require the worker to produce an emotional state in another person; (3) allow the employees to exercise a degree of control over their emotional activities.

Forms of emotional labor Hochschild proposes that emotions may be controlled or self induced or suppressed as part of the labour process, hence her identification of two forms of emotional labor: ‘surface acting’ and ‘deep acting’. The former involves pretending ‘to feel what do not … we deceive others about we really feel, but we do not deceive ourselves (1983:33).’

1. Surface Acting , involves “painting on” affective displays, or faking; Surface acting involves an employee’s (presenting emotions on his or her “surface” without actually feeling them)..

2. Deep Acting wherein they modify their inner feelings to match the emotion expressions the organization requires.

Though both forms of acting are internally false, they represent different intentions. Deep acting is argued to be associated with reduced stress and an increased sense of personal accomplishment; whereas surface acting is associated with increased stress, emotional exhaustion, depression, and a sense of in authenticity.

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‘Surface acting’ is therefore used when workers change how they appear to others by adapting their body language. The workers are aware that their behaviour lacks sincerity. The latter, ‘deep acting’ means ‘deceiving oneself as much as deceiving others (1983:33). When ‘deep acting’, workers induce feelings in themselves by drawing on emotive memories. In this case, the emotions are actually felt by the worker. The ultimate outcome of deep acting is that these feelings become internalised and the worker is estranged from their ‘real feelings’.Central to Hochschild’s argument is that the contention that emotional labour is performed at a personal cost to the worker and that this is a direct result of the‘commercialisation’ of emotions. She argues that emotional labor is part of the package that companies are selling to customers, so that in effect, workers are selling their smiles to management

Emotional labor in Organisations In the past, emotional labor demands and display rules were viewed as a characteristics of particular occupations, such as restaurant workers, cashiers, hospital workers, bill collectors, counselors, secretaries, and nurses. However, display rules have been conceptualized not only as role requirements of particular occupational groups, but also as interpersonal job demands, which are shared by many kinds of occupations.

Determinants of using emotional labor 1. Societal, occupational, and organizational norms. 2. Dispositional traits and inner feeling on the job; such as employee’s emotional expressiveness, 3. Supervisory regulation of display rules;.

Implications of using emotional labor Researches indicate that emotional labor jobs require the worker to produce an emotional state in another person. Accordingly, a recent study reveals that employees’ display of positive emotions is indeed positively related to customers’ positive affect

· Positive affective display in service interactions, such as smiling and conveying friendliness, are positively associated with important customer outcomes, such as intention to return, intention to recommend a store to others, and perception of overall service quality.

· There is a growing body of evidences that emotion labor may lead to employee’s emotional exhaustion and burnout over time, and may also reduce employee’s job satisfaction. That is, higher degree of using emotion regulation on the job is related to higher levels of employees’ emotional exhaustion, and lower levels of employee’s job satisfaction.

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Ethics of Emotional Labor Ethics is the study of morality. Ethics are a collection of principles of right conduct that shape the decisions people or organizations make. Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations.

Customer service work can be bad for psychological health, regardless of whether it is face-to face or over the phone, as it typically involves being polite and friendly to customers or clients and having to suppress real feelings and emotions.

In research presented to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology, Dr Gail Kinman of the University of edfordshire found that emotional labour was linked to negative effects whether it was performed face-to-face or over the phone, and that the effects extended beyond the workplace into the home environment.

In her now classic (1983) study, Arlie Hochschild defines emotional labor, as opposed to emotion work, as affect-management undertaken in exchange for wages. In emotional labour, Hochschild argues, our private ways of using feeling are transmuted to serve commercial ends. Our smiles, moods, feelings and relationships become ‘products’ that belong more to the employer organization and less to the self (1983:198). Hochschild provides numerous empirical examples of emotional labour, but the bulk of her work is devoted to the case of flight attendants. Through outward emotional display, and through inner-directed emotional labour, the flight attendants she studied helped maintain among passengers ‘…the sense of being cared for in a convivial and safe place’ (1983:7).

Hochschild conceptually distinguished between the two levels of emotional labor: in surface acting, she writes, ‘we deceive others about what we really feel’ (1983:33), however, in deep acting we deceive ourselves.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) & Emotional Labor (EL) : For Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence(EI) can essentially be defined as ‘how well you handle yourself’. It refers to the extent of our ‘emotional literacy’: our ability to recognize our own emotions and those of others. It relates to a person’s capacity both to manage their emotions and to draw upon these as a resource. Goleman proposes a five part domain model to explain ‘how we can bring intelligence to our emotions’ (1996:42). The model is made up of three intrapersonal ‘competencies’- knowing one’s emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself; and two interpersonal competencies – recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships.

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EI involves as a central principle the idea that emotions can be harnessed for competitive commercial advantage , they can, to refer to Hochschild’s definition of emotional labour, have an exchange value. EI purposes that we should actually come to experience ourselves as more sympathetic, caring, empathetic, etc. through developing our emotional competencies. Indeed, occupations such as social work, teaching, counseling, psychotherapy, nursing, etc. have long been regarded as forms of work which require sensitivity, sympathy, empathy, and specific skills in distress management. The intelligent; deployment of emotions is crucial to successful performance. This means that, even purely in terms of profit motive- and not from an appeal to moral ethical or philanthropic concerns- it makes good ‘business sense’ to take notice of the emotions operating in a workplace. Even if ‘greed is good’, EI suggests that we must recognize the commercial importance of emotions in helping us to satiate greed. In this way, Fineman argues, emotion is effectively ‘solid’ to a corporate market by an industry of EI consultants keen to make themselves indispensable to the present-day workplace.

Emotional Intelligence and Alienation: Hochschild is keen to examine the ‘human costs’ of emotional labour. Her main concern is that, in the course of their work, emotion labourers will become alienated from their true selves and come to lose the use value of emotion management . This, in turn, might lead to high stress levels, ‘burnout’, emotional ‘numbness’ loss of personal identity, etc. (1983:187-188). However, there remains considerable debate over the ‘costs’ of emotional labour, and, indeed, over the extent to which EI can be seen as involving such costs.

Debates have raised complex issues concerning the identity of emotional labourers, the ways in which emotional labour and emotion work is performed and how it is bought and sold in the market. In other words, these themes relate in different ways to the identity, performance and commodification of emotional labor .

One critical aspect of research into emotional labor has focused on issues around alienation and subjugation .. Similarly, the terms and assumptions on which emotional labour is bought and sold as well as the expectations and experiences of employees may variously support or refute the notion of emotional labor as an example of exploitation and control. The implications of commodification for the interface between employee, ‘end user’ and organisation is a further area of inquiry which can throw light on some of the moral and ethical considerations around such work.

There is empirical evidence that higher levels of emotional labor demands are not uniformly rewarded with higher wages . Rather, the reward is dependent on the level of general cognitive demands required by the job. That is, occupations with high cognitive demands evidence

26 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 wage returns with increasing emotional labor demands; whereas occupations low in cognitive demands evidence a wage “penalty” with increasing emotional labor demands.

Emotional labor issues • True emotions leak out – especially with low emotional adaptability • Emotional dissonance causes stress • Display norms vary across cultures

Consequences of Emotional Labor Employers often require customer service representatives to be cheerful, friendly and, if need be, sympathetic in order to promote spending and encourage customer loyalty. That said, research suggests that strict guidelines on employee emotions can hinder a company’s path to high performance .

People frequently experience a wide range of emotions during a given workday but limit their expression in the interest of professionalism. Unfortunately, they may experience emotional exhaustion and burnout as a result and ultimately abandon their jobs. In fact, service industries in the United States and Europe suffer from turnover rates almost double those of other industries. This level of employee churn can be costly both in terms of productivity loss and recruiting and training expenditures , making emotional labor a matter of organizational financial health as well as employee health.

The stress and strain of emotional labor comes from a mismatch between an employee’s internal emotions and the emotions he or she must express in the job. The feelings of emotional dishonesty caused by this difference contribute significantly to employee stress, Psychological problems, physical complaints, job dissatisfaction and, ultimately disengagement.

Burnt-out employees bring down the morale of those around them, lowering coworkers’ performance and productivity . Promoting Healthy Emotional Labor Managers can take several steps to harness the emotions necessary for effective customer service while at the same time reducing the stress that can lead to burn-out and turnover.

1. Align the requirements for emotional expression with customer expectations. 2. Hire employees with a predisposition for the required emotions. 3. Encourage and train employees to “deep act.” 4. Lead by example. 5. Avoid “overscripting” your employees.

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Conclusion Emotions at work represent an important, and largely under-examined, aspect of organizational life. Emotional labor is a part of daily life—even employees outside of service industries have to manage the way they interact with bosses, colleagues, and clients. Service with a smile need not be service with a fake smile

Recent works have reflected on core tensions within different traditions of emotion research, on the impact of commercialization on emotional life and on well-being at work and has explored aspects of emotional labour in different work and employment settings. All these themes offer insights into the performance of emotional labour,its ethical implications and some of the consequences of such work for workers, managers, customers and clients .A number of challenges await those conducting research in this domain, some of which are theoretical while others are measurement related. Despite these challenges, the potential for a significant contribution to Emotional labor can be a powerful integrative concept that brings together these, as well as other, fruitful areas of study.

Reference Robbins S P(2005):Organisation Behaviour, Prentice Hall (Twelfth Edition,2005) Mc Shane S.L; Von Glinow.M A; Organisation Behaviour (Second edition) Hochschild, A. (1983) The Managed Heart. Berkeley: University of California Hughes J;(2003). “Intelligent hearts”:Emotional intelligence, Emotional Labor & Informalisation:university of Leicester Morrison T;(2007)Emotions Power & Organizational issues& Implications.:Rochdale Simpson R;Smith S; Emotional Labour & Organisations-A developing Field:Brunel University Richardson .H & Kate Richardson :CRM &information Ethics in call centres Liu, Y.; Perrewe, P.L.; Hochwarter, W.A.; & Kacmar, C.J. (2004). Dispositional antecedents and consequences of emotional labor at work. The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 2004, vol. 10, no. 4. Qin Zhang - Qin Zhang; Weihong Zhu - Weihong Zhu, Exploring Emotion in Teaching: Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Satisfaction in Chinese Higher Education Websites : www.sociologyindex.com

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SOCIO-POLITICAL HEGEMONY AND DISGUST CREATING A TERRORIST WORLD IN DORIS LESSING’S THE GOOD TERRORIST

Roshan Chacko Asst. Prof. English Triple Main Department (SF) Devamatha College Kuravilangad

ABSTRACT Doris Lessing is a name to be reckoned with in the history of post war English fiction. Described as the most fearless woman novelist in the world, unabashed ex-communist and an uncompromising feminist, Lessing holds a unique place among twentieth century women writers for the sheer number, variety and scope of her work.

Written in 1985, The Good Terrorist takes place in a communist squat in London during the Margaret Thatcher Era. The plot canters on securing the house as a legal squat and dealing with the ordinary day-to-day workings of the household, as well as the tensions between the different group members and their politics and what it is they are really prepared to do for ‘the revolution’. They are living in the Cold War era and dealing with possible ‘Russian Spies’ as well as the I.R.A (Iranian Revolutionary Army). The title The Good Terrorist is an uncommon association of words and it can be an Oxymoron. The novel as a whole raises the question of conceiving terrorist cause or terrorist morality in positive terms.

Keywords Literature of Terrorism Identity Hegemony Disgust

Socio political hegemony and disgust leading to a terrorist world in Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist is a study of new genre of Literature of Terrorism. It discusses the way it actualizes

29 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 itself in the universe of postmodern literature by analysing the novel The Good Terrorist . Both terrorism and literature of terrorism have tremendous impact on the society. Even though we have a long history of terrorism and terrorists, the present nature of its application has got its momentum recently.

Terrorism is an anti-human act; using calculated, shocking and illegal violence on civilian population is the core of terrorism. Such actions started to occur as a consequence of increased social division of labour and the rise of social differences between members of a social community, and globally between states. The literature of terrorism ultimately deals with the works on terrorism. From Joseph Conrad to Don Delillo we have a long list of writers and works in this regard. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s, Demons, Henry James’ The Princess Casamassima, G.K. Chesterton’S The Man Who Was Thursday, Albert Camus’ The Just also come under this genre. After the world trade centre attack on September 11, 2001, there is a tremendous increase in the number of books published on this subject.

In Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World , Richard E. Rubenstein argues that terrorism originates in despair about language. Quoting Lenin’s disapproving remark that “terrorism is the violence of intellectuals,” Rubenstein argues that most terrorists start out attempting to communicate their programs in speeches and manifestos. Yet when their words go unheeded, they turn to actions meant to speak louder: “‘We have lost all faith in words,’ said the founder of Russian terrorism, Sergey Nechayev, in 1869" (8).

In The Good Terrorist , the fictional Communist Centre Union (CCU) moves from relatively harmless verbal attacks which include making hate speeches, taunting politicians, painting slogans on walls to bombing the city. Because it was the fact that its members can no longer communicate with the working class and create an opportunity. It is true that when the central character, Alice Mellings renovates the reeking squat in which one group has been living for months she sets off “an explosion of order” (Lessing 49) in the lives of its inhabitants. It provides them a place where they can stay together and plot whatever they intend. But more importantly, the CCU becomes increasingly alienated from everyone else, increasingly aware that no one listens to its propaganda, that no one understands its fine intentions. According to Doris Lessing; “I think this interest in communism was rooted in the First World War and people’s passionate identification with what had been done to the soldiers, which crossed all the national boundaries. I think that’s where a disgust and contempt for government began, at the level we see it now. The automatic reaction of practically any young person is, at once, against authority. That, I think, began in the First World War because of the trenches, and the incompetence of the people on all fronts. I think that a terrible bitterness and anger began there, which led to communism. And now it feeds terrorism” (Garner 1).

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The political and social problems that contaminated the then time England is represented in the novel by a house in London, more precisely a “squat” inhabited by an obscure left-wing sect of individuals that live in a dangerously prolonged childhood of the intellect. The spatial element is a bearer of meanings that go beyond the mere physical dimensions. The house is inhabited by individuals who have been subjected to a process of dehumanization. Alice and Jasper, Roberta and Faye, Pat and Philippe – they all are psychological misfits for whom capitalist society is far from ideal, even if they benefit from its advantages daily. Lessing’s dispossessed characters guide their actions after the line “Britain is as rotten as a bad apple, and ready for the bulldozers of history (Lessing 10), a line that has become a co coordinating and unifying principle and brings into question the political crisis underwent by Britain in the 1880’s. From within the isolated environment of their setting, these characters plan a new kind of negotiation with the outer society, based on seemingly motivated violence.

Alice objects to her parents’ complicity in what she sees as a corrupt social order: “This shitty rubbish we live in” (Lessing 406). Modern Britain is condemned by Alice and her co- conspirators as a wasteland worthy only of destruction. One group member, Caroline, speaks about the rotten system and the need for a radical change in the social as well as political systems. Faye “wants to put an end to this shitty fucking filthy lying cruel hypocritical system” (Lessing 120). Jocelin takes several of the group members for the practice of effective bombing. They are also against the dead old traditions and hypocrisy of the middle class.

Alice speaks of ‘watchers’ as part of the system for the surveillance. She says that even though they seem kind, they are sinister because they protect only their own interests. These are the people at top. They are invisible and unsuspected. They pull the strings of the system which hegemonic in nature. Alice’s mother warns her “This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped...But we- we are just peasants. We don’t understand what is going on, and we can’t do anything” (Lessing 332).

Alice’s group, the Communist Centre Union, is sometimes seen as a miniature of the divided society. In spite of its radical affectations, it replicates the social patterns of the wider society. The traditional divisions of labour between male and female are observed, as well as those between middle-class and working-class persons. While members of the group are theoretically in solidarity with the working class, they do not really further the interests of the disadvantaged or disfranchised. They are not a part of any true progressive party but instead use their political organization as a theater within which they can play out their psychological problems. Working-class members of the group, such as Jim and Philip, are seen as suffering from social, economic, and health problems.

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There is a politically-motivated substratum of the novel that becomes obvious from the very moment we are told that our “perpetually adolescent”14characters found the Communist Centre Union as a means of materializing their belief that only political violence can inflict change; Alice is the one who provides an explanation for the title of the sect: “Centre … because we wanted to show we were not left deviants or revisionists; union … a union of viewpoints” (Lessing 98). The Communist Centre Union is not a political organisation, but rather a parody of political organizations: it is small, obscure and it has no political program articulately formulated.

A short essay called “The Languages We Speak” was published in the same year as an addition to The Good Terrorist . Here Lessing repeats her idea. People can be “taken over” by the language they speak (communism, Christianity, mysticism), and this will eventually lead to madness. She writes: “There is one thing that surprises me about The Good Terrorist . It is how people see Alice. The girl is of course quite mad. This confirms what I have said so often in this context: if a mad person is in a political setting, or a religious one, a lot of people won’t even notice he or she is mad.” (Stella 13)

Lessing feels that many terrorists are themselves anomalous figures. Talking about the squatters living in her street while she was writing The Good Terrorist , she notes how they would utter violent slogans such as: “‘Come the revolution we’ll have to kill ten million (twenty million, thirty million) of the bourgeois.’ But they were full of humanitarian busyness, rescuing cats, supporting orphans in Africa, giving money to badly treated donkeys, being kind to old people” (Lessing 12). This contradiction we also see in Alice and it accounts for the great irony of the novel: Alice’s “humanitarian busyness” – her home-making, her charity, and her concern for others - in the end leads her into terrorism.

Lessing is deeply aware of the flaws of the society she lives in. Alice’s rage at the ugliness of public architecture, at the bureaucracy’s destruction of livable housing while families are crowded into welfare hotels, seems clearly to be Lessing’s own. The CCLJ’s activities, at the time when the novel begins, have been largely verbal, occasionally accompanied by symbolic violence like tomato throwing. While many of the group’s members have been “bound over” for various protest activities and all routinely live illegally in condemned buildings and exploit the welfare system, they have avoided violent crime.

There were well intentioned liberal attempts to improve social conditions but it did no better, are swallowed up by the state and its corporate allies. Mary Williams, for example, takes a job with the Housing Council in order to help the homeless, only to discover that it co-operates with private developers to reduce the amount of affordable housing. Alice’s own attempts to find a flat for Monica and her baby, to keep Faye alive after her suicide attempt, to make a comfortable home for a group of radicals all fail. 32 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019

Lessing’s fiction is deeply autobiographical, much of it emerging out of her experiences in Africa and her serious engagement with politics and social concerns. She gives importance to the philosophical underpinnings of “humanization-of-terrorism”. This discussion of humanization ranges from Walter Benjamin’s theory of history as a state of siege to Albert Camus’s belief that revolt is an essential dimension of human existence and Julia Kristeva’s postulate that only the confrontation of “an obstacle, prohibition, authority, or law . . . allows us to realize ourselves as autonomous and free” (420). She believes that people in disgust revolt against any rule which they find inappropriate.

References Garner, Dwight. “A Notorious Life. The Salon Interview: Doris Lessing.”

Lessing, Doris. The Good Terrorist . United Kingdom: Jonathan Cape, 1985. Print.

Rubenstein, Richard E. Alchemists of Revolution: Terrorism in the Modern World . New York: Basic Books, 1987.Print.

Stella, Edith,ed. Prisons we choose to live inside . Londan: Verso, 1986. Print.

Suever,Andrew Stacey. Exploding Narratives: The Literature of Terrorism in Contemporary America 2008. http://diginole.lib.f su.edu/etd.

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BLACK WRITING AN ANALYSIS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO “THE BLUEST EYE”

Siji NK Faculty GVHSS Boys Koyilandy Kozhikode, Kearala

ABSTRACT Literature is a strong and important source of protest against the administration, social inequalities and all kinds of discrimination that exists in any society.

Black Literature an overview The literature that produced mainly in United States by writers of African descent is widely regarded as black literature. A touch of autobiographical element is the unique character of black writing. African American literature has generally focused on the role of African American within the larger American society and what it means to be an American. Black writing analyses life from black perspective, which is the life that they have been experienced. This explores the issues of freedom and equality long denied to blacks, along with further themes such as African American culture, racism, religion, slavery, a sense of home, segregation, feminism and more. It has been created in the larger realm of post -colonial literature. Wole Soyinka, Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, Amiri Baraka are some of the black writers who inspired generations of African American writers and changed the world literature.

If we trace the history of black literature we could find out slave narrative, a genre of African American literature in which they have explained their own slave life and how they had overcome it. They want to describe cruelties under slavery and portray humanity, which they ever lack throughout their life span. Black writing got strengthened in 19 th century. All the black writers featured characters whose struggles with-change and identity crisis. Most of the writers writings include their own stirring experiences and the feeling evoked is pity. Their writings offer many gifts to the reader, themes that universalise African American life. Let’s have a look into

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Tonny Morrison an epoch making literary genius. When Morrison was about 2 years old her family ‘s landlord set fire to the house they lived in which they were in home because her parents could not pay the rent. All these fearsome experiences reflect in her works in different perspectives like other black writers. Her life is extraordinary as her works. She did not start writing until she was 35, yet she managed to become the first black woman who achieved Nobel Prize.

Toni Morrison’s Novels an Analysis One thing Toni Morrison asks to her readers is to meet her books on their own terms. She wants us to understand her standards and her goal. Her goal is write the kind of book she would like to read, she identifies 11 characteristics that of a true African American novel has to be possessed (which are described by Dow Ravid in his ‘Tony Morrison’s Beginners’.)

· A participatory quality between book and reader she wants you in the story, not on the outside looking in. · An oral quality in writings-like spoken words instead of written words. · An open endedness in the endings. · An acceptance of ability to detect differences. · Includes magic and mystery. · A functional and aesthetic quality. · An obligation to bear witness. · Serves as a conduit for the ancestor · Use of humour that is often ironic. · An achieved clarity or epiphany and a tendency to be prophetic. · Writing that takes her people through the pain and denial of their racially haunted history to a healing zone.

Toni Morrison’s vision is not to create a uniquely African American novel, if it is so her books could not be enjoyable for non-black readers. Her books thrill, irritate and sanctify anyone who got a chance to read it. Once in an interview she was asked “how would you like us to read your novel” her reply was “I would like to put the reader into the position of being naked and vulnerable. Let him make up his mind about what he likes and what he thinks and what happened based on the very intimate acquaintance with the people in the book”.

In a sense Morrison wants us to drop our defences and make up our own minds based on the relationships we develop with her characters she demands a personal response. Tony Morrison is the author of 11 novels of varying quality. Three or four of them are among the best in the world. Generally considered finest works of Morrison are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. Three other novels Sula, Tar Baby and Jazz have huge support of passionate

35 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 readers. Critics opine that there is atleast one line in Sula that has the elemental purity of best in the Bible.

“They spoke; they were full and needed to say” It is a line that deserves to be sung not to just read aloud. It has poetical quality, that shows her magnificent writing. The Bluest Eye and Sula got a great deal of attention largely because of their strong female characters. Then Morrison decided to write a novel that abundances with male spirit and thus “Song of Solomon” born, instead of ending with sadness, like the other books, it ends on a note of hope. Tony Morrison structured “Beloved” as if the reader had no advance knowledge of either the novel’s central tragedy or the identity of the title character. Beloved is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, the mother who killed her child. Morrison presents it in an extra ordinary level. According to Margaret Atwood “Morrison’s versatility and technical and emotional range appear to know no bounds. ‘Beloved’ is rich, graceful, eccentric, rough, lyrical, sinuous, colloquial and very much to the point”.

Jazz, her sixth novel is divided into ten parts that are clearly intentional, but a bit mystifying. ‘Tar Baby’ another novel of Tony Morrison is generally considered as weak as comparing to her other novels. Tar Baby can be seen as a vital transition between Song of Solomon and Beloved. Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home, God Help the Child are the novels which are also no to be avoided. All these novels have their own role in strengthening Tony Morrison as a strong pillar in the world of literature.

The Bluest Eye Critics attribute Morrison’s works as deep as sea, the surface is beautiful but everything that gives them life is beneath so as the Bluest Eye. It is the story of three black school girls growing up in 1940s Ohio-The sisters Claudia and Frieda MacTeer and their friend Pecola Breedlove. Pecola’s parents are strict and she is ignored by her mother and abused by her father while MacTeer sister’s parents are loving and caring. Claudia who tells much of the story is a strong willed eight year old black girl who can’t stand the sight of little blond haired, blue eyed dolls. When she was gifted one for X’mas her reactions “what I was supposed to do with it”. She rips the doll into pieces. But Pecola is just opposite of Claudia. She wants to be a blue eyed girl for that she prays with body and soul. She idolizes Shirely Temple, the beautiful child artist and drinks milk out of Shirely Temple’s cup. Peacola hates herself. She is always insulted by her classmates so she hoped that if she has blue eyes she would not have been mocked by others, later she was raped and becomes pregnant by her own father. When her mother know this, instead of being sympathetic she beats her daughter and forbids her from going to school. She gives birth to a premature baby and it dies. She loses her grip on reality, she visits a preacher to get blue eyes. By the end she is talking to an imaginary friend asking of her eyes are bluest of all.

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Critics say that this novel posse a peculiarity that in between it becomes a pure poetry. Tony Morrison herself says “I thought in the Bluest Eye that I was writing about beauty, miracles and self-images about the way in which people can hurt each other about whether or not one is beautiful.” Some critics criticised Tony Morrison using the wrong sized language yet also she is variously known a poet, black American, female, magical realist writer. Her creations are really a feast to language lovers.

Conclusion The racial discrimination or the discrimination in the name of cast, creed and colour is being portrayed in various works. Different authors handled the same theme in different ways. But here Pecola Breedlove presents the same feeling more intensely. Her assumption is that the whole unlucky things that happened in her life is because of her dark complexion and lack of blue eyes. So she always prays for blue eyes. It is too pathetic to observe that when she became insane, those times also she was passionate of having blue eyes. She is the victim of social inequality against which the black writers have been fighting for years and years. She remains in the heart of the readers an icon of pathos.

Works Cited *Dow Ravid – Toni Morrison For Beginners 2016 Danbury CT 06810 USA

*Gilyard K and A Wardi- African American Literature Penguin, 2004

*Cashmore E, Review of the Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Newstateman, April 25 1997

*Andrew, WF Foster and T Harris- The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, Oxford 1997.

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THE ETHICS AND ECONOMY OF CORPORATIZATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF SOCIETY – THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE AND SPEND TIME; ENERGY AND MONEY

Dr. Abraham Sebastian , Principal Girideepam Business School (Gbs), Bethany Hills, Vadvathoor P.O, Kottayam- 686 010.

Dr. K. Sujatha, Associate Professor Department of Business Administration , Annamalai University

Shailesh.S.Nair, Research Scholar Girideepam Business School (Gbs), Bethany Hills, Vadvathoor P.O, Kottayam- 686 010.

ABSTRACT The Renaissance and revitalization in the west and the simultaneous growth in political freedom, economic prosperity, intellectual revival and social reform created a new society . the primitive lifestyle changed and human beings were caught in web of modernism. Emulation and conspicuous consumption become vogue and active. The article states the gradual material progress of society and people. How the consumers entraps themselves in the web of social status,laid down by the corporate business culture.

Keyword: Globalization , Industrialization, corporatization, consumer , sanskritization, emulation , conspicuous consumption

The contemporary age can be describe with these given lines, by Charles Dickens, in his famous work, “The tale of two cities”. The contradictions , pleasure and pain ,everything is there in equal measure.

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I t was the best of the time ,it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom ,it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief ,it was th e epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light ,it was season of darkness, it was spring of hope ,it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us ,we had nothing before us, we were all going to heaven ,we were all going direct the other way (“Tale of two cities”- Charles Dickens)

The industrial revolution has dramatically transformed ,altered and replaced the very foundational norms of society and humanity .The survival and sustainability of both society and humanity dependent inevitably on Industrialization. As industrialization started flourishing the question of survival and success simultaneously become a matter of concern. To survive the business had to expand and explore locally, regionally and Globally. Globalization policy was a natural outcome of rapid industrialization process. Industrialization paved way for many disciplines. The importance of sociology grew. Disciplines such as Management, Marketing, HRM, Psychology and Counselling etc., gained momentum, and was very much needed to be taught in the colleges. Corporate Governance and Ethics as a distinct discipline, was mandatory in all universities and institutions throughout the globe. A new concept was born out of Industrial revolution-. “CORPORATE”. Very significantly, Globalization is nothing but “corporatization”-symbolizing the engines of, “Growth, Development and Power”.

Undoubtedly, in recent years ,the power of Government has been on decline everywhere. It may be due to poor economic reforms and uncontrollable natural causes.

Globalization is corporatization. The power and influence of state is gradually becoming impotent and instead corporatization of politics is taking place throughout the Globe. Poor economic reforms and careless implementation of the reforms paved way for privatization and liberalization. The corporate sector become active and dominated the mainstream of economic reforms .Their role is more powerful than a nation state

“Over the last 150 years ,the corporation has reason from relative obscurity to become the world’s dominant economic institution. Today corporation govern over lives. They determine what we eat ,what we watch ,what we wear, when we work and what we do, We are inescapably surrounded by their (corporate )culture ,iconography and ideology. And . like the church and the monarchy in other times ,they posture as infallible and ominipotently glorifying themselves in imposing buildings and elaborate displays. The corporates influence the government decisions. The corporations dramatic rise to dominance is one of the remarkable event of modern history.

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The corporate creates continually new wants and desire in society to promote consumerism and thereby sustain their growth and profits. Marketing and innovation are the two absolutely indispensable survival kit for the corporates.

The industrial revolution spread throughout globe ,the world was no longer the same that it used to be .Human beings had no other choice but to adapt themselves to changing industrial scenario. The economy of the countries grew, prosperity and progress was inevitable. Everything that had been introduced to human being was part of industrial necessity. The primitive and ancient education system was replaced by new disciplines dictated by the needs of the industries. Humans too became programmed and unconsciously remoted controlled by the social currents. Man no longer had hold on his life. He became slave to the economy ,the question of survival became , matter of grave and fatal concern.

Mass production in every sectors catered to the human comfort and need .But as Industrialization progressed, it caused the emergence of two other sectors, that again radically enhanced the human life .

Industrialization

Service Sectors Information Technology & Telecommunication

The utilization and mass exploitation of the Information -Technology ,gave birth to a new revolutions in marketing and promotion – “E-marketing , Digital Marketing and Consumer Generated Media ,etc. are ingredients of an organization survival“

Technological revolution that emerged out of Industrial Revolution also accelerated the social changes. The family order got disrupted. As the rate of change in a society intensifies, more and older people and elders of the society felt the differences. They become alienated and confined themselves into their own private environment until death. There is no doubt that Industrial revolution has created an incomprehensible conflict between generation , children and parents , husbands and wife can be differentiate opinions and responses towards balancing the pace of life. The same is true of conflicts among cultures.

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“The economies of permanence are replaced by the economies of transience”,

Technology is catalysing a massive social and economic transformation in India. Technology is indisputably a major force behind economic growth and prosperity. It is connecting people and communities, enabling innovation and productivity increases, and improving standards of living and opportunities across the country.

The maturation and convergence of technologies is enabling a new wave of technology — driven growth. Information technology has revolutionized the way in which people interact with companies. Technology has brought innumerable changes in human lives, be it in the field of science, medicine, entertainment, communication, and travel or office equipment. They are reducing costs, making operations more efficient. “Society is becoming technology driven”.

Business without Information technology is unthinkable. E-commerce, Digital Marketing have affected and influenced simultaneously the Organization, Consumer and society. The society and its people are exposed to infinite digital possibilities. The whole world is explored trough a small gadgets. We can access anywhere, need to move our finger tips on our phones and computers to book an air/train ticket, hotel etc. Online buying and selling has become unstoppable, 24x7, 365 days business is ever active. Almost everyone has a cell phone and computer, and a great deal of time is spending on this. Internet has transformed the way business interacts with customer, from the need identification, to solution sought and transaction .The Big Data concept of Internet has paved way for data drive analytics resulting in identifying and communicating with those customers who are likely to purchase the products and service.

Digital analytics has helped to identify macro and micro market segment and customer base with high precisions .Moreover it has enabled brands to offer solution when a where they matter most .The “age of generalization “has been replaced with the “age of individualization”, paving for active customization. The change that has undergone ever since the inception of industrialization, so natural and deliberate, that it upturned nations, institutions and families, uprooted social norms and traditional values resulting in personal, psychological, professional and sociological confusion and complexities. William Osborn in his book “Cultural Lag” pointed how social stress born out of the uneven ration of change in different section of society and difficulties in coping up with personal and social life.Today “Corporate”, has emerged as a powerful and omnipotent syndicate that can topple government and influence policies and decisions, acting as the “shadow government”. Take any industry, where the corporates have not interfered and meddled with its facts and figures. Ethical policies and welfare programs started by Honest people or politician have been distorted a disrupted by the corporate sectors. The professionalism carried out is no longer in good faith .

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There was once –”Industrialization of Professional” but now that has changed to, “Corporatization of Industry”. The corporate sectors have been misleading the consumption pattern. The phenomenon of consumerism grew in its magnitude and entered into new dimensions. The new culture that it has brought about is supposed to have far-reaching effects on the sustainability of the economy. People do shopping as a craze and middle class households have converted their kitchens to distribution centres of processed foods. Marriage, education and even medical treatments have become flowery aspects of consumerist life. A notable feature of these changes is that all these developments veer round products which are produced elsewhere. For corporates the art of making money must continue and moreover the consumption must not get saturated .The activity of buying and selling must go on. Stagnation of sales results in company’s extinction. To keep the market ever-active and evergreen, the corporate must never stop pushing and pulling the product and demand.

Competition has made the market active and restless. There has been always a never ending Tug-of-war among the brands, as to who is mightier and better than the rest .And this is done at the expense of consumer. To increase sales, promotional strategies are ever vigilant and innovative. It is uncertain and unpredictable about the lifespan of brands and its saturation period. The business are continuously searching for new uses, new users and new brands or trying to sell “Old Wine in New Bottles”. “Parle.G” once targeted the Kids, but now repositioned itself to both younger and elderly segment. Similarly Androgynous brands (products that can be use by both genders) are part of the corporate strategy to keep the brand alive and evergreen.

It cannot be denied that marketing promotional strategies are so cunning and deceiving and yet assumed to be so authentic and credible , that our desire becomes our inevitable need, moreover till we possess it, our life may prove incredibly dull and incomplete. We have learnt about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs.

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But today the traditional Hierarchy does not work. It has become complex and has been dragged under one category –The PHYSIOLOGICAL NEED. The corporates and business do not have the patience to wait and allow the consumer to shift from one level of another. Because Man’s little EGO is such wondrous thing to tickle and provoke, that it so easy for the marketers to tempt and trap them to buy and consume. The Corporate Marketers are so conniving and scheming, that they can easily provoke their emotions. Their esteem, social, and safety needs are nothing but their Inevitable Physiological needs (basic necessity)

Physiological need[ food clothing , shelter. Ego satisfaction(esteem and social and self- actualization )]

Physiological need[ food clothing , shelter. Ego satisfaction(esteem and social and self - actualization )]

Business of Corporates is to make the consumers consume anything and everything, even if it fatal to health –mind and body, “nothing to worry” there are remedial measure in the form of product and service to tackle and confront what you have consumed. You eat junk foods and chemical mixed foods, well! You have hospitals and doctors to cure your problem. Industrialization begot another industry to take care. Consumers are Kings and Queen but how crafty the marketers fool the consumer. The consumer has become confused with their needs and necessities of life. The struggle to sustain them and to balance their saving and spending habits is still continuing. The little Ego in humans has influenced for ulterior consumption pattern

Globalisation paved way for the entry of Multinational organizations; as a result, a wide variety of consumption options has been opened for consumers. It has been seen very often people try and strive to pursue the life style of the rich. Competitive spending and conspicuous consumption has become the core of consumer behaviour. “Conspicuous consumption” has become a lifestyle and a behavioural pattern

Conspicuous consumption, in general, has been considered as a life style of elite class people, rulers, aristocrats and such other noble-elite classes. Though there was no evil as such in

43 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 this activity but it affected negatively and influenced on the remaining middle and economically lower class people. This behaviour was not expected to produce any harmful effect on the society in general, but slowly and gradually conspicuous consumption became a contagious disease spreading literally into every strata of the society.

Once, the economic growth of the society largely depended on the hegemony of the upper class. But in due course of the time, income level and as well as consumer behaviour of the remaining class also stated changing. The process of Sanskritization began from the lower strata of the societies. This twin revolution in the form of “Hegemony and Sanskritization” have greatly affected the consumption pattern particularly in states like Kerala .Though this trend has been visible globally. The life style exhibited by the rich and the elite class had a great impact on the middle class people. The frustration and desperation to increase their income level and live the life of luxury had been growing at an incredible pace. People started looking for better opportunities in other states and other countries, they ventured and migrated to foreign lands for prosperity, for one major intention was to make money and emulate the rich.

This habitat of the middle class people which constitute the majority in India is a tremendous opportunity for the corporate world. Because finally what’s happening today is, consumers are literally getting addicted to the product and service. It appears that we are living in an age of extreme addiction in so many diverse areas of life – an increasing number of populations are addicted to mobile phones, internet-social media, medicines, health etc. We people have become “ hedonistically paranoids”.

What caused for such movements? A few decades ago, people had their usual buying and spending habits but the current scenario is of much larger magnitude. The reason is technology and affluence has combined to create an easy access to never ending assortments of product and services, each of which promises instant gratification and comfort. This pattern of consumption or addiction has become aspirational lifestyle. In fact people have become so obsessive to boast and display of such addiction and conspicuous life style . This one crucial factor has decisively influenced the consumer buying behaviour.

Simultaneously a handful of minorities are desperately trying to revolt against such activities and making an attempt to spread the ill-effects such aspects. Such movements are spreading quickly among the social strata, ironically, even the corporates themselves are passively onto such social responsibilities.

The people must realize their extravaganza; understand what exactly their needs are. They must redefine their priorities, must align their scrambled desire and filter it and then find out the real possibilities and practicalities of they needs, wants and desires. 44 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019

On one side there is question of ethics looms , and on the other side, the corporate governance is interfering into the legality of business .Every single act from the side of corporate are getting legal permission to exploit human, society and nature. The corporatization of politics and legal framework; the corporatization of ethics and morality; the corporatization of human life and society, the ethics and economy of corporatization will ever sustain social development and humanity ? , the answer is quite far away from us , from our human conscience.

A new pattern of social stratification has to be researched, where along with revenue generation, the health of the people and safety of the society has to be given significant consideration.

Reference  Krishnamurthy, K. (1965) “Consumption Function for India A Macro Time Series Study” The Indian Economic Journal Vol XIII (2) pp. 217-27

 Mahajan (1971) “Inter Regional Homogeneity Consumer Behavior in India”, Arthavijnana, Vol 13, pp.1-37.

 Krishnan T. N. “Changes in consumption behaviour in Kerala”, Keralan. International Congress on Kerala studies Abstracts, VOL.2, A.K.G. Centre for Research and studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

 Pillai P.P, (1970) “Some preliminary Estimates of Demand for Consumer goods in Kerala 1969-70to 1978-79” 9th Indian Econometric Conference, Patna, Abstract in Econometrica, July 1970, pp. 78.

 Pillai P.P (1986)”Macro Economic Behaviour of Kerala Economy : A preliminary Exercise “, Margin NCAER Quarterly Journal ,Vol. 18, NO.2, pp. 85-89.

 Sooryamoorthy (1997)”Consumer to consumerism in the context of Kerala”, Classical publishing Company ,New Delhi

 Issac, Thomas T.M., (1997), ‘Economic Consequences of gulf migration’ in Zacheria K.C. and Irudaya Rajan S (ed), Kerala’s DemographicTransition: Determinants and Consequences, Sage Publications, New Delhi.

 Kannan, K.P. and Hari,K.S (2002)”Kerala’s Gulf Connection: Emigration, Remittances and their Macroeconomic Impact 1972-2000.” Working Paper No. 328, Center for Development Studies, Trivandrum, Kerala.

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 Pat.A.K. (2005) “Black Spots in Kerala’s Socio Economic Scene”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XL No.24 ,pp.. 2392-2394.

 Joshi,P.D (1998) “ Changing Pattern of Consumption in India and some selected states” ,Sarvekshna ,Analytical Report NO.2, NSSO,Department of Statistics , Government Of India. Ministry of Planning.

 Sooryamoorthy,R(1997) “Consumption to consumerism in the context of Kerala”, New Delhi classical publishing company ,pp..143

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IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS WORLD

VINISHA.V Guest faculty, S.A.R.B.T.M. Government College, Koyilandy, Kozhikode

ABSTRACT Effective communication is the life blood of every business firm. We know that a business cannot survive in the modern competitive world without the continuous flow of meaningful information. These information are passed all over the organization through the process of communication among employees and managers. Communication is significant for managers in the organization so as to perform the basic functions of management and they also need effective communication for the purpose of decision making. Organizations thrive on communication. While many managers and owners understand this, organizations continue to suffer from miscommunication. If we want to avoid big mistakes and organizational problems, it’s important to know what major communication problems are common and how to avoid them.

This study attempts to highlights the importance of communication in businesses. The different communication problems in organizations and their solutions are also discussed here.

Key words: communication, business, management

INTRODUCTION Communication issues may potentially develop in any circumstance or social relationship. It can be easy for individuals to misunderstand or misinterpret others, and these misunderstandings may lead to arguments or tension in personal, platonic, or professional relationships. In a business world communication plays a vital role. A business firm can smoothly function through the help of effective communication process. Meaningless communication in an organization may create lot

47 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 of problems among the employees and employers. This may ultimately lead to the failure of business itself. The success of business is highly depend up on the decisions taken by the management. These decisions may be of different kind like make or buy, shut down or continue, repair or replace, whether to invent a new product etc.. all these decisions are properly taken by the management with help of information provided by their subordinates.so there must be a proper communication between them.

Business communication involves constant flow of information. Feedback is integral part of business communication. Organizations these days are verly large and involve large number of people. There are various levels of hierarchy in an organization. Greater the number of levels, the more difficult is the job of managing the organization. Communication here plays a very important role in process of directing and controlling the people in the oragnization. Immediate feedback can be obtained and misunderstandings if any can be avoided. There should be effective communication between superiors and subordinated in an organization, between organization and society at large (for example between management and trade unions). It is essential for success and growth of an organization. Communication gaps should not occur in any organization. Business Communication is goal oriented. The rules, regulations and policies of a company have to be communicated to people within and outside the organization. Business Communication is regulated by certain rules and norms. In early times, business communication was limited to paper-work, telephone calls etc. But now with advent of technology, we have cell phones, video conferencing, emails, satellite communication to support business communication. Effective business communication helps in building goodwill of an organization.

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY The importance of the study steams from the interest in users, although attention is often focused on communication system prevailing in an organization. Since this study addresses the communication problems and their solutions, it acquires a new dimension in studying ways to develop a good communication system in the organization.

OBJECTIVES ·To identify the importance of communication in an organization ·To understand the different communication problems existing in the business field ·To suggest solutions for such communication problems.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS v What is communication? v What are the roles of communication in the success of a business firm?

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v How effectively can we solve the different communication problems?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study is analytical one. It has been carried out with the help of secondary data collected from various journals, text books and internet sources. The official website of business environment have been referred in writing this paper.

Business communication Business communication is the sending and receiving of messages within a company, organization or business. Business communication includes verbal, nonverbal, public and cultural communication to promote employee retention, customer satisfaction and healthy business relationships.

Purpose The purpose of business communication is to inspire, educate and develop relationships, trust and a positive public identity. When business communication is done right it results in success because the focus in on relating and caring for people, according to rizwanashraf.com, a business and technology website.

Directions of business communication Business Communication can take place in four different directions in an organization:

· Top-Down: This kind of communication takes place when the management passes the order to the subordinates to perform certain task. Usually this kind of communication takes place using circulars, newsletters, memos, e-mails, etc. · Bottom-Up: This kind of communication takes place when the subordinates submit an outcome, result, request, application, etc. Usually this kind of communication takes place using, reports, e-mails, proposals, etc. · Lateral or Horizontal: This kind of communication takes place when employees in same management level communicate. The usual mode of communication is e-mail, circular, etc. · Diagonal Communication: When different management levels communicate who have no direct reporting relationships, it is called Diagonal Communication. This kind of communication takes place using normal meetings, circular, notice, newsletter, etc. · Formal Communication: The communication held in systematic manner. It has rules and regulations. It get completed on decided time.

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· Informal Communication: The communication held in proper way and in non-systematic manner. It does not get completed on decided time of communication. Communication does not conduct any rules and regulation. · Gesture Communication: The communication takes place between peoples via symbols and signs.

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Prevents Conflict If people are good communicators, they listen well and don’t overreact. This helps reduce and prevent conflict in the workplace, which otherwise, could create problems. Co-workers can work out a disagreement and still be respectful, and potentially could remain friends. Preventing conflict escalation goes beyond your co-workers. Employees who are able to listen to customer issues and communicate solutions without becoming defensive, accusatory or otherwise negative, are good ambassadors for the company. When consumer conflicts are positively resolved, consumer loyalty goes up.

Relationship Building Today’s business world relies on relationships in so many ways. Whether you are recruiting a talented, new manager or negotiating a new contract with a vendor, relationships are the foundation of success. Communication is the foundation of strong relationships. An example of creating a foundation for success could be to send a prospect a note on his birthday without trying to sell him anything. The language in an email to a vendor who has increased prices could cause the vendor to come to the negotiation table or to walk away from the deal.

Creativity and Innovation Promotion Positive communication environments provide security for people to share ideas, without being judged. By giving employees a platform in which they can share ideas with one another, creativity and innovation emerge. In this scenario, employees are more likely to share what isn’t working in a operations procedure or to discuss new ideas for sales promotions. This all starts when someone feels as if he is able to communicate ideas to co-workers or leadership, and that his voice is valuable.

Marketing Communication Marketing is a form of communication, as it gets the word out to actual and potential customers, about who you are and what you offer. Just as digital communication within an organization, marketing communication can be overwhelming if it isn’t practiced with restraint. If

50 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 your favourite ice cream shop sends you an email coupon on your birthday for a free scoop, you’ll be happy to get the message. If the same ice cream shop sends you an email every week listing current flavours, you’ll be tempted to unsubscribe from the list. Send marketing communications often enough to stay relevant, but not so often that they are irritating. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS IN THE ORGANISATION 1. Project Disorganization : Multiple people are working on the same project and its hard to keep track of what each person is doing 2. Missed Messages : Employees are not accessing voicemails and or emails in a timely manner and important information is being missed. 3. Contact Confusion : Client, customer or prospect communications are not being adequately tracked, resulting in overlap and reduced efficiency. 4. Department Disconnect : Different company departments, offices or branch locations are not effectively communicating with one another, causing problems. 5. Remote Isolation : Organization remote teams are disconnected from the company and in- office workers, resulting lower productivity. 6. Ineffective Meetings : Organization meetings are eating up critical work time without ever accomplishing anything. 7. Lost Files : Employees file sharing is all over the map, with many employees digging through emails to find what the need and files frequently getting lost. 8. Email Overload : Organization employees are wasting tons of time each day on email. Worse yet, because of the email overload, important messages are being missed. 9. Mobile Separation : With employees constantly on the go, communication has become disjointed. Organization team feels disorganized and disconnected. 10. Too Much Tech : Everyone is using different programs, devices and apps creating a technology cluster without any glue to bind everyone together.

Solutions Keep Language in Perspective If you conduct business internationally, you’re probably going to run into language barriers at one point or another. There are ways around these barriers by using interpreters or learning a second language. However, the way you use language can also be different compared to the way it’s used in other countries. According to World Culture Business, certain phrases or ways of speaking may seem very positive in certain cultures, while they may appear evasive or

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inappropriate in others. To solve this problem, keep language in perspective when communicating with business associates from other countries.

Temper Body Language & Gestures Your body language impacts the way you communicate with your colleagues, whether you know it or not. In some places, pointing a finger at someone in certain cultures is considered rude, while in other cultures nodding your head means no, instead of yes. As a result, you need to tailor your body language and gestures to account for cultural differences. Otherwise, you may end-up sending non-verbal messages that can jeopardize your relationships.

Change Communication Methods There are a number of ways you can communicate with your colleagues that go beyond face-to-face communication. This includes video conferencing, conference calls, emails and written letters. If face-to-face conversations are not getting you anywhere, sending an email or participating in a conference call can help remove communication barriers and deliver your message more efficiently. Conversely, if someone is constantly hard to reach by phone or email, then face-to- face meetings may clear-up communication issues.

Invite Feedback & Participation If you do not seem to be getting your message across to your colleagues, then you can invite feedback to determine where the gap is. You can also ask for active participation from your audience, which can help raise their engagement and keep them listening to what you have to say. It’s not enough just to be satisfied with blank stares or passive agreement with your arguments. It’s important to gather feedback and encourage active listening to improve the way you communicate.

Conclusion Business communications is an important piece of being success in today’s business world. All the functions of business are purely depends up on effective communication in the organization.. The fact is that effective communications one of the corner stone’s for establishing and maintaining as successful business. In business, the importance of understanding the task, conditions, and standards cannot be measured in words. Therefore, I conclude that communication technology trends are a dominated factor that must be studied and understood by small, private, and corporate businesses to succeed in today’s competitive market.

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REFERENCES · Duggan, Tara. Communication Problems in a Business. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/communication-problems-business-2828.html . · www.communicationtheory.org · The Communication Problem Solver: Simple Tools and Techniques for Busy Managers , Nannette Rundle Carroll (AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2009) · (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/effective-communication.html ) · Jump up^ (http://www.healio.com/orthotics-prosthetics/human-resources/news/print/o- and-p-business-news/%7Bab5bdfed-6cea-47d6-b2bb-9b57d79c406a%7D/face-to-face- communication-the-trust-that-helps-build-a-busines · Harvard business review: poor communication is often a symptom of a different problem. · Mind tools:10 communication mistakes.

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CRYPTOCURRENCY AND INDIAN ECONOMY

Mr. Moncy Kuriakose Assistant Professor, MBA, Girideepam Business School

Mr. Sarun Jacob Assistant Professor, BBA Department, GIAL

ABSTRACT Across the world, the term cryptocurrency has rapidly gained visibility in the public eye over the last few years. Cryptocurrency is fast becoming essential to people who value privacy, and for whom the idea of using cryptography to control the creation and distribution of money does not sound too far-fetched. In today’s digital economy, cryptocurrency, led by Bitcoin, Litcoin, Ether, etc. are taking the financial world by storm as more people invest and buy these currencies. At the same time, there is still widespread confusion and bias which retracts for the overall effectiveness of Cryptocurrency. In India, the government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender or coin and are taking measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system. However, the government has recognized blockchain and will explore the use of blockchain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy. Educating users about such alternative forms of currency is extremely important given its volatile nature. In this article, we are providing a holistic outlook of Cryptocurrency with special reference to indian digital economy.

Keyword: Cryptocurrency, Digital Economy Introduction A cryptocurrency is a digital currency created and stored electronically. Unlike monetary currency, the supply of cryptocurrency is not determined by any central bank or authority and the network is completely decentralised. Slowly, cryptocurrencies are coming under the regulatory net in order to check misuse. Japan recently became the first country to regulate cryptocurrencies; the US is quickly laying down regulatory guidelines, the UK and Australia continue to work on the formalities while China has

54 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 recently banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) due to various reasons, including various ICO scams around the world.

Though India plays a relatively small role in the global cryptocurrency market, only about 2% of the global cryptocurrency market cap, the RBI has warned about the potential financial, legal, customer protection and security-related risks in cryptocurrency, amidst prevalent media rumours of RBI launching its own form of cryptocurrencynamed Lakshmi. The recent action of conducting survey by the IT department over all the major exchanges has also triggered issuance of income tax demand notice by the department to the users of these exchanges.

The global cryptocurrency market cap had declined from $650 billion to $480 billion by March 2018. Thus, the rapid proliferation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem in India with its benefits removing the limitations of the monetary system, and being volatile at the same time, has left the future of the Indian market uncertain.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To get a holistic view about cryptocurrency. 2. To identify the pros and cons of cryptocurrency in india.

RESEARCH PROBLEM The research problem under the study is to “understand the impact of cryptocurrency in Indian Digital Economy”.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Data has been collected from secondary sources. Sources of secondary data include website about Cryptocurrency, articles and newspaper.

Secondary sources: Secondary data refers to the information of facts, which are already available. The source of secondary data mainly includes various periodicals and articles in connection with the study .The collected data are statistically analyzed and interpretations are made.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE A number of studies have been conducted on cryptocurrency and some of them is given below. Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja (2015) in there study – “The Bitcoin Lightning Network: Scalable Off-Chain Instant Payments” remarks thar the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which is an extension of two-party payment channels applied in such a way as to permit instant transactions between any number of participants..

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Charles W Evans in his study – “Bitcoin in Islamic Banking and Finance” remarks that Bitcoin is surprisingly having high amount of attention from Muslims worldwide because bitcoin is free of interest.

Bank of International Settlements, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures in their study in their study – “Digital Currencies” states that distributed ledger technology (the Blockchain) may offer lower costs to end users compared with existing centralized arrangements and that digital currencies such as bitcoin might address gaps in traditional payment services.

Robert Viglione (2015) in his study – “Does Governance Have a Role in Pricing? Cross- Country Evidence from Bitcoin Markets” statistically proves an inverse relationship between economic freedom and bitcoin price premiums. His methodology represents a potential market- based — rather than expert-defined —measure of economic freedom that is updated in real time, rather than annually.

Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency is designed from the ground up to take advantage of the internet and how it works. Instead of relying on traditional financial institutions who verify and guarantee your transactions, cryptocurrency transactions are verified by the user’s computers logged into the currency’s network. Since the currency is protected and encrypted, it becomes impossible to increase the money supply over a predefined algorithmic rate. All users are aware of the algorithmic rate. Therefore, since each algorithm has a roof limit, no cryptocurrency can be produced or “mined” beyond that.

Since Cryptocurrency is completely in the cloud, it does not attain a physical form but have a digital value, and can be used for digital equivalent of cash in a steadily increasing number of retailers and other businesses. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that was ever created, and while there is a small fee for every cryptocurrency transaction, it is still considerably lesser than the usual credit card processing fees.

Why Use Cryptocurrency? Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency which has seen a massive success. There are other cryptocurrencies such as Ripple, Litecoin, Peercoin, etc. for people to transact in. But for every successful cryptocurrency, there are others which have died a slow death because no one bothered to use them, and a cryptocurrency is only as strong as its users. Some of the salient features of Cryptocurrency include -

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· Cryptocurrency can be converted into other forms of currency and deposited into user’s accounts at a lightning speed · Most Cryptocurrency can be transacted anonymously, and can be used as discreet online cash anywhere in the world. Users therefore do not have to pay for any currency conversion fees · While not 100% immune from theft, Cryptocurrency is generally safe to use and difficult for malicious hackers to break · Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency can be saved offline either in a “paper” wallet or on a removable storage hard drive which can be disconnected from the internet when not in use

The concept of Bitcoin: Bitcoin is a digital currency designed for the recent market scenario. The currency was created in the year 2009. The idea set out behind the creation of the coin is to use the white paper by one of the mysterious individual Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity has not yet been recognized (Nakamloto 2013). The idea of the named of Bitcoin is that a paper is termed as bit and the currency as the coin. The concept behind the creation of Bitcoin is the easy transfer of the money without paying a large amount of transaction fees. In the view point of Ron and Shamir (2013), the traditional online payment charges some amount of transaction amount that is to be paid to the bank or other financial organization related to the transaction. As pointed out by Jarecki et al. (2016), it must be a clear concept that there is no physical evidence of the Bitcoin. It is shown only as balance in the account of the user of the Bitcoin profile. The balance is maintained keeping all the accounting in mind such as the ledger or the balance sheet. At the time of transaction, a kind of verification is done as to undertake that the transaction of the money has been done without any kind of trouble or mishandling. The coin was available in various denominations such as millibitcoin and microbitcoin. There have been more that 21 millions of bitcoins issued till 2016 (McCallum 2014).

There are many reasons why the impact of Bitcoin is exceptionally relevant today, and why the Cryptocurrency of 2018 is now here to stay. These include -

1. Reduced Remittance Many governments around the world are implementing isolationist policies which restrict remittances made from other countries or vice versa either by making the charges too high or by writing new regulations. This fear of not being able to send money to family members and others is driving more people towards digital Cryptocurrency, chief amongst them being Bitcoin.

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2. Control Over Capital Many sovereign currencies and their usage outside of their home country are being regulated and restricted to an extent, thereby driving the demand for Bitcoin. For example, the Chinese government recently made it tougher for people as well as businesses to spend the nation’s currency overseas, thereby trapping liquidity. As a result, options such as Bitcoin have gained immense popularity in China.

3. Better Acceptance Today, more consumers are using Bitcoins than ever before, and that is because more legitimate businesses and companies have started accepting them as a form of payment. Today, online shoppers and investors are using bitcoins regularly, and 2016 saw 1.1 million bitcoin wallets being added and used.

4. Corruption Crackdown Although unfortunate, digital Cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin are now also seeing more usage because of the crackdown on corruption in many countries. Both India and Venezuela banned their highest denomination and still-circulating bank notes in order to make it tougher to pay bribes and make accumulated black money useless. But that also boosted the demand for Bitcoins in such countries, enabling them to send and receive cash without having to answer to the authorities.

Bitcoin – Challenges · Safety and Reliability Purely based on its digital form, Bitcoin and other types of Cryptocurrencies are nowadays the favorite mode of payment for both hackers and criminals because of the air of anonymity it lends. This instantly makes the general populace weary of using it. In 2014, Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange was hacked and robbed of almost $69 million, thereby bankrupting the whole exchange. While the people who lost money have now been paid back, it still leaves a lot of people wary of the same thing happening again.

· The Debate on Bitcoin Scalability The cryptocurrency community is up in arms over how the blockchain will be upgraded for future users. As the time and fees required for verifying a transaction climbs to record highs, more businesses are having a tough time accepting Bitcoins for payment. In early 2017, more than 50 companies came together to speed up transactions, but till now the results have not yet been felt. As a result, more users might start using normal modes of currency to overcome such blockchain hassles.

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· The Rise of the Rivals Today, Bitcoin is not the only game in town, and while its value has increased by almost 100% since the beginning of 2016, its share of the digital currency pile is rapidly reducing owing to almost 700 different competitors. Its market share has reduced to 50% from 85% a year before, a sign of the times to come.

· Unrecognized by Governments Most of the general populace doesn’t understand Bitcoins, and nor does most of the world’s governments. The cost of gaining a license to set up cryptocurrency companies is sky- high, and there are no regulations in sight which might make it easier for people looking to invest into them. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently rejected a proposal by Bitcoin to run a publicly traded fund based on the digital currency, which in turn led to a big plummet in Bitcoin’s shares.

Cryptocurrency and India In India, the government does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system. However, the government has recognized blockchain and will explore use of blockchain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy. However, it doesn’t mean that holding cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin is illegal or banned. In April 2018, RBI banned on dealing with virtual currencies, both cryptocurrencies and crypto assets, since such transactions raised concerns about money laundering, consumer protection and market integrity. The RBI had also warned users against the trading and use of cryptocurrencies. The price of bitcoin peaked to cross $18,500 in December 2017. Since then the price has dropped, to $8,500 in February 2018. As on 24 th December 2018, value of 1 bitcoin is Rs 2,85,671.77. Bitcoin prices have been extremely volatile in the past few months. Mint Money does not recommend investing in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Right now, the general understanding of the term Bitcoin in India is vague. There are a lot of people in India who are intrigued by the technology but don’t understand it well enough. With India’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges such as Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure, Coinome and Bitxoxo among others reporting a marked increase in user interest every day, IAMAI has been focusing on increasing user awareness outreach programs such as educational videos and reading material, becoming one of the first industry bodies in the world to do so

Many have viewed the rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a massive bubble similar to the dotcom and other bubbles in history which saw asset prices increase without any

59 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 fundamental reason. Goldman Sachs, for instance, warned investors in February that most cryptocurrency prices are headed to zero as they lack intrinsic value. So, to sceptics, the crash now will likely vindicate a belief that markets eventually mark down the prices of assets that have no real value, to zero. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts, on the other hand, view the crash as just another healthy correction that is part of any asset’s rise over the long run. In fact, they point to similar steep crashes in the price of cryptocurrencies in the past that turned out to be short-lived. Thus they see the present crash as a good chance to buy cryptocurrencies cheaply before their prices begin to rise again. Cryptocurrency is not suited for indian economy as it has potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks.

Conclusion Technically, cryptocurrencies are still trapped in a downtrend which began in mid- December amid increasing fears of a regulatory crackdown by governments. Though unlikely, this downtrend may come to an end if investor sentiments suddenly change in favour of cryptocurrencies once again.

The biggest hurdle facing cryptocurrencies is their poor fundamentals. None of the cryptocurrencies, for instance, has yet proved its fundamental value as a currency that will be readily accepted by a huge population as a medium of exchange. This is in contrast to national currencies such as the Indian Rupees which are widely accepted by people as money. So cryptocurrencies, in essence, continue to be viewed as a gamble by most. Governments across the world have also not been too keen on allowing cryptocurrencies to be used as alternative money as they view private currencies as a threat to their sovereignty. In India, cryptocurrency will not be implemented because of the centralised system followed by the regulatory authority RBI.

References Androulaki, E., Karame, G.O., Roeschlin, M., Scherer, T. and Capkun, S., 2013. Evaluating user privacy in bitcoin. In Financial Cryptography and Data Security (pp. 34-51). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Barber, S., Boyen, X., Shi, E. and Uzun, E., 2012. Bitter to better—how to make bitcoin a better currency. In Financial cryptography and data security (pp. 399-414). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Decker, C. and Wattenhofer, R., 2013, September. Information propagation in the bitcoin network. In Peer-to-Peer Computing (P2P), 2013 IEEE Thirteenth International Conference on (pp. 1-10). IEEE.

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Garman, C., Green, M., Miers, I. and Rubin, A., 2013. Zerocoin: anonymous distributed e-Cash from Bitcoin. In IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland).

Grinberg, R., 2012. Bitcoin: an innovative alternative digital currency.Hastings Sci. & Tech. LJ, 4, p.159.

Websites 1. https://www.thehindu.com/ 2. https://bitbns.com/trade/#/ 3. https://www.forbes.com/

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FINANCIAL INCLUSION: AN OVERVIEW

JINCY P ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES MALABAR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, KOZHIKODE

ABSTRACT A vast segment of India’s population exists on the margins of India’s financial system. There is growing concern about people being under banked. Financial inclusion is important priority of the country in terms of economic growth and development of society. It enables to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Financial inclusion is an important step towards inclusive growth. It helps in the overall economic development of the underprivileged population. In India effective financial inclusion is needed for upliftment of the poor and disadvantages people by providing them the modified financial products and services.

Keywords: Financial inclusion, importance and benefits of financial inclusion.

INTRODUCTION Finance has become an essential part of an economy for development of the society as well as economy of nation. For this purpose a strong financial system is required not only in under developed countries and developing countries but also developed countries for sustainable growth. Through financial inclusion we can achieve equitable and inclusive growth of the nation.

Financial inclusion stands for delivery of appropriate financial services at an affordable cost, on timely basis to vulnerable groups such as low income groups and weaker sections who lack access to even the most basic banking services.

OBJECTIVE: · To analyze the importance of financial inclusion. · To analyze the benefit of financial inclusion

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· To analyze the factors affecting access to financial inclusion.

FINANCIAL INCLUSION Financial inclusion is the delivery of banking or financial services at affordable cost to vast sections of disadvantaged and low income groups. The objective is to bring the low income groups to banking system to assist them in building financial capacity, make them bankable customers and develop the banking business.

IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION 1. Financial inclusion is one of the most important engines of economic development. 2. Financial inclusion offers the potential for increasing banking business. 3. It can also help in improving the standard of living of vast majority of poor persons. 4. Financial inclusion is not just necessary for growth but to avoid financial collapses within families. 5. Creating a platform for inculcating the habit to save money.

BENEFITS OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION · The rural masses will get access to banking like cash receipts, cash payments, balance enquiry and statement of account can be completed using fingerprint authentication. The confidence of fulfillment is provided by issuing an online receipt to the customer. · Reduction in cash economy as more money is brought into the banking ecosystem. · It inculcates the habit to save, thus increasing capital formation in the country and giving it an economic boost. · Direct cash transfer to beneficiary bank accounts, instead of physical cash payments against subsidies will become possible. · Availability of adequate and transparent credit from formal banking channels will foster the entrepreneurial spirit of the masses to increase output and prosperity in the countryside.

SOME OF THE MAJOR PRODUCTS ARE: · Electronically Know Your Customer (e-KYC) · Transaction through mobile banking · Immediate Payment System (IMPS) · Micro ATMs

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· RuPay Debit Cards · Aadhar enabled payment system

FACTORS AFFECTING ACCESS TO FINANCIAL INCLUSION Financial inclusion on the one hand is a process aiming at providing banking services like saving account, credit facility and insurance product to weaker sections of the society. While on the other hand, it refers to the objective of ensuring financial services like banking, insurance and capital market services and timely and adequate credit to every section of the society as well as of the economy.

The following are some of the factors affecting access to financial services 1. Place of living Most of commercial banks operate only in commercial areas and these banks set their branches in profitable areas. Hence population lives in rural areas find it difficult to access the financial services. Although effective distance is as much about transportation infrastructure as physical distance, factors like density of population rural and remote areas etc. also affect access to these services. 2. Level of income and bank charges. Financial prominence of people is always plays a vital role in accessing available financial services. It’s impossible for poor people to access financial services even when these services are made for lower income level group. Moreover in India, a lot of hidden bank charges which has been demotivated poor persons in availing these services. 3. Limited knowledge of financial services. Incomplete basic education and financial literacy are the major hurdles to the individuals. They do not know the significance of different financial products ie, bank account, cheque facility, bank loan or overdraft and insurance. If people having proper financial literacy, it boost up the use of many financial products. 4. Rigid terms and conditions People are also least interested using such type of financial products or services which are attached with some inflexible terms and conditions. Many financial institutions having different rules relating with the use of accounts like minimum balance requirements.

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5. Types of business Nature of occupation also an important factor in availing the financial services, whether it is small scale, large scale organized and unorganized firm. Most of the banks do not preferred the small borrowers and unorganized enterprise for giving loans. Hence these loan applications tends to be rejected. CONCLUSION Financial inclusion will go a long way in removing poverty and social exclusion. It provides growth of individuals and business with quality. It provides for security of income and savings, safety through health and life insurance and increased financial awareness. All this will boost business , increase GDP and contribute to national economic growth. It also attracts global players to set shop and invest in business opportunities, which again increase employment and growth.

REFERENCES Websites: http://en.m.wikipedia.org https://www.researchgate.net www.nelito.com

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INDUSTRY INITIATIVE FOR GREEN MARKETING IN INDIA

P.GREESHMA ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES MALABAR CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ,KOZHIKODE

ABSTRACT Today’s market has every product and services according to customers wish.But almost all products are not eco-friendly and can cause degradation to the natural assets. Many companies do not oblige their responsibility in preserving environment .Also the government regulatiions and certain standards and limitations to produce particular products are not correctly followed. In such a context the wastages of scarce resources and the destruction of the environment increases to a great extent .Thus comes the emergence of the Green marketing .Green marketing means the manufacturing and distribution of eco-friendly,sustainable and environmentally safe products and services. Such products are harmless to the environment and society from its production stage to the disposal stage. The companies can increase their goodwill by obligating their duty of social responsibility. The green products are implied with 5 R’s i.e’s Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. such implications of green marketing reduce the pollutions and green house dangers. Green marketing has positive effects on the people, their health and the entire society. As on these aspects itself the customers are willing to pay more for the green products .A company cannot succeed by simply highlighting a green aspect of a particular product, but must demonstrate a commitment on multiple levels such as in production processes or environmental engagement. This process creates various benefits to the organisations in displaying itself as a responsible organisation by creating sustainable environment and thereby they can increase their brand image and attain a competitive position in the market.

Keywords: Green marketing ,Industry initiatives of Green marketing, Importance of Green marketing, Green products.

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INTRODUCTION The term “sustainability “has become the keyword of this competitive era. As resources are scarce and human wants are infinite, this broaden gap has augmented the interest among the consumers all over the world regarding fortification of environment. This increasing awareness amongst the world regarding ecological balance has provided more environmental consciousness amongst them .This turn has transformed the behavioural blueprints both in individuals and businesses. Now there is an era of recyclable,nontoxic and environment responsive green goods. Green marketing has evolved as the new mantra for marketers to persuade the needs to target audience and there by produce lucrative bottom lines. A majority of organisations, around the world are making an attempt to reduce the harmful impact of production process on the climate and other environmental conditions. They have comprehensively utilised the word green in marketing campaigns in the form of green marketing,green supply chains, green retailing ,green consumers, green products etc. hence the businesses and the marketers are taking the indication and are going green for the betterment of the entire society.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this paper is to examine the importance of green marketing and also to evaluate the initiatives taken by the indian companies for green marketing in their core business values.

GREEN MARKETING Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally preferable to others. Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and services based on their environmental benefits. Such a products or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced in an environmentally friendly way,Such as 1.Being manufactured in a sustainable fashion 2.Not containing toxic materials or ozone depleting substances 3.Able to be recycled and/or is produced from recycled materials 4.Being made from renewable materials 5.Not making use of excessive packaging 6.Being designed to be repairable and not throw away

According to the American Marketing Association “Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe”. Thus Green marketing refers to holistic marketing concept wherein the production ,marketing consumption and disposal of products

67 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 and services happen in a manner that is less detrimental to the environmental to the environment with growing awareness about the implications of global warming ,non bio-degrable solid waste, harmful impact of pollutant.

IMPORTANCE OF GREEN MARKETING Green marketing affects positively the health of people and the ecological environment.People are aware of pure products and pure methods of producing, using and disposing the products. It encourages integrated efforts for purity in production and consumption as well. 1.Now, people are insisting pure products-edible items, fruits and vegetables based on organic farming 2. Reducing use of plastics and plastic based products 3. Recommending use of leaves instead of plastic carrying bags 4.Worldwide efforts to recycle wastes of consumer and industrial products 5. Strict provisions to protect forests, flora and fauna, protection of rivers, lakes and seas from pollutions 6. Declaration of 5 th June as world environment day

GREEN PRODUCTS AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS Green products are those that have less of an impact on the environment or are less detrimental to human health than traditional equivalents. Green products might typically be formed from recycled components, be manufactured in a more energy conservative way ,be supplied to the market with less packaging, or be manufactured from local materials to reduce the need for transportation and reduce carbon footprints.

CHARACTERISTICS 1. Products those are originally grown 2. Products those are recycylable,reusable and biodegradable 3. Products with natural ingredients 4. Products containing recycled contents, non-toxic chemical 5. Products contents under approved chemical 6. Products that do not harm or pollute the environment 7. Products that have eco-friendly packaging ie, reusable,refillable containers etc

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INDUSTRY INITIATIAVES OF GREEN MARKETING Many companies in india are adopting green for capturing market opportunity of green marketing.Listed below are examples of some companies which have taken a green initiative. This shows a commitment of companies,either as part of their corporate social responsibility or otherwise,to do something worthwhile in this direction.

EXAMPLES OF GREEN MARKETING IN INDIA

1.DIGITAL TICKETS BY INDIAN RAILWAYS Recently IRCTC has allowed its customers to carry PNR no of their E-tickets on their laptop and mobiles. Customers do not need to carry the printed version of their ticket anymore.

2.NO POLYTHENE BAGS FOR FREE Forest and environmental Ministry of india has ordered to retail outlets like BigBazaar, MORE, Central, D-Mart etc that they could provide polythene carry bags to custumers only if customers are ready for it.

3.GREEN IT PROJECT SBI by using Eco and power friendly equipment in its 10000 new ATMs, the banking gaint has not only saved power costs and earned carbon credits, but also set the example for others to follow. SBI is also entered into green service known as “Green channel counter”. SBI is providing many service like, paper less banking ,no deposit slip, no withdrawal form, no checks,no money transactions form all these transaction are done through SBI shopping and ATM cards.

4.FREE PAINTS FROM KANSAI NEROLAC Kansai Nerolac has worked on removing hazardous heavy metals from their paints. The hazardous heavy metals like lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic and antimony can have adverse effects on humans. Lead in paints especially poses danger to human health where it can cause damage to central nervous system,kidney and reproductive system. Children are more prone to lead poisoning leading to lower intelligence levels and memory loss.

5.LG LG India has been a pioneer is making electronic gadgets that are eco friendly .Recently,it has launched a LED E60 and E90 series monitor for the indian market.Its USP is that it consumes 40%less energy than conventional LED monitors.Also,they hardly used halogen or mercury, trying to keep down the use of hazardous materials in their products.

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6.HCL HCL is another brand that is trying to introduce eco-friendly products in the market and it has recently launched the HCL ME 40 notebooks.Thesse notebooks do not use any polyvinylchloride (PVC)material or other harmful chemicals and the Bureau of energy Efficiency already given it a five star rating.

7.TATA CONSULTANY SERVICES TCS has a globally recognized sustainability practice and has already topped the newweek’s top world’s Greenest company title. It also has a global green score of 80.4%and this has mainly happened due their initiative of creating technology for agricultural and community benefits.

8.INDUSIND BANK One of the first banks in india to discourage the use of paper for the counterfoils in ATMs and sending electronic messages,it has contributed a lot towards saving paper and reducing deforestation

9.MRF TYRES MRF has launched the ZSLK series and this is all about creating eco friendly tubeless tyres made from unique silica based rubber and also offers extra fuel efficiency to those who drive their vehicles.

CONCLUSION Green marketing is quickly becoming essential to consumers as the trends of connectivity and transparency are giving consumers unprecedented access to information of accompanies internal workings. This information creates the ability to look at perceived alignment of values between the consumer and the company.

REFERENCES Wikipedia www.thebalancesmb.com www.slideplayer.com www.academia.edu www.omicsonline.org www.copybook.com

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INVESTMENT BEHAVIOUR OF NRI S: A STUDY IN KANNUR DISTRICT, KERALA STATE

Ramseena Azeez,P.G Dept of Commerce Assistant professor, Sir Syed College Taliparamba,Kannur

ABSTRACT An investment is a monetary asset will provide income in the future or will be sold at higher price for a profit. Many risks is involved in investment such as market risk, liquidity risk, inflation risk, credit risk etc. Everyone knows that NRIs are really the strongest foundation of Kerala ’ s economy. A substantial financial investment in infrastructural sector in Kerala is the contribution of NRIs. Financial investment from NRIs is to be utilized in such a way as to helps the development of not only individuals but the state and nation also. The study is conducted in Kannur District of Kerala state. The present study is an attempt to analyze the investment behavior of NRIs and find out their attitude towards investment. The study is designed as an empirical one based on the survey method. To gather primary data convenience sampling technique is used. An interview and questionnaire was prepared to collect information regarding awareness level of the investors, attitude of investors about the various investment avenues in India , factors which influence the investors etc. By analyzing investment behavior of NRIs in Kannur District of Kerala state, the researcher adopts some suggestive investments for NRI investors.

1. INTRODUCTION An investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or will generate income or will appreciate in the future. In an economic sense, an investment is the purchase of goods that are not consumed today but are used in the future to create wealth. An investment is an asset intended to produce income or capital gains. People will not spend their entire income for consumption. They use part of their earnings for meeting present needs and the balance will be saved for future use. So when people sacrifice consumption that will result in savings.

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Investment and savings attitudes and behavior are influenced by the structure, complexity, transparency and perceived past and future performance of different kinds of investment options; the general lack of independent financial advice; the recent superior performance of property investment; perceptions and personal tolerance of risk; the often low level of financial literacy about products other than property; the nature of the information people use when making financial decisions ;the personal or family experience people have with investment; a general wish to have personal control over the investment and trust in the advice of friends and family over unknown professional advisors. Consumer decisions on saving are likely to be influenced by or proposed changes in the investment environment. The application of lower taxes to earnings in managed funds, and forthcoming regulatory changes aimed at improving disclosure and prudential arrangements applying to financial products, providers and advisors are also likely to have an impact.

Few people know about the importance of investment. Most often they associate investment with high risk where they have high chances of losing money instead of gaining profits. Studies on savings and investment have acquired special significance in our country since the advent of five year plans. Much importance is given to studies on economic and financial investment by governmental agencies and private research organization. Contribution made by NRIs and their economies and cultures are highly significant. In finance, an investment is a monetary asset will provide income in the future or will be sold at higher price for a profit. Many risks is involved in investment such as market risk, liquidity risk, inflation risk, credit risk etc. Thus the study intends to observe and analyse the attitude and investment behavior of NRI investors.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The following are the main objectives of the Study: 1) To analyze the investment behavior of NRI’s of Kannur district. 2) To identify the factors influencing investment of NRIs in Kannur district. 3) To know the investment awareness of NRI’s in Kannur district. 4) To identify various investment avenues used by NRI’s in Kannur district.

3. METHODOLOGY The study is designed as an empirical one based on the survey method. The samples under the study are taken from the NRIs conducted during the month of September 2018. The total samples are taken 50 NRIs. The study is primarily based on the primary data collected from the respondent. To gather primary data convenience sampling technique is used. The direct interrogation and questionnaire was prepared to collect information from the NRI respondents

72 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 who came on leave to Kerala during the study period or by collecting data from them through mail or from their relatives present in Kannur. The secondary data has been collected from various publications, journals and periodical and articles related with the study. Random sampling method is used for selecting the customers. The collected data statistically analyzed and presented here.

4. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Table no. 4.1 Age wise classification of respondents AGE(YEARS) NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) Below 24 10 20 25-34 12 24 35-44 15 30 Above 44 13 26

Source: primary data Table no. 4.1 shows that only 20% of respondents are from the age group below 24, 24% are from 25-34, 30% are from age group 35-44 and 26% respondents from age group of above 44. Hence, more respondents are from the age group 35-44.

Table no.4.2 No. of years working abroad

No. of years No. Of respondents Percentage (%) Less than 1 year 8 16 1-5 years 25 50 5-10 years 8 16 More than 10 years 9 18 Source: primary data Table no. 4.2 shows the number of years of NRI’s working abroad. The 50% of them working abroad for 1-5 years, 18% of them working for more than 10 years and only 16% of them working abroad for less than 1 year.

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Table no. 4.3 Total monthly income INCOME(IN RUPEES) NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) Below 20000 5 10 20000-40000 25 50 40000-60000 14 28 Above 60000 6 12

Source: primary data Table no. 4.3 shows that 50% of the respondents’ total monthly income is 20000-40000, 28% of respondents income is 40000-60000 and 10% of respondent’s possess below 20000 rupees as their total monthly income.

Table no. 4.4 Monthly savings

SAVINGS NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) LESS THAN 25% 12 24 25-50% 32 64 50-75% 6 12 MORE THAN 75% 0 0 Source: primary data Table no. 4.4 shows that no respondents out of 50 respondents, saves their monthly income above 75%, 24% of respondents are saving less than 25% of their monthly income.64% of respondents saving between 25-50% and 12% of respondent saving between 50-75% of their monthly income.

Table no 4.5 Awareness of investment PURPOSE NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) YES 24 48 NO 26 52 Source: primary data Table no.4.5 shows that 52% of respondents are not well aware about various investment opportunities available in India.

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Table no: 4.6 Investment areas INVESTMENT AREAS NO.OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) INSURANCE SCHEME 6 12 GOVT.SECURITIES 3 6 MUTUAL FUNDS 5 10 REAL ESTATE 7 14 BANK DEPOSIT 13 26 LIFE INSURANCE 15 30 GOLD 1 2 SILVER 0 0

SOURCE:PRIMARY DATA The table 4.6 shows that most of the respondents invest their income in life insurance( 30% of respondents), while no respondents from 50 respondents invest in silver. 12% of respondents invest in insurance scheme, 6% invest in govt. securities , 10% invest in mutual funds, 14% invest in real estate,26% invest in bank deposit and only 2% of respondents invest in gold.

Figure no. 4.1 Investment areas

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Table no 4.7 Factors considered for investment FACTORS NO.OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) SAFETY OF PRINCIPAL 13 26 LOW RISK 12 24 LIQUIDITY 5 10 HIGH RETURNS 10 20 MATURITY PERIOD 4 8 CAPITAL APPRECIATION 6 12 Source: primary data

The table 4.7 shows that most of the respondents invest by considering the safety of principal, i.e. 26% of respondents, while only 8% of people consider maturity period. 24% of respondents consider low risk as a factor while investing,10% consider liquidity, 20% consider high returns and 12% of respondents consider capital appreciation as a factor while investing.

Figure no. 4.2 Factors considered for investment

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Table no 4.8 Investment objectives INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE NO. OF PERCENTAGE (%) RESPONDENTS INCOME & 17 34 CAPITAL&APPRECIATON LONG-TERM GROWTH 13 26 SHORT-TERM GROWTH 5 10 GROWTH&INCOME 15 30 Source: primary data Table no.4.8 shows that the investment objectives of most of the people are income& capital appreciation, i.e.34%. 26% of respondents invest with objective of long-term growth 30% of respondents invest for growth& income and only 10% of respondents invest with the objective of short-term growth.

Table no 4.9 Purpose of investment PURPOSE NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) LONG-TERM RETURN 24 48 REGULAR RETURN 26 52 Source: primary data Table no.4.9 shows that 52% of respondents invest for the purpose of regular return and only 48% of respondents invest for the purpose of long-term return. Hence the purpose of most of the investors is regular return.

Figure no. 4.3 Purpose of investment

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Table 4.10 Profitable investment INVESTMENT AREAS NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) DEPOSIT 7 14 INSURANCE 9 18 GOVT. SECURITIES 8 16 GOLD 3 6 COMPANY SHARES 16 32 OTHERS 7 14 Source: primary data The table 4.10 shows that the most profitable investment considered by investors is company shares, i.e. 32% of respondents consider company share as profitable investment.14% consider deposit as profitable,18% consider insurance , 16% consider govt. securities, and only 6% of respondents consider gold as profitable investment.

Figure no.4.4 Profitable investment

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Table No 4.11 Risk investment INVESTMENT NO.OF RESPONDENT PERCENTAGE (%) REAL ESTATE 21 42 MUTUAL FUND 13 26 GOLD 0 0 INSURANCE 5 10 GOVT.SECURITIES 9 18 OTHERS 2 4

Source: primary data The table 4.11 shows that most risk investment consider by respondents is real estate, 42% of respondents consider real estate.26% of respondents consider mutual fund , 10% of respondents consider insurance, 18% of respondents consider govt. securities and no respondents consider gold as risk investment.

Figure no. 4.5 Risk investment

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Table no.4.12 Financial plan FINANCIAL PLAN NO.OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) YES 34 68 NO 16 32

Source :primary data

Table 4.12 shows that 68% of respondents makes financial plan and only 32% of respondents not make any financial plan .

Table no. 4.13 Observing stock exchange OBSERVING NO. OF RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE (%) STOCKEXCHANGE YES 42 84 NO 8 16

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA Table 4.13 shows that most of the respondents observes changes in stock exchange, that is 84% of respondents observes changes in stock exchange. And 16% of respondents was not observing any changes in stock exchange.

5. SUGGESTIONS  The government should take initiatives to channelize NRI’s savings into productive and profitable investment avenues like capital market, real estate, debentures, mutual funds etc rather than traditional areas.  Government of India should bring in reforms for pushing up NRI fund flows into country by increasing fixed deposit interest

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 The government should introduce innovative schemes for helping the NRI’s to maintain a better lifestyle after they back home, for the contribution made by them to the Indian income.  The study makes it clear that there is lack of investment awareness among NRIs.so The local government should conduct awareness programs to NRI’s .  At present, NRIs considered the safety factor only. It should be changed, so they should consider safety, liquidity, profitability ,and capital appreciation before making investment decisions. They should try to have balance between all these factors to their investment.

6.CONCLUSION The study, “A STUDY ON THE INVESTMENT BEHAVIOUR OF NRI’S WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KANNUR DISTRICT” undertaken is an attempt to find out the investment pattern of NRIs of Kannur district. The study reveals the various avenues of investments used by salaried people, the portion of income put in to various avenues of investments, their preferences regarding avenues, and investment awareness among NRIs.They use a very less investment avenues and put only small portion of their income in to such avenues. From this, it can be concluded that NRIs are good savers but poor investors. So it is very necessary to create investment awareness among NRIs to facilitate the flow of money into productive purposes.

REFERENCES  Bhalla v.k, Investment Management, New Delhi: s Chand and company Ltd,2001  Kevin.S,Portfolio Management, New Delhi; Prentice Hall of India Pvt Ltd,2005  Preethi Singh, Investment Management, Mumbai: Himalaya publishing House,1996  Kothari c.r , Research Methodology-Methods and Techniques, New Delhi; New age international Publishers;2009  http://www.investopedia.com  http://www.wikipedia.org

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GRAVITY OF CRITICAL THINKING: A REVIEW OF THE MOVIE GURU

Juliet Anu Toms Assistant Professor St. Thomas College, Pala.

ABSTRACT The paper titled “Gravity of Critical Thinking: A Review of the Movie Guru ” takes into consideration the Malayalam movie Guru (1997) and its representation of the significance of critical thinking. The film is a highly metaphorical movie with multiple layers of meaning. The movie uses magic realism, imagery and symbolism in its narration, characters and setting to point to the reality that man intentionally forgets to perceive. The paper deals with an analysis of the movie to explore the grandeur of critical thinking. It delves into the characters, songs and narration to emphasis the gravity of critical thinking in the present scenario.

INTRODUCTION The movie Guru is a 1997 Malayalam language film and is regarded as “a testament to the fact that it is possible to attain a fine balance between stimulating ideas and grand visuals” (Shrijith). The movie questions the blind faith and ungrounded superstitions and thus makes it more relevant now than ever. Being the first Malayalam movie to receive an Oscar nomination, Guru is well appreciated internationally for its universal themes and Indian sensibility. Guru tells the story of Raghuraman whose family is affected by the communal violence and he joins a radical group for revenge. He slips away to an alternate world through the guidance of a holy spirit and gets to know the importance of rational thinking. He returns to his self to be a generous and reasonable man.

This paper takes into discussion the mise-en-scene of the film Guru to point out the importance of critical thinking. Rationalism and critical thinking are important aspects in twenty first century where man blindly follows religion and God without knowing the real value or the ultimate truth behind them.

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Keywords : Critical thinking, rationalism, magic realism

Gravity of Critical Thinking: A Review of the Movie Guru “He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decides justly, cannot be considered just.” - Seneca

Critical thinking is the objective analysis of facts from a judgment. It advocates a person to have good reason to support their beliefs. “It is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skilfully conceptualizing, applying, synthesizing and evaluating information gathered from observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication as a guide to belief and action” (Walker). It points to the importance of reasons and judgments behind any action or belief. The motivation behind any issues, the bias of the speaker underlying it varies the critical thinking and thus it should be self-guided and self-disciplined.

Guru (Spiritual Guide) is a 1997 Indian Malayalam language fantasy film directed by Rajiv Anchal and written by C.G Rajendra Babu. The film comprises of a list of well known and recognised actors including Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, Kaveri and Sithara. The story bears a thematic resemblance with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The movie through its characters, symbols, narration, settings and costumes speak about the importance of critical thinking in any context. The movie reasons out the agenda and purpose behind every action and even criticises the intentionally blind people who follows their religion without knowing the power behind it.

The movie begins with an introductory note “this movie is a mirror that holds before the human conscience in order to avoid a great danger that might happen tomorrow” (5:22). The purpose of the movie is to provoke every man to go back to his human mind and to awake his power of critical thinking to raise questions against the extreme actions and beliefs. The director explains the meaning of the title Guru or Spiritual Guide as the “one who opens the eyes of the people which have been blinded by ignorance”. Hence, Guru is within every human and all it requires is to think before any action.

The titular character or Guru never appears in the movie because he is the central philosophy around which the plot revolves. Rajiv Anchal has mentioned the influence from Sree Karunakara Guru, the founder of Santhigiri ashram. He is the fundamental force behind the re- emergence of Eternal religion. Anchal tries to explore the philosophies of the Guru but it is not the person that he refers to but his teachings and ideologies. At the end, he makes it clear that the spiritual guide is the revelation that forces everyone to have a critical approach to every problem.

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Blindness and sight are two metaphors used in the movie to symbolize ignorance and wisdom. In the real world, everyone is blinded by ignorance and superstitions and in the alternate world, everyone is blinded by physical blindness and hence the mental insecurities. The portrayal of a mad man and his aesthetic words points to the significance of insight and deep perception. He appears in ragged clothes at the communal area and says “ kannu kannatha makkale, ee lokam iruttannu makkale (blind kids, the world is dark)” (27:08). He criticises the failure of people to think.

One example from the movie that shows the absence of critical thinking is the scene in which a Muslim child gives his taqiyah (cap) to his friend, a Hindu child, with love and friendship. He enters the temple to pray and the priest in the temple sees the hat and thinks of him as a Muslim child and believes he contaminated the temple. The issue takes a drastic turn when a political leader manipulates the situation and sends his goon to beat the Brahmin priest in the disguise of Muslims. Thus a simple issue ended with a communal riot killing an entire village. Everything happened because of the lack of critical thinking. They blindly believed the fact that Muslims are the only people to wear taqiyah.

“Critical thinking of any kind is never universal in any individual; everyone is subject to episodes of undisciplined or irrational thought” ( Defining Critical Thinking ). The only character who acts reasonable in the movie is the protagonist Raghuraman (Mohanlal). He is the son of a Hindu priest and is depicted as a symbol of humanity and critical thinking. He never cared about his Brahmin status and its consequences. As he says to a political leader “I believe in my revolution, a revolution that changes the nation for good” (12:15). He is a symbol of rebellion and revolution. When his father, a true epitome a traditional Brahmin, laments for his son’s revolutionary attitude, he simply claims, “I don’t want to be a Brahmin, I want to be a human being” (13:56). When the issue rises, he stops the people from spreading communalism and advocates them to think about the consequences before taking any extreme actions. “If the coal is placed on a palm, only one hand gets burned but if it is blown up, it will be a forest fire” (23:49). But matter goes out of his control when his father gets attacked and he too follows the blindness.

There are certain symbolic scenes in the movie that paints the picture of the absence of critical thinking. When the communal riot lashes out, hundreds of people are killed. Later some mysterious devil-faced heads appear from the fire and it lick blood from the dead. Gradually they spread around the area and gets into some drunkards who starts another commotion. They begin to kill each other out of madness and anger and never cares to look for the reason and nor do they stop to think. The scene is an example of magic realism but it points to the reality that man often fails to think deep or to perceive the truth.

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Another scene that symbolically represents the power of critical thinking is when the moon hides behind the dark clouds. Here the moon symbolizes the truth and dark clouds are represented as religion. People kill each other in the name of religion but fail to see the truth, God, behind it. Humanity and kindness, the principles of any religion, are easily manipulated by the extremists. They find their reason to be the right and purposefully turn a blind eye to the truth of the fellow man. The mad man again screams “Everyone is blind; none have the light of God within them” (31:37).

Raghuraman’s transformation from a reasonable man of humanity to a Hindu extremist points to the intentional blindness when things become personal. The movie suggests that critical thinking and deep insight are qualities that are supposed to be maintained at any time. Raghuraman loses his cool and control when he sees his beloved ones burnt to death. He joins the Hindu extremist gang to become a bomber to seek out his vengeance. When he is asked to kill the refugees in a camp, he answers “Stop! My veins have the smell of burnt human flesh and my memories are filled with blood cells. I haven’t even killed an ant ever since my birth” (36:35). He becomes blind with revenge and intentionally closes his eyes.

An example of the lack of critical thinking is shown when Raghuraman criticises the rules and principles of the hermitage, a monastic community that follows the path of Guru. He feels disgusted seeing the acceptance of non-Hindus in the hermitage and wants to fight against them. But he fails to recognize the truth that he too was once a refugee.

The character Vaidehi, played by Sithara, is an alter ego of Raghuraman. She is the direct follower of Guru and claims that she is accessible to universal truths that lie beyond human experiences. She is capable of predicting and seeing things invisible to others. She catches Raghuraman red-handed when he lies his name and later when he plans to destroy the camp. She is the metaphor of critical thinking that helps Raghuraman to slip away to the alternate world. She accuses him to be “blind out of evil worship” and provokes him to return back to his previous state of humanity.

The alternate world, the land of the blinds, is Raghuraman’s journey to his unconscious, thus to truth and to critical thinking. Before he slips away, the mad man predicts “there is no role for the king of dark in the time of light. Crows will kill the owls” (58:27). He predicts that blindness will fail to sustain in a world where men see things with insight. Raghuraman hears a revelation before slipping to the abyss of the alternate world “Raghurama, you are a medium of a mission. You have reached the peaks of peace. You are going to know the pain of Guru’s sacrifice through your experiences. Hence, through breaking the snow of your mind, you are

85 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 going to an alternate world” (1:04:44). The alternate world is his unconscious which could be reached only through breaking the wall of blindness and superstitions.

The songs in the movie are rich with meanings and metaphors. In the alternate world, Raghuraman is welcomed by two contrasting incidents, one, a man being killed for speaking against the king and other is two lovers crossing the boundaries of caste and class through music. Again the happiness of sight is expressed through a song Aruna kirana deepam. “blindness is the tower of curse and it falls to open the long ways of God”.

The alternate world is the symbol of a human mind. Raghuraman finds it interesting at the beginning and later he tries to give them sight and insight. He himself has to go through the experience of blindness and sight to reach the truth. He tries to convince them that their forefathers were not blind and they created a beautiful world for them. But the people are too blinded by their blindness and fail to believe him. All the characters in the alternate world are symbolic representation of the want of critical thinking. Two contrasting characters are the Teacher and Shravanakan, played by Nedumudi Venu and Sreenivasan respectively. The former believes that the ultimate truth is God and their world is limited to their boundaries and the latter believes science to be the last word of truth. Though both share contrasting ideologies, they stand together against the ultimate truth. Raghuraman advises them to critically think and reason out their findings but they are too sure of themselves. Later, with proof Raghuraman opens up their mind and sight.

Ilama pazham , the fruit that is used as a plot device in the movie is an important symbol that signifies the need of critical thinking. The fruit is consumed by every new born child in that world and is grounded on a myth. They believe that the juice of the fruit is mandatory for a child to survive and is consumed at any rate right at the time of birth. The taste of the fruit provokes to eat more. They also believe that the seed has to be thrown away as it is highly poisonous. In reality, it is the fruit that causes blindness and the consumption of the fruit for centuries have made them all blind. Raghuraman finds the truth behind it when he consumes it for its taste and turns blind. None believes him and even throws stones at him.

Ilama fruit in the movie refers to pseudo-religious superstitions and the seed refers to the ultimate truth, God. When the concern is given to the flesh of fruit, the real medicine is left behind. Even the people who believed in his sight turn against him when he touches their beliefs. They experience his return after eating the seed which they thought to be poisonous, yet they fail to see the truth. Ilama fruit is simply a cover to protect the medicinal fruit. Similarly religion is a medium that helps people to get the divine light of God. But man fails to understand this simple truth because of his blindness and lack of critical thinking. It just took minutes for Raghuraman to

86 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 understand the truth with his thinking but for centuries, they were living in the blindness. They ignored the cure of their illness which has already being with them throughout the ages of illness. When he gets his sight, Raghuraman realises that “Ilama fruits are evil superstitions and blind faith. The world is blind” (2:25:40).

The spiritual leaders and all the divine personalities are men with critical thinking. Just like Raghuraman in the land of blind men, they were critical thinkers who succeeded in reaching the ultimate truth. But the world drastically fails to recognize them and brutally kills them. When Ramanakan (Madhupal) understands the power of Raghuraman to see, he advises him to stop preaching the grandeur of sight as all the men who did the same were gifted with chains and stones. Raghuraman’s reply to his friend’s anxiety is epic “they were also killed by stoning, crucifixion and shooting at the feet” (01:32:42). He refers to Jesus Christ and Lord Krishna who criticises the then existed beliefs and faiths.

Critical thinking or wisdom is a quality that can be attained only through great sacrifice and purity. In the movie, the voice guides Raghuraman to spiritually purify them through prayer and tolerance. Thus it gives the message that critical thinking and insight are not inborn but attained through great sacrifice and thinking. But the people upon getting their sight turn blind with their respect and admiration to Raghuraman and are determined to kill the king for torturing him. It is also a time of realization for Raghuraman and he understands that “religion hides God by building walls in the land of sight” (02:21:00). He feels guilty for his past deeds and is able to unveil the greatness of supreme power.

Another incident that symbolizes the significance of critical thinking is when Raghuraman advises his followers to see the truth rather than blindly following their hearts. When they get agitated against the king for torturing their ‘Guru’, he speaks to them in favour of the king, “The king is innocent like you. He is the king of the people who has lost their insight through their repeated mistakes for generations. You have to make him see through the new light that you have won” (02:23:37). The king turns good by feeling the goodness and humanity of Raghuraman and not through the medicine. His last dialogue “the people, the king and myself are the epitomes of ignorant people who have lost their insight for centuries” (02:24:33) is his return to the original world or his consciousness.

“Word is truth, truth is guru, guru is God”, and hence word is the God. The problem arises when man fails to see the truth and the guru and intentionally tries to connect word and guru. It is through critical thinking and insight that one gets to connect all the three together. In the end, Raghuraman fails to save the camp from the bombers but he manages to gather some

87 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 children of all religions out of the camp to set a new beginning. Hence the role of the Guru and the religion is to save the people.

Guru is regarded as one of the finest creations in Malayalam film industry as it is a culmination of deep multi-faceted messages. In the genre of fantasy, the movie unveils the reality and the need of critical thinking to understand this reality. According to John Kenneth Galbraith, “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking”. The movie advises the viewers to question the existing norms and traditions and to give importance to what serves the men right.

WORKS CITED “Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving.” UTC Wordmark , www.utc.edu/walker-center-teaching- learning/teaching-resources/ct-ps.php. Anchal, Rajiv, director. Guru . 1997. “Defining Critical Thinking.” Critical Thinking Development: A Stage Theory , www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766. Shrijith, Sajin. “Why Mohanlal’s 1997 Film ‘Guru’ Is Relevant Now More than Ever.” The New Indian Express , The New Indian Express, 28 Aug. 2018, 06:05 AM, www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/malayalam/2018/aug/28/why-mohanlals-1997-film- guru-is-relevant-now-more-than-ever-1863641.html.

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RELEVENCE OF HOBBES’S LEVIATHAN IN PRESENT WORLD POLITICS

GISHIN GEEMON 1 st M.A. Department of English GIAL

ABSTRACT Hobbes’s materialistic philosophy was based upon a mechanistic view of the universe that all phenomena were explainable purely in terms of matter and motion, rejecting the concepts of non- corporal spirits. Hobbes’s book challenged the very basis of philosophical and political knowledge. He claimed that traditional philosophy never arrived at irrefutable conclusions. Therefore he called for a reform of philosophy that would enable secure truth claims which everyone could agree.

The present day nation administration is preceded by Aristocracy, Monarchy and Democracy. Hobbes’ philosophy on Commonwealth had been highly influenced in the construction of modern democracy. Most accepted and practiced way of democracy is adopting by the majority of nation shorten the power of common people in the role of governing to the representatives who present in the various assemblies. The present carrying constitution and assemblies can be seen as the developed philosophy of Hobbes.

INTRODUCTION Thomas Hobbes (Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury) was an English philosopher who is considered one of the founders of modern political philosophy . Hobbes is best known for his book ‘Leviathan ’ (1651), which expounded an influential formulation of ‘social contract theory’. Fear is a significant theme in Hobbes’s writing, structuring both his written accounts of his life. The basis of all his philosophical enquiries was to find or create a society devoid of the fear of war. In addition to political philosophy, Hobbes also contributed to a diverse array of other fields, including history , jurisprudence , geometry , the physics of gases , theology , ethics , and general philosophy.

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‘Leviathan’ was one of the most important philosophical texts produced during the 17 th century, it was written partly as a response to the fear Hobbes experienced during the political turmoil of the English civil wars. In the 1640s, it was clear to Hobbes that parliament was going to turn against King Charles I, so he fled to France for eleven years, terrified that, as a royalist, he would be persecuted by them for his support of the king. Hobbes composed ‘Leviathan’ while in France and was published in 1651. Two years after parliament ordered the beheading of Charles I and took over administration of English nation in the name of the commonwealth. The politically unstable years after the civil war prompted Hobbes to advocate for the necessity of absolute sovereignty in England. Hobbes mechanistic view of the universe labelled him as an atheist, among many critics, Hobbes became known as the ‘monster of Malmsbury’ and ‘the bug- bearer of the nation’. In 1666, Hobbes’s books were burned at Oxford.

Hobbes’s believed that civil war was resulted from the disagreements in the philosophical foundations of political knowledge. Hobbesian philosophy was different from the reformation philosophy proposed by Francis Bacon, for whom Hobbes had served as a secretary in his youth. Bacon called his reformation program as ‘a great insaturation’, which was an inductive philosophy based upon the observation of natural facts.

‘Leviathan’ rigorously argues that the civil peace and social unity are best achieved by the establishment of a commonwealth through social contract. This ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power responsible for protecting the security of the commonwealth and granted absolute authority to ensure the common defence. Hobbes describes this commonwealth as an artificial person and as a body politic that mimics the human body. The frontispiece to the first edition of ‘Leviathan’ portrays the common wealth as a gigantic human form built out of the bodies of its citizens, the sovereign as its head. The word Leviathan derived from the Hebrew for ‘sea monster’ and the name of a monstrous sea creature seen in the Bible; the image constitutes the definitive metaphor for Hobbes’s perfect government.

The book ‘Leviathan’ is divided in to four books: ‘Of Man’, ‘Of commonwealth’, ‘Of a Christian Commonwealth’ and ‘Of the Kingdom of Darkness’. Book I contains the philosophical framework for the entire text, while the remaining books simply extend and elaborate the arguments presented in the initial chapters. Hobbes begins his chapter by considering the elementary motions of matter, arguing that every aspect of human nature can be deducted from materialist principles. He depicts the natural condition of mankind known as the ‘state of nature’ – as inherently violent and filled with fear. The state of nature is ‘the war of everyman against everyman’; in which people constantly seek to destroy one another. The best way to achieve peace in a situation like this is to construct the Leviathan through social contract. Book II explains the process of erecting leviathan. Book III concerns the compatibility of Christian doctrine with Hobbesian philosophy

90 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 and the religious system of the Leviathan. Book IV engages in debunking false religious beliefs and arguing that the political implementation of the Leviathan state is necessary to achieve a secure Christian commonwealth.

Hobbes’s method of Leviathan is modelled after a geometric proof, founded upon first principles and established definitions and in which each step of argument makes conclusions based upon the previous step.

In the first book titled “OF MAN”, Hobbes begins his treatise on politics with an account of human nature. He presents an image of man as matter in motion, attempting to show through example how everything about humanity can be explained materialistically, that is, without recourse to a non-corporeal, immaterial soul or a faculty for understanding ideas that are external to human mind, Hobbes depicts objects continually bumping against each other and describes the passage of motion from one material body to the next. This motion transfers to human body and results in the processing of thoughts or imaginations. Speech, according to Hobbes, was invented for the purpose of putting mental discourses into verbal. Faculty of speech results in the registration and remembrance of the train of thoughts. Hobbes identifies four uses of speech; that is to record, to communicate, to elicit others help, to entertain oneself with words. He also identifies the four abuses of speech namely inconstant signification, metaphorical language, lies and language used to hurt others. Hobbes’s philosophy makes the radical claim that the truth is a social construction. When everyone has agreed upon the foundation of knowledge, there is no room for dispute. Eliminating disagreement is essential to eliminate the conditions for civil war. According to Hobbes good and evil are nothing more than terms to denote an individual’s appetite or desire and aversion. Hobbes’s mechanistic universe is discovered to be the product of the interplay of these appetites and aversion. In some people they are inborn but in others these are the products of their experience. Good and evil issue originally from appetite and aversion. The decision of an individual to act or not to act is called the will of the individual. He introduces the concept of power in detail in his work. Human always has a restless appetite to achieve power. Hobbes divides power into two kinds; natural and instrumental. Natural power derives from the faculties of the body or mind, such as strength, wit and arts. Instrumental power derives from acquired faculties such as riches, friends and reputation. The appetite to achieve to power is a central aspect of Hobbes’ picture of human nature. Fear of death is the ultimate aversion of man. The awareness of death causes people to seek peace. The negotiations between power and fear with the ultimate goal of achieving peace are called manners.

Since there is no summum bonum (greatest good), the natural state of man is not to be found in a political community that purses the greatest good. But to be outside of a political community is to be in anarchic condition. Given human nature, the variability of human desires,

91 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 need for scarce resources to fulfil those desires, the state of nature, as Hobbes calls this anarchic condition, must be a war of all against all.

The desire to avoid the state of nature, as the place where the summum malum (greatest evil), of violent death is most likely to occur. Hobbes is explicit that in the state of nature nothing can be considered just or unjust, and everyman must be considered to have a right to all things. The second law of nature is that one ought to be willing to renounce one’s right to all things where others are willing to do the same, to quit the state of nature and to elect a commonwealth. Hobbes concludes part one by articulating an additional seventeen laws of nature that make the performance of the first two to possible and by explaining what it would mean for a sovereign to represent the people even when they disagree with the sovereign.

In Book II “ OF COMMON WEALTH” , The purpose of commonwealth is depicted. “the final cause, end, or design of men (who naturally love liberty and dominion over others) in the introduction of that restraint upon themselves in which we see them live in commonwealth is the foresight of their own preservation and of a more contended life thereby; that is to say, of getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war which is necessarily consequent, as has been shown to the natural positions of men when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants”.

Hobbes argues that there must be some common power to control and check the citizens to force people to uphold the contract. There are two ways of establishing a commonwealth; Through Acquisition and Through Institution. Through Acquisition (force) is through establishing a common wealth through force mean, a sovereign power takes control of a group of people, while they don’t resist the acquisition and depose the sovereign, they had to consent to the control. Through Institution (agreement) – it accords with Hobbes’ description of how natural man rises himself out of the state of nature.

Both have the same function that is to protect society and secure peace and both have the same rights to their subjects. Hobbes mention twelve rights of sovereign which can be easily seen in present day politics. They are, subject owe him sole loyality, subjects cannot be freed, dissenters must yield to the majority in declaring a sovereign, sovereign cannot be unjust or injure any innocent subject, the sovereign cannot be put to death, the sovereign can be determine what ideas are acceptable and reject unacceptable ones, the sovereign prescribes legislative rules, sovereign has judicial power in all controversies, civil and intellectual, he may make war and peace with other commonwealths, the sovereign may choose his counsellors, he has the power to give rewards as well as punishments and the final right is, he can make all civil appointments.

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There are three kinds of sovereign authority namely monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Because of many reason Hobbes believes that monarchy is the best form of all forms of government for leviathan. Contractual sovereign is similar to the power of parent over a child. A subject can obey or disobey the sovereign because a subject has the right for self-preservation. But he has to suffer its consequences also. Even if the sovereign kills the subject, the subject has been personally responsible for his own fate. If the sovereign is no longer capable to fulfil his own function then the commonwealth is collapsed and the subject can enter in to a new contract.

Religion- Hobbes explicitly states that the sovereign has authority to assert power over matters of faith and doctrine. Hobbes presents his own religious theory. It marks Hobbes as a supporter of the post-civil war English republic, independency.

Taxation- He had also touched upon the sovereign ability to tax in leviathan. Hobbes believed that equal justice includes the equal imposition of taxes. The equality of taxes does not depend on the equality of wealth, but on equality of dept that everyman owes to the common wealth for his defence and maintenance of the rule of law. Hobbes also supports for those unable to maintain themselves by labour which would presumably be funded by taxation.

In Book III “OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH”, Hobbes undermines virtually all 17 th century Christian dogmas. The belief that the world is the kingdom of God has been responsible for the double vision of Christian subjects according to Hobbes. They have to believe that both God and the civil sovereign are the kings of the world, this causes divided loyalties. Hobbes demonstrates through his reading of scripture that the kingdom of God is not present until the world ends and thus only civil sovereign is the king in this world. He refutes the belief of the existence of non-corporeal spirits, angels in the world. When everything is made up of body, the concept of bodylessness is illogical. Spirits, angels and visions of saints are idols of the brain and worship such idols is contrary to Christianity, diminishes one’s faith in God, who is not present in idols. According to Hobbes idols are not to be worshipped or feared as non-corporeal entity. The concepts of miracles, hell, damnation and devils have been used to sway the beliefs of the ignorant and make them turn from their lawful sovereign. Therefore the right understanding of scriptures is needed. To ensure peace, a subject must obey his sovereign in all things and Hobbes shows the obedience to the single master of the sovereign always provides security in this life and the next. There should never be two heads of a leviathan and the sovereign should always be subordinate to him. Hobbes demonstrates that his program for the creation of the perfect commonwealth accords entirely with the necessary articles of Christianity.

Book IV “OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESSE” The bible demonstrates the kingdom of darkness as the confederacy of Satan and his demons. However, Hobbes having already disproved the existence of devils, concludes that the kingdom of darkness is merely an

93 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 allegory for a “confederacy of deceivers”, that to obtain dominion over men in this present world. By the kingdom of darkness, Hobbes means the darkness of ignorance as opposed to the light of true knowledge. His interpretation is unorthodox and sees so much darkness in what he sees as the misinterpretation of scripture. Hobbes enumerates four causes for the darkness. By extinguishing the light of scripture through misinterpretation. Hobbes sees the main abuse as teaching that the kingdom of God can be found in the church, thus undermining the authority of the civil sovereign. The demonology of the heathen poets concerning demons, which in Hobbes opinion are nothing more than constructs of the brain. Hobbes then goes on to criticize what he sees as many of the practices of Catholicism: “now for the worship of saints and images, relics and other things at this day practiced in the Church of Rome, I say they are not allowed by the word of God”

By mixing with the scripture diverse relics of the religion and much of the vain and erroneous philosophy of the Greeks, especially of Aristotle, Hobbes reckons the belief that the rope is the vicar general of Christ as a cause for the kingdom of darkness.

The belief that the clergy are specially appointed over the Christian laity with privileged knowledge of divine will.

Hobbes concludes that all these practices are the manipulations of man and the beneficiaries of all these are the churches and the churchmen.

Conclusion

When we read ‘Leviathan’ after many centuries from its actual publication it has a great significance in the contemporary society which is in want of a proper form of governance. Hobbes went beyond his age. His philosophy was radical and was capable of subverting the accepted discourses of that time. Hobbes’ ultimate aim was to create a world of peace by reforming the political philosophy. Hobbesian philosophy challenged the existing dogmas of that age.

The aristocracy governing countries like Denmark, England, Spain, United Kingdom and Nigeria. The Monarch ruling Countries like Saudi Arabia, Bhutan, Bahrain, Vatican city, Oman, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Swaziland and Brunei and uncountable number of countries with democratic government are presenting the existence of Hobbesian philosophy in hearts of all countries according to the depicted way. The present days are prominent in witnessing the movement of three mentioned ruling method to mere an authority in single means. The authoritarianism is the leading institution that will come in to front in the future days.

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Works cited

1. The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (pdf)

2. Leviathan.wikipedia.org

3. Sparknotes.com/ Leviathan

4. Hobbes’s leviathan/ britishlibrary.com

5. Aristocratic government/ quora.com

6. Royal rule/ mnn.com

7. Democracy countries/ ranker.com

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AN ESTRANGED WOMAN’S LIFE

NIRMAL ISSAC THOMAS MA English

ABSTRACT This project is an attempt to analyse the feminine consciousness revealed in the novel Mahashwetha written by Sudha Murthy. Murthy is one of the most inspirational women our country has ever seen. Feminism is a range of movements and ideologies that share a common goal to define, establish and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal and social rights for women. The subjugation of woman is a central fact of history and it is the main course of all psychological disorders in the society. The methodology of this project is such that it includes three chapters apart from the introduction and conclusion.

The first chapter entitled “Sudha Murthy: the voice of the oppressed woman” attempts to present Sudha Murthy as a writer as well as her works. The second chapter deals with feminist theory and the levels of feminism. It also gives an account of three waves of feminism and its impact on female writings. The third chapter is detailed analysis of feminist theory and Sudha Murthy’s narrative techniques in the novel Mahashwetha. The conclusion is a summing up of the project. It reveals the feminine consciousness of the female protagonist Anupama in Sudha Murthy’s Mahashwetha. Sudha Murthy has remained very truthful and realistic to the women and their predicaments in all walks of life.

Sudha Murthy ‘snovel Maheshweta is about the very homely and cheerful Anupama, but after a fairy-tale marriage to Anand,a wealthy doctor against the wishes of his family,she faces unconcealed animosity in her new household as a poor daughter in law. As she braves against them, she is thrown into anabyssof cruel destiny when she discovers a white patch on her foot and learns that she has leukoderma. An insensitive husband obsessed with beauty,resentful and uncaring family and the taboos of a narrow-minded indifferent society are reflected in the novel.All these factors combine to break her spirit pushing her to the brink of suicide. However

96 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 the indomitable human spirit emerges victorious and Anupama rebuilds her life and career with great maturity of thought and action.

Anupama who is from a poor family is an extremely talented stage performer, educated and blessed with extra ordinary beauty. Her entire life got completely changed when she marries a very rich and successful doctor Anand who fell in love with Anupama. In the beginning Anupama was happy, she thought that “god had been kind to her that she got married into such a distinguish family without having to face any obstacles” (Murthy 37). Everything goes on like an enchanting love story until Anand leaves for England to pursue his higher studies.Anupama has to face continuous humiliation as she was from a poor family. Though Anupama is educated Raddhakka never care for an educated daughter in lawor a talented stage performer .This is clear when Anupama hears from Sundaramma that ‘Radhakka will never allow her daughter- in- law to act’.Imagine girls from decent families going on stage! Things cannot go on as they did before the marriage Radhakka also cares for daughter’s opinion when Anupama catches Girija’s lie.

“This girl who had come into their house a couple of months ago was making her daughter cry” (44).In Anand’s house Anupama preferred to remain in silence, she knew that no one concerned about her.

Anupama again falls into the hands of fate as she is abominated by her family members because of the disease leukoderma.Anupama was shocked to hear the news from the doctor that she has leukoderma. Anupama could not stem the flow of her tears any longer .The doctor was aware that tiny white patches had ruined many marriages,shattered many hearts, broken many engagements.Anupama hide her disease from her family members as she was afraid of Anand’s reaction to her condition and was worried about the consequences. She was utterly despondent,Anupama thought to herself.

Was she suffering now because of her karma,because of something she had done on her previous birth? Was her affliction the result of someone curse? She was no longer keen to call up or write letters to him.Her wretchedness made her oblivious to everything else she felt as though she was walking through a dark tunnel that had no end in sight. (57)

Anupama was in extreme sadness when she doesn’t get any letters from Anand.Radhakka being an irrational orthodox woman who thinks that Anupama’s strange affliction is due to the sins she had committed.Anupama realizes that she is relegated to a position even lower than that of a servantbut Anupama hopes for a reunion with Anand.She says “Anand is not like this people. He is a doctor, he will surely persuade his mother to see the reason, Anupama told herself repeatedly” (56).But there is no reply from Anand. Anupama’s life gets more pathetic when she

97 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 has to withstand the humiliating comments from her mother in law. Radhakka criticises her father by saying that they have deceived Anand by hiding the details about Anupamas disease before the marriage.Radhakkais nervous about Anand’s future and she insist on Anupama going back to her own house.Thus Anupama is forced to lead a silence existence.She becomes the passive bearer of repugnance as she is treated as an outcast with in her family. “Take your daughter back with you she need not come back until she completely cured and my son returns and sends for her. We have been deceived”(58).

In the novel Anupama’s mother in law seems to be very possessive of her son. She takes care not to spoil relationship with her son but when she gets the right opportunity she clearly does away with Anupama and sends with her father. Anupama had to endlessly cope up with taunt and castigations as her step mother fears whether her disease might be a hindrance for suitable marriage proposal for her daughters. But her fears proved true. Everyone in the village also treated her skin condition as a curse.This is evident when village people rumoured about her. Anupama doesn’t have the strength to cope up with stinging marks.She questions everything. Her husband,Anand had taken his marriage vows in front of hundreds of people in the presence of Agni.Yet he had betrayed her and the commitment he had made to her.

She recalled a line from one of her plays, “why did god gave strong arms and the courage of a lion to man? So that he rescues helpless women,the distressed and the forsaken was the reply. But Anand had fail to rise in the occasion and came to her aid” (78). But she gains strength to hold on this. This is evident when she prays “give me the courage to live no matter what happens”(79). She gathers willpower and moves to Bombay where she starts a new life by working as a lecturer. Atotallydifferent world is unveiled before Anupama. In her friend Sumy’s house,Sumy’s husband received Anupama like a sister. But his intention was not good.Anupama shouted at anger when Hari reached for Anupama.She says “you should be ashamed of yourself,you have call me your sister…will you behave with your sister like this? Get out of my way i want to go out” (88).

Anupama asserts her individuality through her independent life and she got many good friends like Vasant and Sathya. Doctor Vasant proposes to marry her but she rejects him by offering her friendship.Sudha Murthy through her novel portraysa woman Anupama who gradually develops the temerity to confront life as it is. Through the character Anupama writer hopes for a revival that can awaken the women in the society. Anupama had became an empowered woman.Anupama grows up to face life along with an audacity unknown to her. Years later when Anand is repentant about his thoughtful actions anupama encounters him with courage and confidence. She ask him with confidence “Did you speak when you first go to know about my

98 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 condition? Was it my fault that i got this white patch ?is it my fault that i am apoor man’s daughter ?now that you are here answer me” (146).

Thus Anupama willingly exposes the changes that experiences given her. Anupama gets completely transformed from a self-awakeningand enduring wife into an independent woman with her own decisions. Anupama questions Anand about the ill treatment that she receives from his family. This is evident when she says:

You know that I did not have this disease before our marriage .You could have told your mother but you didn’t. You were scared that I would be disfigured because of this disease. Your mother and sister dislike me because I was from a very poor family. They wanted an excuse to get rid of me and your silence provided them with the perfect cover. (147)

She put forth a rear attitude when she remains into him that he has neglected his duties as husband when Anand abandoned her. She tells him that as a dutiful husband he was supposed toconsole her by providing with the best treatment instead of insulting her.Sudha Murthy also points out the commodification of female body. Anand sees her merely as an object to fulfil his wishes. She honors the sancity of marriage, but her husband does not.

You never treated me as a human being. I was only a beautiful object that you wish to possess and flaunt. Suppose you have got leukoderma do you think that I would have left you for some other man? Amarriage is a lifelong commitment for better or for worse, till death do as a part. (147)

Anupama also told Anand it is too late for them. Now she doesn’t think of a family life, there was a time when Anupama pleaded him to get her back with him, but in vain. She doesn’t go back into the village and face prejudice or get into the family at all. She makes her decision clear that there relationship is over. This is evident when she says “It would be better for us to part now and never communicate with each other again” (149).

Husband, children and affection they are all irrelevant to me now. It is too late for us am no longer the naïve Anupama whose world revolves around you. I know that my goals are and where am heading, and I don’t need any ones help to reach my destination .God hasbeen very kind to me, I have been fortunate enough to live in a place like Bombay where even this mad rush as a humane side to it.(148)

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Anupama is a survivor;she emerges as a woman of her own right.Her unforgettable past has taughther a valuable lesson .She doesn’t want a family of her own. She chooses seclusion and loneliness in life because she doesn’t want to be humiliated by her family members again, though she has limitations in facing life alone. But she decided to live alone without depending any one because she taste bitter experiences in her past, and memories of the past haunted her. This makes her afraid and she decided to free her from all family relations. No one in her family cares for her. They only think of their prestige and status in the society. No one in the society realises that for leukoderma patients despite it being a known fact that vitiligo is nothing but a skin condition in which there is a loss of brown colour pigment from areas of skin resulting in irregular white patches that feel like normal skin and in no way hinders the normal daily functioning of the patient. Anupamas life questions as to think as a society have we become broadminded enough to appreciate the inner beauty over the physical one.

Anupamas life gives hope and courage to every women in our country who suppress there emotions and suffer silentlybecause they have leukoderma. Anupama’s life shows how she overcomes with the circumstances and realises her dreams without losingpatience or confidence. Even when Vasant proposes Anupama, she tells in pain”others have their own lives to lead too” (150). Almost all of Sudha Murthy’s heroines are portrayed soft from outside but strong inside.It is noteworthy that the author shows a close affinity between these heroines and flowers. Vinuta reveals in the company of nature and isreluctant to leave her house in Dharwad which has a number of flowering plants in the spacious compound of the house. Anupama is associated with ‘Parijatha’ and Shrimathi with ‘Bakula’ flowers bytheir lovers who later become their husbands. The lovely Parijatha blooms reminded him of Anupama.

In the title ‘ Gently Falls The Bakula ’, Bakula flower metaphorically represents Shrimathi, it is the Bakula tree standing between both Srikant and Shrimathi’s house which act as a connecter and plays a major role in bringing them together initially without realizing it. The flowers indicate thefragile and sensitive nature of women. They are symbolic of chastity, love and freshness.

Sudha Murthy has tried to indicate all these qualities are there in her protagonist.On the other hand the other women characters are stereotypically especially the mother in laws and sister in laws of the heroines are typical character. They are almost the same kind in all these novels‘ In Gently Falls The Bakula ’ Gangakka is widow and wants a very rich girl to be her daughter in law. In ‘ Dollar Bahu ’ it is for the same reason that Vinuta is despised and Jamuna is praised.. Thus Anand does not get to know her true feelings. Her intelligence is displayed when

100 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 she does not oppose Anand choice of a poor girl like Anupama. She takescare not to spoil her relationship with her son but when she gets the right opportunity, she clearly does away with Anupama.One can also notice the mentality of the mother in laws who have lost their husbands. They are seemed to be very possessive of their sons and envious of their daughter in law. This is clearly presented in ‘ Gently falls the Bakula’ and ‘ Mahaswetha ’. Gangakka was extremely miserable that her daughter in law was happy and so she makes Shrimathi tale up a job by postponing her plan of doing PhD torepay one lakh rupees taken as loan for Shrikanths studies. Radhakka never bothers about Anupamas plight and never realizes that Anupamas maintenance is her responsibility and one more commonfeature in this novel is the sister in law. All the heroines have a sister in law each. Shrimathi has an elder sister in law Rama who is married. These are the pampered ones in their families and broughtup with a lot of care and no responsibilities. They are seemed to be engaged in love affair before their marriages and are not considerate towards their sister in laws. Even the genuine concern ofVinuta and Anupama is misunderstood by them in short the sister in laws offer contrasts to the heroines.

Sudha Murthy in all these novels exposes the domestic relationship in the Indian set up of the middle-class society in a language which is simple, subtle and highly readable. Sudha Murthy has remainedvery truthful and realistic in presenting the women and the challenges they face in their personal, professional and social levels. Her writing also shows how women always gain self esteem in facing theadversities of their lines, assert their individuality aspire self reliance through education. Initially when their free spirits are curbed all they can do is to adjust compromise and adapt. She also showsthe importance of education, freedom and courage of the women protagonist who crosses from the male dominated society and blossoms into new women in the real sense.

Conclusion Sudhamurthy’s novel Mahasweth a deals with the struggle of Anupama who faces tough challenge in life and evolves strongly out of it,to lead a life independently. Accepting the diseaseof leukoderma she leads a life which is independent and pursues a job that gifted her ‘self’ satisfaction and peace of mind. This story is also an example of how physical beauty matters to the world than that of a beautiful soul. She is not accepted or valued anywhere, neither by family not by society.

The values and issues discussed in this novel by SudhaMurty are relevant in today’s world too. The afflicted people are subjected to taunts, jeers, and prejudices that are practically shunned by the society. This work portrays the inner strength of a woman who discovered herself in the best way she could when none was there to give her a helping hand, even her so

101 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 called husband. She is alienated. Anupama though depressed, is able to overcome the circumstances. She is completely capable of being independent and led a life all alone, as situations forced her to do so.

Life is not a paradise, especially to a middle class woman.Anupama is shattered when she discovers that she is affected with leukoderma which is still treated in India as a curse. Anupama who moves heaven and earth to survive, had many stumbling blocks, but she faces the hurdles strongly. It is quite amazing that Indian woman is longer confined to kitchens. Indian woman set their foot on space challenging the position in the male dominated society. If they have the required education, women will cross the patriarchal threshold and regain their life and will become an empowered woman.

India as a country is still recovering from years of abuse in the time of the Raj and more years of economic suffering at the hands of the License Raj. It is only now that globalisation, liberalisation and other socio-economic forces have given some respite to a large proportion of the population. However, there are still quite a few areas where women empowerment in India is largely lacking.There are several places across the country where harmful customs of the ancient world coexist with modern appliances and thought. In the simplest of words, empowerment is basically the creation of an environment where women can make independent decisions on their personal development as well as shine as equals in society.

“When women will free themselves of the dependence syndrome and lead a normal life, my idea of feminism materializes” To truly understand what women empowerment is, there needs to be a sea-change in the mind-set of the people in the country. Not just the women themselves, but the men have to wake up to a world that is moving towards equality and equity. It is better that this is embraced earlier rather than later, for our own good.

Swami Vivekananda once said “arise away and stop not until the goal is reached”. Thus our country should thus be catapulted into the horizon of empowerment of women and revel in its glory.

Work Cited Murthy, Sudha. Mahashweta . Delhi: Penguin, 2007. Print.

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MARXIAN ANALYSIS OF HUMAN PERSON IN THE SOCIAL SITUATIONS

AUSTIN GEORGE MA ENGLISH GIRIDEEPAM COLLEGE

ABSTRACT The whole of Marx’s theory is essentially one of change and evolution. He stressed more on the aspect of individual dignity. This emphasis can be seen in all the concepts developed by Marx. Since human being is a social being, Marx observes the society closely and understands the problems and suppressions of human beings in the society. Hence, let us discuss about the situation of human beings in the capitalist society and the various kinds of problems existed. This little work tries to explain about capitalism, the two classes, alienation and its aspects and Marx’s idea about the role of religion in the life of human beings. Let us also discuss some of the negative consequences of materialism.

Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system controlled chiefly by individuals and private companies instead of by the government. Capitalism stresses private economic choices. Capitalism can be characterized as a system of production for the market in which labour-power itself has become a commodity like any other article of exchange. Thus in a capitalist state or society arises two types of people, capitalists or bourgeoisie and workers or proletarians who come together and meet in a market.

Bourgeoisie According to Marx, in a capitalist society there is a separation of politics and economics which hides the face of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class. In such a society, the capitalists are concerned about maximum profit and accumulation of wealth. Marx and Engels describe bourgeoisie as a new class emerged out of the womb of feudal medieval society. With the development of capitalism, labour, skills, technology and science cease to be the matter of

103 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 individuals. All this need co-operation and presupposes socialization. But the overall control is still in private hands. The appropriation of the fruits of common labour is by private capitalists. This contradiction between the development of the productive forces and the relations of production cannot last.

Proletarians The working class is known as the proletarians. The capitalist society developed a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are commodity. Owing to the extensive use of machinery and of division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all its individual character. Hence the cost of production of a worker is restricted almost entirely to the means of subsistence that he/she requires for his/her maintenance and for the propagation of his/her race. But the price of commodity and of labour is equal to its cost of production. Therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Thus the proletarians began to suffer under the clutches of the bourgeoisie.

Alienation According to Marx, human person, as a natural being, produces his/her own nature or the powers of his/her species in history through actual labour, embodying these powers in material goods and instruments of material production. In all the products of creativity, human person objectifies himself/herself and, in so doing, he/she loses himself/herself in alienation. Marx sees three aspects of alienation, namely, alienation of human person from the object of his production, from the act of production, and from his/her fellow beings.

Alienation of Human Person from the Object of His/Her Production Work is human person’s self-expression. When he/she works for wages, he/she sell himself/herself and the product of his/her labours is taken away from him. Thus the labour loses its character of being his/her self-expression. In this situation human person becomes dehumanized. His/her existence has no other value than that of its productive force. Worker becomes a slave of his/her object, since only through it he/she continues to exist, not only as a worker, but also as a human being. Hence follows the first aspect of alienation of human person from the object of his/ her production.

Alienation from the Act of Production Since a worker’s activity is no longer determined by his/her personal benefits, but by the physical and mental dispositions for the benefit of the object, a worker does not affirm himself/ herself in work, but denies himself/herself. He/she feels miserable and unhappy. He/she feels at

104 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 home only when he/she is out of his/her work. During the work he/she is outside of himself/ herself. Work, instead being his/her self-expression, becomes a burden which is forced upon him/her to keep him/her alive. Thus, in the act of production, the relationship of the worker to his/ her own activity is that of an outsider and not of one to whom it belongs.

Alienation from His/Her Fellow Human Beings Through alienation from the life activity, human person is enstranged from his/her fellow human persons. To human person, his/her fellow human person becomes a stranger, another one competing with him/her for the satisfaction of his/her needs. Everyone treats the other as a tool or means. Everyone becomes a wolf to his/her fellow human persons. Thus, human person is alienated also from his/her fellow human persons.

Human Person and Religion According to Marx, religion is nothing but human beings relating to their own fantastic projections. In the words of Marx in his book On Religion : “Man makes religion, religion does not make man. Religion is the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again.” Marx turns theology into anthropology and establishes that human person is the highest being for human person. It is for the human emancipation that Marx is an atheist. The denial of all gods is meant to serve the affirmation of all that is human. Marx has a deeper analysis of the phenomenon of religion and concludes that it is the opium for the people, as a matter invented by malicious priests and rulers to fool the people. It is an alienating and illusionary form of protest. It is like the opium which produces dreams which make people to forget their misery for a while but hinders them to fight the cause of their misery. Marx’s purpose of atheism is not to win the debate about God and heaven, but to make the way free to win the battle for humankind.

Critical Evaluation Marx is widely criticized for his materialist theory which has far-reaching negative consequences on the concept of human person. Marx and Engels, proceeding from both a Hegelian starting point with its emphasis on the absolute, spirit, freedom, individuality, and a Feuerbachian starting point with its emphasis on abstract materialism have approached philosophical anthropology historically as a denial of the positions of absolute idealism or even of abstract materialism. Hence, here we shall discuss some of its negative consequences.

The Denial of any Essential Difference between Matter and Mind Marx’s theory involves the denial of a spiritual soul. For him, the mind is only a function of the brain and the brain is matter organized in a special way as the product of a long process of

105 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 evolution. The distinction between mind and matter possesses no absolute value. It is not a distinction which would make matter and mind two different kinds of reality. Rather, the distinction merely indicates which is primary. For him, mind is dependent on body and is declared secondary. It is a function of the brain or a reflection of the outer world.

Denial of Freedom Marxism being based on a materialist, and consequently on a determinist view of man, does not admit that human person has free will in the sense of freedom of chance. He/she is the product of circumstances and education which in their turn are the necessary products of materialist determinism. His/her freedom consists only in the recognition of necessity. Determinism is the theory which denies free choice or deliberated reason, which professes that the act of the will is established, fixed and determined in a necessary way.

Denial of Immortality This denial is based on the communist interpretation of religion. Just as human person in the present capitalist society of economical exploitation, instinctively creates religious ideas which offer him an escape from the hopelessness of a life of economic slavery, he/she instinctively created the concept of immortality in order to provide himself/herself with an escape from the fear of inevitable death.

Conclusion we have discussed about how Karl Marx analyses the situation of human beings in the society. He identifies a suffering humanity under the capitalist society. The intention of Marx is to bring about a change in the society by introducing a communist society in which everyone identifies themselves as equal. He was courageous enough to raise his voice against the injustice in the society. Because of one man’s thinking, the whole world rose up against the capitalist system which changed the history of human kind. It is the law of the nature that when any injustice happens in the society God appoints someone to bring peace and justice. It can be you and I.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Edwards, Richard C., Michael Reich, and Thomas E. Weisskopf. The Capitalist System: A Radical Analysis of American Society . New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1972. Godelier, Maurice, ed. Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Miller, James. History and Human Existence: From Marx to Merleau–Ponty . London: University of California Press, 1979.

106 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 Njarakunnel, George. Love, Liberty and the New Man: Humanism in Erich Fromm . New Delhi: Intercultural Publications, 1995. Dewald, William G. “Capitalism.” The World Book of Encyclopedia , 3, 193-196. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1994. McInnes, Neil. “Marx, Karl.” The Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 5, 171-173. New York: The Macmillan Company and the Free Press, 1967.

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MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF TRAUMA IN THE MOVIE ULLADAKAM

Archana Babu and Akshitha Mariam Mathew I M.A. English Post Graduate Department of English Girideepam Institute of Advanced Learning, Vadavathoor E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Trauma theory denotes a vibrant interdisciplinary area of western scholarship developed since the 1980s through cross fertilization between psychology and humanities. It emerged from several area of social concern. The evolution of trauma theory in literary criticism might best be understood in terms of the changing psychological definition of trauma as well as the semiotic rhetorical and social concern that are part of study of trauma in literature and society. Trauma has got an interdisciplinary significance, achieving prominence in almost all fields of knowledge such as psychology, law, ethics, art and literature.

The Malayalam movie Ulladakam (1991) directed by Kamal and written by P. Balachandran is one of the best psychological thrillers which has got a wide acclaim in big screen. The movie stared by Mohanlal, Shobana, Amala Akkineni depicts various aspects of trauma and presents the cause and effects of the traumas. the plot revolves around the protagonist Dr.Sunny (Mohanlal), a physiatrist’s life and his encounter with a traumatized patient Reshma(Amala) who later starts liking him and become obsessive about him. This paper mainly aims at the re reading of literary trauma theory in the light of the movie Ulladakkam . The paper analyses various depiction of traumatic stages, its cause and its results in movie and connecting it with the theoretical traumatic studies. The study progress through the analyse of the characters who are traumatized in various level , mainly focusing on the character Reshma.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines trauma as direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury; threat 108 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 to one’s physical integrity, witnessing an event that involves the above experience, learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death, or injury experienced by a family member or close associate.Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common aspects. There is frequently a violation of the person’s core assumptions about the world and their human rights, putting the person in a state of extreme confusion and insecurity. This is seen when institutions depended upon for survival violate, humiliate, betray, or cause major losses or separations instead of evoking aspects like positive self worth, safe boundaries and personal freedom. As trauma differs between individuals, according to their subjective experiences, people will react to similar traumatic events differently. In other words, not all people who experience a potentially traumatic event will actually become psychologically traumatized. The field of trauma studies in literary criticism gained significant attention in 1996 with the publication of Cathy Caruth’s Unclaimed Experience; Trauma, Narrative, and History and Kali Tal’s Worlds of Hurt; Reading the Literature of Trauma . At the theoretical trend was introduced by scholars like Crauth who pioneered a psychoanalytic post structural approach that suggests trauma is an unsolvable problem of the unconscious that illuminates the inherent contradictions of experience and language. The evolution of trauma theory in literary criticism might best be understood in terms of changing psychological definitions of trauma as well as the semiotic, rhetorical and social concerns that are part of the study of trauma in literature and society.

Trauma theory denotes a vibrant interdisciplinary area of scholarship. The incorporation of trauma theory in to film and media studies, realise in relation to the field- shaping influence of psychoanalytically informed film theory. The foundation of trauma theory has been firmly established across multi-disciplines and fields ranging from American studies, history and psychoanalysis to cultural studies, sociology and anthropology. Scholars of film and media studies along with those from other disciplines, have embraced a plurality of trauma theory approaches while at the same time recognising in contributing within or from outside of trauma theory.

Psychological thrillers has been on of the most famous genres of global cinema. Indian cinema is definitely not an exception. The Indian movie makers have increasingly started portraying various psychological states, disturbances and their curies with at most precision- of course with some strange moments that may not suit the prognosis and accepted developmental patterns of particular pathological states of mind and that can be given the benefit of poetics license or artistic liberty. The terms like hysteria, psychosis, neurosis, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, hypnotism and the like have become very familiar to the common man.

The 1991 Malayalam movie Ulladakam one of the psychological thrillers produced in India directed by Kamal and written by P. Balachandran , portrays trauma in various dimension. The movie had received many awards including Kerala State Film Award for best actor(Mohanlal),

109 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 best director(Kamal), Film Fare Awards South for best actress(Amala) and Kerala Film Critics Association Award for best actor(Mohanlal).

The movie depicts the life of various people in and around a mental asylum. Dr. Sunny, the central character in acted by Mohanlal is appointed as a psychiatrist of the mental asylum which is run by his would be father in law, where he mets many mentally unstable patients. He tries to create an order in the asylum. Dr. Roy(in acted by Murali) a friend and senior of Dr. Sunny informs him about his sister Reshma’s(Amala) disturbed mental condition. Dr. Sunny admits her in the asylum. Reshma proves to be a very difficult case for Sunny. Dr. Sunny diagnosis that she is having sea phobia. Dr. Sunny finds out that the reason behind her instability is that she had witnessed the death of her lover, Arun who was beaten by his friends and she loses him at the sea. Sunny’s personality and his special care for Reshma helped her to transfer her emotions for Arun towards Sunny.

Towards the climax of the movie she came to know about the marriage of Dr. Sunny with Annie(Shobhana) , where her conscious mind tries to react normally and consciously she gets detached from Dr. Sunny. She seems to be normal and happy at the wedding of Dr. Sunny and Annie. she is scattered within and her traumatic state worsened by the beating of the drums during the wedding party. It disturbed her mental balance which ends up in the murder of Annie. The traumatic condition of Reshma is the central concern of the movie. Her trauma, its cause, its treatment, relief and the recurring mental sickness are deeply analysed. Even though Dr. Sunny realises that Reshma’s problem is sea phobia and he rectifies it, her fear for drum beats lies hidden and this hidden hysteria makes her more violent and leads to Annie’s murder.

She is insecure all through her life, her loneliness and instability of mind leads to her mental sickness. Reshma was a girl with a great talent, very pleasant and intelligent. From the childhood onwards she had a fear of loosing loved ones. She lost her mother at the age of 10 and later Arun. Her traumatic conditions is rooted in these insecurities and in the movie we see how she finds a replacement for her lost ones. She finds her mother in an elderly lady in the asylum, a character played by Sukumari and Arun in Sunny. Both Reshma and character played by Sukumari develops a mother-daughter relationship. When Sukumari gets recovered and leaves the asylum it was a had blow on Reshma.

Reshma’s psychosis is a portrayal of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD). PTSD is more common in women, especially when there is a history of childhood trauma like loss of a parent. When subsequently exposed to severe stress these individuals are unable to come to terms with the event and depict dissociation and avoidance to it. They resist remembering the

110 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 details of the trauma and there for not allows themselves to experience the negative emotions associated with trauma. Any stimulus triggering a memory of the event can there for cause severe agitation and psychosis. In the case of this movie the image of sea, the music, dream, the song sequence, the drum beats etc can be taken as those stimulus memory. The dissociation can be severe enough to hamper with their ability to concentrate and focus on their real life. They can also have recurrent nightmares relating to the event. In this case, at a conscious level Reshma is aware of her boyfriends death. But the unconscious resist this fact creating a conflict between the two. Her unconscious suppresses the unpleasant memory and hence the name Ulladakam.

The movie also presents several characters who had lost their mental stability because of various reasons. The character played by Sukumari who fears light and locked in a dark room. Another character Kishore stared by Ashokan is a distressed lover like Reshma he had also lost his lover Shalini and couldn’t come out of the mental shock. There is a school headmistress who had lost her mental balance because of the professional stress. There is another patient with a case of illusion who imagines himself being characters of Shakespearean drama. The movie focus on Reshma, who come across many level of mental illness and their variations.

Another important aspect we find in the movie is the use of images which helps to express the intensity theme of trauma in the movie. The image of sea is very significant in the movie, From the beginning itself the violent image of sea shows the disturbed mental stages of characters like Dr. Sunny and Reshma. It is the image of sea that comes as the central cause of Reshma’s trauma. Another major aspect is the significance of music from the very beginning. Dr. Sunny had a dream the background music provided that dream itself creates a picture of a disturbed mind. Apart from that, the sound of the drum, which proves to be a hidden cause of Reshma’s mental illness also intensifies the theme of the movie. The audience too can feel the mental trauma of the various characters through the music given.

Dr. Sunny, also faced a similar situation like that of Reshma, that is Annie’s death. He is severely disturbed and for eight years he has isolated himself leaving his profession. Even though he doesn’t lose his mental stability but his physical appearance communicate that he is completely shattered.

In the case of Annie she is very much possessive about Sunny and often fights with him regarding his over concern for Reshma. At a particular point when Reshma attempts asuicide she even gets ready to leave Sunny. She tells him that she is a strong person and can face the lose of Sunny. So she asks him to marry Reshma. Annie who is ready to give up Sunny in undergoing severe trauma but is sure that she can overcome it, unlike Reshma who can’t overcome the loss of a lover.

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Scholars like Cathy Caruth focus on the portrayal of trauma in visual arts. She critically analyses trauma and its various aspect. She argues that trauma is socio- historical phenomenon. Therefore the subject of trauma is relevant not only to psychological and psychic research but to art as well, especially to visual art because to be traumatized is precisely to be possessed by an image or event. Just like Reshma is traumatized witnessing a great destruction in her life which she relates to sea, and she gets badly affected by the visuals of sea or anything relate to that.

Trauma and related topic has great impact on literature. As these areas deeply analyses human psychology it has got great acceptance as well. As a very influential median and literary genre film is considered as the strongest medium to portray theses themes and ideas, hence the trend of psychological thriller and movies depicting trauma in its multiple dimension is in the lime light for almost all time.

Conclusion The movie Ulladakam is proved to be successful in narrating the multiple dimension of trauma very precisely. The reality of what trauma is and how it affect a society or a person’s life is depicted through this movie. When we evaluate the mental stages of these characters we can conclude that, of course trauma has several effect on every individual. Some may loose their mental stability like Reshma and Kishore and some may not. Here the movie is consider as a strong medium to instruct the society certain fact regarding trauma and its causes and effects. Because of the far reaching popularity film is the best medium to portray those experiences and this movie is best in proving its acceptably .The movie and its depiction of trauma shows how trauma and literature is related to each other at its best.

Reference Balaev, Michelle. “ Literary Trauma Theory Reconsidered.” Contemporary Approaches in Literary Trauma Theory. Palgrave Macmillan,London.2014. C, Vidya. “Malayalam Movie Mindscapes Ulladakam1991.” Old Malayalam Cinema. Oldmalayalamcinema.wordpress.com , 21 Dec. 2013. Accessed 25 Nov. 2018. Caruth, Cathy. Empirical Truths and Critical Fictions: Locke, Wordsworth, Kant, Freud. Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press.1991.

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT : ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE AND CUSTOMER SATISFATION

Glen Francis Assistant Professor, Malabar Christian College, Calicut.

ABSTRACT The concept of Quality has a greater importance in today’s market. Quality means the degree of excellence of anything. It is also taken as the standard of measure or an attribute possessed by something. Quality management has significant role in developing, manufacturing and in marketing a product. The Total Quality Management was evolved as a result of the industrial revolution and the tight competition in the market. The customers when started to become more quality conscious, the industries face tough competition as they have to manufacture and deliver the best quality products than other company’s products. The organizations made quality as one of the tool to differentiate their product from others. The success of any organization depends on how the customer is satisfied with the products or services. Total Quality Management also consists of organization efforts to install and make a permanent climate in which an organization continuously improves the ability to deliver high quality products and services to customers. It is the management system for a customer-focused organization that involves all employees in continuous improvement. For a better and successful TQM, the company requires hard working and responsible employees who are well trained, aggressive and committed. TQM uses strategy, data and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization. TQM requires that an organization continually collect and analyze data in order to improve decision making accuracy, achieve consensus and allow prediction based on past history. The TQM helps the organization to be in a long run by creating satisfied and also loyal customers.

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Keywords: 1. Quality 2. Competition 3. Total Quality Management 4. Organizational Performance 5. Customer Satisfaction

INTRODUCTION Competition is getting harder and becoming global. The fast-growing countries of East Asia often produce at low cost. This may be because of low wage costs or large investment. As a result, prices in many markets have fallen. Others will start to drop. It is easy for a company to get caught between improved Western products and low price products from emerging countries. Many companies now produce a new model in half the time it previously took. Some products have a much shorter life than before. At one time a building society wouldn’t alter the style of its savings accounts for decades. Now it may add or delete accounts from one year to the next. Change has even taken place in mature public-service organizations. Among hospitals, local government, railways and schools each institution is trying to get an advantage over the other are being done differently. The challenges are forcing organizations to adapt TQM techniques.

QUALITY Quality means a distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something also it can be the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something. ISO 8402-1986 standard defines quality as “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”. Consumers may focus on the specification quality of a product/service, or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace. Quality is about meeting the needs and expectations of customers. Customers want quality that is appropriate to the price that they are prepared to pay and the level of competition in the market. Quality in a business not only helps the company meet customer and industry expectations, it can keep costs down. Quality products help to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty and reduce the risk and cost of replacing faulty goods. Poor quality increases costs. If you do not have an effective quality control system in place, you may incur the cost of analyzing nonconforming goods or services to determine the root causes and retesting products after reworking them. In some cases, you may have to scrap defective products and incur additional production costs to replace them. If defective products reach customers, you will have to pay for returns and replacements and, in serious cases; you could incur legal costs for failure to comply with customer or industry standards. Companies can build a reputation

114 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 for quality by gaining accreditation with a recognized quality standard, such as ISO 9001, published by the International Organization for Standardization.

WHY QUALITY MANAGEMENT Quality management is a discipline for ensuring that outputs, benefits, and the processes by which they are delivered, meet stakeholder requirements and are fit for purpose. Quality management has four components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and continual improvement. These include procedures, tools and techniques that are used to ensure that the outputs and benefits meet customer requirements. Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level of excellence. This includes the determination of a quality policy, creating and implementing quality planning and assurance, and quality control and quality improvement. It is also referred to as total quality management (TQM).

An Example of Quality Management The most famous example of TQM is Toyota’s implementation of the Kanban system. A kanban is a physical signal that creates a chain reaction, resulting in a specific action. Toyota used this idea to implement its just-in-time (JIT) inventory process. To make its assembly line more efficient, the company decided to keep just enough inventory on hand to fill customer orders as they were generated.

Therefore, all parts of Toyota’s assembly line are assigned a physical card that has an associated inventory number. Right before a part is installed in a car, the card is removed and moved up the supply chain, effectively requesting another of the same part. This allows the company to keep its inventory lean and not overstock unnecessary assets.

Over the last 35 years or so, several principles have been developed that appear to represent the factors upon which the achievement of quality depends: 1. Understanding customer needs and expectations (i.e. a customer focus) 2. Creating a unity of purpose and a quality culture (i.e. leadership) 3. Developing and motivating the people (i.e. engagement of people) 4. Managing processes effectively (i.e. the process approach) 5. Understanding the complex relationship between cause and effect (i.e. the systems approach) 6. Continually seeking better ways of doing things (i.e. continual improvement) 7. Basing decisions on facts (i.e. evidence-based decision-making) 8. Realizing that you need others to succeed (i.e. relationship management)

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A principle is a fundamental truth or law and therefore quality management principles are the fundamental truth or laws that form the basis of quality management. These principles have been identified to facilitate the achievement of quality objectives and form the foundation for effective quality management. Seven of these principles are defined in ISO 9000:2015 in terms of a definition, the rationale, key benefits and possible actions.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT TQM is a management philosophy that seeks to integrate all organizational functions to focus on meeting customer needs and organizational objectives. Total Quality Management, TQM, is a method by which management and employees can become involved in the continuous improvement of the production of goods and services. It is a combination of quality and management tools aimed at increasing business and reducing losses due to wasteful practices.

Total Quality Management is a management approach that originated in the 1950s and has steadily become more popular since the early 1980s. Total Quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations. The roots of Total Quality Management (TQM) can be traced back to early 1920s when statistical theory was first applied to product quality control. This concept was further developed in Japan in the 40s led by Americans, such as Deming, Juran and Feigenbaum. The focus widened from quality of products to quality of all issues within an organization.

Total quality is a description of the culture, attitude and organization of a company that strives to provide customers with products and services that satisfy their needs. The culture requires quality in all aspects of the company’s operations, with processes being done right the first time and defects and waste eradicated from operations.

To be successful implementing TQM, an organization must concentrate on the eight key elements: 1. Ethics 2. Integrity 3. Trust 4. Training 5. Teamwork 6. Leadership

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7. Recognition 8. Communication TQM has been coined to describe a philosophy that makes quality the driving force behind leadership, design, planning, and improvement initiatives. For this, TQM requires the help of those eight key elements. These elements can be divided into four groups according to their function. The groups are: I. Foundation – It includes: Ethics, Integrity and Trust. II. Building Bricks – It includes: Training, Teamwork and Leadership. III. Binding Mortar – It includes: Communication. IV. Roof – It includes: Recognition.

I. Foundation TQM is built on a foundation of ethics, integrity and trust. It fosters openness, fairness and sincerity and allows involvement by everyone. This is the key to unlocking the ultimate potential of TQM. These three elements move together, however, each element offers something different to the TQM concept.

Ethics – Ethics is the discipline concerned with good and bad in any situation. It is a two-faceted subject represented by organizational and individual ethics. Organizational ethics establish a business code of ethics that outlines guidelines that all employees are to adhere to in the performance of their work. Individual ethics include personal rights or wrongs.

Integrity – Integrity implies honesty, morals, values, fairness, and adherence to the facts and sincerity. The characteristic is what customers (internal or external) expect and deserve to receive. People see the opposite of integrity as duplicity. TQM will not work in an atmosphere of duplicity.

Trust – Trust is a by-product of integrity and ethical conduct. Without trust, the framework of TQM cannot be built. Trust fosters full participation of all members. It allows empowerment that encourages pride ownership and it encourages commitment. It allows decision making at appropriate levels in the organization, fosters individual risk-taking for continuous improvement and helps to ensure that measurements focus on improvement of process and are not used to contend people. Trust is essential to ensure customer satisfaction. So, trust builds the cooperative environment essential for TQM.

II. Building Bricks Basing on the strong foundation of trust, ethics and integrity, bricks are placed to reach the roof of recognition. It includes:

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Training – Training is very important for employees to be highly productive. Supervisors are solely responsible for implementing TQM within their departments, and teaching their employees the philosophies of TQM. Training that employees require are interpersonal skills, the ability to function within teams, problem solving, decision making, job management performance analysis and improvement, business economics and technical skills. During the creation and formation of TQM, employees are trained so that they can become effective employees for the company.

Teamwork – To become successful in business, teamwork is also a key element of TQM. With the use of teams, the business will receive quicker and better solutions to problems. Teams also provide more permanent improvements in processes and operations. In teams, people feel more comfortable bringing up problems that may occur, and can get help from other workers to find a solution and put into place. There are mainly three types of teams that TQM organizations adopt:

Quality improvement teams or excellence teams (QITs) – These are temporary teams with the purpose of dealing with specific problems that often recur. These teams are set up for period of three to twelve months.

Problem solving teams (PSTs) – These are temporary teams to solve certain problems and also to identify and overcome causes of problems. They generally last from one week to three months.

Natural work teams (NWTs) – These teams consist of small groups of skilled workers who share tasks and responsibilities. These teams use concepts such as employee involvement teams, self-managing teams and quality circles. These teams generally work for one to two hours a week.

Leadership – It is possibly the most important element in TQM. It appears everywhere in organization. Leadership in TQM requires the manager to provide an inspiring vision, make strategic directions that are understood by all and to instill values that guide subordinates. For TQM to be successful in the business, the supervisor must be committed in leading his employees. A supervisor must understand TQM, believe in it and then demonstrate their belief and commitment through their daily practices of TQM. The supervisor makes sure that strategies, philosophies, values and goals are transmitted down through out the organization to provide focus, clarity and direction. A key point is that TQM has to be introduced and led by top management. Commitment and personal involvement is required from top management in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company and in creating and deploying well defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals.

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III. Binding Mortar Communication – It binds everything together. Starting from foundation to roof of the TQM house, everything is bound by strong mortar of communication. It acts as a vital link between all elements of TQM. Communication means a common understanding of ideas between the sender and the receiver. The success of TQM demands communication with and among all the organization members, suppliers and customers. Supervisors must keep open airways where employees can send and receive information about the TQM process. Communication coupled with the sharing of correct information is vital. For communication to be credible the message must be clear and receiver must interpret in the way the sender intended.

IV. Roof Recognition – Recognition is the last and final element in the entire system. It should be provided for both suggestions and achievements for teams as well as individuals. Employees strive to receive recognition for themselves and their teams. Detecting and recognizing contributors is the most important job of a supervisor. As people are recognized, there can be huge changes in self-esteem, productivity, quality and the amount of effort exhorted to the task at hand. Recognition comes in its best form when it is immediately following an action that an employee has performed. Recognition comes in different ways, places and time such as,

Ways – It can be by way of personal letter from top management. Also by award banquets, plaques, trophies etc.

Places – Good performers can be recognized in front of departments, on performance boards and also in front of top management.

Time – Recognition can given at any time like in staff meeting, annual award banquets, etc.

TQM is a comprehensive system approach that works horizontally across an organization, involving all departments and employees and extending backward and forward to include both suppliers and clients/customers.TQM is only one of many acronyms used to label management systems that focus on quality. Other acronyms that have been used to describe similar quality management philosophies and programs include CQI (continuous quality improvement), SQC (statistical quality control), QFD (quality function deployment), QIDW (quality in daily work), and TQC (total quality control). Despite the ambiguity of the popularized term “TQM,” that acronym is less important than the substance of the management ideology that underlies it. TQM provides a framework for implementing effective quality and productivity initiatives that can increase the profitability and competitiveness of organizations.

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Although TQM techniques were adopted prior to World War II by a number of organizations, the creation of the total quality management philosophy is generally attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993). In the late 1920s, while working as a summer employee at Western Electric Company in Chicago, he found worker motivation systems to be degrading and economically unproductive; incentives were tied directly to quantity of output, and inefficient postproduction inspection systems were used to find flawed goods.

In today’s global competitive marketplace, the demands of customers are forever increasing as they require improved quality of products and services but are prepared to pay less for their requirement. TQM is a revolutionary approach to effective management. In the construction industry, the application of TQM is not significant although it has been widely implemented in other industries and the success by implementing the TQM can be seen. TQM aimed at achieving customer satisfaction and efficiency, and improving the quality products.

TQM AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Competitive advantage denotes a firm’s ability to achieve market superiority over its competitors. In the long run, a sustainable competitive advantage provides above-average performance. A strong competitive advantage has six characteristics:

• It is driven by customer wants and needs. A company provides value to its customers that competitors do not. • It makes a significant contribution to the success of the business. • It matches the organization’s unique resources with the opportunities in the environment. No two companies have the same resources; a good strategy uses them effectively. • It is durable and lasting and difficult for competitors to copy. A superior research and development department, for example, can consistently develop new products or processes to remain ahead of competitors. • It provides a basis for further improvement. • It provides direction and motivation to the entire organization.

As each of these characteristics relates to quality, quality can be an important means of gaining competitive advantage. Let us see how total quality contributes to competitive advantage. Discuss cost leadership, differentiation, and people as principal sources of competitive advantage, and their relationship to quality; Relate quality to the achievement of higher profitability; Describe the importance of quality in meeting customer expectations in product design, service, flexibility

120 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 and variety, innovation, and rapid response; and Discuss empirical results showing the impact of quality on business results.

Sources of competitive advantage The classic literature on competitive strategy suggests that a firm can posses’ two basic types of competitive advantage: low cost and differentiation.

Cost leadership Many firms gain competitive advantage by establishing themselves as the low-cost leader in an industry. These firms produce high volumes of mature products and achieve their competitive advantage through low prices. Such firms often enter markets that were established by other firms. They emphasize achieving economies of scale and finding cost advantages from all sources. Low cost can result from high productivity and high capacity utilization. More importantly, improvements in quality lead to improvements in productivity, which in turn lead to lower costs. Thus a strategy of continuous improvement is essential to achieve a low-cost competitive advantage.

To achieve cost leadership for high volume products, companies use a variety of approaches: • Early manufacturing involvement in the design of the product both for make-versus-buy decisions and for assurance that the production processes can achieve required tolerances. • Product design to take advantage of automated equipment by minimizing the number of parts eliminating fasteners, making parts symmetric whenever possible, avoiding rigid and stiff part and using one-sided assembly designs. • Limited product models and customization in distribution centers rather than in the factory. • A manufacturing system designed for a fixed sequence of operations. Every effort is made to ensure zero defects at the time of shipment. Work-in-process inventory is reduced as much as possible, and multi skilled, focused teams of employees are used. • A cost leader can achieve above-average performance if it can command prices at or near the industry average. However, it cannot do so with an inferior product. The product must be perceived as comparable with competitors or the firm will be forced to discount prices well below competitors’ prices to gain sales. This can cancel any benefits that result from cost advantage.

Differentiation To achieve differentiation, a firm must be unique in its industry along some dimensions that are widely valued by customers. It selects one or more attributes that customers perceive as important and positions itself uniquely to meet those needs. For instance, Dell’s direct business model was the first of its kind in the computer industry and continues to be a principal source of the company’s success.

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People The competitive advantage resulting from an organization’s people can drive low cost and differentiation. Much of its cost advantage comes from its very productive, motivated, and unionized workforce. Providing a work environment that foster cooperation, initiative, and innovation; educating and training the workforce; and enhancing the factors that affect well-being, satisfaction, and motivation are very difficult for competitors to copy. This is a significantly different philosophy from the work environment that came into being during the Industrial Revolution

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE DIMENSIONS There are eight TQM Dimensions with respect to TQM implementation for Competitive Advantage, as follows: (1) Customer focus: Must understand that their success depends significantly on customers. Therefore, firms should understand and determine customer needs by meeting their requirements and striving to exceed their expectations. (2) Leadership: Top management must establish unity of purpose and direction. They must create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s purpose. (3) Teams of people: Employees at all levels must be recognized as the essence of the organization, and strategies must be put in place to ensure their full involvement, so that the organization can derive maximum benefits from their abilities. (4) Process Management: A desired result is achieved more efficiently when related resources and activities are managed as a process. (5) Security/ System approach to management: Identifying, understanding and managing a system of interrelated processes for a given objective improves the operational effectiveness and efficiency of firms. (6) Continuous Improvement: The “Plan-Do-Check-Act” cycle is applied to processes. The “Plan” establishes the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with customer requirements and the organizations policies; the “Do” implements the processes: the “Check” monitors and measures the processes and products against policies, objectives and requirements and reports on the results; and the “Act” takes actions to continually improve process and system performance. (7) Reliability: Describe the importance of quality in meeting customer expectations in product design, service, flexibility and variety, innovation, and rapid response. (8) Suppliers’ Management: Firms and their suppliers are interdependent, and a mutually beneficial relationship would enhance the ability of both to create value.

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TQM AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE Performance measurement is an integral part of all management processes and traditionally has involved management accountants through the use of budgetary control and the development of financial indicators such as return on investment. However, it has been claimed that conventional aggregate financial accounting indicators are inappropriate in TQM settings. Several authors have claimed that an important part of ensuring that TQM leads to sustained improvements in organizational profitability is that direct quantitative measures of manufacturing are used to assess the effectiveness of managers’ efforts to manage the development and implementation of TQM programmes. With the growing awareness that quality of final products and services is a strategic competitive variable, companies have recognized also that the concept of high quality must be applied to production processes to generate quality products and minimize costs. TQM has evolved as a philosophy that emphasizes the need to provide customers with highly valued products and to do so by improvements in efficiency by way of eliminating waste, reducing lead times at all stages of the production process, reducing costs, developing people, and improving continuously. While TQM provides a potential for organizations to enhance their competitiveness there is evidence that many organizations have been disappointed in the extent to which TQM has been associated with sustained improvements in organizational profitability. Performance management systems are a cornerstone of human resource (HR) management practices and are the basis for developing a systems approach to organization management. In theory, a performance management system links organizational and employee goals through a goal-setting process, and subsequently links employee goal achievements to a variety of HR management decisions through a performance measurement process.

Shank and Govindarajan and others argued some time ago that quality practices had become so important that management accounting could no longer ignore TQM. Traditional accounting supports cost and production analysis, but not quality analysis. The thrust of the TQM philosophy is that quality and its management have to be built in from the beginning and that the accomplishment of quality standards and improvement is the responsibility of everyone. Waldman and Gopalakrishnan claim that quality is, in fact, largely a customer perception based on how well the product or service meets the customers’ needs and expectations. Poor quality occurs when these needs are not met. Satisfying the customer is an important aspect of the manufacturing process and this requires the customer’s input at all stages of manufacturing

TQM is a strategy that is formulated by the top level management and then diffused at all levels. Everyone in the organization, from CEO to lowest paid workers/clerks are involved in the TQM process.

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Under TQM, not only the “Customer is King”, but so are internal customers such as co- workers or other departments. In essence, TQM becomes the dominant culture of the organization. Some core values of every one are, involved in effective TQM and they are as follows:

1. Make it right for the customer at any cost 2. Customer is always right 3. Internal customers are as important as external customer 4. Respond to customer inquiry or complaint by the end of the day 5. Answer the phone bell within two rings 6. Not only meet customer expectations but delight customers in the process 7. Team work and co-operation are important 8. Everyone involved in quality effort 9. Respond to every employees suggestion for quality improvement 10. Always strive for continuous improvement. Never be satisfied with level of quality.

Organization Process towards TQM: Quality is not absolute but continuously changing the perception. Awareness: Every employee responsible for continuous improvement and should be aware of the benefits, TQM will bring, e.g. communicate the need for TQM and educate employees. Involvement: Organization should induce sense of belonging in the employees and involve them in every proactive process, e.g. communicate vision, develop supportive culture, develop them. Commitment: All employees are committed to satisfy internal and external customer and TQM becomes way of life, e.g. develop teams, goals, recognition systems, promote change etc. Ownership: Good initiative and innovative technique should be recognized which encourages employees to give their best, e.g. recognize achievements, reward success, empowerment, etc. Techniques of TQM: There are mainly three innovative techniques of TQM, which are play a very significant role in the organization development, they are; 1) Reengineering 2) Benchmarking, and 3) Empowerment.

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Reengineering: Reengineering is defined as “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed”. Reengineering involves asking basic questions about business processes such as: 1) Why do we do it? 2) Why is it done this way?

The purpose of such questions is to uncover obsolete, erroneous or inappropriate assumptions. Radical redesign involves abandoning existing procedures and reinventing the process, not just incrementally improving it. But the goal is to achieve quantum leaps in performance. For the successful adopting of reengineering process the organization has to comply with the following prerequisites: * Fundamental understanding of processes * Creative thinking to break away from old traditions and assumptions and * Effective use of information technology.

There are several examples of reengineering in India and abroad. For example, Ford Motors, implemented reengineering in purchasing department, where over 500 clerks handled accounts, purchase orders invoices and other documents. After this, number of employees was reduced and things started working faster.

Benchmarking: Benchmarking is the process of “measuring your performance against that of best-in- class companies, determining how the best-in-class achieve those performance levels and using the information as a basis for your own company’s targets, strategies and implementation”. In short, benchmarking means “the search of industry’s best practices that lead to superior performance”. The term „best practices refers to approaches that produce exceptional results, are usually innovative in terms of the use of technology or human resources and are recognized by customers or industry experts.

Benchmarking helps a company to discover its strengths and weakness and those of other industry leaders and to learn how to incorporate the best practices into its own operations. It can provide motivation to achieve “stretch goals” by helping employees to see what others can accomplish.

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Benefits: (a) This technique helps organizations to compare against successful company s for identifying improvement strategies. (b) Enables to learn from others (c) Helps a need for change, by showing the organization how procedures and work assignments should be altered. (d) It has gained importance due to global and domestic competition. (e) Broadens people s experience base and increase knowledge and (f) It is a tool for continuous improvement.

Empowerment: Empowerment is the process of delegating decision-making authority to the lower levels within the organization. Empowerment gives both responsibilities for delivering quality and authority to identify problems and then formulate and implement solutions to employers free employees from the need to ask for permission from a manager. Employees simply do whatever they must to solve the problem. As employees become more empowered in their work, the feeling of ownership and responsibility becomes more meaningful. Further the act of empowering employees provides evidence of the management’s trust in the employees.

There are several basic conditions necessary for empowerment to become part of organization culture. These are: * Participation: Participation encourages people to improve daily work process and relationships. Empowerment helps to take decisions. * Innovation: Empowerment encourages innovation because employees have the authority to try out new ideas and make decisions. For an example, in one company, two engineers spent large amount to design and develop a new household product but were unsuccessful. CEO called these two engineers and treated them as guest of honor and appreciated their efforts by encouraging their innovative effort through empowerment. CEO also ensured that two engineers would continue to try new ideas to market a new product. * Access to Information: When employees are given access to information, their willingness to cooperate and to use their empowerment is enhanced. * Accountability: Accountability is not intended to punish but they will give their best effort and behave responsibility. * Putting empowerment into action: There are number of ways that organization s go about implementing empowerment. One of the most common is to tie the technique to an action approach.

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For example, Cummins Engin provides 5 days training programme that combines empowerment with Kaizen, Japanese term that means “continuous improvement”. This principle means:

(a) Discard conventional, fixed ideas about doing work (b) Think about how to do it (c) Start by questioning current practices (d) Begin to make improvements immediately, even only 50% of them can be completed and (e) Correct mistakes immediately

TQM AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION A satisfied customer feels that a good deal was reached in buying a given service, and this contributes to the development of a long-term relationship and the construction of loyalty. According to Setó-Pamies (2012) Loyalty depends on the customer’s degree of satisfaction and trust. In turn, satisfaction is influenced by service quality. Thanks to this loyalty, the company becomes competitive in the market and increases its profit. Raising customer loyalty is one of the most important tasks for telecommunication companies confronting the circumstance of a gradually saturated market (Chen and Cheng, 2012). The management of satisfaction starts with the recognition that there exist various levels of satisfaction which leads companies to provide different offers to customers with different requirements and needs.

Customer Perception of Quality If a particular feature suits a particular customer need then that feature is going to win a customer’s heart. This diagram shows how the red area is the common juxtaposition of a company’s offerings and customer’s needs. Any product or service falling in this zone will be a surefire recipe for organization’s success. Let us take example of Maggi noodles. When it was launched in India in early eighties the taste was not accepted by the Indian taste-bud. Nestle researched properly and came with ‘Masala Tastemaker’, which was lapped up by the customer. Now after two decades Maggi can be found in almost every household in India.

Customer Perception of Quality is judged by customers. Thus quality must take into account all product and service features and characteristics that contribute value to customers and lead to customer satisfaction, preference and retention.

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The American Society for Quality (ASQ) surveys perceptions of important factors: * Performance – fitness for use. Other considerations include: availability, which is the probability that a product will be there when needed; reliability, which is freedom from failure over time; and serviceability, which is the ease of keeping the product operable * Features (add-ons) – these may be physical, time-oriented, contractual, ethical or technological. * Service – this is an intangible requirement by customers and may differentiate between purchasing a service/product in one place relative to another – a way of serving the customer better. * Warranty – it represents an organization’s public promise of a quality product backed up by a guarantee of customer satisfaction. It also represents a public commitment to guarantee a level of service sufficient to satisfy the customer. * Price – Today’s customer is willing to pay a higher price to obtain value. On-going efforts must be made by everyone having contact with customers to identify, verify and update each customer’s perception of value in relation each product and service. * Reputation – Total customer satisfaction is based on the entire experience with the organization.

Getting Customer Feedback/ Collecting Customer Information Feedback enables the organization to: i. Discover customer dissatisfaction ii. Discover relative priorities of quality iii. Compare performance with competition iv. Identify customer needs v. Determine opportunities for improvement.

COMPANIES THAT BENIFITTED FROM TQM

1. Exxon Used TQM to Re-Brand Not only does TQM ensure quality, it also considers the customer or the end-user. With the fuel business ever so competitive, Exxon felt the need to explore customer-related issues by using TQM rather than only relying on competitive pricing—becoming one of the companies that benefited from TQM.

According to BrainMass, Exxon “treated quality as an opportunity for process improvement rather than as cost.” The challenge for Exxon was to re-brand the company as a “trusted” fuel provider, and that also meant their service stations—owners were asked to emulate Exxon’s corporate beliefs into their franchises or gas stations that bore the Exxon name and sold their products.

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Through analyzing customers’ need and wants and by using TQM to implement those wants and needs—they re-branded themselves from the disaster of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill of 1989. They looked at 4 areas of the end-user and consumer confidence including higher quality products, efficient and easy-to-use services and products, better explanations of warranties and guarantees, and being truthful in all of their advertising efforts. By doing so, the company was able to embark on the new and the workable and leave the “consumer view” of the company on the back burner.

2. Ford is Driven by TQM While a believer in Six Sigma these days, back in the 1980s, Ford believed in TQM after its executives saw what the methodology did for Toyota. A new slogan “Quality People, Quality Products” emerged, especially after Ford partnered with ChemFil, their paint supplier—a company that helped produce quality paint products customers desired. As with many other automakers, the emergence of customer surveys was vast and from survey responses came more quality based on customer needs.

Actually, top executives at Ford say TQM was a “light-bulb” idea from Henry Ford who improved on his assembly line practices to manufacture even more vehicles, while keeping quality levels high. With their entrance into the Six Sigma methodology, the slogan has changed again at Ford—”We’ve got a better idea!”

REASONS WHY TQM DOES SOMETIMES DO NOT WORK * Not an add-on program (not something you drop into place or add a new department to address) * Need strong leaders to make it work (if leader leaves the process often fails) * Attempting to use traditional “proven’ methods to solve problems. * Attempting to apply in only a small area * Cross-functional teams are often needed

CONCLUSION The TQM systems have had many different names or terms of reference in the past few decades, and might look like a short-lived business management trend at first glance. With ever increasing competition and consumer expectations, professionals and business managers cannot ignore quality issues and expect to maintain or improve their competitive position. Quality systems, time and again, have been responsible for substantial increases in the bottom line of businesses in every industry and have given organizations the boost they need to meet overall goals and objectives. Organizations that do not accept that quality improvement is going to be ingrained into every part of their business are not going to be around to see what the future brings.

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Call For Papers Next Issue : LUX MONTIS Vol.7, No.2, July 2019 Last date for submission of Research Papers : June 10, 2019 Address for Communication : Dr. A. Sebastian Aikara Chief Editor LUX MONTIS Girideepam Institute of Advanced Learning (GIAL) Bethany Hills, Vadavathoor P. O. Kottayam Dist. Kerala Mob: 09447415193 e.mail: [email protected]

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DECLARATION FORM I (See Rule – 3) STATEMENT ABOUT OWNERSHIP AND OTHER PARTICULARS OF THE JOURNAL 1. Title of the Newspaper Lux Montis 2. Language in which it is published English 3. Place of Publication Kottayam 4. Periodicity of the Publication Bi-annually 5. Printers Name Dr. Abraham Sebastian (Whether citizen of India? Yes, Indian If foreign, state the country of origin) Address Principal Girideepam Business School (GBS) Vadavathoor P.O., Kottayam Dist. 7. Publisher’s Name Dr. Abraham Sebastian Whether citizen of India? Yes 8. Chief Editor’s Name Dr. A. Sebastian Aikara Whether citizen of India? Yes 9. Name and address of individuals who Girideepam Institute of Advanced Learning (GIAL) own the Newspaper and partners and Vadavathoor P.O., Kottayam Dist. shareholders holding more than one Kerala percent of the total capital

I, Dr. A. Sebastian Aikara, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true.

Kottayam, (Sd/-) 05-07-2016. Dr. A. Sebastian Aikara (Chief Editor)

131 LUX MONTIS Vol. 7 No. 1 January 2019 LUX MONTIS Multi-Disciplinary Journal of Management, Commerce, and English Literature

Girideepam Business School Bethany Hills, Vadavathoor P.O. Kottayam – 686 010, Kerala , India E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.girideepmabschool.edu.in/php.management

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Guidelines for submission of Research Paper 1. Manuscript should not exceed 5000 words (12-15 A-4 Size pages, typed 1.5 space, Font size 12, Font type - Times New Roman). 2. Language used - English. 3. An abstract of about 150 words should be included at the beginning of the paper. 4. The paper should not have already been published or submited elsewhere for possible publications. A certificate in this regard is to be submitted by authors while submitting the papers to the editor. 5. The authors can use figures, charts, tables and diagram. They may be black and white, and numbered using Roman numerals with a brief title. 6. All footnotes should be indicated by serial numbers in the text, and the literature cited should be detailed under Notes at the end of the paper bearing corresponding numbers, before the references. 7. Place the references at the end of the manuscript following the end notes. All references should note the complete list of journals and books with page numbers. 8. The References should be prepared in the following form: Books Abraham, K. (2001) Ethiopia: The Dynamics of Economic Reforms (Economic Liberalisation and Political Transformation), Addis Abada: EIIPD (Ethiopian International Instt. for Peace and Development). Edited Volume Aharoni, Y. (1991) “On Measuring the Success of Privatisation”, in Ramamurthi, R. and Vernon, R. (eds) Privatisation and Control of State Owned Enterprises. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Journals Boardman, M. and Vining, D. (1989) “Ownership in Competitive Environments: A Comparison of the Performance of Mixed, Private and SOEs”, Journal of Law and Economics, April, No. 32. 9. Manuscripts not considered for publication will not be sent back. 10. Manuscripts, which do not confirm to these guidelines, will not be considered for publication. 11. No paper of the jounral will be reprinted without the prior permission of the Editor. 12. The journal is published bi-annually in July and January. Papers for publication should be addressed to-

The Chief Editor, LUX MONTIS Girideepam Institute of Advanced Learning Bethany Hills, Vadavathoor P.O., Kottayam, Kerala. e.mail: [email protected] Contact Number: +91 9447415193

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