RESOURCE MATERIAL on ORIENTATION PROGRAMME Volume – II

UUNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION AACADEMIC SSTAFF CCOLLEGE

RESOURCE MATERIAL ON ORIENTATION PROGRAMME Volume – II

Dr. A. Singaravel Editor

BHARATHIDASAN UNIVERSITY KHAJAMALAI CAMPUS TIRUCHIRAPPALLI-620 023 1

Editor : Dr. A. Singaravel, Director, in charge UGC Academic Staff College, Bharathidasan University, Trichy - 23.

Copy right : Bharathidasan University, Trichy - 23.

First Edition : 2011

Paper used : 80 GSM TNPL

Size : 1 X 8 Demmy Font Size : 12 Points Times New Roman` No. of Pages : No. of Copies : 100 ISBN No. : 978 – 81 – 922810 – 3 - 2 Printed at : Sree Venkateshwara Power Printers, Trichy - 10. Cover page design & Page Making : Ms. R. Sangeetha Computer Assistant, UGC-ASC

MESSAGE

When I asked Dr.Singaravel, the Director i/c of the Academic Staff College to compile the learning materials used by Resource Persons, he readily agreed to do it. The result is the book you hold in your hands.

I am happy to record that the Director has brought these volumes which could be used by participants of Orientation Programmes as Resource Materials.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Director for his proactive initiatives and carry out the vision of Bharathidasan University to be innovative.

I thank the University Grants Commission for its fullest support for the progress of the

Academic Staff College of Bharathidasan University. I also congratulate Dr.A.Singaravel,

Director In-charge of the Academic Staff College and his team for this innovative practice of converting the lecture notes and selected seminar papers of participants, into Resource Materials.

I wish the Academic Staff College all success in its endeavors.

(Dr.(Mrs.)K.MEENA)

From the Director‘s Desk

The UGC Academic Staff College (ASC), Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, has been conducting three types of specially designed training programmes like Orientation Programmes (OP), Refresher Courses (RC) and Short-Term Courses (ST) for the benefit of the College and University Teachers across the country to empower and enhance their academic excellence consistently so as to impart updated subject knowledge to the students of Higher Education for the past quarter century. The ASC also organised Short Term Workshop even for the benefit of the Ph.D Scholars and Administrative Staff to empower and enhance the academic and administrative skill respectively.

In addition to this, the ASC has been publishing Resource Materials on various disciplines for the benefit of the stakeholders who attend these programmes. The ASC publishes this "Orientation Course Resource Material Volume-II", to benefit the Teacher Participants, with ISBN facility. This book was compiled from the lectures delivered by the resource persons as well as the seminar papers presented by the participants for the Programmes.

In this endeavour, I sincerely thank the UGC for its continued support and cooperation. I thank the most respected Vice-Chancellor and the Management of Bharathidasan University for their academic and administrative support and encouragement to run the courses and bring out the resource material without hassle. I thank all the Resource Persons, who have contributed and extended their fullest support and encouragement towards this endeavor.

The Resource Persons/Teacher Participants are totally responsible for their articles and lecture notes presented in this volume and the UGC- ASC can not be held responsible for any criticism or comments from the readers.

Finally, I thank Sree Venkateshwara Off Set Printers, Ariyamangalam, Tiruchirappalli, for bringing out this book neatly, within a short span of time.

With regards, Director.

CONTENTS

S.No Particulars Page.No 1. The Personality of a Teacher 2. Career Counseling 3. Thinking Skills And Scientific Temper 4. Creativity For Better Learning And Better Life 5. Enhancing Speaking Skills 6. Microteaching: Theoretical Perspective 7. Information and Communication Technology in Education

8. Impact of Globalization on Small Farmers Worldwide: Implications on Information Transfer The Status of E-Commerce in India and its Potential 9. 10. Indian Society 11 Spread of Swadeshi Movement in Southern Tamil Nadu

12 Bharathanatyam Then and Now

13 Biodiversity and its Conservation 14 Human Rights: The Right To Development 15 Electoral Reforms in India

THE PERSONALITY OF A TEACHER Dr. S. Ramamurthy Introduction

Personality is a human trait. Animals typify but do not personify. Personality signifies a conscious human paradigm of ideology and practice, vision and mission, mental make-up and behavioural pattern. As such it is neither given nor inherited. Personality evolves within the social collective as one‘s mode of coming to terms and communication with the reality around oneself existing independently of one‘s will. Mediations are crucial. Personality evolves against the backdrop of given socio-economic and political conditions as praxis against de- humanisation at work while passivity fossilizes human existence. The evolution of personality has, therefore, a polemical connotation as it evolves against the backdrop of the hegemony of an ossified order and the designs of the perpetrators of de-humanization.

Teachers unique

The personality of the teacher is more demanded than desired as they decide the destiny of the nation in the class room. If they fall in line with those who could not rise above the encapsulating trivia or mundane realities, the blind Miltons of India would not embrace the light outside the tunnel of darkness. When the ‗sanmargists‘ predominate, the nation would thrive whereas when the ‗Tunmargists‘ count more, progress would remain down regulated. Acquiring the desired personality shall remain the basic ethic of the teaching profession. Native history has provided exemplary models for great teachers and their antitheses (Ramanuja, Schwartz, Maha Vidhwan and St. Ramalinga Vs Bhishma, Dhrona and Parasurama). UNESCO Prescription

The UNESCO‘s document (1998) on education for the Twenty First Century entitled ―Learning: The Treasure within‖ has identified four pillars of Learning: a) Learning to know (Knowledge) b) Learning to do (Skills) c) Learning to live (in Harmony)

 Former Professor, Department of Tamil, TBML College, Poraiyar. 6

d) Learning to be (able to Transform)

These constitute the four crucial premises of the evolution of the teacher‘s personality as well. The first two are the components of impart dynamics. The other two constitute the education dynamics. The four, put together, envisage the evolution of the teacher from being an imparter into an educator and his knowledge becoming wisdom. The first two necessitate orientation and refresher programmes. The other two demand sensitivity and organizational praxis.

Parameters

For the teacher to evolve as an effective imparter, he must accept the oneness of all souls in human existence. (In ancient times, the seeker of truth was first made to realize the oneness of all ‗Jivas‘ in ―Brahmam‘). Also, the teacher must take into account the plurality of the humans in class rooms caused by social constraints.

Effective imparting comprises three parameters:

a) Knowledge Proficiency b) Language Proficiency c) Ethics All the three have varied dimensions. The Educator dynamic is characterized by three parameters:

a) Perception of education as cultural action for emacipation (Paul-Freire) b) Essential Partisanship (Gorky) c) Conscientisation programme inbuilt-imparting coupled with organizational participation (Gramscy)

Personality Development and its Dialectics

 The education system is largely undermocratic. It is set with authoritarian orientation and bureaucratic governance.  The system offers only a semblance of teacher participation.  Service conditions are appalling in major areas  Teachers have no civic and political right. 7

 Teachers remain almost marginalized in educational policy making  Marketisation has devalued the system Has the personality of the teacher any relevance in this context? Yes. The struggle against expropriation of human dignity personifies the teacher who, in turn, contributes to conscientising the students and transform them. Getting humanized and humanization are the two sides of the same coin.

CAREER COUNSELING

Dr. G. Ravindran

Career Counseling and Career Coaching are similar in nature to Traditional Counseling. However, the focus is generally on issues such as career exploration, career change, personal career development and other career related issues. Typically when people come for Career Counseling, they know exactly what they want to get out of the process but are unsure about how it will work. In the UK, Career Counseling would usually be referred to as Career Advice or Guidance.

Career Counseling is the process of helping the candidates to select a course of study that may help them to get into job or make them employable. A Career Counselor helps the candidates to get into the career that suited their aptitude, personality, interest and skills. In other words, it is the process of making an effective correlation between the Internal Psychology of a Candidate with the External Factors of Employability and Courses.

Career Counselors work with people from various walks of life such as adolescents seeking to explore career options or experienced professionals contemplating a career change. Career Counselors typically have a background in vocational psychology or industrial/organizational psychology.

The approach of Career Counseling varies but will generally include the completion of one or more assessments. These assessments typically include cognitive ability tests and personality assessments. The two most commonly used assessments are the Strong Interest Inventory and the MBT.

Choosing the right career can be a very daunting task, especially in a world which offers an array of paths, all of which seem to be leading to a golden goal. Careers can actually make or break one‘s life and therefore, it is important to make the right choice. Career Guidance can help

 Former Professor, Department of English, St. Joseph‘s College, Tiruchirappalli. 9

you in pursuing the right career. Career Counseling can be very satisfying if you have made the right choice. As the famous adage goes, if you choose the job you love, you don‘t have to work a single day in your life. On the other hand, a wrong decision can leave you wishing that you had trodden a different path.

While doing a Career Search, it is imperative to have the Correct Career Information. An informed choice is always a better bet than an uninformed one. The right career advice can help you to choose a career to suit your personality as well as your aspirations.

Education, of course, plays an important role in getting you the right job in your chosen field. The stepping stones or pre-requisites for choosing your dream career are, of course, the qualifications required to achieve it. With the right qualifications, the top careers are open to you and the power of choice would be with you.

Career Counseling can guide you in selecting the courses suitable for you. It could be an Undergraduate Course or an Associate Bachelor‘s, the choice depends on various factors including convenience and requirements. For some careers, a Bachelor‘s Degree will do but others may require a Master‘s or even a PhD.

The choice of the University is vital as well, as each one differs in its outlook and approach. The choice offered by various universities is also vast and with some of them offering Associate Degrees and online degrees, pursuing the requisite qualifications is much easier. This is especially so, if you are already in a job, and looking for a career change. The same is also helpful, if you are planning to pursue multiple courses at the same time.

Points to remember during interview

 Good smile always pleases people. Smile is one of the things which may matter in your impression during interview.  Do not forget the firm handshake.  Eye contact, without starting, shows your confidence.  Be ready to briefly describe your experience, showing how it is related to the job.  During interview time, do not talk too much 10

 Don‘t interrupt interviewer when he/she is talking.  Always remember that communication is two-way.  Avoid sounding as though you assume the job is yours.  It is important to listen to the question asked and answer that question.  At some point during your interview, you‘ll be asked whether you have any questions.  Asking questions demonstrate your level of interest in the job and therefore, are prepared with questions to ask and jot some down during the interview.  Your ability to ask straightforward, insightful questions lets the interviewer understand your perspective and concerns, as well as your judgment and analytical ability.  You need to learn how to close your interview to win the job. To be ready to support past career accomplishments with specific information targeted towards the company needs, have your facts ready.  Avoid negative comments about past employers.  Evaluate/Review your interview‘s strengths/weaknesses immediately after the interview. Be cooperative and enthusiastic.

Time Management

Time Management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. Time Management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time while accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, Time Management referred to just business or work activities but eventually the term was broadened to include personal activities as well. Time Management System is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually Time Management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope.

Time Management Strategies are often associated with the recommendation to set personal goals. These goals are recorded and may be broken down into a project, an action plan, or a simple task list. For individual tasks or for goals, an importance rating may be established, 11

deadlines may be set and priorities assigned. This process results in a plan with a task list or a schedule or calendar of activities. Authors may recommend daily, weekly, monthly or other planning periods associated with different scope of planning or review. This is done in various ways, as follows. Time Management also examines how to eliminate tasks that don't provide the individual or organization value.

Task list

A task list (also to-do list or things-to-do) is a list of tasks to be completed, such as chores or steps toward completing a project. It is an inventory tool which serves as an alternative or supplement to memory.

Task Lists are used in self-management, grocery lists, business management, project management, and software development. It may involve more than one list.

When one of the items on a task list is accomplished, the task is checked or crossed off. The traditional method is to write these on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil, usually on a note pad or clip-board. Writer Julie Morgenstern suggests "do's and don'ts" of Time Management that include:

. Map out everything that is important, by making a task list

. Create "an oasis of time" for one to control

. Say "No"

. Set priorities

. Don't drop everything

. Don't think a critical task will get done in spare time

Numerous digital equivalents are now available, including PIM (Personal Information Management) applications and most PDAs. There are also several web-based task list applications, many of which are free.

Task List Organization

Task Lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or Task-Holding File) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.

Task Lists are often prioritized.

Techniques for Setting Priorities

There are several ways to set priorities.

ABC Analysis

A technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities are ranked upon these general criteria: . A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important . B – Tasks that are important but not urgent . C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important. Each group is then rank-ordered in priority. To further refine priority, some individuals choose to then force-rank all "B" items as either "A" or "C". ABC analysis can incorporate more than three groups. ABC analysis is frequently combined with Pareto Analysis. Pareto Analysis

This is the idea that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the disposable time. The remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time. This principle is used to sort tasks into two parts. According to this form of Pareto Analysis, it is recommended that tasks that fall into the first category be assigned a higher priority.

THINKING SKILLS AND SCIENTIFIC TEMPER

Dr L. Akilandeswari

The term ―scientific temper‖ has been believed by Jawarlal Nehru to be prerequisite for nation building. By speaking of nation with scientific temper, he wanted to speak of the people, who would be able to think independently, understand and practice the scientific methods in daily life, analyse and not take statements at their face value and avoid simplistic reasoning. Therefore the very idea of scientific temper rests on THINKING SKILLS.

Background on Thinking Skills

Critical Thinking was conceptualised by John Dewey, the American Psychologist, Philosopher and Educator. Problem Solving Skill was obsure until a Hungarian Mathematician, George Polya, popularised it. Further, Edward de Bono gave a new perspective through his insight into Lateral Thinking or Divergent Thinking. Gardner at Harvard talks of Multiple Intelligence which aimsat developing different intelligences by teaching Thinking Skills.

Broad Classification of Thinking Skills

The mind is a wonderful thing and it is used only to a part of its capacity. One can improve thinking by improving our thinking abilities. There are two fundamental types of Thinking Styles Critical and Creative. Critical Thinking

A working definition of Critical Thinking is exercising careful judgment or evaluation. For example, judging the feasibility of an idea or product. It is a very important skill to develop because it helps one to compete and move ahead.

Critical Thinkers are able to do the following:  Be open minded about new ideas  Are intellectually independent

 Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem. 14

 Know when there is a need for more information about something  Ask question  Base their judgment on evidences  Look for connectionus between subjects  Know the difference between a conclusion that might be true and one that must be true  Analyse and understand concepts, information and behaviour  Break things down and separate fact from opinion  Question anyting that does not make sense  Try to avoid common mistakes in reasoning  Be honest with themselves  Overcome confusion  Try to reparate emotional thinking from logical  Do not argue about something that they know nothing about  Try to build a vocabulary so that they can understand what others are saying and make their ideas clear to others

Benefits of Critical Thinking Strategies

This will enable one to address critical issues of unexamined beliefs or assumptions that might block the path to productive thinking, the reasons for these beliefs/dis beliefs through analogies without arousing defensive reaction.

Creative Thinking

A working definition of Creative Thinking is having unusual ideas and innovative thoughts, able to put things together in new and imaginative ways. It could be called also as ―out of box thinking‖ (or) Divergent Thinking (or) Lateral Thinking.

Creative Thinking is a great skill to develop one‘s ability to develop new and imaginative ideas, concepts, plans and other things which will make one a valued person and a team member. Developing this skill helps you to solve problem better by using creativity.

The value of Creative Thinking is all around us. It is this Creative Thinking that made the great Chemist, Kekule, to visualize the circularly dancing snake and correlate it to the structure of benzene. ―CHANCE FAVOURS PREPARED MINDS‖- Louis Pastuer. The prepared minds are those filled with Creative and Critical Thinking.

It is this Creative Thinking that proliferates the innovations of every day. Creative Thinking calls for taking risks and stepping past what we know. The more anyone practises this skill, the better he gets at it. Once this skill has been learnt, it needs to be passed onto others, especially to students to kindle their scientific temper. Tips to Creative Thinking

 Don‘t get hooked one any on right answer. There can be many right answers in a creative process and it depends on your point of view.  Don‘t always be logical. Sometimes we need to look at something in a very different or not so logical way to create a better way.  Break the rules sometimes. New breakthroughs have happened because of someone not always following the rule.  Be impractical. If we are always practical, we will always see the things the same way.  Let yourself be playful. Creativity is a fun process. So let go and step outside of the box.  Be a little foolish. It‘s okay because it is part of freeing your mind to think new thoughts.  Let yourself fail. You get better with practice.  Always consider yourself to be creative. This goes to our never saying we cannot do something. We need to always try.

Teaching Thinking Skills to Instigate Scientific Temper

There is extensive evidence that Thinking Skills can be developed through direct and explicit teaching and that they contribute to improved performance in science. The basic idea is that reasoning and thinking about numbers, shapes and other mathematical objects and structures is quite different from verbal reasoning or critical thinking and needs to be differently taught and assessed. Polya says it is concerned with abilities.  To read and understand material with mathematical/ quantitative / graphical content.

 To clarify and interpret such information when it is unclear or ambiguous.  To evaluate reasoning about such information.  To identify assumption.  To understand logical relationships.  To compute, visualize and estimate.  To find procedure for solving unfamiliar problem  To identify relevant or necessary information for solving a problem Such skills are fundamental to work in many sciences, social sciences, engineering and other intellectual activities.

CREATIVITY FOR BETTER LEARNING AND BETTER LIFE

K.T. Tamilmani

Introduction

Creativity is possible in all areas of human activity, including the arts, sciences, at work, at play and in all other areas of daily life. All people have creative abilities and we all have them differently. When individuals find their creative strengths, it can have an enormous impact on self-esteem and on overall achievement. "Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different." Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) that has some kind of value. Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. (Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken: page 396). There are three reasons why people are motivated to be creative: 1) need for novel, varied and complex stimulation 2) need to communicate ideas and values 3) need to solve problems.

In order to be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective. Among other things, you need to be able to generate new possibilities or new alternatives. Tests of Creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but also the uniqueness of those alternatives. The ability to generate alternatives or to see things uniquely does not occur by chance but it is linked to other, more fundamental qualities of thinking, such as flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity or unpredictability, and the enjoyment of things heretofore unknown. (Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken: page 394).

Creative Teaching may be defined in two ways: firstly, teaching creatively and secondly, teaching for creativity. Teaching Creatively might be described as teachers using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting, engaging, exciting and effective. Teaching For Creativity might best be described as using forms of teaching that are intended to develop students creative thinking and behaviour. However, it would be fair to say that Teaching for

 Assistant Professor, Department of English, Nehru Memorial College (Autonomous), Puthanampatti. 18

Creativity must involve Creative Teaching. Teachers cannot develop the creative abilities of their students if their own creative abilities are undiscovered or suppressed.

Four Features of Creativity

(1)Using Imagination

Imaginative Activity, in our terms, is not the same as fantasizing or imagining, although it may involve both. It is not simply producing mental representations of things that are not present or have not been experienced. Imaginative Activity is the process of generating something original and providing an alternative to the expected, the conventional, or the routine. This activity involves processes of thinking or behaving. The behaviour may include activities where thought is embodied in the movement such as in performance and other forms where there is not necessarily a prefigurative thinking. Imaginative Activity is a form of mental play directed towards some creative purpose. It is a mode of thought which is essentially generative in which we attempt to expand the possibilities of a given situation to look at it afresh or from a new perspective, envisaging alternatives to the routine or expected in any given task. Creative Insights often occur when existing ideas are combined or reinterpreted in unexpected ways or when they are applied in areas with which they are not normally associated. Often this arises by making unusual connections, seeing analogies and relationships between ideas or objects that have not previously been related.

(2) Pursuing Purposes

Creativity carries with it the idea of action and purpose. It is in a sense, Applied Imagination. The imaginative activity is fashioned and often refashioned, in pursuit of an objective. To speak of somebody being creative is to suggest that they are actively engaged in making or producing something in a deliberate way. This is not to say that Creative Insights or breakthroughs may not occur unexpectedly along the way. For example, by intuition or non- directed thought. But they occur on the way to something, to meeting the overall objective or to solving the central problem. This can be a highly dynamic process whose eventual outcomes can be quite different than from those anticipated at the outset. Sometimes the objective changes as

new ideas and possibilities come into view and sometimes, as with inventions and discoveries, new purposes are found when an initial product or idea has emerged.

(3) Being Original

Creativity always involves Originality. But there are different categories of originality: 1) Individual --- A person‘s work may be original in relation to their own previous work and output. 2) Relative --- It may be original in relation to their peer group and to other young people of the same age. 3) Historic. The work may be original in terms of anyone‘s previous output in a particular field: that is, it may be uniquely original. Albert Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. There can also be degrees of originality within these categories of greater or less originality in relation to individual or group output. Originality in creative work will often be judged to be of the first two categories. This can be of considerable importance in the general education of each individual. But in our view, exceptional individual achievement - that is, of historic originality - is also more likely to emerge from a system of education which encourages the creative capacities of everyone.

(4) Judging Value

We described imaginative activity as a generative mode of thought but creativity involves a second and reciprocal mode of thought also, called an evaluative mode. Originality at some level is essential in all creative work but it is never enough. Original ideas may be irrelevant to the purpose on hand. They may be bizarre or faulty. The outcome of Imaginative Activity can only be called creative if it is of value in relation to the task at hand. ‗Value‘ here is a judgement of some property of the outcome related to the purpose. There are many possible judgements according to the area of activity: effective, useful, enjoyable, satisfying, valid, and tenable. The criteria of value vary according to the field of activity in question.

Creative Activity involves playing with ideas and trying out possibilities. In any creative process, there are likely to be dead-ends and ideas and designs that do not work. There may be many failures and modifications and much refashioning of Imaginative Activity before the best ‗fit‘ is produced. A similar process may then take place in terms of the application of a creative outcome. Evaluating which ideas do work and which do not, requires judgement and criticism. In 20

this way, Creative Thinking always involves some critical thinking. Understanding this is an important foundation for creative education. There is a distinction between the evaluations made by the creator and those made by others. Equally, the value of something may only be recognised over time. We will come back to this later in discussing the links between creative and cultural development.

Critical Evaluation involves a shift in the focus of attention and mode of thinking as we attend to what is working or not working. This can happen throughout the process of creativity and not only at the end. It can permeate the process of generating ideas and it can involve standing back in quiet reflection. It can be individual or shared, involve instant judgements or long-term testing. In most creative work, there are many shifts between these two modes of thought and focus of attention. The quality of creative achievement is related to both. Helping young people to understand and manage this interaction between generative and evaluative thinking is a pivotal task of creative education.

Creativity Techniques

Nickerson provides a summary of the various creativity techniques that have been proposed. These include approaches that have been developed by both academia and industry: 1) Establishing purpose and intention 2) Building basic skills 3) Encouraging acquisitions of domain-specific knowledge 4) Stimulating and rewarding curiosity and exploration 5) Building motivation, especially internal motivation 6) Encouraging confidence and a willingness to take risks 6) Focusing on mastery and self-competition 7) Promoting supportable beliefs about creativity 8) Providing opportunities for choice and discovery 9) Developing self-management (metacognitive skills) 10) Teaching techniques and strategies for facilitating creative performance 11) Providing balance 12) rely on reason rather than emotion, 13) require evidence, ignore no known evidence, and follow evidence where it leads, and 14) are concerned more with finding the best explanation than being right analyzing apparent confusion and asking questions.

Characteristics of Creative individuals

The following are the characteristics of a creative personality:

1. Creative individuals have a great deal of energy but they are also often quiet and at rest. 2. Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naive at the same time. 3. Creative individuals have a combination of playfulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility. 4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end and rooted sense of reality at the other. 5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the continuum between extroversion and introversion. 6. Creative individuals are also remarkably humble and proud at the same time. 7. Creative individuals, to a certain extent, escape rigid gender role stereotyping and have a tendency toward androgyny. 8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent. 9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well. 10. The openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment. (Creativity - Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: pages 58-73)

Developing Creativity

There is considerable debate about, and a growing body of research into the idea of transferable skills, that is, skills of creative thought and production that apply in different domains of creative activity. The literature and many of the practical programmes on creative thinking certainly suggest that there are general skills that can be used across many different fields. It is also the case that some people are creative in many areas. The following themes are suggested by experience and research and are important in planning policies and strategies for

creative education. Creativity is best construed not as a single power which you either have or do not but as multidimensional: Creative processes involve many different mental functions, combinations of skills and personality attributes. They involve special purposes for familiar mental operations and the more efficient use of our ordinary abilities, not ‗something profoundly different‘ (BODEN, M.A. 1990. The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson. Page: 259).

Some creative abilities are ‗domain specific‘. Some of the specific skills and techniques of mathematics or physics or drawing or playing the piano are specific to those activities and do not necessarily transfer to each other nor to other areas. The creative strengths of any one person may be specific to particular fields or types of activity. Creativity involves working in a medium. The medium may be conceptual, as in mathematics. It may involve a physical medium like an instrument, clay, fabrics or steel. For many people, creative ability is stimulated by the ‗feel‘ of the materials and the activity in question. If a person does not find their best medium, they may never discover what their creative potential is and never experience the pleasures, satisfactions and achievements that follow.

Experience suggests that some, perhaps many people, feel disaffected by education and suffer a sense of failure precisely because they have never discovered where their own unique abilities lie. Hence schools need to promote a broad approach to creativity across a broad and balanced curriculum. In doing so, it is important to recognise two fundamental dynamics of creative processes.

Freedom and Control

Creativity is not simply a matter of ‗letting go‘. It is sometimes assumed that creativity only emerges from lack of inhibitions or constraints. This is very misleading. Freedom to experiment is essential for creativity. But so too are skills, knowledge and understanding. Being creative in music, or in physics, or dance, or mathematics, involves knowledge and expertise in the skills, materials and forms of understanding that they involve. It is possible to have a limited creative impact in some fields with little knowledge of them. But sustained creative achievement involves knowledge of the field in question and skills in the media concerned. Creativity in

music requires increasing control in the production and dynamics of sound and creativity in mathematics or science requires increasing skills in numeracy. It is possible to teach all of these and not promote creative ability at all. But the alternative is not to disregard the teaching of skills and understanding but to recognise the mutual dependence of freedom and control at the heart of the creative process.

Creative Process

Graham Wallas, in his work, Art of Thought, published in 1926, presented one of the first models of the creative process. In the Wallas Model, creative insights and illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of 5 stages: (i) preparation (preparatory work on a problem that focuses the individual's mind on the problem and explores the problem's dimensions), (ii) incubation (where the problem is internalized into the unconscious mind and nothing appears externally to be happening), (iii) intimation (the creative person gets a "feeling" that a solution is on its way), (iv) illumination or insight (where the creative idea bursts forth from its preconscious processing into conscious awareness); and (v) verification (where the idea is consciously verified, elaborated, and then applied).

Creativity in the classroom – What does it look like?

When students are being creative in the classroom, they are likely to: 1) question and challenge. Creative pupils are curious, question and challenge, and don‘t necessarily follow the rules. 2) make connections and see relationships. Creative pupils think laterally and make associations between things that are not usually connected. 3) envision what might be. They imagine, see possibilities, ask ‗what if?‘, picture alternatives and look at things from different viewpoints. 4) explore ideas and options. Creative pupils play with ideas, try alternatives and fresh approaches, keep open minds and modify their ideas to achieve creative results

5) reflect critically on ideas, actions and outcomes. They review progress, invite and use feedback, criticize constructively and make perceptive observations.

To encourage the above is likely to require a change in the way colleges are run and the way teachers teach. “The most powerful way to develop creativity in your students is to be a role model. Children develop creativity not when you tell them to but when you show them.”

Conclusion

Creativity involves the translation of our unique gifts, talents and vision into an external reality that is new and useful. We must keep in mind that creativity takes place unavoidably inside our own personal, social, and cultural boundaries. The more we define our creativity by identifying with specific sets of values, meanings, beliefs and symbols, the more our creativity will be focused and limited. The more we define our creativity by focusing on how values, meanings, beliefs and symbols are formed, the greater the chance that our creativity will become less restricted.

ENHANCING SPEAKING SKILLS

Dr. N. Gejeswari

Modern World has become amazingly competitive. We live in a society that moves at a fast pace. Everyone needs to transmit his/her message and the transmitted message must be understood easily. Hence this transmitting process has to be clear, simple, effective and above all, easy to understand. Communication becomes successful only when the transmission of the message reaches the communicatees effectively, with no difficulty or hindrance. Due to globalization, the world has become a ‗common big house.‘ As members of that ‗big house‘, we need a common medium of language for the exchange of our thoughts and ideas. Even though there are quite a few languages functioning as link languages, English occupies a very special and a very unique position as the International Link Language. English has often been referred to as a ‗world language‘, the ‗lingua franca‘ of the modern era. The 21st B.C, century has witnessed a revolution in the use of mobile phones, e- mails and internet. It has ushered in a new world where English Communication has become a necessity to stand out in the world of competition. We must make use of English to develop ourselves culturally and materially so that we can compete with the best in the world of mind and matter. Listening is an important component and an excellent input to enhance the communicative skills of the students. Constant and continuous practice in listening, will help the learners improve their comprehensive ability. It will also enable them to enrich their vocabulary and acquire proficiency in pronunciation.

Reproducing expression is dependent on listening carefully. After listening, the expressions listened to will have to be practised through many attempts. The listening process indirectly enlightens the leaner leaener the patterns, the underlying regulatory of do‘s and don‘ts. It is like attempting to sing songs a number of times by the playbacks. Listening enables the

 Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bharathidasan University Constituent College for Women, Orathanadu. 26

learners to pronounce the words correctly. It helps the learner to understand what is known as articulation. Articulation is nothing but saying the expression and making pauses appropriately.

Listening also allows the learner to mimic the expressions. According to the famous dictum of Aristotle, ‗nothing is original‘. Everything is best learnt or acquired when they are copied or imitated word by word, following the specimen of the good or desired precedence. Therefore, we need sufficient practice. To improve the listening skills, the learners must listen to various passages on different topics, captivating and motivating addresses, eloquent speeches, episodes, news bulletins, stories, dialogues etc. and this will give them sufficient exposure to modulation, twisting and conditioning of the tongue with regard to difficult phrases and expressions.

Reading is one of the four fundamental language skills to be acquired by the students. In the present Age of Communication, even though we have so many modes such as telephone, telegraph, radio, television, internet to transmit our ideas, none of them has taken away the importance of Reading. Regular and constant ‗Reading‘ practice, with basic knowledge in pronunciation, will help the learners to read, articulate and pronounce the words and sentences correctly.

English is studied as the Second Language in India. The learners are exposed to this language that is entirely different from their mother-tongue, both in style and content. There is a ‗Pull‘ of mother-tongue and this has to be carefully dealt with.

The ‗tongue‘ is accustomed to speak one‘s mother-tongue. To speak English, this ‗tongue‘ needs to be trained and tamed and this can be achieved by constant and consistent ‗reading‘. Reading is an active exposure for the learners. Unlike listening, reading guides the learner through the special sound blocks and peculiar combination of certain sound groups existing in the target language. Reading also gives a special training and practice to the patterns of the language. The learner comes across the different ways of expression. This exposure goes

deep into our mind and supplies the required pattern of expression whenever presentation of our thoughts is expected.

The impact of reading has two ranges. One is the immediate use of retrieval from exposure and the other one is long-term use of retrieval from memory. Reading also enables the learner to listen to what is read and how things are expressed both audibly and inaudibly.

Reading the tricky, peculiar and strange way of the combination of sounds, makes it possible to condition, modulate and provide some training to the tongue which is a pivotal organ in the presentation of one‘s thoughts through the use of the basic units of sound system.

More than anything else, the learner gains in experience, confidence, practice, willingness and readiness to attempt to experiment the knowledge that the learner has acquired through the actual use and usage in the form of presentation.

The learners, on reading something a specified number of times or a number of times to his liking, get a sense of achievement. This sense of achievement gives him a faith in him first, later in his ability to read similar matter correctly and articulate the same without mistake. The reading practice gives the learner sufficient courage and confidence to pronounce the words, with proper stress in an appropriate manner.

In reading and speaking, ‗pronunciation‘ plays a predominant role and the learners must acquire proficiency in the art of pronunciation to read and speak purposefully and fruitfully. English has peculiarity of its own, with regards to its pronunciation. English is a language in which there is no ‗one to one‘ correspondence between its spelling and pronunciation. In English, there are 44 sounds. It is broadly divided into two 24 Consonants; 20 Vowels Vowels are two types:

Monophthongs or Pure Vowels – 12 Diphthongs – 8 In English language, ‗C‘ is pronounced either as ‗S‘ or ‗K‘, As ‗S‘ Cell, central, celebrate, nice, produce As ‗K‘, cut, connect, curfew, collect, cover ‗I‘ is silent as in calm, could, walk, psalm, could ‗K‘ is silent when followed by ‗n‘ as in know, knight, knife, knock, kneel. ‗t‘ is silent as in castle, Christmas, rustle, thistle, bristle. ‗W‘ is silent as in hawk, awe, wrong, wring, whole ‗b‘ is silent as in comb, bomb, thumb, doubt, plumb Final ‗e‘ is silent as in gate, alternate, line, write, promise ‗h‘ is silent as in hour, honour, heir, honest, exhibit ‗P‘ is silent when followed by ‗s‘, ‗n‘ and ‗t‘ as in psyche, psychology, pseudonym, pneumonia, psalm ‗P‘ is also silent as in cupboard, receipt ‗n‘ is silent as in condemn, autumn, column ‗gh‘ is silent as in neighbour, bright, height, laugh, enough ‗r‘ is silent at the end position of the words as in

Ever, shower. ‗r‘ is pronounced at the initial position of the words and also when it occurs in between two vowels. River, reach, rise, right, run. Orange (‗r‘ is pronounced as it occurs in between vowels)

The illogical spelling in pronouncing certain words might pose some initial difficulty but with practice, it can be very easily overcome. ‗ph‘ is pronounced as ‗f‘ as in physics, physician ‗psy‘ is pronounced as/sai/as in psychology. I. May practise by reading out the following twisters. 1.She sells the sea shells on the sea shore. 2.Betty bought a bit of bread to better the bitter butter. 3.Love built on beauty vanishes as soon as beauty dies. 4.I never saw a saw as this saw saws. 5.Peter piper picked a peak of pickled pepper. II. We may practise by reading out the following modulators. 1. Prima facie 2. bowling, blasphemous 3. a thousand furlongs of sea 4. an acre of barren ground 5. catalytic crackling Speech is an absolute necessity for all human beings. It is possible that any human being can acquire the ability to speak for expressing his or her thoughts. One must make the necessary attempts and efforts, fulfilling the do‘s and don‘ts of language rules, governing the ways of speaking. Speaking is a practice – oriented skill to acquire the proficiency of the communicative skills. The first step for proficiency in speaking in a particular language, especially a foreign language, is exposure. This exposure is nothing but listening and reading good, standard and an exemplary specimen of speech.

Through listening formats, the word-usage, idiomatic expressions and other rules governing the oral communications, may be understood, analysed and acquired. Attempts, efforts and trials though practising identical and similar expressions, will be the correct steps to learn the art of speaking. STRESSING the words correctly, ARTICULATING the expressions with appropriate tones, GIVING tone pauses wherever necessary and KNOWING the sound values of letters, to pronounce the words with the right accents are the subsequent steps. Speaking is basically an imitative art and proficiency in speaking invites the attention of the listener/addressee. The efficiency in speaking commands respect.

Writing occupies a predominant place in the art of communication and the learner must acquire the necessary skill in writing for expressing their ideas, thoughts and feelings, in a precise manner. Speaking skill and communicative competence, enable the job seekers to perform their potentials and credentials through actual performance. A praiseworthy mastery in speaking, wins the hearts of one and all. It also forces, compels and commands others to oblige the master of effective communication.

MICROTEACHING: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

Dr. I. Muthuchamy

Introduction

Microteaching is one of the recent innovations in the field of teacher education, intended to solve the problems regarding the teacher training programmes. Now a days there is growing concern among educational thinkers for reshaping teacher education so as to make it more effective, meaningful and scientific. Micro-Teaching is a remedy to the above problem.

Microteaching was first adopted at Stanford University, U.S.A. in 1961 by Dwight. W. Allen and his co-workers. It is now followed in many countries with modified and improved techniques. Microteaching is now considered not only as a constructive teacher training technique but also as a versatile research tool which automatically simplifies the logistics of investigating certain teaching skills and learning variables.

Microteaching is a training technique. It is called micro because a teacher trainee practises with a small group of 5 to 10 students, for a short duration of 5 to 10 minutes, on a selected concept and concentrates on certain skills to be magnified.

Teaching constitutes a number of verbal and non verbal acts. A set of related behaviors or teaching acts aiming at specific objectives and performed with an intention to facilitate pupils‘ learning, can be called a Teaching Skill. Microteaching concentrates on specific teaching behavior and provides opportunity for practising teaching under controlled conditions. It can be considered as a scaled down sample of teaching. Only one particular skill is attempted and developed during micro teaching session. How to teach is considered as more important than what to teach in microteaching. Not only it offers a helpful setting for experienced teachers to acquire new skills but also equally helpful to make experienced teachers to refine the skills they already possess.

 Associate Professor, Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. 32

What does microteaching mean?

Microteaching is a scaled down technique in teaching encounter in class size and time. (D.W. Allen, 1966). According to B.K. Passi (1976), Micro Teaching is a training technique which requires student teachers to teach a single concept using specified teaching skill to a small number of pupils in a short duration of time.

According to L.C. Singh (1977), Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in which a teacher teaches a small unit of a group of three pupils for a limited period of 5 to 10 minutes. Such a situation offers a helpful setting for an experienced or inexperienced teacher to acquire new teaching skills and to refine old ones.

Why Micro Teaching?

Teaching is a complex task involving a large number of teacher activities. Both overt and covert teacher behaviours come into play. Overt Behaviours are those which are 'open to view', i.e., observable, measurable and recordable. Covert Behaviour refers to those which bring about a change in opinions and beliefs. Often, Covert behaviour leads to overt behaviour. There may be as many as 500 to 700 such micro overt behaviours per minute of a teacher in a classroom.

It is the grouping of such desirable micro behaviours which constitute teaching skills. For example, the skill of asking questions consists of micro behaviours including the following:

 Standing still  Thinking  Framing a question  Facing the students  Listening  Looking around for a response  Recalling the names of students  Calling students by name  Pausing to think, etc.

Different teaching skills are not exclusive to each other. A large number of such micro behaviours may be common to them. Though there is no way to measure as large as 30,000 micro behaviours, it is better to identify some observable skills and then devise means to quantify them. Microteaching is all about demonstrating, quantifying and improving such teaching skills.

Planning for Microteaching

The purpose of Microteaching is to demonstrate certain teaching skill(s) in a teaching session. It is, therefore, necessary that all the desirable Microactivities associated with the skill(s) are detailed out and prepared in advance of the teaching session.

It is necessary to understand the purpose as also the manner of executing Microactivities. It is indeed the theories of learning and models of teaching which form the necessary background for the same. For example, the skill of Question/Answer is not merely confined to asking a question or giving an answer. It goes far beyond this mechanical behaviour and includes such concepts as listening to a question, restating the question, pausing for a response, listening to the answers, analysing the responses, fielding the question, reinforcing correct and nearly correct responses, etc. Micro Planning includes planning for all foreseeable eventualities as also some thoughts for unforseeable situations.

It is necessary to plan and prepare the audiovisuals in advance. It includes the plan for chalk and talk, use of charts, overhead projection, Power Point etc., and all such basic needs during teaching. For example, the demonstration of Question / Answer Skill may be made while employing a chalkboard or by showing an overhead transparency.

Teaching Skills

Microteaching Technique rests upon the analytical approach to teaching. Analytical Approach assumes that the complex task of teaching can be analysed into limited but well defined components called ‗teaching skills‘. Each of these teaching skills can be taught, practised, evaluated, predicted, controlled and understood.

Teaching Skills have been defined differently by different authors. Gage (1968) defined the Teaching Skills ―as specific instructional activities and procedures that a teacher may use in his classroom‖. The above definition specifies that Teaching Skill is a group of teaching acts/behaviours intended to facilitate pupils‘ learning.

Types of Teaching Skills

Attempts have been made to list Teaching Skills that could be developed among the student-teachers. A large number of skills have been identified. However, there is no uniformity in the number and categories of Teaching Skills. Fourteen Teaching Skills have been listed in Stanford University (Allen and Rayan, 1969) whereas Singh L.C. (1979) identified Twenty Two General Teaching Skills. Menon & et al (1983) have suggested a list of Seventy Four Skills.

The important skills pertaining to the areas of motivation, presentation, questioning and recapitulation have been chosen and listed below.

 Set Induction  Explanation  Questioning  Stimulus Variation  Reinforcement  Closure  Blackboard Work

Skill of Set Induction (skill of motivation)

This is a pre-instructional technique. The teacher, before introducing a lesson, has to prepare the minds of the students to receive new knowledge. For effective learning, the teacher has to ensure students‘ willingness to learn. The learning becomes more meaningful when the new knowledge is integrated with the previous knowledge. Hence the teacher should set the stage for enabling the students to recall the previous knowledge and relate it with the new experience. The following behaviours are essential for Set Induction.  Establishing a cognitive and affective rapport with the pupils.

 Recalling and integrating previous knowledge with new knowledge.  Maintaining continuity and logical links  Arousing and maintaining the student interest.

Set Induction: Components and Their Description S.No. Components Description of Behaviour 1 Arrest attention  Use of voice, gesture and eye contact.  Use of audiovisual aids  Changing the pattern of teacher-pupil interaction. 2 Focus attention on the  Test the previous knowledge relevant to learning the topic new topic.  Can also use knowledge acquired from various sources like classroom, books, friends etc.  Maintain logical continuity  Integrate the old knowledge with the new knowledge. 3 Introduce an element of  Using teaching aids like flash card, charts, models etc. interest  Using other devices like analogies, storytelling, brief history of any subject etc.  Bringing out the significance of the new lesson 4 Arouse the curiosity  Creating a suitable problematic situation  Posing an intriguing problem.

Skill of Explanation

A teacher is said to be explaining while he is describing ‗how‘, ‗why‘ and sometimes ‗what‘ of a concept, phenomenon, event, action or condition. It can be described as an activity to bring about understanding in the learning of a concept, principle, etc. While explaining, the teacher gives

 Causes for some phenomena, event or action  Reason for some phenomena, event or action  Steps involved in arriving at a result  Various events that have resulted in phenomena

Explaining bridges the gap in understanding the new knowledge by relating it to the past experience. Thus explaining depends upon the type of the past experience, the type of new

knowledge and the type of relationship between them. Explanations can be made more effective by using simple and clear language for clarity, examples and illustration materials for better understanding and appropriate link words for relating the concepts.

Components and Description of Skill of Explanation

S.No. Components Description of Behaviour 1 Opening Gaining attention / arousing interest statement Today we are going to derive / discuss /describe 2 Clarity  State concepts clearly  Define new terms and concepts; use simple language, maintain logical sequence.  Use suitable examples, illustration, anecdotes and exhibits.  Voice modulation to emphasise  Develop the explanation from known to unknown. 3 Fluency  Use simple language / easy flow of ideas / use appropriate vocabulary 4 Use of link words  Use linking words and phrases. Example : therefore, similarly, that is, since, that is why, because, in order to, hence … etc. 5 Planned repetition  Provide summaries to refocus attention  Deliberately repeat some important concepts or points. 6 Stimulating  Check the understanding by questioning. questions  Stimulate and channelise the students thinking by thought provoking questions like how, why type. 7 Concluding  Consolidate the ideas by summarizing. statement  Conclude the explanation by statements like ‗Thus we have proved / so far we have discussed, etc.

Skill of Stimulus Variation

It is very important for a teacher to ensure and sustain student‘s attention. For this purpose, the teacher uses some gestures, body movements, makes certain verbal statements etc. and all these behaviours are related to Stimulus Variation. The skill of stimulus variation can be defined as deliberate change in the attention drawing behaviours of the teacher in order to secure and sustain student‘s attention towards the lesson.

Components and Description of Skill of Stimulus Variation

S.No. Components Description of Behaviour 1 Teacher  Movement of the teacher from one spot to another with movement a specific purpose. Eg. Moves to the blackboard to write something on the board. Moves towards the back of the classroom to check what the students are doing.  Purposeful movement of the teacher from one spot to another 2 Teacher gesture  Gestures, body movements and facial expressions to direct attention, to emphasize importance, to express emotions, to indicate size, shapes etc.  Nonverbal cues like body movements, facial expressions etc. 3 Change in sensory  Focusing pupils attention on particular point or concept focus by using (1) verbal statement like ‗look at the blackboard‘, ‗see the figure in the chart‘ etc. (2) gestures and (3) both verbal statements and non-verbal cues.  Making use of the different senses like hearing, seeing, touching and so on. 4 Change in speech  Voice Modulation to pay special attention to a pattern particular point.  Variation in time, pitch, speed of voice

5 Physical Pupil  Variation in physical involvement of the students Pattern  Eg: student moves towards the blackboard to work out a problem. Student holds the chart. 6 Verbal Pupil  Involvement of the students through verbal Pattern communication style as: (1) teacher to group (2)teacher to student (3) student to student  Example: asking question‘s, discussion etc.

Skill of Reinforcement

Reinforcement is strengthening the connection between a stimulus and a response. There are two types of reinforcements i.e. Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement. Positive Reinforcement provides pleasant experience or a feeling of satisfaction which contributes towards strengthening of desirable responses or behaviours. The Negative Reinforcement results in unpleasant experiences, which help in weakening the occurrence of undesirable responses or behaviours.

The skill of reinforcement can increase the students involvement in learning in a number of ways. The skill is used when the teacher reinforces correct responses with a smile, when the teacher praises a good response or encourages a slow learner. Such Positive reinforcements strengthen desirable responses whereas Negative Reinforcements such as scolding, punishing the students, sarcastic remarks etc. weaken the undesirable response. However, the uses of more and more Positive Reinforcers maximize pupils‘ involvement of learning rather than the use of Negative Reinforcers. Therefore, the skills of reinforcement involve the teacher to use more and more Positive Reinforcers and to decrease the use of Negative Reinforcers so that the pupils‘ participation is maximized.

Components and Description of Skill of Reinforcement

S.No. Components Description of Behaviour 1 Positive verbal reinforcement Comments like ‗good‘, ‗very good‘, ‗excellent‘ etc 2 Positive gestures Facial expression; example; ‗smile‘, nodding the head

3 Proximity Teacher moving towards the responding student 4 Token reinforcement merit card, star value 5 Activity reinforcement Giving a task the student likes to perform 6 Negative verbal Comments like ‗nonsense,‘ 7 Negative gesture Facial expression like ‗frowning‘

Skill of Probing Questions

Questioning Skill is an important skill to be developed by any teacher. It is important for all teachers because questioning stimulates the thinking of students and gets the concepts clarified and hence has significant contribution to teaching and learning for all subjects. Probing is going deep into the pupils‘ responses by asking a number of questions about what they already know and to lead them to the correct response or to remove any ambiguity or misconception, which has led to such responses. Probing is to be done where there is no response, or incorrect response, or partially right response.

Components and Description of Skill of Probing Questions

S.No. Components Description of Behaviour 1 Prompting This technique is going deep into the pupil‘s initial response. This technique is employed when the student gives no response and it guides the student to the correct response with a series of hints or prompts through step-by-step questioning process. Giving hints or clues to lead the student from no response or wrong response to correct response. 2 Seeking further This technique involves leading a pupil from partially correct information or incomplete response to the correct response through questioning. Questions that lead the students from partially correct or incomplete response to correct answer.

3 Refocusing This technique is employed when the student gives completely correct response. Refocusing through questioning helps the pupils to view the correct response from a different viewpoint. Questions that help the student to view his correct response in a broader perspective. 4 Redirection Directing the same questions to other pupils when there is a wrong response, incomplete response, partially right response, or while prompting or while seeking further information and so on. 5 Increasing critical It involves putting questions such as ‗how‘ and ‗why‘ to awareness increase the critical awareness of the pupils about the correct response. Thus this technique is followed when the students give correct response.

Skill of Blackboard Writing

Blackboard is an important visual aid used by teachers for effective teaching. A teacher makes extensive use of blackboard in his or her daily classroom teaching for working our problems, deriving formulae, proving theorems, drawing figures, constructing geometrical figures and so on. Every teacher should be proficient in the skill of using blackboard. Good Blackboard Writing leads to the following:

 Clarity in understanding the concepts  Reinforcement of the idea which is being verbally presented.  Conveying a holistic picture of the content.  Adding variety to the lesson and drawing attention of the pupils to the key concepts.

Components and Description of Skill of Blackboard Writing

S.No. Components Description of behavior 1 Legibility in  Distinct letters handwriting  Adequate spacing between letters and words

 Adequate size for the letters  Different sizes for capital and small letters  Uniform size for all capital letters  Uniform size for all small letters 2 Neatness in blackboard  Straightness of lines work  Adequate spacing between the lines  Avoiding overwriting  Focusing the relevant matter 3 Appropriateness of  Continuity in the ideas blackboard work  Brevity and simplicity  Drawing attention and focusing

Skill of Closure

It is an important skill to achieve closure at the end of the lesson.

Components and Description of Skill of Closure

S.No. Components Description of behaviour 1 Consolidation of major  Synthesizing of the learning points into a points meaningful whole.  Reviewing the content in a broader perspective.  Use of number of mediums – Example: Blackboard Summary, Questions, A.V. aids. etc. 2 Application of present  Application in problem solving knowledge in various new  Use of any medium. Examples: Questioning- situations oral or written, diagrams, charts map etc.

3 Linking past knowledge with  Make the pupils review the past knowledge in present knowledge the light of the present knowledge.  Use of a variety of approaches-questioning, summary statements, using nonverbal media

like blackboard, charts etc. 4 Linking present knowledge  Appropriate assignments related to the present with future learning knowledge.

Conclusion

Microteaching Sessions provide adequate opportunities for the teacher-trainees to equip themselves with the Teaching Skills necessary to become effective teachers.

References Ram Babu. A and Dandapani. S (2006) Micro Teaching: Theory and Practice, Vol. I, Neel Kamal Publications Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad.

Kumar. K.L. (2008) Educational Technology, New Age International Publications, New Delhi.

Muthuchamy. I and Thiyagu. K (2010) Teaching – Learning Skills, M.Phil. Study Materials, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli.

Murali Sundar. G (2004) An Experimental study of Micro-Teaching at the Tertiary Level, M.Phil. Dissertation, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli.

Sampath. K and et al., (1998) Introduction to Educational Technology, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

V.P.Anuja

Introduction Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become commonplace entities in all aspects of life. The use of ICT has fundamentally changed the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavor within business and governance. Within education, the impact has not been as extensive as in other fields. Education is a very socially oriented activity and quality education has traditionally been associated with strong teachers, having high degrees of personal contact with learners. The use of ICT in education lends itself to more student-centered learning settings and often this created some tension between some teachers and students. But with the world moving rapidly into digital media and information, the role of ICT in education is becoming more and more important and this importance will continue to grow and develop. This paper highlights the impact of ICT on contemporary higher education and it explores its potential future developments.

The impact of ICT Based on Curricula and Information Literacy With emerging instruction technologies, curricula tend to require :  access to a variety of information sources  access to a variety of information forms and types  student-centred learning settings based on information access and inquiry  learning environments centred on problem-centred and inquiry-based activities  authentic settings and examples  teachers as coaches and mentors rather than content experts.

Contemporary ICTs are able to provide strong support to all these requirements and there are now many outstanding examples of world class settings on curricula that make sound use of these technologies. Teachers wishing to adopt such curricula, have been limited by their resources and tools but with the proliferation and widespread availability of contemporary ICTs,

 Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, A.P.A College for Women, Palani. 44

many restrictions and impediments of the past have been removed. New Technologies will continue to drive these forms of learning further. As students and teachers gain access to higher bandwidths, more direct forms of communication and access to sharable resources, the capability to support these quality learning settings will continue to grow. Already there has emerged a need for educational institutions to ensure that graduates are able to display appropriate levels of information literacy, ―the capacity to identify and evaluate relevant information in order to engage with it or to solve a problem arising from it.‖ The drive to promote such developments stems from general moves among institutions to ensure their graduates demonstrate not only skills and knowledge in their subject domains but also general attributes and generic skills. The growing use of ICTs as tools of everyday life have seen the pool of generic skills expanded in recent years to include information literacy and it is highly probable that future developments and technology applications will involve such capabilities as an ability to reason formally, to solve problems, to communicate effectively, to be able to negotiate outcomes, to manage time, project management, and collaboration and teamwork skills. Just as technology is influencing and supporting what is being learned in schools and universities, so too is it supporting changes to the way students are learning. Moves from content-centred curricula to competency-based curricula are associated with moves away from teacher-centred forms of delivery to student-centred forms. Through technology-facilitated approaches, contemporary learning settings now encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. The growing use of ICT as an instructional medium is changing and will likely continue to change many of the strategies employed by both teachers and students in the learning process. The following sections describe particular forms of learning that are gaining prominence in universities and schools worldwide.

Student-Centred Learning

Technology has the capacity to promote and encourage the transformation of education from a very teacher directed enterprise to one which supports more student-centred models. Evidence of this today is manifested in:

 The proliferation of capability, competency and outcomes focused curricula

 Moves towards problem-based learning  Increased use of the Web as an information source and Internet users are able to choose the experts from whom they will learn.

The use of ICT in educational settings, by itself acts as a catalyst for change in this domain. ICTs by their very nature are tools that encourage and support independent learning. Students, using ICTs for learning purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use computers as information sources and cognitive tools, the influence of the technology on supporting how students learn will continue to increase. ICT applications provide many options and choices and many institutions are now creating competitive edges for themselves through the choices they are offering students.

Educational Institutions have been offering programs at a distance for many years and there has been a vast amount of research and development associated with establishing effective practices and procedures in off-campus teaching and learning. Use of the technology, however, has extended the scope of this activity. While previously off-campus delivery was an option for students who were unable to attend campuses, today, many more students are able to make this choice through technology-facilitated learning settings.

Advantages

In many instances, traditional classroom learning has given way to learning in work- based settings, with students able to access courses and programs from their workplace. The advantages of education and training at the point of need relate not only to convenience but also include cost savings associated with travel and time away from work and also situation and application of the learning activities within relevant and meaningful contexts.

The communication capabilities of modern technologies provide opportunities for many learners to enroll in courses offered by external institutions rather than those situated locally. These opportunities provide such advantages as extended course offerings and eclectic class cohorts, comprised of students of differing backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.

The freedom of choice provided by programs that can be accessed at any place, also supporting the delivery of programs, with units and courses from a variety of instituts. There are now countless ways for students completing undergraduate degrees, for example, to study units for a single degree, through a number of different institutions, an activity that provides considerable diversity and choice for students in the programs they complete.

Anytime Learning

Students are beginning to appreciate the capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace. This flexibility has heightened the availability of just-in-time learning and provided learning opportunities for many more learners who previously were constrained by other commitments. Through online technologies, learning has become an activity that is no longer set within programmed schedules and slots. Learners are free to participate in learning activities when time permits and these freedoms have greatly increased the opportunities for many students to participate in formal programs. The wide variety of technologies that support learning are able to provide asynchronous support for learning so that the need for real-time participation can be avoided while the advantage of communication and collaboration with other learners is retained.

As well as learning at anytime, teachers are also finding the capabilities of teaching at any time to be opportunistic and able to use it to advantage. Mobile Technologies and Seamless Communications Technologies support teaching and learning process. Choosing how much time will be used and what periods of time, are challenges to be faced by the educators of the future. The continued and increased use of ICTs in the education in years to come, will serve to increase the temporal and geographical opportunities that are currently experienced. Advancements in learning opportunities are limited only by the ICT capabilities of the lowest common denominator, namely, the students with the least access to ICT.

Emerging Issues Role of Teachers

In the past, the role of teacher in educational institution was a role given to only highly qualified people. With technology-facilitated learning, there are now opportunities to extend the 47

teaching pool beyond this specialist set to include many more people. The changing role of teacher has increased opportunities for others to participate in the process, including workplace trainers, mentors, specialists from the workplace and others. Through the capabilities of technology, today we have a much expanded pool of teachers, with varying roles, able to provide support to learners in a variety of flexible settings. This trend seems set to continue and to grow with new ICT developments and applications. And within this changed pool of teachers will come changed responsibilities and skill sets for future teaching, involving high levels of ICT and the need for more facilitative than didactic teaching roles.

Role of Students

In the past, education has been a privilege and an opportunity that often was unavailable to many students whose situation did not fit the mainstream. Through the flexibilities provided by technology, many students, who previously were unable to participate in educational activities, are now finding opportunities to do so. The pool of students is changing and will continue to change as more and more people who have a need for education and training are able to take advantage of the increased opportunities. Interesting opportunities are now being observed among, for example, school students studying university courses to overcome limitations in their school programs and workers undertaking courses from their desktops.

Cost of Education

Traditional Thinking has always been that technology-facilitated learning would provide economies and efficiencies that would see significant reductions in the costs associated with the delivery of educational programs. The cost would come down from the ability to create courses with fixed establishment costs, for example technology-based courses and for which there would be savings in delivery through large scale uptake. We have already seen a number of virtual universities built around technology delivery alone. The reality is that few institutions have been able to realize these aims for economy. There appears to have been many underestimated costs in such areas as course development and course delivery.

The cost associated with the development of high quality technology-facilitated learning materials are quite high. It is found to be more than a matter of repackaging existing materials 48

and large scale reengineering has been found to be necessary with large scale costs. Likewise costs associated with delivery have not been found to diminish as expected. The main reason for this has been the need to maintain a relatively stable student to staff ratio and the expectation of students that they will have access to teachers in their courses and programs. Compared to traditional forms of off-campus learning, technology-facilitated learning has proven to be quite expensive in all areas of consideration, infrastructure, course development and course delivery. We may have to brace ourselves for the advantages and affordances which will improve the quality of education in the near future and also to increase the components of cost.

IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON SMALL FARMERS WORLDWIDE: IMPLICATIONS ON INFORMATION TRANSFER L. Balamurugan

“Man is a social animal” (Aristotle)

Introduction Globalization can be viewed as the integration of inputs and outputs into global markets, sharing of information and knowledge and promulgation of rules governing such integration. For some people, globalization is primarily a synonym for global business. Theodore Levitt (1983) first used the word, Globalization, in an article, ‗Globalization of Markets‘, published in Harvard Business Review. The positive and negative effects of Globalization and the groups that resist and support globalization are many. The World Bank Report by Paul Collier and David Dollar (2001) says that although Globalization presents considerable opportunities for developing countries, it also contains significant risks. Associated with international integration are concerns about increasing inequality, shifting power, and cultural uniformity. Corporate Globalization affects both rural and urban areas but its impacts on rural communities is diverse and profound (Jennifer Sumner, 2001).

Prime Movers of Globalization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) functions as the foundation of the WTO trading system and remains in force. As on January 2007, 150 countries are members of the WTO. After becoming Members of the WTO, these countries undertake to adhere to the 18 Specific Agreements. Of these agreements, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) appears to have the greatest impact. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) play a vital role in the process of economic globalization.

 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar. 50

Impact of Globalization on Farmers

Recent years have witnessed a marked acceleration in the tempo of Globalization. Its scope has also widened beyond the realm of economy to embrace the domains of social, cultural and political norms and practices. This powerful thrust has been associated with far-reaching consequences for economic well-being (Dharam Ghai, 1997). In the case of agriculture, Globalization demands export oriented cash crop farming, free trade, discouragement of subsidies, insistence on standards and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Globalization envisaged food security to help augmenting availability of food grains, trade to bring about flexibility in the matter of food security, increased access to food by the poor, increased employment opportunities and cash crops to earn foreign exchange. What has happened is quite contradictory to these expectations. Globalization has resulted in the decline of household subsistence production. People look for greener pastures in other countries as laborers. Rural Demographics are changing. While men leave, women are forced to take to farming. As we notice often in the Press, despair has led more than 17,000 Indian Farmers to commit suicide in 2003 as was reported in New York Times on September 19, 2006. An Inter Press Service story quotes that as many as 100,000 farmers committed suicide between 1993 and 2003.

Vandana Shiva (2000), a staunch supporter of small farmers, says that Economic Globalization is leading to a concentration of the seed industry, the increased use of pesticides and finally increased debt. In the regions where industrial agriculture has been introduced through Globalization, higher costs are making it virtually impossible for small farmers to survive.

Seed Saving

Farmers, who have been growing seed for generations, now face legal barriers. It is said that up to 1.4 billion people in developing countries depend on farm-saved seeds as the primary seed source. Genetic Engineers are building on the accumulated success of generations of farmers, who have selected and improved seeds for thousands of years whereas the private companies claim that they should have exclusive patent rights. For decades, public research institutions trained farmers and they were the centers of agricultural research. About 45% of U.S.

Plant Breeders at Universities said that they have trouble getting seed from private companies which place serious constraints on their research (Pollack, 2001). Farmers, who traditionally grew pulses, millet, and paddy, have been lured by Seed Companies. Their native seeds have been displaced by new hybrids which cannot be saved and need to be purchased every season at a high cost. Hybrids are also very vulnerable to pest attacks. Spending on pesticides in some countries has increased 2,000 per cent. Now farmers are consuming the same pesticides as a way of killing themselves so that they can escape permanently from unpaid debts. Green Revolution was a technological solution for food challenges when the Nobel Laureate, Norman Borlaug, brought dwarf variety of wheat and explored in South Asia. But now the hybrid seed by transnational companies have put the people at risk of their lives. Agriculture is a living in developing countries while it is a business in developed countries. 45 % of the people live by dollar a day. Dollar is not for one person but for the entire family. One bushel of corn costs less than $4 while a bushel of corn flakes are sold at $133.Farmers are making too little while others are taking too much. Farmers earn less and Consumers pay more. Private companies often have little incentive to service subsistence farmers and public sector has no workforce to fill the gap.

Protective Subsidies

Protective Subsidies are given in industrial countries while other WTO member countries are discouraged. In some countries, zero tariffs are imposed. United States gives over $18 billion a year in subsidies to its own farmers. This has affected prices of cotton for farmers in other countries. Farmers in developed countries receive subsidies for not growing corn and for not raising hogs. Lack of Markets

Farmers lack access to overseas markets where they can sell their products at higher prices and purchase cheaper inputs and better technology. They also lack sufficient access to local markets and face unfair competition from subsidized imports. Inputs and Outputs are controlled by multinational companies. Controlling both the inputs and the marketing of commodities, jeopardizes farmers existence. Trade regulations, adjusting to the rules that govern international trade and food safety standards, have affected the small farmers very much.

Rise of Supermarkets

Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have a direct impact on local retailers and on the lives of millions of small farmers (Reardon et al 2003).

Weather Vagaries and Cash Crops

Drought and weather vagaries affect much. Deep drilling for tube wells does not yield water. Millions face water famine. It is man-made due to mining of scarce ground water for cash crops for export. Power is supplied hardly 6-7 hours a day.

Protesters against Globalization

Despite all these hassles, most protestors against Globalization are from industrialized countries. They include labor organizations worried about loss of jobs moving to south, US farmers defend support to agriculture, and radicals from European Union countries opposed to corporate capitalism. In fact, few protesters come from poor of the world and most of the protesters are representatives of NGOs. Bill Christison (2000) says that family sized farmers in US are on the verge of getting displaced and ethnic minorities are declining. While the farmer growing cereal grains such as wheat, oats, and corn earn negative returns and pushed close to bankruptcy, the companies that make breakfast cereals make huge profits.

Beneficiaries of Globalization

Several Studies have indicated that in many developing countries, freer trade, better communication and more rapid movement of goods and technology have raised living standards and reduced poverty but benefits accrued mainly to urban areas. Farmers in general and small farmers in particular are least benefited. In developing countries, large farmers appear to be taking advantage of the benefits of agricultural markets of developed countries. With their economic and political influence, they are able to get best technologies from research stations, grow cash crops, negotiate agreements and move their products. On the other hand, the small farmers are hand to mouth farmers, feeding their families with meager produce they yield (Kumar Venkat, 2003).

Public Sector Research

In many developing countries, deep cuts in government budgets have led to a scaling back of public sector research. National as well as international agricultural research programs continue to focus on boosting the yields of traditional food products. Inadequate resources are devoted to crops that can help farmers enter the cash economy. Not much research on small-scale farmers. There is every need to develop strategies that can respond quickly and efficiently to the problems of Globalization. Globalization serves to break down borders in markets, resulting in cultural interaction and ability of capital and services to act freely globally. But the political basis remains local. Unless local aspects are balanced in a democratic way, the problems will remain as they are.

Agricultural Information System

The Agricultural Information Transfer System consists of four independent but interrelated components: Development, Documentation, dissemination, and Diffusion of Information. These components broadly correspond to generation, organization, communication, and utilization of information. The participants in this model facilitate interaction, networking, feedback and collaboration by serving each other in a dynamic dual function as both a resource base and a customer base (Reddy, 2005). Achleitner (1995) defined Information Transfer as creation, dissemination, organization, diffusion, and use of information. Shand (2001) is of the opinion that giant transnational enterprises are gaining control over all aspects of commercial food, farming and health services.

The dominant companies in plant breeding, pesticides, veterinary medicine and pharmaceuticals are known as ―Gene Giants.‖ Patenting genes, genetic traits and enabling technologies, legally restricts access to new agricultural biotechnologies. By the end of 1998, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted 1370 biotech patents to the top 30 patent assignees, 74% of which were held by six Gene-Giants: Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, Dow and Grupo Pulsar (Graff, 2002).

Only 12% of corporate research focuses on farm level technologies. In contrast, 80% of public research is oriented to the farmer. By and large, corporate breeders are interested in 54

industrial crop commodities such as soybeans, maize, cotton and canola and not in subsistence agriculture. On an average, developing countries devote only 7.5% of total government spending to agriculture and less than one third goes toward research (Paarlberg, 2000).

Conclusion and Implications

In order to take advantage of niche markets, farmers need to know what products are needed, including specific quality traits or attributes. Second, they need to know whether they have an inherent comparative advantage in producing these products in relation to other potential suppliers. Third, they need to learn the most efficient and effective means of supplying these niche markets. Fourth, they may need to achieve economies of scale by getting organized into some type of marketing alliance or to work through an existing cooperative so they can provide processors or consumers with a consistent supply of high quality product. Public research and extension can play a more active role in assisting farmers to participate more effectively in this emerging global economy (Swanson. et al).

THE STATUS OF E-COMMERCE IN INDIA AND ITS POTENTIAL C. Magesh

Introduction As a symbol of globalization and in many ways its leading feature, E-Commerce represents the cutting edge of success in this digital age. E-Commerce stands for electronic commerce and pertains to trading in goods and services through the electronic medium, i.e. the Internet or Phone. On the Internet, it pertains to a website which sells products or services directly from the site using a shopping cart or shopping basket system and allows credit card payments. It involves conducting business with the help of the electronic media, making use of the information technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). In simple words, Electronic Commerce involves buying and selling of goods and services over the World Wide Web. Customers can purchase anything right from a car or a cake, sitting comfortably in his room and gift it to someone, sitting miles apart just by the click of a mouse.

Scope of E-Commerce

India is showing tremendous growth in the E-Commerce. Tradeindia.com has 700,000 registered buyers and it has the growth rate of 35% every year, which is likely to double in the year 2010. Indiamart.com claims revenues of Rs. 38 crores and has a growing rate of 50% every year. It receives around 500,000 enquiries per month. Undoubtedly, with the middle class of 288 million people, Online Shopping shows unlimited potential in India. The real estate costs are touching the sky. The travel portals' share in the online business contributed to 50% of Rs 4800 crore Online Market in 2007-08. The travel portal, MakeMyTrip.com, has attained Rs 1000 crores of turnover which is around 20% of total E-Commerce Market in India. A further annual growth of 65% has been anticipated annually in the travel portals alone.

Growth of E-Commerce

During the year 2000-2001, two major Industry Associations produced separate reports on E-Commerce in India. One was prepared by the National Committee on E-Commerce, set up

 Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration Management Wing, Directorate of Distance Education, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar. 56

the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), while the other was commissioned by the NASSCOM and prepared by the Boston Consulting Group. Both the reports are optimistic about the growth of E-Commerce in India. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Report estimated the volume of E-Commerce to grow to Rs 500 billion (US$ 10.6 billion) in the year 2003. The NASSCOM-BCG Report, on the other hand, estimates for the same year that the total volume of E-Commerce could be Rs 1,950 billion (US$ 41.5 billion). Amul, a milk cooperative, is successfully using E-Commerce to deepen its brand loyalty. Likewise, the Automotive Sector improves their customer relations through this medium. Some of the new names that are rediscovering E-Commerce through new portals at relatively low capital cost, without venture capital funding include: Key 2 crorepati, Music Absolute, Gate 2 Biz. The low cost of the PC and the growing use of the Internet has triggered the tremendous growth of E-Commerce in India, in the recent years. According to the Indian E-Commerce Report, released by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, ― The total online transactions in India was Rs. 7080 crores (approx $1.75 billion) in the year 2006- 2007 and expected to grow by 30% to touch 9210 crores (approx $2.15 billion) by year 2007-2008. According to a McKinsey- Nasscom Report, the E-Commerce transactions in India are expected to reach $100 billion by the 2008. But compared to the Western Countries, India is still in its initial stage of development.

E-Marketer forecasts that Online Sales will more than double by reaching $168.7 billion in 2011. Market Share is moving towards Australia, India and especially China. China‘s share of regional B2C e-commerce will grow more than threefold, from 4.1% in 2006 to 14.3% by 2011. At the low end, South Korea‘s B2C e-commerce sales will grow by 13.3% over the same period. Between 2006 and 2011, the aggregate CAGR for the five countries will be 23.3%.

Online Travel is the largest e-commerce sales category in most major countries. For the same group of five countries, plus New Zealand, online leisure and unmanaged business travel sales totaled about $17.7 billion in 2007 and are forecast to rise to $41.7 billion by 2011. E- Marketer forecasts that from 2006 to 2011, Online Travel Sales will grow at a 24.8% annual rate, higher than the 23.3% rate for B2C e-commerce. This indicates that travel is one of the key drivers of e-commerce sales in the APAC region.

E-Tailing, which comprises of buying consumer items including electronic products, home appliances, personal products such as apparels and jewellery and other accessories, is currently worth Rs.2050 crores and it is expected to grow by 32% to Rs.2700 crores by next year. Another segment that could witness growth opportunity is Online Financial Services, including Net Banking, utility bills payment, insurance and other services. The financial service segment is estimated to be worth Rs.2000 crores currently but is expected to log 34% growth by Dec 2011.

Lastly, India has witnessed breathtaking growth in the Mobile Segment thanks to low- cost Smart Phones. The digital download segment has grown at the fastest pace of over 50% year on year growth since Dec 2008. Majority of the mobile transactions through Ringtone / Wallpapers / Pictures downloads is said to be worth Rs.140 crores.

To the same extent as mobile downloads, even mobile recharge for pre-paid connections or paying post-paid bills forms a significant 34% market share of current digital downloads market size of Rs.680 crores.

Status of E-Commerce in India

Today E-Commerce is a byword in the Indian Society and it has become an integral part of our daily life. There are websites providing any number of goods and services. Then there are those which provide a specific product along with its allied services. Multi-Product E-Commerce Portals provide goods and services in a variety of categories. To name a few: Apparel and Accessories for men and women, Health and Beauty Products, Books and Magazines, Computers and Peripherals, Vehicles, Software, Consumer Electronics, Household Appliances, Jewelry, Audio/Video, Entertainment, Goods, Gift Articles, Real Estate and Services.

Single-Product E-Commerce

Some Indian portals/websites deal in a specialized field.

1) Automobiles- On these sites, we can buy and sell four wheelers and two-wheelers, new as well as used vehicles, online. Some of the services they provide are: Car Research and Reviews, Online Evaluation, Technical Specifications, Vehicle Insurance, Vehicle Finance. 58

2) Stocks and Shares and E-Commerce- In India, we can even deal in stocks and shares through E-Commerce. Some of the services offered to registered members are: Online Buying/Selling of Stocks and Shares, Market Analysis and Research, Company Information, Comparison of Companies, Research on Equity and Mutual Funds.

3) Real Estate and E-Commerce- They provide information on new properties as well as properties for resale. One can deal directly with developer through consultant. Allied Services: Housing Finance, Insurance Companies, Architects & Interior Designers, NRI Services, Packers & Movers.

4) Travel & Tourism and E-Commerce- India has a rich history and heritage. E-Commerce is instrumental, to a large extent, in selling India as a product, encouraging Indians as well as foreigners to see its multifaceted culture and beauty. The tourist destination sites are categorized according to themes like: Adventure, Trekking, Mountain Climbing etc, Eco-Themes pertaining to jungles, flora and fauna.

5) Gifts and E-Commerce- In the bygone days, one had to plan what to gift to a loved one, trudge across to your favorite shop, and browse for hours before purchasing a gift. The gifts are categorized as: Collectibles like paintings and sculptures, Luxury Items like leather goods, perfumes and jewelry boxes, etc, Household Curios and Carpets, etc, Toys & Games, Chocolates, Flowers, Woodcraft & Metal-craft.

6) Hobbies and E-Commerce- The most popular hobbies from time immemorial are reading, music and films. Book‘s cover a wide range of topics like Business, Art, Cookery, Engineering, Children‘s Stories, Health, Medicine, Biographies, Horror, Home & Garden, etc.

7) Matrimony and E-Commerce- It is said that marriages are made in heaven but in the world of E-Commerce, they are made on marriage portals. One can search for a suitable match on their websites by region of residence (India or abroad), religion or caste. Allied Services for registered members: Astrological Services, Information on Customs and Rituals, Legal Issues, Health & Beauty, Fashion & Style, Wedding Planners.

8) Employment and E-Commerce- Two major portals like www.Monsterindia.com and www.naukri.com (meaning job.com in Hindi) are instrumental in providing job seekers with suitable employment at the click of a mouse. The service for job seekers is free and for employers, they charge a nominal fee. Jobs are available online in fields ranging from secretarial to software development and from real estate to education.

Four Reasons E-Commerce Is Set To Boom in India

Within these great challenges lie great opportunities, and the maturation of India‘s E- Commerce Ecosystem is no different. A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India reveals that India‘s E-Commerce Market is growing at an average rate of 70 percent annually and has grown over 500 percent in the past three years alone. Here are four reasons that E-Commerce is set to boom in India, after years of false starts.

1. Critical Mass of Internet Users: With more than 100 million Internet Users, the country is beginning to achieve a critical mass of users who are familiar with web services. In addition, over the past few years, relatively sophisticated Online Travel Agents (―OTAs‖), such as Make My Trip, which started turning these initial Web Users into Web Consumers, have dominated Indian E-Commerce. While these OTAs have accounted for up to 80 percent of Indian E- Commerce in the past, industry giants such as eBay and the new crop of e-tailors expect to participate more heavily in this conversion of Web Users to Web Consumers, with an estimated 70 percent growth in Indian E-Commerce for 2011.

2. Rising Middle Class with Disposable Income: Throughout India‘s short history, the country has been a land of ―haves‖ and ―have-nots‖. However, with the rise of small and medium enterprises, foreign direct investment and India‘s own powerful multinational corporations creating millions of new jobs, new generation of globally-minded Indian Consumers has been created. These consumers are spread across the country. Furthermore, access too many global and domestic brands is limited to major metropolitan regions such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Therefore, this growing middle class is increasingly turning to E-Commerce as the primary outlet for sophisticated consumer products and services.

3. Payment Gateways & Logistics: One of the largest challenges to E-Commerce in India is the lack of infrastructure to support new businesses. Logistics Companies have been notoriously unreliable and complex interstate regulations mean that interstate logistics and paperwork are more like international customs. Additionally, Indians have an aversion to credit cards – only an estimated 2 percent of the nation has a credit card. However, the new breed of domestic logistics companies recognizes the importance of reliable delivery and technology investment and a number of new payment gateway companies such as CC Avenue have sprung up to service the growing E-Commerce Ecosystem. Alternative Payment Methods such as net banking and cash on delivery are now mandatory offerings for leading E-Commerce Platforms and can drive as much as 75 percent or more of transactions and sophisticated technical integrations make the experience seamless.

4. Facilitators of E-Commerce in India A. Information Directories: The products and services are listed, with appropriate sub-headings, to make it easy for a serious information-seeker to find what he wants. Allied Services provided by them: Message Boards, Chat Rooms, Forums, etc.

B. Banks: 1) Net Banking/Phone Banking: This is an online banking facility available for savings account holders as well as current account holders. Some of the special Net Banking Services are: Demat Accounts for sale/purchase of stocks and shares, Foreign Exchange Services, Direct/Instant Payment of Bills on the account-holder‘s behalf, Financial Planning & Advice, Electronic Funds Transfer, Loans to Account-Holders.

2) Credit/Debit Cards- Banks facilitate E-Commerce by providing the most vital trade instrument, namely, the Credit or Debit Card, without which E-Commerce would be impossible.

Benefits of E-Commerce to Businesses

There is a growing awareness among the business community in India about the opportunities offered by E-Commerce. Ease of Internet access and navigation are the critical 61

factors that will result in the rapid adoption of Net Commerce. Safe and secure payment modes are crucial, along with the need to invent and popularize innovations such as Mobile Commerce. India Reports provide accurate and easy to understand India specific reports that capture trends, map business landscapes and custom-made reports for specific needs. The other reports available on India Reports are on retail, outsourcing, tourism, food and other emerging sectors in India. Conclusion

A developing country can become industrialized and modernized if it can extensively apply IT to enhance productivity and international competitiveness, develop ecommerce and e- governance applications. An information-based society or knowledge based society is composed of IT products, IT applications in society and economy as a whole. Many countries in Asia are taking advantage of E-Commerce through opening of economies, which is essential for promoting competition and diffusion of Internet Technologies, large enough to have a critical mass of 10 to 20 million users to be able to make an impact on E-Commerce and E-Governance. In the next three to five years, India will have 30 to 70 million Internet Users which will equal, if not surpass, many of the developed countries. Internet Economy will then become more meaningful in India. With the rapid expansion of internet, E-Commerce is set to play a very important role in the 21st Century. The new opportunities that will be thrown open, will be accessible to both large corporations and small companies. The role of Government is to provide a legal framework for E Commerce so that while domestic and international trade are allowed to expand their horizons, basic rights such as privacy, intellectual property, prevention of fraud, consumer protection etc are taken care of.

INDIAN SOCIETY

Dr. M. Thavamani

Historical Sketch of Indian Society Most of the major religions of the world like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism are found in India and in addition, there is a bewildering variety of cults and sects, with different orientations in belief and ritual. In the process of its evolution, Indian Society has acquired a composite culture characterized by stable patterns of pluralism.

Hinduism, commonly called Sanatana Dharma by Hindus, is generally considered to be the oldest, major world religion, still practised today and first among Dharma Faiths. Hinduism is characterized by a diverse array of belief systems, practices and scriptures. It has its origin in the Ancient Vedic Culture, at least 2000 BC. It is the third largest religion, with approximately 890 million followers worldwide, majority being in India.

Thus, Hindu Thought distinguishes itself by strongly encouraging tolerance for different beliefs since temporal systems cannot claim sole understanding of the one transcendal truth. To the Hindu, this idea has been an active force in defining the Eternal Dharma.

Social Framework The ideological and social framework of Indian Society began taking shape when the area of interaction between the Indo-Aryans and the earlier inhabitants, widened. The Indo-Aryans were divided into three groups- the Rajanya (warriors and the aristocracy), the Brahmans (priests), and the Vaishyas (cultivators). The Rajanyas later came to be known as Kshatriyas. The Brahmans raised their status by claiming the right to bestow divinity on the king. The Vaishyas gradually took to trade and commerce. These were Dvija – twice-born groups- born first at physical birth and a second time when initiated into Varna Status.

The Shudras were the Fourth Varna and they were from outside the Indo-Aryan Group and they were perhaps the progeny of union between the Indo-Aryan and the Dasa (the pre-aryan inhabitants of the land). They emerged as cultivators, but were denied twice-born status. Outside

 Professor, Department of Sociology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. 63

the four-fold vertical Varna structure, there was a fifth group-Avarna or the Panchama whose ethnic status was so low and their occupation so degraded and polluting that any physical contact with them was prohibited for the twice-born and the Shudra. Jatis, depending upon their origins and the nature of their occupations, were fitted into one of these vertically graded levels.

Indian Social System The Indian Social System is believed to be and is often described as bounded and rigid. In some respects and particularly in some phases of its evolution, this is indeed true. But there have been many exceptions. Janak was a Kshatriya King, at whose feet even Brahmans sat because of his saintliness and learning. Vishwamitra, another Kshatriya King, was recognized as a Sage and he composed Vedic Hymns. His place remains unshakeable, even though he was denied the supremacy of the priesthood and performed Yagnas for those outside the Varna System. Valmiki had a humble social origin, but he has a place of honour as the Composer of the Epic, Ramayana.

Veda Vyas, the author of the Epic, Mahabharata, was the son of a fisherwoman. Vidura, the philosopher and interpreter of Dharma, was the off-spring of a maid-servant. According to legend, Rukmini, whom Krishna married, belonged to Arunachal Pradesh. Hidimba, whom Bhima married, was a Naga and Arjuna was married to Chitrangada from Manipur and to Ulupi from Nagaland. Of course, other regional origins are attributed to the brides in question in other legends. What is important in this context is that people believe that this could happen and did happen, even in epochs with higher standards of Dharma.

Tamil Society The texture of Hindu Society in the South was influenced by strong regional traditions that existed there during the process of Aryanization. Tamil Society, scholars believe, was well established in 200 B.C. An early grammar (A.D.200), Tholkappiam, provides some profiles of the organization of society and describes the life in the hill areas, in forests, in cultivated plains, in coastal areas and in desert areas. In the rich corpus of Sangam Literature (200 B.C – A.D 200), one gets the portrayal of Tamil Society emerging from segmented social formations into larger well knit States under kings whose bravery and valour were celebrated. Comparable to Kautilya‘s Arthashastra and Manu‘s Code is the great Tamil Classic, Tirukkural (A.D 300) by Thiruvalluvar, who was born in the low jati of weavers. Little is known about the

author except his social origin and the fact that he lived and worked in Mylapore, and that he was familiar with Hinduism as well as Jainism. Tirukkural consists of 133 Chapters, each of 10 Couplets. Thus, the book has altogether 2660 lines and 1330 couplets or Kural, which stand out in their brevity as the choicest of moral epigrams.

The focus in this work is on virtue, wealth and enjoyment (or pleasure) and deliverance (or Moksha) does not figure in it. It describes the life and attributes of the householder, the ascetic, and men of power and influence. In formulating rules of conduct for individual success and social harmony, the work constantly keeps in mind Aram – the great power which keeps a ceaseless watch on individuals, society and the State and which confers on all who follow its principles, material and spiritual riches.

Aram also implies love and justice, and makes no distinction between the prince and the peasant when they deviate from the principles of righteousness. Tirukkural is rated as a Tamil Veda, in which the people recognize their inner voice speaking to them about righteousness, morality and justice. This-worldly, rather than other-worldly, in its thrust, Tirukkural has a ring of eternal validity.

Diversity and Unity What are the sources of diversity? The most obvious are ethnic origins, religions, and languages. Racial Origins, however tenuous, are a part of the ethnic memory of most of the communities. This plays a significant role in shaping their identity and self-image. It is wrong to speak of an Aryan or a Dravidian Race, for these terms can be applied only to linguistic families. But they are so much in currency that to reject them might seem to be an academic affectation.

Each major religion is sub-divided along the lines of religious doctrines, sects and cults. This is true both of indigenous religions-Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism- and of introduced religions, especially Islam and Christianity. The Hindus are now broadly divided in Shaivite (worshippers of Shiva), Vaishnavite (worshippers of Vishnu Goddess in various manifestations), and Smarta (those who worship all three- Shiva, Vishnu, and the Mother Goddess). The Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj once claimed separateness but they are now regarded as Variants of Hinduism. 65

Muslims Indian Muslims are divided broadly into the Sunni and Shia Communities. The Shia Muslims are the smaller of the two sections but they are large enough to be the largest Shia Group outside Iran. Of the four Schools of Muslim Law, the majority of Indian Sunnis follow the Hanifi School. In the South, especially among the Mappillas and the Lakshadweep (Laccadive) islanders, the Shafi School is followed. The third, the Mallki School, is followed by the Sunnis of Gujarat, but the fourth, the Hanbali School, is not followed in India. The Shias have their own Imami Law.

They are further sub-divided into the followers of Twelve Imams and the followers of Seven Imams. In addition, there are fourteen religious orders, of which the Chisti Order, the Suhrawardi Order, the Shattari Order, the Qadiri Order and the Naqsbandi Order are important. There are some irregular Orders also.

Christians Indian Christians are divided into Roman Catholics and Protestants and into many denominational churches. Today Christians are found all across India and in all walks of life, with major populations in parts of South India, the Konkan Coast and the North-East. Indian Christians have contributed significantly to and are well represented in various spheres of national life. They include former and current chief ministers, governors and chief election commissioners. Indian Christians also have one of the highest literacy, work participation and sex ratio figures among the various religious communities in India.

Sikhs Though Sikhism is a synthesizing religion that emphasizes egalitarianism, it has not been able to undo some of the less wholesome aspects of the ―caste‖ system. For example, the lower Jatis converted to Sikhism are known as Mazhabis and they live in separate hamlets. In their own villages and nearby villages, they are not addressed with the common honorific title, ―Sardar‖. But they do pray, with the others, in the Sikh Temple (Gurudwara) and join the langar (serving of food to all in the temple precinct). Their touch is not considered polluting. Khushwant Singh, the eminent writer on Sikh history and himself a Sikh, has observed that equality within the community has never meant marriage across traditional caste lines. The Jat, the Kshatriya, the Brahman, and the artisan castes continue to have separate identities and they are still endogamous, i.e., they do not generally marry their girls outside their Jati. Because of the 66

gender imbalance, girls from lower Jatis may be accepted by the higher Jatis but their own girls are not given in marriage to males of lower Jatis.

Buddhism Buddhism was spread widely in India once but with the revival of Vedic Hinduism, it lost its hold in the country of its birth and remained confined only to a few pockets. Dr. Ambedkar revived it, though his followers mostly from the Mahar Jati- have not been able to do very much about improving their status. Neo-Buddhists, as these people are called, have undisguised jati lines. Buddhism in India had a two-tier structure and not the conventional four- fold Varna Division. In the upper tier were placed the Brahman, the Kshatriya and certain categories of Grihapatis, and in the lower tier were tribal and other marginal groups. The divisions of Buddhism into the Mahayana and the Hinayana were based on doctrinal differences and do not represent a gradation in society.

Jainism Jainism too, once held wide sway in India and though its followers are now numerically small, they are found in both the northern and southern states. They have two main divisions: Digamber-unclothed and Shwetamber-white robes. The Jain Community – according to Sangave, a modern Jain Sociologist – had an open class system people could move from one class to another according to their aptitude. Untouchability is not practiced among them and inter-dining is allowed. However, the Jains have endogamous Jatis.

Parsis The Parsis are a small community but they have played an important role in India‘s industrial development. They first came to India in the Eighth Century A.D. from Persia, seeking refuge from persecution. On their arrival in India on the Western Coast, their leaders had a meeting with the local ruler and prominent citizens. In the course of their talk, the Leader of Parsi Group asked his hosts to bring a glass of milk and a little sugar. When brought, he added the sugar to the milk and stirred it. He is believed to have remarked, ―As the sugar dissolves in the milk and may impart sweetness to it, we shall mix in your society and the result will be sweet.‖ This indeed happened. Their contribution to India is quite disproportionate to their size. But for their religious rites, they have adopted the life styles of the mercantile community in their region. Hereditary priests marry among themselves.

Jews The Jewish faith, like Christianity and Zoroastrianism, has been established in India for over a millennium. The small Jewish population had two main settlements-one in Cochin (in Kerala) and another in Maharashtra. In the Seventeenth Century, the Cochin Jews numbered only some 2,200, but they had many privileges such as being able to ride on elephants and palanquins, to parade under a State Umbrella, heralded by drums and trumpets and preceded by criers who would ask the lowly to move away from their path. In Maharastra, the number of Jews is larger, some 14,000 people. Now known as Bene Israel, for centuries in the Konkan villages they were called Shanwar Telis Oil Pressors who did not work on Saturdays because for oil-pressing was their main occupation. Language Language is another source of diversity. More than 1500 odd mother tongues are spoken in India. It contributes to collective identities and even to conflicts. The Indian Constitution lists fifteen languages, but this is an official list for official purposes. It did not work even for literary awards given by the Sahitya Akademi which had to recognize Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali and Rajsthani as separate literary languages. In fact, all the major languages have regional and dialectical variations.

For example, Hindi has Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Brij, Bundeli, Chhattisgarhi, Hadoti, Magahi, Malwi, Nimari, Pahari, Rajasthani, and several other dialects under its umbrella. Tamil has an elegant literary variety which is quite different from other regional and local varieties. Granthika Telugu is confined to literature and classroom instruction but in other situations, Vyavaharika (in practice) Telugu is used.

The situation is further confused when 227 mother tongues are recognized. This makes language planning and promotion difficult. But the mother tongue does evoke strong sentiments and reactions. Tribal Languages cannot be dismissed as dialects and many of them have a growing literature.

Linguistic Provinces The demand for Linguistic States had surfaced as early as 1921, supported by the Indian National Congress (INC). The Linguistic Provinces Commission (or the Dar Commission) was appointed in December 1947, and its Report, submitted in December 1948, did not favour the linguistic reorganization of India. Even the Congress Subcommittee,

consisting of Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitaramayya, popularly known as the JVP Committee, which went into the Dar Commission Report, did not favour Linguistic Provinces, thus contradicting the policy the INC had pursued earlier.

However, the strong current of public opinion, articulated through frequent mobilizations, led to the appointment of the State Reorganization Commission (SRC) in 1954, which recommended the formation of Linguistic Provinces. This is a glorious achievement of the Civil Society in India.

At the time of state reorganization, two broad views were articulated and, to a certain extent, these persist even today. The unity of India must not be imposed and it must be a fundamental unity recognizing the country‘s social pluralities and cultural diversity. The strength of the Indian Union must be the strength it derives from its constituent units because in the past, India was not an integrated political unit. Effort should be made to create a United India and the New Concept of Unity cannot be based on the reaffirmation or re-enunciation of old values such as religion and language, which are divisive rather than cohesive.

Therefore, the Unity of India should transcend community and language and recognize the Nation as one integrated unit (Government of India 1956). In retrospect, one finds that neither of these principles is adhered to and indeed, a combination of the two emerged.

Tribal rebellions

The Chotanagapur Plateau or the Jharkhand Region was broken into four parts and joined with Bihar, Orissa, Bengal, and the Central Provinces (Madhya Pradesh) between 1911 and 1936, by the Colonial State. It seems that this was done for two reasons. First, the region had been the site of numerous tribal rebellions in the 19th and 20th Centuries, of which the Kol Rebellion of 1831-32, the Santal Rebellion of 1855, the Rampa Rebellion of 1879, the Bastar Rebellion of 1910, the Oraon Rebellion of 1918 and the Bhumji Revolt of 1932 are well known.

To keep these rebellious peoples together was to ask for trouble. Second, the region was rich in natural resources and the division apportioned the resources among four states, dominated by three ‗important ‗ nationalities-Hindi, Bengali, and Oriya. The National State has continued 69

the same policy for the last half-a-century. However, faced with the irresistible force of mobilization, the Jharkhand State was finally formed in the year 2000.

Cultural Identity

Another important source of diversity is the cultural identity of particular communities and regions. While some Jatis, Sects, and Communities have an individual ethos, they also have organic links with other elements of the population of the region, which develops a cultural personality over time.

How do cultural regions emerge? The people in such a region may share ethnic origins, language and cultural traits. More important are their shared historical experiences as well as ecology and environment. Powerful Kingdoms and Empires, as also major dynasties, have directly and indirectly contributed to the shaping of cultural regions. Kingdoms accepting the rule of great empires were left culturally undisturbed but they did nevertheless receive some cultural impact.

The Maurya and Gupta Empires, for example, did not aggressively intervene in matters cultural and social and much diversity was left intact, though regional cultures themselves selectively adopted or adapted some cultural features of central cultural zone. In matters of religious belief and doctrine, Ashoka displayed great zeal but there is little evidence of his having interfered in other aspects of culture.

In Kalinga, the consolidation of culture received an impetus under Kharavela. In the North West, Indo-Greek Kings and later the Kushans and Huns, provided an impetus for the emergence of a regional culture. South of the Narmada, the influence of Satvahana Kings was considerable.

The Cheras influenced the shaping of Kerala Society. In other parts of the South, the Pallavas, the Pandyas, the Vakatakas, the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Vijayanagar Kingdoms made an important contribution to the consolidation of regional cultures.

Islam and Christianity insisted only on a minimum doctrinal conformity and cultural and social diversity were left largely undisturbed. The Nationalist Movement, while emphasizing the unity and integration India, also appealed to ethnic, linguistic, and regional cultures and thus they received a new impetus for consolidation.

Unity The unity has been brought through the geographical location of India, with the majestic Himalaya in the north and the sea around Peninsular India which gave it at least partial isolation. Hinduism is the dominant religion in India which has influenced the ethos of Indian Culture and Society.

Jainism and Buddhism had considerable impact. Although Hinduism halted the spread of Jainism and confined it to a small population and Buddhism became more or less extinct, Contemporary Hinduism shows their influence. Hinduism also influenced Christianity and Islam in India and in turn, was influenced by them.

Hinduism derives from a corpus of sacred literature. Much of this literature, however, is not understood beyond a select circle of Philosophers, Indologists, and Specialists in Religion and not even by priests. Some aspects of the Gita are widely known and the code of Manu and the Grihya Sutras, as interpreted by priests, are followed with local variations. What is practised is not Classical Hinduism but Popular Hinduism which is derived from myths, legends, and easy- to-understand books.

References

1. Ananta Kumar Giri, 2005. ‗Spiritual cultivation for a Secular Society‘, Sociological Bulletin , Vol.54 (1),January – April: 77-78. 2. Andre Beteille, 2007. ‗Marxism and class analysis‘, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 3. Dube, S.C. 1990. ‗Indian Society’, National Book Trust, India. 4. Gabriele Dietrich and Bas Wielenga, 1997. ‗Towards understanding Indian Society’, Centre for Social Analysis, Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

5. Gail Omvedit, 2003. ‗Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and caste‘, Sage Publicaitons, New Delhi. 6. Jogdand, P.G., Prashant, P. and Meshram (eds.), 2008. ‗Globalisation and social justice: Perspective, challenges and praxis‘, Rawat Publications, Jaipur. 7. Nandu Ram(ed), 2008. ‗Dalits in contemporary India: Discrimination and discontent(Volume 1)‘, Siddhant Publications, New Delhi. 8. Nayar, P.K.B. , 2008. ‗Social Justice in a Globalised World: Encounters with State and Civil Society‘, Sociological Bulletin , Vol.57 (1),January – April: 14. 9. Oommen, T.K. 2001. ‗Civil Society: Religion, Caste and Language in India‘, Sociological Bulletin, Vol.50 (2), September: 219-233. 10. Rudolf C. Heredia, 2007. ‗Changing gods: Rethinking conversion in India‘, Penguin Books, New Delhi. 11. Shah, A.M. 2007. ‗Purity, Impurity, Untouchability: Then and Now‘, Sociological Bulletin, Vol.56 (3), September - December: 362. 12. Sheena Jain, 2007. ‗Bourdieu’s Theory of the Symbolic and the Shah Bano Case‘, Sociological Bulletin, Vol.56 (1),January – April: 8-9. 13. Subrat K. Nanda, 2006. ‗Cultural Nationalism in a Multi-National Context: The Case Of India‘, Sociological Bulletin , Vol.55 (1),January – April: 30-33. 14. Vivek Kumar, 2005. ‗Situating Dalits in Indian Sociology‘, Sociological Bulletin, Vol.54 (3), September - December: 515.

SPREAD OF SWADESHI MOVEMENT IN SOUTHERN TAMIL NADU

Dr. G. Rengaraju

‗Swadeshi‘ means self-help and self-reliance. The spirit of Swadeshi expected people to educate themselves on national lines. It was used as an economic, political and spiritual weapon. The Swadeshi Movement enabled the Tamils to become self- respecting, self-reliant, self-supporting people. The Swadeshi Movement taught the people how to organise capital resources, labour, energies and talents, to ‗the greatest good of greatest number‘ of Indian Citizens. The object of the Swadeshi Movement was to popularize the use of indigenous articles. The Partition of Bengal caused the Swadeshi Spirit to spread throughout India. V.O. Chidambaram, Subramania Siva, Subramania Bharathi and Padmanabha Iyengar were the important Swadeshi Leaders in Tamil Nadu. The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was founded by V.O. Chidambaram at Tuticorin and the Lectures given by Swadeshi Leaders about Swadeshi and Boycott of Foreign Goods, inspired the people of Tamil Nadu.

The people patronised Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company and boycotted the British India Steam Navigation Company. They boycotted foreign goods, foreign education and foreign government. The European Officials hated the Swadeshi Movement of Tamil Nadu. They suppressed the Swadeshi Nationalist Leaders and their followers. The repression by the British Government did not control the Swadheshi Movement but it made the Swadeshi Spirit to spread like wild fire throughout Tamil Nadu.

Origin of the Movement

Swadeshi Movement originated in the extreme South of India. This Movement was a concrete manifestation of protest against the Partition of Bengal in this particular part of the country, which led to the spread of Swadeshi Ideals throughout India.1 During 1900-1916, Madras was called despitefully the 'Benighted Conservative

 Assistant Professor, Department of History, R.V. Government Arts College, Chengalpattu.

Model Presidency'.2 The rise of extremism completely changed the nature of political agitation in Madras. The emergence of new leadership on the national poli tical horizon created political ferment. The Extremist Movement owed its ascendancy principally to Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bepin Chandra Pal(B.C.Pal) and Aurobindo Ghosh.3 The Madras Government could hardly identify any such extremist element in the political arena until the stormy tour of Madras by B.C.Pal. The latter's tour radically altered the political climate of Madras.

As a result, the people of Madras became more militant, vocal and active than before. In fact, B.C.Pal awakened the Tamils from deep slumber. 4 In a short time, Madras was converted into an extremist stronghold. The Extremist Leaders hip in Madras was centred on the extremist family of Subramania Bharathi, V.O. Chidambaram, Ethiraj Surendranath Arya, Chakkarai Chetty and Krishnaswamy Sharma. Since 1907, two separate organisations, the Madras Mahajana Sabha, identified with Moderates and the Chennai Jana Sangam, associated with Extremists, functioned in Madras. The latter established its branches in Kancheepuram, Thanjavur and Tirunelveli. 5 In the Madras Presidency, the prominent political leaders, especially militants like the renowned poet, Bharathi, were taking interest in the Swadeshi Movement. Besides, a large number of journals and periodicals were propagating the extremist cause through their impressive and powerful writings. 6

On the eve of Partition of Bengal, a series of political meetings were organised in Madras City as well as in the Districts, condemning the proposed partition and the repressive measures of Lord Curzon.7 Such strong political feelings emerging from ―that sedate, sober province of Madras‖ appeared rather odd to the Colonial observers. One such Observer commented that South India had always enjoyed a reputation for level headedness, which the North might envy, but even here, feelings were intense.8 On September 10, 1905, a Swadeshi Meeting was held in Madras, which was attended by about thousand students from various colleges. 9

The Indian Press supported the Swadeshi Movement. The newspapers propagated the spirit of nationalism to the people. The Swadesamitran stated that a public meeting would be held on 23rd instant, in front of the Pachaiyappa's College, for propagating the Swadeshi Movement and all citizens of Madras were requested to attend this meeting without fail.10 The Merchants and the Zamindars of Madras did not evince any patriotism. They kept themselves aloof from all public movements and tried to please the Anglo-Indian Officials. But the Swadesamitran inspired the Madras People through the example of Bengal - Minded Zamindars and Merchants.11 The new awakening had spread throughout India, including Madras where District Conferences, both in Tamil and Telugu Areas, greatly stimulated political interest. But it was the tour of the Bengali Political Agitator, B.C. Pal, through the Madras Presidency in 1907 that had enlivened the quality and expression of South Indian Politics in the early Twentieth Century.12 At this time, Swadesamitran observed that Sir Arthur Lawley was appointed as Governor, of Madras (1906-1911), who succeeded the former Governor, Lord Ampthil.13 The whole period of his Governorship was marked by manifestation of unrest, exhibiting itself in campaigns of seditious oratory, resulting in riots of a more or less serious character.14

Reaction in Tirunelveli

Public Advocacy of 'nationalist' views was evident in Tirunelveli in the latter half of 1906 and the early part of 1907. The campaign did not assume serious proportion until the arrival of B.C. Pal from Bengal in April of the same year. He gave fresh impetus and direction to the Nationalist Party in Madras. 15 The Mysore Star reported that B.C. Pal had lectured in Madras on swadeshism, boycott and swaraj. 16 B.C. Pal particularly targetted college students and educated people in urban centres and he was remarkably effective. His speeches evoked opposition from Educational Authorities and the Government as it stirred up disaffection among college students and threatened the general peace and tranquillity.17 The younger generation were ready to listen to the doctrines of advanced nationalism. Inflammable materials fueled the riots which occurred in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin.18

An official report in December 1906 singled out Tirunelveli as the only District in Madras where significant Anti-British Feelings were being reported. 19 The Swadeshi and Terrorist Movements tended to unite educated elements in Madras Presidency against the Government, following the examples of Nationalist Leaders in Bengal and Bombay and a group in Madras. 20 B.C. Pal found in Madras a suitable place for organising revolutionary groups and travelled extensively throughout the Province.21 V.O. Chidambaram, a lawyer from Tuticorin, developed into a major extremist leader and in 1906, a Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company was started at Tuticorin. This Swadeshi Venture was resented by the British India Steam Navigation Company and this bitter hostility sharpened Anti-Foreign Feelings in Tuticorin.22 V.O. Chidambaram started the Tuticorin Industrial Welfare Association and the Dharma Sangam for fostering Swadeshi Industry and Commerce. The National Emporium, a shop selling Swadeshi goods and a spinning and weaving centre, was also established.23

Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company

In 1900, V.O. Chidambaram moved to Tuticorin to set up legal practice. He delivered lectures to the people pointing out to them the benefit which would accrue by supporting Swadeshi Enterprises. According to V.O. Chidambaram, Swadeshi means ―the development of Indian Industries by Indians‖. 24 There was a fine harbour for boats, a short public jetty and many private jetties. When V.O. Chidambaram moved into the harbour, the port‘s main traffic was with Colombo. The British India Steam Navigation Company was operating a daily service to Colombo. 25 He made many friends both in the shipping profession as well as outside it. He visited Madras and came to know Swami Ramakrishnanandha, the Founder of Sri Ramakrishna Mutt and Mission in Madras.26 Chidambaram met him at the time of the Partition of Bengal. He was advised by Ramakrishnananda to take Swadeshi Work in right earnest. V.O. Chidambaram took the advice to heart and soon made Tuticorin the envy of even Madras.27

Three organisations were established at Madras for the promotion of Swadeshism. The Industrial Association raised small contributions and established warehouses exclusively for storing and selling swadeshi goods.28 The Swadeshi League undertook the hawking of swadeshi goods and preaching Swadeshism to the masses. The Balabharata Association was an organization to give political lecturers on boycott and Swadeshism and to issue small pamphlets in vernacular. 29 Tuticorin Merchants consulted V.O Chidambaram. He placed before them a wider plan, combining patriotism and business, swadeshism and shipping. 30 They wanted V.O. Chidambaram to do something to break the strangling monopoly of the British shipping concern in the coastal trade with Ceylon.31

Cattle were shipped in large numbers to Colombo and the trade in cattle was an important part of shipping activity. V.O.Chidambaram suggested the idea of floating their own Steamship Company which would operate on the principle of Swadeshi.32 V.O. Chidambaram founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company at Tuticorin, on the East Coast of Madras Province.33 The Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company Limited was registered on October 16, 1906 under the Indian Companies Act of 1882, and registered No.13 of 1906. Its registered office was in No.85, Great Cotton Road, Tuticorin. 34 This Company came into being as a joint-stock company on November 12, 1906. The Company was formed with a capital of Rs.10 lakhs, divided into 40,000 shares of Rupees twenty-five each.35 Two ships were bought and many ships were rented. Indian Merchants began to send their cargo in those ships only. 36 The name of the ships were Gallia and Lawoe.37 P.Pandithurai Thevar was President and Secretary of the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. This Company had thirteen leading men who acted as the initial Board of Directors. They were S.V.Nallaperumal Pillai, A.M.H. Arunachalam Pillai, S.S.V. Krishna Pillai, B. Vengata Ramanujam Naidu and others. An Assistant Secretary managed the day to-day affairs of the Company and V.O. Chidambaram was prevailed upon to undertake its responsibility. 38 The objective of the Company was to organise a cheap and reliable steam service between Tuticorin and Colombo, which was to be extended to other places later on. The encouragement of navigation and 77

imparting of practical training in ship-building and the establishment of schools for instruction in the repair and maintenance of ships, were among the other objectives of the Company.39

The Shah Lines of Bombay, an Indian Concern, was encouraged to start a competitive service in Tuticorin. The Swadeshi Company was able to provide shipping space at this time to Indian Traders, and its facilities for passengers and cargo were superior to those offered by the British Company.40 V.O.Chidambaranar's native shipping Company project supported the Swadeshi Movement against the economic exploitation of the aliens.41 The people boycotted the British India Steam Navigation Company (B.I.S.N.Co.) and patronised the local Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company (S.S.N.Co.).

The figures for the year 1907-1908 indicated the dramatic increase in passenger traffic. It was in proportion to the rapid growth of political agitation in Tirunelveli. The very next year, the passenger traffic took a downward plunge which conclusively proved the damage suffered by S.S.N.Co. incurred on account of repression.42 For sometime, the British Company lost heavily in traffic. It was keen to regain its position somehow. When the British Monopoly was destroyed, their income too dwindled. Therefore, they tried to bribe Pillai and stop his nationalistic activities.43 The foreigners wanted to crush it but the Company was firmly established. They took some efforts to crush the Company. The Jananukulam reported that Waller, Assistant Collector of Tuticorin, being envious of the Swadeshi Movement, had imposed restrictions on the movement of steamer service. 44

The Swadesamitran published some of the doings of Waller against the Swadeshi Movement. He transferred the Officers who were interested in the native steamer service. 45 The Company fell into evil days. It also lacked technical skill and operational facilities. The Hindu urged upon the people to extend their wholehearted support to the new company but the British forbade the sale of tickets in the bazaars. 46 The lack of co-

operation was another reason for the failure of Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company. 47 As a consequence, the Company was closed down in ten years and sold to the British. This came as a big disappointment to the Nationalists.48

End Notes 1. Sukhbir Choudary, Growth of Nationalism in India, 1857-1958, Vol.I, New Delhi, 1973, p. 282. 2. Valentine Chirol, The Indian Unrest, New Delhi, 1972, p. 4. 3. Shiva Rao, B., India's Freedom Movement, New Delhi, 1972,p. 4. 4. Venkatesan, G., History of Freedom Struggle in India, Coimbatore, 1985, p. 159. 5. Rajendran, N., ‗Political Agitation and State Coercion in Madras, 1905-1914‘, in India Past and Present, Vol.IV, No.2, New Delhi, 1987, p. 256. 6. Sukhbir Choudary, op.cit., p. 305. 7. G.O. No.425, Public (Conf.) Department, 7 June 1906. 8. Hilton Brown, Parry's of Madras: A Story of British Enterprise in India, Madras, 1954, p.133. 9. Sukhbir Choudary, op.cit., p. 305. 10. Swadesamitran, 16 February 1906, Madras Native News Paper Reports (M.N.N.R.), p. 54. 11. Ibid., 7 March 1906, M.N.N.R., p. 80. 12. Eugene F. Irschick, Politics and Social Conflict in South India: The Non-Brahmin movement and Tamil Separatism, 1916-1929, Madras, 1969, p. 23. 13. Swadesamitran, 29 March 1906, M.N.N.R., 107. 14. Notes on the Administration of Sir Arthur Lawley, 1906-1911, Madras,1912, p.54. 15. Ibid., p.55. 16. Mysore Star, 20 May 1907, M.N.N.R., p. 186. 17. Eugene F. Irschick, op.cit., p. 23. 18. Valentine Chirol, op.cit., p.144. 19. G.O. NO.1542, Judicial Department , 3 October 1911. 20. Eugene F. Irschick, op.cit., p. 24. 21. Tinnevelly Riots, Conspiracy and Ashe Murder, Part.I, Madras, 1982, p. iv. 22. Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 1885-1947, New Delhi, 1983, p. 30. 23. Padmanabhan, R.A., V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, New Delhi, 1977, p. 28. 24. Tinnevelly Riots, Conspiracy and Ashe Murder, Part I, p. iv. 25. Padmanabhan, R.A., V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, op.cit., p. 25. 26. Ibid., p. 27. 27. Ibid., p. 28. 28. Rajayyan, K., History of Tamil Nadu, 1565-1982, Madurai, 1982, p. 306. 29. Nadegannadi, April 1907, M.N.N.R., pp. 226-227. 30. Padmanabhan, R.A., Kasturiranga Iyengar, Madras, 1984, p. 29. 31. Padmanabhan, R.A., V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, op.cit., p. 28. 32. Ibid., p. 29. 33. Bipan Chandra, Amales Tripathi and Barun De, Freedom Struggle, New Delhi, 1972, p. 90. 79

34. G.O. No.1542, Judicial (Conf.),Department, 3 October 1911. 35. Padmanabhan, R.A.. Kasturiranga Iyengar, op.cit., p. 48. 36. Hari Rao, V.N., and Hanumanthan, K.R., History of India From 1526-1964, Madras, 1958, p. 445. 37. Rajayyan, K., op.cit.,, p. 306. 38. Padmanabhan, R.A., V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, p. 30. 39. Ibid., p. 32. 40. Padmanabhan, R.A., Kasthuriranga Iyengar, op.cit., p. 50. 41. Chellam, V.T., A History of Tamil Nadu, Madras, 1985, p. 308. 42. G.O. No.478. Judicial (Conf.) Department, 24 March 1908. 43. Hari Rao, V.N., and Hanumanthan, K.R., op.cit., p. 445. 44. Jananukulam, 14 July 1906, M.N.N.R., p. 228. 45. Swadesamitran, 18 July 1906, M.N.N.R., p. 236. 46. Rajayyan, K., op.cit., p. 307. 47. Barlow, G., Industrial India, Madras, 1917, p. 37. 48. Rajayyan, K., op.cit., p. 307.

BHARATHANATYAM - THEN AND NOW

Y. Sunitha Accompaniments

Music is an integral part of dancing. Vocal Music is indispensable to Bharathanatyam in as much as the dominant stress is on Abinaya (expression) to bring out the import of a song on the basis of which the particular dance item is choreographed. Although violin, harmonium and flute are commonly used as accompaniments to the vocal singer in Carnatic Music, the instruments that have been traditionally used are the Veena and the Flute, besides the percussion instrument, Mirudangam. In Sanskrit Literature, Veena, Venu (flute) and Mirudangam are described as the Musical Instruments of the Devas.

In ancient days, the accompany artists were occupying the position at the back of the dancer, facing the audience and used to move forward and backward along with the dancer. This is called Chinna Melam.

Veena and Violin fall under the category of stringed instruments while the Flute and the Harmonium are classified as Wind Instruments. Shruti or Pitch is maintained by the Tempura, a stringed instrument or a Shruti-box, a wind instrument. Now-a-days, an electronic instrument is also used to provide the pitch for the singer. The percussionist plays the jatis, korvais and teermanams on the Mirudangam, besides accompanying the vocal singer. A passing mention may be made of two other percussion instruments, namely, Kanjeera and Ghatam which can be played to produce sounds to conform to the jati, korvai and teermanam. Although not often seen in Bharathanatyam recitals of late, these two instruments could also very well be part of the musical set-up.

Cymbals are the metallic pieces with which the Guru or the Nattuvanar (conductor) guides and controls the dancer‘s foot-work as well as the vocal singer and the orchestra. Cymbals are called Talam, possibly on account of the sounds that the metallic pieces give out when struck against each other. The Nattuvanar, by skilful handling of the Cymbals, produces sounds

 Assistant Professor of Bharathanatyam, Kalai Kaviri College of Fine Arts, Tiruchirappalli. 81

resembling the jatis, korvais and teermanams so that they form the cue for the dancer, the singer and the orchestra alike. In a dance recital, the Nattuvanar utters, now and then, the Sollukattu, a Tamil word to indicate the rhythmic syllables denoting the jati and teermanam, to add the master‘s touch to it.

The traditional instruments are often referred to in the songs which are selected for the Bharathanatyam since these instruments are associated with one or the other of the gods in the pantheon of the Hindu Mythology. For instance, Flute is Lord Krishna‘s favourite instrument with which he produced such divine notes. Veena is associated with Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning, seated on a white lotus. Nandi is said to have accompanied on the Mrudangam, when Lord Shiva performed the cosmic Tandavam Dance. The Tandavam Dance had other accompaniments too – Lord Brahma wielding the Cymbals and Narada Muni with the Tempura providing vocal music.

Drops

Stage Decoration should be taken care. It must be simple without creating hindrance either to the performer or the audience. Attractive but simple settings can be made use of. The usage of temple entry settings will be most ideal. While presenting Dance Dramas the required scenery may be used or it is better to keep the stage open and free. Scenic Effects can be brought with light and sound.

Silapathikaram gives details of the stage, its decoration, curtains, etc. in ancient days. There were three stage curtains, one moving towards the right; the curtain that closes from both the sides was called ‗Porumugha Thiraicheelai‘, and the hidden curtain that comes from the top. On top of the stage, four different pictures of Varuna Boother were painted. Powerful lights were fixed in such a way that the shadow of the pillars would not fall on the stage.

Make-Up

Make-Up is an essential ingredient of aharya. In plays or Dance Dramas, the make-up would be determined by the character who is sought to be portrayed on the stage. The description of the character, as given in the mythology or the epic or the lyrics, would indicate the kind of

make-up. Rakshasas, Asuras or Demons need to be made up heavily whereas the make-up for hero or heroine or any positive character can be light and bright which gives a nice and pleasant feeling. But in classical dances, which are more often than not, performed solo, the guiding principles for make-up would be somewhat different.

Since the Solo Dancer portrays different characters, god as well as an evil, pious as well as the impious, the make-up should enhance the best of the dancer‘s physical assets, rather than try to represent any particular character. The audience would like to see good looking Solo Dancers on the stage, with appropriate make-up. The make-up base would depend on the dancer‘s complexion but care should be taken to see that the make-up is applied on the neck, hands and legs uniformly, matching with the facial make-up colour. Since the eyes are the most dominant feature to convey Abhinaya, they should be made to look large, big and clear. The eye-brows should be clearly drawn in bow shape according to the shape of the eyes and the forehead, to enhance the beauty. In olden days, kajal used to be applied but now, eyebrow pencil, liquid eye-liner and mascara are used to get the required life for the eyes, eyebrows and the eyelashes. Lipstick would add sharpness and colour to the facial beauty. The shade of the lipstick would depend upon the artist‘s natural or made-up complexion. Some shades of red, dark or bright maroon would help heighten the effect. The feet and the palm are decorated with red colour alta or mehendi.

A small tilak of sindoor is put on the forehead. Its shape, depending on the size of the forehead, could be round or like a dew drop.

Make-Up (Traditional and Modern)

Face Forehead Lips Hand and Feet Traditional Traditional Traditional Traditional turmeric paste Sindoor Kumkum Pan-chewing Mehandi (Marutani) Modern Modern Modern Modern make -up base Stickers with various Lipstick Alakta (alta) Face powder patterns colours Nail polish

Eye Cheek Hair Traditional Traditional

Kajal Traditional Natural long hair OrnamentsModern Blush-on real flowers Eyebrow pencil, Modern Modern rouge liquid eye-liner, Eye mascara Wigs, chowri (false long hair), hair bun, flower (made

of paper)

Bharathanatyam Jewelleries have undergone several changes. Simple things like wearing hundred to two hundred bells around the ankles have changed to wearing as few as thirty to forty bells. This is mainly for the dancer to feel lighter on her feet so that she could execute the fast, complicated Nrita portions with ease.

The dancers, belonging to the devadasi tradition, were required to wear a lot of jewellery (mostly of pure gold with precious stones). The pure jewellery made in gold gave them a sort of respect in the society and economic security and further, the artificial temple jewellery was not available earlier. The Bharathanatyam Jewels are called Temple Jewellery. The artificial temple jewellery is made of gold coated silver metal, with semi-precious stones and some of the jewellery like kasumalai, belt etc. are also made in polished brass metal. In the present century,

these artificial jewels are produced in a large scale with high quality. Due to its rich look and make, they are used even on other occasions and festivals.

 Head – Raakkodi, Chutti, Sooryan, Chandran, Naagar, Jadanagam, Pinnal kunjalam.  Face – Ear stud, Jimikki, Maatti, Nose Ring and Pillakku.  Neck – Addigai, Muthu Haaram, Mango Necklace, Kaasumala, Pathakkam, Nagahaara Necklace.  Hands – Vanki or Armlet, Bangles or Kangan studded with stones, Rings in two or three fingers.  Waist – Odyanam or Belt  Feet – Kolusu, Metti and Chilambu

Mostly these ornaments will be made of artificial gold, studded with red coloured stones in South India. But in North India, the ornaments will be made in silver or white metal.

Utmost care should be taken in the selection of ankle bells or chilambu. The bells will be made either of bronze, copper or silver. The sound should be jingling and clear. The bells should be tied in either blue or black chord very tightly. Each bell should be tied at a distance of 1 angulam each and each foot can be provided 75 to 100 bells. But now-a-days 60 to 70 bells are tied in leather pad and secured tightly attached with steel clips.

Costumes

The Devadasis wore the fully covered paijama on top of which wore a nine yard silk sareee with zari border, and jacket with zari border. The pallu of sari was stitched in the form of a plate and joined in the front portion. The plait stitched sari as a visiri, will expand and contract while dancing. Some of them even danced with the nine yards saree. The ottiyanam or waist-belt was an integral part of the costume, giving the dancer a steady grip on her torso. This was the Bharathanatyam Costume in the beginning of this century when the dance was called Sadirattam, Dasiattam or Koothu.

But the present century witnessed a revolutionary change in Bharathanatyam costume which became a five piece dress which includes a paijama, fan or visiri, a seat or back piece, a blouse and a melakku or dhavani. The anga-shuddhi and the geometric patterns of Bharathanatyam were kept in view while designing this costume, specially the araimandi which created its own visual appeal with the ―zari visiri madippu‖. It is attractive and more importantly very convenient. The dancer could perform the complicated angaharas, adavus, jatis and teermanams with ease, creating the right visual appeal for the audience. The visiri or fan used to be only up to the knee and afterwards it became long one till the ankles.

The Bharathanatyam Costume has been greatly influenced by the customs and traditions of Tamil Nadu. The ‗mukuthi‘ and the ‗bullakku‘ worn by the female dancers in the nose are the result of customary practice for a girl in that State to have her nose pierced along with the ears in childhood. The flowers ―kanakambaram‖ (orange yellow and purple colour flowers) and ‗mallipoo‖ (jasmine) are available throughout the year in Tamil Nadu, making it easy for the Bharathanatyam Dancers to use them. It is only in the recent decades that one has resorted to paper flowers owing to convenience and also due to non-availability of real flowers in other parts of the country and the world. What Banaras Silks are to North India, Kanjivaram Silks are to Tamil Nadu and of course, Bharathanatyam. A dancer very rarely stitches a costume in a material other than Kanjivaram Silk. The jewellery is characteristic of the Tanjore District and things like Kunjalam, Vagi (armlet) and Rakkoti are worn by most Tamilian Women on most occasions.

Earlier dancers used to beautify their palms and feet with marutani or mehandi (henna paste). This was, however, a tedious process and hence the alta was imported from Bengal as this was more conspicuous on the stage and was more convenient.

On the lines of the new five piece dress, came the new method of cutting the six yard saree into long skirt type dress with the saree drapes. Yet another variation is the saree type of dress which is so stitched that it remains a few inches above the ankle to give a clear view of the footwork.

Now-a-days short cotton sarees, which are specially woven in Kanchipuram for dance, have become popular with young dancers for practical sessions, or classes or for lecture- demonstrations and even for informal recitals. Such short sarees also serve as uniforms for dance institutions and they are handy while presenting group dances or dance-dramas and lecture demonstrations.

BIODIVERSITY AND ITS CONSERVATION

Dr. J. Gokulakrishnan

Introduction

Biodiversity is the variation of life form within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystem. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, Tropical Regions are typically rich whereas Polar Regions support fewer species. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions. One estimate is that less than 1 % of the species that have existed on Earth, are extant.

Definition

Since life began on Earth, five major mass extinctions and several minor events have led to large and sudden drops in biodiversity. The Phanerozoic eon (the last 540 million years) marked a rapid growth in biodiversity via the Cambrian explosion—a period during which nearly every phylum of multi cellular organisms first appeared. The next 400 million years included repeated, massive biodiversity losses classified as mass extinction events. In the Carboniferous, rainforest collapse led to a great loss of plant and animal life. The Permian–Triassic extinction event, 251 million years ago, was the worst and vertebrate recovery took 30 million years. The most recent, the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, occurred 65 million years ago, and has often attracted more attention than others because it resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. The period since the emergence of humans, has displayed an ongoing biodiversity reduction and an accompanying loss of genetic diversity. Named the Holocene extinction, the reduction is caused primarily by human impacts, particularly habitat destruction. Conversely, biodiversity impacts human health in a number of ways, both positively and negatively.

The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a

 Assistant Professor, Poompuhar College (Autonomous), Melaiyur. 88

few generations. But the one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendents are least likely to forgive us. ---E.O. Wilson, 1985

What is Biological Diversity? In its narrowest sense, this term refers to the number of species on the planet and it is also used more broadly as an umbrella term. Biological Diversity refers to the variety and variability among living organisms and the ecological complexes in which they occur. Diversity can be defined as the number of different items and their relative frequency. For Biological Diversity, these items are organized at many levels, ranging from complete ecosystems to the chemical structures that are the molecular basis of heredity. Thus, the term encompasses different ecosystems, species, genes, and their relative abundance (Office of Technology Assessment, 1987). In short, Biodiversity is the number and variety of species, ecological systems and the genetic variability they contain.

Threats to Biodiversity

Extinction is a natural event and, from a geological perspective, routine. We now know that most species that have ever lived have gone extinct. The average rate over the past 200 million years is 1-2 species per million species present per year. The average duration of a species is 1-10 million years (based on the last 200 million years). There have also been several episodes of mass extinction, when many taxa representing a wide array of life forms have gone extinct in the same blink of geological time.

In the modern era, due to human actions, species and ecosystems are threatened with destruction to an extent rarely seen in the Earth History. Probably only during the handful of mass extinction events have so many species been threatened, in so short a time.

What are these human actions that threaten biodiversity? First, we can attribute the loss of species and ecosystems to the accelerating transformation of the Earth by a growing human population. As the human population passes the 6 billion mark, we have transformed, degraded

or destroyed roughly half of the world‘s forests. We appropriate roughly half of the world's net primary productivity for human use. We appropriate most available fresh water and we harvest virtually all of the available productivity of the oceans. It is little wonder that species are disappearing and ecosystems are being destroyed. Over-Hunting

Over-hunting has been a significant cause of the extinction of hundreds of species and the endangerment of many more, such as whales and many African large mammals. Most extinction over the past several hundred years are mainly due to over-harvesting for food, fashion, and profit. Commercial hunting, both legal and illegal (poaching), is the principal threat. The snowy egret, passenger pigeon, and heath hen are US examples. At US $16,000 per pound and US $40,000 to US $100,000 per horn, it is little wonder that some rhino species are down to only a few thousand individuals, with only a slim hope of survival in the wild. The recent expansion of road networks into previously remote tropical forests enables the bush meat trade, resulting in what some conservationist describe as "empty forests" as more and more wild animals are shot for food.

The pet and decorative plant trade falls within this commercial hunting category and includes a mix of legal and illegal activities. The annual trade is estimated to be at least US $5 billion, with perhaps one-quarter to one-third of it illegal. Sport or recreational hunting causes no endangerment of species where it is well regulated and may help to bring back a species from the edge of extinction. Many wildlife managers view sport hunting as the principal basis for protection of wildlife.

While over-hunting, particularly illegal poaching remains a serious threat to certain species, for the future, it is globally less important than other factors mentioned next. Habitat Loss, Degradation, Fragmentation

Habitat Loss, Degradation, and Fragmentation are important causes of known extinctions. As deforestation proceeds in tropical forests, this promises to become the main cause of mass extinctions caused by human activity. All species have specific food and habitat needs. More specific these needs and localized the habitat, greater the vulnerability of species to loss of

habitat to agricultural land, livestock, roads and cities. In the future, the only species that survive are likely to be those whose habitats are highly protected, or whose habitat corresponds to the degraded state associated with human activity (human commensals).

Habitat Damage, especially the conversion of forested land to agriculture (and often subsequent abandonment as marginal land), has a long human history. It began in China about 4,000 years ago and it was largely completed in Europe by about 400 years ago and swept across the US over the past 200 years or so. Viewed in this historical context, we are now mopping up the last forests of the Pacific Northwest.

In the New World, tropics, lowland, seasonal, deciduous forests began to disappear after 1500, with Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the New World. These were the forested regions most easily converted to agriculture and with a more welcoming climate. The more forbidding, tropical humid forests came under attack mainly in Twentieth Century, under the combined influences of population growth, inequitable land and income distribution and development policies that targeted rain forests as the new frontier to colonize.

Tropical Forests are so important because they harbor at least 50 percent and perhaps more of the world's biodiversity. Direct observations, reinforced by satellite data, document that these forests are declining. The original extent of tropical rain forests was 15 million square kms. Now there remains about 7.5-8 million square kms, so half is gone. The current rate of loss is estimated at near 2 percent annually (100,000 square kms. destroyed, another 100,000 square kms. degraded). While there is uncertainty regarding the rate of loss and what it will be in future, the likelihood is that tropical forests will be reduced to 10-25 percent of their original extent by late Twenty-First Century.

Habitat Fragmentation is a further aspect of habitat loss that often goes unrecognized. The forest, meadow, or other habitat remains generally in small, isolated bits rather than in large, intact units. Each is a tiny island that can at best maintain a very small population. Environmental fluctuations, disease and other chance factors make such small isolates highly vulnerable to extinction. Any specie that require a large home range, such as a grizzly bear, will not survive if the area is too small. Finally, we know that small land units are strongly affected 91

by their surroundings, in terms of climate, dispersing species, etc. As a consequence, the ecology of a small isolate may differ from that of a similar ecosystem on a larger scale.

Invasion of Non-Native Species

Invasion of non-native species is an important and often overlooked cause of extinctions. The African Great Lakes--Victoria, Malawi and Tanganyika--are famous for their great diversity of endemic species, termed "species flocks," of cichlid fishes. In Lake Victoria, a single, exotic species, the Nile Perch, has become established and may cause the extinction of most of the native species, by simply eating them all. It was a purposeful introduction for subsistence and sports fishing, and a great disaster.

Of all documented extinctions since 1600, introduced species appear to have played a role in at least half. The clue is the disproportionate number of species lost from islands: some 93 percent of 30 documented extinctions of species and sub-species of amphibians and reptiles, 93 percent of 176 species and sub-species of land and freshwater birds, but only 27 percent of 114 species and subspecies of mammals. Why are island species so vulnerable and why is this evidence of the role of non-indigenous species? Islands are laboratories for evolution.

Domino Effects

Domino Effects occur when the removal of one species (an extinction event) or the addition of one species (an invasion event) affects the entire biological system. Domino Effects are especially likely when two or more species are highly interdependent or when the affected species is a "keystone" species, meaning that it has strong connections to many other species.

Key Stone Species influence on others is disproportionately great. A seminal study of marine invertebrates in the rocky intertidal region of Washington State, found that the top predator, a starfish, facilitated the coexistence of many other invertebrates by selectively consuming mussels which otherwise would crowd out other organisms. Thus a Keystone Species is one whose presence or absence, both directly and indirectly, influences.

Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity

We must make every effort to preserve, conserve and manage biodiversity. Protected areas, from large wilderness reserves to small sites for particular species, and reserves for controlled uses, will all be part of this process. Such systems of protected areas must be managed to take account of a range of ecological and human-induced changes.

Many species and ecosystems will disappear over the next century. However, starting with recognizing the problem and then identifying management objectives, much can be done to arrest this trend. A sound strategy would emphasize improving our management of existing protected land, and strategically adding new protected areas. Ecological Systems have considerable potential to recover if appropriate restoration measures are taken. Ultimately we wish to manage populations and ecosystems sustainably so that they may be utilized and enjoyed by future generations. These are the goals of science-based management.

HUMAN RIGHTS: THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT Dr. A. Subbian

Introduction

The concepts of Human Rights and Development are expanding and converging. This part explores these concepts, presents a way of looking at them to furthers their expansion and integration, and discusses some of the theoretical consequence of this integration.

The term ―development‖, as applied to the poor societies of the South in the early Post-World War II period, traditionally signified an economic process characterized by growth in Gross Domestic Product. Although the theories and practices of economic development still dominate, in recent decades, the political, social, cultural, technological, an even moral dimension of development have been recognized.

Concepts do influence behavior and to the extent that this is so and these expanded concepts can have a real and positive effect. Development projects and programmes in Asian and African countries have already benefited from a broader view of development and many now feel that an enlarged concept of Human Rights will help not only the observance of those rights but also the development the process. There is, therefore, growing interest in not only the expansion of the concepts but also the relationships between them.

Western approaches to rights appear to have been greatly influenced by Thomas Hobbes' vision of the world, as adopted and reinforced by classical economics, in which the state of nature is a state of war where ―every man is enemy to every man.‖ Hobbes claimed further that, ―To this warre of every man against every man...[t]he notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and

Injustice have...no place. Where there is no common power, there is no Law and where no Law, no Injustice.‖

 Former Professor & Dean, Department of History, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar. 94

This picture of humans as naturally competitive and warring, needing a Feared Power to protect us from one another, portrays only one side of our ―nature.‖ The Hobbesian image of man is of wolves stalking one another, waiting for the first opportunity to go for the jugular. This is a powerful image and it has influenced the Western concepts of society, state, law, and rights. But it is not a realistic image. Wolves, like all organisms, do compete with one another in a number of ways-violent and benign. Within species, however, cooperation is prevalent and an essential component of the evolutionary process. Wolves, in fact, are very cooperative.

The Hobbesian gives us this sequence: War > Fear > Alien Power > Law > Rights The evolutionary view suggests an alternative sequence: Needs > Rights > Duties >Government > Law This latter concept of Human Rights implies a correspondence between rights and real human needs. Lists of needs have been compared to lists of rights and close connections do indeed exist. But while these needs for the development of the whole human can be identified empirically, rights have both moral and empirical dimensions. The following working definitions emerge, relating to development and rights.

Development is a process (of individual or community) of actualizing what is believed (by her, him, them) to be good. The UN Declaration on the Right to Development (1986) includes an excellent elaboration on this idea: Development is a comprehensive economic, social and cultural process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well-being of the entire population and of all individuals on the basis of their active, free and meaningful participation in the development and in the fair distribution of benefits resulting therefrom.....

Development will be used in this section to refer to the human, transcendent variant of the evolutionary process.

Human Rights are the claims of an individual to what is required for development, supported by the universal belief that development is good-a belief which is the human, 95

transcendent variant of the propensity for development found in all organisms. Putting it another way, the propensities found in all living organisms to do what is required for development, have evolved in the human species in a transcendent way, appearing as conscious claims for those requirements. These claims are what are now commonly called Human Rights.

The exercise of Human Rights is therefore, doing or having what is required for development and as such, can be identified with the development process itself. The human being is a social being and individual development is (and hence rights are) intimately interrelated with the political development, technological development, etc. The moral system or social contract which promotes the exercise of rights is a human articulation of the evolutionary cooperation found in other species. Society is a community developing toward goals common to all its members. Government is the institution created by a society, through its evolving social contract, to assist in the protection and enhancement of the exercise of rights of its members.

The Relationship between Rights and Development

The trend toward connecting rights and development is seen in the UN Declaration on the Right to Development12 and in several recent works, including a book of essay edited by Nanda and Shepherd, in which Donnelly writes:

Development and Human Rights must be seen as fundamentally complementary and mutually reinforcing in all time frames. Some sacrifices will be required but the categorical tradeoffs of the conventional wisdom are not merely unnecessary but often harmful to both development and human rights. Restraint, selectivity, and a genuine effort at a true cost-benefit analysis, real trade-offs rather than the constant sacrifice of human rights for even a tiny and speculative increment of growth, are necessary.

A right is a claim to something that is necessary for development. Furthermore, the acceptance of the claim by others is itself a part of the development process and social contract that guarantees the exercise of rights to be based on an implicit desire to develop. Rights are

claims to the requirements for human development and the exercises of those rights are consequently the necessary actual conditions for development. Human rights are not, in this view, simply something that should be incorporated into development but they are the claims to the sine qua non of the process itself.

Fundamental Rights

An immediate consequence of this integration of rights into development is that the range of rights must encompass the whole of human development. An appropriate list of rights might include categories such as those of the two UN Covenants, economic, social, cultural, civil, and political. Such listing, however, have evolved out of vague and ambiguous concepts of rights and often are mixtures of claims that are general (life, liberty) and specific (food, vote); fundamental (association) and derived (join trade unions); absolute (conscience) and relative (manifest religious beliefs). In other words, these are rather loosely and poorly categorized lists of rights with little or no concern for their status. We will use our integrated concepts to derive more coherent categorizations and corresponding sets of rights.

In choosing a list of rights according to their integration with development, one must include all the fundamental requirements for good human development. The fundamental requirement refers to the generic requirement upon which a whole array of specific requirements can rest but which itself cannot be reduced except, perhaps, to very general concepts such as life or liberty. Fundamental requirements are universal and one cannot reasonably deny the necessity of any one of them for the full human development of any human being.

It is proposed that the following as candidates for a list of fundamental requirements for human development: food, shelter, non-threatening physical environment, security, health, knowledge, work, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and self-determination. Although interrelated to some extent, none of these can be reduced to another and each is a foundation for a whole range of requirements. Each empirically can be shown to be necessary for human development whereas specific requirements derived from these foundations usually cannot be. For example, it cannot be denied that one needs food and free association if one is to develop but it does not follow that one needs steak or a meeting in Paris. 97

It is focused on general issues and looks briefly at the above proposed list and compare it with that of the UN Covenants.

Table -1 Fundamental UN Covenants

Right Right Covenant Article

Food Food E/11

Shelter Clothing, housing E/11 Non-threatening Environmental Environment hygiene E/12 Security Life, liberty, etc. C/6 Health Health E/12 Knowledge Education E/13 Work Work E/6 Freedom of Freedom of Conscience conscience C/18 Freedom of Freedom of Expression expression C/19 Freedom of Freedom of Association association C/22 Self-determination Self-determination E/l, C/l Take part in public

affairs C/25

*E = Economic, Social, Cultural; C = Civil, Political.

Rights included in the UN Covenants are virtually all essential with to human development and could be considered to be universal and absolute. There are advantages to separating out those rights that are most indisputable based on universal needs for human development and are not themselves derived from more fundamental rights. Fundamental rights do not vary over time or place but they stand out clearly for emphasis. They constitute a definite minimum in the sense that the list cannot be reduced further and they are the foundation for complete human development.

Food and shelter (including all required protection against climatic conditions) are obvious physiological needs. The need for a non-threatening, physical environment no longer can be taken for granted. What was always implicit must now be made explicit and emphasized more than simple enumeration in the UN Covenants and other lists of rights.

Security is protection from all violations of the person and the person‘s property. Violations of the person include any actions that do physical or psychological harm as well as slanderous assaults on the moral person. Security includes or provides a basis for many civil rights such as equality under the law and due process.

Health and knowledge are obvious needs but often are listed as .health care and education. The latter are responses to needs, however, rather than needs themselves.

The right to work is a controversial one and will be dealt with in some detail below.

Freedom of conscience, expression, and association which are the traditional positive civil rights, are requirements for true human, as opposed to physiological, development and yet the need for them can be confirmed empirically. Self Determination, the need to determine one's own development path and to have some control over one's development process, includes or provides a basis for political rights. Within the field of development studies itself, there is growing evidence that non-participation is an impediment to development.

The development of other species is determined by the interactions of environmental and genetically based agents. Humans also are subject to these agent interactions but are somewhat

able to transcend them. We can, to some extent, determine our own development and create ourselves. Self actualization, the creation of the self by the self, requires the exercise of all of the above rights, particularly the right to self-determination (to define the path) and the right to work (to follow it).

There are physiological needs for both self-actualization and physiological development one chooses to be, decision other animals cannot make. We must distinguish, then, between human needs (self-actualization needs) and those aspects of some needs that are physiological. The freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, and self-determination are purely human needs while the rest, in varying degrees, are both human and physiological needs. This distinction is of great importance, especially if we are to avoid reductionism.

Existence and Exercise

The distinction between the existence of a right and its exercise is essential in preserving the inalienable and universal nature of rights in a world of change and variety and it is also a useful analytical tool. This distinction is simple and common and yet much of the confusion surrounding the concept of rights is due to its disregard. The difference between a just claim or entitlement to something and actually having that something is of great importance to any discussion of rights.

A fundamental right exists as a claim to something required for human development, a claim whose moral foundation is the virtually universal belief that development is good. These entitlements exist in every human being and fundamental rights are universal. These entitlements exist as long as the right holder exists and the existence of fundamental rights is inalienable.

The fundamental rights are also absolute in the sense that they cannot reasonably be denied, reduced, not modified in any way, even by another right. Meyers says that ―this suggestion quickly falls prey to counterexamples featuring situations in which two allegedly absolute rights conflict so that one must give way to the other.‖

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The debate can be clarified if the distinctions between need and right, and between right and exercise of right, are kept in mind. Let us focus on two rights that are often pitted against one another in this debate-the right to food and right to free expression.

For human development, one needs both food and free expression and each is necessary for the other. Food is necessary for survival and hence this right is fundamental and absolute. Freedom of expression, while normally not essential for biological survival, is necessary for human development and hence also fundamental and absolute. When ―need‖ refers to something that is lacking, however, the concept is relative, as something can be more or less lacking. A starving person may have a greater need for food, in the sense of need as something lacking, than for free expression. In other words, there are times when the exercise of the right of food will have priority over the exercise of the right to free expression. But the fact that food is necessary cannot influence the fact that free expression is also necessary.

The claim that fundamental rights are absolute, counters the tendency to diminish some rights by giving priority to others. The debate over the two UN Covenants is a case in point. Some Western leaders focus exclusively on political and civil rights, usually interpreted narrowly, ignoring accomplishments in promoting the exercise of other fundamental rights while judging other regimes. On the other hand, there are those who use, or pretend to use, the urgency of providing desperate people with essential needs as an excuse for denying civil and political rights. The necessity of food and shelter, however, has no bearing on the necessity of self- determination and security. Nevertheless, there can be cases where the exercise of civil and political rights is limited due to real resources, infrastructure, and institutional weaknesses in a poor country, just as there are cases of hunger for the same reasons. There are also approaches to the exercise of these rights which are different from ours without involving violations of rights.

This existence/exercise distinction and the insistence that the existence of a right is absolute and inalienable, provide an ultimate bulwark against human rights violations. The starving person cannot exercise his or her right to food, but the right itself is in no way diminished by starvation. The person in prison has the right to association even while the right‘s

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exercise is severely limited by incarceration. This underscores the notion that no agent, including the State, can influence the existence of rights but only their exercise.

Fundamental Rights and Human Development

Fundamental Rights are absolute and each is necessary for human development. But this absoluteness arises from the generic character of the need. What can be said about claims related to specific needs or wants?

The need for food is fundamental and the corresponding right to food is absolute. The right is exercised not only by eating specific things but also by doing or having whatever is required to provide food. These needs virtually all of which are person-time-place-culture- specific, can be derived from the fundamental need, and for each such real, derived need, we could say that there is a derived right. Derived from the fundamental right to food could be rights to agricultural land, firewood, irrigation and access to markets to purchase food. These are related to ways in which the right could be exercised and would vary greatly over time, space, culture, level of development and other dimensions.

As a further example, the right to free association is fundamental. In order to exercise this right, one needs some mobility and hence we could speak of a derived right of mobility.

The question is, how far can one go with derived rights? Could my right to association and then mobility lead to a right to a car? A luxury car? Common sense would say ―no‖ (although claims made by many in Western Liberal Societies are, on occasion, of this type). Obviously, there is no internal logic here from which a formula for measuring the validity and strength of claims could be deduced and at best we can suggest what would be reasonable in given circumstances.

A look at specific cases would indicate that it is reasonable to assume a variation in the strength of claims as follows:

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Table - 2

Fundamental Derived Privileges Rights Rights

Association Mobility Transportation Car Mercedes

Absolute Claim Strong Claim Weak No Claim Claim

The right to association is absolute. Normally, one would need to move about in society to exercise this right and therefore, if the right to mobility is not absolute, it is at least very strong. Most would accept that some form of transportation is needed for mobility. The claim here would be weaker and more case specific. The need for a private car rather than modes of public transit usually would not be great, remembering that the derivation must take into account the concept of human development accepted in particular society. Hence a private car would be a privilege rather than a right. On a still more case-specific level, a car would be judged to be a derived right. It would be difficult, however, to think of any set of circumstances that would make one's claim to a luxury car anything more than a positive right based on a purchase contract.

It should be noted that a right could be derived from more than one fundamental right, thus strengthening its claim. For example, in many cases, transportation could be needed for the exercise of the right to work, association, food, knowledge, etc., building a case for a very strong claim. Individual and Collective Rights

Because only individuals eat, vote, or express themselves, the phrases ―rights of society‖ or ―group rights‖ can refer only to some aggregation of the rights of the individual members. Thus, there can be no debate over the society‘s rights versus the individual's rights. The notion of a conflict between an individual's rights and a society's rights can be meaningful only if it refers

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to a conflict between the exercise of one person's right and that of other individuals in one group. The conflict ultimately is between or among individuals.

The abstract concepts of individual, society and state are not compatible with the present discussion. The individual must be seen holistically in his or her full relationship with the total environment for it is only thereby that the individual has meaning and true identity. This includes relationships with other people who share common goals (society) and with institutions created to facilitate the exercise of rights.

The issue of language rights is a case in point. The right to speak one's own language is derived at least from the fundamental rights to free expression, association, knowledge, and work. Given its obvious importance, society and its government have a duty to ensure the exercise of this right and should do so in a cooperative way in multilingual societies like India.

In cases where there has been widespread and even systematic interference with the exercise of the rights of individuals of a particular group, women, for example, a concerted effort by those individuals is an appropriate strategy to redress the situation. We do not, by the logic of this analysis, reduce the importance of movements such as women's rights movements. They are necessary precisely because rights have been interpreted relative to groups rather than seen as inalienable and absolute within each individual.

Duty

The unique human qualities that give new dimensions to the propensities for individual development also enhance the cooperative tendencies that support the development of others in the community. We are aware of our interdependency and consequently can act consciously for the good of the community and this is our sense of duty or obligation. Enlightened Self Interest competes with narrow self-interest but as awareness of interdependency increases, so does the recognition that one of the needs for one's own development is other‘s exercise of their rights. Furthermore, as the interdependent community expands to global proportions, the need to universalize this respect for the rights of others increases.

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Donnelly claims that ―duties...are not conceived of as arising from the possession of rights. That may be the case to the extent that the concept of one‘s right does not entail the concept of one‘s own duty. The exercise of others‘ rights, nevertheless, does require the exercise of one‘s duty.‖

The broad range of fundamental rights, the added specific and derived rights, variations in the exercise of rights and competition over the resources required for the exercise of right, demand some degree of order if there is to be development. The community must, therefore, create institutions to ensure this order and thereby assist the members of the community in carrying out their d uties to others. The establishment and support of government could be seen as the first duty responding to the community members‘ needs for development.

To say that the propensity to develop is always present is not to say that it is always explicit or clear. The propensity is articulated in many ways and often only by powerful elites and the maldevelopment in the world is testimony to that. But the fact that we have developed as much as we have shows that it is present. It is reasonable, then, to include the propensity as a basic real determinant in out considerations of what a community ought to do in the initial situation. The hypothetical rational response might look like this sequence of moral (M) and empirical (E) propositions.

 We ought to develop (M)  We need X. Y and Z for development (E).  We ought to have X, Y and Z(M) (statement of fundamental rights)  Development is an interdependent process (E).  We ought to recognize each other's needs for development and help one another to satisfy them (M) (statement of fundamental duty).  The size and complexity of our community requires us as a community to devise effective ways of doing this (E).  We ought to devise effective ways of doing this (M) (basis for

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creation of an effective agent and delegation of duties to it).

Thus would be born the ideal developmental government whose sole duty would be to maximize the exercise of the rights of all members of the community. As an essential part of an iterative process, the rational response itself would be repeated again and again to reflect changes in available resources for satisfying needs and in perceptions of development, development needs, and effective ways of satisfying needs. The primary purpose of government thus is positive and developmental. It is not created to protect us from one another, isolate us from one another, or referee our competitions although, given the excesses of our competitive side, it will have to do that as well. Government is created, rather, to enhance our development (each of our developments) in communion with others by providing an environment that encourages cooperation and productive, non exploitative competition. This may sound purely ideal and normative to some but it is a norm based on the current science of evolution.

Since only individuals have real needs, rights and duties must be toward individuals. Government, itself created for purposes of duty, does not in itself have fundamental rights. According to John Locke, it is a fiduciary trust. Its only reason for existence is to protect and enhance the exercise of the rights of the people. To carry out its duties, government needs delegated conditional authority circumscribed by a constitution or by the social contract or moral system to legislate, adjudicate, collect and disburse revenues and do whatever else is required. Governments do not have fundamental needs and government needs are derived from duties defined by the fundamental rights of the people.

In Western Society, people recognize clearly that they, as individuals, have rights but they tend to see duties as residing in the State. Rights and Duties are seen as relationships between individuals and the State. Eide, for instance, says that ―the notion of human rights is intimately linked with the notion of ―state‖ and makes sense only in this context‖. Our concept of duty, however, leads to the opposite conclusion State, or Government, makes sense only in the 106

context of duty and consequently, of fundamental rights. The duties of a government are delegated to it by the people, and it is in individual people that duties, like rights, ultimately reside.

Positive and Negative Duty

We must distinguish between minimum duty, required for survival or for non- interference in development, and higher levels of duty that would enhance the process. At minimum, there can be no exceptions to the recognition of fundamental rights. Such rights are absolute, inalienable and universal claims to what is needed for development and to the extent that the society does not see them as such, it will not develop. Recognition of absolute rights, therefore, is an absolute duty and there are no circumstances to justify denying that any person has fundamental rights.

Duty toward the exercise of rights, however, is relative to circumstances. Consider first the duty not to interfere in the exercise of a person‘s rights. It would seem that only circumstances related directly to the subject of the right in question and to that subject‘s behavior could justify interference or action taken explicitly and directly to limit exercise. Obvious cases are those in which the subject‘s behavior, threatens the exercise of the rights of others, and restrictions on that behavior are deemed necessary to protect those of others in all cases, the limitation is placed on the exercise of rights and not on fundamental rights themselves. The person, who is incarcerated-has limits placed on the exercise of his or her right to free association but not on the right itself. The right exists in jail as much as out of jail as does the corresponding need to associate. In this light, the just authority restricts the exercise of rights only when necessary to protect the rights of others and does everything possible to remove the need for those restrictions.

The notion that the behaviour of the individual is a threat to the society or state is often used to justify limiting the exercise of rights. Since a State has no rights, it would have to be demonstrated that the behaviour was limiting or threatening to limit the exercise of the rights of others in the society before restrictions were justified. Consider the common example of limitations on freedom of expression. A Government may limit this freedom of an individual on

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the grounds that what is being expressed is seditious. But sedition in itself cannot justify any restrictive action. The question is, is what is being expressed, restricting or threatening to restrict the exercise of the rights of other people?

Any interference with the exercise of rights would use resources and therefore poverty or under development could never be a justification. It would seem, then, that the recognition of all fundamental rights of all people and the non-interference in the exercise of those rights, except when justified in terms of the exercise of the rights of others, are standards of justice that can be expected of all societies and their governments regardless of circumstances.

Non-interference in exercise is a basic but negative duty which is relative only to the behavior of the subject. The positive duty is divided into assisting exercise and enhancing the exercise (see figure below). By "assisting," it refers to help given directly in the exercise of rights, whereas "enhancing" refers to the creation of an environment that positively supports and encourages the exercise of rights. People would tend to delegate most of the enhancing duties to Government.

These positive duties require resources to carry them out, from the time to help a friend to the extensive resources needed for an education or transportation system. The extents to which the duties can be carried out, therefore, will depend on the resources available.

Table - 3

Absolute Duty Relative Duty

Relative to Subject Relative to Resources Recognize Rights Assist in Exercise

Do Not Enhance Exercise Interfere with Exercise

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The point again is that the Good Government will continuously recognize the complete range of fundamental rights and any development strategy, even the context of extreme poverty, disaster, or any unfavorable circumstance, will be directed toward the goal of maximizing the exercise of these rights throughout the population. This would entail assigning priorities at the level of support for the exercise of rights but never would justify ranking fundamental rights or diminishing the recognition of any of them in any way.

The Right to Work

The issue of the right to work has been a part of the East-West ideological debate. This right is the first one proclaimed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union. It is also the first in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (following those portions in common with or parallel to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). In the West, however, unemployment is accepted as an inevitable consequence of a competitive economic system and is dealt with to a great extent by welfare and now Eastern Europe is also moving to this position. In spite of this trend, a scholar would suggest that accepting rights as entitlements to real needs for development, supports heightened emphasis on the right to work.

Lists or Categorizations of Needs, such as Maslow‘s, present the person as somewhat passive, as needing to receive rather than to achieve. This is the case especially at the level of physiological needs. Such an approach is common within the Welfare States of contemporary Western Liberal Societies.

If one is to take seriously human needs such as self-esteem, self-fulfillment, self- actualization, and human dignity, then it would seem to follow that to the extent possible, given the capacities of the person and the circumstances, needs should be satisfied by the person himself or herself. This is ―natural‖ within the evolutionary process. The Transcendent Human cares for those who need care and does so because of higher motives of justice and not simply survival. But this in no way should reduce the emphasis on working out one's own development

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to the extent possible. Indeed, the creative potential of the Transcendent Human should put greater emphasis on the importance of work of the individual, actively self-actualizing.

For self-actualization, one must do two things. One must first be able to determine, as much as possible within the social context, one's own development path. Determining the path is not, however, traveling the path. One also must work to fulfill one's needs and meet the objectives one has set. In this respect, the right to work is essential for the appropriate human exercise of all other rights and for truly human development. Ideally, work itself would be free, self-creating activity. This ideal, the center of Marx‘s vision, may forever be beyond our graph and most work is a laborious means to self-actualization rather than self-actualization itself. Whether end or means, however, it is essential. Ignoring the right to work and failing to enhance its exercise leads to the Liberal Welfare State, with its entrenched inequality and destruction of human dignity. Given that a right is a claim to that which is needed for development, what is the reasonable response of others to such claims, the response that will enhance the development of all persons? The emphasis placed on the right to work determines to a great extent our answer to that question.

To satisfy the infant's need for food, the infant must be fed, must passively receive food from a more active agent. To satisfy the normal adult's need for food, that person must work directly at producing food or something else that can be traded for food. The basic duty of others would be not to interfere in that process. To go beyond this minimum obligation and to promote a society in which the chances of good development are increased, individuals must include among their responsibilities the enhancement of the facilitating conditions for every individual to produce what he or she needs and individuals could also demand that the Government do this. Only in cases where the individual could not work to provide for some or all of his or her needs would these needs be provided by other individuals or by the Government.

The fundamental duties related to the right to work would be to:

1. Secure, guarantee, and enhance the appropriate conditions so that each individual can work to satisfy his or her needs; 2. Secure, guarantee and enhance the conditions for each person's preparation for work and 110

its application to his or her development; and 3. Secure, guarantee, and enhance the conditions that would ensure that the results of each individual's work could be transformed into his or her self-actualization. The emphasis here is on the self-actualization of the person as a creative individual. The right to work to satisfy needs necessarily is central to this positive approach, but its application would encompass all of the fundamental rights. Duty would be directed toward enhancing conditions for the self-actualization of individuals through the exercise of all of these rights, keeping in mind that it is the individual who must, to the greatest extent possible, work to satisfy his or her own needs.

The Right to Development

The UN definition of development, quoted above, is presented as a right to a set of rights related to development in which all rights can be realized. It also implies the realization of the right to sovereignty. This definition of development encompasses the concept's essential aspects in a clear, precise, and unambiguous way. The statement of the right to development, however, lacks clarity and precision.

In view of our proposed concept of rights, the ―right to development‖ could be seen as the universal human belief that development is good and the foundation for the all fundamental rights and their inalienable and universal character. The belief can be expressed as ―we ought to develop‖, and this could be interpreted as an entitlement to development. One would suggest, however, that the term ―right‖ be reserved for entitlements to what is necessary for development. Development as a process is the exercise of the full range of rights and as a goal, it is the self-actualization of people through the exercise of their rights.

Some have claimed the human rights mantle for third, fourth, fifth and even more generations of rights, principally rights to development, peace, a healthful environment. There has been no resistance in the political system to recognizing 111

and accepting these values, but much resistance to denominating them Human Rights and giving them legally binding character.

It is arguable that the right to development, both individual and societal, and the obligation of a State (and perhaps of the international system) to contribute to such development, are already provided or at least prefigured in the Universal Declaration. In a large sense, the right to development is the sum, or the aim, of all the rights in the Declaration, especially the right to an education and other economic and social rights, but also of civil and political rights. The Declaration also includes specific references that point to development: "Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized" (Art.28). ―Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible‖ (Art. 29(1)).

The Declaration on the Right to Development is a declaration and not a convention and its significance for the international law of Human Rights is uncertain. But it is interesting as a political reflection on Human Rights generally, and as interpretation of the international law of Human Rights. The General Assembly does not declare the right to development to be a new generation of rights, perhaps not even an independent Human Right but it links development with established Human Rights as cause and effect. The Declaration is notable for its reaffirmation that all Human Rights are indivisible and interdependent and that respect for some rights does not justify violation of others and that the right to development itself cannot serve as reason (or pretext) for violating any of the rights in either of the first generations of rights.

A final reflection on the hypothetical social contract and the Government that it creates, may help to clarify the picture. Because of the emphasis on evolution, we see an evolving moral system as the constitutional foundation for society, rather than a fixed contract. The moral system reflects both the laws of development and the changing conditions of the process, with many of these conditions created by the process itself. Rawls notion of an initial condition helps us to get at the essentials of the system. These essentials include each person's belief that development is good and that, even in a simple, small community, interdependence is a condition

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of development. From these moral bases emerge specific beliefs and empirically based knowledge of what ought to be done and how to do it, leading to strategies for development. It is among these specific beliefs and identifications of needs that fundamental rights are found. The beliefs, analyses and strategies constantly interact and modify one another but elements of the initial condition and some basic needs and propensities remain constant throughout.

In an ideal world, an Ideal Government would be a central part of the strategy and would, like the Government described in this work, fulfill its duty by protecting and enhancing the exercise of all of the fundamental rights of all of the people. In the real world, the interactions among beliefs, knowledge, and strategies are often counterproductive. Ideologies appear, absolutes disappear and contingencies become absolute. States are weak approximations of good government. Nevertheless, we have survived and some development, perhaps some prodigious development, has taken place. In any case, the human community is more interdependent than ever and appropriate strategies for development are more critical than ever. The search for the essential requirements for continued development and an understanding of the human response to those requirements is appropriate and, perhaps, necessary.

Notes and References:

1. Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, eds., 1979 The Human Rights Reader (New York: New American Library,) 61 Henry Shue Basic Rights (princeton, N): Princeton University Press, 5-9. 2. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, entered into force 3 Jan, G.A. Res 2200 (XXI), U.N.GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16 at 49 U.N.Doc. A/6316 (1966). Human Rights Quarterly 14 (1992) 78-103 @ 1992 by The Johns Hopkins University Press. 3. Human Rights in Developing Countries 1985: A Yearbook on Countries Receiving Norwegian Aid (Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1985). 4. "Universal and Inalienable Rights: A Search for Foundations". Human Rights Quarterly 12:4 (November 1990): 465.

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5. Dobshansky, The Biology of Ultimate Concern (New York: Meridian, 1969), ch. 3. 6. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968), 186. 7. Ibid., 188. 8. Gerald Wilkinson S, "Food Sharing in Vampire Bats", Scientific American 262:2 (February 1990); 76. 9. John Rawls, 1971 A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 12). 10. Philip Alston, "Human Rights and Basic Needs: A Critical Assessment", Human Rights Journal 12:1-2 (1979); Johan Galtung and Anders Wirak, "Human Needs, Human Rights and the Theories of Development", UNESCO Doc. SHC- 75/WS/55 (20 January.1976): Francisco E. Thoumi, "Human Rights Policy, Basic Human Needs and Economic Implications for LDCs", Journal of Inter American Studies and World Affairs 23:2 (May 1981). 11. Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments, note 2 above, 403. 12. G.A.Res.41/128 (4Dec. 1986), reprinted in Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments. 13. Ved. P. Nanda and George W. Shechers 1985) eds., Human Rights and Third World Development (Westport: Greenwood Press. 14. Jack Donnelly, "Human Rights and Development: Complementary or Competing Concerns?" in ibid., 29. 15. International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, entered into force 23 Mar. 1976, G.A. Res 2200 (XXI), U.N>GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, at 52, U.N. Doc, A/ 6316(1966). 16. Fundamental rights are not "basic rights," a term used by some to refer to a minimum set of claims, or claims for bare survival. See Henry Shue, Basic Rights (Princeton, N): Princeton University Press, 1980). I do not think the distinction is useful. 17. Jack E. Vincent, "Political Liberties and Attribute Changes," in Journal of Peace Research 27:3 (August 1990): 331. 18. David Levine, Needs, Rights and the Market (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rinner Publishers, 1988), 16. 19. Jack Donnel, The Concept of Human Rights (London: Croom Helm, 1985), 13.

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20. Diana T. Meyers, 1985 Inalienable Rights: A Defense, New York: Columbia University Press, 3. 21. Rhoda Howard, "The Full Belly Thesis: Should Economic Rights Take Priority Over Civil and Political Rights?" Working Paper, 3. The University of Toronto Development Studies Programme (April 1983). 22. Jack Donnelly, Human Rights and Human Dignity: An Analytic Critique of Non- Western Conceptions of Human Rights" The American Political Science Review 76 (1982): 303-16; Rhoda Howard, "Is There an African concept of Human Rights?" Working Paper A. 8, University of Toronto Development Studies Programme (November 1983). 23. Ibid., 24. According to Marx, "Every emancipation is a restoration of the human world and of human relationships to man himself." T.B. Bottomore, ed., Karl Marx Early Writings (New York: McGraw Hill, 1964), 31. 25. The present destructive animosity between English and French in Canada is, caused by each side seeing the other as a group demanding rights and competing for the required resources. 26. Jack Donnelly, Note 22 above, 310. 27. It is unfortunate that Western liberal thinkers seem to be disturbed by such emphasis on duty. 28. John Rawls, note 9 above, 334. 29. Ibid., 15. 30. John Locke, An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End Civil Government in Robert Maynard Hortchins, ed. Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 35 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica 1952), 61, 55-58. 31. Asbjorn Eide, "The Human Rights Movement and Transformation of the International Order," Alternatives 11 (1986): 369. 32. U.S.S.R. Const. Art. 40. 33. Abraham H. Maslow 1970. Motivation and Personality (New York: Harper and Row, 35-58.

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34. G.A. Res. 41/128, note 16 above. 35. See section 11. 36. G.A.Res. No.41/128(XLI) (1986). 37. Ibid., Art. 3(3).

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ELECTORAL REFORMS IN INDIA

Dr. A. Singaravel & R. Ramesh

India is a Socialist, Secular sovereign, Democratic Republic. In continuance of the British Legacy, India has opted for the Parliamentary Democracy, with and free and fair elections as an essential component of Parliamentary Democracy. Since 1952, the country has witnessed elections to the legislative bodies at the National as well as State Levels. The electoral system of India is hamstrung by many maladies which encourage anti-social elements to jump into the electoral fray. Our system was largely free from any major flaw till the Fourth General Election (1967). The distortions in its working appeared, for the first time, in the Fifth General Election (1971) and these got multiplied in the successive elections, especially in those held in the eighties and thereafter. Many a time, the Election Commission has made a number of recommendations and repeatedly reminded the Government the necessity for changing the existing laws to check the electoral malpractices. The Government of India created several Committees to initiate electoral reforms.

The Tarkunde Committee (1974)

On behalf of the Citizens for Democracy (CFD), Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) appointed a Committee in 1974 under the Chairmanship of Justice V. M. Tarkunde, to consider electoral reforms.1 The second Author deems it an honour to have been invited to participate in the deliberations of the Committee in finalising the Draft Report prepared by them. The Tarkunde Committee‘s Report (1975) asserted that ―as in the case of Judiciary, the Election Commission must not only be independent in theory but also manifestly appear to be so in the exercise of its powers of organising and conducting elections. In the recent years, an impression is gaining ground that the Election Commission is becoming less and less independent of the Executive than in the earlier years of Independence because the choice of the Chief Election Commissioner has not always been based on criteria, which would command the confidence of all sections of public opinion. The practice of making it a berth for retiring Government Officials has, perhaps,

 Director, UGC Academic Staff College, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli.  Research Scholar, Department of History, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. 117

been responsible for the feeling that the incumbent so benefitted will be beholden to the Government for his office.‖2

The Committee recommended that ―the members of the Election Commission should be appointed by the President on the advice of a Committee, consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition (or a Member of Parliament selected by the Opposition) in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India.‖3

Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990)

On January 9, 1990, Prime Minister V. P. Singh appointed a Committee on Electoral Reforms under the Chairmanship of the Law Minister, Mr. Dinesh Goswami.4 Regarding the appointment of the Commission, the Committee made the following recommendations: (a) the appointment of the CEC should be made by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition; (b) the consultation process should have a statutory backing; (c) the appointment of the other Election Commissioners should be made by the Committee in consultation with the Chief Election Commissioner; (d) on expiry of the term of office, the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners should be ineligible for any appointment under the Government, including the Post of Governor.5

The Committee‘s Recommendation resulted in the enactment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Conditions of Service) Act, 1991 and the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 1996.6 The Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 1998, was enacted to amplify Section 159 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, to enable the Election Commission of India to deploy employees of public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies which are wholly or substantially funded by the Government, for election duties.7

The United Front Government had identified a set of 24 proposals on electoral reforms. These proposals mainly consisted of unimplemented recommendations of the Dinesh Goswami Committee. The Government had also discussed those proposals with political parties in four meetings, held between August 1996 and July 1997.8 The United Front Government was also

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separately considering certain proposals for strengthening Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, to bar criminals from contesting elections.9 No final decision, however, could be taken by that Government in respect of any of those proposals. The Vohra Committee (1993)

In 1993, The Vohra Committee was appointed by the Government of India.10 According to the Vohra Committee, the nexus between Crime Syndicates and Political Personalities was very deep. The entry of criminals into politics is a matter of great concern. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Report to the Vohra Committee, all over India, crime syndicates have become a law unto themselves. Even in the smaller urban and rural areas, muscle-men have become the order of the day.11 Hired Assassins have become part of these organizations. The Committee quoted other agencies to state that the Mafia Network is virtually running a Parallel Government, pushing the State Apparatus into irrelevance. Some political leaders became leaders of these gangs and over the years, got themselves elected to Local Bodies, State Assemblies and National Parliament.12 The Committee recommended barring of criminals from politics.

Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections (1998)

The National Agenda for Governance of the Union Government mandated the introduction of necessary electoral reforms on the basis of the recommendations of Dinesh Goswami Committee and accordingly, the Union Government took up, on a priority basis, consideration of unimplemented recommendations of Dinesh Goswami Committee. A meeting of leaders of various political parties was held on 22nd May, 1998 and as a result, a High Powered Committee, under the Chairmanship of Shri Indrajit Gupta, Member of Parliament, was constituted to suggest concrete measures for providing State Funding to recognised political parties.13 The Committee would also consider the related proposals pertaining to maintenance of accounts by political parties and audit thereof, ban donations by companies to political parties, inclusion of expenses of political parties in the election expenses of candidates for the purposes of ceiling on election expenses and empowering of Election Commission of India to fix ceiling on election expenses before every General Election.14

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Election Commission of India Proposed the Electoral Reforms (2004)

The Election Commission of India has given its detailed views on the set of proposals and the Election Commission has also made the following proposals. Proposals for strengthening Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to check criminals from contesting elections are as under:

1. At present, while under sub-sections (2) and (3) of Section 8, a person gets disqualified from the date of his/her conviction and he/she continues to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release. On the other hand, under the sub section (1), a person is disqualified for a period of six years from the date of his/her conviction. It is proposed that in sub-section (1) also, the disqualification may start from the date of conviction and the person may continue to be disqualified for a further period of specified number of years since his/her release, to bring this sub-section in conformity with sub- sections (2) and (3). The Election Commission has recommended that the disqualification in all cases should start from the date of conviction and period of disqualification should be the period of sentence and an additional six years thereafter.

2. In sub sections (1) to (3) of section 8, the period of disqualification of the person may be enhanced from the existing six years to a suitable period. A person may be disqualified either for life or for a suitable enhanced period, say for fifteen years.

3. In sub section (3), the present period of ‗not less than two years‘ be reduced to ‗not less than one year‘ so that any person convicted for any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than one year gets disqualified. This may cover most of the serious criminal offences. The Election Commission has recommended that clauses (2) and (3) of section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 be put together, simplified and the minimum sentence reduced from two years to six months.

4. Sub section (4) which at present provides that disqualification will not take effect in the case of a person who on the date of the conviction is a Member of Parliament or the Legislature of a State till three months have elapsed from that date or, if within that

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period, an appeal or application for revision is brought in respect of the conviction or the sentence, until that appeal or application is disposed off by the Court, may be deleted so that all persons are brought within the ambit of Section 8.

5. An explanation may be inserted to clarify that notwithstanding the suspension of the convict and release of conviction on bail in an appeal to a higher court, the convicted person shall incur the disqualification in section 8 unless conviction itself is set aside in the appeal.

6. The nomination paper of a candidate may seek details of previous convictions/pending charges/pending cases, etc. in respect of the candidate.15 It was proposed to discuss aforesaid proposals for strengthening section 8, along with other proposals, in the next round of discussion with political parties which would be held after the report of the Indrajit Gupta was received.

Members of Armed Forces had so far the choice to vote either in person or through postal ballot.16 With the reduction in minimum campaign period from 20 days to 14 days, it was felt that to ensure full participation of members of Armed Forces etc. in the electoral process,17 they may be provided facility to vote through proxy also. The Government has accordingly decided to give an additional choice to members of Armed Forces etc. to vote by proxy, if they so wish. The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 1998, to give effect to this decision, has been introduced in Lok Sabha.

Model Code of Conduct

The Election Commission of India is regarded as the guardian of free and fair elections. In every election, the EC issues a Model Code of Conduct for political parties and candidates to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. The Commission circulated its First Code at the time of the fifth general elections, held in 1971.18 Since then, the Code has been revised many times. The Code of Conduct lays down guidelines as to how political parties and candidates should conduct themselves during the elections. A provision was made under the Code that from

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the time elections are announced by the Commission, Ministers and other Authorities cannot announce any financial grants, lay foundation stones for projects or schemes of any kind, make promises of construction of roads, carry out any appointments in Government and Public Undertakings which may have the effect of influencing the voters in favour of the Ruling Party.19

In June 2002, the EC on the direction of the Supreme Court, issued an order under Article 324 that each candidate must submit an affidavit regarding the information of his/her criminal antecedents;20 assets (both movable and immovable) of self and those of spouses and dependents as well; and qualifications at the time of filing his/her nomination papers for election to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies. But political parties believed that the Election Commission and the Judiciary were overstepping their powers. At the all-party meeting, held on July 8, 2002, representatives of 21 political parties decided that the Election Commission‘s Order should not be allowed to be implemented. The Supreme Court again came out as a guardian of the citizens‘ right to information. The Apex Court gave its judgment on March 13, 2003, basically asserting its previous June 2002 decision, which required full disclosure by all candidates.21 The order made it clear that failing to furnish the relevant affidavit shall be considered as a violation of the Supreme Court‘s Order and the nomination papers shall be liable to be rejected by the Returning Officer.22 Furnishing of wrong or incomplete information shall result in the rejection of nomination papers, apart from inviting penal consequences under the Indian Penal Code. The 2004 General Elections were conducted under these rules.23

The above order is an effective step to make democracy healthy, Citizens have every right to know about the persons whom they prefer as their representatives. The EC has directed all Returning Officers to display the copies of nomination papers and affidavits, filed by candidates, for view by the general public and representatives of print and electronic media, free of cost.

Registration of Political Parties

Party System is an essential feature of Parliamentary Democracy. However, there is no direct reference to political parties in the Constitution of India. The statutory law, relating to

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registration of political parties, was enacted in 1989, which was quite liberal.24 As a result, a large number of non-serious parties mushroomed and got registered with the Commission. Many of them did not contest elections at all after their registration. It led to confusion among electors as to whom to vote.

To eliminate the mushrooming of parties, the EC had to take some rigorous steps. The Commission now registers a party which has at least 100 registered electors as its members and is also charging a nominal processing fee of Rs 10,000 to cover the administration expenses which it will have to incur on correspondence with the parties after their registration.

In order to ensure that the registered political parties practise democracy in their internal functioning, the Commission requires them to hold their organisational elections regularly in accordance with their constitutions. The measures taken by the Election Commission to streamline the registration of political parties have shown effective results. These have lessened the headache of the administrative machinery as well as confusion of the electorate.

Prevent the Criminalisation of Politics

Criminalisation of Politics is a grave problem in India. This menace began in Bihar and gradually spread to every nook and corner of the Nation. In 2003, a law was introduced to prohibit the election of criminals to the legislative bodies. However, persons, with criminal background, continue to hold seats in Parliament and State Assemblies. This leads to a very undesirable and embarrassing situation when law-breakers become law-makers and move around under police protection. During the 13th Lok Sabha Elections, candidates having criminal cases against them, numbered 12 in Bihar and 17 in Uttar Pradesh.25 It has been rightly observed by J.P.Naik: ―Power is the spoiler of men and it is more so in a country like India, where the hungry stomachs produce power hungry politicians.‖

The EC has expressed its serious concern over the entry of anti-social and criminal persons into the electoral arena. From time to time, it has set down norms and made recommendations to the Government to curb the menace of Criminalisation of Politics.26 The Commission has urged all political parties to reach a consensus that no person with a criminal

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background will be given the party ticket. The candidates to an election are also obliged to submit an affidavit in a prescribed form, declaring their criminal records, including convictions, charges pending and cases initiated against them. The information so furnished by the candidates shall be disseminated to the public and to the print and electronic media.27

Multi Member Election Commission

There was a longstanding demand to make the EC a Multi Member Body. The Supreme Court in the S.S. Dhanoa versus Union of India Case, had observed: ―When an institution like the Election Commission is entrusted with vital functions and is armed with exclusive and uncontrolled powers to execute them, it is both necessary and desirable that the powers are not exercised by one individual. It also conforms to the tenets of democratic rule.‖28 With the 1993 Constitution Amendment Act, the Election Commission was made a Multi-Member body.29 The EC was made a Multi-Member Body by the Government in the wake of certain controversial decisions taken by the Chief Election Commissioner, T.N.Seshan. The Act provided that the decision of three members shall, as far as possible, is unanimous. But in case of difference of opinion among three members, the matter ‗shall be decided according to the opinion of the majority.‘ It was a significant step to remove a one-man show in such an important function as that of conducting elections. A single member EC would have no longer ‗unbridled‘ powers. In view of the large size of the country and the huge number of electors, the Election Commission also made a proposal for the appointment of Regional Commissions to different zones to reduce its burden.

Booth Capturing and Rigging

On the question of booth capturing, rigging and intimidation of voters, the proposals of the Goswami Committee to the effect that EC should be empowered to take more stringent action, should be accepted and implemented in full.

The Commission recommends: (i) Under section 58A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Election Commission should be authorised to take a decision regarding booth capturing on the report of the returning officers, observers or citizen groups. Also the Commission should be empowered to countermand the election and order a fresh election or to 124

declare the earlier poll to be void and order a re-poll in the entire constituency; (ii) EC should consider the use of tamper-proof video and other electronic surveillance at sensitive polling stations/ constituencies.30

Information Technology and Media

The Election Commission has not lagged behind in making use of Information Technology for efficient electoral management and administration. It launched a website of its own on February 28, 1998 - www.eci.gov.in.31 This provides reliable now a source accurate information about elections, election laws, manuals and handbooks published by the Election Commission. During the 1999 Lok Sabha Elections, the Commission‘s Secretariat was directly connected with nearly 1500 counting centres across the country. The round-the-clock counting results were fed into the Commission‘s Website from those counting centres. These results were instantly available throughout the world.

In order to bring as much transparency as possible to the electoral process, the media – both electronic and print – were encouraged and provided with facilities to report on the actual conduct of the poll and counting. The Commission had, in cooperation with the State Owned Media (Doordarshan and All India Radio), taken several innovative and effective steps to create awareness among the voters.32 All recognised National as well as State Parties were allowed free access to the state-owned media on an extensive scale for their election campaign.

Electoral Photo Identity Card

In an attempt to improve the accuracy of the electoral rolls and prevent electoral fraud, the Election Commission in August 1993 ordered the issuance of Electors‘ Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) for all voters.33 A modest attempt to introduce the Photo Identity Cards was made for the first time in 1978 at the instance of the then Chief Election Commissioner, S.L. Shakdher, in the case of elections to the Legislative Assembly of Sikkim. During the 2004 Assembly Elections, it was mandatory for people possessing EPICs to furnish it at the time of voting.34 People, who did not possess EPICs, had to bring the proof of identity as prescribed by the EC at the time of voting. The distribution of EPICs, on the part of Election Commission, was a major

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step to reduce electoral malpractices. Only genuine voters were listed in the rolls with the issuance of Voter Identity Cards. Computerisation of Rolls

The Election Commission is currently undertaking the computerisation of the electoral rolls throughout India, which should lead to improvements in the accuracy and speed with which the electoral roll can be updated. In view of the vast number of electors involved and the need for regular revision, both as a normal activity for updating the rolls and also as a necessary input for major electoral events like Elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, the Commission decided in August 1997 to take a Nationwide Programme for Computerisation and comprehensive improvements of the system of management of electoral rolls.35

Apart from the high volume of the data related to 714 million plus electors at the current count, the computerised solution had also to contend with the challenge of handling multiple Indian Languages. At the time of initiating the Programme for Computerisation of electoral rolls, there was no precedent or experience in taking up a nation-wide standard Information Technology (IT) Solution for management of data of such vast numbers and in multiple scripts in the Indian Languages. A core team of experts in the Commission developed draft standards for the Information Technology Solution and discussed this with the Chief Electoral Officers and other senior election functionaries and IT Professionals from different State IT organizations in six Regional Conferences. On the basis of inputs received from these regional conferences, the Commission made suitable modifications and revisions in the initial draft standards.

The Commission also took up prototyping of the Software Solution in the Gurgaon District with the help of Haryana Electronic Corporation (HARTRPM). The Proof of Concept and Prototyping was completed under the direct supervision of experts from the Commission. This was a part of the core strategy adopted by the Commission and helped immensely in rapidly implementing the programme in other States and Union Territories.36

The various standards developed by the Commission, in close coordination with the field officers and the IT professionals at various levels, included specific standards for implementing the Indian Language components of the solution, with facilities for sharing data across

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geographic, administrative and linguistic boundaries. For this purpose, the Commission prescribed adoption of ISCII (the Indian Standard Core for Information of Interchange) and the INSCRIPT Key Board, as both are standards of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).37 The Commission also indicated clear standards for Operating System, Data Storage in the Relational Database Model. As for the data content, the Commission provided in its Standard Documents, a complete list of Tables with various Data Elements clearly defined. An important feature of the data content was a comprehensive coding strategy for various geographic and administrative units in as much as this impacted the electoral rolls management system at various levels. The coding was essential not merely for the Electoral Roll System but also for the programme of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and management of electoral events like Parliament and Assembly Elections. Issue of Booth Slips

Booth Slips were issued by the political parties to the electorates in every election. In the year 2011, the Election Commission of India introduced the practice of issuing booth slips to the electorates in the General Elections.38 This system prevented canvassing on the day of polling. The Booth Slips are issued by the Government Servants to every voter in their home. Hence the Election Commission announced that these slips also established the identity of voters. The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission also issued the Booth Slips in the 2011 Local Body Election.39 Voting System in Past Elections

Pre-Independent India followed the colour box system of voting40 in the Legislative Councils of respective states. Shri Sugumar Sen, who was the First Election Commissioner of India,41 introduced the ballot box and the symbol system in the General Elections. This system can be followed after the nomination of the candidates is complete, a list of competing candidates is prepared by the Returning Officer and ballot papers are printed. Ballot Papers are printed with the names of the candidates (in languages set by the Election Commission) and the election symbols allotted to each of the candidates.42 Candidates of Recognised Parties are allotted their Party Symbols.

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The Election Commission tries its best to weed out the virus of malpractices. It is optimistic of strengthening and improving the working of democracy through free and fair elections. It has always devised better systems and it is using advanced scientific technologies for maintaining the high reputation of the Indian Elections. However, the success of reforms will largely depend upon the will of the political parties to adhere to and implement such reforms. An independent media and an enlightened public opinion are essential for pushing through reforms. If people vote according to their convictions and punish those who infract the rules, corrupt practices will automatically disappear. And this will go a long way towards enabling democracy to flourish and grow to its full capacity.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)

The Election Commission of India has been trying to bring improvements in the election procedures by taking advantage of the scientific and technological advancements. Electronic Voting Machine has been used successfully in limited areas, in sensitive constituencies and in bye-elections. Any doubts about this technology were removed during the deliberations of the Goswami Committee.43 The EVMs satisfactorily demonstrated to the all Political Members. Electronic Experts of the Government of India also testified that the machines could be used at all the elections without any misgivings. The advantages of the EVMs in preventing large-scale rigging are quite apparent as the machine locks up and will permit only one hit every so many seconds. Wherever these EVMs have been used in urban and in rural areas, there have been no complaints of large scale rigging. This also makes counting easy and non-contestable and theoretically the results could be available within a very short time if the system wanted to make prompt announcement of the winning candidates.

EVMs were introduced with a view to reducing malpractices and also improving the efficiency of the voting process. On an experimental basis, the EVMs were first tried in the State of Kerala during the 1982 Legislative Assembly Elections.44 After the successful testing and long legal inquiries of the technological aspects of the machines, the EC took the historic decision to go ahead and start the use of EVMs for certain Assembly Elections in November 1998.45 The Commission selected 16 Assembly Constituencies in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Union Territory of Delhi.46 Later, in the June 1999 Assembly Elections, Goa became the 128

First State to successfully use EVMs in all its Assembly Constituencies.47 In the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections, the machines were used throughout the Country.48 It is a major initiative taken by the EC to make the electoral process simple, quick and trouble-free. It has saved money, solved several logistical issues and also contributed to the conservation of environment through saving of paper. Another major advantage of these machines is that the counting of votes becomes more fast and accurate. Now there are no invalid and wasted votes at all, as every vote recorded in the machine is accounted for in favour of the candidate for whom it was cast.

Nowadays political parties and some social activists suspect that the EVMs could easily convert the votes in favour of the Ruling Party. Hence the Election Commission of India went back to the Ballot System of Voting. The Commission several times explained the transparency of voting and other campaigns of our electoral system. But our politicians and some people doubt the EVMs and its technology. But in the recent election, EVMs have come back to stay.

Conclusion and Suggestions

This paper has made an attempt to offer few suggestions regarding the Electoral Reforms in our Country. Technologically three suggestions are given to make our voting system effective.

 The EVMs are meaningful for our electoral system. However, the Election Commission of India should ensure the transparency of voting. Some Political Parties and Social Activists have demanded disclosure of Voter‘s choice in the EVM. Hence printing option must be incorporated in the EVM. Then the print outs should be stored in a Ballot Box in the Polling Booth. This System will ensure record of to which candidate or party one has voted. This system may be very useful in case of the crisis of differences between Manual and EVM Votes.

 Internet Voting could be considered for the effective functioning of our Electoral System. Under this system, the EVMs are connected with the internet of every polling booth on the day of polling. Voters vote for their respective candidates and at the same time, their votes are registered in the Election Commission Website also. The Commission should block their website during the time of polling. The vote will be registered in EVM,

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Internet and the Printout. After polling, the Election Commission could release their website to open access. The result will be published few minutes after the closing of polling. This system may be helpful in troubled areas to declare the result through the Election Commission Website.

 The Election Commission should prevent the proxy voting behavior. The Election Commission has introduced the Identity Cards and List System to prevent proxy voting. However, 40 percent of the people could not vote because they are highly mobile. Many are not willing to go to their village for the purpose of voting. Hence the Commission may be consider the introduction of the Bio-Metric Identity Card System to the every voter. This would reduce the non voter‘s percentage by creating polling booths at bus stands, railway stations and other public meeting places. These Polling Booths could be manned by one Polling Officer and one Policeman. I believe this system would make democracy real in our Country. The Election Commission may introduce these suggestions to strengthen our Electoral System. End Notes

1 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Democracy and Election Laws, Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 2003, p.187 2 R.P. Bhalla, Elections in India Legacy and Vision, S. Chand & Company Ltd. New Delhi, 1998, p.2 3 A.K. Rajan, Electoral Reforms, SOCO Trust, Madurai, 2004, p.4 4 Sanjay Kumar, Reforming Indian Electoral Process, Economic and Weekly, August 24, 2002. 5 Dinesh Goswami Report 1991. 6 The Representation of People (Amendment) Act, 1996, Act No. 21of 1996, 1.8.1996. 7 S.R. Sen, Electoral System: Urgency of Basic Reforms, Economic and Weekly, February 9, 1991. 8 Dinesh Goswami Report 1991. 9 Ibid 10 Sanjay Kumar, Reforming Indian Electoral Process, Economic and Weekly, August 24, 2002.

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11 Elections in India, Major Events and New Initiatives 1996 – 2200, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2000. p. 341. 12 Ibid. 13 Committee on State Funding of Elections Report, December 1998, p. 17. 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid, p. 23 16 Sanjay Kumar, Reforming Indian Electoral Process, Economic and Weekly, August 24, 2002. 17 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Op. Cit, p. 202. 18 Global Dimensions of Electoral Democracy, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2001, p. 34. 19 Model Code of Conduct, 1971 20 J.C. Agarwal and N.K. Chowdhry, Lok Sabha Elections 1999, Shipra Publications, New Delhi, 2000, p. 142. 21 A.K. Rajan, Op. Cit, p.13. 22 Wilkinson, I. Steven, Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Communal Riots in India, Cambridge University Press, London, 2004, p. 193. 23 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Op. Cit, p. 148. 24 Elections in India, Major Events and New Initiatives 1996 – 2200, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2000, p. 311. 25 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Op. Cit, p. 191. 26 Second Administration Reforms Committee, Fourth Report, Government of India, New Delhi, 2007, p. 88. 27 Ibid, p. 90 28 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Op. Cit, p. 186.

29 www.eci.gov.in 30 Representation of People Act, 1951, p. 44. 31 Elections in India, Major Events and New Initiatives 1996 – 2200, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2000, p. 327 32 www.eci.gov.in 131

33 Elections in India, Major Events and New Initiatives 1996 – 2200, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2000, p. 321. 34 Ibid, p. 322 35 M. Bhuvaneswaran, Electoral Participation of Rural People, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2009, p. 32. 36 Electoral Reforms, Article, Election Commission of India, 2004. 37 M. Bhuvaneswaran, Op. Cit, p. 36. 38 Dhinamani, Daily News Paper, Tiruchirappalli, 18.04.2011. 39 Dhinamani, Daily News Paper, Tiruchirappalli, 20.09.2011 40 Justice Party Golden Jubilee Celebration Malar, Madras, 1968, p. 96. 41 Margaret W. Fisher and Joan V. Bondurant, The Indian Experience with Democratic Elections, University of California, Berkeley, 1956, p.18. 42 Ibid, p. 20 43 Anand Ballabh Kafaltiya, Op. Cit, p. 180. 44 J.C. Chatturvadi, Political Governance, Vol.2, Isha Books, Delhi, 2005, p.48. 45 B.K. Tiwari, Parliamentary Democracy in India, New Century Publications, New Delhi, 2003, p. 147. 46 Elections in India, Major Events and New Initiatives 1996 – 2200, Election Commission of India, New Delhi, 2000, p. 283. 47 Ibid, p. 284. 48 Dhinamani, Daily News Paper, Tiruchirappalli, 13.04.2009.

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