The Second World War ended in 1945 and thus began the process of the end of colonialism in Asia and Africa. What was found common in overwhelmingly majority of these countries was the quest to organize their political life around the European model of nation-state system in a fixed timeframe and with the predetermined set of goals. In such a situation, they followed often-overlapping approaches of nation-building and state-building under the rubric of national integration. Covertly, they tried to homogenise and assimilate or marginalise the otherwise diverse ethnically fractured population into the national projected ntainstream. The ultimate outcome was the release of frustrations and alienation, which forced the deprived or marginalised groups to engage in political protest, resistance that often led to violence against the state. The underlying paper is a modest attempt towards this direction that focuses how the process of nation-formation in most of the post- colonial states has failed to evolve a cohesive nation-state.
Right from the time of inception of this world the women irrespective of religion race or region have been most affected victims of social differentiation and have been considered as mere chattels. Discrimination against women appears in every walk of life; and society is swayed by male oriented and male dominated value system. Since discrimination is a very wide phenomenon the present paper focuses at the area that has direct relevance for most of the women namely family law. For the majority of Indian women family life continues to be an important aspect of their existence as they find no meaningful alternative to the family because of lack of adequate education and vocational training facilities as well as scarcity of opportunities for wage employment. It follows that laws governing family relations have a great significance for the most of the Indian women. Family relations in India are governed by religious personal laws. The four major religious communities: Hindu Muslim Christian and Parsi each have their separate personal laws in matters of marriage divorce succession maintenance guardianship and adoption. In the laws of all these communities women have been discriminated. The present paper aims at pinpointing the areas of discrimination and to suggesting reforms of religious personal laws to remove discrimination against women in the light of the Constitutional guarantee of equality. (excerpt)
The cohort fertility of Indian-Surinamese women aged 50 years or over exceeded the rate for Afro-Surinamese women. The higher rate for the Indian-Surinamese women resulted from a shorter birth interval associated with a quick resumption of sexual intercourse after childbirth. The short period of abstention from sexual intercourse in turn is consistent with a centuries-old religious prescription in the Ramayana which encourages sexual intercourse during the Rtu. Apart from the retention of some traditional Indian religious notions socioeconomic factors including care in old-age and assistance in farm work may also explain the desire of Indian-Surinamese women for a large number of children. (authors)
