Academic literature on the topic 'Women authors, Assamese'

According to the belief system of conventional Indian patriarchal culture, the roles of women are firmly entrenched with the notions of chastity and motherhood. A woman is never considered as a life partner, who shares her life with her male counterpart. Rather, she is looked down as an unpaid servant, or a mere sex object who has to weigh down and take responsibilities for an entire family. She is always commodified as an asset which is transferred from the hands of her father to her husband. She is indebted to look after the children and a full grown male who couldn’t look after himself. Several Indian women authors have incarcerated this double standard of the misogynist, patriarchal Indian society in their works. The predicament of their fellow females who are suffering under this gender biased system has prompted the women authors like Kamala Das, Arundhati Roy, Shashi Deshpande and Kamala Markandeya etc to fight against mainstream patriarchal Indian society. North East Indian women authors have also tried to highlight the predicaments of women through their literary works. Mitra Phukan, an Assamese writer, in her work The Collector’s Life has reflected the attempts made by the lead protagonist Rukmini to attain individuality and freedom from her security bound, disciplined, lonely life. At the fag end of the novel she transforms herself from a dutiful wife to a new woman who bravely stands against the traditional notions of chastity and purity. My paper seeks to analyze the journey of Rukmini from the self proclaimed loneliness to the actualization of her own identity and individuality as a woman.

Object Anterior encephaloceles are rare congenital malformations. Most of the cases in the literature are reported from Southeast Asia. In India it is seen more frequently among manual laborers in the tea gardens of Assam. A brief background of the patients, clinical presentation, operative treatment, and outcome are discussed, with a review of the relevant literature. The causes and pathogenesis of anterior encephaloceles are discussed. The authors‘ surgical approach to repair of the defect, postoperative complications, and results are described. Methods Twenty-eight patients (mean age 38 months, range 1 month–12 years) with anterior encephaloceles who presented between 1998 and 2007 are included in the study. Patients were assessed for physical and psychological growth and development; any associated anomalies were noted. A detailed history of the patient‘s family, including the prenatal history, was obtained. Lesions were classified with the help of neuroimaging studies (skull x-ray, CT, ultrasonography, and MR imaging studies) and confirmed at surgery. Results Sixteen patients had nasofrontal, 9 had nasoethmoidal, and 3 had nasoorbital encephaloceles, and 12 patients had associated hydrocephalus. The modes of presentation were nasofrontal swelling, watering from the eyes, CSF leakage, fever, and vomiting. Parents of all the patients were ethnic tea garden workers. The average parental age at the time of marriage was 24 years for men and 18 years for women. Consanguinity was present in 6 patients. Alcohol consumption and tobacco chewing were a common practice in both parents. A total of 42 surgical procedures were done in 16 patients, one of whom died of postoperative meningitis. The mean follow-up duration was 38 months (1–92 months). Conclusions Anterior encephaloceles are rare in Western countries and other states in India, but this defect is more commonly seen among the ethnic tea garden workers in Assam. Transcranial repair is the treatment of choice. Unlike encephaloceles in other locations, anterior encephaloceles have a better clinical outcome after surgery.

The paper is an attempt to study the online participation behavior of youth in Assam in organizing social and political protests through Social media. During several protest demonstrations and rallies which took place in the middle of the year, 2012; there has been a series of cyber activism that took place prior to the street demonstrations and rallies. The paper attempts to justify the fact that, the street demonstrations and rallies which took place during that particular period, gained its momentum largely through Social Media. Therefore the period can be regarded as the beginning of cyber activism in Assam, since such online activities in publicizing and organizing any collective action in the physical world with regards to activism was not seen in the past. Based on the data collected through onsite surveys, such online communities have considerably given rise to new forms of collective action such as on/offline social and political protest in Assam through social media by publicizing and organizing people where the predominance of the youths is distinctly visible. It is seen that, there has been an increasing number of cyber activism among the online ‘Assamese’ youth communities which has apparently given raise to cyber-civil societies in urban areas. The predominance of youth in such protests is visible, since the use of social media has become a popular culture among the youth. About 17% of the Indian populations are between 15 and 24 and they are experiencing the changes brought by the New Media technology. In examining the practices on social media, authors focus primarily on “Facebook”, which is the most popular social networking site in social media. Series of protest took place in the months of July, August and September, 2012 against unethical media practices; particularly the television media in Assam. Eventually protests against the insecurity of the women in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam and protest against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Assam were also demonstrated on the streets of Assam which gathered huge civic support. Few youth groups from Assam were also established who organized themselves through social networking sites to raise street demonstrations, along with certain other political parties, NGOs and offline civil society groups. The paper mainly studies the participation of youth in such protests and reflects on the case studies which can be regarded as the beginning of youth cyber activism that apparently gained momentum through social media in Assam.