Thar Journal

Thar
Multidiscipline
Journal

ISSN 2582-3140

VOLUME : 1
ISSUE : 1
JAN 2019

THAR MULTIDISCIPLINE JOURNAL

Thar Multidiscipline Journal is a bi-annual international e-journal of scholarly research articles/papers covering all disciples of studies which can be accessed via electronic transmission. The journal shall be solely published on the web in a digital format. However, as most electronic journals, it may subsequently evolve into print component maintaining the electronic version. The journal may publish special issues over and above the mandatory bi-annual issues.
The journal explicitly clarifies that opinions expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board.

 

REVIEWER'S BOARD

Mukesh K. Chalise, PhD, FLS

Prof. Of Zoology

Tribhuvan University
GPO Box 23513
Kathmandu, NEPAL

Collaborating Scientist, KIZ
China and MzU, India
Distinguished Visiting Prof.
PRI, Kyoto University, Japan
Distinguished Biodiversity Expert,
Dali Universuty, China

President, NEBORS
Steering Comm. Member, SLN, 2010-14
Secretary for Asia, IPS, 2001-04
Fulbright Fellow 2000-01, UW, USA
DAAD Fellow, 1994 Got. Uni, DFG

ADVISORY BOARD

International Advisors

Motee Lal Sharma

Professor, Central Department of Chemistry
mlsharma.chem@gmail.com
Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Kathmandu Nepal

Kamala Ramadoss

Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Science
kramados@syr.edu Syracuse University,
New York: 13244-1020, USA

National Advisors

Dhruba Kumar Limbu

Professor, Department of Anthropology
dhruba_limbu@yahoo.co.in
North Eastern Hill University
Shillong -793022, Meghalaya, India

EDITORS

EDITOR-in-CHIEF

Leela ram newar

Leela Ram Newar

Associate Professor,
Department of Economics - SIlapathar College,
Silapathar - 787 059

EDITOR

Gitima Deka

Assistant Professor,
Department of English - Silapathar College,
Silapathar – 787 059

MEMBERS

Siva Nath Pait

Assistant Professor & HOD,
Silapathar College,
Silapathar-787059, Assam,
Email: sivanathpait@gmail.com

Bipul Dweep Chutia

Lecturer, Department of English,
Chimen Chapori Junior College,
Chimen Chapori-787061,
Email: bipuldweep2012@gmail.com

Dr. Dilip Chetry

Scientist- E & Vice President,
AARANYAK 13 Tayab Ali Byelane, Beltola Tiniali
Guwahati-781028,
Email: dilip.aaranyak@gmail.com

TECHNICAL COORDINATORS

Durlabh Gogoi

Durlabh Gogoi, IT Consultant, DC Office Dhemaji, Dhemaji-787057, Dhemaji, Assam, India.
Email: durlabh@artmachine.in

Pankaj Debnath

Manager, Bokaina CS, Silapathar-787059, Silapathar, Assam, India
Email: pankaj.w98@gmail.com

THAR MULTIDISCIPLINE JOURNAL

Vol. No. 01  Issue No. 01 
Summer Edition 2019       

 ISSN 2582-3140

EDITORIAL

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Sattriya Dance Of Assam : An Overview

There are all together eight recognized Indian classical dance forms. They are :

Bharatanatyam

Bharatanatyam

Kathakali

Kathakali

Kuchipudi

Kuchipudi

Odissi

Odissi

Kathak

Kathak

Mohini Natyam

Mohini Natyam

Manipuri

Manipuri

Sattriya Nritya

Sattriya Nritya

Sattriya or Sattriya Nritya, is one of the prominent major Indian classical dance forms from North East India which was recognized on 15th November, 2000 by Sangeet Natak Akademi of India under the chairmanship of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika. It is an artistic way of presenting mythological teachings to the people in an enjoyable and accessible manner with the aim of a unified, classless society. This dance-drama performance of art has its origins in the Krishna-centered Vaishnavism and attributed to the 15th century Bhakti movement scholar, social reformer and saint, Srimanta Sankardev.
Historically, dance arts in Assam go back into antiquity, as evidenced by copper plate inscriptions and sculpture relating to Shivism and Shaktism traditions. Singing and musical traditions, similarly, have been traced to Assamese chorus singing tradition for the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The modern form of Sattriya is attributed to the 15th century Sankaradeva, who systematized the dance using the ancient texts, and introduced drama and expressive dancing (nritta and nritya) as a form of a community religious art for emotional devotion to Krishna. Since the 15th century, the Sattriya art grew as part of the Vaishnava bhakti movement, in Hindu monasteries called Sattra. The art was developed and practiced by monks in the form dance-dramas about legends and mythologies of Krishna, particularly from texts such as the Bhagavata Purana. One distinctive part of the Sattriya dance inside temples and monasteries is that the dance is not celebrated before any idol, but is performed before a copy of the Bhagavata Purana placed in eastern (sun rise) corner called Manikut of the dance hall (namghar).

As repertoire, Sattriya encompasses all the basic attributes of a classical dance form. The Sattriya repertoire (marg) includes nritta (pure form of dance, solo), nritya (expressive dance, solo), and natya (dramatic play, group). Like all major classical Indian dance forms,

Those three categories of performances are:

  • TheNritta performance is abstract, fast and rhythmic aspect of the dance.
  • TheNritya is slower and expressive aspect of the dance that attempts to communicate feelings, storyline particularly with spiritual themes.
  • TheNatya is a play, typically a team performance, but can be acted out by a solo performer where the dancer uses certain standardized body movements to indicate a new character in the underlying story.
  • The hand gestures (mudras), footwork (padas), postures, rhythms, training of artists and other aspects of the Sattriya dance drama closely follow those described in Natya Shastra and other classical Hindu dance texts.

Sattriya Nritya is a genre of dance drama that tells mythical and religious stories through hand and face expressions. The basic dance unit and exercise of a Sattriya is called a Mati Akhara, equal 64 just like in Natya Shastra, are the foundational sets dancers learn during their training. The Akharas are subdivided into Ora, Saata, Jhalak, Sitika, Pak, Jap, Lon and Khar. A performance integrates two styles, one masculine (Paurashik Bhangi, energetic and with jumps), and feminine (Stri Bhangi, Lasya or delicate).
Traditionally, Sattriya was performed only by Keuliyabhokots (male unmarried monks) in monasteries as a part of their daily rituals or to mark special festivals. Today, in addition to this practice, Sattriya is also performed on stage by men and women who are not members of the sattras, on themes not merely mythological. The plays choreographed in a Sattriya are those found in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, the Epics, and the compositions by Assamese scholars. The stories related to the love between Radha and Krishna are particularly common.
The costume of Sattriya dance is primarily of two types: the male costume comprising the dhoti and chadar and the paguri (turban) and the female costume comprising the ghuri, chadar and kanchi (waist cloth). Traditionally the costumes were of white or raw silk color with use of red, blue and yellow for specific dance numbers. In earlier times velvet and satin materials were mostly used for the costumes. With change of time, as this dance form evolved from the sattras onto stage, the design and materials of the dance costumes changed. Pat (also spelled paat) – a silk produced in Assam which is derived from the mulberry plant and muga ( golden silk of Assam) is also used in preparing the dance costume. Other brilliant colours are also used in the female costumes. These hand-woven materials normally have intricate local motifs like Kingkhap, Miri Motif, Kolka etc. Uses of play-specific costumes are also seen in Sattriya dance. The dress of Krishna Nritya and Nadubhangi Nritya is of yellow and blue keeping in line with the attire of Lord Krishna. The Sutradhar Nritya also has its specific white costume with a special turban.
Traditional Assamese jewellery is exclusively used in Sattriya dance. The jewelleries are made in a unique technique in Kesa Sun ( raw gold). Artists wear Kopali on the forehead, Muthi Kharu and Gam Kharu (bracelets), different type of neck pieces like Mata Moni (for male dancers), Golpata, Dhulbiri (shaped like the musical instrument dhol), Bena (pendant shaped like a crescent), Jethipata (lizard shaped), Dugdugi (leaf shaped), Senpata (eagle shaped), Dhansira (strand of rice grain), Lokaparo (pegion design). Earrings are made in similar designs and also Thuka Suna and Keru are worn by dancers. Female dancers wear white flowers in the hair. The costumes of Ankiya Naats (dramas) are colourful and character specific. Use of Mukha (Masks) to depicts demons and special characters are also unique of this dance form. The art of mask making is an integral part of Sattriya culture and originated in the Sattras of Assam. Beautifully decorated turbans and crowns made by the local artisans are used in the Ankiya Naats.
Sattriya Nritya is accompanied by musical compositions called borgeets which were composed by Shrimanta Sankardeva and Shrimanta Madhavdevwhich are based on Indian classical ragas. A key musical instrument that accompanies a Sattriya performance are khols (two faced, asymmetrical drum quite different from the rest of India) played with fingers. The special shape and materials of construction – clay, wood, leather, rice dough, iron filings, rope straps – of Sattriya khol produces a high pitch with the right side (Daina), while producing a deep bass sound on the left (Bewa). Accompanying the khol are various types of Talas or cymbals (Manjira, Bhortal, Bihutal, Patital, Khutital) and the flute (bansuri). Other instruments like the violin and the harmonium have been recent additions.
Originally, Sattriya dance was performed exclusively by men. However, today women are equally giving their contributions to it, thus providing an additional grace and elegance to the art. There are even the female dances or Lasya such as ChaliNritya, GopiPravesharNritya, etc which are performed by women. Sharadi Saikia, Garima Hazarika, Sitarani Hazarika, Indira PP Bora, Pushpa Bhuyan are some of the leading female exponents of Sattriya dance, to name a few. Again, Sattriya is no longer simply a culture. It has become a topic of research. Scholars are exploring the various dimensions and the spheres of Sattriya. Extensive studies are being done on its history to bring to light various new features, to know the unknown and to unveil the veiled. The researches on Sattriya have also helped it to modify itself and to be viewed with a scientific outlook. Some of the prominent and eminent researchers in this field are Lt Sonaram Chutia, Lt Dr Maheswar Neog, Lt Keshav Changkakati, Dr KD Goswami, Jagannath Mahanta and others.
Thus, the seeds that were sown by Sankardev long time back, has today grown into a magnificently huge tree, under whose shadow we have achieved recognition of our culture. During its long and eventful journey, Sattriya has gone through quite a lot of changes in its form, its significance and its position in the society. But one thing that has remained unaltered and will remain so for the centuries to come is its infinite contribution to the Assamese culture and, at a larger perspective, to the Indian culture. This culture explicitly talks about equality and indiscernability of life. It patronises a culture of dignity to the mankind as a whole. In its present state, it has even crossed the boundaries of India, thus traveling far and wide. Presently, it has defined a forte for itself on the world platform, thereby earning a lot of adoration, praise and recognition globally.

REFERENCES :

Suman Deka
M.C.College, Barpeta Department of Education, Saraighat College, Changsari

A Genetic Study Among The Garos Of Asanang Village, West Garo Hills District, Meghalaya

Garo

KEY WORDS:

  • Genitics
  • Garo
  • Genetic markers
  • ABO and Rh(D) Blood groups
  • PTC Taste-sensitivity
  • Colour-blindness

ABSTRACT:

This paper describes the genetic characteristics of the Garos of Asanang village, Meghalaya. Four genetic markers are used to study this population. Although, the present study was carried out with limited genetic markers, yet it was able to reveal that the Garo population is not in genetic equilibrium in respect of the ABO blood groups. Garos are significantly deviating with most of the Mongoloid populations of Northeast India in respect of ABO blood groups. However, the Rh(D) blood group, PTC taste sensitivity and colour-blindness seem to conform with the general prevailing trend among the Mongoloid populations of North-East India which is characteristic of having low frequency occurrence.

INTRODUCTION:

Biological evolution occurs, from generation after generation through the operation of various evolutionary forces like natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, etc. It is obvious that any given generation of human population is a representative of the previous generation. The genetic characteristics of individuals with greater reproductive success will be predominant in the next generation. According to the Darwinian concept of evolution, the decrease in gene frequency is because of the reduced fitness and this is known as selection. On the other hand, fitness refers to the reproductive success of an individual, or a given group of individuals in terms of the number of offspring they contributed to the next generation. The most reproductively fit individuals as such are those who are better adapted to their environmental conditions. In short the outcomes of evolutionary processes are adoption of a species to its environment. As a result, evolution is believed to be a process of change in human populations and it is known as an on-going process.
In view of the above circumstances, knowledge of genetics particularly of population genetics is of considerable importance in understanding the processes of on-going human evolution and variation. Besides, population genetics contributes to a great extent in “removing misunderstanding among various population groups” as it explains the facts and nature of population variation (Das, 1981).

Objective of the study:

To describe the genetic composition of the Garos of Asanang village with the help of four classical genetic markers viz., ABO and Rh (D) blood groups, PTC taste sensitivity and colour blindness.
To compare the findings of the present study with those reported on other Mongoloid populations of Assam and Meghalaya.

Materials and Methods:

ABO Blood Groups

Blood samples on 150 individuals of which 76 males and 74 females were collected from Asanang village of West Garo Hills District, Meghalaya. For determining the ABO and Rh blood groups, the standard slide technique suggested by Lawler and Lawler (1951) and Bhatia (1977) were followed for collection of blood samples in the present study.

Phenylthiocarbamide Taste Sensitivity (PTC)

The serial dilution method, suggested by Harris and Kalmus (1949) was followed to collect data on P.T.C. taste sensitivity. A total of 150 individuals were tested of which 76 males and 74 were females.

Colour Blindness

The Ishihara chart (1959) was used to collect data on Red-Green deficiency. Like in the case of other genetic markers, a sample 150 individuals out of which 76 males and 74 females were examined for Red-green colour deficiency. The chart was kept open and plates were held at a distance, approximately two and half feet from the subjects. The subjects were asked to read number of the plates numbering 1-25 within three seconds for each plate.
In case of illiterate subjects, they were asked to trace the snake like figure or X’ of the plates 26 to 38 by means of a brush supplied to each of the subjects. The test was made utilizing the instructions attached along with the Ishihara chart.

Land and People

Data for the present study was collected from Asanang village which is under Rongram Block of West Garo Hills District, Meghalaya. It is situated at a distance of 12 km east from Tura and 192 km from the state capital, Shillong.
The Garos are sturdy and slightly dark in complexion. They have round face, high and prominent cheek bones, obliquely set eye with a prominent nose. The womenfolk are a little shorter in stature and stocky in body build. They look almost like plains tribes of Assam and an ‘outsider’ would definitely find it hard to distinguish the two when together.
The Garos are matrilineal in descent. They belong to the Tibeto-Chinese family of Tibeto-Burman Sub-family of Bodo group. They are akin to most of the aboriginal tribes of the Assam Valley such as the Kacharis, Rabhas, Meches but belong to quite a distinct stock to that from which the Khasis originated.

Results:

The findings of data analysis on four genetic markers, namely, ABO blood groups, Rh (d) blood groups, PTC taste sensitivity and Colour-blindness are given below.

Table 1.
Phenotypic and genotypic allele frequencies of ABO blood groups

ALLELIC GENOTYPE FREQUENCY
P=0.2882
q=0.3836
r=0.3915
Difference between sexes: =0.46, d.f.=3, p>0.05
Goodness of fit for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium: =48.98, d.f.=1, p<0.05

It is seen from the above table that the percentage frequencies of A, B, AB and O in males are 26.31%, 34.21%, 26.31% and 13.15% respectively. In the females, these frequencies are 18.91%, 36.48%, 27.02% and 17.56%, respectively. These differences between sexes in respect of the phenotype distribution of the ABO blood group are statistically not significant (?2=0.46, d.f. = 3, p>0.05). Since ABO locus is an autosomal character, data on both males and females were pooled together to find out the allele frequencies of the ABO blood groups. Thus, combining the data of both the sexes, the percentage frequencies of A, B, AB and O are found to be 22.67%, 35.33%, 26.67% and 15.33% respectively.
Following the methods given by Bernstein (1930) and Balakrishnan (1988), the calculated gene frequencies of p, q and r are 0.2882, 0.3836 and 0.3915 respectively. Applying the test of goodness of fit for Hardy – Weinberg equilibrium, it is found that the difference between these allele frequencies in the present population are statistically significant (?2=48.98, df=1, p<0.05). Thus, it indicates that the present population is not in genetic equilibrium in terms of ABO locus, and does not follow the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium principle (1908) which states that, in a large randomly mating population, if there is no change in the gene frequency due to mutation, selection and migration or admixture, the frequencies of genes types will remain constant from generation to generation.

Table 2.
Phenotype and allele frequencies of Rh (D) blood group

he phenotype and allele frequencies of the Rh (D) blood groups are shown in Table 2. As far as the present study is concerned no individuals with Rh- negative blood group were detected. It may be worthwhile to mention here that Rh-negative gene is either absent or present in a very low frequency among the Mongoloid populations of North-East India (Bhattacharjee, 1968; Das, 1974). The present finding among the Garos of Asanang seems to confirm such an observation.

Table 3.
Distribution of PTC taste sensitivity among the Garo Males and Females

Table 3 shows the data on taste sensitivity to PTC for both males and females. It is found that the mean threshold values are 3.03±0.25 and 3.25±0.27 for males and females respectively. Thus it indicates that the mean threshold value is higher in females than in males, although the differences between the two sexes are not statistically significant (t=0.5978, d.f. =148, p>0.05). Accordingly, the present data for both the sexes are pooled together for classifying the population into tasters and non-tasters. Moreover, the gene responsible for not being able to taste PTC salt is believed to be an autosomal one.
In order to classify the individuals into tasters, we have followed the method suggested by Harris and Kalmus (1949) in which the number of individuals being able to taste PTC salt solution was plotted against the serial dilution numbers of PTC solution which was presented in the figure below. Figure1. Graph showing the distribution of PTC tasters and non-tasters among the Garos of Asanang villagez

Figure 1 shows that the distribution of PTC tasters’ sensitivity in the present population follows a bimodal distribution in which the antimode falls on 8. Thus, the cutoff point of 8 was considered for classifying the individuals into tasters and non-tasters. Thus , individuals who had the threshold value above 8 or who perceived taste in a more diluted solution were considered as tasters while those with the threshold value of 8 and below or who perceived taste in a more concentrated solutions were regarded as non- tasters. The frequency of tasters and non-tasters is given in Table 4.

Table 4.
Frequency of PTC tasters and non-tasters

Allele Frequency
T=0.0134
t=0.9866
x²=0.5628, d.f.=1, p>0.05

From Table 4, it is observed that the frequency of non-tasters is higher in male than in female. However, the chi-square test indicates that the difference between males and females are statistically not significant ( x2=0.5628, d.f.=1, P&gt;0.05). The gene allele frequencies for tasters (T) and non tasters (t) are found to be 0.0134 and 0.9866 respectively.

Table 5.
Frequency distribution of Colour-Blindness

The percentage distribution of colour-blindness in the Garo population is given in Table 5. As far as the present study is concerned no individual with red-green deficiency were detected, which can be said that the red-green deficient gene which is an X-linked trait though absent in the studied samples, is occurring at a very low frequency in this population. This is in concordance with the rest of the other Mongoloid population groups of the North-East India, where the colour-blindness gene has been reported at very low frequencies.

In the present paper, we have described the data on four genetic markers among the Garos of Asanang village, Meghalaya. In the study population, the frequency of ‘B’ blood group is found highest (35.33%) followed by ‘AB’ (26.67%) and ‘A’ and (22.67%) respectively. Following the methods given by Bernstein (1930) and Balakrishnan (1988), the gene frequencies of p, q and r are 0.2882, 0.3836 and 0.3915 are calculated respectively. The test of goodness of fit indicates that the allele frequencies in the present population are statistically significant ( Thus, it indicates that the Garos are not in genetic equilibrium. The Rh-negative and colour-blindness genes are absent in this population. About 97.34% of the total subjects covered under the present study were non-tasters.
We have compared our findings with those published on other neighbouring Mongoloid populations of Meghalaya and Assam with a view to understanding the genetic affinity of the present population.

Table 6.
Comparison of phenotypic frequencies of ABO blood groups

The comparative study of phenotype frequencies of ABO blood groups among the Garo and other populations of Meghalaya and Assam are given in Table 6. The above table shows that Garo is characterized by a high frequency of blood group ‘B’ and low frequency of blood group O compared to Bodo, Mikir, Rabha and Marngar and is closer to the Khasi population as reported by Das (1978).
In order to have a better understanding of the genetic relationship of the Garo with other compared populations, the Chi-square statistic was used to test the differences between them if any with respect to distribution of the ABO blood groups.

Table 7.
Chi-square value of ABO blood group between Garo population of Asanang village and the other neighboring populations of Assam and Meghalaya

*Significant at 1% level of probability
Table7 shows the Chi-square (?2) value between Garo and the other neighbouring Mongoloid populations of Assam and Meghalaya. It is observed that the difference between the present population and majority of the compared populations are statistically significant with respect to the frequencies of the ABO blood groups which means that the Garo population deviate significantly from all the populations in respect of ABO blood group.

Table 8.
Comparison of frequency distribution of Rh(D) blood group

The comparative study of frequency distribution of Rh(D) blood group among the Garo and the other neighbouring populations is given in Table 8. No individuals with Rh-negative blood group were detected in the present study

Table 9.
Frequency of PTC taste sensitivity

The frequency distribution of tasters and non-tasters of PTC taste sensitivity among the Garos and some neighbouring Mongoloid populations is given in Table 9. Comparative study indicates that the Garos of Asanang village is characterized by very low frequency of tasters than to rest of the populations compared. An important observation noted here is that the chewing habit of areca nut, betel leaf and lime along with tobacco ingredients is prevalent in the food habit of the Garos of Asanang village, their influence seems to have interference on the perception of taste to this particular gene.

Table 8.
Chi-square value of PTC tastes sensitivity

*significant at 1% level of probability
Table 10 shows the difference between Garos and other neighbouring populations in respect of the Phenylthiocarbamide taste-blindness. The Garo population deviates significantly from all other populations taken into consideration for comparison in respect of the PTC tasting ability.

Table 11.
Defective Red-Green colour vision

The frequency distribution of colour blindness among the Garos and other neighbouring mongoloid populations are shown in Table 10. Comparative study indicates that the Garo is characterized by zero frequency of Red-Green deficiency as compared to the other populations. Very low frequency of this trait is observed among the Hajong, Khynriam, Bodo-Kachari, and is completely absence among Pnar, Bhoi and Mikir.

CONCLUSION:

Although, the present study was carried out with limited genetic markers, yet it was able to found out that Garo population is not in genetic equilibrium in respect of the ABO blood groups. Since, the Hardy-Weinberg Law, states that genetic equilibrium occurs when the populations is large and mating occurs at random, along with the absence of other evolutionary forces such as natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, migration and others. Therefore, with the present set of data is difficult to give a proper explanation whether the evolutionary forces such as mutation and natural selection are not playing significant roles in regulating the gene frequencies in the present populations.
When the Garos were compared with the other mongoloid populations in respect of the four genetic markers, it showed that they deviate significantly from the compared populations in respect of ABO blood group. This indicates that there is likely a low admixture rate or intermarriage with other populations which might have brought about genetic differences between them.
The findings on the Rh(D) blood group and colour-blindness seem to conform with the general prevailing trend among the Mongoloid population of North-East India which is characteristic of having low frequency occurrence of the Rh-ve blood group and also less frequency of the Red-Green deficient gene for colour-blindness. Thus, the present finding on genetic markers among the Garo population of Asanang needs to be further studied with the larger sample size along with the inclusion of the additional genetic markers which could provide more insight into the overall genetic composition of the population.

REFERENCES :

Dhruba Kumar Limbu and Mary R. Marak
Professor, Department of Anthropology, NEHU, Shillong PhD Research Scholar, Department of Anthropology, NEHU, Shillong.

Community Forestry – Nepal

Nepal

INTRODUCTION:

Community Forestry is one of the most popular participatory forest management practices in Nepal started in 1970 after realization of the people’s participation in the sustainable development by the government of Nepal. Community forests are national forests handed over to the local user groups for protection, management and utilization according to the Forest Act, 1993. The forests are managed according to the Operational Plan (OP) prepared by Community Forest Users Groups (CFUGs), approved by the District Forest Office (DFO). According to the act, CFUGs has to be established and registered at the District Forest Office (DFO) before handing over of the forests and they are self-sustained institutions (Kanel 1993). The CFUGs can act as self-governing entities to generate, utilize and sell the forest products as mentioned in the Operational Plan. Procedural details of the community forests are explained in the Forest Rules 1995 and community forestry guidelines and directives. Since 1970, the handover process of the CF have been increasing in the hilly region as well as in Terai. Many civil society organizations, private institutions, community forestry federations and networks, development partners and donors have also been involvingfrom the beginning of the program. As a result, a total of 2,237,195 households through 18,133 Community Forest User Groups (CFUGs) have managed about 1.75 million ha. National forests as community forests up to the date.

STUDY AREA:

Nepal Map

The four districts (Sankhuwasabha, Bhojpur, Terhathum and Dhankuta) of Koshi hills have been selected for this research work as it canrepresent the hilly regions of Nepal. The study area comprises from the tropical to the Alpine forest. Most of the forests are evergreen in status as comprises with temperate and alpine forest.

METHODOLOGY:

A total of 50 community forestry user groups have been visited from four districts—among them 25 in Dhankuta, 15 in Terhathum, 5 in Sankhuwasabha and 5 in Bhojpur. Observed their Operational Plan and Constituent, interviewed withcommunity forest users groups, visited local NGOs working at CFUG, had discussions with forest authorities, visited FECOFUN Offices, performed in-depth study, household observation and had discussions with stakeholders as well as observed community forests in order to garner reliable information.

FINDINGS:

Opportunities:

Improved forest condition

The number of CFUGs in the area have been increasing. Similarly, degraded forests have regenerated, the condition of forests has been improved, and land degradation is decreasing with decreasing soil erosion. Biodiversity looks to be increasing with increasing greenery in the hilly region of Koshi hills.A study in four eastern hill districts showed that the total number of stems per hectare had increased by 51 percent, and the basal areas of forests had increased by 29 percent (Branney and Yadav, 1998).A certain level of sustainable forest harvesting has increased due to the implementation of the community forestry program. There is high potentiality offorest products that can be used for community livelihood enhancement, forest based enterprise that can generate jobs for those unemployed, and revenue for community development activities.

National data

Koshi Hill Data

IMPACT:

Youth Migration Problem in Second Generation Leadership

Due to the increasing number of Nepali youth migrants leaving their home for jobs in foreign labor destinations, elderly people make up the majority of those living in rural areas, but they are unable to participate in community works. Most of the community forestry user’s committee members are over 60 and illiterate theydepend on the elite in the village for social works such as school teachers and some government personnel. Also they are illiterate to write and prepare their own rules based on community forestry guideline. Due to absenceof youth in the community, scientific forest management is lacking, creating problems for sustainable development of the community. Women from poor families are forced to collect firewood and fodder during the winter season as CF is opened in a year.Many management prescriptions are conservative in terms of the harvesting levels allowed for forest products. There is big problem for the second generation leadership as the youth are settling in the urban areas of the country leaving their birth places earning money in foreign countries.

Migration of the People from the Rural Area.

Most of the people (especially youth) have migrated to Terai and other towns for a brighter future as they do not have proper hospitals, schools, and irrigation and transportation facilities in rural areas. Similarly, climate change challenges for food production and even drinking water as the water resources are drying up most of the hilly region.Due to decrease in the collection of firewood, fodders and less movement of cattle in CF, as farmers are migrating and changing their occupations, private land, including the CF, are convertinginto dense, bushy areas increasing potentiality of forest fire.One the other hand, increase in wild animals disturbs to cattle as well as crops of farmer’s poses the possibility of conflict

Policy Constraints for Forest-based Enterprise Development

Some of the community forest users in this area whoare poor and Janjati groups have indigenous knowledge and skills to prepare artistic wooden masks from valueless timber (Artocarpus lakhochha, Artocarpus integrifolia and Albizzia spp). Such spp. are very soft and weightless, making masks easy to transport to nearby markets. However, they are not allowed to continue such type of entrepreneur without provision in their Operational Plan agreed by DistrictForest Office (DFO). The DFO only will be able to give provision for such timber use if there are written documents in the Operational Plan of CF and mentioned in the annual plan. Yet, how are such poor people able to write up their OP? They are uneducated and don’t know the forest laws of Nepal. Even if they get the provision from the DFO, they will not be able to sell in the market due to forest law. This way, the indigenous knowledge is disappearing from the Janjati people.The poor have less cultivated land and suffer from wild animal disturbances to the cattle as well as their crops. Rural people played vital role in protection of their forest in the past now are not allowed to utilize the forest products due to long procedures in forest law loosing employment opportunity in the vicinity.

Weak Institutional Development

(Participation, Transparency, Accountability, Rule of Law, Effectiveness,)
Very weak participation was found in all programs and activities from poor, women and the Dalit community.Many amendments have been made in forestry sector policies and strategies for gender equality and social inclusion but leadership by women and Dalits in CF management become very challenging. The poor and Dalits often have no option but to think of day-to-day survival, which hinders their participation in the social and economic development process. Women have countless workload as they have to look after their children, livestock and farmland unable to participate in social work also have been facing unequal power relations and gender-based barriers due to the patriarchal society. The main position of CFUC is occupied by female members due to law enforcement however; the task has been performed by male members of their family or other male members of the committee. Issues related to community forest management and financial activities are discussed in committee meetings and in general assembly’s where Dalits, poor people and women usually do not participate.

Researcher visited many CFUGs among 1,531 and observed their documents regarding the governance. Very weak information systems were found in various CFUGs and most of the financial records found were verbal. Very few CF were found performing public auditing and public hearing system. Research also found that single persons handled the CF—some were chair persons or secretaries and some were the treasurers from the committee. Male members of the CFUC say females are not ready to take the position as they don’t have enough time to participate in meetings and can’t travel here and there that is hindering the process. However, female are the main participants in conservation and harvesting of the forest products.Elite domination is still remaining in most of the CF leadership and weak institutional development exist. Most of the CFUG members are unfamiliar with their OP and constituent however, it must be prepared by CFUG members, due to lack of education.As the elite members of the CFUG and the DFO staffs make the decisions on this matter, real users are unaware of it. Rules and regulations are written on paper not in practice by the users in regard to accountability.

Problems in Forest Protection

As youth are not in community the elites of the village make decisions in all steps. Elders want to transfer the responsibility to the youth for amendment process of operational plan. There are plenty of community forests have been waiting for the amendment process since long time. Without amendment of OP users are not allowed to harvest forest products from mature forest. Due to lack of sustainable management of forests, invasive species have been increasing with some disease in old trees. There increase the bushes and forest fire. Elders and women are unable to go in the forest to control the fire. The private grasslands are also in no used therefore increase the possibility of forest fire to ignite the village and damage the houses, shed and damage the life and property. As name of community forest the responsibility goes to the community for all type of protection, management and utilization of these forest. Government has very few staffs in the field with no essential equipment’s for the fire control. Some of the forest near by the city had got the support from police staffs but most of the community forest are in remote areas with difficult terrain. There were a huge number of community forest fire in Nepal in 2016.NASA had reported that as many as 1.3 million hectares (over 3.7 million acres) of forest cover in Nepal was affected by wildfires in two weeks till April 11, 2016.The wildfireseverely damaged and prohibited the regeneration and growth of seedlings, destroyed non-timber forest products, increased natural disaster and invasive species, affects soil structure, young immobile animal species, including nesting sites of birds with carbon emission. After forest fire the trees are covered with invasive species that hinders the growth and life of the trees.As figure shows the result.

CONCLUSION:

CF Should be an institution that provides services not a services receiver. Strong coordination should be there among all stakeholders to capture the potentiality of CF for community development. Institutional development is essential for sustainable forest management and it must be strong. All concerned authorities should go to the grassroots and implement the program with observing the situation that will support for real change. Donors should provide grants directly to the community rather than follow multi stakeholders’mechanism, if we are looking for meaningful change or development in the life of the poor and discriminated people of the community and increase the poor’s leadership. Research on forest diseases and involvement of the highly educated people in sustainable forest management is essential in days to come. Similarly, the fighting materials (equipment’s and clothing) should be provided to the police and Nepal army as youth are not available in the village to control the forest fires. Involvement of women is essential for fair and equitable distribution of the benefits among the users, as they are the key change agent and real users of the forest. Conflict should be managed between wild animals and farmers. Forest based enterprises should established in the potential area that provide the job opportunity to the second generation leadership who play the vital role in institutional development of the community forestry in days to come.

REFERENCES :

Mathura Khanal and M. L. Sharma
Professor, Central Department of Chemistry Tribhuvan University, Nepal

A spiritual insight: A study on Rudyard Kipling’s poem “IF”

rudyard kipling

INTRODUCTION:

Joseph Rudyard Kipling, the son of John Lockwood Kipling, principal of the School of Art in Lahore, was born in Bombay on 30th December, 1865. His father sent him to England to be educated at the United Services College, but returned to India in 1882 where he found work as a journalist on the Civil and Military Gazette. Articles and poems that first appeared in the newspaper were later collected and published as Departmental Ditties (1886), Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1890) and Wee Willie Winkie (1890) (Simkin, 1997).
Rudyard Kipling’s life straddles the turn of the twentieth-century almost exactly, a period that also saw the British Empire reach its height and begin its decline — Indian independence came little more than a decade after Kipling’s death in 1947. The contrasting locations of his birth (the first six years of his life were spent in the multicultural and vibrantly bustling city of Bombay) and death (the rolling green, and quintessentially ‘British’, countryside of Sussex) epitomize the paradoxical nature of Kipling, the literary man. Where so many of his writings set in India exhibit a zest and enthusiasm for Eastern culture, landscape, and peoples, an equally large number of his poems are filled with racism, pro-imperial jingoism, and an undying belief in the white man’s right to global rule. Just as his life-span straddled the century, Kipling straddled geographical boundaries and ideological positions, and these inconsistencies come through most prominently, and productively, in his literature (Davies, 2013)
Joseph Rudyard Kipling, the son of John Lockwood Kipling, principal of the School of Art in Lahore, was born in Bombay on 30th December, 1865. His father sent him to England to be educated at the United Services College, but returned to India in 1882 where he found work as a journalist on the Civil and Military Gazette. Articles and poems that first appeared in the newspaper were later collected and published as Departmental Ditties (1886), Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), Soldiers Three (1890) and Wee Willie Winkie (1890) (Simkin, 1997).
At this point in Kipling’s career, the political enthusiasms/ obsessions that would contribute greatly to his falling out of favour with the British Public began to become prominent themes in his work (Murphy, 2006).
Extremely popular in India, Kipling decided to see if he could achieve the same success in England. His first novel published in England, The Light That Failed (1890) did badly but Barrack-Room Ballads (1892) and Jungle Book(1894) established Kipling’s reputation. However, some people in Britain found his poetry distasteful and Kipling was accused of jingoism by those hostile to imperialism (Simkin, 1997).
On the outbreak of the Boer War, Kipling travelled to South Africa where he worked with the wounded and produced a newspaper for the troops. By the time he returned to his home in Rottingdean, a small coastal village near Brighton, Kipling was being described as the Laureate of the Empire. His friend Cecil Rhodes described him as having “done more than any other since Disraeli to show the world that the British race is sound at core and that rust and dry rot are strangers to it.” (Simkin, 1997).
Kipling lived outside Capetown from 1900-08, and during that period again produced a great deal of work, much of it far more ‘Imperialist ‘ than anything he had written before. During this time the public’s love affair with Kipling ended, a trend that was hastened by the increasing harshness of his views. He became a much caricatured figure in the press, whilst the public became tired of constant exhortations. Kipling left South Africa in disgust when the Liberals came to power in Britain, and, as he saw it, destroyed all that had been gained in the Boer war. Until the end of his life, Kipling’s world view would be distorted by the paranoid belief that conspiracy and betrayal were everywhere in public life (Murphy, 2006)
In 1901 Kipling published the best-selling novel, Kim. Kipling was now extremely famous and to obtain some privacy, Kipling moved to Bateman’s, a large house in Burwash. Over the next few years Kipling concentrated on writing children’s books such as Just So Stories (1902), Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910) (Simkin, 1997).
Kipling was highly critical of the Liberal Government that had been established by Henry Campbell-Bannerman following the 1906 General Election. Kipling was hostile to its imperial and Ulster policies and the pacifism of many of its leading figures. He was also an active supporter of the National Defence League, an organisation that advocated an increase in military spending and the introduction of a national military service scheme. Some pacifists and socialists accused Kipling and his supporters of mirroring German Junkerism, a belief in a hierarchical society with a military caste at the top (Simkin, 1997).
In 1907 Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but his Imperialist sentiments, which grew stronger as he grew older, put him more and more out of touch with political, social, and moral realities (Cody, 1986).
In 1915 his son John was killed in action during World War I, and in 1917 he published A Diversity of Creatures, a collection of short stories which included “Mary Postgate” (Cody, 1986).
Between 1919 and 1932 Kipling travelled intermittently, and continued to publish stories, poems, sketches, and historical works. He died in London on January 18, 1936, just after his seventieth birthday, and was buried (beside T. S. Eliot, oddly enough) in Westminster Abbey. His pallbearers included a prime minister, an admiral, a general, and the head of a Cambridge college. The following year saw the posthumous publication of the autobiographical Something of Myself (Cody, 1986).

Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling’s diverse literary contributions and status as a legendary author have made him a prime subject for collectors of rare books. Undoubtedly the most famous Kipling collection was that of David Alan Richards, a New York real estate attorney. His Kipling collection, the largest in the world, contained 82% of all first editions by Kipling and was valued at $1.5 million (Dawn, 2013).
Richards discovered Kipling thanks to his parents. He opened a card from them on his 21st birthday and found the words to Kipling’s poem “If.” At the time, Kipling wasn’t favored among academic or collectors, but rather dismissed as a racist and an imperialist. But the tides of criticism have since turned in Kipling’s favor, and he’s again found a broad audience among rare book collectors (Dawn, 2013).
Richards’ own interest in collecting Kipling hasn’t waned, even though he’s donated his collection to Yale University. Even during the five-year donation process, Richards managed to pick up a few exceptional items. One of these was the first American edition of The Second Jungle Book, which has the earliest Kipling dust jacket. It’s the only known copy to exist in that condition (Dawn, 2013).
Rudyard Kipling, whose autobiography, Something of Myself, was published in 1934, died of a severe haemorrhage in London on 18th January 1936 (Simkin, 1997).
The poem ‘If’ by the India-born British Nobel laureate poet Rudyard Kipling is a poem of ultimate inspiration that tells us how to deal with different situations in life. The poet conveys his ideas about how to win this life, and after all, how to be a good human being (Maity, 2016).
The poem, written in 1895 and first published in ‘Rewards and Fairies’, 1910 is 32 lines long with four stanzas of eight lines each. It is a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. The poem is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet’s son, John (Maity, 2016).

Rudyard Kipling’s “If” is perhaps his most famous poem. Kipling composed the poem in 1909 while living in Great Britain. It was first published in 1910 in Kipling’s collection of children’s stories, Rewards and Fairies, as a companion piece to the story “Brother Square Toes,” which is an account of George Washington and his presidency during the French Revolution (Perkins, 2005).
“If” attracted immediate nationwide attention in Britain, and it was quickly adopted as a popular anthem (Perkins, 2005).
“If” is a didactic poem, a work meant to give instruction. In this case, “If” serves as an instruction in several specific traits of a good leader. Kipling offers this instruction not through listing specific characteristics, but by providing concrete illustrations of the complex actions a man should or should not take which would reflect these characteristics (Perkins, 2005).
In modern times, “If” remains widely anthologized and is regarded as a popular classic of English literature, not necessarily for a display of artistry but for its familiarity and inspiration (Perkins, 2005).

“IF” is an inspirational poem, standing tall among the peers. I have tried to capture the spiritual insight in those inspiration lines.

Though the poet is giving his thoughts on life to his son, a deeper meaning is been traced on the spiritual connection to it. The poet is trying to explain that there will be situations when people are unable to think and take hasty decisions. Such decisions could lead a drastic change in their life which may affect them in the future as well.
A thought when flows through the mind is temporary and does not stay long. When we are in a situation where we are unable to think in a wise way, so many thoughts surrounds us. A trace of negative one flow which we pick, get stringed with other negative thoughts. This forms a negative vibe which transforms the self in us to think otherwise.
To be staid when thoughts flow and be calm when others are unable to do so is been taught to his son. When others are helpless in taking a decision and they blame on you. You should not take their words or actions to your heart or mind. Let them talk as they are unable to take a proper decision. Make sure that others thoughts does not hinder your thoughts.

Thoughts and words are so powerful to change the psyche of one’s mind. The thoughts in self need to be imbibed deeply within self. To know self is know the vacuum in silence. The self is more important than the thoughts outside. The belief in self will create the trust which will never doubt the self. When others offend you and doubt your integrity, you should believe in self. At the same time you should find the reason even for an aorta of suspicion raised on you. One should not get those negative vibe be imbibed in us which will create vacuole for traces to follow. The act of thinking and action to be performed by us should be done conscientiously with our conscience.

To achieve the goal in our life, we need to work hard with patience. Perseverance and patience is key to success. Even if you have failures one after the other, the will to succeed with perseverance can taste success. Many negative vibes when spread by others smeared with inexactitude should not be reciprocated but we need to be truthful. The verisimilitudeness should be our weapon, we need to stand for truth which should be our identity. Belief and trust are the most difficult to be earned. We have to belief and trust in self to be trusted by others.
­Positive and negative vibes are been flowing in the ambiance. The key to have a balanced approach is to remain silent when you’re forced to speak out of frustrations. The state of mind should be calm and need to wait for the negative vibe to pass through. When those traces have left, wait for the light to fall to act with perseverance. The belief in truth shall be the most difficult route to follow but when we have adsorbed the path, the self in us shall never let us down. Belief system shall be entrusted with trust and belief.

Hatred should not absorbed but to smiled at. When people hate us, we should not reciprocate the same to them. Instead, we need to be positive in self and spread the positive vibe around with our smile. The more you spread the positive vibe, the lesser is the negative vibe to be surrounded. The belief system shall adsorb only the necessary and leave the rest in the ambiance.
The flow with which one breath need to be the way we live. Each moments need to be enjoyed with the tide and not to be overhauled with the occasion. It is not necessary to be ostentation to show others what we are. We need to hold our words, rather than talking much of our deeds. The composure with which we use our thoughts and words are more important which decides our flow in the future. The belief system should first maintain the equilibrium and then wave out the unnecessary. Having a staid flow will allow the ambiance not getting disturbed and the negative vibe deviating from you.

We need to dream to make our dreams a reality. Thoughts which loom a large become a dream. Those shoals of thoughts we feel elated to become reality should be dreamt a lot. Those dreams are to be realistic to be achieved. Dreams can give you a goal and direction in your life. One needs to be careful in not making dreams the only thought in life. They should be an important part of our life and not the important. It should not make you forget the happiness around and forget you to smile. Dreams should make you smile and live a life with a purpose.
Thoughts flow incessantly which influence one to think. Thoughts are many to be disturbed. It is you who need to use the correct one and think. Those thoughts which make you think make the precursor for the goals in your life. Those thoughts should be carefully handled and let no other thoughts interfere in it. Such thoughts may misguide you from the path and hinder your thoughts for the correct choice to make in the corresponding decisions.

The light and the dark shades have their own trick to play in the life. We get fooled by the more positive shade which seeps quietly without others getting realised. Triumph and disasters are two imposters which hide themselves from the world to give a false impression. We give everything to be successful but in this period we get lost from self. The bad times make us weak. It gives us the big lessons of life which we forget to read. Getting success and not getting the taste of smile makes us leave a big question. Are we really happy when we achieve our goals ? These two imposters make you to learn about life, but we do not understand the real essence of their importance in our life.
We need to take these two extremities into a balanced locus. Getting the smile in the two extreme phases of life is the need in anybody’s life. Triumph and disasters are to be treated with the same degree of alacrity. Getting overjoyed or grieved with the situations can only make you emotional. One need to overcome with such illusions of life and get grounded to flow in a balance way. The belief system should be in equilibrium to be able to be grounded.

CONCLUSION:

Being one of the most inspiring poem, “IF” touches those spiritual traces which delves much to know the real essence of it. The philosophical realm is connected with the traces of the spiritual entity where the poet is trying to find an equilibrium in one’s life. The life which gives us a lot of lessons can be smoothly handled “IF” we are flowing with the tide; absorbing and adsorbing the realm of the flow.

REFERENCES:

Orbindu Ganga
Post Graduate in Science Madras Christian College, Chennai Author of the book “SAUDADE”

Deep Web – The Hidden side of Internet

Deep Web

SYNOPSIS:

The Deep Web (also called the Deepnet, the Invisible Web, the Undernet or the hidden Web) is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines.
Mike Bergman, founder of Bright Planet, credited with coining the phrase, said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed. Most of the Web’s information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines do not find it. Traditional search engines cannot “see” or retrieve content in the deep Web—those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. The deep Web is several orders of magnitude larger than the surface Web.
Traditional search engines create their indices by spidering or crawling surface Web pages. To be discovered, the page must be static and linked to other pages. Traditional search engines can not “see” or retrieve content in the deep Web – those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. Because traditional search engine crawlers can not probe beneath the surface, the deep Web has heretofore been hidden.

Deep web is the name given to the technology of surfacing the hidden value that cannot be easily detected by other search engines. The deep web is the content that cannot be indexed and searched by search engines. For this reason the deep web is also called invisible web.

IINTRODUCTION

WHAT IS DEEP WEB?

Searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean. While a great deal may be caught in the net, there is still a wealth of information that is deep, and therefore, missed. The reason is simple: Most of the Web’s information on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines never find it.

Traditional search engines create their indices by spidering or crawling surface Web pages. To be discovered, the page must be static and linked to other pages. Traditional search engines can not “see” or retrieve content in the deep Web – those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. Because traditional search engine crawlers can not probe beneath the surface, the deep Web has heretofore been hidden.

Deep web is the name given to the technology of surfacing the hidden value that cannot be easily detected by other search engines. The deep web is the content that cannot be indexed and searched by search engines. For this reason the deep web is also called invisible web.

“More than 200,000 deep Web sites presently exist”
“Sixty of the largest deep-Web sites collectively contain about 750 terabytes of information — sufficient by themselves to exceed the size of the surface Web forty times”
“On average, deep Web sites receive fifty per cent greater monthly traffic than surface sites and are more highly linked to than surface sites; however, the typical (median) deep Web site is not well known to the Internet-searching public”
” The deep Web is the largest growing category of new information on the Internet”
” Deep Web sites tend to be narrower, with deeper content, than conventional surface sites”
” Total quality content of the deep Web is 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than that of the surface Web”

DEEP WEB

The Deep Web is the content that resides in searchable databases, the results from which can only be discovered by a direct query. Without the directed query, the database does not publish the result. When queried, Deep Web sites post their results as dynamic Web pages in real-time. Though these dynamic pages have a unique URL address that allows them to be retrieved again later, they are not persistent.

The invisible web consists of files, images and web sites that, for a variety of reasons, cannot be indexed by popular search engines. The deep web is qualitatively different from the surface web. Deep web sources store their content in searchable databases that only produce results dynamically in response to a direct request. But a direct query is a “one at a time” laborious way to search. Deep web’s search technology automates the process of making dozens of direct queries simultaneously using multiple-thread technology.

The Deep Web is made up of hundreds of thousands of publicly accessible databases and is approximately 500 times bigger than the surface Web.

SIZE OF DEEPWEB

Estimates based on extrapolations from a study done at University of California, Berkeley in 2001, speculate that the deep Web consists of about 7,500 terabytes. More accurate estimates are available for the number of resources in the deep Web: He detected around 300,000 deep web sites in the entire Web in 2004, and, according to Shestakov, around 14,000 deep web sites existed in the Russian part of the Web in 2006.

DeepPie

NAMING

Bergman, in a seminal paper on the deep Web published in the Journal of Electronic Publishing, mentioned that Jill Ellsworth used the term invisible Web in 1994 to refer to websites that were not registered with any search engine. Bergman cited a January 1996 article by Frank Garcia
“It would be a site that’s possibly reasonably designed, but they didn’t bother to register it with any of the search engines. So, no one can find them! You’re hidden. I call that the invisible Web.”
Another early use of the term Invisible Web was by Bruce Mount and Matthew B. Koll of Personal Library Software, in a description of the @1 deep Web tool found in a December 1996 press release.
The first use of the specific term deep Web, now generally accepted, occurred in the aforementioned 2001 Bergman study.

DEEP RESOURCES

Deep Web resources may be classified into one or more of the following categories:

CRAWLING THE DEEP WEB

Accessing

To discover content on the Web, search engines use web crawlers that follow hyperlinks through known protocol virtual port numbers. This technique is ideal for discovering resources on the surface Web but is often ineffective at finding deep Web resources. For example, these crawlers do not attempt to find dynamic pages that are the result of database queries due to the infinite number of queries that are possible. It has been noted that this can be (partially) overcome by providing links to query results, but this could unintentionally inflate the popularity for a member of the deep Web. In 2005, Yahoo! made a small part of the deep Web searchable by releasing Yahoo! Subscriptions. This search engine searches through a few subscription-only Web sites. Some subscription websites display their full content to search engine robots so they will show up in user searches, but then show users a login or subscription page when they click a link from the search engine results page.

Crawling the deep Web

Researchers have been exploring how the deep Web can be crawled in an automatic fashion. In 2001, Sriram Raghavan and Hector Garcia-Molina presented an architectural model for a hidden-Web crawler that used key terms provided by users or collected from the query interfaces to query a Web form and crawl the deep Web resources. Alexandros Ntoulas, Petros Zerfos, and Junghoo Cho of UCLA created a hidden-Web crawler that automatically generated meaningful queries to issue against search forms. Several form query languages (e.g., DEQUEL) have been proposed that, besides issuing a query, also allow to extract structured data from result pages. Commercial search engines have begun exploring alternative methods to crawl the deep Web. The Sitemap Protocol (first developed by Google) and mod oai are mechanisms that allow search engines and other interested parties to discover deep Web resources on particular Web servers. Both mechanisms allow Web servers to advertise the URLs that are accessible on them, thereby allowing automatic discovery of resources that are not directly linked to the surface Web. Google’s deep Web surfacing system pre-computes submissions for each HTML form and adds the resulting HTML pages into the Google search engine index. The surfaced results account for a thousand queries per second to deep Web content. In this system, the pre-computation of submissions is done using three algorithms:

THE LEVELS OF INTERNET

Level 0: Common Web

The first level of internet is the common web which we normally use in our daily life. It contains that part of internet where we carry out our normal works like browsing of social networks, movie, songs downloads, mail clients and most of our daily internet applications confine to this level. Most websites and data on databases can be easily retrieved at this level using a simple web search. These web searches through various search engines as Google carry out an indexed search of the given keyword and retrieve real time web pages to the user. The users enter data into forms as logins and pages are displayed with dynamic URLs, these URLs can be used again to retrieve the same page whenever we like.

Some common examples of common websites are:

LEVEL 1: Surface Web

he Next level of internet is called the surface web it resides just below the common web and it is almost same as the common web it also contains mostly easily available contents and documents. Most pages that confine to this area of internet are the foreign social networks, Temporary Email services, MySQL databases etc.
Its not difficult to reach this portion of web a simple web search can crawl to these depths easily. We don’t need any specific query or application to venture the surface web

Some of the common websites of surface web are:

Level 2: Bergie Web

The second level of internet is called The Bergie Web. It contains most of the FTP Servers, Google locked results, Honeypots, Chans.
Most of the internet reside in this part of internet we can access this level easily with our browser without any third party software, bridge or proxy.

FTP Server :

An FTP server is a software.html application running the File Transfer Protocol(FTP), which is the protocol for exchanging files over the Internet.

Honeypots :

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect, or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems. Generally it consists of a computer, data, or a network site that appears to be part of a network, but is actually isolated and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource of value to attackers.

4Chan:

4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Users generally post anonymously, with the most recent posts appearing above the rest. 4chan is split into various boards with their own specific content and guidelines. Registration is not required, nor is it possible (except for staff.)

RSC (Reconfigurable Super Computing) :

High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing (HPRC) is a computer architecture combining reconfigurable computing-based accelerators like field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) with CPUs, manycore microprocessors, or other parallel computing systems. This heterogeneous systems technique is used in computing research and especially in supercomputing. A 2008 paper reported speed-up factors of more than 4 orders of magnitude and energy saving factors by up to almost 4 orders of magnitude. Some supercomputer firms offer heterogeneous processing blocks including FPGAs as accelerators. One research area is the twin-paradigm programming tool flow productivity obtained for such heterogeneous systems.The US National Science Foundation has a center for high-performance reconfigurable computing (CHREC).In April 2011 the fourth Many-core and Reconfigurable Supercomputing Conference was held in Europe.

Level 3: Deep Web

The actual Deep Web begins from the third level beyond this point we require a direct query to the databases and URLs of pages in this level are not a general string of characters but rather a random string which unlike www.facebook.com or www.google.com appears to be somewhat like http://kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
To access the top levels we just need a proxy server however to access the bottom levels we need The Onion Router (TOR).

Proxy:

In computer networks, a proxy server is a server (a computer system or an application) that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server and the proxy server evaluates the request as a way to simplify and control its complexity. Today, most proxies are web proxies, facilitating access to content on the World Wide Web.

TOR:

tor-structure

Tor (originally short for The Onion Router) is free software for enabling online anonymity. Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide volunteer network consisting of thousands of relays to conceal a user’s location or usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace Internet activity, including “visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms”, back to the user and is intended to protect users’ personal privacy, freedom, and ability to conduct confidential business by keeping their internet activities from being monitored.”Onion Routing” refers to the layers of the encryption used. The original data, including its destination, are encrypted and re-encrypted multiple times, and sent through a virtual circuit comprising successive, randomly selected Tor relays. Each relay decrypts a “layer” of encryption to reveal only the next relay in the circuit in order to pass the remaining encrypted data on to it. The final relay decrypts the last layer of encryption and sends the original data, without revealing or even knowing its sender, to the destination. This method reduces the chance of the original data being understood in transit and, more notably, conceals the routing of it.This level of internet contains mostly illegal contents ranging from Child Porn, Gore contents, Sex Tapes, Celebrity Scandals, VIP Gossips, Hackers, Virus Information, Suicides, FTP Specific servers, Computer Security, XSS worms, Mathematical research, Supercomputing, Hacking information, Node transfer, Data Analysis, Black Market, Drug Store etc

Level 4: Charter Web

The next level after the third level is The Charter Web the fourth level of internet like the third level the top level of this portion can be accessed by TOR however to access the bottom levels we need a Closed shell System, which require a heavy amount of shell computing.
Most of the contents found here are illegal and banned items.
Sites in this area for example are Hardcandy, Onion IB, The Hidden wiki, Silk Route
Silk Route is a drug store providing illegal and banned drugs we can easily buy drugs anonymously from Silkroute via Bit Coins of dollars.

Other than these we can also find a great amount of Banned Videos, Banned Books, Banned Movies, and Questionable Visual Materials.
Most of the assassination networks are found in these levels there are sites which provide assassins, bounty hunter etc.
Other than these there are also different trades taking place in this level including rare animal trade, Human trafficking, Corporate Deals, Multibillion dollar deals and most of the black market.

Apart from these illegal contents there are also documents of hidden experiments and ongoing research like we can find contents on Tesla Experiment plans, Crystalline power metrics, Gadolinium Gallium Garnet Quantum Electronic Processors(GGGQEP), Artificial super intelligence and other various experiments and research details

Crystalline Power MetricsMaterials

Science is an inter-disciplinary field that studies the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic scales and their macroscopic properties. In this science, a Crystal is defined as ‘a solid substance in which the atoms, molecules or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern that extends in all three Spatial dimensions‘. But Crystalline energy is an omnipotent power source that has implications far beyond the understanding of modern science.
At the onset of World War II, a Theoretical Physicist named Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer was working as a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. At that time in history, there was an increasing demand for a certain type of Crystal called quartz, which is a naturally occurring form of Silicon. It was quartz Crystals that were used in radios that could be tuned to specific frequencies. And the production of quartz frequency control Crystals rated as one of the highest U.S. military priorities, second only to atomic energy.

Crystalline Power MetricsMaterials

(GGG, Gd3Ga5O12) is a synthetic crystalline material of the garnet group, with good mechanical, thermal, and optical properties. It is typically colorless. It has cubic lattice, density 7.08 g/cm³ and Mohs hardness is variously noted as 6.5 and 7.5. Its crystals are made by Czochralski method and can be made with addition of various dopants for modification of color. It is used in fabrication of various optical components and as substrate material for magneto–optical films (magnetic bubble memory). You only need three lasers to write the data and one to read. It’s the same technology as 3D glass etching. If you double its size to 10cm^3, then you have 8 times the storage, and even if you are not atomically precise, you could hold two internets.

Tesla Experiment Plans

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, engineer, mechanical, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. He did research on free energy which would provide better power supply in less cost.
Copper wire alternating with iron bits works better than fiber optics for data transfer until a certain point. Also, it is much easier to make. Its shape is similar to that of a chain, but a certain difference. It is hidden, because it could pose a threat to the oil industry
Other than this information there is a sea of other information in this level mostly illegal and few research and invention based like CAIMEO an artificial super intelligence etc.

Level 5: Marianas Web

Most of the information which can affect us directly resides in this level unlike our previous levels which can be reached either by proxy, TOR or a closed shell system we can’t just reach this level so easily it is believe that this level is locked and we need to solve quantum equations to break that lock.
In plain sense to access this level we need a quantum computer. Contents in this level range from various things to different things as heavily illegal contents as Snuff Porn, Heavy Child Porn, Jailbaits to numerous research plans and blue prints. Information of human experiment successes by Nazi scientist during World War II and work of Josef Mengele a Nazi scientist who conducted different human experiments at that time, research paper and documents of these experiments can be found in this level.

Quantum Computation

A quantum computer is a computation device that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), quantum computation uses quantum properties to represent data and perform operations on these data. A theoretical model is the quantum Turing machine, also known as the universal quantum computer. Quantum computers share theoretical similarities with non-deterministic and probabilistic computers. One example is the ability to be in more than one state simultaneously. The field of quantum computing was first introduced by Yuri Manin in 1980 and Richard Feynman in 1981. A quantum computer with spins as quantum bits was also formulated for use as a quantum space-time in 1969.
Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, experiments have been carried out in which quantum computational operations were executed on a very small number of qubits (quantum bits).Both practical and theoretical research continues, and many national government and military funding agencies support quantum computing research to develop quantum computers for both civilian and national security purposes, such as cryptanalysis.
Large-scale quantum computers will be able to solve certain problems much faster than any classical computer using the best currently known algorithms, like integer factorization using Shor’s algorithm or the simulation of quantum many-body systems. There exist quantum algorithms, such as Simon’s algorithm, which run faster than any possible probabilistic classical algorithm. Given sufficient computational resources, a classical computer could be made to simulate any quantum algorithm; quantum computation does not violate the Church–Turing thesis. However, the computational basis of 500 qubits, for example, would already be too large to be represented on a classical computer because it would require 2500 complete values to be stored.

Fig: The Bloch sphere is a representation of a qubit, the fundamental building block of quantum computers.

The Unknown Levels

Beyond the fifth level it is not yet known properly if there are any more levels in the hierarchy of internet however it is still believed that beyond the fifth level there are three more levels the 6th, 7th and 8th level
Most people think that there are 8 layers in total. the last one being the primarch system. you need quantum computing to get past the 6th layer. and this is where things get really tough. The 7th layer is where the big players are. They are all trying to stop each other.
Basically there are hundreds of million (or billion) dollar operations gunning for control.

Level 8 is impossible to access directly. The primarch system is literally the thing controlling the internet atm. no government has control of it. in fact nobody even knows what it IS. It’s an anomaly that basically was discovered by super deep web scans in the early 2000’s.
The system is unresponsive but it sends out unalterable commands to the entire net randomly.

CONCLUSION:

The Deep Web as we know is that part of Internet which can’t be indexed by regular search engines. Most of the internet is hidden from us and to access it we need proxy and TOR to a certain depth beyond which we need more refined and advance technologies as closed shell systems and quantum computers.

The Deep Web contains regular files as text, image or videos as those of surface web however most of these documents are illegal ranging from hacking to illegal product of underage materials both audio and visual and terrorist networks to underground black markets and assassination network.

Other than most illegal of contents there is also a vast resource of information as books and other documents as research papers, blue prints, experiment details and so on.

REFERENCES:

Durlabh Gogoi
IT Consultant, Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Dhemaji
arTMAchine - Freelance Developer

Environmental Crisis – A Challenge To Our Survival

Environmental Crisis

This quote has certainly touched upon the environmental crisis that has now engulfed the whole world and has shed light on what humans either as leaders of nations or as individuals should act to prevent this problem. World Environment Day in this respect is a significant move to create awareness among people. In this context this article is also an attempt to motivate people for taking appropriate measures against such a problem.
When we speak of environment, we mean by it that concept that comprises a wide range of aspects or entire conditions in which an organic or inorganic matter exists. Briefly speaking, it means the whole sum of external conditions that surround us or to speak otherwise, all the matters that it surrounds are its constituents. However, these constituents are not independent entities. They are rather dependent on each other and form a interrelation among them, and this interrelatedness that exists particularly between organism and biophysical environment is the basis of ecological balance which is so important for survival and abundance of organism. As Zahid Husain says, “Interconnectedness among various components of environment in which nature always strikes a balance to maintain its harmonious functioning is essence of ecology. Ecological study systematically explores and discerns the intricacy involved in interactions in a working – whole or set of environment on which depend survival of an organism.”

Thus, the environment of this planet earth is of very complex nature. Man cannot survive without this environment. He is, in fact, an essential part of the highly complex web of living organisms which we can call the biosphere. But the harm done to any part of the biosphere or ecological balance would reflect on human welfare, and this is what has happened today in environment all over the world. The onset of environmental degradation which the twentieth century had witnessed has now become a gruesome problem for human concern, and therefore, this new millennium has given this problem top priority in its agenda, thinking that other problems are directly or indirectly related with this problem.

So far the number of the surveys that have been carried out has revealed that four global trends have been of practical concern. These are: (a) population growth and economic development (b) a decline of vital life-support ecosystems, (c) global atmospheric changes, and (d) a loss of biodiversity. Each of these issues is the prime cause for environmental degradation, affecting human life on this planet.

Now, as for population growth it is said that human population started growing faster and faster since 20th century last, particularly since the industrial revolution. It got doubled in 40 years between 1950 and 1990 to cross five billion. By 2000 AD it has touched 6.3 billion and by 2010 it has grown to 7 billion. And according to most recent projections from the U.N. Population Division, the world population in 2050 could be 8.9 billion. Thus the population growth in the world is phenomenal, though such a growth in developed countries is less than that in underdeveloped countries.

This population explosion, however, is beyond sustaining capacity of the Earth’s resources. It has increased pressure on land, water and all other resources. Scarcity of food and drinking water are also the results of population growth. Therefore, population growth must be checked or controlled by adopting family planning measures. Of course, such a planning does not mean very little or negative growths. It only means that the rates of growth should be such that they do not put pressure on the nature and impede the comfortable experience of life.

Another problem that concerns human beings is the gradual decline of ecosystems, that is to say, extinction of vital resources that support life and economy of human beings. According to United Nation’s report (PAGE) these resources are necessary to meet the dual demand of increasing population and affluence-driven consumption per person. But the attitude and behavior of human beings have been unsympathetic towards these and have been the main causes of their being extinct in this world. Today the world has seen ground-water supplies depleted, agricultural soil degraded, oceans overfished, and forests cut faster than they can regrow. Thus man himself has brought destruction to his environment. But he must be aware of this environmental picture and should acquire knowledge to assess the present condition and to move toward deliberate and wise management of natural ecosystems.

The most serious problem is the danger arising out of the atmospheric changes or pollution. This problem has been a relatively local problem affecting a given river, lake or the air in a city. But today scientists are analyzing pollution on a global scale. For instance, depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer has been a matter of grave concern all over the world. Again a more serious problem today is the problem of global climate change due to carbon dioxide (CO2) which is an unavoidable bi-product of burning fossil fuels- crude oil, coal and natural gas. Because of the large amount of fossil fuels currently being burned, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have already increased and is increasing by 0.4% per year, and there is no end iof this increase, given our dependency on fossil fuels.

Carbon dioxide is a natural component of the lower atmosphere, along with nitrogen and oxygen. It is required by plants for photosynthesis and is important to the Earth- atmosphere energy system. Carbon dioxide gas is transparent to incoming light from the Sun, but absorbs infrared (heat) energy radiated from Earth surface, thus slowing the loss of this energy to space. The absorption of heat energy by carbon dioxide warms the lower atmosphere in a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Although the concentration of CO2 is a small percentage of the atmosphere, even slight increase in the volume of the gas affects temperatures and this effect of air temperature has been continuing from 1880 to the present. Referring to this trend, the IPCC states in their report released in 2000 that anthropogenic greenhouse gases (those due to human activities) have contributed substantially to global warming over the last 50 years.

But it should be said that stabilizing the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is, however, essential to stabilizing the global climate itself, and this cannot be accomplished, unless the current rate of use of fossil fuels is seriously reduced. This is, in fact, one of the defining environmental issues of the 21 st century.

Another problem of concern is the loss of Biodiversity. This problem has been there, because rapidly growing population along with increasing consumption is accelerating the conversion of forests, grasslands, and wetlands to agriculture and urban development. The inevitable result is the loss of the wild plants and animals that occupy those natural habitats. If the species involved have no populations at other locations, they are doomed to extinction by this process of alteration. Pollution also degrades habitats, destroying the species. Further innumerable plants and animals are subjected to exploitation for their commercial value. Hunters also hunt, kill and sell them illegally, even though there is law to protect them. Thus the earth is rapidly losing many of its species.

But what is the result of losing plants and animals? The result is very critical, affecting many areas of human acts. Such a loss can curtail development in agriculture and in the area of medicine. Maintenance of the stability of natural systems and its recovery after being disturbed by natural calamities will also be affected because of the loss of biodiversity. Not only that we will be deprived of essential goods and services of various living organisms. Thus, we threaten our own well-being, when we diminish the biodiversity within those natural systems. There are also aesthetic and moral grounds for maintaining biodiversity. Shall we continue to erase living species from the planet, or do we have a moral responsibility to protect and preserve the amazing diversity of life on this planet? Once a species is gone, it is gone forever.

In the context of above discussion, a question now arises: What can we do to move our civilization in the direction of a long-term sustainable relationship with the natural world? It is not easy to answer this question. Yet according to experts we can outline two sets of unifying themes- strategic and integrative themes that can be applied to giving direction to the interactions between human and natural systems. Strategic theme refers to the concept of sustainability, ethical teaching and sound science. Of these sustainability means that a system is sustainable, if it can be continued indefinitely, without depleting any of the material or energy resources required to keep it running.
This concept can be applied to both ecosystems and human society. When applied to ecosystems, it means sustainable ecosystems which stand for entire natural systems that persist over time by recycling nutrients and maintaining a diversity of species in balance and by using the Sun as a source of sustainable energy. And when applied to human societies it means a sustainable society which is in balance with the natural world. Such a society continues generation after generation, without depleting its resource base by exceeding sustainable yields or without producing pollutants in excess of nature’s capacity to absorb them. But till this day human society has remained an unsustainable society. For, what scientific and technological development it has achieved so far is only at the cost of natural resources and has brought only the collapse to the inter-related systems of this earth. Therefore such a development cannot be termed sustainable, it is unsustainable development.

This concept of unsustainable development of human society continued to be a matter of concern till a clear discussion on sustainable development emerged on an international level in1992, in the UN Conference on Environment and Development, popularly known as Earth Summit, held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In that Summit the World Conference in its final report defined sustainable development as a form of development or progress “that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Further the Commission says that any development activity can be sustainable, if it is “…a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential, and to improve their quality of life, in ways which simultaneously protects and enhance the Earth’s life support systems.” Thus the basic idea of sustainable development is to maintain and improve the well-being of both humans and ecosystems. People also have embraced this concept of sustainable development. In fact, they should uphold it as an ideal, just as they accept justice, equality and freedom as their ideals.

Other strategic themes apart from sustainable development are environmental ethics or earth ethics and sound science. Environmental ethics teaches what we ought to do to face and solve the practical problem like environmental degradation or it tells us that to save environment from being destroyed is our moral duty. Sound science, on the other hand, is the basis for our understanding of how the world works and how human systems interact with it. It fulfills the need for more scientific study of the status and trends in global ecosystems and ways in which human systems affect them.

There are also other themes besides the above strategic themes. These themes called integrative themes are ecosystem capital, policy and politics and globalization. All these are also necessary to deal with the interactions between human beings and natural world.
Environmental crisis is, thus, a big challenge to our very survival on this planet. Unless we are aware of this problem and try to solve it with sincerity civil order will break down. As one observer says, “If we don’t change direction, we will end up where we are heading.”

REFERENCES:

Nagendra Nath Deka

Students Satisfaction in Distance Learning Programme Reference To (IDOL), Guwahati University

idol

ABSTRACT

Higher Education provides and supplies a wide range of sophisticated manpower needed for the development of a nation. The citizens always look for attainment of individual progress by joining the mainstream system. It is expected that the system must be accessible to an optimum level of those citizen who are capable of pursuing higher studies. Taking into considerations the factor of increasing rate of enrolment in Higher Education, the formal system cannot fulfil the needs of Higher Education and it was thought to divert the overflow of entrance through creation of alternate channels of higher education. In this context the open learning system has been initiated to augment opportunities for higher education, as an instrument of democratizing education and to make it a lifelong process. There are many distance education institutes all over the world which are providing higher education through distance mode. But the effectiveness of distance education system based on the satisfaction of distance learners. This paper is an attempt to understand the satisfaction of distance learners’ special reference to Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL).Higher Education provides and supplies a wide range of sophisticated manpower needed for the development of a nation. The citizens always look for attainment of individual progress by joining the mainstream system. It is expected that the system must be accessible to an optimum level of those citizen who are capable of pursuing higher studies. Taking into considerations the factor of increasing rate of enrolment in Higher Education, the formal system cannot fulfil the needs of Higher Education and it was thought to divert the overflow of entrance through creation of alternate channels of higher education. In this context the open learning system has been initiated to augment opportunities for higher education, as an instrument of democratizing education and to make it a lifelong process. There are many distance education institutes all over the world which are providing higher education through distance mode. But the effectiveness of distance education system based on the satisfaction of distance learners. This paper is an attempt to understand the satisfaction of distance learners’ special reference to Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL).

INTRODUCTION

Higher Education provides and supplies a wide range of sophisticated manpower needed for the development of a Nation. The open learning system has been initiated to augment opportunities for Higher Education, as an instrument of democratizing education, and to make it a lifelong process. Teaching and learning by correspondence is the beginning of what is today called Distance Education. In a developing country like India, Distance Education is well suited to meet the increasing needs and aspirations of clientele in Higher Education. Today about 3.6 million students all over the India have enrolled in distance learning system, which is 28% of the total enrolment in Higher Education. The share and role of distance education in catering to Higher Education is highly significant and is likely to increasing in the coming decades. The University of London was the first University to offer distance learning degree establishing its ‘External Programme’ in 1958. But the credit of starting the first Open University goes to Britain. In the 1960 the UK Labour Government under Harrold Wilson approved the setting up of ‘The University the Air’ presently known as UK Open University. Since then each region has developed its own form of distance education and open learning system in accordance with local resources, target groups and philosophy of the organizations which provide the programmes ( Lokesh Koul, sixth survey of Educational Research , p. 169). In North East region also many distance education institutes are providing Higher Education through distance mode. IDOL, GU is one of the famous institute of distance education in North East region formerly known as Post Graduate Correspondence School ( PGCS). The effectiveness of distance education system based on the satisfaction of the distance learners. So it is very important to know the satisfaction level of learners of IDOL.

INSTITUTE OF DISTANCE AND OPEN LEARNING (IDOL), GU

As the name indicates ‘Institute of Distance and Open Learning’, this is an institute of Distance Education under Gauhati University. It is well known to all that Gauhati University was established in 1948. The University has completed 50 years in 1998. On the eve of its Golden Jubilee year it established Institute of Distance and open learning. It was formerly known as post Graduate Correspondence School (PGCS). The man motto of IDOL is Quality Higher Education for all.
The institute extending its reach to every nook and corner of North East reason and it has become ‘The peoples University’ of the North east exactly 140 years after University of London opened its door even to a young shoemaker who studies in his great. The Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) completed 14 years of successful existence and aims to continue the mission of spreading and providing quality education to the students. IDOL started its mission in 1998 with 514 students and 6 courses. But the institute has now grown to offer 29 programmes with more than 30 thousand in various programmes and so far more than six thousand candidates have qualified candidates have qualified themselves for various degrees/diplomas. The alumni of IDOL, G.U. are employed in Universities, colleges, schools and in many prestigious organizations of the country. Many successes in getting promotion in their carrier after acquiring the post graduate degree through distance learning. The motto of reaching the hither to unreached has entered the role of the University for opening new avenues for learning for the marginalized section of the society. The establishment of IDOL has added a new dimension in the domain of higher education in the region by reaching every nook and corner of the region and providing greater accessibility of higher education to a large number of populations.
To fulfil the dreams of its pioneers, i.e. to provide higher education to the people north east region, Guwahati University trying to provide higher education to the people of the region not only by conventional class room made but also spreading its wings to impart education through open and distance made since inception, the institute of distance and open learning has been able to contribute to the educational history of North- East by demo crating higher education in real sense of the term. The institution with greater accessibility provides equal opportunity to large number of aspirants, who otherwise have to drop their lifelong ambition to pursue higher education due to limited number in the University classes and the officiated colleges. Widely recognized as the pioneering institute in the arena of Distance and Open Learning, IDOL has successfully met the increasing demands for higher education in the region.

OBJECTIVES

To study the satisfaction level of distance learners towards student support services and evaluation system of IDOL, GU.

METHODOLOGY

The study is based on both secondary and primary sources of information collected through a self structured questionnaire for the distance learners. The sample of the study consists of main study centre of IDOL, GU. A sample of 100 students was selected through convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed through using simple percentage. The present study is delimited to only the learners of M. A. Course of the main study centre of IDOL, GU. Questionnaire to the learners were used as tools of together data. The data is tabulated, interpreted and conclusions drawn presented in the following pages.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The data is tabulated, interpreted and conclusions drawn presented in the following pages.

LEARNERS SATISFACTION

The following data shows the trend of responses of the sample of distance education learners of IDOL towards student support services and evaluation also. The trend is reported as percentage on a three point scale i. e. satisfied, undecided and dissatisfied. The learners were asked to express their satisfaction on the following areas-

As seen from the above table 81% of the sample is of the opinion that IDOL offer adequate no. Of courses .In the same way 73% expressed that courses are suitable to the needs of the students. 68% feel that the fee is very reasonable. 86% is of the opinion that more job oriented courses are to be introduced. A good number of respondents i.e. 92% expressed their satisfaction and gave a positive reply and said that there is freedom for the learners to choose their course. Again, 65% expressed that curriculum is very relevant to students needs. Regarding introduction of teacher education programme maximum number of respondents’ i. e. 95% gave positive opinion.

As can be seen from table 2 it is notable that 40% respondents admit that course materials are supplied in time. 53% are of the opinion that the reading materials are very good. 69% respondents opined that the syllabus relating to the course is proper for them. 72% expressed that the language of the study material is very easy and only 38% sample are of the opinion that the course material covers the entire syllabus.

Towards assessment and evaluation system of IDOL it can be reported that 63% respondents satisfied and said that assignment approach is properly followed. 69% samples are of the opinion that they have received the assignment in time. Again 76% expressed that IDOL gives proper time to submit the assignment. Learners are totally dissatisfied with the time of declaration of exam result. A negligible number of respondents’ i.e.5% only support that IDOL declared exam result timely.62% respondents expressed their satisfaction towards the marks/ grade provided to them and 64% support that the examination system of IDOL is transparent.

It can be seen from the above table that the opinion of the sample towards the benefits of PCP and timings of PCP are almost same i.e. 71 and 68%. 61% sample expressed that the lecture of the contact programme is very effective and 62% sample opined that counselling programme helps in developing good study habits but 85% support that counselling programme should be free of cost. The overall satisfaction of the learners regarding contact programme and counselling services are good.

As seen from table 5 that learners are not very satisfied with SSS because the no of positive response of the sample are below 50%. Among the sample only 46% are of the opinion that IDOL provides SMS service to learners. So IDOL should improve the student support services to increase the satisfaction of the learners.

CONCLUSION

Distance education is a multimedia teaching learning system. This innovative system has earned credibility all over the world as an effective alternate channel for imparting higher education to varied clientele and target groups. This system is of special relevance to the developing countries for meeting the future educational demands of the people and for coping with the urgent needs of updating knowledge and skills. In the context of IDOL it can be concluded that IDOL plays a very significant role in providing Higher Education. There are gradual increases of student enrolment in distance learning system of IDOL.

REFERENCES

Sangita Barman
Assistant Professor Department of Education, Saraighat College, Changsari

Jemubhai Popatlal Patel

Character analysis is an essential part of literary study. It helps to conjecture social norms and an indivdual’s capacity to adjust in changing social environment .

Culture, civilization, rationalism are some words related only to mankind. A human society is a place where man shares his feelings, emotions and thoughts. It is a system that teaches him culture and civility. It reforms his behaviour, rebuilds his character and gives him an identity. Desai in her novel “The Inheritance of Loss” focuses on the complexities of Indian cultural life in the postcolonial era and the frustration of Indian immigrants in America. Jemubhai is one of such Indian immigrants.

Jemubhai is an old, retired judge living at Cho Oyu, an isolated house away from the populated area in Kalimpong. The other inhabitants of Cho Oyu are the judge’s granddaughter Sai, the cook who had been working for the judge for many years, and the judge’s pet dog Mutt. The judge is embittered, eccentric and arrogant. His past often reappears in his present.

 

The Judge’s life aloof from his neighbours and relatives was disturbed by the presence of his granddaughter Sai. When Sai arrived at Chu Oyu, with a trunk written ‘Miss S. Mistry, St. Augustine’s Convent’, the judge was reminded of his first journey to England with a black trunk on which was written ‘Mr. J.P. Patel, SS Strathnaver’. The judge was very upset by Sai’s arrival which stirred up his unpleasant memories which he tried hard to keep suppressed in his sub-conscious mind.

Jemubhai Papatlal Patel was born in 1919, to a peasant family, ‘at the outskirts of Piphit’ which has all the aspects of a typical Indian village. Piphit, the town was a place where people of different religions and multiprofessions came for business.

Jemubhai, however, lived under a palm roof full of rats upto the age of twenty. His father eked out a meager living, arranging for false witnesses in court cases. He was proud of his profession.

Jemubhai was brought up in a very conservative family where males were given all opportunities. Being the only son of the family, Jemu was offered the best of everything, whatever it was love or food, unlike the daughters of the family. Everybody his mother massaged his hair to stimulate his brains, and fed him with milk full of cream. Jemu’s parents were superstitious. A tiny bag of camphor which was prayed over and thumb-printed red and yellow with ‘tikka’ marks was hung about Jemu’s neck to safeguard him from illness.

Again when Jemu left for England in a ship for higher education, his father told him to throw a coconut into the water of the Indian Ocean, for it was believed to be good for his long journey. But Jemu refused to do that.

Jemu’s father sent him to Bishop Cotton School. When Jemu entered the school gate he saw a portrait of Queen Victoria and was impressed by her look

When Jemubhai went to Cambridge for higher study, he was not culturally prepared for the English society. He could not talk like the English people. His condition was so pathetic that he hardly opened his mouth as his English had the Gujrati accent.

He could not mix freely with the opposite sex. He carried about him a distinct Indian smell and he was afraid to voice his thoughts, though his mind was full of words unuttered. The young and the beautiful girls held their nose and said:-

“Phew, he stinks of curry!”

Even the ugly looking aged ladies did not seek his company. He forgot how to laugh, became a stranger to himself. Even on his journey back to India, he sat away from others in the ship.

Till the end of his life, he feared to reveal himself without socks and shoes and pretended to be someone he was not.

Jemubhai’s hatred for his Indian origin made him live like an alien in his own country. Again he envied the British as he could not be like them. However, after returning to India, he pretended to be English. That he believed in the superiority of the English language and culture is evident, when he tried to influence a soldier by speaking in British accent.

“Get out of my way!”

When the judge came out of his home to search for his lost dog, and the soldier told him to go back home because of the curfew imposed there, he reacted in that way.

Even his most emotional and desperate moments he expressed himself in English. And he called his dog Mutt in English, though it was pathetically funny as Mutt was not anywhere around him to response to his words.

Jemubhai never had any attachment to his native place Piphit, his ancestral home, his parents love and his typically Indian wife Nimi. Nor was he proud of his own language, culture and traditions. That he lacked sufficient knowledge of Hindi is evident from one example. The judge heard his cases in Hindi. But his stenographer recorded it in Urdu, and then the judge translated the cases into a second record in English. But the correctness of his translations was not beyond doubt, as his command of Hindi and Urdu was weak.

After becoming a judge Jemubhai lived like a European ‘Sahib’, not like an Indian. At 4:30, he was served specially prepared tea and drop scones. He saw them with wrinkled forehead as if he was brooding over something else more important. At 5:30, he used to go into the countryside where there were lots of partridges and quails, migrating birds which came in October. He always took with him a fishing rod and gun, and came back without hunting anything. The cook saved his prestige by cooking “roast bastard”, of a chicken ‘just as in the Englishman’s favorite joke book of natives using incorrect English”. While eating ‘roast bastard’ the judge sometimes, felt as if he was the subject of the joke.

Just after returning from England, his newly acquired habits shocked his relatives. When Jemu searched for the powder puff that he brought from England, his mother was worried thinking whether he had any skin disease. One of his sister commented that he had been sent abroad to become a gentlemen, instead he became a lady. For, according to them, only ladies used powder puffs.

Jemubhai tried to forget his own origin and aspired to be what he could not. He was embarrassed by his mother’s love.

He threw away the bundle of puris, onions, green chillies, pickles and salt, and a banana which his mother packed for him during his long journey overseas. She thought her son might lack the courage to go to the dinning saloon on the ship, as he did not have the habit of eating food with knife and fork, though after coming from England, he would eat only with knife and fork.

Jemubhai was irritated by the thought that in her attempts to remove her son’s humiliation, she only added another. So, Jemu threw away his mother’s love and never felt guilty for it.

Jemubhai felt shame and pity for his father who was ‘‘a barely educated man venturing where he should not be.’’Jemu did not experience any emotions when he left his father on the dock as he sailed for England.

Jemubhai went to Cambridge as Jemubhai Papatlal Patel (J.P. Patel) and returning as J.P.P. he bought a ‘gravy boat’ on which was written J.P.P.

As his father admitted it, Jemubhai became a stranger to his family, after his return from England as an ICS officer. He started behaving like an outsider, an unfamiliar person in his own home in Piphit. He distanced himself from all that he was.

Towards the end of the novel, we find the judge in a state of repentance. When Mutt was stolen, the judge knelt down before God. He, who did not hesitate to reject his family prayers and who did not believe in a superstition (who was an atheist) prayed to God for Mutt. In fact, that the judge, who lost belief in humanity, believed in the tender affection of an animal was very strange.

At the end we find the judge as a loser who lost his valuable guns, his dearest dog Mutt and his dignity. That he began to lose his dignity, his self esteem was evident in the very beginning of the novel, when the rebels of Gorkhaland Movement ordered him to prepare tea.

It was really pathetic to find the old, retired judge who desperately searched for his lost dog, he, who never searched for any human company. Finally, he was found to be totally exhausted, emotionally, mentally and physically and finally faced reality that his dignified past was nothing but deception.

With bitterness he realized that he must pay for the injustice, the arrogance and lots of other sins he committed in his past.

Findings and Conclusion:

To sum up Jemubhai, having a family background rooted in Indian culture and traditions, was educated in English. He was accustomed to Indian village life in his early years. But when he was twenty, he went to study at Cambridge. However, when he saw the portrait of Queen Victoria in his school life, he felt the power and the influence of the British. He began to ignore his Indian culture and traditions and tried to merge himself in Western culture. But his humiliation caused by his Indian upbringing never allowed him to identify himself with the English society when he was in England. But after coming back to India, he did everything to imitate the English, not because he loved them more, but because he regarded their code of conduct as essential for a dignified life – style. Jemubhai fell into the contradictions between Indian and Western cultures. He lived like a shadow of what he desired to be.

A look into the character or Jemubhai reveals him as he was. He became a man despised in his own country and elsewhere. As a result of hatred, he was robbed at his own home by the GNLF rebels. He was alienated by the English people also. He was, in fact, a man without an identity, a man who denied his inborn identity, hankering after another that he could not acquire.

REFERENCES

Gitima Deka
Assistant Professor Department of English, Silapathar College