B. Datta Ray – författare

This series, running into five volumes, reflects the general attitude of people'' towards non-violence as a means to resolve various kinds of conflicts and to bring about peace and harmony in the world. Prepared under the joint auspices of Delhi Society of Non-violence, New Delhi, and International Centre of Gandhian Studies and Research, Gandhi Darshan, New Delhi, it addresses a host of issues'' pertaining to Gandhian World Order, nonviolence in action, socio-political thoughts of Gandhi, his concept of economy, and his views on education as well as self-realisation. Volume three, having 13 papers, deals with Gandhi''s socio-religious and political thoughts and their relevance in the era of liberalization and globalization. Going deep into his concepts of Satyagraha and Sarvodaya, it discusses in detail his views on religion, ethical and socio-economic implications of varna in Gandhian philosophy, and main features of Gandhian democracy.

This book makes a comparative study of decentralized democratic governance in the USA, Britain, France, Japan, Russia and India. Explaining the meaning, essential elements, rationale and importance of local government, it addresses issues concerning rural-urban reforms, finance and local revenue, people''s participation and central-local government relations. It also extends discussion on local governments of major cities of the world New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Delhi, Moscow, Paris and Greater London.

North East India with its large untapped hydel power, mineral resources, virgin forests, sturdy people and vast water resources remain in the backyard of development, in the twenty-first century the crucial challenge facing North East India is how to achieve a balance between economy and ecology in order to ensure sustainable social and economic development preserving the basic cultural matrix, ethical values and equalitarian ethos. This calls for a truly democratic society that seeks to achieve economic efficiency and ecological harmony for the eradication of poverty and promotion of total human welfare. It is being increasingly realized that the pluralistic society has a significant role to play in counterbalancing the tendency to state absolutism.These are some of the crucial areas of social science research to which the papers included in this volume are directed. Research and analysis of population, environment, land, food and food security are issues of vital interest of the problem of qualitative demographic development. For this we need the formulation of the appropriate development paradigm of North East India. The papers included in this volume depict the emerging social milieu of North East India and suggest areas of research for the promotion of the welfare of the people in a strategically vital area, known as North East India.

A tribe viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states, though some modem theorists hold that contemporary tribes can only be understood in terms of their relationship to states. Archaeologists continue to explore the development of pre-state tribes. Current research suggests that tribal structures constituted one type of adaptation to situations providing plentiful yet unpredictable resources. Such structures proved flexible enough to coordinate production and distribution of food in times of scarcity, without limiting or constraining people during times of surplus of world tribes. This includes comprehensive account of the socio cultural profile and development programmers of tribes of the world. An attempt has been made to include most of the tribes from the deferent parts of the world. This encyclopaedia will be much useful to students, teachers and scholars studying tribes in India and abroad.

The papers in this volume deal with the population dynamics, poverty and environment in North East India which are inter-linked. All processes of social and economical development planning must take into account, the demographic dimension, levels of poverty and the physical and social environment in which the people live. The right size of population and the human quality are important factors for social and economic development. The quality of life in terms of infrastructure like road, potable water, health services, education etc. is determined by the assured and required income level. Even in North-East India Tribal areas, the inbuilt environmental defence mechanism is fast breaking down. The volume analyses and suggests remedies for countering the degrading social situation. The towns are fortresses of wealth surrounded by hungry people, the victims of poverty. The poverty is due to low land-man ratio, dependence of the poor on wage income and their inability to find wage employment throughout the year in the villages. The papers included in this volume are an attempt to study the issues.