Completed Projects
Chin Refugees in Delhi
The report sheds light on the socio-economic circumstances of Chin ethnic refugees residing in Vikaspuri, one of the many sites in Delhi. These individuals escaped from Myanmar as a result of harassment by the military and the militants, who invaded their homes, stole money and burnt their homes and villages. The report also elaborates on the challenges women refugees face as they navigate between the rules of the institution and the ongoing processes that reinforce their gender roles in society. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of how gender affects the lives of refugee women and how they have adapted, and continue to adapt, their gender roles as they rebuild their lives, integrate into new communities, and create a sense of belonging.
The report explores the numerous challenges refugees encounter in various aspects of their lives, including the workplace, education, health, and their interactions with landowners and the broader community. The socio-economic circumstances refugees face prompt severe inquiries into the effectiveness of the UNHCR in providing support to refugees. The report underscores the daily hardships and distress experienced by refugees, highlighting the pressing need for assistance from the UNHCR’s and calling upon the global community to provide essential humanitarian assistance and aid.
Christian Contribution to Nation-building (Lancy Lobo and Denzil Fernandes)
Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India in 52 A.D., when St. Thomas, one of Jesus Christ’s apostles, travelled to the Malabar Coast in Southern India and established seven churches. This book explores the interactions between Christianity and the Indian people across various historical periods, highlighting the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Christianity in the Indian subcontinent is as old as Christianity itself, although Christians have consistently remained a small minority within the broader population. This book examines the influence of Christianity on Indian society, focusing on the cultural, economic, and intellectual contributions of Christians across various domains—including education, healthcare, social services, economic development, the arts, politics, public administration, and the armed forces.
The book examines key figures, organisations, and institutions to trace the significant role Christians have played in the country’s freedom struggle, nation-building efforts, and social development, leaving a lasting impact on the shaping of modern India. This book will appeal to general readers, students, and researchers in the fields of social science, religion, history, anthropology, sociology, and political science.
Sacred Ecology: Cosmological perspectives of flora and fauna in India (Subhadra M. Channa and Lancy Lobo)
This volume delves into the colonial past and identifies papers on nature and natural phenomenon that were deemed ‘primitive’ and ‘superstitious’ by those who narrated them and analysed them in the pages of the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, published from 1886 to 1936; the period covered by the papers that have been reproduced in this volume. However, they have been recast in the contemporary framework of environmentalism, indigenous wisdom and critical reflections on Western science and scientific methodology. The positivist method, or Western rationalism, was propagated during the time of these article’s publication through the political hegemony of colonial rule.
These papers were presented to criticise ‘primitive’ cultures and obscurantist thinking. Yet, each presents wisdom and knowledge about nature, which, if followed, would have averted much of the environmental distress that the world is facing today. These papers have been reproduced with a purpose: to show that real knowledge was discarded as garbage. The volume invites critical rethinking and advocates a revised version of rationalism, reconceptualising nature as sacred, moving away from anthropocentrism towards nature-centrism.