Back Issues
Jaunary - June 2007 (Vol. 7, No. 2)

1. Kuldip Nayar : Human Rights Diary

2. Dr. B. R. Deepak : Sino-Indian Boundary Question: Resolusion Must for a Chindia
This paper looks into the misjudgments and miscalculations, both from India and China before the outbreak of a brief border war in 1962. The Chinese perception that Nehru wanted to make Tibet as a ‘protectorate’ or ‘buffer’ between India and China by accepting the British legacy in Tibet, and the Indian perception that China showed mistrust for India from day one have been found holding no grounds after siphoning through vast Chinese, Indian and western sources. The author maintains that these perceptions were wrongly perceived as both India and China prior to the 1959 tried hard to avoid the conflict and attempted to resolve the crisis; however, China’s ‘victim’s psychology’ was brought into full play in the backdrop of India’s ‘tough posture’ on border on the one hand and macro and micro environments outside and inside China on the other when it decided in favor of a punitive action against India. Besides, various plausible solutions to the border resolution have been weighed and have suggested that the ‘package deal’ still remains the best possible solution to the problem. The author also posits that when both the countries have expressed their desire to develop and strengthen relations in various domains, it is high time that India and China resolve its long pending issue of border with strong political will, for CHINDIA and border cannot coexist.

3. Dr. Rakesh Hooja, IAS : The Contextuality of the Social Sciences and Social Science Research
The Social sciences initially emerged primarily in 19th Century Europe. Before that they had philosophy, law and church or religion based knowledge (and their combinations like canonical or church law as well as religion based philosophy), languages (including literature) maths and, following the European renaissance, some development of scientific study pertaining to the physical and biological sciences..... After World War II globally, and after independence in the Indian context, the Social Sciences started becoming more comparative, change oriented, multidisciplinary in terms of theory, and quantitative and mathematical in terms of research. The current belief is that economic growth or even development by itself is not enough, that societal/human development cannot be segregated or broken up disciplinewise since for example a farmer does not compartmentalize his life disciplinewise.

4. Dr.G.Palanithurai : Role of Panchayats in Social Development
Social development issues are conveniently relegated to the background from public discussion by the political class, and, as a result, India is ranked very low in the Human Development Report. Now issues of social development have been brought to the centre stage for public discussion. The newly created Panchayat institutions have started demonstrating their potential in addressing the key issues of social development in governance at the grassroots which has been perceived as an emerging alternative governance. This article is based on an action research done in fifty-four Gram Panchayats of Tamil Nadu in four districts on micro planning for social development. Social development activities have been prioritized in the perspective plan prepared by them and responsibilities have been earmarked to each and every group formed in the Panchayat area to carry out the activities mentioned in the plan. For many of the social development issues mentioned in the plan document, the Panchayat administration requires no money. It needs only commitment and initiative. Wherever Panchayat leaders are sensitive, committed, sincere, honest and transparent and work with the community, they perform well in the social development sector. In the micro plan preparation process people are sensitized and motivated to look at their life objectively and to take the initiative for social development. This micro plan exercise is unique in nature as it fixes the target and process only in terms of outcome.
By proper positioning of Panchayat institutions in the orbit of governance, constant capacity building of the Panchayat leaders and mobilizing the people for community activities, many of the social development issues can be addressed easily and this is being demonstrated through an action research. By doing so, the status and position of our children, women, marginalized and poor will be enhanced and our ranking in the Human Development Report will also be enhanced.

5. Dr. Shankar Prinja, Professor Sunder Lal, Dr. Amarjeet Singh and Dr Ramesh Verma : Role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Decentralized Village Health Planning in North India
Panchayats in India are an age old institution of elected representatives for governance at village level which have been empowered with clear areas of jurisdiction, adequate power, authority and funds commensurate with responsibilities. The Community Needs Assessment Approach (CNAA) under RCH program besides the ASHA scheme under National Rural Health Mission indicates government’s intention to decentralize the power by increasing the participation of the community partners including the panchayats in process of planning for health services starting from subcentre and village level. The study was done in district Rohtak, Haryana to ascertain the nature and extent of consultation done by ANM with PRI members and to determine the factors affecting such consultation. The study revealed that contact by Auxilliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) with the PRI members is low with 35% PRI members not being contacted even once during last six months. The sarpanches are contacted more frequently than panches and contacts with female sarpanches are more gainfully used by the ANM. The awareness among the PRI members regarding their responsibilities and the 73rd Constitutional amendment is very low (3.3%). The study recommends increased contact by ANM with PRI members on a regular basis to increase their involvement in planning for health services. Capacity of PRIs for undertaking a undertaking a meaningful role in delivery of health services should be built with suitable training.
Key Words : Panchayati Raj, Auxilliary Nurse Midwife, decentralization, CNAA.

6. Dr. Naidu Ashok : Secularism Re-examined
In India secularism in politics was adopted voluntarily by the Indian National Congress to cope with the multi-religious situation. When the Congress was formed a section of the Muslims and others thought that it was a Hindu organization and hence remained indifferent to it. The Congress then tried to convince them that it was not against any religion and that it respected all religions. In order to reassure the minorities it elected the first three presidents from among them. Badruddin Tyabji (Muslim) Dadabhai Naoroji (Parsi) and W.C.Bonnerjee (Christian). Thus right from the beginning the emphasis of the Congress secularism was on the multi-religiousness of the Indian society and its being sensitive to this situation..... India has in the past 56 years of its secular republic, gone through a roller-coaster ride of religious and casteist strife. Till now it has survived as a secular nation state and as an integrated-multi-cultural country. At least now we have to realize that religious tolerance has been the basic tenet of India’s ancient civilization and it is also hallmark of the modern age of globalization. There should be sense of mutual trust and cooperation among all the sections of society. We should not waste our time in religious discords but rather move ahead with the use of science, and technology to make our lives better, richer and fuller. We should follow the foot steps of European nations, which have forgotten their enmities and wars over centuries and have come together as a single economic and political entity.

7. Dr. Zenab Banu : Subaltern Citizenship Between State and Civil Society - Perspectives on Tribals of South Rajasthan
The status of women in the tribal society of south Rajasthan has remained egalitarian for years. They had smooth gender relations with the males. Now they have been given a preferential status. It has disturbed and intervened in the otherwise traditionally smooth gender relations among them. We have a large number of studies which show that the women members work in proxy and are subjugated to the dictates of their men. It is also said that women fail to take independent decisions in their own vital personal and social affairs. As a matter of act though women have large number of powers but they wield anything substantial in practice In theory the tribal women have acquired new leadership, new status and new power but in practice and reality they have also gone two steps backward. They have become untenable to the “pativerta status” which the caste Hindu women have and which they want to throw away through the helps of feminism.

8. Dr. S.P. Guru, Dr. Johani Xaxa and Dr. B.K. Mahakul : Family and the Political System:A Role-Analysis
The family seems to play crucial role in the context of both latent and manifest political socialization of the people. These political socialization roles of the family tend to contribute significantly toward formation of their political culture characterized by politically relevant personality traits, and sense of their political competence. It is, of course, the pattern of political culture, whether democratic or otherwise, that conditions, to a great extent, their political behaviour which determines the prospect of stability or dysfunction of the political system. Unless congruence is established between the political culture of the people and the structure of the political system, the prospect of stability of political life of the society becomes bleak and gloomy.

9. Col. R. Hariharan (Retd.) : Strategic Warfare and Mass Killings
10. Dr. M. R. Biju : Tribal Development Administration in india: Issues, Strategies and challenges
The problems and the difficulties being faced by the Scheduled Tribes and tribal areas in the country, which are sought to be addressed by the National Tribal Policy 2006, are likely to undergo a change with the passage of time. The issues which are besetting the Scheduled and the tribal areas at present may be resolved to some extent and new issues and problems may emerge. It may not therefore be prudent to have an immutable National Tribal Policy. The policy would need to be updated every few years in the light of the changed scenario. Accordingly, the Cabinet Committee on Tribal Affairs (CCTA) would be requested to undertake a review of the National Tribal Policy every three years and redefine the objectives and the guiding principles of the policy if necessary, and accordingly recast the strategy to address the new challenges that may emerge.
11. Professor Subrato Bhadury : Commercial banking in India- new challenges and opportunities after liberalization
In the financial sector, liberalization and technological breakthrough has initiated a restructuring in our banking sector, which is exactly opposite to our structuring norm. Looked at from the administrative angle our banking sector was having four tier network-head office, zonal office, regional office and branch office. However computerization, LAN and interconnectivity, e-mail and IT revolution have brought the regional and branch offices closer and many banks started restructuring even going back to 3-tier structure thus making them cost effective (which means in other words higher profitability) and technologically upgraded. Considering globalization and competition, this repositioning was extremely necessary; moreover it was a clear departure from the earlier norm of rapid branch expansion.
12. Dr. Dilip Kumar Chanda : Role of Venture Capital Financing Business in India
Venture capital financing in India is a recent addition in the financial services sector. This article examines the most important aspects of the operation of venture capital finance regarding its concept in contrast to the conventional method of financing , its regulatory framework , its impact on unemployment and foreign direct investment and analyses the venture capital investments pattern in our country in the age of globalisation.)
13. Neetu Singhal : Constraints and Opportunities for the Sustainable Development of Rice-based Producation System in India
Rice production has followed a route of chemical intensification that has led to fertilizer and pesticides misuse, in which water quality is threatened, and in which extension and research are locked into ‘productive technology packages’. The outlook for a sustainable agriculture in this fashion is grimmer the further it is adopted. There are signs that different ways in which local expertise and innovation can make incremental changes across all levels of production, and a new rice ecosystem view in which rice field productivity could be significantly increased.
14. Dr. Deeptima Shukla : India’s Role in Economic Cooperation in South Asia:Route to SAFTA via SAPTA
During the last two decades, the regional economic cooperation has been accepted as development strategy. The process of trade expansion and liberalization under SAARC is still very slow as compared to the other trading blocs. The implementation of SAFTA is an important step in the direction of regional cooperation yet the countries of the region have to make serious efforts for the promotion of regional interests, regional association and regional cooperation.
15. Dr. T. Asokan : Re-Entry of Private Insurers in India - A Surveillance
Over a period of 180 years of operation the Indian insurance industry has completed a full cycle from an open private sector to regulated public sector and then into competing private and public sector to gain dominance. Insurance in India was started as a fully private system with active foreign participation. India nationalised insurance business in two stages, first the Life Insurance in 1956 and then General Insurance in the year 1972.
In spite of nationalisation Indian life insurance industry has not been able to provide protection to not more than 20% of the country's insurable population. Fifty years of nationalised life insurance business protected the interests of the insured, the work force in the sector and the government, but failed to provide cover to the un-organised and the downtrodden masses in the remote villages. The nationalised general insurance of India failed to bring in new risk coverage for the peasantry, trigger off the new-generation entrepreneurs and meet the emerging needs of the growing corporate sector. The Tariff Advisory Committee failed to provide risk based pricing and as such there was no distinction between good risks and bad risks for an insurer. Pricing of general insurance products after nationalisation ended up with claims over 120% of the gross premium income (motor insurance). The solution to this inefficiency is emerging as de-tariffing the general insurance products with effect from January 2007.
Within a period of 5 years the private insurers has garnered in 26 percentage of the market share compelling the public sector to devise plans and programmes to remain dominant in the sector if not to retain their share. Among the private insurers ICICI Prudential in the life sector and ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Alliance and Tata AIG in the non-life sector are vying.

16. Dr. E.M.Thomas : Sustainable Development : The Search for a Panglossian Path
The concept of sustainable development has already become a hot topic of discussion wordwide. The development pattern which needs the demands of today without destroying the possibilities for future generations to satisfy their needs is a big challenge. International conferences like Stockholme conference, Rio summit etc. were concluded with the clarion call for sustainable development. But the dichotomy and inherent contradictions between growth and environmental pollution pose a set of riddles which are very difficult to resolve. In this study, an attempt is made to analyse the various policy options left before us to achieve the goal of sustainable development; viz market solutions, technical solutions and institutional solutions. The task of the present day world is to find a win-win solution for all, the rich and poor countries, as well as the present and future generations. The win-win path or a panglossian path lies somewhere between the above discussed three solutions.

17. Dr. P. Shanmughavel : Biodiversity Informatics –A Virtual Access to Global Resources?
This paper gives an overview of the importance of Bioinformatics in assessing the Biodiversity data. It also discusses the biodiversity profile in India, the research priorities and the important biodiversity databases.

18. Dr. Geeta Shukla and Vivek Burman : Malaria – A Sticky Problem in Pregnancy (Review)
Current malaria-control strategies for pregnancy still rely on routine antimalarial chemoprophylaxis to all pregnant women living in malaria - endemic areas. While some studies have conclusively shown that chemoprophylaxis can reduce maternal anaemia and increase birthweight, especially in primigravidae, others have failed to corroborate these findings. Malaria infection is more severe and frequent during pregnancy and has adverse effects on materno-foetal relationship resulting into abortion, low body weight, anaemia, foetal death and even maternal death. All these may be occurring due to bio-physiological and pathological alteration occurring in the placenta. Thus, there is an urgent need to have an effective preventive measure to overcome all these ill effects....

19. Parimala .R and Annapoorani.S : Antitumor Activity of Eluted Protein Fractions of Arugampul and VilvumAgainst Dalton’s Lymphoma Ascite Cells
Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death. The new therapeutic approaches are constantly receiving attention to fight the monstrous disease. Thus, the development of the anticancer drugs is one of the most challenging areas of cancer biology. In an era of modernization and advancement, interest and demand for traditional remedies and other plant based products is increasing worldwide. It is estimated by the World Health Organization that approximately 75 - 80 per cent of the world’s population uses plant based medicines because of low cost and natural alternative medicines with fewer side effects. The effect of antitumour drugs in vitro has been used to derive a better understanding on their anticancer nature. The present study has been performed to evaluate the anitumour activity of protein fractions of arugampul and vilvum leaves against Daltons Lymphoma Ascite (DLA) cells. Invitro cytotoxic assay was done in Trypan blue exclusion method using DLA cell lines. Protein fractions were separated and purified by ammonium sulphate fractionation method followed by Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE). Ammonium sulphate protein fractions and eluted protein fractions showed their effective dose (ED50) at minimum concentration. Thus the study indicate that the antitumour activity of arugumpal leaves were found to be considerably higher than that of vilvum leaves.
Keywords: Antitumour activity, Trypan blue exclusion method, DLA, PAGE, Arugampul, Vilvum.

20. Priya.K, Dr.S.Krishnakumari and Prema.K : Effect of Achyranthes aspera on Serum Protein profiling of sesame oil fed rats.
The change in protein profiling was studied in sesame oil fed rats and it was compared with Achyranthes aspera fed rats. The serum collected was assayed for the amount of protein and SDS-Polyacrylamide gel was casted to identify the banding patterns of various groups. A very common method for separating proteins by electrophoresis uses a discontinuous polyacrylamide gel as a support medium and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to denature the proteins. The method is called sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The changes in the banding pattern showed marked difference between the treated group and oil fed group.
Key words: Protein profiling, Sesame oil, Achyranthes aspera, Polyacrylamide gel, SDS- PAGE

21. Ragavan. B and Dr. Krishnakumari.S : Effect of Terminalia Arjuna on the Levels of Serum Insulin and TCA Cycle Enzymes in Alloxan  Induced Diabetic Rats
Oral administration of alcoholic extract (250 and 500mg/kg body weight) of T.arjuna stembark extract for a period of 30 days were studied on serum glucose, insulin, and enzymes of TCA cycle such as succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and protein, DNA and RNA contents in liver and kidney of alloxan-induced diabetic rats, resulted in a significant reduction in glucose and with a significant increase of insulin, MDH, SDH, protein, DNA and RNA. This suggest that the hypoglycemic effect may be mediated through stimulating insulin synthesis/or secretion from the beta cells of pancreatic islets of langerhans, also to increase the supply of TCA cycle substrate and minimize the tissue damage. The effect of T.arjuna at (500mg/kg body weight) showed remarkable efficacy.  
Key words: Terminalia arjuna, diabetes mellitus, insulin, alloxan TCA cycle enzymes.

22. Dr. Malathi Subramanian and Dr. Anupama Saxena : Linguistic and Cultural Identities in the Information Age: Some Observations
The beginning of the 21st century has been dominated by a revolutionary growth and development of Information Communication Technologies (ICT). Its transforming potential has affected all dimensions of human existence of our times. The fields of language and literature can not remain unaffected by this revolution. Does the web presence of languages have any implication for linguistic and cultural identities?
It would be interesting to examine how many Indian languages have internet presence and whether this is important in terms of power and domination of a new kind. The online web makes it possible to virtually consolidate linguistic groups even if dispersed in terms of space. Do the languages lacking internet presence have more chances of marginalization and fragmentation rather than consolidation? Due to the global market compulsions the vernacular and the regional languages, not to speak of tribal languages and the dialects, are bound to remain encased in isolated pockets even though they may be rich representations of culture. Hence there is at present a threat of a digital divide between the globally adaptable languages on the internet and the vernacular and local languages which while culturally rich could remain marginalized due to their absence in the internet domain.

23. Chandrasekaran M and Rajesh P K : IT enabled Teleservice System for Rapid Prototyping in Collaborative Environment for Rapid Product Development
This paper aims to describe a teleservice system which can aid effectively the full implementation of a novel integrated system of rapid product development based on rapid prototyping, and develops a networked manufacturing service system. This system, aims to implement an infrastructure to shorten product development time and cost through the Internet. The overall architecture and detailed functional modules of the system are presented. The key technologies for developing the teleservice system which involve the deploying of the running platform, determining the system model, choosing a server-side language, constructing a development platform as well as designing the database and application, are discussed in detail. This system, which includes the technology information platform, e-commerce platform, and manufacturing service platform, provides a collaborative production environment for customers to implement networked service and manufacturing for Rapid Prototyping (RP). This enhances the availability of rapid prototyping and manufacturing facilities and can improve the rapid product development of small- and medium-sized enterprises by taking full advantage of the quickly evolving computer network and information technologies. The architecture of the optimal part orientation selection of the part to be build is done using CAD customization for the selection of the scrupulous orientation of the part that has to be built. The proposed methodology is targeted at a wide audience using a disparate range of computer systems to access remotely located rapid prototyping facilities via the internet for prototype fabrication. Other web tools are used to allow the remote user to have higher interactivity with the server applications that have a direct link with the front-end terminals controlling the rapid prototyping hardware. Also the current technology of knowing the status of the product that is built is done using the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) is being done.
Keywords: Rapid product development; Rapid prototyping; Service system; Web-based Application.

24. Ashok Kumar Haldar : Isles’ Tourism : The Ultimate Tourism destination
Andaman and Nicobar Islands have recently been recognized as a world class eco-friendly tourist destination and a new heaven for the tourists. These Islands have something very special to offer to the tourists. Cellular Jail, Ross Island and Viper Island create real interest in those who love Indian history. Since the year 2000, there is a considerable increase in tourists arrival - both domestic and foreign tourists in these Isles. But unfortunately, there was a sudden downfall in the tourists arrival - both domestic and foreign to the extent of 62.40 percent in the year 2005 over the base year 2000. Definitely, the downfall was due to tsunami which was occurred on 26th December, 2004. But again in the year 2006, there is an appreciable hike in the tourists arrival - both domestic and foreign to the extent of 21.76 percent over the base year 2000 and 223.82 percent increase over the last year. Ofcourse, it becomes possible due to the efforts taken by the administration to re-build the total infrastructures of these Isles which were damaged due to tsunami.

25. Dr. Nafees A. Khan : Human Resource Planning in Hotel Industry in India : A Case Study of India Tourism Development Corporation
Effective human resource planning is a process of analyzing an organisation’s human resource needs under changing conditions and developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs.
Human resource planning is needed for foreseeing the human resource requirements of tourism organization and supply of human resources. Manpower plans ensure a continuous supply of trained people as and when the need arises. Long-term planning is concerned with fulfilling future vacancies rather than matching the present incumbents to present jobs.
The present study emphasizes as to how forecasting future requirements for human resources, determination of future recruitment and selection needs, linking human resource planning with organisational planning, providing a basis for future management development programmes, ensuring optimum utilisation of human resources presently employed, assessing the surplus and shortage of human resources, control of wage and salary costs, facilitating productivity bargaining would help to improve the organisation’s efficiency to achieve its goal by developing strategies that results in optimum utilization of human resources and thereby to help improve productivity at dynamic levels of adequacy.
The study examines critically the human resource planning in the hotel industry in India with special reference to India Tourism Development Corporation,
Key words : Human resource planning, optimum utilization of HR, productivity

26. Dr. Anindya Dutta, Dr. Saswati Gangopadhyay and Dr. Devmalya Dutta : Brand Positioning of India as a Tourist Destination: A case based analysis.
The dynamic process of Tourism is capturing attention of researchers especially with the creation of perceived value and the two major identified constructs of perceived value. Focus has not been on relative positioning of different countries. The literature review shows positioning by comparing destinations have been explored. However, none of the studies deals with India hence the interest to work in this area. Selected case studies of a few places of major tourist interest have been undertaken to understand how the concept of positioning is utilised in the marketing of tourism. Analysis of positioning of tourism industry in India is done by referring to all the websites of Incredible India theme and the official websites of different Indian states. The analysis suggests that the brand positioning of India as an attractive destination for the foreign tourists is not proper. There are too many segments and ideas along with very attractive propositions which may ultimately confuse the prospective tourist.

27. Dr. Ravi Bhushan Kumar : Impact Assessment of Natural Disasters on Beach Tourism: A Case Study of Tsunami Effects in India
Due to geographic location of beaches on the margin of land & sea, they are vulnerable to several types of natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cyclones & tsunamis as well as man made disasters such as oil spillage due to wreckage of oil tankers. Some of the disasters have short-term impacts and some have long-term impacts on the man and coastal environment. The type and intensity of these disasters are highly unpredictable. In such case disasters management is very important issue to lessen the impacts. Besides other calamities, Indian coasts are also sensitive to tsunamis. The South-East Coast has faced one of the worst disasters in known history on 26th Dec. 2004. Several national and international agencies have come up to help the victims. There is a need to evolve some long-term measures to reduce the losses in coastal areas. This paper has kept an eye on the effects on the Coastal Tourism.
Key words: plate tectonics, natural disasters, beach tourism.

28. Dr. Motiram : Globalization: Potentials and Prospects of MASS Tourism in India
Globalization has brought tremendous changes and revolution in the human society. In the age of globalization and structural change tourism is a new innovation, as it has become a global phenomenon. Not only in terms of drawing people closer to each other, but also in terms of relative impact on society and individual as well. However, its demand has become like a hot cake as its supply has touched at higher height. Equally, it is playing instrumental role in socio-economic development, social transformation, boosting market economy, floating labour markets and enhancing political integration of the host country and particularly in India. In this sense, tourism is the most ramified economic activity of the present millennium and potent path to achieve future target. In short, it has a foreseeable perspective as this sector has overpowered many other sectors within a short span. However, booming in tourism sector is the result of the influx of mass tourism in the world as well as in India. Nature has bestowed India with unparalleled beauty and its geographical location has most rejuvenating natural climate supplemented by variety of history, culture and natural splendours which are adding factors for mass tourism in India.

29. Dr. Sampad Kumar Swain and Dr. K. Mohan : Eco-Tourism and Sustainable Development-A Case Study of Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa
In recent years, protected areas are exposed to augment low impact tourism activities owing to the policy decision of Ministry of Environment, Government of India. The fundamental objective of the landmark assertion is to bring community to the limelight and involve them in the framework of the protected area management as a major decision making body and beneficiary. The paper outlines the significant role of community for ecotourism development in the protected area of Chandaka Wildlife Sanctuary in Orissa. Along the line of discussion on the potential of ecotourism in the sanctuary, the paper also made an attempt to find the fundamental reasons for the sluggish progress in the ecotourism activities. The findings of the study revealed that lack of community participation stands a chief barrier to the ecotourism promotion as the results showed that communities are still depending on the forest products. As yet, ecotourism as an alternative tool for supplementing the income of the communities has practically become a failure proposition. Finally, suggestive measures such as community empowerment, involvement of tourism organizations and proactive role of sanctuary authority should be followed to exploit the ecotourism potential of the sanctuary. Finally a model is suggested to ensure the linkage among three stakeholders.
KEY WORDS: Ecotourism, Community Participation, Sustainable Development, Protected Areas, Sanctuary Authority and Tourism Organizations.

30. Dr. Anand Singh : Pilgrimage Tourism in Early Buddhist Tradition :Some Reflections
The Buddhist faith begins with a band of mendicants who rallied around Buddha. He was born in Lumbini and was brought up in Kapilvastu. His father Suddhodhana was reigning here as a king of Sakya republic. After renunciation (Mahabhiniskraman) at age of 29 Siddhartha roamed from place to place to attain salvation. At age of 35 he achieved nirvana (enlightenment) in Uruvela near Bodhgaya. He preached his first sermon (Dharmachakrapravartna) at Sarnatha near Varanasi. He roamed in different parts of Aryavrata for next 45 years. At age of 80 he took his last meal in Pava and took Mahaparinirvana. After demise of Buddha all these places were developed as pilgrimage centres. Stupas and Viharas were roamed at these places to memorize and worship the lord and pilgrims flocked here for worshipping. So Buddhist pilgrimage is used to label the journey any Buddhist undertakes to a sacred Buddhist place with the idea that he is pilgrim. It also refers to the structural institutions that is the full composite of all relevant features which constitute the religio-cultural ecology. It constitutes total set of symbols, history, rituals, legends, behaviour, deities, etc. This paper will attempt to analyze all the facets of pilgrimage of early Buddhism. The relevance of some important pilgrimage centres like Lumbini, Sarnatha, Bodhgaya, Vaisali, Kusinagar, etc. will also be taken into account.

31. Book Review