The basic premise with which one would go to see English language theatre in India would be that this theatre is necessarily exclusivist; with a tendency towards ‘elitism’. This was the case, until Dattani's foray into the scene changed the entire situation, homogenizing the audience with his theatre, and his theatre with the tastes of his audience. Like his repeated assertion that despite the fact that he is himself rooted in the Gujarati milieu, where his own familial context is concerned, because the family itself was displaced and resettled in Bangalore, he had to constantly search, as it were, for this sense of identity in a place where the linguistic community was alien to his own. English education, and the constant need to use this third language as the vehicle of communication, then somehow made itself an integral part of his own identity. Hence, the ‘natural’ ease born out of necessity and the sheer habit with which Dattani uses his chosen tongue, being comfortable in no other.

In creating and locating the self and constructing the identities of the characters who people his theatre, Dattani seems to contribute to the matrix of the processes that Erin Mee refers to as “a way of decolonizing the theatre” without, however, resorting to “a politically driven search for an indigenous aesthetic and dramaturgy” [Mee, 2002: 2], that motivated the writers of the Theatre of Roots movement.

This book by Dr Chandrani Liyanage and Dr. Manjula Hettiarachchi of the University of Ruhuna is the one of the many ‘non-power’ applications of nuclear technology. Although not widely known, nuclear technology is used for a large number of purposes other than power generation; the use of nuclear tracers in biomedicine is one such application.

This book gives an introduction to the basis of radioactivity and describes radiation detectors and counters used in biomedical applications. It also explains the theory and practice of radioimmunoassay, which is a very powerful in vitro technique for biomedical assays. The authors have also taken care to include a chapter on radiation protection and waste management which are essential components of any applications of nuclear technology.

Dr Liyanage presently functions as the Head of the Nuclear Medical Unit of the Faculty of Medicine of University of Ruhuna, which was established with the technical assistance provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) through the Atomic Energy Authority of Sri Lanka.

Dr Liyanage received valuable training with a fellowship awarded by the IAEA. In Sri Lanka, she had the privilege of being trained by Dr Rienzil Piyasena, a person responsible for introducing Radioimmunoassay to a large number of countries during his long and distinguished service in the Division of Human Health of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Additionally, Dr Liyanage's experience in establishing and supervising the Radioimmunoassay Laboratory, has made it possible for her to co-author a book that will be most useful for those who intend to use radioimmunoassay for diagnostic purposes.

I am a chemical engineer. Being asked to write a foreword to a scholarly work such as this is clearly an occupational hazard. However I do feel honoured that Prof. Shreesh Chaudhary has requested me to do so.

On 2 February, 1835, Lord Macaulay is reported to have spoken in the British Parliament about India:

Unfortunately for India his recommendation was not only accepted but implemented very effectively. Indians hastened the process by asking for it. After independence, contrary to Gandhiji's expectation, our ‘infatuation with the English Language’ did not go. The process however left us with a legacy of a rich language which, like every thing that came into our country, we duly Indianised. There is finally a new identity that India has acquired in the global scene, a new clarity amidst the turmoil of change, which my colleague captures so well on the language front in this book.

English in India Today

In the previous chapter, we stopped with the end of the EIC in India. In ad 1857, the EIC was able to suppress the Sepoy Mutiny, though at great human and material cost. Yet its rule in India ended. India now came under the direct rule of the British Crown. Queen Victoria (ad 1832–1903) of the United Kingdom proclaimed herself the Empress of India. However, little changed in administrative details at the local level, though some changes in the administrative structure were brought about. In place of the Board of Control and the Court of Directors, the administration of India was now controlled by the British Parliament through a minister for Indian affairs. The Imperial Government was inclined to bring all of India under its influence, even if not under its direct rule.

Officials in India continued with their powers more or less intact. Lord Canning acquired the distinction of being the last Governor General (ad 1856–1858) of the Company's government in India and the first Viceroy (ad 1858–1862) of the Imperial Government in India. Elsewhere too there was no serious change of personnel or policy. In education, the Imperial Government decided to mosdy continue the policy of the Company Government. As recommended by Wood's Charter, universities were created in the three Presidency cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras in 1858–59. Other universities followed in Lahore (1869), Punjab (1882) and Allahabad (1887) and so on.

Introduction

The British came to India relatively late. They followed the Portuguese and the Dutch but preceded the French and the Danish. The Honourable Governor and Company of Merchants of London, Trading into the East Indies, popularly known as East India Co (EIC), was formed and chartered in ad 1601. Their first trade mission arrived in Surat, in 1603. Until 1668, Surat remained their principal seat and factory. The first British ‘Ambassador’, Captain Hawkins (ad 1608–1613), reached the Court of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir in 1608. The first proper British ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe (ad 1613–1619), came here in 1613. The factory at Balasore came up in 1633. Until 1686, trade up to Hughli was the charge of this factory. Fort St George was created in Madras in 1640. The British got Bombay in 1688, and Fort William at Calcutta in Bengal was created in 1690. It was only by the end of the seventeenth century when the British established themselves in India.

The British were different from other Europeans in at least two respects. They were better focussed, and better organised. For the British, profit was the only goal, the only aim in taking the hazardous year-long voyage to India and the more hazardous stay here. One out of every five British who left their country never got back home – they died either on sea or in India, unable to bear its sun, its rains, its mosquitoes, its malaria, its diarrhoea, its cholera, and numerous other tropical diseases.

Introduction

As this remark attributed to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (ad 1869–1948) shows, most educated Indians use English in a variety of situations in nearly all domains today, yet few of them treat it as their native or their ‘own’ language. How did this situation come about? In spite of centuries, let alone numbers, even the percentage of people speaking Persian, Portuguese or Sanskrit never came close to the percentage of Indians using English today in spite of the fact that English has been in public domain in India for fewer than 300 years. There are, relatively speaking, lots of Indians that write ‘standard’ English acceptable easily worldwide, but there are relatively few who speak this language that way. Actually, the English generally spoken in India has become a different language from, and is no longer a variety of, the ones spoken in the UK, the USA, etc. How did this happen? Was English imposed upon India? Was this accomplished by the duo of T B Macaulay (ad 1800–1859) and William Bentinck (ad 1774–1839), as many people believe? Did Indians not want it at all? These and many other questions arise in the context of the sociolinguistics of English in India. Here we will try to answer some of them.

The preoccupation with ‘fringe’ issues forms an important element in Dattani' work – issues that remain latent and suppressed, or are pushed to the periphery, come to occupy centre stage – quite literally. With Dattani, this becomes the only way to actually push these ‘invisible’ issues forward, to create at least an acknowledgement of their existence.

Much of ‘mainstream’ society, Dattani believes, lives in a state of ‘forced harmony’, out of a sense of helplessness, or out of a lack of alternatives. Simply for lack of choice, they conform to stereotypes like ‘homosexuals’ that in some sense leads to a kind of ghettoisation within society, little spaces to which the marginalized are pushed. The way in which this is tackled, the struggle to be heard and seen are the stuff of the plays.

In terms of gender, Dattani's focus somewhat shifts its perspective:

Atoms, the smallest units of element, are composed of neutrons, protons and electrons. The neutrons and protons, which are heavier particles, together form the central nucleus of the atom around which the lighter electrons revolve.

The total number of electrons or protons in a neutral atom is known as ‘atomic number’ (Z) of the atom. The chemical properties of an element are determined by the number of electrons it has and hence by the atomic number. The number of neutrons is the ‘neutron number’ (N) and the total number of nucleons (neutrons and protons) is known as the ‘mass number’ (A). In an atom, the electrons are arranged in their shells whose energy increases with every increase in the number of shells.

The stability of the nucleus depends on various factors, one of which is the neutron to proton ratio (n/p); for example, in carbon nucleus there are 6 protons and 6 neutrons giving a value of 1 for n/p. On the other hand, iodine nucleus has 53 protons and 74 neutrons, and uranium nucleus has 92 protons and 146 neutrons. It is seen that the n/p ratio increases with Z from nearly 1 for the light elements to 1.6 for the heavy elements.

ISOTOPES

The atomic number for a given element is fixed. For example, hydrogen will always have Z = 1, uranium Z = 92, iodine Z = 53 etc.

People of Uttarakhand are generally treated predominantly agriculturist. However, animal husbandry also is a very important part of the economy of the region. This aspect has been generally neglected in historical research.

Rami Baurani, a very popular play portraying collapse of the economy in Garhwal, has been staged almost in every town and village in the last 4–5 decades or even more. The protagonist of the play (identified in some accounts as Shyam Singh) joins the army. During a war, he is sent to a distant land for fighting, from where he goes missing. The news travels to his native village (referred to as Pali in some of the accounts) in the Garhwal district. Many take Shyam Singh as dead, but his wife, Rami, insists that he is alive. Due to the shock of losing the only son, the lone earning member of the family, Shyam Singh's father dies after some years. His wife continues to live with her mother-in-law, and looks after agriculture and all other works. She still regards herself as married or ‘suhagan’ (so celebrated in the Hindu religious tradition), rejecting all stories of the death of her husband. She works very hard and remains hopeful of her husband's return.

One day, when Rami, as usual, is working hard in the fields, a jogi (mendicant) appears suddenly and begins to tease her, asking her personal questions about her family and husband, and so on.

Iodine-125 (125I) has many useful attributes as a general radioisotopic label. It is chemically very reactive and can be incorporated into many types of molecules. It is readily available from several commercial sources with virtually 100% radioisotopic purity, i.e., without any non-radioactive iodine. This means that it is possible to incorporate the maximum number of radioactive atoms into a molecule during the labelling process.

The ease of detection is one of the most useful aspects of radioiodine labels. 125I is detected by placing the sample directly adjacent to a crystal of sodium iodide, containing small amounts of thallium. The gamma rays from the radioisotope are absorbed and the energy is converted to flashes of light. The light photons produced by the crystal are counted by conventional photomultiplier tubes. To increase the efficiency of energy transfer from the isotope to the crystal, a small well is often made in the crystal into which the sample is placed.

The energy from 125I is sufficiently high to give efficient detection but not high enough to cause undue concern with regard to radiation hazards. The literature contains many references to the dangers and hazards of radioisotopic tracers. These references are not only misleading but, in many cases, grossly inaccurate; whilst the handling of mCi amounts of radioiodine during the labelling procedures necessitates care and experience to avoid the hazard of direct ingestion of the volatile radioactive iodine, the use of μCi amounts of label in an assay exposes the laboratory worker to no real hazard.

Introduction

The economic reforms introduced in India since 1991 have integrated the Indian economy with the global economy, opening up a vast opportunity for foreign investment and trade. In recent years, trade between India and the US has been rising, for example, US exports to India rose from US$ 7,989 million in 2005 to US$ 10,091 million in 2006, and India's exports to the US also increased from US$ 18,804 million in 2005 to US$ 21,826 million in 2006. The stock of actual FDI increased from US$ 11.3 million in 1991 to US$ 6.2 billion as on July 2007. The US is the second largest investing country in India in terms of FDI approvals, actual inflows and portfolio investment. FDI inflows from the US constitute about 12 per cent of the total actual FDI inflows into India. US investments cover almost every sector in India, that is open to private participants. India continues to remain the 24th largest export destination for the US. In terms of exports to the US, India now ranks 18th. India's investments in the US are picking up. Indian companies invested over US$ 2 billion in the US in 2006–07. These investments were made largely in manufacturing and non-financial services.

India and the US, the two great pluralistic democracies, are now positioned for a partnership that will be crucial in shaping the international landscape of the twenty-first century. Since 2000, the two countries have been making efforts to strengthen the institutional structure of their bilateral economic relations by means of the India-US Economic Dialogue, aimed at deepening Indo-US collaboration through regular dialogue and engagement. Indo-US collaboration in agri-business holds great promise against this backdrop.

Introduction

Traditionally, policy makers and academicians have viewed the rural economy as purely agricultural, but in reality rural economies are based on both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. Rural economies integrate into the market economy, which is complex and diverse. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in rural non-farm employment as a way out of the vicious circle of poverty widely prevalent in the rural areas of developing countries.

Of late, economists and policy makers have recognised the importance of income diversification among rural households. Several empirical studies have documented the importance of Rural Non-farm Activities (RNFA) in rural livelihoods. For example, in a study based on a survey of 100 rural farm households from developing countries, from the 1970s to the 1990s, Reardon et al., 1998, found that on average non-farm income contributes 42 per cent to the total income in Africa, followed by 40 per cent in Latin America, and 32 per cent in Asia. Using the data collected by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) during 1993-94 from 32,000 rural households belonging to 1,765 villages from across India, Lanjouw and Shariff, 2002, found that, in India, approximately 34.4 per cent of rural households are employed in the non-farm sector. Using a sample of 520 households from the North-Eastern Himalayas of India, Rahut, 2006, found that rural-non farm activities contribute about 60 per cent to the household income, and over 70 per cent of households participate in rural non-farm activities for their livelihoods.