How are infrastructures socially appropriated? This article uses my fortuitous presence in a rural locality in eastern India as its residents discussed proposals for its complete electrification, allowing me to reflect on social negotiations around infrastructure prior to its installation. Drawing on a detailed ethnography of electrification in a West Bengal village, I illustrate the nuanced ways in which people inflect infrastructural projects with their collective ideas of what is right and good. As far as they can see, such projects are neither the unalloyed benefit that proponents celebrate nor the unmitigated evil that opponents lament. Rather, they are evaluated in relation to people’s imagination of the collective good, to which such infrastructures may or may not be central. Drawing on the insights offered by my interlocutors as well as recent advances in the literature on the politics of infrastructures, this article interrogates the perspective that infrastructures advance governmental rationalities. Building on well-established insights that technological infrastructures are not socially neutral and that infrastructures are socially appropriated, disputed, and negotiated, this article demonstrates that people’s engagement with infrastructures politicizes, rather than governmentalizes, them.

This essay advocates “refugee political thought” as an autonomous category which needs to be centre-staged in global intellectual history. I concretise this by studying Bengali Hindu refugees who migrated from Muslim-majority eastern Bengal (after the Partition of British India in 1947 part of Pakistan, and after 1971, the sovereign state of Bangladesh) to the Hindu-majority Indian state of West Bengal, and occasionally their descendants as well. By studying the transnational horizons of Bengali refugees from the late 1940s to today, I posit them as part of modern global intellectual history. Bengali refugees and their descendants connected their experiences with those of refugees elsewhere in the world, seeing themselves, for example, as “new Jews.” Later, some of them aligned themselves with the Palestinian cause. Refugee politics became enmeshed with Cold War revolutionary currents. European, Soviet, and Chinese Marxist theory—and latent Lockean assumptions—propelled the everyday politics of refugee land occupation. Marxism, sometimes with Hegelian inflection, nourished the East Bengali-–origin founders of Subaltern Studies theory and Dalit (lower-caste) thought. Ultimately, this essay shows how Bengali refugees instrumentalised transnational thinking to produce new models of democratic political thought and practice in postcolonial India. I describe this as “refugee democracy.”

A new nematode species, Raphidascaris mundeswariensis n. sp. (Raphidascarididae), is described from male and female specimens found in the intestines of the mudskipper Apocryptes bato (Hamilton, 1822) (Gobiidae) from the Mundeswari River of West Bengal, India. This species is distinguished from its congeners by 214–255-μm-long spicules, 14 pairs of preanal papillae of two markedly different sizes, one pair of adanal papillae, six pairs of postanal papillae and the absence of lateral alae. Phylogenetic analyses using partial sequences of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene place the new species in a clade containing Raphidascaris gigi, Raphidascaris lophii, Raphidascaris longispicula and two species of Hysterothylacium. The molecular analyses also corroborate results of previous studies that have found Raphidascaris and Hysterothylacium to be paraphyletic. The finding of R. mundeswariensis in A. bato is the first Raphidascaris species described from a mudskipper anywhere.

Fertility in West Bengal is one of the lowest in India, and this relies heavily on the use of traditional methods of contraception. Social scientists and demographers have pointed to the historical role of the diffusion process of adhering to a small family size. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Kolkata district, the state capital, is the lowest in the country, and has been a centre of low fertility historically. However, stark differences in rural–urban fertility rates have existed over the last few decades in West Bengal, but these have now started to narrow. This study aimed to capture the macro-level rural–urban differences in fertility levels and preferences in the West Bengal, and understand how socioeconomic factors affect these. Data were drawn from the Census of India (2011) and NFHS-4 (2015–16). Using census data and the Reverse-Surviving Method, the TFR of West Bengal was estimated to be 1.9, varying between 2.1 and 1.7 in rural and urban areas. The rural–urban gap in the district-level fertility rates was prominent, specifically in districts with higher levels of fertility. Kolkata, Hugli and North Twenty-Four Parganas had the lowest-low fertility (TFR = <1.5). Fewer than half of women with only one living child wanted further children, and this was somewhat higher in rural areas. Around 40% of women had achieved their desired number of children. However, a substantial proportion (43.1%) had a lower number of children than desired, varying between 45.9% and 41.7% in urban and rural areas, respectively. Contraception use, female education and age at marriage, along with the other socioeconomic factors, had a greater influence on rural fertility rates than on urban counterparts in the districts of West Bengal. Further research should be directed at understanding the contemporary fertility decline as well as the gap between ideal and desired number of children, specifically in those districts with very low fertility rates.

Knowledge of the solid-phase speciation of As in Bengali sediments associated with hazardous As-rich groundwaters is crucial to understanding the processes controlling As release. The local coordination environment of As in such a sediment has been probed using K-edge As EXAFS. This revealed that As exists predominantly in its oxidized form, As(V), probably adsorbed as bidentate arsenate tetrahedra on metal (Fe and/or Al) oxide/hydroxide surfaces, although incorporation of As into a metal oxide structure cannot be ruled out. Arsenic was found to occur in several different coordination environments and this, together with the low concentration (<10 μg g–1) of As in the sediment prevented the unambiguous assignment of the second coordination sphere. The EXAFS analysis of the sediment after incubation under anaerobic conditions in the presence of added electron donor for metal reduction indicated changes in the relative concentrations of different solid-phase As species, providing circumstantial evidence for differential susceptibility to microbial action.

The study was conducted to phenotypically characterize the Bengal (Desi) sheep in some purposively selected villages of Nadia and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, India. The Bengal sheep is reared as mutton sheep and has not been studied or characterized. Qualitative (coat colour and tail type) and quantitative (height at withers, height at rump, chest circumference, paunch girth, oblique body length, head length, head width, ear length, horn length, shoulder width, ear width, pelvic width, canon length, length of the fore leg, length of the hind leg, fore canon circumference, neck circumference, neck length, body weight) traits were included in the study. Phenotypic traits indicated that the sheep is of a small, thin tailed type adapted to grazing in water logged areas and lowly to moderately prolific. The structural indices indicate that the sheep is forward aligned, robust and rectangular in shape; it is well balanced and adapted for humid climates. The wool is coarse and hairy type, used for making blankets and durries. The reproductive parameters indicate that the age at first service was 295 days for ewes and 252 days for rams while the age at first lambing averaged around 425 days. Conservation efforts and genetic characterization are needed to maintain the breed purity and further studies regarding the carcass and mutton quality traits need to be carried out

Introduction. Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme(ACE) is a key component in regulation of blood pressure by virtue ofthe rennin-angiotensin system. ACE converts the inactive decapeptide,angiotensin I, into the potent vasopressor octapeptide, angiotensinII, and inactivates bradykinin, which has a vasodilating action. So,inhibition of ACE has become a major target in control ofhypertension. It is well known that the consumption of fruits couldprovide health benefits by lowering the risk of chronic diseases suchas metabolic syndrome diseases including type 2 diabetes andcardiovascular disease. Our current study was focused on investigatingthe ACE inhibitory property of a few underutilized minor fruits ofWest Bengal using an in vitro assay. Materialsand methods. The potential antihypertensive activity ofunderutilized indigenous edible fruits of West Bengal, India, wasevaluated by their ability to inhibit Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme(ACE). The ACE inhibitory property was assayed using ACE from rabbitlung and hippuryl-histidyl-leucine as the substrate. Nineteen fruitspecies belonging to 15 families were investigated. The percentage ACEinhibitory activities of these fruits were studied at 20 µg freshweight of fruit extract per mL. The total phenol content of all thesefruits was determined following the standard Folin-Ciocalteu method.Total flavonoid content was also measured. Results. Theaqueous fruit extracts of the red variety of Trapabispinosa, Phoenix sylvestris,Cicca acida, Achras sapota andAverrhoa carambola presented more than 75% ACEinhibition. On the other hand, Punica granatum,Spondias pinnata, Trapabispinosa (green) and Ziziphus mauritianashowed about 50% inhibition. Aeglemarmelos, Annona squamosa, Annona reticulata,Feronia elephantum, Physalis peruviana andSyzygium jambos showed low activity (< 50%inhibition). Discussions. To date there has been noreport on Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme inhibitory activities ofthese underutilized minor fruits of West Bengal, India. During ourstudy no correlation could be established between the % ACE inhibitionand the total phenol or flavonoid content of these fruit extracts. So,it appears that non-phenolic components may also be responsible forACE inhibitory activity. In our investigation we tried to establishthe fact that the consumption of these underutilized minor fruitsmight have potential in managing cardiovascular diseases.

The study pertains to phenotypic characterization of some breeds of duck (common white duck and Indian runner duck), Muscovy ducks (black and white feathered and sepia feathered) besides two breeds of geese (white and brown feathered and white feathered) reared in the state of West Bengal (India). The study was conducted at five locations of the state and comprised 1395 ducks and 600 geese. The data were analysed statistically using mainly descriptive statistics, the differences in mean were analysed using Duncan's multiple range test. Both qualitative and quantitative traits were considered in the study. The qualitative traits were shank colour, bill colour, colour of the feathers, skin colour, egg shell colour, the presence or absence of beans, body carriage, bill type and colour of the eyes, while the quantitative traits included in the study were weight of the ducks and weight of the eggs. Some production traits such as numbers of eggs laid per year and dressing percentage of the drakes and ganders of each breed too have been studied. The ducks and geese are raised under semi-intensive management system and mostly depend on scavenging for their nutritional needs. This results in poor egg production and at times loss of stock because of diseases. The study regarding average egg production indicated that the Muscovy ducks and the geese have poor egg production, whereas the Indian runner followed by the common white duck are potentially the best. The ducks are important source of earnings for the small holder farmers and are raised both for meat and eggs, while the geese are reared mostly for ornamental purpose. However, the populations of the ducks are fast dwindling because of avian influenza in the region and because restocking is mostly being carried out with less adapted Khaki Campbell ducks. This happens mainly because the government farms that were responsible for providing the ducklings for restocking maintain Khaki Campbell ducks and do not have the parental stock of the native duck breeds, while restocking of the Muscovy ducks and geese are carried out by the rearers themselves. There are also no prevailing breeding programmes to conserve, select, maintain and distribute the native breeds of duck and geese. Hence, it is of earnest importance to conserve the avian genetic resources before the population dwindles further.

The study was conducted to characterize the variations in physical characters and some important feather and skin mutations observed in different populations of native chickens of West Bengal and Sikkim, India. The data encompassing eight different phenotypes such as, naked neck chicken, frizzled chicken, muffed/bearded chicken, creeper chicken, crested chicken, rumpless chicken, feathered shank chicken and fibromelanosis chicken, were collected from six districts of West Bengal and two districts of Sikkim. Seven qualitative traits such as colour of the egg shell, feather, skin, shank, comb and earlobe as well as the type of feather, and three quantitative traits such as shank length, egg weight and body weight, were assessed in a total of 2 170 fowls of both sexes. The data were analysed statistically using descriptive statistics, the differences in means were compared using Duncan's multiple range test and χ2 was used for non-parametric characters. Each of the populations had multiple variants and mixed feather colours were seen in most of the chickens while the feather, skin and shank colours were all black in fibromelanosis chickens. The shank colour was predominantly blue, followed by yellow and white. The skin colour in most of the chickens was white. Most of the chickens had a single comb (except for the crested chicken). The highest body weight was observed in the desi chicken while the rumpless chicken weighed the least. The egg-shell colour varied between cream and light brown in all the flocks except for the fibromelanosis chicken whose egg-shell colour was tinted bluish. The highest recorded egg weight was observed in the naked neck chicken, whereas the hatchability and egg weight were the lowest for the rumpless chicken. In the recent years, it has been observed that there is a significant reduction in the population of native chickens. This may be attributed to the restocking with Rhode Island Red and synthetic Kruilor chickens following the avian influenza outbreaks in the region. Hence, immediate steps need to be taken to preserve whatever is left in the native chicken ecotypes in the region.

A corticolous lichen species, Opegrapha granulosa Siljo & G. P. Sinha, with a UV+ pale yellow thallus, is described as new to science from the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve, West Bengal, India.

The Garole is a prolific breed of sheep. High prolificacy in sheep carrying the Booroola gene (FecB) is the result of a mutation in bone morphogenetic protein receptor-IB (BMPR-IB) (Wilson et al., 2001a,b) which had previously been identified in Garole sheep from the Sunderban region of West Bengal (Davis et al., 2002) . There is evidence that the breed has originated from the sheep brought by the Tibetan traders and traded in the plains of Bengal during the seventeenth till the nineteenth century. The present study was carried out to remap the distribution of the Garole sheep within the state of West Bengal (India) using the presence of the BMPR-IB mutation in the sheep flocks reared at different locations within the state of West Bengal. The breeding tract of Garole sheep was initially thought to be in the districts of 24 Parganas, South and North alone. However, the results from the present study indicate that the sheep is also reared in the district of Midnapur (East), besides in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts situated in northern parts of the state. The results of the present study indicate that the breeding tract of Garole sheep extends up to Jalpaiguri and CoochBehar districts of West Bengal at 26°16′ and 27°0′ North latitude and 88°4′ and 89°53′ East longitude. This study also indicates that the ancestors of the Garole sheep have migrated from China/Tibet, during the trading between West Bengal and Bangladesh during the seventeenth century till the early-twentieth century.

Few studies have examined dietary patterns in relation to cardiovascular risk factors in Asian populations, particularly in India. The present study was undertaken to explore dietary patterns in a general urban Bengalee population of women in West Bengal, India, and their association with cardiovascular risk factors. We performed a cross-sectional study of 701 women (aged 35 years and above) selected by cluster sampling from twelve different wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Kolkata, India). The following three major dietary patterns were identified: the ‘vegetable, fruits and pulses’ pattern (characterised by higher intakes of dark-yellow and green leafy vegetables, sweets, fruits, pulses, nuts, poultry and eggs, and lower intake of mustard oil); the ‘hydrogenated and saturated fat and vegetable oil’ pattern (characterised by higher intakes of butter, hydrogenated oil, ghee, vegetable oil, mustard oil, condiments, sweets, fish, high-fat dairy and refined grain); the ‘red meat and high-fat dairy’ pattern (characterised by higher intakes of red meat, high-fat dairy products, whole grain, high-energy drinks and condiments, and lower intakes of fish, refined grain and low-fat dairy products). The vegetable, fruits and pulses pattern was inversely associated with serum total cholesterol (TC), LDL-cholesterol and non-HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations (P < 0·05 for all). The hydrogenated and saturated fat and vegetable oil pattern was positively associated with BMI, waist circumference (WC) and HDL-C concentration (P < 0·05 for all). In this Bengalee population, these three major dietary patterns were observed, and the dietary patterns were independently associated with BMI, WC and serum TC concentrations in women.

Garole is a breed of sheep reared in the Sunderban region of India and Bangladesh. The animals of this breed are adapted to the hot and humid coastal region and are often seen grazing in water. Garole are reared as mutton sheep. The value of their wool is grossly ignored and presently wasted. The raw wool obtained from this breed can be stored for a long time without any significant deterioration in quality, that might be attributed to the genetic tolerance of the breed towards fleece rot. The wool quality parameters of Garole sheep indicate that the wool is coarse but has an excellent felting property. The raisers of these sheep are economically challenged members of the society, and handicrafts produced from the wool can assist in the alleviation of poverty as well as provide an alternative livelihood. An organisation has taken steps in scientific sheep rearing in the region and has assisted in training members of the community in the production of rugs from the wool. The organisation is also providing assistance in marketing the products developed on behalf of the beneficiaries.

A breed of pig with distinctive productive and reproductive characteristics has been identified in the eastern Sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal state, India and adjoining Nepal. The breed is known as Ghoongroo (meaning anklet in the local language). The breed is most prevalent within 88° E to 90° E longitudes and 26.3° N to 27.3° N latitudes. Two distinct climates viz., cold moist and hot humid are observed during the year. Farmers manage the animals both under stall-feeding and stall-feeding-cum-grazing systems. Simple housing principally made up of bamboo and jute stick is used with an emphasis on giving protection from the rain.

The population in the breeding tract varies depending on market demand. Generally, the population varies from 8 000 to 10 0000. Pigs are black in colour with a compact body, long thick coarse hair, a long tail and an upwardly curved snout. The face is broad and flattened with large, heart shaped ear resembling that of an elephant. Average litter size at birth is11.92±0.06 and a litter size of up to eighteen is not uncommon on a low to medium plane of nutrition. Body weights at birth, five months and one year of age are 1.08±0.22, 38.91± 1.49 and 106.3±0.31 kg respectively, irrespective of sex.

This unique germ plasma has the potential to replace exotic breeds from temperate zones currently used in improved pig production programs. However the breed is under constant threat due to indiscriminate crossbreeding with other varieties. Thus the immediate implementation of conservation and improvement programs is essential to salvage the breed.