Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis--University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-208).

M.A. dissertation, University of Hong Kong, 1976.

India has experienced a period of unprecedented economic growth over the past few decades, credited with lifting millions out of poverty. The high rates of economic growth, however, have not led to commensurate improvements in human development indicators. While health outcomes, an important dimension of human development, have improved in India, the rate of improvement has been slow. Moreover, health outcomes vary substantially across different regions of India. The disparity in health outcomes will play a crucial role in India’s future development and necessitates new ways for targeting and evaluating policy programs. This report analyses regional disparities in health outcomes using sub-national development indicators at state, district and demographic zone level. The first chapter of the report provides an overview of health systems in India and creates a framework for understanding health disparity in India. The second chapter uses spatial mapping techniques to identify regional patterns of health disparity. The analysis uses district level indicators from health surveys and census data. The third chapter uses sub-national data to analyze infant mortality rates in India according to state and demographic zones. Along with regional variation the report also explores gender differentials and rural-urban divide in health outcomes. The final section of the report concludes by highlighting the findings, delineating a course for future research and suggesting policy measures necessary for achieving improved health outcomes. / text

In India, the 1.7 million speakers of Tulu, a language mainly spoken in the South Kannara region of the South Indian state of Karnataka, have largely been linguistically subsumed by the larger number of Kannada speakers (38 million) around them. In February 2005, Namma TV (‘Our TV’), a new television channel started broadcasting local programs in Tulu in the region. The channel represents one of first instances where Tulu is used by the media in the region. This study looks at how the channel, by consciously choosing to broadcast largely in Tulu, can potentially change language attitudes in the region. From being a language that was used only in family settings at home, Tulu is now, potentially, seen as being capable of use in non-personal settings. This study looks at the impact of the channel on the language politics of the region and also at how the channel by stressing on Tulu language and culture reinvigorates and sustains the ideal of the land of Tulunadu (the land where Tulu is spoken). More specifically, this study looks at the interactions on a Tulu call-in TV show called Pattanga where callers call in with their opinions on a chosen aspect of Tulu culture and language. This study is the result of fieldwork in the Tulu-speaking South Kannara region over a period of two years from 2005 to 2007 and is based on recorded episodes from the show, interviews with audience members who watch and call in to the show, and with the moderators of the show. Through a linguistic analysis of the interactions on the TV show, I look at how the media is used by Tulu-speaking elites in the construction of a Tulu identity. I also look at how narratives on the call-in show are used by callers, not only to construct gender, caste, and social class identities, but also to de-construct and de-center those identities. Finally, based on the view that culture and society is constituted through interactions between participants in particular contexts, I examine how the interactions on the show evoke the socio-cultural worlds Tulu speakers live in and draw conclusions about the potential impact of the show on language attitudes and practices. / text

Discourse on madness is ubiquitous in world cultures. The behaviors, beliefs, and experiences that come to be labeled as madness vary according to context, and the language used to identify and describe these behaviors, beliefs, and experiences also varies significantly. Though there is great diversity of interpretation, it is nevertheless the case that madness—however contextually defined—is a universal human category within discourses on behavior and experience. Employing the method of discourse comparison, this dissertation works toward developing a model of the discourse on madness in India by developing a meta-linguistic vocabulary for describing positions within the discourse. Two collections of sources are compared: selections from classical Sanskrit literature and a body of interviews, pamphlets, and conference recordings from 2012-2013 India. The analytical focus is on how attributions of madness are made—through which words and levels of discourse, and due to what kinds of affiliations or motivations, political, social, religious or otherwise. Each of the six chapters, with the exception of Chapter 1 on constructions of “health” and “normalcy,” addresses a different “sphere of concern” that arises when people are confronted with behavior they interpret as madness: defining madness (Chapter 2), creating madness (Chapter 3), legislating madness (Chapter 4), curing madness (Chapter 5), and aspiring to madness (Chapter 6). In analyzing the materials in these chapters from a comparative perspective, I identify “sub-discourses”—increasingly specific discourses on madness within the “spheres of concern”—and also “spectrums of interpretation”—spectrums of positions found within the discourse on madness. In organizing the discourse into these categories, we can compare positions on madness at various levels of specificity within and across cultures. Ultimately, the goal is to better understand, and more systematically compare, how people from different times and places have imagined, described, and managed madness—operationally defined here as pathologized deviant behavior—in both similar and unique ways. / text

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