Th is article presents a theoretical framework for religiocentrism that is suited to cross-religious comparisons between Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Religiocentrism is defined as the combination of positive attitudes toward the religious ingroup and negative attitudes toward religious outgroup(s). Empirical research proves the relevance of the construct ‘religiocentrism’ among Christian, Mu...

Saraca asoca commonly known as asoka, which is considered as a sacred tree by Hindus and Buddhists possesses various medicinal uses. The stem bark of the tree is the principal constituent of several ayurvedic preparations which are widely prescribed in leucorrhoea, haematuria, menorrhagia and other diseases of the female genitourinary system. Because of destructive extraction and the absence of...

The sacred values of a community are critical in understanding cultural conflict. When an attempt is made to trade a sacred value with a secular good, it evokes feelings of anger (tabootradeoff) but less so when that sacred value is traded off with another sacred value (tragic). Previous work has shown that participants who expressed sacred values for an issue were more resistant to taboo than ...

Are you saying that religion is also something that geneticists should be studying? No, not at all. Every individual has to find their own accommodation between their spirituality and their scientific knowledge. For me personally, there is no need for a god, and a secular world view is much richer and more hopeful, but obviously there are millions of Christians and Jews and Hindus and others wh...

A psychoticism questionnaire developed by the authors (Arora & Varma, 1980 a, b) was administered to 100 psychotics, 100 neurotics, 100 relatives of psychotics, and 100 normals. Relationship of P-score with six socioeconomic variables, i.e., age, sex, education, occupation, religion and urban, rural background was studied. P-score was found to be higher in younger age group (15-24 years) in eac...

The socioeconomic status of Indian Muslims is, on average, considerably lower than that of upper-caste Hindus. Muslims nevertheless exhibit substantially higher child survival rates, and have done for decades. This paper analyses this seeming puzzle. A decomposition of the survival differential confirms that some compositional effects favour Muslims but that, overall, differences in characteris...

While the trauma in forced migration leaving one’s home remains an uncontested emotive domain, any experience of frequent movement suggests a better ability to resettle in a new place. This paper shows that through a history of frequent migration, a separate class among Punjabis emerged that was mobile, resourceful, and modern in its outlook. The commonsensical approach to resettlement, which t...

This article explores the relationship between kinship institutions and sex ratios in India at the turn of the twentieth century. Because kinship rules vary by caste, language, religion, and region, we construct sex ratios by these categories at the district level by using data from the 1901 Census of India for Punjab (North), Bengal (East), and Madras (South). We find that the male-to-female s...

This is a review of epilepsy in Nepal. Nepal is a predominantly rural country with a population of 21 million. A community-based survey in Morang district showed that the prevalence of epilepsy was 7.3 per 1,000 population. A cohort of 300 cases in Shree Birendra Military Hospital showed that neurocysticercosis was the most important etiological cause. There are seven neurologists, 10 CT scanne...

Past research has found a robust effect of prejudice against atheists in largely Christian-dominated (belief-oriented) samples. We propose that religious centrality of beliefs vs. practices influences attitudes toward atheists, such that religious groups emphasizing beliefs perceive non-believers more negatively than believers, while groups emphasizing practices perceive non-practicing individu...