Bhatter College Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies

Category: Editorial

  • Editorial Introduction

    Pijus Kanti Khatua

    Principal Bhatter College, Dantan and Editor-in-Chief

    [Published: 5 Oct 2023]

    Full-Text PDF Issue Access

    The latest issue, Volume 11, Number 1, 2023 is up online now. The Bhatter College Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies has always been at the forefront of publishing research works in emerging areas. The multidisciplinary nature of the journal provides us with scope to approach the significant areas in a holistic manner resulting in antidisciplinary prismatic perspective. In the new century when disciplinary boundaries of the disciplines are getting effectively blurred, we insist on the principle of interdisciplinary cooperation among researchers from various fields to approach the problems from varied angles.

    This issue was planned to bring out research on “Local Area Development” following the deconstructive approach of reaching out to the centre from the margin. With this aim, the Research Advisory Council of the college funded several research projects on various problems at Dantan and its surrounding areas. The projects are mostly action research set within the framework of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The published articles have been categorically marked with those 17 SDGs. We are also committed to our professed mission of open-access dissemination of knowledge without any barrier. Open Access enabled by the institution helps the global scholarly community and thus helps us in reaching the SDGs.

    The issue is also significant in the context of the ambitious National Educational Policy 2020 as it explores new pedagogies from the local and general contexts and follows the five pillars of NEP: Affordability, Accessibility, Quality, Equity, and Accountability. The issue will excite interest among both the students and teachers. I appreciate the academic contribution of all authors who kindly responded to our invitation and contributed their articles.

    I express my gratitude to our Chief Patron, Shri Bikram Chandra Pradhan for his guidance and inspiration. For the entire plan and guidance, I am thankful to the RAC, Bhatter College. I am thankful to the journal team for their untiring collective initiative to bring multidisciplinary research under one umbrella. Thanks to Dr. Prafulla Kumar Das, the Managing Editor, Dr. Pranab Barman, Dr. Kriti Ranjan Sahu and Professor Mir Ahammad Ali, Associate Editors of the journal. I convey my heartiest gratitude to the honoured Advisory and Editorial board members and peer reviewers for their valuable suggestions, criticism and continuous support in bringing this issue to our readers. Special thanks go to Prof. Thakurdas Jana for managing the technical and aesthetic aspects of the journal. I am also thankful to others who work behind the curtain for the publication of this issue. Finally, the help of the office staff and members of Bhatter College, Dantan and the press are thankfully acknowledged. Despite our best efforts, there may be some unintended errors, which we promise to rectify in our next edition.

    We believe that the present issue will be warmly accepted by both scholarly and general readers. We look forward to receiving suggestions and feedback from the readers for future improvement.

  • Editorial, Volume 7, 2017

    Date:  By: Editor

    Dr. Pabitra Kumar Mishra

    Editor-in-Chief

     Volume VII, Number 2, 2017 I Full Text PDF

    DOI: 10.25274/bcjms.v7n2.v7n200

    For the last few years the academic world, especially in India, is reeling under the circumstances created by the phenomenon of “publish or perish”. It is strange indeed that the educational policy makers suddenly felt the need for pushing teachers towards publishing more and more in an effort to ensure quality in higher education. The thrust on research and publication was not in itself unwanted; what made the academic atmosphere wayward was its supposed conviction in excellence and quality in higher education through compulsory research and publication. This can be best proved by the trends in patents and intellectual property rights generated by the educational institutes in India. In extreme cases of dishonesty and/or ignorance, in order to justify the authenticity of their works, researchers don’t even hesitate to use fake Impact Factors issued by fake organizations. This unethical practice is directly related to another unholy phenomenon, the rise of predatory journals in India and abroad. Unfortunately enough, the predatory practices have recently been given legitimacy through creation of journal list in India.

    Fundamentally speaking, India lacks proper culture for research and publication in the context of 21st century. With the intervention of digital technology in the field of communication and dissemination of knowledge, it has failed to formulate proper Open Access policies and promote Open Source software. A proper policy could have utilized the possibilities by combining the tools and ideas from the two movements. In India, the online journals use poor and outdated technology, compared with the best journal software platforms in the international context, and replicate the functionalities of print journals without being able to exploit the technological possibilities relating to automatic data generation. Had there been a thrust for Open Source, there could have been a journal platform that would truly address both the issues of international standards and multilingual Indian needs.

    In another respect, we are lagging behind the international standards is our lack of professionalism. This is found with all the parties concerned with the process of publication. Just as authors want immediate publication, reviewers take too much time in reviewing an article. Journals follow standard methodology and unfortunately the methodology is not part of any syllabus or training programme. We have noticed a great amount of lethargy among teachers who would act as peer reviewers. Once assigned the task of reviewing, they feel themselves in superior position without knowing their job professionally. The result is that large number of articles goes to publication without proper review. In the rush to gather the required API scores, we forget that a journal is not a place to publish anything and secure promotion or appointment; a journal is a place for publishing original research and communicating with the scholarly community. The academic emergency created by the need for gathering API scores cannot produce true researchers because true research cannot be measured by API score nor can it be achieved in rush-hour mode. Research needs to be linked with productivity, originality and, of course, creativity, and publishing should be concerned with quality and not with quantity.

    Our journal was launched as an experiment with the new technology inspired by the principles of Open Access. But we are no longer in such experimental stage and we need to introduce technical innovations and implement strict scholarly standards in various fields. We need new brand of reviewers and editors who would approach the job with professionalism and not with traditional academic apathy. We will publish open documents for training for all the parties concerned as the journal urgently needs real participation of true scholars. We do not want to continue the platform just as a platform for facilitating promotion and appointment.

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  • Editorial, Volume III

    Date:  Author: Editor

    This edition of Bhatter Colege Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies is dedicated to the broad multidisciplinary field of Animal Studies. The Animal Question was selected as a focal point of academic enquiry and discussion because of the demands of our time. We believe strongly that animals, not just as opposite beings—in relation to whom our identity is to be defined, but as our fellow beings on this planet deserve more—more rights and respect solely on the basis of their evolutionary status. Founded mainly on the principles of the Enlightenment and liberalism, our educational system follows mainly utilitarian principles. The syllabi, particularly at the school levels inculcate utilitarian attitudes to animals, and thus it is deprived of higher idealistic attitudes and it does not leave any room for alternative view-points. On the contrary, under the guise of scientificism it encourages a sense of non-responsibility for the individual, and the responsibility becomes a kind of invisible idea ascribed to the vague entity of the collective society, authority, institution etc. Our educational system should seriously reconsider the ways animals are presented, represented and familiarized and speciesism is institutionalized.

    In the new century, we need to search for alternatives which should not be singular but rather pluralistic in nature and holistic in approach. In this age of explosion of research, various topics in networked environment of always-available, cannot we think differently and orient our knowledge and faculties to initiate and encourage discussion on animals? If accepted theoretically, the inevitable question that would pop up is: what should be the status of animals in the discussion, which remains completely a one-way dialogue with its panoptic vision unchanged? One simple answer based on common sense is: animals can be viewed as our fellow creatures on this planet on their own rights. This will, however, lead to the much disputed topic: whether animals can have rights at all since rights demands—for instance, the philosopher Roger Scruton argued, duties. This view has been effectively refuted by a number of theorists in the 20th century, particularly by Peter Singer whose formulation that animals have interests, particularly an interest in not suffering, dismisses all other counter-arguments. This point of commonness among all the animal beings and the human beings becomes a fundamental principle challenging all the arguments—many based on the empiricist evidences, found in ‘nature’, and questions all our ‘needs’ and ‘pleasures’ that initiates torture and suffering of animals from the ancient slaughter-house approved by Descartes to our modern circus and ‘scientific’ zoo.

    In ultimate analysis, dominance, violence and cruelty—which we have received as evolutionary gifts, cannot be justified by pseudo-science and sophistry. Let us not talk of responsibility or duties as precondition for animal rights, rather let us talk of our own responsibility in not violating the rights of the mute and voiceless. True human superiority is not to be found in speciesism, but to be justified only after we learn to respect their rights and actively participate in upholding the rights—an act which can be called truly divine by the standard of any religion.

    Pabitra Kumar Mishra

    Editor-in-Chief

  • Editorial, Volume II, 2012

    Date:  By: Editor

    We are very happy to publish the Volume II of Bhatter College Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies both on the web and in print. It is indeed a very amazing feeling that we are carrying forward a legacy of human culture that had originated out of the need for communication in the unknown prehistoric times. The history of civilization—to a great extent—can be called a history of the evolution of technology. Marks and signs are everywhere—from the caves paintings, rock inscriptions, papyrus manuscripts, palm leaves, animal skin, printed paper, telegraph, radio, cinema to the digital media, and all these point to the evolving and creative nature of élan vital, which tries to assert itself in complex and varied forms. In the previous century we witnessed the culmination of such spirit on two media—paper, a product of Industrial Revolution of Europe, and cinema/television which led ultimately to an explosion of knowledge. But in this second decade of the 21st century we can sense that we have entered into post-Gutenberg digital era and got past the print culture. While in the previous century we witnessed explosion of knowledge, in the new century with the physical barriers of time and place greatly minimised, we are experiencing a revolution of communication and access and an explosion of information. With the new technology, teaching-learning systems all over the globe are going through challenging times; for, it also demands that the infrastructure exist in functional form and trained teachers incorporate the techniques as naturally as they do the blackboard.

    The role of the UGC in proving much-needed support for implementing ICT in higher education has been very praiseworthy, but it is not sufficient enough because implementation depends on the positive role of the organizations at the last level. Another hurdle in this regard is the commercial aspect of technology: it is very difficult for people and institutions to maintain use of up-to-date hardware and software especially when certain updates and changes are commercially motivated. Investment for ICT in a higher education institution is huge and the redundancy factor makes the situation very difficult. A five year old computer in good condition has to be discarded simply because of hardware and software compatibility problems, and that very machine would still run well enough in open source software. One way out of the commercial stratagem and saving billions of dollars could be through building up an alternative culture of Open Source software managed and maintained centrally with policies country-specific by some government organization. This can also help in developing organically a country-wise system fit for addressing region/culture specific needs. This could also contribute to solving, to a great extent, the problem of digital divide in the developing nations, where softwares for basic computing cost almost double the price of hardware. However, experience with one such attempt—which promised tablets for school children, has been so far dismal. Another important issue awaiting attention is developing accessibility features in ICT for physically challenged persons, who need the help of technology much more than others.

    Implementing ICT in higher education should not be the exclusive job of technology experts; it involves more experience and knowledge than the technical persons come up with. For, ultimately all depends on teachers in the classroom and we have to keep in mind that introducing new technology does not mean removal of the human factor and nothing can replace the human presence in direct classroom teaching. In the new context, the human factor will be increasing more important for leading students through the jungle of information and dangerous attractions.

    The situation demands holistically multidisciplinary perspectives. We sought papers from scholars from a number of disciplines. Thanks to their valued scholarship, research and experience we have succeeded in compiling a good volume, which, I am sure, will help in understanding ICT from a rich collective perspective and spreading awareness about the new technology without the introduction of which higher institutions will surely lag behind in a superfast networked world of information and interactivity. Finally I would like to thank all the contributors, editorial board members and the college authority for their contribution, support and inspiration.

    Pabitra Kumar Mishra

    Bhatter College Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, (ISSN 2249-3301), Vol. II, 2012. Ed. Pabitra Kumar Mishra. Available online at: http://bcjms.bhattercollege.ac.in, published by Bhatter College, Dantan, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. www.bhattercollege.ac.in. © Bhatter College, Dantan

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    Posted in: Editorials, Volume 2