Articles by Sumanta Banerjee

Towards a Critique of Language Imperialism Sumanta Banerjee Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History, edited by Svati Joshi, Trianka, New Delhi, 1991; pp 348, Rs 280.



Post-Mortem Sumanta Banerjee The mess the West Bengal CPI(M) finds itself in today can be traced to two factors: first the party's partisan and unprofessional attitude towards the running of the state administration and second, as a consequence of the party's policy at various junctures to align with and to utilise lumpen elements in order to demolish political challenge, the rise of the underworld as a powerful arbiter both in politics and in civil society THE culture of the Congress(I) seems to have finally come to fruition under a Left regime in West Bengal. With almost two rapes every day (according to the West Bengal state government sources), large- scale rigging and violence in the recent Calcutta Corporation elections, and the hegemony of underworld goons in alliance with the police over Bengali society, West Bengal can now feel proud of at last catching up with those parts of India which form the core of the 'national mainstream', and where such trends have been established as norms for several decades.

It is the Indian government which has provided a handful of secessionist militants in Kashmir with a mass base. Jagmohan's return to Jammu as governor signalled the unleashing of state repression on a massive scale The government's tendency to treat mass demonstrations as the handiwork of Pakistani agents and use indiscriminate force against the people has alienated the Kashmiri public from India and pushed them into the arms of militants. 7b make matters worse Jagmohan's identification with the BJP in the popular perception and his pronounced anti-Muslim measures are widening the gulf between Hindus and Muslims in the state.

" ...What Injury You Have Done My Horses?" Sumanta Banerjee WHILE Monsieur the Marquis was driving his carriage down the streets of Paris, his horses knocked down and killed the child of a worker. As the workers stood in sullen silence, he made a speech: "It is extraordinary to me that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses?" He then shouted at his driver: "The horses there! Are they right?" That was Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities describing the behaviour of a French aristocrat, 200 years ago on the eve on the French Revolution.