ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

West BengalSubscribe to West Bengal

Of Conflict and Collaboration

The transformation of party society in West Bengal under the Trinamool Congress in which only Mamata Banerjee commands universal loyalty is traced. She has built an architecture of power that makes extensive political use of governmental resources, allows local party bosses to run their own fiefdom in exchange of total allegiance, and plays dangerously with religious, ethnic, and caste identities. On their part, the enterprising party leaders as “franchisees” use “Brand Mamata” in their bid to capture and retain territorial power. While such “franchisee politics” of “non-corporate crony capitalism” triggers unprecedented corruption and unlimited electoral violence, it also produces an economy requiring cooperation across religious and ethnic lines as a precondition for meeting people’s livelihood. By combining partisan conflict with social collaboration on the foundations of party society, West Bengal’s franchisee politics places a structural deterrence for the rapidly emergent Bharatiya Janata Party and its politics of religious polarisation.

The Story of Land Acquisition in Bhangar, West Bengal

One crucial factor among many that led to the victory of Trinmool Congress in the West Bengal elections in 2011 was the violence associated with land acquisitions in the period when the Left Front was in power. An attempt is made to see if any lessons were learnt out of the Nandigram–Singur episodes. A case study of land acquisition in the Bhangar area of West Bengal is presented by putting forth the entire story of what happened from January 2013 to March 2020. The intersecting dynamics of local politics, local land mafia, the rents arising out of land acquisitions, and the state-level politics are also analysed. It is found that the villagers are willing to sell their land if they get a “proper” compensation. It is hypothesised that possibly a “learning state” is evolving in West Bengal, which could aid its industrialisation.

Of Feminist Selves and Politics

Changing the Subject: Feminist and Queer Politics in Neoliberal India by Srila Roy, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2022; pp 273, $26.95.

The Fragile Discourse of Caste in West Bengal

The objective of this article is to put forward a modest hypothesis to test, namely “to politicise caste in Bengal, it needs to be taken out from the fold of Hindu religion.” The category needs to be mobilised and radicalised through the active participation of lower-caste groups across the state. To do this, the proliferation of sociocultural organisations is necessary whose prime concern would be to stretch the logic of caste in the political domain, whereas caste has hitherto taken only a comfortable refuge in the Hinduised domain of the Bengal social.

Agrarian Relations in West Bengal

Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in West Bengal: A Study of Agrarian Relations edited by Aparajita Bakshi and Tapas Singh Modak, New Delhi: Tulika, 2021; pp 496, `1,250

Income Convergence among the Districts of West Bengal

The study of the inter-district convergence of per capita incomes in any state or country is crucial to policy agenda as it exposes the scenario of real income distribution. The present paper examines inter-district convergence of per capita income in West Bengal using the neoclassical growth and panel unit root models; the second is an advanced approach compared to the first. The results in line with the two approaches show that the districts are not converging in terms of income; rather the districts are diverging between 1993 and 2014. It is an alarming knock to the state since divergence in income leads to rising inequality across districts; it will hamper the development of the state.

Politics of Identity Contra Anti-caste Social Visions

The intricate relations between caste-based identity politics and anti-caste social associations and visions in West Bengal are unravelled, based on findings from a micro study conducted in a village in Nadia district between November 2020 and March 2021. In-depth interviews too were conducted with Namasudra leaders, the anti-caste Matua sect, and Matua dals (village associations) in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts. While the discourse on citizenship and the long experience of social and political marginalisation have resulted in a strategic polarisation of the Matuas towards the politics of Hindutva, this has never stifled their quest for social justice.The intricate relations between caste-based identity politics and anti-caste social associations and visions in West Bengal are unravelled, based on findings from a micro study conducted in a village in Nadia district between November 2020 and March 2021. In-depth interviews too were conducted with Namasudra leaders, the anti-caste Matua sect, and Matua dals (village associations) in Nadia and North 24 Parganas districts. While the discourse on citizenship and the long experience of social and political marginalisation have resulted in a strategic polarisation of the Matuas towards the politics of Hindutva, this has never stifled their quest for social justice.

Short Stories on Precarity

Field Notes from a Waterborne Land: Bengal Beyond the Bhadralok by Parimal Bhattacharya, New Delhi: HarperCollins India, 2022; pp 312, `499 (paperback).

Politics of Cultural Misrecognitions and the Rise of Identity Consolidations in Post-left West Bengal

West Bengal has a substantive presence of minority population with 27% Muslims and 5.5% Scheduled Tribes. They often have a ghettoised presence and political parties take special care to secure electoral dividends from them. After the end to the left regime in 2011, the Trinamool Congress in its second term has percolated in most of the traditional left bastions, especially among the ethnic and religious minorities. This paper explores the mechanisms of TMC’s percolation among the ethnic and religious minorities through “cultural misrecognition.” Through an ethnographic work on the promotion of cultural expressions and recent ethnic conflicts, it is argued that, while the organisation-based political mechanism has been put in the backseat, West Bengal is observing a rapid rise of primordial identity-based political practices.

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