Ahmed Chhafa [Sofa] (1943-2001) with his teacher, Professor Abdur Razzaq (left). Let us take a village. Assume that it contains a total population of 2000, which includes its men and women, infants and adolescents, young and the old. It is known to all that none of us lives alone in this society. Kith and kin, … Continue reading Ahmed Chhafa’s ‘The Village Poor and Rural Class-Struggle’—Translated by Pritha Banerjee
Category: Politics
Corruption Conundrum: The Political Anatomy of a Pecuniary Problem—Ritabrata Chakraborty
Cartoon by R.K. Laxman (Image Source: Public Domain) Often, encountering stunning images makes a deeper impact on us than reading stark facts in text. After years of stalled recruitments, legal deadlocks and sustained protests by a section of the deprived candidates for the School Service Commission examination, the pictures of a massive stockpile of cash, … Continue reading Corruption Conundrum: The Political Anatomy of a Pecuniary Problem—Ritabrata Chakraborty
Walking Through the Blind Alleys of Culture: A Glance into the Politics of ‘Sensory Heritage’—Ananyo Chakraborty
The Exhibition Venue: Kamala Palace in Shyambazar (Image: Suchintan Das) On 30th July this year, my friend Suchintan and I made an impromptu plan to visit an exhibition which claimed to showcase the “Sensory Heritage of Kolkata Streets”, having chanced upon its poster among many others pasted along the archaic staircase of the Indian Coffee House … Continue reading Walking Through the Blind Alleys of Culture: A Glance into the Politics of ‘Sensory Heritage’—Ananyo Chakraborty
Challenging Reason, Identities, and Nations: Situating Ghatak’s Jukti Takko Aar Goppo—Sujato Datta and Ananyo Chakraborty
Jukti Takko Aar Goppo (1974) “And somewhere under some new moon we shall learn that sleeping is not death.” Remembering Ritwik Ghatak on his 95th birth anniversary warns against deifying him as a cult figure. "Pakami korona" (Don't try to be too smart) would have been the spontaneous retort, if the man had been alive … Continue reading Challenging Reason, Identities, and Nations: Situating Ghatak’s Jukti Takko Aar Goppo—Sujato Datta and Ananyo Chakraborty
The Curious Case of Gambhīrā: Evolution of a Folk Performance from the Indo-Bangladesh Borderland—Asmita Sarkar
Picture Courtesy: Malda Malancha “Deshta kore bhagabhagi, abar cholchey jhogra jhati, Bharot holo shoshan, hey panchanan, purey hinshar oi aguney.” (The country was divided up, now people continue to bicker, India has become a crematorium, O Panchanan (Shiva), engulfed by violent flickers.) “Sommilito jatipunjer niom bhengey Dhonsompoder ohankarey korchish Baghdad akromon Besh to khush, ohey … Continue reading The Curious Case of Gambhīrā: Evolution of a Folk Performance from the Indo-Bangladesh Borderland—Asmita Sarkar
The Alchemy of Well-Being—Suchintan Das
Angelus Novus by Paul Klee A pot of wine among the flowers. I drink alone, no friend with me. I raise my cup to invite the moon. He and my shadow and I make three. –––Li Bai, Drinking Alone with the Moon (Translated by Vikram Seth) These lines, penned by the eighth century Taoist poet … Continue reading The Alchemy of Well-Being—Suchintan Das
Covid-19: The Next-Door Dystopia—Sujato Datta
Image Courtesy: PTI What should we do when dystopia is here? I pick up the copies of We, Brave New World, and 1984, which just appear to be simplified versions of the reality we live in. Since they are premised on ‘conditions of possibility’,dystopias as a literary category and their construction within a discourse have … Continue reading Covid-19: The Next-Door Dystopia—Sujato Datta
A Pandemic Panning Across: Corona and the Questions It Asks—Ananyo Chakraborty
Courtesy: People's Archive of Rural India The Covid-19 or the novel Corona virus pandemic has affected vast sections of the world population and has already caused widespread damage in almost all aspects of human life. The world has come to a lockdown where people are being forced to self-isolate and not go outside to prevent … Continue reading A Pandemic Panning Across: Corona and the Questions It Asks—Ananyo Chakraborty
The Making of the Anti-Nation—Suchintan Das
Image Courtesy: The Economic Times The University of Delhi, which is no stranger to controversies, has recently found itself at the centre of another. The issue in question pertains to the revision of the syllabi of several undergraduate honours’ courses in general and that of History in particular. The specificity of the objection raised by … Continue reading The Making of the Anti-Nation—Suchintan Das
Politics, Spaces, and Aesthetics: Some Thoughts on the Genre of Protest Music—Debayan Das
Courtesy: The Whiskey Farm's 'Songs of Resistance' Album As Rancière said, “everything in politics turns on the distribution of spaces... political action always acts upon the social as the litigious distribution of places and roles.” But re-figuring of space, particularly physical space, is difficult in many orientalist nations, like India and Japan. This can be … Continue reading Politics, Spaces, and Aesthetics: Some Thoughts on the Genre of Protest Music—Debayan Das
Lokayata 