
The politics of remembering
“The anti-colonial struggle (even keeping aside other kinds of contemporaneous struggles for the moment) might start taking many more hues beyond the tri-colour.”
“The anti-colonial struggle (even keeping aside other kinds of contemporaneous struggles for the moment) might start taking many more hues beyond the tri-colour.”
It is due to the initiative of Professor Amalendu De that the grave of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, one of the vanguard thinkers of equity and rationalism in the subcontinent and a great spokesperson for human rights, was found in Sodepur, near Kolkata.
Continue reading “Remembering Historian Amalendu De”
A Way of Living Lost In ‘Selfie’ and ‘WhatApp’
By Garga Chaterjee for Alal O Dulal
Our neighbour of many years, Ananda Santra, died yesterday. Anandda kaku lived in our apartment complex in the Chetla locality of Kolkata (Ward Number 82 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation). Continue reading “A Way of Living Lost In ‘Selfie’ and ‘WhatsApp’”
Stars, planets, black-holes – West Bengal’s glamorous turn
By Pratik Deb for AlalODulal.org
The recent announcement of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election by Trinamul Congress supremo and the current chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee created unprecedented uproar and commotion in the state as she chose a large number of candidates belonging outside of the political arena. Continue reading “Stars, planets, black-holes – West Bengal’s glamorous turn”
Bengali Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh
by Garga Chatterjee for Alalodulal
“Hey there mister can you tell me what happened to the seeds I’ve sown
Can you give me a reason sir as to why they’ve never grown? Continue reading “Bengali Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh”
“Another significant criticism of the project has been the possibility of illegal immigrants being issued aadhaar cards. This criticism is aimed primarily at immigrants from Bangladesh. who have been living and working in many parts of India.” Continue reading “Aadhar: Today India, tomorrow Bangladesh?”
The curious case of the Surjapuri people
Guest post by Adil Hossain for AlalODulal.org
For the first time I properly encountered the Surjapuri identity was at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) during its Students’ Union (SU) elections. Apart from the dominant regional student lobbies of Azamgarhi, Ghazipuri, Bihari, Kashmiri, Saharanpuri and many others, Surjapuri students were also reckoned as a distinct community who need to be cajoled for votes separately. Continue reading “The curious case of the Surjapuri people”
The hurricane that had started from Singur and Nandigram made landfall on May 2011, when the 34-year-old rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front came to a sordid end. The storm in village, victory in city- indeed, the surrounding of cities with the villages thing has been the stuff of dreams for quasi-romantic set-piece revolutions that some minds used to conjure at some point. A macabre version of that vision has come to haunt Paschimbanga (West Bengal), particularly the megalopolis of Goddess Kali, with a certain vengeance. Continue reading “Mamata and the state of “democracy””
The picture above is from the Ganashakti – the official organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)[CPI(M)]. Before losing power, such news items presented the face of ‘democratic student movement’ in West Bengal. Being in Bengal, one knew what these ‘uncontested wins’ meant and the the sheer violence that was often behind these lack of contestations. Continue reading “A response to Vijay Prashad’s Bengal’s Slide into Fascism”
If you live within the territorial limits of the Union of India, it is very likely that you were unaware of two important red-letter days in late March. You are not alone. Bhagat Singh was executed on 23 March, 1931 and Shurjo Sen was born on 22 March, 1894. Continue reading “Politics of remembering and forgetting heroes”