Mahanirban Calcutta Research group

Born as a facilitating group in support of the peace movement in West Bengal, the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group is now known as the Calcutta Research Group (CRG). The Third Joint Conference of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy (1996), an unprecedented four-day public gathering of 400 peace activists of the sub-continent in Calcutta, marked the beginning of CRG. The founders were a group of researchers, trade unionists, feminist thinkers and women’s rights campaigners, academics, journalists, and lawyers. This was to be a forum for policy discussion and analysis on issues of democracy, human rights, peace, and justice.

Developing as a forum of mostly young public activists and socially committed researchers, CRG is now well-known for its research, dialogues, and advocacy work. It has carved out a niche for itself in the scholar-activist world for its policy studies on autonomy, human rights, women’s dignity, issues of forced displacement and migration, peace and conflict resolution, citizenship, borders and border-conflicts, and other themes relevant to democracy. The emphasis that CRG places on the East and the Northeast in its research and dialogues has now resulted in a strong network of scholars, activists, and institutions in the region.