Mahanirban Calcutta Research group

Previous Years

Policies and Practices 93
 
People, Politics and Protests VIII : Left Front Government in West Bengal (1971-1982) 
 
In “Left Front Government in West Bengal [1971-1982]”, Atig Ghosh deliberates on “passive revolution” and questions of caste during the specified decade of Left Front’s regime in Bengal through a study of their policies on land reform, local self government and refugee resettlement.

Essay by Atig Ghosh 
 

Policies and Practices 92
 
People, Politics and Protests VII : The Radical Rural
 
In “The Radical Rural”, Atig Ghosh and Anwesha Sengupta attempt to historically understand what happens to an ideology – in this context, Naxalbari ideology – when it travels across disparate geographies and to different socio-economic contexts, by undertaking case studies of two districts of Bengal, namely, Midnapore and Birbhum. The essay attempts to situate Left ideology within networks of continuity, and to explore its linkages.

Essays by Atig Ghosh & Anwesha Sengupta
 

Policies and Practices 91
 
People, Politics and Protests VI : Karpori Thakur
 
This volume has two articles on the political figure of Karpoori Thakur. Manish Kumar Jha’s “Contentious Politics and Popular Movements: Enigma of Karpoori Thakur” examines Karpoori Thakur’s ideas and articulations about social justice and popular politics, and attempts to comprehend Thakur’s contentious politics and his contribution to popular movements. Mithilesh Kumar in “Making of a Populist Government: A Study of Karpoori Thakur’s Regime” looks at the policies undertaken by the Thakur government in Bihar, which to a large extent continue to define politics and government in Bihar.

Essays by Manish Kumar Jha and Mithilesh Kumar
 

Policies and Practices 90
 
People, Politics and Protests V : The Creative & Cultural Dimension of the Naxalbari Movement
 
As is suggested by the name of the piece, “The Creative and Cultural Dimension of the Naxalbari Movement” by Subhoranjan Dasgupta provides some measure of the prolific abundance of creativity inspired by the Naxalite movement. Literature of all kinds, from novels, poetry and short stories, to plays and autobiographical journals and even films were inspired by the movement, encapsulating the aspirations, the vision and other aspects of the movement.

Essay by Subhoranjan Dasgupta
 

Policies and Practices 89
 
People, Politics & Protests IV: Occupy College Street: Notes from the Sixties
 
In “Occupy College Street: Notes from the Sixties”, Ranabir Samaddar looks at the tactic of occupation through the lens of the decade of the sixties of twentieth century in Kolkata. Using the Occupy College Street movement as his case study, which involved the gherao of Presidency College and Hindu hostel, Samaddar traces the history of occupation as a tactic, and goes on to explore the trajectory of occupation movements elsewhere in the world such as the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and the Gezi Park movement in Istanbul.

Essay by Ranabir Samaddar
 

Policies and Practices 88
 
Logistical Spaces IX : Conflict & Social Governance in Northeast India
 
“Conflict and Social Governance in Northeast India” by Paula Banerjee and Sucharita Sengupta looks at social governance as an emerging phenomenon in large sections of Northeast India. Defining social governance as a mode where conflict is managed by transforming state versus community conflicts into conflicts within communities, the paper studies the trajectories of social governance undertaken by the state particularly in the context of Nagaland, which is historically seen as the most conflict prone state in the Northeast.

Essays by Paula Banerjee & Sucharita Sengupta
 

Policies and Practices 87
 
Logistical Spaces VIII : TRade, Capital & Conflict
 
In ‘Trade, Capital and Conflict’, the authors engage in a case study of the frontier towns of Moreh-Tamu and Champai to explore how the border trade between India and Myanmar showcases to what extent development of border trade can lead to economic development in the region, and consequently shape transitory and geopolitical agendas in the regional context. Additionally, the paper examines how regional politics and issues of ethnic identity affect the region when taken into consideration with the nexus of capital, labour and logistics.

Essays by Soma Ghosal and Snehashish Mitra
 

Policies and Practices 86
 
Logistical Spaces VII: Finance Capital & Infrastructure Development
 
Iman Kumar Mitra’s ‘Finance Capital and Infrastructure Development’ looks at the connections between networks of finance capital and infrastructure-led development in the context of India’s Look East Policy. It attempts to explore this connection in the backdrop of the idea of a ‘seamless Asia’ and the many infrastructural requirements for its realisation in connection with the burgeoning networks of finance capital in the region.

Essays by Iman Kumar Mitra
 

Policies and Practices 85
 
Logistical Space VI: Logistics and the Reshaping of Global Governance

Author Anita Sengupta in ‘Interwoven Realities: Logistics and the Reshaping of Global Governance’, looks at how contemporary changes in infrastructural logistics are affecting and reshaping the notions and realities of geopolitics and global governance. The article takes up the study of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the proposed BCIM (Economic Corridor) to argue that the global scope of logistics will redefine existing balances of power and geo-economic relations.

Essay by Anita Sengupta

Policies and Practices 84
 
Logistical Space V : Representing of Connectivity