Articles by Buddhadeb Ghosh

It is difficult to agree with Praskanva Sinharay’s argument (“West Bengal’s Election Story: The Caste Question”,EPW, 26 April 2014) that “caste” is emerging as a “determinant” factor in West Bengal’s political scene.

An examination of the landholdings of those farmers who were unwilling to sell their holdings to facilitate the Tata car factory in Singur suggests that only a very small number among them had substantial holdings and livelihoods tied to them. What then was the real reason for the protests in Singur led by many "unwilling farmers"?

The article on West Bengal by Jyotiprasad Chatterjee and Suprio Basu in the National Election Study (NES) 2009, published in your journal does not throw much light on what caused the debacle of the Left in the 2009 elections.

In recent years, south Asia has received growing attention as a region that has successfully begun the process of regional integration. The opening of free trade in the region has led to countries in south Asia experiencing high trade costs due to inadequacy in trade and transport facilitation. South Asia's trade is constrained by poor infrastructure condition, congestion, high costs, and lengthy delays. These problems are particularly severe at border crossings, many of which pose significant barriers to trade. This paper supplements the findings of previous studies on this subject and reassesses the transaction costs for India's overland exports to Bangladesh. It finds that transaction costs of India's exports to Bangladesh have increased despite simplification of documentations at border. The paper concludes that the rent-seeking informal economy is very much deep-rooted and making the trade transaction expensive at border.

This essay tries to analyse historically the roots of the basic contradictions which have haunted the rural self-governing institutions of India. These contradictions have been further sharpened by the 73rd constitutional amendment. Though the concept of self-government at the local level has been guaranteed by the Constitution, it has been given a go by in practice by the ruling establishment. Institutional changes brought about by the 73rd amendment have helped create a space at the grass roots level for these contradictions to be challenged by disadvantaged sections. This might create a ground swell demanding autonomy of panchayats to ensure responsive and accountable governance at the local level.