Articles by Sumanta Banerjee

One of the EPW’s long-time writers reminisces about his association with the Economic Weekly, and then, from the late 1960s–early 1970s, his relationship with the EPW (and Krishna Raj) as a regular correspondent.

Even as the Naxalite/Maoist movement continues to haunt the Indian state, its future is not secure, for Mao’s revolutionary strategy for China of the 1920–40 period is no longer applicable in today’s India. The movement has, however, unwittingly acted as a catalyst of progressive reform in rural India. A post-Maoist revolutionary strategy is, nevertheless, long overdue.

There is no end to mining into the depths of the Bengali psyche to uncover a vast underbelly of popular prejudices, political naiveté , absurd hopes, selfish interests, blind vengeance that were cunningly manipulated by Mamata Banerjee to shift the electoral verdict in her favour. Her promise of extension of freebies to all sections of society had seduced the voters to elect her, in a trade-off between their self-interest on the one hand, and democratic rights on the other. They are willing to sacrifice the latter, and remain mute spectators to the suppression of political opposition and dissent.

Different political forces in the country have either collaborated with or tacitly approved the Hindutva forces in their early days.