Why dropping “West” from “West Bengal” is a blow to our identity

Why dropping “West” from “West Bengal” is a blow to our identity 0
- Blog, Issue 18 - Fall 2016
- August 8, 2016
Bengal without the prefix tries to invent a wholly-contained make-believe identity. The West Bengal state Cabinet has decided to drop West from the state’s official name and make it either Bongo or Bangla (and Bengal in English). The trigger for this renaming is the long-time problem that West Bengal faces at meetings convened by the
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India’s GST Bill is aimed at achieving corporate control over democratic mechanisms 0
- Blog
- June 21, 2016
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced recently that almost all states except Tamil Nadu are on board on the draft GST bill that aims, among other things, to take away most autonomous taxation powers from the state governments. From being opposed by then-Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, to now being furiously pursued by the Union
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CPM-Congress alliance in West Bengal makes perfect sense in terms of electoral maths 0
- Blog
- April 12, 2016
Even a few months ago, if one were to do election forecasting in West Bengal, few would have predicted any contest. The Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee was widely seen as the undisputed winner – well on the way to repeat or even better the 2011 Assembly election performance that brought the once unvanquishable
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Leave the flag, take the wicket 1
- Blog
- June 23, 2015
Cricket in its ‘national’ avatar has become an avenue for war by other means — an opportunity to display jingoism, sexual objectification of women, of doing ‘lena’ and ‘dena’ between nation-states It starts off pretty innocuously, and happens most often during cricket tournaments. Certain citizens of the Indian Union start talking about the possibility of
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The Politics of Remembering the Icons of Anti-Colonial Struggle 0
- Blog
- April 28, 2015
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 March 23, 1931 and Shurjo Sen was born on March 22, 1894. Governments that utilise half a chance
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Garga Chatterjee