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Losing the Plot: Political Isolation of West Bengal
Losing the Plot: Political Isolation of West Bengal is a comprehensive account of West Bengal’s political history tracing the changing leadership, ideologies, and discourse from the birth of modern ideas and nationalism in the state of Bengal which eventually spread across India to its steady movement away from the national mainstream in recent times.
The book delineates the political character of the state and its people, the dream of its early leaders, and the shattering of the same in course of time. The author has analysed in great detail the rift between Bengal’s leadership and the rest of India since the days of nationalism. He explores West Bengal’s regional political narrative and its continuing isolation from the national mainstream despite changes in government. The cultural, economic, and social preponderance of West Bengal in the past has given way to an unhappy decline because it has failed to engage with its politics in an effective manner.
It is the story of a state that has lost its plot!
The book delineates the political character of the state and its people, the dream of its early leaders, and the shattering of the same in course of time. The author has analysed in great detail the rift between Bengal’s leadership and the rest of India since the days of nationalism. He explores West Bengal’s regional political narrative and its continuing isolation from the national mainstream despite changes in government. The cultural, economic, and social preponderance of West Bengal in the past has given way to an unhappy decline because it has failed to engage with its politics in an effective manner.
It is the story of a state that has lost its plot!
428 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2021
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September 26, 2022
I'd rather have Sugato Hazra do the talking. Because this paragraph, a little longish, from pages 368 - 369 of the 428-page book neatly sums up the argument that Shri Hazra, a public policy analyst, has tried to build up in his book.
"Bengalis have come a long way since the early days of the British rule and the espousal of English education to the rule of a regional political party led by the first female head of the state, from the days when the rich and the landed gentry used to command respect to the present days when one must pay obeisance to the local mastans for peace, from the days when people from across the vast country used to come to the state's capital Calcutta (the second largest city of the British empire next to London), to today when the young flock out of the state for education and livelihood, from the days when Bengal was the thought leader and educated the rest of the Indians on nationalism to now when West Bengal and its local leadership is viewed as laggards in a progressive India. This is the story of the descent of a state - a state which even the other day saw one of its boys receiving the Noble memorial prize in Economics, a state whose poet was the first Asian honoured with Noble prize, a place which was the karmabhumi of Noble laureates Ronald Ross, C V Raman and Mother Teresa, the land that nurtured the philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and produced Satyajit Ray, the first Indian filmmaker receiving accolades in the global cinematography scene, and Pandit Ravi Shankar, the first Indian to win the Grammy. The children of this state shine in their adopted countries and rise to the top. The bright young people of this state today feel relieved when they manage to migrate and move out. This is the history of a state living in and taking solace from its past and feeling happy when migrants from the state win laurels. West Bengal is a story of an unending descent - economically, culturally and politically. It is the story of a state that has lost its plot."
Shri Hazra has given the very perceptively-written penultimate chapter the title, "Isolation Unchecked - Will It End Someday?"
Seventy five years after the Partition, three-and-a-half decades of Communist rule and the ongoing decade-long anarchy later, it is difficult to answer the question in the affirmative.
As one who has lived his entire life in this part of the country, I have the gut-wrenching feeling that West Bengal may have stepped onto a slippery slope and is probably racing to the bottom in an ever-accelerating speed.
If you want to learn about the decline and fall of Bengal, Shri Hazra has provided an excellently perceptive overview.
Losing the Plot: Political Isolation of West Bengal is probably the best book I have read so far in 2022.
"Bengalis have come a long way since the early days of the British rule and the espousal of English education to the rule of a regional political party led by the first female head of the state, from the days when the rich and the landed gentry used to command respect to the present days when one must pay obeisance to the local mastans for peace, from the days when people from across the vast country used to come to the state's capital Calcutta (the second largest city of the British empire next to London), to today when the young flock out of the state for education and livelihood, from the days when Bengal was the thought leader and educated the rest of the Indians on nationalism to now when West Bengal and its local leadership is viewed as laggards in a progressive India. This is the story of the descent of a state - a state which even the other day saw one of its boys receiving the Noble memorial prize in Economics, a state whose poet was the first Asian honoured with Noble prize, a place which was the karmabhumi of Noble laureates Ronald Ross, C V Raman and Mother Teresa, the land that nurtured the philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and produced Satyajit Ray, the first Indian filmmaker receiving accolades in the global cinematography scene, and Pandit Ravi Shankar, the first Indian to win the Grammy. The children of this state shine in their adopted countries and rise to the top. The bright young people of this state today feel relieved when they manage to migrate and move out. This is the history of a state living in and taking solace from its past and feeling happy when migrants from the state win laurels. West Bengal is a story of an unending descent - economically, culturally and politically. It is the story of a state that has lost its plot."
Shri Hazra has given the very perceptively-written penultimate chapter the title, "Isolation Unchecked - Will It End Someday?"
Seventy five years after the Partition, three-and-a-half decades of Communist rule and the ongoing decade-long anarchy later, it is difficult to answer the question in the affirmative.
As one who has lived his entire life in this part of the country, I have the gut-wrenching feeling that West Bengal may have stepped onto a slippery slope and is probably racing to the bottom in an ever-accelerating speed.
If you want to learn about the decline and fall of Bengal, Shri Hazra has provided an excellently perceptive overview.
Losing the Plot: Political Isolation of West Bengal is probably the best book I have read so far in 2022.
Displaying 1 of 1 review