Articles by Debraj Bhattacharya

Between 2011 and 2021 West Bengal was dominated by the personality of Mamata Banerjee and the period can be described as the Mamata era. She destroyed the power of both the Maoists and Left Front after coming to power, introduced several populist schemes and appeared to be the undisputed ruler of the state by 2016. However, she committed a same-side goal in the panchayat election of 2018 and gave a fresh lease of life to the opposition. Ironically, it was not the left but the right that capitalised on it.

This is a response to Indraneel Dasgupta’s essay “On Some Left Critiques of the Left” (EPW, 1 August 2009). I agree with him that industrialisation is necessary for West Bengal and manufacturing units would create a certain number of jobs for the poor.

In the course of the 19th century, Kolkata had acquired a distinctly cosmopolitan 'underworld'. By the end of the century, new forms of urban disturbances had emerged in the city in the form of riots. This saw the emergence of the professional hoodlum or the 'goonda' as a manufacturer of violence in the city. At first they were largely 'upcountry' labourers, but in the course of time there was a wide variety of goondas in terms of origin and social background. By 1923, the Goondas Act had been promulgated ostensibly with the aim of controlling such hoodlums engaged in a range of 'criminal' acts, as defined by the colonial legislation.