Religion

The objective of this article is to put forward a modest hypothesis to test, namely “to politicise caste in Bengal, it needs to be taken out from the fold of Hindu religion.” The category needs to be mobilised and radicalised through the active participation of lower-caste groups across the state. To do this, the proliferation of sociocultural organisations is necessary whose prime concern would be to stretch the logic of caste in the political domain, whereas caste has hitherto taken only a comfortable refuge in the Hinduised domain of the Bengal social.

Revenge, Politics and Blasphemy in Pakistan by Adeel Hussain, London: Hurst & Company, 2022; pp viii+173, `2,544 (hardcover).

From Volga to Ganga by Rahul Sankrityayan translated by V G Kiernan and Kanwal Dhaliwal and edited by Kanwal Dhaliwal and Maya Joshi, Delhi: Leftword, 2021; pp 380, `595.

The Assam assembly elections continued the trend towards deepening of religious polarisation in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance strategy helped in retaining its hold over the ethnic base that had shifted to the party in 2016.