Thread by @buchu

I have now seen multiple takes on this idea that there has been a ‘sudden’ shift towards communalism in Bengal. And Mamata Banerjee has stemmed the tide. The historian in me is really wincing at this. A thread.👇🏽

Let me start with a fairly accessible and excellent piece on the long history of Hindu majoritarianism in Bengal and then break it down a bit more. @ishan_muk

caravanmagazine.in/amp/politics/h…

Tanika Sarkar on Hindu reform in Bengal is a classic. amazon.co.uk/Hindu-Wife-Nat…
and here is a more accessible piece by her
m.thewire.in/article/women/…

Sumit Sarkar wrote a long time ago about communalism in post Swadeshi Bengal. There is also a longer book.
jstor.org/stable/4414413…. If anyone wants to read any of the things I am linking to and doesn’t have institutional access please let me know.

And P K Datta here jstor.org/stable/4399871….

There were riots in the 1920s (P K Datta has written extensively on this)
jstor.org/stable/3517478… and scholar.google.com/scholar?start=…

Suranjan Das on communal riots in Bengal
jstor.org/stable/4378967

On agrarian economy and religious conflict there is Sugata Bose. cabdirect.org/cabdirect/mobi… and this article on the Kishoreganj riots. jstor.org/stable/312117?…. As well as Partha Chatterjee in the first subaltern studies volume. scholar.google.com/scholar?start=…

The BJP was after all founded by a Bengali Hindu google.co.uk/amp/s/indianex…

On the gendered aspect of Hindu identity in Bengal muse.jhu.edu/article/207576….

On the Noakhali riots there is this short piece by Claude Markovits for the non specialist. There is also work by Rakesh Batyabal. citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downlo…

On the Namasudras there is Sekhar Bandopadhyay. tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… and the longer book india.oup.com/product/caste-….

This special issue has a number of excellent articles on communalism in Bengal between 1940-1947 including on the question of caste
cambridge.org/core/books/mak….

Now the most influential work on this subject is Joya Chatterji in her seminal book
cambridge.org/core/books/ben….

If you are not familiar with her work this interview with @uttaras is an excellent primer
borderlines-cssaame.org/posts/2020/11/…

Haimanti Roy has carried this argument forward. jstor.org/stable/4028501…

Thank you for indulging me. If you are indeed overwhelmed that first piece in the Caravan is probably enough. And perhaps my historian friends can fill in any blanks I have missed. @itihaasnaama @moubanerjee28 @mformanic @NeetiNair @uttaras and @uditi_sen.

And for a significantly more nuanced take including on subaltern Hindutva please see this thread.

https://twitter.com/achakrava/status/1389051448533524480

I should have added @popeyed to this as well. It’s really an excellent interview and worth assigning for an undergraduate course. So much detail on how historians work/think as well as her actual work.