The Subaltern Shift: Why Bengal is Talking About Castes This Election Season
3 years, 9 months ago

The Subaltern Shift: Why Bengal is Talking About Castes This Election Season

News 18  

“I cannot take this anymore,” Chuni Kotal told her family members days before she died by suicide at a hostel in West Midnapore in August 1992. “Unfortunately, it never took off because political parties such as the Left, the Congress, the TMC and the BJP never wanted that to happen…it was also due to lack of unity among Dalits and the allegiance of some sections among them to mainstream parties…this is the reason why Bengal doesn’t have political parties based on castes, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have.” He says Bengalis prefer silence on the issue “because if they say they believe in caste, he or she will lose the progressive image in the society”. Thakur says people have begun discussing caste out of frustration because the Mandal Commission recommendations “were not implemented logically in Bengal”. “Unlike the Hindi belt, where people take a lot of pride in discussing castes, people in Bengal talk of caste in a sugar-coated manner,” he says. Under his leadership, the BJP extensively worked on mobilising Hindu Bengalis irrespective of their caste, even as the ruling party played the “Bangaliana ” card in order to reach out to all castes and religions.

Politics Kolkata Congress Election Tribal Caste Lok Sabha Hindu Muslims State Hindus Bjp Muslim This Election Bengal Castes Murmu Left Obc Lower Chatterjee Banerjee Tmc Thakur Kurmi Matua Kotal Lower Castes Tisha Chuni Kotal  bengal  season  subaltern  left  state  tmc  politics  tribal  caste  bjp  castes  talking  lower  election  shift

History of this topic

In West Bengal, caste links with Hindutva
8 months, 1 week ago

In West Bengal, caste links with Hindutva

Hindustan Times  

From a state known for the class politics of the Left, West Bengal now seems to have emerged as a new laboratory of identity politics. What West Bengal is currently witnessing is not conventional caste politics, but an extraordinary marriage between the politics of Hindutva and the politics of caste, where the former informs the logic underlying the latter. It …

Rahul’s ‘Rule of Hindus’ Comment: Why Cong Needs Its Own Vocabulary
3 years ago

Rahul’s ‘Rule of Hindus’ Comment: Why Cong Needs Its Own Vocabulary

The Quint  

Last week, in a bid to target the Bharatiya Janata Party and its many Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh affiliates, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi erred grievously. At a well-attended rally in Jaipur on 12 December, he said, “This is a country of Hindus, not Hindutvawadis … Hindutvawadis have to be ousted, and the rule of Hindus brought about in the country." In …

The varying power of Hindutva beyond the heartland
3 years, 7 months ago

The varying power of Hindutva beyond the heartland

The Hindu  

The second victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam must be juxtaposed with its failure to win power in West Bengal in the recent Assembly elections to understand the varying potency of Hindutva in States beyond its heartland in the north and the west of India. In Assam, the BJP managed to subsume all identity politics, including Bodo and …

Left to Right: In Jangalmahal, history of political partisanship, economic aspirations push voters towards BJP
3 years, 8 months ago

Left to Right: In Jangalmahal, history of political partisanship, economic aspirations push voters towards BJP

Firstpost  

Editor’s Note: A peculiar trend that has emerged in West Bengal’s political scene is that of people switching allegiance from the Left to the BJP. It is only natural that many people from marginalised sections of society will move to the saffron party in order to continue the cycle of benefits for themselves.” Rajiv Goenka, a human rights activist who …

Bengal is Learning a New Language—That of Hindutva-led Caste Identity Politics
3 years, 9 months ago

Bengal is Learning a New Language—That of Hindutva-led Caste Identity Politics

News 18  

The singularities of caste and Hindutva are combining with Bengali identity in the electoral game of West Bengal. These ‘chai-paan’ shop discussions in rural Bengal during election time made us realise that the form and craft of public conversations in OBC-Dalit dominant zones of rural Bengal developed similar Dalit-Bahujan discourse as Hindi-speaking regions, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The …

Explained | What is driving the Dalit-Muslim divide in West Bengal?
3 years, 10 months ago

Explained | What is driving the Dalit-Muslim divide in West Bengal?

India Today  

West Bengal represents a new wave of religious polarisation in the country. Muslims constitute nearly 30 per cent of the state's electorate and lower castes have similar proportions, with scheduled castes at 24 per cent and scheduled tribes at 6 per cent. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a sizeable section of Muslims supported Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, while majority …

Bengal Election Can Leave Society Fractured Like Never Before
3 years, 11 months ago

Bengal Election Can Leave Society Fractured Like Never Before

The Quint  

Eventually, the Left transformed the whole state into a party-society. Does it mean then the caste system or the religious animosity had vanished entirely from Bengal? If anyone goes through the matrimonial ads in the Bengali or Kolkata-based newspapers, one will know the deep-rooted caste system's presence in the state. In the wake of the anti-land-acquisition movement and with the …

In TMC vs BJP Bengal Fight Over Matuas, the Rise of a Community and Its Caste Assertion
3 years, 11 months ago

In TMC vs BJP Bengal Fight Over Matuas, the Rise of a Community and Its Caste Assertion

News 18  

About 25 years ago, I was discussing caste politics in Bengal with an eminent social scientist based in Kolkata. I could clearly see that caste was always present in Bengal politics, but overpowered by two meta narratives- first, the ‘Bhadralok’ narrative, and second, the Left narrative. The ‘Bhadralok’ narrative was created by a patronizing upper caste elite, who ignored the …

'Mamata, TMC fear people's power': Narendra Modi, in exclusive News18 India interview, on Bengal violence, being abused by Opposition and more
5 years, 8 months ago

'Mamata, TMC fear people's power': Narendra Modi, in exclusive News18 India interview, on Bengal violence, being abused by Opposition and more

Firstpost  

The day after BJP and TMC supporters clashed on the streets of Kolkata following a massive roadshow by saffron party chief Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sat down for an exclusive interview with News18 India. The prime minister touched upon the violence in West Bengal, the Opposition attacks on the Election Commission and electronic voting machines, and the BJP’s …

India plans job quotas for upper caste poor as election nears
6 years ago

India plans job quotas for upper caste poor as election nears

Al Jazeera  

BJP moves constitution amendment bill in parliament to reserve 10 percent of government jobs for the privileged group. New Delhi, India – Months ahead of crucial general elections, India‘s government plans to reserve 10 percent of government jobs for the poor, including the country’s historically privileged upper castes. India’s system of reservation or quota – its version of affirmative action …

Discover Related