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Leadership and political work
No full textTaking cognisance of the lack of studies on leadership in modern India, this book explores how leadership is practiced in the Indian context, examining this across varied domains — from rural settings and urban neighbourhoods to political parties and state governments. The chapter presents a case study of the nature of the Communist Parties’ presence at the village level in West Bengal
Socio-cultural changes in rural West Bengal.
Get PDFThe emergence of broad rural support in West Bengal for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) is here studied through the history (1960 to present) of two villages in Burdwan district. The focus is on the relationship between the dynamics of village politics and political and ideological changes of the larger polity. Village politics constitutes an important realm of informal rules for political action and public participation where popular perceptions of wider political events and cultural changes are created. The communist mobilization of the late 1960s followed from an informal alliance formed between sections of the educated (and politicized) middle-class peasantry and certain groups (castes) of poor. The middle-class peasantry drew inspiration from Bengal's high-status and literary but radicalized tradition. However, the establishment and dynamics of the alliance, at the local level, can only be understood within the normative framework of the village. The poor appeared previously as marginal to public exercise of village affairs, but were nonetheless able to manipulate resources available to them (numbers, assertion, norms) and thus achieve some leverage vis-a-vis village leaders dependent on man-support or "moral economy" sentiments for legitimacy. The interests of these groups of poor, particularly of the social or cultural kind since the material resources available were very limited, became crucial in the bonds village leaders sought to create to retain their support. Following on this practice, also the CPM's local party leadership, in the 1980s and 1990s, consistently confirmed social aspirations and status considerations. This leads to the conclusions that not only do communist movements too depend on considerations of social status, honours, and symbolic displays of respect but that the scope for change and the manner in which the communist movement can function at the local level derive from popular perceptions, formed and enacted in villages
Ravinder Kaur, Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-first-century India. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2020. 346 pp, with illustrations. ISBN 1503612597
Get PDFThe Osman Dynasty: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Family
No full textThe Osman Dynasty in Bangladesh is several generations deep and combines legitimate mobilization politics with money-making businesses and ‘godfather’ tactics. This article focuses on two aspects of dynasty formation: its relationship to the wider political context and the issue of dynastic succession. The brittle nature of the national sovereignty in a traumatized postcolonial and post-war society of 1970s and 1980s constituted an environment in which local powerfuls could establish themselves through a combination of legitimate political activism and muscle politics. And yet there were rivals and challenges and succession was not assured. The reasons for the dynasty now seemingly unable to able to pass the torch to a fourth generation, underscore the changed circumstances. This article will thus argue that local dynasty formation constitutes a historically specific phenomenon
The mohol: The hidden power structure of Bangladesh local politics
No full textIt is a common view that power in Bangladesh is exercised through patron–client forms of exchange. These patron–client relationships are held together by moral proximity and intimacy and are diffused and multidimensional. Most recently, Basu et al. (2018, Politics and Governance in Bangladesh: Uncertain Landscapes, 1–16. London: Routledge) argue for the persuasive presence of patron–client relationships and its role as the informal, ‘real’ structure as opposed to the formal state structure. The portrait, however, leaves us with the image of a vast undifferentiated web where the only node is the one at the centre. This article seeks to temper this portrait by arguing that at a certain point the web is no longer undifferentiated. It has locally real, tangible nodes of substantial power—often referred to as mohol (quarter) in Bangla. These nodes of power are often albeit not invariably centred on the local MP. The existence of these nodes indicates a decentralised power structure, wherein power is located in numerable nodes across the country rather than centralised in Dhaka
Subho Basu. Intimation of Revolution: Global Sixties and the Making of Bangladesh
Get PDFOutside of Bangladesh and of the circles of South Asian studies, the details of the struggle leading up to the war of independence in 1971 are known only in broad outlines, if that. The academic scholarship on this period is also limited to brief outlines or individual biographies. Historian Subho Basu’s study is a welcome contribution to a more in-depth understanding of this history. His Intimation of Revolution is a very thorough and detailed study of the events as they unfolded, how they ..
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