PUBLISHED BOOKS FROM CRG
A Recent Publications - A Pandemic and the Politics of Life
A Pandemic and the Politics of Life
Over one hundred million infections, and two million deaths, worldwide, with more than ten million cases and a lakh-and-a-half deaths in India. A Pandemic and the Politics of Life unravels the specifics of the Indian experience of battling COVID-19, while adopting an international perspective, in order to analyse the why and how of this public health emergency; the neoliberal response by the state; the production of an unanticipated politics of life; and the dramatic desire for a new kind of public power. Written during an intense time, this monograph closely follows the progress of the virus, focusing on three themes: (i) the outbreak as an epidemiological crisis compounded by an economic crisis, a migrant crisis, and a political crisis; (ii) the presence of the marching migrant as the figure of this crisis; and (iii) the emergence of bio-politics from below as a reaction of the lower classes. Over twelve months into ‘fighting’ this deadly virus, we now have a remedy in the form of a vaccine—but is that all the remedy we need? The author raises and answers some critical questions around the way issues of life and death are negotiated in a neoliberal order, and on what we mean by care, protection and solidarity in a post-COVID-19 world.
To procure the book, please contact Women Unlimited which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
Populism and Populist Politics in South Asia with Special Reference to India -Bengali Publication
“In an era when Populism is the ‘Mantra’ of the global political order, leaders of many countries are seen to be riding on the Populist waves, be that right-wing or left-wing. Donald Trump in the USA, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Victor Orban in Hungary, Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France are some of the names that create populist waves of the day. In the past also, we have seen the rise of Juan Domingo Peron in Argentina, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and some other leaders came to power riding on populist waves. India and South Asia have also witnessed the rise of populist trends in the not so recent past when Indira Gandhi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Maulana Bhasani took the populist turn in their respective countries in the decade of 1970s. Today, the rise of AAP in Delhi can be traced back to the trend set by MGR-Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu and N T Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh. Even the politics of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal today can be understood better and seen through the optics of Populism.
To understand the manifestations and its implications of Populist Politics in today’s life it is imperative to examine how the populist leaders articulate their politics in catchy phrases and mobilise popular support around them. With that in mind, CRG has published a book on Populism in Bengali recently. The book deals with both the theoretical concept of Populism as being understood globally and how it manifests somewhat differently in India. There are eight papers by scholars and other researchers that examine various aspects of it. A brief introduction by Prof. Ranabir Samaddar has tried to set the concept of the book on tracks. Perhaps it is the first of its kind in the Bengali language so far.
To procure the book, please contact Calcutta Research Group which has published it / Edited by Sibaji Pratim Basu & Rajat Roy
Burdens of an Epidemic : A Policy Perspective on COVID-19 and Migrant Labour
Burdens of an Epidemic: A Policy Perspective on Covid-19 and Migrant Workers comes out close on the heels of Borders of an Epidemic. Borders of an Epidemic was documentary in nature. Burdens of an Epidemic analyses the issue of migrant labour from several dimensions of the epidemic. The purpose of this tract is to present a policy perspective of the contemporary situation and to draw out in the open the policy contexts of the reports published in the earlier book. This perspective on the policy world compels us to face the question: Who bears the burden of the epidemic and epidemic control measures? Who pays – finally in terms of life and livelihood? The question takes us to the heart of the rights framework, namely the issue of justice. The analysis points out how an epidemic control policy seen purely in terms of the mechanism of lock down and other administrative measures becomes deaf to the call for justice. The crisis of Covid-19 raises the question of life to be protected and renewed by a different vision of public health. The issue is one of life itself.
To procure the book, Please contact Calcutta Research Group / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Borders of an Epidemic : COVID 19 and Migrant Workers
Migrant workers from different parts of India trekked back hundreds of kilometres carrying their scanty belongings and dragging their hungry and thirsty children in the scorching heat of the plains of India to reach home in the wake of the sudden announcement by the government of a complete lockdown of the country amid the spectre of Corona virus. Yet while scenes of migrant workers walking in long processions caught the attention of the journalists, it still requires to be asked: What lay behind these long marches? How do caste, race, gender, and other fault lines operate in governmental strategies to cope with a virus epidemic? If the fight against an epidemic has been compared with a war, what are the forces of power at play in this war against the pandemic? What indeed explains the sudden visibility of the migrant workers in the time of a public health crisis? What measures could have been taken and need to be taken now? This online publication by Calcutta Research Group highlights the ethical and political implications of the epidemic – particularly for India’s migrant workers. This book is written as the crisis unfolds with no end in sight.
To procure the book, Please contact Calcutta Research Group / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Situating Social Media: Gender, Caste, Protest, Solidarity
Social media produces numerous spaces and opportunities, globally, for people to link up, reach out, mobilise, assert their identity, build bridges… For those on the margins, this virtual alternative enables them to break down otherwise impenetrable social barriers and form close-knit digifams.
Is social media, then, a credible space for building social movements? Who is using it to register dissent, affect change? How successful have such movements been in taking over the digital public sphere? Are the prejudices that exist offline, present online as well? What is the political fallout of multidirectional conversations on the Internet? What about the backlash from trolls and gatekeepers?
Situating Social Media: Gender, Caste, Protest, Solidarity enquires into the possibilities and actual practices of activism and solidarity-building on social media, across the tropes of gender, caste, class, religion, political ideology and disaster. Its wide-ranging essays examine the reportage of incidents and issues by a path-breaking YouTube channel like Dalit Camera; analyse different movements that not only trended online but also thrived on the streets like #MeToo, Pink Chaddi and Gay for a Day campaigns; unpack the Help Uttarakhand mobilisation for climate disaster victims; and attempt a theory of what makes the digital public click.
To procure the book, please contact Women Unlimited which has published it / Edited by Samata Biswas & Atig Ghosh
Populism and Populist Politics in South Asia with Special Reference to India -Hindi Publication
“In an era when Populism is the ‘Mantra’ of the global political order, leaders of many countries are seen to be riding on the Populist waves, be that right-wing or left-wing. Donald Trump in the USA, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Victor Orban in Hungary, Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France are some of the names that create populist waves of the day. In the past also, we have seen the rise of Juan Domingo Peron in Argentina, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and some other leaders came to power riding on populist waves. India and South Asia have also witnessed the rise of populist trends in the not so recent past when Indira Gandhi, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Maulana Bhasani took the populist turn in their respective countries in the decade of 1970s. Today, the rise of AAP in Delhi can be traced back to the trend set by MGR-Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu and N T Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh. Even the politics of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal today can be understood better and seen through the optics of Populism.
To understand the manifestations and its implications of Populist Politics in today’s life it is imperative to examine how the populist leaders articulate their politics in catchy phrases and mobilise popular support around them. With that in mind, CRG has published a book on Populism in Hindi recently. The book deals with both the theoretical concept of Populism as being understood globally and how it manifests somewhat differently in India. There are eight papers by scholars and other researchers that examine various aspects of it. A brief introduction by Prof. Anju Sharan Upadhyay has tried to set the concept of the book on tracks. Perhaps it is the first of its kind in the Hindi Language so far.
To procure the book, please contact Calcutta Research Group which has published it / Edited by Anju Sharan Upadhyay and Translated by Dr. Prasant Kumar
Global Governance and India’s North-East : Logistics, Infrastructure & Society
This book maps the convergence of governance and connectivity with Asia established through the spatial dynamic s of trade, capital, conflict, borders and mobility. It situates Indian trade and governance policies within a broader Asian and global context.
Focussing on India’s North-East, in particular on India’s Look and Act East Policy, the volume underscores how logistical governance in the region can bring economic and political transformations. It explores the projected development of the North-East into a gateway of transformative cultural interaction among people, just as the Silk Road became a conduit for Buddhism to travel along with musical instruments and tea.
Comprehensive and topical, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of political studies, international relations, governance studies, development studies, international trade and economics and for think tanks working on South and Southeast Asia.
To procure the book, please contact Routledge which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar and Anita Sengupta
From Popular Movements to Rebellion: The Naxalite Decade
From Popular Movements to Rebellion: The Naxalite Decade argues that without an understanding of the popular sources of the rebellion of that time, the age of the Naxalite revolt will remain beyond our understanding. Many of the chapters of the book bring out for the first time unknown peasant heroes and heroines of that era, analyses the nature of the urban revolt, and shows how the urban revolt of that time anticipated street protests and occupy movements that were to shake the world forty-fifty years later.
This a moving and poignant book. Some of the essays are deeply reflective about why the movement failed and was at the end alienated. Ranabir Samaddar says that, the Naxalite Movement has been denied a history.
The book also carries six powerful short stories written during the Naxalite Decade and which are palpably true to life of the times. The book has some rare photographs and ends with newspaper clippings from the period.
As a study of rebellious politics in post-Independent India, this volue with its focus on West Bengal and Bihar will stand out as an exceptional history of contemporary times.
From Popular Movements to Rebellion: The Naxalite Decade will be of enormous relevance to students and scholars of history, politics, sociology and culture, and journalists and political and social activists at large.
To procure the book, please contact Social Science Press which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Capital in the East : Reflections on Marx
This book pursues a Marxist approach with an emphasis on class to r4eflect on Marx’s Capital in the context of the East. It critically reassesses some of the familiar concepts in Capital and teases out issues that are at its periphery. In various essays, it explores this borderland to promote new concepts and modes of analysing Marx’s treatise in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, it represents an advance in Marxian theory and politics.
Examining Marx’s Capital from the perspective and location of the East, the book focuses on many issues that are at the ‘borders’ of Capital, which is concerned principally on unpacking developed capitalism. New concepts are introduced and set in relation to those championed by Marx in order to advance our understanding of economy, capitalism, development and politics. In this regard, the book offers a reading of Capital that is distinct from conventional reflections on it in the Western world.
The scope is vast, covering much of the territory in Marx’s Capital, as well as addressing a few new issue connected to Capital. The content is divided into the following sections: Reception of Capital in the East; Value, Commodity, Surplus Value and Capitalism; Population and Rent in Capital; and Issues Beyond Capital.
To procure the book, please contact Springer which has published it / Edited by Achin Chakraborty, Anjan Chakraborti, Byasdeb Dasgupta & Samita Sen
The Rohingya In South Asia
The Rohingya of Myanmar are one of the world’s most persecuted minority populations without citizenship. After the latest exodus from Myanmar in 2017, there are now more than half a million Rohingya in Bangladesh living in camps, often in conditions of abject poverty, malnutrition and without proper access to shelter of work permits. Some of them are now compelled to take to the seas in perilous journeys to the Southeast Asian countries in search of a better life. They are now asked to go back to Myanmar, but without any promise of citizenship or an end to discrimination.
This book looks at the Rohingya in the South Asian region, primarily India and Bangladesh. It explores the broader picture of the historical and political dimensions of the Rohingya crisis, and examines subjects of statelessness, human rights and humanitarian protection of these victims of forced migration. Further, it chronicles the actual process of emergence of a stateless community-the transformation of a national group into a stateless existence without basic rights.
This volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of human rights, migration and Diaspora studies, race and ethnic studies, refugee studies, politics and international relations, discrimination studies, and peace and conflict studies, as well as to international organization, those in law, media and journalism, civil society and policymakers.
To procure the book, please contact Routledge which has published it / Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury & Ranabir Samaddar
Political Ecology of Survival
The world over, resource extraction and an extractive mode of economy have impacted various population groups, and consequent conflicts over natural resources have damaged earlier modes of resource sharing. The river lands are one such resourceful space where conflicts relating to the development discourse are played out. These once economically-viable lands have become sites of unplanned growth, rampant commercialisation, administrative apathy and the politics of resource extraction.
Drawing on intensive field studies and research, Political Ecology of Survival studies how people living along the river banks, and ‘with the rivers’, of Bihar, deltaic Bengal and the North-East negotiate nature on the one hand, and the economy, politics and administration on the other in this milieu. It presents a close look at a landscape that is the battleground of environment, economy and politics, and offers a fresh look at how best to preserve river systems so as to continue with the life and livelihood of humankind.
The communities studies here, heavily dependent on natural resources and hailing from the lowest rungs of society, are forced to negotiate environmental and developmental challenges and related displacements and migration. The essays explore, among others, the problem of floods and erosion in the Brahmaputra valley; resource crises, resource sharing and large scale displacements of population groups in deltaic Bengal; and the pressing problem of migration around Barak river in the North-East. This unique collection will interest students and scholars of migration studies, environmental studies, political science and anthropology. It will also be invaluable for development activists, journalists, policymakers and NGOs working in the field.
To procure the book, please contact Orient Black Swan which has published it / Edited by Madhurilata Basu, Rajat Roy, & Ranabir Samaddar
Migrants and The Neoliberal City
India nurtures a contradiction between two images of its cities-they are the engines of economic growth and at the same time an inadequeate and contested space for its various residents and subjects Migrants and the Neoliberal City a culmination of the research conducted by the Calcutta Research Group on rural migrants as the core of the urban poor in India, shows us why and how this contradiction plays out in the lives of migrants, on whose labour the city thrives.
This collection of twelve essays, based on extensive research and fieldwork, investigates the experience of migrating to three of India’s populous metropolitan cities: Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. They focus on the interrelations between urban policy, governance, forms of labour, migration, and neoliberalism as the political ideology motivating increasing urbanisation of India. It also shows how cities are increasingly turning into sites of conflict, fragmentation and gentrification, fragmentation and acute class conflict.
Since the migrant is central to neoliberal urban development and migrant labour is critical to the transformation of the city, their position in the informal, unorganised sector and their vulnerability to violence makes migrant labour and life precarious. This book documents and examines the coping strategies of such migrants, new forms of urban struggles, and resistances to legal and policy regimes. Focusing on the connections between the material conditions of labour and specific issues such as old age, rent, wage forms, etc., this book also shows how the recruitment and dispersal of this migrant labour in turn restructures urban spaces. An important addition to the growing literature on Indian urbanism and urbanisation, this book will interest policy analysts and students and scholars of sociology, migration studies, development studies, urban studies and geography.
To procure the book, please contact Orient Black Swan which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Karl Marx and The Postcolonial Age
This book seeks to explicitly engage Marxist and post-colonial theory to place Marxism in the context of the post-colonial age. Those who study Marx, particularly in the West, often lack an understanding of post-colonial realities, conversely, however, those who fashion post-colonial theory often have an inadequate understanding of Marx. Many think that Marx is not relevant to critique postcolonial realities and the legacy of Marx seldom reaches the post-colonial countries directly. This work will read Marx in the contemporary post-colonial condition and elaborate the current dynamics of post-colonial capitalism. It does this by analysing contemporary post-colonial history and politics in the framework of inter-relations between the three categories of class, people, and postcolonial transformation. Examining the structure of power in postcolonial countries and revisiting the revolutionary theory of dual power in that context, it appreciates and explains the transformative potentialities of Marx in relation to post-colonial condition.
To procure the book, please contact Palgrave Macmillan which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism
The volume looks at how accumulation in postcolonial capitalism blurs the boundaries of space, institutions, forms, financial regimes, labour processes, and economic segments on one hand, and creates zones and corridors on the other. It draws our attention to the peculiar but structurally necessary coexistence of both primitive and virtual modes of accumulation in the postcolony. From these two major inquiries it develops a new understanding of postcolonial capitalism. The case studies in this volume discuss the production of urban spaces of capital extraction, institutionalization of postcolonial finance capital, gendering of work forms, establishment of new forms of labour, formation of and changes in caste and racial identities and networks, and securitization – and thereby confirm that no study of contemporary capitalism is complete without thoroughly addressing the postcolonial condition.
By challenging the established dualities between citizenship-based civil society and welfare-based political society, exploring critically the question of colonial and postcolonial difference, and foregrounding the material processes of accumulation against the culturalism of postcolonial studies, this volume redefines postcolonial studies in South Asia and beyond. It is invaluable reading for students and scholars of South Asian studies, sociology, cultural nd critical anthropology, critical and praxis studies, and political sciences.
To procure the book, please contact Springer which has published it / Edited by Iamn Kumar Mitra, Ranabir Samaddar & Samita Sen
The Crisis of 1974: Railway Strike and the Rank and File
This book on the Indian Railway Strike of 1974 looks at the history of the time, the role of the rank and file in the strike, and the fate of the strike itself. Even as one of the most distinctive aspects of the strike was the autonomy of the rank and file, the significance of the struggle had much to do with the nature of the time. The country was in the midst of a general political crisis, sections of the peasantry were in revolt, and there were expressions of the solidarity from the industrial working class. However, the strike leadership was not resolute and decisive, and failed the rank and file. In the absence of a political vanguard, the uprising was left without a determined subject.
The railwaymen did not transform India, but established for the first time in the political history of post-independent India the autonomy of the political practice of masses. Suddenly, the strike had opened up a vision whose infinite nature unnerved both the part of order and the parties of constitutional opposition.
To procure the book, please contact Primus Books which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
A Post-Colonial Enquiry into Europe’s Debt and Migration Crisis
This important and topical volume is composed around the debt and migration crisis in Europe in 2015 (known as the Greece crisis), and written almost concurrently as the two crises developed in quick succession. The central argument here is that Europe’s present crisis suggests a post-colonial bind, or to put in stronger terms, a post-colonial destiny of Europe. The European situation bears remarkable similarity with the post-colonial condition elsewhere in the wor4ld and suggests a strong bond between Europe’s present situation and the post-colonial bind in which much of the world finds itself. The purpose of this volume is to examine in the list of 21st century capitalism notions such as debt, crisis, rupture, dialogue, mobilization, neo-liberalism, war and migration, and the old, never to be settled, question of ideology. The volume ends with reflections on Europe’s migration crisis, and reinforces the point that a critical post-colonial sense of history, accumulation, globalization, and the resilience of the nation form will help un reflect on the present European crisis, and draw appropriate lessons.
To procure the book, please contact Springer which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
The Biopolitics of Development: Reading Michel Foucault in the Postcolonial Present
This book offers an original analytic and theorization of the biopolitics of development in the postcolonial present, and draws significantly from the later works of Michel Foucault on biopolitics. Foucault’s works have had a massive influence on postcolonial literature, particularly in political science and international relations, and several authors of this book have themselves made significant contributions to that influence.
While Foucault’s thought has been inspirational for understanding colonial biopolitics as well as governmental rationalities concerned with development, his works have too often failed to inspire studies of political subjectivity. Instead, they have been used to stoke the myth of the inevitability of the decline of collective political subjects, often describing an increasingly limited horizon of political possibilities, and provoking a disenchantment with the political itself in postcolonial works and studies.
Working against the grain of current Foucauldian scholarship, this book underlines the importance of Foucault’s work for the capacity to recognize how the degraded view of political subjectivity came about, particularly within the framework of the discourse and politics of ‘development’, and with particular attention to the predicaments of postcolonial peoples. It explores how we can use Foucault’s ideas to recover the vital capacity to think and act politically at a time when fundamentally human capacities to think, know and to act purposively in the world are being pathologized as expression of the hubris and ‘underdevelopment’ of postcolonial peoples. Why and how it is that life in postcolonial settings has been depoliticized to such dramatic effect? The immediacy of these themes will be obvious to anyone living in the South of the world. But within the academy they remain heavily under-addressed. In thinking about what it means to read Michel Foucault today, this book tackles some significant questions and problems. Not simply that of how to explain the way in which postcolonial regimes of governance have achiv4ed the debasements of political subjectivity they have; nor that of how we might better equip them with the means to suborn the life of postcolonial peoples more fully; but that of how such peoples, in their subjection to governance, can and do resist, subvert, escape and defy the imposition of modes of governance which seek to remove their lives of those very capacities for resistance, subversion, flight, and defiance.
To procure the book, please contact Springer which has published it / Edited by Sandro Mezzadra, Julian Reid & Ranabir Samaddar
The Borders of Justice
The Borders of Justice interrogates the concept and practices of justice in original and provocative ways, combining the geographical diversity of the authors with a variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches. The essays reveal how justice appears differently in different places and from different perspectives. This is an important contribution to contemporary debates on justice”. ¬– Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature at Duke University and co-author (with Antonio Negri) of Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire, and Commonwealth.
The Borders of Justice investigates the complexities of transitional justice that emerge from its “social embeddedness.” This original collection of essays, which stem from a collective research program on social justice undertaken by the Calcutta Research Group, confronts the concept and practices of justice. The editors and contributors question the relationship between geography, methodology, and justice-how and why justice is meted out differently in different place. Expanding on Michael Walzer’s idea of the “spheres of justice,” the contributors argue that justice is burdened the our notions of social realities and expectations, in addition to the influence of money, law, and government.
To procure the book, please contact Temple University Pree which has published it / Edited by Etienne Balibar, Sandro Mezzadra, & Ranabir Samaddar
Government of Peace: Social Governance, Security and the Problematic of Peace
Government of Peace addresses a major question in world politics today: how does post-colonial democracy produce a form of governance that copes with conflicts, insurgencies, revolts, and acute dissents? The contributors view social governance as a crucial component in answering this question and their narratives of governance aim to show how certain appropriate governing modes make social conflicts more manageable or at least also occasions for development. They show how government often expands to cope with acute conflicts; money is made more readily available; the transfer of resources acquires frantic pace; and so society becomes more attuned to a money-centric, modern life. Yet this style of governance is not the only approach. Dialogues from below challenge this accepted path to peace building and new subjectivities emerge from movements for social justice by women, migrants, farmers, dalits, low-caste, and other subaltern groups. The idea of a government of peace sits at the core of the interlinked issues of social governance, peace-building, and security. By exploring this idea and analysing the Indian experience of insurgencies and internal conflicts the contributors collectively show how rules of social governance can and have evolved.
To procure the book, please contact Ashgate which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Forced Migration & Media-Mirrors
Forced migration is increasingly becoming a threat to peace and stability of people’s lives in many parts of the world. India is no exception to the trend. The fury of nature as well as the violence of human conflicts causes populations to be on the run, and seldom do they find solace in their new settlement.
How do the media reflect this phenomenon? Are they sensitive enough to the multiple dimensions of this great human tragedy – its impact on people’s rights, ethnic relations, gender justice, etc.? Do biases creep in during their coverage? Are the voices of the dispossessed heard? How can the latter set up alternative channels to disseminate their own news and views? Do new media provide more possibilities in this regard?
Forced Migration & Media Mirrors looks at the relationship between media and forced migration from all these aspects and more in the context of the Indian subcontinent. While bringing the North-East and Himalayan West Bengal in special focus, it also contains in-depth studies on Gujarat and Karnataka. Along with the empirical studies, theoretical questions are amply discussed in the section ‘Interrogating the Media’. A number of photo-essays enhance its richness and variety.
The authors include both accomplished academics and ace journalists who have been studying the phenomenon of forced migration for a long time in their own ways. In this respect, the book is an attempt to bridge the media-academia divide.
To procure the book, please contact frontpage which has published it / Edited by Sibaji Pratim Basu
Sanghat O Sashan [Conflict and Governance]
It is a a result of collaborative reserach undertaken by various researchers under project entitled “The role of Governance in the Resolution of Socioeconomic and Political Conflict in India and Europe” (CORE). It is funded by the Socio-economic and Humanities in the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 266931.
To procure the book, please contact Gangchil publication: Kolkata which has published it / Edited by Anasua Basu Roychoudhury
Beyond Kolkata : Rajarhat and the Dystopia of Urban Imagination
This book examines the politics behind, and the socio-economic and ecological repercussions of, the making of a new township, variously called New Town, Megacity or Jyoti Basu Nagar, in Rajarhat near Kolkata. Conceived by the West Bengal state government in the mid-1990s, in pandering to the vision of urban planners of creating a hi-tech town beyond an unruly, crowded Kolkata, and feeding the hunger of realtors and developers, the city is built on the foundations of coercive, even violent, land acquisition, state largesse and corruption — and at the cost of erasing a self-sufficient subsistence economy and despoiling a fragile environment. Yet, after its completion and departure of construction labour, the new town appears as a necropolis, a ghost city, that belies its promised image of an urban utopia, even as the displaced locals lead a precarious, mobile existence as ‘transit labour’, engaged in odd and informal jobs.
Written on the basis of intensive fieldwork, government documents, court records, and chronicles of public protests, this book broadly analyses the politics and economics of urbanisation in the age of post-colonial capitalism, particularly the paradoxical combination of neoliberal and primitive modes of capital accumulation upon which the global emergence of ‘new towns’ is based.
Departing from the dominant styles of urban studies that focus on cultural or spatial analysis of cities, the authors show the links between changes in space, technology, political economy, class composition, and forms of urban politics which give concrete shape to a city. It will immensely interest those in sociology, political science, economics, development studies, urban studies, policy and governance studies, and history.
To procure the book, please contact Routledge which has published it / Authored by Ishita Dey, Ranabir Samaddar & Suhit K.Sen
Passive Revolution in West Bengal: 1977-2011
In the wake of the enormous interest across the globe in the fall of the Left Front in West Bengal, this book describes the Left era as one of passive revolution: limited reforms and changes, big compromises, corruption of the commissars and the failure of the Left in assessing popular discount and anger; thus, it is the end of revolution even in passive form.
A collection of articles by Samaddar from leading national dailies and journals between 1977 and the downfall of the Left in West Bengal, this book analyses the era of the Left rule, its political decisions viability. Samaddar argues that the Left’s rule and its own governmental style destroyed the hegemony it had built up through assiduous work of decades.
A Commentary on contemporary history and an assessment of it, this work helps the reader understand better, the re-emergence of the Maoist movement in West Bengal, the governmental techniques of the Left and dynamics of popular politics.
The evening of 13 May 2011: The setting sun was never so ‘red’ in West Bengal.
From ‘red’ to ‘green’, a change in regime ushered in. But what happened in West Bengal on that day came in with a sense of déjà vu, a recall of Bengal 1977. The people wanted change then and the Left provided that. Something of that nature happened again in 2011.With the widespread misrule and violence marking the last phase of the Left Front rule, people massively voted for regime change. As the author says: ‘Passive democracy is democracy as practiced by the people in an epoch of passive revolution.’ This book narrates the story of the people, the society, the transition and thus traverses the whole course of passive revolution.
This compilation is at once a history and a diary, a book and a journal- a kind of political journalism, engaged with questioning the truths of the day. For years to come, the story of this transition will remain an important lesson in popular politics and governance.
To procure the book, please contact Sage which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
Branding The Migrant: Arguments of Rights, Welfare and Security
This book deals with the Unique Identification (DID)/ Aadhaar project which has burst upon the nation with surprising ferocity. The government has started implementing Aadhaar enabled direct cash transfers for 29 schemes in 51 districts, spread over 16 states and also plans to cover the entire nation by the end of December 2013. Yet, it is far from clear if Aadhaar is an undisruptive benevolent initiative of the government, seeking to empower the needy and maximise the outreach of social-security schemes. Legal experts, scholars and activists have discussed and deliberated on the Aadhaar scheme and the governmental logic underlying it. However, the torrential commentary against the DID scheme notwithstanding, the Aadhaar juggernaut is forging ahead.
Against this backdrop, this volume endeavours to engage with the politics and history of the state’s population identification exercises. In doing so, it goes beyond the specifics of the UID project to situate the issue in the broader context of identification technologies sponsored by the state and the market over time. Given the fact that there are writings on the UID project and its impact on the resident population but nothing on its impact on migrant population groups, this volume chooses to focus on the impact of the UID and similar identification technologies on migrants. The migrants may be a minority compared to the residents but, as individuals who remain mostly beyond the embrace of the state, they represent a limit on its penetration; they also remain at the metaphorical margins of the state’s will to encompass all. This volume, therefore, aspires to test the idea and impact of the UID at its limits — focusing on its impact on migrants — and interrogate if the reach of the state can after all exceed its grasp.
The significance of the volume is in the diverse range of reports and opinions it presents. Bringing together case studies across the length andbreadth of India as well as theoretical engagements with the theme, the book urges the reader to think if the implementation of the UID project would after all only faithfully serve age-old statist imperatives of identifying, de-legitimising and expelling migrants from ‘national’ territory; whether the language of welfare of the UID project masks an anxiety for security, in this case the securitisation of an entire nation.
To procure the book, please contact frontpage which has published it / Edited by Atig Ghosh
Unstable Populations, Anxious States: Mixed and Massive Population Flows in South Asia
‘From its inception, South Asia has been confronted by massive displacements’, so states the editor, Paula Banerjee, who adds that liberation was intrinsically attached to the partition of states, leading to huge human flows who faced horrific, indescribable violence. Aside from the refugees are the internally displace people (idps), largely belonging to vulnerable sections such as religious and ethnic minorities, indigenous people, dalits and the urban poor. Often the displaced face multiple displacements, and it becomes impossible to know whether displacement was due to conflict, development or ecological conditions.
The complexities of displacement have created massive, mixed flows: refugees, asylum-seekers, illegal immigrants, idps, and other victims of violence, deprivation, hunger. Persecution and discrimination occur together, and the old forms of protection are often inadequate. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (unhcr) responded with a Ten-Point Plan of Action for Refugee Protection and Mixed Migration. This was the focus of a two-day dialogue on ‘Protection Strategies in South Asia’ organized by Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (mcrg), which led to this comprehensive collection, compiled by social scientists, media analysts and activists.
Divided into three parts, Part I, ‘Conflict-Induced Situations’, Part II, ‘Issues’, and Part III, ‘Institutions’, this book offers an overview of South Asian experiences, an analysis of the principles of protection and their inadequate implementation. It considers the disparitybetween economic growth and human development indices that leads to continuous massive human flows: refugees, idps or economic migrants; ultimately human beings in great distress.
To procure the book, please contact Samya which has published it / Edited by Paula Banerjee
The Nation Form: Essays on Indian Nationalism
Most writings on the theme of the nation confine themselves to discussions of ideology and thoughts on nationalism, leaving out the question of the form of the nation. This selection of writings by Ranabir Samaddar fills in that void and presents a whole range of dimensions, perspectives, and controversies of the last two decades on the question of the nation in India. It looks at the form of the India nation in terms of contests, contradictions, classes, and nationalist strategies of inclusion and exclusion, thereby addressing two significant issues in view of the nation form –its relation with democracy and the problem of governing the nation. This selection not only comprises essays that stand on their own merit, but also, in totality, presents a historical summary of the nation’s experience through decades-before and after Independence.
It was and still remains a dispute about how to study the nation, and therefore the form of the nation. … There is no transcendental ideal of the nation, and to the extent that such an ideal is present, it only serves to hide the reality of the nation form. This book, thus, is not about nationalism, but about nation.
To procure the book, please contact Sage which has published it / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
New Subjects and New Governance in India
This volume explores the ways in which governance in the exercise of its strategies also acts as a process of production of subjects. It argues that governance is not a one-sided affair starting and ending with those who rule and govern, but a productive process — one that produces subjects of governance who in turn respond to the process, and make the field of governance a contentious one. This volume studies the transition towards developmental democracy, examining the interrelations between globalisation, development and structures of governance. It suggests that while there is need to reflect on the governance of transition, it is important to question how democracy negotiates this transition.
To procure the book, please contact Routledge which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar and Suhit K.Sen
Political Transition and Development Imperatives in India
This volume explores the transition from colonial to constitutional rule in India, and the various configurations of power and legitimacies that emerged from it. It focuses on the developmental structures and paradigms that provided the circumstances for this transition, and the establishment of the post-colonial state. Different articles interrogate the idea of liberal constitutionalism, the spaces it provides for rights and claims, the assumptions it makes about citizenship and its attendant duties, and the assumptions it further makes about what it can, or has to, become in the particular situation of India.
The book locates these questions in the reconfiguration of society, power, and the economy since the shift in the identity of the state after Independence, and deals with issues of constitution-making in a historical and political setting and its outcomes, especially the centrality of law and legalisms, in shaping civil society. This book emphasises continuity and change in the context of the movement from the colonial to the constitutional order.
To procure the book, please contact Routledge which has published it / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar and Suhit K.Sen
Forced Migration in North East India: A Media Reader
Forced Migration in North East India: A Media Reader is a comprehensive ready reference and toolkit for journalists, researchers, and people in general – who are interested in the media and North East India.
The region though geographically isolated and economically underdeveloped, has a distinctive cultural; socio-economic and Political identity. Viewed from within, it represents an incredible diversity comprising over 200 indigenous communities.
As the states in North East India have borders with several countries – China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh-since vivisection of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the region has faced waves of population influx from across the borders at various times. Forced migration and displacement due to repeated ethnic violence have led to hundreds of villages being burnt and thousands of people killed. The figure of internality displaced persons in the region has surpassed the half a million mark according to a recent estimate.
Besides ethnic conflicts, natural calamites such as floods and erosion, as well as construction activities or eviction in the reserve forest areas have added to the misery of the displaced persons in North East India, many of whom are languishing in the temporary camps for decades.
However, the issue often does not get due coverage in the media and many journalists feel that the resources, tools and skills to cover this issue at their disposal are inadequate, The Media Reader is an effort to bridge this gap.
To procure the book, please contact frontpage which has published it / Edited by Nilanjan Dutta
Women In Indian Borderlands
Women in Indian Borderlands is an ethnographic compilation on the complex interrelationship between gender and political borders in south Asia. The book focuses on the border regions of West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir And Northeast India.
The Chapters in the book examine the stories of women whose lives are interwined with borders, and who resist everyday violence in all its myriad forms. They show how most of the traditional efforts to make geopolitical regions mare secure end up privileging masculine definition of security that only results in feminine insecurities.
These essays discuss hoe women negotiate their differences with a state that, though democratic, denies space to differences based on ethnicity, religion, class or gender. Borders are interpreted as ones where the jurisdiction of one state ends and that of the other begins. What comes out is the startling revelation that women not only live on the borders, but also , in many ways, form them.
To procure the book, please contact Sage which has published it / Edited by Paula Banerjee and Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury
Sustainability of Rights after Globalisation
Sustainability of Rights after Globalisation is the result of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) – supported research programme. ‘Globalisation and Sustainability of Rights’. The Thrust of this volume is an various concerns of globalization and its interface with rights.
The books talks about the interconnectedness of globalization with social and economic systems and how links develop with reference to both polity and common people’s movements. The book provides a new way of understanding the constitution of rights with the help micro-histories drawn from diverse fields, such as environmental rights, law, information, and labour studies in India.
The book examines how rights have been redefined in this era of globalization and how India is still plagued by the constant tension between ‘social’ yearning for democratic values and ‘economic’ competition for unhindered profits.
To procure the book, please contact Sage which has published it / Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Ishita Dey
Politics in Hunger – Regime (Essays on the Right to Food in West Bengal)
In India even after six decades of independence and planned economy employing ‘pro-poor’ assistance programmes, the hunger regime has consolidated in many parts of India including the state of West Bengal.
In this book , the researchers examine the population living under the shadow of hunger with particular emphasis on the evolution of Foods movements in West Bengal along with the development of Right to Food as a inside the court room and the ways it has shaped outside the courts through popular participation in political movements.
While walking in-depth analyses of the hunger regime , the discourse throws light on the recent outrage in the Public Distribution System (Ration-Riots) in West Bengal, and critically examines the status in South Bengal , with particular emphasis on Paschim Medinipur , a District recording starvation deaths, seized the international media attention; the research simultaneously chronicles the true narratives of sufferings and struggle of the people in the Tea Garden region of the northern parts of West Bengal.
In a Unique way, the book for the first time in India makes an attempt to link the Right to Food with the Right to Information in a Hunger-regime.
To procure the book, please contact frontpage which has published it / Edited by Sibaji Pratim Basu and Geetisha Dasgupta
Counter-Gaze : Media, Migrants, Minorities
Counter-Gaze: Media migrants, minorities assesses the situation of migrant minorities not just in third World colonized countries in South Asia but also in the Western societies in Europe which hitherto had not been subjected to any meaningful analysis. Under the Eurasia-Net programme, scholars minority and human rights activists, researchers, and journalists from South Asia visited European countries while their counter parts from Europe came to South Asia to evaluate the conditions of the minorities in each part of these region s participation , representation in public media and institutions and arranges for protection of their rights under a majority centric domination.
The result is the present study that throws up some critical questions on how my migrants have come to form minority communities, how their claims to citizenship, rights and justice have occupied space in the politics of the nation and supra-national bodies. The collection of essays here highlight how the protection arrangements always fall short of their goal ,where protection becomes one more tool in the hands of the government to sustain the majority-minority divide and it refuses to accept the claims of minorities to equality and people-hood.
A successful minority is one where the minority group withers away and the protection regime in turn becomes redundant. This research programme examined the European experience of the minority issues as well as the South Asian laws and practices. There is an increasing familiarity between the two sets of experiences and so the book is not so much about the counter gaze bu about the anticipated and resultant familiarity in human right’s struggles.
To procure the book, please contact frontpage which has published it / Edited by Subir Bhaumik
Minorities in South Asia and Europe
The book “ Minorities in South Asia and in Europe”, as the very title suggests, is an excellent compilation of extensive research done on minorities in South Asia and Europe from a comparative and transnational perspective. This book explores the formation of minorities which has often coincided with the very formation of nation states. While country based study on the theme is not hard to find, comparisons within a region like South Asia and Europe is something which the book stands out for. Reading through the various chapters of the book, one can understand how such distinct regions as Europe and South Asia are similar in their situations in terms of the problem and treatment of minorities. This book hence tries to answer the present challenges posed on the minorities, particularly the ones inflicted due to Globalization, for which transnational linkages between various minority groups across the world have been made possible. Part One of the book discusses various aspects of Minorities in South Asia , including the problem of the minorities within minority groups and Part Two throws light on Minorities in Europe including transnational minority network within Europe.
To procure the book, please contact Samya which has published it / Edited by Samir Kumar Das
Terror, Terrorism, States & Societies : A Historical and Philosophical Perspective
The world today is marked by different kinds of terror—individual, state, anarchist, revolutionary, religious, imperial or communal; or the terror of insecurity or catastrophe—each with its particular imprint. Their different ideological and philosophical justifications need to be understood, especially now, when distinctions between them have been obliterated by the blanket term, ‘terrorism,’ and the habit of calling those who practise this generalised ideology, ‘terrorists’.
This volume contains essays by international scholars, across different disciplines, and engages with several aspects of terror: as historical event; as a generalised discourse of ideology; as a feature in the continuum of violence; as ‘extreme violence’; and as the final marker of identity—ascribed, undertaken or imposed. The authors also discuss the historical and discursive relations between democracy and terror, liberalism and the rule of law, the ‘war on terror’ and the need for legitimacy; and a philosophical engagement with terror. Its scope ranges from the era of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution to the instruments of colonial terror, to post-colonialism and the global situation today, post-September 11, 2001.
A compelling and sober consideration of one of modernity’s most intractable and complex issues.
To procure the book, please contact Women Unlimited which has published it / Edited by Samir Kumar Das & Rada Iveković a
Terror, Terrorism, States & Societies : A Historical and Philosophical Perspective
The world today is marked by different kinds of terror—individual, state, anarchist, revolutionary, religious, imperial or communal; or the terror of insecurity or catastrophe—each with its particular imprint. Their different ideological and philosophical justifications need to be understood, especially now, when distinctions between them have been obliterated by the blanket term, ‘terrorism,’ and the habit of calling those who practise this generalised ideology, ‘terrorists’.
This volume contains essays by international scholars, across different disciplines, and engages with several aspects of terror: as historical event; as a generalised discourse of ideology; as a feature in the continuum of violence; as ‘extreme violence’; and as the final marker of identity—ascribed, undertaken or imposed. The authors also discuss the historical and discursive relations between democracy and terror, liberalism and the rule of law, the ‘war on terror’ and the need for legitimacy; and a philosophical engagement with terror. Its scope ranges from the era of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution to the instruments of colonial terror, to post-colonialism and the global situation today, post-September 11, 2001.
A compelling and sober consideration of one of modernity’s most intractable and complex issues.
To procure the book, please contact Women Unlimited which has published it / Edited by Samir Kumar Das & Rada Iveković a
Four-Volume Set!
STATE OF JUSTICE IN INDIA
Issues of Social Justice
Series Editor: RANABIR SAMADDAR,
Director of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata
Volume I
Edited by Pradip Kumar Bose and Samir Kumar Das
Volume II
Edited by Ashok Agrwaal and Bharat Bhushan
Volume III
Edited by Paula Banerjee and Sanjay Chaturvedi
Volume IV
Edited by Sanam Roohi and Ranabir Samaddar
This set presents a comprehensive analytical study of the state of social justice in India. The four volumes undertake theoretical and empirical inquiry into the various spheres of justice, collectively creating what can be termed a ‘report card’ of the regime of social justice in the country.
Authored by some of the finest ethnographers and analysts in the country, the works approach the issue of justice in the broader context of post-colonial democracy, and look at the limits within which democracy permits justice, social justice in particular. The volumes, which are part of the series State of Justice in India: Issues of Social Justice, reveal that the issues pertaining to social justice are extremely contentious, and hence, dynamic. The ethnographic–historical studies are cast in an archaeological mode of inquiry. They highlight how time, place, history, perceptions, arrangements or apparatuses (such as legal, judicial, constitutional and administrative apparatuses) play significant roles in influencing social justice.
This set will be a rich resource for students and researchers working in the fields of justice, sociology, law, political theory and Indian democracy. It will also be immensely useful for policy makers, policy analysts, human rights activists and NGOs
Gandhi’s Dilemma in War and Independence
In the socio-political milieu of the forties in India, the most contentious decade of the last century, ravaged with war, the Quit India movement, famine, partition and the civil war, the author draws our attention to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the father of the Indian Independence Movement, who, as he puts it, “symbolised the conflicts and paradoxes of that time of transition”.
As one critically examines Gandhi’s views during the period of India’s passage to political independence on issues such as war, decolonisation, nationalist challenge, state sovereignty, problems of governance and so on, a pertinent question surfaces: was Gandhi as confident in his political agenda and methods as history has asserted to the present day?
Gandhi, again a satyagrahi, an ardent propagator of nonviolent resistance to injustice throughout his life, appears in the eyes of the Englishmen, as an extremist and saboteur of the Allied democratic cause in the World War II.
Using his scholarly acumen, the author unveils a new dimension to Gandhi’s towering personality with the suggestion that time was closing down on him. It was a situation of classic aporia, when exit from the problem that Gandhi struggled to escape from became impossible in its own terms.
To procure the book, please contact FrontPage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
Human Rights and Peace: Ideas, Laws, Institutions and Movements
Human Rights and Peace: Ideas, Laws, Institutions and Movements redefines the ambit of peace, presenting a radically different perspective of looking at its relationship with human rights. It deals with the transformation of both the definition and practice of peace, showing how it has now taken the domain of human rights into its fold.
Through experiential articles on the themes of ideas, laws, institutions, and movements, this collection reveals how people’s struggles against specific forms of institutionalised violence take the form of calls for ‘peace’. It brings together hitherto unpublished writings on peace and human rights. It also includes some rare articles extracted from landmark published pieces.
This book is an insightful resource for students and researchers of Peace Studies, Human Rights, Politics and International Relations. It is also an invaluable idea bank for activists, think tanks and policy makers who seek to understand the evolving paradigm of peace and human rights.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ujjwal Kumar Singh
Fleeing People of South Asia: Selections from Refugee Watch
This book is a collection of essays from 30 volumes of Refugee Watch published by Calcutta Research Group over the last ten years. The book bears reflections of the Refugee Watch series throughout and captures the agony, tension and struggle of the refugees and internally displaced in South Asia in its different dimensions. The book tries to catch the multidimensionality of the journal as much as possible.
Essays have been divided, not chronologically, but on lines of broad based themes like ethical issues, laws, South Asia, India, gender, interview/correspondence and representations. Each section has been given a separate introduction, orienting the reader to the core-thought behind the classificatory scheme. Such categorization helps the reader in finding particular essays relevant to interests and makes the experience different from sifting through pages of the journal; thus justifying the conglomeration in the form of a book.
It carries essays and articles by the CRG umbrella of scholars like Ranabir Samaddar, Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Samir Kumar Das. Others include Meghna Guhathakurta, Jagat Acharya, Ammu Joseph, Tapan Kumar Bose, Flavia Agnes, Patrick Hoenig, Subir Bhaumik, Monirul Hussain, Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt and Rajesh Kharat to name a few.
Particularly interesting is the section on interview/correspondence. There are letters from Palestinian Refugee Camp. There are several interviews with representative personnel like Ratan Gazmere from Bhutan, Dr Nawal El Saadawi from Aram Women’s Solidarity Association and Lev Grinberg from Israel. This section makes the book a winner because it straightaway passes over the microphone to the field people and makes their voice audible.
To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Sibaji Pratim Basu
Women in Peace Politics
Women in Peace Politics explore the role of women as agents and visionaries of peace in South Asia. Peace is redefined to include in its fold the attempt by women to be a part of the peace making process, reworking the structural inequalities faced by them and their struggle against all forms of oppression.
This volume, the third in the series of the South Asia Peace Studies, deals with the myriad dimensions of peace as practiced by South Asian women over a period of time. It chronicles the live of “ordinary “ women- their transformative role in peace and an attempt to create a space of their own. Their peace activism is examined in the historical context of their participation in national liberation movements since the early 20th century. The articles in the collection adopt a new approach to understanding peace- as a desire to end repression that cuts across caste, class, race and gender and an effort on the part of women to transform their position in society.
This complication would interest a wide readership, beside s students and scholars of human rights, peace and security studies, politics and international relations.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publication which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee
Autonomy: Beyond Kant and Hermeneutics
In the first decade of the twenty-first century autonomy has become one of the major concerns of our social and political existence. The right to autonomous life is now a political, cultural and social call of both individual and the groups—a rare conformity that points to the critical importance of the problematic of autonomy on the agenda of critical thinking.
Though the notion of autonomy in the modern era began to be applied primarily in a political context, the term was then taken up again in the context of individual rational persons, their individual rights and existences. In the wake of anticolonial movements the term gained new perspectives and meanings, which would now imply not only new rights, but also new responsibilities. It became the emblem of group rights, in particular minority rights. In time the idea of autonomy became not only the standard of rights or responsibilities, but also an issue of governmentality.
The present volume is a critical attempt to understand autonomy from both historical and analytical perspectives. An international group of scholars seek the answers that go beyond the thinking of Immanuel Kant and only a hermeneutic reading of the principle of autonomy. Autonomy in this collective reading emerges as deeply rooted in social practices and contentious politics.
To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee and Samir Kumar Das
The Materiality of Politics
The Materiality of Politics uses a series of historical illustrations to reveal the physicality and underlying ‘materiality’ of political processes. The political subject of the study is the collective political actor poised against governmental rules for stabilizing order. Samaddar’s tour de force propels readers through an account of blood, violence, bodies, controls, laws and conflicts. Politics is examined not as an abstraction, but as a ‘real’ field of dynamic factors rooted in everyday life.
Volume 1, subtitled The Technologies of Rule discusses the techniques of modern rule which form the basis of the post-colonial Indian state. Beginning with the rule of law, the volume analyses the nature and manifestations of constitutional rule, the relation between law and terror and the construction of ‘extraordinary’ sovereign power. The author also investigates the methods of care, protection, segregation and stabilization by which rule proceeds. In the process, the material core of the ‘cultural’ and the ‘aesthetic’ is exposed.
Volume 2, subtitled Subject Positions in Politics focuses on the political subject emerging from post-colonial politics. The 1940s are closely examined in order to trace the genesis of the modern Indian political subject, his/her dreams of liberty and recognition of freedom’s qualifications. Contentious politics illuminates the dual tendency of the political subject to demand justice in court, and engage in rebellious street politics, clamouring for justice and equality. As the author demonstrates, the subject’s desire for the autonomy of politics manifests itself in various ways.
To procure the book, please contact Anthem Press which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Authored by Ranabir Samaddar
The Politics of Autonomy: Indian Experiences
At a time when movements by women, indigenous people, dalits, various minority groups, and other sections are rising to prominence, what will the future of politics be like? How will autonomy-the efforts of various sections of society to resist the power of the state-change the way we understand democracy?
As this volume tells us, a critical inquiry into the idea of autonomy suggests that the politics of the future will be the politics of autonomies: an engagement that combines notions like self-government, women’s autonomy, devolution of power, the rights of minorities, greater popular access to resources, and legal pluralism, and where different autonomies must learn to negotiate and co-exist. Viewing democratic theory through the lens of autonomy, the contributors:
argue that autonomy has to be an essential ingredient in the building of postcolonial democracies, not merely a residual measure to keep some constituencies happy;
draw attention to the contending principles of autonomy, the consequent politics of autonomies, the inescapable co-existence of autonomies, and the need for dialogue; and
analyze the instructive Indian politico-historical experience because of its diversity and range, the extent of colonial institutionalization, multiple forms of autonomy, the complex path of constitutionalism, a wide variety of accords, and the unyielding state that is determined to keep the nation intact.
In the process, the contributors traverse a wide range of issues relating to women’s autonomy, peace accords, the nature of federalism in the Indian Constitution, autonomy in international law, and fiscal decentralization. These debates are then supported by case studies on the autonomy experiments in Kashmir, Darjeeling, and the entire Northeast, and on fiscal devolution.
Rich with empirical findings and combining research with dialogue, The Politics of Autonomy represents cutting-edge research on democracy. It will be widely welcomed by scholars of nationalism, democratic theory, federalism, law, women’s rights, and multiculturalism.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Peace Processes and Peace Accords
The first volume in the South Asian Peace Studies (SAPS) series had advanced a general understanding of the nature of peace as a political problematic. This volume, the second, continues with the inquiry, looking at the political question of peace from three perspectives: the process of peace; the contentious issues involved in the peace process; and the ideologies that come in conflict in this process.
Arguing that peace is not a one-time event to be achieved and rejoiced over but a matter to be sustained against various odds, the contributors show that the sustainability of peace depends on a foundation of rights, justice, and democracy. Peace accords, they maintain, are only a moment in the process-the very act of signing an accord could mark either a continuation of the same conflict, or simply its metamorphosis. Therefore, as this volume shows, “negotiation” should be redefined as “joint problem-solving” on a long-term sustained basis, rather than “one-off hard bargaining.”
While positing peace as a universal value, this book locates it in the specifics of both the internal and international contexts of South Asia, and provides a useful morphology of violence and conflicts. It also raises the question: How gender equitable is the peace we seek to achieve? Critiquing the dominant principles and protocols of peace accords and peace processes of the region, this volume also reinforces the importance of dialogue in the democratic theory of peace. It will attract the attention of students and scholars of political science, international relations, conflict resolution and defence studies, anthropology, and political philosophy. It will also be of interest to human rights lawyers, activists, and NGOs.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Samir Kumar Das
Indian Autonomies – Key Words and Key Texts
This compendium of keywords and key texts addresses predominantly – though not exclusively – the varied experiences with autonomy in India. Growing out of a two-year research work by a collective, it reflects the rainbow nature of the enterprise and findings. The keywords in particular reflect on the philosophical, social, legal and political dimensions of the notion and experiences of autonomy. The compendium will be a valuable sourcebook for students, researchers, activists in the autonomy movements and lay readers. The keywords selected here cut across the immediate experiential horizons and utmost care has been taken to tease out their deeper philosophical and praxiological implications in a direct and simple way that does not unduly repel the interested yet untrained readers. While documents issued by governmental sources have their own ways of publicising themselves, those relating to popular mobilisations and popular politics find it difficult – if not impossible – to reach wider readership. Most of the documents have been included here keeping this in view and they represent a wide variety of experiences from Kashmir to Kohima and from Lund Conference to Ladakh.
To procure the book, please contact SAMPARK, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, Samir Kumar Das and Ranabir Samaddar
Internal Displacement in South Asia
This book deals with the situation of internally displaced people – those who have been forcibly displaced by natural disasters or development projects.
Each chapter is a case study authored by specialists from seven countries – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mayanmar and Afghanistan. The latter two countries have been included for their shared ethnic continuities with people of the neighbouring countries. The authors provide recommendations on how to minimize the insecurity of the displaced, as well as suggesting early warning systems as preventive measures to forestall displacement at the outset.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Paula Banerjee, Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury, Samir Kumar Das
South Asian Peace Studies 1
The first volume of the South Asian Peace Studies (2004) introduces the concept, scope and themes of peace studies. The second volume deals with peace accords in this region. The third volume narrates the experiences of women in conflict and peace. The fourth volume deals with human rights institutions in this region. The series is different from the usual conflict and conflict resolution studies, which revolve around interest-based approaches and game theories, and are based on the premise that “peace with justice” is an impossible agenda. The South Asian Peace Studies series has been planned as an exercise against that politics of excluding justice and democracy from conflict resolution and peace processes. The aim of the series is to bring into light practices of human rights, justice, dignity, reconciliation, and democracy, and lodge them at the heart of peace studies.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Refugees and the State – Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947-2000
This is a collection of essays (2003) on the practices of asylum and refugee protection in India over the last fifty years. Written by specialists in the field of Political Science, History, Administration, Law and Gender Studies, this volume is a political, legal, institutional and ethical history concerning hospitality, care and protection. The book highlights the contradictions between these virtues and the manner in which state power organises care and protection of the vulnerable groups and communities, such as the asylum seekers. It is an extra-ordinary study on the interface between care and power.
To procure the book, please contact Sage Publications, which has published it on behalf of CRG. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Refugees in West Bengal – Institutional Practices and Contested Identities
This book (2000) is a significant addition to the existing discussion on how refugees are treated and managed worldwide under two different circumstances – with and without international support. This collection of essays by political scientists, sociologists, historians and human rights activists narrates the activities of the refugee protection institutions in West Bengal in the wake of the massive influx of refugees from East Pakistan after the Partition of 1947. The book highlights how the society of West Bengal absorbed this huge influx in the post-partition era in a quiet and effective manner despite a serious lack of necessary institutions of relief and care. At the same time, as the volume shows, the response and self-activism of the refugee community was a great factor in enabling the refugees to negotiate with an alien world and often a hostile political environment.
The result was not only some relief, rehabilitation, and re-settlement, but a contest of identities too. To procure this book, please contact CRG. / Edited by Pradip Kumar Bose
Living on the Edge – Essays on the Chittagong Hill Tracts
This collection of essays on the Chittagong Hill Tracts published (1997) immediately after the CHT Accord is based on three sets of writings – by human rights activists and researchers of Bangladesh who deal with several dimensions of the conflict as they impact on Bangladesh society, by Indian human rights activists and researchers who look into the impact on India including the refugee crisis, and the third, which is the heart of the volume, writings that carry the rebels’ voices. Widely acclaimed as one of the most authoritative accounts on the CHT conflict and struggle, the volume is a product of CRG’s long campaign for peace in the CHT, and collaboration between Bangladeshi and Indian peace activists.
For a copy of the volume please contact Manohar Publishers, Delhi. / Edited by Subir Bhaumik, Meghna Guhathakurta, and Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury
Reflections on Partition in the East
This is a collection of essays (1997) written by eminent historians, sociologists, and political scientists on the Partition of 1947 as it happened in the East. This volume takes a critical look at some of the existing accounts of the Partition in the east, and shows how the history that a partition creates becomes as significant for a political understanding of the event of partition as the history that produced partition in the first place. If an example of such history of partition is the continuing trans-border population movement across the borders, other instances are the continuing labour of memory, the emergence of new geo-political regions that make nation a problematic concept in South Asia.
For a copy of the book, please contact Vikas Publishers, who have published the volume on CRG’s behalf. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Anyo Pakistan
A pioneering work in Bengali on Pakistani writings, this is a Bengali collection (1996) of essays, poems and short stories that reflect the other voices in Pakistan. The contributors to this volume are engaged in struggles for peace and democracy in Pakistan. The original compilation was done by the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy.
For copies contact Punascha, Kolkata. / Edited by Ranabir Samaddar
Parbottyo Chattogram – Simanter Rajniti
This is a chronicle (1995) in Bengali of the struggle for self-determination, autonomy and peace by the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. The monograph traces the origin of the CHT movement, and examines the politics of demographic change and environment in a strategically located region at the junction of South and Southeast Asia. / Debjani Datta and Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury
Abiram Raktopat – Tripuranarir Sangram