Antara Chakrabarty

This paper evokes the debate of what constitutes an imagination called the ‘Sylhet’ through a sociohistorical lens. It aims to look at both the ideological and historical construction of the space called
Sylhet, that we see in the present. Sylhet is currently a district in Bangladesh alongside river Surma.
The term ‘Sylhet’ has undergone several linguistic evolutions in local dialect starting from Sylot, Srihatta, Sreebhumi and so on. This district is historically significant for several reasons including its  cultural history, language and the impact of several partitions. The cartographic borders of Sylhet  have undergone shifts several times (1874, 1905, and 1947). The last partition left out a small  portion of Sylhet, also called the Barak valley which remained back in India whereas the larger Sylhet
went to East- Pakistan. The final vivisection of Sylhet during Indian partition of 1947 pushed the  districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj which constituted the Barak Valley to India. The
decision on Sylhet was taken on the basis of a referendum in 1947 where majority of the Sylheti  population voted for East-Pakistan. Yet till date, the Sylhetis have maintained a strong socially  constructed and isolated celebration of their ‘trans-territorial’ cultural identity irrespective of
religion and statehood. It understands that this topic cannot merely be seen from socio-cultural lens  without looking at the institutional and geographical foundations. Just like how every account of  map-making till date has had an immense impact on the identity formation. And this cannot be seen  only through the teller’s perspective but also how there has been a large-scale construction of a  homogenous pan-Sylheti identity which has recurred again and again as years passed by.
In the current context, the perception of being a Sylheti, across the divided and separated geo-political territoriality often leads to an inherent tendency of configuring conflicting identifications to
understand the deep-rooted cultural essence. This essence can be further looked at in detail by  contextualising Mohinimohan Das Gupta’s 1903 text Srihatter Itihas and how the text is a revelation of the way Sylhet is socio-culturally constructed, both in the present and the past.
What is crucial here is a matter of continuance and prejudice that lives in the memories, especially  expressed in terms of the lived experiences in the ideological creation of a space called ‘Sylhet’. The central idea that the paper emphasises on the critical interpretative reading of Mohinimohan Das Gupta’s Srihatter Itishas (1903) to look at the vernacular junction and materiality of an idea that transcends from an imaginative space. The paper unfolds in several sub-sections such as the  methodology involved in reading Gupta’s text and collating the text with the author.

DESCRIPTION This paper explores certain factors underlying the post-colonial emergence of indigenous elite in northern India with the employment of some ‘elite symbols’. The new post-colonial scenario shows the fluidity of human experiences where the leather market and its producers receive a high status in the economy but the exclusive identities of the mass involved in the traditional occupation of tanning remained stagnant, and the atrocities towards them, augmented in certain places. The large scale instances of ‘chamarisation’ of caste (individuals got imprisoned in their ascribed social identity) took place. A privileged section was able to advance their socio-economic status by seeking the help of elite symbols, for instance, leather shoes and bags. At the same, this elevation proceeded through a re-evaluation of their fellow downtrodden through the lens of the stigmatized category of ‘chamar’.1 One needs to see the burgeoning political and economic patterns of change of the ...

The theory of Rent as it is known today, has gone through numerous interpretations and re-interpretations from the time when high import bounties were placed under the exploiting Corn Laws in the British Victorian era. The role of Classical political economists and Marxists remain inevitably important here. Therefore, this paper shall try to review different interpretations by the Classical Political Economist, focusing majorly on Ricardo’s derivations and concluding with a Marxist perspective on it. It shall also look upon the antagonistic relationship between the landlords, capitalists and the labourers.
Key words: Corn law, Rent, land, monopoly, wages, profits

New political powers are emerging in the world order in recent years. Despite the fact that the world is no more categorized as bipolar, after the collapse of Soviet Union, Unipolar construction is not valid either. There are other regional and nation state-alliances which are coming up and can together be a part of the world order depending on its aim of constructions. This paper focuses on the economic and structural development that has taken place in the BRICS and SAARC countries in the period of 2000 to 2013. It takes the help of various development indicators which shows a clear picture of the transition taking place in these countries.

It is tough to determine one’s economic class in India as there are diverse livelihood options. One such element in this heterogeneous mixture of livelihood options is the ‘occupation of beggary’. Right to life and liberty allows one to live a life of respect and satisfaction. However, there are millions in India who fail to acquire this right. Driven by unquenchable hunger, a section of the society remains invisible before the privileged even though are emphatically visible. In the process of reproducing one’s subsistence creates two categories, namely dependents and independents. Many categories can be classified among the socio-economic dependents in the society, in particular, who are better extolled as ‘beggars’.

Politics and reality are in tandem only when we visualize it affecting our lives directly. Hobbes when coined the concept of Leviathan, accrued to support the concept of absolute monarchy in the hands of a body called State. The process was to be defined by the agency called the ‘government’ which not only embodied the concept of power but also maintained the legitimacy of power of single over many. However, interestingly the concepts of such political theory do not seem to become obsolete rather present before us a candid picture of happenings which are inevitable. Today, government stands before us as a body which not just regulates but also happens to shape the thinking of everyday discussions that we face. In this essay I shall make a maiden attempt to evaluate and discuss the concept of New Public Management which has not just become the household concept of every developed countries but also the developing/transitional countries

To think of a world where women are liberated from the excesses of men’s domination can be brought out where ‘gender’ is itself questioned. The process of classification not only brings in hierarchy but also a sense of alter ego where ‘I’ and ‘they’ are made bold.

Abstract:
The very fact that India is sovereign now after 66 years of its independence from the colonial rule is debatable. The moral doubt behind this would be the systematic sub conscious colonization by the increasing rate of fast food chains. An analogy to the post-colonial era can be drawn by basing the whole paper on George Ritzer’s notion of ‘McDonaldization’ of society. An attempt has been made to cobble up all the focus onto a single topic which can be better defined as the new trend within “sociology of consumption”. Here the word ‘consumption’ extends to how India in the rapacious era of cut-throat competition has become a victim of camouflaged imperialism by America in every single mundane aspect. This paper tries to deconstruct every minute outcome of this sophisticated arm-chair debates. To an extent an amateur attempt has been made, discovering India from a fourth world point of view.

Even after numerous interpretations of Marxian model of evolution of society, the matter which is already interpreted and is yet in the process of many upcoming research is the Marxian formulations of the ambiguity related to the specific transition from feudalism to capitalism. In this essay, a small modest attempt has been made to discuss a few critical discussions of Neo Marxists on the aforementioned topic.

This paper explores certain factors underlying the post-colonial emergence of indigenous elite in northern India with the employment of some ‘elite symbols’. The new post-colonial scenario shows the fluidity of human experiences where the leather market and its producers receive a high status in the economy but the exclusive identities of the mass involved in the traditional occupation of tanning remained stagnant, and the atrocities towards them, augmented in certain places. The large scale instances of ‘chamarisation’ of caste (individuals got imprisoned in their ascribed social identity) took place. A privileged section was able to advance their socio-economic status by seeking the help of elite symbols, for instance, leather shoes and bags. At the same, this elevation proceeded through a re-evaluation of their fellow downtrodden through the lens of the stigmatized category of ‘chamar’.  The transition took place from a traditional tanning unit to a de-sanskritised ‘chamar’ society. One needs to see the burgeoning political and economic patterns of change of the aspiring middle class and the simultaneous degradation of the tanners. The crux of such a change in this sector can be primarily attributed to the power of the object called ‘leather’. Therefore, the sociological implications of a consumer class versus a producer caste are discussed in the paper with a specific analysis of the power politics of leather, which has given rise to elites in post-colonial India.

This paper tracks the antecedents of the colonial theory in the minds of the post colonial masses. Europeans, in the process of giving way to a higher level of consumption, resulted in developing imperialism (particularly the peak of intensified European scramble for colonies in the 19th century). Under the veil of civilization mission of the Europeans, the impersonal invisible hand of a capitalist expansion tempered the colonization overseas. Before J.M. Keynes drove home the importance of consumption and demand for economic growth and institutionalized the ‘Paradox of Thrift’, the dominant idea of economics since the times of Smith have emphasized the ideal of savings in an economy. The book, ‘The Worldly Philosophers’  by Robert L. Heilbroner speaks about John Hobson as one of the intuitive underground economists who attributed imperialism as a product of an economy distorted by its over emphasis on savings. The extreme inequality of wealth in England then (and by the virtue of the Marginal Propensity to Consume being lower for the wealthy) spurred the ruthless accumulation in Capitalism seeking for markets in other countries. And over a period of time, this very inevitable hypothesis for imperialism was countered with the theories of Orientals and Occidents, civilizing missions, Kipling’s satire ‘The White Man’s Burden’ and so on. In the later period, a lot of colonial expansion was not profitable (except in West Africa and India) yet ideological interests of a superior race kept them there until a point of saturation. The claims of ‘development of the underdeveloped’ and the post colonial deconstructions remain ambiguous. In presenting this political and economic relation, India has much to speak, mostly in the context of its post-colonial discourse.
Keywords:
1. Colonialism
2. Marginal Propensity to consume
3. Paradox of thrift

Gender and patriarchy, both these terms seem to converge in the context of disparities when it comes to bridge the gap from within. Both these concepts can be further looked upon from Michel Foucault’s perspective of societal discourse. A society experiences change through its discourse. He focuses on two prime discourses which decide an individual’s control over his/her body. Firstly, he talks about the ‘anatomo-politics’ which decides an individual’s outlook and perception on his/her body according to the different bodily structures. Secondly, he mentions another discourse called ‘bio-politics’. This phenomenon works as an aggregate of what moulds an individual’s thinking towards a mass number of bodies over a space and time. Over time, both these discourses become norms and aid in bringing about different stereotypes and prejudices on the concepts discussed largely on the society. “Gender” in itself is a term socially bridled on the biological sex. When a dichotomy is drawn between the male and female sex, the latter is seen as an object and inferior. Therefore, Foucault says that every social meaning is attached to the social phenomenon of “power”. Power is determined by the surplus amount of attributes that an individual possesses in the end. It can be physical, material or social power. Gender as a concept faces these ‘power politics’ which decides the apogee and downfall of either of the sexes. Family as a social institution forms the base of all the structures above it. Therefore, the disparities seen in the society stem out of the discourses taking place in the family. My focus would be mainly on the medicalisation of marriage and motherhood as they are the significant discourses discussed by Foucault as the guiding factors in the contemporary hierarchy in gender politics, where both men and women play pivotal roles.

India, in a few decades by now has seen the black and white world of text often getting brimmed with political turmoil of communalism. Although the intricacies involved in the emulation of an ideal secular model of State seems tough and rigid, Bollywood has taken a not-so-lackadaisical approach to quench its thirst on these matters. Today, when no one in seems to have ‘forgotten’ the melancholy of partition, Bollywood has certainly acted as the role of a sedative to calm the craze and fear related to cultural politics.

Be it an economist or a sociologist, the influence of the Classical Political theories have been profound in these fields as it addresses the basic concepts like labour and value. Value can be understood as a social property of a commodity where it generates from a particular social relation between the owners and the labourers. This value generation then follows the process of distribution or allocation across different groups of societies. Not only while drawing the beginning of human societies but also in understanding everyday contemporary happenings which remains incomplete without these theories. If one has to draw the historical underpinnings when this Classical theories saw a surge around the time of William Petty in England and the Physiocrats in France continuing it till Smithian ideas and then Marx. The Mercantilists on the other hand emerged as a group which solely focused on the component of ‘profit’ generation and monopolistic market situation and as Stewart called it ‘profit upon alienation’ by buying something for cheap and the selling it for a higher price. Adam Smith’s major breakthrough was his An Inquiry into the Nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) which tried to address the in depth formulations of political economy. Smith’s labour theory of value has often been described as lacking internal coherence. Hence, this paper shall try to dive into the inconsistencies of Smith’s idea of value and distribution from the viewpoint of various economists, classical and contemporary and read through the incomplete analysis that he left for his successors.

Harry Braverman’s Labour and Monopoly Capital (1974) and Michael Burawoy’s The Politics of Production Factory Regimes under Capitalism and Socialism (1985), opens many debatable extensions from Marx’s Capital. Looking at the process of labour and production of commodities, these scholars have taken difference stance on their analysis. While both stand on different positions to talk about the structure of labour and its varied characteristics, it has to be kept in mind that Burawoy’s work was mainly influenced by that of Braverman and many other thinkers like Gramsci1 and so on. Therefore, much the aforementioned book discusses and critiques the ideas put forth by Braverman and adds more to it. The crux of both the books can be summarized and said to have dealt with labour in the production process. Braverman manages to focus on the instinctual part that differs amongst animals and humans. Human labour not being instinctual, is something more than it and involves intellectual capabilities and pressure. He talks of the labourer as a passive character who is alldominated by different levels of authority in Weber’s analysis (like bureaucracy) in the forms of managerial autarchy, scientific temperaments, Taylorist production process and so on. Capitalist production takes away the labour power of the workers. Burawoy on the other hand, collects the subjugation part of the workers from Braverman but also adds more to it. He introduces the concept of consent within which the labourers participate in a game like situation which increases the efficiency as well as exploitation, example that he specifies is the ‘piece-rate pay’ system. He analyses the condition in different ideal types of factories across nations to understand the politics within the factory as well as the external world.

blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2024/04/25/book-review-the-front-room-diaspora-migrant-aesthetics-in-the-homemichael-mcmillan/ In The Front Room, Michael McMillan examines the significance of domestic spaces in creating a sense of belonging for Caribbean migrants in the UK. Delving into themes of resistance and creolisation, these sensitively curated essays and images reveal how ordinary objects shape diasporic identities, writes Antara Chakrabarty. The Front Room: Diaspora Migrant Aesthetics in the Home. Michael McMillan. Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd. 2023. Migration, at its most basic level, means a physical relocation. However, this "mobility" entails a complex, polysemous reality whose consequences reverberate for those who leave one place for another. Michael McMillan's The Front Room: Diaspora Migrant Aesthetics in the Home presents a poignant personal tale of materiality, memory and diasporic emotions. It connects with readers by presenting the past without falling prey to anachronism, narrating ordinary aspects of our day-today lives through pertinent sociological themes and recurring issues like racism, world politics, aspirations, diasporic memory and more. Michael McMillan, a playwright and artist, offers a text that unfolds as a choreopoem to the domestic spaces inhabited by migrants, infused with theatricality and a curatorial sensibility around the images and references shared. The book, originally published in 2009, has been re-released and is divided across several themes and including additional essays, including by eminent cultural anthropologist Stuart Hall. Caribbean diaspora re-imagined the Victorian parlour, (the front room) through a sense of decolonial resistance, cultural survival and aspirational attempts to adapt to the new culture in which they found themselves.