Caste and politics in (West) Bengal: in conversation with Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

ABSTRACT

Although many commentators believed that caste did not matter in West Bengal, in recent years it has emerged as a significant factor in electoral politics. The decline of the Left and the rise of the centrist-incumbent have fanned identity politics and the resurgence of caste-based political mobilisation. In this conversation, Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, a well-known expert in the history and politics of caste in Bengal, illuminates the complexities, uniqueness and dynamics of caste politics in colonial Bengal and contemporary West Bengal. The interview explores the evolution of the caste-system in colonial Bengal, its differences with the rest of India and the multiple manifestations of caste-based politics in contemporary West Bengal. Bandyopadhyay reflects on the intersection of caste with other categories of class and religion, the lower-castes’ involvement, appropriation and neglect in the political spectrum, and the future of caste and politics in West Bengal.

KEYWORDS:

• Caste
• colonial Bengal
• West Bengal
• Matua
• Namasudra
• class
• religion

Acknowldgements

We wish to thank the journal editor, the anonymous peer-reviewers, and the production editor for their comments, support and assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 To denote colonial (undivided) Bengal, we retain the term. West Bengal denotes the partitioned state in independent India.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sucharita Sen

Sucharita Sen is a doctoral candidate at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She has been awarded the 2023 History Innovation Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her works have appeared in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Society and Culture in South Asia, Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Studies in People’s History.

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay is Emeritus Professor of History in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, inaugural fellow of the New Zealand Academy of Humanities and the founding director of the New Zealand India Research Institute. Among his publications are Decolonization in South Asia: Meanings of Freedom in Post-independence West Bengal, 1947–52 (Routledge 2009), From Plassey to Partition and After (Orient Longman 2011), Caste and Communal Politics in South Asia (K.P. Bagchi 1993) edited with Suranjan Das, Bengal: Communities, Development and States (Manohar 1994) edited with Abhijit Dasgupta and William Van Schendel, and Calcutta: The Stormy Decades (Routledge 2018) edited with Tanika Sarkar.