The Coffee House Experience

It is hard to deny that identity politics has been a mainstay of our polity since the inception of the Indian nation-state. However, can identity per se lend a suitable explanation to a host of social inequities which are a part and parcel of our lived reality? Or will an analysis through the prism of class struggle and the politics around citizenship yield more practicable insights? Adil Hossain, a political anthropologist, joins Pratyay, Srinjoy and Soumik to discuss all this and much more in this edition of the Coffee House Experience.

Links:

• Adil's homepage: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/people/adil-hossain

• Adil's twitter handle: https://twitter.com/adilhossain?s=09

• Sachar committee report: https://minorityaffairs.gov.in/reports/sachar-committee-report

• Article on the implications of CAA-NRC: https://www.cprindia.org/news/8339

Avelo Roy, a serial entrepreneur and an ISKCON follower, talks with Srinjoy and Soumik about his journey in the start-up space and venture capitals which is guided by the principles of Bhagavad Gita. His efforts through Kolkata Ventures in the past 2 years have resulted in 400+ revenue generating startups responsible for around 4500 new jobs created in 10 states of East India.

Links:

• Avelo's Bio: https://aveloroy.com/avelo-roy/

• Kolkata Ventures: https://kolkataventures.com/

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, the eminent journalist explains various aspects of evolution of Indian media landscape starting from after the independence, went through breakthrough periods such as economic liberalization of 1991 and more recently transformed rapidly with the rise of social media and "fake news".

Few relevant links:

• Paranjoy's homepage: https://paranjoy.in/

• WIkipedia page on PGT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranjoy_Guha_Thakurta

• Article titled "Combating Fake News in India": https://ssir.org/articles/entry/combating_fake_news_in_india

• Journal titled: Capitalists vs. the media: an analysis of an ideological mobilization among business leaders: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/016344378200400203?journalCode=mcsa&

• Article titled "Media Ownership Monitor: Who owns the media in India?": https://rsf.org/en/news/media-ownership-monitor-who-owns-media-india -

• Washington Post article on Mob lynching and Fake News: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/21/how-misinformation-whatsapp-led-deathly-mob-lynching-india/

• Amazon's Antitrust Paradox by Lina Khan: https://www.yalelawjournal.org/pdf/e.710.Khan.805_zuvfyyeh.pdf

Prof. Janam Mukherjee, who grew up in the US, came to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1999 in his thirties and in search for his root. This journey of him turned out to be his career as well when he pursued his research into finding the history of 1940's Bengal and finding astonishing facts about 1943's Bengal famine. His work on this is documented in his book titled "Hungry Bengal: War, Famine and the End of Empire". In this episode he discusses about Bengal Famine of 1943 with Soumik, Srinjoy and Pratyay. The discussion takes place mostly in English except the intro.

A few relevant links:

• Janam Mukherjee’s webpage https://www.ryerson.ca/history/about-us/faculty-and-staff/faculty/mukherjee-janam/

• Janam’s thesis: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/86383/jsmuk_1.pdf

• A recent public lecture delivered at the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umo_uFM5i1o

• Another recent YouTube appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHkA0_cNCPA

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses with Debashish Sen Sharma about his journey as a filmmaker and a film academician, recent trends in Bangla cinema etc.

Few relevant links:

• IMDB profile of Debasish Sen Sharma https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7338117/

• Chaepani http://www.chaepani.com/

• Article titled "Out of the Waiting Room of History: Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema of Partition" https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/out-of-the-waiting-room-of-history-ritwik-ghataks-cinema-of-partition/

• Article titled "Humanism and Hope: The Legacy of Film Director Satyajit Ray" https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/humanism-and-hope-legacy-filmmaker-satyajit-ray

• Article on Mrinal Sen titled "An iconoclast and a humanist" https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/comment/an-iconoclast-and-a-humanist-707650

• Article titled "How the Left left Bengali cinema" https://caravanmagazine.in/perspectives/power-bourgeoisie

• Article titled "Why Iran creates some of the world’s best films" https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181115-the-great-films-that-define-iran

• On Meghe Dhaka Tara and Subarnarekha https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc47.2005/ghatak/3.html

Dr. Kunal Sarkar talks with Pratyay and Srinjoy about Covid-19's most striking experiences as a health professional, the background of lab-made theory, pertinent policies and politics around it.

A few relevant links:

• Dr. Sarkar’s upcoming book: The Sickness of Health https://www.patrabharati.com/shop/the-sickness-of-health/

• The COVID lab-leak hypothesis (Nature article) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01529-3

• New York Times article about denial of Covid-19 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/opinion/coronavirus-airborne-transmission.html

• Nicholas Wade’s article on origin of Covid-19 https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/

• Effect of health insurance program for the poor on out-of-pocket inpatient care cost in India: evidence from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey: https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-020-05692-7#:~:text=In%20India%2C%20Out%2Dof%2D,%2Dof%2Dpocket%20health%20expenditures.

• Prof. Abhijit Banerjee’s talk on demonetization https://youtu.be/tk-JJXWPd2Y

• The Coffee House Experience#1 with Anujit Chakroborty (economist) https://youtu.be/iVFFRGgSMcI

• Article on America’s healthcare https://www.healthline.com/health-news/america-first-not-in-healthcare-not-even-close

• Bernie Sanders’ policy on universal healthcare in the US https://berniesanders.com/issues/medicare-for-all/

• Article on India’s recent record vaccination (Scroll) https://scroll.in/article/998156/how-bjp-ruled-states-engineered-a-new-world-record-for-vaccinations

• Prescription drug price in the USA is twice as high, why? https://scroll.in/article/998156/how-bjp-ruled-states-engineered-a-new-world-record-for-vaccinations

• Peter Principle (wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle

Srinjoy and Pratyay talks with Aritra Sen, an engineer turned film producer/director about his amazing journey.

Few relevant links:

• Aritra's IMDB profile: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9263470/

• Roadshow films: http://roadshowfilms.in/

Pratyay and Srinjoy discussed Operation Barga of 1978, pertinent policies, background and aftermath. A few relevant resources follow:

• Srinjoy’s article “An eclectic demystification of Operation Barga” http://plpr-association.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2015_PLPR_SARC_Ganguly.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0kr7yXhRDRneQKiMCzAQFE7QmUDqk0eNl4NKaTHdUUYZKe2MXLjiL6ZUg

• Article by Bipab Dasgupta “Sharecropping in West Bengal-From Independence to Operation Barga” : https://www.epw.in/journal/1984/26/review-agriculture-review-issues-specials/sharecropping-west-bengal-independence

• Agricultural reform and productivity: some important lessons to be learnt from West Bengal's "Operation Barga". By Raychaudhuri and Sen https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20006779762

• West Bengal Land Reform Act, 1955 http://www.bareactslive.com/WB/WB010.HTM - Empowerment and Efficiency: Tenancy Reform in West Bengal by Abhijit V. Banerjee, Paul J. Gertler and Maitreesh Ghatak https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/338744

• State of Agriculture in India https://prsindia.org/policy/analytical-reports/state-agriculture-india - Land Reforms in Theory and Practice: The Kerala Experience by P. Radhakrishnan https://www.jstor.org/stable/4370526

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses with Prof. Subhamoy Maitra on his venture into political analysis from academia, assembly election 2021, political awareness of Bengalis etc.

Links:

• Subhmoy Maitra's homepage: https://isi.irins.org/profile/61161

• Neal Koblitz’s homepage: https://sites.math.washington.edu/~koblitz/

• Article on food movement of 1959: http://www.mcrg.ac.in/PP56.pdf

• Article on Leftist organization led Kishan long march from Nasik to Mumbai: https://scroll.in/latest/914036/kisan-long-march-thousands-of-farmers-begin-protest-march-from-nashik-to-mumbai

Pratyay and Srinjoy discusses Bengal Assembly Election 2021 with stats, anecdotes and perceptions.

A few relevant links:

• Statistical afternotes (https://thewire.in/politics/statistical-afternotes-tmc-may-have-won-bengal-but-bjp-did-not-do-badly)

• Some interesting stats (https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-assembly-election-2021-trinamool-congress-wins-third-straight-term-in-west-bengal/article34491637.ece)

• How women voted (https://www.thehindu.com/elections/west-bengal-assembly/women-rally-behind-trinamool-finds-csds-lokniti-survey/article34494083.ece)

• On Left Front’s poor performance (https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/a-self-destructive-consensus-explains-the-cpi-m-s-west-bengal-disaster-101620206604074.html)

• A comparison between Bengal and Assam elections (https://www.livemint.com/elections/assembly-elections/how-bengal-bucked-the-saffron-surge-11620142207250.html)

• Analyzing the new Bengal assembly (https://scroll.in/article/994172/the-new-bengal-assembly-in-28-charts-fewer-muslims-more-scheduled-caste-mlas-and-not-much-youth)

• Strategy for economic reform in Bengal, a paper written in 2002 by Abhijit Banerjee, Pranab Bardhan, Kaushik Basu et al. (https://www.rrcee.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/339_Strategy_for_Economic_Reform_in_West_Bengal.pdf)