Papers by Akhar Bandyopadhyay
Indian Sociological Society, 2024
Amid growing climate legislation, the paper discloses how and why the crucial confrontation with ... more Amid growing climate legislation, the paper discloses how and why the crucial confrontation with the facticity of “climate threat” is typically placed within the decoupled existential duality of “ecology or economy”, thereby reassessing Club of Rome’s 1972 report “The Limits to Growth”. Methodologically, the paper adopts critical phenomenology, which reconfigures the positional discursive enclosures and eco-sensitive felt embodiments of capital-intensive institutional “growth” (Illich), stemming from the reflexive crises ontologies of intersubjective lived experiences during the Anthropocene. The paper briefly refers to the reported immediacy of the threatened life-worlds of climate refugees. It performs (hyper-)real case-study of a pharmaceutical plant in Digwal, Telangana, instantiating “greenwashed” technocratism’s democratic unfreedom (Marcuse). The paper fosters a sociophilosophical critique of the dominant developmentalist narrative with monopolizing entitlement-claims, treadmills of overproduction and debt-centrism to accordingly propose the “Hummingbird Metaphor” following the Green Belt Movement. Consequently, the paper inspects the pragmatic implications of a deviduated, coordinated “being-in-common” networking of non-partisan democratization expressible in small-scale, decentralized living-patterns characterized by biophilic living-spaces (subtracting architectural imperialism). This approach extends the praxeologies of Tagore’s samavāya, Gandhi’s sarvodaya, M. N. Roy’s radical humanism, and Jayaprakash Narayan’s total revolution to embrace a form of libertarianism that counters the Human Exemptionalism Paradigm, culminating in the ethico-aesthetic nisargaśṛṅgāra (human−nature creative intimacy) with participatory democratic exchanges. The paper suggests a sustainable retreat from the developmentalist paradigm to balance the options of “withdrawal” and “degrowth” while heeding eco-fundamentalist and Neo-Malthusian pitfalls. It advances a nuanced conception of multispecies environmental justice, resisting the corporatization of grassroots environmentalist discourse(s).
Foundation for Creative Social Research, 2024
September, 2024. Presented on the Occasion of the 11th Creative Theory (Extended) Colloquium on T... more September, 2024. Presented on the Occasion of the 11th Creative Theory (Extended) Colloquium on Technology and Society: Hierarchies And Contestations, organized by the Association for Creative Theory (ACT) & Foundation for Creative Social Research (FCSR) in collaboration with International Herbert Marcuse Society, USA, India International Centre, The RAZA Foundation and Shanti Sahayog. (Full Paper Under International Publication Process). ABSTRACT: The paper postulates the ethico-onto-epistemological overview of the ecosophical paradigm of human-nature creative intimacy, viz., nisargaśṛṅgāra, as a countering response to the consolidation of technocratic rationality by tracing the latter’s genealogy through the totalizing effect of the enlightenment metanarrative’s “intellectual hatred for nature”, as a semantic supplementation from the Spinozian amor dei intellectualis. The same is explored through tools such as ressentiment, negative transference, internalization etc., along with the background assumption of rhizomatic dispersion of the schizoanalytic disclosure of Promethean territorialization, thus offering resistance to the organized, institutionalized, sponsored instrumental ‘rationality’ (systemic/structural epistemic violence) that leads to the depreciation of nature/cosmos’ constitutive plexus, resulting into the environmental apocalypse. Marcuse’s notion of ‘Technological Rationality’ is revisited as a totalitarian scientistic governmentality in which rationality is (re-)defined by the technical intelligentsia to present the mechanomorphosed living, characterized by the closure in the universes of polylogic discourses. It is a reductionist, vivisectional, hegemonic rationality that formally rationalizes the intellectual hatred for nature by projecting mainstream-science-as-commerce, consisting of the computable blue-print model-theoretic approach that (apparently) apoliticizes and ahistoricizes lived discourse. Eventually, this hampers the nature/cosmos’ diseased/de-ceased corporeal (in the non-biologist connotation) since one’s being-in-the-universe is hysterized, pedagogized and psychiatrized in the claustrophobic foreclosure of techno-centrism’s estranged dynamic that reveals itself in cannibalistic, savage pre-debt-or capitalism. Au Contraire, nisargaśṛṅgāra advances a harmonious, convivial relationship with technology as techne in collective living formats, and not as the Frankenstenian phantom of a self-annihilating hyperindustrial technik, in the spirit of a bricoleur’s reciprocal engagement with nature-as-lover, thus calling for a fluid reconceptualization of the otherwise watertight nature-culture binary opposition.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
This paper-letter subversively critiques the drive for cultural homogenization in India, focusing... more This paper-letter subversively critiques the drive for cultural homogenization in India, focusing specifically on the imposition of a singular dress code for Hindus as part of a broader Hindutva agenda. It reflects, through sarcastic and satirical tools, on the historical evolution of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) uniform and juxtaposes it with the varied, regionally influenced dress practices of socalled "Hindus" (?) across the geo-political imagination of India. The letter raises concerns about the suppression of cultural heterogeneity and the imposition of a monolithic standard of dress under the guise of a given normativity of religious (equated with the national) unity. Using examples from recent political debates, such as the RSS' shift from shorts to trousers and the hijab controversy, the authors advocate for a standardized dress code (by intentionally masking themselves as Hindutvavadins) that aligns with the so-called projection of "sanātana" values while rejecting purportedly the "foreign and Islamic" influences. The letter also explores how traditional Hindu dress has been influenced by colonial derivations and global fashion trends. It concludes by urging national leaders to establish a rigid, uniform dress code for Hindus, arguing that this would reinforce the ideological foundations of Hindutva while marginalizing alternative cultural expressions. This critical analysis addresses the dangers of cultural erasure and the paradoxical nature of enforcing uniformity in a society marked by deep-seated diversity.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, Sep 21, 2024
The sarcastic as well as satirical paper-letter is an in-depth examination of the evolution of Lo... more The sarcastic as well as satirical paper-letter is an in-depth examination of the evolution of Lord Gaṇeśa in Hindu traditions, addressing the contradictions between ancient texts and contemporary worship practices. The authors write to the President of India, calling for the cessation of Gaṇeśa worship, arguing that it contradicts the Sanātana Dharma. The paper traces Gaṇeśa’s transformation from an anti-god symbolizing obstacles and calamities to a revered deity associated with success. It critically analyzes historical, mythological, and socio-political shifts that contributed to this metamorphosis. The letter questions the legitimacy of modern Gaṇeśa worship, linking it to political and ideological agendas within India's current political landscape. Ultimately, it proposes halting this idol worship to align religious practices with the ancient Sanātana codes. The authors intentionally mask themselves as "Hindutvavadins" in order to expose the violent religious extremism of the Saffron Fascist forces and the utter fruitlessness of their agenda.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, Sep 5, 2024
2024. The paper-letter critically examines the Hindutva ideology's stance on abortion, using sati... more 2024. The paper-letter critically examines the Hindutva ideology's stance on abortion, using satire and sarcasm to highlight the contradictions in its rigid, "pro-life" views. The authors argue that Hindutva selectively interprets Hindu scriptures to enforce anti-abortion and anti-women policies, undermining women's autonomy and agency. Through references to ancient texts, the paper critiques the ideological imposition of Hindutva, showing how it manipulates religious doctrines to control women's reproductive rights while exposing its broader patriarchal and theocratic agenda.
Presented on 09.08.2024 at the Online International Conference on "Technology and Its Impact on L... more Presented on 09.08.2024 at the Online International Conference on "Technology and Its Impact on Language, Society, Education and Climate Change", organized by Belda College, West Bengal. Now published in Bengal Journal of Social Science and Development as part of the Conference Proceedings. Vol. 3, Issue 4. E-ISSN: 2583-3413, pp. 157-183. The paper engages with the radical themes in environmental philosophy concerning techno-centric governance of nature’s corporeal by developing technical quick-fix solutions in short-term “project man” initiatives, i.e., a supplementing narrative that does not in itself address the underlying structurally violent ideological motivations. While apparently this phenomenon may seem to align with shallow environmental pragmatism in general, more specifically, it is part of Cornucopian ecology that poses the technological paradigm as the absolute sine qua non of the manufactured myth of energy crisis (Illich) to facilitate profiteering motives in the guise of market-driven green capitalism. In effect, the author proposes several empirical case-studies to forward the futility of a techno-oriented, solution-governed approach, instead of first addressing the crises in all their dimensions, which admittedly figure as something “more than climate change” (Haraway). The paper highlights the Gandhian emphasis on low-energy solutions and simple technologies instead of mega/hi-tech, which was reflected by Tagore through his opposition of mega-industrial projects of the ominous “Yantrarāja”. Instead of a scientistic puzzle-solving approach, the present author argues for a harmonious, holistic reconceptualization (not mere rearrangement or reordering) based on regenerative reciprocity of relationship between humans and nature, thereby advancing the Bigfoot metaphor as representing a point of rarity, while also heeding the nuanced aspects of the notion of sacred, authentic nature “outside” the apparent profanities of “civilizational” mission. In doing so, the paper addresses how this techno-orientation hampers human creative potential as expressed in language by endangering being itself and engendering binary-oppositional thinking. The abstracted lab-mutilation fed into technocracy’s functioning via an engineered logic of necessity is explicated as a self-destructive grand-narrative that is defeated by a Luddite proposal consisting of a revised “back-to-the-land approach”, simultaneously critiquing Rousseau’s lapsarian “back-to-nature” stance, whilst also not wholly resorting to the Zizekian “nature does not exist” formulation.
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Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
The paper-letter deals with different types of intoxication (alcoholic drinks, wet/dry drugs/narc... more The paper-letter deals with different types of intoxication (alcoholic drinks, wet/dry drugs/narcotics etc.) in the “ancient” South-East Asia as practiced by the “Hindus” (?). The perception of contemporary ethnographic Hindutva is suffering from a different kind of non-contradictory contradiction, at a time when the deep state has advanced organized religion as their vote-bank. Here, in this paper-letter, the authors set the tavern/pub as their centre d’ lumière. The authors, as bricoleurs, are again deliberately masking themselves in the course of composing the text following the Brechtian method as well as the Derridean deconstructive militant attack on the given textual corpus. They deploy Linguistic Paleontology and Semantic Theory as their tools to explore the domain of intoxication, keeping in mind the contemporary scenario of Indian politics.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
This sarcastic paper-letter shows Rabindranath Tagore's ideology of no-nation, his dedication tow... more This sarcastic paper-letter shows Rabindranath Tagore's ideology of no-nation, his dedication towards pluralism and tolerance as well as his stand as an internationalist humanitarian beyond the postulation of the commercial "man" (sic). The authors of this paper-letter try to show the Hindutva lensing of Tagore in a sort of militant deconstructive pretend play to expose the baselessness of the Saffron Fascist project of imposing an eliminative, exclusivist (mono-)culture.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
The paper engages itself with the question of the predominance of Pharmaceutical industries in ov... more The paper engages itself with the question of the predominance of Pharmaceutical industries in over-medicalizing the health of human and non-human populations as well as the supposed "nature". It focuses on a specific case-study from a village named Digwal, Telangana, India, and performs a Foucauldian investigative discourse analysis on the text in relation to an environmental terrorist big-Pharma headed by business tycoon Mr. Ajay Piramal. The very legitimacy of the medical space and gaze is thoroughly critiqued in the course of the paper by bringing into attention the inevitable failure of the simulated Summersian project of "Let them eat pollution".
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
The paper deals with the empirical evidences cum analyses of manufacturing anti-historical as wel... more The paper deals with the empirical evidences cum analyses of manufacturing anti-historical as well as ahistorical narratives of the Sangh Parivar in India. In doing so, it follows the Foucauldian method of "archaeological digging" in the given discursive formation. The paper aims to repudiate the Islamophobic, Expansionist, Hindu Supremacist agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and how it tragically hampers the spirit of epistemological enquiry.
From Convergence to praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2024
LicenseCC BY 4.0
This paper deals with the narratives on the disputed Rama Temple issue as pos... more LicenseCC BY 4.0
This paper deals with the narratives on the disputed Rama Temple issue as posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposed by the Hindu saints. The polemic is depicted here to show the heterogeneous nature of the umbrella term (so-called) “Hindutva” that defeats the struggle for homogenizing “Hindu Identity” by the Sangh Parivar.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia , 2023
To understand the present state of affairs in Indian polity with regard to financial crises, the ... more To understand the present state of affairs in Indian polity with regard to financial crises, the paper would present a case-study on the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) scam, which is now occupied through adverse possession by one of the ruling party’s close associates, viz., Mr. Ajay Gopikisan Piramal. For this acquisition of the DHFL, many unfair means were taken. Due to this forceful occupation by Piramal of the DHFL, many fixed deposit (FD) and non-convertible debenture (NCD) holders suffered a huge loss of their life-savings. To resist such a scenario, some of the DHFL victims initiated a non-violent web-based civil-disobedience movement. After two years of such resistance, Piramal employed his legal team to suppress or silence the voices of those protesting victims of a different form of “capital” punishment. This paper relates to the defamation case filed by Piramal to target some of the social media platforms utilized by the victims of financial abuse.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2023
This paper vents out its anger on the face of savage capitalism that thrives through the cannibal... more This paper vents out its anger on the face of savage capitalism that thrives through the cannibalistic instinct. It particularly focuses on the case of one such savage capitalist: Mr. Ajay Piramal, and reflects upon his deeds from the perspective of a self-reflexive account.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2023
License: CC BY 4.0; The following paper is an attempt at exposing the hidden agenda of the Unifor... more License: CC BY 4.0; The following paper is an attempt at exposing the hidden agenda of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) as it is supposed to be implemented by the BJP government in India. It starts with the experience of the domain of the externally threatened subjectivity and moves on to criticize the UCC by reflecting on its communal intentions, targeting solely the "other" Islamic Law. It goes on to focus on the intersectional issues of property-inheritance, gender question, caste dynamic, variegated food-habits, plurilingual situation etc. In doing so, it also throws light on the uncontradictory contradictions within the ambit of the "Hindu" umbrella, and how it prevents the "Hindus" from having any kind of uniformity for themselves. The author's semantic connotation of the term "UCC" is totally different from the Saffronized Hindutva's politico-religious construal of the same, aiming at the vote-bank politics.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2023
License: CC BY 4.0; The aim of this paper is to highlight the political role that the construct o... more License: CC BY 4.0; The aim of this paper is to highlight the political role that the construct of Islamophobia plays in the contemporary scenario of Indian politics under the crony governmentality of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its associate organizations under the Saṅgh Parivār, viz., how the very construct is presented or propagandized, how it finds manifestation in the public domain, how it relates to the grave socio-economic catastrophes that India is currently facing and so on. The paper also reaffirms the syncretic underpinnings of the geo-political formation of India by often alluding to historical studies, political events and cultural moorings. In doing so, it proposes a political strategy that far transcends the narrow electoral politics of regimented formations to conceive an outlook of resistance that repudiates the narratives of manufactured hate and exclusivist intolerance. Moreover, the authors of this agit-prop paper use “Islamophobia” as a process of displacement, a metaphor to depict the psychic traits of the Hindutvavādīns, who are indoctrinated by the Saṅgh Parivār with pseudo-narratives of mythical Hinduism. Keeping in mind the seminal work of Susan Sontag: Illness as Metaphor (1978), the authors are going to present a picture of contemporary Indian Politics, where the victims are suffering due to the dominant ideology of the Hindutvavādīns, who, in turn, are also suffering from a deep rooted disease, or rather, an anxiety disorder in the form of Islamophobia. The torch-bearers of Hindutvavāda consider the “other” (read Muslims) as cancerous elements of the Indian geo-politics, or as they say, “parasites” living off the nation’s wealth. This reciprocal naming of diseases is infesting both the contestants: victims and victimizers.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2023
In the context of contemporary Indian political economy, it is observed that the crony and monopo... more In the context of contemporary Indian political economy, it is observed that the crony and monopoly capitalism is proliferating. After the publication of the Hindenburg Report on the Adani group and The Caravan’s report on the Gujarat Pogrom, it is also being perceived that the market fundamentalism and free flow of private capital are masked by the religious fundamentalism. In this article, or rather compilation, in continuation with our earlier articles, Confessions of a Victim of Financial Abuse and Consequences of Crony and Monopoly Capitalism in India, the author tried to analyse a text written by a victim of financial abuse by deploying discourse analysis method.
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2022
License: CC by 4.0; This paper-letter aims to sarcastically subvert the relation of Hindutva to t... more License: CC by 4.0; This paper-letter aims to sarcastically subvert the relation of Hindutva to the Vaisnava dharma as propounded by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by following militant non-violent deconstructive attack. The paper-letter satisfies its aim by pointing out the affiliation of Sri Mahaprabhu to lower-castes and members of the Islamic community without distinguishing between caste and creed, self and the other. It has been said about Mahaprabhu: "আচন্ডালে কোল দিলা চৈতন্য মহাশয়" (Sri Caitanya hugged all the lower castes, including the untouchable Candalas)!
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2022
This paper-letter strives to sarcastically subvert the perception of the second sex by the member... more This paper-letter strives to sarcastically subvert the perception of the second sex by the members of the Hindutva camp by applying the Brechtian theatrical method as well as the Derridian Militant Deconstruction. The paper-letter specifically focuses on the Durga Vahini, the female wing of the Sangh Parivar, by exposing the inner aporia or uncontradictory contradictions of the gendered, phallocentric Hindutva gaze.
Torkito Tarjoni, 2022
নৈরাজ্যবাদী ভাবনা-চিন্তার আধারেই এই লেখায় পেশ করা হয়েছে বিকল্প সমাজভাবনার কথা। করা হয়েছে ভিন্ন রা... more নৈরাজ্যবাদী ভাবনা-চিন্তার আধারেই এই লেখায় পেশ করা হয়েছে বিকল্প সমাজভাবনার কথা। করা হয়েছে ভিন্ন রাজনীতির প্রস্তাব। প্রস্তাবিত হয়েছে দলহীন গণতন্ত্রের কথা, যেখানে যুক্ত হয়েছে প্রাচ্য থেকে পাশ্চাত্যের অ্যান্টি-এস্টাব্লিশ্মেন্ট চিন্তকদের ভাবনা। সবটাই করা হয়েছে বিষয়ী-সাপেক্ষতা বজায় রেখেই। এক ধরণের আন্তর-সংলাপ (internal dialogue) চলেছে গোটা লেখা জুড়ে। লেখাটি প্রকাশিত হয়েছে ৩০শে অক্টোবর, ২০২২, আন্তর্জাতিক ই-ম্যাগাজিন “তর্কিত তর্জনী”তে।
Convergence to Praxis, Once in a Blue Moon Academia, 2022
License: CC BY 4.0; This paper-letter aims to sarcastically subvert the Hindutva perception of ir... more License: CC BY 4.0; This paper-letter aims to sarcastically subvert the Hindutva perception of irreligiosity in the context of Satyajit Ray’s creative works. Though Hindutvavadins use the name of Ray for a film award, but they do not even know the apathy of Mr. Ray with regard to religious matters. Thanks to the ignorance of the Hindu religious extremists, propagators of so-called “Hindu Rashtra”!
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Papers by Akhar Bandyopadhyay
VIEW THE PPT HERE: https://www.academia.edu/122668445/Technological_Quick_Fixes_the_Crises_of_Cornucopian_Ecology_Powerpoint_Presentation_
This paper deals with the narratives on the disputed Rama Temple issue as posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposed by the Hindu saints. The polemic is depicted here to show the heterogeneous nature of the umbrella term (so-called) “Hindutva” that defeats the struggle for homogenizing “Hindu Identity” by the Sangh Parivar.
VIEW THE PPT HERE: https://www.academia.edu/122668445/Technological_Quick_Fixes_the_Crises_of_Cornucopian_Ecology_Powerpoint_Presentation_
This paper deals with the narratives on the disputed Rama Temple issue as posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and opposed by the Hindu saints. The polemic is depicted here to show the heterogeneous nature of the umbrella term (so-called) “Hindutva” that defeats the struggle for homogenizing “Hindu Identity” by the Sangh Parivar.
ABSTRACT: The paper postulates the ethico-onto-epistemological overview of the ecosophical paradigm of human-nature creative intimacy, viz., nisargaśṛṅgāra, as a countering response to the consolidation of technocratic rationality by tracing the latter’s genealogy through the totalizing effect of the enlightenment metanarrative’s “intellectual hatred for nature”, as a semantic supplementation from the Spinozian amor dei intellectualis. The same is explored through tools such as ressentiment, negative transference, internalization etc., along with the background assumption of rhizomatic dispersion of the schizoanalytic disclosure of Promethean territorialization, thus offering resistance to the organized, institutionalized, sponsored instrumental ‘rationality’ (systemic/structural epistemic violence) that leads to the depreciation of nature/cosmos’ constitutive plexus, resulting into the environmental apocalypse. Marcuse’s notion of ‘Technological Rationality’ is revisited as a totalitarian scientistic governmentality in which rationality is (re-)defined by the technical intelligentsia to present the mechanomorphosed living, characterized by the closure in the universes of polylogic discourses. It is a reductionist, vivisectional, hegemonic rationality that formally rationalizes the intellectual hatred for nature by projecting mainstream-science-as-commerce, consisting of the computable blue-print model-theoretic approach that (apparently) apoliticizes and ahistoricizes lived discourse. Eventually, this hampers the nature/cosmos’ diseased/de-ceased corporeal (in the non-biologist connotation) since one’s being-in-the-universe is hysterized, pedagogized and psychiatrized in the claustrophobic foreclosure of techno-centrism’s estranged dynamic that reveals itself in cannibalistic, savage pre-debt-or capitalism. Au Contraire, nisargaśṛṅgāra advances a harmonious, convivial relationship with technology as techne in collective living formats, and not as the Frankenstenian phantom of a self-annihilating hyperindustrial technik, in the spirit of a bricoleur’s reciprocal engagement with nature-as-lover, thus calling for a fluid reconceptualization of the otherwise watertight nature-culture binary opposition.
Abstract: Rokeya’s “Sultana’s Dream” (1905) is pervaded by the cerebral overpowering of the creative woman subject, with the hauntological masculine épistème deconstructively underlying the discursive formation. Sultana has a reflective self-transformative identity, constituted through dreamwork in terms of the phantasm of a role-reversed gynocentric “Ladyland”, wherein masculine selves are “othered” in “murdanas” (gendered supplement: mirroring relative importance of antonymys), since the construct “man” is causally correlated with criminality, creative impotence, eco-ignorance, death industry, military-industrial mentality etc. The feminine acquires a privileged role in the power-hierarchy through emancipatory intellectual engagement: from the mauvaise foi of “frog-in-the-well” to the “liberated” woman-as-technician (techno-logic for “empowerment”). The feminine conceived as an industrial technician (progress in scientific mentality is equated with technological spectacles) also embodies the creative surplus (‘knitting’-‘weaving’ analogies), countering the male gazed marginalization of woman’s experience and emphasizing the spontaneous relationality in woman’s experiential domain, which entails an alternative “Ladyland aesthetic” beyond phallic skyscrapers. However, several points of aporia cut through the text due to its historical ontology, viz.:
• It posits an eco-sensitive/eco-pedagogic outlook while simultaneously affirming a techno-centric, mechanomorphosed sociality.
• Moreover, the narrative-formation (even if taken as a deliberate satirical subversion) foregrounds phallogocentric constructs being subsumed by the ‘emancipated’ woman, e.g., the justice-oriented conceptions of “Honour”, “Liberty” etc., are posed as the Ladyland’s political ethic instead of the positional-subjective ethic of care; marriage institution is not deserted as beholding androcentric private property; the “purity-pollution” binary-opposition is still maintained; “free market” is not critiqued as a violent enterprise of masculine rationality’s capitalist grand-narrative; “truth-love” is presented as ‘the’ religion of the Ladyland, not entirely breaking free from Judeo-Christian Morality.
These occurrences are interpreted by the present author as being a result of the colonial ambivalence of Rokeya, leading to mimicking responses as “backlashes” against the intersectional framework of woman’s repressed being-in-the-world.
Abstract: The paper strives to provide a contemporary reading of yoga in the context of neoliberal capitalism. In attempting the same, the paper critiques the subsumption of “yoga” as a “trending buzzword” or brand-name within the ambit of the consumerist economy of commodity fetishism. Countering such commodification process, the author of the paper goes on to highlight the epistemo-ontological significance of yoga as a dārśanika mārga that tries to attest the inevitability of suffering. Throughout the course of the paper, the author views all theoretical formulations through the lens of suffering in order to construct the concerned ontological modalities, in consonance to Buddhist formulations as well. To search for the “know-how technique” for minimizing suffering, the author alludes to various dehatāttvika (corporeal studies) practices as found in the South-East Asian subcontinent. While discussing the technique, the role of kinship metaphors in shaping Sāṁkhya-Yoga ontology is also briefly discussed. In conclusion, the author problematizes the significance of Yoga from the perspective of political economy.
Abstract: The paper throws light on the logical method of Jaina philosophical tradition, viz., nayavāda, which is closely related to the epistemo-ontological formulations of the system, viz., anekāntavāda and syādvāda. The paper aims towards delineating a non-violent emancipatory praxis that can be derived from the pluralistic, multi-faceted, many-valued logical system of the Jainas, which also has to be closely studied in relation to the contemporary scientific endeavours, especially post-quantum physics, which deviate from the pre-given binary formulations of model-theoretic scientism by not subscribing violent epistemic fundamentalism or reductionist foundationalism. In contrast to the Enlightenment’s totalizing effect, the colonial and post-colonial responses on the basis of Jaina pluralism are explored regarding the notion of epistemological amalgamation, based on asvīkṛti and svīkṛti grahaṇa of competing hypotheses. The present author gives emphasis on the anthropocentric cognitive limit in passing logical judgements on the basis of overdetermination of interacting network of (in)visible variables. Finally, the paper conceives the role of vāda or the culture of polylogic argumentation in shaping a tolerant, horizontal discursive space of communicative competence between the ideal speaker-hearer to advance a “way-out” of the psychotic foreclosure of standardized, homogenized, essentialist, Universalist, objective and absolutist truth-claims codified by the authoritarian, structurally violent and institutional thought-control. In such an open-ended conception of a participatory democratic “life-world”, the paradox of tolerance is heeded while positing a context-sensitive subject-knower (discarding the conception of the authentic knowing subject with zero history) outside the technical or inorganic intelligentsia. Polylectics and Polylogue are foregrounded instead of the exclusivist dia-lectics or dia-logue that eliminate n number of possibilities.
The paper instantiates the theoreticization of ecophilia, or as the author terms it, nisargaśṛṅgāra, which is the non-heteronormative human-nature/cosmos creative intimacy by focusing on the ecosophy (non-T crafted) of Rabindranath Tagore, viz., intimacy with all-pervasive companionship (tādātmya samanvaya śṛṅgāra). Tagorean ethico-aesthetic cultivation is a creative endeavour in synchronicity with nature by relying on an ontology of reciprocity through identity-in-difference (Bhedābheda), depending on a non-speciesist anthropocentrism, an epistemic admission of the human cognitive limit without entailing species chauvinism. Tagore’s admission of the “rudrarūpa-bhāva” in the domain of nature during anthropocene is attested through eco-anxiety (prema-vaicittya, ākṣepānurāga). The paper explores the futuristic regression suggestively apprehended by Tagore regarding a committed praxeological engagement through the śreya samavāya-nīti of āraṇyaka tapasyā to envisage tapovanopalabdhi of the universal men (sic), not the atomistic commercial men (sic), who parasitically exploit nature/cosmos through the epidemic of voracity and city-wall habit, preventing epistemo-ontological convergence (saṅgama śṛṅgāra rasa).
heating heating and subsequent proliferation of diseases due to melting of permafrost. Without providing relative importance to schooling and/or on-line learning processes, the panelists proposed the amalgamated methods of new education system.
PANELISTS: SUCHETANA BANDYOPADHYAY, SUMON SAJJAD, JOYEETA BANDYOPADHYAY, GOUTAM MAJHI, AKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY, DEBAPRASAD BANDYOPADHYAY
১. মানবেন অপাকং নিসর্গং অসংক্রমণাৎ।
২. নিসর্গঋণং হি কেবলম। সুখার্থং পরিশোধনং বিধিয়তে কৃচ্ছসাধনাৎ।
৩. ঘৃতং নিসর্গসারমেতি গ্রাহ্যং।
A tribute to the Indian Marxist revolutionary martyr Com. Bhagat Singh (1907-1931) on his 110th birth anniversary by BHAGAT SINGH'S SOCIALIST INDIA (BSSI)- [https://www.facebook.com/nbshsra/].
Inquilab Zindabad!
Long Live Revolution!
[https://www.facebook.com/nbshsra/] publishes its special issue.
Later Published in a satirical blog at Facebook "এবং - Bong".
This documentary shows the strange demolition of Hindu temples by the Hindus themselves! What is their purpose? Is it to construct a Corridor streching from the Kashi Vishwanath temple, Benaras, to the Ganges? Or is it to erase a historic narrative, according to which, Aurangzeb aided the Hindus to rebuild a new temple of the Lord Vishwanath as the old temple was profaned by the deeds of the Hindu priest(s)? This documentary was filmed in October 2019.
Here is an action-packed movie with comic reliefs showing many options available for resisting the atrocities.
We are sure enough that you would get your way for combating your sufferings.
Song: Emani Ek Pinjare ("In such a cage, sweet bird...")
Singers: Anita Mazumder, Prasanta Bhattacharya
Original Lyrics: Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
Film: Jhor (1982)
Film Director: Utpal Dutt
Music Director: Prasanta Bhattacharya
Song Courtesy: Angel Digital
“Tu che ne vai in Pindo,
Ivi pende mia centra ad un cipresso,
Salutala in mio nome, e dille poi
Ch’io son dagl’ anni e da fortuna oppresso.”
The above lines were written by the sixteenth century Italian Renaissance poet Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). Its archaic English translation reads:
“Thou that goeft to Pindus, where my harp hangs on a Cyprefs/ falute it in my name, and fay that I am oppreffed with years and misfortunes.”
Tasso lived only for fifty one years. He is fondly remembered for his pastoral play called “Aminta” (1573), and a heroic epic entitled “Gerusalemme liberate” (“Jerusalem Liberated”, 1581), excepting his other works of profound philosophic and poetic significance.
The melancholic Tasso underwent imprisonment for nearly eight years in a condition of alleged “madness” (characterized by persecutory paranoia, chronic depression, hallucination and psychosis; or in today’s terms, his illness might better be termed as “bipolar disorder”/"bipolarity") for undergoing religious anxieties leading to violent outbursts and also for ALLEGEDLY being passionate about the sister of the Duke of Ferrara!
Yet, his spirit remained unvanquished and indomitable through his poetical creations even when he was incarcerated in the hospital of Santa Anna in Ferrara. Tasso’s principal aim was “…to unite philosophy with eloquence in such a manner that there might remain of me an eternal memory in the world”, obviously by means of his ceaseless creative endeavours. It is no wonder that Michael Madhusudan Dutt honoured him with the deserving title of "The Kalidasa of Europe"!
Later on, notable Romantic poet Lord Byron dedicated one of his poems to Tasso and named it as “The Lament of Tasso”. The poem reflects the agony, anguish and deep-delving sorrow of the freedom-loving Tasso, now bound with fetters!
Let us turn the pages of history and arrive at nineteenth century Bengal, ruled by the might of British tyranny and Hindu bigotry. A young teenage poet and teacher named Henry Louis Vivian Derozio became enamoured with Tasso’s life and Byron’s distinct style of writing. He was what we may call the true admirer and torchbearer of the Romantic tradition in poetry.
He came to dedicate a sonnet (Interestingly enough, it was one of the foremost sonnets ever been written in the history of the Indian subcontinent!) to Tasso’s legacy; it was also named after him and was apparently inspired by Byron. Its inherent structure is undoubtedly that of a sonnet, even though it is thirteen lines long. This sonnet was published in Derozio's first-published book "Poems" (1827). Given below is the complete poem:
“In such a cage, sweet bird, wast thou confined?
Alas! Their iron hearts no feeling knew!
Yet, while thy spirit in prison piled,
And while thy grief almost to madness grew,
Thy minstrelsy was wafted on each wind,
On every breeze thy fame triumphant flew,
And spake, through every land, of thy immortal mind
Upon a Cyprus bough thy harp was hung
Silent, neglected, mournful and unstrung!
Such a fate befitted not a harp of thine;
Yet, while th’ oppressor breathed, such was its doom.
But now by bards who worship at thy shrine
‘Tis crowned with flowers of everlasting bloom.”
A striking similarity of poetic expression can be observed between Byron’s poem on Tasso and Derozio’s sonnet. Byron wrote: “A poet's wreath shall be thine only crown…” Derozio, being his worthy follower, composed: “…bards who worship at thy shrine/‘Tis crowned with flowers of everlasting bloom.”
More than one and half a century later, famous Bangla playwright Utpal Dutt came up with a Bangla song adaptation of Derozio’s sonnet "Tasso" in his Bangla film “Jhor” [The Storm], picturizing the last two years of Derozio’s revolutionary life. The song was put into tune by composer Prasanta Bhattacharya. It was sung as a “duet” by Anita Mazumder and Prasanta Bhattacharya.
This upload is being dedicated to the unforgettable legacy of Henry Derozio and his “Young Bengal” movement…
No intention to infringe copyright. This track is to be used for listening and entertainment purposes only.
*Information collected from Google, relevant websites and books*
Special Courtesy: Sakti Sadhan Mukhopadhyay
A video collage on the Indian political parties, i.e., one of the ideological state apparatuses and their way of actions and homogeneous existence.
View it here: https://vimeo.com/326016916?fbclid=IwAR2om3eaMULu-WiyzJdDQn08uNzeXkhbllYFPD5ns2Rs5Q_07gGsoK6uVxI
View it @https://vimeo.com/237184378
How is a riot manufactured, and for whose benefit? What is the antidote to these ever-continuing riots? Should we lend our ears to the voice(s) of Gandhi?
View it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIdlMdJinP4
Countering Hindutva fascism...
#Not_In_My_Name!
This video collage, in continuation of Part 1, strives to highlight the syncretic features characteristic to the South East Asian Culture by highlighting the architecture of the Belur Math in West Bengal, originally planned by Swami Vivekananda himself and executed after his death by Swami Vijnanananda. The structure of the Math embodies architectural elements from the Hindu, Islamic and Christian architectural forms. In doing so, the collage challenges the divisive Hindutva narrative posed by the BJP-RSS fascist apparatus.
The Video Collage attempts to unearth the intricately embedded syncretic elements of the South-East Asian cultural milieu, now threatened due to the rise of exclusivist religious fundamentalism engineered by the fascist BJP and its associates like the RSS, by going through some of the noteworthy instances of its syncretic, inclusive heritage from its history and cultural inheritance as well.
Welcome to no-nation: without violence!
সংঘ পরিবার কিভাবে মগজ ধোলাই করে, তার কিছু নমুনা এখানে আছে। এর থেকে বেরোনোর উপায়ই বা কি? নিম্নবর্গীয় চেতনায় যে ধর্মীয় সংশ্লেষের (syncretic) ধারণা আছে, তাকেই কি প্রমুখিত (foreground) করবো?
Here are some of the instances which show how the Sangh Parivar brainwashes its members. What is the way-out? May we foreground the syncretic attitude that is inherent in subaltern consciousness?
View it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZc-c7juoQ
Duration: 15 minutes and 28 seconds
This video re-remembers this nearly forgotten event in the history of India's revolutionary struggle. Inquilab Zindabad!
Director: Wide Angle Pictures
Associate Director: Niladri Sekhar Dassarma
D.O.P: Chandan Dutta
Performers: Bonica Das, Akhar Bandyopadhyay
Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay
2016. Published in Interaction Mag., Ed. Pranab Chakrabarty.
License: CC BY 4.0
Strikingly enough, as mentioned in this paper-letter, the Hindu property distribution system, instead of being a homogeneous, composite whole, tend to be applied differently across different states. Principally, the Mitākṣarā, Dāyabhāga and Marumakkattayam law-schools of inheritance reveal the complicated, localized diversity within the imagined construct called “Hinduism”. The conflict between religious and constitutional law is also pertinently addressed through the paper-letter. The problems centering the notion of a “Hindu United Family” (HUF) are also mentioned.
All the abusive words used in the discursive formation of this letter represent the discriminatory, exclusivist mindset of the militant Hindutvavādin groups.
Therefore, the senders of this inherently sarcastic (obviously for escaping the onslaught of the Saffron fascists) letter to the President of India are claiming for an impossible set of tasks that itself defeats the homogenization agenda of the Hindutvavādins and the Sangh Parivār. The authors of this letter have adopted deconstructive strategy to dismantle the coercive attempts to singularize the plurality of the South East Asian cultural milieu.
This paper vents out its anger on the face of savage capitalism that thrives through the cannibalistic instinct. It particularly focuses on the case of one such savage capitalist: Mr. Ajay Piramal, and reflects upon his deeds from the perspective of a self-reflexive account in the context of the biggest financial scam of post-independent India, i.e., the DHFL scam. It interrelates the matter with various human rights concerns, corporate psychology, authoritarian personality, shadow economy etc. In particular, DHFL scam is posed as a case study to understand the contemporary Indian political economy dominated by crony and monopoly capitalism as well as religious fundamentalism.
It is a case study of a Indian billionaire, Mr.Ajay Piramal to display the contemporary India's chaosophic cannibalistic savage political economy, which (market fundamentalism) is foreclosed by foregrounding the religious fundamentalism. How can a subject get rid of such inhuman situation?
The investigator, out of his severe guilt feeling as he is a member of the leisure class, executed some self-funded projects related to socio-economic conditions of West Bengal. He had surveyed jute cultivation and industry; mines and quarries; unorganized retail market and shopping mall; brick industry; cotton mills; tea-gardens in West Bengal, India. Methodologically speaking, he had not followed any statistical sample survey techniques as he wished to reject state-statistics unholy nexus following Foucauldian paradigm; secondly, under the deployment of scheduled survey techniques, subjects were objectified and they underwent metonymic transformation. According to investigator, that is a sever violence. Therefore, instead of this technique he followed his own version of ethno-methodology or snow-ball method for understanding such domains. His findings are as follows: • Economics is not a so-called natural science that could be guided by the laws of physics. Thus the universalization of economic laws is not at all possible. Econometric analysis does not able to predict future economic condition. • The governmental statistics does not match with the ground-reality narratives. • The so-called binary division between organized and unorganized sector does not work at all— a fuzzy zone of organized-unorganized sector has been evolved in the West Bengal industrial scenario. • The existence of disembodied (a phantom or ghost-like entity) owners of several industries has been observed in organized jute industry, coal industry as well as in unorganized basalt-quarries. • Due to automation and manipulative procedures taken by the owners of industries and due to the conversion of surplus labour-necessary labour ratio in the form of money-sign, null-workers are “working” without any work in the sphere of economy. The extraction is possible due to the diachronically accumulated surplus labor from the deceased null workers. Null workers exist and do not exist. • By the virtue of the labour of the deceased null workers, owners are creating a accumulative space, where one can convert money-sign to another money-sign, i.e., the domain of dangerous share market. Specters of the null workers are not at all haunting here, where capital to commodity transformation has become merely a place of conspicuous consumption of the minority super-rich people, who have the fetish for the ostentatious display of eco-enemy commodities. • The role of state is minimal—collusion of super-rich, a minority, is reigning with the help of ideological state apparatuses. • Image processing and remote sensing satellite technologies make it easier to know the mineral resources. The minority hedge account holders with Malthaseian mindset, evacuate, terminate and annihilate the people of the land to be accumulated by creating a simulated war. Hedge account holders are supplying weapons to the (“terrorist”) state and to the so-called anti-statist (though they are subscribing the statist order of things) “terrorists”. The investigator is now collecting linguistic data for understanding the import- export of arms and ammunition. Different terms or anti-language are used both for the fragmented parts of imported arms, which are to be assembled and the division of labour) ---a case of simulacrum or theory of double reflections (anyonyopratibimba) –one is mirroring an-“other”. • The investigator is emphasizing on using local terms to depict the nature of economics as it is found in glocal (global+local) context of West Bengal. If Sahibs could use so-called anti-languages like plum or lemon market, what is wrong with the terms like lokkhibar (no consuming day), tola (illegal levy), pORta (covert weight), gunda tax (tax to be paid too the goons), bani (the hidden residue of the gold at the time of reselling), Soru line (illegal path) phoRe (the illegal agent), cinHat (signs or a type of archewriting that regulates the parallel market with legal conflict)? • The role of political parties here surprising enough. There is no question of ideology as advertised by the respective parties, rather they are using ideology as a mask. They are acting as private limited company as the corporatization of those parties guided by management gurus has successfully established in the dollar-controlled democracy. • The investigator added a variable, viz. ecological factors to analyze the socio-economic situations. He is against the market fundamentalism and industrialization as well as urbanization instead he is an activist of eco-economics. • The investigator’s utopia largely depends on the concept of socially necessary labor, i.e. making one’s own food, clothes and living space. That is the basic education at the vyabaharika level. • The investigator is proposing “samavaya” in a special sense of the term. Taking cue from the Nyaya darsana, he is explaining samavaya as an non-detachable contact ( samnikarsa) in contrast with “samyoga” (detachable contact). By this term he is not only emphasizing on the samavaya at the vyavaharika level, but also at the paramarthika (In Marx’s term, “higher economic society) level.
The following papers, mainly written in Bangla, concentrate on the roles of social science and humanities in the domain of specialized environmental science. If the disasters caused by climate change are believed to be inevitable fact, as predicted by some of the scientists, what shall be done by the social “engineers” (!)? Is it not the moral responsibility of the organic intellectuals, barring technical intelligentsia, to leave their mechanical reproduction of cultural capital and join their hands to reduce the poisonous effects of contemporary military-industrial society?
Many of them, specially my institutional colleagues (both geologists and economists) do not ‘believe’ the entire notion of anthropogenic global warming and the sustainable retreat from the developmental paradigm is not in their priority list; some of my communist friends and students do not care for such ‘myth’. All of them ridicule me for my concern.
However, my body is burning. I have never felt such heat. I can’t cope with this situation….. (cf. Anthropogenic Global Heating and the Condition of Creative Speaking Subject) I, a member of social scientist tribe, subjectively felt this unusual warming with my corporeal, not with the scientific devices or instrumental rationality…..
When I wrote a series of articles on the conditions of Jute mills, brick industries and mines and in quarries West Bengal (cf. অর্থ-নেতি NEGATION OF ECONOMICS) l, one of his empathetic geologist friends suggested that all these writings should be categorized under a new discipline: Geo-Sociology (sociological interpretations of geology). I loved that name though I was thinking about another discipline, another portmanteau word: Eco-Economics—Ecology plus Economies, but not about Econophysics, where the fallacy of misplaced concreteness is evident enough as supposed nature is confused with supposed cultural phenomenon.