Modern Bengali-In Search of Tradition and Discourses of Margins

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Dr Chandan Basu is currently Professor of History in the School of Social science, Netaji subhas Open University He is also now the Director of the school of social Sciences, NOSU His areas of research are the development of left ideology and politics in West Bengal, the social history of modern Bengal and the gender studies His publications include The Making of the Left Ideology in West Bengal Culture, Political Economy and Revolution, 1047-1070 (New Delhi 2000) and Radical Ideology and Controlled Politics CPI and the History of West Bengal, 1047-1004 (Kolkata 2015) apart from the edited volumes and research papers.

Manoj Kumar Haldar is presently Assistant Professor of Political Science (Stage-III) at Netaji Subhas Open University, He became masters from the University of Calcutta in Political Science and pursuing his Research work at Jadavpur University, His area of interest is gender politics and marginal studies. He has successfully completed a UGC Minor Research Project as a Principal investigator earlier, he served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Panchthupi H.G College, Murshidabad, through West Bengal College Service Commission. He has also served under West Bengal Education Service at Krishnagar Government College, Nadia and Coochbehar A.B.N Seal College, Coochbehar. Presently he has engaged as a coordinator of NSOU Centre for Social Studies. He has published his research papers in different reputed journals of this particular areas.

The present Edited Volume titled Modern Bengal: In Search of Tradition and Discourses of Margins aims to explore the interaction between tradition and modernity in the context of modern Bengal in general and the discourses of margins in particular Both the conventional and radical/revisionist historiographical approaches consider the 19th and 20 centuries Bengal as a fertile ground of interaction and contest, debates and discussion, conversation and silence of two basic social and cultural forces: the tradition and modernity. It is difficult to deny that despite the onslaught of modernity with the penetration of the colonial rule in Bengal, the tradition was able to persist. The break with the past was important in the history of modern Bengal, however, the period under review also witnessed the continuation of pre-modem ideas in many forms even in 20th century. It might upset the protagonists of the modernism in colonial and post-colonial modern Bengal, simultaneously, it could be a boost to those who put forward objection to any radical departure with the pre-colonial pre-modern era in the context of Bengal's historical evolution. Here two contending thoughts emerge in the arena of historical scholarships on the question of tradition (and modernity). The modernist project out of their self-glorifying thought process equates tradition with 'conservatism', that is, the backward looking mentality opposing any change. On the contrary, modernity is a reflection of progress, development and societal advancement, that is, forward looking mentality supporting any change. This viewpoint (the modernist project) is so dominant in the historical discourses that all the other issues or questions related to margins and periphery of the social formations do not have any appearance in the analytical framework of academics.

This hegemonic project of modernism and modernity, therefore, generates a very distinct type of interpretation of the past, which prefers only in the linear assessment ignoring the rich contribution of the so- called marginal groups in social and cultural formation. The modernist project indeed imposes its will on the historical thinking of the researchers and social scientists. Consequently, the historical discourses fell within the very structure of the modernist hegemony. It must also be kept in the mind that historical appreciations of the past could be even trapped by the ideology of the state also.