Refugees in Their Own Land: The Forgotten People of the Indo-Bangladesh Enclaves

The Chitmahals are pockets of lands located in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya, as well as in Bangladesh, which owed their political allegiance respectively to Bangladesh despite being surrounded by India, and vice versa. Tamoha Majumdar writes about the people of the Chhitmahals, and their contested histories.

Special lecture on “Democracy and Populist Discourses in the 20th Century” by Ranabir Samaddar

The Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, as a part of its Golden Jubilee celebration, organized a special lecture on ‘Democracy and Populist Discourses in the 20^th Century’ on May 13, 2022. The lecture was delivered by Ranabir Samaddar, Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), Kolkata. Sreetapa Chakrabarty reports.

In the Language of Remembering: An Archive of the Passage of Memory

Medhashree Talapatra reads Aanchal Malhotra’s In the Language of Remembering, to understand intergenerational memories of the parition and the practice of their recollection.

Three films on migrant workers: a view from KPFF 2022

The Eighth Kolkata People’s Film Festival (KPFF) 2022 held between 31^st March to 3^rd April at Uttam Mancha, Kolkata, India, saw the screening of an array of films dealing with socially and politically relevant discourses around migration, pandemic, marginalisation, discrimination, gender and communal violence in India and South-East Asia. Out of the many captivating fiction and documentary films that were screened in the festival, Tamoha Majumdar writes about three films that centred around the themes of migration, displacement and loss of identity.

Webinar on ‘The Chinese Heritage of Bombay’ as a part of ‘Uncovering Urban Legacies’

On 24 March, 2022, at 6 pm, the fourth edition of ‘Uncovering Urban Legacies’ was held exploring ‘the Chinese Heritage of Bombay’. The live session tried to investigate how the Chinese Pre-British settlers shaped the history, geography, culture and even to some extent economy of the space of the city we know as Bombay. Rishiraj Sen reports on the webinar organised by Avid Learning.

Hide and Seek: A Brief Look at Women in Delhi’s Refugee Colonies

[Cover photo: A picture of the author’s grandmother’s family in pre-Partition Punjab.]

Pallavi Baraya’s reflective photo essays situated women in Delhi’s refugee colonies amidst a host of material objects and memories, sometimes invisible, sometimes, hyper-present.

Report: Online lecture on ‘Governance of Forced Migration in South Asia: Need for a Decolonial Approach’

As part of the ‘Seminar Series on Forced Migration’ organized by Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) and Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG); hosted at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, Prof. Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury delivered a lecture with the title: ‘Governance of Forced Migration in South Asia: Need for a Decolonial Approach’? Prof. Basu Ray Chaudhury teaches at the Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and is the Honorary Director of Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. Rishiraj Sen reports on the online lecture held on 5^th April, 2022.

‘They’re Violent, Uncultured and Need Western Education’ – Masculinity of Asylum Seekers and its(?) Impacts in the West

Swakshadip Sarkar enquires into the role the perceived ‘masculinity’ of male asylum seekers play in the construction of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.

Book Launch: Armenians of Calcutta, by Alakananda Nag

On Tuesday, 15^th of March 2022, Alakananda Nag’s book Armenians of Calcutta was launched in Kolkata. Nag’s book of photos, archives and text documents the forgotten lives of the Armenian community who have lived here for generations in Calcutta and shaped the landscape of the city. Tamoha Majumdar reports on the book launch of Nag’s book at the Goethe-Institute/Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata.

The Perceived Non-Citizens: The Citizenship of Perception

Kolkata protests against NRC- CAA, in 2019. Photo by Debalina Majumder.

In this introspective essay, Rishiraj Sen enquires into the many ways in which a member of a community may be perceived a non-citizen by majoritarian groups. Sen also teases out the implications of this perception.