Sumanta Banerjee

3 Published Works

Author · Contributor

Sumanta Banerjee is a researcher in the social history of nineteenth century Bengal and writes on current politics in journals in India and abroad. His publications include In the Wake of Naxalbari (1980); Memoirs of Roads: Calcutta from colonial urbanization to global modernization (2016).

Published Works

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Resist the Fascist Religious Onslaught on Rationalist and Universalist Values

In the South Asian sub-continent today, fascism is taking on a well-organized form of aggressive religious bigotry, which is determined to destroy not only socialism (or whatever little is left of it), but also the principles and norms of bourgeois democracy that are derived from the Occident, as well as the humanitarian and liberal values of traditional popular religious movements like Sufism and Bhakti that are still prevalent in the Orient.

Appears in 220508123438 (2016) Read Article →

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Pakistan Diaries

Lahore, November, 1988 Day one ...I arrive in Lahore …my first visit…to attend a seminar on human rights Accompanied by a dear young friend, Smitu Kothari. I meet an old friend – I.K. Rahman, a well-known journalist and a leading figure in the human rights movement in Pakistan (Rahman-Sahb, as he is so endearingly known to all of us in India)…He takes us to a street eating joint ... serving excellent kebabs..

Appears in 230121134036 (2022) Read Article →

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Roots of Religious Fascism in Bangali Politics

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction”ôôôéBlaise Pascal (1623-62) “To tolerate propaganda for inhumanity vitiates the goals not only of liberalism but every progressive political philosophy.”ôôôéHerbert Marcuse: Repressive Tolerance (1965) Religion-based politics has a long tradition in Bangali history ôôôéfrom the late nineteenth century during British rule, when political agitations organized by the educated gentry fragmented the Bangali community along lines of religious identity, leading to a Hindu-Muslim divide.

Appears in 220416170657 (2018) Read Article →