The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics: Chronicling Continuity and Change

The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics: Chronicling Continuity and Change critically engages with the dynamics of caste in the politics of West Bengal which unlike other parts of India has remained relatively free from large scale caste based political mobilisation. The insignificance of caste in West Bengal politics has remained an enigma. Yet Caste question in West Bengal politics has remained under-researched. However, there has been a growing interest in the politics of caste in West Bengal in recent years and this interest has grown due to the end of the world’s longest serving democratically elected Communist government (1977-2011) that followed a class centric non-identitarian politics. It is in this backdrop that this book explores the reasons for the relative insignificance of caste in post-colonial West Bengal’s politics and also assesses the future possibilities of caste-based identity politics in the state.