Category
Society & Ideas
Social change, institutions, reform, education, public life and ideas shaping Bengal’s present and future.
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The Forgotten Bureaucrats Who Ran Bengal's Navy
Long before a fleet could move, someone had to organise its ships, crews, ports, supplies and crossings. Pala-era Bengal appears to have maintained specialised officials for these tasks, revealing a naval system embedded in government. Their surviving titles offer a rare glimpse of the administrators behind the ships—and of a state that treated waterways as infrastructure.
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When Computers Became the Enemy
In the 1980s, computerisation became a flashpoint in Bengal’s debate over jobs, technology and the future of work. Workers feared automation could make their roles unnecessary, while employers saw greater efficiency as essential. The computer eventually became ordinary infrastructure. Today, its history offers Bengal a quieter lesson about understanding transformative technology before it becomes unavoidable.
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The Refugees Who Built a City Without Being Given One
When Partition brought millions of refugees from East Bengal into West Bengal, Calcutta had neither enough housing nor a ready-made plan for their arrival. Families occupied land, built shelters and gradually created schools, markets and neighbourhoods. What began as a crisis of displacement became an extraordinary story of self-built urban life and the remaking of post-Partition Bengal.
