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Résumé L'auteur analyse en profondeur les concepts, les conséquences et la nouvelle problématique issus de la partition du Bengale en 1947 en se plaçant sous l'angle des déplacements de populations. Entre autres thèmes importants, elle traite de la formation de l'État et de la construction de la nation, la partition étant intervenue au moment où se déroulait une lutte anticolonialiste qui a conduit à l'instauration de deux États indépendants : l'Inde et le Pakistan. Soulignant la place du Bengale à ce moment important de l'histoire, l'auteur montre comment les réfugiés du Bengale oriental à Calcutta compliquent la formation de l'État et de la nation en ébranlant les notions d'identification religieuse et ethnique ainsi que d'appartenance. Leur langue commune, leurs traditions bengalies syncrétiques, leur participation à un combat nationaliste collectif et, souvent, un vécu commun font apparaître les contradictions des projets de construction d'un État et d'une nation. Ces contradictions font des processus d'exclusion et d'intégration, des droits sociaux et du maintien des frontières des domaines clés de négociation et des éléments d'un processus qui ne s'est pas achevé avec la mise en place politique des frontières des Etats-nations. L'interprétation qui nous est ici livrée donne à penser que les divers réseaux, parcours et négociations associés au déplacement déterminent les pertes subies par les différentes catégories de migrants, leur réinstallation et leur réadaptation et que la formation du sujet national est un processus qui en découle et qui n'a pas dépendu, et ne peut pas dépendre, d'identités et d'identifications fixes.

Using secondary & statistical data, theoretical & empirical aspects of the secessionist movement that led to the creation of Bangladesh are explored here, beginning with the merger of East Bengal with Pakistan in 1947. Various theoretical models of nationalism & assimilation are described & measured against the evidence of the case. It is argued that the relative deprivation hypothesis is applicable to the progressive deprivation of middle class East Pakistanis, especially the political & intellectual elite, but also a vernacular elite composed of a cultural group of lower middle class origins that provided the movement with leadership & mobilizational skills. A combination of progressive deprivation & power balance models of conflict best explain the successful secessionist movement. 1 Appendix. A. Waters

AbstractThis paper makes a case for exploring the cultural facets of Mughal rule as well as for a stronger engagement with sources in vernacular languages for the writing of Mughal history. Bengal's regional tradition of goddess worship is used to explore the cultural dimensions of Mughal rule in that region as well as the idioms in which Bengali regional perceptions of Mughal rule were articulated. Mangalkavya narratives—a quintessentially Bengali literary genre—are studied to highlight shifting perceptions of the Mughals from the late sixteenth century to the eighteenth century. During the period of the Mughal conquest of Bengal, the imperial military machine was represented as a monster whom the goddess Chandi, symbolizing Bengal's regional culture, had to vanquish. By the eighteenth century, when their rule had become much more regularized, the Mughals were depicted as recognizing aspects of Bengal's regional culture by capitulating in the end to the goddess and becoming her devotees. This paper also studies the relationship of the Mughal regime with Bengal's popular cultural celebration—the annual Durga puja—and explores its implications for the public performance of religion and for community formation during the early modern period.

This article tries to explore the shifts in contemporary urban Bengali cinema and map and historicize the main trends in relation to changes in the political fortunes of the city. In this context, the article tentatively wishes to accomplish two things: one, to show the main trends in urban Bengali film-making, post-1990s; and two, to read closely two recent Bengali films, in a search for ways of mapping this newness. The article first identifies three new possibilities in Bengali cinema: first, the inward-looking, often apolitical sketches that celebrate liberal development and psychosomatic indulgences, second, the sentimental, community-based films that sometimes take political changes on board as well, and attempt to bridge the rural-urban divide; third, cult-ish films of a newer pedigree that show impatience with old Left and progressive values, and are also technically experimental and avant-garde. The second objective of the article is to discuss specifically two contemporary filmmakers – Moinak Biswas and Suman Mukhopadhay – and place their films within this ferment.

Cultural history of Bengalis from Bangladesh from 19th century onwards; contributed articles