The Latest Breaking News from Bengal

Fish, funds, and feminism: What Jadavpur University thinks of the Bengal elections

As West Bengal nears the assembly elections, Newslaundry visited Jadavpur University – a historic epicentre of student activism – to look beyond Delhi-centric narratives and capture the raw concerns of young, educated people. While the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists dominates national headlines, the students here offer a…

Newslaundry · Apr 18

Appellate tribunals or a black hole? Where the Bengal SIR goes to bury a ‘second chance’

The Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation, which houses all 19 appellate tribunals set up by the Election Commission in West Bengal, is completely restricted. CAPF and West Bengal Police guard the gates, and no one is allowed in unless the judges have formally summoned them.

Newslaundry · Apr 18

Bengal’s migrant workers caught between ‘ghuspaithiya’ politics and SIR deletions

Md Anikul Hoque, a migrant labourer from Samserganj in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, has waited through many crises. He stood in queues for food, water, and cash during demonetisation in 2016. He worked through the Covid-19 lockdown inside sealed buildings in Odisha “like a thief in a prison” waiting to…

Newslaundry · Apr 17

5 Revealing Clothes That Were Not Shameful for Women in Ancient India

If your waist shows, it’s “attention-seeking.” If your back is bare, it’s “too bold.” If your body simply looks feminine - curved, alive, unapologetically itself - it becomes something that needs to be controlled before it can be accepted. So you adjust. Not because you’re uncomfortable. But because you’ve been…

Times Life · Apr 9

‘No disease’, only ‘impediment removal’: Delhi meet flags Bengal’s 90 lakh voter deletions

Two days after the Election Commission of India released another list of deleted voters in West Bengal’s controversial special intensive revision, political activist Yogendra Yadav on Wednesday said that deletions would “critically” affect the governing Trinamool Congress in 19-25 constituencies in the upcoming assembly polls. In the 2021 state polls,…

Newslaundry · Apr 8

Amid Bengal voter roll uncertainty, activists flag ‘disproportionate’ exclusions

As West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Office prepared to publish the final supplementary voter list under the Special Intensive Revision, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, a non-profit working on civil liberties, organised a workshop at the Press Club of India titled “Vanishing Voter Rights and Vulnerable Citizenship: Effects of…

Newslaundry · Apr 7

The ultimate guide to Kolkata

From the coolest cocktail bars to the chicest place to lay your head, Katrina Mirpuri uncovers the best of West Bengal’s largest city

Evening Standard · Mar 31

The Dhaka effect: Did the BNP’s win in Bangladesh blunt the BJP’s poll pitch in Bengal?

A few hundred people from various minority religious groups staged a demonstration in Dhaka on March 13. They alleged no end to atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh, even as a new government was democratically elected after years of turmoil. 

Newslaundry · Mar 24

Churchill and Austen to be replaced by wildlife on British banknotes

TOI correspondent from London: Winston Churchill, disliked in India for his role in the 1943 Bengal famine, and Jane Austen will no longer feature on British banknotes and instead be replaced by British wildlife.

The Times of India · Mar 11

India Was the World’s Richest Country for 1,000 Years. What Exactly Changed?

For much of recorded history, India was one of the largest economic powers in the world. This is not a cultural claim. It is supported by long term economic research. Economic historian Angus Maddison, whose global GDP reconstructions are widely cited in academic circles, estimated that: Around 1 AD, India…

Times Life · Feb 26