‘There is also renewed interest in Bengal’s political history,’ says Avik Sarkar, ‘and a crying need to change the discourse, both social and political.’ A graduate in political science from Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College, Sarkar has researched the history of Mathua leader Pramatha Ranjan Thakur, who successfully mobilized the Dalits of Bengal in favour of a Bengali Hindu homeland and talked about the betrayal of Gandhi and Nehru in resettling Scheduled Caste refugees in India.
