PREMASIS MUKHERJEE · WRITING
Detailed reading from every episode
Detailed essays that begin with books and travel into history, society, philosophy and life.
01Bengal’s history: rivers, language and a shifting map of power
An episode-grounded reading of Bengal as a changing landscape of peoples, rivers, dynasties and language.
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02Delhi Sultanate beyond the story of conquest
A layered reading of war, administration, taxation, court politics and regional resistance.
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03From Babur to Bahadur Shah: the body beneath the throne
The Mughal empire through revenue, mansabdari, regional power, culture and everyday life.
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04Jagat Seth: money and power beneath the easy story of betrayal
Banking networks, the nawabi court, the Company and insecure capital beyond the familiar morality tale of Plassey.
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05Partition: was Muslim society ever a single voice?
A layered reading of class, region, party, British policy and provincial politics beyond communal blame.
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06The idea of Pakistan: religion, language and an unfinished contradiction
The promise of a new state beside conflicts of geography, language, provincial rights and centralised power.
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07Corruption: bad people or a system of bad incentives?
Patronage, accountability and civic habit through an institutional lens informed by Francis Fukuyama.
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08Why politics began: from kinship to state and accountability
The long evolution of cooperation, kinship, state power, rule of law and accountability.
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09Marathas in Bengal: Bargi terror, revenue war and folk memory
From nursery memory to the larger economy of imperial revenue and military campaigns.
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10War, faith and rule: reading Turk-Afghan Bengal
Conquest beside settlement, administration, local alliances and long social change.
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11Islamic Bengal: beyond invasion toward a regional state
From Delhi’s frontier to an independent Bengal Sultanate through politics, agriculture, architecture and language.
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12Bengal’s literary golden age: patronage, labour and memory
A connected reading of what the term “golden age” reveals and what it leaves in shadow.
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13Bangla and Bengalis: does identity begin with language, geography or memory?
From New Year emotion to a layered history of who became Bengali, when, and through what evidence.
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14Renaissance or selective revival: Veda, modernity and nationalism
The overlaps and differences among colonial modernity, reform, scriptural return and Hindu nationalism.
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15Mandal Commission: reservation, representation and invisible advantages
Reservation beyond the benefit-versus-merit binary, through historical exclusion, data and democratic representation.
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