The Swadeshi movement, part of the Indian independence movement and the developing Indian nationalism, was an economic strategy aimed at removing the British Empire from power and improving economic conditions in India by following the principles of swadeshi which had some success. Strategies of the Swadeshi movement involved boycotting British products and the revival of domestic products and production processes. L. M. Bhole identifies five phases of the Swadeshi movement.
Utpal Dutta was an Indian actor, director, and writer-playwright. He was primarily an actor in Bengali theatre, where he became a pioneering figure in Modern Indian theatre, when he founded the "Little Theatre Group" in 1949. This group enacted many English, Shakespearean and Brecht plays, in a period now known as the "Epic theatre" period, before it immersed itself completely in highly political and radical theatre. His plays became an apt vehicle for the expression of his Marxist ideologies, visible in socio-political plays such as Kallol (1965), Manusher Adhikar, Louha Manob (1964), Tiner Toloar and Maha-Bidroha. He also acted in over 100 Bengali and Hindi films in a career spanning 40 years, and remains most known for his roles in films such as Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome (1969), Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk (1991), Gautam Ghose’s Padma Nadir Majhi (1993) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's breezy Hindi comedies such as Gol Maal (1979) and Rang Birangi (1983). He also did a small role of a sculptor in a detective show called Byomkesh Bakshi on Doordarshan in the early 90s, shortly before his death. The episode was called 'Seemant Heera'.
Kolkata has been a pioneering city in Indian renaissance. It has long been known for its literary, artistic and revolutionary heritage. As the former capital of India, and now known as the "Cultural Capital of India", not only Kolkata, but Bengal was the birthplace of modern Indian literary, artistic and scholastic thought. Bengalees tend to have a special appreciation for art and literature; its tradition of welcoming new talent has made it a "city of furious creative energy".
Anushilan Samiti was a Bengali Indian organisation that existed in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and propounded revolutionary violence as the means for ending British rule in India. The organisation arose from a conglomeration of local youth groups and gyms (Akhara) in Bengal in 1902. It had two prominent, if somewhat independent, arms in East and West Bengal identified as Dhaka Anushilan Samiti centred in Dhaka, and the Jugantar group respectively.
Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) is the oldest association of theatre-artists in India. IPTA was formed in 1943 pre independence India, during which it promoted themes related to the Indian freedom struggle. Its goal was to bring cultural awakening among the people of India. It is the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India.
Jatra is a popular folk-theatre form of Bengali theatre, spread throughout most of Bengali speaking areas of the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh and Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Orissa and Tripura As of 2005, there were some 55 troupes based in Calcutta's old jatra district, Chitpur Road, and all together, jatra is a $21m-a-year industry, performed on nearly 4,000 stages in West Bengal alone, where in 2001, over 300 companies employed over 20,000 people, more than the local film industry and urban theatre.
Jagatsinghpur is a town and a municipality in Jagatsinghpur district in the Indian state of Odisha. It is also the headquarters of Jagatsinghpur district. It got the recognition as a new district on 1 April 1993. Paradip Port, Oil refinery and fertilizer factory are located in Jagatsinghpur district. Devi, Alaka, Biluakhai, Kusumi, Hansua, Kuanria and Lunijhara rivers belong to this district.
The Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)' or SUCI(C), previously called the Socialist Unity Centre of India and "Socialist Unity Centre" is a communist party in India. The party was founded by Shibdas Ghosh, Nihar Mukherjee and others in 1948.
Bengali nationalism is a form of nationalism that focuses on Bengalis as a singular nation. It is one of the four fundamental principles according to the original Constitution of Bangladesh. It was the main driving force behind the creation of the Independent nation state of Bangladesh through the 1971 liberation war. The people of Bengali ethnicity speak Bengali Language. Apart from Bangladesh, people of Bengali ethnicity live across the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and some parts of Jharkhand known as united Bengal during the British period. After the 19th century's Bengal Renaissance occurred in Bengal, it then was the four decades long Bengali Nationalist Movement that shook the region which included the Bengali Language Movement, the Bangladesh Liberation War and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Nabanna is a Bengali harvest celebration usually celebrated with food and dance and music in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley. It is a festival of food; many local preparations of Bengali cuisine like pithe are cooked.
Socialism in India is a political movement founded early in the 20th century, as a part of the broader Indian independence movement against the colonial British Raj. The movement grew quickly in popularity as it espoused the causes of India's farmers and labourers against the zamindars, princely class and landed gentry. Socialism shaped the principal economic and social policies of the Indian government after independence until the early 1990s, when India moved towards a more market-based economy. However, it remains a potent influence on Indian politics, with a large number of national and regional political parties espousing democratic socialism.
Jahar Dasgupta, is a contemporary painter from India.
Greater Bangladesh also referred to as Bishal Bangla, describes the nationalist political ideology which seeks to unite all Bengali speaking regions into a single nation. Many of these areas were once part of United Bengal, including Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, as well as the Andaman Islands and the Rakhine State in Myanmar. Currently, the states of West Bengal and Assam in India and Rakhine State of Myanmar have a significant Muslim population with Bengali ethnic lineage.
Khaled Choudhury was a theatre personality and artist of Bengal. He worked for various directors of both Bengali and Hindi plays, including Sombhu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, and Shyamanand Jalan in various capacities — creating the Stage, sets and costumes and later as Music Director. He is a bachelor. Presently, he resides in Kolkata, India. He has been awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to theatre in India's Republic Day Honours List on 26 January 2012. He died on 30 April 2014 in Kolkata.
The group theatre of Kolkata refers to a tradition in theatres in the Indian city Kolkata, which developed in the 1940s as an alternative to entertainment-oriented theatres. As opposed to commercial theatres, group theatre is "a theatre that is not professional or commercial", characterized by its tendency for experimentation in theme, content and production, and its aim of using the proscenium stage to highlight social messages, rather than having primarily making-money objectives.Bikramgarh Maru Behag group theatre director Smt.Jolly Guha Roy
Sunil Janah was an Indian photojournalist and documentary photographer who worked in India in the 1940s. Sunil Janah is internationally acclaimed for documenting India's independence movement, its peasant and labour movements, famines and riots, rural and tribal life, as well as the years of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Noted for the beauty and technical quality of his compositions, Sunil Janah's photographs are significant in their historical content as well as their emotional connect. He was best known for his coverage of the Bengal famine of 1943. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2012.
Nabanna is a Bengali language drama written by Bijon Bhattacharya and staged by the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1944 under the direction of Sombhu Mitra and later, in 1948, by Bohurupee under the direction of Kumar Roy. The play is about the Bengal famine of 1943. The Bengal IPTA took the play to many parts of India as a part of its festival, Voice of Bengal, and it became a major success and collected lakhs of rupees for famine relief in rural Bengal.
Poshu Khamar is a political Bengali drama produced by the theatre group Pancham Baidik and directed by Arpita Ghosh. The drama was Bengali adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Political administration attempted to ban the staging of this drama because of its political sensitivity and the upcoming election.
Theatre in Bangladesh is believed to have its origin in the 4th century AD in the form of Sanskrit drama. The conquest of Bengal by the Gupta dynasty led the ingress of the northern Indian culture into the ancient Bangladeshi culture which eventually introduced the tradition of theatre in Bangladesh. At present, apart from the Sanskrit theatre, the influence of the European theatre and the indigenous folk culture can also be seen in the theatre art of Bangladesh.
Bongal is a derogatory slur used to refer to the Bengali Hindus in Assam. The Bengalis who had settled in Assam during the British period when they were brought in from neighbouring Bengal province to work in and maintain the newly formed British administration or those who migrated from East Pakistan as refugees in the wake of the Partition of India and their descendants are collectively referred to as Bongals. The Bengali speaking Muslims from eastern Pakistan, on the other hand, are called Na Asamiya. The term lent the name to the infamous Bongal Kheda movement of the 1950s and 1960s which resulted in an ethnic cleansing of Bengali Hindus from the Brahmaputra valley in Assam. During the colonial days, the term referred to anyone who was perceived as a foreigner. Later on however, it meant exclusively the Bengali Hindus.
