ABSTRACT
I focus exclusively on my ethnographic study of some of the recent riots in West Bengal in this chapter. Here I have focused on how fundamentalist forces as discussed in previous chapters have confronted and resulted in full-fledged but low-intense riots which furthered the identity consolidation and political inclination. I present ethnographic descriptions on the nature and impact of riots in jute-mill belt at places like Naihati-Hajinagar, Kankinara-Bhatpara, coal belt at Asansol-Raniganj and social media led riots in Baduria-Basirhat. I show how local political economy, goons and identity sentiments proliferated by the political use of cultural expressions have fuelled violence to bring out primordial identity issues back in mainstream political discourses. I argue that it has become a decisive factor among the electorates in making political choices to push away democratic-secular forces from the existing political spectrum of the state.
