 

Download This Paper

Open PDF in Browser

 Add Paper to My Library

Share:    

From Prosperity to Decline: Post

Colonial Indian State of Bengal
11 Pages
Posted: 10 Sep 2020

Dipankar Dey
Nilkantha Trust for Studies on Bay of Bengal Region; Department
of Business Management, University of Calcutta

Tanushree Dutta
University of Calcutta - Department of Business Management

Date Written: August 25, 2020

Abstract
The socio-economic contribution of the Indian state of
West Bengal, which has been subjected to repeated
partitions and transfer of population during the last one
hundred and fifty odd years to serve the interest of the
colonial and national rulers, is immense. Bengal was one
of the wealthiest regions, of the Asian subcontinent, prior
to the invasion of the British East India Company in 1757.
Even after partition, in 1947, till the early 1950s, West
Bengal’s industrial contribution was highest among all the
states of India. Then the decline started. Few possible
causes of the decline, both non-economic and economic,
could be: (i) absence of local ‘business communities’ in
Bengal; (ii) marginalization of Bengali Bhadralok; (iii)
Bengal centric parochial politics; (iv) the Union
government’s discriminatory policies against Bengal.

Post colonial India has followed the same model of

economic growth with a centralized production system in
few power centres of North, West and Southern India at
the expense of other zones, namely, N-East, East and
Central zones. During 1972-2018 a huge amount of
Bengal’s savings, to the tune of INR 76.26 trillion (at the
present value), was not utilized within the State (siphoned
to other states) by the formal banking sector.

The much hyped Cooperative Federalism of India is in

total disarray. The Union Government is not keen to share
power with the States in the periphery unless strong
political demand for more autonomy is raised by the
States. In this context the old debate on identity politics
and sub national identity, in a multicultural and multi-
linguistic nation like India, are being revived again.

After the fall of Pala dynasty in the twelfth century, this

part of Bengal was mostly ruled, till 2011, either by the
outsiders or by their representatives. Since 2011 West
Bengal has been governed by a political party which has
its roots in the State. During the last few years the state
has become wealthier and is progressing at a faster pace
than the rest of the nation. Once again Bengal has
become an attractive place for the outsiders who are
eyeing for its wealth and want to recapture the political
space again.

Keywords: Internal Colonialism, Bengal, Aryan, Sub-

national Identity

Suggested Citation 

Show Contact Information 

Download This Paper

Open PDF in Browser

2 References

1. Chatterji References , Joya

The Context of Its Current Internal Colonialism
Shifting Forms of Continental Colonialism Posted: 1994

2. Ray Ranajit
The Agony of West Bengal
New Age Publishers Pvt Ltd, Calcutta Timberg Thomas
Posted: 1973

Load more

0 Citations

Do you have a job opening that you

would like to promote on SSRN?

Place Job Opening

Paper statistics

DOWNLOADS
97

ABSTRACT
VIEWS 570

RANK
442,372

2 References

PlumX Metrics

Related eJournals

Conflict Studies: Intra-State Conflict eJournal

Follow 

Feedback 

Submit a Paper 

SSRN Quick Links 

SSRN Rankings 

About SSRN 

  

Copyright Terms and Conditions

Privacy Policy

We use cookies to help provide and enhance our 

service and tailor content.

To learn more, visit Cookie Settings.