Deep Halder
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Delhi, Dhaka, Kolkata
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Author of Blood Island: An Oral History of Marichjhapi Massacre (2019), Being Hindu in Bangladesh (2023) and other books. Contributing Editor @ThePrintIndia
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Articles by Deep Halder
Tarique Rahman’s real test after a grand Durga Puja – Hasina’s return, Hindu votes, Islamist diktats
With a total of 33,851 pandals set up across Bangladesh, including 258 in the capital, Dhaka, the Tarique Rahman government increased the number of Durga Puja pandals by nearly 1,500 compared with last year. To prevent untoward incidents during the festival, members of various law enforcement agencies were deployed at Puja pandals across Bangladesh.
Marichjhapi massacre of Dalit refugees becomes Durga Puja theme in Kolkata pandal
2 hours ago Who is Kavya Maran? Anirudh Ravichander’s reported fiancée is the daughter of Kalanithi Maran, the Sun TV Network owner with an estimated net worth of Rs 24,600 crore. Music composer Anirudh Ravichander, known for his work on Jailer 2, is reportedly set to marry Kavya Maran, daughter of Sun TV …
Dinesh Trivedi has done what India’s Bangladesh policy needed—put Dhaka on the backfoot
Rabindranath Tagore 1 day ago Black ink on Tagore: The fight over Bangladesh's identity Times of India • 1d "Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls."More than a century after Rabindranath Tagore penned these lines in … Durga Puja 20 hours ago 34 incidents of temple attacks, idol vandalism reported ahead of Durga Puja in Bangladesh bhaskarlive.in - IANS News • 20h Digital Desk | Dhaka, Oct 16 (IANS) As many as 34 incidents of violence, including attacks...
Why Tagore refused to back Sarat Chandra over ‘Pather Dabi’. A new Bengali film revisits rift
Centre opposes resumption of prayers at Bankra mosque on Kolkata airport premises The Centre on Wednesday opposed a petition before the Calcutta High Court seeking resumption of prayers at Bankra Mosque on the Kolkata Airport …
Why Tagore refused to back Sarat Chandra over ‘Pather Dabi’. A new Bengali film revisits rift
“As far as Bengal is concerned, the voice of dissent, the habit of questioning authority as Sarat Chandra did in ‘Pather Dabi’ has remained and will remain,” the film’s director Srijit Mukherji told ThePrint.
Why Tagore refused to back Sarat Chandra over ‘Pather Dabi’. A new Bengali film revisits rift
“As far as Bengal is concerned, the voice of dissent, the habit of questioning authority as Sarat Chandra did in ‘Pather Dabi’ has remained and will remain,” the film’s director Srijit Mukherji told ThePrint.
Bangladesh’s love affair with Jinnah is ending. It can help revive Sheikh Mujib’s legacy
Not just statues and houses, the marauding mob of mostly young men also lynched actor Shanto Khan, who had essayed the role of young Sheikh Mujib in the 2021 film Tungiparar Miya Bhai, along with his father Selim Khan, who had directed the film. One would have thought that such rage against not just Sheikh Hasina but her father and their political party, the Bangladesh Awami League, would be the defining feature of Bangladesh’s politics at least in the immediate future.
Durga Puja has survived British rule, Leftists and TMC. It will survive the BJP too
It will survive the BJP reign also. Murmurs of dissent among Bengalis began after the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) issued guidelines in August, prodding Durga Puja organisers to turn back to traditional ways of conducting puja and make sure that non-vegetarian food is neither sold nor consumed inside or around puja pandals.
Kolkata event discusses forgotten Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh. '1971 stigma remains'
Culture 6 hours ago The Indian Jewish general who shaped the birth of Bangladesh jns.org - Eliezer Avraham • 6h As India and Israel foster stronger ties these days, it’s worth examining some of the key history between these two nations.Lt. Gen. Jack Farj Rafael … U.
Kolkata event discusses forgotten Bihari Muslims in Bangladesh. ‘1971 stigma remains’
More than five decades after Bangladesh’s Liberation War and two years after the July 2024 uprising that ended Sheikh Hasina’s rule, many Bihari Muslims, who are branded as Pakistanis, remain on the margins of Bangladeshi society. The discrimination remains, and they are still forced to work as barbers, butchers, and rickshaw pullers.
Hasina isn’t the real reason behind Rahman’s cancelled India tour. It’s about local issues
To deflect public attention from crippling domestic concerns, Rahman seems to have done one thing that brings immediate political dividends in Bangladesh ever since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August 2024: fan anti-India sentiment within his country.
Winkle Twinkle’s time-travelling comrade and the absent-minded communism of Kolkata
At the time Sen is supposed to have disappeared, West Bengal was still under Congress rule. Chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Roy had political opposition not just from the communists of the CPI(M) variety but also from the radical Leftists who had internalised Mao Zedong’s 1927 statement that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Those young Naxals who resorted to violence to meet political ends were crushed with more violence from the political class that ruled the state.
Hindu man weds Muslim trans woman in Dhaka temple. Bangladesh can’t pick what to fume over
6 hours ago The squat one-storey building has recently received a fresh coat of paint and looks respectable from a distance. But this government-run primary school for girls in Faridabad, a district on the outskirts of the Indian capital Delhi, suffers from a host of problems. The road outside the school in …
Hindu man weds Muslim trans woman in Dhaka temple. Bangladesh can’t pick what to fume over
Bangladeshi media reported that actor Tasnuva Anan Shishir arrived at Dhakeshwari temple dressed as a bride for the wedding ceremony. She wore traditional bridal attire, including vermilion and conch-shell bangles. The identity of the groom, a Hindu man, was not disclosed. The couple reportedly completed the temple paperwork, after which priests performed traditional Hindu marriage rituals.
‘Real Gen Z revolution will happen to welcome Sheikh Hasina,’ says Chhatra League president
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‘Real Gen Z revolution will happen to welcome Sheikh Hasina,’ says Chhatra League president
Hussain said Bangladesh’s youth have witnessed economic instability, deteriorating law and order, rising unemployment, and the concentration of political power in the hands of a narrow section of the youth, mostly the student’s party that came out of the July uprising, while the overwhelming majority remain excluded.
Hasina’s shadow ends careers in Bangladesh. After president, now army chief faces heat
I had met Chuppu at his Dhaka office in February 2023, a day after he was declared president-elect. Chuppu had spoken to me about the horrific riots of 2001 after the Awami League lost power and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) sat on the throne under the leadership of Khaleda Zia in coalition with the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. That alliance isn’t there today, and Jamaat is the principal opposition in Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh return can be her last political gamble. She must plan it well
Sheikh Hasina had spoken to me and my co-authors on 7 June last year after we approached senior Awami League leaders requesting to speak to the former Bangladesh Prime Minister over the phone for our book Inshallah Bangladesh: The Story of an Unfinished Revolution. She had clarified it was not an interview but an interaction, and that we could use the contents of our conversation in the book.
How a 136-year-old airport mosque in Kolkata put Bengal BJP MLA on Bangladesh ‘kill list’
How a 136-year-old airport mosque in Kolkata put Bengal BJP MLA on Bangladesh ‘kill list’ After the relocation of Bankra Mosque was proposed, protesters in Bangladesh had hit the streets, demanding the death penalty for West Bengal BJP MLA …
2 yrs after the student uprising, Bangladesh faces a question: What did the bloodshed achieve?
On 1 July this year, popular Bangladeshi actress and director Meher Afroz Shaon made a controversial social media post referring to the 2024 uprising as “July CDI”. The abbreviation “CDI” is a common Bengali cuss word, used in both Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Bangladesh Army turns religious. Fidel Castro had warned Sheikh Mujib
Last year, on 16 August, Waker-Uz-Zaman had reaffirmed the secular foundations of Bangladesh on the occasion of Janmashtami, saying that Bangladeshis would follow the ideals of Lord Krishna and live together in harmony. It was a time of communal unrest and the country was under the rule of an unelected interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus. “This country belongs to everyone,” Waker had said. “There will be no division based on religion, ethnicity, or community.
Tarique Rahman answered India’s goodwill by visiting China, says ex-Bangladesh envoy
1 hour ago BREAKING: Dhaka Protests: Massive Blast Injures At Least Three Amid Student Protests | Bangladesh YouTube • 1h BREAKING: Dhaka Protests: Massive Blast Injures At Least Three Amid Student Protests | Bangladesh A massive blast shook a National Citizen Party (NCP) rally in Savar near Dhaka, injuring at least three people amid ongoing student-led protests in Bangladesh.
Tarique Rahman answered India’s goodwill by visiting China, says ex-Bangladesh envoy
Rashid had officially relinquished his charge in Morocco on February 27, 2025, moved to Canada, and published a Facebook post criticising the Yunus-led interim government, accusing it of giving space to radical extremism and dismantling Bangladesh’s secular foundation.
Bangladesh should control the Ram idol row. Ties with India must not deteriorate further
The Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Kali temple complex in Palashbari, Gaibandha, has been in the news for some time. According to reports, local devotee Haridas Babu established a temple in Brindaban Para of Madhyarampur village eleven years ago. The complex had idols of goddess Kali and Radha-Govinda. With time, the site expanded and became an important religious centre for local Hindus.
Agmitra Paul was called a ‘darzi’ by TMC leaders. Now she is fighting for rape survivors
India News 2 hours ago Kolkata street violinist who earns Rs 100 a day gets Anand Mahindra’s attention: ‘Would like to contribute’ Indian Express - By: Trends Desk • 2h Despite advancing age, deteriorating eyesight, and an ageing instrument, Bhagwan Mallick continues to play every evening on the streets of … Business (India) 4 hours ago Gold Silver Rate Today (June 25): Prices Are Volatile, Check Latest Rates In Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, More ABP LIVE - Sakshi Arora • 4h Gold and silver prices...
Agmitra Paul was called a ‘darzi’ by TMC leaders. Now she is fighting for rape survivors
Now, Paul is on a mission. Her top priority is to deliver justice and ensure convictions. “My top priority is to deliver justice to women who were raped in 2021 after the Assembly election results, only for working for the BJP,” she added. In 2021, Paul was the state president of the BJP Mahila Morcha. She claimed to have witnessed the horrific violence that followed the Assembly election results. “Many of the women targeted were not even formal party members.
Bengal budget formally ends state’s long fight with Centre. Betting big on double-engine
Exactly one month and 18 days later, as the Finance Minister of West Bengal, Dasgupta has presented the budget for the first-ever BJP government in the state, with a net allocation of Rs 4,38,775.29 crore. It has taken into consideration all the points he had touched upon on the evening of his victory.
Mamata Banerjee’s Osman Hadi killing speech has put India in a geopolitical mess
Banerjee talking to the press about Bangladeshi student leader Osman Hadi’s killer and his alleged India connection is thus less about embarrassing the NDA government at the centre and more about putting India in a geopolitical soup. This move by Banerjee might just become the last nail in her party’s coffin because TMC is already enduring its gravest political crisis following a crushing defeat in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
TMC’s LoP in Bengal has given BJP control over both govt and Opposition. Mamata is rudderless
There is perhaps no better way to describe what Ritabrata has done to Banerjee than borrowing a phrase that the Bard of Avon used to describe the betrayal of Julius Ceaser by his friend Brutus: “unkindest cut”. It was, after all, Banerjee who had helped resurrect his political career. At just 35, the suave and erudite Ritabrata became a Rajya Sabha MP from the CPI(M).
TMC’s collapse does not suit BJP—because the Left is waiting in Bengal
The once-formidable TMC is facing an existential crisis after losing the Assembly elections to the BJP. Saumitra Khan, a BJP MP, has told the press that as many as 50 Trinamool MLAs and 20 MPs were unhappy and were ready to switch to the BJP if the central leadership gave the go-ahead. Khan said the TMC would cease to exist as a political force if the BJP leadership decided to induct these leaders.
How BJP’s Bengal win is shaping India-Bangladesh ties
“We want to send a clear message to the Indian government that a (new) treaty must be implemented immediately through discussions according to the expectations and needs of Bangladesh’s people,” BNP secretary general and current minister for local government, rural development, and cooperatives Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said.
Bengali film industry is switching sides after BJP’s win. New scripts on Hindu causes
In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, a platform “No Vote to BJP” was set up by a group of political and civil rights activists that exhorted Bengal’s voters to stay away from the Modi-led party. “The alarm bells rang when the BJP won 18 of the 42 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. We knew we had to do something. BJP’s ideology or culture is in basic conflict with the ethos of people here,” Kushal Debnath, a senior leader of the platform, had said in an interview in 2021.
Bengal is notoriously prone to political violence. It didn’t start with TMC-BJP rivalry
Of the four bullets fired at Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of Adhikari, three hit him. Rath was in a moving car in Madhyamgram at approximately 10:30 pm on 6 May when the attack took place. The suspects reportedly followed his car and opened fire as it slowed down. Visuals showed the car’s left front window cracked with bullet holes. The murder of Rath, considered part of Adhikari’s inner circle, has shaken the state.
Why Bangladesh played a big role in BJP’s West Bengal win
Be it the treatment meted out to Bangladeshi Hindus after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina administration, or the consolidated voting of the Matua community that has its origin story in modern-day Bangladesh or the fear of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants changing the demography of the state.
If Modi govt defeated Naxals, what’s a CPI (ML) candidate doing in south Kolkata?
“CPI (ML) Liberation wants to address the question of their survival,” Ghosh said. In the 2026 West Bengal assembly polls, the CPI (ML) Liberation, born in the “ferment of the Naxalbari uprising of May 1967” and “founded on the birth anniversary of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, 22 April 1969”, has fielded 10 candidates, aligning with the Left Front for the first time in a Bengal Assembly election.
The battle for South Kolkata—Swapan Dasgupta vows to end mafia Raj
As a South Kolkata boy, Rashbehari is an area Dasgupta knows intimately, having grown up in the region. He said that it has been easy for him with connect to its mostly upper-middle-class voters. “Some people know me because I appear quite often on television. Some people know me because I write. Others know me by reputation or because they were in school with me,” he said. But Dasgupta has not restricted himself only to the genteel set.
The Bengal voter is silent. Is it fear or quiet determination?
Gulam Jeelani, political desk editor of LiveMint, who is currently touring Bengal, told ThePrint this is because the state has historically struggled with post-poll violence. “I found voters, especially in rural pockets, unwilling to reveal their leanings. I did not see this phenomenon in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh where the voter is rather vocal,” Jeelani said. Senior journalist and public policy analyst Pratim Ranjan Bose blamed the voter’s silence partly on the “missing BJP candidate”.
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Bengali film Korpur revives Kolkata’s old political scandal. It’s hot topic before polls
“It is inspired and based on a fiction, and any similarity with any real-life incident is purely coincidental and fictitious,” Sil told PTI, sidestepping the controversy. Korpur is based on Dipanwita Roy’s novel Antardhaner Nepothye, which fictionalises the unsolved 1997 disappearance of Manisha Mukherjee. She disappeared from the Golpark area in South Kolkata on 3 September 1997.
From water to visas to security—India-Bangladesh ties moved beyond Hasina
There is optimism in strategic circles in both New Delhi and Dhaka around Rahman’s visit, but a sense of caution as well. And then there is the Sheikh Hasina question. The priority for Dhaka right now seems to be ‘reset’ — in energy, water, trade and visas. A source in the Bangladesh foreign ministry told ThePrint that the top items in Dhaka’s agenda are both practical and economic.
Delhi is keeping Dhaka’s security concerns in mind. Tarique Rahman should remember this
On 12 December 2025, 32-year-old Osman Hadi, a prominent leader of Bangladesh’s 2024 student uprising and the spokesperson of the political platform “Inquilab Mancha,” was shot by unknown assailants in Dhaka. He was taken to Singapore for treatment but died as the violence in Bangladesh magnified. The death of Hadi, an outspoken critic of India, fuelled anti-India hate amid conspiracy theories about the country sheltering his killers.
How Naxal film Adamya has caused a political buzz in West Bengal
“In the end, ‘Adamya’ tells the audience the battle against oppression must continue,” Ghosh told ThePrint over the phone. “Maybe that is one of the reasons why it has touched a chord among the audience, and not so much for the violent means adopted by the hero.” ‘Adamya’ tells the story of the young Palash, played by Aryuun Ghosh, a revolutionary student who attempts to kill a sitting MP in West Bengal, who, interestingly, talks about development in his poll speeches and speaks in Hindi.
Awami League desperately needs new leadership. It’s looking for it in wrong places
There has been much talk, as well as media speculation, on who Hasina’s political successor would be. The party should choose a leader from among those in the Awami League who are still inside Bangladesh and can revive the party on the ground by enthusing the cadres at such a difficult time.
West Bengal SIR exercise is making Ritwik Ghatak relevant again. 100 years after his death
Also read: When Soumitra Chatterjee punched director Ritwik Ghatak in the face Shamya Dasgupta, who has edited a book of essays on Ghatak titled Unmechanical: Ritwik Ghatak in 50 fragments, said the late filmmaker was never as popular as Satyajit Ray. “If his 100 years were not celebrated, few would have had any issues. But it is being celebrated because Ritwik is as relevant today as he was during his time.
Racism in Antarctica? Bangladeshi YouTuber Salahuddin Sumon faced racial profiling
“This is an expensive expedition even for us. How could you afford to be here from Bangladesh? Your country is poor,” the couple reportedly asked Sumon, leaving him speechless and seething in silent rage.
'BNP does not recognise minorities or majorities,' Rahman's only Hindu minister, Nitai Chowdhury
“Be it in Jamdani weaving from the interiors of the country, or the colourful rickshaw paintings on Dhaka streets, our Baul songs or our OTT offerings, we need to put forth what is best in us.” Chowdhury accepted that, of late, there had been a lot of bad press about the state of affairs in the country leading to the elections, but did not wish to dwell on the subject “on a day when Bangladesh has woken up to a new dawn.” The Daily Star columnist Tasneem Tayeb wrote that if there was one...
Why BNP's win in Bangladesh doesn't necessarily mark the end of Awami League
And it is not just Hasina who is a fugitive from the law in her country. Much of the Awami League’s senior leadership is either in India or have relocated to Western nations to escape prosecution, a huge number of the party’s rank and file are in jail in Bangladesh, even as the party’s political activities remain banned in the country.
BNP win in Bangladesh is a chance to reset Delhi-Dhaka ties—India is willing to forget the past | Flipboard
6 hours ago "My name is Mohammad Deepak." With these five simple words, a Hindu man who stood up for a Muslim shopkeeper has been catapulted to fame and become an unlikely hero in India. Deepak Kumar has been praised as an "icon for secular India" and a "posterboy for India's pluralism". At the same time, he has …
BNP win in Bangladesh is a chance to reset Delhi-Dhaka ties—India is willing to forget the past
Delhi had more than one reason to worry. To start with, the Jamaat had supported Pakistan during the 1971 War of Independence. And the Islamist party has spoken in favour of implementing Sharia law. Speaking in New York in September 2025, Jamaat deputy chief Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher promised a holy war with five million Bangladeshi youth if India “dared to intervene” in Bangladesh’s internal affairs.
Bangladesh women take on Jamaat with memes and marches. Their future is at stake
Warning of crucial 48 hours if Nipah virus detected in Australia after disease claims life What would the health response be if the deadly virus made its way from Asia to Australia? Would there be more lockdowns? A leading infectious disease …
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