20th Century Bengali Society, Culture and Women

Bengal witnessed a lot of sociological, cultural, and political changes in the 20th century. Anti-British nationalist movements led by the Bengali ‘intelligence’ as well as the revolutionary movement guided by the extremists created a new dimension in the Bengali psyche. The whole territory of Bengal; including West Bengal, Bangladesh, Bihar, and Odisha was under one umbrella. The Bengal Partition of 1905 somehow created some divisions according to the religious and linguistic facets. The anti-partition movement of Bengal manifested a fresh cultural awakening in Calcutta and its surroundings. The creation of literary works, dramas, songs, paintings, and other folklore influenced society to a large extent. Participation of women and students created a new zeal for every aspect of society. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, the famous nationalist leader, once opined that; ‘What Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow’. Dr. Goutam Majee is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of History at Banwarilal Bhalotia College, Asansol. He has completed his Doctoral research degree on labour history from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has published multiple number of articles, book chapters in different international, national and state level journals and publications. He also recently published 2 graduation level text books on Indian heritage and culture and history of modern Indian rail respectively which are especially based on NEP curriculum. Sri Amrita Halder is serving as an Assistant Professor of History and acting Head of the Dept. of History, BanwarilalBhalotia College, Asansol. He is doing his Doctoral research work on the football & Bengali Muslim Society. He published four articles in international journals & seminars and a tenth article in various seminars and journals over time. His main area of research is the cultural history of Bengal.