My Writings.

Abstract This article reconceptualises value and value orientation within a dialectical political economy framework, arguing that values are historically produced, materially grounded, and constitutive of social relations rather than merely normative ideals. Drawing on classical sociological theory and Marxist analysis, it demonstrates how value orientation mediates between structural conditions and individual practice, translating relations of production into lived dispositions. The paper advances this argument through an empirical engagement with out-migration from West Bengal, situating labour mobility within processes of surplus labour formation, informalisation, and uneven development. It shows how migration is embedded in regimes of accumulation that rely on informal power networks, patronage structures, and mediated access to labour markets. These transformations reconfigure value orientations from collective security and political mobilisation to instrumental rationality, ada...

  The transformation of West Bengal’s political landscape over the past decade and a half provides a critical empirical site for analysing the changing nature of the Indian state, particularly when examined through a Marxist lens. The rise of Mamata Banerjee and the consolidation of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) marked not merely a regime shift from the long-standing Left Front rule, but a deeper restructuring of political hegemony, class alliances, and ideological apparatuses. This transition reflects the movement from a relatively programmatic, class-oriented politics to a form of populist managerialism embedded within neoliberal capitalism. At the core of this transformation lies the emergence of a complex and seemingly contradictory political narrative involving the TMC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the institutional machinery of the Indian central state. From a Marxist perspective, this contradiction is not accidental but structurally produced. It reflects ...