Part 2 / Hair oil, bumblebees, and the lost world of Bengali advertising art
30 MIN(s) ago
In Focus
The tale of some rare portraits from Nazrul’s final days
26 May 2026, 11:06 AM
In Focus
Tuning the melody of Baul songs into peace education
26 May 2026, 09:00 AM
In Focus
Shreemati Rassundari and the making of the first autobiography by a Bengali woman
26 May 2026, 09:00 AM
In Focus
Nabayug: Nazrul’s radical pen and Fazlul Huq’s leadership
25 May 2026, 10:00 AM
In Focus
Reading Nazrul in an age of inequality
24 May 2026, 00:00 AM
In Focus
East Bengal’s victory and the memory of lost homes
24 May 2026, 09:29 AM
In Focus
The stolen haq of Qurbani hides
24 May 2026, 10:30 AM
Big Picture
Tagore’s Dan Pratidan and the colonial remaking of Bengal’s moral world
21 May 2026, 09:00 AM
In Focus
Memories of Indigo Rebellion and the question of national identity
18 May 2026, 00:00 AM
In Focus
Hair oil, bumblebees, and the lost world of Bengali advertising art
Interestingly, the woman combing the hair is shown in a saree and chemise, while the woman showcasing her hair is drawn in a way that makes the artist's brush appear almost “voyeuristic.”
33 MIN(s) ago
The tale of some rare portraits from Nazrul’s final days
These photos of the poet were taken three months before his death.
26 May 2026, 11:06 AM
Tuning the melody of Baul songs into peace education
Baul song is where mysticism, universalism, and peace – this trio – meet.
26 May 2026, 09:00 AM
Shreemati Rassundari and the making of the first autobiography by a Bengali woman
From a crowded kitchen to the pages of history: How Shreemati Rassundari defied social norms to write the first autobiography by a Bengali woman.
26 May 2026, 09:00 AM
Nabayug: Nazrul’s radical pen and Fazlul Huq’s leadership
‘Nabayug’ marked the beginning of Nazrul’s journalistic career, but this was no ordinary professional journey; rather, it was the expression of a revolutionary consciousness.
25 May 2026, 10:00 AM
East Bengal’s victory and the memory of lost homes
East Bengal winning the Indian Super League symbolises profound cultural vindication for displaced refugees facing political anxieties.
24 May 2026, 09:29 AM
Reading Nazrul in an age of inequality
Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam is widely known as the “Rebel Poet”, but he was also a profound “Poet of Equality”. Nazrul’s ideas about equality emerged from the realities of his own life.
24 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Tagore’s Dan Pratidan and the colonial remaking of Bengal’s moral world
Radha had tragically bought into Braja Sundari’s and the colonial masters’ ‘unnatural’ logic of the cash nexus, ignoring his brother's assurance regarding the organicity and naturalness of munificence–dependence.
21 May 2026, 09:00 AM
Memories of Indigo Rebellion and the question of national identity
In 1897, synthetic indigo was introduced to the market by BASF and Hoechst, two German chemical giants.
18 May 2026, 00:00 AM
The forgotten art of Bengali advertising
Someone’s great-grandfather might have known which drummers came beating the kara and nakara to announce, "Tonight at seven, the Chaitanya-lila folk play commences."
17 May 2026, 14:00 PM
Re-reading Nizamuddin Auliya in history and memory
As legends associated with the charisma and spiritual power of Nizamuddin Auliya spread, many anecdotes from folkloric traditions began to be linked with his life, which cannot be entirely discarded either.
15 May 2026, 08:30 AM
Remembering Mrinal Sen: Through rain, memory, and cinema
Mrinal Sen transformed South Asian cinema by turning political unrest, middle-class anxieties, and moral contradictions into art.
14 May 2026, 16:39 PM
Rethinking the origins of Bongabdo through Bengal’s ecological civilisation
The more closely we look at Bongabdo, the less it seems like the work of a single dynasty.
14 May 2026, 08:30 AM
The forgotten front: Rumour, resistance, and the uprising of 1857 in Eastern Bengal
For over a century and a half, the collective memory and historiography of the 1857 uprising, variously termed the ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ or the ‘First Indian War of Independence’, have remained overwhelmingly anchored within the north-central Gangetic heartland of the Indian subcontinent.
11 May 2026, 00:00 AM
The Burma we imagined in Bengali literature
Burma and Bengal had shared extensive socio-cultural and economic exchanges long before the British landed on their shores.
10 May 2026, 09:30 AM
The Dhaka Masterpiece Paintings
At the opening of the Zoffany exhibition, the 'Nagaphon Ghat' was regarded by many as one of the most beautiful paintings ever.
8 May 2026, 12:00 PM
Nehrus, Mians, and the lost tradition of Hindu-Muslim political coexistence
Amid rising communal rhetoric, the historic bond between Lahore’s Mian family and Allahabad’s Nehrus offers a powerful lesson.
7 May 2026, 14:00 PM
Tagore’s radical vision for rural Bengal
Rabindranath pointed to one particular path for rural advancement: the strategy of a cooperative approach.
7 May 2026, 12:43 PM
The Rabindranath we have not yet claimed
Rabindranath Tagore’s artistic evolution into a universal humanist was forged through his transformative East Bengal experiences.
7 May 2026, 08:44 AM
The alchemy of sweet-making in Bengal
Most of the karigars/ustads and people at other levels of work hierarchies pointed to the palm of their hands and said “this is our everything”.
6 May 2026, 09:00 AM