Review
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(A) remarkable feat.’ – Scroll.in
(Wit and elegance are perfectly matched along with research to
make this offering a real page-turner.’ – IANS
(A fascinating, charming book that will give you in into
why we are the way we are, an enigmatic people.’ – Pritish Nandy
(Written with verve, energy, and polish, and drawing on
considerable resources, both anecdotal and archival,
Chakravarti’s book takes its place beside other contemporary
attempts at ‘collective’ portraiture, such as Jeremy Paxman’s The
English (1998) and John Hooper’s The Italians (2015) .’ – Supriya
Chaudhuri in The Hindu
(The Bengalis is by far the best non-fiction book from India I
have read this year!’ – Sudeep Sen in Hindustan Times
( (An) excellent book ... Chakravarti has written a charming and
serious book, which is fun to read... (His) wicked sense of
humour makes this book a great read.’ – Bibek Debroy in Business
Standard
(Sudeep Chakravarti has written an excellent tome on the
Bengalis...a unique genre: one that is both historically serious
and culturally situated while being incredibly observant of our
mores, language and myriad idiosyncrasies and being outrageously
funny to boot.’ – Omkar Goswami in Indian Express
The Bengalis is an important work, melding scholarship and
reportage-fed analysis with style... the book will be read,
defended and torn apart for years to come. For non-Bangalis,
well, there’s no better way of finding out what the ‘others’ are
all about.’ – OPEN
…replete with both serious, well-researched information and
interspersed with wry, tongue-in-cheek commentary, Bengalis and
‘not-Bengalis’ alike should congratulate the author for
undertaking such a monumental task of defining an entire
community.’ – The Statesman
It’s hard to enumerate all the salient features that mark a
Bengali — love for Tagore, PhDs, football, nicknames, argument,
and addas don't even start to cover it. But Sudeep Chakravarti
makes a valiant stab at it in The Bengalis, his lively account of
their history, politics, ethnic identity, warts and all.’ – Times
of India
The range and depth of (The Bengalis) marks it out as a labour
of love... for the obvious research and prodigious a of work
that has gone into it. The Bengalis is an astonishingly good
book, written by an author at the height of his powers.’ – The
Pioneer
Chakravarti somewhat dons the hat of a later Wittgenstein… [he]
dwells deep into various facets of what has gone to make up the
Bengali identity over the recent centuries, not just through a
nostalgic lens, but has been equally critical of Bengal society.’
– Deccan Chronicle
(A) compact and brilliant work … dazzling virtuosity …The
clipped descriptions of Noakhali and Naxalbari are worthy of
Hemingway.’ – The Tribune
The Bengalis is a definitive book on the Bengali community.
Sudeep has carried out extensive research for this masterpiece—it
is no easy feat to put together an entire community within a
book’s pages but he does it with a lot of finesse...’ – New Asian
Writing
Extensively researched, deeply felt and engagingly narrated, The
Bengalis is a compelling read… The book will strike a chord with
every Bengali. And perhaps some not-Bengalis too.’ – The Asian
Age
…whether you are Bengali or not-Bengali, go ahead and read the
book, if not for anything but for the sheer beauty of being
allowed to understand (no, you don’t have to necessarily
empathise; Chakravarti himself doesn’t seek it), indeed
comprehend, a community that “lives under a vast sky”.’ –
kitaab.org
I was deeply disappointed with this book. I was hoping to point
out all the things the author had missed…but he seems to have
covered everything… Chakravarti passes a difficult test with
flying colours. So if you’re a Bengali, married to a Bengali,
trying to get married to a Bengali, or simply in love with how
awesome we are, you should read this book.’ – Shovon Choudhury in
Swarajya
Chakravarti, whose ambition is daring, provides a roving
writer’s haptic sense of place and time…embraces the
encyclopaedic mode, sauntering effortlessly between the past and
present of his subject… Hence, his Bengal, rendered in prose that
is often biting, is all-encompassing: two Bengals and the broader
Bengali presence … I would especially recommend Chakravarti.’ –
Biblio
About the Author
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Sudeep Chakravarti is the author of several
groundbreaking and bestselling works of narrative non-fiction
(Red Sun, finalist for the Cros Award in 2009; Highway 39;
and Clear. Hold. Build, winner of the Award for Excellence at the
Asian Publishing Awards, 2014), novels (Tin Fish, The Avenue of
Kings) and short stories. His essays and short fiction have
appeared in collections in India and overseas, and, like his
books, have been translated into several languages.
He is among India’s leading independent commentators on matters
of conflict and conflict resolution, democracy and development,
political economy and the convergence of business and human
rights. An extensively published columnist at Mint and elsewhere,
he has over three decades of experience in media and has worked
with major global and Indian media organizations including the
Asian Wall Street Journal, where he began his career and held
leadership positions at Sunday, the India Today Group and HT
Media. An avid scuba diver, Sudeep’s key interest away from
writing and travelling remains marine conservation. He lives in
the Velliangiri Hills in Tamil Nadu and Goa.
