The Book
The Hoodlum Years refer to the years of terror and agony that India passed through in the early-mid 1970s and culminated in the Emergency. At the time Ashok Mitra contributed a series of sensitive essays to the Economic and Political Weekly that tellingly and powerfully portrayed the horror of those years. This volume contains a selection of these essays, written during 1972–75 and between January and April 1977.
The claustrophobic season of 1972–77, the author feels, ought to be remembered every now and then; there is otherwise a danger of our judgement being distorted by the familiar problem of forgetting.
With its honest and detailed analysis, this new edition comes with a Foreword by Prabhat Patnaik.
The Author(s)
Ashok Mitra is former Finance Minister of West Bengal (1977–87) and former Member of the Rajya Sabha; and a distinguished economist, essayist and political activist.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Prabhat Patnaik
Introduction
- The Grammar Of
Politics
- Magic At The
Margin
- Rain Beats Down
- Where Prejudices
Are Horses
- Script For A
Fairytale
- Honour The Hoodlum
- Murders Are Minor
Episodes
- The Night Of The
Jackal
- Parliamentary
Democracy Marches On
- From The Annals Of
Constitutional Authority
- A Government Of
Thieves
- A Hang-Dog Story
- Murderers All
- Everything Is Fine And Excellent
- No Birds Sing
- Troy Does Not Burn
- They Cannot Sell
Their Poetry
- Old Order
Changeth, Yielding Place To Old
- A Facet Of
Revealed Preference
- Chitty-Chitty
Bang-Bang
- They Do Not Want
To Learn
- None For Home
Consumption Either
- Amoral City
- Doors We Never
Opened
- A Sickness Is
Abroad
- Rock And No Water
- She Was No Longer
Believable
- Divine Mother And
Prince Charming
- She Quoted
Subversive Poetry
- Who Knows The
Truth
- The Genealogy Of
Hatkhola-Rambagan
- An Improbable
Confluence
- In The Cause Of
The People
- He Belonged To A
Non-Relevant Category
- An Unreconstructed
Revolutionary
- Decision—And
Choice
- Better Be Around
- A Proclaim Of
Equal Sovereignty
- They Did It On
Their Own