West Bengal experiences one of the highest instances of political violence in India. While global studies emphasise the instrumental and institutional backgrounds of political violence, the agents and their activities often remain understudied. Using longitudinal, multisite, immersive ethnographic research spanning nearly two decades, Dr Suman Nath has written several accounts of violence from the perspective of agencies and their activities.

In this talk, based on his upcoming book, The Scent of Mahua, the Smell of Gunpowder and the Sound of Radicalisation, an attempt will be made to map the major trajectories of political violence from the Maoist and counter-forces in Junglemahal during the first decade of the 21st century through the political-economic trajectories during the ruling Trinamool Congress era to the rise of fundamentalist politics during the last ten years. Using his ethnographic data, Dr Nath challenges the binary of “state vs. communal violence”, “pre-election vs. post- election violence” by showing their entanglements. Dr Nath shows that the agency of ordinary people is within the precarious structures of a messy state, marked by inclusive and normalised illegalities. He refuses simple moral judgments on violence and show why violence is a purposive and professional instrument, and unearth the fluidity of perpetrators and victims, which is contextual.