Making the Global Bhadralok: Bengali Men and the Transnational Middle Class in India

Abstract

The anxiety regarding Bengali masculinity is a longstanding concern that engaged thinkers, literati, and commentators since the colonial period. An exceptional number of writings have addressed the issue at length, not to mention the continuing scholarly pursue relating to the colonial middle-class male in Bengal. However, there are hardly any studies on the altering notions of Bengali masculinity amidst the changes ushered in the post-liberalization period and in the wake of globalization. Interestingly, the public discourse regarding Bengali male seems to be preoccupied with a comparative assessment between the past and the present state of Bengali cultural identity and an attempt to constitute a “global” Bengali cultural identity as hegemonic. In this chapter, I attempt to discuss the discursive construction of this “global” Bengali masculinity in the popular culture. I argue whether the “global-bhadralok” (global-gentlefolk) identity can be understood as a crossover mode, which stands in opposition with the usual notion of hybridity as well as a specific, fixed category of identity. I seek to explore in what way modernity and neoliberal values parallel to an overwhelming cultural specificity constitute Bengali masculinity in contemporary Bengal.