Poriborton

Across the summer of 2011, dramatic state elections saw the end of thirty-four years of rule by the communist government in West Bengal. The ‘Battle for Bengal’ and the triumph of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool party were mapped by Ruchir Joshi in a series of witty, acutely observed ‘diaries’ written for the front pages of The elegraph in Calcutta. In Poriborton!, Joshi stitches together those vivid articles and photographs within a larger narrative of the historic poll battle. Starting from an explosive debate where Mamata lambasts those trying to get into politics ‘from the backside’, Joshi moves through the celebrations of the cricket World Cup victory in Calcutta to the twists and turns of the two month- long election. Character sketches of politicians and ordinary citizens are drawn against the shifting landscape of Bengal as Joshi journeys from Calcutta to Murshidabad and Darjeeling, to Medinipur and the Maoist stronghold of Lalgarh. In turns hilarious, tragicomic and stark, Poriborton! is a riveting collage of contemporary Indian democracy at its most absurd and wonderful.