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.

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.

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