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