Balancing Act : Swadeshi Jatra Performance and Engendering a Nuanced National Identity

During the anti-Partition agitation, and the subsequent Swadeshi and boycott agitation, public sphere became the arena of conducting politics. Opinion of the people gained heightened importance under the new order. Naturally, new and old media began to be deployed for influencing public opinion. In the changed order of things jatra emerged as an important medium of the public sphere. Being a popular form of entertainment jatra and prachar [dissemination] became coterminous. Mukti Kon Pathe, a proscribed literature of the Swadeshi era, and the District Magistrate of Bakarganj, rightly notedthat jatra was a form of communication that could act as a substitute for Swadeshi meetings.