(University of North Bengal, 2020-03) Ghosh, Aryama; Majhi, Sujit
With the First World War, colonial peripheries like India experienced
superfluity of news contents and general interest among the newsreaders regarding wars
and world politics. The reportage style of various periodicals like the Prabasi started to
base on that newfound cultural consumption market with their shift of focus towards the
events and interpretation related to war. This article argues that the prior growth of
cosmopolitanism in the Bengali cultural public sphere found a boost in this process. The
war acted as a catalyst and started producing editorial pieces substantiating subnationalism.
These nationalist and internationalist ideals, despite their innate
contradiction, coexisted and furthered the future expansion of the Bengali worldview.
