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Showing posts from November, 2020

The prototype of the "andaje gombhir" Bong: The politics of the armchair intellectual

Add caption   If you are at all conversant with Bengali culture, you are likely to have come across the "andaje gombhir" Bengali.  The term "andaje gombhir" is contextually Bengali, one that is difficult to translate literally into English. Roughly, it translates into the "know-it-all" pretentious intellectual-performing Bengali that has an expert opinion on every subject and is entitled to pass such opinion, irrespective of her/his expertise. For instance, the andaje gombhir Bong will tell you autoethnography is an useless a-theoretical fad, one that is anti-intellectual. When you ask the andaje gombhir Bong to elaborate on that opinion, she/he will have nothing of substance to back up the statement, except to perform a serious intellectual-appearing face. The non-verbals will tell you that as a mere mortal, your asking for backing for the claim, is out of line. The andaje gombhir Bong will declare that your question about theorizing social class in inter...