Tripura Administration

This volume probes into the process of changes made in the Administration of the Tripura State during a period of nearly 100 years from 1870, the year of coronation of Maharaj Birchandra Manikya, to 1972, the year of its attainment of full-fledged statehood in the Indian Union. It attempts to describe the aspects of modernisation in Executive, Legislative and Judicial spheres during the rule of the Maharajas of the particular age and the period of administration of the State after Integration, through which a primitive, tribal and patriarchal set-up having directly little control all over the State has been turned into a fully bureaucratic and modernised democratic system, extending administrative control throughout the interior of the land. The author has also tried to analyse the forces behind the evolution of the administrative system and the explain the changes through input-output analysis as far as practicable. The following comments of some express of the subject are worth mentioning: ‘The Introduction enables one to have a clear conception of the term modernisation. The theoretical discussion is stimulating. The author has eminently succeeded in presenting the collected materials lucidly. It is a definite contribution for the advancement of knowledge on the subject. We are impressed by the amount of labour involved in its preparation. The search for the materials must have been a search for a hairpin in the haystack.’ It undoubtedly marks solid contribution to the contemporary history of Tripura which is likely to prove of immense help to historians and research scholars who want to make a further in-depth study of the history of North Eastern region of the country.

Dr. B.K. Bhattacharyya (born 1925) obtained his M.A. in Political Science in 1951 from the University of Calcutta and was awarded the University of Calcutta and was awarded Ph.D. of the same university after a lapse of thirty years. Dr. Bhattacharyya served as lecturer in Economics at the Ramakrishna Mahavidyalaya, Kailashahar, Tripura from 1952 till he joined the M.B.B. College, Agartala in 1957 where he was promoted as Head of the Department of Political Science in 1960. He served as Principal, Dharamnagar College from 1980 to 1982 till he became Secretary, Calcutta University Post Graduate Centre at Agartala, a Position which he is currently holding. He participated in several conferences and seminars held in various universities of the country. He is the author of a large number of articles both in English and Bengali, which were published in different newspapers/journals and books of Tripura and out side. He translated “Introduction to Politics” by Harold Laski in Bengali which became very popular among the general readers, specially among the students and teachers of Political Science.