Deep Halder

Author of Blood Island: An Oral History of Marichjhapi Massacre (2019), Being Hindu in Bangladesh (2023) and other books. Contributing Editor @ThePrintIndia

[Deep Halder @deepscribble]

New Book Alert: On June 7, 2025, we spoke to Sheikh Hasina over the phone. Almost a year had passed since she fled Bangladesh and came to India and we wanted to know what she felt about Bangladesh without her in power. Hasina told us what she thought about the July Revolution and Bangladesh under Muhammad Yunus. We also spoke to her ministers, members of her security detail, and officers in Bangladeshi military intelligence still loyal to her who helped @joyincal09 recreate the scenes inside Haina's official residence on the day she left.

We also spoke to Hasina's political opponents who told us why she had it coming for a long time.

But our book is not about Hasina, her mistakes or her political future.

'Inshallah Bangladesh' is about the extraordinary events of 2024 that changed the lives of Bangladesh's ordinary people. Like my co-author @SahidulKhokonbd who became an anti-national for writing against radical Islam and had to run for his life, and the 266 other journalists like him implicated in various cases.

It is about young women who are afraid of playing football, and Sufis who watch helplessly as their mazars are pulled down, and Hindus who are trying to get used to hearing open calls of genocide. And young military officers trying to make sense of a General's betrayal.

The book is also about past fissures shaping present politics. About stories that are not published. Like a dystopian novel about Sheikh Mujib finding currency after Hasina's fall. About the call for a Hindu homeland that is as old as the call for Bangladesh. About atheist bloggers once forced out of Bangladesh returning to save Bangladesh's soul.

If the July Revolution promised a New Bangladesh, our book examines why the students' party that emerged from it is already so unpopular. Inshallah Bangladesh is the story of an unfinished revolution that did not begin in 2024. @swatichopra1 @juggernautbooks
Here's the preorder link: https://t.co/kP0S7JB9Cg

[ThePrintHindi @ThePrintHindi]

दुर्गा पूजा के बाद तारिक रहमान की असली परीक्षा—हसीना की वापसी, हिंदू वोट और इस्लामवादियों के फरमान

दिप्रिंट के लिए दीप हलदर @deepscribble लिखते हैं

#ThePrintOpinion

https://t.co/VuK9z8x25f

[ThePrintIndia @ThePrintIndia]

'Piyush Pandey brought the language of small towns into ad agency corridors'

On his death anniversary, read #ThePrintOpinion by Prasoon Joshi @prasoonjoshi_

https://t.co/lZtu4mtoFQ

[Pratim Ranjan Bose @pratimbose]

Compared with Durga Puja 2025, passenger traffic in #Kolkata’s suburban and metro rail sections rose by 32–33% during Durga Puja 2026. The city has a shrinking population and a low share of young people. The rise is attributable largely to an influx of people from the suburbs. The passenger data corroborates reports of a 25–40% year-on-year rise in Puja sales by eateries. Food and beverage sales hit an eight-year high.

The sharp spike in footfalls challenges theories of a ‘lack of Pujo vibes’ and offers some explanation for the Chorbagan #stampede. I did not go out for pandal hopping. However, inputs from friends suggest that crowd distribution among pandals may have shifted this year. This could partly explain why traffic police bandobast was not at its usual best in the early days of the celebrations.

I hope the authorities will conduct a deep dive into the data to prepare for the 2027 Durga Puja season.
#DurgaPuja2026

[ThePrintIndia @ThePrintIndia]

'Tarique Rahman’s real test after a grand Durga Puja – Hasina’s return, Hindu votes, Islamist diktats'

Deep Halder @deepscribble writes

#ThePrintOpinion

https://t.co/HUuztYH2ao

[Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta]

Dev Prabhakar Singh Tomar is the grandson of an infamous Chambal dacoit. After four attempts at UPSC, three interviews and years of preparation, Tomar secured an AIR of 629.

The Chambal region, which straddles the borders of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, has long been synonymous with two things—its rugged ravines and the dangerous dacoits that dwelled in them. 

One can leave Chambal to escape the poverty and caste conflict that plagues the region, but the dacoit tag is far more difficult to shed. It follows you everywhere. 

Tomar’s grandfather accepted state amnesty and surrendered back in 1972. But his Chambal links followed Tomar through school, college and higher studies. 

His way of overcoming the stigma was to study hard, score well in his exams and find a good job.

To know what pushed him to prepare for civil services, read this report by Himanshi Aggarwal:

https://t.co/zz5ZroI7bE

[Deep Halder @deepscribble]

Shubho Bijoya.
Painting by Guin Srikanta.

[Deep Halder @deepscribble]

@kushanmitra They don't. The Bangladeshis should and know friends from abusers.

[Deep Halder @deepscribble]

This is the way Saudi Arabia treats Bangladeshis. The beheading of the couple for kissing inside a mosque is only the latest example.

[Dipanwita Rumi (দীপান্বিতা রুমী) @dipanwitarumi]

979 Bangladeshi women returned from Saudi Arabia in just nine months after facing physical, mental and sexual abuse.
Behind every number is a woman who left home with hope, often to escape poverty and support her family. Many returned traumatised, exploited and robbed of the future they had worked for.
This is not an isolated incident. Reports over the years have documented abuse, unpaid wages, exploitation and failures to protect vulnerable migrant workers. The same stories keep returning, while accountability remains a serious concern.
Meanwhile, two Bangladeshis were beheaded in Saudi Arabia for expressing their love in public, and Bangladesh was reportedly informed only after their executions.
The ugly hypocrisy of Saudi Arabia’s Sharia-based legal system raises a serious question: Is this justice in the name of Islam, or a betrayal of the very principles of justice and humanity?

[Shekhar Gupta @ShekharGupta]

Good points. A little context: NSG was designed after much debate under core police-army-civil team to follow the broad structure if German anti-terror group GSG9. This was given its IPS against the Baadee-Meinhof Gang if I remember corrected. Others, SAS, US spl forces and the Israeli anti-terror groups were seem as too military. The larger motivation was to keep it still in a police structure, led by a senior cop. This was the lesson, and a response to Op Bluestar that drew enormous controversy and embarrassment for the Army. The idea was now to keep the Army out of counter-terror except in live insurgencies.
Once the German design was chosen for the new institution, GSG standard weapon became the first choice. That the Germans later pulled out spares and support was a bitter lesson learnt. Of course now the sane Germans will sell anything to India and also buy loads of ammunition esp 155mm artillery shells. But that’s if only if we’d sell to them.
That equation has changed. And brave risk-taking entrepreneurs like you are one if the reasons for this.

[Swapan Dasgupta @swapan55]

Thank you @sardesairajdeep for your grudging endorsement of my stand. It is precisely because we have imbibed the traditional Bengali reverence for books that we are appalled. That is why the BJP defended the likes of Salman Rushdie (he got his visa back during the Vajpayee govt) & Taslima. This tradition of Hindu pluralism has guided us and not those who feign a liberal inheritance. Happy Vijayadashami.

[Sanjeev Sanyal @sanjeevsanyal]

Two days of Saptami. Now Navami lasting well into tomorrow afternoon. Looks like this year's Mahishasur is putting up a better fight than usual. 😄

[ThePrintHindi @ThePrintHindi]

दिनेश त्रिवेदी ने वही किया, जिसकी भारत की बांग्लादेश नीति को जरूरत थी—ढाका को बैकफुट पर ला दिया

दिप्रिंट के लिए दीप हलदर @deepscribble लिखते हैं

#ThePrintOpinion

https://t.co/T8soxUXRpQ

[Diganta Chakraborty 🇮🇳 @DigantaWrites]

Must-read!
A nicely written piece by Deep da, as always. @deepscribble

[Rahul @indicrealist]

'Blood Island' by @deepscribble on the Marichjhapi massacre is a great introduction to the violent, Communist State-sponsored eviction and genocide of thousands of Bengali Hindu Dalit refugees in post-independence India, under the CPM's Jyoti Basu regime in West Bengal.

Excellent work by @SuvenduWB in setting the record straight and holding the Communists on trial in the court of memory, right from the original sins.

✊🏼

[Nishant Azad/निशांत आज़ाद🇮🇳 @azad_nishant]

Marichjhapi massacre of Dalit refugees becomes Durga Puja theme in Kolkata pandal

We should thank @deepscribble for writing the book ‘Blood Island’ on the forgotten massacre of Dalit refugees on a faraway island in the Sundarbans during 1978-79.

Most Indians were completely unaware of this massacre. Even those who claim to be champions and messiahs of the Dalit cause remained silent about it.

https://t.co/P6zeHsJ8cW

[ThePrintIndia @ThePrintIndia]

'Marichjhapi massacre of Dalit refugees becomes Durga Puja theme in Kolkata pandal'

Deep Halder @deepscribble writes

#ThePrintAroundTown

https://t.co/Wk47PLXKCr

[MANOGYA LOIWAL मनोज्ञा लोईवाल @manogyaloiwal]

Several feared dead in a durga puja pandal on saptami in #kolkata

Massive crowd resulted in stampede like situation and chorbagan puja pandal has been shut

Please pray for the families…

[Anindya @AninBanerjee]

Keeping Kolkata in prayers. 🤞🏾

[Deep Halder @deepscribble]

@awasthi_bob @ThePrintIndia Thank you, sir.

[Gokul Sahni @Gokul_Sahni]

“Trivedi’s.. remarks.. reminded Bangladesh that its own military had sent a sitting prime minister to an unprepared 🇮🇳, turned the tables on Dhaka & forced it to confront an entirely different question: what role did the 🇧🇩 military play during and after the July 2024 uprising?”