Till the late sixties, Kolkata was one of the most vibrant cities in the world and used to be referred to as the greatest city in the world East of Suez. Baba Kothari owner of Bar-B-Q and I think Flavours of China on Park Street and other restaurants in Japan once told me in an interview in the late 1990s that Calcutta was then so famous as a city that people came from Singapore, Rangoon, Manila, Bangkok and Hong Kong to enjoy the cultural and night life of Kolkata. Then from the late sixties the decline began – after the ruthless way the Congress on the one hand under Siddhartha Shankar Ray and the so-called parliamentary Left parties such as the CPI(M) and CPI on the other went about breaking the back of the source of Kolkata’s vibrancy – the middle class intellectual – a class that existed in a big way only in Kolkata at that time and not in any other Indian city. This middle class intellectual class came from the professionals that the British had created to meet the needs of British trade and industry – lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, managers, advertising professionals, film makers and so on. They arose because of the commercial and industrial eco-system created by the British. Howrah was a highly industrialized area and people came from all over the country to work there. Around Kolkata the jute and tea industries were global leaders and Kolkata was a major port East of Suez, second only to Singapore as a port city. Much of India’s external trade was through Kolkata. One should not also forget what was once known as the Ruhr of India – the Ranigunge-Asansol industrial belt. Almost all the industries in this belt – steel plants, glass producing factories, collieries, aluminium manufacturers, chemical and industrial gas manufacturers, wagon and locomotive manufacturers, breweries, cycle makers – all leaders in the Indian market and a few world leaders as well such as Sen Raleigh’s which had a major export market – had head offices or registered offices in Kolkata. Kolkata was also the headquarters of some of the largest companies in India at that time – ITC, Britannia, Brooke Bond, Hindusthan Lever, ICI, Indal et al. West Bengal was one of the most industrialized states in India and this was reflected in the vibrancy of Kolkata as a city around which the industrial-commercial eco-system thrived. No wonder then that Kolkata was at the heart of the most progressive people’s movements in almost every sphere in India – in culture, in fine arts, in the performing arts and theatre, in education and of course in politics. When the Spring Thunder – Basonter Bajronirghosh – broke over Kolkata and West Bengal and there were hopes that a single spark would start a prairie fire – Kolkata and West Bengal were leaders in India in almost every field. But then the decline began – the ruthless suppression of the intelligentsia – the murders of some of the most brilliant young minds that India had at that time – all carried out by the Congress and so-called Left parties in cahoots with each other completely broke the spine of this middle class. While capital flight took place and one by one almost all big companies shifted to other cities and the Ruhr of India became an industrial graveyard with one closed factory after another, the more advanced intelligentsia too fled the state to other states to study and work. Kolkata University, once a globally recognized centre of educational excellence – almost all the Indian Nobel laureates till then had something or other to do with Kolkata University – went into a decline from which it has never recovered. Then after 1977 began the rule of the Fascists who stifled whatever progressive mindedness there still existed in Kolkata. After 34 years of their rule the people of West Bengal had become vegetables who could not think independently, work independently or show any vibrancy in any sphere because independent minded people and competent people were either hounded out of the system or were forced to leave the state and go elsewhere. The phrase people’s movement became forgotten – once famous for how its people took to the streets to protest against anything anti-people – the city now harboured only such people who were cajoled or coerced by different political parties to come out on the streets. The politics of being Dogs in a Manger replaced all healthy democratic politics – development of any kind was stifled at the roots because of the politics of spite, of not letting anything good happen. In the meantime, other states in India were not sitting idle. In a very short time other states became more industrialized, the freight equalization policy, the licence raj and mindless labour militancy now completely detached from the work ethics of the working class and led by a rotting middle class ensured that no investment took place in Kolkata or West Bengal. By the middle of the 80s Kolkata was already a dead city as Rajiv Gandhi had pointed out. Then in the middle of the Nineties, the so-called Left fascists realized very partially though the mistakes they had made and tried to change industrial and commercial policies to woo back investment. But even before new investment could really take off, the Dog in the Manger politics took over and investments began to be stalled or driven out. Today, almost all other major Indian states and state capitals are far ahead of West Bengal and Kolkata in every sphere. Today it is a city of ghosts living in the past – of the glorious days that Kolkata had once enjoyed – its inhabitants have become kupomanduks – frogs in the well – who cannot think beyond Kolkata and never care to find out what is happening even in neighbouring states like Odisha, Bihar or Jharkhand leave alone the more developed states of Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. One type of Fascists have been replaced by another type. The intelligentsia has been driven out of the state. West Bengal and Kolkata have now become backward in almost every sphere compared to other states – and today there is neither industrial capital nor human capital to revitalize this moribund state of affairs. Debates about Kolkata’s glory – past, present or future – are puerile because the basic ingredients for change, vibrancy and robust growth – industrial and human capital – is missing in the state. Unless the state is again able to woo back both industrial and human capital, Kolkata can only remain a dead city, a city of ghosts living entirely in the past!
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 18:01:40 +0000
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