The encounter with western enlightenment engendered a literary
transformation which made Calcutta the cultural capital of
India. New forms of literary creation based on the western
model, including the prose novel form, were written in Bengali,
in poetry, epics in the Miltonic style were composed; journals
and newspapers were edited and produced. The Bengali language
was standardized and given the form in which it is read and
spoken to this day. A flourishing Bengali theatre was born
which adapted some of the modern forms of drama and stage
technique. The elite which masterminded this efflorescence
was cosmopolitan in character, imbued with the confidence
that it would be able to meet the West on its own terms and
even supercede it. This elite was entirely cut off from the
means of production; industrial investment being held exclusively
in the hands of the British. In the first half of the 19th
century Bengali entrepreneurs like Dwarakanath Tagore, the
grandfather of the poet Rabindranath, ventured into a wide
range of business activities which culminated with his career
in ruins. Capital in the hands of Bengali entrepreneurs was
mostly invested in landed property, which had been made secure
by the Permanent Settlement of 1973. The wealthy bought themselves
landed estates and lived opulent lives as absentee landlords.
These changes transformed the population of Calcutta into
a unique amalgam. On one side was the white population, viewing
themselves as racially superior and living a sequestered life.
The native population was partitioned into indolent landlords
with their mistresses and ostentatious lifestyle, and the
literati, absorbed in the pursuit of excellence in the diverse
fields of art and science. The city also had its growing number
of professionals, especially lawyers and doctors; and, at
the bottom of the social ladder, Calcutta’s mass of
laboring poor with their own culture, traditions and way of
life. Their numbers were swollen in the second half of the
19th century by the surge of migrants from rural Bihar in
search of jobs in a burgeoning Calcutta.
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