Apart from the growth of the colonial town in the 19th
century, Calcutta has been largely an unplanned city whose
civic amenities have not been overhauled in response to the
population explosion. This unprecedented growth and its attendant
problems have been compounded by other factors. Poverty and
deprivation bred a new radicalism in politics from the 1950s
onwards. West Bengal, as Bengal came to be known after Partition,
produced one of the most powerful communist movements in the
country.
In 1967, a government led by the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) came to power , leading to another period of great
turmoil in the state in the form of militant trades union
agitations against industrialists and management. The consequences
was a transference of investment to other states, starving
Calcutta of new resources. This paucity of wealth and capital
was reflected in the decline of the city’s infrastructure,
and it seemed to many observers at the time that Calcutta
indeed had a memorable past, but little future to talk about.
Communist rule also differentiated West Bengal from the national
mainstream in which the Congress party held ultimate control.
There was a growing perception among Bengali politicians that
the Central Congress Government in New Delhi discriminated
against West Bengal in the allocation of development funds
because of its political complexion. Whatever the truth of
this, it has undeniably been a driving force in politics in
post-Independence Bengal. This allegation, and the force that
it carries, is an indication of Bengal’s, and therefore
Calcutta’s, marginalization. Unable to generate its
own resources, a rot has set in. Calcutta has also been unable
to come to terms with the harsh reality of having lost its
position as India’s most influential city. The relegation
of Calcutta from the status of India’s premier city
was perhaps only to be expected since, as a city of the British
Raj, and with the fading of the empire to which Calcutta was
so intrinsically linked, events on the wider canvas of India
were bound to become more eminent.
In the 1960s, Calcutta was also to become the nerve centre
of the most extreme form of radical politics. Left-wing students
of Calcutta came to be increasingly disillusioned with the
growing involvement of the established communist parties with
electoral politics. In 1966, there was an armed insurrection
of peasants and landless laborers in the north of Bengal at
Naxalbari, stirring waves of excitement among radical students
in Calcutta, who saw in the uprising an alternative to the
existing trends in communist politics.
The global context was also significant. This was the period
of the Cultural Revolution in China, from which the students
of Calcutta drew direct inspiration. It was also the time
which saw the Vietcong launch their major Tet offensive against
America troops in Vietnam, while student radicalism and opposition
to authority ignited Paris and universities in the Western
world. Calcutta once again came to the forefront in India
by accepting and disseminating avant garde ideas from the
West College Street, reminiscent of the days of “Young
Bengal” in the early 19th century, again became the
scene of mass iconoclasm. The targets were the once-revered
names of the 19th –century Bengali pantheon. Statues
of Rammohun Roy and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar were defaced
and decapitated. They, along with all the other nationalist
heroes, were debunked as collaborators with the British and
betrayers of the people of India. Educational institutions,
especially Presidency College, became the scene of pitched
battles between, on the one hand, students armed with Molotov
cocktails and, on the other, the police.
The original inspiration of the movement was an armed peasant
uprising, but within a short space of time it degenerated
into petty urban terrorism which targeted innocent police
constables. The movement called itself Maoist, pledging fealty
to China’s Chairman Mao. Bloodshed, yet again, became
a daily reality on the streets of Calcutta. The movement was
suppressed with ruthless violence by the police and mercenaries
between 1970 and 1972. Thousands of students and young men
and women, who had been spurred on by idealism, were shot
or jailed and tortured. These were bizarre and tragic years
for Calcutta, falling into a city of terror, losing its old
world charm and virtually all its tourist traffic. In consequence,
almost all the international airlines withdrew their services
from the city. The violence and bloodshed seemed to have dealt
the city its coup de grace. If , in spite of all this turmoil,
Calcutta can still evoke the strongest possible loyalties
from its citizens, then it is because of the city’s
perennial philosophical zest for life and reservoir of humor.
In the midst of the mayhem, the people of Calcutta went about
their business with an admirable stoicism, though this was,
it is important to mention, not through a sense of fatalism,
bravado o deja vu. The tenacity of the Calcuttan is perhaps
related to his or her perception that political turmoil and
economic development are mere ripples on the surface of the
expansive ocean. The undercurrents of culture and creativity
run deeper and provide the city with its unique character.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, a period of great upheaval, noteworthy
achievements in literature, drama and the cinema came to the
surface.
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