Oh Calcutta! The city that defined the right to protest |
The 1960s were the decade of rage in Calcutta. Naxalite violence had reached the city. Not a day passed without multiple processions choking the streets. Army trucks with wary jawans behind mounted machine guns patrolled in slow motion. Intermittent slogans emerged from the lanes. Elected governments were being over-thrown every few weeks or, at the most, months.
One could say civic unrest was built into the DNA of the city. In the 19th century, Calcutta was not just the capital of British India, it was also the site of battle between Hindu orthodoxy and western education, between ancient beliefs and exciting new ideas like liberty, equality and fraternity. Printing presses mushroomed, churning out countless books, pamphlets and polemical tracts in English, Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages that carried these ideas to the literate.
As early as in 1818, progressive leaders like Rammohan Roy challenged the status quo through newspapers, fighting both colonial apologists and the powerful Hindu orthodoxy. Christian missionaries condemned Hinduism for its obscurantist customs and the air was electric, taut with tension. Textbook societies, libraries, literary associations, reformist organisations and political associations sprang up. Educated Bengalis increasingly learned to challenge government policies through petitions, public meetings and journalism.
One of the earliest demonstrations of this new political culture erupted in 1905, with Viceroy Lord Curzon’s declaration of the ‘Partition of Bengal’. Outraged Bengalis took to the streets, including Rabindranath Tagore, with his stirring songs. On 7 August 1905, the Swadeshi movement was formally launched from the Calcutta Town Hall; in Banaras, the Indian National Congress gave its clarion call to boycott British cloth and goods.
Within weeks, Calcutta resounded with........