Calcutta Poor: Elegies on a City Above Pretense

363 Pages·1997·1.74 MB·English

by  Frederic C. Thomas

Page iii
Calcutta Poor
Elegies on a City above Pretense
Frederic C. Thomas
An East Gate Book
M.E. Sharpe
Armonk, New York
London, England
Calcutta Poor : Elegies On a City Above
title:
Pretense
author: Thomas, Frederic C.
publisher: ME Sharpe, Inc.
isbn10 | asin: 1563249812
print isbn13: 9781563249815
ebook isbn13: 9780585026565
language: English
Poor--India--Calcutta, Economic assistance,
subject
Domestic--India--Calcutta.
publication date: 1997
lcc: HV4140.C34T45 1997eb
ddc: 362.5/0954/147
Poor--India--Calcutta, Economic assistance,
subject:
Domestic--India--Calcutta.
Page iv
An East Gate Book
Copyright © 1997 by M. E. Sharpe, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
form without written permission from the publisher, M. E. Sharpe,
Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504.
All photographs by Frederic C. Thomas
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Frederic C.
Calcutta poor: elegies on a city above pretense / Frederic C. Thomas.
p. cm.
"An East Gate book."
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-56324-981-2 (hard).
1. PoorIndiaCalcutta.
2. Economic assistance, DomesticIndia Calcutta.
I. Title
HV4140.C34T45 1996
362.5'0954' 147dc20
96-35877
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-
1984.
BM(c) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
Contents
Preface vii
(Photographs follow page 61)
Introduction 3
Impressions 9
Black Town and the City of 15
Palaces
Bhadralok and the Genteel Poor 25
Refugees and Migrants 35
Slums and Squatters 49
Bustees from Within 63
Improving the Bustees 75
Caste and Occupational Niches 91
Providing Livelihoods 109
Mobilizing the Community 123
Slum Politics 141
The Intractability of Urban 153
Poverty
Notes 167
Bibliography 173
Index 183

Page vii
Preface
With growing numbers of poor in their cities, developing countries
face increasing difficulty in offering living standards consistent with
the expectations of modern life. In this regard Calcutta is often seen as
the classic case of urban failure. The city is notorious for its
povertyperhaps unfairly so. Its sidewalk dwellers, street children, and
scavengers have become a cliché for the worst in human degradation.
Meanwhile, comparatively little attention has been paid to Calcutta's
experience in addressing the needs of its poorest citizens.
Both a historical and an anthropological perspective are needed.
Present-day conditions must be seen against the backdrop of the city's
history. Neighborhood studies focusing on the immediate context in
which people live are essential, of course. But the lessons that emerge
from these studies are rarely heeded by politicians and planners
attuned to different agendas and citywide solutions. The observations
tend to be too anecdotal and relativistic to be of much practical use,
unless placed in a broader policy framework. Also, such studies are
often frozen in time, so that little is known of the dynamics of poverty
and what the future will be like. To do more than simply enrich the
senses,
Page viii
ethnographies must reach theoretical conclusions while at the same
time not blotting out the rich detail of everyday life. Otherwise, there
is the risk, as in many theoretical studies, that poverty becomes an
abstraction, and the recalcitrant facts and ambiguities that are exposed
at the neighborhood level are left largely unexplained.
This study attempts to bridge this gap. It is not about the urban
development of Calcutta, on which there is already a vast body of
literature. Nor is it an in-depth study of a particular slum for the
purpose of extrapolating experience which might have more general
application and provide broad insights and lessons. The diversity of
Calcutta's population (castes, creeds, natives, and migrants) and the
variety of slum environments (multistory tenements, bustees, refugee
colonies, squatter settlements, sidewalks) would limit the value of any
attempt at generalization on the basis of a particular slum.
This study describes the living and working conditions of Calcutta's
poor in an effort to get beyond generalities and better understand the
practical realities of impoverishment. It draws heavily on
investigations done by others. In dealing with its poverty, Calcutta has
had a long experience which should be looked at critically to
determine the extent to which solutions are possible and, conversely,
the extent to which certain forms of poverty may be perversely
immune to treatment.
To do this, I have reviewed much of the literature, including many
unpublished papers. On several occasions since the late 1970s I have
made one-and two-month visits to Calcutta and have met with
municipal officials, representatives of charitable organizations,
researchers, businessmen, and bustee leaders. To acquire a street-level
perspective and avoid overly theoretical speculation, I have spent
many hours walking through different slums, observing activities
taking place in the labyrinth of alleys and courtyards and talking
informally to the people I met. A rudimentary command of Bengali
was of great help in establishing contact and in validating the sincerity
of my interest. This study, in short, stems more from a pleasurable and
spontaneous
Page ix
process of confirming and supplementing the oral and written
observations of others than from any rigorous process of participant
observation or structured interviews.
Acknowledgments
My investigations would not have been possible without the valuable
help I received from many persons in Calcutta. I am especially
indebted to Sudhendu Mukherjee, who first introduced me to the
bustees in 1978 and inspired me to pursue the subject further. I also
want to thank those who shared with me their valuable insights and
experience in dealing with Calcutta's poor and provided me with
personal papers and studies which would not have been otherwise
available. In this respect, I should particularly mention Mohammed
Alamgir, Nirmala Banerjee, Tapan Banerjee, Mohit Bhattacharya,
Bimalesh Bhattacharya, A.N. Bose, Eliana Chaudhuri, Samir
Chaudhuri, Ashin Das, Prabhat R. Das, Abhijit Dasgupta, Biplad
Dasgupta, Leslie Green, Animesh Halder, Vijay Jagannathan,
Purnendu Jha, Raj M. Kapoor, M.S. Maitra, Rabial Mallick, Bijli
Mallik, Braz Menezes, Madhu Mishra, Shourabh Mukerji, D.K. Roy,
Kalyan Roy, Subhankar Roy, Asok Sen, Jai Sen, and K.C.
Sivaramakrishnan. For her kindness and endless patience in teaching
me Bengali, I express my sincere gratitude to Aditi Sen.
I am happy to acknowledge the grant support provided by the Richard
Lounsbery Foundation in New York and particularly wish to thank its
late President, Alan F. McHenry. My thanks go also to the Society for
Applied Anthropology, which sponsored my research, and to the
American Institute for Indian Studies, which facilitated my work in
Calcutta and helped me obtain official approval from the Government
of India. I am most appreciative to the Center for South Asian Studies
for their cooperation in providing access to the library facilities of the