Category Archives: Historical Links / Pre-Independence

Boundaries of Belief – A Durga Puja celebration across the India-Bangladesh border

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion
Academics specialising in Indo-Bangladesh relations consider the close ties between the border towns quite natural given their shared ethnic identity and Durga Puja’s importance in the Bengali community. SHREYA DUTTA

Taki in West Bengal is a town of green paddies and greener ponds on the banks of the Ichamati river separating India and Bangladesh. Like the rest of the state, it sees enthusiastic Durga Puja celebrations every year. The streets are lit up in canopies of fairy lights, Bengali songs and Bollywood hits blare from loudspeakers, and pandals, or marquees, compete for who carries the tallest, glossiest pratimas—idols—of the goddess Durga.

But what distinguishes Taki from other border towns is a particular tradition on the final day of the Puja. As its residents gear up for the immersion of idols, so do its counterparts in Satkhira, a district across the border in Bangladesh. The inhabitants of both towns place the pratimas in their respective boats and sail up to border security boats floating in middle of the river, along the international boundary. With a dozen metres between them, the two groups of neighbours wave at each other, exchange greetings and—with deafening shouts of “Aschche bochor abar hobe!”–Until next year!–immerse the idols together. For a day, citizens of the two countries, divided by geopolitics, come together to celebrate a shared heritage.

The practice of joint celebrations goes back several decades, Sridip Roy Choudhary, a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) worker, told me over tea and rasgullas when we met in late September 2017. Until the early 2000s, residents of both countries would cross the riverine boundary and dock in the neighbouring country to shop and socialise on the eve of visarjan—the day of immersion. “There would be a little mela on both sides,” Choudhary said. “We’d buy coconuts and sugarcane from there, they’d buy oil, soap and Boroline (antiseptic cream) from here.” Some people would even find a wedding match for their sons or daughters. His friend Subhas Pal, a 48-year-old LIC agent, recalled it as a time of fluid movement across the border. “I made a lot of friends in these visits across the border. Hindus or Muslims, they always treated me with the best of hospitality,” he said. “We’d fish in the ponds and have a feast after.” While those from Bangladesh made use of the medical facilities available in India, Indian visitors were keen on the cheap, “king-size” cigarettes of Bangladesh. And Pal added, these would not be bought, only bartered.

At 6 pm, the border guards would announce the end of the meeting-time. The residents would get into their respective boats and trawlers and return to their countries across the river. There were no passport-checks or entry pass for visitors. At its heart lay an implicit trust, according to Taki residents. The practice of an open-border tradition seems extraordinary now, with security concerns about cross-border terrorism, illegal immigration and cattle trade dominating the mainstream discourse. But academics specialising in Indo-Bangladesh relations consider the close ties between the border towns quite natural given their shared ethnic identity, the mutual practice of soft diplomacy and Durga Puja’s importance in the Bengali community.

“The Puja festivities have always been more social than religious affairs,” Somdatta Chakraborty, a research associate at Calcutta Research Group, told me over the phone. “Not only do Muslims participate in large numbers in the celebrations, most pandal-makers belong to the community.” Many villages along the border lie within shouting distance of each other, sometimes separated by a narrow mud path or shallow streams. Given their shared linguistic identity, it was not easy for many residents living in the border-towns to come to terms with the creation of East Pakistan in 1947 and, later, Bangladesh in 1971. Many had friends and relatives across the border—at times, in their backyards—and restrictions on free movement were often too much to bear.

According to Chakraborty, the Ray Chaudharys, an influential zamindar family, first began communal Durga Puja celebrations in Taki in the 1970s. As it grew in scale, visitors came from across the border for visarjan. “After the economic liberalisation of 1991 in India, people started coming in from Bangladesh for work,” she said. “Then in 1992, the Babri masjid demolition happened. In Kolkata, it prompted communal disturbances for the first time after 1947. This began to dilute the homogeneous Bengali identity.”

Beginning in 1989, the Indian side decided to fence its 4,098-kilometre border with Bangladesh. Thirty years later, the work remains half-finished. A 10-foot fence with concertina wires, and two-foot rock stumps for border-pillars, are visible along the border. The Border Security Forces, or BSF, did not fence the perimeter of the Ichamati river, since local livelihoods depended on it, but ramped up security and surveillance. They also erected watchtowers along the riverfront and floating outposts in the river. By the early 2000s, a day-long free pass across the border on visarjan had all but stopped.

In May 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress, led by the now-chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, swept the state assembly elections. The party, known for promoting better relations with Bangladesh, reportedly organised a Milan Mela—a festival to celebrate the immersion—in Taki, and it allowed for the relaxation of border norms on the day of visarjan. According to eyewitnesses and media reports, thousands allegedly trooped into India under the garb of festivities and boarded buses and trains to bigger cities in search of employment. There was a near-complete shutdown of immersion festivities for the next three years.

The BSF South Bengal Frontier, in charge of the security at the Taki border, refused to either confirm or deny that there had been any security lapses in 2011. Instead, a representative speaking for the BSF chief PSR Anjaneyulu told me, “Such an incident hasn’t happened in the past three to four years. Now it is very organised.” His reluctance to speak about the incident had a familiar ring to it: in a report published on Rediff.com in 2014, a security personnel in Taki told a journalist, “It’s an unpleasant memory that is buried. Let’s talk about today and tomorrow.”

When I attended the Taki visarjan in 2017, the diplomatic relations between the countries were at their least combative. Over the previous four years, India had resolved the administrative anomalies of its border enclaves and started a public border-retreat ceremony at the Petrapole-Benapole checkpoint, the highlight of which was the security personnel shaking hands before calling it a day, every day.

At Taki, the border forces of India and Bangladesh were alert but not intrusive, as they patrolled on steamers with guns, cameras and life-jackets. Thousands had turned up to witness the unique Puja celebrations along the leafy riverfront. Nearly a hundred boats chugged along the length of the Ichamati promenade, carrying revellers from both countries who clicked photos, soaked in the September drizzle and waved at their neighbours across the border. At 6 pm, the security forces announced that the celebrations should wind up. Over the next hour, their loudspeakers and flashlights led the boats back to the coast.

Pal was also among the revellers that day. “My only regret is that the next generation will never know of the joy we had experienced,” he said. “For us, visarjan was not about taking the pratima and throwing it into river. It was about making the journey to the other end, of interacting with people. The charm has now diminished. It now seems like a formality.”

I asked him what he missed the most about the border-crossing tradition. With a laugh, he said, “The free cigarettes, of course.”

The print version of this article mistakenly stated that India and Bangladesh had signed a pact for sharing the waters of the Teesta River. The Caravan regrets the error.

OMKAR KHANDEKAR is a journalist from Mumbai, and an alumnus of Cardiff University. His reporting from India, the Maldives and the United Kingdom has appeared in numerous publications, including The Caravan, Open and Scroll.

source: http://www.caravanmagazine.com / The Caravan / Home> The Lede – Community / by OmKar Khandekar / March 01st, 2018

Calcutta University’s digital collection goes online

Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All
Books at the University of Calcutta library are not accessible at the moment.

Now anybody, anywhere in the world, can access countless articles, journals and dissertations

In what can be seen as a sign of the times to come, when social distancing may just become the new normal, the University of Calcutta has placed the entire digital collection of its library online so that physical visits are no longer necessitated and the world at large benefits from it.

The decision of the University, set up in 1857, has placed in public domain countless articles, journals and dissertations, including issues of The Calcutta Review dating back to 1844 and Tagore Law Lectures dating back to 1870. Now anybody, anywhere in the world, can access them any time.

“We are living through a time of great uncertainty, owing to the global coronavirus pandemic. To cope with regulations of social distancing and lockdown, our teachers have initiated online teaching. They have also been regularly uploading study materials on the university website. In this spirit of online education, the university has also decided to open up free access to its digital collections. These would be accessible through the university website, www.culibrary.ac.in,” Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee said in a circular.

Two major reasons

“There are two major reasons underlying our decision. The first is our responsibility to our students and our faculty, whose education and research have been obstructed by the prohibition on physical access to the library collections.

“The second is our responsibility, as a public institution, to the citizenry as well as the world at large,” Ms. Chakravarti Banerjee said.

“Education is a public good; and the necessity and value of academic research increases, more than ever, if our society is to recover from the crisis.

“As a public university, we feel that it is our responsibility to make our digital collections part of a global academic commons, to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge beyond borders,” she said.

Till now, the library facilities and resources, including digital collections, were primarily accessible to users within the university campus.

Now, the digitised collection of full-text materials has been made accessible for free reading — from any part of the world.

“The University of Calcutta feels honoured to contribute to the communing of cultural-educational resources; and thus to strengthen the global networks of cooperation and solidarity through which alone we shall be able to recover as a planetary community,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

According to a senior university official, this decision to make the library’s digital content public, even though prompted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, would, in all probability, continue to hold good even after the lockdown is lifted.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Bishwanath Ghosh / Kolkata – May 06th, 2020

Rediscovering the Parsis of Calcutta

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

New Delhi (IANS) :

It began with author Prochy N. Mehta”s grandchildren being barred from Kolkata”s sole fire temple and culminated in a meticulously researched book on the role of prominent Parsis and the community at large in various aspects of the city”s growth in diverse areas over the years.

“My grandchildren were going to the only fire temple in Kolkata (the Late D.B. Mehta”s Zoroastrian Anjuman Atash Adaran) with us. In 2015, the newly appointed Head Priest phoned and requested us not to bring my daughter Sanaya”s children to the fire temple. On asking why, I was told that the (temple”s) Trust Deed is sacrosanct,” Mehta, author of “Pioneering Parsis Of Calcutta” (Niyogi Books), told IANS in an email interview.

“This started my search into the past. The Trust Deed is dated 1915, but no one today has any recall of us Parsis of that time, of the community in Calcutta, and what they fought for and believed in,” Mehta, one of just 420 Parsis in Kolkata, said. The community has seen zero growth in the last three years as there have been no births.

“Sanaya is married to a non-Parsi. Her children were visiting the fire temple till 2015 We have an Originating Summons in the Calcutta High Court asking for interpretation of the Trust Deed. That is why I studied the Trust Deed and unearthed information. We can now interpret the Deed with this new information. The fire temple trustees are not opposed to it.

“Every family in Calcutta has children who have intermarried. In the last three years, all marriages are intermarriage. They do not want to take a decision in case people point fingers at them saying it”s being done as they are in a similar situation. If the court rules that would decide the issue (but the case is still pending),” Mehta explained.

Mehta elaborates on the issue in the Preface.

“I had no illusions. What I was taking on is what every religion faces at some state: the fear of change. Any change from the norm upsets someone of the other. Sometimes, change comes about because there are enough people to force the change through. Sometimes, the silent majority want the change but do not have the time, means or patience to make it come about. I felt I had all three. More importantly, I wouldn”t allow my daughter”s children to be treated any differently than the children of my son,” Mehta writes.

This initial curiosity turned into a voyage of discovery, which changed her perception of her community and awoke in her an intense pride in the Parsi stalwarts of yesteryear. Mehta”s meticulous research reaped rich dividends as she slowly dusted off the cobwebs of history that revealed the pioneering Parsis” arduous journey to Kolkata, their forward thinking, their broad-minded approach, their willingness to give and to improve the lives of all around them.

These extraordinary Parsi men and women played a prominent role in society by taking upon themselves the responsibility of helping one and all, regardless of class, caste, creed, or colour. Their ability in business and faith in the future was matchless. These early Parsis were not afraid of taking on the establishment and fought publicly to resolve disputes where the orthodox members were unwilling to give the reformists their way.

“I try to trace the history of the Parsis, as there is no recorded history of the Parsis in India, except for a poem the Kissa-e-Sanjan written in 1599 by a priest, Boman Kekobad,” Mehta told IANS.

“An interesting fact is that we had forgotten our religion till Changa Asha (the leader of the Parsis in Navsri) found a group of Parsis in about 1490 living amongst the Hindus as a tribe following Hindu customs and way of life. Till today, the World Zoroastrian Organisation is finding such co-religionists living in poverty in the villages of Gujarat and seeks to rehabilitate them.,” Mehta elaborated.

To turn to the pioneers, the book says Rustumji Banaji may have been the most prominent man in Bengal in the 1800s; owner of Kidderpore and Salkia docks, master ship builder, pioneer in banking, insurance, social service, social reform, and shipping. But alas, forgotten today.

Many of the pioneer Parsis of Bombay had their early roots in Kolkata: Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy; Nusserwanji Cowasji Petit; Dinshaw Petit; Framji Banaji (brother of Rustumji Banaji); the Wadia family of shipbuilders; Meherwanji Mehta, father of Phirozshaw Mehta; Khurshedji Cama; Dadabhoy Navroji; Jamshedji Madan (father of Indian cinema); and Dorab Mehta (Meherwanji”s brother), who had done extensive charitable work for the city of Navsari.

Then there were the nationally famous Parsis who belonged to Calcutta, but were forgotten by us. D.N. Wadia, the world famous geologist; Erach Bhiwandiwala, the artist; A.C. Ardeshir and his famous horse, Ethics; and Dr Irach Taraporewala, who translated the Gathas and wrote the Divine Songs of Zarathusthra.

And then there was the Tata family connected through marriage with the (DB) Mehta family. Jamshedji and Dhunjibhoy Mehta met at Dadabhai Navroji”s home in England, where they purchased machinery for their cotton mills, Empress Mills, Nagpur, and Empress of India Mills at Srirampur. Dhunjibhoy”s grandson, Phiroze Sethna, and Jamshedji”s son, Ratan, married the daughters of Ardesher Sett, Navaz, and Banoo. This must have sealed the bond of friendship among the families, the book says.

(Vishnu Makhijani can be reached at vishnu.makhijani@ians.in)

–IANS

vm/rt

source: http://www.outlookindia.com / Outlook / Home> The News Scroll / by IANS / May13th, 2020

India’s first municipal archive

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All

The digitised municipal archive was launched in 2017 with copies of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette

A 1927 edition of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette / File photo by Subhasish Bhattacharjee

Calcutta’s East-West Metro line, the same that will connect Howrah and Dalhousie Square, was conceived nearly a hundred years ago by the British. “An expert had come down from London in 1924,” informs Deepankar Ganguly, who helms the Calcutta Municipal Corporation archives. He continues, “According to the original plan [which is to be found among the archival gems] too, a portion of the stretch was to run under the Hooghly river.”

The digitised municipal archive was launched in 2017 with copies of the Calcutta Municipal Gazette. The gazette’s founder-editor was Amal Home, who had been handpicked by Subhas Chandra Bose when he was the CEO of the civic body. “The gazette blossomed with all kinds of writings and contributions from within India and abroad,” says Ganguly. So you have Mahatma Gandhi writing on khadi and C.V. Raman on music. But primarily, the gazette carried news of municipalities across the globe.

Amal Home, Editor, Calcutta Municipal Gazette / File photo by Parimal Goswami

One such issue from 1931 is titled “Raman Number”. Among other things it contains the speech the physicist delivered at the Calcutta Town Hall. It reads: “A hot day in June is not an opportune moment to enter upon praise of the physical climate of Calcutta. But from the point of view of research, there is something more important than the physical climate, and that is the intellectual climate… For a hundred years, Calcutta has been the intellectual metropolis not only of Bengal, or of India, but of the whole of Asia.” The same issue has a clip about a Captain T.A. Joyce of the British Museum who had returned to London after an expedition in the British Honduras, where he possibly unearthed the ruins of a Maya civilisation; the third anniversary of Paikpara library; and an advertisement by the health department of the Delhi Municipality seeking tenders for rat traps.

Encouraged by the then mayor of Calcutta and a generous grant, Ganguly and his team of three digitised all gazettes between 1924 and 1975. But as he himself points out, an archive cannot constitute editions of the gazette alone.

In the days and weeks that followed, Ganguly started to digitise the 1,000-plus books, documents and maps that were in possession of the civic body and would have ended in the rubbish bin for sure. Gradually, rare civic body related documentation procured from elsewhere also found place in the archive index.

An archive is not an archive. It is like Sleeping Beauty waiting to come alive at The Heritage Enthusiast’s touch. Even a cursory scroll down the corporation archives’ online index conjures a different time, different places, a variety of issues. Somerset county’s war on T.B.: 1925. Program of Nutrition education in New York city area: 1946. Public health protection in Soviet Russia: 1946. Paris Street accidents: 1925. Municipal election in Rome: 1947. Tokyo municipality gherao by workers’ union demanding higher pay: 1946.

The bare bones of history mean different things to different people. When Gary Stringer and Ayesha Mukherjee of the UK’s Exeter University visited the archives, they were surprised at a detailed handcrafted map of Subeh Bangla from the 18th century that they were shown. Stringer offered to lend expertise to enlarge the map digitally to reveal details the naked eye could neither see nor appreciate.

Ganguly talks about an incident from the 1946 Direct Action Day that is recorded in the municipal archives. It seems when riots broke out in Calcutta, Tagore’s sister found herself in the crosshairs of the unrest. That is when corporation councillor Haji Md Yousuf came to the rescue of her and the entire family. When this archival finding was reported, someone from the councillor’s progeny got in touch with Ganguly and requested that he be allowed to see the report.

The longish room on the top floor of the CMC building in central Calcutta is teeming with nuggets. How way before Independence, the electric train was thought of by the British, but was axed by the coal syndicate. How the corporation commissioned one Bipin Behari Das to make three motor cars by hand. How one of them is to be found at the Banaras Hindu University. A photograph of Das’s workshop at 100 Bondel Road also exists. A six-line advertisement Tagore wrote for Tisco is to be found, as also news of a member of the Birla clan celebrating a marriage in the family by building a block for Calcutta University. And among the collection of advertisements is one of Dunlop selling pneumatic tyres for bullock carts.

Ganguly praises current mayor Firhad Hakim and his predecessor Sovan Chatterjee for supporting the initiative. A flip through the guest book reveals that the archive has got the attention of researchers from Dhaka to Cornell. It is a fact that as the first municipal archive in India, it has built some sort of a reputation. But as to whether the rest of the city is aware of the riches it has in its midst, there is serious doubt.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> West Bengal / by Upala Sen / March 15th, 2020

British officer with Calcutta ties raises £15m

Amazing Feats, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, World Opinion

‘You’ve all got to remember that we will get through it in the end’

Captain Tom Moore at his home in Marston Moretaine, England, on Thursday after he completed 100 laps of his garden and raised £15 million for the NHS.(AP)

Captain Tom Moore, a former British army officer who served in Calcutta during World War II, had intended to raise £1,000 for the NHS by marking his 100th birthday on April 30 by doing 100 laps of the 25-metre loop in the garden of his home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, in 10-lap segments.

But by the time Moore, aided by his walking frame, had completed his mission on Thursday morning, donations from 620,000 people in 53 countries had taken the total on his fundraising page to over £15m — a record for a single campaign on “JustGiving”.

It is all a long time since his days in India. Moore was conscripted into the British Army in June 1940 when he was 20, and began his military career in Otley, West Yorkshire, where he joined the 8th Battalion, the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment under Lieutenant Lord George Saville.

This might explain why, when donations hit £10 million late on Wednesday night, Moore tweeted “Virtutis Fortuna Comes” — the Latin motto of the Duke of Wellington which means “fortune is the companion of virtue”.

In October 1941, his unit was posted to Bombay, with the sea voyage, via Cape Town, taking six weeks. He took a train to Poona and joined the 50th Indian Tank Brigade, where he was asked by his commander to start a motorcycling course for the Brigade because of his expertise in the sport.

He was next ordered to move to his base in Calcutta — the journey during the monsoons took three weeks — and later took part in two exercises in the Arakan before moving to Rangoon.

After all in his background, he probably thought his walk in England, even at 99, was a bit of a doddle.

Still, among those who applauded his fundraising achievement was Ben Stokes, Wisden’s cricketer of the year, who said: “The funds you have raised for the real heroes (in the NHS) are just sensational.”

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said Moore’s “extraordinary” efforts “goes to show the British spirit is as strong as it’s ever been”, while the health secretary Matt Hancock remarked, “This is an awful crisis, but there are some little shafts of light…. He’s served his country in the past and he’s serving his country now, both raising that money for the NHS, but also cheering us all up.”

From his home, Michael Ball, a well-known singer, offered a rousing rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

As the sprightly dressed 99-year-old, with his medals gleaming in the spring sunshine, finished his mission, there were TV cameras and journalists to record the occasion plus four soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment to give him a ceremonial salute.

An emotional Captain Moore, then revealed that he had postponed his 100th birthday party and that after a short rest he would resume his walk.

He added an uplifting message to people in Britain and beyond: “You’ve all got to remember that we will get through it in the end, it will all be right but it might take time. All the people are finding it difficult at the moment, but the sun will shine again and the clouds will go away.”

He said that NHS workers on the frontline “deserve everything we can give them”, and that “I’ve always been one for having a future, I always think things will be good. We’ve fought so many battles and we’ve always won and we’re going to win again.”

www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> World / by Amit Roy in London / April 17th, 2020

Forgotten hero of a forgotten battle

Amazing Feats, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

A 36-year old schoolmaster and his disciples, challenged the tyranny of the British Raj, and for a few glorious days, threw off the yoke of imperial servitude.

Suresh Chandra Dey

Chennai :

A 36-year old schoolmaster and his disciples, challenged the tyranny of the British Raj, and for a few glorious days, threw off the yoke of imperial servitude. They paid a heavy price. But a tinder had been struck, and a group of young Bengali men and women had briefly managed to attack and capture British strongholds. I am referring to the little-known saga of the Chittagong Armoury Raid and the ensuing Battle of Jalalabad Hills, led by ‘Masterda’ Surya Kumar Sen, former president of the Indian National Congress’ Chittagong branch.

My grandfather Suresh Chandra Dey was one of the 65 members of the Chittangong branch of the Indian Republic Army, who raided the local armoury and cut off the communication systems to isolate the important port city. A few days later, a regiment of more than 20,000 British troops struck back. During this fierce battle, my grandfather was shot. He managed to survive the injury and was helped by his comrade Shanti Nag, who carried him down the hill to safety.

Dey was eventually arrested and jailed without a trial, incarcerated as a political prisoner. When his tormentors could not extract information from him through coercion and torture, they tried bribing him, offering to send him to England and fund his higher studies as a barrister.

He did not give in and was eventually released and placed under house arrest. So much so, when my grandfather wed my grandmother Kironmoyee Dey, it was in the presence of British soldiers. He then made his way westward, and eventually founded a the first Sreeleathers store in Jamshedpur in 1952.

My grandfather had chosen to dedicate his life to the idea of an independent India. But the pocket of earth on which he and his comrades bled into was cleaved away at partition, first as East Pakistan and then as Bangladesh.

It falls upon all of us to remember our forebears, and cherish the country that was founded on the blood sacrifice of so many forgotten heroes.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Rijuta Dey Bera / Express News Service / April 23rd, 2020

Boston Ice Party

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Two hundred years ago, after 20 failed attempts, the first consignment of ice arrived in Calcutta from Massachusetts

Blocks of ice for sale in a market in India. / Shutterstock

This was not very long ago, but a period that may well now be time stamped as BC or Before Corona. The exhibits at the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre in south Calcutta were arranged in a certain way to present the history of ice in the city — yes, it wasn’t such a taken-for-granted item as it came to be.

The photographs on display were pickings from Fulbright-Nehru Scholar Christine Rogers’s research. Exhibit 1, a black-and-white-photo of a young man driving a rickshaw laden with blocks of ice through the streets of Calcutta. “The boy is carrying the ice to the fish market. It is a photo from present-day Calcutta,” said Rogers. The second exhibit, a photograph of commercial projects of snow parks that are now being created for entertainment. The third, people sitting on the banks of the Hooghly where the ice used to be downloaded after it arrived all the way from the US.

Once upon a time, ice was a rare commodity, procured all the way from America. The exhibition, in consonance with Rogers’ talk, is a detailed history of ice trade in India. The now, followed by the then.

In the 19th century, the British army in India and people in the administration found it difficult to cope with the intense tropical summer. In a letter dated May 1833, Daniel Wilson, the fifth Bishop of Calcutta and the man who built St. Paul’s Church, writes to his family in England: “The weather is perfectly suffocating. None can pity us but those who know our suffering.”

Wilson’s immediate predecessor had not been able to endure the extreme temperatures and had died in office. Thus, to ease things for their own, the East India Company set about arranging for a regular supply of ice for all seasons.

Those days, what was available in the market was “Hooghly ice”. It used to come from Chinsurah in the winter months and was so named because it was made from the river’s waters. Said Rogers, “This ice was filthy and more like slush. It was made by freezing water in shallow pits and was dirty and unfit for drinking. This was not the kind of ice that the British were looking for.”

In 1833, a businessman in Boston, Frederic Tudor, arrived in Calcutta in a large vessel stacked with ice. Bringing ice to India was no easy task, not even for as enterprising a fellow as Tudor. According to Rogers, he failed 20 times before he met with any success. The challenge was to keep the ice from melting the entire length of the two-month journey to Calcutta and thereafter.

Tudor was not in this project alone; he partnered with Nathaniel J. Wyeth, a supplier of ice and a businessman. Together, the two cracked issues such as the technology of cutting ice, thereby making large-scale ice exports from Massachusetts possible. The two evolved the technique of harnessing horses to a two-blade ice cutter to cut more ice in less time.

David G. Dickason writes in his book, The Nineteenth-Century Indo-American Ice Trade, how Tudor took up this project only because he was in dire need of money after failing to dominate the global coffee market. Dickason writes: “He inaugurated his India venture only after experiencing a desperate need for adequate cash flows and profits in order to repay enormous debts incurred through his misadventures in coffee.”

With ice, Tudor got lucky. He was based in Massachusetts that had the requisite climate for producing natural ice in excess. Ice was cut from the Walden Pond, a lake there, where pure ice was easily found. Also, the Boston port was close by.

In 1847, when American essayist, poet and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, was staying near the Walden Pond, he witnessed the cutting of ice. In one of his essays titled “The Pond In Winter”, he writes: “Thus it appears that the sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well.”

The route was a long one. The ice, according to records, would be covered with fly ash and salt and then packed in jute to keep it from melting. Tudor earned such grand profits from Calcutta the next two decades that he came to be known as the Ice King.

The trade continued for almost 50 years. The price of the ice was only 4 annas per pound (one pound equals half a kilo), much cheaper than Chinsurah ice. It later came down to 2 annas per pound.

Records show that the ice was hugely in demand during that period and it had to be rationed at times as the ships were delayed and there would be a crunch. In fact, people had to produce a doctor’s certificate to get the ice. The British living in Calcutta even raised funds to set up an icehouse to preserve the cargo. Around this time, many Bengali businessman also got involved in the trade.

Rajinder Dutta was one of the pioneers of ice trade in Calcutta. His progeny, living in central Calcutta today, however, has no related documentation. Sanat Kumar Ghosh, who is one of the eighth generation Duttas, rattles off names of some others who eventually joined the trade — the Debs of DarjiPara in north Calcutta, Chhatu Babu and Latu Babu, and the Mitters.

“Rajinder Dutta was more famous as a homeopath. He had treated Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, the Maharaja of Jaipur and also Raja Naba Krishna Deb of Calcutta,” says Ghosh as he hands over a book titled History of Homeopathy in India in the 19th Century. The book has a few lines on ice trade too. It reads: “In 1836, 12,000 tonnes of ice was shipped to Calcutta and 10 years later, the figure spiralled to 65,000 tonnes.”

That day at the Jadunath Bhavan Museum, Rogers spoke at length about how ice was transported to Madras and Bombay from Calcutta. Dickason also notes how eventually ice came to be used by Indians too. It was used to preserve food, for refrigeration, in drinks. Rounding up he wrote: “Even Hindoos, otherwise so scrupulous, do not hesitate to mix the frozen waters of America with the sacred stream of Gunga, whilst the stricktest Mohummudans use it with unlimited freedom (sic).”

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Heritage / by Moumita Chaudhari / March 29th, 2020

An acclaimed Bengali pulp fiction writer turns a voyeuristic eye on the secrets of Calcutta by night

About Kolkata / West Bengal, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel

Epicentre of the renaissance and reform by day, the city was den of shocking behaviour by night, according to Hemendra Kumar Roy’s ‘Calcutta Nights’.

Clyde Waddell / Public Domain

In these times of social distancing, Calcutta Nights , a recently translated crisp vintage work from 1923, beams up from the past the whole human mess of city life as we may fail to experience for a long time now – enticing , contagious with its mirth, sorrow and decadence, yet ultimately safe. Calcutta-ness is both a cult and a code.

That Calcutta, totem pole of cult, is a distilled city, a Xanadu rich with local detail yet universal, contemporary yet not belonging to any particular period, a continuum of experience. No wonder then, that this wondrous city, simultaneous epicentre of renaissance, nationalism, reform movements and debauchery, should inspire city sketches, first made popular in the mid and late 19th century by the inimitable Hutum Pyachar Naksha. Decades later Hemendra Kumar Roy, prolific and popular author of detective fiction, adopted a nom de guerre to have a go at chronicling the scintillating night life of Calcutta in the 1920s.

If books were bordello windows, their sepia light beckoning, Calcutta Nights would be one such, quite literally. A salacious account of what the night unravels, the book takes you behind the scenes, reports on the microcosm of hedonism, the power plays, symbiotic relations, the intimacies of a prostitute with her regular customer, the paanwali bartering and trading with the police, the beggar, the opium-smoker. What sets this book apart is the flawed and reluctant author.

A warning, apparently

A prolific writer of detective fiction, primarily for children and young adults, Roy probably stumbled upon this diverse and rich material probably while researching for his more innocuous detective novels – armed with a stout stick, he says, and at great personal risk. Against his better judgment, he writes about city la nuit, worried and embarrassed about the task at hand, the adirasa or eroticism that he has failed to avoid while raising the curtains of hell.

In his introduction, he rushes to reassure his readers that none of them will find Calcutta Nights obscene. It is, rather, written with the noble intention of sounding a warning to “fathers of young girls and boys”. Our Meghnad Gupta, author in hiding, is no Samuel Pepys, the veritable diarist of 17th century London who wrote himself into his salacious scenes, boasting about his own ardour and peccadilloes.

The city Roy writes about is a city of men, consumed by men. In the author’s own words this book is “ written for an adult male audience,” a sweeping exclusion that predictably rankles this reviewer’s entitled, liberal, feminist bourgeoise self. Said outrage is difficult to cull at first. Then, as the book shines with its vivid portrayals, the puritan author becomes part of the setting and it is possible to turn the judging “gaze” right back at him, to see him in all his troubled light.

Here was an author writing about hedonism at a time when the wave of nationalism was peaking, his puritan acuity often criss-crossing with an awakening of socialism. His feelings about the women he writes about swing from condescension and humble misogyny (empathetic and damning at the same time – a tone often taken when writing about giants by the best of Bengali literary stars, Sarat Chandra Chatterjee included) to genuine insight.

Atmospheric ride

A pacy read, the depiction is vivid and colourful. Despite his protestations the author is clearly an insider – therein lies the strength and authenticity of this sketch. The description is atmospheric. Roy bring alive, with cinematic realism, the night in which “owls flutter away…and gradually the swarthy ugly faces begin to peep and snoop.”

And slowly Chitpur Road transforms itself – weary clerks disappear, the streets are filled with the scented babus, their faces aglow with Hazeline snow seeking verandthe a belles. Kapure babus, hothat-babus, ingo- bingos, the rich, the white, the Marwari, Chinese, European women of loose morals, courtesans of Chitpur, lustful ladies of Kalighat, the poor prostitute, the wanton widow – each scene, as the chapters are aptly called, presents to us a glossary of social categories.

One of the most striking sketches is that of the Bhikiripara or beggar’s quarters. There are fabulously sensational bits, revealing the author’s – Roy had translated Bam Stoker’s Dracula – penchant for the supernatural and the fantastic. Particularly recommended are scenes from the Nimtala Crematorium and the one featuring a prostitute who beckons men into her room where a dead man lies, his throat slit open.

Translator Rajat Chaudhuri craftily balances archaic words with new ones, never upsetting the tonal authenticity of a period piece. Ultimately he strikes the right cadence – the voice often changing as it travels from Chitpur bordellos to the jazzy evenings in the Anglo quarters or the dim Chinese taverns.

For its depiction of the crowded and dense interplay of lives in the Calcutta of those days, this book is a perfect curl-up for these epic-dammed solitary afternoons. A treasure trove for every city addict has been discovered.

Calcutta Nights, Hemendra Kumar Roy, translated from the Bengali by Rajat Chaudhuri, Niyogi Books

source: http://www.scroll.in / Scroll.in / Home> Book Review / by Lopa Ghosh / March 29th, 2020

J.B.S. Haldane: Iconoclast, adventurer and a man of science

Business & Economy, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

The book aptly presents the socio-economic background of Haldane, particularly his father role in shaping his young, curious and socially sensitive mind

J.B.S. Haldane / [Wikimedia Commons]

Samanth Subramanian’s book reveals a lot about the man who is its subject. It succeeds in conveying the multifaceted character of the protagonist, his dislike for conventional wisdom, his participation in World War I and the Spanish Civil War as well as his involvement in the British war effort during World War II and, of course, his pioneering contributions to the formative works of evolutionary genetics. Subramanian correctly points out that J.B.S. Haldane was a creative man full of new ideas who wrote many papers in reputed scientific journals. When he was not doing active science, he was busy writing about science for common people. The author also gives a lot of emphasis on the political work of Haldane which makes the book fascinating to read. It is rare to find such a vocal and politically active communist scientist in the history of science.

The book aptly presents the socio-economic background of Haldane, particularly the role played by his father in shaping the mind of the young, curious and socially sensitive Haldane.

Subramanian also succeeds in conveying the scientific nature of Haldane’s work which makes this book not only relevant to the general reader but also valuable for those interested in understanding the history of evolutionary genetics and biological sciences. This book is a good example of popular science writing and can be appreciated truly if the reader has an interest in the biological sciences.

To convey Haldane’s iconoclastic disposition, the author, at times, becomes a bit too harsh in his portrayal of the scientist’s idiosyncrasies and apparent lack of diplomatic skills. Creative minds often have their own set of idiosyncrasies and find social interactions difficult which reflects their complex thought processes.

A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane by Samanth Subramanian, Simon & Schuster, Rs 799Amazon

Haldane had a special relationship with India. At sixty-four, he preferred to leave England and settle down in India, a fact that is difficult to believe as sixty-four years is rarely perceived to be an age when someone chooses to start afresh in a different country with a completely different set of languages. He spent the last part of his life (1956-1964) with his wife in India. He became an Indian citizen and worked in the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta and later settled in Bhubaneswar. He left England at the height of the Suez crisis in 1956 because he thought his country was on the wrong side of history. For Haldane, India was a new dream, a dream of Nehruvian socialist nation-building, where he could chip in with his scientific knowledge to help the country produce good biologists. This part of Haldane’s life is well-documented in the book.

Subramanian has tried his best to convey the main scientific beliefs of Haldane by pointing out that he was one of the pioneers who tried to implement the ideas of heredity as propounded by Gregor Mendel in the study of natural evolution. The relationship between genetics and evolution became clearer in the works of Haldane and his contemporaries.

In describing the character of Haldane, Subramanian also conveys his feelings about the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is a recurring theme in this book as the protagonist was associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain for a long time and had played a role in the Lysenko affair. Subramanian describes the communist Haldane elegantly but fails to find anything positive in the Soviet Union. This is a bit strange. In this otherwise splendid book, Subramanian perhaps missed out the fact that if revolutionary Soviet Union, with all its faults, had not existed, then iconoclastic and adventurous scientists of the nature of Haldane, who fought for science and the liberation of the proletariat, may not even have existed on earth.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / by Kaushik Bhattacharya / April 10th, 2020

A glorious history of visual arts from east India

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, World Opinion

VISUAL ARTS: Ghare Baire is a grand exposition of Bengal art being held in Currency Building in BBD Bag

Assassinated, a painting by Prokash Karmakar / Delhi Art Gallery

Ghare Baire is a grand exposition of Bengal art being held in Currency Building in BBD Bag. It celebrates the glorious history of visual arts in this region of eastern India. It gently unfolds before one’s eyes as one perambulates through the galleries on the three floors where over 800 works are displayed. One can even go so far as to say that this is one of the best things that has happened in years in Calcutta’s stultified cultural space if one can forget the prime minister’s self-appointment as the head honcho of Bengal’s culture in his inaugural speech on January 11, and the mangled Bengali text accompanying the exhibits, that has since been rectified.

The massive project has been handled and financed by the Delhi Art Gallery. The National Gallery of Modern Art collaborated with it. Most of the art work came from DAG’s collection. The magnificent Currency Building constructed in 1868 has been restored by the Archaeological Survey of India. Ghare Baire is closed now, but according to a DAG statement, “As per our ongoing plans and talks with the Ministry of Culture, Ghare-Baire… is planned to be extended by a year, and that will be confirmed once we emerge from the current lockdown, by mid-April.” The introduction of the catalogue by Ashish Anand, CEO and managing director, DAG, drops a clanger. Rabindranath is referred to as thakurda. Hope that will be taken care of.

The exhibition begins with Frans Balthazar Solvyns’ prints of life in 18th century Calcutta hung along the staircase that leads to the first floor galleries with views of Calcutta by the Daniells, Henry Salt, and of Chittagong by James George. This is supplemented by other relevant material like maps and contemporary books. It is obvious that this is backed by solid research. This is the kind of museum that Calcutta needs to showcase Bengal as the crucible of Indian modernism.

This is the first — European Artists in Calcutta — of the 11 sections, the other 10 being: Early Indigenous Art, Realism and Academic Art in Bengal, Bengal School, Santiniketan: Charting Untrodden Courses, and Visualising Bengal Man-made famine, The Liminal Language of Bengal’s Modernists, India’s National Art Treasure Artists, Devi: Intrinsic to the City, Printmaking: Democratising Art, and lastly,

Modern Sculpture in Bengal on the ground floor. Another ground floor room is dedicated to Nemai Ghosh’s adulatory photographs of Satyajit Ray. This gives one some idea of the treat in store.

There are some splendid Early Bengal oil paintings of deities, but the Kalighat pats are of uneven quality. The Santiniketan section had a huge lacuna: no K.G. Subramanyan. Of late, 32 new works have been added, two by Subramanyan. The most moving is the section on the Bengal famine with Chittaprosad, Zainul Abedin, Paritosh Sen, Somnath Hore, Quamrul Hassan and Gobardhan Ash, and a large Ramkinkar oil.

The exhibition allows almost forgotten Calcutta Modernists like Prokash Karmakar (picture: Assassinated, 1966), Nikhil Biswas, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Bijan Choudhury, Rabin Mondal and Paritosh Sen to reclaim their rightful place in art history by revealing them in their full glory. Yet, women artists are given short shrift. Sunayani Debi, Meera Mukherjee and Mrinalini Mukherjee are there, but where are Arpita Singh, Anjolie Ela Menon and Jayashree Charavarty? Didn’t they deserve to be here?

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online edition / Home> Arts / by Soumitra Das / April 04th, 2020