The Crisis of Bengali Gentility in Calcutta

The Crisis of Bengali Gentility in Calcutta Benoy Ghose The social scale and the paraphernalia of gentility are all rapidly and constantly changing, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for different income-groups of the Bengali middle-classes to keep pace with that change, particularly in urban centres like Calcutta. Bengali gentility is facing a really critical situation. And it has been made worse by the heavier influx of non-Bengalis in search of employment and almost impossible by the arrival of lakhs of Bengalis from East Pakistan who are largely concentrated in and around Calcutta. The concept of gentility moreover, is no less psychological than economic. And as the frontier of is changing and its scale is ascending, the struggle for climbing up to it and for preserving the status quo as well is becoming keener day by day. The crisis of Bengali gentility is therefore not only economic. It is a social and psychological crisis also, with all its ramifying consequences. The author is a well known writer in Bengali, and his recent study on the culture of West Bengal following his earlier survey of Bengal villages and towns, cultural and economic, is a pioneer work in the field bf Bengali letters. IT Is very difficult to locate , the access to the status of gentility. These are, more or less, material concept of "gentility" in a parti- The stigma of 'upstartism' is rubbed criteria of gentility, in so far as culair social sphere because it covers out in a generation or two, and the they are directly or Indirectly asso many, vague concepts.' The term descendants of the so-called 'igno ciated with the gaining of material "gentleman" however is purely Eng ble' upstarts become perfectly noble or economic status. There are some lish and it has been taken over and honorable gentlemen. non-material criteria also. For cen unchanged in other languages. The The Theory of 'Gentility' turies the western world has been complex of notions associated with there is another important point assiduously cultivating the theory 'gentility' belongs to all historic for considerate in the theory of and art of manners and polite lan times and peoples, the sentiments gentleman. No procession or work guage In connection with gentility. expressed therein varying in inten is genteel when it is practised Then the problem of dress is also sity and relative Importance. With 'menially' or 'manually.' This has there. Moralists have contended the increasing democratisation and been elaborated by Veblen in his that 'clothes do not make the man' 'de-distantiation' of different social Theory of the Leisure Class and is But Shakespeare was a greater rea strata, gentility is tending more to well-known to students of sociology. list than the moralists when he said, be identified with some ethical and The sentiments associated with "Apparel oft proclaims the man". cultural values. 'Gentle' itself de occupation are very violent and At least It proclaim a 'gentleman'. rives from the Latin gens, the geni Increase in intensity in earlier And dress, therefore, Is an impor tive gentis meaning family or historical periods. All through his tant Item in the paraphernalia of breeding. The gentleman, therefore, torical times menial labour has been gentility. It has an economic basis must be well-born, and once a gen a bar to gentility, and, with few also. tleman one is always a gentleman. and transitory exceptions, manual The Genesis of Bengali Gentility This point Is reluctantly conceded labour also. Saint-Simon relates This broad enumeration of the by Henry Peacham, one of the ear that the nobles of Louis XIV in criteria of gentility is necessary be liest theorists of gentility (The camp before Lille preferred to go cause they are applicable to Bengali Compleat Gentleman, 1622. Ed by hungry rather than lift bags of rice gentility also, 'Bengalis are histori G S Gordon, Oxford, 1906), who from their wagons. cally and inseparably associated laments that drinking, swearing Salaried pecupationg for historical with gentility in India, particularly and whore-mongering were no bar reasons are more genteel than free in modern India. Bengalis outside to gentility at the English court. professions. Writers and artists Bengal are commonly called 'Ban- This concept of birth was once have had to overcome this barrier galee Baboos'. The origin of Ben very important but it began to lose to gain admission to gentility. The gali gentility goes back to the early fast its importance as a criterion of taboo on gainful employment is period of British rule, The modern gentility in modern capitalist and best exemplified in discriminations Bengali 'baboos' or gentlemen em democratic society. Wealth had against merchants. Merchants were erged some time in the last quarter been an historically important at completely barred from the feudal of the eighteenth century as banlas, tribute of gentility, but by itself it and ancient nobility. In modern mutsuddls and dalals or agents of did not confer gentility. Those who capitalist democracies there is an E. I. Company's merchants and raise themselves only by riches are increasing tendency to regard 'Interlopers' and as munshis, de- slighted as 'upstarts' by the gentle wealth accruing from successful wunn or sarkars of English admi men of Society. Yet, as It is impos business enterprises as an achieve nistrators. sible in modern society to maintain ment And achievement, distinguish The story of their evolution, quite the ever-Increasing paraphernalia ed ability and notable public service a long one, need not be told here. of gentility without money or wealth have ever been royal roads to the That is not relevant to our Imme it assumes a positive importance as acquisition of gentility. In modern diate theme. What is relevant is a criterion of gentility today. Those society literature and the arts are that most of the ancestors of the who can master the art of acquir roads to gentility or the basis of old Bengali genteel families were ing money can also easily gain this 'achievement1 principle. 'upstarts' in the light of the 'birth' 821 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY July 6, 1957 and estate' criteria and that they the chance of. rising and falling a of income-tax revenue on a provin had no great difficulty in acquiring treat distance in the vertical direc cial basis have not been attempted. the status of gentility by mastering tion was then much less In a slowly All-India returns, however indi the art of money-making. The so changing society than it is today cate that between 1938-39 and cial 'elevators' in the new urban amidst complete social fluidity. The 1048-49, incomes of Rs 100,000 and milieu of Calcutta were definitely social scale and the paraphernalia over increased by 562%; incomes be changing by the beginning of the of gentility are all rapidly and con tween Rs 50,000 and Rs 100,000 in nineteenth century, and the criterion stantly changing, and it is becoming creased by 451%, between Rs 25,000 of 'achievement' in wealth and edu increasingly difficult for different and Rs 50,000 by 270%, between cation was gaining strength. As income groups of the Bengali mid Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 by 234%, the scope for-education and money- dle-classes to keep pace with that between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 by making was greater in Calcutta in change, particularly In urban cen 228%, between Rs 5.OOO and Rs early British days, the accession to tres like Calcutta. Bengali gentility 10,000 by 205%, and Incomes up to the middle classes was also greater is facing a really critical situation. Rs 5,000 by 143% ('How Indian in In Bengal. The problem of middle- And it has been made worse by the come groups changed since 1938-39' class gentility has, there fore, acquir heavier influx of persona from pro -Employers Association of Cal ed a unique historic Importance In vinces outside Bengal in search of cutta). Though the greatest acces Bangal. gainful employment and occupation sion Is in the top group, it .should Post-War Changes in Calcutta, and of several lakhs be noted that the increases in the of Bengali refugees from East various groups must have been due What was historically Important Pakistan, largely, concentrated in to the push-and-pull process of in the nineteenth century is now and around Calcutta. They have gradual polarisation during the becoming an increasingly complex made the situation almost 'impass period. Obviously such Incornc- socio-economic and cultural problem 4 able'. changes occurred in Calcutta also in the mid-twentieth century. among different groups of' Bengali Though the middle-classes had been The economic competition is be middle-classes. Quite a segment of both horizontally and vertically ex coming harder day by day for Ben them was pushed upwards although panding for well over a century in galis in Bengal and at the hub of a larger segment was pushed down Bengal, the contours of Bengali so it, in the city of Calcutta, the Ben- wards. In this tension, it was but ciety were more or less clear and gall middle-classes are being pushed natural that the standard of in well-defined till the beginning of the through the borderline of gentility come of Bengali gentility should second World War in 1939. Of towards the working-classes. Even shift upward , resulting in the bit course, the new urban social mobi there the competition is formidable, ter struggle for those who were lity, generated by various socio perhaps more formidable than what being constantly pulled down. economic forces, was resulting in it is in the wide arena of diverse ever-shifting social stratification middle-class occupations.

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