May 27 marks the 61st death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister. Among the many cities that occupied Nehru’s thoughts, Calcutta — then the cultural, intellectual, and supposed business nerve centre of India — held a special, if troubled, place.
The situation in the city in 1955 was becoming grim, with the influx of refugees from then East Pakistan, unemployment and food scarcity. The city’s slow fading moved Nehru.
So what did he think of Calcutta?
For Nehru, Calcutta was not just another metropolis — it was a symbol of India’s soul in recovery, a city whose fall from grace bothered him.
Here’s what Nehru wrote to Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, Bengal’s first chief minister 70 years ago.
January 10, 1955
"My dear Bidhan I have just had a visit from GA Johnson, Editor of The Statesman. He spoke to me about Calcutta and its troubles, the rumblings below the surface, the occasional explosions, how this terribly over-crowded city, with crowds of unemployed, lives apparently on the brink of trouble. Crowds gather at the slightest provocation and sometimes do what they like. There is a small car accident, a crowd might gather and pull out the driver and perhaps even the person on the back seat and give him a beating.
Johnson said he would like me to go to Calcutta incognito and sense this atmosphere myself. He spoke quietly, but it was obvious that he was rather full of his conception of a dangerous background situation in Calcutta. He did not suggest that anything special was happening there now or in the near future, but he said some little things are always happening and sometimes when there appears to be quiet, something is brewing.
Johnson said that the only person who could deal with this situation was you and you were not keeping well.
He mentioned to me that things have come to a pretty pass when the wife of a High Court Judge says that all will be well when the Communists are in control.
There is nothing very new in what Johnson told me about Calcutta. But, his manner of telling me rather impressed me. It was clear that he felt all this very much. If he did so, then I imagine that the other English people in Calcutta also did so. I am merely passing on this information to you. I hope you will get well soon.
Love.
Yours affectionately
Jawahar
Dr Roy, who had taken ill and was forced to stop attending his work at the Writers' Buildings, the state secretariat, was confined to his home. But Roy, a stalwart in his own regard, did not waste time and in forty-eight hours he sent a detailed reply.
January 12, 1955
My dear Jawahar,
Your letter dated 10th of January refers to your conversation with Mr Johnson in the course of which he expressed apprehension regarding the situation of Bengal and in Calcutta in particular. The situation is well-known to us and is mainly created by a large number of unemployed youths in Calcutta and the urban areas.
A recent statistical survey shows that in Calcutta there are 2,34,000 persons of whom 80 percent are Bengalis, who have no full-time employment, but are seeking the same. Of this figure, 1,36,000 belong to the middle class and 97,5000 belong to the working class. Of the 2,34,000 persons, about 70,000 are refugees, while a large proportion of the middle class, about 80 per cent are literate; a large number of them have also some technical and knowledge for handicraft work. This is the main problem of Calcutta.
There is also the problem of the refugees which I feel convinced will fare better under the new arrangements and which I think will have a human approach.
Do you realise now why since 1949 I have been going ahead with my development schemes in spite of the financial handicap of the state? Until today our expenditure scale exceeds our receipts by nearly 10 crores. In 1949, I had received 90 lakhs from the Centre for dispersal of college students to districts… I have been considering future development in the education sphere to disperse some students to Kalyani.
During the last five years I have been putting a network of electricity in Bengal. I have very nearly covered the whole of southern Bengal, including rural areas. I did it with a purpose. I know that 70 per cent of the agriculturists in West Bengal have uneconomic holdings. I know also the communists have got some hold on the rural areas because of the uneconomic position of the agriculturists.
I have therefore planned to put up small industries and cottage industries to be served by power. Time has now come for me to put up these small units and I am doing so gradually, but small industries can be run as ancillary to large industries.
I am therefore asking you to help me in giving practical shape to my Durgapur scheme. Although a cake oven plant under the Industries Development and Regulation Act of 1951 requires the sanction of the Union government before any state can start such a scheme, I have been waiting patiently for the last year and a half to get this approved, but on some pretext or the other the necessary sanction has been withheld. I think we have furnished all the information they wanted.
I am perfectly sure the State can only be saved if we have a network of industries, small and big. I have not got much resource for any big industry, but one or two big industries with small ancillary industries are what we should develop if we want to save the State.
So far as the situation in Calcutta is concerned, I am quite alive to it, but I am vain enough to think that I can control it in spite of recent weakness and illness provided you help me. I am better now.
Your affectionately
Bidhan
The letters above throw light on the civility of two leaders and cooperative federalism. While Nehru did not hide his unease, Roy’s arguments manifested how he was setting up satellite townships like Durgapur, Kalyani, and his visions about the economic future of the state.
The above excerpt is taken from the book 'White Sahibs, Brown Sahibs' by Uday Basu.