[Reader-list] Are Cities Good For Creativity?

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Thanks Rana for this interesting and vivid reflection.

It brought to mind the stories I heard from some of my friends who had been 
in prison (in Calcutta and in other places in West Bengal) in the late-60s - 
early 70s, for "naxalite" activities.

There were people of various kinds of backgrounds in this lot: from 
physically strong action types, to intellectuals and the metaphysically 
inclined, poets, singers, theater activists, with several other kinds in 
between. A kind of congealed residue of many strands and streams of 
anti-establishment-ism, leftism, communisim, Stalinism and Maoism, sharing 
between them a good chunk of the history of protest and movement in Bengal, 
and its cultural expressions.

There were several sub-groups, some of whom stayed aloof from each other, on 
ideological and ego considerations, with acerbic things to say about each 
other. (Interestingly, I had friends in some "opposing" groups, and enjoyed 
their confidence, so I could hear each one's versions about the others). And 
there were also (supposed?) police informers.

Classes, lectures and study sessions took place. (One friend, an organic 
intellectual, told me about what he had read of David Ricardo the 18th 
century English political economist, besides the works of Marx, Engels, 
Lenin, Stalin, Mao).

It seemed to me all kinds of ego-driven games were being played out by and 
among these people.

Educated, middle-class, intellectually-oriented people sometimes had a 
patronising - though comradely convivial -attitude to people of more humble 
backgrounds. And among the latter, there were those who suffered their 
so-called inadequacies vis-a-vis the former, and everything about them was 
only a means to assert that they were as intellectually capable as the 
former. This worked vis-a-vis some weaker personalities among the educated, 
but was kept in check vis-a-vis those who were empowered enough to not feel 
any threat from the upwardly-aspiring humbles.

Thanks for your eye-ball / ear!

Best

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta
cuckooscall.blogspot.com