[Reader-list] On the changing face of crime in Calcutta

[V Ramaswamy]

>From "The underside of a city divided"

SUMANTA BANERJEE

(from Seminar, No 559, March 2006, SOUL CITY: a symposium on the many facets 
of Calcutta.)

http://www.india-seminar.com/2006/559/559%20sumanta%20banerjee.htm

"Kolkata offers an interesting example of causality of contraries. The
causes of crime in one situation may find their contrary in another
environment. On the one hand we find that despite signs of urban prosperity,
the lack of legitimate means for earning enough to lead a decent life
continues to drive the poor citizens to the conventional forms of petty
crime. On the other hand, the abundance of wealth in the hands of a section
of the rich is inducing them to invest it in newer and newer illegitimate
avenues to accumulate more wealth that is displayed in conspicuous
consumption. The disparity reflects the asymmetric distribution of
socio-economic freedom and opportunities in today's Kolkata. The high degree
of freedom enjoyed by the criminals among the nouveau riche - in the shape
of availability of financial resources and access to political mediators who
ensure their immunity against legal prosecution - stands out in sharp
contrast with the limited options available in a constricted space that is
the lot of the underclass criminals of the traditional type like thieves or
pickpockets.

But a new generation of criminals has emerged from among this under-class,
who have learnt to make use of a political system that has to depend on
crime and corruption for its maintenance. They have found opportunities in
the vast network of hidden, parallel, and semi-legal economies that had
sprung up as appendages to political skullduggery, corporate crime, and
administrative corruption of the upper echelons of Bengali society which we
described earlier. Unlike the conventional gangs of house-breakers or purse
snatchers of the traditional Kolkata underworld, these new gangs have found
different occupations by establishing links with the political machinery
that engineers the present 'economic boom' in Kolkata.
During elections for instance, they lend themselves for hiring by political
parties to capture booths and prevent voters from casting votes for the
candidates of opposition parties. Once they get the electoral verdict
delivered in favour of their patrons, they rest assured that they will be
protected by their political bosses, and then move into other areas of
operations. If for instance, anyone wants to buy or sell a house in any of
the constituencies controlled by them, they extort a certain amount of
commission from both - and then, keeping their own share, deliver a
percentage to the fund of the party of their political patrons. If a
promoter wants to clear a prime area of slums to construct a housing estate,
the gang lord is available for rendering the necessary service. Well-trained
in the techniques to spread fear, they soon become kings of protection
rackets in Kolkata's middle class neighbourhoods and bazaars, where they
collect money from shopkeepers and households by threats of violence. They
can get away with anything with total impunity, thanks to the patronage that
they receive from their political bosses. One of the city's notorious
gangsters, known as haat kata Dilip, or one-armed Dilip, is a protégé of an
important minister of the state. A police officer who dared to arrest him
sometime ago earned the ire of the minister who had him shunted out to a
low-profile job.

These gangsters of Kolkata today straddle both the underworld of the
criminals and the world of the respectable gentry - forging a kinship of
intrigue that has become very much a part of the city's socio-political
milieu. The borders between the new upper crust and the new underworld are
fast getting blurred. Crime has finally come out of the sewers to gain
acceptance in Kolkata's bhadralok society, and bring together the two
divisions once known as the White and Black Towns."