This is a story that dates back to the early ninety’s. I was then a young hack writing in the pink papers and was talking to a Bengali Industrialist (yes, they were endangered, but yet to be extinct till then). “So why aren’t you expanding your businesses” I had asked innocuously, to which the industrialist had narrated the tale of how he had once given employment to his trusted and long serving house maid’s son in his factory only to witness, in shocked disbelief, the same son moving up the ranks to become the leader of the union which later shut down the factory over what the industrialist called “impossible to meet, absurd demands”. To cut a long story short, in the meeting that was called by the authorities to sort out the impasse, the same maid’s son, whose mother had “begged” for the job, had pointed fingers at the industrialist, fallen short of physically abusing him and had the temerity of making it clear to all and sundry that the industrialist, whose mother he claimed was engaged in the oldest profession known to mankind, better tow his line, or be prepared to face the consequences.
“I have never been so humiliated in my life” the industrialist had told me, adding “the last nail in the coffin of my total disillusionment with the state was when I realised that the man’s actions had the tacit approval of those higher up and that it was actually a part of a well laid out pogrom to “purge” the system of “class enemies” like me. I have not bothered to set my foot in that factory since then. Please, go out and have your industrialisation by all means – just count me out.”
And this is the biggest hurdle on the path of West Bengal’s industrialisation – the abject lack of a “son of the soil” class of industrialists who can come forward with their guns (and glories) blazing now that the clarion call has been sounded by the new Government. The ones that are passed off as industrialists are mostly traders, even bounty hunters, who have, thanks largely to political patronage, usurped the space vacated by first the British and then the traditional industrial class that was forced to down shutters over the last four decades or so. To expect this set, used to the trappings of easy life thanks to either “polluting” sponge iron or “stolen” coal and power or “surplus” land of closed jute mills or plain broking, to start green field projects to kick start the state’s economy and make it achieve the critical mass of resurgence is not only childish, but even absurd to put things mildly.
Take the examples of Howrah and Durgapur – once respectively the Sheffield and the Ruhr of the East – and the signs are tell tale. The traditional iron and steel and engineering industries are all but dead and the proverbial “smithies” of Bengal are mere ghosts of the Christmas past. One doesn’t even need to go that far – a visit to Camac Street will tell the sad story of West Bengal’s woes, it’s descent into the quagmire of lost opportunities and the Emperor’s new clothes. Even as Sir Biren’s House crumbles to oblivion its ruins desperately trying to eke out a living scraping the bottom of what was once a glorious past, an ugly structure comes up in mock defiance in what was once its garden. The Balance Sheets have been “sorted”, the authorities “managed”, the legal formalities “complied with” – but the company that once built the iconic structures that dot the city is now sans the engineering excellence, which had made it and Bengal, what it was once upon a forgotten time. We as a people have lost our ability to forge our future with molten metal – by blaming the Marwaris for “doctoring” the documents and stealing our thunder will not and cannot absolve us of our sins. It is we who have sold our souls, why create a hoo-ha over the fallow land that houses only the graveyards?
“If you don’t chase your dreams, someone else will hire you to chase theirs” goes the popular saying and this seems to be the next problem we have to grapple with. Forget about steel, or jute or tea or engineering which used to be our forte. Take IT and ITES – where we have the natural advantage and can compete on equal terms with the best in the world. But tell me; of the millions of young guns who are seeking to date the digital Goddess, how many from the state are turning entrepreneurs? The timid, risk averse, monkey cap donning Bengali clerk applying for a job “learning from the burning ghat” was and continues to be an object of ridicule. Why blame others, despite all their faults, if we cannot pick up the gauntlets fate throws our way?
“Why are you guys in Bengal in the constant self denial mode” industrialists keep asking me. “It’s good that you have a great industrial legacy. But does that mean that you will refuse to accept that the traditional industries you excelled in are dead and more importantly, free the assets sunk therein to create new ones to replace them?” Yes, that is how a substantial portion of the “rest of India” views the industrial land issue. What’s wrong in converting the prime lands locked (in old jute and engineering units for example) that have no chances of revival in the modern context? When will you accept the fact that if you banish industries from the state, the first casualty will be your labour force, whose interest you are ostensibly fighting for? If you don’t create wealth, what will you feed your children with? No I am not talking about your intellectual hunger that you can jolly well fill with poems and art – I am talking of hunger for food, for growth, for development.”
“Your Government has come to power riding the crest of a tidal wave against forceful land acquisition. Naturally, its reservations in the area are well understood and appreciated. But does that mean that you, the people, will approach industrialisation with jaundiced eyes? Why view all industrialists and their every move through the stilts of suspicion? What about providing the basic infrastructure, the amenities? For that matter, what about making the rudimentary “feel good” noises and following them up with genuine action? My friend, you cannot expect industry to come and turn around your sick units unless you give them a free hand – for you cannot have hyper efficient industrialists with endless cash to pump in to revive the dead with a completely work-averse labour force with political masters that consider them (the industrialists) as enemies of the state. As for selling the surplus land to capitalize the revival process … the less said the better” said a West India based industrialist who is not known to mince his words.
Any comments, anyone? Or shall we maintain status quo ante? I mean, selling of the crown jewels by night only to lambast the buyers as thieves by day AND lament the lack of industrialisation?
A Quick Quiz: How many of you even remember these once “Kolkata’s own” names, forget about knowing their current status? I am restricting the list to ten, only for brevity’s sake:
Martin Burn
Bird & Company
Burn & Standard
Metal Box
Hindusthan Motors
Ludlow Jute Mill
Andrew Yule
The Statesman
The Calcutta Stock Exchange
British Oxygen
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