58 SOCIAL SCIENTIST realize that there is a large artisanal industry, some subsectors of which—such as cotton and silk goods produced on handlooms and powerlooms—experienced a minor boom in recent years). The transport problems of Calcutta are certainly due in large part to its inheritance— extremely narrow roads, over-crowded, unplanned settlements and slums, areas built up across natural drainage channels and outlets—and they have been compounded by bad planning later on. The Salt Lake City and the Metro Rail project built up with central government blessings may well be the worst examples of this. But the transport problem is also aggravated by the doings of the prosperous upper middle class—traders, business executives, real estates developers, transport operators, and spivs of all kinds. Their cars clog the city streets, theii marriage processions lead to mile-long traffic snarls for hours together, their unashamed violation of parking and driving rules make nosense of police regulations and their hunger for real estate development continually upsets any attempt at rational urban planning. The average Calcuttan is also plagued by power cuts. How is it, the bhadralok asks, that the increase in power capacity has not shown up in a respite from power cuts ? He does not deign to look even into recent history. Increase in power capacity had practically ground to a halt in the first half of the 1970s but the situation was camouflaged by the massive recession in West Bengal industry with attendant decline in demand for electricity. The latter in turn had been used as a justification by the central government not to sanction installation of new capacity on an adequate scale. Even after the new government took up new schemes for power generation, it has taken some vears for the effective capacity to be installed fully. In the meantime, some revival of industry, an increasing electricity intensity of production and increasing domestic demand have reproduced an imbalance between supply of, and demand for electric power. The bhadralok does not want to bother his head with such complexities but wants to nurse his comfortable sceptisism. The bhadralok is right about one tnmg: 'a more responsible work ethic in the economy as a whole' is vet to be built up. The bhadrahk's scribblings are the best proof of that: he would rather just sit at his table and pour out his frustrations than check the facts with a little bit of library work and legwork. I?ut the bhadralok is our ally in the struggle to maintain a democratic framework in the middle of a fast gallop towards authoritarian rule bv tlie pampered rich. When we talk about the need for political education, it includes not onlv workers and peasants but also the bhadralok. Without educating tlie bhadralok and ourselves, for we cannot deny our class affinity to him, anything like a socialist consciousness cannot be built up in the country. Sail we start our work with the scribe of the exalted Statesman ? AMIYA KUMAR BAGCHI Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, C;»l( ntta