PROGRESSIVE CULTURAL MOVEMENT 119 Bhattacharya did the same in poetry. They gave a new direction in class consciousness. In literature, in drama, and in ballet, in every sphere of culture, the Progressive Writers5 Association and the IPTA showed a new way and created a new urge not to make culture a monopoly of the sophisticated few but to take it to the doorsteps of the toiling and struggling masses. They gave a severe shock to the old tradition, old forms and old contents. With a new content, new technique, and new belief they created a new epoch. As a result, the commercial stage also felt a strong urge for a change. It also wanted to create something new and wanted the theatre to reflect the struggle of life and a new conviction. Still, there was some flaw somewhere. Disintegration began after 1946. Petty-bourgeois sentiments began to predominate over idclogy. The cult of individualism overruled the cause. When the artists saw their tremendous success on the stage, they began to defy the direction of the party. This development may have its roots in the fact that within the progressive movement more attention was given to artistic training than Marxist education. In fact, adequate emphasis was not given to ideological training, though ideology was the prime factor which inspired and organized such a powerful and effective organization. Attempt to Corrupt Intellectuals There were some other factors too. Though it had taken some initiative at the outset, the Communist Party as a whole could not devote much attention to this wing. It might have been due to inadequate and inaccurate policy of the party. As a result, when the brutal attack came on the communists, first from the British rulers after the second world war afid then from the Congress government and its hoodlums, progressive writers and artists were divided into groups. By that time they could find a new market for culture, which can better be termed as progressive commercial culture. As part of the new "progressive" commercialism, these progressive artists tried even to rename the People's Theatre movement as New Theatre movement. Cultural movement cannot be separated from the sociopolitical movement. There ought to be some research on the disintegration of the Progressive Writers' Association and the IPTA. The petty-bourgeois vices of intolerance, self-glorification, individualism were so prominent that they could no longer work together. The change of political situation in India accelerated