Class struggle' rears head as rich-poor divide grows wider

KOLKATA: Mob rampage has been on the rise in the city, particularly in fast-expanding south Kolkata where old settlements and slums are making way for highrises. It has happened in the near past. It happened on Sunday. It can happen again.
Changing demography , the difference in lifestyle and aspiration have led to a conflict between the new upwardly mobile population and older settlers -like the one the city witnessed at Panditya Road on Sunday when a group of slumdwellers along Hazra Road vandalized cars parked inside a high-end condominium opposite their humble homes.
Sociologists and psychologists believe the attack was more than just a reflex action to the death.The naming of the highrise -standing tall amid slums -with `oasis' in it was enough to sow the seed of resentment among locals."It is more like an outburst of suppressed anger born out of dispossession. Dispossession of not only the land in the neighbourhood but also the day-to-day livelihood," said sociologist Prashanta Roy . Pointing to the major disparity in class living, Roy said the vandals had taken the death of the boy as an opportunity to vent out their anger on the upper class. Psychiatrist and psycho analyst Siladitya Ray , too, felt the divide between the urban rich and poor was widening, leading to more conflicts.
The slums at 621B Hazra Road, Tetultala bustee, 14 Garcha Road and Deodar Street bustee have been existing for several decades with several thousands making a living out of small shops, working as garage mechanics or domestic helps, drivers and cleaners in posh localities of Ballygunge and Bhowanipore. According to psychologists, the two-storied mansions of the rich in the past posed a lesser psychological threat to the slumdwellers who now felt intimidated by the 20-24 storied ivory towers.
"Before the boro bari (Fort Oasis) came up, there was a ground where we used to play . My father had a shop and my brother repaired bikes. They demolished our shops and constructed the complex. Now my father is dead and my mother has to work as a domestic help," said Chottu Shaw, a resident of Tetultala Bustee who had accompanied the men on the rampage on Sunday .
Akhilesh Thakur, a resident of 621B Hazra Road slum, was furious as Fort Oasis was inaccessible even ahead of Pujas when subscription is collected. "While middle-income families pay up, the rich don't. They are snobs and we hate them," he said.
If anyone residing in the complex was oblivious of the hatred earlier, Sunday's mayhem has ensu red there is no doubt now. "My daughter saw how the men picked up her cycle and smashed it at a car.She is still in a trauma," said Sreeti Agarwal. Vineeta Daga said seeing some men trying to climb up to the upper floors, she asked the liftman to switch off the elevator's power supply . "They were aiming for our homes as well," she said.
This feeling of inequality and class divide is not restricted to Panditya Road. In past few years, similar conflicts have erupted in Jodhpur Park, Garcha, Jadavpur, Tollygunge and Lake Gardens, where new multi-storied communities have propped up in the middle of slums, resulting in disparate socio-economics and lifestyles.
North Kolkata, however, has seen fewer such incidents because rich and poor neighbourhoods have grown up together "organically". South Kolkata sees more such incidents because the growth has been "unequal". Zero-logic anger at inequality builds up and it finds vent during incidents like these.
"Although north Kolkata has witnessed a rise in highrises of late, even then the residents have not dissociated from the community feeling north Kolkata is famous for. In south, it is almost absent," added psychiatrist Ray.