Mapping the Creative Society: Concentrated excellence
If someone tells you that modern India was conceived in a geographical space that was around 5 kilometers in length and 3 kilometers in breadth, you will probably ask him what he has been smoking. Yet, one can quite easily make a persuasive historical case in support of this statement. The creative cluster being referred to here is a small stretch of area spanning central and north Calcutta as it was between early nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. In the north it started from Prasanna Kumar Tagore Street (Pathuriaghata Thakurbari) and extended to Park Street in the south (Asiatic Society). In the west, the Hoogly River was its natural boundary (Town Hall was one of the landmarks at this end) and in the east it stopped at Upper Circular Road (Bose Institute). Indian nationalism was given birth here (with Hindu Mela), Indian print media originated here (with Hickey’s Bengal Gazette), Indian democracy took roots here (with Landholders’ Society), modern Indian art was born here (with Bengal School), modern Indian film movement started here (with Pather Panchali)
That creativity often happens in a cluster is something well-recognised in the literature. Indeed there is a vibrant body of literature that tries to explain the idea of ‘creative milieux’, places that are unusually creative. But Calcutta is more unusual than your average unusual place. The main puzzle is how Calcutta became such a hotbed of creativity within a repressive colonial context. There isn’t another similar example throughout the erstwhile colonised world. Moreover, although there were examples of notable Indo-European creative collaborations within Calcutta’s Creative Society, its main protagonists were native Indians. Within all the examples of ‘creative milieu’, the Creative Society in Calcutta stands alone, both in terms of the obstacles that it had to overcome and the impact it had on the wider society.
