... with 50 million inhabitants (at the 1931 census) was no longer the seat of imperial power, but was still immensely important in economic, social and intellectual terms. It was home to a range of industries, from jute mills to mechanical engineering and shipyards. Calcutta was perhaps the busiest emporium from the Suez Canal to the Far East, serving a vast hinterland from Tibet and Nepal to Burma. It boasted a large intelligentsia and the oldest college in the country, so that it was perhaps the most lively intellectual centre in this part of Asia. As the oldest area of British establishment in India, Bengal society had been submitted to the most thorough process of Europeanisation. This had resulted in the growth of a particular class of men and women known as the bhadralok, 'the people of quality', a term which carried complex connotations of elegance, sophistication and arrogance as well as ...

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