Khalasitola: Story of a country spirit bar in Calcutta

Excerpts of the feature Khalasitola: Story of a country spirit bar in Calcutta written by Amit Ranjan Basu.

In 19th century Calcutta there were bars for country spirit, which only catered to people from the lower orders of the society. Sometimes Babus in dire economic crisis, visited such bars covering them well with a chaddar and quickly gulped down a pint while standing. This style of drinking became known as Darabhog as in Bengali Darano means to stand.

The culture of drinking in a bar had become popular in the city besides great parties stuffed with varieties of alcoholic beverages, opium and ganja, thrown by the Babus in their mansions. But the country spirit culture was mainly limited to the urban subalterns. Prepared from paddy (Dhan in Bengali), this was popularly known as Dheno and sometimes called Dhanyeswari with special affection and regard. According to its potency, country spirit was classified into three categories. To assure the customer of its spirit content of the No.1 variety (which arguably contained 90% of alcohol), even during 1950s, the bar manager used to burn some sample from the bottle and the blue flame of alcohol made the customer sure of buying good stuff!

It is important to note that, drinking country spirit (Karan Bari in chaste Bengali) was strongly associated with the Sakta cult of Kali worshippers. Even the women from Tagore family at Jorasanko drank country spirit during Kali puja. One must remember that, Kali puja is performed around the year on various auspicious nights. Perhaps this association of popular goddess Kali with Karan Bari could be the source of inspiration to print goddess Kali’s image on a red label on the bottles of country spirit produced by the colonial government. It was thus also called Kali marka mod.

There are many books published during the middle of 19th century till early 20th century that bore elaborate descriptions of the urban culture of country spirit drinking, though not much of these bars. However, presence of middle class educated drinkers in the country spirit bars was a rare phenomenon. But from 1950s onwards a visible and daunted presence of educated middle class can be noticed in the country spirit bars (Bangla moder thek)! I suspect it was more an effect of a new culture practiced by poets and other creative personalities, who questioned the existing norms of being a Bhadralok. One of these bars, known as Khalasitola had become a talk of the town as many such people started gathering there over glasses of Bangla mod.

Kamal Kumar Majumdar, the famous writer whose style of Bengali prose-writing was not only full of experiments with the language, but also captured the complexities of modern life in a poetic prose, and it was very distinct from all his contemporaries. Around him this adda or regular meetings at Khalasitola grew up and we have a strong presence of this group for two decades. Majumdar taught art in a school and visited this bar from morning (it used to open at 11 am) in between his classes and continued till it closed in the night. It is said that Majumdar, after getting attracted to Ramkrishna’s philosophy not only changed his attitude to literature but also gave up drinking foreign liquour - Whisky, Rum, Gin, Vodka, Wine etc., and took to the desi - Bangla mod. Many non-drinkers came to meet him here for professional purposes. In the literary history of Bengali from 1950-1970 the contextual space provided by Khalasitola remains crucial. Many great poetries were written, famous little magazines like Krittibas and Kaurab came out, many anthologies of poetry were published with screenplays, and other creative products generated from this Bangla moder thek.

Khalasitola and later on some other country spirit bars in the city became a symbol of anti-establishment culture and a pilgrimage for many avant-garde writers who affectionately described themselves as Khalasis! Kamal Kumar Majumdar used to say that, Khalasitola started somewhere around the II World War and it probably has derived its name for being frequented by the loaders from the nearby port.

Many memoirs and anecdotes talk about an environment, which acknowledged the difference with the majority of the Khalsitola drinkers. But this difference never came in the way of negotiating two cultures. Many listened to poetries, songs presented by the Khalasis and yes, appreciated them. Conviction of the poets grew strong that good poetry indeed has a universal appeal. Besides Khalasitola two other Bangla moder thek had also seen this sort of gathering taking place:

• Baroduari at Rani Rashmoni Road and not very far from Khalsitola. This is a double storied old house, which probably derived its name for having twelve doors
• Ganja Park in Bhawanipore, South Calcutta, near Jadu Babur Bazar.

Not much of these great Khalasis are alive now. A significant number of them have even given up drinking! Still every one of them, when talked about Khalsitola asserted that more than a drinking joint it was a space of creative inspiration for them. Defying norms and giving birth to new urban expressions in poetry, prose, painting, and film - Khalasitola is beyond history. It is a myth of our new urbanity, timeless in its creative context, and rapturous in its radical implosion.

Yet this culture is seen to be fading by late seventies. It can be a research agenda to explore how it happened, but what seems obvious is Kamal Kumar Majumdar’s death followed by a spreading decentralized gathering in other joints including foreign liquor bars could be a factor. Also much of the famous Khalasis had died or became too old by late seventies, and a section of Khalasis had identified themselves with the elite and established literary institutions. By eighties only curious, rebellious youngsters dropped in to cherish their senior poets’ nostalgia and in general young middle class educated showed more attraction toward addas that happened in the foreign liquour joints. Also, the air of defiance that the seventies had brought were no more.

What remains still unexplored is the culture of the subaltern customers in these urban country spirit bars. This perhaps may take us to the world of a different urbanity experienced by the city subalterns, and their history of altered consciousness.

This story is extensively based on following sources:

• Arun Nag (1999) Sekaler Nesha in CHITRITA PADME, Calcutta: Subarnarekha, pp.14-462.
• Khalasitola Special Issue, KAURAB 92, Nov.2002, Pp.280, paperback, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.Kaurab@email.com