The Presidency


the Bengali's passion for iconoclasm and vacuous romanticism. Maybe the latter proposition has an element of truth in it. But any attempt to rid the Bengali of his core of cynicism-altempting- with-romanticism would hardly do much good. Take away their little magazines, and several of these youngsters would be deprived of the privilege of the only praxis they know of. The closure of the magazines would not automatically lead them into the ante-rooms of money-minting companies, nor into the cosy parlour of the government. For the issue of asset-structure is not a mere matter of psychological obsession: it is a concrete entity, and cannot be demolished at short notice just because some alleged idlers have their fiddling instruments confiscated. Those who are in with the assets would resist those who are out; the would-be gate-crashers, the overwhelming majority of them, would return empty-handed. What would they do then, without their little magazines?