On the 150th anniversary of trams in India, a case against tokenism

Kolkata: On February 24, 1873, the first-ever tram service, horse-drawn, was launched in Calcutta, and emulated subsequently albeit temporarily in Bombay and Delhi. The heritage and environmental lobbies are pushing for pretty press by screaming for continuity in the charmingly indulgent City of Joy.

To any sensible observer, whether resident or helicopter, trams have outlived their utility ever since the dedicated tracks made way for integrated roadways. Where cars, bikes, cycles, buses, trucks and hearses intrude belligerently on what used to be a genteel dedicated zone. Boarding and disembarking is now a perilous process and it is a minor miracle that folks don’t get run over routinely, especially considering the usually superannuated customer profile. Ancillary factors like passage times and frequency frankly don’t matter, in this way larger practical context.

Equally pertinently, the pioneering metro services, much elongated, have already done wonders for pollution control, in its totally air-conditioned avatar. More than 5 lakh passengers avail of this service daily and this number is clearly set to increase, with seamless connectivity to New Town and the airport. Trams, on the other track, would be enjoying a rider count of a few thousand at most, scalability now a closed chapter. Electric buses, now quite prominent, as well as private electric vehicles are set to grow rapidly further fuelling the fuelless evolution of massified transit.

This is exactly where the environmental lobby, often obsessed with tokenism, comes across as the silly guys, with a clinical deficiency in common sense. In the Dhakuria Lakes recently, young rowers lost their lives needlessly as motorised rescue boats were not permitted, due to some flora-conscious vigilantes. The recklessly uncivilised stoppage amenities for Calcutta Tramways, except in the terminals, have the potential to murder many more than would benefit from that miraculously microscopic betterment in micro-local air quality.

Scalability, risking a cliche, must be the key benchmark for any environmental initiatives, applicable for the Sundarbans, rampant deforestation and protection of coastlines, amongst others. In terms of influence over significant numbers of current inhabitants and indeed, those who will inherit the planet as we will leave it. Anecdotal ambitions, like dramatising trams or banishing honking in chaotic Indian traffic, can cause more damage than good, including diverting the gaze of cause-happy media and impressionable youth.

The other usual suspects, for these nostalgia-driven sentiments across India, are the well-appointed non-residents, whether residing in India or abroad. For a long, I have harboured a distinction between static nostalgia and dynamic nostalgia - the former best left to memories and photo albums while the latter finds its place in progressive civilisation. Steam engines, and guzzling coal, belong to the realm of avoidable heritage while refurbished saloon cars, with eco-friendly locomotion, are surely sustainable. Exactly why vintage cars are best viewed in museums while slow cooking makes umpteen sense from the ecological perspective as well, just like abundant parklands.

In allied insight, those successful in external shores, seek an alibi for their choices in the status quo stature of the original land, the Viraasat mindset. Where the village of yore should ideally still have the broken-down schoolhouse beside the ancient neem tree, with paltry grounds maintained by the able descendants of Ramu the mali. It subverts the worldview of successful immigrants to see a state of art homeland, as the persistent narrative seems to lose a significant thread and indeed the raison d'etre, French for you know what. Trams belong to this narrow clique, like the tongas of Lucknow patently abusing animals - marvellous fodder for cherished tales but grudgingly past the expiry date of relevance.

It is certainly not an exception to expect greater maturity from the environment lobby - thought leaders that they surely are in this fragile ecological and indeed, emotional environment. For starters, not to get mired by excessive Western thinking - where anecdotal feats matter a lot in a wholly different cultural and demographic milieu. So, if the templatized Old Town centres in Europe are pedestrian-only, that is a National Geographic magnet but sadly not third-world big-ticket relevance. Also, living cities can conveniently be museums from an outsider's point of view, but are more importantly throbbing arenas for all who live and work there. Tokenism, especially when poorly replicated can damage both cause and credibility, and that would be quite alarming.

For old-time's sake, I am tempted to take a tram ride this evening, armed with a printout of my medical insurance policy. On the way back though, I will definitely use the Metro, in gratitude for Calcutta’s pioneering endeavours in eco-friendly transportation, over centuries.