ABSTRACT
July 1953 was a turbulent month in Calcutta. Amidst the torrential rain and the suffocating heat, the city warmed up to a month-long protest movement against the Congress Government when the latter decided to increase the second class tram fare by 1 paisa. By the middle of the month the protests were so widespread and intense that on 16 July the editorial of the popular Bengali daily Jugantar noted, ‘The fight for one paisa has now turned into a struggle of a million…it has almost prepared the stage for a civil war.’2
