Kolkata: Culture keeps commerce civil

Kolkata has a lower crime rate that other major cities despite having higher rates of extreme poverty.

I walked at close quarters past many people living in horrendous conditions, and probably drove past thousands more. There was no sense of hostility let alone threat. Instead of looks of envy, there was more the look of curiosity. I often had the sense that kolkatans thought I was literally from another planet.

People so destitute and yet so resigned. Some even looked content. Others were laughing, smiling and talking as they shared the side of an freeway pillar.

Here in Kolkata, parents happily load their beautifully groomed grade 2 children into a rickshaw pulled by a wizened old man they have never met and send them off to school.

In thousands of similar ways, values are inculcated.

In Kolkata, Indian wealth is constantly at close quarters with Indian poverty.

In other countries, such conditions are assumed to be the primary cause of crime ranging from petty theft, through assault, murder and even international terrorism.

The cultural lens through which so many of the Kolkata poor may interpret their world seems to lead to far less conflict.