Exactly 16 years ago, I witnessed one of Kolkata’s most powerful processions of protest: the civil society march on 14 November 2007 against the violence in Nandigram in which first 14 villagers protesting against the Left government’s land acquisition were killed in police firing and then political parties clashed to control the area and its people. The march sparked a wave of opposition that led to the most dramatic change in government four years later. For a gawky wet-behind-the-ears cantonment kid, Howrah Railway Station, Writers’ Buildings, Great Eastern, Grand Hotel—all looked like palaces. And I loved the processions, those impassioned...