In 1903, a Bengali playwright, Beharilal Adhya, wrote AdbhutDurgotsabh (A Strange Durga Puja Festival), a play thatexplored the impact of English education on the minds of Bengalis. Shyam,the protagonist of the play, is a wealthy, English-educated Bengali man wholeaves his ancestral home in Calcutta's black town to live in thewhite town. His Bengali neighbours do not approve of hisdecision—they fear that living with the British, he would copy theirhabits and forget what his caste forbade him to do. Worried by theneighbours’ concerns, his father makes several requests for him toreturn. Shyam finally returns, but with a heavy heart and ‘againsthis will’.

Once back in the black town, Shyam explains that the reason he left theneighbourhood was its poor sanitation. He describes the vicinities of hisancestral house as ‘dirty place, dirty locality, everythingdirty’. The play, in fact, opens with Shyambewailing:

Shyam's friends and neighbours find his behaviour confusing. They donot understand why he thinks his neighbourhood as unfit for humanhabitation. When his friend Akhil asks him this question, Shyam replies,‘How would you understand? You have no idea of sanitation;you don't know how to keep up health; how to maintainlongevity’. When an elderly neighbour asks him the samequestion, Shyam snaps back: ‘mister, a major portionof the bigha [nearly six thousand square metres] is used up in dalaan anduthhon. The rooms are now like pigeonholes. Indiansneed lessons in house building as much as they do inshipbuilding.’

Neither Shyam's neighbour nor his friend Akhil agrees withhim—they do not find their neighbourhoods unsanitary or housesimproperly built. Representing a Bengali psyche heavily influenced byBritish sensibilities, Shyam symbolizes a British voice in the play. Hespeaks like late nineteenthcentury health officers who described Indians asclueless about sanitation and their houses as unsanitary structures.