One of the many achievements that modern human civilization can claim in the late 19th and early 20th century is the development of cities, the embracing of urban life, the seeding and expansion of collective action, and the demanding of rights. The melting pot that cities eventually became led to new ethnicities and the growth of diversity, the exchange of cultures and norms, new forms of creativity, and an expansion of what we might call the human spirit.

Elements of urban life were newer forms of social interactions, recreation, and cultural and technological innovations, different from those in rural areas, that evolved and kept evolving over time. Cinema, music, books and reading, libraries, museums, art galleries, playgrounds for different sports, higher educational institutions, research labs, and so on are distinct markers of urban life. A part of living in cities meant taking some or all of these at different points in one’s life.

This time, the time that could be called one’s own time beyond work to be spent on recreation and self-realization, was hard-won through people’s struggles. This is worth recalling when neoliberal corporate bosses in India, like Infosys founder NR Narayan Murthy and L&T chairperson SN Subrahmanyan, are urging young people to give up the idea of self-time and slog a 70- or 90-hour work week. To be fair, others like Anand Mahindra, chairperson of the Mahindra Group, have mocked this and defended doing other fulfilling things—including “staring at one’s wife or husband on Sundays.”

Back in the early 19th century, people in cities of Europe and the United States worked for 80 to 100 hours a week despite calls for a more balanced work-life as part........

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