At the same time, by preventing English from being taught in primary schools he was said to have held back progress (years later he was to acknowledge that this had been a mistake); and he was accused of damaging, in the long term, the economy of a region that had been an industrial powerhouse in the days of the Raj. Under his leadership Calcutta, once the capital of India, was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair; and he was accused of failing to control militant trade unions or to encourage foreign investment.