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Dolpurnima
16 Phalgun 1424
1 March 2018
Dolpurnima
16 Phalgun 1424
1 March 2018
Spring Issue
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Editorial 10
Article
Tamal Dasgupta 13
The Fallen Woman Who Would Be Lost into the Long Twentieth Century: Thakomoni from Those
Days
Vaishnava Theology's Lyrical Legacy in the Twentieth Century: An Analysis of Tagore's Gitanjali
and Bhanusingha's Padabali
Sayantan Thakur 73
Demographic Alterations in West Bengal During the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century
Anish Gupta 97
There Just Aren't Faces Like That Anymore: Remembering Devika Rani
Nation, Language and the Middle Classes: A Brief Reappraisal of the Respective Stances of
Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore
Review
Somashish 290
“Put a Tongue in Every Wound of Caesar”: A Review of Ranajit Roy’s Dhwongsher Pothe
Poshchimbongo
The Pigeons
Interview
Remembering the Sengupta Brothers and Bengal's Twentieth Century: JBS in Conversation with
We made the following statement in our call for papers, and as we publish this issue on
Eric Hobsbawm named his study of the twentieth century history of the western world as the Age of
Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century. He defines the twentieth century as having been
inaugurated with the beginning of the first world war in 1914, and to have lasted till the fall of
Soviet Union in 1991. He also defines the nineteenth century as the long nineteenth century, lasting
from 1789 to 1914, in his trilogy Age of Revolutions 1789-1848, Age of Capital 1848-1875 and Age
of Empire 1875-1914.
Applying the same logic, one can propose that the Bengali twentieth Century rather was a long
century, and it has been an age of intense movements in politics, literature, culture and society
dominated by the towering presence of the Bengali bhadralok. In Case of Bengal, applying
Hobsbawm's paradigm, we can state that the twentieth century came to an end with the fall of
And the beginning of this long twentieth century can loosely be traced back to the Hindu Mela in
1867, or the formation of Surendranath Banerjee's Bharat Sabha in 1876, while it can be
definitively argued that the dawn of Bengali consciousness characterising the age of bhadralok was
crystallised with the Bengali response to the anti-Ilbert bill movement launched by the white
colonialists in 1883, which made the Bengalis aware of the power of organised movements and this
was when Bengali babu (a comprador) was steadily transformed into the Bengali bhadralok (a
Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement, the intense intellectual and cultural ferment of Bengal
The Bengali bhadralok started to assert himself and aimed for political power, and this is how the
journey towards India's independence began. It later culminated in the British [counter-]agenda of
partitioning Bengal in 1905 and the subsequent transfer of Capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911,
a process that continued till the decimation of the bhadraloks took place.
Bengalis responded by fierce anti-colonialism. There was the rise of Ognijug, which was
emergence of Subhash Bose, [followed by] the formation of Forward Bloc in the late 1930s was
followed by the first appearance of communist party among educated Bengalis, greatly aided by the
favourable reception of communist ideology among erstwhile nationalist revolutionaries. The great
Calcutta Killing and Noakhali Genocide of 1946 … followed by the partition of 1947 which
brought tremendous human displacement in its wake. Then 1950s saw several waves of communist
movements, while the intensification of communist movement was followed by the splits of 1960s, a
decade that also saw the first United Front governments. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Bengalis
of Assam suffered tremendous hardships. 1947 could be considered a watershed that earmarked the
dissolution of Bengali power in India, which was followed by a series of unmitigated disasters.
1970s saw the Bangladesh war and the flow of refugees, emergency regime of Congress, formation
of the first elected communist regime in Bengal. 1980s witnessed the overall stagnation of West
Bengal and the beginning of Bengali decline. 1990s as a decade saw the emergence of Mamata
Banerjee and Trinamool Congress which finally dislodged CPIM led left front regime in 2011
through a series of movements centred around Singur and Nandigram. The fall of CPIM can be
that what 1991 was to western history, 2011 is to our history. And though we primarily talk in
terms of the political scenario, we cannot forget that these decades of the long twentieth century
saw tremendous flourish in all segments of cultural life, earning Kolkata the sobriquet of the
cultural capital of India. Bengali theatre and cinema during the long twentieth century made their
In conclusion, the call for papers summed up the outline of this issue as a desire to map
Bengal's cultural, political, social … historical journey during this period. This period from 1867
to 2011 has seen the rise and fall of the Bengali bhadralok's power…
The preparation for this issue was delayed owing to a number of unavoidable circumstances. We
were supposed to publish it by the end of 2016 and we are publishing it finally in the beginning of
2018, which is a delay of more than one year. We regret the inconvenience caused to the readers,
contributors and well-wishers of Journal of Bengalis Studies from all over the world. While we
have been able to cover some of the crucial areas of Bengal’s long twentieth century, we are aware
of the areas which are left out, as this issue sees the light of the day. Nevertheless, this issue on the
age of bhadralok, like all other issues of Journal of Bengali Studies, truly remains a collector’s item,
On the occasion of the publication of JBS Volume 6 No 1 on the theme of the Age of Bhadralok:
Bengal’s Long Twentieth Century on this day of Dolpurnima, 16 Phalgun 1424, Journal of
Bengali Studies renews its commitment to the development of Bengali nationalistic methodologies
to study the history and culture of the Bengali people. Our editorial board and our contributors can
Tamal Dasgupta
Abstract: This article speaks of certain landmark conflicts and clashes of ideas involving Bankim
Chandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore, which shaped the trajectory of our history,
marked the end of the Bengali Babu (also spelt as baboo) and marked the birth of the age of Bengali
Bhadralok. This article revisits the respective legacies of Bankim and Rabindranath for Bengal's
long twentieth century. This article will observe in Bankim and Rabindranath – in each of them –
some defining moments of conflicts, which are rich sites of dialectics, and which, as this article will
argue, facilitate a strange mutation of history and transform the obviously comprador motif of babu
into an ambivalent figure of bhadralok. These conflicts come to shape the history of the age of
Bengali bhadralok. We shall see how the cultural, political and historical dimensions of the
bhadralok, and the forces of historical contradictions in the twentieth century Bengal were shaped
by the respective strategies, positions and ideologies of these clashes, centrally involving two of the
greatest cultural icons of modern Bengal, Bankim and Rabindranath, who very often were polar
Bishshomanob, Universal Human(ism), Bengali People, Bengali History and Culture in the Long
A Note on Transliteration: In this article I have tried to adhere to transliterations which faithfully
reproduce the sounds of Bengali words, unless a familiar transliteration rules out the possibility of
such adherence, e.g. Rabindranath and not Robindronath, owing to reasons of familiarity. While a
person (or entity, event, organ etc) not already very well-known in a certain spelling in English will
have his or its name transliterated in the Bengali way (and not in the received Sanskrit way), the
same person’s surname might have been spelt traditionally, again owing to reason of familiarity,
e.g. Chondi Choron Sen. On the vexed issue of a Bengali standard of transliteration (or the lack
thereof), one can see my article “Spelling of Ognijug: A Case for a Bengali System of
Transliteration” in the site of Journal of Bengali Studies, which I wrote as a response to the
controversy arising out of our spelling, Ognijug (and not the Sanskrit Agniyuga or the hybrid
might persist in this article. My individual attempt is no compensation for the general lack of any
A Note on the Scope of the Study: I have not been able to chronicle all the debates, arguments and
conflicts which involved Bankim and Rabindranath, because that would require much larger space,
and the study would assume encyclopedic proportions. So, I have tried to limit myself to some of
Tagore is usually much more minutely documented in a plethora of studies undertaken by our
scholars, and while Tagore’s opponents have been generally unfavorably dealt with by our critics,
commentators and cultural historians, the histories of such conflicts are nevertheless well preserved,
something that we cannot always say about the life and times of Bankim. Let me reassert that this
study is not a comprehensive documentation of all the clashes of ideas which concerned Bankim
and Rabindranath. For example, one significant exclusion, owing to time-space constraint, which I
regret, is that I have not dealt with Rabindranath’s debate with Bipin Chandra Pal, who stood by
a political self—development. As Bipin Pal during this conflict belonged firmly to the camp of C R
Das, and I have dealt with other important members of that camp who clashed with Tagore, that
probably compensates this exclusion, no doubt in a very insufficient manner though. Then, I have
not been able to deal with Rabindranath’s clash with Jadunath Sarkar, who criticized Tagore’s
criticism, which remains one of the few instances when Rabindranath launched a vitriolic attack
against his opponent publicly (Ghosh 1: 121-2). Tagore’s inner-contradictions and his conflicts with
the luminaries of his age are well documented by Nityopriyo Ghosh in his three-volume study, and
that should be used for further reading by anyone who is interested in this matter. One major
exclusion in case of Bankim (due to time-space constraint, again) is that I have not discussed
Bankim’s debate with Reverend W. Hastie, Principal of General Assemblies Institution. Hastie was
a Christian missionary who attacked the idolatry of Hinduism following the newspaper report of a
massive shraddho ceremony at Shovabajar Rajbari in 1882 which was attended by all sections of
educated Bengali gentlemen, a fact that scandalized Hastie who then launched a vituperative against
the importunate idolatry of western educated Bengalis. Hastie’s article spoke of Hinduism as a
“monstrous system” and its gods and goddesses as “personations of evil” and Hindu spirituality as
produced his rejoinder under the pen name of Ram Chandra. Hastie responded back, and the debate
was lengthy. Though Bankim wrote letters under a pen name, his authorship of these letters was not
a secret, and later Rev K M Banerjee who entered that debate directly spoke of Ram Chandra as
author of Kapalkundala. The debate was carried out in the letters section of The Statesman.
Bankim’s last letter in this debate did not use a pen name and was signed by himself (Essays and
Letters xiv-xxii).
In discussing these conflicts, I shall not strictly stick to chronology, and will move to and fro,
clashes are far more interesting than any tedious categorization by dates. This article deals with
contemporary clashes of ideas which involved Bankim and Rabindranath, and does not deal with
One major reason why I feel the necessity of producing this article (apart from the willingness to
revisit and re-interrogate the respective legacies of Bankim and Rabindranath) is that the very idea
of clashes and conflicts becomes an anathema to bhadralok sensibility which generally wants to
transcend all divisions which separate one set of humanity from another, and though that age is
arguably over, we still are saddled with its characteristic prejudice which prohibits us about talking
******
The figure of the babu should not be simply dismissed as a mere collaborator of the British, as the
babu was also a preparatory process of history that paved the way for Bengal Renaissance. David
Kopf quotes from Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay to exhibit that the babu had some noteworthy
qualities apart from being a mere pawn of the empire. While his western education aimed at
dissociating him from his ancestral customs and his community, he was richly exposed to the
intricacies of world history, politics, philosophy and literature. The babu had “modern, cultivated
habits evidenced by his support of educational and cultural reforms. … Because of his patronage of
Against the Triumvirate: Bankim clashes with Brahmo, Ancien Regime and Comprador
ecology of diverse interests. The westernized Brahmo existed by the side of Hindu ancien regime,
for example. Such forces existed together in nineteenth century Bengal; they contributed to the
perpetration of the empire and to the deferral of the rise of nationalist resistance. I shall proceed to
discuss a set of minor and unrelated clashes that Bankim was involved in, with three minor and
unrelated figures: three very minor figures who were fortunate enough to become the subject of
Bankim’s criticism, and they together constitute an interesting triumvirate, in my opinion. I propose
to discuss these clashes briefly because these clashes and these figures have a representative
quality. Together these three figures could almost constitute a three-headed hydra, albeit on a very
miniscule level. Such a hydra ultimately nurtured the interests of empire and deferred the rise of
Bengali nation-consciousness. Bankim’s life-long project was national awakening of the Bengali
Minor and trivial in themselves, these three figures represent three important power centres of
contemporary Kolkata.
1. Chondi Choron Sen, a Vaidya by caste and a justice in the colonial judicial system. We take him
as a representative comprador.
2. Ramgoti Nyayrotno, a Brahmin by caste and a voice of Sanskritist conservatism. We take him as
I shall start with Koilash. Bankim is known to be economical in his critiques. His critical economy
straightaway called Koilash a servant of the Tagores of Jorasanko. Koilash indeed was a Nayeb or
zamindar’s deputy for the Jorasanko Tagores. Koilash was also the assistant secretary of Aadi
Brahmo Shomaj. In that truth debate with Rabindranath, to the details of which we shall turn our
was the first one to fire a salvo at Bankim (Tagore then followed suit, but more of that later).
Bankim is brief and devastating towards Koilash in his article “Aadi Brahmo Shomaj O Nobo
Hindu Shomproday” (2: 764). Koilash’s name was known to Bankim, as he sporadically used to
write against the Bankim in Brahmo periodicals. But the one which drew Bankim’s wrath was an
article by Koilash in the Brahmo mouthpiece Tottwobodhini which alleged that Bankim was
thieving (toshkorbritti) from the works of the likes of Bhau Daji, Mitra, Hunter and other
researchers. Koilash decried Bankim’s supposed lack of originality and denounced his allegedly
“blind” dependence on translations without any ability to go through the originals. Koilash also
warned Bankim to refrain from mentorship (Gurugiri korio na). Bankim does not care to respond to
these insulting charges coming from a nondescript Brahmo employee, but just scathingly calls
Koilash a servant (bhrityo) and calls his language nayebi (nayeb-like). Nayebs were a stock motif in
popular literature culture as sycophants of their bosses and offensive to the common people.
The Brahmo panic at Bankim’s project of Hindu/Bengali nationalism was understandable and the
eventual Brahmo decline is forewritten in this minor clash. Bankim would emerge victorious, and
Sanskritist school of Bengali writing by Bankim in his article “Bangala Bhasha” (2: 322-3).
Ramgoti was a crusader against the intrusion of colloquial in written script, and wants to banish the
language of Aalaler Ghorer Dulal (the masterpiece by Peary Chand Mitra) from Bengali literature.
Bankim examines Ramgoti’s own prose style used in that Sanskritist proposition, and observes that
Ramgoti himself writes in colloquial language to reach the readers. Bankim further exposes the
paradox of Ramgoti’s position that advocates prudery and wants to banish the colloquial on the
pretext that the same is not suitable for discourse between the elder and the younger members of the
family. Bankim lampoons this position by giving some imaginary examples of mother-child and
likes of Ramgoti wants to banish jolliness and mirth from the language of literature was obvious to
Bankim, whose brief critique also mentions that Ramgoti’s sole forte is Sanskrit, and though he is
without any knowledge of western literature, he nevertheless tries to show some scholarliness in
English which has the effect of creating unintended humour. Ramgoti wants “Bidyashagori Bangla”
(Bengali of Vidyasagar, heavily laden with Sanskrit) and Bankim’s act of taking a firm position
against that language had a lasting effect on the medium of literature of the age of bhadralok (we
shall come back to that ideological conflict between Bankim and Vidyasagr). Further, it had the
effect of freeing Bengali from the clutches of Sanskritists, as in his article, Bankim mostly supports
the position taken by Shyamacharan Gangopadhyay, whom Bankim takes as the representative of
the Bengalist school (demanding greater closeness of Bengali literature to Bengali people’s
Now, the last man of the triumvirate, Chondi Choron Sen. Sen was a munsef of Krishnanagar, as
Bankim tells us, and in a judgment Sen wrote that 99% of Hindu widows are unchaste (oshoti).
Bankim was brief in his rejoinder (2: 769), and in his response he offers an anecdote. A guru came
to the house of his disciple, who then got ready a curry of ten big koi fishes as a welcome lunch.
Guru ended up eating all the nine fishes and the disciple was rather frustrated at this economy of
leaving just one fish as proshad (the remnants of food served to the guru, known as proshad, is
traditionally meant for consumption by the disciple). Bankim compares the economy of Chondi
Choron’s judgment with the anecdotal guru’s gluttony and mocks the logic behind sparing the last
one out of a hundred; Bankim advises Chondi to write a fresh judgment that would include the
remaining one percent. Here Bankim’s brief castigation of an Anglophile, Bengaliphobic member
of colonial baboodom is memorable as a part of his strategy of attacking the comprador classes. It is
this strategy of Bankim which was instrumental in the transformation of the baboo to bhadralok.
The bhadralok will not hate his roots, but the babu often did.
revolutionary fervour of the age of bhadralok, Rabindranath Tagore could be seen behind the
universalist turn of bhadralok and the subsequent dream of a world community, and such
worldviews during twentieth century were the forte of left and liberal ideology.
Tagore was also the fountainhead of a significant trend in the age of bhadralok: a denial of the
local and a desire to move to the universal. Whenever, for example, conflicts between Hindus and
Muslims or between Bengalis and non-Bengalis took place in the twentieth century, there has been
a marked bhadralok tendency to disregard such petty clashes. By aligning himself with the
universal brotherhood of man, the bhadralok manages to escape his responsibility to stand by his
community, his people. As a result, whenever Bengalis were at the receiving end, rarely a Bengali
intellectual spoke up for his people, because he is primarily fueled by an anxious aspiration to claim
Kolkata experienced a violent riot on 2 April 1926. At the end of the day, official estimate of death
was 45, wounded 584. It all started when a Hindu religious procession was passing by a mosque in
Jorasanko. In response to that event, Tagore wrote his famous poem “Dhormo Moho” (Illusion of
Religion): Dhormer beshe jaare moho eshe dhore/ Ondho she jon maare aar shudhu more…Je
pujar bedi rokte giyeche bheshe/Bhango bhango aaji bhango tare nihsheshe/Dhormokarar prachire
bojro haano/E obhaga deshe jnaner aalok aano. (roughly translated as: One who is grabbed by
illusion in the guise of religion/That blind man only kills and gets killed…/The altar of worship that
is flooded with blood/Break, break, break that today till it’s finished/Strike the walls of the prison
of religion with thunder/Bring light of knowledge to this unfortunate land). Tagore also delivered a
speech during this period where he made some interesting propositions: that religion is personal,
and it should never be used as a public instrument, and it should never be used as the basis of
Bhattacharya gives a detailed account of Tagore’s response to the 1926 riots and tells us that this
speech was never compiled in Tagore’s collected works, probably because of that open advocacy of
atheism to eradicate religion (Shobhyotar Shorup 73), which might have been an embarrassment for
Brahmo establishments. However, the poem quoted above indeed gives a similar kind of
impression. The poet offers Enlightenment as a solution to the problem created by religious
conflicts.
The nature of what Tagore proposed here was quite striking: he wanted to live in that futuristic
utopia when Enlightenment has replaced religious clash, and he did not want to take any stand in
the present, when he might have some obligation to speak out against the initial violence started by
a particular party.
Here we may contrast that approach of Tagore with Satin Sen’s Satyagraha movement in
Potuakhali, Barisal, which experienced a communal clash of an exactly similar nature: Hindu
procession passing by a mosque leading to unrest. Waiting for the dawn of enlightenment which will
eventually banish religion from public life is a liberal’s futuristic utopia that absolves him to take a side
in the present, here and now. As opposed to that Tagorean approach, Satin Sen began a painstaking
movement of Satyagraha demanding the right of the Hindus to carry out religious processions. Further,
when Saraswati Pujo was being banished in some of the schools of Potuakhali, Satin Sen fought for the
right to conduct worship of the Goddess of learning in the schools. Strikingly, Tagorean approach
brings us to a very awkward moment when City College came to a standstill regarding Saraswati Pujo
in 1928. Tagore, maintaining his Brahmoist, anti-idolatrous as well as pro-Enlightenment stand, was
1
of City College, and Satin Sen, along with Subhash Bose during this period stood by the students.
Nityopriyo Ghosh also gives an account of this incident. When a fees boycott movement by
students left City College financially vulnerable, Tagore sent one lakh rupees from the resources of
(1: 127). While Tagore himself was not always free from bias on most issues, he had a penchant to
imagine himself to be above all petty strife while he perceived those who disagreed with him to be
partisan. His own anti-Saraswati bias remains questionable, and perhaps his Shantiniketan,
remaining true to his legacy, till date does not allow Saraswati pujo inside its campus.
Tagore’s approach had a long-term implication for the age of bhadralok. While his idea of an
idol-free, religion-free utopia could never sufficiently dislocate the religious and cultural
anchorings of the Bengali community which continued to celebrate Saraswati Pujo and other
festivals, it indeed helped to subdue them to an extent where any partisan stand in response to an
attack on the idols, culture or members of one’s community, an attack on religion and identity is
deemed slightly embarrassing, if not outright offensive. The ethnic attacks on Bengali speaking
Hindus in Assam or Bangladesh never elicited any substantial response from the bhadralok. Odia
onslaught on Bengal’s history was likewise overlooked. What the bhadralok was supposed to do
under such circumstances was to theorize the events to some universal import and suitably
undermine any partisan membership of one’s own community. Such tendency might lead to the
dissolution of a community, as common sense would say. Such a bhadralok tendency with Tagore
at its source is not the result of any isolated stance of Tagore, but a consistent position which he
A striking feature of the impending clash of ideas which will shape the outlook of the impending
age of bhadralok is that the two iconic thinkers of this age were writing two of their representative
works simultaneously as the dawn of this age was looming large on the horizon. Bankim’s
Anandamath was being serially published in Bongodorshon between 1287 and 1289 (Bengali
Years), and during the same period Tagore’s Bou Thakuranir Haat was being published in Bharoti,
(1: 62).
Nepal Majumdar throughout his multi-volume study of Tagore maintains an avowed Tagorean
stance, and his criticism of Bankim is audibly loud: “Bankim already authored Durgeshnandini
(1865), Mrinalini (1869), Chandrashekhar (1875), Rajsingha (1882) etc which are fundamentally
nationalist and valorizing texts of historical romance. In literature that was an age of extreme
nationalism” (1: 62). In the same vein, Majumdar declares: “In that age of pungent nationalism,
instead of painting Pratapaditya as an ideal warrior hero Rabindranath painted him as cruel and
malicious. … Rabindranath was not possessed by the ghost of historical romance of warrior heroes.
Rabindranath wanted to create a novel. He never fabricated history by colours of imagination and
falsity to search for national valour, bravery, love for freedom and military superiority” (1: 63).
Tagore observes in his preface to his collected works: “The emotional flood of Swadeshi
movement wanted to paint Pratapaditya as the ideal hero of Bengal, and that flood still has not
receded. Whatever information I gathered from history about him gave me proofs that he was an
unjust, tyrannical and cruel person, and though he had the inexperienced arrogance to disobey the
God of Delhi (Dillishwar), he lacked power” (qtd. in Nepal Majumdar 1: 63). It is interesting to
observe that Tagore diligently stuck to this agenda of demolishing Pratapaditya; after thirty years of
publication of Bou Thakuranir Haat, wrote a play titled Prayoshchitto based on the same story.
However, Nepal Majumdar’s claim about Tagore’s strict observance of historicity (a claim
Tagore himself made too, as we can see) lacks substance. Tagore’s statement that Pratapaditya was
merely driven by inexperienced arrogance is severely ahistorical. Pratapaditya spent many years in
the court of Akbar where he was kept as a collateral guarantee so that revenues would be sent to
Fatepur Sikri by the kingdom of Jessore. It was in the Mughal court that Pratapaditya learnt the
intrigues of the empire and learnt about many successful rebellions against Mughal authorities from
different parts of India which inculcated in him a desire for freedom, as Satish Mitra’s book attests
Tagore comes from a clan of Bengali Brahmins called Pirali, some of the ancestors of whom were
collaborators of the Muslim rulers in the medieval period and were converted to Islam. While in
Bengali we have no synonym for the word comprador, Pirali could be a close equivalent. Tagore
might have been inherited a softness to foreign rulers, and his celebrated idea of bishshomanob
might have stemmed from that Pirali inheritance, as we shall see later: imperialism loves
bishshomanob. Tagore authors a celebrated poem about Shah Jahan where he paints the Mughal
emperor as an ideal lover-poet, but in personal life Shah Jahan was not any less cruel or tyrannical
compared to Pratapaditya. While the humble ruins of the empire of Jessore is no match for the
grandeur of a Mughal Tajmahal, and Dillishwar has a mighty ring to it that Joshoreshwor utterly
lacks, Tagore’s hostile treatment of an indigenous Bengali fighter against Mughal supremacy leaves
much to be desired.
Pratapaditya is concerned, it is saddled with problems, as we have already seen. While Tagore
continues his Pratap-bashing in Prayoshchitto, his play of 1315 (Bengali Year), in that he adds a
new element: a non-violent rebellion of the subjects against Pratapaditya led by a saintly character
named Dhananjay Bairagi. This was Tagore’s fabrication of history. It goes without saying that no
such rebellion against Pratapaditya is historically known. Tagore’s portrayal of Mughal collaborator
Basanta Ray as a benign figure is sentimental and ahistorical, and Satish Chandra Mitra in his
magnum opus Jessore Khulnar Itihash contends that Rabindranath’s depiction of Jessore kingdom
When Sarala Debi starts Pratapaditya festival in 1903, Tagore is reputed to have said: “Sarala is
Pratapaditya. (Nepal Majumdar 1: 323). A detailed description of the Pratapaditya utshob (held on
Jiboner Jhorapata (121-2). Sarala is candid in her admission that it was a strategy arising out of
necessity and quotes Bipin Pal who quipped: “As necessity is the mother of invention, Sarala Devi
is the mother of Pratapaditya to meet the necessity of a hero for Bengal” (122). Sarala further writes
that Tagore was “extremely angry” at Sarala for starting Pratapaditya festival that undid Tagore’s
depiction of Pratapaditya in Bou Thakuranir Haat, and to convey his anger, Tagore sent Dinesh Sen
as an emissary to her. Sarala stood by her position. She was clear on this: Pratap was not a moral
ideal, but a political ideal. In his declaration of independence, in his valour, Pratap was “politically
great”. Dinesh Sen never came back with Rabindranath’s response to that position of Sarala (123).
However, that would not be the only instance when Tagore was displeased at Sarala. In certain
respects, Sarala was one of the earliest legacy-bearers of Bankim Chandra in Bengali public life,
and a clash with Rabindranath was bound to take place. Sarala laments in her autobiography that
“there is no establishment to preserve an ever vigilant memory of Bankim in the minds of the
Bengalis,” while Tagore is propagated by VisvaBharati (41). She also responds to the truth debate
between Bankim and Rabindranath in the beginning of Jiboner Jhorapata with clear sympathies for
Bankim, granting only the benefit of a children-friendly ideal of morality to Tagore’s position (that
Tagore’s moral position in favour of absolute truth was only suitable for children, and that it could
When Sarala registered her affinity for Hinduism, in spite of being a Brahmo herself, and
attended the ritual of evening Arati at the Vishweshwar temple of Varanasi, Rabindranath Tagore
was mortally wounded; he was agitated and angry, and asked Sarala: “This is how you indulge in
At the time when Bankim was no more, and someone had to provide intellectual leadership to the
it meant that she had to face the personal wrath of the greatest living intellectual of her age, her own
uncle, Rabindranath Tagore, but nonetheless, she did not step back. History might attest that
Sarala’s courage and her ability to challenge Rabindranath did not go in vain. The slogan Vande
Mataram became the chant of revolution, thanks to Sarala’s leadership. While Sarala was close to
Vivekananda. She was also the first choice for Vivekananda to propagate the message of a resurgent
Hinduism in India and abroad (when her parents did not agree, then Vivekananda went for sister
Nivedita), as Sarala records with some details in her autobiography. Sarala’s personal acquaintance
with two of the greatest icons of Hindu revival, Bankim and Vivekananda, and the icon of Bengali
Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta wrote in her review of Sarala’s autobiography that Sarala was both
the Maud Gonne and Joan of Arc of early Ognijug (154). While the subtextual irony of such an
evaluation of Sarala cannot be missed (Maud was socialite and Joan was warrior; and these
different qualities from different periods could not be conjoined without some irony of history), and
that Sarala herself acknowledged the political nature of her project of inventing a hero, her role in
this clash of ideas shaped the ethos of Ognijug and helped nurture a military spirit among Bengalis.
Vande Mataram was a war cry, and the Pratapaditya debate shaped the moments of the birth of that
In Bengali there is a word, nyaka which is an adjective; it signifies the quality of pretending. The
word seems to have come from neki, which is virtue in Islamic parlance. It probably originated as a
derision on someone who pretended to be virtuous. This word, nyaka and the noun formed by
adding the suffix -mi to it, nyakami, together constitute a set of pejorative criticism of anything that
indulge into a sort of effeminate behavior. D L Roy considered Tagore and his brand of poetry to be
nyaka.
This is one familiar objection against a type of modern poets and poetry that was repeated in the
short story Kochi Shongshod by noted humorous writer Parashuram (Rajshekhar Basu), so D L Roy
was not alone in considering a certain brand of contemporary poetry nyaka. While gender
stereotypes offer a sense of comfort to patriarchy in general, and therefore a conservative panic at
Tagore’s supposed poetic nyakami might not have any sympathy from us today, we need to
remember that Bengalis were long berated as non-martial and effeminate by the British, and that the
nascent nationalist struggle wanted to challenge that stereotype. While we think of stereotype, let us
remember that there are many stereotypes; the effeminate stereotype of the Bengali babu was an
imperial construct, and Bengal’s newfound valour in the Swadeshi era might have looked at the
trend of Tagore’s poetry with some amount of apprehension and disapproval. Because what
patriotic writers like D L Roy perceived to be nyakami would precisely confirm the imperial
stereotype of Bengalis as an unworthy and unmanly people lacking virility and only good enough to
As per the preface to the collected works of Dwijendra Lal Roy, Anondo Biday (Goodbye to
Anondo) was the last farce that Dwijendra Lal Roy wrote and it is assigned to the date of 16
November 1912 (2: 28). However, Nityopriyo Ghosh tells us that it was originally written and
published in the Bongobashi magazine in 1904 as a response to Tagore’s Kori O Komol. It was
eventually re-published in a revised format in November 1912, and was staged on 16 December
1912 (1: 50). This was considered to be a personal attack against Tagore, but D L Roy himself
maintained that it was not a personal attack and was an attack against certain trends:
There is no personal attack in this small play. … Feigning, precociousness and stupidity
inflammation (because of my play), he is responsible for that himself, not me. … If a poet
considers a type of poetry malevolent, it is his duty to whip such poetry and throw it out of
the field of literature. Browning whipped the great poet Wordswoth once. (qtd. in preface to
D L Roy castigates what he perceives to be a corrupting, lascivious and feigning trend in Bengali
poetry indulging in mindless obfuscations. Anondo Biday still was felt to be a personal attack on
Tagore, as Dwijendra Lal Roy publicly criticized Rabindranath on similar charges already. There
were mainly two accusations: obscurity and lasciviousness; D L Roy said that vagueness is not
depth, because even the water of a pit is usually opaque, and that Rabindranath’s poetry had only
the libido (lalosha) but not devotion (bhokti) of Vaisnava poetry (Ghosh 1: 51).
D L Roy castigated Rabindranath on these charges for the first time in his article “Kabyer
The followers of Tagore exacted revenge on the day of performance of Anondo Biday: “Tagore-
admirers collectively went to Star theatre and sat strategically scattered in the auditorium, in the
second scene Satyendranath Dutta threw his shoes at the stage, then the Tagoreans chased D L Roy
In his response, D L Roy claimed that the correctional criticism of his play of 1904 already
showed its results and that Tagore’s contemporary poetry was comparatively free from the excess
of libido; further, he asked in agony: “Is Rabindranath God, and is any criticism of his books
A familiar conservative position against effeminacy, the ideological stance of Roy against Tagore
maker of heroic and patriotic drama, D L Roy probably considered it to be his poetic duty to purge
elements which he considered undesirable in Bengali literature in that age of national awakening.
However, the very preface to D L Roy’s collected works bear the brunt of the lasting grudge of
Tagoreans who dominate the Bengali scholastic industry; apart from very casual errors of factual
details, the preface goes on to declare that Anondo Biday is unsuccessful as art, that there is no
dramatic unity and inevitability in the play (though the preface writer does not make it clear what is
meant by inevitability, onibarjota), that there is nothing noteworthy in the play barring a few comic
songs and that it does not carry any new artistic promise in D L Roy’s career; the preface mentions
in a casual tone that the spectators of the play could not tolerate (italics mine) the personal attack
(2: 29).
In the beginning of the play Anondo Biday, Anondo laments about his son Nepal who speaks in a
nasal tone, keeps long hair, and maintains a melancholic gaze at the sky. He keeps poetic company,
all of whom have the same features. Nepal plays flute and has a theatre group where he is planning
The charge of effeminacy was a haunting experience that the Bengali babu had to face. Bankim
himself turned a crusader against effeminacy in “A Popular Literature for Bengal”: “And it would
be difficult to conceive a poem more typical than the Gitagovinda of the Bengali character as it had
become after the iron heel of the Musalman tyrant had set its mark on the shoulders of the nation.
From the beginning to the end it does not contain a single expression of manly feeling – of
womanly feeling there is a great deal – or a single elevated sentiment” (Essays and Letters 17). His
evaluation is questionable, but understandable in the context of his age. However, Bankim was not
Coming back to Anondo Biday: it is called a parody: there is a musical play named Nondo Biday
by Atul Krishna Mitra (1888) and this play by Roy is a parody of that play. Interestingly, nobody
Rabindranath’s name, along with other poets like Michael, Hem and Nabin (D L Roy 2: 537),
which is by no means offensive, still there is absolute consensus among the contemporary and
present day critics that the play is an attack on Tagore. If Tagore’s poetry is not nyaka, which it is
not indeed, barring some exceptions, then this play should not be considered to be a personal attack
on Tagore. However, Tagore’s admirers themselves might have responded to this play with a
conviction that the play was a lampoon on them, and in this regard, D L Roy cleverly ended up
proving his point: the poetry which he attacked to be full of pretension readily owned up the charge
and since then got into a mode of counter-attack. The preface to D L Roy’s collected works is
marked by the same counter attack that continues till date: Roy is castigated in the preface of his
Roy in his farce critiqued the vain and concocted expressions full of mindless abstraction in what
he considered to be nyaka poetry. The counter-attack against Roy keeps on emphasizing that it was
in fact a personal assassination of Tagore. This challenge that was posed to what D L Roy
perceived to be decadence in poetry, was moral in nature, and perhaps not personal.
The sentimental individualism of Tagore’s poetry eventually won, and the likes of D L Roy lost.
The age of bhadralok had a lyrical, individual, non-narrative and non-heroic sensibility in poetry.
Tagore’s absolute dominance in poetry was the force behind that sensibility. Heroic and historical
sensibility, which propelled D L Roy to attack the poetry of pretension, soon would become a thing
of the past, but not before it would motivate Haraprasad Shastry to pass his dismissive remark on
There was some consternation when Tagore was awarded Nobel prize for the text Gitanjali and
in his presidential address in the Bongiyo Sahityo Shommelon of 1321 (Bengali year) was chutki which
variously means the snapping of fingers, comic sketches, and small pieces of anecdotes. This constituted
a grave offence for the Tagore supporters, and Satyendranath Dutta, Tagore’s loyal follower wrote a
poem lampooning Haraprsad. The entire episode is noted in Sukumar Sen’s introduction to the first
volume of Haraprasad Shastry’s collected works (19). While this episode of history itself is just a brief
sketch, chutki, because no lengthy battle directly took place between Haraprasad and Rabindranath, but
Haraprasad’s historical imagination, which makes him the worthy disciple of Bankim’s quest for a
history of the Bengali people, was probably behind that remark. Ahistorical, individualistic lyricism of
Tagore earned international accolade, but did not earn appreciation from the likes of Haraprasad who
One of the first registered protests against Tagore’s speeches on Nationalism, first in America and
then in Japan (in 1916) came from Chittaranjan Das, and we shall presently come to that. It should
be mentioned that Tagore’s lecture on nationalism in Japan offended the Japanese people, and he
was henceforth cold-shouldered by the Government and boycotted by the Japanese Press which
denounced him as a “poet of a defeated nation” as Nepal Majumdar chronicles (1: 409). Not to be
subdued by such adversity, Tagore went on to deliver his nationalism speeches in America where
he declared that “nationalism is a great menace”, and air was rife with rumours that the members of
the Hindustan Gadar Party based in America would assassinate the poet for betraying the Indian
Nepal Majumdar, in spite of being the avowed Tagorean that he is, correctly observes that
Tagore’s critique of nationalism is as widely off the mark as possible. For example, it is capitalism
and not nationalism which should have been at the centre of Tagore’s vitriolic attack when he says:
man is driven to professionalism for producing wealth” (1: 418). Further, in the same vein,
Tagore’s statements criticize imperialism, but he tries to pass it off as a critique of nationalism.
Throughout his nationalism treatise, we find that Tagore tries to proceed in an unscientific and
Tagore was not habituated in thinking along the lines of modern social science and politico-
ends up claiming that nationalism is at the root of all evil. … Rabindranath did not properly
realize the progressive role played by nationalism in the anti-imperialistic struggle in the
In his enthusiasm to criticize nationalism, Tagore even announced that it was also responsible for
the growing separation between man and woman: “It is owing to this that war has been declared
between man and woman, because the natural thread is snapping which holds them together in
harmony; because man is driven to professionalism producing wealth for himself … leaving woman
alone to wither and to die or to fight her own battle unaided” (qtd. in Nepal Majumdar 1: 418). In
this slightly eccentric way, Tagore could have blamed nationalism for cancer, diabetes and asthma
as well; the sinking of Titanic and the growing number of road accidents and the air pollution in the
industrialized cities – they all could be attributed to nationalism, if we extend Tagore’s whimsical
logic.
and imperialism is question-begging to say the least, and is not fit to be considered as social science
or philosophy. However, Tagore’s Nationalism still remains a guiding light of liberal spirit among
Bengalis and Indians. One of the most oft-quoted works of Tagore, Nationalism has been repeatedly
used as the ultimate and final word on this subject. That the age of bhadralok could be successfully
that in Lenin’s library, Tagore’s Nationalism in German and Russian translation was available, with
Chittaranjan Das in his speech titled “Bangalar Kotha” registered his protest against Tagore:
In Europe, some scholars supposedly have decided that the Nation-idea is completely
imaginary and its foundation lacks any substance. A specific nation has no independent
value. … To nurture a sense of nationality is to increase the clash between nations which
will harm mankind. This is an old theory, but currently it is being propagated anew, so a few
pundits in our country have grabbed that theory and are trying to laugh away our nascent
nationalist aspirations. This theory coming from Europe was disproved by great scholars of
Europe in the past, and I hope they will do the same this time. They will solve their own
problems. But the sand is hotter than the sun. These fake pundits in our country have so
much of scholarship that their propositions can never be disproved. So much so, that the
Rabindranath who prayed to God for the soil and water of Bengal to be made true during the
Swadeshi movement, that Rabindranath is now Sir Rabindranath – this time in America has
stood by that theory with a lot of gusto. His complete speech has not been published in any
paper. So, we could not read that, but in Modern Review some of the excerpts were quoted,
and we have read that, and may be we are under a wrong impression for not having access to
the whole, but whatever has been published, that proposition, in this case, in my opinion,
from this position of this great assembly of the Bengali nation should be opposed.
This proposition is fully based on the immaterial shadow of the bishshomanob (universal
human). In order to raise a true sense of fraternity in humankind, all different nations must
be developed. Prior to that, this idea of fraternity is fanciful imagination. If you abolish
C R Das in his presidential speech to the Gaya Congress again spoke about the same idea of
Now what is Nationalism? It is, as I conceive, a process through which a nation expresses
itself and finds itself, not in isolation from other nations, not in opposition to other nations,
but as part of a great scheme … I contend that each nationality constitutes a particular
stream of the great unity, but no nation can fulfil itself unless and until it becomes itself and
at the same time realize its identity with humanity” (qtd. in Nepal Majumdar 2: 161)
While C R Das repeatedly evokes the necessity of the flourish of all nations as a pre-requisite for
universal humanity, he does not state the obvious (apart from dropping a mild hint, when he says
Sir Rabindranath); that such idea of universal human will only help the empire and will further
A Marxist perspective on the debate between universalism and nationalism is offered by Terry
Eagleton, which similarly manages to reconcile nationalism with the eventual objective of universal
humanism, taking cue from the Marxist idea of class struggle eventually paving the way for a
classless society. But in addition, it adds a cautionary note that any premature abandonment of
Generation (London 1964), “is in this sense like class. To have it, and to feel it, is the only
other classes and other nations.” Nationalism, like class, would thus seem to involve an
impossible irony. It is sometimes forgotten that social class, for Karl Marx at least, is itself a
form of alienation, canceling the particularity of an individual life into collective anonymity.
Where Marx differs from the commonplace liberal view of such matters is in his belief that
to undo this alienation you had to go, not around class, but somehow all the way through it
and out the other side. To wish class or nation away, to seek to live sheer irreducible
In Ireland too, the empire promoted universalism. In his study on Irish cultural history, Crazy John
and the Bishop and Other Essays on Irish Culture, Eagleton mocks the colonized subject who
attempts to sublimate his concrete humiliation within the empire into the abstraction of universal
humanism: “If you are a second class subject in Britain, you can always compensate by becoming a
citizen of the world, which is a grand way of being a citizen of nowhere” (104). In fact, it has been
observed that all empires since antiquity have promoted universal humanism. Tagore’s
throughout history, empires, such as the Roman and Ottoman, have sought to unify their people as a
political alternative to nations. Thus, while an individual often understands himself or herself as a
member of a particular nation, one may also recognize oneself as a part of humanity” (4).
One major charge that Tagore repeatedly brings against nationalism is that it is a foreign import,
that it does not belong to India, that the word or the concept has no equivalence in our languages,
and that our history, religion, ethics, society, home – they do not accept the dominance of nation-
of nation is completely an import from the West. … the eternal relation of a certain country
with its countrymen, only on that foundation the nation can be established, the relation
which is eternal and will be forever, it’s just that so far, our attention was not drawn to that.
May be in our civilization and in our flourish no specific name was given to this relation. It
may also be that if Europe’s civilization and flourish, their education and initiation, their
science and history did not come upon our heads so rapidly, we would not have been
conscious so early and easily – but does that mean what is our own, what belongs to our
country, what is attached in every particle of Bengal’s soil and water, we shall call that a
Tagore’s universalist position disregards the local, and in many respects. While he dismisses the
nation in favour of the bishshomanob, he also dismisses the local possibilities of exceptions to his
universalizing theory. The imposition of the universal and the dismissal of the local, the celebration
of the eternal and disregard of the historical, the denunciation of the relative and an upholding of
the absolute, the denial of the concrete and a faith in the ideal – these are repeated motifs in Tagore
(though it would constitute a familiarly Tagorean injustice if we universalize Tagore in this manner;
let us acknowledge that he sometimes took the other side too). Such a trend was visible in the early
career of Tagore. We shall now turn our attention to a very important clash of ideas, what I call the
truth debate.
The Truth Debate: A Direct Battle That Bankim and Rabindranath Fought with Each Other
Bankim in his article “Aadi Brahmo Shomaj O ‘Nobo Hindu Shomproday’ ” (published in Prochar
Ogrohayon 1291) responded to an invective of Rabindranath Tagore directed at Bankim that was
Bharoti. The issue of contention was centred on Bankim’s statement that truth is relative and not
absolute, and that virtue lies not in external propriety but the intention behind an action. Bankim
was founding an ethical ideal in Krishna, and came up with some interesting instances where the
person strictly speaking the truth or strictly adhering to codes of religious rituals can actually be
harmful while a person who utters a lie for saving a life or saving a situation, or who casually
violates the ritualistic codes, is actually virtuous. Bankim might or might not have the Brahmo cult
and fan-following for absolute truth in his mind. As an emergent Hinduism needed to uphold its
monotheism/monism, Bankim probably had that Brahmo cult of truth in his mind when he was
He might have the same motive when he was establishing the dualism of Samkhya at the root of
Hinduism, while the Brahmos celebrated the non-dualism of Vedas. It might have been a veiled
challenge to the Brahmo cult of truth, when Bankim charted his discourse about the relativity of
Certainly the Brahmo leadership was apprehensive about Bankim’s agenda of Hindu revivalism
in Krishnacharitra, and the attack on Bankim carried out by Tagore takes place within that context
of anxiety. Bankim comes across as someone remarkably free from dogma in this entire debate.
Bankim aims at ethical and moral codes which are both compassionate and pragmatic, not
impersonal and idealistic. Bankim emerges victorious out of this battle of ideas. The Brahmo side is
not known to have been able to have responded properly to Bankim’s arguments.
Here Bankim comes across as a leader of Hindu revival, and Rabindranath Tagore in this
argument is the cogent face of Brahmo reaction following a volley of personal attacks hurled at
Bankim by Koilash Singha, an agent of Thakurbari (the Tagore house, the supreme family of Aadi
Brahmo Shomaj). Bankim’s article repeatedly refers to the cordial relationship that he shares with
beginning of his article, Bankim says that he has been subject to such attacks even before
Rabindranath Tagore learnt how to read and write, and that he is no longer agitated by such
personal onslaughts.
While this battle of ideas in itself might not have any great significance beyond the immediate
moment of challenge posed by an emergent Hinduism (as Bankim was evoking the ancient Indian
idea of Satya that is closer to the archaic English word troth, and not the limited, restricted and
narrow concept of truth) to the Brahmo hegemony, it is nevertheless imperative for us to note that
that it creates a template for the age of bhadralok. Less abstract and more sensual, less impersonal
and more compassionate, less idealistic and more pragmatic, less universal and more historical –
this template probably was too close to perfection to be followed. Power relations within a society
will always dictate ideological terms, and Bankim does expect too much from human agents who
are not sovereign authors of their action. Bankim’s article indeed suggests that Tagore was merely
acting as a mouthpiece of Brahmos in this debate. Sarala Debi thinks otherwise though; she says
Tagore’s elder brothers Dwijendranath and Jyotirindranath were opposed to him in this issue and
had sympathies with Bankim (41); nevertheless, a sizable section of Brahmos believed in the cult of
It can be argued that the Brahmo cult of truth had a certain Anglocentric Protestant ethos at its
kernel (at least the similarities are striking). Bankim observes that there is just a lip service to truth
while the heart is full of untruth in this western cult imported from England. While the verbal “lie
direct” is objected to, but a sea-load of sins are allowed within this western paradigm. Brahmo cult
Tagore’s vociferous opposition to nationalism, we have already seen, had the same impersonal,
ahistorical, universalist, idealist dogma which he first exhibited in this debate with Bankim. In the
nationalism debate too, just like in this truth debate, Tagore acts as a mouthpiece of liberal
Bengal. The age of bhadralok eventually had to abandon the nationalist template offered by
Bankim, and gradually came to be dominated by the idealist template offered by Tagore.
This constitutes a matter of common knowledge in Bengali literary history that Pother Dabi became
a bone of contention between Sharatchandra and Rabindranath after it was banned by the British
government (Tagore refused to condemn the banning and considered the British regime to be quite
liberal in allowing voices of dissidences to be heard; Shishir Kar chronicles in details). But before
venturing into that, we should briefly discuss about the antecedents and aftermath of the publication
Gopalchandra Roy in his celebrated biography of Sharatchandra notes that the text ended up
having a soaring popularity after it was banned, and single copies were sold at princely sums of one
hundred rupees (the printed price was three rupees), and even handwritten copies came into
existence owing to the popular enthusiasm around Pother Dabi. Further we know from
Gopalchandra Roy that every raid at the dens of revolutionaries of Bengal was sure to yield copies
of two particular books during this period, as the police commissioner seems to have admitted: Gita
Pother Dabi reportedly had an interesting history of genesis. The aforesaid biography,
Sharatchandra threw some interesting light in this regard. Let us take an excerpt:
Shailesh Bishi in his Biplobi Sharatchandrer Jibon Proshno (The Life Enquiry of
here, Mr Caulson, Police Commissioner of Kolkata, came to meet me. He invited me for tea
at his residence. When I went, his wife made tea herself. Mr Caulson requested me to write a
book like Tagore's Chaar Odhyay’ (a novel of Tagore that showed the revolutionary
I (Shoilesh Bishi) said, ‘if you write a novel like Chaar Odhyay, you better burn down
Pother Dabi’.
This was probably the time when he wrote Bipradas – but Dada couldn’t do a Char Odhyay
novel like Char Odhyay. But that is obviously not the case. Because, in this regard another
– “one day some Mr Prentice called on Sharatchandra and asked – you write a book like
Pother Dabi on the Government’s behalf (that is, an inverted image of Pother Dabi that
Sharatchandra replied – Shaheb, my childhood was spent with flying kites and spinning
tops. My youth in cannabis and opium. Then I went to Rangoon for job. I no longer have the
Far apart from writing a book like Char Odhyay, we get to know from the account of
Dabi precisely as a protest because Rabindranath wrote Ghore Baire. Sharatchandra himself
Proshno. (423)
interview with Brahmabandhab Upadhyay who allegedly expressed regret for his role in the
swadeshi movement. It created controversy, because Brahmabandhab was dead by then, and there
was no way to establish the veracity of such an encounter; raising a dead man as witness, and using
a private conversation with him to score a point against the revolutionary movement in Bengal
might not have been in good taste on Tagore’s part, and that was probably the reason why he
Renowned Hungarian Marxist critic Georg Lukacs called Tagore's novel Ghore Baire (The Home
and the World) a propaganda of British police in his celebrated review of Home and the World
titled “Tagore’s Gandhi Novel”. When the imperial machine was leaving no stone unturned to
blemish the revolutionary movement in Bengal, Tagore’s novel did a considerable damage by
playing straight into the hands of the British. In fact the timing of Tagore’s novel itself had a
damaging effect, as Nepal Majumdar notes: “When Ghore Baire was being serially published in
Shobujpotro, at that time (9 September 1915) five Bengali boys under the leadership of Bagha Jatin
faced the innumerable strength of British Police and Military with unmatched courage” (1: 403).
While Tagore was idealistic in demanding a flawless social revolution, and ended up aiding the
empire, Bankim too might have been idealistic in demanding a pure literature and unwittingly
ended up imposing the contemporary Victorian ideal in our literature. We shall now turn to that.
Bankim’s Aversion of BotTola: Where Does the Chhotolok stand in the Age of Bhadralok?
Bankim’s Kamalakanta visited a bazaar in his opium induced dream, and saw the cultural products
of his day in the shape of fruits; in that market, Bengali books were green plantains (kanchkola, and
“A Popular Literature for Bengal” and “Bengali Literature” gives us a very clear impression of his
dismissal of a large part of the existing Bengali literature as uncouth and not fit for educated
society. This was the dominant attitude of his day: the learned Bengali babu were particularly
hostile to what he perceived to be the immorality and obscenity of a large part of Bengali literature.
As a result, what was otherwise to be judged by indigenous standards, and not by standards
borrowed from the west, ended up being removed and obliterated from the fields of Bengali
literature following strict Victorian moral codes. Bankim’s unsympathetic castigation of his own
mentor Ishwar Gupta in the article “Bengali Literature” is a case in point, and Bankim’s
sympathetic foreword to the selected works of Ishwar Gupta is another interesting case in point. In
both of them Bankim emphasizes the identification of Gupta’s quality of writing with a bygone era
that has gone away for good. In his foreword Bankim says: “Ekhon aar khanti Bangali kobi jonme
na – jonmibaar jo nai – jonmiya kaaj nai” (“the pure Bengali poet is no longer born now – his birth
Bankim might not have realized, but it was a surrender to the ideology of British empire,
submission to a sensibility which was a foreign and imperialistic implant. This single statement
probably encapsulates the Achilles heel of Bengal renaissance, as the dissociation with the roots
was bound to manifest itself in a number of cultural maladies, one of them being a growing
isolation of the elite from the masses, a rift which is perhaps one of the major factors which brought
the final end to the age of bhadralok in 2011, as future ages will probably argue.
In the article “Bengali Literature” Bankim makes the following observations on Ishwar Gupta:
He was a very remarkable man. He was ignorant and uneducated. He knew no language but
his own, and was singularly narrow and unenlightened in his views; yet for more than
twenty years he was the most popular author among the Bengalis. As a writer of light satiric
this special gift. But there his merits ended. Of the higher qualities of a poet he possessed
none, and his work was extremely rude and uncultivated. His writings were generally
However, Bankim qualifies his critical assault on Gupta with some riders: “Strange as it may
appear, this obscure and often immoral writer was one of the precursors of the modern Brahmists.
The charge of obscenity and immorality mainly applies to his poetry. His prose is generally free
from both vices, and often advocates the cause of religion and morality.” (Essays and Letters 33)
Obviously, a filtering process is at work here. This is not just about filtering Ishwar Gupta, and the
legacy that he left behind, but about filtering the good from the bad; the uncouth from the polished; the
approved from the censored; the native from the cosmopolitan, the hybrid Bengali from the pure
Bengali. The latter has to go, the former has to stay. This process robbed Bengali language and literature
some of its popular, precious legacies. This process disinherited us and disempowered us to a great
extent. Losing our past, and losing our roots and losing significant methods and genres and formats of
cultural production left us anemic. While Europe celebrated the vulgar and the popular, the age of
bhadralok lacked its Rabelais. It lacked colour and it lacked wildness. It lacked the ability to revive the
spirit of the predecessors. It failed to discuss ancient and medieval Bengal without projecting its own
westernized aspirations and dimensions. Chaste and politically correct, the age of bhadralok thus begins
its long trek towards a dissolution of the chhotolok (literally small folk; it also means vulgar people,
plebian people; it is the antonym of bhadralok). It was not necessarily a class offensive against the
downtrodden, though. The elite cultures of indigenous origin were equally disrupted and mutilated. Any
indigenous culture, be it mass or esoteric, elite or poor, which did not conform to colonial norms could
be chhotolok culture. Sadly, as the age of bhadralok began, what was a gain in terms of sophistication,
heavily tilted in its judgment in favour of high culture as opposed to the low. Bankim continued in
Ishwar Chandra Gupta is now fast falling into oblivion and we must proceed to notice the
class of writers who have superseded him. But before doing so, we must premise a few
One of the most noticeable characteristics of Bengal at the present day is the large amount of
literary activity to be found there in comparison with other parts of India. But while books
and newspapers are daily pouring in from our press, the quality of our current literature is by
no means proportioned to its bulk. In fact, by far the greatest part [of] what is published is
absolute rubbish. There are several modern Bengali books of which we shall have to speak
in terms of high praise, but the number of these is so small in comparison with the mass of
publications yearly vomited forth by the Bengali press… (Essays and Letters 34)
This attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff ended up as a process of getting severed from the
indigenous roots, styles, forms and modes of writing. The age of bhadralok thus lost some valuable
resources which could have enriched us. Bankim was a prisoner of his age in this regard. The age of
bhadralok, thus born with a lopsidedness and an unresolved dialectics, since then has grappled with
Where does the chhotolok stand in the age of bhadralok? This is an important question, though
searching for an answer of that question is beyond the scope of this article. But the tremendous
tragedies of displacement and ethnic cleansing which befell the plebian members of the Bengali
nation in the twentieth century have generally been overlooked by the bhadralok, whose elitism
sturdily indigenous pen with its arsenals of popular idiom and political incorrectness which could
rectify the elitist bias of our Victorian codes and Enlightenment-derived worldview of the age of
bhadralok.
Babu was a comprador. While the bhadralok challenged the empire in many respects, he still
could not sufficiently rescue the pre-Christian (and pre-Islamic) voices of his ancestors in their
pristine entirety (scholars like Haraprasad are notable exceptions, and even in Haraprasad,
Victorian prudery is at work at times, when he denounces the vulgarity and decadence of our
Tantric Buddhist past). A course correction of the trajectory of bhadralok in this regard was much
required, but never adequately took place. True, the age witnessed some attempts to recover the
folklores and folksongs, and became interested in baul etc, but these were often addled with
projections of liberal western aspirations. Sincere attempts to revisit the pre-colonial indigenous
roots of our culture are rare, though Ishwar Gupta’s project of preserving Kobigaan was one such
pioneering work which provided a template for the later ages to follow. Barring few brilliant
To be fair on him, while Bankim could not salvage this situation, he did the best to preserve
whatever remnants of the past that he could preserve. He was ready to let the past perish, as it was
beyond his ability to find a way to keep the past alive, as the dominant sensibility of the Victorian-
imperial complex was against that, but he was not ready to let it perish unstudied. Like Ishwar
Gupta tried to retrieve kobigaan, Bankim tried his best to retrieve the works of Ishwar Gupta.
Forces at work in our colonial history were hostile to the development of an indigenous Bengali
aesthetic sensibility. The resultant loss to Bengali literature is heavy, no doubt. When we discard the
low, we also discard a whole part of our body of legacy that lies beneath.
Nevertheless, Bankim’s crusade against the epistemology of the empire is a fascinating topic of
In irony and in earnest, Bankim was a nineteenth century personality. Rabindranath Tagore, on the
other hand, for a little more than half of his life belonged to the twentieth century. The fact, that
crucial juncture of our history, that he helped the Bengali babu garner an escape velocity from the
giant gravitational pull of the British empire and set him free to imagine a nation in a state of
independence, might be one of those commonplace hypotheses about which general agreement runs
to such an extent, that it becomes mildly boring to re-examine the case and putting the hypothesis to
fresh analytical test. We shall not do that, instead we shall have observe some important moments
In India, government services are still sometimes referred to as baboodom, thus remembering a
not-so-remote past when the Bengali in his avatar as babu was ubiquitous as a motif of
administration. The babu of the empire refers to the meaning of babu in Bengal, because throughout
rest of India this word had multiple other meanings, the most common of them being a diminutive
of father, which is evident in the Hindi word babuji, or in the use of babu as a middle name in
different parts of north and south India. Only in Bengal, babu had this specific meaning: an official,
The Bengali babu constituted an “intermediate ruling class” and as such came under fire from the
neighbouring state of Orissa, as Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay records an instance from twentieth
century (198). Suniti Chatterjee missed an irony: such hateful reactions came to directed against
Bengalis at a time when the Bengali elites in their collective political consciousness moved beyond
baboodom, and were no longer a loyal British ally. Clearly, an imperial design against the Bengalis
cannot be ruled out behind such xenophobic hatred, more so, from such peoples who continued to
British reaction against Bankim's song Vande Mataram. Sir Henry Craik, Head of the Home
Department and member of the Viceroy's Executive Council made the following observation in
1937:
For many years the phrase 'Vande Mataram' has been literally the war cry of the terrorists in
Bengal, and although the words simply mean 'Hail Mother' they are commonly shouted as a
sympathy with revolution and of defiance against Government. The song has really no claim
Craik realized that it was not sufficient to negate the song on the grounds of sedition alone, and
therefore significantly harped on the Muslim angle. He argued that Vande Mataram “actually
The Encyclopaedia Britannica in its 1910 entry on Bankim Chandra notes that the novel
Anandamath came in the wake of the Ilbert Bill agitations, and also observes that Vande Mataram
was not used as a slogan during Bankim's lifetime, and only attained an “evil notoriety” after the
prepared by J E Armstrong in 1917 observes that “there is scarcely ever a revolutionary document
Sabyasachi Bhattacharya's study Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song is a weak analysis of the
fervour and the turbulence surrounding this song. He, for example completely missed the crucial role of
Sarala Devi in mothering the political significance of Vande Mataram. Bhattacharya introduces Sarala
in his study as “a Bengali lady” who was requested by G K Gokhale to sing Vande
requested a Bengali lady Saraladevi Chowdhurani to sing Vande Mataram. She was Rabindranath
Tagore's niece and the wife of Rambhuj Dutta Chowdhury of Lahore, the editor of a nationalist
Urdu weekly” (23). Curiously, Bhattacharya seems to be have read Sarala's autobiography and he
also quotes from there. Bhattacharya does not take any cognizance of the facts which Sarala records
in her autobiography: that the members of the Suhrid Samiti, Mymensingh district, for the first time
used Vande Mataram as a slogan and political cry for the first time in Bengal and in India, in a
procession, when they came to receive Sarala from the rail station (53).
in his opium induced dream observes the assault of the white men on the Sanskrit resources, and the
assault is named Asiatic research by the white colonizers. As an employee of the colonial system,
every battle that Bankim fought was an insider's battle. When he resisted British encroachment in
discourses of history and culture, he was fighting from within: he was a part of colonial set up, first
when Bankim clashed with the babu in his satiric writings, he was putting up a challenge against his
own tribe of western educated Bengalis. Moreover, when he was fighting against certain dubious
strains of Hindu emergecne, he was again fighting as an insider. Bankim belonged to a family of
centuries. Fine details of the Radhaballabh temple, rituals and festivals of worship are given by
Hemendrakumar Dasgupta in his biography of Bankim. Bankim's novel Poison Tree in its
description of the Thakurbari (house of worship) of Nagendra Dutta was perhaps influenced by the
memory of the Radhaballabh temple, as Jyotishchandra, Bankim's nephew (Bankim's elder brother
An insider's struggle yields certain dividends while it also forces certain handicaps. Bankim was a
product of colonial education; he was shaped by the contemporary West even as he waged a
Dasgupta observes that by the age of eleven, Bankim finished reading all the major histories of
He was surrounded by the epistemology of the empire from an early age, yet he developed an
ironical reflection on those surroundings. One of the earliest critical responses to the empire coming
from the childhood of Bankim as recorded by his biographer Shachishchandra Chattopadhyay takes
Medinipur district in 1844, and Bankim was admitted to the District English school. One day, a
street performer was passing by the school with his pet monkey. Bankim went to see the monkey
and then he reported to have remarked, “If only that monkey could be admitted to our class, I’d like
Bankim’s attempts to revisit his indigenous legacy and recover his roots (no doubt influenced by trends
on contemporary Europe) elicit our gratitude. No analysis of the possible indebtedness of Bankim's Vande
Mataram to his predecessors from the perspective of cultural history has been produced till date, and we
shall not try to attempt that here, as it is beyond our present scope. But it should be a crucial area of study
because through such influences, the bygone era continued to communicate with the future, Bankim's pen
acting as the medium. While the song might have been indebted to the lyric of a then popular hymn to the
Goddess of the River Ganges that children used to recite from a primer named Shishubodhok, as a memoir
of Amritalal Basu notes. The hymn went like this: Bondo Mata Surodhoni, Purane Mohima Shuni,
Potitopaboni Puratoni ( ম ,
ম ম , ),roughly translated as all hail mother, the divine river, we hear about
your greatness in the puranas, you are ancient and salvation of sinners). Basu used to chant this hymn
to the emergence of the monopoly of the primer text authored by Vidyasagar, Bornoporichoy. Basu
believed that Bondo Mata (literally meaning “all hail the mother”) was the ancestry (adipurush) of
I shall suggest that a specific line of Vande Mataram song, Obola Keno Ma Eto Bole (why
powerless, mother, with so much power), the revised version of which runs as Ke Bole Ma Tumi
Obole (who says mother you are powerless) exhibits an obvious influence of Ishwar Gupta, whose
poetry was precisely known for such alliteration and repetition of sounds. The Sanskrit lyric evokes
an ambiance of the ancient, apart from bestowing the song with a unifying contemporary impetus.
As such, through Bankim's Vande Mataram, the past generations successfully interacted, connived
and conspired with the future generations against a common enemy: colonization. It is not the focus
of our present study, again, but the indebtedness of the Vande Mataram song to Bankim’s early
poetic training under Ishwar Gupta’s tutelage can be an exciting area of close analysis, something
Bankim fought the empire on many fronts, and epistemology was the most crucial of them. The
might of the empire was manifested in its modern experimental science. and Bankim realized that it
was important to appraise the Bengalis about modern developments in science. He undertook a
Very few nationalities of the world in their history can boast of a revivalist icon who also
aggressively pushed for scientific awareness among masses, familiarizing them with latest
developments in science and technology. I cannot think of a comparable figure from Irish revival,
for example.
Bankim was aware of the limited benefits of the empire as well. He did not deny that the British
advent has been an instrument of progress in Indian history (as he observed, British taught new
things and brought down old structures of prejudice, inequality and superstition prevalent among
The bloodshed, the humiliation and the exploitation constituted a huge landscape which became the
canvass for an emerging nation-consciousness challenging foreign domination. But unlike, for
chronicled in details by Shishir Kar’s study. Bankim was demoted in service, he was harangued.
Throughout his life within the colonial apparatus, there were plenty of incidents when he was
insulted – even physically abused – and under consistent attacks by the white colonizers. When his
literary endeavours were deemed dangerous by the authorities, he was given extra burden of work,
precisely because his writings as well as publication of Bongodorshon were sought to be stopped by
Quite humiliatingly, Bankim had to go asking for a certificate from Keshub Chunder Sen’s
brother Krishnobihari to the effect that the text of Anandamath did not inspire treason against
British, else its publication and Bankim’s career – both were facing imminent doom (Kar 69).
Bankim’s premature retirement at the age of fifty-three owes to this continuous pressure in his
working life which left him drained out. This life full of stress could have been the reason behind
Age of bhadralok would be a movement of the Bengalis away from civil services, a development
epitomized by Subhash Bose’s abandonment of ICS. No comprehensive data analysis in this regard
exists, but during this period Bengalis continually valued independent intellectuals: be it writers,
professors, doctors, engineers, artists. Bankim’s career was probably a lasting lesson for the
impending age of bhadralok. Civil services would not be a preferred vocation for the bhadralok
who would value his independence, because he carried Bankim’s memory within his political
We have two known occasions when Vidyasagar was examiner (i.e. paper-setter and checker of
answer scripts) and Bankim as a student performed poorly in the Bengali paper: in the first
graduation examination after the establishment of Calcutta University in 1857; and even before that,
in the Hooghly College Senior Division Examination of 1852. Records tell us (as reported by
Bankim’s biographer Amitrasudan) that on both the occasions, Vidyasagar was the examiner of the
Bengali paper, and that he did not like Bankim’s Bengali to the point where he chose to fail him.
Bankim was known to excel in all his examinations otherwise (in Hooghly College he passed all the
examinations with scholarly distinction, barring 1852, as Bankim’s biographer Hemendra Dasgupta
attests: the examination of 1852 he passed nonetheless, but without scholarship, owing to the
The only known instances of Bankim’s “failure” as a student come from these two papers of
Bengali. Barring Bankim’s poor performance in the combined language paper of Calcutta
university (which had English and Bengali; W Grapel was the examiner of the English paper where
Bankim performed very well, but he had to pass with grace marks in the Bengali portion that was
Bankim was already a published poet by 1853 in Ishwar Gupta’s Shongbad Probhakor, so his
Bengali could not have been that weak so as to deserve a failure. Bankim’s Bengali was perhaps
different from the conservative style of Vidyasagar. We have already seen that Bankim was
Bankim has been blamed for opposing Vidyasagar’s social reforms, though that might not
constitute a valid allegation. A character of Bishbrikkho (Poison Tree), Surjomukhi, speaks out
against Vidyasagar and widow remarriage, but that cannot be construed as a political statement of
the writer himself. Bankim in fact registered his support for widow remarriage in unequivocal terms
against polygamy was opposed by Bankim. Bankim, on the contrary, supported it in his concerned
article on polygamy, albeit with some riders. He criticized Vidyasagar’s movement to be Quixotic
which was charging at a windmill: polygamy was dying out as a practice in any case, and
Vidyasagar’s account of it was inflated, Bankim maintains. Then Bankim added something which
was far more significant than the first rider: scriptural justification is not required for social reform.
If a reform needs to be done for the benefit of society, it should proceed without looking for
scriptural justification.
This was a revolutionary proposition in all its dimensions, and I want to argue that it was a signal
contribution of Bankim towards the freedom of thought in the intellectual orientation of the age of
bhadralok. That the bhadralok was remarkably freed from Hindu religious dogma was attributable
to that courageous pronunciation of the man who himself was the greatest intellectual icon of the
Hindu revival of nineteenth century. Prior to Bankim, major intellectuals like Rammohan and
The challenge to the authority of Vedas in Bengal posed by Samkhya and Tantra must have been
a close topic of study for Bankim. Under such circumstances, the polyphonic nature of Hinduism
does not allow a rigid scriptural regime. Further, customs and conventions always have taken
Renaissance, the nascent class of middle class intellectuals increasingly supported atheism. Bankim
was a part of the momentum of the new middle classes who will no longer be unquestioningly
Bankim continued to maintain this position. Towards the end of his life, when he was asked about
the propriety of sea voyage for Hindus, Bankim, in his letter to Binoykrishno Deb, said:
speak a word or two about the agitation that has come up regarding sea voyage.
Firstly, I do not believe that any social reform can be or should be done by evoking the
authority of religious scriptures. When the late Mahatma Vidyasagar started a movement
against polygamy by evoking the authority of scriptures, I raised the same objection, and I
have no reason to change that opinion till now. There are two reasons behind my
consideration. First, Bengali society is loyal to folk customs or customs of the land, and not
loyal to scriptures. It’s true that folk customs sometimes follow scriptures. But more often
they do not follow scriptures, and when there is a conflict between custom and scripture,
custom prevails.
The second reason behind my aforesaid conviction is that it is doubtful whether society will
benefit, if it always follows the ruling of the scriptures. (Bankim Rochonaboli 2: 858)
We need to remember here that Bankim wanted uniform civil code in his article on polygamy. He
said that if there is a social reform, then it should be applicable for every inhabitant of Bengal, and
not just Hindus alone, and that constituted a part of Bankim’s objection to evoking Hindu scriptural
The clash between Bankim and Vidyasagar, when closely studied, reveals that there can be only
one possible objection against Bankim: but that would be a little subtextual, and will require
reading between the lines. It could be the case that Bankim was opposed to these imperially aided
social reforms. Law-making was a domain entirely and exclusively controlled by the British
imperial government, and Bankim might have tried to resist Vidyasagar’s attempt to bring the
colonial administration to yet another intervention into Hindu social life. If that subtext was there,
then Bankim was being a crafty advocate. But that possibility of a subtext is cancelled by Bankim’s
stand regarding sea-voyage, which establishes it beyond doubt that his position was sincere: that he
It is interesting that the process of colonial history was dissolving the authority of Hinduism as a
whole. Not just scriptures alone, but folk customs too were losing grounds. There is one much
maligned line from Ishwar Gupta which is very often quoted as a proof of Gupta’s misogyny and
opposition to female education (he was not opposed to female education, and was in fact an
enthusiastic supporter of the same, as multiple contemporary accounts show: I discussed that in
details in my article on Ishwar Gupta in JBS Kolkata issue), the translation of which reads like this:
“As the young girls pick up books in their hands and learn A and B, they will soon turn into replicas
of European women and will roam freely in the open field adjacent to the British fort in Kolkata”
What is usually given a miss is that Gupta’s poem records a lamentation: that the English
education will deprive the girls from their roots, from the brotos which formed an integral part of
Bengali feminine customs (feminine ritual chants to commemorate certain celestial, mostly solar
and some lunar events of the calendar, worship of deities etc). Gupta asks: will the educated girls
remember that Vidyasagar himself was an integral part of that system – was already showing its
was recently discussed, under that strange designation, with equal ability and learning in
so many different embodiments of a strong desire to exempt ourselves from the obligations
This is a Janus-faced paradox, a strange hypocrisy that lies at the heart of the genesis of the age of
bhadralok: the social reforms of Vidyasagar evoked the authority of scriptures whereas Bankim, the
In this regard, an interesting observation was made by Rakhal Chandra Nath in his article
Rammohan and Vidyasagar. Nath proceeds in a rather iconoclastic manner, and then contrasts
Bankim with them. I shall not go into the details, as that would be outside our focus in this article,
but Nath makes some valid observations, and truly, if Bankim was remarkably free from one single
vice, then it was a complete abstinence from hypocrisy. He knew how to reconcile pragmatism with
ethics, compulsions of history with the necessities of community. A continuous ironical impulse
ensured that he even maintained a critical distance from the ideologies which were prevalent,
including those of his own class, and like a giant whose strength was immense, Bankim did not
need to resort to hypocrisy and could always afford to be straightforward in his non-fictional
writings.
An anxious question that Bankim’s “Confessions of a Young Bengal” asks in its conclusion, is this:
[S]ound logic compels us to cry with one voice, Hinduism must be destroyed. Agreed. But
personal and social ethics has been well-nigh wholly repealed, and its precepts are
universally seen and felt to be more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Where is
our new code of morality? Where is the new public opinion to enforce its rules? (Essays and
Letters 93)
Bankim himself did exhibit an indifferent, and mildly hostile attitude to Hinduism in his early
career at least on one occasion. Rajmohan’s Wife while describing the interiors of the bedchamber
of Mathur Ghose, casually observes: “Two paintings of the largest size, from one of which
glowered the grim black figure of Kali, and on the other of which was displayed the crab-like form
of Durga, faced each other from high positions on two opposite walls” (77).
The obvious threat coming from an Anglocentric worldview was that it would make the educated
Bengalis see their own culture from the white colonizer’s viewpoint. Bankim inhabited the belly of
the beast during this period, but he would eventually come out of that.
The legendary interview between Bankim and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa which took place in
1884 (as recorded in the Gospels of Ramakrishna) did not go well. The description does not do
justice to Bankim’s viewpoints. A reader of the Kathamrita might end up forming quite negative
opinions about Bankim. However, it cannot be disputed that Kathamrita is very often one-sided. It
is written to give the perspective of the Ramakrishna movement. While we do not have Bankim’s
When Bankim meets Ramakrishna, the saint makes a joke out of Bankim’s name: “What weight
has caused you to bend?” (Bankim literally means bent or curved, and hence the joke). Bankim
Bankim’s quest for the answers to the fundamental riddles of life did not lead him to spirituality.
he used to ask: E Jibon Loiya Ki Koribo, E Jibon Loiya Ki Korite Hoy? (What shall I do with this
life? What is one supposed to do with this life?). When Bankim responded to Ramkrishna’s
question about the purpose and meaning of life with the answer aahaar, nidra, moithun that is,
food, sleep and sex – it caused consternation, embarrassment and scandal. Kathamrita tells us that
Ramkrishna asked for meaning of human life and not just any life, but to my eyes it looks a little
doubtful. A rhetorical question about the purpose of life, in anticipation of a lofty answer
(Ramkrishna in all likelihood wanted to hear that the purpose of life is a quest for God, or Divinity,
which would be evident to any sincere reader of Kothamrito) would surely draw some satire from
Bankim, the keen observer of human nature. Bankim’s answer would have a bare factual
correctness, even if the question was about human life. Human life as a form of animal life abides
Further, Bankim was answering to the question about purpose of life in a solidly materialistic,
blasé and nonchalant way. Humans are different from the rest of the animal kingdom in certain
complex ways, and Bankim was aware of that. However, Bankim’s intellect resisted all forms of
idealism, while the Ramakrishna movement was founded on idealism. It is also significant that
Bankim never sought the meaning of life in a spiritual solace, abandoning reason, history and
community.
To that extent, the political ideology of Vivekananda is more indebted to Bankim than to his
mentor Ramakrishna himself. Vivekananda’s brother Bhupendranath Dutt acknowledged that in his
case was concerned with the individual’s spiritual salvation in the fashion of classical Samkhya
and not national or collective empowerment. Ramakrishna was not concerned about any collective
entity called nation, folk, people, community. Ramakrishna was not known to be critical of the
empire and colonization. Vivekananda the nationalist is a creation of Bankim’s legacy, it can be
argued. Hemchandra Ghosh, the founder of Bengal Volunteers reminisces of his meeting with
Vivekananda in 1901 when the latter told him: “Read Bankim Chandra – Bankim Chandra – and
But let us go back to that celebrated conflict of ideas. We need to realize that Ramakrishna did
not just meet Bankim, but over a period, he held interviews with a number of Kolkata dignitaries.
The interview with Keshub Chunder Sen was highly successful and it led to a number of future
meetings between these two. But Ramakrishna’s interviews with Vidyasagar and Bankim ended
disastrously, and they never met again. Ramakrishna had a spiritual agenda and these two were men
of intellect. This can be seen as a conventional clash between Jnanamarga and Bhaktimarga, the
path of knowledge and the path of devotion. Bankim’s choice for the path of knowledge over the
Language of reason has a universal applicability, transcending the barriers of limited and esoteric
languages of idealism which are limited to specific groups. The spirituality of Ramakrishna
movement is a unique language of that movement, and might not be acceptable to those who are
outside it. It has been suggested that human beings invented the faculty of reason in order to speak
humans developing reasoning and arguing faculties as a method of communicating with others who
2
did not belong to the same bloodline, same tribe and same culture.
Bankim’s project is marked by an emphasis on reason and a denial of idealism. This might have
paved the way for the age of bhadralok to have its international reach. Bengalis have frequently
been the international face of India throughout modern history. They have communicated with the
least partially, lie in Bankim. In choosing reason and knowledge over spiritual salvation, Bankim
made a choice, and it influenced the following generations. Through his seasoned reasoning, as the
literary monarch of his era, Bankim shaped the consciousness of educated Bengalis like nobody
else. The age of bhadralok was the age of reason. And it was this legacy of reasoning which made
the bhadralok an internationalist in outlook and exposure, just the way a language influences our
revivalism, who absurdly observed that all Hindu rituals, myths and customs had their support in
modern science) is an excellent example of his clash with Hindu dogmatism. While Bankim himself was
an enthusiastic proponent of reconciliation between science and Hinduism (his article “On the Origin of
Hindu Festivals” compiled in Essays and Letters deals with the impeccable astronomy of the Hindu
festivals of antiquity), he soon became wary of Torkochuramoni’s fanciful ideas of scientific Hinduism.
An anecdote from contemporary sources narrates how Agastya’s evaporation of the sea was described
by Shoshodhor Torkochuramoni as the breaking down of water into hydrogen and oxygen by the
electric current emanating from the sage’s eyes. The fact that the bhadralok abandoned any belief in
such absurd things which the rest of India still sometimes subscribes to this day (Ganesh’s elephant head
methodology) is attributable to Bankim as the architect of the age of bhadralok. Bankim was initially
enthusiastic about Shoshodhor and he also took the troubles to introduce Shoshodhor to the people of
Kolkata. Shoshodhor was a good orator, and Ramakrishna is said to have remarked after meeting
Shoshodhor that he has been able to see the second moon (that is a meaning of the name Shoshodhor).
Shoshodhor insisted that Hindus must carry the external insignia of devotion: the sacred mark on
forehead (tilok) and the tuft of hair on rear-head (tiki) must be worn. Shoshodhor gave fantastical
a dogmatic Hindu, and the age of bhadralok would carry that legacy. As if his absurd claims about
science were not enough, Shoshodhor in his revivalist zeal wanted to reduce Hinduism to a set of
restrictions and commandments about food, dress, get up and everyday life. Bankim looked forward
3
to a Hinduism which was worthier than that.
Coda
Bankim was a not a figure like imperial Russia's celebrated historian Nikolai Karamzin, whose
twelve-volume history of Russia remains a beloved work to this day, and yet Bankim is considered
to have fathered modern Bengali historiography. In spite of his authorship of Vande Mataram,
Bankim was not a legendary poet like Goethe or Shakespeare or Tagore, for whom the status of a
seer is usually reserved. Still, Bankim is known among common Bengalis with the appellation rishi,
or seer, who witnessed the revelation of the śloka Vande Mataram (the hymns of Rigveda
manifested and revealed themselves to the rishis who then uttered them as chants, as per the Vedic
legends). Bankim had a short life, and his job as deputy magistrate did not allow him to devote his
time completely to literature, and yet he remains an infinite source of our cultural history.
Rabindranath’s greatness is writ large on the wall of fame: he was Brahmo, he came from the
Tagore clan, he was awarded Nobel prize in literature, he founded the establishment of
VisvaBharati, he was one of the most prolific writers of world literature; Bankim’s greatness is not
so much favoured by his circumstances (which were often adverse to him), but by his sheer
Bankim and Rabindranath ruled Bengali culture in succession; they were the two iconic figures
who dominated Bengal Renaissance. However question-begging the term Bengal Renaissance
might have become as a category, as a period of our modern history stretching from Rammohan to
the end of the day, it was an intense period of clash of ideas. When we try to understand the long
twentieth century of Bengal, the early part of which overlaps with Bengal Renaissance, we need to
remember that it was primarily shaped by the legacies of these conflicts. The conflicts involving
Bankim and Rabindranath left behind very important legacies which the age of bhadralok was made
References
1. http://www.bengaliwiki.org/doku.php?id=
%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%A8_
%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8.
3.http://www.anandabazar.com/editorial/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE-%E0%A6%AA-
%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%95-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE-%E0%A6%AA-%E0%A6%B7-
1.60218
Primary Bibliography
Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra. Bankim Rochonaboli (in two volumes). Kolkata: Reflect, 1999.
---. Bankim's Hinduism: An Anthology of Writings by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Ed. and
---. Bongodorshon Potrika O Bankimchandra. Kolkata: Mitra O Ghosh, 1415 (Bengali Year).
Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi. Vande Mataram: The Biography of a Song. New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.
---. Shobhyotar Shworup O Bharote Jatiyotabadi Chintadhara. New Delhi: Oxford, 2018
rd
Das, Chitta Ranjan. Deshbandhu Rochonashomogro 3 Volume. Kolkata: Tuli Kolom, 1364
(Bengali Year).
Dey, Shoilesh (ed.). Ognijug (in three volumes). Kolkata: Purno Prokashon, 1999.
Sarala Debi Chowdhurani’s Jiboner Jhorapata” in Journal of Bengali Studies 1.1 2012 pp 149-156.
2018.
Dasgupta, Tamal. “Bankim ki Musalman Bidweshi Chilen? Myth O Mithyar Aboron Soriye”.
Eagleton, Terry. Crazy John and the Bishop and Other Essays in Irish Culture. Notre Dame:
---. “Nationalism: Irony and Commitment” in Nationalism, Colonialism and Literature by Terry
Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Edward W Said. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Ghosh, Nityapriyo. Proshongo Rabindranath: Nityapriyo Ghosher Probondho Shongroho (in three
Grosby, Steven. Nationalism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Kopf David. British Orientalism and Bengal Renaissance. Kolkata: Firma KLM, 1969.
Lukacs, Georg. “Tagore’s Gandhi Novel: Review of Rabindranath Tagore’s Home and the World.”
Majumdar, Nepal. Bharote Jatiyota O Antorjatikota Ebong Robindronath (in 6 volumes). Kolkata:
Dey’s, 2010.
Mitra, Satish Chandra. Joshor Khulnar Itihash (in two volumes). Kolkata: Dey’s, 2001.
Nath, Rakhal Chandra. “Bankim Ki Protikriyashil Chhilen?” Poshchimbongo. Bankim Special Issue
Roy, Dwijendra Lal. Dwijendra Rochonaboli (in two volumes). Kolkata: Shahityo Shongshod,
2012.
Sastry, Haraprasad. Rochona Shongroho (in five volumes). Kolkata: Poshchimbongo Rajyo Pustok
Dr Tamal Dasgupta is founder editor of Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) and
Shoptodina (ISSN 2395-6054). He is founder of Shoptodina Foundation. He did his PhD on Terry
In examining the life of Sunil Ganguly's fictional character Thakomoni from Those Days, the fallen
woman who whored and lived in the dark underbelly of Bengal Renaissance, this paper will launch
a query into the faultlines of the impending age of bhadralok. Thakomoni is a motif of the
disempowered chhotolok within the scheme of Bengal Renaissance, and she is a premonition of the
ways in which the chhotolok will be further lost in the age of bhadralok.
Sunil Ganguly's Sahitya Academy Award-winning novel Shei Shomoy was translated into English
by Aruna Chakraborty as Those Days. In Ganguly’s novel, Thakomoni is the wife of an evicted
farmer from a remote area of Bengal. She serves as a prototype of the subaltern woman. Her very
name literally means in Bengali 'stay, jewel', a name that used to be given to a child by parents
whose other offsprings died young and who now desperately wanted that child to survive.
th
This novel is set in the 19 century, in the background of the British colonization in India. That
will in turn imply a triple set of oppression for a woman: in the hands of the patriarchal system, the
Zamindari system (fundamentally altered because of the Permanent Settlement Act brought by the
1
British) and the urban elites who became affluent owing to their agency of the British. The last class
became the absentee landlords, heavily investing in Zamindaris. Their deputies (called Nayeb in
Bengali) were given an absolute free hand in exploiting the peasants even to the point of eviction.
as a refugee, she enters into the servitude of that very class. The conditions created by the
Permanent Settlement Act and Sunset Act turned her (and innumerable others like her) into a
Thakomoni's status and identity undergo a massive change as she moves from the margin of her
2 2
village, Bhinkuri, to the centre of Raj, Calcutta. Due to two consecutive droughts, her husband is not
able to pay the required amount of tax and as a result, their house is looted and burnt down by the
Naayeb. They come to Calcutta searching for their landlord whose name he does not even know, to
make their plight known to him and get justice. They are not aware that circumstances have changed,
the nature of landlordship has changed and an absentee landlord does not care to exempt taxes when the
farmers went through bad weather conditions. Thakomoni's husband Trilochan thinks that the landlord
will have a big mansion, and therefore it will be recognized very easily. The image that he has in mind
of a zamindar is the traditional one who lived amongst the farmers and shared their interests. Though
The novel speaks of the native agents of British business interest, who had “grown wealthy on salt,
cloth and cork, bought up estate after estate and set up as zamindars. But they did not live among their
tenants. They built mansions in Calcutta and lived lives of sloth and luxury, while their
3
agents squeezed the life blood out of the peasants and, in case of default, seized their land”.
When Trilochan reaches Calcutta, it overwhelms and intimidates him. It is a different world
altogether, run along a different set of rules which he does not comprehend. Then as he goes
searching for water for his thirsty family, as soon as he finds a lake and fills up his pot, he is
arrested by two British sentries and taken to the Police Station. It so happens that the lake he was
Natives were not allowed to use the lake for any purpose whatsoever, though the officer's horses
could have their fill in it. When the sentries beat Trilochan, he does not understand his crime, but he
is still happy because he thinks they are the zamindar's guards and would soon lead him to his
master.
Trilochan is forever lost from his wife and family, and Thakomoni is reduced to a proletariat in
the original etymological sense of the term. The proletariat from the Latin word proles implied
those people, according to the constitution of the roman republic, who had no wealth other than
their children. Thakomoni is now left with no other asset than her son Dulal. Her little daughter,
inflicted with cholera, dies a painful death in the darkness of night. Eventually she enters into the
domestic service of the Singhas of Jorashankho after she is noticed by the lady of the house, who
takes pity on her. However, after entering into this service, her son becomes separate from her as he
becomes an attendant to the young scion of the family. While Dulal becomes a child labour,
Thakomoni herself becomes a cook. Soon she has to become a part time sex servant for the steward
of the household, Dibakar. She has to endure the ignominy of being raped by the steward in front of
the eyes of the steward's wife, who by the way has full consent in the exploitation of this helpless
Partha Chatterjee writes that there are three modes of political power: the communal, the feudal
and the bourgeois. Thakomoni is landless and now comes under the category of urban proletariat,
but she is still within the ambit of feudal relationships of power, since she is a domestic servant and
not an industrial worker. Partha Chatterjee points out, “The feudal mode of power is characterised
4
on conquest or some other means of physical subordination of a subject population.”
the Singha family, but he is mature enough to understand the relationship to be that between master
and slave. Nabin would do just as he wished with Dulal like making him drag his nose all round the
verandah, riding him as a donkey or standing on his chest posing like Kali while Dulal gasped for
breath. The ordeals sometimes brought tears to his eyes but he kept a smiling face, because he
understood that staying with the youngest babu of the household had its own advantages. He could
eat some of the food that Nabin threw away and also enjoy some other benefits.
A city usually reveals all its wilderness to the disempowered, more terrifying than a jungle where
wild beasts roam. In the absence of any substantial industrialization, the farmers who were the
victims and refugees of the Permanent Settlement Act, were not turned into industrial workers.
Instead they entered into several forms of master-slave relationships in feudalistic modes.
Colonization of India.
In this novel, we see that the servant women are regularly tortured and exploited by male
servants, and the stigma of the fallen woman is attached to a young widow named Matu who also
works in the Singha household's grand kitchen with Thakomoni. She becomes pregnant, and when
numerous brutal attempts at abortion fail, Matu is poisoned. She dies unnoticed and uncared for. In
her imagination, Thakomoni is haunted by the ghost of Matu since then. She learns in the hard way
to avoid Matu's fate by consuming quasi-medicinal herbs which are given to her by the steward's
wife, Sohagbala.
Thakomoni's son Dulal grows up hating his mother as a fallen woman. It is ironical that it is
Dibakar and another powerful servant Nakur. Dulal has a huge hatred for his mother, while
Thakomoni continues to love his son. Dulal and Thakomoni both eventually become upwardly
mobile. Dulal becomes the personal attendant of the young head of Singha Household, Nabin
Singha (this character is modelled on the first translator of Mahabharat into Bengali prose,
But her wounds are never healed, her losses are never recovered and an emptiness persists in the
mind of Thakomoni. Dulal is permanently alienated from his mother. Thakomoni finally becomes
5
insane and roams on the roads of kolkata asking everyone: “can you tell me the way to Bhinkuri?”
She doesn’t know the district or the location of her village, so no one is able to help her locate it. It
can be mentioned as an aside, that in a strange turn of events, Dulal at the end of the novel kills
Trilochan who is by this time completely mad and attacks Dulal's master, Nabin Shingha. Dulal
never gets to know that Trilochan was his father. The act of patricide is not known to him.
There are several layers of oppression that Thakomoni has to endure. She is solitary,
disempowered and could only come to prominence with the favour of the powerful male servants,
but then she is stigmatized by her own son. She is lost in a city that upon her very arrival snatched
away her little daughter and her husband. The former dies, the latter is lost. After spending the
sordid and tortuous life of a servant, her life's end comes in an equally tragic manner. She
desperately wants to go back to her village after she realizes that her son has disowned her, and that
she was entirely cast away in this city. While trying helplessly to go back to her roots, to reclaim
that picture of a hut and a field in her village which she carried in her mind, in an insane state,
the urban underclass. Thakomoni as a representative of that underclass wanders across the dark
lanes of an otherwise much illuminated city of renaissance and reformation, where connoisseurs of
art and culture abound. As the novel points out, “[e]ducation, music and religious ritual flourished
6
on the blood and bones of an impoverished peasantry”. It would be an understatement to say that
the Bengal Renaissance was limited only to Calcutta, as Thakomoni's life would show. It could
actually be restricted to a specific floor in a certain house. The essential conditions of the backward
classes never changed even with the change in circumstances. They were exploited as one oppressor
replaced another and they could never break free of their shackles. “we'll be exactly where we are.
Kings may win or lose wars but the lot of the poor never changes.” remarks a character in Those
7
Days.
In Thakomoni's character, the macro is juxtaposed with the micro. Thakomoni is specific and
universal. she is a woman and a proletariat. She is both grand narrative and deconstruction, and she
is both fiction and commentary. She is a character and she is a trajectory. She is memory and she is
adumbration. She is history and she is also the way things are likely to remain for times to come.
She is the dark side of Bengal's Renaissance, and she will be lost and drowned in the long twentieth
century of Bengal.
Reference
1. The agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords was concluded in
1793 by Charles Earl Cornwallis by which revenues from farming was fixed.
2. Kushthia district.
13.
Select Bibliography
Primary Bibliography
Gangopadhyay, Sunil Those Days. translated Chakravarti, Aruna Penguin Books India 1997.
Secondary Bibliography
Ahmed, A F Salahuddin Social Ideas and Social Change in Bengal 1818-1835. Leiden: E J
Brill, 1965
Online resources
<http://www.postcolonialweb.org/poldiscourse/spivak/spivak2.html>
-. 'Proletariat' <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat>
Bhanusingha’s Padabali
Sayantan Thakur
While making an analysis of Tagore’s poetic genius one may be astounded to see that despite being
a poet of the early half of the twentieth century, an age, when the entire Bengal was oscillating in-
between the stereotypical custom and change, the idea of 'working class' and 'Bhadrolok', how
Vaishnava religion has played a significant part to enhance the poetic virtuoso of Tagore. To
resolve the quarry to an extent it may be said that what can be manifested in Tagore is the splendid
blend of the sublime Vedic tradition of India and the modern perspective that was gradually
venturing into the culture and society of the region. That is the reason why one can trace in his
verse the quintessence of the new trend of modern poetry and the soothing melody of the old lyrical
legacy of the Vaishnava poetry. In other words what Tagore has done in his poetry is that he has
modified the principle of Vaishnava theology and the old soothing melody of Vaishnava poetry and
has used them in his verses in such a way that they no more remain a mere part of a religious school
but become one of the major ingredients, which were later adopted by so many modern poets to
Here the question may arise that why Tagore, instead of showing his keen interest towards other
religious theoretical schools, have shown his great interest towards Vaishnava religion? Though it is
very difficult to address the question in a single sentence or a word, it can be interpreted that what
Tagore might have found in Vaishnava religion is the ingredient of becoming a universal religion and it
is because of this in ‘The Religion of Man’ he boldly declares that Vaishnava religion which has made
an endeavour to feel God in all love relationships, for Vaishnavites believe that whatever
divine one. Again in ‘Sadhana’ he has described God as the ‘Supreme lover’ and the union between
human soul and Divine can be possible by love- “We get the glimpse of the Infinite in the person
1
whom we love . . . In all love relation the Vaishnavas have tried to feel God.”
Tagore’s keen attachment with Vaishnavism started at an early age when he became quite fond of
reading the lyrics of Vaishnava poets. As he writes in ‘Religion of Man’ -“Fortunately for me a
collection of old lyrical poems composed by the poets of the Vaishnava sect came to my hand when
2
I was young. I became aware of some underlying idea deep in the obvious meaning”.
The tradition of including the core idea of Vaishnava thought and philosophy as the subject matter
of poetry, which was first begun by Joydeb and carried forward by later Vaishnava lyrical poets,
reached its culmination with Gurudeb Rabindranath Tagore. Being a poet of twentieth century
Tagore interprets Vaishnava thought and philosophy from his own perspective. He did not see
himself either as a veritable Vaishnava or as one, conveying forward the tradition, his melodies and
verses inhale out the genuine soul of Vaishnava poetry. A critical analysis of his lyrics and
melodies will uncover the way how the doctrine of Vaishnava reasoning has been coursing through
them. That is why Vaishnava scholars like Harekrishna Mukhopadhaya and many others have
acknowledged Rabindranath as the greatest modern Vaishnav poet of the twentieth century and also
the last luminary of the great poetic Vaishnava tradition that was started by Jayadeva.
In an article entitled ‘Tracing Vaishnava Strain in Tagore’ O’Connell opines that Tagore draws
materials for his poetry from the various philosophical sources. Among those sources, which had
immense impact upon the poetic consciousness of Tagore, Vaishnavism was the most prominent
one. In other words, like other sources, it is also the use of the idea of Vaishnava theology that has
brought variety to Tagore’s poetry. As he writes -“Rabindranath’s engagement with the Vaishnava
tradition in Bengal was a significant component of his own complex experience of the world in
We can refine our understanding of Rabindranath’s aesthetic sensibilities and ethical values by
observing how he resonates with Vaishnava sentiments, imagery, and values, but not uncritically. And
we may gain a more precise appreciation of the Vaishnavas by seeing them through his
3
perceptive discerning eyes.”
The idea of Radha and Krishna as a divine couple has immense impact on Vaishnava literature and it is
because of that Vaishnava poets often represent through their lyrical hymns the beauty of the divine
couple in their idyllic transcendent realm. They also delineate the physical magnificence and appeal of
Sri Chaitanya by considering him as 'Sawam Bhagaban'(God Himself), who manifested himself in the
Kali Yuga with a specific end goal to safeguard the mankind from the weight of agony and penance. All
such expressions of the Vaishnava poets are the consequences of the outpourings of their devotional
sentiments, which give the Vaishnava convention in Bengal an emphatically stylistic as well as an
aesthetic quality. It is this soothing combination of the literary refinement, simple expression and
aesthetic excellence that attracted Tagore towards Vaishnava poetry. As Tagore himself has admitted
that Vaishnava poetry is free from the restraint of any fixed literary convention and therefore they
exhibit a degree of freedom in their way of expressing human emotions simply and effectively. While
making an analysis of the concept of Egalitarian ethos and its influence on Tagore O’Connell observes
that group singing (samkirtan) has further social ramifications. It not just stands for the emotional
expressions of Bhakti rather it also gives the sense of solidarity. By quoting Hiteshranjan Sanyal’s idea
of group singing as an important medium to show unity, O’Connell continues by saying that what he
finds behind the concept of group singing is the idea of egalitarian collective dynamism which had its
beginning during the time of Sri Chaitanya. Despite the fact that it hardly played a significant role in
promoting any radical, social or political change, it certainly improved the sense of pride and respect
within the downtrodden, who before the arrival of Chaitanya had the voice but due to the suppression
hereditary gurus, mostly Brahman Goswamis, its egalitarian and mildly reformist thrust weakened
and opportunities emerged for exploiting the faith of simple devotees, a theme also articulated by
Tagore. But mediating as it were the ‘image gap’ between the more egalitarian and more exploitive
the wandering Vaishnava mendicant, often enough himself or herself a singer of kirtan. All these
images and influences of the Vaishnavas were circulating in the popular and literary milieu in
4
which Rabindranath lived and of which he was well aware.”
What is striking in Tagore is his emphatic likeness to Chandidas and Vidyapati. He was so fond of
these poets that despite having the ability to compose lyrics by using dulcet and harmonious
Chandidas and many others. In his autobiography Jivansmriti Tagore himself has admitted that
during his early years it was a volume of poems by the Maithili poet Vidyapati found in the family
library that initiated youthful Robi's interest towards Vaishnava lyrics. Though the Maithili
expressions of Vidyapati were fairly obscure to him, yet this Maithili dialect charmed him the most.
He was so overwhelmed by the expression and rhythm of the Maithili poet that he, at an age of
twenty, composed a few verses in impersonation of the medieval Vaisbnava poems. These lyrics
were published under the title of ‘Bhanusingher Padavali’ (Songs of Bhanusingha).They breathe out
a true Vaishnava spirit to such an extent that scholars often trace in them clear impressions of the
5
Vaishnava poets like Joydeb, Chandidasa and Vidyapati.
According Tony K. Stewart, the encounter of young Tagore with Vaishnava poems had a far
reaching consequence. He was so concerned about his early compositions that he made several
changes in subsequent editions of the poems. By examining those alterations Stewart argues that the
eroticism to a more universalised spirituality: “There is a subtle increase in ambiguity, or, rather, less
Vaishnava specificity, a tendency to generalise and abstract from what was in earlier versions more
precisely delineated. The dominant erotic mood subtly gives way to a humility in the face of unrequited
love, especially when the focus of the poem shifts from Radha (the proper subject for a Vaisnava lyric)
to her confidante Bhanu (out of humility, the devotee ought never be the subject) . . .
. It is a shift that is consonant with Rabindranath’s mature religious sensibility . . . Krishna does not
remain the cowherding cad of Braj, but seems to be recognised as the Lord, immanent in all
creatures, and in the hearts of his devotees. One is reminded of Rabindranath’s attitude of reverence
6
and submission to his jivandevata, his indwelling lord.”
While examining the cause behind Tagore’s keen attachment to Vaishnava thought and philosophy,
Tapati Dasgupta in his book Social Thought of Rabindranath Tagore: A Historical Analysis has
opined that Tagore looked upon the tradition of Vaishnavism as a valuable element and a special
form in which the true culture of India could be traced. Apart from this, as she continues, Tagore
found in Vaishnavism not only the tendency to go against the excessive intellectualism of the
metaphysicians and the mechanical approach of the ritualists and the literalists but also the desire to
call for love and devotion towards a personal God in preference to abstract speculation about the
Absolute. In other words it stood for catholicity and tolerance with regard to philosophical
controversies, recognition of the importance of man’s everyday life, and a loosening of social
barriers. Though it should be remembered that like baul tradition (tradition set up by the wandering
minstrels of Bengal), and the Sufism of Kabir, Vaishnavism is only one of the channels through
7
which the nonmonastic tradition influenced Rabindranath.
In some of the early compositions of Tagore, one can trace an inclination to unite the Vedic-
Upanishadic and the Vaishnava perspectives. Like a true Vaishnavite, he believes in the Upanishadic
Tagore is trying to make systematic assimilation of theism and absolutism, but in reality if we observe
his philosophical belief we shall find that theistic side gets the upper hand in his thought. According to
him, God has two aspects personal and impersonal, where the Absolute stands for the impersonal
aspect. Therefore Tagore’s idea of God is not a featureless, attributeless, indifferent solidarity but rather
as one, who is basically identified with person essentially and related to human being as lover to the
beloved. Unlike many Indian thinkers, Tagore does not believe the concept that God as ‘the empirical,
ephemeral and finite aspect of the Absolute’. In his view God is the ‘concrete ideal of human life, and
its aspirations and people will show their faith in the Absolute ‘only when it
8
is realised in human experience, only when it is humanised.’
The best example of such a composition where the Vaishnava thought and the philosophy and
Upanishad are beautifully synthesized is the lyric "Apramatta" in Naivedya (1308 B.S.). It is enriched
with the devotion of Vaishnavism and the eminent thought of the Upanishads. In another occurrence,
we find that the artist who is the searcher of excellence gives up his life at the sacrificial stone of God.
In other words, his early writings are the manifestations of the brilliant synthesis he made between two
ideas- the idea of human love he got from the Vaishnava writings and that of perfect love from the
Upanishads. A few scholars see in Tagore's work a never-ending strife between the two dispositions.
Others declare that the Vedic and the Vaishnava points of view ruled rotating periods of Tagore's
inventive vocation. From this, one can come to the idea that the writer's psyche resembled a train
covering forward and backward between the two ends of polytheism and belief in a higher power. In a
nutshell, Tagore took from every custom what he thought to be the best. In his all-encompassing vision,
the glow and abundance of the Vaishnava artists and the moral
9
vision as well as the spiritualist instinct of the Upanishadic sages remain side by side.
In conversation with E. G. Thompson Tagore once said that what attracted him towards the
those two that not only astonished him but also provided him the structure to compose his own
compositions. As he said- "I found in the Vaishnava artists melodious development and pictures
210 meter. And afterward there was the intensity of their symbolism." While inspecting the
Vaishnava element in Tagore’s works C.F. Andrews has aptly commented that instead of choosing
any English poet he took Vaishnava religious literature as the source of inspiration. He was so
engrossed by the poetic quality and graceful nature of the Vaishnava‘padavali’ that it ‘afterwards
10
remained intimately dear to him.’
Several scholars working in the field of Vaishnavism have unanimously contended that the
dominant note of the Vaishnava padavali literature is the love between Jivatma (finite) and
Paramatma (Infinite). Vaishnava poets through their love lyrics have tried to exhibit the idea that
the finite cannot be separated from the infinite as they are not only eternally bound by love but also
are equally eager to be in the company of each other. It is the expression of this secret relationship
between the finite and the infinite that dispenses in Vaishnava literature ‘Madhurya’ or the sense of
delicacy. Tagore is inspired by this idea of the Vaishnava poets and like them he has tried to weave
Vaishnavites believe in idea of the ‘Lila’ of God for they presume God to be the supreme master of
the universe and the entire cosmos as His play-ground. They view “the world as real with its
various colours and combination. They put emphasis on a firm organic relation between God and
11
human being. God is everything and all actions of human being should be dedicated to Him.”
They also consider Him as ‘Perfect Man’, to whom nothing is impossible. This humanistic
conception of the divine has been eulogized by Tagore. Like the Vaishnava verse composers he also
believes that the human ‘lila’ (pastimes) of Krishna is the best among all ‘lilas’. He firmly believes
action be motivated by any external force. The world is created by him for his ‘Lila’ and we all,
finite souls (‘jivatma’), are eagerly waiting to see him play in His own created field. As Tagore
writes in Gitanjali or Songs Offerings- “You will play in me that is why I have come to this
12
world.”
Despite being influenced by the Neo-Vedanta of the Brahmo Samaj tradition, Tagore had high
regards for the Vaishnava religion for he used to believe that Vaishnava religion was the only
religion where God had bound himself to man and in that comprises the best grandness of human
presence. However, it is also true that he, like his father, preferred the more adoring, mindful
individual translation of the celestial Brahma than did Rammohun Roy or other Neo-Vedantists. As
he writes - “The Vaishnava religion has boldly declared that God has bound himself to man, and in
that consists the greatest glory of human existence. In the spell of the wonderful rhythm of the finite
he fetters himself at every step, and thus gives his love out in music in his most perfect lyrics of
beauty. Beauty is his wooing of our heart; it can have no other purpose. It tells us everywhere that
the display of power is not the ultimate meaning of creation; wherever there is a bit of colour, a
note of song, a grace of form, there comes the call for our love. Hunger compels us to obey its
behests, but hunger is not the last word for a man. There have been men who have deliberately
defied its commands to show that the human soul is not to be led by the pressure of wants and
threat of pain. In fact, to live the life of man we have to resist its demands every day, the least of us
as well as the greatest. But, on the other hand, there is a beauty in the world which never insults
our freedom, never raises even its little finger to make us acknowledge its sovereignty. We can
absolutely ignore it and suffer no penalty in consequence. It is a call to us, but not a command. It
seeks for love in us, and love can never be had by compulsion. Compulsion is not indeed the final
appeal to man, but joy is. Any joy is everywhere; it is in the earth's green covering of grass; in the
blue serenity of the sky; in the reckless exuberance of spring; in the severe abstinence of grey
noble and upright; in living; in the exercise of all our powers; in the acquisition of knowledge; in
fighting evils; in dying for gains we never can share. Joy is there everywhere; it is superfluous,
unnecessary; nay, it very often contradicts the most peremptory behests of necessity. It exists to show
that the bonds of law can only be explained by love; they are like body and soul. Joy is the realisation
of the truth of oneness, the oneness of our soul with the world and of the world-soul with
13
the supreme lover.”
Being the poet of the age of transition Tagore was fully aware of the fact that the charge of
anthropomorphism was often levelled against him. But here it is noteworthy to mention that
Rabindranath did not address the divine as Krishna or by any other ‘anthropomorphic’ name-and-
form, he often wrote of a personal divine presence within his heart (jivan-devata, maner-manush),
much as Vaishnavas would speak of God within the individual soul as paramatman. Even Tagore
himself has highly criticized the prevalent idea of anthropomorphism by saying that God always
exists within Man and this eternal truth cannot be condemned by using such term. As he says-“Our
God is also Man. If this is condemned as anthropomorphism, then man should be blamed for being
man, and the lover for loving his beloved as a person, and not as a principle of Psychology.” He
further extends his opinion in The Religion of Man or ‘Manusher Dharma’- “When we call God our
‘Dear ones’ we don’t attribute ‘Manness’ to God, but it is to realize ‘Manness’ by realizing the
greatness of humanity man reaches to his God….In the waves of ether man does not attribute
This view of Tagore resembles with that of the philosophy of Vaishnavism because Vaishnava
philosophy does not acknowledge the absolutistic idea of the ‘Brahma’, rather their conception of
God is the humanistic conception. That is why Vaishnavism instead of loving the ‘Absolute’ always
speaks for loving a ‘Personal God’, who is imagined as taking ‘human form’ and playing with the
finite as friend and lover. In other words, the Vaishnava Sadhana always craves for bridging the gap
Vaishnavites, he also thirsts upon the theistic, personal aspect of God than to the absolutistic aspect
of God or ‘Brahma’ for Tagore is well aware of the idea that unless God is made near and dear ones
it will not be possible for him to love the indifferent Absolute from distance. That is why Tagore has
tried to show that God exists within us but in order to visualise Him we need to look inside-
[My eyes fail to find you, as you reside within the eyes.
You aren't knowledgeable to the heart, as you secretly stay within.
My desires make me sprint relentlessly In all directions as if in a whim,
You have been awake in the core with eyes wide open perpetually.
You have been caring for him, Condemned, who hasn't someone,
You provide shelter to the destitute - For whom street is the residence.
Endless ocean of life lay in front, Not a single companion but you.
You sail across Eternal Ocean - No one knows how.
Your being has touched my existence, your vitality makes my life to roll -
That is all what I know. More I get you, more is the desire,
The extent I know you, the unknown seems to be more.
I am sure to perceive you along the ages and stages of the world.
Not a single entity between you and me, not a slightest hindrance on earth.]15
The most significant aspect of Vaishnava philosophy is the eternal bondage between ‘paramatma’
entire Vrindavan Lila of Krishna live before him, but also he goes into imaginatively, and filling the
role of a dearest of Krishna he encounters vicariously the energetic sentiments which are so clearly
imagined in the writing. There are several songs of Tagore where he has acknowledged the supreme
Lord as ‘Paramakarunāmaẏa’ or Absolute Merciful. He has also imagined God as ‘Lilamaya’ and
16
says, “Out of thy own kindness you make yourself small and come to my small house.”
In Vaishnava writing another imperative perspective is " Viraha' or the idea of estrangement.
Vaishnavites believe that not exclusively is the human soul of Radha anxious to meet the Perfect,
however, the preeminent soul likewise waits for the human soul to come to him. He additionally
endures and experiences numerous excruciating encounters for meeting the human soul. These strings
of separation experienced by Radha are agonizing yet they are sweet for her, since she knows, after
"Viraha" ‘Milan’ (union) will take after. Tagore has used this Vaishnava perception and boldly declares
that God needs to depend on human soul for the of his adoration- “God has to rely on human soul for
the fulfilment of his love”. For Tagore, as well, the "Viraha" is sweet, and that is why he does not even
17
hesitate to say -"My Viraha has turned out to be sweet in this night.
The idea of ‘Abhisara’ is one of the popular subject matters for the Vaishnava lyrical poets. ‘Abhisara’
refers to those lyrics where the descriptions of ‘Journey of Love’ of Radha for Krishna are beautifully
delineated. There are several verse composers like Gobindadasa, Chandidasa, who wrote numerous
lyrics on Radha’s hazardous journey in order to meet the Supreme. “But the path of the ‘Abhisara’”, as
cannot be contented by understanding those songs as the descriptions of the ‘Journey of Love’ of the
heroine for the hero. There it seems that the Poet’s purpose will be served if
18
we imagine the hero as ‘infinite Brahma’ and the heroin as ‘individual soul’”. Tagore was highly
affected by the idea of "Abhisara”. He has given more importance to ‘Abhisara ‘than to the
conception of Union’. It is so because being a true Vaishnavite he has realized that like Radha, a
nothing but Abhisara in order for the union with ‘Paramatma’. Besides Tagore is also of the opinion
that the ultimate truth of one’s life should be to know the Eternal. As he says in one of his poems
that the real pleasure of him lies in walking through the path- the path that can lead him to get the
momentary touch of his dearest through the beauties of nature and love of man.
In some letters written to Hemantabala Devi (1898–1976) in the early 1930s, Rabindranath, despite
being highly “critical of Vaishnava preoccupation with ritualised service of the deity in iconic
form,”23 cannot restrain him from admitting his own Vaishnava like qualities-
“You seek the Vaishnava within me. He has not fled, but together with him is the Shaiva—beggar
and ascetic. The flute of the king of sentiment (rasa) [i.e., Krishna] is sounding; there is also the
dancing of the king of dance [i.e., Shiva]. The boat floats on the Yamuna [river by Krishna’s
Vrindavan+ but in the end sinks into the Ganga *by Shiva’s Varanasi+, which Ganga, donning ochre
this school of thought that the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore derives. In it are echoed the teaching of
such prophets as Sri Chaitanya and poets such as Jayadev and Chandidas, who sung of the religion of
love." K. S. Ramaswami Sastri in his book Sir Rabindranath Tagore: His Life Personality and Genius
writes that Tagore has gone back to the past to age of the great Vaishnava movement to restore and
revived our impression of the excellence and love of God – “Tagore has gone back to the past to age of
the great Vaishnava movement and has affected a revolution in the realm of taste by so going back to
the age of beauty, freedom, love, and rapture. He has revived and re-kindled our sense of the wonder of
things, our perception of the beauty and grace and love of God.”20
While examining Tagore’s statement ‘Nobody has exalted man more in every sphere than Jesus. The
divinity of man is stressed by Jesus as by Vaishnava saints’, Jyoti Ignace Tete has aptly remarked that
this assertion may seem to be an echo of the Christian assertion of God as an217 emblem of love, but in
reverberation of the Vaishnava theology. From the perspectives of Metaphysics, thinkers of both the
school will interpret the expression “God is love” in more or less in similar way. But as Tagore voices
for ‘an emotional realisation of oneness which will lead to an extension of consciousness beyond the
narrow limits of the self’, so in his view ‘God is love’ means that that the Supreme Master of the
universe is the ultimate source of hope and strength for human being, with whom “an emotional
relationship can be established and through whom life can derive sustenance and solace.”21
It is often complained by the Vaishnava critics that Tagore’s verse has not the extreme imperativeness
that recognizes the work of his Vaishnava forerunners. Here it is noteworthy to mention that it is true
that Tagore's love poetry shows the influence of Vaishnava love poetry, which centres round the loves
of Radha and Krishna, but his treatment of it is entirely his own. Srinivasa Iyengar says that “The
Gardener is the richest of the collections that have appeared in English. It is in the main a feast of love
poetry – with a human rather than a divine slant, though with a poet like Tagore the border–line
between the two is apt to be tantalizingly indistinct.” The Gardener thus shows how the beloved, who is
restless because her love calls her with his flute, though he is far away, is left to cherish the mere breath
And the beastgazes into man's life with a tender trust, and
It seems that the two friends meet masked, and vaguely know
The centrality of Tagore's verse is bigger and more perplexing, and that the force of energy to be
found here is the power of an alternate kind. He does not even try to delineate Radha’s passion and
eagerness in the same way as done by the Vaishnava poets. The reason why he maintains this
distance from the inspiring Vaishnava verse composers is because “the divine shepherd has for him
23
as only a part of the rhythm of life.” For instance if we consider the poem “I was walking, by the
road, I know not why?” from “The Gardener-14” we shall be able to find that the Vaishnava
imagery comes incidentally and the intensity that has been used by him is very different from the
fervour with which the love of Krishna and Radha is portrayed in Vaishnava literature-
Apart from that, there is also another subtle difference between the approach of the Vaishnava poet
and Tagore. The representation of desire by the Vaishnava poet is simpler and more poignant
whereas the delineation of Tagore is more suggestive and more intricate. Such complex approach of
Tagore can be found in those poems which have splendidly harmonised the Shaiva and Vaishnava
imageries in a single vein. Unlike the Vaishnava poet, Tagore does not restrain himself only by
presenting the sweet facet of the Infinite. It is so because Tagore is a believer of the perception that
the limitless is sweet as well as terrible. Such a blend of delicacy and sternness is to be traced out in
those pictures in which he conjures Shiva as Mahakala or Eternity and also envisions him as a
shepherd or cowherd as the Vaishnavas envision Krishna. This mingling of Shaivism and
Vaishnavism becomes clearer in the poem called ‘Utsarga’ (Offering)in which “the divine lover is
apostrophised in different grabs, first as a young flute-player and then as a grim ascetic with an
24
iron rod in his hand and with water dripping from his hair (incarnate of Lord Shiva).”
Season monsoon is considered to be the one of the most recurrent themes in Vaishnava poetry. From
season with its dark clouds have occupied a special position. Vaishnava poets probably have the
belief that during monsoon one cannot go out from homes but on such day one feels lonely and
desires to go out to meet the beloved. That is why they have frequently used the image of Radha,
taking no care of the hazards of the journey during a cloudy night, goes out to meet with Krishna. In
Tagore the same monsoon cloud of the Vaishnava literature finds a strong reference. Taking
inspiration from Kalidasa’s Meghdoot, he has endowed it with a new significance. He perceives
“this loneliness and this desire for union as characteristics of 220 universal life, human and
terrestrial, and the errant clouds of the rainy season appear to him to be charged with message of the
unknown which makes the heart wistful. The pang of separation which the stars feel as they gaze at one
another becomes music among the rustling leaves in the rainy darkness of Asadh. In the busy moments
of noontide work the poet is with the crowd, but on dark lonely days when clouds heap upon clouds it is
only for the far-away lover that his soul pines in pensive loneliness for the beloved.”25
The collection The Songs of Bhanushingho Thakur has 22 tunes out of which just nine exists in Swarabitan
(Vol. XXI), collection of notations of Tagore’s music. Tagore was attracted to the Maithili ballads gathered
in 'Prachin Kavya Samgraha', edited by Akshay Chandra Sarkar and Sarada Charan Mitra. It was Sarkar,
who told Young Rabi about the English poet Thomas Chatterton and also about his peculiar habits of
imitating other poets. Tagore was so enlivened by the life story of the young English poet that set himself up
to be a "second Chatterton" and wrote the lyric Gahanan Kusuma kunja-majhe by imitating the old
Vaishnava lyrics of Vidyapati. However, Tagore himself pens down the story behind the composition of the
lyrical collection differently. In his reminiscence Jivansmriti Tagore has said that in his early years it was a
volume of poems by the Maithili poet Vidyapati found in the family library that initiated his youthful interest
towards Vaishnava lyrics. Though the Maithili expressions of Vidyapati were fairly obscure to him, yet this
Maithili dialect charmed him the most. He was so overwhelmed by the expression of the Vaishnava poet that
without taking note of anything and to satisfy his yearning of forming Vaishnava verses like Vidyapati he
lying on my stomach upon a bed in a room, I wrote upon a slate: gahana kusuma kunja majhe.
According to Mohit Kumar Ray, the author of the book Studies on Rabindranath Tagore, the
composition of The Songs of Bhanusingha was the result of a young boy’s creative experiment with
the Vaishnava padavali literature. It is also a studied imitation medieval Vaishnava lyric of
Vidyapati and Chandidas. But despite being an imitation, Tagore is still able to maintain originality.
This is where the genius of Tagore’s artistic excellence lies. Even at the age of sixteen he mastered
the art of maintaining originality in a work, which was composed with the intention of imitating
some poets. Though in a later life “Rabindranath, however, felt rather uneasy about it, because he
believed that it was only an imitation and not original poetry. Although Bhãnu Siinha Thãkurer
Padãbali deviates significantly from Vaishnava padãbali incertain fundamental matters it can never
27
be gain said that it displays extraordinary poetic talent of the boy.”
Tagore’s explicit treatment with the Vaishnava theme gets well exhibited in his The Songs of
Bhanusingha Thakur. The subject matter of Tagore’s Vsishnava lyrical collection is the traditional
one. The poet sought connection with divinity through appeal to nature and the emotional interplay
of human drama. It deals with the amorous pastimes of the divine couple Radha and Krishna-
particularly the idea of ‘Abhisara’ has been beautifully incorporated in several lyrics, where we find
Radha is on her secret love adventure to meet Krishna, taking risks in her pursuit. This idea of
Abhisara has been adopted by him from the medieval Vaishnava poets. As stated earlier, he was a
firm believer of the concept of ‘Abhisara’ than to the idea of union for it was in Radha’s hazardous
expedition for the Supreme he must have comprehended the indication of the journey of the
‘Jivatma’ to be in union with ‘Paramatma’. In the following lyric we find a brilliant description of
Radha’s ‘Abhisara’. Watching the intense gathering of the dark clouds in the sky, Radha has been
constantly made aware by her confidantes (sakhis) to be careful and not go to meet Krishna, but
mission-
Tagore is affected by the idea of Radha as portrayed in Vaishnava writing. Radha is acknowledged as the
'Alhadini Shakti '(intrinsic energy of eternal joy) of Krishna. The originator of the idea as well as the
first poet, who introduced the idea of Radha for the first time in ‘Vaishnava padavali literature’, Joydeb
in his Gitgovindam has attempted to demonstrate that Krishna is simply the Supreme Being and Radha
is His 'Aihadini Shakti'. In Tagore's philosophy we find the articulation of the idea of Bliss and
happiness, which, in a way, are nothing but the resonance of the Vaishnava notion of the ‘Alhadini
Shakti’. He, on the one hand, like his Vaishnava masters, believes that “Radha is God’s power, both are
divine and the finite are one, only both have taken different forms” and on the other he, unlike them, is
also of the opinion that “though the finite and Infinite are one, but the Infinite wants to preserve the
28
human personality as human for the fulfilment of this love” -
Gitanjali
The philosophy of Vaishnavism finds its best expression in Tagore’s Gitanjali: Song Offerings. The
book not only contains songs offered at the feet of the Supreme Lord but also exposes his spiritual
Vaishnava predecessors. A little contemplation will reveal the fact that in Gitanjali he draws several
images from the enriched lyrics composed by the Vaishnava poets and in several songs he has used
the teachings of Sri Chaitanya from which he was highly influenced. The reflection of such
teachings can be found in the first song of Gitanjali. Sri Chaitanya teaches us that in order to be a
true Vaishnava - a man has to become as insignificant as grass yet tolerant as the tree, and has to
honour and respect other by discarding all his pride and self-centric nature. The idea of the same
philosophy finds expression in the first song, where the poet is yielding to God by uttering that
kindly clean his pride and desire of having the glory with tears so that he can surrender his soul at
The second song also expresses “both Vaishnavas’ and Rabindranath’s conceptions of what are
quintessentially humane and spiritual experience is beyond question. Here Rabindranath’s delight
singing runs parallel to Vaishnavas’ own yearning to be admitted to circle of Krishna’s intimates
and be assigned some small task contributing to his divine pleasure. Both share not only the idea of
the divine taking pleasure in human song but the yet more striking notion that the divine depends
29
for fulfilment upon humans’ love”.
When thou commandest me to sing it seems that my heart would break with pride;
and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.
All that is harsh and dissonant in my life melts into one sweet harmony – and my
adoration spreads wings like a glad bird on its flight across the sea.
I know thou takest pleasure in my singing. I know that only as a singer I come before
thy presence.
I touch by the edge of the far-spreading wing of my song thy feet which I could never
aspire to reach.
Drunk with the joy of singing I forget myself and call thee friend who art my lord.
The last line of the song ‘Drunk with the joy of singing, I forgot myself and call thee friend who art
my lord’, reminds us of a typical Vaishnava custom, according to which while praying to Lord
Krishna one should forget that He is the Supreme Lord of the universe and should start treating him
as friend, child, lover, etc. Apart from that, like Tagore, Vaishnavas also look upon the face of God
while recognizing their unworthiness. They rely on upon the benevolence (kripa) of Krishna.
Besides they considerably more so than Rabindranath, are very inclined to breaking into tears—of
30
joy or sorrow or other human emotions."
Like ‘Abhisara’, the idea of Viraha or the pang of separation is one of the popular subject matter of
Vaishnavapadavali. That is why Dinesh Chandra Sen in his Banga Bhasha and Sahitya has
addressed the Vaishnavapadabali literature is called the literature of tears. Tagore has used this
the subject matter of ‘Abhisara’, where we find the description of stressful Radha, who is even
ready to take a hectic journey to meet with Lord Krishna in order to overcome the pain of
separation. In other words what Rabindranath expresses here is a classic expression of Viraha.
Though it is quite evident that he does not use any Vaishnava melodramatic imagery such as rain-
soaked body, menacing snakes, and thunderbolts to cast his lyric into the genre of Vaishnava
‘padavali’, he makes use of expressions like ‘my heart wanders wailing with the restless wind’ to
Among the fifty seven songs of Gitanajali the eleventh song is considered to be the most critical
one. It is so because on the one hand it denounces the Hindu practices like chanting, singing, telling
of beads, deliverance, meditations, flowers etc. and on the other it eulogizes, in an implicit manner,
Chaitanyacharitamrita, a spiritual biography of Sri Chaitanya, we are informed that Sri Chaitanya
himself was against such orthodox customs of Hinduism. He was of the opinion that if tears did not
flow through one’s eyes while chanting the name of Lord Krishna then such rituals would be
insufficient to liberate one’s soul from the mundane complexities. Tagore, in an implicit manner,
has used this teaching of Sri Chaitanya to propagate the message that practices like ‘chanting and
singing and telling of beads’ will not lead a devotee towards the Supreme Powerful for what God
wants is not the pursuance of rigid customs but ‘Prema-Bhakti’ or loving devotion-
Unlike the eleventh song, the Vaishnava spirit and message is apt and clear in thirty fourth song of
Gitanjali, where the poet, like a true Vaishnava, decides to surrender everything at the feet of the
Supreme Lord by uttering that whatever he does, whatever he speaks and whatever he desires are
Let only that little be left of me whereby I may name thee my all.
Let only that little be left of my will whereby I may feel thee on every side, and come to thee in
everything, and offer to thee my love every moment. Let only that little be left of me whereby I may
never hide thee.
Let only that little of my fetters be left whereby I am bound with thy will, and thy
33
purpose is carried out in my life – and that is the fetter of thy love.
While examining the Vaishnava strains implicit in Gitanjali Joseph T. O’Connell has aptly remarked
that the thirty fourth song of Gitanjali is so full of Vaishnava spirit and phraseology that it can
easily be attributed as one composed by Narottamadasa. As he writes-“This brief song, humble and
devout, is so quintessentially Vaishnava in its spirit and phraseology that, were it given in Bangla
and without attribution, it might well pass for a devout hymn in the celebrated Prarthana (prayer)
34
of Narottamadasa (mid–late sixteenth-century Vaishnava spiritual leader).”
A renowned academician in the field of Vaishnava studies Hare Krishna Mukhapadhaya has
acknowledged Rabindranath Tagore as a true Vaishnav.42 So it was quite natural that a true Vaishnava
like him would be a high admirer of this enriched ancient musical convention of Bengal. The highly
rhetorical languages of Vaishnava lyrics and their charming ‘Sahajiya' tune influenced him so much that
the most remarkable peculiarities of Rabindranath’s genius is the happiness and originality with which
he has absorbed the whole spirit of Vaishnava poetry and turned it into something essentially the same
yet new and modern. He has given the old sweet spirit of emotional and passionate religion an
expression of more delicate and complete richness voiceful of subtler and most penetratingly spiritual
shades of feeling than the deep- hearted but simple early age of Bengal could know.”35
REFERENCES
Dr Sayantan Thakur is Assistant Professor of English in the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences in ICFAI University, Tripura. He specializes in Vaishnava studies, and himself is a
performer of Vaishnava kirtan songs. He happens to be the descendant of one of the twelve
Vaishnava apostles appointed by Nityananda.
The issue of the Bangladeshi infiltration in the bordering West Bengal has been an issue which has
divided the political spectrum in two very contrasting groups. One claims that a lot of infiltration is
taking place which is altering the demography of the states, and the other counters this very
This paper studies the decadal population growth since independence, by dividing West Bengal into
two distinct groups: 1) the districts which have a higher population growth rate than the state
average; and 2) the districts having a lower population growth rate than the state average. These two
sets of districts are studied in view of the Hindu-Muslim population growths to capture the
Introduction
The issue of the Bangladeshi infiltration in the bordering North-Eastern states as well as in West
Bengal has been an issue which has divided the political spectrum in two very contrasting groups.
One claims that a lot of infiltration is taking place which is altering the demography of the states,
first group is, very obviously, Sangh Parivar (an umbrella term used for RSS and its various
affiliate organizations) and its associated organisations. The second group consists of all the other
One of the prominent scholar among the second group is Sujata Ramachandran (2002) in her study
claimed that the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration is brain child of Sangh Parivar. She further
claimed that Sangh Parivar’s relentless quest in the early 1990s for political legitimacy and
Bangladeshis in India. Gillan (2002) too had the similar views on Bangladeshi infiltration to India.
He says that as the BJP has been relatively insignificant force in West Bengal in terms of its
organizational capacities and electoral success, it sought to identify and cultivate issues that have
some degree of “relevance” and immediacy for the local political culture of the these states. He
further asserts that it is in this context that the BJP’s efforts to expand in West Bengal have centered
on the theme of Bangladeshi “infiltration” and the negative consequences of migration at a local
level. From the early 1980s, the BJP in West Bengal attempted to highlight the issue by means of
political rallies, conferences, posters, pamphlets and press releases. Moodie (2010) ridicules Sangh
parivar by saying that the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration raised by Sangh parivar basically is
Present paper attempts to study district level data of population in West Bengal during various
census. The first section provides some numeric estimation of various aspects of infiltration.
Section-2 analyses the district wise population growth of west Bengal, and last section consists of
conclusions.
But there are many others who acknowledge the Bangladeshi infiltration to India. For instance,
Datta (2011), in her paper on female trafficking from Bangladesh, writes that illegal female
migration from Bangladesh due to trafficking is increasing rapidly along Indo-Bangladesh open
border. According to her a report indicates about 200,000 Bangladeshi women and children were
trafficked out of the country in the past 10 years. Bose (2014), while recognizing the problem of
illegal Bangladeshi migration to India, held the climate mainly responsible for the problem. She
says that frequent floods, tropical cyclones and storm surges have had a colossal impact on
Bangladesh's coastal population. Shrinkage of land area, river bank erosion and intrusion of saline
waters into the agricultural fields have pushed farmers in search of new lands. These are causing
rehabilitation programmes exist and there is extremely poor participation of the majority of the
people in decisions that affect their lives. Because of the supply of cheap labour from Bangladesh,
political parties in the Indian Border States encourage this illegal infiltration. However, the
humanitarian concerns are overwhelming for both India and Bangladesh. People smuggling is
Bangladesh, refers to the influx of migrants from Bangladesh a ‘grave situation’ that adversely
affects the Indian economy, national security and social environment. He points to inflows of
Bangladeshi immigrants as the cause for dilution of India’s cultural integrity and electoral process
domestic labourers in middle-class suburbs such as Salt Lake in Kolkata. It has also been estimated
that one-third of the women working in the main prostitution locality of the city are Bangladeshi
migrants Chaudhuri (1992, 24–25). Bangladeshi migrants are not just limited to settle in a border
city like Kolkata but in other cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi, Bangladeshi migrants have
found work as day labourers, rag pickers, cycle rickshaw drivers and domestic labourers (Lin and
Paul 1995).
However the position of Government of India is very vague in this regard. In a written to a question
on infiltration asked in the Rajya Sabha on November 2011, then minister of state in the Ministry of
“Since entry of foreign nationals infiltrated into the country is clandestine and surreptitious, it is
not possible to have a correct estimate of such infiltrators from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and
Sri Lanka living in the country. A citizen of Nepal entering India by land or air over the Nepal
border does not require a passport or visa for entry into India. Some of the Bangladeshi, Pakistani
and Sri Lankan nationals who entered India with valid travel documents have been found to be
overstaying. As per information available, 32,644 Bangladeshi nationals, 7,691 Pakistani nationals
and 2,490 Sri Lankan nationals were found to be overstaying as on 31st December, 2009. During
the year 2009, 5,312 Bangladeshi nationals, 30 Pakistani nationals, 36 Nepali nationals and 63 Sri
Lankan nationals were arrested under various provisions of the Foreigners’ Act. Details for the
year 2010 have not been compiled. Certain instances of some illegal immigrants having managed
to get their names registered in the electoral rolls have been reported. Statistical data of this nature
is not centrally maintained. As and when such instances are detected, the State Governments/Union
Territory Administrations take necessary action for deleting the names from the electoral rolls and
It is clear from the statement of minister of government of India that there is a dearth of documents
support actual number of migrants and no concrete study to support the claim.
This article mainly focuses on the demographic shift in West Bengal, while raising some plausible
questions on the pattern of this demographic shift. The districts of West Bengal can be divided into
two distinct groups: 1) the districts which have a higher population growth rate than the state
average; and 2) the districts having a lower population growth rate than the state average. The 2001
census indicates that the population of ten districts has grown faster than the population growth of
the state between the periods of 1991 to 2001. These districts are Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Darjeeling,
Murshidabad, North Twenty Four Parganas, Dakshin Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, South Twenty Four
Parganas, Nadia and Birbhum. Surprisingly, all these districts except Birbhum and South Twenty
However the strategic locations of these two districts have closeness with Bangladesh. Birbhum is
just around forty kilometres away from the Bangladesh border. Murshidabad is located on the way
from Birbhum to Bangladesh and it had the highest population growth among all the other districts
during the given period. The other noticeable thing about Murshidabad is that it is one of those
districts in West Bengal which has the highest Muslim population. Another district which has a
higher population growth than the state average, without having any border with Bangladesh, is
The other set of districts that have a lower population growth than the state’s average population
growth are Hooghly, Paschim Midnapur, Purba Midnapur, Howrah, Cooch Bihar, Puruliya,
Barddhaman, Bankura and Kolkata. Interestingly, not one of these districts shares a border with
Bangladesh except Cooch Bihar. Cooch Bihar is one of those districts that already have a lower
If we look back at the data acquired during the British rule and the first decade after Independence,
no significant difference is found in the growth rates of the bordering and non-bordering districts of
West Bengal. The growth rate in the 1960s was similar too.
Dakshin Yes
South 24 Yes
Paschim No
A minute analysis shows that the population growth of West Bengal increased from 23.1% in 1981 to
24.7% in 1991. The increase in the percentage of population growth in the bordering districts was up to
10.5%, while the same for the non-bordering districts was up to 4.3%. This clearly indicates
and 2011 censuses showed the same data, where the population growth of bordering districts was
falling with very less percentage points while the non-bordering districts was falling with
very high in the bordering districts. For instance, during the period 1981-2001, within the span of
just twenty years, the Muslim population has increased by 128.9 % in Darjeeling. Similarly, the
Muslim population in Jalpaiguri, Murshidabad and North twenty-four Parganas has increased by
90.6%, 72.2% and 74% respectively, during the same period. According to the 2011 census, the
percentage of females in the prime child-bearing age group, that is, fifteen to forty-four years, is
37.6% of the total female population, out of which, approximately 75% of the women are married,
which means that approximately 25% of the total female population in their prime child-bearing
age are married. It means that only one-eighth of the total population, both male and female, might
be married and can bear children. Further on, if we want the population to double within twenty
years, this fraction will have to give birth to at least eight additional children, irrespective of the
number of children they already have. During these twenty years, other females will also be capable
of giving birth, but simultaneously, some will stop or become incapable of doing so, because of
infertility, tubectomy, and other social restrictions like widowhood and divorces. A rough estimate
would indicate that on an average, Muslim women will have to produce twelve children each to
double the population within twenty years. In order to increase the population by 75% and 125%,
each Muslim woman will have to produce ten and fourteen children respectively on average. This
of course is very unrealistic. Statistically, if the population is increasing by 75% and 129 % in just
20 years, either of these two has to be true: either Muslim women are, on an average, giving birth to
ten to fourteen children or Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration is taking place. The first one, being very
It is not just a mere coincidence that the population growth of the bordering districts has been
uniformly higher than the non-bordering districts, especially since the 1971 census, while the
the censuses held prior to 1971. It is also not a coincidence that most of the border districts are
showing an enormous increase in the population of Muslims only. The population growth of many
states started declining after 1971. This must have occurred because India was in the second stage
of a demographic transition where almost all the districts of India started witnessing lower mortality
rates due to an expansion of the health facilities and also lower birth rates. West Bengal was the
only exception to this trend. Instead of a fall, the population growth rose, as suggested by the data
collected in 1990.
This is a definite suggestion of a case of infiltration in West Bengal. The above analysis implies
that infiltration has actually occurred in the neighbouring districts of West Bengal. Despite a
thousand denials from the ruling parties TMC and CPM, this is the truth.
Section 3: Conclusions
This has not just been limited to West Bengal, the demographic profiles of all the neighbouring
eastern and north-eastern states show that the religious composition of most of the districts of India
bordering neighbour countries is getting largely similar to the neighbouring countries and deviating
from its own religious composition. It generally happens that when we move from one part of the
state to another, the culture is found to be similar to the culture of the neighbouring state. When it
comes to India, one can easily notice increasing similarity with its neighbouring country. For
instance, India’s bordering districts are becoming increasingly Muslim-dominated, while on the
contrary the Bangladesh’s border districts with India are becoming Hindu less. Akin to this is the
Böse, Sahana (2014). Illegal migration in the Indian Sunderbans, Forced Migration Review,
http://manipal.edu
Datta, Pranati.2011. Female Trafficking and illegal migration from Bangladesh to India. Published
Gillan, Michael.2002. Refugees or infiltrators? The Bhartiya Janta Party and “illegal” migration
from Bangladesh. Published in Asian Studies Review. ISSN 1035-7823, Volume 26 Number 1
March 2002. Asian Studies Association of Australia 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishing
Limited.
Kumar, B.B (2003). Illegal migration from Bangladesh. Edited by B.B. Kumar (2003).
Lin, Sharat G. and Madan C. Paul. 1995. Bangladeshi migrants in Delhi: Social insecurity, state
Hindu Nationalist Common Sense in the Aftermath of the 2008 Jaipur Bombings. Published in
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power. Volume 17,Issue 5, 2010. Special Issue: Race and
the Cultural Spaces of Neoliberalism,. Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 27 no. 1: 3–20.
Ramachandran, Sujata. 2002. Operation Pushback: Sangh Parivar, State, Slums and Surreptitious
Bangaldeshis in New Delhi. Published in Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 23(3), 2002,
Blackwell Publishers Ltd Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011, pp.47-62, ISSN: 1024-1256.
Dr Anish Gupta holds a PhD in Economics from JNU. He has been an Assistant Professor of
newspapers.
Devika Rani
Anuja Bagchi
It was the year 1931. Ardeshir Irani released the first talkie of India, Alam Ara. Dadasaheb Phalke, the
grand old man of Indian cinema, met V Shantaram in poona. Shantaram told him of his plan of making a
talkie called ‘Ayodhya ka Raja’, a take on the story of Raja Harishchandra. It was Ardeshir Irani who
advised Dada to add sound to his film Setu Bandhan .Indian film was going through a transitional
period. In fact, it was related not only to films. In the year 1933 BBC offered a Bengali actress a role in
their first television broadcast. This once- apprentice- to- Elizabeth Arden would eventually found the
most influential film studio in India in the years to come. The films produced by this studio would be
directed by German director yet would be completely desi in the sense that they would be processed in
India. Thespians like Ashok Kumar, DilIp Kumar, Madhubala would debut in the films made by this
studio. Film making of those turbulent and unsure years was a projection of the aspirations of a
subjugated race. As the man who started it all, was ready to retire into the sunset, albeit unwillingly,
new leaders appeared on the horizon. Though a Marathi man it was who established filmdom firmly on
the soil of India, a frail-looking Bengali woman would soon partner with a dashing Bengali man and
give India for the first time a taste of sophistication and discipline in film making. It was to be one of the
most successful partnerships in Indian film arena. As Mohundas Karamchand Gandhi, the new star in
Indian politics, was leading the nation through the Civil Disobedience Movement, Niranjan Pal, the son
of the old guard of the Indian freedom struggle, Bipin Chandra Pal, and himself an associate of Vinayak
the critically acclaimed silent film The Light of Asia. Eventually he would join hands with a
Bengali couple to form… Talkies… Bombay Talkies. The history of Bombay Talkies is the history
of the Diva.
The Diva…the Devi…Devika Rani . An able administrator. A queen in her own right. Singer par
excellence. Femme fatale. The Diva. Above all, an artist who caught the imagination of both the
Indian and the English people with her arched eyebrows, petite grace and natural dialogue-delivery.
Indian audience knows her best for her four-minute long liplock with Himanshu Rai, in the film
Karma. It was the second instance of kiss on Indian screen after the kiss of Charu Roy and Seeta
Devi aka Renee Smith in the film A Throw of Dice, directed by Himanshu Rai, and more noted
because of the length of time it took to enact. Not so much the kiss itself, but the way it was
enacted, speaks volumes about the actor. In a way it presents a pretty contrasting picture to the post-
1952 scenario where the intimacy between the romantic protagonists had to be symbolized through
two nudging flowers. Even the “kiss-able” 1990s had to promote stories about how the damsel
didn’t know about the kiss before the very second it was shot. It takes a toll on the image of an
st
average ‘Indian’ actress even now in the 21 century. Here was a Bengali woman thinking nothing
of a lengthy kissing scene in the early 1930s. But then, she came from no ordinary family
background. Her paternal grandfather Durgadas Chaudhury came from a noted Barendra Brahmin
zamindar family in the Pabna district of Bengal. Her paternal aunt Prasonnomoyi Devi was a noted
poetess of her time. One of her uncles was Pramatha Chaudhury, the famous intellectual. Another
uncle was Ashutosh Chaudhury, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. Prasannomoyi’s daughter
Priyamvada Devi was a known name in Bengali literature. Devika Rani’s father was the first
Surgeon-General of Madras presidency. Her mother was the niece of Rabindranath Tagore. Such
Let us not forget that in the orthodox Bombay of 1912, ‘even looking in the direction of a
Salunke, an adolescent boy, had the laurels of becoming the first female star in Indian films. In the
1920s the Renee Smiths, Patience Coopers, Ermelines ruled the roost .Either it was the Anglo
Indians or the Indian theatre personalities like Durga Kamath and Kamala Devi who had the
panache to face the camera. It was the era of the Anglo-Indian heroines passing as Indian ladies and
taking up Indian names. Anglo Indian females were much in demand those days because they
apparently had less qualms about appearing in films than the “bhodromohilas’ .The Seeta Devis of
th
the early 20 century had another advantage - they satisfied the movie-going males’ need for
Nordic features in the heroines and at the same time not being too distant in terms of race. There
was another type. The fearless Nadia .Nadia was unapologetic about her very white look and
st
refused to Indianize her name. However much we wish, as 21 century movie-goers, that Diamond
queen Nadia, who flaunted her gym-sculpted look, would be the prototype on which Indian cine-
womanhood would be built; it was not to be so. The androgynous Amazon could give release to the
fantasy in the male audience of an oppressed nation but SHE could never be the “Aurat”. Although
Sarala Devi Chaudhurani was encouraging young women to join gymanasia and physical culture
clubs as early as 1902, a “radical feminist actress” like Nadia could not quite be the “heart throb”
the average romantic Indian was looking for. India was deliberately being led away from the path of
violence by the ‘young’ leadership of Congress, the Bengali “Bhodrolok” had already been
lampooned through the “Bandarlog” of Kipling’s Jungle Book , and the Indian educated “gentoo”
class which incidentally was the “Bhagirath” of film-making in India, was being projected as the
Destiny often plays dice. A Bengali Stage-assistant of the Bavarian director Franz Osten met a
Shantiniketan-educated barrister in London and the foundation for India’s first public limited film
company was laid. They would take F.E Dinshaw’s house and convert it into one of the best-
equipped elitist film studios of pre-independence era. In the late 1920s, the Imperial Conference
“exhibition of Empire films.” The colonial film industry was flourishing outside the control of the
British Empire and the masters were taking note of the fact. There was already a neo-Buddhist
revival in Germany of the 1920s.The Bengali Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore had visited
Germany in the year 1921.There was a renewal of scholastic interest in Germany in India’s “Vedic
Aryan” past. Perhaps it was not a mere coincidence that the majority of the technicians of Bombay
Devika Rani was negotiating “vernacular modernism” when she starred in Karma, an Indo-British-
German production. In a way it was the precursor of films deeply entrenched in Indian heritage
while being heavily indebted to globalization. “Rani worked as a set-design assistant for Osten’s
third silent film, Prapancha pash (1929) and married Himanshu Rai shortly thereafter. Like many
early Indian pioneers before them, the young couple went to Berlin…Devika Rani became a trainee
at the Ufa film company with Erich Pommer, attended film-acting seminars and watched Marlene
Dietrich during the shooting of Der blaue engel (The Blue Angel, 1930).Rani would later evoke
Dietrich’s appearance and performance style in her starring role in the crime thriller Jawani ki
Hawa (1935), the first sound film that Osten directed for Bombay Talkies.” (Rogowski) Jawani Ki
Hawa , her first venture as an actor of Bombay Talkies has Saraswati Devi as the first woman music
composer in Indian films.Jeevan Naiya deals with the theme of social taboo regarding the dancing
girls. In Janmabhoomi, Protima (Devika Rani) is the devoted fiancé of doctor Ajoy. Ajoy is tutored
by Pagli to serve the people of village. The Pagli works as a metaphor for the starving India. But the
irony lies in the fact that the Eternal Feminine, the Deshmata, the Goddess needs a knight to save
her. Protima must take permission from her father to join Ajoy. There is no self-realization apart
from her involvement with Ajoy. A seemingly liberated, educated and modern woman goes to
village only to be with her man and stand by him. In the film Protima prays to God, “Oh God, give
me strength so that I can continue Ajoy’s work”. In the song “Maine ek maala gunji hai, ashkon ki
the epitome of the standard Hindi film heroine. In Achhut kanya, Kasturi questions her father
‘bachpan mein sath khelna bura nahi tha…toh ab kaise ho gaya?” Despite this straightforward
confrontation with her father in the beginning, the end shows that it is only by becoming a martyr
Harijan in the eyes of the caste-obsessed, conservative villagers. Even as the film attempts to bring
to the fore the evils of caste- discrimination, it cannot avoid a more perverse form of that when
Kasturi, in order to get rid of her heartache for Pratap, cries out to her husband “Save me Nath
(Lord)”! Savitri (1937), the only mythological film by Bombay Talkies, reinforces the Sati theme so
deeply entrenched in the Indian psyche. .Jeevan Prabhat delves into the pain of a woman’s
childlessness. Padma (the second wife) sacrifices for the happiness of Uma (Devika Rani) and
Nandlal. The storyline never questions the man’s right to marry more than once for the sake of
having children. Coming back to Karma, “Modernizing she calls it…convert our temples into
hospitals, our palaces into schools and our rice-fields into playgrounds?” But towards the end we
see the lady in distress taking recourse to “ my prayers must be answered” The sleeveless-wearing
shrew at the beginning of the film has been tamed at last and the “modern” princess dons a modest
blouse covering most of her upper arms even as she kisses her prince passionately. We can notice in
this film the prototype of the film Baba Taraknath which would release ages later.
It is true that the Bombay Talkies was the meeting point of the Bengali theater and the Bavarian
theater. In their search for the “Authentic Indian Film” the acting was influenced largely by the
Indian theater-form in vogue. Although the studio collaborated with the West in film-making, yet it
was unwilling to let go of its folk-roots on principle. We can understand the rationale behind the
emergence of Devika Rani, a “Bhodromohila” to boot, replacing the Seeta Devis, only if we take
into account her body-language. Sister Nivedita, the Irish-born ascetic used to teach her Indian girl-
pupils to sit straight. Sitting straight did not come easy even to emancipated dames of that era, From
fine examples of cultural relocation. Her body language is westernized yet the emotions enacted are
taken from the ages- old folk art form. The female protagonists played by Rani .can serve best as
antithesis to the feminist discourse. Watching her enactments in movies register as non-feminists
posing as liberated women. Is it premature to expect the feminist question in so early movies? Let us
not forget that Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s last novel Shesh Prashna had already been published
by the time Bombay Talkies, essentially a Bengali venture, started making films. Shesh Prashna
dealt at length with the woman question. Chattopadhyay’s novel Datta mentioned women’s rights.
The feminist movement was quite well-known to the educated Bengali Bhodrolok class and The
Question was making its presence felt. It is clear from these films that in spite of her exposure to the
very best of contemporary western techniques of film-making and acting, Rani’s protagonists
repeated the female archetype already present in Indian film. True, there was no objectification of
the heroine yet the male-gaze was manipulated to rivet to her glamour even as the plot continued to
revolve around the male. The ethnographic gaze was present too as the films often catered to a
mesmerizing East to the Western viewer. But whatever be the feminist credentials of Devi-played
characters, they were essentially of “Bhodrolok” sensibilities.. As the BCTTA observed about the
National Literature, History and Social Dramas; To the illiterate population:-Topical Indian News
History and Mythology, Folklore Romances.” Bombay Talkies made only one mythological film
Savitri. All the other films dealt with social causes. This predilection with social dramas set it apart
from the films made by Dadasaheb Phalke. The milieu of Devika’s portrayals were different from
the mythological era, but the figure of the Loyal Female ready to sacrifice herself loomed large,
often relegating the females to the status of inferior gender. The slim, loyal, subservient, urban
LADIES ONLY!! For a leading role in the film “bhai –bahen.” The advertisement goes on to say
that one should apply ‘if you dream of shining on the film firmament as a star and wish to see your
dream come true”. In the year 1933 Devika Rani was all that and more. She was ambitious, she was
cultured and she was educated with her RADA background. She was the answer to the prayers for a
heroine who was urbane even in her village avatar, sophisticated even in her enactments of
heartbreaking sorrow and who could sing in both Hindi and English when the victorious march of
the talkie had just begun. Here was an actor who looked as vulnerable as she was beautiful, running
a counter text to the fighter-woman in fearless Nadia. Seeing in retrospect, we can compare Devika
Rani with Aishwarya Rai of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam who has courage enough to fall in love. But
that love does not lead to rebellion; even in love, she remains but a counter-foil to the male
protagonist, Devika Rani’s suave well-articulated romanticism poses no threat to the masculinity of
the audience. Therein lies the secret to her success. Her socialist princess submits to Lord Shiva in
Karma and the old order is saved, The English audience and the BBC are enamoured alike as the
graceful charmer representing the enlightened elite, and her story, throws no challenge to the
empire. If we take the noted Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandopadhyay’s story Chhayapathik as a
suggestion as to how the Devis or Divas of film-studios were held in “Bhodrolok” perception..
Sharadindu”s observations hold water even if we do not agree with them because he worked as
screenwriter in Bombay films. In the story in question Somnath, a Bengali educated youth-turned-
actor, becomes entangled in the machinations of the flirtatious man-mad actress-wife of the studio-
owner. Somnath is booted out of the studio in disgrace when he does not respond to the amorous
overtures of the actress Chandana Devi. The Devi is described by the joker Pandurang as a
predatory elderly seductress. We do not know whether in the Somnath-Chandana-Piley episode the
shadow of the Najamul Hussain-Devika Rani-Himanshu Rai is reflected or not. But the story
within the organization. So, with fame, came censure, with laudatory articles, came defamations.
The French film historian Yves Thoraval describes Rani in his book The Cinemas of India as
“Beautiful, cultured and cosmopolitan”. Thoraval records that Devika Rani, alongwith her husband
Himanshu Rai, set an example “in social reform, notably for ordering that all studio employees ,
whatever be their caste or creed, would share the same canteen and eat the same food,”a step that
was revolutionary then. Bombay Talkies, the production company and film studio, which Rani and
Rai founded in the suburbs of Malad in Bombay in the year 1934, included a sound stage, a
recording room, a laboratory, a library, a preview theater ,publicity, camera and and engineering
departments and even a small school for child performers. The once formidable Bombay Talkies has
been reduced to a mere signboard in today’s Mumbai. Yet the Rani’s legacy lives on. Her German
stepson Peter Dietze preserves what is probably the largest archive on Bombay Talkies. Her films,
when viewed, brings back the words of praise by the English “Go and hear English spoken by Miss
Devika Rani, You will never hear a lovelier voice or diction or see a lovelier face. (The Art of
Cinema, B D Garga)” Devika Rani set the mark for how the urban and educated woman should look
and behave on Indian celluloid. That holds as true for Sharmila Tagore in Ray’s Seemabaddha as
for Nutan in Tere Ghar Ke Samne. What did Devika Rani Chaudhury feel when she retired in the
year 1945 after selling her stock in the studio she had founded? We don’t presume to know. But we
do know that she continued to wear full make up into her last years. She remained at heart till the
References:
- 1950s
Filmic Legacy
5. Jaikumar Priya. Cinema at the End of Empire: A Politics of Transition in Britain and India
Dr Anuja Bagchi is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at a College under
Calcutta University.
Chirantan Sarkar
Abstract
Moushumi Bhowmik’s (b. 1964) songs produced mainly in the final decade of the twentieth century
constitute a crucial cultural intervention as they offer an unique opportunity to meditate on the
traditional notions of gender developed in the middle-class Bengali society. Though Bhowmik
occasionally writes against the distress of women, she produces a discourse on femininity that
seems to be complicit with the norms of patriarchy in Indian societies. And no discussion of the
‘feminine’ sensibilities explored in Bhowmik’s songs is possible without making reference to her
oscillation between two paradigms: a life of interiority and the experience of relating to people.
songwriter and researcher tries to find meaning in existence in terms of her engagement with the
There are at least three reasons to contend that the songs of Moushumi Bhowmik (b. 1964), through
1
speaking people living in West Bengal in the final decade of the twentieth century . Firstly, the
songs dealt with the anxiety and insecurity produced as a consequence of the adoption of the new
economic policy in India. Secondly, Bhowmik wrote about the suffering of women though her
the domain of heterosexual relationship and the seamless glorification of motherhood situated her in
a discourse that neither complicated nor offered a serious threat to the Bengali bhadralok’s
traditional notions of femininity. Last but not least, in spite of her exposure to different genres of
music developing in other parts of the world, Bhowmik’s sporadic but intense use of indigenous
musical forms like kirtan refers to her attempt to transcend the barriers of a neocolonial, urban
modernity through an engagement with Bengal’s cultural past while not at all complying with any
sectarian or revivalist project for the self-assertion of a social group or a nation. All these three
threads of thinking are connected as in a transitional phase of the country’s history marked by the
adoption of the neo-liberal economic policies and in a considerably redefined sphere of the modern
Bengali songs in the nineties which was mostly a contribution of Kabir Suman (b. 1950), Mousumi
Bhoumik was grappling with the changing time to seek tunes, words and the soul of her own voice
Mousumi Bhowmik’s songs are marked by an erasure of sexual desire, especially when one
compares these songs with the songs of Kabir Suman, who produced explosive new writing on the
politics of sexuality and many other issues in the nineties, thus creating a new-age song- movement
in West Bengal. But what is to be stressed in this context is that in spite of her reticence about
sexual matters, Bhowmik all the while consciously responds as a sensate being and thus instead of
discarding the body as a corruptive agent, she treats it with great care as she realizes that the
emotional intensities are finally expressed through the body. Instead of addressing the issue of
sexuality in an explicit manner, Bhowmik is mostly engaged with the ambiguous idea of aador
which is a somewhat strange mix of respect, love and tenderness. Her songs draw the readers’
attention to a largely non-genital space of tactile tenderness which is a perplexing fusion of pity,
eroticism and affection. Thus she explores an array of emotional intensities which is not distinctly
sexualized. In a song like ‘The woman on the footpath’ (‘Footpather Meye’) Bhowmik exposes the
the extent of challenging the reductive patriarchal assumptions embedded in the domain of
heterosexual relations. Therefore, the fact that as wives, daughters, mothers and sisters, women
contribute to the sustenance of patriarchy as they get ‘drained of proper identity’ remains mostly
unaddressed in her songs (Spivak 302). The late nineteenth to early twentieth century thinking of
women’s bodies is different from the late twentieth century feminist position in India because
whether the former mostly treated bodies as sites of national or other collective regenerations, the
latter sought to expose how a woman’s body was being treated as the subject of repressive
mechanisms of social control. Bhowmik is, however, interestingly silent on the contemporary
feminist assertions for self-determination not only as buyers in globalised economic space but also
in the sphere of bodily desire and sexuality. In that sense, these songs offer complex sites for
addresses the plight of women in a few songs and empathize with what they are going through but
she seldom interrogates the traditional modes of gender relations in Bengali society. Women’s right
to practice or abandon reproduction plays a key role in defining their status in patriarchal social
formations. During the anti-colonial struggle in India M. K. Gandhi upheld the ennobling traits of
motherhood like endurance and capacity for suffering at the expense of the erotic aspects of
various guises for the structuring and organizing of the Indian society even these days. Though, as
pointed out by a distinguished psychoanalyst like Sudhir Kakar, during the superimposition of the
mother-image, what comes out is a ‘composite image of the sexual mother’ operating as a symptom
of male fantasy in India (43). There are songs in which Bhowmik seems to iterate the patriarchal
notions of femininity. ‘I can’t discard anything’ (‘Kichhu Felte Parina’) is such a song which
celebrates the archetypal motherly homemaker in a Bengali household who, because of her
attachment to the domestic space, cannot even throw away trivial objects like a broken pen or the
frightened by rain and thunder in a song titled as ‘Rain’ (‘Bristi Pore Re’): ‘When it rains quite
hard, the kid in the street/ Can’t shake off his fear/ Thunder frightens him as it’s pouring down’
(translation mine). There are similar songs reinforcing the image of the mother as an embodiment
of tenderness and generosity which seems to pose hardly any threat to the discursive production of
motherhood functioning as a patriarchal trope in the Indian societies. Though Bhowmik does not
endow the feminine presence with spirituality as it was recurrently done in fashioning the image of
the Indian woman in the nineteenth century, she makes attempts to manufacture a nostalgic space
for Bengali tradition, marked by woman’s grace and sense of dignity. This leads to yet another
conflict between Bengaliness implicitly evoked as the utopian imagery and the exploration of those
actual historical forces that contributed to the evolution of the Bengali self, if there is any.
In Bhowmik’s songs there is also an oscillation between the desire to withdraw into a solipsistic
mode of survival and the compulsion to participate in an active social life for change and
transformations. This second motivation propels her to write a song about the displacement caused
by the Great War for Independence in Bangladesh in 1971 and while writing such a song modeling
it on an Allen Ginsberg poem, she demonstrates her ability to produce an evocative account of how
the traumatic experience of displacement results in a systematic shattering of the human senses. The
war of 1971 has been described as ‘the most significant geopolitical event in the subcontinent since
its partition in 1947’ (Prologue 4). In the war of 1971 the West Pakistani military regime used force
and violated human rights to suppress a movement for independence in East Pakistan that
her song how the displacement as one of the most unforgettable events in the history of Bengal
stripped human beings of the protective layers of civilization and the body turns out to be a fragile,
naked and vulnerable entity even in the public space owing to starvation, disease and death during a
painstaking journey from one country to another. So far as the continuity of historical experience is
Bengal who had to move across the boundary after the Partition of India and the memories of their
‘horrid journeys to Sealdah station’ still dominate the historiography of 1947 in West Bengal
(Bandyopadhyay, Introduction 3). Bhowmik’s way of describing the physical distortion and death
of the displaced children warns us of the danger of viewing her as an essentially escapist songwriter
obsessed with the subtle nuances of her private feelings. Bhoumik hardly sublimates issues like
hunger and poverty, in spite of her innate lyricism and melancholic predisposition. She does not
write from outside, but, on the contrary, seems to write as someone already belonging to the
victims: ‘Flood visits our home, mother’s clothing gets wet, the rice pan glides down, how can we
hide them/How can we hide them when it’s raining so hard’ (‘Rain’, translation mine). These
ending lines allow the song which has so long been just an aesthetic account of rainfall, to get rid of
the solitary mode of living and touch the lives of so many other people for whom flood is
synonymous with death and destruction. In one of her much-adored songs titled ‘I heard this about
you’ (‘Ami Shunechi Shedin Tumi’) Bhowmik writes about the agony of being caught in two
worlds: the interiority of being and the experience of participating in the affairs of the big, outside
world. Though in another song evocative of the lyrics of Ramprasad Sen, the Shakta-poet of
eighteenth century Bengal, she explicitly states that she is tired of love-relationships, in the song
titled ‘I heard this about you’ she expresses her fear that her isolation, too, leaves her disappointed:
‘If love doesn’t exist, if I ceaselessly feel alone, tell me where I’ll go for peace’ (translation mine).
She ends another song titled as ‘The thing inside me’ (‘Shorirtari Bhitore’) laying particular stress
on relatedness: ‘I want to spread out the mat and sleep/ What I really want to do/Is touch your face/
Between the eyes with my fingertip’. But there is also no denying that her tremendous love for her
alienated self leads to a search for an alternative space to compulsory marriedness, and even to the
very idea of relationship. One reason why she finds relationships sterile is that the desire involved
in them is not reciprocal. In a relationship which is genuinely reciprocal, one’s own enjoyment is
however sorry to find both herself and the people around her preoccupied with their own aspirations
and embarrassment. But as she has no other way to transcend this crisis, she grudgingly accepts this
mode of interiority. But it also creates for her moments of inescapable dilemma because she fails to
construct for herself definitions of truth and identity in the absence of social referents. That is why
both the moments of solitary survival and those of collective struggle are infused with compromises
and contradictions in the songs. What often stimulates Bhowmik to withdraw into an insulated
space of interiority is her feeling that language hopelessly fails as a means of social communication
in the intimate moments of love and suffering. But at the same time she does not know how to
transcend the barrier of language while interacting with a friend, or, at the next level, finding herself
engaged as a songwriter: ‘I feel like having you with me/ though I fear I’m yet to touch you/ You
keep your pain in a corner of your heart/How can I touch your wounds with these words’ (‘Still I’ve
something to say’, ‘Amar Kichhu Katha Chhilo’, translation mine). It alienates her as a perceptive
songwriter from a homogeneous collectivity based on the principle of a transparent use of language
and its communicative value in a given social set-up. What she struggles to realize and wants us to
understand is that we make use of language and at the same time we are also operated by that
category of language that inevitably embraces ‘the categories of world and consciousness’ (Spivak
103). To put it precisely, as a songwriter Bhowmik is sad to perceive that there is hardly any world
and consciousness that is not structured as a language. Bhowmik’s utopian desire to discard the
restrictive norms of any form of relationship enables her to remain suspicious of the ideals of
fidelity and domestic harmony traditionally associated with marital fulfillment in patriarchal social
formations. Since Bhowmik refuses to believe in divine beings and religious rituals as it is
expressed in a song like ‘Lakshmipujo’, it is hardly possible for her to eulogize in her songs the
image of a spiritually superior Bengali female body that has for long functioned as the foundation
unjust society based on the principles of gender discrimination. The songwriter, however, seems
less interested in exploiting these possibilities to their furthest end. This nonchalance creates a
situation in which the feminist space seems inherently suspect. Though the songs secretly generates
possibilities of producing ideological discomfort, the discourse of femininity that one finds in her
songs is not subversive but rather seems to be a compliant one. Bhowmik, however, is similarly
reticent about the contradiction between women’s ‘apparent freedom’ and their ‘actual limitations’
In the tradition of modern Bengali poetry, there have been poets like Kabita Sinha (1931-1999) and
Debarati Mitra (b.1946) who, not being stereotyped feminists, wrote about their intimate feelings,
thoughts and emotions in formidable ways. But as far as Bengali modern songs are concerned, there
is perhaps no other songwriter other than Mousumi Bhowmik who has written so intensely about
the experience of being a woman and behaving as a woman in the domestic and the public sphere as
well. A contradiction between the rejection of sex-based differentiation and the celebration of the
femininity in the late twentieth century as ‘pagan, intuitive, anarchic, inventive and nurturing’ has
functioned as a defining characteristic of feminism in India (Kumar 3). Bhowmik’s songs have been
are underlined by a danger of essentialism (Chakraborty 2). As the women take part in the
production of knowledge about themselves, they often perpetuate the patriarchal stereotypes. There
expressions of pure femininity, in fact, predicates the possibility of the formation of knowledge
be naive to assume that Bhowmik is an ideal knower representing disengaged femininity. Her
location determined within the confines of patriarchal notions of gender, on the other hand, would
interiority.
Moreover, due to caste, class and other distinctions, it would be somewhat idealistic to see women
forming an undifferentiated social category in Indian societies. Therefore, in a certain sense, these
songs unravel the psychic space of the educated gentlefolk from the middle and upper classes in
West Bengal who remain disconnected from the vast rural population and the industrial working
classes to secure their class privilege and yet talk about social changes in academic space.
Nowadays it is a widespread complaint among those belonging to the middle class in West Bengal
that the political space has been taken over by an unreformed mob. Though there is no doubt that
the inadequacies of the parliamentary democracy have been miserably exposed in recent past, many
of the middle class intellectuals in West Bengal who have picked up the habit of quickly changing
their affiliation to political parties, seem to have deep-rooted anxieties about the unreformed mob
who cannot help being appropriated by the political parties for sustenance. These intellectuals,
because of their alienation from the men on the streets fail to turn themselves into ‘awakener[s] of
people’ and thus their activities only testify to the fact that they have internalized the dominant
discourse of power as it is being currently rehearsed in the domain of the parliamentary democracy
in India (Fanon 101-2). Mousumi Bhowmik, on the contrary, joins the civic liberties and
democratic rights movements in the city of Kolkata to contribute to a politics of resistance against
state surveillance.
As Bhowmik was trying to make her presence felt as a composer and singer attentive to the social
situation in the nineties, she found it inevitable to delineate the effects of economic globalization. In
spite of fissures caused by class, there was a sense of community cultivated through the idea of
para or neighbourhood in Kolkata even in the first two decades after independence. By 1970s and
1980s the social situation, however, underwent sea changes. Migrations from the countryside
resulted in an increase in the populations of the urban poor. Though there was a dominant middle-
had to negotiate the new social force in order to mobilize electoral support in the metropolis. But
the tension did not disappear at all. To make the matter worse, the 1990s witnessed a circulation of
the idea of ‘the new post-industrial globalized metropolis’ all over the country that had its inevitable
consequences on the sociopolitical scenario of Kolkata (Chatterjee 143). As the governments found
themselves more interested in catering to the needs of the service industries than helping the poor to
survive in the city, the metropolis became a place of ‘new social disparaties’ (Chatterjee 144). In the
new service-dominated space of urban economy marked by the empowerment of the managerial
and technocratic elite, large sections of the ‘older inhabitants of the city’ found themselves socially
redundant (Chatterjee 145). To remould the urban space in accordance with the demands of the new
market forces the pavement stalls were evicted and slums were cleared to make room for shopping
malls and residential apartments even in the final phase of the left front regime in West Bengal.
Kolkata has turned out to be a place belonging more to a newly empowered class of technocratic
elite than to the Bengali middle class. The Bengali middle class no longer has cultural dominance
over the city and the number of the Bengali-speaking people too has steadily decreased over the last
few years. Bhowmik in an album released in 2000 sings a song which unmistakably captures the
agony of the beggars and the travelling tradesmen who have to bear the brunt of the newly adopted
policies of economic liberalization: ‘At the crossroads in the market one finds an aged salesman /
It’s the rotten time which forces him to wander in the streets/ One day he wears the mask of a tiger/
To get transformed into a paper tiger’ (‘Scar’, ‘Khoto’, translation mine). Bhowmik is suspicious of
the credibility of a technological society that, despite its revolutionary achievements in the sphere of
communication, remains incapable of eradicating the gulf between two individuals. This is evident
in a song entitled as ‘Still I’ve something to say’ and in many other songs as well. While talking
about the metropolitan existence in Calcutta in 1970s, a noted social observer like Binoy Ghosh
return.
To negotiate the forces of neocolonial modernity which are coterminous with the globalized
network of capital, Bhowmik seeks to engage with the indigenous, local cultural traditions. This is
evident in her project for cultural restoration known as ‘Travelling Archives’. Since 2003 she has
been extensively travelling in Bangladesh and West Bengal and adjoining areas with the purpose of
recording songs and stories about singing and disseminating those field recordings through a
website (www.theatravellingarchive.org) and the recognized archives all over the world.
‘Restoration’, one of the four series of the ‘Travelling Archives Records’ as a record label, focuses
on the digital remastering of the unpublished recordings of relatively unknown singers and
composers. In another series of the same record label called ‘Profiles’ there are field recordings
centering round the lives and music of Chandrabati Roy Barman (b.1931) and Sushoma Das (b.
1930) both of whom were born in Sunamganj district in Sylhet, a region in Bangladesh sharing only
as a researcher but also as a songwriter Bhowmik has made no secret of her willingness to discover
the indigenous cultural traditions. Like Gaddar (b. 1949), a Naxalite activist and songwriter from
the state of Telengana in India, Bhowmik does not declare a full-fledged war against the neo-
colonial forces. Oscillating between solipsism and participation as two modes of being and
dissatisfied with the role of the state in a regime of economic liberalization, Bhowmik, nonetheless,
tries to listen to the forgotten musical forms of Bengal as these enable her to explore
hybrid social space. The use of a folk tune coming from traditions like kirtan or bichhedi often
causes a rupture in her songs as it is evident in the way one is guided to find an evocation of Hassan
Raja (1854-1922), the eighteenth century mystic poet of Sylhet in a song titled ‘The House’
(‘Ghorbaadi’). And it also happens that the spirit of a local musical culture is so imperceptibly
embedded in some of her compositions that instead of being crudely recognizable, it creates an
ambience or a milieu that imperceptibly surrounds the songs and influences the listeners to think
and act in a way that involves a rereading of the cultural traditions of Bengal primarily manifested
in music as a prerequisite for initiating a dialogue with the ideologies of a globalised and
consumerist modernity.
Notes
1. In 2001 Times Music released Moushumi Bhowmik’s album titled as ‘I come in and go away’
(‘Ami Gharbahir Kori’). Her first album of Bengali songs was ‘Fly away like a kite’ (‘Tumio
Chil Hao’) released by HMV in 1994. Times Music also released Bhowmik’s another album
2. Travelling Archive Records, Kolkata published a booklet and released a compact disc on field
recordings from Sylhet in 2013 documenting the songs of Chandrabati Roy Barman and
Sushoma Das.
Works Cited
independence West Bengal, 1947-52. London: Routledge, 2009. Routledge Studies in South
Chanda, Ipsita. Packaging Freedom: Feminism and Popular Culture. Kolkata: Stree, 2003. Print.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the
Fanon, Frantz, ‘On National Culture’ in Postcolonial Criticism. Ed. Bart Moore-Gilbert,
Ghosh, Binoy. Metropoliton Mon, Madhyabitto, Bidroho. Kolkata: Orient Blackswan, 2009. Print.
Kakar, Sudhir. Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1990.
Print.
Kumar, Radha. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. New York:
College, Nadia, West Bengal. He holds a PhD on “Female Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas
Hardy” from the Department of English, University of Kalyani.His books include Pornotopia
Sumallya Mukhopadhyay
Abstract: In 1979, several untouchable nimnoborgo refugees were forcefully uprooted from their
self-made home in Marichjhapi, one of the islands of the Sundarban forest area in West Bengal, by
state sponsored goons and the police. The proposed paper intends to reread the atrocities committed
by the Left Front government of West Bengal in Marichjhapi to showcase how, in the decades
following the killings, the upper caste bhadralok Bengali society offered little space to these
minority refugees in their narration of post-partition historiography. Incidentally, very little has
been written about Marichjhapi in Indian writing in English, and this is precisely where Amitav
Ghosh counts heavily; for Ghosh builds the entire narrative of his novel The Hungry Tide against
the backdrop of the Marichjhapi massacre. After revisiting the history of Marichjhapi, this paper
restructures the incidents through Ghosh’s narration of Marichjhapi in The Hungry Tide with the
belief that it is imperative to generate critical discussions among the reading public regarding
Marichjhapi, especially after the Supreme Court of India passed a historic verdict in favour of the
farmers in Singur. If justice is served to those in Singur, it cannot be denied to the refugees of
Marichjhapi, merely because they are untouchables.
One of the most foremost writers of the partition of India, Bhisham Sahni voices in Tamas the
point of view of a coolie, who replies to a Babu’s enthusiastic call for Azadi (1), saying, “Babuji, what is
that to me? I am carrying loads now and shall continue carrying them” (2001, 127). Indeed, a close
reading of the historiography of Indian nationalism reveals that the privileged class/caste (2) and the so
called Babus of our society, while articulating their memory and their history of the years after the
formation of the nation-state called India, have persistently tried to ignore and erase the
350,000 were urban bhadralok, 550,000 were the rural Hindu gentry, 100,000 were Hindu artisans
and the rest were agriculturalists and businessmen (Chakrabarti 1990, 1). With enough resources at
their disposal, the upper caste bhadralok refugees integrated easily into the mainland of West
Bengal. The West Bengal government favourably received the upper caste gentry, placing them in
Calcutta (present day, Kolkata) and its vicinity. Needless to say, the later batches of population,
migrating from East Pakistan, were mainly the lower caste or nimnoborgo (3) refugees. In the
absence of the upper caste Hindus, the communal violence in East Pakistan was directed towards
those who are socially stratified as nimnoborgo. While the government readily provided land to the
upper caste bhadralok to rebuild their safe abode, the nimnoborgo immigrants were rendered
homeless as they were forced to embrace “refugeeism” (4) as a lifestyle by settling in camps outside
West Bengal. In a way, Calcutta in particular and West Bengal in general was cleansed of the
presence of the nimnoborgo refugees by a state policy meticulously drawn to subjugate the lower
caste.
Before initiating a discussion on the Marichjhapi massacre, it is important to define who these
nimnoborgo refugees actually were. These lower caste people, who were known as the Chandals of
Bengal, popularly called the Namasudras, resided in Dacca, Bakargani, Faridpur, Mymensingh,
Jessore and Kulna in East Bengal (Sen 2015, 105). It must be taken into account that many among
them were also converted Muslims. They embraced Islam because of its more liberal beliefs devoid
The Namasudras, who once kept the Congress in opposition, migrated to West Bengal where
the Congress had established itself to power after the partition of India. To tackle the problems
posed by the alarming influx of refugees in West Bengal, the Congress government resorted to
building refugee colonies. The government had set up 389 colonies, all of which were stationed
outside Calcutta (Sen 2015, 106). Since these colonies were constructed in areas vacated by the
local population due to uninhabitable environment, families from the refugee colonies, who were
forcefully placed there, soon travelled to Calcutta to settle down in more habitable places.
Confronted with a complex situation, the Congress government issued an incompliant statement
that the state of West Bengal lacked sufficient lands to resettle the refugees; hence the refugees
were to be relocated outside West Bengal and moved to various places in the Indian union. Though
the islands of Andaman were chosen to resettle the refugees, the plan failed miserably. Thereafter,
the refugees were shifted to Dandakaranya.
Rereading Marichjhapi: Dandakaranya Project Area (DPA) and the Left Front Policy
Dandakaranya or Dandakaranya Project Area (DPA) was established in 1958 and it covered the
district of Koraput and Kalahandi of Orissa and the district of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh. This hilly
region was extremely unsuitable for the relocated families. Their agrarian background and their
ability to create a living by the rivers were of practically no use in Dandakaranya. Moreover, there
existed no provision for health care and education. The relocation further aggravated their status as
homeless and soon the indigenous tribals of Dandakaranya turned against the refugees, often
“Most of the plots did not produce enough food to keep the families who farmed them alive.
In this bleak and barren terrain, there was no other work by which the refugees could earn a
few rupees. Such industries as the authorities tried to run, in a hopelessly amateur fashion,
were disorganized, unprofitable, mismanaged and usually closed down soon after they were
set up” (Sen 2015, 106).
The Left Front, which was the main Opposition Party in West Bengal Assembly, took up the cause
of the refugees and voiced their grievances under the leadership of Jyoti Basu. In a letter to the
th
State Rehabilitation Minister on 13 July, 1961, Jyoti Basu pointed out the discrepancies of the
Congress government in handling the crisis and highlighted the problems faced by the refugees:
“Prolonged hunger-strike by the refugees...has proved beyond doubt the strong reluctance
on the part of the refugees to accept the proposal of the Government regarding their
rehabilitation in Dandakaranya. As a matter of fact there has been no movement of refugees
to Dandakaranya though they have been put to serious hardships and untold sufferings due
to stoppage of doles...We do not think that the rehabilitation of camp refugees in a manner
acceptable to them is very difficult as is often being suggested by the Government” (Sen
2015, 107-108).
With the Left Front fighting for the refugees, Jyoti Basu declared that if the Leftists were voted to
power the refugees of Dandakaranya would be resettled in West Bengal. In the meantime, the
refugees of Dandakaranya started migrating to West Bengal in groups, and time and again they
were arrested or forced back to their former location. Things changed completely after the Congress
was ousted from power and the popular mandate established the Left Front government. One
understands why Nilanjana Chatterjee in ‘Midnight’s Unwanted Children: East Bengal Refugees
and the Politics of Rehabiliation’ opines that “the exploitative Congress government had fallen and
But once the number crossed a few thousands, the Left Front leaders decided to send the refugees
back to where they came from. (6) Police were deployed to impede the movement of the refugees
and often they were arrested and returned to the resettlement camps. Many had sold their
belongings to gather funds to facilitate their journey to Marichjhapi. Soon these refugees managed
to slip through the police cordons, ultimately reaching Marichjhapi. The refugees insisted that they
needed no government aid to resettle themselves; instead they hoped that the government would
provide them necessary provision to stay in Marichjhapi. On arriving at Marichjhapi, some 30,000
settlers immediately identified the problems which they needed to tackle and started addressing
them accordingly. They built shanties, and roads were constructed. They built embankments to
counter the tidal waves. A school was constructed, decent medical facilities were provided for and
proper drinking water was made available. In fine, Marichjhapi emerged as an ideal model which
could have been followed by the government to address the refugee crises.
While the refugees self-sustained themselves in ways feasible to them, the Left Front government
alleged that these migrants were running a parallel government, smuggling in arms and assisting the
illegal refugee transfer into West Bengal. Soon the government claimed that Marichjhapi, being a
part of the Sundarban Reserve Forest, was under the Forest Act and public encroachment is not
permissible by law. There is ample evidence to oppose both these ridiculous claims upheld by the
Left Front ministry. The point to reckon with is that successful establishment of Marichjhapi,
without any government aid, meant that more refugees would desire to relocate themselves in West
Bengal, adhering to the Marichjhapi model. The Left Front government apprehended such a move
and hence, initiated their oppressive measures which initially took the shape of an economic
th
blockade. On 20 August, 1978, around thirty police launches were deployed to restrict the
movement of the refugees (Bhattacharjee 2010). These refugees were not unaware of their innate
drawback of being untouchables. Despite bearing the badge of untouchability, the refugees called
out to the civil society; some help was provided for, but that did not prove enough. Within a few
months, most of the boats used by the refugees were destroyed. In January, 1979, government
forces attacked a boat carrying few women from Marichjhapi (Sen 2015, 120). The boat capsized
and the resultant death infuriated the settlers and a veritable war broke out between the refugees and
goons. Young men were arrested and women were mercilessly raped. Several hundred men, women
and children were killed and their bodies were thrown in the water. In about a little over eighty
hours, the Left Front government successfully uprooted the untouchable refugees of their self-made
home to throw them back in the abyss of dispossession.
It is interesting to note that during 1980s and 1990s very little had been written about Marichjhapi.
In fact, the collective memory of the upper caste bhadralok offered no space to the untouchables to
record their sufferings. The Left Front government’s unprecedented atrocities in Marichjhapi which
led to innumerable deaths were brought to public assessment more prominently during the Singur-
Nandigram movement in West Bengal. Sen argues that the secular politics of bhadralok Bengali
appropriated the politics played out against the untouchables in Marichjhapi in 1979 to dislodge the
Left Front from power in 2011. Such generalized statement, however, does not do justice to the
contemporary history. For one thing, in the post-partition memory-building project, the massacre in
Marichjhapi has been addressed by a Bengali bhadralok who interrogates the caste question in his
literature. Written two years before the Singur-Nandigram movement in West Bengal, Amitav
Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide (2004) explores the critical frameworks by which we can understand an
event of such magnitude and trauma as the one in Marichjhapi from multifarious perspectives by
combining the urgent and often cathartic narratives of those who were affected by the event directly
or indirectly. Ghosh’s depiction of Marichjhapi is not linear in nature; instead the narrative is multi-
layered where the characters are configured around the metaphors of home and homelessness. Such
a reading helps one restructure the narrative of Marichjhapi, and this restructuring becomes
important especially after the recent historical verdict of the Supreme Court of India which allowed
the deprived farmers in Singur to get their land back. (7) If justice is served to those in Singur, it
cannot be denied to the settlers of Marichjhapi, merely because they belong to the lower caste of our
societal structure.
In one of her essays written against the backdrop of the Narmada dam protest, Arundhati Roy
observes that “the millions of displaced people in India are nothing but refugees in unacknowledged
war” (2001, 65). In The Hungry Tide, Ghosh acknowledges one of the wars fought on the eastern
coast of Bengal to construe a narrative of Marichjhapi which has so far been little recorded in
Indian writing in English. By doing so, Ghosh not only sheds light on a fascinating new territory
but also demystifies its myth and history in a whirlwind work of imagination. A detailed study of
the setting of the novel shows that the narrative is inseparable from the form, structure and history
of the land of Sundarbans. In attempting to do so, it is assumed that the readers are already
acquainted with the text and characters of the novel.
While most of the critical discussions of The Hungry Tide are focused primarily on three sets of
characters—Nirmal and Nilima, Kanai and Piyali, Fokir and Moyna—this paper concentrates more
on Nirmal and Kusum; the latter was one of the settlers in Marichjhapi, and it is through the
presentation of her character that Ghosh offers a humanist critique of refugeeism and dispossession
in India. Postcolonial states like India, in their efforts to set definite standards of modernisation,
construct industrial belts, dams and other economic plans, and in this process often shift large
number of people, leaving them forever displaced. In a sense, these refugees are created, and they
are so desperate to find a proper habitation that “they are willing to sell themselves for a bigha or
two” (2004, 51). In fact, what Ramachandra Guha states about the refugees camped in Kurukshetra
immediately after the partition of India and Pakistan, might well be extended to the untouchable
refugees of Marichjhapi. It seems that “their passion for land”, to quote Guha, “appeared to be
elemental” (2007, 85). At the same time, it must be noted that untouchable refugees were “tide
country people, from the Sundarbans edge...the rivers ran in [their] heads, the tides were in [their]
blood” (2004, 164-165).
In The Hungry Tide, Kusum, at quite a young age becomes fatherless. She watches her father die,
falling prey to a tiger. On accepting a job offer, her mother is taken to Dhanbad where she is forced
to take up prostitution. Determined to see her mother again, Kusum leaves Lusibari and “vanished
as if into the eye of a storm. No one knew where she went; no trace of her remained” in the village
(2004, 143). Years later, as a storm impedes Nirmal’s journey back to Lusibari, he takes shelter in
“[T]hat place was not home; there was nothing for us there. Walking on iron, we longed for
the touch of mud; encircled by rails, we dreamed of the Raimangal in flood. We dreamed of
storm-tossed islands, straining at anchors and of the rivers that bound them in golden fetters.
We thought of high tide, and the mohonas mounting, of islands submerged, like underwater
clouds” (164).
Meanwhile, after her husband’s accidental death, Kusum heard “of a great march to the east.” They
went pass her hut “like ghost covered in dust, strung out in a line, shuffling beside the railtracks”,
carrying “children on their shoulders, bundles on their back” (164). One of the women informed
Kusum that they lived in Bangladesh where they were forced to leave the country as the war broke
out in the eastern theatre along the borders of East Pakistan and India. (8) After crossing the border,
they were “met by the police and taken away”:
“[I]n buses they drove us, to a settlement camp. We’d never seen such a place, such a dry
emptiness; the earth was so red that it seemed to be stained with blood. For those who lived
there, that dust was as good as gold, they loved it just as we love our tide country mud. But
no matter how we tried, we couldn’t settle there” (165).
One appreciates how eidetically Ghost’s narrative presents the circumstances which compelled the
refugees to cross the border to India. Thereafter, their forced transportation to Dandakaranya, their
refusal to stay at the camp and eventually their self-sustaining relocation to Marichjhapi is rendered
accurately in the narrative design of The Hungry Tide. In the ensuing chapters, Ghosh narrates how
Marichjhapi emerged as a perfect rehabilitation centre for the refugees:
“[T]here were some thirty thousand people on the island already and there was space for
many more. The island had been divided into five zones and each family of settlers had been
given five acres of land. Yet, they had also recognized, shrewdly enough, that their
enterprise could not succeed if they didn’t have the support of their neighbours on the
surrounding islands. With this in mind they had reserved one quarter of the islands for
people from other parts of the tide country. Hundreds of families had come flocking in”
(172).
The miserable condition of the refugees is further highlighted when Kusum approaches Nilima for
help. Knowing well that the dwellers cannot sustain themselves on their own, perhaps Nilima, who
had single-handedly rebuilt the entire Lusibari, could have helped the untouchable refugees to
strategise their stay in Marichjhapi. Ironically instead, her refusal to help Kusum, and in turn the
settlers, signifies the utter rejection of the responsible members of the civil society, the so called
bhadralok community, to stand by the Marichjhapi cause. Since they were incapable of acquiring
any political support, the refugees were intuitively aware of the impending attack. After a meeting
with the settlers, Kusum confirms that “the gangsters who have massed on the far shore will be
brought to drive settlers out” (225). The reference of the gangsters is unmistakable in Mallick’s
article where she writes:
“Muslims gangs were hired to assist the police, as it was thought Muslims would be less
sympathetic to refugees from Muslim-ruled Bangladesh” (1999, 110).
In a dramatic turn of events, the High Court issued an order directing the Left Front government to
lift the economic blockade. Notwithstanding the directive, the government went ahead with its plan
and persisted with “the blockade in defiance of the High Court” (Mallick, 1990, 110). Nirmal, on
the other hand, thought that the settlers had tasted their deserved victory at last. On reaching
Marichjhapi, he saw that “the police were not gone; they continued to patrol the island, urging the
settlers to abandon their homes” (260). Kusum, who in the narrative represents the dwellers of
Marichjhapi, is starving to death in her hut. As Ghosh describes, “It was terrible to see Kusum: her
bones protruded from her skin, like the ribs of a drum, and she was too weak to rise from her mat"
(260). In one of the moving passages of the novel, Kusum tells Nirmal:
“[T]he worst part was not the hunger or the thirst. It was to sit here, helpless and listen to the
policemen making their announcements...This island has to be saved for its trees, it has be
saved for its animals...Who are these people, I wondered, who love animals so much that
Ghosh brings out the situational despondency through the character of Kusum. Though uneducated
and inexperienced in the ways of the world, Kusum negotiated various situations of her life with
exceptional courage. It is only in the face of institutional exploitation that she completely breaks
down. Her crumbling spirit symbolizes the emotional and psychological collapse of the whole
community in Marichjhapi; the determined sloganeering of the settlers—“Amra kara? Bastuhara.
Who are we? We are the dispossessed. ...Morichjhapi chharbona. We’ll not leave Morichjhapi, do
what you may” (254)—is inevitably silenced by the waves after waves of amphibious attacks
mindlessly carried out by the hired goons and the police.
It is of a piece with the general irony that shrouds the massacre in Marichjhapi that Kanai loses the
diary where Nirmal wrote about Kusum and her fellow settlers of the island. Perhaps this is Ghosh’s
own way of lashing out at the bhadralok society which has failed to empathize with the untouchable
refugees. Nonetheless, The Hungry Tide provides a ray of hope as Kanai promises to bring to public
consciousness the incidents that happened in Marichjhapi. The responsibility lies on our generation
who, in Nirmal’s words, is “richer in ideals, less cynical, less selfish” and has “greater claim to the
world’s ear” (278) than our former generations. In our society, hierarchy of caste works in insidious
ways to take hold of people’s consciousness. By rereading and restructuring the atrocities, it is possible
to negate this casteist hierarchy, and foreground the marginalized history of the minority untouchables
of Marichjhapi in critical discussion; thereafter one can demand social justice for those who suffered
from refugeeism and dispossession in post-partition Bengal.
Notes
2. A common critical consensus among those who probe into the caste-class dynamics of the Indian
society is that upper caste people are economically well placed compared to those hailing from the
lower caste. In this essay, the term class is interchangeable with the word caste.
3. Nimnoborgo essentially means inferior caste or ‘varna’. It is directed towards those who were
classified as ‘Untouchables’ or ‘depressed classes’ in British Bengal and, at present, are placed at
the fringes of the societal structure. Though Jhuma Sen in her article “Reconstructing Marichjhapi”
4. I borrow the word “refugeeism” from Urvashi Butalia who uses this term (pp.6) in her book The
Other Side of Silence, 1998, Penguin Books.
5. A team of Left Front leaders, including Ram Chatterjee, Rabi Sankar Pandey and Kiranmay
th
Nanda visited Dandakaranya on 28 November, 1977. They encouraged the refugees to migrate to
the Sunderbans and promised that the government would not restrict their movement (Bhattacharjee
2010).
6. Despite promises from a leader like Ram Chatterjee, the Left Front did not make the promise
good. It must be understood that Ram Chatterjee was a member of the Forward Bloc, one of the
smaller parties in the great umbrella of the Left Front. In fact, the Left Front itself is a coalition of
small leftist parties and the dominant CPM. All the government policies are effectively planned and
implemented by the CPM. In a way, the CPM with Jyoti Basu as the party’s spokesperson,
practically betrayed the refugees of Marichjhapi within a few years after coming to power.
7. The Singur Movement refers to the land acquisition controversy of the Left Front government in
which the government occupied 997 acres of multi-crop land from unwilling farmers in 2006. The
collected land was handed over to the Tata Motors to construct a Nano car manufacturing factory.
The opposition and other parties initiated a protest which eventually took the shape of a civil society
movement. Due to the ongoing agitation, Tata Motors decided to drop their project in West Bengal.
8. The war referred to here is the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War fought in South Asia which led
to the formation of the new independent nation-state of Bangladesh.
Works Cited
Bandyopadhyay, Shekar. 1997. Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: The Namasudras of
Bengal, 1872-1947. London: Routledge
Bhattacharya, Nandini. 2013. Revisiting Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide: The Islam/English
Bose, Brinda. 2003. Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives. New Delhi: Penecraft International
Chakrabarti, Prafulla K. 1990. The Marginal Men: The Refugees and the Left Political Syndrome in
West Bengal. Kalyani, West Bengal: Lumiere Books
Chatterjee, Nilanjana. 1992. ‘Midnight’s Unwanted Children: East Bengal Rufugees and the Policy
of Rehabiliation’. Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University
Das, Saswat. 2006. Home and Homelessness in The Hungry Tide: A Discourse Unmade. Indian
Literature, 50 (5(235)), 179-185. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23340744
Ghosh, Tapan Kumar and Prasanta Bhattacharya. 2013. In Pursuit of Amitav Ghosh. New Delhi:
Orient Blackswan
Guha, Ramachandra. 2007. India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy.
New Delhi: Picador
Guha, Ranajit (ed.) 1982. Subaltern Studies I. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Jalais, Annu. 2005. ‘Dwelling on Marichjhapi’, Economic and Political Weekly, 40(17): 1757-62
Jha, Vivekanand. 2001. The Fiction of Amitav Ghosh: A Critical Commentary. New Delhi: Atlantic
Publishers & Distributors
‘“Massacre” in Marichjhapi’. 2005. Economic and Political Weekly (Letters to the Editor), 40 (25)
Mallick, Ross. 1999. ‘Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal Policy Reversal and
the Marichjhapi Massacre’, Journal of Asian Studies, 58(1): 104-25
Mondal, Anshuman. 2007. Amitav Ghosh (Contemporary World Writers Series). Manchester &
New York: Manchester University Press.
Mukherjee, Meenakshi. 2005. The Twice-born Fiction: Themes and Techniques of Indian Novels in
English. New Delhi: Penecraft International
Roy, Arundhati. 2001. "The Greater Common Good." In The Algebra of Infinite Justice. New Delhi:
Viking
Roy, Rituparna. 2010. South Asian Partition Fiction in English: From Khuswant Singh to Amitav
Sen, Jhuma. 2015. ‘Reconstructing Marichjhapi: From Margins and Memories of Migrant Lives’. In
Urvashi Butali (ed.) Partition The Long Shadow. Delhi: Penguin Books
Sikdar, Ranjit Kumar. 1982. "Marichjhapi Massacre." The Oppressed Indian 4(4): 21-23
Somdatta Mandal
Beginning right from Nemai Ghosh’s Chinnamul in 1951, the famous trilogy Meghe Dhaka Tara,
Subarnarekha and Komal Gandhar made by Ritwik Ghatak in the 1960s, the Partition of Bengal
has been the subject of a lot of Bengali films. If we go through the chronological history of these
films we find that the interest in the subject somehow waned from the late 1970s onwards with
occasional films like Tahader Katha made by Buddhadeb Dasgupta in 1992 still using the historical
event as a backdrop to delve into the psychological ramifications of the protagonist. The particular
subject of partition somehow digressed to the production of several films like Bappaditya
Bandyopadhyay’s Kaantatar which talk about problems of people across the border (which of
course has been created out of the partition of a nation) and ramification of cross-border human
Incidentally, over the last few years three award-winning Bengali films have been released which
have gone back to the central theme of the Partition once again. Srijit Mukherjee’s commercial
blockbuster film Raj Kahini (2015), Goutam Ghose’s Shankhachil (2016) and Koushik Ganguly’s
Bisarjan (2017) (the last two being joint Indo-Bangladesh productions), depict human relationships
which are built and destroyed as a result of the division of the two countries, India and Pakistan
(and later Bangladesh). Through a discussion of these three feature films and the documentary film
Seemantorekha (2017) made by the famed Bangladeshi director Tanvir Mokammel, this paper
attempts to examine whether there are any particular aspects of the Bengal Partition that have made
focus their attention on it once again. But several questions and issues crop up. Can they be simply
described as period films? When public memory is short and when most of the actual victims of the
trauma of separation are nearly non-existent at present, are these directors using the partition as a
mere prop to propel their own areas of interest or are the scars of the incident so deeply embedded
in the Bengali psyche on both sides of the border that they cannot avoid it in any way? Can it be
also said that unlike the passionate involvement of Ritwik Ghatak and others, a distance of seventy
years has lent enough time for these younger directors to approach the subject in a more objective
manner? These issues therefore are worth discussing in further details. Also the story outlines of
each of the three films have to be given in details in order to make the reader understand the
different ways in which the Partition plays in each of them and how human lives are successively
affected.
In October 2015, a Bengali film directed by Srijit Mukherjee Rajkahini (Tale of the Raj), was
released with a lot of fanfare. The film had anensemble cast of eleven major female characters with
Rituparna Sengupta in the lead role and also starredJisshu Sengupta, Abir Chatterjee, Saswata
Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen in other pivotal roles. What was the film about? A brief outline of the plot
is necessary at this point. In August 1947, the British passed a bill regarding the partition of Bengal
and created the Radcliffe Line as the boundary between the newly formed nations of India and
Pakistan. As both the Congress and the Muslim League battled it out in courtrooms as to which side
of Bengal would get which territory, in another part of Bengal there was a brothel, situated right in
the middle of Debiganj and Haldibari districts, which was the home and the world to eleven women
and two men. Begum Jaan was the boss, while the other women worked under her as prostitutes.
Begum's faithful bodyguard was Saleem Mirza, a Pathan, and Sujan, their man-servant and
entertainer. Begum Jaan was not concerned about Hindustan or Pakistan, her only concern was her
Congress worker visited the brothel time to time with gifts for everyone.
Meanwhile, the political sky darkened. The Radcliffe line passed between Debiganj and
Haldibari, the former being placed in East Pakistan, and the latter remaining in India. Mr. Prafulla
Sen from Congress and Mr. Ilias from Muslim League (who were childhood friends but now
separated) meet and discuss about the relocation of the people of the two districts. They discover
that in its course, the boundary line has been drawn right through the middle of Begum Jaan's
brothel. They meet Begum Jaan and tell her to evacuate her brothel along with her women. But she
refuses to budge. Unable to garner support from the Nawab of Rangpur, her patron, who himself
In the meantime, exasperated at the futile attempts to evict Begum and her women from the
house, Prafulla and Ilias turn to Kabir, leader of a criminal gang, for help. Kabir and his gang
commit all kinds of heinous crimes in those turbulent times of riots and violence. One night, Kabir
and his gang set fire to the brothel. The women, trained to use rifles by Saleem, put up a brave fight.
Most of them get killed, however Saleem himself dies the most horrifying death. After the
bloodbath, the remaining women including Begum enter the inferno of the house and willingly
accept their death in their own "country", while being narrated the story of the legendary Rajput
Rani Padmini. When dawn breaks, the house and its inmates have been charred to death. The film
ends with Ilias, Prafulla, Master and lakhs of refugees from Debiganj and Haldibari coming together
to see the remains of Begum Jaan's brothel, as Bharata Bhagya Bidhata plays in the background.
Incidentally, a Hindi adaptation of the film Begum Jaanwas also released on 14 April 2017.Srijit
Mukherjee himself directed the film, making his directorial debut in Bollywood. As the title of the
film suggests, the Partition becomes a mere backdrop for promoting the histrionics of Vidya Balan
in the female protagonist’s role of a brothel owner as the earlier Bengali version had done for
Rituparna Sengupta.
rd
We now move to the next film. Winning the Best Feature Film Award at the 63 National Awards
in 2016, Goutam Ghose’s Shankhachil (Boundless) starring Prosenjit Chatterjee, Kusum Sikder and
Shajbati is the story of a couple living in a small village town in Satkhira district at the Indo-
Bangladesh border. It centers round a school master Muntasir Chowdhury Badal, his wife Laila, and
their daughter Roopsha, a free spirited 12-year-old with a curious mind who suffers from a life-
threatening heart disease. They are advised by the neighbours and local doctors to get her treated at
a hospital in a big town. The couple, now Bangladeshi nationals, has two options – one, to head to
Dhaka for their daughter’s treatment and the other, to cross the border to get her treated in India
which is nearer. As Roopsha’s condition worsens, the couple hastily decides to cross the Ichhamati
River that divides Bangladesh from India and take their daughter to India to get treated. With the
help of a few neighbours and an old doctor friend in India, the couple get their daughter admitted in
the hospital but is compelled to change their names, religion and country in order to not get
deported back. The film of course ends tragically and reiterates how life can become miserable
The only problem with this film is its narrative which takes a leisurely time to establish the plot
and it takes quite a while for the spectators to understand where the story is heading. At the
beginning too much time is spent in expressing the anguish and the pain that still exists amongst
people of both the countries which remains actually a sort backdrop to the whole film. Footages of
refugee migration and atrocities along the barbed-wire fencing actually do not jell with the narrative
of the family story per se. But if we consider what the director Gautam Ghose told the PTI
correspondent, we realize that like Ghatak, he was also somehow too much emotionally moved by
the Partition:
I was associated with Ritwik Ghatak during his later phase for quite some time and was
introduced to his vision that created films on partition. Partition always brought
heard from him the pain and anguish of the people affected by the partition but
During a visit to the border, Ghose realized how only humans are barred from crossing the man-
made boundary but not others. “Birds of the sky, fishes and dolphins of the Ichhamati River, tigers
and crocodiles of the Sunderbans. None can bar them from going from one side to the other. It is a
history of the humans which we can never do away with.” This is also why he named the film after
the free-wheeling bird shankhachil, which is used by many Bengali poets like Jibabananda Das and
others.
III
The third film on the Bengal partition is Kaushik Ganguly’s Bishorjon (Immersion) which
th
bagged the Best Bengali Film award at the 64 National Film Awards 2017. Starring Abir
Chatterjee and Joya Ahsan in lead roles, the story once again has a human drama developing on
both sides of the Indo-Bangladesh border created by the River Ichhamati. The film opens with a
young mother refusing to go see the Durga immersion with her son. The incident takes place with
immense celebrations as the two Bengals immerse their Durga idols in the river Ichhamati
separating them. The young lady remembers one such day after bishorjon in her past. After the
partition of India, the people from two sides of Bengal started drifting apart with rising border
tensions. A Bangladeshi Hindu widow Padma who lived with her aged, fragile father-in-law saves a
Muslim man Naseer from West Bengal, who had drowned in the Ichhamati during the Durga
immersion. Padma takes care of Naseer and they plant his identity as her cousin brother not to
attract suspicions as the border tensions were high and Naseer was an illegal intruder. The zamindar
of Padma's village, a middle aged man named Ganesh, loves Padma and constantly tries to pursue
her, and gets suspicious about Naseer. Padma and Naseer wonder how a river divided people from
the same ethnicity and resulted in so much difference between them now be it in dialect or
Padma tries to find ways for Naseer to return to India. He starts reminding her of her
husband who died due to excessive drinking, and when Padma hears about Naseer’s girlfriend
Ayesha she feels heartbroken. The two lonely souls are in a vulnerable situation and they start
falling in love with each other. Ganesh gets to know about Naseers's real identity and decides to
keep a watch. Naseer confesses to Padma that he lied about drowning during the Durga immersion
and that he is actually connected to the black market business. Padma's father-in-law dies and
Naseer gets worried about Padma's safety as a young widow all alone in the village and Ganesh's
prying eyes on her. Padma tells him not to worry about her and prepare to return to where he
belongs. Ganesh makes a hearty confession to Padma about how much he loves her and is ready to
wait forever for her. Padma arranges Naseer's return to India but needs help for that and she accepts
Ganesh's proposal in return of him helping to smuggle Naseer back to West Bengal.
The night before Naseer leaves, Padma gets drunk and bares her pain to him. Naseer is also
broken that due to him Padma has to marry Ganesh and he breaks down too. Unable to control their
feelings anymore the two consummate that night. The next day Padma bids a tearful goodbye to
Naseer and gives a gift for Ayesha. Naseer promises her to leave the black market business. Ganesh
takes Padma away to his house as Naseer leaves in a boat to the other Bengal. Once again the
Ichhamati River plays a significant role in the story. The movie ends with a fast-forward to the
present times. Padma is shown living in comfort as Ganesh's wife, and it is Bijoya Dashami once
again. As she refuses to go to see the immersion in the Ichhamati, her little son leaves with Ganesh.
It is revealed that the son is actually Naseer's as both have the same birth mark.
IV
After discussing the three feature films which reveal in different ways human angst as a result of the
Partition, we now come to a very recent two and a half hour long documentary which tries to re-live
Borderline) is a documentary about the Partition of Bengal, the arbitrariness of the border and its
effects on a people displaced. Directed by Tanvir Mokammel, who remains the only filmmaker
from Bangladesh whose work has focused on the partition in a comprehensive manner,
Mokammel’s aim is to clear the amnesia surrounding Partition among Bangladeshi filmmakers. In
his conscious mind, in the socio-political-intellectual plane, he believes that “the Partition of 1947
was the root cause for all the anomalies we are suffering from in our present society now.” In an
Bengal has been a cultural entity for more than 2000 years. By dividing Bengal, the
very existence and emotions of our Bengali identity, our deeply rooted cultural traits
have been shattered. ….never before the 1947 Partition was the division so decisive,
so complete. Hence, the Partition of 1947 haunts me with a great sense of loss, and
Incidentally Mokammel had seen the 1964 riot and though he was a mere eleven year old boy at
that time, he had decided to make a film on the miseries of the Hindus in East Bengal and decided
to title the film Chitra Nodir Pare. In the interview mentioned earlier he very modestly states that
his films “should not be compared with the masterpieces of Ritwick Ghatak.”
Rich in symbolism and metaphors of the Mother Goddess, Ritwick’s films mostly dealt
with the tragic effects of the Partition on the refugee families uprooted from East
Bengal. In his films, the pangs and pathos of the divided Bengal figured in a tragic and
archetypal dimension. Chitra Nodir Pare, on the other hand, mostly deals with a sense
of loss, the loss that East Bengal suffered due to mass migration of the culturally rich
drawn is the deep sense of loss, which we both as filmmakers, felt about the Partition of
Bengal. He has shown the tragic consequences of the Partition from that side of
Since seventy long years have passed, Mokammel thinks that perhaps it is now time to look back at
this historical event. Who has gained from the Partition? Who has lost? The film analyses that
history through human stories, and depicts the human costs involved in the Partition. He reiterates,
“The one aim of the film is to find out what the borderline between the two Bengals actually means.
Is it just a barbed wire at the border between two sovereign states, Bangladesh and India? Or is it a
demarcation line drawn between the Hindus and the Muslims? Or is it a line to highlight the traits
of cultural and behavioural difference which exist between the people of East Bengal and West
Bengal? Or is there any invisible line within our hearts which do not let us mingle together? The
Seemantorekha was shot in quite a few places – mainly in the border areas of both Bangladesh and
India. It was also shot in the refugee camps, like Cooper’s camp, Dhubulia camp and Bhadrakali
camp in West Bengal where refugees from East Bengal took shelter. It was also shot in
Dandyakaranya in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh where refugees from East Bengal were sent, as
well as in Nainital of Uttarakhand. It was also shot in the Andamans where some refugees from
East Bengal were resettled. Besides shooting in different places of East and West Bengal,
Mokammel also shot in Assam and in Tripura. “The subject matter of the film is to depict the 1947
partition in all its different manifestations. But the human stories remained the main focus. Hence
the refugees from both sides, and whoever have been affected by the partition, were our subjects”
Mokammel said to IANS on November 15, 2017. The story of any person forced to migrate from
his/her motherland is always tragic and sad. But the stories which moved him the most were stories
of some very old women who are still languishing in the old and deserted refugee camps of West
Bengal, who have been dubbed as ‘PL’ or ‘Permanent Liabilities’ by the officials. “They have
become ‘Permanent Liabilities’ on our conscience!”, says Mokammel. “To me, these hapless old
women are the worst victims of the tragedy called 1947 Partition.”
as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Interestingly, Seemantorekha is also the first documentary film in
Bangladesh to have been crowdsourced. Running out of funds, he had to depend upon the generosity of
ordinary public to complete his project. Mokammel believes that the lessons to be learned from the
Partition are manifold. After accepting the plurality and diversity of the people of South Asia he
believes that since you cannot change your geography, or your neighbour, it is imperative for the
dominant communities of this subcontinent to learn to be tolerant, to learn to live in peace and harmony
with each other. “You cannot make a garden with only one kind of flower,” he said. This is probably
In conclusion it needs to be reiterated that after a hiatus of seventy long years, the Partition of
India has been depicted with renewed vigour in many commercial Bengali ventures as well in
documentaries across the border. We hope that it is not a transitory phase and that this renewed
Filmography
Producer: Opera
Chatterjee, Abir Chatterjee, Kaushik Sen, Sudipta Chakraborty, Saayoni Ghosh & others Music:
Indradeep Dasgupta
Producers: Prosenjit Chatterjee, Faridur Reza Sagar, Mou Raychowdhury, Habibur Rahman Khan
Gitanjali Roy
Bengali tradition in the latter half of the 20th century is geographically divided into three
different spaces- West Bengal, Tripura, and Bangladesh. The partition between India and East
Pakistani has made the immigrants beyond the borders move from one place to the other. The
Bangals, who have seen the partition of 1947ii2 and 1971iii, consider Bongo to be a space that
includes fraternity feeling towards the fellow Bengalis. The concept of Bongo as a marker of culture
and tradition is beyond the geographical space. In the cultural realm, the partition had subverted the
established traditions by interfering with local customs. The nation, as a project, seeks to erase off
the colonial past and the barbed wires separating the nations, is just a physical signifier. Beyond the
barbed wires, the Bongo, as a space, actually stands for a shared memory and a collective sense of
‘belongingness’, which constructs a feeling of nostalgia found in the narratives of the first
generation immigrantiv, who could not erase off the Bongov tradition from their mind. Well, in my
case, I belong to the third generation and I have received the partition stories from the second
generation- my mothervi. She has shared to me the scattered oral tales, recollected by her in bits and
pieces. This orality- the orature which is linked to a social space, exists through alternate modes of
(“expatriate minority communities”): (1) group of people/individuals who get dispersed from an
original “centre” to at least two “peripheral” places; (2) they try to maintain a “memory, vision or
myth about their original home”; (3) they feel alienated from their host land and thus tend to believe
return to their respective homeland; (5) they behold an innate sense of responsibility to celebrate
and to pass the culture to the next generation which they have carried from their homeland; and (6)
they always try to consciously retain a relationship with their homeland. My paper shall focus on
how the Bangals of Tripura idealize their homeland and collectively experiences a diasporic feeling
in their host land through their folk culture. The paper also aims to identify the root causes of the
loss of tradition; tries to identify the retentive power of tradition even after the partition; and the
reasons for amalgamation of the replaced culture where the influence of the new culture played a
When someone sings these songs, they form a part of nostalgia in the 21st century where these are
These lullabies share a space in the memorable history where the mother-child relationship is
strengthened through the bed-time stories. Motherhood can thus be interpreted as the power to
formulate a space: of giving birth to narratives and stories, as beside nurturing their kids they also
cultured within them innumerable tales, myths, stories and songs. The lullabies are almost extinct
internet.
With division of the land, there was demarcation of boundary which resulted in a loss- of the
original meaning, of the dialectical influence, of the rooted culture. The de-territorialisation is the
loss of the territory- both geographical and psychological which is accompanied by the gain of the
new ones. It mars the journey between ‘home’ and ‘foreign’ country, between ‘my’ and ‘his’
stories, between ‘known’ and ‘unknown’, between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’. Looking backward at the
past involves the extensive use of memories of the old culture, the place of origin which collides
with the concept of ‘home’- a place of security and comfort which assimilated the feeling of
“belongingness”. One thus loses a home but never gains one; or rather, they set up a new home
where they are always treated and looked down upon as a foreigner. Dislocation leads to cross-
cultural encounter which results in the blend of memory and desire, coloured by imagination and
nostalgia, giving rise to an inner conflict in the context of cultural displacement. Torn between two
places and two cultures, the expatriates oscillate between new literary spaces and feel a forceful
need to revisit their past. The act of revisiting is a purposeful effort to form a cultural identity.
Nostalgia, loss, betrayal and duty (both- towards their homeland and host land) are the foundations
of new home. But they can never erase off their old Bongo traditions, culture and heritage.
The Bongo culture is marked through an equation of respect where the teacher, called as the
“Mastermoshai” in Bengali vernacular; and the student, known as the “chatro” maintained a
where the children play a game of selecting the hand and eliminating fingers, and the first
eliminated hand would catch the ear of the co-players through a doggery verse:
This reflects the chronotopesix that are rooted to multiple times- the spaces co-existing next to each
other. There is an instance of the carnivalx in the game in which power equation is subverted inside
the game space- the person who pretends to be the teacher is also part of the game, where ear is
pulled by the other co-players, who are students in the real-space. It seems to interrogate the
established institutionalized authority over the traditional meaning where earlier teachers used to
beat the students with sticks, and the students had to remain passive and silent. Might be students’
anger found a form of outlet of their fear and frustration through this game and hence this rhyme
created a popular space among the Bengali pupil of the pre-partition phase. With change of time
and place, the pupil no longer practices this orature. Perhaps, the 20th century generation does not
believe that they should be afraid of their teacher but rather believes to be friendly with them. Thus
There is yet another game which is even now mostly popular in the rural areas. During evening
kids were found playing “ikir-mikir” and they recited the verse were found
Bat comes making sound ikir-mikir-and-chikir,
The bat comes chasing the Majumder,
Damoder came running,
Damoder came with his kitchen utensils,
In front of the wall, grinding the rice,
While grinding it was already late,
He consumes rice in the afternoon,
As he sat to eat, a fly fell on the rice,
He tried to wash it off with chilington
crocodile,
Chilington crocodile lost its sharpness,
Thus the fox’s head.
of rap sounds quite different. The movie registers the perplexed feelings of a simple school teacher,
Anjaniputra, who is forced to learn computer to cope up with the trend and thus set question papers
using computer. He tries to assimilate the digital culture by upgrading himself with the 20 th century
educational trends but ultimately falls into a trap which necessitates his journey in Iceland. The
song has been re-moulded to create an essence of one’s rooted place and culture.
Beside the indoor games, the children grew up with nursery rhymes too which were taught
Going out for an adventure during the vacation was not only a break from studies for the little kids;
but even their mothers also participated with them while reciting the poem, perhaps because the
mother too wanted a break from her ‘sasur-bari’xii where she could not fulfill her desires, whereas
she can easily enjoy her freedom a bit more in her ‘babar-bari’xiii. The dichotomy of desire and
In the apparently happy looking reality, there can be a sense of tragedy. During those days,
widowhood was a very common occurrence and many a time women with their children left their
husband’s house to stay with their brother, where the ‘mamar-bari’xiv was not always a place of
happiness. There is also the other side of the story, where the mother and her child were basically
dependent upon the Mamaxv and Mamixvi for their sustenance. The widowed sister and her children
are looked upon as an “unwanted evil” in the house of the Mama especially for the Mami. The
“pleasure” and “satisfaction” might be is a charity and being at the receiving end, the innocent child
for themselves. If they were childless, they would be sent to Kashi, Haridwar, Varanasi, or
Jagannath Damxviii, or they would stay back to be tortured and slaughtered in the hands of the in-
laws; or slightly earlier, they were eliminated. Elimination, first through Sati xix because their family
members could claim the land and the land being small and single, the widows had to be politically
marginalized. Multiple division of the land would lead to lack of harvest or of fertility; hence
widows had to be eliminated. Next, if the widows were childless they were sent either to the
pilgrimage centres or feed for themselves, therefore, living on charity. Gradually the charity used to
trickle down from the home- first, they used to get money orders with affectionate letters; then
money orders with one line; then no line, only money; and finally only money. Thirdly, if they were
had to live for a long time with an alien family whom he used to call Mama. Ironically, Sarbojoya,
Apu’s mother who was very harsh towards Indir Thakurun (Apu’s paternal aunt) had to face the
same fate which had befallen her also. The apparent laughter and gaiety might be, is concealed
under the tragedy and horror but this socio-cultural reality is a significant determiner, because the
mamar-bari as a domestic space, existed under two contrasting ideas- the happiness and sadness,
which was directly proportional to the woman who had a husband or to the woman who was a
widow. The foolishness or the innocence of the child who thinks about the mamar-bari as a place of
pleasure and comfort, ultimately can meet with a subverted reality. The dichotomy of desire and
expectation is thus portrayed through this rhyme- the desire, of being happy; and the expectation,
that the mamar-bari will take up their responsibility, but ultimately it might turn out to be a tragedy.
The social fragmentation finds a space in the fictions where women’s text and narratives
either included or not included takes the shape of orally transmitted culture from one generation to
the other thereby relegating them to a less privileged space. One such narrative is found in the old
Bengali lullaby ‘Khoka Ghumalo’ which is still popular to today’s generation of parents and
grandparents.
It encodes a historical, political and economic situation of the Borgi xx invasion period dated back to
1741-51. People were punished and picked up from villages for not being able to pay the taxes,
something that the grandparents grew up watching. This lullaby probably came about when a
mother was trying to put her child to sleep, spinning a spontaneous string of words and sentences
Lost literatures- rhymes, riddles, with all the variations are now no longer heard.
Middleclass women who were first generation refugees have more records to folkloric literature and
therefore all the orature they carried from their homeland across the border to this part of the
country, they retained and transmitted it to the next generation, or rather to their next to next
generation. The moment, the woman of the house moved out to a greater world of education, there
is a sort of unlearning of the culture, where the traditional culture is supposed to be lower in
pedigree. Bengali refugee re-located in Tripura or Kolkata were not like the upper-class Bengali
women; who had to stay back at home before partition. Those people who were there in the East
Pakistan used to sing Tagore’s song, ride on a carriage, go to the college, got back on the horse and
come back home. They used to wear long sleeved blouses and cotton sarees; typical Tagorian
characters- singing songs, maintaining high lifestyle and reading canonical books.
That paradigm of woman is totally contrasted to the paradigm of woman who emerged after
the partition- the dusky Bangal women who were competing for their space and for their survival,
both in the new city as well as in the working space, that is, offices. As a result of which the Bangal
women were looked down by the so-called West Bengal populace as immoral because they were
staying out of their houses till late working hours; they were competing with the men; they were
economic necessity was the grounding step for the Bengali movement which was gradually taking
its shape. They were also losing their contact with their own roots.
A Bangal woman in East Pakistan before partition, inside a peaceful society had enough
time to go for the Brata-katha and the nursery rhymes. But the moment she had to come out of her
house and fight for her space, she found it difficult to provide recreational time for the family
especially for the kids. The conflict within their memory for their homeland, the conflict for
survival, the ‘gaze’ of being a refugee, the loss of position or rather the Zamindar’sxxi wife who was
having high esteem in the pre-partition state is made to work in the houses of others in the new
place. With this re-location of place, there was a re-location of status, position, name and fame. The
exile from the homeland gets converted to desperate effort to retain their original culture. They thus
tried to adopt the new culture and improvise upon themselves the new cultural lineage through
education, language, custom, and tried to understand the new land. This leads to an anxiety of
belonging to the original culture and home. They thus live in binaries of- us/them, home/foreign,
here/there where nostalgia and memory are looked upon as the reality. They stand at the border of
two cultures, looking perplexed at both, neither assimilating, nor adopting either of them.
Thus, at times they try to identify themselves or rather they try to re-locate themselves by re-
visiting the folktales and folklores. Bengali folk rhymes are anonymous in the sense that once
created they become a part of the social culture. The origin of Bengali folk rhymes is obscure, a
large portion of them are believed to have existed in the ‘sruti-smriti’xxii tradition for several
centuries. The collection of the folklore was aided by the spread of literacy, availability of printing
press, and the alarming feeling of necessity to preserve the oral tradition which was losing its
originality, resulted in the compilation of the folk literature. Classification of the Bengali folk
rhyme is difficult, though an attempt has been made by Rabindranath Tagore, Sukumar Sen,
categories. Following the division, I have categorized the folklores narrated to me by my mother
and few of which I have collected during family gatherings from my grandparents and other family
membersxxiii:
6. Historical rhymes:
Sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni,
Bombs are dropped by the Japani,
Within it is a cobra,
The British exclaimed with terror.
(A)
One, two,
Ek, due,
Where is my book?
Three, four,
Teen, char,
Where is my house?
Five, six,
Panch, choy,
What is he speaking of!
Seven, eight,
Sath, aath,
Will you read the chapters?
Nine, ten,
Nou, dosh,
When love spreads, everyone is bound to
get influenced.
(B)
One moon, shines brightly in the sky;
With two hands, Bulubabu calls the moon to come;
Standing on three legs surprisingly it stands;
With four legs the elephant walks, a fearful sight to watch;
A hand has five fingers, not less in number-
Still once in life work together with everyone;
Six sons of the carpenter go together to chop wood-
Afraid of seven demons, they sigh;
Eight horses neighing runs fast;
Seeing these nine kids started to run;
Darkness spread from all the ten directions.
The rhymes are formulated in a way that the children come to realize the difference between
being-a-boy and being-a-girl. They are nurtured in such a traditional system where they start
relating their position or gender role inside the society through the established signifiers. The values
and meanings associated with the female and male body are socially ascribed to them. These social
differences are somewhere marked inside the Bengali rhyming scheme. The “chabuk” or horsewhip
for the boy child and the “chiruni” or comb for the girl child acts as signifiers of gender objects
where the boy is expected to play with the “chabuk” and thus inherit manliness, on the other hand,
the girl is expected to keep herself neat and tidy so that she looks pretty and “jokkhonni”
(“whenever”xxiv) she will be selected as a bride by her man, she will get married.
The gender roles clearly reflect the space of the boy and the girl inside the society and this is
encoded through the rhymes, which in turn is reflected through the signifiers of gender roles- in
their clothing, mannerism, speech and language which act as signs and in turn determine their
performance accordingly. Ironically, every boy child in the Bangali home is supposed to be a
Krishna or Gopala, the adopted son of Yashoda Maiyya xxv. It is also a harsh reality that the mother
of a male child innately had a sense of pridexxvi which is reflected in the cradle songs. The irony of
Small girls
while playing with doll’s utensils
laugh
and think-
they are running a family like the elders.
On the other hand, learning is made easy through the counting rhymes. Rhyme 7A was
taught to me, by my mother who is a second generation immigrant and has the assimilation of both
the Bongo culture, that is, ‘Ae-par-Bangla’xxvii and ‘Ue-par-Bangla’xxviii, whereas rhyme 7B, has
been narrated to my mother by her grandmother, who expired before the partition and did not
witness the partition, but my mother often claims that she wouldn’t have been so strong to witness
the division, bloodshed, tension and turmoil of her “Sonar Bangla”xxix. The very concept of ‘Ae-par-
Bangla’ and ‘Ue-par-Bangla’ is very dualistic by nature because for my grandmother the concept of
home is non-negotiable. She always has a sense of dislocation, a feeling of rootlessness, a state of
anxiety where her security is rooted in ‘Ae-par-Bangla’ but her comfort zone lies in ‘Ue-par-
Bangla’. The comfort zone is not the space of luxury or material pleasure but the comfort is of the
rooted traditions and cultural assimilation of the place of origin. In the whole process she
accumulated a sense of duality to negotiate with her positioning. She tries to establish an
accommodation balanced between her mental home (‘Ue-par-Bangla’) and her geographical home
(‘Ae-par-Bangla’).
Besides, the partition has definitely been a major reason for the loss of socio-cultural
traditions. With the partition a major change has been noticed in the Bengali marriages of Tripura.
Bangals have different traditional songs for every single event of the marriage ceremony. Now-a-
(A)
Rich looking married moon, show some moves,
Show some dance….
(B)
Leelaboti, Leelaboti,
Oh! Maiden friend,
With what should I decorate you?
generation refugees were complaining about the lost songs and dances which were practiced in
groups before the partition. Separated from the 21st century ‘Ae-par-Bangla’ ’ enjoyment, they
formed their own group recounting the golden period which lies in ‘Ue-par-Bangla’. They spoke of
The myths of the Hindus centre round the epics- ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘Ramayana’. For much
of the early 19thcentury, family recreation was found at home- mostly from listening to songs and
poetry recited in the courtyard. During marriage, families and neighbours used to come together and
share the happy as well as sad moment hand-in-hand. They used to sing song which has reference of
‘Ramayana’. Chandravati, the celebrated 17th century poetess, child of Dvija Banshida of
Mymensigh, the celebrated author of ‘Manasha Mangol’, composed ‘Ramayana’ in verse. Her
songs were sung by the women folk of Bengal during marriages. After partition this culture was lost
by the first generation immigrants due to lack of practice. Dr. Nirmal Das has tried to preserve these
narratives from the first generation immigrants in his book ‘Prasanga: Loksnaskriti o Tripura’. Few
(A)
Oh! Friend, where will I get Krishna
Where will I get Krishna.
When I sleep I dream of
Roaming around along with him.
Where will I get Krishna.
Where will I get Krishna.
(C)
With this cruel black
I won’t play Pasha.
Let the archery-man remain in the forest
They will never realize the value of a woman.
He promised me of a saree
Don’t you remember.
(Friend) Jewellery was also promised of
Don’t you remember.
With this cruel black
I won’t play Pasha anymore.
Neither the songs nor the dances are seen or heard of. The lacking sense of the loss of
traditional songs in the 21st century has been campaigned through a Radio Mirchi ad titled
‘Rudali’xxxi. It depicts how the new generations of Rudali, professional mourners of Rajasthan fail
to mourn due to the influence of the cultural drift. A contrast has been brought, to draw
thedifference between the young and the old; the young generation who are forgetting their culture
Bangals of India where the Bangali Bhai Photaxxxii tradition is getting replaced with Raksha
Bandhanxxxiii. Usually, the bounxxxiv for the safety and well-being of their bhaixxxv, mark the
forehead of their brothers with sandalwood paste while reciting a traditional rhyme:
A significant drift in the tradition is seen, where instead of celebrating Bhai Phota, Bengalis
celebrate Raksha Bandhan. The influence of this is historically rooted which has re-shuffled the
Bengali culture. The tradition of Raksha Bandhan ceremony, where people of opposite religion tied
the ‘dhaga’xxxvion each other’s hand to promote the feeling of brotherhood, togetherness and
unification, was arranged by Rabindranath Tagore, when the British decided to divide Bengal in
1905 on the basis of religion into Muslim and Bengali territory. In 1911, British colonial empire
reversed the partition and unified Bengal, thus making the ceremony successful and instilled in
national consciousness which still exists in ‘Ae-par-Bangla’ ’, even replacing the ‘Ue-par Bangla’
Erosion of Bengali culture is found even in the present days’ proverbs. Proverbs are
popularly used by the common mass and are carried forward to make their acceptance universal.
Proverbs are the shortest expressions of the longest experiences of life. The proverbs deal with the
behaviour of the people and their prevalent lifestyle. With the gradual change in the life style, some
proverbs have either lost their bearing on the contemporary society or they are transformed. Few
(E)Fate is unavoidable.
Strangely, when the Hindus are adopting the proverbs, they are not translating the culture.
They rather adopt the proverb with the culture. Here adaptation of the proverbs from one religious
community into another does not initiate transcultural feelings. The erosion of these cultural
proverbs among Tripura Bangals is perhaps indebted towards the political rule in the state too. With
the demographic change of the state, the post-partition immigrants tried to imbibe the Marxist
ideology. With the Leftist regime in the state for such a long span of time, there is a sublimation of
The multiple natures of history and memory, which have constructed the Tripura Bangla folk
culture, draws upon not one but many sources- from grandmother’s tales to songs transmitted from
balance between the individual and community’s feeling of belongingness; region and nation;
dissolution of the past and the homogeneity of the past, mixing with the present. This is preserved
through literature of transformation- cultural, psychological, social, and political. In the latter half
of the 20th century, it is transformed from the oral space to the textual space (both in written and
virtual form) where organizations, academicians, translators, historians, research scholars are
compiling different art forms that are nearest to the pre-colonial culture one can imagine.
NOTES
*The verses referred in this paper has been narrated to me by my mother Mrs. Ila Roy; and
grandmother, Mrs. Renu Bala Deb (the first generation immigrant); and from my maternal aunties
Mrs. Swarupa Deb and Mrs. Supriti Deb Pal. My grandmother belongs to the first generation
whereas my mother and maternal aunts belong to the second generation. I am especially thankful to
my mother who has always been sharing these nostalgic stories and memories and has narrated
ii. India was declared independent on 15th August 1947 and the result was the partition
iii. On 26th March 1971, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) declared Independence from West
vi. My mother Ila Roy, has always shared her memories of Bangladesh and about her
childhood to me and as I grew up she always tried to culture the inherited traditions inside
me.
vii. The Bengali lullabies referred in this paper have been inherited by me through my family
who are first generation and second generation immigrants. These are part of memory which
has been orally transmitted from one generation to the other. The sources of these lullabies
are traditional.
viii. The conversion of a text from one script to another. In this paper I have used the conversion
ix. The term was given by Russian literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin. Chronotopes are recurring,
structural features of a narrative. Bakhtin showed how every age has its own notion of space
and time, and therefore chronotopes are rooted in their local traditions.
x. The term is used in the English translations of works written by the Russian critic Mikhail
Bakhtin. He refers to a literary mode that subverts and interrogates the established authority
over meaning.
Bhattacharya, Rudranil Ghosh, Kaushik Sen, Saloni Pandey, Saski. (Bengali), 2013.
xix. A Hindu funeral custom where a widow used to burn her body on her husband’s pyre.
xx. The Borgi is the local Bengali name, who were a group of Maratha cavalry, who used to loot
xxi. A zamindar was an aristocrat holding enormous tracts of land and held control over his
peasants.
xxii. In Sanskrit, ‘smriti’ is “that which is remembered” and ‘sruti’ is “that which is heard”.
Based on this tradition the Hindu religious texts were verbally transmitted and remembered
xxiii. I am referring to the grandmothers’ discussions, tales and gossips. They were the first
generation immigrants and during the family gathering they were accompanying my
xxiv. Rhyme 1A
xxvi. Pride of being the mother of a male child was culturally inherited, perhaps because the male
child was expected to be the earning member of the family and to inherit the ancestral
property too.
xxvii. This part of Bengal, the geographical space in which the immigrants are residing since the
1971 partition.
xxx. Though I remember them but unable to refer, as I haven’t recorded the narratives.
xxxii. Bengali Hindu festival celebrated two days after Kali puja, where the sisters pray for the
xxxiii. A Hindu festival which is celebrated in India, to strengthen the love and the sense of duty
WORKS CITED
Bhattacharya, Asutosh. “Folklore of Bengal”, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2007.
Das, Nirmal. “Prasnaga: Loksanskriti o Tripura”, Akshar Press, Tripura, 2007, pp.38-41.
Gupta, Ashes. “The Mystic Mountain: An Anthology of Tripura Bangla Poetry in English”,
2017, pp.151.
http://bengalikidsblog.blogspot.in/2012/10/bengali-lullaby-bangla-chora-gaan-khoka.html.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/music/Hanuman-coms-soundscape-
pays-tribute-to-Moheener-Ghoraguli-makes-a-rap-out-of-Ikir-Mikir/articleshow/26803102.cms.
November 2017.
Misra, Tilottoma. “The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Poetry and
Shahed, Syed. “Bengali Folk Rhymes: An Introduction”, Asian Folklores Studies, Vol. 52,
Gitanjali Roy is an Assistant Professor of English at ICFAI University Tripura. The writer has to her credit a number of
scholarly articles. Her area of interest includes North East Literature, Popular Literature and Digital Literature. She is
Pracheta Bakshi
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to ascertain the emergence and progress of the Bengali
middle class who would play an integral role in determining the ethnographic character of the
Bengali race in pre and post-independence India. It seems the progress has never been a
homogenous process and much like the Marxian “Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis”, it has been a
Key words: orientalism, mythology, nationalism, nation-state, mass, class, race, ethnography,
“It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern writers
stand highest is poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to maintain that
the Arabic and Sanskrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations. But when
we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles
investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no
exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books
philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.”
As can be seen from the above quotation, Macaulay’s intention was to utterly emasculate and
dismantle the linguistic texture of India and Bengal, as well. The infamous jibe of Macaulay at the
“effeminate” and “ childlike” Bengali man ( a strategy ,namely infantilism, adopted by the colonial
masters) is a related case in point. Therefore, the need to educate the Indians in a foreign tongue
and declaring “ What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our
tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of
classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanskrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and
Norman progenitors. In some departments-in history for example-I am certain that it is much less
so.” (ibid)
Interesting to note, that one of the yugpurush of Bengali literature and culture, Bankimchandra
Chattopadhyaya is born , exactly three years after the publication of the “ minutes”. Well versed in
the western language and literature and having worked as a collector under the British regime, he
had derived a novel sense of the literary flavour, eminent in his characterisation and description of
nature, especially showcased in his romances. Except Nababur Bilas (1823) and Alaler Gharer
Dulal (1858), composed respectively by Bhabanicharan Bandopadhyay and Parry Chand Mitra, the
contemporary Bengali prose had become stagnant and superfluously decorative. Bankim with the
launch of the famed periodical Bangadarshan had resuscitated the scene successfully, infusing
Bengali prose with the much needed lucidity and clarity. It is no coincidence that Macaulay’s claim
that Indian literarure can solely be consisted of poetry and verse, was strongly refuted by the rise of
the intellectual, progressive, well-to-do middle class, albeit the “ Comprador” in Calcutta as this
rise coincided with the rise of a revived, prose literature, ushered in by the said periodical
single day’s affair and had taken in remarkable contributions of stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy,
Ishwar Chandra Gupta and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Bankimchandra had infinite faith on the
values imparted by the Indian mythologies –the Puranas and the Vedas and had stressed the need to
combine the ancient wisdom with the upcoming wave of modernity in order to create a national
consciousness. Therefore, the quest to find and define a language that could bridge the gap between
the educated and the uneducated classes—for hindrances like Macaulay would feed upon such
intellectual gaps in order to create a class, utterly detached from his ethnographic concerns, gladly
turning into the “Mimic-man.” Again, a reluctant quotation from the “Minutes”—“In one point I
fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is
impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at
present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we
govern, -a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals
and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to
enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render
them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”
Now, having found his desired medium, there was an endless road for Bankimchandra to traverse
and the political-patriotic war cry “Vandemataram” inspired from Anandamath ( later translated as
Abbey of Bliss) being willy-nilly accepted by the moderate and “secular” Indian National Congress
proves the popularity and connect of the author with the mass. Apart from the romance novellas, if
we would concentrate in his non-fictional works, there seems to be a ceaseless effort on his part to
explain the otherwise misinterpreted contents of the Vedas and the Puranas for the mass. In the
essay “Chatanyabad” he explains that advent of religion and life could both be explained in
scientific terms and that religion, science and life can co-exist. In another gem “Devtatwa and
Hindu dharma”, there are elaborate depictions of the same god/goddess being worshipped in
among this shared repertoire of culture. The Sun-god, the fire-god, the air god, and the water god—
finding that in Lithuania of erstwhile USSR there is a language which has some common sharing
with the ancient Vedic language. Not only that, the god of thunder and rain, namely Perkunas in
Lithuania is surprisingly similar to an ancient Vedic god “Parjanya.” This god is even more ancient
than Indradev and carries the proof of an existing common network of the Aryan race scattered in
It is no surprise, therefore that a periodical like Bangadarshan would attract a budding eleven year
old Rabindranath Tagore who would wait impatiently for the next issue of the periodical! Also,
Tagore gets firmly associated with the periodical when it is resuscitated after more than 20 years of
disappearance with Tagore as its editor in 1901! “Amar Shonar Bangla”, a Rabindrasangeet, later
transformed into the national anthem of Bangladesh was first published in Bangadarshan. .
Not to divert from the original contention of this paper, let us concentrate on a particular prose
piece by Bankimchandra, published for the first time in Bangadarshan, belonging to a collection of
humorous and satirical take on the emergent Bengali comprador class entitled Lokrahasya. The title
of the distinguished piece is “Babu” and as the name implies, he had unleashed his lashes of satire
in a mock-epic tone on the crisis of intellectual fervour and dependency on/ mimicry of the colonial
culture amongst this new born class. This is a class who would be multilingual yet unable to
converse in their mother tongue, would have a weakening intellect yet eager to write, would study
solely so that money could be earned, would worship the fire god in the form of cigar only, would
rise late to miss the sunrise, would enjoy the cacophony of western music etc. To go one step
further, Bankimchandra also assigns them the ten different forms of the mythic “Avatars” –clerk,
teacher, brahma( the newly emerged secular sect who had defied the Sanatan Hindu trajectories),
but not the least “nishkarrma” or a good-for-nothing who does not work. It is obvious that he was
careful enough to include all the functioning fractions of the newly emerged Bengali middle class.
A lot has been said and written about the “anti-nationalist” stance of Tagore, the fear of the
“Bhougolik Opodebota” or the “geopolitical Goblin”, much reflected and celebrated in his seminal
essay “On Nationalism”. However, few has been able to notice that Tagore was talking about
rejecting the Western and mimicked notion of nationalism, comparing the case of India with larger
political powers like the “Socialist China” and “Imperialist Japan”, both of which has
unsuccessfully adopted the western idea of Nationalism and in effect turned them into some
totally aloof from the individuals who constitute the nation-state. Tagore does not fail to recognise
Britain and America to be their role model, integrating the “Banal Nationalism” in their everyday
life (a term coined by Michael Billig in his 1995 work Banal Nationalism., implying the hegemonic
ideological state apparatus used by nation states for identity formation and geopolitics. Say, for
example the Pledge of Allegiance taken by school children in U.S.A. ) Also Tagore warns against
limiting the sense of Nationalism to a particular space /state as it would be a perfect breaking
ground of nihilist and terrorist activities, ironically defying the objectives of a nationalist
framework. Also a multiethnic, multilingual, multiracial and caste ridden subcontinent like India
sadly lacks the racial integrity which, say a country like Switzerland can boast off and therefore can
nd th
against the forced import of the Nation-state in the 2 half of the 19 century. However elusive it
seems, it is for this reason probably, Gandhi had applauded the poet as “an ardent nationalist” in his
obituary comment. When all these were happening in the national canvas, the local/ethnic canvas of
the Bengali “Manasjagat” was shaping and reshaping it furthermore. The comprador class of
and had chosen carefully between the binaries of the “progressive West” and the “regressive East”.
Kenyan crtic Ngugi’s words do ring an ominous and warning bell: (although in the Kenyan context
of the total annihilation of the ethnic language “Gikyu/Kikyu”: “Because of its indeterminate
economic position between the many contending classes, the petty-bourgeoisie develops a
vacillating psychological makeup. Like a chameleon it takes on the colour of the main class with
which it is in the closest touch and sympathy.” (Decolonising the Mind) Without any doubt, the
progress of the Bengali “bhadrolok” middle class too is riddled with this self-doubt, self-negation
Works cited:
Publication, 2015.
----Anandamath
----“Devtattwa o Hindudharma”
----“ Babu”
Abhinaba Chatterjee
How do we associate Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya with the rise of nationalist sensibility in
Bengal? What were the causes that were identified by Bankim for the downfall of Indian (Bengali)
nationalism? How far was the contemporary social situation responsible for the downgraded state of
Bengal? This paper seeks to analyse these questions. In the course of the discussion, it will also
discuss to what extent was Bankim responsible for the advent of Bengali modernity. I propose to
read Bankim as an author who introduced democratic discursive practices but who did not have
conceptual tools that would have enabled him to articulate the key moves that he was making as an
innovator. I take this stand in response to well-known extra-textual facts – specifically, the way
The origins of the Indian nationalist movement, as opposed to sporadic anticolonial peasant
insurgencies, lie in the colonial state. To a large extent, Indian nationalism in its early phases was
the ideology of the indigenous bureaucracy of the Raj. The colonial state apparatus was the
principal avenue for upward mobility and became the principal employer of a new, professional
class of anglicized Indians fulfilling the role assigned to them by Macaulay who had, in 1835,
envisaged a ‘class of interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern - a class of persons
Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.’ In the latter
part of the nineteenth century, it was this class of interpreters who initiated and backed a nationalist
and collaborated with the British in their search for power and privilege (Seal 1968). Established in
1885 by a group of middle-class, upper-caste lawyers, the Indian National Congress (INC) is
largely credited with leading the ‘freedom movement’. Initially, INC demands reflected the narrow
interests of its membership and failed to mobilize the silent vernacular agrarian majority.
A whole new way of living evolved around new Babus and gave rise to what is known as
the "Babu Culture” of Calcutta during the reign of the British Raj. The educated Bengali ‘Babu’ or
th
‘Bhadralok’ that we are referring to is a class that rose in the first half of the 19 century. The
Hindu School, established in 1817 and upgraded to a college in 1825 and brought under direct
Government control led to a massive expansion of English education among Bengalis. Besides
Hindu school, instructions like David Hare Academy, Oriental Seminary School, Metropolitan
Academy, Dharmatala Academy established by Mr. Drummond much before Hindu School,
contributed to this phenomenon. In 1828 Derozeo led to the formation Academic Association.
th
Throughout the 19 century, the middle class intelligentsia evolved through a process of seminars
subject of popular discourse & practice were – European philosophy, rationalism, elocution,
It is very possible that even though we find no specific mention of rakes in the works about the
babus, it was indeed the rakes who were the babus’ models for emulation. There are so many parallels
between the lives of the rakes and the lives of the babus that an exploration of them affords an
interesting, unique, and fruitful study. A criticism made by Gauri Vishwanathan further points in this
direction: “English education came to be criticized for its imitativeness and superficiality and for having
produced an uprooted elite who were …imperfect imitators of the West” (G. Vishwanathan 159). The
babus were indeed an “uprooted elite” who clung to the rakish lifestyle of their models making the rest
of Hindu society afraid of the dangers into which they were bringing
British (G. Vishwanathan 159). Even though it is undoubtedly true that Western education
enlightened many minds, ushered in new ideas, and in some measures was responsible for rooting
out problematic practices, it came to be largely blamed for producing this class of young men
whom the vast majority of Bengalis found threatening to their culture, to their traditions, and to
their religious principles.In “Babu,” Bankimchandra Chatterji writes of the babus: “The English
will be their supreme Gods,” and indeed the babus worshipped, supported, and “blindly imitated the
on his political thought but asserted all the same his independence of them by critiquing them
where they, in his opinion, deserved such criticism. As a philosophy, utilitarianism sought to judge
all actions and policies, particularly governmental, in the light of the ability or utility of such
policies and actions to promote the good of the greatest number of people. Such a philosophy,
Bankimchandra reasoned, was flawed on two counts. First, it was not, ethically speaking, a
foolproof philosophy. The Indian ideal, as laid down in its ancient scriptures, of doing good to all,
‘Sarvebhavantusukhinaesarvesantuniramayae; Sarvebhadraiipauyantu ma
kaucitduekhabhakbhavet. May all be happy; may all be free from disease; may all realize that
which is good; may none be subject to misery’ - was, to Bankimchandra, an infinitely better ideal in
terms of both religion and ethics than that which utilitarianism gave to mankind.
Bankimchandra’s second objection was rooted in the ground reality prevailing in India of his
times. Whatever be the exhortation of English political philosophies such as utilitarianism, the British
government of India, had its own primary interests - such as augmenting its own exchequer - and could
not be expected to go to any great length in doing good to a subject people. It was a better policy,
therefore, for Indians to rely on their own strength in terms of generating national awareness,
their dependence on the government as an agency for promoting general welfare. It was from such a
without constructive work - that was in vogue in India during his time. He detested such politics and
criticized it on the following counts with a view to giving it a more constructive orientation: First,
the prevalent brand of politics was city-centric, mainly confined to a few cities like Calcutta.
Second, it was confined to the upper stratum of society - the city-bred leaders and their followers.
Third, its discourse was conducted in the English language, be it through the press or on the
platform. Fourth, its activities were, more often than not, one-shot affairs, ending either in passing
resolutions in annual sessions and begging the British government for some favour or other or in
writing articles in newspapers mildly chiding the British administration for some omission or
commission on their part. Such politics, far from doing any good to the people actually alienated
them. It widened the gulf between the city and the country, between the educated and the
Bankimchandra’s scorn for the politics of verbosity can be seen in the following passage
from his Kamalakanta: ‘Some think that by droning they will deliver the country - gathering boys
and old men together at meetings they drone at them. … Others again are not given to this - they
take up pen and paper, and drone, week after week, month after month, and day after day.’
What is the alternative to verbosity - ‘mere droning’, as Bankimchandra calls it? The answer
that Bankimchandra gives reveals his attitude to the prevailing brand of politics as also his concept
of nationalism, which he later articulated more fully. To quote Bankimchandra: ‘Let me tell you the
truth … you know neither how to gather honey nor how to sting - you can only drone. There is no
sign of work to go with it - only droning, day and night, like a whining girl. Reduce your verbosity
in speech and writing, and give your mind to some work - then you will prosper.’
By advising his countrymen to ‘gather honey or sting’, Bankimchandra meant to say that
benefit from the foreign government of India. The people of India had to fend for themselves. The
country had to be regenerated and towards that end the kind of effete politics that was in fashion in
those days had to be discarded in favour of a new sense of nationalism and a new brand of politics
Bankimchandra held that Europe came up by virtue of its nationalist fervour and asserted
that India could also be raised if it could be sufficiently charged with nationalism. The problem
with India was that nationalism in its European sense, as the political expression of the
distinctiveness of a people living within a certain geographically defined territory and united by
race, religion, language, tradition, heritage, and culture, was something foreign to her. Neither of
the two essential constituent elements of nationalism - the identification of the individual with the
political community to which he or she belonged and the differentiation of the concerned political
As for the first element, the Aryans of India were originally one single community with
members having an identity of interests with each other. As their number increased and as, in
course of time, they became dispersed all over the multifarious parts of India, they became
differentiated in respect of territories as also in respect of languages and sects which, in turn,
brought about differences in terms of tradition, heritage and culture. With differences on so many
counts being a pronounced fact of life in India, there was no sense of national unity in the sense in
The Indians were deficient in the second constituent element of nationalism as well. They
not only did not have a sense of emotional oneness as members of one single entity, they also failed
to develop a sense of differentiation of interests from the communities that were not Indian. The
European communities that developed as nations were so actuated by their sense of differentiation
from other nations that they were always ready to promote, and often did actually promote, their
for the throats of other nations and promote themselves at the expense of others. They were not
sufficiently hostile to other nations, even to those who invaded their country, occupied it and ruled
over it.
Before the advent of British, we had a psychological and geographical image of one India
but then it was quite loose in its conception. It was loose because of the pluralistic structure of
Indian society. But, at the same time a multilingual, multiracial, multi-religious and multicultural
India had some kind of an integrative framework of a nation governed by dharma. Whether India
followed the polity of confederated republics or monarchical state, it was dharma, the religious,
ethical, social, political, juridical and customary law which governed the life of the people.
Dharma was our ethical, social constitution. The king was only the guardian, executor and
servant of the dharma. It was with the British rule that the idea of a modern-state entered Indian
society but then it was also opposed by many nationalist Indians like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
and others. Bankimbabu would always say that do not forget that the highest dharma is the love of
one’s country. Love of it is not European patriotism, which is an abominable sin. Under the
influence of this pernicious patriotism, the original people of America have been wiped out from
earth. Bankim constructed an idea of a nation based on dharma and explained it in terms of
manusattava and samanjasya , humanity and harmony and turned it into universal humanism. In
other words here in India nation reflects universal humanism. Nation for India is just not a
geographical territory.There were three reasons for this. First, the governing in India had
traditionally been the preserve and special province of the caste of warriors (kshatriyas) and the
other castes had kept aloof from it, with the result that people as a whole never presented a united
front to a foreign invading army. Second, the people of India were not bothered about who ruled so
long as those who ruled did it well. Good governance, and not independence, was what mattered to
them. Third, the religious attitude of the Hindu people of India stood in the way of their cultivating
beings and that the distinction between a foreigner and a native was artificial. To cultivate hatred
towards one just because he hailed from a different land or belonged to a different race was to insult the
God within him. As a result of such a religious attitude, resulting in an inability to differentiate
themselves politically from others, the Indians failed to counter the foreign invading nations. To quote
Bankimchandra, ‘Muslim kings followed Hindu kings, and the people did not object - for the Hindu,
Hindu and Muslim were equal. An English king followed the Muslims, and people did not object…. For
the Hindu had no hatred for the Englishman on the ground of his different race.’
th
During the second half of the 19 century, India witnessed two “rational” developments
that formed the ground of historical novels: the rise of nationalism and the emergence of a new
literary genre called “Upanyas” or novel. The novels showed a deep interest in evoking the past and
The façade of civilising mission which European imperialism used to camouflage its
oppressive brutality necessarily projects the colonial intrusion as beneficial for the colonised.
Foucault's concept of the omnipresence of power may, in this context, be of help to understand the
intricate strategies of subordination European colonialism practiced. In his opinion, power functions
through a net-like organization in which individuals not only become affected by, but are rather
actively instrumental in, its operation. "They are not only its inert…target; they are also the
elements of its articulation. In other words, individuals are like vehicles of power, not its points of
application". (qtd. Gandhi 1998: 14). In the colonial context, individuals become "vehicle" or
agents in the process of colonisation, not so much perhaps when institutionalized coercion is
exercised openly, as when colonialism takes on the guise of the "disinterested purveyor of cultural
enlightenment and reform".(Gandhi, 14) The European discourse on the colonised invariably
presents the latter as uncivilised, irrational, primitive, their culture and customs, degenerate,
barbaric and anti-modern and their history as one of defeat and subjugation. Contrasted sharply to
liberty and prosperity. Complicity on the part of the colonised becomes inevitable as the latter,
convinced of his racial-cultural inferiority allows his culture's alterity to be eroded by Western
hegemony. Such a strategic construction of the 'Orient' thus replicates the hierarchical relations
between the dominant political and economic power and the subordinated colony. Orientalism then
becomes, in Edward Said's words, a cultural means "for dominating, restructuring and having
authority over the Orient" (Said 1995: 88). Said elucidates the term 'Orientalism' as a particular
construction of the colonised world and its culture, which emerged most conspicuously in the era of
Occidental political ascendency beginning from the end of the eighteenth century and helped to
The nationalist historiography of Bengal drew its prime inspiration from Bankimchandra
Chattopadhyay who is regarded as the philosopher and the preceptor of modern Indian nationalism.
He felt aggrieved when he had found that our country’s history was not properly written and India
of the Indians was almost absent from the accounts taught in the schools. Rajendralal Mitra’s
researches had raised high hopes in his mind. But he was disappointed when he had found that
Rajendralal ultimately could not produce a full-fledged history of Bengal. However, the silver
lining was discovered by him behind the dark cloud when Rajkrishna Mukhopadhyay’s Prathama
Śikṣā BāṅgālārItihāsa had been published. He found in it a true picture of Bengali society and
culture for which it was referred to by him as ‘a fistful of gold’. He also appreciated the literary
qualities of Isvarachandra Gupta because, in his literary works on the lives of Bengali rural poets,
he had proved his native quality. However, Bankinchandra Chattopadhyay deeply felt the necessity
A history (proper) of Bengal is needed; otherwise, Bengal has no hope. Who will write?
You will write, I will write and all will write. Let us all search for a (true) history of Bengal
The attitude of Bankim was well demonstrated in several essays published in the
Baṅgadarśan from 1872 to 1882. In his essay ‘Bhāratkalaṃka’ Bankim raised the question why
India had lost her independence. The Europeans criticised the weakness of the Hindus. But, at one
time, the Hindus had conquered Kabul and the English had been defeated by the Marathas and the
Sikhs. So far as the ancient Indians were concerned, it was difficult to know exactly about their
military achievements due to the paucity of historical materials. The history of wars in India as
found in the Greek and Muslim accounts is biased and exaggerated. In spite of that, the military
According to Bankim, the stigma brought on the Hindu character could be explained by two
facts. Firstly, they had no history. Secondly, as they did not make an aggression against their
countries or kingdoms, their military skill was not recognised. Thirdly, their political subjugation -
was the main cause of the slur on the forehead of the nation. Bankim proved that the Indians could
by dint of their military strength expand their political and commercial empire in Southeast Asia.
Hindu kingdoms were established in Champa and Kamboja, Java and Bali. In his essay
‘Bhāratvarṣer Swādhīnatā O Parādhīnatā’ (Bhādra, 1280 BS) drew a comparison between ancient
India and modern India to settle the question of independence and subjugation and determine the
question whether India had her happiness in ancient or modern period. In modern India, “we are not
being educated in the art of administration (rājyarakṣā O rājyapālan) and therefore the nation is not
flourishing. Therefore, it is to be admitted that political dependence arrests the progress.” On the
other hand, under English rule European literature and science spread in India. From that point of
view, foreign rule might prove to be beneficial. However, in ancient India daṇḍanīti or political
science had made remarkable progress. Bankim referred to the dialogue between Nārada and
Yudhiṣṭhira in the Sabhāparvan of the Mahābhārata in which the main principles of daṇḍanīti were
enunciated. Incidentally, Bankim made a significant observation in which he equated the status of
and Peter I.
Nationalist Historiography, not only for Bengal but, of the whole of India. While Mrityunjay
cause of nationalist historiography in the colonial period after having adapted European
methodology of historical writing. The adaptation of Western methodology lay in the logic of
history.
The recreation of past has been an important task for the historians to invigorate nationalism
in their writings. The writing of history stems from the necessity to question the credibility of the
already set history of India written by the British Colonial power and to replace it with a substitute
that includes writing an enormous body of history textbooks and novels to create the cultural and
political self of nationhood. While the historian focuses on the facts, the novelist takes resort to
myths, legends in his recreation of history. Having claimed Rajsingha to be his only historical
novel, Bankim Chandra uses both fact and fiction to recreate the lost glory of the Rajput dynasty.
While he adheres to the larger social and political history, his exploration of the relationships and
enmity between the Rajputs and the Moghuls gives it a special colouring. The distinct historical
phenomena, such as the clash between Rana Rajsingha and the Moghul Emperor Aurangjeb, the
eventual fall of Aurangjeb, have been effectively intermingled with their influence upon the
personal lives of the characters. The greater social and political history coincides with the personal
that happen indoor. According to the accounts of JadunathSarkar, Bankim Chandra relies
exclusively on James Tod’s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan and the accounts of Manuchi and
Bournie for historical information as source texts for laying out the background for Rajsingha.
Though later historians discovered some major deviations in Bankim’s history, his portrayal of the
The background against which the battles are fought between Rajsingha and Aurangjeb is
historically correct. Appended to it are some personal causes of the fictional characters like Nirmal,
Dariyabibi, Chanchal Kumari,Mobarak, which give to the history a human angle in the novel. Such
small bits of appendages help to bring back the characters of the historical figures more vividly.
Chanchal Kumari’s mashing of Aurangjeb’s picture and Aurangjeb’s desire to marry Chanchal
Kumari, Chanchal’s letter to Rajsingha with a plea to save her from the Muslim Emperor and
Rajsingha’s acceptance of this, are events purely fictitious and that work upon the novelist’s
impassioned imaginings of the personal relationships between the individuals as connected to the
broader history. We are aware of the history that taints Aurangjeb’s figure for being a merciless
ruler. In the novel, his unemotional nature is very much akin to history as he imposes “Jijia” tax not
only on his subjects but also on the inhabitants of Rajsingha’s territory. And he flies into a rage as
The Rana remonstrated by letter, in the name of the nation of which he was the head, in a
style of such uncompromising dignity, such lofty yet temperate resolve, so much of soul-
stirring rebuke mingled with a boundless and tolerating benevolence, such elevating excess
of the Divinity with such pure philanthropy, that it may challenge competition with any
But his rough, magnificent personality takes on an unusual tinge when he reveals his heart to
আ ম , .এজ ম য . , ময দ য, ম
ম ম আম ম , এ দ - ম দ এ .
Or এ আ ম ম . ম ম . ম , এ ম আ -
দ . ময .য ম দ , , ময . আম .
The reader now views Aurangjeb not as a despicable Moghul king as described in history
but as an emotional human being, pining for love. Bankim’s imagination brilliantly weaves such
minute details to create a life-like figure of this historically significant personality. The reader is
thus able to see into the other side of the character which is not bereft of the basic human
tendencies. Aurangjeb’s plea for love and Nirmal’s genuine sympathy for him add a human appeal
to the imaginative aspects of the historical novel. The writer testifies to it by saying that Aurangjeb
was no Mark Antony but man can never be heartless. Nirmal Kumari remains steadfast in retaining
her Rajput identity despite Auranjeb’s threats. Such juxtaposition of the non-historical elements
further associates the historically significant characters with the fictional characters more flexibly,
thereby making the history come alive and turning the course of action as consequences of not only
political disputes but also the intricacies of personal relationships in an era of decadence as the
The story of Raj Singha is derived from a short paragraph in Tod's Annals and Antiquities and the
narrative structure of the novel builds up a multilayered saga of Hindu prowess against Muslim
invasion. The princess of Roopnagar, a small state in Rajasthan, writes a letter to the valiant Rana of
Udaipur, Raj Singha, seeking his protection against the lecherous designs of Aurangzeb who had
planned to attack Roopnagar and abduct the princess Chanchal Kumari. In the course of the novel,
however, the idea of preserving the honour of a damsel in distress gets fused with that of resisting
territorial aggression. After Raj Singha's valour thwarts the Emperor's intention of abducting Chanchal
Kumari, Aurangzeb seeks to vent his wrath on all the Hindus residing within his empire. He imposes an
unfair tax called the 'jejeya' on the Hindus, while the Muslims are exempt from it. The Emperor has
been successful in forcing all the provinces of Rajputana, except Udaipur, to agree to pay the tax. The
indomitable Rana of Udaipur, Raj Singha, refused to succumb to the unjust demand and, in
princess, thus, ultimately takes the form of a violent clash over the possession of a territorial space.
incarnation of the motherland as the narrative conflates "sexual assault… with territorial
In this context it is pertinent to note that nationalist iconography often represented the colonised
nation as a feminine figure. In some instances, the nation was imagined as a distressed woman,
plundered by alien invaders and waiting to be avenged by redoubtable native heroes. This image
corresponds perfectly to Bankim's depiction in Raj Singha of the heroic struggle as a means to
protect the endangered chastity of a woman, as well as of Hindu religion and a Hindu state, against
European thought at one level and yet, at the same time, seems to accept that domination at another
(Chatterjee 1986:37). Nationalism takes issue not with modernity itself but with the mode in which
modernity came to the colonies. It seeks not to abolish the main instruments of colonial
‘governmentality’ but to nationalize them. Therefore, the capture of state power soon became the
central nationalist demand, even though the nation was yet to be invented (Gellner 1983) or
imagined (Anderson 1991). The insistent demand for a nation-state represented the urge to establish
an Indian modernity: an indigenous modernity which differed from that of the West (Prakash
1999:201). This explains why, in the Indian case, ‘state power was not seized in a single historical
movement of revolution but through prolonged popular struggle on a moral, political and
ideological level’ (Chandra 1989:220). An Indian modernity took time to be forged in the crucible
of the independence movement. As Bipin Chandra has written, ‘the national movement was the
process through which the Indian people were formed into a nation and a people…it was the
existence of a common oppression by a common enemy and the struggle against it which provided
Both ‘critical modernist’, which sought to christianize Hinduism, and ‘critical traditionalist’,
which sought to defend Hinduism against public encroachments, strands of Brahmo Samaj, are
evident in the writings of Bankim. Partha Chatterjee has seen Bankim’s thought as constituting a
‘moment of departure’ for Indian nationalism (Chatterjee 1986). For Chatterjee, the moment of
departure lies in the encounter of a nationalist consciousness with the framework of knowledge
difference between East and West. The West is characterised by its materiality, exemplified by
science, technology and the never ending quest for progress whilst the East is characterised by
poverty, subjection and spirituality. However, far from regarding spirituality as an impediment to
progress, nationalist thought at the moment of departure asserts that the very superiority of its
culture lies in its spirituality. Indigenous modernity lies in combining the superior material qualities
of western cultures with the spiritual greatness of the East (Chatterjee 1986:50-1). Indeed, Bankim
argued that the materiality of western culture reinforced indigenous spiritual values. Although
Bankim admitted that ‘it was true that there is no scientific proof of the existence of the Trinity’, he
asserted that:
…it must be admitted that in comparison with Christianity, the religion followed by those
great practitioners of science, the European peoples, the Hindu worship of the Trinity is far
more natural and in accordance with scientific theories. The worship of the Trinity may not
be founded in science, but it is not in opposition to it. On the other hand, Mill’s arguments
have shown conclusively that the Christian belief in an omnipotent, omniscient and all
or maya are far more consistent with science. (Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya [1875] in
In other words, Bankim argued that indigenous spiritual values were more modern than those of the
again surpass the achievements of the west. In his novel, Anandamath, ‘English rule’ was seen as
necessary for the cultural regeneration of indigenous culture. It is unclear, however, what
indigenous culture Bankim considered his own: ‘Indian’, Bengali or Hindu. His nationalist anthem,
Bande Mataram, refers to a mother (mata) without specifying her identity and despite which is now
widely considered to be Bengali, despite of its subsequent adoption of the ‘Indian’ national anthem
by the INC. Certainly, Bankim’s later works appeared to carry strong anti-Muslim overtones.
According to Chatterjee, Bankim ‘recognized in Islam a quest for power and glory, but he saw it as
being completely devoid of spiritual or ethnical qualities, a complete antithesis to his ideal religion,
irrational, bigoted, devious, sensual and immoral’ (Chatterjee 1986:77). Although critical of those
Hindu religious practices considered discriminatory, the spirituality celebrated in his later work was
unmistakably a Hindu spirituality and the ‘motherland’ was conceived of in religious terms as a
Hindu ‘nation’.
Bankim’s sense of history comes close to resound Lukacs’ when the latter talks about the
circumstances before the French Revolution and how it has necessitated the need to see history as
something that continually changes and regulates the lives of common people. Bankim’s
painstaking effort highlights each of the characters as they experience the surge of oppositional
violence and feels trapped in it. For example, Jodhpuri Begum, during a conversation with Nirmala,
is highly morbid for having lived as a Hindu wife of a Muslim Baadshah and wants to escape. Their
fate is entwined with what is going on in the larger social and political context. The psychological
as the foundation of the larger history that affects him/her. Bankim thus consciously invites the
present readers to link themselves to their past and re-examine their position in relation to history.
What matters therefore in the historical novel is not the re-telling of great historical events,
should re-experience the social and human motives which led men to think, feel and act just
as they did in historical reality. And it is a law of literary portrayal which first appears
paradoxical, but then quite obvious, that in order to bring out these social and human
motives of behavior, the outwardly insignificant events, the smaller relationships are better
In the exploration of individual psychology, Bankim Chandra excels Walter Scott and
delves deeper into the complexities of human mind. Rajsingha bear instances of his adroitness in
bringing out the complex psychic turmoil inherent in an individual mind. His way of seeing history
through fiction ceases to be a mere representation of facts and allows him to transcend the
limitations that history cannot overcome. It is a world more lively and picturesque and the
characters throb in it with all their innate goodness and idiosyncrasies. The reader undergoes a nail-
biting suspense when Jebunnisa sentences Mobarak, her favourite, to death And to her horror,
Jebunnisa is later exposed to the realization that a shrewd “politician” like her can also fall in love,
“জ - এ দ . দ . দ
আ ম জ য -এ ম জ . দ , ,
য জ . ষ দ , য দ . জ - দ
দ য দ মম য দ . ... দ জ দ ;জ য ,
জ য , দ দ আ দ .”
Bankim’s Rajsingha is vastly different from the other novels in its assimilation of history,
while at the same time invoking a sense of pride in claiming collective (national) identity of the
self. At the same time, it is replete with the passionate love, friendship, jealousy, hatred and enmity
that characterize the theme of his other prominent novels. The romantic flavor is not at all lost here.
large vacuum inside Aurangajeb corresponds to the hollowness of his surroundings and is
synchronized with his tragic downfall. Unlike as also like a historian, Bankim is able to transgress
the historical limitation of factual truths and with fiction makes it a combined whole,, while,
through an introspection of his own location in society, he has brought forth the existence of many
levels of history. Rajsingha is a unique combination of history, aesthetics, poetics and fiction in its
Although Bankim gave a decisive shape to the genre of historical novels, he was, however, not the
sole practitioner of the narrative form. The anti-colonial ethos of the era demanded a spat of
historical novels countering the European version of Indian history. Bankim's younger
contemporary Ramesh Chandra Dutt set his novel Maharashtra Jiban Prabhat (Bangla, 1878)
against the backdrop of the empowerment of the Marathas under Shivaji, and Harinarain Apté,
much inspired by his reading of the histories of the Maurya empire and the Vijaynagar kingdom,
wrote eight historical novels in Marathi. The impulse for reconstructing a valiant Hindu past, thus,
created a countrywide enthusiasm for historical novels. The intimate connection that India's nascent
nationalist struggle shared with this literary genre is rendered perspicuous by M K Naik when he
says -
…the nationalist upsurge had stirred the entire Indian society to the roots to a degree and
on a scale unprecedented earlier, making it acutely conscious of the pressures of the present
in all fields of national life; and it is out of this consciousness that fiction, in Lionel
Trilling's words, 'for our time the most effective agent of the moral imagination' emerges
The burgeoning national identity thus coincides with the emergence of the novel, or more
specifically, the historical novel, evokes a specific past with reference to which the present is
to redefine itself.
Mukherjee rightly observes, is in many ways a reaction to the Englishmen's representation of India as a
weak and defeated nation. In his own journal Bangadarshan, Bankim's exhortation to his readers
expressed his consciousness of the nationalist imperative to revive and reconstruct Indian past. Wittily
The sahebs have written numerous tomes to chronicle our history. The book by Stuart
Saheb is so heavy that you can kill a strong young man by throwing it at him--- and people
like Marshman, Lethbridge and others have made a lot of money by writing smaller
volumes. But do these books contain anything that can be truly called history? (qtd.
The reinvocation of history through the historical novels then impelled the enslaved men to
undertake what Raymond Williams calls, a process of "unlearning" of received ideologies (cited by
Loomba 2008: 60). Books like James Mill's The History of British India (1817) deliberately conjure
up a picture of the misrule and anarchy of the pre-British period, in contrast to which colonial
intrusion and enforcement of British governance would seem beneficial. The historical novels of
the late nineteenth century India were thus motivated to supply a counter-narrative to such
degrading versions of Indian history. In the words of Meenakshi Mukherjee, the "act of excavating
the past was thus seen almost as a moral act for the retrieval of self-respect of a subjugated people"
(Mukherjee 2008: 156), so necessary for the overthrow of Europe's cultural hegemony.
Works Cited
Chandra, Bipin Communalism in Modern India, Har Anand Publications (2015), New
Delhi 1984
Chatterjee Partha Nationalist Thought And the Colonial World, New Delhi:
Gandhi, Leela. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. New Delhi: OUP, 1998
Kaviraj, Sudipta The Unhappy Consciousnes :Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and the Formation
Mukherjee, Meenakshi. Elusive Terrain: Culture and Literary Memory. New Delhi:
OUP,2008
Naik, M.K. A History of Indian English Literature 1982. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 2004
Said, Edward W. 'Orientalism'. The Post-colonial Studies Reader. Ed. Bill Ashcroft et
Viswanathan, G Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India, Columbia
Abhinaba Chatterjee holds an MA from Calcutta University and M.Phil in English literature from
Delhi University. His research interests are postcolonial literature with special reference to
Indian and Australian literature, Translation Studies and Comparative Literature. He works in
Arindam Mukherjee
“Students from the ‘Bhadralok’ families came to believe firmly that there was no poet equal
to Shakespeare and that English literature was the best in the world.”
The two significant factors that led to the uprising of the ‘Bhadralok’ were the immense fortunes
many merchants had made by assisting the East India Company’s trade up the Ganga basin and
western style of education imparted by the colonial masters and the missionaries. This subsequently
brought in “The Bengal Renaissance” which was largely carried out and participated in by the
‘Bhadralok’. Of course, the ‘Brahmo Samaj’ and many such socio-religious organizations were
largely dominated by the ‘Bhadralok’. In order to have this graffito, one needed to inculcate some
western values, to have some continental education, and a sense of astuteness, along with some
enlightenment to appease the colonial masters and thereby secure a favour for job. The ‘Bhadraloks’
were not only influenced by the dress and eating habits of the Englishmen, they were also the
people who reacted most firmly against the western culture and civilization. Even the writers of this
genre criticized and defended westernization in various popular books and journals. The
‘Bhadralok’ first initiated to make Shakespeare a colonial icon in the cultural hegemony rather than
projecting him as the greatest gift of the British Raj. By this time, Shakespeare’s own compatriots
challenged the sanctified image of the bard but it found its echo especially among the ‘Bhadralok
cultural milieu but they shaped and paved the way for new literary trend. Etymologically the words
‘Babu’ and ‘Bhadralok’ were synonymous and meant for individuals of rank and dignity. They
belonged to the upper stratum of the society, particularly the ruling class and it was not until
nineteenth century when this class had emerged as a social category and became more as an
institution in the mid nineteenth century and their asset was education -both oriental and occidental.
These men along with their colonial masters had taken up Shakespeare and used the bard as one of
the planks of edifice of promoting English education in India. They utilized their education and
influence to promote western culture and at times eradicating the dogmas and prejudices that were
The purpose of this study is to shows how the Bengali ‘Bhadralok Babus’ responded
indigenously to Shakespeare. Again, it was the initiative of the English teachers like D. L.
Richardson, H. L. V. Derozio of Hindu College, Charles H. Tawney and J. W. Holme and the
greatest of them H. M. V. Percival of Presidency College, who had instilled in the Indian students a
true love for literature and admiration for the greatest English writer. Derozio with his followers
known as ‘Young Bengal’ brought about a cultural revolution; he even tried to erase many
prejudices of the society. His scholarly yet lucid representation of Shakespeare’s plays, and the
sonnet on Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ acted as an enthusing spirit among his followers. The
opening of the sonnet by Derozio on ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is strikingly remarkable but the ‘Bhadralok
Most of the Bengali ‘Bhadralok Babus’ showed their interests in academic pursuits of
th
Shakespeare or in translating, adapting, and staging of his plays in Bengali in the second half of 19
th
century till the first quarter of the 20 century. Even men like Banquo Behari Dutta, Michael
Madhusudan Dutta, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Toru Duttta,
Haraprasad Shastri, D. L. Roy, Balendranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda who represented the
‘Bhadralok’ class, had taken up their pens to write articles in appreciation of the bard’s multifarious
creativity. However, most of these sketches are sincere and originally conceived, at times
comparing Shakespeare’s works to the oriental classical writer Kalidasa. Bankim Chandra’s
conceives “Kalidasa’s ‘Sakuntala’ as “half Miranda and the other half as Desdemona”, shows his
versatile genius who wielded his magic wand in many branches of literature besides prose fiction.
He is at his best when passing comments he takes us back to Shakespeare, the greatest of the poets,
who also exercised the greatest influence on his own creative works. The most brilliant of these
occurs in the course of his analysis of Bhababhuti’s drama ‘Uttar Ramcharit’. Departing from the
original story, Bhababhuti makes Sita come back to see Ramchandra in the woodland, though as a
“In point of literary excellence this episode is comparable to all that is beautiful
This astute comment shows a profound understanding of Shakespeare. Banquo Behari Dutta
assessed that “both Homer and Shakespeare are praised to a degree almost bordering on idolatry.”
Haraprasd Shastri places Shakespeare above Kalidasa, as Shakespearean characters are more
inner beauty of the soul”. In a letter to his friend Gour Basak, Michael Madhusudan justifies why
the Indians are more romantic than their colonial masters are. On the contrary, the plays of
Shakespeare appear to him, “stern realities of life, lofty passion and heroism of sentiment.” All
th
The study of Shakespeare in the first half of 20 century continued with the same
enthusiasm and the struggle for freedom did not deter the serious learners. It was again the
initiatives taken by the ‘Bhadralok Babus’ to focus on the study of western literature, particularly
Shakespeare in the classes. Schools, colleges and universities like Calcutta and Dacca laid special
emphasis on Shakespeare study and a full paper comprising about twelve plays and all the sonnets
were meant for compulsory study. The pedagogues in these institutions were mostly upper middle
class Bhadraloks and they took up this profession willingly despite receiving meager pay packets.
To this class, teaching and practising medicines were considered the noblest professions and so
many took up these jobs willingly. Since its inception Presidency College had a set of dedicated
teachers like H. M. Percival, Manmohan Ghosh, legendary P. C. Ghosh, Srikumar Banerjee to name
only a few. They taught with so much of competence that interested students even from semi urban
colleges would flock to attend their classes. Rajsahi College also had a rich legacy of Shakespeare
pedagogy as teachers from Presidency College and other government colleges like Hooghly Mohsin
College’ as it was once a French colony) would be transferred on routine basis over there. Some of
the missionary colleges like Scottish Church College, St. Xaviers’ College and even Serampore
College had put in efforts to teach Shakespeare with élan. Therefore, Shakespeare came to rule the
classrooms but by then in stage productions, he trailed behind. Many of the teachers of the
aforementioned colleges came from affluent families to teach; as to the Bhadroloks it was more of
passion than mere profession. Even the babus sent their kids to reputed English schools according
th
Like the previous century, the 20 century also had a galaxy of creative writers and thinkers
who had special interest in Shakespeare. The historians had rightly called the period the epitome of
multifarious creativity and humanism. His sonnet written as a tribute to Shakespeare in 1916 (the
Bengali version written a year before in ‘Balaka’) is still recognized as a brilliant homage, which
appears in Shakespeare’s birthplace inscribed on the bust of Rabindranath. Apart from the penal
task imposed by his tutor of translating ‘Macbeth’, he later on made some fine comments on
Shakespeare’s plays in his literary essay ‘Sahitya’. The expression “jivaner jvar” in “Mrityur Pare”
is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s “life’s fitful fever”. There are other Shakespearean reminiscences
and echoes, direct or indirect, in the literary writings of Tagore, which have been identified.
In the next quarter of the twentieth century (1925-1950), no literal or cultural translation
came out primarily because of the freedom struggle. The non-co-operation movement, the
Swadeshi movement, the non-violent movement and ultimately the Quit India Movement
compelled the Bengali writers to abstain from translating or adapting any of the English plays.
Nevertheless, the love for Shakespeare did not stop at any point of time. However, though there was
a great uproar for boycotting of British goods, the Bengali “Bhadraloks” always responded
passionately to Shakespeare. Translations and adaptations led the way to more of the teaching of
Shakespeare’s plays in the classrooms. Overall, the impression was that Shakespeare needed to be
read in the original everywhere though translations and adaptations of his plays were made to stage
his plays for the common masses. This was done by the initiative of ‘Bhadralok Babus’
The post independent period saw the sprouting of a host of literal translators who were from
the so called Bhadralok’ clan but by that time enormous changes had taken place in Bengal’s social
structure. Mention must be made of names like Nirendranath Roy, Sunil Kumar Chattopadhyay,
Guha. They witnessed great changes in the upstream of the society and in Shakespeare study. Being
a representative of the ‘Bhadralok’ class by dint of education, pedigree and a devout lover of
Shakespeare, Nirendranath Roy translated ‘Macbeth’ in 1952 and later on ‘The Merchant of
Venice’. Hence, it was as successful and faithful as a rendering that the genius of the stage Sisir
Kumar Bhaduri staged it on the Calcutta stage along with young Utpal Dutta. Bhaduri was
immensely impressed with the translation. Sunil Kumar Chattopadhyay had translated four plays of
Shakespeare; two of them comedies, namely ‘The Merchant of Venice’ (1956) and ‘As you like it’
(1958). The Presidency professor and a sincere lover of stage plays, Srikumar Banerjee wrote the
introduction to the latter translation. He admitted that translating a comedy is far more an arduous
task than a tragedy because it requires the pointed and specific words for the expression of wit,
humour, banter and pun, apart from the power of retaining the hilarity of a Shakespearean comedy.
These have diverse ways to express in varied languages and in a comedy; like ‘As You like it’, this
is intense. Srikumar Banerjee admits that Sunil Kumar Chattopadhyay has aptly dealt with the
humorous episodes, witty dialogues, and rhetorical devices in the play and that fits in with the
theme and structure of Shakespeare’s plays quite minutely. Even the translator has shown the fool
Touchstone’s utterances as very much pertinent in the play that enliven the comic spirit. The songs
exquisitely rhymed in Bengali for the readers. Chattopadhyay has not always followed word for
word translation – he has rather followed the cultural translation and in doing so, the translator has
keenly interwoven the dramatic tune with the texture of the play. Kalyanbroto Dutta translated
again ‘The Merchant of Venice’ (1956). Manindranath Dutta’s translation of ‘Macbeth’ in 1956 did
not have that gravity as had been done by his predecessors. Ashok Guha, another distinguished
translator of Shakespeare in Bengali had translated at least ten plays ranging from Romantic
comedy ‘As you like it’ (1959) to the gruesome tragedies like ‘Hamlet’ (1960), ‘Macbeth (1959),
‘King Lear’ (1962) and ‘Henry VIII’ in the same year. In a span of two years, (1959-60)
and Juliet. They made an impact on the ‘Bhadralok Babus’ but some were too fastidious regarding
Sometime afterwards, the Indians noticed the perception of English as the ruler’s language;
hence, the eagerness to spend much time and effort in learning the language was felt mostly by the
Bengali plebeians. They were eager enough to show their talents in reciting Shakespeare, presenting
short scenes of significance and ultimately the learned bhadraloks took the venture to stage full-
scale productions in between 1820 and 1920. Henry Derozio, as a student of Drummond’s
Dhurumtollah Academy started this process. Later on this art of reciting Shakespearean passages
was taken up mostly by the pupils of Hindu College, a few by the students of St. Xavier’s College,
David Hare and Metropolitan academies. Apart from the houses of the aristocratic and
distinguished Bengali ‘babus’,the Hindu College, Town Hall, Oriental Theatre and Jorasanko
Theatre were other places where the excerpts or full plays were staged. He even notices that this
was the first time the plays were being staged outside Calcutta (now Kolkata).
Ananda Lal also mentions the touring companies like ‘Lewis’s Theatre Company’, ‘Maurice E.
Bandman’s Company,’ ‘Henry Dallas’s South African Dramatic Company’ ‘Matheson Lang’s
Company’ and many such companies had come up in quick succession in Calcutta. He notices such
developments in the stage performances and apart from the Anglo-Indian Christians, the majority of the
audiences were the ‘Bhadraloks’. However, the greatest impact was from Geoffrey Kendal’s
‘Shakespeareana’, which is recorded in the book ‘Shakespeare Wallah and its Felicity Kendal’s White
Cargo.’ This company was born out of a travelling troupe for the entertainment of forces during World
War II. Not only did they travel in Calcutta but also they performed at Darjeeling, Asansole and at
Tagore’s Santiniketan. They enacted in the plays like ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ ‘Othello’, ‘Hamlet’,
‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ ‘Macbeth’, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Twelfth Night.’ It is to be noted that
the plays they performed were usually prescribed either in the undergraduate or
approach. However, Lal notices that the first two phases died “natural deaths.” He further observes
that no local British theatrical troupes appeared in Calcutta after the ‘First War of Independence’ in
1857. The companies felt that the ‘Bhadralok Babus’ would abstain from the theatres as the
freedom struggle was at its pinnacle. The rulers of the Raj felt the strain of governing India and the
grueling task of suppressing the rebellion had left no respite for the colonial masters for theatrical
entertainment. The educated Bengali babus started to discard English Language as a medium for
theatre. The acting in Shakespeare’s plays in English, however, continued in and around Gandhiji’s
call for ‘Non-Cooperation Movement’ in 1921, but much before, in 1870s the focus had shifted to
vernacular to exhibit their original dramatic creativity. With the acceleration of the nationalistic
movements since the second decade of the twentieth century, the desire to enact the plays of
Shakespeare in English came to a halt. Now, amateurism led to professionalism in the theatres of
Bengal because of socio political and cultural reasons. This observation of Lal is no new, as his
predecessors in their study of the Bengal’s stage response to Shakespeare had noted before.
Nevertheless, the actors for the original English plays of Shakespeare in the initial stages were
Derozio and his followers. Apart from Derozio’s followers and pupils, the first President of
independent India, Rajendra Prasad, and Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, (one of the greatest thespians of
Bengal after Girish Chandra Ghosh), the famous Bengali linguist and national professor, Suniti
Kumar Chattopadhyay and Srikumar Bandopadhyay, the competent scholar of British Poetry were
the distinguished luminaries who acted in various Shakespearean plays. All of them belonged to the
Lal notes that some of the travelling English companies had enduring effect on the future
theatre workers in Calcutta. The famous actor- manager - director-dramatist Matheson Lang, who
had the privilege to work with Granville-Barker in London, performed in Calcutta in 1911-1912,
influenced many, particularly Sisir Kumar Bhaduri, who became a legendary theatre director
India since the second World War onwards, had admirers like Utpal Dutta, Satya Bandopadhyay
and innumerable others from the ‘Bhadralok’ class. Immediately after independence, as the author
observes, the local production of the plays suddenly stimulated as if the intention was to show that
the Bengalis no longer harbour any ill feeling for the language. Hence, from Lal’s assessment we
can conclude that the English educational institutions and organizations like the British Council
frequently performed in Shakespeare’s plays in English and the performers were mainly college and
university students. Shakespeare once again came to the Bengalis more as a colonial icon.
The ‘Bhadraloks’ were the heart of Calcutta theatre and the Bengali stage, which was
primarily commercial in between 1872 and 1947. When the translated and adapted versions were
not well accepted at the box office, the directors then felt the necessity to “experiment and interpret
Shakespeare indigenously.” The birth of the “group theatre” movement around 1947 advocated
innovative ideas to stage plays that would be received rather enthusiastically by more faithful
translations as the directors had great respect for the venerable bard. Notable actors from Girish
translated versions but that did not appeal to the Bengali audiences, however authentic they might
be in approach. Utpal Dutt with his group theatre dominated the Bengali stage with most of
Shakespeare’s plays in English and Bengali. He apprenticed himself in English, performing Richard
III, Othello, Bottom, Mercutio, Brutus and Malvolio and then did all of them in Bengali except
Richard III and Brutus and then did Shylock, Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Dutt’s ‘Little Theatre
worldwide trends, from the declamatory bombast of the nineteenth and early
century though Western viewers may still reasonably think that our Shakespearean
Thus the members of the ‘Bhadraloks’ class brought in the national movement and freedom
struggle launched in the nineteenth century. Until the mid-twentieth century, the Bengali Bhadralok
class had enjoyed eminence and respect because of their competency in mastering the
administrative, economic, political and educational affairs of Bengal. So Shakespeare had an innate
connection with the ‘Bhadralok Babus’ of Bengal but never did the Muslim league for once initiate
to promote Shakespeare study among the Bengalis nor did any member of the community think of
translating, adapting and staging his plays for the Bengali stage. They showed less of enthusiasm
Books Referred
th
Ahsan, Nazmul. Translation in 19 Century Bengali Theatre. Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1995.
Banerjee, Srikumar (Ed.) and others. Shakespeare Caturtha Janma Satavarsa Smaraka
Basu, Subho and Sikata Banerjee, The Quest For Manhood: Masculine Hinduism and Nation
Bhattacharyya, Tithi. The Sentinels of Culture: Class Education and Colonial Intellectual in
Biswas, Dinesh Chandra. Scepticism in Shakespeare and other Essays (With a foreword by Prof.
Shakespeare’s Treatment of his Sources in the Comedies. Calcutta: Jadavpur University, 1971.
Bose, Amalendu (Ed.) Calcutta Essays on Shakespeare, Calcutta: Calcutta University, 1966.
Chakravorty, Jagannath. The Idea of Revenge in Shakespeare with special references to Hamlet.
--- King Lear: Shakespeare’s Existential Hero.Calcutta; The Shakespeare Society and Avat-
Chaudhuri, Sarbani. Shakespeare and the Discourse of Protest. Calcutta, Sarat Book House, 1998.
on January 1, 2013).
--- Renaissance Themes: Essays Presented to Arun Kumar Das Gupta (Edited
Longman 1965.
Lahri, Krishna Chandra.Pedagogues in Shakespeare; Calcutta, Sri Vijay Krishna Prakashani, 1967.
Lal Ananda and Sukanta Chaudhuri (Ed). Shakespeare On the Calcutta Stage – A Check List.
Mitra, Sanat Kumar. Shakespeare ’O’ Bangla Natak, (Bengali) (Shakespeare and Bengali Drama)
Lecture delivered in Memory of Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, (1978); Kolkata – 9, Pustak Bipani,
1983. Indian National Library, Calcutta.Shakespeare in India; (An exhibition of books and
illustration to celebrate the Fourth Birth Centenary of William Shakespeare), Calcutta, 1964.
Ray. P. C. The Shakespearian Puzzle Endeavours After its Solution, Calcutta, The University
of Calcutta, 1941.
nd
--- Some Aspects of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; with a forward by Harold F. Brooks, 2
Sen Gupta, Subodh Chandra Shakespeare; A Book of Homage. Calcutta, Jadavpur University, 1965.
nd
--- Some Aspects of Shakespeare’s Sonnets; with a forward by Harold F. Brooks, 2
Sen Gupta, Subodh Chandra Shakespeare; A Book of Homage. Calcutta, Jadavpur University, 1965.
Sikdar, Lipika. Shakespeare in the Media. Calcutta, The Shakespeare Society and Avant-
Dr Arindam Mukherjee holds a PhD in English from University of Calcutta and teaches at
Abhishek Chowdhury
While exhibition of films in Calcutta can be dated back to 1896, when one Professor Stevens
screened the Lumiere programmes at Star Theatre, it was only in the first decade of the 20th
century that Bengal had its first indigenous film-maker—Hiralal Sen. Calcutta at the time had a
strong tradition of professional theatre, and theatre houses served as outlets for films. The earliest
screenings were held in theatre houses where films appeared as a double bill attraction alongside
the plays. Influential theatre owners, like for example Amarendra Nath Dutta of Classic Theatre,
encouraged the production of films by allowing Hiralal Sen to photograph his stage productions,
which were then advertised as ‘superfine pictures from our world-renowned plays’ and exhibited.
At the same time, given the Bengali’s natural propensity for topical and newsy items, it is not
surprising that some of India’s first documentaries originated here—of course, in those days these
The journey into early Bengali cinema is hampered by a total lack of source material, with
almost no feature films from the silent era known to exist. In Bengal, a process to establish a norm
for good cinema was already underway. The increasing command of the Bhadralok section over
film production, specifically from the mid-1920s, thus carves the history of the early phase of the
Bengal film industry differently from that of Bombay. Of course, there was Madan (sometimes
spelled ‘Madam’) Theatres, monopolizing film business in Bengal too, but there were producers
and exhibitors such as Globe Theatres and Alliance, who struggled relentlessly to overcome the
difficulties caused by the monopoly (Gooptu 32). As an obvious consequence of this monopolistic
practice, most of the film companies were deprived from acquiring acclaimed American pictures.
This was precisely because the best films of the lot were pre-booked by Madan on a block-basis and
(ibid 35). This feature practically zeroed the possibility of sporadic spread and exhibition of
imported films. Also, in terms of production, almost half of the silent films produced in Bengal till
1934 came from Madan theatres (58 out of a total 119 films) (Sur & Goswami 1-8). However,
contrary to Bombay, the major emphasis of Madan Theatres in Calcutta was to make films based on
literary texts and less on stunt or adventure films. It was precisely the presence of the educated
middle class professionals in filmmaking and other related businesses which made the conditions of
The Bhadralok hegemony over Bengali cultural productions, particularly during the 19th
century, was established through various acts of subordinating folk or other marginal cultural forms
(often termed as Chotolok culture, e.g. the culture of the inferior people) while simultaneously
exploring the newer forms of cultural practices appropriate to the new regime through a careful
imitation of the British and other European colonizers. Since the wake of the 19th century, the
hegemonic presence of the middle class of Calcutta gradually took command of almost all the
major sectors of cultural productions. Bengali literature, largely influenced by modern European
another important sector of creative extravaganza, gradually distanced itself from folk traditions
and underwent a major transformation under the influence of the European proscenium theatre.
Similar changes may also be traced in the fields of other art practices such as painting, music etc.
Even the conservative everydayness of the citizen life had gone through a massive turmoil through
education played an important role in necessitating these changes and forging an early civil society
in Bengal. The historical process testifies that the genesis of the Bhadralok class has its initial roots
in the process of the colonial takeover as they become entirely the product of the process of colonial
a national public sphere censuring the articulation of the popular cultural commodities among the
natives. Bengali cinema, from its early days, has emerged out of this milieu of Bhadralok
nationalism.
newspapers, come as a fascination for the medium (due to its technological splendour) and also as
an attempt to extend the domain of the theatrical arts. The idea of Swadeshi was most powerful in
education and the industry where a significant number of small and medium sized enterprises were
established and educational institutes were opened to spread national education. Thus for
contribution of science and also with a lot of potential to emerge as a significant constituent of
national rejuvenation. And necessarily, such a discourse had to restrict the menace of uncultured,
uncivilized entities into it. The sense of good or moral thus appeared as a matter of modern
rationality, as a means of national enlightenment, which can only be acquired through entering into
a sacred realm of knowledge. A number of early writings on cinema in Bengali periodicals bear the
Marmakatha points emphatically to cinema being embedded within the Bengali intellectual
imaginary, and particularly in terms of a principle of scientific practice, something which already
The other imminent impetus, other than literary and cultural nationalism, which shaped a
particularistic vision for cinema, came from the then existing domain of theatres in Bombay and
Calcutta. Bengali theatre was trying to retrieve the tradition through the medium of proscenium
drama following the model of European theatre. By the mid-19th century, the Bengali theatre
houses had begun to be established and Bengali theatre came to the forefront. The theatrical
conventions of Calcutta nevertheless strengthened the modern literary dominance over the fields of
forms were gradually marginalized. The extensive and explicit experiments with nationalist themes
in Bengali theatre eventually annoyed the British administrators and they introduced the Dramatic
The act however had a farfetched effect not only on the field of performance culture in
India, but also on the field of cinema since till the setting up of the system of censorship in 1918,
the British administration tried to control cinematic exhibition by using the same regulation.
Nevertheless, along with the stage, the periodicals, journals and newspapers play important roles in
developing a sense of popular theatre appreciation in Calcutta and early film culture during the first
decades of twentieth century Calcutta emerges out of this milieu. Initially the promoters of cinema
used to follow the same advertising pattern such as that of the theatres to popularize the medium.
Within a few years, cinema became a centre of attraction by virtue of being a technological
splendour. Following its emergence as an important part of the entertainment culture in the city and
after the filmmakers began filming plays and adapting novels, it gradually became a matter of
discussion in the print media. The establishment of cinema as independent to the medium of theatre
may be noted by its presence in popular journal and newspapers in the form of criticisms,
advertisements, reports etc. Concurrently, the nationalist aesthetic approach, after getting great
attention in other fields of art practices, turned to this immensely potential medium to re-fabricate it
into a nationalist cultural enterprise. Signalled by Phalke during the mid-1920s, the idea of
Swadeshi cinema already started a slow but steady intrusion into the minds of Bengali filmmakers.
Parallel to the domain of the nationalist theatre, a new idea of developing national culture for art
was being strengthened in other spheres of creative practices. In visual arts, new modernist art
schools were set up and a new set of artists emerged with a fresh perspective in their mind. In
addition to that, Tagore‘s idea of nationalism was getting gradual importance among Bengali
intellectuals than that of Gandhi‘s as the basic ideas of Bengali modernity did not find much
and Tagore‘s idea of nation bore that very characteristic. Partha Chatterjee specifies that the
standard form of Bhadralok culture was not merely national, but comparable with the most
advanced international standards that provided the culture of the middle classes with the standard of
legitimacy which made it accepted cultural norms for the entire nationality (Present History 21).
as relevant in this regard. The political scene was volatile when Ganguly entered the world of films.
In 1919, General Dyers had ordered troop-firing upon a peaceful gathering at Jallianwalla Bagh,
Amritsar. Rabindra Nath Tagore returned his knighthood. The British government of India jailed
Mahatma Gandhi, clamped down upon the media and films were subjected to heavy censoring. The
Calcutta Board of Censors denied certificates to 13 of the 49 films up before it, severely cutting the
rest. A lot of things happened in the year 1921. India witnessed the Spanish Flu that wiped out
around 17 million people from the country. This period also came to be known as The Year of The
Great Divide. It was during this year that the Congress boycotted the ‘India visit’ of the Prince of
Wales as part of the Non-Cooperation Movement. While India was going through a major
transformation, Indian cinema too was changing with time! His first venture after forming The
a satirical silent film on the educated Bengali people who blindly aped Western culture and also on
natives who detest everything they found alien to their culture. The address of the office of Indo-
British Film Company was 34 Mohunbagan Lane. And the film studio was built in the farmhouse of
a Marwari businessman at Banhooghly. Then shots were taken in daylight. Famous cameramen like
Nani Sanyal and Jyotish Sarkar also joined the group. P. N. Dutt came as the financier. He was
famously called ‘baltiwala’ [a man who sells buckets], as he had a big factory of buckets.
that Bengali film-makers were trying their hand at the genre of slapstick comedy, a comedy on the
assumed mannerisms and confusion of an England-returned Indian. The film was very successful,
and remains their biggest hit. The term, ‘Bilet Pherat’, a common proverb in Bengal reflected the
ambiguity of this apparently aristocratic and prejudicial concept. The term had both appreciative
and satiric implications. The term ‘Bilet Pherat’ means a doctor of real academic brilliance but in a
derogatory sense one may also use the term to express one’s gross neglect of basic Indian values,
The bare presence of good cinema in Calcutta during the early decades of 20th century attracted
fierce criticism from the then intellectual domain. Barring a few instances, most of the films
artistic value. Their exposure to Western films made them more critical to Indian productions. Their
criticism of Madan Theatre had an additional aspect to it; these films drew heavily from the Parsi
theatre and therefore hardly reflected Bengali culture. Even after Madan turned to literary adaptations,
the critics did not restrain as they found the enterprise itself non-Bengali, thus non-capable of producing
a real aesthetic experience of Bengali modernity. A significant break in this tradition is D.N. Ganguly‘s
Bilet Pherat, in which he practiced a new style with not only Bengali dress and décor as opposed to
Parsi theatre style, but also a basic transformation of popular culture, which entailed eschewing of
excess and a more realistic ethos and greater interiority (Gooptu 53). Dhirendranath Ganguly made his
acting debut in this famous satire contrasting conservative Bengali culture with that of the colonial elite.
In Bombay Chronicle of 20 August 1921, this film was advertised as a story about ‘a young Indian
[who] returns to his native land after a long absence and is so mightily impressed with his foreign
training that, at his parental home, he startles everybody with his exquisite notions of love and
th
slapstick and a number of 19 century performance traditions from Calcutta. A long time in the
making, the film was promoted as the first Bengali film, with a live “all-Bengali” band to
accompany the society.
part of the heroine. In this film, she did not only ride on
chalone bangali prothom mohila ‘Bilet Pherat’ chitre atmaprakash koriben ...” The filmmakers
American films. It was the first love-story which became a great hit.
Bilet Pherat was released in the Russa Theatre (later on Purna Theatre), the only theatre in Calcutta
that was not owned by Madan Theatres. It was a 6 reel film. It was produced under the banner of the
Indo-British Film Company, one of the earliest film production companies owned by the Bengalis –
University of Calcutta and Shantiniketan, the Institution for the study of arts founded by
Rabindranath Tagore, satirized the pro-West attitudes of Indians returning from England as well as
the conservative Indians who wished to stop in-flow of new ideas. In other words, Ganguly, a Hindu
bhadralok himself, criticized fellow bhadraloks for imitating or rejecting western modernity in his
film. Thus, Bilet Pherat, in the words of Indian film scholar Ashish Rajadhyaksha, “reflected the
colonial world-view as seen through the eyes of the city’s bhadralok”. And with this film another
In an article entitled “Bangla chhabir nirbak jug” published in the journal Chitrayan, Pashupati
Chattopadhyay says,
... Madan Company jakhan Mahabharat o Ramayan ashrito pouranik kahinir chitrarup dite
byasto, sei samaye Indo-British Film Company naam diye Madan Companyr Film bibhager
namok ekkhani khanti adhunik mejajer samajik chitra toiri kawren. bohu chestacharitra o
bohudin opekkha korbar pawre Bhabanipurer Russa Theatre e (bartamane Purna Theatre)
chhabiti muktilabh korte samartha hoy 1921 saler 26 February. ei chhabir adhunika
nayikar beshe srimati Sushila sudhu ghoratei chapen ni, motor gari o chaliyechhilen.
The quoted lines show Bilet Ferat to be a modern film against the backdrop of those based on
Puranic tales. And this modernity is concurrent with the modernisation of women as the heroine of
the film comes as a representative of modern women riding horse and driving motor car. This also
shows that a total development of the society is possible only when the women along with their
Yoganana Das’s “Bangiya film shilpa o bharat-darshan” published in the journal Chitralekha says
that Bengali films are not getting audience outside the territory of Bengal due to their provincialism.
... bartamane banglar chitrashilper gati dekhe mone hoy shudhu adhunik bangali jibaner
dike ekantobhabe drishti nibaddha na rekhe ar ektu brihattara kshetre take mukti deoa
dawrkar hoyechhe. itihas, puran, samajtatwa, je dik diyei hok na keno, shudhu banglar
gore tola proyojon. Kayati banglar thakuk kshoti nai antoto chhayati bharatiya haoa
abhinoykoushaler yojona kawra aboshyok jate shudhu bangalir e noy sadharon bharatbasir
akorshon ba interest thakte pare. Bangali gharer meyer sange nabyabanger “England
Returned” kibhabe premalochan kawre se drishya dekhbar garaj Jodi awpor bharatbasir
khub beshi na thake awthoba beshi din dhore tate ras khunje na pay tawbe take bisesh dosh
Here an urge to make films on Indian themes rather than on mere Bengali ones is noted. Here film
as a visual medium comes under the purview of culture and a need to construct a truly ‘Indian’
culture is perceived. Perhaps, this was indeed necessary to construct an indigenous culture in order
to protest against colonial oppression. This critique is more indebted to Gandhian politics of swaraj
To conclude, Bengali Cine industry successfully reaped the harvest of the seed that was sown by
Bibliography:
Anonymous. “Best Silent Movies of Indian Cinema”. 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 20 Sep. 2016.
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Abstract
The Vaidya community of Bengal forms an important component of the Bhadralok Bengali class.
The present article considers the role of Vaidyas in shaping the identity of the Bhadralok class since
its inception. The article discusses the pioneering role played by Vaidya individuals like Ramkamal
Sen and Ishwarchandra Gupta towards bringing a new era which would lead to the so-called Bengal
observed in the various endeavors of the Vaidyas, which paved the way for the spread of
nationalism among the educated Bhadraloks. Then the leading role played by the Vaidyas in the
freedom struggle (notably in the Ognijug) is considered. The achievements of the luminaries (in
different fields) belonging to this caste over the last two centuries are highlighted, and the
Bhadralok features of this caste as a whole is recognized and the reasons behind the visible
Ishwarchandra Gupta, Brahmo, Asiatic Society, Ayurveda, Female education, Gaudiya Samaj,
Landholders’ society, Ognijug, Indian National Congress, Swarajya Party, Communist movement,
Goila, Sonarang, Senhati, Film Society movement, Partition, Census Report 1921.
colonial India. The direction of causality between the Bengal Renaissance and the rise of the
Bhadralok is a bit complicated; one can view the Bhadralok class as the product of the Renaissance
whereas another might be tempted to describe the Bhadralok as the class responsible for ushering in
the said Renaissance. Whatever might be the case, it goes without saying that the Bhadralok
community has been at the centrestage of the Bengali history since colonial times, it has shaped the
socio-cultural structure of the (predominantly urban) present Bengali people, and Bhadraloks have
been pioneers and leaders in the academic discourses at the Pan-India level.
speaking Hindus, viz., Brahmin (Rarhi and Varendra), Vaidya and Kayastha. These three
communities have been the most influential in Bengal since at least the Sena kingdom (if not
earlier). Given their historical socio-economic (and educational) status, it was hardly a surprise that
they were in the forefront among those who interacted with the western people and embraced
western education. Several historical developments soon placed the Bengali Bhadraloks as the
pillars of British establishment in India; they occupied the important administrative posts, and
became teachers, doctors, lawyers and clerks in different provinces of India (it must be reminded
here that this collaborating history notwithstanding, it was the bhadraloks who led the resistance
against the British during the freedom struggle). If one looks at the surnames or the family history
of the said people, one will invariably notice that they belonged to one of the three aforementioned
communities.
Now among the three communities, the case of the Vaidyas deserves special attention as it is
interesting from several considerations. Among the Brahmins and Kayasthas, significant
proportions of caste-members were outside the Bhadralok class. There were Brahmins and
centres of power, who did not change their mode of education and world-view (often to the point of
resisting any such change), and were engaged in professions outside the realm of those pursued by
the Bhadraloks. While there were eminent Brahmin and Kayastha familes who had reaped the best
possible benefit of western education and interactions, there were a lot many for whom life
continued as it did before the Bengal Renaissance came into being. The same cannot be said about
the Vaidyas. The majority of the Vaidya families, including those residing in places distant from
Calcutta, was under the impact of the new developments. Consequently, they did not merely
contribute to the Bhadralok class as individuals, rather the Vaidya community as a whole became a
predominantly ‘Bhadralok community’ (in the sense understood) in nature. This defining
characteristic as a community in effect sets the Vaidya clan apart from all other Bengali-speaking
communities. The present paper aims to look at the historical context of the Vaidyas becoming a
part of the Bhadralok millieu almost en masse, and highlights the considerably prominent
representation of the community in the social, academic, cultural, political and other fields since the
The Vaidyas were traditionally engaged in the study and practice of Ayurveda. The community gave rise
to a galaxy of scholars/authors (not only in Ayurveda but also in other traditional disciplines like
Vyakarana, Nyaya, Sankhya, Jyotisha) and practitioners. The community boasts of leading Ayurvedists
like Chakrapani Dutta, Shangardhar and Shibdas Sen whose texts are considered indispensible by
students/teachers of Ayurveda all over India. Bengal became the most prominent place for Ayurvedic
discourses and treatments due to an unbroken tradition maintained by the Vaidyas since the Pala age and
earlier. The Vaidyas, in general maintained gurukula systems in form of Tols in their houses and
and influential social position in the Bengali society. They were respected like the Brahmin Pundits
and moreover, they did not have to depend on grants (by kings and other authorities) as they used to
take a ‘Dhanvantari bhaaga’ as remuneration (‘dakshina’ for the treatment in the name of Lord
Dhanvantari). In this regard, it must be noted that they have a Saraswat Brahmin heritage as per
their Kulajis (familial texts), although later smritis in effect identified them with Ambasthas having
mixed-Brahmin heritage and placed them at a lower (just next, to be precise) position than the other
Brahmins. They became a community separate from the union of communities designated as
Brahmins, although they continued to follow the Dvija-rituals in varied degree depending upon the
different places of Bengal. The origin of the Bengali Vaidyas and the historical developments
regarding the Brahmin status of the Vaidyas has been discussed by the present author in the article
‘Vaidyas of Bengal’ (Journal of Bengali Studies, Vol. 4, No.2, 2015). At present the Vaidyas (or
in its own right albeit following Yajurvedi or Samavedi Brahmin rituals in religious matters.
The influential position of the Vaidyas in Bengal had another historical reason. The last Hindu
kingdom of Bengal, the Senas were associated to Vaidyas through marital alliances. In fact, the
kulajis of Vaidyas, Brahmins and Kayasthas alike identified the Senas as Vaidyas; but the majority
of modern historians starting from Rajendralal Mitra tend to identify them as Karnataka
Brahmakshatriyas (it must be noted that Brahmakshatriya, a term which defines a Brahmin taking
the duties of Kshatriya, is not incomparable with the Saraswat heritage of Vaidyas). Mitra and
others totally disregarded the prevalent historical notion in the Bengali society that the Senas were
Vaidyas, but the point remains that Vaidyas received great patronage from the Sena kings. Two
poets in King Lakshman Sena’s court, viz., Dhoyi and Umapati, were Vaidyas. The Shura (also
described as Vaidyas in the Vaidya and Brahmin Kulajis) and Sena kings brought a social change
invited from Kolancha by the Shuras) got prominence in the social re-engineering, and a section of
the Vaidyas (who were not directly associated with the Pala kings) was greatly favoured by the
Sena kings. These Vaidyas received land, gifts and other awards from the Senas, and held important
administrative and military posts. It was a period of great prosperity and affluence for the Vaidyas
engaged in Ayurveda and other professions. The Vaidyas resided in selected pockets, many of them
clustering in Bikrampur (the Sena power-centre) and Burdwan-Nadia region. After the Khalji
invasion, a great many of the Vaidya familes migrated to eastern Bengal (Bikrampur, Jessore-
Khulna and elsewhere, as documented by family histories) where the Senas continued to rule.
Consequently, the majority of Vaidyas of present times have their roots in eastern Bengal.
After the end of Sena rule, environment was not conducive for pursuit of traditional knowledge, nor
did the Vaidyas receive the same patronage from the new rulers as the latter had no particular
reason to be fond of the indigenous system of healing. Still, Ayurveda continued to be the most
popular form of medicinal system among common people and Vaidyas did not completely lose
their eminence. Moreover, they held significant amount of land (although none of them ever took
part in agriculture in person), mostly in eastern Bengal (and in places like Bankura which were
ruled by local Hindu kings), which provided economic stability. The independence offered by their
profession allowed them to be not dependent on rulers and their associates (unlike Brahmins who
often had to collaborate with rulers for grants, or Kayasthas who worked as officers in nawabi
courts). Except a few royal physicians, most of the Vaidyas did not have any immediate
collaborating activities. Instead, they were viewed as the representatives of the previous kingdom,
as evident from the popular consideration of the name of Raja Rajballabh Sen as the prime
let us look at a very significant movement where the Vaidyas played a visibly prominent part. It was
the movement which many rightly call as a renaissance for the Bengali society – the Chaitanya
movement. A large number of associates of Chaitanyadeva (himself a disciple of the Vaidya monk
Ishwar puri) were Vaidyas. They were instrumental in bringing significant social (and in certain
instances, political) changes in the inequality-ridden Bengali community and in propagating the
renewed Gaudiya Vaishnavism which had its roots in Sankhya (which incidentally forms an
philosopher-poet Jayadeva in Lakshman Sen’s court). Vaidya centres like Srikhanda (Burdwan) and
Bhajanghat (Nadia) became the meeting places for Vaishnavas from different places to observe
religious festivals and to conduct philosophical discourses. Three members of the 12 influential
associates (Dvadash Gopala) of Nityananda were Vaidyas, while 37 of the main Chaitanya
associates were Vaidyas (according to Biman Bihari Majumdar). Authors/poets like Murari Gupta,
Krishnadasa Kaviraj, Lochan Dasa, Govindadas Kabiraj, Kavi Karnapur and personalities like
Narahari Sarkar Thakur, Ramachandra Kaviraj, Sadashib Kaviraj, Raghunandan Dasa Thakur,
Kanai Thakur, Chiranjib Sen, Mukunda Dutta are some prominent names. The leading role of the
Vaidyas in this renaissance may well have played a part in their defining role in the next
renaissance.
th
Let us briefly have a look at the events which takes us to the watershed of early 19 century. The
battle of Plassey (1757) marked the end of Nawabi rule and established a strong foothold of East
India Company. Raja Rajballabh, who was a samajpati (community-leader) of the Vaidyas as well,
was killed by Mir Qasim (along with the former’s son Raja Krishnadas) at Munger in 1763.
Rajballabh, though not a direct participant in the ‘conspiracy’ against Siraj (there was a Rajballabh
Diwan (which often meant the de facto ruler) of Dhaka and Patna, he was considered a contender of
the throne (alongside Raja Krishnachandra of Nadia) and many argue that this prompted Mir Qasim
to kill Rajballabh. It is important to note that Rajballabh did not only perform several Vedic yagnas,
but he endeavored to organize widow-remarriage for his daughter (a revolutionary attempt at that
th
time), which did not succeed due to some cunning efforts of a jealous Krishnachandra. Late 18
century also saw the demise of the legendary Vaidya poet-philosopher Ramprasad Sen, who had an
unmatched following among the general masses which can be seen even today. In 1770 came the
devastating famine which killed nearly one-third of the Bengali population. The British government
started to gain more control on the Company through Pitt’s India Act and other means.
th
On all account, the beginning of the 19 century was a junction. The old order (both political and
socio-economic) had crumbled; the new was not yet clearly visible. Around this time, a Vaidya
from Garifa (not far from Ramprasad’s Halishahar) set foot in Calcutta, probably in search of job or
a decent English education (which was not easily available these days, Mccauley’s minutes would
come 35 years later). What he did for the remaining part of his life was instrumental in the
formation of a progressive, educated, politically conscious, self-esteemed elite Bhadralok class. His
contribution towards the Bengal renaissance, as we shall see, is no less than Raja Rammohan Roy
(if not more). The person we are talking about is Ramkamal Sen.
Ramkamal is usually remembered as the grandfather of the Brahmo leader Keshabchandra Sen.
However, the crucial endeavors he undertook were central in giving rise to a class which was ready
to interact with the new ideas, views and social order. Speaking of the unproductive period of the
th
early 19 century, Ronaldshay said:
Ramkamal Sen, who welcomed what they perceived to be good in the civilization of the
west for its own sake, and who doubtless believed that a synthesis of all that was best in the
thought and practice of east and west was both desirable and possible”.
In detailed considerations, however, it would appear that the idea of synthesis was more visible in
the works of Ramkamal than Rammohan. Ramkamal had certain reservations against mindless
submission to western practices (and had a nuanced approach when it came to reformations). He
was considered as a bridge between the Rammohan group and the Radhakanta Deb group (the latter
being the conservative and reactionary group). His works made a conscious effort to support the
national interest by using the western views and reformations and at the same time not allowing the
westerners to wreak havoc on the basic nature of his own people. In fact, the Bhadralok class, in
truest sense, was comprised of English-educated gentlemen conscious of their national past (that is
why they took the leading role during the freedom struggle), rather than the aping ‘Baboos’
lampooned by Bankimchandra and others. Ramkamal’s works, as we shall see, paved the way for
After starting to reside in Calcutta, Ramkamal joined the Asiatic Society as a compositor. It must be
reminded that the founder of Asiatic Society, William Jones, mastered Sanskrit and other Indic
texts with the help of a Vaidya Pundit Ramlochan Kavibhushana (at a time when Brahmin pundits
declined to teach the foreigner). With the passage of time, Ramkamal gradually rose to the positions
of Registrar, Accountant, Museum Superintendent, Librarian and Collector. His suggestions as the
collector impressed the authorities so much that he was inducted as the first Indian full-time
member of the Asiatic Society. He went on to become the Native secretary of the society, and
started endeavors towards publishing the Sanskrit and other oriental works on behalf of the society.
Anglo-Indian association where the elite Bengalis can interact with the Europeans. This was a
He was also the joint founder of the Agricultural and Horticultural society, another Anglo-Indian
research institute which contributed a lot towards indigenous production of paper, thus facilitating
the printing of new books. As a member of School book society, he was associated with the
Serampore printing establishment, and translated several books into Bengali. One of his greatest
achievements was to author the 1100-pages long ‘A Dictionary in English and Bengali’ (modeled
after Johnson’s dictionary). J. Marshman described the work as the most valuable work of its kind
and H. H. Wilson praised it for filling up an important chasm in the cultivation of Bengali language
as well as being helpful in wide dissemination of knowledge. Needless to say, this helped the
Probably the most important achievement of Ramkamal was chairing the Gaudadeshiya samaj (also
known as Gaudiya samaj) and forming the Landholder’s society. Gaudiya samaj (1823) was
reportedly the first association of the elite Bengali-speaking Hindus in the European model. In his
inaugural speech as the chairman, Ramkamal reflected the inability of the individual living in
isolation to bring about any benefit to the society, and stressed upon the importance of the educated
and enlightened persons to unite and take steps towards dissemination of education. The members
of samaj were curiously called ‘Gaudadeshiya bhadralokes’ and it had aimed to translate good
books in Bengali, set up a library and scientific laboratory, counter the propaganda of Missionaries
and eradicate social evils among Bengali people. Thus, Ramkamal was the secretary and the driving
force behind this first-ever social organization of its kind which, as clearly seen from the agenda,
had constructive synthesis as its aim. Again, in 1838, Ramkamal, though not a zamindar himself
authorities on behalf of Bengali landholders. Initially named Zamindary sabha and later named
Landholders’ Society, this was described by Theodore Dickens as the “first society for political
objects which has ever been organized by the natives of India with large and liberal views, without
exclusiveness, and with ends and aims of extensive utility”. Indeed, the society, though short-lived,
was in effect the parent of all subsequent political associations in India in the nineteenth century
(including Indian Association and the Indian National Congress); which, in words of Rajendralal
Mitra, gave to the people the first lesson in the art of fighting constitutionally for their rights.
Thus, Ramkamal was the harbinger of the age of socially conscious bhadralok class by leading the
first socio-educational native organization and by forming the first native political association. The
spirit of synthesis was epitomized in his works. He preached against the injurious charakpuja rituals
(despite taking great academic interest in its history) and yet sided with Radhakanta against sati
regulation act (despite describing the sati ritual as horrid, barbaric) as a stance against the British
vociferous critic of Macaulay’s policies (unlike Vidyasagar) and he dissociated himself from the
Asiatic society when he felt that it was losing its oriental nature. The Asiatic society, Fort William
College and Hindu College were the three places where Indians interacted with Europeans, and
Ramkamal was associated with all of them. It is a pity that he did not get an iota of the recognition
which Rammohan (despite not taking active participation in organizational institutes) or Vidyasagar
got, and instead has been wrongly described as a pro-sati conservative. It is time that this man with
unparalleled contributions in creating the bhadralok class be given his proper place in discourses
th
Another Vaidya who shaped the Bengali mind in the 19 century (and of course, for the ages to
come) was Ishwarchandra Gupta, the eminent poet and journalist. Interestingly, he was related to
Ramkamal (Ishwarchandra’s sister Jagadamba Devi was the wife of Ramkamal’s brother) and his
residential place Kanchrapara was near Garifa. Newspapers, needless to say, have been the most
important social media until recently. Ishwarchandra brought out the first Bengali daily newspaper
in 1830, which was indeed a landmark in the history of Bengalis. As an editor, he wrote on various
social, cultural and political issues. He extensively travelled in eastern and western Bengal and
documented many facts including the Wahabi-Farazi influences in eastern Bengal. He was a
pioneer in documentation of literary and oral treasures of Bengal. He published the complete
collection of Ramprasad Sen’s poems/songs and pioneered the study of Kabigaans and Kabiwalas.
Authoring of biographies of Ramprasad and Rajballabh Sen are also of immense historical value.
He mastered the art of prose at a time it was not yet prevalent. Even if we leave aside his poetry (he
remembered for honing a new generation of poets/intellectuals. His impact on the budding poets
was so much that they considered it a privilege to meet him or to get their poems published under
his edition. The literary scene virtually revolved around him and much before the time of Kallol, he
gave birth to a poets’ society of which Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Dinabandhu Mitra and
Dwarakanath Adhikari were the brightest members. His disciple Bankimchandra Chatterjee would
later become the sage of nationalism; while another disciple Dinabandhu Mitra would author
‘Nildarpan’.
Ishwarchandra Gupta
Much like Ramkamal, Ishwarchandra has been misunderstood often by several authors. Like
Ramkamal, Ishwarchandra too aimed at a synthesis of views and wished that Bengalis become a
progressive community not oblivious of its roots. He is sometimes seen as pro-British, while his
prophetically voiced his angst at the English-educated womenfolk running the risk of forgetting
valid concern), which is seen as his antagonistic attitude towards female education; but it is
conveniently forgotten that he advocated for female education all along in Sambad Prabhakar, and
even actively participated in that direction. He was close to Brahmos, but could not agree with their
contempt of popular religious culture (a sentiment later voiced by Bankim). He was against the
Missionaries interfering with the local culture, and opposed Derozio’s disciples (Ramkamal also did
Ishwarchandra Gupta, thus stands out as not only the first journalist-editor, first cultural researcher
of the modern times and the first modern Bengali poet, but also as the guru of two persons who
would have tremendous influence on Bengali literature and (more importantly) Bengali bhadralok
class (as opposed to the west-aping babus who should not be taken as a representative of the
bhadralok class).
When the Brahmo ideal started to gain popularity among the urban educated Bengalis, several Vaidyas
embraced the Brahmoism. The most noted among them, of course, is Ramkamal’s grandson
Keshabchandra. Following the footstep of his grandfather, he initially worked in the Bank of Bengal
and the Asiatic society, and also established educational schools. Spiritually inclined from the
childhood, he was one of the first Indians to have become a mason. He joined Brahmosamaj in 1859 and
his leadership and organizational prowess helped the Brahmosamaj gain great momentum. He was soon
made the Acharya of the samaj. However, he had internal conflicts regarding western and specifically
Christian intrusions in brahmo activities. At times he believed in a brahmo ideal which would be fully
Hindu (Vaishnava) in nature, again sometimes he used to voice the necessity of incorporating Christian
practices. On difference of opinion regarding reforms, he dissociated from the Brahmosamaj and
formed Nababidhan, which reflected the culmination of his spiritual journey. Keshabchandra was
undoubtedly the most important organizer-leader in the history of Brahmo movement, and the
central force in the dynamics of the Brahmo movement. The idea of synthesis was at play in his life
as well. He protested against the Europeanization of India in his ‘Asia’s message to Europe’. He
nurtured a love for Christ, but his speeches would often end with ‘Hari-naam’. He despised idolatry
in the beginning, but was instrumental in making Sriramakrishna popular among the Bhadraloks.
Lastly, the spirit of systematic studies was there in him as well. He selected four Vaidya disciples to
study the four old religions of the world: Gour Govindo Roy (Hinduism), Aghorenath Gupta
(Buddhism), Girish Chandra Sen (Islam) and Pratap Chandra Majumdar (Christianity).
Pratapchandra attended the Parliament of the world religions in Chicago alongside Vivekananda.
Thus, we have three Vaidya personalities spearheading the different fields of activity of a newly
ensured that the land of Ramprasad begets a new lineage of poets. Ramkamal envisaged the need of
unified associations (in a modern outlook) of Bengali elites for political empowerment (which did
not materialize during Rajballabh), and Keshabchandra represented the spiritual inquisition of the
reformist youth.
Curiously, Bankimchandra, born in the same year (1838) as Keshabchandra, had deep respect and
admiration for Keshab, despite being antagonistic to Brahmos in general. Perhaps he observed the
complex religious journey of a contemporary which ended in a sort of homecoming, and it must not
have escaped him that Nababidhan ensured that many Brahmo western-inclined remained in Indic
faith.
Kalinarayan Gupta, Satyananda Dasgupta (editor of Brohmobadi magazine and father of poet
Jibanananda Dash), Chandicharan Sen, and several members of the Dash family of Bikrampur-
Telirbag (C.R. Dash was a scion of this family) were eminent Vaidya leaders involved in Brahmo
movement. Durgamohan Dash from the Telirbag Dash family was an out and out reformist. He
organized sabhas in Calcutta in support of widow remarriages and helped such marriages by
donating money. He even succeeded in arranging a re-marriage of his widowed stepmother which
was a remarkable incident given the times. He himself married the widowed daughter of
Kalinarayan Gupta (who was the mother of Atulprasad Sen). What could not be accomplished by
Raja Rajballabh was finally made possible with the likes of Durgamohan. Durgamohan helped in
In terms of female education, the Vaidyas made significant strides compared to other communities,
female luminaries from the non-Brahmo households as well. Even before the advent of Bengal
renaissance, Anandamoyee Devi (Sen) wrote a collection of poems titled ‘Hari-leela’. Kamini Roy
th
(the daughter of Chandicharan Sen) was perhaps the first recognized female-poet of 19 century. A
teacher of Bethune School and later a professor of Bethune College, Kamini wrote several books
like ‘Alo o Chaya’, ‘Mahashweta’ etc. Fulkumari Gupta (1869) was one of the earliest female
prose-writers, who authored philosophical texts like ‘Srishti rahasya’. Also worth mentioning is
Jibanananda Dash’s mother poetess Kusumkumari Dash (the lines ‘amader deshe hobe sei chhele
An interesting feature of this age of transition is the co-existence of both traditional and (newly
introduced) modern systems of medicine. Vaidyas continued to study, teach and practice Ayurveda
in their ‘tol’s and many eminent Ayurvedic scholars wrote new treatises and notes. At the same
time, Britishers promoted western medicinal system. After the Sasnkrit College was established, a
medical class was introduced for the Vaidya students (only the Brahmin and Vaidya students were
admitted in Sanskrit College until the time of Vidyasagar) of the college. Pandit Khudiram Bisharad
reserved as an exclusive right of the Vaidyas). Ramkamal played a significant role in establishing a
hospital attached to the medical class. The study of western medical texts was started at the behest of J.
Grant. Pandit Madhusudan Gupta taught both Ayurvedic and western medical thoughts in Sanskrit.
However, the Sanskrit medical class was abolished in 1835 due to efforts mainly made by the then
secretary Troyer, who was dismissive of Ayurveda and Sanskrit in general. A new Medical college was
established in 1835 where the medium of instruction was strictly English. Ramkamal, who became the
secretary of Sanskrit college in 1835, was seemingly upset with the abolition of Sanskrit medical class
in the Sanskrit college, as evident from his negative comments regarding the significance of the new
Medical College. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that Ramkamal supported the association formed
by Khudiram Bisharad. Madhusudan Gupta, on the other hand, joined the college as a demonstrator of
surgery and Anatomy. One of his students was Dwarakanath Gupta (styled his surname as Gooptu,
possibly the only instance of a Vaidya surname getting anglicized), who later treated many eminent
personalities and founded Messrs. D. Gooptu and Co. which became one of the most successful
business ventures of British India. With the assistance of Dwarakanath, Pandit Madhusudan Gupta
became the first Indian (in modern times) to dissect a dead body for anatomical study, which marked a
Among the traditional Ayurvedic scholars, the most eminent was Gangadhar Roy (born in 1798),
who is considered as a father figure for the other Kavirajas. He stayed away from Calcutta but soon
rose to eminence as his medical achievements became known all over India. He wrote a new
commentaries on the Mugdobodha vyakarana (written by the legendary scholar Bopdeva, presumed
to a Bengali Vaidya), two epics (‘Lokalok Purushiya’ and ‘durgo-vadha kabya’), and 40 other
Sanskrit books on various topics ranging from Upanishad, Patanjal Yoga, Alankara, to
Smriti had taught more than 5000 students in his lifetime. Gangaprasad Sen and his nephew
Mahamahopadhyay Bijoyratna Sen were famous all over India as well as outside India for their
erudition and skill. Shyamadas Bachaspati was known for his knowledge in Ayurveda, Nyaya and
Vyakarana. As an idealist, he did not hesitate to abolish his ‘tol’ and established Vaidya
Shastrapeeth (as suggested by Deshbandhu C. R. Dash). He virtually spent all his savings for
establishing this college and the institution still stands as a symbol of Ayurvedic pride and as a seat
Luminaries like Mahamahopadhyay Gananath Sen Saraswati, Acharya Jaminibhushan Roy (after
th th
whom the J.B Roy State Ayurvedic College is named) also belonged to the 19 (and early 20 )
century. The Jabakusum oil (a product of C. K. Sen and Co.) became a famous Ayurvedic product,
much like the Messrs. D. Gooptu products. The Kavirajas often updated themselves with recent
findings (something unseen in earlier centuries) and were not antagonistic to English per se. Apart
from Calcutta, Bikrampur, Barishal, Faridpur, Khulna, Rajshahi, Srikhanda, Nirol continued to be
centres of Ayurvedic learning and Kavirajas contributed in Sanskrit literature as well as in other
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traditional disciplines. 19 (and early 20 ) century was indeed the age of revival of Ayurvedic
th
In 19 century, an expanded world-view motivated Bengalis to travel to different corners of the world
(notwithstanding the medieval reservations regarding crossing the sea). Two Vaidya travellers deserve
special mention in this respect. First among them is Raybahadur Saratchandra Dash, an
made two adventurous trips (in 1879 and 1881) to Tibet. He collected a large number of
manuscripts and wrote scholarly books on Buddhism and Tibetan culture as well as travelogues
describing his trips. The second is the globetrotter Chandrashekhar Sen, who travelled extensively
to Europe, Africa, America and other parts of Asia since 1889. He wrote a voluminous travelogue
As said before, the Bengali Bhadralok occupied important administrative posts at that time. Sir
Krishnagobinda Gupta was the first Indian civilian to join government’s Board of revenue. After
heading the Indian Fisheries commission, he went on to become the first Indian member of India
Council. Beharilal Gupta was also an eminent barrister who worked as a magistrate of Calcutta
th
during late 19 century. The third Indian to have joined Indian Civil Service, he was appointed as
the first Indian chief magistrate and coroner of Calcutta in 1872. This took him to a position to
adjudicate matters related to British individuals, something which the Indians were debarred from
doing till then. His appointment and his letter to Ashely Eden in this regard created a controversy.
This ultimately led to the Ilbert bill. Beharilal later worked as a minister in the Baroda kingdom. In
fact, Vaidyas at this time worked in administrative posts in native states as well. Rao Sansarchandra
Sen worked as the third prime minister of Jaipur state (a post previously occupied by Ramkamal’s
son Harimohan Sen) and was awarded the title Rai Bahadur and M.V.O by the British government.
th
Thus, Vaidyas rose to prominence in the various new avenues the 19 century offered. They were
directly involved in moulding the socio-political consciousness, shaped the academic, cultural and
literary ambience, had significant participation in the new religious movements, performed
exceptionally with regards to female education, excelled in the parallel systems of Ayurvedic and
time) and worked as important administrators under British and native governments.
th
If early (and greater part of) 19 century was the period when Bengali bhadralok assisted the
th th
British establishment by various means, then late 19 century and first part of 20 century was
marked by fierce struggle for independence. The Bengali bhadralok by all means led India’s
freedom movement.
The participation of Vaidyas in the glorious Ognijug (the fiery era of violent resistance against the
British aimed at winning complete independence) is very much significant. If one looks at the list of
revolutionaries and martyrs during Ognijug and other periods of armed struggle, then one is bound
to notice that the involvement of Vaidyas is disproportionately large given their miniscule
population compared to other communities (As per the 1921 census, the Vaidya population was
th th
around 1/13 of the Brahmin population and 1/13 of the Kayastha population as well).
Moreover, they were connected with almost all the remarkable acts of resistance that shook the base
of the British establishment and inspired the revolutionaries greatly.
Majumdar). Seeing the impact of papers like ‘Yugantar’, ‘Vandemataram’ etc., and Kingsford
followed the policy of strict suppression. During a court proceeding against Bipin Pal for
Vandemataram, Sushil Sen, a boy of age 14, bravely assaulted an atrocious British sergeant.
Kingsford ordered that Sushil be flogged in public. This infuriated the revolutionaries very much
and it was decided by the Yugantar leaders that Kingsford would be assassinated. At first, the plan
was to send Sushil with Prafulla Chaki to carry out the task; but later Khudiram Bose replaced
Sushil (Sushil was later killed in police firing during a swadeshi robbery). What followed is well-
known. In the Alipore bomb trial, the leaders were saved from the gallows by the arguments put
forward by their lawyer Chittaranjan Dash, who, in words of Aurobindo Ghosh “put away from him
all other thoughts and abandoned all his practice, who sat up half the night day after day for months
and broke his health to save me”. Among the revolutionaries who were sent to exile in Andaman
was Ullaskar Dutta, a prominent leader born in the Vaidya community. Sachin Sen was one of his
associates. The effect of the Alipore Bomb trial did not end with the sentencing. The revolutionaries
wanted to avenge the death of their compatriots. The Britishers and their Indian accomplices were
very much in their target. In 1910, a Vaidya youth named Birendranath Duttagupta killed the
detective Shamsul Alam (who persuaded Naren Gosai to be an approver) inside the Calcutta High
of his associates fought a valiant gunfight with the British forces in Balasore. Among the four
associates were two Vaidyas, Nirendranath Dasgupta and Manoranjan Sengupta. Both of them were
hanged in Balasor jail on 22.11.1915. It is worth noting that Bagha Jatin had several other Vaidya
The glorious trio of Benoy-Badal-Dinesh would live forever in the minds of nationalistic Indians.
Benoy was a member of Sri Sangha, an association led by Major Satya Gupta which formed the
backbone of the organization called Bengal Volunteers. Two Vaidya revolutionaries Badal Gupta
and Dinesh Gupta, together with Benoy created history in 1931 which is known to everyone.
their idol, Dinesh’s disciples planned a series of assassinations including that of the judge Garlick.
Garlick was killed for sentencing Dinesh to death. Earlier, as directed by Shashanka Dasgupta and
others, the young revolutionary Bimal Dasgupta (along with Jyotijiban Ghosh) killed the ruthless
magistrate James with a revolver provided by Manoranjan Sen (Bimal later attempted to murder
British businessman Devilliers). Dinesh, then imprisoned, reportedly took immense pride in this
action by his disciple. In 1931, a leading revolutionary Tarakeshwar Sengupta (along with Santosh
Mitra) was killed in the abominable Hijli firings. The vile act, which was similar to the
Jaliwanwalabagh massacre in nature, infuriated the freedom fighters and they assassinated
magistrate Douglas. The hanging of Dinesh Gupta and the Hijli incident led to the assassination of a
Surya Sen, the hero of the revolutionaries for all the ages to come, was born in a Vaidya family of
Chittagong. He initially took the lesson of armed resistance from Nagen Sen (who had formed the
‘Red Bengal party’). Chittagong armoury raid and Jalalabad war are events which had tremendous
impacts. Pritilata Waddedar, the woman martyr who will remain an inspiration for the all the ages
to come, was also a Vaidya. Several Vaidyas became martyrs in this uprising, such as Nirmal sen
(one of the main associates of Surya Sen), Apurba Sen, Tripuracharan Sen, Debaprasad Gupta,
Nityagopal Sen, Manoranjan Dasgupta, Manoranjan Sen, Jatindra Dasgupta, Rajat Sen, Himangshu
Bimal Sen. Again, there were several Vaidyas among the revolutionaries who were arrested and
sent to jail or exile following this uprising, such as Ananda Gupta, Pannalal Sen, Fakir Sen,
group under a common platform so that further actions can be taken, and it was one Manoranjan
Gupta who took special initiatives in this direction. He was earlier instrumental (along with Arun
Guha and Kiran Mukherjee) in establishing the Saraswati library and Saraswati moth. In 1931,
Manoranjan and other leaders of Yugantar planned to assassinate the infamous Charles Tegart.
With a photograph provided by Manoranjan, a team comprising of Atul Sen, Anujacharan Sengupta
(Atul and Anuja both hailed from Senhati), Dinesh Majumdar and two other revolutionaries
attempted to bomb Tegart’s car. Anuja was killed when the bomb thrown by him had exploded
The representation of Vaidya women in the freedom struggle is another aspect that is worth
mentioning. Apart from Pritilata, another name that is worth mentioning is that of Anubha sen, who
was a rebel leader in the Indian navy; she was sentenced to death in 1944. Banalata Dasgupta (was
imprisoned in Hijli jail), Kamala Dasgupta, Mira Duttagupta all showed great valour as
revolutionaries.
Interestingly, the villages with considerable number of Vaidya population often became the centre
of revolutionary activities. Many Vaidya familes resided in Goila (Barishal), the village associated
with the famous mangalkavya poet Bijoy Gupta. The Vaidyas of Goila and Barishal in general were
involved in revolutionary movements en masse, from their very childhood. Sadat Ali Akhand, an
officer of IB and a sleuth of the British Police, wrote about the revolutionary activities of the
Vaidyas (irrespective of their age) in his autobiography (’13 number Lord Sinha Road’):
" দ । - দ দ । জ আ জ দ - জ
আ ম - । জ । দ ষ ' আ দ
'। এ জ দ দ আ - দ দ ম
- -এ দ । এম দ - দ দ ।আ ম ম দ আ
।"
Similarly, Vaidya villages Sonarang and Senhati acted as centres of anti-raj activities. Judge
Rowlatt mentioned Sonarang 18 times as a hub for terrorist nationalists in his Rowlatt report.
Anushilan leaders like Trailokyanath Chakrabarti used to stay in this village in disguise.
Apart from the Ognijug, Vaidya participation was no less significant in the other streams of
revolutionaries. Chittaranjan Dash was the undisputed leader of Bengali congress workers and was
the political guru of Netaji Subhashchandra Bose. Known as Deshabandhu (friend of the nation), he
will be remembered as probably the most important Bengali statesman and national leader of the
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20 century. Initially associated with Anushilan samiti and famous for his successful role as the
defence lawyer in the Alipore Bomb, Chittaranjan became the president of Indian national congress
and was elected as the first mayor of Calcutta. His differences with the Gandhi faction led him to
form the Swarajya party, which was a very significant landmark in the history of India. He remains
one of the most universally respected personalities to have taken birth in India.
Jatindra Mohan Sengupta (fondly called Deshapriya, i.e., ‘beloved of the nation’ by the
countrymen) was another important Bengali leader of the congress. Like Deshbandhu, he was a
involving Surya Sen and his group. Jatrindra Mohan became the president of the Swarajya party
after Deshabandhu’s death and also served as the president of Bengal provincial congress.
Ambikacharan majumdar, a cousin of Rameshchandra Majumdar, was another Vaidya who served
as the president of Indian National Congress. Kalyanshankar Roy, Kiranshankar Roy also deserve
Regarding the swadeshi and boycott movements, Surendranath Sen (known as ‘first boycotter’) was
the first to put forward the proposal of rejecting foreign goods in a meeting at Kishoregunge in
August 1905 (this was accepted in a bigger meeting in Town hall) and was a leading personality in
the civil disobedience movement. Kabiraj Narendranath Sen led the salt disobedience movement in
Barishal (he and his brother Haripada have been associated with Anushilan samiti as well).
there is one person who deserves to be mentioned for his astounding leadership, it is Satin Sen, the
‘uncrowned king’ of congress in Barishal (in the words of famous historian Tapan Roychowdhury).
An active participant in swadeshi robberies, and a leader of non-cooperation and civil disobedience
movement, he will be remembered forever for the remarkable Patuakhali satyagraha. He had many
Vaidya associates like Sudhir Dasgupta, Nirmal Dasgupta, Kshitish Sengupta, Heeralal Dasgupta,
The battle for independence was undoubtedly the most important aspect of the journey of the
Bhadralok. The contribution of Vaidyas in the freedom struggle merits a separate article. In this
section the present author aimed to put a summary of the vaidya involvements in the different fields
of nationalistic resistence.
Satin Sen
In this section, we will see how Vaidyas have excelled in the different fields of activity in the age of
the bhadralok.
Academic:
The Vaidya community has given birth to a large number of academicians and educationists. The
Roychowdhury, Tapan Roychowdhury and Jatindramohan Roy. Cultural historians like Dinesh Chandra
Sen, Shashi Bhushan Dasgupta; philosophers like Surendranath Dasgupta (author of the monumental
work ‘A History of Indian Philosophy’); scholars like Kshitimohan Sen, Jogendranath Gupta,
Nobel laureate), Amiya Kumar Dasgupta, Partha Dasgupta, Arjun Sengupta, Amlan Dutta (a noted
thinker as well); Physicists like Amal Kumar Roychowdhury (famous for his Roychowdhury equation);
polymaths like Indumadhab Mallick, educationists like Triguna Sen - the list would never end. The
galaxy of scholars goes on to show that the popular perception about the Vaidyas being an intellectual
community does have a factual basis. Scholastic aptitude is perhaps the most important characteristic of
As said before, Vaidyas served in important administrative posts under British government, in
native states and continued to do so in the Independent India. Also, many noted lawyers were born
in this community. The Dash family of Telirbagh gave birth to a number of eminent lawyers.
son-in-law was Ashoke Kumar Sen, who served as the Union Law minister of India. Ashoke’s
brother Sukumar Sen was the first Chief Election Commissioner of India. The community can be
proud of diplomats like Binoy Ranjan Sen, Chandrashekhar Dasgupta (and probably, Ronen Sen)
who served as Indian ambassador to foreign states (US in case of Binoy and Ranen; and EU, China,
Belgium and Luxemburg in case of Chandrashekhar) Another name that is worth mentioning here
Political:
Leading Vaidya statesmen like C.R. Dash, J. M. Sengupta, Ambikacharan Majumdar and Kiran
Shankar Roy have already been mentioned before. Prafulla Chandra Sen, the third chief minister of
West Bengal, was born in a Vaidya family in Senhati. The fifth chief minister Siddhartha Shankar
Roy, who served as Indian ambassador to US, was the grandson of C.R.Dash. The Vaidya presence
in the communist leadership is very much visible. From noted parliamentarians and orators like
Indrajit Gupta and Bhupesh Gupta to prominent political leaders and organizers like Gurudas
Dasgupta, Pramod Dasgupta, Sailen Dasgupta, Manikuntala Sen, Kanak Mukhopadhyay (nee
Dasgupta) and Asim Dasgupta, Vaidyas can be said to have led and dominated the communist
movement. Many Bengali revolutionaries had turned communists under complex historical
developments, and inclination towards Marxism (and left-leaning views) has been one of the
important characteristics of the western-educated Bhadralok class (in both academic and political
th
level) in the 20 century. Vaidya participation in this regard is quite significant.
Vaidyas usually held the title Kaviraja (literally meaning ‘king of the poets’) in Bengal.
Interestingly, a great number of poets in the age of bhadralok came from the Vaidya caste. Starting
from Ishwarchandra Gupta, stalwarts like Nabinchandra Sen (his reinterpretation of Mahabharata in
his three-volume epic was a path-breaking work which influenced Michael Madhusudan and later
poets), Mohitlal Majumdar, Kalidas Roy, Kumudranjan Mallick, Atulprasad Sen, Rajanikanta Sen,
Kamini Roy, Jibanananda Dash, Samar Sen, Jatindranath Sengupta, Samarendra Sengupta,
Jibanananda in particular had a unique appeal in the Bhadralok mind with his special style of
writing, which maintains a rootedness in its seemingly universalistic flavour. In prose, Achintya
Kumar Sengupta, Jagadish Gupta, Ashapurna Devi (pioneer in feminist literature), Hemendra
Kumar Roy and Nihar Ranjan Gupta (the last two being masters of the crime story genre which
th
grew extremely popular in 20 century) deserve special mention.
Kalidas Roy )
Vaidyas made significant contributions in religious literature as well. Sri ‘M’ (Mahendranath
Gupta) probably authored the most important text in the religious history of the present Bengalis –
mentioning. Aurobindo’s ideals were profoundly discussed by Nalinikanta Gupta in his writings.
Starting from Ishwarchandra Gupta’s Sangbad Prabhakar and Narendranath Sen’s Indian Mirror,
Vaidyas have made important contributions in the arena of journalism and publishing as well. C.R.
Dash started a newspaper named Forward (later renamed as Liberty), and he edited a monthly
nationalistic journal called Narayana. Many eminent writers and leaders wrote in Narayana and
soon it had a great impact. Another journal that deserves a special mention is Samakalin. Edited by
Anandagopal Sengupta, this journal published some of the best academic articles by noted scholars
for three decades. Regarding news jouranalism, Barun Sengupta, Ashok Dasgupta, Kanchan Gupta
and Swapan Dasgupta are some of the eminent names belonging to the Vaidya caste. Barun
Sengupta’s Bartaman and Ashok Dasgupta’s Aajkal have been two of the top three Bengali daily
newspapers in recent times. Both Bartaman and Aajkal are leading publishing houses as well. D.K.
Cinema, as we know, is not merely a form of entertainment for the Bhadralok class. It is a mode of
intellectual and artistic expression and a medium of voicing opinions regarding different socio-
political issues. Same applies for theatre as well. Now Indian cinema owes its origin to a Vaidya
named Hiralal Sen. He is yet to get the undisputed formal recognition as the first Indian film-maker,
however there are strong arguments in his favour (one may see the article ‘The deprived
Technologist: Hiralal Sen and Bioscope’ by Sourav Gupta in Vol 2. No.2, Journal of Bengali
Studies) that establishes his ‘Alibaba’ as the First full-length Indian film and his documentary of the
In any case, Bengali films began with him. Later, we had two prominent Vaidya directors in form
of Bimal Roy and Asit Sen; both of them directed some of the most popular and acclaimed films of
A turning point in the history of Indian cinema was the formation of ‘Calcutta Film Society’ by
Satyajit Roy (he had Vaidya maternal lineage), Chidananda Dasgupta, Harisadhan Dasgupta,
Radhaprasad Gupta and others. It was the first society of Indian feature-film makers, and it brought
a revolution in the film-making scene by introducing the budding directors and cine-goers to
International films being made all around the world. This society had important contributions in
film studies, organizing different film-festivals, and to some extent, changing the taste of movie-
watchers which had its positive and negative impacts. Chidananda’s daughter Aparna and
Buddhadeb Dasgupta are acclaimed film-makers. Another name which must be mentioned here is
Ramananda Sengupta, the eminent cinematographer who worked with Jean Renoir and in many
Bengali films.
Coming to theatres, noted playwrights like Salil Sen (his ‘Natun Ihudi’ showcased the plight of the
Hindu refugees in a partitioned India), Shyamal Sen and directors and thespians like Shobha Sen,
the academic/intellectual and cultural arena. If one looks at the activities and various fields of
discussion at the Coffee house (Indian Coffee house, situated in a building which was earlier the
residence of Keshabchandra Sen, at one time served as the meeting place of several noted
intellectuals; Kumarprasad Mukherjee wrote about the bright Vaidya intellectuals in such ‘addas’);
one will find that in some way or other, Vaidyas have made fundamental contributions in all such
fields. Also, the almost uniform Vaidya inclinations towards intellectual pursuits and a Bhadralok
way of life, establishes that the community itself has been Bhadralok in nature.
Conclusion
It is indeed intriguing to find the predominantly Bhadralok and urban nature of a community.
Various factors might have been at play here. Firstly, Vaidyas were traditionally ahead of other
communities (including Brahmin and Kayasthas) in terms of education. This became more
superintendent observes in the census report of 1921 (Vol V, Part 1, page 295) that:
The Baidyas… are a much smaller caste, than either the Brahmans or the Kayasthas, who
together with them make up what are commonly called the Bhadralok of Bengal, but they
have advanced further in education and in civilization generally than the other two and have
prospered accordingly… Practically all Baidya males have had the opportunity of acquiring
Baidyas. More than half the Baidya males over five understand English and this caste has a
long lead over the Brahamans and Kayasthas among whom the proportion is only a little
over quarter.
As a result, it was easier for Vaidyas to embrace modern Science, modern education and
progressive world-views. However, it must be noted that the idea of synthesis was always at play in
case of the Vaidyas, and they generally stayed rooted to their identity. It is worth noting that there
not a single member of the Young Bengal (Derozio’s disciples) was a Vaidya, we do not come
across any outright west-aping convert among the Vaidyas either. Mindless aping was not exactly
Secondly, female education was much more prevalent among the Vaidyas. The census of 1921
observes
“In the matter of female education the Baidyas are far the advance of any other community.
The Baidyas have five times as great a proportion of their females literate in English as the
Female education invariably leads to a more progressive ambience, and in turn improves the overall
state of education thus leading to greater prosperity. Indeed, the number of female participants in
freedom struggle and academia is more in case of the Vaidyas due to the said reason.
probability, there was never a Vaidya farmer, nor a Vaidya small-scale businessman, artisan or
grocer (forget about professions involving harder manual labours). They have been physicians,
scholars, astrologers, landholders, army-chiefs, administrators, clerks, (later) lawyers and cashiers
(in rare cases). Since they were always in respectable positions, it was necessary for them to mould
themselves as the new elites. The aspirations possibly came from another consideration. They were
associated with the Sena kings and Rajballabh Sena (arguably the most important Hindu leader
during the fall of Siraj), something they always took pride in. This might have inspired them to
occupy a befitting position in the restructured and newly empowered nascent Hindu elite section.
Fourthly, they were much less in number compared to Brahmins and Kayasthas (1921 census
informs that at that time there were only 1 lakh Vaidyas compared to 13 lakh Brahmins and 13 lakh
Kayasthas). Through marital relations, through maintenance of Kulajis and through societal
gatherings organized by Vaidya samajpatis, the Vaidya familes were often acquainted to each other.
The achievement of an individual inspired the others belonging to the clan (often to the point of
creating undue pressures; it is jokingly said that a Vaidya student is excommunicated if he/she fails
in a school examination). Also, the communal spirit has always been in action among the Vaidyas.
The readiness to help a fellow-caste member always leads to prosperity and one need not resort to
nepotism to help a fellow-member. Anyway, this acquaintances and fellow-feeling can explain an
apparent uniformity (of inclinations, taste and living standard) which moulded the whole Vaidya
community in a Bhadralok shape. But still it cannot explain the birth of so many intelligent and
resided In Calcutta and Dhaka, the two main centres of enlightenment. After the partition, majority
This made the Vaidyas a predominantly urban community, and consequently, almost singularly a
Bhadralok community (it must be stated here that this became possible since Kolkata is essentially
It is worth noting that in terms of female education, the families that had to bear the brunt of
partition were ahead than the families unaffected by partition. The change in economic conditions
following the partition also had complex effects on the earlier affluent Vaidya landowner families.
Whatever might have been the reasons, the role of Vaidyas in ushering in the Bengal renaissance,
and in different defining socio-cultural-academic movements in the age of Bhadralok should be the
topic of serious academic studies. The contributions of Ramkamal and Ishwarchandra (Gupta) are
sadly overlooked, although they are no less than those of Rammohan and Ishwarchandra
(Vidyasagar). The curious case of the existence of a (almost) uniformly ‘Bhadralok’ community
leading the various spheres is not given due considerations either. Now-a-days, Bengalis are often
heard lamenting about a steady cultural decline and a general paucity of talents; and they look
forward towards another renaissance. To this end also, the study of the history and the various
aspects of the age of ‘Bhadralok’ is imperative; and the journey of the Vaidya ‘Bhadralok’ is a very
Akhand, Sadat Ali, Tero number Lord Sinha Road, Mitra o Ghosh Publishers
Private Limited.
Gupta, Sourav, The deprived Technologist: Hiralal Sen and Bioscope, in Journal of
Kopf, David, The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind,
Mitra, Subal Chandra (ed.), Saral Bangala Abhidhan, New Bengal Press Private limited.
1918), Routledge.
Ray, Pradyot Kumar, Dewan Ramcomul Sen and His Times, Modern Book Agency
Private Limited.
Sen, Prafulla Nath, Sonarang – the village that we lost, retrieved from
https://www.scribd.com/document/47650235/SONARANG
Singha, Ananta, Chattagram Yuba Bidroha (Vol 1 and 2), Radical impression
Wilson, H.H, Ramcomul Sen’s Bengali Dictionary, Asiatic Journal and Monthly
Bhadralok
Tamal Guha
If the twentieth century of the Gregorian calendar can be earmarked as the Age of Bhadralok as far
as Bengal is concerned, one of the prominent bhadraloks who strode across that century was the
bilingual writer Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri (23 November 1897 – 01 August 1999). This article
offers a verbal sketch of the centenarian's life, highlighting those aspects which appear to have
Nirad C. Chaudhuri was born in Kishorganj, a small town of eastern Bengal now in Bangladesh.
The second son in a family of eight children, he made his father anxious about his worldly
prospects. The senior Chaudhuri used to say, “I have no anxiety for my other sons, but Nirad is
utterly unfit to go through the world.” (Thy Hand, Great Anarch! India: 1921 - 1952 xxi) Most of
Nirad’s siblings became well placed in society — his elder brother was a High Court advocate, the
brother immediately after Nirad was a paediatric doctor, the next brother was a civil engineer and
the sisters were wealthy homemakers. In stark contrast to their socially successful lives, Nirad
became an accounts clerk, a journal editor, a private secretary and a news writer at different points
Nirad Chaudhuri and his siblings had received the best education which their parents could afford.
the decisive years in my understanding of the fundamental principles of the English language.” (The
Autobiography of an Unknown Indian 140) After their linguistic roots had been planted at home, the
Chaudhuri siblings were sent to schools for further studies. They were also placed under tutors at
home. However, boy Nirad grew dissatisfied with the low standard of his English textbooks and
read up those of his elder brother. His learning of this language is of particular interest to us because
After completing middle-school in his home town, Nirad Chaudhuri was sent to Calcutta (now Kolkata)
for high school. The World War I (1914 – 1918) was raging at the time and he followed the news of the
war out of personal curiosity. He was surprised to find, however, that the gravity of the situation was
not being conveyed by its official communication. Chaudhuri happened to discover that the
communiqués through the media tried to downplay the reverses suffered by the Britain-led Allied
Forces. This surprise finding taught him the necessity of forming his own opinions, independent of
others. He writes, “So I would not accept an opinion simply because it was
a product of the times.” (Thy Hand xxvii) It was perhaps the genesis of his self-opinionated persona.
After finishing his schooling, Nirad Chaudhuri studied Arts with History Honours in Calcutta's Scottish
Church College. Out of personal interest, he also read literature in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, English,
Greek, Latin, French and German! The result of his wide reading was that, in the examination for
Bachelor of Arts, he stood first in the First Class. Despite such an excellent result, it turned out to be his
last examination ever. As his reading habits kept growing, he could not confine himself to the limited
syllabus of an examination any more. Consequently, he dropped out of the course for Master of Arts in
no one could become a university teacher without the MA degree.” (Thy Hand 4)
After dropping out of the MA course, Nirad Chaudhuri managed to get a clerical job. It was in the
government’s Military Accounts Department and it revived his earlier interest in matters military.
He started working well and was recommended for a promotional examination. In the study leave of
two months, however, he did not prepare for the test but read up Matthew Arnold’s poetry instead.
The Scholar Gypsy inspired him to “leave the world, with powers / Fresh, undiverted to the world
without, / Firm to their mark, not spent on other things; / Free from the sick fatigue, the languid
doubt, / Which much to have tried, in much been baffled, brings”. The poem’s spirit dissuaded
Chaudhuri from pursuing careerist goals rather than scholarly ideals. He decided not to take the
promotional examination because it would tempt him towards careerism and away from
scholasticism.
After declining promotion avenues in the job, Nirad Chaudhuri started to dislike government
service itself. Ironically, he disliked anti-government agitations too. While he did not like
government service because of its monotony, his dislike for anti-government agitations was because
of their coercion. During a strike protesting the visit of the then Prince of Wales, who was later
crowned as King Edward VIII, Chaudhuri saw that some of the protestors held whips in hand. They
forced other Indians to join the strike. Chaudhuri resented such bullying so much that he jumped
their barricades and narrowly escaped being roughed up. He writes, “All my life I have resented
and defied any attempt at coercing me.” (Thy Hand 19) The more he got agitated by such incidents,
the more he wanted an escape to a scholastic idyll. He penned an article in literary criticism and
published it in The Modern Review, an English magazine with all-India circulation. Soon thereafter,
painstaking nature was the trip he made from Benares to Sarnath in 1926. He walked the distance of
eight miles in the hot sun instead of taking a more comfortable mode of transport in order to
vicariously experience a historical journey. He explained, “I recalled that pilgrims had come from
far-off China on foot to visit the place of origin of their religion, and I thought it would be
sacrilegious softness if I went to Sarnath in a horse-drawn carriage.” (Thy Hand 185) Chaudhuri’s
meticulous scholarship was seen in the originality of his observations too. One of his observations
was on the comparative artistry of the sculptures at Sarnath and those at Puri. He noticed that the
beauty of the former was puritanical while that of the latter was sexual. Another original
observation of his was regarding the anatomy of the sculpted figurines. He found that the figurines,
For all the places Nirad Chaudhuri could not visit, he had to rely on books. They became his
“mental nourishment” and buying expensive books became a habit. (Thy Hand 193) He was forced
to buy them on credit though, because he was jobless. Consequently, he had to escape the creditors,
for which he used to lock himself inside his house. Such humiliation ended only when his
booksellers and landlord were paid their dues by his father. Nonetheless, Nirad justified taking
credit or borrowing money on the ground that he was too pre-occupied to earn a living. In his
pursuit of knowledge, he was like the holy mendicants who get so involved in meditation that they
To take a break from this difficult situation, Nirad Chaudhuri went to his hometown in eastern
Bengal for a short trip. It turned out be his last visit there. After coming back to Calcutta in early
where there was no looking east. In Chaudhuri’s words, “My life has always moved West, and once
it has done so its direction has never been reversed.” (Thy Hand 683)
Back in Calcutta, Nirad Chaudhuri started editing a monthly journal on literary polemics. This job
was closer to his heart than his first one, clerkship, was. However, the city police found some article
in his journal to be obscene and summoned him to their headquarters. Though he was let off as a
bhadralok, it is ironical that a fledgling anti-nationalist like him should have been harassed by the
Calcutta Police which was otherwise notorious for harassing nationalists. Subsequently, Chaudhuri
quit the journal because of a policy disagreement with one of its founders. He proved his editorial
worth, nonetheless, as an editor by helping new writer Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyaya publish the
After resigning his editor’s job in late 1928, Nirad Chaudhuri got another. He became an assistant
editor of The Modern Review, the magazine which had published his maiden article. At that time,
he came under the pan-Indian influence of Gandhi and broke the infamous Salt Act at a marsh of
eastern Calcutta. He also supplemented one issue of his magazine with a picture pull-out of sixteen
pages on the inspirational Dandi March. In Chaudhuri’s words, “For the first and last time I became
a Gandhian.” (Thy Hand 251) This issue, dated May 1930, was so anti-colonial that it was
proscribed by the British government. Around the same time, two of his younger brothers served
six months of simple imprisonment for shouting Vande Mataram [Hail Mother] at street corners.
With a modest job in hand, Nirad Chaudhuri decided to get married. Having failed to choose his
spouse himself, he wedded a girl – Amiya Dhar - chosen for him by his father. His eccentricity,
asked his wife, “Have you listened to any European music?” (Thy Hand 351) The college-educated
bride replied in the negative but could spell music composer Beethoven’s name correctly. It
reassured the Anglophile groom that his partner was not totally ignorant about Western culture!
Nirad Chaudhuri’s wedded life took off precariously. Chaudhuri left The Modern Review for
another publication as its editor. That publication wound up within a few months due to its owner’s
indifference and, consequently, Chaudhuri lost the job. The resulting crisis was made even more
acute by the fact that he already had two children – Dhruva and Kirti – by then. Regarding his
pecuniary status, Chaudhuri writes figuratively, “It was like being on a raft after being shipwrecked,
and drifting on the off-chance of being picked up by a ship.” (Thy Hand 364)
Nirad Chaudhuri’s saviour ship appeared in the form of Calcutta Municipal Corporation. He got a
temporary job there. However, it was not only a breather but also an eye opener for him. He was
shocked to see the corruption and nepotism in the civic body. It was at this stage that he formed his
personal theories about India’s past, present and future which he propagated for the rest of his life.
Nirad Chaudhuri lost the temporary job at Calcutta Corporation in 1936. Then, he had to take up three
part-time assignments simultaneously for his financial survival. He became a part-time literary assistant
to the Sheriff of Calcutta, a part-time private secretary to the President of the Bengal Pradesh Congress
Committee and a free-lance commentator at All India Radio. The last two jobs were particularly
significant for him. As a radio commentator, he wrote on international affairs, thereby widening his
was privy to the goings on within the Indian National Congress. He had the rare opportunity of
greenroom behind the lighted stage, and the actors without the makeup as well as with its
application.” (Thy Hand 434) Familiarity with them bred contempt in him. The years were deeply
disappointing, his only ray of hope being the birth of his third and youngest child - Prithvi.
Nirad Chaudhuri’s temper was as short as his height. The short temper showed itself in bouts of
physical aggression. Once he gave his doctor brother a blow for insulting him about his joblessness.
He also kicked a young man down a staircase for accusing him of taking bribes as private secretary.
In yet another incident, he beat a young writer in the face with a slipper for calling him a “servant”
in the house of the Congress leader. (Thy Hand 574) Unlike a bhadralok, he declared his intention
of fighting fellow Bengalis in case they tried to lynch him for his anti-Bengali utterances!
Nirad Chaudhuri subsequently left Bengal for Delhi, never to return to his home state again. This
was the second step in his life’s westward journey. In Delhi, he joined All India Radio’s News
Division as a script-writer and his brief was to write English commentaries on international issues
like the raging World War II (1939 – 1945). After moving to Delhi, he did two things for the first
time in his life — he wore European clothes and he studied Islamic architecture. Having seen the
imperialism, which I had known only in theory from my reading of Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian,
As British imperialism withdrew from India and the newly-created Pakistan, ferocious riots broke
out in the sub-continent. Nirad Chaudhuri was so unsettled by those massacres of 1947 that he
could not appreciate India’s independence. Weeks after Independence Day, he spotted Hindu men
stomach had been ripped open by a Muslim tonga driver. A couple of days later, he helped a
Muslim man whose whole back had been “cut up and covered with blood which was congealing
like jelly”. (Thy Hand 847) Another day, he saw murdered corpses on a hospital footpath and at a
railway station. A friend told him how a Muslim boy in Calcutta was forcibly drowned in a pond by
Hindu men. An unknown man was found tied to an electric pole, with a hole made in his skull so
that he would bleed to death. In still another incident, Chaudhuri’s brother tried in vain to prevent
the murder of a poor old Muslim fruit-seller in his locality. Chaudhuri could never forget these
Partition and independence made 1947 a landmark year in the history of the Indian sub-continent. The
year was a turning point in the life of Nirad Chaudhuri as well. On a midsummer night, he got the idea
of writing an autobiography in order to “write the history you have passed through and seen
enacted before your eyes”. (Thy Hand 868) It was a bizarre idea because autobiographies are
generally written by famous people whereas he was yet to be so. Nevertheless, he started writing it
the next morning. When he mailed the half-finished typescript to British publisher Hamish
Hamilton for an advance opinion, the response from the latter was encouraging.
After it was completed, however, the manuscript was rejected by Hamilton. Other well
known publishers like Faber and Faber refused it too. Macmillan, another British publisher, finally
critic John C. Squire. After that, ironically, the autobiographer did not remain unknown any more.
The book was acclaimed and declaimed with equal vigour. For instance, writer Anita Desai
appreciated it because of “its almost unique achievement in charting the development of a complex
edition of The Autobiography) On the other hand, many readers denounced the book because of its
pro-colonial remarks. In any case, the book is strange in many ways. For one, it covers only the first
twenty-three years of the autobiographer’s life although he was already fifty-three years old. A
second oddity of the autobiography is that it is not wholly autobiographical, but partly historical. In
this part-autobiographical, part-historical book, he considered the British Empire in India as more a
regenerative era than an exploitative one. He felt that Britain had sped up rather than slowed down
India’s social and material progress. Hence, he took it upon himself to express the ‘gratitude’ on
behalf of all Indians. As an expression of that peculiar gratitude, Chaudhuri dedicated his book to
the memory of British imperialism. The only grudge he nursed against imperialism was that it did
not give us British citizenship. That highly controversial dedication, which Khushwant Singh later
To which yet
Because
Within us
Not only literary criticism, Nirad Chaudhuri also faced professional reprobation due to his book.
Soon after the book was published, All India Radio (AIR) reprimanded him on a procedural matter.
Then, the organisation compelled him to retire from service at the age of fifty-five without gratuity
and other termination benefits. Chaudhuri was blacklisted as an external broadcaster too, ignoring
his experience of fifteen years in the field. The premature retirement hit Nirad Chaudhuri where it
hurts the most — finances. No offer was forthcoming, either from Indians or even from the British.
In this situation, the French came to Chaudhuri’s rescue. The French Ambassador in India offered
him the editorship of the embassy’s English bulletin. “What I could see was that he respected my
literary ability,” wrote Chaudhuri, “and also deeply appreciated the love of France and French
It took another two years for the British establishment to acknowledge Nirad Chaudhuri. In 1955,
the British Broadcasting Corporation offered him a sponsored trip to England in exchange for a
series of talks on that country. “This, I was told, was an experiment,” writes Chaudhuri, “and a very
risky one it was, for they were backing a completely dark horse.” (A Passage vii) Nevertheless, he
took up the offer and visited England for the first time ever at the age of fifty-seven. It was his
maiden visit to Europe but he could still give road directions to taxi drivers, so detailed had been his
knowledge of the famous cities of the continent. Chaudhuri’s radio talks and some related articles
were later published as his second book, A Passage to England (1959). The title of this lone
travelogue by Chaudhuri was in imitation of A Passage to India (1924), a novel by Edward Morgan
Forster. Chaudhuri’s book contains his impressions of England during a trip of five weeks. It turned
out to be the first book by an Indian author to appear on the bestseller lists of England. One of the
travelogue’s anecdotes throws fresh light on Indo-British issues. It is about Chaudhuri’s reaction to
Chaudhuri did not suspect any racism in that remark. He corrected the boy instead, as if the latter
When I came near him he began to rise slowly on his knees, and while still half
kneeling raised his arm, pointed a finger at me, and cried out in his sharp treble,
‘You’re from Africa!’ This was the moment for me to scream ‘Colour prejudice!’
and send a bitter letter to one of our newspapers, for there is nothing a Hindu resents
more than being taken for a negro by a white man. But I shouted back, ‘No, from
India!’ The boy dropped on the grass and kept his eyes fixed on it. (A Passage 125)
Nirad Chaudhuri’s third book, The Continent of Circe – Being an Essay on the Peoples of India
(1965), was on India. Its main title, “The Continent of Circe”, refers to Homer’s Odyssey. In that
epic, Circe was the name of a sorceress with a magic drink which transformed Ulysses’ men into
swine. Chaudhuri’s title implies that the sub-continent of India was possessed by Circe and that the
British imperialists had been transformed into porcine creatures. Another noticeable aspect of the
book is its sub-title. It refers to the people of India as “Peoples of India”. This highlights their
plurality instead of singularity, their heterogeneity rather than homogeneity. It seems that Chaudhuri
did not find much unity in India’s diversity, and hence, the different communities of India are
discussed separately in the book. As a strange example of negative secularism, Chaudhuri writes ill
of each of them! He thinks of the middle and lower class Hindus as double-faced, upper middle
class Hindus as the dominant community, Muslims as a false minority, Christians as a hybrid
community, and Parsis and Sikhs as foreign and political communities respectively. Chaudhuri also
accuses the ancient Aryans of a superiority complex against their contemporary indigenes. He
claims that their mentality was as poor as that of the British against Indians. He equates the Aryans
political criticism won the Alfred Duff-Cooper Memorial Prize, a prize given to the year’s best
work in English or French in the areas of history, political science or biography. Chaudhuri made
his second trip to Britain, this time to receive the coveted prize.
Nirad Chaudhuri wrote a fourth book in English, The Intellectual in India (1967), before publishing
his first ever Bengali work. In The Intellectual, Chaudhuri attributes social reformer Rammohun
Roy’s intellect to western liberalism. He argues that Roy could realize the need for social reform
due to his occidental learning. Thereafter, Chaudhuri goes on to detail other influences of western
thought. He says that while ancient and mediaeval India had been inspired by Hindu and Muslim
that the prose form was largely unknown to Indian languages in the pre-British ages. According to
him, prose was a gift from European literature and it spread like water hyacinth in the stagnant pool
of Indian expression. As prose swamped the literary scene, Indians outgrew their liking for
Prose was created for the first time in all the literary languages, which had so far
embodied all their creation in poetry. Genres of European literature — fiction, short-
story and novel, essays, literary criticism — were all introduced and acclimatized,
and its readers gradually lost all taste for writings of the traditional type. (The
Intellectual 11)
It is interesting that in Bengali, Chaudhuri wrote his name differently from that in English. While in
English he initialized his middle name and signed as “Nirad C. Chaudhuri”, in Bengali he used his
full name and signed as “Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri”. This minor difference could, perhaps, have
Indologist Friedrich Max Muller’s documents in the University of Oxford. It was the final step of
his life’s west-bound journey and was made possible by a rich Cambridge sociologist, Professor
Edward Albert Shils, who gave him a handsome loan at the time. Regarding the help he received
from different people, Chaudhuri wrote, “This outside help came to me unsolicited, given freely to
me by some of my countrymen but mostly by individual Englishmen, all of whom perhaps saw
something in me which was worth supporting.” (Thy Hand xi) Thenceforth, the Chaudhuri couple
After Nirad Chaudhuri settled in Britain, he taught at the American universities of Texas and
Chicago as a visiting professor. For somebody who could not be a professor in India because of
inadequate qualification, it must have been a dream come true. He also became the subject of a
documentary film, Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization (1972), directed by James
Ivory of Merchant-Ivory Productions. The film’s title was taken from a chapter in Chaudhuri’s A
Passage to England. Chaudhuri’s conceit was that he was in England to show Englishmen “how
their fathers dressed, how their fathers ate and drank and how their fathers wrote English.” (The
Nirad Chaudhuri’s first book from Britain was a biography of a famous Indology scholar, Max
Mueller. Titled Scholar Extraordinary – The Life of Professor the Right Honourable Friedrich Max
Muller, P.C. (1974), the book won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 as the year’s best work in
Indian English. The book was on European Indologist Friedrich Max Muller, describing his
Although Muller was vastly knowledgeable about India’s past and warmly affectionate about her
present, Chaudhuri points out that he was not very confident about India’s future.
Nirad Chaudhuri’s second, and last, biography was Clive of India – A Political and Psychological
Essay (1975). The main title, “Clive of India”, is confusing because Clive was not of India but of
England. In fact, he was an Englishman who defeated an Indian nawab in the decisive Battle of
Plassey. The book’s sub-title, “A Political and Psychological Essay”, clears that confusion — it
indicates that the book is not strictly historical. One weird feature of the biography is the way it
defends Lord Clive against charges of corruption. Clive had been accused of corruption by other
Englishmen and taken to court. While the courts acquitted Clive due to lack of evidence, Chaudhuri
defends him by a mere technicality. He writes, “The acceptance of gifts was not contrary to the
There would have been one more biography by Nirad Chaudhuri had he accepted an offer by
Jacqueline Onassis, the widow of former American President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Chaudhuri
declined to write a biography of her second husband, the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
Refusing such a high-society offer was an act of intellectual arrogance by Chaudhuri. He also
publicly refuted a remark of British politician Norman Beresford Tebbit. The latter had suggested
that love of cricket was the acid test of English patriotism. Chaudhuri, however, wrote back that the
love of Kenneth Grahame’s novel The Wind in the Willows (1908), Stilton cheese and the opera
Nirad Chaudhuri wrote four more books in English, apart from a number of essays. One of these
books was his autobiography’s sequel, Thy Hand, Great Anarch! India: 1921 – 1952 (1987). The
autobiography holds a record of sorts. The main title “Thy Hand, Great Anarch!” is extracted from
Pope’s mock-epic The Dunciad (1728). That eighteenth century satire ends with the couplet: “Thy
hand! great Anarch! lets the curtain fall / And universal darkness buries all.” Obviously,
Chaudhuri’s title implies that India fell to anarchy and plunged into darkness during the period 1921
– 1952. Most Indians, on the contrary, believe that the period was the one when India’s nationalist
movement grew from maturity to fruition. The reason for Chaudhuri’s unconventional take in this
regard is complex. He had been so shocked by the wrongdoings of average Indian politicians that he
refused to understand the righteousness of their professed nationalism. The hypocrisy and
corruption of Indians, which he saw aplenty, did not allow him to be an enthusiast of pro-Indian
nationalism. For instance, he had seen random malpractices at Calcutta’s municipal corporation. It
was the only organisation under Indian control in the first half of the twentieth century, and
consequently, without British supervision. The absence of British control emboldened the presence
of Indian corruption, according to Chaudhuri. As he saw power corrupting Indians, he feared that
absolute power would corrupt us absolutely. Thus, he felt that India would be ruled worse by
I anticipated that transfer of political power to Indians would make the Indian people victims
became opposed to the idea, and said to myself in the words of the cliché that India in that
I saw that happening in Bengal and in all the other provinces of India in 1937 with the
introduction of provincial autonomy by the British Act of 1935, and after 1947 I saw that
(1997). It was written at the age of ninety-eight. In his words, “I have never read or heard of any
author, however great or productive in his heyday, doing that.” (Three Horsemen Preface)
An academic achievement of Nirad Chaudhuri was that even without a post-graduate degree, he
received two post-doctoral degrees from the universities of Oxford and of Stirling. At the Oxford
ceremony for conferring a honorary Doctor of Letters degree, the Public Orator said, “The eminent
Bengali whom I now present is thoroughly versed both in English and European poetry and has
interpreted Indian society and customs to us with great intellectual ability, illuminating incidentally
several aspects of our society.” (translated from Latin) In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II made Chaudhuri
In a fortunate turn of events, Nirad Chaudhuri was forgiven by India’s intelligentsia. The Visva-
Bharati university at Santiniketan bestowed on him its highest honour, the Desikottama. President
K. R. Narayanan expressed a wish that Chaudhuri’s “sharp intellect and scintillating pen continue to
enthrall and instruct the world.” (‘Nirad felicitated’ The Indian Express 22 November 1997) Prime
Minister Inder Kumar Gujral greeted him on his centennial birthday. Chaudhuri, the quintessential
BIBLIOGRAPHY
— Clive of India - A Political and Psychological Essay. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1975.
1965.
— Culture in the Vanity Bag - Clothing and Adornment in Passing and Abiding India.
— East is East and West is West. Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1996.
— Scholar Extraordinary - The Life of Professor the Right Honourable Friedrich Max Muller, P.C.
— Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.
— Thy Hand, Great Anarch! India: 1921 — 1952. London: Chatto & Windus, 1987.
— To Live or Not to Live! - An Essay on Living Happily with Others. Orient Paperbacks, 1970.
Chaudhuri, Nirad Chandra. Aji Hote Shatabarsha Aage. Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt.
Ltd., 1999.
— Amar Desh, Amar Shatak. Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1996.
— Atmaghati Bangali. Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1988.
— Atmaghati Rabindranath. Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1992.
— Bangali Jibone Ramani Kolkata: Mitra & Ghosh Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1968.
Dr Tamal Guha did his MA from Calcutta University and PhD from Goa University. He is Associate
Professor and Head of Department of English, Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala, Kerala.
Paracharitcharcha
Ayon Halder
Paracharitacharcha’ minutely dealt with the cultural heritage of Barisal which was the part of
undivided Bengal along with his early days of studentship in Calcutta during the hey days of 1940s.
Those articles which were serially published in ‘Desh Patrika’ during 1992 were collected to give
the shape of a book that shatters the boundary of several genres altogether. Though the book
author himself dismisses anything as such at the outset. Roychaudhury picks up several events that
somehow still haunts him while he remembers those almost after half a century later and frames a
narrative in which humour reigns supreme all the way. The fact that he does never make an attempt
to write an autobiography is quite evident as the word ‘paracharitacharcha’ in the title unveils his
intentions straightway. His effort in this regard was particularly limited to the careful observation of
the cultural lineage of a place from the point of view of an author who is primarily a historian.
Interestingly enough, he indirectly refers to the long drawn tradition of Bengali life-writing that
flourishes during the nineteenth century in the colonial city of Calcutta when eminent figures like
Debendranath Tagore, Sivanath Sastri, Vidyasagar and several others engages themselves with
autobiographical form had almost no tradition in India and tended to be the preserve of the famous,
only two other Indians of the era, Nehru and Gandhi, had tried it with any success” he completely
writes off the whole gamut of the literary history during Bengal Renaissance. Tapan
unjustified comments made by a European. However, Roychaudhury distances himself from falling
back on any autobiographical project as he turns towards the lived space of a habitus by focusing on
the public sphere in general. In this way the humorous details in this book never turns out to be the
romantic ruminations of an author who maintained the stance of a detached observer with critical
insights. At times nostalgia comes into play in the memoir but it hardly affects the tone set by the
author at the very beginning. This book delineates the social life of Barisal and the then Calcutta via
the medium of a polished portrayal of both the rural and the city-life of contemporary Bengal. In
this way it comes perilously close to the form of a literary sketch that was the familiar form of
literary expression in colonial Calcutta. The readers in their close reading of the text do not really
miss those basic tenets of a literary sketch in Roychaudhury’s book. The experiment with language,
the presence of an omniscient narrator and the quintessential tone of satire that characterise a sketch
are also to a large extent the part of this book as well. As a literary sketch like Hootum Pyanchar
Roychaudhury’s book also subverts the notions of a fixed discipline and anticipates the birth of
literary anthropology. The self-reflexive prose narrative which is replete with factual details is in
fact an ethnological study carried out by the author himself with a purposefully satiric intent
without any pungent attack as such. The anthropological study has been an important part of the
discursive strategy that the author adopts in the text which is largely based on self-mockery.
Literary sketch has always been symptomatic of counterfactual contestations which problematize
arguments accounts for an interesting reading altogether. The era which the author desired to depict was
tinged with cross-currents at the ideological level during the fag end of colonial modernity. Both Barisal
and Calcutta that happen to be the space inextricably linked up to the discursive strategy of the text kept
on encouraging the author to be engaged in this ethnological survey along with a spatial representation.
Roychaudhury alludes to his feudal ancestry in the text without taking pride his lineage in any way. On
the contrary he maintains a critical stance towards his ancestors by critically evaluating the feudal
system of Bengal. As a historian he intends to look into the material forces that operate within the
rigidly structured colonial society. In his book the specific objective of the author is to explore how
textual space can also be produced within a literary artefact in the Bengali vernacular. The author
experiments with the form of Bengali language in this book as the language he adopted was that of the
rustic people of Barisal with frequent deployment of Sanskrit words. He harped on the important
landmarks in the history of Bengal in this text, namely the great famine, communal riot and the partition
of Bengal. The titles of few chapters are catchy enough to draw readers’ attention, namely
koyekti Bhut’ and ‘Krantikal’. While the cultural history of Barishal intervenes into the text it ceases to
be a memoir and turns out to be a meticulous documentation of social codes and customs of a particular
class of people. The linguistic tradition of the inhabitants of Barishal was deftly dealt by the author who
also kept on dwelling on the masculinity of the native people in detail. But the satiric undertone is never
generally missed in his portrayal of several characters whom Roychaudhury met during his adolescence
there. Thus he touched upon almost all the aspects of social existence of people in this book that put
forth various pertaining questions regarding race, caste and gender under the garb of the incorrigibly
humorous sketch. The most important part of the book is the commentaries made by the author as a
historian who frequently appears to interrupt the text at the crucial juncture. When Roychaudhury came
down
historicism was brought under scanner. The Enlightenment ideals of the West were severely
criticised by the author who unveiled the fact that the British made half the world believe that
liberalism of the West was quite unmatched in the history of the human civilization. Thus the
liberal-humanist project of the Enlightened West was censured to probe into the idea of progress
embedded in the assumptions about human history. This culminates in the section where he dealt at
length about the colonial cityscape of Calcutta and the ensuing turmoil regarding riot. The depiction
of the ever-widening urban space unmistakably opened up multiple readings of the text in terms of
the construction of social space of the city. The book ends with the tragic note when the author
aptly narrated the story of partition of India along with Bengal during independence and the
inevitable influx of Hindu people into India. Tapan Roychaudhury as a prime mover in the first
person narrative infuses critical commentaries within the text to carve out the provincial history of
Bengal that takes the centre stage in this book. It has got frequent references to the rich heritage of
the folk culture of Bengal, that runs parallel to the socio-economic history through out. The book
which takes stock of esoteric people and their lived existence in such a subtle way always comes off
as an enjoyable read for those readers who are in search of a historical narrative with a difference.
Somashish
Introduction
In the late 1940s, The Jugabani published the first full-fledged exposé of the shady business
practices and tax evasion by the Birla family. The particular enterprise in question was the Kesoram
Cotton Mills, being one of the several Birla businesses in West Bengal, which at that time was
under the control of Brijmohan Birla. The exposé led to a series of raids by the state police on the
office of the newspaper and its presses. The honest Sales Tax officer who was key to the first ever
serious investigation into the Birlas, NC Roy was suspended and his residence was also raided.
The author subsequently wrote Mystery of Birla House revealing longstanding evasion of Income
Tax under the Indian law and sales tax under state law, committed by a vast number of West Bengal
based Birla enterprises which were under the control of Brijmohan Birla. Mystery of Birla House
(MBH) captures in most elaborate detail the entrenched political and economic control of the Birla
family in Kolkata and its shady and underhand business practices by means of which its myriad
The author, Prof. Debajyoti Burman, was the editor of Jugabani and a professor of history and
commerce in Bangabasi College, Kolkata. It would be pertinent to note that apart from being an
intrepid journalist, he was an Advocate at the Calcutta High Court and a noted historian, having
written several well-known works on Indian history and politics. Though not particularly political in
his slant, as we can recognise from the opening pages of MBH, Burman was particularly respectful
The book begins by reminding the reader that, “Gandhiji was killed in Birla House in 1948. But
more than that is still being killed in houses like Birlas’—the health, wealth and happiness of our
The book was first published in the context of the burning socialism v. capitalism debate within the
Congress party in 1950. In fact it was published on the very day of the landmark Nasik Congress. A
copy of the book was presented to Babu Purusottamdas Tandon in hope “that he will… throw his
weight on the side of the masses to save the country from ruthless exploitation.”
The scam and the cover up—the unrivalled rise of the Birla behemoth
The book is a marvellous piece of investigative journalism from a time when practicing it was
extremely taxing and difficult with very limited resources at the disposal investigative journalists.
Even Narasimhan Ram was in a comparatively comfortable position when he worked to expose the
Bofors scam in 1980s. Someday, history will have to give the author due credit for the amazing
risks and astronomical information gathering efforts he had undertaken to bring out the truth about
The book contains chapters chronicling and explaining a series of tax evasion scams perpetrated by
numerous Birla enterprises, namely, Kesoram Cotton Mills and its subsidiaries, Orient Paper Mill,
Hindustan Motors Ltd., Jute and Gunny Brokers Ltd., Regent Estates Ltd. among others. The tax
evasion which is described in the book pertains to the period from 1941 to 1947.
The Birlas had humble origins. Seth Baldeodas Birla had come to Calcutta from Jaipur in the latter
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part of the 19 century and commenced as a trader and broker. Eventually gaining the favour of the
British he was granted the title Rajah. After his retirement he left to Benaras, leaving behind a pan-
India business empire which operated in Bombay, Delhi and Kolkata. Ghansyamdas Birla was
based in Delhi as he kept constant touch with Ministers and officers of the Central Government.
headed the Bombay businesses and Brijmohan Birla controlled the Kolkata businesses which at that
In every single part of this vast business empire the Birlas co-opted the political and administrative
elite into the unquestioned fold of their ultra-lucrative kleptocracy. The book has described in great
length the clout of the Birlas in Kolkata. The most significant illustration of the overwhelming
influence of the Birlas in Kolkata can be found in the cover up conducted by the each and every
level of the state government regarding all allegations of tax evasion against enterprises of the
Birlas.
After the allegations were published in the Jugabani pertaining to Kesoram Mills, on October 1950
Finance Minister NR Sarkar was questioned by Bimal Ghose in the Legislative Assembly regarding
the suspension of Sales Tax officer NC Roy on 2 May 1950 after he had asked for the
manufacturing account of the Kesoram Mills to ascertain its real and true production figures. NC
Roy had rightly suspected that the books and accounts hitherto submitted before the Sales Tax
authorities were cooked and false. In the debate, only after great insistence did NR Sarkar implicitly
admit the harsh reality—that service to the Birlas was “public service”. Not only was he unable to
justify the transfer and suspension of NC Roy, Sarkar also failed to give any pretext apart from the
In March 1951, based on the revelations in the book, there was a heated debate in the Legislative
Assembly regarding the exact magnitude of the corruption perpetrated by the Birlas. Sri Deven Sen
gave this book its due honour for its vivid account of tax evasion by the Birlas. Sen quoted passage after
passage from the book to establish that the Birla owed far greater sales tax and income tax than what
was inaccurately assessed by the government authorities. Sen expressed anguish that all levels of the
state government were actively involved in suppressing any attempt at a genuine assessment of the tax
liability of the Birla businesses. Sen also directly asserted that due to the collusive
In the course of the debate, Chief Minister BC Roy made an attempt at placating the Assembly by
orating a speech which placed the entire blame on NC Roy as far as his suspension was concerned.
The Chief Minister asserted that NC Roy had failed to assess as per the law and that Roy was
ineffective in his work. NC Roy was “ineffective in his work in the most important circle”. Apart
from vilifying his capability, Dr Roy further alleged that NC Roy was suspected of leakage of
official secrets.
The CM however, could not justify the fact that after NC Roy’s suspension the assessed tax liability
of Kesoram Mills was reduced down from Rs 40 lakhs to Rs 2.5 lakhs and tax liability to the tune
of Rs 26 lakhs owed by Orient Paper Mill was cancelled. If the tax assessed by NC Roy had been
followed then combining the tax liability with interest accruing thereto, both the Birla entities
would have had to shell out about 1 crore rupees. But owing to the collusion of the highest levels of
the state government, both the Birla entities went scot free with paying just rupees 4 lakhs.
To save his face, the CM made a volte face by the end of March 1951. Under pressure from various
members of the Assembly, he promised that a special tribunal would be constituted by the
government to find the true story behind the tax assessment of the two Birla businesses, namely
Kesoram and Orient Paper. He made an ambivalent statement in which he pointed out that owing to
the lack of legal support from the Sales Tax Act the government-appointed tribunal could face legal
challenge in the High Court, indicating his doubt as to what the tribunal would ultimately achieve. It
was a grand promise. It was never fulfilled. The tribunal was never set up. Once the tax authorities
meekly accepted the cooked books produced by the Birlas and assessed a low tax liability, no
further controversy regarding the business affairs of the Birlas ever took place.
It is interesting to note that once the controversy had peaked, as disclosed by the author, there were
several meetings held between the CM, the state Finance Minister and Seth Ghansyam Das Birla.
Right after the Nasik Congress in 1950, all of them were seen at Ranjani for an hour and a half with
close the assessment on the basis of the books already presented to the authorities seemed palpable.
The meeting should not come as a surprise nor should their clout. The Birlas had a penchant for
nursing immense leverage over top politicians and bureaucrats in any part of India right upto the
Central Government. CC Desai, an ICS, had dared flout even KC Neogy, the Union Commerce
Minister, to help the Birlas. Birlas also owned the loyalty of an Income Tax Commissioner in West
Bengal named SD Nargolwala who was a tenant of the Birlas in an air-conditioned house. The
entire Income Tax related investigation was thus purposely compromised. NK Saxena, an officer of
the I-T dept. authorised to examine the papers pertaining to the assessment of the Birlas, caused the
In Orissa, one single threat of a lockout and disappearance of the employment providing Birla
factories/mills was reason enough for the Birlas to be permitted to continue their operations without
paying a single rupee as sales tax. In West Bengal, Birla’s political patrons included Basant Lal
Murarka, an MLA who was the principal handling agent of the Birlas for their Kesoram Products.
The Assembly speaker ID Jalan was also extremely favourable towards the Birlas during the
debates on the tax evasion issue when he constantly asked members to refrain from mentioning the
Birlas in their statements. Every single person in high office who helped the Birlas was rewarded.
KB Pal Chaudhuri was promoted as Commissioner of Commercial Taxes with bulky monthly
increments. BB Das Gupta was made Finance Secretary with similar rewards. Though a series of
malpractices were exposed by the author against them, Finance Minister NR Sarkar took no action.
The Finance Minister NR Sarkar was in fact a director in several Birla concerns from time to time
before being appointed a minister. As he left those directorships he appointed his brother PR Sarkar
in his place. SK Bose, the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes who held the charge of
the Birlas’ files at the peak of the controversy had also played a major role in the colossal cover-up
of the tax evasion by Birlas. Bose’s nephew was during that time acting as a junior lawyer to the
rewarded. He was subsequently found in multiple places being entertained by the Birlas.
The Birla group of businesses at the time of writing the book commanded a total capital of Rs 79
crores spread across a multitude of businesses from banking, insurance, paper, cotton, jute, textiles,
motor cars, electricals, shipping and coal. But that is only part of the iceberg. The Birlas have giant
business families tied to them in matrimonial and friendly ties. The Loyolkas, Khaitans, the
Ispahanis, the Kejriwals, the Somanis have diverse business interests in real estate, cotton, jute and
stockbrokerages. Combine all of that and the reader finds a multicrore behemoth, the Birla
behemoth which controls bulk of business capital in Kolkata and is unaccountable to the law,
unaccountable to the state’s people and in some cases inimical to the interest of the state of West
Bengal.
It is well known that BC Roy did not demand inclusion of Jamshedpur and other areas of the
western Rarha region of historical Bengal owing to the pressure from the Tata family. The author
reveals that the Birla backed Ispahanis were also the driving force behind the bloodstained Jute pact
for which the then Commerce Minister had to be shown the door for having opposed the same. The
access to East Pakistan’s jute greatly profited the Ispahanis, a family which had risen to prominence
by selling overpriced rice from Central India to the Bengalis during the great Bengal famine of the
1940s. Not surprisingly the Income-tax investigation against the Ispahanis for their potentially huge
outstanding taxes on their profits was stopped under the order of the Central Government.
The truth is that the Birlas knew the hacks of business. In British era, the Birlas maintained a safe
relationship with the Congress while adroitly respecting British power whenever it suited them. On
the eve of the call for Quit India movement the Birlas had laid their cards precisely. Ghansyam Das
Birla had become a member of the Harijan Sevak Sangh to cement good ties with Gandhi. As is
well known Gandhi was regular guest of the Birlas in major metros of India. All the Quit India
movement resolution related arrests of Congressis including Gandhi were made at the Birla House.
continued operations indifferently. The WWII enriched the Birlas as they profited from supplying
on all war contracts in favour of the British Army. Yet, on the eve of independence, the same Birlas
skilfully aligned themselves with the Congress. In every territory ruled by the Congress, the Birlas
established pan-India businesses without any accountability and, needless to add, without paying
An amazing feature of the Birla businesses was that most of them would purposely display low
profits or huge losses even as the Birla family was enriching by the day. Speculative transactions,
fictitious transaction, hidden transactions, cooking of books of accounts, dodging sales taxes
siphoning of business profits by means of a vast web of companies, burning all old books and
income tax— there was no wrongdoing beneath the Birlas as there pan-India businesses expanded
and monopolised vast portions of the private economy. One must credit the author who had
investigated letters, orders of every level of the hierarchy of taxing authorities and the books and
accounts of at least ten major businesses of the Birlas and has established the aforesaid fact beyond
any doubt.
The Birlas had rose manifold in terms of the extent of their businesses. But no commensurate
returns either to the shareholders or commensurate tax recovery to the government ever came about.
The Birlas not only profited but also created a system in which no person can ever expect to engage
in lawful and productive entrepreneurship. If the License Raj was the death sentence for free
The Birla behemoth was a self-enforcing mechanism which depleted every stakeholder in the
economy for the purpose of extravagantly enriching one elite family. Many families from Bengal
had profited from various businesses in the late 1800s. But most of them came and disappeared like
a bolt of thunder, in the relatively vast timeframe of modern Bengal. The Birla behemoth however
Birla behemoth is now the foremost pillar of the great Marwadi capitalist establishment which rules
business in Kolkata.
The author was able to do a commendable investigation into the Birlas for the timeframe in which
he had been active as a journalist. It is understandable that the scope of the investigation could
cover only the 1940s and early 50s. However given such disturbing revelations, one wonders what
other secrets remain buried about the dominance of the Birlas in particular and the Marwadi
capitalists in general in West Bengal. The state and central governments had colluded to suppress
any further attempt to unravel the truth. As one would understand, after the controversy reached its
peak in the backdrop of the first publication of this book, the political elite silently let the difficult
questions on Birla businesses die a lonely death. It would have been most welcome if this book had
been continued to be in publication for posterity. Probably later editions could have featured more
revealing investigations into the affairs of the Birlas, possibly covering corruption beyond the Chief
Ministerial tenure of BC Roy. However, as we now know, from a recent article by Paranjoy Guha
Thakurta, the book soon disappeared from the market. It was reported to have been sold to the
Birlas through a deal possibly in the very late 1950s which eventually included its copyright. Very
few copies survived, including one preserved in Delhi’s Nehru Memorial Library in the ‘rare books’
section.
Prof. Debajyoti Burman. Mystery of Birla House. Jugabani Sahitya Chakra, 1950.
Somashish is pursuing Final Year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from School of Law, Christ University,
Bangalore.
Tamal Dasgupta
So detailed an inquest of a corpse which once was a living and thriving Bengal was never attempted
before and we don’t know if it will ever be attempted again. Any discussion of Dhwongsher Pothe
Poshcimbongo must begin with a note of wonder: the book is a compilation of analytical data on
the gradual destruction of Bengal, but any imaginative reader can almost visualize the melancholy
sight of a great architecture vandalized, a huge giant killed, a Caesar being killed as a result of
The book is a translation of Roy’s celebrated masterpiece, one of the non-fictional classics of
twentieth century Bengal, titled Agony of West Bengal: A Study in Union State Relations.
Roy is primarily concerned about the irreparable damages that post-independence Bengal suffered
due to the policies of the central government, but he begins his study with a brief account of the
exploitation of Bengal during the early years of east India company and then the rest of the study
constitutes a continuum of that process of hostile aggression. This approach has some substantial
merit, and it leaves us with only one complaint: if only Roy could have given us a comparative
account of the medieval Mughal policies of exploitation of Bengal (Bankim’s famous statement
about aashole tumar joma comes to mind), the study might have been bestowed with a rare
that he undertook.
The book begins with the bleeding of Bengal and Kolkata under the John Company, and Roy
quotes from some scholarly studies already undertaken in this field. One interesting aspect of that
exploitation was that the wealth of Bengal was not just meant to be looted and taken to mainland
Britain, but to other parts of the British Indian empire. The first three chapters chronicle the British
colonial exploitation, the third one is significantly titled “Banglar Shompod Shudhu Britainer Jonno
Noy, Bombai O Madrajer JonnoO” (the wealth of Bengal is not just for Britain, but for Bombay and
Madras too). As the chapter title obviously suggests, it gives us details about the syphoning of
Bengal’s wealth for benefitting the colonial administrations in Madras and Bombay.
From the fourth chapter Roy comes straight to his point of focus: the post-independence destruction
of Bengal. In 1947, West Bengal was the second smallest state (Kerala being smallest), and yet was
fifth in India in terms of population. In spite of the partition of 1947 taking a terrible toll, per capita
income was highest in West Bengal, in terms of literacy it was only second to Kerala, electric
production and utilization capacity of Bengal was the best in India. Kolkata port was the busiest in
India and had even more commercial traffic than Bombay. In 1950 in terms of gross production, in
India West Bengal was only second to the largest state, UP (which was more than three times the
India had a planned economy, and in every five years’ plan, the same pattern of neglect and
deliberate deprivation of Bengal got repeated, as Roy shows with comparative data. While states
like Bombay (later Maharashtra and Gujarat) continued to receive benefits, West Bengal shockingly
continued to receive the lowest per capita grant in every five years’ plan.
West Bengal was deprived of the Jute import revenue immediately after partition. Then West
percent (while Madras province’s share increased from fifteen percent to eighteen percent, and
Roy calls them the dual injuries which were inflicted on Bengal immediately after independence.
Roy establishes painstakingly that the dismemberment of undivided Bengal did not affect the
income tax revenue of West Bengal in any considerable manner (a negligible 1/80 portion was
decreased, as East Bengal was not industrialized), and therefore the reduction of its share from the
Assault after assault, injury after injury continued, almost in the manner Caesar was stabbed
repeatedly in the Senate. The notoriety of freight equalization policy, the step-motherly hostility to
the Bengali refugees, license policy that actively discouraged the establishment of new industries in
West Bengal, the systematic robbery of Bengal’s cotton and jute industries: this book shows us data
tables and we end up having the effect of watching a tragic scene, as if Abhimanyu was surrounded
by enemies in the battlefield and being killed mercilessly. Roy tells us how the Bengali business
class were destroyed by the British, he tells us how Bengalis were discriminated against in the
central Govt apparatus, and he tells us how the state was almost treated like a colony of the centre,
Roy’s study deals with statistics, mostly, but some of the later chapters are journalistic
commentaries on the contemporary political scenario of Bengal which was volatile. In them Roy
shares some rare insights and reflections on the turbulent Naxalite decades – late sixties and early
seventies.
Roy’s accounts of the tragic downfall of West Bengal will make our hearts heavy and eyes moist
for ages to come, whenever we shall look back at this night of long knives in Bengal’s long
twentieth century.
Protibedon. Kolkata: New Age Publishers, 2010 (First Published 1977). Pp 238, Rs 100 (hardcover)
Dr Tamal Dasgupta is founder editor of Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) and
Shoptodina (ISSN 2395-6054). He is founder of Shoptodina Foundation. He did his PhD on Terry
The Pigeons
wings of a pigeon.
II
Dr Amit Shankar Saha is an Assistant Professor of English in Seacom Skills University. He is one
of the founders of Rhythm Divine Poets. His first book of poems titled Balconies of Time has
Patrika. He has authored several articles regarding the cultural heritage and history of
Bengal and ancient India. A student of Sanskrit literature, Mr. Sengupta is the son of the
noted scholar Gourangagopal Sengupta and the nephew of the well-known poet and editor
Anandagopal Sengupta.
Journal of Bengali Studies (JBS): You were born in a family of scholars. You are the son of the
eminent academician Gourangagopal Sengupta and the nephew of the famous poet-editor
Binayak Sengupta: My father late Gourangagopal Sengupta (1913-2006) was a researcher and
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author. He was deemed a specialist on 19 century Bengal. He started writing from his student
days. For young readers, he translated several popular English books into Bengali, such as ‘Toilers
of the sea’, ‘Children of the new forest’, ‘Last of the Mohicans’. He authored a novel titled ‘Dhusor
pother dhula’ when he was considerably young. Later, he concentrated mainly on academic
research, his focus being in the arena of culture and literature of ancient India. Through his sheer
dedication and perseverance, he was able to trace many unknown materials regarding ancient
Indian history. His ‘Prachin Bharater Poth Porichoy’ is considered a pioneering work on the
ancient roads of India. The foreword of this book was written by the famous historian Radhakumud
Mukhopadhyay. In his foreword, he wrote that it was indeed remarkbale that Gourangagopal was
never tempted venturing into syrupy writing unlike what other busy government officers tend to do
in their precious little recess; and his deep love for his nation and his mother-tongue drove him to
work untiringly towards bringing into light a forgotten but important chapter in the history of
ancient India. Radhakumud also wrote that Indians, Bengalis in particular would remain indebted to
Gourangagopal for the all the ages to come. Starting from the 60’s, he went on to author many
significant research works till the end of his life. It is worth mentioning that he wrote more than a
hundred articles about many forgotten luminaries of Bengal in different encyclopedias like
JBS: Anandagopal and Gourangagopal were indeed among the last titans the Bengali academic and
literary community produced in this century. Tell us something about Anandagopal, though he also
Binayak: My uncle Anandagopal (1922-2016) was a well-known poet, reporter and the editor of the
noted journal ‘Samakalin’. He participated in the freedom struggle and he was awarded ‘Tamrapatra’
(copper plate) for his role in the freedom struggle. He was a close associate of Jayprakash Narayan and
also a member of Socialist party. A colourful personality, Anandagopal was exceptional in maintaining
different activities with the same dedication. He was a leading figure in several cultural movements,
was a founder-member of the Tagore Research Institute, and was the chief organizer of ‘Nikhil Bharat
Banga Sanskriti Sammelan’ and ‘Nikhil Bharat Rabindra Sahitya Sammelan’. He was at the forefront of
the Bengali little magazine movement. Also, he edited of several magazines and dailies like ‘Dainik
Krishok Patrika’, ‘Sachitra Bharat’ etc. However, editing the journal ‘Samakalin’ was undoubtedly his
greatest achievement. One has to keep in mind that this journal contained only academic articles
Soumyendranath Thakur edited some issues in the first one or two years of Samakalin. Almost all
the eminent academicians used to contribute articles in Samakalin. A collection of selected essays
As a writer, Anandagopal was a master of satire. He was arrested for taking part in freedom struggle
and served terms in Hijli jail. After his release, he came to Calcutta at the age of 22. He became a
celebrated poet overnight by writing a satirical poem named ‘Ghora koro Bhagaban’ in the
magazine ‘Sachitra Bharat’. The poem is considered a milestone in the history of Bengali poetry.
Two of his poems have been included in the collection ‘Bangla Adhunik Saras Kabita’, which was
edited by Debiprasad Bandyopadhyay and published by National Book Trust. In his long life, he
has received several accolades like Gajendrakumar Mitra memorial Award (2003) and has been
felicited by Sahitya Akademi. His autobiography ‘Ami o Ghora koro bhagaban’, published from
Subarnarekha in 1999, is a riveting read replete with humour, anecdotes and unknown facts. In the
daily Bartaman, a well-known reporter once wrote “among the persons who made their mark in
Calcutta after hailing from mofussil, the first two names are those of Sajanikanta Das and Bigyapon
JBS: Being the son of Gourangagopal and the nephew of Anandagopal and Gobindagopal, you
have had personal acquaintances with many Bengali luminaries. It would be great if you could
Binayak: Yes, my father had acquaintances with many famous personalities of the previous
century, and some of them were indeed his close friends. Acharya Sunitikumar Chatterjee,
Brotindranath Mukhopadhyay, Kalyankumar Gangopadhyay are some of the luminaries with whom
he had a very cordial relation. Acharya Sunitikumar was particularly affectionate towards my
father. He would always gift my father his newly published books and would never forget to write
Yours truly have had the opportunity to visit Dr. Rabindrakumar Dasgupta’s home. My uncle had
collect that from him. He was bed-ridden at that time. When I told him that I was Gourangagopal’s
son, he told me “Your father is a wonderful personality. It is indeed amazing how a single person
can write so many significant books”. Rabindrakumar used to greet all visitors, irrespective of their
Chittaranjan Bandyopadhyay was also very close to my father. Once I visited his home in Salt Lake
… well he had to change his residence several times. At that time he was already awarded with
‘Bankim Puraskar’ for his noted work ‘Buddhijibir Biborton’. He told me “this award should have
Patriot” had just been published from Bangla Akademi. This candid opinion speaks a lot about the
noted scholar.
I remember meeting the eminent sculptor Chintamoni Kar in our room at the office of Anandabazar
Patrika. He had come to collect some photographs of Gandhiji, perhaps for his sculptures. When I
introduced myself, he joyfully told me that he knew my father for more than 30 years, and also that
he wrote several times in ‘Samakalin’. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the articles
included in his book ‘Sannidhye’ was first published in ‘Samakalin’. I have been fortunate to meet
and touch the feet of many other persons of such stature by dint of being the son of Gourangagopal
JBS: These are lifetime experiences indeed. Working in Anandabazar Patrika also brought you in
close contact with many known personalities of the last few decades, notably those associated with
publishing, reporting and of course, literature. Could you share some memories?
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Binayak: I joined Anandabazar on 1 January, 1980, in the library section. I was appointed as the
indexer of the Photo library. Chittaranjan Bandyopadhyay was the Library adviser at that time. In
‘200 years of Bengali printing and publishing’. A souvenir book was also published. During this
event, the managing authorities of Anandabazar felt that the large collection of negative celluloid
plates, glass plates, pictures, colour transparencies should be arranged in terms of their content. So a
new section named ‘Print and Negative section’ was opened under the supervision of Chittaranjan
Bandyopadhayay. I joined this section. And with that came the opportunity to meet and work with
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eminent authors, including those of whom I was an ardent fan. The library used to be in the 2
floor at that time, and the department of photos was just adjacent. The offices of Desh, Sananda,
Anandamela, Bhumilakshmi, Sunday etc. were also in that floor.
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The telegraph started its journey on 7 July, 1984. MJ Akbar, who had earlier been the editor of
Sunday, became the first editor of The Telegraph. He knew me very well. He was a noted reporter,
and as a person he was very cordial and amicable. When Telegraph decided to bring out a
supplement in 1985 commemorating 100 years of Congress, I presented him an article written by
my father. He included the article in the supplement after a sincere read and also put a heading to
the article ‘The Man who taught us to fight a bloodless battle: A.O.Hume’. At that time
Anandabazar was indeed like a big family. But yes, in natural course, it has undergone some
changes. Print media has been put to the backseat with the growing popularity of electronic media.
The taste has also changed. TV serials have dealt a severe blow to reading habit of common
Bengalis. Anandabazar tried to keep pace, but we no longer find stories, novels, articles or poems
JBS: How was your experience as a librarian? It would be interesting if you could share some
memories.
Binayak: Well I worked mainly with non-book materials such as print, negative transparency etc.
remember that father used to know by heart the location of each book in his library, and their
contents as well. Although I have never worked in a reference library, I also have this ability to
some extent.
JBS: You have observed from close quarters the legendary Bengali appetite for books cutting
across age, gender and professions. Have you observed any change in Bengali reading habits with
the passage of time? What are your opinions on the declining number of readers in this age of
Binayak: Personally I was more drawn towards articles, perhaps because I had habit of reading
Samakalin from the beginning to its end whenever a new issue would come. Desh, Kathasahitya
used to come regularly as complimentary copies, and I used to enjoy them thoroughly. Whenever
any story, novel or poem enthralled me, I used to look for other works by the same author and read
them. Works of Saradindu, Tarashankar, Manik, Subodh Ghosh, two Bibhutibhushans, Sunil
Sirshendu Siraj, Mati Nandi, Ramapada Chowdhury kept me glued. Hunger for books was a
common trait in almost all educated Bengalis at that time. Now-a-days, it is indeed disheartening to
see the young generation losing interest in reading. Classics like ‘Pagla Dashu’, ‘Rajkahini’,
‘Chander pahar’ have been included in the school textbooks, but what I have found is that almost no
student has got any genuine interest to read them. It’s a pity that kids now-a-days are missing the
childhood. Libraries are in a sorry state in many cases, the advent of e-books has added to their
woes. Gone are the days when even ‘thonga’s would be read before they are thrown away,
your opinion about the contribution of mainstream Bengali academia of the last century regarding
Sanskrit language and literature? Please share some personal experiences in this regard. Do you feel
Binayak: Well I did my graduation and masters in Sanskrit. I graduated from Ashutosh College in
1972 and completed my M.A. degree from the University of Calcutta in 1974. Then I studied
Library Science and was eventually employed as a librarian. As a result, there was a break in my
study of Sanskrit, as I could not devote enough time with increasing pressure in the workplace.
However, the opportunity to come in contact with eminent scholars of Sanskrit and to attend their
classes ensured that I could develop a literary sense. I am quite certain that it is due to my exposure
to Sanskrit literature that I could realize that literature in its true form connects people to people,
In the Alankara doctrine of Sanskrit poetics, the reader is described as ‘sahridaya’ (hearty).
the reader is equally important as the writer, as the literature finds its right purpose only when the
reader is able to grasp what the writer is trying to convey. The same idea is conveyed in these lines
of Rabindranath: “Ekaki Gayoker nohe to gan, gahite hobe duijone/Gahibe ekjon khulia gola,
Regarding the second part of your question, the tradition of Sanskrit learning is indeed quite old in
Bengali. In the older days, there were many ‘Chatuspathis’ throughout Bengal, which have sadly
disappeared with the passage of time. Bengali poets continued to bring out acclaimed translations of
and Hirendranath Dutta. I fondly remember reading Chandranath Basu’s ‘Shakuntala’, as well as
Shakuntala to many Bengali readers. Ramesh Chandra Dutta’s Rigveda samhita, Rajendranath
Vidyabhushan’s ‘Kalidasa samagra’, Interpretation of Gita by Bengali authors, all show that
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Bengalis were very much enthusiastic about Sanskrit language and literature even in the 20
century. But now-a-days we get to hear that Sanskrit is ‘Ong-Bong-Chong’. Yes, Sanskrit has
certainly taken a backseat in recent times. It is true that Sanskrit is still there in the syllabus of Class
VII and VIII, but passing or failing seldom matters. There is no Sanskrit in the Madhyamik
curriculum. Curiously, there is the option of taking Sanskrit as an elective in the Higher secondary
examination. One wonders how one can deal with Sanskrit literature after just obtaining or in some
cases, not obtaining pass marks in eighth standard. Probably the present academicians can better
explain how only rudimentary grammatical knowledge enables one to study literature and that too
after a gap of two years. I feel it is almost impossible to have a sizeable number of genuine Sanskrit
scholars in the current scenario. We are made to forget that Sanskrit is a scientific language. Instead
of rejecting it, efforts should be made to popularize it for the sake of our nation and our mother-
tongues as well. Rabindranath had said that the eternal consciousness of India lives through
Sanskrit.
JBS: You have observed the evolution of Bengali cultural ambience over the last six eventful
Binayak: I was born in the beginning of 1950’s, in Kolkata. I spent my childhood at Ballygunge. I
stayed in my maternal uncle’s house for a certain period. Kamala jharia resided just next to our
maternal uncle’s house. She used to do her riyaaj every morning. We had no idea that she was such
a famous singer. We called her sa-dida. She had no airs, and lived a simple life, although her house
para. I was a friend of his nephew, so I often used to peep into his room when he was not around.
Kanak Dash, renowned Rabindrasangeet singer also lived nearby, in Mahanirban road. I remember
watching her sit in the verandah. What I remember specially is the simple outlook and lifestyle they
maintained. Can the same be said about even the newcomers in present times? Life was simpler
then, and thanks to Hemanta, Manna, Satinath, Utpala, Manabendra and others, we could enjoy
some real heart-touching song. One cannot help noticing the decadence in this DJ age. One gets to
hear good tunes or comes across good poetry in this era also, but very very rarely. This is the age of
showing off, and even substandard works are being put forward as something wonderful thanks to
the all powerful media. Bengalis have forgotten their roots, and have fallen for things that glitter
more compared to their original value. This is being seen everywhere: literature, arts and even in
the world of academics. In this scenario, any endeavour related to quintessential Bengali culture, be
***
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i
After the partition of 1971, East Pakistan was renamed Bangladesh.
ii
India was declared independent on 15th August 1947 and the result was the partition between India and Pakistan.
iii
On 26th March 1971, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) declared Independence from West Pakistan (now Pakistan).
iv
Refugees who migrated from East Pakistan to India after the partition of 1971. I am basically referring to the Bengali
refugees who have settled in Tripura.
v
The region where the Bengalis resided before partition.
vi
My mother Ila Roy, has always shared her memories of Bangladesh and about her childhood to me and as I grew up
she always tried to culture the inherited traditions inside me.
vii
The Bengali lullabies referred in this paper have been inherited by me through my family who are first generation
and second generation immigrants. These are part of memory which has been orally transmitted from one generation
to the other. The sources of these lullabies are traditional.
viii
The conversion of a text from one script to another. In this paper I have used the conversion of Bengali texts to
English.
ix
The term was given by Russian literary scholar Mikhail Bakhtin. Chronotopes are recurring, structural features of a
narrative. Bakhtin showed how every age has its own notion of space and time, and therefore chronotopes are rooted in
their local traditions.
x
The term is used in the English translations of works written by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin. He refers to a
literary mode that subverts and interrogates the established authority over meaning.
xi
“Hanuman.com”. Directed by Gaurav Pandey, performed by Prosenjit Chatterjee, Mousumi Bhattacharya, Rudranil
Ghosh, Kaushik Sen, Saloni Pandey, Saski. (Bengali), 2013.
xii
In Bengali, the father-in-law’s house is called “sasur-bari”.
xiii
In Bengali, the father’s house is called “babar-bari”.
xiv
In Bengali, the maternal uncle’s house is called “mamar-bari”.
xv
Mama is referred to as maternal uncle in Bengali.
xvi
Mami is referred to as maternal aunty in Bengali.
xvii
A small girl child getting married with an old man.
xviii
Holy cities in India. Primarily pilgrimage centers of the Hindus.
xix
A Hindu funeral custom where a widow used to burn her body on her husband’s pyre.
xx
The Borgi is the local Bengali name, who were a group of Maratha cavalry, who used to loot and torture the people
of Bengal.
xxi
A zamindar was an aristocrat holding enormous tracts of land and held control over his peasants.
xxii
In Sanskrit, ‘smriti’ is “that which is remembered” and ‘sruti’ is “that which is heard”. Based on this tradition the
Hindu religious texts were verbally transmitted and remembered across the generations since ages.
xxiii
I am referring to the grandmothers’ discussions, tales and gossips. They were the first generation immigrants and
during the family gathering they were accompanying my grandmother Mrs. Renu Bala Deb.
xxiv
Rhyme 1A
xxv
The foster-mother of Krishna, a Hindu God.
xxvi
Pride of being the mother of a male child was culturally inherited, perhaps because the male child was expected to
be the earning member of the family and to inherit the ancestral property too.
xxvii
This part of Bengal, the geographical space in which the immigrants are residing since the 1971 partition.
xxviii
That part of Bengal, that is, present Bangladesh.
xxix
Golden Bangla.
xxx
Though I remember them but unable to refer, as I haven’t recorded the narratives.
xxxi
Directed by Nikhil Rao. Advertisement, (Hindi), 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFEJIs6e2-E. Accessed
on 20 November 2017.
xxxii
Bengali Hindu festival celebrated two days after Kali puja, where the sisters pray for the well-being of their
brother.
xxxiii
A Hindu festival which is celebrated in India, to strengthen the love and the sense of duty between brothers and
sisters.
xxxiv
In Bengali vernacular,‘boun’ means sister.
xxxv
In Bengali vernacular, ‘bhai’ means brother.
xxxvixxxvi
A sacred thread which is a symbol of fraternity.
WORKS CITED
Bhattacharya, Asutosh. “Folklore of Bengal”, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2007.
Clifford, James. “Diasporas”. Jstor, Vol. 9, No. 3, http://www.jstor.org?atable/656365.
Accessed on 07 April 2017. Pdf.
Das, Nirmal. “Prasnaga: Loksanskriti o Tripura”, Akshar Press, Tripura, 2007, pp.38-41.
Gupta, Ashes. “The Mystic Mountain: An Anthology of Tripura Bangla Poetry in English”,
2017, pp.151.
http://bengalikidsblog.blogspot.in/2012/10/bengali-lullaby-bangla-chora-gaan-khoka.html.
Accessed on 20 November 2017.
https://books.google.co.in/ Accessed on 20 November 2017.
https://laharibasu.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/hanuman-com/. Accessed on 20 November
2017.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bengali/music/Hanuman-coms-
soundscape-pays-tribute-to-Moheener-Ghoraguli-makes-a-rap-out-of-Ikir-
Mikir/articleshow/26803102.cms. Accessed on 20 November 2017.
http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/46702_Radio-Mirchi-makes-Rudalis-happy. Accessed on
20 November 2017.
Misra, Tilottoma. “The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East India: Poetry and
Essays”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2015.
Shahed, Syed. “Bengali Folk Rhymes: An Introduction”, Asian Folklores Studies, Vol. 52,
1993, pp.143-160. Pdf.
Gitanjali Roy is an Assistant Professor of English at ICFAI University Tripura. The writer
has to her credit a number of scholarly articles. Her area of interest includes North East
Literature, Popular Literature and Digital Literature. She is recently working on the
Cultural Evolution of Tripura Bengalis. Besides, the author is also fond of composing
poems to uphold the real cultural essence of the land of mystic hills and magical rivers.
Endowed with a good flair for creative writing, the author is also pursuing her doctoral
work on Digital Literature from Tripura University.