Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhaya's Chander Pahar, or the "Mountain of the Moon", first published in 1937, is one of the best adventure stories in Bengali literature.
In this series of blogs, accompanying the release of Chander Pahar as a 6 part audio-book on the Bangla Golpo-Bengali Stories podcast (gauravdas.podbean.com), we will follow the footsteps of Shankar, the hero of this story, on his extraordinary adventure from a Bengal village, to the velds and mountains of Africa.
SHANKAR AND THE POLITICAL CLIMATE OF 1909
The story of Shankar, our protagonist begins in a humble village. The author tells us that it is 1909, a time before the first world war in 1914.
What was going on around Shankar at that time?
The province of Bengal had been partitioned a few years earlier in 1905, by the decree of Lord Curzon. Bengal and Calcutta was a hotbed of political activity and the freedom struggle. The year before, in 1908, Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki had carried out their attack on Magistrate Kingsford, in the process mistakenly killing two British women. This incident had triggered a tremendous crackdown by the colonial police, leading to the famous Alipore Bomb Trial (1908-1909). Amongst the accused were Aurobindo Ghosh, Barindra Ghosh, Ullaskar Dutta and Hemchandra Das. In short, this was a time of massive turmoil in India, especially Bengal.
I find it surprising that a somebody like Shankar, romantic, bold and adventurous, was not attracted or recruited to the movement against the colonial rulers. Bibhutibhusan begins his novel in a tumultuous period of Indian history but completely ignores to mention whether Shankar is in anyway affected by these events around him.
Interestingly, Shankar like Bibhutibhusan, was born in the district of North 24 Parganas (somewhere near Naihati/Shyamnagar) and is educated in Calcutta. Although Bibhutibhusan, born in 1894, was younger than Shankar in 1909 and was probably not ready for college yet. This identity between the creator and his creation, makes me wonder how Bibhutibhusan himself was affected by the freedom struggle. The answers would lie in a biography of the author (anyone knows of one?) or perhaps in the novel APARAJITO, whose hero Apu is sometimes thought to be a shadow of Bibhutibhusan himself.
Coming back to the puzzle as to why Shankar seems completely apolitical and oblivious to the upheavals around him; I pose that as an open question in this forum: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
My own theory is quiet mundane and I will proffer it in the beginning of my next blog entry:
Until then,
hang on!
5 comments:
Extremely well-posited question. Certainly calls for wider, wilder and a longer debate.
Methinks,characters from Bengali literature and art are vastly apolitical, since their inception.
In the post-war, post-Independence era, there were hardly any prominent and celebratory novels or works of art pertaining to the Naxal unrest, with Animesh Trilogy from Samaresh Basu being an exception. Even though, artists from Bengal fondly remembers the bygone political era and unrest and attach an added romanticism with it, for e.g., Sunil Gangopadhay's "Shei Shomoi".
The matinee idols Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee hardly enacted any political characters or anything near with similar tones or overtones. Until Salil Chaudhari celebrated the "gono-shongeet" format, artists from Bengal never took the initiative to align themselves to the contemporary political unrest.Of course, there are minor exceptions,but, those exceptions were never celebrated in the mainstream. Maybe, it has to do with our culture, our psyche, not to integrate the turmoil with celebrated forms of art.
Shankar is merely one of such early Colossus, who stood in our minds as heroes of our novels, the way they should behave, the way they should think, the way their minds will act and react !! Bengal needed more "Animesh"-es for sure.
Saurav,
As I said, by own interpretation is much more mundane.
Coming to your post, your premise that Bangla literature is apolitical is not entirely correct. You site the example of Animesh from Uttoradhikar, Kalbela, kalpurush, but Sabyasachi from "Pather Dabi" is an even earlier example of a violently political character. Even Bankim had political characters,albeit not in the modern era (more the mughal/pathan vs hindu kings politics).
Then there is Rabindranath himself strongly aligning himself with the anti partition of Bengal movement, almost parallel to the time of Shankar.
Manik Bandopadhaya (putul nacher itikatha, padma nodir majhi) is also a good example of an author who was decidedly leftist and wrote stories that drip with his socialistic sensibilities.
Mahasweta Devi's "hajar chaurashir ma" is also a very good example of a bengali author who delved into the story of the Naxal unrest of early 70s.
These are all very mainstream creations I speak of and not minor exceptions.
Lastly, speaking of Soumitra, funnily the only political character I remember him playing is as the evil Mayurbahon in "Jinder bondhi" Sharadindu's take on "Prisoner of Zenda"!!
Let me know if anybody remembers anyone remembers any other besides the above.
Although Bengali literature is by no means apolitical, Bibhutibhushan often chose to dwell more on the idyllic and the romantic sides. Maybe it was done purposely, but I'm not too sure. Even harsh realities in Drishti Pradeep and Adarsha Hindu Hotel seem to me to have been sufficiently softened by the introduction of Nature and narcissism, an aspect that stands in stark contrast to Manik, Narayan Ganguly, Premendra Mitra or other realists (should I say Freudians?).
Gaurav Sir Hats off to you. After Bibhutibhusan you are the creator of Chander pahar. For your creation of Chander pahar Audio Book The book got real platform. Now in bengal Chander pahar know every person because some one make a movies on it. All credits gos to you. Please give me your contact mail or shosal link sir it's very pleasure to communicate with you
Utsab Giri
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