Evolution of Bengali Short Stories by Malay Roychoudhury
Chhotogolpo, synonym for short story, is a hybridized word. Chhoto
having been derived from prakrita or plebianized Sanskrit chhudda or chutta,
which meant short, small, tiny, dwarfish, low-pitched, little, reduced, puny,
delicate, minor, etc. Golpo is a hybrid of gappo and jalpo. Gappo is
plebianized Bangla version of Persian gupp that entered indigenous
lexical domain consequent upon establishment of Islamic rule. It meant
oral narrative, conversation, argument, gossip, prattle, etc. It had also
entered English lexicon as gup, in the guise of an Anglo-Saxon slang
during the gin-and-tonic days of the Empire. Almost all indigenous words
which entered the imperial semiotics received a degenerated reception.
Hindu gods became lords, and god Jaggannatha became juggernaut, a
strange expression which meant a relentless destroying force; an example
of colonial semiotic violence transforming the native's protector into a
destroyer. Jalpo evolved out of Sanskrit jalpan, and meant utterance,
discussion, speculation, proposal, and establishment of one's own opinion
by refuting someone else's.
having been derived from prakrita or plebianized Sanskrit chhudda or chutta,
which meant short, small, tiny, dwarfish, low-pitched, little, reduced, puny,
delicate, minor, etc. Golpo is a hybrid of gappo and jalpo. Gappo is
plebianized Bangla version of Persian gupp that entered indigenous
lexical domain consequent upon establishment of Islamic rule. It meant
oral narrative, conversation, argument, gossip, prattle, etc. It had also
entered English lexicon as gup, in the guise of an Anglo-Saxon slang
during the gin-and-tonic days of the Empire. Almost all indigenous words
which entered the imperial semiotics received a degenerated reception.
Hindu gods became lords, and god Jaggannatha became juggernaut, a
strange expression which meant a relentless destroying force; an example
of colonial semiotic violence transforming the native's protector into a
destroyer. Jalpo evolved out of Sanskrit jalpan, and meant utterance,
discussion, speculation, proposal, and establishment of one's own opinion
by refuting someone else's.
Narratives at folk level as well as at the level of the court of kings,
in brief or elaborate form, existed prior to the arrival of British Empire,
written in poetic meters to enable people to memorize them, in the
absence of literacy and nonavailability of nonmanual process of
reproduction, as the texts were calligraphed on palm-leaves. In
essence, therefore, indigenous story-texts existed since antiquity,
outside the perimeters of the constructedness of fables, but within
the confines of nature, i.e. tale. However, the indigenous culture did not
have exact equivalents of fables and tales, since the genres were based
on the Greco-Roman dialects of good and evil, and papal dialectics of
God and Devil, which assumed human individual as a cultural product
and subject to construction. Premodern Bangla had katha or narrative,
and kathakata or narration of scriptural and mythological oral chronicles.
The narrator was kathak-thakur or Brahmin priest, and may be found even
today in a metamorphosed gaiety during any puja trying to re-root himself
in antiquity in front of a loudspeaker mike; he would be worshipping goddess
Durga, demon Mahishasura, and a veiled banana plant simultaneously,
in a postmodern anomie, of course.
in brief or elaborate form, existed prior to the arrival of British Empire,
written in poetic meters to enable people to memorize them, in the
absence of literacy and nonavailability of nonmanual process of
reproduction, as the texts were calligraphed on palm-leaves. In
essence, therefore, indigenous story-texts existed since antiquity,
outside the perimeters of the constructedness of fables, but within
the confines of nature, i.e. tale. However, the indigenous culture did not
have exact equivalents of fables and tales, since the genres were based
on the Greco-Roman dialects of good and evil, and papal dialectics of
God and Devil, which assumed human individual as a cultural product
and subject to construction. Premodern Bangla had katha or narrative,
and kathakata or narration of scriptural and mythological oral chronicles.
The narrator was kathak-thakur or Brahmin priest, and may be found even
today in a metamorphosed gaiety during any puja trying to re-root himself
in antiquity in front of a loudspeaker mike; he would be worshipping goddess
Durga, demon Mahishasura, and a veiled banana plant simultaneously,
in a postmodern anomie, of course.
Fiction is indigenous, though in metrical form. However, the genres
short story and novel came with colonial rule. Novel was a product of
European Renaissance, and the original genre novella was Italian,
which emerged during that great epistemic upheaval, though the rudiments
thereof existed since second-century Greece. Novel was coterminous as an
established genre with the appearance of Rene Descartes' theory of knowledge.
Descartes' theory starts with the quest for certainty, for an indubitable
starting-point or foundation on the basis alone of which progress is possible;
the point of certainty had to be located in one's own awareness of one's own self.
Renaissance and Descartes would not have been possible without such royal
plunderers as Christopher Columbus, an Italian. Novel was generic outcome of
the concepts of individuals' self-location, progress and seizure of nature.
None of these philosophical ideas existed in premodern life/world of
Bangla people, for whom nothing existed outside nature.
short story and novel came with colonial rule. Novel was a product of
European Renaissance, and the original genre novella was Italian,
which emerged during that great epistemic upheaval, though the rudiments
thereof existed since second-century Greece. Novel was coterminous as an
established genre with the appearance of Rene Descartes' theory of knowledge.
Descartes' theory starts with the quest for certainty, for an indubitable
starting-point or foundation on the basis alone of which progress is possible;
the point of certainty had to be located in one's own awareness of one's own self.
Renaissance and Descartes would not have been possible without such royal
plunderers as Christopher Columbus, an Italian. Novel was generic outcome of
the concepts of individuals' self-location, progress and seizure of nature.
None of these philosophical ideas existed in premodern life/world of
Bangla people, for whom nothing existed outside nature.
In fact the synonym for culture, i.e. samskruti, had to be coined by
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The appellative upanyas, synonym for novel,
was coined by Bankimchandra Chattopadhya (1838-1894) who had first written
Rajmohan's Wife (1864), a novel in English, before writing the first ever novel
in Bangla literature, Durgeshnandini (1865), a fiction in prose. Economic
and political powers in Europe, when novel emerged, were agriculture-centric
and rested with landowners who had time for leisure.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The appellative upanyas, synonym for novel,
was coined by Bankimchandra Chattopadhya (1838-1894) who had first written
Rajmohan's Wife (1864), a novel in English, before writing the first ever novel
in Bangla literature, Durgeshnandini (1865), a fiction in prose. Economic
and political powers in Europe, when novel emerged, were agriculture-centric
and rested with landowners who had time for leisure.
Short story emerged in Europe with the Industrial Revolution,
and the epistemic paradigm shift caused by European Enlightenment.
Industrial Revolution replaced traditional agrarian economy by one dominated
by machinery and manufacturing. This transferred the balance of political power
from the landowner to the industrial capitalist, and created a huge urban
working class. The slow agrarian idyllic life was replaced by a fast
industrially-compartmented life without much leisure for a large population.
The subject-position of the individual changed beyond retreat.
While the history of rise and fall of the novel in Europe is associated
with the rise and fall of imperialism, the rise and change of short story is
associated with the centrality and fragmentation of the modern human individual.
Novel emerged in European antiquity. Short story emerged in European modernity.
Both of them arrived on the shores of Bangla literature at the same time,
when the representatives of European Enlightenment, the Christian missionaries,
settled at Srirampur in 1800, simultaneously introduced Bangla printing press,
translated prose of gospels and the Bible, Bangla grammar books and Bangla
dictionaries. The first gospel of the first century Christian apostle and
evangelist St. Matthew was the mother of printed Bangla prose, which
appeared on 18 March 1880. This was also the year of establishment of
Fort William College. And this was the juncture when a Bangla speaker of
letters left the world of nature to join the world of culture, in order to get
constructed as an individual in the mirror image of Enlightenment episteme.
and the epistemic paradigm shift caused by European Enlightenment.
Industrial Revolution replaced traditional agrarian economy by one dominated
by machinery and manufacturing. This transferred the balance of political power
from the landowner to the industrial capitalist, and created a huge urban
working class. The slow agrarian idyllic life was replaced by a fast
industrially-compartmented life without much leisure for a large population.
The subject-position of the individual changed beyond retreat.
While the history of rise and fall of the novel in Europe is associated
with the rise and fall of imperialism, the rise and change of short story is
associated with the centrality and fragmentation of the modern human individual.
Novel emerged in European antiquity. Short story emerged in European modernity.
Both of them arrived on the shores of Bangla literature at the same time,
when the representatives of European Enlightenment, the Christian missionaries,
settled at Srirampur in 1800, simultaneously introduced Bangla printing press,
translated prose of gospels and the Bible, Bangla grammar books and Bangla
dictionaries. The first gospel of the first century Christian apostle and
evangelist St. Matthew was the mother of printed Bangla prose, which
appeared on 18 March 1880. This was also the year of establishment of
Fort William College. And this was the juncture when a Bangla speaker of
letters left the world of nature to join the world of culture, in order to get
constructed as an individual in the mirror image of Enlightenment episteme.
Groomed in the above episteme, a sizeable Bangla middle class originated,
and spread with the British as their reliable appendages, throughout India.
Bangla periodicals with news and fiction had to appear for, by and of the
newly constructed individuals of this class. Though newsmagazines such
Digdarshan (April 1818), Samachar Darpan (May 1818) and
Sambad Prabhakar appeared first to cater to the cultural needs of
this class, they contained the seeds of the subsequent literary periodicals
like Bangadarshan (1872), Bharati, Sadhana, Hitavadi, Navajivan and Sahitya,
published in the 19th century. For publishing Bangadarshan, Bankimchandra
Chattapadhya had installed printing press at his own residence.
The contentious issue relating to strict definability of novel and short story
might not have been imported till then, and all fictions were golpo.
The eighteen-page fiction Indira (1872) and fifteen-page fiction
Yugalanguria (1873) written by Bankimchandra and fourteen-page
fiction Madhumati (1873) written by his brother Purnachandra were
all published under the rubric of upanyas or novel. It was more than
eighty years later, when the power of definition, distinction and evaluation
of literary discourse rested with academicians that the former two
were declared to be neither novel nor short story whereas the latter
was branded as a short story, since by then definitions imported from
the West had piled up in the volumes stacked in college libraries.
But the first canonisable perfect short story did not appear till Rabindranath
Tagore wrote Postmaster (1891) in the weekly Hitavadi.
and spread with the British as their reliable appendages, throughout India.
Bangla periodicals with news and fiction had to appear for, by and of the
newly constructed individuals of this class. Though newsmagazines such
Digdarshan (April 1818), Samachar Darpan (May 1818) and
Sambad Prabhakar appeared first to cater to the cultural needs of
this class, they contained the seeds of the subsequent literary periodicals
like Bangadarshan (1872), Bharati, Sadhana, Hitavadi, Navajivan and Sahitya,
published in the 19th century. For publishing Bangadarshan, Bankimchandra
Chattapadhya had installed printing press at his own residence.
The contentious issue relating to strict definability of novel and short story
might not have been imported till then, and all fictions were golpo.
The eighteen-page fiction Indira (1872) and fifteen-page fiction
Yugalanguria (1873) written by Bankimchandra and fourteen-page
fiction Madhumati (1873) written by his brother Purnachandra were
all published under the rubric of upanyas or novel. It was more than
eighty years later, when the power of definition, distinction and evaluation
of literary discourse rested with academicians that the former two
were declared to be neither novel nor short story whereas the latter
was branded as a short story, since by then definitions imported from
the West had piled up in the volumes stacked in college libraries.
But the first canonisable perfect short story did not appear till Rabindranath
Tagore wrote Postmaster (1891) in the weekly Hitavadi.
However, the works of Mir Mosharraf Hossain (1847-1912), poet,
novelist and playwright, failed to get canonised, primarily because
formation of Muslim middle class individual in the new episteme of
Enlightenment was delayed as the rulers whom the Empire decimated
were mostly Muslim. The community initially refused to be subsumed in
the language of emerging Bangla literature because of what was
considered Hinduani semiotic and semantic features. For the Hindu
individual, this also was one of the reasons to move closer to the new
episteme. In third volume of Bengal in 1756-1757, historian Hill had
written 'Genuine (i.e. Hindoo) rajahs and inhabitants were much disaffected
to the Moor (i.e. Mohammedan) government and secretly wished for a
change and opportunity of throwing off their tyrannical yoke.' The
first fiction of a Muslim author to be canonised came quite late in
Byathar Daan (1922) by Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1977). In fact,
this is the only Muslim name I find in Budhed Choudhury's voluminous
dissertation on short story Bangla Sahityer Chhotogolpo O Golpokar (1962),
spanning a period from 1800 to 1940, and no such reference in
Sahitye Chhotogolpo (1956) by Narayan Gangapadhya, though
the books are studded with names from classical and modern
European literatures.
novelist and playwright, failed to get canonised, primarily because
formation of Muslim middle class individual in the new episteme of
Enlightenment was delayed as the rulers whom the Empire decimated
were mostly Muslim. The community initially refused to be subsumed in
the language of emerging Bangla literature because of what was
considered Hinduani semiotic and semantic features. For the Hindu
individual, this also was one of the reasons to move closer to the new
episteme. In third volume of Bengal in 1756-1757, historian Hill had
written 'Genuine (i.e. Hindoo) rajahs and inhabitants were much disaffected
to the Moor (i.e. Mohammedan) government and secretly wished for a
change and opportunity of throwing off their tyrannical yoke.' The
first fiction of a Muslim author to be canonised came quite late in
Byathar Daan (1922) by Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1977). In fact,
this is the only Muslim name I find in Budhed Choudhury's voluminous
dissertation on short story Bangla Sahityer Chhotogolpo O Golpokar (1962),
spanning a period from 1800 to 1940, and no such reference in
Sahitye Chhotogolpo (1956) by Narayan Gangapadhya, though
the books are studded with names from classical and modern
European literatures.
Thenceforth canonisation could be possible only within European
maxims. But the strictest maxim was that no printed matter should be
against the interest of the Empire. Short story therefore had to be confined
to a defined freedom of the author, sort of a four-walled discourse.
Indigenous diverse oral forms were never drawn upon and ultimately
withered away in neglect. Since the first grammar books and dictionaries
were written and printed by European missionaries, Bangla signifiers
started developing catalepsy. Most the Bangla words had several meanings,
depending upon context, and even contradictory meanings, as is now evident
from the Bangiya Sabdakosh (1933), dictionary compiled by
Haricharan Bandhyapadhya. Consequent upon alien intervention,
the meanings of Bangla words were narrowed down to a few or
even only one, and in several cases even change by colonial educators.
Today a large number of Bangla words are explained with the help of English
words. A huge lexical world at the social periphery simply vanished as the
expressions were dubbed anchalik or non-metropolitan. Metropolitan Bangla
flourished as language or literature articulated by upper caste Hindus,
especially by the super-Brahmins of the 19th century, the gentry of
Brahmosamaj. Our modernity emanated from colonisers' values, and
metropolitan Bangla evolved within those confines. Anchalik was tribal
and lower-caste semiotic sphere. Similarly, words and expressions used
in Muslim community were exuviated off metropolitan Bangla. The fund
of words, diction, expressions were basically metropolitan till the emergence
of the postmodern Bangla short story. That the language of the entire two
hundred million people is the language of Bangla literature dawned quite late,
when the Western rhetoric, poetics and canons became redundant and irrelevant.
maxims. But the strictest maxim was that no printed matter should be
against the interest of the Empire. Short story therefore had to be confined
to a defined freedom of the author, sort of a four-walled discourse.
Indigenous diverse oral forms were never drawn upon and ultimately
withered away in neglect. Since the first grammar books and dictionaries
were written and printed by European missionaries, Bangla signifiers
started developing catalepsy. Most the Bangla words had several meanings,
depending upon context, and even contradictory meanings, as is now evident
from the Bangiya Sabdakosh (1933), dictionary compiled by
Haricharan Bandhyapadhya. Consequent upon alien intervention,
the meanings of Bangla words were narrowed down to a few or
even only one, and in several cases even change by colonial educators.
Today a large number of Bangla words are explained with the help of English
words. A huge lexical world at the social periphery simply vanished as the
expressions were dubbed anchalik or non-metropolitan. Metropolitan Bangla
flourished as language or literature articulated by upper caste Hindus,
especially by the super-Brahmins of the 19th century, the gentry of
Brahmosamaj. Our modernity emanated from colonisers' values, and
metropolitan Bangla evolved within those confines. Anchalik was tribal
and lower-caste semiotic sphere. Similarly, words and expressions used
in Muslim community were exuviated off metropolitan Bangla. The fund
of words, diction, expressions were basically metropolitan till the emergence
of the postmodern Bangla short story. That the language of the entire two
hundred million people is the language of Bangla literature dawned quite late,
when the Western rhetoric, poetics and canons became redundant and irrelevant.
From Bangadarshan onwards till the publication of the periodical
Sabujpatra (1914) edited by Pramatha Choudhuri (1868-1946), son-in-law of
Rabindranath's elder brother Satyendranath Tagore (1842-1923),
fictions were written in former old Bangla of letters, documents, verse,
horoscopes etc., which was being articulated in flowery, Sanskritised,
compounded, consonantal or vowel-blended words and long-winding
sentences, beyond the reach of the uninitiated, so that the Brahminism
of vocabulary could represent the fixity of power of the newly constructed
individual. Pramatha Choudhuri was well versed in English and French
languages and literatures, and had introduced triolet, terza rima, sonnet etc.,
colonial verse forms after he came back from England as a barrister.
Sabujpatra gave prestige to spoken Bangla, i.e. the dialect spoken in and
around the metropolis, which was the imperial capital till 1911. What had
happened by the time Sabujpatra appeared was establishment of hundreds
of jute mills in the same area, and convergence of a huge labour force from
far-flung places who required a common medium of communication.
A common medium of communication was also required by students
from other provinces who came to the metropolis for studies at Hindu
College (1817) and Calcutta University (1857). Sabujpatra changed the
language of literature forever, and strengthened the grip of Western canons,
but within elitist semantics.
Sabujpatra (1914) edited by Pramatha Choudhuri (1868-1946), son-in-law of
Rabindranath's elder brother Satyendranath Tagore (1842-1923),
fictions were written in former old Bangla of letters, documents, verse,
horoscopes etc., which was being articulated in flowery, Sanskritised,
compounded, consonantal or vowel-blended words and long-winding
sentences, beyond the reach of the uninitiated, so that the Brahminism
of vocabulary could represent the fixity of power of the newly constructed
individual. Pramatha Choudhuri was well versed in English and French
languages and literatures, and had introduced triolet, terza rima, sonnet etc.,
colonial verse forms after he came back from England as a barrister.
Sabujpatra gave prestige to spoken Bangla, i.e. the dialect spoken in and
around the metropolis, which was the imperial capital till 1911. What had
happened by the time Sabujpatra appeared was establishment of hundreds
of jute mills in the same area, and convergence of a huge labour force from
far-flung places who required a common medium of communication.
A common medium of communication was also required by students
from other provinces who came to the metropolis for studies at Hindu
College (1817) and Calcutta University (1857). Sabujpatra changed the
language of literature forever, and strengthened the grip of Western canons,
but within elitist semantics.
Modernist discourse and discursive practices, irrespective of whether they
arrived with the British rulers or through glossy Soviet despatches, legitimised
Occidental canons and hegemony. Canons, aesthetic or military, imply
legitimization. Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas is legitimization of
homocentric canon. It is against nature. It thinks that the rainbow does
not have so many colours. Rabindra Guha, who does not have any roots
permanently like an arborescent, has articulated the dangerous consequences
of a peculiar cow-belt hegemony in his micro-narrative Contactile.
The little magazine explosion I have been talking of was postmodernist
rupture from modernist discourse and encirclement of the centre by
periphery. Two thousand fiction writers are sustained by six hundred
periodicals within and outside West Bengal. This excludes magazines
published in Bangladesh as well as Web little magazines. In an epoch
having two thousand living fiction writers---several of them write
postmodern poems--proliferation of new forms, diction, semiotic
and syntactic practices, wordplay, spaces and experiences, is bound to
push the Bangla short story beyond any conceivable frame. Canonical
disarray was inevitable. It is not possible to bind some texts within
academically-defined genres.
arrived with the British rulers or through glossy Soviet despatches, legitimised
Occidental canons and hegemony. Canons, aesthetic or military, imply
legitimization. Destruction of the Bamian Buddhas is legitimization of
homocentric canon. It is against nature. It thinks that the rainbow does
not have so many colours. Rabindra Guha, who does not have any roots
permanently like an arborescent, has articulated the dangerous consequences
of a peculiar cow-belt hegemony in his micro-narrative Contactile.
The little magazine explosion I have been talking of was postmodernist
rupture from modernist discourse and encirclement of the centre by
periphery. Two thousand fiction writers are sustained by six hundred
periodicals within and outside West Bengal. This excludes magazines
published in Bangladesh as well as Web little magazines. In an epoch
having two thousand living fiction writers---several of them write
postmodern poems--proliferation of new forms, diction, semiotic
and syntactic practices, wordplay, spaces and experiences, is bound to
push the Bangla short story beyond any conceivable frame. Canonical
disarray was inevitable. It is not possible to bind some texts within
academically-defined genres.
It would be interesting to note that when the Indian nationalist leaders
in their anti-imperialist discourse gave a call for Civil Disobedience (1932)
and Quit India (1942) movements, they did not advise writers to disobey
and quit colonial canons. It took three earth-moving literary movements,
lives of thousands of Naxal intellectual youth, jails of Indira Gandhi's Emergency
and putrescence of Establishment Marxists to get rid of them.
Thereafter it was plenitude of the multivocal, unprecedented freedom
for the author, subversion of academic dictats. And propensities of
parataxis, nonlinearity, hybridity, rhizomatic, syncreticity, heterogeneity,
openness, playfulness, irony, aptativeness, disjunction, displacement,
immanence, fragmentation, disorientation, disruption, hagiographical,
indigenous, talkative folk forms, subaltern, eco-feminism etc. became
widespread in the fictions published in little magazines. This phenomena
has drawn the wrath of modernist critics who have been selectively
castigating authors. However, they are aware that postmodernism is
the only umbrella beneath which such a diverse discourse may be brought
together for a unifying congregation.
in their anti-imperialist discourse gave a call for Civil Disobedience (1932)
and Quit India (1942) movements, they did not advise writers to disobey
and quit colonial canons. It took three earth-moving literary movements,
lives of thousands of Naxal intellectual youth, jails of Indira Gandhi's Emergency
and putrescence of Establishment Marxists to get rid of them.
Thereafter it was plenitude of the multivocal, unprecedented freedom
for the author, subversion of academic dictats. And propensities of
parataxis, nonlinearity, hybridity, rhizomatic, syncreticity, heterogeneity,
openness, playfulness, irony, aptativeness, disjunction, displacement,
immanence, fragmentation, disorientation, disruption, hagiographical,
indigenous, talkative folk forms, subaltern, eco-feminism etc. became
widespread in the fictions published in little magazines. This phenomena
has drawn the wrath of modernist critics who have been selectively
castigating authors. However, they are aware that postmodernism is
the only umbrella beneath which such a diverse discourse may be brought
together for a unifying congregation.
Despite such subversive and multivocal texts of the literary movements being
eventually subsumed into the mainstream, even if selectively, based on
political, media-centric, upper caste or post-Partition diasporic inclinations
, the challenge has permanently affected the way the postgeneric has
impacted the present, and will impact the future, discourse, as has already
been experienced in the case of certain Hungryalist and Shastravirodhi
fiction writers like Basudeb Dasgupta and Ramanath Ray. Any literary
defiance embodies the provocation of a literary code into socio-cultural,
or tangentially, political code. Understanding of a postmodern text's
interpellated and interpetalled designs definitely entails active collaboration
on readers' part. The reader, the reader-as-critic, cannot afford to take
his own position as granted, since certain problems will always remain
unresolved at his own level. Any interpretation of a text will depend on
the reader's understanding of the macro and micro cultural constructions
and the socio-political givenness it was written from.
eventually subsumed into the mainstream, even if selectively, based on
political, media-centric, upper caste or post-Partition diasporic inclinations
, the challenge has permanently affected the way the postgeneric has
impacted the present, and will impact the future, discourse, as has already
been experienced in the case of certain Hungryalist and Shastravirodhi
fiction writers like Basudeb Dasgupta and Ramanath Ray. Any literary
defiance embodies the provocation of a literary code into socio-cultural,
or tangentially, political code. Understanding of a postmodern text's
interpellated and interpetalled designs definitely entails active collaboration
on readers' part. The reader, the reader-as-critic, cannot afford to take
his own position as granted, since certain problems will always remain
unresolved at his own level. Any interpretation of a text will depend on
the reader's understanding of the macro and micro cultural constructions
and the socio-political givenness it was written from.
The postmodern Bangla short story generally aspires to resist memory's
appropriation technique of vernacular newspaper literature or of textbook
history, as the narrative proceeds mapping out counter-hegemonic
strategies and obeys a memory-triggered structure in which textual
swings develop ethnic elasticity. Postmodern short stories are worlds
away from the metafictive self-consciousness of Parichoi-Kallol-Pragati
and Notun Reeti authors, who gave primacy to the one single voice.
Certain postmodern stories are a polyphonic mélange which need
not be seen as productive of meaning but necessarily reflective or
expressive. There are still some academicians who humiliate their
graduate and postgraduate students if they are unable to locate the
produced meaning of a text. Evidently, the discourses are basically
plural, and there can never be a monocentric correctness as demanded
by modernist critics.
appropriation technique of vernacular newspaper literature or of textbook
history, as the narrative proceeds mapping out counter-hegemonic
strategies and obeys a memory-triggered structure in which textual
swings develop ethnic elasticity. Postmodern short stories are worlds
away from the metafictive self-consciousness of Parichoi-Kallol-Pragati
and Notun Reeti authors, who gave primacy to the one single voice.
Certain postmodern stories are a polyphonic mélange which need
not be seen as productive of meaning but necessarily reflective or
expressive. There are still some academicians who humiliate their
graduate and postgraduate students if they are unable to locate the
produced meaning of a text. Evidently, the discourses are basically
plural, and there can never be a monocentric correctness as demanded
by modernist critics.
It is pertinent to note that during the Emergency when Indira Gandhi
suspended fundamental rights of the individual, and texts were subjected
to censorship, several authors adopted a secret slyness in their fictions to
enable the narrative to speak in different voices from behind textual masks
in order to de-structure and deconstruct the centre of power. During the last
decade of the 20 th century, in certain semi-urban and rural areas of
West Bengal, ravaged by political violence, authors are forced to employ
this technique to rescue language and literature from the terrorizing
stasis around them.
suspended fundamental rights of the individual, and texts were subjected
to censorship, several authors adopted a secret slyness in their fictions to
enable the narrative to speak in different voices from behind textual masks
in order to de-structure and deconstruct the centre of power. During the last
decade of the 20 th century, in certain semi-urban and rural areas of
West Bengal, ravaged by political violence, authors are forced to employ
this technique to rescue language and literature from the terrorizing
stasis around them.
As a result of the culture of political violence, villagers affiliated to one
political party are hounded out of their ancestral hearth and farmland
forever, or till the balance tilts, by villagers affiliated to the locally powerful
or ruling political party, something unimaginable during premodern/precolonia
l and modern/colonial days. Such values are completely alien to West Bengal
where Muslim farmers never fought with each other. However, the
postmodern feature is that such violence and terror have got nothing
to do with Marxist and Gandhian ideologies that the parties brag about.
All ideologies, commitment and virtue have withered away. Loyalties can
be switched at will, one's own or someone else's. Though in their youth in
1950s they had shouted Yeh azadi jhutha hai (Frantz Fanon in 1961 called it
'the farce of national independence') on the streets, the now-bloated top
bosses of political outfits do not appear to be seriously bothered about
present smithereening of West Bengal's ethnic life/world, of people who
have lived together since thousands of years. As a result of political violence,
the subject (just a digit to the State) is territorially deappropriated; his
forefather's land has become a recognizable locus for incessantly
unresolved problems. And this is one of the subject-positions where
postmodern Bangla textual reality develops as a complexity. In Tripura
the division is between tribals and non-tribals where the violence is defined
by ruthless firepower.
political party are hounded out of their ancestral hearth and farmland
forever, or till the balance tilts, by villagers affiliated to the locally powerful
or ruling political party, something unimaginable during premodern/precolonia
l and modern/colonial days. Such values are completely alien to West Bengal
where Muslim farmers never fought with each other. However, the
postmodern feature is that such violence and terror have got nothing
to do with Marxist and Gandhian ideologies that the parties brag about.
All ideologies, commitment and virtue have withered away. Loyalties can
be switched at will, one's own or someone else's. Though in their youth in
1950s they had shouted Yeh azadi jhutha hai (Frantz Fanon in 1961 called it
'the farce of national independence') on the streets, the now-bloated top
bosses of political outfits do not appear to be seriously bothered about
present smithereening of West Bengal's ethnic life/world, of people who
have lived together since thousands of years. As a result of political violence,
the subject (just a digit to the State) is territorially deappropriated; his
forefather's land has become a recognizable locus for incessantly
unresolved problems. And this is one of the subject-positions where
postmodern Bangla textual reality develops as a complexity. In Tripura
the division is between tribals and non-tribals where the violence is defined
by ruthless firepower.
Certain dominating media networks have their maximum security prisons
of authorial world of customer-friendly consumerist language, which have
been subverted by the micro-narratives of such authors as Udayan Ghosh,
Atindriya Pathak, Barin Ghoshal, Subimal Basak, Ajit Ray, Kamal Chakraborty,
Mrinal Banik, Samir Basu, Tarak Rej, Nabarun Bhattacharya,
Manab Chakraborty, Bhagirath Mishra, Abhijit Sen, Subimal Mishra,
Prasun Bandhopadhya. Arupratan Basu, Subhas Ghosh and Abani Dhar.
Fluidity of their micro-narratives undermine the logic of power; the reader
is forced to unravel the intertextuality and the power-structure that weave
subject-positions within societal complexities. The subject refuses to be a digit.
Their texts undermine the readers' search for a fixed subject-identity through
semantic, semiotic and syntactical flux. The texts function as filter as well
as amplifier of suppressed voices and fragmented undefinable subjectivities.
The narrative involves the reader in the textual problems of the story which
resist creating modernist stereotypes. As a result the identities, instead of
getting lost in the quagmire of fixity, engage themselves in perpetual remaking.
of authorial world of customer-friendly consumerist language, which have
been subverted by the micro-narratives of such authors as Udayan Ghosh,
Atindriya Pathak, Barin Ghoshal, Subimal Basak, Ajit Ray, Kamal Chakraborty,
Mrinal Banik, Samir Basu, Tarak Rej, Nabarun Bhattacharya,
Manab Chakraborty, Bhagirath Mishra, Abhijit Sen, Subimal Mishra,
Prasun Bandhopadhya. Arupratan Basu, Subhas Ghosh and Abani Dhar.
Fluidity of their micro-narratives undermine the logic of power; the reader
is forced to unravel the intertextuality and the power-structure that weave
subject-positions within societal complexities. The subject refuses to be a digit.
Their texts undermine the readers' search for a fixed subject-identity through
semantic, semiotic and syntactical flux. The texts function as filter as well
as amplifier of suppressed voices and fragmented undefinable subjectivities.
The narrative involves the reader in the textual problems of the story which
resist creating modernist stereotypes. As a result the identities, instead of
getting lost in the quagmire of fixity, engage themselves in perpetual remaking.
Titles of postmodern Bangla short story go beyond logocentric modernist
norms to metonyms of plurality. It may be intentional or unconscious.
Instead of calling them 'titles', it would be ontologically and historically
proper to call them 'rubric'. Prior to the invasion of colonialism, nature
could never be owned by a native of West Bengal, be it land, water surface
or forests. There were no concepts of title, title holder, deed, registration,
rights, will, probate, affidavit, advocate, dalil, sastavej, wakil, wakalatnama,
tauji, mauja, jameendari, shariq, munim, mukhtar, peshkar, etc. pertaining
to ownership of nature or dispute relating thereto. All these words were alien
to Bangla ethos and ethnos; they did not and do not have Bangla synonyms.
These concepts were aimed at containing land, flora and fauna, subordinating
them to human will, and rendering nature's infinititude into computable minims.
It was settlement and seizure of Bangla territory through language.
norms to metonyms of plurality. It may be intentional or unconscious.
Instead of calling them 'titles', it would be ontologically and historically
proper to call them 'rubric'. Prior to the invasion of colonialism, nature
could never be owned by a native of West Bengal, be it land, water surface
or forests. There were no concepts of title, title holder, deed, registration,
rights, will, probate, affidavit, advocate, dalil, sastavej, wakil, wakalatnama,
tauji, mauja, jameendari, shariq, munim, mukhtar, peshkar, etc. pertaining
to ownership of nature or dispute relating thereto. All these words were alien
to Bangla ethos and ethnos; they did not and do not have Bangla synonyms.
These concepts were aimed at containing land, flora and fauna, subordinating
them to human will, and rendering nature's infinititude into computable minims.
It was settlement and seizure of Bangla territory through language.
Bangla nature represented, in innumerable forms, gods and goddesses.
Even Buddhism was forced to have gods and goddesses. Today, most of
the political violence in villages erupt out of disputes relating to ownership
of farmland, orchards or water surfaces. Land reforms have reached a dead
end as fragmentation of land has crossed limits. There is now no scope to
absorb the surplus farmers in cultivation. No industries have come up to
absorb them either. Rather, the majority of those that already existed,
especially those owned by indigenous people of West Bengal, have either
been struck off through alien ontology or locked off by disgusted entrepreneurs.
Rural areas swarm with illiterate, unemployed farmhands while urban
and semi-urban areas swarm with educated unemployeds, fifty years after
Independence and twenty-five years of quasi-Marxist rule. Several of the
authors have been groomed in this postmodern condition. A strange
post-Industrial scenario indeed! Time packaged in a coffin!
Even Buddhism was forced to have gods and goddesses. Today, most of
the political violence in villages erupt out of disputes relating to ownership
of farmland, orchards or water surfaces. Land reforms have reached a dead
end as fragmentation of land has crossed limits. There is now no scope to
absorb the surplus farmers in cultivation. No industries have come up to
absorb them either. Rather, the majority of those that already existed,
especially those owned by indigenous people of West Bengal, have either
been struck off through alien ontology or locked off by disgusted entrepreneurs.
Rural areas swarm with illiterate, unemployed farmhands while urban
and semi-urban areas swarm with educated unemployeds, fifty years after
Independence and twenty-five years of quasi-Marxist rule. Several of the
authors have been groomed in this postmodern condition. A strange
post-Industrial scenario indeed! Time packaged in a coffin!
In premodern Bangla, oral or written narrative was nature's gift to mankind
of this specific geography. The text was not the private property of the writer.
In fact, the concept of author itself arrived with Occidental poetics.
The premodern writer did not have authority over the text prepared by him.
In case of some Mangalkavyas, the writer claimed that a particular god directed
him in his dreams. Even as late as 1970, Komol Kumar Majumdar has written
almost all his stories after obeisance to his personal deities in the first sentence
of his texts, which he ethnicised in an incomparable discourse based on
premodern semantic, semiotic and syntactic nuances.
of this specific geography. The text was not the private property of the writer.
In fact, the concept of author itself arrived with Occidental poetics.
The premodern writer did not have authority over the text prepared by him.
In case of some Mangalkavyas, the writer claimed that a particular god directed
him in his dreams. Even as late as 1970, Komol Kumar Majumdar has written
almost all his stories after obeisance to his personal deities in the first sentence
of his texts, which he ethnicised in an incomparable discourse based on
premodern semantic, semiotic and syntactic nuances.
In case of premodern writers, any subsequent writer was free to add
his own contribution to anybody else's texts, or change the entire structure
of the earlier narrative. Valmiki's epic Ramayana has hundreds of versions
in various Indian languages. All of them are accepted at all levels of the
particular language-society. Nabaneeta Dev Sen in her essay
The Hero's Feet of Clay (2000) has cited women's re-tellings of the epic,
dating from 16 th century to the present day.
his own contribution to anybody else's texts, or change the entire structure
of the earlier narrative. Valmiki's epic Ramayana has hundreds of versions
in various Indian languages. All of them are accepted at all levels of the
particular language-society. Nabaneeta Dev Sen in her essay
The Hero's Feet of Clay (2000) has cited women's re-tellings of the epic,
dating from 16 th century to the present day.
Prior to invasion of modernity, there was personal possession in
Bangla life/world, and no idea of private property existed. The concept
of ownership of text created violence in native philosophy, society and culture.
No text had a title in premodern Bangla literature, and the writer was not at all
a title-holder author. Title meant seizure and fixity. Title identified the center
of power. Titles of narratives arrived with Occidental poetics, and became
inseparable from the center of power of the content during
Porichoi-Kollol-Notun Reeti span. The title identified the core of the
subject matter. Since the title-holder or the author owned the text, the
entry and the exit of the text had to be securely closed. Hence the twist
of the key in the last para or thereabouts of a story became essential to
keep the exit-door of the story carefully clicked shut. The close-endedness
of a text was perfected with imperialism's foray into indigenous unowned cultures.
Bangla life/world, and no idea of private property existed. The concept
of ownership of text created violence in native philosophy, society and culture.
No text had a title in premodern Bangla literature, and the writer was not at all
a title-holder author. Title meant seizure and fixity. Title identified the center
of power. Titles of narratives arrived with Occidental poetics, and became
inseparable from the center of power of the content during
Porichoi-Kollol-Notun Reeti span. The title identified the core of the
subject matter. Since the title-holder or the author owned the text, the
entry and the exit of the text had to be securely closed. Hence the twist
of the key in the last para or thereabouts of a story became essential to
keep the exit-door of the story carefully clicked shut. The close-endedness
of a text was perfected with imperialism's foray into indigenous unowned cultures.
Political internecine violence may also be interpreted as emergence of a
tool to reopen indigenous cultures, be it in West Bengal, Tripura or
African countries. Naxal violence in West Bengal, and fragmentation
of this school of thought into thirty-six warring camps, had gone beyond
political domain. In fact, the efforts of Hungryalist, Shastravirodhi and
Neem Sahitya fiction writers to dismantle the single core of the subject matter,
were carried further by writers who emerged after the above fragmentation.
The gol gappo sndrome became limited to newspaper literature.
The postmodern fiction writer employs rubric instead of title, as an external
unifier of his narrative thoughts, as a measure of decentering, and for
the purpose of highlighting the periphery. With emphasis on the periphery,
the focus of the text shifts to micro-territory of characters. However, the
micro-territory remains increasingly plagued by neo-colonial ills; economic
disorder, social malaise, political scams, criminal as politician, government
corruption, influx of famished Bangladeshi Muslim families, repression by
state and political party apparatuses, digitalisation of individuals as voters,
indifference and apathy of public sector institutions. The progressive time
of modernity has evaporated in thick polluted air. Amid this hypochondria,
the postmodern texts are forced to probe their own narrative ways out of
the disillusion. There are authors who have declared in print that they do
not own copyright of their books.
tool to reopen indigenous cultures, be it in West Bengal, Tripura or
African countries. Naxal violence in West Bengal, and fragmentation
of this school of thought into thirty-six warring camps, had gone beyond
political domain. In fact, the efforts of Hungryalist, Shastravirodhi and
Neem Sahitya fiction writers to dismantle the single core of the subject matter,
were carried further by writers who emerged after the above fragmentation.
The gol gappo sndrome became limited to newspaper literature.
The postmodern fiction writer employs rubric instead of title, as an external
unifier of his narrative thoughts, as a measure of decentering, and for
the purpose of highlighting the periphery. With emphasis on the periphery,
the focus of the text shifts to micro-territory of characters. However, the
micro-territory remains increasingly plagued by neo-colonial ills; economic
disorder, social malaise, political scams, criminal as politician, government
corruption, influx of famished Bangladeshi Muslim families, repression by
state and political party apparatuses, digitalisation of individuals as voters,
indifference and apathy of public sector institutions. The progressive time
of modernity has evaporated in thick polluted air. Amid this hypochondria,
the postmodern texts are forced to probe their own narrative ways out of
the disillusion. There are authors who have declared in print that they do
not own copyright of their books.
Not having a title and title-holder, the postmodern text has evolved ability
to be both of specific micro-territory and yet also peregrinated. In its tension
between the micro and the macro, local and non-local, particular and general,
between domestic and public environs of characters, there is constant
rubrification of identity. The alterity of the text is constructed on the principle
of self-difference rather than as a self-identical whole. A postmodern mixture
has taken place after the indigenous communes of West Bengal were overrun
by influx of displaced persons from East Pakistan, leading to titlelessness
of micro-cultures, micro-rituals, micro-customs, etc., and interweaving
thereof in pluralistic discourses. A rubric emancipates postmodern Bangla
short story from the major colonial anchorage of history. Titlelessness
attacks ossification of text as art, and avoids commodification. Since
postmodernism is mobile and on the random nomadic move, title of the
text is an impossiblity, superimposed and artificial.
to be both of specific micro-territory and yet also peregrinated. In its tension
between the micro and the macro, local and non-local, particular and general,
between domestic and public environs of characters, there is constant
rubrification of identity. The alterity of the text is constructed on the principle
of self-difference rather than as a self-identical whole. A postmodern mixture
has taken place after the indigenous communes of West Bengal were overrun
by influx of displaced persons from East Pakistan, leading to titlelessness
of micro-cultures, micro-rituals, micro-customs, etc., and interweaving
thereof in pluralistic discourses. A rubric emancipates postmodern Bangla
short story from the major colonial anchorage of history. Titlelessness
attacks ossification of text as art, and avoids commodification. Since
postmodernism is mobile and on the random nomadic move, title of the
text is an impossiblity, superimposed and artificial.
From premodern to postmodern Bangla literature has moved quite fast,
much faster than Europeans. Language developmen, however, has not
been able to keep same pace. The geographical space called Kalikshetra,
spanning from Behala in the north to Dakshineshwar in the south, was
handed over to Rai Majumdar Lakshmikanta Choudhury for raising revenue
from the produce of the area vide a 1608 order of Emperor
Nooruddin Muhammed Jehangir. Only people of subaltern castes viz.
heley kaivarta, jeley kaivarta, namashudra, mahishya, sadgop, rajvangshi,
poundra-kshatriya, etc., lived and toiled in the villages of the area.
Not a single upper-caste family lived in Kalikshetra. Lakshmikanta,
a Brahmin, built his residence on the outskirts of Behala. Kalikshetra
became Calcutta when the descendents of Lakshmikanta, better known as
Sabono Choudhury, were forced by the then Nawab of Bengal to transfer
intermediacy and revenue rights to the East India Company in 1698.
Premodern Kalikshetra became modern Calcutta. The original subaltern
inhabitants were driven out, and in came hordes of middle-caste business
families to seize upon new business opportunites. And with the transfer
of Diwani Rights in Bengal to the Englishmen in 1765 and establishment
of Fort Wiliam College in 1800, the entry of upper-caste families to the
area became unstoppable. Modern Calcuta became postmodern Kolkata
in 2001, as all original inhabitants, both premodern and modern,
have been hounded out of the hub of the metropolis.
much faster than Europeans. Language developmen, however, has not
been able to keep same pace. The geographical space called Kalikshetra,
spanning from Behala in the north to Dakshineshwar in the south, was
handed over to Rai Majumdar Lakshmikanta Choudhury for raising revenue
from the produce of the area vide a 1608 order of Emperor
Nooruddin Muhammed Jehangir. Only people of subaltern castes viz.
heley kaivarta, jeley kaivarta, namashudra, mahishya, sadgop, rajvangshi,
poundra-kshatriya, etc., lived and toiled in the villages of the area.
Not a single upper-caste family lived in Kalikshetra. Lakshmikanta,
a Brahmin, built his residence on the outskirts of Behala. Kalikshetra
became Calcutta when the descendents of Lakshmikanta, better known as
Sabono Choudhury, were forced by the then Nawab of Bengal to transfer
intermediacy and revenue rights to the East India Company in 1698.
Premodern Kalikshetra became modern Calcutta. The original subaltern
inhabitants were driven out, and in came hordes of middle-caste business
families to seize upon new business opportunites. And with the transfer
of Diwani Rights in Bengal to the Englishmen in 1765 and establishment
of Fort Wiliam College in 1800, the entry of upper-caste families to the
area became unstoppable. Modern Calcuta became postmodern Kolkata
in 2001, as all original inhabitants, both premodern and modern,
have been hounded out of the hub of the metropolis.
