Remembering Rabindranath Tagore Volume - High Commission of ...

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Remembering Rabindranath Tagore
who belong to the underprivileged sections of society. He represents the new social
consciousness of educated Bengalis of this period, and the emerging spirit of individualism
characteristic of the time (Sogani 88). His opposition to Mahendra’s adulterous love for
Binodini suggests a conservative, didactic mindset; yet his desire to marry the widowed
Binodini also indicates a liberal outlook and a progressive social awareness. In the tussle
between reason and passion, Bihari finds himself unable to live up to his own ideal of
moral duty. He first falls in love with Asha, another man’s wife, and then feels drawn by
Binodini’sseductive charm. It is this ambivalence that gives his character the psychological
complexity that defines the modernity of Tagore’s approach in Chokher Bali.
The central, and most complex figure, of course, is Binodini. She confounds the distinctions
between prachina and nabina created by Bankimchandra in his classification of nineteenth
century women. Instead, she “is an intriguing amalgam of the various types of Bengali women
that Chatterjee has put into exclusive compartments” (Panja 217). Contrary to the image
of the pure, chaste “bhadramahila” or respectable upper-class woman, Binodini assertively
expresses her individual needs and desires. Though a transgressive figure in the first part of
the novel, Binodini is transformed by her love for Bihari, and ultimately chooses to withdraw
into a life of austerity (Sogani 66). According to Dipesh Chakrabarty, the body, as a site for
the struggle between opposite tendencies is an unresolved problem in the text (Chakrabarty
74). He argues that rup or physical beauty is not an issue in Chokher Bali (Chakrabarty 71).
Most readers would agree, though, that Binodini’s character is actually endowed with a strong
element of physical allure (Panja 219). She isboth thesubject and the object of desire, a selfconscious
target of the male gaze, but also driven by her own passion for Bihari. But her
desire cannot be explained in terms of the Freudian paradigm of the triangular relationship
between father, mother and child. Binodini’s desire is fanned by the repressive social practices
of nineteenth century Bengal, and it does not fit the models provided by Western theory.
The modernity of Tagore’s text demands a different reading frame.
Having created such a subversive figure, though, Tagore seemed at a loss to find an
appropriate resolution to her predicament. The fact that he twice changed the ending of
the novel indicates his own dissatisfaction with the story’s denouement. The disruption
triggered by Binodini’s entry into the lives of Mahendra and Bihari allowed of no neat
solution in the social milieu within which their narrative is embedded. Though the narrative
ends in reconciliation, Binodini’s departure into oblivion at the end of the text leaves us
with the sense of a tale left unfinished. But then, fragments and open endings are also
features of the modern novel.
Works Cited
Bhattacharya, Anuttam. Rabindra Rachanabhidhan (Bengali) Vol. 7. Kolkata: Deep Prakashan, 2007.
Bhattacharya, Prabhatkumar and Uma Bhattacharya. Adhunikatar Ruppratima vol. 1 (Bengali).
Kolkata: D. N. Publications, 1991.