Literature-Critique

37
Saratchandra Chattopadhyay (1876-1938)
Saratchandra was a desperate and lonely passer-by in the way of progression
of the Bengali Hindu community. Despite being a son of a conservative Brahmin
family, he torn out of his social net and became a bright star in the whole history of
the Bengalis’ effort of gaining social and psychological liberty. In spite of writing in
the great Tagore’s era, he presented unique creations and bluntly saying, surpassed
even Tagore in artistry of the genre of novel. And so much progressive outlook is
hardly found in other contemporary Bengali writers’ works.
In most of his works Sarat depicts social evil, some good men’s fight against it
and human (especially female) psyche; and he was a propagandist against the
institution of marriage.
His early attempt Devdas, although poor in structure, gives a little hint to his
progressive and revolutionary mind. It is the story of a young man who dies out of
anguish for his fatal love-affair. His Palli-Samaj (Country-Society) is a good portrayal
of an unconsummated love-affair in Bengal’s rural society.
Arakshaniya (The Eligible Girl) is the story of a girl of dark complexion, whose
mother finds it too difficult to marry her off. It results in her pitiable humiliation in the
society. This novel questions the anachronistic values of the heartless society that
considers physical beauty (and fair complexion) a must for the female.
Chandranath is the story of another girl’s disgrace – this time, for being a
‘dishonest’ mother’s daughter.
Charitrahin (The Characterless) questions the character of a society itself that
suppresses its members’ carnal desires due to traditional and outdated concepts. It
tells us two stories alongside; one of them is of a love-affair between a babu and her
maidservant; the other tale is of a similar relationship of a widow and her distant
brother-in-law. The first one ends in the beloved’s disapproval of a possible marriage
(as she honors the class divide) and the other relationship ends in tragic
consequences as the widow loses her mind.
Grihadaha (Burning of the House) suspects the very existence of a society
that finds itself helpless while perverted and contaminated by the betrayal of its
dishonest members. Here Sarat shows how marital bond loosens for economic
inequality amid a man, his wife’s parental home and her extramarital lover. In it he
masterly depicts illicit love and its consummation through adultery by a lustful man
(Suresh) and his friend’s (Mahim) disloyal wife (Achala). At the same time the writer
portrays the conflict between emotional love and physical impulse. However, with
due apology to his memory, I convict him of corruption in this context; the reason is:
he does not give the reader any scene of intimate relationship between Achala and
her husband Mahim, which he does in case of her and her lover Suresh. Does Sarat
make this bias for commercial accomplishment?
Marital bond loosens due to economic difficulties in Birajbou too. This novel is
also a mirror of physical persecution on those days’ Bengali women. A village
housewife, who is devoted to her husband, endures long days’ poverty and
persecution with great patience, a virtue that those days’ Bengali Hindu women were