Reflection of Socio- Economic and Cultural Turmoil of 1940s and 1950s in Short Stories of Manik Bandopadhyay : a renowned litterateur

The Progressive Movement or the Marxist Cultural Renaissance occurred in a bloodthirsty and horrible situation which was the outcome of The Second World war, Famine, Communal riots, Partition related refugee crisis and the Tebhaga Movement. Contemporary undivided Communist Party of India was the pioneer in this intellectual development. All – India Progressive Writers’ Association ( 1936), AntiFascist Writers and Artists related Organisation ( 1942) , Association of Friends of the Soviet Power ( 1941) and the famous I.P.T.A ( 1943) were established mainly for earnest endeavour of the Communist Party. Eminent author Manik Bandopadhyay was associated with the AntiFascist Cultural platform from 1943 and embraced the Marxist philosophy with heartfelt desire. He got membership of the Communist Party in 1944 and continued his creative works through a perfect amalgamation of identity of litterateur with identity of dedicated and devoted party – worker in different areas of Bengal. He created extraordinary short stories (1943/ 19441956) in backdrop of food and clothing related severe crisis, famine – stricken terrible situation , hegemony of influential people of black market related trading system , moral degeneration , flesh trade / prostitution adopted by poor and helpless womenfolk, communal riots related bloodbath and aggressive peasant unrest etc.

During terrible crisis occurred due to the impact of the World War II and famine , poverty-stricken rural women of Bengal adopted the path of prostitution when their husbands were missing while searching for jobs and their children were on the verge of death and destruction. Social value -structure had gone through tremendous upheaval and Mahila Atmaraksha samiti tried their level best for rehabilitation of those helpless women in rural family-system again. In the story entitled Aaj kal parshur galpo Surama was a perfect representative of those enlightened women actively engaged in social welfare. Those sophisticated urban ladies helped Mukta , wife of Rampada, to establish herself in her family again. Rampada showed defiance in face of rural influential stalwarts and got full-fledged support of Banamali and Karali in rural bichar-sabha . Statement of the character Karali about Mukta actually reflected view of the author -... Gaye khete payni , soami kache nei ,tai sadare khete khete geche. Or doshta kiser ?
In the story Ke bachay , ke bache ! one can find skilful depiction of psychological impact of the scenario of horrible death for starvation and central character entitled Mrityunjay was not able to lead a normal life with his family after being witness of such an incident while going for office. Here endnote of the story can be quite relevant for understanding the whole plot-… Mrityunjayer gaa theke dhulimalin silker jama adrishya hoye jay. Paroner dhutir badale ase chera nyakra , gaye tar mati jama hoye drishyaman hoye othe. Darite mukh dheke jay. Choto ekti mag hate aro dashjoner sange se pore thake phootpathe ar karakari maramari kore langarkhanar khichuri khay. Bole , 'Gaa theke eichi. Khete pai ne baba. Amay khete dao.' Sare satser chal was an extraordinary story in backdrop of terrible famine of 1940s in Bengal. Here Sannyasi crossed a large distance to reach his village as early as possible with burden of sare satser chal with him because he wanted to try his best to arrange food for starved near and dear ones of his impoverished family. At last he reached his destination in spite of extreme fatigue and severe hunger but found nobody in his house. Then he breathed his last in fathomless despondency-Kono ghare keu nei. … daoay sare sat ser chaler putuli namiye Sannyasi hisab ar kalpana diye byapartar hadis pete boslo…. Kothay paliye kothay moreche barir sobai, Sona bauthan suddhu ?
In rural Bengal clothing related crisis reached its zenith during 1943-1944 simultaneously with acute food shortage and this problem was thoroughly highlighted in the book entitled Kapar Chai written by eminent Communist leader Somnath Lahiri. According to Soumitrashankar Sengupta Manik Bandopadhyay's famous story Dushshasaniya was an important milestone in backdrop of this Kapar related crisis. The rural area shown here was of Midnapore district which was also highlighted in Hungry Bengal of Chittaprasad, a well-known artist with special expertise in manifesting trauma of the devastating famine. Kanak Mukhopadhyay, a well-reputed leader of Marxbadi Communist Party, in her book Pragati sahityer dhara beye opined that-Sottoi gharer meyeder lajja nibaraner upay chilona , anek baritei kaparer abhabe meyera baire berote partona. Keu ba kalapata , kachupata dwara konomote lajja nibaran korte chesta korto. Kathashilpi Manik Bandopadhyay ei parishthiti dekhe etoi bicholito hoyechilen je ei galper seshe Rabeyake tini ar bachar path dekhate parenni, se jale dube atmahatya kore lajja nibaran korlo.
In another story entitled Masi Pisi Manik Bandopadhyay had shown development of undaunted spirit of struggle among women who were earning themselves because they had to survive withstanding famine and crisis generated due to half-starved condition. Masi and Pisi were the symbol of eternal motherhood in their neverending troublesome journey of protecting Ahladi from clutches of oppressor and alcoholic husband and trauma of domestic violence. They had some personal issues of conflicts in their household also but they forgot those petty things while acting as an umbrella for Ahladi. The courageous womenfolk even became ready for struggle against onslaught of Kacharibari and Darogababu when those local powerful people tried to send Ahladi to her husband without her consent-bati ar daa rakhe hater kachei. Yuddher ayojon kore tairi hoye thake Masipisi. Jake ghush dite hoy is a satirical story where Makhan was compelled by circumstances to use his wife Sushila as a coveted gift for Dassaheb with whom he was involved in vested interest. The author depicted greedy nature of Makhan skillfully in his illuminating story -Makhaner du-chokh jaljal kore othe. Sushilar nishwas atke jay. Aaj kodin dhore Makhan ei Contractta bagabar chesta korchilo-prokando Contract , lakh takar opar ghare asbe ! Shilpi was a significant one among well-reputed stories of the eminent author and in this story central character Madan tati refused to make clothes following directive of Bhuban Ghoshal, a pillar of black market , though he was facing extreme poverty in the life of weaver. He did not compromise with his self-respect and his indomitable will power was manifested in end of the story -Buro Chiniye khayni keno was undoubtedly an outstanding story written by Manik Bandopadhyay who tried to show through Jogi , a representative of subaltern people , that a large number of people died for starvation but did not adopt the path of banditry because they lost all vigour and power of taking initiative due to starvation related acute crisis :-Sedin bujhlam babu keno etolok na kheye moreche , eto khabar hater kache thakte chiniye khayni keno. Ekdin khete na pele sharirta sudhu shukoy na , larai kore chiniye kheye bachar tagido jhimiye jay. …Shastore boleni babu , anna holo pran ? Wife of Jogi was rescued from the racket of prostitution through earnest endeavour of her husband who was not bothered about the name of real biological father of would-be child of his wife-Jogi … aaj sudhu ei karone akhushi hote naraj je bou tar je chele ba meyer maa hobe se tar janmodata noy …Tar poribaar khete na peye hariye giyechilo to ? Jebhabe pare khete peye nijeke bachiyeche to ! Tarpor ar kono kotha ache ?
Pyak is a story where author tried his best to uphold significance of life of labour class over lazy lifestyle of urban middle class . Kanak Mukhopadhyay in Pragati sahityer dhara beye rightly opined that-…. Ei madhyabitto ba tathakothito bhadrajibaner proti Manik Bandopadhyayer jeno sahajato bidyesh royeche. Bhadrajibaner kritrimatar biruddhei tini bidroha korechen sobar age. Je bachay story is a perfect reflection of horrible food crisis and death related to starvation . Here Nalini is such a character who left village for starvation and continued as relief worker in urban sphere. She sent money for her poor mother who stayed in village home but her mother died due to acute poverty before the financial help could reach her. The renowned author described the situation efficiently at the end of the story -Dhananjay datobya oushadhalayer kichu dure Nandider barir kache Nalinir maar bari. … Barir kachakachi jetei ekta bishri durgandha nake lagchilo ; uthone pa dite gandhota ghano o garo hoye uthlo.
In Raghab Malakar story we can observe picture about severity of clothes related crisis and central character Raghab adopted path of looting just for distribution of clothes related to black market among poverty-stricken needy people of village area. He was imprisoned for his attempt and was wounded also-Pattugaye giye pulish dyakhe ….luth-kora kaporer bhag batoara niye joralo ekta danga hoye geche gato ratre…. Raghaber matha phete chouchir hoye geche. Raghab bachbe ki marbe thik nei.
Picture of flesh trade was depicted in famous stories entitled Namuna and Gopal Sashmol. In Namuna , helpless father Keshab tried his level best to protect daughter Shaila and requested Kalachand , an ill-reputed pillar of racket of prostitution , to marry Shaila if he really wanted to take his daughter with him . The author had made perfect statement of the contemporary situation in the story-Kebal Keshaber noy , erokom abastha aro aneker hoyeche. Anna nei kintu anna paoar ekta upay paoa giyeche meyer binimoye. Kaek basta anna , meyetir deher ojoner du tin gun. Sei sange kichu nagad takao , ja diye khankoyek bastra kena jete pare.
Earnest endeavour of a poor father to save his daughter from prostitution was not successful because ultimately Shaila became victim of circumstances in spite of marriage with Kalachand-Mandodori nishabde mota ektara note bar kore Kalachander samne dhorlo. Ektu itostoto kore noteguli hate niye Kalachand santarpane gunte arombho korlo. Gona sesh hobar por mone holo se jeno mantrabale thanda hoye geche. ' Lokta ke ?' ' Sei Gajen . Chal beche lal hoye geche.' In end of the story Gopal Sashmol , Manik Bandopadhyay had shown us that flesh trade was nothing but the outcome of acute food crisis and starvation. Ratan . daughter of Bhushan , was a victim of this curse -Bhushaner meye Ratan sei aandhakarer bhetar theke ese Gopaler hat dhorlo.
In the story Dhan one can easily observe that Sharat Halder , Narayan and Jagat kundu were agents of the colonial government . They did not want to distribute food to the needy and impoverished people and always conspired against mass -interest. Here I will again quote Kanak Mukhopadhyay -Khudharto manusher mukh theke dhanguli gudamjato kore. Abar janatar akramon theke bachbar jonyo gudamer dhan sorie phele.