Tentative Title:
Projecting Ambiance Of The Liberation War Of Bangladesh Through The Select Contemporary Fiction: A Critical Study
Introduction:
Before becoming an independent nation, Bangladesh was a part of British-India known as Bengal. With the partition British-India and the formation of Pakistan in 1947, Bengal was divided into East-Bengal and West-Bengal on the basis of religion. East-Bengal, with its Muslim majority was formed into East-Pakistan and West-Bengal with its Hindu majority remained with India. It was only after the rise of Bengali nationalist and free determination movement in what was then East-Pakistan in 1971 and the consequent Liberation War that the present day Independent People’s Republic Of Bangladesh came into existence. According to Indian and Bangladeshi sources this war devoured up to 3 million lives and displaced 30 million people internally. However, the other side has denied the no’s as a hyperbolic statement. The war began due the Operation Searchlight launched by the Pakistani Military Junta against the people of East-Pakistan on the night of 25th March 1971, resulting into a nine-month long war which ended only after “the Instrument Of Surrender” signed by Gen. A.A.K Niazi on 16th of Dec. 1971.
We Know that there is no good-war, doesn’t matter whatever the circumstances, a war can never be justified. Every war is accompanied by the horrors, the loss of lives, trauma, rape, bloodshed. In war everything is reduced either to an enemy or to a target. Similarly The Liberation War of 1971 has left a scathing memory, a good number of lives lost, a huge bloodshed. When any country is undergoing an unprecedented war in its history, its people won’t sing of flowers or count the beauty of stars, rather what they do is witness the horrors and their everything gets reshaped and redirected under circumstances.
Apart from other things the most affected area by war is the literature of the soil. Similarly, Bangladesh’s literature has noted a deep impression of its War of Independence. Much has been written about it in the regional language of Bangladesh. But still the world is yet to know the severity of its trauma, with all its intricacies and ambiguities; because most of such narratives are not available to the outside world in any major language, especially English.
The genesis of Bangladeshi novel lie deep in the Bengali novel, about which Ananda Sanker and Lila Ray write, “When the novel was introduced in Bengali in the middle of the 19th century, the form itself was new, the prose in which it was written was new, the secular tone was new in a country hitherto wholly dominated by religion, and the society in which and for which it was written was new”.(P.168) But after the novelists like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Manik Bandopadhyay, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, sarat Chandra Chattopahyay leapt on the stage, the newly introduced genre was developed with such dexterity that soon it became ‘mature’. But all these literary activities took place in Calcutta. The literature of Bangladesh fell almost 50 years behind the Bengali novels. It flourished only later with notable success. Initially Bangladeshi novels were dominated by the religious themes but later on attention was paid to the real Bangali life. But with the advent of Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, a great number of novels depicting its horrors and the post-war disillusionment followed. Among others Anwar Pasha, Shaukat Osman, Selina Hossain, Mahmudul Haq, Anisul Haque, Syed shmasul Haq, Humayun Ahmad, Rashid Haider, Harun Habib, Rabiya khatun are the notable names with this theme.
The aim of the present work is to deal with such (select) contemporary novels written or translated into English language, and to analyze the ambiance of the Liberation war of Bangladesh in them. One such novelist is Anisul hoque, born on 4th March 1965 in Rangpur. This Bangladeshi author, screenwriter, novelist, dramatist and journalist has witnessed so beautifully the pain and trauma of Liberation war in his writings in general and in his novel Maa(2003) in particular. An English translation of this novel titled ‘Freedom’s Mother’ was published by Palimpsest from New Delhi in 2012. Magfar Ahmed Chowdhury, aka Azad and his mother Shafia Begum mirror the brutality of the war. He is caught up by Pakistan army on 29th Aug 1971, and tortured brutally and martyred. His mother Shafia carries on searching for him, but his dead body is never found. The Indian Express noted the release of its English translation and described the book as, “Set against the backdrop of the Bangladesh war, it is a compelling story of love and betrayal and the human cost of conflict.”
Another novel ‘A Golden Age, 2007’ is a debut novel by a Bangladeshi born British writer Tahmima Anam (born 08 Oct 1975). It tells the story of same war through the eyes of one family. Rehana haque, the protagonist of the novel, loses the custody of her children and their involvement in the war after her husband’s death. Her son joins the Mukti Bahini and her daughter reports from the Calcutta. This is the story of a mother who is pulverized between the love of her children and her allegiance to the freedom struggle of her nation.
‘Rashed, My Friend’ is the English translation of ‘Amer Bondhu Rashed’ by Mohammad Zafar Iqbal translated by his daughter Yeshim Iqbal. The book covers the story of a boy named Ibu in the Liberation War. The main character (Rashed) who initially calls himself Laddu, after many complications is named by his teacher. Compared to his school friends he is conscious about the Liberation movement. One day, after the Pakistani army attacks the town, Rashed witnesses the battle. He and his friends help the Mukti Bahini and he gradually gets involved with the war and is consequently martyred.
‘The Mercenary’ is an English translation of ‘Kobej Lethel’ (1993) by Moinul Ahsan Saber, translated by Shabnam Nadiya. Born on 26th of May 1958, Saber is a Bangladeshi fiction writer. His book ‘The Mercenary’ revolves around the story of an eponymous character named Kobej Lethel and his witnessing of the killing and the deadly violence which shapes him and which he can not escape.
One more novel which draws on the lines is ‘The Search’, an English translation of Shaheen Akhtar’s new novel ‘Talaash’, by Illa Dutta. This story is a vivid depiction of the impact of war on women. It displays through Mariam, the helplessness, pain, hurt, trauma which women undergo during the time of crisis. It is a heart wrenching story set against the backdrop of the Liberation War of 1971.
Objectives:
The aim of this research is to study the select works of Bangladeshi writers, set against the backdrop of the Liberation War of 1971. And to tackle the following research questions:
How has the Liberation War of 1971 been depicted in the contemporary Bangladeshi fiction?
How has the Liberation War of 1971 contributed into the post-war disillusionment and trauma?
What role did women play in Freedom struggle of Bangladesh?
How does the contemporary fiction witness this war as a grand celebration on the body of Bangladeshi women?
Methodology:
The methodology to be followed in this proposed research will be qualitative in nature. A deep critical study of the primary and the relevant secondary material available on the writers and their select works will be done in order to serve the purpose of this work.
Bibliography:
Anand Sarkar and Lila Ray, Bengali literature, Paschimbanga Bangla Academy Kolkata,2000
Maa(2003), Anisul Haque
The Golden Age, 2007, Tahmima Anam
Rashed My Friend, Mohammad zafar iqbal
Kobej Lethel,1993; Moinul ahsan saber
The Search, 2009; Shaheen Akhter
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