In the mid-1930s, when the ascendancy of Bengali nationalist leadership at the all-India level was by and large over, a new generation of writers took up the task of radically transforming Indian society from the bottom. By pointing to a living dimension of freedom by the side of the marginalized communities, they carved out a new arena of uncompromising practice for themselves. Manik Bandopadhyay’s (1908-1955) novel Padmanadir majhi played a pioneering role in this respect. By showing how Bengali literature could become a most effective instrument of a systemic cultural reorientation, it provided Bengali bhadralok intellectuals with a new sense of purpose on the frontline of contemporary India’s quest for social justice. This was done by turning a specific element of the natural environment in Bengal, the river Padma, into a timeless domain where the ‘unhappy consciousness’ of the colonized mind could regain its freedom.

Freedom in the river: Bengali bhadralok consciousness in Manik Bandopadhyay’s Padmanadir majhi / Prayer, Mario. - In: RIVISTA DEGLI STUDI ORIENTALI. - ISSN 0392-4866. - STAMPA. - LXXXVIII:Nuova serie(2015), pp. 165-180.

Freedom in the river: Bengali bhadralok consciousness in Manik Bandopadhyay’s Padmanadir majhi

PRAYER, Mario
2015

Abstract

In the mid-1930s, when the ascendancy of Bengali nationalist leadership at the all-India level was by and large over, a new generation of writers took up the task of radically transforming Indian society from the bottom. By pointing to a living dimension of freedom by the side of the marginalized communities, they carved out a new arena of uncompromising practice for themselves. Manik Bandopadhyay’s (1908-1955) novel Padmanadir majhi played a pioneering role in this respect. By showing how Bengali literature could become a most effective instrument of a systemic cultural reorientation, it provided Bengali bhadralok intellectuals with a new sense of purpose on the frontline of contemporary India’s quest for social justice. This was done by turning a specific element of the natural environment in Bengal, the river Padma, into a timeless domain where the ‘unhappy consciousness’ of the colonized mind could regain its freedom.
2015
Bengal rivers; colonial India; Bengali Bhadralok; intellectual history of colonial India
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Freedom in the river: Bengali bhadralok consciousness in Manik Bandopadhyay’s Padmanadir majhi / Prayer, Mario. - In: RIVISTA DEGLI STUDI ORIENTALI. - ISSN 0392-4866. - STAMPA. - LXXXVIII:Nuova serie(2015), pp. 165-180.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/850557
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