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" LITERATURE IN MIDNAPORE "

Haripada Mondal

During the whole span of the nineteenth century nothing remarkable in poetic or dramatic was produced by any writer of Midnapore. It seemed that the poets and the play-wrights could not establish any link with the main stream of Bengali literature.

Michael Madhusudan Dutta's poems clearly marked the turning point towards the new era of Bengali poetry. Being dazzled by the light of that rising sun, some verse makers blindly followed him and scribbled a good number of volumes. Such Were Karnabadha Kavya of Bamacharan Das (imitating Miechael's Meghnadbadha Kavya), Kurukalanka Kavya & Samudramanthan Kavya of Radhagobinda Pal , Laichand & Devala of Sk Osman Ali ,, Samyukta of Umesh Chandra Mahaparra . But none of the versifiers could rose up to the sprit of the age or reached up to the standard of a considerable artistic creation.

Even in the 20th century the greatest of the Bengali poets, Rahindranath Tagore , was neither fully appreciated nor accepted as a model of many-faced literary artist, whose inspiration could alone serve a peremial source of diverse creativity. Fable imitators of Tagore and the Tagorean circle of poets attempted to produce poems of popular type touching now and then at the Problems of Present-day life. Poetry is appreciation of life, if not a full criticism of it, life as led by men and women of this visible world. En Bengaj, life was groaning in storm and stress under the Oppressive rulers and feudal system prevalent everywhere. Nazrul Islam and some other prominent poets were highly eloquent against this atmosphere. While the poets and writers on the national front, as opposed to British imperialism, roused agitation, the poets of this district could not give any spirited impetus to the people
through their poems, though there were lots of agitators, fighters and martyrs in the soil of Midnapore for rights of land and liberty. The militant overtone was nowhere heard beyond political area. In this tract of land Bimalasankar Das, Bibhutibhusan Vidyabinode, Satyendranath Jana, Jagadananda Bajpeyee, Durgaprasad Sahu, Divakar Ghosh and others still produced poems of romantic temparanent, and along right the trodden track. Harisadhan Pyne, Yatindranath Adhya and Bibhutibhusan Vidyavinode were no doubt sincere with their feelings, but the voice was still very low to reach the ears of common audience.

In the period of Kallol and Kalikalam modernisms as commonly conceived in Bengali poetry flowed in full swing, and our local pen-men could not but be up and doing in shaping their new-found feeling. Amar Sarangi, Prabhakar Majhi, Sambhunath Chattopadhyay, Phanibhusan Acharya, Mrityunjoy Maity, Sisirkumar Das, Chittaranjan Maity and a few others gave vent to their emotion in a critical modern techniques quite in tune with the main stream. A good number of later poets, who are still singing sweetly with their lutes and to whom we pay our attention with eagerness, are Binode Bera, Bitasoke Bhattacharya, Biplab Majhi, Pranob Maity, Shyamalkanti Das, Bishnu Samanta, Sambhu Rakshit, Dipak Kar, .Mrinal Kanti Kali, Cliitta Sahoo, Tapanjyotj Bandyopadyay, Sudhanshu Bag and Sudhanshu Tunga . Most of the modernists seem to put stronger stress on form then on matter.


It is very difficult to place an exhaustive account of the literary activities of the modern writers of Midnapur, as this is ever-increasing and significantly dynamic. We see that Midnapur is galloping fast with up-to-date Bengali poetry and she is not lagging behind in present day prose literature too. For a time the great novel-artist SARATCHANDRA was looked at by the circle of Kallol and Kali-kalam through a romantic and emotional lens. But MANIK BANDYOPADHYAY (once a student of Ghatal and Midnapur Collegiate School ) shook off that romanticism or emotionalism and chiseled out a new road along which Susil Jana and Gunamoy Manna , the two illustrious living writers shone out like lustrous stars in the crowded sky of novels and stories. Susil Jana showed his originality and definite from other novelists in drawing up a suffocating society and figuring out a heavy and wavelike transitional force. His novels Padachinha, Gharer Thikana, Mahanagari Suryagras & Belabhumir Gan bear stamp of a consumnate and keen observer and a successful pen-man. Gunamoy Manna , also a literary artist of no mean order, won loud applause from the lovers of literature in presentation of his ‘Lakhindar Digar', ‘Katabhanari and' ‘Salboni' novels, in which a very strong impersonal outlook is expressed regarding lower class peasant and working people. En the rolling Pages of the two volumes of “Junapur steel” a vivid and impressive Picture of the lobour Class, the problems of the exploited and oppressed workers & their ruthless sufferings have superbly been drawn up by the master writer. According to the author's view the workers and the peasants should form the base of a socialistic pattern of society, class-less and exploitation-less. Mriryunjay Maily seems to be very closely intimate with the rural life of Midnapur and his stories, novels and dramas haunt us with his panoramic pictures, which are artistically drawn accurate without sacrificing the pathetic side of the social life Natun Janapad, Nadi mati-manush, Rupnarayan, Jakhan Bristi Namloh are among his countable books. Cliittaranjan Maity is one of the most fascinating fiction writers of today. Covering a wide range of experience in different walks of life, he appears to be a voluminous author of varieties of novels. like Agriikanya, Dr. Janhsoner Diary, Hiranyagarher Badhu, Barsha Basanta Chuyeh, Andhar Periyeh, Forest Bungalow, Mohini, Kaler Kallol, Plavan, Sangam and Mahakaler Bandar . Reality, sublimity and beauty—temporal and eternal, are the three abstractions that one reader may be tempted to draw with absorbing emotion through the pages of his books. But if one likes to find any pictures of struggle for present existence in his characters he will rather he wanting some thing more.

 

 


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