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ISSN 2277-9426 Journal of Bengali Studies Vol. 6 No. 1 The Age of Bhadralok: Bengal's Long Twentieth Century Dolpurnima 16 Phalgun 1424 1 March 2018 1 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426), Vol. 6 No. 1 Published on the Occasion of Dolpurnima, 16 Phalgun 1424 The Theme of this issue is The Age of Bhadralok: Bengal's Long Twentieth Century 2 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 ISSN 2277-9426 Journal of Bengali Studies Volume 6 Number 1 Dolpurnima 16 Phalgun 1424 1 March 2018 Spring Issue The Age of Bhadralok: Bengal's Long Twentieth Century Editorial Board: Tamal Dasgupta (Editor-in-Chief) Amit Shankar Saha (Editor) Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta (Editor) Sayantan Thakur (Editor) 3 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Copyrights © Individual Contributors, while the Journal of Bengali Studies holds the publishing right for re-publishing the contents of the journal in future in any format, as per our terms and conditions and submission guidelines. Editorial©Tamal Dasgupta. Cover design©Tamal Dasgupta. Further, Journal of Bengali Studies is an open access, free for all e-journal and we promise to go by an Open Access Policy for readers, students, researchers and organizations as long as it remains for non-commercial purpose. However, any act of reproduction or redistribution (in any format) of this journal, or any part thereof, for commercial purpose and/or paid subscription must accompany prior written permission from the Editor, Journal of Bengali Studies. For any queries, please contact: [email protected] and [email protected] For details about our Editorial Team, general policies, terms and conditions, submission guidelines and publication details, please see our websites http://bengalistudies.blogspot.com and www.bengalistudies.com Cover Image: Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray in adda JBS Vol.6 No.1 is published by Dr Tamal Dasgupta from http://bengalistudies.blogspot.com and www.bengalistudies.com 4 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Journal of Bengali Studies is a double blind peer-reviewed online journal published since 2012. For the previous issues please visit http://bengalistudies.blogspot.com and www.bengalistudies.com We have previously published NINE issues on the following themes, and all of them are available online: Ognijug (Vol.1, No.1) Bengali Cinema: Bengalis and Cinema (Vol.1, No.2) Bengali Theatre: Bengalis and Theatre (Vol.2, No.1) Science and Technology in History: Modern Bengali Perspectives (Vol.2, No.2) Literature and Movements: Bengali Crossroads (Vol.3, No.1) Kolkata (Vol.3, No.2) Bengali Music: Bengalis and Music (Vol.4 No.1) Microhistory: Bengali Perspectives (Vol.4, No.2) Foreign Encounters: Bengal and Abroad (Vol. 5, No.1) 5 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Disclaimer: The contents, views and opinions occurring in the contributions are solely the responsibilities of the respective contributors and the editorial board of Journal of Bengali Studies does not have any responsibility in this regard. The image/s appearing in the Journal are parts of a critical project, not for any commercial use. Image/s are either provided by the authors/designers from their personal collections and /or are copyright free to the best of knowledge & belief of the editorial board. 6 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Contents Editorial 10 Article Bankim and Rabindranath: Dialectics in the Dawn of the Age of Bhadralok Tamal Dasgupta 13 The Fallen Woman Who Would Be Lost into the Long Twentieth Century: Thakomoni from Those Days Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta 66 Vaishnava Theology's Lyrical Legacy in the Twentieth Century: An Analysis of Tagore's Gitanjali and Bhanusingha's Padabali Sayantan Thakur 73 Demographic Alterations in West Bengal During the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century Anish Gupta 97 There Just Aren't Faces Like That Anymore: Remembering Devika Rani Anuja Bagchi 109 Oscillation as Dilemma in the Songs of Moushumi Bhowmik Chirantan Sarkar 118 Rereading and Restructuring the Marichjhapi Massacre in Post-Partition Historiography: Dispossession and Refugeeism in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide Sumallya Mukhopadhyay 130 Reliving the Partition in Recent Bengali Films Somdatta Mandal 143 7 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Oscillating Between 'Ae-Par-Bangla' and 'Ue-Par-Bangla': A Kaleidoscopic View of Oral Traditions among the Tripura Bangals Gitanjali Roy 153 Nation, Language and the Middle Classes: A Brief Reappraisal of the Respective Stances of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and Rabindranath Tagore Pracheta Bakshi 175 Transforming the Baboo: Bankim and the Rise of Nationalist Historiography Abhinaba Chatterjee 181 Shakespeare's Impact on the Bengali Bhadralok Arindam Mukherjee 201 Bilet Ferat (1921): A Milestone of Bengali Film History Abhishek Chowdhury 215 Bengali Vaidya Caste and the Age of Bhadralok Raibatak Sen Gupta 227 Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri: Towards a Biography of a British Bhadralok Tamal Guha 269 Review A Memoir with a Difference: An Introspection into Tapan Raychaudhury's Romonthon Othoba Vimrotipraptor Paracharitcharcha Ayon Halder 286 8 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Birlas and the Decline of the Age of Bhadralok: A Review of The Mystery of Birla House Somashish 290 “Put a Tongue in Every Wound of Caesar”: A Review of Ranajit Roy’s Dhwongsher Pothe Poshchimbongo Tamal Dasgupta 298 Creative Workshop: Poem The Pigeons Amit Shankar Saha 302 Interview Remembering the Sengupta Brothers and Bengal's Twentieth Century: JBS in Conversation with Binayak Sengupta 305 9 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 Editorial We made the following statement in our call for papers, and as we publish this issue on Bengal’s Long Twentieth Century, it is pertinent to look back: Eric Hobsbawm named his study of the twentieth century history of the western world as the Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century. He defines the twentieth century as having been inaugurated with the beginning of the first world war in 1914, and to have lasted till the fall of Soviet Union in 1991. He also defines the nineteenth century as the long nineteenth century, lasting from 1789 to 1914, in his trilogy Age of Revolutions 1789-1848, Age of Capital 1848-1875 and Age of Empire 1875-1914. Applying the same logic, one can propose that the Bengali twentieth Century rather was a long century, and it has been an age of intense movements in politics, literature, culture and society dominated by the towering presence of the Bengali bhadralok. In Case of Bengal, applying Hobsbawm's paradigm, we can state that the twentieth century came to an end with the fall of CPIM led regime in 2011. And the beginning of this long twentieth century can loosely be traced back to the Hindu Mela in 1867, or the formation of Surendranath Banerjee's Bharat Sabha in 1876, while it can be definitively argued that the dawn of Bengali consciousness characterising the age of bhadralok was crystallised with the Bengali response to the anti-Ilbert bill movement launched by the white colonialists in 1883, which made the Bengalis aware of the power of organised movements and this was when Bengali babu (a comprador) was steadily transformed into the Bengali bhadralok (a 10 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 conscientious objector to British imperialism), armed with the writings of Bankim Chandra, the Ramakrishna Vivekananda movement, the intense intellectual and cultural ferment of Bengal Renaissance and Bengali Revival, and the spirit of nationalism. The Bengali bhadralok started to assert himself and aimed for political power, and this is how the journey towards India's independence began. It later culminated in the British [counter-]agenda of partitioning Bengal in 1905 and the subsequent transfer of Capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, a process that continued till the decimation of the bhadraloks took place. Bengalis responded by fierce anti-colonialism. There was the rise of Ognijug, which was simultaneously accompanied by constitutional struggle of C R Das's Swarajya Party. The emergence of Subhash Bose, [followed by] the formation of Forward Bloc in the late 1930s was followed by the first appearance of communist party among educated Bengalis, greatly aided by the favourable reception of communist ideology among erstwhile nationalist revolutionaries. The great Calcutta Killing and Noakhali Genocide of 1946 … followed by the partition of 1947 which brought tremendous human displacement in its wake. Then 1950s saw several waves of communist movements, while the intensification of communist movement was followed by the splits of 1960s, a decade that also saw the first United Front governments. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Bengalis of Assam suffered tremendous hardships. 1947 could be considered a watershed that earmarked the dissolution of Bengali power in India, which was followed by a series of unmitigated disasters. 1970s saw the Bangladesh war and the flow of refugees, emergency regime of Congress, formation of the first elected communist regime in Bengal. 1980s witnessed the overall stagnation of West Bengal and the beginning of Bengali decline. 1990s as a decade saw the emergence of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress which finally dislodged CPIM led left front regime in 2011 through a series of movements centred around Singur and Nandigram. The fall of CPIM can be considered to have concluded the age of Bhadralok. 11 | Journal of Bengali Studies (ISSN 2277-9426) Vol. 6 No. 1 The year 2011 can be considered to have brought Bengal's Long twentieth century to a close, given that what 1991 was to western history, 2011 is to our history. And though we primarily talk in terms of the political scenario, we cannot forget that these decades of the long twentieth century saw tremendous flourish in all segments of cultural life, earning Kolkata the sobriquet of the cultural capital of India.