Jibanananda Das’s Aesthetics in Beautiful Bengal: An Eco-critical Study Md. Shamim Mondol1 Abstract This paper aims at having a close look at Jibanananda Das’s poems especially Beautiful Bengal, the poetry published posthumously to show how the poet has observed and felt nature and accordingly presented it. In his delineation, the poet has all the compassions to expose the symbiosis between human beings and nature. The poems have got innumerable indirect implications to the continuous indiscriminate suicidal act of the man to damage the natural elements. This in turn contributes to awaken the reader to be passionate about the positive effects and impacts on human life, and so preserve nature against harrowing destruction around to maintain the balanced, peaceful and complete environment. Apart from some modes of discussions about his poems which are basically stuck in the topics associated with sensuous presentation of nature, sense of history, conscience related to death, frustration, decadence, modernity in theme, diction, form and difference from others, his writings have got other perspectives that are little explored so far. Among them, the environmental issues can inevitably come to the forefront of researches and this is a modest effort in that direction. Keywords: Beautiful Bengal, ecocriticism, symbiosis, environment, issues Ecocritical Focuses Ecocriticism is a relatively recent branch of literary studies that takes “an earth-centered approach to the study of texts” (Garrard, 2004, 1). Primarily starting with the Industrial Revolution, the environment is facing ever-growing challenges of pollution. The recent unprecedented degradation of the ecosystem threatening the very existence of human race has awakened the world to think seriously about the conservation of environment. Hence the question of prevention of degradation and preservation of the natural world have made the intellectuals ponder over the hazards and find out some means to promote the campaign for saving nature through literature and other possible ways and means, and in that context emerges ecocriticism. In The Ecocriticism Reader, Glotfelty (1996) defines ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (xviii) while Lawrence Buell considers it as the “study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis” (1995: 430) Ecocriticism thus comes to 1. Assistant Professor, Department of English, Green University of Bangladesh assess how literature and literary activities shape current perceptions of the environment and how nature is related within the cultural arena. It also focuses on certain historically conditioned concepts of nature and the natural world. The ecocritics also take their intellectual works as a direct intervention in current social, political, and economic debates surrounding environmental pollution and preservation. Pramod K. Nayar’s observation is quite comprehensive while he assesses ecocriticism as, a critical mode that looks at the representation of nature and landscape in cultural texts, paying particular attention to attitudes towards ‘nature’ and rhetoric employed when speaking about it. It aligns itself with ecological activism and social theory with the assumption that the rhetoric of cultural texts reflects and informs material practices towards the environment, while seeking to increase awareness about it and linking itself (and literary texts) with other ecological sciences and approaches. (2010, 242) In this context, the concept of deep ecology bears relevance as the spirit of this study goes quite well with themes of the poems of Jibanananda Das. This contemporary ecological and environmental philosophy advocates the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. It also advocates the restructuring of the present societies in accordance with such ideas. It argues that the natural world is a subtle balance of complex inter- relationships. So human interference and destruction of the natural world pose threats to the existence of organisms along with humans and natural order within ecosystems. Departing from anthropocentric environmentalism, the view of human beings here is much more hoilistic. The natural world is not to be freely exploited by humans. The ethics is the survival of any part is dependent upon the well-being of the whole. John Barry (2002) decidedly puts “this philosophy provides a foundation for the environmental, ecology and green movements and has fostered a new system of environmental ethics advocating wilderness preservation, human population control and simple living.” (161) Jibanananda Das: Looking at his Creation Jibanananda Das emerged in Bangla literature without much fuss in the literary circle, but continued contributing till his death carving an immortal place for him. Ahmed Rafiq (2020) opines, “Jibanananda Das is the major poet in the post- Rabindranath modern era.” As a poet, Jibanananda Das was at once a classicist and a romantic and created a world appealing to a modern mind. His renderings magnetize the sensitive and reactive mind full of anxiety and tension. Though he had got some influences of some poets in the initial writings, he soon overcomes and gets the voice that suits him and embellishes it with his own diction, rhythm and 104 | Page vocabulary. He finds out his root in the indigenous elements. He unmistakably maintains a self-styled lyricism and imagism for which Abdul Mannan Syed (2011) finds “The Purest Poet” the terms coined by Annadashankar Roy to be the most defining phrase for Jibanananda Das. (11) His sensuousness is easily felt in the pictures abound with the flora and fauna of Bangla. His frequent references to the comparative existence of human beings and natural world relate him to existentialism perfectly suited to the modern temperament. He is amazed and upset at a time about the continued existence of humankind in the backdrop of eternal flux of time. He is a poet seeking his existence ingrained in the tradition and history of Bengal. He has made repeated references to the traditional stories, fairy tales, historical events, personalities and places thus pacing him firmly in the lap the country. Environmental Concerns in Das’s Poems Nature is a recurrent theme in the poetry of Jibanananda Das with repeated emphasis on the elements of the environments like trees, birds, flower, rivers etc. explicitly showing his strong concern for them as he was critical to unplanned expansion of capitalism and industries which have dire consequences on our environment. Kamrul Islam summarizes his embedded in nature thus, “He became a poet nurtured by nature, his multi-layered poetic genius was nourished and flourished in nature’s nest.” The First World War and its subsequent disastrous effects on earth and human beings must have left a pessimistic imprint on his mind about the future of the greeneries which led him to remember and record nature with all its beauties and bounties. In case of Beautiful Bengal, it is obviously seen from the missing title originally given by the poet Scared Sky of Bengal (Banglar Trosto Nilima). As Abu Hasan Shahriar (2008) puts, “From the intimate sources, it is known that the poet desired to publish the book under the title Banglar Trosto Nilima.” (8) In his writings, he has pampered nature and nourished it thoroughly in a consistent practice. He has promoted the elements of nature with all the softness and tenderness. He resorts to them whenever he wants to even at the cost of something materialistically far more lucrative. He intermingles mood and nature as if nature interacted in time of need and never left us. His depiction of nature is faithful and sensuous. He dwells upon nature in a way that clearly shows the superiority of nature, not the nature of a patriarchal society dominated by the males as they do to the females. As nature is inseparable from human beings, his feeling is such that human beings and nature are interdependent so far the better existence on earth is concerned. In the poem “Camping” (“Campe”) of Gray Manuscripts which was considered obscene when it was published in Poricay, the poet is straight in his articulation against the suicidal acts of human being against environment. He is aggrieved for the reason that hunters kill the animals indiscriminately. No part of 105 | Page the forest is safe for the wild animals because the people hunting them have moved even to the deepest and safest abode of them. So he pronounces with heavy heart and perturbation, Somewhere deer are being hunted this day Hunters have moved into the heart of the forest today. (Alam, 1999, 32)1 In this poem, the poet has even gone the extent to depict human beings in general which is again by no means positive. The poem is amorous in its tone and themes where does are heard to call stags to ‘quench their thirst’. The stags ‘move towards their sister/ Under the shundari trees- in the moonlight-/Like men lured by the smell of salty women’. But human beings are by nature cruel and so they have a little compassion for the animals, their enjoyment and feelings. Consequently, what they will do is completely disastrous for the does and the stags. The poet as a keen observer has nothing to expect from them and so he is sure that in the morning following, the does coming back will surely find a ruinous ground for them. Man has nothing more for the animals to learn. Tomorrow the doe will come back; In morning-in light she will be seen- Next to her will be all her fallen lovers. Lessons she has learnt from humans! (Alam, 1999, 34) The poet is not satisfied to portray this morbid picture of the moral ground of human beings in general. He who is on the surface sympathetic towards the animals is not an exception at all. Rather, he will also be enjoying the flesh in the dinner table.