Modern Assamese Short Stories | Upendranath Sarma

No mature short story writer arrived on the scene to take up the challenge of the forties and it was only the seed time for a great afflorescence yet to come. The mature productions of the ‘Ramdhenu group’ of writers were written in the Michaelmas Summer of Indian freedom, and an element of complacency enters into the consciousness of many writers. But, the province of Assam was far away from the core of the country and industrialisation was slow to arrive. So, there was hardly any speed in Assamese life. As a result, more significant writers of the period fall back upon the depiction of the variegated local traits of the rural character. The simplicity of rural life and the fresh novelty of urban life, which was hardly distinguishable from it coloured the imagination of these writers. They were also influenced by Freudian psychology and Marxist ideology. Under the influence of Freudian psychology there grows a tendency to anaylyse clearly and openly the problems of sex. The analysis of Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya and Homen Borgohain opened up new avenues for the development of new ideas through the short story. The rising middle classes were as yet free from worry and economic depression. So the influence of Marxism was for a time held in abeyance. With the arrival of freedom, the rainbow colour of hope worked in the subconscious of these writers. It may have been the source of the sense of compactness which one notices about the creative activity of some among the ‘Ramdhenu group’ of writers.

Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya is a typical product of the times. He believed that a writer should be committed. He wants to reflect the contemporary politico-social problems of the times. He has written with great sympathy about the struggle and transformations of the life of people of the hills. He eschews any dramatic movement and speed. His presentation of a situation is factual. He does not take into cognizance the writer’s privilege to speed the slow movement of life in the interest of his art. He has achieved success whenever he has relied on first hand experience and depicted known characters with sympathy. The truthfulness, objectivity and the factual quality expressed in a story like ‘Prafulla Dada’ is highly praiseworthy. He has failed whenever he has attempted to see life under a prismatic light as in ‘Idar Jon’. In some of his stories, he has depicted with success the inherent nobility of the common man. ‘Mia Mansur’ is a good example of such depiction. He has a deep sense of social justice which he is able to transmit through the pages of his stories. Compassion for the common man is the hallmark of his writing. He has not succeeded in depicting upper middle class life. But, his depiction of rural life is enriched by concentration on significant details. His prose is simple and detached, He has succeeded in eschewing sentimentality. He belongs to that class of rare writers of whom we can say that ‘the style is the man’. The undramatic simplicity of such description is touching.

“Sobhan has seen Makhani before, but this time he was really charmed. Her colour is like the yellow corn, but the body is beautiful like the stripling of the Nahar tree, and her skin is moist and fresh like the plantain”.

Jogesh Das is an important writer of the ‘age of Ramdhenu’. His style is simple and natural. His sense of reality is sharp and his expression is clear. He particularly excels in depicting the little ironies of country life. In ‘kal patuwar Mrityu’ Das has shown in a deeply realized rural setting, how the little men of society have been sacrificing their well being for the security of the rich. The beautiful Rupe works in the house of the village Mouzadar and she becomes pregnant when Borbapa, the eldest son of the Mouzadar makes love to her in a clandestine manner. Borbapa is a big man’s son, and beyond any body’s rebuke, including the Mouzadar’s. The situation in the big man’s house is cloudy for, the honour of the house is at stake. Only Dhaniram can save the prestige of the house. Will he agree? He used to love Rupe. He can now have her for his wife. Tulasi is offered to the Gods and Kalpatuwa finds eternal release, gratis. Rupe is ‘Tulasi and Dhaniram is ‘Kalpatuwa’. The irony behind the title taken from proverbial lore is excellent. But Kalpatuwa does not reach heaven with Tulasi. He embraces death in life. In simple and clear language, Das has recreated a dying society. He throws a quizzical, ironical light upon the whole situation and builds the atmosphere with the utmost economy of expression. The story is undoubtedly one of the best in modern Indian literature. ‘Garakhahania’ shows how natural calamities like the flood creates havoc in the lives of the poor. The heroine’s father loses his landed property when strips after strips of the land along the river bank collapses into the river in spate and becomes heavily indebted to a rich man to gain a shelter. The latter wants to marry her and her father has to agree. Her lover returns only to find that the ‘Garakhahania’ has (symbolically) carried away his beloved along with her father’s property. The symbol of the ‘Garakhahania’ (collapse of steep land along the river bank) is used in an unforgettable manner. Depredation of rivers in Assam villages is a perennial theme for literature but no one has depicted the condition with so much care as Das has done. He has written about the subtle changes that occur in men’s lives when a basically rural society forces the impact of urbanization.

 

Upendranath Sarma writes on Indian Review.