মধুকুপির পরিবর্তমান আর্থসামাজিক প্রেক্ষাপটে দাশু ঘরামি ও মুরলীর সম্পর্কের বিবর্তন : সুবোধ ঘোষের ‘শতকিয়া’

Abstract

Tempted by the dream of a better, prosperous life, Madhukupi’s peasant Dashu Ghorami’s pregnant wife Murli leaves her husband, her own society, religion and culture for the sake of her unborn child and establishes a new family with a Christian identity in Haranganj. After losing one and a half Bigha of his land by the conspiracy of a local land owner, pauper Dashu tries his best to buy his own land and dreams of having back his wife again with their son but newly emerged coal mines, soil- cutting factories and rail track implantation sites around Madhukupi start employing the villagers as daily wage workers and therefore Madhukupi’s old agricultural economy collapses. Due to the damage of Madhukupi’s natural resources, corruption of landlord and administrators and the new government policy of joint farming instead of farmers’ individual ownership of land drive more and more farmers out of their old occupation and Madhukupi. Dashu’s son does not get accommodation in Murli’s new family and ends up in a Christian orphanage. Ambitious murli marries Dr Richard Sarkar but his impotency deprives her of her conjugal demands and her maternity both. Finally, defeated in the battle of life, Dashu comes to see his son at Haranganj and finds no place for him in Murli’s life anymore. Then he commits suicide.