সংকট ও সংহতির দ্বন্দ্বে অন্নদাশঙ্কর রায় : বহুমাত্রিক সমাজ ভাবনার সমালোচনামূলক পাঠ/ The Dialectic of Crisis and Cohesion: A Critical Reappraisal of Annada Shankar Ray’s Multidimensional Social Vision

Abstract

Annada Shankar Ray (1904-2002) is one of the few writers who highlightes the social dilemma’s in his essays during the last two decades of noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s time in Bengali literature. This contemplative and thoughtful fiction writer is called as the youngest intellectual in Bengali Renaissance (1860-1960) who create a new era in his creative writing through his thoughtful manifestation in his essays. This article will explore how his colossal writing makes anyone rethink about social crisis and its salvation. He wrote essays and articles about philosophy, sociology, art & literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, domestic and social crisis. This paper is to give prominence to bring out the aspects of complexity and difficulties of South Asian society especially Bengali society’s Social dilemma and reality in Annadas writings. Through the lens of literary and cultural approach; the critical analysis methodology of this study will provide a clear concept of Annada Shankar Ray’s concept about Indian sub-continental reality of society, religion, education, social harmony, women in society including the limitations of women empowerment and importantly the communal issues. Focused on his thoughtful essays namely-Women crisis in family (1923), Hindu-Muslim (1934), Crisis and Literatue (1941-1942), Crisis in Solidarity (1980) and Crisis in Culture (1984). This study argue that the nature of multidimensional crisis and intellectual depiction about contemplated salvation of the problems revealed in his writings was universal to Bengali culture of early 19^th century which is still relevant.