Jyotirmoyee Devi's 'Epar Ganga Opar Ganga' the transformed lives of women against the backdrop of India's partition/ জ্যোতির্ময়ী দেবীর ‘এপার গঙ্গা ওপার গঙ্গা’ উপন্যাসে দেশভাগের প্রেক্ষিতে বদলে যাওয়া এক নারীর জীবন

Abstract

Jyotirmayee Devi's novel 'Epar Ganga Opar Ganga' (1966) depicts the suffering of a woman who was a victim of the partition. The novel is divided into four parts. This novel is the story of the massacre of a Hindu family and the oppression of women in Noakhali, present-day Bangladesh. Sutara Dutta is the main character of this novel. Her entire family is oppressed by the Muslim community. Although she survives, she has to take refuge in the house of her father's colleague, school teacher Tamiz Saheb. Sutara Tamiz's uncle keeps Sutara, who was affected by the riots, as his own daughter, for about eight months and safely delivers her to her brothers in Kolkata. After reaching Kolkata, Sutara begins another struggle. The Hindu society no longer wants to accept her because she was raised in a Muslim home. Even close relatives of the family turn their backs on her. After that, Sutara studies, establishes herself and understands the world and life more clearly. She comes to know about the suffering of countless ordinary women in India as a result of the partition. At the end of the novel, the love of Pramod lights a light of hope in her life. In this way, the distraught Sutara finds the direction to return to the path of light.