Rabindranath Thakurer chotogolpo : Narir atmamorjadar Proyas/ রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুরের ছোটগল্প : নারীর আত্মমর্যাদার প্রয়াস

Abstract

One of the most important constituents of the Bengali literature are short stories. The short stories of Rabindranath Tagore has played a significant role in giving a shape to the short stories of Bengali literature and hence he is renowned as a great short story writer. Being a son of Zamindar he had to travel to Bangladesh (East Bengal) to supervise the peasants who worked in their land and at that time he, very closely witnessed the life of the villagers there, which he later described in his short stories. Tagore has composed around 90 short stories and the first one was 'Ghater Kotha'. The book 'Golpoguccha' contains all his short stories which were composed during the year 1891-1929.

             On one hand as his stories portray a vivid picture of the scenarios of the Bengali village life, on the other hand he has been seen to put up the issues and woes of the feminine groups faced at that time stressing mostly on the amount of importance given to them and their social rights. He has played a crucial role on liberating women from their social shackles portraying them as free individuals in his stories.

             Literary critics have indicated a great transition in the characteristics of women from the era of   'Sadhana Bharati' to 'Sabuj Patra'. Initially, the women were seen to suffer chauvinism but in 'Sabuj Patra' they were observed to establish their existence by means of struggles and protests.

             Tagore's most popular feminine characters from the later period were-Mrinal from ‘Streer Patra’, Giribala from ‘Manbhanjan’, Kalyani from ‘Aparichita’, Anila from ‘Poila Nombor’, Sohini from ‘Laboratori’, Anondi from ‘Bostami’, Sattabati from ‘Chitrakar’ etc. All these female characters are seen to establish their existence in the society created in the respective stories by means of protests and struggles. Even in some circumstances the characters were observed to give up from their marital relation with an uncompromising attitude.

              European authors had already started to glorify female characters in their stories at that time and in some way, Tagore's female characters were also influenced by them along with the modern culture that was gradually evolving during that time. Thus, it can be said that the protesting form of women in Rabindranath Tagore's short stories and their self-assertion is a significant issue which is still very relevant in Bengali literature.