Samaresh Bose's 'Bibar': Finding the Form of the Middle Class/ সমরেশ বসুর ‘বিবর’ : মধ্যবিত্তের স্বরূপ সন্ধান

Abstract

The rise of the Middle-Class in Bengal did not come through a transformative social movement like the industrial revolution in England, this Middle class was generally Calcutta-centric and job-oriented. Independence in 1947 brought with it refugee problem, economic depression, increasing unemployment problem, political disorientation, cultural invasion, degradation of values. As a result of which the Middle-Class society also evolved. In the post-independence period, the Middle-Class Bengali life became more and more complicated and disorientated due to various discriminations, hardships and dilemmas. Samaresh Basu in his novel ‘Bibar’ skillfully portrayed the character of the Middle Class, class mentality, struggle for survival, spiritual and external crisis and multi-dimensionality of characters. In the novel ‘Bibar’, he mainly presents to the reader the incongruous bleak and dark life of the urban Middle-Class of Kolkata. Not only that, the brutality, hypocrisy, unethicality, selfishness, depravity of the Middle-Class have been highlighted through the nameless hero and other characters of the novel.