Partition in Bengali Novels :- Nil Kantho Pakhir Khonje/ বাংলা উপন্যাসে দেশভাগ : নীলকণ্ঠ পাখির খোঁজে

Abstract

India was free from British colonialism on 15^th August, 1947. As Indian we feel a sense of patriotic and pride on 15^th August in every year. But it hides another real fact of our freedom which is the partition of India as well as Bengal (1947). As a result of partition both the Hindu, and Muslim communities had to pay the price of freedom. Religion based terrible murder, rapes create permanent wound in the social life of the Bengalis. With scared and afraid many people leave their mother land and move to another country to spend their life without harassment. Strangely the issue of partition was neglected in Bengali literature for a long time. May be the society of that time did not have the context that was needed to highlight the real and touching issue like partition in literature. In addition, there were differences of opinion among the writers. They could not identify the responsibility factor which was considered as the sensitive issue like partition of our country. Whether it was in 1950 or 1970 Indians believed the British were responsible for the famine. Therefore, many literatures were written about the famine at that time by easily blaming the British. But in a sensitive matter like partition, it was not possible to absolve responsibility by blaming only the British because all the Hindu, Muslim, Sikhs communities were involved in bloody riots to protect their own interests.

           Therefore, a kind of ambivalence and dilemma, mental conflict worked in the minds of the Bengali nation for indentifying the main reason for partition. The Bengali novel, which is a mixture of subtlety and reality, is written two decades after the partition and occupies a special place in our minds that is ‘Nil Kantho Pakhir Knonje’ Bengali novel written by Atin Bandopadhyay (1971). With the help of this partial autobiographical novel, we will explore in the coexistence of Hindus and Muslims in East Bengal before independence daily living life and side by side standing by with each other’s happiness and sorrows from conflict of class to interest etc. At the same time, we will try to find out the reasons of how the ‘sudden gain of Independence ‘shook the roots’ of the common people in the form of partition.