BANGLADESH LIBERATION WAR: A STUDY DRAMATISTS FROM WEST BENGAL AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS/ বাংলাদেশের মুক্তিযুদ্ধ : পশ্চিমবঙ্গের নাটককারদের প্রতিক্রিয়া

Abstract

The liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 deeply moved the south Asian political landscape. The long-suppressed dissent and a rampant violation of humanitarian values including rapes, murders etc. left an entire linguistic community to an existential threat, who ultimately found an agency through this revolt which made possible to reclaim their self-dignity and asserting their true identity. This saga of unprecedented struggle to establish a community’s selfhood became the subject of several notable dramatists of that time such as Digin Bandopadhyay, Utpal Dutt, Anil Dey, Swapan Kumar Mitra, etc. These dramatists not only showcased the movement by enshrining the events as it proceeded but also at the same time amplified their agendas. Apart from the national borders that divided two countries, the underlying sentiment of communitarian values became a major factor that helped in unification of a common voice of protest. Dramatists from West Bengal majorly articulated two significant crises of the movement in their works – at one hand the confrontation between the Pakistani repressive forces and the common people of Bangladesh and on the other hand the internal tensions within the socio-economic structures of Bangladesh that strengthen the feudal lords namely the ‘jotedar’, capitalists. Therefore, the dramatists felt a moral compulsion to delineate an ambivalence on part of the liberation army who not only had to fight against the Pakistani armies but also the ‘jotedars’ in their own land.