Popularization of the Bouchi game in the arena of colonial Bengal/ ঔপনিবেশিক বাংলার সমাজ রাজনীতির ময়দানে বউছি খেলার জনপ্রিয়করণ

Abstract

Bengali Folk game is one of the most important parts of Bengali’s cultural life, especially rural peoples. For which, we cannot imagine the social culture of Bengal without folk games, but the unfortunate thing is that these folk games are no longer seen in the fields of Bengal, as if they have disappeared. There was a time in Bengal when the young and old people used to play and enjoy these folk games. Among these games of the common people of rural Bengal, on the one hand, there were Danguli, Daryabanda, Marble, Kanamachi, on the other hand, very interesting game Bouchi was popular there. But this bouchi game was not only limited to the play grounds of rural Bengal, it had practical application in the arena of gentry social politics of colonial Bengal. Where the gentlemen played a similar game with the British in the social and political arenas of the late 19th century centered on the emerging new bhadra mahila. In this essay, I will try to find out how this bouchi game became popular in the rural culture of colonial Bengal as well as in the social culture of the urban gentlemen.