[Reader-list] from kolkata: fifth posting

[debjani sengupta]

One of the literary representations of the refugee colonies in post partition Kolkata is seen in Savitri Ray's novel Bwadwip. This novel chronicles the genesis and development of refugee colonies. The process of colony formation, the numerous characters and their inter relationships and wider currents of contemporary politics are the threads of the narrative of Ray's fiction. Savitri Ray lived in Garfa, in Jadavpur and har minute observations of colony life was the foundation of what she wrote.
  Bwadwip records many dimensions of colony life. The feeling of loss, of a homeland, of homes, of accustomed lifestyles and status rankled in the minds of the refugees. On the other handm they were determined to make good in Kolkata. The new locale, the space of the refugee colony, was to be fashioned as a distinctive community, landscape and identity. Ray complicates this picture by highlighting some of the internal contadictions of class and gender within the space of the colony. The constructive urge to build a new life was often supplemented by ethnic cleansing, unleashing violence against the old Muslim residents in the vicinity of the colonies.
   
  Ray's realistic chronicling of the process of colony formation is seen in her foregrounding agencies, both male and female. The epic canvas of the novel highlights the sites where these agencies are at work. The colony market, the colony committee, the cultural association, political party meetings within the colony, the political demonstration where the refugees participated are carefully depicted in the narrative. The activities that mark the public sphere of the colony life is also carefully delienated. Clearing jungles, defending the site from goons, establishing school and market, organizing youth festivals and cultural activities and hosting zonal meetings of the United Central Refugee Council are described with vivid faithfulness to detail in this work.
  The novel is an interesting entry into a history which cannot otherwise be known except through memories of participants. Maybe some of those can also be unearthed. I am trying to do that, in a small way. Next phase, the interviews...that will come in the nest batch of missives.
   
   
   

		
---------------------------------
Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.  Great rates starting at 1¢/min.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060515/9884f881/attachment.html