A few words on the modern Bengali poetry
by Baby Shaw
Modern poetry of the world, since the time of T. S. Eliot, mainly deals with existentialism which has been explored and expressed through the images of psychological symbols. Symbolism plays a vital role in Indian poetry even before the symbolist movement in Europe. The Eurocentric ideas made a wall in front of us. We failed to notice the traditional modernism of Indian and Bengali literature which had been progressing throughout the ages through Kabir , Dadu, Nanak, Lalan, Vidyapati, Chandidasa, Baru Chandidasa, Ramprasad, Kamalakanta etc. The language of poetry unlike Europe, was gradually being fabricated through the hands of poets who were plunged into mingling spiritualism, hymns, Love and narratives of the daily lives in a peculiar tone of light and shade. The origin of this mystic language of Bengali poetry was in the poems sung by the Buddhist monks more than thousands of years back. Yes, Caryapad gave us a wonderful structure and form of poetry which at the time of middle age, Bharatchandra adopted while making the Annadamangala Kabya.
Hence, even before the concept of modernism borrowed from Eurocentric discourses, we had our own forms and languages which were going towards a different modernism. But after the colonialism, this Eurocentric concept of modernism creeps in our mind and captured the audience too. So, in the name of god, the history of the twentieth century is absolutely the history of the Eurocentric Bengali poetry. After the degenerated Babu generation, we found a great talent Michel Madhusudan Dutta, a genius poet of that time, who, like Eliot said in his ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’, created a masterpiece by a fusion of the two worlds in a brilliant epic ‘Meghnada Badh Kabya’, a mythical parallelism, which made the world of Bengali poetry stunned as it was really an out of box thought. He introduced sonnets, Amitrakkhar rhythms, and so on. Afterwards, we got the all time giant genius poet-lyricist-short story writer- novelist-dramatist- singer and painter Rabindranath Tagore, who in poetry, culminated East and West and created a different outlook both in music and poetry.
However, Rabindranath was unaware of the talents and poetic journeys of Charles Baudelaire. Between 1910 and 1930, in the perilous background of world war and the concept of European modernism had changed. As it was the time of colonial oppression, Bengali literature faced the same concept of alienation and political devastation. Just like we find the great novel Ulysses by James Joyce, we find Kafka, we find Eliot, we also find Buddhadeb basu and the poets of thirties like Sudhindranath Dutta, Bishnu De and the great Jibanananda Das beside the greatness of Rabindranath Tagore. Forming of the concept of modernism by Buddhadeb Basu played a major role. He translated Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and with his introductions, we become aware of the concept of modernism. Jibanananda Das showed us the way of a new fragmented existence. His ‘Satti Tarar Timir’ , ‘Mahaprithibi’ become the milestones of modern poetry.
Hence, the modernism in Bengali poetry is different from the previous century. It is somehow more intimate, intense, more centripetal. It has become more self-destructive. However, besides the concepts and philosophies of existentialism, Marxist ideology, the concept of communism also spread here. As a result of which, Bengali poetry, since the middle of 30s and 40s, were divided into existentialists and Marxists. Another section was there who were still bearing the weightage Rabindranath Tagore had given to them. The impression of Rabindranath Tagore was immense. However, Buddhadeb Basu and his edited magazine ‘Kabita’ had a deep impact on the literary thinking among the poets and writers of Bengal. Concept of modernism was not only a matter of Eurocentric vision at that time. The role of comparative studies has also shaped the studies of modernism deeply. As a result, we got Shankha Ghosh who amalgamated tradition and individual modernity, Alokeranjan Dasgupta, who with his inbuilt classicism, formed a new language of poetry in his Jouban Baul, Raktakto Jharokha. These two poets and academicians had a different notion that made Bengali poetry distinct in the post-Marxist era. The concept of alienation, influence of Kafa, Albert Camus, influence of Charles Baudelaire and Jibananda Das acted like a slow poisoning in the minds of the readers and poets. The entire scenario has been changed by them. We got Binay Majumdar, Sunil Gangopadhyay and also two bigger pillars of modern Bengali poetry- Shakti Chattopadhyay and Utpal Kumar Basu. Besides these giants, we got poets like Pranabendu Dasgupta, Alok Sarkar etc. If Bengali poetry is compared to the Himalayas, then, except two peaks like Tagore and Jibanananda Das, most of the peaks are there in the 50s. However, with the magazines like Krittibas, Kabita, Shatabhisha, the cornerstone of Bengali poetry had taken shape.
The differentiator was not known to us. Some people now argue that too much Eurocentric thoughts and thinking pattern had taken us away from our roots. However, when we see poets like Shankha and Alokeranjan made a confluence in their poems, then we feel, no harm was done. Our life has lost its naïve form and become complex since 40s. Hence, the impression is of more global than local. And modernity has retraced our local and relocated it in the global. From that context, urbanity is a special feature of Bengali modernism. Political turmoil, revolutionary ideas, state oppression, social inequalities, economic inequalities, upheaval of middle class intellectualism, urban thoughts, global reading everything makes our poetry a global thing. Even world theatre, world film have their impression on poetry as well. The surge of beatles movement even created the hungry generation movement in Bengal. A gradual change was there with the poetry of Manindra Gupta, Bhaskar Chakraborty, Subrata Chakraborty and Ramendra Kumar Acharya Chowdhury.
The impact of Nakshal Movement and the poetry of 50s were side-by-side becoming more impactful and the poets of 70s created a buzz in their poetry. Joy Goswami, Mridul Dasgupta, Ranajit Das, Subodh Sarkar, Shayamal Kanti Das, Goutam Basu, Goutam Chowdhury—this period has also represented a gamut of newness in the perilous time of unrest.
Modernism, in this way, is dead now. It is the time of the post-modern era with the concept of hegemony and post-truth. Post-70s, is not so simple. Even post-internet period, Bengali poetry is more global and more challenging.
Hence, even before the concept of modernism borrowed from Eurocentric discourses, we had our own forms and languages which were going towards a different modernism. But after the colonialism, this Eurocentric concept of modernism creeps in our mind and captured the audience too. So, in the name of god, the history of the twentieth century is absolutely the history of the Eurocentric Bengali poetry. After the degenerated Babu generation, we found a great talent Michel Madhusudan Dutta, a genius poet of that time, who, like Eliot said in his ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’, created a masterpiece by a fusion of the two worlds in a brilliant epic ‘Meghnada Badh Kabya’, a mythical parallelism, which made the world of Bengali poetry stunned as it was really an out of box thought. He introduced sonnets, Amitrakkhar rhythms, and so on. Afterwards, we got the all time giant genius poet-lyricist-short story writer- novelist-dramatist- singer and painter Rabindranath Tagore, who in poetry, culminated East and West and created a different outlook both in music and poetry.
However, Rabindranath was unaware of the talents and poetic journeys of Charles Baudelaire. Between 1910 and 1930, in the perilous background of world war and the concept of European modernism had changed. As it was the time of colonial oppression, Bengali literature faced the same concept of alienation and political devastation. Just like we find the great novel Ulysses by James Joyce, we find Kafka, we find Eliot, we also find Buddhadeb basu and the poets of thirties like Sudhindranath Dutta, Bishnu De and the great Jibanananda Das beside the greatness of Rabindranath Tagore. Forming of the concept of modernism by Buddhadeb Basu played a major role. He translated Baudelaire, Rainer Maria Rilke and with his introductions, we become aware of the concept of modernism. Jibanananda Das showed us the way of a new fragmented existence. His ‘Satti Tarar Timir’ , ‘Mahaprithibi’ become the milestones of modern poetry.
Hence, the modernism in Bengali poetry is different from the previous century. It is somehow more intimate, intense, more centripetal. It has become more self-destructive. However, besides the concepts and philosophies of existentialism, Marxist ideology, the concept of communism also spread here. As a result of which, Bengali poetry, since the middle of 30s and 40s, were divided into existentialists and Marxists. Another section was there who were still bearing the weightage Rabindranath Tagore had given to them. The impression of Rabindranath Tagore was immense. However, Buddhadeb Basu and his edited magazine ‘Kabita’ had a deep impact on the literary thinking among the poets and writers of Bengal. Concept of modernism was not only a matter of Eurocentric vision at that time. The role of comparative studies has also shaped the studies of modernism deeply. As a result, we got Shankha Ghosh who amalgamated tradition and individual modernity, Alokeranjan Dasgupta, who with his inbuilt classicism, formed a new language of poetry in his Jouban Baul, Raktakto Jharokha. These two poets and academicians had a different notion that made Bengali poetry distinct in the post-Marxist era. The concept of alienation, influence of Kafa, Albert Camus, influence of Charles Baudelaire and Jibananda Das acted like a slow poisoning in the minds of the readers and poets. The entire scenario has been changed by them. We got Binay Majumdar, Sunil Gangopadhyay and also two bigger pillars of modern Bengali poetry- Shakti Chattopadhyay and Utpal Kumar Basu. Besides these giants, we got poets like Pranabendu Dasgupta, Alok Sarkar etc. If Bengali poetry is compared to the Himalayas, then, except two peaks like Tagore and Jibanananda Das, most of the peaks are there in the 50s. However, with the magazines like Krittibas, Kabita, Shatabhisha, the cornerstone of Bengali poetry had taken shape.
The differentiator was not known to us. Some people now argue that too much Eurocentric thoughts and thinking pattern had taken us away from our roots. However, when we see poets like Shankha and Alokeranjan made a confluence in their poems, then we feel, no harm was done. Our life has lost its naïve form and become complex since 40s. Hence, the impression is of more global than local. And modernity has retraced our local and relocated it in the global. From that context, urbanity is a special feature of Bengali modernism. Political turmoil, revolutionary ideas, state oppression, social inequalities, economic inequalities, upheaval of middle class intellectualism, urban thoughts, global reading everything makes our poetry a global thing. Even world theatre, world film have their impression on poetry as well. The surge of beatles movement even created the hungry generation movement in Bengal. A gradual change was there with the poetry of Manindra Gupta, Bhaskar Chakraborty, Subrata Chakraborty and Ramendra Kumar Acharya Chowdhury.
The impact of Nakshal Movement and the poetry of 50s were side-by-side becoming more impactful and the poets of 70s created a buzz in their poetry. Joy Goswami, Mridul Dasgupta, Ranajit Das, Subodh Sarkar, Shayamal Kanti Das, Goutam Basu, Goutam Chowdhury—this period has also represented a gamut of newness in the perilous time of unrest.
Modernism, in this way, is dead now. It is the time of the post-modern era with the concept of hegemony and post-truth. Post-70s, is not so simple. Even post-internet period, Bengali poetry is more global and more challenging.
A post-graduate in Bengali and English literature, Baby Shaw is an associate editor of South Asia Journal, New Jersey, and a scholar of Phd in Ranchi University. She has sixteen books of poems, three books of essays, three books of translation and two books of free prose to her credit. She has been awarded Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi Award in 2020, Krittibas Dipak Majumdar Award in 2019, Shabdopoth Yuva Samman, Shantiniketan Padyo samman, Boitarani Kobita samman, and Rarh Bangla Samman etc. She got the Bangla Akademi award for her well acclaimed book " Kandnageet, collection and History'. She has books published in both India and Bangladesh. She has translated South Korean poet Baek Seok, Vietnam's poet and saint Thick Nat Han, and poems by Sufi philosopher Ibne Araby into Bengali. Besides this, her poems have been translated in Assamese, Odiya, Hindi, English, Greek, Russian and Arabian language. She was participant in various national and international TV shows, Governmental and non-governmental poetry festivals. She has also read in bookfair guild, Krittibas festival, Poetry festivals, and Chair Poetry Evenings festival. As an invitee speaker, she has presented her papers in Midnapore college, Khejuri College, Sebabharati College, Assam University. Besides this, she is also the co-editor of Abahaman.
