Individual Paper
1. Uneven Geographies, Ecologies, Technologies and Human Futures
Traditional Bengali folk narratives recited and sung across West Bengal and Bangladesh weave together the human and nonhuman lives in complex relationships of inter-dependence and conflict. Often this ambiguous dynamics leads to the morphing of natural forces and nonhuman creatures into divine or quasi-divine figures that are both revered and feared. In areas like the Sundarbans there is a clear articulation in the prevailing folk narratives of inter-species competition for resources and survival as well as the role that nonhuman nature plays in protecting and nurturing the human species.
In my presentation I will be examining written and oral narratives –plays, novels, folk tales and songs – that emerge from the various cultures flourishing around the different rivers that dot the Gangetic delta. The texts will include RabindranathTagore’s play Muktadhara (“The Waterfall”, 1922), Tarashankar Bandopadhyay’s’s Hanshuli Banker Upakatha (“The Tale of Hansuli Turn”, 1951), Debesh Roy’s Teesta Parer Brittanto (“Chronicle of the banks of the Teesta”, 1988) along with the folk narratives Behula-Lokhindor and Bonbibi Pala and a selection of Bhatiali songs sung by boatmen. I will argue that even as colonialism and technology worked in tandem to alienate the human world from the nonhuman in 20th century Bengal, paradoxically it also created an acute consciousness about the kinship of the human and non-human. Hence, there is an outpouring of modern and folk narratives of riverine cultures that are specific to each river (with their distinctive characteristics) while also sharing certain cultural features and philosophies.
Sutanuka Ghosh
Jadavpur University, India