English literature and modern Bengali short fiction : a study in influences
Authors:   , Lago Mary McClelland 
Published: June 2024

Modern short fiction is defined as a genre which deals, by means of a process of oblique questioning, with the concerns of "submerged population groups." Because answers to these questions are not necessarily supplied by the writer, the burden of interpretation is shifted onto the reader. The modern short story is, therefore, ideally suited to being a mirror held up to societies experiencing the stress of change but uncertain about the nature and direction of that change. This study deals with modern Bengali short fiction as a reflection of concern, as it was best expressed in short fiction written by Rabindranath Tagore between 1890 and 1920, about English cultural influences upon Bengali society and about the uses and mis-uses by Bengali intellectuals of education in English which became an increasingly important part of Bengal's intellectual life after 1800. This concern, as expressed in Tagore's short fiction and echoed by other Bengali writers, concentrates upon five areas of Bengali life in which the British-Bengali confrontation caused certain population groups to become submerged elements of Bengali society or forced them into unevenly matched contests with one another. These five areas of concern are first, obsession with property prerogatives and the college degree as a negotiable asset; second, the rural-urban dichotomy; third, the nature of motives for participation in politics and the nationalist movement; fourth, the isolation of certain types of individuals with skills and sensitivities potentially valuable to Bengali society; and fifth, the role of Bengali women in home and community life. Throughout the study, these concerns are discussed in their relationships, direct and indirect, to the cultural heritage conveyed to Bengal by means of English-language instruction and the intensive but utilitarian program for study of English literature in Bengali schools and colleges. Detailed analysis, in a context of criticism by literary standards, of typical stories in which Tagore dealt with these recurring themes demonstrates that his craftsmanship is one of characterization rather than of structure. Characterization by dialogue and subtly directed detail, provides the great strength of his stories and gives them their best claim to be classed as modern short fiction. References to English literature in Tagore's stories written between 1890 and 1920 are overwhelmingly references to works in the standard academic syllabus on English literature for the period extending up to and through the major Victorian novelists. Although Tagore had more direct contacts than any other Bengali writer with major literary figures in England, his stories and other writings up to 1920 do not indicate that he had close and continuing contacts, direct or indirect, with major English writers who were concentrating upon techniques of modern short fiction in English. Tagore's short fiction is the product of his close acquaintance with English literature written largely before 1900 and the work of the great French fiction writers of the nineteenth century, and of his own uniquely sensitive awareness of conflicts caused by English influences in Bengal. This study may be summarized, therefore, as a study in delayed influences. English literature stands out among all the imported educational curricula as the one which did most to fire the imaginations of Bengali intellectuals throughout the nineteenth century. Yet their delight in England's literature came to be tempered by their dissatisfactions with English rule, and the Bengalis who were most sensitive to the liberating influence of the one were equally sensitive to the restrictions of the other. They were also the Bengalis with the greatest ability and responsibility for finding ways out of this dilemma. Tagore addressed his stories principally to this audience, and he poses three fundamental questions which he leaves his readers to answer for themselves: What in Bengali life is worth keeping? What is to be discarded? What should replace that which is discarded?