Communal Antagonism In Sunanda Sikder's Dayamoyeer Katha

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The statement is true partially. Because the partition of Bengal, be it the result of communal antagonism or be it a result of class conflict can not bring out the total truth unless we go deeper to the real changes in the spirit of the Bengalees who showed the power of their strength of unity in 1905. To avoid the riot in Bengal in 1946 different speakers and writers too, spoke of that spirit and remembered the contribution of its greatest writers in 1905 because they were concerned more with human suffering because of the division than of any other reasons. A great leader of Bengal, Mr. Sarat Chandra Bose addressing a press conference on 1st Oct. 1947 at the Subhas Institute of Culture reminded, “It is quite wrong to think that the Hindus …show more content…

Sumanda Sikder took birth in 1951 after partition and spent her early ten years in East Pakistan in the lap of her aunt, Snehalata Ghosh, her ‘Pisi’ (father’s elder sister). The book is the narration of the writer’s own direct and face to face experiences of those early ten years in her life. She with her great wonder observed that their village Digpait was quickly turning out into a village of only ‘vites’ (abandoned houses). Dayamoyee is the narrator of the text and her ‘Katha’ or narration is actually her own realization of the changes in human values on the eve of partition. She actually wants her readers hear the angst of her heart for a general saga of humanism. Her ultimate realization …show more content…

Anchita Ghatak, writes, ‘A Life Long Ago chronicles, through family memories, the changes affecting post colonial South Asia…It also raises some important questions about class, caste, community, religion and gender that continue to trouble us in contemporary times” (vii-ix). In very cryptic and short chapters the writer unveils storehouse of humanity deep within her own heart. Simplicity of narration is her best ornament to reach the largest part of humanity and farthest core of the reader’s mind reviving their ethical sense. Humanism stands for two basic values: first and foremost, love of fellow beings and solidarity of mankind without distinction of race, caste, creed or nationality and second intellectual integrity and scientific spirit according to which all beliefs however firmly held, are liable to modification or rejection in the light of further knowledge and experience. In chapter one, the narrator, a little girl of ten years of a Hindu family describes her kinship with Majam Dada who proves what true humanism is and how love of fellow beings can win over all barriers of caste, class or even distance. The first chapter opens with the news of Dada’s death, “For fifty years, I had been oblivious to the frozen tears inside. And those tears were now streaming down my face”(1; ch. 1) Such was the bond of humanity among the writer and Majam dada that the narrator at her very tender age could easily make out that her foster mother who was

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