Dr. Lakshminath Bezbaroa is undoubtedly a bright shining star of the era of Romanticism in Indian literature. He is not only the first Assamese short story-writer, but has also paved the way for many aspects of Assamese literature He has contributed immensely in the fields of Assamese poetry, short-story, drama, novel, essay, humorous literature, biographies, autobiographies, memorials and journalism. At the time when Bezbaroa had emerged as the building foundation of Assamese literature, there was no other established writer like him. His only sources of inspiration were the valuable works of Shankardeva and Madhabdeva, the magnificent folk culture and literature and the people he met in his daily life. On the other hand, having an extraordinary command over both Western and Classical orientations gave him an edge to create the base of Assamese literature. However he never followed it blindly. After all, originality and reflection of the Assamese society are the most important characteristics of Bezbaroa’s writings.
When Bezbaroa had started as a short- story writer, short story writing was not prevalent in Assamese literature for him to draw inspiration from. The stories that were prevalent were the ones that were conventionally spread through word-of-mouth. It was not possible for Bezbaroa to ignore these popular tales when he started to write short-stories. Hence it was natural that his fictions would be influenced by these everyday stories. However, one striking feature of his style of writing fiction is that it is quite similar to the contemporary style of writing. He had written these short stories more than a century ago. The environment then, the social systems, people’s ways of living were all different. A society changes with time. May be in today’s times, certain settings, plots and characters of some of his stories might seem unreal and out of context. But it is noteworthy that despite the advance in time, several characters that appear in Bezbaroa’s stories, their dialogues and their nature are still relevant in today’s modern world. In fact it can also be said that their importance have only grown with time. That is the reason many of his stories are considered to be timeless.
One important aspect of Bezbaroa’s short story is the creation of characters. These characters have their own unique characteristics. He usually brings those people into play whom he meets in his daily life. When one reads a story written by Bezbaroa, one feels like the character is standing before him in flesh and blood, and the reader becomes involved with the character deeply. The feelings and emotions of the character and its behaviour and the situation blend in so well together that it doesn’t feel like a fictional character. Instead, it feels like a person one meets every day, or like a character that is taken straight from the everyday happenings in the society around. The credit for this goes to Bezbaroa’s sharp observation, extraordinary analysis and his beautiful narration. A good number of male and female characters have been introduced in Bezbaroa’s short stories. Many of his short stories have even been named after their main characters. It has been seen that against most of the male characters being portrayed as thugs and cheaters, the female characters are mostly portrayed as ones firmly rooted to their principles. His stories reflected of his compassion and support towards women. He had even written several articles on women empowerment among his essays written under the pen-name of Kribabor Borboruah. He was of the opinion that women should be highly educated, and as per their ethics, reasoning, justice and religion, should win their desired positions earning love and respect. Even though characters are usually the combination of both negative and positive aspects, the woman characters in Bezbaroa’s stories invoke only good character in them. If one of them even has the slightest negativity, Bezbaroa would justify the negativity and clear her position in front of the society. He always stood one step ahead of his times to build a modern society. If one carefully analyses his female characters, one can see that each one of them is endowed with modern characteristics. He was extremely sensitive towards individuality and rights of women and was always against conservatism. However, just like a couple of his male characters like Bapiram have been portrayed in positive light, there have been a few exceptional grey-shaded female characters too in his stories.
Bezbaroa had compiled three story-books in total, of which the first one Surabhi, a collection of twelve short stories, was published in January, 1909. Xadhu kothar Kuki, his second story compilation, consisting of 25 stories was published in 1910. His third book Jonbiri consisting of 16 short-stories was published in 1913. Kekohali was Bezbaroa’s fourth book, but it could not be published during his life-time. Atulchandra Hazarika had mentioned in Bezbaroa Granthawali (1986) that Kekohali was the compilation of a total of 15 scattered stories of Bezbaroa like Bahi and the Kekohali from which the title of the book was drawn. It should be mentioned here that for the convenience of writing this article, his stories have been sourced from Lakhsminath Bezabaruah’r Golpo Xomogro (2009) which was compiled by Hridayananda Gogoi.
Laukhola, a story from Bezbaroa’s compilation Surabhi, was centred around a dream and was set in a Bagan Bari in Calcutta. In his words, “Bagan Bari is the Bengali name given to a brick-house in the outskirts of the city, along with a garden filled with fruit-trees of mango, jackfruit, lichi, banana and coconut; shrubs of rose, jasmine and many beautiful flowers; multicoloured plants like Croton and Palm and a pond rearing fishes like Rohu or Bahu… In other words, a Bagan Bari is a place where ‘Bengali Babu’s used to go to spend their holidays and enjoyed with delicious meals, drinks and women, to forget their woeful lives for a few days.” (Page 23)
The story starts with this picture depicting such merry-making by the men, but in the consecutive scenes, a ghostly character is introduced and Bezbaroa draws another picture of women being exploited in a male-dominated society. The human skull (Laukhula) he finds in the pond water while fishing, turns into a beautiful woman in his dreams and narrates a heart-touching story of her sufferings. The woman was someone who was raped and killed by her husband’s brother in this very ‘Baganbari’ and her body thrown into the pond. Though in the story, Bezbaroa points out momentary weakness on the part of the lady, he later justifies it with her comment- “Just like a deer gets attracted towards a python and walks into its open mouth, I too walked into the hell-hole of sin, succumbing to my attraction towards him.” Getting married in her childhood spelled a life of misery for her. However, even behind this is the patriarchal social system where men rule and exploit women. The woman thus says, “Oh God! A woman’s life is a wretched one. And men are always ready to make things worse for her. Even before understanding the meaning of ‘marriage’ and even before having my husband in the true sense, I lost him; I became a widow. And what logic you men give! What justice you have? You are a selfish, insensitive lot of beasts trying to show power in front of women!” (Page 30) Needless to say, this is Feminist thinking and beautiful expression of a point of view. A way of documenting women’s misery and exploitation in a male-dominated world. The society is changing. Child-marriage is gradually dying out from the society. Still, it is worth noting that more than the issue of child-marriage, importance has been given to the mentality of using woman as a commodity by men, which is still prevalent in today’s times. Bezbaroa had well realized his social obligation towards it. The relevance of the story of this woman being sullied and killed by her own brother-in-law is still the same even today.
Jayanti, one of the stories in Bezbaroa’s Xadhukothar Kuki, perfectly illustrates the character of an ideal woman. The principles, courage, presence of mind, conduct as well as the beauty of Assamese women have been beautifully narrated in this story. Even though the story dates back to Maan’s age, Jayanti’s presence of mind and her ideal of sacrifice is amply presented through the plot. In the beginning of the story, Bezabaruah says about her- “Jayanti is the daughter of a rich man, and the wife of another rich man; brought up in luxury since childhood and living a lavish life in her husband’s home. She has never known the nuances of either mental or physical sufferings. But this daughter of an affluent Brahmin family of Rangpur was not brought up as a useless, good for nothing girl who was always busy in dressing up and going to parties and gossiping, like other such girls. If anybody asked who weaved the best clothes in Rangpur, it had to be Jayanti. From whose loom did the best laced-garments come?One must say, Jayanti’s. Who sang the best biya-naams in the sweetest voice in wedding ceremonies? It was Jayanti. Who knew by heart all those kirtans, ghoshas and the religious books like Ratnawali? It was indeed Jayanti. Without a doubt, Jayanti Devi, the wife of Ramanath Baruah was considered as chaste as Savitri, as beautiful as Kamala and as blessed as Sachi within Rangpur, the ancient capital of Assam.” (Page 91)
Bezbaroa portrays an ideal woman through the character of Jayanti. He even justifies his argument that a perfect daughter can be born only of a perfect mother, by saying “Tik bolodha, ulai mati, maak bhale jiyek jati” (If you kick a buffalo, it starts walking better… Just like that when a mother is worthy, her daughter becomes worthy too). “He clever mother’s care and upbringing polished Jayanti for almost every necessary step in her future.” But this very Jayanti, sharp and elegant, had showed every possible ounce of strong principle and sacrifice when the soldiers of Maan had taken her away along with her husband to be killed. Jayanti, who usually kept herself within a limit, came out of her shell and displayed great courage and brilliance by killing the three soldiers and releasing her husband from their captivity. At the end, Jayanti, after enjoying the ecstasy of killing the three soldiers of Maan, also succumbed to the hands of death herself. Bezbaroa has drawn the picture of a valorous Assamese woman through the character of Jayanti. Situation, time and duty forced her to transform from the shy and docile woman to an aggressive, vicious self. But, even at that moment, all that flowed from her was her devotion towards her husband and the principles of a faithful wife. Because, even till her last breathe, Jayanti kept saying, “I released my husband from those chains.” (Page 95)
Of the many acclaimed stories included in Xadhukothar Kuki, Bhadari happens to be one of the best. Though the story centres a simple household situation, the character of Bhadari stands out brightly. The characteristic of Assamese women which Bhadari portrays is their power of tolerance. Bhadari’s husband is a simple, village farmer man who doesn’t even have the brains to judge the truthfulness of a matter, and has the habit of hitting his wife quite often to demonstrate his manliness. Bhadari herself understood this. “Bhadari had accepted that an occasional slap or a kick or a hit from the husband was as normal as eating and drinking and an inevitable part of married life.” (Page 110) These are the feelings of Bhadari, a simple Assamese village lady. However, she has also proved that, once in a while, snapping back at her husband’s words was only the result of momentary anger. Even after Bhadari’s husband had to go to jail for thrashing her with a knife for a simple reason, on waking up in the hospital, Bhadari still asks about her husband and falls unconscious again when she doesn’t see him beside her. In fact, when she sees him, she only questions him, “Are you alright? Have you had your food? You must be facing a lot of trouble cooking at home these days.” These words of Bhadari not only made the readers sympathise with her, but also impress in their hearts her great sacrifice and strong ideals. And moreover, at the end, in order to save her husband, Bhadari even lied that she tripped and fell on the knife and hurt herself. This moved even her spiteful husband to tears.
Through this story, Bezbaroa has tried to bring out women’s utmost love and devotion towards their husband by portraying Bhadari as an ideal, who despite getting beaten up by her husband, wants him and loves him only. In this context, Dr. Hiren Gohain has commented that, “It would be wrong to consider Bhadari as an icon of the ideal and chaste Indian Hindu woman. Chastity is a blind culture. One’s true personality might not be reflected in it. But in Bhadari’s heart, we could see immense love and devotion for her husband, which is probably hidden under a layer of the many shadows of life.” (Deuka, 1990, Page 37)
Xeuti, another tragedic story included in Xadhukothar Kuki, is based on the age-old customs of women- exploitation and superstitious beliefs of the Indian social system. We see four different shades of women characters in the story- Xeuti, her mother, her sister-in-law and her mother-in-law. Though the story begins with Xeuti getting married as a child, its central theme is actually that of a naive, innocent little girl becoming the victim of the society’s inhuman torment in the name of traditions. And the society, in this case, was being helped by Xeuti’s husband and in-laws. In the story, young Xeuti, who was the apple of her mother’s eyes, darling of her father and her brother’s best friend, was married off to a ‘suitable groom’ at the mere age of nine. But, right after the wedding, when the people around started whispering about the girl and the groom being distant relatives; her in-laws sent her back home within a month. Having no understanding about what marriage and husband even meant, Xeuti came back happily and ran into her mother’s arms. With age, when Xeuti started understanding everything, she wanted to go back to her husband’s home. But her in-laws refused to accept her. When her father filed a case in court, they were forced to take her back. But she was kept captive in the rice-shed. However, gradually the husband started developing feelings for her and both of them secretly entered into a relationship. This, her in-laws could not tolerate and finally poisoned and killed her to ‘save their home’. Later it was revealed that Xeuti was not really related to them by blood. With this poignant, heart-touching story, Bezbaroa portrays superstitious beliefs in the name of marriage in the society as well as the face of a weak husband who silently watches his family tormenting his wife, doing nothing about it. At the same time, a picture of similar sufferings faced by women in contemporary times has also been well-reflected in the story.
Among all of Bezabaruah’s short stories, the one that has most powerfully depicted issues of women-liberalization and women-revolution has to be Laliti Kakati, which is a part of the compilation Kekohali. In true sense, a shade of Bezbaroa’s own life-philosophy has been reflected in the character of Laliti Kakati. Here, the central character Laliti Kakati is shown to exhibit immense anger and declare revolt against her husband who never understood the true meaning of marriage or a husband-wife relationship. The character of this modern age woman that Bezbaroa has illustrated in this story reflects not just his modern thinking but also recognises him as a strong exponent of freedom of women. He mentions in the very beginning of the story, “Laliti is a modern kind of girl, studying in a girls school in the city; not familiar with chores like husking paddy, carrying water, sweeping, cooking and cleaning.” That is, the writer doesn’t want to portray Laliti Kakati as a simple, uneducated, village girl like his other female characters. In the course of the story, Laliti’s parents find a suitable match for her and marry her off to highly educated, Sub-Deputy Officer Srikanta Hazarika. However, soon she returns to her paternal home, unable to tolerate physical and mental torture in her husband’s home. After this, though Srikanta Hazarika remarries, the second wife too does not stay with him for long and leaves his house. Srikanta Hazarika prepares to get married for the third time.
The real meaning of the story gets highlighted only through the long letter at the end that Laliti writes to her husband and to the editor of Bahi thus publicly revealing the hidden character of her husband and other men like him. Bezbaroa uses this letter of Laliti not simply as a subject matter of the story, but depicts Laliti as a representative of the entire womankind and through her character, reminds the world of a man’s deceitful nature and a woman’s appropriate duty and responsibility. In her long letter, she has written- “In earlier education, a woman was called the wife, spouse or companion of the man; and today’s educated lot terms her as ‘the better half’. But does it make any sense to say such things on one hand and in reality treat the woman worse than one would treat animals? Is this what is meant by ‘higher education’? Does all that being educated mean dressing up as a gentleman and eating chicken, mutton, beef and pork on the table, and getting drunk like anything? Is it solely the responsibility of the woman to watch her morality, and not the man’s too?” (Page 296)
Taking a stand against today’s mentality of considering women as the ‘fairer sex’ and the thinking that a woman who doesn’t get married is lonely and helpless, Bezbaroa speaks out through Laliti, “I refuse to believe that just because one is a woman, one must get married or else she will be shamed, and her life will be a waste. This belief is wrong, utterly wrong. If one finds a suitable, ideal person who understands the language of humanity and is worthy being a life-partner, then such a wed-lock is good for all. However, if one doesn’t find such a suitable partner, then a woman should never get married nor her parents should force her to.” (Page 297)
Through this letter of Laliti, Bezbaroa has successfully drawn the picture of a feminist-idealist woman. Even though Bezbaroa held this perspective a century ago from today, its relevance has not lessened a bit in contemporary times. Rather it can be said that even today, a lot more of this revolt is yet to rise in women’s hearts.
Another strong woman character created by Bezbaroa was Patmugi in the story titled Patmugi. This story brings out a brighter aspect of female-psychology. Through this story, Bezbaroa has attempted to reflect on the issues of male’s infidelity, cruelty and weakness. First, her Brahmin husband nastily cheating on her and leaving her for someone else, and secondly, an elderly related uncle of hers of the same village falling for Patmugi are the central themes of the story. Patmugi neither tries to get back her husband taking the help of the law, nor tries to harm him in any way. Be it man or woman, everybody has their own weaknesses. For Patmugi who was deprived of a husband’s love at a young age, it was natural to feel attracted towards another man. But she was surprised to discover the lust that men harboured in their minds, without caring the least for one’s age or the situation one is in. That is why, on realising the mutual weakness that her middle-aged uncle felt for her, excited her. In her words, she expressed her feelings thus, “Uncle, please forgive me. A man can never understand how a woman’s mind works. Let alone a man, even the Gods could never understand. To have a man in her control is a woman’s dream. She can hardly hide her joy of winning over a man, whoever that man might be.” (Page 303)
This happens to be a spectacular reflection of the female- psyche, which Patmugi has expressed without the slightest hesitation. In this story, both Patmugi and her uncle are aware of their own weaknesses. That is why Patmugi feels repentant and is drawn towards Gandhian philosophy, while the uncle pleads to God to forgive him for his momentary weakness. However, all said and done, though Patmugi’s feelings of elation are understandable, such a mindset of this elderly gentleman is not a good sign for the society. This is exactly what is happening in our society even today.
Mainly, these are the female characters who have played the most important roles in Bezbaroa’s short stories. However, there have been several other characters, who, despite their short life-span, have managed to make a mark. The character of ‘Kol Ramani’, created by Bezbaroa, fills up another space in the list of his female characters. Bezbaroa has deftly illustrated the simplicity of ‘Jumuri’ in Ratanmunda and Kol Ramani’s strong love in Kanya.
Both the characters of ‘Kashi Basi’ who was humiliated by her husband on grounds of caste, and ‘Nistarini Devi’ or ‘Fatema Bibi’, both have won the hearts of readers. On the other hand, the stories of ‘Amaloi Napahoriba’ and ‘ShivaPrasad’ both draw the curtains off another inhuman practice of a man, that of husbands selling away their wives for money. It is said, “For a chaste woman, there is no other shelter other than her husband” Taking advantage of this, in both these stories, the naive girls are tricked into getting married and then used as a ‘thing’ by their husbands. Even in today’s civilized state, such news has been topping the headlines in the media. In the story ‘Sur’, Bezbaroa has presented two women of conflicting personalities. On one hand was ‘Indumati’ for whom her husband was everything even at her death-bed. And on the other hand was the cruel face of the young, second wife who came in after Indumati’s death and attempted to kill her husband because of an extra-marital affair.
Bezbaroa has successfully presented in his stories glimpses of women’s strong patience, sacrifices and weaknesses against the age-old trends of men’s betrayal, torture and injustice towards women. If all the above mentioned female characters are closely analysed again, we can see that each and every character is unique. Someone is portrayed as being oppressed by the society, some shine with examples of their sacrifices and ideals, some boldly revolt against the oppression or injustice while some others reflect within them the vices and weaknesses of women. From each of these characters, a bright picture is illustrated. And from these characters, reflects the kind, rational and the social-reformist mind of Lakshminath Bezbaroa.
Translation by Tinam Borah
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