Shahoshika’s
Letter in
Bandhonhara
(Free
from Bonds)
Translated
by: Subrata Kumar Das
[This letter is a part of Nazrul’s epistolary novel Bandhonhara
(Free from Bonds). Among the three novels by Nazrul this is the first as well
as a different one. Nurul Huda, a soldier, is the protagonist of the novel.
Nurul works at the Karachi Army Quarters. The other characters of the novel
are Rabial - Nurul’s friend, Rabeya -
Rabial’s wife, Sofia
- Rabial’s sister, Ayesha Begum - Rabial’s mother, Monuar
- Rabial’s brother-in-law and
Nurul’s friend, Mahbuba -
a maiden with whom Nurul was supposed to be married but escaping from the
marriage Nurul joined the army, Rakia Begum
-
Mahabuba’s mother, and Shahoshika.
A
total of eighteen letters are corresponded among these characters of the novel
and from this correspondence the story and the sketch of the main character
emerge.
From
different aspects Shahoshika is a less significant character particularly
regarding her role in the development of the plot. But the letter that she
writes - which is the only letter from
her in the whole book -
is much fertile for ideas that expose the initial attitudes, values and
philosophies of Kazi Nazrul Islam. In the novel Shahoshika Bose, a learned
graduate and Head of a school in Calcutta gets three letters -
one from Rabeya (15th in the serial), one from Mahbuba (17th
in the serial) and the last which is also the last letter of the book, is from
Nurul Huda. Shahoshika’s letter was the reply to Rebeya’s letter. Rabeya
expresses her anxiety about Nurul’s mentality -
his rebellious thoughts and future-action.
Shahoshika writes her explanation about those approaches of Nazrul in her
letter. So a Nazrul critic Karunamaya Goswami rightly says Bandhonhara
‘carried the seeds of Nazrul’s revolutionary ideas which flowed in
later writings' (Kazi
Nazrul Islam : A Biography,
Nazrul Institute, Dhaka, 1996, P-94 ).
On
his return from the army after the dissolution of 49 Bengali Regiment, in
which Nazrul served, in the year 1920 Nazrul brought some chapters of the
novel with him. Since April 1920 it began to be published serially in the
literary journal Moslem
Bharot
(Muslim India) from Calcutta, edited by Afzalul Huq. Much later in
1927, the novel got the present book-form after some alteration and addition.
Like
most of the critics Serajul Islam Choudhury, a veteran professor of English
and an eminent thinker of Bangladesh commented on Bandhonhara
that it ‘is the weakest of the three’ (Nazrul Islam : Poet and More,
Nazrul Institute, Dhaka, 1994, P-106). But we should not forget that in this
novel Nazrul, then a boy of only twenty one, exercised such a form for his
fiction that was quite uncommon in Bangla literature and exhibited very novel
ideas and philosophies regarding religion, society and women's liberation. So
the critic remarks about Nurul Huda: 'It is obvious that Nazrul Islam has
identified himself with the hero; but he succeeds in rendering his women
perfectly life-like, allowing them to play a full role in the life of men (Serajul
Islam Choudhury, ibid). These qualities of Bandhonhara
mostly owe to Shahoshika’s letter. Nurul Huda i.e. Nazrul’s disobedient
attitude scatters
over the whole novel. But
Shahoshika’s letter exhibits it most. Formal and least necessary parts of
the letter have been excluded. Three dots (...) are used by the novelist
himself and asterisks (*****) are used to skip the less necessary parts by the
present translator.]
Bidon
Street, Calcutta
Boishakh the 1st (morning)
Dear
Reba,
*
*
*
*
*
Today
I can realize that women’s womanhood is not to diminish. I’ll tell you the
reasons of it. Receiving various shocks and attacks from all around as well as
from the pressures of the man-made rules I could only understand that the
inner woman of me got stone dead. But I could neither cry nor feel the sorrow
of it. Oh dear, then I was a stone-hearted woman. At the time I’d no soft
feeling but being strong which could rouse the other shades of soft feelings.
With that stone-heart I’d only tears from which I’d no relief, not at all.
Ahalaya1 also had experienced some freedom, but I’d no freedom.
When Aholya got stone dead, I also was within her. Today Aholya has again
revived in me with her stony figure, but without freedom. The long-aged
‘I’ is no more in myself, she’s died. I’m so full of grief that I
could not cry even after many efforts. I’ve tried to cry remembering all the
doleful incidents of my life, keeping the photographs and handwritings of my
parents before me, recalling all the deceased near and dear ones, but only a
little movement on my lips. Try to think my unbearable, painful situation.
Woman who is the combination of all the delicacy and tenderness fails to cry
even after thousands attempts and woes. I can not make you understand the
pains and anxieties of it. People, who have come across this, will only
comprehend. Have you ever seen the wailing of Boishakh? Have you heard the
distorted exposition of its ugliness and lamentation of its loneliness in the
scorching sun with darkening dust of Gobi-Sahara or its speedy storms? Have
you heard the soundless sounds of the widow’s tearless pathetic cry of the
world in that hard and rude laughter? I can not make you realize the poisonous
pangs of it. I don’t have the capacity to expose to you even a millionth of
it. Let not even the dead enemy suffers it. This is the tough-most hellish
suffering. This is your Habia Dojokh2.
People do not die in it but its severest pain inflicts them continuously like
slaughtered animals. It is said that Lord Shiva3 swallowed all the
poison of Somudro Monthon4 but
I do tell you if he drank a drop of the sour poison of this tearless cry he
could not bear, even if he is a great lord. How do we survive? Oh dear,
we’re human, made of flesh and blood. If the gods could bear what we can
bear then they’d get emancipated taking human birth. Because human being is
much higher than the gods. They’ve that infinite power to tolerate
everything. But human beings have a little power in their small heart -
in which they are to endure much greater woes and sorrows. But they don’t
die. Death’s unsympathetic to them. Death’s chariot never treads on their
ways, neither even they hear the sounds of his chariot. He sings ‘Death thou
art my Lord’, but in vain. Lord by then goes to the death-stricken people
and sings their last songs.
Yes,
let me inform you the reasons of all these foul talks later on. Now from what
these hearty talks come.... I told you that women’s womanhood never dies. In
a true sense an Aholya woman cannot keep stonehearted for ever. If the women
become stonehearted, the world will emerge into eternal darkness loosing all
the blessing of Lokshmi5. The blissful woman is the spirit of the
universe. If this woman becomes cold, the earth -
the heartbeat of the universe -
will be stopped. When considering myself as a woman barring all womanhood the
silent cry of the deepest core of my stone heart began to be overcast and
overshadowed with venomous pains and then this insignificant writer of your
letter threw the heavy stone of her heart and flowed the spring of tears. How
did my long-waited cry give tongue to my dumb mind with her soothing music?
*
*
*
*
*
First
of all it’s unwise to be angry at the activities of mad Nuru. Is it possible
to bind someone who will take no bondage? When a mad elephant and an
irresistible ox are given some kind of bondage of chain or rope, it’ll
either break the bond or die in bondage and then become free. But if it exists
in the bondage it’ll be nothing but a dead life. It may be possible to
attract the birds of the open sky with golden chain or jeweled perch or food,
but no one can restrain it. He’ll also become free in the same way. When
one, in whose blood the bond-less spirit dances, whose veins sway the tune
with full spirit, is stopped, the whole action poses as nothing but an
addition to his spirit. Are you able to calm him? Your childlike talks result
only in laughter. Where will its sea of fire go, even if the volcano remains
dormant for one or two days. From outside we may take it very calm and may
design our plots for it, but we only forget that a vigorous dance of fire is
continuing in it. But after the restoration of high power in it when once it
springs out, we think with our hand on our cheeks -
oh, what’s it! ... No? For thousand times. I forbade you to confine this mad
boy because he’s nothing but a crazy in the field of the world. The poor’s
talks prove true at last. ... You’ve blamed me for arousing murmuring sounds
in the Pacific of this bond-free person by my storms of pains -
if that were true I could agree. But who has called up these homeless insane
youths to leave their houses from the home of agony? I don’t know neither
you nor even that homeless insane himself knows it. He’s not a houseless
person of just recent past rather a permanent indifferent, a perpetual free
man. From the very beginning of God’s creation they’ve left their houses
and never returned. Whenever they see a home they become afraid like a deer
scared of bondage. Fear flashes like lightning in their wandering looks. They
always keep their ears to the ground to hear the flute from a long distance.
When other people hear the joyous melodies of union, they hear the music of
separation. They’re coming home with tears, but going out severing all ties.
The family ties can’t keep them in house. They’ll, in the like-wise
manner, lose a home after getting another and take other people as their own.
They’re the most affectionate sons of the mother-earth. They’re the Bauls
and minstrels of her fields in the evening. What we think as their suffering
is possibly a mistake. It’s tough to identify the sorrows and joys of them.
They love the whole universe, but alas, they are not satisfied. Their hunger
for love only increases, so they respond to any call of affection very easily,
but they cannot rely on affection. The cause behind is their fear for bondage.
Their love is so deep and great that you consider it as their madness. ... And
about fire? Without fire, how have they attained this irresistible speed?
They’re the insects, they’re the fires. They themselves create fire and in
that they kill themselves. Fire is a toy game to them. You don’t know,
they’ll dive in this fire and burn themselves and come out again and again.
Neither I know.
Whatever
you’ve written in your letter about Nuru from your simple understanding is
mostly true with one or two exceptions. It may be my mistake to understand,
but we people keeping outside the family, better understand human nature or
mind than you people of the families do and with that point of view I’m
writing so much ideas or philosophies about these unfettered men.
I
can’t but laugh seeing you afraid in thinking Nuru rebellious to Lord. Does
the creation of God come to his hand if Nuru becomes rebellious? He’s at a
tender age now. He’s fully spirited physically and psychologically. The warm
blood of youth is flowing through his body. Moreover he’s an undisciplined,
unfettered man. So for his warm and powerful blood his talks will be
impossible and unusual. Now sometimes he talks from his understanding but some
other times not from there, from sentiments only. When a healthy and strong ox
walks through the path, then he, I’m sure you’ve seen, dashes his head
with the nearby walls or trees without any apparent reason. Reba dear, don’t
forget that though this boy has been born in Bengal he possesses the anguish
for freedom like a bedouin, for courage like an Arabian and for bloodthirstiness like a
Turkish in his artery. So when we need to understand this type of boys,
we’ve to search out the real truth in them. Religion, which is so great, has
some outer masks like social truth, temporal truth etc etc. Will we take these
transitory truths as the eternal truth of religion? It’s true, truth can
never be transitory or carnal, only to clarify the term I’m to express it
this way. Every religion is true -
it’s established on eternal truth, and never judge a religion by the
people-made rules. If you do this, it’ll be simply like the experience of
seeing an elephant by some blind men. So if you want to understand man and his
never dying soul, you must enter into the inner temple of his mind. Why will
you take the outer rituals and customs as true?
Possibly
I’m failing to organize my ideas properly, never will I be able, because I
don’t posses that calm stability of mind. My mind’s only roaming outside.
So try to get the key-point of my talks. ... It’s true if you want to
understand the whole man, you’ve to search in all his customs and behaviours.
But one can not achieve that freedom from it always and searching ends in
vain. Well, every man has his own bad and good qualities. Do those people who
scold the youth as ‘opponent to God’ cares much as 'His obedient’? Will
they get God if they search shutting their eyes as blind people? How much do
they have information about God, though they gnash their teeth to the disloyal
and call them atheists. To get information or to think about Him is a
different thing -
the fake people even don’t understand that they are deceiving His truth. Is
it the real truth to adore in the temple or to say prayer in the mosque? These
are the outer rituals. But can they even obey these rituals? They go to the
temple and sing the hymns, but inwardly they pray for other’s ruin. Going to
the mosque they prepare for prayer and rightly then begin to think about the
evil family-things. This pretension and deception is their truth. So if anyone
of them deny to destroy his soul in this way and takes a new way to reach the
truth, the others will chase after him with weapons but like the impotent.
They don’t have that much power to chase such a truth-seeker disloyal.
That’s simply the gnash of the dogs. They’ll never admit that they are
destroying their souls centering this falsity and deception, though they
understand it well. If they’d that power to admit the truth, they’d not
face so much demolition. Keeping his legs on the heads of the liars, Monsoor
burst out Anal Haq-‘ I’m the
truth’. These people are the successor of those who rushed angrily to
Monsoor. These false religious people couldn’t realize the saying of great
Monsoor in those days, can’t even now, not even in future they will. Such a
group will always remain. But can these powerless impotents ever stop those
who’re in the way to God, whose aim’s truth, who’ve seen the beckoning
of truth ? Truth will always smile putting garlands round his neck. ...
Moreover it’s a great thing to be a disloyal. His truth’s much greater
than that of the lakhs of people. A different truth aspires to spring out of
this disloyal’s mind for which he makes his own way avoiding all the age-old
societies, religions, discipline and every thing. See, the rest nine hundred
and ninety nine of a thousand can’t stand so. Do you want to say this nine
ninety nine have got the truth? Imagine his indomitable courage for which he
takes the way that no one follows caring death or destruction a little. You
know, courage comes from the power of truth. ... Moreover every soul has its
own way. If one doesn’t follow the much-tread way, will you call his way a
wrong one? In addition to that as one must have power, he must have right too.
You see, I can’t be a disloyal, you can’t, we don’t possess that much
bearing capacity. Rebellion’s transformed perturbation and anger. If a boy
refuses to address his father or mother or denies that they’re his father or
mother, will the father or mother lose his/her motherhood/ fatherhood?
Whenever his pique comes to an end, he comes back to his mother’s lap with
tearful eyes. What does he get from this pique or denial? He can know and can
get his parents better. In this way it’s not impossible if he gets the
eternal mother. Moreover, he’s got the right to be haughty or rebellious,
because he knows from the deep love of his mother that she’ll forgive all
his protests. Can you imagine the weight of that love which can arouse so much
rage and sensitiveness? It doesn’t dishonor the mother, rather it gives her
more. So the mother only smiles at her inclined child seeing its inclination.
This is a fantastic scene. No outer people can understand the satisfaction of
the mother from this dishonour. They only think what a naughty lad! But the
boy who’s never got so much love or right from his mother, can not even ask
for something standing near her, let alone dishonour her.
*
*
*
*
*
Yes,
I’ve something to say about religion. I told you earlier that every religion
has eternal truth as its foundation -
the truth that was at the beginning of creation, is at present and will be in
infinite future. As I believe in this religion, you can categorize me in any
religion you like. I’m a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, a Brahmo.
I’m without any outer ritual (temporary truth) of any religion. The fanatics
do the wrong there. Excluding the eternal truth of religion they’re
embracing those rituals. They’re so much devoted to their religion that if
anyone proceeds to do anything with it, they become furious. But they don’t
try to understand that their faith, their religion’s so meaningless that it
can’t bear any sort of touch. Is religion so fragile that it won’t be able
to bear a little touch? Religion’s tolerance as armour, but I can’t stick
to this idea seeing the activities of these hypocrites. Their faith as well as
its power’s so little that they won’t let you go in any different way, nor
let you make any query to verify that truth. ... For these reasons, dear,
I’m in favour of those atheists than the false theists. Their main fault’s
they directly admit that they haven’t got the truth. But you see, to
understand the true idea of this truth, to know it and to get it they’re
toiling round the clock -
that’s their worship and adoration and practice. ...
*
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*
*
*
Your
brave friend
Shahoshika
1 Aholya:
According to the epic Ramayana the
wife of sage Goutam. Her husband cursed her to turn into stone for her
physical relation with god Indra. She was relieved of her curse by Lord Rama
2
Habia
Dojokh:
According to Islamic faith the worst of the hells
3
Lord
Shiva:
According to Hindu mythology the god of destruction
4
Somudro
Monthon:
According to the epic Ramayana there
occurred a stirring in the ocean by the gods and demons at two sides. Poison,
along with other things was produced
5
Lakshmi:
Goddess of wealth in Hindu mythology