Sunday 25 October 2015

Hon’ble Justice Tripura High Court, Shri Subhasis Talapatra on : Bridging Souls: A Journey from Mahabharata to Bharata


Ek bodh amader antargato rakter bhitar khela kare ( a sensibility that plays in within our blood ) as Jibananda Das quietly did his menagerie of words to define a man in the infinite, ananta. Mahabharata, unlike other epics of the world occupies a unique epicenter. It is hardly considered as the literary text by the folks, it is like a text being read and being told in many different contexts and it has  unparalleled impact  on the Indian psyche, it is like a springboard to philosophical discourse, to ethical polemics. Its temptation to Indian authors appears irresistible, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Mahasweta Devi and numerous others and it will go on. This tradition flows transcending the time. To me it is a text unending, is being written in continuum by readers by their response, by drawing it forward and ultimately leaving to the posterity. It is an inalienable component of Indianess, Bharatbarshiyata as Rabindranath Tagore described our nationalism in Gora.
Mahabharata , a tale of intrigues , conspiracies, strategies, invasions, passion and of gory bloodshed is bound for a journey for Nyaya which demands exposition of truth. Arindam is depicting his saga of this unending epic. "I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."  This is a statement made in 1835 by none other than Lord Thomas Banington Macauley whose penal code has been used as the tool by Arindam to interconnect the crimes of the protagonists as arrayed by Vyas, in the backdrop of a blooming love. It is like a binary twist , love and violence, while violence is interpreted as orgy of wild passion and  hegemony. Bridging Souls: A Journey from Mahabharata to Bharata is awe-generating in its idea and weaving the text. Arindam’s has its niche,a true reader seldom affords to miss such an invitation for storm over a cup of tea.

No comments:

Post a Comment