Nationalism and Politics through Bina Das’s Memoir

Abstract

The paper, ‘Nationalism and Politics through Bina Das’s Memoir’ is an analysis of the author’s politicalprison memoir which probes into the much argued domain of nationalism with the prime focus being on colonial Bengal. One of the youngest patriots to have dared to shoot the then Governor of Bengal, Stanley Jackson at the Convocation Ceremony of University of Calcutta, Bina Das continues to be an unacknowledged nationalist. A common facet of Bengali women’s political participation in the nationalistic strife against the British hegemony was their ungrudging compliance of imprisonment. Time spent in confinement was high yielding as to combat the monotony of their prison existence, women harnessed and nurtured strong solidarity among themselves. They taught each other to read and write so as to enable them to expand their nationalistic disposition and wrote their own tales in prose and poetry which was their modus operandi to resist the colonial regime and the offensive practice of state apparatus. Even though they were enclosed behind the bars and cut off from society yet, they were keenly aware of all that was occurring outside through their avid reading habits as being political prisoners they were entitled to claim for books, newspapers and periodicals. The memoir gives a vivid account of the workings of a prison - segregation of prisoners which was not only gender specific but also on the basis of the prisoner’s social and educational standings. The stark difference between criminal and political prisoners highlighted the injustices and tortures that were meted out to the poor, illiterate peasant women whose crime was to resist their patriarchal in-laws. The upper and upper-middle class Bengali women moving out into the public sphere and readily participating in the nation’s concern led to a change in the meaning of the bhadramahila (gentle woman). While most of the men thought that women would go back to their previous position of being tender and affectionate in the private arena once the country attained freedom however, women thought rather differently and were now ready to withstand any force that might lead them back to the dingy and confined andarmahal.

Keywords

• nationalism
• prison
• women
• memoir