Reviews

Binodini–By Rabindranath Tagore: Translated from Bengali by K. R. Kripalani. (Published by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Cr. 8-vo size. Pp. 276+viii. Price Rs. 3-50.)

In modern Indian novels, one finds ample material for understanding the culture and habits of the race. Yet there is a sense of artificiality, especially when love, romance or sex is, introduced to colour the theme. Society in India is not, with all its contact with the West, still ready to live a life alien to it in every respect. Freedom in the social relations of man and woman, and the psychological influence of love that can hardly be distinguished from the urge of sex, are not yet become quite to common an experience with Indians generally. Freedom between man and woman, in however little a measure, is looked upon with suspicion. Love and romance are much less understood except perhaps in a novel and a novel alone. And when they are understood in a novel, they are looked upon with a feeling that, beyond the pleasure they provide the young heart, they have no factual basis in society.

Rabindranath Tagore has, in this great novel of his, Chokar Bali (Eyesore in the original Bengali), achieved a rare feat of intellect. He has made a virgin widow the pivot of limitless desires, hopes and frustrations caused in the limited confines of a tiny house. A doting mother, rearing up a spoilt son and marrying him to an innocent doll-like creature, provides only playthings to his fancy which leads him astray at the sight of ‘fresf pastures’. The widow, Binodini, is a creation by herself, worthy of any great novelist. Anna Karenina of Tolstoy may have to lay a wager by her side in the matter of winning the readers’ sympathies and censure by turns, as her character unfolds itself. There is nobility, stability and yet selfishness in the character of Binodini. Her contrast is the weak Ophelia-like Asha, the lawfully wedded wife of Mahendra, the spoilt hero.

In between, pass characters like Behari, the staunch friend, buffetting a hundred storms and situations at the expense of his own reputation. Fate weaves into a knot the different strands, and, to the last, Binodini’s heart, lying in wait for Behari to enter it, struggles in the coils of another’s passionate worship of her, due solely to her own seduction of him. Though justification is very little for the widow’s earlier attempts to wean away Mahendra, there is yet a strange reason behind the waywardness of a seemingly temporary affair.

One is aghast sometimes at the cleverness with which the ramifications of psycho-analysis are explored in the novel. Very often the reader is perplexed at the adroitness of the novelist which makes real things unreal at the end. Tagore, though he has written many more
famous novels after the year 1902 (when this novel was first ushered into the world) appears to have shown remarkable insight into human nature’s inscrutability, more so when he has not, despite the prodigality of his poetry, rendered the story halting. One finds in the novel passages of the author’s own mind only at rare intervals and, that too, for a short while.

From the point of view of story, the suspense and the delightful dialogues, this novel is certainly one of his best. It is a pity the novel has waited so long for its English garb. But in another sense it did well to wait so long, as it could not have had earlier a translator like Sri K. R. Kripalani. His rendering is most welcome to readers. Sri Kripalani has bestowed the utmost care to secure an easy flow and naturalness of diction.

In view of the forthcoming Tagore Centenary, the Sahitya Akademi has done well to provide the Tagore knowing public one more rich repast of extraordinary delicacy.

K. CHANDRASEKHARAN