Abstract:
The paper explores how modern rationality encouraged the
development of Indian detective fiction as a genre by tracing the history of
detective fiction from the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century
when Saradindu Bandyopadhyay wrote the Byomkesh Bakshi mysteries. The study
takes detective fiction to study Bengali Bhadralok as a byproduct of the
symbiotic relationship with British colonialism. It argues that the modernity
India/Bengal acquired is colonial modernity. Between the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, every sphere of life in Bengal became modified by the wave
of modernity, witnessing a transition in the domestic sphere and the world
outside, which witnessed a change in the form of crime from pre-colonial times
to the post-independence period. The Bhadralok are a part and parcel of the
modernity of Bengal that came in the form of the Bengal Renaissance in the
mid-nineteenth century. The study attempts to understand the ambivalence of
colonial modernity. The production of culture by a particular socio-economic
group is hybridized when it comes in contact with a dominant group. The paper
scrutinizes the influence of modern rationality on the literary production of
detective fiction. It will also trace the development of the detective genre
published by the newly established publishing houses. As modernity affects more
than any single aspect of human life, multiple effects have resulted from
Bengal’s engagement with modernity through British hegemonic intervention.
Keywords: Colonial Modernity, Crime and Detective
Fiction, Bengali Detective Fiction.
Detective and Crime fiction have exceeded
all the other genres of fiction in the last two centuries. Best seller lists in
the newspaper and magazines invariably include crime fictions titles; books have
dedicated crime fiction sections. The texts are read across age, appealing to
young and to the old as well as merely middle age. Academic study of the genre
is relatively recent because of its importance and relevance to study of
literature and culture. W.H Auden says, “The
reading of detective stories is an addiction like tobacco or alcohol.”(The
Guilty Vicarage 2) After all Critics define it is as a popular literature,
pulp fiction, contemporary, ephemeral, disposable, accessible reading,
undemanding non-canonical, non-academic: an easy option. There is a wide spread,
even global, acknowledgement of the genre not only academically but also
commercially. Defining the detective novel
P. D. James says, “Novels which
have an atrocious crime at their heart, whose writers set out to explore and
interpret the dangerous and violent underworld of crime, its causes,
ramifications and effect on both perpetrators and victims, can cover an
extraordinarily broad spectrum of imaginative writing extending to some of the
highest works of the human imagination.”
(James, 5)
The genre gets the tag of a form of
popular fiction as it can appeal to only a privileged minority until a community
achieves a high level of literacy. It is generally accepted that the ideology of
individualism, the growth of science and rationality, development of the city,
the founding of the police forces and of the surveillance all are important to
consider in explaining the genre’s development. There is, however, marked
divergence of opinion about how this social articulations are related. This may
be a result of the fact that detective fiction has diversified to the point
where it can be subdivided into various subgenres. Thus there is nineteenth
century classic fiction of Edger Allen Poe and Arthur Canon Doyle, the golden
age literature of Agatha Christie, the hard boiled thrillers of Raymond Chandler
and Dashiel Hammett and cold war spy fiction of writers such as Ian Fleming and
John Le Carre. All of these types fall into the category loosely termed crime
writing but each in turn have distinct characteristics that relate to their
separate time and space and have therefore been subjected to varying
interpretations by numerous and diverse scholars.
Francesca Orsini writes that the
detective novel in India got immediate success in nineteenth century with the
translation in regional language from English. But there are many writers who
wrote detective, spy and mystery texts were written in English. Rudyard Kipling
is one of the foremost Indian English writers; his
Kim (1901) is concerned with great
game of spying. The others mystery writers of English including S. Mukherji’s
The Mysterious Traders(1915); S.K.
Chettur’s Bombey Murder(1940); and
Kamala R. Sathianadhan’s Detective
Janaki (1944). Tabis Khair
observes the fiction of
Ravi Shanker Etteth’s
The Tiger by the River and
The Village of the Windows (2004))
novels and Rohinton Mistery’s
Such a Long Journey (1919) have the elements of mystery.(Indian Pulp Fiction
in English)
Sleuths have been a part of the Bengal’s popular fiction for well over a
century. The detective story in Bengali literature is known as the goenda
kahini (translation: ‘detective story’) .The
earliest endeavor of writing detective story started in Bengali literature and
its beginning lies in 1890s with Priyanath Mukherjee’s personal experiences
published in a magazine entitled Darogar
Daptar. It resembled Francois Eugene
Vidocq’s Memoirs de Vidocq, an eventful memoir of soldier, a criminal, an
entrepreneur, a private detective personal experience. Though Mukherjee’s work
is not totally original but tried hard to ‘Bengalify’ his stories. He gained
popularity and his series inspired other writers to explore the genre. Panchkori
Dey is one of his renown processors but his writing was no particularly original
and neither had much literary quality
writing in the early 20th century. Dey was the first to introduce the
detective-assistant duo in Bengali, following the Holmes-Watson tradition:
Debendrabijoy and
Arindam. Dey was a voracious reader of
English crime fiction and he didn’t hesitate to recreate in Bengali what he’d
read in English. Many other writers tried to write detective stories but they
had neither originality nor literary quality. It is the trio of, Hemandra Kumar,
Saradindu Bandyhapadhyay and Satyajit Roy who brought the detective genre to
Bengali literature.
The critical response to Indian detective
genre is not as enormous as its literary output. Serious intellectual and
critical investigation are required for the genre. Few scholars have tried to
investigate the development of detective and crime fiction in the Indian
subcontinent. Linguist and scholar Sukumar Sen is one of those few. His
investigative book, Crime Kahinir Kalkranti (1995), explores the
genealogy of crime and detective tradition of India. The book critically
analyzes the generic development of crime and detective tradition from the West
to the Indian subcontinent. Another visionary work is by Pinaki Roy in his
The Manichean Investigators: the Postcolonial and Cultural Rereading of Sherlock
Holmes and Byomkesh Bakshi Stories (2008). Here, Roy tries to relate
detective fiction to the postcolonial and cultural traditions of pre- and
post-independence Bengal. He argues about how the detective narratives of
Sherlock Holmes construct the appalling and, at the same time, the alluring
image of the Orient, which was used to underpin and legitimize the British
colonialist. He examines colonialism as a theme through which the British text
successfully constructed the orientalist discourse. According to him, Byomkesh
completely differs from the Western sleuth as he brings his subaltern identity
into crime detection. The book explores the nuances of the discursive
construction of the East and the detective narrative as a political
representation of the Anglo-American hegemonic world order.
European modernity came from three waves:
the Reformation, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution and the ensuing European
revolutions. The most important idea to emerge from Europe was the concept of
Individualism, popularized and perpetuated during the transition of Europe from
a feudal to an industrial society and fought for passionately during the French
Revolution. As a blow to the traditional Western concept of a God-centric
civilization, the revolution circulated the idea of liberty, equality and
fraternity. The concept of Individualism germinated from the soil of Europe. The
European philosophers played a predominant role in this revolutionary ideology.
Kant, Hegel and Rousseau are the prime forces of the European revolutions. The
second wave was formulated during the Industrial Revolution and led to the
transformation in class structure, monopoly over the new trade routes, and other
discoveries related to technology. It paved the way for a capitalist economy in
the West. The third wave associated with national sovereignty with the rise of
European nationalism and the nation-state ushered in the modern political
systems.
Western political modernity is the
formulation of modern institutions--the formation of the colonial state and its
bureaucracy. Frederic Jameson opines that the process of colonialism is always
historicized ‘that facilitates the creation of binaries of the centre and
periphery’ (Jameson 46). Jameson’s seminal essay “Modernism and Imperialism”,
informed by the idea of global imperialism inserted into literary history,
argues that imperialism is the constitutive element of European modernist
aesthetics. Many other critics agree. Walter Mignolo asserts vis-à-vis Jameson’s
insistence that Western modernity promotes colonialism in Asia, Latin America
and Africa. He says that colonialism, in other words, is the hidden face of
modernity and its very condition of possibility (Mignolo 721).
Jean Baudelaire is quite famous for his
argument, which Frederic Jameson supported. According to Baudelaire, when
romanticism is dissatisfied with what is still perceived as the reactive sense
against the classical, the concept of modernity is born (Jameson 21). Modernity
is marked by a discontinuity in social, political, economic and all other
previous institutions. The life that modernity brought with it has swept us away
from all traditional social orders in a smooth and unprecedented fashion.
Whether the transformation is intentional or unintentional, the question is how
to identify the discontinuities which differentiate modern social institutions
from the traditional social order. Anthony Giddens talks about several features
involved in that process. ‘The pace of change’ of conventional civilization has
not been less dynamic in pre-modern times; it has merely lacked speed. The pace
of the condition is extreme. The predominant factor is the technology, which
permeates all other spheres. The second feature of discontinuity involves the
scope of change, which is related to connectivity or interconnectedness with one
another around the globe. The wave of transformation enveloped the world. With
the change in time, some new social institutions rose in the modern period which
did not exist in pre-historic times. For example, the national state, the
political legacy and its consequent democracy, and the commoditization of
production and labour. (Giddens 5-8)
The changes brought by modernity began
with the Enlightenment and the Reformation in Europe. While the Reformation
questions institutionalized religion, the Enlightenment elevated the minds as
the measure of the evolution of man. The Cartesian axiom, “I think, therefore I
am”, led steadily towards a more scientific empirical, rational and logical
linearity. In this process, nature, religion, superstition and a more
instinctive way of living and thinking were marginalized. European literature
has reflected this paradigm shift in the consciousness of the European mind.
Therefore, a vital aspect of modernity was the rise in secular writings,
literacy, print culture, and the reading public, which resulted in the rise of a
new genre, the novel. This new form soon became a social document. The
increasing use of the rational faculty of the mind, an interest in the empirical
study of data and the rising ascendancy of scientific procedures and
perspectives resulted in ratiocination, which took popular form as detective
fiction beginning with Edgar Allen Poe, and the sub-genre has never lost
popularity.
The beginning of the detective story in
modern times came with the establishment of the police system, which started at
the beginning of the nineteenth century in the reign of Napoleon. (Reference)
Detective and crime fiction have exceeded all other genres in the last two
centuries. The detective icon brings immense passion and excitement to one’s
daily routine. However, the controversy was not over; some academicians did not
feel this fiction deserved to be read alongside Shakespeare. The literary
quality of detective fiction has always been questioned, though it follows all
the literary tools and techniques to prove its grandeur. The genre thus gets the
tag of a form of popular fiction as it can appeal to only a privileged minority
until a community achieves a high level of literacy.
It is generally accepted that the
ideology of individualism, the growth of science and rationality, the
development of the city, and the founding of the police forces and surveillance
are all important to consider in explaining the genre’s development. There is,
however, a marked divergence of opinion about how these social articulations are
related. This may result from the fact that detective fiction has diversified to
the point where it can be subdivided into various subgenres. Thus, there is
nineteenth-century classic fiction of Edger Allen Poe and Arthur Canon Doyle,
the golden age literature of Agatha Christie, the hard-boiled thrillers of
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and Cold War spy fiction of writers such
as Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. All of these types fall into the category
loosely termed crime writing. However, each, in turn, has distinct
characteristics that relate to their separate time and space and have,
therefore, been subjected to varying interpretations by numerous and diverse
scholars.
The avant grade writers modified the
formula's ‘most conservative feature’ which demanded a new way of speculation,
and questioning the reader’s assumption about the genre. The new dimension also
allowed the questioning of the conventional version of the critical formula.
Detective fiction, a self-conscious work of art, demands symbolic rather than
symptomatic reading. This reading considers the text as the product of a
particular time and place and the conscious attempt to symbolize understanding
of the time and place (Horsley 52). The distinction of genre as a high and low
is culturally constructed (Matzk 5). According to Terry Eagleton, the ‘high’
cultural form is aesthetically superior, which is more profound, authentic, and
humanly historical (qtd. in Wilkinson 11). The low or the popular form does not
fulfil the criteria. Christina Ann Evans argued that detective fiction is
considered bad literature because its reliance on repeated and familiar
strategies does not challenge the reader (Wilkinson 11).
The critical acclamation of the genre
came at the beginning of the twentieth century with the rise of structuralism
and post-structuralism. The debate was assisted a step forward when the question
of high art and low art, Popular literature and Mass literature was at its
zenith with the blurring distinction of modernism. Structuralist Tzveteran
Todorav’s teleological thinking about detective fiction resulted in the critical
text Typology of Detective Fiction. He was eager to formulate the structure of
the genre to compare certain measurable elements (Todorov 2). He suggests that
the geometric structure of detective fiction leads to clue after clue. Detective
fiction is made up of story about two stories- the first story is a crime, and
the second one is an investigation (4). The first story of crime tells what
happened, whereas the second story investigates how the reader has learned about
it (5). The first story, he argues, is absent but real, and the second one is
present but insignificant. These presences and absences constitute the
continuity of the narrative (5). Many conventional and literary devices are
related to the first action. The devices, he mentions, are of two types –
temporal inversion and individual point of view. The complete justification and
naturalization initiate the second action. He was not so much concerned about
the second story. He asserts that the author is writing a book, and he will give
the same treatment to both of the stories. The style he emphasizes should be
neutral and pliant to the point where it is rendered imperceptible (6). He marks
two readerly aspects of detective fiction. The first one is curiosity, which,
according to him, is initiated from effect. Beginning with the effect (murder or
crime), the reader must search for the cause. The second is suspense, which
moves from cause to effect our interest sustains what will happen next (6).
Peter Huhn also provided a similar
analysis of detective narratives. According to him, the detective Story is the
combination of a double plot structure, it can be outlined as: the initial crime
which remains unsolved and works as an uninterpretable sign that opposes the
integration into the established meaning system of a community because crime
affiliates and discredits the validity of the system. So, it becomes vital for a
community to uncover the hidden meaning by reinterpreting the sign in order to
defuse it. The second story is about the progress of the plot which is presented
to find Meaning from the sign by finding the missing links to the accepted
patterns of reality. This interpretative link forms the narrative in the
detective story thus employing one of the most fundamental devices for
generating coherence and meaning telling the story of the genesis of the crime
(Huhn 5). The genesis of the crime provides clarity and essential components of
the narrative as a well-structured form.
As a general convention every murderer
leaves some traces, though, in order to avoid detection, he/she leaves as few
trace as possible or manipulates the trace(s) in a way that it does not create
further story. So, crime or murder resists the second step of the story i.e. the
genealogy of the crime ‘. Therefore, a mystery is created in the space between
the first and the last stories. Thus, crime fiction has a dual plot with
two-fold stories. The first story is about crime which the criminal writes and
is partly hidden, partly distorted and misleading. But in that process of
writing, he does not succeed in overcoming the Freudian Unconsciousness, so, he
leaves some traces, which become clues for the detective that begins the second
story written by the detective. But interestingly both the stories are similar
to a certain extent. In both parts of the story the clues are hidden and readers
are completely misled.
An important feature of the detective
story is the employment of an ‘individualized narrator’ who may be the
detective’s friend or assistant. The reason may be manifold. He is an active
participant in the story and the reader of criminal story but unable to detect
like the common reader. This device produces an interesting reduplication of the
interplay of reading and writing motifs (Huhn 8). And the detection part of the
story is a narrative by the detective himself. And with this complete closure
the novel no longer contains any interest for the reader. Because the mystery
was initially defined as the meaning of the text, no interest remains when the
mystery is removed.
There are further, two other components
of detective fiction- freedom and constraint. A crime story is about freedom--
the freedom of the criminal. Crime is an act of freedom. The criminal attempts
to realize himself and to gratify his desires by freeing himself from the
restraints of society and its defining norms (Huhn 11). The criminal creates a
free place by breaking the social codes. The detective, on the other hand, acts
as society's agent in order to restrict this freedom and bind the criminal again
to the constraining rules of society through arrest and punishment. In detective
stories, the detective himself as a reader, who is no ordinary reader, of
course, but a super-reader, always succeeds in extracting the meaning from the
resistant text. He deconstructs the former i.e. the criminal story and succeeds
to find out the sign(s). The process of deconstruction or reconstruction of sign
goes on till the end.
A few theorists wrote some critical
essays outlining the regulation of this fairplay. “Twenty Rules for Writing
Detective Stories” (1939) by S. S. Van Dine is one of the most famous of them. A
larger number of rules are invested for the concern of the reader--the space for
engagement with the reader. The waste of the reader’s trouble and expenditure of
energy must be rewarded (Dine 2).
These theorists helped detective and
crime fiction to achieve an honourable place as far as the complexity of the
form was concerned. The double story, the writer-reader relationship and the
establishment of crime as a gap or absence-presence in the status quo of society
led to the establishment of the detective narrative as a narrative of society,
not very different from the social novel. It is now seen as a social document in
a more complex form. Popular fiction should not be understood as providing the
ideological underpinning of society but as a part of the composite of the
surface technology that elaborate and inscribe the relation between class,
community and nation‖
(Matzke 15). Raymond Williams regards the study of popular fiction to be central
in trying to recreate what he calls the structure of feeling that is
approximating the feeling and the experience in a particular time and place.
Gramsci proposed the idea of aesthetic appreciation in detective and popular
fiction. His conclusion was that both detective and popular fictions are read
only once as they were a practical escape from reality. One reads a book for
practical impulse; one rereads it for aesthetic reason. The aesthetic emotion
hardly ever comes on the first reading (Wilkinson 14-15).
The intellectual investigation through
detective fiction is primarily the province of socially inclined theorists. They
assert that detective fiction can be read as the embodiment of social
determination as it portrays the real complexity of society. Sociologists are
interested in its origin and development as it is very much related to
nineteenth century industrial revolution and the bourgeoisie ascendency.
Detective fiction has been of particular interest to Marxist inclined theorists
particularly because the crime is related to class conflict, a result of the
oppression of the bourgeoisie class. Crime proves the instability of society.
These theorists have concerned themselves with understanding the relationship of
crime and detection with social institutions. Marxist scholars are less
concerned with the aesthetic appreciation of the text.
Detective fiction has an intimate
relationship with the society. Before the crime the society shows a status quo.
The crime creates an imbalance in the social order. It has a relation with
fracturing the social system that it supports and protects. The duality of the
detective ensures as well as solves the crime which restores the normality of
rhythm in society and social order. Detective fiction, Moretti writes, is a hymn
to a culture’s coercive abilities (Clues 143). It attracts his attention
because of its radical possibilities, the ideological conflicts, and its
capacity to challenge the established norm and asks questions about the larger
condition of society, its values and systems of authority.
The existence of the criminal or the
detective is like social organisms. They represent the two poles of society. The
former must be eradicated to maintain the stereotypical normality. In the
detective fiction innocence is always the victim of individual criminal act. The
innocent represents the conformity of society. The individual guilty is not
guilty of impersonality rather it is collective and social (Clues 35).
Similarly, in Sign Taken for Wonders: on Sociology of Literary Form,
Moretti writes “Innocence is conformity; individuality guilt…. detective fiction
…exists expressly to dispel the doubt guilt might be impersonal and therefore,
collective and social” (131).
Modernity and industrialization brought
an uneven social development that created a big lacuna in social hierarchy. The
crime novel undertakes to dissect society’s flaws and failures, and to expose
society’s wrong turns of the capitalist economy and the political structure.
Detective fiction maintains an unproblematic relation between science and
society. It reduces the complexity to simplicity as through the untangling the
knot of crime. The continuing appeal of detective fiction is that the genre is
conservative in nature. Detective fiction writers often used the conventional
formula as a vehicle for social and cultural criticism-- subversion not a
limitation.
The Eurocentric detective novel stands as
a prototype of the modern detective narrative. However, postcolonial fiction
presents an alternative perspective for example, the African American mystery
and detective genre offered a counter-ethnic view. The British and American
detective fiction writers accommodated the Eurocentric ideological political
perspective by creating a binary between the West and the Rest. The genre has
ancient roots of this stereotype. The genre’s forefather, Edger Allen Poe
created a stereotypical of black image in his short story, The Gold Bug
(1843) which is considered an entry of Poe’s detective cannon. Though, it is not
one of the three stories featuring Monsieur C. Augusta Dupin. However,
Poe’s depiction of Jupiter as comic, ignorant, and still devoted to his master
despite his manipulation conformed to nineteenth-century antebellum racial
stereotypes (Bailey 272-275).
The genre is therefore, severely
criticized for its ―challenging racial stereotypes which is challenged by
postcolonial writers. The Africa American mystery and detective genre offered
some speculation to the socio-cultural critic to explore and counter ethnic
stereotypes. The foremother of African America Mysteries Pauline E. Hopkins
Hagar’s Daughter is a landmark of Afro-American detective fiction. The novel is
a completely black-centric discourse. The novel records the uncertainty of black
fortune in the white political domain, kidnapping and detection by the amateur
sleuth Venus Johnson. John Edward Bruce’s detective novel, The Black Sleuth
(1907) traces the bildungsroman narrative of its detective
protagonist Sadipa Okukena who has an experience of racial discrimination in his
academic and detective career. Bruce’s narrative stands as a contrast to the
detective mainstream detective novel.
In the European detective fiction black
characters generally play minor roles or are house servants. The form is
employed by the African-American writers and writers of African origin to
respond radically not only to the colour of the detective but also challenging
the order of the convention. The writings of Hopkins and Bruce give voice to the
marginalized. They used the genre to explore African American social issues in
Harlem. Cultural vernacular is one of the characteristics of Africa American
detective genre as mentioned in the novel of Stephen Soitos in The Blue
Detective (Matzke 36).
Postcolonial theorists and writers have
created a discourse to question the Western epistemology regarding colonial
history. The periodisation of modernity traces back to a specific moment of
history designated as spatial configuration that occurs in Europe from about
sixteenth century to early twentieth century (Friedman 426). This definition
fails to prove the universality of periodisation. By doing so the modernity of
the third world is overlooked. Unfortunately, this part of the world gained
modernity through colonization, followed by the formation of independent nation
statehood. As a result, some countries achieved modernity after 1940. Examining
the spatial politics of the conventional periodization of modernism fosters a
move from singularities to pluralities of space and time, from exclusivist
formulations of modernity and modernism to ones based in global linkages, and
from nominal modes of definition to relational ones (430). However, contemporary
academic scholarship finds that the western intellectual and industrial systems
are not enough for the proper understanding of modernity in the third World. The
periodization of modernity consists of debatable beginning and end points. It is
the ideological Eurocentric notion of modernity that contains unacknowledged
spatial politics that suppresses the global dimension of modernism through time
and the interplay of space and time in all modernisms. To put modernity on that
particular time bondage means to hear only one side. But the paradox is that the
process of modernity is not the activity of any single side, though the West
claims that they are the responsible for bringing civilization to the Rest, ‘as
well as modernity to the rest of the world. This binary created the
superstructure of western imperialism. There is no acknowledgement of the
contribution in the formation of modernity from the sluggish ‘third world. It
was a European initiative to bring forth modernity in the rest of the world by
the process of colonialism. Marlon’s opinion is effective in that respect, that
colonialism constitutes western modernity (432-435).
It cannot be denied that the modernist
aesthetics is not a radical European concept. The philosophy underlying
modernism came not only from western epistemology, but the sluggish third world
contributed to it. The high preachers of modernism Pound, Eliot and others were
fascinated by the orientalist philosophy and artifacts. Eliot’s Waste Land
or Yeats’s Byzantium bear witness to this fascination. Very recently
Charles Pollard in his New World Modernism reinvigorates Eliot’s
scholarship by mentioning the inter-national influence of cosmopolitan modernism
on Europe.
Modernity in its epistemological,
philosophical and technological break from the past, is undeniably a system
honed by the European nations. As such, the modernity of India is the byproduct
of British colonial rules. This was the period marked by extreme violence and
exploitation; the establishment of the capitalist economy; nationalism;
establishment of modern institutions, academic and administrative reform through
Government of India Act, Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education and various other
measures and reforms imposed by the British rulers. The historiography of
British Empire building is also the capitalist history of colonial India and the
activity of the British in India. The modern artifacts or the modern academic
institutions undertook the initiative of the mordernisation of the Indian. The
question remains how the colonial society embraced the western concept of
modernity if one equates modernity with westernization. The British education
system was the soft tool for British imperialism and colonial domination. The
institution on the one hand maintains the social dominance on the other hand it
creates a social hierarchy. The power was centralised in the educated, creating
a new class of people. Modernity of Bengal demands a dialogical reimagining of
the city as well as the domesticity of colonial people by both the westerners
and the Bengalis simultaneously. Contemporary historians and academicians
recognised the importance of researching the true conditions of nineteenth
century Bengal. According to Dipesh Chakrabarty ‘s Capitalization of History,
the history of Bengal/India has a complex experience of modernity and the
interaction with European colonialism and the consequent coming to terms with
globalized modernity (Chakraborty, Proviancializing Europe 15).
The literary impact of the European
narrative form in nineteenth-century Bengal results from its engagement with
British colonialism. The Bengali Renaissance bought a new English reader and
writers' group who were influenced by the new genre. New generations of young
Bengalis were attracted to the Western knowledge and education system. As a
form, the novel became an intimate part of Bengali society. An interesting
observation made by Sukumar Sen is that the literary genre became available to
Bengali readers through literature in the English language, subsequently leading
to educated Bengali's engagement with the novel as a genre. Sen mentions that
the lyric poetry of Madhusudhan Dutta and Rangalal Bandyopadhyay appears after
Kashiprasad Ghosh and Sashi Chandra Dutt's lyrics in the English language.
Tarachand Shikdar wrote the first recorded Bengali drama, but Krishnamohan
Bandyopadhyay had been writing in English before him.
The same happened in the case of the
Bengali novel, Sashi Chandra Dutta wrote in English before Parrychand and
Byamkim Chandra did in the Bengali language (Sen 146). The Bengali renaissance
boosted this literature with varied themes and forms. Bankimchandra
Chattopadhyay, Raja Rammohanroy, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay are the
entrepreneur of Renaissance knowledge. Bankimchandra’s Durgesh Nandini
and Kopal Kundla are iconic Renaissance women.
In the mainstream literature, crime or
detective characters do not have an intentional existence rather they are
coincidental. There the crime is natural not driven by any political intention.
Sukumar Sen writes that the traditional Bengali family is unitary in structure.
As a result, the boundary of family is not confined within narrow space. It is
not unusual for someone to have an instinct for crime within the family. Theft
is not the only activity within domestic crime in decent middle class Bengali
families, but there is also the torture of newly bride if she does not fulfill
the expectation of her mother-in-law. It was traditional and much discussed
crime in earlier crime stories. Rabindranath Tagore did not write detective
stories or crime stories separately from his mainstream literature but his
stories comprise elements of mystery, suspense and crime. These elements rise
spontaneously from some of his short stories which were published at the
beginning of his career in Sadhana and Hitobadi Sampatti Samarpon, Kankal
(Skeleton) Nishite (At Night) and Didi (Sister) appeared in Sadhana.
Investigating the history of Indian detective fiction Sukumar Roy found the
Indian source of crime and mystery in Sanskrit theft stories. However, the
detective or jajus like figure was missing for a long time in later
Indian literature. Stories written before the nineteenth century cannot strictly
be recognized as detective stories as there was no concept of detective in
general. The beginning of the detective story in modern times was with the
establishment of the police system which started in the beginning of the
nineteenth century in the reign of Napoleon. While the novel was first read and
written in English, it was otherwise in the case of detective stories which were
written first in various indigenous Indian languages. Detective fiction written
in imitation of western models became part of the Bengali reading scene. The
writers could not imitate the language though the form and content remained the
same to some extent. Sen and Francisca both argue that detective fiction in
India and especially Bengal was imported ready-made from the English language (Crime
Kahanir Kalkrinti 140 and Detective Novel 436).
Detectives have been an inseparable part
of Bengali literary imagination for well over a century. The detective story in
Bengali literature is known as goenda kahini, a story where goenda
takes the prominent role. The genre initially had a long struggle to exist
within the mainstream Bengali Literature. The mainstream Bengali literature was
already established as a dominant part of the reader oeuvre. It was in its full
form when detective genre came to Bengali literature.
Barkaulla’s Bakaullar Daptor was
the first detective narrative and an important text that records the
institutionalization of colonial India along modern European lines. It marked
the employment of police in India (The establishment of metropolitan police of
Britain preceded the police in India). It was a significant and historical
incident of colonial authority, being necessary for the government for political
surveillance and to keep trace of petty crime, robbery and daku in parts
of suburban Bengal in the third decade of the nineteenth century. Some native
educated Bengalis got a chance to serve the colonial crime branch. Barkatulla
was one of them. He proved his ability and worked with success. His first
Bengali detective collection was published under the title Bakaullar Daptor.
Kaliprasanna Chattopadhyay collected his criminal record from the crime diary
and published as Bankaullar Daftor.
The detective story had an enormous
output as pulp literature from Bottala Press in the second half of nineteenth
century. Some novels are in magazine form. The magazine gave the new crime
writers an opportunity to practice their hand with crime and detective stories
and fiction. Among other writers Prioyanath and Bhuban Chandra Mukhapadhyay‘s
novels were published from Bottala Press. It was a place where the new writers
published their works and made them accessible to the readers. Sukumar Sen
mentioned the important persona of the Bottala Detective writers group including,
Hamachandra Bandyopadhyay’s Rani Sudhamukhi and Haridas Manna
Hiraprobha, Mahichandar, Chattopadhyay’s Chader Hat, Kushumandra
Mitra’s Kaminikantak, Ramanath Das ‘s Jalrashik, Satish Chandra
Bandyopadhyay ‘s Rail Churi and Dare Babaji’s Udashini and
Rajkanna’s Guptokatha etc. Some translations were published by Kali Prassana
Chattopadhyay from the Raynolds novel, as for example Rani Krishnakamini
translated from Young Duchess; Sanik Samantan as a translation of
Soldier’s Wife and Haridaser Guptokatha in imitation of
Haridaser Guptokatha.
Prionath Mukherjee who served as a police
officer penned down his experiences every month for a magazine named Darogar
Daptor (The Daftar of Daroga). Unfortunately, its appearance was
overshadowed by Sherlock Holmes as they both appeared at the same time. The
Memories of Vidocq (1828-9) contains romanticized versions of real cases
exposed by a reformed criminal and the founder of the first detective agency in
French. His incarnation is not limited in the European world by the form of
Balzac’s Le Pere Goriot (1834) and Gaboriau’s detective Lecocq and
its Indian counterpart Prionath Mukhapadhyay’s personal experience
entitled Darogar Doptar. Both Vidocq and Prionath played a
significant part in the development of the pre-history of detective fiction in
French and India respectively.
The other books which are rarely
mentioned for discussing police procedural writings are Sakalaer Daroga
Kahini by Girish Chandra Bose and the other one is written by the
British Police Major A. T. M. Ramage who came to India in 1853. Later he was
engaged in the police force. His A Detective Footsteps, Bengal
(1882) was the result of his nineteen years’ experience with the police. The
writer’s intention was political, observes Sen ―he wanted to train the newly
appointed police on suburban area (Sen, Krime Kahanir Kalkrinti,148).
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the pioneer
of the modern Bengali novel, did not abstain himself from writing crime novel.
He also started his literary career with an English novel entitled,
Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) which was a well-knit crime novel, published for
Indian Field by Kashari Chand Mittra. His novel Krishna Kanta’s Will
(1878) was a mature crime novel which started with crime and ended with murder.
The society of pre-colonial Bengal did not recognize crime as a punishable
offence. It was tolerated as a personal, unitary or exceptional incident. Bankim
Chandra’s literary imagination was completely driven by the notion of
socialistic or the religious perseverance. The final resolution of his crime
proceeded by peace not punishment.
The grandeur of detective writing from
Bottala press became less influential with the sudden appearance of Kuntalin
literary award for innovative new detective writing. It was initiated by the
Calcutta based industrialist Hemendra Mohan Basu (1866-1916). Sen comments
―under his patronage Bengali detective stories matured even further (KK
103). The ambition of that prize was manifold-- it worked as a tool for Bengali
nationalist movement. Sen writes ―the literary award has two motives, first, to
give enthusiasm to the new writers and second, to advertise indigenous product
to the upper class educated society (166). It succeeded in both of its
intentions and became a great source of motivation to the young litterateurs
including, Rajani Chandra Dutta, Dinendra Kumar Roy, Jagadananada Roy,
Saralabala Dasi. Saralabala Dasi was twice the winner of Kuntaleen award
and first woman writing detective fiction but she did not venture to introduce a
female detective. The male detective is created along the lines of Agatha
Christie’s intellectual detective Hercule Poirot.
A historian and a crime writer,
Harishadhan Mukhopadhyay’s (1862-1938) detective stories including Hatyakari
Key (Who is the Muderer?) and Ascharya Hatyakanda (The Perplexing
Assassination), are important as examples of early sleuth stories. Bhuvanchanda
Mukhapadhyay (1842-1916) wrote detective stories and translations in imitation
of western detective fiction, London Rahosha (London Mystery). His other
mysteries like Samaj Kuhitri (The Dirty Face of the Society) and
Haridaser Guptpkatha (Haridas’s Secret) are mingled with native and western
detective flavour, though in some stories he can claim some originality--
Kunjabala/Kashmir Kusum bears witness to his individuality. He has
translated a number of novels of Eugene Sue into Bengali. Thakurbarir Daftor
or the Avisapto Euhidi is the Bengali translation of The Wandering
Jew, a description of Christ’s thirteenth disciple Judas’s afterlife.
Santarpto Satan is the Bengali translation of The Sarose Sanders
which deals with Goethe’s Faustus’s story. His other important works--
Bankimbabu’s Guptakatha (Bankimbabu‘s Secret) Banga Rahasya (Bengal
Mystery), Bilkati Guptakatha (The Secret of the West) Samsar
Guptakatha (Family’s Secret) and several others. Kshetra Mohan Ghosh and
Surendramohan Bhattacharyya, observes Pinaki Roy, write stories testify to their
inclination for seeking safe refuge for themselves and their sleuths under the
protection of the Western imperialists (MI 101).
Another influential editor and anonymous
contributor to Bengali detective fiction, Dinendra Kumar Roy’s detective
Magazine Nandan Kanan played a prominent role for the new generation of
detective writers. He was the co-author and later became the editor of
Upendranath Mukhapadhyay’s Nandan Kanan. His detective Robert Blake is an
anglicized indigenous figure. He first appeared in Rahoshya Lahori
(Collected Mystery Stories). Roy writes Robert Blake was the most popular
prototype Eurocentric investigator in pre-independence India in the 1910s and
1920s and in his characterization of the British detective Roy was dependent on
different English periodicals, particularly Union Jack and Sexton Blake (103).
Dey translated detective stories from many European authors, but he was
different from his predecessors like Panchkari Dey, who used to indigenize his
translations. His later publication was Rashya Lahori (Collected Mystery
Stories) where he published the translation of Sexton Blake series. He
did not try to reshape the original sense of the text but often used some lines
without making any changes.
The further development of detective
story came through the skillful detective stories of Hemandra Kumar Roy. Roy has
the credit of creating and introducing three set of detectives or Trisul
detectives, in the language of Sukumar Sen: Jayanta Manik and Sundarbabu group
and Hemanta-Robin with Satishbabu group. Their mutual correlation shows the
cultural and political assimilation of colonial police and the Indian people.
Pinaki Roy finds a ―colonial connotation‖
in Hemandra Kumar Roy’s Jakher Dhan (The Hard-Guarded
Treasure), Jayantar Kirti (Jayanta’s Achievement), Manush Pichas
(The Human Monster), Shahjaner Mayur (Shajahan’s Peacock Throne) and
Padmarag Buddha (The Carbuncle Buddha).
Panchkari Dey is remembered for
introducing detective duet and a changeable detective character, the same
detective gives a different impression at different point to the reader. His
detective duet Debendrabijoy Mitra and Arindam Dey first appeared in Manorama.
Dey continued the duet in his next three novels, Mayabi (1910) Mayabini
(1902) and Neelbasana Sundari (1904). Detective Dr Bentwood turned up
in his novel Jibansmriti in 1903 which was, according to the writer, ―a
Hypnotic Novel. Later, the title was changed as Salinasundari. His
Gobindraram, Mitru Bivisheka (Death Hallucination) Protigya Palan
(The Fulfillment of Oath) and Sati Simontani (Virgin Simontani)
Gobindraram is the detective, was created in the light of historical figure
Gobindrarm. Debendrabijoy and Arindam character’s exhibit hybridity in their
dress in their traditional Indian and European formals like pleated shirts with
hard cuffs, open breasted sleeveless coat made of China silk, black bordered
proceeded dhoti, and Derby shoes (Saradindu Omnibus 11). Ranojit Chottopadhyay
and Siddharta Ghosh write whereas Priyanath Mukhapadhyay wrote a tale based on
his own experiences, Panchkari Dey blended romance with those ingredients.
Nevertheless, his stories were not original-- at best they were Western tales in
Eastern garb (Chattopadhyay and Ghosh 749).
Mohit Mohan Chattopadhyay in the late
1950s introduced Bhombal Das and Kabla Ram to satirize the anglicized
investigator as object of ridicule. Hari Sadhan Mukhapadhyay who had a keen
interest on Mughal history, wrote the detective story in imitation of Raynolds
and Bhuban Chandra. His detective stories including Kankan Chor (The
Bangle Thief), Lal Chiti (Red Letter) Mrittu Prehelika,
Saitaner Dan (The Gift of Satan) and Pannar Pritisodh (The Revenge of
Panna) etc. showed his popularity both as a mainstream and detective writer.
The newly established publication houses
of the twentieth century resulted in a plethora of detective fiction and story
publications from various publishers. Kishor Mohan Bagchi started P. M. Bagchi
publication and published his Adbhut Hatyakanda (The Mysterious Killing).
Contemporary newspapers and magazines played a prominent role in the enormous
production of detective stories and novels. Mritunjay Chattopadhaya initiated
Romancho which appeared on weekly to satisfy the crime and detective reader.
Pronab Roy, Priotosh Bhattacharya, Moni Bardhan, Panchu Mukhapadhyay and Nipo
Krishna Chattopadhyay wrote detective stories regularly for Romancho.
Hemandra Kumar Mukhapadhayay
is another important contributer to the genre in Bengal.
He started his literary career as a juvenile story writer for Mouchak magazine.
Though, at the beginning of his stories there is the influence of Panch Kori
Day’s detective characters (Sen 189) Sen added Dey’s writing the Western theme
and character completely moulded into indigenous form and aesthetics. He has
succeeded to popularize the juvenile literary form to the young readers (Sen
189).
Saradindu
Bandyopadhyay’s Byomkesh Bakshi stories, set in colonial Calcutta covering
almost fifteen years of Indian history. It explores the material changes in
urban life and the varied changes in the institutional apparatuses as well as
social change under the influence of modernity. The experience of the urban
industrial life; material structure formed by the technology and artifacts and
the various new social ideas are involved with modernity. The capture of city
life of a particular historical conjuncture traces the roots and the development
of modernity in colonial world and places modernity as a local phenomenon. As
far as Bengal is concerned, the reception of modernity was formed not only by
the pivotal role of colonial market place, but more particularly the symbiotic
relationship between education and administration.
The unavailability of complete
translations of Byomkesh Bakshi stories encapsulates to the four translated
texts by three translators; two translated texts by Sreejata Guha, one by
Manimala Dhar and the last one by Arunava Sinha. Sreejata Guha has translated
the first ten mysteries of the first phase. Seven of them-Satyanweshi, Pather
Kanta Makarsar Ras, Arthamanartham Agniban, Upasanhar and Chitrachore translated
as The Inquisitor, The Gramophone Pin Mystery, The Venom of Tarantula, Where
There’s a Will, Calamity Strikes, An Encore for Byomkesh and Picture Imperfect
respectively, in her translation Picture Imperfect and Other Byomkesh Bakshi
Mysteries (1999). She also published another translation, entitled The
Menagerie and Other Byomkesh Bakshi Mysteries (2006). The mysteries in this
volume include Chiriakhana, Monimondon, Khuji Khuji Nari and Sanjarur Kanta
translated respectively as The Menagerie, The Jewel Case, The Will that Vanished
and The Porcupine Spike. In the translation of the titles sometimes literary
translation is not followed. She has often taken care to deliver the essential
sense of the main story.
Monimala Dhar translated seven mysteries
in her Byomkesh Bakshi Stories by Saradindu Bandyopadhyay (2003) where
she translated-- Raktamukhi Neela, Seemanta Heera, Achin Pakhi,
Shailarahasya, Chorabali and Room Number Dui as The Deadly Diamond, The Hidden
Heirloom, The Avenger, The Man in a Red Coat, The Phantom Client, Quicksand and
Room Number Two respectively. Byomkesh and Baroda, The Rhythm of Riddle and The
Death of Amrito are taken from Arunava Singh’s translations, Byomkesh O Baroda,
Heyalir Chondo and Amrtir Mrtyu.
The remaining twelve untranslated stories
are required for textual reference, but for that one has to depend directly on
the main source-- Byomkesh Samogro from Ananda Publishers. Adim Ripu,
Boni Patanga, Rakter Daag are the synonyms of the translations of Natural
Instinct, The Firefly and The Bloodstain; while, Durga Rashaya, Kahen Kobi
Kalidas, Adrsya Trikon, Dusta Cakra, Adwitiya, Beni Samhar, Lohar Biskut,
Bisupal Badh are translated as The Mystery of Fort, The Riddle, Invisible
Triangle, The Locked Knott, Iron Biscuit and The Murder of Bishupal.
Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's Byomkesh Bakshi
first appeared in Kolkata based Basmati monthly in 1932. Sukumar Sen
writes that as far as Indian detective fiction is concerned, Bengali literary
sleuths stand unique, and Byomkesh Bakshi is the most efficiently and artistic
conceived among them. (Sen 34,146,193). Bandyopadhyay ‘s genius was that
he takes that which had come before him and refines it into a cohesive and
compelling form. So successful was his format that it superseded it processors
and shaped its successors. He also established a strong narrative form and
brought together a number of themes that would shape future Bengali detective
fiction.
The immense popularity of Byomkesh
stories arouses various media adaptation. Many of Byomkesh stories have been
made into films. Satyajit Roy made one of his stories Chiriakhana (The Zoo) into
a Bengali film starring the biggest star of the time, Uttam Kumar, as a
detective. Byomkesh Bakshi was popularized by Doordarshan in a
serial with the same name featuring the well-known actor Rajit Kapur directed by
Basu Chatterjee.
By the time Saradindu began writing
Byomkesh stories, he was already well known as a fiction writer and he hadn ‘t
anticipated that it would be the detective in his quiver of characters who would
hit bull’s eye. In this respect, Saradindu had something in common with Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, who thought that his novels based on Napoleonic wars would
make him immortal and that Sherlock Holmes was a mere aberration. This is why he
tried to get rid of Holmes by plunging the detective to his death, but
persistent demands from the reading public forced Doyle to bring Holmes back to
life. Similarly, Saradindu pushed Byomkesh into fifteen long years of
retirement, while the writer focused his attention upon the film industry in
Bombay. This is why, in a writing career spanning four decades, Saradindu wrote
only 32 Byomkesh stories.
Byomkesh Bakshi, presented as a
vulnerable and even temperamental sleuth, is a one-of-its-kind portrayal of the
detective. Byomkesh never refers to himself as a detective; he says he is a
satyanweshi, one who seeks truth. Byomkesh is the first grown-up,
professional detective and in his moods and mannerisms, he represents the
Bengali middle class. Solving mysteries was a hobby for Jayanta. He was seldom
bothered by material factors like remuneration. He’s also a man who knows he’s
working in a dangerous field –Byomkesh owns a gun that he occasionally carries
with him. Though one doesn’t see him using it, the fact that he has it is a sign
that these cases are not child’s play.
The background that Saradindu gave
Byomkesh is interesting too. Byomkesh’s father was a teacher of mathematics, we
are told, and he inherited the ability to deduce and analyse from his father.
Also, Saradindu didn’t keep Byomkesh stuck in a static world, like the western
prototypical detectives, where only the crimes that he’s solving change.
Byomkesh matured with time. He was a bachelor with Ajit as his flat-mate, friend
and sidekick, already working as a team, from the first Byomkesh stories, Pather
Kanta (The Thorn in One ‘s Path) and Simantahira. Pather Kanta was about a
murderer whose weapon of choice was a gramophone pin. Unusually for Byomkesh,
Simantahira didn’t have a violent crime in it, but was a challenge posed by a
client to Byomkesh. When these two stories did well, Saradindu provided his
readers with some context for Byomkesh. It was in the next story, Satyanweshi
(The Truth Seeker or ―The Inquisitor), in which Byomkesh busts a drugs racket,
that Saradindu told readers how Byomkesh and Ajit met. Although Satyanweshi
comes later chronologically, it is, in terms of the overarching storyline, first
in the canon. But while Byomkesh is certainly inspired by Conan Doyle’s classic
duo, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, he and his stories are distinctive.
It's worth noting the difference in
Byomkesh’s relationship with Ajit from that of other detectives and their
chroniclers. Holmes and Poirot both are quite patronizing to Watson and
Hastings, as if they are slightly inferior creatures. But Ajit is a friend. He
may not be an equal as a detective to Byomkesh, but their relationship is one of
mutual respect. Even after Byomkesh gets married, Ajit continues to live in the
same flat, living his own life while Byomkesh lives his, almost like a family
member that you want to have around. In contrast, poor Watson had to leave Baker
Street and fend for himself once he got married.
After four stories of bachelorhood,
Saradindu introduced Byomkesh to Satyavati in Arthamanartham (The Encore
of Byomkesh). Satyabati is not Byomkesh’s Irene Adler. Initially, in
Arthamanartham, Satyavati appears to be a murderer’s accomplice because her
brother is the prime suspect in their uncle’s murder. She tries to help her
brother by suppressing some facts, which, of course, only serve to further
complicate the situation. As far as purely literary parallels go, the only one
that comes to mind is the marriage of Harriet Vane, a murder suspect, to Dorothy
Sayers’ gentleman detective, Lord Peter Wimsey.
Having solved the mystery in
Arthamanarthm Byomkesh turned his attention to Satyabati and started courting
her. It’s difficult to tell how long the courtship lasted because Satyabati
appeared again in The Picture Imperfect and that was after about fifteen years.
With their occasional spats and general contentment with one another, Byomkesh
and Satyavati seem to be a conventional, happy couple.
Saradindu mentions at one point that they
have a son, though he doesn’t figure in any story. Byomkesh is a normal,
educated, middle-class Bengali man, not a larger-than-life figure like Blake or
Jayanta or an eccentric, drug-addicted genius like Sherlock Holmes. All these
elements helped the Byomkesh stories become tremendously popular and remain so.
The plots are captivating, and Saradindu’s writing craftsmanship is impressive.
Byomkesh is one of those detectives whose escapades can be read and re-read.
The physical development of Calcutta is
very crucial that particular time (1920-1970). Bengal saw phenomenal growth
faster than other colonial metros. The development of the city through the eye
of the detective is quite fascinating but it has not been of much concern to
historians. The reason for this reluctance is the availability of ―white
materials in colonial history, which have overshadowed the native truths. The
detective story in Calcutta is another kind of literary imagination that helps
to seek the gap between colonial discourses and colonialist responses. The study
attempts to fill in the gaps of this history by searching in Calcutta for the
native history that challenges the British colonial discourse. In Calcutta, much
of the Indian detective fiction coincides with the advent of colonial modernity
in Bengal from the early nineteenth century.
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