A Comparative Study between Nazrul’s ‘The Rebel’ (Bidrohi) and Shelley’s ‘Ode to the West Wind’: Voice against Corruption

Both Nazrul and Shelley raise their voice against corruption which lies almost in every society and impedes the development process by shaking the normal human relationships. Their words unmask the oppressors and exploiters who create an obvious gap between social classes, human relationships, and social institutions where people thrive for peace and harmony. This paper will analyze the poems ‘The Rebel'(Bidrohi) by Bangladeshi national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and ‘Ode to the West Wind' by the English Romantic poet P.B. Shelley to show the deprivation and suffering of the subalterns, and the voice of the poets against the corruption and anomalies in their respective societies. This will be qualitative research where data will be collected by analyzing the texts and the renowned related critiques and articles from different sources. ‘Theory of Subaltern' by Antonio Gramsci and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak will be observed in the study to bolster the voices of the poets. The people in the society who are dominated and deprived by the ruling class for long cannot speak of their misery to us. Thus the poets shoulder their responsibilities to carry their voice against injustice and inequalities take place in the society through their immortal verses. This study will help us to observe the unseen misery and to understand the unheard suffering of the subordinate class of the society who has been being oppressed by the ruling class for many years.