Chotogolpe Naripragoti: Rabindronath o Mahashweta Devi

Rabindranath Tagore left no branch of Bengali literature unexplored. Almost every aspect of literature was illuminated by his talent. He was a successful reformer in the branch of Bengali short story. Since his childhood period he observed very well the humiliating position of women in the then social life. Consequently he always tried to present the women folk in his stories with a position which they really deserved. He always advocated the emancipation and empowerment of the women. He did not agree to leave the fortune of women in the hands of fate. He was thoroughly against the engagement of the womenfolk within the day ?to ? day domestic social life. We found multi ? faced dimensions in Tagore’s conception of women’s emancipation. Sometimes they made protest without uttering a single word; sometimes they were courageous to protest. If we go through his stories ? “Mahamaya”, “Shasti”, “Didi”, “Badnam”, “Haimanti”, “Durasha”, we will found all heroines emancipating themselves with their own entity. With the passage of time they all took the desirable role. On the other hand, Mahasweta Debi was also uncompromising in the matter of women’s progress and emancipation. She revealed the veil of shamelessness of our male dominated society. She tore all the masks from aristocrats to lower class people. In her stories ? “Bishalaxmir Ghar”, “Talak”, “Jamunabatir Ma”, “Shikar”, “Standaynee”, all heroines affirmed their own indentity. However there is a bit of difference between Tagore and Mahasweta Debi in the matter of women’s progress and emancipation. Both they believe that women have come not to be humiliated and maligned their self. This article attempts to analyse and epitomise Tagore’s and Mahasweta Debi’s conception of women’s progress and emancipation with the help of their stories Keywords: Woman, Right, Progress, Emancipation, Empowerment, Development