Fourth Study

Abstract

The fourth chapter stays within this older tradition. Saratchandra Chatterjee’s Srikanta is to many the canonical Indian novel—it too is a bildung, following the protagonist from a wayward rural childhood into adulthood via many quests for livelihood and love. The protagonist Srikanta is far removed from a typical bourgeois clerical life. His life is often made via several fascinating female protagonists who educate him into the joys of non-conformity and courage. The chapter also includes a discussion of Rabindranath Tagore’s Garden—though less appreciated, the Garden is a fine meditation on illness and love. Unlike the infinitely mobile characters in Srikanta (male and female), here the ill female protagonist watches the world unfold in front of her (including her husband’s interest in another woman) even as she lies pinned to a bed.