The Struggle – Showkat Ali, Translated by V.Ramaswamy and Mohiuddin Jahangir

Description

Set in a remote village in the Dinajpur region of undivided Bengal during the mid-1940s, The Struggle tells the intertwined story of Phulmoti—a young widow fighting to hold on to her land, her dignity and her child—and Qutubali, a simple-minded outsider whose unexpected kindness and fierce loyalty make him her unlikely ally amid the upheavals of a precarious feudal order and the stirrings of a nation on the verge of independence.

The death of Phulmoti’s husband shatters her fragile world. Her ten-year-old, Abed, can offer little defence against the men now circling her—neighbours, relatives, even the local cleric—drawn by desire and the lure of her small property. Malek, a kindly bookseller at the local market, too, proves not to be what he seems. It is Malek’s hired hand, Qutubali, who finds himself drawn into her struggles, standing by her in ways that others do not. The politics of the Congress and the Muslim League hover on the margins of village life, far removed from their daily battles. But when the tebhaga struggle breaks out in Bengal—with sharecroppers demanding two-thirds of the harvest from landlords as their rightful due—Phulmoti and Qutubali stand to lose what little of their lives they have pieced back together.

First published in 1989 as Narai, this novel is not only a vivid portrayal of endurance in the face of isolation and rural exploitation, but also a sharp indictment of the social and political systems that deny justice to the poor. This sensitive translation introduces to a wider audience a forgotten classic of Bengali literature—politically clear-eyed and deeply moving.

Showkat Ali (1936–2018) was a renowned Bangladeshi novelist, short story writer and journalist whose work explored history, class and identity in Bengali society. Born in Raiganj, he began his career as a journalist and teacher, later gaining recognition for his fiction, which often wove together folklore and the struggles of ordinary people. His most celebrated novel, Prodoshe Prakritojon (1984), is considered a landmark in Bangladeshi literature for its vivid portrayal of marginalized communities in the Sena Empire. He received multiple literary awards, including the Bangla Academy Literary Award and the Ekushey Padak, one of the highest civilian honours in Bangladesh.

V. Ramaswamy took up literary translation from Bangla after two decades of social activism in favour of the labouring poor of Kolkata. The writers he has translated include Subimal Misra, Manoranjan Byapari, Adhir Biswas, Shahidul Zahir, Mashiul Alam, Swati Guha, Shahaduz Zaman and Ismail Darbesh. He was awarded the Translation Fellowship by the New India Foundation, and the English PEN Presents award in 2022.

Mohiuddin Jahangir was born in Manikganj Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh, and obtained his PhD in Bengali from the University of Dhaka. He has had a longstanding engagement in field research on the Liberation War in Manikganj district. He is currently Assistant Professor in Khabashpur Adarsa University College. His articles on literature, history and heritage have been published in scholarly journals, and he is the author of seven books.