Socialist Realism in Bharatendu Harishchandra’s Play ‘Bharat- Durdasha’

Abstract

Socialist Realism entered the literature with the Russian Revolution of the 20th century. It highlights the making of a classless society. Russian and Soviet writer Maxim Gorky was the founder of Socialist Realism. The 19th century writers, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov also used Socialist thoughts to critically portray various aspects of society in Russian literature. In Hindi literature, Socialist realism was introduced as a concept after the Bharatendu era. Because of the influence of Russian literature, Bharatendu also uses socialist thoughts in his dramas. Bharatendu stepped into the field of literature when Indian culture and society were being destroyed by British colonialism (1850-1885). He broadened the horizons of Hindi literature by writing the play ‗Bharat-Durdasha‘ in 1876. Through this play he tries to criticize the prevailing political system and the orthodox beliefs of Indian society. The aim of this research is to explore the use of the concept of Socialist Realism in Bharatendu Harishchandra‘s play ‗Bharat-Dudasha‘. Content analysis was used to collect data with special reference to play ‗Bharat-Durdasha‘. According to Nagendra & Hardayal (2009) ―Bharatendu highlights the pathetic situation of contemporary India in ‗Bhart- Durdasha‘. Through defining the problems of society he tries to abolish evilness which causes social issues.‖ The findings of this paper indicate that Baharatendu did not approve of social divisions based on caste, class and religion. He raises his voice against patriarchal, religious and colonial ideologies that discriminated against women. Bharatendu has condemned these ideologies and suggested social reforms which are indicative of Socialist Realism. Thus he has drawn from Marxist theory which is a novel concept to Hindi literature.