The rich tributes paid to writer Shawkat Osman on his birth centenary on January 02 have delighted his admirers. The celebration of the writer's 100th anniversary of birth was organised by literary and cultural bodies in Dhaka. Novelist Shawkat Osman Memorial Council and cultural front Udichi jointly organised a 2-day discussion, sessions of songs and staging of the writer's plays at Central Public Library in the capital. The special sessions were held at the auditorium named after Shawkat Osman.
Shawkat Osman (1917-1998) stands out indisputably as one of the major novelists in Bangladesh. However, despite his critical acclaim, he didn't enjoy the wide readership like some younger writers. Despite being born in West Bengal in India, he remains mostly unknown to many fiction readers there. But Shawkat Osman was a consummate writer who throughout a major part of his career played the role of a social activist as well as social guide. He stands out for his courage to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
In the context of the socio-cultural realities in the then East Pakistan, Shawkat Osman emerged as a voice of the Bengalees living in the then province, now Bangladesh. Readers may recall his famous allegorical short story `Rabindranath and Gama' that was published in a Dhaka daily in the late 1960s. The humour-laced Bangla story deals with a wrestling bout between the great Bengalee poet Rabindranath Tagore and Gama, the legendary wrestler from the then West Pakistan. Against the backdrop of an absurd-drama-like situation, the short story brings the sage-poet and the seemingly indomitable wrestler into the ring. The spectators are waiting in bated breath to see the tragic defeat of the poet to the famous wrestler. Few know the fact that Tagore had practical lessons in this fight in his childhood at his ancestral home in Kolkata. Shawkat Osman is least bothered about the physical aspects of wrestling in the fight. He wants to show the intelligence and pragmatism of the Begalees with which they can defeat even the most formidable of the enemies. Later considered one of the finest satirical stories in Bangla, the story shows how skilfully Tagore vanquished Gama. The poet makes the wrestler sniff a pinch of snuff powder ('noshyi') that leads him to a spate of non-stop sneezing. At one point Gama falls down on the mat and remains lying, until the referee declares the poet winner.
Shawkat Osman was not a prolific writer. Apart from a dozen short stories, he wrote 13 novels. The most widely read of them is 'Janani' (Mother), published in 1958, which has been translated into English and some other languages. The writer was able to carve out his place in Bangla literature in 1943 with his maiden novel 'Boni Adam' (Humans). He has also written plays and essays. Due to his inclusion in Bangla textbooks, Shawkat Osman has long been a respected figure among school and college-going students in Bangladesh.
The writer, who migrated to East Bengal after Partition, had all along been an artist free of all forms of socially and communally skewed and parochial biases. It was his unorthodox and inhibition-free social outlook which had made him endearing to the educated younger generation. The writer proved his non-conformism in his 1962 novel `Kritodaser Hasi' (The Laugh of the Slave). He later turned it into a stage play. A scathing satire of dictatorship and portrayal of human desire to remain free, the novel-cum-play won wide critical acclaim for its message. Many would like to place the two literary pieces among the major works in the Sub-continent that championed the causes of the exploited masses.
By profession a teacher, Shawkat Osman fostered the passion for protest. He was in love with knowledge and wisdom, which he wanted the young to pick. The nation misses him at its critical moments.
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