A Study of the Subaltern Culture of Jhumur and Nachni in Subrata Mukhopadhyay’s Rasik

Abstract

A quest of self is an important aspect in the novel Rasik (1991) by Subrata Mukhopadhyay. In the course of portraying the folk tradition of Jhumur and the life-sketch of Jhumur artists of Manbhum, the writer has attempted to explore the spirit of the fast disappearing tradition of Jhumur and Nachni. The stony earth of Manbhum and dire poverty of the people have been depicted in the novel in details. Jhumur is inspirational rains in the life of those people, deprived of basic amenities of life.  In the novel Rasik Subrata Mukhopadhyay has minutely chronicled the disappearing class of Nachnis and their rasiks in Purulia. The saga in Rasik is replete with many accounts of how Nachnis cannot claim marriage, are debarred from owning families or children. Though the novel is titled as ‘Rasik’, the Nachnis have occupied an equal narrative space in the novel.