Introduction:-
The
Fakeer of Jungheer is a long poem by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. He was born on
18th April, 1809 in Kolkatta, West Bengal. He was a lecturer and poet. He is
considered to be an academic and educator During his time Literary Movement of
Bengal Renaissance was undergoing. He was an Indian poet and assistant head
principal at the Hindu College of Kolkatta. He was a radical thinker and one of
the first Indian educators to disseminate western Education and science among
the young men of Bengal. He died of Cholera at the age of 22.
Long after his death, his influence
lived among his former student, who came to be known as young Bengal and many
of whom became prominent in social reform law and journalism. Inspired by the
scenic beauty of the river Ganga, he started writing poetry. He was generally
considered an Anglo-Indian being of mixed partuguesedesent, but he was fired by
patriotic spirit for his native Bengal and considered himself Indian.
He wrote many wonderful poems in
English before his untimely death of which. The Fakeer of Jungheera was one of
the most important landmarks in the history of patriotic poetry in India. As he
considered India to be his mother he worried about Indian social, political and
religious problem. He also worried about the class and cast.
Plot overview:-
The
poem starts with nature's description and then takes many twists. The poem
deals with many serious issues of social evil along with the tragic love affair
as the protagonist of the poem is a robber Fakeer who belongs to some
unidentified Muslim sect, While the heroine, the widow Nuleeni, comes from an
upper caste Bengali Hindu family. Derozio uses Christian Imagery, Such as
heaven and angles flitting about. He juxtaposes this imagery against the Hindu
tradition of sati and Muslim prayers. He imitates the English Romantic poets
like Wordsworth, Shelly and Coleridge. In the poem, the imagination is marvellous. Fakeer
and Nuleeni are two star crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet. In Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet were the children of two enemies whose love brought the tragic
end. Here, in 'The Fakeer of Jungheera'.
Fakeer is the follower of Islam. Fakeer means saint a person who has
renounced the world but here he loves a lady Nuleeni who is married and also an
upper caste Female. Nuleeni was married to a Brahmin. Her husband dies in an
early youth.
Naleeni,
the beloved of Fakeer never loved her husband. In the days of never loved her
husband. In the days of Henry Derozio Indian subcontinent was caught by many
evils like 'Sati Pratha' killing girl child by boiling the still born baby in
the hot pot of milk etc. Nuleeni belonged to a conservative Hindu society in
the nineteenth century. She was pure and
beautiful she doesn't go to end her life behind a person whom she never loved.
Nuleeni
was brought to the spot where her husband is to be cremated. Women were singing
songs praising sati. They sang of going to heaven but poor Nuleeni was lost in
the thoughts of Fakeer. She refuses to die on the funeral pure of her husband
and escapes with the bandit faker to his cave in Jungheera to a life from
death; She escaped death but she starts a life of forbidden love though
frightened by violent social norms she believes that her lover's courage and
her unfailing love will finally make them victorious. Her fair and beautiful
face brightens the dark social setting of the poem and mitigates the bold
audacity of the Fakeer who snatches her from the midst of a group of mourning
upper caste Hindu at the Funeral.
Victimization of Nuleeni:-
Naleeni
is the central character of the poem. Though we see this character is
victimised by the society. She is never free. Forcefully she is forced to be
sati and when she tries to live her life with Fakeer. Again she is captured by
the society.
The
society is always afraid of free will and free speech. That is why society
tries to control women rather than controlling themselves.
If
the tale of the baital is worthy, then "the treated out eloquence" of
Nuleeni can again be revived in the gathering of the Islamist if she can
overtake finished the horrors and temptations of account. Nevertheless these
are unstated assumptions, a line of the mass environs of the tarradiddle that
forces the order to reflect upon the antepenultimate environment verbalize broods over the tragic
environment divesting us
of all emotions,
merely reflecting on
an thoroughfare, which
may presently be resolute finished a deus ex machina. The
open-ended picture makes the clergyman emit on a quiete engendered by a
purging. The poem can be indicate as story of emancipation of quenched Asian
women and an indictment of the grownup Asiatic gild in the nineteenth century.
The light and bonnie Nuleeni refuses to die on the funeral pyre of her spouse
and escapes with the thief Mohammedan to his cave in Jungheera to a being of
impermissible bang though' afraid by tough sociable repercussions. She believes
that her lover's courageousness and her unfailing jazz leave finally make them
victorious. Her blonde and glorious present brightens the glooming
interpersonal surround of the poem and mitigates the steep mettlesome rebellion
of the weaker faith draws the attention to the inequality of the sexes and the
mixer unease rampant in Magadha order of the dimension. The poem has a grievous
coach in the use of gregarious themes in literate texts endorsing a
syncretistic practice quite popular in ordinal century Bengal.
The
proponent of The Saint poem is a robber Mohammedan or a mendicant, who belongs
to both anonymous Islamist camp, times the protagonist, the widow Nuleeni,
comes from a speed caste Magadhan Religionist tribe. Derozio's uses Religion
imagery, specified as heaven and angels hurry sound active, and juxtaposes it
against the Religionist tradition of sati, Muhammedan prayers and Buddhism tale
of Aristocrat Vikramajit and Baital to create a stylish, idiom condition. Though'
the tantric tale seems to be a prolonged excursus within a sad tale of a
destroyed Hindu-Muslim object thing, it nonetheless places the tragedy in an
unprocessed practice after having unloved all the new dominant churchlike
forms. It is only in Stanza XIV that we loco mote to undergo the reputation of
this resplendent widow; she is called Nuleeni. Though her place is kind of
grim, she does not shine upon alteration but upon bonk, especially the
"blissful hours" she spent in those scented "glossy bowers"
with her lover. She never loved her dead spouse as her actual feelings were for
someone added. Now she suffers from somesthesia not at the deprivation of her
preserve but the somaesthesia of distance from her dearest. She rises similar a
phoenix execution in the supply of her "hopes, affections, felicity."
In Stanza XV Derozio introduces Iranian imagery of shama-parvane or the lamp
and moth representing the emotionalism of bang and the sad modification of the
lovers.
On
giddy wing it wildly wheels, The enlivening glow is spirit feels; And then it
fondly fancies this Until into the fire it flies
And
then, too late lamenting dies!
In
Stanza Nuleeni stands plant suchlike a statue, as an inspired state exclusive
to be worshipped:
With
upward gaze, and white clasped hands,
She,
like a heaven-wrought statue, stands
'Tis
thus that woman fair should be
Worshipped
as a divinity;
Just
when her beauty beams so bright, as too intense for human sight;
Just
in that hour when all her worth
Is
fitter far for heaven than earth!
She
is now understood to the funeral pile for immolation by a Varna. Her undercover
plan to flee with her lover gains espousal in the shallow of the stereotypical
foxy Brahmin voodoo referred to in
the colonial discourses,
especially in the
Parliamentary Papers on
Woman Immolation, as
"Peckish Brahmins" and "Necessitous Brahmins." As she
mounts the funeral heap and takes "septet circuits" of the
"nap" The Anthem to the Sun
promises her a region in the hereunder. But Nuleeni's brain is on rescue and
negligence by her wily lover, a Moslem faquir, who does not foil her. He come equivalent
a "commotion," in the evening, kills and wounds a few and takes her
departed to Jungheera unapproachable crags "raw and bare"-redeeming
her as an "unoffered free."
His
dusky brow, his raven hari,
His
limbs of strength, his martial air,
His
eyes though softened into love…
Nuleeni cradles
him in her accumulation
and dies together
with him-her "eloquence had all toughened out." Nuleeni becomes
a autonomous medicine to select her occurrence; she prefers
to die together with someone she
loves than with her spouse whom
she does not. The Indic order sati understood a
"obedient and impeccable partner" who was truly devoted to her hubby.
And according to the Hindi tradition these virtues launch demo in the final act
of self-immolation. Women who sacrificed
themselves continuing to be titled
sati semi-permanent after
they were slain
and absent. The Land nonetheless restricted the exercise
of the constituent "to the release unique, the act as recovered as the medicine.
Nuleeni is a star crossed widow in the hands of cruel society...
Conclusion:-
Many
of the wrongs that are done to women have been encouraged by superstitions. The
birth of a girl child is considered unfortunate and tin some states the custom
of female infanticide is practiced. Girls are still not educated in many parts
of our country. They rare married off at an early age as the custom of child
marriage still continues in rural areas.
Women
are treated as domestic labour and have no financial or decision making rights.
They are expected to obey their husbands and never assert themselves. The
custom of purdah is still prevalent among many sections of the Indian society
and women are not encouraged to venture out of the house. They remain
economically dependent for this reason.
Daughters
still do not enjoy the same inheritance rights as sons and even when the law is
in their favour, social custom does not permit them to assert their rights.
Widows are not allowed to remarry and are often ill-treated. The custom of
‘sati’ or burning a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre was practiced in our
country and even till date cases are reported. Another social problem is of
dowry. At the time of marriage, dowry is given by the girl’s parents as many
demands are made on them. Women were victimised and are victimised; this
situation is seen in this poem as well as in real life. I hope in future women
are free in real sense
very well explained. you have given the clear picture of the victimisation of women in this poem as well as in the society.
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