Author: Sarat Chandra Chatterjee
Translator: Prasenjit Mukherjee
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 164
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8171675603
Description
A powerful story, by Sarat Chandra, of a caste-ridden village, dominated by superstitious social conventions and rigid social structure. It is the story of Ramesh's valiant attempts to bring about the changes which are, only partly rewarded. It is a piece of social criticism.
First published in 1915 in a Bengali monthly magazine, Palli Samaj is a story of a village near Tarakeshwar in the district of Hoogly in West Bengal. The time is apparently towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the village life was dominated by superstitious social conventions and caste prejudices, the social power was yielded by the richer section of the society, namely the landlords and the money-lenders and to a lesser extend by Brahmins.
The novel deals with the efforts of Ramesh, a young engineer, to bring about some changes in the caste ridden village and to elevate the villagers to a better level of existence. In the end we find Ramesh's efforts have been rewarded, the opposition has died and the scene is set for a better future but at the cost of Ramesh's personal happiness.