Critical Appreciation of Rabati by Fakir Mohan Senapati | Short Story | Oppressive Society -- englit.in

Q: Critically discuss Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story ‘Rebati’ as an ironical short story.

‘Rebati’ was the first truly iconic short story, written in odia language in 1898 by the father of modern odia literature, Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918). The story was written against “the Cholera Epidemic” that devastated the family of the protagonist. In the story, we see the “oppression view” of the contemporary society. The principle themes of the story are, “Education”, “Superstition”, and “poison of female”. The story marks the beginning of a new traditional women writers in Odia language Such as ‘Sarala Devi, Kuntala Kumari Sabat, Kokila Devi etc.

At the beginning of the story, at Patpur, the story begins with a simple straightforward man, Shyambandhu Mohanty. Shyambandhu’s mother, his wife, and his ten years old daughter “Rebati” were the members of Shyambandhu’s family. When we see two years past view, there was an opened upper primary school, there the only teacher was, Basudev, “had attended the teacher-training course at Cuttack Normal School”. here we have pointed out certain features about, Basudev, that he was “Handsome in every way”, “Graduated from the training school“.

The significant part of the story, we know there was a school for girls at Cuttack. Thus, Basudev develops a desire to give some education to ”Rebati”. In Shyambandhu’s family, Shyambandhu, Shyambandhu’s wife,  and an educated man Basudev wanted to teach to Rebati. But Shyambandhu’s mother impudently disagreed it she says that girls should not be “educated”, girls can only sing  ”Bajan” and other wordliness works.

In Rebati’s learning part, Basudev gave to her Sitanath Babu’s “pratham path”. Basudev taught her from the day of “Sri panchami” and Rebati could not read Madhu Babu’s “Chandmala” fluently without a pause, a few days later “she was so over joyed she leafed through the book from cover to cover ”.  In the course of the story, Shyambandhu thinks about a good educated man, Basudev, and his daughter, Rebati, to give marry them. And he discussed with his mother about their marriage.

After passing two years, on the spring day of Falgun , the “Epidemic Cholera” attacked. Shyambandhu dies by the Cholera attack. He relied all the charges on Basudev of his family. ”No sooner had they got home than Rebati’s  mother come down with Cholera By midday, the news of her death had spread ”. After Most of the members died in Rebati’s family, then her grandmother was worrying by thinking her son’s death, and her daughter-in-law’s death and her cows are taken by Zamindar. Now, Rebati was “the evil eye, the she-devil, the ill-enered”.

A few months later, in a summer day,  jesthiya midday, Basudev informed, that he will be off for days the D.I school. He wanted to teach the studies of the children of primary schools at haripur police station.

In the final part of the short story “Rebati”, Rebati could be termed as a “gendered subaltern“, while elaborating the term Gayatri chakraborti Spivak states that the the gendered subaltern is the figure of the woman who disappears between “patriarchy and imperialism.” In the course of the story, Rebati disappears because we never hear her speak about herself.

To, conclude, Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story “Rebati”, he explains the contemporary society's worsted view.  Where “Girls and their education are one of the most controversial issues of Indian history”. Senapati expresses the society’s view of an unfulfilled desire girl, and he states that the backdrop of the cholera epidemic that devastated the protagonist’s whole family and contemporary society. Rebati, the protagonist of the story, wanted to be educated, her desires for education of the synchronous society. Lastly, Fakir Mohan Senapati’s short story “Rebati “ is an ironical short story.

                                          .                                            ********