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    ABOL TABOL Critical Analysis

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    Papai Patra
    The poem "Abol Tabol" by Sukumar Ray consists of 46 nonsense poems published in 1923. While seeming nonsensical, the poems actually contain hidden messages that satirize British colonial rule in India and the "Babu culture" it promoted. Ray used strange characters and situations to metaphorically represent and criticize the exploitation of Indians by the British colonizers and their negative impacts on Indian society through patriarchy, autocracy, and hypocrisy. Though appearing as nonsense verses, the poems provide social commentary on the political and cultural environment of colonial India.

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    ABOL TABOL Critical Analysis

    Uploaded by

    Papai Patra
    20K views2 pages
    The poem "Abol Tabol" by Sukumar Ray consists of 46 nonsense poems published in 1923. While seeming nonsensical, the poems actually contain hidden messages that satirize British colonial rule in India and the "Babu culture" it promoted. Ray used strange characters and situations to metaphorically represent and criticize the exploitation of Indians by the British colonizers and their negative impacts on Indian society through patriarchy, autocracy, and hypocrisy. Though appearing as nonsense verses, the poems provide social commentary on the political and cultural environment of colonial India.

    Original Description:

    A short review of Abol-Tabol.

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    The poem "Abol Tabol" by Sukumar Ray consists of 46 nonsense poems published in 1923. While seeming nonsensical, the poems actually contain hidden messages that satirize British colonial rule in India and the "Babu culture" it promoted. Ray used strange characters and situations to metaphorically represent and criticize the exploitation of Indians by the British colonizers and their negative impacts on Indian society through patriarchy, autocracy, and hypocrisy. Though appearing as nonsense verses, the poems provide social commentary on the political and cultural environment of colonial India.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    20K views2 pages

    ABOL TABOL Critical Analysis

    Uploaded by

    Papai Patra
    The poem "Abol Tabol" by Sukumar Ray consists of 46 nonsense poems published in 1923. While seeming nonsensical, the poems actually contain hidden messages that satirize British colonial rule in India and the "Babu culture" it promoted. Ray used strange characters and situations to metaphorically represent and criticize the exploitation of Indians by the British colonizers and their negative impacts on Indian society through patriarchy, autocracy, and hypocrisy. Though appearing as nonsense verses, the poems provide social commentary on the political and cultural environment of colonial India.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    1

    An Abstract upon the entire poem ‘Abol Tabol’

    The poem ‘Abol Tabol’ was first published on19 September, 1923. It is a collection of Bengali
    children’s poem and the rhymes were composed by Sukumar Ray. This poem consists of 46
    titles and 7 untitled short rhymes. But all the consisting poems are considered to be in the
    structure of ‘Nonsense poetry’. In the literally thinking this poem is a typical nonsense poem
    because of it’s rhymes. Mr. S. Ray had concluded the nonsensical and also very implausible
    verse in his poem. In the early 20 th century’s colonial India it was a great instance of the British
    domination or exploitation. This poem contained various hidden messages about the
    administrative system of the early 20th century’s colonial India. Most people of Bengal take this
    poem as a fantasy or children’s literature to enjoy the humour and satire.When the whole India
    was captured and pervaded by the British rules with ‘Babu culture’, then Sukumar Ray wrote this
    poem with various satiric tone to make humour on that culture. Sukumar was more intellectual
    than his contemporaries and that’s why he was able to present this kind of nonsense poem with
    the nonsense verse with various meaning and approaches to the readers. If we take it as a
    children’s literature so it is only for the literalistic entertainment but if we criticize it, it will be a
    great instance for the British colonisers’ rude exploitation. This poem also describes the impacts
    of Patriarchy on the society. The autocracy and hypocrisy were simultaneously running in the
    society. Sukumar Ray has presented his poem ‘Abol Tabol’ with various humorous characters
    who are not really designed to create any kind of real fun rather they are the symbols of the
    British colonisers. In the poem ‘The King of Bombardia’ the characteristics of the king are very
    strange because Ray wanted to sketch the malpractices of the king also with his countrymen and
    that is metaphorically as like as the British colonisers. Also the poem ‘Baburam the Snake
    Charmer’ reveals an interesting study on the tricks and deftness of the ‘British East India
    Company’. The speaker maybe compared with the British imperialists and the snake charmer
    Baburam with Mughal Empire ‘Farrukhsiyar’. ‘The Farrukhsiyar’s Forman’ gave the company
    the right to purchase some village for their business and to make that place as their business
    place. So here we see that the snake charmer is the ‘Farrukhsiyar’ and the British imperialists are
    the infernal serpent. If we go through the poem ‘Uncles Invention’ so we shall get the direct
    unprecedented references about the colonisers tricks. The uncle has been represented as a
    coloniser and his mechanical invention is a trap for the common people of India. Uncle has
    invented a machine that can emphasize the walking time for a trip and that’s ingredient is some
    food. And here Sukumar Ray has explored that in the true sense the food is also the money and
    the poor Indian people can do any kind of hard work for the money and the colonisers always
    want to tempt the Indian people with this money. And also the poem ‘Stew Much’ gives an idea
    about the strange British dominators. Sukumar very technically explains their shape,
    characteristics and thinking with various extraordinary strange creatures as such as
    ‘Porcuduck’(a beastly configuration), ‘Stortle’. Actually in the deep sense this poem also gives
    the educational background of the poet Sukumar Ray. Sukumar was also a student of Chemistry
    at Presidency College and which is why he has a conjoin or amalgamated tendency on
    everything. So here he has sketched the scenario of the poem ‘Stew Much’ from his own
    perspectives. Sukumar has also presented the idea about the ‘selling of honour’ in the poem

    ********************PAPAI PATRA********************
    2

    ‘Odour in the Court’. In this poem the old one is the best who has also a great power to do any
    kind of work. He never differentiates any work rather he takes the works in any situation.
    Everyone in the court nullified the work about to shook the odour from the cloth of the minister
    but only the old Nazir agreed to shook that. So here the poet expressed the idea about the selling
    of honour. And if we go through the poem ‘Groomy Tidings’ then we shall be able to notice
    that how Sukumar ironically presented the character and background with a juxtaposition of the
    groom, named ‘Gangaram’. It is ridiculous but everything is juxtapose very technically. Also we
    shall find a strange character, ‘Boss Babu’ in the poem ‘The Missing Whiskers’who is a great
    representative of the British culture and rules. He calls the Indians as monkey because the
    Indians’ rights, rules and rituals are also very strange to Boss Babu. But the poet has given a
    vivid description about BossBabu and some of the anglicized Hindustani that the only identity of
    them is their ‘Whiskers’.Boss Babu has also a great temper but Sukumar has indicated that this
    temper has vanished after missing his whiskers.
    So, here we see that this is the technique of Sukumar to represent the British Raj’s domination
    and exploitation to the common peoples of India through his writing with very lucid and simple
    language. Sukumar Ray wanted to criticize the works of British colonisers in various satiric tone
    in his poem ‘Abol Tabol’. However he has got a great success on his work of art by creating this
    kind of nonsensical verse with the various satiric and humorous tone for the readers. So
    here‘Nonsense’ can be seen as an aid to ‘sense making’.

    ********************PAPAI PATRA********************

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