The Bond of Sisterhood in Syed Waliullah’s Tree Without Roots and Abu Issaquah’sSurya-Dighal Bari :A Comparative Study - Laizu Nasrin

The Bond of Sisterhood in Syed Waliullah’s Tree Without Roots and Abu Issaquah’sSurya-Dighal Bari :A Comparative Study Dr. Laizu Nasrin Associate Professor and Chair, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh Abstract: In feminist thinking, the term “sisterhood” is generally used to refer to a kind of socio-psychological attachment among women that is based on the appreciation of their regular understandings and aspirations. The bond of sisterhood is taken seriously by many scholars and writers— both female and male—throughout the world as a means of support for women of different ages, classes and backgrounds. Examples of sisterly bonding and supporting activities are, as expected, available in the literary works of different writers of different places and periods who are usually seen to portray the bond of sisterhood as a tool of women‟s struggles for survival in the patriarchal world. Tree Without Roots (1967) and Surya Dighal Bari (1955) are two well-appreciated novels by two male writers of Bengal—Syed Waliullah (1922-1971) and Abu Ishaque (1926-2003) respectively—in which we can find reflections of effective sisterly bonding among the marginalized women of the rural Bengal of the mid 20th century. Hence, this article tries to present a comparative reading of the two above mentioned novels, both of which were written in Bengali first and translated into English later on, with a view to analyzing the depth and dynamics of sisterhood of the grass-root level village women of the pre-partition as well as the post-partition Bengal. Key Words: Patriarchy, marginalization, sisterhood, struggle, survival, self-reliance