A Study of Marxist Literary Theories and the Novel Surangam in a Socialist Realist Way

Abstract

What led Prof Prabhat Patnaik, Pope at Vatican City and Dr Raghuram Rajan to a rallying point for the recovery and sustainability of the Global Capitalism from its shivering crisis? It's Karl Marx's 'Capital' ('Das Kapital'). Literature Review of Miners' plight in Indian Literature. World's top ten mine disasters in which two happened in India - Dhanbad and Chasnala. ' Kaala Pathar' Hindi film was based on Chasnala mining disaster. Nationalisation of Indian Coal Industry thanks to Indian coal miners' continuous struggles. Introduction of Ku.Chinnappa Bharathi, Tamil writer, who authored  'Surangam' Tamil novel. How did the idea of writing 'Surangam' come to Ku. Chinnappa Bharathi's mind? Shri Bikas Chowdhury, CPI-M MP from Asansol Constituency, invited the writer to pay a visit to Dhanbad, Jharia and  Asansol mines, to study the plight and living standards of the workers to attempt a novel on this theme. KuChiBha. accepted the offer. The conversation with the miners with the help of interpreters, contributed a lot to visualize the air. Plot of Surangam. The category of workers and the hierarchy of supervisors. Bikas Choudhary, Jamuna Kumari, Sakuntala Devi, Mining Munshi, Mining Sardar, Mine owner Tiwari, organised workers, drunkard-workers, Debt recovery agents, liquor shop-owner, villagers, peasants and the like. The greed of inhuman mine-owners and supervisors is portrayed the customs and cultural events of Bengalis and the tenets of  humanitarian Marxist Atheism are briefed. How the novel observes the genre of Socialist Realism, with the Marxist point of view, is well-presented. The denationalisation of the Coal Industry, with the repeal of Mining Nationalisation Acts, will again unleash the exploitation of private owners in the coal industry. The case-study of  ' Surangam ' to explore the livelihood of the miners in non-Tamil speaking areas to write a novel in Tamil, for being translated further into Bengali and Hindi, is a laudable attempt and a great literary venture.