Nationalist Women Poets in Colonial Bengal

Abstract

Bengal from time immemorial has produced courageous and spontaneous female poets. The emergence of nationalistic consciousness in the post-1857 era has created an intellectual literati class in which women played crucial roles. The social consciousness evident from the writings of Birajmohini Dasi, Urmila Devi, Kamini Roy, Begum Rokeya or Sufia Kamal has created a progressive environment during the colonial period. The present paper seeks to revisit the contribution of such writers and explains how the poetic efforts of these colonial-era poets have enriched Bengali poetry in future.